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Saturday, October 31, 2009
Still Here
Just in case anyone is wondering or worried, I did arrive home safely, did not hand over my passport and become a ex-pat or anything. Just had to jump right back into work, (the day after I got home) and getting ready for The Wine Country's big Beaune Imports tasting, seriously going to be one of the finest tastings of the year....and between the jetlag, tons of work that was waiting for me and a slowly creeping-up-on-my-ass chest cold I just have not had the time or inspiration to write much, but I'll be back.
I still have more to say than anyone wants to hear, (like most bloggers) have opinions coming out my ass and I'm about to have one hell of a wine week so there will be lots to say, lots to share and plenty of things to write about. Oh on top of that...My Amy is flying in for a visit on Monday, (insert happy dance here..looks a little like Snoopy's dance but with more swing in the hips) so if anything was going to pull my head out of my, "I'm so blah after a wonderful vacation" ass, it's her. Just thought I should let the few regular readers I have, know what's going on let you all know that this blog is not going away......just taking a few days to get caught up!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Our Way
Call-o was still feeling pangs of anxiety about hearing people break our bawls about not seeing the sights while in London, I'm thinking he was mostly fearing getting an earful from his mother…a very sweet, well traveled woman who will in fact break our bawls when we see her. The fact that there is not one photo of either of us anywhere in London is going to just drive her mad, it's not that she is mean, nothing could be further from the truth but for her, seeing those pictures and knowing that we saw all the "important" stuff, well that means we had a great vacation, she's more traditional that way.
So his plan for our final day was to pop on the tube, hit all the, "important stuff" and take a picture of Travel Buddy in front of all of them. Now for the sake of not making my hubby look like a total, mom-fearing-weenie he had first intended to have me snap photos of him in front of all these places but he was now on board with Travel buddy and thought it would be funny to have him be our proof of a great vacation mascot.
We woke Monday feeling a tad exhausted, didn't sleep much after all the power outage excitement from the night, well…couple of hours before, but we had to get a move on if we wanted to take our little friend's picture and still have time to do a few things for us, which of course meant sitting in a pub soaking up the beer, Gin and the comings and goings of a town we were now deeply in love with. "So we'll head over to the Market, get something to eat and then hop on the tube" Call-o running down how the day was to go. "Okay, I'm ready when you are" I replied and we headed out to lunch at the little pub we were refused, ("Kitchens closed") the night before, The White Lion.
After a plate of eggs, thick cut ham steak, chips and a pint of London Pride…well, the hubby seemed less interested in pleasing others. There was this mellow hue about him, the slightly melancholy but calm energy that I could feel from my little bench seat across the table from him. Plates cleared, second pints drained and I could just sense that he wanted to stay there, right there where he was sitting. Unsure what to do as I didn't want to be the one to say, "Screw the pictures, let's just do this our way" I offered a tiny solution, "We can go back out to the square, have a coffee at one of those cafes and then go take pictures" I said with a somewhat forced, perky voice. His reply, "Or we could have a coffee, blow off the pictures and spend our last day of our vacation doing what made us love this fantastic place. Let's just do it our way"…I was so proud.
We walked around the curvy streets and found one of those little cafes that just have a few circular tables and seats that face the street, grabbed a couple of coffees, the paper and just sat there reading, sipping and watching the people go by. Listening to brief snippets of conversations that had started way down the street and would continue long after they passed us sitting on our tiny perch. A little girl, maybe 5 or 6 years old, wearing a new faux fur jacket, "What do you think of me now daddy?" tiny fists pushed deeply in the pockets of her fancy coat, shoulders standing at attention, tiny head looking up at her tall father, "You look quite idol in that, very pop star" he replied cradling her tiny head in his large hand.
"We had an argument the other day. I was firm but fair" a woman retelling of a work scuffle to her husband. "That place is very good, they have fab steaks and the set up is very American" two friends rushing by on their way to the square….we sat there for a good hour, warm coffee, flies on the wall, the ink from the paper staining our fingers….Our way.
Went back to the room for a brief rest and to find this chocolate that his mother had requested with the help of Google, turns out the stuff is like made by Nestle of something and it was available at ever grocery, who knew?! Rested, threw on our evening jackets and spent our final night roaming the square. We were dead tired now, not enough sleep, knowing the trip was coming to a close, wandering the antique market looking at old World War Two medals, letters still stuffed in their original envelopes…now that's history, coffees, watching the street performers in the square, dinner and drinks in an outdoor café and we knew, just knew this was the perfect way to say farewell to the London that we fell in love with. Went back to the room early and drifted off to sleep.
We spent our vacation doing what we love, seeing the things that matter to us and found ourselves completely enchanted….what a lovely trip.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Are You Ready For Some Football...American Football That Is
So after my love affair of a brunch we headed back to the room to digest and take a little rest, (So Euro I know) before heading out for the reason we came to London in the first place, the football game. Now a dear friend of mine thought the idea of coming to London to watch an NFL game was about the stupidest thing he could think of, now this man hates football mind you, but I knew what he was really getting at. The thing is, we didn't really fly all the way to London for football, football is what made the trip "go" as it were. The whole idea was hatched during a drunken evening with Amy and Sexy Bitch, we flew to Chicago last year to celebrate Sexy Bitches birthday and watch his beloved Tampa Bay Bucks take on the Chicago Bears. We had a great trip, travelled really well together, (different hotels, each couple taking little day trips without the other) and thought coming to London would be yet another great time…just so happened that Sexy Bitches Bucks would be playing, perfect. We got the tickets to the game and then the sky fell, or Amy and Sexy Bitch got exiled to Dallas. They went round and round but in the end they had to sell their seats but Call-o and I were so pumped, not for football but to be coming to London. So football was the catalyst not really the reason.
We rested a bit then headed out to the somewhat long trip out to Wembley. The tube was full of folks in NFL gear, both Americans and Brits, it was way exciting and when we finally stepped off the tube at Wembley there was a river of people flowing into the stadium. After a rather long hike we made our way to our area, quite nice seats at the club level, got a couple beers and settled in. The game, well it blew, was boring as fuck and the Bucks just got rolled over…it was painful and not at all exciting to watch. By the 3rd quarter I was ready to go and thinking about trying to get in the tube with the over 84,000 people that were there…dreadful. At the top of the 4th quarter the hubby finally admitted he too was ready to make a break for it, the reason…aside from the game being a total dud, he was watching other people pick up an leave, he was worried about get crunched in the tube as well.
We folded into the pack of people moving towards the station and at a few points I had to grab hold of the hubby's jacket to keep from being swallowed by the crowd, it was horrific and I simply cannot imagine what it must have been like for those poor souls that waited until the end of the game…ugh! Once on the tube we made friends with a very charming English guy, funny how polite and friendly people can be when you have your nose shoved into their Adam's apple. This was the first NFL game he had ever seen and he had a great time, he had us giggling and was full of questions and comments about the cheerleaders, "I am a man and my blood is red" he kept telling us…too cute. Made one transfer and got off at the Covent Garden station.
We walked into the now quite familiar square, damn thing was still full of people but the restaurants were pretty much done serving dinner at 9:00 on a Sunday night. We wandered into The White Lion, a pub across the street from The Nag's Head, (where we had a lovely lunch a couple days before). The pub was damn near empty so we sat at the bar and ordered a couple drinks, the bartender…well, she was simply adorable. Small little thing, hair pulled back in a puffy little ponytail, buzzing around like a little sprite picking up empty pint glasses and wisecracking with the few guests that were there. We asked when the restaurant upstairs stopped serving dinner, "Well they kind of close when there is no one there, so if you go up they may still seat you" she told us…sweet. We gathered our drinks, walked up yet another tight fitting, windy staircase only to be told, "Sorry, the kitchen is closed".
Walked back into the bar our little sprite said, "Awe, were they closed? I'm sorry" with her very cute accent. "Nah, don't worry about it, we can just drink our dinner" Call-o told her, and we took our seats again at the bar. A few cocktails later, and tons of giggles between myself and the bartender she walked up to us with a bowl in her hand…her snack, some "chips" with melted cheese. "Here, have a few of these" she offered and ran to get a coffee cup which she filled with chips and cheese, so freaking sweet of her.
We sat there for hours watching the pub begin to fill, watching all the NFL gear come marching down the street, watched this very odd youngish guy…big ratted hair, low-rise jeans showing off his very flat, and very shaved…area. He was an intense dude, kept ordering pints and sitting in his seat staring at the pub across the street, he was fixated; obsessed…I was dying to know what or who he was waiting for. I caught myself staring at him, caught the bartender staring at him, we just kept giving each other this look like, "what the hell is he waiting for?!" and then grinning at one another. We chatted a bit more with our adorable new friend, she was unbelievably charming, she was even excited to find out we were Americans. She made me laugh, made me feel welcome, more than welcome, she made me feel like we had been coming to her little pub for years, loved, loved, loved her. As we made the stroll back to our hotel I was once again feeling the very real, very palpable, ultimately powerful personal touch of this place and its people.
Got back to the room, ordered some dreadful room service, (if that was a burger than I am Elizabeth Hurley) a bottle of wine and thought about getting some sleep. The hubby, well he was restless, couldn't sleep and saw fit to wake me from my slumber to keep him company, damn it Call-o. Now both wide awake, at like 3:30 in the morning, Call-o thought this, this was the perfect time to try and figure out the lighting system in our room….something that had been bothering him since we got here. "One of these has to be the master switch" he blurted while jumping out of bed and dashing to the light switch panel next to the entry door. Lights on, lights off, lights on, lights off, click-click-click and….complete darkness, even the bloody television shut off. "Damn it Call-o, you ate the power" I said now in a fit of sleep needing giggles. He had flipped a breaker or something and had to wander down to the front desk at almost 4:00 AM and tell them our power was out. I sat there, in the dark until Call-o and the night manager came through the door, flashlight a-blaring. Sat there shaking my head, trying not to burst into laughter, while the little manager dude stood on a chair and flipped whatever switch would undo what my dear husband had done.
After laughing for a solid 20 minutes we both drifted off to sleep not wanting to think about the fact that the next morning would usher in our last day in London.
Monday, October 26, 2009
"Driving Slow On Sunday Morning, I May Never Want To Leave"
"Let's get up earlier and get out of the hotel before noon tomorrow" the hubby's final words before drifting off Saturday night. He had big plans for the following day, lots of things he wanted to do before we headed out to Wembely Stadium to watch the New England Patriots take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I believed him when he said it, I knew he meant it but I also knew that he was up way past his regular bedtime and knowing how much sleep he requires…well let's just say I wasn't panicked. I was also wondering just how much was going to be open on Sunday here in London, sure the bigger tourist places might be, but I knew from my past trips to other parts of Europe, Sunday is kind of closed and stuff.
I woke up before Call-o and was half ready by the time he got out of bed, "Wow, check you out" he commented on his way to the shower but in the end it was about 12:15 before we stepped out of the hotel, again. We had plans but we needed to get a bite and I remembered reading about the traditional English Sunday Roast, didn't really know what it was but it was what I flashed on when I thought of Sunday here, so we headed out into our little neighborhood, his plan was to just get a bite to eat, mine was to see if I could find a Sunday Roast….walked up about 2 blocks before I saw a sign on one of those a-frame chalkboard deals in front of a little bistro, "Full Sunday Roast" we walked in a were seated right away.
The place reminded me of a Paris bistro, warm brass, dark wood, white linens, heavy cutlery and a 3 foot tall face bursting with Stargazers that I could smell from my table. I ordered a glass of Chablis, Carl a cocktail and we went over the menu, I was instantly drawn to the roast beef…reminded me of my mother, we always had roast beef on Sunday when I was a kid, but there was also Eggs Benedict, with fries no less…hum, what to do?! When our server Michael, a tall, very friendly, somewhat gangly young man, returned with our drinks I just asked, "Oh well the roast beef is quite nice, goes down really easy that" well that was all I needed to hear..Carl went for the roasted pork belly and we munched on bread smeared with unsalted French butter.
I was sitting in the banquette facing the bar so I got to watch all the goings on back there, watched as one guy stocked the bar, made drinks from bubbles and juice and kind of barked at the other servers…seemed like he scared the hell out of them, there is always a pecking order in a restaurant and this guy, well he was clearly pretty high up on the food chain. While we waited for our food I watched as families came in, pink cheeked kids, sweater and scarf clad adults, all looking to enjoy a Sunday Roast together, many times meeting the grandparents as well, the place was filling before my eyes. The sound of children with their adorable English accents talking to their grandmas, the clank of heavy silverware being rested on a plate, the bar active….. pouring glasses of Champagne, pulling pints and mixing drinks…the smell of roasted meat, French fries and the faint whiff of rosemary, and those beautiful Stargazers. The music just pushed me right over the edge, little louder than one might expect for such a quaint little place, but at all too loud, in fact it was at the perfect volume and the tunes they had spinning for a room full of people enjoying a Sunday Roast, "Send me forget me not's, to help me to remember. Baby please forget me not, I want you to remember" disco and soft rock like Van Morrison and Elton John. All of it, the music, the smells, the sound of a four year old saying, "Oh but granny I want it" in that accent, the warm brass, dark wood…it all spun around me, slowly, softly, sweetly, you that moment when you are listening to someone talk and you realize, "God, I am in love this person"…that was me yesterday afternoon at JT's Bar and Grill, falling in love with the day, the people, the ritual…this place.
My roast beef was very nice, not as good as mom's used to be, but good and the Yorkshire Pudding was unreal but Call-o's pork belly, holy mother of gorgeous meat! I had pictured braised, not sure why, just how we tend to see it back home but this was a perfectly roasted hunk of pork belly with a think, crusty band of super crunchy skin on the top….drool. We ate slowly, I ordered more wine, we had coffee and I even ordered us a Bushmills just so I could be in love just a little bit longer, that was when the lyrics to that song came bouncing into my head, "Driving slow on Sunday morning, I may never want to leave" summed up my feelings exactly.
We got our bill, said thank you and goodbye and walked out into the brisk but absolutely beautiful Sunday afternoon. We walked past the square at Covent Garden where I saw couples holding hands, shopping bags clasped in the other, groups of friends sitting in the outdoor cafes, eating meat pies, drinking pints and just sharing the afternoon together. We walked past Fuel, the place we had dinner a couple of nights before and there were these groups of kids, maybe 18-20 years old and they were having a few pints, some crispy wood fired pizza and talking…not quite the horrific picture people try and paint to warn against letting 18 year olds have a drink right? They were laughing, sharing a meal, sipping on pints and behaving just like….well, just like the rest of the adults in the square. We passed people dressed to the nines, we are talking gowns and tuxedos here, on their way to a Sunday matinee at the theatre, whole families dripping in their finest, spending the afternoon enjoying and appreciating the arts.
As we made our way back to the hotel I started thinking about that stupid Tower of London tour, how people make you think to understand this place you have to see those things…utter bullshit. That may be the kind of vacation that some people enjoy, they may strive to have a photo of their ginning face in front of Big Ben, one that looks just the one of their parents, their grandparents and that's fine, just not the way that I choose to learn about a place. I had read about the Tower of London, watched specials on the History Channel, seeing it in person did nothing to further my understanding of it. For me sitting in that bistro, walking the square on a Sunday afternoon, passing the beautifully clad people making their way to the theatre, that made this place real for me, gave me a deeper appreciation and understanding of the people that live here, made me long for a few more days to wander amongst them…. "Driving slow on Sunday Morning, I may never want to leave"…..
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
A Fitting End
So once I got up from posting and walked, well…tried to walk to my purse to head out for the night I was pretty sure that I could not make the trek all the way down to Chinatown. Apparently while at The Tower of London someone drove nails into the tops of my hips, fucking felt like I was going to shatter with each step…my giant frame was punishing my, over exercised legs, pain…I was in serious pain. Had to throw in the white towel and tell the hubby, "Dude, don't think I can do it" he was gracious, manipulative but gracious. We headed down to Covent Garden again, now I knew the train station was there but assumed he was not trying to punish me for questioning his directional "issues" from earlier so I followed.
We skipped the bustling square, and I mean bustling, everyone was out, there were like costumes and what not…it was raging down there. This girl, in no mood or condition to rage so the hubby made a sharp turn and we ended up on some tiny street where there just so happened to be a bar…shocking. Two Gin & Tonics and a shot of Jamison later and I was feeling new again, falling out into the street, getting whooshed into the crowd and following. Next thing I know we are in some raging crowd of people in what seemed like downtown Soho, couldn't move, just shifted my shoulders, dropped my head and was moved with the mass of people. At one point I looked at my hubby with that, "Holy hell, help me" look and he grabbed my hand and yanked me from the pack.
Walked up half a block and lo and behold, we were in Chinatown. We found the restaurant that someone told us…we, "had to go to" and gleefully bellied up. Um, Chinatown in London compared to Chinatown San Francisco or Monterey Park..ahem, no comparison. The food was under seasoned, lacking any kind of life and the fried stuff sat in puddles of grease..ewe. The upshot, the place had a great French wine list, best one I have seen here in London as a matter of fact. So while the food was insipid I got to wash it down with a fantastic Sancerre from a producer I had never heard of, so not a total loss right? Paid our bill and began our journey back…yeah, the hubby's radar was just off all day.
Wandered, we just wandered in the cold night air, my buzz getting less profound with each hip jarring step. Oh and the other super cool part, I was wearing my most favorite pants, (Merzie if you are reading, you know the ones) they are giant, way too big but I can wear them, or could without them like falling off and stuff but now…dagnabit.
We aimlessly walked the streets of London, me with my shooting pains in my hips and all the while gripping at the waist of my jeans trying to keep my britches up…I mean, I'm not in the square putting on a show, and I had no time to like prepare for a trow-dropping moment, my "stocking" not so much stuffed it you know what I'm sayin. I'm just looking as pathetic as can be at this point, limping behind my hubby looking like Quasimodo, gripping my pants for dear life and just trying to make it home, "I think I just want one more beer" my captain alerts…I stood there, gimped out looking at him like he just ran over my cat.
It's his vacation too so I just trudged on, fist full of denim, nails in my hips and now an aching in my back from the over compensation, that's when I saw that powder blue lights and heard the, "ungndst-ungndst, dunk-dunk-dunk" music..a bar, I swear it was like finding a chapel for me at that point, "Here! Let's go here" I blurted, my captain was easily led astray today and he walked right in. We ordered a couple drinks, took notice as to how hot the bartenders were and took a look around the room as we sipped away…um, aside from the 70 year olds that were looking back at us like, "is this what I think it is" we were the only not same sex couple in the joint…gay bar, we were in a gay bar…rad. Rudy's Revenge, we spent the remainder of the evening at Rudy's Revenge. By the time we left I was fully rejuvenated and even though my most favorite pants had turned on me, (did a demo for the hubby as we walked to the room, let go of the pants and down they fell…dammit) I ended up having a fantastic day.
So two crappy, "You HAVE to" things and still the night was a swimming success. Just goes to show that laughter, even in the form of your wife gimping around and trying to keep from dropping trow, well that moment, that "cannot believe how silly this day is" moment, can change everything, make it all worth it and make a night that you will never forget.
Oh But You HAVE To....
Next time someone tells me that, tells me what I just HAVE to see on my vacation I am going to turn around and reply, "You just have to blow me".
So last night after posting and taking down a bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, the hubby and I headed down to Covent Garden to stroll around and have a bite to eat. We walked a bit and watched a most amusing street performer; there are lots in the area but this guy, what a show. He was wearing nothing but hot pink shorts that looked more like underpants, you know those boxer brief deals…he had augmented his form, that I know for sure, dude so stuffed his stocking of you get my meaning. I kept thinking he must be freezing but this guy was really busting his ass, riding on a 8 foot unicycle, while juggling no less then he popped down and did more juggling, this time with knives and a chainsaw, the whole time being very funny and engaging the crowd the circled him in the square. We clapped, we laughed, we tipped him and settled into a little outdoor café called Fuel.
We ordered up some cheesy garlic bread, a plate of olives and freaking insanely good tapenade, (green olive and tons of lemon) and a couple of drinks. We chatted, greeted some folks that asked to share our table and watched the street performer breakdown his elaborate lighting system, the whole while his French Bulldog was running around the square chasing this giant exercise ball, damn ball was three times his size. The air was cool but we were seating next to a heater, the noise level was high but we could still hear ourselves talk, the drinks perfectly mixed and the food…fantastic. We sat there for hours, never felt rushed, I noticed that every table had bottles of wine or cocktails on it, no iced tea or soda like back home….ordered some of their wood fired pizza and just let the night settle into us. Pretty cool to see the hubby melt into Europe, there is just a feeling here unlike any other place, a freedom, a lack of pretension or judgment, everyone just out enjoying the evening with friends and family…quite lovely. Call-o could have sat there all night, he kept ordering more drinks and seemed more comfortable in his skin than I have ever seen, I knew he was going to love it.
We strolled back to the hotel; I answered some emails, drank more wine and took a long hot bath in a very long but very narrow tub…dude, I was like wedged in there pretty good, so didn't care, the night was lovely, I was getting buzzy and the warm water on my flesh felt fan-fucking-tastic. The hubby crashed into a very blissful sleep and I stayed up until about two in the morning puttering around on our now working Internet before crawling into bed and drifting off into a seven hour sleep..hooray!
Woke up at nine, ordered some in room coffee, again…hooray, and got ready for our day. Headed out towards the train station that Call-o wanted to take to get to our, "big" destination for the day…so here's the thing, my husband has a remarkable sense of direction, the guy can look at a map and pretty much just know a city and which way to go, this is simply amazing to me but, the one thing he lacks is instinct, especially when it comes to finding food. We walked past all the coffee shops, restaurants…the smell of food hanging heavy in the air, and in the direction of the train station which was in a very industrial looking area. After walking for a long ass time we met a bridge and I could see that there was nothing, no buildings, noting for about half a mile. Now I never like to question the hubby, like I said he has that sense of direction thing down but I was beginning to wonder just where the hell we were going and donde…donde the food dude?
Just as we began to walk on the bridge Call-o says, (pointing in the direction we just came from) "The train station is back there" and just keeps walking forward…away from the station, away from anything. "Um, then where are we going" I asked, to which he said, "Dunno" my face now getting a little tight, "Well, do you see something I don't?" he didn't. We had to walk all the back to where we came from to get something to eat…see, no instinct. Found a cute, rather new looking café, I ordered a glass of house Sauvignon Blanc, Call-o a beer and settled on lunch, full English breakfast for him, steak frites for me. The music was funky, kind of R&B mixed with mellow jazz, the food was great, the vibe convivial and I was so freaking happy. We had refills on our drinks and ended the meal with coffee, I so didn't want to leave, could have chilled in that spot, sipping on wine and listening to the music…watching the crowd bustle by through the tall front windows but…."we just Had to" go.
Yup, that's right, The Tower of London, it's one of those places that everyone tells you that you, "have" to see while you're here….blow me. What a boring and dreadfully arranged place this is. The maps, stupid and impossible to follow, the little signs kind of point to nowhere and once you do get inside one of the towers you are forced to walk up flight after flight of teeny, tiny, windy staircases, fuck. Now the space in those staircases are tiny so my giant purse kept getting caught on the handrail, the steps are almost too tiny for your feet and when you finally reach the room that you are climbing up to, freaking four thousand degrees, you know just in case you were not already sweating your ass off to get there, once you leave…back out into the chilly London air, fantastic. So by the second or third tower everyone is basically just moving through the room, no one was really looking at anything, climb the stairs, fall into the balzing hot room and get the hell out before you die…I just "had" to see this?! By the time we left I was seriously pissed off and telling my husband, "I will not have someone else's vacation again. Next time someone tells me, "You just HAVE to see such-and-such I am going to tell them they just have to blow me" he agreed.
I mean if someone came to LA and wanted some suggestions on where to go, I would be more than happy to tell them a few places that I think are cool but I would never, never ever tell them they have to see like Hollywood and Vine, or Mann's Chinese…if they wanted to then sure but would I tell they, "HAD" to? Hells no…those places are dives, not to mention I would never tell someone what they must do on their vacation….and from now on, never going to let someone tell me what to do on mine.
Other than that, having a blast and we are off to Chinatown for dinner this evening….bringing travel buddy just in case!
Friday, October 23, 2009
More London
The hubby and I decided to rent a car, and by rent a car I mean rent a car service to pick us up from Heathrow airport, now as fancy as this may sound it really is only a few pounds more than lugging your crap on the tube then flagging down a taxi to carry you to your final destination…so worth it after such a long flight. Our driver was a hoot, short, clumsy…dude kept dropping his phone, quick to mouth off at all the, "carless" drivers on the road as he was trying to go past them doing like 90, and very forward with giving us tips on what to see, what to avoid and where to eat. After waiting for us to have an, "oh so needed" cigarette before getting in the car he promptly stopped off at a shop, "If you don't mind" to pick up a pack for himself then telling us, "feel free to smoke in the car. Don't tell anyone but have at it" as he was lighting up one of his own.
Checked into our lovely hotel, The Waldorf Hilton in Covent Garden, dumped our bags and took an accidental one hour nap. The second I realized that we were sleeping I jumped up and tried to rally, it was to no avail…I was dog tired but knew I needed to get something to eat and like be in some fresh air and stuff. Now I thought about washing my face, even showering the airplane gunk off of me but knew once the warm water hit my face and body I would be calling for room service. I tried the never successful, "re-apply" of the makeup…this never really works, especially after that many hours of the crap already being on your face, the results, ghastly. I kept trying to pull the liquid liner over the little bits that remained but everything just kept crumbling…my face was literally disintegrating before my eyes, well..on my eyes. Ended up not giving a shit as my eyes were blood red and only at half mass anyway, pat of power to reduce the oily sheen and a swish of lip junk…you know, to make me look all perky and junk. Changed out of my flip-flops as it was pretty chilly and tossed on my gray hoodie, which matched absolutely nothing I was wearing, didn't care, needed food, maybe a drink and then bed.
The hubby and I wandered out of the hotel into the VERY bustling area of Soho, man these folks are like high speed, running here and there…and I mean running. We found a very quiet street and an even quieter "sports bar" there was no one in the joint, in hindsight we may have questioned why but in our sleepy, travel weary state we just stumbled in and tried to order a Gin & Tonic, or I should say, "Sapphire & Tonic". Now they had a Sapphire Martini on the list and the bar keep, well she was Russian…yeah. What came out was a multi colored cocktail, most of which was blue, (have a bad, long and bad history with blue drinks) with a little bit of brown in the bottom…shit. I had ordered some, "jacket potatoes" thinking that they must be like potato skins, well kids, they aren't, they are baked potatoes…just how lame did I look with my stupid blue drink, in a "sports bar" eating a baked potato? Um by the looks we got from the few locals that came in while we were sitting there, pretty freaking lame. Pounded my sweet, blue drink and ordered a Guinness which the hubby and I took outside where we could have a cigarette and watch the locals rush by, much more comfortable aside from the fact that, a hoodie on a London night in October, maybe not quite sufficient in the keeping warm department, thank goodness it made me look so cool and all…ugh.
Aching to just get to bed we knew we had better get a bite to eat and we had passed a very cool, very traditional looking spot called The Wellington on the way to the bogus "sports bar" and it was on the way back to the hotel, winner! We climbed the stairs to the dining room and took a seat, still not sure if we followed protocol there as it took forever to get any service, what did we know and seeing as we were just barely coherent, we didn't even care. Ordered a platter of fish and chips and a platter of sausage and mash along with two Gin & Tonics, (which were in fact Gin & Tonics) and soaked up the feel of the place. Very what you would expect, a small warm room, tables close together, high windows with years of texture on the window frames, kind of grimy but not in a dirty way if that makes sense. I so wanted to take a picture but somehow knew it might be frowned upon by the locals that seemed somewhat taken aback by our intrusion already…can you just see me pulling out my little sack, photo and sunglasses and taking a picture? The food was lovely, am now a fan of the English chips and quite full we made our way back to the room and crashed, fully clothed on the bed. I woke 10 hours later…oh wait, only felt like 10 hours, it was actually 2 hours later, shook the hubby and made him get his jammies on and get into bed and went to post….freaking Internet was out, dammit. Woke up every 2 hours after that, every 2 hours on the hour, stinked.
12 hours later the hubby was up, jovial and pissing me off, "Yeah, good for you honey, so happy you are rested" Internet still down, no coffee and no sleep and less than chipper. I was so not going to let my shitty attitude ruin the trip so once the Internet was fixed I popped in the shower and began preparing for our day. So funny thing, all my French appliances, that I assumed would be easier to convert, (those adaptors not so much good with hair appliances) um, they have US outlets in our hotel, merde. Now pissy about my stupid looking hair but not trying to be a total downer we set out for the afternoon and stopped at The Nags Head, a pub I had read about and just so happened to be on our way to The Market at Covent Garden, (a place we wanted to check out and where we were going to catch the tube) for lunch and a pint…bliss.
This place is right out of every movie or guidebook you have ever read, had a coffee shop appeal, people just sitting around, chatting but over ale rather than coffee. We squeezed into a two top table and ordered two pints, eggs and ham with chips for me and beer and beef pie for Call-o. I was so back to life, this is the kind of shit I thrive on, new place, new faces, new tastes and people just hanging out getting their fun on, could have stayed there all day, we could not of course, (but I am so going back before we leave) but I did order a second pint to make it last just a little bit longer. Hopped the tube, and why don't we have a form of public transportation like this? D.C, Chicago, Paris and now here, these subways are absolutely amazing and SoCal would be a better place if we had a rail system, you know that like went somewhere anyone wanted to go. Now after two pints I have to warn against the taking of the stairs down into the tube…spiral, black and white painted narrow steps, 193 of them….I was so dizzy by the time we landed on the platform I was simply spinning. We took the tube to a place I had heard of for as long as I can remember, Harrods.
My mother spent some time in Europe when she was a teen and the one thing I remember her talking about was Harrods, how amazing, how overwhelming…I just knew I could not be here in London and not visit my mother's favorite place. We never made it out of the food court, seems silly to call it that but it is in fact what they called it…um, our food courts back home, just put horribly to shame. There were rooms upon rooms of fruit and veggies, chocolates, cured meats, seafood, bakery items and my beloved cheese…I think I heard harps at one point. On top of that there were all kinds of places to sit, have a bite to eat, (Damn you Nags Head…too full for snacks) Dim Sum, Oyster bar, Rotisserie, Caviar bar, all of which served wine and Champagne…again harps, I heard harps. I walked around too overwhelmed to actually buy anything, planning a trip back tomorrow, bringing a list.
Back on the tube, back to "our hood" and a stop at Tesco, a grocery store, to pick up some water, a bottle or two of wine…lots of Chilean and Australian wines here people, not so much with the French, what up with that…and we are now back in the room having a slight break before heading back out into the London night. I miss my folks back home but am truly enjoying seeing this new place and cannot wait to see more. I will try to look less like a dolt over the next couple days, no guarantees but I will do my best. Off to try and fix my hair with the hairspray I was able to procure from the Tesco before heading back to the lively Covent Garden Market for more food and maybe another pint or five.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Made It!
10 1/2 hour flight, no sleep, only one drink and I am finally here! Don't think I will be seeing too much outside my lovely room at the Hilton this evening...can barely keep my eyes open, but tomorrow I will out and about, camera and my little travel mate here, in hand.
Tonight will be a quick bite, maybe a beer or two and I will be curling into that lovely bed sleeping the sleep of a not so sturdy traveler.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Kicking In The Old Gag Reflex
I so wish this was a joke...I had to go to the website where I learned that these cones of happiness are available in different sizes, everything from snack size to "serious meals"...seriously? I'm totally picturing a giant cone that you have to hold between your thighs while you burry your face in eggy, pizza, carmalized apple goodness. Speaking of which...if you are going to list your, "favorite flavors" for the sake of those with a weak tummy, let's NOT use the, "which one of these things is not like the other" method...(gagging).
Flavors As They Are Listed On The Website:
Bacon, Egg & Cheese
BBQ Chicken
Beef Chili
Beef Fajita
Carmalized Apple
Chicken Fajita
Chocolate Mousse
Ham & Cheese
Ham, Egg & Cheese
Hawaiian Pizza
Margherita Pizza
Pepperoni Pizza
Pulled Pork
Roast Beef
Sausage Pizza
Teriyaki Chicken
Western Egg
I know my ABC's guys, maybe the egg stuff with the egg stuff...too much to ask?
You want a single or a double?
I'm off
So this is both an explanation and a heads up as it were. I was trying to get a post up before I left for vacation, see this is where I'm like "Splain-in myself" and stuff…that last post, (insert hanging head here) just crap, freaking all over the place and random as hell. I just felt like I needed to get something up, let those of you that read this crap, (and I love you by the way) and check in daily, know that I have not given up or forgotten to pay Google for my blog account. I'm still here, still ranting, drinking and tasting wine…just been terribly distracted by my impending vacation. That makes it sound like I am all set, prepared and have lists of fantastic things I'm planning on doing…so not true, not packed, still need to pick up the dry cleaning and have no idea how I'm going to work my laptop on this trip…by distracted I mean I have been sitting on my couch going, "How much longer???".
So tomorrow I am skipping across the pond, heading out for my first trip to London, (okay so the one thing I do have prepared, I have a list of 23 pubs and 1 cheese store that I have to check out) my first real vacation this year…man, it is so needed. I've always wanted to go to London and I thought it would be a perfect fit for the hubby's first trip to Europe, you know because they kind of speak English there and stuff.
I hope to be posting from London, like bragging about the cool shit I'm seeing while you all read me in your cubicles and what not…not rubbing it in, only sharing people….don't hate the vacationer, hate the fact that my ass will be roaming the streets of historic London while you turn in your quarterly reports. Cheer-E-Oo all!
Better With Time?
I think I was born an old soul, I was never awash with friends my age, never quite "got" the playground sense of humor and always felt more with my peers in a group of people that were older than I was. Not much has changed there really, and my poor son was born with the same affliction….only now, away at college is he finding people that share his interests and sense of humor, sorry about that kid. Part of that may have been that both my mother, and myself as a mother, were very inclusive, always wanting our kids to be at home and accepted in any situation including adult ones. Well that and having no extra income for sitters means if you want to go anywhere the kid has got to go too. This situation worked out better for my son, he was just born with this natural exceptionalism, people were and are drawn to him right away and he can flourish in groups of 40-60 year olds just as easily as hanging out with his college friends…it's almost as if he is beyond being a certain age. Early this year one of my "older" friends was going to be in Louisville and wanted to meet up with Jeremy, "We can meet at a bar" he told me, this was when I had to remind him that while Kentucky may seem like another country they still did not allow minors in bars. Just seemed to work out really well for Jeremy, for me on the other hand…
I pretty much sucked at personal relations, never had more than one friend at a time and dating…what a nightmare. I was just awkward as hell, no one thought my snippy little comments were funny, matter of fact most people my age just thought I was mean, mix that with my very shy nature and a somewhat tough looking exterior…yeah, I was super popular. I never really dated per se, and the handful of boyfriends I did have, well they bored the shit out of me. Matter of fact before my 21st birthday the only guy I was crazy about was my 8th grade English teacher, Mr. Ackerman, now that man…well he drove me wild. My infatuation with him would set forth a pattern in what, and who I was attracted to, they had to be wicked smart or quite a bit older than I was or I was not at all interested. My last two relationships pretty much sum it up, the man before Carl, we started dating when I was 21, he had just turned 42 and now it's Call-o who while a couple of years younger than I am, is one of the smartest people I have ever met…it's that whole, "My junk is directly connected to my melon" thing.
The word sexy has been lobbed around a lot lately, and as always I find myself at a loss as to what it really means…I never think of it as a look as much as a feeling. My friends and I have spent countless hours discussing what we think is sexy or what sexy means to us….seems like there is no definitive answer and my friends and I could not be more off on what we find sexy. While we could agree that Brad Pitt was very good looking I could not go so far as to say I found him sexy…well, I did like his character in those Ocean's movies, mouthy, smart and eating all the time…now that, that's sexy. (Hmmm I am working two outta three of those, wonder if that makes me mildly appealing…) As we went back and forth trying to find one thing that we all might find really sexy we found that our taste in men…massively different but our taste in wine, well this was when we all came together.
One friend found men that were all inked and badass really sexy, one thought that young, chiseled, buffed dudes were sexy and me…fell back on my old habits, "So you're like into those Hemingway types" one friend observed…dammit if she wasn't right. As much as I tried to plead my case for the older man, "Um, do you remember what sex was like when you were 18? It was awful, why the hell would you find that sexy now?" my one friend just would not budge. The thing was, for her sexy was a look, at least when it came to what she found physically sexy, her junk and melon, when it comes to men….worlds apart, think she is kind of like a dude that way.
I extolled the merits of time, experience, years of life that was felt and dealt with years before I was even able to walk, damn I think that's hot…knowledge, the shedding of that, "who's looking at me" and flashy bullshit. Something beyond that first look, first heart pounding glance…something deeper, richer and with more layers, something that makes me think, well that is what fires my cylinders, what gets my proverbial juices flowing…confidence or comfort in one's own skin…another major turn on and not often what one finds in a young man or a trying-to-place-best-in-show wine. Personally I feel the same about both…come back to me when you've shed your primary crap…I'm willing to wait.
So while my girls and I were at an impasse about what we find sexy with men the one thing we could agree on, wines that make us think and wines with a few years in the bottle…sexy as hell. We all felt that wines, even little wines, were just made sexier with a couple years on them, when they had time to shed their "up front-ness" and had that layer of intrigue, that moan inducing animal or underbrush thing and gained a little weight, texture, and stature…damn, turns out I like my wine like I like my men…unpolished, not showy, thought provoking and even better if they have a few years on em'.
With time people and wines flesh out, gain texture, become more interesting and in my book...pretty damn hot.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Modified Date Night
So the one upshot of my little buddy being away is that I have been drinking a LOT less, really cut back on my alcohol consumption over the past week…not sure how long I will impose this, "dry spell" upon myself but it was much needed after this last month….always had a blast but the habitual hangovers and subsequent, "Holy mother of God, what did I do?" moments were weighing heavy upon my body, my fuzzy head and my soul. I've not given up drinking but have cut it back by like two thirds. (So funny thing is, right this second I am on my second glass of wine…it's not even 7, so...let's just say I am baby-stepping to less drinking) I will confess I had a hard time sleeping the first couple of nights, man…that's pretty embarrassing, but with the whirlwind of emotion and drama, well the booze was a helpful mind numbing, sleep inducer. But I got past that and have been waking each morning feeling less like ass and ready for my day.
Been letting myself think and feel more, pretty scary that…who needs to feel everything right?! To spend your time thinking about the very human, very tender, perishable nature of the life you think you know, the life you are sure is set in stone, the life that is just perfect enough and then WHAMO…kick in the gut. Doing it with a clear head just makes it that much more…well, wrenching. I've actually been pretty "up" in a good mood and looking forward to exploring a less dizzy couple of years and a new, more open and honest relationship with a friend I love with my whole heart, so it's all good, no pouting, no sadness…actually quite excited about this next chapter. I feel open to new things, like Amy having to do so is making me, forcing me to step outside my comfort zone and to explore.
I got a message the other day from one of my readers, "Going to be in town, might you want to get together?" now this is a, or should I say, "the" reader I have met before, sure some of my already customers read but this was the first, "from faraway" reader that I met, I dug her then even though we didn't really spend too much time together, (she popped in for a visit at the shop one afternoon) but I could just tell we were of the same, ilk. I thought about it all day and then jumped in, "Would love to!" The sale of some baseball tickets later and I was handing Jess a tasting sheet and running through the Ridge Vineyard wines we were pouring, with her.
I had run through the wines earlier in the day, hate to say it but I was less than impressed. I had/have heard so much about Ridge, the way the wines are built to cellar, not jammy and geared for palates like mine, palates looking for intrigue and complexity…the wines I tasted earlier, um…not so much. Turns out we had mistakenly poured the 2007 vintage releases from Ridge, not the 2006 we meant to. When I ran through the wines the second time my left eyebrow was arched, a clear sign that I am interested…and the wines were so balanced, focused and impressing the hell out of me with their complexity. Would I pay close to $40.00 for an interesting Zinfandel, not likely, but I still thought the wines had merit and I will be looking for older vintages, curious as to what these wines will do with some time in the bottle.
The hubby was at first a tad nervous about hanging out with a blog reader, "You're hanging out with a stalker you know" he warned, but given the choice, "stay home or come out and play with us" he opted to meet us for a cocktail before dinner…where else, we went to Tracy's. I so love that slightly awkward moment when you first have drinks with someone new, do you go for something tame and civilized like a Gin & Tonic or do you go for what you really want…"I'll have a Sapphire Martini, straight up" I blurted when we were bellied up to the bar. "I'll have a Goose Martini, dirty" was my new buddies reply, just as I thought….this chick is so down.
One drink for us, two for the hubby, (he was drinking mixed cocktails) and we were on our way to Benley, one of my favorite restaurants in Long Beach. We made the menu, "go" which means we ordered what we always do and let Jess chime in with an order of the short rib…(drooling) forgot how sublime that dish is…and there we sat munching on wicked hot spring rolls, fried shrimp, cuttlefish and perfectly marbled short rib that was rubbed with roasted five spice and nestled in avocado.
I grabbed two wines before we left the shop, a 2006 Domaine de Montille Beaune 1er Cru and a Fontainerie 2007 Domaine de la Fontainerie Sec, ($31.99)…dude….dude. That brilliant white wine, with that food, just sick. I loved the restrained baked pear flavor, the slightly musty, earthy notes and the massive, rich, sexy texture that wrapped around the palate and held on for dear life. Not a wine for everyone but Jess and I were diggin' it big time, so serious, yet so friendly and compelling…a wine that kept you reaching for the glass, "I need one more sip", freaking love that.
We popped the Burgundy and while I confess to committing infanticide, the wine was just so pleasing. I know it would have been, will be more complex and haunting in a few years but even while young there was something so seductive about it. I was pulled or drawn in by the first sip and Jess was not leaving that restaurant before the bottle was emptied…it snagged us, pulled us in, made us its biotch and we had no problem folding, surrendering to its will. Tart red fruit, little whiffs of smoke and that tangy, racy thing that leaves your palate aching for more.
Jess, Jessica, it was a pleasure hanging out with you, thank you so much for contacting me and next time you are out we are so down with hanging with you chicka. I adored getting to know you better…tad freaked that we are SO much alike, wonder why it is you were drawn to this blog?! I will share Dave with you, for a minute but you must understand that he and I, destine..sorry, it's a fact, but I will share my wine, my love and passion for wine and my laughter with you any day. Look forward to hearing about your transition into the wine world and am here should you have any questions or need to vent your frustrations……trust me, they will come!
Very cool, very refreshing evening to say the least. Thanks for getting me out of the house, out of my head and back into the bottle, in a good way. Sending giant hugs to you in Colorado and telling you, in all honesty….humbled by the fact that you sought me out..means a lot.


text:
Photo Coverage: DisneyÂ's CAMP ROCK Production Photos!
Manila, Philippines, November 16, 2012 - Hot Off the Press: BroadwayWorld.com (Philippines) photographer Dale Bacar releases his photos taken at the press preview of Repertory Philippines' production of Disney's "Camp Rock" held Thursday night.
Disney's "Camp Rock" stars two of today's most promising talents, Markki Stroem and Morissette Amon.
Stroem breathes life into the role of Shane Gray, the cocky and arrogant lead singer of teenage band "Connect 3"; Amon plays Mitchie Torres, the girlfriend of Shane from the last summer camp.
This stage adaptation of "Camp Rock" is based on the hit Disney Channel original movie written by Dan Berendsen, Karen Gist, and Regina Hicks; inspired by the characters created by Karen Gist, Regina Hicks, Julie Brown, and Paul Brown.
The show's artistic and creative team is led by Baby Barredo (artistic director), Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo (associate artistic director), Audie Gemora (director), Topper Fabregas (assistant director), Felix Rivera (musical director), Paulo Infante (choreographer), John Batalla (lighting designer), Lex Marcos (set designer), and Raven Ong (costume designer).
The show runs until Sunday, December 16 at Onstage Greenbelt One, Ayala Malls, Makati City.
Markki Stroem, Morissette Amon
Morissette Amon, Markki Stroem
Morissette Amon, Markki Stroem
Rem Zamora and Company

subset: commoncrawl


text:
As both large- and small-scale cyberattacks on government are increasing, so too is the importance of cybersecurity.
As both large- and small-scale cyber attacks on government are increasing -- and as agencies continue deploying cloud computing and mobile strategies -- the importance of cybersecurity also is increasing.
The following infographic from GovLoop and Symantec "puts cyber security in focus, showing current trends in cyber security at the federal level, adoption of emerging technology and steps to stay secure."
Not only does this infographic share data about number and types of incidents, but it also gives steps to take to remain secure while adopting emerging technology.


text:
Sports Education Model - Ultimate Frisbee
Dear all, Please remember to send me the Group members in the team (Chairman!)
Remember that the first name is the Captain of the team and the coach for the first session in Week 7.
The rest of the names in line are the coaches for the next sessions. I have also attached the coaching sheet for your completion. You may do it in soft or hard copy.


text: UFDC Home | Help | RSS Title: Catholic Church, Tampa, Fla. CITATION ZOOMABLE PAGE IMAGE Full Citation STANDARD VIEW MARC VIEW Permanent Link: http://ufdc.ufl.edu/MH00000672/00001 Material Information Title: Catholic Church, Tampa, Fla. Physical Description: 1 Postcard Language: English Publisher: A. C. Bosselman and Company Publication Date: 1910-20 Notes General Note: Catholic Church of The Sacred Heart, Tampa Funding: Digitized with funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services as part of the Ephemeral Cities grant project. Record Information Bibliographic ID: MH00000672 Volume ID: VID00001 Source Institution: Alachua County Historic Trust: Matheson Museum, Inc. Holding Location: Alachua County Historic Trust: Matheson Museum, Inc. Rights Management: All rights reserved. Alachua County Historic Trust: Matheson Museum, Inc. Contact Us | Permissions | Preferences | Technical Aspects | Statistics | Internal | Privacy Policy © 2004 - 2010 University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries.All rights reserved. Acceptable Use, Copyright, and Disclaimer Statement Last updated October 10, 2010 - - mvs


text:
- Words by Mr Richard Benson, author and editor of The Face
between 1995 and 1998
When Ms Kate Moss began appearing on magazine covers, she announced an incipient revolution in British popular culture. The July 1990 issue of The Face, her second cover for the magazine following her May debut, was a declamatory guide to the "the third Summer of Love", essentially a continuation of the psychedelic, egalitarian and hedonistic attitudes that had characterised Britain's new acid house clubs and outdoor raves in 1988. Inside there were surveys of the movement's new bands and fashions, and stories celebrating "the street-level reaction against the self-consciousness of the 'cool' designer 1980s", as the December 1989 issue of the magazine described it.
There was also Ms Corinne Day's famous shoot, from which the cover image was taken, of Ms Moss at Camber Sands in East Sussex. Fifteen, crooked-toothed and Croydon-insouciant, she seemed the antithesis of the 1980s supermodels. To me, reading the magazine in my early twenties, the pictures, like the rest of the editorial, felt like the start of something new - and they were; they represented the assertion of an ordinary, modern Britishness that would go on to influence all areas of culture and, in the end, some of the thinking of the New Labour government.
Ms Moss' image was locked into this zeitgeist at the beginning, and her character and style have ensured she remains relevant. These attributes are on display this month in a Christie's auction of artworks depicting her. Art collector Mr Gert Elfering has curated a set of new and old photographs, paintings, sculptures, collages and, indeed, a tapestry, that includes work by Messrs Juergen Teller, Allen Jones, Nick Knight, Mario Sorrenti, Chuck Close, Ms Sam Taylor-Wood and Sir Peter Blake. The cumulative effect reminds us of the extraordinary hold this "ultimate modern muse", as Mr Elfering describes her, has on the public and artistic imaginations. Other models (well, Ms Gisele Bündchen) may earn more, and others may have successfully changed careers, but none have combined fashion, advertising and fine art as Ms Moss has done, and it is difficult to imagine anyone doing it again.
No other model has combined
fashion, advertising and fine art as
Ms Moss has done, and it is difficult to
imagine anyone doing it again
Why is this? Photographers and artists credit - besides her beauty and photogeneity - her energy, charisma, irreverence, individuality and vulnerability, coupled with a lack of self-consciousness and aloofness. One gets the idea here, but there is no consensus except that she is highly resourceful and professional when working. Journalists and intellectuals have theorised her appeal, but rarely with much éclaircissement; in the London Review of Books, Mr Kevin Kopelson recently likened her ability to embody contradictions to that of the model in the "Mona Lisa". Meanwhile, Ms Moss herself dislikes the question "why?", and in the notoriously few interviews she has given, offers no answers. "Never complain, never explain", her ex-boyfriend Mr Johnny Depp once told her, and she has remembered the lesson.
It is probably fair to suggest that her looks dovetailed with several zeitgeists, in some ways. Certainly her slim body and narrow hips fitted in with the period when androgyny became more acceptable and gender more fluid, as Mr Calvin Klein intuited when he used her in his ad campaigns. Her relative shortness, uncorrected teeth and un-manicured hands also endear her to many women who feel wearied by perfect-looking models, and have played well in an era when directional photographers included imperfections and frailties in their pictures. But the convincing arguments for the enduring interest in her are simpler.
Firstly, she has a sense of style whose populism, irony, playfulness, eclecticism and referentiality (the intellectual phrase would be "postmodernism") suits the way fashionable women now dress. To the interested observer, her highly copied Glastonbury outfit of denim shorts and green Wellington boots captured a moment when stylish young urbanites were beginning to enjoy festivals and a sort of Mr Nick Jones-inspired idea of the British countryside that stemmed from his Babington House club. Unusually for someone in the fashion world, it has to be said, she knows how to use humour to be both pretty and witty. When newspaper journalists were criticising Burberry for its popularity with so-called "chavs", Ms Moss turned up at a show decked out in the brand's signature check.
Secondly, there is her personal life. The contemporary celebrities who compel public interest beyond their work are those whose lives acquire a soap opera-like quality or sense of narrative, and this is certainly true of Ms Moss. She embodies modern myths like a sort of urban fairy-tale figure: the poor girl who becomes impossibly rich and famous, for example, or the ingénue led astray (by Mr Pete Doherty), or the outsider persecuted by the hypocritical authorities (for alleged drug use, supposed anorexia and corruption of young women). Her fans - certainly those of my generation - find that her humour, her lack of pretension and her background (she is the daughter of a suburban barmaid and travel agent who divorced when she was 13) led them to sympathise and identify with her, which is largely why the drug allegations strengthened, rather than reduced, her following.
In short, she is successful and glamorous but appears to live, flawed, like the rest of us; this is one definition of a hero, and it may be the most important thing about her. Well, that and the fact that she looks pretty good, too.
Auction takes place at 6pm on 25 September, with the collection available to view between 21 and 25 September, Christie's Saleroom, King Street, London. christies.com
Mr Benson's new book, The Valley: 100 Years in the Life of a Family (Bloomsbury) is due out in spring 2014


text:
Canada Iran Human Rights and Democracy Committee- Creation of Parliamentary Group On December 12th 2011 I had the pleasure of speaking at the first meeting of the new parliamentary group "Canada Iran Human Rights and Democracy Committee" which took place at the La Promenade Building at 7:00pm.
This Committee was created with the initiative of James Bezan Member of Parliament for Selkirk-interlake, in the Conservative Party.
This Committee will seek to "bring to light human rights violations being committed by Iran, both domestically and internationally and to make it abundantly clear to the Government of Iran, as well as the international community that Canadian Parliamentarians are serious about promoting Canadian values of peace, democracy, the rule of law, security and human rights."
Throughout the year this Committee will focus on issues relating to human rights and democracy within Iran, Iran's illegal nuclear weapons program and Iranian support for militancy throughout the Middle East and terrorism abroad. The Committee will also focus on elements affiliated with the Islamic Regime in Canada.
If anyone is interested in further information please feel free to contact me.
Down with the Islamic Regime in Iran
Long Live Freedom in Iran


text:
A generic interface for cryptographic operations https://github.com/TomMD/crypto-api
|Version on this page:
|LTS Haskell 13.25:
|Stackage Nightly 2019-06-12:
|Latest on Hackage:
Maintained by Thomas DuBuisson
Module documentation for 0.13.3
A generic interface for cryptographic operations (hashes, ciphers, randomness). Maintainers of hash and cipher implementations are encouraged to add instances for the classes defined in Crypto.Classes. Crypto users are similarly encouraged to use the interfaces defined in the Classes module. Any concepts or functions of general use to more than one cryptographic algorithm (ex: padding) is within scope of this package.
Depends on 6 packages:
Used by 57 packages:
apotiki, cipher-aes128, clientsession, cloud-seeder, commsec, commsec-keyexchange, crypto-api-tests, crypto-conduit, cryptohash-cryptoapi, crypto-rng, curve25519, DRBG, DSA, Dust, Dust-crypto, ecdsa, ed25519-donna, fb, git-annex, hackage-server, haskdeep, hecc, HXMPP, ide-backend, ide-backend-common, ig, intel-aes, intricacy, lol, lol-benches, monadcryptorandom, NTRU, openpgp-crypto-api, pdf-toolbox-document, pontarius-xmpp, pubnub, pureMD5, qnap-decrypt, randfile, reexport-crypto-random, and many more


text:
39% off
Lengts: 175mm
Chainrings: 28x42
Weight: 788 g.
Bottom Bracket Sold Separately
Sram has taken their industry leading 2x10 technology and put it in an affordable package with the Sram X0 10-speed carbon crankset. The separate sets of front chainrings are designed to work in harmony with their mate (26 with 39, or 28 with 42). It is not recommended to interchange factory chainrings because every crankset from the factory has been dialed in to shift impeccably.
The X0 BB30 2X10 carbon crankset requires either a SRAM BB30 or BB30 Ceramic bearing assembly, sold separately.
User Manual
One coupon per order
Discount taken off MSRP for normal items
Custom kit pricing is complicated so we take the discount off the current build price
In stock items only
Coupons can not be combined with promotional gift certificates, however, purchased gift certificates may be used with the coupons. If you would like to use your coupon with a purchased gift certificate, please leave the gift certificate information in the comments section at checkout, and they will be applied during processing on the backend.
Some items are restricted
Groupsets, hand built wheels, special orders & labor costs are excluded from the coupon.
Additional exclusions may apply.


text:
Lunch, cycling highlight Saturday's first Littleton Home & Garden Tour
Here's good news for fresh air-obsessed design fans: The 13 homes featured in the 2012 Littleton Home & Garden Tour from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday (June 16th) are close enough to one another to bike, according to event organizers.
The tour benefits the Colorado Center for the Blind's Summer Youth Program. It spotlights an eclectic selection of homes in the historic suburb southwest of Denver, with stylistic offerings ranging from local landmarks to mid-century mod and California contemporary. The Colorado Center for the Blind's Legacy Garden also is part of the self-guided tour.
Tickets are $25 Saturday at the Colorado Center for the Blind offices, 2233 West Shepperd Ave., Littleton. Coffee, lunch and refreshments also will be available to purchase there. For more event details, visit the event page on the Center's website (cocenter.org) or call 303.778.1130, ext. 213.


text:
New York, April 1, 2011--Using a vague criminal code provision allowing authorities to detain individuals deemed a threat to public order, a provincial governor in Cameroon threw a journalist in prison on Wednesday for inquiring about the arrests of two employees of a state-run palm oil company, according to local journalists.
In a statement, the local press union Network of Journalists of The North said Adamawa Gov. Enow Abraham Egbe ordered a five-day detention for reporter Lamissia Adoularc, a correspondent for the daily Le Jour to "ensure the protection of the journalist." Adoularc was being held without charge at the central prison in the northeast town of Ngaoundéré, Denis Nkwebo, the paper's editor-in-chief, told CPJ today. The governor did not explain why the journalist would need protection.
Agents with the intelligence bureau DGRE took Adoular into custody after he had made routine inquiries at the bureau about the arrests of two employees of Pamol Plantations Limited, a grower of oil palm trees, according to local journalists. DGRE agents intercepted the two employees as they transported 150 youths from the Extreme North province to work in Pamol's plantations in Southwest province, according to the same sources. DGRE agents briefly detained the Pamol employees on accusations of "fomenting a rebellion against the government."
Adoular was held under "administrative detention," an exceptional power of arrest given to local authorities to address emergency situations such as threats to public order or organized crime, prominent Cameroonian lawyer Jean-Marie Nouga told CPJ. The vague wording of the provision and the absence of any check could lead to abusive interpretation, he said.
"Jailing a journalist for asking a question and then pretending that the detention is for the reporter's own safety is beyond belief," said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita. "The governor of Adamawa Region must order the release of Lamissia Adoularc immediately. We hold him responsible for our colleague's welfare."
The DGRE has been involved in abusive detentions of journalists and has been accused of engaging in torture, according to CPJ research.
Nervous about the potential for protests similar to those in North Africa and the Middle East, Cameroonian authorities banned a SMS-to-Twitter service last month. Authorities have also banned a newspaper amid legal harassment of journalists investigating public corruption.


text:
Mortal Kombat II – Secrets FAQ
Secrets FAQ by IceMaster
Mortal Kombat II Codes/Secrets
from Icemaster (email@example.com)
Random Select: Press UP and START at the Choose Your Fighter screen.
Be sure to have the selection box positioned at its default icon.
Disable Throws in VS Game: Hold DOWN and HIGH PUNCH on both joysticks
after selecting your fighters. A message will appear saying throws are
Display Top 15 Players: During attract mode, pull down on either
Oh Maw: After doing the Dead Pool Stage Fatality (see Basics page),
hold DOWN on the joystick. You will hear Dan Forden say "Oh maw".
Drop Opponent off Tomb Spikes: Right after doing the Kombat Tomb Stage
Fatality, hold DOWN on both joysticks. The body will slowly slip from
the spikes and fall to the ground.
Play Pong: Play 250 Battles in a row. The message "You have reached
the outer limits of the tournament. Now you both must face a challenge
from your past..." will appear and you will get to play Pong, first
player to get seven wins.
Bugs Kept
Do Reptile's Tongue Fatality on The Armory stage and watch the floor.
This is a glitch and does not involve a secret room or character.
Sub-Zero can do the first half of his Freeze-Uppercut Fatality
indefinitely. When you defeat your opponent with Shang Tsung, morph
into Sub-Zero and do the perma-freeze fatality repeatedly until you
are changed back into Shang Tsung. Then morph into the fighter of your
choice and do your favorite Fatality on a frozen victim.
Defeat your opponent on the Dead Pool stage near the corner. Then jump
over them and do the Dead Pool Stage Fatality. The victim will go
flying the wrong way and splash into the wall.
With Kitana, beat Shao Kahn by letting time expire. When time is about
to run out, catch Kahn in the fan lift so that he is off the ground
when time runs out. You will hear the sound of him exploding, and then
the machine will freeze.
The End
Shao Kahn's Rule is Over
Once again, You are the Supreme Mortal Kombat Warrior !!
Where is Kano?
Where is Sonya ?
Where is Goro ?
Who is Smoke ?
Who is Jade ?
Friendship ?
Babality ?
CEAMR ODSE NTO EXITS (Ermac Does Not Exist)
EMRO BATMOK OT MEOK (More Kombat To Kome)
SRUEP GHIH MIPTAC (Super High Impact)
THREE RAE ON STNIIIAAME (There Are No Animalities)
View in:


text: Founded in 2007, Elizabeth and James is the collaborative line from world-renowned style mavens Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. The brand has quickly become renowned for its directional, exciting collections, showcasing a deft blend of masculine and feminine elements through soft silhouettes, tailored shapes and sporty, modern twists. Elizabeth and James bracelets are the perfect subtle complements to daywear, eveningwear and everything in between. Barely-there gold-plated chains sit alongside sculptural cuffs and hand harnesses, delicately accented with white topaz stones to create a glamorous, runway-ready aesthetic.


text:
Download The myATOMS iOS App Now!
A real quick Friday night update...
1) The myATOMS application for iOS devices has been approved by Apple and can be downloaded now for use with your Bluetooth ATOM! With three... Read more
Sneak Peek At ATOMS + Mini Maker Faire
Hey Kickstarters,
It's All Coming Together!
Update: Long distance trips, tooling finalizations, packaging orders, manufacturer visits, DVT builds, circuit board populations. And this is just in the last 7 days! Bringing... Read more
Big Advances On Your ATOMS + Boulder Flood Checkin
Dear Kickstarter Backers,
We've had a bustling couple of weeks here in the ATOMS Office as we get closer and closer to launch!
Big Advances:We've officially moved from CAD... Read more
Good News, Bad News, And Robot Office Tours
Dear Kickstarter Backers,
The good news: We are 10 weeks away from shipping your ATOMS sets.
The bad news: That's 4 weeks later than we thought at the time of... Read more
August 1st Update
Dear Kickstarter Backers,
It's been awhile since our last update on Kickstarter.com, so we figured it was time to clue you in on what's going on in our world!
Production... Read more
ATOMS on track, with first factory test run next week.
Dear Kickstarter Backers,
I have a few progress updates for you.
Product Development
We are about 50% through re-designing ATOMS for production, and it's been quite an experience! We made... Read more
Moving Forward: An ATOMS Express Shipping Update
Today, we have one important ATOMS Express update for you.
This update is of the type that no Kickstarter team ever wants to write (although many ultimately have to). We... Read more
ATOMS News: The internet of things, jobs, hacking and more...
My how time flies when building a company! A lot has happened over the last few weeks. Here are a few highlights we want to make sure you know about:
Building... Read more
The Latest News: We're Starting to Upgrade Your ATOMS!
Hello Kickstarters,
We're in the thick of updating the ATOMS bricks from their prototype models to "store ready" kits that will launch globally in June (starting with your orders)! This... Read more
ATOMS News: ATOMS University Videos & Our First Casting Call
A lot has happened in the last two weeks as we dig into the heady work of Seamless Toy Co's development phase. There's design work, hiring, and lots going on... Read more
ATOMS Online Store Is Up...And An Important Reminder
In our last backer update we shared some of the cool things happening at ATOMS Express and our company, Seamless Toy Co. We want to make sure you didn't miss... Read more
Entering the Product Development Phase
It's been a few weeks since our last update, but rest assured, we haven't been sitting still!
Seamless Toy Company (that's the name of our company) and ATOMS are shifting... Read more
ATOMS Funded! 183%
Dear Backers,
We did it! Actually you did it.
Look at this data (below)! The first day of the campaign, Nov 19th, ATOMS was covered in Wired, GigaOM, and Mashable.... Read more
Hit $175K, now just 3 Hours Left!
Dear Backers and Kickstarters,
We hit the $175K stretch goal, which means we will be making ATOMS waterproofed, and we'll be giving everyone at the $59 pledge level and higher... Read more
10 Hours To Go! Announcing: Add-A-Set Option
Happy New Year Everyone!
Today is the last day for ATOMS on Kickstarter! Our campaign ends at 11:59pm EST (UTC-5).
You Can Now Add Another ATOMS Set...
I know... Read more
Reflecting on 2012... and 23 hrs to go on Kickstarter!
Dear Backers and Kickstarters,
The last few months have been an amazing ride. Together, we have launched a toy company, which most who have covered it agree is one of... Read more
35 Hours to Go! Waterproof ATOMS Just Around the Corner?!
Hi Everyone!
We had a great last 24 hours, with over $7000 in pledges raised! It's going to be really close, but we're definitely in striking distance of hitting $175K... Read more
ATOMS on 6 Continents!
The ATOMS Kickstarter Campaign has been truly an international affair. At this point we've received pledges from every continent except Antarctica!
So, as you are waking up or enjoying your... Read more
Waterproof at $175K, plus an Earthquake ATOM on us!
Dear Backers,
Today, we're announcing one last stretch goal at $175K...
Imagine if you could... Read more
Hit $150K! New ATOMS Unlocked! Votes are in!
Dear Backers and Kickstarters,
We hit $150K, so three new ATOMS are now unlocked!
Here are the Winners from your votes:
New Blue ATOM: Motion Sensor ($15) - This ATOM... Read more
Help ATOMS Get to $150K to Unlock New ATOMS
Dear Backers and Kickstarters!
Hope everyone has been enjoying the holidays - Christmas, Hanukkah, or whatever you and your family celebrate!
With 6 days left in our Kickstarter campaign, I... Read more
Vote for the Next NEW ATOMS!
Dear Backers and Kickstarters,
We're closing in on the final 10 days of our campaign, and the final days of 2012!
An Amazing Week for ATOMS
It has been an... Read more
We hit $125,000! Add-an-ATOM Unlocked!
Dear Backers and Kickstarters,
We're really rolling now! We just cruised through the $125K mark!
The $125K Bonus Reward is Now Unlocked!
You can now add extra ATOMS to your... Read more
Releasing images of the ATOMS iOS App
Dear Backers and Kickstarters,
We are closing in that next stretch goal! At $125K, we'll unlock the ability to add extra ATOMS to your sets a la carte!
In the... Read more
$29 Prankster Set Unlocked - Just a $20 upgrade on any ATOMS Set Pledge
Dear Backers,
The team and I remain humbled by your support. We blew through our $100K goal last week, and have kept on going. You have been telling your friends,... Read more
ATOMS University Acceptance Letters (available for download)
Dear Backers,
As promised with all pledge levels, we have just posted the ATOMS University acceptance letters in the form of a downloadable certificate that you can print and give... Read more
ATOMS: Good Enough for Woz!
Dear Friends and Backers,
It's been an amazing 24 hours. In addition to reaching our goal, we are proud to welcome Steve Wozniak, Apple Computer's co-founder, into our community of ATOMS... Read more
You get stickers! I get whooped in a Nerf sword fight.
Dear Backers,
We didn't want to wait until tomorrow's update to get this out to you, but we'll keep it brief...
We need some mailing info from you to send... Read more
WE HAVE HIT THE GOAL!!! WHAT'S NEXT? Bonus Rewards!
Dear Backers!
So, I was just writing this update this morning as we were $4900 from the goal, and as I was writing, a former colleague and mentor was pulling... Read more
Win a Deluxe iOS Control Set + 32GB iPod Touch by helping us spread the word about ATOMS.
Well it's official: We are just 10% away from our goal! We're astounded, humbled, excited and basically speechless, all at the same time. Our team wouldn't have been able to... Read more
Mo's High Five Machine
When something rad happens, the person responsible might be too far away. This was Mo's problem: as a software engineer, he wanted to create a high five delivery machine so... Read more
$80k and a Music Box
Things are really coming together!
Even though we've spent many nights dreaming up ATOMS (and many early mornings making the whole thing happen!), Fiona was having trouble sleeping because her... Read more
Crossed $70K, and new video featuring ATOMS highlights!
Dear Kickstarters and Backers,
We crossed $70K this morning! Thank you so much for the support and helping us get to this point. We are closing in on our goal... Read more
The Good Guys Win! (For Now)
Hello, Kickstarters!
We are big fans of spaceships. And defending empires and exploring galaxies far, far away.
You could call it a bit of a hobby.
So when our imagination... Read more
50K! We're half way there!
Hi Kickstarters and Backers!
On behalf of the team, I wanted to say thanks so much for all your support so far, and for pushing us past the half-way point... Read more
Happy End of November (It's On!)
Hi there, Kickstarters.
Today's update begins with a 3 year-old's dream. This dream was made real in the form of a pine tree that lives inside and its red disco... Read more
Atoms Are Practical
A dear friend hurt herself the other day. Shannon McCoy demonstrates how Atoms are not only entertaining but can prevent future wipeouts!
Design Update: How ATOMS connect.
Hi Kickstarters and Backers!
As I was explaining ATOMS to close friend and ex-Apple buddy yesterday, I realized that we've left out some of the details on what makes ATOMS... Read more
Holy Schmoly! $25,000 in pledges in just over 48 hours!
Wow, Kickstarter community!
Together, we are off to a great start for making the next generation of toys, and stuff that helps people make things that do things.
Keep checking... Read more


text:
Make a Dog's Family Tree using Genealogy Software!
by Sherry Stocking Kline
15 May 2011
Nearly every day, at least one person stumbles across my website looking for software to create their dog a family tree, and so finding this blog post at Legacy Family Tree gave me a way to share the "how-to" with folks who want to get started using Legacy to track their dog's Family Tree.
Not only are there links to downloading the great Legacy software, there are tips, and links to more tips on how to fill in the blanks, plus comments from other Puppy Pedigree builders!
My dog is a "Rescue" dog, and her pedigree probably includes a German Shepherd, maybe a coon hound, perhaps a bit of husky, and I think she has a Beagle smiley face and pretty brown eyes!
O.K., so that doesn't sound pretty, but she really is, and she loves to sit on her dog house, and survey the world she guards!


text:
RTC Conference Primers: #15 – MAACPosted by Brian Goodman on October 21st, 2010
Ray Floriani of NBE Basketball Report and College Chalktalk is the RTC correspondent for the NEC and MAAC.
Predicted Order of Finish
- Fairfield (14-4)
- Siena (13-5)
- St.Peter's (11-7)
- Iona (10-8)
- Niagara (9-9)
- Loyola (MD) (8-10)
- Canisius (7-11)
- Manhattan (7-11)
- Rider (6-12)
- Marist (5-13)
All Conference Team
- Derek Needham (G) – Fairfield
- Ryan Rossiter (F) – Siena
- Wesley Jenkins (G) – St.Peter's
- Scott Machado (G) – Iona
- Julius Coles (G) – Canisius
Top Newcomer
Mike Glover (F) – Iona. Glover, a 6'7 transfer from Seton Hall is eligible at Iona this season and is the newcomer pick here. He'll certainly get the opportunity to excel as the Gaels need steady contributions up front.
Predicted Champion: Fairfield (NCAA Seed: #14) – They nearly won the conference in 2010 and are the favorite entering this campaign. The Stags were twenty minutes away from an upset and ticket to the Big Dance, but Siena rallied to capture the MAAC Tournament crown in overtime. If the Stags won the game, it would have been labeled an upset by traditional fans, but not in the eyes of those who follow the MAAC closely. Fairfield was that good. They return a big reason for their success last year in point guard Derek Needham. The freshman prodigy was one of the best players in the MAAC and will play a vital role in the Fairfield attack. Anthony Johnson, a solid inside player, is gone. Coach Ed Cooley hopes some of the injury problems of last year have exited as well. Newcomers Maurice Barrow and Keith Matthews will inject some fresh talent. Read the rest of this entry »


text:
Cotton farmers have a new option for effective weed control this spring with the approval of FiberMax LibertyLink varieties and Ignite herbicide, but weed size and thorough spray coverage will play crucial roles in the new system's success.
"I'm excited that we have a new player in weed control for 2004," says Peter Dotray, a weed scientist with joint appointments with both Texas Tech and Texas A&M. Dotray, who works out of Lubbock, offered recommendations for using Ignite on tolerant varieties during a recent Bayer CropScience crop consultant seminar at South Padre, Island, Texas.
Weed species, weed size and thorough coverage will be essential for adequate control, Dotray says.
Tolerance excellent
"I've had quite a bit of experience with the LibertyLink varieties and have found that tolerance to Ignite herbicide is excellent with the FiberMax varieties available for 2004."
Growers can apply Ignite over LibertyLink cotton through most of the growing season. "We don't have a window of application based on the cotton stage, but we need to make timely applications based on weed stage," Dotray says.
He says Ignite's main target will be annual broadleaf weeds. "But it has activity on annual grass as well. It has limited translocation ability but is fast-acting."
Ignite is a broad-spectrum herbicide but Dotray still recommends a preplant incorporated treatment with a dinitroaniline or other residual herbicide, "for consistent season-long control. With tough weeds, we may need a little help from residuals."
Weed size, coverage
Dotray says weed size and coverage are critical because of Ignite's limited translocation. "The smaller the weed and the more active it's growing, the more successful Ignite will be."
He rated the herbicide's activity against several troublesome weed pests.
"Palmer amaranth is susceptible to Ignite, but it could get away from a farmer without timely applications. We've seen good activity with the 32-ounce and 40-ounce rates but timeliness is critical." He said devil's-claw is also susceptible.
He said the herbicide has good activity on annual morningglories, "but don't wait for the weed to reach 10 inches. It is difficult to get good coverage on weeds this size."
Cocklebur susceptibility is similar to morningglory.
"Lanceleaf sage did not respond as well to Ignite as we had hoped," Dotray said. He suggested an application before the weed grows past one-fourth inch. "That's a key. Also, a residual herbicide will improve control. Some residuals have good activity on lanceleaf sage.
Dotray says a systems approach augments the Ignite and LibertyLink program. He says something like Staple pre-emergence followed by Staple and Ignite early postemergence may be a good option for several weeds. He said Caparol pre-emergence followed by Ignite postemergence also provides good control of weeds like ivyleaf morningglory.
Key to system
"The key to make this system work consistently includes using a PPI herbicide, and maybe a pre-emergence, depending on the weed species. He recommends a 40-ounce rate on larger, tougher weeds.
"We can use two 32- or 40-ounce applications of Ignite over-the-top. Timeliness and thorough coverage, with 15 gallons of water per acre, are essential."
Dotray cautioned farmers against assuming that LibertyLink and Roundup Ready are similar in their tolerance against the other herbicide.
"Ignite is not Roundup and Roundup is not Ignite," he says.
Applying Roundup to LibertyLink cotton varieties will kill it as will putting Ignite on Roundup Ready varieties.
"Each of these herbicides have strengths and weaknesses," Dotray says. "We get faster control with Ignite but Roundup is a systemic and translocates. Neither has residual activity. Depending on the weed species present, the ability to make timely applications, and the need for 15 gallons of water to apply the herbicide, one system may be more appropriate than the other."
Both, he says, have a place in cotton weed control programs, with the proper varieties or precautions to prevent non-target injury.
e-mail: email@example.com


text:
Recurring line stoppages with production, quality and data loss, long resolution times, tremendous maintenance resources and unexpected increase in downtime costs…recognize these problems? Tailored to your specific production needs, TechCover Stability is an optimized system care plan which ensures system reliability with proactive database monitoring.
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• Regular product updates.*
• Remote application support.
• Database monitoring and remote support.
TechCover Stability is our mid-range TechCover product. For the ultimate solution see TechCover Uptime.
If you want to know more, please contact us.


text:
Mhamed Krichen/CPJ Board member
There seems to be no end to American surprises when it comes to Al-Jazeera. The latest was revealed by Der Spiegel, the German weekly news magazine, which reported the U.S. National Security Agency hacked into our internal communications system, according to documents provided by Edward Snowden, the former NSA security analyst.
The magazine said the document "did not reveal to what extent the intelligence agency spied on journalists or managers of the media company, or whether the surveillance is ongoing."
According to the same documents, the NSA considered accessing and reading the communications of interesting targets who were specially protected by the news organization "a notable success." The agency described these targeted figures as having "high potential as sources of intelligence." This might make you think Al-Jazeera was running a nuclear facility, or a laboratory for the development of weapons of mass destruction, or even a suspicious military base, rather than a television news network!
Al-Jazeera's sometimes cool relationship with Washington began with its coverage of events following the attacks of September 11, including our reporting on the so-called "War on Terrorism," the Afghanistan War in 2001; the Iraq War in 2003, and, most of all, broadcasting controversial video tapes of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Official U.S. resentment, especially that voiced by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, of Al-Jazeera's coverage was not the only response we received for our news coverage. The United States targeted Al-Jazeera's bureaus in Kabul and in Baghdad, where Tareq Ayyoub, our correspondent, was killed. Other Al-Jazeera staffers have suffered, including Sami Al Haj, Al-Jazeera's cameraman in Kabul, who was detained for almost seven years in Guantanamo Bay without charge before being released May 1, 2008.
The biggest surprise of all was in late 2005, when the front page headline of Britain's Daily Mirror declared "Bush Plot to Bomb his Arab Ally." The story was about a leaked memo that claimed that President George W. Bush presented British Prime Minister Tony Blair, during a meeting in Washington in April 2004, with plans to attack Al-Jazeera's headquarter in Doha and some of its bureaus around the world. Blair was said to have warned Bush such an attack would provoke a wave of international outrage.
Blair visited Al-Jazeera's headquarters after his term in office came to an end. During his visit he met with a number of high ranking editorial managers and the bombing story came up in discussion. "Thank you Mr. Blair for stopping this bombing," I said to him with a smile. He smiled back and, as usual, responded with words that would neither confirm nor deny the incident.
In view of all these unpleasant precedents between Washington and Al-Jazeera, we opted to wait before responding to the news in Der Spiegel. If confirmed, it may mean Washington has been persuaded that spying on Al-Jazeera is more beneficial and certainly quieter than bombing its bureaus and headquarters.
It is ironic that Qatar is classified as one of America's key allies and that Al-Jazeera itself is often accused of originally being an American project created to tailor Arab public opinion to Washington's measurements. Yet, we now know America spies on its own allies and, if you believe it, on the television news channel it supposedly created!
What is still mystifying about the Spiegel report is that the document stated NSA officials decided to spy on our internal communications because they were not satisfied with the language analysis of the material broadcast. What this means is not clear. Al-Jazeera's main job is to air news and take pride in its scoops. So, how could the internal communication of a news channel be more important than the news and the programs it airs?
One wonders whether NSA was concerned about the views of some of Al-Jazeera's employees appearing on Facebook, Twitter, in newspaper articles or elsewhere. It might be understandable to spy on our internal communications for commercial reasons, but that kind of information is insignificant when it comes to news reporting and influencing public opinion.
And as a final note, since it's unknown whether the surveillance is ongoing, it could well be this article reached the NSA before it got to the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York.
Mhamed Krichen is a Doha-based anchor and program host for Al-Jazeera.


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text:
I'm in Seattle!
how far north are you?
I think I'm about an hour an a half away from the border. I haven't gone down to White Rock yet
Oh cool, that's pretty close to me! Bout as close as you can get without being in the states!
Richmond BC
I might be heading south either for a meetup or sooner. august/septemberish
Soft bulletin and yoshimi are the best! If I had to pick one it would totally be yoshimi, the album is just so brilliant as a whole.
Priest driven ambulance, yoshimi, and soft bulliten.
Bahaha! Oh man I was not thinking about that at all and didn't realize that you'd have no way of knowing. I almost don't want to tell you just to keep the mystery alive. Or maybe find out your favorite and then just claim to be that one. Nah, I'm Peter.
Oh wow! Thank you! That's so cool to hear, I'm so glad. I rarely check this forum anymore and forgot that I ever even put a link to my podcast. THANKS
Priorities priorities! I'm not going to see Dave but I am going to another show later this week... A little band called "owl john" it's a sorta side project of Scott Hutchison's from "frightened rabbit!"
if only!! so close to seattle, but so far away. love chappelle. thanks school/ "responsibilities" :)
Senior E6er


text:
MELBOURNE MALVERN STORE 847 Princes Hwy Service Rd, Malvern East 3145 VIC Tel: 1300 668 261
MELBOURNE BRAESIDE STORE 86-88 Woodlands Drive, Braeside 3195 VIC Tel: 1300 668 261
ADELAIDE STORE 354 Magill Road , Kensington Parks 5068 SA Tel: 0407 033 371
At Electric Bike Superstore we only stock quality e-bikes and electric bike conversion kits that has been thoroughly tested to meet Australian standards and road conditions.
When you buy an electric bike from Electric Bikes Superstore, rest assured you are in good hands. All our staffs are passionate and knowledgeable about electric bikes. From the day you become a proud owner of an electric bike from electric bikes superstore, you can be confident that we are here to look after you and you e-bike and can be contacted should you have any questions about your e-bike.
Our 6 star service promises to deliver top notch customer services from initial inquiry, to tailoring the right e-bike that meets your needs, to all after sales services. Given you peace of mind and confidence from first contact.
There are so many ebike motor configuration out there to suit different riders. We recommend you try before you buy.
Call us today to organize a FREE test ride. Bring your own helmet or if you do not have one we have a large range of bike helmets available to try or buy.


text:
sargodha Medical Directory – You can find the list of professional
and best medical information.This page contains the contact details and relevant information of over thousands of Opticians, Laboratories,
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