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LAHORE (Agencies) - Fed up of disputes over authority between the national team's players and management, the Pakistan Cricket Board has decided to have special lectures for them to ensure there is no wrangling over responsibilities and powers. A PCB source said the board's governing body has advised Chairman Ijaz Butt to take steps to ensure the captain, coach and manager are clear about their job profiles. "The governing body was not happy with the dispute that erupted between former captain, Shahid Afridi and coach, Waqar Younis on the West Indies tour over selection issues. And felt this could have been the result of their job descriptions not being communicated to them properly," the source said. He said the PCB has now decided to have special lectures delivered to the captain, coach, manager and players before their next tour abroad. Pakistan manager Intikhab Alam admitted there were disputes between Afridi and Waqar and this had a bad effect on the team. "I think there needs to be better communication among the management and with players and a better understanding of job responsibilities," Intikhab said. "There have been instances where players have tried to interfere in management work which is not good," he added. Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq has also called for better coordination between the players, management and board to avoid disputes in future. Afridi and Waqar clashed during the one-day series in the West Indies over selection issues. Intikhab confirmed the dispute arose over selection of few players for the last two one-day internationals that eventually Pakistan lost and Afridi also walked out of team meetings after arguments with the coach. "The differences were only over selection issues otherwise there is no problem in the team," he added. The source said the governing body had said strict action should be taken against any member of the tour selection committee who oversteps his authority. The tour selection committee comprises of captain, vice-captain, coach and manager with the latter holding veto power in all matters. "The policy of tour selection committee will be followed by whatever the majority on the committee decides: that will be the final decision," the source added.
Our Staff Reporter
July 07, 2011


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Welcome. This blog has been an idea of mine for quite a long time, but I'm finally getting around to making it happen (While watching Super Bowl XLI). This is intended to be a place where I can share information, ideas, etc. with others that also have an interest in education, technology and more…hence the blog's title, Clif's Notes on Education, Technology and More.
Let the fun begin!
Clif Mims

subset: commoncrawl


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NEW BEDFORD — Firefighters worked quickly to knock down a fire on Church Street on Tuesday.
District Chief Scott Kruger described the incident in a social media post:
"Engine 8 arrived on scene and reported fire on the southeast corner of the second floor of a two-story, one-family residence.
The two adult occupants had evacuated prior to our arrival. The crews extinguished fire in the first and second floor walls, and in the ceiling of an enclosed first floor porch. Ladder 4 was able to cut a ventilation hole in the roof to release heat and smoke.
No injuries were reported.
The fire was investigated by the NBFD Fire Investigation Unit and was determined to be accidental. The Red Cross was called to provide assistance to the two adult residents."
Follow Linda Roy on Twitter @LindaRoy_SCT


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Police: Man asks arresting officer for heroin in Milford
James Frye, 51, arrested Feb. 26
Police: Man asks arresting officer for heroin in Milford
James Frye, 51, arrested Feb. 26
Milford police said a man asked an officer for heroin soon after his arrest last week.
James Frye, 51, was arrested Feb. 26 after customers at a Cumberland Farms claimed he was threatening them with a knife in the parking lot.
Police said when they approached Frye soon after, he dropped several knives and was arrested without incident.
Frye told the arresting officer he was looking for heroin and asked if he had any, police said.
Police said they later learned that Frye was responsible for slashing tires on several cars and starting two small fires on High Street.
Frye faces multiple charges, including criminal threatening with a deadly weapon and criminal mischief.
Frye was arraigned Feb. 26 and ordered held on $50,000 cash bail.


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A total of 32 people, some affiliated with the dangerous street gang the Lakeshore Boyz, have been indicted for running a major heroin trafficking ring.
Heroin has become a huge problem in Cuyahoga County and Wednesday's announcement of the state and federal indictments came at a senior center in Collinwood, one of the many communities ravaged by heroin.
"We're not taking it anymore. We got a great neighborhood here and we're working our darndest to make it the best place to be and we're tired of a small group of individuals constantly throwing roadblocks in our way," says Cleveland Councilman Mike Polensek.
Officials say the heroin sales took place between February and August of this year. Many of the sales took place within 1,000 feet of a school, an additional violation that elevates each offense one felony level and will add to the severity of any sentences.
According to law enforcement officials, the 29 defendants who were indicted on state charges belonged to a loosely aligned group of retail-level heroin and cocaine dealers who operated mostly on Cleveland's far Northeast Side and in the city of Euclid.
The indictments are the result of a year-long investigation by the Northern Ohio Law Enforcement Task Force.
Some of those indicted and still at large are affiliated with the Lakeshore Boyz street gang. Anyone with information about their whereabouts is encouraged to call the FBI at 216.522.1400.
Copyright 2013 WOIO. All rights reserved.


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Coding: coding deductions and expenses: expenses
Employees or directors are entitled to relief for expenses which they have to incur in actually doing their job. The Employment Income Manual (EIM) at EIM31610 onwards provides guidance on which expenses you can allow.
You may receive requests for expenses deductions from
- Individuals
- Individuals or groups of employees following press publicity
- Tax Code Agencies
- Employers on behalf of their employees
- Trade Union representatives on behalf of their members
Most employees will ask for an expenses deduction by giving details in a letter or statement. This is acceptable. Otherwise they may use form P87.
You will often receive a request for one year from one employee who is presented as a 'test case'. If this is accepted, you are likely to receive similar requests for previous years for that employee and then for all years for most of the workforce of a particular employer. It is therefore important that you consider the guidance carefully before you accept that relief is due.
Whether or not an employee qualifies for a deduction under S336 ITEPA 2003 will depend upon the facts of the case. Guidance on the interpretation of the statutory tests in S336 is given at EIM31610 onwards. This guidance applies as much to bulk requests as to individual ones. Particular regard should be paid to the `objective nature' of the S336 test and whether the expenditure was incurred `in performance of the duties' (EIM31640 onwards). Essentially the question is whether the duties of the employment impose the expenditure in question rather than the personal circumstances of the employee or even the wishes of the employer. Employment income expenses can only be set off against earnings from the employment to which the expenses relate. EIM31655 refers. If the expenses exceed the earnings, or if the occupation in question does not produce any earnings, the excess expenses cannot be set against earnings from any other employment that the individual may have.
When dealing with bulk requests, bear in mind that one employee may satisfy the test but other employees could have different duties, which means they are not entitled to the relief. Also there may be some similarities between the duties of employees of one employer compared with the employees of another employer but important differences in fact could mean that the treatment may differ.
Locally agreed expenses (FRE)
If you make a local agreement with an employer for flat rate expenses (FRE) or a fixed rate amount that differs from the nationally agreed FRE amounts, you must record details of the agreed amounts on the EBS Employer record in Employer Notes. Enter details in the 'Locally Agreed Expenses' field using Function AMEND EMPLOYER NOTES.
FRE for police officers
If the police force has an arrangement regarding FRE which differs from the nationally agreed amounts / guidelines, including net pay schemes, this should also be clearly noted on the EBS record.
The remainder of this subject is presented as follows
Abbreviations used in coding
Appeals and calculations
Capital allowances: Writing down allowance for cars
Capital allowances: Writing down allowance for items other than cars
Cleaning protective clothing and uniforms
Descriptor to use for earlier years relief
Current year's relief
Employer makes expenses payments to employee
Flat rate expenses (FRE)
Form P87
Formula for EYA coding adjustments
Handling bulk requests
Handling requests for expenses
Local government councillors
Ministers of Religion
Previous year's relief
Professional fees and subscriptions
Requests for expenses deductions to be removed from tax code
Round sum allowances
Specific expenditure reimbursed
Using own vehicle for work
Washing 'company cars'
Abbreviations used in coding
Different descriptions are used to describe different types of expenses. This enables the system to treat each type differently. For example, Flat rate expenses can be automatically updated at annual coding. Take care to use the correct description
|Flat rate expenses
|Professional fees / subscriptions
|Job expenses
|Hotel and meal expenses, given as Job expenses
|Other expenses, given as Job expenses
|Vehicle expenses, given as Job expenses
|Mileage allowance relief (MAR), given as Job expenses
Note: SA autocoding updates Job expenses, therefore if updating an SA customer's record with details of their hotel and meal expenses, Other expenses, Vehicle expenses or Mileage allowance relief (MAR), you should update the Job Expenses field in IABD. Do not include the amount in any other expenses field as this may result in the customer receiving duplicate expenses within their tax code when SA autocoding takes place; see PAYE130050.
Appeals and calculations
An individual within SA can include the disputed expense in the SA return. HMRC can then open an enquiry. The taxpayer has a formal right of appeal if he disagrees with the result of our enquiry. Individuals not within SA will have to be brought into SA for the year of the dispute.
For in-year disputed claims, the individual can appeal against the coding. Guidance on coding appeals is given at PAYE13075 and EIM71420.
Capital allowances: Writing down allowance for cars
Capital allowances for cars (and other mechanically propelled road vehicles) are only available for claims up to 5 April 2002. Instead, for 2002-03 onwards, employees can obtain Mileage Allowance Relief, which includes an element for depreciation. See also EIM31330.
Capital allowances: Writing down allowance for items other than cars
Examples of how to calculate writing down allowances and balancing adjustments are given at EIM36500. Use the description 'Job expenses' to give capital allowances.
You should send a computation of the revised allowances when you amend the code.
Cleaning protective clothing and uniforms
Guidance on the treatment of deductions for the cost of upkeep of protective clothing and uniforms is provided at EIM32465 onwards. No relief is due for the cost of cleaning `ordinary clothing' that is worn at work.
Where the conditions for relief are satisfied then it is merely a question of fact to ascertain what has been spent, necessarily, by the employee on the maintenance and upkeep of the uniform or protective clothing.
EIM32480 onwards states that the allowable costs should not include notional amounts such as labour costs when cleaning is carried out as part of an ordinary domestic wash. However, the real costs involved in washing clothes at home can be allowed. Consequently, provided the employer does not make any provision for the laundering of these items, some deduction may be due.
The amount of the deduction will depend on the nature of the clothing and the frequency with which it is washed, taking account of the additional direct costs of washing these items at home. EIM32485 suggests amounts that may be accepted as reasonable.
Descriptor to use for earlier years relief
The earlier years adjustment for the tax and supplement must be identified clearly on the coding notice, as a separate item from the current year's relief. PAYE130050 gives guidance on how to complete the EYA entries in the income, allowances, benefits and deductions screen.
The description 'Earlier year's adjustment is displayed on the notice of coding. A note and the EYA calculation will be automatically included on the P2.
Current year's relief
If an allowance is due, give relief for the current year in the CY coding as 'Job expenses'.
Employer makes expenses payments to employee
You must find out if the expenses payments made by the employer will be included in the employee's taxable pay. This must be made quite clear to all employees concerned.
Flat rate expenses (FRE)
Many workers are obliged to spend small amounts of money each year in maintaining tools and special clothing that are necessary to carry out the duties of their employment.
To allow these small claims in an efficient and cost effective manner, HMRC has agreed national Flat Rate Expenses (FRE) with trade unions or other bodies. This avoids many separate claims and ensures uniformity of treatment for employees doing the same job. The customer also benefits from less paperwork as they are not required to keep a record of all the individual amounts they spend.
FRE are only permitted where an expense is necessarily incurred by an employee (see EIM32710). Section 367 ITEPA 2003 states FRE are intended to represent the average annual expenses incurred by employees on repair, maintenance and replacement of loose tools and special clothing.
You should deal with claims based on the information provided by the employee, subject to the industry and occupation being listed at EIM32712 or covered by EIM32485. No formal claim is necessary, therefore where the employee qualifies for FRE this should be awarded for CY, even where a specific claim has not been made. If you are able to confirm that the allowance is due for earlier years, you should calculate an EYA coding adjustment, as advised below.
Multiple claims for FRE
An employee is entitled to receive FRE for each qualifying employment held, where they are required to maintain tools or special clothing, unless the tools and special clothing required can be used for each employment.
As FRE includes amounts in respect of maintaining special clothing, an employee cannot receive FRE and also claim further expenses (EXP) under S336 for cleaning protective clothing or uniforms.
Dealing with a FRE claim
You should follow the guidance in the action guide tax40023, when dealing with a FRE claim.
Removing FRE from a tax code
When an employment ceases for which FRE was given
- CY - Leave the full amount of FRE in the tax code
Note: FRE should not be apportioned.
- CY+1 - Remove the FRE from IABD if the nature of employment has changed or cannot be determined in CY
- CY+1 - Leave FRE in the tax code if the nature of employment remains the same and / or there is an agreement noted on EBS, or, if it is covered in the Table of Agreed Amounts at EIM32712
Further guidance
For general guidance regarding FRE see EIM32700 onwards. For further guidance on the treatment of FRE for
- Healthcare workers see EIM66790
- Nurses see EIM67210
- Airline pilots see EIM50050
- Police officers see EIM68130
Form P87
If the customer asks for a P87 for an earlier year, you will need to issue the form manually.
A P87 will be issued automatically with a targeted review form where job expenses in an individual's code for CY-1 are more than £999 but below £2,501.
Do not issue Form P87 to employees who receive
- Refunds of expenses at cost
- Payments on a fixed scale
- It is accepted that these sums will never give rise to a benefit
Formula for EYA coding adjustments
Where the facts of the case determine that relief is due for earlier years for flat rate expenses, job expenses or professional subscriptions, relief can be included in the current year's tax code through the earlier year's adjustment. To work out the EYA the system will calculate the total amount of tax overpaid together with supplement for all years and then convert the figure to a coding adjustment. The coding adjustment is calculated by reference to the individual's rate of liability. Make the appropriate entries in the income, allowances, benefits and deductions section (PAYE130050).
Handling bulk requests
The guidance applies equally to requests made by individuals and those made by or on behalf of a group of employees. In each case the approach should be to give relief by way of coding adjustments covering all years involved or, if the individual opts for a repayment, through SA or by Informal Calculation.
Where a single request is received on behalf of a group of employees you will need to decide how best to handle this. Determine who is entitled to relief and for what years. The employer might agree to provide details of employees for whom the necessary conditions for relief are satisfied and the length of each person's service. They may also be able to help by telling employees how you will be dealing with the relief due.
The number of individual requests will be a factor in deciding how you will proceed. However, making a single repayment covering all individuals is not an option. Similarly, a repayment must not be made to a nominee on behalf of any individual without that person's signed authority.
There is an automatic process available to amend codes when you agree job expenses or FRE are due to a large number of employees of the same employer, possibly for earlier years as well as for CY. This is explained at PAYE12030.
Handling requests for expenses
You must bear in mind the following points when deciding how to deal with expenses
- Your approach should be consistent whether you are dealing with one employee or one of many in respect of the same workforce
- Notwithstanding the above point, all individual's still have their individual rights to identify specific circumstances which may have a bearing on their particular case and to pursue a point by way of appeal
- The PAYE system and end of year reviews tend to operate to the individual's advantage. Consequently, individual's will benefit more from coding adjustments than from end of year calculation of liability
- It is legally permissible to deal with an overpayment by coding out provided that the adjustment is clearly identified on the coding notice
- Where the individual asks for a repayment, the precise amount of the overpayment for earlier years should be established. Follow SA procedures for SA cases. For non-SA cases, enter the allowable job expenses in the income, allowances, benefits and deductions area for the relevant earlier years and end of year reconciliation will calculate the individual's liability for the relevant year(s)
Local government councillors
General advice on local government councillors is at EIM65920 onwards.
These employees may choose to have tax deducted at basic rate from either
- All the payments received
- The net amount after deducting relief for estimated expenses
Code BR should be used whichever method is chosen.
Ministers of Religion
For further guidance see 'Criteria for an SA record' at SAM100060.
Previous year's relief
To minimise the work involved, it is recommended that you
- Calculate the tax overpaid and the repayment supplement
- Convert the result into a coding adjustment, see 'Formula for EYA coding adjustments' above
However, if the individual exercises their right to opt for a repayment rather than a coding adjustment, repay SA cases using SA procedures and for non-SA cases enter the allowable job expenses in the income, allowances, benefits and deductions area for the relevant earlier years and end of year reconciliation will calculate the individual's liability for the relevant year(s).
Professional fees and subscriptions
Guidance on what you can allow is at EIM32880 onwards. Give relief on these payments as Professional subscriptions. List 3 shows the list of approved bodies and the allowable payments.
A professional body may apply for approval in one year and obtain it in a later year. Members may then claim relief for a past year. List 3 will tell you the first year of relief.
When this happens, an adjustment for earlier years can be included in the current year code using the description 'Earlier year's adjustment'.
However, if the individual exercises the right to opt for a repayment rather than a coding adjustment, repay SA cases using SA procedures and for non-SA cases enter the allowable job expenses in the income, allowances, benefits and deductions area for the relevant earlier years and end of year reconciliation will calculate the individual's liability for the relevant year(s).
Requests for expenses deductions to be removed from tax code
Where a tax agent or employee requests that no coding adjustment is made in respect of their client's / own expenses for current or future years, follow the guidance below. By agreeing to such a request in a case where expenses are continuing to be incurred it enables each year's actual expenses claim to generate a repayment. It is our business to ensure that we issue a tax code that will collect the right amount of tax and that we treat all taxpayers in a consistent manner.
When considering a request that no adjustment be made to a tax code in respect of expenses payments, it is necessary to remember that
- Section 685 ITEPA puts us under an obligation to secure, as far as possible, the correct amount of tax payable under PAYE in the tax year
- Regulation 14 of the Income Tax (Pay As You Earn) Regulations 2003 ('The PAYE Regulations') requires us, in determining a code, to take account of all relevant matters, so far as they are known to us, so that the obligation under section 685 is satisfied
The legislation does not permit us to agree to over deductions and cannot be disregarded just because an agent or employee wants us to. The whole purpose of establishing tax codes in PAYE is to enable the correct amount of tax to be deducted from the employee; the employee will have the benefit of paying less tax during the year.
Where in previous years expenses have been due year on year, there is an obligation to code out an estimated amount, provided it is a reasonable estimate and expenses continue to be incurred in the current year. The general consideration should be to look at the level of expenses claimed in earlier years and base the current year's expenses and deductions on that sum.
If the agent or employee is not happy with this the onus is on them to provide details of any change of circumstances to enable us to determine what the correct code should be. If they do provide such information indicating that expenses should not be included in the current year's code (for example they confirm that no expenses have been or will be incurred in the current tax year) the code should be amended to remove the expenses. Otherwise estimated expenses should not be removed from a code unless the employee or agent provides a valid reason why expenses should not be included.
If you cannot settle the matter by agreement you should write to the taxpayer setting out your decision, they have 30 days from the date you issue the decision letter within which to send you an appeal. Once they have appealed you may offer a review or the customer may request a review by HMRC. Alternatively, they may appeal to the First-tier Tribunal - see 'Appeals Review and Tribunals guidance' (ARTG) for more information about what to do if you receive an appeal.
Round sum allowances
As a rule, employers must include round sum expenses payments in taxable pay.
Specific expenditure reimbursed
Specific reimbursements of private expenditure, such as home to work travel expenses, should be included in taxable pay and PAYE should be applied.
Reimbursements of other expenses, (including payments at scale rates approved by HMRC), related to the employment should not be included in taxable pay for any employees, and PAYE should not be applied. Instead they should be returned on form P11D for directors and employees earning at the rate of £8,500 a year or more. The amounts returned can be coded out, after taking into account any relief due against the amounts under S336 ITEPA 2003.
Using own vehicle for work
Until 5 April 2002 employees are entitled to get a deduction for the actual costs that they incur in using their own vehicle for business travel. From 6 April 2002 employees can no longer get a deduction for their actual expenditure. Instead, employees are entitled to mileage allowance relief (MAR). Use the description 'job expenses' when giving relief in coding or an informal calculation.
EIM31205 gives an overview of the technical details of 'Using own vehicle for work'.
Washing 'company cars'
It is very unlikely that S336 would give relief for the cost of washing a company car. Although it may be specified in the car agreement with the employer that the employee keeps the car clean, that is usually a condition governing availability of the car and nothing to do with the objective requirements of the duties of the employment.
The general position can be contrasted with the situation of an individual employed as a chauffeur or car valet whose duties are more likely, on an objective analysis, to include keeping the car clean.
There is no reduction from the car benefit charge in respect of car cleaning costs paid by the employee. See EIM32400.
Although a deduction is not available to the employee for the cost of washing the company car, a benefit is not chargeable on the employee if the employer bears the actual cost of washing the car. That is because of specific exemptions (see EIM23005).


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In the past month or so, I've had two separate and drastically different movie-going experiences. The first, I went to see Suicide Squad the second week it was out. The second, I went and saw Kubo and the Two Strings with some friends of mine.
Now, let me make one thing abundantly clear. I am a DC fanboy through and through. I grew up watching Batman and Superman and I've read DC comics for as long as I can remember. I can go on and on about how much I love Batman, and the reasons why Nightwing is my favorite superhero, and why I have a polarizing love/hate relationship with Superman. I love the DC universe and everything about it, and I'm super stoked that DC Rebirth has been doing so well.
But the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) is a trash fire. I won't go into everything, because I could literally talk for hours about the travesty that Zack Snyder has created (I'm very opinionated if you haven't noticed), but let's just say that I've been burned by two DC movies this year: Batman v. Superman and Suicide Squad. The two movies suffer from different problems (BvS has too many to count), but one of the biggest things Suicide Squad suffered from was poor writing.
This poor writing manifested itself in a few ways. Namely confusing or non-existent character motivation and development, sloppy, awkward dialogue, and mischaracterization of characters who have very rich backgrounds that have been developed over 30+ years. The movie also suffers from producers getting too involved in the director's vision, but that's a different issue. I think that the actors (Margot Robbie in particular) did a pretty good job considering what they were given. But the plot was really convoluted and ultimately really didn't make sense. I did enjoy the movie at certain points, but it was ultimately really disappointing due to garbage writing.
Kubo, however, was a different story. Kubo was made by the same studio that made Coraline, ParaNorman, and The Boxtrolls. Kubo is one of the best movies I've seen in theaters in the past few years. Kubo is beautifully animated, and has one of the most archetypal "hero's journey" stories that I have ever seen. It follows the hero's journey beat-for-beat, while creating compelling examples of the meaning of family, the importance of storytelling, and the pain of loss. The story, while fairly predictable, is beautifully written, the characters are authentic and well-developed within the short run time of the film, and I was still pondering the movie's thought-provoking themes hours after I'd left the theater.
Now. Here are some numbers for you.
Suicide Squad released on August 6 in the US, and was made with a budget of $175 million. As of today, it's made $640 million in the box office. It has a 27% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 67% user rating.
Kubo and the Two Strings released on August 19 in the US, and was made with a budget of $60 million. As of today, it's made $30.5 million in the box office. It has a 97% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an 88% user rating.
There are definitely some things that factor into this. Kubo appeals primarily to families with children, while Suicide Squad appeals to a significantly wider audience, especially millennials, who are currently the largest living generation in the US.* Suicide Squad is also the third movie within the DCEU, and was preceded by Man of Steel and BvS, so the anticipation was high (and much of the advertising for this movie was driven by the Joker, who ended up being in the movie for about 10 minutes). Many people thought this could be DC's chance to get back in the game for movies after Marvel's success…And they suuuuuper blew it.
All this to say, I have problems with this reality. And questions.
Why do bad movies make so much money?
Why do good movies, even if they're children's movies, sometimes hardly make any money?
Why do people keep pumping money into movies that are bad? And do the people making these movies seriously not know the movie's bad before they release it?
Why do people spend so much time and energy perpetuating bad storytelling, while good storytelling gets left by the wayside?
As always, I'm not an expert in this area. I don't claim to be. I might end up making claims and saying things that don't make sense in the "real world." And this is kind of a rant that I'm just word vomiting onto a page and then posting. I'm completely open to comments and discussion. But this is incredibly frustrating.
Much of this is based around advertising. Suicide Squad had a pretty good advertising campaign, and many early trailers got me excited for the movie. Our culture is also really into the interconnected movie universe thing right now. Which, as much as I love the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they've created something unique that has cursed much of the rest of modern cinema. Everyone tries to create movies that connect to something else, and it all ends up being ridiculously complicated. Oftentimes they don't even tell a full story within a single movie, as the movie is basically being used to set up a sequel. When people are focused on the property they're setting up, the writing of the current story suffers. People also are really focused on trying to write these intricate, complex stories with some sort of twist ending, and then they end up not recognizing the numerous gaping plotholes and faulty character motivations they've created. So many movies are created to make money, rather than to create art that can be appreciated for its intrinsic value. Nowadays many movies don't have much intrinsic value. Superhero movies, as much as I love them, are starting to become a disease.
And here's my point here.
Write. Something. Good.
So much of modern cinema is about pandering to the culture in order to make the money that they put into the movie back and set up the next movie they have planned. But I would venture to say that many of these movies that have come out in recent years will be completely forgotten in around twenty years. The most well-remembered, culturally relevant and impactful movies that end up having a lasting impact are often the most well-written. They have authentic, realistic characters and an interesting story that doesn't obviously contradict itself. And, and this is one of the most important elements to me, they say something. And they say something compelling. That's why I love Kubo so much. It's a beautiful movie with interesting characters, a simple, easy-to-follow story, and it conveyed several important, compelling messages.
Let me make something else clear: I'm not opposed to complex stories. One of my favorite stories I've ever encountered is the Zero Escape series of video games, which (in my opinion) is one of the most convoluted, confusing stories ever written. Over the course of three games, it takes the time to explain to you all of the different confusing aspects and how they all interconnect to make one story. But what I love about it is that it also has interesting, well-developed characters, and has a fascinating commentary on the importance of decision making, questions reality, plays off probability and chance, and asks questions about the Many-Worlds Theory. I've spent hours playing these games, and many more hours thinking about all of the different questions and arguments it poses.
Please stop making art that panders to the culture and then fails to say anything at all. Or just stop writing garbage. There's something to be said for a simple hero's journey that doesn't confuse your audience and has a clear message. Not everything has to be a big spectacle. In this culture we live in, it's unfortunately possible that your art may not be successful if it's not a big spectacle. But if it's inherently bad, it definitely won't be. Please, just write something good.


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Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Dear Blog Readers
63 comments:
- betsy (pharmgirl) said...
the best to you Pam! you've got mail!
- March 9, 2011 at 2:26 PM
- Lindy said...
Pamela....I have been thinking about you; and wondering if you were OK. You have been missed but you need to take care of yourself and your family. BTW....you won a challenge on the Prima Blog. WTG Girl.
{{{{Hugs}}}} to you....Lindy
- March 9, 2011 at 2:32 PM
- April said...
Oh Pamela, I'm so sorry to hear that things have been so hard lately. I truly hope that everything is ok. Please don't apologize for not posting...everyone should understand that life happens. Huge hugs coming your way and don't worry...we'll be here when you get back. :)
- April
P.S. I saw that you won something on the Prima blog today and you only have 7 days to claim your prize. I just thought I'd mention it in case you don't want to miss out...
- March 9, 2011 at 2:36 PM
- Larisa said...
pamela, I wish you all the best! Of course, the kids are the main for any woman. I am thinking of you very often. Good luck!
hugs. Larisa. xx
- March 9, 2011 at 3:01 PM
- Catherine said...
You are so sweet to even think about us when you are going through "it" (whatever that may be). You are leaning on God and He will never fail you...you have been added to my prayer list my friend.
- March 9, 2011 at 3:03 PM
- Lynn said...
hugs and prayers for you.
- March 9, 2011 at 3:15 PM
- connie said...
I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers.
- March 9, 2011 at 3:18 PM
- Kelly Massman said...
Best wishes...
- March 9, 2011 at 3:33 PM
- NoraAnne said...
Pam, I'm so sorry to hear you are going through a difficult time. I wish the best for you and your family and hope that you are doing better soon.
I look forward to you getting back to posting but take care of yourself and your family first :)
Hugs, Nora Anne
- March 9, 2011 at 3:52 PM
- Jingle said...
Pam, I am praying for you right now!
- March 9, 2011 at 3:57 PM
- Lauri said...
So sorry to hear. I hope everything resolves itself and I look forward to your return! God bless you and your family.
- March 9, 2011 at 4:03 PM
- Amber Branconier said...
Praying for you.
- March 9, 2011 at 4:05 PM
- Amber Rose said...
Best wishes! Don't worry about us over here, we'll be here when you're ready to jump back in :)
- March 9, 2011 at 4:44 PM
- Melissa said...
{{{HUGS}}} and strength to you for whatever it is you are going through!
- March 9, 2011 at 4:49 PM
- Kim said...
{{{HUGS!}}}} Will be here when you come back for sure...prayers are coming your way!
- March 9, 2011 at 5:00 PM
- Shannon said...
Sending my hugs to you and your children. Take care of what's important - your hobbies and readers will be here when you return :)
- March 9, 2011 at 5:12 PM
- patti west said...
We all go through hard times, Pamela! You are not alone. {{{hugs!}}}
- March 9, 2011 at 5:16 PM
- Noelle Reese said...
You take care of yourself and enjoy those kiddos! I'll be praying for you!
- March 9, 2011 at 5:27 PM
- cindy said...
Sorry to hear you are having a hard time right now. Let God and let go.
- March 9, 2011 at 5:31 PM
- Melissa Elsner said...
Praying for you Pamela and your family. These seasons feel crummy to go through but I just view them as times that God is refining and molding. And then I find songs like Held by Natalie Grant that make me weep and know that He is in control and definitely has the strength... more than I'll ever be able to comprehend! Come back slowly and we'll miss you in the meantime. :)
- March 9, 2011 at 6:26 PM
- salme said...
You are always in my prayers!
- March 9, 2011 at 7:21 PM
- Jess said...
I hope everything works out for the best...I will say a prayer! {hugs}
- March 9, 2011 at 8:30 PM
- Laurel said...
Best wishes, you take care of yourself first!
- March 9, 2011 at 9:29 PM
- Lisa said...
Thinking of you and sending you hugs and prayers! Take care of yourself and know we're here for you!
- March 9, 2011 at 9:32 PM
- Jackie said...
You ARE in my prayers!
- March 9, 2011 at 9:32 PM
- Savannah O'Gwynn said...
I'm so sorry to hear about this Pamela! I will be praying--God is good and HEALS:) Blessings to you!! Take your time on coming back:)
- March 9, 2011 at 11:04 PM
- Jolanda said...
Thinking of you a lot!!Know you will be fine!
Take your time.
Wishing strenth and wisdom!
- March 10, 2011 at 12:43 AM
- Angie Blom said...
Oh, I am saying prayers for you and your family! Just know that we all love and adore you and wish you all the peace of mind.. take this time for your most precious family. Blessings sweet girl! Xx
- March 10, 2011 at 1:29 AM
- Jocelyn said...
I am so sorry that you have been going through so much!!!! Keep your Faith...God is with you.....I will hold you close to my heart and keep you in constant prayer!!
Take your time and take care of your family!!!
- March 10, 2011 at 6:51 AM
- Diane said...
So sorry! Remember I Peter 5:7
Casting all our cares upon Him, for He careth for us!! Lifting you up in prayer.
- March 10, 2011 at 7:59 AM
- anazelia said...
sending you my prayers to you. I hope you continue to find your way back to your passions. and that all of gods plans will comfort you.
- March 10, 2011 at 8:13 AM
- Erin said...
So sorry to read this... hang in there and talk to close friends. Prayers for you and your family.
- March 10, 2011 at 9:21 AM
- Casey Wright said...
Awe - you poor thing! My thoughts are with you - take care...
- March 10, 2011 at 1:22 PM
- Angela said...
tons of love.
- March 10, 2011 at 3:33 PM
- Guiseppa said...
Oh Pamela...I hope things get better for you. I have been thinking a lot about you lately. My prayers are with you!
- March 10, 2011 at 7:18 PM
- Patricia said...
Pamela, whatever you are going through I am sure that you will get through it. You are a strong woman! I wish the best for you and that things work out.
- March 10, 2011 at 7:25 PM
- Zoey and the furballs (the Zoo Crew) said...
I hope that whatever you are going through that the love and the support shown to you by your followers in the comments here gives you strength. No matter what challenges you face, He is there for you too, often in ways you may never even realize. God bless, take care and I'll still be here to read your blog when you are ready.
- March 10, 2011 at 11:28 PM
- alison290 said...
Pamela,I hope whatever you are dealing with gets easier....hugs and prayers from Spain xx
- March 11, 2011 at 5:10 PM
- Natalie said...
But you rock too - don't forget that :)
Sending you love and huggles from england xoxox
- March 11, 2011 at 5:28 PM
- Sabrina Mix said...
Hope you get well soon, Pam!
- March 11, 2011 at 7:01 PM
- Shemaine Smith said...
Sending you hugs and prayers Pamela. I am sorry you are going thru some tough times.
- March 14, 2011 at 2:59 AM
- kellystar said...
Prayers, hugs, and strength. We'll all be here when you are ready.
- March 14, 2011 at 11:47 AM
- kellystar said...
- This comment has been removed by the author.
- March 14, 2011 at 11:48 AM
- Keshet said...
Oh Pam, I'm so sorry to hear this! I hope everything gets better soon.
- March 15, 2011 at 8:57 PM
- GLOANN said...
Sorry you've been going through a bad time, but I'm happy to see you're bouncing back. I have checked in often and wondered what was wrong. HE is the best for bringing you through!
- March 16, 2011 at 12:13 PM
- Lisa C. said...
Pam - I'm so sorry you're going through a difficult time. I'll keep you in my thoughts and prayers.
- March 16, 2011 at 11:02 PM
- Ilene said...
HUGS!!! Please know that my thoughts are with you and I'm wishing you all the best and the strength to get through whatever it is you're going through.
- March 17, 2011 at 3:43 PM
- Jolanda said...
still thinking of you Pamela,and hope you will be fine!!
- March 18, 2011 at 6:40 AM
- Becky Andersen said...
Pamela...will keep you in my prayers! Hugs to you!
- March 20, 2011 at 3:54 AM
- Carmen said...
Dear Pam, I'm sure that with God's help you will find your strenght to go through this.
- March 20, 2011 at 12:51 PM
- Denise said...
Sorry you are having such a hard time girl. My heart goes out to you. I hope that things get better with time and lots of love from your babes.
- March 22, 2011 at 9:32 PM
- jennifer mitten said...
We are all thinking of you and wishing you all the best!
- March 24, 2011 at 8:27 PM
- sharon g said...
I don't know you, but I'll be praying for you....
- March 24, 2011 at 10:09 PM
- Scrapbook Studio said...
Hi Pamela. Well, I see you are still MIA.........sometimes it is a good thing. God is faithful and remember that nowhere does it say in the Bible that we will be free of troubles here on earth. Compromise on everything, except your faith. HE never gives us more than He knows we can handle - even if we think we can't. You are in my prayers.xxxxx
- March 25, 2011 at 1:26 PM
- Patricia Folchert said...
Happy to hear you are doing alright, we miss you. I've been praying for you and your family.
God will see you through, continue to trust in that.
Hugs & more prayers
- March 26, 2011 at 9:57 PM
- Janneke Smit said...
I am so sorry to hear this :( Many hugs and happy thoughts.
- March 28, 2011 at 3:14 PM
- Renee' Morris-Dezember said...
Pamela I hope you are alright...stay strong...and God will hold your hand and help you fight through whatever it is you are dealing with... <>
- March 29, 2011 at 8:06 PM
- Angie said...
Pamela -- hang in there -- I went through a time late last year that was hard for me as well. I'm so glad to see that you are relying on God for help and strength! Hugs!
- March 30, 2011 at 9:47 AM
- Nicolle Kramer said...
So sorry you are having a hard time, but glad you are mending. We all miss you over at SC....see you soon..:)
- March 30, 2011 at 11:01 AM
- Tracey Taylor said...
I had to stop by and let you know I've missed you and been thinking about you. big hugs.
- March 31, 2011 at 4:39 PM
- KellyG said...
Oh Pam, hope things are getting better! Enjoy the extra time with your kids! Hope you are back soon!
- April 2, 2011 at 9:39 PM
- Amy said...
Pam - still thinking about and praying for you and whatever it is you're going through. Isaiah 43:1-5 are encouraging to me - maybe they'll lift you up as well :)
- April 5, 2011 at 11:02 PM
- Bonita Rose said...
Praying for you.
God is always near.. even when the tears keep coming.. xo love to you
- April 7, 2011 at 11:17 AM


text:
NEW YORK — Classic and covetable clothes are what American designers are hoping will battle the economic downturn next season and put women back in a buying mood. And that's exactly what Seventh Avenue stalwart Michael Kors delivered in his strong yet safe collection for fall. That meant basics like a charcoal pinstripe pantsuit, cut out around the shoulders to reveal the collarbone (the fall season's new erogenous zone); a black satin evening sheath with molded and folded origami sleeves creating a new power shoulder; and easy, "I will own it forever" draped black-sequin dresses.
Recession? That's not in Kors' jet-setting vocabulary, judging from the outrageously luxe shredded fox-fur coats, which came in the more sober shades of black and "blond," as well as safety-cone orange and neon pink for those who don't mind throwing caution to the wind and advertising that they still have money to spend. Combined with camel, charcoal and black, the "Project Runway" judge's dashes of the fluorescent followed fall's '80s sportswear revival.
Narciso Rodriguez went there too. It's been quite an eventful few months for the designer, splitting with his corporate partner Liz Claiborne in October and dressing Michelle Obama in the black-and-red dress she wore on election night in November.


text:
Dealing with Oracle is becoming like negotiating an arms deal with the USSR. "What's mine is mine, what's yours is negotiable." I wonder what Oracle's plan B is?
The tit-for-tat between Oracle and Itanium chip partners Intel and Hewlett-Packard rolls on. Oracle has released a statement saying that contrary to claims from Intel and HP, its decision to halt Itanium software development is not putting enterprises and governments at risk. "Just the opposite is true," Oracle said with its …
This is not about vanity or revenge.
This is about HP firing the person who knows the true future of Itanium and that person is now the president of Oracle.
Oracle has no plans to support the next chip which will have ZERO per core performance increase and does not have a future. There is no reason to support Poulson when Kittson is nothing more than a minor speed bump.
I hear HP is not even going to have a follow on to the SX3000 chipset so all the QPI speed increases for Poulson wont even show up in the Superdome2.
Unfortunately HP customers pay for Mark Hurds R&D cuts...and now have to pay for Mark Hurds Oracle software cuts because of his HP hardware cuts.
This also shows you that Oracle has no intention of doing the same to IBM's Power chip as it is growing, has a long future and is the real only alternative to Nehalem....well unless the T chip can survive long enough to run databasts
"....he next chip which will have ZERO per core performance increase...." Strange, so you've benchmarked a chip that isn't even out yet? Do you have a timetravel machine? 'Cos if not, you're just talking out of your rectum. Poulsen will be a die shrink to 32nm, so just that alone hints at better performance. Then there's the doubling of the number of cores per CPU, which will mean twice as many cores per socket in the same servers customers buy today. Then, unlike IBM (who just concentrate on cranking up the core clock without sorting the bottlenecks in the rest of the chip), Intel will have added even larger cache (54MB, waaaaay more than Pee7, and probably more than Pee8) and mutlithreading and parallelisation tweaks. All of which points to a good performance boost. Maybe you should try reading up on what Intel plans before your next post.
"....I hear HP is not even going to have a follow on to the SX3000 chipset...." Really, from whom? Not Intel or hp, I wager. Don't tell me, you heard a voice telling you this whilst you were riding on your timemachine, no?
"....This also shows you that Oracle has no intention of doing the same to IBM's Power chip...." And what exactly is to stop Larry doing the same to Power? After all, he sells more Oracle licenses on Integrity than he does on Power, so surely it would hurt him all the less to do the same to Power.
"....This also shows you that Oracle has no intention of doing the same to IBM's Power chip...." And what exactly is to stop Larry doing the same to Power? After all, he sells more Oracle licenses on Integrity than he does on Power, so surely it would hurt him all the less to do the same to Power.
Doh: DB2.
Oracle already frightened many customers into IBM's hands at their buyout of Sun. If they don't commit to Oracle on Power customers will simply migrate to DB2. Why would they change their Power platform because Oracle is no longer supported on it? There's a lower business risk just changing one component, and if that means everything is IBM then it's single point of contact, to boot (one supplier to kick).
It's a self-fulfilling prophecy:
1. Larry Ellison and Oracle believe Intel and HP are going to stop development on Itanium and get out of that market.
2. Larry Ellison and Oracle drop Itanium as a supported platform.
3. Having lost 25% to 40% of its Itanium customer base, further development of Itanium by Intel and HP is no longer profitable.
4. Intel and HP stop development on Itanium and get out of that market.
5. Larry Ellison looks like a genius prognosticator, and Oracle profits handsomely by finding a home for dislocated Itanium-hosted, Oracle-based apps on Oracle hardware.
So Intel and HP will end up being "liars" in the end, but not by choice.
Reminds me of that game Martin (Robert Redford) and Cosmo (Ben Kingsley) used to play, as depicted in the movie "Sneakers":
-- -- Cosmo: Posit: people think a bank might be financially shaky.
-- -- Bishop: Consequence: people start to withdraw their money.
-- -- Cosmo: Result: pretty soon it is financially shaky.
-- -- Bishop: Conclusion: you can make banks fail.
-- -- Cosmo: Bzzt. I've already done that. Maybe you've heard about a few? Think bigger.
-- -- Bishop: Stock market?
-- -- Cosmo: Yes.
-- -- Bishop: Currency market?
-- -- Cosmo: Yes.
-- -- Bishop: Commodities market?
-- -- Cosmo: Yes.
-- -- Bishop: Small countries?
-- -- Cosmo: With luck, I might even be able to crash the whole damned system...
And that's a shame, because Itanium, while definitely not a "household name" as far as server processors go, was finally starting to grow some real legs...
Your chain of events may match what Larry has in his head but in reality in step 5 people will go to x86_64 or elsewhere instead of slow as molasses POS garbage architecture that is SPARC. Still Larry at the minimum hopes to kill off a competitors platform that is costing him $ to support.
The article says " Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 already does not run on Itanium and whatever follows Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 to market won't either."
That's not really relevant.
Did the author miss the point that Microsoft dropped Windows support of IBM's Power chips years ago, back in the early NT days? I don't think they ever supported SPARC. I believe Red Hat dropped SPARC support in 2000. Those events didn't exactly spell instant doom for either of those architectures, or cause Oracle to drop support for them. Implying that HP's systems don't have software developer support because Microsoft and Red Hat dropped them is a misdirection. Non-support from outside OS vendors, declining market share, etc are much more valid criticisms of SPARC at this point than of Itanium. Look at how many large businesses run SAP on HP-UX, for instance. there's plenty of support out there. This is an attempt by Oracle to shore up falling hardware sales.
Go and sit on the naughty step.
Oracle you really should take a leaf out of IBM's manual. The like you sell Hardware that runs Unix. Do they throw their toys out of the pram when a customer wants to run DB2 on another hardware platform? No they don't.
This is Oracle's, sorrt Mr L Ellison's Vanity pure & simple.
That doesn't mean anything; it is only very recently that Oracle themselves have started supporting Solaris x86/x64 properly, it used to lag so far behind the SPARC version for feature releases and bugfixes that no-one would ever gamble their business on it.
I'd go so far as to say Red Hat's entire business is based on exploiting this issue, since they were for a long time the only viable way to run Oracle on commodity hardware.
Wouldn't surprise me if IBM decided to join the party and yank DB2 from Itanic just to stir things up even more so that they can mop up all the customers from the sinking ship. Probably more profitable in the long run rather than pouring gobs of money into further developing DB2 for a dead platform with such a small market share. Probably what Oracle were thinking.
In an article posted at this site by Dan Olds of Gabriel Consulting, Mr. Gabriel correctly states that "Oracle .... has reinforced its reputation as the North Korea of the server business … only without the charisma and cool Texaco flag."
Dan Gabriel is spot on in his analysis of the situation, and I encourage all to read the entire article.
I believe that Larry and Mark will soon rue the day they made this heinous and utterly childish decision.
... is that as a customer of "Oracle" ... ie. Sun ... is that all this power play has nothing for the customer. It only makes our lives pathetically painful by having to move from one system to another, simply because Ellison wants to crush HP and wreck a perfectly reasonable chip technology.
As a customer, this power play, supplier toy-throwing-out-of-pram means that when it comes time to switch server for our major database systems, it darn well won't be Oracle that we stay with. Heck, we're only in to them for the Sun hardware and Solaris ... our databases are Ingres !!!
We want a supplier who supports us and moves with what we, as a customer, want and need. We're here to ensure that we get systems that provide value for money ... and the moment a supplier looses sigh of this, they're history.
Ellison ... when you're inherited kit gets wheeled out the door in about a year or twos time, I'll be breathing a sigh of relief.
What on earth makes you think there is any real personality type difference between those who thrive in capitalist and authoritarian regimes? Generally speaking, it requires a degree of ruthlessness and enormous ambition to do either. It's no accident that the hugely rich Russian oligarchs were also the ones that were well represented under old regime. Also the matter of egos can't be missed out - it's no coincidence that rows and break-ups get dirtier the higher up the management chain.
However, that's not the point here - quite apart from the commercial matters involved here (and this move certainly undermines competition), it's a real slap in the face for a lot of big companies running big-iron HP-UX. It's hugely disruptive and expensive to migrate very large databases on mission critical systems. Oracle will not have pleased many of their big customers with this move.
everything is capital
some people prefer to trade money, or assets that can be valued in terms of money, and some people prefer to trade in less liquid things, like personality, ideas, reputation and plain old force of will and often there's a mix of everything involved.
When oracle can beat this I will be worried by the deal... Has anyone tried to beat the real database test with the 40 tables instead of the 8 they are falling over themselves to beat from 1992? Lets be Men Mr Ellison, give your best shot and stop hiding in your boat...
If Oracle didn't own Sun, none of these conspiracy articles would be popping up on the internet. Everyone but Matt B and his followers see the writing on the wall. Itanic is going away. If Oracle could make money on it, they'd stay on board. Like most companies, they like to make money. If Oracle was doing it for their own server sales, it would be after they released the T4 or next Sun/Fujitsu CPU. Not now. It's purely about making money off their investment of developing and supporting code on Itanic and they found it lacking. Pure and simple.
The current version of DB2 from IBM, version 9.7, still supports the Itanium, at least running HP-UX. However, while version 9.1 also supported the Itanium running Linux, that was dropped by version 9.5 at least.
If Oracle was the last major company to support the Itanium, then, I guess that IBM isn't a major company. That will come as news to many there.
But I am a long time *NIX fanboi. And the move by Oracle is bad for us, "The Client's". This will mean less competition and it will also force a lot of clients to do migration (Ok we'll make money on that one), but this messes things up quite a bit. So I think it's a bad move for us clients.
As for the timing, then this announcement has really no effect right now, but it'll be more of a snowball running down a snow filled hill, it'll gain momentum in the years to come. Hence the timing by Oracle is just right.
// jesper
Tim, as a respected industry journalist, can you tell me who the biggest selling vendors of servers are? By volume, by value, whatever? Does Proliant come in the top two or three still? How much bigger in volume and value is Proliant than IA64? So whenever (not if) IA64 rides off into the sunset, HP are still well positioned as a server vendor (if, that is, any of their potential customers still trust them - and many would sympathise if they didn't).
How big is the biggest current Proliant in terms of memory and processors, Tim? How does that compare with high end Integrity?
Look at the hardware capabilities of x86-64 in high end Proliant and it becomes obvious that folks buying Integrity are, with a few exceptions, buying it *despite* IA64 not because of IA64, They're buying it because of investments in and capabilities of HP-UX, Non-Stop Kernel, and VMS. The exceptions are those folks who want more memory and more processors than you can get in a single Proliant 580series (32 cores and 1TB with Intel, or 48 cores and 512MB with AMD. Not quite in Superdome class yet, but how many people need that much?)
From recent coverage it seems as though NSK and VMS no longer exist as far as Big Iron HP are concerned, but they do, and from an outsider's point of view a port to x86-64 on a qualified relevant subset of the Proliant range would 'just' be another porting exercise - NSK and VMS have both already been through changes of chip architecture. Such a port would probably be welcomed by the customer base as x86-64 is not under the control of any one vendor and is not going away in the near future. Whether such a port would be welcomed by Big Iron HP, or even practical given the state of HP Engineering ("HP Invent"?), is a different question.
HP-UX is just another UNIX and there are plenty of those around. One less than there should be though; Compaq and Big Iron HP did once upon a time promise to port Tru64 beyond Alpha.
VMS and NSK, however, are still each unique in the industry. Some folks are willing to pay a lot for what these OSes offer. Are Big Iron HP willing to ignore these folks completely? It would be a shame (but not a complete surprise) if they were; I'm sure IBM won't mind their business.
Hurd's role in this looks to be potentially interesting too.
Where *is* Matt Bryant these days?
Correction: The high end Proliant based on Intel x86-64 is now the DL980 G7, 64 cores and 2TB. Still waiting Tim's, Matt's (or anyone's) input on the high end Superdome in comparison.
And be careful with the HP Big Iron guff about RAS (reliability, availability, serviceability) on IA64 being better too; unless they can come up with specific documented examples, it's just hot air and handwaving.
The Superdome 2 (which is based on a modified form of the C7000 blade chassis used on Proliant) currently scales to 128 cores (256 threads) and 4TB. It has 32 sockets each capable of carrying a 4 core CPU.
However, I'd certainly agree it isn't going to be in the same price/performance area as a BL980 G7, but the issue for many users of big iron equipment like this is stability and ease of migration. Moving a 10-20TB Oracle DB from HP-UX to OEL is no minor thing, especially if the migration has to be done with only a few hours of downtime and be reversible if it goes wrong.
Speaking from a company that has a huge amount of Integrity, Proliant and Solaris hardware, then the RAS characteristics of the former have undoubtedly been better than the x86/x64 architecture machines, although the latter is improving through the generations. One issue about very large configurations is that RAS characteristics have to improve as, with many times the components, there are proportionately more things to go wrong. Even things like Oracle RAC won't resolve all those issues as node failures can still leave to brown-outs with stale cache and so on.
Of course big iron will turn into more and more of a niche, but for some companies the cost of the hardware is sometimes only a modest part of the entire system cost. Stability is often what matters most.
The DL980 actually borrows technology from the Superdome 2. DL980 doesn't use the "glueless" design of the DL580 or non-HP 4-socket designs. HP found that at 8 sockets, the cache management traffic on the Nehalem Quick Path Interconnects (QPI) consumed a very large part of available bandwidth. They used the XNC (crossbar node controller) ASIC from SD2 in order fix this. The DL980 isolates CPU into 2-socket "islands" that are interconnected via XNCs. The XNCs provide enhanced cache management and fault isolation. That results in much better scalability in the 8 socket system when compared to 8 socket Nehalem designs from other suppliers (including Sun/Oracle and IBM).
The SD2 still has many advantages in RAS, scalability, and flexibilty. It can support massive I/O. There are a couple of 10Gb/s NICs built into each base blade (8 base blades per chassis). The design supports up to 96 PCIe slots in 8 chassis; the number of slots is not directly dependent upun CPU. The system can be hard-partitioned on cell blade boundaries, and it is possible to remove a blade from service, power it down, and do maintenence without impacting other partitions. X86/X64 systems at present can't do that kind of thing.
The Itanium processor provides for other RAS features. For instance, there is advanced ECC on PCI I/O paths. You don't get that in Linux hardware, either. Ever see a multi- terrabyte database trashed by corrupted I/O? I have.
As far as market position, do a little bit of search. It will surprise you. HP is the largest tech company in the world in both revenue and number of systems sold. Bigger than IBM, and FAR bigger than Sun. Most of the volume comes from Proliant, but Itanium outsold SPARC in the last quarter of last year. They're number 2 in the overall UNIX market, but last I checked they had the #1 slot in large UNIX systems. HP-UX owns a HUGE percentage of the high-end SAP market. In fact, SAP runs their internal systems on HP Itanium running DB2. On the X86/X64 side, HP dominates that market.
Proliant has held the #1 spot in X86/x64 servers for something like 11 years. And HP owns over 50% of the worldwide blade market.
HP is the biggest dog in the server market. I would hazzard a guess that they won't just walk away from this. It's going to be interesting to watch.
Thank you both.
That paints a picture consistent with what I think see; Proliant is more than acceptable to most of the server market, indeed it is the leader, and outside the chip socket and ignoring the organisational structures within HP, the high end Proliant hardware is increasingly converging with the Superdome hardware.
More everything in Superdome than Proliant, but for how long, and (relatedly) how many paying customers care? There may still be an odd few details to separate them but is it fair to say the hardware advantages of Itanium are decreasing? PCI ECC? An excellent idea, but surely with PCI now connected via QPI on both x86-64 and IA64, there's no fundamental difference? Or is this a QPI feature not yet implemented on x86-64?
Is it also fair to say that the distinction between the two families, in general, is in the OS and associated software ? And that the software in question and the IA64 hardware in question both come from HP's Business Critical Systems? Which HP stovepipe owns Proliant? BCS, or elsewhere?
My home ground OS a few years ago was VMS, though I reluctantly moved on and did a bit of chip/system level stuff before moving on again. On VMS, if you had an interesting business-affecting problem, the in-depth tools and infrastructure (and skilled people) were there to help sort it. Performance monitoring, error logging, crash dump and analysis tools, internals and data structures documentation and expertise, the lot. They may not always be prettified and pointyclicky tools (or experts) but they do what's necessary to maximise availability and keep downtime to a minimum. I assume the same goes for HP-UX and NSK. Wannabee OSes like Linux and Windows, the stuff that runs on Proliants, are toys in comparison, even though the underlying hardware is afaict more than capable of providing excellent RAS.
Steven feels that his Proliants aren't as robust as his Integrity systems. But is that down to hardware or software or a bit of both? If HP were to put a serious OS on today's high end Proliants (and a few mid range ones too)... then what? And the converse, if/when that doesn't happen, will those customers left high and dry ever buy anything from HP again (Proliants and printers and services included)? If they don't ever buy HP again, will HP even notice?
"It's going to be interesting to watch"


text: Todd Hewitt has never known quiet. Growing up on an alien planet where thoughts are broadcast and animals speak, 12-year-old Todd is the last boy in a town of men. He quickly goes from outcast to target after finding two surprises in Prentisstown's swamp: a wrecked colony spaceship and Viola, the first girl he has ever seen. In fleeing Prentisstown, Todd and Viola discover its ugly history and terrifying plans. Uneven pacing and an unbelievable premise hobble this work, Ness's first attempt at YA fiction. Events pile up and then freeze while Todd addresses an emotional crisis. Viola's page presence is so weak as to be forgettable, though Manchee, Todd's loyal dog, will grow on readers as the narrative progresses. Ness's attempt to develop Todd's character by including colloquialisms in nearly every aspect of the narrative only succeeds in driving readers out of the tale. Attempting to address adolescent angst, information overload and war, Ness ends up delivering merely noise. (Science fiction. YA)


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Heather Gray Infinity Scarf
Heather Gray Infinity Scarf
This product is unavailable
When you purchase this heather gray infinity scarf, you are helping a good cause. With every scarf you purchase, Soulscarf will donate 20% of the proceeds to the charity that corresponds with the color heart on your tag.
Product Description: Heather Gray infinity hand-knitted scarf
Material: 30% wool, 70% acrylic
Length: 67in.
Width: 9in.
Washing Instructions: Hand wash max 86 degrees. Do not bleach. Iron on low. Do not dry clean. Do not tumble dry. Stretch into shape and dry flat. Imported.


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Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Now in Print
Because He Needs Me/ Lynn Granville/ Leap of Faith publishing
This book is in ebook at kindle, Barnes and Noble in Nook and Are as well as Leap of Faith's own website and various other outlets. It will show up in print at amazon and other outlets soon.
This is a new publishing house and its books are bright and vibrant.
Posted by Linda Sole at 09:24
1 comment:
- Lindsay Townsend said...
Congratulations, Lynn, on the print version of BECAUSE HE NEEDS ME!
I have this on kindle and am looking forward to reading it, once I can grab the kindle back off my hubby.
- 28 September 2011 at 15:00
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The three area football teams will have to get used to life on the road for the 2011 season.
Because of the ongoing renovation of Memorial Field, Burroughs, Burbank and Bellarmine-Jefferson highs — which all use the venue as their home field — will have to play all of their games on the road this season.
For the Indians and Bulldogs, that means they will have no home games. Even the annual Big Game cross-town rivalry contest will be played on the road Nov. 11 at Arcadia High.


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Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) is ready to go to Mars... almost.
On Monday, Lockheed announced that it has delivered the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft to NASA's Kennedy Space Center for pre-launch testing. MAVEN will be "the first [space mission] dedicated to surveying the upper atmosphere of Mars in an effort to understand the role that the loss of atmospheric gas to space played in changing the Martian climate," according to Lockheed.
The company won the $485 million contract to build MAVEN back in 2008. In 2010, NASA awarded a $187 million to Lockheed Martin and its partner Boeing (NYSE:BA), doing business as the United Launch Alliance joint venture, to launch MAVEN on its way to Mars.
The 1,784-pound MAVEN is scheduled to launch in November. Between now and then, the orbiter will undergo three-and-a-half months of pre-launch testing.
Fool contributor Rich Smith has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Lockheed Martin. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.


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Killers, revolutionaries, big business, kids, family, God. Romantic subterfuge. Betrayal. Bounty hunters. People trapped in a subterranean world. Set upon by lethal, remote controlled toys. Scary as hell. Frenetic. Heroic. Funny. Tragic. Sci-fi horror. A game called Subterano.
Actor: Alex Dimitriades, Tasma Walton, Alison Whyte, Kate Sherman, Jason Stojanovski, Chris Haywood, John Clayton, Anne Tenney, Scott Swalwell, Michael Saunders, Veronica Segura, Troy Planet, Shane Briant, Christian Marchington, Alyssa-Jane Cook
Director: Esben Storm (as Mort S. Seben)


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Ten Straight Forward Principles of Leadership and Living
Darrel L. Hammon
Have you wondered how to sift through all of the leadership material printed to discover the basics of leadership? Here are ten straight forward principles of leadership and living to help guide you.
For the past several years, we have been continuously confronted with the phrase: "You need to learn leadership skills." Or "Take a Leadership class." And then when we research what it means to be a leader, we encounter numerous books and articles about what a leader is or should be. I have personally discovered that following ten "Principles of Leadership and Living" encompass the majority of the leadership skills that we all seek.
Principle #1: Be kind, gracious, and compassionate. In our society today, it seems that kindness has somehow seeped out of our lives. We are way too hard on each other and especially ourselves. When you show kindness, graciousness, and compassion, people see you differently and act differently around you. They connect more readily with you.
Principle #2: Be a vigorous, positive participant in everything you do. As a former teacher, I discovered students who participated more learned the most. Sometimes, it is just easier to sit back and let things happen. But being a vigorous participant will show your boss and your colleagues that you do want to accept more responsibility.
Principle #3: Don't make a fuss over small things. One of the challenges many people face is that they see the minutia, focus on that, and then fail to see the bigger picture. Yes, you need to take care of the minutia, the "things" in your life, but you also must keep focused on your goals, the bigger picture.
Principle #4: Remember who you are and why you are. One thing that happens to many people as they move up the ladder of success is that they fail to remember their roots. In essence, they forget who they are and change into something or someone that they are not, and people can see the difference. One must remember who you are and why you are doing anything. If you do, you stay ground and connected to those whom you need the most.
Principle #5: Develop a vision in your life. We hear this all the time, but it is true. We must develop our path and then stick to it. People complain about their lives, but when asked what are their goals or vision, they don't have them. Thus, it is important—yes, even imperative—to "see afar off" to see what you really can achieve.
Principle #6: Chose well and wisely by setting goals and keeping them. Once your vision is in place, you need to create goals and objectives that are measureable and ones you can achieve. Once that vision is in place, you are on your way.
Principle #7: Seek leadership skills and be a leader in everything you do. Take note of good leaders: your bosses, your co-workers, your clergy, a mentor, or anyone that you consider a good leader. Read different books (check out your local library for good reads) about leadership. Don't try to implement the skills all at once. Take one at a time and see what happens.
Principle #8: Strive to do your best, your very best. One of the leaders I admire most is Gordon B. Hinckley. He continually urged all of to do "your best, your very best." But what is our very best? We must remember that everyone is different and possesses varying skill sets. You must decide on who you are (see Principle #4) and strive each day to become the best you can be.
Principle #9: Seek to better yourself through learning. It is one thing to say you want to be a better leader. The difference between someone who says it and someone who is hinges on the person who is constantly seeks learning. That learning doesn't necessarily have to be in the classroom although there are great programs at your local community college or university on leadership. Reading and studying good leadership material will help you achieve your goals.
Principle #10: Always look for the good in everyone. This one may be the most important. When we look for the good in others, we tend to reach out instead of always focusing on ourselves. Remember, when we focus too much on ourselves, we forget about the big picture and what we are all about.
Overall, becoming and being a good leader takes work and consistency. The only way to become a good leader is begin doing what you know and seeking opportunities to adopt leadership skills.


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The Panther G has full multi-directional and proportional speed control as well as full control over the turret. The tracks, just like a real tank, move independently and are powered by individual motors giving plenty of power and the ability to rotate on the spot. There is a working multi coil suspension system with proper link tracks which allows the tank to climb over obstacles with ease. The included 7.2v Ni-MH rechargeable battery pack has a high capacity of 2000MaH for longer use time between charges and lots of power.
Full List Of Upgrades:
- 360 degrees turning turret
- Hand painted tank and commander
- Metal turret
- Metal gun barrel
- Metal gun head
- Metal tracks
- Metal drive wheel and idle wheel
- Steel gearset
- Metal suspension
- Metal photo etch
- Metal pull rope
- Metal view part
- Metal armour
- Metal turret cover
- Shoulder wheel with bearing
- Metal chassis
- Metal front and rear hook
- Metal machine gun light
- Metal front forward light
The automatic reloading airsoft cannon with track recoil action shoots 6 mm plastic pellets as far as 25 meters and can hold 40 rounds at a time. The metal gun barrel can raise up to 30 degrees and has a powerful red warning light that illuminates before firing. The tank also features a smoke and sound simulator that adds to the fun and realism. The sound system has realistic sounds including different engine speed sounds and gunfire. As the sound system is 2 channel, you can hear the gunfire over the engine sounds. The cool smoke generator actually produces a small cloud of smoke from the exhaust. The distressed paint effects are carefully done by hand to give the appearance of age and battle, which is finished off perfectly with the included tank commander who is also fully painted in uniform. This really is a high quality and superb looking model that when not being used makes an excellent display model.
A Brief History of the German Panther G
The Panther was a tank fielded by Germany in World War II that served from mid-1943 to the end of the European war in 1945. It was intended as a counter to the T-34, and to replace the Panzer IV and III, though it served along side them and the other heavy tanks until the end of the war. The Panther's excellent combination of firepower, mobility, and protection served as a benchmark for other nations' late war and immediate post-war tank designs and it is frequently regarded (along with the Soviet T-34-85) as the best tank design of World War II. The German Panther however was a compromise of various requirements. While sharing essentially the same engine as the Tiger I tank, it had better frontal armour, better gun penetration and was lighter overall and therefore faster. It was capable of handling rougher terrain better than the Tigers. The trade-off was weaker side armour. The Panther proved to be deadly in open country and shooting from long range, but vulnerable to close-quarters combat.
The Panther G comes complete with a hand-painted distressed camo design. Below are some images showing the plastic and metal components of the tank before it is painted.
Additional Information
|Radio Equipment
|2.4 GHz
What's in the box?
|Required To Use
Available Downloads For This Item:
Taigen Hand Painted RC Tank Early Version Tiger I Grey Camo - Full Metal Upgrade - 2.4GHz
Regular Price: £289.99
Sale Price: £255.04
Taigen Hand Painted RC Tanks - Full Metal Upgrade Version - Tiger Camo - 2.4GHz
Regular Price: £299.99
Sale Price: £259.43
Customer Reviews
- Panther G great looking tank Review by nigel
My1st rc tank a real joy to use nice detail .Suspension movement is great .Even my 23 yr old son is impressed and is thinking of getting aT34 or Sherman,let battle commence !! Thanks Nitrotek for excellent service (posted 10/01/2016} (Posted on 10/01/2016)
Price Quality Delivery Speed Fun Factor
- My first tank. Review by geoff
This is my first tank will order more from nitrotek,The model is built like a tank yes i hear you say it is a tank.And may i say a great service from nitrotek. (Posted on 18/09/2015)
Delivery Speed Fun Factor Price Quality
- Awesome Review by Alan
Excellent model to put with my other metal and full metal ww2 German tank collection. Colour and finish almost perfect little to do body wise to bring it to authentic finish (pre military action tho) Brilliant service all round from Nitrotek. (Posted on 08/05/2015)
Delivery Speed Fun Factor Price Quality
- An absolute beast Review by Joshua
This Panther G will not let you down. It, keeps a good speed, but maintains tanky realism without looking like a toy car and laughs at rough terrain. The 2.4ghz transmitter range is excellent, and it can go way further than my friend's Heng Long tiger. Tracks are durable, haven't had any issues with slipping. Gun is strong and accurate. The whole thing just looks mean, especially after some weathering. I'd highly recommend this tank. (Posted on 16/04/2015)
Delivery Speed Fun Factor Price Quality


text: When contemplating the idea of a Mark Wahlberg–stuffed-bear buddy comedy directed by Seth MacFarlane, as Ted has been described, the average movie viewer probably imagined a Wilfred–Family Guy mash-up — a wise-cracking anthropomorphic bear, an emotionally arrested man-child, dick jokes. All of these elements (plus extra fart jokes and Mila Kunis) are present in the first Ted trailer, which, we should point out now, is NSFW, but Mark Wahlberg fans will notice another cinematic influence at work in the two minutes below. The special pronunciation of the word fahck, the soundtrack — can you feel The Fighter magic all around you? If you are not convinced, wait until the 2:15 mark, when Wahlberg's character starts listing "white trash names" in a Southie accent and actually includes "Charlene" (Amy Adams's character) in the list. If someone could have convinced Christian Bale to wear a mo-cap suit, we wouldn't even need a sequel.


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One might think that Michael Dell is getting tired of hearing that Appleis R&D is better than Dellis. In an interview with C|Net, Mr. Dell responded to questions that compared Dellis R&D efforts to that of Apple. In his responses, Mr. Dell defends his companyis R&D legacy by emphasizing that itis supposed to be good when a company spends less of its revenues on R&D than its competitors. He also suggests that innovation can occur in other areas of the computer industry than what the end-user sees. Specifically, he says that companies can innovate how an end-user gets their computer, something Dell has lead the industry in for many years. From C|Net:
Are you beefing up R&D to make your consumer products more unique, or is it more the case of using your distribution muscle?
We have 3,600 folks in our R&D division and spend half a billion dollars a year, similar to the amount Apple spends. We donit think percentage of revenue is a good measure of success in R&D. We look at it as--what do we need to spend to accomplish what we need to accomplish?
But you feed off Microsoft and Intel R&D.
Our strategy for development is different than Microsoftis or Intelis. Those are ingredient companies. Weire a computer systems company. We have a higher return on R&D than any other computer systems company, about five times the profit for every R&D dollar spent. A lot of companies say theyire better than us because they spend more on R&D. What are they better at? A lot of the R&D spending is actually spent to protect things that are proprietary, of no benefit to the customer. We only do the kind (of R&D) that benefits the customer. We donit try to reinvent things that other companies have (invented).
What have you done specifically on the R&D side that youire proud of?
Weive made products easier to use and service. Weive innovated in time-to-market. Who had the first color notebook powered by batteries? Itis Dell. Thereis this misnomer that companies that spend more on R&D are somehow better and more successful, but there isnit a lot of data to support that.
If you look at innovation, it doesnit just occur in the lab. Comdex is the place you go to show things that nobody knows what to do with, because they havenit found a market yet. We donit develop things nobody knows what to do with. We develop things people want to buy and buy in volume. Innovation can occur in supply chain and logistics, manufacturing and distribution, and sales and service. Weive made computing products far more affordable. If you look at the cost of computers 20 years ago versus now, weive caused the whole industry to get more efficient.
How do you see your role in terms of design? Would you rather let someone like Apple take the lead?
We spend about as much as Apple in R&D. Just because we sell a whole lot more doesnit mean weire bad. I thought that was part of the objective.
Thereis much more about Dellis operations and goals in the full interview at C|Net.
As for the claim about having the first color notebook, we wanted to make sure we have that covered before anyone incorrectly gets their knickers in a twist. Two years ago, Mr. Dell claimed that his company was the first to integrate 802.11b support in notebooks, even though Dell did so more than 13 months after Apple did it with the iBook (read our full coverage for more information). In our report on the subject we noted the following:
For those keeping score at home, we also checked with both Dell and Apple about who shipped the first color laptop. Mr. Dellis claims that his company was the first with a color laptop are correct. Apple introduced the PowerBook 165c in February of 1993. Dell shipped the 325NC color portable on January 6th, 1992. Thatis a full year ahead of Apple.
In other words, heis right on that one.
Thanks to Observer Sharon for the heads up on the article.


text: Elizabeth Brundages second novel, Somebody Elses Daughter, is a searing account of the power of love, the tragedy of loss and the sometimes harsh nature of coming of age. Centering on three families all living in a small town in the Berkshires, home to the Pioneer School, Brundage slowly unravels the lives of each individual within these families. Told from several of the characterss points of view, her exploration of how ones past bears heavily on the present produces a well rounded and entertaining psychological thriller. The novel begins with a letter from a father to his daughter written in the summer of 1989 on the day he is giving her up for adoption. The story then moves forward seventeen years to the present. The young girl, Willa, has been raised with great care by two very loving parents capable of providing for her in a way that her birth parents would not have been able to. Her adoptive parents have always been honest with her about how she came to them and have even offered to help her find her birth father when she gets older. The day Willa was adopted her birth mother passed away, which has also been disclosed to Willa. What they dont know is that the new writing teacher at Willas school, Nate, is her biological father. Though he has no intention of telling her who he is, hes returned to the Berkshires to be closer to her. His school friend, Maggie Heath, is married to the Dean of Pioneer School, Jack. Maggie and Jacks marriage appears to be idyllic, but her desire to keep this image is slowly tearing her apart. Nate befriends a single mother, Claire, who has recently returned to her hometown with her teenage son after the death of her own father. These peoples lives entwine as they gradually learn more about each other. They form relationships that they try to keep from their partners and deny the events of their pasts, which one by one begin to surface. The pace of the novel quickens as their lives become more entangled and all the secrets of their pasts are revealed. By showing the reader each character through several different points of view, Brundage is able to bring each to life in a multifaceted way. The reader knows not only what is going on inside each characters mind, but also how those around him or her see the person. Each narrator is fully fleshed out drawing the reader completely into his or her world and perspective. Though this perspective may not be agreeable, the reason behind each is understood. Brundage engages the power of secrecy to keep the reader turning the pages. The web that everybody creates in an effort to protect themselves as well as those they love is captivating. There is the knowledge that secrets can never be fully kept, especially from those we love, and the reader is on quite a rollercoaster until the surprising ending. The path of the novel itself is not truly revealed until the final pages. Somebody Elses Daughter is a thrilling look at what and whom we allow into our lives, how we deal with the things that happen to us, whether we overcome our pasts or are consumed by them and how we present ourselves to everyone around us. Brundages examination of the lives of individuals who attempt to escape their past may be brutally honest, or overly sensationalized, but is highly engaging.


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10 posts • Page 1 of 1
Would you pursue this girl?
So last year I was traveling in Colombia. I spent about a week in a city called Bucaramanga (nice city btw). Anyway, while I was there I had coffee with a Colombian girl named Angie I met via couchsurfing. It wasn't a date or anything and I can't say that "sparks flew". Still, she was a very nice person and definitely attractive. I only saw her one more time while I was in Bucaramanga but that was in a group setting.
Fast forward to 6 months later. I've had no contact with during that time. I'm on facebook and out of nowhere she initiates a chat with me. She asks me early on if I have any plans on coming back to Bucaramanga. I tell her I'm not sure. She later admits during the chat that she wasn't sure I'd remember who she was (for the record I always remember a pretty girl!). Anyway, I thought it was a bit odd that she initiated a chat with me since we barely know each other and she wasn't even sure I'd remember her.
So that's led to us chatting some more and even talking once on skype. We've tried to chat again on skype but haven't been able to arrange a time - she cancelled on me once, and I cancelled on her once. At some point, she again asked me if I had plans on coming back to bucarmanga.
At this point though, I can't figure out her agenda. I'm certainly not going to Bucaramanga if she just wants to be friends. So I tried to find out last week, asking her why she wanted me to come to Bucaramanga and if she was interested in being my girlfriend in the future. She responded by saying "I was just saying...it would be nice if you came to bucaramanga". Hmmm...not much to go on.
So last night, she again initiates a chat with me. This is part of the conversation:
her: we are not compatible hahaha
me: nope, you can't be my girlfriend after all! hahaha
her: boooo :/
her: buu
me: haha well i don't know if you want to be anyway.
her: well, let's wait until you decide where are you gonna live
me: yeah good point. of course you could make it easier for me to decide where to live.
her: yeap, but i'll have to wait and see if there is a job for me in Bogota, cause i really dont wanna stay here
(the context is that I'm trying to decide where to live and I had mentioned to her that I might be moving to Bogota. she's also expressed an interest in moving to bogota when she finishes school in about 6 months).
So I'm debating whether or not I should go visit this girl in bucaramanga. It would cost me $1,000-$1,500 to visit her. Which would be fine if there's potential for something romantic. But I'm not spending that kind of money if all she thinks is "it would be nice if you came to bucaramanga" and there's no potential for something romantic.
I should mention that there is a big age difference between us. I'm 42, she's 25. Some Colombian girls are okay with that, but not all of them. (she may not know how old I am...most people think I look 35). Beyond that I'm not even sure we're compatible. Points in her favor include that she's attractive, a nice easy-going person, she lived in the US for 2 years so she's familiar with the US, and she speaks really good english.
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If you are considering moving to Bogota, why zero in on one girl? From what I hear, Colombia is nirvana for the single male. Plus if you liked her THAT much you wouldn't have had a period of non contact to begin with.
If you move to Bogota go ahead keep in contact with her but play the field in case a better one comes along.
Thanks for the input. You definitely make some good points. Of course, at this point I'm just thinking about moving to Bogota. Definitely not a done deal. And even if I do, I think I'd have a hard time finding someone else who speaks great english, has lived in the US, and has her level of physical attractiveness.
I think I'm just trying to figure out where this girl is coming from. Why did she contact some guy she barely knows after 6 months of no contact? And why does she keep asking me if I'm coming back to bucaramanga? It's not like we're close friends or had some amazing adventures when I was there. Or that bucaramanga is some amazing city like Paris or Istanbul. I don't expect anyone to be able to answer these questions, just that these are the sort of things that are running through my head.
If you are interested in Columbia as a place to relocate, why not visit several cities and better yet, set up meetings with several girls (including this one). You wont be able to figure out why she didnt contact you. Hell, you didnt contact her either.
So, if it were me, I'd contact multiple women, say I am gonna visit, and see who wants to meet me.
Well I think I can cross this one off the list. We had another facebook chat today. I mentioned that I was thinking of coming to Bucaramanga to visit her. She was happy to hear that. But I pressed her some more and let her know that I was coming cause I had been enjoying getting to know her and wanted to see what might develop in person. Her response was along the lines of "well, I wouldn't want you to come to Colombia just because of me, i hope you are doing it more for reasons like finding a job or something." Not exactly an encouraging response!!!
Re: Would you pursue this girl?
If u go there there just for the girl and she knows that, over 90% chance you will get nowhere with her. She will feel pressured and your status with her will go down. I don't think she knows yet what she wants out of you. She's curious and wants to see you again but is not sure of her feelings yet. If you go there for your own reasons which have nothing to do her and see her casually (ideally after she requests it), that would be best. Putting pressure on her by going to be her bf will almost surely backfire unlesss she happens to be a very serious type and traditional type.
Re: Would you pursue this girl?
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'Breaking Bad's RJ Mitte Joins 'Switched At Birth'
RJ Mitte is headed to ABC Family!
The 21-year-old actor has joined the upcoming season of the hit series as Campbell, a pre-med college student paralyzed by a snowboarding accident who works in the free clinic with Daphne (Katie LeClerc).
Creator and exec producer Lizzy Weiss shared in a statement, "We are thrilled to cast such a phenomenal and unique actor as RJ. Our show is about diversity and telling stories about people from all walks of life, and when we created the part of Campbell, we knew RJ was the perfect person to embody him. The character is charismatic, funny, and a bit of a ladies' man, and we think Breaking Bad fans will enjoy seeing Walt, Jr. in a totally different light."
RJ added, "I love Switched at Birth, it's super exciting to work with such an awesome cast."
Switched at Birth returns in January.
Posted to: Casting, RJ Mitte, Switched At Birth