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Commitment to Diversity
Year Up's mission to close the Opportunity Divide is grounded in the commitment to create a more equitable nation, a nation that provides all of its citizens with an opportunity to reach their potential. We strive toward this not only through our service to young adults, but also in the way we identify, develop, and engage talent who collectively achieve top results. We believe in the power of people to create change, at an individual as well as a systems level. Recruiting and engaging individuals who believe in the value of people and their potential, are ready to engage in the movement for social and economic justice, and are committed to an environment that is diverse and inclusive, is critical to our organization and broader impact.
We value both diversity and cultural competency
Year Up operates with the belief that diverse and culturally aware groups increase value in educational and work settings by generating creative, effective, and inclusive thinking and action. Therefore, in building a strong staff team, Year Up has a focus on both diversity and cultural competency.
Cultural Competencies such as self-awareness of one's own culture(s) and history, a curiosity and understanding of others' cultures, and the ability to move beyond awareness to positive actions are core to our work with students and peers at Year Up. Strong cultural competency skills allow us to effectively respond to the challenges and opportunities posed by the diversity of our organization and stakeholders. In addition to engaging and learning from each other, we value understanding the history of the Opportunity Divide and how it shows up in our educational system and workplaces of today; knowing that this knowledge increases our capacity to support Year Up students as well as engage and influence our external community.
Year Up aspires to be a workplace known for attracting & cultivating diverse talent. A diverse staff team among multiple dimensions of diversity enriches our community by providing the environment for new ways of thinking, self-reflection, and learning. As Year Up strives to prepare students for a variety of professional workplaces, exposing students to a diverse staff creates the opportunity for them to be in relationship with individuals they identify with on multiple levels, learn from through difference, and develop strong mentor relationships that prepare students for navigating the work environment.
Year Up is also intentional about attracting and fostering the leadership of individuals who share backgrounds of our student population (see Year Up Identity Statement). We have seen that staff who are themselves from historically under-represented racial & ethnic backgrounds or under-served communities have a profound student impact in modeling successful career paths, resiliency in overcoming obstacles, and reinforcing the belief that success is within reach.
Long term impact
When embedding the knowledge, skills, and value of diversity and cultural competency into Year Up's organizational culture and systems, there are several areas that will be especially impactful for our long term success. The leadership and decision makers within Year Up must embody the cultural competencies and the team itself must be reflective of the diversity of our student population given their positions of power and influence and their responsibility to align our strategy and resources with Year Up's mission. It is also important for us to ensure that we have talent systems in place to develop high potential talent at every level of the organization and among multiple dimensions of diversity to cultivate engagement and support retention of a diverse and culturally aware staff team. Lastly, the engagement of Year Up Alumni as staff, board members, community & corporate partners is critical to our credibility and program effectiveness.
In our engagement with the broader external community, we also see long term value in the work we do to bring together alums, community partners, corporate partners and others as a diverse network working together to close the Opportunity Divide.
Dimensions of Diversity
Aspects of identity, such as race, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender/gender identity, or physical functioning, age, cognitive function, that are group-based. Some aspects of identity result from birth (e.g., sex). Others result from circumstances or experiences that a person has little or no control over (e.g., accident resulting in physical disability). Still other aspects may be a matter of choice (e.g., profession or political affiliation).
Some dimensions of diversity, or aspects of a person's identity, may be visible or obvious to others, while others may not. Individuals may choose to reveal or conceal some aspects of their identity that are less visible, though people experience different degrees of freedom to make that choice based on real or perceived consequences of revealing some aspects of their identity.
Cultural Competency
A lifelong process of developing the knowledge, values, skills and will that help one to:
- develop self-awareness and an understanding of one's own culture(s) and history, especially when the history of one's own culture is invisible, not known, or not widely shared;
- understand other cultures;
- facilitate understanding among people of different cultures;
- move beyond awareness to engage and confront inconsistencies, biases, and unconscious assumptions of one's own and other cultures;
- take action to ensure fairness and access, and correct for the results of historic inequities and ongoing inequities.
Cultural competency encompasses all dimensions of diversity. When applied to organizations, cultural competency involves building the knowledge, values, skills and will of individuals and also manifesting the knowledge, values, skills through organizational culture, expectations, policies, structures, systems and processes. Cultural competency involves what's in the heads and hearts of individuals, how people interact with one another, how we create our organizations, and how we establish norms and standards.


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GaganS necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 138 diseños de 42 diseñadores freelance.
Ideascopic is a stealth-mode startup that's working on a new and exciting technology development. The startup is focused on providing creative solutions to a number of technology-related problems. While we can't say much about the actual products and services just yet- the company does identify itself with creativity and innovative solutions.
Our target audience ranges fairly wide from consumers to even VC firms looking at us for the next big idea! While some of these may be in newer markets, most of them would be from existing markets that are tech-savvy, reasonably early adopters of technology and eager and willing to try new products and services.
We'd like a logo (deliverable in an SVG format) that displays the name Ideascopic in a creative manner.
This company and its technology is all about innovative solutions and so a logo that represents something new, something unusual and catches the attention would be desirable. While open to creative ideas, we also want to be looked at in a professional manner- so nothing too gimicky.
In short-we want the logo to exude one thing- creativity.
Since our products and services are yet to be revealed (and there is a reasonable set) be assured that there will be other "derivative" work needed from your design. So a logo that scales (conceptually) well for other related work will certainly be more interesting. The logo design should be royalty-free.
Finally we want the logo to look good not just on the web but also for subsequent print material (business cards, letter heads, etc.) Building a logo that can adapt to the relevant color schemes as needed would be useful.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.

subset: commoncrawl


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Mom Couldn't Afford Health Care
NFL star helps women get free mammograms
NFL linebacker Bradie James was still playing football at Louisiana State University when tragedy struck his close-knit family. He lost both his mother and his father within a few months of each other.
See also: Navigating breast cancer treatments.
Just as tragic as his mother's death was the sacrifice she made during the battle she lost to breast cancer. She gave up her health insurance and ended her medical treatment so that her husband could use the money to battle liver disease.
Bradie James decided he had to act. He finished college, landed a spot with the Dallas Cowboys and launched a mission to honor his mother. Today his Foundation 56 (his uniform number) fights breast cancer and helps women in need get free screenings.
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kr2ranger necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 176 diseños de 59 diseñadores freelance.
Mobizou is a new company planning to formally launch. We did a soft launch in December. Based on customer feedback people loved the name of the company but not necessarily the logo we initially settled upon. The name of the company is a combination of the words "mobile" and "bizou". The word "bizou" in French means little kiss, hence the look of the current logo and favicon.
Mobizou is an online software company (software as a service) that is targeted at merchants who have physical store locations. We target merchants that are web-savvy who typically have Facebook fanpages, Twitter accounts, blogs etc...
Through our site, merchants can upload and track mobile coupons and mobile surveys that will be pushed to users cell phones.
This space is emerging as mobile coupons are starting to gain traction.
The logo must contain the text "mobizou".
The logo needs to contain the subtext "market yourself". Place it in such a way that the logo could be used both with the subtext and without the subtext.
*Initial feedback from users did not like the lips so please don't use lips in your designs*
An element within the logo must easily be used as a favicon.
Preference for a horizontally oriented vs a vertically oriented design is highly preferred.
Colors should fit with current web colors: red, black and white. If you want to throw in a splash of other colors - go for it.
To keep it simple I will give a list of keywords of what we want and what we don't.
- Clean
- Eye catching
- Simple
- Recognizable
- Corporate
- Chaotic
- Flat images
Good luck! Use your imaginations and create something great and memorable.
Existing logo is attached and a future web home page design are attached for reference.
Files are to be provided as Illustrator .ai and .eps format. All copyright is to be assigned over.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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Question: In our new process to verify backups we've discovered that our master database seems to be corrupt. However, running DBCC CHECKDB on the actual master database does not show any errors. What's going on?
Answer: It's becoming increasingly common these days for DBAs to want to offload consistency checking of production databases to a secondary server, so that the heavy resource usage associated with running DBCC CHECKDB does not affect the production workload. The practice of verifying backup integrity is also increasingly prevalent.
Related: SQL Server Database Corruption, Part VI: Regular Corruption Checks
Both practices involve taking a full database backup of the production databases, restoring them on a secondary SQL Server (possibly with some differential and transaction log backups as well) and then running DBCC CHECKDB on the restored copies of the production databases. I've blogged about this several times before.
Really good DBAs know the importance of the system databases (master, model, and msdb) and so also include them in their backup checking/consistency checking routines. These databases are restored as user databases with names like 'msdbcopy' along with moving their files to avoid conflicts with the real system databases on the secondary server.
The problem with this methodology is that master is a very special case and although it can be restored as I've described, it cannot then be consistency checked as a user database.
Let me show you:
BACKUP DATABASE master TO DISK = N'C:\SQLskills\master.bck'; GO RESTORE DATABASE mastercopy FROM DISK = N'C:\SQLskills\master.bck' WITH MOVE N'master' TO N'C:\SQLskills\mastercopy.mdf', MOVE N'mastlog' TO N'C:\SQLskills\mastercopylog.ldf'; GO
That works perfectly. But if I try to run DBCC CHECKDB, it's not so good:
DBCC CHECKDB ('mastercopy') WITH NO_INFOMSGS; GO Msg 8992, Level 16, State 1, Line 1 Check Catalog Msg 3851, State 1: An invalid row (class=12,depid=0,depsubid=0) was found in the system table sys.syssingleobjrefs (class=12). Msg 8992, Level 16, State 1, Line 1 Check Catalog Msg 3851, State 1: An invalid row (class=13,depid=1,depsubid=0) was found in the system table sys.syssingleobjrefs (class=13). <24 similar errors removed for brevity> Check Catalog Msg 3851, State 1: An invalid row (class=76,depid=65611,depsubid=100) was found in the system table sys.syssingleobjrefs (class=76). Msg 8992, Level 16, State 1, Line 1 Check Catalog Msg 3851, State 1: An invalid row (class=76,depid=65611,depsubid=101) was found in the system table sys.syssingleobjrefs (class=76). CHECKDB found 0 allocation errors and 28 consistency errors not associated with any single object. Msg 8906, Level 16, State 1, Line 1 Page (1:10) in database ID 40 is allocated in the SGAM (1:3) and PFS (1:1), but was not allocated in any IAM. PFS flags 'MIXED_EXT ALLOCATED 0_PCT_FULL'. CHECKDB found 1 allocation errors and 0 consistency errors in table '(Object ID 99)' (object ID 99). CHECKDB found 1 allocation errors and 28 consistency errors in database 'mastercopy'.
And if I run DBCC CHECKDB on the original master database, it doesn't give any errors. This is because there are some elements of metadata that can only exist in master, and page 10 in file 1 in master is a one-off special page for the server called the config page – it cannot exist in other databases.
To summarize, you absolutely should include master in your backup testing methodology, but the consistency checks need to be run on the production server itself.


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New York has joined the campaign to effectively end the Electoral College's role in determining winners of presidential elections.
Under the National Popular Vote Compact, which Gov. Cuomo signed off on Tuesday, the state has agreed to award its electoral college votes to whichever presidential candidate wins the national popular vote…
The compact only takes effect once enough states have signed on to give it the required 270 electoral college votes. With New York's participation, the movement has 165 votes.
"With the passage of this legislation, New York is taking a bold step to fundamentally increase the strength and fairness of our nation's presidential elections," Cuomo said.
Replacing the Electoral College by electing the U.S. president through the national popular vote is as democratic an ideal as there is, says Democratic strategist Ben Wikler.
"The uniting principal is actually the idea that votes should count," Wikler told J.D. Hayworth on "America's Forum" Thursday on Newsmax TV."
"So the question is now, do we want to be divided into red states and blue states, or do we all want to be Americans voting for president just the way as our brothers and sisters in other states across the country? Both parties should be competing for a national mandate, should be competing for support from a majority of Americans."…
"I don't know of any place in the debates among the Founding Fathers where they said that a small sliver of swing states should determine who becomes president," he said.
The best case for passing the law might be this map from the National Popular Vote group, which shows how many 2012 presidential campaign events were held in each state between the party conventions and the election:
You'll notice that the majority of states never saw Romney or Obama at all, because their electoral votes were already foregone conclusions. And when a president can get elected by basically ignoring the specific needs and interests of most of the states in the country, that is, like, pretty messed up.
This got me wondering: Which states get the worst deal from the Electoral College, technically speaking? Everyone knows that the good people of Wyoming make out like bandits, but which voters are least represented in a presidential contest?
I assumed that since the least populated states are the most preposterously over-represented, the largest states, like California and Texas, would suffer the most when compared against the ideal of a "one-person, one vote" standard.
In any case, as Hertzberg makes clear, every state that doesn't have a delicate ideological balance is actually getting screwed by the Electoral College — that is to say, practically all of them. However, it is still striking to note that the vote of a Wyoming resident is weighted nearly three and half times more than that of a Pennsylvania resident. Not to mention that it's theoretically possible to win the presidency with nearly 80 percent of the population voting against you.
N.P.V. is a good idea for all sorts of high-minded civic reasons. When an election is for a single office and only one candidate can win, it's obviously outrageous when the candidate who gets more votes somehow loses to the one who gets fewer. But that doesn't happen very often—"only" four of our thirty-nine elected Presidents, including "only" one of the two most recent, made it to the White House despite the citizenry's preference for somebody else. What's more outrageous is what happens every time: four-fifths of the states are ignored in the general election.
If you live in one of those states, you see neither hide nor hair of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential nominees, scarcely even in television commercials. Grassroots politics does not exist in your state as far as the Presidential campaign is concerned, because there's no point in ringing your neighbors' doorbells if the statewide outcome is a foregone conclusion. The relative power of money vs. people is magnified, because while campaign cash is raised everywhere, including your state, it gets funnelled exclusively into places like Ohio and Florida. And, between elections, states like yours get measurably less federal attention and federal money, per capita, than is lavished on the swingin' few.
But it's not just the voters in those spectator states who are ignored. It's also the politicians, including the state legislators—no matter which party they belong to, no matter whether their state is red or blue, no matter whether the sure winner in their state is the candidate of their party or the other party. Either way, they're nobodies. The National Popular Vote plan would make them somebodies—and that, perhaps more than the high-minded stuff, is why N.P.V. has a pretty good chance of actually happening…
The absence of red states from the roster is due largely to to a suspicion among Republican politicians and operatives that N.P.V. is somehow an attempt to get revenge for 2000. In opinion polls, Republican rank-and-filers, as distinct from Party professionals, strongly favor the idea of popular election. And a nontrivial number of Republican pros favor the plan itself.
Here's the problem: All the states to have joined so far are very blue. Until some purple states and red states sign on, the compact has little in the way of territory to conquer…
Perhaps the compact can get Delaware, Connecticut and Maine to join, where Obama also won by 15 percentage points or more. But they account for only 14 total electoral votes (and Maine already has a unique way of apportioning electoral votes). Oregon and New Mexico also re-elected Obama by double-digit margins — and those two states have become increasingly off-limits to Republican presidential candidates — but have just 12 electoral votes between them.
After that, you get into states such as Michigan and Minnesota, which are blue-leaning but that receive plenty of attention from presidential campaigns. Their votes might not be quite as influential in the Electoral College as the campaigns presume — a Democrat who lost Minnesota would probably be in too much trouble elsewhere to cobble together a 270-vote majority. Still, they receive an influx of media dollars and political pandering every four years, and probably have little incentive to bite the hand that feeds them.
Soon after comes outright swing states, such as Ohio, New Hampshire and Colorado. These states, along with Florida, Virginia, Nevada, Iowa, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, collectively had a 98.6 percent chance of determining the Electoral College winner in 2012, according to the FiveThirtyEight tipping-point index as it was calculated on election morning. In other words, these nine states are 70 times more powerful than the other 41 (which collectively had a 1.4 percent chance of determining the winner) combined. That's part of the reason so many Americans object to the Electoral College. But states whose voters have a disproportionate amount of influence may be in no mood to give it up.
Why are Democrats pushing this plan?
Democrats usually see a smaller percentage of their people go to the polls than Republicans do.
Under the electoral vote system, they figure why beat the drums to get a high turnout in New York City when the state will go Democratic anyway? But if it's the popular vote that matters, the big-city machines can do their thing — with devastating impact…
If the popular vote determines who will be the next president, we can bet that the machines will be out in force lining up voters, real and phony, to pad their statistics.
It comes down to whether parties have confidence in their policies and ability to earn majorities. If you do, you can be confident in winning majority support in a truly representative democracy.
Under the current system, however, majority support does not guarantee electoral success. In any given election, one party or the other can have an advantage based on the vagaries of the leanings of a few swing states. Republicans used to have an edge, but in recent elections, pundits like Nate Silver of 538 convincingly argue that Democrats have had an edge. The 2016 race, however, is anyone's guess. We know that there will be a distortion — but we don't know who it will help…
Nothing would be better for restoring Americans' faith in their elected officials if those officials made it clear that voters and their democracy come first. Our political leaders should be willing to allow fair completion and encourage high participation in exchange for earning the consent of the governed as intended by our Constitution.


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The gatekeeper that kept press away from its chief executives an created an Apple "mystique", is leaving the company, according to reports.
Katie Cotton, Apple's vice president of world-wide communications, is retiring from the company after 18 years, according to the Re/Code. Cotton said she wanted to spend more time with her two children. "This is very hard for me. I have been here for almost two decades and Apple is part of my heart and soul," she said in an email.
Cotton was known for keeping founder and former chief Steve Jobs from the press, as well as current chief Tim Cook.
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
Cotton is also credited with creating an aura of secrecy around Apple, arguably one of the most secretive in the technology field which only seemed to fuel speculation and rumor until it reached an almost fevered pitch. Few product launches created as much frenzy as Apple's iPhones and iPad launches. From the Wall Street Journal:
She is one of the driving forces behind Apple's carefully orchestrated product launches. Her public relations team aggressively controlled the message around new key products and maintained an air of mystery around the company and the brand.
"Katie has given her all to this company for over 18 years. She has wanted to spend more time with her children for some time now. We are really going to miss her," Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said in a statement. No replacement has been named.


text: At CAPREIT we treat our residents with the utmost respect and strive to meet their needs well beyond their rental apartment. The reason for our success is simple: the needs of our residents are central to our operation and influence everything we do. We not only work with our residents to provide a home, but we work to create a comfortable residential community in which to live.


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OTTAWA — Bilingualism is losing steam across Canada but gaining ground in Quebec, according to data released Wednesday by Statistics Canada.
The new data from the 2011 census shows that Quebec was the only province to increase its rate of bilingualism in English and French since the last census in 2006.
Overall, the national rate of bilingualism in English and French rose from 17.4 to 17.5 per cent of the population from 2006 to 2011, according to the census. This is equivalent to an increase of 350,000 people, for a total of 5.8 million Canadians out of a total population of 33.1 million.
But the increase was largely driven by Quebec, where 42.6 per cent of the population said they had knowledge of both English and French in 2011, up from 40.6 per cent in 2006.
Statistics Canada estimated that Quebec was responsible for 90 per cent of the increase across the country.
Outside of Quebec, knowledge of French grew. But with the total population growing at a faster rate, the bilingualism rates dropped by about 0.5 per cent in provinces such as Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia.
Canada's only officially bilingual province, New Brunswick, also saw its rate of bilingualism in English and French drop from 33.4 to 33.2 per cent since 2006.
Some francophone communities say their local governments are failing to protect their right to live in French, simply because most French-Canadians have learned to speak English.
"This is a problem when we have ministers in British Columbia who tell us that the French language is not an official language here," said Real Roy, who teaches biology in English at the University of Victoria. "I don't know what country they live in. I live in Canada and in Canada there are two official languages."
Roy, who is president of a provincial federation of francophones, said it also bothers him to see the B.C. government spending public money to translate official documents in Asian languages, while suggesting there isn't enough demand to do the same in French.
"This is shameful, and this doesn't help promote French," said Roy, a Quebecer, who has also lived in Germany and China.
In Alberta, the provincial government, with some funding from the federal government, has subsidized an employment services centre that helps French speakers learn English and find jobs.
Suzanne Corneau, who has directed the centre for 10 years, said it has expanded its staff to serve about 5,000 clients per year, up from about 1,000 in 2002.
In that time, she said the clientele has also changed dramatically, from about 15 per cent immigrants 10 years ago to about 55 per cent today, mostly from Africa.
"They don't always find a job in their field because the biggest barrier is English," said Corneau.
In some cases, she said, businesses in the construction or oil and gas industry have become more stringent in searching for qualified candidates who speak English, because of accidents on the job.
But while the total number of Albertans speaking French grew 18 per cent from 68,000 to 81,000 since 2006, the province's bilingualism rate in the official languages dropped from 6.8 per cent to 6.5 per cent.
Meantime, back in B.C., Roy said he observed a big difference in knowledge of French after two stints in the province, first as a student in 1983, and returning since 2001 as a professional. He said better schools and French immersion programs might explain the changes.
"On the ground, when I speak English with my heavy French accent, or (people hear me) speak to my children in French, people speak to me in French," Roy said. "There are a lot of people, whether it be at a Tim Horton's or a grocery store, who reply to me in French."
Statistics Canada also observed a slight decrease in the rate of Quebec residents who reported French as their first language, going from 79.6 to 78.9 per cent between 2006 and 2011, while the rate of people who reported English as their first language increased from 8.2 to 8.3 per cent – about 40,000 people – in the same period.
Roy, who also studied at McGill University in Montreal, suggested that other provinces could learn from the model adopted in that city where anglophones have their own schools, hospitals and other spaces that protect the vitality of their communities.
"I don't blame anglophones for this," Roy said. "I think it's very good that they have their own spaces."
Parliament's language watchdog noted last week that existing laws were never designed to make all Canadians bilingual, but rather to ensure that the national government takes steps to protect the rights of minority English and French communities.
"In fact, the nature of Canada's language policy has, in effect, been a guarantee of the right of citizens to be unilingual and it has imposed obligations on the state to be bilingual so that citizens don't have to be," said Graham Fraser, the commissioner of official languages, at a news conference after releasing his latest annual report. "We are basically two linguistic communities, both of which have a majority of citizens who live side by side, and the key bridges between those communities are federal institutions."


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Nacional Records seems to be the only choice these days for any Latin Alternative music these days. While releases by artists such as Mexican Institute Of Sound, The Nortec Collective and the Zizek crew show the electronic future of the genre, Banda De Turistas reaches back to 60's era Kinks for inspiration. Magical Radiophonic Heart contains fifteen songs of garage/psyche/pop bliss that would please the kids discovering a past that they never knew. Those kids that look retro yet weren't born when The Dukes Of Stratosphere first came out, let alone The Kinks! Banda De Turistas is available on CD only.
Speaking of retro, Vampi Soul just released a couple of reissues. Spiteri, a band of Venezuelan brothers (Charles & Jorge) who moved to England, hung out with the likes of Traffic, The Animals and Osibisa and, in 1973, released a gem of a debut album. Spiteri, or as it was known in Venezuela, Disco De La Culebra (The Snake Record…because the band logo was a cobra), which was their only proper album. They were supposed to be Venezuela's answer to Santana. But like the band's original press release stated, "Santana is a rock band influenced by Latin music…Spiteri are Latin musicians influenced by rock." Within the heavy 70's rock and onslaught of percussion, one can hear Spiteri's Venezuelan roots. As Jorge Spiteri put it, the band played "With The Beatles and Traffic in our minds and Joe Cuba in our hearts." Sadly, due to immigration problems, most of the band started to leave England and the brothers were left with a line-up that consisted of them with English musicians. The band soon broke up but not before recording a killer funk version of The Spencer Davis Group's "I'm A Man" that sounds like something Mandrill would have done. This release is available on CD and limited edition vinyl.
The other reissue Vampi Soul released this week is from El Gran Fellove, a totally underrated Cuban singer that made most of his career in Mexico. Born and raised in Cuba, he was a contemporary of the likes of Cachao, Perez Prado, Celia Cruz and Chano Pozo. He was known for his scatting, a style that he later dubbed the "Chua Chua." El Gran Fellove could have been much bigger if it wasn't for his loyalties. He was asked to play in both Machito and Tito Puente's groups while performing in New York in the late fifties, but turned them down because he didn't want to cause friction with the singers that those groups already had. On top of that, he had a career in Mexico. There, he starred in a few movies and released recordings on the RCA label. Vampi Soul's collection, Mango Mangue, focuses on the work he did in the 60's on RCA, including the song "El Jamaiquino," a Ska/Mambo fusion that has been the desires of deejays for many years. This release is available on CD and LP.


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Portman will reject your reality and substitute his own
We talked last week about an unexpected challenge for Republicans: the party was heavily invested in attacking President Obama for an unemployment rate above 8 percent, and found itself in an awkward position when the jobless rate dropped to 7.8 percent.
How the GOP and Romney/Ryan deal with these improving conditions is of great interest, since the results may help dictate the 2012 election. On ABC yesterday, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) offered a great example of how not to deal with the facts.
For those who can't watch clips online, Jake Tapper noted a clip from the vice presidential debate in which Paul Ryan said the unemployment rate is going up "all around America" – an argument that happens to be wrong. The host asked Portman a simple but important question: "Now, senator, this has been weak economic recovery, without question, but it is a recovery, and unemployment is going down, just as a factual matter. Why would Congressman Ryan, in defiance of facts, suggest otherwise?"
To which Portman responded:
"I think that what he was saying was the truth: which unemployment is higher today than when the president took office. Unfortunately, in the meantime, we've created net zero jobs, Jake."
This is genuinely remarkable. Ryan was caught presenting a false claim to the nation, and asked to explain why, one of the Romney campaign's leading surrogates told a national television audience, in effect, "The lie is accurate." When the book is written on the evolution of post-truth politics, this anecdote should be in the first chapter.
As an objective matter, unemployment is lower today than when the president took office, and we've seen a net increase in job creation. Portman – a sitting U.S. senator and former budget director – surely knows this, but chose to say the exact opposite. Why? Because he thinks he can get away with it. Post-truth politics is liberating that way.
You see, Portman doesn't like our reality, so he has no qualms about making up his own version of facts, and asking Americans to believe him – even though he's blatantly, shamelessly lying.
Putting aside all other considerations, it's just not healthy for a political system when one side of the political divide decides to substitute one version of reality for another. Words, facts, arithmetic, and objective truths must maintain some sort of meaning or our basic ability to have a political conversation will deteriorate into chaos.


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An estate owned by Libyan strongman Moammar Khaddafy's government in an upscale northern New Jersey was vandalized Wednesday evening within hours of the leader's rambling rant at the U.N.
Englewood Mayor Michael Wildes said flammable debris was left on the driveway at the estate, The Associated Press reported. The site was where local and state officials first put the kibbosh on Khaddafy's plans to set up his signature traveling Bedouin tent for use during his first visit to the U.S.
Khaddafy has bounced around the tri-state area ahead of the United Nations meeting seeking a place to pitch the tent. Earlier Wednesday, he finally found a place to camp out -- at the podium in front of the world body's General Assembly.
Khaddafy, who was supposed to speak for five minutes and confine his remarks to nuclear arms proliferation and climate change, rambled on for nearly two hours, lashing out at the United States and vowing never to cooperate with the United Nations' charter. Khaddafy, who is 67 and came to power in his oil-rich homeland 40 years ago, said the UN is controlled by a handful of big countries that run roughshod over small nations like his.
"We are rejecting, and we shall never cooperate with the United Nations charter," Khaddafy thundered, waving the small booklet in the air and even tearing it into pieces at one point.
Often referring to a sheaf of notes, Khaddafy repeatedly called the UN impotent for failing to intervene in 65 wars since its inception in 1945. He complained about small countries being treated "like livestock," groused about the jetlag suffered by world leaders making their way to New York and said the UN's own Security Council ought to be rechristened the "terror council."
Among the subjects Khaddafy covered were an aborted investigation by President Kennedy into Israeli nukes, a theoretical attack by his nation on France and said Arabs have no animosity toward Israel.
He also called for a new investigation into the assassination of Martin Luther King, blamed modern-day piracy in Africa on western imperialism and hinted darkly that swine flu may have been intentionally created so unspecified mean people could sell vaccinations.
"They do make viruses and sometimes lose control of them," Khaddafy reasoned. "They make vaccinations and sell them. Medicines should not be sold."
Obama, who left after giving his own address, was spared the disjointed diatribe. But Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was forced to endure the entire rant.
One possible reason for Khaddafy's crankiness was his difficulty in finding accommodations in the U.S. The Libyan leader famously travels in a bedouin tent, which he hoped to pitch in Englewood, N.J. But leaders there balked and he tried to get lodging in a Manhattan hotel. When that didn't work out, he camped out behind an estate in Westchester owned by Donald Trump. But a town inspector from Bedford showed up, noted the Libyans didn't have a work permit to set up the tent, and sent them packing. Khaddafy may have wound up staying at the Libyan Mission on E. 48th St.
The anti-Khaddafy fervor was touched off last month, when the Libyan leader welcomed home Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, who was convicted of killing 270 people by bombing Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, was freed for what Great Britain said were compassionate reasons relating to his prostate cancer. Since then, the British press has zeroed in on a possible oil deal between Khaddafy and Great Britain as the possible real reason for the mass killer's release.


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Culture- ART FEATURE- Shock of the new: Ruffin Hall brings all things arty to all
If you haven't driven on Culbreth Road recently, you're in for a visual shock. Where once an empty hillside overlooked a little-used amphitheater, a 560-space parking garage now looms. Meanwhile, the former paved lot in front of Culbreth Theatre has transformed into a not-quite-grown-in grassy lawn sloping up to a massive three-story brick building jutting with angular skylights: Ruffin Hall, the University of Virginia's studio art department's impressive new digs (cue the "Moving on Up" theme song from The Jeffersons)
After being evicted from Fayerweather Hall during its renovation, the art faculty squatted for several years in what were essentially tin shacks behind the Curry School. So the shift into a $27 million building specifically dedicated to art production– with studios designed to meet individual professors' particular teaching needs– is a dream come true.
Like any new building, Ruffin's reality needs a few tweaks and adjustments. Chief among them: remedying more than 50 leaks that spouted forth during late August's heavy rains. Plus, there are equipment issues. Mechanized computer tables stand wrapped in plastic in the second-floor hall, waiting to head back to the factory, because the digital lab's state-of-the-art monitors are too large for the tables. Elsewhere, a giant hood intended to absorb fumes from printmaking processes involving nitric acid currently has a yellow legal-pad page taped to it with "Do Not Use" scrawled in red.
Visiting artist Clay Witt jokes that he's started calling Ruffin's sub-contractors "sob contractors." Nevertheless, he's quick to point out the building's strengths outweigh its temporary flaws. "Look at the light!" he says enthusiastically gesturing in the gargantuan third-floor painting studio.
"Whatever problems we have, they're all fixable," says department chair Larry Goedde. "It's just an inspiration itself to be in this building."
Ruffin's interior aesthetic is a decidedly un-Jeffersonian industrial chic, with cement-block walls, poured concrete floors, and girders and pipes crisscrossing the ceiling. Huge glass-paneled garage doors roll up on the papermaking and sculpture studios on the ground floor, and lounge areas boast clean-lined Herman Miller furniture.
On the third floor, a welded metal pocket door opens onto Ruffin Gallery, a venue with soaring walls. The gallery's inaugural exhibition premiers September 22– with a public reception September 26– and features woodcuts by Finnish artist Annu Vertanen and Nebraska-based artist Karen Kunc
With their move into Ruffin, the UVA studio art faculty seems to have finally gotten a piece of the pie.
For more information about lectures, exhibitions, and other events at Ruffin Hall, contact UVA's McIntire Department of Art. 924-6123.


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This afternoon, Governor Pat McCrory signed legislation into law that prevents North Carolina's city councils and county commissions from adopting so-called "sanctuary" ordinances — local laws that shield foreign nationals from federal immigration enforcement efforts and which have in the past provided safe havens for illegal aliens who have committed violent crimes. Representative Bell supports this common sense legislation.
The issue of "sanctuary cities" gained prominent national attention after the murder of Kathryn Steinle on July 2 at the hands of illegal alien and seven-time convicted felon Francisco Sanchez. Sanchez, a Mexican citizen, was given his freedom by authorities in San Francisco earlier this year — despite having been already deported from the United States five times before. San Francisco is a sanctuary city.
Governor McCrory signed the legislation with a bipartisan group of sheriffs, community leaders and members of his Advisory Council on Hispanic and Latino Affairs looking on. "Today, North Carolina is standing up for the rule of law, which is central to North Carolina values and our country's values," said Governor McCrory. "Public safety officials must have the flexibility and tools to investigate crimes — and sanctuary city policies deprive law enforcement of those tools."
House Bill 318, the Protect North Carolina Workers Act, passed the House along party lines last month: every Republican supported the legislation, while every Democrat opposed it. Most Americans, however, believe that cracking down on sanctuary cities is an important step in stemming the tide of illegal immigration, according to a recent Rasmussen poll.
Progressive activists have been vocal in their demonization of the legislation; even Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign managed to weigh-in on the state bill, dismissing HB318 as being "simply unacceptable." (For a response to the Clinton campaign, please read "The Clinton Campaign Has It All Wrong On NC's Illegal Immigration Protections" at the end of this post.) Protestors, organized by Moral Monday affiliated groups, have gathered outside the governor's residence for the last month in their opposition to the bill.
Perhaps not coincidentally, another Rasmussen poll released this spring revealed that a majority of Democrats across the country also think that illegal immigrants should have the right to vote. Under current law, an individual is required to be a U.S. citizen in order to vote in state or federal elections.
"The term 'Sanctuary City' comes from a resolution approved by San Francisco in 1989 that prohibited police from asking about a person's immigration status," explained WWNC's Pete Kaliner in a 2013 blogpost. "It also banned disclosure of that immigration status. In other words, the local law enforcement would not assist the federal government with immigration law enforcement."
North Carolina already has several local governments that have passed resolutions declaring some form of a "see-no-evil" policy regarding federal immigration law violations. While stopping short of actually declaring themselves to be sanctuary cities, Asheville, Burlington, Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Greenville, Hillsboro, Durham, Pittsboro, Siler City and Winston-Salem all have ordinances, resolutions or informal policies offering some manner of safe harbor to illegal aliens, according to the North Carolinians For Immigration Reform and Enforcement (NCFIRE), a statewide grassroots organization dedicated to immigration enforcement.
Speaking of the Asheville effort (which passed unanimously), Councilman Cecil Bothwell (who proposed that city's resolution) said that his sanctuary city language "would also endorse the current practice of our police not to enforce federal law." NC Capitol Connection's Matt Caulder, in a July blogpost, calls this "the state's clearest example of a sanctuary city."
In response to the passage of HB318, the Greensboro City Council passed a resolution by a vote of 8 to 1 that condemned the state legislation. The only person opposing the move also happens to be the board's only Republican.
The new law also requires local governments (and their contractors) to abide by federal E-Verify procedures and it will make it harder for illegals to utilize un-authenticated ID cards to open bank accounts, obtain driver's licenses, and receive welfare benefits to which they are not legally entitled.
House Bill 318 restricts the forms of valid ID used by non-citizens. It specifically prohibits the use of consulate or embassy documents (or other documents not issued by the state or federal government) for determining identification or residency for law enforcement purposes. One of these types of documents is the Mexican 'Matricula Consular' card that is often used as ID for receiving federal, state, and local benefits.
But those documents just aren't good enough, according to Representative George Cleveland, a primary sponsor of the bill. "It is not a valid form of identification," he explained. "There is really no control over it. It's a farce." Cleveland says police should only accept a state-issued ID or a passport. Fellow bill sponsor Representative Chris Millis agrees. "Consular cards are useful in the U.S. only for illegal aliens, because legal immigrants — by definition — already have validated U.S. government-issued documents," he said. "And according to the FBI, Consular cards can be easily faked."
The state legislature's partisan divide on the issue largely mirrors what's currently going on in Washington, DC. Although Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation this past summer that would have withheld federal funds from sanctuary cities, Senate Democrats last week blocked similar legislation, S.2146, from even coming to the floor.
"A vast majority of the American people oppose sanctuary cities that harbor dangerous criminals who are here illegally, and I'm disappointed that my colleagues blocked this sensible anti-crime bill from coming to the floor for a full debate and vote," commented Senator Thom Tillis. "This bill includes the common-sense 'Kate's Law' that would crackdown on violent criminals here illegally, and it is endorsed by a number of top law enforcement organizations because it would help keep our communities safe."
The federal legislation cracking down on sanctuary cities was endorsed by the National Association of Police Organizations, the National Sheriff's Association, the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, and the International Union of Police Association (AFL-CIO) among others.
"When I go to other countries, I go legally and I adhere to the laws," said Guilford County Sheriff B.J. Barnes, who hosted the governor this afternoon at the county's sheriff's office. "Can we not, as the greatest nation in the world, expect others to do the same?"
From the October 14 Daily Caller:
The Clinton Campaign Has It All Wrong On NC's Illegal Immigration Protections
by Representative Chris Millis
Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign has characterized immigration legislation that passed the North Carolina General Assembly as "simply unacceptable." The Protect North Carolina Workers Act, which I sponsored, would enhance our state's ability to deal with immigration issues such as "sanctuary cities" and the harms associated with invalid forms of identification.
The bill awaits the signature of Gov. Pat McCrory, who has already expressed opposition to Mrs. Clinton on the subject of sanctuary cities. But a top aide on Clinton's team issued a sharp rebuke over the legislation.
"This anti-immigrant bill is more evidence of the influence Donald Trump has on the Republican Party," said Lorella Praeli, who is Latino outreach director of Hillary for America. "The negative impact on the immigrant community would be immeasurable."
Contrary to the claims made by the Democrat frontrunner's campaign, the Protect North Carolina Workers Act implements reforms that improve safety in our communities and provides proper protection of our state and local tax dollars.
We've seen what happens when we don't enforce our nation's immigration laws. The tragic murder of 32-year-old Katie Steinle this summer by seven-time convicted felon Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez – an illegal immigrant who was deported five times – was made possible by San Francisco's status as a "sanctuary city."
These "safe haven" ordinances prohibit local law enforcement officials from cooperating with federal authorities to enforce our national immigration laws, and provide sanctuary to illegal immigrants who commit crimes — allowing them to evade proper justice. Mr. Lopez-Sanchez even admitted to police that he came to San Francisco because he knew officials would not deport him.
The Tar Heel State has experienced its own series of crimes committed by people who are in the country illegally. The Protect North Carolina Workers Act prohibits local governments in North Carolina from adopting sanctuary ordinances that provide refuge for illegal immigrants who commit crimes.
To achieve quasi-legal status in the United States, many illegal immigrants also utilize a "Consular Identification Card" to open bank accounts, rent property, establish utilities, potentially obtain driver's licenses, and access public benefits to which they are not entitled under the law. But Consular IDs, issued by foreign governments, are never authenticated; the holder's identity is not even verified when the card is issued. Consular cards are useful in the U.S. only for illegal aliens, because legal immigrants — by definition — already have validated U.S. government-issued documents. And according to the FBI, Consular cards can be easily faked.
The bill that I and my colleagues sponsored prohibits the use of Consular Identification cards (and other similar forms of unsecure documentation) for the purposes of determining a person's identity or residency.
The Protect North Carolina Workers Act also requires state agencies and local governments in North Carolina (and the contractors that do business with them) to abide by federal law and utilize E-Verify to determine legal work status. Expecting local governments to uphold U.S. law is not only common sense; it's good government. That's something we should encourage, rather than tear down, to score political points.
I am troubled that Mrs. Clinton, as someone who seeks to lead our great nation, finds these common-sense reforms to be "simply unacceptable." I believe shielding law-breakers from proper justice to be simply unacceptable. I believe allowing illegal immigrants to take American jobs to be simply unacceptable. I believe allowing people to skirt the law with fraudulent IDs to be simply unacceptable.
With the Protect North Carolina Workers Act, our state is sending a clear message that we will no longer accept the unacceptable.
While Hillary Clinton may not agree, I hope our next president believes that our nation and its citizens — and the rights of those who are legally allowed to live and work here — are worth protecting.
Representative Chris Millis


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The University of Colorado and Boulder communities take health and exercise very seriously.
Eating well and working out are key components to calling yourself a true Buff or Boulderite.
About 88 percent of CU students participate in one or more Recreational Sports Activities, according to the Rec Center website.
There are plenty of outdoor activities to keep students busy year round, but it can be difficult to fit skiing or hiking between classes.
A quicker and often more convenient way for students to stay in shape is the university Recreation Center located between Folsom Field and Macky Auditorium.
Students will pay a mandatory fee of $95.78 per semester this year, which includes maintenance and access to the facility. In June, the CU Board of Regents approved a fee increase of $123.60 per student, per semester beginning in the fall of 2013 to support a $63.5 million renovation to the Rec Center.
The fee — which was approved by student vote in April — will be in addition to the maintenance and access fee that students are already paying.
With additional changes to existing bonds, students will be responsible for a $208.85 fee per semester to cover the cost, according to the Rec Center staff.
Saranj Khalsa, who will be a junior in the fall, said she uses the Rec Center frequently but does not believe the fee hike and renovation should be a priority for the university right now. Khalsa said she will likely still be at CU when the fee goes into effect in 2013.
"I think the money would be better spent on increasing financial aid," Khalsa said. "It seems clear that CU should be more focused on making education available to students than buildings."
The Rec Center has an ice rink, pool, cardio and weight room, aerobics classes, tennis and basketball courts and much more.
Today, the center is 240,000 square feet — about 122,352 square feet shy of the Indoor National Space Standards. Students often complain about the outdated equipment and lack of space but a recently approved renovation will give the entire facility an overhaul.
CU senior Sean Sutherland said he is excited to see a renovation even if it does come at a higher cost to students.
"I won't be a student when the renovation is complete but I will still be in Boulder probably and would like to come use the facility as a member," said Sutherland, who uses the facility at least a couple times a week.
Sutherland said he is looking forward to the new facility but is expecting to be impressed because of the high project budget.
Regents expressed concerns during their June meeting about the increased fees but unanimously approved the fee, stating the importance of the student voice, who supported the increase during spring elections.
Regent Joe Neguse, D-Boulder, expressed concerns about the cost of an outdoor pool, which would not be usable year round and would create expensive maintenance and utilities, while the facility's child care program was cut by CUSG in the spring.
"I'm worried about where the student government's priorities are," Neguse said. "Making fees affordable needs to be consistent."
CUSG president Andrew Yoder said the childcare facility is not likely to come up again this year during budget discussions.
The Rec Center is now in the designing and planning stages of development with hopes of construction beginning in the spring of 2012. The project is expected to be completed by the fall of 2013, when the fee goes into effect.


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Decadence Revisited
Alexander to Actium: The Historical Evolution of the Hellenistic Age
The Hellenistic Aesthetic
Hellenistic Poetry: An Anthology
Hellenism in Late Antiquity
Greek Sculpture
When we think of Ancient Greece and Rome, cradle of our civilization and most accessible of ancient societies, what is it that comes to mind? Two periods dominate the idea of classical antiquity for moderns: on the one hand the democracy of Athens in the fifth century BC, innovative and dynamic, and on the other the grandiose and apparently unchanging empire of Rome in the early centuries of our era. Between those two periods lies a gap of four centuries, which may seem less attractive because of the enormous complexity of their political history, with wars, alliances, revolutions, conquests, and the rise and fall of nations. They also can look depressing because so much that happened seems not to lead anywhere, in the sense of forming part of the great historical movements which interest the selective eye of posterity.
Yet this was a crucial period. It was in those turbulent generations that the scale of Greek history was transformed, from an affair of city-states, mostly around the Aegean Sea, to one of great kingdoms, Egypt, Asia Minor, Syria. It was then, too, that the all-conquering city of Rome succeeded in mastering the Mediterranean world and the Near East, an empire both larger and also more enduring than any which had gone before; and in adopting and imposing on the world a culture which was in large part Greek, and which had the effect of ensuring that the achievements of classical Greece were kept alive, in an altered and selected form, instead of passing away with the destruction of Greek political power. It also was the period between the Old and New Testaments, in which for the first time the Jews and the Greeks confronted each other, and in which the world was brought into a state which made possible the spreading and the triumph of the Christian gospel.
A special word, "Hellenistic," referring to the period from the career of Alexander the Great to the ascendancy of Rome, was not thought necessary by scholars before the German historian J.G. Droysen (1808–1884) used it in his history of the period (1836). The concept has proved useful but also slippery, with scholars disagreeing on the dates at which the period began and ended. Peter Green defines it as the years from 323 (death of Alexander) to 31 BC (defeat of Cleopatra); Barbara Hughes Fowler prefers 323 to AD 14 (death of the Emperor Augustus). Some writers have even included the Roman Empire. Fortunately we need not worry about the point. However defined at its extremities, this period is now receiving intense study by scholars who are helping to make the results accessible to readers who may be daunted by the newly appearing volumes of the Cambridge Ancient History (third edition).
Peter Green, Professor at the University of Texas at Austin, has produced a book on the grand scale: 970 pages (large and on good paper), 30 maps, 217 illustrations, 5 genealogical charts of dynasties, a chronological table 45 pages long, 168…
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PSC Ptnrs for a Cure necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 386 diseños de 107 diseñadores freelance.
PSC Partners Seeking a Cure (http://www.pscpartners.org) is a grassroots, all-volunteer non-profit looking for a new logo to be included in our professional website redesign. Our foundation aims to ease the anxiety of people who have this rare autoimmune disease by offering them education, support and research. Our membership includes patients, caregivers, and medical professionals. We would like our new logo to convey an uplifting, positive outlook. Our name reflects the unusually strong bonds and partnerships that we have created between patients, caregivers, physicians, nurses, and researchers.
PSC Partners Seeking a Cure (website: http://www.pscpartners.org)
PSC Partners Seeking a Cure is a rapidly growing non-profit foundation that works to provide research, education and support for people affected by Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC). PSC is a bile duct disease that primarily affects people in the prime of their lives. It is not curable and frequently requires a liver transplant. Many people are able to live full lives with PSC despite the daily limitations and medications. Some of the services we offer for patients, caregivers and medical professionals are: (1) a consolidated repository of the latest information and research, (2) an annual patient conference, (3) access to online support groups, and (4) fundraising to find a cure. As we expand and connect with people internationally, we feel that the current logo does not fully reflect who we are or our message. We are also about to start a website redesign working with a professional website designer.
- Logo must have the full name of the foundation (PSC Partners Seeking a Cure).- Uplifting logo in appearance and color choice.- We want the impression of the logo to be contemporary but not technical, appealing to our various audiences, and presenting a sense of credibility and professionalism.- We want the logo's underlying message to be: (1) We're here to support and educate you, (2) We're in this together. You are not alone, and (3) We're busy seeking a cure for PSC and we WILL succeed. There is hope!- The color of the original logo was chosen because of the color of the liver, but we're open to all color palettes.- The chosen colors should be contrasting enough that the logo would work in black and white as well.- This logo will be used on websites, marketing materials, newsletters, etc. in all media- Here are some related nonprofits that our members may be involved with. We want to make sure that we don't impinge on their symbols and/or style: Ccfa.org/ liverfoundation.org/ cholangiocarcinoma.org /PBCers Organization
- No liver graphics.- No light blue color- No cartoons, humor or satire.- No cliches or cliched symbols
- No animals
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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JAG KK necesitaba un nuevo diseño de página web y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 87 diseños de 15 diseñadores freelance.
UPDATE- It seems many are put off by the requirement of coding of the site. SO I have sweetened the deal.
Coding will be outsourced.
Prize amount increased.
ONLY .psd layered files are needed!
It's time to trash the bad homemade site I made several years ago (http://www.petervongomm.com) and put together something really good. I am an American living in Tokyo, Japan and I do all kinds of narration work. Television, radio, video game voice-overs etc. etc... I am a pro narrator and I need a pro site to make me shine.
This site is meant to promote me and also be a classy way for agents and clients to see/hear my work. I live in Japan but I want to target the international community- so a Japanese 'feel' to the site isn't desired.
(see Full Brief .doc for all details)
There will be two pages designed. a simple SPLASH PAGE and the MAIN PAGE. There will also be a pop-up box for sending an email to me when 'Hire Peter' button is clicked. (see full brief)
Splash page:
*Some folks think Splash page unnecessary? I just thought it would be cool to land on a simple/slick-looking intro page. Cheesy??? Please see additional file uploaded as an example of what I had in mind. Colors/fonts up to designer. This is just a ballpark idea.
Splash page is the default page that visitor goes to when http://www.petervongomm.com is visited. Keep it simple. My logo and the text ' An American Narrator in Japan'. Maybe some subtle design details OK but basically clean and simple.. when logo or 'continue to site' button is clicked Homepage opens.
This will show the various kinds of narration / acting work I do along with the images. I really want all of this info. one 1 page. The following are required:
7 Titles are: About PvG, Tv Commercials, Video Games, Video and Documentary Narration, Educational, Animation. Television Actor
Video /Audio Player embedded
I do a lot of television commercials and I want to highlight them with an embedded 'video/Audio theater'. This will be for the .mp3 files as well.
Drop down boxes (or creative alternative) under some titles (see full brief)


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Test of patience
Waiting – whether in a traffic jam, at the checkout, or at the airport – makes many people nervous and drives other people absolutely crazy. Our author takes a very different view: For him, waiting is one of the best things in the world.
How I hated it! Standing in line at passport control after a long flight, my hair styled by weariness and the grease from my skin, the smell of the person ahead of me in my nose; being so close to people I didn't know and never wanted to know; my only occupation, chewing on my bottom lip. I was an unpleasant person when I had to stay in one spot – at the gate, at the checkout, outside a club. I was one of those people who push their way to the front of the line with dumb excuses, like "My mom, she's there up front," as I pointed to some middle-aged woman. I was one of those people who tut impatiently in the firm conviction that their tutting and nervous foot tapping could make time go faster. They never could. Instead the minutes passed even more slowly, more sluggishly. Waiting in line, I would morph into a total son of a bitch, and people waiting with me would begin to feel embarrassed.
But I learned my lesson. It was more by coincidence, really, and in Japan, the land of waiting, the kingdom of time meticulously divided up in the interests of properness, courtesy and tradition, of patience and optimism. It was a hot summer's day and I had joined a line of at least 100 people in Tokyo, my favorite city. I didn't know what they were waiting for and I didn't know how long the wait would take, either. All I knew was that if the line was that long, there had to be something good at the end of it. Or as Leo Tolstoy put it: "Everything comes in time to him who knows how to wait."
Two hours and forty-seven minutes I stood there, patiently, keeping my place in the line along with everyone else. "O-namae wa?" "What's your name?" I asked – it was all I could remember of what I had learned of the language. And then I had a conversation without understanding a word. It was fantastic. I got to know new people and understand the merits of the folding stool. The Japanese are a smart bunch and almost always have a one-legged folding stool with them.
We have figures for everything in life. We sleep for more than 24 years, the statistics tell us. We watch television for 12 years, sit in cars for two years, and six months on the lavatory. The time we spend waiting has also been measured: 156 hours at the computer waiting for the loading bar, restarts and installations to be completed. Every year, we spend 38 hours stuck in traffic. We stand in line at the supermarket checkout for six hours, and sit in waiting rooms for almost seven hours, to say nothing of traffic lights, subways and customer hotlines.
Waiting takes on a new dimension when we travel. At the time of writing, I had already covered 150 000 kilometers in the air, had flown for more than 120 hours. I flew to Somalia, North Korea, across Mexico to the USA. I visited every continent, waited my way around the world. Waited for my plane to land, to start, for food to be served, to see the film or go to the bathroom. Once it would have driven me insane. Today it makes me happy.
You see, not only do we get waiting for free; waiting is also the final freedom we humans have. It's a space in which we can withdraw completely into ourselves, that we can shape as we wish. All we have to do to feel free is take our place in a line. Odd, isn't it?
I discovered that waiting on an airplane is the best activity of the modern age. When I take a look around and see people typing on their laptops, I know they are still beginners at the waiting game; they're trying to divert their attention away from themselves by working. But that's nonsense. Nothing needs to be achieved here because we are already achieving something special: Without having to do anything for it ourselves, we are covering incredible distances, so the quarterly report can wait. Waiting is meditation. We have to learn how to bear the restlessness that sets in after the first ten minutes, and the aching emptiness after 30 minutes. "A sure way to enrage people and put evil thoughts in their head is to make them wait for a long time," says Friedrich Nietzsche. But Nietzsche didn't always get everything right, either. Emptiness can indeed be therapeutic. Idleness, boredom, standstill – all of these ultimately let our thoughts run free.
Before almost every takeoff, I decide to give a certain topic all my attention. Sometimes I think about multiverses, the possibility of endlessly different universes. Sometimes about what my grandma is doing right now. Or I imagine my way into the private world of the people sitting near me, taking their appearance and manner as clues on which to build their lives. Why does the man next to me have mighty colts adorning his belt buckle? Why is the businesswoman over there wearing Hello Kitty socks? Ever since I stopped passing my time with series and films, I have reopened the door to an almost forgotten amusement park, opened the rusty gates of habit and rediscovered my imagination. All of this may sound like dumb hippy crap, but I am no dreamer, no babbling idiot. I have both feet firmly planted in reality. And still I get the feeling I have found something that I had lost.
When I was a child, waiting was more than passing time; it was jittery anticipation
As a child, I did a lot of waiting. In the winter, I would long for summer, when I could wear shorts and ride through fields on my folding bicycle. In the summer, I would wait impatiently for winter so that I could go sledding. The adventures always happened tomorrow, the next day or the next month. Waiting, that was more than merely passing time, it was jittery anticipation. And as adults, we should stop making supposedly "good use" of that time. Let's just let ourselves go. Let's count the leaves on the trees outside the window. Let's dream ourselves away to places we plan to visit someday. Let's think of winter, let's think of summer, whenever we wait.
I learned all of this on that hot day in Tokyo while I was standing in line – for two hours and forty-seven minutes. In the end, I fell silent, became calm, relaxed. Because there was nothing for me to miss and nothing for me to do. My only task was to hold out. I actually only found out what I was waiting for shortly before the wait was over: crêpes, served by women in fairy-tale costumes. I didn't even giggle. With the Japanese man behind me, who had offered me his folding stool every half-hour, I shared a crêpe with vanilla ice cream. It was the best I had ever tasted.
This story first appeared in Lufthansa Exclusive, the frequent traveller magazine. For more information about Lufthansa Miles & More offers, please click hier.


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Earth from Space: Mt. Etna – at it again
This Envisat image acquired on 25 November captures smoke spewing from Europe's largest active volcano, Mt. Etna. The 3 350 metre-high volcano resumed eruptions in early September this year and entered its highly active phase on 5 November, according to the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanic Studies.
Ash erupting from Mt. Etna, located in Sicily, Italy, forced local authorities to close the nearby Fontanarossa airport in eastern Sicily last weekend, but has caused no other reported disruptions or damage.
The Valle del Bove – a 5.5 x 7 km depression – is clearly seen in the image on the eastern side of the volcano. The most prominent morphological feature of Mt. Etna, the Valle del Bove was formed thousands of years ago as a result of a sector collapse on Etna's eastern flank.
Mt. Etna eruptions date back to 1500 B.C. with some 200 eruptions recorded since then. Despite its frequent eruptions, Mt. Etna is not generally considered dangerous. The last time it posed a threat was in 1992 when the Italian military had to divert lava streams with controlled explosions to keep it from reaching some 7 000 inhabitants of the town of Zafferana, located on Etna's lower slopes.
Satellite data can be used to detect the slight signs of change that may foretell an eruption. Once an eruption begins, optical and radar instruments can capture the various phenomena associated with it, including lava flows, mud slides, ground fissures and earthquakes. Atmospheric sensors onboard satellites can also identify the gases and aerosols released by the eruption, as well as quantify their wider environmental impact.
This image was acquired by Envisat's Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) instrument while working in Full Resolution mode to provide a spatial resolution of 300 metres.


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Graham Southey (left) gave an interesting and amusing talk at the April 2009 meeting of the West Gauteng branch of the GSSA.
Southey is a very old surname. This name has been spelt in various ways -- South Hey, Southhey and Sowthey. From 1698 it was spelt as we know it.
Graham gave a broad outline of the early Southey history in England. He visited Wellington, an area in which the early Southey families had settled. The early settlers took a great interest in parish affairs.
At the local parish church he found the names of no less than nine Southeys who had been church wardens in the 1600s.
Thomas Southey (1545-1601) was known as the great clothier of Wellington. He married Joan Budd, a daughter of William Budd, a serge maker of Wellington. They had six sons and three daughters. The eldest son was Robert from whom several famous Southeys were descended.
Robert also lived in Wellington and his son Robert was a poet who became the Poet Laureate to King George III of England. They wanted to honour him with a title but he declined and said he would prefer a pension. There is a bust of Robert in Westminster Abbey.
Henry Herbert (1783-1865) was the King's physician.
John (1666-1728) was a famous lawyer from Thornton in Somersetshire. He married an heiress, Mary Canon. Their granddaughter married the Honourable Hugh Somerville. She died giving birth to her only son, John Southey Somerville who became the 15th Lord Somerville.
Thomas became the founder of the London Wool Exchange in the 1800s.
George was the eldest son of another John Southey. He married Joan Baker. The 1820s was a bad era in England. At the age of 43 George Southey and his family decided to leave England for SA.
They were allocated land in the Grahamstown area. They were simply dropped off on their allocation. Fortunately they had brought two tents with them!
Graham knows little about the lives of George and Joan Southey.
Their eldest daughter was Sophia (1804-1880). She married Joseph Stark who was a founder member of the village of Pedi in the Eastern Cape.
Their eldest son William had to endure difficult times during the war of 1834/1835. He was an incredible farmer who eventually controlled farms in the Graaff-Reinet and Bloemfontein areas. Misfortune struck when he became ill and he lost these farms along with the finest stud stock.
Richard Southey, the third born, having assisted Sir Harry Smith, developed a lasting friendship with him. He held various positions of responsibility in the Cape Government and later became Sir Richard Southey.
Sir Richard Southey married twice and had 7 sons and 2 daughters.
Two of his sons became farmers. Charles and William began farming together on "Klipgat" in the Middelburg area. They divided the farm and Charles farmed with ostriches during the boom period, later developing his farm as a race horse stud farm.
William, Graham's great grandfather became known as the "Father of Irrigation' in SA. He had seen great potential for irrigation in times of flood. He started building weirs across the great Brak Rivier to irrigate his lands. He had 3000 morgen under cultivation.
Frederick William Southey, a son of William became a very successful sheep farmer. He exhibited sheep and took first prize for the grand champ merino ram for 17 consecutive years. In the 18th year Graham's father took the championship from him. They did not speak to each other for 3 months.
Fred had 24 grandchildren. They held a gathering on the farm in 1995 in order to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Fred Southey moving to that farm.
Fred owned 12 farms in that area, one in Alliwal North and another in Cradock. Each child inherited two farms and his bookkeeper of 40 years got the 13th farm in Cradock.


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Lesson Plan
All's Well that Sells Well: A Creative Introduction to Shakespeare
|9 – 12
|Lesson Plan Type
|Standard Lesson
|Estimated Time
|Three 50-minute sessions
|Lesson Author
Dallas, Georgia
After taking a virtual tour of The Globe Theater in Elizabethan London, students use graphic organizers to compare attending a performance at The Globe to attending a current professional production (such as a play on Broadway) or to viewing a movie at a local theater. They discuss the similarities and differences in the theaters and imagine what types of products might have been advertised in Elizabethan time, if The Globe showed commercials before the play like modern movie theaters do. They then work collaboratively in small groups to create a commercial advertisement geared toward an Elizabethan audience to promote one of today's products or conveniences. This activity helps students better understand the Elizabethan times and Elizabethan theater audiences, as well as persuasive advertising techniques.
ReadWriteThink Notetaker: Students can use this online tool to take notes and organize them into an outline format.
Venn Diagram: Students can use this online tool to compare any two items, including theater experiences.
Theater Comparison Instructions and Resources: This resource gives students full instructions for an activity comparing theaters in Shakespearean times with modern theaters and includes useful Websites for research.
In Opening Texts: Using Writing to Teach Literature, Kathleen Andrasick writes that effective teaching strategies reduce "the distance between students and texts via processes of personal and active engagement," thereby helping them to "imaginatively link themselves with other authors and their writing" (130). This introductory activity helps students to create connections to Shakespeare and his audiences and to generate an "aesthetic response" to his "artistic creation" (130).
Andrasick's approach aligns with advice put forth by Delia DeCourcey, et al., in their NCTE publication, Teaching Romeo and Juliet: A Differentiated Approach, in which they stress that "[a]ll students should feel part of a community of learners...[and a variety of assignments should] address students' needs for belonging as well as personal learning styles" (1). Combining online research, persuasion, creative writing, and performance, this activity certainly provides a variety of learning opportunities essential for engaging a wide variety of learners in an exploration of a play by Shakespeare.
Further Reading
Andrasick, Kathleen Dudden. 1990. Opening Texts: Using Writing to Teach Literature. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
DeCourcey, Deila, Lyn Fairchild, and Robin Follet. 2007. Teaching Romeo and Juliet: A Differentiated Approach. Urbana, IL: NCTE.


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Hull KR 14-14 Wigan: England winger Josh Charnley scores injury-time try to snatch dramatic point at KC Stadium
- Hull KR 14-4 up on 72 minutes
- Josh Charnley scored last-gasp try to save a point for Wigan
- Matty Smith could have won it but missed conversion
- Wigan missed chance to go top of the Super League
Wigan's England winger Josh Charnley grabbed an injury-time try to deny Hull KR a victory and snatch a point from a dramatic finish to an error-strewn Super League match at the KC Lightstream Stadium.
The Robins, who led 14-4 after 72 minutes, will feel hard done by after dominating most of the match but Matty Smith's failure to convert Charnley's try from the touchline at least salvaged them a point which keeps their play-off hopes alive.
Wigan missed the chance to go top of the table but will feel grateful to avoid a sixth defeat in seven trips into Yorkshire after producing a flat performance.
It was a largely unhappy return for former Hull KR favourite and playmaker Blake Green, who was back in the Wigan side after a three-month absence with a ruptured bicep but produced a moment of magic to create a try for skipper Sean O'Loughlin that sparked the late fightback.
Injury-time: Josh Charnley scores a late try to snatch a point for Wigan, but Matty Smith missed the conversion
It was one of their best performances of the season yet the Robins could hardly have made a worst start, with prop forward Adam Walker dropping the ball on his own 20-metre line inside the first set of tackles.
Wigan immediately took advantage, with Smith and Green combining with full-back Matty Bowen to get centre Dan Sarginson slithering his way over for the game's first try, with just 84 seconds on the clock.
But the home side's response was superb as their forwards took the game to their opponents and created a host of scoring opportunities.
Charnley conceded a goal-line drop-out to save one try and second rower Joel Tomkins, making his first start since his return from rugby union, threw Neville Costigan back from the line when he looked a certain scorer.
The equalising try eventually came on 18 minutes when Charnley only managed to get one hand to the ball as it sailed over his head and Hull KR centre Craig Hall, preferred to the out-of-touch Kris Welham, touched it down inches from the dead-ball line.
It was nothing more than the home side deserved as they began to dominate.
Right winger Ade Gardner could have had a hat-trick of tries with steadier finishing but his inability to take a poor pass from Liam Salter with a two-man overlap summed up the misfortune of the former St Helens man.
Super League: Wigan missed the chance to go top of the table but will be glad they didn't lose
However, Gardner brought the crowd to its feet with a shuddering tackle on Sarginson that halted a rare dangerous Wigan attack and breathed fresh belief into his side.
The turning point came six minutes before half-time when Charnley had a try disallowed for offside and Rovers immediately took play upfield and took the lead for the first time.
Half-backs Keating and Travis Burns demonstrated quick hands to get second rower Jason Chan over for a try and Burns' conversion put his side 10-4 ahead.
That gave the Robins just the confidence they needed and they continued to make the champions look very ordinary in the second half.
Their spirit and determination was illustrated in Graeme Horne's tackle on Bowen which forced him to spill the ball.
Chan went 70 metres after swooping on it and, although he was halted 20 metres out from the Wigan line, Rovers maintained their composure this time and left winger Ben Cockayne accepted full-back Greg Eden's pass to cross for a third try.
Burns was off target for the second time, leaving him with one success from three kicks at goal, and Wigan gave themselves hope with Green carved out a try for skipper Sean O'Loughlin eight minutes from the end.
Matty Smith added the conversion to cut the gap to just four points and in the tense finish centre Anthony Gelling squeezed out a pass for Charney to produce a devastating finish and claim a point.
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Cleveland Cavaliers guard J.R. Smith is making it known he wants to be traded. He confirmed the news when asked by a reporter on Thursday. Smith is no longer in the plans for the struggling Cavaliers, who are just 1-and-7. The team fired head coach Tyronn Lue earlier this week and All-Star forward Kevin Love is out indefinitely with a toe injury. The Cavs are rebuilding following the departure of LeBron James. Smith said they have made it clear he's not in their future plans. There is a chance Smith could be fined for his public trade request, which is not allowed under the collective bargaining agreement. He has two years remaining on a four-year, $57,000,000 contract.
Photo: AOL


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CyberLink AudioDirector provides a suite of tools for editing, optimising and generally working with a video soundtrack.
The program opens all the main video formats (MPG, MP4, WMV, AVI, 3GP, M2TS, MTS, TS and more), as well as a few audio formats (WAV, WMA, MP3, M4A, FLAC, AIFF,OGG), and can handle up to 7.1 channels of sound.
And the files load in a familiar interface, with AudioDirector displaying a waveform of your chosen audio file, which is then easy to navigate until you find the clip you want to tweak.
The program can then adjust your audio in all kinds of ways: fading it in or out, trimming the soundtrack to a defined point, adjusting the pitch, length, and more. While effects range from a 10-band equalizer, to versatile reverb and delay tools, and even an option to remove vocals from stereo music.
AudioDirector is even better at repairing a soundtrack. An intelligent noise removal tool can strip out some unwanted sounds, for instance. Annoying clicks can be removed almost automatically. And if the damage is severe, then a Visual Repair tool allows you to manually select and paint over any unwanted audio glitches, quickly restoring normal sounds.
Support for VST plugins means there's plenty of scope for expanding AudioDirector's abilities. And of course you can also record and mix new audio, until you've produced the soundtrack you need.
New features start with the quirky Voice Transformer, which changes voice recordings to sound like a man, woman, child, robot, duck, or some custom variation of your own.
Perhaps more usefully, integration with CyberLink Cloud means it's now possible to back up your projects or source materials online, ready for easy access anywhere.
Although a little expensive, AudioDirector is still a very capable audio editor with a lot of useful features.


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Tuesday, May 30, 2006
I Will Be Your, I Will Be Your, I'll Be Your ROCKET, Yeah! Satellite of Love
We agreed on a theme for Darwin's birthday, with lots of help from him...
Rockets! Yeah! (Ooooh, and be very impressed with my mad photo-editing-in-paint skills.)
Those freakin' things took quite a while. The rockets were hand-cut from scrapbooking paper made by Basic Grey. The invites were printed on the laser printer and mounted onto dark blue cardstock.
I used a new tape runner made by scotch (because it was half the price of Dotto, which is what I normally use -- and I use the removable and needed permanent for these), and I totally Was Not Happy with the results of the scotch. It was very gummy and not precise, so when I use it all the package will go in the trash and I'll get another Dotto -- one for permanent adhesive and one for removable adhesive.
Yes, I know, I'm crazy. I could have just purchased prepackaged party supplies, but I'm insane.
My best friend, who now lives over 700 miles away from me, came to town for part of the weekend. Unfortunately, her baby was not feeling so well so our visit was cut short.
But he's still as cute as a button, doncha think?
I got my package shipped off for the trim swap this morning, and I even have a teaser...
My package was shipped off to someone in England, and I'm quite nervous. I hope the person I got likes what I got her (the swap is a round robin, and full of surprises!). Hopefully, she'll receive her package in the next week and I'll post then.
So, I have a cockamaney idea to make something with these...
Can you guess what I'm going to make? (Ha! If I ever get a chance to make it, that is!)
Aaron left this morning for a big ole business trip. He is gone at least until June 9th (June 9th, I am so totally screwed). As an added bonus, both boys are running fevers, Griffin pee'd on the couch while taking a surprise nap and Darwin has explosive diarrhea.
Really, you should be Quite Jealous.
15 comments:
The invites look groovy! Those rockets are tooooo cool for school man.
That baby was cute and I'm sorry your visit was cut short, but at least you got to spend some time together.
Ohkay...red,white, and blue? errr...uh...a flag? a robot softie? one of those triangle flag banner bunting thingamajigs that I keep meaning to make? well....what is it?
Oh, the package for your swap is great. 8-)
- Tuesday, May 30, 2006
- Kristy said...
I love the trim swap packaging!Don't you just love sleepng sofa accidents -not!!!
- Tuesday, May 30, 2006
- LLA said...
Oooh - so much food for thought!
First of all - love, love, love the invites! And, yes - some may say that you are crazy since you could have just purchased prepackaged supplies, however, I say revel in your craftiness now!
Because in a few short years, your kids will be begging you to just buy the tacky fill-in-the-blank invites from Kroger with the tacky@$$ flavor-of-the-month kid's movie characters on them. And you'll be so overwhelmed with all the homework, PTA, shuttling from one activity to the other, that you will actually cave and buy them. So revel while you can.
Cute baby, sorry he was sickly. Did he share the love with your boys (and that's why they're running fevers? No good deed goes unpunished...)
That's a long stretch on your own. Be strong.... Too bad tequila makes you hive-y.
- Tuesday, May 30, 2006
- Ali said...
Flash invitations! Is the thing a minimoopy? (Not that I'm obsessed at the moment or anything..!)
Why is it that kids always save thie finest hour for when you're flying solo?
- Tuesday, May 30, 2006
- Marshamlow said...
I am so sorry our boys are not feeling well. I hope they get better soon! Your invitations are wonderful, I can't wait to see what you do with the fabric.
- Tuesday, May 30, 2006
- Stitchy said...
Fifteen invites! OK, you are crazy! Actually, I was into elaborate birthday parties for my kids when they were small.But every year I got a little wiser and a little more simple. Nice, but simple.
I love that fabric, and I'm guessing you're going to do something patriotic, but I don't see you as that type. No offence.And about the sick kiddos (they will both be sick by the time you read this)All I can say is - this too shall pass.
- Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Rockin' rockets!
You're making a I-Hate-George-W bunting for the 4th of July. Am I right?
Those boys. Hope they feel better soon.
- Tuesday, May 30, 2006
- julie said...
The invites look fantastic!!!
I love the packaging for your swap - great idea!!
- Wednesday, May 31, 2006
- Berber said...
Those invites were worth the trouble... they're lovely!
Good luck being on your own with two sick boys!!
- Wednesday, May 31, 2006
I know what you mean. I went totally crazy for Emilys birthday and kinda forgot it was only toddlers who don't care about how wonderfully designed everything is! I made invites and even the party bags cause I can't stand any of the plastic stuff you get for these things! A rocket party is cool - have fun!
- Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Love the invites! I am already a prepackaged-party-supply-slacker, I'm afraid. I can't believe how big Darwin is getting!
Hope everyone is well soon, so you can get out for playdates!
- Wednesday, May 31, 2006
- Toni said...
Those fabrics are so cute! I'm thinking some aprons?? Sorry, I've got aprons on the brain these days.
- Wednesday, May 31, 2006
- lindiepindie said...
Would it totally freak you out if I said I could read your address on those cards? JUST KIDDING! I posted some hand made invites before and that was one thing I was SOOOOOO paranoid about, although my crossout job wasn't as good as yours.
The invites look great - they will be appreciated and all the other moms will feel guilty that they used store bought ones for their kiddos, then they'll handmake the next ones due to YOUR inspiration.
- Wednesday, May 31, 2006
- lera said...
great invites! i like the handmade look as opposed to the store-bought ones.
love that fabric. GREAT colors!
sorry about sick kids and "explovies" as we call them. you know i've been there not too long ago (you've seen my posts).
good luck without your hubby.
- Wednesday, May 31, 2006
great invitations! i love the flour sack and the new material.
- Wednesday, May 31, 2006


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Major League Baseball's spring training will be in full swing with games starting on the first weekend of March and your Postcards columnist will be reporting from at least one Grapefruit League destination.
But there's another option for baseball in the Sunshine State that I'd also highly recommend. The game at the college level is highly competitive and the atmosphere can be a better throwback to the old-fashioned notion of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" than attempting to make some fleeting superficial connection with a multimillionaire ballplayer who might look at you as an annoyance.
Eddie Murray, the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Famer, once yelled at me as I was standing in a crowd of autograph-seekers and I promise you, I wasn't doing anything impolite. So it's possible for the Field of Dreams to turn into a nightmare, at least in terms of hurt feelings.
Things are more laid-back at the college level.
In that realm, my favorite stop is Melching Field at Conrad Park, the home of the Stetson Hatters on South Woodland Boulevard in DeLand. The team concludes its opening homestand with a 1 p.m. game today against George Washington University. (You can check out the schedule and admission information at gohatters.com).
Stetson baseball tickets are $8 for general admission ($6 for students and seniors), $10 for box seats, but the upgrade really isn't necessary. The park is intimate, with an inviting grassy area close to the field along the right-field line. In that area, you're close enough to the bullpen to get a perspective on the speed that these college pitchers can throw. There's nothing better than the smack of a baseball against a leather mitt.
Any seat in the stadium is close enough to be part of the action. Stetson's longtime head coach Pete Dunn isn't above giving an umpire a piece of his mind, in a style that's at least a vague throwback to the New York Yankees infamously fiery Billy Martin.
Melching Field is minutes away from downtown DeLand and its assortment of restaurants and shops. Eat at Tony's New York Pizza, a block west of Woodland on New York Avenue, and poke your head inside Florida Victorian Architectural Antiques (112 W. Georgia Ave.). And if you can't get enough baseball, stop at Casey's on the Corner (124 N. Woodland Blvd.) for a hot dog that's a home run.