text:
Random Scramble
Wednesday, February 04, 2015
The title of the post this week refers to the photos, a whatever-came-up-next collection from my photo files.
The week's anthology is
Twentieth-Century Latin American Poetry
, a large bilingual anthology published by the University of Texas Press in 1996.
The rest of the post is all as usual, me, old and new, and poets from my library.
Again, a note:
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I'm just not going to write a poem today
Nicanor Parra
I Move the Meeting be Adjourned
Roller Coaster
Piano Solo
El Paso at an early hour
Ursula le Guin
Incredible Good Fortune
San Jose Palms
my iron cross
Octavio Paz
Elizabeth Alexander
pressed like rain
Gabriel Zaid
Song of Pursuit
A Furious Clarity
Marsha Pomerantz
Cow in a Gallery
Lord, could you at least do this one thing for me
Roque Dalton
Looking for Trouble
El Paso at an early hour, again
Semezdin Mehmedinovic
No Man's Land
Martyr's Resting Place
abuelita de los todos
Pablo Neruda
1. Body of a Woman
themes from a triptych for the early riser
Living Near the Great Buddha
Mountain Village Fog
Field of Wild Flowers
Autumn Rain
Insects Chirping in the Moonlight
not a fit day for man or beast
Gabriela Mistral
A Woman
poems for a day when six lines see like long-haul trucking
Dan Cuddy
The Unquiet
the virtue of patience in a slow-moving world
Now, here's this week's show.
I'm starting this week with a tiny declaration of independence (humorous, I hope).
I'm just not going to write a poem today
it is mid-morning
and I have not written my poem
and I feel like such an outlaw - Jesse James
and Billy the Kid and Rimbaud
all rolled into one root'n, shoot'n, toot'n,
rule-defying, schoolmarm terrifying poet-bandit, rider
of the free verse plain, hiding out in metaphor gulch,
waiting to ride hell-for-leather, raiding all those little box poets
in little box towns and little box banks brimming with obsolete literary allusions, not to mention,
illusions, fortress and all the pusillanimously perverse guardians of poetry's black soul of
a rebel, a revolutionary, an avant-garde radical, get-your-face-out-of-my-face box-buster
is what I want to be today...
in face -
to all those critics who proclaim this is poetry and this is not, here is a poet and here is not, to
all those who make all those rules that I'm bound to break,, here's what I have to say...
I'm going to give them a day off and not write a poem
and I don't care comb your hair
I start this week from the anthology,
Twentieth Century Latin American Poets
, with three poems by Chilean poet, mathematician and physicist
Nicanor Parra
Though Parra describes himself as an "anti-poet" because of his disdain for poetic pomp and convention, many rank him as among the most important poets of Spanish language literature. At the end of each reading, he often closes with, "M
e retracto de todo lo dicho"
(I take back everything I said).
I'm reading him for the first time. I'm pretty sure I'm going to like him.
I Move the Meeting Be Adjourned
Ladies and gentlemen
I have only one question:
Are we children of the Sun and the Earth?
Because if we are only Earth
I see no reason
To continue shooting this picture!
I move the meeting be adjourned.
(Translation by
Allen Ginsberg
Roller Coaster
For half a century
Poetry was the paradise
Of the solemn fool.
Until I came
and built my roller coaster.
Go up, if you feel like it.
I'm not responsible if you come down
Bleeding from your mouth and nose.
(Translation by
Miller William
Piano Solo
Since man's life is nothing but a bit of action at a distance,
A bit of foam shining inside a glass;
Since trees are nothing but moving trees;
Nothing but chairs and tables in perpetual motion;
Since we ourselves are nothing but beings
(As the godhead itself is nothing but God);
Now that we do not speak solely to be heard
But so that others may speak
And the echo-preceding the voice that produced it;
Since we do not even have the consolation of a chaos
In the garden that yawns and fills with air,
A puzzle that we must solve before our death
So that we may nonchalantly resuscitate later on
When we have had woman to excess;
Since there is also a heaven in hell,
Permit me to propose a few things:
I wish to make a noise with my feet
I want my soul to find its proper body.
(Translated by William Carlos Williams)
Another old travel poem, this one written early in 2010, another of my travel sketches.
El Paso at an early hour
deep desert
through the black
night sky
even before
the first peach of sunrise
shows behind
the mountains
a quiet Sunday morning
just like in the
I had been a reader of science fiction books by
Ursula K. Le Guin
, for years, not ever realizing she was as good a poet as she is at everything else. I learned different when I picked up this book,
Incredible Good Fortune
, at a used bookstore. The book was published by Shambala in 2006.
Le Guin, winner of ever prestigious prize there is for science fiction and fantasy writers, won the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in 2014.
This is the poem from which the book's title is drawn, plus a second short poem.
Incredible Good Fortune
O California, dark, shaken, broken hills,
bright fog reaching over the beaches,
madrone and digger pine and valley oak,
I'm your dry hearted daughter.
I listened when the earthquake spoke
and learned what the quail teaches.
the stony bed the rain of winter fills
waited all year for water.
San Jose Palms
in sea wind
licks of light
flickers, flashes
clicketing of high
fronds, dry steaming
water-clatter, wind sound
rattle-rustle of the air-trees
the sway-trees,, the calm trees
Here's another poem from last week, about a gift and what it means to me.
my iron cross
I have a cross made of two rough iron nails,
each about 4 inches long,
hanging over the door to m office, give
to me by a friend, a believer
who has affection for me and who wished to share with me
the peace she finds in her faith
though I am not a believer
I have similar affection for my friend
and respect her unassuming an deeply held beliefs
and was honored by her gift
and the peace she hoped to bring to me
and pleased, also, because the cross is a beautiful piece
rough-hewn art, the long iron spikes,
elementary truth in the integrity of their coarse construction,
as if the hands of their maker, the purpose and life of the iron-worker artist
is imprinted on every ridge and groove of their irregular surface
and because it is an illustration of how art
can embody the essence of meanings,the iron nails,
old and heavy and sharp and crude as the nails belief says pierced
the hands and feet of Jesus Christ, relics, almost, placed on my wall,
a great story hanging over my head every time I pass through the door,
a reminder to the poet that, true or not, believed or not,
great stories have great power...
and that it is this poet's job to find the stories that bring power to all who read them
one does not have to believe the stories in order to respect and honor them
because they are a reflection of our human desire for a better place
and a better time, our search for a better self, a glimpse
of the diving...
some stories are bloody and cruel, but the need to believe, whatever the story,
reflect the human thrust to find a place beyond the restrictions
of our evolutionary heritage, to find a more human way
to be human...
it is the way, through one story or another, all of us find our way
And a collection of Latin American poets that didn't include Mexican poet
Octavio Paz
wouldn't be much of a collection at all.
Paz is first of three Nobel Prize winners included in this post. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1990.
Here are three of his poems, all translated by
Charles Tomlinson
My steps along this street
in another street
in which
I hear my steps
passing along this street
in which
Only the mist is real
If it is real the white
light from this lamp, real
the writing hand, are they
real, they eyes looking at what I write?
From one word to the other
What I say vanishes
I know that I am alive
between two parentheses
The stones are time
The wind
Centuries of wind
The trees are time
The people are stone
The wind
turns upon itself and sinks
Into the stone day
there is no water here for all the luster of its eyes
This is another travel sketch from early in 2010. In this one, I think we were on our way home from the trip to Lake Tahoe that I had pictures of a couple of weeks ago.
white-robed mountains
the virgin-brides
of western California
San Bernadino,
and the car-choked
of Los Angeles
to the dry, brown
hills of north Arizona
bright yellow
brushy and thick
climb the hills like
the rising drab and deary
Next from my library, this poem by
Elizabeth Alexander
Born in Harlem in 1962, Alexander is a poet, essayist, playwright and university professor (University of Chicago and Smith College), and for a brief time, a reporter for the Washington Post.
I swing
the thin tin
arm to mark
an arc
from pole
to pole: my
mother's compass
spans the world.
It marks
the globe from east
to west on this
white paper as
I twirl
the compass,
hear the hush
of graphite:
a horizon.
It feels freest
at its widest set,
held just by a pin -
prick on the page,
moored and precarious,
like Mathew Hinson's flag.
Even the dog died.
His Eskimo grandchildren cried
when, years late, the black man
they prayed was a Henson
came looking to figure
what makes a man hazard
ten lifetimes of snow. Hayden
imagined your arguments, hunger,
delirium. The fur of your hood
frames your brown face like petals or rays.
To stand where the top of the world curves.
To look all around in that silence.
To breathe in cold air that has never
been squandered, breathe out again.
To breathe in cold air, breathe
breathe in
This poem is from early last week, early in the series of days of really lousy weather.
pressed like rain
the moon
a blood edged scimitar
pushing a cloudburst west
rolling dark and dense
the Gulf's gift
to the desert, blooming
in all the shades of cactus
it would be a time to be there
I'm not
but would like to be
running with the clouds
across the desert
and into the mountains
like the rain
by the blood-edged moon
Next from the anthology, four short poems by
Gabriel Zaid
, another Mexican poet I'm not so familiar with. Born in Monterrey in 1934, Zaid was a poet and intellectual who studied Engineering. His Wikipedia entry says he rarely appeared in public or allowed his picture to be taken because he though the emphasis on a poet's work should be his poetry, not him.
Don't know about the not allowing pictures thing since I found a bunch of them. Can't say he looks happy in any of them though.
Song of Pursuit
I am not the wind, nor the sail,
but the rudder that watches.
I am not the water, nor the rudder,
but he who sings this song.
I am not the voice or the throat,
but that which is sung.
I don't know who I am , nor what I say,
But I go following you.
(Translation by
Monica Hernandez
A Furious Clarity
We accept no givens: from here on illusion.
The light of my eyes: a world apart, but mine.
Whether you're present or not, the present is given.
At times a light pours down, our daily bread.
Thoughts are given you, yours like the birds.
Solitude is given you, yours like your shadow.
Black light shuddering at the thump of day.
(Translation by
George McWhirter
Between to live and to think,
the door is ajar.
Seeing: being wide open.
(Translation by
Monica Hernandez-Cancio
Weird hour. It's not
the end of the world,
but it's dusk.
the tower of Pisa,
tells the hour
on the verge of falling.
(Translation by
Adrian Hernandez
Here once more, traveling again, same trip as before, Lake Tahoe to San Antonio via California, Arizona and New Mexico.
a cold mean
rain blown
like bullets
by a hard
north wind
on the road
I enter
an underpass
and pigeons
a flock of ten
or twelve
fly down
from the girders
fly in front of me
for a moment
I am in the cold
rainy sky
flying with them
Here's a poem from my library by
Marsha Pomerantz
. It's from her book
The Illustrated Edge
, published by Biblioasis in 2011.
Pomerantz grew up in New York, lived in Israel for twenty years, and now lives in Boston. Her work has been published in journals in the US, UK and Israel. She has also translated poetry, short fiction, and a novel from Hebrew. She is managing editor at the Harvard Art Museums.
Cow in a Gallery
Thicker slices than you'd ever think,
no pink lights in the meat case.
This is me with precision plastic pins holding
hide and all under utter incandescence,
me here, continuous through all interruptions,
through people crossing through my spine,
my only straight line.
This is my spleen, this is my underwater liver
that, eating slow, I worked so hard to grow.
These are my mutabilities of brown, my surface
absorptive in all senses, my anus urging wonder
in ever-new directions.
I'm doing all this for you, consumer:
only you can get out of this
something like alive.
Feed me, please,
your possibilities,
and I will fatten you.
Bad weather and a call to the heavens for help.
Lord, could you at least do this one thing for me
it's a bright, beautiful day outside
and the dog
in the car for a walk but
three weeks into three weeks
of head cold and cedar fever allergy
I am so weak and disoriented
(in the sixties and seventies, people
would have paid good money
for a hit of this other-worldly inter-dimensionality,
this stepping over clouds beneath my
feet, this had-butting the late-setting moon,
this twisted lattice
of space and time and fear of flying and
just plain old reality-slippage, like sand
draining through my ears)
but then is then and now is now,
at least I think so,
and the fun is gone and I would really like
a hit of bed, instead, pillow-plumping-covers-covering
sleep, days or at least long enough
for this damn minds-eye
to subside...
someone call in the developers,
strip the north hills of all cedar trees
right down to the limestone,
free me O Lord of snifflers of thy
heavy hand of allergens
or, if that's too much to ask,
O Lord,
you could at least
take fifteen minutes
from your celestial obligation
to keep the stars
burning and bright and
my poor dog for
Here's a poem from the anthology by
Roque Dalton
. Born in 1935 in San Salvador, El Salvador, Dalton was a poet and reporter, a political activist eventually, a member of one of the leftist guerrilla groups that later became a part of the FMLN. In 1975, before the various parties came together, he was assassinated by one of the rival groups.
Looking for Trouble
The night of my first cell meeting it was pouring rain
Four or five characters out of the world of Goya
were very impressed with the way I dripped
Everyone there seemed somewhat bored
perhaps from the persecution and the daily nightmares
of torture.
These somewhat hoarse-sounding organizers
labor unions
and strikes told me I'd have to
find a pseudonym
that I was going to have to pay five pesos a month
that we had to agree to do this every Wednesday
and how were my studies going
and for today we were going to read a pamphlet by Lenin
and that it wasn't necessary to say "comrade" every minute.
When we broke up the rain had stopped
Mother scolded me for coming home late.
(Translation by
Richard Schaaf
From a second morning in El Paso.
El Paso at an early hour, again
the air is desert
chill -
a pink thread
on the east horizon
suggests the coming
of a rising sun -
stench of low-grade diesel carried
by low morning
crosses the border
from Cuidad Juarez,
its people
a million strong
waking in the dark,
their yellow lights
like stars flung
the mountainside -
the pink thread
widens -
a shadowing light
spreads -
from the north foothills
a coyote
Here are four short poems from my library by Bosnian poet,
Semezdin Mehmedinovic
, a writer, filmmaker and magazine editor. The poems are from his book
Sarajevo Blues
, published by City Lights. Books in 1998, translated by
Ammiel Alcalay
In 1996, after the end of the siege of Sarajevo and the conclusion of the Bosnian war, Mehmedinovic emigrated to the United States and currently lives in Virginia.
Only then -
not before you have coffee
at the train station;
the dispatcher tapping the sheels
of the locomotive with a hammer;
the paper tucked under your arm -
leaving the city in peace -
you'll never be true to yourself anywhere
unless your very life is the only truth
unless the empty air calls itself freedom -
unless you're a deserter
with an uneasy conscience
unless you're Billy the Kid
No Man's Land
For over a month now, over where the dividing line is, the
bodies of the dead lie. You can't get close to them; the white
UNPROFOR transporters don't go there to pick them up:
the unburied lie and their souls wander with the city crows.
A Martyr's Resting Place
A body just about to be buried. I see a soldier on his knees,
still a kid. His rifle rests in his lap. You can hear the guttural
murmur of Arabic. Sorrow gathers in circles under the eyes;
the men pass their open palms across their faces. As the rites
continue, I feel the presence of God in everything; when this
is over, I will take a pen and make a list of my sins. Now
everything in me resists death; as my tongue passes over my
teeth I can sense the taste of a woman's lipstick. No one is
crying. I keep quiet. A cat jumps across the shadow of a
1) Dream: I'm going down the steps towards the Old
City. As I cautiously head over to the north side of town, I
feel some warmth at the back of my head. I move ahead
carefully, so I don't trample the flowers growing on every
step. The shells have gauged out the level surfaces on the
steps and with the rainwater, dirt has gathered in the
hollowed cavities. I make sure to stand only at the edge
so I don't plunge into the abyss or squash the weak, pale
flowers, the sickly flowers.
2) Which Fassbinder film was that in?
A one-armed
goes into a florist and asks:
which flower shows that the day is passing?
And the florist says:
white lilies
This one from last week also, a little poem of the moment of the kind I'm always looking for.
abuelita de los todos
the rotund little crossing guard, silver curls
trickling under the back of
her white crossing-guard cap,
commands the intersection
with the authority of her orange vest,
parades sternly across the rush-hour street,
little feet paddling fast against the cold asphalt,
like a mother duck
she pulls in her wake a gaggle of
tiny ducklings, all bundled, head to toe,
against the cold
whatever else might befall them
as the day progress,, her little charges are safe for now
under her fierce shield
abuelita de los todos -
la guarda bajo el sol naciente
As with Paz, you can't have a collection of Latin American poetry without including Chilean poet, politician, diplomat and 1971 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature,
Pablo Neruda
This is one of Neruda's wonderful love poems. From
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair
Though it's not clearly stated, I think it was translated by
W. S. Merwin
1. Body of a Woman
Body of a woman, white hills, white thighs,
you look like a world, lying in surrender.
My rough peasant's body digs in you
and makes the son leap from the depth of the earth.
I was alone like a tunnel. The birds fled from em,
and night swamped me with its crushing invasion.
To survive myself I forged you like a weapon,
like an arrow in my bow, a stone in my sling.
But the hour of vengeance falls, and I love you.
Body of skin, of moss, of eager and firm milk.
Of the goblets of he breasts! Oh the eyes of absence!
Oh the roses of the pubis! Oh your voice, slow and sad.
Body of my woman, I will persist in your grace.
My thirst, my boundless desire, my shifting road!
Dark river-beds where the eternal thirst flows
and weariness follows, and the infinite ache.
Traveling done for this week, two last back-at-home poems from 2010, this one and one more coming.
themes from a triptych for the early riser
the sharp knife
of a rooster's
cuts free the sun
from the black
sack of winter night
tiny birds
behind thick branches
little twits
and tweets
coldly feathered
the creek at sunrise -
running water bubbles
beneath the ice
Next from my library this week, several poems from
Lotus Moon - the Poetry of the Buddhist Nun Rengetsu
. This is one of a series of books by White Pines Press, this one in 2005.
At the age of thirty-three, Otagaki Nobu (1791-1875) renounced the world that had brought tragedy to her - the death of two husbands and three children - and, taking the name
(Lotus Moon) and was ordained as a Buddhist nun. In 1832, she began to make and sell pottery inscribed with her poetry. The combination of beautiful poetry, calligraphy and pottery were highly prized in her lifetime and continue to be even more so today.
Living Near the Great Buddha
My night: autumn chill,
A steady drizzle
Of cold rain and
The flicker of
Lonely shadows
**The Great Buddha is housed in the colossal main hall of the temple Todaiji in Nara.
Mountain Village Fog
Overgrown kudzu vines,
Not a visitor for ages;
Along the hedge
Autumn fog wells up
In the mountain village.
Field of Wild Flowers
Rather than cutting them down
To spread out or gather up,
Let the wild flowers of autumn be
And enjoy the field
Just as it is...
Autumn Rain
The sun sets,
And the shadows deepen
Around the pines of Irie -
Lonely memories
In the autumn rain.
Insects Chirping in the Moonlight
From a crack in the wall
Of my mountain hut:
Katydids announce themselves
And moonlight too
pours in.
Another lousy weather poem from last week.
not a fit day for man or beast
heavy rain
driven by a hard cold wind,
like river pebbles
against my bedroom
window, walking to the car
through ankle deep
puddles, my feet soaked
inside my socks soaked inside
my shoes soaked
top to bottom soaked
top to bottom soaked
like my hat is soaked and the portion
of my nose which sticks out
from my hat
not a fit day for man nor
and if you don't believe me
just ask the beast
in my car, Bella Beast
who took one look out the door
this morning and said
and hid behind the
until I told her I was going to leave
without her
and so she finally went to the car
and now won't come out of the car,
waiting for the rain to stop
which it's not going to do
all day
and she didn't go out to pee
all night and she hasn't this morning
either so I guess I'll just wait
until she gets the panicky look she gets
wen random strangers or other relatives
who might want to kill me come into the house,
which works out to when anybody but me
comes into the house
or when she really
wants to pee
and I'll just watch for that look
and take her out then...
it's not a fit day for man or beast
I had to look to find a female poet in the anthology and the one I found is the same one I found last time I used the anthology. But a distinguished find she is,
Gabriela Mistral
, another Chilean and the only female Latin American poet to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (1945). Born in 1889, the poet, diplomat, educator and feminist, Mistral died in 1957.
The poem, written in 1954, was translated by
Doris Dana
. The poet died three years later.
A Woman
Where her house stood, she goes on living
as if it had never burned.
The only word she speaks
are the words of her soul;
to those who pass by she speaks none.
When she says "pine of Aleppo"
she speaks of not tree, but a child;
and when she says "little stream"
or "mirror of gold" she speaks of the the same.
When night falls she counts
the charred beams of her house.
Lifting her forehead she sees
the pine of Aleppo stand tall.
(The day lives for its night,
the night for its miracle.)
In every tree, she raises the one
they laid upon the earth.
She warms and wraps and holds him close
to the fire of her breast.
Home. A last old poem from 2010.
poems for when 6 lines seem like long-haul trucking
in Barqu mode
wakes the day -
bright morning
crowds out
many shades
of spring
green -
stately oak
to neon
summer hides -
spring's dark
behind every
green tree
spring break
beach -
pale skin
exposed -
lots of it -
hide behind
new spring
leaves -
at the cat
casts appraising eye
at chattering
birds, skulks,
Last from my library this week, this poem by
Dan Cuddy
, one of my poet friends from Maryland.
The Unquiet
so taken for granted
like waking up
pouncing gently on the floor
sliding into slippers or shoes
rushing in and out with breath
but like a stream's current
almost unperceived
maybe a leaf
like a cough now and then
tumbling down the course
of breaths
bobbing up and over moments
around bends of activity
the sun
is picking at the edge of ice
rubbing softly its skin
scooping infinitesimally
the water on top
that slippery duplicity
tossing the melt
into the air
letting the cool
if not cold
content with vapor
the sun
like breath
moves through the day
doing its unseen
well, u perceived
like the breath keeps
the mind pleasantly comfortable
so the mind
can lord it over the predictable
but usually not though about
how we rely on the sun
on our breath
on waking up
in or cycles
doing what we always do
making orange juice
and saying contentedly
to ourselves
usually don't want anybody to hear
don't want to be ostentatious or weird
and so it is
until we die
I don't just observe people, I watch dogs as well.
the virtue of patience in a slow moving world
for a dog,
she's a bit of a scary-cat,
doesn't really trust anyone but me,
on her guard even around Dee, but she understands
that whenever Dee makes noise in the kitchen
there is a pretty good chance some scrap of something edible
is going to fall on the floor
if you see the ugly, rotten stuff she'll pick up from the ground to eat
when we're out for a walk, that she has pretty low standards
for what is edible and what is not, so that even though Dee's food scraps
are always tasty, they don't have to be to capture her attention)
she lurks, right around the corner from the kitchen,
waiting like a mendicant the Virgen de San Juan Basilica
right off Highway 83 near San Juan, Texas, a place near from which I grew...
she waits,
front paws crossed as if in prayer, like one of the faithful preparing
to do the stations of the cross before confession
and the host, alert to the tiniest thud of portion of food
to land on the floor, patient when it does, waiting for Dee
to go to the other end of the kitchen so that she can do a flash-raid,
pick up said fallen goody and be out of the danger zone
before the possibly murderous Dee
even knows
she's there,full-bellied and safe, too, knows
if she can just wait...
I consider going to get a scrap of something to give her,
what would be the fun of that?
As usual, everything belongs to who made it. You're welcome to use my stuff, just, if you do, give appropriate credit to "Here and Now" and to me.
As always,
I am Allen Itz owner and producer of this blog, and diligent seller of books, specifically these and specifically here:
Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBookstore, Sony eBookstore, Copia, Garner's, Baker & Taylor, eSentral, Scribd, Oyster, Flipkart, Ciando and Kobo (and, through Kobo, brick and mortar retail booksellers all across America and abroad)
New Days & New Ways
Places and Spaces
Always to the Light
Goes Around Comes Around
Pushing Clouds Against the Wind
And, for those print-bent, available at Amazon and select coffeehouses in San Antonio
Seven Beats a Second
Short Stories
Sonyador - The Dreamer
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text: Hello, I have found this message from May 2007. Is there some news? Regards -- ssbx Sanjaya Vitharana wrote: > Hi > > Are there any plan to support XER ? > > Thanks in advance, > > Sanjaya Vitharana > Yes, we have plans to implement that, though it has been postponed into some future release. /Bertil

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Here's the latest DATE-ONOMICS news and reviews:
The book reviewer for The Yakima (Wash.) Herald concluded that whereas Aziz Ansari's Modern Romance "fell rather flat," DATE-ONOMICS is "an intriguing look at how gender ratios and socio-economic factors can play a role in our interpersonal relationships." My favorite line: "As far as statistically inclined books go, I consider DATE-ONOMICS to be several standard deviations above the mean."
DATE-ONOMICS made its first holiday gift list! (It really is the perfect stocking-stuffer for all the single people in your life.)
The Guardian newspaper in London interviewed me for a three-page write-up on DATE-ONOMICS. It's a fun story with fantastic art. And given the huge response from readers — 2,200 comments in one day! — I'm starting to wonder whether "The Dating Gap" should have been my book title. Oh well.
Continuing with the UK theme, London's Telegraph newspaper also chimed in with their own DATE-ONOMICS STORY.
Cynthia Allen, a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, used DATE-ONOMICS to discuss the connection between increasingly lopsided gender ratios on college campuses and the rise of hookup culture and the scourge of campus rape. Allen's column also ran in the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch.
DATE-ONOMICS has been getting coverage in student newspapers too, including these stories in the student papers at Brigham Young University and West Virginia University. I was also interviewed by BYU Radio.
Two single-gal blogs recently published reviews. (I love the way Brits use the word "clever" instead of "smart.") See: RinseBeforeUse and Girlwiththafro


text:
Printable has three main categories of sign printing.
#1 Indoor signs, which include printed expo walls, pull up banners, and vinyl decals, custom wall paper for office fit-outs, floor graphics, magnets etc.
#2 Outdoor signs, which include custom printed flags, Outdoor banner printing, corflutes, billboard skin and backdrop printing. We also print on quality long term vinyl and apply it to ACM board. The only thing Printable doesn't do is install sign, but we have partners that do all throughout New Zealand and Australia.
#3 Canvas Printing, printed with our environmentally friendly HP Latex wide format printers, then stretch the canvas across a super thick, quality 40mm frame, Most canvases are only 25mm & wow, what a difference. These are a special gift idea.


text:
The moment is finally here: this month the CELA festival tour kicks off at Hay Festival Segovia in Spain! On Saturday 22 September at 11 in the morning six duo's of emerging writers and emerging translators will talk with writer Jaime Bartolomé about their work and bridging the gaps between European makers and the public: Maurizio Amendola (Italy) and translator Paula Caballero (Spain), Lotte Lentes (The Netherlands) and translator Irene de la Torre (Spain), João Valente (Portugal) and translator Lara Carrión (Spain) as well as Livia Franchini (Italy) and translator Paula Caballero, Catalin Pavel (Romania) and translator Corina Oproae (Spain) and Rebekka de Wit (Belgium) and translator Guillermo Briz (Spain). All of them will also read at the grand opening of the festival on Friday 21 September.
That's not all: in the week leading up to the festival opening, three Spanish CELA-writers are giving Creative Writing workshops. On Tuesday 18 September Mariana Torres will explore the role of play and the inner child within when it comes to artistic and creative activities. On Wednesday 19 September Matías Candeira will lead 'I have something to tell you', a workshop in which you can learn to look differently and build good stories with very little. Finally, on Friday 21 September Roberto Osa will close the workshop series with 'The tools of a writer', a workshop in which he will explain different tools and techniques that writers can use to create fiction.
CELA (Connecting Emerging Literary Artists) offers a European context to a new generation of writers, translators and literary professionals. Starting in September 2018, the CELA artists take stages all across Europe to sit side by side on stage, revealing the joys, and sorrows, of telling the same story differently. After Hay Festival Segovia, different duo's take the stage at Pisa Book Festival (Italy), Wintertuinfestival (The Netherlands), Tinto no Branco - Festival Literario (Portugal), Passa Porta Festival (Belgium), Lev - Literature em Viagem (Portugal) and Book Fest (Romania).
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Question: Last year our dog, Skippy, and cat, Garfield, both had bouts of pancreatitis and cost us a fortune in vet bills. Could you please explain the condition and suggest any complementary therapies to prevent recurrence?
Mr and Mrs Thomas, Kent, UK
Answer: Pancreatitis—inflammation of the pancreas—is a very painful, life-threatening and commonly under-diagnosed condition that affects both cats and dogs. The inflammation causes leakage of the digestive enzymes from the pancreas, and as a result, the pancreas literally starts digesting itself.
Pancreatitis can be acute (sudden) or chronic (developing slowly over a period of time). While both forms are life threatening, the acute form is more serious and painful.
In most cases the cause is unknown, and dogs seems to suffer more than cats. The acute form is more common in dogs, while cats tend to develop the chronic form, exhibiting milder symptoms.
In dogs, the trouble usually starts when they eat something too rich (like a whole birthday cake) or too foreign (a dead bird). These can be challenging for the dog's digestive system; the pancreas is overburdened and becomes inflamed. Instead of sending the digestive enzymes to the duodenum (the first section of the small intestine), the pancreas starts to leach them into the abdomen and raises the enzyme levels in the blood, causing severe pain.
The chronic form in dogs may be caused by a high-fat diet, viral or bacterial infections, contaminated food and water, diabetes mellitus and also the use of certain drugs like organophosphate parasiticides, antibiotics and diuretics.
In cats, pancreatitis is most common in those with cholangiohepatitis (inflammation of the liver and bile ducts), fatty liver disease and inflammatory bowel disease.
Symptoms and diagnosis
Pancreatitis is extremely difficult to diagnose, especially in cats, as the symptoms are very vague and can range from gastrointestinal upset to sudden collapse and death.
In acute cases, the abdomen becomes painful and distended, vomiting and nausea follow, and the animal stops eating and becomes depressed and lethargic. A dog may adopt a 'praying' position, with its head close to the ground and its hindquarters in the air, while a cat may present with a lack of appetite and even jaundice.
Always see your vet if your pet displays any of these symptoms, as animals can die from pancreatitis. A vet will obtain a full history (dietary indiscretions like eating garbage, scavenging, cakes, fatty food, etc. must be mentioned) and then perform a thorough clinical examination.
By a process of elimination and differential diagnoses, he or she may arrive at a provisional diagnosis of acute/chronic pancreatitis. Following this, a diagnostic blood test called CPLI (canine pancreatic lipase immunoreactivity) in dogs and a FPLI (feline pancreatic lipase immunoreactivity) in cats may be needed, as well as an ultrasound of the abdomen and X-rays.
Conventional treatment
The treatment of pancreatitis is primarily supportive, meaning that there isn't usually a direct cause and cure, but the animal needs to be cared for while allowing natural healing to occur or the pancreas to recover. The veterinary team will take care of the animal's fluid needs with an intravenous (IV) drip, and will address any other conditions like infection or diabetes.
The usual treatments are:
Nothing by mouth (no food) used to be the rule of thumb in pancreatitis. By doing this, you essentially switch off the pancreatic enzymes to prevent autodigestion. Resting the pancreas and gastrointestinal system is key to recovery. This means no food or water by mouth for several days while on IV fluids. The length of time is dependent on the severity of each case, and the animal must be on fluids and other support to survive and heal the pancreas while off oral food and water. Nowadays, pets can be fed special low-fat food via a nasogastric tube (straight into the stomach), thereby bypassing the pancreas.
Pain relief. Antibiotics, antacids, anti-emetics and other medications may be prescribed, depending on the case.
A low-fat diet. After recovery, a low-fat prescription diet like Hill's i/d or Royal Canin Low Fat Gastrointestinal diet is recommended. In cats, the treatment varies depending on whether the animal also has jaundice, cholangiohepatitis or other conditions.
Natural treatments
Viewed holistically, pancreatitis is not so much a distinct condition but rather a larger disease complex. Instead of pumping drugs into an animal on diagnosis, it is better to focus on this broader complex and ease it with holistic measures. Here are some of the best options.
Switch to natural, top-quality pet food. Several holistic vets believe that years and years of feeding commercial pet food lacking in natural digestive enzymes can overload a pet's digestive system, and this additional stress can cause the pancreas to malfunction. They therefore recommend giving dogs and cats high-quality, all-natural foods (such as the pet food made by Castor & Pollux, Applaws, and Natural Planet) after recovery.
Homemade diets low in fat and oils, consisting of meat like chicken or turkey and grains like brown rice or millet, may serve the same purpose and work out to be healthier and cheaper.
During the initial illness, you can put your pets on a liquid fast and feed them small amounts of chicken or vegetable broth (see recipe, below) multiple times throughout the day. Also give them access to distilled water.
Consider homeopathy. Holistic vet Dr Martin Goldstein recommends injecting a pancreas homeopathic remedy followed by a program of 'pancreatic drops' and Pancreatrophin (Standard Process Labs), which is a glandular extract. Homeopathic vet Francis Hunter advises using Arsenicum Album, Mercuris Solubilis, Versicolor and Haronga for treating the symptoms. For an individualized treatment, consult a homeopathic vet near you for advice.
Try vitamins and minerals. Antioxidants like vitamins C and E may reduce the severity and frequency of pancreatitis attacks. Vetri-Science makes a product called Cell Advance for dogs and cats that's packed with antioxidants as well as various immune-supporting nutrients.
Pets suffering from pancreatitis may also have low blood calcium, so it's also worth giving calcium supplements.
Go for digestive enzymes. Supplemental digestive enzymes such as Florazyme LP powder may help the pancreas 'rest' during flare-ups.
Try live-culture yogurt. This is full of beneficial bacteria, which may be helpful. Try giving cats 1 teaspoon of yogurt 3-5 days a week and dogs 1 tablespoon, depending on size.
Avoid unnecessary chemicals. Try to use natural flea control and worming products whenever possible, as repeated exposure to chemical parasiticides and herbicides can damage the pancreas.
Consider hands-on healing, which could help to ease your pets' distress and help them to recover more quickly. Focus especially on the solar plexus, which is said to rule the pancreas. See my book You Can Heal Your Pet for how to administer hands-on healing to your pet.
Simple chicken broth
This simple recipe is suitable for both dogs and cats, and ideal to help them recover from pancreatitis:
1) Place a cooked chicken carcass in a large lidded saucepan and add 2½ cups of water.
2) Bring to a boil, then turn off the heat and leave to cool, preferably overnight, with the lid on.
3) Remove the carcass and strain the liquid into a glass container with a lid. Keep refrigerated and use within three days.
Optional extras: Carrots, green beans, zucchini, potatoes, broccoli (florets
and stalks)
Adapted from You Can Heal Your Pet by Rohini Sathish and Elizabeth Whiter (Hay House, 2015)
Rohini Sathish, DVM, MSC, MRCVS, MHAO, MCIVT
Dr Sathish is an award-winning holistic vet with 22 years of experience. After training in acupuncture, acupressure, energy healing, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), animal communication and herbal medicine, she now actively integrates conventional veterinary treatments with complementary therapies and is co-author of You Can Heal Your Pet (Hay House, 2015). You can contact Dr Sathish at her website: www.rohinisholisticvetcare.com


text:
Preferences vs Xamarin.Forms Properties (Xamarin.Essentials API of the Week)
Play Preferences vs Xamarin.Forms Properties (Xamarin.Essentials API of the Week)
Xamarin.Essentials provides developers with cross-platform APIs for their mobile applications. On this week's Xamarin.Essential API of the week we take a look at the difference between the Preferences API part of Xamarin.Essentials and Xamarin.Forms' Application Properties. He shows off how they work, when would you want to use one over the other, and how do you get started.
Show Notes:
- Xamarin.Essentials Documentation
- Xamarin.Essentials Getting Started Documentation
- Preferences Documentation
- Source Code
- Find James on: Twitter, GitHub, Blog, and his weekly development podcast Merge Conflict.
- Follow @JamesMontemagno
- Never Miss an Episode: Follow @TheXamarinShow
Useful Links:


text:
The dollar was little changed ahead of the U.S. payrolls report on Friday and a Group of Seven rich nations meeting next week.
U.S. core inflation data for December, stripping out food and energy costs, provided no inspiration for the market.
Dealers have steadily unwound some overextended carry trades, in which they borrow in a currency with low interest rates to buy one with higher rates and profit on the spread.
"There is a lot of soul-searching going on about whether carry trades are really safe to embrace or if they should be treated more selectively," said Lara Rhame, foreign exchange
strategist with Credit Suisse in New York.
The yen has gained across the board as speculation intensified that G7 finance chiefs might discuss yen weakness at next week's meeting, which could prompt broad buying in the Japanese currency.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Wednesday he was watching the value of the yen "very, very carefully."
Japan's top financial diplomat Hiroshi Watanabe said some G7 members may mention the yen as part of the discussions although he did not see a panic unwinding of yen carry trades.
Analysts point to increasing nervousness on whether yen carry trades can be sustained.
"I see trepidation as we move to next week's G7 meeting. There will be a similar situation to the last G7 ... where European finance ministers get in front of every microphone available to say that the yen is trading too cheaply," said Steve Barrow, currency strategist at Bear Stearns in London.
The U.S. core personal consumption expenditures price index, seen as the Federal Reserve's favored gauge of inflation, rose 0.1% in December. On a year-over-year basis, the core PCE index was up 2.2%.
The dollar failed to move substantially after the Fed held its benchmark overnight interest rate steady as expected on Wednesday and maintained a warning on inflation risks.
It also said inflation pressures were likely to moderate and further tightening of monetary policy may be needed depending on the inflation and economic outlook.


text:
When a governing party's time is up, no one cares about the failings of the opposition. Ministers in John Major's Tory administration used to bemoan the easy ride the media gave New Labour. Now it is Labour ministers' turn to stare with disbelieving eyes at the free pass we give the Conservatives.
Scandals which would once have led the news - the Tory energy spokesman's links to Vitol, an oil company which cut deals with Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic; the Conservative peers who still talk about 'niggers in the woodpile' - are passed over with an embarrassed cough. I know from the experience of writing critical pieces about the Blairites in 1997 that when the national mood swings, few readers want to hear about the faults of the government in waiting.
Like Tony Blair, David Cameron has 'decontaminated' his brand and turned the once burning hatred of the Conservative party into desultory emotion - more of a habit rather than a passion. The first aim of the British centre-left is no longer to stop the Tories at any cost.
But in one area Cameron has been more than happy to keep his brand toxic. When he enters Downing Street, Britain will be alone in the world, with few friends and fewer allies. It is only a touch hyperbolic to say that in two years' time we won't have a foreign policy.
In the second half of the 20th century, talk of Tory isolationism would have sounded ridiculous. The Conservatives took Britain into Europe and were the party of the American alliance. We'll discuss the coming breakdown in our relations with Europe later, but first the notion that the Conservatives will be able to stay on good terms with Washington needs to be humanely dispatched.
It is worth recalling a vignette from the Bosnian crisis of the early Nineties because it shows that Tories can be as anti-American as leftists. Douglas Hurd and Malcolm Rifkind used every stratagem not only to stop British troops but troops from any other country intervening to protect the Bosnian Muslims. The then Republican senators John McCain and Bob Dole insisted that an EU which boasted that 'never again' would Europe return to the horrors of Nazism had to mean what it said.
In Unfinest Hour, his history of the war, Cambridge historian Brendan Simms quotes the Tory response. Aides to Dole and McCain told him that Rifkind, whose experience of combat was limited to the backstabbing of the Scottish Conservative party, cried: 'You Americans know nothing about the horrors of war.' Dole, who had been blown up by a Nazi shell in the Second World War, walked out. McCain, who had been tortured for five years in a communist PoW camp, was so enraged by Rifkind that 'a member of his staff feared he was about to hit him'.
This story is, incidentally, the best reason I know for preferring McCain to Obama, but every time a journalist repeats it, they receive a furious denial from Rifkind. Maybe it has grown in the telling, but no one can doubt what John Fox, of the US State Department, described as the 'vigour and desperation' of Tory ministers. They were 'not just indifferent to American plans, but actively hostile to steps that could prevent ethnic cleansing'.
After Britain helped author a peace treaty which suited Milosevic very nicely, NatWest paid for Hurd and Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, a former Foreign Office civil servant who had been responsible for Bosnia, to fly to Belgrade and sell a privatisation package to Milosevic.
Despite Cameron's decision to appoint Dame Pauline as Tory foreign affairs spokeswoman, the Conservatives say the tantrums of the Nineties are behind them. They can now ally with America because George Osborne has good contacts with the neoconservative wing of the Republican party. But it looks as if there will be a Democrat in the White House when the Conservatives reach Downing Street and I don't think that neocons will have Obama's ear.
In any case, the Tory idea that Britain can choose the US over Europe makes little sense because Americans from all parties want Europe to unite against the challenge of the newly invigorated autocracy of Vladimir Putin's Russia, a demand that Cameron is constitutionally incapable of accepting.
John Major's government at least tried to maintain good relations with our European allies. Cameron makes no effort. I cannot find one Conservative statement since he became leader praising the EU, however grudgingly.
Anti-conservatism may no longer stir the left, but opposition to Europe burns as brightly as ever on the right. The Tories are committed to pulling out of the European political bloc which includes Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy's centre-right parties, ordinarily Cameron's natural allies, and heading off with the chauvinist parties of Russia and eastern Europe.
Far from standing up to Putin, the Conservatives tried to help a Putin stooge take over the Council of Europe, which oversees the European Court of Human Rights, of all things. Mainstream European conservatives were as loud in their condemnations of Cameron as mainstream socialists. Caroline Jackson, one of the few Conservative members of the European Parliament who wants to work with Britain's allies, wrote in the Financial Times that her Tory colleagues 'now have a bad reputation [rapidly getting worse] for crass and offensive behaviour'.
Denis MacShane, the former Labour Foreign Office Minister, was not overstating his case when he said that 'never before has a potential party of government adopted such a hostile public approach to working with allies and partners'.
Look again at the current scandals. Alan Duncan's links with Vitol bring back the worst memories of Hurd, Rifkind and Neville-Jones, while the Conservatives who go on about 'niggers' and 'wops' are not likely to be at ease with foreigners, to put the case against them at its mildest.
A Cameron government will tear up the complex web of alliances and understandings through which Britain exercises her influence. It is about time journalists asked him what he intends to put in their place.


text:
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February 27, 2012
Tools for Field Staff›Learning Briefs
Learning From the Urban Transitional Shelter Response in Haiti
This handbook documents the experience of Catholic Relief Services in planning and implementing its urban transitional shelter response in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The publication...More
June 6, 2012
Tools for Field Staff›Guidelines
CRS Haiti Accountability Framework
This accountability framework, drawing from CRS' guiding principles, Catholic social teaching and other recognized accountability frameworks, defines what CRS Haiti is working...More
May 22, 2007
Tools for Field Staff›Manuals
How-To Guide
This document presents a progressive methodology that puts the learner at the center of a process that not only improves literacy, but also raises participants' self-awareness and...More
March 12, 2009
Tools for Field Staff›Manuals
How-To Guide
Achieving a more inclusive school environment is a key objective. School improvement plans are a useful tool in promoting parents' and communities' transformational engagement in...More
July 12, 2016
Tools for Field Staff›Learning Briefs
Learning Briefs from CRS's Response, Recovery and Resilience (R3) Program
These learning briefs share insights from disaster risk reduction projects in the Response, Recovery and Resilience (R3) program in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Haiti, India, Bangladesh...More
June 28, 2017
Tools for Field Staff›Manuals
Organizational Guide to ICT4D
This guide gives practical guidance to building organizational capacity in ICT4D. Drawing from the experience of the international development community, the guide connects...More
June 28, 2017
Tools for Field Staff›Manuals
SDG ICT Playbook
The SDG ICT Playbook is a tool that aims to help nonprofit organizations collaborate and invest in the ICT strategies and tools that can help achieve the United Nations'...More
May 3, 2017
Tools for Field Staff›Manuals
Agricultural Fair and Voucher Manual
This manual provides the technical and operational knowledge for planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating agriculture voucher fairs. The manual covers various types of...More
November 13, 2018
Tools for Field Staff›Manuals
Grupos de Autoahorro
Grupos de Autoahorro – Guía de Facilitación: Libro de Colorear y Fortaleciendo Competencias El manual del facilitador brinda las indicaciones para usar el manual de Fortaleciendo...More
October 17, 2019
Tools for Field Staff›Learning Briefs
Improved storage transforms potato crop
AGRICULTURAL BEHAVIOR CHANGE: BRIEF 1 The potato is the only cash crop available to most households in the Central Highlands of Afghanistan. Production is restricted by an...More


text:
Don Hoch has 40 years of parks and recreation experience at the municipal, county, state, and federal level. Since 2010, he has been serving as the Director of the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission and has been with the agency for almost 14 years. Prior to being appointed Director, he served as the Puget Sound Region Director and the Southwest Region Director for the agency. Before coming to Washington, he was employed for 12 years with the Georgia State Parks and Historic Sites Division, 10 years as a County Parks Director in Georgia, and several years working across the country with the National Park Service, United States Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and two municipalities in California.
In 2017, Washington State Parks was recognized as a Gold Medal Finalist, and the National Association of State Park Directors presented Mr. Hoch with the Distinguished Service Award.
He earned his Bachelor's degree in Recreation Administration from California State University, Chico and an Associate's degree in Recreation from Fullerton College. Hoch has held law enforcement commissions at the county, state, and federal level.
Mr. Hoch is currently serving on or has served on a variety of Boards such as; National Association of State Park Directors, Washington Recreation and Park Association, Georgia Recreation and Park Association, National Association of County Park and Recreation Officials, Georgia Hospitality and Travel Association, Georgia State Tourism Division Advisory Board, Washington Wildlife Recreation Coalition, Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, Washington State Parks Foundation, and the Washington Recreation Conservation Funding Board.
Mr. Hoch has also been honored with several recognitions such as; Washington State Governor Proclamation for "Don Hoch Day" in Washington, Georgia State Governor Certificate of Merit, Georgia State Park Superintendent of the Year, Georgia Historic Heartland Travel Association Lifetime Achievement, Macon-Bibb Co. CVB Volunteer of the Year, Georgia Recreation and Park Association – Mike Daniels Award, Outdoor and Aquatic Section's Distinguished Professional, Georgia's Magnolia Midlands Travel Association and the Historic Heartland Travel Association's Volunteer of the Year, American Cancer Society Circle of Friends, Friend of Georgia 4-H. [current as of September 2018]


text:
Full Cover with Front. Back, and Spine
Full covers include 1/4" trim around edges.
Front Cover Only
Boxed Sets
Story and Logic Media Group
Cover Design Info Needed
Sub title:
Or Series Title:
Cover Direction
How would you classify your book? Non-fiction or fiction (novel, novelette, short story)
How would you classify the content? (suspense, mystery, romantic, historical, drama, quirky, biblical, serious, entertaining, inspirational, funny, etc.)
Who is your target audience?
What should the tone of the cover be? What mood or emotion would you like the cover to invoke in the reader?
What would compel a reader to pick up this book? What's the hook? What's the most compelling twist or difference in this story?
List at least three themes conveyed by the book.
Are there other book covers that would be in line with this same tone? (Feel free to cut and paste the link to covers you find online at Amazon.com or other retailers.)
What element of the book do you think would make the most important visual element on a cover?
What visual graphic will most tell the story? Is there an iconic image that appears throughout?
Describe one or two key scenes. Please vary the type (action vs conversation or confrontation, etc.), and include time frame, geographical location, time of year, etc.
Describe the main characters (hair color, skin color, eyes, clothing, etc.). (I'll see what I can find on the sites where I purchase my photos.)
Describe important settings in the book. Please vary (indoor vs. outdoor, home vs. work, etc). What is the main setting? What would be most telling for the theme of the story?


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The photo show a custom laser enclosure Jimani built at the request of one of our long time firearm manufacturing customers. The customer did not want a full Class I enclosure but were uncomfortable for safety reasons with a wide open system. They had been having their maintenance people add sides and back to a Jimani open table workstation and then put a curtain in front. Maintenance did not have time to update new systems so Jimani was asked to design and build something that would be safe as well as easily accessible. The customer understands the restrictions of full enclosures for rapid part processing but are uncomfortable with completely open systems. The above custom system was our design compromise.
Thank you very much for the great customer service. Coming in Saturday just to accommodate us is unheard of this days.
Jose Magallanes
Shipping Warehouse Manager


text:
Can someone tell me? I thought it was already in the repo T_T. Thanks
Getta91 Can someone tell me?
It depends. Usually on Fridays, except in unusual cases (when lots of preparation is required). But exactly when on Friday depends on your time zone. Folks in Japan won't get 'em the same local time as someone in the US, or Britain, or ....
between now and never.
just wait 🙂
At the end of Friday?
here they are installed
WetGeek Folks in Japan won't get 'em the same local time as someone in the US, or Britain, or ....
Or Finland, which is where I am located, and it's rare that I'm not the person doing the sync 😛
JoshStrobl There's always a price to pay sir
My update got stuck and could not fetch something. I'll try again on Saturday, to cross the Finish Line!
lekkerlinux Just use the terminal: sudo eopkg up and if it gets stuck, just do it again. It will continue from where it left off. No problem.
sudo eopkg up
elfprince Yes, thank you very much Elfprince. I tried the software center first and then after the second try with the terminal, everything updated and installed fine.
A bit later I got another update notification for Firefox 73. I was just thinking, why was the latest version of Firefox not included in the update and there it was.
I wonder which member of the Solus team can read minds?
lekkerlinux Same here! I noticed that Frefox wasn't in the first update, without worrying about it. But then came the second one - Firefox! haha
elfprince yeah, I just noticed the red desktop bell. FF and Etcher for me. Forgot I had the second one installed. thanks both & team
Are there any specific technical reasons to use the terminal over the Software Manager? I wrote my wonderings on that in another thread. Wouldn't needing to use the Terminal, because the GUI borks something, just be a sign of bad shell implementation, or something of the sort? Pardon me if the jargon used above is inaccurate - I'm a new guy.
On another note. For reasons I can't provide, I decided to update everything today. Because my Linux machine is not yet my principal platform, I figured it couldn't hurt. In any sense, today my function key adapter + F-keys don't seem to work as I remember them working before the update. Now, it's ONLY the F-keys that control volume, or what have you. Maybe the fn-key did nothing in the past on Solus, in retrospect, but now it actually keeps the functions I expect to happen from happening.
To summarize, pushing fn-F7 does not do anything, but pushing only F7 will lower the volume. It's like functionality has been reversed, unless the fn-key was not even recognized before in the past. Could this be due to the kernel update?
Thaeris Are there any specific technical reasons to use the terminal over the Software Manager?
Yes. Occasionally a mirror will time-out and hang the update process, especially if there are huge packages being updated, like libreoffice or the Linux kernel. With the software center, it just stops updating without much of a clue what happened.
With eopkg at the CLI, you can see when the download stops. When that happens, you can enter Ctl-C to exit the process, return to the previous command with a press of the up-arrow, and restart the download. So it only takes a few seconds to recover, and eopkg skips quickly to where it stopped, and continues from there.
How often this happens depends in part on the capabilities of the machine being updated. My workstations seldom need a restart. My laptop sometimes does.
That's interesting, and still a little above my head, but I'll get there. I have no idea how the GUI translates commands to the OS - which really should be exactly what the terminal is doing as well. I do think it's rather fascinating as to why the GUI seems to fall short in this area when, ideally, it should be executing the same functions as you might call up with the Terminal. Huh. There are bright minds that will figure it out before I even wonder where or how to look.
Thaeris I have no idea how the GUI translates commands to the OS
It doesn't. It transmits commands to eopkg at the command line. Updating from eopkg just eliminates the middleman, and makes it easier to see what's going on and if necessary, to recover from a download time-out.
When you've tried it once, you'll see how easy it is. It doesn't take a software engineer to use the command line.
EDIT: A little more on this. The mirror is a remote server that exists to provide local downloads. They exist in various parts of the world. Someone in Australia, for example, doesn't need to download updates from France. (Just an example to make the point. I don't know where all the mirrors are.)
When the mirror server times out because of a huge download and maybe because it's overloaded, the Software Center doesn't handle the rejection very well. From the command-line, though, it's easy to see when the download progress stops.
When you see that happen, just press <Ctrl-C> to break out of the traffic jam, and press the up-arrow key to repeat the command you just entered, and press <Enter> to execute it again. It seldom takes more than one such restart to finish the downloads.
The command to upgrade from the command-line is sudo eopkg up. As simple as that.
Copyright © 2015-2020 Solus Project. The Solus logo is Copyright © 2016-2020 Solus Project.


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Well, guess who's sticking Allah's nose into America's business yet again? The group that the FBI has stated is an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case (they are a funding-front for Hamas)…is looking to register 1,000,000 Muslims, legal or not (mostly not) to vote in the Presidential election.
Now we have thousands of Muslims that this administration brought into our country, via unwilling taxpayers, who are illiterate. Islam does NOT hold literacy in high esteem for the masses. The majority of adult Somalis now living in our country are unable to read…period. So how are they going to become informed voters for this election? (No worries…I'm sure pictures of Hillary will be provided.)
This may be an immediate concern, but the real concern here is WHY in the WORLD, already being in possession of our enemy's playbook (Quran): We refuse to read it (because most adults here are literate) and utilize it to stop those that hate our culture?
Muslims following the Quran, have not hid their intentions or the sources for their terrorist acts: The Quran and Muhammad, the perfect Muslim.
- They say, Hudna or 'ceasefire'. Their playbook says 'a pause in order to gird up their supplies to destroy the enemy'. (Also known as the Quraysh Model.)
- They say, 'the killing of innocents is not permitted'. Their playbook says 'the only true innocents are Muslims'. (Quran 2:191)
- They say they want 'peace'. Their playbook says 'peace is Islam ruling and reigning over all the earth'. (Dar al-Islam or 'the house of Islam')
- They say 'lying is against the Quran'. Their playbook says 'lying is permitted if it is done to infidels (that's us) for the sake of Allah. (Taqiyyah)
- They threaten and promise attacks on infidels. We have seen their handiwork, read their handbook and yet we refuse to apply wisdom to knowledge. Instead, we choose to follow the paltering of vociferous Muslims who play the victim (can anyone say CAIR).
- Hijra, one of the five charges of Allah to Muhammed: to assemble, to listen, to obey, to immigrate and to wage Jihad for the sake of Allah. This is a quote from the Hadith (five responsibilities or "charges" for those who submit to Islam) from Refugee Resettlement and the Hijra to America by Ann Corcoran.
So, why do we in the West, who are the majority…continue to sit with our jaws slack, scratching our noggins in disbelief when we know what the next play will be?
We know CAIR. We know their resources. Now push back, like the righteous rebels we are…in what may be our last stand for freedom.
Shalom through strength…


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Webinars & Events
We are committed to strengthening the skills and capabilities of those who work in higher education. To that end, team members at JMH regularly present webinars or speak at conferences. Click on the links below to see our past conferences or to learn about upcoming presentations.
Join Us at the AMA 2018 Symposium! Nov. 4-7 in Orlando, FL
Marketing automation tools improve performance at each stage of the marketing funnel, align marketing efforts with university recruiting and student services, and increase effectiveness and efficiency. Gain an understanding of marketing automation best practices [...]
Six Social Media Mistakes To Avoid
Expert marketers understand that social media drives value for higher education institutions. Unfortunately, many continuing education units have limited resources to dedicate to social media management – if any at all. If this describes [...]
New, Now, Next in Higher Education Marketing Webinar
Marketing for non-traditional students is still evolving continues to evolve at a breathtaking pace. In this webinar, we will review the changing marketing landscape and cover 5 major trends you can't afford to ignore.
Webinar: Risky Business – Creating a Strategic Partnership
Partnering is not always a quick fix — but it can be a strategic solution. The climate is changing in higher education such that more schools are looking to outside partners to add skills, invest [...]
Webinar: Retaining Adult Students – What Works and What's Next?
Join us to learn how to improve your own retention efforts and help more of your students earn their degree.
4 Huge Developments in Online Marketing for Higher Ed (and a few others too)
UPDATE 2/23/16 - Since we announced this webinar, Google has confirmed news that will be a game-changer for paid search. With that in mind, the webinar is now titled "4 Huge Developments in Online Marketing for Higher [...]
Webinar: KISS Your Prospective Students
"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" was a statement from Apple's first marketing brochure. This is true not only for products, but also services. The K.I.S.S. principle – Keep It Simple Stupid – succinctly captures this. [...]
New Program Research – From the Outside Looking In
New programs are the lifeblood of continuing education departments. The challenge CE units face is finding programs that meet a market demand and make an impact on the bottom line. This session will introduce you to a process for identifying and selecting new programs. Take into account not only market research, but also the strengths of your university and the capability of your department.


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Every year my team and I read and review hundreds of books in the process of curating ideas to incorporate in our annual list of trends. Beyond using those books to inspire how we see the world, we also select our favorites each year to feature as part of the Non-Obvious Book Awards program. ForContinue reading »
Category Archives: "Book Reviews"
What were the best business books of 2017? For my team, trying to answer this question is a year long obsession that takes us through several hundred books as part of our annual research into trends and new ideas to fuel the predictions in our own book that comes out every December all about trends.Continue reading »
This week the entire US-based publishing industry is descending upon New York for a three day celebration of books known as the BookExpo. I'm here on behalf of my publishing company Ideapress, and so this week's insights will focus on books. Below you will read about the bold new way that libraries are reinventing themselvesContinue reading »
A short list of 15 great books to give as a useful and practical 2017 graduation gift for him or graduation gift for her.Continue reading »
Are you a member of the media? Visit our media kit to download a trend summary and more information about requesting an interview with Rohit >> This week I launched the seventh edition of my annual trend report featuring all of my research from throughout the year on trends. Many of you have already pickedContinue reading »
Every year as part of my trend research and idea gathering, I go through more than a hundred business books and select my shortlist of 15 best ones published in 2016 to share with you. These are all profiled in a short presentation along with a review of each and my selections for the MostContinue reading »
Curating this article to find stories worth sharing with you every week has helped me hone my ability to read (and ignore) stories quickly. As each of us feels more bombarded with demands on our attention – the dangerous truth is that we spend less and less time appreciating the meaning of anything. That's why thisContinue reading »
Fear dominated the headlines this week as "Brexit" cast a scary spotlight on everything from the future of globalization to the belief gap between the young and old. Thankfully, amidst all the doomsday predictions, there were also plenty of stories of hope – from Unilever's moves to ban sexism in their advertising to the storyContinue reading »
This week was filled with big news about big brands. Google revealed its upcoming roadmap of innovation. Fast Company interviewed the creator of the wildly popular musical Hamilton on how he built such a powerful brand so quickly. Slate offered a glimpse into the secret brilliance of Under Armour's non-lifestyle basketball shoe inspired by StephContinue reading »
I am sitting in an airport lounge in Zurich and putting the final touches on my selections for the most under appreciated stories of this week navigating through stories about perhaps the greatest underdog sports story in soccer history, YouTube's ongoing plans to kill the cable television industry and Budweiser's slightly desperate attempt at relevanceContinue reading »


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How BroadTree Started
Adam grew up swinging on his chair and fidgetting a lot at school. School reports always said "Adam is a good student, but would be much better if he could sit still and focus". After school, he spent almost every waking moment outside, riding bicycles, climbing trees, exploring the local nature reserve, and swimming in the local river.
In 2016, Adam fulfilled his desire to understand psychology more by signing up for the Certificate of Therapeutic Mentoring at the Trauma Recovery Centre, Bath, and the idea of changing career into a job where he could have a positive impact on young people was born.
Adam completed the Certificate of Therapeutic Mentoring in 2017, registered BroadTree Ltd as a private limited company and enrolled into a level 3 Forest School training course that August, with an outdoor & paediatric first aid qualification following shortly after.
At the start of 2018, Adam worked with a local Secondary School in Bath, delivering 7 sessions with excellent feedback.
During the 2018 summer holidays, Adam handed in his notice at his engineering job, and ran the first set of holiday sessions. Over 80% of attendees returned for a second session (or more), and the business started to grow. At the end of the year he completed the written elements of the Level 3 qualification.
In 2019 Adam is continuing to work with the local secondary, loves reading books and reflecting on sessions to develop his practise, and is grateful to be in a job where he helps children. You might see him working for Super Pirates and Bath Area Play Project as well.
The Future
We run holiday sessions most half term and summer holiday dates- go to our events page to sign up!
We're currently looking to deliver sessions with other secondary schools in the local area. Please call 07891 685 606 or email firstname.lastname@example.com if you're interested in BroadTree providing sessions with your school. Alternatively you can use the form on our contact us page to get in touch.
Adams' Qualifications
The need to be outside and move in order to feel truly alive
Level 3 forest school leader
Certificate of Therapeutic Mentoring, TRC Bath
Paediatric First Aid


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As I have mentioned a zillion times before I am getting ready for a craft fair on Saturday. I wanted a way to package some surprise grab bags of jewelry and I came up with this using the coffee bags from Papermart:
You can do this with plain brown and white lunch sacks too but the coffee bags are thicker and more durable. It would also be an inexpensive way to package a gift!
Check out the video to see how I made them. These are easy enough to make with the kids!
I was pretty mellow in the video huh? I think it is because I am exhausted trying to get ready for this dang craft fair, I think I will sleep until noon on Sunday LOL! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Filed under: christmas, craft fair, Crafts 4 Kids | Tagged: christmas crafts, coffee bags, gift bags, gift warp tutorial, inexpensive packaging, kids crafts, lunch sacks, papermart, rudolf, santa, snowman, tutorial, winter, wrapping | 9 Comments »


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CES 2014: Director loses direction as teleprompter fails
- Published
As there was just so much happening on press day at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show 2014, we thought we'd bring you a selection of highlights - and some of the lowlights - as they happened.
Audi brings Press Day to a close with the last of the day's Keynotes.
The German automaker's chief executive Rupert Stadle headed a presentation that featured self-driving cars, dancers who looked liked they had escaped from the movie Tron, and a vehicle fitted with laser lamps.
The madness continues tomorrow.
There were lots of wearable tech prototypes, a fancy mini-computer and more at Brian Krzanich's Keynote address.
The Intel chief executive has been in charge of the firm for less than a year, making this his first CES as CEO.
One part of his presentation, however, marked the end rather than the start of an era - the decision to rename the firm's security products division.
It is ditching the McAfee brand and replacing it with Intel Security.
The controversial founder of the security business, John McAfee, told the BBC he was overjoyed by the news.
"I am now everlastingly grateful to Intel for freeing me from this terrible association with the worst software on the planet. These are not my words, but the words of millions of irate users.
"My elation at Intel's decision is beyond words."
The reaction should come as no surprise. Last year Mr McAfee released a video showing how to "uninstall" the firm's anti-virus software by blasting a laptop with a bullet.
Video games developer Valve has confirmed 14 companies will manufacture the first generation Steam Machines - "PCs consoles" designed to run its new Linux-based gaming platform.
In alphabetical order, they are Alienware, Alternate, CyberPowerPC, Digital Storm, Falcon NW, GigaByte, iBuyPower, Maingear, Material.net, Next Spa, Origin PC, Scan, Webhallen and Zotac.
They range in price from $499 to $6,000.
It's a respectable line-up - Alienware's involvement means Valve has the backing of its parent company Dell.
But one senses that neither the Xbox team nor their PlayStation counterparts are likely to be quaking in their boots - at least at this point.
Sony, along with all the other TV makers it seems, has been plugging its UHD - ultra high definition - 4K TVs for all its worth at CES.
Screens are set to get bigger and bigger, with Sony's flagship 4K beast boasting an 85in (216cm) screen - not quite as big as Samsung's 105in (267cm) monster - but pretty chunky nonetheless. No doubt it will come with a similarly gargantuan price tag attached.
But surprisingly, Sony did not unveil a new OLED - organic light-emitting diode - TV.
Earlier, MakerBot, the 3D printer specialist, announced three new machines, including a mini one-touch version priced at $1,375 (£838).
At the other end of the scale, MakerBot's new Replicator Z18 printer, stands nearly 46cm (18in) tall on a 30.5cm (12in) square base.
It costs $6,499 (£3,963) and is aimed at inventors wanting to make large industrial prototypes, primarily from polylactic acid (PLA), a biodegradeable polymer.
BBC Technology Editor Rory Cellan-Jones has been checking out Epson's rival to Google Glass. If you thought Epson only made printers, think again.
"The Epson Moverio 2 is a clunky name for what is really quite a clever product," Rory reports.
"These smart glasses do a number of jobs: They allow you to watch movies in panoramic 3D; give you access to all sorts of Android apps and content; and they provide an augmented reality experience.
"In other words, this is a rival product to Google Glass, with the difference that it actually has a price tag and will soon be on sale to consumers."
But Rory thinks Moverio 2 is "clunkier and more geeky looking" than Google's product, especially as it needs a separate controller tethered to it.
"This looks like clever technology, but somehow you can't see many consumers walking down the road in Epson glasses," he concludes.
If you don't want to fork out for one of the latest smart, internet-enabled TVs, there are a number of products than can help your flatscreen punch above its weight.
FreeCast's Rabbit TV Select, for example, a small $99 (£60) quad-core powered set-top box, connects to any TV with an HDMI input and turns it into a brainy networked device capable of handling internet TV, emails, and video calls, its makers claim.
The device can also communicate with tablets and mobiles and even manage your home security system.
FreeCast's Rabbit TV Network offers videos-on-demand and thousands of online games.
When our roving technology reporters aren't poring over the latest gadgets or listening to the latest keynote speeches, there are other quirky sights to behold at CES, as this picture from Dave Lee shows.
And pretty soon we'll be able to share our pics in 3D, if Intel is to be believed.
Launching the "world's first and smallest" integrated 3D depth and 2D camera module, Intel said its RealSense technology will help devices, including smartphones, cameras, tablets and laptops, "see" depth much like a human eye.
The company demonstrated the camera using products from Dell, Lenovo and Asus.
It said the new camera would feature in gadgets from Acer, Fujitsu, HP, and NEC, as well as the three companies already mentioned, in the second half of 2014.
Meanwhile, Samsung flaunted its curves, unveiling its first commercial curved-screen ultra high definition (UHD) TVs, the biggest of which is a gargantuan 105in (267cm).
A flat-screen TV can be transformed into a curved-screen TV at the touch of a button.
It's all about offering "mesmerising immersion", the company said.
Unfortunately for Samsung, teleprompter gremlins forced Michael Bay, director of the Transformers film - and the technology company's guest speaker - to quit the stage in embarrassment.
"When the autocue wouldn't work he seemed at a loss to know what to say," said BBC technology reporter, Carolyn Rice who witnessed the incident.
"After a few false starts he just apologised and walked off the stage. There was an awkward silence as everyone waited to see if this was a dramatic interpretation of a new device.
"But no, this really was a director who had lost his direction."
When it comes to pixels, you can never have enough it seems.
Just when we've got our heads around ultra high definition 4K screens offering picture resolution four times greater than our current high definition TVs, along comes Sharp, Phillips and Dolby showcasing 8K technology.
Sharp says its 7,680 x 4,320 screens are the equivalent of 16 times the pixel resolution of current HDTV.
It says the picture is so sharp - no pun intended - it gives a "3D experience" without the need for those annoying glasses.
Sharp first showed off its prototype 8K technology at CES 2012, but this year is doing so on a whopping 85in (216cm) screen, while also showcasing its more commercially viable 4K-ready Aquos large screen TVs.
Demand for power is outstripping supply in the press centre.
Our technology correspondent Mark Ward sent in this photo:
So it's press day at CES and the announcements are coming thick and fast.
We've already covered LG showing off its jazzy new graphical user interface for smart TVs; Nvidia promising better mobile graphics; and Parrot's leaping and flying toys.
Now Panasonic has unveiled its latest "ruggedised" 7in (17.8cm) tablet, the Toughpad FZ-M1, targeted at business and government users who need reliability from their gadgets while out in the field.
Running Windows 8.1 Pro operating system and powered by a Intel Core i5 processor, Panasonic claims it is the "thinnest and lightest rugged fanless tablet" on the market.
It features a replaceable battery - the optional high capacity battery can give up to 16 hours of power - plus the ability to switch batteries without having to switch off the device.
But it won't come cheap. Panasonic says it will retail at $2,099 (£1,279) when it is released in the spring.
The company also announced a high-performance 20in (50.8cm) version of the Toughpad featuring an ultra high definition 4K screen. The cost? A mere $6,999.
Fed up of not being able to record two programmes simultaneously while watching something else? Then Dish's SuperJoey product, that allows viewers to record eight shows at the same time, could be of interest.
Dish, a US digital video recording (DVR) specialist, unleashed a number of enhancements to its Hopper Whole-Home HD DVR platform.
But it's not just established names exhibiting at CES - newer companies and start-ups have a valuable opportunity to get their products seen by the tech community.
Chris Elsworthy from UK 3D printing firm Robox is a first-timer at CES.
"This is huge for us," he told the BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones. "It's a first show ground. It's important for us to be here and showcase our product."


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A friend invited me to attend a trade fair recently. It was an informal, shopping event. Usually, I skip these events as I am not big on clothes shopping but she dangled the carrot that worked for this rabbit – There would be a lady at the event selling natural body products. Quick as a shot, I got dressed and found my way to the venue.
Let me just say that it was quite an anticlimax. The lady in question had some wonderful smelling Shea butter on sale. I was slightly confused at first because I could tell that the Shea butter was fragranced but on her ingredients list, she had stated Shea Butter as the only ingredient. It was only upon enquiry that she said that there was fragrance mixed in with the Shea butter. That is a total no-no for me. When I pick up a product, the first thing I do is flip to the ingredient lists to see what exactly I am getting for my money. An inability to see all ingredients listed means that I don't know what is hiding in there and how it can affect my skin.
Anyhoo, I am not one to throw the baby out with the bath water so I asked if she had anything else for sale. She said that she also made and sold skin lotion but didn't bring any with her. I was interested in that as well, so I asked what sort of preservative she used for her lotion. She hmm'ed and haaa'ed a bit and then said that she had just changed her preservative and could not recall the name of the new one. So I asked 3 more questions:
Why did you change preservatives? Because my supplier advised me to. He said that the new one was better. Better how? She couldn't say. What preservative did you use previously? Answer: I can't remember.
At that point, I thought: "This is too scary; I need to get out of here!" What do you want to bet that she did not even know the other ingredients she was mixing up in her lotion?
The reason for this post is because there are lots of people out there that make lotions and other products at home and sell them informally. I have heard in the past about women that would sell a jar of cream from their hair salons or beauty parlors that are supposed to lighten the skin among other things. I have no quarrel with that. However, bear in mind that for every person who actually knows what they are doing, there is at least one person who doesn't. It is your job as the consumer to know what to look out for and what questions to ask. Don't just accept a mysterious pot of cream as you may be doing yourself harm.
Here are some tips for buying homemade products:
- Ensure that all ingredients are listed. (This means that for a skin lotion, you need to figure out what the basics are: emulsifiers, diluents, emollients, occlusives, preservatives – there may be more than one diluents and more than one emulsifier e.t.c). I once picked up a lotion that did not have any emulsifiers listed. I dropped it like hot cake as emulsifiers are the only reasons why oil and water are able to mix and become a lotion. It was a clear indication that the manufacturer had not listed all ingredients.
- If you are buying at a fair, ask the maker of the product questions prior to buying. If she appears clueless about a product she purportedly makes, run far away. Maker of the product is not there at the fair? Take a number from her representative/salesperson and call her on her mobile.
- A very basic rule is that all water based products MUST contain preservatives. Anhydrous products (like whipped Shea butter or oils) don't need them.
- There should be a "best-by" date on the bottle. Nothing lasts forever, especially when it is handmade.
I have spoken about this subject in many ways recently. I have a feeling that I am not quite done, but I am going to rest it for now.


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Alberobello, 18th July 2018
Wednesday, July 18th, at 20.30, the lights on the trulli were turned on, illuminating the whole Monti area, the Trullo Sovrano and the Belvedere until the end of summer.
Every evening the marvelous cone-shaped houses of the capital of Unesco will light up in a blaze of colors and light effects that will make Alberobello even more magical.
The lighting was accompanied by the event "Pianist fly - ENGIE & Alberobello" which involved the lifting of a grand piano through a crane on which pianist Paolo Zanarella played for 40 minutes.
The «Summer lights» is one of the highlights of «Trulli Viventi - Summer 2018» the billboard created by the municipal administration from June to September. The lighting on the trulli is realized by the Municipality in collaboration with ENGIE, the company that since the 1st of April manages the Alberobello public lighting service.
«We thank ENGIE for providing us with the lights that will illuminate our trulli also for this summer we strongly wanted the Summer lights in a renewed form because it is a strong point of our calendar of events. Thanks to this initiative the evenings of Alberobello will be even more special and the lights will be a unique and special setting for the many events that are scheduled until September, so that the trulli can live every day and make fall in love the visitors that honor us with their presence».
Antonella Ivone, Alberobello Tourism Councilor
«We are truly honored to be at the side of Alberobello and its citizens, and to donate to this city evenings of colors, lights and energy. In addition to the partnership already undertaken with the Municipality for the renewal and efficiency of the entire public lighting network - which will bring over 60% of energy savings per year - we join this exceptional cultural initiative, also in favor of people and their quality of life, because we believe that together with far-sighted administrations, we can build together a true harmonious progress».
Fabrizio di Battista, Director of the Adriatic-South Area of ENGIE Italia


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THE US Champions Tour is under serious threat with news this week that irreverent American golfer Rocco Mediate has turned 50.
It is unclear whether Mediate will impose himself on the tour immediately but just the fact he is now eligible will surely liven things up.
Many golf fans grew a huge soft spot for Mediate during his performance at the 2008 US Open when a wounded Tiger Woods sunk a bomb putt on the 72nd hole at Torrey Pines to force a playoff.
Everyone had to come back the next day for an 18 hole playoff between the then world No.1 against the world No. 158.
Woods was just about on one leg due to a knee injury and it was clear the then 45 year old Mediate tried to talk his ears off as well.
Mediate captured everyone's affection with his animated performance, laughing and joking with the crowd throughout what should have been a tense encounter. Mediate lost on the 19th hole but won a huge number of fans.
With four US PGA Tour wins in a 28 year career that has earned him some US$17 million, Mediate could waltz onto the Champions Tour.
Speaking to a local new outlet in hometown Naples, Florida earlier this year Mediate didn't sound too keen on the lucrative over 50's tour.
"Until I have to go, I have absolutely zero interest," said Mediate. "I want to put my 30 (years) in. I have my work cut out for me, but I'm going to try. I'm fit and ready to go. I'm just going to play as much as I can."
In a fascinating wide ranging article in the US Golf Digest celebrating Mediate's birthday milestone, his position isn't so clear.
On playing the Champions Tour Mediate told the Digest:
"The Champions Tour is sitting there waiting to be had, right? No cut. Guaranteed check. But the decision isn't that simple. The Champions Tour is completely misunderstood. It's murder out there. The guys can and do go deep. Freddie Couples and Tom Lehman could definitely still win on the PGA Tour. So on one hand there's the bigger purses on the PGA Tour — where I still think I can win, by the way — but a more steady income on the Champions Tour. Which would you choose if you were me?"
On the 2008 US Open playoff against Tiger Woods:
"Guys would play against Tiger and fold up like lawn chairs. But in that 2008 U.S. Open playoff, I wasn't worried about falling apart. One of my caddies, Pete Bender, had always told me, "One thing you never do, Roc, is spit the bit." I'm proud of that. I saw going up against Tiger as an opportunity to show myself and the world what I'd learned in my career playing golf. I liked the idea that there was no place to hide."
"Was I rooting for Tiger to miss that putt he had to tie me on the 72nd hole at Torrey Pines? Of course. Did I think he would make it? Of course. Would anybody other than Tiger have made that putt? Absolutely not.
"At the press conference Sunday night I was asked about my chances in the Monday playoff. I said, "I have absolutely nothing to lose." When the conference was over, it hit me: I had everything to lose. This was my moment. It was my big chance. Everything I'd coveted my whole life was right in front of me."
"Losing that playoff hurt. It lingered, and even though I'd won five times on tour, I think there was a sense my Open performance was kind of a fluke. But in 2010 I won the Frys.com Open, opening with 64-65. Getting that trophy took all of the hurt away. It affirmed I wasn't just a tour pro, but a genuinely good one."
On being Tiger Woods:
"When Tiger was on top, I would have loved having his gig — for about a month. After I lost the playoff to Tiger, I got stopped 10 times a day, easy, for a year. It started to get to me, and I'm no introvert. I can't imagine living my whole life having to eat in back rooms with my friends instead of out in public."
On the golf swing:
"The newest technology is an MRI-like thing for your golf swing. It's beyond TrackMan. They strap these sensors on you, and you get a profile where parts of your body register in different colors. The trick is to keep the colors as uniform as possible, because if you're stressing one part, the rest come tumbling down. Now, what lowers the stress is to keep your head level throughout the swing. To do that, you need to swing from the ground up and use your lower body and the big muscles to generate speed. I call it "sucking the power out of the ground."
"If your head stays level — I don't like this dipping stuff you see among a lot of players — it leads to effortless power. And it's easier on you physically. You hit it more solid. I'm longer than I've ever been and have an extra 15 to 20 yards on call with the driver when I need it, by pretty much keeping my head level. It's a good swing thought for everybody."
The full Golf Digest article is here


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Romantically Inclined: Romance in Literature, Film and Popular Culture
Romantically Inclined: Romance in Literature, Film and Popular Culture
St. Stephen's College, Delhi invites papers for its annual international conference-festival on Romance in literature, film and popular culture. Verse and prose sagas of adventure and love in literatures across the world bear testimony to the earliest literary inclination to Romance. Such as the tradition of the Hindavi Romance narratives in the sub-continent that grew out of Sanskrit and Persian to combine rasa and Sufi allegories in Padmavat and Madhumalti. One strain of the continental Romance evolved with Spenser, withstood the satire of Cervantes and the radical departures of the romantics to become the counterpoint to the realist novel. The Romance has given into new genres such as magic realism and fantasy fiction, but continues as an enduring literary style in contemporary world literatures. The secret to the survival of Romance in literature and popular cultures may be that it is highly adaptive and popular in appeal. It embraces, in a broad accommodating sweep, literature and art with all the gravity of the canon as well as the pulp excluded from it. We seek the romantically inclined to explore the breadth of Romance – as a literary mode and as a cultural leitmotif in performative and representative arts. As a conference-festival, we welcome academic papers, presentations as well as music and performance art proposals that appraise the value of Romance.
The conference dates are 23rd, 24th, 25th February, 2013. Please send a 300 hundred word abstract to firstname.lastname@example.com by December 10th 2012.
The scope of papers and performance concept may include but are not confined to the following:
Mythology and History as proportions of Romance
Realism, Anti-Romance: A Rose is Just a Rose
Romance of the High Seas
Melodrama in Romance as a challenge to modernity
Romance as Nostalgia
Cinematic Romance
Musical Romance
Romantically Ink/lined: Intersecting Art and Literature
Popular Romance: Pot-Boiler Love
Rethinking Romance as Genre
Romance and the philosophical bait
Creatures of Romance


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mikeadamwood wrote:Sorry to dig up an old thread but does anyone know when exporting from 3D Coat which normal map node to work with.. There's normal map software presets and not sure which one to select?
grimm wrote:Thanks PyatFre! Wow, sorry this took so long to respond. You're right it's doesn't look quite right, it was more of a work in progress. I was thinking of adding a particle system on top of the texture to get more of a 3D effect, hopefully more realistic as well. Here is a test image I was playing around with, it would be better with more random shaped dust particles, I just used a iso sphere instance. This particular test uses 120000 particles.
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