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Ed Dominick of 88 Shoes had this great idea of renting out the Christianson Carnival for a night of skating, carny talk, and maybe some photos. The 88 team and friends showed up for a night of skating some sketchy carnival obstacles in some unfavorably cold weather. Kris Markovich, Corey Duffel, Justin Strubing, Kristian Svitak, J.T. Aultz, and friends Don Nguyen, Ethan Fowler and Louis Barletta all took part in the four-hour mayhem that left everyone sick from either the carnival rides or the 30 degree temperature.
When Kristian Svitak and I pulled into the parking lot, our first sight was Ed Dominick vomiting. Apparently he couldn't handle a ride named the Zipper. So of course, that's the first ride Kristian and I decide to go on. It seemed sketchy at first because I had the flu, but I couldn't back out. After what seemed like five minutes of nonstop flipping around, I became convinced that Ed had paid off the "ride jocks" to keep the ride going to try to make us sick. When the ride finally stopped, I felt better, Svitak felt worse.
While everyone was skating I took some time to walk around and film a little. I was getting a few video clips of all the rides and that's when I ran into John "Dough" and Tim "Peanut". I took some time to talk with them and they filled me in on some carny terms. They both were in charge of running rides and referred to themselves as "ride jocks." They went on to tell me that the games people are referred to as "jointies", "stick jockies", or "splinterheads." They explained that the splinterheads usually get paid better and they usually get the better living conditions as well. They definitely seemed to be pissed off about it.
I had one question that I wanted to ask regarding the carnival life and why they do what they do. This is what their answers were.
Ohiodave: "What attracted you guys to this type of work?"
John Dough: "People are always asking us why do we do this? We always tell them that this type of work is something you love or you hate, there is no in-betweens. If you love it, it gets in your blood and you're here for life. No matter how many times you leave, you come back."
Tim Peanut: " I've been with this company for three and a half years now and I've worked for other companies too. It just stays with you. It's a lot of hard work, you know. The fringe benefits are good, especially if you like meeting people."
Davey "The Midget" showed up, flipped off everyone, and gave me an earful of the 25 years of experience he's had travelling with the carnival. It was interesting to hear his views about travelling and living on the road--I feel as though he respected the skateboarding lifestyle more than anyone else there.
I asked the guys if they were going to watch some of the skateboarding . They didn't seem that interested and were more concerned with maybe getting a few drinks while the night was still young. I could smell what they were stepping in and if I didn't have to film I may have joined them. So, we all shook hands and went our separate ways for the night.
Corey and Markovich were skating the rail in front of the Zipper. The jump ramp they were using had a big lip in front of it and they rail would wobble with a touch of a finger. It all went from sketchy to dangerous as the ride jock turned the Zipper on to full speed. Markovich went for 50-50 and he and his board went flying, almost getting clipped by the ride. We all laughed as Kris had to stop the ride to retrieve his board. It was one of those funny, but scary kind of laughs. Corey was up next and without hesitation he landed a few frontside boardslides.
Svitak was eyeing up a roof drop of ten plus feet that happened to be located atop one of the games. This left the stick jockies confused. They were more worried about the roof collapsing than Kristian landing the method drop. It got so quiet right before he was aabout to do it, and that seemed to spook him. Kristian just laughed his way through it and pulled it within four tries.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Svitak and Duffel running and jumping over the fence. The two went on a rampage and kidnapped some Hong Kong Fuey stuffed animals. They deserved some sort of prize for their efforts. Corey had they biggest smile as he paraded his stuffed trophy around like he had actually won it.
Kris Markovich pulled a classic 180 nose grind on the wobbly Scooter rail. Kris had to start off in the Port-O-Potty area where the horrendous smell burned your nose hairs, and to top it off, the ground was wet--with who knows what.
By Southern California standards, it was a cold night. By the end of the session, everyone felt cold and sick. With stomachaches and sore throats, we made our way to a Denny's for a four-in-the-morning dinner. At 5:00 a.m. the check came, which always seems to get placed in front of Ed Dominick. While reaching for his credit card, he proceeded to announce how worthless everyone was. Thanks again for dinner, Ed!


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An impressive rookie season guard-turned-center Stefen Wisniewski has gotten even more impressive considering the circumstances.
Although Wisniewski played every game and didn't turn up on an injury report for a shoulder injury, it turns out he was playing with a torn labrum incurred during training camp.
It's all a bit mysterious, with Wisniewski a willing contributor. Asked which shoulder was injured, Wisniewski said, "I'll leave it up to your imagination.''
Following the season, Wisniewski had what coach Dennis Allen termed a "procedure,'' although the surgery was major enough that he won't line up at center and get any action until the Raiders report for training camp in Napa on July 29.
"It's getting a little boring just standing around and watching,'' Wisniewski said. "I'm getting a lot of mental reps, but I've got to get healthy first. It looks like I'll be more than good to go by camp.''
Wisniewski was originally drafted to play center, with the Raiders opting to move him to left guard in order to get Samson Satele on the field. He started at center in place of Satele in a Thursday night win over San Diego, and is looking forward to the position switch.
"It's nice to kind of be the boss of the O-line in there, making calls,'' Wisniewski said. "You get to be in charge, which is nice. It's a good position. You've got to be athletic, you've got to be smart, you've got to be tough. I like it a lot.''
Wisniewski feels the switch to a zone blocking system fits in with the skill set of the linemen.
"You've got to be able to move,'' Wisniewski said. "If you look at our O-line, that's one thing we can do across the board. We can move, we can run, we're athletic. I think it's going to work for us, especially with the speed we've got at running back.''

subset: commoncrawl


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Review: 'Last Words of the Executed' By Robert K. Elder
'Last Words of the Executed'
By Robert K. Elder
Foreword by Studs Terkel
University of Chicago Press, 301 pages, $22.50
Robert K. Elder begins his oddly affecting, 'Last Words of the Executed,' with the final utterance of Marmaduke Stevenson, who was hanged in Boston Common in October of 1659. Stevenson had been exiled from Massachusetts Bay Colony for protesting a law that barred a new religious society, the Quakers. But he had defied the banishment and returned to the colony—a capital offense. At the gallows he told the assembled, "Be it known to all this day, that we suffer not as evil doers, but for conscience (') sake; this day we shall be at rest with the Lord."
Elder ends this painstakingly researched chronicle 350 years and hundreds of executions later with the words of Michael P. Delozier, who was put to death in Oklahoma in July 2009. Delozier admitted killing two people during a campsite robbery and then burning their bodies. As lethal injection loomed, he said: "I cannot wait to finish paying this debt I owe so I can apologize to the souls of Mr. Morgan and Mr. Bullard, and ask them to forgive me for taking their lives. To the families of my victims all I can say is I'm sorry for the pain I caused you. I hope my death will bring you some peace."
'Last Words of the Executed' is unlikely to bring peace to its readers—especially those with misgivings about capital punishment. To be sure the book is populated by scores of heinous characters whose absence today does not make one's heart grow fonder. Many of these murderers took pleasure in their vile acts; and many were unrepentant to the end, including Chicago's own John Wayne Gacy. On his way to his execution in 1994, the man convicted of killing 33 young boys told a prison guard, "Kiss my ass."
Gacy confessed to his crimes, but many of those in this book used the opportunity to protest their innocence (and to protest the death penalty). No doubt some were lying, but Elder notes several examples where there were sufficient questions to warrant inclusion on the Center for Wrongful Convictions list of thirty-nine executions that took place "in face of compelling evidence of innocence or serious doubt about guilt."
Consider the case of Leonel Torres Herrera, who was executed in Texas in 1993 for the murder of a police officer. Herrera's brother confessed to the crime before he himself was murdered, but the U.S. Supreme Court refused to overturn the conviction or order a new trial. "I am innocent, innocent, innocent," Herrera proclaimed before receiving his lethal injection. "Continue the struggle for human rights….I am ready."
Others whom Elder quotes may have committed murder, but should they have been executed? "I would like to thank the people at this institution for taking such good care of me…." Jerome Bowden said before being strapped into the electric chair in Georgia in 1987. "And I hope that by my execution being carried out that it may bring some light to this thing that is wrong. And I would like to have a final prayer with Chaplain if that is possible." Bowden's IQ was 65.
In his Introduction, Elder, a former Tribune staff writer, states, "I've strived to make this an apolitical volume." True to his word, he never editorializes. Accompanying the last words of each man and woman is a brief, straightforward description of the crime.
In some cases Elder also presents the details of the execution. The descriptions of botched hangings, electrocutions, and lethal injections are harrowing. After a nurse took more than ten minutes to put the needle into his arm, one inmate uttered his final words, "You doing that right?"
Those with no interest in using the book to make the case against capital punishment (or, for that matter, to justify the death penalty) should still find it worthwhile reading. I hesitate to use the word "entertaining" to describe the text. "Compelling" is more appropriate. Still, it was hard to stifle a smile after learning how one man facing the firing squad in Utah responded when asked if he had a last request. "Why yes, a bulletproof vest," he replied.
More sobering were the words of inmates who just wanted to be done with it. "I wish you'd hurry up?" John Owens told his executioners in Wyoming in 1886. "I want to get to hell in time for dinner."
While we hear from historically significant characters like Nathan Hale and those who assassinated presidents Garfield and McKinley, I was moved most by the words of a little known young African American from an upper middle class family. Napoleon Beazley had been president of his senior class and a star athlete. Unfortunately he was also a gun carrying drug dealer who wanted to know what it would feel like to kill another human being. As he faced death by lethal injection in 2002, he said:
"The act I committed to put me here was not just heinous, it was senseless. But the person who committed that act is no longer here—I am. I'm not going to struggle physically against any restraints. I'm not going to shout, use profanity, or make idle threats. Understand though that I'm not only upset, but I'm saddened by what is happening here tonight. I'm…disappointed that a system that is supposed to uphold and protect what is just and right can be so much like me when I made the same shameful mistake….This conflict hurts us all; there are no sides."
Beazley was a few months short of his 18th birthday when he committed a double murder while stealing a car. He was one of the last juvenile offenders sentenced to death and executed in the United States.
One final word. This book offers a bittersweet bonus: a passionate Foreword by the late Studs Terkel. Elder describes Terkel as his "friend and mentor" and dedicates the book to him.
Steve Fiffer's books include the memoir, 'THREE QUARTERS, TWO DIMES, AND A NICKEL.'
Find 'Last Words of the Executed' and other titles in the Chicago Tribune Amazon store.


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As leaves change from green to yellows, reds and browns to signal the arrival of autumn, take the opportunity to capture the season with your camera and send the results to us to display in an autumn colour picture gallery. Email your photographs to firstname.lastname@example.com and we'll include the best in a picture gallery. Here are some recent pictures of autumn leaves in Britain to inspire you
Tourists enjoy a rare burst of sunshine in Cambridge as they punt down the River Cam in front of a glorious autumnal displayPicture: Lee Sanders / SWNS.com


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June 21. 2013 9:39PM
Judge OKs $200m liquor storage contract with Ohio firm
By DAVE SOLOMON
New Hampshire Union Leader
Judge denies injunction to block liquor contract award
NASHUA — A Superior Court judge has denied an attempt by Law Warehouses of Nashua to block the state Liquor Commission from proceeding with a $200 million warehouse contract awarded to Exel Inc., of Westerville, Ohio.
In denying the request for an injunction from the trucking and warehouse company that's held the contract since the 1990s, Judge Diane Nicolosi wrote that Law "failed to produce compelling evidence of favoritism or material deviation from bidding requirements."
"In addition, granting an injunction at this point may actually undermine future competitive bidding, both in regards to this project and in general," she wrote in a 50-page order issued late Thursday afternoon. "Potential bidders must have some assurance that courts in this state will not lightly overturn partially performed contracts, especially of this magnitude."
Law appears determined to proceed to a jury trial in the case, with Excel set to begin operations in the fall at a new warehouse now under construction in Bow.
"Law Warehouses is disappointed with the decision denying a preliminary injunction. We are now reviewing the court's order to determine if any further action is warranted in regard to that decision," said company spokesman Paul Young. "We are fully confident that as the case proceeds, and additional evidence is brought to light about the bidding process, that evidence will confirm Law's position that the contract award to Exel was biased and illegal."
At a May 1 hearing on the injunction request, Law produced testimony from former commissioner Mark Bodi and former chief of enforcement Eddie Edwards to support its claim of prejudice.
Judge Nicolosi, while not dismissing that testimony, cited the testimony of eight other commission employees who contradicted Bodi and Edwards.
"To find that Law is likely to succeed in proving its bad faith claim, the court would have to disregard the state's proffer from eight witnesses, many of whom are long-time, dedicated state employees, and assume the worst of all of them," she wrote.
Lisa English, the assistant attorney general representing the Liquor Commisison in the case, said she was pleased with the order, even though Nicolosi denied the Liquor Commission's requests to dismiss the lawsuit or to transfer the case to Merrimack County Superior Court, where it could be consolidated with a similar challenge that has been filed by another unsuccessful bidder for the project, XTL-NH.
"It confirms the confidence we have in our client's position that the Liquor Commission conducted a fair and comprehensive review of all bids," she said. "The ruling of no likelihood of success on the merits is consistent with our view of the case today, and our view of the case if it proceeds to trial."
Exel spokesperson Lynn Anderson said work is progressing on the new warehouse on Route 3A in Bow, where the foundation is in and walls are up in anticipation of a Nov. 1 start email@example.com


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By Ben Hayward | Spanish Football Writer
There have been a few howlers from Victor Valdes this season, but the biggest blunder of all arrived, unexpectedly, on Thursday. The goalkeeper, via his agents, stunned Barcelona as it was announced he would be refusing their offer of a new contract. The decision is understandable; the timing terrible.
The night before, Barca had played perhaps their sloppiest 45 minutes of the season at Camp Nou as they conceded a last-minute equaliser against Malaga in a Copa del Rey quarter-final first leg, a game which they had dominated entirely after coming back from a goal down in the first period. Then Valdes' bombshell brought a mixture of anger and shock on Thursday, and although the club attempted to play down its significance ahead of Saturday's tough trip to Real Sociedad, it was far from ideal preparation for a fixture the Catalans had failed to win in either of the previous two seasons.
Barca lost 2-1 at Anoeta in 2010-11 and let a two-goal lead escape from their grasp in a 2-2 draw last term. Such slipshod showings do not often occur with this team, but history repeated itself on Saturday as the Catalans quickly assumed a winning position and then threw it away. Lionel Messi's early drive and Pedro's close-range strike saw the visitors go two up early on amid partial floodlight failure. The lighting may have been poor, but Barca's players were having no problem picking each other out in their bright yellow and orange shirts.
|Victor Valdes is a popular player among Barcelona fans and a key element in the club's three Champions League triumphs in 2006, 2009 and 2011, but the goalkeeper has never been far from controversy in his time at Camp Nou.
After he was promoted to the first team by Louis van Gaal in 2002, Valdes refused to turn up for a game with the B side as he sat at home and declined to answer his phone. He was subsequently fined €12,000 and forced to say sorry.
Then, in 2009, he upset fans and club officials alike by demanding a higher salary than both Xavi and Andres Iniesta, asking Barca for €9 million per year in tense contract negotiations which were eventually resolved.
His prickly personality also affected his international career and he was not called up to the Spain squad until 2010.
Valdes' performances this season have been off colour and the revelation, via the media in a statement to Spain's news agency EFE on Thursday, that he will leave when his contract expires, has angered both fans and the media in Barcelona. Many now want him out.
Real Sociedad were playing well too, though, and the Basques saw a strike ruled out for offside at 2-0 down. They then pulled one back through Gonzalo 'Chori' Castro five minutes before the break and the game swung in the locals' favour after Gerard Pique was dismissed with just over half an hour still to play. The defender had been booked for failing to allow Carlos Vela to take a quick free kick in the first half and had carried on arguing with referee Alberto Undiano Mallenco. That, presumably, did not go down too well with the Pamplona-born official and the 25-year-old was given his marching orders for a fairly innocuous foul after 56 minutes.
It was his sixth sending-off as a Barcelona player but perhaps the most costly as Tito Vilanova's team then saw Castro equalise six minutes later and Imanol Agirretxe shocked the visitors with a winner in added time. If anything, Barca had looked the more likely to claim all three points, but Agirretxe exploited space in the visiting defence to poke home and the Catalans suffered their first loss in La Liga this term.
Barca remain very much in control of their Primera Division destiny; Atletico Madrid can close the gap to eight points with a win over Levante on Sunday, while Real will still be 15 behind even if they triumph on a tough trip to Valencia on the same day.
There is, therefore, no reason for alarm. The Catalans have claimed 18 wins from their 20 matches in La Liga this term, a 90 per cent winning success rate, and remain in complete control at the top of the table. Nevertheless, the events of this week will worry their fans as the business end of the season approaches.
Valdes was not at fault for the goals, with the spotlight surrounding Pique's dismissal. Many of his team-mates claimed the expulsion had been unjust, while Pedro told reporters that the red card had "conditioned" the match. It was certainly a contributing factor, but the defender was warned by Vilanova at half-time to take care as he was already on a yellow and Andres Iniesta was later extremely fortunate to escape a second booking and an early bath himself. So Barca can have few complaints.
Tito's team now need to take stock and regroup ahead of their crucial cup clash at Malaga next week. After the sides' 2-2 draw in the first leg, victory or a high score draw will send the Catalans through to a possible Clasico meeting with Madrid in the semi-finals. But failure to do so will see another trophy chance go astray.
Meanwhile, Valdes is set to explain himself to the press early next week. The goalkeeper should have known better than publicly revealing his contract snub through his agents and the media. His actions did nothing to help team morale at a time when their coach is continuing to fight serious illness and with the side's next big test just around the corner, the sooner it is all cleared up, the better.
Follow Ben Hayward on


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Solo theatrical performances are like ads. Everyone claims to hate them but nevertheless finds the good ones irresistible. A good ad acts like a tonic, making a new idea easy to swallow. But if we're not sold on the appeal in thirty seconds, we turn it off. The undercurrent of solo shows tends to be advertising: has-been celebrities namedropping through tell-all monologues, aging wunderkinder trying to fire up stalled me-machines with shallow autobiographical monologues. It's partly because we know how easily the genre is poisoned by egomania that we cherish those with the imagination and discipline to use the poison therapeutically, turning the form into an exquisite critique of ego itself.
There have never been many who could pull this off–maybe a dozen or two across the twentieth century, when the genre burgeoned. Anna Deavere Smith, Danny Hoch and Lily Tomlin are among the few living ones: virtuosic mimics and also penetrating social critics who use themselves as documentary cameras and editorializing mirrors. They negotiate the dicey line between mimicry and mockery partly by dint of fascination with details. It's the details that distinguish this sort of talent from that of the ordinary standup or sketch comic. Such performers have an intimacy with and affection for the people they imitate that a mere jester doesn't. We may laugh at their impersonations, but we recognize the critical instinct behind their acts of observation.
Add to this exclusive company a relative newcomer who has just returned to the New York scene after a Hollywood detour that could easily have destroyed her. Sarah Jones is a 29-year-old whose first big break was winning the 1997 Nuyorican Poets Café Grand Slam Championship. The solo show she developed at Nuyorican, Surface Transit, was in a class by itself at the PS 122 "Hip-Hop Theater Festival," where it played in 2000, later moving to American Place Theater. In it, Jones–a tall, strong, slender, dark-skinned woman of mixed-race parentage–portrayed, among others, an elderly, narrow-minded Jewish busybody, a Russian-immigrant widow of an American soldier, a bigoted Italian-American male cop, an unemployed British actress and blazing young rappers of both sexes, all with meticulous precision and merciless humor.
At the time, most critics described Surface Transit's political content by explaining its stories; the characters were linked through thin and occasionally tenuous plot strands involving "issues" like xenophobia, sexual exploitation and homophobia. The truth is, though, as with all the best work of this kind, the emotional and political power really lay in the relationship of the teller to the tales. The more transformative and elastic a solo actor is, oddly enough, the more interesting his or her self becomes to the audience, since it is the amazing instrument of interpretation that prods our critical thinking about the various characters. Who is this person, one wonders, whose astonishing chameleonesque exertions enable us to congratulate ourselves on the marvelous flexibility of our imaginations?
Jones, as it happens, has fought several public battles over the past few years that are worth describing in brief because they inform her new solo piece, Bridge & Tunnel, recently opened at 45 Bleecker Street Theater with Meryl Streep as a co-producer. In the wake of Surface Transit Jones accepted two commissions: one from Gloria Steinem, Equality Now and the Ford Foundation to create a piece focusing on the various laws oppressing women around the world (Women Can't Wait, performed at the United Nations International Conference on Women's Rights in the summer of 2000); the other from the National Immigration Forum for a work about immigrants (Waking the American Dream, performed in Washington and then removed from Jones's performance schedule after September 11).


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CHARLESTON, S.C. (Feb 25, 2012) – The Chicago Fire had numerous chances throughout the match but couldn't find the back of the net around a 66th minute Hamdi Salahi strike as the Men in Red fell 1-0 to D.C. United in the 2012 Carolina Challenge Cup opener at Blackbaud Stadium Saturday night in Charleston, S.C.
The Fire looked likely to take the lead early when Patrick Nyarko made a penetrating run into the box from the left before being hauled down by United defender Dejan Jakovic in the fourth minute. Referee Jose Carlos Rivero pointed straight to the penalty spot. Veteran midfielder Pavel Pardo stepped up but his attempt to the lower left corner was well saved by sprawling D.C. 'keeper Joe Willis.
Frank Klopas' side played the aggressor the whole of the first interval. Pardo (PICTURED BELOW) nearly opened the scoring in the 31st minute when he curled a free kick attempt from 25-yards out around the United wall to the same left corner where again Willis dove to keep things level heading into halftime.
Causing constant havoc with his speed all night, Ghanaian striker Dominic Oduro got in on the action in the 57th minute when he drove down the left flank before unleashing a belting shot that beat Willis but came off the underside of the woodwork and bounced clear of the goal line before being cleared away by United.
United absorbed the pressure and finally took advantage of the missed opportunities nine minutes later when Designated Player Hamid Salihi was slipped up the right before powering a blast that Fire 'keeper Jay Nolly got a hand to before hitting the back of the net. Despite a few furious opportunities from the Fire at the end, the 66th minute strike stood as the game winner.
The Fire play their second match of the 2012 Carolina Challenge Cup Wednesday, February 29 when they take on the Columbus Crew at 4:00 PM CT. Fans can watch the match live via Chicago-Fire.com or follow @ChiFireMatch on Twitter.
The Fire host Opening Day at Toyota Park against the Philadelphia Union on Saturday, March 24 at 7:30 PM CT. Chicago Fire Season Tickets are available by calling 1-888-MLS-FIRE (657-3473), via Ticketmaster or by heading to the club's official website at Chicago-Fire.com.
- Midfielder Sebastian Grazzini (sickness) and defender Cory Gibbs (injury) were unavailable for selection Saturday night.
- Goalkeeper Sean Johnson (U.S. U-23), midfielders Marco Pappa (Guatemala) and Victor Pineda (U.S. U-20) and forward Orr Barouch (Israel U-21) were away on international duty and also unavailable for selection Saturday night.
Chicago Fire 0 – 1 D.C. United
Chicago Fire: Jay Nolly; Dan Gargan (Tony Walls* 82'), Jalil Anibaba, Austin Berry (Kwame Watson-Siriboe 61'), Gonzalo Segares (Hunter Jumper* 75'); Logan Pause (C), Pavel Pardo, Rafael Robayo (Corben Bone 75'); Daniel Paladini (Michael Videira 82'); Patrick Nyarko (Federico Puppo 32'), Dominic Oduro (Kheli Dube 75')
* - MLS SuperDraft/Supplemental Draft selection
** - Trialist
D.C. United: Joe Willis; Robbie Russell (Chris Kord 78'), Brandon McDonald (Ethan White 46'), Dejan Jakovic (Emiliano Dudar 46'), Daniel Woolard (Guilherme [trialist 75']); Andy Najar (Danny Cruz 78'), Stephen King (Ryan Richter [trialist] 88'), Marcelo Saragosa (Lance Rozeboom 46'), Chris Pontius (Nick DeLeon 71'); Dwayne DeRosario (Conor Shanosky 58'), Hamdi Salihi (Maicon Santos 68')
Scoring Summary
DC – Hamdi Salihi (Ethan White) 66'
DC – Hamdi Salihi (Ethan White) 66'
Misconduct Summary
DC – Marcelo Saragosa (caution) 30'
CHI – Dan Gargan (caution) 33'
DC – Emiliano Dudar (caution) 50'
CHI – Dan Gargan (caution) 33'
DC – Emiliano Dudar (caution) 50'
CHI – Rafael Robayo (caution) 52'
CHI – Jalil Anibaba (caution) 77'


text:
Quote from Tips for Living Room Interior Decoration in Small Space :
If you need more seating place, you could add single armchair instead of full sofa set. Contemporary sofa style would get along with the modern living space. One great example is the Wimbledon Armchair. It has an ergonomic curve seating and solid wood legs. You could pick gray Wimbledon Armchair to match with beige sofa. Its unique curved design makes it different from the usual straight-line armchair. Absolutely, many fantastic sofas could complete your living room ideas with modern and straightforward style.
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Any tips to speed up waterstart set-up?
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Joined: 17 Jul 2005
Posts: 3
Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 5:11 pm
Post subject: Any tips to speed up waterstart set-up?
Any good tips on speeding up waterstart set-up? I noticed at the Gorge Frenzy how fast competitors position the rig, fly the sail, and are up no matter how they crash. I'm trying to get back into windsurfing after several year absence and spending too much time these past few days wrestling the rig. The sail often feels heavy and by the time I fly it a lull will hit and bring it down. I have to start all over and it's frustrating as well as tiring. I have a decent waterstart once everything comes together. But it's way too slow a process.
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Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 18664
Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 5:37 pm
Post subject:
First, each post-crash orientation has a trick to get the sail back where it needs to be. If they don't emerge in the discussion, I'll elaborate when I have more time.
Second, don't swim your gear into place; it's a very inefficient method. Instead, grab your gear with both hands and simply rotate your legs, feet together in a huge horizontal circle, using big torso/core muscles. A few such "crop circles" will rotate your gear 180 degrees. (You will kick your fin only once.)
Third, if your height and personal ergonomics put your boom low enough to rest your boom on your board's tail, do so. That cuts waterstarting effort by probably 80%, saving vital energy for a non-jiber. If the boom misses the tail by only an inch or three, I suggest you fuhgheddabout perfection, shorten your harness lines a bit, lower your booms a bit, and reap the energy savings. You can put the booms back where they belong once you quit falling every reach.
Pros seldom crash randomly. They often fall with enough control to place their gear where it needs to be for a waterstart. After 33 years of this, even I can occasionally think about how my gear lands and sometimes actually ieven nfluence it. Of course, that's merely a convenience, not a near-necessity, when not in a surf zone or not in competition.
Ye Olde Point the Mast Into the Wind and Lift the Mast Tip and Work One's Hands Down the Mast routine ... as a
... went out with teak booms, at least for normal sized sails (I wouldn't know about drive-in-movie screens).
Oh, yes ... flotation. Wear some.
Besides, what's your hurry?
Mike \m/
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Joined: 10 Apr 2011
Posts: 656
Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 7:54 pm
Post subject:
isobars wrote:
Ye Olde Point the Mast Into the Wind and Lift the Mast Tip and Work One's Hands Down the Mast routine ... as a
... went out with teak booms, at least for normal sized sails (I wouldn't know about drive-in-movie screens).
Mike \m/
For me, this is not a matter of size of sail, but of size of board. In windy situations, my Kona One gets a lot of pull downwind and mast tip goes into the wind quite fast. I'm often unable to rotate the thing afterward.
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Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 18664
Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 8:11 pm
Post subject:
Have you tried my rotation approach? It worked for me with bigger boards than a Kona One.
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Joined: 08 Jan 2012
Posts: 665
Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 9:29 pm
Post subject:
When waterstarting a big sail I rotate the board under the rig so that the mast ends up on top of the tail and the boards nose points directly into the wind /this is critical otherwise the clew will sink or the board will be lifted and flipped upside down/.My back hand holds the tail and my front one lifts the boom into the wind while slowly rotating the board to downwind then it's timing.
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Joined: 02 Aug 2007
Posts: 1085
Location: Portland / Gorge
Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 9:58 pm
Post subject:
Avoid landing on your sail, downwind of your board. That's bad.
Fall on the windward side of your board with the boom in your hands and arms extended. Waterstart clew first or whatever. Your hair and sail don't get wet.
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Joined: 05 Jun 1994
Posts: 1324
Location: Hood River OR
Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 10:09 pm
Post subject:
isobars wrote:
Ye Olde Point the Mast Into the Wind and Lift the Mast Tip and Work One's Hands Down the Mast routine ... as a
... went out with teak booms, at least for normal sized sails (I wouldn't know about drive-in-movie screens).
Mike \m/
I for one disagree. I've been doing it this way for a long time AND teaching it this way. I don't always go to the tip, but pretty close. VERY easy to pop the sail into the wind this way. And I haven't had a board that I can sit the boom on the end in a long time.
On the other hand think outside the box. Think which is the EASIEST way to do something. Anytime you are fighting the current or the wind you will loose. The FIRST thing I want to do is get the sail flying. Any sail flying is easier than if it isn't. Even if it is pointed the exact opposite way. Once in the air it is easier to move the board under the sail or around the sail then when the sail is underwater. Once the sail is on the surface get it in the air quick.
Also it is easier sometimes to get up going the wrong way then throw a quick tack or pivot jibe. Can't do these? Time to improve your skills. Personally I find a clew first waterstart faster than most other options (my sails seem to line up in this position all the time, but then again, I'm not working on normal jibes). So if so, I just fly it up and waterstart clew first (MUST be pointed on a broad reach). I tend not to do this on boards under the mid 80's in size. And below 100 liters it gets difficult. Better to learn this on a larger board.
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Joined: 03 Apr 2006
Posts: 1302
Location: SF Bay
Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 10:32 pm
Post subject:
I agree with johnl, that's how I do it. Clew first is a fast remedy too!
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Joined: 07 Jun 2004
Posts: 1701
Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 9:45 am
Post subject:
coyotewindsurf wrote:
I agree with johnl, that's how I do it. Clew first is a fast remedy too!
Yes yes yes. And if you're in the impact zone Clew first is sometimes the only technique fast enough.
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Joined: 05 Jun 1994
Posts: 1324
Location: Hood River OR
Posted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 10:41 am
Post subject:
I made an assumption that your sail handling skills were good.
So my question is can you move your board (where you can stand) using only your sail, in a clockwise and counterclockwise circle facing both port and starboard (4 circles total) WITHOUT allowing the sail to flip? And if so can you also turn the board 180 degrees both towards you and away from you with a sail flip? With your eyes closed? On both port and starboard?
These are "my requirement" before I proceed into a waterstart lesson. Being very familiar in moving your gear in the water makes everything you have to do to set up a waterstart that much easier..
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MONTOMERY, Ala. (AP) — More than two years have passed since Alabama TV audiences have seen ubiquitous ads by VictoryLand casino owner Milton McGregor proclaiming: "You can be a winner, too."
But the silver-haired casino boss is coming back after his acquittal on federal bribery charges.
McGregor hopes to get VictoryLand open before Christmas, but it will definitely be open before the end of the year, McGregor's attorney, Joe Espy, said at a news conference Thursday.
He said some wiring and synchronization of the 1,200 gambling machines in VictoryLand remains to be done. McGregor is hiring 200 to 250 workers for the reopening, and plans to add more machines and open other parts of the gambling operation as business permits.
VictoryLand, 15 miles west of Montgomery in Shorter, was once Alabama's biggest gambling operation with live dog racing, 6,000 electronic machines, a high-end restaurant and a golden-colored high-rise hotel. The casino shut down in 2010 under pressure from Gov. Bob Riley's gambling task force. Riley contended the games were illegal slots, but McGregor called them legal electronic bingo. Without the casino, there wasn't enough business for the hotel, restaurant or live dog racing. All that has remained since 2010 is simulcast dog and horse racing, which draws a few cars to the sprawling complex alongside Interstate 85.
McGregor has been planning to reopen since a federal court jury acquitted him in March on charges accusing him of offering millions in bribes to legislators to support pro-gambling legislation.
He has installed 1,200 machines in anticipation of reopening and had them declared legal electronic bingo by the local sheriff. Espy said the machines are by different manufacturers than VictoryLand used previously and they operate differently to address concerns raised by state officials. For instance, they no longer have a handle like slot machines to start a game, and they no longer accept money. Players have to put money on an electronic card and use it to play.
Attorney General Luther Strange has taken over the work of Riley's task force since he left office in January 2011. Some privately operated gambling halls have reopened in Greene County since then and continue to operate. But Strange raided two others after they reopened with electronic games: Center Stage in Houston County in July and Southern Star Entertainment Center in Lowndes County in November.
When asked about VictoryLand's reopening, Strange said Wednesday he was working to "end illegal gambling in an orderly fashion through the court system," but he did not say what might happen with VictoryLand.
Voters in Macon County overwhelmingly approved an amendment to the state constitution in 2003 to allow bingo games. That constitutional amendment only mentions "bingo," but Espy displayed campaign literature from proponents and opponents that explained the referendum was about allowing "electronic bingo." He said it was clear to everyone what was being legalized by the constitutional amendment.
The state's crackdown on privately run gambling halls has not affected the three casinos run by the Poarch Creek Indians because they are under federal supervision. The tribe's operations in Montgomery, Wetumpka and Atmore have thrived with less competition from private casinos, but the Muscogee Creek Nation of Oklahoma filed a lawsuit Wednesday aimed at stopping the expansion of the Wetumpka casino and construction of a 20-story hotel. The suit said the remains of 57 Indians were removed from a burial ground for the expansion, and they should be returned to their graves. The Poarch Creeks released a statement calling the suit "without merit."
The Wetumpka casino is about 20 miles northwest of McGregor's VictoryLand.


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Feb. 18, 2013
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida State's mid-week match-up against the Jacksonville Dolphins originally scheduled for Tuesday, February 19 at 4:00 p.m. as been moved to Wednesday, February 20 at 4:00 p.m.
Due to the threat of thunderstorms scheduled to hit the Tallahassee area on Tuesday and with both teams having an off day on Wednesday, the contest has been moved a day later to play the game.
Tickets for Tuesday's game will be good for admittance inside Dick Howser Stadium on Wednesday. The $2 Tuesday promotion will also be honored for Wednesday's game against Jacksonville as all general admission tickets and select concourse items will be $2.
The Seminoles will send sophomore right hander Luke Weaver to the mound for his second career start against the Dolphins, while JU will start right hander Zach Gordon.
The game will air live over the internet on Seminoles.com All-Access, while fans can also listen to the game live on the All-Access player. Locally, fans can listen to the game on 1270 AM. As always, Seminole fans can follow the Noles on twitter @FSU_Baseball and remember to like the Seminoles on Facebook (www.facebook.com/FSUBaseball). Live stats for Saturday's game will be available via gametracker.


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Is there no end to the amount of speakers we can fit in our living rooms? First came stereo, then 2.1, then 5.1 and now 7.1. Nearly every home has a home cinema system these days. After all, Coronation Street wouldn't be the same without it; with it HD soaps have never looked so good.
. . . → Read More: Tritton Warhead 7.1 Wireless Headset


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Report: GE to spin off consumer finance business
General Electric Co. plans to spin off the U.S. consumer lending business of its finance arm with an initial public offering of stock that could come early next year, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper also said Friday that the Fairfield, Conn., conglomerate is considering smaller spinoffs or asset sales, but it has started preliminary work on the IPO. The paper cited unnamed sources familiar with the matter.
The consumer finance business provides store credit cards to about 55 million people for retailers like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. It accounts for $50 billion of GE Capital's $274 billion in outstanding loans, according to the report.
Aside from its finance business, GE sells a wide variety of industrial equipment and appliances around the world. This includes jet engines, medical diagnostic equipment, oil and gas drilling equipment and washing machines.
GE spokesman Seth Martin declined to comment on the report.
CEO Jeff Immelt told analysts and investors at a conference in May that his company wanted a smaller GE Capital. He said they wanted to reduce the finance arm's assets from $402 billion in this year's first quarter to between $300 billion and $350 billion by the end of next year.
"That is going to create excess cash in GE Capital, and we are going to use that excess cash to buy back stock," Immelt said.
That asset total had dropped to $391 billion by the second quarter, according to Martin.
Immelt said in May that the company still planned to expand GE Capital's core business, which is commercial lending. He also told his audience that capital markets were receptive to IPOs.
Shares of GE climbed 11 cents to $23.23 in late-morning trading while the Dow Jones industrial average, of which GE is a component, fell less 1 percent. GE's stock has climbed nearly 11 percent so far this year.


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St. Anselm men blank SNHU
February 05. 2014 12:12AM
St. Anselm College edged in-state Northeast-10 rival Southern New Hampshire University 2-0 in men's hockey action at Sullivan Arena in Goffstown Tuesday night.
The Hawks improved to 8-9-4 and 4-0-0 in Northeast-10 play with the win. The Penmen fell to 13-7-1, 5-3 in the NE-10.
Kevin Vanous scored with 22 seconds remaining in the second period to give St. Anselm a 1-0 lead. The Hawks added an empty net goal from Mark Meads with 1:05 remaining in the third period.
St. Anselm goalie Nick Dries made 35 saves to earn the win, but could not complete the last 13 seconds of the shutout after being assessed a game misconduct penalty. Brad Rocheville came on to play the final 13 ticks.


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WASHINGTON — The Senate will take up its first firearms measure since the Newtown, Conn., school shooting, after the Judiciary Committee approved a bill Thursday to combat gun trafficking.
The proposal, steered by Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), the committee chairman, would impose strict penalties for buying a firearm for someone who cannot legally do so, an act known as a straw purchase. The bill would also toughen punishment for selling a gun to a person prohibited from owning one.
"Law enforcement officials have consistently called for a firearms trafficking statute that can be effective to go after straw purchasers," Leahy said. "What we need to do now is to create better law enforcement tools."
The trafficking bill, one of four gun measures being debated by the committee, will now move to the Senate floor. It faces an easier path than background checks for all gun sales and a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Those bills, which the committee is to consider next week along with a school safety measure, have so far failed to garner the bipartisan support needed to pass the Senate.


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NEW YORK—The Praedium Group, based in New York City, and San Antonio, Texas-based Internacional Realty have acquired The Residences at the Collection, a newly constructed, 312-unit residential property developed by Embrey Partners in the Dallas submarket of Carrollton.
The property includes one- and two-bedroom apartments and also includes 48 townhomes, each with attached two-car garages and fenced yards.
Apartments at Residences at the Collection feature 9-ft. ceiling heights, private outdoor space, walk-in closets, central air conditioning, stainless steel appliances and full size washers/dryers. Community amenities include a resort-style pool, sundeck, spa, fitness center, business center, clubhouse, billiards room and game room.
The property is located in close proximity to neighborhood amenities, including a Super Target, Wal-Mart, Home Depot and the Vista Ridge Mall, a regional mall anchored by Macy's, Sears, JC Penney and Dillard's.


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Ryan Seacrest Signs $45 Million Deal With 'American Idol,' Additional Projects
NEW YORK – Ryan Seacrest has signed a lucrative new deal that keeps him hosting "American Idol" through 2012 as well as participating in new projects.
The partnership, announced Monday by 19 Entertainment, a wholly owned subsidiary of CKX Inc., provides an opportunity for on-air-personality/producer Seacrest and his Ryan Seacrest Productions banner to work with "American Idol" creator Simon Fuller on new entertainment endeavors.
Fuller's 19 Entertainment has created and produced TV hits including "American Idol" and "So You Think You Can Dance."
Although the announcement specified no dollar figure, The Hollywood Reporter pegged the deal at $45 million.
Besides "American Idol," Seacrest, 34, is host of the radio countdown show "American Top 40," as well as a nationally syndicated radio show for Clear Channel's 102.7 KIIS-FM. He also executive produces and co-hosts "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest" and holds the titles of managing editor and lead anchor of E! Entertainment News.


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PEORIA — It's good to be diversified. That's the bottom line for the first quarter for Caterpillar Inc., where flat sales turned into higher profits from the previous year.
Caterpillar reported a first-quarter profit per share of $1.44, an increase from $1.31 in the first quarter of 2013. Sales and revenue were $13.2 billion for the first quarter in 2014, virtually matching the same figure for the first quarter of 2013.
While the company's sales outlook for the year remained unchanged at $56 billion, Caterpillar raised its profit outlook by 25 cents per share, taking into account restructuring costs estimated to range from $400 million to $500 million in 2014.
The most significant item in those restructuring costs, announced last year, was the cutback in workers and production of excavators at a Caterpillar plant in Belgium.
In reviewing the first quarter of 2014, Brad Halverson, Caterpillar's chief financial officer and group president of corporate services, credited the company for its efforts in achieving greater efficiency of operations.
"We're following our business model and improved our market share (in the first quarter). The balance sheet is in great shape," he said, referring to Caterpillar's efforts to lower production costs and increase cash flow.
Caterpillar was able to turn a profit in the first quarter despite a 37 percent sales drop in resource industries, the company's mining division, Halverson said.
That was because of improvement in other areas of a diversified company, he said. Construction sales were up 20 percent while the energy and transportation division remained very stable, Halverson said.
"We have a very talented production work force while we wait for mining to recover, which it will," he said.
Halverson said it wasn't clear when the mining industry would rise out of the doldrums that saw Caterpillar reduce its work force by more than 10,000 people worldwide in 2013.
"Will ( a mining rebound) come in late 2014 or early 2015? We don't know but we're not calling that. We're only managing what we can control," he said.
"Coming off the (sales and profit) records of 2012, 2013 was a tough year. We came into this year extra cautious."
That caution extends to China, where Caterpillar employs 15,000 people at 26 facilities. Despite a 30 percent increase in sales in China in the first quarter of 2014, chairman and CEO Doug Oberhelman, in prepared remarks that accompanied the company's earnings report, suggested that adjustments may lie ahead.
"Chinese leaders are in the midst of transitioning the world's second largest economy to a longer-term, more sustainable growth model while maintaining social stability. This is an enormous task that carries risks for the world economy," stated Oberhelman, indicating that China's leaders might pull back on the reins regarding ongoing efforts to upgrade infrastructure.
The Russia-Ukraine crisis is another concern, noted the CEO.
While Russia isn't a top 10 market for Caterpillar, what happens there could have impact around the world, said Oberhelman.
"We are hoping for a peaceful solution, but business confidence around the world could dampen, and trade and world Gross Domestic Product could slow should the situation deteriorate," he said.
Analyst Adam Fleck of Morningstar in Chicago credited Caterpillar with good cost control and resulting profitability.
"We expect mining to remain tough in the near-term, but a lack of dealer inventory reductions and continued volume improvement in the other segments should help margins for the full year," he said.
"The possible slowdown in China is a real concern, and could have a tangential effect on Cat's mining business. That said, the geography represents less than 10 percent of Cat's total revenue, and within that, the firm seems to be gaining share in the construction space with total sales in the country up 30 percent for the quarter."
The number of full-time employees at Caterpillar at the end of the first quarter of 2014 was 116,579, compared with 124,874 at the end of the first quarter of 2013.
Steve Tarter is Journal Star business editor. He can be reached at 686-3260 or email@example.com.
Caterpillar reports higher 1Q profit; raises concerns about China, Russia
PEORIA — It's good to be diversified. That's the bottom line for the first quarter for Caterpillar Inc., where flat sales turned into higher profits from the previous year.


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Join the Benefits Team for the first ever, two-day retirement expo scheduled April 12th and 13th. The expo will be free and open to all Alamo Colleges District employees. We will have all our Retirement Vendors available all day to answer any questions you may have. Whether you are a new employee, been here for a while or getting close to your final days with the Alamo College District, this retirement expo has something everyone! Read More >
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Now open
RIM sports complex opens in HamptonBy JASON SCHREIBER
Union Leader Correspondent
September 16. 2013 6:27PM
HAMPTON – Athletes of all ages will have a new place to shoot some hoops and strengthen and condition their bodies with the opening of the new $2.5 million Rim Sports Complex and Athletic Performance Center of Exeter Hospital.
The facility at 311 Winnacunnet Road held a grand opening Saturday to give Seacoast sports enthusiasts a look inside the new 36,000-square-foot complex built next to Seacoast United Soccer Club's indoor arena.
"Our goal is to develop the complete athlete through education, nutrition, and skill development," said Hampton resident Tom Viviano, who co-owns the facility with Peter Maher of Exeter.
The complex features five high school sized basketball/volleyball courts and the Fast Break Café to offer healthy food for athletes.
It also houses the new 2,200-square-foot Athletic Performance Center of Exeter Hospital, which will provide strength and conditioning programs for athletes of all ages and sports. The team providing the training will include strength and conditioning specialists, physical therapists, occupational therapists and corrective exercise specialists.
This is the first time the hospital has opened such a facility that will offer high-end, elite sport specific training, according to Jeffrey Meisner, senior director of rehabilitation services at Exeter Hospital.
"This is going to be a very busy facility," Meisner said. "Sports for kids are becoming a lot more sophisticate and we want to educate and train them to be better athletes."
Clubs planning to use the new complex include Great Bay Volleyball, Seacoast Spartans AAU basketball club, and the Visionary Basketball Camp and Zero Gravity Basketball, both based in Massachusetts.
"This is huge for the Spartans," said Chris Coates, director of the Spartans AAU club and operations manager for the Rim.
The complex will give the Spartans a permanent home, meaning the club will no longer have to rent out court time at different locations on the Seacoast.
"Now we're going to have one central home," Coates said.
The Spartans – a club targeting youth from grade 2 to 12 — has about 200 members from the Seacoast area and another 200 from the Manchester area who use the Sports Zone Indoor Sports complex in Derry.
The facility is already 75 percent booked and has 24 basketball and volleyball tournaments under contract, Viviano said.
Viviano said the facility will also offer an after-school program with a certified teacher to help children with their homework before working on their "skills and drills."
Teaching proper nutrition will also be important, especially given the growing concerns over childhood obesity, he said.
"There really isn't a lot of education going on about it," he said.
Ben Fitzgerald of Hampton, whose son, Tyler, 10, plays sports, including basketball and soccer, said he hopes some of the town's teams make use of the Rim.
"It's an excellent facility," he said.


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This weekend I worked again on looking for a job but I also gave my family some time away from the city to enjoy a nice, leasurely drive in the country. We dropped off my oldest at the family farm outside Olympia and then ventured north-east to the new Yelm Goodwill.
I was invited by the Tacoma Goodwill to the store's opening earlier in July but was unable to justify the 2 hour (one way) trip from our home at that time. Being a new job-search candidate, you can understand the frugality of not spending all the gas costs but since we wrapped it into an already scheduled trip this time we enjoyed the Sunday drive in the country! The backroads through winding green fields and passing through small towns like Roy were pleasant. But when we got to the Yelm Goodwill store it was evident immediately how much work went into the opening, and how much of that work has remained in place a month later!
From the very first display case you see the visual appeal that was crafted by the store's opening team. Just look at all this vintage pottery and glass beautifully staged and inviting you into the store!
Yelm being a major family community (the home of Miss Washington 2008, Janet Harding) and of some of the best rural schools around the state… you can see the family focus immediately with areas for the children to explore like this play area.
And with a toy isle like this there are PLENTY of toys for children to find and explore while parents shop! I found this refreshing to see Goodwill embrace instead of the normal intercom announcement to "watch your children" thereby making the rest of us parents feel alienated (even if we don't have children with us in the store at the time!) from the rest of the shoppers and making us feel lesser because we shop with our children?! It is a difficult boundary to walk as a prior retail manager, there are definitely parents that just let children run wild in the isles breaking things and taking advantage of the customer service aspect of retail. But there are plenty of other parents that keep our children contained, responsible for any mess or damages that our children might create… and this store's embrace of that was encouraging for this mommy to see.
The store staff was extremely nice, offering to help us a couple of different times. The store is stocked with plenty of summertime product like swimsuits, towels and toys. In fact one of the first things we found was a brand-new-in-package beach ball for $.99 cents. We then proceeded to find a number of other miscellaneous items like a new package of organic yarn for $.99 cents and a children's book by National Geographic that looked brand new.
We then continued onto the children's clothing area and found a pair of ORANGE TAG PJ's for the little one 1/2 off $1.99 and I found a new Target brand PJ top for ORANGE TAG 1/2 off $1.99!
With such a welcoming child/family area we went through the toy isle and ended up scoring a couple of vintage Fisher-Price toys! The Food Mart was only $2.99 and the rocking-horse ball (that chimes when the ball moves) was only $.99 cents!
There were plenty of other items that I would of liked to seriously consider but with the extra-job-searching-frugality I decided to hold back and head toward the register. Wouldn't you know it… on the way to the register I passed a Calvin Klein button up khaki dress with the elusive RED TAG which meant it was only $1.29. I held my breath as I tried it on quickly hoping that it fit for such a great price. Yep! It was a PERFECT addition to the job-search wardrobe I've been on the look out for lately. Reassuring me that I still have the Goodwill GOLDEN touch, that is for sure!
The baby couldn't wait for us to get the beach ball blown up and played with it and his new Fisher-Price toy the rest of the evening. We are heading out after the nap this afternoon to try out the new toy at the beach!
We hope that everybody goes outside and enjoys this beautiful Seattle summer we are getting! This week is more of the job-hunting for mommy and two interesting prospects for Goodwill shopping trips/blog posts concerning a family's front room interior makeover and a local mommy that makes the most of her nonprofit employers funds by buying their Head Start group toys at the Goodwill!
Stay tuned for more summer interviews thrift-public and today being August 1st I will start reminding all our readers that August 17th is NATIONAL THRIFTSHOP DAY and Living the Goodwill Life is working on a national collaboration to celebrate the special day. More to follow!……


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Saturday, April 23, 2011
Quick question on the badness of death
Damien is pretty good at his job. He's a demon bent in killing the young and the healthy. Alice is an angel who isn't powerful enough to prevent Damien from killing. Still, she wants to make things better. So, she might try to hasten a birth so as to extend life on the front end if she thinks Damien will strike the subject down on some particular date. (Maybe she sees that he's penciled in a trip to Detroit twenty years hence.) I think on some occasions, she might make a death less bad by extending life this way. Does she make a death less bad, however, if she straps a ticking time bomb to Damien's victims set to go off after the time of the death Damien intends for them? Intuitively, I don't think this makes the deaths less bad even if it means that Damien's victims don't lose out on as much as other subjects that are victimized in similar ways. Similarly, I don't think Damien can make his subjects' deaths worse by defusing these bombs so that if his attack on them failed they would have lived long lives.
Just curious if others share this sort of intuition and worry about the idea that the badness of a death is a function of the difference the death made.
One potential problem with the example is that the second potentially fatal sequence only determines the magnitude of the difference made by the first potentially fatal sequence if these processes are independent. My initial hunch is that the worry doesn't turn on constructing examples in which the processes are linked in the way I've described, but that's just a hunch. I do feel the pull of the claim that the badness of a pedestrian's death depends upon how long they would have lived if they hadn't been struck by the bus (and the quality of life that awaited them in the nearest world(s) where the pedestrian isn't struck).
7 comments:
Hi Clayton,
I think this is a (characteristically) fun and stimulating post!
I think we can bite the bullet and say that Alice would indeed Damien's victims' deaths less bad. However, in wanting to make things better, that is presumably not what she is really interested in. Rather, what she is interested in is making Damien cause less harm--she wants the quality of the victims' lives to be as close as possible to the quality of the lives they would have had Damien not been involved at all. (Note that by extending the victims' births, strictly speaking she would be doing this, but she would not be making their deaths less bad. The victims would still be *losing* as much had they been born later--they just would've had less to begin with.) But strapping Damien's victims to time bombs would not help her do that. Symmetrically, should he defuse the bombs first, Damien would not be making himself cause less harm than he would have had he left his victims alone.
- April 23, 2011 at 11:19 PM
- Gabriele Contessa said...
Hi Clayton,
I happen to share your intuitions about those two cases (but I suspect it would be better to focus on more down-to-earth cases such as ones involving independent snipers). I also sympathize to some extent with the view that the badness of a death is a function of the difference the death made. However, I wonder if the problem stems form comparing the actual world with the closest possible world at which S does not die at t as opposed to the best possible worlds for S (where the best possible worlds for S could be conceived of as the worlds in which S does not die at t but lives on to live as long and happy a life as it is physically possible for S). What do you think? (my main worry is that the notion of best possible worlds for S might be difficult to formulate precisely and coherently)
- April 24, 2011 at 5:59 PM
- Neil Sinhababu said...
I can see two ways to treat the counterfactual, and I feel different about Alice's time bombs depending on how we do it.
Here's a way that gives rise to your intuition. If it hadn't been true that Damien was going to kill the victim, Alice wouldn't have put the time bombs on them. (I'm assuming she sets the bombs with foreknowledge.) So the loss of long life is still entirely counterfactually dependent on Damien's killing, and the killing is still just as terrible.
The other way is where we forget about Alice's foreknowledge and leave her actions independent of what's going to happen. This is the way I initially thought of the situation when I read your example, and it made me think that Alice was making Damien's killings less bad by doing something bad herself.
I think this ends up supporting the view that the badness of a death depends upon what would have happened if the person lived rather than died, since the badness depends on how we treat the counterfactual.
- April 25, 2011 at 2:45 PM
- Clayton said...
Hi Ben,
Nice point. I think the (allegedly) problematic intuition might be a bit of the moralistic fallacy creeping into the discussion. Her efforts are in the wrong place (so to speak), so it strikes us that her efforts are for not. But, they're not.
Hi Gabriele,
It's an interesting suggestion. I am curious about which worlds to focus on in making these sorts of evaluations. It's something I've just started thinking about as I've just started reading Ben Bradley's book (above?) My main worry about focusing on the best worlds rather than the closest worlds where the subject lives is that we'll lose the ability to account for important intuitions about the comparative badness of two deaths (e.g., pedestrians who get hit by buses where one would have died moments later from a heart attack).
Hi Neil,
I think I had the same sort of worry in mind when I was writing the post, but thought that there might be a way of dealing with it. Unfortunately, I got sidetracked and didn't think much about it since then. I do hope to come back to this, but I've just received my dose of grading.
- April 27, 2011 at 8:51 AM
- Gabriele Contessa said...
I suspect no one other than philosophers (or, maybe, actuaries) shares that intuition. If a very young person dies in an accident, I don't think that anyone would feel that his/her death was any less bad when they discover he/she also had a terminal illness that would have killed him/her shortly after (at most it would seem to make the all situation even more tragic). I think that the idea can be supported by the following argument. I think you would agree that it is not better or worse to die killed by two independent snipers then by one. In other words, a causally overdetermined death is no better or worse than one that is not causally overdetermined. But what if Sniper B's bullet is 30 secs late and her bullet would have killed you if only Sniper A's bullet had not done so already? On your view, it would seem like this would make death by Sniper's A bullet less bad, but I really can't see how. Am I wrong?
- April 27, 2011 at 6:36 PM
- mekajamjam said...
I think your going in the wrong direction with this question.
Death is something that is unavoidable. It's something that we know is going to happen. So technically death cannot be considered bad.
In relation to your example, Damien can kill the young and healthy but never before their purpose is up. Alice may not have the power to stop Damien but she has the ability to keep the victim alive until he/she has served their purpose.
The death is only bad when you do not know the victims purpose. We all die in our own time, but not before we have completed our required task.
- April 27, 2011 at 8:22 PM
- alexis said...
The post evoked me the difference between the common belief that death is an evil and Socrates' creed that it is not. The choose for one of the beliefs would help us for resolving such puzzles as that from your post
- September 7, 2011 at 4:19 AM


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10. DVD: Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On
and The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway
If Miss Otis regrets she was unable to catch it on HBO, the Divine Miss M's most recent Caesars Palace show is now available on DVD alongside Paul Reubens, who revived his lovably maniacal man-child alter ego from the '80s series Pee-wee's Playhouse in a Broadway crowd-pleaser that was also taped for an HBO special in which Pee-wee gets postcards from flirty prison pen pals and Magic Screen makes jokes about gay marriage.
9. THEATER: Showgirls: In Drag!
Hitch a ride to L.A. and party like it's 1995 at the Dragonfly Theatre, where The Big Gay Sketch Show's Stephen Guarino directs a bedraggled homage to Paul Verhoeven's Showgirls every Wednesday night. Willam Belli (pictured, left) stars as Nomi and Detox iCunt (right) stars as Crystal Connors in the parody, which is followed by an after-party hosted by all-drag punk band Transkunitental. For more info visit ShowgirlsInDrag.com.
8. TV: The A-List: Dallas
Yee-haw, honey! A Dallas edition of Logo's controversial reality series, television's gayest guilty pleasure, premieres October 10 after an A-List: New York reunion special. The new cast of saddle-burned, self-important socialites includes former rodeo star Levi Crocker, button-pushing conservative Republican Taylor Garrett, party boy James Doyle, gossip Phillip Willis, serial dater Chase Hutchison, and token straight girl Ashley Kelly.
7. THEATER: thirtynothing
In his bold and biting new multimedia solo performance, which runs through October 22 at New York's Dixon Place, Dan Fishback juxtaposes the dawn of the AIDS crisis with his own childhood while exhuming obscure work by late gay artists like Mark Morrisroe, David Wojnarowicz, David B. Feinberg, and Essex Hemphill. The production includes a series of events about the disease's cultural legacy. For more info visit DanFishback.com.
6. BOOK: Remembering Christmas
The gay ghosts of Christmases past are exorcised in this brisk and sentimental holiday-themed anthology: In Tom Mendicino's "Away in a Manger," a snowbound traveler connects with a small-town bartender; in Frank Anthony Polito's "A Christmas to Remember," a college guy finds unexpected love back home; and in Michael Salvatore's "Missed Connections," old friends reminisce in an airport lounge on Christmas Eve.
5. FILM: The Sons of Tennessee Williams
Out October 7 in limited release, Tim Wolff's ennobling civil rights documentary about the history of gay carnival balls in New Orleans reveals how, over five decades, krewes of flamboyantly determined "southern bachelors" transformed these targets of antigay criminalization into the most beloved and bedazzled annual events in town. The colorful film culminates with the 40th anniversary ball of the Krewe of Armeinius in 2008.
4. MUSIC: Beauty Queen Sister, Indigo Girls
Recorded in Nashville, the latest Indigo Girls album reunites Amy Ray and Emily Saliers with producer Peter Collins, with whom the lesbian folk-pop duo collaborated on 1992's Rites of Passage and 1994's Swamp Ophelia. Old-school romance, contemporary social consciousness, and an impressive roster of guest musicians add fresh soul and shade to songs like peppy lead single "Making Promises" and the moody, string-driven "Yoke."
3. BOOK: Seriously… I'm Kidding, Ellen DeGeneres
"I've learned a lot about life and love and other 'L' words since I wrote my last book, and there are things I want to share with the world," writes Ellen in her tongue-in-cheek new advice manual, which is as wise and empowering as it is breezy and hilarious. Indeed, much fodder has unfolded since 2003's The Funny Thing Is…, including the talk show host's brief American Idol stint and marriage to the scented lotion–loving Portia de Rossi.
2. FILM: Dirty Girl
In theaters October 7, gay filmmaker Abe Sylvia's spirited feel-good debut feature stars Kaboom's Juno Temple stars as a rebellious Oklahoma teen who in 1987 takes a musical fantasy–fueled road trip to California with classmate Clarke (out newcomer Jeremy Dozier), a fat gay loner escaping his abusive father. Look for a cameo by Jonathan Slavin as a sex-ed teacher. Are you a dirty girl? Air your own laundry at DirtySecretsBlog.com.
1. TV: The Rosie Show
Now that Oprah has vacated her Chicago studios, Rosie O'Donnell has pulled up her U-Haul to unload her new variety-talk show, which premieres October 10 on OWN — more than nine years since The Rosie O'Donnell Show went off the air. Replacing Tom Cruise as her celebrity crush, Russell Brand will be her first guest, and the cast of Broadway's Priscilla Queen of the Desert will perform October 13. For more info visit Rosie.com.


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Surfers around the world have flocked to Riviera Nayarit for its great waves. But, recently, more surfboards are staying on the racks as guests now come to the destination for a chance to practice yoga.
"Riviera Nayarit is one of the few places in Mexico where yogis can still experience the raw nature of the coast, the privacy of their own beach and the lushness of the jungle," said Andre Araiz, owner of Haramara, a top yoga retreat.
Thanks to its "untouched nature," from secluded beaches to holistic-centered communities, Riviera Nayarit is emerging as a destination for yogis who prefer the region's truly natural setting and the affordability of its retreats. Several terrific yoga spots along the coastline offer fully immersive experiences with a backdrop of landscapes so lush, there's no better place for a sun salutation.
Haramara RetreatHaramara Retreat is not only well known in Riviera Nayarit, it is internationally famous. In fact, Yoga Journal voted it as one of the 10 best yoga retreats in the world. Spanning 16 acres, Haramara ("Mother Sea") is tucked away in a tropical paradise with 16 private palapa cabanas (each with a hammock and a rustic open room) and terrific sunset views.
Morning and afternoon practice takes place at one of two yoga pavilions with high thatched-roofs and handcrafted hardwood floors. The pavilions, or shalas, offer 360-degree ocean and mountain views. Guests can participate in private and group classes and have the option to meet instructors beforehand to determine the best fit for their experience level.
The onsite restaurant serves three healthy gourmet meals a day, using local produce. All meals are vegetarian-based, but fresh catches of healthy fish may also be included.
Clients should know that there is no electricity, and that the retreat is not set up to accommodate children.
Standard rooms start at $248 per night.
Mar De JadeOpened in 1983 in Chacala, Mar De Jade is a quiet retreat right on Chacala's beach. There are 17 garden suites and 11 guestrooms, in addition to yoga and meditation studios, dining rooms, a bar and a guest lounge. Unlike the other retreats, there is a central swimming pool and a large Jacuzzi. Additionally, guests may wander through the property's lush tropical gardens.
Mar de Jade is not limited to yoga vacations — guests can also participate in the traditional temazcal ceremony, among other activities — but yoga offerings are its top feature. Thanks to the number of rooms, the retreat can accommodate large groups of up to 75 people.
All the food served here is prepared with healthy, organic produce from the property's very own organic farm, including free-range eggs, organic milk, corn and passion fruit.
Jungle Rooms start at $145 and Garden Suite Kings start at $220.
Tailwind Jungle LodgeJust north of the small town of San Pancho, The Tailwind Jungle Lodge captures the allure of eco-friendly, coastal Mexico. Opened in 2007, the family-run jungle property has a collection of six uniquely designed units — bungalows, palapas and casitas — all perched on the hillside to minimize environmental impact. The palapas are semi-enclosed (three out of four walls) with open-air living spaces, a queen bed and a separate bathroom. The bungalows are the most budget-friendly of the three, comprising wooden platforms with canvas, safari-style wall tents.
In 2009, Tailwind Jungle Lodge became the first certified, sustainable eco-lodge in Mexico. There is a small plunge pool and jungle trails to secluded beaches.
The yoga retreats include daily yoga with the founders of the property (Tamara and Judi Jacobi), as well as holistic nutrition coaching and workshops.
Bungalows begin at $80 and palapas start at $200.
Haramara Retreatwww.haramararetreat.com
Mar De Jadewww.mardejade.com
Tailwind Jungle Lodgewww.tailwindoutdoor.com


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Saturday, January 23, 2010
More on stacking overlaps
Posted by rad sechrist at 12:20 AM
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Disclaimer: in no way can you take any of this as the "right" way of doing things. I'm still learning and some of this stuff may even be wrong. I am constantly adapting and changing my approach to drawing. This is just how I think about stuff and I wanted to share it with people. Maybe it can help, maybe not.


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Monday, December 26, 2016
We all sleep - up to 1/3 of our lives is spent sleeping! And we all need sleep. We can't survive without it! While everyone recognizes how a poor night's sleep affects them, only recently have we begun to fully understand the profound impact that sleep and sleep disorders have on our health and well-being. The consequences of sleep-related problems range from simply not feeling well, to increased risks of significant work and traffic-related accidents, to serious effects on blood pressure as well as risk for heart disease and stroke.
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text:
Classic Car Corner - Vettes
- Written by Tom Berg, Windermere Woodinville
A Tale of Two Vettes: I own a 1962 Corvette and my friend Mack owns a 1963 Corvette and both are convertibles. They are just 1 year apart but actually are a generation or two apart.
My 62 is known as a C-1 generation Corvette which covers the 1953 through 1962 models which were designed and manufactured with World War II technology and only came as convertibles.
Mack's 63 is known as a C-2 generation Corvette (Stingray), was produced between 1963 and 1967 and has all the modern conveniences as of 1963, including hidden headlights, and was also available in a split window, fastback coupe.
He actually has power windows and a modern suspension and options such as power steering, power disc brakes and even air conditioning which were then available.
Whereas my 62 had none of those options even available. In the day, they would road race the 62s but with the suspension of a 1953 Chevy truck I'm not sure how they kept them on the track. My car has a trunk which is good for golf clubs or real estate open house signs and Mack's has no trunk at all in the 63. There's just a little room to stuff small items behind the seat.
My 62 Corvette is what's known as a matching numbers car meaning it has all the same exact parts that it was made with in August of 1961 which includes the first year 327 engine with 250 horsepower (which really seems like plenty to me), 4-speed manual transmission, non posi-traction rear end and a stock body, red interior and Ermine White paint.
Mack's 1962 is what's known as a Resto-mod. It would look stock to most non-Corvette people but has a modified body including flared wheel wells to cover the wide tires, 1966 hood, 1969 side scoops, 1965 seats and a 1980's 454 engine with about 500 horsepower. That's pretty powerful for a car that probably only weighs about 200 pounds more than mine!! Mack picked up this Vette from a friend and the body modifications and engine swap were already done so he had the car prepped and painted in a beautiful Cadillac "Diamond Pearl" which was a great choice and redid the interior.
My Vette looks refrigerator white next to his. With the big tires and heavier engine, Mack's next step is to have power steering installed by our buddy Marty Phillips, the Corvette guru at Phillips Auto in Totem Lake so he can actually steer the car in a parking lot. I just have a big steering wheel and steering by "armstrong."
Considering that these two cars are the same make and just one year apart, it's amazing just how different they are.
But each car is a great car in its own way and Mack and I are very happy to be their caretakers for a while.


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Hey All,
This is for those who don't have a memory slot on their PDA (or just want to upgrade it)
How To Upgrade A PDA
If something happens to your PDA (like faulty soldering), sorry, but you kinda knew the risks, eh? If you are unsure about doing it, you can hire a business to do it through an online shop. Google will bring up many sites, just use the keyword "PDA Ram Upgrade"
Note - Palm m100
This tutorial is for the Palm m100 and compatible series. This is just to show the simplicity of upgrading a PDA. Below will be some online tutorials for other PDAs. Just go to google and use keywords like "DRAM upgrade xpda" or "how to upgrade xpda" (you get the idea)
Step 1 - Removing The Case
It seems that most PDA companies made sure that noone could go and poke around inside the little computers. How? By using either T5 screws or glued the case together. So be careful disassembling the case. It seems that the mxx models have screws and the III/V cases are glued. PocketPC's vary as well. For those with the screws, go to RadioShack or any electronics store and get a T5 screwdriver (hexadecimal)
Four screws are found on the back case. Two at the top (beside the stylus slot and mirror to the right) and two at the bottom (side to side by the hotsync connector/slot) Here's a sample image *sample*
As for the glued cases, use a thin & long flathead screwdriver and slowly pry the case from the top (ir port area) and slowly open the case. Keep an eye out for clamps that are holding the case in place as well. Later on, you can use rubber cement to re-glue the case.
Step 2 - Soldering Chip Devices
I'll allow Molly from Fueai.or.jp to explain this step. I might not say it proper, I just know what she means from when I did it for two buddies.
Note: Use soldering goggles, it helps for precision!
Image 1YELLOW->
You will find a very small device is soldered under the
YELLOW arrow in the picture below.
This is a double-jumper-resistor which
is connected to address bus for DRAM memory chip.
*Remove the device from the original position.
*Solder it to the place next to that nothing is loaded.
You will find a small device is soldered above the
RED arrow in the picture below.
This is a jumper-resistor which
is connected to "Output Enable"signal for DRAM memory chip.
*Remove the device from the original position.
*Solder it to the place next to that nothing is loaded.
Image 2 (old location)
Image 3 (new location)
Step 3 - Ram Replacement
You'll know which chip is your Ram by the OKI name. In the sample image above (for screws) it's the chip at the left of the beige AAC chip.
1-Remove this chip as cleanly as possible. (to ensure clean contacts for the next chip.)
2-Clean any mess that could cause faulty contacts between two slips
3-Place and solder new Ram chip
X-suggested 8MB chips are NEC uPD42S65165G5-A6,0 SAMSUNG KM416V4104B, TOSHIBA TC5165165AFTS-60, and HITACHI HM5165165LTT6. (those used for the PalmV)
Step 4 - Putting The Case Back
Well this one is kinda obvious. Nust a note for glued cases. I suggest rubber cement. I found it less messy then other types of glues.
-PalmPilotUpgrade (incl. PocketPC)
Ram Dealer/Database:
-Shop Brando
-PalmIII series
-Hacking Calvin - mxx series
-Molly @ Fureai - mxx series
-Palm V series


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Style # 216413
Jewel Ring Minaudiere is rated out of 5 by 1.
Rated 3 out of 5 by cariroknick from Cute, but Jewels look kiddie and cheap I really love the purse. Super cute and quality. But the Jewels on the handle look cheap and childish...
Date published: 2013-08-09


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Hedge fund group Perry Capital LLC filed a suit against the U.S. Treasury, complaining over terms of the bailouts of mortgage firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The lawsuit, filed at U.S. District Court in Washington late Sunday, claims Fannie and Freddie's bailout terms, as overseen by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, violated a 2008 law placing the government-owned companies into conservatorship.
The Treasury amended Congress's original authorization, in which it collected 10 percent dividend payments every quarter, to increase the profits in a moved known as a "sweep amendment."
Perry alleges the sweep overstepped Treasury's authority, as it is essentially the purchase of new securities.
"This lawsuit seeks to uphold the rule of law," Theodore Olson, a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, representing Perry Capital, said in a statement. "If the government wanted to assume the powers of receivership, it could have chosen that course. Instead it chose conservatorship, and with the 'sweep amendment,' it overreached."
Perry's lawsuit claims the move has short-changed all private investors and that the government "has maneuvered to ensure that Treasury would be the sole beneficiary of the companies' improved financial position."
The group has been investing in Fannie and Freddie since 2010, and expects the agencies to soon return to profitability.


text: Cash Flow Success December 8, 2012 01:18 PM Tweet TAGS: Marketing, Overseas December 18, 2014 By Ed Clark Top Producer Business and Issues Editor Email 10 ways a budget can point you in the right direction When it comes to cash flow budgeting, don't sweat the small stuff—that is, don't get mired in the insignificant details, especially in a highly volatile and explosive year like 2013 promises to be. Revenues, expenses and actual production could be all over the board. Only time will tell. More important than nailing the numbers just right is creating a constructive process that can be a powerful decision aid when volatility escalates, experts say. Most farmers don't enjoy the process of developing and updating cash flow statements. But those who learn how to make cash flow budgeting their friend are rewarded with higher farm profits and a conducive working relationship with their lenders. Even though profitability isn't an issue for many crop producers right now, lenders are demanding more financial documentation more frequently. That's not only to please their loan committee and bank president, but also regulators who are monitoring every move. Master the following 10 financial pointers to correct common cash flow problems as you develop a budget for 2013. 1. Don't be overly optimistic. A two-year study of a group of Farm Credit System borrowers found that on average, they overestimated cash receipts by 15% and underestimated expenses by 17%. Likewise, many producers underestimate their equipment purchase needs and overestimate their crop yields, says University of Minnesota ag economist Dale Nordquist. A good rule of thumb is that you'll need to replace 10% of your equipment each year, he advises. In addition, many producers either underestimate family living expenses or don't have a handle on what they are, Nordquist says. One reason bankers tend to back off producer cash flow statements is because they think the numbers are generally inflated. 2. Conversely, don't be too pessimistic. Some producers are so conservative with their assumptions that their cash flow conclusions bias them against opportunities, be they marketing or investment opportunities, Nordquist says. Being too conservative with your assumptions can actually hurt your bottom line. 3. Strategize more "what-if" scenarios. Danny Klinefelter, an ag economist at Texas A&M University, says that when preparing cash flow budgets, some producers just look at best-case and worst-case scenarios, when they should be looking at a set of "what-if" possibilities. "The most important question in cash flow budgeting is not just 'what if,' but rather 'what do I do if,'" he adds. For example, crop insurance revenue will likely be off by 10% in 2013 because of this year's yields. Next year, yields could stay below trend due to drought conditions lingering in much of the western Corn Belt. Plug those numbers in. Develop your own matrix based on your specific farm history, Klinefelter adds. 4. Use a crystal ball. The past is useful to calculate some variables, such as yields for crop production and livestock rate of gain, both of which are generally highly predictable. For others, a five-year average bears little resemblance to present conditions, says Bob Aukes, a farm management consultant with AG Finance, Inc., in Des Moines, Iowa. Variables that fit within this category are land rents, seed, and chemical and fertilizer costs, for which present costs are the only ones worth using. 5. Simplify, simplify. Some producers get too bogged down in complicated details, Aukes says. Budgeting is hard enough as it is, so don't make it more burdensome than it needs to be. For example, if you have both grain and livestock operations, but the grain is grown as livestock feed, don't try to account for every bushel of grain from your crop production enterprise to the livestock operation in an overall farm cash flow budget. That's way too labor-intensive and provides little value, Aukes says. Instead, keep cash flow budgets separate for each enterprise, and use market prices to account for value. That means assigning market prices to the grain enterprise and market feed costs to the livestock enterprise. 6. Do it for you, not for your banker. Less than 10% of producers do a good job of preparing their cash flow, primarily because they prepare them only when their banker requires it, Aukes says. A better way is to use the budget as it is supposed to be used—to detect a problem one or two quarters out and then find a solution to the problem. Your lender will appreciate it—and you will too because you're using your budget for its intended purpose, Aukes says. 7. Don't worry about getting it right. "Every cash flow budget is going to be wrong; it's the process it forces you to go through that's vital," Aukes says. The process is immensely worthwhile and can give you a road map for where you've been and where you're going, he adds. "It's a powerful management tool. The fact that variables are likely to be very wide in 2013 is just a cop-out," Aukes says. Variables are often wide and changeable. 8. Get it done, and do it yourself. The biggest mistake many farmers make is that they don't do a cash flow budget at all. Or if they do, they have someone else do it for them and don't refer to it when making decisions. Without a cash flow budget, it's impossible to know your break-evens, your cost of production and many other important financial ingredients, says Brian Briggeman, ag economist at Kansas State University. If creating a cash flow budget seems too complicated, or you want to bring in a professional to help, plenty of resources are available from landgrant universities, financial consultants and the Internet. 9. Prepare for the unexpected. With back-to-back record years for profits, some producers, though certainly not all, have become lax about factoring unexpected events into their cash flow budget, says Ryan Cox, vice president of agricultural banking at Central State Bank in Muscatine, Iowa. That's the No. 1 cash flow mistake he's seeing right now. Cox, who also farms in Illinois, says he fears that price and yield projections for 2013 will be on the high end, and some costs on the low end. For instance, he warns against plugging in corn prices based on recent highs, and wants producers to be prepared if corn takes a turn toward $5. 10. Update budgets regularly. "Cash flow can change every day," Cox says. Because variables are moving up and down with great regularity, he advises farmers to update cash flow budgets on a monthly basis so they know constantly where they're at, and can take action to protect profits. In Aukes' view, monthly might be overdoing it, however. If you're a wheat producer with little changes, updating twice a year might be sufficient. Update quarterly if you're a farrow-to-finish hog producer. "But if you make a future sale, change the budgeted number to a known number and be done with it," he adds. You can e-mail Ed Clark at email@example.com. Back to news