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Geek Devotions
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December 27, 2021 Geek Devotions Articles, Christian Living, Comic Reviews
Killing Time: Thoughts After Maximum Carnage
John Harju
"over the top – over the top, right now it's killing time…
over the top – over the top, the only way out is to die!"
Scream Aim Fire" by Bullet for My Valentine
If I am being honest, this article is difficult for me to write for two reasons. First of all, if I am being completely honest, Spider-Man is not my jam. I have tried. I have force-fed myself comics over the years, but I just can't get into him. He goes next to Superman on my list of iconic heroes that I find unrelatable because of how squeaky clean their ideals are. I prefer my heroes to walk in the gray and be as broken and conflicted as I am. Maybe I am weird, but I want to see myself in the hero rather than an iron-clad ideal. In the end, I end up relating more with the anti-heroes or (as is in this case) the villains.
Secondly, when I sat down to read this comic to write this article, I was also in a book that was digging up buried feelings I didn't know I still had in regards to a history I have of spiritual abuse. I had started reading this comic with the intention of finding some literary distraction from said book, but instead, I was brought in deeper to face the issues at which I was being forced to look. We'll get more into that later, though.
The narrative of this book has a lot of twists and turns, so I am reluctant to divulge a lot of the details. Instead, I will focus on the key points of the book. Peter has been reunited with his parents, who weren't actually dead but held in a Soviet prison for 20 years. Harry Osborne had just been killed, and Mary Jane had coaxed Peter to put down Spiderman for a couple of weeks so they could have a break. Sound complicated? Well, that is literally just the starting point of where the story picks up.
The narrative then shifts to Carnage breaking out of prison during a transfer of custody to a criminal psychologist who intended to study why Carnage is the way he is. I find this to be incredibly interesting in retrospect because, after he murders the prison staff and breaks out, the rest of the story is literally a narrative study into that very thought.
In the process of breaking out, we are introduced to a new villain named Shriek. In a very weird sense, she becomes Carnage's "love interest for the rest of the story. She is an exceptional match for him, though, as she shares Carnage's bloodlust and view of the meaninglessness of existence. For the remainder of the book, they continue to pick up more individuals from the morally deprived end of the pool of Spider-Man's rogues' gallery and make their own demented family as a means to perpetuate the philosophy of chaos and meaninglessness.
The process by which Shriek and Carnage are defeated forces them to look at their own pasts and deal with the trauma and tragedy that defined their formative years. Both suffered abuse and neglect at the hands of those in which they should have been able to trust and find safety. Essentially, they had light expose their past and were confronted with the decision of forgiveness and healing, or hatred and neglecting to confront the feelings of the past. In the end, Shriek chooses forgiveness, and we see her transform, even to the extent of beckoning Carnage to do the same. I wonder how it would have looked if Carnage had accepted forgiveness and healing as Shriek had begged him to do. Instead, Carnage chooses intense injury by rejecting forgiveness.
"See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God;
that no 'root of bitterness' springs up and causes trouble,
and by it many become defiled"
I was a bit overwhelmed with how much I related to the core villains in this story. In the church I was saved in, the pastor became progressively more abusive over time. By the time that had become aware that this was not normal Christianity, the damage had been done. I kept people at bay. I was angry with God, angry with Christianity, and just hurting both emotionally and spiritually (not to mention the new anxiety problems that developed after the fact). My irreverence and anger became my hiding place. My relationship with my wife suffered, my work suffered, I suffered, but I could not forgive. Over time, it was a process of slowly giving it to God offense, by offense to where I learned to forgive my old pastor. In retrospect, I wish I could have done it sooner. But, the pain of hanging onto that bitterness wasn't worth it.
In the end, of both the comic and my life lesson, we see that hurt people hurt people. If you are harboring bitterness within you, you are hurting people whether you are aware of it or not. Most of all, you are hurting yourself. It has been said that bitterness is the poison that you drink hoping to kill someone else. This is true. Bitterness will never effect positive change in your life, and it will never affect the person in whom you are bitter in the way you want it to. Allow the love and forgiveness of Christ to permeate you and free yourself from your self-imposed bondage. Life is too short to allow people other than Christ to have that much power over you.
Be loved.
(post script note. If there is anyone out there who is like me and caught the "buried emotions" comment earlier and also feel that it doesn't make sense with the message of this article, allow me to qualify that these emotions were that of sadness that it happened and not any sense of bitterness or hatred. Also, if anyone reading this is suffering abuse at the hands of an individual, please seek help. There is help out there. There are people who care for you and want you to be safe and happy. You deserve a happy life and are worth it. –John)
Tagged Christian Geek, Christian Geeks, Church Hurt, Devoted Geeks, featured, Forgive, forgiviness, Forgiving, Geek Devotion, Geek Devotions, How to Forgive, John Harju, Maximum Carnage, Review of Maximum Carnage, Spider-Man, Spider-Man Maximum Carnage, Spiritual Abuse
Scrooged – TBS Review
An Open Letter to the Wall Crawler | by Michael J. Manacci
Categories Select Category Anime April Articles book review Christian Living Comic Reviews Game Review Health movie review music TV Reviews Batman Book Reviews Comm Talk B's Views and Reviews Primitive Rhythm Machine Comm Talk by Geek Devotions Contests Devotions Mini Devos Season 2 Sequel Month season 5 Season 6 Extra Tuesday Captain's Comic Log Challenges Devoted Gaming geek life How To… Interviews Reaction Videos Recommendations Story Time Unboxing Game Streams Gaming Geekmas 2017 geeks under grace Guests I Heart Japanese Monsters Month King of the Monsters Month Sermon Notes Summer Serials Summer Sing Along The Bottom Shelf Women of Geekdom
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Technical Difficulties and Highlights of 2021 | 121
A Fantastic Devotional feat. Eric Anderson and Chris Cooke | BVR | 120
Spider-Man And Hookers | 119
Meet Shawn Browning of Rottweiler Records | PRM | 118
Belfast - A Dapper Review | 117
A Devotion from The Fantastic 42 | 116
Meet Author and Comic Creator JS Earls | BVR | 115
Am I A Failure? | CT114
Our Favorite Vampire Franchises | Feat John Harju | CT113
Wonder Woman - Rebirth and DCEU Discussion | Lost File 005


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Q: Dropdown box Index issue I have one dropdownbox(ddlCountry) containing allcountries,If i select USA it will display grid
displaying Tax information related to USA.If i edit information
in grid and if we change country USA to UK in dropdown box
in the ddlCountry(not the dropdownbox coming in the edit window of grid,,no problem for that) it displaying error like
Specified argument was out of the range of valid values.
Parameter name: ItemHierarchicalIndex
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.
Exception Details: System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Specified argument was out of the range of valid values.
Parameter name: ItemHierarchicalIndex
Source Error:
Line 86:             }
Line 87:
Line 88:             if( rgStateTax.EditItems.Count > 0 )
Line 89:             {
Line 90:                 foreach( GridDataItem item in rgStateTax.Items )
Source File: c:\Projects\ACS\sample.Acs.Administration\UserControls\TaxManager.ascx.cs    Line: 88
Stack Trace:
[ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Specified argument was out of the range of valid values.
Parameter name: ItemHierarchicalIndex]
   Telerik.WebControls.GridItemCollection.get_Item(String hierarchicalIndex) +323
   Telerik.WebControls.GridDataItemCollection.get_Item(String hierarchicalIndex) +37
   Telerik.WebControls.RadGrid.get_EditItems() +215
   sample.Acs.Administration.TaxManager.rgStateTax_PreRender(Object sender, EventArgs e) in c:\Projects\ACS\sample.Acs.Administration\UserControls\TaxManager.ascx.cs:88
   System.Web.UI.Control.OnPreRender(EventArgs e) +8682870
   System.Web.UI.WebControls.BaseDataBoundControl.OnPreRender(EventArgs e) +31
   Telerik.RadGridUtils.RadControl.OnPreRender(EventArgs e) +36
   Telerik.RadGridUtils.RadAJAXControl.OnPreRender(EventArgs e) +37
   Telerik.WebControls.RadGrid.OnPreRender(EventArgs e) +40
   System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +80
   System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +171
   System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +171
   System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +171
   System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +171
   System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +171
   System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +171
   System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +171
   System.Web.UI.Control.PreRenderRecursiveInternal() +171
   System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain(Boolean includeStagesBeforeAsyncPoint, Boolean includeStagesAfterAsyncPoint) +842
this is the grid(rgstatetax) prerender event
protected void rgStateTax_PreRender( object sender, EventArgs e )
    {
        if( rgStateTax.MasterTableView.IsItemInserted )
        {
            foreach( GridItem item in rgStateTax.Items )
            {
                item.Visible = false;
            }
        }

        if( rgStateTax.EditItems.Count > 0 )
        {
            foreach( GridDataItem item in rgStateTax.Items )
            {
                if( item != rgStateTax.EditItems[0] )
                {
                    item.Visible = false;
                }
            }
        }

Code in UI
protected void ddlCountryTax_SelectedIndexChanged( object sender, EventArgs e )
        {
            long locationId = ddlCountryTax.SelectedItem.Value.AsLong();
        ContentAdministrationServiceClient client = null;
        List<DCTaxRate> taxRate = null;
        try
        {
            client = new ContentAdministrationServiceClient();
            taxRate = client.GetTaxRatesByCountryIdAndLocationTypeName( locationId, "State" );
            client.Close();
        }
        catch( FaultException )
        {
            AbortClient(client);
            throw;
        }

        rgStateTax.DataSource = taxRate;
        rgStateTax.Rebind();

    }

Code in wrapper layer
public List GetTaxRatesByCountryIdAndLocationTypeName( long countryId, string locationTypeName )
        {
            DCTaxRateCollection taxRates = new DCTaxRateCollection();
            taxRates.GetByCountryIdAndLoactionTypeName( countryId, locationTypeName );
        return taxRates.ToList();
    }

    public void GetByCountryIdAndLoactionTypeName( long countryId, string locationTypeName )
    {
        IBOTaxRateCollection iboTaxRates = new BOTaxRateCollection();
        iboTaxRates.GetByCountryIdAndLocationTypeName( countryId, locationTypeName );

        SetItems( iboTaxRates );
    }

In Bo layer
    public void GetByCountryIdAndLocationTypeName( long countryId, string locationTypeName )
    {
        ISingleResult<TaxRate> taxRates = Database.TaxRateReadByCountryIdAndLocationTypeName( countryId, locationTypeName );
        PopulateCollection( taxRates );
    }

A: This occurs when the list of values in the dropdown does not include the value being bound to the SelectedValue property. If this is because you have a null value you could get the data adapter to return an empty string when the field is null (if that is the problem)
and then insert a value in the dropdown list to match:
<asp:DropDownList ID="dd_bound" runat="server" AppendDataBoundItems="True">
    <asp:ListItem Value="" Text="Select one..." />
</asp:DropDownList>

Note the AppendDataBoundItems value.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Our service center is equipped with all sorts of spares needed for the full alteration of the Royal Enfield.
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1076 146362/B RING CLAMP BOTTOM LH.
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1834 550145 BRACKET RR MUDGUARD MTG.
1879 560010/B CLUTCH GEAR CIRCLIP.
1884 560016/A NEEDLE BRG-CLUTCH GEAR.
1925 560513 MASTER CYLINDER WITH RH LEVER ASSY.
1936 560534 BANJO BOLT – HOSE ASSY.
1940 560540 BRAKE HOSE ASSY.
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2078 570185/B CONNECTING ROD ASSY.
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3603 594575 HL INSTALLATION – NT(ADDON LEAD).
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Home to over 760,000 people within its consolidated city/county boundaries, Louisville Metro is not only growing but is also becoming more diverse. As with many communities across the United States, not all populations within the Louisville Metro area have equal access to the things that many of us take for granted, such as adequate transit, safe and affordable housing, healthy food options and the parks, green space and other aspects of the physical environment that promote healthy living. As recently evidenced in the Louisville Metro Health Equity Report 2017, this inequity—or lack of fairness—within our communities is particularly evident in the disparities that exist in health status and health outcomes between different ZIP codes and census tracts. For example, Louisville Metro's average life expectancy is 76.8 years, yet some regions have a 12.6-year difference in life expectancy. Simply put, where you live not only impacts the quality of your life, it also affects your life expectancy.
In Part I of this series about equity in communities, GS&P's Valarie Franklin explored how architects, designers and planners have the ability as well as the responsibility to break down some of the physical barriers within communities to improve accessibility for all. In Part II, I look at how GS&P has helped break down socioeconomic barriers through the power of transformation and connectivity—including two Louisville Metro-based community projects—to give all populations a fair and just opportunity to enjoy the same public spaces and places that contribute to a community's overall quality of life.
With the goal of reducing vacant and abandoned properties in West Louisville, Louisville Metro's Vacant & Public Property Administration engaged GS&P to help develop the Rsquared 40212 program—a comprehensive umbrella initiative that encourages community-inspired redevelopment projects that put vacant and underutilized properties back into productive use. Our team of landscape architects and urban planners launched a yearlong effort that involved identifying vacant lots for reuse, and bringing neighborhood residents and stakeholders together for activities that included fieldtrips to the vacant lots in the 40212 ZIP code study area to discuss design opportunities. As a result of this community-driven design process, West Louisville-based nonprofit Louisville Grows was selected to implement a project that blended multiple community ideas into one innovative public space. Located in the Russell neighborhood, "Produce Park" was a direct result of community visioning and collaborative design, and what we refer to at GS&P as "Planning for Action." The vacant lot turned urban orchard includes an edible forest garden and a gathering place that houses community-based events, markets and exhibits. Since opening to the public in 2016, Produce Park has been enjoyed by children from adjacent homes, and has provided Russell residents with an opportunity to harvest and learn about locally grown food while providing a first-of-its-kind communal social space for the neighborhood.
City Collaborative is a nonprofit organization that works to develop actionable solutions for cities, regions and their communities. GS&P was fortunate to partner with the group on their ReSurfaced program, which aims to rethink surface parking lots in Louisville's urban core. As part of the initiative, our team was involved in transforming a vacant surface parking lot in Louisville's Phoenix Hill neighborhood into a pop-up soccer pitch dubbed "Liberty Field." Although Louisville has many spaces in which to play soccer, access is an issue for some residents. This abandoned parking lot turned soccer field now unites residents from all over, including immigrant and refugee populations, giving everyone the opportunity to play one of the world's favorite games.
Another way in which GS&P is helping foster equity in communities is by providing connectivity in communities through projects such as the Town Branch Commons—a multimodal trail, greenway and park system along the route of buried Town Branch Creek in downtown Lexington. Mobility is a critical component of equity, as our transportation systems are the great equalizer along with housing affordability. As people are priced out of urban centers, public and multimodal transportation becomes a key element in both employment and quality of life. As part of a multidisciplinary effort, our firm's Landscape Architecture and Transportation groups are working hand in hand to deliver this world-class multimodal system that connects diverse neighborhoods and provides comfortable and safe access for bicyclists, pedestrians and transit users. When the project is complete, the Town Branch Commons Corridor will be the central link in over 20 miles of greenway trails that will connect Lexington's urban core with urban, suburban and rural communities, as well as multiple employment and entertainment nodes throughout Lexington.
At the end of the day, equity in our communities only exists when everyone has an equal opportunity to enjoy the resources that help make our lives better. As a landscape architect whose focus is on urban design projects, I spend a lot of time thinking about the social, economic and ecological well-being of communities and how I can do my part to enhance the human experience for all, especially communities where socioeconomic disparities can severely impact peoples' health, happiness and security. At GS&P, we believe in improving quality of life in all communities on all our projects—from micro-installations such as Produce Park to 2-mile urban public space systems like Town Branch Commons, which will transform a city for the next century. I love what I do. And rarely do I love it more than when I'm part of a team that is helping enrich the lives of the people around us.


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Art & Antiques for Sale
Galerie Andreas Huber
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Galerie Andreas Huber was founded in 2005, located at Capistrangasse 3. In Summer 2010, the gallery moved to Schleifmühlgasse, the center of an established gallery district close to Vienna's famous Naschmarkt. The new gallery space, now located on second floor, has an area of 140 sqm. With its high ceilings and wooden floors it resembles a typical Viennese apartment. The new premises were inaugurated with the group show Brand New You're Retro, followed by the exhibition Poèsie Sonore, which presented works by Henri Chopin, Carola Dertnig, Aloïs Godinat, Joan Jonas, and Tobias Kaspar. The gallery program covers works by artists who as a matter of course understand art production strongly associated with politics, theory and social culture. In order to discuss issues of representation, construction and subsequent emerging standards and limits, forms of expression such as performance, video or public intervention are employed. The gallery represents young emerging artists from Austria and abroad as well as established artists, who have presented their work at documenta and in biennials like Venice and Berlin. The gallery participates regularly in art fairs like Frieze London, Art Basel Miami Beach, LISTE Basel, Frieze New York, The Armory Show New York, ARTISSIMA Torino, Art Cologne and Viennafair.
© 2016 kunstvitrine.com

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Reading Only the First Character of a Line with while loop #include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main()
{
   char ch;
   int count;
   while ((ch = getchar()) != '#')
{
//if('\n' == ch)
//continue;
    printf("%c\n",ch);
    return 0;
}

for input like "abc/n"
With out if statment, it only print the first character and exit the while loop.
with the if statment, it also only print the first character and stay in the while loop.
why only print first letter? why exit the while loop even I didn't input'#'?

A: Use getch instead of getchar if you don't want displaying feedback to screen. But this is non-standard API.

A: return 0;

Should be outside the while loop, plus you're missing the closing bracket of main function.


Here are several photos from the Children's Day Parade … I am not sure of the year, maybe 1955, 56 or 57. This was before my time, since I was born in 1953. In fact, that is my mother and I ( I have my back to the camera ) on the left side of the photo and I look to be three or four in this photo. I had a Children's Day Parade post on the old site, however these are the only two images that I have on this hard drive. The photo below is a float with the black king and queen.


Recent medical studies show that breathing wood dust can be hazardous to your health. ThcJDS AIR-TECH 2000 will dramatically improve the quality of the air you breathe.
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The JDS AIR-TECH 2000 systems will remove 99% of particles as small as five microns and 80% of the particles as small as one micron.


? Try to have only 2 meals in a day since the ability of your digestive system has become weak and therefore there should be a gap of 10 to 12 hours between your two meals.
?Mainly consume foods that are rich in protein and fiber such as eggs, sheep meat, prawns, etc.
? Take warm baths but do not spend a long time doing so!
? Strictly avoid drinking water at least half an hour before your meal and until one hour after it.
?Wake up before sunrise and avoid excess sleeping as it increases phlegm in the body. Do not exceed 7-8 hours of sleep.
? Keep yourself far away from humid climates and environments.
? Avoid unnecessary rest during the day, especially during sunset and sunrise. Also avoid sitting for long periods.
? The most important advice is to avoid or reduce cold-natured foods such as pasteurized dairy products, cream, yoghurt, excess rice, potato chips / crisps, tomato, chicken, beef, fish, etc. If you want to have them once in a while, eat them with their moderator food. For example, yoghurt should be mixed with mint / garlic / ajwain, milk should be mixed with date, rice should be mixed with black seed or cumin, cream should be mixed with honey in order to reduce their coldness.


text:
Laugh Clown Laugh by Penny Haavig - Book Tour
By Jasmine J 5:00 AM book tour, Books, excerpt, historical fiction
Missionary to the Oddballs Series
Publisher: Book Baby
Insecurity, grief, and scars of the past nip at Violet Pearl's heels through four decades. The colorful vaudeville stage bolts this riveting story forward. An invisible mask covers the anguish in her heart. A history of mental illness haunts her. Will Violet escape a nervous breakdown?
"Wake up, Violet Pearl! Wake up! Mama screams. She pulls the covers off me and yanks my arm. I can feel anger building inside of me. I hate this nightmare."
I feel a grip on my arm, firm and solid.
"Ouch! You're hurting me!" I say, trying to open my eyes. I try to free myself.
"Get up child. Now."
My body hitting the floor, wakes me up. Weeping Daisy is in Mama's arms. "What are you doing, Mama? It's in the middle of the night."
"We Have to go, now. Come on, this instant." Mama cries.
She yanks me up. "Come on. Do you hear me?" She says forcefully as she bolts out the door and down the steps. I feel like I'm sleepwalking.
I manage to get on my slippers; pull on my robe; literally run down the steps after her; and grab my sister's hat, coat and boots on the way. No one is around, but I quickly glance at my mother. She's in a slip and barefoot.
Penny N Haavig was born in New York City. She lived in upstate, New York for many years. Penny has two grown daughters, and five grandchildren. She resides in Minnesota with her husband, Tom.
Penny loves horses and continues to ride when she can.
Contact Link
book tour, Books, excerpt, historical fiction


text:
Posted inBusiness
Maine panel narrows down $1B economic recovery plan, but says more money needed
by Lori Valigra July 10, 2020 July 10, 2020
Kevin Norsworthy, State Theater's "marquee master," puts a new message outside the venue in Portland in this June 16, 2020, file photo. Credit: Robert F. Bukaty / AP
The panel tasked with proposing a plan to get Maine's economy back on track met on Friday to narrow recommendations to three policy areas that would tap around $970 million of the state's federal coronavirus aid, at the same time saying that funding is not nearly enough.
The recommendations would tap the $1.25 billion in federal CARES Act coronavirus funding to the state that the governor is responsible for distributing.
"The needs for CARES Act funding outweigh the supply by many orders of magnitude," said Tilson CEO Josh Broder, co-chair of the 37-member Economic Recovery Committee formed by Gov. Janet Mills in May.
The committee pulled together recommendations from six subgroups that have been meeting over the past two months to focus on needs in tourism and retail, education and workforce, infrastructure, innovation, manufacturing, and health care and child care. The three areas of focus in the report will be stabilizing and supporting Maine's people, employers and infrastructure.
The committee's initial report, focused on stabilizing and supporting the economy, is due to the governor on July 15. More changes may be made to proposals between now and then, Broder said. The final report due on Dec. 1 will focus on sustainability and growth to bridge the state's COVID-19 response with its 10-year economic development strategy released last year.
The people area of the report recommends $20 million for childcare, $300 million for safe operations in pre-kindergarten through grade 12, $75 million for higher education, $50 million for housing assistance and up to $7 million for immigrant support. Funding still is needed for public health.
Funding requested for employers is $300 million for business aid, $30 million for the Finance Authority of Maine, $20 million for innovation support at the Maine Technology Institute and $30 million for workforce development.
The third area, infrastructure, calls for $60 million in broadband funding. It also calls for a $100 million bond initiative, $85 million of which would fund transportation and $15 million for digital infrastructure.
The committee still is working through the numbers and proposals. However, in a show of hands vote at the end of its meeting today, the majority said the allocated funding was "just about right" in all areas except the $300 million for small business funding, which half of the committee thought was either "too low" or "much too low."
The hospitality, retail and tourism subgroup noted that it was aware of an $800 million industry proposal to the governor. "The longer the pandemic and the economic impact lasts, the greater the need," the subgroup told the committee in its proposal.
A couple committee members recommended bonding for items like broadband to stretch the limited CARES Act funds.
"We can't fix the fundamental structural problems of the state," said Adam Lee, board chairman of Lee Auto Malls. "This is to stop us from drowning."
Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the amount of stimulus money in Maine. It is $1.25 billion.
Tagged: coronavirus


Laser Engraved Mirrors, Etched as never seen before!
During a segment of "Good Day Chicago" on FOX 32, gift expert Lindsay Roberts showed one of our laser engraved mirrors as a "Hot Holiday Gifts for Everyone on your list".
Although a Mirror is hard to capture in a TV studio with camera's, lights, crew and black walls surrounding, Lindsay did a real good job, pushing the mirror a little forward so it reflected the white table cloth and showed the enchanted beauty of our unique laser etched mirror.
On May 13th 2007 one or our mirrors was shown for the first time ever on Dutch Television.
During the "gadgets" segment of the Mothers Day broadcast of "Life and Cooking", famous Dutch TV host Carlo Boszhard showed a Laser Engraved mirror with a picture of Carlo and his Mom to his co-host "Irene Moors".
Carlo named it the best MothersDay gift ever".
Although a Mirror is hard to capture in a TV studio with camera's, lights, crew and black walls surrounding, and you can hardly see anything because the cameraman is zooming in on all black reflections. We still are proud to share the first TV debut with you!
Spoken language in this short video is Dutch. Click the play button to start this video.
© 2017 Mirror-Engraving. All Rights Reserved.


Type: full face, for men, women, visor present, size: l., ideal for-men, women, design-aerodynamic, inner shell-eps padding, outer shell-polyurethane thermoplastic. straps-yes. adjustments-chinstrap mechanism. ventilation type-dynamic ventilation, visor color-mirror.


text:
Diss Mercury > News
Big smiles for A-level results in Diss
By Adam Gretton
Published: 7:09 AM August 19, 2011 Updated: 7:58 AM October 7, 2020
There were more tears of joy in south Norfolk today as hundreds of students picked up their A-level results with many getting into their first choice university.
Staff and students at Diss High School were celebrating after maintaining last year's high standards.
Many of the 18-year-olds will be heading straight to university in September to avoid big hikes in tuition fees, which will come into force next year.
Staff at Diss High School were unable to provide an A*-C pass rate, but said they were on a par with last year's 82pc.
High achievers included Tom Fleming who got five A*s and will be studying history at Hertford College in Oxford. Oliver Maskell gained four A* grades and one A and will study politics, philosophy, and sociology at Christ's College Cambridge. Aspiring vets Jordan Smith and Sophie Common both gained A*s and As to read veterinary medicine at Nottingham University and the Royal Veterinary College respectively. Josh Smith also gained four A grades and will study medicine at Manchester University.
'Students have once again achieved some of the best A-level results in the country and they are favourable compared to last year. Already over 90pc of students have had their place at university confirmed.
'We are thrilled and delighted with these superb results. This is the reward of very hard work by staff and students,' said headteacher Jan Hunt.
Sixth formers at Attleborough High School delivered a big improvement with 64pc getting A* to Cs compared to last year's 56pc.
'This year shows a significant increase in the number of students achieving top grades. These results reflect the dedication and professionalism of all our staff and the commitment shown by the students and their supportive parents,' said headteacher Neil McShane.
At Wymondham High School, the A* to C pass rate was up 4pc on last year at 78pc.
Headteacher Victoria Musgrave added that 20pc of the sixth formers got A*s, and four students - Adam Dougall, Gabriella Johansson, Liam Carter and Chris Davis - will be going to Cambridge University.
'My thanks to staff, parents and most of all our outstanding students who have worked so very hard and deserve every success. I feel proud and privileged to lead such a centre of academic excellence,' she said.
Wymondham College declined to take part in this year's results round-up and the Hartismere School A-level results were unavailable.
But Louise Clifford, director of sixth form at the Eye academy, praised the dedication of pupils, parents and staff after another 'outstanding' set of results.
She said: 'Students who work hard deserve to gain access to top universities with the best employment prospects.'


This was our first home purchase and Ann was there as our agent, psychologist, and friend.
She was virtually always available to us via phone and email, and whenever we could visit Santa Barbara for a weekend, she spent hours taking us around town to a number of potential dwellings.
She made a fairly complex deal (multiple contingencies on multiple properties) seem easy.
I can imagine that dealing with five offers might be overwhelming, but she handled everything with grace and ease.
She helped guide me through the confusing and emotionally draining task of extreme downsizing.
She is amazing and she helped me with everything! Literally everything.
Ann was by my side through the whole process helping move things along when they got stuck.
Ann has it all: in-depth local knowledge, professional contacts and resources, knowledge of all the ins and outs of the buying/selling process, and a great personal touch (warmth and sense of humor) that took all the stress out of an inherently stressful process.
She was thoroughly professional: timely, knowledgeable, detail-oriented, always fully prepared, resourceful, & responsive.
Ann was extraordinarily good at finding creative and efficient solutions to all the issues raised by the purchase of a house by foreigners.
We really enjoyed receiving her weekly marketing updates, informing us of the extensive actions she took in advertising our listed property.
She was extremely patient with us and constantly kept us informed as the issues were resolved with the house, one by one.
Despite it being somewhat of a difficult sale, with a few setbacks, she was very positive and kept me updated at all times.
Ann is very sharp and is a seasoned professional.
Her motto is building relationships, and she does just that.


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Well...it's officially December 21, 2012 (in my timezone). And...everything appears to be normal.
If there is a zombie attack or meteor strike taking place, I can't hear it from my house (thank goodness). I've been warning people about the apocalypse and the world ending for a few years now, so I'm sure people are happy that my predictions were incorrect.
I've only been saying these things because the world seems to get crazier and crazier every day. Whenever I do watch the local news (which is maybe three times a year), it's all so sad and really unbelievable...it would only make sense that the world was coming to an end.
But I'm grateful that it isn't over yet. In a way, today is its own kind of New Year. A "second chance" type of thing. I'm excited about that and I will embrace the opportunities of the future. Now, I guess there isn't a commonly known prediction for the world's end...so we'll all just have to live every day like it could be the last - inspirational, I know.
Too bad I postponed some of my Christmas shopping, planning for the world to end before Christmas. Still so much to do!
:D It's just after midnight here..things are A-OK so far!
I'm loving your whole outfit in that pic. Lots of colour, love!
This post is SO FUNNY!!!!!Good luck with the last-minute shopping!
I'm lovin' this $2.99 a gallon trend here in ATL. Am I right?
yes -- i hope it continues!!
I typically watch the news only for coverage after something has happened. I don't typically watch the news because it's so depressing to me.


text:
OSU's Hyde sees RB value slide
Last year marked the first time since the common draft began in 1967 that no running back was selected in Round 1. Th...
OSU's Hyde sees RB value slide Last year marked the first time since the common draft began in 1967 that no running back was selected in Round 1. Th... Check out this story on newarkadvocate.com: http://ohne.ws/1ifavEU
Tom Pelissero, USA TODAY Sports Published 8:50 a.m. ET April 23, 2014
Ohio State running back Carlos Hyde (34) reacts after a big run at Ann Arbor, Michigan on Nov. 30. (Photo: AP Photo )
Last year marked the first time since the common draft began in 1967 that no running back was selected in Round 1. The two drafts before that saw one back taken in the first 27 picks: Trent Richardson, whom the Cleveland Browns traded 17 months after drafting him third overall.
The trend figures to continue with the backs considered this year's best — starting with Ohio State's Carlos Hyde and Washington's Bishop Sankey — considered late-first-round picks and more likely to come off the board in the second round.
"I don't really understand why everybody is bringing up this devaluing of the running back position," Hyde said.
The strong rookie seasons of the Cincinnati Bengals' Giovani Bernard (drafted 37th overall last year) and the Green Bay Packers' Eddie Lacy (drafted 61st) should help this year's top backs, said Hyde, who ran for 3,198 yards and scored 41 touchdowns over four college seasons.
"They say the NFL is a pass-happy league now. I do a great job of catching, a great job of picking up blitzers, recognizing defenses," Hyde said. "I feel like I'm a complete running back. I definitely feel like I'm a first-round talent."
But possessing the talent might not be enough anymore. The Atlanta Falcons, who worked out Hyde last week and will host him this week, surely aren't taking him at No. 6 but could be interested with their second-round pick (No. 37).
"Honestly, I wish it was different. I wish it was like how it used to be," Sankey said. "Maybe I'm biased, but I think running back is a very valuable position."
Marshawn Lynch's role in the Seattle Seahawks' Super Bowl run can't be underestimated either. It remains possible to build the offense of a championship team around a featured back. But the way the league is trending is obvious even to those who intend to make a career running the ball.
Teams are figuring out they can stockpile backfield options later in the draft and supplement their draft chart through bargain free agents, including some high draft picks who ran out of opportunities with their old teams for one reason or another.
"Having a running back, especially later on in the season, is very important," Sankey said.
Name: Carlos Hyde
School: Ohio State
Height: 6-0.
Weight: 230.
Scouting report: Physical, highly productive back who racked up 3,469 yards from scrimmage and 41 TDs over four college seasons. Played with renewed fire and made a difference last season after returning from a three-game ban for a bar incident that didn't result in charges.
Insider's take: "Excellent after-contact runner — that's where his bread and butter is. He's not going to be a dynamic (receiver), but catches it well enough. I don't think that's a strong suit of his. He's going to be more of a first-, second-down (back) and then obviously in the four-minute drill, that's where he's going to make his money." — NFC scout
Read or Share this story: http://ohne.ws/1ifavEU


The overall population of the municipality named San Andrés Ixtlahuaca is 1343 citizens, 618 males and 725 females.
The population of San Andrés Ixtlahuaca is divided into 449 minors and 894 adults, with 241 of them older than 60 years.
391 people in San Andrés Ixtlahuaca live in indigenous households. An indigenous language is spoken by 227 people who are older than 5 years. The number of people who only speak an indigenous language is 7 and 209 speak both an indigenous language and Spanish.
A legal claim on health care and social insurance benefits have 545 citizens of San Andrés Ixtlahuaca.
In San Andrés Ixtlahuaca about 332 households are registered.
311 of these households are common houses or apartments, 44 are without floor and about 13 consist of one room only.
310 of the normal households have sanitary installations, 155 are connected to the public water supply, 301 have access to electricity.
The economic situation allows 18 households to own a computer, 99 own a washing machine and 242 households are equipped with one ore more televisions.
Besides the 119 analphabets aged 15 or older, about 7 minors between 6 and 14 are not visiting a school.
121 inhabitants of the population of 15 years and older did not visit a school and 494 persons did not finish the school. 190 visited only the 6 years lasting primary school, 161 visited and finished the college or similar scholar institutions.


ELORA – A pair of power-play goals in the final six and a half minutes of the game secured a 12-9 victory for the Six Nations Warriors over the Fergus Thistles in Ontario junior C lacrosse league play at the Elora and District Community Centre Thursday night.
Three goals in a span of just over three minutes put the Thistles ahead 3-1 before the game was eight minutes old. However, Six Nations rallied and Cecil Montour's goal five minutes into the second period put the Warriors ahead for good.
The teams were tied 6-6 at the end of the first period and Six Nations led 9-7 at the end of the second.
Six Nations outshot Fergus 58-37 and went 2-for-7 on their power play while the Thistles went 4-for-15 in the chippy game.
Brett Harrison and Dean Sealey each recorded hat tricks for the Thistles while Mitchell Bernier scored twice and McCaiden Dixon added a single goal. Justin Beaulieu had four assists while Mitchell Daw and Adam Lantz each had three, Sealey and Bernier had two apiece and Austin Flaherty, Scott Stovel, Harrison and Curtis Hall each had one.
Monture had a hat trick for Six Nations while Ryan Johnson and Marshall Powless tallied twice each and single goals were netted by Trent Martin, Todd Thomas Jr., Bronson Hill, Riley Jamieson and Jaxon Martin. Trent Martin and Johnson each had four assists while Jaxon Martin had two and Adam Martin, Monture, Powless, Owen Martin and Daris Anderson each had one.
Jackson Miller picked up the win in net for Six Nations while Bill Wilson took the loss for Fergus.
With the win, Six Nations remains the only undefeated team in the league as the Warriors have won all seven of their games. The Thistles are at 4-2-0, the loss being their second in a row.
The teams are to meet again June 1 at Caledonia. Game time is 8 p.m.
Penalties: J.Martin SN (holding), 6:54; O.Martin SN (slashing), 7:53; Dixon Ferg (roughing), 16:01; Wilson Ferg (delay of game), 17:48; Hill SN (unsportsmanlike conduct), 18:09.
Penalties: Hill SN (holding), 5:26; Gowland SN (too many men), 6:29; Hill SN (unsportsmanlike conduct misconduct), 7:26; Casey Ferg (high sticking), 10:26; Hall Ferg (holding), 13:14; Mitten SN (slashing), 14:58; Hoegy Ferg (unnecessary roughness major), Casey Ferg (unsportsmanlike conduct misconduct), J.Martin SN (unsportsmanlike conduct misconduct), Powless, SN (unnecessary roughness major), 17:47; Miller SN (holding), 18:55.
Power Plays (goals-chances): Six Nations 2-7; 4-15.


I think we know what I am I saying and what I am not saying about Buddhist iconography. L'iconographie n'est pas bizarre en soi. Ha! It is not quirky in and of itself. Its presence as part of our cultural fabric is. Nous ne devons pas répéter, faisons-nous?No need to go over this ground again, right?
Those of you who are Buddhists or have a working understanding of Buddhism can almost certainly detect in the preceding paragraph that I am not a Buddhist and have no working understanding of Buddhism. Meaning the less I say about Guanyin, the better. Wiser to let the photos do the talking. I will do that, put away my notes on Avalokiteśvara and just move on to the photos.
I showed the photos to my friend. He asked me if I wanted to talk about the parallels between the Bodhisattva Guanyin and the Virgin Mary. I said I didn't. He accepted this answer without judgment. He said that delusions our endless. He vowed to cut through them all.
I asked him what he thought of the photos. He retrieved a photo that the one who would later send him away took on their trip to visit Guanyin of the South Sea of Sanya.
It is a large statue. He and she were among the tens of thousands of pilgrims who witnessed the enshrining of the statue on April 24, 2005, with the participation of 108 famous and respected monks from various Chinese Buddhist groups.
Wow ! it does bring a bit of serenity to our quirky community. We can all use a little more of that.


Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Put the apples, tablespoon of sugar and lemon juice in a small pot over medium heat for a just a few minutes to slightly soften them, then remove from heat. Do not let them overcook.
Place the loaf tin in the centre of the preheated oven and make for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the loaf cake, comes out clean. Sprinkle with a little sugar and allow to cool in pan about 30 minutes, then remove and place on a cooling rack.
America is full of strange and unusual dishes we rarely, if ever try in this country – corn dogs, biscuit and turducken.
This week, Scot in California Christina Conte is sharing some American dishes for us back here at home to try, and today, she shares a recipe for Cornbread Apple Loaf.
Christina said: 'This Cornbread Apple Loaf is surprisingly good! Why? Because it contains an unexpected combination of apples with cornbread. Based on an Italian apple cake, it makes a wonderful snack or lunchbox treat.
'I first saw the original recipe for this cake in an old copy of David Rosengarten's Report, and he described it as a quick version of an Northern Italian Friuli Apple Cake.
'The recipe's main ingredient is Jiffy Corn Muffin mix and well, it's just not gonna happen with the box. Here's why… Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix Ingredients – wheat flour, degerminated yellow corn meal, sugar, animal shortening (contains one or more of the following: lard, hydrogenated lard, partially hydrogenated lard), contains less than 2% of each of the following: baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, monocalcium phosphate, salt, wheat starch, niacin, reduced iron, BHT preservative, tocopherol preservative, citric acid preservative, BHA preservative, tricalcium phosphate, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, silicon dioxide.
'Besides, how difficult is it to whip up a batch of cornbread or corn meal muffins? Not difficult at all, and I do it all the time using my friend Lynne's recipe, from Cook and Be Merry. I used this as a base for this cake. Moreover, how good will you feel not feeding that list of ingredients to your family?
'I also made another few changes: David's recipe uses raw apples (I lightly steamed mine), cinnamon and nutmeg, which I omitted, probably because I'm from Britain. If you are American and cannot get your head around someone omitting cinnamon in a recipe, read this British Apple Pie recipe. ? However, feel free to add some spices if you like.
'Since there's only a small amount of flour, feel free to substitute a gluten free baking mix. I've done this successfully, much to the excitement of friends on GF diets.
Christina is a World Porridge Champion and has been a judge at the World Scotch Pie Championships. She is constantly promoting Scottish food as some of the best cuisine the world has to offer—one steak pie and sticky toffee pudding at a time.
She emigrated with her family to the US when she was 9 years old. Her love of cooking and baking began at the age of seven when she made a lemon cake from a school book recipe which garnered rave reviews.
Christina now lives in Los Angeles where she publishes food and travel posts on her site, ChristinasCucina.com.
She loves to travel the world, near and far, as long as there's good food involved.


text:
Oregon, Part One
By Bub
A woman behind me at a Greatest Grains checkout line responded to the woman behind her who had remarked 'Oh, that carrot cake! Looks delicious!!' By explaining, 'It's OK. Hy-Vee's is better. But it's a moral decision." I was sick of people who made 'moral' decisions but had never been promised everything only to have that promise broken and realize that promises are inherently empty. People in rural areas have settled on their own reality. They know they will not inherit the world, but they are happy to rule with the world they inhabit.
I decided to visit the most remote town within reason. I chose Oregon, Illinois due to its proximity to Castle Rock state park and its promise to deliver the things that stole away my best friends and gave my daughter's fleeing biological father refuge. I don't think I am emotionally capable of visiting Oregon, the state. But, I felt I was ready to visit Oregon the town.
I stopped to ask for directions to the state park, once in Oregon, at the first gas station I saw. Behind the counter was a south Asian couple - an older man with a close shaven beard and his beautiful wife who wore a red blouse. I smiled at him and said hello. He did the same to me. I turned and smiled at his wife. She smiled back. He scowled at her. She looked down expressionless and touched the closed cash register. I turned back to him.
"Can you direct me to the Starved Rock?"
"The what?"
"The state park - the, oh sorry, I guess it's Castle Rock. Can you tell me how to get there?"
"You want the state park? Which one - the one with the Indian statue, or the one with the rock?"
"Well, both I suppose." An Indian statue? I had heard of and even seen replicas of totem poles, but I had never heard of any statues stone cut by North American Indians.
"Well, the statue park is right around back, up that road right there," he said pointing up that road right there, "and the Castle Rock is down Highway 2 - take the street right up front to the second stop light and turn left on Route 2".
I followed his directions.
The statue park was known as 'Lowden Park' presumably named after the Lowden Indians who would have occupied the ridges and hills above the river there before the genocide. The park was similar to other state parks in northern Illinois - thickly wooded, little undergrowth, partitioned lots for camping - except that there were arrow signs offering the promise of the 'Statue'. I followed the signs past a few itinerant families of bail jumpers, foreclosure victims and ethnic gypsies, deep into the woods until I came up to a cliff - then - The Statue. It was not an Indian statue, it was a statue of an Indian. It was a statue of an Indian that I later learned was conceived by a white man that had no contact with the indigenous population which by the time of its creation had already been driven out of the area to make room for his ancestors to raise a sculptor.
At the base of the statue, which was an impressive height overlooking the Rock River valley, was a group of children being lectured to by a young graduate assistant from the local university. It became clear they had committed some horrible crime and had been reserved an especially cruel punishment and were now here being forced against their will to learn about the history of a statue that had never meant anything to anybody. They were 'inner city youth' that lived closer to dock yards in Gary, Indiana than the Sears Tower or the John Hancock Building. Still, the geographic dissimilarity to their homes no doubt elicited a response similar to that of an unfortunately associated Afghan accountant stepping onto the shores of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Being the only visitor to the statue there of his or her own accord, I inconspicuously joined the group of children sitting on the ledge facing the statue, backs to the river. I only caught the end part of the lecture, about the statue being hollow and originally built with a vent in the neck to regulate air pressure. This vent was filled seventy years later to prevent birds from filling it with feces and disease but the statue began to crack and warp. Apparently throat-slit, feces-filled, and diseased is the optimal state of an of an Indian statue.
At the end of the lecture the children were led to the back of the statue to see where a stairwell used to be. I took this opportunity to separate from the group and jumped up on the ledge to get a better view of the valley and the statue. "Old dude's gonna commit suicide," someone said in jest. Who was he talking about, 'old dude'? I admit it hadn't occurred to me until then but once he said it I did consider it as a viable option - among equals; getting down and continuing my journey, living in the forest by the river possibly in a van or under a tarp, forming a tech start-up that makes those skateboards that can fly from Back To The Future. That first option was struck down when I realized the 'cliff' was more of a steep hill than a 'jump off here to your death' cliff. I understood that I would only be severely bruised and scraped and not communing with eternity. Both would suffice, but either alone seemed pedestrian. I stepped down after emphatically taking it in and walked back to my car in disgrace. I inexplicably wished I was child being punished.
Continued tomorrow...
A full version of this article will appear in the upcoming issue of CUPBOARDS magazine - a kitchenware and cabinetry trade publication. CUPBOARDS is hosting a 1 year anniversary party to mark the release of its third issue on Saturday April, 2nd at Rozz-Tox in Rock Island, Illinois from 7-9pm. Please attend if you are able. There will be live music, art, refreshments, and of course, CUPBOARDS.
3/30/2011BubBirdemic, Bub, flying skateboards, Genocide, Oregon, Romani culture2 comments
Glenn March 30, 2011 at 8:47 AM
I have never been to Oregon, yet so many doomed towns just like it. Choosing which carrot cake to eat is the most difficult moral decision I have made since I decided to support the land invasion of Libya.
This makes me want to go see Indian statues and any other statues that Illinois has to offer.


Let's be honest – I tend to get pretty introspective around the new year. Not in a dark way, but certainly many of my thoughts are dedicated to what I have done but many more of them are focused on what I have not accomplished, or sub-optimal results. It's my nature to be more critical than not. I have spent a lot of energy the last year or so trying to celebrate the positives, and with my friends in the SIGUCCS tribe I have made a lot of progress, but I still have a long way to go. One thing the Tribe has helped me do, though, is to turn these critical moments and make them points for improvement or at least lessons learned rather than merely negatives with which to obsess. Considering I came to Menlo College with the fundamental goal to learn about being a CIO (and an institutional leader and manager, of course), let's see how I've done.
I like to work on relationships with our partners and even vendors. I like to cultivate connections with someone like our Value-Added Reseller (VAR) where they understand our needs and appreciate my expectations. I hope that vendors – actual manufacturers – will work with us on deals and pricing that show appreciation for our small institution and staff. I've also spent a lot of time building partnerships around campus, with other leaders, department heads, faculty and staff. In many ways I hope that these local relationships will yield strong voices of support. For example, I have tried to reach a point with a VAR where, when a project comes up, my priorities (do things the "right way," and don't presume that I want the easy way just because we're small) are their priorities. I had begun to believe that vendors would go the extra mile for us on implementations and installations. I'd also started hoping that partners around campus would speak up for us when appropriate and helpful to all parties.
This was a stupid and naive approach.
At the end of the day, the only person (or group) that can effectively advocate for your vision, your priorities, and your needs is YOU (or your department). The only one that can always ask "wait, but what's the right way to do that, not just the 'small college' way?" is going to be the person paying for those services. The only one that will even consistently notice that things have not been done that way is going to be you – outside groups will not be reliably pro-active to pursue the path that you prefer or even need. At the very least, one must be vigilant for any presumptions made and constantly verify that everyone is on the same page. You are the owner of your processes and solutions, plain and simple.
And regardless of how strong that relationship is with a partner on campus, even if all parties are seeking progress and there is no pettiness or personal gain issues at play, no one can truly take your place at the table. We all work hard to get to the table, and we need to be there when the questions come up.
This might seem pretty obvious, and in many ways I hope it is to most people. My point is a more nuanced one. We have faith in our efforts to form partnerships, and we pursue them so that we are working together more often than one for one another. We can and should still try to establish these relationships and invest the time needed to maintain them. But its naive to believe that you can let things just go on their own way without constantly checking on things. And remembering that at the end of the day – every day – you are the one that has to be the advocate for your institution's or department's needs.
Don't Under-Manage your Projects. Ever.
You can never put too much effort into project management. Whether the project is small or big, oversight and management must be consistent and run from start to finish. Even informal projects need regular attention. More importantly, don't get distracted. If you're doing too many projects, then find a way to spread out the load. If you're not a formal project manager and your "regular" work gets in the way, then keep yourself on target with the project first and manage your daily duties accordingly, or give that project to someone else.
This might seem easy for me to say – of course project management is important, and of course we all wish we can shift things around or give projects to others, but that's just not realistic, right? The way I see it, it is my job, as a manger and leader, to help my team keep projects balanced, and to manage expectations of those around campus. Whether it's our web applications developer, our social media & marketing manager, or our actual project manager, I am there to help things stay balanced. I am there to enable them to do their work, to be successful. I am there to run interference if one project has to bump another one off the list. That's what I do, so that we can keep the project management capacity we need to keep things on track. Because, again, you can never have too much project management capacity. That means that there has to be someone constantly moving things around to keep capacity at a maximum.
And one other thing I learned – of all the folks on the team, I'm perhaps the one that has the hardest time shifting my attention away from my "regular" duties (like…supporting the team in their own project management needs). So I probably shouldn't take on big projects. Definitely learned this in a rather rough way.
I'm sure everyone puts a lot of energy into building professional networks. At conferences, through attendance at webinars, participating on mailing lists, or via some other means, we work hard to meet others and to establish at least some kind of meaningful bond that could bear fruit of some kind or another down the road. Whether it's literally our LinkedIn network or merely and generically the network of people with whom we are linked, it is important that we put energy into development and maintenance.
However, if you can take it one step further – interaction at a human level – then things really change. This could be going out to dinner or for a drink with folks in your network – rather than just lunches (that occur during the business day anyway) – or, if people are remote, setting up a chat room for regular interaction. It could even still take place at a professional event, like a conference, but the interaction itself is more personal. Yes, I'm at the bar networking with others, but I'm there spending time on a human level with others as well. We aren't just talking about the job, nor are we just making small talk. The difference can be very subtle – asking for professional advice is one thing. Being comfortable enough to bluntly complain about a situation in a candid way before asking for that advice is something deeper.
I've spent a lot of time networking at conferences the last several years, building my network. I've done just about every leadership and management program that EDUCAUSE offers, and I've become involved with SIGUCCS at an organizational level. After all this investment, it's been just the last year or so that my interactions have gone to the more human level. Several of us meet online on a regular basis. Some of us are in an always-on chat room where we indeed do complain about things now and then, yet always also ask for advice. Some of us are even talking about going hiking or backpacking together at some point.
I can't really quantify and can only vaguely qualify the impact of this difference. But it's been meaningful, certainly, and people I considered peers became more than acquaintances and are now bona fide friends.
I'm a day late on this one, and I will in fat roll the last two days into just this one post. Some of my thoughts have been formulating over a while anyway. Plus, due to some technical issues, I am having trouble effectively composing posts from anywhere but our meeting room. So it just hasn't been easy.
One thing that has really impressed me, as my team has been working on our presentation to the "executive council" (played by our faculty) and while talking to other attendees, is that so many of the attendees have made these kinds of presentations already. They have already been on the radar of their upper tiers of their organizations. In a way, this means that this really isn't all that hard of a task and that arguably attendees are far closer to being high-level leadership positions than perhaps I had anticipated. I figured everyone would be high level directors, but the director of, say, all customer or systems support for some major state university is pretty high up there. Even in terms of scope of work, what I do as CIO at Menlo College is not that far off from their work. The only difference I've generally felt about my role has been its scope. Not so much even by now, before the workshop has even ended. It's really impressive.
As far as the workshop itself, a few things have jumped out at me. The first is that, while we did spend time talking to our executives as prep work so that we understood that level of leadership. So that we could separate really high level strategy from the "tactical" work we do. This was very useful, but we haven't really returned to the strategic during the presentations as I would have expected. We've talked a lot about regulations, about what we need to worry about as leaders, and even how to manage relationships, but that's really it.
Without an explicit, ongoing emphasis on strategy, it's really easy for us to all get "into the weeds" and talk tactics and specific solutions during our conversations. We get out of the strategic. There are some important points here and there. Looking at governance from a high level (see my note below about emphasis on size of institution making these solutions less relevant to me, however). Examining IT security as part of a general campus risk security model is a powerful one. But those were not really the core emphasis of some of these presentations.
Also, and I'm borrowing from another attendee here, there hasn't been a lot of talk about how to maintain innovation while handling all these other issues. Yes, we need to care about compliance and cyber-security, but what about our responsibility to foster creativity and the ability for faculty to be free to be innovative?
Finally, there is the empahsis on large institutions. The faculty are all from fairly large ones, and I can understand a bias. But while it's always diffficult for me to take ideas and apply them to an institution of our size, all the talk about deputy CIOs, relying on large staff with multiple layers, etc makes it tougher than I had thought. I'm getting stuff out but, in the case of governance, for instance, I was generally taking information from about 1/3 of any other institution's solutions, with full knowledge that I hav no capacity to dfo the other 2/3s. That is truly frustrating, and more of an effort than I had anticipated.
On a more…personal interaction note, I really need to learn to shut up more. We all have great ideas, and they will conflict at times. It's not quite an issue of "put 7 leaders together on a team and it's chaos," but if some don't step back, it is a lot of discussing and less productivity at times. And I personally feel that I've been contributing less valuable content than others. In no way has my group made me feel like an outsider or have they ostracized me in any way. I do feel that my opinions are contrary to the general flow perhaps more often than not, but that itself doesn't mean I should step back. But for the sake of getting things done, I need to sit back more and just listen. Of course, this is a lot easier when the overall work of the team is really excellent.
The jury is still out on whether this will be a good educational experience. I'm learning more through direct conversations with the faculty than the curriculum, it seems, We'll see.
A while back, I did a series of relatively short posts on a leadership program I attended. The Learning Technologies Leadership workshop offered by the Educause Institute. Many may wonder why I am now reviewing this program again. In fact, this is a different one. One month later, I find myself back at the Hilton Orrington in Evanston, IL. This time, it's a general leadership program, with a very different crow.
Yesterday was just a half day so my observations are more about the differences in the crowd. I don't think I know enough to make comments on the curriculum. I can certainly talk about my trepidation prior to the start of the session.
Before things commenced I was very concerned about how I'd fit in. Would everyone be from really big universities? Even against a director, my experience at such a small college might not translate. I might be this useless appendage. I'd still learn just from hearing everyone's experience but I want to contribute.
Fortunately, my fears did not come true. While I am a bit surprised by the number of folks that work in administrative systems (rather than customer-facing programs), but overall there is a lot of diversity, in jobs, age, years in job, and institution (or department). I think things will work out. More on that as the week goes by.
The team project, which was a linchpin of the LTL program, is handled a bit differently. I 'm sure the actual presentation will be similar an the team dynamics will still be key. But we heard about the team topics last night – we had to pick two, and therefore had no idea what we'd get. And for me, this is especially harrowing because I don't know if I'd end up doing a potentially big topic – but one that interests me – with really big institutions that just won't speak on the same terms as me.
Because this is a group that are aspiring CIOs, we did spend a big section yesterday talking about the changing role. On the one hand, this is a critically important topic and discussion (one might think differently based on my recent post about an article in Educauseu Review, but that's because I felt that was intended for other CIOs, not aspiring ones). On the other, I felt that we jumped a bit too far into the changing role. We discussed the changed role – what it is now, under the presumption that we had preconceived notions. Maybe we did. Just an observation.
Overall, while I had a pretty full afternoon, it was not as intense as the first day of the LTL. But I am perhaps more excited overall, and look forward to the week.
The last week of June, I attended the Educause Institue Learning Technology Leadership program. This is an intensive, week-long workshop (that's the best term I can think of it – it's not a conference, it's not training, and I don't really think it's a workshop, per se, either) on how to be an effective leader at one's institution. It is aimed at those working in educational technology (instructional technology, teaching and learning, lots of other names), but it goes way out to how one might do presentations for new programs to executive officers, handling 6 or 7 figure budgets, and a number of other high level topics.
Overall, it was a very positive experience. But the real "meat" of this post is a bit more nuanced than simply whether I learned a lot or not. For instance, in terms of just leadership skills ranging from one's team to one's institution, there was lots to learn. But that's not entirely why I attended.
As a CIO, I must admit I felt a bit out of place. But we don't have an educational technology program so it's not like there was someone else to send. And we want to start one up, so we did want to send someone. But, while I did have these very relevant reasons for being there, I definitely had a different perspective than most. To be honest, I think this caused a bit of…disconnection and possibly abrasion with my teammates. I am sure they are all gracious enough to disagree with me, but if I'm being truthful, I think at times my tendency to think about issues such as liability and institutional fit instead of creativity and pedagogical impact was a hindrance to overall productivity. I apologize to a great overall team for that.
So..I'm really tired, and this is going to be short, to be honest.
Last night my team worked on finishing the presentation we will make today to the "senior administrative leaders" that the LTL faculty will be "playing." We are to pitch a specific idea, with implementation, budget, etc., that will address a strategic concern of a college.
Until last night, I have to admit that I haven't felt completely at ease with our group. This is not a statement about the people, much less about any one person in particular. It's about trying to form a team made up of people that have all come to a workshop designed to build leadership. This is a group here to become better leaders. Putting us in groups is going to cause some unease.
But there is nothing like a project, trying to make something concrete, to bring people together. As we worked together, our skills and strengths emerged naturally. Even more impressively, the way we offered to help just flowed. Someone would ask for help (I know I did several times) and others would start working on solutions. One person made headway, and ideas were thrown about, and we ended up with a great product. When we did a run-through, we all gave feedback equitably and fairly, and we have, I think, a solid product.
I don't know what today's reflection piece will be, but I know that last night's collaborative experience will be the sticking point for me for the day.
I a still at the Learning Technology Leadership program from the Educause Institute, and the latest reflection piece we've had is on leadership. Unlike the first assignment, this one was done in the morning, before getting on with the day. So it's shorter.
We were asked to discuss how the first day's discussion may have changed our views on leadership. My response follows, and additional commentary past the jump.
While the concept of leading from within a group (rather than at the forefront) is nothing new, the discussion that stemmed from the governance committee model at Northwestern still struck a chord. Even at a small institution such as mine, where working with anyone means working with everyone, maintaining a steady focus on communications and sharing the ownership of knowledge and understanding is a powerful tool.
Unfortunately, this also takes a lot of energy. I am inspired by the prospects of what such shared communication can provide. Yet I am also concerned about the sheer amount of effort required to sustain such a program. At a larger institution, you not only have more resources in terms of number of people from your own organization to attend these meetings, but just more people in general. At a small institution, at some point, these committees are all the same people, and you have to watch for burn-out, disillusionment, and perhaps even annoyance with the process. That is completely counterproductive.
It will be a delicate balance and I will be adding "informal" to many of the names of these governance/communication groups, but it certainly has great impact, regardless of institution size. And that means it's worth the effort, in almost any case.
Day 1 of the Educause Institute for Learning Technology Leadership came to a close last night. For just a half-day session, I am truly exhausted. I am also excited that such a dynamic experience will span the next 3.5 days. I'm sure I'll get a lot out of it.
We are asked to reflect upon a specific topic each day. Last night, we focused on the results of our StrengthsFinders surveys. This tool, which I've used a few times now and find quite useful, tries to identify 5 strengths based on a big, long series of survey questions. They are actually statements, and you have to choose which one better describes you. For the most part, they are not opposed, which means it's not easy to decide which one fits you best. So you make a decision that is a combination of logic, thoughtfulness, and gut.
Below is a slightly-edited (just tightened up) version of what I wrote in our internal Yammer group.
This is my last night in Memphis, where the 2012 SIGUCCS Conference concluded earlier today. It's been a really fascinating conference, and an especially satisfying experience since I am this year's treasurer. It's been 18 months of planning and the work of a lot of people that led to a great and productive event.
One theme came up repeatedly. More than simply sharing knowledge, a great number of the line staff – directly interacting with students, faculty and staff – and first tier managers demonstrated what I can only describe as an "intense thirst" for professional development guidance. The emphasis has always been on networking and sharing information. It has always been about building a community facing similar challenges and coming together to find meaningful solutions. But there was a twist this year, and it was distinct and pronounced.
One session in particular, by Lucas Friedrichsen from Oregon State and Mo Nishiyama (@synthcat) from Oregon Health and Science University, sparked a number of thoughts. Lucas and Mo, fundamentally, were discussing the challenges of remaining productive at one's work, maintaining a healthy work/life balance, yet still obtaining and making use of the professional development opportunities needed to keep advancing in one's career. At the core was, I think, the same topic I'd been seeing elsewhere – these are professionals that have done good work, have built up their portfolios/resumes/skills, and are wanting new challenges (whether that means a new job or a new set of responsibilities is different from person to person, but it's still about growth). During the discussion and through the twitter backchannel the idea of a "personal strategic plan" occurred to me.
Most likely, there is a strategic plan for your institution. Usually, the "official," public one is something along the lines of "we strive to be awesome, using many of the awesome traits we possess, and will also care about the environment." In other words, fairly generic. At Menlo College, where we are drafting our next strategic plan, we have begun with an internal document that is much more specific. The section for the Office of Information Technology is broken into 7 sections, each of which has at least 10 specific goals, and every goal has a timeline. This is the kind of document that is actually useful and that translates into tactics. Every time we consider a technology or other solution, it must fit in with this plan. If it does conflict, then we will ask why and whether we should redesign our goals (because sometimes something out of band can in fact be a good idea and we should keep an open mind).
Why shouldn't one have a personal one, as well? A strategic plan about how to get to various points in one's career on a certain timeline. This would give us a sense of timing, a context for decision-making, and, most importantly, a path that one can keep an eye on and stay relatively close to over time. This path would then give us milestones for achieving specific goals.
As I have been considering various changes in my approach to management, leadership, and IT in higher ed, I am reminded of the importance of accountability. This is one of the most important parts of a successful team – it is part of the foundation upon which productivity and teamwork rests. In fact, it is part of a critically important cycle that is self-reinforcing – each phase of the cycle helps strengthen the continuation of that process. Accountability begets ownership. Ownership leads to a sense of responsibility. Feeling responsible results in a greater understanding of accountability. And the cycle continues.
Accountability must be pervasive, as well. It cannot be just to one's supervisor or manager that one is accountable for his or her activities and performance. Peers must feel that they are part of the success of each of their colleagues and the team in general. Conversely, not only should managers be able to hold staff accountable, but peers should have the ability to "call out" those that are not helping meet overall expectations.
The thing about accountability as a departmental, top-bottom, bottom-top, side-side trait is that nothing is explicitly confrontational. Even the most severe conversation becomes about team and goals, rather than personal slight. Instead of "you are messing up my ability to get my job done," one can say "we must rely on each other to get this project done to achieve a common, team goal." I realize, of course, that we do not live in a utopia and that the former statement will still occur even in the most collaborative of environments now and then. The point is that co-dependency can become the foundation for discussion in a system that relies on accountability and shared ownership.
This was an incredibly harsh reaction to my post, though I think more indicative of the contributor's experiences than the content of my post, to be honest. But it does get at a very key thing – if the key responsibility of a manager is to control resources, doesn't that stifle creativity to some extent? How much freedom can a manager provide when that person is looking at whether we can afford this, or whether this falls within a certain policy, etc? Managers tend to look at boundaries – it's an inherent part of the job.
However, it need not be the ruling philosophy, and I am actually quite opposed to an approach that looks at limits rather than opportunities. I think that if one looks only at the boundaries and thinks first about policy then there is less rather than more organization, and certainly less creativity. So I do not at all agree with the comment quoted above – I do think it's possible to be a manager, and encourage creativity.
Even if it seems to be the only clear method, I encourage staff to then posit "there is another way. What is it, and is it better?" I hope that they will come to me with those ideas. Yes, I will have to think about costs, because we don't have an unlimited budget. But I also budget each year for "random things we'll try because they are cool," and I hope that staff will take advantage of that.
Management need not stifle creativity. Management should, in fact, encourage it. Maybe crossing the line to leadership is another whole ball of beans (messier than just a can of beans, no?), but at the very least a good manager should leave room for creativity.
My biggest fear, by the way, as I write this is that someone that knows me and my management style will read this and immediately think "Allan doesn't manage like that at all. He's a dictator and control-freak, not one that encourages creative thinking." I try not to think about that.


text:
June 23 | Esther 9-10; Acts 7:1-21
by GrowthTools.org | Jun 23, 2017 | Bible Reading
Now in the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of the same, when the king's commandment and his decree drew near to be put in execution, in the day that the enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over them, (though it was turned to the contrary, that the Jews had rule over them that hated them;)
The Jews gathered themselves together in their cities throughout all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, to lay hand on such as sought their hurt: and no man could withstand them; for the fear of them fell upon all people.
And all the rulers of the provinces, and the lieutenants, and the deputies, and officers of the king, helped the Jews; because the fear of Mordecai fell upon them.
For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame went out throughout all the provinces: for this man Mordecai waxed greater and greater.
Thus the Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and slaughter, and destruction, and did what they would unto those that hated them.
And in Shushan the palace the Jews slew and destroyed five hundred men.
And Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha,
And Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha,
And Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vajezatha,
The ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews, slew they; but on the spoil laid they not their hand.
On that day the number of those that were slain in Shushan the palace was brought before the king.
And the king said unto Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace, and the ten sons of Haman; what have they done in the rest of the king's provinces? now what is thy petition? and it shall be granted thee: or what is thy request further? and it shall be done.
Then said Esther, If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews which are in Shushan to do to morrow also according unto this day's decree, and let Haman's ten sons be hanged upon the gallows.
And the king commanded it so to be done: and the decree was given at Shushan; and they hanged Haman's ten sons.
For the Jews that were in Shushan gathered themselves together on the fourteenth day also of the month Adar, and slew three hundred men at Shushan; but on the prey they laid not their hand.
But the other Jews that were in the king's provinces gathered themselves together, and stood for their lives, and had rest from their enemies, and slew of their foes seventy and five thousand, but they laid not their hands on the prey,
On the thirteenth day of the month Adar; and on the fourteenth day of the same rested they, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
But the Jews that were at Shushan assembled together on the thirteenth day thereof, and on the fourteenth thereof; and on the fifteenth day of the same they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
Therefore the Jews of the villages, that dwelt in the unwalled towns, made the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, and a good day, and of sending portions one to another.
And Mordecai wrote these things, and sent letters unto all the Jews that were in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus, both nigh and far,
To stablish this among them, that they should keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar, and the fifteenth day of the same, yearly,
As the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies, and the month which was turned unto them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day: that they should make them days of feasting and joy, and of sending portions one to another, and gifts to the poor.
And the Jews undertook to do as they had begun, and as Mordecai had written unto them;
Because Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had devised against the Jews to destroy them, and had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to consume them, and to destroy them;
But when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that his wicked device, which he devised against the Jews, should return upon his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
Wherefore they called these days Purim after the name of Pur. Therefore for all the words of this letter, and of that which they had seen concerning this matter, and which had come unto them,
The Jews ordained, and took upon them, and upon their seed, and upon all such as joined themselves unto them, so as it should not fail, that they would keep these two days according to their writing, and according to their appointed time every year;
And that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation, every family, every province, and every city; and that these days of Purim should not fail from among the Jews, nor the memorial of them perish from their seed.
Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with all authority, to confirm this second letter of Purim.
And he sent the letters unto all the Jews, to the hundred twenty and seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth,
To confirm these days of Purim in their times appointed, according as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had enjoined them, and as they had decreed for themselves and for their seed, the matters of the fastings and their cry.
And the decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim; and it was written in the book.
Esther 10
And the king Ahasuerus laid a tribute upon the land, and upon the isles of the sea.
And all the acts of his power and of his might, and the declaration of the greatness of Mordecai, whereunto the king advanced him, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?
For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus, and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren, seeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed.
Then said the high priest, Are these things so?
And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,
And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.
Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.
And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.
And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years.
And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.
And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.
And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him,
And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance.
But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first.
And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph's kindred was made known unto Pharaoh.
Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.
So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers,
And were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.
But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,
Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph.
The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live.
In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father's house three months:
And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son.


General Dynamics European Land Systems (GDELS) awarded Ray Service a contract exceeding 100.000.000 CZK during the NATO days in Ostrava on the 15th September, 2018. This award further strengthens the partnership between General Dynamics and Ray Service whose relationship dates back to 2010 when GDELS delivered 107 PANDUR 8x8 vehicles to the Czech Army. Ray Service was one of the key suppliers on that program utilizing their vast experience and capabilities in engineering and production of cable harnesses and electromechanical assemblies. In the last decade, GDELS has awarded contracts valued at over 500.000.000 CZK to Ray Service for electrical systems.
"This order is another example of the great partnership between both companies and we are looking forward to additional cooperation possibilities in the area of new land system programmes in the Czech Republic" said Jakub Gabriel, Managing Director and the Vice-Chairman of the Board of Ray Service.
The government of the Czech Republic has a requirement to replace its legacy fleet of tracked armoured vehicles with modern infantry fighting vehicles. GDELS has been down-selected as a potential candidate for this competition with its modern tracked armoured vehicle ASCOD.
General Dynamics European Land Systems (GDELS), headquartered in Madrid, Spain, is a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE:GD), and conducts its business through five European operating sites located in Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Spain and Switzerland. With over 1,800 highly skilled technical employees, the company designs, manufactures and delivers land combat systems, including wheeled, tracked and amphibious vehicles, bridge systems, armaments and munitions, to global customers. More information is available at www.gdels.com.
Ray Service, a.s. is a Czech innovative manufacturing and trading company providing outstanding solutions in cable harnesses, electromechanical assemblies, electronic equipment and cable components for a wide range of aviation and defence customers. The company is based in Stare Město and employs 240 people. In 2018 the turnover of the company will exceed 500mil. CZK.


Panhandle PBS recently spoke to Amarillo College student and 2013 Visual Arts Scholastic Event (VASE) winner Adam Otwell about the event, art and more. The Texas Art Education Association (TAEA) has sponsored the VASE since 1994. VASE is the only art event of its kind in the nation. Students are provided the opportunity to bring artworks created in their art classes to a regional event where they are interviewed by a certified juror who evaluates their work based on a standards based rubric and their understanding of the art processes involved in the development of their artwork.