text: Are they one of your top favorite yummy, yummy choco treats, too? I bet they are, for very few people can resist the temptation of spoiling their taste buds with some delicious, mouth-watering chocolate waffles. Then, how about learning how to cook them? It's so simple: first of all make sure you have all the ingredients listed in the recipe ready. I'm talking here about fresh, tasty strawberries, about butter, flour, sugar, eggs and other must-have ingredients. Lovely! As a free cooking games for girls fan you will definitely love digging up all these priceless waffles cooking secrets! The next step to take: mixing the cocoa with some sugar, some salt and a few more ingredients prepared for you on the kitchen table there and using the whisk put at your disposal for blending them in through and through. In the next phase of this fun-filled cooking class you need to throw a bunch of yummy ingredients, such as the mix you've just put together, the butter, the two eggs, into the food processor yo have there. Mix by mix, doing your cooking hocus pocus while you let yourself guided by the precious indications on your screen, you will have cooked your delicious chocolate waffles in no time!

lowercased: are they one of your top favorite yummy, yummy choco treats, too? i bet they are, for very few people can resist the temptation of spoiling their taste buds with some delicious, mouth-watering chocolate waffles. then, how about learning how to cook them? it's so simple: first of all make sure you have all the ingredients listed in the recipe ready. i'm talking here about fresh, tasty strawberries, about butter, flour, sugar, eggs and other must-have ingredients. lovely! as a free cooking games for girls fan you will definitely love digging up all these priceless waffles cooking secrets! the next step to take: mixing the cocoa with some sugar, some salt and a few more ingredients prepared for you on the kitchen table there and using the whisk put at your disposal for blending them in through and through. in the next phase of this fun-filled cooking class you need to throw a bunch of yummy ingredients, such as the mix you've just put together, the butter, the two eggs, into the food processor yo have there. mix by mix, doing your cooking hocus pocus while you let yourself guided by the precious indications on your screen, you will have cooked your delicious chocolate waffles in no time!


text:
This month we choose to read “Beauty and The Beast”. This is a story from the “Collins Treasury of Fairy Tales” from the Nenagh Library.
This is a very old fairy story and this version is retold by Helen Creswell and illustrated by Sian Bailey. This story is about a kind beautiful woman called Beauty. Both of her sisters are jealous of her because she is such a nice person. After Beauty’s father loses all his wealth he travels a very long distance to try to recover it but on the way he gets lost in a storm. Thankfully he finds shelter in what he thinks is an empty castle. The Father stays there in luxury for the night. The next morning as the Father is leaving he sees some beautiful red roses and he picks one for his beloved daughter Beauty. All of a sudden a monstrous Beast appears and demands that the father bring his daughter back to live in the castle. Beauty has to live with the beast and she is very frightened by his appearance. However the beast treats Beauty very kindly and takes great care of her. Over time Beauty falls in love with the Beast. When she tells him that she loves him he turns into a handsome Prince. He explains to Beauty that a curse was put upon him and could only be broken by someone who could love him in spite of his appearance. Beauty and the Prince were married and lived happily ever after.
Kim: I think the story is really enjoyable. Beauty is such a lovely person.
Susan: I think it is a fabulous book. Beauty is very kind to her father.
Martin: I loved reading this book. I got a big surprise when the beast turned out to be a man.
Kevin: I think the ending was a great surprise. I loved the book so much I bought the DVD.
We would like to add that we watched the DVD and it was great seeing all the characters in the book come to life.
In conclusion we all agreed that we would recommend this book to our friends and family.
We hope you enjoy reading this book as much as we did.
Watch this space for our next review!!!

lowercased:
this month we choose to read “beauty and the beast”. this is a story from the “collins treasury of fairy tales” from the nenagh library.
this is a very old fairy story and this version is retold by helen creswell and illustrated by sian bailey. this story is about a kind beautiful woman called beauty. both of her sisters are jealous of her because she is such a nice person. after beauty’s father loses all his wealth he travels a very long distance to try to recover it but on the way he gets lost in a storm. thankfully he finds shelter in what he thinks is an empty castle. the father stays there in luxury for the night. the next morning as the father is leaving he sees some beautiful red roses and he picks one for his beloved daughter beauty. all of a sudden a monstrous beast appears and demands that the father bring his daughter back to live in the castle. beauty has to live with the beast and she is very frightened by his appearance. however the beast treats beauty very kindly and takes great care of her. over time beauty falls in love with the beast. when she tells him that she loves him he turns into a handsome prince. he explains to beauty that a curse was put upon him and could only be broken by someone who could love him in spite of his appearance. beauty and the prince were married and lived happily ever after.
kim: i think the story is really enjoyable. beauty is such a lovely person.
susan: i think it is a fabulous book. beauty is very kind to her father.
martin: i loved reading this book. i got a big surprise when the beast turned out to be a man.
kevin: i think the ending was a great surprise. i loved the book so much i bought the dvd.
we would like to add that we watched the dvd and it was great seeing all the characters in the book come to life.
in conclusion we all agreed that we would recommend this book to our friends and family.
we hope you enjoy reading this book as much as we did.
watch this space for our next review!!!


text:
When Wes Anderson’s stop-motion animated Isle of Dogs was released earlier this year, the film was highly praised for its handcrafted style. The director leaned heavily on real puppets and real sets to tell the Japan-based story of a group of dogs relegated to a trash island. But, as is the case with many stop-motion films these days, visual effects helped play a significant role in producing the final images.
An in-house VFX team, led by Senior Visual Effects Supervisor Tim Ledbury, would touch every single frame of Isle of Dogs in some way – for a total of 950 shots. Ledbury, whose previous credits include other stop-motion films such as Frankenweenie and Fantastic Mr. Fox, told VFX Voice about the range of visual effects work required for Anderson’s film.
In this featurette, see how various stop-motion elements were combined to form the final frames of Isle of Dogs.
VFX Voice: Not everyone would think that a film like Isle of Dogs would involve so many visual effects – how much a part of the animation effort is visual effects in the production?
Tim Ledbury: Visual effects is quite integrated into Isle of Dogs because the whole film is essentially an effect. And in this particular film, it’s the first time compared to the other films I’ve done where we actually worked on every shot in the movie in some capacity. Normally you work on about 80% of the film, but on this one we actually hit the 100%.
VFX Voice: What did that work entail?
Tim Ledbury: There are the more obvious shots which required shooting over 90 elements and putting them together, using bits of CG to combine and track and fit them together. We shot 8,000 elements; certainly, we ingested 8,000 elements into the effects. Then there’s all the general rig removal from the puppets that has to happen on any of these films.
These frames show the various stop-motion animation plates, miniatures and extra elements that were composited to form a final shot of Trash Island.
Also, Wes changed the way he was doing the face animation – all the replacement heads were hand-painted and that meant more visual effects because there was a lot of variation. When you run a shot you get a lot of color change and popping. On one of the characters, Tracy, her face had freckles and they were moving around, so we had to use a lot of tracking and 3D and vector warping to try and track all her freckles back onto her face.
Beyond that, we were also managing the shoot in terms of building a lot of miniatures, and compositing the puppets into miniatures. Wes didn’t particularly want to overtly go with glass matte painting or anything like that. He wanted everything to be a miniature, and have a miniature quality. So instead of traditionally doing a matte painting, we built a whole lot more miniatures. I think there were about 250 sets for this film. Fantastic Mr. Fox had 75.
VFX Voice: How do you use those miniatures in the final shots?
Tim Ledbury: With those miniatures we’d also shoot 360-degree images inside, get lots of photogrammetry, and then shoot action on greenscreen and composite it altogether. The advantage of stop-motion is that, for every frame of animation, you can shoot any number of multiple white passes, or even sliding greenscreens, take them away, and slide in white screens or black screens at any time. That effectively gives you a CG light pass, but with puppets and miniatures, which obviously helps a lot when you’re combining these things together.
Mouth plugs used to show different face shapes on characters were cleaned up to remove seam lines for the final shots.
VFX Voice: There’s so many hand-crafted-looking environmental effects in the film for things like smoke, fire and water, even clouds and explosions. How were those shot and then brought into the final scenes?
Tim Ledbury: There was a dedicated animation testing group that tested all sorts of different cotton wool and techniques for smoke. The biggest task actually was the cling film water for the sea. You’d think initially it’d be quite a simple process, it’s just rippling some cling film to look like water, but we had to build this elaborate system of barley twist rods with layers of rubber and cling film and clear hair gel for this thing to be animated and to get the elements we needed.
Those would be composited into shots, because we could never shoot them with the animation since the cling film would have to be hundreds of meters wide. For other elements like explosions or smoke, some were done on set with rigs. We had to remove the rigs with multiple lighting passes so we could get the internal lighting of the explosion, and mix that around in compositing to get the right look.
For other stuff that was too delicate to rig, like clouds in the air, we shot on glass tables and then composited that into shots. The fire was shot on a glass table and then comped into shots, but it was also, if possible, supported on set. Then we removed any rig or any wires, because all the fire had to have interactive lighting, and there were wires going to the fire just to have them flicker. Again, we shot that as light passes, so we were able to flicker the light for any particular flame the way we wanted to when we composited the shot together.
This explosion shot was brought together with cotton wool and cling film elements shot separately.
VFX Voice: Did you have an in-house team, or were you using any outside vendors to do the visual effects work?
Tim Ledbury: We built the entire VFX pipeline and did the entire 950 shots at three Mills Studios, which is where the animation was filmed. We developed quite a few clever tools to be able to help speed up the process of compositing and stop-motion.
VFX Voice: What was one of those tools, in particular?
Tim Ledbury: We had one that was called ‘onN.’ Essentially with stop-motion, the animators don’t always advance every frame, so they sometimes only shoot on twos or fours; that’s why it’s called onN [The tool was developed by Visual Effects Supervisor Lev Kolobov, with the name meaning ‘on N-number of frames’]. This tool could detect where movement was happening in a frame, or portion of a frame, and then condense the shot in NUKE down to just those frames.
You can then work completely in NUKE as normal, without having to think about anything. Later, you can take the tool again and expand all of the work that happened on the shot, and all of the nodes that you did the work on, back into the full-length shot. What happens is, a portion of the shot isn’t advancing at the same time, so it meant that you could turn a shot with 120 frames and condense it down to 50 frames. Then the person would just have to work on those 50 frames and not think about anything else, and the tool would convert it back out.
A glittery sea, cotton-wool sky and greenscreen elements were combined for this scene.
Not having to manage all that extra stuff made life much easier. Then people could get on with making the stuff look good, rather than having to manage or sift through the shots again and again to try and work out when things are happening.
Foreground stop-motion puppets and a set piece were composited with a background miniature.
A city scene was made up of various miniature light passes.
The various passes that made up a political rally scene.
Crowd duplication was also a part of the visual effects for Isle of Dogs.

lowercased:
when wes anderson’s stop-motion animated isle of dogs was released earlier this year, the film was highly praised for its handcrafted style. the director leaned heavily on real puppets and real sets to tell the japan-based story of a group of dogs relegated to a trash island. but, as is the case with many stop-motion films these days, visual effects helped play a significant role in producing the final images.
an in-house vfx team, led by senior visual effects supervisor tim ledbury, would touch every single frame of isle of dogs in some way – for a total of 950 shots. ledbury, whose previous credits include other stop-motion films such as frankenweenie and fantastic mr. fox, told vfx voice about the range of visual effects work required for anderson’s film.
in this featurette, see how various stop-motion elements were combined to form the final frames of isle of dogs.
vfx voice: not everyone would think that a film like isle of dogs would involve so many visual effects – how much a part of the animation effort is visual effects in the production?
tim ledbury: visual effects is quite integrated into isle of dogs because the whole film is essentially an effect. and in this particular film, it’s the first time compared to the other films i’ve done where we actually worked on every shot in the movie in some capacity. normally you work on about 80% of the film, but on this one we actually hit the 100%.
vfx voice: what did that work entail?
tim ledbury: there are the more obvious shots which required shooting over 90 elements and putting them together, using bits of cg to combine and track and fit them together. we shot 8,000 elements; certainly, we ingested 8,000 elements into the effects. then there’s all the general rig removal from the puppets that has to happen on any of these films.
these frames show the various stop-motion animation plates, miniatures and extra elements that were composited to form a final shot of trash island.
also, wes changed the way he was doing the face animation – all the replacement heads were hand-painted and that meant more visual effects because there was a lot of variation. when you run a shot you get a lot of color change and popping. on one of the characters, tracy, her face had freckles and they were moving around, so we had to use a lot of tracking and 3d and vector warping to try and track all her freckles back onto her face.
beyond that, we were also managing the shoot in terms of building a lot of miniatures, and compositing the puppets into miniatures. wes didn’t particularly want to overtly go with glass matte painting or anything like that. he wanted everything to be a miniature, and have a miniature quality. so instead of traditionally doing a matte painting, we built a whole lot more miniatures. i think there were about 250 sets for this film. fantastic mr. fox had 75.
vfx voice: how do you use those miniatures in the final shots?
tim ledbury: with those miniatures we’d also shoot 360-degree images inside, get lots of photogrammetry, and then shoot action on greenscreen and composite it altogether. the advantage of stop-motion is that, for every frame of animation, you can shoot any number of multiple white passes, or even sliding greenscreens, take them away, and slide in white screens or black screens at any time. that effectively gives you a cg light pass, but with puppets and miniatures, which obviously helps a lot when you’re combining these things together.
mouth plugs used to show different face shapes on characters were cleaned up to remove seam lines for the final shots.
vfx voice: there’s so many hand-crafted-looking environmental effects in the film for things like smoke, fire and water, even clouds and explosions. how were those shot and then brought into the final scenes?
tim ledbury: there was a dedicated animation testing group that tested all sorts of different cotton wool and techniques for smoke. the biggest task actually was the cling film water for the sea. you’d think initially it’d be quite a simple process, it’s just rippling some cling film to look like water, but we had to build this elaborate system of barley twist rods with layers of rubber and cling film and clear hair gel for this thing to be animated and to get the elements we needed.
those would be composited into shots, because we could never shoot them with the animation since the cling film would have to be hundreds of meters wide. for other elements like explosions or smoke, some were done on set with rigs. we had to remove the rigs with multiple lighting passes so we could get the internal lighting of the explosion, and mix that around in compositing to get the right look.
for other stuff that was too delicate to rig, like clouds in the air, we shot on glass tables and then composited that into shots. the fire was shot on a glass table and then comped into shots, but it was also, if possible, supported on set. then we removed any rig or any wires, because all the fire had to have interactive lighting, and there were wires going to the fire just to have them flicker. again, we shot that as light passes, so we were able to flicker the light for any particular flame the way we wanted to when we composited the shot together.
this explosion shot was brought together with cotton wool and cling film elements shot separately.
vfx voice: did you have an in-house team, or were you using any outside vendors to do the visual effects work?
tim ledbury: we built the entire vfx pipeline and did the entire 950 shots at three mills studios, which is where the animation was filmed. we developed quite a few clever tools to be able to help speed up the process of compositing and stop-motion.
vfx voice: what was one of those tools, in particular?
tim ledbury: we had one that was called ‘onn.’ essentially with stop-motion, the animators don’t always advance every frame, so they sometimes only shoot on twos or fours; that’s why it’s called onn [the tool was developed by visual effects supervisor lev kolobov, with the name meaning ‘on n-number of frames’]. this tool could detect where movement was happening in a frame, or portion of a frame, and then condense the shot in nuke down to just those frames.
you can then work completely in nuke as normal, without having to think about anything. later, you can take the tool again and expand all of the work that happened on the shot, and all of the nodes that you did the work on, back into the full-length shot. what happens is, a portion of the shot isn’t advancing at the same time, so it meant that you could turn a shot with 120 frames and condense it down to 50 frames. then the person would just have to work on those 50 frames and not think about anything else, and the tool would convert it back out.
a glittery sea, cotton-wool sky and greenscreen elements were combined for this scene.
not having to manage all that extra stuff made life much easier. then people could get on with making the stuff look good, rather than having to manage or sift through the shots again and again to try and work out when things are happening.
foreground stop-motion puppets and a set piece were composited with a background miniature.
a city scene was made up of various miniature light passes.
the various passes that made up a political rally scene.
crowd duplication was also a part of the visual effects for isle of dogs.


text:
Shake your sillies, play games, and indulge in funny movies with your kids.
A team of French scientists has discovered that using humor appears to help toddlers learn new tasks, reports a new study in the journal Cognition and Emotion. Building on the knowledge that making older children laugh can enhance many aspects of cognition, Rana Esseily and her colleagues designed an experiment to see whether using humor could also have an effect on the ability of infants to learn.
Each of the 18-month-olds selected to participate in the final part of the study observed an adult using a tool to grab an out-of-reach toy. In one group the adult simply played with the toy after retrieving it; but in the other group, the adult threw the toy immediately on the floor, which made half the children in that group laugh.
When Esseily and her colleagues studied their data, they found that the children who laughed at the antics of the adults were able to repeat the action themselves more successfully than those who didn’t laugh, as well as those who were included in the ‘humorless’ control group.
Parents such as myself, about to embark on the un-funny business of toilet training might want to keep laughing – no matter what!!

lowercased:
shake your sillies, play games, and indulge in funny movies with your kids.
a team of french scientists has discovered that using humor appears to help toddlers learn new tasks, reports a new study in the journal cognition and emotion. building on the knowledge that making older children laugh can enhance many aspects of cognition, rana esseily and her colleagues designed an experiment to see whether using humor could also have an effect on the ability of infants to learn.
each of the 18-month-olds selected to participate in the final part of the study observed an adult using a tool to grab an out-of-reach toy. in one group the adult simply played with the toy after retrieving it; but in the other group, the adult threw the toy immediately on the floor, which made half the children in that group laugh.
when esseily and her colleagues studied their data, they found that the children who laughed at the antics of the adults were able to repeat the action themselves more successfully than those who didn’t laugh, as well as those who were included in the ‘humorless’ control group.
parents such as myself, about to embark on the un-funny business of toilet training might want to keep laughing – no matter what!!


text:
LuvFree.com is a 100% free online dating and personal ads site. There are a lot of Hot Springs singles searching romance, friendship, fun and more dates. Join our Hot Springs dating site, view free personal ads of single people and talk with them in chat rooms in a real time. Seeking and finding love isn't hard with our Hot Springs personals.
My name is Brandon. I recently moved to South dakota from Montana and don't know many people. I'm looking for someone who is fun and outoing to spend time with.

lowercased:
luvfree.com is a 100% free online dating and personal ads site. there are a lot of hot springs singles searching romance, friendship, fun and more dates. join our hot springs dating site, view free personal ads of single people and talk with them in chat rooms in a real time. seeking and finding love isn't hard with our hot springs personals.
my name is brandon. i recently moved to south dakota from montana and don't know many people. i'm looking for someone who is fun and outoing to spend time with.


text:
We exited the lift on arrival at the 35th floor of the ANA InterContinental Tokyo, took a few steps, and arrived at our first objective. Despite being a pair of frequent-traveller geeks, it's not often that an internal hotel feature ranks highly in the list of attractions at a destination. We had both, separately and together, stayed at many a luxury hotel, and enjoyed numerous examples of a top-quality hotel lounge. Located almost entirely in Asia, these had included at least one memorable case with tail-coated waiters. But Bruce had heard good things about this one, and we wanted to see it - and photograph it - at a reasonably quiet time of day.
As we entered the hallowed portals, we received multiple smiles and greetings from staff members, and were asked if we would like to take Afternoon Tea. We politely declined and set about taking a few photos, taking care not to be a nuisance. The place was huge, and we were already looking forward to coming back in the evening.
I had left home two days previously, at around 0745 on a fine, sunny, but quite fresh morning. Following a tram ride to Edinburgh Airport and a routine BA flight to Heathrow, I had checked in at the Premier Inn T4 and then set out to spend the rest of the day in Central London. Just like Edinburgh, the UK capital was sunny and clear, and unusually (but pleasantly) fresh. The following day, I had met up with Bruce in the Concorde Room at Heathrow Terminal 5, and we'd taken our first-class flight to Tokyo Narita, arriving late-morning on Saturday - today! A highly efficient coach transfer had then brought us to our present location, where we had settled into our unusual twin-bedded corner suite with absolute delight.
Having now seen both our excellent suite and the utterly exceptional executive lounge, the next order of business was to purchase the rail tickets that we would soon need for our trip through the island of Kyushu. Taking temporary leave of our fabulous new base, we walked to the nearby Tameike-Sannō metro station and rode the Ginza Line two stops to Shimbashi, a mainline Japan Rail station. Despite having a young trainee agent assisted by a supervisor, our transaction proceeded without a hitch, thanks largely to the fact that Bruce had taken the trouble to write down our precise requirements.
With the essential business out of the way, it was time for a bit of introductory sightseeing. We made the thirty-minute walk to the Tokyo Tower through a succession of local streets - a good opportunity to re-acclimatise to being in Japan. Opened in December 1958, the structure popularly known as Tokyo Tower - officially it's the Japan Radio Tower - serves the dual purposes of being a working communications tower and a tourist attraction. It is clearly inspired by the considerably older Eiffel Tower in Paris, and at a height of one third of a kilometre, is approximately 10% taller than the French structure. We decided to restrict our visit to the two-storey Main Deck; paying the supplement for the Top Deck seemed like a potentially poor decision in view of the increasingly heavy cloud cover. We were soon to find out that the dark, threatening skies, when combined with brief intervals of bright sunlight, were in fact responsible for some spectacular photos.
When we were done at the tower, we decided to walk all the way back through some relatively hilly areas, passing close to the US Embassy en route.
Our evening in the InterContinental's executive lounge was, quite simply, superb. The facility was busy, but easily able to cope. With a full bar service in operation, we had wonderfully well made Dry Martinis, accompanied by a never-ending selection of canapés from the well maintained buffet. The food was further supplemented by tapas to order, with 'western' and 'oriental' selections both available. This proved to be a fabulous evening, with no need at all to go for dinner afterwards.

lowercased:
we exited the lift on arrival at the 35th floor of the ana intercontinental tokyo, took a few steps, and arrived at our first objective. despite being a pair of frequent-traveller geeks, it's not often that an internal hotel feature ranks highly in the list of attractions at a destination. we had both, separately and together, stayed at many a luxury hotel, and enjoyed numerous examples of a top-quality hotel lounge. located almost entirely in asia, these had included at least one memorable case with tail-coated waiters. but bruce had heard good things about this one, and we wanted to see it - and photograph it - at a reasonably quiet time of day.
as we entered the hallowed portals, we received multiple smiles and greetings from staff members, and were asked if we would like to take afternoon tea. we politely declined and set about taking a few photos, taking care not to be a nuisance. the place was huge, and we were already looking forward to coming back in the evening.
i had left home two days previously, at around 0745 on a fine, sunny, but quite fresh morning. following a tram ride to edinburgh airport and a routine ba flight to heathrow, i had checked in at the premier inn t4 and then set out to spend the rest of the day in central london. just like edinburgh, the uk capital was sunny and clear, and unusually (but pleasantly) fresh. the following day, i had met up with bruce in the concorde room at heathrow terminal 5, and we'd taken our first-class flight to tokyo narita, arriving late-morning on saturday - today! a highly efficient coach transfer had then brought us to our present location, where we had settled into our unusual twin-bedded corner suite with absolute delight.
having now seen both our excellent suite and the utterly exceptional executive lounge, the next order of business was to purchase the rail tickets that we would soon need for our trip through the island of kyushu. taking temporary leave of our fabulous new base, we walked to the nearby tameike-sannō metro station and rode the ginza line two stops to shimbashi, a mainline japan rail station. despite having a young trainee agent assisted by a supervisor, our transaction proceeded without a hitch, thanks largely to the fact that bruce had taken the trouble to write down our precise requirements.
with the essential business out of the way, it was time for a bit of introductory sightseeing. we made the thirty-minute walk to the tokyo tower through a succession of local streets - a good opportunity to re-acclimatise to being in japan. opened in december 1958, the structure popularly known as tokyo tower - officially it's the japan radio tower - serves the dual purposes of being a working communications tower and a tourist attraction. it is clearly inspired by the considerably older eiffel tower in paris, and at a height of one third of a kilometre, is approximately 10% taller than the french structure. we decided to restrict our visit to the two-storey main deck; paying the supplement for the top deck seemed like a potentially poor decision in view of the increasingly heavy cloud cover. we were soon to find out that the dark, threatening skies, when combined with brief intervals of bright sunlight, were in fact responsible for some spectacular photos.
when we were done at the tower, we decided to walk all the way back through some relatively hilly areas, passing close to the us embassy en route.
our evening in the intercontinental's executive lounge was, quite simply, superb. the facility was busy, but easily able to cope. with a full bar service in operation, we had wonderfully well made dry martinis, accompanied by a never-ending selection of canapés from the well maintained buffet. the food was further supplemented by tapas to order, with 'western' and 'oriental' selections both available. this proved to be a fabulous evening, with no need at all to go for dinner afterwards.


text:
My mother calls me to tell me how much she liked to read the publication with the stories of the Southsiders. I had just given it to her an hour earlier. I tell her I will forward the compliment. My mother is a good emotional indicator, she feels a good story when she sees one. And her remark reminds me that I wanted to write down my impressions about this project.
It has been a very intense and truly pleasurable task to do the design for „Southsiders – Portrait of a Community“. It has been a good collaboration and I am proud of the result.
When I first heard about the project sometime beginning of this year, I was immediately keen to work on it. I liked the concept of making a series of portraits in this distinct quarter of Edinburgh, to grasp the specifics of the area and it’s inhabitants.
I knew Pete’s photographic work and thought that he would deliver very good portraits. And what appealed to me as well was the fact that Pete and his collaborators had planned to show the work in public space, a website and a publication distributed for free in the community.
This cross media approach, which was aimed to create a dialogue between the people portrayed and the community, made great sense. And fitted well into my own expertise and interest as both an artist and a graphic designer with a focus on editorial design.
I was very happy when I could convince Pete and Shona Thomson (who wonderfully managed the project) to hire me as designer for the project.
I was first working from Berlin, where I am based, we managed to come up with the overall decision about how we wanted the project to „look and feel“. It should be simple and modern, the design decent and in the background. It should feel accessible, yet with a precision which would present the images and the stories as important as they are.
Meanwhile the portraits were being taken, both as photographic images and interviews. Whereas I never got to see more than one image (it was the one of Caroline) before I finally came to Edinburgh, the sound files started to be edited and gradually uploaded to our working space.
I started to listen to the stories of Kevin the gravedigger, the Lollypop Lady, the physician and art collector. I was struck and truly touched! To hear these voices and their stories was amazing, each of them seemed to have such a unique and witty approach to life. Im my head an image of the Southside community, which I had never consciously visited, started to build up and accompanied me in my further work on the grid of the publication an the website.
It took another couple of weeks before I finally got to Edinburgh, to the Southside and Pete’s studio at Summerhall, where I finally got to see the images! To see them finally was a fascinating experience. I was a bit afraid, that they might let me down, after I had already generated my own characters fitting the voices and their stories. Fortunately this wasn’t the case at all. The portraits gave another insightful reflection of the people’s identity which worked so very well with the sound.
After visiting the site for a few times, seeing the locations of the images and some of the protagonists “live” in the streets, I became even more convinced that this collection of 32 Southsiders portraits was more then a glimpse into the social fabric of the Southside community. It succeeds to present an insight into a local community and at the same time to tell a story about the relation of individuality and society on a very general level. This relationship is reflected in the way the portraits interact with another and also in the individual interviews. The interviewees were asked how they related to the project „Portrait of a Community“ and in their answers it becomes very clear that they consider the act of their photograph being taken as their contribution to a dialogue, as an attempt to present themselves as individuals but also as a part of a group.
To achieve this level of interaction is admirable. And even though I haven’t seen Pete in action taking the portraits I could witness on a daily basis how he was able to create this sense of involvement: he is a natural born socializer (I don’t think this word exists, but it seems so fitting!). Even in the most stressful moments, we couldn’t even walk to the park – which was literally at our doorstep – without Pete chatting warmly to everyone we met. I was amazed how he could interact so humanely in moments where I could only focus on the selection of the right printing profiles. I am convinced that also the attentive presence of Joe, who besides assisting Pete in taking the photographs, recorded and edited the sound was very helpful for the way people opened up and presented themselves.
Of course you can say „Everyone has their own story“. It is true, obviously. Nevertheless to tell the story – or in the case of a project like this to mediate the stories of others, isn’t so easy. Much depends on the way the people are photographed and recorded. As for the image there are the formal aspects of the singular image and the series. In what way people are shot, if there is a strong formal concept or a rather loose one, which tries to incorporate the individual. Besides the formal aspects, the before mentioned interaction between the photographer and the person photographed is crucial for the „success“ of a portrait.
In my opinion this project succeeded in creating a portrait out of many portraits, to speak about individuals and social interactions at the same time, and all of this in a modest way, where it is left to the beholder to experience, think, smile, or even cry about the beauty and weirdness of life.
Needless to say, that it was great to be part of it and I am happy to make my part in putting all the material together in the publication and this website.
It is hard to believe the exhibition is already over and with it the distribution of the publication.I would have loved to see the images still there on my next visit. What remains is the website where you can hear the voices of the Southsiders. And hopefully there will be an opportunity to see all 32 portraits displayed together, maybe even outside their natural habitat.

lowercased:
my mother calls me to tell me how much she liked to read the publication with the stories of the southsiders. i had just given it to her an hour earlier. i tell her i will forward the compliment. my mother is a good emotional indicator, she feels a good story when she sees one. and her remark reminds me that i wanted to write down my impressions about this project.
it has been a very intense and truly pleasurable task to do the design for „southsiders – portrait of a community“. it has been a good collaboration and i am proud of the result.
when i first heard about the project sometime beginning of this year, i was immediately keen to work on it. i liked the concept of making a series of portraits in this distinct quarter of edinburgh, to grasp the specifics of the area and it’s inhabitants.
i knew pete’s photographic work and thought that he would deliver very good portraits. and what appealed to me as well was the fact that pete and his collaborators had planned to show the work in public space, a website and a publication distributed for free in the community.
this cross media approach, which was aimed to create a dialogue between the people portrayed and the community, made great sense. and fitted well into my own expertise and interest as both an artist and a graphic designer with a focus on editorial design.
i was very happy when i could convince pete and shona thomson (who wonderfully managed the project) to hire me as designer for the project.
i was first working from berlin, where i am based, we managed to come up with the overall decision about how we wanted the project to „look and feel“. it should be simple and modern, the design decent and in the background. it should feel accessible, yet with a precision which would present the images and the stories as important as they are.
meanwhile the portraits were being taken, both as photographic images and interviews. whereas i never got to see more than one image (it was the one of caroline) before i finally came to edinburgh, the sound files started to be edited and gradually uploaded to our working space.
i started to listen to the stories of kevin the gravedigger, the lollypop lady, the physician and art collector. i was struck and truly touched! to hear these voices and their stories was amazing, each of them seemed to have such a unique and witty approach to life. im my head an image of the southside community, which i had never consciously visited, started to build up and accompanied me in my further work on the grid of the publication an the website.
it took another couple of weeks before i finally got to edinburgh, to the southside and pete’s studio at summerhall, where i finally got to see the images! to see them finally was a fascinating experience. i was a bit afraid, that they might let me down, after i had already generated my own characters fitting the voices and their stories. fortunately this wasn’t the case at all. the portraits gave another insightful reflection of the people’s identity which worked so very well with the sound.
after visiting the site for a few times, seeing the locations of the images and some of the protagonists “live” in the streets, i became even more convinced that this collection of 32 southsiders portraits was more then a glimpse into the social fabric of the southside community. it succeeds to present an insight into a local community and at the same time to tell a story about the relation of individuality and society on a very general level. this relationship is reflected in the way the portraits interact with another and also in the individual interviews. the interviewees were asked how they related to the project „portrait of a community“ and in their answers it becomes very clear that they consider the act of their photograph being taken as their contribution to a dialogue, as an attempt to present themselves as individuals but also as a part of a group.
to achieve this level of interaction is admirable. and even though i haven’t seen pete in action taking the portraits i could witness on a daily basis how he was able to create this sense of involvement: he is a natural born socializer (i don’t think this word exists, but it seems so fitting!). even in the most stressful moments, we couldn’t even walk to the park – which was literally at our doorstep – without pete chatting warmly to everyone we met. i was amazed how he could interact so humanely in moments where i could only focus on the selection of the right printing profiles. i am convinced that also the attentive presence of joe, who besides assisting pete in taking the photographs, recorded and edited the sound was very helpful for the way people opened up and presented themselves.
of course you can say „everyone has their own story“. it is true, obviously. nevertheless to tell the story – or in the case of a project like this to mediate the stories of others, isn’t so easy. much depends on the way the people are photographed and recorded. as for the image there are the formal aspects of the singular image and the series. in what way people are shot, if there is a strong formal concept or a rather loose one, which tries to incorporate the individual. besides the formal aspects, the before mentioned interaction between the photographer and the person photographed is crucial for the „success“ of a portrait.
in my opinion this project succeeded in creating a portrait out of many portraits, to speak about individuals and social interactions at the same time, and all of this in a modest way, where it is left to the beholder to experience, think, smile, or even cry about the beauty and weirdness of life.
needless to say, that it was great to be part of it and i am happy to make my part in putting all the material together in the publication and this website.
it is hard to believe the exhibition is already over and with it the distribution of the publication.i would have loved to see the images still there on my next visit. what remains is the website where you can hear the voices of the southsiders. and hopefully there will be an opportunity to see all 32 portraits displayed together, maybe even outside their natural habitat.


text:
1. Combine cheese, chili and chilies in a saucepan or fondue pot.
2. Heat over medium-low, stirring frequently, until the cheese melts.
3. Serve warm with tortilla chips.

lowercased:
1. combine cheese, chili and chilies in a saucepan or fondue pot.
2. heat over medium-low, stirring frequently, until the cheese melts.
3. serve warm with tortilla chips.


text:
Here’s your guide to which Honolulu City and County services will be available or suspended in observance of Veterans Day on Nov. 11, 2016.
The Waimānalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill will remain open on Veteran’s Day.
Emergency ambulance, fire, lifeguard, medical examiner and police services will be available.
TheBus will operate on a state holiday schedule. Visit thebus.org for routes and other information.
Parks, municipal golf courses, botanical gardens and the Honolulu Zoo will be open.
Transfer stations, convenience centers, H-POWER and the Waimānalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill will be open.
The People’s Open Markets will not be held.
All Satellite City Halls and Driver Licensing Centers will be closed.
Free on-street parking, excluding the meters on Kalākaua Avenue along Queen Kapiʻolani Park and metered parking lots.

lowercased:
here’s your guide to which honolulu city and county services will be available or suspended in observance of veterans day on nov. 11, 2016.
the waimānalo gulch sanitary landfill will remain open on veteran’s day.
emergency ambulance, fire, lifeguard, medical examiner and police services will be available.
thebus will operate on a state holiday schedule. visit thebus.org for routes and other information.
parks, municipal golf courses, botanical gardens and the honolulu zoo will be open.
transfer stations, convenience centers, h-power and the waimānalo gulch sanitary landfill will be open.
the people’s open markets will not be held.
all satellite city halls and driver licensing centers will be closed.
free on-street parking, excluding the meters on kalākaua avenue along queen kapiʻolani park and metered parking lots.


text:
It’s true that some gear required for a successful business trip can be pricey. Suitcases, travel bags, and noise-canceling headphones are all important and may cost a pretty penny. But the majority of items that help make a good business travel experience are budget-friendly! Here are 20 business travel accessories under $20.
1. Compression socks. These are a must-have for any international trip or long travel day. They keep your feet and ankles from swelling and lessen the risk of deep-vein thrombosis.
2. Emergen-C. Perfect to help ward off sickness and give you a boost of energy.
3. Lip balm. Crucial to keep your lips from getting dry in the arid airplane air.
4. Water bottle. Hydration is key on any trip, and especially international for a business trip. Keep up with your water intake and minimize trash with a reusable water bottle.
5. Travel scarf. The ultimate multi-tasker! Use as a blanket, pillow, napkin, swimsuit cover-up, or, you know, a scarf.
6. Travel umbrella. Takes up almost no room but can save your bacon if there’s an unexpected rainstorm.
7. Jockey Skimmies. A great way to minimize chafing, smooth your midsection, and protect yourself from too-close TSA patdowns anytime you wear a dress.
8. Headphones. No space or budget for noise-cancelling headphones? No problem! Earbuds are small yet mighty, drowning out your yappy neighbor or a crying baby.
9. Small bags. Keep everything you need in your suitcase separated and organized with small bags. I use one for my electronics, one for my makeup, one for my comfort items, one for my jewelry… You get the idea.
10. Contact lens case. Perfect for small amounts of liquids, such as moisturizer, face wash, and hair smoothing cream.
11. Toiletry bottles. No need for a full-sized bottle of shampoo! Decant your larger amounts of liquids into 3 oz. bottles.
12. Packing cube. Compress a large amount of clothing into a small rectangle. Enough said!
13. Portable charger. Never worry about running out of juice when you’ve got one of these babies in your bag.
14. Padfolio. Take notes, plus manage your files and papers all in one space.
15. Wireless mouse. Navigate on your laptop simply and easily without all the wires.
16. Surge protector. Have enough plugs for all of your devices! Or share with others and become a hero when outlets are at a premium.
17. Plug adapter. A small international plug adapter allows you to easily plug in no matter where in the world you are.
18. Travel keyboard. Work more easily from your tablet with a compact, folding travel keyboard.
19. TripIt. Manage all of your reservations in one simple (free!) app.
20. White Noise Free. Block out loud hotel noises and sleep like a baby with this free app. I’ve used it on every trip for the last nine years and it is amazing.
Readers, did I miss anything? What inexpensive travel accessories can you not do without?

lowercased:
it’s true that some gear required for a successful business trip can be pricey. suitcases, travel bags, and noise-canceling headphones are all important and may cost a pretty penny. but the majority of items that help make a good business travel experience are budget-friendly! here are 20 business travel accessories under $20.
1. compression socks. these are a must-have for any international trip or long travel day. they keep your feet and ankles from swelling and lessen the risk of deep-vein thrombosis.
2. emergen-c. perfect to help ward off sickness and give you a boost of energy.
3. lip balm. crucial to keep your lips from getting dry in the arid airplane air.
4. water bottle. hydration is key on any trip, and especially international for a business trip. keep up with your water intake and minimize trash with a reusable water bottle.
5. travel scarf. the ultimate multi-tasker! use as a blanket, pillow, napkin, swimsuit cover-up, or, you know, a scarf.
6. travel umbrella. takes up almost no room but can save your bacon if there’s an unexpected rainstorm.
7. jockey skimmies. a great way to minimize chafing, smooth your midsection, and protect yourself from too-close tsa patdowns anytime you wear a dress.
8. headphones. no space or budget for noise-cancelling headphones? no problem! earbuds are small yet mighty, drowning out your yappy neighbor or a crying baby.
9. small bags. keep everything you need in your suitcase separated and organized with small bags. i use one for my electronics, one for my makeup, one for my comfort items, one for my jewelry… you get the idea.
10. contact lens case. perfect for small amounts of liquids, such as moisturizer, face wash, and hair smoothing cream.
11. toiletry bottles. no need for a full-sized bottle of shampoo! decant your larger amounts of liquids into 3 oz. bottles.
12. packing cube. compress a large amount of clothing into a small rectangle. enough said!
13. portable charger. never worry about running out of juice when you’ve got one of these babies in your bag.
14. padfolio. take notes, plus manage your files and papers all in one space.
15. wireless mouse. navigate on your laptop simply and easily without all the wires.
16. surge protector. have enough plugs for all of your devices! or share with others and become a hero when outlets are at a premium.
17. plug adapter. a small international plug adapter allows you to easily plug in no matter where in the world you are.
18. travel keyboard. work more easily from your tablet with a compact, folding travel keyboard.
19. tripit. manage all of your reservations in one simple (free!) app.
20. white noise free. block out loud hotel noises and sleep like a baby with this free app. i’ve used it on every trip for the last nine years and it is amazing.
readers, did i miss anything? what inexpensive travel accessories can you not do without?


text:
An elegant woven texture of faux rattan takes a modern twist with a Bronze finish. Spirited and a li..
Natural looking all-weather rattan entwines itself into a swirling patterned drum encircling a White..
An artfully suspended disc, pleasing concentric forms, and the rich allure of Natural Slate create a..
A crafty weave, and lively texture, this timeless basket pattern of all-weather rattan has a warm Li..
Sleek, and energy efficient, Stanton's long gooseneck and unobtrusive head are spot-on design for po..
A stunning glazed ceramic ring, an artful earthy finish with lots of pop, Sesame is an interior desi..
Riverside's traditional reeded candlestick base is brought up to date by an Oatmeal tapered drum sha..
'X' marks the perfect spot where you place the Ranger lamp. Form and function are simplified into an..
A classical form in a modern, light Coquina finish, Patio's timeless urn silhouette is softened by a..
The beauty of classic twisted iron set on four animated feet give Knox a personality of its own. Thi..
Harriet's profile and characteristic shapes whisper echoes of India and its exotic spun brass artist..
The sultry genie bottle shape, a warm classic finish, and your desire for tremendous value - Genie g..

lowercased:
an elegant woven texture of faux rattan takes a modern twist with a bronze finish. spirited and a li..
natural looking all-weather rattan entwines itself into a swirling patterned drum encircling a white..
an artfully suspended disc, pleasing concentric forms, and the rich allure of natural slate create a..
a crafty weave, and lively texture, this timeless basket pattern of all-weather rattan has a warm li..
sleek, and energy efficient, stanton's long gooseneck and unobtrusive head are spot-on design for po..
a stunning glazed ceramic ring, an artful earthy finish with lots of pop, sesame is an interior desi..
riverside's traditional reeded candlestick base is brought up to date by an oatmeal tapered drum sha..
'x' marks the perfect spot where you place the ranger lamp. form and function are simplified into an..
a classical form in a modern, light coquina finish, patio's timeless urn silhouette is softened by a..
the beauty of classic twisted iron set on four animated feet give knox a personality of its own. thi..
harriet's profile and characteristic shapes whisper echoes of india and its exotic spun brass artist..
the sultry genie bottle shape, a warm classic finish, and your desire for tremendous value - genie g..


text:
Some of you have been following my recent job search efforts over on Twitter and Facebook et al. You can connect with me at Twitter.com/canayjun I’ve been making a concerted effort to improve the usual round of submitting resumes and cover letters to promising organizations, by using the various social networks and apps that I have access to. I figure that plain old networking has changed drastically in the last seven years (the last time I looked for a job) and realized that I’d built an effective web of online social connections that should be put to work.
Cyril Frederick Chu, Matte Painter/Texture Painter/VFX Artist, Mr. X Inc.
Thank-you Fred. An eloquent recommendation. Which brings me to the point – just how valuable are recommendations on LinkedIn? In respect to my immediate job search that remains to be seen. As you can gather from my LinkedIn profile, I’m currently seeking a position with a non-profit / charity organization that addresses the issue of homelessness. I think the recommendations offer a personal glimpse into the depths of my experience and the breadth of all I have to offer to many an organization. Unlike Workopolis or Monster.com and similar job search sites, I think LinkedIn has a formula here that truly exploits our comfort with social media that can impact our career choices positively. What do you think?
I don’t know about you, but if I was responsible for hiring a manager or director of a progressive homelessness service organization and read these recommendations, I’d sure want to talk to me. Come back and visit soon, I’ll be blogging about other ways I’m trying to use Twitter and the rest and we’ll see how it all turns out.
1. You have better things to do, no really.
2. Have you ever actually read the Facebook Terms & Conditions?
4. It spawns spam – it is spam spawning.
5. Facebook mines your personal data and relationship information to sell to advertisers.
19. You spend more time on Facebook than you do actually with your friends in person.
For all fifty reasons, especially #49 and 50, click read more or Digg it up.
The reason an article on leaving Facebook would appear on this site, which is normally devoted to volunteerism, activism and homelessness issues – is that Facebook wants our business. Recent Facebook developments and upgrades have concerned many Facebook users, and forced them to realize they are not Facebook “customers”, merely data sources to be mined on behalf of real Facebook customers: businesses, organizations and advertisers. Project417 does have a Facebook page – and it has been a frustrating experience, for a charitable, non-profit to navigate and configure exactly what that Facebook “Page” is supposed to accomplish or leverage from the 175 million plus Facebook users.
To really find out, I suppose, would mean spending money, i.e. paying the Facebook gurus to improve our exposure – which rankles because we’d rather spend money helping the homeless. Our Facebook page has 47 fans (out of 198 friends and countless friends of friends and the Facebook Networks it appears in). While this WordPress blog – missionlog.wordpress.com – has had more than 15,000 views since inception – AND WordPress.com has a no banner advertising policy. The Missionlog blog turns up frequently in search engine results from Google and the rest and regularly gets referrals from StumbleUpon, Digg and Reddit to name a few. That is visibility for our cause – it has been a real benefit to the poor and homeless we help, even contributing in a real way to recent relief efforts in Texas following Hurricane Ike. The pre-Christmas volunteer team that was such a big help down there found Project417 on WordPress, right here.
So for Project417’s humanitarian cause, social applications like the WordPress blogosphere, and others like Blogger, iGoogle, Youtube, MySpace, Spaces, Flickr Photos, Picasa Web Photos, Twitter and many others, have only helped and are generally very easy to configure and begin sharing with friends and supporters. Not to say that their focus is not on generating profit, of course they are businesses too, but they have arrived at successful business models by focusing on users first, and letting the resultant traffic drive their growth. Facebook’s business model however, seems to have morphed into the tail wagging the dog – a frantic search for the most money-making interface at the expense of users.
As a user – it was fun on Facebook for a while, connecting with friends, updating the status, writing on walls, tagging photos. But did Facebook make friends for me? Of course not, they all came from my existing (multiple) email address books. The Facebook “friend finder” might have added two or three people to my contact list (by mining friends of friends), but then those connections probably would have been made at any of the other existing social network sites, or by the tried and true email forwarding method. But of course then things changed. The new facebook look and feel. Questions about the terms and conditions and ownership of content – all issues stemming from Facebook’s yearning to evolve from a Harvard University bulletin board and high-school messaging service into a scion of business profitability.
So is Facebook enriching my friendships? Or infringing on time spent valuably with people in person? Will leaving Facebook, lose me friends? Of course not. Will I be out of touch because I’m not logged into facebook? – I think not.
Click here - it doesn't do anything.

lowercased:
some of you have been following my recent job search efforts over on twitter and facebook et al. you can connect with me at twitter.com/canayjun i’ve been making a concerted effort to improve the usual round of submitting resumes and cover letters to promising organizations, by using the various social networks and apps that i have access to. i figure that plain old networking has changed drastically in the last seven years (the last time i looked for a job) and realized that i’d built an effective web of online social connections that should be put to work.
cyril frederick chu, matte painter/texture painter/vfx artist, mr. x inc.
thank-you fred. an eloquent recommendation. which brings me to the point – just how valuable are recommendations on linkedin? in respect to my immediate job search that remains to be seen. as you can gather from my linkedin profile, i’m currently seeking a position with a non-profit / charity organization that addresses the issue of homelessness. i think the recommendations offer a personal glimpse into the depths of my experience and the breadth of all i have to offer to many an organization. unlike workopolis or monster.com and similar job search sites, i think linkedin has a formula here that truly exploits our comfort with social media that can impact our career choices positively. what do you think?
i don’t know about you, but if i was responsible for hiring a manager or director of a progressive homelessness service organization and read these recommendations, i’d sure want to talk to me. come back and visit soon, i’ll be blogging about other ways i’m trying to use twitter and the rest and we’ll see how it all turns out.
1. you have better things to do, no really.
2. have you ever actually read the facebook terms & conditions?
4. it spawns spam – it is spam spawning.
5. facebook mines your personal data and relationship information to sell to advertisers.
19. you spend more time on facebook than you do actually with your friends in person.
for all fifty reasons, especially #49 and 50, click read more or digg it up.
the reason an article on leaving facebook would appear on this site, which is normally devoted to volunteerism, activism and homelessness issues – is that facebook wants our business. recent facebook developments and upgrades have concerned many facebook users, and forced them to realize they are not facebook “customers”, merely data sources to be mined on behalf of real facebook customers: businesses, organizations and advertisers. project417 does have a facebook page – and it has been a frustrating experience, for a charitable, non-profit to navigate and configure exactly what that facebook “page” is supposed to accomplish or leverage from the 175 million plus facebook users.
to really find out, i suppose, would mean spending money, i.e. paying the facebook gurus to improve our exposure – which rankles because we’d rather spend money helping the homeless. our facebook page has 47 fans (out of 198 friends and countless friends of friends and the facebook networks it appears in). while this wordpress blog – missionlog.wordpress.com – has had more than 15,000 views since inception – and wordpress.com has a no banner advertising policy. the missionlog blog turns up frequently in search engine results from google and the rest and regularly gets referrals from stumbleupon, digg and reddit to name a few. that is visibility for our cause – it has been a real benefit to the poor and homeless we help, even contributing in a real way to recent relief efforts in texas following hurricane ike. the pre-christmas volunteer team that was such a big help down there found project417 on wordpress, right here.
so for project417’s humanitarian cause, social applications like the wordpress blogosphere, and others like blogger, igoogle, youtube, myspace, spaces, flickr photos, picasa web photos, twitter and many others, have only helped and are generally very easy to configure and begin sharing with friends and supporters. not to say that their focus is not on generating profit, of course they are businesses too, but they have arrived at successful business models by focusing on users first, and letting the resultant traffic drive their growth. facebook’s business model however, seems to have morphed into the tail wagging the dog – a frantic search for the most money-making interface at the expense of users.
as a user – it was fun on facebook for a while, connecting with friends, updating the status, writing on walls, tagging photos. but did facebook make friends for me? of course not, they all came from my existing (multiple) email address books. the facebook “friend finder” might have added two or three people to my contact list (by mining friends of friends), but then those connections probably would have been made at any of the other existing social network sites, or by the tried and true email forwarding method. but of course then things changed. the new facebook look and feel. questions about the terms and conditions and ownership of content – all issues stemming from facebook’s yearning to evolve from a harvard university bulletin board and high-school messaging service into a scion of business profitability.
so is facebook enriching my friendships? or infringing on time spent valuably with people in person? will leaving facebook, lose me friends? of course not. will i be out of touch because i’m not logged into facebook? – i think not.
click here - it doesn't do anything.


text:
Flu Vaccine Prevents Deaths. Last year 80,000 people in the USA died from complications of the flu. Get your flu vaccine today. If you are afraid of vaccination you, especially, should watch this video.
I can talk till I am blue in the face about how vaccines do not cause autism and some people just don’t listen. But, let a twelve year old genius go on the internet and tell you all the reasons that vaccines DO cause autism and he gets millions of views in one day. Maybe I’m just wrong.
Sure, it’s a little affected to title an article referencing an Ibsen play; but the similarities are too great. In that play, a doctor was darling of a community until he did not do what the community wanted. This is similar to what is happening to healthcare workers who treat Ebola patients.
What bothers me is how she was apparently being treated. According to her she is being kept in an unheated tent outside of Newark Airport and being given nothing to wear but hospital scrubs. Where are we, in Liberia? Obviously the fear and “cootie syndrome” created by one doctor who tested positive for Ebola and roamed the streets of New York while possibly contagious, has caused politicians to act rashly if not illegally. Without knowledge of Ebola and the science that surrounds it, they have caved in to public frenzy and have jumped the shark. They had no plan of action as how to quarantine anyone exposed to Ebola, except to isolate them. They have no definition of what “exposure” is. Does someone sitting next to someone on the subway who turns out to have Ebola count as an exposed person? Will they then be quarantined? Where does it end? They don’t know. They are playing it by ear. That is a scariest thing.
I do know one thing, in the long run this type of quarantining may be increasing EVERYONE’s chances of getting Ebola. Soon few doctors and nurses will go to western Africa to treat patient’s with Ebola if this is what awaits them upon their return. You cannot expect good Samaritans to risk their lives to save us all and then accept being treated like lepers upon their arrival home.
But don’t we quarantine people with dangerous communicable diseases all the time? The answer is yes. The HUGE difference is that we do that once we KNOW they have a communicable disease, not when we just suspect they do. You may think that the stakes are higher here because Ebola is so dangerous. But as of now no one has died from contracting Ebola in the US. Which causes me to have a huge moral dilemma. I believe in quarantining health care workers on the honor principle as a way of stopping spread… but I do not agree with the way it is being done now. However, there may be a solution. The solution once again is science.
There is a test that is used both to detect and follow the progression of HIV. It is called the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test. It is also used to test for progression of the Ebola virus in someone’s body. If you do not have Ebola in your blood this test will be negative. It is not like the antibody test that can take days or weeks or months to be positive. If you do not have the Ebola genetic material in your blood this test will be negative. What I have not been found in the medical literature is how soon after you are infected with Ebola will this test be positive. If this test is positive within a day or two after infection then problem solved.
When a health care worker returns to America from an endemic area he or she should be given an Ebola PCR blood test and then be placed under home observation, in his or her own home. They must report to health authorities twice a day after that. They must have a PCR test every two to three days. If they have successively negative PCR and do not develop symptoms after a set period of time that “science” has determined to be safe, they can then be released from observation. That is of course if we know that my theory is correct.
Regardless, I hope that the government is taking Ebola PCRs form all health care works returning from western Africa so that we can learn more about the natural progression of this disease. If not, they should create a voluntary research protocol that does this.
If it looks like I have reversed my position on mandatory quarantine, I have! After seeing the reaction of the public and the government, I am now much more concerned about the frightened town’s people storming Frankenstein’s castle, than I am of the virus.
I am a virophobe, someone who fears viruses. Having treated people with HIV and Hepatitis C for my entire medical career I know the danger of these submicroscopic entities. Not really animals because they don’t have more than a strand of DNA or RNA, they survive by infecting a host and using it’s genetics to replicate. Therefore, the virus survives and host dies. Nature could not have created a more efficient killer.
Of course not all of them are killers, some like the Influenza virus make you ill and most people survive. But even the flu virus kills tens of thousands of people a year in the USA alone. That is a tremendously high number. Science has found that viral illness can be cured, as the recent breakthrough in the treatment of Hepatitis C proves. But this is the rare exception.
I remember hearing about H1N1 in Mexico five years ago and thinking that if a vaccine was not found immediately deaths could be in the thousands. Luckily there was a vaccine discovered and mass immunizations were successful. (Don’t even get me started on the ignorance of people who fear vaccines.) Now there is a greater threat on the horizon, the Ebola virus. It is not a matter of if it gets here, it’s a matter of when.
Ebola is a quick acting virus that causes the body to be unable to clot and up to 90% of the people who contract it eventually bleed to death within a few weeks. Whereas Ebola used to be contained to small villages in Africa, where the treatment was to isolate the whole village and let everyone die so that the virus could not spread, it is now spreading through four countries in western Africa. This week, an American returning home to Minnesota, died in Nigeria on his way home. He could have easily landed in the US and the epidemic would be in our back yard; probably to spread like wild fire because the public has not been educated about how to curtail its spread.
Let’s learn from HIV and Hepatitis C. We are not alone in the world. This is not “their” disease. This is “our” problem. This is not just about Africans in a distant land, expiring of a rare disease. This is a wildfire that is potentially about to take off. The time for the CDC and WHO to take action is now. Worldwide deaths could easily be in the tens, if not hundreds of MILLIONS. It is my opinion that airlines should not allow ANYONE to travel who has a fever. It may be extreme but some countries have been doing this for years during the outbreak of other viral epidemics. Secondly, Ebola vaccination research needs to be stepped up immediately. Thirdly, and most importantly, since Ebola cannot spread through casual contact, there must be a concerted global education effort to teach people about proper hygiene that will help prevent the spread.
I am not trying to be an alarmist, just sending a wake up call. Ebola is here. But if being an alarmist will eventually save lives… then I’m sounding the alarm.
I LOVE talking and writing about vaccines…just LOVE it. Especially since a lot of my friends in earthy, green, tree hugging California, where I happen to live, are against vaccinations. I am a medical doctor and excuse me for giving advice based about scientific data. (Do you sense the sarcasm yet?) Here is some data: vaccinations, for whooping cough, polio, tetanus, hepatitis and diphtheria, just to name a few, have saved millions of lives. FACT. I believe it is almost criminal for people who do not have a sense of this history to make erroneous claims regarding vaccines and in turn persuade others not to vaccinate themselves and their children. This type of “magical thinking” has lead to a resurgence of diseases that were almost eradicated. But let me stick to one type of vaccine before I fall off my soap box: the flu vaccine.
Flu season is upon us and if you’re like a lot of consumers, you may be wondering if the flu shot is worth the hassle, pain and potential risk. Google “Is the flu shot safe?” and you will find a plethora of information that is muddled in myth, rumor and exaggeration. I thought I’d take a moment and address some of the most common myths about the flu shot….
It can give you the flu. This is absolutely false. Most versions of the vaccine contain inactivated strains of the flu virus — meaning it is dead. It cannot cause illness. The nasal spray does contain a live form of the virus but it’s attenuated, which simply means that it’s weakened and it cannot thrive within the warm conditions of your body. Patients who contract the flu shortly after getting the shot were likely already infected or came into contact with the illness before the vaccine was effective — it takes up to two weeks for the vaccine to build immunity in your system.
It’s linked to Alzheimer’s. This rumor has been disproven in multiple studies that actually show the opposite may be true — individuals who get the flu shot may have a reduced risk for Alzheimer’s disease. The Alzheimer’s Association also says there is no credibility to this common myth.
It’s not safe for pregnant women. Studies show that women are at greater risk for complications from the flu while they are pregnant than when they are not. The antibodies mom builds up from a flu shot during pregnancy have also been shown to benefit her baby while in utero and protect her precious bundle from serious flu related complications after birth.
It doesn’t work. Sure, it’s not 100 percent effective — nothing is — and its effectiveness varies from year to year. But a recent study shows that even in seasons when the vaccine isn’t a complete match to the strains circulating, the flu shot is still effective for the majority of the population. It has also been shown to reduce the severity of the illness for those immunized patients who still catch the flu.
It can give you Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS). There was a time when this was a concern. Back in 1976 there was a “small but significant association” between GBS — a neurological disorder than can cause weakness and temporary paralysis — and a vaccine for the swine flu. Vaccines are formulated differently today and recent studiesshow no link between the illness and the flu shot.
It contains mercury and it causes autism. Many naysayers point to the mercury contained in Thimerosal — a preservative that has widely been discontinued in vaccines — saying that it can cause brain damage and autism. While it’s true that methyl mercury can cause brain damage, it’s completely false when it comes to the ethyl mercury contained in Thimerosal. The differences can be likened to those between ethyl and methyl alcohol. One might cause a hangover, the other blindness. Furthermore, all single-dose vials of the flu shot are actually Thimerosal-free and studies prove that the preservative is absolutely harmless.
Everything that we do contains some element of risk and the flu vaccine is no different. Still, study after study show that the risks are minor and very insignificant. The flu on the other hand can be miserable at the very least and absolutely deadly for some. Recently, flu-associated deaths in the United States have been as high as 49,000 in one year. This is nothing to SNEEZE at! Weigh in… have you had your shot yet?

lowercased:
flu vaccine prevents deaths. last year 80,000 people in the usa died from complications of the flu. get your flu vaccine today. if you are afraid of vaccination you, especially, should watch this video.
i can talk till i am blue in the face about how vaccines do not cause autism and some people just don’t listen. but, let a twelve year old genius go on the internet and tell you all the reasons that vaccines do cause autism and he gets millions of views in one day. maybe i’m just wrong.
sure, it’s a little affected to title an article referencing an ibsen play; but the similarities are too great. in that play, a doctor was darling of a community until he did not do what the community wanted. this is similar to what is happening to healthcare workers who treat ebola patients.
what bothers me is how she was apparently being treated. according to her she is being kept in an unheated tent outside of newark airport and being given nothing to wear but hospital scrubs. where are we, in liberia? obviously the fear and “cootie syndrome” created by one doctor who tested positive for ebola and roamed the streets of new york while possibly contagious, has caused politicians to act rashly if not illegally. without knowledge of ebola and the science that surrounds it, they have caved in to public frenzy and have jumped the shark. they had no plan of action as how to quarantine anyone exposed to ebola, except to isolate them. they have no definition of what “exposure” is. does someone sitting next to someone on the subway who turns out to have ebola count as an exposed person? will they then be quarantined? where does it end? they don’t know. they are playing it by ear. that is a scariest thing.
i do know one thing, in the long run this type of quarantining may be increasing everyone’s chances of getting ebola. soon few doctors and nurses will go to western africa to treat patient’s with ebola if this is what awaits them upon their return. you cannot expect good samaritans to risk their lives to save us all and then accept being treated like lepers upon their arrival home.
but don’t we quarantine people with dangerous communicable diseases all the time? the answer is yes. the huge difference is that we do that once we know they have a communicable disease, not when we just suspect they do. you may think that the stakes are higher here because ebola is so dangerous. but as of now no one has died from contracting ebola in the us. which causes me to have a huge moral dilemma. i believe in quarantining health care workers on the honor principle as a way of stopping spread… but i do not agree with the way it is being done now. however, there may be a solution. the solution once again is science.
there is a test that is used both to detect and follow the progression of hiv. it is called the pcr (polymerase chain reaction) test. it is also used to test for progression of the ebola virus in someone’s body. if you do not have ebola in your blood this test will be negative. it is not like the antibody test that can take days or weeks or months to be positive. if you do not have the ebola genetic material in your blood this test will be negative. what i have not been found in the medical literature is how soon after you are infected with ebola will this test be positive. if this test is positive within a day or two after infection then problem solved.
when a health care worker returns to america from an endemic area he or she should be given an ebola pcr blood test and then be placed under home observation, in his or her own home. they must report to health authorities twice a day after that. they must have a pcr test every two to three days. if they have successively negative pcr and do not develop symptoms after a set period of time that “science” has determined to be safe, they can then be released from observation. that is of course if we know that my theory is correct.
regardless, i hope that the government is taking ebola pcrs form all health care works returning from western africa so that we can learn more about the natural progression of this disease. if not, they should create a voluntary research protocol that does this.
if it looks like i have reversed my position on mandatory quarantine, i have! after seeing the reaction of the public and the government, i am now much more concerned about the frightened town’s people storming frankenstein’s castle, than i am of the virus.
i am a virophobe, someone who fears viruses. having treated people with hiv and hepatitis c for my entire medical career i know the danger of these submicroscopic entities. not really animals because they don’t have more than a strand of dna or rna, they survive by infecting a host and using it’s genetics to replicate. therefore, the virus survives and host dies. nature could not have created a more efficient killer.
of course not all of them are killers, some like the influenza virus make you ill and most people survive. but even the flu virus kills tens of thousands of people a year in the usa alone. that is a tremendously high number. science has found that viral illness can be cured, as the recent breakthrough in the treatment of hepatitis c proves. but this is the rare exception.
i remember hearing about h1n1 in mexico five years ago and thinking that if a vaccine was not found immediately deaths could be in the thousands. luckily there was a vaccine discovered and mass immunizations were successful. (don’t even get me started on the ignorance of people who fear vaccines.) now there is a greater threat on the horizon, the ebola virus. it is not a matter of if it gets here, it’s a matter of when.
ebola is a quick acting virus that causes the body to be unable to clot and up to 90% of the people who contract it eventually bleed to death within a few weeks. whereas ebola used to be contained to small villages in africa, where the treatment was to isolate the whole village and let everyone die so that the virus could not spread, it is now spreading through four countries in western africa. this week, an american returning home to minnesota, died in nigeria on his way home. he could have easily landed in the us and the epidemic would be in our back yard; probably to spread like wild fire because the public has not been educated about how to curtail its spread.
let’s learn from hiv and hepatitis c. we are not alone in the world. this is not “their” disease. this is “our” problem. this is not just about africans in a distant land, expiring of a rare disease. this is a wildfire that is potentially about to take off. the time for the cdc and who to take action is now. worldwide deaths could easily be in the tens, if not hundreds of millions. it is my opinion that airlines should not allow anyone to travel who has a fever. it may be extreme but some countries have been doing this for years during the outbreak of other viral epidemics. secondly, ebola vaccination research needs to be stepped up immediately. thirdly, and most importantly, since ebola cannot spread through casual contact, there must be a concerted global education effort to teach people about proper hygiene that will help prevent the spread.
i am not trying to be an alarmist, just sending a wake up call. ebola is here. but if being an alarmist will eventually save lives… then i’m sounding the alarm.
i love talking and writing about vaccines…just love it. especially since a lot of my friends in earthy, green, tree hugging california, where i happen to live, are against vaccinations. i am a medical doctor and excuse me for giving advice based about scientific data. (do you sense the sarcasm yet?) here is some data: vaccinations, for whooping cough, polio, tetanus, hepatitis and diphtheria, just to name a few, have saved millions of lives. fact. i believe it is almost criminal for people who do not have a sense of this history to make erroneous claims regarding vaccines and in turn persuade others not to vaccinate themselves and their children. this type of “magical thinking” has lead to a resurgence of diseases that were almost eradicated. but let me stick to one type of vaccine before i fall off my soap box: the flu vaccine.
flu season is upon us and if you’re like a lot of consumers, you may be wondering if the flu shot is worth the hassle, pain and potential risk. google “is the flu shot safe?” and you will find a plethora of information that is muddled in myth, rumor and exaggeration. i thought i’d take a moment and address some of the most common myths about the flu shot….
it can give you the flu. this is absolutely false. most versions of the vaccine contain inactivated strains of the flu virus — meaning it is dead. it cannot cause illness. the nasal spray does contain a live form of the virus but it’s attenuated, which simply means that it’s weakened and it cannot thrive within the warm conditions of your body. patients who contract the flu shortly after getting the shot were likely already infected or came into contact with the illness before the vaccine was effective — it takes up to two weeks for the vaccine to build immunity in your system.
it’s linked to alzheimer’s. this rumor has been disproven in multiple studies that actually show the opposite may be true — individuals who get the flu shot may have a reduced risk for alzheimer’s disease. the alzheimer’s association also says there is no credibility to this common myth.
it’s not safe for pregnant women. studies show that women are at greater risk for complications from the flu while they are pregnant than when they are not. the antibodies mom builds up from a flu shot during pregnancy have also been shown to benefit her baby while in utero and protect her precious bundle from serious flu related complications after birth.
it doesn’t work. sure, it’s not 100 percent effective — nothing is — and its effectiveness varies from year to year. but a recent study shows that even in seasons when the vaccine isn’t a complete match to the strains circulating, the flu shot is still effective for the majority of the population. it has also been shown to reduce the severity of the illness for those immunized patients who still catch the flu.
it can give you guillain barre syndrome (gbs). there was a time when this was a concern. back in 1976 there was a “small but significant association” between gbs — a neurological disorder than can cause weakness and temporary paralysis — and a vaccine for the swine flu. vaccines are formulated differently today and recent studiesshow no link between the illness and the flu shot.
it contains mercury and it causes autism. many naysayers point to the mercury contained in thimerosal — a preservative that has widely been discontinued in vaccines — saying that it can cause brain damage and autism. while it’s true that methyl mercury can cause brain damage, it’s completely false when it comes to the ethyl mercury contained in thimerosal. the differences can be likened to those between ethyl and methyl alcohol. one might cause a hangover, the other blindness. furthermore, all single-dose vials of the flu shot are actually thimerosal-free and studies prove that the preservative is absolutely harmless.
everything that we do contains some element of risk and the flu vaccine is no different. still, study after study show that the risks are minor and very insignificant. the flu on the other hand can be miserable at the very least and absolutely deadly for some. recently, flu-associated deaths in the united states have been as high as 49,000 in one year. this is nothing to sneeze at! weigh in… have you had your shot yet?


text:
SA April Meet-Up: Sunday 14th @ Mt Pleasant.
So far for Mount Pleasant on Sunday 14th April we have: 1. Hatch 2. Nadg63 3. Thecollective 4. Wazamac 5. Hard_Pan 6. 7. 8.
Time to start thinking about the next Explorer round, and get it locked in before the silly season overwhelms us.
I have book the usual time slot; 1. Daves 2. ?
shreko is in town, wants a hit, I may as well try book a line. Got 1 spot left if anyone’s interested in playing. Pm me ASAP.
Having a hit at Seaton, either 9.30 or 12.30. Spots available for 3 guests ($80 or thereabouts + comp fee) 1. marcel 2. 3. 4.
Qld Black & White Marker Challenge - Redland Bay, Friday 1st Februay 2019, 7.28am.
Anyone got a game on ?

lowercased:
sa april meet-up: sunday 14th @ mt pleasant.
so far for mount pleasant on sunday 14th april we have: 1. hatch 2. nadg63 3. thecollective 4. wazamac 5. hard_pan 6. 7. 8.
time to start thinking about the next explorer round, and get it locked in before the silly season overwhelms us.
i have book the usual time slot; 1. daves 2. ?
shreko is in town, wants a hit, i may as well try book a line. got 1 spot left if anyone’s interested in playing. pm me asap.
having a hit at seaton, either 9.30 or 12.30. spots available for 3 guests ($80 or thereabouts + comp fee) 1. marcel 2. 3. 4.
qld black & white marker challenge - redland bay, friday 1st februay 2019, 7.28am.
anyone got a game on ?


text:
When I was young, we went to Devils Postpile quite often, as I was quite fascinated with the columns and how they have fallen over the years. Back then, it took a long time to get to the parking lot because the road was windy, narrow, and was more pothole than road. Now the road is paved and you take a shuttle bus from Mammoth Mountain.
These pictures are from June, 2003.

lowercased:
when i was young, we went to devils postpile quite often, as i was quite fascinated with the columns and how they have fallen over the years. back then, it took a long time to get to the parking lot because the road was windy, narrow, and was more pothole than road. now the road is paved and you take a shuttle bus from mammoth mountain.
these pictures are from june, 2003.


text:
Click on the below image and drag to look around the screen.
To go to the next section of our practice tour, please click on the flashing stars.
You can also move around using the navigation on in the bottom left corner of the below tour.

lowercased:
click on the below image and drag to look around the screen.
to go to the next section of our practice tour, please click on the flashing stars.
you can also move around using the navigation on in the bottom left corner of the below tour.


text:
BOSTON - Representative Joan Meschino (D-Hull) was proud to join more than 175,000 women at the Women's March in Boston on Saturday. Marchers from all over Massachusetts and New England assembled in solidarity with women in over 600 sister marches across the world. The March, which advocated for a host of social justice, environmental, and women’s issues, was an important first step toward unifying our communities and creating positive change through grassroots engagement.
Representative Meschino attended to show support of not only the women of the 3rd Plymouth district, but of the entire Commonwealth and country.
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, and Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, and Attorney General Maura Healey addressed the crowd. Also in attendance was Representative Stephen Lynch.
In her continued effort to advocate for women’s issues, Representative Meschino participated on a panel Thursday night sponsored by the Women's Bar Association in partnership with the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus entitled, "Running for Office: The Inside Story." The event - which was was well attended by both women and men seeking to run for public office - focused on the issues that women have faced in the political world.
Representative Meschino was one of four panelists who discussed their experiences in politics and the challenges they have faced along the way. Other panelists included, Lydia Edwards who ran for the First Suffolk and Middlesex Senate District; Lori Ehrlich, State Representative for the Eighth Essex District; and Brianna Sullivan, who ran for State Representative for the First Essex District. The event was coordinated by Ann Bookman, Director at the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at UMASS Boston.

lowercased:
boston - representative joan meschino (d-hull) was proud to join more than 175,000 women at the women's march in boston on saturday. marchers from all over massachusetts and new england assembled in solidarity with women in over 600 sister marches across the world. the march, which advocated for a host of social justice, environmental, and women’s issues, was an important first step toward unifying our communities and creating positive change through grassroots engagement.
representative meschino attended to show support of not only the women of the 3rd plymouth district, but of the entire commonwealth and country.
massachusetts attorney general maura healey, and senators elizabeth warren and ed markey, boston mayor marty walsh, and attorney general maura healey addressed the crowd. also in attendance was representative stephen lynch.
in her continued effort to advocate for women’s issues, representative meschino participated on a panel thursday night sponsored by the women's bar association in partnership with the massachusetts women's political caucus entitled, "running for office: the inside story." the event - which was was well attended by both women and men seeking to run for public office - focused on the issues that women have faced in the political world.
representative meschino was one of four panelists who discussed their experiences in politics and the challenges they have faced along the way. other panelists included, lydia edwards who ran for the first suffolk and middlesex senate district; lori ehrlich, state representative for the eighth essex district; and brianna sullivan, who ran for state representative for the first essex district. the event was coordinated by ann bookman, director at the center for women in politics and public policy at umass boston.


text:
Who says the summers are dry? Not me! Though, it's not the right time as we are still to experience summers this year, still, as a prep, I'm putting this post, dealing with a particular summer beauty -- The Moss Rose, (Portulaca Grandiflora), also known as 9'o clock or 10'o clock, as it usually blooms at that time in the morning.
Moss roses, as far as I know and feel about them, are plants belonging to the the xerophytic group of plants (the same one, to which the cactuses belong). Xerophytes, according to wikipedia, are "plants that has adapted to survive in an environment that lacks average or sufficient amounts of water, such as a desert." This is because of the hardiness of the moss rose to harsh environmental conditions. As everyone here might be knowing, that moss roses may live on for a week or so without actually getting any nutrition, and this makes moss roses such a loved variety of ornamental plants.
Though, I have the pink and the white coloured varieties too, those were not such appealing, or probably, I couldn't capture one. The catch being - "Being at the right place at the right time." Moss roses can be very decorative. These continuously bloom for their entire blooming period, each flower lasting a day, and couples of flowers blooming everyday look actually nice.
Oh, I do love moss roses. Your photos are lovely!

lowercased:
who says the summers are dry? not me! though, it's not the right time as we are still to experience summers this year, still, as a prep, i'm putting this post, dealing with a particular summer beauty -- the moss rose, (portulaca grandiflora), also known as 9'o clock or 10'o clock, as it usually blooms at that time in the morning.
moss roses, as far as i know and feel about them, are plants belonging to the the xerophytic group of plants (the same one, to which the cactuses belong). xerophytes, according to wikipedia, are "plants that has adapted to survive in an environment that lacks average or sufficient amounts of water, such as a desert." this is because of the hardiness of the moss rose to harsh environmental conditions. as everyone here might be knowing, that moss roses may live on for a week or so without actually getting any nutrition, and this makes moss roses such a loved variety of ornamental plants.
though, i have the pink and the white coloured varieties too, those were not such appealing, or probably, i couldn't capture one. the catch being - "being at the right place at the right time." moss roses can be very decorative. these continuously bloom for their entire blooming period, each flower lasting a day, and couples of flowers blooming everyday look actually nice.
oh, i do love moss roses. your photos are lovely!