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Janey's Blogs - June 2009
Monday the 1st of June 2009
People in the sun
After falling asleep at the unbelievably early hour of 8pm last night (jetlag rules) I awoke at 7am this morning, I now have the sleeping pattern of a toddler, though I didn't wake up pissing the bed or screaming for toast and jam (like most toddlers). I just stumbled about staring at the excruciating sunshine blasting through my bedroom window. I hoovered, I washed clothes, I washed dishes and it still wasn't even 8am yet. My life is officially over, gone are the days when I could sleep till 3 o'clock like a right good comedian. I am going to be like one of those old ladies who wake up at 6am, put on a housedress and then fall asleep on the sofa listening to The Archers.
As it was extremely hot again in Glasgow, I headed out to The Botanic Gardens which I like to call The Satanic Gardens... no good reason, I just like mixing my words up. As I am now old I can get away with kind of batty behaviour.
The park was already full of young mums and babies who could now walk, albeit like wee drunken Scottish men. I saw one pink dressed girl with wee croissant type chubby legs. She wobbled about, got into her stride and then the slight slope of the grassy verge took her into a speed that gathered momentum; she was practically sprinting. She surprised herself at the speedy gait she was going at, her upper body was trying to balance and catch up with the bendy robotic legs that just swept her all the way. Her mum dropped a full picnic bag and belted after Zola Budd the baby. I watched wondering how it would all end and it did end: the baby tumbled full tilt into a big blue flowered bush head first and screamed! It was fine, the mum picked her up and the chubby legs sped off again in another direction.
It was funny for a wee while; I got quite broody watching the baby and then recalled how every time we went to the park Ashley always managed to run in the direction of the only moving car in the park or the only rabid dog in the park or managed to run into a bees' nest in an old tree trunk. So, with that in mind, I pitied the poor mum who was constantly chasing fatty leg the sprinting baby and lay back for a snooze.
Then annoying students turned up with an electronic glider plane that made girls scream like referees' whistles as it dive-bombed their heads. I sat on my blanket reading happily but silently decided if that glider hit me I would ram it up the ass of the skinny boy with emotional hair, who was running about trying to control it with a small black box. The box seemed to have no control over the object whatsoever. It was pitching and dipping all over the place.
A brood arrived beside me, all middle class moms with Boden clad babies, wooden ethically-approved bikes, raffia mats and followed by cucumber-eating kids who sported tie dyed tee shirts and fat t-bar sandals.
Couscous, quiche, carrot sticks and organically grown fruit was scattered on a scabby looking blanket (it was probably very expensive and hand-hewn, but to me it look smelly) and the kids all gathered round chomping into the grub. Two mums breast fed as the other women organised a sing song. Just then the black glider came out of nowhere and belted a baby on the neck.
It was a joy to behold, watching Middle Class Mummy go mental and snap the expensive looking electronic aeroplane over her gypsy-skirted knee. The student tried to protest but the breast feeding mummy was rubbing 'Hugo's' neck and screamed: "Are you trying to kill our children?"
People stared and people giggled. I watched and hoped Middle Class Mum would ram the broken aeroplane up his ass, but that didn't happen. Skinny student skulked off and the mummies had a rousing sing-a-long of "Incey Wincey Spider".
But things then perked up when a bunch of really fat women in strappy yellow and pink vests, with random tattoos over their arms and chests, threw themselves on the grass and cracked open a case of cider. They shouted, swore and started singing "I see you baby, shaking that ass!" to the park keeper who was cleaning up the grass.
The mummies, the kids and the babies were all dragged off to the corner of the park under a big tree and hopefully out of earshot of the fat singing tattooed ladies.
The heat cranked up and before long everyone on the grass slumped down and snoozed for a while. It was like some sleeping drug had been sprayed over the crowd. Even the chubby babies who had been screaming shut up and lay back.
Finally I gave in and headed off home. It got too hot for me; even in the shade I was starting to melt. Hope it's sunny tomorrow at the park or maybe I should stay home and write that thing I am supposed to be doing.
Friday the 5th of June 2009
Into the Night
Not only did I dream about being pinned down by a strange evil man, but as I looked over his shoulder I could see he had put another woman behind the wallpaper but had left holes in the paper for her to stare out of as she slowly died. Amongst all the floral swirls there was this woman's two eyes glaring at me.
Yes, my dreams are not always happy rainbow filled mirages.
Then I woke up with fucking evil ear pain.
Every year my left ear (that sounds like the start of a limerick)... anyway my ear is blocked up with hard thick wax; my left ear makes more wax than a hive full of bees. Then it all coagulates into one thick plug and stops my ear from hearing properly and the pain is unbelievable.
I usually have to put in ear drops until it's all soft and then go to the docs and get it syringed out. I must admit getting that hot water scooshed into my ear hole is rather amazingly wonderful: you get shivers and it could be described as sexual. Maybe my erogenous zone is inside my ear canal? Maybe I have an ear clitoris? Who knows? But the water goes clockwise in a swirl and I go woozy!
So the pain is a problem but the result is quite nice.
During this short heat wave that Glasgow suffered, I have been useless at getting things done. I am supposed to be writing a 2,000 word piece for BBC Radio 4 but all I can do is lie in the sunshine and watch fat people slap babies in the park.
Why can't I get motivated? The good news is, the sunshine is fading and it will probably snow in a day or two.
I am off to Inverness Ironworks on Saturday to do some comedy. I had to cancel the last time I was due to go there as my step mum was gravely ill and she died days after I got home.
Life is moving on, my Edinburgh stuff has all been done; all I need to do now is get the posters and flyers done. And I may need to organise my own flyering team as Ashley might not be able to make the Edinburgh Fringe this year. Now that she is a big script writing commissioned person, she will be too busy to work for me! So - I will have my first ever Fringe without Ashley since 1996. That will be weird.
OK, am off to start a fight with husband as I am bored and he is laughing in the other room and I want to know why he is laughing without me being near him. Why is he happy when I am not there? That's a great start for a fight, eh?
Friday the 5th of June 2009
What my dad says
I went to meet my dad in town. As soon as he saw me he said: "Do you need a pee before we set off?" in front of all his old mates.
"No dad, I am fully toilet trained, thanks," I hissed.
When we got on the bus, I sat beside him in the old people's seats. Then an old lady got on and I moved to let her have my seat.
"I don't want to sit beside her!" dad shouts loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Shut up" I snap at him.
He lets the old woman sit beside him and, after a while, she finally gets off. Dad indicates that I have to rejoin him on the front seats. I glumly slope over like a big useless teenager.
"Do you want anything from the Asda?" I ask him as he stares out of the window.
"No!" he yells too loudly. "I have loads of food, Janey!" he shouts.
I shut up and sit quietly.
"A small loaf, brown, half a dozen eggs, a tin of spam and a Daily Mail!" he then shouts at me.
I take note and try not to shout into his face: "You are a crazy old bastard!" Instead, I comment on how comfy looking his wide-fitting beige shoes are. Just then a wee old man got on the bus with a lively Scottie dog; it was all white and really friendly looking. People on the bus made cooing noises and the old man was revelling in the glory of his happy wee cute dog.
"Aye, he is really friendly and likes being patted," the old man says as elderly women move over to him to pat the dog.
"He is just using his dog to get all the attention," dad grumbles and then adds loudly, "Dogs should only be allowed on the bus if they help the blind or mentally handicapped."
I looked at dad and said: "I am getting you a fucking dog, do you want attention?"
"I don't want a dog and you stop swearing and I don't like attention!" he snapped back.
"Then stop being strange and be nice to the wee dog: it's offering you a paw," I whispered.
My dad looked at the cutest wee dog in the world with its paw up at him and he leaned down to it and said "Meow!" in a real cat style. The dog went mental and started barking.
"That dog needs trained!" dad shouted and was happy he made the dog think he was a cat. My dad is rather cantankerous today.
As the bus trundled along the Glasgow streets, dad decided to have one of his favourite conversations. It always starts and ends the same.
Dad - "Do you recall big Betty Smart; she used to live above the bookies and was famous for killing cats? You went to school with her daughter Katie."
Me - "No I don't remember her. Was the daughter a cat killer?"
Dad - "Yes, you do remember her." (At this point, he prods a finger at me) "R e member Alex Cummings who used to do the football coupons? Well, you know his brother Archie with the one leg?
Me - "No, I don't remember any of that, dad. Who are these people?"
Dad - "Yes, remember we all thought he was queer and it turned out he just like model aeroplanes? Anyway they had a sister Bella who used to sell shoes down the Barras. Now her man Tommy Gunn..."
Me - "You knew someone called Tommy Gunn? Was this during the war? Did he fire blanks?" (Dad ignored this sper-related joke.)
Dad - "Listen, his name was Tommy Gunn - get over that. He was the husband of Bella who sold shoes. Now, he ran away to Dunoon with a lassie called Fran; she used to wear a beret to the side of her head and we thought that made her a lesbian but she wasn't; she just liked hats at a jaunty angle... Anyway, Tommy came back to Glasgow and he went blind and then he had a care worker called Sally who never washed his windows because he couldn't see them. Anyway, that Sally is now working at the meat counter in Asda. So, if you see her, don't buy anything off her - she is filthy; that was my point."
Me - "You told me that big story just to get to Sally who works at the meat counter?"
Dad - "Well, aye, I did."
I stared at my dad and wondered why on earth he thought I could recall all of those bizarre connections between people who were my neighbours when I was a kid 40 years ago.
I had to go buy spam and The Daily Mail and that is something I have never done in my life. I have never bought Spam and I don't buy the Daily Mail.
The upside of the day was when we went back to dad's house. Last week, he said he saw a mouse in the kitchen and demanded I call the environmental people out to kill the mice. I waited for the mouse killer man to come and, just as the time drew close for the mouse killer man to arrive, dad disappeared upstairs for a nap and left me to deal with the mouse killy man.
The mouse man was clearly gay. I was glad dad was upstairs napping; he gets odd around openly camp men. It's not that dad is a homophobe, he is just really old and doesn't know how to cope.
"Why do the mice gather behind the display cabinet?" I asked the mouse man.
"Oh, they like to groom themselves behind cupboards," he said with a lovely lisp.
"So they just huddle behind my dad's collection of ships in a bottle and wash their wee faces and comb their wee tufty hair?" I laughed.
The mouse man made a face-licking motion and wiggled his hips as he pretended to comb his hair. "Yes, they like to be near knick-knacks as they groom," he giggled. I laughed again and was glad that dad didn't see the mouse killing man do a hip wiggle; it would have frightened my dad somehow to know that the man who was setting out poison was also good at mouse mime.
Finally, I made it home in time to see Gordon Brown get his balls toasted at a press conference where he was trying to convince the country that there is no divisiveness in the Labour Party!
Thursday the 11th of June 2009
Good days and bad
There are about 15 kids who run around outside my back court who do fuck all but constantly scream like Ian Huntley is on their wee heels every single minute of the day. There is a wee boy who lives through the wall and the screamy kids yell up at his window for hours; his name is indecipherable to me but I think it Rizwall. He never answers and I think he is either dead or moved away. I wish someone would tell them - I can't shout down at them as they are all Asian and I will look like a scary racist. But the poor wee kids take turns screeching 'Rizwahhhll" every hour until their throats hurt and they give in or their mums come out and take them all up to their beds.
They are all as cute as hell, but they never stop screaming and it echoes all the way round the car park and bounces off the circular architecture and the noise is deafening. I want a tea time nap without it sounding like kids are chained to a radiator and screaming for their God Rizwall to come rescue them.
Maybe I was a screamy annoying kid when I was a young and probably I annoyed all my neighbours with my incessant yelling but payback is in my way.
Husband and I finally fall asleep (despite the screaming kids); we lie beneath the wide open window at the headboard of our bed and husband managed to lay his heavy arm on my face and almost suffocate me. He then wrapped his body around mine and snored into my one good ear. It was cute when he did this when he was 16 years old, when both of us used to sleep in a single bed (IT WAS AGES AGO!) and we used to tangle each other up like pretzels and sleep sound. Now we need acres of space and room to spread out and I don't need a tree trunk on my face cutting off the air supply.
I loved my gig at Ironworks venue last week in Inverness, which is really cool and the people look after you lovely. Inverness is actually a lovely town and I really enjoy being there. The train journey back was rather gruelling as it took 5 hours. I paid the £5 to get a decent seat in first class and it was cool, except there was a father who turned up with an adorable wee boy aged about 18 months. The baby was great but the dad gave us a constant running commentary of everything the baby did.
"Oh, Thomas, look at your face, look at the mess, look at your hands, now Thomas, don't touch that, Thomas give that back to me, Thomas, why are you touching that? Thomas now pull your jumper down, Thomas give me that back, why are you touching that Thomas?"
Thomas never made a bloody sound the whole time. 'Daddy talks out loud' never fucking shut up! He was a nice man but for goodness sake a full constant running commentary of every single thing that happens is annoying. I thought about doing it as well. Imagine I sat there talking to myself?
"Janey, what the hell are you doing tangling your IPod up like that? Now, come on Janey, really? Do you really need another chocolate biscuit? That's a good girl, now turn your phone off and put it in your bag, get your tickets ready for the inspector, well done!" Folk would think I was mental.
The dad did this talking out loud thing for nearly four hours until the baby finally got grizzly and tired. Probably bored to death of hearing his dad talking constantly. I managed to plug in my IPod and could just about hear him in the distance as Steely Dan banged out in my sore ears. I then decided to help the dad get the baby to sleep.
Just as we got near Glasgow, I made a wee bed on the seat, tucked down my pillow and wrapped baby Thomas into my jacket and he fell asleep happily.
The journey went quiet after that and I saw Glasgow come into view. Home at last. My next journey is to Dunoon this coming Saturday; I think I know people in Dunoon, though I can't quite recall who it is I know in Dunoon. Maybe it's an old aunt or something? Who knows?
This week, my fight with PRS continues. PRS are a great agency that makes sure artistes get their dues if people use their music etc... Now, I didn't have music in my past Edinburgh Fringe shows so, therefore, I don't owe them any money. Yet, in 2007 and 2008 they took 3% of my over all takings without my permission. Finally, after many emails, phone calls and mail offs they have managed to reimburse 2008 cash. Of course, they didn't send the cash to me, it went to the Fringe Office who still didn't send it to me. The Fringe Office sent it to Pleasance office, who still didn't send it to me. They have yet to let me know they have received it! I HATE paper chases... I fucking hate it and now I have to go back to PRS and now chase them for the cash from the 2007 show and hope they eventually find it for me and refund me soon as possible.
OK, here's something that just made me laugh. I just saw the Ladbrokes gambling advert and it depicts a big grey monkey chasing people through city streets, crashing cars and destroying lives as it goes. Don't Ladbrokes know the symbolism of a 'monkey on your back' when it relates to having an addiction problem? That was funny and awful at the same time.
OK, am off to watch The Unit. I am in love with all of those sexy hard men in that series.
By the way, if you want to boost my followers on Twitter my user name is:
Sunday the 14th of June 2009
Life and people
So things have happened. Ashley got her exam results. She got an 'A' and 3 'B's for her Honours and we are well chuffed; am so very proud of her. She on the other hand has begged me to stop bragging about her. I almost vomited onto her new dress with shock! Brag? Me?
Of course I will brag about my child, what else can I do? No-one in my entire family history finished fucking school never mind went through a full private education till they were 18 years old and then onto University and stayed on right through till they got their Honours, with a commissioned writing job at BBC... Brag? Oh fucking yes I will!
Most females in my family line got pregnant or married before they were 10 years old! So am very proud and happy, I walked out of school on my 16th birthday, have no qualifications and no education to speak of unless you count the street level of East End Glasgow-ness I got after running a bar in the Calton.
My education was based on 16 old men, two old hookers and a street fighter who all collectively taught me how to
A) Fight with a stool
B) Get Semtex off a wall without it exploding
C) Check 20 pound notes for authenticity
D) Spot a plain clothes police officer at 50 feet
E) To scam money from posh people
F) The best way to avoid paying electricity bills
G) To siphon petrol from other people's cars
H) A great way to win at dominoes
I) The use of hot coffee in oral sex (the old hooker told me this)
J) The way to shoplift using tin foil in your bag
So my education, though not formal, has been interesting.
My week has been cool; I attended a party at Film City in Glasgow with John Smeaton and Ashley. We met heaps of TV and film industry people who were all nice and a few really irritating young actors who actually used the words "nice speaking to you but I need to go network". Who uses the word 'network' in everyday conversation? I wanted to punch their wee annoying faces. The only time I use the word 'network' is when my laptop fails to connect to the internet and I have to choose which network to piggy back and steal (see that East End education worked - am now stealing invisible electric waves).
On Saturday I went over to Dunoon to do a gig. I haven't been there before.
Dunoon used to be a big draw for Glasgow women in the 70s and 80s when the American navy had a base there. They all used to get on the ferry and head over to the peninsula (most people mistake it for an island but it is connected to the land, it's just quicker by ferry) and the women would go 'date' the American boys. A good few of my school friends met, married and consequently divorced an American guy they had met in Dunoon. Though I know there still are thousands of Scottish women all in their 40s and 50s who live in the US after meeting their love in Dunoon.
Frankly, the draw of handsome Yankee boys would never get me to go to Dunoon because the sheer amount of tiny midges that bite you to death at sundown is horrific. I don't care how sexy, different, lovely and rich those guys were, those midges would take the edge off any illicit sexual encounter as far as I am concerned. So back in the day I didn't head off to Dunoon for a Yankee boy, I stayed at home and married the local publican's son; the courtship was insect-free and that's all that matters to me!
Anyway, I went to Dunoon. The gig was in a rugby club, which doesn't bode well. The place was fine. There were some very drunk boys and they looked like trouble, but what really worried me was there was a woman in her 50s who looked like she regularly won the 'drink like fuck, and scowl a lot' Trophy. She was with her husband who looked uncomfortable. Big Graeme Mackie was onstage and the crowd were laughing their heads off but angry scowl woman and stony-faced husband sat with their arms folded. The woman finally burst out: "You are shit and not funny!" but she couldn't really be heard as everyone was laughing loudly at Graeme. She really needed to get attention so she waited until he was in the middle of a joke and she screamed: "Stop laughing!"
Her husband was duty bound to back her up so he nodded with her. Everyone stared at them; everyone knows them coz Dunoon is a tiny place. The crowd stop staring and laughed at Graeme's punch line.
Graeme coped admirably and told her to stop yapping. The crowd carried on laughing until the break. The grumpy husband took that opportunity to grab me ( I hadn't been onstage yet) and say, "If you get up there and say the word motherfucker, I will be really offended. That's an American saying and I really hate it."
I stared at his fat bulbous face and answered: "You just said 'Motherfucker' to me and I find that offensive!"
This made him stare at me in confusion. I don't have a problem with any words but I just wanted to throw it back at him. Then I added, "Why don't you like American sayings? Did something happen with an American sailor years ago?"
At this, his grumpy wife jumped up and shouted at me: "The comedy isn't funny!"
I suspect there are many underlying tensions between these strange wee middle aged people but I didn't see why I had to get involved.
Then the crowd around them started telling them to leave as they were all having a great time and they were spoiling it for everyone. The look on their faces when they realised that their own neighbours and friends wanted them out and wanted us on made them so fucking angry. They just wanted EVERYONE in the room to agree that the comedy show was rubbish. Only one act had been on and he was awesome: the crowd loved him, the angry couple didn't want to like it and wanted everyone to leave with them.
Finally, scowling woman and strange husband got up and walked out as the crowd clapped. I felt sorry for them a bit as they seemed to be so unhappy and felt ostracised by their own people. That scowling woman looked like she normally got her own way and this wasn't going how she wanted it to.
By the time I got on at the end, the crowd was fucking amazing. They loved the show and they just sucked up comedy like proper comedy junkies. It was a shame that the start was odd, but that does happen occasionally in small places when comedy comes to town. There will always be one person who decides that they don't like it therefore everyone else has to hate it and not laugh out loud for fear of upsetting their plan to destroy the evening.
The only down side to Dunoon is the fucking tiny midges who swarm into your hair and face and bite like fuckity till you cry. I think I will never go back because of that. Angry women I can cope with, biting insects... NEVER!
Friday the 19th of June 2009
London so far
The flight down from Glasgow was OK. I was rather annoyed as I got a BA American Express credit card and on the phone the Amex people reassured me TWICE that this British Airways Amex gets you access to their executive lounges and I asked my mate who works at BA when I got the airport and she told me it didn't give you access; MANY people had been duped by that sales technique. Shame on Amex for lying to people. Anyway, flight was fine.
The downside of the flight was I was feeling horrid. I had a spiked fever and my throat hurt. I was convinced I had swine flu. You see, I had been in Dunoon and Shawlands over the weekend and both places have been hot spots of swine flu, so in my head I was about to die. The thought of going to the NHS and saying: "I have a fever and sore throat and by the way I have just travelled through Los Angeles, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Dunoon and Shawlands over the past six weeks..." I would be strapped to a bed and quarantined like a Guantanamo Bay prisoner. So, instead, I waited till I had infected everyone and did my shows. I am now fine and the symptoms have gone. I suspected I was Typhoid Mary for a few hours though.
Am staying in Westminster Crown Lawn flats which are superb; the place is awesome and it has an underground swimming pool! It is just round the corner from Big Ben.
I lie in bed and can hear Big Ben chime all the time; it's really nice to hear it.
Did my preview show and was worried sick as I don't really do preview shows at all, I wait until the first night of the Edinburgh Fringe and that's when I do the show for the first time. I never really have any material ready until that first show. Scary and fucking weird I know, but that's how I work. So, the crowd were lovely as I battered out some new stories that may or may not make it to Edinburgh and the crowd were lovely as hell. They even told me at the end what to keep and what to discard come the Fringe! Well, I did ask them.
Had a staring competition in Costa Coffee when I popped in for a pee without buying a tea. A woman who had been sat down drinking watched me come in and got up and decided that she was going to use the loo before me. She stood in front of me and I stood in front of her.
"Have you bought coffee?" she asked as we waited the queue for the loo.
"Yes, I have bought coffee, just not here, and am going to pee in their toilet. Do you own Costa Coffee then?" I asked her.
"You are passive aggressive!" she snapped.
"So is everyone; sometimes we are aggressive and sometimes we are passive. Now take your pseudo-psycho-analysis bullshit and watch me pee for free."
I stared her out and got into the toilet and just for badness read a chapter of my book as she waited outside in a huff. That's what she gets for being the toilet Nazi.
After my show, I headed down to the Groucho Club with Fran and got to see my best wee mate Bernie. He is the vanguard at the door of the club and filters out all the celeb wheat from the chaff & Chav! He is really funny as fuck and makes me giggle when he does his thing. That club is worth joining just to watch Bernie the Prince of Soho.
Anyway Fran and I had a great time and there was some funny high jinkery going on. I didn't get home until 2am. Feet killing and make up slid down my cleavage, that's what happens when you dance and sing round a piano with a few gins inside you.
So onwards and upwards.
Sunday the 21st of June 2009
Back Then
I got an email from my past. A woman I knew called Maria when I was 14 years old got in contact. We knew each other through a friend of mine, but we didn't attend the same school as she was a Catholic and because I am bereft of a religion so therefore assumed as a Protestant (this is normal in east end Glasgow) – we never really moved in the same circles.
Anyway she emailed me to say hi and that she enjoyed my comedy set when she saw me at Tron Theatre back in March.
It got me remembering about her. I was always in awe of Maria as she wore thick black kohl pencil eyeliner and bright blue eye shadow. We were the same age but she had a curvy possibly plump demeanour with big 'woman' type boobs, which always made me stare at her. I had two very less -than -perky nipples that sat completely flat against my teenage ribcage with breasts that threatened to defy my sexuality and make me possibly the famous man/girl of Glasgow.
She had bigger back boobs than me and always had an 'adult woman' BO scent about her; it was a smell that reminded me of my mum's drunken pals. It was a dirty smell that always disturbed me and she wasn't a dirty unkempt person (like I was!). She was always immaculately dressed and came from a lovely home. I had been in her bedroom and it was lovely, pink and didn't have a dog that ate its own fleas or a mum who crushed cigarette ends on the floor, like mine.
I can't quite explain that smell, but it was definitely something disturbing and I recalled it immediately when I read her email. It can't be a good sign that, when you remember someone from over 30 years ago, you get instant recall on their body smell.
She always had steady boyfriends at a time when I was still thinking about Donny Osmond and dreaming about kissing a Bay City Roller. I remember one day I spotted her as she crossed the road near my home in her school uniform and an older man was waiting for her with a giant teddy bear. I thought it was her dad, but he swept her up and sang 'Happy Birthday' then kissed her full on the mouth, a big proper kissing. It was her latest boyfriend and he had a moustache - I decided there and then to get to know her more. She fascinated me: how did she manage to be a woman at the same age as me and grow big boobs and have boyfriends with facial hair and a car?
She was an only child and her mum and dad let her boyfriends come to their home and sit in her room with her. This astonished me beyond belief. Who would have a boyfriend that came to your house? That was exotic.
One day, my mum was chatting to her mum Chrissie. When Chrissie mentioned she was getting some steak for Maria's boyfriend's dinner, my mum asked her why her daughter had a boyfriend at that age and why the fuck was Chrissie feeding him.
The woman explained she'd rather have her daughter's boyfriend in the house and get to know him. "She's only fourteen, Chrissie. Too fucking young for boyfriends at that age, especially ones that eat steak," my mum said. As far as my mum was concerned, steak was an adult's meal and children didn't eat good meat - that was for 'men'.
The woman shrugged her shoulders and walked off.
My mum couldn't believe this woman was buying steak for a boyfriend of her fourteen year old daughter. I told mum her boyfriend wasn't a boy he had a moustache and a car and wore a jacket with elbow patches on.
"That's fucking Catholics for you!" my crazy mum spat. My mum liked finding things wrong with Catholics; it reinforced her sectarian attitude.
She looked at me and said, "Don't even think about wanting some fucking boyfriend that eats steak."
So I made it my business to get to know Maria more. It was hard work; she was always busy with her boyfriend. Occasionally I would turn up at her door and her mum would let me in. I would go through to Maria's bedroom and sit there staring at all her makeup and high heel platform shoes.
"What age is your boyfriend?" I asked her innocently.
"He works on the buses; he is 24 years old," she spoke as she painted her toenails, that smell wafting towards me when she lifted her leg.
Maria would let me try on her fashionable shoes and new coat. She would dress me up and put her thick make-up on my face and let me stare into her mirror as she played The Rubettes on her tape deck. Then she told me I had to go as her boyfriend was coming up. I was leaving her flat with clogged black eye lashes and pink lipstick on my mouth.
Our friendship never really took off, as she got pregnant at 15 and became an old woman overnight. Literally. She looked worn out with greasy hair, fat calves and pushing a big Silver Cross navy pram when I was reaching fourth year at secondary school.
I went from being fascinated by her exotic highly fashionable lifestyle to being horrified that she was a mother when I was trying to grapple the rudiments of French verbs for an exam. No more Rubettes, no more Bay City Rollers for her; it was all leaking breasts, screaming babies and stretch marks.
The last time I saw her was when I was 17 years old. She was going to the bingo with her mum and they were wearing the same coats, American tan tights and worn-down smiles, clutching handbags, buying fags and heading to St. Barnabus club for the Sunday night social.
So, back to present day. She told me in her email that she got married on her 16th birthday to a man in his late 20s. They subsequently had four kids and they got divorced after he beat her so badly her youngest child was born disabled. Turns out he was a bad lot.
She is now a great-granny herself as her own daughter, who was born when she was 15, had a baby boy herself at 16 years old and that boy fathered a child when he was 17 years old. She managed to go back into the education system and became a nursery teacher.
I wished her well and sat here tonight thinking about her and I thought it was worth sharing.
Monday the 29th of June 2009
Janey is late as usual
So London has been such a fucking pain this time. You see, here is the truth. I was sick on arrival; I flew into Heathrow last week feeling hot and yucky. I secretly thought I had swine flu; mentally I was plotting my funeral.
So, then I just got ready for the gigs and getting myself into gear. The coughing during the night freaked me out so much I had to stop smoking all over again (yes I slipped). So breathing is better since I stopped again but, seriously, I am concerned and need to go get my lungs check.
So I called NHS Helpline and they asked me all the countries I had visited lately, I gave them New Zealand, Hong Kong, Los Angeles and Scotland. She ignored all the exotic locations and dug her teeth into Scotland. "There are big outbreaks of swine flu in Scotland!" she shouted. After I listed all my ailments, she reassured me that I don't have swine flu but just The Flu.
The gigs have been great though. I managed to do an Edinburgh preview which wasn't really an Edinburgh preview. I just made some stuff up and watched if it worked or not. Meanwhile, the illness was ranging from snotty thick nose goo and coughing up green kites out of my lungs, then hacking coughs during the day that almost made me pee myself.
Wednesday last week I headed up to Manchester for a casting. I made the fatal mistake of jumping on an early train (instead of 9.20am I got on the 8.20am) which apparently is evil and costs an extra £160 - as if I was going to pay that because I sat on a train an hour earlier. That is just mental. I told the train man to fuck off; the train was empty and I refused to be robbed by those people.
He just stared at me and said, "You got on a train that is peak time and your ticket is off peak. You have to pay".
"I am not paying. Look, I am sorry but this train is empty, I am not taking someone's seat, the sheer amount of times the train I paid for never either never left the station or never quite got to its destination is many fold, so I am not moving or paying, so call the police. Look, mate, I know you are doing your job but this is just wrong."
He stared at me and said, "OK," then smiled. I like the train man now.
The casting went fine and I headed back to London on a train that wasn't actually my 'time train' but I was now addicted to screwing with the system and felt quite crazy. Nobody bothered.
London has been really hot. At night I was sleeping in the lovely room with a big fan in my face which was awesome but in the morning my mouth and nose were dried up.
On Friday, I woke up to the news that Michael Jackson had died, I really liked his music but went off him years ago when he paid a kid not to take him to court for sexual offences. I know he was found innocent in another child sexual case, but I just didn't like him much after that. No-one likes talking about this, not many people liked my tweets about this, so I will leave it at that!
On Saturday, I did a comedy stint on Loose Ends on BBC Radio 4; it can be a tough gig as you basically shout stuff at five people sitting round a table in a small studio. The lovely Gerry Anderson was ther;, he was the man who made the Thunderbirds puppet series amongst many other puppet-based TV shows.
He was really a cool old dude and gave me a big chat about stopping smoking; really he should be doing the circuit as a stopping smoking guru as he was awesome at that. Then he went on radio and as Clive Anderson asked him about Thunderbirds etc... Gerry told him "I hated working with puppets." That made me giggle; nice man though.
The comedy slot went OK but, honestly, I think I have done better before.
I coughed my way onto a bus and headed back to the flat to get ready for Jongleurs Bow.
I have been bothered by my ove- eating campaign that started back in 1980. I know I am too fat and decided to diet (again). This time, to help motivate me, I stood naked and took a photo on my phone of me from behind with the help of the mirror and OH FOR FUCKSAKE... I am never eating again. If you ever want evidence of how bad you look take a pic of you at an angle you never see and you will soon stop eating biscuits. I am now going to get an exercise programme into action and will take photos from behind to chart the progress.
One day when I am thin enough to be acceptable to society I may show those photos to people. I am horrified, I don't have a waist I have back fat that just goes up to my neck and what are those two big indentations? Back Boobs? I am gutted. Husband never told me how fucked I look from behind and the amount of lumpy fat on my ass is scary. Treadmill/yoga/swimming here I come.
I get home in time to watch Ashley graduate. She wasn't going to go to the ceremony but I talked her into it. She will wear a gown she tells me but not a hat. That's my girl!
So it's been a long twelve days in London, I hate being away from home and having an illness. The sun is shining today and I am all better and heading home.
By the way, Twitter cannot find me on its search so if you want to follow me go to: http://twitter.com/JaneyGodley
Thanks all.


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Photography By ADULT.'s Nicola Kuperus
June 22, 2010Haven't heard too much from ADULT. proper in a bit, it's probably a good thing. The best part of their last album, 2007′s Why Bother? was the album art. And actually, ADULT.'s album art has always been a defining aesthetic for the band; through lineup changes and sonic detours, the sinister mystery that has adorned the covers of their records and singles has been consistent. In fact, their last series of singles, The Decampment Trilogy, were MORE about the photos than the music, and were priced accordingly. This part of ADULT. is driven by Nicola Kuperus, ADULT.'s vocalist. Aside from bringing a wail predating The Knife and a slicing discomfort that mothers Alice Glass, she uses her refined visual skills as a counterpoint to the band's aggressive, sometimes sludgy sound. The pictures always feature a woman dressed in modern vintage, usually with a chunky heel and an exposed calf, you hardly ever see her face and the scene is intentionally artificial. Something has just happened in in these outdoor Detroit spaces – an accident or a murder, a fight or a fatal collapse, and just as equally present is what is about to happen – the aftermath of these images MUST include a cover-up or funeral, or at the very least an alarming phone call. To pull it off with a Hitchcockian sense of humor is more than icing, it's what keeps Kuperus's heart-stopping pause, her emergency theme, compelling. What grabs me the most is the thought that these pressed business suits are in her closet, the cars are her neighbors's, and the yards, corners and fences are places she often walks by. It's bringing them all together into a cohesive body of film stills that made me drop EVERYTHING to find out about prices. I could stare at these all day.
Nicola Kuperus is showing at (In)Familiar at Canteen Gallery in Ottowa through June 27th.

subset: commoncrawl


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The paper deals with a multi-agent-based architecture for an artificial stock market. We attempt to add more heterogeneity to agents. Specifically, in this architecture rational agents prefer forecast equation models or simple trading rules to support their decision making, and own their own individual base or just learn from a public base. Besides these rational agents, a type of irrational agent is also defined. We focus on applying the GP approach to model cognitive behavior of adaptive agents. Time series generated from this multi-agent-based artificial stock market are demonstrated to replicate some features and compared with empirical studies.
Published in:
Computational Intelligence for Financial Engineering, 2003. Proceedings. 2003 IEEE International Conference on
Date of Conference: 20-23 March 2003


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A popular way for managers to put quality management into effect5
Business.view: Coffee and pastries but no debate
Bosses ought to listen to investors' gripes11
Hopes that the carmaker would flourish on its own now look misplaced0
Chrysler: That shrinking feeling
Cutting to match a dwindling market0
Business.view: At the gates of hell
Can Bob Nardelli rebuild Chrysler?0
Chrysler: Looking for a star turn
Chrysler gets a tough new boss0
American corporate governance: Hail, shareholder!
Activist shareholders are getting tough with boards and managers0
GE's golden legacy0
Globalisation and the rise of inequality: Rich man, poor man
A poisonous mix of inequality and sluggish wages threatens globalisation0
Corporate governance: Home alone
Home Depot's overpaid boss loses his job0
Executive pay: Golden handshakes
Robert Nardelli leaves Home Depot with a big pay-off0
Companies of all stripes have become aware of the need to gather talent0
Home Depot: A do-it-yourself disaster
Is America's DIY retail giant in crisis?0
Having spent years trying to cut costs, big firms are increasingly concentrating on growth instead. Some are even growing0
Comments and tweets on popular topics


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The Intelligent Storytelling System
The Affective Guide possesses a long-term memory that is made up of declarative memories, both semantic and emotional. These memories contain a complete set of information when the interaction between the user and the guide starts. In contrast, the user interests model is empty. The guide makes assumptions about the user's interests based on the initial information from the ice-breaking session. Since a life story is always more interesting than simply bare facts, we argue that an emotional memory is important and necessary for the guide. The emotional recollection of past experiences will allow the guide to tell more believable and interesting stories. In addition to the long term memory, the guide's current memory holds information relating to recent processing.Semantic memory is a memory for facts, including location-related information and the user's profile, while emotional memory is memory for experienced events and episodes. The guide's emotional memories are generated through simulation of past experiences. It holds not only information about when, what and how an event happened, but also an `arousal' tag and a `valence' tag. When interacting with the user, the guide is engaged in meaningful reconstruction of its own past, at the same time presenting facts about the site of attraction. This re-collective experience is related to the evocation of previously experienced emotions through the activation of the emotion tags. The user will be `Walking Through Time' as the guide takes them through the site presenting its autobiography and reflecting the emotional impact of each experience. The guide defines two informal ontologies. First, a story element attributes ontology, which consists of the attributes used to annotate the story elements. These attributes and their corresponding interest areas - General, Science, Military, Politics and Social are hierarchically structured. Second, the guide profile ontology describes the guide's role and interests. Besides these ontologies, the system contains definitions for basic entities, including event, concepts, personnel and divisions. These definitions are used to introduce related events, concepts, personnel and `Los Alamos' divisions respectively, the first time they appear in the narrative process. These entities are tags in the story elements that serve as triggers to the remembering process during story activation and extension. |
Figure 1. The Narrative Construction Process |
The first step in the narrative construction process
involves filtering out story elements (SEs) that are not related to the current location.
This is to ensure that the location of the story spot always corresponds to the user
location. Three scores corresponding to: previously told stories; the
guide's interests; and the user's interests are calculated. These scores
are combined to obtain an overall score for each SE in the current
location. A SE with
the highest overall score will become the starting spot for extension.
Since we view the user's interest as the most important factor, followed
by the guide's interest and finally the remembered score, these weight
are in the ratio 20:15:12. After the spot has been selected, the guide proceeds to extend it, step 2 in Figure 2. Given that one person can remind us of another person, one object can remind us of another object or one event can remind us of another event, story extension is activated based on subject-object links and cause-effect links. Moreover, the guide uses other entities such as story type, concepts, interest attributes and location as activation factors. The story elements are organised using a network-like structure so that associative activation can be performed during extension. All extensions are performed by JESS, a Java based rule engine to perform reasoning. When the desired granularity is reached and the combination of the story elements is large enough to generate a short story, the extension process is complete. |
Whilst it is true that the guide tells facts, at the same time it should not hide its feelings, beliefs and opinions. Hence, it includes its own experiences related to the facts during the storytelling, just as a real guide does. This process is step 3 in Figure 2, the doted boxed phase. The guide's perspective is constructed from its emotional memory elements (EEs) which lead to re-experience of emotions. The user rating on his/her degree of interest in the stories and the degree of which he/she agrees with the guide's argument after each story cycle, served as a determination factor for inclusion of ideological perspective. It is noteworthy that the guide includes its ideological perspectives only if it is currently competent and highly certain of the user's interests, that is, when user shows interest in the stories or agrees with its argument. The EEs are selected based on the activated SEs to ensure a smooth flow of storyline. To reduce complexity in the current version, a SE will lead to inclusion of only one EE. Hence, the number of EEs added is always less than or equal to the number of SEs. Each EE usually follows its associated SE. However, if two SEs have a cause-effect relationship, then the associated EEs will come after both SEs. Next, all the selected elements are combined taking into consideration the existence of entities. The guide retrieves the definition for each entity, (event, concept, personnel and division) that appears for the first time whether in SEs or EEs. The resulting story is then send to the PDA to be presented to the user.After each story presentation, the guide updates its current memory so that it can be reminded of the current active memory elements in the next retrieval cycle. Analogous to human memory, a concept strength in the guide's memory increases when it is activated frequently and will be forgotten if not used after a few iterations. In contrast, the current activation of personnel, attribute and type remain in the current memory only for a single story cycle to allow flexibility in story generation. |
Figure 2. The Spot Selection and Story Extension Process |


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There aren't too many times in our lives when we can say we've seen or experienced something truly unique. InLight is one of those events that you'll find yourself reminiscing about just years down the road.
InLight is a one-night, outdoor, light-based art exhibit. 23 local and national artists will decorate the streets, walls, and alleyways of the Canal Walk in Shockoe Bottom with their larger-than-life illuminated art pieces.
InLight will begin at 7:30 PM on November 8th with a community lantern parade. Among the many attractions that will be showcase that evening, the most highly anticipated is an electric piano that, when played, will illuminate lights installed in the canal.
To find out more information about the event, visit the 1708 gallery website: http://www.1708gallery.org/inlight/
Tags: art, canal walk, canals, floodwall, inlight, lights, richmond, shockoe bottom


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December 9, 2013
The Florida Highway Patrol says 35 year old Tawayne McCaskill of Ponce De Leon died on State Road 85 north of Duke Field when the car went out of control while changing lanes and crashed into the side of a van he was trying to pass.
Troopers say McCaskill's car then ran into the grassy median and rolled over several times. He was not wearing his seatbelt and was partially thrown out.
He died at the scene and the other driver, 72 year old Robert Shay of Pennsylvania. sustained minor injuries.
The 4:30 AM Sunday accident is still under investigation.
Get the ingredients you need to cook with Rach all week long. | |
Full length exclusive concerts from hot artists. | |
Take a break! Classic Pacman, Frogger, Asteroids and more. |
FREE Listings Sell almost anything locally. |


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BFG is proud to announce that we now carry HAMM'S WATERWORKS GLASS.
A glass company founded by one of the top artists working in this industry today, HAMM'S WATERWORKS
has introduced a new line of gear, and we are extremely excited to offer it on the site. Please look for their work under "H" in the
list of artists, or just click the links above. ENJOY!


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The screenshots don't do it justice. It's a common enough refrain, but it's become increasingly popular as new console hardware has offered us ever more lavish visual feasts. As the arts and sciences of animation, lighting, special effects and visual filters come into their own, there's less and less to be gleaned about how a game actually looks from a still image.
So it's understandable that "god, the screenshots don't do this justice" might be your first response when you get to play Valkyria Chronicles, SEGA's upcoming PS3 strategy game. In a sense, maybe it's ironic that so much 3D processing power is required to make 2D look so convincing - but irony be damned, this is a game which looks uncannily like every frame has been lavishly hand-animated.
We've had cel-shaded games for around a decade, of course, but never before have we stepped back from the screen and realised that the graphics wouldn't look out of place in a high-budget animated movie. For fans of Hayao Miyazaki's films (such as Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle), the comparisons are fairly obvious, especially with the glorious Old Europe-themed backdrops. For the uninitiated, it's simply a visual feast.
Small details abound, and impress at every turn. Shadows aren't darkened blocks - they're pencil-shaded areas. Hair and cloth animate fluidly and realistically, yet maintain the feeling of being 2D, hand-drawn layers. Comic-book style "sound effects" accompany many actions, yet feel like a proper part of the world you inhabit rather than simply a gimmicky graphical extra. The manga art style won't sit well with everyone, of course, but the artistic accomplishment of the game is undeniable even to those who can't get past the big eyes and spiky hair.
Thankfully, from what we've seen thus far, it's also got plenty of gaming brains behind its pretty face. Valkyria Chronicles is a turn-based strategy game. It's very strongly story-driven, and you do get to run your characters around in real-time (sort of), but the parentage is very clear: Final Fantasy Tactics, Advance Wars and Nippon Ichi's excellent turn-based repertoire.
Set in an alternate history (and geographically muddled about) version of Europe, you play Welkin Gunther, a young man whose dad was a war hero in the First European War. When the forces of the Empire (the USSR, sort of) invade Welkin's neutral country, Gallia, he's drawn into the conflict when he attempts to evacuate his younger sister from their home in a border town. Helpfully, it transpires that Welkin's dad's old tank is still in a shed outside the house, and his sister has learned how to service and drive it. Good old videogames.
After a few missions around the border town, which essentially serve as scene-setting and tutorials, you're recruited by the Militia and pressed into service as the Lieutenant in charge of a unit of soldiers - and that's where the game really kicks off.
Valkyria Chronicles' main hook, visuals aside, is the fact that it completely eschews the grid layout of most turn-based strategy games, instead giving you a realistic, complex chunk of town or countryside in which to fight. Rather than moving units by issuing orders, then, you select which unit you want to move next - and can then run them around in a third-person view until their AP bar has been depleted.
Each unit can also attack once while you're commanding it (either firing their weapon, which brings up crosshairs for you to aim, throwing a grenade, which gives you a ranging arc to position, or using a healing item), and they can interact with the world around them. They can climb ladders to get to higher vantage points, for instance, or crouch behind sandbags to take cover - or even hide in long grass to avoid detection.
In each player turn, you've got a certain number of Command Points to use. Selecting an infantry unit and moving it around uses up a single command point - doing the same with a tank uses two points, so relying too heavily on armour can be a mistake. You don't have to move all of your units every turn, and in some cases, you won't have enough command points to do so anyway. In fact, you can even move the same unit twice, if you want - although their AP will be lower on each subsequent movement in the same turn, as they grow increasingly fatigued.
The third-person movement and FPS-style aiming give Valkyria Chronicles the feel of an action game - but in reality, it doesn't stray too far from its turn-based strategy roots. Getting a bead on an enemy soldier's head from a good position will help, of course, but how accurately your soldiers shoot, and the damage they do, is still determined by their level, their class and the stats of the weapon they've got.
The game does offer plenty of numbers for stat fans to obsess over. There are a number of core classes to command - Scouts, who can move long distances but are lightly armed, Shock Troopers, who are heavily armed but less mobile, Snipers, Engineers, and Lancers - the latter being essentially rocket launcher-armed troops, for taking on enemy armour. By "spending" experience points at the Boot Camp in your barracks, you can level up the classes at your command - every soldier in the class levels up simultaneously, which does simplify things somewhat.
Each of those soldiers, however, has a different set of stats, strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes. They can be further customised by outfitting them with new weapons, stolen from the enemy in battle. The degree of customisation falls far short of some other strategy titles - you won't be decking them out in all sorts of different gear, like in Final Fantasy Tactics, for example - but given that you've also got a tank to fit out and upgrade, we don't see lack of depth being a big problem in this regard.
Besides, even half a dozen "chapters" into the game, we feel like we're barely scratching the surface of the tactical possibilities. There's a scissors-paper-stone quality to the combat - so a combined arms approach will be your basic strategy - but the complexity of the environments and richness of the game systems bring some really fresh ideas. Tanks, for example, can knock down walls and some obstacles. Engineers can build cover. Carefully calculated runs can allow you to strike deep in enemy territory, and then run back before your AP is used up.
Also crucial to the game's complexity is the idea of reactive fire. Unlike most turn-based games, just because it isn't a unit's turn doesn't mean it's a lifeless statue. Soldiers will still shoot at anything that comes into their line of fire, which means that setting your units up to have overlapping fields of fire at the end of your turn can result in the enemy being mown down as they advance.
Outside the battlefield, the game follows a cut-scene-heavy storyline, which can at times feel a little overplayed. It may be a symptom of the early game (many games seem to be story-heavy at the beginning, after all), but we did find ourselves wishing Welkin would shut up and let us get to the fighting. That said, the cut-scenes are undeniably beautiful, and the storyline is by no means bad. There's also a fairly comprehensive set of skirmish encounters that you can pop into at any time to improve your unit's stats or earn money to upgrade equipment, which means you're never more than a couple of button presses from a battle.
As well as being absolutely beautiful, the game sounds great too. The soundtrack is instantly reminiscent of genre classic Final Fantasy Tactics - unsurprisingly, since Hitoshi Sakimoto composed the music for both. On a similar note, Valkyria Chronicles' development team has significant overlap with the team that made Skies of Arcadia, and there are cameo appearances from a couple of Skies characters in your party roster.
Turn-based strategy is never going to be everyone's cup of tea, but Valkyria Chronicles' healthy dose of third-person control might be just the thing to attract newcomers to the genre - while old hands can rest assured that beneath the gorgeous exterior beats the heart of a great turn-based game. We're looking forward to getting our teeth more deeply into this one, especially to find out how the battle system develops and whether the cut-scenes ease off as you progress. We'll let you know how we got on with the finished game in our review later this month.
Valkyria Chronicles is due out for PS3 on 31st October.


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by Jayne and filed in Potato Salads, Salads
The prettiest potato salad with pre-roasted potatoes and a Greek yogurt dressing. Just the right amount of tang without being too rich. Perfect use of leftover roasted potatoes.
by colemamma and filed in Potato Salads, Salads
This is my Pennsylvania Dutch grandmother's recipe. A little different than other German potato salads because it is tangy rather than sweet.
by budgetpantry and filed in Potato Salads, Salads
A light and refreshing potato salad with creamy mashed hard boiled egg and black pepper. A popular side dish in Japanese bento boxes. Serve chilled.
by Lindsay and filed in Potato Salads, Salads
The final word in potato salad!
by Megan {Country Cleaver} and filed in Potato Salads, Salads
Potato salad inspired by the Pacific Northwest and our love of salmon!
Nancy is the Coupon Clipping Cook, which means she not only has an astounding number of recipes to share with us (her TK recipe box is busting at the seams!) but she's also got loads of money-saving tips in her blog (she worked at a grocery store for a number of years, so she knows her stuff). She has some pretty amazing creations, like Roasted Garlic Potato Soup and Nutty Coconut Chicken. Go check them out!
Heather is a Texas native and the blogger behind Heather's Dish. She's mom to Weston, wife to Nate, and they live in Little Rock, Arkansas with their two "stubborn and saucy" dogs Bunker and Keira. In her blog, she shares her photographs, random musings (serious and silly alike), and all kinds of scrumptious recipes---and not just evil variations of her favorite mac and cheese. Her enviable TK recipe box is a testament to that. Go see for yourself!


text:
El Luchadore Grande
Originally Posted by Lucha GrandeHis eyes adjust to the light as he hears his name lightly in the air. He still has not made anything out, as his eye lids open and close. He tries to knock the cobwebs, as the voice gets closer. He can only hear Grande, and not the first part. The voice is a very low slow voice, sounds very old in his ears. As more of the cobwebs clear out he can hear the voice clearer, and the big Luchardore realizes that its Chavotio. As El Luchadore Grande opens his eyes fully he sees Chavito still coming towards him, just screaming Grande Grande Grande. Before he can reach the big wrestler, he is talking very fast. Luchadore has to adjust his mask as it slipped to the left side of his face while he was sleeping. He starts making out Chavoitos Spanish, and its clearer to him what the old man is saying.
Chavo: We just got our big break Grande, I just got a phone call from the GM of High Voltage, and you are getting a title shot!!! They want you to challenge for the AMLL Championship. And get this you get to face CJ Franchise. This could be a huge step for you. The Mexican fans have been clamoring for you in the CWA, and they want to try and give you the shot, the only thing is that you have to perform, and defeat the Franchise to get the title. Grande, I think you can do it!!!-
El Luchadore Grandes eyes light up as he places his left hand over his right wrist just thinking about the possibitlies, and If he should accept such a huge task. He looks over his bed post, and grabs his long blue cape, and puts it on as he walks towards Chavoito.
Grande: Chavoito I do agree with you that this is a huge opportunity for me, and my Mexican fans, but you know I just dont want to hurt this CJ Franchise. I have heard great things about him, and I would hate to do something to ruin his career. He is an established superstar here in the CWA, and if I do something like I did in Mexico I could be hated.
Chavoito: Grande, my old friend you cannot worry about stuff like that. This is the chance for you first championship match. This is your chance to put the people of Mexico on your back, and give them some hope. I know you can do it, because you are the best Grande. No one can beat you. Each time you go the ring, and perform you lose, because you are afraid to use that strength that god gave you. What happened in Mexico was a fluke Lucha, dont let that haunt you!-
Grande: But Chavoito you dont understand. When I go to sleep the darkness brings out nightmares. I have to sleep with a light on, and most of the time I do not get sleep at all. Last night was the first time I could get sleep. All I think about is the young mans broken body in my arms after I delivered my power bomb. The family of the young kid, I do not see why the people of Mexico see me as a hero. I am a disgrace.
Chavoito: We decided to come to America for a chance, for a change of scenery, and so far you have wasted your opportunity. You have let people defeat you that should have never even laid a finger on the Luchadore Grande. You are the best in the world, you have to believe in it, and we our first chance to defeat an established superstar here in the CWA. Do you understand the money you could make? Think of the money you could send to your mom, the pride that will overflow her when you bring home the AMLL title belt.
Grande: -Chavoito CJ Franchise is ranked number 3 in the X-Fly division. He is really really good, how about if I do try, and he still defeats me. I do not want the nightmares to continue. If I do something I could really hurt him.-
You can see Chavoito thinking of another line of attack for his huge friend. He ponders what he will say for a couple of seconds, and then just as nothing happens he turns the conversation to another point.
Chavoito: -Lucha, CJ Franchise has been talking about your mother back home. Chavoito knows he is playing a dangerous game as he has never heard any talk from CJ Franchise. He has been going on Mexico radio and television, and talking about how his mother raised a little puppy dog, and asking if you are still living and sucking on your moms breast. He has been over the television going crazy about how he is going to defeat you, and you will have no chance.-
You see Luchas eyes start to turn red, and anger starts to build up inside of him. Chavoito continues with his ploy, seeing that it is working, but Chavoito steps back, because he sees that Lucha is about to use his strength on something, and he doesnt want to be part of the wreckage.
Chavoito: -Lucha, he is saying that your mom was a whore, and that you were born, because your mom was out in the streets of Mexico working for money. He has been saying you do not know who your father is. I do not think you want him to be talking like that, especially about your mother, Grande, we have to make CJ Franchise pay.-
All of a sudden El Luchadore Grandes playful style turns into all out anger, a table is in front of him, and instead of walking around the table, he raises his arms over his head, and then he places a double sledge on top of the table, and the table shatters in thousands of pieces as if it was wet paper. El Luchadore lets out a huge might roar, and Chavoito steps back even more. El Luchadore Grande then turns around and he sees a barstool sitting there, he picks it up as if it was a paperclip, and hurls it through the living room, and it crashes through a Mexican style tv, where there is a huge TV placed in wood, but a television that works on top. The stool goes through the bottom TV exploding the glass in millions of pieces. Chavoito places his hands up to try and calm down the huge luchadore. El Luchadore Grande comes back to reality and realizes what he has done. He then goes down to his knees, and he starts to sob Chavoitos name. Chavoito comes close to the big Luchadore, and
throws his arms around the mans shoulder.
Chavoito: Lucha do not destroy the house, please just remember who you are after. Remember who said that, and let your rage go upon CJ Franchise. Do not hold back! Bring the AMLL title to me, and we will party together. Lucha this will be your finest hour.-
The camera closes as you hear El Luchadore Grande sob CJ Franchises name. As the camera closes you see Chavoito console the young man, but then you see a wry smile come from the handler.


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Dazzling Hilton Sisters
Description: Paris and Nicky Hilton are going to have some fun in the nightclub. And you know the Hiltons, they will definitely dress up to the night to attract everyone's attention. So use all the makeups and accessaries to make them look absolutely stunning. Have fun!
Game Author: allforgirls
PLAY FULLSCREEN (warning Game will restart)


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Drug suspect nabbed after hearing
MANILA - A drug suspect was nabbed by agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) - National Capital Region (NCR) on his way out of the Dept. of Justice (DOJ) following a preliminary investigation hearing.
Changxin Wang is a respondent in a drug case involving a buy-bust operation last Feb. 2012 that allegedly yielded 2 kilos of shabu.
The PDEA said the money trail of the alleged drug syndicate was traced to Wang's bank account.
Wang's arrest was effected by virtue of a warrant of arrest issued by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 103.
The preliminary investigation hearing at the DOJ was brought about by the court's grant of Wang's motion for a reinvestigation of the case against him.
The case against Wang also involves Mark Sy Tan who is also undergoing preliminary investigation at the department.


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Find any address in Arthès thanks to the Michelin Arthès city map. ViaMichelin : map of Arthès, driving directions for Arthès, touristic information and Michelin Guide restaurants in Arthès. ViaMichelin allows you to freely consult the Michelin maps, the result of an experience of more than a century of cartography.
Come winter or summer, this restaurant is always a good bet. The cuisine, generous and authentic, reflects the outlook of the owner, a native of the region. His other passion is wine, and he holds tastings in the vaulted parlour.


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Timbo wrote:[
Sorry to hear about your troubles, it sounds like a frustrating series of problems. When my motor died I was on a fairly smooth strectch of tarmac. The indicator lights stayed on &, later, I discovered that power stilled flowed to the motor and without load - wheel off the ground - it would spin under power, but nowhere near the rpm it should be spinning and no hope of turning with me on the bike.
In my 900 odd km of commuting I've hit some pretty nasty bumps, but not enough to lose control like you describe. My guess is that repeated thumps have caused a stress fracture that finally gave up. Actually it was pretty bad timing cos I'd just smoked a lycra clad guy on a regular bike and then had to suffer the humiliation of him passing me.
Interesting - thanks. Mine sounds different as it is completely dead, with wheel off the ground, wheel already spinning, etc - no noise or anything. A guy on the pedelec.co.uk forum was pretty sure that means its electrical not mechanical (ie the controller).
Bad luck on your timing! I use my bike for commuting in London along one of the main routes and there are dozens of road bikes going at 20mph+. With the Tongxin, for a few short days, I had their measure! But good luck on having support from a local dealer. You may have paid a mark-up for that but you are getting value for it now. Hope you're fixed up and back on the road soon!


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Dreamers is a family run company
Dreamers is a family run company with over 17 years experience in selling beds and bedroom furniture .We provide a friendly professional service and our staff are knowledgeable and ready to advise you on buying your new bed. We specialise in Rauch and Hihgrove in Wigan and St Helens.
We have a large modern showroom with free parking and have over 70 beds ,mattresses and bedsteads on display as well as many ranges of bedroom furniture.
We supply beds and mattresses from many manufacturers : Silentnight, Kaymed, Rest Assured, Highgrove, Myers, Hypnos and bedroom furniture from German manufaturer Disselkamp and Rauch and British manufacturer Kingstown, Caxton and Welcome Furniture. We stock Memory Foam mattresses and memory foam beds from Breezley as well as now being a stockist of Mammoth, the latest Medical Foam to hit the high street.
We deliver throughout Wigan, St Helens and the Northwest and offer a timed delivery service for your convenience More About Dreamers Beds
We are stockists of Beds, Mattresses, Electric beds, Memory Foam, Rauch furniture, Highgrove, kids beds, steens furniture, bunk beds and bedroom furniture.
We cover and deliver beds and mattresses toHaydock, Warrington, Culcheth, Billinge, Rainford, St Helens, Wigan, Widnes, Northwich, Hindley, Rainford, Skelmersdale, Standish, Ormskirk, Chorley and Parbold, Warrington, Culcheth, Lymm, Lowton, Golbourne.


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View James Sands' Instablogs on:
Augme Technologies And Velti Follow Millennial Media's Lead
Augme Technologies, Inc. (AUGT.OB) announced their earnings for the company's fiscal year 2014 first quarter. The company missed on top-line and bottom-line estimates, posting just under $5.9 million in revenue for the quarter and a loss of $0.05 per share. Augme was estimated to earn $5.9 million in revenue and to post a loss of $0.02 per share.
What is important to take note of is that Augme similar to Velti Plc (VELT) is transitioning its business to pursue a greater focus on mobile advertising versus the higher margin mobile marketing side of the business. After listening to the earnings announcement and taking a second look from Seeking Alpha's transcript, there are a few quotes that stand out:
"Hipcricket's goal is to provide a holistic view into all parts of the mobile ecosystem. No longer requiring brands and agencies to partner with multiple mobile partners and constantly interpret the variety of data sets, instead by providing them all in one place from a single global dashboard in real-time, it enables clients to be flexible, to make dynamic data driven decisions and then ensure their campaign success."
"During this quarter, we secured new clients increased revenue per customer, maintained our high retention rate and invested in our new advertising vertical."
These comments have also been echoed by Velti's management. Velti's transition like Augme, is focusing on its development of Velti Media which will serve as a one-stop shop for brands seeking to access a mobile advertising network as well as an ad exchange. Mobile marketing campaigns require much more time and cost to develop relationships with clients while advertising contracts are based on shorter terms. Additionally, Velti is currently facing challenges with respect to the performance-based aspect of collecting on these contracts versus the shorter transactional collections occurring through mobile advertising contracts.
Another quote from the Augme transcript that is interesting to note is the one below:
"Our mobile advertising grew in the first quarter about 55% year-over-year there."
If we take a look back at Millennial Media, Inc. (MM) first quarter earnings, the company grew revenues just over 50% year-over-year. It would appear that Millennial Media and Augme are tracking closely for their respective mobile advertising trends albeit Augme is coming from a much lower revenue base. Velti on the other hand has stumbled as year-over-year mobile advertising revenues declined by 10%. This is obviously due to the company's transition, but still noteworthy as key geographies of Velti's peers are growing much more robustly. Overall revenue trends are depicted in the charts below.
The charts above depict sequential quarterly revenue growth over the past couple of years. Augme does not disclose revenue by geography as the company is primarily U.S. focused. Augme reported a revenue mix of 64% mobile marketing and 36% mobile advertising compared with 73% and 27% respectively a year ago. Velti's revenue mix for the first quarter was 75% mobile marketing and 25% mobile advertising compared with 78% and 22% respectively a year ago. Based on estimates, Velti is expected to generate significant growth from Velti Media in the back half of this calendar year similar to estimates for Augme and Millennial Media. Millennial Media is experiencing significant growth internationally and domestically through its advertising-based focus.
Stock Price
Enterprise Value
Total Debt
FY Revenue Est.
Days Sales Outstanding
Gross Margin
TTM Operating Cash Flow
TTM Capex
All data in the table above is as of July 10, 2013. All numbers are expressed in millions except stock price, days sales outstanding, and gross margin.
As both Augme and Velti are shifting their focus to mobile advertising, it is important for investors to consider the items listed in the table above, especially revenues. Augme is growing more robustly at the moment and does not have the same issues with respect to debt covenants and capital expenditures. Velti is working on these items, and the company will hopefully get its business on track to better reflect growth trends with its peers.
Millennial Media is by far in a superior position with respect to the three companies. International sequential quarterly growth has stayed near 30% the past five quarters, while domestic growth has stayed near 10%. Slowing growth is going to continue to weigh on all three companies during each earnings announcement. Long-term mobile advertising will continue to prosper and for this reason, it is important for Augme and Velti to improve their operations.
I would not be surprised to see Millennial Media become a legitimate acquisition target by year-end as the company is closest to turning a profit and generating consistent positive operating cash flow. If Augme and Velti can follow suite with improving mobile advertising revenue growth through operational improvements, they too will possibly be acquired or at a minimum, provide significant stock price returns for investors who have taken positions at these recent low levels.
Disclosure: I am long AUGT.OB, MM, VELT. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
May 23, 2013: Quote Of The Day
"Young people nowadays are useless. They have facebook accounts, Tumblr accounts etc., but they cant take care of themselves in the traditional sense. We are doomed as a society. We raised a herd of idiots."
Courtesy of positivethoughts, inspired by Daniel Lauchheimer's article, "Did Yahoo Underpay For Tumblr?"
Radar Screen
This list will serve as an identifier and interest point for further research and consideration for the IIF portfolio:
- Tal International Group, Inc. (TAL)
- Principal Financial Group, Inc. (PFG)
- Fastenal Company (FAST)
- W. W. Grainger, Inc. (GWW)
- Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Inc. (DPS)
- The Blackstone Group L.P. (BX)
- Noodles & Company (NDLS)
- Progressive Corp. (PGR)
- Retailmenot, Inc. (SALE)
- JetBlue Airways Corporation (JBLU)
- Aruba Networks, Inc. (ARUN)
- LoJack Corp. (LOJN)
- HomeAway, Inc. (AWAY)
$TXTR having a solid day on strong volume. Dec 4, 2013
$SALE missing the news today??? http://bit.ly/1izdLRX Dec 4, 2013
Evolution of programmatic ad buying: http://bit.ly/1cWzmwR $GOOG $FB $YHOO $TWTR $MM $FUEL $CRTO $TRMR $YUME $HIPP Dec 4, 2013
Latest Comments
- James Sands on Augme Technologies And Velti Follow Millennial Media's Lead buffett222,Right now paying those big multiples...
- buffett222 on Augme Technologies And Velti Follow Millennial Media's Lead I own MM and was happy (I think) w/ FB reported...
- James Sands on Augme Technologies And Velti Follow Millennial Media's Lead buffett222, I've got a couple pieces from some ...
- buffett222 on Augme Technologies And Velti Follow Millennial Media's Lead Great piece. Any recommendation on relative wei...


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B A+F Student Body: The students at my school are very blunt and straightforward. They know exactly what they want from their education and take full advantage of what the school offers. A lot of students at my school are low-income and come to school highly motivated and ready to work.
B A+F Online Courses: The online courses I've taken do a great job of keeping its students engaged and always learning something new.
C A+F Career Services: My school doesn't really have post-grad services. My school focuses on career training augmented by academic courses required to complete the program.
B+ A+F Academic Flexibility: I have always been able to get ahold of my academic councellor, but the communication about what general education classes are needed for me was a little confusing and I was not told that I would need to pay a little over what I was given in financial aid.
A+ A+F Campus Resources: No matter what I'm looking for someone is able to point me in the right direction.
C+ A+F Campus Resources: I haven't used the computer network at the school yet, but I am told its very good.
B+ A+F Campus Resources: I love that they have cheap daycare for my son while I'm in school. I wish that I was informed ahead of time that financial aid wouldn't completely cover all the classes I needed to take the first quarter.
A A+F Academic Experience: The academics are very applicable to subjects outside school and the teachers are very good at maintaining a steady workload.
B+ A+F Campus Resources: My school offers students their own on-campus email address for keeping up with school and it's incredible helpful. The computer lab itself isn't too impressive, but it's a small quiet place for student to focus on their work
A A+F Academic Experience: I'm a culinary major and I love how my instructors didn't waste time in the classroom immediately put me to work in the kitchen, though without throwing me under the bus, and giving me the hands-on training I need.
A- A+F Campus Resources: What sets my school apart is the fact that it doesn't waste time and money teaching useless subjects. Everything you learn you can quickly apply it to the real world and its difficulties.
A- A+F Campus Resources: My school is very good at helping disabled students and the teachers are very relatable and very good at making the schoolwork more applicable. My only compliant is that the school is in the middle of downtown Tacoma and the area's very crowded
B A+F Career Services: I have yet to need the Career Service center but previous students have told me good things so i am not worried when graduation comes about them helping me find a job and be prepared for the interviews
A A+F Academic Experience: My instructor is very involved in my education. He gives me a lot of hands on experience and explains everything well and thoroughly.
B A+F Academic Flexibility: L
C A+F Campus Resources: They should be more helpful at explaining where us students can find the help needed
B+ A+F Campus Resources: I really like it at this school before I was at clover park tec. And that school was so unorganized that it was just one stressful thing o another bates is so much more organized and you study the right classes with out the stress of objective classes
C+ A+F Student Body: Most of the students want to be here. but the few that dont tend to mess it up for those of us who do want to learn.
A+ A+F Academic Flexibility: the chefs have been great with flexablity. they know that we have lives out side of school. like other classes and kids
A A+F Academic Experience: This is only my third week here at Bates, so far all of the faculty I have met are very friendly, and even remembered my name and who my husband is after only meeting once. The best part was how the advising staff help you enroll in the right classes, right from the beginning, so you don't wast your time with the wrong classes.
B A+F Tuition & Financial Aid: I feel that there were some fees that could have been avoided or calculated into the tuition for the year before school had started.
A A+F Academic Flexibility: I chose this school for the culinary program. The chefs know most of have to take additional classes for academics and are very understanding. I had no trouble transferring the classes I have already taken and had alot of support from registration and student services with knowing what classes I need and how to set up a plan of action for the degree I am going for.
Career Services: I am currently a student at Bates and do not graduate until 2014.
A A+F Online Courses: Although I did very well with my online course, I prefer classes in person. I did learn alot and had access to my instructor for any questions, I like the chance to ask questions immediatly and counter any questions or answers I received with more questions or debates.
C A+F Campus Resources: our wireless network is not very powerful and very slow. the printers don't work very well and you have to pay for everything.
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Capital City Marathon May 18, 2003 Race Report by Bob Dolphin
When Lenore and I picked up my runner's packet at Sylvester Park in downtown Olympia on Saturday, the day before the May 18, 2003, Capital City Marathon, the weather was threatening. It was cold, overcast and windy. If these conditions continued to the next day, racing in the marathon, half marathon and 5 miler would likely be difficult.
Thankfully, the weather changed, and there were good running conditions by the 7:30 a.m. start. There was a light breeze, and the sky was clear. The temperature started out in the 50's and rose to the high 60's. It was an excellent day to run a marathon on a scenic course.
The race course in 2001 and 2002 was modified to bypass some road construction to repair earthquake damage. This year, with the construction completed, we were back to running on a newly paved road by Capital Lake in the first mile. This was easier than running up steep Capital Hill as we did during the construction period.
I started fairly close to the starting line, and this permitted me to greet and talk with many friends and acquaintances as they went by. However, it became discouraging when I realized that just about everyone I knew was in front of me. I was nearing the back of the pack as my pace dropped from a 9 to a 10 minute mile. I keep forgetting that great grandfathers, such as I am, don't run very fast......but I'm enjoying the marathon adventures.
My goal for the day was to run under four hours and thirty minutes so that I could qualify for the Boston Marathon on a certified course. I had missed it by a minute at the Vancouver International Marathon two weeks earlier, so I was hopeful that I could improve that much or more. I looked forward to seeing my half-way split so I could appraise my chances.
When the half arrived, I was at 2:09:00, which was slower by two and a half minutes than my Vancouver time. That wasn't encouraging. Doubling my split time and adding ten minutes for a potential 4:28 wasn't promising either. As it turned out, I held my pace and had a good second half. I lengthened my stride and caught up with runners slower than I, while being passed only by a few.
The last 10K went well (no "wall" or cramps), and I negotiated it in 62 minutes. After the half-mile run downhill by the State Capitol, I crossed the finish line in 4:19:48 (9:55)......my best time of the year! My second half was only a minute and a half slower than the first half. I finished 317th of 462 and first of two in the 70+M division. It had been a good run, and I have that Boston Marathon qualification time for 2004.
In the first mile the road curves around Capital Lake, and those of us in the back of the pack could look across the water to see the front runners. There were sizable gaps between the leaders. Only after the race was over did I learn that the front runner had been Phil Jesperson, 36, of Lacey, WA, who went on to win the race in 2:35:45 (5:56 pace). In his 5th win at the Capital City Marathon he had almost a two minute lead over second place finisher, Paul Abdalla, 41, of Duvall, WA, (2:37:32). Both had a comfortable lead over Craig Dickson, 36, of Tumwater, WA, who finished in third with a 2:43:29.
In the women's division Karen Steen, 38, of Olympia, WA, also won for the fifth time at her home town. In a time of 2:54:44 she was 6th overall. In 10th position was the second place woman, Carla Dunn, 32, of Nanaimo, BC, with a 2:57:37. Jennifer Teppo, 44, of Vancouver, WA, was third with a respectable 3:04:09.
I have never heard of a marathon in which both the first man and the first woman were five time winners of the event. It must be a record of some sort.
Some of our friends and acquaintances had records of their own. Congratulations to Mary Chen, 42, of Vancouver, WA, for finishing her first marathon. Heather Rogers, a student at Boston University, came to Olympia to complete her first marathon. Her cheering section came from California, Whidbey Island and Seattle.
It was Michael Dutton's 10th anniversary of his first marathon. Jim Boyd (still recovering from an injury) had an 8 minute negative split and ran 35 minutes faster than at Vancouver on May 4th! At age 75, June Curry of Kent was the oldest runner in the marathon.
Debi Durkee ran her 49th marathon and is on track to run her 50th on May 31st at the Newport Marathon that her husband directs. Fenny Roberts ran her 50th marathon. This includes quite a few ultramarathons where her record is 121 miles in a 24 hour race.
Steve Barrick ran his 95th marathon and will soon be eligible to join the 100 Marathon Club North America. Carol Dellinger ran her 160th marathon.
The friendly volunteers and the many cheering spectators made this marathon another great event. This was my 19th consecutive Capital City marathon, and I look forward to many more in the future.
Written by Bob Dolphin
Partial Results Capital City Marathon May 18, 2003 2:51:46 Christopher Warren, 35, 4th, Renton, WA 3:05:16 James Drew, 42, Port Orchard, WA 3:05:53 Chuck Cammack, 57, 1st, Albany, OR 3:12:41 Michael Wakabayashi, 55, 2nd, Spokane, WA 3:18:20 Tony Covarrubias, 42, Auburn, WA 3:20:33 Pete Hansen, 46, Ferndale, WA 3:22:17 Steve Barrick, 41, Kent, WA 3:36:15 Michael Dutton, 33, Bellingham, WA 3:36:21 Ron Fowler, 55, 5th, Seattle, WA 3:36:37 David Jones, 57, Seattle, WA 3:43:07 Lionel Wilridge, 68, 1st, Kent, WA 3:45:07 Greg Judge, 54, Renton, WA 3:50:31 Jim Kunz, 54, Seattle, WA 3:51:02 Herb Allen, 60, 2nd, Bainbridge Island, WA 3:53:32 Greg Kermgard, 55, Bellevue, WA 4:03:49 Sandra Noel, 53, 2nd, Vashon, WA 4:05:13 Mary Chen, 41, Vancouver, WA 4:12:43 Jim Boyd, 60, 4th, Seattle, WA/San Diego, CA 4:13:14 Dietrich Hildebrandt, 19, 4th, Milton-Freewater, OR 4:14:41 Jim Tucker, 53, Selah, WA 4:19:48 Bob Dolphin, 73, 1st, Renton/Yakima, WA 4:24:13 Richard Andrews, 58, Mukilteo, WA 4:27:00 Cheri Gillis, 51, 4th, Woodinville, WA 4:28:16 Jim Moffit, 56, Kent, WA 4:28:55 Jon Nevitt, 63, Burlington, WA 4:33:13 Ed Hansen, 56, Stayton, OR 4:41:32 Debi Durkee, 48, Newport, OR 4:42:12 John Bandur, 65, 2nd, Federal Way, WA 4:44:05 George Hansen, 59, Fircrest, WA 4:51:13 Heather Rogers, 22, Boston, MA/Seattle, WA 5:04:48 Jim Thatcher, 54, Olympia, WA 5:13:41 Bernadette Langdon, 49, Portland, OR 5:29:08 Fenny Roberts, 50, Salem, OR 5:29:08 Jim Scheer, 61, Vancouver, WA 6:13:53 June Curry, 75, Kent, WA 6:16:53 John Mandy, 70, Spanaway, WA 6:23:55 Carol Dellinger, 40, Spokane, WA Awards went five deep, except for early starters. Partial Results Half Marathon 1:30:18 Arthur Dunn, 43, Tacoma 1:31:10 Brian Fitzpatrick, 61, Federal Way 1:32:50 Ron Taylor, 60, Steilacoom 1:34:43 Richard Ketchum, 48, Kent 1:37:09 Robert McIntosh, 56 1:39:58 Lee Parker, 66, Auburn, 1:48:25 Larry Williams, 63, Seattle 1:57:16 Clyde Sparks, 68, Seattle 1:58:37 Denny Brooks, 45, Lacey 1:59:20 Wiley Hurst, 66, Yakima 1:59:59 Mike Lewis, 60, Enumclaw 2:02:29 Chuck Fletcher, 73, Olympia 2:12:02 Wilma Parker, 69, Auburn Partial Results 5 Miler 35:38 Jay Lindbergh, 51, 2nd, Lakewood 42:13 Richard Olafson, 69, 1st, Olympia 44:01 Sally Lindbergh, 57, 2nd, Tacoma 55:43 Barbara Olafson, 69, 1st, Olympia
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1 Fan
Closing Bell
TV Series (2002 - 2013)
The program covers the last hour of trading in the US stock markets, and the closing bells of the NYSE and NASDAQ Stock Market at 4pm ET. Bob Pisani reports live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Scott Wapner provides live reports from the NASDAQ. After 4pm ET, there is analysis of the day's trading, company results that are issued after the close of trade, and other business news.
Last Episode
[no episodes found]
Series Info
News/Talk Show
Feb. 04, 2002
Returning Series
120 min.
Character Guide
Series Fun Facts
- [no trivia found]


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Reblogged from Hollywood Life:
The actress looks totally glam on the mag's cover is voluminous waves and crimson lips. Do you love the look? Vote!
Emmy Rossum, 26, is a vision of Old Hollywood retro glamour and looks more gorgeous than ever! The star talks about her role in Shameless, upcoming films and and new album, which she released without the help of a record label.


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I find it ironic that the more things I have on my mind, the harder it is to think of something to write about.
Things are changing in the world. It is palpable. And I don't even watch the news. The only place I see news is on Facebook or Twitter. Avoiding news and advertising driven media in general has not left me as out of the loop as one might imagine. I don't seem to need a lot of details to know what I can do to help in a situation. If it's something I can take direct physical action to correct, I do. If it's something out of my control, I think positive thoughts around whatever it is, knowing that this is what I am called to do and that by focusing my intent, I put power behind those thoughts.
Marianne Williamson posted this on her Facebook page earlier today: "A revolution of love is sweeping the planet. Fear has material resources, but love has cosmic support. Ultimately, love will prevail because only love is real." I believe Marianne speaks the truth. I probably differ from her on some issues, but fundamentally, I believe her to be someone very much in the know on spiritual matters.
This revolution is happening largely because of websites like Facebook and Twitter and all the blogs people are writing. It is an amazing time in history because of technology. These global conversations that weren't possible ten years ago are changing our world…and speeding things up.
If you would have told me a year ago that I would be on Twitter and find myself truly engaged and caring about the people I am following, I'm not sure I would have believed it. A year ago I thought Twitter was a toy for people who thought of themselves as the cool kids and I didn't really want any part of it. I have changed my mind completely.
A few months ago I decided to give my Twitter account a chance and after a couple of weeks, I realized that I had the answer to my life's question at my disposal. I have carried around this message of unconditional love and forgiveness that I have wanted to share for years now and thought the only way was by writing a book. I'm still working on a book, but I am no longer attached to that being the only way to get my point across.
I have tweeted almost 1700 times in less than 6 months. Probably less than 5 months, actually. And of those, I'd say 99% of them were really positive, affirming tweets. Plus, I'm following almost 1200 people and of those I'd say half are doing the same thing I'm doing. It's an amazing thing to daily read so many affirmations, mantras, blessings, quotes and bits of really lovely poetry. It renews my hope in humanity. I hope the people who read my words are uplifted by them because I have gained so much from what I have been reading.
I feel this shift in consciousness happening and it's really exciting. It's not unlike watching some kind of entertainment event with millions of people who are all there for the same reason. The enthusiasm is infectious.
Spending the majority of one's time in the present moment, mindfully aware, makes every day an adventure.
I think the people of the world are weary and are looking for ways to feel better. As it begins to catch on that meditation and positive thinking produce miracles in people's lives, there are going to be more and more happy people on this planet.
For some reason, tough times seem to bring out the empathy in a lot of people. And things have been a little bumpy on the planet recently. As A Course in Miracles teaches: Anything that is not love is a call for love. I believe the things that have been happening in our world lately, from the natural disasters to the political unrest are a call for love of cosmic proportions. And I believe and can actually feel that call being answered, by regular people, just like me, who truly want to see every heart be at peace.
Every single good-hearted person who takes a moment to send up a prayer or affirmation for our world makes a difference. Now is a really good time to be thinking happy thoughts. We create what we focus on. We all have much to be grateful for and we need to stick together and save our world.
Blessing the earth and all the creatures on it.


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This subject contains letters Vincent wrote to his brother Theo and to his artistic friend, Anthon van Rappard during his stay at Etten. Just click a letter on the right and the letter will appear in a new window. A ll Vincent's letters are numbered, and we've chosen the 27 most important or remarkable letters to put on this site.
We know of approximately 50 letters he wrote during his stay at Etten, mostly to Theo, and just a few to his artistic friend Anthon Van Rappard. Vincent describes in his letters his everyday life, his work, sometimes illustrated by little sketches, but also his personal feelings about his parents. Very remarkable is his description of his love for Kee Vos and the reaction from his parents, causing the departure from the rectory at Etten to The Hague. You will find here most of the letters, written during his stay at Etten. |