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July 5, 2005
Fitzsimons Receives TWA Friend of Wildlife Award
SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission Chairman Joseph B.C. Fitzsimons received the Friend of Wildlife Award from the Texas Wildlife Association on June 25 at the association's annual conference.
Since 1996, the TWA Friend of Wildlife award has been given in most years to someone who had over-riding influence in on-the-ground wildlife habitat conservation in the state.
"With Fitzsimons' longstanding record on private land conservation and his extensive work in the policy arena, he was long overdue to be given this award," said Neal Wilkins, TWA vice president and associate department head for wildlife and fisheries extension at Texas A&M University. "This is an award that is not given every year, and it's very hard to get. We receive numerous nominations every year, but the voting structure requires nearly unanimous agreement. It's recognition from the largest wildlife organization in the state of Chairman Fitzsimons' work in land stewardship and conservation."
"Chairman Fitzsimons has been a champion of private land stewardship and our Texas hunting heritage," said Kirby Brown, TWA executive vice president. "His philosophy matches the profile of our TWA members. We appreciate, respect and honor him with this award. TWA Friend of Wildlife Award recognizes people who really stepped forward both in their own stewardship but also in outreach to others to expand the philosophy of good land management and good habitat management for wildlife."
Fitzsimons of San Antonio is an attorney and rancher with a long interest in wildlife and the outdoors. He is chairman of the nine-member commission appointed by the governor to oversee the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
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quote:Originally posted by Pasty7looks like its going to be Carey!Hello, 911? It's an emergency, my teddy bear's been kidnapped! [pause] Hello? Hello?
quote:Originally posted by mandree888Luongo on his win yesterday: "It's nice. It's my first win in three weeksLOL at least he has a good attitude
quote:Originally posted by ryan93Looks like its going to be Price in the opener, then Lou in game 2.
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Illustration copyright 2002 by Nucleus
Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
When a man becomes aroused, his brain sends nerve impulses that
increase blood flow to his penis. The blood fills the spongy chambers (corpora
cavernosa) in the penis, causing it to expand and become rigid. The veins that
would normally drain blood from the penis constrict, trapping the blood inside
and maintaining the erection.
After ejaculation or when the man is no longer sexually aroused, the
arteries narrow, the veins expand, and the blood drains out of the penis. The
penis returns to its normal size and is no longer rigid.
Last Revised:
May 14, 2012
Healthwise Staff
Medical Review:
E. Gregory Thompson, MD - Internal Medicine & Christopher G. Wood, MD, FACS - Urology, Oncology
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text:
Did you see I'm Still Here (2010), the mockumentary chronicling Joaquin Phoenix's supposed retirement from acting to try his hand at rap music? Well, what made that movie fascinating was how it was edited in such a way as to make it impossible to tell whether the Oscar-nominated thespian was faking his conversion to hip-hop artist. Eventually, Joaquin did return to making movies, exposing the inscrutable biopic directed by Casey Affleck as just an elaborate hoax.
"Is It Real or Is It Mockumentary?" Headscratcher Comes to DVD
April 13, 2017 By


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Net Price Calculator
In a few minutes, you can estimate how much Plymouth State will cost you and your family.
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Students who have attempted to earn any credit hours at another higher education institution after graduating high school.
Students who have attempted to earn less than 12 credit hours are eligible for first-year student scholarships and should use the First Year Student Calculator.


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"I just received my island and opened the boxes. I'm disappointed in that the color is much lighter than the pictures. Will this oiled finish take a tung oil that has some tint to it?"
Just what was needed in the kitchen to give a bit more working area, I put a few stools by it so when guest come by they can sit in the kitchen and not be in the way. Love it....
This user earned $2.00 Club O Rewards for writing this review.Learn More
Catskill Craftsman Butcher Block Drop Leaf Kitchen Islandby Catskill Craftsman
ITEM#: 14671089This rugged Catskill Craftsman kitchen island is constructed of durable and good-looking yellow birch with nickel-finished hardware. A butcher block top and plenty of storage space makes this movable island the perfect addition to any kitchen.
- Materials: Yellow birch/ metal/ wood veneers
- Finish: Oiled
- Butcher block top
- Large drawer
- Drop leaf
- Spice rack
- Towel bar
- Locking casters
- Adjustable interior shelves
- Nickel-plated hardware
- Care instructions: Apply mineral oil frequently to prevent dry-out
- Measures 28 inches deep with the leaf up and 18 inches deep with the leaf down
- Dimensions: 34.5 inches high x 44.375 inches wide x 28 inches deep
|Assembly Required
|Base Material
|Island Type
|Product Features
|Made in USA
|Top Material
|See Details
|30 day Limited Manufacturer
|Model Number
|Country of Origin
|United States
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Customer Reviews
Most Recent
Just what was needed in the kitchen to give a bit more working area, I put a few stools by it so when guest come by they can sit in the kitchen and not be in the way. Love it.Read More
Fits together well. Assembly instructions are very thorough. The back was damaged so I contacted customer service--I received a replacement within one week. Good looking addition to my small kitchen and it stood the test of my husband rolling out a pie shell--his comment was it was very stable. I am not fond of the pegs used to hold the shelves. I would have preferred holes drilled part way through the side panels (and more of them) so that the metal shelf supports could be installed. That would provide greater adjustability for shelf placement.Read More
Very nice solid kitchen islandRead More
Catskill Island
Good quality Island. Most is solid wood but there are a few pieces that are manufactured wood covered with veneer. Assembly took about 3 hours taking my time. Overall I am fairly well satisfied with this islandRead More
Perfect Addition to Our Kitchen
Just Love this Kitchen Island! It fits perfectly in our kitchen and has lots of storage space. Came Exactly as describedRead More
Most Helpful
Great added addition to our kitchen.
Nice craftsmanship and a beautiful piece of furniture. Had an issue with one part, but received it from the manufacturer within 4 days of calling.Read More
Lacks Quality for the Money
For nearly $***the quality is not there. The finish is rough, mostly particle board and I felt that it was not a solid unit based on how it had to be assembled using hardware that was not appropriate for some of the connections. Most screws were flathead where the connection should have used a round head or truss head. The bottom shelf and dividers are not solidly attached to the unit when installed. During my assembly I used additional screws and wood glue in order to achieve a more solid unit that would take some hard use. The drawer construction is not of quality for the money spent. Again for the money I recommend shopping locally and buying a unit that you can see and buy fully assembled. A positive point was that the assembly instructions were very clear.Read More
great kitchen cart
great kitchen cart for the money. It is all wood expect for the back.Read More
Drawer is very hard
We still cannot get the drawer to work despite the video. Overall it is a good product. Glad we bought it.Read More
Good, solid kitchen island, complicated assembly.
Up front, anyone ordering this island needs to know that assembly will be very time consuming and involve a lot of parts. It arrives in two flat, heavy boxes and took about three hours for one person (an engineer) to assemble with a second person staying one step ahead reading instructions and organizing components. You will need to supply your own hammer and screw drivers. The directions are ok - some sections were not clear and took longer than necessary to figure out. But if you take your time and carefully read through everything first, you should be ok. Once the unit is assembled, it looks very nice - solid wood with a substantial butcher block top. So why only four stars? Despite being happy with the piece, the effort to put it together definitely weighs into this review. Also, I would have liked for the back of the unit to have the same smooth finish as the front and sides. Instead, it is more unfinished with a slightly rougher feel. Since I am using this as a breakfast bar in the center of my kitchen, the back is visible. If you will be placing this against a wall, then it won't matter. Most people will never even notice the difference but just know what to expect if you plan to keep the breakfast bar extended. If the features suit your needs and you are up for the challenge of assembling this, then you will be happy with the end result.Read More
Questions & Answers
Hello mscorp1. For assistance with this issue please contact Customer Care at the number below. I hope this helps, thank you for shopping with us! U.S. and Canada Toll free: 1-800-The-BIG-O (843-2446)
"Why did you choose this product?"
Drop leaf, right size, best material/color match with kitchen, simple style.
All wood (it least the description say so) and if not I will be extremely unhappy. Made in USA, right?
I was going to have an "L" shape bar/peninsula, put into my "eat in" kitchen, but after much consideration of space and the permanence of the peninsula, I opted to put in the bar and thought that this Butcher Block Island would give me flexibility with space while adding additional storage and increased countertop availability.
meets my needs.... new home tiny kitchen no counter space/limited cupboard space. it seems really sturdy
"What are the dimensions of the shelves and how many shelves are there?"
Hello Gorja, there are 6 adjustable interior shelves and their dimensions are 38 inches long and 20 inches deep. Thank you for shopping with us!
"Does the whole cabinet require oiling or is it just the butcher block top. How often?"
If you want to use the butcher block top for food prep, use some butcher block oil on it every six months or so. If food prep is not a concern, you can use tung oil or another finish of your choice. The cabinet itself already has a nice finish on it so no need to do anything there.
"do the drawers have rollers in them?"
Hello peacock01, This beautiful kitchen island has received great reviews! Yes, the drawers do run on metal glides with rollers. I hope this helps. Thanks for shopping with us.
"It doesn't make sense that the cabinet would be 38" with the drop leaf folded down. Can you please verify how deep this cabinet is with the leaf folded DOWN? Thanks."
Thank you for your question donnelld. We have verified that with the drop leaf up, the cabinet 28 inches and with it down, it is 18 inches. We will update the information. Have a great day.
"How deep is the cabinet with the top folded down?"
It is 38 inches deep.
Shopping Tips & Inspiration
Best Kitchen Island for Your Home
Best Kitchen Island for Your Home from Overstock.com. Our guides provide customers with information about kitchen islands.
Kitchen Island Buying Guide
Kitchen Island Buying Guide from Overstock.com. Our guides provide customers with information about kitchen islands.
Tips on Organizing a Kitchen Cart
Tips on Organizing a Kitchen Cart from Overstock.com. Our guides provide customers with tips on organizing a kitchen cart.
How to Add a Kitchen Island
How to Add a Kitchen Island from Overstock.com. If your kitchen has little counter space but a lot of floor space, adding a kitchen island is a smart way to increase your work and storage areas.
Tips and Tricks to Decorating Small Rooms
Careful thought and planning will help you get what you need and want from your small apartment, giving you the space you need to live your life to the fullest.
New Home Essentials
Moving into your first home or apartment is an exciting time in anyone's life. These ideas will get you started in your new space. Let us be the first to say, "Welcome Home!"
Tips on Choosing Kitchen Furniture
Tips on Choosing Kitchen Furniture from Overstock.com. Our guides provide customers with tips on choosing kitchen furniture.
Best Kitchen Furniture for a Small Kitchen
Best Kitchen Furniture for a Small Kitchen from Overstock.com. Our guides provide customers with information about the best kitchen furniture for a small kitchen.
Mid-Century Modern Decorating on a Budget
You don't have to spend a fortune to decorate like a designer. Easily recreate this chic Mid-Century look with budget-friendly items that pack a style punch. From living room to bedroom, our style inspiration will help you achieve this high-end look, no matter your budget.
How to Decorate with a Monochromatic Color Scheme
With a simple color palette leading the way, monochromatic design lets you get creative with textures, designs, and contrast. Take a look at three different rooms where we let one color take the wheel and show you how to create a monochromatic design in your own home.
Urban Farmhouse Kitchen
Evoke a sense of warmth and comfort combined with decorative elements in this jesGORDON farmhouse kitchen.
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** Most Oversize orders are delivered within 1-4 weeks. Some orders may take 6 weeks to be delivered.


text:
A recessed-mount exit sign with emergency battery backup mode.More Details >
This exit light offers a sleek, recessed install. LED illumination means energy efficient operation and long lamp life. New design is easily detachable for maintenance, and serviceable from below. Rechargeable battery provides emergency backup mode. LED indicator light and push-to-test button. Red lettering on one side of UV-stabilized clear acrylic. Universal transformer for 120 or 277 VAC.


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Started this discussion. Last reply by Michelle Phillips Feb 17, 2014. 2 Replies 0 Likes
I am very interested in learning more on what all I can do with SSR boards.If anybody is better educated on all the different things these SSR boards are capable of doing, your input would be greatly…Continue
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Jurassic Park (Widescreen Collector's Edition)
To be honest, I'm sort of mad at myself for forgetting to recommend this one. For me, it's one of the most memorable films of the 09s. I mean, as a 9-year-old boy, I would have swornt hat this was a documentary -- the dinosaurs were too massive and to real looking to be fake.


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Topic: New member - not diagnosed
Hi! I'm a new member and looking for information.
I have not been diagnosed and don't have any jaundice or itching, etc. But my doctor is suspicious for cancer and has me scheduled for tests.
Last Christmas I had pretty painful bouts in my right side and upper right back. I went to ER and they did an MRCP and came rushing in saying I had stones in my bile duct, sludge in my gallbladder and a bile duct stricture.
Actually I wasn't concerned because I had had a bile duct stricture 5 years prior. The doctor did an ERCP and snipped it open and that was that. I didn't have any factors that they could say why I had the strictures. I have my gallbladder, no chronic pancreatitis, etc. the GI after first stricture said it was odd but I would never have it again. Well, obviously that was wrong.
So I had ERCP and they took stones out and opened stricture.
But in the meantime, they sent in liver, pancreas, bile duct surgeon. He feels I need another ERCP and do some brushings. He had another MRCP done and I have a stone in bile duct - new since Christmas.
He wants me to have my gallbladder out and then possibly put in some stents.
I feel that if I had another stricture 5 years ago, it's not a big deal, especially since I don't have jaundice or itching.
But I'm doing research and hoped I can get done good advice here!


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Recipe: Almond Flan à la Fonda San Miguel
Updated 10:50 am, Friday, May 24, 2013
Makes 9 servings
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups sweetened condensed milk, such as Eagle Brand
1 cup whole milk
2/3 cup blanched, slivered almonds
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Orchid and mint sprigs or toasted almond slivers and whipped cream, for garnish (optional)
Instructions: Heat oven to 350 degrees and place an oven rack in the middle position.
Put sugar in a round 9-inch metal cake pan. Use tongs to place pan directly over medium heat to caramelize the sugar. Heat until sugar liquefies, 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. (Do not touch the melted sugar; it will cause serious burns.)
When hot liquid sugar in pan is golden brown, remove pan from heat to a rack to cool and harden.
In blender or food processor, combine sweetened condensed milk, whole milk, almonds, eggs, egg yolks and vanilla. Process on medium speed until well blended. Pour custard mixture over prepared caramel in baking pan. Place cake pan in a larger, deeper pan and pour about 1 inch of hot water in outer pan to make a water bath. Cover flan loosely with a foil tent and place larger pan on middle rack of oven.
Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until flan is set in center. Remove from oven and water bath and cool flan in the pan on a rack at room temperature. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, at least 1 hour.
Food & Drink Channel
Run a knife or thin spatula around the edge of the flan to release it from the sides of the pan. Place a 10-inch or larger serving platter on top of the pan. Turn platter and cake pan over and gently remove the cake pan, leaving flan on the serving platter. Using a flexible spatula, scrape up as much of the caramel as possible from the bottom of the pan and pour it over the flan. Garnish, if desired. Cut into triangular wedges and serve. Cover and refrigerate any leftovers for up to 1 week.
Per serving: 370 calories (30.4 percent calories from fat), 13 g fat, 155 mg cholesterol, 120 mg sodium, 54 g carbohydrates, 1 g dietary fiber, 11 g protein.
From "Sweet on Texas" by Denise Gee


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time : minutes
difficulty : ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
hazards : washi tape addiction
would i do it again? : again and again!
you can see our collection of washi-taped switchplates here.
cute idea! might do it to all the light switches in the house and see how long it takes the boyf to notice!ReplyDelete
thanks! ...and please let me know how yours turn out! :) :)ReplyDelete
I just bought a bunch of these tapes when I was in Tokyo. I had no idea what to do with them, but thought they were adorable. Thanks for the idea!ReplyDelete
good luck, committedgifts! i've found all SORTS of uses for them around the house -- they're just so pretty and i can't resist! :)ReplyDelete
I love this idea! Now I just need to get me some washi tape.. Haha :)ReplyDelete
thanks Farhana! i'd be happy to recommend a couple of etsy sellers if you're interested.ReplyDelete
what a wonderful idea!!!!ReplyDelete
thanks so much crowdsiteES!ReplyDelete
if i am renting does the tape come off in case the landlord frown on them?ReplyDelete
hi anonymous, these are extremely renter-friendly! they have a similar tackiness to masking tape so they are easy-as-pie to remove. another benefit of the low-tackiness is that it's easy to reposition if you make a mistake. good luck!ReplyDelete
Left over wallpaper and wrapping paper are also great to use to cover switchplates.I have some in my kitchen that I have covered w/Christmas wrap. They look so cute and cost next to nothing. A switchplate costs less than a dollar so I just swap them out rather than remove the paper after the holidays.ReplyDelete
great idea, anonymous..especially the holiday themed switchplates. there are so many gorgeous and festive wrapping papers to choose from!ReplyDelete
so cute! where do you buy your washi tape from?ReplyDelete
thank you jenn! i buy most of my washi tape from PrettyTape on etsy - she has a great selection and quick shipping!ReplyDelete
When I redecorated my room I liked my new quilt so much that I photocopied it on my printer (in color) and pasted it onto my light switch and outlet covers. It turned out really good.ReplyDelete
such a great idea!! i love the creativity!Delete
I love this tutorial! I have tons of washi tape, and this was my first time using them - and I am addicted. Haha. I have done five switch plates this morning :)
I did notice that after a little while, some of the tape that was rather close to the edge of switchplate is peeling off a little (since the edge of the tape is right where the curve of the plate is). Do you think it would be safe to cover these in some sort of clear sealant - like mod podge?
aaagh, a convert! :) :) i'm so glad you had fun doing them! i have one switchplate in which the side constantly peels off, i know what you're talking about. i think you just have to pay attn to tape placement so that the edge of the strip doesn't fall too close to that curve and you'll be good to go. i think you can mod podge over - the only thing i would worry about is the dye in the washi tape running? definitely try a small test first! and of course, you won't be able to reuse the switchplate, but they're cheap anyway so it doesn't really matter. :) i'd love to know how it goes!Delete
I would prep the plate by wiping down with rubbing alcohol and letting it air dry. Years ago they use to sell clear plate covers, to cover the plates from getting dirty and protect them if they were wallpapered. If they still sell them this would work to protect the tape design.Delete
great suggestion!Delete
thank you nikki!Delete
What a cool idea! I have not tried washi tape yet, in honest I am afraid of the addiction I have witnessed, but this might make me have to buy some! LOL!ReplyDelete
ooh, i hope so! good luck! :)Delete
Cute! I really liked the washi tape you used here. It's simple, but perked up the wall nicely. From what you've posted before, the washi tapes are easy to remove, right? I'm curious if they leave marks on the surface when they're removed like Scotch tapes do. Thanks for the advice of getting them screwed back by hand! Something like that would've escaped my attention, and I would've messed up my handiwork. Since they're easy to remove, I think I'm going to use Mod Podge, so they won't get messed up after installation.
Switch Plates
thank you, grace!Delete
how much do these cost?ReplyDelete
hi Caroline, rolls of washi tape average about $3-4. I'm not sure how much tape is on each roll. they do seem to last a while though! :)Delete
How cute! Sometimes the smallest things can make a huge difference. I am off to look at all my switchplate covers! Thanks for the cool idea.
thanks cecelia, i'd love to see pictures!Delete
Looks great! Very creative! I would love it if you joined and contribute your awesome posts at my link party at City of Creative Dreams, starts on Fridays :D Hope to see you there at City of Creative Dreams Link Party.ReplyDelete


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What is Life, and How Should We Look for it Elsewhere in the Universe?
David Grinspoon, Curator of Astrobiology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Adjunct Professor of Astrophysical and Planetary Science at the University of Colorado
Friday, May 27, 2011, 3:30pm (refreshments at 3:15pm)
Spanos Auditorium
This seminar is part of the Jones Seminars on Science, Technology, and Society series
As we explore the universe, we are on the lookout for the signs of life on other planets. But what exactly are we looking for, and how would we recognize it? Since we have only one example of a planet with life, how do we know what we will have in common with alien organisms, and what our planet will have in common with other inhabited worlds? How can we search without simply projecting ourselves out into the universe? I will discuss different attempts to define life, our current efforts to search for life elsewhere, what we have learned from studying exotic life-forms on Earth, and how the quest for alien life sharpens our ideas about the nature of life and the place of Earth and humanity in the universe.
About the Speaker
David Grinspoon is Curator of Astrobiology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and Adjunct Professor of Astrophysical and Planetary Science at the University of Colorado. A frequent advisor to NASA, Grinspoon is lead scientist for astrobiology on an instrument that will fly on NASA's next Mars rover, and Interdisciplinary Scientist on the European Space Agency's Venus Express mission. His papers have been published in Nature, Science, and numerous other journals. His first book, Venus Revealed, was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist. His latest book, Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life, won a PEN Literary Award for Research Nonfiction. Grinspoon's writing has appeared in Slate, Scientific American, Natural History, Astronomy, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, and the New York Times. He is a contributing editor for Sky & Telescope Magazine, where he authors the monthly "Cosmic Relief" column. Dr. Grinspoon has been featured on numerous TV and radio shows, and is a regular astrobiology correspondent for ABC Radio. Grinspoon was awarded the 2006 Carl Sagan Medal for Public Communication of Planetary Science by the American Astronomical Society. He holds degrees in Philosophy of Science and Planetary Science from Brown University and a doctorate in Planetary Sciences from the University of Arizona.


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The terrain of flans, panna cottas, and otherwise jiggly desserts can be tricky and divisive: but when these desserts are perfect, they are breathtaking. Picture, then, the sneak-attack of an incredibly unappealing colored treat in the cooler at Paris hipster-bento shop Nanashi. Specifically a plastic tub of something inarguably grey and speckled, topped rather confusingly with items that looked sweet: blackberries, blueberries, and a dollop of whipped creme.
What is that, I fumbled Frenchishly towards the cashier? "Panna-cotta du sésame noire," she replied. I'd take one. Or, as it would turn out later, I'd have taken two hundred if I could. This thing was amazing.
Supple and tending towards more pudding-like on the panna cotta scale of jiggliness, this entrancing concoction perfectly balances the toasty notes of black sesame with supple cream flavors. It's both beguilingly light and full-flavored, while also staying in my perfect zone of not-too-sweet. (The whip on top is probably sweeter than the panna cotta itself.) It's a feat of Asian sweets fusion—and easily the most wonderful grey dessert I've ever seen.
57 rue Charlot, 75003 Paris, France (map)
01 44 61 45 49; nanashi.fr
About the author: Liz Clayton drinks, photographs and writes about coffee, tea, and treats all over the world, though she pretends to live in Brooklyn, New York. She is currently compiling photographs of the best coffee in the world to be published by Presspop this spring.


text:
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 6/9/2013 (1446 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
2Perhaps it's too quaint, a bit antiquated, and not in keeping with the hip/edgy/provocative nature of the current crop of boundary-pushing dramas that are the focus of most critical reviews these days. Maybe it's an adjective whose best years are behind it.
For today's TV column, however, it feels like just exactly the right word, because my goodness, Last Tango in Halifax is a lovely television program.
This new Brit-import drama, which premi®res Sunday at 8 p.m., on PBS, is as warm and charming and captivating and inspiring and, well, as lovely as any TV program could possibly be. It's a beautifully written and flawlessly performed celebration of the timeless nature of love, and it certainly deserves consideration in any discussion of this fall's best new prime-time programs.
Last Tango in Halifax stars Sir Derek Jacobi (The Borgias, The King's Speech) and Anne Reid (Upstairs, Downstairs) as Alan and Celia, a pair of widowed 70-somethings who courted briefly way back when they were teenagers in the early 1950s.
Each has secretly carried a torch for the other since a not-quite-random turn of events sent their lives spinning in separate directions, and now, fully six decades later, fate and luck and, thanks to their grandkids' prodding, Facebook have brought them back together.
At first, both Alan and Celia are a bit coy when they describe the new "pen-pal" relationship they've cultivated online. Perhaps it's a means to keep their meddlesome daughters from asking too many questions; more likely, however, the vague descriptions they each offer about this person they sort of think they might kind of remember from way back when are a gentle way of shielding their own hearts from disappointment should it turn out the other is, 60 years down life's winding road, either uninterested or uninteresting.
Secretly, however, each has vivid memories of the other and can't wait for an opportunity to meet face to face. And when they finally do, well, it's magic.
Because of their shared history, it can't be described as love at first sight, but what happens when Alan and Celia get together is something very special. There's a wonder and an unrestrained joy to the reunion, and the longer they talk, the more they're able to open up about the feelings they've harboured for each other all these years.
It doesn't take long for Alan and Celia to decide they belong together and that, given their ages, they should get down to the business of being in love as quickly as possible.
It also doesn't take long for their daughters -- Caroline (Sarah Lancashire), Celia's ambitious and tightly wound offspring, and Gillian (Nicola Walker), Alan's world-weary and too-young-widowed daughter -- to declare this newfound "love" as a trifle, a passing fancy that the silly old folks will soon leave behind.
There's nothing silly about it, of course. The silliness, and most of the sadness, in Last Tango in Halifax is found in the subplots involving the over-complicated lives of the younger folks. For Alan and Celia, what this is about is the endurance and endless possibilities of love.
The screenplay for this six-part series, written by Sally Wainwright, is a restrained and thoughtful masterpiece, but most of the credit for Last Tango's charm belongs to Jacobi and Reid, who fill each scene they share with perfect, wonderful moments.
There's a delicate intricacy to their work here; much of the acting they do involves close-ups in which each is reacting wordlessly to a thought or an feeling the other has unearthed or rekindled. Watching this pair of experienced hands explore their characters' emotions is a rare treat because every beat and every nuance is perfectly, genuinely delivered.
It's love, plain and simple. And it's lovely.
email@example.com Twitter: @BradOswald


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Celebrities and Their Babies Over the Weekend
Celebaby Roundup
Celebaby Roundup
Basketball season is underway, which means we're sure to see lots of celebmamas and papas taking their tots to Lakers and Knicks games galore. David Beckham treated his eldest son, Brooklyn, to courtside seats and a caramel apple. Other families spent the weekend jet-setting around the world. The Stefani Rossdale crew is jammin' in Hawaii while Britney and her entourage took a private plane to Louisiana for some down-home family time. Check out what other celebabies did this weekend in my slideshow!
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Nature Talks Back
Posted on May 8, 2013
Images (left to right): Elizabeth Keithline's Rooster II, spray paint on canvas and paper, and Alison Williams's Glass House #3, 2011, mixed media
August 24–October 5, 2013
Beard & Weil Galleries, Watson Fine Arts
In recognition of Wheaton's new award-winning Mars Center for Science and Technology, Nature Talks Back kicks off a four-part series of exhibitions in the Beard and Weil Galleries that explore the connections between science and art. Each exhibition will showcase the work of artists who draw from science in their content, process, and/or methodologies.
Through sculpture, video, photography, and installation, Nature Talks Back examines the age-old tension between culture and nature. Why do we think of nature as posed against industry and culture? Does there need to be an either/or? Where is the balance?


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For most of our jewellery the metal used is silver. We add extra shine and durability by having them plated in either Rhodium, 18k Yellow gold, or 18k Rose-gold, but we'll elaborate on that in the following paragraphs. As you will see, the plating adds a lot of benefits to the finished product.
We also have a small range of brass or other alloys bijoux. When we saw the models we just couldn't help ourselves, so we advise you not to judge. They caught our eye and stole our hearts, and we believe they will have the same impact on you.
It's important to know that silver is one of the only 4 precious metals used in jewelry. The other 3 are platinum, gold, and (less spread) palladium. Jewelry made of precious metal is considered to be and referred to as fine jewelry. However, in comparison to gold and platinum, silver is much more affordable. And nowadays it can have the same look as gold because of the special plating techniques. It can be plated in Rhodium, yellow gold, rose gold etc.
Rhodium, for instance, is a silvery-white precious metal, member of the platinum family. White gold is actually an alloy of Gold and Rhodium, and it's also often plated with a thin rhodium layer to improve its appearance, while sterling silver is often rhodium plated for tarnish resistance. It is the material most often used to plate jewelry because of its highly-reflective finish, hardness, and corrosion resistance. It is also hypoallergenic, and will prevent the jewelry from leaving a greenish tinge on the skin. Thus, Rhodium plated silver is the best type of jewelry because it will not tarnish (it doesn't fade or become darker), looks almost the same as white gold, and costs a tenth of the price.
In case you decide you aren't happy with the plating of a piece, it can be done/redone by a qualified jeweler, and can even be removed if desired.
But this is only half the story, because no ring would be complete without a beautiful stone or set of crystals. And we truly have a wide array of them, as you will notice while visiting our site.
From the beginning we just want to assure you that all the stones we have are natural semi-precious gemstones. Please take into account that they are all fragile, and we advise you to carefully read the care instructions.
One of the most used gemstone that you will encounter on our website under many shapes and colors is cubic zirconia. Single crystals of the cubic phase of zirconia are commonly used as diamond simulant in jewellery. Like diamond, cubic zirconia has a cubic crystal structure and a high index of refraction. Visually discerning a good quality cubic zirconia gem from a diamond is difficult, and most jewellers will have a thermal conductivity tester to identify cubic zirconia by its low thermal conductivity (diamond is a very good thermal conductor). This state of zirconia is commonly called cubic zirconia, CZ, or zircon by jewellers, but the last name is not chemically accurate. Zircon is actually the mineral name for naturally occurring zirconium silicate. We will continue to list some of the stones and crystals you can discover in our jewellery.
Lapis lazuli, or lapis for short, is a deep blue semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense colour.
Lapis lazuli was being mined in the Sar-i Sang mines and in other mines in the Badakhshan province in northeast Afghanistan as early as the 7th millennium BC. Lapis beads have been found at neo-lithic burials in Mehrgarh, the Caucasus, and even as far from Afghanistan as Mauritania.[3] It was used for the eyebrows on the funeral mask of King Tutankhamun (1341–1323 BC). At the end of the Middle Ages, lapis lazuli began to be exported to Europe, where it was ground into powder and made into ultramarine, the finest and most expensive of all blue pigments. It was used by the most important artists of the Renaissance and Baroque, including Masaccio, Perugino, Titian and Vermeer, and was often reserved for the clothing of the central figure of the painting, especially the Virgin Mary. Today mines in northeast Afghanistan and Pakistan are still the major source of lapis lazuli. Important amounts are also produced from mines west of Lake Baikal in Russia, and in the Andes mountains in Chile. Smaller quantities are mined in Italy, Mongolia, the United States and Canada.
Agate is a cryptocrystalline variety of silica, chiefly chalcedony, characterised by its fineness of grain and brightness of colour. Although agates may be found in various kinds of rock, they are classically associated with volcanic rocks and can be common in certain metamorphic rocks. The stone was given its name by Theophrastus, a Greek philosopher and naturalist, who discovered the stone along the shore line of the river Achates in present-day Sicily, sometime between the 4th and 3rd centuries BC. Colourful agates and other chalcedonies were obtained over 3,000 years ago from the Achates River, now called Dirillo. Agate was one of the most common materials used in the art of hardstone carving, and has been recovered at a number of ancient sites, indicating its widespread use in the ancient world; for example, archaeological recovery at the Knossos site on Crete illustrates its role in Bronze Age Minoan culture.
Spinel crystallizes in the isometric system, common crystal forms being octahedra, usually twinned. It has an imperfect octahedral cleavage and a conchoidal fracture. Its hardness is 8, its specific gravity is 3.5–4.1 and it is transparent to opaque with a vitreous to dull luster. It may be colorless, but usually it's found in various shades of red, blue, green, yellow, brown, or black. There is a unique natural white spinel, now lost, that surfaced briefly in what is now Sri Lanka. Some spinels are among the most famous gemstones: Among them are the Black Prince's Ruby and the "Timur ruby" in the British Crown Jewels, and the "Côte de Bretagne", formerly from the French Crown jewels. The Samarian Spinel is the largest known spinel in the world, weighing 500 carats (100 g). The transparent red spinels were called spinel-rubies or balas rubies. In the past, before the arrival of modern science, spinels and rubies were equally known as rubies. After the 18th century the word ruby was only used for the red gem variety of the mineral corundum and the word spinel came to be used. "Balas" is derived from Balascia, the ancient name for Badakhshan, a region in central Asia situated in the upper valley of the Kokcha River, one of the principal tributaries of the Oxus River. The Badakshan Province was for centuries the main source for red and pink spinels.
Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminium. It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gem and ornamental stone for thousands of years owing to its unique hue. In recent times, turquoise, like most other opaque gems, has been devalued by the introduction of treatments, imitations, and synthetics onto the market. The substance has been known by many names, but the word turquoise, which dates to the 17th century, is derived from the French turques for "Turks", because the mineral was first brought to Europe from Turkey, from the mines in historical Khorasan Province of Persia. Pliny the Elder referred to the mineral as callais and the Aztecs knew it as chalchihuitl. Even the finest of turquoise is fracturable, reaching a maximum hardness of just under 6, or slightly more than window glass. Turquoise almost never forms single crystals and all of its properties are highly variable. These properties are dependent on grain size. The lustre of turquoise is typically waxy to subvitreous, and transparency is usually opaque, but may be semi-translucent in thin sections. Colour is as variable as the mineral's other properties, ranging from white to a powder blue to a sky blue, and from a blue-green to a yellowish green.
Amethyst is a violet variety of quartz often used in jewellery. Amethyst is a semiprecious stone and the traditional birthstone for February. The hardness of the mineral is the same as quartz, thus it is suitable for use in jewellery making. Amethyst occurs in primary hues from a light pinkish violet to a deep purple. It may exhibit one or both secondary hues, red and blue. The best varieties of Amethysts can be found in Siberia, Sri Lanka, Brazil and the Far East. The ideal grade is called "Deep Siberian" and has a primary purple hue of around 75–80%, with 15–20% blue and (depending on the light source) red secondary hues. Amethyst can fade in tone if overexposed to light sources and can be artificially darkened with adequate irradiation.
Tanzanite is the blue/violet variety of the mineral zoisite, and it belongs to the epidote group. It was discovered in the Mererani Hills of Manyara Region in Northern Tanzania in 1967, near the city of Arusha and Mount Kilimanjaro. Tanzanite is used as a gemstone, and naturally formed tanzanite is extremely rare, still found only in the Mererani Hills. Tanzanite is noted for its remarkably strong trichroism (which means it shows three colours), appearing alternately sapphire blue, violet and burgundy depending on crystal orientation. Tanzanite can also appear differently when viewed under alternate lighting conditions. It is usually a reddish brown in its rough state, requiring artificial heat treatment to bring out the blue violet of the stone. In 2002, the American Gem Trade Association chose Tanzanite as a December birthstone, the first change to their birthstone list since 1912.
Citrine is a variety of quartz whose color ranges from a pale yellow to brown due to ferric impurities. Natural citrines are rare, and most commercial citrines are heat-treated amethysts or smoky quartzes. However, a heat-treated amethyst will have small lines in the crystal, as opposed to a natural citrine's cloudy or smokey appearance. It is nearly impossible to tell cut citrine from yellow topaz visually, but they differ in hardness. Brazil is the leading producer of citrine, with much of its production coming from the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The name is derived from Latin citrina which means "yellow" and is also the origin of the word "citron." Sometimes citrine and amethyst can be found together in the same crystal, which is then referred to as ametrine.
Topaz is a silicate mineral of aluminium and fluorine. Pure topaz is colorless and transparent but is usually tinted by impurities; typical topaz is wine red, yellow, pale grey, reddish-orange, or blue brown. It can also be made white, pale green, blue, gold, pink (rare), reddish-yellow or opaque to transparent/translucent. Orange topaz, also known as precious topaz, is the traditional November birthstone, the symbol of friendship, and the state gemstone of the US state of Utah.
Imperial topaz is yellow, pink (rare, if natural) or pink-orange. Brazilian Imperial Topaz can often have a bright yellow to deep golden brown hue, sometimes even violet. Many brown or pale topazes are treated to make them bright yellow, gold, pink or violet colored. Some imperial topaz stones can fade on exposure to sunlight for an extended period of time. Blue topaz is the state gemstone of the US state of Texas. Naturally occurring blue topaz is quite rare. Typically, colorless, gray or pale yellow and blue material is heat treated and irradiated to produce a more desired darker blue. Mystic topaz is colorless topaz which has been artificially coated giving it the desired rainbow effect. Nicols, the author of one of the first systematic treatises on minerals and gemstones, dedicated two chapters to the topic in 1652. In the Middle Ages, the name topaz was used to refer to any yellow gemstone, but in modern times it denotes only the silicate described above.
Jade is an ornamental rock. The term jade is applied to two different metamorphic rocks that are made up of different silicate minerals: Nephrite and Jadeite. Among the earliest known jade artifacts excavated from prehistoric sites are simple ornaments with bead, button, and tubular shapes. Additionally, jade was used for adze heads, knives, and other weapons, which can be delicately shaped. As metal-working technologies became available, the beauty of jade made it valuable for ornaments and decorative objects. Jadeite measures between 6.0 and 7.0 Mohs hardness, and nephrite between 6.0 and 6.5, so it can be worked with quartz or garnet sand, and polished with bamboo or even ground jade. In the history of the art of the Chinese empire, jade has had a special significance, comparable with that of gold and diamonds in the West. Jade was used for the finest objects and cult figures, and for grave furnishings for high-ranking members of the imperial family. Due to that significance and the rising middle class in China, today the finest jade when found in nuggets of "mutton fat" jade — so-named for its marbled white consistency — can fetch $3,000 an ounce, a tenfold increase from a decade ago.
A pearl is a hard object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of a clam, a pearl is composed of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other shapes (baroque pearls) occur. The finest quality natural pearls have been highly valued as gemstones and objects of beauty for many centuries. Because of this, pearl has become a metaphor for something rare, fine, admirable and valuable. The most valuable pearls occur spontaneously in the wild, but are extremely rare. These wild pearls are referred to as natural pearls. Cultured or farmed pearls from pearl oysters and freshwater mussels make up the majority of those currently sold. Pearls have been harvested and cultivated primarily for use in jewelry, but in the past were also used to adorn clothing. They have also been crushed and used in cosmetics, medicines and paint formulations. Whether wild or cultured, gem-quality pearls are almost always nacreous and iridescent, like the interior of the shell that produces them. However, almost all species of shelled mollusks are capable of producing pearls of lesser shine or less spherical shape. Although these may also be legitimately referred to as "pearls" by gemological labs and also under U.S. Federal Trade Commission rules, and are formed in the same way, most of them have no value except as curiosities.
These are the most common gemstones you will find in our collection. Please understand that most of them can easily be chipped due to their physical properties, or that they can lose their shine or transparency due to sun exposure. Unfortunately, this is what "natural gemstone" implies, but we consider it's worth the risk taking into account the beauty that synthetic stones could never provide.
Please see care instructions or contact us for any information or issue that you might encounter.


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>Running 101>Beating my own mind
an amazing likeness
...At some point everyone is new to the sport and struggles to finish or feels as if they won't reach a certain goal. What I would love to hear about is how other runners got to where they are today...
I'd suggest you browse through the postings here on RunningAHEAD, especially in the Look What I Can Do. There are hundreds, or even thousands, of these stories in the forums here.
I'd guess that most of us mere mortals, at some point, struggle with doubts of being able to reach running goals. When the veterans and accomplished tell us to "Trust your training...". they're telling us two things: (1) if you trained for it, it can be done, and (2) your training will tell you whether a goal is within reach.
I've done my best to live the right way. I get up every morning and go to work each day. (for now)
I am a fairly new runner and I have read a lot of things about how these talented runners finished so fast in marathons, and how how this guy ran a one hundred mile race and so on.... but I rarely read anything about their journey there. At some point everyone is new to the sport and struggles to finish or feels as if they won't reach a certain goal. What I would love to hear about is how other runners got to where they are today... As of right now will be running my first 10k with a friend in about 2 weeks I've been trying to follow a training plan but I've been struggling to reach the longer distances nearing the end of the schedule a lot of it I know is in my head and just something that I will overcome but it's not like I haven't had proper time to prepare. Kind of discouraging. Just wondering if anyone else who is now a more experienced runner has been in this situation. I'd love to hear how you have grown and showed your mind and body who's boss.
I have been doing this so long that I really can't remember how it was when I started. So, I'm probably not the right person to respond to this (but that's never stopped me before!)
I feel like I can comment because what you write about here is something that I still struggle with in running. We battle with ourselves, our minds and bodies, hoping to get that goal. Sometimes it stays out of reach longer than we want, and we reach the point of frustration and want to give up. That's pretty much running in a nutshell.
So, I get that frustration. The frustration leads us to wanting to "force it" -- as you put it, show "the mind and body who's boss." But the problem with this way of thinking is that actually the mind and the body are the boss. There is no other boss to invoke. Your mind is frustrated, and your body is tired.
How to react to this? You've got to fix those problems. You've got to get your mind un-frustrated and your body un-tired. That doesn't mean take time off, or quit working or giving up. Quite the contrary. It just means you've got to work in a different way, one that takes the longer view. Your immediate goals are to get your body fresh and your mind fresh so that you can continue the longer project toward your bigger goals.
The hardest thing to learn as a runner is how to respond to your body, but if you can learn it, you will be in this sport for the long haul.
The Logic of Long Distance
"....but I've been struggling to reach the longer distances nearing the end of the schedule ..."
Those new longer-than-you-are-used-to runs, are a lot easier if you slow them down.
Running is stupid
I've been through this myself. I ran in high school through my 20s -- never an outstanding athlete, but enough to stay in shape.
Then I stopped and didn't run at all for nearly a decade. Two years ago last month, I decided to start again. At first, that meant maybe 10 miles a week. There were days when I felt like my feet were going to snap off at my ankles. I was pushing 200 pounds.
I'm running 60mpw now, and I can handle that mileage comfortably. I'm not a great competitor, but I'm OK and getting better. "Easy" runs that I did at a 12:00 pace two years ago and a 10:00 pace a year ago I'm now doing at 8-9 pace. I used to avoid hills, now I eat them for breakfast. I'm down to 165 pounds and I FEEL lighter on my feet.
My attitude is that there's no "telling" your body anything. That's how people get injured and frustrated, and eventually quit. And while I play lots of little mind games with myself to deal with stuff like long runs, hot weather, hills, etc., really there are just two "tricks" that matter to me:
- Patience. Get your mileage in, learn to listen to your body, work on understanding when it's OK to push and when it's OK to dial back a notch or two. You'll do both at different times, and if you're not then you're doing something wrong. By all means, set short-term goals and strive for them, but also get comfortable with the idea that real progress happens over months and years.
- Consistency. You don't want or need to turn every workout into a death march. You DO need to commit to working out X days a week and then making every effort to keep that schedule. If you're sick or hurt, that's one thing. If it's too cold/hot/raining or you find yourself making lame excuses from day to day, then it's time for a gut check.
This is just how I do it, but it's working for me. I focus on these two things -- they're where I draw the line when it comes to showing who's the boss. If I'm taking care of business with these things, then the rest seems to take care of itself.
If you keep your eyes and ears open, you'll hear about it surprisingly often. It's because, like you said, everybody had been a newbie at one point. I've been involved with this class called "Beginning Women's Running Class" for Minnesota Distance Running Association for the past 7 years. As a part of this course, we had invited this lady in her 70s in the past 3 or 4 years to talk. She couldn't make it this year so we had one of our own coaches (we have 3) to talk. She was a heavy smoker, overweight and non-active at one point. So she decided to quit smoking, get out and do something about it. Now she's a ultra-marathon runner and had won a few races around the area.
Just from reading your post, I felt one line--"...my first 10k with a friend in 2 weeks and I've been trying to follow a plan but been struggling to reach..." I'd say that's your first mistake right there. If you're struggling to follow the plan, that's not the plan for you. You're trying to go over your head.
I've been working on putting together the revision of Arthur Lydiard's "Jogging" booklet. When he started the first group of "joggers" back in 1961, the result and how it's done and what they've done is quite startling. They couldn't even complete a full lap around a local school track (1/4 mile) at first and within 8 months, they were running 20 miles WITHOUT STOPPING (i.e., no walking break either). The phrase that keeps coming up is: you do what you feel happy about. You understand your own limitations and you work out within your own limitations and you'll then keep improving. But if you try to stick to some bogus schedules or numbers and you struggle, then most probably you won't. I saw recently the other thread where some people suggest you train hard everyday. You try to do that and you'll invariably struggle. That's not how you train as you feel happy about (well, I guess some people are happy that way...). In most cases, if you got the unrealistic goals or expectations, you'll get "discouraged". My wife had been training with a group of runners who just ran Grandma's Marathon (she didn't). They would do Yasso 800 in 4-minutes (8-minute pace) and clearly struggling. She asked why and they'd tell her; "Because I want to run a 4-hour marathon..." That's the other way around, you see? She would do them in about 4:20 or so because she has no pressure (she wasn't running Grandma's) and that's the pace she feels happy about even though she'd be left in the dust at first but, by the 4th or 5th one, she'd be passing most of them. She's a 3:47 marathoner by the way. Most of them, incidentally, came in between 4:20 and 4:40, disappointed and discouraged. That's not the way to train. You do what you feel happy about; and that means you do what you can. Then you'll improve.
Feeling the growl again
A little background and specific advice...
The first official race I ran that I trained for, I was 12yo and ran 27min+ for 2mi. Pathetic for a young healthy (but fat) boy. But I kept at it and ran 12:53(?) the next year. In HS my 5K went from ~21:30 to 17:01. In college I bettered that to 5K/10K of 16:13/34:18. By age 28 my 10K was down to 30:57.
So what you see here is very gradual improvement over ~16 years, where I was running pretty regularly the whole time. It was not linear, improvement came in blocks here and there, however. Several points I would make based on this that are applicable to your situation:
1) You are capable of more than you are willing to hope for. This is true for 99% of people. Remind yourself of that when a task or goal seems out of reach. If at any point in that 16 years someone would have told me what I'd be able to run 2-3 years in the future, I would not have believed it.
2) Break it up intp psychologically managable chunks. This has multiple applications.
a) Now at some point I knew I wanted to break 31min 10K. However if that had been my goal at the outset...or even 3 years earlier...it would have seemed an impossible, outlandishly wild goal, and this would have made it challenging to keep pursuing it. Set reasonable goals in the short- to mid-term, then chase them.
b) This applies to even workouts and races. Maybe that 8 mile run or whatever it is seems impossibly long. Focus on what you are going to do for the next mile. Don't think past that. Reach that goal, then focus on the next one. I cannot tell you how many marathons I've spent the last 10 miles only running with the next mile marker in mind...it works!!!
3) Find a way to love it for more than the goals. Training is hard. It is tedious. If you do it only for the goals, and you sometimes won't make those goals, this will negatively affect your mind's willingness to do what it takes to keep getting out the door or add those last few miles onto a run. Whether it be social reasons, solitude "me time" reasons, or whatever, find larger meaning behind your running and you are more likely to stay in the sport -- and be consistent, which is key to reaching your goals.
4) Be patient. Improvement will take time and will not be linear. Those longer runs on the schedule may be hard now and the 10K may not go as you hoped, but don't get discouraged! There is more time to train, and another race down the road. Do the work and results WILL follow.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
Best Present Ever
I didn't every do any sports. I hated sports. In 1999 I signed up to train for a local all-women's four mile race (with the original name of "Women's 4 Miler"). I distinctly remember the first time I ran a WHOLE MILE without stopping. I mean, a WHOLE MILE. And when I finished the race in 44 minutes, I was so pleased with myself I didn't know what to do. Then I trained for and ran a local 10 mile race. Then I moved, got a PhD and had two more children and moved again in less than 4 years, and didn't run at all. Started back in 2006, and since then have run 8 marathons (including qualifying for and running Boston), bunches of shorted races, and one 50k race. I'm still not fast, but I run consistently and it makes me very very happy.
I ran a WHOLE MILE without stopping. I mean, a WHOLE MILE.
I ran a WHOLE MILE without stopping. I mean, a WHOLE MILE.
That was so exciting! I didn't experience that joy until age 55. Now I'm the kid and running's my candy store.
Well at least someone here is making relevance to the subject. - S.J.
I'd say if you are new and struggling to finish your runs you might be doing it wrong. If your body is adapting it is because it's never done some of these things before then there isn't much the mind can do to force adaptations. The only thing you'd have to use the power of the mind for is to remember to be patient and persistent. One without the other doesn't really work too well.
In an infinite universe, the one thing sentient life cannot afford to have is a sense of proportion
As you can tell, there is some great advice here from experienced/knowledgeable people who are very willing to provide guidance, so you came to the right place. I remember running with my Dad as far back as the 3rd grade, and got interested in running at a very early age because I knew it would keep me in shape to play other sports, basketball in particular. I ran cross country and track in High School, won a few races but never really thought of myself as a very good runner. As a senior in the mile, a 5:08 got me last place in the league meet and I almost got lapped by the guy who won. I played hoops in college and always ran to stay in shape. Still semi active through marriage, kids, and then at 35 I looked in the mirror, got on the scale and realized I was 189 at 5'6. Not pretty. I started running and doing the elyptical machine at the gym and lost a bunch of weight. Finally in 2009, I decided to train a little for a 5k. Gradually got into better shape and ran a 23:13 5k. Ran more consistently over the next few years and got my 5k down to 22:16. Ran a marathon in 2011 but got hurt during my training and limped to a 5:18:59. At the end of last year, I knew I was getting stronger and really building a great base in November, December, and January running more miles in a month (130) then I did training for the first marathon. I got hurt in February because I was overdoing it, and it occurred to me I needed some help. This spring, I asked a friend to help me get ready for my next marathon, and a prerequisite for his help was that I log all my activity in Running Ahead. I ran a 21:18 5k on Father's Day and approaching 180 miles for the month of June which bests my previous month, and my knew goal is to break 4 hours in the Maine Marathon in September. The point to reiterate is that this takes time, planning, and persistence. The progression is gradual, and you need to establish a base and increase your mileage over time (many months). My weekly mileage during marathon training last year was never more than 35 miles (and mostly in the high 20s). In the last 7 days I ran 52 miles. The challenge is to stay healthy and not overdue what your body can't handle which is a learning process. I hurt my knee at 30 and never thought I would run more than 6 miles again. That was 2001. Lots of people have different running abilities, injury challenges, etc. but improvement is a process. Ask questions, listen to these people, and learn from your mistakes. But be patient because this is likely going to take time. Oh…and make sure your workouts are public so people can view your progress. Make comments about how you feel, what your pace felt like, aches and pains, etc. Look at others logs, see what others do, see where they've been, and take mental notes. It's ok to ask for help and it's great that you're doing so.
I've been trying to follow a training plan but I've been struggling
a lot of it I know is in my head
I've been trying to follow a training plan but I've been struggling
a lot of it I know is in my head
Training plans are written for some mythical average person. Everybody else is either held back by the plan, or struggles to keep up with it. If you can run four miles at easy training pace, you are ready to run a 10K. If you cannot run four miles, then you can still run a 10K. Just go slower.
It's not in your head. It's your body. We all improve at our own rate.
It took me a full year of running before I could do a 20 mile week, and 4.5 years of running before I could run a marathon. A friend was ready to run a marathon 3 months after starting running.


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Lenovo ThinkStation D30 Workstation Review: 16 Cores and 32 Threads Under Your Deskby Dustin Sklavos on 11/15/2012 12:01 AM EST
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philipma1957 - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkplease all this money and you tested with 2x 60gb ssd's why not test with 2x 256gb samsung 830's ssd's. Reply
Zink - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkThat's not what it says.
"I grabbed a spare 60GB OCZ Vertex 3 I had laying around"
Sounds like a reasonable test to see if there is a storage bottleneck. Whatever you thought should have happened with multiple SSD's sounds like a waste of money anyway. Reply
Samus - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkExactly. He mentioned the 60GB SSD had little to no impact on anything but the PCMARK Suite which is disk-intensive, so no need to test with a faster/larger SSD.
However, in defense of Lenovo (and HP,) Dell has been plagued with capacitor quality problems for nearly a decade from the top-down. I've had so many PERC controllers and workstation/server motherboards fail in one way or another, always traced down to a bad $1.00 capacitor.
Have never had this happen with an HP or Lenovo workstation.
When the "bad cap scandal" began un 2001, HP had completely purged its supply by 2004, as did Lenovo in 2005. Dell NEVER required its primary suppliers (Foxconn mostly) purge their supplies and refresh with genuine Japanese (or at least quality Taiwanese) caps from Rubycon, Sanyo, Panasonic, and Chemicon. The problem is Chemicon (and Nichicon) have so many counterfeits that it's risky to stock them. Case in point, there are lots of reports of Nichicon caps actually being Nichilon (knockoff name) caps from China.
I replaced a SC440 motherboard in a server a few weeks ago manufactured in 2007 that had a number of bulging CapXon caps around the MOSFETs. A PERC 6ir controller with a bad KZG cap preventing array detection, manufactured in 2008. It cost $1 to replace the cap with a genuine Panasonic equal, but it cost the client an entire day without a server and $300 for my services (beats ordering a new $400 card from Dell with another faulty cap.
HP isn't completely clear, though. I find numerous low quality OST or underrated caps in their printers and low-end desktops. Seriously, the HP PhotoSmart C6280/C7280 (only difference is a duplexer) and various other model printer based on the same design from 2007-2008 were built using good Panasonic caps that were rated at 10v and installed into a 12v circuit. It's amazing many of these printers run for years before having carriage malfunctions or dropping wifi connections. Again, $4 in caps fixes an otherwise good multi-hundred dollar printer, especially worth it if you've stocked up on ink for them.
Many Samsung LCD's from 2006-2007 have known power capacitor problems preventing them from powering on. The 35v 1000uf is used where a 50v 1000uf would have been more appropriate, although the real issue was it being a non-FM cap so it electrical noise caused them to fail prematurely. A huge class-action lawsuit covered HDTV's, but people with LCD monitors were left out to dry.
As well as Dell's are designed, their quality issues are reflected in their bottom-dollar prices. I know mobo's use solid poly caps in vital areas now, but dude, it's still a Dell. Reply
Haribol - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - linkInteresting. So you are better of with a D30. I have personally used D20 for the past few years and never had any problems with hardware. I am looking for a new D30 machine to upgrade to. Lenovo website has ridiculous prices which I will never pay. I am shopping around to see where I can get the best deal. I saw a few deals on eBay and CDW. Hopefully they have a sale soon. I will post a review once I get the machine hopefully soon. Reply
seanleeforever - Monday, November 19, 2012 - linki know anand has said a lot about the life expectancy of SSDs and how 840 with its TLC should last 7 years with light use (which is about 10G write data per day). However, it is absolutely importantly to know your HDD has a lot of activities going on in the background even with your system is idle.
look no further than open your windows resource manager and check the disk use.
at this very moment, i have 3 pdf open, outlook open, 2 firefox tab open, one IE open, and anti virus. i have absolutely nothing else turned on and my disk is seeing 50 KB/S disk write at the lowest. even at the lowest level, i am expected to write 4G of data everyday when my computer is idle.
i do believe anand's SSD life expectancy analysis is somewhat flawed because it failed to include necessary disk writes as part of OS. while 10G write data per day seem to be a large number, it actually isn't. when i start doing video encoding, i can easily break the 10G data cap in at little as few minutes. check it your yourself.
therefore, if my server is to be expected seeing a lot of data processing and rendering, i can say for a fact that i would be very concerned using anything but SLC. if i were to provide 3 or 5 year warranty for my system, i would not use SSD. Reply
vailr - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkSeems to be configured much like an updated 2013 Mac Pro.
Whenever that machine gets released by Apple, maybe a 4-way comparison between similarly configured HP, Dell, Lenovo & Apple Mac Pro workstation-class machines could be reviewed? Reply
afkrotch - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - linkExcept that no one cares about the Mac Pro. People buying these workstations, aren't buying Apple ones. Reply
vFunct - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkyes the real competitor to this in the media space is the Mac Pro.
We shall see next year when Apple updates the design for their professional workstations, how these machines stack up against them.
Really the Mac Pro is king of media.. you can pretty much run any Windows/Linux software via virtualization, while having access to the exclusive Apple software like Final Cut Pro X. Reply
Dustin Sklavos - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkJoke's on you, FCPX landed with a thud. Premiere CS5 onward even handle old FCP7 projects better than FCPX does.
Apple is a virtual non-starter in the enterprise desktop market, and the fact that it's taking them so long to refresh the Mac Pro should be evidence enough of that. Reply
melgross - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkThese aren't desktop machines, in case you haven't noticed. Apple does very well in the workstation market there Mac Pro's are aimed at. It's Apple that has been distracted these past two years. Hopefully that will change next year.
Apple's enterprise sales for Mac's rose 56% last year, compared to an 8% drop in Windows sales to that space. Don't count them out.
FCPX is better than your limited knowledge of it suggests, and not that many editors have run to Adobe. Apple has been adding the features that hadn't made it into the first release. It took the original FCP over a year to gain all the pro features needed as well. Those using the older version are mostly waiting for Apple to complete these updates. Reply
ananduser - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - link56% from what ? When your enterprise sales are invisible 56% means nothing. Similarly to WP yoy increase of 145%, more so than ios/android. Also you're talking Windows in general, not talking about a single manufacturer, any of which dwarf Apple's enterprise presence. Typical FUD from AI. Reply
Wolfpup - Friday, November 16, 2012 - linkThe Mac Pro, besides being horrifically overpriced as Apple's only normal desktop, is running hardware TWO generations out of date. I like the hardware design, being able to run OS X on it's great too, but...a few months late is a problem. 2 years late is abandonment. Reply
hmcindie - Saturday, November 17, 2012 - linkActually... Quite a lot of editors switched to Premiere CS6 from FCP7. FCP X is a complete failure. I got our edithouse switched to Premiere quite early and now I'm getting questions from a lot of posthouses about the switch. Reply
Dug - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkFCPX has been improved tremendously and is now where it should have been when it launched. The same with CS6.
The difference is the final product and FCPX has better filters, compression, and exporting. It is essentially 3x-5x times faster than CS6. Reply
nowendoc - Friday, November 16, 2012 - link>It is essentially 3x-5x times faster than CS6.
Is that CS6 running with GPU acceleration? Reply
hmcindie - Saturday, November 17, 2012 - linkFCPX is ok for fun little projects and for youtube. For a professional environment (where sharing projects is quite common) it is not ok. Atleast not yet. Reply
centhar - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkYeah, dem MacPros will be sumptin. I head a rumor that it will be so powerful to warp the Reality Distortion Field into itself. Creating a singularity, singling out and sucking in all happy faced AppleFanBoys wherever they may exisit. Reply
Torrijos - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkIt doesn't take a fanboy to see that Apple offers, since 2003, clean and easy to access workstation, while Lenovo tries to sell a $10k mess of a thing.
Apple needn't rethink its Mac Pro case design just offer up-to-date components. Reply
vFunct - Friday, November 16, 2012 - linkI could go for rack-mount Mac Pros. Reply
theduckofdeath - Friday, November 16, 2012 - linkIs this discussion for real? :-)
No one in their right mind would go for a Mac pro, definitely not of they were considering track mounted workstations. Retro isn't selling in IT. Reply
theduckofdeath - Friday, November 16, 2012 - link*rack mounted Reply
afkrotch - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - linkIt doesn't take a fanboy to see that Apple simply updates too slowly and that just isn't going to be an option where time is money. Reply
melgross - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkVery amusing. You must do standup. Reply
twtech - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkI would expect at least 32GB of RAM, preferably 64GB. There are other uses for a machine like that, but some compilers can use as much as 1.5GB per thread. With 16GB of RAM, you wouldn't even be able to use half the threads without hitting the swap file. Reply
Joschka77 - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkThats exactly what i was thinking, too.
Got an HP Z 820 with two E5 2680 and 128GB of RAM next to me...
This thing is a beast... Reply
Rick83 - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkGot a z820 as well a few months ago, but IT's standard layout is 8x2 GB as well.
ordererd 4x8GB to add - but the board doesn't support that as 48GB combination, so only running 32gigs.
Need moar memory.
Colleague is eyeing ordering another 32 to at least get the machine to be slightly more usable.. Reply
Joschka77 - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkAs far as i know mixed RAM sizes should be possible; have you had a look at the Service manual for the Z820? There´s a hint in what order the Dimms should be placed. ->
heres a link:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/C... Reply
afkrotch - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - linkMy last job I was running a Dell T7500. The more ram, the better. I didn't need as much processing power, but needed memory. Was using it for system integration work, so I was running multiple VMs. 16 gig of ram and I was running out all the time. Having to pause/shutdown a VM to fire up another one. Reply
duploxxx - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkIf you want to really push the build quality and design, don't compare a 2 socket WS with 1 socket systems.
You need to compare this system with a HP z620 and a Dell T5600.
If you really want to bring the added value over these way overprised CPU you need to find very specific applications to do so... for 99% they are never needed besides EGO. These days most will run just fine with a 1 socket WS with all the cpu power existing today. Reply
extide - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkFor the people who buy these systems, even dual E5-2687W's is still too slow. Reply
colonelciller - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkLet's have a review of a true powerhouse from BOXX
i have a feeling that a high end workstation from BOXXwould put other big name manufacturers to shame
http://www.boxxtech.com/ Reply
just4U - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkThey'd have to send in a review sample.. Reply
theduckofdeath - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - link" That's not a knife. This is a knife."
http://www.elnexus.com/products.aspx?line_id=15689 Reply
kkwst2 - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkUmm, no. They're basically more overpriced than Lenovo for essentially the same hardware. Why do you think it would be significantly faster?
When I'm shelling out that much money for a workstation I stick with HP, Lenovo, or Dell. I've gone with smaller vendors before and their support level just isn't there. Dell workstation support is actually pretty good, as opposed to their crappy consumer support. Reply
afkrotch - Wednesday, November 21, 2012 - linkDell's Enterprise Gold Support is fabulous Reply
creed3020 - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkThanks for the review of another enterprise workstation. I really appreciate keeping up with what this market to has. Having worked a previous company that was in bed with HP it is nice to see what the other big guys are up to.
I totally agree about the wiring nightmare. I can give this an F- for wiring, especially at this price point! I would expect, yes expect, a very clean system inside to maintain airflow, remove extra surface area for dust to collect, and to make system maintenance/hardware upgrades painless. The inside of this case looks like a system that someone just learning how to assemble PCs for the first time.
A government entity I recently worked with had procured this same chassis with a slightly different configuration and I was confused at the lack of redundancy within the storage tier of the solution. A single 150GB WD Raptor drove the solution. The lack of RAID 1 really surprised me considering the reduction in potential downtime this simple addition could make. There are clearly many single points of failure within this system, I'm not saying this machine needs dual PSUs. etc, but a little more value in the storage tier would make this compute crunch look that much more like a contender.
Last thought, 2GB ECC modules are direct cheap and moving to a higher density 4GB module seems like a no brainer to hit the entry mark of 16GB of RAM. I really hate it when OEMs take this route with a brand new machine. It just screams cheap. Reply
kkwst2 - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkThere is a performance hit for going RAID 1 unless you have a really good hardware solution. You're generally better off with a separate hardware RAID solution for your data and keep the RAPTOR or SSD as a single drive. Especially with an SSD, failure is very unusual. Just keeping weekly backups of the system is sufficient for me. If you really can't tolerate downtime, you're better off cloning the drive periodically than going RAID1. RAID1 is to prevent data loss, not prevent downtime. You're going to have downtime while you rebuild the array anyway.
I do all my compute on an SSD and then have an external SAS storage box attached to a good hardware RAID controller in RAID10 to store all my input/output files. Reply
Taft12 - Friday, November 16, 2012 - link"RAID1 is to prevent data loss, not prevent downtime. You're going to have downtime while you rebuild the array anyway."
For someone using such awesome hardware, I don't know how you got this exactly backwards. RAID1 is not going to save you from deleting the wrong directory or mirroring OS corruption. It *WILL* allow the system to keep running when one of the drives fails, and even terrible software RAID won't force downtime while you rebuild the array, where did you get that notion from? Reply
kkwst2 - Sunday, November 18, 2012 - linkWith respect, I didn't get anything backwards. The comment about deleting a file is silly and irrelevant. No RAID mode will prevent human error.
RAID1 prevents data loss from a single drive failure. That is what it is for. So for me, from experience, my compute performance is degraded 5x during a RAID rebuild.
So I switched to having a cloned drive, which will get me back to full performance very quickly. I'll lose the last compute job I was working on, but that is usually not a big deal. I stand by my recommendation. Reply
edlee - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkI have a thinkserver ts130 at home, and I have to agree that the cabling is less stellar than my dell poweredge servers in the office, but lenovo has much superior quality caps than the dells.
I am constantly getting service requests to swap out motherboards on the dells, due to one small component getting fried. I know its not the power, because we have line conditioners smoothing out the voltage.
If you want less hassles in life, buy lenovo servers and workstations. Reply
Gunbuster - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkI am consistently amazed at the Lenovo product designers who can take cutting edge hardware and then make it look like it was manufactured 15 years ago. They should market it as an anti-theft feature. Reply
Haribol - Monday, November 26, 2012 - linkHAHA! I agree 100%! Recently I bought a Lenovo D30 from eBAY and it looks absolutely the same as the D20. You know what the D20 and D30 look very similar, the casing might even be the same thing. I guess some companies like to KEEP IT SIMPLE. I like that better then making it look like a creation from Mars. It is well built and I don't feel like I will break anything if I change things out. Even If I do they have an awesome warranty. Reply
Wolfpup - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkOh man, 16 physical CPUs in one system...I sooooo want one of these for Folding. Throw in some extra Geforce GTX 680s too! :-D Reply
tanishalfelven - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkReally... 16. I don't know about you, workstation task i'm interested in are more RAM intensive than processor intensive. At 10 grand i'd expect 128 gb at the least. Reply
KAlmquist - Friday, November 16, 2012 - linkLenova's price list is:
$150 for a 2 GB registered ECC DIMM
$300 for a 4 GB registered ECC DIMM
$650 for an 8 GB registered ECC DIMM
$1350 for a 16 GB registered ECC DIMM
So a 128GB version of this system would cost slightly over 20 grand, with more than half the cost going to the memory.
That price seems excessive to me, as well. A similar system from AVA Direct, with 128GB of memory, will cost under 10 grand. That includes a 3 year on site warranty (contracted out to Intel). Reply
Haribol - Monday, November 26, 2012 - linkNever pay retail. Shop around on sites like eBay, Google etc for best deals! Reply
hyperchild - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkI just happen to look at this review so I am in no way knowledgeable in the server department but am I missing something, $10800??? I just priced all the stuff at $6,850 at new egg. So is the extra 4k for 3 years of support? Is there some special reason it has a markup like that? Reply
kkwst2 - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkWell, you can usually price something significantly lower by buying the components. These days it is harder with lower end stuff but the more high end the product the higher the margins are.
Understand the target market for these workstations. They're for people who are doing computational modeling, professional 3D rendering, etc. They are paying for stability, support, etc.
The author points out that Dell is getting very aggressive with price with much lower margins. We use Lenovo workstations because that is who our IS has a deal with, but we don't pay retail. We would probably get this system for $7k to $8k. Reply
bobbozzo - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkThe worst part of it is Lenovo's markups on the CPUs are VERY high... Thousands of dollars more than purchasing 2 CPUs from Newegg. for the UPGRADE to the faster CPUs. Reply
bobbozzo - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkIn other words, I could buy the base system from Lenovo, and buy 2 faster CPUs from Newegg, and save thousands of dollars.
Perhaps the same holds true for RAM and disks. Reply
theduckofdeath - Friday, November 16, 2012 - linkThat is really not a clever thing to do, then you can just as well build the whole system yourself, because whenever you silk call the manufacturer for support they definitely will start the conversation with " start by removing all of those parts you bought from someone else, reinstall the whole thing, and then you call us back. Okay?" :-) Reply
theduckofdeath - Friday, November 16, 2012 - link*would, not silk Reply
Haribol - Monday, November 26, 2012 - linkHonestly that is a rip off. If you shop around on sites like e@GAy etc..you will find a good deal. Why pay retail? I have seen systems for half the price Lenovo.com is selling them for. If you search for D30 you will see numerous systems, check it out if you are interested. And sometimes you can call the sellers and bargain. As long as they make some money they will sell it and it will be 30-50% off lenovo's website. I recently got a D30 and price was 50% cheaper then Lenovo's website. Same warranty and hardware on lenovo's website. The key is using your intelligence and shopping around. Generally regarding the warranty they will tell you to take off everything that didn't come with the system from the factory. Reply
Haribol - Monday, November 26, 2012 - linkHonestly that is a rip off. If you shop around on sites like e@GAy etc..you will find a good deal. Why pay retail? I have seen systems for half the price Lenovo.com is selling them for. If you search for D30 you will see numerous systems, check it out if you are interested. And sometimes you can call the sellers and bargain. As long as they make some money they will sell it and it will be 30-50% off lenovo's website. I recently got a D30 and price was 50% cheaper then Lenovo's website. Same warranty and hardware on lenovo's website. The key is using your intelligence and shopping around. Reply
Zink - Thursday, November 15, 2012 - linkquite Reply
rwei - Friday, November 16, 2012 - link16 cores? 32 threads? Dang.
But then I read Johan's article.
Man you just got one-UPPED. Reply
sna2 - Friday, November 16, 2012 - linkactually you can make a 80 cores workstation today using 8x10 cores xeons thats 160 threads
check supermicro X8OBN-F motherboard
and X9QR7-TF Reply
Ozymankos - Friday, November 16, 2012 - linkThe system tested today is a standalone workstation and not a server to be used in a cluster or a supercomputer
Therefore,it is less important to have user-serviceable power supply,as it is likely that this PSU will last for a long time for a single unit
It has 2 octocore processors,with double the processing power of the similar Dell workstation/server
Adn the price is only 50% higher ,so it is a good workstation for most people Reply
mapesdhs - Friday, November 16, 2012 - link
Note that absolute CPU clock can have a major impact on Viewperf results, as I found out
when testing a 5GHz 2700K with a Quadro 4000. See:
In many cases it leaves the results given here in the dust (eg. 83.31 for LW, 16.63 for ProE).
The reason is some of the tests are single threaded on the CPU side or so lightly threaded
that a higher clock makes a huge difference. If you want to run ProE, then yes have a good
GPU, but shove it in a consumer machine with a single good oc'd 4-core or 6-core i7 and
it'll run much quicker than one of these OEM workstations. YMMV for other apps/tasks, but
for Viewperf it's interesting how oodles of cores at a lower clock so often loses to just one
4-core i7 at a high clock.
Ian. Reply
sna2 - Friday, November 16, 2012 - linkI really cant understand the pricing of workstations ...
here is the same exact system self made ...
1- SUPERMICRO X9DA7 (C602 with SAS and dual Lan and usb3 ) : 524$
2-2x Intel Xeon E5-2687W : 2x1800$ : 3600$
3- 8x2G exx Registered : 160$
4- NVIDIA Quadro 5000 2.5GB GDDR5 : 1750$
5- Seagate Savvio 15K.3 300GB : 350$
7- SeaSonic X-1250 1250W GOLD : 250$
8- Windows 64 pro : 130 $
9- best case 500$ worth
total 7314$
there is no justification whatsoever for 3000$ more !!! Reply
Haribol - Monday, November 26, 2012 - linkShop around on eBay, Google, Amazon for the best deals. Never pay retail !!!
I bought a Brand New System on eBay for 50% off lenovo.com's website. Same system at Lenovo.com was close to $15,000 without taxes and fees. I bought it for $4200 dual xeon 2650, 5 SSD Drives (LENOVO Drives) and 64GB Factory ECC 1600mhz Memory and mid-range Quadro. So please don't get ripped off by paying factory pricing. Search on Google, Amazon, Ebay for the best deals.
Hope this helps. Reply
icuimp - Saturday, November 17, 2012 - linkJust thought i would point out a Sandforce based SSD is not suited for video encoding especially a slow 60GB model.
SSD was probably holding back the encoding results due to slow transfer rates (~60MB/sec write speeds).
Try something non sandforce based and retest please! Reply
Oscarcharliezulu - Saturday, November 17, 2012 - linkI haven't used a real workstation class PC since the Dell I had in 2000 (remember rdram?), but it was truly awesome, internal design alone made it worth the money. I've had a dozen PC's but that is the one I remember most. Man was it stable and fast. This article made me nostalgic for it, so thanks. Reply
Wixman666 - Sunday, November 18, 2012 - linkIn the future, it would be nice to see how these multi thousand dollar workstations compare to a single CPU overclocked enthusiast box with a high end video card.
An i5 3570k or 3700k at 4.6+ and a geforce 670 or 680 just so we can get some perspective. Pretty sure that it would be middle of the pack and at 10% of the cost.
I see that you have a puget in there with the i5 2500k, but it has the on chip video. That's a pretty worthless addition to the charts when we're talking about high end graphics workstation performance. Reply
alpha754293 - Monday, November 19, 2012 - link....and the SSDs that ARE rated for enterprise usage puts another $2000 or so on top of the cost of a $10k system.
That's why they don't use SSDs.
The plus side though - if it did - the SSD might be a PCIe card rather than SATA 6 Gbps.
I would have LOVE to have seen some HPC benchmarks performed on this system in order to figure out what it's real performance would be like.
And 16 GB of RAM for a system like this is really nothing. Considering that you can get Alienwares now with that much RAM...*shrug*...
(The most memory I've used is somewhere around 96 GB range...on a system that had 128 GB.) Reply
dtolios - Monday, November 19, 2012 - linkModern games have little to do with cores...very few of them will care for the 8-threads a 2600K/3770K has to offer over a 2500K/3570K. In case some should (happens in some cases and extreme resolutions, Tri-Quad SLI and the works), a 3930K would beat most Xeons (1P, 2P, 10P - w/e).
Single threaded performance is still very important in most fields. CAD, CG and video editing included.
Again, fast i7s (and sometimes fast i5s) will beat Xeons due to faster clocks. Add O/C to make multithreaded performance of a s2011 hex-i7 unrivaled even by mid-range 2P systems.
16GB of RAM and 60GB SSDs are a joke - period. So are the monies asked to upgrade them (over market prices) when building to order such workstations by Lenovo, Dell, HP etc.
Ppl that believe that 2P is a limiting factor, think again: which Windows OS distribution you think allows you utilize more than 2P systems? Def. not Win 7 64bit ;-) Reply
Haribol - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - linkI saw one for sale on eBay. Which has 4 X Lenovo SSD Drives and 2TB. Has 64GB of memory. I might just give an offer to that guy see how much he takes. I used the D20 and I really like these machines. They are not pretty like the dells but they are rock solid.
How much you think that is worth? Reply
Haribol - Tuesday, November 20, 2012 - linkWhy DDR3-1333 memory. The ones I have been looking on CDW and Ebay say it comes with 1600 Memory. Reply


text:
Topic: I'm back home now
It's good to be home after being in the hospital for five days! I guess I was sicker than I thought. You know, we're so used to not feeling well, and just plugging along when we're not feeling well that I almost waited too long to see the doctor.
The infection is kicked, and I'll just be on an antibiotic for 10 days to make sure it stays gone.
Irene, I'll be praying for you as you go into surgery tomorrow.
God bless you!