text:
Valentine's Day ProposalBy
Valentine's Day has come. A day when a couple is supposed to go that extra mile to show their partner how much you love them. What way would show you that your partner loves you and cares for you more then anything else, then to have him propose marriage on Valentine's Day. It's true some people might find it a proposal cliche, but if a woman has been waiting years for a proposal this could be the ultimate show of love.
What happens when another Valentine's Day comes around and the woman receives another bouquet of roses, some cheap chocolates and a hallmark card. She might become a little frustrated, bitter, resentful or angry. Maybe she might become a bit of all. Who can blame her, after being so patient and perhaps putting in so much more thought into her Valentine's gift then he did. To go another year without a proposal can drive a woman mad.
Before you go mad and start yelling at him, first consider this:
You Can Not Blame Him For Your Feelings
All your feelings come from you. He can not make you upset, you make yourself upset. You become upset because he didn't do what you wanted him to do. Just because you may have wanted him to propose on Valentine's Day, doesn't mean he will. To become angry about that is like becoming angry that the world does not spin in the direction you want.
If you start yelling and screaming at him because he didn't propose not only will you ruin your Valentine's Day, you are going to scare him off from ever wanting to propose to you. Men don't see that you are upset about not being proposed too, they see that the subject of marriage gets you upset. What do they do in the future, just avoid any subject or idea of marriage because it will just get you upset.
What Kind Of Gift Did You Give Him
Men want and need romance just like women do. If you want your man to know you love him and you want to get married, then you have to show him. Many of Valentine's Day have men creating elaborate dates, but receiving nothing in return. Men get two messages from that:
1) His entire relationship is probably going to be him putting in effort and receiving nothing back. What man wants to be with a selfish woman?
2) She probably doesn't care that much. Why would a man propose to a woman that doesn't care?
Other Valentine's see a man receiving flowers, chocolates and mixed tapes with different love songs. Men are not women, we need to be romanced in different ways. Giving your boyfriend, flowers and love songs for Valentine's just shows him that you don't really know him. Again a man will not propose to a woman that doesn't know him.
If Your Boyfriend Gives You Nothing
Before you get upset, take some time to calm down. Then sit down with him and in a very calm manner explain to him why you like to celebrate Valentine's Day and why it upset you that he did not think of you on such a special day. Explain to him your feelings, don't blame him for them.
When a man receives the type of love and affection that he craves and needs in a relationship that is what will help to speed up his decision to propose. This may not cause him to propose on Valentine's Day, but it will get his mind focused on that goal. If you want to learn how to convince your boyfriend to propose go here ===> How To Get Him To Propose
Paul Wright
P.S. If you liked this article, please take a minute to e-mail your
friends and let them know about it. Thanks!
P.P.S. If you would like to have a Question answered or would
just like to send a Comment, please:
1) Tell us what's working for you before you ask your question.
This helps other people to see what's working, so please be
2) Be specific when you ask your question.
3) At the end of the email, give us your initials and tell us where
you're from.


text:
The Doctor needs your help – are you brave enough to step into the TARDIS and join the adventure?
Join the Doctor on a journey through time and space before exploring the wonders of Doctor Who at an out-of-this-world exhibition.
The new Doctor Who Experience lands at Olympia on 20 February 2011, and puts you at the heart of the action, including special scenes filmed with the current Doctor Matt Smith, combined with amazing special effects, and the chance step inside a recreation of the modern TARDIS, finishing with a breathtaking 3-D finale.
The exhibition charts the success of the BBC show from the first series in 1963 to the most recent episodes starring Matt Smith and Karen Gillan.
Displays include
- Original costumes
- Tom Baker's TARDIS police box
- Two authentic TARDIS sets from the eras of David Tennant and Peter Davison
- The Pandorica Box and Chair
- Several generations of Daleks,
- Cybermen, Silurians an Ice Warrior and a Zygon

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Juana Barradas- Cliente Satisfecho
CICO Auto Sales is a used car dealership located in Dallas, TX. We have 25 years of experience in the business and are committed to providing the best in honesty, integrity, and customer service. As a family owned and operated used car dealer, we treat you like a part of our family during and after your car buying experience. Our in-house BUY HERE PAY HERE financing makes it easier than ever to get back on the road regardless of credit history.
CICO Auto Sales
|Customer Satisfaction is Job One ! ! !
|Email Us
Email us using your online webmail account
Use desktop email (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc...)


text:
Recent Posts
Everybody Has a Story -- My NOW Magazine Features
Tag Archives: barrier
Repeating History
Hello, Friends! In honor of Black History Month, I'm reprising this essay that was published in the University of Texas at Arlington's student newspaper in 2006. I first posted the piece to this blog on February 1, 2017. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Breaching … Continue reading
Happy Black History Month!
My family is white, and during my early childhood, we lived in small towns in Illinois and Missouri where nearly everyone around us was also white. I knew black people existed, although I had never met a "Negro," as they … Continue reading
Posted in I Remember When... (my OWN stories), Near As I Can Figure... Tagged barrier, bigot, black history, child, children, friendship, I Have a Dream, Janice C Johnson, kindness, Martin Luther King, MLK, MLK speech, racial barrier, racism, segregated school, segregation, The Shorthorn, UT Arlington 1 Comment


text:
Xio Axelrod
Xio Axelrod is a USA TODAY bestselling author of romantic fiction, contemporary romance and, what she likes to call, strange, twisted tales. Xio grew up in the music industry and began recording at a young age. When she isn't writing stories, she can be found in the studio, writing songs, or performing on international stages (under a different, no-so-secret name). She lives in Philadelphia with one full-time husband and several part-time cats.
2018 RONE Winner - Contemporary Romance
Sometimes there's a moment when you know you've screwed up. For Camden Skinner, it's the night a dead pop star walks into his pub.
As one-half of Skin, an agency which specializes in cleaning up behind the ultra-rich and infamous, Cam has gotten used to getting his hands dirty. A little too used to it. After the young singer at the center of a client's controversy is found dead, Cam decides he's out. He walks away from Skin in search of a simpler life. Maybe even a shot at redemption.
Redemption arrives in the form of Yara Bujold.
The singer's meteoric rise to the top surprised no one more than Yara herself. All she ever wanted was to make music. Caught up in the dark underbelly of the industry, Yara is forced to fake her own death. But she can't hide forever.
Yara tracks down one of the principals at Skin, the very people that helped to tear her down. She'll force Camden Skinner to make it right, whatever it takes. What she doesn't expect is remorse from the man that helped to ruin her. And she certainly doesn't expect to lose herself in him.
Cam finds himself sucked right back into a world he'd hoped never to step foot in again, but he can't walk away. He has to fix this. Not only for himself, but for her. For Yara. Because she might just be everything he didn't know he needed. She just might be everything.
Fast Forward
The Warm Up
Falling Stars
The Calum
Awards and Recognition
- 2018 RONE Winner - Contemporary Romance; 2018 Passionate Plume Finalist; 2016 Readers Favorite - Finalist; 2015 Readers Favorite - Honorable Mention
Press and Media Mentions
- "Xio Axelrod debuts with The Calum, a fun (and funny), fast-paced romantic read. There's poetry in motion when reading this story set in Scotland with brogues and customs to add to the experience. Warning: Once you start, it will be an all-out read-a-thon. Sexy, relatable characters who are seemingly ill-suited must overcome odds to find their cozy hub of happiness. Axelrod's style to reach that happy ever after or happy for now is amazingly inventive, highly visual and swoon-worthy romantic."


text:
Create a Shortlist
Add to shortlist button.
Quality Ratings
Properties showing a star rating have been inspected and all conform to AA or Visit England standards. There are many four and five star-rated destinations in Lyme Regis and the wider area, and an extensive list of them - which includes contact details and prices - can be found on this website.
Properties showing Dorset Approved Visitor Accommodation meet the standards set by that scheme. This scheme ensures the property has met all legal requirements regarding health and safety and that good customer practices are being implemented. This scheme is accredited by VisitEngland using criteria implemented nationally.
Prices and Booking
The prices and descriptions shown are based on information supplied by the individual accommodation provider. The pricing basis (for example per person per night, per room per night including breakfast, per unit, per week) is indicated for each establishment. It is advisable to book in advance to avoid disappointment. Accommodation providers can be contacted directly using the details on the listings, or contact Lyme Regis Tourist Information Centre on 01297 442138.
If you choose to book Lyme Regis accommodation at the last minute, the tourist information centre can offer a free booking service for personal callers on arrival.
Given the popularity of the town with tourists all-year-round, you may be surprised to learn how little staying here can cost. With easy access to the sea, a charming town centre and tranquil rolling countryside nearby, you could be forgiven for thinking that bedroom tariffs would typically be high. This is not the case, however, with prices kept low at even the most attractive and sought-after locations.
Advertise Here!
Browsing attractions within 10 miles of Lyme Regis Cottage
2 Gribb View, Thorncombe, Chard, TA20 4ND (0 miles, 0 km)
tel: 07591 584790
Any journey short or long including stations, air and sea ports and special occassions. Friendly, reliable and reasonable prices.
Bethany Chapel, Coombe Street, LYME REGIS, DT7 3ED (0 miles, 0 km)
tel: 01297 598246
Lyme Regis, Dorset, DT7 (0 miles, 0 km)
tel: 01297 442222
M - Cabs would like to announce a tour of the Dorset coastline aimed at the many visitors that come to the area on holiday and for weekend breaks.
Anning Road, Lyme Regis, DT7 3EB (0 miles, 0 km)
tel: 01297 445175
The main play facility for children and young people in Lyme Regis is the Anning Road Playing Field.
The Cobb, Lyme Bay Harbour, Lyme Regis, Dorset, DT7 3JJ (0 miles, 0 km)
tel: 07790 400300
Lyme Rib Rides delivers both fast and leisurely boat trips up the stunning Jurassic Coast run by our qualified and experienced skippers, so you are in safe hands......
Hill Road, Lyme Regis, Dorset, DT7 3PG (0 miles, 0 km)
tel: 01305 252600
This station is crewed by On-Call (Retained) staff. On-Call Firefighters may have other jobs and must live or work within four minutes of the station as, when needed for an emergency, they are paged to respond.
61 Broad Street, Lyme Regis, DT7 3QF (0 miles, 0 km)
tel: 01297 442505
Lal Qilla Restaurant is centrally located in Lyme Regis, Dorset on the Jurassic Coast of Devon and Dorset.
Lyme Regis, Dorset, DT7 (0 miles, 0 km)
tel: 01297 642011
A reliable, professional and friendly taxi service for Lyme Regis, Charmouth, Axminster and surrounding areas.
King George V Playing Fields, Lyme Road, UPLYME, Devon, DT7 3UU (1 miles, 2 km)
tel: 01297 442985
Welcome to Uplyme and Lyme Regis Cricket Club. Founded in 1886, we enter two Saturday teams in the Devon Cricket League and in addition a Sunday XI and Under 11, 13 and 15 Junior sides.
24 Queens Walk, Lyme Regis, Dorset, DT7 3BH (0 miles, 1 km)
tel: 07850332577
I have worked for for Celebrity Chef, Mark Hix as his official photographer, Also, Chanel 4's River Cottage, also Thoroughbred music (record label ) & singer/ songwriter, Sandi Thom, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Mark Owen from Take That
Nick's Fishing Trips, Victoria Pier, The Cobb, Lyme Regis, Dorset, DT7 3JJ (0 miles, 1 km)
tel: 07974 796002
Marine Parade, Lyme Regis, Dorset, DT7 3JH (0 miles, 0 km)
tel: 01297 442668
Lyme Regis's little cafe bar by the sea. Little changes happening now. Big changes coming 2018 as we aim to build the UK's best coastal cafe bar.
5-6 Broad Street, Lyme Regis, DT7 3QD (0 miles, 0 km)
tel: 01297 442459
Traditional, historic 17th century restaurant, renowned by local residents and visitors for its excellent food, good value and service.
14-15 Monmouth Street, Lyme Regis, DT7 3PX (0 miles, 0 km)
tel: 01297 442123
Family friendly authentic Italian restaurant serving pasta, pizza and many other Italian dishes and daily specials. Take away also available.
1A Coombe Street, Lyme Regis, Dorset, DT7 3PY (0 miles, 0 km)
tel: 01297 445189
New vegetarian restaurant in Lyme Regis, Dorset Local, seasonal, 'more-ish' vegetarian.
Church St, Lyme Regis, Dorset, DT7 3DB (0 miles, 0 km)
tel: 01297 444570
Lyme Regis Philpot Museum, Bridge Street, Lyme Regis, Dorset, DT7 3QA (0 miles, 0 km)
tel: 01297 443370
Get Fossilling on the Jurassic Coast! Come and join in with one of local geologist Paddy Howe's famous Fossil Walks along this historic stretch of Dorset coast.
9 Bayview Road, Lyme Regis, DT7 3AZ (0 miles, 0 km)
tel: 07900 698569
We also cater for airports, ferry terminals, train and bus stations local and distant. Call us for a quote.
Lyme Regis, Dorset, DT7 (0 miles, 0 km)
tel: 01297 445175
Have fun in the Lister Gardens Amenity Area whilst enjoying the beautiful gardens and view of Lyme Bay.
12a, Coombe Street, Lyme Regis, Dorset, DT7 3PR (0 miles, 0 km)
tel: 07543815329
Unique gallery specialising in space and prehistoric art. Also traditional scenes. Paintings, prints and cards for sale. Also a small selection of quality models.
Broad Street, Lyme Regis , DT7 3QE (0 miles, 0 km)
tel: 01202 396546
Church Street, Lyme Regis, Dorset, DT7 3BS (0 miles, 0 km)
tel: 01297 445021
The Hub is an exciting project for young people in Lyme Regis.
Pound Lane, Uplyme, Lyme Regis, Dorset, DT7 3TT (1 miles, 2 km)
tel: 01297 442210
Broad Street, LYME REGIS, Dorset, DT7 3QF (0 miles, 0 km)
tel: 01297 445622
The elegant and sumptuous Oak Room Restaurant, set on the first floor of The Royal Lion Hotel, offers a daily changing dinner menu featuring a blend of classic and modern cuisine.


text:
With a number of exciting race dates to choose from, our calendar of events and marquees are sure to please and entice racing enthusiast and race goers alike.
Royal Randwick's newest and most versatile event space, The Trackside Marquee, is exclusive to the 2017 Sydney Spring Carnival. Located adjacent to the home straight, above the crowds.
The state of the art marquee is the perfect place to entertain and ensure you miss none of the raceday action of some of Sydney Carnival's biggest race days, including:
Saturday, 30 September
TAB Epsom Day: Trackside Sports Bar Marquee
Trackside Sports Bar Marquee
$450 per person
Combine your passion for sport and racing!
Watch the AFL Grand Final and have the best views of the home straight, all while indulging in the finest food and beverage selection.
Saturday, 7 October
Moët & Chandon Spring Champion Stakes Day: Moët & Chandon Gold Marquee
Moët & Chandon Gold Marquee
$450 per person
Enjoy racing at its finest with the inaugural Moët & Chandon Gold Marquee. Mark it in your social calendar as it's a day not to be missed with fine French Champagne and all of the trackside action!
Saturday, 21 October
City Tattersalls Club Cup Day: The Trackside White Party
Trackside White Party
$350 per person
White is the order of the day at Royal Randwick as we host the first ever Trackside White Party on City Tattersalls Club Cup Day. Don your finest whites for one of the biggest parties on the Sydney Spring racing calendar.
Saturday 28 October
Cox Plate Race Day
Sydney Loves Winx Marquee
$350 per person
Cheer on Sydney's racing Queen Winx, as she aims for a historic third consecutive Cox Plate.
Your ticket provides you with Winx merchandise, gourmet food and beverage options and marquee filled with fellow racing enthusiasts.
The Trackside Maqruee is also available for private parties or functions for The Everest on the 14 October, which will debut the world's richest turf race, and the McGrath Estate Agents Melbourne Cup Race Meeting on the 7 November featuring a mix of Australian and International thoroughbreds.
Don't miss any of the race day action!


text:
This recipe for Pumpkin- Pecan Cake with Butterscotch Glaze is made rustic-style, in a cast-iron skillet…
I have to be sneaky about adding nuts to my recipes since my husband often declares boldly that "we are not a nut family." I'm not sure exactly how he came to that conclusion. I put sliced almonds on just about everything I eat. Pistachios and raw almonds are often brought out for munching during football Sunday. And my husband is crazy about pecans and walnuts in his salads. But if I add nuts to my cakes or cookies or pies, he sighs heavily and reminds me that we are "not a nut family." WHAT??! So for this recipe I took my chances and added some finely chopped pecans to create some texture for this cake.
I also decided to use Gold Medal White Whole Wheat Flour for my cake. This type of flour can be used in any recipe. It's 100% whole grain but with a lighter taste and color. To use it in baking, the best things to do is to start substituting 25% or 50% of the all-purpose flour with the White Whole Wheat flour, gradually increasing proportion as you like the flavor. For my Pumpkin- Pecan Cake, I used 1 cup of the white whole wheat and 1/2 cup all-purpose.
Using a cast iron skillet to bake cakes is something my grandmother used to do. I love the rustic result. A Butterscotch Glaze is drizzled on top…
… a generous drizzle!
Flaky sea salt sprinkled on top makes it fun too, but that's totally optional. If you love the sweet/salty thing, then go for it. If you're not into it, you can leave the salt out of it.
Since the recipe makes some extra glaze, you'll want to save it to drizzle on individual servings. It's quite a nice fall treat- not heavily pumpkin-flavored, and it has a nice texture with some pecan crunch hidden inside.
So I'm sure you're wondering what my husband thought of this cake… WELL… the report from my husband is that the cake tastes good all on its own without ruining it with pecans. So there you have it- I have noted that the pecans are optional!!
Pumpkin- Pecan Skillet Cake with Salted Butterscotch Glaze
Prep Time: 20 min
Cook Time: 45 min
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) salted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup unsweetened pumpkin puree
1 cup Gold Medal® White Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup Gold Medal® All-Purpose Flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans (optional)
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 cup butterscotch (or caramel) syrup
1 to 2 tablespoons milk
flaky sea salt
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 10-inch cast-iron skillet.
2. To make the cake: In a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer to combine the butter and sugar until they are well mixed. Mix in the eggs, vanilla and pumpkin.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until combined. Add the buttermilk and mix until incorporated. Stir in the pecans (if using). Scrape the batter evenly into the prepared skillet and smooth the top. Bake 40 to 45 minutes, or until the center is set (a toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean). Let the cake cool completely in the skillet.
4. To make the glaze: In a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, syrup and 1 tablespoon of milk. If the mixture is too thick, add another tablespoon of milk. It should be of thick "drizzling" consistency.
5. Drizzle the glaze onto the cake in the skillet. Save the extra glaze (in a covered container) to add extra drizzle to individual servings. If you're into adding sea salt, sprinkle it on top!
*If you don't wish to use white whole wheat flour, you can certainly use ALL all-purpose flour in this recipe.
Source: RecipeGirl.com
Disclosure: This post was created in partnership with Gold Medal Flour, a product I've used and trusted in my kitchen for many years. All opinions shared are my own.


text:
Massive backups and multiple crashes on snow-packed highways. Traffic-choked mountain towns and ski areas. I'm not taking about those kinds of winter roads—I'm talking about getting away from them. Out where things are quiet and peaceful, where schedules and cellphones take a back seat to the wonders of nature.
Double the beauty with the reflections in the hood, find a nice place for a picnic, and be patient with others using the road (even if they drive like a bunch of turkeys).
Polly says to take a friend who enjoys winter, too.


text:
Right at Home Miami
7270 NW 12th Street, Suite 700 Miami FL 33126
for a local A Place for Mom advisor
Summary of Right at Home Miami located in Miami, FloridaAt Right at Home Miami, we offer an assortment of community amenities.
Languages Spoken at Right at Home MiamiSpanish and Portuguese speaking staff members are present at our community. Ground floor units are available.
Pricing at Right at Home Miami
By clicking Unlock All Pricing , you agree to our Terms of Use. You also consent that we or our customer communities may reach out to you using a system that can auto-dial; however, you do not need to consent to this to use our service. Our Privacy Policy describes information collection and use.
*Prices quoted are monthly rental charges and are provided by the communities themselves. Actual prices may differ due to one-time fees, timing and care services required. Speak with your Senior Living Advisor to learn more.
Reviews of Right at Home Miami
Community Details at Right at Home Miami
Senior Housing Types Provided at Right at Home Miami
The features and amenities that are displayed on this page contain marketing information provided by the community. A Place for Mom has not confirmed the completeness of the provided information, and cannot guarantee its accuracy.
To conduct a complete investigation, seniors and their families should:
- Tour any listed location to confirm the accuracy of the community description;
- Confirm that the community offers services that are required for the senior's specific needs and budget; and
- Check additional licensing and state audit information.
If you become aware of any information that should be updated or noted, please contact A Place for Mom.


text:
Qatar has made a historic decision by introducing national service for women under a new law issued by HH The Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. The Law No. 5 of 2018 on national service was issued by HH The Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Wednesday.
According to the new law, women above 18 will be able to volunteer for national service. It is the first time the country will be allowing women for national service, although some women already serve in the military in administrative roles.
The new law was well received by women in the country. Aisha, a 23-year-old Qatari national, was quite happy with the new law.
"I'm very happy about the inclusion of Qatari women in the Emiri law enabling them to perform military service. Giving Qatari women an opportunity to actively serve their country in the field of defense is an important precedent. It reflects Qatar's continuous progress in ensuring gender equality," she said.
Meanwhile, in another decision, every Qatari male, aged between 18 and 35, or has a high school diploma or equivalent, will be required to perform a compulsory military service. The duration of national service has also been raised from three months to one year.
The law states that no appointments will be permitted to any jobs nor any license granted for practising free profession or to register in the schedules of operators thereof unless the aspirant has put in mandatory military service.
No employee can remain in the job after the issuance of warrant calling him up for the performance of active service. The employee cannot resume work until a service completion letter is issued by competent military authority.
Anyone caught trying to avoid military service could face up to three years in jail and a fine of up to QR50,000.
source: salamqatar.com


text:
2018 Interior Design Trends We Love
Posted by Nordica Home Styling
It's nearly the end of the year and the time when we like to look ahead to what will be big in interiors next year. Here are our favourite trends which we can see working really well in Costa del Sol properties.
Comforting cool tones
Elle Décor picked up the trend for using light linen and pearl grey tones to add a relaxed air to any space from the Maison & Objet international design fair and we can see this softening the traditionally white interiors of homes on the Costa del Sol. Our property stylists often use neutral, organic colours like grey, teal, and beige to break up stretches of white without taking away from the cool and bright finish and so we look forward to more of these lovely tones in accessories and paints next year. Find out more
Bringing the outside in
Professional trend spotter Nancy Fire loves using plants and greenery to decorate and sees this as an important trend for 2018. It is a very affordable and easy way to bring colour, texture and shape into your interiors and something which works very well in Marbella homes, complementing the bright whites and the blue sky outside. Look for hanging planters, wall planters and structural palms which offer height and form to create a strong visual impact. You can even find plant motifs in textiles and accessories to continue the theme. Find out more
Terrific Tiles
As tiles are a very traditional feature of Spanish properties, we were pleased to see that using intricate tile designs particularly in kitchens and bathrooms is one of next year's trends. Tiles can offer colour, form and a very practical and easy to clean surface. There are great reclaimed tiles for sale in markets on the Costa del Sol which can add some real personality and colour to your home.
New statement colours
In 2018 the key colours are black as a statement colour, pastels such as greens and pinks, strong pinks, cool blues, vibrant yellows and greens, metallics and tech green. Find out more Not all of these would work in a Costa del Sol property, we'd advise against trying the black rooms here and the strong pinks would jar against the bright blue of the sky. However we would recommend experimenting with minimalist pastels to soften all white properties and shades of blue are perfect to tie in the sea and the sky with the interior of your property.
We hope that these trends have whetted your appetite and made you think of a change for 2018. Even small design changes can give your property a totally different feel and can make it feel more welcoming or create a sense of space. These first impressions are particularly important if you're trying to sell your property next year and our property styling experts can help you find the right look that buyers will love. Book a consultation to see how you can embrace the new trends and make your property really shine so it can sell.


text:
No Products in the Cart
Written with the aim of broadening the subject base, this book focuses on those areas where topics in mechnaical, aeronautical and civil engineering employ common principles. Theoretical topics in solid mechanics are illustrated through many worked examples and exercises chosen to assist the reader in recognising the necessary problem solving techniques. The book is therefore suitable for both single discipline and broad-based courses that include mechanics as applied in engineering and design. The underlying theme is to show how the load carrying capacity of materials and structures used in engineering may be determined.
Author Name:


text:
Sideabr Widget Area
Sidebr widget area is empty
To edit this sidebar:
Go to admin Appearance -> Widgets and place widgets into "sidebar" Widget Area
Posted on January 31, 2012
Cia. Siderurgica Nacional SA (CSNA3), Brazil's third-largest steelmaker, said it concluded "in a satisfactory manner" an accord to purchase a pair of German steel units from Spain's Grupo Alfonso Gallardo for 482.5 million euros ($632 million).
CSN, as the Sao Paulo-based company is known, bought units Stahlwerk Thüringen GmbH, or SWT, and Gallardo Sections SLU, without assuming any debt, the company said in a regulatory filing late yesterday. SWT, a long-steel manufacturer based in Unterwellenborn, Germany, has the capacity to produce 1.1 million metric tons per year, CSN said.
"The conclusion of this acquisition will contribute to strengthen CSN's position in the long-steel segment," the Brazilian steelmaker said in the statement.
CSN on Sept. 16 said it canceled an agreement to buy steel and cement assets from Alfonso Gallardo because the Spanish company didn't meet some terms of the contract.
CSN agreed in May to buy the assets, including the German units as well as steel and cement assets in Spain for 543 million euros, in addition to assuming 403 million euros of debt and other obligations.
Today's agreement concludes "in a satisfactory manner" the discussions between CSN and Alfonso Gallardo regarding different interpretations of their accord, the Brazilian company said in the statement, without elaborating.
The acquisition was announced after the close of regular trading in South American markets. CSN rose 1.2 percent to 18.25 reais in Sao Paulo yesterday, the most in more than a week. The stock has gained 22 percent this year, double the 11 percent increase in Brazil's benchmark Bovespa index.
Gerdau SA, based in Porto Alegre, Brazil, is Latin America's largest steelmaker. Usinas Siderurgicas de Minas Gerais SA is Brazil's second-largest steelmaker by output.
To contact the reporter on this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto in Rio de Janeiro at email@example.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dale Crofts at firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
|Thread Tools
|Display Modes
For better authenticity - if this movie should be made then the filmmakers should be allowed access to all the demos, and through movie magic make it look like the members are cutting them in REAL time (have them lip-synch and stuff).
We'd need to hear the REAL music from Rumours on the soundtrack. Actors are not musicians and to have them recreate it would take away from the verisimilitude. We'd need the real thing.
Maybe on future pressings of the CD have a little sticker on it saying "Now a major film starring..." you know, that kind of deal.
As for the end of the movie (I've alluded to this before) it should be after the album is released we see the band members all in the waiting room of a gig. They can hear the audience outside cheering and they all look at each other and say something like "OK, let's just put it behind us for tonight and go out there and do this". Then we see the curtain rise and they walk out on stage.
Camera cuts to the stage itself but instead of the actors it's the REAL members of Fleetwood Mac - obviously 35 and a bit years older. Then we see them doing a live performance of "The Chain". The audience goes wild and it ends with them taking a bow.
I'd just call the movie Fleetwood Mac: Rumours and the movie poster would be a recreation of the album cover, obviously with the actor playing Mick Fleetwood and the actress playing Stevie Nicks recreating that pose.
I know what you're all thinking. You're thinking "ChickenStu is awesome and they should let him make this". And you know what? You're right!
Last edited by ChickenStu; 01-11-2014 at 10:35 AM..
I disagree with every aspect of your pitch.
"They love each other so much, they think they hate each other."
Imagine paying $1000 to hear "Don't Dream It's Over" instead of "Go Your Own Way"
Fleetwood Mac helped me through a time of heartbreak. 12 years later, they broke my heart.
so i can imagine i would feel the same about the film that would portray LB as one of main characters and the guy looked and *felt* nothing like him. Bradley Cooper has enough resemblance in both the looks and the vibe. but soon he'll be too old for late 20s Lindsey. and Kate Blanchet would have been perfect Christine but already too old, same with Liam Neeson. and these are all incredible actors, too.
"kind of weird: a tribute to the dearly departed from a band that can treat its living like trash"
To me, though, it should be like casting any character in a fictional film. You have a summary of a character's personality and background, and you find an actor who can best portray that. Simple as. And I think that method of casting would lead to far better performances and filmmaking than if they focused too much on things like body and facial structure.
I agree with Dex that finding perfect similarity in appearance is not at the top of my list of reasons to pick an actor to play a role. My casting was based on a "vision" that I've had for this movie for some time as well as the actors who I feel can capture the spirit of the character. Example: Nobody has named an actor better suited for Buck than Steven Strait.
Basically my pitch for Dreams (as I title it) is: "Twilight meets Exorcist II: The Heretic... with music!"
"They love each other so much, they think they hate each other."
Imagine paying $1000 to hear "Don't Dream It's Over" instead of "Go Your Own Way"
Fleetwood Mac helped me through a time of heartbreak. 12 years later, they broke my heart.
Last edited by TrueFaith77; 01-11-2014 at 01:12 PM..
well i can hear what you guys are saying, but it's not just artsy telling of an interesting story, it's also a bio. and as such, i would think what it should also portray is why was this particular person so big in his/her respective field. why did they make a difference? why were they so fascinating to people?
with Johnny Cash, a big part of it was his voice and the way he performed his (and others') songs. that doesn't come across in that movie for me, at all. and it makes a huge part of his story that's missing.
with Stevie Nicks it's somewhat similar - a big part of her popularity is her raspy sexy voice and the way she dresses. they way she dresses is obviously easy to replicate. but if the actress portraying her is actually singing the songs and her voice is just regular middle-of-the-road voice, that would be a big miss in any portrayal of SN.
with Lindsey's voice doesn't matter that much, to me, as his voice is nothing special and many people can replicate it. a good actor should also be able to portray his typical moves when playing. and Bradley Cooper can easily display very similar sexiness (plus naturally blue eyes) that is essential Lindsey.
"kind of weird: a tribute to the dearly departed from a band that can treat its living like trash"
With Johnny Cash, I thought that Phoenix captured his essence. It was Reese Witherspoon that put me off completely. She was nothing like the June I thought I knew, nothing like her in looks, but nothing like her in "personality." The accent and mannerisms were all off and to me so was the portrayal but that was for reasons having to do more with the portrayal than the actress.
what do you consider the essence of Johnny Cash, that Phoenix captured? again, i'm missing his whole essence in Phoenix, as i described. the essential man in black who i loved was just not there. but you know, the family was involved and approved the movie, so obviously there was something there, just not essential to me.
"kind of weird: a tribute to the dearly departed from a band that can treat its living like trash"
[QUOTE=Dex;1116798]Physical resemblance is one of the last things on my list when it comes to casting choices for films like this. I don't get why that's so important to people. Obviously I don't want it to look pantomime-ish in its inaccuracy, but face it, the actors are never going to look exactly like the real people they are portraying because they are not the real people. It's a movie. It's its own little world. Ability to convey a personality and carry a narrative are what matters in a movie. Unless you're going to bring photos of Stevie into the theatre and constantly compare them to her film counterpart while watching, in which case you're not really watching the film anyway.
I would agree with this, ordinarily; (like I do with most of Dex's posts); however, I think that in the case of someone like Stevie, there are unique complications because of her supernatural beauty and extraordinary charisma. Goodness, they're ALL incredibly charismatic, but what did David Wild from Rolling Stone say, "...Maybe the most beautiful woman on earth"?
It's so hard to even imagine trying to cast the film because so many of the really good actors and actresses we love are just too darn old, bless their hearts! Maybe it will be different for the general public than it will be for us Ledgies whose lives have been so deeply touched by these five people we adore so much. I have to say, though, I think I prefer Mick's idea for a Broadway play. But I would want it to be a very serious play~not just fluff as the vehicle for a musical.
I thought the movie made June really shallow, but Phoenix handled Cash's contradictions well to me and it became about the story, rather than me judging whether he looked and sounded like Johnny Cash. He felt like Cash to me and Reese felt like a pixie.
Also, although I never wanted Robert Patrick on the X-Files, I really got into the scenes between him and Cash and I had only read about Cash's relationship with his father before the movie and then after I saw the movie those scenes made me feel almost as if I had seen a documentary rather than just a film adaption. It seemed real to me, even if it probably was not faithful to what happened in real life.
I think my biggest problem was that I had seen a lot of June and Johnny together in real life and I didn't buy that, but Phoenix made it easy for me to accept the other parts of Cash's life that I hadn't seen. Michele
I do have feelings you know...
I agree that it's more important to capture vibe/spirit rather than cast someone who resembles the person. However, for the three singer/singwriters, I feel like their voice and songwriting style is a very important part of their persona. So I would actually go and try to cast singers who can act, especially for Stevie and Christine.
Lindsey's voice isn't superspecial, and I think a dedicated actor with some singing talent could learn. Bradley Cooper, as some people have suggested, I think could really work
As for Stevie and Christine, they have such distinct voices - Christine's alto and Stevie with that sexy rasp - that anyone portraying them would need to have a similar voice. Clothes, haircut, make up and movement and such is no big deal for an actor, but it you're an actor and not a singer, I don't think it'd be possible to learn to sing with a certain voice and have it sound great.
Basically, I would just love for some pretty much unknown singer/singwriters to be cast as Chris and Stevie. I think a talented singer could use the music to really get into character, if you see what I'm saying.
Also, what's good about using unknown people is that there isn't that risk of feeling like you're looking at, say, Jennifer Lawrence acting as Stevie Nicks. Even if Jennifer's performence is great, what you already know about Jen and her personality might overshadow what she's doing with the character, which would be a shame.
As for John and Mick... I don't think they'd be very difficult to cast.
|Thread Tools
|Display Modes
Linear Mode
|Fleetwood Mac Signed Photo Jacket Display Stevie Nicks, Buckingham & McVie – ...
|Fleetwood Mac Signed Guitar Buckingham McVie Fleetwood Autographed Strat -Nicks
|Fleetwood Mac Signed Guitar Lindsey Buckingham Autographed Strat. (Nicks, McVee)
|Fleetwood Mac Vintage Jacket 70s/80s Rock Band From England.
|SIGNED - Mick Fleetwood "Mac" Drumhead 12" + Pic


text:
Ian McCaig has a message for British consumers: turn your heating down or even off.
"When did it become OK to walk around our houses in shorts and T-shirts in the middle of winter?" he says. "It just doesn't make sense."
It's hardly what one might expect from a British electricity and gas supplier.
However, First Utility is not a conventional power firm, while McCaig, an Ayrshire-born coal miner's son who was previously boss of internet travel firm lastminute.com, is not a traditional power company boss.
"The simple message is that if you join First Utility you'll spend less on energy," says the chief executive of Britain's seventh largest energy supplier.
"But the really important sub-text is that we're the only provider that can look a customer in the eye and say: 'We want you to consume less'.
"That's the answer for British households. We want to help consumers consume less because, unless we do that, prices are only going one way and that's up.
"We need to be honest with consumers about that because as a country we've made a commitment to renewals and to being a low-carbon economy. We've been deficient in terms of our energy policy over the past decades which means that we're effectively hitting a capacity problem."
That argument, stresses McCaig, doesn't even begin to take into account the expected increases in global commodity prices over the next 10 years.
He believes the overall effect of higher heating bills can only be mitigated within the context of the current Government commitments by a package of measures including more energy-efficient housing. The issue of high energy bills was brought into sharp focus last week when British Gas announced a 9.2pc increase in gas and electricity bills.
"Put everything together and there's only one outcome," he says of the inevitability of higher prices.
"If you combine that with a long-term trend that would see an increase in global commodity prices, then that would just accelerate and augment that process.
"British energy prices to consumers have doubled in the last six years.
"I'm not saying they'll double again in the next six but it's perfectly reasonable to predict that they could do so over the next 10."
That would mean a large increase in the number of Britons deemed to be in "fuel poverty" – generally defined as people spending more than 10pc of their income on domestic energy.
"The answer to that is to consume less societally,' continues McCaig. "I'm very passionate about that."
McCaig, 47, is enthusiastic about shaking up the energy sector more generally.
First Utility, a spin-out from the former independent telecommunications firm, First Telecom, began trading in 2008 – just as the financial crisis was about to hit.
It has built up a base of 200,000 customers, making it a minnow compared with the industry's so-called "Big Six".
British Gas owner Centrica alone has 20m customers. Meanwhile, SSE, which trades as Scottish Hydro, Southern Electric and Swalec, earlier this month announced an 8.2pc hike in fuel bills. SSE has 10m customers.
Independent energy firms have less than 2pc of the market. On its own First Utility has less than 1pc. However, the company punches well above its weight in power marketing, announcing earlier this month that it will freeze its prices until at least April.
This followed the company moving customers on its iSave V12 plan to a more expensive tariff in June – an increase calculated by the pro-switching organisation, USwitch, as costing consumers £196 a year. McCaig said the company's average energy bills were increased by 9pc in April.
First Utility blamed rising wholesale energy costs, network costs and Government environmental obligations, saying it had held off price rises for longer than the major suppliers.
The company is also lobbying strongly over the changes being made to Britain's energy sector.
McCaig welcomes reforms stemming from the industry's Retail Market Review which come into effect in the second quarter of next year and are aimed at making power pricing more transparent.
"It will address what's been an issue historically in the industry where the incumbents have leveraged very large customer bases to offer loss-leading introductory tariffs," he says.
"That's been a good thing for those taking up those tariffs but not for the millions of existing customers sitting on existing tariffs who are being leveraged in order to produce that effect."
That difference in prices has historically been as high as 20pc and McCaig believes the reforms' effects in stopping some industry bad practices more than make up for criticism that they stifle pricing innovation.
In the longer-term, he envisages not only smart meters but a "smart grid" that could be used to develop "time-of-use tariffs" that effectively link consumers' lifestyles to how much they pay for their power. Then there's the Energy Bill, also due to come into effect next year, addressing Britain's future energy generation.
Unlike the Big Six, First Utility generates no electricity itself. Instead, it secures its supplies on the world energy trading markets through a close relationship with investment bank Morgan Stanley, which owns 10pc of its equity. Another 50pc is owned by three of its founding families.
That hasn't stopped the company from making strong representations to the Government.
"What we believe has been insufficiently addressed is the whole area of how the wholesale market operates," says McCaig.
He argues that independent operators are disadvantaged by Britain's system for the long-term trading of power supplies.
"The vast majority of energy here is just traded within the incumbents of the Big Six, who effectively match what they generate with what their customers are consuming," he says.
"What that means is that, while an independent provider like us can get access to energy further into the future we pay more for it.
"The system needs to change. There's a dysfunction there."
This is one of two issues with Britain's power market that the Labour Party has identified as problems – the other one has to do with the way the industry is regulated.
McCaig doesn't like Labour's suggested remedies, however. Ed Miliband surprised the power industry at the recent party conference by announcing that, were he to be the next Prime Minister, Labour would implement a 20-month cap on bill prices. They would also investigate breaking up the vertically integrated suppliers.
The proposals have been met with horror by several of the major players and McCaig isn't in favour either.
"A price freeze for 20 months would be extremely problematic across the whole industry," he says.
"The incumbents will say it would mean that the whole economics around their investment on the generation side are completely distorted and the UK is a less attractive place to invest.
"Our issues are different because we don't generate. But if a 20-month price freeze comes in on a pre-determined date, we would need to buy energy forward and pay a lot of money to hedge that risk.
"We would have to price that into our tariffs going into a price freeze so prices would undoubtedly go up. And you could see prices going up after the 20-month period as well."
McCaig also agrees with some of the sentiments recently voiced by SSE, which blamed green energy policies for higher prices.
"Britain has commitments to renewables, a low-carbon economy and the energy company obligation and all the costs that come from that," he says.
"All those costs are going up, so how am I supposed to absorb all those increases in costs if I have no opportunity to move price?"
Nor does McCaig agree with Miliband's plan to replace Ofgem with a different regulator.
"I don't believe that the right remedy here is to effectively dismantle a regulator and then create another one," he says.
"Instead, you need to broaden and sharpen Ofgem's function and say that it is also responsible for creating an open, transparent and functioning wholesale market."
First Utility is pushing for a "self-supply restriction" whereby the suppliers of electricity who also generate it are limited in the amounts they can supply to themselves, with the remainder having to be traded on the market.
"That would mean that more traders would come in to trade energy," says McCaig.
"There would be more products and there would be a level playing field on pricing."
Age 47
Family Married, with two daughters
Favourite book Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
Interests Supporting Ayr United
Not many people know that... he has a plate in his right arm because his humerus was shattered when he was 25


text:
Book now
via G. Zambelli 10 37121 Verona Italy
Area: --
View map
Book online or call +39 041 8624040
view info & map
Property Location
With a stay at B&B Like Juliet in Verona (Citta Antica), you'll be within a 5-minute walk of Juliet's House and Piazza delle Erbe. This bed & breakfast is 0.3 mi (0.5 km) from Verona Arena and 0.3 mi (0.4 km) from Piazza dei Signori.
Make yourself at home in one of the 3 air-conditioned rooms featuring flat-screen televisions. Rooms have private balconies. Prepare your meals in the shared/communal kitchen. Complimentary wireless Internet access is available to keep you connected. Bathrooms have complimentary toiletries and bidets.
A complimentary continental breakfast is served daily from 8:30 AM to 10:30 AM.
Business, Other Amenities
The front desk is staffed during limited hours.


text:
This course is intended for applied data analysts, including academics (and postgraduate research students), policy specialists and others. It will examine questions dealt with in public policy, the social sciences (especially politics) and industry, using real data. This includes voter surveys; economics data; and imprisonment rates in different Australian states. The unit will help build participants' ability to undertake rigorous statistical analysis, including means, confidence intervals and linear regression in R, and create publication-standard graphs of the results. The end result will be more professional and easy to understand research.
Dr Shaun Ratcliff is a quantitative political scientist working at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. His research focuses on using traditional and novel data sources and methods to study public opinion and party behaviour in the US, Australia and comparative democracies. He is particularly interested in examining the policy preferences and behaviour of political actors, and the role of parties as interest aggregators, and how these influence public policy outcomes.
He teaches voter behaviour and public opinion, and the use of quantitative research methods to solve problems in the social sciences.
Prior to working at the University of Sydney, Shaun taught politics, political psychology and methodology in the social sciences at Monash University and the University of Melbourne.
He is an advocate for the use of quantitative research methods to better understand politics and society, and is a member of the executive committee of the Australian Society for Quantitative Political Science.
Shaun received a PhD in political science from Monash University, and he has a background working in politics and government relations, and has consulted for political campaigns.
R is open source and free. It is flexible, powerful and intuitive and it is excellent for data visualisation. As it is open source, R has thousands of developers in leading universities, corporate research labs and other institutions across the world. This means its capabilities tend to exceed competing software, with new packages added or updated daily. This is particularly the case for data visualisation, in which R tends to lead the pack. As there is no licence, you can take it with you wherever you go. No matter where you work, you don't have to change software packages when you change employers. Consequently, R has becoming increasingly popular for academic research, economics analysis and public policy development. This trend is only likely to continue. Becoming skilled in R will help build your personal capabilities and employment opportunities by making you a more flexible worker capable of undertaking analysis many other researchers and analysts cannot.
No prior experience with R, or any sophisticated quantitative methods are required for this course. Participants should use data in their occupations (or study if they are a student) and understand some of the basics (what is the mean, the median the standard deviation, for instance; and some basic knowledge with regression is helpful).
This is a course for subject matter experts who want to use more quantitative analysis in their work. By the end of the week you will be able to better conduct basic descriptive analysis and regression in R, and will be able to create impressive looking graphs.
Day 1
Getting started – loading and cleaning your data and making professional graphs.
R is excellent for conducting simple yet effective analyses of data. In particular, it is useful in plotting descriptive data such as trends in unemployment, oil prices and crime rates. We will look at plotting data to provide you with methods you can use in your work or your research.
The course starts with instructions on how to access and re-code data in R, calculate descriptive statistics. We will then cover graphing means and variance so you can better understand the structure of your data. The first day of the unit will also include how to plot the trends of multiple indicators (for instance, several economic indicators such as unemployment, inflation, consumer confidence, oil prices, building starts, job vacancies and business investment, as well as social issues such as immigration and imprisonment rates) in a way that looks professional and sophisticated, with just a few a few lines of code.
Day 2
Understanding your data, and getting started with regression
We then build on the work of the first day by running more complex descriptive analyses on public opinion on immigration and other policy issues. This includes examining the probabilities of voters holding certain preferences on policy issues, but also trends in these issues. We also look at graphing these results, including overlaying trend lines and confidence intervals over the original data.
However, sometimes you need to do more than look at the descriptive data. For instance, there may be confounding factors, such as the effects of economic, political and demographic factors on policy outcomes. Or there may be certain demographic characteristics of voters related to their preferences for certain policies. We can control from these and learn far more from our data using simple linear regression. We follow up our descriptive examination of voters' policy attitudes by learning how to fit linear regression models to these data, and plotting the regression line over the original data to examine model fit. This allows us to examine how attitudes towards immigration (and other policy issues) have changed over time, and how these relate to voters socioeconomic backgrounds.
Day 3
Learning more about linear regression in R
On day three of we will look at fitting more complex linear regression models, including interactions, and using a variety of datasets. We will also look at graphing the regression line of our interactions, and the model coefficients, to make our results clearly understandable. We will also look at plotting the residuals from the regressions to check our model fits.
Day 4
Logistic regression in R
Many social science issues are not linear, however, but instead involve probabilities or non-linear outcomes. On the fourth day of this course, we will look at some alternative ways to examine your data.
First, we will predict the probabilities of vote choices in Australian federal elections using logistic regressions fit to survey data; and plotting the predicted probabilities from these models onto the original data. This will help us establish what kinds of voters support different parties, and why. We will then look at estimating count data (in this case imprisonment rates in different Australian states) using Poisson regression.
Day 5
Bringing it all together
On the final day we will explore some slightly more complex regression models and look at graphing estimates and predictions from the model outputs.
There will also be the option for you to provide your own data and we can look at the best ways to analyse it using R, and plotting results.
One-on-one consultations will be undertaken in the afternoon to go over specific parts of the course participants want further advice on.
This will be held in a classroom. Course participants will require a laptop for this course with R installed. ACSPRI staff and the course instructor will be able to help with this in the weeks leading up to the course.
Data and course notes will be provided (although there are options to use your own data on day 5).
ACSPRI course Fundamentals of Statistics or a similar level basic understanding of statistical analysis.
I already had some knowledge of the topic, but there was plenty of content that was new and useful. (Winter 2016)
I can see its capability for more sophisticated data analyses. (Winter 2016)
Instructor's bound course notes will be provided.


text:
Sadly, many younger people who don't have a good relationship with at least one older person who has a lively intellect, who's current with technology and who is always–just like them–learning something new, are prejudiced against hiring older workers. Listen to this:
"The first of the nation's 76 million baby boomers will turn 60 next year. By 2010, nearly one in every three workers will be at least 50, and the pool of replacement workers won't be large enough to fill their shoes when they retire, according to AARP."
Could be that those younger managers may have to develop new ways of dealing with older workers–who have not only substantial knowledge and the wisdom of experience, but may also have a hard time taking orders from a younger person.
The AARP has stepped up with a plan, and a number of companies (including a few job placement agencies) have said yes, they will consider 50+ workers. AARP has signed them on to its new website designed specifically to link older workers with jobs. Word is that a number of companies applied but were turned down–no indication of why was given–but AARP plans to add more very quickly.
Most interesting point: Home Depot is a popular spot for older workers because it gives health benefits even to part-time people. I've always wondered why so many of the staff at Home Depot seemed so nice and friendly. That's a first-class way to treat people, Home Depot, older, part-time, green-colored or whatever.


text:
At the 8th annual DUII Multi-Disciplinary Impaired Driving Training Conference, held April 23rd and 24th in Tigard, the Oregon DUII Multi-Disciplinary Training Task Force presented their annual awards of excellence to various organizations, groups and individuals who made a significant contribution to deterring impaired driving in Oregon during 2003. The award winners and their accomplishments included:
This award is given to a city, county or state prosecutor who exemplifies proper and effective prosecution skills in the area of impaired driving and someone who routinely takes on the challenges involved in prosecuting impaired driving offenders. This person is also looked upon as being a leader in impaired driving prosecution and someone who sets an example for all prosecutors to follow.
The 2003 award winner was Clatsop County District Attorney Josh Marquis. District Attorney Marquis was selected for this award based upon his continued impact on impaired driving in Oregon. In 2003, Mr. Marquis was instrumental in the passing of Senate Bill 302, which now requires DUII offenders to make an acknowledgement of guilt prior to entering a Diversion program. Mr. Marquis is also one of the few remaining District Attorneys who prosecutes impaired drivers and takes an active role in reducing impaired driving in his county and the state.


text:
This section contains 1,345 words
(approx. 4 pages at 400 words per page)
"I was born Julia Lacey in 1773, the daughter of the squire of Wideacre and his wife Celia Havering of Havering Hall. I was their only child; there was no male heir. I was raised with my cousin, Richard, the son of Beatrice, my father's sister. Those two - my papa and his sister - made my cousin and me joint heirs to Wideacre. They changed the entail on the estate so that we two could jointly inherit. We always knew that we were to run Wideacre together."
Chapter 1, Page 2
"I knew, even then, that there is a balance of needs on a land like ours. The masters take so much, the men take so much and they both keep the poor. The land has its rights too: even fields must rest. My Aunt Beatrice was once the greatest farmer for miles around, but someone, and no one would...
This section contains 1,345 words
(approx. 4 pages at 400 words per page)


text:
Cambridge's Technical Fellow, Dave, steps through how he got JHOVE running in a debugger, including the various troubleshooting steps. As for what he found when he got under the skin of JHOVE—stay tuned.
Over the years of developing apps, I have come to rely upon the tools of the trade; so rather than read programming documentation, I prefer getting code running under a debugger and stepping through it, to let it show me what an app does. In my defence, Object Oriented code tends to get quite complicated, with various methods of one class calling unexpected methods of another… To avoid this, you can use Design Patterns and write Clean Code, but it's also very useful to let the debugger show you the path through the code, too.
This was the approach I took when I took a closer look at JHOVE. I wanted to look under the hood of this application to help James with validating a major collection of TIFFs for a digitisation project by Bodleian Libraries and The Vatican Library.
Step 1: Getting the JHOVE code into an IDE
Jargon alert: 'IDE' – stands for 'Integrated Development Environment', which means: "… piece of software for writing, managing, sharing, testing and (in this instance) debugging code".
So I had to pick the correct IDE to use… I already knew that JHOVE was a Java app: the fact it's compiled as a Java Archive (JAR) was the giveaway, though if I'd needed confirmation, checking the coloured bar on the homepage of its GitHub repository would have told me, too.
My Java IDE of choice is JetBrains's IntelliJ IDEA, so the easiest way to get the code was to start a new project by Checking Out from Version Control, selecting the GitHub option and adding the URL for the JHOVE project (https://github.com/openpreserve/JHOVE). This copied (or 'cloned') all the code to my local machine.
GitHub makes it quite easy to manage code branches, i.e.: different versions of the codebase that can be developed in parallel with each other – so you can, say, fix a bug and re-release the app quickly in one branch, while taking longer to add a new feature in another.
The Open Preservation Foundation (who manage JHOVE's codebase now) have (more or less) followed a convention of 'branching on release' – so you can easily debug the specific version you're running in production by switching to the relevant branch… (…though version 1.7 seems to be missing a branch?) It's usually easy to switch branches within your IDE – doing so simply pulls the code from the different branch down and loads it into your IDE, and your local Git repository in the background.
Step 2: Finding the right starting point for the debugger
Like a lot of apps that have been around for a while, JHOVE's codebase is quite large, and it's therefore not immediately obvious where the 'starting point' is. At least, it isn't obvious if you don't READ the README file in the codebase's root. Once you finally get around to doing that, there's a clue buried quite near the bottom in the Project Structure section:
JHOVE-apps: The JHOVE-apps module contains the command-line and GUI application code and builds a fat JAR containing the entire Java application.
… so the app starts from within the jhove-apps folder somewhere. A little extra sniffing about and I found a class file in the src/main/java folder called Jhove.java, which contained the magic Java method:
public static void main (String [] args) {}
…which is the standard start point for any Java app (and several other languages too).
However, getting the debugger running successfully wasn't just a case of finding the right entry point and clicking 'run' – I also had to setup the debugger configuration to pass the correct command-line arguments to the application, or it fell at the first hurdle. This is achieved in IntelliJ IDEA by editing the Run / Debug configuration. I set this up initially by right-clicking on the Jhove.java file and selecting Run JHOVE.main().
The run failed (because I hadn't added the command line arguments) but at least IntelliJ was clever enough to setup a new Run / Debug configuration (called Jhove after the class I'd run) that I could then add the Program Arguments to – in this case, the same command line arguments you'd run JHOVE with normally (e.g. the module you want to run, the handler you'd want to output the result with, the file you want to characterise etc etc).
I could then add a breakpoint to the code in the Jhove.main() method and off I went… Or did I?
Step 3: setting up a config file
So this gave me what I needed to start stepping through the code. Unfortunately, my first attempt didn't get any further than the initial Jhove.main() method… It got all the way through, but then the following error occurred:
Cannot instantiate module: com.mcgath.jhove.module.PngModule
The clue for how to fix this was actually provided by the debugger as it ran, however, and provides a good example of the kind of insight you get from running code in debug mode in your IDE. Because the initial set of command-line parameters I was passing in from the Run / Debug configuration didn't contain a "-c" parameter to set a config file, JHOVE was automagically picking up its configuration from a default location: i.e. the JHOVE/config folder in my user directory – which existed, with a config file, because I'd also installed JHOVE on my machine the easy way beforehand…)
A quick look at this config showed that JHOVE was expecting all sorts of modules to be available to load, one of which was the 'external' module for PNG characterisation mentioned in the error message. This is included in the JHOVE codebase, but in a separate folder (jhove-ext-modules): the build script that pulls JHOVE together for production deployment clearly copes with copying the PNG module from this location to the correct place, but the IDE couldn't find it when debugging.
So the solution? Put a custom config file in place, and remove the parts that referenced the PNG module. This worked a treat, and allowed me to track the code execution all the way through for a test TIFF file.
Really, all the above, while making it possible to get under the skin of JHOVE, is just the start. Another blog post may follow regarding what I actually found when I ran through its processes and started to get and idea of how it worked (though as a bit of a spoiler, it wasn't exactly pretty)…
But, given that JHOVE is more or less ubiquitous in digital preservation (i.e. all the major vended solutions wrap it up in their ingest processes in one way or another), hopefully more people will be encouraged to dive into it and learn how it works in more detail. (I guess you could just 'read the manual' – but if you're a developer, doing it this way is more insightful, and more fun, too).


text:
Minotaurs with Machine Guns?
When considering the techno-futuristic cyberpunk genre there are really only two choices for gaming: Shadowrun and Cyberpunk 2020. Shadowrun is a world of magic and machine guns. Cyberpunk 2020 is more pureblood, leaving magic to the fantasy games. For the money, Cyberpunk 2020 is the better choice. The system is more streamlined, you don't get a mixing of genres, and who can dispute the enjoyment of thumbing through the latest Chrome?
When considering the techno-futuristic cyberpunk genre there are really only two choices for gaming: Shadowrun and Cyberpunk 2020. Shadowrun is a world of magic and machine guns. Cyberpunk 2020 is more pureblood, leaving magic to the fantasy games. For the money, Cyberpunk 2020 is the better choice. The system is more streamlined, you don't get a mixing of genres, and who can dispute the enjoyment of thumbing through the latest Chrome?
Both games are set in the post-government, urban-industrial cities of the world. Corporations have effectively bought out government and now run the world. A large underground population exists frequenting dark clubs, decrepit buildings, and gangland battlegrounds. The Internet is super-developed into a virtual reality world, a la The Matrix with deckers (computer hackers), and security programs battling it out in a cybernetic arenas. Sunglasses are ubiquitous and everyone has a hold-out pistol stashed somewhere in a boot, pants, or flack jacket.
Shadowrun has several advantages over Cyberpunk 2020: there are significantly more supplements available. FASA (who owns Shadowrun) still continues to support and update the system. Shadowrun also enjoys a wider audience, being the much more widely known and accepted of the two. Cyberpunk 2020 has recently been off the market, only available through Ebay and Amazon. Not long ago R. Talsorian games began releasing the Cyberpunk 2020 books again to the lauding of its dedicated fans. Cyberpunk 2020 offers a smaller selection of rules supplements; it hasn�t undergone a new revision in ten years, and no new supplements are planned at this point. I still give Cyberpunk 2020 the edge as the cyberpunk game of choice.
Shadowrun and Cyberpunk 2020 are truly very similar games. Both use a system of damage boxes, similar character attributes, a broad array of skills, flashy cyberwear, and guns, guns, and more guns. The two major differences between the games are magic and classes. Shadowrun is an open-class system. How you spend your attribute points and what skills you purchase dictate the focus of your character. You can use both magic and machine guns to get your point across, or you can specialize in numerous other fields such as decking (the Internet), rigging (super-mechanic), or fixing (setting up illicit deals), but you are not really locked into any one category. Magic users find themselves significantly more limited than other types of characters, but the devotion to magic takes a lot of your time. Cyberpunk 2020 is a class-based system. You choose exactly what type of character you wish to play and your skills, combat, and special abilities all revolve around that career choice, and magic is out of the question. The classes of Cyberpunk 2020 and the career fields of Shadowrun are generally identical with cosmetic differences.
Combat games use damage boxes to track your character�s proximity to death. Shadowrun�s combat system is designed around the ubiquitous d6. Generally speaking, you grab the appropriate number of d6, roll them, and compare your successes to your opponent�s successful defenses. The sheer number of dice required at times, and the complexity of the success/failure system tends to slow down combat and wear down player interest. Cyberpunk uses a simple d10+modifier roll (precursor to the d20 system) to resolve combat. If you hit, roll damage; simple. Combat in Cyberpunk 2020 tends to resolve more quickly and intensely than in Shadowrun. Additionally, magic is nonexistent in Cyberpunk which also decreases combat time.
Another marked difference between the two is races. Shadowrun offers the standard fantasy array of Elves, Dwarves, and Trolls. Cyberpunk 2020 only offers humans which keeps the game�s focus gritty and urbane, rather than ephemeral and fantastic.
Enemies are significantly different between Shadowrun and Cyberpunk 2020. In Cyberpunk you might run afoul of the police, run into the midst of a gang war, or crawl through corporate offices in a deadly firefight. In Shadowrun you should expect about the same with one marked difference: Troll cops, Elf/Dwarf gang wars, and Orc corporate thugs. My preference is to keep my genres separate so I dramatically prefer Cyberpunk�s lack of fantastic elements to Shadowrun�s constant infusion of sword and sorcery elements.
The similarities between these two games are drastic. If you prefer a more open role-playing environment or you dig the thought of gun-toting dwarves, then Shadowrun is probably the best choice for you. If you prefer a faster-paced, easier to learn system and the thought of Legolas toting an M-16 makes you shudder, then pick up the Cyberpunk 2020 game. For me, I�ll stick with Cyberpunk 2020. With the renewed availability of the books, the more pure cyberpunk genre, and the catchy lingo in the rulebooks, Cyberpunk 2020 is the clear winner for anyone who doesn�t like their genres mixed, or who want to get into an old-fashioned Friday night firefight with the least amount of effort.
I like the comparison and contrasts here, I myself do like to have the strange mix of fantasy and sci-fi every now and then.
The Matrix obviously took many Cyberpunk elements and it was good you made reference to it.
How would a urban setting of Rifts line-up agianst either of these two settings? What about MAGE, does it compare at all? Does anyone even play the Modern d20 (if so what's it like)?
I would like to see an RPG that takes the best of all (a little less on the fantasy and magic side) sci-fi/urban games but doesn't focus on combat.
Two little points. First, FASA doesn't actualy own shadowrun anymore, they sold it to wizkids if i remember correctly.
second, the reference to the matrix in the article is actualy a reference to somthing called the matrix that i'm guessing is in both shadowrun and cyberpunk. not actualy the movie, although you are right, the movie is based upon cyberpunk fiction.
and who can dispute the enjoyment of thumbing through the latest Chrome?
like you said, there wont be any new ones, and the current ones are several years old. unless you're following the theory "if i havent seen it, its new to me"
WizKids owns Shadowrun but licensed the RPG (they still handle the action figure game and other rights themselves) to Fantasy Productions which is the German company that did book translations for FASA. They in turn created a US company called FanPro LLC which is responsible for actually doing (or hiring freelancers to do) the creative work.
For me, the biggest difference between Shadowrun and Cyberpunk isn't so much the magic and fantasy races but the depth of background material. Shadowrun is on its third edition and has been publishing books regularly since 1989. For most RPG systems this would mean a lot of obsolete dead tree piled up in used bins and landfills.
However Shadowrun has a meta-plot which every sourcebook advances slightly along with the date. First edition was set in 2054 while the current in-game year is 2063. Because of this emphasis on continuity even the oldest sourcebooks remain relevant. The rules may be obsolete and the gear may need conversion, but the background material is unchanged and applicable even to games using the latest rules.
This very solid "living" world is Shadowrun's biggest strength and something that sets it apart not just from Cyberpunk but from most RPGs. You don't need the old books, but if you use them you'll get a more complete picture of the world, a more immersive experience and a great sense of history.
All that said, it's really nice to see an article that mentions my favorite RPG on here (even if the author doesn't like it). Thanks, Zenthrus.
Yeah, the plot behind Earthdawn and Shadowrun is awesome. Horrors are some of the creepiest freaks running around rpg land. Anything that can scare a people enough to make them turn themselves into blood elves is pretty freaking nasty in my book. And we all know that sooner or later the horrors will be here...
Shadowrun also has a lot of characters in the novels, so players who like that kinda thing can get a ton of plot hooks to use. There are also a lot of nifty characters that can be enemies or allies or just there.
I am not familiar at all with Cyberpunk, so I can't really compare them very well. I will say that these things make Shadowrun really awesome though.
Nysandstil asked about d20 Modern, and, obviously, it's modern, not cyberpunk. Now, I know there are plenty of detractors out there, but I've played straight core rules a couple of times, and I must say, it's very, shall I say, heroic. By that, I mean it's kind of unrealistic, at least at higher levels. When your characters have 77 hp, they can take a bullet (most guns do 2d6 or 2d8) easy, so it gets off the wall. Without using any of the "augmented" campaign settings in the core rulebook, high level characters make no sense realistically. Oh, and hack-an-slashers should avoid the basic rules at all costs. I ran a game with hack-and-slashers once. As in, one session. They ended up killing a whole bunch of people and being arrested. Not fun.
Now, with the use of one of the campaign settings, you can add magic and D&D style stuff, or put in psionics, or do both. I have the Urban Arcana book, and I must say that it does a good job of setting up what might happen if magic and monsters started showing up in our world. But, that's genre mixing again. So, I think the basic rules can make the game kinda crazy, adding fantastic elements can balance things a lot. I mean, a 10d6 fireball is an actual danger to that 77 hp character.
No, didn't talk about cyberpunk stuff, but Nysandstil asked...
Multiplayer Video/Computer Gaming Research Project
I am currently collecting data for my dissertation tentatively entitled, 'What educators can learn from multiplayer computer gaming: A study of who is playing and their perceptions of multiplayer computer games and learning.' If you play multiplayer console or computer games with others online, face-to-face, etc., I would appreciate your time in completing the survey.
The survey instrument can be found by going to following URL
http://www.bama.ua.edu/~beedl001/informed_consent.htm , reading through the informed consent, and clicking 'I Agree.'
The sample used for this survey is a snowball, so if you know of anyone else who plays multiplayer video and/or computer games, please forward this e-mail to him/her.
Thank you for your time,
Jon Beedle
Wonder if its a universal constant for those who truly appreciate Shadowrun? The living world it puts forth is an incredible creation and their ability to keep it alive and vibrant for this many years has allowed it to grow and morph in numberous subtle ways.
For my money there are really very few other settings which offer the level of plot and intrigue from the get go. No worries about having to set up complicated scenarios and explaining to the players why this or that bit of deviousness plays well for the world. Plus, they'll be right along with you in working out the various threads and you'll have much more freedom to actually present complicated political and socialogical puzzles with a hope of them being solved.
As far as mages being un-versatile, I will admit that their loss of essense for physical enhancements and their heavy devotion of karma does take a toll. However, with a GM who isn't too harsh on the rules of money for karma this actually isn't too much of a hinderance. While everyone is buying their hefty new chain weapons or wiring their arms, you're dumping it into a charity so the universe likes you. Plus, with the depth of spells that have been added in through supplements like Magic in the Shadows, and the freedom to create your own effects within reason, there is really no reason for it to be limiting as a profession. Plus, you can still mix and match by taking initiate levels to offset your physical enhancements if you want to be a dabbler.
Anyhow, another mark for loving the Shadowrun setting and it has been my single greatest success as a GM in terms of long running campaigns that kept people coming back for months.
Wow. It's like 1988 in here again.
Before the literary genre folded up and became irrelevant, I used to be a big cyberpunk fan, both of the literature, the films, and the RPGs. My opinions:
CP2020: Despite ostensibly being based on actual cyberpunk books, this game has very little to do with the cyberpunk genre. I have always found RTG's games to be amateurishly written and CP2020's "kewlness" factor makes it worse. The authors' emphasis on "metal is better than meat" and "Cool is better than competent" demonstrates that they simply don't get the point of the genre. Later supplements demonstrate that the authors are *not* writing a game about cyberpunk at all, but rather the various anime series that have a vaguely "dark future" feel, like Black Magic M-66 and BubbleGum Crisis. Let's be clear on one thing: these series are NOT cyberpunk, in the way that term is used to refer to books. Now, if you like that sort of anime, then CP2020 is certainly going to appeal to you - go nuts. But if you are a dyed-in-the-wool fan of cyberpunk _literature_, CP2020 will probably disappoint. Especially irritating is the "Just Say No to Drugs" message, which was understandable when the books came out but is trite and silly in this day and age.
Shadowrun: This game, again, has very little to do with literary cyberpunk, even once you take into account the fusion of high fantasy. What it does do, though, is a good job of emulating cyberpunk *movies*, which are often violent action-fests with lots of hardware (CP2020 has the hardware, but the combat system is too deadly to PCs to do action movies well). It took the game until its 3rd edition to shed the self-censorship - first edition supplements were so sanitized for the consumption of potential young gamers that they were ludicrous. Although the continuous game world is hailed as a plus, remember that if you don't want to follow their history, much of the existing supplement base becomes unuseful. Also the authors stole from so many different cyberpunk books and films to create the world that the resulting mishmash frequently makes no sense whatsoever once you start thinking about the implications. Good for an action-oriented campaign that uses the visual trappings of cyberpunk, but not the core themes.
Both SR and CP2020 make the fundamental error of casting the PCs as moral rebels against a corrupt establishment, injecting a simplistic morality that may appeal to fantasy gamers but is at odds with the entire genre.
The only other cyberpunk game I know of that is still in print is GURPS Cyberpunk. Pros: exhaustively researched and very accurate IF you want real-world technology in your cyberpunk game. Cons: the version that saw publication was unavoidably scanty, and IMO *too* much emphasis was placed on realism and not enough on the way cyberpunk literature protrays its settings (which is often not very realistic). The emphasis on realism also means that the book has become somewhat dated. Good if your cyberpunk campaign takes place in the very near future, with straightforward extrapolation from existing technology.
End note: IMO no currently available RPG adequately portrays the cyberpunk literary genre. ICE's long-forgotten Cyberspace is the only one that ever got the setting right, but the system was so unusable that it never caught on. If you can find the books and supplements anywhere, though, the plotlines and world def is the best RPG example of what literary cyberpunk really looks like.
I would have to interject that, in my opinion, Shadowrun is the superior of the two games by far. The great thing about Shadowrun, also, is if you prefer to have no magic, alternate races etc. and totaly eliminate the fantasy element is is very easy to do. Just don't use it. The system stands on it's own as a pure cyberpunk setting.
And to an earlier point. FASA went out of business and Shadowrun is published now by WizKids. Most of the Shadowrun team from FASA now works for WizKids so the game is unchanged under the new ownership.
As a final note, the cyberpunk genre was revolutionised by the authors William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Both Cberpunk 2020 and Shadowrun borrow heavily from these two authors. The ultimate cyberpunk novel is Neuromancer by William Gibson, it is where the Matrix was invented. Any fan of the cyberpunk genre should read it.
Slight correction: the cyberpunk genre was *created* by William Gibson, and Sterling began rewriting his info-anarchist musings into cyberpunk-like settings. Shadowrun also draws very heavily from Walter Jon Williams' _Hardwired_.
The books that you most want to read to get a handle on the cyberpunk genre are probably:
William Gibson: any of his Sprawl Series, but specifically Burning Chrome, Neuromancer, Count Zero Interrupt, and Mona Lisa Overdrive. The books get somewhat metaphysical towards the end of the series.
Walter Jon Williams: Hardwired. Avoid the sequel.
George Alec Effinger: When Gravity Fails, A Fire in the Sun, Exile Kiss.
Note that I'm not including Sterling's stuff. Most of his stuff is actually just his own unique neo-Marxist info-anarchism dressed up in drag as cyberpunk. His stuff lacks the vision and cohesiveness of Gibson and Effinger.
I would have to agree with you Daniel about Sterling's work. I havn't liked anything that I have read by him. He also has the unfortunate talent of drawing down other writers with him as is evident in Gibson and Sterlings collaborative work The Difference Engine, which is one of the pioneer works of the steampunk genre.
The problem with much of Sterling's work is that it's grounded heavily in his opinions about real-world information technology, so it's not very futuristic (it's more spec-fic than sci-fi). That said, Sterling's work is good reference for a GURPs Cyberpunk game, which is heavily grounded in real-world tech to begin with.
The best cinematic representation of VR hacking is probably (no, I'm not kidding) the TeK TV movies and TeK TV series that were ghostwritten for William Shatner. The rest of the show is crap, but the post-production CGI guys were fans of Gibson and it shows.
If anyone's interested, I can probably dig up my list of ref material for various aspects of the cyberpunk genre.
*the only one cheering*
yeah! woooo....
CP 2020 had a Hardwired supplement written by Walter John Williams himself and later published another one set in Effinger's When Gravity Fails world. I have always preferred CP2020 to Shadowrun because of its quick and dirty system and the background generation tables offered new players an excellent way to make intriguing new characters. Even if they were unfamiliar with the genre. I co-ran a CP2020 game for 7 years. All involved in that campaign (which only ended when I moved out of town) still discuss it with a reverence. I did use quite a few Shadowrun adventures that I adapted into CP2020 and I honestly believed they contributed greatly to the flavor and success of the campaign. So in a way, I guess I am sort of in between both sides of this discussion. That being said wish that R Talsorian would publish the promised 3rd edition of the game soon. As I understand it that may indeed happen within the next year or so.
CP 2020 had a Hardwired supplement written by Walter John Williams himself and later published another one set in Effinger's When Gravity Fails world. I have always preferred CP2020 to Shadowrun because of its quick and dirty system and the background generation tables offered new players an excellent way to make intriguing new characters. Even if they were unfamiliar with the genre. I co-ran a CP2020 game for 7 years. All involved in that campaign (which only ended when I moved out of town) still discuss it with a reverence. I did use quite a few Shadowrun adventures that I adapted into CP2020 and I honestly believed they contributed greatly to the flavor and success of the campaign. So in a way, I guess I am sort of in between both sides of this discussion. That being said wish that R Talsorian would publish the promised 3rd edition of the game soon. As I understand it that may indeed happen within the next year or so.
CP 2020 had a Hardwired supplement written by Walter John Williams himself and later published another one set in Effinger's When Gravity Fails world. I have always preferred CP2020 to Shadowrun because of its quick and dirty system and the background generation tables offered new players an excellent way to make intriguing new characters. Even if they were unfamiliar with the genre. I co-ran a CP2020 game for 7 years. All involved in that campaign (which only ended when I moved out of town) still discuss it with a reverence. I did use quite a few Shadowrun adventures that I adapted into CP2020 and I honestly believed they contributed greatly to the flavor and success of the campaign. So in a way, I guess I am sort of in between both sides of this discussion. That being said wish that R Talsorian would publish the promised 3rd edition of the game soon. As I understand it that may indeed happen within the next year or so.
Wow, I didn't realise these games still caused such a stir. In my opinion; these games are as cyberpunk as you, the player, make them. The games are just a platform or springboard for freeform roleplaying. You take what you want, or mix and match (as Hurnannoyd did). Does anybody still play in Nottingham?
Shadowrun was the first RPG system that I really got into (played D&D and just felt it wasn't my style, tho still a good RPG system), and so I am biased in favor of it over any other system. That said, the ongoing story (as was pointed out above), the living history of The Sixth World of SR life does set it apart from most RPGs. The level of detail about the countries, characters, and corporations, interconnected, at war, and how they go about their shadow business is deep and entertaining. SR not only has a fully fleshed out fictional world history, but that history continues to build on itself with each new release. To be sure, the authors did borrow from other works but let's face it, who doesn't? D&D wouldn't even exist without Tolkien. The humor (SR 2 ref: Grenades in a confined space rules a.k.a. Chunky Salsa Effect) and the banter between runners commenting on what is written also helps to give a realism to the system.
On the down side, I feel the transition to Fanpro/Wizkids has had a slightly negative effect on the writing. Much of the humor and sense of realism from the FASA days has been replaced with very dry and overly factual writing. Feels like I'm reading an environmental textbook almost rather than a sourcebook about Wastelands. The banter/fighting of posters is more commenting half heartedly and there is almost no humor present. I get the sense the writers researched online and simply tweaked articles to fit the continuity of SR.
Still love SR tho and on an unrelated note, I never really considered SR as cyber-punk as it is a multifaceted fantasy RPG containing elements of many genres. A very good, entertaining system that has conspiracy upon conspiracy with the occasional heist thrown in for good measure. And the short lived Earthdawn wasn't bad either. (Ambitious to create a seperate RPG system that is the precursor to another, including a history that interacts/affects the other history, a good kind of prequel system.)


text:
10 in stock, immediate despatch
The source of its pearling, effervescent taste is the secret fermentation process which we have developed especially for our crystal wheat beer. It quenches your thirst like no other beer. With its elegant appearance, it is the speciality of our brewery. Goes well with fish, seafood and light dishes.
Really easy ordering process. Friendly place. It tastes of an expensive high quality beer. Smooth with a subtle kick...for the price it is fabulous.
12 x 500ml Bottles
Producer: WeihenstephanPackage Type: 12 x 500ml BottlesRegion: GermanyVegan Friendly: YESBeer Style: WheatABV (%): 5.4
Almost a thousand years ago the Bavarian State Brewery Weihenstephan was the monastery brewery of the Benedictine monks. Then, the Royal Bavarian State Brewery, it is now operating as a state directed enterprise under the control of the Bavarian Government. As the oldest still existing brewery in the world it stands upon the Weihenstephan hill, surrounded by the comparatively very young Weihenstephan science center of the Technical University of Munich. And so, a unique tradition and brewing culture developed over the centuries. Today, Korbinians heirs use the most modern technology, but they never forget their own history and their own high standards. This allowes us to brew a variety of beers of the highest possible quality.
Follow UsSite
Home > Beer & Lager > Bottles & Cans


text:
Making Inroads into Memphis, CLK Properties Buys 118-Unit Pinnacle Apartments for $3.8M
- By
- Apr 18, 2014
By Eliza Theiss, Associate Editor
New York real estate firm CLK Properties has picked up yet another Memphis apartment, hot on the heels of its March purchase of Georgian Woods.
According to the Memphis Business Journal, CLK's newest acquisition, the 118-unit The Pinnacle Apartments in Midtown Memphis, was purchased through affiliate Pinnacle Apartments Property Owner LLC from Bellevue Tower II LLC for $3.8 million. The Illinois-based seller was represented by CBRE's Memphis Multifamily Division. According to The Memphis Daily News, the new owner filed a $3.4 million deed of trust through JPMorgan Chase Bank NA.
According to The Memphis Daily News, the 305 South Bellevue Boulevard apartment tower comprises 84 one-bedroom and 34 two-bedroom units. According to The Pinnacle Apartments' website, units range between 640 and 1,006 square feet and rent at rates between $635 and $760 per month. Community amenities include gated and covered parking, swimming pool, fitness center, a laundry facility and extra storage. All units feature balconies and appliances.
The Pinnacle Apartments is CLK's second Memphis apartment community acquisition in 2014. The Woodbury, N.Y.-based firm picked up Georgian Woods Apartments in mid-March.
"There are great things happening in Midtown Memphis, including significant economic redevelopment (…) We look forward to continued growth in the area," CLK Properties CEO Craig Koenigsberg commented at the time. According to the Memphis Business Journal, CLK dropped $3.85 million for the 100-unit Georgian Woods, after paying $49.2 million for the 972-unit Country Squire Apartments and $9 million for the 357-unit Sycamore Lake Apartments in 2013.
With the acquisition of The Pinnacle Apartments, CLK now owns seven apartment communities in metro Memphis and a total of 12 in Tennessee.
Images via The Pinnacle Apartments and CLK Properties


text:
The technical documentation archive contains drawings for the refinery plants and various other technical documents – from projects to building permissions.
The system for storage of technical documentation is made of a Windows and Web applications. Both applications are developed on the Microsoft. NET technologies. Windows application manage documents in Meridio Document Managament system with search, metadata update, adding new versions and review of electronic documents. Web search application enables Meridio document management systems, document review, and all their metadata, as well as organises them into custom folders.