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10 Bacon-Wrapped Dishes That Feel Like Presents
Bacon is a gift that keeps giving.
(SPOT.ph) Bacon. We've swooned over and written about it before, but its magic hasn't mellowed at all. Because anything with bacon is pure pleasure and because there's nothing more exciting and mouthwatering than seeing a dish wrapped in these crispy, meaty strips, we've compiled 10 dishes that will totally put your bacon cravings in overdrive.
Also read:
10 Mouthwatering Bacon Dishes to Break Your Diet
10 Amazing Deep-Fried Things You Need to Try
Lazy Bastard's Honey Parmesan Dog (P200)
Here, bacon gives a hotdog the love it deserves by holding it in a tight hug. Not only does it add texture to the hotdog, it embellishes a brawnier flavor, too! The result is an explosion of sweet and salty flavors bite after bite. It's no wonder this hotdog sandwich currently holds the top spot on our Top 10 Hotdogs list.
By the way, Lazy Bastard also has bacon-wrapped tater tots!
Lazy Bastard is at 22 Jupiter Street, Makati City. Read more about Lazy Bastard.
The Nook's Bacon-wrapped Chicken (P140)
Crisp bacon wrapping itself around juicy chicken provides just the little lift in taste and texture that white meat needs. Each piece is lightly dipped in honey, mimicking a honey-cured bacon effect. It's the perfect munchie to enjoy with a good book.
The Nook is at Maginhawa Street, Teachers Village, Quezon City. Read more about The Nook.
Skinita's Bacon and Quail Eggs (P50)
So, here's a fun way to enjoy bacon and (quail) eggs. Each stick gives you three delicious mouthfuls of creamy, crispy happiness. The sweet sauce gives it a yummy teriyaki-like glaze.
Skinita is at Unit D, D'Strip Building, 20 United Street, Kapitolyo, Pasig City. Read more about Skinita.
The 5th Taste's Bacon Prawn Tempura (P300)
The chef at The 5th Taste decided one day to wrap shrimp with a strip of bacon, cover it in breadcrumbs, then create a rather meaty version of tempura. It's definitely a change of texture from your usual Japanese-style fried shrimps, but we do like how it gives a little more weight to this light dish.
The 5th Taste is at 453 P. Guevarra Street, San Juan City. Read more about The 5th Taste.
Livestock's Pig Wings (P320 to P440)
Have you ever wondered what could make your wings taste better? Have you ever tried bacon? Imagine the smoky and spicy flavors of these hot wings. Imagine that with bacon. Livestock delicately bandages bacon strips around hefty pieces of wings, douses them in sauce, and serves bacon bliss on a plate.
Livestock is at 34 Sergeant Esguerra Street, Quezon City. Read more about Livestock.
Milky and Sunny's Wrap O Bacon (P195)
Is it savory or is it sweet? Is it an appetizer or is it dessert? These six nibbles boggle the mind. This breakfast hub presents a rather novel take on wicked Oreos—wrapping the sweet chocolate cookies in salty cured meat and deep-frying them! The flavors combine really well.
The Wrap O Bacon is available only at Eton Parkview Condominium, Gamboa Street corner Rada Street, Makati City. Read more about the Wrap O Bacon.
Osaka Ohsho's Mixed Mushrooms and Bacon (P310)
The Japanese love bacon, and Osaka Ohsho has a whole mini menu featuring eats wrapped in the good stuff. Amid bacon-wrapped asparagus and bacon-wrapped salmon, we love the earthy and savory combination. Shiitake, eringi, and shimeji brown come smashing together for a loud mushroom-y bite, with bacon serving as the equalizer.
Osaka Ohsho is at 3/F SM Mega Fashion Hall, Mandaluyong. Read more about Osaka Ohsho.
Deep-Fried Bacon Burger from Zark's (P240)
This is how Zark's wraps presents–with bacon. You've heard of restaurants adding bacon between the buns? Well, Zark's takes that several steps further by mummifying this innocent hamburger into a bacon edifice.
Click here for a list of Zark's branches.
Bacon Cheese Bombs from Mati's Meat and Bread
As if gooey, breaded cheeseballs aren't enough of a reward, try wrapping some bacon around them! Mati's co-owner Paul Macasaet invented these bites of awesome on a whim, but we're big believers that one good thing plus another good thing always leads to an even better thing (well, in this case, anyway). The bacon actually cuts the richness of the cheese.
Mati's Meat and Bread is at Festival Mall, Alabang, Muntinlupa City. Read more about Mati's Meat and Bread.
Bacon-Wrapped Meatballs (P295) from Morganfield's
These six meaty balls are deliciously deep-fried and covered in bacon. You can have it with some lettuce leaves for some Asian-style enjoyment (and to cut the richness), but don't forget to ask for the mustard. That sharp bite will provide the balance you'll look for.
Morganfield's is at Uptown Place, 36th Street corner 9th Avenue, Bonifacio Global City.


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- Did you mean
- wooster ag facilities consisted research farm
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Developing a Farm Digital Strategy 3 – Data Management Considerations
information for farm decisions. (Developed by the Ohio State University Extension Digital Ag Team. ... digitalag.osu.edu/precision-ag/research-focuses/data-analysis-and-management) Data can also be valuable to farmers by helping them explore how various changes to practices, ... equipment, or other factors might impact profitability. Precision ag (PA) service providers use farm data to ...
Developing a Farm Digital Strategy 2 – Precision Technology and Data Generation
Different types of precision ag data that can be collected at the farm. Agronomic Yield As-Applied ... (Collected during field research by the Ohio State University Extension Digital Ag Team) Agronomic data ... on-farm research, provide yield estimates, and direct scouting activities (stand counts, leaf tissue ...
Developing a Farm Digital Strategy 1- Introduction
Integrated Solutions Consultant at Ag-Pro Elizabeth Hawkins, Field Specialist, Agriculture and Natural ... farms. Farm machinery comes from the manufacturer with technologies already embedded including internet ... volumes of data for a field. A study conducted by the Ohio State Digital Ag team in 2017 collected 60.4 ...
CFAES launches the Knowledge Exchange
kx.osu.edu, designed to help broader audiences connect with the world-class research from the college in one ... centralized resource. KX translates research into engaging communication products—stories, videos, tools, ... But the mission of the unit goes beyond translation. KX actively collaborates with researchers and ...
Where are they now? Alumni Awards edition
serving as President of the commission for the last 2 years. Also, starting the Virtual Farm Trips program ...
Celebrating Buckeyes
Farm. CHAIRE also held a virtual Inaugural Research Symposium in May, originally scheduled to be held in ... program and is playing a lead role with the Controlled Environment Food Production Research Complex ... a position at the U.S. Forest Service, Research Plant Pathologist Hardwood Tree Improvement and Regeneration ...
Alumni in the news
Award Jerry Borton - '71 BS Agricultural Education- Fulton Co. 2020 Ag Hall of Fame inductees named ... agricultural programs available Keith Stimpert - '83 MS Agricultural Education- Farm Bureau's Keith Stimpert ...
ECUADOR and the risk of Fusarium oxysporum TR4
To watch this talk anytime, just click on the "Wooster Campus" tab of the International ...
Cultural Connection: ECUADOR and the risk of Fusarium oxysporum TR4
cubense Tropical Race 4. To watch anytime, click on the "Wooster Campus" tab of this website. ...
4-H Celebration of Youth: Pathways to the Future
our greatest needs include 4-H camp facilities, innovative program development and delivery, and ...

subset: commoncrawl


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Simple design, perfect for any style, It is a full range of styles. All uppers are made of canvas, and the tongue and heel are used. The same color nylon webbing, the shoes as a whole show a more concise and degrading impression. Considering the problem of breathability, the inside of the toe portion is made of mesh material. The material inside the shoelet uses a soft-touch MIRCO FIBER material. In addition to the main nylon round belt, a nylon flat belt of the same color is also included. Can be used to change different laces **Please refer to the following size instructions before purchasing the product. Thank you!** There will be some errors due to manual measurement **Size suggestion** RFW brand shoes are about half the size of the general shoes FITTING SIZE It is recommended to use the converse as the benchmark to choose the small one. https://gigaplus.makeshop.jp/rfwtokyo/shopimages/15/07/8_000000000715.jpg
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June 9, 2017
Utah Jazz center Jeff Withey, right, blocks the shot of Chicago Bulls forward Bobby Portis, left, during the first half at an NBA basketball game on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/George Frey)
Watch an NBA game these days and, especially in crunch time, you will see more teams than ever leaving their traditional 7-foot centers on the bench, favoring a small lineup instead. The league is trending toward a pace-and-space, perimeter-oriented game with as many shooters and creators as possible. So where does that leave a good, old-fashioned rim protector, such as Jeff Withey, the all-time leading shot-blocker (311) at the University of Kansas? By Benton Smith
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Hello Friday. It's so nice to see you again.
Friday, Aug. 27
For those of us working on our higher education, school started back this week. Whew. Town Tavern welcomes us back with its :: Back to School Bash ::
A night in Vegas, featuring the :: 4th Annual Rockin' With Ribbons Benefitting Susan G Komen For The Cure :: at The Sunset Club
It's fall fashion show time. First up, it's the :: Rock the Republic Fashion Show :: at Pavilion at Epicentre, featuring Rock and Republic Denim.
Single Cell Productions brings you :: ALLOY :: at Closet with a special Iconoclast fashion show
:: Latin International Night :: at Apostrophe Lounge
It's a ::Foam Party :: at Bar Charlotte!
Saturday, Aug. 28
:: 6th Annual White Trash Party :: at Ultimate Gym
Local band's :: The Lights Fluorescent final show :: tonight at The Milestone
Dharma Lounge and Culture Initiative presents :: Abstract Culture :: an abstract showcase of 3D art and music with musical guest Q-BURNS ABSTRACT MESSAGE
Power 98's No Limit Larry hosts the :: I Luv Music Weekend :: at The Forum
:: Kiss :: live at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
Sunday, Aug. 29
Rockhouse Events brings you :: ReFRESH :: pool party at The Blake Hotel
:: Tea Leaf Green :: performs at Neighborhood Theatre


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Wooden Spoon
Park woodshop is the brainchild of sculptor Park Swan and yoga instructor Leslie McConnaughey. As a couple they partner gracefully on the business. He is the creator and designer and she wears many hats including marketing and sales. Park's expertly sculpted wooden tools are beautiful individually, or as a group. They are meant to be treasured, used and grow a patina from daily love.
This stirring spoon is tried and true. Each spoon has been crafted, sanded and oiled individually by hand. Each piece goes through 4-5 cycles of soaking, drying, and hand sanding before the final oiling. This process insures the spoon won't get rough or grainy after daily use. Chose between either black walnut, or sugar maple, the carved ring makes for easy hanging storage near your stove or workspace.
Sold individually.


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If you are a frequent reader of Model 284, you can recall we did a sentiment analysis on 2018 NBA Draft Prospects based on scouting reports at The Stepian and NBADraft.com. For those that are unaware, sentiment is a form of NLP (Natural Language Processing) or more formally defined as "the process of computationally identifying and categorizing opinions expressed in a piece of text, especially in order to determine whether the writer's attitude towards a particular topic, product, etc., is positive, negative, or neutral." Using Professor Bing Liu's graded sentiment dictionary, we can analyze text to and identify who is more positively written about. For more information, please read our My Model Monday series article.
Category Archives: Basketball
2019 Similarity Score Tool
Select any 2019 NBA Draft prospect from the drop-down menu below to view their top 10 most similar college basketball players, as measured by our Similarity Score model. Similarity Scores provide insight into how a player will translate to the NBA based on how their historical comparisons have performed in the NBA. This model considers a player's college production, physical measurements, and age/experience to generate their most similar historical players. For more background on the calculation of the similarity scores, see this article. This model is one of three pieces that we use to evaluate the NBA potential of college players, with the other two being PNSP and NBA Role Probability Model.
Continue reading 2019 Similarity Score Tool
2019 NBA Role Probability Model
The NBA Role Probability Model predicts the likelihood that a given college basketball player becomes an All-Star, starter, bench player, or does not make it in the NBA. The model considers individual box score statistics, team-level statistics (e.g. strength of schedule), physical measurements, high school scouting rank, position, and age/experience to predict the probability of a player landing each NBA role. For more detail on how this model is formulated, see this article. The Role Probability model is one of three pieces that we use to evaluate the NBA potential of college and international players, with the other two being PNSP and Similarity Scores. In the table below, you can find the model's predicted probabilities for each 2019 prospect landing in a given role in the NBA.
Continue reading 2019 NBA Role Probability Model
2019 Peak NBA Statline Projection Model
Peak NBA Statline Projection (PNSP) is a model used to project NBA success for college and International basketball players. PNSP considers each player's individual and team statistics, physical measurements, high school scouting ranking, and age/experience. The PNSP model returns a single rating value from 0 to 100, with higher values indicating a "better" NBA prospect. We provide a detailed article outlining how PNSP is formulated here, and PNSP rankings from previous years can be found here. Below are a few highlights for the 2019 NBA Draft Class, and a listing of each player's PNSP.
2019 NBA Bracket and Simulation
2019 NBA Playoffs Bracket and Simulation
Below is our projected bracket and simulation results for the 2019 NBA playoffs. These probabilities were generated from a combination of models that are trained on data from the regular season. Continue reading 2019 NBA Bracket and Simulation
Game Predictions | March Madness 2019
The tables below provide our predictions for all games in the 2019 NCAA Tournament. The tables will be updated after each round of the tournament, with new games/predictions added as they become available. A brief description of how to interpret the predictions is provided above each table, and a summary of the historical accuracy of each model is provided at the end of the post.
Continue reading Game Predictions | March Madness 2019
Checking in on the Model 284 March Madness pool
The first week of March Madness is in the books, and so far the tournament has been more predictable than usual. Five teams seeded 11 or higher made it past the first round, but only one of those—Oregon—made it through to the Sweet 16. They, along with five-seed Auburn, were the only teams to advance through the first two rounds who weren't seeded four or lower.
All this chalk means the brackets in our Model 284 pool are in pretty good shape. None of you has lost your champion or runner-up yet, a remarkable occurrence given that thirteen different teams were finals picks of one bracket or another. Fifty-eight of your seventy-two entries haven't lost a single Final 4 team. Thirty-one of you could still have a perfect Elite 8 as well. Last year at this stage, the leader had 470 points. This year, in a pool of almost the same size, thirty people have a higher score than that. And it's not just our pool who has had it good; for the very first time, someone in the NCAA Bracket Challenge picked the first two rounds perfectly.
So long story short, your brackets look pretty good. All of you correctly picked all of the one- and two-seeds, save for the brackets "JGR Official" and "Official 2", which officially got too cute by picking Montana over Michigan. Liberty, Iowa, and Baylor's victories threw you off the most, but even still, each of those teams were picked by around a quarter of you.
Your Sweet 16 picks were equally impressive. Everybody picked Duke to make it to the second weekend, though UCF came dangerously close to proving you all wrong. Save for one, each given Sweet 16 team was picked more frequently than the three others vying for its spot. The exception was 12-seed Oregon, and even then, they were picked by more of you than 4-seed Kansas State and almost as many as 5-seed Wisconsin, Oregon's two lower-seeded competitors.
Looking ahead to the rest of the tournament, it's anybody's game. With everybody's finals picks still in the running, the rest of the tournament will be an exciting watch! Good luck to all of you.
Model 284 Bracket | March Madness 2019
Below is our Model 284 consensus bracket for the 2019 NCAA Tournament. As you will see from our Game-by-Game Predictions and Tournament Simulation results, our bracket does not necessarily advance our model's predicted winner for every single game. Rather, we use a combination of (1) our model's individual game predictions, (2) our tournament simulation results, (3) injuries / other factors not captured by our models, and (4) consideration of public picks – to make sure we are differentiating our bracket enough from the most popular choices. For those interested, here is a bracket filled out purely using model predictions. Continue reading Model 284 Bracket | March Madness 2019
Tournament Simulation | March Madness 2019
The article below shows how our models view this year's tournament field from a simulation perspective. Each table shows the % chance that each team advances to a given round of the tournament (e.g., in the first table, Duke has a 97% chance of advancing to the 2nd round). These figures are calculated based on 60,000 simulations1 of this year's tournament, which were performed using win probability predictions from our models. Note that play-in game teams are subject to change and are denoted with an *. Continue reading Tournament Simulation | March Madness 2019
Model 284 March Madness Pool
Can you beat the Model? Enter a March Madness bracket into the group Model 284 for a chance to take on The Model. The winning bracket will receive a $100 Cash Prize and Second Place will receive a Model 284 Quarter Zip!


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The San Juan Capistrano Open Space Foundation has completed work on more than $30,000 in new public amenities at the city's Northwest Open Space and given them to the city. The upgrades include picnic tables and facilities for dogs and horses.
Foundation volunteers will continue to help at the property, but the city will assume responsibility for its maintenance. The Northwest Open Space officially opened in June 2010. Its gateway is at 30291 Camino Capistrano.
The city has acquired more than 500 acres of open space in the northwest area of town, mostly through bond measures. The nonprofit Open Space Foundation was founded to provide the public with ways to use the open-space holdings, which had been mostly inaccessible for decades. The group uses donations to build roads, fences, picnic areas and more.
The foundation is working on building a dog park and a picnic area on two parcels of open space.
Contact the writer: email@example.com or 949-492-5135


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Dinnertime Adventure at Medieval Times in Buena Park, California
Have you ever experienced Medieval Times? On our last trip to Buena Park, California we decided to make dinner one evening extra exciting by going to see Medieval Times. I had been wanting to go with my family ever since I first heard about it from friends who[Read more]


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- Award$1,200
- Entries115
- Creatives30
- Feedback/StatsGood
Creative Brief
Who are you?
Abunda Functional Foods is a new, innovative company that is dedicated to creating outstanding healthy and functional products. We blend the latest nutritional science to deliver better health & wellness, but we won't compromise on taste or convenience. We create better products!
What do you need?
We are launching a new product called MojoMilk. Imagine your favorite chocolate milk mix, like Nesquik, but healthier. We need a package designed that is attractive to both kids (2-18) and parents. The package includes an outer box that holds 10 individual stick packs. Design must include both the stick pack and the box.
Who Is Your Audience?
Kids 2-18.
Parents- Typically college educated and health-aware.
We Like These Examples
We do not want the typical cartoon character type kids package. We wish to be a bit more sophisticated in our approach to kids (they are more sophisticated than you may think). Clean, contemporary, bold.
We Absolutely Must Have
We want really clever and creative ideas and insights.
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Follow Friday is a long standing Twitter concept that allows tweeters to single out certain people they are following and tweet a little blurb about why they should be followed. This is an awesome concept for businesses who want to single out great customers. Your followers can also tweet about your company in the same way so their followers can follow you too. This concept has slowly changed over the years as more and more people are using Twitter. Rather than single out a couple of followers each Friday, they simply tweet a list of followers. Below are some etiquette tips for Follow Friday on Twitter.
The Two Schools of Follow Friday
As stated above, there are two different types of Follow Friday with one singling out certain followers to highlight and the other just listing all your followers for Follow Friday. The purists say that this is only supposed to be done to highlight special people and that those who just tweet all of their followers are missing the point of Follow Friday. On the other side of the fence, those who tweet all of their followers say that it's their tweets and they can use as many of their followers as they want. There really should be no argument as both sides can really do what they want on their own Twitter so you can choose to highlight people or to simply tweet out all of your followers.
Issues with Follow Friday
Not everyone is on board with the entire Follow Friday trend because of the amount of people they are following. Look at it this way, when you are on Twitter and you only have one hundred followers, on Friday, you are being mentioned in a least half that amount. Your Twitter account is blowing up with Follow Fridays and you are getting mentions all day long with no substance to the tweets. Now imagine those people who have thousands of followers. It just gets incredibly insane for them and for you if you have that many too. The only followers that won't participate are those followers that you have bought and paid for.
Should You Participate in Follow Friday?
You really need to consider whether or not to participate in Follow Friday and which side of the fence you want to be on. You have to consider your followers feelings if they do not participate, they may not want to be included. For a company, it may be best for you to highlight a few followers and offer a little insight on them in your tweets rather than blasting out your entire following every Friday. This can be time consuming for your or for your social media person. If you choose just a few people to highlight each week it would seem more special for them too.
Follow Friday was started in order to highlight certain followers so they would be followed by others. Today, it has turned into a mass following campaign that can be wonderful for some or a hassle for others who don't want all the notifications in their Twitter feed. You have to decide if you want to participate in this campaign and which side of the fence you are on.Share


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Asia take surprise lead over Europe in EurAsia Cup
Issued on:
Kuala Lumpur (AFP)
Asia got off to a stunning start to take a one point lead over their more fancied European opponents Friday on the rain-soaked opening day of the EurAsia Cup in Malaysia.
The team captained by Arjun Atwal of India won three of the six fourball matches and halved their final game to take a 3 1/2 to 2 1/2 lead over the European side skippered by Thomas Bjorn.
Bjorn is also the Ryder Cup captain, and the match play tournament near Kuala Lumpur is a great chance for him to test players in a team environment before the showdown against the USA in Paris.
Europe took an early lead, with Englishmen Tommy Fleetwood and Paul Casey defeating Thailand's Kiradech Aphibarnrat and South Korea's An Byeong-Hun for a 4 to 3 win.
Race to Dubai champion Fleetwood put the duo ahead with a birdie, before Casey extended their lead with an eagle on the third hole.
Fleetwood fired an eagle on the 11th, putting them on a firm path to victory.
But Team Asia drew level in the next match after South Korea's Kang Sung-Hoon and Thailand's Poom Saksansin won 5 to 4 against Sweden's Henrik Stenson and Frenchman Alexander Levy.
They dominated throughout the match, with Kang firing birdies on the first two holes, and Poon scoring a birdie on the 14th.
Japan's Yuta Ikeda and local favourite Gavin Green extended Asia's advantage with a 2 to 1 triumph over Belgium's Thomas Pieters and England's Matthew Fitzpatrick.
Both teams were all square going into the final stretch, but Green fired birdies in the final three holes to edge his European opponents.
English pair Ross Fisher and Tyrrell Hatton clawed back some ground for Team Europe with a win over Indian duo Anirban Lahiri and S.S.P Chawrasia, before Japan's Hideto Tanihara and Thailand's Phachara Khongwatmai scored a two-hole triumph over Sweden's Alex Noren and Ireland's Paul Dunne.
In the final match of the day, China's Li Haotong -- playing with Malaysia's Nicholas Fung -- fired a birdie on the 18th, to halve their match against Austria's Bernd Wiesberger and Spaniard Rafa Cabrera Bello.
This gave the Asian side a narrow lead for the day.
Bjorn said the result in the $4.8 million EurAsia Cup, which runs till Sunday at the Glenmarie Golf and Country Club, showed that Asia was producing more strong players.
The Dane said he knew ahead of the tournament that "we could find ourselves in this position.
"We knew this Asian team is very strong and very much ready to play," he told reporters.
Atwal said it was a positive start but insisted it was not yet time to celebrate.
"I don't want to ever sound cocky with a team like Europe that we're facing," he said.


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A new weekly YouTube series called "The Greenlight" recently sprouted up, and spotlights projects that have been submitted to Steam's Greenlight service. This first episode spends nearly a half hour on an action game called Bleed by Bootdisk Revolution.'The Greenlight' series kicks off with Steam hopeful Bleed originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 06 Jan 2013 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Know more about this business than we do? Cool! Please submit any corrections or missing details you may have.Help us make it right
Be the first SILive.com user to add photos or videos of O'Brien Jack
O'Brien Jack is located at 1175 Evergreen Dr, Bridgewater, NJ. This business specializes in Funerals & Memorials.


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Does it really matter to know oneself in order to live one's best life?
If you ask me, most definitely so. Living your best life begins when you have a deeper self-awareness of what sparks joy for you, what makes you tick, what makes you feel fulfilled as person, and also very important that you are aware of your strengths and weaknesses. And if you want to improve your life and those around you, you must take action to discover who you really are.
Why It Matters
It matters because your answers to those questions will guide you in aligning your career and your goals with your natural talents, to say yes to things that makes you happy and to learn to say no to things that don't matter to you. When you live a life that is aligned to your personal core values, you'll find yourself in a much more positive and productive environment.
How many people are depressed because they are stuck in a career they don't like?
How many people feel like they don't measure up because they are not good at something?
How many people are unhappy with their current situations?
Self-discovery is so important but few people never really take it seriously. Take it from me who struggled during my early years due to lack of self-awareness.
My Story
During my teenage years I was confused why I couldn't relate to people my age. I didn't enjoy the usual things young people do (partying, drinking, hanging out on the weekends, socialising, etc..). What I enjoy then and now is to read, to learn, to discover new skills, to travel, to be in solitude because that's how I recharge, to have meaningful conversations and not gossip and talk behind other people's back.
As such, I was made to believe that I was weird, aloof, or antisocial ~ and when I was moving up in the life ladder at a rate faster than my peers, it didn't really help because then they found me unrelatable. Their jealousy and envy was becoming unhealthy that it was best to distance myself.
Had I known then about the significance of self-discovery, I wouldn't have been so affected because I would know to develop friendships with people who share the same core personal values like mine. And now I realised that having an INTJ -T personality means I have one of the rarest personality types. INTJs form just two percent of the population, and women of this personality type are especially rare, forming just 0.8% of the population, so it is often a challenge for us to find like-minded individuals.
Additionally, had I known then about the importance of knowing who I really am, I wouldn't have gone on a reroute to a career path that didn't really give me genuine happiness, fulfillment and real purpose.
I realised later down the track that I am wired to create, and I find purpose in working not just for the sake of doing work but to do my life's work. My previous career was also all about teamwork. And being an INTJ – T, I was doomed to fail because I do my best when I work alone.
See the importance of knowing yourself? You learn to be more of who you are and you start to focus on what naturally makes you unique and powerful. You can never be the best at being someone else, but you certainly can be the best of who you already are.
Ways to Know Yourself
The one big problem that most people say is that they don't know who they are, what they want and they can't describe their own strengths and weaknesses.
The other problem is some people think they know what they're good at, but they really don't.
So how do you really get to know yourself in a deeper way?
1.Start a journal
Write everyday, write about your life, about what you want, what frustrates you and excites you. The best way it to write it on a physical paper or notebook and just let your thoughts flow.
There's a deeper connection when you write down your thoughts with your hand.It doesn't even need to be perfect and neat. It can be a bullet form style or it can be a written conversation to yourself.
When you start a journal, you have a written record of your thoughts, so you can reflect on them more easily than relying on your memory alone.
2. Travel the world
There's no better to discover yourself deeper than when you go on a journey far from home. When you travel, you get out of your comfort zone and you will learn what your physical and mental limitations are.
You also gain so much ideas and inspirations from the places you visit and the cultures you experience. Travelling makes you see that the world is indeed a beautiful place to live.
I have visited 22 countries as of this writing and I travel 2-3 times a year. I tell you that every journey is enriching my life in different ways and making me more self-aware.
3. Try new things
It could be a new skill or a hobby for self-improvement. Maybe you'd always wanted to learn cooking, knitting, photography, painting, sculpting, or perhaps writing? When you challenge yourself to try new things, you'll discover your likes and dislikes, your strengths and weaknesses.
As C.S Lewis said, "You never know what you can do until you try, and very few try unless they have to."
4. Take reputable personality assessments like Gallup and MyerBriggs
These two renowned organisations are led by a team of scientists who have done thousands of research projects on personality assessments, and both have created personality tests that will give you a deeper insight of who you really are.
Disclaimer: I have taken both assessments and have used the results in all areas of my life successfully. I highly recommend both Gallup and MyerBriggs but I am not affiliated to these organisations nor paid to include this review in this post. These are all my honest opinions and real personal experiences.
5. Read Books on Personal Development
A lot of authors have written books on self-discovery. Reading books on personal development open up your mind to different ideas and viewpoints. It reconstructs your mindset to be more positive and have an optimistic perspective.
Our best life is only realised when we know our natural talents, passions and the things we truly love to do. But all too often, we don't take it seriously. Don't be like the rest who don't take action!
Your best life starts now…
And I am here to help you with it. DOWNLOAD THIS FREE E-BOOKLET as roadmap to finding out your true unique self.
You might also be interested in this topic: How To Create A Life You Love


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Dr Richard G. Smith is Reader/Associate Professor in Human Geography at Swansea University, UK. He is the Editor of the International Journal of Baudrillard Studies, and has published many articles, special journal issues, and several books on Baudrillard: Jean Baudrillard: Fatal Theories (2009), The Baudrillard Dictionary (2010), Jean Baudrillard: From Hyperreality to Disappearance, Uncollected Interviews (2015), Jean Baudrillard: the Disappearance of Culture, Uncollected Interviews (2017), and Jean Baudrillard: penser à voix haute, entretiens 1968–2008 [Jean Baudrillard: Thinking Aloud, Interviews 1968–2008] ('Perspectives critiques' Presses Universitaires de France). He co-organized the first and second major international and interdisciplinary UK conferences on Baudrillard in 2006 (Swansea) and 2018 (Oxford), and was interviewed about Jean Baudrillard for a South Korean TV documentary. He is currently completing nine more books on Baudrillard, including: Jean Baudrillard: The Missing Pieces, Uncollected Writings and Photographs (Edinburgh University Press), Jean Baudrillard: Untranslated German Interviews (Seagull Books) [3 volumes], Jean Baudrillard: Untranslated French Interviews (Seagull Books) [3 volumes], Collecting Baudrillard (Kindle), and Jean Baudrillard's Photography (Kindle). In Urban Studies he has pioneered new poststructuralist network and assemblage approaches and his research on world cities has been reported on extensively in the world's print media, is among the most highly-cited and reprinted in the world, and has recently been translated into Chinese. His research on world cities has been so influential it even features in the AS/A Level Geography school syllabus. In 2017 he was an invited TEDx speaker on 'London After Brexit' at the major annual TED event in London, in 2018 he was the sole keynote speaker at the 12th Luxury Real Estate Association Conference in London.
Dr Richard G. Smith BA (Hons), PhD, FRGS
My Swansea University Staff Page
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Postal Address: Dr Richard G. Smith, Department of Geography, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea, SA28PP, UK.
Biography/Research Interests
I am a philosopher and urbanist. Educated at Lawrence Sheriff School (Rugby, Warwickshire), University of Hull (BA Hons, 1st) and University of Bristol (PhD). My doctorate on the philosophy of Jean Baudrillard was supervised by the non-representational theorist Professor Sir Nigel Thrift – see my critical tribute here.
I have extensive international knowledge and experience. I have visited more than 100 countries worldwide, and have presented my research at more than 50 international conferences, universities, and public events.
As a critic of Marxism and postmodernism my research in Urban Studies focuses on poststructuralism, assemblage theory, and actor-network theory. My broad expertise in poststructuralist theory has enabled me to recast the conceptual apparatus and empirical approach of urban studies to effectively critique and overturn the neo-Marxist world city, global city, and interlocking world city network concepts (and the error of the ordinary cities notion) to understand cities not only as connected, but as always striving to prohibit and disguise their unbinding and destabilization as networked assemblages: e.g. see 'World city actor-networks' (2003) and 'World city topologies' (2003) in Progress in Human Geography; 'Beyond the global city concept and the myth of "command and control"' (2014) and 'Questioning the theoretical basis of current global city research: structures, networks, and actor-networks' (2011) in the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research; 'The ordinary city trap' in Environment and Planning A (2013); etc. My latest research is concerned with 'London After Brexit (see TED Talk), and with introducing, explaining, developing, and inventing an approach to Urban Studies that is founded on the philosophy of Jean Baudrillard. See, for example, my entry on 'Jean Baudrillard' for The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Studies (2017). [I am an authority on Jean Baudrillard's philosophy and oeuvre – See BaudrillardStudies.com]. My research on world cities features in the AS / A Level Geography syllabus.
A list of my 100+ publications (published or in press; not those in preparation – i.e. invited, under contract, under translation, or in draft for intended submission to a journal etc.) is available through my Swansea University Staff Page.
My research has been reported on extensively in the world's print media (in >25 newspapers and magazines), and my journal papers are among the most highly-cited and reprinted in the world – a few examples: on ISI web of science my Cities (1999) paper – 'A Roster of World Cities' – has 414 citations; my Annals of the Association of American Geographers (2000) paper – 'World city network: a new meta-geography' – has 240 citations; one of my Progress in Human Geography (2003) papers – 'World city actor-networks' – has 87 citations and is noted as one of the fifty most frequently cited. My research in Urban Studies is reprinted in no fewer than 8 edited collections, and has been translated into Chinese.
You can access my publications via the original sources; some are also available through 'Cronfa' (Swansea University's Research Repository), and, through other on-line portals:
Amazon Author Page / Edinburgh University Press / Routledge / Seagull Books / Academia.edu / ORCID / ResearchGate / Google Scholar / ResearcherID / Scopus / LinkedIN / Google+


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understanding your fertility, page 12 of 14
Understanding the Hormone Pattern of the Cycle
None of the events of the cycle happen by chance. They are all controlled by chemical messengers called hormones. The two main hormones in a woman's cycle - oestrogen and progesterone - are explained in the diagram below.
1. oestrogen comes in increasing amounts from the ripening egg follicle and causes the cervix to open and secrete fertile "motorway" mucus till the egg is ready for release. The last day of fertile mucus is called Peak Day - peak of fertility.
2. The dotted vertical line represents luteinizing hormone (lh) which triggers ovulation.
3. The empty follicle converts to a yellow structure, the corpus luteum - and produces the dominant hormone progesterone which:
- glues up the mucus,
- builds up the womb lining,
- stops all further ovulation in that cycle.
Allowing three days after Peak Day, for the mucus to thicken, all the remaining days of the cycle are infertile until the start of the next period.
The event of ovulation can also be confirmed by another sign - a rise in body temperature. This well researched method has been used world-wide with great success since the 1950's, as a natural means of family planning.
effects of fertility on body temperature
Before ovulation a woman's body temperature is normal, because oestrogen has no effect on body temperature.
However, after ovulation, progesterone in her body causes her temperature to rise and remain high till the next period starts. This is explained in the next illustration.
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© 2011 Fertility Education & Training


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Data virtualization is the new data integration technology. It allows for more agile data integration through decoupling data consumers from data stores.
But why do we need a new technology? Data is increasingly becoming a crucial asset for organizations to survive in today's fast moving business world. In addition, data becomes more valuable if enriched and/or fused with other data. Unfortunately, enterprise data is dispersed by most organizations over numerous systems all using different technologies. To bring all that data together is and has always been a major technological challenge.
In addition, more and more data is available outside the traditional enterprise systems. It's stored in big data platforms, in cloud applications, spreadsheets, simple file systems, in weblogs, in social media systems, and so on. and stored in traditional databases. For each system that requires data from several systems, different integration solutions are deployed. In other words, integration silos have been developed that over time has led to a complex integration labyrinth. The disadvantages are clear:
The bar for integration tools and technology has been raised: the integration labyrinth has to disappear. It must become easier to integrate data from multiple systems, and integration solutions should be easier to design and maintain to keep up with the fast changing business world.
All these new demands are changing the rules of the integration game, they demand that integration solutions are developed in a more agile way. One of the technologies making this possible today is Data Virtualization.
This seminar focuses on Data Virtualization. The technology is explained, advantages and disadvantages are discussed, products are compared, design guidelines are given, and use cases are discussed.
What you will learn:
Main Topics:
Geared to: IT architects; enterprise architects; business intelligence specialists; data analysts; data warehouse designers; business analysts; data scientists; technology planners; technical architects; IT consultants; IT strategists; systems analysts; database developers; database administrators; solutions architects; data architects.
If you can not participate this course, you can send someone else instead of you. If cancellation is done less than 14 days before the course start, we will charge 50% of the price. In case of no show without any cancellation, we will charge the whole price. Cancellation fee will also be charged in case of illness.


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Amelia Lake
The Kingston foyer opens to the dining room and study, which leads to the kitchen and great room. The gourmet kitchen has a counter top bar that overlooks the great room and a breakfast area.
The master suite is off of the kitchen and features a very large walk in closet. In the bath there is a dual vanity, garden tub, separate shower, and a water closet. The second bedroom has an en suite bathroom; located next to the third and fourth bedrooms, which are positioned on either side of another full bath.
*Pictures may be of a similar home and not necessarily of subject property, including interior and exterior colors, options, and finishes.
Community Information
- Hours
Mon - Sat 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Sun 1:00 PM - 6:00 PM
- Contact Info
Amelia Lake Sales Information
- Sales Office
9179 Amelia Drive
Mobile, AL 36695
- Amenities
- Fishing Pond
My Notes
School Districts Near Home
|School Name
|2.6 mi.
|School Name
|0.4 mi.
|School Name
|1.3 mi.
Area Information
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Doing Palermo the Rick Steves WayThursday, March 10th, 2005
I have to be really, really fast here so no editing just writing and I will take care of the rest later.
I was a little worried yesterday about that guy thinking I was Albanian the other day, like maybe I look like a maid, or a hooker. Is it the purple hair? Cannot figure it out.
Because of our lost afternoon Tuesday, we got out early yesterday and ran around Palermo like crazy women. Went to the opera house in the morning – would not have done that, if not for Colleen – but it was awesome, the opera was rehearsing and we got to see for a minute and it was fantastic. Then onto the archeaological museum where I saw something truly weird, a small bronze of an erect penis, that HAD a penis, also a tail and legs. We walked around the port a little, also almost got bit by a rabid dog, then went to get a pizza.
This was the best part of the day. We went to a famous place called Antica Foccaciaria di San Francesco, which also happens to be where we breakfast every morning. We sat next to this big table of seven guys and two girls. After some eyeing of each others food and smiles and stuff, the one girl who spoke some English spoke to us (all the guys were speaking too, and we did the best we could.) So Colleen tells this girl we are here for my birthday, and she tells the group, and they bust out singing Happy Birthday to me. Then all the guys got up and kissed me! (Cheek kisses, not Albanian hooker kisses.) I turned all red and my heart was beating so fast. It was pretty awesome, let me tell you.
So after that Colleen had it in her mind to go to the Crypt of the Cappucine where there are all these dead bodies decaying on the walls. Like 8000 of them. So I decided we would walk, but instead of on the main street, on the back streets. CRAZY. PAZZO. More on this later… then we got there and Colleen was totally grossed out but I made her look at all the dead bodies for a really long time, like 10 minutes.
I am really running out of time now, we are off to Monreale and later, Cefalu… more when we stop running. Fantastic dinner last night, at a place recommended by a friend in Rome… called Sant Andrea. I told Colleen she should start telling everyone it is my birthday and we are going to start counting the cheek kisses. Eight, so far.


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There is a humanitarian disaster going on in Yemen. In a world of humanitarian disasters this one truly has our hand in it. The root cause is the civil war whcih is being relentlessly conducted with American backed Saudi support to the goverment forces against the Houthi rebels. But this is no time to blame one side or the other it is a time to act to help the best we can those staring and dying.
I had often been saddened because I could nothing about this. The military situation was so bad no aid organization coud be there. Now I learn that Doctors Without Borders is daring to be there to do what they can with their clinics.
Children are dying, people are starving. I appeal to anyone reading this: please give what you can to Doctors Without Borders. The link is here. Those of you employed check out if your employee will match your funds. Mine will 50% so I will give through them. But if you dion't please use this link.
The link: https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org


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Members arriving early in the morning were treated to a Hirundine lift off the reserve reed beds of over 1,000 Swallows, the majority of which were juvenile birds; there were the occasional House Martin and Sand Martin amongst them, but in the early morning sunshine they all had only one thing in mind – they all headed off across the Solent towards the east end of the Isle of Wight, and an hour later they had all gone. Together with the Swallows, a late solitary Sandwich Tern represented the last of the summer migrants on their way south, but a delightful surprise was the newly arrived first family of four wintering Russian Brent Geese flying up the Solent, emphasing the change of the seasons. As the rising tide came in, distant shore birds were pushed up the beach, most of which were Turnstone and Ringed Plover.
After meeting at the reserve visitor centre, the group led by Ken & Sarah White, made their way along to the southernmost hide, a short walk along the coast road and past the sluice, around which the Turnstones posed for close scrutiny allowing the juveniles to picked out. Gadwall were on the beach dabbling in the mud, alongside roosting gulls which included Common Gull and the odd Mediterranean, but the freshwater lakes in front of the Meon Shore Hide afforded close views of Snipe, Black-tailed Godwit, Common Sandpiper and Lapwing. As the day progressed the full sun encouraged us to take to the eastern side of the reserve and so we made our way up to the Knights Bank Hide overlooking the Frying Pan Lake and adjacent meadows. Every effort was made to see the Cattle Egrets that were keeping the reserve cow herd company, but only glimpses were possible due to the tall vegetation in the meadows. En route Water Rail were clearly heard, and Kingfishers dashed up and down the waterways; a patient stalking Heron provided an interesting contrast to the agitated and lively feeding action of a Little Egret viewed from the Suffern Hide. The warm temperatures encouraged noticeable levels of activity from numerous Common Darter and Migrant Hawker dragonflies; this perhaps was the most important factor in the appearance of the day's star bird later in the afternoon !
After lunch at the visitor centre we called into the Meon Shore Hide again and were rewarded with a different blend of shore birds roosting on the high tide : a small flock of Sanderling adults with juveniles, confiding views of juvenile Black-tailed Godwits, plus one or two Ruff, a wader that always seems to cause confusion! We continued up the west side of the reserve to the Spurgin Hide, from where strips of low growing yellow-flowering plants along the scrape margins were close enough to be finally identified by telescope as the naturalised alien Buttonweed, Cotula coronopifolia , having also been spotted earlier from the Meon Shore Hide. The icing on the cake, however, was a brief but exciting view of a juvenile Hobby gliding in front of the hide devouring one of the unlucky dragonflies, before resuming its normal fast hunting flight straight over the hide and off to the west out of sight behind the trees. While wandering back to the car parking along the beach, a distant group of Common Scoter were found off shore with a couple of Great Crested Grebes. Noisy groups of Oystercatcher on the shore were accompanied by another group of three Brent Geese, a poignant reminder that winter is not far around the corner.
Some members stayed behind for a delightful supper at the nearby Osborne pub, and were treated to an evening-long spectacular sunset.
Report by Ken White
Pictures by Ken White


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I have been producing and promoting my art for a few years now and in doing so, I've learned a lot. Here are a few tips and tricks I thought I'd share. More to come.
ABOVE: The home page of my website, www.david-mcdonough.com
- Have a website. This is obligatory.
- Make your name your address (e.g. sarahsmith.com).
- Keep it simple. It's best to assume everyone visiting has ADD.
- Pages to include: bio, artist statement (optional), resume, gallery and contact page.
- Don't show everything in your gallery. Include your 20 best images and add and subtract as you produce more work.
- Include prices or at least a range. Would you contact anyone to ask?
- Include links to various social networks. These will help your search engine results.
- Embed your blog (if you have one).
- Provide some contact information (at a minimum, your city and email address, but preferably your phone number too). You'll appear shady otherwise.
- View everything on multiple browsers and devices. They're not all the same.
Social Media
- Research each network. Pick the right ones for you.
- Don't bite off more than you can chew. Take your time and do it right.
- Post your passion.
- No one likes a complainer.
- Be social. You need to engage with others in order for them to engage with you.
- Set a posting schedule and stick to it.
- Don't buy followers
Next week: Creating a Portfolio & Submitting to Juries'
43.653226 -79.383184


text: I have a table that has the building width for each side and I want to combine them together in GIS. I have attached an example in which I have 4 rows for one building, and I want only one row per building as shown on the picture. Is there a method in GIS?


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Heiko Oberdiek wrote:
> In theory. In practice, you can or sometimes even must have some stuff
> before \documentclass/\documenttype.
> Example:
> \RequirePackage{cmap}% before the class loads fonts
> \documentclass{myclass}
> Yours sincerely
> Heiko <[log in to unmask]>
I thought about that, but I was trying to keep things simple-ish. Some
cases like this might be covered, but there will always be problems with
a major change.
Joseph Wright


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In Spring 2018, The Polson Institute visiting faculty program brought Michael Lowy, Emeritus Research Director at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), to teach a course on eco-socialism and the Anthropocene at Cornell. Professor Lowy is a prolific author and internationally renown marxist thinker.
This is the first video in a series, derived from a filmed conversation around topics that percolated in the course Professor Lowy taught at Cornell.


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MERCER CO., Pa. (WKBN) – Heavy rains over the last month caused the Shenango Reservoir to overflow, forcing the park to close for certain activities.
But on Wednesday, portions of the park reopened just in time for the Fourth of July.
Since its completion as a flood control dam in 1965, the Shenango Reservoir has helped a lot of areas in Mercer County avoid downstream flooding.
Over the past month, there has been nearly 10 feet of extra water in the reservoir.
Although there is still evidence of high water and soggy ground all over the park, campers, anglers, hikers and outdoor lovers can now rejoice.
Rangers and ground crews were busy on Wednesday reopening some of the park that had to be closed from flooding.
Campers were waiting before the gates opened at 2 p.m. and according to park officials, there was a steady stream of campers coming in throughout the evening.
However, there is only one boat ramp open. At the North Star Marina, the Shenango Reservoir is over 2 feet above normal levels and the water temperature is up to 75 degrees.
At last check at the check-in station, there were still 200 campsites that were available for the upcoming weekend.


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A long life led in the land of solid rocker panels made reviving this Dove Grey roadster a breeze
Feature Article from Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car
April, 2007 – Jeff Koch
When the MGA launched in 1955, it was a far cry from the bicycle-fendered T-series roadsters: The integrated body and voluptuous curves were an immediate hit with the sports-car-buying public. More than 101,000 MGAs were built from 1955 to 1962, according to www.british-cars.org, though just 31,501 were the three-year-only (1959-'61) 1600 models, and 12,503 were North American LHD exports which made it to the States. Even the name indicated a new beginning: This was the MGA, the first in a new series of modern MG sports cars.
The Dove Grey MGA seen on these pages desperately required a new beginning of its own when owner Bruce Perry found it languishing beneath a Tucson carport. Its back-to-basics approach was a plus for Bruce. "It was such a simple design. You can't even lock this car. I love the door pull cables–without door handles, the body looks really clean. To start it, you pull a knob on the dash. I love the little things like that which make this car unique. And when I saw this one, I knew it was a diamond in the rough.
"My girlfriend's father had it for 15 years, along with a second parts car. I bought both for $2,000, and his wife was so glad they were going! The one I was going to rebuild was old and tired, and missing the brake calipers, the cylinder head and the trunk latch, but it wasn't rotten with rust. The strong point with this one was that it has the original rocker panels. MGAs rust out like you wouldn't believe. When people pull them off the frames, the bodies literally come off in pieces. But this one was solid, and from that alone I knew I was way ahead of the game." Such are the joys of working with desert-based cars.
The parts car, a 1500, was largely junked save for the engine and transmission, which we'll talk about shortly. So the remaining MGA had never been apart before, but it was wearing its fourth paint job. "It was originally blue, someone painted it white, then green, then white again. It was just paint on top of paint. No one ever took out the fender welting either."
Beyond that, the only surprise was that so little work would be needed to make it look good. "There was some surface rust, but once we sandblasted it, everything was fine. One of the rear fenders at the lower dogleg needed a piece of metal in the size of two silver dollars. Another critical spot on these is where the wooden floors meet the L-frame; those lips rust out. On mine, the floorboards were in pieces, delaminating like you wouldn't believe. You'll see restorations on them in print, and you see the bare wood. That's just gonna suck up moisture and cause more problems. I grabbed some wood primer from Home Depot and some regular exterior wood paint for the floorboards.
"And the frame was really nice in that car–no pits. I've seen restoration photos in magazines, and you can tell where rust has eaten the frame, and they just ground it out or covered it up. This was smooth."
Bruce sorted out the body, in its entirety, save for the actual exterior color coats. MIG welding stitched up the various rips, cracks and tears in the bodywork, but the only body panel that required a total replacement was the driver's side door skin, sourced at Moss Motors. "I brought it to the sandblaster, he blasted it to bare metal, and I primed it with Val-Spar gray self-etching primer. I gave that to the bodyman, he ran his hands over it, he checked for any imperfections, then one coat of Mar-Hyde Ultimate 2K urethane yellow primer/surfacer. Then I got the panel back, blocked it with 200-grade wet paper, primed it again, let it dry, then blocked with 400-grit. Then it was ready to paint." Bruce reports that his 60-gallon, 5-horsepower compressor blew 22 to 25 pounds through a $99 special paint gun, but that the p.s.i. range "varies–depending on the temperature, whether I'm mixing it thick or thin, that sort of thing. I avoided shooting in the 100-degree heat of the summer, and I used all medium thinners."
Bruce also jambed the fenders and all of the body openings before sending it to JJ Auto Body in Tucson for three coats of RM Dove Grey (BMC code GR.26) single-stage urethane, then recovered it in time to pull off a 1500-grade wet-sand on the top color coat. "I did all the color sanding here; I literally sanded till my thumb bled." Fitting body panels became the toughest task during restoration: "These were hand-built cars back in the day!" Bruce says.
Along the way, while everything was blown apart, Bruce made a couple of performance and styling modifications: Electronic ignition, a new AutoZone fuel pump replacing the original SU pump and silicone brake fluid increased reliability; urethane suspension bushings front and rear firmed up cornering a touch, while style choices included a wire wheel conversion (including the spindles and rear axle from the wire-wheel 1500 parts car–wire-wheel cars and steel-wheel cars had different axle lengths and parking brake locations) and polishing the domes of the SU carbs.
One choice that was already made for him was the engine: a 1,622cc Mark II engine had been fitted to the parts-car MGA 1500. Swapping blocks meant that a substantial power increase–93hp, up from the correct 1600's 80hp–would be both possible and invisible. The additional .8mm bore over the 1,588cc block helped (as would Bruce rebuilding the engine, balancing out the bottom end, and boring out the cylinders .030 over), but it was the new cylinder head, allowing an 8.9:1 compression ratio, that was responsible for the lion's share of the power bump. But since the MGA was discontinued in 1962, finding the missing cylinder head became a challenge. "Typically, guys will put on an 1,800cc head and block out the emissions stuff, but I wanted the correct head. I called a wrecking yard back East. And someone there knew someone local to them who had a correct, uncracked 1,622 head just lying around. Bought it for $200. I couldn't believe I scored one. For that money, it was a good core–I had it resurfaced, installed hardened seats, stainless valves, new springs, and even found modern valve seals to replace the originals." He also sourced a crankshaft, which ran him another $300. Chris Machine Shop in Tucson refurbished the head to working condition.
The standard-issue four-speed trans was known for rapid synchro wear, resulting in all manner of odd noises while shifting, but even though Bruce rebuilds transmissions for a living, he lucked out here, too. "I disassembled the parts-car's gearbox, and I saw that the cluster gear was fairly new–a sure sign that it had been rebuilt. So I put new bearings and synchros in it, and freshened the seals, but it was solid. I run regular 20/50 Castrol oil like the manual says, and it shifts fine. They're known to wear out their second-gear synchros, but I don't use it as a daily commuter car."
Bruce also restored and re-installed the entire interior, including the rugs, door panels, dash, a new wiring harness, and broken odometer and fuel gauges. He's particularly proud of fixing the fuel gauge: "I took it apart, went on the MGA guru's Web site, and step by step, he taught you how to fix the fuel gauge. Mine had a broken lead … the wire was so thin it looked like hair. I unwound it on a Planters peanut jar, reattached it, put it on my drill, spun the spool and wound it back on. And now it works!" Only the red leather seat covers (which he was shocked to pay $700 a pair for) were wriggled onto their frames by an outside party. "It was such a nice car that I wanted to keep it looking right–it had leather when it was new–but I thought it was ridiculous money."
Most surprising, perhaps, is the time in which the restoration was executed: just 11 months. "I put in two full days a week, and some nights also," Bruce admits. "I'm really happy with the way it came out. I wouldn't change a thing, except for using different types of gasket sealers. I'd also like a five-speed conversion. I'd recommend anyone who wants to undertake a job like this to get all of the restoration and mechanical books you can find. Also hit the Internet and find Barney Gaylord's MGA Guru Web site (www.mgaguru.com/mgtech/)." He gets to drive it every weekend ("except in summer, when it's 110 degrees outside"), and has put around 1,500 miles a year on it since completion.
Bruce has restored a variety of European machines over the years–his latest is a 1966 VW Beetle–and he's also done an MGC. But the MGA will be his last British car effort. "After I did the MGA, I said I'd never do another British car again. They're beautiful, I love the design, they're fun to drive, but they're a pain in the ass. It's a love/hate relationship. Lots of oil leaks, and little finicky stuff. They're really high maintenance. On my MGC, they want you to grease the kingpins every 3,000 miles. Read the maintenance schedule, and they want you to do stuff weekly–tire pressures, check oil, get the headlights readjusted every 6,000 miles. Crazy! And the seat covers for the Beetle I'm doing," he notes, "are $225 for a set."
This article originally appeared in the April, 2007 issue of Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car.
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Katrina Kaif has come a long way in the Hindi film industry. Initially, the actor was just called a 'pretty face' and known for her association with Salman Khan. The actor would use a dubbing artist to shield her linguistic difficulties.
However, her hard work and perseverance has paid off, as she trained hard to master a foreign language, worked on improving her acting abilities, comic timing, action sequences, and developed superlative strength as a dancer.
Rejected from her first film Saaya, where she was cast to play a ghost, and was briefed to walk past the lead actor (John Abraham) in the first shot, which subsequently led to her being chucked out by director (Anurag Basu) after two days on production. Katrina was heart-broken to come to terms with the fact.
Recently, the actor worked in a full-fledged ambitious Anurag Basu directorial (Jagga Jasoos) and delivered a mega-hit with Salman Khan (Tiger Zinda Hai) where she stood out and complemented Salman with equal strength and screen presence as a RAW agent.
Katrina plans to document all of her career's ups and downs in her biography. Where she witnessed many failures and rejections yet took them all in her stride and came out stronger as a lead performer. She claims to have educated herself on the industry, which was most alien to her during her struggle period.
Today, Katrina enjoys immense goodwill and brand equity owing to her intelligent film choices, constant evolvement as an artist. The actor meditates daily and is mindful of the thoughts, by constantly monitoring them to be positive and productive. She reads about influential people's life journeys and careers, to maintain a positive mindset.


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Offensive line leads the way for record setting Bruins
Recommended Video:
West Brook's explosive plays on offense have kept opposing defenses on their heels throughout their record-setting season.
Quarterback L'Ravien Elia's elusiveness allows him to improvise big runs, and utility weapons like receiver Deonte Simpson are capable of executing double passes and jet sweeps to catch defenses off guard.
However, West Brook's historical offensive season wouldn't have been possible without the help of the offensive line.
"It's been huge for us," West Brook head coach Eric Peevey said about the offensive line's production this season. "We had a lot of returners coming back this season and a lot of kids that played as juniors and they all came back together."
The strength of the offensive line helped guide the Bruins to their second UIL State Semifinal appearance since their inaugural season in 1982.
West Brook has broken records for the most wins in a season with 12.
Senior running back Robert McGrue Jr. broke the record for most rushing yards in a single season with 1,926 yards and 36 touchdowns. Elia also broke a West Brook record for the most total yards in a season with 6,860 yards and 74 total touchdowns.
Those offensive records for West Brook wouldn't have been attainable if it wasn't for their offensive line dominating up front.
"When we have an offensive line like ours, you're not forced to run the ball and you're not forced to the pass the ball," Peevey said. "When your offensive line is able to do anything that you need them to do that helps you excel on the offensive side of the ball."
West Brook is currently averaging 33 points per game in their 14 games this season, which includes the regular season and playoffs. They broke the school record for the most points in school history this season as well.
West Brook will need their balanced and explosive offense to beat a historic program like Austin Westlake on Saturday in Katy.
West Brook jumped out to a quick 24-0 lead in the Regional Final against Cypress Creek before their offense began to look stagnant in the second half. Senior offensive guard Donovan Edwards said he wanted to make sure that won't happen again this weekend against Westlake.
"I feel like we need to make a statement as an offensive line," Edwards said. "We want to let everyone know that we are still here."
Peevey and West Brook's coaching staff know what they are up against in their game against Westlake. West Brook will have to go out and play their brand of football the best way they know how.
The defense for West Brook played one of their best games of the season against Cypress Creek. They will need to do that against Westlake despite them being without their starting quarterback Taylor Anderson.
"For us to compete, we are going to have to do what we do, but at the highest level," Peevey said. "We can't have mental mistakes, and we won't hold anything back. We aren't just going to throw the kitchen sink. We are going to throw the whole dang kitchen."


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What is the Difference Between a Vitamin K2 MK-4 and MK-7 Form?
Vitamin K2 is a type of Vitamin K typically found in animals and fermented foods. Also known as menaquinone, Vitamin K2 is associated with several health benefits and cardiovascular benefits.
Vitamin K2 is also divided into several subtypes – the most popular side chains are MK-4 and MK-7. Let's discuss the difference between MK-4 and MK-7 and create a strategy for adding Vitamin K2 to your diet.
Why is Vitamin K2 Important?
- Reverses osteoporosis
- Promotes brain and bone health
- Reduces plaque in arteries
- Prevents kidney stones
- Promotes teeth health
- Reduces the risk of heart disease
Where is MK-4 Found?
MK-4 is found in meat we consume. Chicken legs and thighs (dark meat) are some of the most popular MK-4 food items in Western hemisphere diets. Our bodies, however, have a hard time absorbing MK-4 through foods.
Where is MK-7 Found?
MK-7 is man-made through the fermentation of soy products – think fermented vegetables popular in Asian and Indian cuisine. An example is gochujang, a savory and pungent fermented Korean condiment made with red chili, glutinous rice, fermented soybeans, and salt. If you're thinking about learning to make gochujang at home: Traditionally, the fermentation process takes several years.
Also, MK-7 can be found in bacteria created in processing labs.
The problem is, experts are undecided about the benefits of MK-7 due to a lack of studies.
Eating Your Way to Vitamin K2
Here is a list of foods that provide Vitamin K2. Levels of K2 depend on the quality of products:
- Egg yolks
- Natto, fermented soy
- Butter
- Cheese (varies based on cheese cultures)
- Dark chicken meat
Supplementing Vitamin K2
If some of the foods mentioned above do not fit into your diet, we strongly recommend adding a Vitamin K2 (MK-4) supplement to your daily routine. Do you struggle with swallowing vitamins? No worries here. Frunutta tablets dissolve under the tongue. They can also be chewed or swallowed.
Learn More About Frunutta Vitamins
Frunutta products provide easy absorption with no additives, preservatives, colorings, and other impurities. It's ideal for people that want vitamins and NOTHING MORE.
Learn more about our Vitamin K2 (MK-4) tablets here.


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Welcome to Elsewhere High, "a school for exceptional children."
In this visual novel, players are able to immerse themselves in the world of the outcast. Each student at Elsewhere High has fallen short of expectations at their original high school; they've flunked out, skipped class, wrote threatening notes, or grew to be a reprehensible bully. Friendships spawn, and feuds arise, but amidst the teen drama and angst it quickly becomes clear that Elsewhere is much, much more than it seems.
Chapter one is the free first chapter in a planned multi-chapter series. Subsequent chapters will be sold at a small cost.
Largely kinetic, Elsewhere High allows players to make various choices that lead them down intermittently varying paths. Each reader will reach the same destination, but is able to make small choices that affect individual scenes rather than the arching narrative.
System Requirements
- Minimum:
- Processor: 1Ghz
- Memory: 512 MB RAM
- Storage: 200 MB available space
- Recommended:
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: 1Ghz
- Memory: 512 MB RAM
- Storage: 200 MB available space


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Faculty Support and Resources
Faculty mentors are very important in the fellowship application process because you know your students and your disciplines the best. You are best placed to encourage your students to apply for an opportunity, so I encourage you to refer promising students to me for a consultation about opportunities they might pursue, and the earlier, the better. You can make a referral very quickly by submitting this Faculty Referral form.
While many fellowships are for graduate study, applications often need to be submitted during the junior year, and there are opportunities like summer programs and internships open to undergraduate students, as well as some excellent undergraduate scholarships like the Udall, Boren, and Goldwater. On the other hand, some opportunities are only open to graduating seniors, graduate students (and even alumni may apply for some), so it's often not too late to refer a great student, either.
As the fellowships advisor, I can help your students find opportunities that fit their interests and goals and navigate the application process, but your students will rely on you for letters of recommendation and, in some cases, review of application components such as research proposals that are specific to your discipline.
I will support faculty who are helping in the process by making sure students are prepared when they request letters or other assistance and by offering help as needed with letters of recommendations and the application systems that you may need to navigate to submit them. If you ever have any questions about the advising process or want to know about opportunities for students in your discipline, please contact me at email@example.com. If you'd like to search for opportunities for your students, you'll find links to databases of awards on the Student Support and Resources page.
Letters of Recommendation
Selection committees for national awards receive dozens of impressive and worthy applications. Your letter of recommendation can distinguish a student from the paper crowd and prove decisive in the selection process. Fort Hays State University students have strong faculty support, and we appreciate your help. I encourage you to look at the Writing Recommendation Letters e-book by Joe Schall, but here are some quick tips on making your recommendation letters more effective:
- Detail how you know the student
- Illustrate the qualities that you value in the student
- Contribute original information and insight to the application
- Offer some basis for comparison
- Anecdotes are extremely valuable
- Discuss a project or paper that the student handled well
- Highlight a conversation, class discussion, or group contribution that impressed you
Since letters of recommendation are one of the most critical aspects of faculty support for applicants, here are some useful resources about writing letters for nationally competitive scholarships, including some information specific to particular awards:
- Writing Recommendation Letters Online by Joe Schall: A truly comprehensive resource that addresses issues ranging from the ethical considerations faculty consider when writing letters to best practices for writing letters for students and what selectors prioritize in winning scholarship reference letters.


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Learning Strategist
Honeycomb Learning Design
As a Learning Strategist, Sucheta designs learning solutions that help businesses and organizations to reach a wider audience, improve employee performance, enhance scale of training programs or the overall learning experience using meaningful strategies. Her time-tested Design Solutions Framework TM which is built on established learning models and research in the field ensures the design of creative and engaging solutions which meet the felt and actual business and learning needs. She works with clients for solutions focused on: e-learning, instructor-led training, blended learning, online learning, game based learning, mobile learning and virtual reality. Sucheta works with large corporates, L&D teams, CSR teams, training organizations, start-ups, vocational training institutes, NGOs, educational institutions, content developers, virtual and augmented reality experts for designing learning solutions. She works closely with clients; interacting with senior and top management, partnering with their teams using the Design Solutions Framework TM. She provides thought leadership on integration of the learning solution and effective learning delivery to augment reach, access and scale using technology. If you are looking for engaging learning solutions, reach out to Sucheta at email@example.com


text: The Model 58 STORAGEMASTER® Rolling Workbench measures 54-1/4 in long, 26 in wide. This chest provides organized storage and a handy work surface that can go wherever the job requires. Six drawers offer easy access to small tools and supplies while 2 open areas on the left side store bulkier items. With a load capacity of 2,500 lbs, this workbench is ideal for a personal box on a jobsite.


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Pescara resounding with jazz
Relaxation on the Italian coast is something that everybody has to experience at least once in a lifetime. Just to be able to feel the wonderful ambience every time you look at the photograph of some romantic coves, incredibly clear water or wide beach. You won't ever forget the view of the azure waters merging with the sky, which greets you every morning.
However, to be able to delight with these views, you can't waste your time and move on along the coast. From Ancona we head toward Pescara, which is another small, though very climatic town. It's one of the most important trade, economic and touristic centers on the Adriatic coast. Thanks to the diverse, 20 km long coastline is also a popular resort besieged in the summer by thousands of vacationers. Besides, each year in July Pescara is a host to jazz festival, called Jazz Pescara. The place resounded with jazz for the first time in 1969, and it was the first summer event devoted to the jazz music. From then on it's one of the most important jazz festivals in Europe.
Manfredonia – small is beautiful
Another stop we do in Manfredonia. It's a pretty small town, nonetheless really charming and full of attractions. Worth of visiting is the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore di Siponto from XII century, as well as comely catholic church, Duomo do Manfredonia. It this town, even the railway station is beautiful – that's why the resort is full of specific climate and subtle charm.
A little bigger is a town of Bari, located approximately 1,5 hour drive from Manfredonia. It's the second largest, after Naples, economic center of the southern Italy, also known as academic city and a seaport. We, apart from the monuments and beaches, were attracted by Saint Nicholas. Exactly from here comes the bishop called Wonder-Worker or Nikolaos of Myra. The majority of us is used to the thought, that the "real" Santa lives in Rovaniemi among the reindeers and elves, nevertheless it was here, where lived a man, who become famous for his goodness and courage in rescuing innocent people from death.
And that's how we found a place, which immediately reminded us of a winter and snow (which Saint Nicholas needs to ride his sleigh). it's a high time to reach our target, which is the city of Lecce. We're about 1,5 hour drive away from it.
Lecce – Florence of the South
Not without a reason it's considered to be one of the most beautiful resorts of the southern Italy. The town is wonderful, and it's baroque buildings enchant with brilliant interiors and decorativeness of the facades. La Basilica di Santa Croce, one of the most important monuments, catches the eye of the visitor. It's hard to decide, which adjective describes it the best – fairylike, monumental or majestic. It's beautiful both from the inside, as well as from the outside. Equally famous is the Church of St. Matthews, not to mention incredible San Giovanni Batista, that is the Church of St. John the Baptist. Monuments can be also found on Piazza Duomo – a Cathedral Square, by which the Church of Assumption of Our Lady is located. It can take a pretty long time to enumerate all the local baroque churches, but it should be enough to repeat after the French art historians of the twentieth century, that if we had set all the churches of Lecce along one street, we would have created the most beautiful street in the world.
Baroque splendor of the monuments is one of the most important, however not the only one virtue of the city. As this is a seaside resort, it tempts with a wonderful beach, as well as everything which is connected with the holidays on the sand. Besides, about 40 minute drive from the town is located Torre Sant'Andrea, incredibly beautiful spot with even more beautiful beach. It has already been awarded several times with the Blue Flag, confirming the cleanliness of the water and area, and the picturesque cliffs and sharp rocks constitute a real feast for the eyes.
Night by the beach
About 20 minute drive from Lecce, there's a nice campsite – Camping Village Torre Rinalda, which is worth checking. The prices of accommodation are getting higher each month: a group of 3, who came with a camper, in June and before will pay 19,80 per night, however during high season (in August) – even 57,90 Euros/night. It the price are included two tennis courts, a football pitch, a basketball court, there's also a swimming pool and a volleyball court. But that's not all – here are two stores, one of which is located right on the beach, a restaurant, internet café and Wi-Fi zone.
To get to Lecce from Ancona you have to cover a distance of less than 700km, and the time of the journey depends only on how long will we stay in towns passed en route.
You can spend a night with a pleasure in such place. You can also stay longer, think over and decide whether to go back home, or continue the coastal trip. There're a lot of spots, including beautiful Torano and a place where Scylla hunted for the wanderers.


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In the 15 years or so I've been making games I've found that there are three types of reviewers. That's a gross over simplification of course but I'm a grossly oversimplified kind of guy.
The first type of reviewer is the drive-by reviewer. If you're an indie developer, you are more apt to run into this. That's the review that makes you feel like, as you read it, that they were miffed having to take a time out from their first person shooter to play some little indie title's turn based strategy game. We don't get these as much as we used to but we still get them.
These guys scare me because I honestly don't feel like we get a really fair shot. And I'm not saying they give only negative reviews. And that's the worst part. Because if you complain about the review when it was a positive rating you will get "What? We gave you an positive rating?" You can almost hear the "You make a great little shareware type game, I'm sure really hard core nerds get a thrill out of your little game."
But the drive by review can be negative too. If they run into any problem, don't expect a follow-up. These guys also live to put in snarky comments in their reviews -- nothing makes ya look cooler than to practice your written venom at the expense of some hapless developer.
But don't take my word for this. Go over to www.Gamerankings.com some time, think of the best indie games of all time, look at the reviews. Then go and think of some big budget drek that's come out and look at who gave them 90s or higher equivalents.
The second type is the "Eh It looks like it has good production values, seems solid, haven't heard of it, looks good but won't give it better than 4.5/5 because if it was truly outstanding, they wouldn't be a small company." I've said this long before our latest game has come out as I followed the reviews of some truly outstanding and innovative games from small developers get an 80% on the same day they'll put up a 96 for some of the worst shovelware from some mega publisher.
The second type though isn't a drive-by review in that it's obvious they played the game decently. Moreover, these reviews are probably closest to what the overall average will be from both reader reviews and all sites combined. Rather, it's more like there's just a cap. I don't really have an issue with these types of reviews because let's face it, it takes a long time to really review a game and we are a smaller developer. As long as we're not patronized I'm a happy camper.
The text to these reads like this "Great great great great great great." with a 4/5 rating.
I don't get worried as much about the second-type. I know we won't get super high reviews but I know we won't get really low reviews either as long as we've put together a solid title.
But it's the third type that scares me the most. The third type is the hard core reviewer. The person who is going to take your game apart. The ULTRA reviewer.
Ultra reviewers dissect a game to make sure it does what it's supposed to do. They know the genre, they know who plays them. It's not enough to make a polished, solid game. Because they know that many gamers could care less about that. To them, the question is, is the game FUN?
These ultra reviewers scare everyone equally though. Whether you're Microsoft or Stardock, they'll crush you like a bug equally. They're freelancers. Publishers have no power over them. Go ahead, threaten to take your ad dollars away. They'll laugh at you.
They may write for big sites or they may write for small sites. It doesn't matter. Their words carry weight because of years of built up integrity. If they give a big name game a 2 star rating, people take notice. And when they give out 5 star ratings it's equally a big deal. It's not that they give a lot of negative scores, it's that they're immune to hype.
QuarterToThree had a good article that dealt with this. It links to one of Bruce Shelley's (designer of Age of Empires III) blogs.
Bruce wrote:
I am struck by the fact that the two biggest PC gaming magazines in the US gave Age 3 such disparate scores. Computer Gaming World gave it 60% (three stars out of five), while PC Gamer gave it 91%. That seems like it would be very confusing to readers who are considering whether to try the game. Players will establish eventually if the relative score of the game was at one of these extremes or the other, or somewhere in between. Data we're seeing says that Age 3 has been perhaps the best selling PC game in the world since release in mid-October and that certainly suggests that the 60% score miss-represents the true achievement of the game.
I am struck by the fact that the two biggest PC gaming magazines in the US gave Age 3 such disparate scores. Computer Gaming World gave it 60% (three stars out of five), while PC Gamer gave it 91%. That seems like it would be very confusing to readers who are considering whether to try the game. Players will establish eventually if the relative score of the game was at one of these extremes or the other, or somewhere in between. Data we're seeing says that Age 3 has been perhaps the best selling PC game in the world since release in mid-October and that certainly suggests that the 60% score miss-represents the true achievement of the game.
No, what happened is that the CGW review was done by an Ultra and the PC Gamer one was not. I'm not suggesting Age 3 "deserved" any particular score. That's not for me to say, I'm not a reviewer. Just that I, and others who follow this stuff know who the reviewers are and their reputations.
I'm also sure Bruce knows that game sales are not the sole indicator of a game's quality. As a game designer one is almost tempted to put together a crude formula for what determines sales: DISTRIBUTION X MARKETING X GAME QUALITY X DEMOGRAPHIC SIZE.
If my game were massively distributed, I wouldn't use sales as the thrust of my argument. Deer Hunter made the case that we shouldn't rely too much on sales as the sole determiner.
What he's pointing out is that the CGW review of Age of Empires III was not to his liking. The review (and CGM one) points out why they thought what they thought.
If he thinks that's rough, he should walk in our shoes where we could get the same rating for the sin of not being well known. After all, if we had a great game, wouldn't everyone already be hyped about it? That's the real reason games come with fancy opening cut scenes in case you've wondered. They help provide a clue as to a game's production values which is jokingly called "Driveby-begone" in some developer circles.
Ironically, if you're an indie developer, these mega reviewers are your only chance of getting really high scores. And they don't give them out often as Ensemble observed. So talk about being in the shark tank. In fact, they're far far more likely to give out negative reviews than any other type.
Let me be clear lest I give the impression that the mark of an Ultra review is someone who craps on a game. No. What I'm saying is that an Ultra reviewer is simply someone who knows the target audience -- that they are the target audience. And they don't care who you are. They care only about the game.
And anyone reading their review -- including the developers -- will observe and despair at the powerful evidence that justifies their opinion. If your game is good, you'll get a great review and score. But if it's bad, it doesn't matter whether you're EA or Sony or whoever you're dead meat.
When Ultras follow up with developers, they can make the developer realize that they're the worst game designer in the world and that they should have stuck with Electrical Engineering and stayed the hell out of the whole "game thing". And that's even if it ends up a positive review.
Because no game is perfect. The question is purely how flawed the game is and how flawed is it compared to other games in its genre. But as a developer, the case Ultras can make is devastating. Design decisions you thought were sound can suddenly be called into question as they put forth rock solid arguments. Bugs you never heard of are suddenly obvious and easily reproducible.
Not all Ultras follow up. But Ultras tend to be the most thorough and careful. If they run into an issue or have a question, they're the most likely to contact the developers and get clarification.
Ultras put the fear into me I can tell you that. I'll admit, on GalCiv II, more so than our other games or products in the past, I've followed the posted reviews as well as I can. That's because this game is close to the best I can do.
I can see tons of tweaks here and there but realistically, unlike our other games, I don't look back and wish we could have done a lot of things differently. When we finished GalCiv 1, I wasn't overjoyed. I felt confined by the budget and resources and the MOO3 fans had convinced us we were about to get crushed. And I agreed with them. But not so with GalCiv II. Everything came together.
So I'm particularly sensitive to the reviews. Not so much because I expect a certain score as much as I'm worried deep down that I'll finally have proof that I am not the game designer I'd wanted to be. Reviews so far have been positive. There's been a sampling of all three kinds of reviews. And of course, few reviewers neatly fit into a particular category. Like I said, we're talking a gross oversimplification, sort of like ratings themselves.
I've dealt with the ultra reviewers and they're like the Babylon5 Inquisitor episode. They'll send in questions, point things out and by the time they're done, you not only suspect but know that your game is the worst game ever and that you wasted a lot of people's time having the audacity of releasing such junk. I tend to be fully prepared to agree with criticism. It's in my nature.
One of the ultra reviewers, Jeff Lackey (Gamespot), really liked the game. It was a huge relief. Admittedly, I was terrified before it came out. Like I said, these guys find flaws and design decisions that you might have previously thought were good ideas. But when they're done with you, you start tidying up your resume -- just in case of course...
Ultra reviewers finding flaws doesn't mean your game is doomed to a negative review. But when confronted with a design decision or a bug, it's hard not to start having second thoughts on what you've created. They follow-up. They ask questions. They point things out. And when you're done, you're jelly.
Not all follow-up of course. Sometimes you'll just end up reading a review in which you can tell they understood what we were going for -- for good or bad. The Ultras are the reasons some indie games get a peppering of very high scores (see Darwinia) and why some big named games get a peppering of not so high scores.
I'm aware of a couple of reviews that involve Ultras that are in progress. They aren't likely to see this post and even if they did, it would matter nothing. I could say "Reviewer X, your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!" and it would have no effect. The reviews may be very positive or very negative. They may cover minor game flaws or, depending on how many words they're allowed, may choose to focus on the key elements good and bad. It's hard to say.
I plan to link to all reviews that at least seem like they gave us a fair shot. A fair review is all anyone can really ask for.
updated: Edited, cleaned up grammar, terminology.
I don't think that's a fair charge. I've tried link to most of the reviews of GalCiv II as they've come out in news items regardless of size of site. Heck, I've even linked to blogs. If I know about the review, I tend to link to it, even if they're not the rating I'd like as long as it seems like they gave the game a fair shot.
A) I don't think your assertion is true here in the general sense (I am really trying to link to everyone I know about
That's really not what the article was about. It's not about whether we get reviewed. It's simply an observation on the different kinds of reviewers out there. The size of the site doesn't determine the quality of the reviewer. In fact, often the opposite is true. Some of the best quality reviews i've seen have come from bloggers.
I only know about the reviews that are on Gamerankings. Tell you what, you give me the URL of the review and I'll make a news item on it even if it's a negative review.
Well first, most reviewers don't care what other reviewers rate a game. It's their review.
Secondly, what makes the ultra reviewers so effective is that they make their case so well.
I don't know for certain we'll see any really negative reviews. I am not privy to that. I am only saying that the really thorough reviewers see both the good and the bad in great detail and as a developer, seeing lumps in ones own design that they themselves missed is scary.
The ultra reviewers of the world can give out 5 star ratings or they can give out 1 star ratings. But regardless of what they give out, you can be sure there's a good reason for it.
Jakub is a top reviewer. But one can see that from just reading this review. It's very thorough.
And yes - definitely looking forward to a vacation. Not a day off since Thanksgiving still.
One of the things about GalCiv II and is a lesson for GalCiv III is that the game does hand you enough rope to hang yourself.
It's very easy for a new user to set up a game where ther'es not a lot to do. You create a large galaxy, make planets relatively rare, only have a few opponents and wham.
One nice polish point of Civ IV is that the map size helps determine the recommended # of players. Moreover, they have a Pacing slider (Epic to fast) which is very helpful.
Most players of GalCiv quickly nail down what type of setup they like and go with that. But a reviewer, especially one who doesn't really care about enjoying the game or not but rather just wants to crank out a review, may not have any interest in playing around with the settings.
Because GalCiv II is a single player game, a lot more emphasis was put in to having a greater variety of starting conditions to match very different needs. For instance, we intentionally made it so that starting conditions aren't perfectly balanced. They are balanced within a X % tolerance. Users can hit Ctrl-N if they'd like to quickly jump through different game startups until they get the one they like. But that's intentional.
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