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If you went strictly by the mainstream media reporting on the Defense Department's recent announcement about missile defense, the thought in your head would be "we're deploying more interceptor missiles because of North Korea."
What's probably not in your head is the auxiliary details. DOD has requested that funding for the additional deployments begin in fiscal year 2014. The actual deployments won't start until after that. Assuming DOD gets the funding, it will take until 2017 for the interceptors to be in place. And the deployment, if it happens, will do no more than provide the ground-based interceptor baseline that was originally planned by the Bush II administration (44 interceptors), a baseline the Obama administration cut back to its current level (30 interceptors) in April 2009.
To put the last point another way: if the Obama DOD hadn't cancelled the remaining ground-based interceptor (GBI) deployments in 2009, the 14 additional interceptors would already be deployed.
That said, the utility of deploying the additional GBIs – which would raise the deployed total from 30 to 44 – can justifiably be questioned, if former Secretary Bob Gates was right in 2009, when he said the 30 GBIs in Alaska and California were enough:
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told senators that 30 ground-based interceptors "provide a strong defense" against "the level of [missile] capability that North Korea has now and is likely to have for some years to come." The system is designed to defend the United States against intermediate- and long-range missiles in the middle range of flight.
The North Korean satellite launch in December 2012 didn't change the profile of the North Korean threat; it merely validated the predicted type of threat against which the GBIs were originally deployed. Frankly, the 30 GBIs we already have in their silos probably are enough.
They are if the threat we're worried about is North Korea, at any rate. What if it's not? Suppose the threat we're really concerned about is China? It's an interesting point, given the lack of precision or clearly-stated strategic purpose behind, basically, any move the Obama administration makes on missile defense.
Cancelling the Atlantic-side Missile defense
Consider the decision announced by DOD at the same time as the GBI augmentation: that the U.S. will cancel the fourth and final phase of Obama's missile defense plan for Europe. The European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA) is the new plan Obama ordered up in 2009 when he cancelled George W. Bush's plan to deploy GBIs to Europe.
GBIs in Poland would have provided missile defense for North America as well as for Europe against threats coming westward from Asia. In Bush's original plan, the GBIs would have started going into Poland in 2013. (The GBIs in Alaska and California defend North America against threats coming eastward from Asia, or – to some extent – against missiles from East Asia coming over the North Pole).
Obama's replacement plan for the cancelled Bush deployments was to develop a new, ground-based mobile interceptor out of the Navy's shorter-range SM-3 missile, and eventually to deploy a follow-on interceptor, called the SM-3 IIB, which would have "some capability" against ICBMs. The projected time frame for this deployment was to be 2020-22, some 7-9 years after the GBI deployment in Poland was to have begun.
A key weakness of this approach, however, has been that, for the purposes of defending North America, the geometry isn't workable for using a new-generation SM-3 interceptor in Europe against an intercontinental ballistic missile from South Asia or the Middle East. In September 2012, the National Research Council published an assessment of the prospects for defending North America using the EPAA deployment concept, and concluded that the prospects aren't good. Obtaining the NRC report costs $62, but fortunately, Defense Industry Daily has summarized its findings as follows (scroll down at the link):
[The NRC assessment] states that EPAA Phase IV is not likely to be an effective way to defend the United States, and recommends that the USA make changes to its own GMD system and radar set. They're not advocating the dismantling of EPAA, just saying that the USA should have a system in which EPAA is about Europe's defense, and the USA has a system that doesn't depend on it.
More on that in a moment.


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Maui wrote:SilentBobX wrote:I fucking LOVE Heavy Metal. Easily in the top 5 of my favorite animated films ever.
AND...it's Canadian made!!!
I did not know that till reading about this Variety article. That and Rock and Rule.
Maui wrote:SilentBobX wrote:I fucking LOVE Heavy Metal. Easily in the top 5 of my favorite animated films ever.
AND...it's Canadian made!!!
Chairman Kaga wrote:Maui wrote:SilentBobX wrote:I fucking LOVE Heavy Metal. Easily in the top 5 of my favorite animated films ever.
AND...it's Canadian made!!!
I did not know that till reading about this Variety article. That and Rock and Rule.
tapehead wrote:That 5th Element borrowed quite a bit from Heavy Metal has been noted.
DinoDeLaurentiis wrote:tapehead wrote:That 5th Element borrowed quite a bit from Heavy Metal has been noted.
Anna donna forget that a the Moebius, he was inna'volved inna the design of a the both films, eh?
Chairman Kaga wrote:I thought I had read something about Luc Besson being involved with a Heavy Metal sequel years ago (before the 2000 one) that fell through.
Heavy Metal is apparently too heavy for Paramount Pictures. The film's production team is now shopping the flick to other studios after Paramount said they were no longer interested in distributing the animated movie.
According to Hollywood Insider and Blur Studio head Tim Miller, Paramount's new executive team developed a serious case of cold feet after producer/director David Fincher insisted that he wanted a hard 'R' rating for the animated movie, an update of the 1981 cult classic (which, by the way, also had an 'R' rating).
Despite Paramount's lack of testicular fortitude, Miller is confident that a new Heavy Metal movie will get made.
"David really believes in the project," he told Hollywood Insider. "It's just a matter of time."
In my blog posting, I told you about the rumors of Paramount's vicious fight with Fincher behind the scenes over the running time of the film. We also tried to connect the dots between the departure of Fincher's planned adaption of Heavy Metal and the rumored fight. Now The Playlist has found an interview with Kevin Eastman, creator of the Ninja Turtles and publisher of Heavy Metal, where he finally confirms the rumors:"We developed it for Paramount in January… And it was time for them to make a decision [about going forward with the project] and they were at odds with Fincher over another project, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,' [because] they wanted him to reduce the running time… and so they said, 'Until you step up to do what we want you to do with Benjamin, we're not going to greenlight any other of [your] movies.' And David said, 'Fine, fuck you, I'm going to set up [Heavy Metal] somewhere else,' so we jumped over to Sony and set it up there."
TheButcher wrote:From /film: Confirmed: Paramount Feuds with David Fincher Over Benjamin ButtonIn my blog posting, I told you about the rumors of Paramount's vicious fight with Fincher behind the scenes over the running time of the film. We also tried to connect the dots between the departure of Fincher's planned adaption of Heavy Metal and the rumored fight. Now The Playlist has found an interview with Kevin Eastman, creator of the Ninja Turtles and publisher of Heavy Metal, where he finally confirms the rumors:"We developed it for Paramount in January… And it was time for them to make a decision [about going forward with the project] and they were at odds with Fincher over another project, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,' [because] they wanted him to reduce the running time… and so they said, 'Until you step up to do what we want you to do with Benjamin, we're not going to greenlight any other of [your] movies.' And David said, 'Fine, fuck you, I'm going to set up [Heavy Metal] somewhere else,' so we jumped over to Sony and set it up there."
Matthew Perpetua wrote:He's also hopeful that a revamped, R-rated "Heavy Metal" film can push digital animation into the future.
"The world will at some point be ready for something other than singing, furry fucking animals," Fincher told MTV.
Dave McNary wrote:Robert Rodriguez has acquired fearture rights to sci-fi fantasy magazine Heavy Metal and plans to develop a large-scale media project and a new animated film.
The filmmaker made the announcment Thursday during his panel at Comic-Con, and announced that he's seeking ideas from fans via a web site.
"I think one of the ideas I always believed in is international artists coming together to show their best work," he said. "And when I ask other fans what they think, they all want to work on it. So I thought it would be really cool if everyone got the chance."
The magazine, which began publishing in 1977 in the United States, specializes in dark fantasy/science-fiction and erotica. It inspired a 1981 animated feature and a 2000 sequel.
Paramount Pictures had announced in 2008 that it was developing an animated film inspired by Heavy Metal with director David Fincher spearheading the project. The film would have consisted of eight or nine animated segments, each directed by a different helmer including Fincher; Kevin Eastman, the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" co-creator who became owner and publisher of Heavy Metal; and Tim Miller, whose Blur Studios was set to handle the animation.
Eastman appeared with Rodriguez at Thursday's event.
"Some of the stories we're working on already, but I'm leaving a slot open for the audience who has been so good to Heavy Metal and who has always believed in Heavy Metal and what it could be," Rodriguez said. "And I think it would be great if we all participated together and made this the best version of Heavy Metal that ever existed."
Rodriguez announced in November that he'd teamed with Gigi Pritzker's OddLot Entertainment and Michel Litvak's Bold Films on Quick Draw Prods., a film production and finance shingle. His fourth "Spy Kids" film -- "Spy: All the Time in the World" -- is set to be released Aug. 19.
Seth Jones wrote:A Heavy Metal movie, a Frank Frazetta art gallery, Sin City 2 and … Machete in space? Director Robert Rodriguez came to Comic-Con International in San Diego loaded with news from his own Quick Draw studios.
Rodriguez showed the crowd a close-up of the Heavy Metal logo set to heavy-metal music. He said Heavy Metal has always been an inspiration to him. He heard murmurs that the property might get dusted off, so he called a friend who put him in touch with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman, who owns the rights.
"I was a huge fan, I bought the first issue off the newsstand in 1967," said Eastman, who appeared at Rodriguez's panel. "[Heavy Metal] led me to self-publishing. When it came time to do my own comic book, self-publishing enabled me to keep the profits. So Heavy Metal helped me buy Heavy Metal."
"I love the idea of artists from all over the word showing off their work," Rodriguez said. "My think tank always had [Conan creator] Robert Howard, Sin City and Heavy Metal."
Rodriguez's next big announcement was a collaboration with the family of legendary fantasy artist Frank Frazetta, who passed away last year. Together they'll work to create a Frazetta art gallery in Austin, near Rodriguez's studio.
"I was inspired by [Frazetta] since [age] 11," he said. "Frank created the look for iconic characters such as Conan, John Carter, Tarzan, Death Dealer … the books flew off the shelves when he did the covers. I worked with him first in 1995 on From Dusk 'Til Dawn — we made Salma Hayek gain some weight so she'd be more like a Frazetta girl, real curvy."
Rodriguez introduced Frazetta's son Billy, who joined him on stage. "As a child growing up, very early, even at age 3 I could see that [my father] was a genius," Frazetta said. "I was probably 6 when the first cover came out. I was very young when I knew this father of mine was going to be one of the great artists."
"We want to bring worldwide recognition back to Frazetta," Rodriguez added. "Frank's inventiveness and creativeness remains intact. I was surprised by how much of Frank's original art he still held on to. He never sold them, he wanted fans to come to his gallery and see them."
Rodriguez said the Frazetta paintings have an even bigger impact when they're seen in person.
"It was Billy's idea [to put the gallery in Austin]. That way I can be there … connected with my studio, and control the look and feel of it," Rodriguez said. "I want, as soon as you walk in, you walk into the Frazetta world."
"[Frazetta is] one of the main reasons I do what I do," Rodriguez continued. "This joint venture is going to allow us to generate revenue. So they don't have to sell the paintings. When you come down to South by Southwest, come down and see the Frazettas."
Rodriguez also talked about the long-discussed sequel to 2005's Sin City, which he said possibly could start filming this year.
"Frank [Miller] has written a script for Sin City 2, it's called A Dame to Kill For. We're following the [format of the] first one," the filmmaker explained. "Two stories are new. One is called 'The Long Bad Night.' There is a scenario that it could be shot as early as this year. That's the best scenario. If it's going to happen, it's going to happen this year."
Rodriguez talked about how the buzz at Comic-Con helped make the first Sin City a success.
"When I did Sin City, I brought that to show you, I showed pages of the comic, then scenes from the movie," he said. "That blew the lid off Sin City… people really supported it at the theaters. It's really hard to predict what an audience is going to want in a year or two."
Rodriguez thanked the crowd, which filled less than half of the cavernous Hall H, for supporting his 2010 action film Machete. "The DVD went crazy. Thank you for that. Machete will kill again," he said to applause.
He said the sequel will be called Machete Kills, with a third installment to be titled Machete Kills Again. He joked that the third movie probably would be a space opera that he only makes as a preview for Machete Kills.
"A bad-ass Mexican in space — you don't see that too often," Rodriguez laughed.
He then moved on to Spy Kids 4, which will be shot in "aroma-scope."
"Everyone will get a scratch-and-sniff card," he said. "The idea was great, the tech has improved, the tech is amazing. There are eight instances throughout the movie when the number flashes, you smell that number. When they have bacon in the morning, you smell the bacon. Even if you're not a kid, you're going to be into it, it's pretty fun. And it's free. That comes out next month, Aug. 19th."
Rodriguez talked about how he was the first one to revitalize the 3D craze, when he released Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over eight years ago.
"[But] I gave it to you for free — I gave you the glasses, I paid for those glasses," he said. "I'm still paying for it!"
Jay A. Fernandez wrote:Tuesday night at the SXSW Film festival, local fixture Robert Rodriguez took to the ACL Live stage at the Moody Theater to announce several new Quickdraw Productions initiatives — and play some rock and roll. Rodriguez is set to launch an animation company called Quickdraw Animation, with two feature-film projects already in the works, as well as a filmmaking contest in partnership with his technology partner AMD.
Part of the SXSW Interactive Festival, the event featured performances by Chingon, which features Rodriguez on guitar, and Tito and Tarantula, both of which appeared on the soundtracks of Desperado, From Dusk Til Dawn and Machete. The pertinent scenes from those movies played on a screen behind the bands as they performed the tunes.
Quickdraw Animation will be its own entity with its own financing and infrastructure devoted to making CG-animated feature films. The first two films are Heavy Metal and a family film, both of which have finished scripts and are moving into storyboard pre-production phases. As part of his continuing DIY methodology, Rodriguezsays that he has found a way to streamline the animation process that will greatly shrink the amount of time it takes to produce one. Exactly how, he won't say (nor will he give away the family film's title, which much like Spy Kids, he says, would give away the whole concept), but the writer-director has built an entire career around the DIY method. For the new animation company, he will keep a core group of 6-8animators in-house at his Austin-based Troublemaker Studios to mastermind all the story and visual elements before using sister companies to finish the animation.
The contest with AMD, which launches Wednesday, March 14, asks participants to upload 60-90-second trailers to Facebook that Rodriguez and others will judge. Two-month windows devoted to different regions of the world will open throughout the summer and fall, with winners from each of the four sections chosen to meet with Rodriguez to flesh out their ideas and take home some digital filmmaking gear, including Sony Vegas software and an HP notebook.
One of the four will also be handed a grand prize of access to a complete array of AMD-and-HP-provided editing equipment (the same Rodriguez uses on his films), ongoing mentoring from the writer-director and quarterly meetings with Quickdraw and Troublemaker to get updates on the project. As AMD PR manager Jeff Lowe says, "The goal is to find the next Robert," a filmmaker who famously made his first movie, El Mariachi, for about $7,250 and continues to do much of the work on his films himself (writing, directing, cinematography, editing, scoring). Winners will be announced at ACL Fest in October.
"It's an interesting way to reinforce Robert's brand, especially with El Rey coming out," says Lowe, referring to the Comcast-Universal network Rodriguez is pulling together for a late 2013 launch.
Sitting in the central conference room of the Troublemaker offices on Monday, Rodriguez was enthusiastic about the possibilities of ElRey, despite being worn out by a late-night practice session with Chingon in preparation for the Tuesday night show. "We need content! Go make stuff and send it! We'll be the first Cloud network," he said with a laugh.
Rodriguez says that he pitched the newly merged company,which must host a number of minority-owned channels as part of its programming, on what he views as "Desperado TV," focused on the critically and perpetually underserved demographic of Latino men. The AMD filmmaking contest is just one of the ways Rodriguez is looking for new talent, but he says he also has seen major interest from A-List Latino creative forces in Hollywood, such as Salma Hayek, Benicio del Toro and Michelle Rodriguez.
"It's like a switch goes off in their minds, like this is what we've been building up to do, is to really step into more of a leadership position in the community to empower and help others," says Rodriguez. "There's nobody really operating in that space. That's where the real growth is, in the Hispanic community. It's the largest, fastest-growing minority, but there's nothing really targeting them. There are 500 networks and none of them are doing anything in that area. So that's what I'm going for right there."
Beyond its business possibilities, Rodriguez sees El Rey as yet another way to speak to and shape the identities of new generations of young immigrants from South and Central America. "That's what's most needed culturally, too," he says. "You need to help not just reflect that identity but also shape that identity. Because if you ask any Latino, 'Are you Latino?' they might say, 'Well, I don't really speak Spanish, I'm not really American, I'm floating in between, and I'm not on TV, so I must not exist.' It would change people's view of themselves if they finally exist in this space."
Additionally on the film front, Rodriguez says that Machete 2 starts shooting in April and Sin City 2, after several fits and starts, is likely to begin production over the summer. He's thus far mum on casting, though he was willing to indicate that discussions with potential stars of both projects will be of the same caliber and eclecticism as the first films, which featured Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Robert De Niro, Lindsay Lohan, Josh Hartnett, Don Johnson and Steven Seagal.
The prolific filmmaker has two sequels in his immediate future, to be followed by an animated film that pays tribute to the work of iconic artist Frank Frazetta.
MARC GRASER wrote:The pages of Heavy Metal magazine have long held a soft spot in the hearts of Hollywood filmmakers, with the cult publication giving a voice to fans of science fiction and fantasy since the 1970s. Like every popular aging brand, however, Heavy Metal is getting a reboot, with new investors set to turn the magazine into a full-fledged entertainment banner to produce films, TV shows and other forms of content dedicated to the genre fare that made it popular nearly four decades ago.
Kevin Eastman, who has served as the sole publisher of Heavy Metal since 1991, has sold the magazine to digital and music vet David Boxenbaum and film producer Jeff Krelitz, who raised several million dollars in private equity to purchase the publication. Financial details were not disclosed.
But as part of the recent transaction, Eastman, who co-created the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, will continue to serve as publisher of the magazine, and is a minority investor in the new Heavy Metal. Boxenbaum and Krelitz now serve as co-CEOs of the company.
Heavy Metal's new owners aren't wasting any time, setting up the first projects to be released under the new banner.
Krelitz is overseeing Heavy Metal's film, TV, IP and global publishing initiatives in the U.S., Europe and Asia, and already has brought in his TV shows "Red Brick Road," a "Game of Thrones"-style take on "The Wizard of Oz," that's set up at Warner Horizon with Roy Lee, Adrian Askarieh and Mark Wolper; the Peter Pan-inspired "Peter Panzerfaust," an adaptation of the Image comic that BBC Worldwide is developing with Elijah Wood; and a version of another Image book, "Chew," as a direct-to-video animated film and live action series.
Meanwhile, Boxenbaum is managing Heavy Metal's music, online, branding and digital initiatives from New York City. He previously co-founded and was chief operating officer of A&M/Octone Records and sold the record label to Universal.
The goal is to turn Heavy Metal into a more influential brand for mainstream audiences and genre fans the way Thomas Tull's Legendary Entertainment has focused on tentpole titles that target the sci-fi, fantasy and horror audience with "Man of Steel," Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, "300″ and the upcoming "Godzilla" and "Warcraft."
Heavy Metal already has a strong fanbase, especially in Hollywood.
First published as "an adult illustrated fantasy magazine" in 1977, Heavy Metal was seen as one of the few outlets for original science fiction and fantasy, with long-running serials written by writers like Richard Corben and Matt Howarth, while its mix of stylized erotic art took on a life of its own. "Alien"-creature designer H.R. Giger was featured on covers with Archie Goodwin's adaptation of the film published in Heavy Metal in 1979.
In 1981, a low-budget animated film, based on the magazine's serials was released, featuring John Candy, Eugene Levy, Harold Ramis and Ivan Reitman.
David Fincher and James Cameron had been attached to produce and direct a 10-part 3D-animated Heavy Metal film as an anthology of stories, with Zack Snyder, Gore Verbinski and Guillermo del Toro also set to direct segments. But Paramount balked at potential appeal of the project at the megaplex and ultimately passed on the pic in 2009, with Robert Rodriguez picking up the film rights to develop through his Quick Draw Studios in 2011.
Eastman wasn't necessarily looking to sell, but was attracted to the idea of growing the brand beyond its print and digital editions into something larger.
"There are so many fans of Heavy Metal in the industry," Krelitz said. "It was the place that inspired them to become who they are now and has the potential to be so much more," with Heavy Metal's new owners looking to rally creatives around the brand with their projects.
Krelitz and Boxenbaum said they want to continue to give writers, especially those working in the comicbook biz, voices through the publication, that will be revamped as both a print and online quarterly. But stories they tell could also be developed into projects for other entertainment platforms the way Krelitz has done through his Quality Transmedia banner. Krelitz also founded Contraband Films, which set up TV shows and films at Universal and New Line and published graphic novels. His Double Barrel Motion Labs also has helped studios and publishers re-purpose marketing materials for the mobile biz.
"We see the magazine as a way to test new concepts, new ideas before turning them into something else," Krelitz said. "There are so many opportunities out there now to tell a good story."
TheButcher wrote:From Heat Vision:
'Machete Kills' Director Robert Rodriguez Lines Up 'Fire and Ice' After 'Sin City 2'The prolific filmmaker has two sequels in his immediate future, to be followed by an animated film that pays tribute to the work of iconic artist Frank Frazetta.
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WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A New Zealand coroner says soft-drink makers should consider adding health warnings after he concluded an eight-litre-a-day Coca-Cola habit was a "substantial factor" in a woman's death.
A New Zealand food industry association rejected his suggestion Wednesday.
It says "there isn't a labelling regime in the world" that could have prevented the death of somebody who chose to drink the equivalent of 30 cans a day.
Coroner David Crerar this week issued a report into the 2010 death of 31-year-old Natasha Harris.
He found the mother-of-eight died of a heart attack. He said the large amounts of Coca-Cola she drank likely led to metabolic imbalances which gave rise to her heart problems.
In a statement, Coca-Cola Oceania disputed Crerar's findings.


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"Gold will not fall beneath $1,000 an ounce… probably ever again."
Ever is a long time, Marc.
My opinion is that if we get another round of stimulus or more money printing that the markets will become disorderly. The more they fight the needed corrections, the more volatility we will see.
Marc Faber (Part I - 6:20)
Marc Faber (Part II - 6:20)
Friday: Employment Report, Trade Deficit
9 hours ago


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I can't give away my sources. I think they are just still shots from the trailer. I don't think they are actuall photos because I think they would be so much clearer.EandB wrote:Where were those taken?
Ok here are some pictures that I found that I thought were adorable.
Cowboy Kellan
Bookworm Kellan
Shy Kellan
Come Hither Look Kellan
Oh my, I'm having too much fun. So, I'm gonna stop for today!


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They are one of the most popular team of female divers in the world. Co-founder Margo Sanchez gives us the lowdown.
The Scuba Diver Girls are perhaps the most popular girls in the underwater community – and certainly some of the most active. Located in San Diego, California, the ocean is the girls' backyard. In their cold water dive gear and their Suunto dive computers, Margo Sanchez and Stephanie Adamson dive multiple times each week. If they are not diving in their local southern California waters, they are traveling the world looking for the next hot spot for amazing sea life.
This fun, adventurous dive team got started when Stephanie, a PADI dive instructor, invited Margo to learn how to dive. Stephanie wanted to share her love with the ocean and the amazing experience of being under the water with her family. Margo instantly felt a connection to the underwater realm, but also was amazed at how much fun it was to dive with Stephanie, her sister-in-law.
As the girls began to dive together and share their adventures with their friends on socialmedia their popularity grew in the dive community. Industry leaders and manufacturers commented that the girls were 'bringing the fun back to diving'. Margo and Stephanie quickly realized that there was a lack focus on women in the dive industry. From dive gear to online content much of the industry was focused on men. The girls decided it was time to put a female spin on the sport and began to build their online presence as Scuba Diver Girls.
"When we started posting our dive photos and videos on social media, there was a lack of interesting content about and for women in diving – we received an overwhelming response," says Sanchez. She says the team made it their mission to put a brighter focus on females in the sport. The girls worked with various manufacturers, including Suunto, to test dive gear and give feedback to the companies from the female diver perspective on fit, usability, as well as look and feel. "Much of the gear we were originally using was designed with a man's body as a base for fit and then they just put some pink on it and called it women's gear," Sanchez explained.
Together the girls began racking up dive destinations and posting photos and footage of their amazing adventures online. Their community, which started back in 2009, has grown to over 500,000 Facebook fans who actively interact and communicate with the girls each day.
You can join the community via their many social channels and get the best content and information on their dives, gear and amazing destinations.
Images © Tanya G Burnett, Brian Kirby and Margo Sanchez


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10 Places to Get Great Barbacoa in Austin
Tacos have their own vocabulary that I never learned in Spanish class. What is barbacoa, exactly? It takes on different forms throughout Mexico, but the South Texas version most prevalent in Austin is rooted in ranching traditions. When a cow is slaughtered, the head is roasted in a pit dug into the ground and lined with hot mesquite coals and maguey leaves. Every bit of the head, from the eyes to the brains, is consumed. In the Rio Grande Valley, the velvety shredded beef is traditionally eaten on Sundays with fresh tortillas, cilantro, onion, lime, and tangy salsa.
Today many health departments in Texas cities have declared the traditional cooking method unsanitary. Most taquerias and meat markets now serve an abbreviated version of slow roasted and finely shredded beef cheeks. This dish derives its unmistakably rich flavor and sticky texture from the luscious fat and connective tissue that is unique to that part of the animal. This isn't Chipotle's barbacoa.
I tried over 25 different restaurants, taco trucks, and meat markets, making just a small dent in Austin's barbacoa selection. Here's the good news: most establishments use cheek meat—not beef shoulder in disguise. But there's also some abhorrently tough barbacoa out there. The cheeks should be cooked long enough to disintegrate the collagen and connective tissue. Also, beware of funky smelling or underseasoned beef that is reminiscent of a wet rag.
South Texas barbacoa is not heavily seasoned. Today Austin is home to immigrants from many different regions of Mexico, so you'll find barbacoa flavored with cloves and other aromatic spices. This offends some purists, but I welcome the variety. Some will also complain when the meat is greasy, but I consider that a vital characteristic of good barbacoa. A few places distinguished themselves by cooking the beef cheeks so that they were ever so slightly crispy and caramelized.
All of the meat markets served decent barbacoa, so start there. With so many taco trucks and Mexico hole-in-the-wall spots in Austin, this is by no means a comprehensive list.
Where is your favorite place to eat barbacoa in Austin?
The Map
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All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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No Derrick Rose for Bulls vs. Heat
DEERFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Injured Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose said he will not suit up against Miami on Wednesday and sounded like a player who just might miss the entire season.
Rose squashed rumors that he might make his long-anticipated return from surgery on his left knee against LeBron James and the Heat with two words at the morning shootaround: "Not tonight.'' The comments came in the wake of a Twitter post by rapper Waka Flocka Flame, who wrote, "Word is D.Rose back.''
Rose and the rapper are fans of each other, but the former MVP said he's not sure when he'll be back. He said his return is "in God's hands.''
Rose hasn't played since he tore his anterior cruciate ligament in last year's playoff opener against Philadelphia, and his comeback has been an ongoing soap opera. The Heat arrived with a 27-game win streak, trailing only the 33 straight by the Los Angeles Lakers in 1971-72, and he would have loved nothing more than to play against them.
Then again, he wants to play, period.
"Every game is tough,'' he said. "Knowing that it's the Heat adds on a little bit. But I have a lot of confidence in my guys and the coaching staff here.''
Rose has been full participant in practice the past five weeks. There haven't been any setbacks, but he still feels "the same,'' meaning there's still pain in the knee when he increases his work. Even so, he said staying patient in his recovery hasn't been difficult, and he doesn't think he'll have any uncertainty with the knee next fall if he sits out this season.
"Not at all,'' he said. "I know the confidence I have in myself and what type of player I am. When I step on the court, I think I'm going to be better. I know I'm going to be better. I'm not worried about that.''
Coach Tom Thibodeau, who when asked if he had heard of Waka Flocka Flame, responded: "I hear the guys talking about him.'' He didn't miss a beat, either, when told one of the rapper's songs is, "Hard in Da Paint.''
"I'm for that,'' he said. "I like him more now.''


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Professional Community for Car Dealers, Marketing, Advertising and Sales Leaders
There's a problem I have been seeing a lot lately among businesses who are late to adopting social media. They are excited, just raring to go (which is admirable) but they have no perspective on what they're getting themselves into.
They look up every possible social network and just start registering. Now, I'm a big proponent of social media as part of a successful automotive seo strategy, but it needs to be approached cautiously.
If you're new to social media, or if you're feeling overwhelmed by your current social presence, here are a few ways to get everything under control:
1. Start small. Social media is a great tool, but only if it is being used actively. I'd recommend you start with just Facebook and Twitter. These are the big two (if you want to start with just one, make it Facebook). Get in the habit of posting regularly and, even more importantly, get in the habit of interacting with fans and followers. When businesses spread themselves too thin, engagement is what suffers. Don't let this happen to you. Stick with just one or two social networks until you truly feel you've got the time, knowledge and energy to expand.
2. Have a voice. This voice will largely depend on who is in charge of your social presence. If you have a talented, funny writer on your staff, then I'd say have them take charge of social media. Just be sure they have a firm grasp on business appropriate humor as well as your clientele's sense of humor. If you're in a more serious industry, then make sure the tone matches your business. For instance, an automotive dealership will be friends with pretty much anyone, so they can by funny but need to focus on mass appeal. A more tech based company will probably focus on IT related humor. A funeral home probably shouldn't be making jokes at all, because for some reason a sale saying, "We'll urn your loved one's business!" doesn't go over well. (If you have a better funeral home advertisement joke, by all means share it here.)
3. Post consistently. If you look through my blog and others here, you'll find plenty of advice on the best times to post. If you really want to get the most out of social media, figure out the schedule that works for you and stick to it. Sporadic posting can hurt you and over-posting can be even worse. Keep it to a strict schedule and never slack on your content. Once you can do this for one or two social networks, then you should look into expanding further.
Original post about social media can be found on Wikimotive's blog under the title, "3 Tips to Avoid Social Media Overload."
Views: 276
LOL. Tom, I'd be a terrible politician. There is no PC in me. :) Unlike Mr. Obama, I could not have calibrated those words better.
"Just because everyone is excited to go, doesn't mean they should puke on every social network out there." LOL Really Tim, so colorful, but I agree with you. In the strategy I put together for the employee I mentioned, I laid out the responsibilities that go with it. Whatever he does has to fall within the guidelines of our policies regarding social media and reputation management. One of the reasons our store has a great reputation is that each employee has had it drilled into them what that means.
Thanks for all the great feedback, Tom and Ralph! Ralph, there is no question that dealers with strong contributions from staff achieve the best results. But that still apply's to the advise here. Just because everyone is excited to go, doesn't mean they should puke on every social network out there.
If a dealership has strong buy-in from internal personnel, it should still be focused on mastering one social network and then another, rather than signing up the dealership for 12 social networks and everyone only posts every other day to each...
This guy already has many of the pieces started by doing walkaround videos, checking and responding sometimes on our Facebook page, and getting photos and reviews from his customers. Now we will set up a blog for him and start tying all the pieces together and interweaving them with applechevy's assetts.
Tom Gorham - That is actually a great example of what I was referring to... Maybe there are better ways, but I swear that the dealers who are experiencing the greatest success with social media driven sales and service business are the ones with the most employees participating. I also see this in dealerships with well staffed BDC departments and the 6 to 10 people in the BDC are all active dealership social media participants whenever they are on duty. It seems that there is a benefit from all the activity coming from a diverse set of users.
BTW, happy Sunday guys!
Ralph, that reminds me of Ryan Leslie's post about becoming the brand within the brand. I liked it so much, I attended his online webinar about the subject a week later. I then downloaded his webinar and sent it to all the sales staff and managers. A day later one of the sales staff, a true pro and moneymaker, requested that I assist him in creating a larger online profile. I've drawn up a strategy for him that will benefit him and the dealership. I can't wait to implement it and watch him become a star.
As much as I respect the advice posted, the dealerships that I see achieving the greatest levels of success using social media are also the same stores where more of their employees are participating in their social media initiatives. The dealerships I see where one person or a very small number of people are "allowed" to participate never seem to get much in the way of results.
It seems to me that getting more participation on social networks with your employees should be the first order of business...
Getting engagement and participation with your dealership's suppliers and their employees should be the second initiative...
Then, when you get some activity, content and genuine social engagement going with employees and suppliers, start inviting the customers... Who the heck likes being the first people to show up at a party?
Tim, I think you are right on target. This is excellent advice. I love the pic. When you begin, you are faceless untill you are able to define your image. Make sure the person or people you delegate this responsibilty to are able to create the image you actually present to the public. Hmmmm, if that real image is not so good, work on that first.
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New forum / same request:
Please share your high-level feedback about Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire in <100 words.
This is our traditional request for your main points of feedback about our newest release. Please share your likes, dislikes, suggestions -- all are welcome. But please keep these comments to 100 words or less, and join or create other threads for a more in-depth conversation on a specific topic.
Thank you for sharing!
Gaile Gray
Communications Manager: ArenaNet
Fansite & Guild Relations; In-Game Events; Community Showcase Live
Overall enjoy. Lack of Waypoints and mobs like Djinns makes solo exploration punishing, reminding me of original Orr.
In the event I don't get a chance, thank you all for the company and help when I needed it from time to time.
I like the direction GW2 is going with PoF and I think it's brought out some of the best of the game and of the players. Some were ambivalent about mounts being added since they are a familiar MMO feature, but they were implemented in a new and a very fun way with how they interact with the movement of GW2. Main suggestion is to give the Collection tab its own UI as it's becoming more important but harder to navigate now.
Pretty good. Would recommend. Change enemy spellbreaker's Winds of Disenchantment to be red to be more visable.
Can we PLEASE get some affordable gear from PoF? As a newish player getting gear (exotic at least) is a MASSIVE hassle. I'm talking condi gear especially. I would appreciate some way to get exotic with at least Viper/Sinister selectable stats (if you insist on hiding Griever stats) from vendors for map currency or some other predictable grind (as in NOT RNG) without having to grind crafting on 4 separate characters.
It's getting ridiculous, I'm essentially forced to play power builds because at least I can get zerker stuff from Dungeon/HoT zones. I was really hoping that PoF coming out would mean easier access to HoT stats, I was very disappointed when that was not the case.
Pretty good. Would recommend. Change enemy spellbreaker's Winds of Disenchantment to be red to be more visable. Please open worlds so friends can play WvW together.
PoF was the best experience I've had in an MMORPG in a long time.
The story was well expanded, explored, and executed. Everything was rich with lore and detail. The maps are beautiful, diverse, and pleasant to be in. Love the Weaver, Soulbeast, and Renegade elite specs. The mounts are the best addition to GW 2 so far and have been implemented so well and seamlessly. I love all the surprises, the attention to detail, the humor and ambient life everywhere, the music, the masteries, just EVERYTHING. All of it done so well down to the smallest details.
The only suggestions I have are with the depiction of villains in GW 2. Particularly with the main villain of each major story arc. Mordremoth and Balthazar are unfortunately that cliche, power-hungry, self-flattering, predictable, one-dimensional villain that always says "YOU WILL NEVER DEFEAT ME!!!" Zhaitan was done very well, where it didn't need to remind us how powerful it was or taunt us throughout the story. It was just a force of nature and was actually intimidating.
I was surprised to see Balthazar depicted the way he was, and for me at least it certainly discredits him as a choice for a god to choose at character creation for human characters.
Other than that, I am so happy and satisfied with PoF. Thank you Arena Net and all involved.
Mounts are great, they are all I hoped them to be. My suggestions on Mounts would be to make it so that you instantly switch from one mount to another by pushing the appropriate button, without having to dismount first. If you think that this is too powerful during combat, you could disable that in combat and just let people dismount instead of switch when in combat. Also, Bunny could use a bit better control because positioning is so important with it. I feel the start-up acceleration of mounts is at fault here: for the bunny this means that moving tiny amounts is almost impossible. Either you hardly move, or you overshoot. For other Mounts this is not really a problem.
The maps are beautiful and varied. Actually much more diverse then the HoT maps. But they really could use some Meta events next to all the cool stuff that is already there. I feel Mounts are fast enough to cover the maps quickly without needing too many waypoints. However, this could become more of a problem if Meta events were to be implemented. I think Meta events will keep the zones better populated which would also be a win for people who are not so much into Meta events.
@DoctorWunderbar.5037 said:
Pretty good. Would recommend. Change enemy spellbreaker's Winds of Disenchantment to be red to be more visable.
This would be a huge QoL plus on the PvP end of things. As it stands now the little red ring is too little to be of any usefulness when there are 50 other little red rings.
Everything is awesome except the fact I want to play the story with my friend and many instances don't give you the chance to do the achievements if you are in another persons story.I hate redoing the story and it's always more fun to do it with someone else.
The maps look awesome so far.Great job.
New Skins from PoF need to be view-able so players can set goals for fashion wars. Over all QoL is great! Lack of Map Meta's are a little bit of a let down. Vabbi feels unfinished aswell. Very empty.
Mount abilities go very well with the open map layouts.
Challenging but more manageable hero point challenges. YES!
Some creature designs are reasonably robust in combat. (Could use more buffs for disenchanting, but that's just me as a Spellbreaker.)
Would appreciate different icons for repeatable anythings on the map. Being too similar makes it look like they weren't done.
HoT's charging-knockdown AI meta has been replaced with PoF's perma-blind meta. STOP with the constant CC auto attacks.
Finding out I can't spend contracts because I need them for buying mounts was a kick in the shin.
(More to come as I progress, but top-top level feedback? Game is fun, yo.)
Many alts! Handle it!
"A condescending answer might as well not be an answer at all."
-Eloc Freidon.5692
Overall I love the expansion, it's amazing.
I think both expansions have had a lot of disparity in elite specialization usefulness, uniqueness, and mechanics. I understand different developers have different strengths and weaknesses, and because of that I think the devs should rotate and touch all of the elite specs during development, they would be more consistent and balanced that way.
Story was brilliant!
Maps look nice, but seems there's little reason to revisit most parts of them.
Mob difficulty is a good balance, generally easy but can get into trouble if you're not careful.
Combat detection makes it very frustrating trying to cross a map as you can't always change mounts when you need to, kills the flow of movement.
Lack of map wide metas is a huge dissapointment! There's very little map chat compared to HoT, nothing that needs group cooperation, and no reason to group up for anything other than bounties. Even HPs & MP fights were all easily soloable, shame no group ones.
PoF feels more like a single player DLC rather than an MMO expansion (but still a great single player DLC)
PoF = best gaming money I've spent since... buying HoT! Was a mount skeptic, but absolutely love its implementation here.
Only change I would suggest is the removal of invisible pathing blockers near certain masteries, replacing them with visible terrain/jump-blocking ledges, etc. I feel invisible walls do injustice to the overall visual richness of PoF and the game at large.
Less than 100 words not doable, sorry. There is too much to say. Of course, you can always skip the "Praise" section and get straight to the criticism.
Item mechanics:
Item mechanics:
1) Too often dismounted, no need to dismount when speaking. No need for extra animations either. Just open dialogue panel.
2) Mobs have extreme aggro range + significant mob density = dismount face planting personal hatred
3) Deadeye rifle skills refuses to fire if mob isn't within narrow front cone; pistols seem to fire if the enemy is 180 degrees in front; need to be same
4) Jump key = Deadeye kneeling ends as if pressing the skill key
5) Thief character sometimes stops dead. Requires several movement key presses to get moving again. Random occurrence.
6) Too bad so many things are clearly designed to be gemstore-to-gold transactions (griffon, jackal if no heart, etc etc etc)
-Mounts, which seemed like a foreign idea in gw2, were implemented so flawlessly that they instantly felt they belonged in a game that strives so hard to break conventions
-map design is amazing, should be considered an industry standard for amazing world building
-story seems to be maturing, and the delivery of story through instanced content and ambient lore is amazing
-elite specs can feel alittle too niche, spell breaker/mirage
-i agree PoF doesn't need metas, but a lack of epic open world encounters is slightly disappointing. I'm sure there's a balance somewhere that would please both crowds without invalidating HoT.
Main ranger: Adalyn Del Rayna. Plz stop saying raids are toxic.. raids are what you make them
Story was avesome. Maps looks great and so wonderful (have tons of screenshots) But......after launch PoF most of map are empty..... i am done story and some collection, take all mounts and nothing to do more for me. its sad but true. Bounty boards is boring. There is nothing more to do in the new locations
@Ashantara.8731 said:
Less than 100 words not doable, sorry. There is too much to say. Of course, you can always skip the "Praise" section and get straight to the criticism.
Item mechanics:
- unidentified items leave you a choice (to salvage or to open)
- left-over event items (trophies) no longer need to be deleted, you can exchange them for karma and other useful stuff at different heart vendors
- you don't lose your equipped (event-related) item when you mount or glide
- the mechanics invented for the several mounts are so much fun, I really hope we will see more of it in future content (not more mounts, but further content that makes use of their abilities; of course, adding a horse mount still wouldn't hurt )
- great creature design and animations, but that goes for all of PoF's creatures/monsters/NPCs
- ideal layout for exploration, engaging and exciting
- breathtaking designs (architecture, environment, ambient sounds), including the story instances
- enjoyable, atmospheric soundtrack
- an event system that doesn't usually stress you out nor limits your options at any time; also, many events require you to use your brain in order to figure out what to do, which I welcome
- finally, there is real adventure to be had during exploration by going everywhere to discover treasure, unlock new collections and simply feel rewarded for taking your time to explore an area (in previous releases, so much potential was constantly wasted, but not this time)
- engaging in conversations with NPCs no longer feels pointless and tedious (where you would simply skip through dialogue) but is filled with rich lore, important hints, etc.
- wonderful ambient dialogue that often has you stop and listen, making your environment feel "alive"
- the story is so well written and perfectly paced that I find myself completely immersed in it, excited, surprised, shocked, moved, a whole bandwidth of emotions that good writing evokes in the recipient; I constantly find myself craving for more, impatient to see what happens next (and still am for the rest of the story)
- the player character's personal background finally matters again, though only in small portions ("I was blessed by Lyssa at birth."), so I wish they made more use of it and gave it more depth and significance
- the quality of dialogue was mostly superb, the best by far in this game (no more super infantile humor and bad jokes, silly conversations, severe out-of-character behavior, and what have you; the only thing that got on my nerves that way was the childish banter between Canach and Rytlock, and especially Rytlock has become too much of a whiner in PoF)
- your brain gets stimulated in so many different ways that you never get bored; be it side quests, Hero Point challenges, Mastery Point missions, and so on; instead of having all the focus primarily on fighting, like it was with most of the previous content, you now have a huge variety of different tasks (kudos!)
Item mechanics:
- you cannot rely on the color of common (green) and uncommon (blue) unidentified items, as some do contain rare (yellow) items as well
- idea: quick mount swap UI button; just like you have two sets of weapons and two pets between which you can swap, give us that option for mounts as well?
- please make it possible to activate your respective mount as soon as the enemy is dead or you are no longer being targeted, even when you are still suffering from conditions (the wait time for conditions to expire in such situations is tedious)
- please make it possible to activate the Skimmer even while taking damage from sulfur (equal to quicksand, where you can activate it at any time)
- dismounting often leaves your character at a different spot than where they were standing before while mounted, which can easily lead to your toon falling off the ledge
- dismounting for every action quickly becomes irritating; maybe change to remain mounted when engaging in dialogue, picking up event objects to carry to target, etc.?
- make mounts available to your companions in more story missions than just the Forged fortress one
- make it possible to switch to the glider (by holding Space) if you accidentally fall off a great height while mounted (so you don't have to wait until you finally hit the ground, then have to work all the way back up)
- many mobs have a disturbingly huge aggro range and/or respawn time, making some areas painful to traverse or explore
- stop enemies from interrupting dialogue; for instance, I was in a conversation with Defector Basma, but couldn't read her full response, because I had to dodge an AoE attack by a Jacaranda above me (which, once more, leads me to the annoying aggro range)
- some events overlap, getting in the way of each other and making it hard to survive unless there are other players around to help you deal with the mobs
- you often are forced to fight, whether you want to or not, due to the aforementioned issues
- even though we had one option to make a seemingly significant choice (between the two factions and neutrality), it turned out to be of no consequence, which was a huge disappointment
- although a major improvement to LWS3, the dialogue could still use a little less contemporary wording by the PC and her/his companions (e.g., use "Are you alright?" instead of "You okay?")
- people have been complaining about the difficulty level of some fights; there is a reason I started PoF with my Necromancer first (usually, my first character is my Ranger), because of his high survivability, damage, and elite spec boni (I am not sure it will be as easy with my Ranger...)
- the new character selection screen: please read
- some event notifications in the UI are huge spoilers, that was a bummer
please keep these comments to 100 words or less, and join or create other threads for a more in-depth conversation on a specific topic.
Took two days off for a four-day expansion weekend--well-spent. Maps are beautiful. Mobs are interesting-- a couple of mechanics (invuln. to ranged?!) had me yelling "those kittens!" (affectionately). Being forced to switch my longbow ranger to melee weapons in PvE once in a while should improve my PvP skill.
Callbacks to GW1 are great--loved that "didn't this used to be above ground?" feeling. Story overall was a good experience, though I thought
Vlast was under-utilized. The refrigerator is no place to put a dragon.
Love my mounts.
Looking forward to more time in Elona.
Good luck, have fun.
Great story, great maps. Despite lots of players, the maps feel a little empty. Also, Deadeye needs some work- rifle is practically useless at the moment. Starting to wonder how much replayability there will be, too, in terms of revisiting maps.
@Seasniffer.1763 said:
@Ashantara.8731 said:
Less than 100 blah blah blah
- idea: quick mount swap UI button; just like you have two sets of weapons and two pets between which you can swap, give us that option for mounts as well?
Option>key binding>(in the end of list)mounts hot key.
I love how the last mastery lines tie them together and how you actually need to do an event to get particular mounts.
No huge bosses/meta events with unique rewards tied to it.
Map design and layouts are breathtaking. Mount acquisition was reasonable and accessible. Story (so far) is enjoyable and engaging. Mounts need a 2nd dye channel to customize better. Solo exploration can be painful and frustrating due to dense mobs or quick respawn. Love almost all of what I've experienced so far.
Map design is good, mounts are good. The amount of masteries was disappointing, as well as the lack of non open-world content.
Overall, good but could have used instanced/repeatable content. Another dungeon, a fractal or two, a couple meta events, that kind of stuff
i7-3770k @ 4.5 GHz (1.32V) | MSI GTX 1070 GAMING 8GB | Gigabyte Z77X-D3H | EGVA SuperNOVA B2 750W | 16 GB DDR3 1600 | Acer XG270HU | Win 10×64 | Ducky Zero MX Blue | Commander Shaussman [AGNY]- Fort Aspenwood
From the comments above, I might be the only one ... but I really hate mounts. Overall - for me - it feels like the mounts are just "kit-like" mastery abilities, what makes them way worse than the HoT mastery stuff. Furthermore, their abilities are plain boring, raptor is just "jump far", bugs bunny is "jump high" and so on. Since they are kit-like, it makes them really annoying to use, I especially felt this when I played a couple of maps for HP or champion runs after finishing the story. The sheer amount of how often you have to switch mounts, get demounted our can't mount up cause infght, is completely destroying mounts for me.
Just as an example (yeye I know more than 100 words now). If the HoT masteries would be implemented like the mounts, you would first have to "mount up" to your glider before gliding, then unequip the glider and finally re-equip the "mushroom jump tool" to use a mushroom and so on. (would that be fun?) Also in HoT you could still glide and use other masteries in combat. I think you only were thrown from the glider when taking damage (not in- or out- combat related).
Y'all did a great job on mounts and aesthetics.
1) a way to take your alts to the expansion without doing the story instance for each one or requiring a gemstore purchase is needed. The NPC at the ship in Lions Arch could have an option to send a char there once the first story instance has been done.
2) those large empty maps feel empty of content. Maybe a gizmo that a player can have to show all currently active events on the map? The maps could use Harathi type chained events leading to an area boss. The events now seem disconnected from each other. There's no feeling of epic getting together to beat a story line boss.
10/10. The mounts, the maps, the story, everything is on point, feels great and is a ton of fun. Well done Anet!
Please rework/fix the MIRAGE specialization and also CORE Mesmer. Aside from that, the PoF expansion was alright. Patiently waiting to continue the story as I feel I got through it too quickly.
Got most of the collection achievements, 257 mastery level (all mounts and masteries), all maps with 100% map completion, all mastery insights, completed all events, killed all bounties (legendary and champion). Can't speak much about the new elite spec, but the weaver. Also, haven't played PvP or WvW yet but these would req more than 100 words and I end here coz I'm already at 200 xD
What I like:
1. Maps are beautiful and interesting. Not exactly multi-layer but still interesting.
2. Mounts are very well done and perfectly fit the new maps. Love everything in them.
3. The story was good.
4. Unidentified gear and bounties are good additions.
5. Open ending.
What I don't like:
1. Bounties are a good addition but shouldn't be a replacement to more challenging meta events. There should be such events which don't gate the map so everyone can be happy. Good example - Tangled Depths.
2. The overall difficulty in PoF is super easy and not challenging at all.
3. No world boss/es.
4. The whole expansion is solo or small group oriented which is bad for an MMO IMO...
5. Again, NO EPIC META EVENTS!
6. Ele will wear his staff forever. The sword feels very weak.
Improve GW2 performance. Add genuine DX12 support.
I like the mounts dont know about the griffon though.
I really hope we are looking into add condition defense attribute like armor/toughness. So, that classes that are tanky can have other options then just condi cleanse builds in pvp. I believe that will be a work in the right direction. Yes, I know spell breaker has been created, but i don't believe that having a spec on one class to fight the problem solves the problem , but ill make a post on the topic when i become more educated about the problem in whole.
Love the expansion so far. Only feedback I would like is that the divide between power and condition builds be narrowed.
-Deadeye feels good, but the results point to it being Dead-weight. The damage for mechanical investment is just not there. In addition to this Fire For Effect has an application range of like 240, which is like melee range. If its supposed to hit TEN targets and have an impact on raids I would consider increasing this to 600-900.
-Mounts are awesome. -> Mount Skins.
-Classes are fun -> Make class specific boons hit 10 players across the board so we can see more of them in raids. ex. Empowered Allies, Spotter. A lot of them dont compete well with the existing class utility.
-Meta events in the new maps would be great.
-Braham's Wolfblood Mask as an individual armor skin for light/medium/heavy pls.
Y'all did a great job on mounts and aesthetics.
1) a way to take your alts to the expansion without doing the story instance for each one or requiring a gemstore purchase is needed. The NPC at the ship in Lions Arch could have an option to send a char there once the first story instance has been done.
Yes... this! I don't want to do this story over and over and over. There's no reason. It's just a tedious drag and time-sink. Otherwise, I loved this expansion. Please expedite these waypoint unlocks that everyone has been talking about!!
Great map design and some good events that I have seen so far. Some good group bosses with the bounty hunts and the landscape and mounts are great.
Need a world boss or some more group content outside of bounties - and improve the mega server or increase population limit on these maps as seem empty but there is people there.
Mounts need a more dye channels.
Work needs to be done to stop mounts going places they shouldn't in the rest of the world.
Overall PoF is an amazing expansion. The story was really nice, the maps are beautiful. NPC dialogue is really interesting and funny.
I LOVE the kites from the casino! They're so pretty. Will there be more in the future?
My biggest critique so far would be the density of mobs / their attack range. I never had any problems with this in the core game or in HoT, but in the desert it can be frustrating if you're trying to activate a mount while being attacked from every side. But all in all it's been a great expansion so far!
Less than 100 words? OK.
Maps: Freaking Incredible
Artwork: Amazing. Keep finding awesome things.
Story: Engaging and flowed nicely. Fun instances if you are the commander. If you are not…
Mounts: Jury is still out for me.
Tihark Orchard: Sucked
Garden of Seborhin: OMG! Incredible!
Kodash Bazaar: Great job. Wish it was easier to explore.
Junundu, Jacaranda, and Iboga: Too small.
GW1 Awakened: Where are they? Undead don't go "extinct."
Hydra: Finally! Great revamp.
Djinn: Love them! And all four elements! Again, great revamp.
Places: Can't tell you how much it means to recognize places from GW. Thank you.
I'm liking the new maps and story. Hope you add meta events to these areas as the story goes, because the zones cannot be sustained with only bounties.
Thank you for making it smooth to unlock new elites, made my time going through the zone much more enjoyable.
Some new legendary weapons would have been nice. A redo of the medium legendary armor would have been great.
Soulbeast dagger, off hand dagger and Soulbeast slot skills leave a whole lot to be desired.
There was an opportunity to bring us a much needed profession and combat mechanics and skills and roles... 2.0 revamp, but here we are. Yes, it was, and still is, sorely needed.
Happy with the expansion overall and love the mounts. The story is fantastic and Im happy with the progression of the new elites ... so far I have Firebrand and Soulbeast. As a solo player this was important to me. I think Anet did an amazing job! Thank you so much for this
When life knocks you down ... Rollover and look at the Stars
Trying to give balanced feedback
The good:
The less good
The absolutely ugly!
Maps are really cool and so it's the exploration part.
Mounts was better than expected, and masteries are simple and nice.
Story is good ( happy for canach return ).
World events would have been nice to me, but personally i didn't dedicate time to PvE farm and just enjoyed maps and exploration ( i need domains of Vabbi to complete all the maps ).
The things i really didn't appreciate is the griffon mount, as gold sink and mechanics, and the low number of WP.
But i will probably play only LS/SPvP/WvW, so it won't be a big deal.
It was indeed worth the money, as HoT.
edit: i forget... hearts are repetable, ok... but why many of em are slow as 10/15 min? like the one "help the living and the deads at the necropoli" ... please consider to tone down em.
*Amazing, entertaining, incredibly well done x-pack.
Thanks A-net!!!
Needs work:
I liked the maps and the mounts. The specializations are ok-ish. Music was unremarkable, in comparison to HoT.
What I really hated is that you effectively eliminated a big part of the traditional GW1 lore.
Creating a world that is traditionally heavily influenced by gods and then putting these gods out of every reach is just wrong. It is also a disgracefull departure. Now they really left humans alone - willingly, hardcore. They even left their most trusted subjects in the afterlife ... That is as if you kill off every god in the Forgotten Realms or Elder Scrolls. Suddenly the lore becomes bleak. Why you are so afraid of your own creation is far beyond me. Meddling gods do not threaten, but enrich the world and the lore. I hoped for the gods to be more palpable in the future. Now that the opposite happened, I lost much interest in this franchise. Disappointing, really.
So far, so good. Still learning elites.
Movement keys to remove kneel from D/E
Mounts are good for open areas, but doesn't make up for lack of way points
Ask a child a question and you'll get a childish answer.
I really, really like PoF. The maps beg to be explored, it has those little out of the way spots that are there for no reason other than to be there. I like how it's people have different struggles and different goals than those in Tyria. If I could change anything it would be; give dialog to more NPCs in the various settlements, most of them have absolutely nothing to say about their unfortunate situation and to address the aggro distance/spawn rate of some of the mobs, I'd like to have time between encounters to explore the beautiful maps you have created.
"When a man lies he murders some part of the world" – Paul Gerhardt
"Just so we're clear, I'm a solo player" – Kirito
OK here goes. [SPOILER ALERT]
First lets start with a disclaimer. I don't generally post things and don't keep up with the forums, but I felt I needed to get something off my chest. I finally finished the Path of Fire story plot and it's both good and bad. First 2 arcs were amazing. The pacing was decent the story was progressing fine and I actually had to work to progress the story. The 3rd arc felt kind of rushed ... to put it mildly. It's almost insulting to be honest. The whole part about convincing lower ranked military personnel that they need to follow the orders of a superior officer made me absolutely lose all connection from the entire plot up to that point. And after/because of that I started noticing stuff I had disregarded up to that point like :
1. There was no real way to interact with your guildmates from Dragon's Watch and in general their part was just to stand about and fill out some time talking and ultimately being insignificant. I finished the story 10 min ago and already forgot all about what Canach even did in all of the expansion. Kas had a purpose in the last arc to change my appearance. Rythlock gave me the sword. Canach ... what the hell did Canach even do, he kind of stood around being Canachy all the time? Taimi was just some random noise in the background and the rest of Dragon's Watch didn't seem interested in the supposed end of the world, cause they didn't even try to do anything. Generally it's all just the PC doing everything alone while listening to Canach and Rythlock talk at the beginning of every quest line without giving any kind of useful input. 2. Vlast was underrepresented and Aurene was only ever present in the last fight, outside of a cinematic in another fight.
3. All other story arcs so far made the PC move around the world - go to the Priory, go to Lions Arch, seek guidance from the Pale Tree, look for information somewhere on a different part of the world, go to some random island, etc. This entire expansion takes place in 3 areas which makes it feel insignificant or should I say inconsequential up until the final reveal after you kill Balthazar even compared to Living World stories. From the whole thing I learned that Rythlock is WEAK, cause he cant kill anything with his sword to save his life, while I dropped mobs in 2 hits.
4. The whole story felt like it's a big set up for an expansion only it is the expansion and costs 30€ and all it really does is fill the role of Living World season 2. What i mean is LWS2 did for the Mordremoth arc of the full game story what PoF did for the Kralkatoric part and PoF is about as big as the LWS2 part.
Now moving away from the many issues I have with the plot line:
General likes:
1. New specializations. For me at least that alone is worth the money for the expansion. Will surely make PvP and WvW more interesting. Can't wait to get into it with my other champs.
2. Extra maps and more content to explore and just wander around. Always good to have (after you actually put more content in).
No third thing really I think that about covers the likes.
General dislikes:
1. Materials I cant store in material bank. Big F....ING problem there guys. I've been at war with the inventory since I started the game and this is almost a tipping point, it's almost unbearable.
2. Map design. I don't mean the actual design as much as just the fact that we have large maps and little of any way-points. I get it you want to make us use the mounts, but it's just punishing after the initial fun from the mounts fades, I wont comment on the maps further, because I generally don't like desert maps, they are just to bland for me, but I made my point I hope. The maps are flat. No layers, for all the problems some people had with HoT maps I enjoyed the multi-layer thing, this feels more 2012 GW2 with flat WoW-like maps.
3. Which brings me to the 3rd problem. Mounts, good spin on the general mount systems of other games to have different mounts do different things and so one, BUT and maybe I'm the idiot here. The current way to change mounts is driving me up the walls nuts. There is no fluid way to switch mounts, the fact i need to click the arrow above the small icon shortcut is ridiculous and it literally makes me sick to my stomach every time i need to do it. I cringe so hard every time i need to switch from raptor to skimmer I've just Alt+F4 the game because of it at least 5 times so far. It's quite possibly the most annoying mechanic I've seen in any game ever. I get actual heartburn thinking of it.
4. There's really not much to do in the new maps as far as I can figure. I have spent so far around 15-16h in the maps just running around and finishing the main story and so far I saw no META map-wide events or anything remotely resembling a World Boss. You really need to fix that. How can Kralkatorik be kitten all over the crystal desert and there not be a single big Minion spawning every 3-4h to wreak havoc and make people just visit the areas.
5. The whole bounty system has a major flaw. All the above dislikes make the maps not fully populated most of the time and the HP of bounty champions is too high to be brought down by 5-7 people in the designated time unless they all start from the beginning and are not new players (have optimized gear/skills). I just not even bother to stop and waste time fighting them anymore.
6. There are no new stuff from the old kind. No new instances, Raids or Fractals from what I saw. And I expected something like the Auric skins but I don't think there is any(please correct me if I'm wrong), there are just the generic weapons no epic looking things. I expected after putting Balthazar down I'd get some flaming monster of a weapon choice but I got a boring back thingy that is so-so.
7. After I finished HoT and any of the other story plots I reran them with my other 6 champions. I dread the idea of putting myself through the giant mostly empty and boring desert maps again (that could just be me though).
8. There is really no point to get anyone else involved in your play-through any of the PoF maps. It's just a solo experience and that's just not very MMO-like. The Hero Challenges aren't really challenging and are all (as far as I saw) normal mobs with slightly more HP, no Champions, no real challenge.
9. Flying. There is none. No soaring in the skies. Everything is firmly grounded. You wont be gliding much, because you are forced to use mounts. Mounts in the areas literally killed the glider and gutted it's creator, then hung them both to dry in the desert sun. I feel stuck to the ground, there are no mushrooms, no wind streams, no high cliffs. It's all just one big flat desert with some buildings. Kind of makes it boring to play in my book.
10. The mount conditional skill. The thing that pops up when you ride the Raptor where you throw a chain to bring down a flying mob or pull a veteran Skritt to the ground. That skill has some serious range consistency problems. Also on Necro it reappears after the 1st use if you go in a shroud. It's generally a buggy skill. I cant figure the range it has. Sometimes i need to be on top of the Skritt to use it. Sometimes I can use it from really far away. Out of range of all skills.
I think I made this long enough so I'll leave it at this.
PS: Make a faster/more fluid mount change way. HINT You have many empty skill slots when mounted HINT use them HINTHINT*. PLEASE! The mount switching is killing me!
Appreciate the lack of waypoints, makes the maps less themepark and a bit more adventure.
Mixed feelings about instantly unlocking Elite Specialization. Balance of enemies good, challenging but manageable when soloing.
Nice throwbacks to old lore. Unfortunately so far nowhere the original feeling of the Crystal Desert (deserted, harsh).
Story started out nice but pacing accelerated too much after 'Facing the truth'. Dislike forced exploration for story continuation (The Sacrifice, Way Forward). Would have appreciated character / profession specific dialogue / mechanics. First combat in 'Beast of War' disappointing, should be more massive.
(Amount of) collections looks promising, dislike the 'no-lore-until-complete' principal.
The movement on the mounts is disjointed. I'm used to my charcater being able to stop and turn on a dime and the mounts do not. Its slightly nauseating riding them.
We could certainly use more waypoints. Running on a mount or running on foot means were still running to get where the fun is. I do not find running to be fun at all. Those who do like to run can always do so, those who do not are not given the option.
Otherwise, I'm enjoying the content and new maps.


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Leonard Cohen's drummer tells Tap what he's listening to
Leonard Cohen's touring drummer Rafael Gayol poses during a sound check at the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam; you'll notice Mr. Cohen in the background in a fedora. Photo by Hattie Webb (who sings and plays harp and mandolin in Cohen's band).
I'll confess, for this week's What They're Listening To feature, I was really hoping to get some picks from Leonard Cohen, the seminal singer-songwriter making his return to Milwaukee tonight for the first time in 38 years. (See the Tap Milwaukee preview story.)
I did get to interview Cohen's drummer, Rafael Gayol, who used to play with the BoDeans and was a fascinating individual in his own right. (Not a surprise Cohen would surround himself with interesting musicians.)
So here's what the "master timekeeper," as Cohen's website calls Gayol, is listening to.
Who: Rafael Gayol, drummer for Leonard Cohen
What he's listening to: "The Social Network" score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
Why he likes it: I like ambient music. I really enjoy that for driving. I like the moods. Some of it is a little comical, some of it is very emotional, some of it is a little scary. One song on there you don't want to listen to with the lights out.
Also likes: I live in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and drive a beat-up Jeep with a broken antenna that only picks up one country station. This song "Merry Go 'Round" Kacey Musgraves wrote and sings, it hit me like a lightning bolt. It was a really good song.
Cohen performs at 8 p.m. Friday at the Milwaukee Theatre, 500 W. Kilbourn Ave. $55 to $250 at the box office, (800) 745-3000 and ticketmaster.com.
- Top of the Charts: Sia takes over No. 1 spot
- Top of the Charts: Drake makes nine weeks at number one
- Top of the Charts: Drake reaches eight weeks on top
- Sunday Summerfest country pick - Jana Kramer
- Saturday Summerfest country pick - Cam
- Friday Summerfest country pick - Phil Vassar
- Thursday Summerfest country pick - Frankie Ballard
- Wednesday's Summerfest country pick: Hunter Hayes
- Tuesday Summerfest country pick - Michael Ray
- Sunday Summerfest country pick - Kane Brown
Piet Levy is the Journal Sentinel's music writer. He has also been published in USA Today, the Chicago Tribune and the Washington Post.
Erik Ernst is a freelance music writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He blogs for Tuned In about country, folk, jam and American roots music.


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The Sacramento Bee has the story:
UC Berkeley student from Grass Valley named as Rhodes Scholar
A Grass Valley resident is one of 32 university students nationwide who will be going to University of Oxford in England next fall on a Rhodes scholarship.
Daniel A. Price, 21, had a feast with friends and popped champagne Saturday night, after learning he was named a Rhodes Scholar. The senior at University of California, Berkeley, will pursue a master's degree in bioengineering, with a focus on medical devices and global health.
"It hasn't even settled in yet," Price said from Berkeley on Sunday afternoon. "I never considered it as a reality. My friends and family were encouraging, but I was telling them not to get my hopes up."
Price will graduate from UC Berkeley in spring with a bachelor's of science degree in bioengineering, and one in electrical engineering and computer sciences. He also has a minor in physics.
A 2009 graduate of Bear River High School in Grass Valley, Price said he phoned his parents, Eric and Dana Price of Grass Valley, with news of the award Saturday night.
In 2009 Daniel Price competed in the SESF Sponsored TechTest2009. He was award a second place merit scholarship of $4,000 dollars. Congratulation to Daniel Price on being selected a Rhodes Scholar.


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Oracle Customer Experience: The Travel Experience
A positive customer service experience can make travel less stressful and more fun.
Watch this webcast to learn how Global Airways made business travel a positive experience for one passenger through customer experience management (CEM) technologies. Their key offerings included:
- Real-time upgrades for preferred or frequent customers
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Find out offering these individualized features lead to positive customer feedback and transformed their customer into a brand advocate.


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The spotlight may be on your children, but their wedding day is sure to be equally as memorable for you, Mom. Celebrate this special moment in your son or daughter's life with a mother of the bride or groom gown that is just as extraordinary. On this day, it is important to celebrate yourself, and your family, by looking and feeling your best. Finding a mother of the bride or groom dress that fits your personal style and makes your feel beautiful will only add to this moment. If you're a mother of the bride celebrating that special day, Adrianna Papell has the perfect dress for you.
Choose the cut and style that best suits your body type and personal fashion sense, from full sleeves to spaghetti straps, curve-hugging fits to draped designs, we have a huge number of selections that will appeal to every mother of the bride or groom. You'll cherish these memories for the rest of your life, but you'll also cherish your dress when you choose from our wide selection of classic, beaded and fit and flare styles. We offer a range of fits, with everything from petite to plus size dresses ideal for the mother of the bride.


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Here's our first good look at Lee Pace as Ronan the Accuser, the nefarious bad guy of Marvel's upcoming scifi adventure Guardians of the Galaxy, and... those are totally panties on his face. He has face-panties, and perhaps some kind of lacy garters holding them up. Okay then.
I saw this pic over at The Mary Sue, where they made the exact same joke; I swear to that I came to the same lingerie-based conclusion before I ever read their article text, although the only proof I can give you is that HE'S CLEARLY WEARING PANTIES ON HIS FACE AND THERE IS LITERALLY NO OTHER POSSIBILITY. But I also don't mind giving them full credit, because the TMS ladies are awesome.
Anyways. Panty-face. Is that why Ronan turned evil? Is that why he's accusing everybody all the time? Poor guys. I bet that gives Lee Pace a horrible wedgie in his chin-butt.


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Focus Moment
Focus Moments are short video segments highlighting Gwinnett County Public Schools news and events, reflecting GCPS' ongoing commitment to academic excellence. Watch informative feature stories and learn why GCPS continues to be the school system of choice.
Norton ES 30th Anniversary Selected Episode
Norton Elementary School celebrates thirty years of success!
Produced January 2017
- Move On When Ready
- Counselor Advocate of the Year 2016
- Norton ES 30th Anniversary
- Harris ES 50th Anniversary
- Shark Tank at Crews MS
- GSMST - A National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence
- Reading is Fun Again with Finnegan
- Media Clerk and Advocate of the Year 2016
- Magic Wheelchairs 2016
- Principal For A Day 2016
- PBIS Bus Tour
- Promise of Gwinnett Writing Competition Awards 2016
- Jan Wilson, Media Specialist of the Year
- Berkmar 50th Anniversary Event
- North Gwinnett High School Cheerleader Reunion
- Career Connections 2016
- Peach State Federal Credit Union opens at Central Gwinnett High School
- Woodward Mill ES Writing Workshop Celebration
- Mountain Park / Scotland Video Conference
- Georgia Grown Test Kitchen
- Teacher of the Year Surprise 2017
- GCPS Receives Grant From Falcons and Dairy Association
- Marching Band Exhibition
- Baldwin Elementary School Dedication
- Author Rosemary Wells Visits Gwinnett
- Coleman Middle School Dedication
- CEO/Superintendent Honored at PAGE Award Banquet
- GCPS Emergency Preparedness
- Instructional Resource Review 2016
- GCPS Branches Out with the Gwinnett County Public Library
- Mentoring End of Year Celebration Dinner 2016
- New Teacher Orientation 2016-17


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Latest Comments
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"OMG, what a great idea and a great way to use up old dishes."
How to Better Organize Your Crafting Supplies
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When it comes to crafting supplies, many people, myself included, tend to buy much more than they really need or keep acquiring new, cooler things before they've actually used up the rest of the materials they have on hand. With so much lying around, it can be hard to find what you need for any given project unless you have a great organizational system. Here are some tips that can help you get your crafting essentials in order.
- Find out what you have. It can be helpful to make a list of all the supplies you have before you begin organizing. Go through all the boxes, bags and table tops that are currently housing your supplies and list all the things you see. You may find that you have a lot of things you'd forgotten about that you need to make room for.
- Sort by type. The easiest way to organize all the crafting stuff you have is to simply organize it by type. One method is to create locations on the floor or a table where items of each type go until you've gone through everything. This way, you'll know what kind of storage bin you need to keep them in and you'll already have like items together.
- Get appropriate storage bins. If you have the budget it can be really useful to get some matching storage containers to put your supplies in. This way, they're easy to stack and stow away until you need them. It's likely you'll need both some bigger bins and tackle box-like containers for holding all the small stuff.
- Label everything. It may sound tedious, but labeling all your supplies will be a huge favor to yourself when you go to use them. Attaching a label on each container that says what it contains, even if it's multiple types of items, will make it a cinch to find what you need when you need it.
- Make them accessible. Being organized doesn't do much good if you've got your materials stored away in places that are hard to get to. If you're a regular crafter, try creating a space in your home that your newly organized supplies can call home and where you have room to work.
- Save room. You may have room for all of your stuff now but what if you get something new? Make sure to leave a little bit of space in your storage solution for the possibility of new additions.
- Clear out the clutter. If you were going through your supplies and found a bunch of things that no longer fit your tastes or that are too old to be of use, then you may want to toss out or donate some items from your supplies. You certainly won't miss them and you won't have to deal with having them around anymore either.
Once you've got all your supplies in order you'll be able to focus on whatever type of crafting it is you like, from making jewelry to sculpting things out of clay.
This post was contributed by Meredith Walker, who writes about the online associates. She welcomes your feedback at MeredithWalker1983 at gmail.com
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lesyle 9757256
Dec 28, 2014
I just inventories my knitting and crocheting tools, not the yarn, God help me that will take at least two weeks, but I will have it done in January 2015,before I start any new projects...then comes the sewing, quilting, hat making, pattern making, and all of the jewelry and beading supplies...I project that I will be finished with all of it by February 1, 2015 at the latest. Surprisingly, I have no, duplicates so far.....
Feb 21, 2011
If you have supplies for a crat that you will no longer be doing, call your nears veteran hospital and ask the activity director if they would like the suppies better yet offer to teach a class using the suppies. Karen West Jordan, UT
pamela ck
Feb 19, 2011
This is a great idea, but I would add use clear storage bins/boxes. You can label boxes, but unfortunately labels fall off even on card boxes. When you use clear containers you can always see what is in it and you don't have to label. This also helps from buying duplicates. I use the plastic drawer type shoe boxes to hold my paints. They fit perfectly and I keep them upside down so they don't dry out and I can immediately see the color.
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The very idea of a Buffalo Wing cupcake struck me as disgusting, over-reaching and something unlikely to last very long. ... That is, until I tasted one.
I moved on to Breakfast, Whiskey Lime and Chocolate Red Wine. In my defence, it was for research and I only ate the mini ones, not the full size. I also stopped at four. The other 12? I paid the $20 and brought them back for my editors and co-workers. Really. Well, except for Pink Peppercorn, which was the pick-me-up I needed to finish writing this.
Truth told, I'm not a huge fan of cupcakes. Despite the current fad, I've rarely eaten them since I grew out of birthday parties where there were games, funny hats and hot dogs.
But I was curious about ManCakes Bakery Café that opened recently at Robson and Hamilton in downtown Vancouver on a strip that includes a bunch of small restaurants, from the wildly popular Japadog to southern barbecue, and almost everything in between.
There are no frilly, pink confections at ManCakes. "All of our cupcakes have at least one ingredient that is stereotypically manly," one of the three owners, Jeremy Wong, tells me.
What struck me before I talked to him is how gendered our society has become, from chick lit to chick flicks, and now manly cupcakes. I don't know whether any of this is a good thing, a bad thing, a marketing thing, or an ironic, retro thing.
And, there's no doubt that ManCakes is almost equal parts interesting flavours and marketing. Another owner, Geoff Hamilton, has a background in marketing and product development, while Tyler Farstad is the pastry chef.
The trio met in an unusual way. They are all cheerleaders — the manly, gymnastic kind. And it was while Hamilton and Wong were working on the locally shot television show Hell Cats, about "the wild world of competitive college cheerleading", that they came up with the idea for ManCakes.
They were scarfing down cupcakes that the female cheerleaders kept raving about. But Wong and Hamilton weren't getting it. They found them too sweet, too much icing, and not the kind of flavours that they liked.
But neither of them could bake. Wong is an entrepreneur, and has several other businesses including one that modifies cars and another that does cheerleading choreography. Hamilton had been working for Telus in marketing and program development.
But as they were talking about the concept of manly cupcakes, they realized they knew another guy and cheerleader — Farstad — who is a trained pastry chef. They enlisted him to try to create what they were thinking about.
There were lots of missteps along the way to settling on such bizarre seeming things as Chicago (caramel popcorn on top of a cheddar cheese, buttercream icing), or Pink Peppercorn Grapefruit, or Breakfast (bacon-and-egg custard and maple syrup buttercream icing).
"The biggest failure, by far, was the blue cheese cupcake," says Hamilton. "It was revolting. When I think of blue cheese, I think of chicken wings. So, from that spectacular failure, Tyler came up with the Buffalo Wing."
It, by the way, is the most polarizing of the ManCakes. People love it or hate it. I loved it, as well as the Pink Peppercorn and Chocolate Red Wine.
The manly ingredients, if you haven't guessed, also include chilies, whiskey and tequila. Among the less manly seeming are egg nog (for Spicebox Christmas) and brie.
The three partners started ManCakes as an online business based in Port Moody, with the cupcakes baked in Port Coquitlam and delivered from there to anywhere that didn't require crossing a bridge, which meant no Surrey, Langley or Richmond.
The online business meant they could test the market without high start-up costs. Beyond social media, their marketing included handing out free samples at the Sex Show, wedding fares and home and garden shows.
Within a year, they were ready for a storefront downtown with high-pedestrian traffic. In mid-2013, they found a spot on high-rent Robson Street in the 200-block that is only a few blocks from BC Place, Rogers Arena and Yaletown.
After renovations, they did a soft launch in October. They have continued with the online business, but for now, delivery is limited to downtown Vancouver because Hamilton, who had been doing the deliveries, now runs the café.
So far, so good. And already, they are looking ahead to add other food items to their menu, expanding to other locations and to eventually franchising their manly fare.
Happily, for them, it's not just guys scarfing down the ManCakes. At least half the customers are women, which suggests that stereotypes — even when it comes to food — may not be as reliable as we think.


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We know that for any topos E, and for any object A in E, the subobjects of A, Sub(A), form a Heyting lattice.
Does anybody know of any sort of modification of the definition of a topos that makes Sub(A) a different type of lattice? Could we get an incomplete lattice, or maybe a quantum lattice?
I'm curious because I know a lot(all?) of logical systems can be realized as a lattice, and I think this may be an interesting way to look at some alternative logics.


text: DLMS® Summary National Stock Number 1385-99-208-0247 National Stock Number (NSN) 1385-99-208-0247, or NIIN 992080247, (collor) has an unknown assigned date. NIIN 992080247 was cancelled on January 2, 2013, with a cancelled status of "Item is Cancelled WITHOUT Replacement." There is no known replacement specified for this stock number. This NSN does not replace any other NSNs. There is only one manufacturer part number associated with this NSN. None of the associated part number(s) are considered obsolete. The manufacturer part numbers were originally supplied by one supplier. Today, one supplier is listed as an Active supplier for this NSN. Of the active suppliers, there are no suppliers that are deemed design controlled or valid supply parts. This part number has not been procured by the US Government in over 5 years. This NSN is assigned to Item Name Code (INC) 77777. This information was last updated on Dec 02, 2020.