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Film, Dance Group, 2 Concerts Fill Arts Schedule
Meteor Theater to Screen Movie Made from Professor Matt Bondurant's Book
A film based on a UT Dallas professor's novel, a contemporary dance performance and a sax-driven jazz concert followed by a night of classical chamber music fill out an eclectic week of entertainment for the School of Arts and Humanities.
Tickets to all events are free to UT Dallas students with valid identification. The schedule is as follows:
- On Wednesday, Feb. 6, at 5:30 p.m. in the Jonsson Performance Hall, Dallas-based Elledanceworks Dance Company will perform new works and present an informal lecture-demonstration. The audience will have the opportunity to step inside the creative process with dancers and choreographers during an open discussion after the performance. Elledanceworks is led by co-directors Ronelle Eddings and UT Dallas faculty member Michele Hanlon. The event is free and open to the public.
- Also on Wednesday, the film Lawless will be shown at 7:30 p.m. in the Jonsson Performance Hall. The film is based on UT Dallas Professor Matt Bondurant's book The Wettest County in the World. Bondurant will sign books and answer questions from the audience after the movie. The event is cosponsored by the Meteor Theater and the Campus Bookstore and is free and open to the public.
- On Friday, Feb. 8, in the Alexander Clark Center, tenor saxophonist Houston Person will play a night of jazz. Person is known for his soulful, hard-bop sound. After years as producer and house tenor for HighNote Records and touring with the vocalist Etta Jones, Person is considered a master of popular songs played in a relaxed, highly accessible style. The concert begins at 8 p.m.
- The Amernet String Quartet will wrap up the week with a performance on Saturday, Feb. 9, at 8 p.m. in the Alexander Clark Center. The New York Times described the quartet's performances as "immensely satisfying." The quartet, which serves as ensemble in residence at Florida International University, includes Julliard graduates Misha Vitenson (violin), Marcia Littley (violin), Michael Klotz (viola) and Jason Calloway (cello).
For both concerts, faculty and staff members presenting their UT Dallas Comet Cards will be admitted free of charge at the ticket office at the evening of the event. In addition, they may buy up to four additional tickets for this concert at the discounted price of $5.
General admission tickets for Friday's concert are $20 and $15 for Saturday's concert. $10 for non-UT Dallas students. The ticket office is open 2 to 5 p.m. Friday and one hour before show time. Tickets can be purchased in advance online or by calling 972-883-2552. Tickets purchased in advance may be picked up at the door prior to the show.
Lawless is based on Dr. Matt Bondurant's book The Wettest County in the World.
Houston Person plays popular tunes in a relaxed, accessible style.
The Amernet Quartet is the ensemble in residence at Florida International University.
Media Contact: The Office of Media Relations, UT Dallas, (972) 883-2155, [email protected].


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Jake Miller has never crowd surfed, but his Dad has!
The last time Jake played in NYC, to a sold-out show (no biggie), his Dad was able to check a major item off of his bucket list! Jake's still waiting for his crowd surfing moment to come, but he's usually too busy playing the show.
"All of a sudden I just see my Dad floating," he said about the bizarre experience.
Miller, 25, is out with his second studio album, 2:00AM IN LA, and is currently on a 31-city tour with more dates expected to be added soon.
"I'm independent now. I'm making music on the road. [...] I could go back to the hotel and make a full song if I wanted to," Jake said about life not being signed to a label.
The Florida native told us he's learned that it's more important to surround yourself with people who believe in you and your career goals over people who are 'big' in the music business. He loves the flexibility that comes with being an independent artist.
Check out his super chill acoustic version of his single "Palm Blvd" + video interview below. You're going to want to add this one to your playlist ASAP!

subset: commoncrawl


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China's Wolf Warrior policy
China is getting aggressive toward adversaries in the face of coronavirus criticism
China is getting aggressive toward adversaries in the face of coronavirus criticism
Innovative ways to be good neighbors in a crisis
One Brooklyn man shares the chaotic moments before, during, and after his dad's death from COVID-19. He hopes it will help other grieving families
COVID-19 shutdowns spurred new cross-industry relationships and consumer demand for new delivery methods. Some changes may be permanent
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Within the last decade, awareness of eating disorders has exploded, and pictures of women with spines jutting out like spikes and arms hanging like rails have become common. If Angelina Jolie shows up with veiny arms, tabloids speculate about her weight. The disease fills gossip columns, but the deeper stories remain misunderstood. I've gone into five of those stories.
One is the story of 25-year-old Jessica Perez from upstate New York, now with cropped and jet-black hair, gray-blue eyes, and 10 piercings stamped into her ears, lips, nose, and belly button. She also has five hand-inked tattoos, thin X-shaped scars stretched across her chest, and a waist that bears Harry Potter's Horcrux symbol—remnants of her self-cutting days.
Severely depressed and self-hating, Jessi cut and starved herself because that was the only way she knew to stop her emotional pain: "The physical pain is something you control. You can start it, and you can make it stop. It's something you can't do with depression."
Jessi was about 11 when her father abandoned the family without explanation, leaving her mother distraught and Jessi gradually curtailing her food intake to stifle her anger and sadness. By 13, she had full-fledged anorexia and an addiction to cutting herself. At school, she hung out with a bunch of "severely depressed" misfits. At home, she tiptoed around her new stepdad and stepsiblings.
Eleven years later, Jessi has gone through four hospitalizations and one eating disorder treatment center. In all those years she never had a period. It takes months for her to recover from an illness. Her body involuntarily regurgitates rich, heavy foods, so she spends hot summers sucking on fruity push-up popsicles, chewing on Twizzlers, and sipping fat-free milk.
Jessi is 5-foot-5 and barely weighs 55 pounds. She says she feels comfortable at that "good, functioning weight" because she can get by without panicking about her weight. She can't cartwheel or run up the stairs, but she can dig up sod in the garden and mop the floor.
At times, Jessi wonders what she's living for: "I'm very lost." She thinks about God but doesn't exactly know who He is: "I feel so helpless ... I've always tried to be a good person. I feel like I would not have suffered the way I have without some kind of purpose behind it. If God doesn't have a purpose for this, then this universe sucks."
Another story: Melissa (Missy) Miller, 34, has struggled with an eating disorder for about 20 years, and still struggles with it day to day.
Although financially dependent on her parents, Missy still blows at least $200 a week on groceries for herself, spending an "obscene amount of time" at Whole Foods staring at nutritional labels and hoarding food she doesn't eat. Her fridge must always contain her daily staples: low-calorie items such as broccoli, lettuce, and hummus. When she runs out of them, she drags herself to the store no matter how tired she is— because she just has to. Why? She doesn't know.
Recently, Missy weighed herself. She had reached 94 pounds, the highest she's been in a very long time. She stepped off the scale and resolved to stick to her motivation to recover, but not before—and after—experiencing a spasm of terror.
As Missy tries to explain her reaction to the weight gain, her eyes well up. She gulps air, flailing her bony arms as though trying to fend off the panic attack she feels each time she thinks about her weight: "It feels like dying. … I feel like I'm walking around with tumors."
When she checked an online chart, she was still well under her healthy Body Mass Index (BMI) and already panicking. She realized that as much as she professes trust and faith in God, doubt keeps her from recovery: "I'm living in sin and darkness, and it's putting a wall between God and me no matter how much I want to tear it down ... I have this latent sense that He can heal—but not me."
Story three: Adam Nettina is 23, a recent college graduate, and about 30 pounds under his healthy weight. The last time he was at a healthy weight, he was a ripped freshman at Catholic University of America, pressing weights, and running additional laps around campus after his ROTC training.
Depressed and dissatisfied with school, Adam became addicted to the euphoria his daily exercise regimen and strict dietary rules provided him. He transferred to Utah State University and intensified his disordered behaviors until he was hospitalized his junior year.
During our entire conversation on Skype, Adam was standing, shuffling his feet, and fidgeting around. He had spent the whole day sitting at his desk in Annapolis, Md., and felt antsy about his lack of activity: "I feel like if I sit, it's taking years off my life." He had raw vegetables with BBQ sauce for dinner because he's feeling guilty about the pack of Nutter Butters he had for lunch. He shops in the boys' section sometimes because men's clothes hang off him.
Adam isn't the stereotypical eating-disordered patient, and not just because he's male. He makes sure to get about 2,500 calories a day, but that's the problem: He's so hung up by this magic number that anything that deviates from it sends him into an anxious rage.
He keeps a scale in his kitchen to keep precise measurements of his non-fat yogurt and chicken breasts. His mind pulses non-stop with calculations: An apple isn't an apple. It's 101 "good" calories, and a license to eat that cup of "bad" ice cream. "You start to lose a sense of even enjoying the taste of food. It's a calorie, something you get to check off a list."
In June at his grandmother's 85th birthday dinner, Adam demolished an entrée-sized salad—and 16 slices of pizza left by relatives. But the "morning-after syndrome" keeps striking him: "It's not so much a body image issue … the eating disorder itself, the obsession about food and the obsession about control, it's hedonistic and idolatrous." With his head low and his feet still moving side-to-side, Adam summarizes his recovery: "This is a marathon, not a sprint." Right now, he looks exhausted.
Fourth story: Olivia Linde, 22, is beautiful. Her dark, expressive eyebrows arch like Audrey Hepburn's, and her dark curls tumble in soft cascades. But to her 13-year-old eyes, she was just an awkward teenager hiding behind big frizzy hair, freckles, and glasses: "I always felt I wasn't beautiful enough, and I wanted to fit in."
Olivia grew up with Christian parents but was still "soul-searching for God." Seeking acceptance from others through her physical appearance, she found anorexia instead. Spiritual starvation led to physical starvation.
Olivia didn't make a conscious decision to diet. She was an active teenager playing soccer and volleyball who started upping her daily activity and calculating calories. That "innocent diet" gradually transformed into a serious social and mental disability. When her youth group laid out food, Olivia scampered into the bathroom to hide. She covered herself in layers of clothing to hide her emaciation.
When Olivia was 14 and deep into her eating disorder, she professed faith in Christ and resolved to follow Him. There began the long process of recovery: the terror that gripped while her nutritionist and parents rejoiced at the higher numbers on the scale, the battles with her parents at the dinner table, and the guilt-wrestling as she watched how much her parents were hurting.
Even now, Olivia still struggles not to act on the "anorexic thoughts" and the "horrible mental pictures" of her body: "There's no quick fix. … It's just choosing Jesus every single day." This summer she worked at a Christian camp for teens and rarely needed to preach: She merely allowed herself to be vulnerable with her story.
Olivia's experience helps her detect symptoms of eating-disordered behaviors: "Every single girl I know, if they haven't struggled with it themselves, they know someone who does."
Fifth: Four years ago, Natalie Tan was a 20-year-old National University of Singapore student who also didn't know a calorie from a bean, but her boyfriend at the time started working for a diet product company. Relatives said during Chinese New Year, "You put on so much weight! Why so fat?" Natalie decided to lose about four pounds, so she took the slimming supplements and educated herself on what calories were, disregarding the part about how many she needed.
Natalie lost a lot more than four pounds. Within four months, her period stopped. In about a year, her skin had yellowed like a decaying phone book, and her worried parents took her to a counselor. As her weight continued dropping, her counselor referred her to Singapore General Hospital, where Natalie was diagnosed with anorexia and admitted to the hospital's eating disorder treatment center.
For Natalie, life at the treatment center with five other eating-disordered individuals fed her competitive streak. Instead of focusing on getting well, she and the others engaged in a silent competition: The person who gained weight the fastest was the loser. Some even learned how to hide food or throw up.
Ironically, baking helped Natalie: She turned a corner when training as a pastry chef at Le Cordon Bleu in London. In nine months Natalie grew from a high-strung child who threatened to starve herself during fights with her "heartbroken" parents, into a healthy, independent woman who now assembles cakes and mousse shooters for a living. She had always enjoyed baking, but now she can bake a cake and eat it, too.
God works in mysterious ways. After trying to avoid God for a long time, Natalie returned to church because the "aunties and uncles" at church raved about the cakes and cookies she baked for them. During her exams at Le Cordon Bleu, Natalie saw how God led her each step of the way as she stumbled through mistakes while heating sugar syrup and whipping buttercream for an opera cake. In fact, God had been with her all along.
Natalie, who grew up a Christian and whose mother leads the ladies' ministry in church, said she "knew God was around but I never felt His presence"—not until she started struggling with an eating disorder.
Oh, there's one more story: mine. I'll never forget the weepy hug I shared with my parents as I left my first hospitalization against doctor's orders. The doctors and psychiatrist told me I would die. My parents and I believed an eating disorder was primarily a spiritual disease that cannot be healed by force-feeding and therapy sessions. God will heal, we believed.
The day after that discharge, my hope deflated as I realized I couldn't bring myself to finish a bowl of oatmeal. Each meal from then on became a battle. For six months our family dinners, high in tension, left everyone with indigestion.
Then my worried parents and I drove 10 hours to Northwestern University for my freshman year. I waved goodbye, promising to come back for winter break with an additional 10 pounds. I was home within a month, 10 pounds lighter, hospitalized for the second time and basically kicked out of Northwestern.
The next year was painful. Desperate to go back to college, I gained more than 30 pounds, but Northwestern denied me re-admission. Thus began my bitterness against God and my parents, fueled by the hatred and disgust I felt for myself. Even though I looked healthier physically, mentally and spiritually I was worse than before.
Costco bagels sparked one conflagration. I moved out the next day, spent nights sleeping in my car and crashing at my friend's house, then roomed with a high school friend for three months. During those months, I turned into a hedonistic bulimic. I stayed up until 4 a.m., gorging on piles of fatty and sugary foods until my belly could take in no more, puking my guts out, and repeating the process again until I was half fainting. This unsustainable lifestyle—I passed out twice—pushed me back to anorexia.
Many times I could have died. I was actively destroying my body, stubbornly refusing even to open the Bible because of the tight, confusing mixture of guilt and resentment I felt toward Him. I wanted to hurt myself so much because I loathed everything about myself.
God used that loathing to spotlight my sin and weakness. Friends, intelligence, and talents—all obliterated by a single mental disability. Nothing to boast about, nothing to contribute: I was a 52-pound college dropout who couldn't even feed herself or walk uphill without falling.
But I had an Almighty Father who so loved and treasured me that He sent His one and only son, Jesus Christ, to replenish my soul, my mind, and my body. I saw God's love through my family, my church, my friends. I saw God's love in someone as pathetic and wretched as me.
It took me a long time to understand what that kind of grace meant—deeply, intimately, personally—to me. I no longer wept about my inability to recover. When I used that newfound identity as a daily perspective on every circumstance and situation in my life, true recovery took place.
Many professionals say you can never recover completely from an eating disorder. Yes, the scars will always remain, but in my experience, God never wastes our tears. Even as my heart still tightens with the painful memories, the overwhelming sensations I feel are thanksgiving and awe.
Only God can make pottery (albeit still somewhat misshaped) out of a beaten lump of useless clay. Only God can turn an experience as hideous and humiliating as an eating disorder into a testimony that sings of His mercy and love. My parents and I share that testimony. We are all flawed individuals who are part of a beautiful purpose. It is bittersweet, but the bitter makes the sweet so much sweeter.
—Sophia Lee is a USC senior and WORLD intern
Sophia - your article brought tears to my eyes. Thanks so much for allowing us to briefly step into the world of those struggling with eating disorders as well as sharing the hope in Christ. This will be good for our family to discuss. May God continue to work in you and through you mightily.


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Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Here is something seriously cool. Honda has just unveiled an interactive TV campaign called "This Unpredictable Life" to launch the new Honda Jazz, and with that, an iPhone app that allows you to literally grab content from the ad as it plays. The campaign was created by W+K London and uses whats called "screen hopping" that works [...]Continue reading...
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Jimquisition: Dumbing Down for the Filthy Casuals
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It's a false assumption. You can stick as many customization options, modes, in a Madden game as you want. I'm not going to be interested in it. The same thing applies to other people regarding Dark Souls.
Just by reading 4 pages of this thread, I can tell you that the reputation isn't undeserved. Thus far, people who would like an easier option in the game have been told "you just don't get it" - like Dark Souls is some kind of philosophical abstract painting. This is the type of bogus thing said by hipsters when you tell them that something is boring and/or offensive to the eyes.
We've also been told that "the game's encounter design precludes an easy mode." Which is bogus in every way imaginable. Want to make the game easier without changing anything? Cut the damage done by enemies attacks by 1/2 and double the number of spells you can cast. Done. Now a single hit by a random zombie doesn't make that entire life forfeit.
I can understand wanting to keep the game the way you like it, but attacking people who find the game boring or aggravating (I'm in the latter category) is absolutely the wrong way to do so. And that is what Dark Souls' fan base has taken to doing.
A fair argument. Simple solution, lock the difficulty in (or only let it move up from the initial setting). I'm not sure what the encoutner bits about.
Rather then bloat the post, I've spoiler tagged my brief summary of Dark Souls below which actually does contain praise.
Artists put their paintings in public museums, they don't put it up in a tower you have to scale. I can't think of a musician that recorded his music on 6 copies (I'e handed out a least 1000 tapes and I'm not even a signed artist) and said "Whatever, thats enough". Books are published and sold to whoever buys them. Granted, the difficulty (or perception thereof) doesn't explicitly prevent anyone from playing the game, but I can understand that whoever wants more people to enjoy their work.
If you don't see the appeal, maybe something just isn't your cup of tea to begin with? Why is it so hard to understand and accept that?
Random zombies are already incapable of one shotting you.
PLUS you have to factor in things like online mode. Do you split the online into easy mode and offline mode? Servers are costly. In addition, skilled players already do low level runs through the game to get top notch equipment and gank low level players and you've just made it easier for them to do that? Do you group everyone together? That presents the problem of vastly more skilled players invading NPCs. Do you just have easy mode lacking in online play? In that case an easy mode still wouldn't allow players to see all the content in the game. Adding an easy mode to Dark Souls is not an easy two step move to making it work.
Plus the simple fact of the matter is that people do not find Dark Souls hard because of the technical skill required to beat the game. You do not need super fast reflexes to beat Dark Souls. You don't need to master a complex series of combos. People find it hard specifically because of the knowledge base players need to acquire to beat the game. It's things like level and enemy lay outs. Trap and ambush locations. Being able to explore properly. Learning enemy move sets and when to attack and when to defend. Learning how to conserve stamina. Learning how to make a good weapon. Learning all of that through trial and error IS the game.
The simple fact is that not everyone is going to like every game. Games can be well made and well designed and still not appeal to everyone no matter how many modes you add. Creating an easy mode where everyone is can beat the game without understanding any of the mechanics is going to cause players to shoot through a threshold of difficulty where people are going to beat the game in between 5-10 hours. It's just not that big. Creating a properly working modal difficulty would require substantial changes to the entire game design. Dark Souls is quite literally not paced or designed in any way shape or form to be easy. The entire game is built to compliment the learning process required to beat the game.
That sounds like another pretty hefty assumption. So many assumptions around here! It is almost like we are all just people who play video games and don't know dick about game design, no matter how much we like to pretend we do.
I diagree. I havent even played dark souls, but even I can see that an easy mode would destroy one of the main features. I play alot of Arma 2 myself and if the campaign there could be played with a regenerative healthbar it would not even be remotely the same experience. And I would feel like everyone that played the game like that missed out.
It would be like reading the abstract of a scientific article because you would not understand parts of it, then saying that you have read the whole thing.
But hey, Im not irritated, its just Jim after all.
I have no problem with easy or simplified modes, i have a problem with games where the whole experience is dumbed down (DA2 for one).
Also i don't like the "must access all content" argument, just like equal rights to men and women take into consideration that the genders will always have some differences, you have to consider the differences and objectives between the types of media for that argument.
I agree with Jim over this one, but not entirely. There -are- instances where this dumbing down / pandering to casuals / aiming for a wider audience takes an effect on core gameplay.
Say, as an example, Hitman: Absolution. Apart from certain gameplay mechanics (Cover system) being a result of a new approach rather than making it more casual, the instinct system was definitely an addition that I'm referring to. It was a core gameplay mechanic due to it affecting the disguise system, the cover system and the shoot-outs. It wasn't merely a small, optional addition however. The disguise system heavily relies on it. You can't bypass someone wearing the same outfit without the alarm bells going off and the person recognises you.
What is the consequence of this? Well, the instinct meter degrades far faster on higher difficulties, which means disguises become less and less efficient. On Purist mode ("Designed for the hardcore audience"),it's nigh-impossible to get past anyone with the generally 3-4 seconds long instinct mode availiable for an entire level, resorting in turning the gameplay from being a disguised, infiltrating serial killer (Something that a Hitman game should be about) into dodging from cover to cover, avoiding any form of contact, which is more akin to a dumbed down Splinter Cell in the end.
The instinct mechanic is a core design that, if you get rid of it, results in the gameplay becoming extremely tedious, even at merely the higher difficulty levels. In its function it's a tool that makes situations easier (Pandering to the casuals), but removing it is simply feigning optionality. Such examples clarify the points of those people who also dislike the fact some franchises make attempts to reach out to more people. More often than not, the option to not use the tools and options 'Meant for the casuals' means you have to butcher your own gaming experience to the point it's not challenging, difficult, yet fun, but tedious, underwhelming and lacking in variety, which is something I really disliked in the latest Hitman game, but I'm sure others can raise similar examples.
Pretty sure we've made games with an easy mode without having to change level design before, and still had a fairly challenging game. The easy mode could simply provide them with something like more checkpoints, less punishment for playing recklessly, etc. You're making an assumption and running with it. We don't know what they'll do to provide an easier playstyle. Chances are, the Devs BIGGEST concern is making sure that they don't change anything that will ruin the play experience their fans fell in love with.
You can't just assume what changes will be implemented and use that as a basis for your argument.
I think you misunderstood my argument with the other fellow. I'm not asking to be able to "press X to win", but having a simpler option available to those of who don't have the time to invest in the game as much as others due to either family, work, or school. Things that naturally inhibit a gamer's ability to wholly invest in his product, but we really want to be able to experience it without having to make the only thing we play in order to get that experience. Meaning, if I pay the same price as you, I want to actually get that experience. Entertainment is there for you, you're not there to satisfy it.
Did u read my post? It appears you didn't, games that usually have difficulties are built from the ground up to accommodate. If they include an easy mode they would have to change the game. Dark Souls if it didn't punish reckless play is maybe... 3 hours tops. It's not a long game without difficulty. Which even than the only part that makes it hard is that people are wired to play games with no patience and as reckless as possible. He levels are currently made to not accommodate reckless play. Small paths, traps, giant swinging blades. Even with more health you would die. If they added more checkpoints you would lose any challenge and the fact that levels aren't that long to begin with.
Have u actuall played the game to even argue? Based on what you respond with ur going on all assumption and not even based on the game.
Edit: On my iPhone so my grammar is shit atm.
You kind of just proved my point with that statement. Games that have to make level design accommodate for all difficulties have to be built from the ground up. I agree with that. That's a fairly big implication that since they are not redoing it all from the ground up, they probably aren't making changes to level design. I think you greatly underestimate the amount of work involved in re-designing the levels for an already published game.
I keep hearing this complaint that this will make the game unplayable and short, but if you're not the one who is going to be playing through it, then why is this a problem for you?
Even if it is only 3 hours long, a short game is by no definition a bad thing.
It's far more likely that they will make a mode that is still challenging, and provide the player with more benefits to make the play through less stressful on their time and mistakes.
creating an easy mode would mean development time spent on creating things for people who probably isnt in to this kind of game.
a few things : Seth Carter you had the same DS experience that i had
ps: also people: please please please stop saying the only rediming point of DS is its difficulty, you make the game sound like its crap, but you like it because its difficult crap
The AI is extremely easy to exploit (the AI in itself is dumb as shit even without the exploits) which makes the game easy even on hard, for me at least.
a lot of people have already said this, but the difficulty in dark souls is integral to the game, in my opinion. it adds to the atmosphere and makes the game far more tense than it would have been otherwise; the first time i walked through one of the white gate-thingies my heart was freaking pounding, because i knew that the thing on the other side was probably going to eat me alive. i think that sense of fear and excitement would be lost if the difficulty was dumbed down. i'm not against an easy mode in such a creation, but maybe make it unlockable by performing badly at the game, so everyone has to try the 'true' game and learn that they are not able to win? i just think it would be a shame for the original dark souls experience (sounds like a band name) to be lost on someone who doesn't feel confident enough to play it. iirc a similar system was used in some of the devil may crys, maybe in viewtiful joe (my memory sucks), and those franchises are still viewed as exquisitely difficult and rewarding, as far as i know.
No I think a better example for those who want easy mode is like watching Twelve Angry Men and skipping all of the character development because you don't have enough patience to watch it.
Let me explain again... And again...
Okay since Dark Souls doesn't sub to any specific difficulty, it's levels aren't designed to scale, at the same time some parts of Dark Souls design isn't all just difficult. In games with difficulties it works like this:
Easy - Enemies have low health and reduce number
Dark Souls isn't any of these. In most levels in Dark Souls there isn't many enemies, maybe in some parts but in most spots it's maybe two or three enemies. Lots of times it's even just a single enemy. At the same time enemies usually only take maybe 3 to 5 hits to kill, maybe slightly higher if your dps isn't high but then most likely your high speed or magic which then brings it down to 3 to 5 or even as low as 1 or 2 for magic depending on the level.
Only enemies which have lots of health are usually optional enemies or are alone. Not enough times are they with a group to justify changing this. So increasing health and dps and you would be literally pressing X to win.
Checkpoints - There is enough bonfires, sometimes there isn't many because of checkpoints. Like in Sen's Fortress, there is only two, one at the top and bottom. But Sen's Fortress is also very small, and when you get to the top, as long as you get the key, there is a checkpoint that goes from the top to the bottom and vice versa.
In Undead Parish - Three checkpoints, but the first also counts as two because once you get past the dragon you drop down a ladder and you can reuse that same bonfire. Not to mention the checkpoint past the dragon (optional) and then the one right next to Sen's Fortress, Blacksmith, and the Forest. The same checkpoint that is less than a minute before the boss of Undead Parish.
And so on... All the checkpoints are placed near shortcuts, you just need to look around and find them. It's not hard. More so if you start with the Master Key and you can literally skip all of Blight Town, the Depths, and the ground floor of Undead Parish. Also you can get some items to easily kill the first boss (not the tutorial fight.)
Also you can then summon players in to help you, if that isn't enough there is some NPCs you can hire at any time to help you with the bosses. Once you also get half way through the game you can begin to teleport between bonfires, which they increased how many you can teleport to with the recent DLC/patch.
There is so many ways to make the game easier, and you have a whole community willing to help. Dark Souls is like that and you shouldn't be ashamed to have to search it.
Also $60 for a 3 hour RPG? That's near theft.
And if you want another explination here is the video by ENB:
I was gonna comment on this but then I saw this guy's post. Basically said what I wanted to say.
Dark Souls is built around desolation, a feeling of insurmountable odds in an empty, dead wasteland that tells a story almost exclusively through atmosphere. It was never designed around an easy mode. There were rarely allot of enemies on screen and most if not all the enemies engaged you in single direct combat.
An easy mode, simply the option of scale-able difficulty could damage the entire experience. Not for me, but for the people playing it on easy. They will not get the same experience of being crushed underneath the boot of a 30 foot tall colossus because they can now take 2 hits from that monster and thus the careful planning, the deliberation will be lost from the came because all of a sudden it is alright to make allot more mistakes.
It would be like putting an Easier mode on the old X-com, where the entire experience was built around an unstoppable alien force who WILL overrun you in the end.
The point of a Souls game is the challenge if you lessen the challenge you lessen the game. If Dark Souls got an easy mode and a person said they beat Dark Souls on easy all that would tell me is that guy couldn't hack it and wussied out. Every patch to Dark Souls has in fact made the game easier. Dark Souls isn't Kirby adventure the motto isn't prepare to win. I'm sorry but here an easy mode just violates the very spirit of the game.
And you have to remember Dark Souls and Demon's Souls didn't become popular because it catered to casuals it became popular because it effectively shunned them by not having a easy mode. Essentially sending the message to players get better at the game or continue to die.
If a person wants to experience a Souls game but it's to hard for them. There are many options for them. There are playthroughs on youtube and streamers on twitch who only stream Dark and Demon's souls. People you could easily watch and learn from either of these and then play on their own or go buy a strategy guide. Why should Fromsoft and its publisher waste money making an easy mode for people that aren't even in the target audience for the game in the first place?
If you need Dark Souls to have to an easy than you probably aren't in the target audience for a souls game. And it isn't surprising to see that target audience get pissed when they hear the formula for something they feel passionate about is going to be changed to accommodate others outside of their targeted audience. When it comes to this audience where the love of difficulty trumps all else to even suggest making the game proper easier in any significant way is blasphemy of worst the kind. All games aren't made for everyone or every audience and no one wants to see this turn into a rpg version of cod.
If it's elitist to say, if you can't be bothered to learn the game then we don't want you. Then the Souls community is full of elitist jerks and those unprepared to die, try again, and learn how to play should not bother with this community.
Limiting the option to a single instance does little to nothing to alleviate this presented problem. It is precisely the lack of a simple menu option (concerning the difficulty) that doesn't need to be earned in some way or form that enables for the tension to take and have effect.
The lore in Dark Souls is a puzzle and the pieces can be found throughout the game. You can't expect to complete a puzzle with only a couple of its pieces. The AI is at times truly hilarious, especially if there are multiple players (co-op). Hopefully it is improved for the Dark Souls 2. Armor weight has no bearing on how much you take fall damage (right...?) as it is a constant. No matter how much health you have the same fall does to your character the exact same amount of damage in percents as it would with any other set of statistics, I think. Also, for the Gaping Dragon to take you that long of a time to defeat your equipment simply must not have been upgraded at all. Or you made the mistake of summoning NPC phantoms to seemingly help you out. Even hitting the Gaping Dragon in the head (weakest point) with any basic +5 weapon should end the fight in no more than 10 minutes. Then there are also several buffs that you could have used to improve your damage output.
Much like games are quite easily accessible in many stores as either physical or downloadable copies. Getting to see a painting is no harder than managing to buy a game and place your newly bough game disc into a disc drive. This is not what the experience paintings and games can provide you with consists itself of. You can view the painting all you want but without first comprehending it it has no content or meaning to you. As is with games, some paintings may simply require more from you than others or present themselves in a way that is especially difficult for you to comprehend (in a way that gives meaning) or even enjoy at all. The same holds true for any form of art or entertainment; some works demand more than others. Neither is intrinsically better, but individuals can appreciate one over the other.
Ideally an artist creates only out of a desire to create something. In general it shouldn't matter whether your work will be appreaciated by others or not. If the work is genuine it most likely will be appreciated by some, which is of course a positive thing for all parties, but the creation of the work shouldn't be dependent on this.
hey hey hey Jim, you remember that episode you did a few months ago about Resident Evil 6 and the "we're trying to attract a wider audience" thing that made it not only suck but destroyed its own genre by becoming ALL of them? I'm sure you remember that episode right? You want me to link it to you?
What gamers are afraid of is having a game series that has a dedicated and devout audience that actually has a game dedicated to their wants from a game becoming RE6: Its Everything and Nothing at All. Oh and the new director, doesn't have a very good track record with games either.
Then play another game as this one is not for you?
A - What game has no flaws?
Again, Dark Souls just might not be the game for you.
*Egads! Some games are not meant for everyone!? The horror!
For the record, I don't play FPS games as I find them disorienting. I could waltz in and demand a third person camera, but that would be counter the spirit of the genre. Much the same as asking for easy mode in Dark Souls....
Misleading title Jim. I thought you were gonna talk about actually dumbing down gameplay for filthy casuals. Complaining about optional difficulty modes is just silly.
Well spoken sir. Wish more people would see the difference between deliberate game design and design flaw.
There are aspects of this thinking that seep through to every difficulty. For example, two FPS games I've been playing recently are Doom 3 BFG Edition, and Borderlands 2. Here's how the games guide you from A to B.
DOOM: "You need to get to Operations. Work it out yourself."
BORDERLANDS: "You need to follow the 60ft neon blue arrow in the sky."
Now, neither system is perfect, but it frustrates me that EVERY MODERN GAME seems to have spotted the problem in the Doom method (ie: "I don't know where X is.") and solved it not by a subtle, optional hint, but by a blunt-force mandatory "you are too stupid to do this yourself" method.
I honestly don't mind hints or helping hands for players. I think what a lot of people forget is that games are more readily available now. I found by NES the other day - I had six games for it. Six, for the entire life of the console. Granted, other consoles I had did much better, but the point is that as a child games were something acquired sparingly, via birthdays or Christmas and so on. Now, money permitting, I can walk into a store and buy a game whenever, or download it, or play a free one online. As such, if a game is annoying me I can just ditch it and get a new one. This is coming from someone who has achieved full-Emerald runs on every Sonic game from 1 to S3&K.
But there has to be balance. The help has to be there for people who need it, not forced onto people who don't want it. After New Vegas I can't imagine playing a Fallout game where you need to eat and drink to stay alive, where healing doesn't happen instantly and where injuries don't just go away because you put a plaster on it... but I don't begrudge people who play with "hardcore" mode turned off.
I recall the Ghost Recon series evolving from FPS to third person, raising the bar for tactical shooters while still maintaining the "spirit" of the game. Even Resident Evil 4's overhaul revolutionized the game while keeping the traditional elements of fear, tension, and suspense tact (5 and 6 were kinda lame, but it can be argued 4 is the pinnacle of the series). Overall, I think there's room for modification of design and balancing without "betraying the sanctity of the precious game's spirit". As has been said, there are plenty other aspects of Dark Souls worth playing for beyond just the difficulty. Making those aspects more accessible doesnt have to come at the cost of disregarding the other elements of challenge. Im sure there's room for improvement (we both said, there's no such thing as a flawless game.) Though I found the level design and save/restore mechanics obtuse, I enjoy great art design, imposing atmosphere, intelligent combat, and unique lore just as much as anyone, so who the fuck are you or anyone else to say that a game is "not for certain people".
Jim once again you drag us along kicking and screaming in the beginning only to see the light at the end. Magnificent!
The very nature of the term easy mode is just that. Its easier then the normal mode. And normal mode is just not quite as hard as hard mode. I'm sure you get the idea here. I think the original Halo best exemplifies the correct usage of this method of gameplay, although I'm sure there are older far more apt examples then this, never mind. The point is, you can choose easy mode and experience the storyline and gameplay willy nilly and have fun that way. Then later, you pick insane mode and die 30 times on the first room of the first level. Truly, that's what I did as a little gamer sprout and its probably what took me from casual to an advanced gamer. True, it might take away from the end if you just waltz through the game and don't experience the satisfaction of really accomplishing something but if your not responsible for the difficulty of gameplay you pick then can you even wipe your own nose? I mean, at some point people have to take responsibility for their actions, and I'm pretty sure the bottom line of that is what difficulty you play your videogames at.
As far as how this effects the "dumbing down" of games, well that's not the case for hardcore games. The very nature of hardcore games is to exist outside the norm. Its niche. By nature it must exist to be an opposite to what is normal. So even if one franchise sells out and caters to the masses, you can bet someone else is gearing up to take on the chalice of hardcore game makers and bring on the next great series.
I was just about to reference the same video. Glad to see someone else is in the same boat as me in regards to Dark Souls.
Jim's episode was informative, and did make a good point about misguided views trying to exclude those of different tastes, but NO, just NO, in response to his comments on the Dark Souls Easy Mode reaction. Dark Souls is a different case, and the fact that Jim Sterling is not a devoted fan of the game is obvious when he states how presenting an easier version to newer players won't have an effect.
The core argument of leaving Dark Souls unchanged is that it is not just ANY other game that should present difficulties to cater to every gamer. No, Dark Souls is a new type of dish completely, and it is meant to be enjoyed through the most perilous challenges and severe learning curve.
The food dish analogy by EpicNameBro really does apply to this perfectly. Dark Souls is like an extremely exotic and spicy dish. It's chefs made it with the intent of being extremely spicy and meant to burn you up with extreme spicyness. Do you really think it is no big deal if you instead choose to enjoy a non-spicy version of the dish, completely disregarding the chef's intent to make an extremely spicy dish?
This is almost exactly the same as the people who wanted to force the developers to change the Mass Effect 3 because it did not satisfy THEIR expectations. Instead of accepting an author or artist's product, some people would rather disregard their intentions and just enjoy it at their own leisure without paying respect to what the artist intended with the creation. It's like loathing an esteemed novel for being too morbid, so you instead stop reading half to change the story own your own and make it a generic, happy, ending of some sort.
Bottomline, Dark Souls is not a game that caters to everyone, so everyone who opposed the addition of an easy mode are not being elitist jerks trying to keep an exclusive club, they just don't want to see their beloved game being tarnished for the sake of catering to those who do not choose to take it as the developers intended their product to be taken.
Stupid failing pages caused me to double post, please disregard.
Man, I'm not the best at FPS but would really love to play some CoD.
Better make it an RPG or turn based.
Remember when Skyrim came out, and everyone was up in arms over all the streamling and yadda yadda fast travel, yet somehow, they got very little flak, just a "Yep, them casuals".
We complain about changing the core of the games experience, and we're elitist.
Dark Souls is one of the last bastions of "brutal" or "challenging" games in today's world of dick-holding, arrow pointing romp of easy that is the game industry.
Outside of some indie games, the majority of games that have recently released have been piss-easy, even on maxed difficulties. I would get your argument if the majority of games were too punishing for players, but that's not the case. Dark Souls was made for the challenge, for that old school feeling of "memorize this area, learn how to play yourself."
Can't we just leave that alone? Does everything REALLY need to be made so easy that it takes little to no skill to win?
This whole failure of Jim here kind of reminds me of the Mass Effect 3 fiasco, that game journalists used it as a launching pad to rant about unpleasable fanbases who always whine about series endings, then unfortunatly for them, it became clearer and clear that they picked a wrong target, as ME3 really did have an objectively shitty ending, and fans could repeatedly explain that in detailed, rational arguments that had nothing to do with entitlement or audience arrogance, just the fact that ME3 really had some Phantom Menace-quality writing.
It's the same here. Jim probably heard people complaining about "casuals", and about "games nowadays being too easy", then when he heard that the Dark Souls fandom is particularly loud about it, decided to launch an attack against them from that direction.
For future reference: as long as there is no significant reason why a particular fandom might consist of ESPECIALLY whiny people, you might want to look into the possibility that they might be that loud, only because they do have a different, and more mainstream-identifiable point this time around.
I think this is the first time i've carefully read every post in a 10page thread.
Overall, i counted very few posts defending Dark Souls in it's pure form coming off sounding elitist and and trying to put people off the game. A couple, yes but very few. Nearly all posts saying an easy mode would be a bad idea were well thought out and very clearly explained.
Yet.. basically none of those comments were ever quoted, and the small minority of the elitist sounding posts were quoted over and over.
The dark souls community, as a whole, want more people there to play with. we welcome newcomers with open arms and are ready to help. But, no an easy mode is not necessary.
Even dark souls as it is now, playing by yourself, a quick google will show you how to play easy mode through 80% of the game. A certain sword from a certain dragon's tail... Not to mention Solaire and Maneater Mildred can make the training bosses a little easier to comprehend, even if it's just to tank for a bit and let you get a feel for them.
I know DS is not perfect, there are some pretty big flaws which can be worked out in the tutorial and what not, but it just isn't necessary, and to be honest, would make all forms of multiplayer unbalanced, unless they had to put more money into more servers to keep "easy" and "prepare to die" servers segregated.
Out of curiosity, do the people who haven't played much or any of dark souls realise just how big the multiplayer component of the game is? And if they do, do they see how it would be negatively effected by multiple difficulties?
In a way, with this concept, WoW had the right kind of idea. Easier versions of raids with lower quality versions of the loot, so the more casual players could experience the story. A major difference though is, WoW has 9million players who pay a monthly fee to play. They are paid to continually cater to all players. Blizzard are in essence the employee of their subscriber base.
Dark souls does not have a monthly income of $100,000,000. Those extra services are COSTLY, and not able to be supported by most.
Wow also at one point required a full time job commitment to it to progress, which was absurd.
Blah, 5am and blathering on half asleep.
No to easy mode. Yes to more accessiblity. Yes to more community. Come play with us, we will welcome you into our world and help you through the Capra demon.
Then probably invade you and cut you to pieces, but with a bow at least :)
Oh and also
This is the first time i've seen Jim called out so many times on his own attitude. And the first time i've seen him called out that he hasn't bothered to come and defend himself.
I kind of neglected that side of this video too...
Jim; your condescending attitude and your own elitism towards a group of gamers is disgusting. You obviously had no clue as to why the DS community want it kept the way it is and it has nothing to do with wanting to keep people out of it.
Please come and explain yourself or defend your hate filled and ill-informed remarks.
This comes from someone who has supported you from day one at the escapist.
I remember it. And I see what you're trying to do. But you didn't pay a damn lick of attention to the video if you think that what you're trying to do works.
Thats a terrible example. A football game is not the same as a fantasy 3rd person action game. You aren't not interested because madden doesn't have enough options......you aren't interested in it because its a football game (I'm guessing this).
"Super hard unforgiving action adventure fantasy game" is not a genre. If someone simply does not like a genre, there is probably no overcoming that no matter how many options there are. In a football game, making a mode where the opposing team does nothing but a 10 yard punt when its their ball or make the opposing quarterback run around like a retard won't make a game attractive to you if you don't even like football, let alone football games. But if someone likes something like lets say, darksiders, then dark souls is pretty close, if not the same genre. And something like an easy mode that allows you to take a mega beating from enemies before dying or losing less souls upon death is what would make the game more attractive to more people.
And I'm going to put this out there. An easy mode would benefit you in the long run. More people buying the game = more money for the company that makes it = better/more future games.
So, everyone can win with an easy mode. People who don't have lightning reflexes can play a good game. People who like soul crushing challenge can have their "true" modes to look down upon the little peoples with smug senses of superiority and disdain. A game company makes more money, so they can make even more games with soul crushing "true" difficulty with easy modes.
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I have been with OpinionWorld for some time and I am really happy to be able to win this prize draw of $5,000. I have finally bought myself the DSLR camera that I have always wanted!
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CHICAGO - The Chicago Bears insisted they would get Jay Cutler the help he needed. Clearly, they were serious.
The Bears addressed a huge hole on the offensive line by agreeing to a five-year contract with New Orleans Saints Pro Bowl left tackle Jermon Bushrod and filled another need by signing versatile tight end Martellus Bennett away from the New York Giants on Tuesday.
With two big moves as free agency kicked into gear, the Bears gave their quarterback protection on his blind side and another playmaker at tight end.
Considering they also hired an offensive-minded coach in Marc Trestman this offseason and already had a star receiver in Brandon Marshall and solid running back in Matt Forte, it appears Cutler now has the weapons he needs - or at least more of them.
The Bears still might look to add to the offensive line in the draft. They also have some other issues to address after going 10-6 and missing the playoffs for the fifth time in six years - particularly on defense. Pro Bowl defensive tackle Henry Melton seeking a long-term deal after signing his $8.45 million franchise tender and franchise icon Brian Urlacher hitting the market for the first time. Strong side linebacker Nick Roach is also a free agent.
But the Bears addressed their biggest concern by bringing in Bushrod.
A person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press that the deal is potentially worth about $36 million, with $17.7 million guaranteed. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the terms had not been released.
Bushrod was drafted in the fourth round by New Orleans in 2007. He started on the Bears' 2009 championship team and made the Pro Bowl the past two seasons.
The 6-foot-5, 315-pound tackle fills a major hole on a line that has ranked among the league's worst in recent seasons. He reunites with Bears offensive coordinator Aaron Kromer, his position coach in New Orleans.
With Bushrod in the fold, J'Marcus Webb could find himself in a reserve role or maybe competing at right tackle. Either way, it looks as though the revolving door that has also seen players such as Orlando Pace, Frank Omiyale and Chris Williams pass through ever since John Tait retired following the 2008 season is stopping.


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Your need-based financial aid award is based on your EFC (Expected Family Contribution) and your Cost of Attendance. Your EFC is calculated by the U.S. Department of Education based on your completed Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Whether or not you are eligible for a merit-based scholarship, you may qualify for need-based financial aid.
To determine your eligibility for any type of need-based financial assistance, the college requires you to fill out the FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, available at www.fafsa.ed.gov. You must also submit a FAFSA to receive federal and state aid.).
The FAFSA must be submitted every year after October 1, preferably no later than January 15 for incoming students and May 1 for returning students.
Students receiving need-based aid must maintain Agnes Scott College's Standards of Satisfactory Academic Progress.
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Luke 2:6-16
Central Theme: Christmas is a time for big changes.
Introduction–I have to admit that at Christmas I go a little crazy. I save all year and spend all December. I blame my parents. They worked all year preparing for Christmas for us. Sewing cooking and repairing, painting old bikes. The majesty of God's gift cannot be matched but I try every year. READ Luke 2:6-16.
I. Pretend that you are a shepherd.
A. They were minding their business but God had planned a little surprise for them…before the foundations of the earth. (vs 8)
1. What we can't imagine is that God has exquisitely exciting surprises for our lives.
2. Last year as I was fretting about the number of hours I spend working on costumes. I said to the Lord, "No one's life has ever been changed by a costume I've made." Within a few minutes, a young woman who was a neighbor stopped to say, "I never told you but you made a costume for me and it was the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. I've always loved you for that."
B. We fear the glory of the Lord getting too close (vs. 9).
1. Songwriter Michael Card's speaks of the "friend that we most fear."
a. we hide our faces from him–he can see us.
b. we hide our hearts from him–he can change us.
II. God comes again and again to assure us of his goodwill for us (vs. 10-12)
A. He never comes in the expected ways/expected times.
1. Remember the times God spoke to you–unexpected, unprepared.
2. You prepare your heart in a quiet place–He speaks in the shower or sitting at a red light.
B. Angels filled the heavens the night he was born; but only a few shepherds saw it (vs. 13-14).
1. Would Disney put on an expensive, extravagant light show for a few middle-class herdsmen?
2. Would you pour out your life in a place where no one will see–on one will know?
III. Whatever he does, His purpose is to entice us come to Jesus (vs 15).
A. However, Jesus is not what you expect.
1. Wherever our executive director preaches, people say, "That sermon was one of the best I ever heard. You know, you could what you do for real people." We often chuckle and ask, "Then why aren't you rich and famous?"
2. However, there is not a mentally challenged person in Duval, Indian River or Brevard or Volusia County who doesn't know him and all of them love him.
Conclusion–Going crazy at Christmas should be expected. After all, God went a bit crazy with joy at the birth of Jesus. Several angelic appearances. An old couple unexpectedly has a baby they name John. A host of angels. A new star. Yet, not embracing the Living Lord any time is a horror.


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LANSING (AP) -- People have about two weeks left in the current enrollment period to buy into Michigan's prepaid college tuition program.
The Michigan Education Trust says it's waiving the $25 processing fee for enrollments completed online by Sept. 30 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the program known as MET.
MET plans let individuals and organizations pre-purchase credits toward future tuition at Michigan's public universities and community colleges, by locking in today's rates.
The MET plans refund the money if a student decides to attend a private or out-of-state school.
With MET, parents know tuition payments are covered no matter how high tuition rises. They also can deduct their MET payments from their state taxes. MET payments can be made in lump sums or spread over four, seven, 10 or 15 years.
Published: Wed, Sep 18, 2013


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Mini Black Onyx Sterling Silver Necklace
This necklace is in sterling silver plated with small Black Onyx gemstones. The Black Onyx gemstone symbolizes concentration and determination. Wear this gemstone when in need of focus without getting distracted by your surroundings.
42 - 47 cm
42 - 47 cm
Availability: In stock
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INSERO necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 67 diseños de 27 diseñadores freelance.
The task is to create an eye-catching, modern, and professional logo for a new software product called INSERO Upstream
INSERO Upstream
The logo is for a software product called INSERO Upstream that allows companies to capture data in the field on a mobile/handheld device. This can be scanning stock arriving into a Warehouse, scanning assets, capturing sales data in the field, etc. The product is very flexible in allowing the business to capture whatever data they require in a mobile way.
The product is called INSERO Upstream and the logo needs to incorporate this name and also visually describe the product i.e. capturing data with a mobile device.
For example, incorpoate a handheld device scanning a barcode with the INSERO Upstream name .An examle of the type of handheld we use can be found here: Symbol MC70.
- It must incorporate the product name INSERO Upstream, I don't mind if you use lowercase or uppercase with the word Upstream but INSERO is uppercase
- It must incorpoate a handheld/mobile device. This should be a professional looking illustration
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Home / Tunics + Tops / Vivienne Lavender Tunic
Vivienne Lavender Kurta Tunic
Vivienne Lavender Tunic
$5.00 $18.00
Product SKU:
Our classic tunic is made with lightweight cotton to keep you stylish and cool! Our tunics feature 3/4 sleeves and a v-neck.̴Ì_
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Size Guide


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I needed to start using the leftovers from, oh, about a month ago, so I used up the leftover graham cracker crumbs for the crust in this pie. It was a really rich chocolate-y pie, and I think I would've liked just eating the filling by itself, because it was basically just homemade pudding, some might even say it is ganache-like. I have to start finding recipes that use up the other ingredients I have left, but luckily, those don't really go bad. Also, I have a few cookbooks and recipes saved that I am sure I will find one that works for me.
This recipe is saved from Gourmet and is called Chocolate Cinnamon Cream Pie, but really, the only cinnamon in it is from the crust and the whipped cream that you may or may not dollop on top. So, really, it is just a chocolate pie, with a graham cracker crust. But nonetheless, it was simple and good.
For crust:
5 Tbs. butter, melted
1-1/2 cups (cinnamon) graham cracker crumbs (about twelve 5 by 2-1/2 inch crackers)
2 tbs. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
for filling:
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate (not more than 60%)
2 tbsp. corn starch
1/3 cup packed brown sugar, divided
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter, cut into cubes
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
for whipped cream:
1-1/2 cups heavy cream
5 tbs. confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
make crust: preheat oven to 350º with rack in the middle. stir together all crust ingredients. press over bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie dish. bake until set, 12-15 minutes.
make filling: melt chocolate in a large bowl. set aside. stir together cornstarch and 2 tbs. of brown sugar in a small bowl. whisk together the eggs and the yolks and combine with cornstarch and sugar mixture. stir together milk, cream, salt, and remaining sugar in a heavy bottomed, medium pot. bring to just a boil. slowly whisk in half of milk mixture into half of egg mixture. Whisk this mixture back into the remaining milk mixture and bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Off the heat, stir in the butter and vanilla. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into the melted chocolate. Whisk to combine thoroughly. Pour into cooled pie crust. Cover the surface with parchment or plastic wrap and chill until set, about 3 hours.
In the meantime, you can whip up the whipped cream ingredients in a cold mixing bowl.
Crust can be baked up to two days in advance and the pie can be chilled, loosely covered, for up to one day.


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This is one of my personal favorites to keep. They are communal and very interesting to watch. I am keeping 3 together at the moment but plan to get more for breeding purposes later on.
Talk about a little glutton lol. It has 1 cricket 1/2 ate and has another one it's holding on for desert!!


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Music is evolutionary, which is as it should be, but will any of the artists of today stand the test of time like Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley have?
I started taking singing lessons a few years ago to satisfy my urge to create a CD of my favorite songs.
My favorite genre is jazz and Broadway tunes, but I also like classical music and a wide assortment of other styles. The one thing I can't stand is the lack of restraint that many of the "new singers" of the last decade incorporate into their repertoires.
It seems that no matter what they're singing it has to have notes that are reminiscent of a Swiss milk maid yodeling as she hikes through the Alps.
Why does every note have to have wobbles and wails attached to it? Some of them sound like they're birthing a calf. Perhaps it's because many songs today have very few lyrics that are memorable.
The refrains are endless and could be used as techniques for interrogations. I know I'd spill the beans if I was told that I had to hear one of them for any length of time.
I was watching "American Idol" the other night, and I thought, "How are any of these people going to differentiate themselves from one another."
Each one of them seemed to have the need to be part of the Alpine drama. I didn't honestly feel, with the exception of one young woman, that they had something truly unique vocally.
OK, I know I'm sounding like my mother, who used to yell at me to turn down the record player when I was listening to Elvis Presley. (For those of you who don't know what a record player is, it was the precursor to tapes and CDs.)
I think that Elvis had one heck of a great voice, however, and he didn't seem to have a need to go on and on and on with one note.
He certainly knew how to belt out some of his tunes, but he also had the ability to be soft and sensuous. I find it interesting that many of the rockers like Sting and Rod Stewart have made albums that were from old standards.
I loved their interpretations and found myself wanting to hear more. I know music constantly evolves, and it is necessary for it to do so. However, I can't help but wonder if any of the artists of today will last as long as Frank Sinatra and his music.
Loretta LaRoche lives in Plymouth. To share your pet peeves, questions or comments, write to The Humor Potential, 50 Court St., Plymouth 02360, send e-mail to getalife@loretta- laroche.com, visit the Web site at www.stressed.com, or call toll-free 800-99-TADAH (82324).


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This is my second stab at Erlang (see the ring benchmark article for my first take on it). This time around I wanted to get a sense of how well Erlang and its libraries support more mundane tasks like e.g. XML parsing.
I am not a big fan of XML but it is the lingua franca of the web and any language that aspires to become "mainstream" has to support it in an efficient manner.
In order to get a feeling for how well Erlang is doing in this respect I am going to repeat my recent XML processing experiments with Groovy but this time using Erlang.
I'll be doing some basic processing of RSS files. For a full example of what these look like see e.g. the MacBreak's weekly RSS file. Here's an excerpt (abridged for the sake of clarity):
1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> 2 <rss version="2.0"> 3 <channel> 4 <title>MacBreak Weekly</title> 5 <item> 6 <title>MacBreak Weekly 53: Bill In A Box</title> 7 <link>http://www.podtrac.com/twit.cachefly.net/MBW-053.mp3</link> 8 <pubDate>Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:58:11 -0700</pubDate> 9 <enclosure url="http://www.podtrac.com/twit.cachefly.net/MBW-053.mp3" /> 10 </item> 11 </channel> 12 </rss>
Each of the potentially many
<item> tags keeps the data pertaining to a single audiocast episode. What we want to extract is:
- the audiocast episode title (
- the publication date (
- the URL pointing to the MP3 file (
Depending on the publisher the format of the RSS file may vary slightly. The publication date is e.g. sometimes buried in a
<dc:date> tag.
Likewise, the MP3 URL is sometimes not contained in a
<link> tag but in the
url attribute of the
<enclosure> tag.
The RSS files I will be using for testing are as follows:
1 bbox33:audiocasts $ pwd 2 /Users/mhr/dl/audio/audiocasts 3 bbox33:audiocasts $ find . -type f -name \*.rss 4 ./metadata/Cc_zwei.rss 5 ./metadata/Elrep.rss 6 ./metadata/Security_now_.rss 7 ./metadata/Technometria.rss 8 ./metadata/This_week_in_tech.rss 9 ./metadata/Windows_weekly.rss
Opening remarks
Unfortunately, the documentation of Erlang's XML parsing library is pretty scant and — apart from the xmerl User's Guide — I could not find any tutorials on
xmerl on the web.
Again, a language aspiring to widespread adoption should have more material covering these kinds of basics.
There were a few choices as to how to go about the parsing business:
- using
xmerl_scanwith or without customization functions.
- using
xmerl_scantogether with
xmerl_xpath(an XPath 1.0 implementation).
I chose the first approach because it was better documented. Only after finishing the first cut of the parsing code did I find
xmerl_xpath usage examples on a mailing list and played with it.
The code
The Erlang code that finds the RSS files listed above and parses them is as follows:
1 -module(xml2). 2 -export([main/1]). 3 -include_lib("xmerl/include/xmerl.hrl"). 4 5 parseAll(D) -> 6 % find all RSS files underneath D 7 FL = filelib:fold_files(D, ".+.rss$", true, fun(F, L) -> [F|L] end, []), 8 [ parse(F) || F <- FL ]. 9 10 parse(FName) -> 11 % parses a single RSS file 12 {R,_} = xmerl_scan:file(FName), 13 % extract episode titles, publication dates and MP3 URLs 14 L = lists:reverse(extract(R, [])), 15 % print channel title and data for first two episodes 16 io:format("~n>> ~p~n", [element(1,lists:split(3,L))]), 17 L. 18 19 % handle 'xmlElement' tags 20 extract(R, L) when is_record(R, xmlElement) -> 21 case R#xmlElement.name of 22 enclosure -> 23 if element(1, hd(R#xmlElement.parents)) == item -> 24 FFunc = fun(X) -> X#xmlAttribute.name == url end, 25 U = hd(lists:filter(FFunc, R#xmlElement.attributes)), 26 [ {url, U#xmlAttribute.value} | L ]; 27 true -> L 28 end; 29 channel -> 30 lists:foldl(fun extract/2, L, R#xmlElement.content); 31 item -> 32 ItemData = lists:foldl(fun extract/2, [], R#xmlElement.content), 33 [ ItemData | L ]; 34 _ -> % for any other XML elements, simply iterate over children 35 lists:foldl(fun extract/2, L, R#xmlElement.content) 36 end; 37 38 extract(#xmlText{parents=[{title,_},{channel,2},_], value=V}, L) -> 39 [{channel, V}|L]; % extract channel/audiocast title 40 41 extract(#xmlText{parents=[{title,_},{item,_},_,_], value=V}, L) -> 42 [{title, V}|L]; % extract episode title 43 44 extract(#xmlText{parents=[{link,_},{item,_},_,_], value=V}, L) -> 45 [{link, V}|L]; % extract episode link 46 47 extract(#xmlText{parents=[{pubDate,_},{item,_},_,_], value=V}, L) -> 48 [{pubDate, V}|L]; % extract episode publication date ('pubDate' tag) 49 50 extract(#xmlText{parents=[{'dc:date',_},{item,_},_,_], value=V}, L) -> 51 [{pubDate, V}|L]; % extract episode publication date ('dc:date' tag) 52 53 extract(#xmlText{}, L) -> L. % ignore any other text data 54 55 % 'main' function (invoked from shell, receives command line arguments) 56 main(A) -> 57 D = atom_to_list(hd(A)), 58 parseAll(D).
filelib:fold_files() function is cool and a good example of how easy things should be.
On the other hand:
- it took quite a bit of time and effort to write the code above (perhaps due to my lack of experience in functional programming) and it was not fun 😦
- beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say and the promise of being able to write clean and attractive code is a major reason to pick up a new programming language. Again, maybe it's just me but I did not find the resulting Erlang code to be particularly attractive.
- the XML parser chokes reproducibly on XML files with non-ASCII character sets (try the code e.g. with the following RSS file (containing german characters))
- The XPath implementation appears to be incomplete: I could not use the
|operator in an XPath expression to select several paths for example.
Anyway, that's just my
$ 0.02 on XML parsing with Erlang. I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination so feel free to point to anything I may have missed.


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U.S. marketers spent 14 percent more in online advertising in the first half of the year, compared with the same period in 2011, hitting US$17 billion, according to a study sponsored by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and conducted by PwC US.
It's the highest amount ever spent on online ads during a year's first semester since the report was first issued in 1996, although the growth failed to match the 23 percent registered during 2011's first half. At the height of the economic crisis, this market shrunk 5 percent in the first half of 2009.
In what will be good news for Google in particular, search remained the biggest ad category, accounting for 48 percent of all spending, up 2 percentage points from last year's first half. Search ad spending grew 19 percent.
Display ads, in the form of banners, digital video commercials, multimedia and sponsorships, captured 33 percent of the spending, down 3 percentage points. Display ad spending grew only 4 percent, but the digital video commercials sub-segment increased its revenue 18 percent.
Spending on ads delivered via mobile devices jumped significantly to $1.24 billion, almost doubling the revenue registered in 2011's first half.
In a statement issued Thursday, IAB and PwC officials said the results indicate that the U.S. online ad market is healthy and strong, with attractive growth opportunities in mobile and video.
"This report establishes that marketers increasingly embrace mobile and digital video, as well as the entire panoply of interactive platforms to reach consumers in innovative and creative ways," said the IAB's President and CEO Randall Rothenberg in the statement.
The 10 biggest online ad sellers captured 73 percent of the revenue, so the market continues to be largely dominated by these vendors, which aren't mentioned in the report but include the usual suspects, like Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Microsoft and AOL.
Retailers as a group spent the most (20 percent), followed by financial services and automotive companies (each one with 13 percent) and telecom companies (12 percent.)
Juan Carlos Perez covers enterprise communication/collaboration suites, operating systems, browsers and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Juan on Twitter at @JuanCPerezIDG.


text:
Makes 12 to 16 squares
1 teaspoon mixed spice
25g butter, softened
75g cream cheese, from the fridge
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
75g icing sugar, sifted
A blog dedicated to perfecting the art and joy of baking and cooking by an aspiring domestic goddess!
Here to half term holiday starts for my daughter from tomorow, so she will be home for next 10 days. Like you said she is also 16 so no worries.
Cake looks so yumm and love the frosting.
I have to get around to trying this one Maria. The frosting sounds delicious!
The icing looks excellent! I love carrot cake, I haven't had it in forever!! Oh how I wish I could have a taste!
I totally need some of that right now.
This carrot cake looks wonderful. I have found that using wholemeal self-raising flour really does make a difference to carrot cake.
What a lovely and decadent cake! It looks so scrumptious. Enjoy your visit!
That cream cheese icing looks lovely. Would it be wrong of me to just make that and eat it without the cake?!
Oh that looks scrumptious.
Delicious, especially the topping!
Mine are 15 and 18 and keep to themselves in half term - thank goodness for the games stations eh?!!
Have a great time with your sister.
Maria it looks scrumptious! I love carrot cake too.
ooo, this sounds like a great cake to have with a cup of coffee. YUM!
I love carrot cake and this one sounds delicious.
Yum Yum Yum Yum Yum. Lookin'good kiddo!
There's an award over on my blog for you.
I've just eaten breakfast, and I tell you I *need* a square of this, it looks gorgeous!
Ooh that sounds and looks delicious, I love carrot cake and pecans so is perfect treat! :)
Thanks everyone as always for all your kind words!


text:
Thank you for your precision time.
Thank you for your precision time.
Last edited by Night-Sun; 06-30-2013 at 02:44 PM. Reason: Youtube version
Be a fool than a philosopher
Thank you again
Last edited by Night-Sun; 08-05-2013 at 03:59 PM.
Be a fool than a philosopher
Night-Sun, what happened? The Music!! OMG!!
You better check it again Other than that, good efffort
Keep up da gud work sooriyan, well done.
What's wrong with the music?
Be a fool than a philosopher
I hav to agree with Nilavu. The music is horrible!
yaarum seththu poiytangela Night-Sun? The video is really nice but u gotta try and change the music.
Do you guys know any soundtrack which could fit to that poem?
All the suggestions are welcome.
Be a fool than a philosopher
I posted a link here yesterday!!!! Where is that?
Why is it keep coming like this when I post a link?
"Thank you for posting! Your post will not be visible until a moderator has approved it for posting."
Why aren't they approving?
Try listening to this one Night-Sun.
Type "10 minutes "Relax Music" calm your mind" on Youtube and see if it's suitable for that poem.
Thank you for the suggestion. I will check it soon.
Be a fool than a philosopher
Very nice video and the music is not bad. I Like it Night-Sun. Thanks for sharing
Sharing it with pleasure. Thanks for your comment Papy.
Be a fool than a philosopher


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PrimeGaming brauchte ein neues Anderes Design und hat einen Wettbewerb auf 99designs gestartet.
Aus 3 Designs von 2 Designern wurde eine Gewinner gewählt.
Prime Scratchcards
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Women & Men 20-40, residing in Western Europe
A set of 5 Banners 300x250, 180x150, 728x90, 468x60, 120x600, 160x600 in flash .
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2. A logo, fonts and other elements for this can be found at:
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Elements that have to appear are the :PrimeScratchCards logo
StoryBoard: A set of keys aside of a fancy, expensive car with some sort of pointer for users to show them where they need to drag the key in order to make the banner "work".
When the users pull the key across the car, they scratch the car, it says "Ouch...Try again" – this happens until he gives up or finds a way to get it to the ignition.
The way to do right is to drag around the car element and not to touch it with the mouse/pointer.
When users succeeds in reaching the ignition by dragging the keys the right way - the car moves a bit and this message comes up:
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Elements to appear at this stage are: 3wow scratch card images and money image of 5Pounds.
Additionally a "START PLAYING" button and "Get £5 FREE" ribbon at the side of the banner will appear.


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Shearer's last stand
And so it begins, while the mainstream media pundits are now all singing in harmony over Shearer's imminent decline, Tumeke was one of the first to point out these Labour Party leadership tensions within weeks of Shearer winning and Tumeke will be live blogging from the conference with the first word on if and when a leadership challenge will occur.
Interestingly Bryce Edwards manages to ignore Tumeke's contribution to this debate, which is hilarious, especially as the post where I pointed out what would happen with the trigger thresholds when Pagani was forced out was originally linked in an Edwards post but was then removed.
If Edwards had kept the link in September he could have pointed to it and noted his column got it right first. He didn't, which is almost as disappointing as Bryce's constant reference to Scott York as satire.
Imperator Fish is to satire what drinking is to driving.
I digress - here is what to expect at the conference. 297a with its subsections b,c & e will determine if there is a challenge by February next year.
297a sets the thresholds for challenges. Subsection b will be the 'general' threshold, mooted at 67% but likely to be 51%. It refers to the general threshold any Caucus needs to reach for a leadership challenge.
Subsection c will deal with the period 3 months around an election, probably set at 51% again, but it is subsection e that matters.
Subsection e will set the threshold at a new level next February to recognize the changed voting margins. The principled argument is that once caucus have only a 40% say in who the leader is, then those rules should be applied from February.
This is about the modernization of the Labour Party and once those modernized features of allowing 40% members, 20% Union and 40% caucus to have their say on who is leader, the chase is really on.
If the new thresholds are set for February, there will be BBQs all summer long as the challengers start their number crunching. The Anyone But Cunliffe faction within caucus will start freaking out once they appreciate how angry the membership have become with their choice for leader.
The Unions need to ask themselves which candidate will do more than lip service to their cause when deciding on who to support, and to date, only Cunliffe has voiced a real alternative to the neoliberal, anti-Union agenda.
The Unions must remind themselves that they went backwards after 9 years of Labour, so having their people selected isn't enough. Whoever is leader has to hold the Unions interests at heart for the sake of the nation. A weak union movement = high inequality.
So what has gone so wrong with the Shearer leadership that talk of a coup is at an all time high? I was always surprised by the Labour Party coven selecting Shearer over Cunliffe, but was prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, until I started watching in horror the train-wrecks he called TV interviews.
His ability to miscommunicate and look uncertain is about as comforting as a brain hungry zombie on meth as a flatmate.
Is David Shearer the only person in the Labour caucus who can't see the looming leadership challenge? The Captain of the Titanic was in less denial. David Shearer might be confident the knives won't come out, but the pitchforks are another issue altogether.
Where it has gone so badly wrong for Shearer was his reliance on the Pagani's as his strategists who led him into the 'bennie on the roof' speech. The Pagani's self belief that their own pretentious Wellington tough on welfare view point was the new vision for Labour shows their complete miscalculation of what the 2007 global financial crash was all about.
While the Pagani's wanted to project the petty middle class bitching of people not working hard enough in a socially mobile society, the entire philosophical superstructure of neoliberalism, that a free market self-regulates, came crashing in upon itself.
The left have never had so much ammunition to challenge the free market assumptions our economy has been built upon, instead of taking aim at the superstructure the Pagani's wanted to play 3rd way Tony Blair welfare bashing.
The Pagani's advised Shearer to zig when he should have zagged.
Shearer boldly proclaims he doesn't read the blogs, which is an indictment in itself isn't it? The Standard is the largest left wing, most pro-Laboiur site online, if Shearer isn't reading them and having his Chief of Staff contacting them weekly, then it shows how utterly disconnected the leadership is with the grass root activists he'll need come election day.
Shearer is going to have to heal sick children live on stage at the conference while turning all the heart safe vegetarian food into deep fried sausage rolls to win over Labour Party members this weekend.
A proper leadership battle allowing 40% members, 40% caucus and 20% union faction votes would regenerate the Party and could lead to the kind of energy Labour needs to defeat National in 2014.
If the ABC manage to quash a low February trigger and keep Shearer in power, not only is a defeat of National by 2014 in doubt, but the actual type of Labour Party that would get elected could be a National lite flavor. Hardly the sort of outcome that would motivate activists to participate.
To be 1000% honest, I never comprehended how the candidate David Farrar and Fran O'Sullivan cheer-leaded for was ever going to benefit the left in this country.