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Spring Jobs: Take Advantage of the Season
As spring brings everyone out of hibernation and ready to enjoy the great outdoors once again, consider getting clever with ways to supplement your income. Think out of the box with these spring jobs that creatively offer services that people in your community might just be willing to pay someone else (you!) to do for them.
Get a Little Dirt-y
I occasionally help a professional gardener plant, prune and weed flowers for his residential clients. Because I work amid beautiful flowers, my work environment is always serene and lovely, in spite of the heat, humidity, dodging bees and getting dirty that goes with the job. The fresh air, sunshine and physical exercise I get along with the extra cash benefits both my health and my wallet, plus I get wonderful ideas from all the different gardens I see.
The gardener I work for is also a mural painter, and I met him several years ago when he painted a mural on a building where I worked. We talked plants and flowers, and he noted I was an experienced gardener, and I discovered that he often hires extra helpers during the busiest parts of the gardening season. I offered to help out and he called me the next time he needed an extra hand. He starts gardeners at $10 per hour, and increases their pay the longer they work with him.
How to get the gig: If you love gardening and know how to care for plants, contact some small gardening operations in your area and ask if they need seasonal help. Take along photos of your own gardens, or direct them to some photos of your gardens you have posted online, or offer references. You might want to extend this idea to growing vegetables for clients either in their gardens or yours. Both flowers and vegetables can also be sold at farmer's markets or in roadside stands.
– Susan Hoskins Miller
Turn on the Pressure
This spring I picked up an odd job that has turned out to be very profitable as well as enjoyable. I started pressure washing houses. I had already bought the pressure washer to use around my own home. Just attach it to any standard garden hose, turn it on, and you've got a high-powered water spray that will remove years of dirt and grime from a variety of surfaces. It's is great for cleaning driveways, sidewalks, decks and siding. I never realized how valuable this piece of equipment could be until a friend of mine asked to borrow it. She's a local business owner and has a very full schedule as it is, so I volunteered to do some of the work for her. She was so thrilled after I pressure washed the deck around her pool that she decided to have me wash her concrete driveway and vinyl siding as well. The best part of the deal is that she paid me the same amount she would have paid a professional cleaner. The house looked great.
How to get the gig: Then several of her neighbors asked about who she hired for the project. When she referred them to me, I gladly accepted the work. I can keep my regular Monday through Friday office job and make a good amount of cash on the weekends doing something I really enjoy. After the first two jobs, the pressure washer has practically paid for itself. Now not only do I get to spend more time outdoors enjoying the beautiful spring weather, I'm able to put that extra profit in my savings account for a summer vacation.
– Nathaniel Blake
Play and Sing for Your Supper
As spring rolls around, many of us are looking for a way to make a few extra dollars. If you happen to be a decent guitar player, this is a great time of year to make some extra money on the side and have some fun. That's because spring is prime patio season for restaurants and bars. At the first hint of warm weather, customers flock to their favorite haunts to enjoy their food and beverages outside. If you notice, you'll find that many of these establishments like to have live acoustic music for their guests. That's where you come in.
The best part about playing patios is you don't have to have a full band, and often cannot anyway, due to space restraints of the patios. So just an acoustic guitar and a singer will do. If you have a pretty good voice and can play rhythm guitar then you should be in good shape. However, if singing isn't your thing, then you'll need to find someone who can carry a tune.
How to get the gig: A post on Craigslist or through other want ads will usually yield some capable talent. Remember, the better the singer is, the less pressure there will be on you as a guitar player. If the singer is passable your job is easy. Just play a few chords and make sure you keep in time.
Of course there is a little bit of investment. You'll probably want to purchase a portable PA system. These usually run $250 to $500 dollars. However, at $100 to $150 a night for a gig, you'll have that covered in no time.
– Shawn Kendrick
Poke Holes for Cash
Those bulky machines that have spokes between the wheels, that poke into the grass and remove a small plug are called aerators. The hole allows air and water more direct access to soil beneath the sod. Aerating makes for a greener, healthier lawn, especially in areas with clay-like or sandy soil. So just get yourself an aerator, and you're in business!
Home Depot rents the aerators for around $100 per day. I have never charged less than $25 per lawn. In high-end areas, I've charged as much as $75 for a lawn. I get my brother to help me. We pick up two machines on a Saturday morning.
How to get the gig: We start by going door-to-door for jobs, and within a half hour we can easily have several jobs lined up. By 10 a.m. we usually have more jobs than we can do in one day.
We figure that we can do one job per hour at around $35 per job. If we work a 10-hour day with two machines, that's $700, minus about $250 for the machines, gas, and fast-food lunch. That means $225 per person for the day. Not only that, but we also usually will have jobs lined up for the next day or for weeknights during the following week.
Aerating became so lucrative for us that we purchased a used machine from Home Depot, which gave us greater versatility to do jobs whenever we have time. The spring window only lasts for about a month, but we can easily make $1500 during that time. If you can mow a lawn, you can aerate. Try it!
– R.J. Zeyer
Cold Beer Here!
I decided I wanted to be a beer vendor for the Tampa Bay Rays in St. Petersburg, FL. Lucky for me I have friends in the business. Plus, I already work for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the fall and the winter, so I already have a record of accomplishment. I have been vending beer for about four years with the Buccaneers now. It is a good job, it is fun and you can make a good amount of money as a beer vendor.
My first game for the Rays was tough. The beer at Tropicana Field is heavier than the beer at Raymond James Stadium. At Tropicana Field we carry a case of 24-ounce cans, while at Raymond James Stadium, we carry a case of 16-ounce bottles. This means that there is at least twelve pounds extra in every tote of beer. This can add up to quite a few extra pounds by the end of a baseball game. I made it through the game, but I did not sell nearly as many cans of beer as the other vendors. Good thing your first game does not count against you in the beer-vending industry.
Beer vending is actually a very important job. The beer vendor has to go to alcohol-awareness classes, where he/she learns how to serve alcohol to spectators. The most important part of a beer vendor's job is to make sure everybody sold to is old enough to buy beer. Part of a beer vendor's job is to make sure to check the identification of everybody who looks like they are under thirty years old. If you want to be a beer vendor, you really need to be a responsible person. You cannot sell to anybody who appears to be intoxicated, because the person may leave the stadium, drive and kill an innocent person. You also have to pay attention to all of your sales and make the correct change. If you lose any money as a beer vendor, the money comes out of your pocket.
Beer vending is a great spring job. If you do your job correctly, you can make a couple hundred dollars for each game you work. If you are a good beer vendor, you may be asked to work the World Series or the Super Bowl when they come to your town.
How to get the gig: If you love sports, beer vending is the job for you. I work for a company called Rocketman. If you are interested in becoming a beer vendor, you can go to their website and fill out an application. Rocketman is always looking for good dependable beer vendors.
– LeRoy Collier
Garage Sale Planner
Every year just before the spring season begins, I set out on deciding how I am going to make some extra cash. I have always had a springtime odd job ever since I was 15 years old.
This year my springtime odd job is assisting in garage sale set up. The fee for this year is a flat $40, not a lot, but garage sales are usually held on the weekends, which are my days off. My customer base seems to be retired and older folks who need help from a young person, help with lifting and standing for extended periods of time. This aspect of the job is rewarding, because I feel like I am really helping someone who needs it.
If you are interested in getting into this type of spring odd job to earn a bit of extra money, remember it's extra cash but you are not going to get rich doing it. Keep it in perspective. Earning something is better than nothing at all. The overhead is minimal and the possibilities are plentiful. Just remember not to spend your earnings at the garage sale.
How to get the gig: I always approach finding customers the same way, using fliers and (more recently) Craigslist. I have about 100 of the cheapest paper fliers printed up and put them on people's cars or tape them to front doors. Craigslist is free, fast and distributed instantly. I advertise under garage sales and put an ad that states I will help with setting up, manning and breaking down the garage sale, doing all for a fee.
– Joe Canete
Farmer's Market Barista
Every Sunday in the spring season I work at my neighborhood farmer's market as a barista for a local coffee company. A friend of mine owns the company and was looking for someone to help run his mobile espresso bar that he brings to events, farmer's markets and private parties. I worked at a cafe in college, consider myself a coffee connoisseur and have experience making a great cup of joe. I serve coffee, espresso and pastries, enjoying lively conversations with people who are looking for a morning jolt to boost their shopping experience. Most people are very friendly and I love asking them about what they plan on making with their purchased produce. I work on tips and a base of $8 an hour, and the market usually lasts for about 5 hours.
How to get the gig: My advice for someone interested in working at a farmer's market is to attend one in your neighborhood and speak to vendors that interest you. Make sure you have a working knowledge of the vendor and express a sincere interest in their business. It doesn't hurt to offer to volunteer for a week to learn and then work out a payment system, whether it be an hourly wage or for trade. Also contact your city hall to get a list of area farmer's markets, for if you are interested working at one, you may have to go further then just your neighborhood. By working at a farmer's market, I am able to merge my two loves: food and shopping.
– Alicia
Become a Docent with the Mostest
These jobs require a training period, usually lasting a few days, to learn the subject matter and to trail the tours of experienced staff to learn the ropes. Then after a couple of weeks, it's your turn to give tours. The starting salary is around $8 to $10 an hour. The job requires meeting, greeting and conversing with the public, with attention given to presenting factual information in an accurate and interesting way and answering questions, too.
There are perks with tour guide jobs. In states with a large number of museums, an identification card from one museum often allows you to visit other museums for free. Having a park or museum docent job on your resume helps you get future jobs at other parks or museums. Many museums offer anywhere from 10 to 25 percent discount to employees in the gift shop. Also, as an employee you may get free admission to special events.
How to get the gig: To make extra cash, check out local parks departments, natural resources departments, or museums to get a job as a tour guide (also known as a docent or interpretive specialist). Spring is really the best time to work in parks and museums because schools book group tours for their classes for the spring. Museums and parks often need extra help during that time. The hours are flexible and your schedule is based on your availability.
– Cynthia Collins
Next:Confessions: Sowing a Career in a Garden Department


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Hairspray is an important part of the beauty industry for men and women. You will find that hairspray can help you save time and money when you buy the right one. in this article, we are going to look at hairspray how it's useful and the best hairspray for you.
Page Summary
When you are getting ready to buy hairspray one of the first things to look for is the type of hold it has. There are actually different types and hold strengths of hairspray. When choosing the best hairspray you have to look at the what you will be using it for before you decide.
Finishing Spray: This type of hairspray is what you use in your hair on the way out the door. It's that last minute touch to make sure your hair stays fearless no matter how the wind blows. Since this spray is only designed to help. Your style stays in place it carries a heavier weight. In hairspray terms, this means the spray has a hard hold.
Texture Spray: This spray is perfect for that wet look or of your want to add curls to your style. It's a lightweight spray created to hold your curls but let them keep their bounce.
Shine Spray: Does your hair need a shine? This is a second spray you can add to your hair on the way out the door. Now it will hold its style and have a nice shine.
Thermal Spray: If you use a lot of heat on your hair this spray will help you protect it from.damage. When you use it right before you add heat it helps create a barrier to lock in your hair's moisture.
Freeze Spray: This spray has the best hold out of any of the other types of hairsprays.
Volumizing Spray: If you need your hair to have a lot of volume, this spray will get the job done. This is perfect if you have thin hair and want your style to look fuller. A weightless spray is also good for people with fine hair.
Working Spray: This spray is designed to use while you are actually styling your hair. It will give your hair a nice light hold. Shaping spray is another good hairspray you can use while styling your hair.
You can buy hairspray at any beauty supply store or store that sells beauty supplies. If you are more of a virtual shopper there are places like Amazon, and other beauty supply stores.
Once you have your hair spray you will need to know how to use it for maximum results. When you are using the hairspray the nozzle should not be directly on your hair. When you are using the light sprays it is a good idea to run your fingers through your hair as you are spraying. This will prevent your hair from clumping together. Many people don't get the desired results with their hair spray experience. To prevent this from happening to you, make sure that you are using the right hairspray for your desired look and feel. Also, make sure that you are considering your hair type.
Here are some reviews on sprays we recommend as some of the best hairspray brands to buy.
This inexpensive spray will get the job done. It is designed to hold for 24 hrs. This is perfect for you if you need a long lasting hold. Customers that use this spray really enjoy the smell and the way it makes their hair feel. Please note that many customers are saying that this spray is hard to find in stores. However, you can find this spray online and Amazon seems to have the cheapest rate.
This spray is great for colored hair. It will not remove color or affect the longevity of your color cycle. This spray is also great for your hair if you have any chemicals in it from perms or other treatments. Customers that use this spray like it because they find it easy to work with, doesn't leave a sticky film, doesn't smell and doesn't leave spray streaks on the hair. If you are looking for these qualities in a spray this is a good place to start.
This spray will be easy on your wallet and your hair. This instant freeze will hold even your most stubborn hair styles in place. Great for high hair styles or if you know you will be in a battle with mother nature. Customers that use this spray seems to have the same reason for buying it, they all have fine hair that does not hold a curl easily. If your hair is fine and hard to hold bounce and curls this spray is going to be your best friend.
Drybar acts as a disciplinarian for stubborn strands with this firming spray. Formulated from strong-hold polymers and prune oil that conditions hair and locks in style, a few subtle sprays leave hair shiny and sweetly scented, with notes of sandalwood, jasmine, and vanilla. The customers that bought this spray all agreed that it was pricey but they also felt that they got their money's worth.
You will be a fan of this spray from John Frieda. It is designed to hold up.again.weather types and lock in moisture. Customers who bought this hair spray use it to prevent frizz caused by humidity but enjoys the fact that it doesn't remove your hair's natural moisture to do it.
This brand is a perfect tool for your hair when you want it to hold its shape but flow. Great for curly and bouncy hairstyles. The customers who bought this spray says it works best for them because it holds even works on long hair. If you have suffered from hair spray that doesn't hold the curls and bounce at the ends of your hair, this hair spray is for you.
We hope that this article was useful and helped you understand the huge industry of hair spray. No matter what your hair type is we are sure you can find the best hairspray for you in one of the reviews above.
Related article: Best Travel Hair Dryer 2017
6 Best Conditioner for Color Treated Hair Reviews | Must Have Protection for Your Dyed Hairdo23 Nov, 2019
Fine vs Thin Hair | Know Your Type of Strands30 Aug, 2019
Best Tea Tree Shampoos | Essential Oil Based for the Benefits of Your Hair28 Aug, 2019
How to Make Numbing Cream | DIY Pain Relief for Your Skin

subset: commoncrawl


text: We devote an entire section of a chapter on pies in Northern Hospitality to the pumpkin pie. Why so many pumpkin pie recipes? Because it turns out that the pumpkin pie as we know it is only one of many versions early New Englanders baked. Before there was the custardized pumpkin pie that Americans came to call their own, there was a somewhat odd pumpkin pie made in Britain and throughout the British colonies. Yup, folks liked it. It called for frying pumpkin strips in an herb-and-spice-laden pancake batter, known by its medieval name of froiz, then cutting up the pancakey pumpkin strips and layering them in the bottom of the pie with apple slices, currants, and lots of butter. Then, after the two-crust pie was baked . . . well, we'll leave the addition of the wine caudle to the warm pie for you to read about in Northern Hospitality (p, 301), or in a post about it elsewhere on this blog! Read More


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A PGCE is a Postgraduate Certificate in Education that may or may not require Master's credits. It can be offered in England, Wales or Northern Ireland. The program is a course that spans one year and enables the holder to train to be a teacher.
Applications for the PGCE can be made between September and June in order to begin coursework in September. Most applicants should file their application with the Graduate Teaching Training Registry.
One part of the application process involves creating a personal statement. The personal statement is fairly brief, covering no more than 47 lines. The personal statement should include:
Some examples of statements that could be part of your PGCE personal statement include:
Hopefully these examples will help inspire you to prepare your own personal statement for your application.
MLA Style
APA Style
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Company: Aramark
Location: VT
Career Level: Mid-Senior Level
Industries: Business Services, Consulting
Position Summary: Assist management in overseeing the daily operations of food unit, production, or assist in the supervision of a large dining unit.
Essential Functions:
- Responsible for opening and closing the building according to expectations of the management team
- Oversees setting up and breaking down of work stations
- Oversee the sanitation of work stations including floors, worktables, walls, refrigerators, meat blocks, equipment, and utensils
- Oversees the cashiers on duty and ensure that they are properly trained and adhere to the cashier policy
- Responsible for cash handling, safe verifications, preparing deposits
- Oversees the cooking and preparation of food items for the day according to recipes and brand requirements
- Responsible for making sure the staff uses correct portions when preparing and serving items on the line
- Must have high-level product knowledge and ability to train the staff to effectively service the customer
- Ensure staff completes daily temperature logs
- Oversee the product merchandising, line displays, and distribution of marketing materials
- Delegate tasks to employees as necessary
- Provide on-going coaching and performance feedback to staff members
- Assist managers with employee discipline sessions, attendance logs, and maintaining up to date contact information
- Inform management of escalating employee conduct issues
- Responsible for making sure the staff properly disposes of waste
- Responsible for making sure each station has taken samples of all food items on the line prior to serving the customers
- Greet customers as they enter and leave the location
- Ask customers about the quality of their service and handle any complaints (with assistance from the manager on duty) while maintaining a positive attitude and smile
- Oversee staffing during peak times of operation and deal with labor shortages as needed
- Assist managers with administrative tasks, scheduling, ordering and inventory responsibilities
- Ensures each station has the equipment and supplies needed to serve the customers
- Maintain a professional appearance
- Ensure uniform compliance of the staff members
- Maintain a safe work environment by enforcing all safety standards and assisting with STEP observations
- Able to follow detailed written and verbal directions
- Able to walk and stand for extended periods of time, up to 6 hours
- Perform other requests and assignments as requested by management.
- Maintain positive interaction with co-workers and customers so that efficient and quality service is provided to our customers.
- Be aware of customer needs, assist when possible or refer them to a shift manager who can assist with their requests.
- Share the responsibility for a safe work environment with your team
- Work safely, stay alert, practice good housekeeping, remove potential hazards and follow all established safety regulations.
- Report all incidents/accidents while working to your manager immediately
- Understand all safety regulations of your operation including required Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
- 1 year of supervisory experience
- Prior experience in the food service industry
- High school education or equivalent
- Great customer service and communication skills
- Strong leadership skills
- Time management, organization, and multi-tasking skills
- Ability to work successfully in a team environment promote team work
- Ability to use confidential information in an appropriate manner and protect employee privacy
- Ability to manage people and have accountability for company assets
- Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and effectively use problem solving and decision making skills
- Basic computer skills and ability to quickly learn new technology systems
- Previous supervisory experience or experience in the food service industry
- Able to lift, carry, push and pull objects up to 40 lb
Apply on company website


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In a stage that seemed suited to the breakaway from the start, Francesco Gavazzi (Lampre-ISD) outsprinted Kristof Vandewalle (Quick Step) for the win on stage eighteen of the Vuelta a España. Back in early April, it was again Gavazzi who beat Vandewalle to the line on stage five of the Tour of the Basque Country. And though he's now lost out on two possible wins to the Italian, Vandewalle was diplomatic after yesterday's stage.
"I lost to the only rider among those in the break who was faster than me," he said after the stage. "I busted out a good sprint, but at this time I don't have the acceleration that Gavazzi has."
Though Vandewalle showed decent speed, he was no match for the Lampre sprinter, who has a handful of victories in flat finishes the past few seasons. And while Gavazzi has five full professional seasons under his belt, Vandewalle is in his first season with a ProTour team, after transferring to Quick Step from Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator this season.
"Francesco knows me well, because in a stage of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco, I came in second on his wheel," Vandewalle stated. "He knew I was fast and dangerous. When I took off at three kilometers from the finish, he immediately jumped on my wheel."
"In the last kilometer, I tried surprising him, but right at the moment in which I made my move, he turned around and saw me take off."
Gavazzi indicated after the stage that he knew when to go, and that Vandewalle had made a possible race-winning move. Gavazzi sensed that his breakaway mates, other than Vandewalle, were tiring. He jumped across to the Belgian and the sprint finish became a formality.
"The element of surprise vanished and in the sprint he was faster than me. It's a shame," Vandewalle admitted. "Anyway, I'm pleased with my form. I feel good, and in control of the situation. I was never even out of breath. There are only a few stages left to the end of the Vuelta, but I'm going to try again if I get the chance."
Team manager Rik Van Slycke saw his rider miss out on a stage victory, but he recognised he did what he could to try to win. "Kristof did his best and shouldn't have any regrets," he added yesterday. "He just needs a little more experience. Again today he reaffirmed everything good he already showed in the Basque Country, the Giro d'Italia, and in general over the entire season."


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The books are about the essence, the reality of life. We describe pointers in order to:
- balance
- understand paradoxes
- step out vicious circles and move towards higher frequencies on your life path.
The books we have written are:
- "Freedom in Relationships. Have the right Identification"
This book is about the road to discover what Life means.
- "Your Choice. Living Alive or Living Dead"
This book is about what supports or blocks you on this road.
- "Karmic Reflections. Talking with Men and Nature.
This book provides reality examples of daily live to help you understand your truth.
- "From Tadpole to Prince. Towards Mega Conscious Awareness in 2016"
This book shows how you can become Mega Conscious Aware and what you can and must learn in the 9 levels of consciousness (of approx.14 levels) in order to achieve your goal. It describes where you are now and what can be NOW achieved on earth now that the door between two large vicious circles is open!
These books came from a journey of several decades of personal growth. For our books we received (inter)national recommendations!. Also available: Dream dictionary.
You can also order these books at Boekenroute. For these sites please click on the flag for the English language.


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Parking Structures
Loma Linda University Patient Parking Structure
675 stalls
Loma Linda, CA
As part of Loma Linda University Medical Center's $600 million Campus Transformation project, Layton provided design-build services for the Patient Parking Structure 2 project. Specifics included:
The parking garage provides critical parking services and connections to accommodate the new adult and children patient tower that was also under construction. All work took place on the busy medical campus while it remained in full operation.


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|Method and apparatus to perform speech recognition over a data channel
|Systems and methods for storing information associated with a subscriber
|Albal et al.
|Soft feature decoding in a distributed automatic speech recognition system for use over wireless channels
|Weerackody et al.
|Automatic speech recognition caller input rate control
|Mobile communication and computing system and method
|Gershman et al.
|Apparatus for converting speech to text
|Bijl et al.
|Automatic speech/speaker recognition over digital wireless channels
|Chou et al.
|Method and apparatus for providing an improved feature set in speech recognition by performing noise cancellation and background masking
|Petroni et al.
The present invention relates to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/406,368, filed Apr. 3, 2003, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to automatic speech recognition and more specifically to implementing speech recognition on a mobile device.
2. Introduction
The present invention relates to the need for mobile devices to adequately handle the function of automatic speech recognition (ASR). ASR is useful for such simple services as calling phone numbers in response to a user stating "Call Office". As the complexity increases for ASR services, the need for improved and expanded capabilities for ASR also increases. Most mobile devices such as cellphones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) such as palmOne® products and Compaq's iPaq® operate (in general terms) in a client/server network where the mobile device is the "client" communicating via a wireless network with a server.
In implementing ASR-based services on mobile devices, it is sometimes necessary to embed the ASR capability directly on the device rather than to implement ASR on network-based computing resources. Scenarios where this may be necessary include those where one cannot assume a persistent network connection. In these scenarios, even if the service involves updating databases on network computers, it is necessary to obtain information through human-machine interaction conducted independently on the device. Then, once the network communication channel is restored, the updated information collected on the device can be synchronized with the network-based database.
There are many problems associated with implementing ASR on a resource-limited mobile device. These include limitations in memory, computational power, and battery life. These limitations make it impractical to implement procedures designed to configure the ASR system on the mobile device for a particular user, domain, environment or transducer. These procedures often require a great deal of memory and computation and are often difficult to implement using the fixed point processors that exist on mobile devices. There is a need in the art for a system and method for enabling improved ASR on a mobile device having intermittent communication with a wireless network.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The features and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. These and other features of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the invention as set forth herein.
A system and method of updating automatic speech recognition parameters on a mobile device are disclosed. Embodiments of the system aspect of the invention include a server-side computing device within the wireless network and a mobile device on the client-side of the network. Embodiments of the method comprise a method operating on the computing device within the wireless network and a method operating on the mobile device.
An exemplary method comprises storing user account-specific adaptation data associated with ASR on a mobile device, transmitting the user account-specific adaptation data to a computing device associated with a wireless network when a communication channel becomes available, generating new ASR adaptation parameters using the account-specific adaptation data and transmitting the new ASR adaptation parameters to the mobile device. The new ASR adaptation parameters transmitted to the mobile device enable the embedded ASR system to more accurately recognize user utterances during a spoken dialog with the user.
In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and other advantages and features of the invention can be obtained, a more particular description of the invention briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which:
FIG. 1 illustrates the basic components of a wireless network communicating with a computing device;
FIG. 2 illustrates a flowchart of a method according to an embodiment of the invention; and
FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart illustration another embodiment of the invention.
A distributed framework for implementing automatic speech recognition (ASR) services on wireless mobile devices is presented. The framework is shown to scale easily to support a large number of mobile users connected over a wireless network and degrade gracefully under peak loads. The importance of using robust acoustic modeling techniques is demonstrated for situations when the use of specialized acoustic transducers on the mobile devices is not practical. It is shown that unsupervised acoustic normalization and adaptation techniques can reduce speech recognition word error rate (WER) by 30 percent. It is also shown that an unsupervised paradigm for updating and applying these robust modeling algorithms can be efficiently implemented within the distributed framework.
The above-referenced patent application incorporated above provides details regarding the distributed framework in which the present invention can operate. Therefore, only minor references are provided herein to that framework so that this disclosure can focus on the present invention related to a client/server interaction for updating ASR associated information on a client device for ASR.
This disclosure describes an ASR framework for mobile ASR services. The framework supports directory retrieval ASR applications for users of such devices as the Compaq iPAQ mobile devices over an IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network. While this network configuration is preferable, the invention is independent of any particular wireless protocol, any particular brand or model of mobile device as well as any specific server (computing device).
An experimental study is presented demonstrating the effect of unsupervised speaker and environment compensation algorithms in improving ASR performance when user utterances are spoken through the standard iPAQ device mounted microphone.
There are a large number of applications for mobile devices that include ASR as a key component of the user interface. These include multi-modal dialog applications, voice form-filling applications and value-added applications that provide short-cuts to user interface functions. Speech recognition is generally just one part of a multi-modal dialog architecture for these mobile applications whose functional components can be distributed in different ways between computing resources residing in the network and on the mobile device.
While there are a range of potential distributed ASR architectures that have been proposed for these applications, one can make qualitative arguments for when either fully embedded ASR implementations or network based implementations are most appropriate. For example, when communication channels between a mobile device and a wireless network are unreliable or intermittent, ASR needs to be operable on the mobile device. It is generally thought that fully embedded implementations are most appropriate for value-added applications like name dialing or digit dialing, largely because no network connectivity is necessary when ASR is implemented locally on the device. Distributed or network based ASR implementations are considered appropriate for ASR-based services that require access to large application specific databases where issues of database security and integrity make it impractical to distribute representations of the database to all devices. Network-based implementations also facilitate porting the application to multiple languages and multiple applications without having to affect changes to the individual devices in the network.
Acoustic variability in mobile domains is considered here to be a very important problem that distinguishes ASR in mobile domains from generic ASR domains. The main issue is that users of mobile devices will be using them in a wider variety of continuously varying acoustic environments making the expected conditions far different than one would expect in wire-line telephone or desk-top applications. However, the use of personalized devices and personalized services facilitates a new paradigm for implementing robust algorithms. Speaker, channel, and environment representations can be acquired through normal use of the device all of which can be applied to feature space and model space transformation in ASR. The feature domain speaker normalization/transformation algorithms described below are applied and evaluated under this paradigm.
ASR systems that are embedded on mobile devices are provided with acoustic and language models that are in many cases independent of the ASR task, independent of the user, and independent of environment and transducer associated with the device. This is generally unavoidable since there are thousands of potential users and the acoustic environment and transducer may be continually changing over the life of the device. It has been shown under many different contexts that the ASR word recognition performance can be dramatically improved by employing a variety of techniques to configure these task-independent ASR models to better reflect the conditions that exist at any given instant.
These techniques operate by adapting speech ASR models or features to better reflect the characteristics of recently observed utterances. They take as input speech utterances and decoded results obtained from the ASR system and produce sets of adaptation parameters. Other dialog-related or mobile-device information may also be gathered by the mobile device. For example, the mobile device may have an IP address or other network identifier associated with it. From the IP address, user or device-related information or characteristics (type of microphone, language selected by the user, user-account information, etc.) may be gathered that can be input to algorithms on the computing device to generate new adaptation parameters for transmission to the mobile device. Further, other user input may be available in a multi-modal mobile device. User data associated with pen-input, stylus-input, keyboard input and a combination of these may also be utilized to generate new adaptation parameters.
Next this disclosure describes the application of normalization and transformation algorithms in the context of the mobile ASR framework described in the incorporated application above. In an exemplary embodiment of the invention, these algorithms are applied to compensating utterances spoken by users of Compaq iPAQ hand-held devices (or any other mobile computing device). The notion of acquiring representations of the speaker, environment, and transducer associated with a given client from utterances spoken during the normal use of the device was discussed above. The algorithms that are applied here under this paradigm include frequency warping based speaker normalization, constrained model adaptation (CMA) and speaker adaptive training (SAT), and cepstrum and variance normalization. Those of skill in the art will understand the operation of each of these algorithms. It is appreciated that this is not an exhaustive list of possible algorithms that may be applied in the present invention.
The algorithms used for these tasks will be applied to compensating utterances spoken into a far-field device mounted microphone with respect to acoustic HMM models that were trained in a mismatched acoustic environment. Normalization/transformation parameters are estimated using anywhere from approximately one second to one minute of speech obtained from previous utterances spoken by the user of the device. The first technique is frequency warping based speaker normalization. This is performed by selecting a single linear warping function using the adaptation utterances for a given speaker to maximize the likelihood of the adaptation speech with respect to the HMM. Then, during speech recognition for that speaker, the warping factor is retrieved and applied to scaling the frequency axis in mel-frequency cepstrum coefficient (MFCC) bused feature analysis. A "warped HMM" is trained by estimating optimum warping factors for all speakers in the training set and retraining the HMM model using the warped utterances.
There are several regression based adaptation algorithms that obtain maximum likelihood estimates of model transformation parameters. The techniques differ primarily in the form of the transformations. Constrained model space adaptation (CMA) is investigated here. CMA estimates a model transformation {A, b} to an HMM, λ, with means and variances μ and Σ,
μ′=Aμ−b Σ′=AΣAT,
in order to maximize the likelihood of the adaptation data, X, P(X|λ, A, b). The term "constrained" refers to the fact that the same transformation is applied to both the model means and covariances. Since the variances are transformed under CMA, it is generally considered to have some effect in compensating the HMM with respect to environmental variability as well as speaker variability.
An important implementational aspect of CMA is that this model transformation is equivalent to transforming the feature space, x′t=Axt+b. It is applied during recognition to the 39 component feature vector composed of cepstrum observations and the appended first and second order difference cepstrum. A speaker adaptive training (SAT) HMM is trained by estimating an optimum CMA transform for each speaker in the training set and retraining the HMM model using the transformed utterances.
Cepstrum mean normalization (CMN) and cepstrum variance normalization (CVN) were also applied under a similar scenario as the algorithms described above. Normalization vectors were computed from adaptation utterances for each speaker and then used to initialize estimates of normalization vectors for each input utterance. The incorporation of additional speech data provided by this simple modification to standard cepstrum normalization procedures had a significant impact on ASR performance.
The feature normalization/adaptation algorithms described above were used to reduce acoustic mismatch between task independent HMM models and utterances spoken through a Compaq iPAQ hand-held device over the distributed framework described in the incorporated application. Described herein is the scenario under which the dataset for the study included a maximum of 400 utterances of proper names per speaker from a population of six speakers. The utterances were spoken through the device mounted microphone on the hand-held device in an office environment. Since the data collection scenario also involved interacting with the display on the hand-held device, a distance of from approximately 0.5 to 1.0 meters was maintained between the speaker and the microphone. The first 200 utterances for each speaker were used for estimating the parameters of the normalizations and transformations described above after automatic endpointing, this corresponded to an average of 3.5 minutes of speech per speaker. The remaining 1200 utterances, corresponding to isolated utterances of last names, were used as a test set for the experimental study described below.
A baseline acoustic HMM was trained from 18.4 hours of speech which corresponds to 35,900 utterances of proper names and general phrases spoken over wire-line and cellular telephone channels. After decision tree based state clustering, the models consisted of approximately 3450 states and 23,500 Gaussian densities.
The baseline WER on the above test set was found to be 41.5 percent. This can be compared to a WER of 26.1 percent obtained on the same task for a different population of speakers speaking into a close-talking noise-canceling microphone. The goal of the robust compensation algorithms applied here is to close the gap between these two scenarios. It was also shown in previous work that by combining lattices obtained from utterances spoken separately in response to first name and last name fields and rescoring them with a language model that describes the constraints between those fields, a WER of 10.1 percent could be obtained.
Table 1 displays the results for the experimental study as the word error rate (WER) resulting from the use of each of the individual algorithms where parameters are estimated using adaptation data of varying length. Columns 2 through 5 of Table 1 correspond to the WER obtained when 1.3, 6.8, 13.4, and 58.2 seconds of speech data are used for speaker dependent parameter estimation.
|Data Duration
There are several observations that can be made from Table 1. First, by comparing rows 1 and 2, it is clear that simply initializing mean and variance normalization estimates using the adaptation data (N) results in a significant decrease in WER across all adaptation data sets. Second, frequency warping (W) is also shown to provide significant reduction in WER. It is clear that constrained model adaptation (C) actually increases WER when the transformation matrix is estimated from less than 13.4 seconds of adaptation data. However, significant WER rate reductions were obtained as the adaptation data length was increased. It is important to note that the over-training problem observed here for adaptation algorithms resulting from insufficient adaptation data is well known.
Having introduced the above details regarding the invention, this disclosure next turns to the figures. FIG. 1 illustrates the basic computing device and mobile device within a wireless network 100. The computing device 102 includes known components to operate such as a central processing unit 104 that runs operating software that communicates with a data store component 106. This computing device may operate any known operating system (such as the Palm® OS or Microsoft Windows® CE) inasmuch as the particular configuration of the computing device is not material to the present invention. The CPU 104 will be controlled by an executable program that contains instructions to carry out the steps of the invention as set forth herein.
The computing device 102 communicates via a wireless connection to a mobile device 108. The mobile device may be any known device that includes a capability such as a central processing unit 112 that can control the operation of the device to include the means for receiving input from a user 116 via speech and a microphone 110. Automatic speech recognition (ASR) module 114 preferably includes an embedded system for performing ASR independently on the mobile device 108. Other capability is on the mobile device for interacting in a multi-modal fashion with the user. The reduced computational ability of a mobile device and the changing environments in which ASR is performed present challenges to embedded ASR modules. In some cases, the user may be in a quiet environment such as an office. However, often the user will want to utilize the ASR capabilities of the mobile device 108 while driving, in a warehouse, on a bus, or on a subway system. Each of these environments provides a different set of background noises that can adversely affect the success of ASR. Each location or use may also have a specific domain of vocabulary unique or typical of the domain. Various ASR parameters can be modified or regenerated to improve the ASR in this environment but revising these ASR parameters often requires computing power that is beyond the capabilities of the mobile device 108. The data necessary for adaptation is thus collected during normal use of the device. The use may also include multi-modal combinations of speech utterances, pen-input, stylus or keyboard input, analysis of the spoken dialog and decoded results.
The wireless standard or protocol used by the computing device 102 and the mobile device 108 for communication is immaterial to the present invention. Any protocol, such as 802.11, CDMA, GSM/GPRS, EDGE, etc. may be employed and used within scope of this invention. The only requirement is the capability to communicate the ASR parameters according to the process disclosed herein.
FIG. 2 illustrates a method according to an embodiment of the invention. This method preferably is practiced on a computing device 102 within a wireless network. There is no requirement that the steps occur on a single or distributed computing device but it is preferable that the computing device exist within the wireless network in a server configuration as opposed to a server/client configuration over a wireless communication link.
The method comprises storing a user account-specific adaptation data associated with ASR on a computing device associated with a wireless network that at least intermittently communicates with the mobile device (202). One of the advantages of the present invention is when the mobile device 108 only intermittently communicates with the server 102, the method provides a way to take advantage of the increased processing capability of the server computing device 102 while maintaining an updated set of ASR parameters on the mobile device 108 for use by the embedded ASR system 114.
The method further comprises generating new ASR adaptation parameters based on transmitted information from the mobile device when a communication channel between the computing device and the mobile device becomes available (204). In this regard, when the mobile device comes into range of a base station (not shown) of the particular type of communication network, the mobile device 108 will upload information related to ASR, multi-modal data, or other user or mobile device-specific data obtained via analyses on the mobile device 108 of speech utterances, ASR results and other related supervisory information. This ASR data may or may not include information regarding the mobile device 108 environment (e.g., busy street, bus, crowded metro, driving, warehouse, quiet). Therefore, in step (204), the computing device 102 inputs the received data into its appropriate algorithms and generates new ASR adaptation parameters for the particular mobile device.
The final step in this aspect of the invention comprises transmitting the new ASR adaptation parameters to the mobile device when a communication channel between the computing device and the mobile device becomes available. The new ASR adaptation parameters on the mobile device enable the embedded ASR system to more accurately interpret user utterances (206). This step updates the ASR parameters on the mobile device 108 after processing the user-specific adaptation data using the increased computing power of the computing device 102.
FIG. 3 illustrates another embodiment of the invention which is a method of updating ASR parameters associated with an embedded ASR system on a mobile device 108. This method is preferably practiced on the mobile device 108. The method comprises performing automatic speech recognition (ASR) on the mobile device (302). This process envisions performing ASR on the mobile device independent of the computing device 102 within the wireless network. The method further comprises receiving and storing ASR data associated with speech and other multi-modal communication between a user and the mobile device (304). In this regard, while performing ASR on the mobile device, auditory information regarding the current environment of the mobile device 108 is gathered and can be analyzed. This ASR and multi-modal data may include information reflective of the mobile device 108 environment and may further include common vocabulary used. For example, in a warehouse environment where mobile devices are used for inventory control, certain terms may be commonly used as well as certain people may commonly use the same mobile device. Therefore, data such as successful ASR records, corrections and any information associated with the interaction of the device with the user that may be utilized to modify and tune the language, pronunciation models, acoustic models, word phonemes, HMM models, etc. that may reside on the mobile device are recorded. Generating a new set of ASR adaptation parameters within the acoustic and language models that are stored on the mobile device 108 as part of the embedded ASR system will likely require more computing power than is available on the mobile device.
The method addresses this issue by transmitting the ASR data over a wireless link to a computing device associated with the wireless network when a communication channel becomes available, the computing device synchronizing the transmitted ASR data with stored user account-specific adaptation data and generating new ASR adaptation parameters based on the ASR data (306). The computing power of the computing device 102 within the network can then be utilized to revise the specific adaptation data associated with user 116. Either utilizing the same communication channel used to transmit the ASR data from the mobile device 108 to the computing device 102, or in a later-established communication channel, the method comprises receiving the generating new ASR adaptation parameters from the computing device, wherein the new ASR parameters are used for ASR on the mobile device for improved speech recognition accuracy.
In a variation on step (306), the mobile device, because of memory and bandwidth limitations over the wireless link, may perform some processing to compute sufficient statistics that are necessary for adaptation. In this regard, the mobile device does not store raw data obtained from normal use of the device but stores statistical data to insure that the mobile device does not expend its resources storing data over an extended period of time. A memory and wireless bandwidth threshold value may be identified by either the mobile device or computing device prior to switching the storage of data from raw data to storing statistically processed data.
An efficient means for implementing robust acoustic compensation algorithms when there is little opportunity to influence the audio specifications of the device and little opportunity to sample all possible environments in HMM training is disclosed. A set of acoustic compensation procedures described above were applied in an unsupervised user configuration scenario. These procedures, which include frequency warping based speaker normalization, constrained model adaptation, and off-line CMN and CVN, were shown in Table 1 to reduce word error rate by 30 percent.
Embodiments within the scope of the present invention may also include computer-readable media for carrying or having computer-executable instructions or data structures stored thereon. Such computer-readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to carry or store desired program code means in the form of computer-executable instructions or data structures. When information is transferred or provided over a network or another communications connection (either hardwired, wireless, or combination thereof) to a computer, the computer properly views the connection as a computer-readable medium. Thus, any such connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of the computer-readable media.
Computer-executable instructions include, for example, instructions and data which cause a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or special purpose processing device to perform a certain function or group of functions. Computer-executable instructions also include program modules that are executed by computers in stand-alone or network environments. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, and data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Computer-executable instructions, associated data structures, and program modules represent examples of the program code means for executing steps of the methods disclosed herein. The particular sequence of such executable instructions or associated data structures represents examples of corresponding acts for implementing the functions described in such steps.
Those of skill in the art will appreciate that other embodiments of the invention may be practiced in network computing environments with many types of computer system configurations, including personal computers, hand-held devices, multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like. Embodiments may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by local and remote processing devices that are linked (either by hardwired links, wireless links, or by a combination thereof) through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.
Although the above description may contain specific details, they should not be construed as limiting the claims in any way. Other configurations of the described embodiments of the invention are part of the scope of this invention. For example, other algorithms may be utilized than those mentioned above that perform a revision of the adaptation data on the computing device. Accordingly, the appended claims and their legal equivalents should only define the invention, rather than any specific examples given.


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Baling Machine, Baler, Horizontal Baler Machine manufacturer / supplier in China, offering Hydraulic Waste Paper Balers and so on.Scrap recycling machine, to smelting, you can have many choices here.10 years manufacture experience.
Welcome to buy the easy to use baling machine for waste paper made in China from our factory. As one of the leading such manufacturers and suppliers in China, we will offer you now only the best quality products but also excellent service.
baling machine for waste paper
Basic Info
Strapping Material: Iron Wire
Automatic Grade: Semi-Automatic
Species: Automatic Strapping Machine
Driven Type: Hydraulic
Contacter & Relay: Yes
Counting Wheel: Yes
Conveyor: Yes
Specification: CE, ISO9001: 2000
Application: Waste Paper, Cardboard, Plastic Bottles
Packaging: Bale
Strapping Mode: Welding Type
Packaging Material: Wastepaper,Cardboard,Newspaper
Structure: Pressure Strapping
Touching Screen: No
Wire Feeding: Yes
Frequency Converter: Yes
Origin: Jiangsu, China
Product Description
Waste Paper Balers
Part 1: Baler Features:
1. Main Frame: sturdy and durable with 10 years lifeapsn;
2. Advanced Control System: PLC System and touch screen;
3. High efficiency water cooling system: protect the cylinder from high oil temperature;
4. Intelligent conveyor system: will feed material and stop working automatically;
5. Durable counting system: a count wheel equipped on the baler, counting the bale length automaticaly;
6. Safety design: Equipped with emergency button and safety door. The baler won't work unless safety door is closed.
Part 4: About Aupu
HelloBaler Machinery --- the biggest baler manufacturer in China. Welcome to inquiry us!
Our company has been through professional quality system certification, CE certification, SGS audit, TUV audit, and as a member of the China national resources recycling association.
Machine main core parts, use Germany Siemens motor, France Schneider electric, USA KK pressure gauge, USA parker valve, Germany Rexroth valve, Pikes high-pressure hose. Technology and performance of our products has reached the industry leading level, and has won the trust of the customers.
Our products have been exported to more than 40 countries, such as Russia, Australia, USA, UK, Germany, Ukraine, Iran, Romania, Hungary, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Canada, Spain, Colombia, etc. We have agents in the USA, Australia, Singapore, Kuwait, Russia.
Jiangyin Aupu Machinery Co., Ltd
Add:No.32 xiaying Road Qiaoqi xuxiake town jiangyin city Jiangsu province 214424
Con:Aaron Zhang


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A strong person works out every day to keep their body in shape… but a person of strength builds relationships to keep their soul in shape. A strong person isn't afraid of anything…. but a person of strength shows courage in the midst of their fear. A strong person won't let anyone get the best of them… but a person of strength gives the best of him/herself to everyone. A strong person makes mistakes and avoids the same in the…..
What is your theme for 2017? It is time to pick a theme for the year. It will act like beautiful background music; colouring and inspiring your every thought and action with its presence. You can use it as a feeling… an action… and a spoken mantra or focus. Do meditations on it. Find ways to slip it into conversations. Discover how to apply it at work and in relationships. Let it run through your other goals; weaving your life together and…..
It is with great excitement that I present a video by Balboa Press to discuss my book, A Meditation Journey for Beginners! Meditation is a technique and a journey. This is a step-by-step, seven-week program and workbook. You are about to begin a journey you are destined to succeed at. It is your true adventure—the adventure of you! Throughout this adventure, you will discover and rediscover what you have always known: your own truth. It starts with your…..
If you are finding it too hard to let go of something or someone in your past, it can make embracing the future difficult. In my classes and intuitive sessions I sometimes "liken it" to climbing a tree — you cannot climb higher if you do not let go of the bottom branch. We all have gone through experiences where we would rather hang on to the pain of the past than stand solid in the present and take a…..
Learning to be thankful and regularly sharing with others what you are thankful for is an important part of being happy. Giving thanks causes us to focus on the blessings that have benefited us, past or present. It actually causes our brains to seek out the positives in life's situations. We learn to see the miracles in all the opportunities and challenges in our life. My students and clients have shown me how often we become frozen in our life…..
Have you ever looked at something so beautiful you sighed and felt your heart let go and expand into the beauty? Or perhaps it felt as if your eyes were drinking in the beauty. You took a deep breath and let your whole being expand into the wonder of it all. In both instances you relaxed, released and entered into a healing meditative state. Many of us have link between our eyes and our hearts. When we find ourselves looking…..
Time in nature has an amazing way of replenishing us. It always seems to welcome us back to ourselves. With each flower we see, bird we hear, breeze we feel and that amazing fragrance coming from somewhere. Something inside us quiets and smiles. It all helps us slow down and reminds us we actually could put our lives into a more natural rhythm. Live more at peace. Have you ever tried meditating outside? Find a place to sit or lay…..
Sleep is an amazing miracle. Somehow we shut down and drift away while our body is busy cleaning and healing, in many ways reinventing itself for the next day. We wake up and start fresh and excited for the gift of another day. Sadly that does not work for everyone. We have all had the odd night when sleep could not be found (I am not speaking about wakefulness because of illness). You just could not turn off your head……
We have all experienced a crisis at some time in our life. Although at the time it can seem that e v e r y t h i n g is wrong, a crisis is always a blessing. It can be a way of evolving past who we were to create a new life that better fits who we are in out Deepest Self now. To get through a crisis, meditation can be on of your tools . This meditation…..
Maharishi Mahesh did a series of Transcendental Meditation experiments, performed in different parts of the world, that all came up with very similar amazing results. They had large groups of people meditating together and found over a course of three weeks, crime in the city, violence, suicide, automobile accidents, and in some cities terrorist activities were reduced at the times of the meditations. The rates appear to go down 13%-72% depending on the city and group. In later experiments, they…..
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Better Than a Gift Card
You might know the joke about gift cards, about how they're just like cash, except not as useful? I sort of understand that gifts need some sort of sentiment behind them, but I can't get over how cash is more efficient. Or maybe gift buying is not something I'm good at. =\
– Alex ^.^()
4 Comments...
February 6th, 2010 at 4:58 am
I have ALWAYS enjoyed getting cash the most. gift cards are just not as useful… the worst thing is getting an actual present, those always suck. You either have it already, or you never wanted it in the first place (thats why you don't have it already)
February 6th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
I know what you mean, that's why my parents just give us cash on all major occasions, but sometimes it is nice to get an actual gift. Especially the type of gift that gives you the feeling they know you well.
gift cards
September 18th, 2011 at 3:23 am
When you go to Walgreens etc, there are a variety of gift cards available to applebees, the gap, etc. I've looked at a lot of pre-paid visa affiliate programs, but I would like to find an affiliate program that offers other gift cards, that I can offer to my customers. Any suggestions?.
March 30th, 2013 at 10:43 pm
Moneys is best cause we do not want to clutter you with physical crap :3


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Susan Shelby Magoffin (1827 – 1855)
The granddaughter of Kentucky's first governor, Susan Shelby was born near Danville, Kentucky, on July 30, 1827, into one of the wealthiest families in the state. She grew up with servants and a proper education. When she was eighteen, she married Samuel Magoffin, a successful Santa Fe Trail merchant twenty-seven years older than herself. They married on November 25, 1845, and spent their honeymoon in New York. Instead of settling into a home near family, the Magoffins prepared for a trading expedition down the Santa Fe Trail.
With war just beginning between the United States and Mexico, it was a particularly dangerous time to travel the trail. According to Magoffin's journal, however, she was excited about the trip. Magoffin began her very thorough journal in June 1846 as she and her husband departed from Independence, Missouri. Throughout the expedition, she wrote in it almost every day.
Life on the Santa Fe Trail was harsh. There were dust, flies, and bad weather, not to mention dangers posed by Indians, disease, fires, and flooded rivers. As the wife of the expedition leader, however, Susan could afford to bring many comforts with her on the journey.
Magoffin traveled with her servant, Jane, and her dog, Ring. She lived in a tent with a bed and mattress, a table, chairs, and even carpeting. Despite Magoffin's familiar belongings, the landscape told her that she was far from home.
As the Magoffins traveled south, the green prairies and forests gave way to rocky deserts and mountains. When they reached the first stop at Bent's Fort in modern-day Colorado, Susan discovered buildings constructed with adobe rather than brick or wood. The floors were dirt, and the ceilings were made of logs, with adobe used to fill the cracks.
Farther down the trail, Magoffin discovered a great difference in the food. In Las Vegas, New Mexico, she sampled what is now known as green chili stew. She strongly disliked it, noting in her journal, "I could not eat a dish so strong and unaccustomed to my palate."
The Magoffins reached Santa Fe in August 1846. Here Magoffin noted differences in the style of dress. In Susan Magoffin's world, proper ladies wore skirts covering their ankles and blouses buttoned to the neck. The Mexican women, however, wore skirts showing their calves and low-cut blouses.
Communication problems persisted because Magoffin did not speak Spanish, and most of the people she met did not speak English. Although life was different in Mexico, Magoffin became accustomed to it. She liked her adobe home in Santa Fe, learned a little Spanish, and made friends.
In 1848 Magoffin left Mexico on a vessel to New Orleans, and then went north to live in Lexington, Kentucky. She and her husband later settled at Barrett's Station near Kirkwood, Missouri, in 1852. Magoffin never fully regained her health, however, and died on October 26, 1855. Her journal remains a valuable record on the development of the West.


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Shorapur, formerly known as Surpur is a town located at a distance of 53 km from the Yadgir district of Karnataka. The town is located at a distance of 95 km from the nearest cities of Raichur and 53 km from the district headquarters of Yadgir. The town is famous for the Venugopal Swamy Temple that attracts many pilgrims every year. A number of historical places are also located here that serves as major attractions.
Places to Stay
One can find a number of budget-friendly hotels in the nearest city of Raichur. Some of them which are worth trying are Nrupatunga Hotel (Tariff – Rs.700), SLV Tourist lodge (Tariff – Rs. 600), Siddharth Hotel (Tariff – Rs. 500), Vinay Residency (Tariff – Rs. 990), Hotel Prabhu (Tariff – Rs. 900) and many more.
The official language of the region is Kannada.
The major festivals celebrated with great enthusiasm are the Dussehra in October, Makar Sankranti in January, Ugadi in March-April, Ganesh Chaturthi in September and many more.
Places of Interest
There are many religious as well as historic places of tourist interest. A few of the must-see places of visit is the famous historic temple of Shree Venugopal Swamy. The other major attractions are the Vanadurga Fort, Taylor Manzil, Jain Temple and others.
How to Get There
The nearest airport is the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad at a distance of 250 km from the town.
The nearest railway station is the Yadgir Railway Station at a distance of 50 km from the region.
The major bus transport services that travels between the places is the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC). There are also many private bus operators such as Shakuntala Travels and others plying between many places. Online bus ticket booking is one of the easiest ways of booking your tickets


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Brittlebush lines the easy start to the Mission Creek Preserve trail near Morongo.
The trail wanders toward San Gorgonio Mountain en route to the junction with the Pacific Crest Trail.
Mistletoe: 1; mesquite tree: 0. The Cahuilla Indians used the parasite's leaves to make dye for basket and pots. Beware the berries--many varieties are poisonous.
Voracious hornworms proliferate. Soon, they'll metamorphose into hawkmoths.
Why did the gopher snake cross the trail? ...
...to get to the other side.
A fork in the road. Any route you take is the right one.
In Joshua Tree, you're always between a rock and a beautiful place.
A Phainopepla perched atop a yucca is less inclined to sing than survey.
The whiptail lizard is quick, but we were quicker. Or maybe just lucky.
The heliotrope thrives in sandy washes, a splash of color tarting up the terrain.
Rock (quartz monzonite) against sky (blue. Unrelenting blue.)
The summit of Mastodon Peak, where you are queen of the realm. Because no one's there to argue otherwise.
Chuckwallas scurry into crevices when they feel threatened, but this one forgot to hide his tail.
Apparently, we're not that intimidating--soon, he emerged to say hello.
Photos: Ellen Alperstein


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Zesty Dots Thank You Card
Your gratitude takes on a bold, contemporary look with our brilliantly styled, folded thank you note cards. Each dazzling card beautifully expresses your gratitude for the gift, the meal, the handyman help, or the wise advice. With your name or personalized message on the front, our thank you note cards add extra panache without extra cost. Blank-inside thank you cards are 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" and come with white envelopes in gift packaging.
- Set of 24 (single design)
Specify 1 line, up to 12 characters. "Thanks from" is preprinted
Write Your Own Review


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Just a quick note to say that I won't be posting much for a little while. I've been super busy with other projects this summer so I already hadn't posted much lately. And now my MacBook has croaked! Luckily I have backups so I am not concerned about losing any data. But I am now without my computer. I have other computers available, including my old Dell PC which I am using now to write this. But none of these computers have my software and my settings. So, until I can get a new MacBook, it'll be pretty quiet on the Lucky Dog Stamper blog. I'll still be making cards and taking photos of them so I'll have a lot to post when I am back up and running.
See ya later!!


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Representing Loved Ones in Orlando
Request a Free Consultation - Call Us at 407-269-5877
Did you lose a loved one due to the negligent actions of another? If so, you may be eligible to file a wrongful death claim and may be entitled to compensation. At Todd Miner Law, we are passionate about restoring justice on behalf of the individuals who have lost their loved ones in instances of wrongful death. Attorney Todd Miner has been serving this community for more than two decades. With experience working as an attorney for the nation's largest insurance firm, Attorney Todd Miner has an invaluable insider's perspective into how insurance companies handle injury claims.
Do not wait to pursue legal action! Contact our firm today to request a free consultation.
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Dealing with the death of a loved one is difficult enough. Knowing that their death was the direct result of a negligent party can be increasingly overwhelming. There are a number of expenses that can go into a loved one's death, including funeral costs and any medical or hospital bills that may be owed. When an individual hires us, we do everything within our power to help our clients recover compensation for all the associated expenses.
With extensive trial experience and a track record of success, our Orlando wrongful death attorney has become recognized for his ability to help clients secure just compensation. No matter how complicated the situation may seem, you do not have to work through matters on your own. Our team stands ready to provide the supportive counsel and individualized attention throughout the entirety of your case.
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Read full piece here https://theprint.in/opinion/we-asked-a-pakistani-bollywood-buff-to-review-uri-she-has-a-request-for-indian-directors/176916/
Uri Review | Masala Vlog
Watch here
Dear Rani – teaching martial arts isn't gonna solve the problem.
old issues, new rant.
Weekly roundup! Aangan's second episode, The Legend of Maula Jatt's trailer and Ranjha Ranjha Kardi.
Review | Simmba
Watch the full review of #Simmba here.
My review of #Zero
The best and worst of films and dramas in Pakistan
Ranveer Singh in Simmba
Read all about it here. https://images.dawn.com/news/1181502/ranveer-singh-says-hes-effortlessly-macho-in-simmba
My interview with Ranveer Singh
Thank you Box Office Events. Read up here https://tribune.com.pk/story/1868591/4-exclusive-conversation-ranveer-singh/


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Legislator Delia DeRiggi-Whitton recently honored the Glen Cove Harbor Patrol for going above and beyond in keeping the public safe in Glen Cove waters.
A recent example of how a situation can become life or death very quickly on the water happened off Pryibil Beach. On regular patrol, officers Montesano and Biundo and Lt. Dominguez spotted a swimmer in trouble. A woman was swimming off a boat and had been caught in a strong current and was struggling, according to the officers. A friend had jumped in to help her and was also in trouble. The patrol threw out a lifeline and was able to bring them both on board the patrol boat, check that they were okay and return them to their boat.
The Glen Cove Harbor Patrol has many duties: they assist boaters, enforce marine ordinance, ensure public safety, conduct safety inspections and rescue operations. They assist and collaborate with the Nassau County Police Marine Bureau, the Town of North Hempstead, Rye and Larchmont Harbor Patrols. The patrol covers six miles of shore line and 32 square miles of water, including all of Hempstead Harbor and the Long Island Sound from Execution Lighthouse to Peacock Point.


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In honor of being home sick with some sort of sinus almost-infection, I am going to indulge in a rant. If you don't care to read, you can hit "Next Blog" at the top of the page, and I won't be offended. I promise.
You have been warned.
I am so over pollen.
I am so over mold that grows inside and outside.
I am so over everything that makes me sneeze and makes me feel like I am hearing/seeing/feeling things in a tunnel.
I am so over my closer-to-five-than-four-year-old not pooping on the potty. And my husband's attitude toward it, which will probably send my son to therapy and me back to therapy with him. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I was hoping not to fuck my kids up this early on.
I am so over my job and the silent treatment from certain members of my team, who would prefer that I find commas and misplaced modifiers and leave the thinking to them, since they are so superior and learned and have been at the company so much longer than me. Know what? Just because it's the way it's always been doesn't mean it's right.
I am so over QCing test migrations, which is even more brainless than finding comma faults.
And I am ETERNALLY over the pimp getting $13 for every hour I work, for doing nothing except getting me the job nearly two years ago.
I am over the politicking that permeates this city, the people who don't want to look at you if you don't have a master's degree or top-secret security clearance.
I miss my writing circle and having the time to write. It is unbelievably frustrating to be stuck at a desk for seven hours a day, keys under your fingers, and not write.
I am over the dirty-borderline-disgusting bathrooms in our house that no one will clean except for me. Hint: wiping down the vanity with a baby wipe does not count as cleaning.
I am so over my hip and my body not letting me run the distances I used to be able to run.
I am so over hipsters who come up with new words like "fupa," giving me yet another thing to obsess over.
I am over soccer practice, dance recitals, and dinosaur songs. I'm over cooking things within my points allowance, eating lettuce twice a day, and getting my 60 minutes in because the ACE says I should.
I am over American Idol running long and my DVR cutting off the end of Glee,
Assholes in pick-up trucks in Reston who curse at me for accidentally rolling forward while trying to reverse up a hill,
Dreams where I have to watch my mother die again,
Stupid kids' shows
dirty laundry
diet soda
grass clippings
people who jet to italy for business meetings
taking vacations that aren't vacations
and this rant.
Now why don't I feel better?


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The band talks about playing quietly before performing at Tipitina's tonight.
"That record's a bitch," James McNew says, admiring Roger and the Gypsies' "Pass the Hatchet." The New Orleans instrumental helped give birth to the song, "Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind," an instrumental from 2006's I'm Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass. "We go way back with New Orleans '60s, '70s records." The song started as a jam, and because of the drum beat, they started referring to it in rehearsals as "Pass the Hatchet," and that sort of referentiality is often present in Yo La Tengo songs. Because McNew, Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley have broad musical tastes, bits of the music they listen to show up in parts of their songs. "I'll come up with a bass line and think, Man, I am a genius. Then two years later I'll realize, Ooh, that's what that is." Well after the band cut "Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind," he noticed similarities between his bass part and a Gang Starr song he was into at the time. Yo La Tengo play Tipitina's tonight.
Perhaps because Yo La Tengo draws from so many sources, it all sounds like Yo La Tengo music in the end. This year's Fade has the band's strongest set of songs in years, and it's quieter than Popular Songs and I'm Not Afraid of You ..., but the similarities are greater than the differences after 20 years of this lineup working together. The consistency makes the albums seem more like chapters in a book than a series of separate books - a take that McNew gets, even though it's not how he thinks of their albums. The members write songs for each album, record them, tour them, then start from zero when it's time to record the next album. Because of that, "albums are documents of where we are, and how we've changed since last time," he says.
They weren't sure Fade was going to be an album at all when they started writing for it a year ago. "We were open to doing things differently," McNew says. The songs were shorter, so they considered releasing them as singles or through some other form. After discussions with Matador Records, Yo La Tengo released the album through conventional means, but it's not conventional in his mind. The band has always switched instruments, but they do so now more than ever. Onstage, he also plays drums, everybody plays keyboards, and Hubley plays guitar. "I can tell when Georgia plays guitar because none of us play like that," McNew says. "A non-guitar player or a non-drummer comes up with unusual ideas for guitar and drum parts that one wouldn't have thought of."
Perhaps the albums seem of a piece because Yo La Tengo developed and stayed with a distinctive sensibility. Fade often sounds personal and domestic, but not to the extent that listeners are cast as eavesdroppers. At the same time, most of the band's albums feel personal, if only because they seem to exist pleasantly and deliberately outside of pop music marketplace. They gave a 2006 collection of covers improvised live on-air at WFMU the self-deprecating title, Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics.
"I think we found a different interpretation of success," McNew says. "Let's learn how to make better songs and records, and do this for ourselves and each other. As we continue to do that, people came to us rather than us calculating a way to trick people into liking us. It's kind of amazing that it happened that way, and it's never lost on me."
Part of doing things their own way is retaining the dynamics that are often lost in the process of making music radio-friendly (ironically, in an era when it's harder than ever to get played on the radio). Yo La Tengo works on those dynamics, and is unafraid to record and performed quiet, almost hushed songs. On this tour, the band's playing two sets, one quiet and one loud. Playing quiet live isn't hard, McNew says, and it's something the band has always done. If anything, splitting the quiet and loud songs into separate sets has made it easier. "People know what's happening," he says, and they quiet down accordingly. Despite the onstage sound from amps, drums and monitors, he is "hyper-acutely" aware of the audience talking. "But I've learned to tune it out." The phenomenon of audience talking during the quiet parts perplexes him, though. "This isn't television. We're people!," he says. "But that would be unprofessional of me, so I don't say things like that [to the audience]. But there isn't a performer in the world who doesn't think it."


text: I felt compelled to write a post today, as we come to the end of 2014, I wanted to share what this year has meant to me. I am sure I will mention this again in the future, but 2014 will forever by branded in my memory as one of great turmoil and transition. I continue to work at finding my place in the world and what that will actually look like, but I am getting closer. I know I was brought to this moment of sharing my thoughts and wanting to help other's create their own personal paradises at home. That is my passion. I want people to feel relaxed and invigorated in their own spaces. That is why I love decorating so much – you should love your home and the way it makes you feel. 🙂 Well, have a great New Year's Eve and stay tuned as I plan to post my first piece for sale tomorrow! xoxo-Sonni


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« School Board in Virginia Approves Teacher Gift Limit | Main | Parents: Resolve To Find New Ways To Support Student Learning »
Critics of 'Parent-Trigger' School to be Arraigned on Vandalism Charges
In the latest chapter of the ongoing saga at the nation's first so-called "parent-trigger" school, two of the school's most vocal local critics have been charged with vandalizing one of the Adelanto, Calif., school's classrooms, causing $8,000 in damages.
Chrissy Guzman and Lori Yuan, the chairwoman of the Adelanto Planning Commision, are scheduled to be arraigned in Victorville Superior Court on Jan. 13 and could face up to three years in county jail, according to a story in The San Bernardino County Sun. The pair allegedly vandalized Desert Trails Elementary School at the end of June, just days before a private charter school operator took over the failing school.
"The damage consisted of ketchup, mustard, and paint strewn about the room damaging carpets and window coverings and other items," Christopher Lee, a spokesman for the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office, said in the article.
Concerned Adelanto parents waged a two-year campaign to wrest control of Desert Trails away from the local school district using California's 2010 Parent Empowerment Act. The parents voted to turn the school—now called Desert Trails Preparatory Academy—over to a private charter school operator. The new school opened in July.
These charges may finally resolve some nagging questions I had about Desert Trails after I visited the school and community last fall. Often portrayed as the tale of two schools, one fact is undisputable—the student test scores were dismal.
But the school's campus prior to the takeover by the current charter operator was either fairly clean or filthy, depending on whether you spoke with a Desert Trail parent trigger supporter, critic, or neutral observer. (For the record, during my visit the school was spotless.)
Yuan, who I interviewed by telephone for Education Week's story, characterized the fight over Desert Trails as an "absolute melee" that was as tense as the fight between the Hatfields and the McCoys—without the guns, of course. The mother of two former Desert Trails students, Yuan said that she has spoken at a variety of venues (including, neighborhood councils and the Palos Verdes Peninsula Democratic Club in August 2013) about the parent-trigger law and what happened in Adelanto. Yuan did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the vandalism charges.
"I could care less what happens [to Desert Trails]," Yuan told me last fall. "I never wish for kids to fail, ever. What I want recognized is two things: They are not dealing with the exact same [student] population. There is no magic solution."
A spokesman for Parent Revolution, the California-based nonprofit that assisted Adelanto parents throughout their parent-trigger campaign, has questioned why there was a five-month delay between the alleged incident and the charges being filed.
"Why did it take so long?" spokesman Derrick Everett asked in the Sun.
Adelanto Superintendent Lily Matos DeBlieux told the Victorville Daily Press that a district administrator reported the incident immediatley to police on June 26. She added that the district is seeking full restitution for the damages.
Even Adelanto's mayor is weighing in on the charges, describing Yuan as a "very respectable woman."
"I guess it goes to show that a mother's passion for something can sometimes overtake you," Mayor Cari Thomas said in the Daily Press article. "[Yuan] was very passionate about her child's education and I think that's why she was involved with the Desert Trails (case)."
There's likely more to come in this ever-evolving and highly complicated story about America's first parent-trigger school. Let's just hope the students don't get lost in this latest legal tussle.


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The `dirty' image formed directly by Fourier transforming visibility data from practical interferometric arrays has defects imposed by limited sampling of the u,v plane.
This tutorial describes how such visibility data can be processed to reduce these defects using deconvolution algorithms. It is based on lectures originally given in the NRAO Summer Schools on Synthesis Imaging.
1996 November 4


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Why Audio – In Internet Marketing?
No doubt you have seen an increase in the amount of audio and video marketing on the internet in 2007. There are many effective uses of audio which include:
Audio e-books
Audio greetings on web sites
Audio narration (for audio learners and vision impaired)
And others
So when we see an audio increase … what is the actual "net" result? (no pun intended)
Some of the good that has come out of this is a decrease in cheesy auto-loading MIDI music files. Although this was common in the late 90's, it was never a "cool" element in web development, or in internet marketing.
Another advancement is that internet marketers who promote their products via "long copy" sales pages can now deliver their message in a more personal way.
Have you ever gone to a long-copy web site and scrolled past all the details just because there was so much reading? It happens often. Typically we want them to "cut to the chase" and be brief!
Internet Marketing is rapidly evolving. And perhaps those long text-based sales copy pages will soon be a thing of the past. While audio itself is not new … the trend of great sounding audio in many aspects of internet marketing, is growing FAST.
Also on the "good" side of audio … audio is a passive medium. You can actively listen to a recording while still being focused on a second task such as driving, doing paperwork, or playing a game of solitaire on your computer. (Reading requires more focus.)
Creating audio also forces the developer to critique their work further (with a higher level of proofing) produces better quality COPY or CONTENT for the consumer.
Now while we have all these positives there are also negatives.
For example, a quality audio takes more time to create than text. So internet marketers have to spend more time on their own marketing efforts.
Another drawback is that since the average person doesn't have a recording studio in their home, they might shy away from audio entirely. There are other reasons (shy) marketers aren't yet adopting audio which also might include confidence (or lack of it). Since public speaking is one of the top fears of most people, recording your own voice might be completely out of the question for some of us. Some people also don't like the sound of their own voice, or perhaps English isn't their first language.
But these reasons don't have to hold back successful internet marketers. With the explosion in podcasting and other forms of internet audio, there is also a growth in service providers to meet this need. This includes everything from royalty-free music backgrounds, custom narrations, to new hardware and software designs to meet the need of consumers.
So even if you aren't able to produce your own audios, professionals are available to help you get the job done quickly and affordably.
Early adopters are always the winners!


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Looking for an effective property management team you can trust?
We give you a specialised residential property management service—that's it. No confusing our priorities—we are 100% focused on property management. Property management is ALL we do, and that's why we are the specialists.
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Commentary #1
Thursday, May 29, 2007
I've been a referee for just over a year and a half now, and I love every minute of it. I started getting interested in Wrestling when I was seven years old. I saw a WWF Magazine with Hulk Hogan on the cover (which I still have to this day) holding the World Wrestling Federation Championship after defeating the late Yokozuna at WrestleMania IX and I was hooked. After that, I started going to all the live events that came into Worcester at The Centrum (now known as the DCU Center), and from that moment on I started thinking about being in the Wrestling business. I met Donnie Rotten & Jay Jaillet in late 2004 during intermission of an event that was run by a local wrestling promoter. After a lengthy conversation, we agreed that I would be able to train as a referee.
Of course, nervousness set in. I had my first match November 5, 2005 between The Widowmaker vs. Freightrain, and from that match, I thought I would be just fine as a referee. Now it's May going into June 2007 and I never stop learning. As someone once told me, "You're only as good as the people who train you.", and right now, I'd like to thank Donnie Rotten, "The Widowmaker" Eric Shred, Freightrain, Iron Eagle and Jay Jaillet, every promoter that I currently or formerly worked for who gave me the chance to referee for them and to every performer; which include champions and challengers, performers past, present and future, and to every person who have enjoyed seeing me work or has worked with me.
Site Created By:
Tony S. (C) 2006-2014
*This website is compatible with Internet Explorer 7/8.
No content or images on this website may be re-used without the expressed written consent of Referee Tony S.*


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They have a relatively long inside leg (10inch/26cm) to cover and protect the quad muscles from injury.
Chester shorts are made from a durable, high-stretch fabric from a specialist Italian mill.
The fabric is soft touch, with a sophisticated matte finish.
Durable, high-stretch fabric from specialist Italian mill
Secure and accessible pocket on right leg to fit your smartphone
Smaller pocket on left leg, suitable for cash, credit card and/or keys
Wide elasticated waistband
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71% micro polyamide, 29% elastane
UPF 50+ sun protection
Machine wash at 30°C
Designed in the UK and made in Europe
Take your usual size.
This item ships to UK, EU and US
Iffley Road takes the satisfaction of their customers very seriously.Every product is inspected to the highest possible quality standards before dispatch. However, if you are not totally satisfied with your purchase you can return it to them within 90 days for an exchange or refund.
It was on the track at Iffley Road, England, that the four-minute mile was broken in 1954. Capturing an adventurous approach to running, Iffley Road creates classically stylish and highly functional athletic gear that you can wear pre, during or post workout.
Husband and wife duo Claire Kent and Bill Byrne founded modern British sportswear brand Iffley Road in 2012. Born out of a mutual love of running, which is how the duo first met, the brand offers a range of definitive sportswear staples – jackets, tops and leggings – that combine a tailored fit with high performance fabrics.