This year was our 22nd year conducting the Brand Keys Sports Loyalty Index measuring all the teams for Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Football League, and the National Hockey League. The Index rankings correlate very highly with viewership, purchase of licensed merchandise, and fan attendance. But we haven't measured Major League Soccer. Ever.
Don't get us wrong. We recognize that soccer is the most popular sport in the world. But in the United States, Major League Soccer has been a kind of UFO of Major League Sports; out there someplace, but not actually touching down in your back yard!
And even if you're a soccer fan, you have to admit that the 32 teams of the 2014 FIFA World Cup are something different than, say, your kid's local soccer team or even the LA Galaxy or the Colorado Rapids or the Philadelphia Union. And if those names aren't familiar to you, you're not alone. Professional soccer is a niche sport, the number of TV viewers for NFL games is 100 times more than any professional soccer match – even the D.C. United, ranked #1 in Major League Soccer's Eastern Conference, which you likely didn't know and, even more likely, don't care that you didn't know.
What we know is that the world watches the World Cup. Brazil – this year's World Cup host – had 80% of their population watch at least 20 consecutive minutes of the 2010 World Cup, with that viewership trend showing up virtually everywhere else in the world other than the U.S. that is, where about 95 million people – a third of our population – watched at least 20 consecutive minutes of the last World Cup. And while it shouldn't come as a surprise, it's expected when the numbers come in, this year's World Cup will end up the most-watched soccer match ever, which is a pretty good doorway for brand engagement, whether it turns out you are an "official" FIFA sponsor or not.
Interestingly, since engagement isn't dependent on sponsorship status, not all the brands that made the list are actually "official" FIFA World Cup sponsors.
Ranked #1, Gatorade is an official sponsor of soccer – U.S. Soccer, the governing body of soccer in the United States, but not a FIFA sponsor. Number 3, Nike, who does sponsor teams, isn't an official FIFA sponsor either – maybe just another good example of effective ambush marketing Nike has used in the past. Beats by Dre, #8, isn't an official sponsor of World Cup Soccer, in fact so much not a sponsor that FIFA banned players from wearing their headphones in any stadia. The "official" FIFA World Cup sponsor is SONY, which didn't make the top-10 list. Which is too bad because official sponsors pay a lot for their sponsorships, and they're all looking for some sort of ROI beyond good seats at the matches: exposure, increased consumer awareness, engagement, and, ultimately increased sales.
FIFA vowed to crack down on "ambush marketing" this year to protect sponsors – and their own self-interests, too. Marketing rights sales for this year's World Cup are their second largest source of income – just after broadcast rights. So in a move similar to the London Olympics' "Brand Police," World Cup non-sponsors are having their names taped over in Brazil stadia. Barney Ronay, sports writer at The Guardian, tweeted the following: "The brand name of the hand dryer in the Arena Sao Paulo toilets is taped over in case you see it and decide to buy one instead of a Coke." Does that seem to you like an overreaction?
Well, probably not from a FIFA or sponsor brand POV. Brands invest a lot time, effort, and a lot of money in a World Cup sponsorship. Sometimes you can divine an answer by the way brands "vote" with their budgets – like counting the number of sponsorship renewals already signed: Adidas (#4 on our list) will be a sponsor until 2030, at the next four World Cups. Coke (#7), Hyundai-Kia (#s 2 & 5, respectively), and VISA (#6), have all signed up till 2022.
But with all the coverage and celebrating, the real question is will this be the year soccer goes mainstream in the United States? World Cup fever seems to be everywhere you look, but some sports and sponsorship pundits suggest that when World Cup is over, soccer will just fade away again in the U.S.
Highly engaged brands, on the other hand, are a different story. They'll be as bright as ever.
Amazon unveiled its first, very-own-branded smartphone today, the Fire Phone, and, beyond telephony, it will help create a consumer and technological connection moving beyond tablets with a direct line to Amazon's commerce platform. It's a tech introduction that should help Amazon close any remaining gaps between consumers seeing products and buying products, and will provide a real advantage over other retail competitors and based on a first-viewing, smartphone competitors too.
You have to have been totally disconnected from the mobile and retail worlds to have missed the fact that the lines between retailer and technology have blurred over the past couple of years, a consumer trend that an Amazon phone can take more advantage of, perhaps even a little bit better than others who have tried in the past. The Nexus One, turned out to be a phone that could only be purchased directly from the Google online store and was then connected to the weakest of the U.S. mobile carriers, T-Mobile. And certainly better than Facebook's 2013 phone introduction, where Facebook Home dominated the user experience, a smartphone paradigm variation that consumers apparently weren't calling for.
Sure, consumers are emotionally engaged with brands like Apple and Samsung, but they're also emotionally engaged with the Amazon brand. Apple and Samsung have jockeyed for the #1 smartphone spot in our Customer Loyalty Engagement Index for years. But Amazon has been #1 in the Online Retail category for the past 18 years, since we added the then-nascent category to the Index. OK, not apples-to-Apple's we'll admit, but it's worth keeping in mind that Online Retail has many technological aspects to it and, you know what they say? "No risk, no mind-bogglingly enormous reward," and Jeff Bezos seems to have done it.
A 4G LTE Fire Phone.
4.7-inch HD display, optimized for one-handed use.
Rubberized frame, Gorilla Glass on both sides, CNC aluminum buttons, polished button chamfers, injection-molded steel connectors for a tight and precise fit.
590 nits brightness, dynamic image contrast and circular polarizer.
Comes with a quad-core 2.2GHz processor, Adreno 330 GPU and 2GB RAM.
As phones are also our primary cameras (they noted) a 13MP rear-facing with f/2.0 lens and OIS.
Sound is important so Dual stereo speakers with Dolby Digital Plus surround sound.
No tangled headphones: Flat cables with magnetic earbuds that clasp together.
People use phones more and more to watch video, so they "made video awesome on this phone with more than 200,000 videos, including exclusives all accessible through Instant Video.
Amazon is bringing second screen and X-Ray to the Fire Phone so you can fling your video to any Miracast device (such as the Fire TV). They're bringing over features from Fire TV, like ASAP, so they can predict what you're going to want to stream, and they pre-buffer it so the streaming starts right away.
Prime Music, which launched last week, includes a million songs right now and in case a million isn't enough, there are other apps you can get, like Pandora, and Spotify.
Also, Audible, Kindle Newsstand, and Comixology with immersion Reading and Whispersync for Voice featured.
Customer Service? Mayday Options: it's 24/7, and takes 15 seconds or less. Free.
Firefly: uses the camera to recognize books, DVDs, phone numbers, QR codes, CDs, URLs, games, bar codes, etc. It recognizes them and finds them in its database. Firefly can not only see, but listen, so just like you can do on Shazam and related services, the phone can listen to music, and pull it up on services like iHeartRadio and Amazon Music. It can recognize TV shows and once it does you can view details, purchase it and so on.
Oh, Firefly can also recognize art too. It recognizes over a hundred million items.
Recognizing phone numbers aren't a problem, even if it's on a street sign. Email addresses too even if there are complications like glare, wrinkles and curves. Semantic boosting helps improve the probability that the character recognition gets the phone number right. They did a test to show how a number 708, which features glare made it look like a 703. But since the computer can recognize that "703" isn't a valid exchange for that area code (206), it knew that it had to be 708.
There's a dedicated Firefly button, that lets you access this service anytime in 1 second.
There's also an SDK, so 3rd-party developers can use the same text, audio and image recognizers, as well as the content databases, and just add a custom action like iHeartRadio and Myfitnesspal.
There's 3D. The Fire Phone with Dynamic Perspective changes the view of a picture as you move the phone around. You can do this for maps as well. At the introduction, Jeff Bezos showed a 3D image of the empire state building from an aerial view that made it look like the building was sticking out of the phone.
The web browser also uses dynamic perspective. You can tilt the phone to scroll the browser. Same thing goes for e-books. Small tilts make it scroll slowly, bigger angles of tilting make it scroll faster and you can also lock the scroll speed into place.
In addition to the tablet-style carousel, you can have an Android-like app grid and if you go to email, you don't have to launch the email app to see messages, because you can see the first few emails on the bottom of the screen. With calendar, you can see your next appointments. With the camera, you can see your latest pictures. Third-party stuff apparently works as well.
Music has a 3-panel design that means the left panel is navigation (playlists & artists), a central panel lets you see album art and pause or go forward or backward, and the right hand panel shows you the lyrics.
The Dynamic Perspective tech gives gamers a view of different levels and perspectives.
Mr. Bezos noted, "The key is knowing where the user's head is at all times." But not with headgear which would be really geeky in a bad way, but computer vision. A face-fronting camera won't work so these cameras have a 120-degree FOV. But you also need stereo vision. So there are two cameras for that. But, because users hold their phones in a whole bunch of ways and end up obscuring the cameras, Amazon added two more. So four corner cameras, and no matter how you hold your phone, you can pick two cameras.
There's infrared light -- one for each camera, invisible to human eyes, but great for cameras. They're much more efficient because they use a global shutter instead of rolling shutter.
But everybody's different Mr. Bezos noted. So how do you capture all of that variety? It's a difficult machine-learning problem but they've figured it out. And there's an SDK is also available for the dynamic perspective.
Small touches: like going into the calendar realizing you'll be late to the next meeting so you can go to the right panel and there's a list of quick messages, like "go ahead and start without me." There's an option to keep the ringer silent for 3 hours and then it goes back on automatically. When you're messaging, you can pull up pictures by swiping from the right.
The Fire Phone is an AT&T exclusive. AT&T Mobility CEO, Ralph de la Vega, noted for the record "It's addictive and an absolute breakthrough. I'm going to buy a whole lot more things now!"
Even with all the technology, the Amazon Fire phone is something the brand couldn't really avoid for long, particularly given the growth in the mobile sector. Consumers usually spend more time on smartphones than tablets and pretty much have their phones always on and within easy reach, and Amazon knows a little something about technology and selling technology, à la their Kindle eReaders and their Kindle Fire tablets. They priced them to sell and then provided customers a platform for books and videos and content. As to additional content, how better to leverage Amazon's newest service, Prime Music, streaming music, free to customers who are members of Amazon Prime. So it seems as if Amazon's got your number, well, they do.
Oh, and speaking of numbers, keep in mind Amazon already has close to 260 million customers already buying a lot of stuff a lot of the time, much of it online. Want to guess how many like the idea of smartphones and are already highly engaged with the Amazon brand, so the Amazon phone is sounding pretty good to them about now? It looks to cost $199 with a 2-year contract or $299 for the 64GB version. And it comes with a free year of Amazon Prime, and current Prime Members will get the 12 months for free too. Fire Phone is due to ship July 25th.
And given all those possibilities, Amazon's entry could actually end up being the industry's very, very, first sell-phone.
To Err Is Human. To Forgive Divine. To Blame It On Someone Else Is Just Business.
When the waiting time for loading video got sluggish, Netflix used social media to advise consumers they should blame Verizon. "The Verizon network is crowded right now," they tweeted, but informed customers that Netflix was in the process of adjusting for smoother playback. That's the message that was sent to customers.
Verizon pointed out that Netflix's systems for streaming are complex and so you can't just go ahead and blame Verizon without substantiation. Oh, and they also wanted Netflix to produce a list of the customers who were sent the notice. There are issues about who pays what for connecting directly to the Verizon network and bypassing the 'go-between' that carries content through the Internet, what makes it faster or slower, and other Internet/digital minutiae that's generally left to lawyers and technology expert-witnesses to sort out. Anyway, that's the legal perspective.
Here's the brand perspective: Ultimately it comes down to whom the consumer believes – or doesn't believe. And believability is always ceded to the brand that consumers are most highly emotionally engaged with.
Sure, there's rational right and wrong, and nobody likes a slow download, but the more emotionally engaged a consumer is with a brand always translates to higher degrees of loyalty. We're talking about real loyalty and the benefits that come with it and not just collecting points – the benefits of genuine loyalty.
Real loyalty is accompanied by better behavior toward the more-emotionally-engaged-with-brand. More usage, increased recommendations, and other good things successful brands aspire to. Engagement and loyalty also translates to higher degrees of believability and the consumer's willingness to give the brand with the highest engagement the benefit of the doubt in uncertain circumstances. Six times more, in fact.
While engagement is category-specific, it is possible to compare Online Video Streaming and Broadband Providers via their individual category Ideals, configured to be 100%. When we do that, Netflix comes out significantly higher than Verizon – 89% vs. 77%. And, as engagement correlates with all those positive behaviors and attitudes and compassion, consumers should feel the same way in the real marketplace. And they did.
Out of 1,000 U.S. consumers who have streaming video, when asked who was most likely responsible for slow program-streaming/downloading, their primary Video Provider or the Broadband Provider, 86% blamed the Broadband Provider.
And of 400 consumers in the sample who cited Netflix as their primary provider, when asked whether the blame would fall at the feet of Netflix or Verizon, 365, or 91%, blamed Verizon. That's the nice thing about engagement and loyalty metrics, they're predictive consumer attitudes and behaviors in the real marketplace.
The letter to Netflix warned that Verizon could "pursue legal remedies," and, again, that's up to Verizon's lawyers. But in this instance, given the brand's current emotional engagement levels, they probably want to avoid a jury trial.
You Can't Get A Man With A Gun. Or A Burger, Apparently.
Following in the footsteps of Chipotle's announcement of their a gun-free policy a few of weeks ago, other national brands like Applebee's, Jack in the Box, Starbucks, and Wendy's, have added something new to their menu: a request that patrons stop bringing automatic weapons into their establishments.
Now, biting the bullet, Chili's and Sonic Drive-In have joined them, after finding themselves literally under the gun when members of the gun-rights group, Open Carry Texas, loaded for bear, walked into Texas-area outlets of Sonic and Chili's carrying assault rifles, their version of Pink Floyd's "The Gunners Dream." So Sonic and Chili's, following RZA's suggestion that patrons "Put Your Guns Down," both issued statements late last week requesting that customers keep guns out of their restaurants – even if they do have open carry permits. The rationale behind these new policies rests on the premise that – wait for it – weapons can create an uncomfortable atmosphere for other diners.
Brinker International who owns Chili's said they were "dedicated to providing a safe environment for our guests and team members." Sonic asked customers to "refrain from bringing guns onto our patios or into our outdoor dining areas." The request extends to the inside of the restaurant too, even if it is a Saturday night special dinner out!
Now we measure a lot of category values in our Customer Loyalty Engagement Index – attributes, benefits, and values for nearly 100 categories and 900+ brands – and normally in columns like this we'd provide a list of quick-serve and casual restaurants and how they ranked according to how well customers saw the brands meeting their expectations regarding a particular category value. But in this case, we're stumped! While we pride ourselves on a high caliber value inventory for our analyses, we overlooked the attribute "has a no-gun policy" in any of the restaurant – or retail categories, for that matter, that we track. Maybe it's time we re-consider that.
"Greatness," indicating that the right to bear arms is one of the critical values that makes this country great. Now before you go ballistic, the "Dad" in the commercial was apparently asking about one of their sandwiches. Still. . .
On their Facebook page, Open Carry Texas said it would "cease taking long guns into corporate businesses unless invited," because as every diner knows, nothing adds to a restaurant's ambiance like a loaded automatic weapon. A post on the National Rifle Association's Legislative Action website says: Demonstrators bringing long guns into Chipotle and Chili's is really, really bad for business. And it's starting to look "weird," and it's degenerating into "downright foolishness." You think!?


We gather information from public sources to create complete and current Background Reports & Reputation Scores for everyone.We believe it's important for you to know what's available online, how it affects your Reputation Score & help you correct or remove what's wrong to improve your reputation & life.This may include any DUIs, traffic tickets and outstanding warrants.When applicable, we may show where the crime occurred and provide details about the offense.John may have a record of Relatives/Associates - Check Full Background Report to see possible family members, friends, co-workers, and associates found from multiple government records, social and public sources.Long before she became part of a trans-Atlantic celebrity love story, before her face was in the British papers, WCBS Channel 2 anchor Dana Tyler dreamed of becoming a nun.
We expect your reviews to be a positive reflection of who you are, helping you to build a great reputation that friends, employers, clients, dates, and everyone will see.I'm still sort of the same person I was as a kid, never missing school."Ms. Thanks for your kind thoughts.""When I left the station in August a year ago, she came into town for the party," said Mr. Tyler has a reputation for honesty around the station. Tyler used to needle her colleagues for playing what she thought was a stuffy game. Tyler also hosts the occasional special about the New York theater community, including CBS 2 on the Aisle and Broadway Under the Stars, a program airing on July 15. "If she doesn't like your tie," said weatherman John Bolaris, "she'll tell you she doesn't like it." She's given to bouts of extravagance, such as treating the entire on-air crew to dinner at Nobu this April, before the start of May sweeps. It is how people assess you, just like a business on Yelp, so it is important that you look good to the world.John may have Court, Arrest or Criminal Records - Check Full Background Report to see possible arrest or conviction records we have found on John.


text:
Domnhall Óg mac Cormaic (mort en 1391) membre de la dynastie Mac Carthy  prince de Desmond de 1359 à sa mort.

Contexte
Domnall Óc mac Cormaic est le fils de Cormac mac Domnaill Óic Il accède au trône en 1359 après la mort de son père  Il meurt en 1391 « après avoir confessé ses pêchés », selon les mêmes Annales de Connacht

Union et postérité
Il épouse Joan fille unique de Maurice FitzGerald  comte de Desmond dont son fils et successeur:
 Tadhg na Mainistreach mac Domhnaill Óig

Notes et références

Source

Lien externe
CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts at University College Cork

Roi de Desmond au XIVe siècle
Décès en 1391

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Walter White almost met Saul Silver and Dale Denton.
Seth Rogen celebrated Pineapple Express' 10th anniversary on Monday with a series of tweets, sharing behind-the-scenes facts about the beloved stoner comedy, which he wrote and starred in -- everything from the revelation that Rogen and James Franco were originally slated to play each other's leading roles to the fact that the famous Pineapple Express strain of marijuana is actually named after the movie, not the other way around.
However, later in the day, producer Judd Apatow chimed in with a fun fact that even Rogen didn't seem to know: that Bryan Cranston originally auditioned to play a drug dealer in the movie.
"He may have even read at a table read and I said, 'I don't think he seems scary enough to seem like a real drug dealer,'" Apatow recalled.
The irony being, of course, that just months before Pineapple Express' release, Cranston would make his debut as one of pop culture's best-known dealers:Breaking Bad's Walter White. The timeline is a little murky, but Apatow pointed out, "If he did PE maybe the Breaking Bad people would have said, 'not him, he always plays drug dealers.'"
Cranston and his Breaking Bad co-stars reunited at San Diego Comic-Con this year, in celebration of the AMC drama's 10th anniversary. The group teased some possible upcoming cameos on spinoff series Better Call Saul, but seemed to shut down any preliminary talk of a Breaking Bad revival -- at least, for now.
Despite his star's refusal, Gilligan appeared open to revisiting other Breaking Bad characters in the future for potential spinoffs -- most notably Paul's character Jesse ("Not saying there will be!"). "Anything's possible," he added.
See some hilarious outtakes from a Cranston-Franco project that did come to fruition, the 2016 comedy Why Him?, in the video below.
WATCH: James Franco Gifted Bryan Cranston With Marijuana -- Sort Of!


1. Screen: The Magiq has a 7-inch resistive touchscreen with a resolution of 800x480 pixels (WVGA). The 3G Tab has a similarly sized screen with the same resolution but it's capacitive in nature. While I can't say for certainty which display is better without getting a hands-on, I'm willing to bet that the Reliance tablet's capacitive touchscreen will outshine the Magiq's.
2. OS: Unfortunately, both tablets don't come with Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), the Android OSdeveloped specifically for tablets. However, the 3G Tab comes with the newer Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) while the Magiq has to make do with Android 2.2 (Froyo). There isn't too much difference between the two versions but Gingerbread does improve performance and makes better use of the battery.
3. Processor: The Magiq offers a more powerful processor than the 3G Tab (1GHz vs. 800MHz). As a result, it would be safe to say that the Beetel tablet will offer at least slightly better performance numbers.
4. Battery: At 2200mAh, the Magiq has a considerably lower powered battery than the Reliance 3G Tab's 3400mAh battery. Considering that the 3G Tab also has a newer OS, it's very likely that it will give better battery performance.
5. Price: There is a Rs. 3,000 difference between the Rs. 9,999 price-tag of the Magiq and the Rs. 12,999 price-tag of the Reliance 3G Tab. However, at first glance, the extra Rs. 3,000 for the Reliance 3G Tab looks worth it since it offers clear upgrades over the Beetel Magiq.
I'd like to reiterate that better features on paper don't translate to better performance in the real world. Hopefully, we'll be able to review both products soon and provide you with a more definite verdict.


text:
« Hoop dreams • Mom's the word »
Lp cover..
April 13th, 2008 in Brazilian, Fashion, Organs, Photography, Types and Fonts by lpcoverlover | 6 Comments
"Lover" Jean Houben at the Organ A Masterpiece Hi-Fi Record.
http://lpcoverlover.com/2008/04/13/lp-cover/trackback/
#1 gustavo says:
excellent record one of my favourite on its kind. very classy cover!!! congratulations for the steady quality posts!!
#2 Romartus says:
Going Organic
I Am Your Organic Lover
#4 Eduard G. says:
This is another Brasilean record. I have it/grew up with it. I am an original owner of many of the albums you have displayed (BTW, EXCELLENT JOB!)The reason there are so many Brasilean records in existance is, after the United States, no country had/has more record companies, producers, pressing plants, etc. than Brasil, no one. The industry started locally by Columbia in 1911, but there are older, surviving, original recordings of orchestras on Thomas Edison cylinders and early platters and very early Victor recordings. I worked in radio in the late 70's/early 80's and when the monthly broadcast industry mag would come in the mail, in the back section it had a huge compendium of World Record Labels, published monthly by rank in order of largest amount of companies first. The U.S. was the first listed with 20 pages of record labels/manufacturers (around 10 actual pages, double sided) followed by Brasil with about 9 pages (4.5, also double sided) then some W. European countries, half a page to one page or merely a column; Great Britain, which was a shock, had three tiny columns. Usually, this was followed by S. American companies, usually, only a quarter to 1/2 page each, followed by Canada, Mexico, Central America, Jamaica, Africa, The Middle East and the rest of Asia. It was an amazing sight to see, considering my family is from Brasil and I was hosting a College radio show about Brasilean music then called "Dreamland", on WMUH radio, Muhlenberg College, in Allentown, Pa. Also taking into consideration that Brasil, overall, is a very poor country, a third world country still, with a median income of around $100 – $200 per year! That's just a few notches up from Haiti! Considering their GDP is an always has been a fraction of the U.S. The fact that they have ALWAYS had SO MANY record companies speaks VOLUMES of the fact that the Brasileans, Nós Brasileiros, are EXTREMELY serious about our music! Often said LP's are notorious in their campiness and/or extreme beauty in appeal. I have much more to share but will do so outside this window. Thanks, Keep up the EXCELLENT historical work you are doing! -Ed
#5 lpcoverlover says:
#6 Desiderio says:
October 31st, 2008 at 10:45 am
Hey Edward G.
Brasil does have a poor population yet it's a very wealthy country. You've mentioned some data which is not updated. Brasil's GNP is one eight of USA's (some 1,3 billion dollars) and the ninth in the whole world, and the per capita is around 7,000 dollars.
You've missed mentioning also that Brasil is the ONLY country in the world where domestic music overpasses foreign one.
Having said that I must say this LP doesn't seem to me to be Brasilian at all.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Among The Hills of Valor
Jeanne Harris Weaver, Veteran's Society Dinner, February 27, 2014
Jeanne Harris Weaver
Speech, Veteran's Society Dinner in Cocoa Beach, FL
Good evening and thank you for inviting me to speak with you tonight. I come from a family of many veterans, including my two sons and my husband; and my sister-in-law, Becky and her husband Mike, who are Navy Veterans and with us tonight. I would like to share a story. Perhaps you might consider it an interpretive reading.
It is October 14, 2010. The sun shines brightly on the glistening grass and wet pavement from the noontime rain. As the band plays in the distant background, she stands, stoic yet demure. Her beautiful brunette hair streaming down below her black rimmed hat. She watches the Army Old Guard of Arlington National Cemetery flawlessly transfer her husband's casket to the Old Guard Caisson.
A lone Marine salutes. He is a childhood friend. The Marine Corps has given him special leave to accompany this soldier from Dover to Arlington National Cemetery.
The band moves forward to begin the procession. The drummer taps his drum. Diddly dum dum dum. Diddly dum dum dum. Next the Color Guard. Then the Caisson with a team of six white caisson horses and three soldiers riding erect join behind the Color Guard. A seventh caisson horse rides unharnessed. This horse symbolizes the fallen Soldier.
It is silent
All that can be heard are the hooves of the horses and the Diddly dum dum dum, Diddly dum dum dum, Diddly dum dum dum.
She moves forward. The family follows: sisters, bother, nieces, nephews, his mother and his one year old baby daughter carried by his father. Other relatives follow behind. Close to 300 others who have traveled from near and far follow in the procession at a respectable distance. Diddly dum dum dum continues the drummer.
Quiet steps by the Old Guard carries the casket from the caisson to his final resting place in Section 60. While Amazing Grace plays in the distance, the flag is loosened, stretched out and held taut above, shading and protecting the shimmering silver colored casket.
The Chaplain begins the service.
"As you look across this landscape you will see more than 300,000 great Americans laid to rest in this cemetery. Further up the hillside is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. For almost eighty-five years, night and day, the Sentry has walked in front of that tomb guarding the remains of an unknown Soldier from WWI, WWII, The Korean War, and Vietnam War. The Sentinel marches twenty-one paces one way, twenty-one paces the other way, and then he pauses for twenty-one seconds paying honor to that Soldier.
"The number twenty-one is the highest number of honors our military has", he says. "This Soldier had twenty-one attributes—leadership—determination to succeed—love and concern for the well being of his daughter—an infectious smile—a born leader—an explorer—humble—a person who bridges cultural gaps—affable and adventurous—authentic—determined—he operated with ease—fun and cool under pressure—faithful to family, his parents and life—inspiring—dedicated—proud of his family, country and his men—He was happy and humorous—loving—strong and courageous.
"And so we pay honor to this Soldier today. A Veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom."
This Soldier was assigned to the 101st Airborne Air Assault Division, 2nd of the 502nd Infantry Battalion. He was the Company Executive Officer.
The Chaplain continues—
"He wanted to lead men in combat so he raised his hand to train a struggling field artillery platoon from the First of the 320th. He trained those men up. He took them into combat and lead them into harms way. Many of those men are safe today because of his efforts in the line of duty. Above all these, his greatest attribute was his faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ."
The Chaplain continues the service by reading Psalm 144—David's psalm for victory and he says—
"This Soldier went into combat with his faith in the Lord. He went without fear. He did so because he wanted to pass on to further generations freedom—the freedom our fore fathers had given us as part of the long line that continues to give us freedom."
White gloved hands fold the flag with precision while in the background the Army band plays America The Beautiful. The Chaplain says—
"For our Comrade in Arms, the Nation now bestows its Military Honors. In his life he honored our Nation's flag. Now, in his death our Nation's flag shall honor him."
The flag is saluted one last time.
A Salute of twenty-one guns.
A lone Bugler in the distance, among the shining diamond white marble headstones plays Taps.
The flag is handed to the General. She kneels quietly before his baby daughter who is sitting on her Mother's lap, and hands the flag to her. The baby lovingly smiles.
The General then carries a second flag and hands it to his Mother. She returns with a third flag which she give to his Father. This flag is intended for the Soldier's Grandfather, a Navy Veteran of WWII who sits a row behind.
Dignitaries are standing to the side, far enough away to not bring attention to themselves. Far enough away to respect the solemn ceremony.
They now come forward, one at a time. With reverence, they kneel before each immediate family member. They take their time to say just the right words of condolence to each personally. A high ranking official and his wife are the last to kneel, and to hold the baby's hand.
His casket is saluted one final time. In the distance bag pipes play Amazing Grace.
As the masses of guests begin their departure, the family remains to give their final goodbyes. Each person in their own way kneels, kisses the casket, says a prayer. She is the last and does not want to part. Weak with emotion, she forces her body upright. She is held by the family with love.
As they depart, compatriots of the Soldier in civilian and military uniforms file by the casket one by one to give a final prayer, a final salute. A coin is placed on the casket.
The Soldier, my son, 1LT Todd William Weaver
The young woman, his wife, Emma
His baby daughter, 14 month old, Kiley
The young Marine, Captain Michael Farley
The Chaplain, Captain Jason K. Nobles
The General, Brigadier General Leslie Purser
The high ranking official, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen and his wife, Jane
The coin left on the casket, left by the former Under Secretary of Defense, Dean Popps
Todd was killed in Kandahar, Afghanistan, September 9, 2010 while leading his men on a night time maneuver. Today he rests among the rolling hills of valor of Arlington National Cemetery. In that honor, he takes his place in our history with many of our Nation's heroes.
My youngest son, 1LT Todd William Weaver lived with purpose. He lived and died committed to defending this remarkable Nation and the principles that have guided our society for over two hundred years. We will always miss Todd. But, he lives in our hearts. His spirit is among us. With the grace of God, I continue to hope that I can live up to his values.
One month later, our family of over thirty gathered at our home for Thanksgiving to thank God for his many blessings and for the twenty-six years we shared with Todd. A family portrait was taken. In it, one of Todd's nephews held a photograph of his Uncle Todd.
This Thanksgiving, 2014, it is estimated that over 4,900 children will go to their Thanksgiving table where a missing man's chair, like tonight, is placed as a symbol of their fallen father or mother who gave their life for our freedoms in the War on Terror.
(This speech appears in the book, Losing Todd: A Mother's Journey and is copy written by The Muscarelle Museum of Art.)


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Archie W. Butcher (April 29, 1901 – May 29, 1981) was an American football player and coach.  He served as the head football coach at Ottawa University in Ottawa, Kansas from 1928 to 1929 and at Oklahoma Baptist University in 1930, compiling a career college football record of 6–18–1. Butcher was also the head basketball coach at Oklahoma Baptist for one season, in 1930–31, tallying a mark of 5–10.

He obtained a degree in medicine from the University of Kansas School of Medicine in 1935, practicing in Miltonvale and Wakefield before moving to Abilene where he retired in 1976. Butcher died in 1981 at the age of 80.

Head coaching record

Football

References

External links

1901 births
1981 deaths
American football running backs
Basketball coaches from Kansas
Kansas State Wildcats football players
Oklahoma Baptist Bison basketball coaches
Oklahoma Baptist Bison football coaches
Ottawa Braves football coaches
People from Solomon, Kansas
People from Cloud County, Kansas
People from Clay County, Kansas
People from Abilene, Kansas


Hi there! If you are someone who has ever struggled with body image, a challenging relationship to food and/or an eating disorder, then you are in the right place!
I have carefully compiled this resource guide of my videos, podcasts and articles to give you the support you need to: stop believing your negative thoughts, have freedom from shame and guilt, stop being at war with yourself and remember what true health means to you!
At first glance, some of the resources may not seem to be relevant, but I promise that I included every item in here for a good reason.
You can Never Get Your Body Back—& Why You Shouldn't Try.
You do not feel Fat.
Why we Believe Our Thoughts & Why we Shouldn't.
What Weight Loss Goals Cover Up.
You Are Not a Dirty Girl.
You're Never Upset for the Reason you Think.


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Grit Walks Away From College Football
January 25, 2022 By Conn Williamson
The torrid love affair pitting grit and college football together in a sweaty and exhausting performance art exhibit that would make a geisha legend blush is officially over. The resulting scandal has gone viral across the expanse of the digital tabloids inhabiting the global villages of social media. With the gasp conjuring arduous breakup most likely caused by the glorification of modern players, the pathway of former student athletes walking the lugubrious pathway to hide their shame and frustration tell stories of coaches telling them "to rub some dirt on it and get back in the game". These anecdotes do not elicit a flattering reaction from the younger generations. This is a result of the rhetoric of baby boomers grandparents delicately embellishing walking three miles to school through blizzards and mountains, while being accosted by carnivorous squirrels with the obstinance and disposition of a mountain lion. The kids have been programmed to believe it is all hogwash even though it isn't, thanks to the musings of the long-departed elders, as any validity is banished to the hinterlands.
With entitlement, soft parenting, and political correctness all complicit in elevating the contemporary prima donnas of the gridiron to a pedestal where individual branding is emphasized over actual performances. As a result, the future of the sport hangs in the balance. The putrid disaster of the Names Image and Likeness (NIL) program implemented in diverting hundreds of millions of dollars from television revenues and ticket and merchandise sales directly to scholarship athletes, has gotten off to a rough start. The self-driving vehicle dumpster fire of the transfer portal annihilating any residual accountability left behind the prodigious walls of campus life, amateurism at least in the big sports has been sentenced to death by ghoulish methods perfected during Spanish Inquisition. What only enhances the rate in which reality is butchered by vanity, is the packs of football Twitter dads, who cannot be distinguished from raucous hooligans in bashing coaches midseason. If the product of their progeny does not see the field in what the father's construe as justifiable playing time, or attacks on fellow players (mostly quarterbacks) for not throwing to a their sons. At least the futbol hooligans, even though they are defined by their propensity towards groupthink, do not hide behind a computer screen or smart device in actively rioting and pillaging the streets adjacent to the stadium in a vibrant drunken rage sponsored by raw emotion and copious amounts of Irish carbombs.
With the new rules, and the writing clearly on the restroom wall, college football has simply lost all intrigue. Though the pageantry and gameday traditions are still practiced, they seem like empty gestures against a backdrop of lucrative finances transforming star players into millionaires at 18-years-old. While compensating student athletes with periodic stipends would have been a reasonable solution, the bureaucratic response of NCAA in unleashing NIL protocols was rushed and ill-timed. As the players are integral in generating mountains of cash to fund an entire athletic department budget, and deserve at least a piece of the financial pie, the convoluted nature of the flawed directive is only exacerbated by the out of control transfer portal, which celebrates the antithesis to commitment. In combination with the incendiary existence of social media, and the unsettling trajectory of society, the explosion of stagnation and sterility is only enhanced by the unrelenting volatility.
The actions of a wide receiver's father via Twitter epitomizes the current crises and disappointment with toughness disappearing from the game. The no-consequence environment provided by the prodigious social networks is the optimal platform to abuse the proliferation of information for underhanded negotiation tactics. An highly recruited unnamed offensive player at a major university, clearly not ready for significant playing time on the field, apparently was swayed by tweets blasting a coach, and lauding his undeveloped skill-set in creating a monster. Multiple times the student athlete failed to "finish a play" out of frustration leading to a pair of interceptions in a showcase of juvenile entitlement not meant for the spotlight of bigtime athletics.
Society already faces the disturbing phenomenon of egos inflated and stoked through social media, but add to this already unstable mixture, extensive feedback from fans, the bloated stage of revenue generating sports, and apologist parents, and the subsequent nuclear explosion has falsely anointed a young person as a success, even though they are clearly unproven. The presence of the NIL program, and the transfer portal is like a decedent upgraded solid gold luxury vehicle of participation trophy hedonism, and college football is has suddenly become cumbersome and uninspired.
With Texas A&M curiously losing a five star recruit to the portal and the prevalence of an innovative NIL network that is lucrative on a multitude of levels, all bets are now off on the level of chaos created by two very sketchy ideas intertwined, and the fate of the smaller athletic programs may have already been sealed. It all began with the ill-fated actions of Congress allowing the whole thing to unravel, and proving that law makers are horrible ambassadors, and even worse in making business decisions, and the end is nowhere near as the old-school is buried by the alleged liberation of individuals already blessed with the guarantee of an education paid for, and given the privilege to perform in a rock star atmosphere of hero worship and incessant fandom.
Filed Under: Politics, Sports


I was searching ricotta cookie recipes yesterday, but I think I'm going to try this one with blueberries :) I love your site.
I happen to have some ricotta in my fridge that needs to be used up. Perfect! These sound fantastic!
I'll recommend these! Especially with coffee...and at a country kitchen table with some good friends.
These sound wonderful - and I'm planning to try them with fresh cherries when they come into season. Yum!
Are these the muffins I had at your place? I would have liked more, but I had to stop myself!
These look very good Lovella.
I haven't ever added ricotta to muffins..will try that.
Years ago I enjoyed a square of cornbread at a Toronto restaurant which had a ricotta filling.
I tried to duplicate it and was quite succesful.
Combine ricotta cheese, dash salt, honey to taste and 1 egg beaten. Pour over first half of batter then top with rest of batter. Hope it works for all of you.
ENjoy this blog very much.
Should these be baked at 400 or at a lower temp?


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Tag: Race
Posted on December 1, 2020 August 3, 2021
A Beginner's Guide to Uncle Roger: How to make egg fried rice
Uncle Roger is basically All my Chinese Uncles. And my dad, who regularly berated me for not having the heat high enough when I cooked in front of him growing up. "Are you frying that, or stewing it?!" he'd yell over the din of the range hood fan, shaking his head.
Dad recently sent me this article on wok hei ("breath of the wok"), which mentioned Uncle Roger's now-famous YouTube video from July. This was the first I'd ever heard of Uncle Roger — that's what being off social media does to a person — and though I don't love all his videos or everything about him, I love how much Uncle Roger makes me think about my own Chinese heritage, and everything I've learned about being Chinese from my dad.
Dad can't be bothered to watch Uncle Roger's videos. "They're too long," he says. My (white, and very competent cooker of Chinese cuisine) mom, however, is always keen to know what the heck my brother Adam and I area talking about on our family Hangouts. So I told her I'd send her a list of Uncle Roger videos to watch, in order, as the humor definitely builds on itself.
Here's that list, for Mom and anyone else who hasn't yet discovered the joy that is Uncle Roger!
Uncle Roger: the videos to watch, in order
This is the one that started it all in July, when comedian Nigel Ng released a video of his character Uncle Roger reacting to an episode of BBC Food:
Continue reading "A Beginner's Guide to Uncle Roger: How to make egg fried rice"
For Nothing is Fixed: podcast and poems
"Fixed" as in: permanent / unmoving / unchanging;
"Fixed" as in: repaired, made whole.
On this theme I present this timely and provocative conversation between Viveka and Paramananda. So much of what Viveka says (and not just in this podcast!) resonates with my experience, in particular:
Just because we're physically together doesn't mean we're vibing together… Just recognizing that when we're physically together doesn't mean that all bodies are able to be there in the same way has been a huge teaching for me.
How can we actually co-create a space that everyone is genuinely able to be welcome with others, to be welcoming others? …There's something about the beautifulness of our differentiation where we can actually welcome each other fully.
Their conversation takes as its springboard this poem by James Baldwin, which Paramananda recites beautifully (and from memory!) at 4:40:
For Nothing Is Fixed
by James Baldwin
For nothing is fixed,
forever, forever, forever,
it is not fixed;
the earth is always shifting,
the light is always changing,
the sea does not cease to grind down rock.
Generations do not cease to be born,
and we are responsible to them
because we are the only witnesses they have.
The sea rises, the light fails,
lovers cling to each other,
and children cling to us.
The moment we cease to hold each other,
the moment we break faith with one another,
the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.
Here's another excerpt of a poem, which I heard for the first time this afternoon. Apparently it is stenciled on the streets of Salem, Massachussetts in such a way that it is only visible when it rains, and I wish I could find the poem in its entirety:
All around the globe, Right Now, people are busy filling in the cracks of our world with gold, and I'm deeply inspired.
Posted on June 14, 2020 January 12, 2022
Both / And: on the experience of existing as woman of color in the Triratna Buddhist movement
The world today is very different from that in which Buddhism originated and flourished…
The challenge Buddhists face today is to find ways of communicating and practising the Dharma that are truly effective in these new circumstances. The situation seems to call for renewal in the Buddhist world, faithful to the Buddha's own teaching, yet addressing the circumstances we find ourselves in now.
Those are the words of Subhuti, excerpted from his 2012 publication, A Buddhist Manifesto: the Principles of the Triratna Buddhist Community, written at Sangharakshita's encouragement as a way to spread the latter's Buddhist principles "to other Buddhists worldwide."
A problem of the dharma today is that it has become so limited. It has become constricted inside of a kind of fear. We want to maintain control of it, so we resist it evolving as it always has…
…we miss the opportunity before us to liberate ourselves from the obscurations that keep us from knowing who we are, from knowing each other, from knowing that our birthright is exactly love.
Obscuring the path of liberation for us all, simply put, is race. And when I say race, I mean race and ethnicity and heritage and skin color and all of those things that we have conflated into it for hundreds of years.
Those are the words of Rev. angel Kyodo williams, a self-described Black, mixed-raced woman Zen priest, from a recent article, Your Liberation is On the Line.
I found this image on the website of an international retreat for women "like me" who are training for Ordination into the Triratna Buddhist Order. [Source]
I am currently training for Ordination in the Triratna Buddhist tradition. After years of of studying with a number of Tibetan Buddhist teachers in India, Sangharakshita, a man who was brilliant and British, insightful and white, brought his unique vision of the Dharma [= teachings of the Buddha] back to England. From there, this vision has spread throughout the so-called "Western" world and beyond.
The Buddhist movement Sangharakshita founded is the Triratna that I first encountered at the Auckland Buddhist Centre, after a decade+ of intermittent Buddhist study and practice. I may just as likely have encountered it at the San Francisco Buddhist Center, or any of the dozens of Triratna Buddhist Centers located around the world.
I am deeply grateful for the clarity and accessibility of the Triratna teachings, and even more so for the beautiful Sangha [=spiritual community] that makes the Triratna movement so unique amongst all the other Buddhist disciplines.
I struggle daily with several intersectional aspects of Triratna's culture, as it manifests at the more-distributed-than-centralized global and local levels. The movement's history stings of appropriation, colonialism, and patriarchy. Formal Dharma study groups and people training for ordination are separated by gender, with no formal support for people who do not identify as "male" or "female." At my local Center, due to the availability of teachers, it's a lot easier to join a study group if you identify as a man, while many women wait months — and must make formal commitments — before being assigned to a group.
There doesn't seem to be an accepted path to Ordination for parents of young children or people who otherwise don't have the ability to attend retreats for long periods of time. The retreat Centers we use are not accessible for people with limited mobility, which means that many of our older Sangha members, and those who use walkers or wheelchairs, cannot attend.
There is quite an openness to the queer community. On the male side of the gender divide, that openness has bordered on (crossed into?) concerning abuses of power over the course of Triratna's history. All but one of the authors whose work is disseminated by the publishing company associated with Triratna appear to be male, though it's possible I've missed someone.
There is subtle scorn (or is it simple racism?) directed at "cultural" Buddhists, a term used for those who were born into the tradition without having actively chosen to practice its teachings. "They're doing it wrong; we're doing it the right way, as the Buddha intended" is the not-so-subtle subtext.
Triratna is my spiritual home. The more I learn about Sangharakshita's history, the lineage of his teachings, and the beautiful and diverse people who are the embodied continuation of that lineage, the more comfortable I become with the late founder of this movement.
I would like to keep my eyes wide open to the suffering that follows from the many issues I mentioned above, many of which stem from the culture he created.
I study, first and foremost, as I am encouraged to do, the Dharma as formulated by Sangharakshita and taught by Triratna teachers. Fortunately for all of us, there are far more recorded talks and videos from Triratna Order members of color than there are written works. I am deeply honored to be able to learn from teachers as insightful, skilled, and experienced in the importance of diversity and inclusion work as Vimalasara and Viveka.
To keep my cup full, I regularly seek out diverse Buddhist teachings from people who practice in traditions other than the Triratna community. There is so much amazing anti-racist work happening in the Insight Buddhist Community in North America that Buddhist of any affiliation can learn from, for instance. I share these resources in the hope that we all can benefit from — and see ourselves in — the many facets of the dazzling Dharma jewel.
To the extent that I have the energy — it takes a lot of emotional labor! — I am committed to actively working with my local Sangha to build a more inclusive approach to sharing the Dharma. This includes regularly engaging with my friends and teachers and Order members and fellow students in designing new ways to communicate with and learn from each other. It includes doing my best to stay engaged, even when it seems as though my concerns are being minimized or dismissed. I try to model the inclusive behavior I would like to see.
I regularly slide into anger, into indignation. I skip right over "the gap" [between feeling and wanting something to be different] more often than I can keep track of. I wonder how regularly I break the precepts that pertain to kindness, generosity, and mindfulness. I am overcome with feelings of Hrī [=remorse] when I reflect on the impact of my unskillful actions. I know that my tone has many times resulted in people feeling shut down or minimized themselves. The cycle of samskara [=habitual tendencies] continues.
I try to remember that all things arise based on conditions. I work to include in my compassion all the people who "aren't racist" but who do not yet fully understand their privilege or the impact of their behavior on others less privileged… which I do not believe is their fault; rather, I see it as a function of their own conditioning.
I say the name of George Floyd aloud, and remind us about the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement, lest we carry on with our Dharma activities as if this moment of great suffering were not happening. Yes, all beings experience suffering. And we need to be clear that suffering is happening in a very specific way — murder, often at the hands of police! — for Black people right now. And that this suffering is related to the suffering of Māori at the hands of the NZ police, and the suffering of indigenous people around the world. And that this suffering is related to the climate crisis. And that our liberation is tied up in the liberation of Black people in the US, whether we choose to look at those connections or not.
This represents what is most alive in me today; tomorrow, I might say something completely different. May we all stay open to the possibility of holding multiple perspectives at once. That is, after all, the promise of liberation — of Enlightenment! — that inspires my practice.
Care about the Climate Crisis?#BlackLivesMatter is tied up with your cause, too
On my mind these days:
Intersectionality. Privilege. Divisive binary thinking. What each of us can control and what we can't.
Emotional labor… which is what it takes for people of color to educate others about the sources of racism, tools for anti-racism, and how to be a good ally (spoiler: there are many ways!).
That often-invisible spectrum that ranges from being comfortable to feeling uncomfortable to being unsafe to being physically harmed to being killed.
How I can effectively support people in making connections between the things they care about and the things they don't usually choose to look at, especially when there is agency involved… without becoming jaded, judgmental, or unsafe myself.
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Screenshot of the new online Talking About Race resource (edit mine)
There's a lot to say right now about race.
People who are not white — myself included — don't always want to be the ones explaining certain racial concepts or experiences to people privileged enough to never really have to think about race. At the same time, many of us do still want to be part of helping all people understand the wide-reaching impact of this odd construct.
It's complicated.
Fortunately for all of us, the National Museum of African American History & Culture has just published an excellent online resource: Talking About Race. This website splits up its various resources by topic for different audiences, and I'm a huge fan!
Example of a message on the landing page for Parents. There's also a section for Educators and another for People Committed to Equity.
Now I have a place to direct people when I'm not feeling up for the conversation myself. Maybe Talking About Race will help you, too, whether you're looking to educate yourself, or looking for a place to send well-meaning people who want to talk to you about race when you're in a place of prioritising self-care. May we all be free from suffering, and the causes of suffering.
Experiments in being an advocate for diversity and inclusion: what keeping quiet for a while has taught me
In most of the spaces I inhabited in Northern California, I had the privilege of being surrounded by very well-trained advocates for racial, class, gender, and a number of other forms of diversity and inclusion. The workshops, classes, community, and work events I frequented were excellently facilitated by people adept at leading the group through the setting of shared agreements. Once we had collectively affirmed those agreements, the facilitators and participants could lovingly but firmly call out — or rather, call in — any behavior that breached those agreements.
Even in situations where there were no explicit agreements in place, such as social gatherings, there was always someone more hip than I was to such matters who was willing to say something when anyone's bias showed. In the rare moments when I did find I wanted to raise my own voice, usually online, I had people who could help me adjust my language before posting anything, and back me up once my words were out there.
These scenarios felt very safe and very comfortable. I benefited from the work of others; I could fully show up because I knew that what I shared would usually be received and held respectfully by the facilitator or the group itself, or that at the very least, someone else would intervene if anyone failed to check their privilege or veered into prejudiced territory, consciously or otherwise. And I trusted that my own missteps would be skillfully reflected back to me, giving me the opportunity to raise my own levels of awareness.
All that changed when I moved to Auckland. Continue reading "Experiments in being an advocate for diversity and inclusion: what keeping quiet for a while has taught me"
We are now officially permanent residents of New Zealand + some thoughts on global mobility
On the 20th of February, I got an email from Immigration New Zealand (INZ) informing me that they'd approved our application to become permanent residents. I'm super relieved as this was kind of hanging over us for a while, even though there was very little chance that it would not work out in our favor.
Here's what permanent residency means for us [I'm not an immigration consultant blah blah legal disclaimer check INZ's website for the latest and greatest info]:
We can now vote;
Our continued existence here is no longer tied to my current job (not that I'm interested in quitting, it's just nice to know I'm not stuck if it ever ceases to be a good fit);
I can now do jobs on the side (this wasn't permitted on my specific work visa)
We can get credit cards (not to carry a balance, but to get cash back on all our purchases!);
We can buy a house (not that we can currently afford any houses we'd want to live in, it's just that the new government here recently passed a law that foreigners cannot buy existing houses, only build new ones… and even before that law changed, banks wouldn't give us a mortgage unless we were residents anyway);
We can go to school (we weren't allowed to study for more than 3 months on our work visas before)…
…at local tuition rates (which are ~1/3 of the rates for foreigners, this number varies a lot depending on which program and which university);
We qualify for KiwiSaver, NZ's retirement plan (employers are required by law to match employee contributions up to 3% for employees who opt into the KiwiSaver plan, so I'm signing up right away. And yes, if you leave the country you get to take your KiwiSaver funds with you); and
We're pretty sure Scott's existence here is no longer tied to our relationship… though we have no plans to test that out 🙂
The "permanent" part of our residency means that we can Continue reading "We are now officially permanent residents of New Zealand + some thoughts on global mobility"
Clear as mud: Black Willow, Mississippi Mud, and FBI informants
Scott very rarely plays songs more than once in a sitting, so the fact that we've now listened to Loma's Black Willow six times in a row is no small endorsement. I agree: it's infectiously beautiful, darkly haunting, the lyrics are provocative… definitely worth playing over and over, and there's something about the album cover art, too.
I finally decided to look for a video and Lo, not only does one exist, it's in a similar vein as the ones I have posted twice before:
And the plot thickens! The video's first comment on YouTube is from (actor, producer, and writer) Daniel Martine, who points out that the song sounds eerily similar to a song called "Mississippi Mud," a Black Blood and the Chocolate Pickles song with a grim history:
In his comment to the Black Willow video, Daniel continues:
The story is about the death of black students who protesting [sic] at Jackson State in Mississippi in '70. Not long after Kent State shootings happened. But it didn't get the press of Kent State, because they were black students.
I can google up no evidence that Loma may have meant Black Willow to be a straight up homage to the song and/or a rememberance of the events that took place at Jackson State, not to mention the inequality of the response thereafter compared to shootings of white students. But I could understand that the band could have gone there Continue reading "Clear as mud: Black Willow, Mississippi Mud, and FBI informants"
Book review: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
We were going to be visiting Scott's family in Maine and I'd never been there before, so I wanted to read something that was set in that state; Scott did a bit of research and suggested Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge. Extra points for a Maine novel written by a Maine author!
This book reminded me of:
I kept thinking back to Anne Tyler (Ladder of Years especially, not that I can remember a single detail other than how the book made me feel) and Alice Munro's Still Life in terms of the female character's experiences. Alice Munro again because the novel is a collection of short stories that could very well stand on their own. And Wendell Berry because of Strout's choice to illuminate one small town through the eyes of several very different inhabitants and their very different stories… though to be fair, I think Strout covers a lot more ground in terms of humanizing a wider range of characters and situations.
This book got me thinking about:
…the many different ways aging relationships can go.
Apparently I had unconsciously assumed a very narrow spectrum of feelings and/or options available to people that had been in a relationship for decades, because I was very pleasantly surprised by the number of representations in this book.
…the fraught nature of parent/child relationships.
So many of the characters and scenarios reminded me of just-slightly-more-extreme versions of people and relationships in my own life Continue reading "Book review: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout"
The view from "down there"
In the last coupla weeks I've managed to delete my Facebook account, get sick-and-then-better, demonstrate the high-level function of our relationship by making it through a 3-day power outage with minimal food wastage (we ate well!), attend a meditation retreat, and discover dozens of beautiful, brave people who are fighting the good fight(s) with regard to identity politics on Twitter.
I'm working up the nerve to write (but mostly still grokking how to connect the dots, and deciding how much I am actually willing to share) something that somehow weaves together the male gaze, heteronormativity, my own internalized beliefs about fashion and fitting in, representation, aging, model minority stereotypes, growing up bi-racial in a predominantly-white, very privileged community, the tension between building a platform that "scales" and staying 100% committed to my own voice, the dangers women face for expressing any sexuality, one (or more) of my #metoo stories, and what it means for me, as a woman of color who has so often reported to white men (I currently report to a Māori man), to fully step into my power.
It's probably more like 12 pieces to write over the course of the rest of my life. Every other hour, I convince myself that I just need to keep meditating instead of attempting to make sense of it all, much less write it down for an audience.
In the meantime, I will share this stunning Janelle Monáe video, from which I have stolen the above screenshots:
I really don't want to ruin it with any more commentary BUT (I can't help it!) it gives me many of the same magical, tingly, "we got this," "it ain't all bad" feelings that this Bomba Estereo video also evokes:
May I one day master my craft to the point where I too can wrap the messages I'd like to convey in packages as powerful as these.
David Whyte and Jane Hirshfield on the window of waking


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How To Buy and Flip Land If You Don't Live In The USA - Featuring John Baesler 0
John Baesler lives in Germany and is a full-time land flipper. In this episode, he discusses how he is able to operate his business remotely using the Investment Dominator to automate many of the processes needed to flip land. You'll find out what you need to keep in mind in order to ensure that your systems run as smooth as possible.
John is also one of our land flipping coaches and works with many international land flippers in order to help them set up their own businesses and attain financial freedom of their own.
Find out how to run a land flipping business from outside the USA
Discover why John Baesler quit his job to become a land flipper
Learn how the Investment Dominator automates and streamlines your business
Subscribe and rate our podcast at: http://www.Jackbosch.com/podcast
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The Path To Success In Land Investing - Featuring Valerie Odom 0
Valerie Odom is one of our star land flipping students. She made the switch from house flipping to land investing because - as she puts it - land takes far less energy than houses. In this episode, Jack Bosch discusses Valerie's journey in real estate to find out how she discovered land and why she made the switch. Valerie also discusses the power of coaching and how it has enabled her to make deals that she never would have dreamed of!
Find out why Valerie Odom switched from houses to land
Discover the power of coaching
Learn about the path to success in land investing
Making $50k In Land With A Neighbor Letter - Featuring Christina Walls 0
Christina Walls hit the ground running with land flipping and has not looked back! In this episode, Christina walks through a deal where she made almost $50 000 in profits just by sending out a neighbor letter. This episode perfectly illustrates some of the many reasons that land flipping is our preferred method for generating cash - where else will you find a seller willing to let go of their property at a 99% discount? Seem too good to be true? Well, listen and find out why the sellers we target are desperate to get rid of their properties - using real-life examples from Christina's land flipping career.
Find out how Christina Walls made $50k profit by using a neighbor letter
Understand why sellers are willing to get rid of their land for cents on the dollar
Discover Christina's history with land flipping
Peek under the hood of the business of a successful land flipper
Triple Your Deals Through Targeted Follow-Up - How To Use Systems To Maximize Profits 0
Automation is the key to scaling any business, and land flipping is no exception. In this episode, Jack Bosch discusses how and why you need to implement processes in your land flipping business when it comes to following up on deals. Too many people rely on their memory to keep track of all the tasks they need to get done which eventually means that things will slip through the cracks, resulting in lost deals. Luckily, we have developed the Investment Dominator - a CRM that is specifically designed to optimize your workflow and get deals rolling in!
Find out how to automate your follow-up strategy
Discover why you shouldn't rely exclusively on your memory
Understand why the Investment Dominator is key to a successful land flipping business
The State Of The Economy And How You Should Prepare - Featuring Rod Khleif 0
The COVID-19 pandemic has already had a drastic effect on the economy, however, the big crash is coming. In this episode, Jack Bosch talks to Rod Khleif about his predictions for the US economy and how you can turn a crisis into an opportunity. You'll learn how the wealthiest people in the country leverage cashflow-producing investments in order to gain the capital to invest in even better assets. There is a window of opportunity right now and it's time to ensure you're ready to weather the storm!
Rod Khleif is an entrepreneur, real estate investor, multiple business owner, author, mentor, and community philanthropist who is passionate about business, life, success, and giving back. As one of the country's top real estate trainers, Rod has personally owned and managed over 2,000 properties. Rod is Host of the Top-Ranked iTunes Real Estate Podcast which has been downloaded more than 8,000,000 times – "The Lifetime Cash Flow Through Real Estate Investing Podcast." Rod is the author of "How to Create Lifetime Cash Flow Through Multifamily Properties" considered to be an essential "textbook" for aspiring multifamily investors.
Find out about Rod Khleif's investment career
Learn about the state of the economy in the wake of the pandemic
Understand what you need to do to prepare
Find out why Multifamily Real Estate can be a great asset class to invest in
Register for Rod Khleif's Multifamily Virtual Bootcamp: http://multifamilyvirtualbootcamp.com/
Common Mind Blocks That Prevent Your Success In Land Flipping 0
Many new land flippers have misconceptions that prevent them from taking steps forward in order to achieve their success. Perhaps you refuse to believe that there are people out there who are willing to sell their properties at a 90% discount. Maybe you think that you'll never make it in this business.
In this episode, Jack Bosch dispels those myths by talking about the reasons why land owners sell their properties and why you need to shift your mindset when it comes to land. You have to remember that this is a rather unique asset class and therefore it comes with its own set of rules. It's time to stop making excuses and take the leap to financial freedom!
Mastering Your Land Listings - Featuring Courtney Kaehlert 0
Courtney Kaehlert is a land flipper who has been crushing it in terms of her deals, which is why she has become one of our Land Profit Generator coaches. In this week's episode, Jack Bosch talks to Courtney about her entrepreneurial journey before land flipping and why she decided to go all-in on land.
Courtney also shares insights into how she structures and optimizes her listings. Platforms like Facebook Marketplace can be tricky to navigate, but in this episode, you'll get ideas that you can start testing immediately! No more fumbling around in the dark, it's time to implement strategies that you can test and alter in order to find the formula that works for you.
Find out about Courtney Kaehlert's career history
Discover why Courtney has gone all-in on land
Learn how to optimize your land listings
How To Unlock Cash Without Taking Out A Loan - Featuring Matthew Sullivan 0
Matthew Sullivan is the founder and full-time chief executive officer and director of Quantm.One, Inc and has held this position since the Company's incorporation in December 2017. Since January 2015 Matthew has been the founder and president of Crowdventure, LLC, a real estate crowdfunding company, but to name a few of the many ventures he is involved in.
In this episode, Jack Bosch chats to Matthew to get a deeper understanding of the QuantmRE business model, which allows home owners to obtain money without taking on any additional loans by using a Home Equity Contract. You'll also hear about Matthew's career history and get insights into his business. At the Land Profit Generator, we are always incredibly excited to hear about unique investment and fundraising opportunities, and this episode definitely doesn't disappoint!
Find out about Matthew Sullivan's career history
Discover what a Home Equity Contract is and how you can get money out of your home
Learn about the QuantmRE business model
Find out more about Home Equity Contracts at: https://launch.quantmre.com/
Half A Million Dollars In 5 Months - Featuring Eldon & Chantel Gabriel 0
Eldon Gabriel and his wife Chantel are a powerhouse team of land flippers from Canada who have spent hours pouring over the Land Profit Generator training material. By trusting the system and following the steps, they have generated insane revenue in record time.
In this episode, Jack Bosch chats to them about their journey in land flipping and discuss some of their deals - including the two separate occasions when they bought a property for just $1! This duo have shown the power of the Land Profit Generator and why it has transformed the lives of so many people all over the world.
Find out why Eldon & Chantel binge watch the Land Profit Generator
Discover how they bought two properties for $1 each
Learn how the team made half a million dollars in 5 months
Time Management Without Measuring Minutes - How To Get More Done In Less Time 0
Time management is a crucial tool to help you stay productive and avoid burnout - and while many people think this involves micromanaging your life hour by hour, it doesn't have to be that complicated. In this episode, Jack Bosch introduces you to the Structured Rhythms of Success: a method that he and his wife Michelle have been using to maximize their time and achieve amazing results! You'll learn about a proven method that breaks down your week to allow you to focus on one thing at a time while leveraging the way that human brains operate.
If you've been feeling like you're treading water week after week, this episode will help you find a rhythm and ultimately lead you to greater productivity and higher profits.
Find out how to structure your time
Learn why multitasking is a bad idea
Understand why it's important to make time to play
Join the Land Profit Generator Facebook Group and catch Winning Wednesdays at 10:00 AM PST: https://www.facebook.com/groups/LandProfitGenerator/
How To Deal With Landlocked Properties - A Guide To Selling The Unsellable 0
There are many misconceptions about what exactly constitutes a landlocked property and in this episode, we are going to dispel those myths. So many land flippers are leaving money on the table by incorrectly marketing their properties and selling themselves short. Well, in today's episode we will put a stop to that by discussing real examples of properties that can be marketed in a way that attracts buyers.
This episode was recorded as part of the Winning Wednesday Series where Jack Bosch answers listener questions and gives tips and tricks for land flippers of all skill levels - tune in every week at 10:00 AM PST on the Land Profit Generator Facebook Group!
Find out how to market landlocked properties
Bust myths about landlocked properties
Understand how to reframe how you think about properties
Leaving Your Job For Land Flipping - Featuring James Casey 0
James Casey used to work in corporate America doing four people's jobs in a career that he was, frankly, sick and tired of. He wanted to have money to better people's lives but could never break through to that next level. Until, of course, he discovered Land Flipping. Now, James has quit his job and lives entirely off of his land deals.
In this episode, Jack Bosch talks to James about his transition from a full-time corporate life to the exciting, prosperous world of land. You'll hear stories of real deals and all the ups and downs that come with them. James also shares his strategies for finding good deals and why he believes you need to stick to the Land Profit Generator system in order to get the best results.
Find out why James Casey quit his job to become a full-time land flipper
Discover how James thinks about his deals
Learn why James says you need to follow the Land Profit Generator system
Join the Land Profit Generator Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/LandProfitGenerator/
High-Volume Land Flipping - Featuring Mike Ferreira 0
Mike Ferreira has been land flipping since 2014 and is incredibly passionate about helping others attain their own financial freedom. What sets Mike apart is his unique approach to deals - where instead of looking for a small amount of high-value deals, he is buying & selling small pockets of land at a gigantic scale.
In this episode; Jack Bosch chats to Mike about his journey with land flipping, how he approaches his deals, and why he decided to become a Land Profit Generator coach.
Find out how Mike Ferreira buys & sells land at scale
Discover why someone would become a Land Profit Generator Coach
Learn why you should forget about the idea that there is too much competition in land
Find out more about Mike Ferreira at: https://mikesellsland.com/
Investing In Exchange Trader Funds & Gold - Featuring Will Rhind 0
In this episode, Jack Bosch chats to Will Rhind - the founder and CEO of GraniteShares, an Exchange Trader Funds (ETF) company headquartered in New York. He is an established ETF entrepreneur with over 17 years of experience in the industry. Prior to GraniteShares, Rhind was CEO of SPDR Gold Trust, a $30 billion ETF owned by the World Gold Council. We find out all about ETFs; what exactly they are and how people can invest in them. We also get a look into the world of gold investing, an asset class that everyone knows about but few people understand.
Will Rhind also shares his insights into the future of the US economy, specifically how the effect the stimulus checks will have on the dollar going forward. You'll discover how you need to position your business in order to thrive in the new economy.
Find out about Exchange Trader Funds
Understand more about gold investing
Get insights into the future of the dollar
Discover why Will Rhind left the world's largest gold trust to start Granite Shares
Find out more about Will Rhind & ETFs at: https://graniteshares.com/
The State of The Economy: Where Are We Headed? Part 2 0
Continuing on from last week's episode, Jack Bosch discusses the state of the economy in the wake of the Corona Virus pandemic. In this episode, we take a look at previous economic recessions including post World War Germany to see if we can get insights into how we should approach our finances going forward. Thankfully, there are asset classes that hold value no matter what, so if you are unsure about where to put your money going forward this episode is here to guide you.
Discover insights from previous recessions
Understand how to invest your money going forward
Find out how you can secure your financial future amidst an uncertain economic climate
Register for a FREE Land Profit Generator Masterclass at: http://www.landprofitmaster.com
2020 has been an insane year for the global economy and many people are unsure how to position themselves going forward to ensure that they not only survive this but thrive in the years to come. In the first of a two-part series; Jack Bosch discusses the current state of the economy, including how spending & saving habits have changed - taking into consideration lessons learned from the 2008 global recession. You'll discover where we are headed as a country as well as getting a snapshot of the current state of the finances of our citizens.
Understand more about the economy
Find out the lessons learned from the 2008 global recession
Discover insights into people's spending habits
Making $21 000 In A Land Flipping Deal! - Featuring J Berkenkamp 0
J Berkenkamp is a relatively new land investor and has already made incredible profits using the Land Profit Generator system! In this episode, Jack Bosch goes step-by-step through a deal that netted this investor a tidy $21 000 in profit. You'll see how following the process and being consistent will allow you to emulate successful land investors in order to create financial independence of your own.
Discover the mechanics of a land flipping deal
Find out why trusting the system is so important
Understand how you can emulate this deal
Using Creative Flipping Deals To Generate Amazing Profits - Featuring Jantzen Young 0
Jantzen Young operates a land flipping business with her husband Steven (who we interviewed a few weeks ago) and whereas Steven is in charge of the numbers, Jantzen is in charge of the vision. In this episode, Jack Bosch chats to Jantzen about her career and why land flipping has become her main vehicle for attaining financial freedom.
As a Land Profit Generator coach, Jantzen has incredible insights into the mindset shifts you can make in order to increase your profits while doing fewer deals (bigger isn't better, better is better!). Land Flipping has been an amazing force for good in Jantzen's life and she wants to empower more people to take the step and attain their own financial independence.
Discover why Jantzen Young become a land flipper
Find out the mindset shifts you should make to level up your business
Get incredible insights from a land flipping coach
4 Ways You Can Sell Your Properties Without Any Of Your Own Money - Part 2 0
In this episode, we're picking up where we left off last week and discussing two more strategies you can employ in order to finance land deals without having to use any of your own money!
Jack Bosch discusses transactional funding - a type of hyper short-term loan that you can get which allows you purchase the property and repay the loan in a way that is risk-free to the lender.
You'll also find out about how you can work with a money partner - i.e. someone who comes on board to finance a deal in exchange for doing little to no work on the administrative side.
The amazing thing about land flipping is how you can get started without needing to raise a ton of capital - so, there really aren't any excuses for why you shouldn't start your journey to financial freedom today.
Understand the mechanics of transactional funding
Discover how to work with a money partner
Understand why land flipping allows you to get started without capital
Real estate can be an incredibly intimidating field to get into, especially when you consider all the potential costs involved. Luckily for you, land flipping offers you many alternate paths to financing your deals without having to use any of your own!
In the first of this two part series, Jack Bosch discusses how to do a "Double Close" (where you basically become the middleman between buyer & seller and take home profit) as well as how to use an assignment (where you pass on your contract to someone else for a fee). As you can see, there is no excuse not to start your journey to financial freedom!
How To Use Analytics & Get Bigger Deals Done In Land Flipping - Featuring Steven Young 0
Steven Young is a Land Profit Generator Coach who has been able to quit his day job from the money he's made in land flipping. You'll discover how Steven has been able to put his analytical mind to work by optimizing his deals in order to achieve maximum profits using a number of tools - especially the Investment Dominator! In this episode, Jack Bosch chats to Steven about his journey to get to this point and the lessons he's learned along the way that have enabled him to be able to teach land flipping to a new generation of students. Steven has amazing insights into how to approach new deals as well as how you can ensure that you're wasting as little time as possible in your deal flow.
Learn about Steven Young's investment journey
Discover how to use analytics to your advantage
Find out why the Investment Dominator is the best tool to increase your land flipping profits
Understand why coaching will take you to the next level
Register for a free 5 day Land Profit Generator Lab at: http://lpglab.com/
Find out about Steven Young's Land business: https://www.facebook.com/ThePlotSquad/
Email Steven Young at: info@theplotsquad.com
Thriving During Recessions With Multi Family Real Estate - Featuring Paul Moore 0
After graduating with an engineering degree and then an MBA from Ohio State, Paul Moore entered the management development track at Ford Motor Company in Detroit. After five years, he departed to start a staffing company with a partner. Along the way, Paul was Finalist for Ernst & Young's Michigan Entrepreneur of the Year two years straight (1996 & 1997). They scaled and sold the company to a publicly traded firm five years later. After a brief "retirement", Paul began investing in real estate in 2000 to protect and grow his own wealth. He completed over 85 real estate investments and exits, appeared on HGTV's House Hunters, rehabbed and managed dozens of rental properties, built a number of new homes, developed a subdivision, and started two successful online real estate marketing firms.
In this episode, Jack Bosch discusses Paul Moore's investment journey and the detrimental effect of "chasing shiny objects". You'll discover how Paul become a more sophisticated and calculated investor through some very difficult moments of growth in his career. You'll also discover how multi family real estate investing has allowed Paul - and many other investors - to be able to thrive during tough economic climates.
Learn about Paul Moore's investment journey
Discover why multi family real estate is well positioned during recessions
Find out why many people are opting to rent instead of buy
Understand why you should be careful of "shiny objects"
Find out about The Freedom Place: https://www.freedomplaceproject.com/
Get Paul Moore's book: The Perfect Investment – Create Enduring Wealth from the Historic Shift to Multifamily Housing
Listen to Paul's podcast: How to Lose Money
How To Sell Properties At Lightning Speed For Maximum Profit 0
In this episode, Jack Bosch breaks down his strategies for selling land faster and for more profit! Many real estate investors don't understand how to market a piece of land profit - it's not exactly the most flashy property after all. However, there are proven techniques that you can use in order to stand head and shoulders above the competition. If you've been struggling to get your land to sell, this episode will put you on the right path towards an incredible amount of profit.
Discover how to market your land
Find out why many real estate investors fail at selling land
Learn how Jack Bosch markets his land
Understand how to apply AIDA principles when creating listings
Growing A Massive Real Estate Portfolio - Featuring Lane Kawaoka 0
After 12 years as a Licensed Professional (PE) Civil/Industrial Engineer, Lane Kawaoka left the industry and began to focus 100% of his time on real estate investing. Now he is a multi-millionaire, with a huge portfolio of multi family residential properties to his name. In this episode, Jack Bosch chats to Lane about his journey from the daily grind of a career in engineering to true financial freedom through real estate. You'll also discover why many new multi family investors fail to see the returns they're expecting and how you can mitigate common issues that arise.
Discover how Lane Kawaoka left his career to pursue real estate
Understand the mechanics of a multi family real estate deal
Learn the common mistakes new investors make
Find out why multi family is a lot more complicated than you might expect
Find out more about Lane Kawaoka at https://simplepassivecashflow.com
Contact Lane at lane@simplepassivecashflow.com
How To Generate Cash & Cash Flow In Real Estate Without Houses 0
We're going back to basics in this week's episode! Land flipping is the real estate investing technique that Jack Bosch and his wife Michelle used to generate wealth and become financially free. In this episode, Jack Bosch dives into his history with this technique and explains exactly how and why it works. If you've never heard of it before or if you've been on the fence about getting started with this amazing, little-known niche - then strap in and discover a simpler way of investing in real estate without all the difficulties that come with houses.
Discover what land flipping is
Find out how to become financially free with land
Understand why land is simpler than houses
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1. Spending time in my studio makes me happy.
2. I would like greater fulfillment for my husband, please.
3. Red wine, fresh baked cookies, last night's salmon…all these things taste SO good!
4. Monday is my favorite day of the week because after the antics of the weekend, I get to enjoy a quiet house.
5. I'm unaware of my best feature. I've been complimented on my bits and bobs before, of course, but I only think I make sense as a whole.
6. We could learn so much from listening to someone else's story.
7. And as for the weekend, today I'm looking forward to playing hooky with my husband (we're both off work today), tomorrow my plans include finishing up our new pantry (for real this time) and filling it up for the first time and Sunday, I want to post some new content and photos to my blog!


Description     : Path utilities for Python.
Pattern matching and various utilities for file systems paths. Written in Python.
Next by Date: Bug#735483: ITP: python-argh -- An unobtrusive argparse wrapper with natural syntax.
Next by thread: Bug#735483: ITP: python-argh -- An unobtrusive argparse wrapper with natural syntax.


Cool news, Ez Sez Readers... my Hemp For The Homeless project was recently written up on Yahoo.ca by Yahoo's Tim Carlson.
The article is part of a series of articles on what different people do when they win money. In my case, I'd won $500 and decided to create a project called Hemp For The Homeless. This led to a several more strokes of luck and good fortune involving Ralph Bronner of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, Rumi Restaurant, Homeless Nation, the Montreal Native Women's Shelter and my wonderful wife Alexandra.
The whole adventure, unbelievable but true, was covered first by CBC radio (listen) and now appears on Yahoo.ca.
Here's more about Hemp For The Homeless as it appeared earlier on Ez Sez.


Model Townhome (5407 Irons Way) Open every Tuesday from 1-2:30pm! Prime north Ames lot location in the new Irons development at the Ames Golf & Country Club. Residents of the Irons receive a free social membership, which includes use of the tennis courts and pool! Golf course living! Bring your own builder for lots 1-8. Home construction to start May 2017. HOA covers: trash pick up, snow removal on the street, development entrance upkeep.


My work in progress, an entertaining and provocative look at genre fiction, from Beowulf to The Time Machine to Harry Potter, how it evolves, and how it changes the world, often in profound and unexpected ways.
The American Library Association's annual Banned Books Week (September 24, 2011 through October 1, 2011) has passed, but deserves extended attention. Support freedom of expression by reading a banned book or two! To learn more, click on banned books.
Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien.
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Animal Farm, by George Orwell.
For Whom the Bell Tolls, by Ernest Hemingway.
Feel free to add your suggestions.


New posters for Ryan Reynolds flick shows Kilowog and more in action.
New posters for the June-released Green Lantern movie have appeared on The Daily Blam, showing the alien members of the Green Lantern Corps in action. Kilowog, Tomar-Re and Norchavius are among the heroes depicted in the images, alongside Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan (looking slightly more like Kyle Rayner in the second picture). You can see the rest of the posters over at The Daily Blam. So, what do you think? Is the intergalactic superhero too risky for mainstream audiences, or will moviegoers take to the Lantern mythology?


text:
Q: How to run a set of commands on Konsole How do i create a file/program that automatically opens my Konsole on startup and runs a set of commands all by itself? The OS i am using is Plasma Linux.

A: If you want to start normal Konsole window on startup, rather then create a file you should have use startup service (Autostart in plasma). Assuming you're running KDE, navigate to:
System Settings -> Startup & Shutdown -> Autostart -> Add Program..

Add following to field:
konsole -e --noclose command

Replace command with your desired command.

A: If you want to execute commands on startup enable the rc.local file by typing
sudo systemctl enable rc-local.service

After that add every command you want to the following file
and they will be executed at startup
nano /etc/rc.local

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


B'darra Estate was nestled in the warm flats of Moorooduc on the Mornington Peninsula. A 10 minute drive from Frankston and Mornington and an hour south of Melbourne.
The winery opened in June 2006 and offered a variety of wines including sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, pinot noir, shiraz, cabernet sauvignon and the unique dessert wine made from raspberries - RASperry. Also on offer were new styles of unoaked chardonnay and unoaked cabernet sauvignon.


text:
import {PolymerElement, html} from "@polymer/polymer"
import template from "./app-markdown-editor.html"

import PackageInterface from "../../interfaces/PackageInterface";
import "../../utils/app-markdown"

export default class AppMarkdownEditor extends Mixin(PolymerElement)
  .with(EventInterface, PackageInterface) {

  static get template() {
    return html([template]);
  }

  static get properties() {
    return {
      selected : {
        type : String,
        value : 'input',
        observer : '_onSelectedChange'
      },
      previewMode : {
        type : Boolean,
        value : false
      },
      label : {
        type : String,
        value : ''
      },
      pkgName : {
        type : String,
        value : ''
      }
    }
  }

  get value() {
    return this.$.input.value;
  }

  set value(value) {
    this.$.input.value = value;
    this.autoSize();
    if( this.previewMode ) this._updatePreview();
  }

  _triggerChangeEvent() {
    this.dispatchEvent(new CustomEvent('markdown-change', {detail: this.value}));
  }

  /**
   * Called by observer
   */
  _onSelectedChange() {
    if( this.selected === 'input' ) {
      this.previewMode = false;
    } else {
      this.previewMode = true;
    }
  }

  /**
   * @method _toggle
   * @description bound to paper-button click event
   */
  _toggle(e) {
    if( e.currentTarget.getAttribute('data') === 'edit' ) {
      this.selected = 'input';
      this.autoSize();
    } else {
      let height = this.$.input.offsetHeight;
      this.selected = 'preview';
      this._updatePreview(height);
    }
  }

  /**
   * @method _updatePreview
   * @description update markdown preview
   *
   * @param {Number} height optional
   */
  async _updatePreview(height) {
    this.$.preview.render(this.value, height);
  }

  /**
   * @method _onTextAreaKeyUp
   * @description bound to textarea keyup events
   */
  _onTextAreaKeyUp() {
    this.autoSize();
  }

  /**
   * @method autoSize
   * @description ensure the input textarea has no scroll bar.  ie
   * is same height as text
   */
  autoSize() {
    setTimeout(() => {
      this.$.input.style.height = (this.$.input.scrollHeight) + 'px';
    }, 0);
    setTimeout(() => {
      this.$.input.style.height = (this.$.input.scrollHeight) + 'px';
    }, 100);
  }

}

customElements.define('app-markdown-editor', AppMarkdownEditor);

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub