text:
Re: I'm laughing ALOT
Posted by Cassima on 1/12/06
Geeze, is this the best you can do? I have seen better retorts from six-
I want a super bird, too! Get me the email of that breeder! It would be
awesome to have a fully trained bird hatch straight from the egg that
is immortal and impervious to all danger, and you would be able to take
them outside without worries of them flying away! All you would have to
do is stay away from the krypotonite.
On 1/12/06, Jim wrote:
> On 1/12/06, Scott wrote:
>> On 1/12/06, Alison wrote:
>>> On 1/11/06, Scott wrote:
>>>> -Alison-
>>>> Alison,
>>>> I have been reading your response and I am schocked that you
>>>> feel homes are such a risk. Where do you live that your home
>>>> is a risk for your birds to fly around? Do you have knifes
>>>> hanging or something? Any home that is "kid" proof for the
>>>> most part is also bird proof. Yes they can get into trouble
>>>> but come on, so can a 3 year old. Flighted birds are much
>>>> happier than any clipped bird I know. My macaw has been
>>>> flighted his whole life and does fine flying around my home.
>>>> He never hit a wall or door so hard that he hurt himself,
>>>> maybe your birds were trying to get away from you and your
>>>> crazyness. All pets need to be watched when doors are opened,
>>>> if your bird is trained properly an open door will not be an
>>>> open invitation to "escape". -Scott
> .....
> Your persistance to beat the dead horse about comparing
> clipping to cutting legs off is insane. *They get around just
> fine without their wings.
> You don't go from parrot to carrot
> when you clip- you would if you cut the WHOLE WING off at the
> bone; that takes away their balance- *but, as in parapalegics
> and amputies, they WILL find ways of adapting. These people
> still have their arms and build streagth in the upper-body and
> use their hands all the time, as birds can still walk, climb
> and glide. THEY ADAPT if you let them. If the owner takes the
> proper steps, you can keep birds in top shape. I do keep mine
> in top condition, because I have to think like a human in a
> bird body, not like a bird.
> The above From Cassima!
> ...
> There you go Scott the solution (would be very funny if there were
> not people who actually believe it) Don't chop the WHOLE Wing off
> a bird, just make it a paraplegic or amputee Cassima says "the bird
> can still walk and climb - THEY ADAPT"
> Unbelievable - makes me feel physically sick what some people think
> is o.k. when it comes to animals.
> Jim


text:
She rests the acoustic guitar on her lap, the tuning pegs sparkling like jewels under the floodlights. Her eyes are shut. She rocks gently back and forth, listening. Soon it will be her turn to play. But Lori McKenna still can't fully accept that she belongs here.
On this Friday night in late January, McKenna is sitting in a circle with three other songwriters at the center of the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, a legendary storefront venue where, if you're lucky, you might witness magic. The 100 or so people sitting in rapt silence wouldn't trade their seats for anything.
"How did we get here?" McKenna says to Barry Dean, a friend, collaborator, and fellow performer at this songwriters' round. "How did this happen?" She looks at the others in the circle – Nashville standouts Kim Carnes and Matraca Berg – and marvels at playing in their company. "I worship these people," she says, and not in a whisper. Everyone can hear her.
Then McKenna wraps her slight frame around the guitar and begins to strum. Her distinctive voice, alternately soft and biting, fills the room, fills all of it, demanding attention. She is playing "Your Next Lover," from her 2007 album, one of many arresting folk hymns straight from the great big beating heart of this Stoughton girl, who had five kids with the boy she met in third grade, honed her songwriting skills in the kitchen, found the courage to play gigs, and never looked back.
Everyone's faces seem to bear the same message: Oh yeah, honey, you belong here all right. "You're like a postmodern Loretta Lynn!" Berg tells her, comparing McKenna to the pioneering songstress who pushed the boundaries of what women were supposed to sing about. Carnes is rendered nearly speechless after McKenna and Dean sing a showstopping new piece called "Halfway Home." She has this room in the palm of her hand.
Not that she would admit it. For McKenna, 43, self-deprecation has long been her nature. The I'm-no-good shtick, though, gets crazier every day. Fifteen years after she broke into the Boston folk scene with her raw, honest lyrics and unique vocal style, her songs keep getting better and keep blowing people away. Even longtime collaborators, family members, and fans can't make it through certain ones without choking up, if not weeping.
The power of McKenna's music lies in her artful pairing of intimacy and universality. With her own experience as a template, she explores and dignifies the many corners of domestic life, the hopes of small-town dreamers, and the emotional voids that aren't easily filled. McKenna, whose mother died young, is especially moving when she's wrestling with that wounding loss.
She hit the big time as a songwriter seven years ago, when superstar Faith Hill recorded three of her songs, putting her on the country music map. She landed on Oprah, was groomed to be the next big thing in Nashville, and released her own record on Warner Bros. Now, she's settling into a new phase of her career, and it may be her most promising one yet. After parting ways with the label, she's back in control of her performing and recording. But it's her songwriting work that is truly flowering. The novelty factor – Hey, look, a housewife from Boston with her own tunes! – has faded. What endures is the quality of her writing, which is drawing more and more attention.
The biggest names in country and bluegrass have cut her stuff, from Tim McGraw and Sara Evans to Alison Krauss and Carrie Underwood, and more are knocking at her door. McKenna co-wrote and recorded a song for the soundtrack of the new movie Act of Valor. Country megastars such as Keith Urban and Taylor Swift count themselves as huge fans. Swift, who paid McKenna a visit in Stoughton last summer, told the New Yorker that she wants to be Lori McKenna when she grows up. "She's right on the verge of major songwriting success with a lot of artists," says Pat Higdon, who was president, until recently, of McKenna's publishing company, Universal Music Publishing Group Nashville. "I've been around songwriters for almost 40 years. To me, Lori is as good as anybody I've ever worked with."
And it's not even her primary gig. McKenna toggles between her music and job number one: a mom with a daughter and two sons still in school in Stoughton, a balancing act at once familiar to any working parent and unique to her. She typically will not travel for more than a few days in a row. She tweets pictures of homemade white bread and raves about retail stores ("Honest to God Restoration Hardware I love you so much it hurts"). She laments her lackluster food-planning skills ("I go to the grocery story every day; I admit it," she tells the crowd at a recent show).
After making breakfast, packing lunches, and dropping her children off at school in her Toyota minivan, she turns to music. Sometimes she can't even wait that long. One newer song, a love letter to Stoughton called "Buy This Town," came to her at a stoplight in Stoughton Center on her way home from a school drop-off. She sang the idea into her iPhone in front of Town Hall and polished it at home once the kids were gone. The faucet, it seems, never stops running. Every house, she has said, has a story. And there are a lot of houses.
Her voice can cut like a knife's edge, swoop like a fiddle, or shrink to a plaintive whisper. Her songs will break your heart, compel you to hug your children, or remind you that time passes, and fast. Her story, her whole being, is both an inspiration and an affirmation of the mundane. "My kids are like, 'That's her? That's Lori McKenna?' " says Tina Doucette, McKenna's best friend growing up, remembering the time they saw her at Target. "And I'm like, 'Yeah, it's Lori. She shops like a regular person. She's a mom like I am.' " McKenna didn't call her 2007 album Unglamorous for nothing.
The singer-songwriter, who has long brown hair, big, blue eyes, and stands 5-foot-2, is a study in contrasts. A huge talent who is almost bashfully modest. A Stoughton townie who's at a pizza joint with friends and family one night, and then welcomed the next in Nashville like a hometown girl. She slips seamlessly from a Boston accent into a kind of borrowed Southern tongue.
And yet she has never drawn many boundaries between her life as a suburban mom and her life in music. One minute she's trading music-industry gossip, the next she's wondering how to hide vegetables in her 7-year-old son's food. Her family, her relationships, her community – these are the things that provide sustenance, emotionally and lyrically. "The motherhood and the career have fed off each other," she says. McKenna also prizes people with good hearts and leads by example. "She is probably the most lovable person I've ever worked with," says Lorne Entress, a Connecticut-based producer and musician who oversaw her 2004 album, Bittertown.
McKenna's cheery disposition, though, belies the hardship, heartbreak, and uncertainty that often drive her songs. Many who heard her music before knowing her assumed her life was a wreck. "You think before you meet her, 'God, this woman must be a tortured soul filled with demons,' " says Whitney Williams, the creative director at McKenna's Nashville publishing company. "And you meet her and she's happily married and she has five beautiful children." McKenna's penchant for sad material has become a running joke among fellow songwriters.
Not all her songs are purely autobiographical. She sprinkles in spiritual imagination, stories she overhears, snippets from others' struggles. But she often draws from her life – a momentary act of neglect from her husband; the challenges of sustaining a young marriage; or the longing to know her mother. And it's right out there, with no varnish, no abstractions, no safe distance. In the song "Leaving This Life," McKenna sings of her mom: "She's left with that reflection of me at 6 years old / And I have her eyes in the mirror / Well, she and I we are defined by what we have lost / Don't you wonder whose loss is dearer." Matt Smith, who is the managing director at Club Passim in Cambridge and has known McKenna for years, says: "There are plenty of songwriters that I would put on the same level as brilliant writers. But there's something so intimate and raw about what she's doing that makes it different."
Given how personal her songs are, I ask McKenna if her husband, Gene, knew what he was in for when they got married. "He still has no idea!" she says with a laugh. "I know, the poor guy." That's partly why he doesn't come to shows much. It's also because someone has to stay with the kids. (Gene, a plumber with Columbia Gas in Brockton, declined to be interviewed.)
McKenna and her husband have an inside joke about all this, drawn from the 2007 comedy Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, in which John C. Reilly plays a singer trying to hit it big. In one scene, Reilly's wife is leaving him for being unfaithful, which he suggests is no worse than her own offense: that time she drank all the milk in the middle of the night, leaving none for his morning corn flakes.
"So you're innocent and I'm guilty? Guilty as charged?" he says. Then he pauses, thinking the line sounds pretty good, and repeats it in a singing voice.
"Don't you dare write a song right now!" his wife hollers.
When Gene sees his wife's eyes light up at something going on at home, he'll say, "Don't Dewey Cox this right now." McKenna turns serious to say she is immensely grateful for his understanding and support. "I wouldn't be able to do my job if he was sensitive to stuff like that," she says.
What makes it more palatable, perhaps, is the undercurrent of hope that runs through McKenna's music, even the melancholy fare. She celebrates the sweet romance of the familiar. She dances to the rhythms of a settled life. And she makes clear that there's no place she'd rather be. "Most songs," she says, "are love songs in some way, shape, or form." The love might not always be pretty. It may not be perfectly linear. But it's real.
Frank and Lorraine Giroux had four boys and a girl. They'd moved from Jamaica Plain to a modest Stoughton ranch house as their family grew. Now another baby was on the way. This time, because Lorraine was ill, the prognosis was uncertain. Referred to a doctor who specialized in high-risk pregnancies, they made an appointment at his Brookline office. Frank dropped his wife off and drove to nearby Jamaica Pond to wait, listening to music in his car as Lorraine told the doctor they wanted to go ahead with the pregnancy, risks and all.
Their baby girl was born in December 1968. They named her Lorraine, after her mother. They called her Lori. The baby of the family.
The Girouxes helped anchor a tight neighborhood of working-class families called Sumner Gardens. They attended Mass at nearby Our Lady of the Rosary Parish. Their house pulsed with music. McKenna's mother played piano and sang in the choir. Frank Giroux, who worked 43 years at Boston Edison, also loved to sing, and to tell stories. McKenna remembers him belting out "Man of La Mancha" while vacuuming. Her siblings played piano and guitar.
McKenna and Tina Doucette would sit and talk for hours on tree branches. Later they worked a paper route together, putting the tip money toward Twizzlers and Whatchamacallits. Doucette remembers McKenna's mother always cutting up oranges for their snacks, and how her roast beef filled the Giroux house with the most wonderful smell. And then, when McKenna was 7, everything changed. Her mother died of complications from a blood disorder. The family pulled together.
McKenna's brothers helped cook meals and take her to school. She and her dad played Mille Bornes, a card game, every night after dinner. "She was, in a way, closer to me than the others were," her father says. "Because maybe she needed it more." As a girl, McKenna had a recurring dream that her mother guided her station wagon into the driveway and began unloading groceries, like she had never been gone.
Growing up, McKenna wrote poetry, and her writing stood out to family and friends. She credits her brother Richard with turning her on to the guitar, although he downplays his influence. She took note of her maternal grandmother, who wanted to be a dancer but never got the chance. "You could tell she didn't get to do something she loved, other than having her kids," McKenna says. "That kind of always stuck with me."
McKenna graduated from Stoughton High School in 1987 – describing herself as "sensitive" and "impatient" in the yearbook – and briefly attended community college. She got pregnant, dropped out, and married Gene, a kid from the neighborhood whose good heart reminded her of her father. She worked office jobs at a brother's adhesive company and sold Tupperware. She and Gene had three sons within five years and began building their life together in a little house with a side yard where two apple trees wrapped around each other.
She sang to her kids, in the kitchen, and at her oldest son Brian's preschool. In second grade, Brian's class was reading a book about Ruby Bridges, the 6-year-old African-American girl who helped integrate the New Orleans public schools in 1960. McKenna wrote and recorded a song about Bridges, "Ruby's Shoes," for her son's biography report. Brian played the recording for his class and "karaoked over my mom's own words," he says. (She later included the song on her first album.) "It was great growing up in it," Brian says now, hoping to follow his mother's example as a songwriter. "I wouldn't trade it for the world."
In the mid-1990s, when McKenna was about 27, her family urged her to brave an open-mike event or two. She felt she had little to lose. "I knew that at the end of the day I had these kids, that no matter what happened, they were still going to love me," she says. "And I could still sit in the kitchen and play my guitar while they were playing blocks on the floor."
One night she built up the courage to play the Old Vienna Kaffeehaus in Westborough, a well-regarded former folk venue that hosted open-mike night on Thursdays. Her family came. Her brother Richard lent his guitar. As she waited her turn, her nerves raged. "I was freaking out," she says. "I remember physically, like, I'm having a seizure." She played a couple songs and got hugs from her family. But they were biased. What did they know?
When they went to leave, the guy who ran the events, Robert Haigh, came down the stairs after her with a simple message: You should come back. She was floored. "I was like, 'That guy just walked down like 30 stairs to tell me that,' "
she remembers. Haigh says now, "When somebody really shined, you knew it right away. . . . I didn't want her to be one of the people I didn't see again." It was just the vote of confidence McKenna needed. She returned several weeks later, and Haigh, who had deep ties in the folk scene, became an early mentor and informal manager.
McKenna released her first album, Paper Wings and Halo, in 1998 and got a foot in the door at Club Passim, the storied Harvard Square folk club. Word started getting around. Shows began selling out. She couldn't believe it. Festivals called, more gigs came, and she matured as a songwriter and performer. More albums followed, notably 2004's Bittertown, which sounded a bit more country and rocked a little harder. Her fan base grew. But so did her responsibilities at home, now that she and Gene had two more children. "There were many times where she didn't do things that would have been good for her career, because she couldn't break away from her family," Entress says.
The first time Frank Giroux heard his daughter on the radio, he was in a special place. He had dropped her off at the studios of the Emerson College radio station, WERS, where she had a gig playing on air. Then he drove over to Jamaica Pond, parked his car, and listened.
Nashville, in the words of one music executive, craves "the fresh cookie" – the hot thing right out of the oven that no one's tasted yet. That was Lori McKenna circa 2004, when friends and boosters got her music in front of Faith Hill. Hill, after she heard McKenna's stuff, ripped up a nearly done record, returned to the studio to record a handful of McKenna's songs, and released a hugely successful 2005 album named after one of them, "Fireflies."
McKenna's life quickly changed. The lords of country music came calling. She signed a record deal with Warner Bros. in 2005 and was an irresistible story to the TV networks. She opened for Hill and Hill's husband, Tim McGraw, on a cross-country tour in 2007, playing to thousands in massive arenas and traveling in a bus previously used by Ricky Martin.
Royalty checks were suddenly covering a lot more than groceries – indeed, she and her husband bought a new house in a nice subdivision, took their kids to Disney World, and bought a new minivan. McKenna's former publisher, Melanie Howard, recalls once handing her a big white envelope. McKenna, according to Howard, said, "Oh my God, are these my termination papers? Are you not happy with me?" Not exactly. The envelope held her first royalty check, in the six figures. McKenna started to cry.
The success, inevitably, sparked fears that McKenna would be watered down by the commercial music machine. With Unglamorous, her 2007 album on Warner Bros. and her fifth overall, McKenna says the label let her make the record she wanted to make. The result won widespread praise, although it proved difficult to both please folk lovers and attract legions of new country-inclined listeners. Some fans and reviewers lamented the slicker production; Kelefa Sanneh, writing in The New York Times, said, "Sometimes it sounds as if Ms. McKenna's voice has been slightly blunted by the warm arrangements." In the mainstream country world, her songs at times drew puzzled looks. "My husband says the nice way of saying it is they'll say . . . 'I just don't get Lori McKenna. I just don't get it,' " Mc-Kenna says. Ultimately, Unglamorous didn't sell enough by commercial music standards – about 31,000 to date – to fully satisfy the label, and they parted amicably.
The burst of fame served a lasting purpose, though, exposing a broader audience to McKenna's music. (Hill and McGraw have remained among her biggest champions.) As a result, she's reached a new, and seemingly ideal, phase of her career: as a sought-after writer whose songs can travel the world even when she isn't willing to, and as a musician who can play shows and put out albums at her own pace. Last year, she self-released a deeply personal sixth album, Lorraine. This year, she's considering putting out another full-length record and also perhaps a collection of what she calls her "favorite creepy Lori McKenna songs that no one else is going to like."
As a songwriter, the trick is to get your stuff cut by major artists. This brings attention, and, if a song becomes a hit, handsome royalties. For all of the creative genius in Nashville, there's a lot of factory songwriting, too, with inoffensive pop music churned out for radio consumption. That's never been Lori McKenna. She doesn't make widgets. It's difficult for her to write something she hasn't felt. But she has, after some initial skepticism, grown more comfortable co-writing with others in different styles than many folkies might be.
McKenna is increasingly in demand as a collaborator and writer and has songs in the works with the likes of McGraw and Wynonna Judd. Alison Krauss's stirring rendition of McKenna's "My Love Follows You Where You Go" is currently the single from Krauss's 2011 album Paper Airplane, which just won a Grammy Award. "It's very rare for somebody who doesn't live in Nashville to succeed like she has," says Luke Laird, a friend and occasional co-writer with nine number one country hits to his name.
She regularly brings songwriters to her Stoughton home, and they write in a basement office she calls Boy in a Hoodie Studio, affectionately known as Hoodieland. Songwriting hours fall between school drop-off and pickup, with a firm clock-out time of 2:35 p.m. She almost always takes writers to a nearby Panera for lunch. Sometimes they'll accompany McKenna to school in the minivan, and then stick around to hang out with the family in the evening. It's an immersive experience. Their lives, briefly, become a Lori McKenna song, too.
McKenna also works remotely with writers and artists over Skype, trading ideas, guitar licks, and vocal parts. They exchange songs and tracks, recorded on Macs and iPhones, over e-mail. And then about once a month, McKenna catches an early morning flight to spend a few days in Nashville. Barry Dean, the friend and collaborator, says that to work well with McKenna, songwriters have to be as honest as she is, or at least try. "That's the price of entry," he says.
On a recent Thursday morning, McKenna is perched on a couch in a writing room at Universal's Nashville office, where they call her "Boo." She opens her laptop to play a guitar riff she recorded at home, so she can re-create it. But first she must tune out the high-pitched yap from Bella, her new Chihuahua, in the background. "It sounds like a chimpanzee," she says. She's here for a songwriting session with the band Little Big Town, a four-time Grammy nominee. The group's four members arrive before lunch. One of them, Karen Fairchild, comes with a melody. McKenna has an idea for some lyrics, involving the emotional distance that can grow between spouses. With those two elements, they begin assembling the scaffolding of a new song.
At first, it's hardly clear this will end up anywhere. Over the next five hours, though, they refine the lyrics and the music. McKenna, tapping her black boot on the plaid carpet, is unassuming and complimentary, rewarding others' ideas with "I love that!" But it is she who often cuts through with a thought that stops everyone cold. At one point, she shoots down a proposed lyric because it conveys "the wrong kind of desperate." She wants emotional precision. The song has to ring absolutely true.
By late afternoon, they are recording a rough demo of the song, tentatively called "Your Side of the Bed," which sounds marvelous rendered in Little Big Town's four-part harmony. Someone suggests it's radio-friendly. "I think we just saved a bunch of marriages," McKenna says, "which is all I care about." Who knows what the song's future holds, but for the moment, it smells an awful lot like a fresh cookie.
The question everyone has is this: How much dough does Mc-Kenna have in her kitchen? "From her very first record to now, she's made my jaw drop more times than any other songwriter," says Mary Gauthier, a friend and former Boston singer-songwriter who first got McKenna heard in Nashville. Mc-
Kenna says she does get stuck sometimes, but she can't imagine running out of material. "You wonder where she gets it," says her 77-year-old father. "It just awes me. And I sit there and I have a little anxiety about it when something new is played I haven't heard before – you know, 'Hope it's good! Hope it's good!' I'm never disappointed."
Mark Erelli has been there through it all. An A-list Boston singer-songwriter in his own right, he has been McKenna's sideman for years. He knows her well enough to anticipate when she's about to screw up lyrics onstage, and he adjusts to sing the wrong ones, too. Like everyone in her orbit, Erelli treasures his time with her. He was bothered by the simplistic narrative of McKenna's sudden fame – the notion that Faith Hill had plucked her from obscurity, as if she got lucky. As if it could happen to anyone. He calls this the "lottery myth." In truth, McKenna had steadily built a huge following in the Northeast, charming concertgoers with her songs and her disarming banter about life in Stoughton. She'd been blessed with an incredible gift. She had worked hard at her craft.
And yet McKenna's arc still holds inspiration for anybody carrying around dreams of their own. It's a message she captures elegantly in "Fireflies," the song that helped make her career: Those flashes of gold on summer evenings hold magic if you let them.
The Bluebird show is winding down after nearly three hours. Mc-Kenna ends her set with "Sweet Disposition," from last year's album, singing: "My mother left me a wedding band and impossible shoes to fill / Something I've always tried to do but I know I never will."
As I watch the audience and reflect on all that she balances, I can't help but think how off base that lyric sounds. If Lorraine Giroux isn't proud of this, wherever she is, what could she be proud of?
The patrons finish their drinks, pay up, and file outside into the cold night. McKenna lingers inside for a while, nursing a Southern Comfort on the rocks with the help of a fellow songwriter. She doesn't make it back to her hotel until around 1:30 a.m.
In the morning, we're booked on the same flight back to Boston. I look for McKenna when I arrive at the gate in the Nashville airport, but I don't see her. Then I get a text message.
"Good morning!" she writes. "I snuck on the plane before you."
"Good," I reply. "Was worried you were asleep."
No chance, she says. "I never miss a flight back home!!!"Scott Helman is a Globe Magazine staff writer. E-mail him at firstname.lastname@example.com and follow him on Twitter @swhelman.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Recently someone asked me if I had to pick an All-Star lacrosse team, who would be on the first midfield line. The first guy I picked was Max Seibald, without hesitation. Max embodies the fundamental two way Continue Reading
To run through the accolades that Kyle Harrison has received in his lacrosse career would not do enough justice to explain what he has meant to the modern midfield position. He is a trend setter and a game changer Continue Reading
Here is a recap video of the annual IWLCA Annual Meeting and Banquet, presented by Nike. The conference took place November 19-21 at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Continue Reading
Custom Stars & Stripes inspired by the good ol' American Flag. On sale this week only at Rock 'Em Socks for $17.76! #MericaContinue Reading
BALTIMORE — At the conclusion of a tryout process that included 98 players and spanned 11 months, US Lacrosse has named the U.S. Men's National Team final 23-man roster for the FIL World Championship, presented by Continue Reading
As footwear design innovation progresses, new materials and construction methods are used to make products lighter, more durable and breathable. This progression not only leads to better performance, but also Continue Reading
In our newest stringing video, the legendary Jerome Thompson of the Iroquois Nation shows Lax.com how he traditionally strings his lacrosse heads, including the Nike Lakota U. Continue Reading
The Lakers received all 10 first-place votes to remain atop the poll, followed by Culver Academy (Ind.), Georgetown Prep (Md.) and Malvern Prep (Pa.) as the first four remain unchanged. Chaminade (N.Y.) joins the Continue Reading
Nike, the leader in sport innovation, has teamed up with Syracuse men's lacrosse for the debut of the Nike Fast Break uniform. The Orange will be the first team to wear the new uniform when it takes the field Continue Reading
Nike Football accelerates innovation with 3D printed "concept cleat" for shuttle drill. One of three cleats influenced by 3D printing technology. Read More...Continue Reading


text:
by Steve Ahern
Bethany Meyer is among the first to stir in the early morning hours of her Flourtown home. Most days, at 5:45 a.m., the 38-year-old mother of four boys, author of the increasingly followed Mom blog, "I Love Them Most When They're Sleeping," contributor to the Huffington Post Parent section and one of several humorists in a collection of essays by Mom bloggers titled "I Just Want to Pee Alone" (available on Amazon in paperback and kindle), slinks toward the kitchen with the fragile hope of having a solitary cup of coffee and a few titters while listening to "Howard" (Stern).
"I like witty one liners," she says. But because the creaks in the stairs and floorboards signal to her 4-year-old son that mommy has arisen, that walk to the kitchen is freighted with pitfalls. One wrong step sends her four-year-old skittering down the stairs to kitchen to play the unwitting wrecking ball to her morning solitude. Meyer knows that much worse could befall her on any given morning, but she loves them most when they're sleeping.
The weekday mornings typically unfold this way. A few moments of solitude usher in her day if she's lucky, before she is pressed forward by the arrival of her children, 11, 9, 6 and 4, for whom she commences cooking breakfasts, packing lunches, dressing the younger children, supervising hygiene and quelling misbehavior with threats of no dessert and early-to-bed times. To shield them from the dark side of the school bus (and the high likelihood, according to Meyer, that her sons would participate in back-of-the-bus behavior including mooning), she loads her particularly kinesthetic quartet into the eight-year-old, untidy minivan and drives them to school.
Back home, after the dishwasher has been emptied and refilled and one of several loads of wash has been done, after perhaps a phone call from a teacher, a stop at the Acme (where she shops at least once daily) or thoughts about dinner, she writes the "I Love Them Most When They're Sleeping," the blog she began writing in January, 2012. The blog comically renders her life as the overstretched mother of a quartet of sometime chaos-wielding marauders and her accident-prone, athletic and super-competitive husband, David. (He is in promotional advertising.) The blog is stacked with hysterical incidents you would be happy to read but not have to face (or resolve).
In "Little Boy Blue, Navy Blue," Meyer, after encouraging her very private 11-year-old son with a fine singing voice to participate in a boys' choir, discovers midway through the winter concert that he is singing his heart out in a girl's blazer Meyer bought on sale (by mistake) for $10. In "The Time I Chanted Poop on the Sink," her four-year-old son fouls his hand while pooping and smears it on the sink, leaving Meyer to explain why it is his responsibility to clean it off.
In another, one of her sons accidentally urinates on the Italian leather bag she cherishes, the one her college roommate got for her in Italy on the study-abroad semester Meyer forwent after she fell in love with her now husband. In a blog titled "Friday Night Lights," her husband curtails their fun-filled family evening of sledding when he accidentally barrels into a tree of debatable proportions and ends up under the lights of the emergency room with his concerned but mildly perturbed family members looking on. These are only a few of the always amusing and often hysterical posts.
"I rarely have to wait long for inspiration," Meyer says. The more time I spend with the kids, summers, winter and spring breaks, the more material I have."
While humor clearly buoys the blog, Meyer also conveys in non-schmalzy fashion the pride and love she feels for her children. She also uses the blog to muse about her own triumphs and mistakes as a parent: the hope of getting more right than wrong; her evolution as a parent since the birth of her first child (written about in "The Evolution of a Parent," a piece which, among others, also ran in the Huffington Post); restoring temporarily fractured relationships; of the self-sacrifice and indignities of motherhood (e.g. having to pee in empty discarded cups and bottles she finds in the minivan).
Meyer's blog began to draw attention just months after she began writing it. "Jen," the blogger of "People I Want to Punch in the Throat," which enjoys a sizable following, read Meyer's blog and contacted her about writing an essay for her collection of essays on motherhood, "I Just Want to Pee Alone." Meyer's piece, "Parenting is Taboo," is an email exchange between two mothers initiated when one mother learns her son has been bullied by the other mother's son.
The mother whose son has been bullied has been pregnant and nursing for most of the last 10 years while the bully's mother has the time (and the means) to vacation in the Caribbean, a waist line to brag about and time to read a book. Amid a saccharine tone that dissolves by the end into an openly hostile exchange, they trade barbs about mothering styles, figures and free time. Like most of her other blogs, it is hysterical and poignant.
"I may have been intimidated," Meyer says, when approached by Jen to write the piece for "I Just Want to Pee Alone." She has 75,000 Facebook likes. "I'm like a little tiny house in a neighborhood of mansions."
Her success did not stop there. A teacher where her sons attend school sent Meyer's blog to a longtime friend who happened to be an agent. The agent contacted Meyer to inquire about her interest in writing a book, which led to Meyer's decision to write a memoir about her children's playground years. It is expected to be released sometime next year. Around the same time, Meyer was contacted by two writers of the Parenting section at the Huffington Post and asked to contribute to that publication. "I felt a little intimidated," Meyer says, "but the fact that they wanted me to lend my voice to that series [Parenting] was validating."
Meyer has motherhood to thank for awakening the innate writer and humorist in her, which may have been, at least to some degree, suppressed by the order and practicality of her childhood along with 12 years of Catholic school. During dinner time, Jim Gardner, the news anchor, did most of the talking on the kitchen TV set, her father avidly attending to it and insisting on silence so he could hear it.
The Hill resident graduated with a BS degree from St. Joseph's University in food marking and worked selling pharmaceuticals for five years until she had her first son nearly 12 years ago. She has not worked outside the home since. In 2012, she began to feel a pull to do more. An avid runner, yoga practitioner (written about in her story "Namaste Bitches") and overall good athlete (Meyer played field hockey and basketball throughout high school), Meyer considered becoming a personal trainer. But the storyteller, writer and humorist in her won out, thanks in part to feedback from friends.
Indigo Schuy, a clothing store at 8432 Germantown Ave., where Meyer works Sundays from 12-4 p.m., will be hosting a book signing for Meyer for "I Just Want to Pee Alone," a collection of humorous essays by blogging moms on Thursday, April 18, 7 to 9 p.m. Her memoir is due out sometime next year.
You can find her writing at bethanymeyer.com and huffingtonpost.com – parenting section.


text:
Evening classes canceled Feb. 7, 2018. Learn more.
Home | Academics | Our Schools | Conservatory of Performing Arts | Conservatory News & Features
Point Park University is hosting a Production Assistant Training Seminar (P.A.T.S.) in the Lawrence Hall Ballroom from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sept. 24 and 25.
The two-day seminar will provide on-location training for entry-level PAs that includes a thorough orientation of the entertainment industry; proper etiquette and procedures from seasoned filmmakers; video and PowerPoint presentations; and sessions on job searching, resume building and interview techniques.
Participants will be provided with:
The first section of the seminar will include hands-on instruction, such as practical drills and demonstrations, that will prepare participants for their first day of work on a major motions picture.
The second section will focus on the finer points of filmmaking to prepare PAs with a deeper understanding of what happens behind the scenes with producers, directors and actors.
The seminar is open to the public, and Point Park students can sign up for a discounted rate of $100. To sign up for the seminar, visit the registration page on the PA Training Seminar website.
If you have any questions, please call the Pittsburgh Film Office at 412-261-2744 or email firstname.lastname@example.com.
Directions to Campus
Faculty & Staff |
Current Students
Online | News | Calendar
| Directory | Library | Give
Site Map | Contact Us | Directions to Campus | Careers at Point Park | Privacy Policy & Legal Statement
© Copyright Point Park University | 201 Wood Street Pittsburgh, PA 15222-1984 | 412-391-4100


text:
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syrian opposition figures who reject foreign intervention in Syria's 18-month conflict called for the ouster of President Bashar Assad at a rare meeting Sunday in the nation's capital. The gathering was tolerated by the regime in an apparent attempt to lend credibility to its claims that it remains open to political reform despite its bloody crackdown on dissent.
A senior former Assad ally, meanwhile, said Iran is providing massive support for the embattled Syrian regime.
"Iranians are active in leading positions in the military," former Syrian Prime Minister Riad Hijab, who defected to the opposition last month, told the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. "We're not only talking about military aid, but also logistical and economic support" by Iran.
Earlier this month, the top commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said the elite unit has high-level advisers in Syria. Iran is also believed to be sending weapons to Syria.
In recent weeks, Assad's military has escalated airstrikes and shelling of civilian areas to put down an uprising that began in March 2011 with peaceful protests but has since devolved into a civil war. Activists say close to 30,000 people have been killed.
Sunday's opposition conference was attended by diplomats from Iran, Russia and China, Assad's main allies. It was likely to be viewed as likely to be viewed as a cosmetic gesture by Syrian rebels and their many backers in the international community.
The loose network of Syrian rebel groups and the political opposition outside Syria believe Assad cannot be trusted to negotiate reform or a peaceful transfer of power, and call for foreign military intervention to break the stalemate in the conflict.
The United States and its allies have refrained from such action, partly because of international divisions over Syria and fears of a wider conflict. The opposition figures who met in Damascus are open to the idea of a political settlement, even though the conflict so far has eluded all attempts at mediation.
Assad's government tightly restricts criticism in areas it controls, and security was tight for Sunday's one-day conference at a Damascus hotel, attended by dozens of people. Streets leading to the hotel were blocked off, plainclothes security agents patrolled the perimeter and participants passed through security checks.
A bomb hidden in a black bag exploded on a footbridge in downtown Damascus, close to the Four Seasons hotel, about a kilometer (under a mile) from where Sunday's opposition conference was held. Two people suffered slight injuries, witnesses said.
Sunday's meeting was organized by the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria, or NCB, an umbrella for 16 opposition groups with roots in the country.
On Thursday, two senior NCB leaders disappeared after landing at Damascus International Airport, along with a friend who was to pick them up, and the NCB has blamed the regime for the disappearance. The government claimed the three were kidnapped by "terrorist groups," a phrase it uses for rebels.
Despite the incident, the group said participants agreed on the idea of "overthrowing the regime with all its symbols" while emphasizing the need for "peaceful struggle to achieve the goals of the revolution."
"It's our right to meet here in the capital to express our views without being subject to dictates and pressures or to be forced to make concessions," said the NCB's head, Hassan Abdul-Azim, who spent long years in Syrian prisons for his opposition role.
The strong language may be aimed at gaining credibility among Syrians who despise the regime but are weary of civil war.
NCB leaders, most of them traditional leftists, accuse the rebels and the Syrian National Council, a political opposition group based outside Syria, of being beholden to Turkey, which shelters defected Syrian generals and opposition figures, as well as Gulf Arab countries that support the rebels.
The rebels, in turn, accuse the NCB of being cut off from grassroots opposition fighters on the ground. Many rebels look askance at any political plan short of Assad's immediate ouster, seeing it as a play for time.
Ausama Monajed, a Syrian National Council official in exile, said the NCB was letting itself be used for Syrian propaganda purposes.
"Obviously, the regime had a signal to send ... to show that they are open to political dialogue and to sitting with so-called reasonable people," Monajed said. He portrayed the NCB leaders as isolated and lacking support among Syrians.
The statement emerging from Sunday's conference called for an immediate ceasefire accompanied by the full withdrawal of the Syrian army from towns and cities and the release of all political detainees and kidnapped people. This would be followed by the start of negotiations between the opposition and representatives of the Syrian government on a peaceful transition of power, it added.
The scenario outlined by the participants is similar to a six-point peace plan proposed by the former international peace envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan. That plan ended with Annan quitting the post last month after his cease-fire failed to take hold as violence escalated across the country.
Haitham Manna, a Paris-based veteran dissident who heads the external branch of the NCB, said the Syrian uprising was launched from inside Syria and it was "only natural for us to speak on behalf of the revolution from inside Syria."
He said regime change in the country was inevitable.
"This regime is dead in the hearts and minds of all Syrians ... there must be negotiations on a peaceful transition of power," he said in a telephone interview.
The Russian ambassador in Damascus, Azmat Allah Kolmahmedov, praised the conference, calling it a "direct implementation of the process of reforms launched by the Syrian government, including the freedom of expression."
Karam reported from Beirut.


text:
Flash is required to view this map.
To download the most current version of Flash please click here. The link will direct you to the Adobe Flash installer page in a new window.
Your Privacy
TransCanada is committed to protecting users' confidential information, a commitment that is reinforced by our Protection of Personal Information Policy (389 KB, PDF).
This privacy statement sets out the information gathering and dissemination practices for this website, transcanada.com. By using this website, you are consenting to this privacy statement and the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information by TransCanada as outlined in this privacy statement. If this privacy statement is not acceptable to you, please do not submit any of your personal information. We may update this privacy statement from time to time and you are responsible for periodically reviewing the most current version of this privacy statement on the website. Your continued use of the site or submission of information will be deemed your conclusive acceptance of the updated privacy statement.
This privacy statement describes our practices, regarding the collection, use and disclosure of the information that we collect about you on our website such as your name, address, phone number, fax number, and e-mail address. We may collect this information when you subscribe to, or sign your company up for, certain services that we provide, when you fill out forms made available through our website, when you e-mail us with general inquiries or with your comments or suggestions, or otherwise in connection with your use of our website. We will limit the information we collect to what we need for the purposes for which it was collected. If we wish to use your information for any other purpose, we will obtain your consent before using the information.
We may store your information in electronic databases or e-mail boxes hosted by us or our service providers, for periods of time and with safeguards that we believe are reasonable depending on the nature and sensitivity of the information. Access to the information is restricted to a select group of individuals, in accordance with our security protocols.
In some cases, we may collect information about you that is not personally-identifiable. Examples of this type of information include your Internet protocol (IP) address, the type of Internet browser you are using, the type of computer operating system you are using, and the advertisement or domain name of the website from which you linked to our website.
Some pages on TransCanada's website use a technology called "cookies". Cookies are capable of storing many types of data. Cookies help provide additional functionality to the Web `site or help us analyse website usage more accurately. For instance, our server may set a cookie that keeps you from having to accept our Photo Library Usage Agreement more than once during a visit to one of our websites. In all cases in which cookies are used, we will not collect personally identifiable information except with your permission. With most Internet browsers, you can erase cookies from your computer hard drive, block all cookies, or receive a warning before a cookie is stored. Please refer to your browser instructions or help screen to learn more about these functions.
From time to time TransCanada may use third party vendors to assist us in handling the data or providing information that you requested. In those cases, your data may be made available to these third parties solely for the purpose of your request. In all cases where third parties may be able to access your information we will continue to protect it through confidentiality arrangements and not allow your data to be removed from TransCanada's control.
We only share your personal information with others in the ways explained in this statement. We do not sell or trade this information to other organizations or companies.
You have the option to refuse or withdraw consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your information, and we will respect your choices. If you wish to exercise this option or if you have any questions or inquires with respect to our privacy policies or procedures, please send a written request to: Privacy Officer, TransCanada, 450 1st Street S.W., Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2P 5H1; email: [email protected] . We will investigate and respond to your concerns about any aspect of our handling your information.
Last updated: September 8, 2004


text:
Exploding monkeys, zombies, new maps? It must be time to give away some codes for Call of Duty: World at War's third map pack.
We've got five Playstation 3 codes and ten Xbox 360 codes. I've decided to bury the codes in two old posts on Kotaku. You'll just need to find them.
Here's a clue:
He was one of the main voice actors for Call of Duty: World at War
Good luck, and when you find a code make sure to hop back here and let us know. Don't forget to activate the code first though.
Update: The codes are all used up. Sorry!


text:
PG Story:
"The little girl used to go crashing around the BMX race course at South Park, flying over mounds of dirt.
It was scary stuff, actually -- "In BMX, you can't be afraid of anything," she said -- but there were safeguards.
"You crash in BMX at less than 30 miles per hour, and on dirt," said Sinead Miller, who has been a dirt-biker since her Sesame Street years.
Her more recent focus on Olympic-style cycling -- races on both roads and velodrome -- means Ms. Miller travels faster and lighter, but it's a sport that carries its own hazards: "You're going 60 miles per hour on a descent; you could die."
Just turned 19, Ms. Miller, of South Park, is working on a career evolution. Everyone knew she was tough, and talented, on a bike, but she has speed as well, and just keeps getting faster.
Every summer, American sports fans with an interest beyond football and a cable subscription to Versa can spend hours marveling at televised coverage of the Tour de France.
The grueling event represents a more extreme end of the roadracing spectrum. Women don't race in this particular event, but Ms. Miller shares the riders' pain.
She been a national-caliber rider since her early teens, when she began showing up at the Wednesday night races on the Washington Boulevard oval track in the East End.
"I remember this skinny 13-year-old girl coming to area races to compete against the men and women and simply refusing to give up, even when it was a struggle," said Luke Dembosky, a lawyer from Shaler who has ridden with Ms. Miller on the UPMC team.
"We all smiled to see someone so young, so determined, but after a couple of years, we weren't smiling so much," he said. "She began beating all of the women and then taking on and beating many of the men."
Ms. Miller turned pro as a dirt biker at age 15, while attending South Park High School, where she also ran cross country and played basketball. But the latter were just keeping-in-shape diversion, something to do when Pittsburgh roads were snow-covered and treacherous.
"I was trying to juggle road racing and BMX. The summer I turned 17, I decided to focus all my energy on road racing."
At this time last year, she had plans to attend Penn State University. A phone call from the cycling team coach at Marian University in Indiana changed all that.
Marian, a small Catholic school with a big reputation in riding, has its own velodrome.
"I don't think any other team in the country can walk out of the dorm room and train across the street," she said.
The Knights men's and women's teams have won their share of national titles, but Ms. Miller would provide a first: she took the Division I women's criterium title last May in Fort Collins, Colorado.
A criterium is raced in a loop over relatively short courses.
Ms. Miller arrived at the nationals fresh off a European tour, where she was part of a U.S. team that competed in events ranging from 86 to 50 miles.
"They don't have criterium in Europe, so the races are a lot different," she said. "Everyone is a lot stronger, and the races are a lot harder.
"There were usually pretty hilly races and some very good women. Actually, one race had 200 women in the field, which is crazy compared to the amount of riders [in the U.S.]."
She picked up a lot of pointers in Europe, a victory in a race in Bordeaux, France, but also a bronchial infection. Going into the collegiate nationals, Ms. Miller was not feeling great.
"Even after that, for about a month, I was sick for a while," she said.
The collegiate nationals comprise a number of individual and team events. This criterium was contested over a .9-mile, figure-8 course.
University of Florida's Jacquelyn Crowell led racers into the final sprint, but Ms. Miller caught her right at the end.
She is known for her vicious sprint and strength. Many cyclists aren't wild about weight training, but Ms. Miller, who grew up around weights through BMX, said she enjoys it.
"I am getting stronger, doing better every year."
Mental focus and maturity, said Mr. Dembosky, are among her assets: "When we have indoor training sessions as a team, Sinead is one who is all business, not chit-chatting and goofing around like the older men on our team.
"She knows what she has to do to be the best, and she is disciplined and determined enough to do it, even as a teenager."
Ms. Miller said she is taking in the big picture, as far as her career goes. She is currently without a racing team, having left one in March, which puts her at a disadvantage in a sport where teamwork often is everything.
"It makes it tough, but it's taught me to be able to think on my feet, be more technical about my positioning in the peloton.
"Every second, every pedal stroke will count."
Making the U.S. squad for the 2012 summer Olympics in London involves two years of qualifying races, so she's getting ready for that.
"I'm going to start doing world-caliber races and acquire experience," she said. "I'm still young, there's still a lot of time.
"I think 2016 is more realistic for me, but I'm definitely going to work as hard as I can. But if it doesn't happen [in 2012], I'm not going to be down."
Although she was home on familiar roads this week -- on Monday, she took an "easy" two-hour ride from South Park down to the Mon Valley back through Mingo Creek Park -- Ms. Miller was to race again in Charlotte, N.C. this weekend.
The national criterium championships begin Aug.15 in Downers Grove, Illinois, so that's on her to-do list. Then it's back to school.
"Before I came into school, I had never raced on a track before. I still kind of think of myself as an amateur on the track, and even on the road," she said.
"I'm still young, I just turned 19. Most of the women who are best in the world are 30."


text:
Ibanez IJXB150B Jumpstart Bass Package Walnut SunburstProduct #H86341 Ibanez H86341 BAO Value Package Electric Bass https://www.esnapw.com/rses/ESnapServlet?MerchantNumberSent=63655 false true true
- Write a Review
45 day price guarantee, 45 day return policy, 100% secure shopping
A complete bass package including bass, amp and accessories.
The Ibanez IJXB150BMPL Jumpstart Bass package has everything you need to get started on your road to fame and fortune as a bassist. And when we say everything, we mean everything"amp, axe, accessories. All it takes is you and your desire to make your dreams real"to get out of the audience and up on stage where you belong.
Includes gig bag.
- GSR190 bass with IBZ1B 10-watt Bass Amp
- Electronic Tuner
- Gig Bag
- Cable
- Picks
- Stand
- Online Lesson Card
- Accessories Pouch
Get started today!


text:
August 20
Yesterday, we traveled to the Kornati Islands, part of which are
a Croatian national park. Basically, they are a group of
hundreds of islands off the coast of Zadar. Most don't look
to have much, if anything, on them. We left by boat for a
day-long excursion and I must admit that the theme song to
Gilligan's Island was in my head. The boat took us on a tour
throughout the islands. It took three hours out, and then we
stopped at one of the islands and got off to swim.
Our guide, V, rallied the troops as soon as we got off the boat and instructed us to follow him to the other side of the island. It would be more secluded and we could have an area just for our group. It was about a ten minute hike, up and over the hill. We had to walk single file and watch our step among the rocks. There was talk of snakes, but I didn't see any. It wasn't so easy a hike in flip flops, but we all made it ok. It was totally worth the extra effort. The view was just as spectaular, but without the other people from the boat.
The water was crystal clear, blue. In the shallower water, you could see straight down to the bottom. Everyone immediately dove in and we had two hours to swim before returning to the boat, but the timing was perfect. There was no shade, and the sun was beating down hard. You were either in the water, or baking on the rocks on the shoreline.
After hiking back to the boat we all sat for a meal prepared for us by the crew of the boat. The main dish was mackerel. Now, I don't know for sure that they caught the fish right there while we were away swimming, grilled them up and put them on our plates - but that is exactly what it looked like. We each got a whole fish - minus the head - grilled skin and all. It was very tasty. And the side dish was like a combination of potato salad and cole slaw, also tasty. I was pretty hungry so I ate every bite. There was also a chicken option, but in a setting like that, I had to go with the fish.
We took a more direct route back to the mainland, which took about two hours. It was a day of fresh air, sun and water - we were all exhausted and there we many naps being had before dinner time, most of which took place around the hotel pool.
The coast and the islands were breathtaking. Absolutely beautiful. It was a really fun day.


text:
Sandy likely biggest US relief effort since 2005
Fri., Nov. 9, 2012, 10:45 a.m.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Widespread destruction from Superstorm Sandy will likely make this the largest U.S. relief effort for the American Red Cross, Salvation Army and other groups since Hurricane Katrina's devastation in 2005.
By Friday, the Red Cross had raised $117 million in donations and pledges for relief work across 10 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The Salvation Army had raised $5 million online and by phone.
Red Cross Senior Vice President Roger Lowe said it would likely be the charity's largest U.S. effort since Katrina, outpacing Hurricanes Ike and Gustav and wildfires in California. Salvation Army Major Darryl Leedom said the population density of the Northeast may require a response that surpasses Katrina in the number of people served and resources required.
The initial Red Cross response was paid for out of an annual disaster giving program, and fundraising will replenish those funds to sustain the effort.
"Like every disaster, we want to get as much as we can to as many people as fast as we can," Lowe said. "That's what we've been doing."
Officials aren't yet sure how many people have been left homeless. So far, more than 317,000 people have registered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency for financial help. There were still 470,000 power outages in New York and New Jersey early Friday, some 11 days after the storm made landfall.
The Red Cross said it has deployed nearly every emergency response vehicle in its fleet with 5,800 workers and volunteers. It has served more than 3.2 million meals and snacks and provided more than 110,000 shelter stays along with other charities and government agencies.
As the largest private relief organization, the Red Cross saw a boost in fundraising from telethons on NBC and ABC. They raised a combined $40 million since the storm.
Still, figures show overall fundraising among U.S. charities has been slower than for Japan's 2011 earthquake and Haiti's 2010 quake, based on figures from nonprofit service provider Blackbaud and the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Lowe said those were different disasters with different challenges and circumstances. He said the Red Cross wasn't seeing any evidence of donor fatigue or sluggishness.
"There's not a link between the pace of fundraising and the pace of recovery," he said.
Officials at the Salvation Army, however, said donations have fallen far short of needs on the ground and that the public may not grasp the extent of damage.
"For the demand for service and the level of service that still is going to be provided, (donations) don't come anywhere near close to what we will actually spend," said Major George Hood of the Salvation Army. It was too soon to provide a spending projection for the overall cost, he said.
The charity will be challenged as it shifts into its holiday fundraising season with its nationwide red kettle campaign. Funds raised during the holiday campaign are kept locally for social services work unless donors specify otherwise. Last year the campaign raised $147 million.
Major Evan Hickman, who is leading the Salvation Army's New York-area relief effort, said his region will need a sustained fundraising effort to respond to Sandy. This week it was serving more than 500,000 meals a day with partner charities and distributing thousands of relief supplies.
People who haven't lived through a hurricane or seen the destruction up close may not realize the full impact, he said.
"It's going to be a long, long term of recovery," Hickman said. "It's time for people just to really dig deep and maybe make a Christmas gift come a little bit early and pick up their cellphone and text us or send us a check. Now is the time to do that."
American Red Cross: http://www.redcross.org/ or text "REDCROSS" to 90999 to donate $10.
Salvation Army: http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/ or text "STORM" to 80888 to donate $10.
Follow Brett Zongker on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DCArtBeat
Subscribe to the Morning Review newsletter
Get the day's top headlines delivered to your inbox every morning by subscribing to our newsletter.


text:
Our new after hours drop box located in the front lobby of the Charlotte Sheriff's Office
The Records Section is staffed personnel who process and maintain over 20,000 criminal
and non-criminal reports yearly.
All reports are computerized to form a database and for later retrieval as necessary.
The Records Section also issues purchase permits, provides documents and reports to citizens
and answers general questions.
The Records Section may be reached at 517-543-5247 during normal business hours.
Business Hours:
Monday through Friday 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. except on holidays
Finger Printing Hours:
Monday through Friday 9 am to 11:30 am and 1:30 pm to 4 pm except on holidays
Pistol Sales Records may be returned to
Eaton County Sheriff's Office
Attn: Records
1025 Independence Blvd
Charlotte, MI 48813
General Fingerprinting - $15.00
(additional state and federal fees may apply in some cases such as school employment
or volunteers which is an additional $44.75)
Conceal Pistol License (CPL) Fingerprinting - $15.00
Purchase Permits $2.50 Notary Fee (those who currently hold a CPL permit are exempt from this fee)
Accident/Crime Reports $ 7.00
F.O.I.A. Requests $17.47 for the first page and .382 cents for each additional page.
Additional charges for time spent researching and copying information will be applied.


text:
Monday, January 11, 2010
We Live + Learn.
We've had to back out of the offer to get the space we were so keen on, in Cabbagetown. Due to a series of escalating costs from 'surprises' and a general feeling of unease with the whole ordeal, our lawyer agreed with us on Friday we should walk away. We couldn't convince ourselves there wouldn't be more costly surprises ahead, and with the last increase in cost we were starting to stretch our resources a little too thin.
What does this mean for Café Novo? Well to start it means we're back to searching for the right location. This hasn't been a total loss however – we've learned a lot regarding the offer process, and what we need to know going in. If we approach another restaurant to purchase and convert to a café, we'll be armed with a much keener sense about the process, and better able to protect ourselves all the while.
Sadie and I spent Saturday freezing our butts off walking around Cabbagetown, sussing out potential buildings. We're a bit hung-up on the neighborhood; we will continue to search there in the event we can find another appropriate space. One space we're very curious about, on Carlton Street about a block away from Parliament. Looks like it has great potential, just starting the process of trying to find out what it is, who owns it, etc.
We've got an appointment to view a new location tomorrow night, which is a recently closed café in the Junction area of Toronto. It has great potential, rent is low, and the right spot on the street. The Junction was an area I looked in initially, but didn't look too long due to the amount of cafes recently opened – don't want to get into an over-saturated market. With this café closing, and opening up the potential to get into an advantageous spot, we're reconsidering. We'll let you know how it goes!
In much better news, we have a website! My fantastic friend Marc is helping us with the design and hosting, and just put up the holding page. Check it out!
We'll be keeping you posted about more website updates; it will eventually host this blog, plus a wealth of information about our place. In the meantime you can contact us with any suggestions / love / ideas at info at cafenovo dot ca, no spaces.
Until next time, keep warm and enjoy some hot cocoa for us!
2 comments:
- DrBroadJanuary 12, 2010 at 8:41 AM
In regards to not wanting to get into an oversaturated market, I can't help wonder if the opposite is true?ReplyDelete
Take car yards*.
If you open a car yard, you dont want to be situated across the other end of town from your rival.. you want to be right next door where you can pick up the traffic and the castoffs from dodgy joe's next door.
Generally you find car yards all stick together in one end of the town district (at least, in New Zealand).
Im wondering that maybe you would be better to be in amongst it, and benefit from the cafe-established fan base that comes along with the territory?
(* car yards arent doing so well these days - but people always need to eat and drink!)
I'm a total stranger, who was surfing the net across different sites and ended up here. I started reading your blog posts and found it so interesting mainly because I also want to go for something I believe in and like. A 9-to-5 job just isn't made for me :).
I hope that it will work out for you and I'm looking forward for your shop to open up and hopefully be able to pass by one day :).
It's really cool to see people going for what they love in life :). It should taste better too ;).


text:
Pominville scores in OT as Adler Mannheim stuns Canada at Spengler Cup
Tyler Seguin scored Canada's only goal
An opening game loss at the Spengler Cup hasn't shaken the confidence of Team Canada.
Jason Pominville scored on a breakaway three minutes into overtime Wednesday as Adler Mannheim shocked Canada with a 2-1 victory in Davos, Switzerland.
Tyler Seguin scored the lone goal for Canada in the third period as the roster loaded with NHL talent had trouble finding its scoring touch, despite generating plenty of chances.
"There's no panic in us right now," said Canadian forward Matt Duchene. "We all think we played a pretty good game, there were lots of bounces and opportunities that we just weren't able to put in."
Pominville, a locked out member of the NHL's Buffalo Sabres, ripped a low shot past Canadian goalie Jonathan Bernier to give the top team in the German league a surprising victory.
Nick Bonino tweet
"Great start to the Spengler Cup, big OT win for Mannheim. Nice to have a day between games here, catch my breath. #highaltitude"
"I know Bernier a little bit, so there was a lot of mind playing going on in the moment," said Pominville after the game. "I'm just glad it went in to get the big victory for our team."
First played in 1923, the Spengler Cup annually pits Davos and Canada against four European club teams in a six-day tournament in Switzerland.
Dennis Endras made 34 saves for Mannheim, including a breakaway stop on Patrice Bergeron moments before Pominville's winner.
"You can't expect to win against Team Canada in the Spengler Cup," said Endras. "All of us battled hard for 60 minutes, we blocked a lot of shots to prevent their chances and it's just awesome to get the points."
A fast-paced contest with numerous chances on both sides, Mannheim opened the scoring on the power play with 4:06 remaining in the first when Adam Mitchell tipped home a point shot past Bernier.
Canada fought back hard, but the lineup that includes NHLers Jason Spezza, John Tavares, Sam Gagner, Jason Williams and Jason Demers couldn't find its range against Endras.
"Give Mannheim a lot of credit," said Duchene. "They played well defensively and their goalie made a lot of great saves."
Canada looked shaky playing in their own zone in the first period, failing to clear and being pushed off the puck several times. But the defence stabilized as the game wore on and most of the action took place in Mannheim's end.
The line of Spezza, Tavares and Gagner generated plenty of scoring chances, while the combination of Seguin, Bergeron and Byron Ritchie provided Canada with its only goal.
Bergeron found his Boston Bruins teammate with a cross-ice pass at 9:30 of the third and Seguin wired a shot past Endras on the power play.
"We made Canada work hard for their opportunities," said Pominville. "With the skill they have, you can't afford to break down and we didn't do that very often tonight."
Canada carried the play for the rest of regulation but couldn't find a way past the Mannheim goalie before Pominville ended it in the extra period.
"We battled back from behind and put ourselves in a decent position to win," said Team Canada captain Ryan Smyth. "There's a lot of positives we can take from thisa and we're in control of our own destiny."
Canada earned a point in the overtime loss and now faces tournament hosts HC Davos on Thursday. Though they automatically have a spot in the elimination round, a win would give them a chance to go directly to the semifinals.
"For coming together from all different parts of the world just a few days ago, we played a strong game," said Smyth. "We've got a really decent group of guys and it's just about putting it all together going forth."


text:
Care.com buys Parents in a Pinch
Care.com, a Waltham company that helps both consumers and employees of corporate clients get access to child care and other services, said it has bought Parents in a Pinch in an acquisition that will allow it to offer additional services and broaden its customer base.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The primary business of Care.com is to connect families with caregivers. The company offers a suite of online tools that list and sort providers of child care, senior care, pet care, housekeeping, tutoring, and other services. It has approximately 7 million users in more than 15 countries.
Currently headquartered in Brookline, Parents in a Pinch provides back-up child care services. If a nanny calls in sick, for example, a mother can turn to Parents in a Pinch to get a qualified substitute nanny at short notice.
As a result of the acquisition, Parents in a Pinch and its 15-person staff are relocating to Waltham; no layoffs are planned, said Care.com, whose US employee head count was 370 before purchasing Parents in a Pinch.
As a wholly owned subsidiary of Care.com, Parents in a Pinch will continue to be run by co-founders Barbara Siegel and Davida Manon, Care.com said.
The deal gives Care.com additional services to offer to such corporate clients as Google Inc. and Facebook Inc., a Care.com spokeswoman said.
The two companies also have different client rosters. Parents in a Pinch clients include Bain & Co., Boston Children's Hospital, Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and TripAdvisor.
The acquisition also offers Care.com an opportunity to offer its services to Parents in a Pinch clients.
In a statement, Sheila Lirio Marcelo, founder and chief executive of Care.com, said: "Through our existing business serving employers, we are acutely aware of the needs companies face in addressing the growing care challenges faced by their employees and their desire to do so via one provider who can offer a full scope of services. Back-up care is a critical component in that mix, and with Parents in a Pinch, Care.com is now uniquely positioned to provide professional in-home back-up care assistance as an adjacency to our existing services.''


text:
Our 8340 is generally very light on the shuttle lever but occasionally the shift will baulk and moving back to neutral or opposite direction makes it easy. I never force the lever. On the other hand the Hi Lo lever is a pig and I have found the middle leaver is best in neutral.
If the synchronisers were completely worn I assume you would get a crunch? I wonder if the cable its self is stiff. I have had other machines with bowden type cables that seem to wear and increase friction.


text:
A successful Orange County interior designer with aspirations of catering to high-end shoppers has expanded his business to a new two-story showroom in Costa Mesa.
Marc Pridmore Designs, 3089 Bristol St., displays a variety of furnishings but also offers custom flooring, drapery and interior design. The 42,000-square-foot showroom held its grand opening Thursday.
This story has corrected the spelling of Marc Pridmore and Marc Pridmore Designs. Also, bedroom sets go up to $40,000, not bedding.
Pricing for services and furnishings can vary greatly, depending the level of customization sought by a customer, said Zai Holder, marketing vice president.
Dining sets, for example, can start at a few thousand dollars and go much higher. Bedroom sets go up to $40,000.
"The sky's the limit with the possibility," Holder said, adding that "as exclusive as you want to get, the price just gets higher because the materials are hard to come by."
He stressed the store's design service, which sees customers through the whole process.
"We're holding their hand the entire way, making them feel totally comfortable with their purchase," Holder said.
Marc Pridmore, the store's chief executive and executive designer, described his style as traditional, classic and timeless.
"I really don't want to have a dated look," he said. "I go for things that will last a lifetime or more."
The 32-year-old Alabama native who recently moved to Costa Mesa, is a veteran of the interior design world.
"It is a tough time to start a business, but I've been doing business in Orange County for about 10 years now," Pridmore said. "I've built up a nice reputation among my clientele for quality, good service and honesty."
Pridmore and his team completely renovated the Bristol Street facility for their needs, including adding a "man cave" display on the second floor.
"It's basically for a man: the library bookcase, sofa, game table, pool table, shuffleboard table," said store manager Gus Arellano, who moved from Scottsdale, Ariz., to head the store. "When a couple comes in shopping, the gentleman can go up there and the wife can continue to shop."
Next to the man cave is a home theater setup. There is also a community room that can host events.
Pridmore said the items are mostly from North Carolina, though some come from Asia or Italy.
"We try to have as many things from America as we can," he said.
Twitter: @bradleyzint


text:
D.Damodar Speciality
This category simply indicates items with we which are exceptionally good as compared to all our counterparts. Every offering on our menu is delectable and special but there are some for which we are known throughout the city. Our clientele for this category is established and loyal since years due to our consistent quality and taste


text:
Neenah Environment NATURAL WHITE (24W/Smooth) - #10 Commercial Envelopes (4.125 x 9.5) - 2500 PK
Looking for Envelopes, No 10 (4-1/8-x-9-1/2) with Smooth appearance found in the Off-White Color Group, 89 GSM (24lb Writing) --learn more about Natural White --Environment Envelopes. Also, view our popular help pages for paper help. (To make a successful paper selection, it is important to have a brief understanding of text weight and cover weight papers.) AND envelope help (It is important to remember that inserts must always be smaller than the envelope dimensions.)
Shop for Environment No 10 (4-1/8-x-9-1/2) Envelopes
Ideal Envelopes with Smooth appearance, gsm-paperweight of 89 GSM (24lb Writing) and fiber content of 30% Recycled --here you found Natural White associated to Off-White Color Group, Environment, Neenah. Our PaperPapers sku is: ENVIRO-3820400 -- This product listing is selling as 2500 per package.Find more details about this product when hitting the more info tab --please contact our team if you have questions.
|Product type
|Oversize or Cutting Fee to be applied
|Color Name / Brand Specific
|Natural White
|Color Range
|Off-White Color Group
|Content Fiber
|30% Recycled
|Finish Appearance
|GSM / Basis Wt
|89 GSM (24lb Writing)
|Mill code
|Package Quantity
|2500 per package
|No 10 (4-1/8-x-9-1/2)


text:
Welcome to Our Schools
Bulloch County Schools is a public, pre-kindergarten through twelfth-grade school system located in southeast Georgia. It is our mission to prepare students for success and enhance community value.
We are the 38th largest school district in Georgia. Our school system is Statesboro and Bulloch County's second-largest employer with more than 1,750 full-time, part-time, substitute, seasonal and contracted services employees.
We serve more than 10,700 students in a consolidated system with 15 campuses and three alternative learning centers: Cedarwood, the Transitions Learning Center, and the Graduation Performance Academy. We are a culturally diverse school system with 24 different nationalities and 18 different languages represented.
Bulloch County is an education community with choices of public, private, charter and homeschool K-12 options. There are three post-secondary institutions within the county (Georgia Southern University, East Georgia State College and Ogeechee Technical College). Our students and faculty benefit from the partnerships we have built with these education partners.
Bulloch County Schools and each of its schools faithfully engage in an accreditation process through AdvancED every five years. This process allows us to share how our employees collaborate in professional learning communities, analyze student performance data, look at root causes, develop plans and act to improve our schools. It's a time for objective input from peer professionals and part of our continuous improvement culture.
AdvancED conducted a Quality Assurance Review on September 18 - September 21, 2011, and determined that our school district and each of our schools met the Accreditation Standards for a Quality School system. Our next Quality Assurance Review is scheduled for March 5-8, 2017.
Strategic Waivers School System
Bulloch County Schools is a strategic-waivers school system through the Georgia Department of Education's flexibility options. Learn more about Strategic Waivers School System.
Optimization of Resources
Resource optimization is a key strategic goal area in the school system's strategic plan. Recognitions like the ones listed below are an indication of the positive work being done in this area.
Financial Efficiency
Bulloch County Schools is known at the state and national level for having sound financial management. To see the school system's most recent audits, visit the Business & Finance Department area of our website.
- Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts (GDAA): GDAA selected the Bulloch County Board of Education (BOE) to receive an Award of Distinction for Excellent Financial Reporting for the district's Fiscal Year 2015 audit. The award is presented annually to qualifying public school systems and two-year and four-year colleges and universities in Georgia, who strive not just for best financial practices but better. Last year only 27 school systems received the award out of the state's 181 public school districts.
To receive the award, organizations must meet the following criteria: (1) Provide full supporting documentation to substantiate financial statements; (2) Provide financial statements in a timely manner; (3) Ensure all evidence is easy to locate and use for audit; (4) Have responsive managers that resolve all accounting standards and presentation issues in a timely manner; (5) Have key staff readily available and cooperative during the audit and not delay finalizing the audit; (6) Have no significant deficiencies or material weaknesses noted during the audit. Must have no more than three to five control deficiencies reported within the management letter; (7) Have a clear, unmodified audit opinion; and (8) Comply with all Transparency in Government requirements.
- Standard & Poor's Ratings Service (S&P): In the last 10 years, S&P, the nation's second leading bond rating firm, has raised its school issuer credit rating on Bulloch County School's general obligation bonds three times. Now at a rating of AA Minus, according to a recent RatingsDirect® Summary, the district's consistently favorable financial performance despite a recession and ongoing state revenue pressures and the school district's "pro-active budget management," are some of the primary reasons for the increases. This is a positive indication of the school district's underlying credit rating, and resource management.
- AdvancED: In the school system's most recent accreditation process (Sept. 2011), AdvancEd commended the school system on its proactive fiscal planning and actions that have consistently placed the system on a firm financial foundation.
- Annual audits by the GDAA's Education Division: Bulloch County Schools' Fiscal Year 2015 Audit began in November 2015, and concluded in February 2016. Auditors examined expenditures from all of the school system's funds, audited the use of federal funds for compliance with applicable federal and state laws and regulations, and concluded with an in-depth examination of the school system's financial statements. The audit involved virtually all departments within the school system, including business services, payroll, human resources, transportation, food services, federal programs and each school. In addition to the financial aspect of the audit, the GDAA reviews a sampling of employee salary calculations, benefit calculations and various other personnel information. The complete Bulloch County Board of Education 2015 Audit Report, including key financial highlights, is posted on the district's website at www.bulloch.k12.ga.us/audits.
Faculty Professional Development
Bulloch County School's ensures that its leadership and faculty are effectively trained and empowered to carry out the district's strategic plan and school-level improvement plans by providing ongoing local and off-site training. With education partners like First District RESA, the Georgia Leadership Institute for School Improvement (GLISI), the Georgia Department of Education and more, the district trains administrators and faculty in standards-based classrooms, professional learning communities, school improvement planning, state curriculum standards, instructional technology and data analysis tools, and more.
Bulloch County Schools has also made growing the district's future leaders a strategic focus in order to support student success. The Board of Education established an Aspiring Leaders program for the district in 2015. The 11-month class is for teachers and school administrators, who want to become effective future leaders within the district.
College & Career Readiness
Bulloch County Schools selects quality academic curriculum to support teaching Georgia's Standards of Excellence. We are also focused on finding the best workforce development model to match our community assets with K-12 classroom instruction for career pathways. Learn more about Career Pathways.
Bulloch County Schools is also partnering with the Pathways to Prosperity Network to develop a community-based education and work-readiness system of grades 9 through 14, that leverages our high school programs, technical college, business and industry, and other community resources, to align our students' opportunities with regional and state (as part of the larger global picture) labor market needs. The Georgia Department of Education and the Pathways to Prosperity Network have selected Bulloch County as one of two counties in the state to build a statewide model for workforce development. Learn more about the Pathways to Prosperity Network.
Facilities & Technology Investment
Bulloch County voters have successfully passed three Education Special Local Option Sales Tax (ESPLOST) referendums since 2003. The first, approved in 2003, ran from 2004-2008; the second approved in 2005, ran from 2009 – 2013; and the third, approved by 92 percent of voters in 2009, began in 2014 and will expire in December 2018.
In 2014, Bulloch County Schools formed a 36- member Facilities Committee to review and prioritize facilities needs. The committee is made up of a faculty and community representative from each school, plus the district's chief operations officer and two Board of Education members. Learn more about facilities and technology investments about our facilities and technology investments.
Stakeholder & Community Support
We strive to establish effective, open and continuous dialogue between our schools, parents, administrators, post-secondary partners and business and industry leaders. We work to significantly increase community involvement, spur innovation and increase collaboration. We are committed to continually working with the community to decide how to best use resources to do what is best for students. Learn more about our Speak Up for Education events about our Speak Up for Education events.


text:
Thank you for visiting the City of Chilliwack Event Listing.
Please note the City of Chilliwack encourages and supports community involvement but reserves the right to decline any program/event that does not meet the criteria as outlined on the add your event page, or that is not consistent with values of the community as reflected by the policies and opinions expressed by City Council.
Please email email@example.com if you have questions or concerns about the Event Listing.
If your event meets our criteria please feel free to Add Your Event.
You can also find more events listed on the
|Events Listing
|Found 1 Event ...
|Chilliwack Library Book ClubFeb 28, 2018 - Feb 28, 2018
|Location: Chilliwack Library, 45860 First Avenue
|Contact: Chilliwack Library 604-792-1941
|Website: http://www.fvrl.bc.ca
Join us for lively discussions of selected titles. Chosen books change monthly with copies provided by the library. New members are welcome to join at any time!
Add an Event
Submit an upcoming event for display in the events listing.
Canada Day 2019
Vendor and volunteer applications are available now for 2019 Canada Day celebrations in Chilliwack.


text:
A report by two of the City`s major charities paints a bleak picture of the local impact of cuts to the benefits system proposed by the coalition government`s Welfare Reform Bill.
Stoke-on-Trent Citizens Advice Bureau and Brighter Futures have cooperated to analyse the impact of the proposed cuts on their users and on the economy of the city as a whole.
The report predicts that cuts to Employment and Support Allowance alone will take at least £13 million each year out of the local economy. They predict that changes to Housing Benefit will lead to increased homelessness and a reduction in the number of private landlords in the area. The report notes that the changes could force vulnerable people to live in dangerous shared accommodation.
"The changes attempt to impose a single "Ëœone size fits all' solution on towns and cities which are facing starkly different economic challenges. This means that in a city like Stoke on Trent they will represent a false economy and will give at best only short term savings to the public purse. In the medium term they will both reduce our economic activity and add to the burden on public services. Taking swift and decisive action together we can make a difference. This report set-out practical recommendations that I am hopeful will be acted-on as a matter of urgency".
"In our work we meet thousands of local people who are currently dependent on welfare benefits. In many cases these people could be helped back into work by the regeneration strategies of central and local government. We fully support these efforts to create new local jobs. However, we recognise that they will not create instant jobs and thus we believe that, even for those who can be helped into work, they need a decent benefits system meanwhile. For those who are unable to work due to illness or disability, the proposed changes represent yet another hurdle in lives that are already often impossibly hard".
"The proposals to change Housing Benefit are designed to solve problems in London and the expensive south east. Housing conditions in those areas are completely different to those in North Staffordshire and the effect of imposing these cuts on Stoke will be to make many people homeless and to make it difficult for organisations like Brighter Futures to offer the individually tailored packages of care that we design to help people cope with the effects of mental health problems, addictions or criminal behaviour".


text:
Before we get started, full disclosure: I'm on the "board" of hearnebraska.org. Not that it matters -- I'm not involved in the website's day-to-day activities, and have little or no input on things like website content or fundraising events. But I don't want you to think I'm cheerleading when I make this statement: Hearnebraska.org has emerged as the best resource for local rock show schedule information on the web. I say "among the best," because this here newspaper's website, thereader.com, (Full disclosure again: I write for The Reader, as you, uh, know) also has stepped up its online music schedule/calendar. Meanwhile, one website I'm completely unaffiliated with, omahype.com, continues to plug away with its comprehensive arts-focused online calendar.
The "news" here is that the ol' tried and true go-to place for all things local musicwise -- slamomaha.com -- has fallen on hard times, especially when it comes to its show calendar. In its heyday a few years ago, SLAM Omaha was the first click of the evening when looking for rock show data, mainly because: 1) It was the only game in town; and 2) The calendar was updated by the bands themselves, who were looking for someplace/anyplace to promote their wares. The fact that the site's simple design has never been updated turned out to be an advantage, because SLAM Omaha still has the cleanest, easiest-to-navigate calendar of any local entertainment website. Linked off its homepage, it merely lists dates, bands, venues and times, with brief descriptions and prices. Nothing more, nothing less.
But apparently all this new competition for online music news, as well as the rise of Facebook, has distracted bands from SLAM Omaha. Look at its calendar this week and you'll find very few events listed, despite the plethora of nightly shows.
As part of maintaining my website, Lazy-i.com, I check all the online calendars daily, so I can list the best shows happening every evening (Lazy-i ain't comprehensive, and was never meant to be). With that research in mind, I can declare that the new go-to resource is hearnebraska.org's calendar, thanks to its small army of underfed, overworked interns. Unfortunately, finding the site's calendar(s) can be … confusing. The website doesn't have a small homepage "portlet" or section that lists the evening's hot shows. Instead, users have to "hover " their mouse over the "SHOWS" rollover link. Skip the wonky, incomplete "Today's Shows" listing and go straight to quicker/easier to navigate "Calendar" listing.
Before getting to the evening's lineups users must scroll past the month's outdated past shows, then sort through the double listings. I'm assuming most of those hungry interns live in Lincoln, because there's a preponderance of Lincoln shows listed, and usually one or two hidden-gem Omaha shows missing. HN's calendar would be more useful if it segregated Omaha and Lincoln shows for those who won't be driving to Lincoln anytime soon (and vice versa). Despite design flaws, HN's calendar is the most up-to-date and comprehensive, thanks to its unique music-only focus.
Next in line is thereader.com, which received a much-needed site redesign this year. Like HN, The Reader also lacks a homepage portlet displaying today's hot shows. Users must click on a "Calendar" tab. From there, they have to click on an almost invisible "Music Listings" sub-tab, after which a poorly formatted events page is displayed with date headings. The good news is that it's a (somewhat) comprehensive list (from an Omaha perspective), including shows at smaller venues like The Hole, The Sandbox and O'Leaver's. Unfortunately, the design is surrounded with outdated news content. Stay away from the page's confusing sub navigation (today's events/latest events/choose by day), unless you want to get lost.
The most attractive online calendar is Omahype.com. Omahype, with coverage of all things arts and entertainment with a "youth-oriented" spin, is cool and clean, with spiffy fonts and big photos and graphics. But while the Omahype team does a fine job gathering information, clicking on the "Music" tab gets you a hodgepodge of content displayed in no particular order. A music review is followed by an outdated calendar listing, followed by a download link followed by a photo essay followed by a show listing for something that doesn't happen for a couple weeks. The information you're looking for is there … somewhere.
Let's not forget the great, grey Omaha World-Herald. For a newspaper with a multi-million dollar payroll, Omaha.com is one of the worst designed news websites on the www. The hard-to-navigate homepage looks like the Yellow Pages blew up all over it. Stories are interspersed with Husker-related "news," vapid reader polls and garish click-me-now advertising. Yeah, I realize they have to generate money to cover that multi-million dollar payroll, but they shouldn't do it at the readers' expense. Perhaps they purposely made the website ugly to force readers to buy their newspaper? Once found, Omaha.com's calendar lists a few big events, such as Qwest Center concerts, and ignores small-room shows, making it useless for anyone trying to keep track of the bustling indie music scene.
At the end of the day, despite all the new media, finding rock show information online is still a crapshoot. With so many websites now vying for the same sets of eyes, there's no way all of them will survive. But until someone can come up with a clean, easy, complete listing of shows like SLAM Omaha used to have, the field remains wide open.
Lazy-i is a weekly column by Reader senior contributing writer Tim McMahan focused on the Omaha music scene. Check out Tim's daily music news updates at his website, lazy-i.com, or email him at firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
Katie Holmes invests in organic hair care company
The Batman Begins star became a big fan of Alterna after the company's products "transformed" her long locks, and now she has become a co-owner.
She tells WWD.com, "I love that Alterna uses natural and organic ingredients and stays away from harsh chemicals like sulfates and parabens. It's good for my hair and good for the earth, so I feel good using it.
"When it comes to hair, great style should be sustainable. Using the right products means you don't have to work as hard to look and feel your best."
Holmes will feature in new advertisements from February (13).
She is no stranger to the modelling world - she became the first-ever face of beauty firm Bobbi Brown Cosmetics in September (12), and previously fronted ventures for fashion firms Ann Taylor, Miu Miu and J.Crew.


text:
Danae Mines, who is assigned to Engine Co. 60 and is one of only 41 women in the department, told the Daily News she was determined to get in the calendar after seeing an open call for auditions posted on a firehouse wall last year.
She told the paper she felt a little nervous waiting in line with dozens of men to try out for one of the coveted pages, which usually feature shirtless men, but she stood strong -- and it paid off.
Mines started out as an EMT and was promoted to firefighter in 2003, the News reported. She told the paper she wanted her picture in the calendar in part so that "young girls and young women can see me and know that they can do this job."
This year's calendar features Mines and 12 other active firefighters at firehouses and other locations across the city. Those featured in the calendar were signing purchased copies in Times Square Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. It can also be ordered online here.
All proceeds from the sale of the $17.95 calendar go directly to the FDNY Foundation, the not-for-profit arm of the FDNY which was established to promote fire safety education for residents of New York City and to provide professional development, training and education for FDNY members.


text:
(visited by Oleg Vassilev)
03-Aug-2003 -- The point is quite difficult to get to. It's in a not very steep slope suraunded by different types of bushes like blackberries, raspberries and nettles. There is shepard path as near as 200 meters. The rest of the way to the point takes 30 to 40 minutes.
Pict#1 the opposite hill, the only view which I was able to take while looking through the bushes and trees.
Pict#2 myself - quite sweating
Pict#3, Pict#4 My eTrex Vista at the point 43/24. In order to get the finest result the measurement was taken in a two-tree square metres area for 20 minutes. The accuracy was 6 meters.