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Recently I've been receiving a lot of questions about recommendations on gifts to get hydroponic gardeners. It can be hard buying a gift for a hobby that you don't know much about. Whether for birthdays, holidays or just because, there are several hydroponics products that make great gifts! Hey, maybe your even looking for a gift to reward yourself for all the hard work you've put in this year…
Here are some gift ideas the next time your shopping for your favorite hydroponic gardener!
A Hydroponic or Aquaponic system
Why not start with the best gift first? There's not much better than getting a new hydroponic or aquaponic system as a gift. There are several different types of countertop systems available, so it's easy to find a system that is not only inexpensive but doesn't take up too much room.
Hydroponic/aquaponic systems are great for those that love gardening but have to take a break for winter, kids learning about growing plants or even for decoration. Check out some of these cool hydroponic\aqauponic gift options:
Hydroponic Books
Even with all the information on the web, there nothing like a good book. When I first started hydroponics, I found some great books for beginners that really laid the foundation for me to learn more. Whether just looking to learn the basics to find out if hydroponics is for you or a beginner looking to learn everything you can, there are several good books that could meet your needs. If you think a hydroponic book is a gift you're looking for, check out my article on Great Hydroponic Book For Beginners.
LED Grow Light
Grow lights are one of my favorite components of the hydroponic system, and besides nutrients, one of the most important parts to a hydroponic garden. Plants don't grow well under just any light bulb, they need a light geared towards plant growth. LED grow lights can be versatile, growing both leafy greens and fruiting plants. The MarsHydro 300 watt LED below was my first grow light and you can check out the review I did on it here.
You can't go wrong gifting an LED grow light, as indoor gardeners are always looking to expand their garden or provide more light.
Hydroponics T-Shirt
So you want the "safe" gift? I imagine the hydroponic gardener you looking to purchase a gift for doesn't already have a hydroponic t-shirt!
Everyone likes a shirt that is to their favorite hobby! I'm not talking about a cheesy hydroponics t-shirt, these ones are pretty cool!
Electronic pH meter
A pH meter not might seem like a cool gift at first, but if you're familiar with hydroponics you know how important having a good pH meter is. For those that don't know, if the nutrient solution isn't in the right pH range, plants can't take in the nutrients. It's recommended to measure the pH every or every other day, so you can see why you would want to make this task as simple as possible.
There are several ways to measure the pH of your hydroponic nutrients, the electronic pH meter being the quickest and easiest. There are many different kinds of pH meters, even some that take other important readings such as EC and temperature as well.
Grow Room Glasses
Grow room glasses make the perfect gift for a couple of reasons. First and foremost they will save your indoor gardener's eyes. Many people overlook the necessity of grow room glasses, but they should definitely be worn. With the popularity of indoor gardening growing, they have also have become a whole lot more stylish.
You will need to make sure the grow room glasses are made for the type of lights being used in the indoor garden.
Grow Tent
If I hadn't already purchased one, this would be the gift my wife would be getting me. She wasn't fond of how my LED grow light would light up the garage like a neon sign at night. There were actually several reasons I had to get a grow tent and am definitely glad I did. If you don't think your significant other's indoor hydroponic garden is a good decoration or you're looking to keep your garden safe, a grow tent is a great gift. There are many different size grow tents to choose from, making it easy to find one for the hydroponic gardener your gifting.
Gift giving can be difficult, but it's the thought that counts. Getting a well thought out gift means a lot more to a person than just a gift card or any old gift of the shelf. There are several gifts that are perfect for hydroponic gardeners and I hope my suggestions made it a little easier in finding the right one!
Do you have another awesome hydroponic gift idea? Let us know in the comments below!?


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Resilience at work
Resilience to cope with pressurized jobs, wide spread organisational changes and demanding clients
Resilience to cope with pressurized jobs, wide spread organisational changes and demanding clients
Do you know anyone who is not overstressed and overworked? We arrive at work after an insane commute, already stressed out from financial issues, relationship issues, health issues and body image problems.
Then at work we have to cope with increased workloads, are often out of our depth and sometimes worried about job security.
No wonder we are so stressed!
There is lots of advice on how to cope with stress. There are lots of magazine articles and blogs about eating better, or getting more sleep or taking take time out.
But let's get real. How does that help you cope with a client from hell or when your loved-one is having a hissy-fit?
Here are five practical strategies that will help you remain sane and cope with real stress in the moment: Continue reading
We all have to deal with really difficult people. Heated arguments make things worse. Keeping quiet makes you look like you agree or accept what is happening. Telling them how bad they are making you feel often triggers emotional outbursts from them.
What can you do to stand up for yourself against difficult people?
Fortunately there is a very useful four-step process that Marshall Rosenberg* has developed. He proposes you start by describing your observations of what the other person is doing. Then you state your feeling in relation to those observations. Then you state the needs you have that led to those feelings. Lastly you make a request of the other person to get what you want.
A parent for example might use this four step process with his teenager: "When I see you watching TV while the supper dishes are unwashed in the sink (that's the observations), I feel irritated because you said you would do the dishes after supper (that's the feeling). I need us as a family to honour the commitments we make (that's the need from which feeling came). So I would like you to do them right now. Would you be willing to do that?" (that's the request) Continue reading
We all experience disappointments, heartaches and setbacks. That's an unfortunate part of life.
When overcommitted and overworked however, we become particularly vulnerable to reliving past regrets all over again. If this unpleasant rumination is not stopped, we easily get sucked into a downward spiral of negative thoughts and feelings.
If this happens to you, here are seven techniques to let go of the past and move on:
The pace of change seems faster than ever before. Many organisations have multiple change initiatives on the go at the same time, while still trying to maintain "business as usual".
Senior and middle-level leaders are expected to enthusiastically drive these initiatives, while coping well themselves. If however they are over-stressed and change-weary, then the success of the change initiatives is at risk.
The way leaders cope and deal with their own emotions directly impacts on the emotions of their team members. Their optimism or pessimism is contagious and spreads like a 'flu virus from one team member to another.
When leaders are at their best, they keep stress positive, bounce back from adversity and recover well. Their resilience and positive emotions influence the people around them, who in turn find it easier to be more positive.
There is always pain in organisations. Some of it comes from organisational issues, such as leaders pushing boundaries and driving their teams hard or overwork or job insecurity.
Other sources of pain come from outside of the organisation and when people bring their emotions to work. This pain can come from personal issues (e.g. relationships; finances; health) or external social and physical issues (e.g. social disruption; violence; natural disasters).
Whether it has origins inside or outside the organisation, in any group of people at work, you can expect that there is at least one person in pain. Continue reading
Achieving greatness at work
You work hard for success, recognition and greatness at work. You love the rush of firing on all cylinders, and being engaged and committed to your work. You naturally receive rewards and recognition …… which drives you to work even harder.
The dark side of greatness
But ask yourself:
There is a dark side when the greatness achieved in one area of life comes at a significant cost in another. It may happen to high-flying executives who are so dedicated to their work that they become helicopter parents, disconnected from their children. Or to a highly respected doctor who becomes emotionally distant in order to cope with suffering seen daily. Continue reading
Highly successful people are able to perform under pressure when it matters the most. Even when there are high stakes outcomes, they are able to stay focused and achieve their objectives.
In contrast, for most of us asking for a salary increase, dealing with a workplace bully or coordinating multiple projects are very difficult situations. The higher the stakes, the greater the pressure and that's when our brains turn into porridge.
Fortunately we can learn from highly successful people who cope well with pressure. Build your resilience to improve performance under pressure by doing the following: Continue reading
No one welcomes the feeling of being stressed. We prize performance, competition and perfection and if we don't feel competent it causes stress.
So is stress bad? The answer is yes and no. Without some level of stress, life is positively boring, but on the other hand too much stress is debilitating. Thus there should be an optimum level of stress for motivation and engagement for every one.
It turns out that this is true, but what is experienced by one person as motivating and exciting, may be experienced by someone else as overload resulting in anxiety and reduced efficiency. Continue reading
To survive in our rapidly changing economic environment, many organisations are making large-scale changes which ratchets up pressure on everyone. More output is required from people using fewer resources. Many people are working longer hours and complain that work is more stressful than ever before.
If this applies to you, you need to be resilient. Resilience is the ability to stay task focused and productive during difficult times, to recover well from sustained pressure and adversity. It also enables learning for the experience to become personally better rather than bitter; stronger rather than weaker.
While this might sound like magic, it is in fact ordinary magic that everyone possesses. The good news is that it's made up of a set of skills and behaviours that can be learnt and improved.
In our research on personal resilience (more here), we found seven elements that make up resilience, as shown in the model. From these elements, there are five practical strategies that can immediately assist to build your internal coping resources to become more resilient. Continue reading
Successful leaders get things done. They think big, drive for results, take risks and deliver on their plans. They also do something that is less known, and that is they ask for help. When facing difficulties, they ask for help in a way that builds cooperation and respect.
Some leaders don't feel comfortable asking for help, when self-sufficiency is prized in our western work. They fear asking for help may be seen as a sign of weakness or that they are not competent. Yet, the same leaders often struggle with an increased work load and lament the lack of cooperation in their organisation.
If leaders are reluctant to seek help themselves, it sends a signal to their team members that admitting vulnerability and not coping is unacceptable in the organisation. If this happens, feelings of isolation and alienation will increase with the rise of organisational uncertainty.
It's only when leaders model that seeking help is not only acceptable but is actually desirable, that the team and ultimately the organisation will be able to proactively get the resources they need to support themselves and to transition the organisation through difficulties.
This was also borne out in my research on personal resilience (more here), which found that asking for help and also giving help was one of the seven components of resilience.
So how can you overcome an inherent reluctance to ask for help, and to ask for help in a way that enhances your reputation as a leader, rather than diminishes it? Here are some ideas: Continue reading
To remain viable in the present rapidly changing business world, organisations are introducing multiple, deep-impact change initiatives. It's well known however, that large-scale change has a very disappointing track record of being successfully implemented on time and within budget.
"People naturally resist change" is often given as the reason. This is incorrect. People will accept and even welcome some types of change. They will however logically resist change which threatens their comfort; confidence; control and competence.
When change is experienced as disruptive or even unwanted, people feel dislocated, become obsessed with present problems and lose their perspective. These negative emotions feed on each other and entire teams can quickly become despondent and directionless.
Individuals and teams are particularly vulnerable if they feel their work activities no longer have meaning. If that happens, the leaders' role becomes substantially more difficult. Not only do the leaders suffer as much as their followers, but they are also responsible for implementing change with demoralised and listless team members. Continue reading
The Building Resilience Handbook is normally available as an e-book from Amazon Kindle at US$11.39. To thank you for reading my newsletters about resilience, I am making it freely available to you for a limited period. It will be only available free from 25 May to 29 May, 2016.
Have a look at some of the reviews of the book:
Imagine having abundant inner strength and resourcefulness to withstand and recover quickly from whatever difficulties life may throw at you. With The Building Resilience Handbook you can.
Packed with practical exercises and inspirational stories, this groundbreaking, research-based book of 314 pages will guide you step-by-step to develop inner strength and realistic optimism. It's the formula to not only survive but thrive in the face of life's challenges. Continue reading
When we experience really difficult times at work, the importance of the meaning of the work we do comes to the fore. It's only when we feel the work is meaningful, that it makes sense to work long hours and persevere through difficulties. Otherwise, why not just give up?
The value of meaning does not stop there. Research has shown that employees who feel their work has meaning, work harder, longer and more creatively than those that don't. This is reflected in the organisation by higher rates of customer commitment and investor interest, which enhances organisational competitiveness and the organisations sustainability (reference here).
This is where leading with meaning comes in. Effective leaders help their team members engage personally with the organisation's challenges, by helping them find meaning in their work. When team members feel they are doing "good work" with like-minded colleagues, team and personal resilience is enhanced in the face of uncertainty, unwanted change and even adversity.
What can you do as a leader to lead with meaning to create engagement and resilience? Continue reading
At times in everyone's lives, things happen that just don't make sense. Life isn't fair – at work and at home.
When bad things happen to you or someone close to you, it's a double whammy. You have to deal with the event and it's aftermath, but what often makes it even worse is that sometimes it triggers questions that just don't have a satisfactory answer.
At work for example, when the company merges with its bitterest competitor or when seemingly lucrative business lines are shut down or when highly valued people are replaced.
As humans, we have a need to make sense of life events, and so when our old beliefs and explanations don't work anymore, we feel frightened and out of control. The fear invokes our primitive "flight or fight" response, our thinking becomes inflexible and any creative problem-solving ability flies out the window.
When there is uncertainty and confusion in organisations, the role of the leader in providing direction and structure comes to the fore. Skilled leaders can prevent or at least mitigate this type of unhelpful reaction. The leader needs to make sense of what has happened for him/herself and at the same time help their teams that are struggling. This leadership role is called "sense making" and is a vital component of resilience leadership.
As a leader, there are five steps that will help your sense making when things don't seem to make sense: Continue reading
Nine months after her first leadership appointment as Call Centre Manager with 35 team members, Jan was told that her area was to be phased out. This meant that she and her team members would be retrenched if they could not find alternate jobs in the organisation. Due to a head-count freeze, this was unlikely to happen.
She was also asked to maintain "business as usual" until the final closing down of the unit which would take several months.
She had to deal on a personal basis with her own anger and fear about what had happened. At the same time, she had to sustain the resilience of her team members, if she was going to have any hope of keeping the unit task-focused and productive to the very last day.
Ordinary people like Jan are called upon to be extra-ordinary leaders in really difficult times. It's then that courage plays a central part in resilient leadership.
Some years back, I managed sales and administration teams. Some teams consistently exceeded targets whilst others consistently under performed. The under-performing teams inevitably blamed market conditions and other environmental factors for their lack-luster performance.
Yet some of the top performing teams faced even worse obstacles and still managed to excel.
So what could explain the difference?
I eventually concluded that the difference in team performance arose as a result of how the teams reacted to their difficulties.
Top performing teams viewed their difficulties as challenges that could be overcome. They believed their work was meaningful. They assisted and helped each other. Their leaders were visible and involved with their teams. As a result, the top performing teams coped much better with unrelenting pressure, change and uncertainty.
Put simply, the difference was in the teams' resilience. Continue reading
Do you argue with your boss? If so, Sipho's argument with her boss may sound familiar.
It started when he told her senior management wanted a new procedure implemented in her work area. When she examined the implementation plans however, she was taken aback. There were many potential pitfalls, and if they didn't work out, she would end up being blamed.
Sipho immediately went to her boss: "These plans are crazy and will never work!"
"Yes they will," he responded.
"They won't, and I want to change them," Sipho shot back.
"No, stop overreacting and just follow instructions", he said heatedly, and turned away to answer an incoming phone call.
Sipho left steaming. Why didn't he just listen to her? Typical! The more she thought about his reaction, the angrier she became. Continue reading
We all experience difficulties in life, but sometimes it goes from "In every life, some rain must fall" (YouTube link here), to a flood. It can be caused by an unrelenting volume or pace of work. Or it can be caused by something deeply upsetting such as being retrenched or ending of a love-relationship.
When difficulties reach flood levels, some people are stretched beyond their limits. They don't cope well. They feel defeated and sometimes spiral into hopelessness. Its's as though they are drowning in a flood of difficulty and hardship.
In contrast, others cope and recover well. They manage to keep their experience of stress positive and struggle well. They are like a buoy in an ocean storm, submerged from time-to-time, but quickly bob up again. Continue reading
Are you over-stressed? I often hear people despairing that they are over-committed and over-stressed at work, and don't know how to get off the treadmill. Work-life balance becomes unreachable, and they feel increasingly unable to be the loving parent or partner they would like to be.
This sentiment is echoed by M Scott Peck whose opening sentence in The Road Less Travelled is: "Life is difficult". Even the Buddha teaches that the first of the "Four Noble Truths" is "Life is suffering".
This is a rather bleak commentary on life, so let's put it into perspective.
It's true that we all experience some degree of difficulty, heartache, disappointment and even adversity. The practical implication for me is: can I minimise the suffering in a way that doesn't also diminish experiencing the positive side of life?
Put differently, is it possible to cope well with what life throws at me and also to experience love, joy and happiness? Continue reading
Right now the world's eyes are on international rugby, football, cricket and other sporting competitions. Each match is "to do or die" for the players, with money, prestige and national pride riding on the outcome.
What do successful coaches say to their teams when they're losing and are often frustrated and demoralized?
Is threatening the most effective strategy? In other words, motivate them by kicking their butts. Or is it more effective to find something that they are doing to praise? In other words, motivate them by making them feel good about themselves? Continue reading

subset: commoncrawl


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Davis Johnson is a self-professed security expert; she has been making the people aware of the security threats. Her passion is to write about Cyber security, cryptography, malware, social engineering, internet and new media. and As a technical expert, Davis has written technical blogs, manuals, white papers, and reviews for many websites such as MS office setup.
Website: http://asknorton.com/setup/ | https://offiice-setup-usa.com | http://mynew-office.com | http://norton-us.com/ | http://go-officecom.com/


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Law Firm Relocating NYC Offices to TIAA-CREF's 685 Third Avenue
By Terence Cullen November 13, 2015 4:16 pmreprints
Wood Smith Henning & Berman has signed a deal to relocate its New York City office to 685 Third Avenue in Midtown, Commercial Observer has learned.
The Los-Angeles based law firm has inked a 10-year lease for part of the 18th floor of the building between East 43rd and East 44th Streets, a source familiar with the deal told CO. Also billed as WSH&B, it will take 14,231 square feet at the TIAA-CREF-owned structure. Asking rent in the deal was in the low- to mid-$70s per square foot.
WSH&B will slightly increase its office size in the move. Its New York offices are currently based at 222 East 41st Street between Second and Third Avenues. The firm currently has 37 employees based in 12,532 square feet on the 21st floor, according to CoStar.
Matt Astrachan and Clark Finney of JLL represented TIAA-CREF in the 685 Third Avenue deal, while Kirill Azovtsev and Frank Scott, also of JLL, represented the law firm. A JLL spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment, and Mr. Azovtsev declined to comment.
Chang Hwa Commercial Bank in April renewed its lease for 13,600 square feet at the 31-story building, as CO previously reported. That put the building at about 75 percent occupancy. Other tenants in the building include tech firm Salesforce.com, professional services firm Navigant and trade publications company Crain Communications.


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Microsoft has just announced the availability of Windows 8 for consumers and businesses today, the 26th of October, to consumers in the Asia Pacific region as well as the rest of the world. This brings to the PC and tablet environment the beautiful new user interface to more than one thousand Windows certified devices. This also allows users access to the Windows store in 17 markets across the APAC.
The new OS will be available for download onto existing machines in over 140 markets, 37 languages and a whole range of manufacturers including Acer, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, Lenovo, LG Samsung, Sony and Toshiba. There will also be a whole set of new devices designed for the new Windows OS in the very near future. Head over to www.windows.com for more info.


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Norauto - Your Auto Centre - is simultaneously simple and revelatory idea: the combination of the sales area, which offers products for maintenance, repair and equipment of the vehicle with the station, where services are performed.
Car Centre has an area for self-service sales, where have offered the replacement parts and vehicle equipment products divided into several divisions:
- Parts division: replacement parts (start, braking, wheels and steering system, timing gear, suspension, exhaust system, products for maintenance: paints, etc. )
- Tires division: (wheel rims, tires for passenger cars and commercial vehicles, 4 X 4)
- Audio division – Multimedia: (autoradios and loudspeakers, audio accessories, navigations, DVD,etc.)
- Comfort division – Safety: (child restraint systems, carpets, safety of passengers)
- Transport division (trunks, beams, hooks, trailers, bicycle luggage boots, road maps)
- Tuning division
Car Centre also offers maintenance and repair services, performed within the agreed period or without arranging the meeting, such as: - Diagnostics
- oil change, maintenance and inspection/review
- assembly of tires, setting/aligning the geometry, pumping tyres up with nitrogen
- replacement of the exhaust system, shock absorbers/dampers, brakes
- checking the charging system, battery/accumulator replacement
- diagnostics and review of the air conditioning system
- installation of autoradio, audio accessories and multimedia (video and navigation)
- installation of hooks, beams and roof luggage racks
For more information, please visit: www.norauto.pl


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Eco Tambopata rainforest Tour, Amazon Jungle 3D/2N
- Duration: 3 Days / 2 Nights
- Difficulty:
- Code: JT1701
The Tambopata Jungle Tour offers you an unforgettable journey into the upper Tambopata River, far from the nearest city of Puerto Maldonado and deep into the Peruvian Amazon. Here the Amazon joins with the Andes in an isolated jungle known for having the greatest biodiversity in the world. Its extreme isolation helps preserve all the local flora and fauna and the most amazing rainforest landscapes. This is one of the greatest places you could hope to visit on your Peru tour.
On this fabulous tour, you will experience the Tambopata Jungle Reserve through jungle walks and boat rides, spotting different types of birds, mammals and endemic flora of the area. Our native guides specialized in the area will ensure that you have an unforgettable experience on this Tambopata Rainforest Reserve tour.
Day 01: Monkey Island
We'll arrive in Puerto Maldonado, drive to a nearby village, and board our boat to begin an unforgettable journey down the Madre de Dios River. On the way, we might spot alligators, turtles, herons and other exotic river animals. Arriving at the Amazon Lodge, you'll be welcomed with an exquisite traditional drink and then settle in to our comfortable bungalows. Once you're comfy, lunch will be served.
With the help of our specialized guide we will visit Monkey Island, located a mere five minutes from the lodge in the middle of the Madre de Dios River. This island is a refuge for a variety of monkey species: the noisy Maquisapas, the happy Achuñis, the impressive Frailes, and the tiny and amusing "leoncitos" (little lion monkeys). On the way to the Island, we'll come across densely vegetated riverbanks hiding exotic flora and fauna, and take in the serene jungle sunset on our way back.
Day 02: Apu Victor Lake
We'll awake to the sound of beautiful birdsong and a hearty breakfast. We'll start our day's journey with a hike into the depths of the jungle, taking special paths and crossing over bridges. Along the way we will check out a caiman cave, then continue on to the majestic Apu Victor Lake, with its beautiful crystalline waters, huge swamps, and giant trees. Later we will climb up to our Amazon Observatory, where we will have a panoramic view of the lake. We will glimpse such birds as parrots, guacamayos, toucans, camungos, shanshos, herons, and other animals like caimans, turtles and, if we are lucky, one of the most spectacular animals of the jungle: the giant nutria. After several hours here, we will return to the lodge for lunch. In the afternoon, we will visit the Gamitana River, born in the heart of the jungle. Along its shores we might observe turtles, caimans, butterflies and other animals. You can take an optional swim in its waters, then we'll return to the lodge for dinner.
Day 03: Tambopata to Puerto Maldonado
Breakfast and transfer to the airport or bus station in Puerto Maldonado.
What's included
- Transfers: airport - Lodge - airport.
- All meals.
- Lodging in typical bungalows
- Professional bilingual guide (English-Spanish)
Group Service:
$260.00 USD per person
Private Service:
We also offer personalized Jungle tours in private groups. If you are interested in taking a private tour with us, please clarify in form.
Price are per person and in USD (United States Dollar).


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Media Training
Dealing with the media
The training session of the South East Regional Meeting on 2nd July 2012 was devoted to working with the media. The presentations from Marie Owens and Nick Hiley can be found on these pages.
Marie Owens, Getting the best from the media
Marie Owens is the ARA's Head of Public Affairs. She is in charge of the Association's communication and external affairs and came to the role with many years experience in public relations. Her tips for effectively engaging with the media are below.
Before any communication consider:
• What do we want to happen?
• What therefore should we be communicating?
• Who to?
• What is the best communication tool to reach the right person/people?
• Who is best owner of the message? This will change depending on the story, sometimes the most senior person in the department isn't the most appropriate.
• ...and what style/tone/look should we have?
The communication options
• The media
• Talk to someone
• Announce something internally
• Hold an event
• Publish something
• Write a letter/email
• Suggest/debate through social media
• Advertise
• .....or a mixture of the above!
Why use media coverage?
• Audience
• High level of belief in what people see and hear in the media
• Decision makers often influenced by the media
• Pride and reputation boost
The four stages of communication
• Homework: who is my listener and what are they interested in?
• Preparation: writing, drafting, photographs, spokespeople, timings, logistics...
• Delivery: what they need when they need it, as promised
• Evaluation for next time: how was that, how to improve, keep in touch
- Prev
- Next >>


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Why Attend
GALA Language of Business conferences welcome all members of the translation and localization industry community, including providers of language services, managers of global content, and language technology developers. GALA conferences provide an opportunity for high-value networking and candid peer-to-peer learning, all in an open and welcoming environment.
Industry Leadership
GALA Language of Business conferences bring together the industry's most-invested stakeholders. In GALA's open, collaborative environment, they exchange ideas and information, discuss and debate best practices, and drive progress for the industry as a whole.
Participation in the GALA Language of Business conference is an investment with excellent returns. The value is measured in the increased knowledge, expanded contacts, and renewed motivation that each attendee carries away from the conference.
GALA Language of Business conferences provide participants with opportunities to engage in high-energy discussions and to capitalize on the collective intelligence and enthusiasm of the group. Participants leave the conference reinvigorated, equipped to face challenges, and prepared to create new opportunities for their companies.
What GALA 2018 attendees said…
- 87% said they learned new concepts or strategies that will help them in their business.
- 94% reported that they were satisfied or extremely satisfied with the conference.
- 74% reported making contacts that may generate new business for them.
We hope to see you in Munich at GALA's 11th annual conference!


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State Fair touts amusement ride safety record
The Midway at the Minnesota State Fair will be whirling and rocking with riders today, not long after inspectors completed a round of final checks on the equipment.
Hoping to assure the public that rides are safe, state fair officials on Wednesday touted their safety record and vigilant monitoring of the 63 rides that make up the Midway and Kidway.
Safety concerns were heightened last month, after a Florida girl fell 100 feet to the ground from a free-fall ride at Wisconsin Dells, and was severely injured. The Minnesota State Fair does not have such a ride.
Jim Sinclair, the fair's deputy general manager, said the fair has never had a ride fatality. A fair employee for 35 years, Sinclair said he can't remember the last serious injury caused by a malfunctioning ride, and wants to keep it that way.
Onsite inspectors hired by the fair supervise all aspects of ride assembly before the fair opens, and stay on the premises throughout the fair. State law requires rides be inspected once a year, and Sinclair said the fair exceeds those standards.
"Portable amusement rides transported from fair to fair by carnivals are assembled, handled, taken down week to week," Sinclair said. "[They] actually get more scrutiny, because those pins that hold things together come out and go back in, and are looked at every time that happens."
Among the inspectors who examine all those pins and moving parts is Joe Bixler, who started as a ride operator in the 1970s before becoming director of park operations and maintenance. He now works as a consultant based in Seattle, and supervises the four-man team of inspectors.
On Wednesday, Bixler took a close look at a brand new ride called the Rock It, which rotates 360 degrees while spinning riders in their seats.
Imported from the Netherlands, the ride is making its American debut at the fair, said Bixler, who has worked with the ride's owner on the setup.
"As the rides come in, they're on trailers, and we look at them as they're unloading and assembling," Bixler said. "There's some areas that can be seen, for instance where this arm is attaching to the vehicles. But you can't see the inside of this. When they had it on the trailer, we could look at it and see the threads on these studs."
Newer rides like the Rock It use computerized warning systems similar to a car's warning for unfastened seatbelts or open doors.
But the biggest cause of accidents isn't mechanical failure, but human error -- and mostly rider error, Bixler said. Often, injuries occur when thrill-seeking riders stand up before they're supposed to, or switch places with others, throwing a ride's weight off balance.
"You certainly see everybody riding roller coasters putting their hands up in the air to gain the thrill," Bixler said. "Well, unfortunately, that's probably one of the worst thing you can do. The idea is to hang onto the lap bar -- not that it's going to pitch you out -- but don't help yourself out."
Bixler said customers need to heed height requirements and health warnings posted in front of each ride. They also should make sure the attendant is paying attention -- foot pedals that require operators to face the ride help -- and watch a ride beforehand to make sure it's one they might enjoy.
Bixler said he's a "coaster guy" himself. He worked on one for years. He gave one last tip on the way out of the Midway, walking past a ride called the Storm.
A Dallas newspaper gave it an 11 out of 10 on the vomit scale.
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There's been a lot of book abandoning in my house lately. While I am sticking to the rules of The TBR Double Dare, I've been a bit disappointed by the books on my TBR list this month.
Several years ago, many actually, I ran a little challenge called The Hop-a-long, Git-a-long Western Reading Challenge. While there were not many takers, you all say you're eclectic readers but your 'eclecticism' ends at the Mississippi River, those who joined me had a good time and a few discovered they kind of like westerns.
I bought a little stack of westerns for the challenge, but never got around to Robert Coover's Ghost Town until this month. I didn't like it.
The book is a strange tribute/satire kind of thing centered on a western town full of actual ghosts near as I can tell. A stranger rides in and a series of western clichés are presented. I think maybe it was supposed to be funny but I couldn't tell. I gave it a good number of chapters but the story never started, things just kept happening. And I kept getting the feeling that what I was reading was written by a clever MFA student who wanted to put westerns in their proper place.
So I moved on…..
To Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel which is one of the 'books of the moment' right now, or may just be leaving its run as 'the hot book.' I can't say that it's bad, which I will say about Ghost Town, but I will say that "it just didn't work for me," you know, book blogger talk for "it's not you, it's me," which we all know is never exactly true.
Station Eleven is about a travelling theatre troop in the years following the end of civilization. I liked the parts of the book that dealt with the travelling theatre troop, but there were flashbacks showing what their lives were like before the end. Flashbacks, I thought. Like in Lost? I just couldn't deal with the flashbacks. Does anyone really enjoy the flashback parts of a story like this. People read books about travelling theatre troops after the fall of civilization because they want to read about travelling theatre troops after the fall of civilization, not about their lives before the fall. There were whole chapters devoted to flashbacks in Station Eleven. I gave it sixty pages and then returned it to the library. There's a long waiting list.
One of the mom's sent me an email stating how much her son liked The Raft by S.A. Bodeen, the book making the rounds through my classroom this year. Could I recommend any other books for her son. He's now reading The Life of Pi which he says he is enjoying, but my search for similar books on Amazon came up with Small as an Elephant by Jennifer Richard Jacobson.
Small as an Elephant is about a boy whose mother abandons him while they are camping near Acadia National Park one summer. He has to survive while staying away from the authorities whom he fears will place him with his grand parents once and for all. His mother has done this before but always came back in a few days. Not this time.
This sounds like a book lots of kids who liked The Raft would enjoy to me, so I got my school library to get a copy and read part of it. The premise is exactly like Cynthia Voight's classic novel Homecoming which features a family of five children abandoned in a shopping mall parking lot who travel under the radar to their aunt's home many miles away. While the children in her novel are mostly middle school age, Voight's book is really more suitable for high school age children and adults. I did have a book group that read it a few years ago and they liked it, but most kids in grade seven are put off by the length, the small print and the dull cover on the copies I have.
Small as an Elephant would appeal to them. It's a much easier read and has a pretty cool cover. But it's not nearly as good as Homecoming. So I read enough of it to know that there wasn't going to be anything that would get the librarian and me in trouble content wise and that it probably wasn't a book this particular student would like though other readers of The Raft probably would. We've got a copy for the school library, and I've moved on to other titles.
A few weeks ago I wrote about issues I had with Kenneth Oppel's book Half Brother about a boy whose research scientist parents bring home a baby chimpanzee to raise as part of the family. Because I forgot to bring my own book to school on Friday leaving me with nothing else to read during Reading Races time, I finished Half Brother. While I can't say the book changed my life or even that I became convinced of its literary value, I did enjoy the story.
If you've read Karen Joy Fowler's wonderful novel We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves then you know how the story is going to end. There is a much happier finish in Half Brother, but overall, the book sticks pretty close to the boy with the special pet story line. While the finish did play out a bit too quickly for my taste, it was a good read, one that my students have liked quite a bit.
Meanwhile, I'm in the midst of two books right now: The Third Reich by Roberto Bolano and Chaucer's Tale: 1386 and the Road to Canterbury by Paul Strohm. I really no idea what Bolano's book is really about yet, but I seldom do. He's always up to something I don't quite understand, but that doesn't matter. I think Bolano is really about words, the guy loved words and I love words so I love him. Even in translation from the Spanish. The Chaucer books is about the world Chaucer lived in. There's so little known about Chaucer it's really not possible to write a book about his personal life. I was pleased to see the author acknowledge this in the introduction. It's interesting and may add to my understanding of The Canterbury Tales before I'm done.
It's raining today so I'll have plenty of reading time. Looks like it just might rain all day, too which is great. In California we love the rain like only a drought ridden people can. Bring it on Mother Nature!! I've got plenty of books to see me through the storm.


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Looking for a Leek that won't get lost in the grass? Take a look at our new orange Leek.
The brilliant orange of the anodized-aluminum handle is a fade-resistant, scratch-resistant dye that's permanently bonded to the aluminum—so it looks good now, and will continue to look good later. The business end of the knife is a task-ready 3-inch blade of Sandvik 14C28N stainless steel, a steel designed in a partnership between Kershaw and Sandvik. This high-performance steel enables us to make the Leek's blade razor sharp out of the box and helps it hold that edge, too. The modified drop-point blade shape makes it a good slicing knife, while the slim tip gives it excellent piercing and detail work capabilities.
Whether you're left-handed or right-handed, it's easy to open your orange Leek with SpeedSafe assisted opening. A simple pull back on the ambidextrous flipper and the Leek's blade is ready to go to work. For safety, a locking liner keeps the blade locked open during use and a Tip-Lock slider locks it closed when folded. The pocketclip is reversible for tip-up or tip-down carry and the handle is drilled to accept a lanyard.
The orange Leek is a slim, easy-to-carry design that gives you plenty of cutting versatility—and good looks.
May be used on either manual or assisted opening knives. The "flipper" is a protrusion on the back of the blade that the user can pull back on, or flip, in order to move the blade easily out of the handle.
SpeedSafe® Assisted Opening
Assists you to open any SpeedSafe® knife quickly and easily with a manual push on the thumbstud or pull back on the flipper; built into many Kershaw best sellers.
Liner Lock
Locks the blade open during use; one side of the knife's steel "liner," the steel plate to which the handle scales are attached, moves into position behind the blade to securely lock it open.
Pre-drilled holes in the handle enable the user to change either the tip position or the side on which the knife carries.
Made In The USA
When you see this on one of our knives, it means the knife was made in our Tualatin, Oregon manufacturing facility by skilled Kershaw knifemakers.


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Massage recliners are therapy devices designed to achieve similar benefits of a licensed massage therapist-all without leaving home! Quality massage can relieve tension and back pain, as well as improve flexibility and increase endorphin levels. Through meticulous study of the human body, many massage recliners have been designed to achieve these same benefits.
Some believe massage recliners are luxury products. The convenience of receiving a massage from home, as well as time efficiency, are the major reasons why some opt to go with a massage recliner as a means to ease their back pain. While many people may not consider a massage recliner necessary for daily life, many other find the benefits, in the form of relieving back and neck pain, to outweigh the price.
The first time the massage recliner was released to consumers was in the late 1980's. The initial designs left much to be desired, but the recliners did their best to mimic the motions of a real masseuse. Since the initial introduction, massage chairs have steadily caught on and with it, the technology has increased. Now, competitors strive to produce the most effective models possible.
The most effective massage recliners on the market today integrate the Shiatsu and Swedish styles of massage. Shiatsu massage originated in Japan and focuses on releasing tension on specific acupoints on the body. The Swedish massage focuses on improving circulation thus it is gentle and sweeping in motion.
Some of the major manufacturers of massage recliners include: Premier Health Products, Inada, Panasonic, Sanyo, Omega, KingKong, Popular, and Human Touch.
Choosing a Massage Recliner
Selecting the best prostate massager for your needs can be confusing and overwhelming. Here are a few guidelines to help you in choosing a recliner that best reflects your needs.
Appearance: Massage recliners come in a variety of sizes and shapes. As a whole, in addition to improved technology, massage recliners have improved in appearance. Most are made either with real or synthetic leather, wood or plastic. The ultimate deciding factor should not rely solely on appearance.
Adjustability & Presets of Massage Recliner: A massage recliner with a wider range of being adjustable may be the best when buying a recliner that will be shared by more than one user. For purchasing a recliner that will be used by a single person, some people with neck or back problems may need to look for the best recliner for back pain since they are designed to ease back pains and other complications. Other chairs may offer greater variability. This is where you should analyze the type of massage you need. Would you prefer a combination-style massage or concentrated? Do you have a neck problem or a back problem?
Accessories: Some massage recliners come with a leg-rest. Some come with an ottoman. Some come with neither. Certain positions may provide more comfort for certain back conditions. Several massage recliner models even have a leg-rest that has its own massage or vibration capabilities, with varying levels of effectiveness.
Basic Comfort: If available, sit down in the chair to get a feel for it. Some recliners have a contour that may better fit a particular individual's shape. If you're more than average tall, you'll of course want to get the best recliner for tall man.
Strength of Massage: The intensity offered by the massage recliner should be appropriate to your needs. For vigorous massages, a massage recliner that offers strong movements and slightly protruded mechanisms is most recommended. If you desire a less intense program, you may prefer a massage chair with small rollers and soft movements. There are massage recliners on the market that offer both types of massage for a wider range of user preferences. It is here you should also consider the variety in numbers of motors and rollers offered in recliners.
Price: Massage recliners can be quite expensive. Understandably, price is always a factor in addition to other aspects.
Return Policy & Warranty: A quality massage recliner is ultimately a sizable investment. Look for a recliner that comes with a customer-oriented return policy and warranty. Purchasing your recliner through a authorized dealer will also ensure your protection and satisfaction.
Hopefully, through some careful research you will determine what types of features in a massage recliner you require. Lastly you will want to prioritize these criteria and select a massage recliner in your price range.


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We asked writer and Milwaukee Magazine contributor Virginia Small to share with us the reasons she loves Milwaukee. Here are her picks:
Beans & Barley
Beans & Barley (1901 E. North Ave.) has delicious, affordable fare all day long. It's a comfortable gathering place, and you can also eat at the bar. I love how it has evolved over the years – from when it started as a tiny natural-foods grocery on Murray (where I was one of the first employees). As it's expanded it's kept the same mission of serving the community by providing good food.
Free summer concerts and festivals
It's great that Milwaukee has many free summer concerts throughout the city (and county), as well as Poetry in the Park (at Juneau Park) and Shakespeare in the Park that's now hosted at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. They are all great ways to enjoy culture, share a picnic with friends, or frequent a food truck in many locations. And some concerts inspire people to get up and dance! I also enjoy Milwaukee's countless festivals, big and small. Bastille Days and Locust Street top that list for free festivals, with the North Avenue street fair a close runner up.
Friendly people
I appreciate Milwaukeeans' down-to-earth friendliness. I'm from this area and missed that when I lived in other parts of the country. It's a casual friendliness, in public settings where people are often willing to engage, say on the street or while waiting in line. I also often feel it in retail settings. I've heard visitors mention it. Ironically, when I lived on the East Coast, one co-worker told me he was uncomfortable during a work trip to Milwaukee because everyone was so friendly. He kept thinking people were being nice to try to somehow con him. I tried to explain that it was just the way Milwaukeeans are.
Healthy food
I love Milwaukee's ever-growing healthy food movement. The city's urban agriculture movement is one of its most significant success stories, including the Victory Garden Initiative, Alice's Garden, UW Extension's SEED Program and many other lesser-known projects. It also supports many great farm-to-table restaurants. Collectively, it's a very powerful movement and keeps growing. I was a volunteer back in the 1970s at the Outpost Natural Foods Co-op on Locust Street and still regularly shop there. I also frequent farmer's markets, especially in Riverwest or the Fondy Market.
Lake Park
Lake Park is special to me for many reasons. I first fell in love with Lake Park's beauty as a teenager and still find it an enchanting place. I enjoying walking or bicycling there and seeing so many people enjoying the park. I also have gotten to know the landscape at the ground level as part of Lake Park Friends' Wednesday Work Crew (doing weeding, mulching and invasive-species removal). I also love learning about its history – that the "genius of place" Frederick Law Olmsted designed it and that stewardship for over 120 years has helped it to remain strongly intact. It's a two-level park – like Manhattan's Central Park – except Milwaukee's lower-level ravines were already there, and the design retained them.
Virginia Small is a contributor to our July 2017 issue, writing "No Picnic" with Tom Tolan.


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Monday July 1st we will be teaming up with volunteers from Bi-Rite Market to lend a hand in the huge clean-up effort following Pride Weekend.
"Although the store needs everyone on deck during the weekend", Shakirah Simley, Bi-Rite Community Coordinator told us early last week,"We would love to help out with some park clean-up afterward " Bi-Rite told us they are painfully aware of the "grocery bag tumbleweeds" after these huge events. Bi-Rite Grocery is a long time sponsor of DPWorks' Clean-Ups.
As a certified San Francisco Green Business, Bi-Rite is committed to reducing their environmental footprint and building a strong community.
Please join us Monday, July 1, 9am. RSVP to email@example.com
We will meet at Bi-Rite Market's community food space, 18 Reasons, 3674 18th Street. The Bi-rite crew is preparing breakfast.
We'll have seasonal fruit, breakfast breads and pastries, Straus yogurt and house-made granola and coffee. We'll start breakfast at 9AM and then walk over to the park once everyone has had a bite to eat.
SF Pride has released a Green Initiative for the celebration. Marked disposal cans are provided for recycling, composting, and trash. Marked signs will also be posted. For several years running food exhibitors are required to use and distribute 100% compostable plates, cups, and other materials.


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Partnering Terms & Agreements Reviewed in New Reports Package by CurrentPartnering
29 Jan 2013 • by Natalie Aster
Co-promotion and Co-marketing Partnering Terms & Agreements. This report contains a comprehensive listing of all co-promotion and co-marketing deals announced since 2007 as recorded in the Current Agreements deals and alliances database, including financial terms where available, plus links to online copies of actual co-promotion and co-marketing contract documents as submitted to the Securities Exchange Commission by companies and their partners.
Manufacturing and Supply Partnering Terms & Agreements. Understanding the flexibility of a prospective partner's negotiated deals terms provides critical insight into the negotiation process in terms of what you can expect to achieve during the negotiation of terms. Whilst many smaller companies will be seeking details of the payments clauses, the devil is in the detail in terms of how payments are triggered – contract documents provide this insight where press releases and databases do not.
Opthalmics Partnering Terms & Agreements. The report provides comprehensive understanding and unprecedented access to the opthalmics partnering deals and agreements entered into by the worlds leading healthcare companies.
Vaccine Partnering Terms & Agreements. The report provides a detailed understanding and analysis of how and why companies enter vaccine partnering deals. The majority of deals are discovery or development stage whereby the licensee obtains a right or an option right to license the licensors vaccine technology. These deals tend to be multicomponent, starting with collaborative R&D, and commercialization of outcomes. The report also includes adjuvant deals and alliances.
More new market research reports by can be found at CurrentPartnering page.
To order the report or ask for sample pages contact [email protected]
MarketPublishers, Ltd.
Tanya Rezler
Tel: +44 208 144 6009
Fax: +44 207 900 3970
[email protected]


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During pregnancy induction of labor may be necessary for either fetal or maternal indications. For uncomplicated pregnancies, we do not routinely recommend induction of labor prior to 41 weeks gestation to provide the best opportunity for spontaneous labor. Induction of labor, especially in a patient whose cervix is not favorable, does slightly increase the risk of cesarean delivery. Factors that contribute to the likelihood of a successful induction include:
Induction of labor may consist of one or two parts. In a patient whose cervix is not favorable (ie: has not started to dilate or efface), the induction process is a two-step process, and begins with "cervical ripening". This is accomplished in the hospital and usually requires an evening admission (sometime between 7:30 and 9:30 PM), where a foley catheter is placed through the cervix or medication is placed in the vagina to ready the cervix for labor. Most patients have one support person spend the night with them during the cervical ripening process. It is ideal to limit visitors during this time and get a good night's sleep before the more active phase of induction starts the next day.
The following morning, IV pitocin is usually started to stimulate uterine contractions. The pitocin dose is gradually increased over time, allowing one to grow accustomed to the intensity of the contractions, and providing the opportunity for an epidural if desired. If one's water does not break on its own, the physician may also rupture the membranes as part of the induction process.
In a patient whose cervix is already dilated, usually at least 2-3 cm, the induction process begins during the day with pitocin.
From a timeline perspective, the induction process can be unpredictable, and especially for first time moms with an unfavorable cervix, can take more than 24 hours. The early or "latent" stage of labor, up until one's cervix is 5 cm dilated, is notoriously slow, and can easily take 12 hours in and of itself.
If you are scheduled for an induction of labor, here are some key pieces of information:


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What the hybrid cloud is not: Myths about the multicloud world
As much as we live in a multicloud business environment and the hybrid cloud is touted as the answer, the fact is that a number of myths have sprung up about the cloud. Such myths are keeping some companies from taking advantage of the accelerated growth and increased efficiency that a holistic cloud approach can provide. Let's look at the major myths about the hybrid cloud — and the single truth about how the cloud can become a valuable tool for your company's success.
Myth #1: The cloud is not secure
Myth: On-premises and organization-managed clouds are more secure. Perhaps the most prevalent myth — and the most common fear — is that the cloud is not secure. The fact that sensitive data resides on servers over which the owner has no direct control can be unsettling. It feels safer, for many organizations, to keep everything in their own environment with the on-premises security they've already put in place. Alternatively, organizations feel as if they have more control when managing their own clouds, using leading platforms.
However, many organizations don't really know how secure (or insecure) their own infrastructure is. The 2017 Cost of Data Breach Study by the Ponemon Institute shows that security breaches are not detected for an average of 191 days, and then it takes an additional 66 days to contain the breach. The "feeling" that on-premises and in-house security is sufficient may not reflect the reality.
A skills gap in security expertise further exposes small- to midsize companies. According to BizTech Magazine, few midsize companies (and hardly any small businesses) have the internal IT security staff necessary to implement and manage a comprehensive cybersecurity program. Even businesses with outstanding technical talent will need to have their IT professionals spend most of their time managing the network and driving new solutions for the business — not on security, which demands its own set of niche skills.
According to Gartner's Is the Cloud Secure? article, through 2022, at least 95 percent of cloud security failures will be the customer's fault. The article continues to explain that the challenge exists not in the security of the cloud itself, but in the policies and technologies for security and control of the technology. In nearly all cases, it is the user — not the cloud provider — that fails to manage the controls used to protect an organization's data.
Gartner says "CIOs must change their line of questioning from 'Is the cloud secure?' to 'Am I using the cloud securely?'"
Reality: Placing workloads in the cloud does not require a security trade-off. Organizations actually benefit from the security built into the cloud, automation that removes the potential for human error and security experts who provide continuous insight on securing customer data.
Organizations actually benefit from the security built into the cloud.
Managed cloud and technology providers have expended a great deal of time and effort ensuring that their platforms and support processes meet the security needs of their customers. They have established protocols and tools in place, such as intrusion detection and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack protection, that most organizations do not. They can perform levels of monitoring and analysis that would be far too great a burden for most organizations to undertake. They can apply security deep within the application layers within a platform. And they can wield a bench of security experts for the benefit of their customers. As a result, cloud platforms are well prepared for cyber attacks.
Meanwhile, the pressure is on cloud providers to comply with security standards, such as the payment card industry data security standard (PCI-DSS) and the ISO/IEC 27017 cloud security standard, that ensure they meet significant levels of security.
According to Gartner, "in 2018, the 60 percent of organizations that implement appropriate cloud visibility and control tools will experience one-third fewer security failures." And "through 2020, public cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) workloads will suffer at least 60 percent fewer security incidents than those in traditional data centers."
Myth #2: Version 2.0 is worth waiting for
Myth: We should wait until the cloud is ready. Years ago, it was common sense to not install any major software or hardware when it was first released.
This legacy way of thinking often influences how enterprises view the cloud. Large-scale adoption of public and hybrid cloud approaches is a relatively recent phenomenon, leading to the idea that only more progressive adopters have really embraced the cloud approach. Many decision makers still think that they need to wait for version 2.0 — something that definitively says that the cloud is ready.
Reality: The cloud is ready now. According to RightScale's 2018 State of the Cloud report, the cloud is not new — on average, organizations leverage almost five clouds. It has become the primary accepted technology for running many companies' applications. These aren't just small businesses either — large international firms from every sector are moving their assets to the cloud even faster than anticipated.
The range of possibilities for cloud-based solutions is ever-increasing as well. The top challenges for those moving workloads to the cloud are security and spend. Choosing the right type of cloud is key to success — especially as public clouds such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure continue to rapidly release new features and controls.
According to RightScale, many more enterprises see public cloud as their top priority, increasing from 29 percent in 2017 to 38 percent in 2018. Hybrid cloud still leads the to-do list but has decreased as the No. 1 priority for enterprises, declining from 50 percent in 2017 to 45 percent in 2018.
Neill-TSP: Ready for cloud
Some companies worry that moving to the cloud means losing control. But DXC Concerto™ has shown that cloud solutions can actually improve their customers' control over their applications. One of these customers was Neill Corporation and The Salon People (TSP).
"We don't even think about our managed, virtual private cloud because it all just seems to work so well."
Neill-TSP was working to provide better services and support to its salons and beauty training schools to deliver higher value to its educators and students. A corporate merger fueled the initiative to bring all its applications onto a common infrastructure. However, performance and uptime were key concerns, as was how the company could ensure that its operations would continue effectively when it moved from the self-hosted model.
The company decided to partner with DXC Concerto to help ensure that its initiative would work well. "We were getting a partner with built-in best practices that we can leverage. And there's a level of discipline in the way [it operates] around how to best manage technology and reduce risk," says Dennis Jones, Neill-TSP Vice President of Operations.
The cloud migration has changed the company's operations. "We don't even think about our managed, virtual private cloud because it all just seems to work so well," Jones said. "It's 'out of sight, out of mind.'"
After a year of operating its core applications on DXC Concerto cloud, the impact on operations was clear. "System uptime and availability was a huge issue when we were self-hosting," said Jones. "It was our desire 2 years ago to get out of the business of IT. DXC Concerto and the managed services team have helped and continue to help as we work towards that goal."
Myth #3: You can do it on your own
Myth: You can get the benefits of the cloud from your in-house resources. Many companies that provide software-based products and solutions feel that with their in-house expertise, they are able to duplicate everything that's available to them in the cloud in-house. It's cheaper and easier when you already have the resources, they think, and besides, they know their own needs and can fine-tune their environment to meet them.
This has led to a number of "accidental hosters." These are companies whose online business grew quickly, leaving them with constantly expanding and difficult-to-maintain hosting environments, often with under-resourced staff. And they're hanging onto the old hardware they've collected over the years, unwilling to part with it — even though those sunk costs will not be recovered, and the systems cost more and more to operate and maintain.
Many cloud providers present themselves as an easy, seamless solution to these problems. They make it sound simple: Just move everything to the cloud, and all your problems will float away.
Reality: You can't go it alone. Cloud platforms are designed to provide exceptional performance and availability to a wide range of customers. They have advanced tools for optimizing, managing and monitoring their customers' software, and their security and fault tolerance are very high. Very few companies are capable of providing anywhere near this kind of advanced environment in-house — and if they were, the cost would be extremely prohibitive.
Take Amazon Web Services for example. According to a February 2018 AWS News article, a total of 497 new features had been added to the platform over the preceding 3 months. These are significant new additions. The total number of such launches in 2017 swelled to 1,430 in total.
It is a challenge for in-house technical resources to be experienced and knowledgeable about cloud technologies in light of their other responsibilities. In addition, finding, developing and retaining cloud and security talent can be exceptionally difficult. The shortage of expertise, especially at critical times, can cause huge problems for companies that are trying to maintain their infrastructure locally.
The cloud is an excellent example of economy of scale, and this economy has even larger software companies moving into it. Building and maintaining an in-house platform is often not worthwhile anymore.
However, the cloud is not the turnkey solution that some providers make it out to be. It is a specialized environment; you need specialists with you to determine your solution's needs and to guide you in meeting them with the cloud environment. There are often intricate interdependencies that solutions rely upon, which should be mapped and architected prior to migration. For your move to the cloud, a trusted partner can save you a lot of time and money, compared with trying to migrate alone.
Trust Services: Avoiding costly crises
While traveling on a business trip, Randy Cantrell, Chief Executive Officer of Trust Services, got the phone call no CEO wants to receive. The company's file server had crashed badly. Trust Services did have backups, but because of the massive amount of disk space involved and only one IT person who could work on the problem, it would be 10 days before the system was again available. For a claims processing business whose claimants expect fast responses, that's far too long. He got on the first available flight, and as he stood in the server room with his IT administrator, he said, "Never again."
To avoid this type of business disruption from happening again, Trust Services made the move to cloud-based IT services. The company now utilizes cloud-based desktop applications (Office 365), as well as a managed private cloud infrastructure from DXC Concerto.
The main driver for the move to the cloud was risk. "We — like so many other small and medium companies — could only afford to have one person serve as network lead, server administrator and infrastructure support technician," says Cantrell. "When [that person] wasn't available or moved on, we were left scrambling."
Another key factor was cost. "DXC Concerto could host our solutions for about the same price as having everything in-house. With the same IT budget, I wouldn't have to worry about recruiting, training, backfilling during vacations and turnover," says Cantrell. "This is a huge relief for any small company."
Fast forward from 2010, and Cantrell still stands by his decision to move to a cloud-based IT model. "I don't lose sleep over what might break tomorrow. We have a solution that most companies would love to have. Small- and mid-market companies need the same IT skill sets to run their business as enterprise companies [do], and both cloud and the right provider finally make it attainable and affordable for us."
Myth #4: One size fits all
Myth: The cloud isn't that complicated. In some ways, the cloud approach to hosting has been oversold. Many cloud providers and cloud services companies represent the cloud as being extremely simple. Your company can move all the assets you currently host yourself to the public cloud and begin to reap the benefits of availability and performance that the cloud offers.
Reality: It has to be done right. Although the cloud approach certainly does provide those benefits, a successful cloud migration requires careful analysis, consideration and planning. There are a number of different approaches to consider in preparing for a move to the cloud, such as:
- Should all assets be hosted in the public cloud?
- Are there advantages to keeping the assets in the private cloud?
- Can a hybrid solution be used, and if so, where is the line between public and private assets?
The implementation for every cloud solution must be designed carefully to meet the company's specific needs. The company needs to determine where each digital asset — whether applications, data or anything else — should sit on the cloud.
In making these decisions, companies must often consider how much control they need for their assets. This is also known as the "pets versus cattle" question. Servers with unique requirements are like pets: An organization knows them well, and they cannot be easily switched out for any other generic server. But in other areas of the solution, server needs are much less specific: Like cattle, you don't name them, you don't know them individually, and they can be switched in and out as the need arises.
Many public cloud providers are seen in the marketplace as a one-size-fits-all solution. It's true that they have extensive tools and infrastructure and serve an enormous range of customers. But a public cloud alone doesn't fit every business scenario.
Better security and portability in the hybrid cloud
Companies sometimes approach the cloud with the one-size-fits-all perspective. When a division of a large multinational automobile manufacturer wanted to move its applications to the cloud, it was almost ready to launch its Microsoft Azure-based plan. Its needs seemed simple: Follow a company directive to move its applications to the platform. That is, until discussing the move with the corporate security officer made it clear: At the time, the Azure solution did not provide the specific security infrastructure required for industry compliance. With such important security concerns raised, DXC Concerto was brought in to assess the transition.
Working with the customer, the team designed a hybrid cloud solution that featured direct data center-level connections to provide appropriate security for the customer's applications and data. The team ensured that all of the data would go through a security infrastructure hosted on DXC Concerto Private Cloud before the data was passed through to the public cloud, satisfying the constraints that the company's security requirements had set.
Our manufacturer in this story started down a public cloud path, but a holistic view of the security needed for industry compliance led to a different solution from the one the organization had initially thought would be workable. The company's chief security officer pre-emptively determined that managing the security risks and compliance requirements dictated a solution where security was much more controlled than on the public cloud.
DXC Concerto's expertise and experience with hybrid cloud solutions helped ensure that the company put the right solution in place — not an off-the-rack solution, but one tailored specifically to fit its needs.
Two years after going hybrid, the new features and controls in Microsoft Azure allowed this automobile parts manufacturer to migrate its workloads from hybrid to a pure Microsoft Azure environment. Utilizing the direct connectors from DXC Concerto Private Cloud, the workloads were ported seamlessly.
Myth #5: We won't have control
Myth: We will lose control when we move to the cloud. Many IT groups express this fear strongly when the question of the cloud arises. In many organizations, the IT departments, infrastructure and policies reflect well-established and mature processes for managing IT.
Moving these assets to the cloud is problematic because many of those processes can no longer be applied. The IT departments cannot control, or possibly even access directly, the servers where their applications run and where essential data is stored. The lack of control brings up all of the other concerns about availability and security on the cloud as well.
Reality: Control remains in your hands — if you have the right visibility, tools or technology providers. Modern cloud platforms actually provide a very high level of control. There are extremely sophisticated analysis and monitoring tools on many platforms, sometimes providing greater power to administrators than they typically have in their own environments.
In fact, the cloud can be a great opportunity for IT organizations, because it can enable them to apply their expertise where it's needed most. When organizations migrate to the cloud, they outsource the continual work of maintaining server farms and low-level infrastructure. Their personnel can concentrate on higher-value work — research and development and responding to customer needs — instead.
With organizations using an average of five clouds, the key to success is visibility across these environments to properly deploy governance, optimize costs and more. Cloud services providers that offer tools, portals and insight for multi-cloud infrastructure are better poised to deliver value and success to your organization.
Cincom: Cloud-enhanced quality
With an almost 50-year history of providing software solutions, Cincom Systems was looking for reliability, quality and integration capabilities when it researched cloud solutions. Customer demand for cloud-based solutions was growing, and after both managing a cloud in its own data centers and working with other cloud providers, it found a partner in DXC Concerto.
Cincom has been adapting to a growing demand for cloud solutions, but providing excellent experience and support is at the heart of all its efforts.
Randy Saunders, program director for Cincom, explains: "When we first started going to the cloud we tried to be very flexible with what our customers wanted. We don't just sell a standard product. A lot of times, there's integration with it, whether that be another cloud application or on-premises. Some customers want to bring their own cloud, and we try to support that."
Cincom started working with DXC Concerto when a customer wanted to move its CPQ product to the Concerto cloud along with its customer relationship management (CRM) system. Cincom quickly realized that the hybrid cloud and integration capabilities of DXC Concerto were a good fit for the quality it delivers to its customers.
Saunders further states, "The product we work with DXC Concerto on is called CPQ, which is a configure price quote product. It is for customers who have a lot of complexity and variations in their products. They can have integrations with many systems. It can be complex to implement in the cloud. When we started working with DXC Concerto, we realized they understood business applications and were a great fit for us in terms of quality service, integration points and the way we serve our customers."
With customer relationships that are decades long, it was important that Cincom could present its new cloud-based solution with confidence. Cincom joined the DXC Concerto Partner Program and made the choice to focus on the applications over cloud management.
"We acquired and started working with our first SaaS [software as a service] product in 2004," says Saunders. "We've been in the cloud game since that time. We tried to do everything ourselves. It was a multi-tenant solution; we ran it in our own data center. And we went through all the pains of that. We've made the decision now to work with someone else to take care of the cloud things for us, so that we can focus on the applications. Because that's what we are really best at."
The one truth about hybrid cloud
It's a multicloud world. And among the many options, there are some things a hybrid cloud is not. It is not colocation with multiple providers. It is not disparate applications running in multiple public clouds. And it is not cloud infrastructure that cannot interoperate.
Infrastructure passed off as hybrid cloud has fueled some of the persistent myths out there about migrating to the cloud. Many of them are based on legitimate and understandable fears. However, they are also well understood by cloud providers, and cloud providers have been working actively to design and recommend solutions that directly address short- and long-term requirements. There are many ways to take advantage of the cloud while still protecting yourself from the security, cost and other issues that are inevitably considerations for an off-site implementation.
Although cloud solutions are extremely flexible, they are not necessarily simple or straightforward. Moving to the cloud without the right knowledge, planning and expertise can turn a smart business decision into a very costly mistake.
That leads to the one big truth about the cloud: you need to partner with specialists who truly understand the platform, and who know the capabilities and limitations that the various available options provide. The right specialists can identify your needs and design a solution to fit it, as well as create a plan to implement it effectively and successfully. In fact, CIO Magazine recently called lack of expertise the biggest current challenge for the hybrid cloud.
The cloud is a powerful new tool, and many companies are finding ways in which it can provide important advantages for both their technology and their business. By ignoring the myths and addressing the real issues of the cloud, you can determine the true business opportunities it offers for your own business.
Next steps
Consider your options. Have you started looking at your own move to the cloud? Are changes to your cloud platforms necessary to enable modernization initiatives? Are some platforms out of balance in terms of costs or risk?
You can start looking at your solution today by requesting an assessment of your workloads to understand whether public, private or hybrid cloud is for you. We can help you get a handle on your general needs as well as deliver a detailed comparison of cloud options and costs.
Why DXC Concerto?
DXC Concerto, the mid-market cloud offering within DXC Technology, specializes in providing a best-in-class multi-cloud platform that helps organizations accelerate digital transformation and realize their full potential. We make cloud adoption easy with unrivaled uptime and accelerated delivery, worldwide. Our strategic partnerships include Microsoft, NetApp, Cisco and Amazon Web Services. Delivering application expertise, innovation and service excellence in every engagement, we serve as trusted advisors to customers and application partners seeking to better manage risk and reduce operational challenges.


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from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Same as
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun medicine An
inflammationof the bile duct
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun inflammation of the bile ducts
Sorry, no etymologies found.
In the first year or two, the major complications are difficulty overcoming the nutritional problems related to the biliary atresia and cholangitis, which is an infection in the bile ducts.
The term "cholangitis" in primary sclerosing cholangitis refers to inflammation of the bile ducts, while the term "sclerosing" describes the hardening and scarring of the bile ducts that result from chronic inflammation.
"cholangitis" refers to inflammation of the bile ducts, while "sclerosing" describes the hardening and scarring of the bile ducts that result from chronic inflammation.
Primary sclerosing cholangitis: a disease in which the bile ducts narrow because of inflammation and scarring.
It allows administration of larger volumes of blood or fluid and can be used to withdraw blood samples. cholangitis - inflammation of the bile ducts. chole - refers to bile. cholangiogram - a picture of the biliary tree. cirrhosis - the most advanced stage of liver scarring.
I'd been snowboarding on the World Cup circuit for a while and was feeling perfectly healthy when the doctors told me I had primary sclerosing cholangitis, or PSC.
He had proved that he could not only survive the rare liver disease that nearly killed him — called primary sclerosing cholangitis — but could thrive and win in sport's greatest venue.
USATODAY.com - Snowboarder Klug won't ski for U.S. in Torino
A rare liver disease called primary sclerosing cholangitis was slowly killing him.
I was diagnosed nine years ago with PSC, primary sclerosing cholangitis.
Payton died at age 45 Monday, succumbing to bile duct cancer that was discovered during his treatment earlier this year for primary sclerosing cholangitis, a rare liver disease that robbed him of his once-indomitable strength and ravaged his once-perfect body.


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October 26 is National Pumpkin Day. What perfect way to celebrate than to make these adorable mini pumpkin planters for my succulents.
I love succulents. They are easy to grow, perfect for a beginning gardener and so pretty to look at. I have done a variation of this project in larger form on my gardening site by using real pumpkins and making succulent arrangements on the top of the pumpkins.
These mini pumpkins are the perfect choice to use in DIY fall decor projects like this one.
Making these mini pumpkin planters
For today's project, I am going to use small mini pumpkins that are make of foam with a plastic coating on the outside. To make this project, you'll need just a few supplies:
- miniature foam pumpkins.
- one succulent plant for each pumpkin planter
- green moss
- sharp knife
- spoon
- hot glue gun and glue stick
- garden soil
Mini pumpkins come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, as well as many colors. Use a variety for the best effect.
Making the opening for the succulent planters
Use a sharp knife to cut off the top of the pumpkins. The inside consists of foam which is a bit tough to remove. I used both a melon baller and a sturdy spoon.
Try to leave at least 3/8″ wall on the outside. My pumpkins had a metal piece on the inside of them that I also removed.
You will be using one succulent for each planter that you make. Try to choose a size that relates to the size of the pumpkin opening. Most garden centers and big box stores sell succulents.
They are also very easy to grow from leaves if you have a friend who grows them. Each leaf will eventually make a little baby plant. It's a great way to get plants for free!
Fill the opening in the mini pumpkin planter with soil. I used a cacti/succulent soil since it drains well.
Covering up with top edge
You will notice that the top cut edge shows the foam inner layer, even when you have soil in the planter. Now is the time to use the glue gun.
Attach a few pieces of foam around the opening of the mini planter with some hot glue. This covers the white part well so that it can't be seen.
Time to plant the succulent in the mini pumpkin planter
Now for the best part. Take one of your little succulent plants. If the roots are too big, you can trim them a little to fit into your opening. Place the roots of the plant into the soil.
TADA! They look so cute as a group!
Let's Make some Pumpkin Vignettes
You can, of course, just display these planters anywhere you normally put plants, but they can also be combined into a fun fall vignette.
Arrange some moss along with some silk autumn leaves on a long white tray and arrange the planters.
For even more interest, stack some old books and a fun clay pot candy dish behind the tray for a wonderful look. Isn't it perfect for National Pumpkin Day?
Another fun way to display the group of planters is by using a small brown wooden serving tray with rope handles (I got mine at Micheal's Craft Store.)
Would you like a reminder of these mini Pumpkin Planters for Succulents? Just pin this image to one of your gardening boards on Pinterest so that you can easily find it later.
This video shows just how easy these small planters are to make.
There are close to 2000 National days in the year and lots of fun national days in October. Be sure to check back often to see which national day we are celebrating today!
Mini Pumpkin Planters for Succulents - Fall Decor Idea
These miniature pumpkin planters are fun to make and look great when you plant them with succulents. They are ready in just minutes.
- miniature foam pumpkins.
- one succulent plant for each pumpkin planter
- green moss
- cactus or succulent soil
- Wooden box or tray to display the planters
- green moss
- silk autumn leaves
- sharp knife
- spoon
- Glue gun and hot glue stick
- Use the sharp knife to cut off the top of the pumpkin.
- Hollow out the inside of the pumpkin by removing foam but leave at least 1/4-3/8" wall
- Heat the glue gun and hot glue the moss around the white foam opening to hide it.
- Add cactus/succulent soil to the opening.
- Plant one succulent in each planter.
- Arrange some more moss and silk leaves on a long tray, or inside a wooden box. This will hold any water which might escape.
- Display with pride.
The outside of the planters are quite waterproof but will eventually break down and allow moisture to leak out. Take care on furniture.
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive a small commission from the sale, but the price is the same for you. I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."


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Collaboration Module
It is now only shown for presenters and session chairs when sessions are available for the user, if not the desktop module is hidden.
Presentation - Setup - Presentation Types
After editing a presentation type you stay on the overview instead of linked to the presentation - basics page.
- In the member details a new checkbox "Deceased" is available. No further functionality for now.
- In addition if you balance an invoice in "Account" of a member you can now also change the pay date and time (prefilled with the actual date and time).


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Picto Modern Wall Clock by Rosendahlrosendahl-picto-clock
Product Details
Rosendahl Picto Wall Clock
Made by Rosendahl, imported from Denmark.
Special: $87.00 instead of $125.00
Rosendahl Picto Wall Clock. The Picto Clock was designed by Danish designers Georg Christensen and Erling Andersen. Inspired by the Picto Watch created in 1984 by Steen Georg Christensen & Erling Andersen, the Picto Wall Clock brings the same simple, minimalist style to your wall. Picto, meaning "picture", features the same rotating face as the watch and uses a quartz movement. Hours are marked with a simple dot while the minutes are counted by a traditional moving hand. The clock is glassless, leaving the face open and the design unmarred by light reflections. With strong, contrasting color combinations, the Picto Wall Clock creates a distinct picture of time with each movement.
When Steen Georg Christensen and Erling Andersen designed the Picto clock in 1984, they especially wanted to continue developing the conventional clocks design and they therefore concentrated on the form and the function. The designer duo furthermore wanted to create an image of the time. They were successful transforming the Rosendahl Picto into a modern classic. The graphic expression of Picto is modern and minimalistic, which is why it is more contemporaneous than ever. More advantages of the clock are in the revolutionary, rotating dial, which makes Picto remarkably different, even 30 years after it has been launched. The Rosendahl Timepieces Picto wall clock's dial rotates contrasting all the common clocks with ticking pointers Picto leans on the imagination of a rotating world and the time passing simultaneously. The hours pointer is a fixed element at one place of the dial, together with the normal minutes pointer they are the only elements of the clock. Less is often more. The Rosendahl Timepieces Picto wall clock is unique as a designer's piece. They were for example completely designed without the common glass protection a surprising and fresh effect, which emphasizes the rotating dial in front of a wall and which makes people stop and want to touch it in order to feel the time passing. The glass-less design moreover directs the attention to the contrasting colors of the hours and minutes pointer.
Size: 6.3" diameter
Material: Casing in polypropylene.
Action: Quartz movement.
Battery: 1 x AA battery (not included).
In stock, usually ships in 2-4 business days.


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The drama of extreme value and color are the foundations of my paintings. An effect of light falling across a subject usually stimulates me to begin. Then, working in soft pastels, oils or acrylics, I try to express that moment.
Soft pastels are my media of choice. Their immediacy of colors entice me. I like the feel of the stick in my hand as well as the array of hues just sitting there waiting to be chosen.
Oils have allowed me to paint small canvases almost daily.
The intensity of acrylics and its quick drying attributes encourage me to experiment playfully with mixed media on a variety of supports.
All of the paintings on this site are available for purchase, except where otherwise noted. Please contact me using the information below to learn more.
Contact the Artist
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com


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Singer Ariana Grande Lands Zoolander 2 Cameo
Entertainment| |
The Break Free hitmaker's involvement in the Ben Stiller comedy was revealed by movie icon Susan Sarandon, who let slip the casting news as she explained why she had expressed her support for Grande in the pop star's doughnut controversy, after she was caught apparently licking sweet treats on a counter at a bakery in California and declaring, "I hate America", last week .
Weighing in on the scandal, for which Grande has since apologized, Sarandon urged her Twitter.com fans to "lick a doughnut in solidarity with @ArianaGrande". She went on to brand the 22 year old "a sweet, talented, true American".
Today, lick a doughnut in solidarity with @ArianaGrande. A sweet, talented, true American. ???
— Susan Sarandon (@SusanSarandon) July 9, 2015
It was not immediately clear why Sarandon was standing up for Grande, but she has since revealed they recently worked together on the new movie.
In an interview with Vulture.com, she explains, "Well, I just worked with her. We did Zoolander 2 together, in Rome. She couldn't be more professional or sweet…
"Clearly (her remarks were) taken out of context… She's smart, and she's a really great, very talented person. It's just ridiculous they (critics) are jumping on her the way they are."
Earlier this week, Grande apologized and insisted her anti-America outburst was a comment about the nation's obesity issues, but admitted she should have picked her words more carefully.
need to clean up this mouth of mine & set a better example for my babes. i apologize and i love you. always learning. pic.twitter.com/BkJWcLxR5y
— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) July 8, 2015
She released a second statement on Thursday evening (July 9th) in the form of a candid video online, in which she confessed she was "disgusted" and "embarrassed" by her own behavior, and vowed to change for the better.
Meanwhile, Grande won't be the only pop star making an appearance in Zoolander 2 when it hits theaters next year (2016) – Justin Bieber also shot a cameo for the film, which stars Stiller, Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell, Penelope Cruz and Kristen Wiig.


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Oral health is important and as such, it is important to take care of the needs of the teeth. We sometimes forget the importance of the teeth and
Most people, who then face the problem of hair fall, will blame the food they take, the lifestyle they live. Many times they will also try to
Aging is no fun. It can be limiting and often also quite painful, but it's something you just have to roll with. If you have the fortune of
Legality of cannabis drugs The use of medical cannabis or marijuana has gained ground in the recent past despite the fact that cannabis products
Getting a Hair Transplant can be life-changing. It can help you in looking younger while covering up your bald spots at the Best Michigan Hair
Regular yoga shrinks areas of the body, but facial yoga has the alternative impact in your lips. By schooling the hoop of muscle mass around your
Whether it's because of your hectic schedule or your keen attention towards a digital device for long, headache is one of the most common
Having your own business comes with its challenges, especially when it comes to employee turnover. One of the best ways to ensure your annual
Crowdfunding for education is not the same as crowdfunding for other causes. It is vastly different and does not run on a profit motive like
A brain that carries out its basic functions properly is not just what a genius would need. Often times we find ourselves in a situation where we


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This year I will be touring the country with my wife Katie and our two children, Riley (12) and Bodi (9). I believe that music is imperative in the schools and have been bringing songwriting to schools around New England for the past 15 years. I work with the teachers to help develop Project Based Learning around their core curriculum so they may have a song for years to come. We craft the lyrics together which starts in the classroom before I arrive with a think tank around the subject chosen. We then weave it into song all together and close by performing the song we have written. It is a process that utilizes English, poetry, mathematics, voice, music and collaboration from everyone in the classroom.
My belief is that now more than ever , we need positive, inspirational music and that music can change lives. It certainly has changed mine and feel very lucky to play, write, perform and produce music for a living.
We will be commencing our tour in Florida and traveling across the country for 6 months. I hope we can visit your school. Here is a short video that has a few testimonials and shows a workshop in progress thanks to Fletcher Elementary School in Fletcher, VT. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OD3YTdUeSjA&feature=youtu.be
I am also available to do a workshop on basic music PR and a career in music followed by a performance.
For pricing and availability , please email firstname.lastname@example.com.
Thanks for your interest,