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Conference preview: DuPage Valley
New DeKalb coach Sara Kooistra will have her welcome-to-the-big-leagues moment this spring.
Not only will Kooistra be making her head-coaching debut, she will be doing so at the helm of a team taking a steep step up in class by joining the DuPage Valley Conference.
"It's a little daunting," Kooistra said. "We obviously know what the competition is like out here, so we're excited, but we're prepared for competitive play."
There will be plenty of that in the DVC, where every team is good and no game is easy.
But before penciling in the Barbs for a basement finish, know this: Kooistra isn't a hayseed who walked in off the street; and her players aren't beginners.
Kooistra played on the Sycamore team that reached the Class AA state semifinals in 2009 and later enjoyed a college career that included one year at Northern Illinois and three more at St. Xavier.
The Barbs finished 10-10-2 in 2019, though they didn't play the kind of schedule the DVC schools are known for. But Kooistra, a former Kaneland assistant coach, is guardedly optimistic.
"I don't know a ton about the DVC," she said. "But we have a lot of quality kids coming back."
Chief among the returners are senior forward Olivia Olson, senior winger Amber Moore and junior defender/midfielder Bella De La Cruz. Senior goalkeeper Allison Youhanan also returns, although she might see more time in the field this season.
Kooistra is still in the process of getting to know her players. She said there is a fine line between preparing them for the increased level of play while still maintaining their confidence.
"I feel like it's, we don't want to scare them," Kooistra said. "We're coming into this new conference with really great teams and most of them compete at the state level every year.
"But we also want them to be well aware of the level that they need to compete at to play against these teams and win."
The list of DeKalb's new league foes is formidable. There is defending state champion Naperville North, which didn't even win the DVC last year. The Huskies have won four state championships.
Waubonsie Valley, the reigning league champs, have won three state titles. Neuqua Valley has one title and finished second as recently as 2015, while Naperville Central has appeared in two state championship games, albeit before any of the current players were born.
Even the baby of the group, Metea Valley, which opened a decade ago, has won six-straight regional titles and seven in the past eight years. They advanced to four-straight sectional finals (2015-18), losing all of them to current DVC teams.
Naperville Central coach Ed Watson, the esteemed dean of DVC coaches, said the 2020 DVC race will be a true crapshoot. He's willing to venture a prediction but smart enough not to bet on it.
"I got to believe that Waubonsie is probably the favorite," Watson said. "They have the two best returning players.
"Any one of the teams in the conference is dangerous. DeKalb is a wild card, because we haven't seen DeKalb. But they have fit in very capably in all the other sports [including winning the DVC in boys basketball]. Any time you play in the DVC you better be ready to play."
Watson believes his team will be ready and might have the best offense it has had in years. The Redhawks haven't had an all-state attacking player since current Chicago Red Stars standout and U.S National Team member Casey Short graduated in 2008.
They still don't have that kind of star power but may have a trio of young forwards who can do some damage. Regardless of how they perform, the Redhawks will be solid again on defense, where they return Carnegie Mellon recruit Sarah Scoles, Leah Velker, Morgan McCracken, Sophie Skoubis and Sullivan Schubel.
Three-year varsity player Emma Irle, who joined Skoubis on the Chicagoland Soccer All-State Watch List after last season, also is back and plays on the perimeter at all three levels of the field.
In the midfield, St. Ambrose commit Sophie Granato joins Illinois State-bound senior Hannah Bradley-Leon, a Watch List member after her sophomore season, who is healthy after missing last season following knee surgery.
"The problem with Hannah when she was a sophomore was she was trying to play to teammates that weren't capable of doing what she needed them to do," Watson said. "And now I think that we're going to surround her with some girls that can play.
"I'm pretty excited about the group that we have. I like the talent that we have.
"We have a mixture of youth and experience. (The question) is how do we play together."
Naperville North coach Steve Goletz is asking the same question after graduating eight starters from a team that won only eight games against a grueling regular season schedule but got hot in the playoffs and rode a boatload of talent to a surprise state championship.
The Huskies do return their two leading scorers in Purdue-bound striker Hannah Martin and IUPUI recruit Leah Shumate, both Chicagoland Soccer All-State selections. Martin tallied 18 goals last season while Shumate developed into a top playmaker and deadly set piece specialist, finishing with eight goals and six assists.
But stalwart defender Emily Magee will sit out her senior season with a torn ACL, leaving a huge hole on the inexperienced backline. The only other returning players who have seen significant playing time are senior midfielder Paige Sylvester, a Benedictine commit, and junior forward Emily Dulik. Both made the Chicagoland Soccer All-State Watch List, as did sophomore midfielder Ellie Gerner
"This is a true tryout for me this year in terms of (there are) a lot of underclassmen that are going to have an opportunity this year," Goletz said. "I don't think that's always been the case at Naperville North because of how strong the program is.
"You're going to have your peaks and valleys in terms of old and young and I think this year is definitely going to be a more inexperienced group. But as always, we won't dodge anybody -- still got the schedule."
Indeed, the Huskies open the season March 16 by hosting Barrington, which is a rematch of last year's state title game that the Huskies won on penalty kicks after 100 scoreless minutes. On March 18 they visit another Mid-Suburban League power, Fremd.
Playing one of the toughest schedules in the state year-after-year, especially with a young team, often means the Huskies won't have the best record in the area, but Goletz likes the trade-off.
"I really feel that last year proved to me how our group grew from start to finish," Goletz said. "I really do think there's a lot of value in testing yourself against the best teams in the state. We do that every year.
"You run a fine line on that in terms of confidence. Kids want to see you win but I think the big thing is we hope that the kids trust us as a coaching staff in terms of the growth that we are able to make and the errors that are brought out by good teams. Sometimes those things are hidden if you're not playing against great competition."
Metea Valley was really young last year but still managed to win a regional title despite a weak offense. The Mustangs bring back nine starters, including Chicagoland Soccer All-State goalkeeper Nikki Coryell and standout defenders Paige Buranosky and Nicole Dawson. All are seniors.
The Valparaiso-bound Coryell is a fearless four-year starter who recorded an 0.86 goals-against average and nine shutouts last season, while Dawson is a Wisconsin-Whitewater recruit. Buranosky is a tough-nosed three-year starter who also earned Chicagoland Soccer all-state honors last season. She will not play in college, instead focusing on studying nursing.
"We gave up very few goals last year, but we also scored very few," Metea Valley coach Chris Whaley. "But as a coach you're excited when you return an all-state goalkeeper and two senior defenders and potentially nine starters.
"We'll be good defensively but we won't have to necessarily focus as much on it. We can push numbers forward a little bit more, take a few more risks."
Who will take those risks?
Sydney Rohm, the only other returning senior, will be one of them. Sophomores Jocelyn Grabow and Ella Johnson will take larger roles after starting last year.
"We had a solid freshmen group last year and good sophomores," Whaley said. "I'm hoping they've done some good stuff over the club season and are in a good spot to contribute."
Despite averaging just 1.1 goals per game, the Mustangs continued their tradition of pulling playoff upsets when they knocked off higher-seeded Lockport in the regional final, then played eventual state champion Naperville North tough in a 1-0 sectional semifinal loss.
"I love the culture of our program," Whaley said. "I would say that the girls expect to win regionals and trophies and compete at the highest level. It doesn't really matter what seed they are or what our record is, they've got good fight to them."
So does Neuqua Valley, which also could be primed for a bounce-back season after struggling offensively a year ago. Like Metea, the Wildcats are strong defensively, returning Indiana State-bound junior goalkeeper Tara Tesmond and a bunch of great fullbacks led by Ball State recruit Paige Munar and Brooke Miller, one of the top sophomores in the state and a member of the Chicagoland Soccer All-State Watch List. Outside back Megan Olah also returns.
"The backline will be strong," Neuqua Valley coach Joe Moreau said. "Miller is a great athlete. She can play pretty much anywhere, but I don't see her playing up-top.
"The question for us is can we score goals?"
That remains to be seen, but Moreau is optimistic that several freshmen forwards could make their mark along with returning senior Julia Rushing. If so, the Wildcats have a pair of great playmakers to get the ball in senior Piper Biziorek, a North Carolina-Charlotte commit who has been impressive on the wing but can also play center mid, and junior Katelyn Nardulli, who has committed to Xavier. Biziorek is on the Chicagoland Soccer All-State Watch List.
Waubonsie Valley had its most successful season since 2014 a year ago, going 17-3-2 and winning their first DVC title before making a run to the sectional final, where they were stopped by Naperville North.
Waubonsie returns two terrific attacking players in senior striker Megan Burling, who earned All-American honors in her first year of high school soccer after scoring 27 goals and recording eight assists. The UC-Santa Barbara recruit forms a deadly duo with senior midfielder Grace Setter, a UIC signee who recorded 19 goals and 12 assists last spring. Both were named to the Chicagoland Soccer All-State team.
All-conference center back Mollie Vitek and starting goalkeeper Nicole Kleronomos also return from a relatively young roster.
As for who will win the DuPage Valley Conference title this season, Moreau said it's a toss-up. Whaley agreed.
"That's a good question," Whaley said. "I have no idea.
"Everybody seems to be returning some talent, and we were all competitive last year."
Let the competition begin.


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Blind Date is risky and rewarding
by Colin Thomas on September 19th, 2012 at 3:24 PM
Created by Rebecca Northan. Produced by Kevin McCollum in association with LAMS Productions and presented by the Cultch in the Cultch's Historic Theatre on Tuesday, September 18. Continues until October 7
It's a good thing I had a seat at the end of a row; that way, when I just couldn't laugh loud enough, I also got to stamp my feet in the aisle. Blind Date is hilarious. It's also one of the riskiest and most generous shows I've seen.
Improv genius Rebecca Northan plays Mimi, a red-nosed French clown and, every night, she picks a different guy from the audience. Then, for 90 minutes, they improvise a date for us. Yes, this is like jumping out of an airplane. Fortunately, there's a parachute: the evening has a loose structure. Mimi and her date chat in a café before driving to her apartment where they figure out how to handle the awkwardness of being alone together. Then the audience gets to choose whether the date will continue or the relationship will jump forward five years.
With her limpid brown eyes and tight red dress, Northan's Mimi is gorgeous. Like a good therapist, she is also hugely supportive—and frank. On opening night, Mimi picked a handsome young guy named Mark from the audience. As Mark moved in for a kiss, he twisted his neck around weirdly and Mimi had lots of fun with that. But she wasn't mean; her goal was clearly just to get her date to be more relaxed and present. When she dragged Mark over to the time-out area she had established and asked him what was up with the "slow-motion train wreck" of a neck move, he replied, "Stage fright." And that was the nub. There's a lot of stage fright in dating and in life in general; the point is to embrace it and keep going. In the moving conclusion of the show, Mimi praised Mark for being the hero he clearly is.
Not everything works at the same superlative level. There are a couple of scenes that involve other characters; on opening night, they were played by Bruce Horak and Jamie Northan. To me, these bits felt more predetermined and more about the new characters than the guy who was dating Mimi. I understand the need to change things up; I just wish the change-ups were more spacious.
Still, Blind Date is never less than entertaining. And who knows how things go with other dates on other nights? I, for one, plan to find out. I'll be going back.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I Was Hurt By A Coworker, What Are My Options?
You have legal options if you have been injured by a coworker. You can sometimes assert a claim for workers' compensation, but you may be able to submit a personal injury claim as well. The facts of your particular situation will determine which type of case you should assert.
After you have been hurt by a coworker, you should speak to a lawyer to assist in determining what you should do from a legal standpoint. You should act quickly as there may be notice or claim limitations that you should consider.
What Type of Claim Should I Assert?
Generally, if your coworker has harmed you in the course of your employment, your claim is likely going to be addressed through workers' compensation. This is because your employer is responsible for the actions of its employees, including when they harm one another while carrying out work activities.
If, however, your coworker hurt you intentionally or was not carrying out some business for your employer, then your employer likely will not be responsible. This means that workers' compensation probably will not apply. Instead, you can assert a personal injury claim against your coworker individually. In some circumstances, you may also be able to involve your employer as well.
Non-work injuries may have occurred during a lunch break or while the employees were engaging in horseplay. Fights or altercations can also cause non-work related injuries between coworkers.
What Should I Do if the Injury Was Work-Related?
An injury is work-related if it arose out of and in the course of your employment. Generally, if you and your coworker were engaging in an activity that benefits your employer, the accident will likely be considered work related.
If your accident is work related, then workers' compensation will likely apply to your situation. You should let your employer know about your injuries and the details of the accident as soon as possible after the incident. If you need medical attention, be sure to get the care you need immediately. You can let your employer know about the accident after you have been taken to get emergency care if necessary.
Be sure to also document your injuries and the facts of the incident. Knowing exactly what happened may help your workers' compensation case. Write down what happened while all of the details are fresh in your mind in case you need this information later. You should also be sure to fill out a work accident report or ensure that your employer makes this report for you.
There will likely be someone from human resources or a similar department to get your statement about the injuries. Your employer's workers' compensation carrier will also likely want to get your statement. You should talk to an attorney before speaking with the insurance company, however.
What if the Injury Is Not Work-Related?
You can still likely sue your coworker directly for your injuries, even if the claim is not work related. You must either show that the act was intentional and that the harm was intentional or that the coworker was negligent or careless, and that carelessness caused the injuries.


Fontanafredda, one of Italy's most prominent and historic Barolo producers, is pleased to announce the launch of the second annual Barolo Week in October 2017 after a highly successful first edition in 2016. Barolo Week is a global celebration of the iconic wine of the Piedmont region of Italy and aims to introduce a new generation of Americans to these internationally renowned wines. Its series of activities is aimed at making Barolo less intimidating to younger wine enthusiasts who are interested in beginning to understand the world of fine wine.
The lineup includes a by-the-glass program and Barolo tastings for trade, press, and public at the four locations of Eataly, the quintessential Italian culinary marketplace, in Chicago, Boston, and the two stores located in New York. In addition, Palm Bay International, Fontanafredda's US importer, will hold a series of exclusive trade lunches and winemaker dinners featuring Fontanafredda's most prestigious Barolo labels at locations such as Del Posto and Kingsley in New York, and other top restaurants around the country.
The main events open to the public will be Wine Wednesdays on October 18 and 25 and Barolo Happy Hour from October 16-27 at Eataly Chicago, Boston, and NYC Flatiron. The Wine Wednesdays will give consumers a chance to taste Barolo Serralunga, a Fontanafredda cru wine, poured from a large format 3-liter bottle. During Barolo Happy Hour, glasses of a selection of Fontanafredda wines will be offered at $8-10 from 5-7 pm. Wine lovers will be able to taste classic Barolo as well as Contessa Rosa Rosé, a sparkling rosé containing a splash of Fontanafredda's 1967 Barolo that was recently named a Wine Enthusiast Editor's Choice, and a cocktail made with spiced Barolo Chinato, a traditional, rare, aromatized wine.
In addition to events open to the public, there will be a series of Masterclass seminars reserved for trade and press in each city, as well as exclusive winemaker dinners in cities throughout the US during the fall held in conjunction with Palm Bay. The Masterclasses will focus not only on Barolo, but on all of Fontanafredda's Nebbiolo varietal wines. Of special note at these classes will be Fontanafredda's newest Barolo "Proprietà in Fontanafredda" 2013, made from the Fontanafredda cru in Serralunga d'Alba that lies entirely within estate property. An additional seminar will be held at Eataly NYC Flatiron in collaboration with Nomacorc, one of the largest brands of alternative wine closures. During the "Taste the Difference" seminar, conducted by Sheri Morano, Master of Wine, the same wine will be tasted from three bottles with three different Nomacorc closures, allowing participants to explore the crucial role that bottle closure has in oxygen management.
Fontanafredda Barolo will also be a highlight of the 8th edition of the Italian food convention Identità Golose, where the winery will present a delicious preview of Barolo Week[s] during the convention's Italian-themed activities from October 10 to 12. As the event's main sponsor, Fontanafredda wines will be poured at all events and classes. In addition, on October 11 from 10am-1pm, Fontanafredda will be among a number of prestigious Italian producers exhibiting their products at the Foodiversità area of Eataly NYC Downtown and will pour Barolo Serralunga 2013 from a double magnum; and trade and public can taste four of Fontanafredda's most iconic Barolos on October 12 from 6-7:30pm paired with traditional Piedmontese antipasto dishes. Attendees will get a taste of the Langhe territory in Piedmont where Barolo is made, a mini-voyage told through one of the region's most renowned wine producers.


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Category: Citi Field
No Sleep Till Brooklyn & Queens (5/24/2014)
May 24, 2014 was a fun day that I had been looking forward to for a while for both baseball and non-baseball reasons. On the baseball front, we were going to see the Mets host the Diamondbacks. I bought the tickets in April when our buddy and former Mariner Ryan Rowland-Smith was in the Diamondbacks pen. But before this series arrived, Ryan was designate for assignment and was pitching in AAA in Buffalo, NY when this weekend rolled around.
That was a bummer. And it made me not really want to go to this game…I would have preferred another game at a different park.
But…the non-baseball reason still had me excited to go to NYC.
The game was scheduled for a 4:10 start. But we packed up the car…
…and were on the road…
…to NYC by 7:30 a.m.
Did you catch those two clues? You see, my boys, baseball and the Mariners…
…aren't my only interests. I've always been very much "into" music. And from the fifth grade and the release of the classic album "Licensed to Ill," I have been a big fan of the Beastie Boys.
Truth be told, I was a much bigger Beasties fan when I was younger (I prefer harder music these days and am not really into rap anymore). But from fifth grade through college, I listened to the Beastie Boys a ton. In fact, during my sophomore year in college, I hosted an hour long radio show each Monday night called "Beastie Revolution" that featured all Beasties all the time.
Now, you see, Adam "MCA" Yauch of the Beastie Boys died of cancer in 2012. In May 2013, a park in Brooklyn was renamed for him ("Adam Yauch Park"). Since then, I have wanted to visit Adam Yauch Park. And since this past offseason, I have had a very specific idea for our eventual visit to Adam Yauch Park: to remake the cover of the Beastie Boys' classic album, "Check Your Head."
So that was the major plan for the morning.
But I decided to make Beasties morning of it. So, on the way to Brooklyn, we had to stop by the corner of Rivington & Ludlow in downtown Manhattan (not Brooklyn) to visit the site of Paul's Boutique:
The Paul's Boutique building looks nothing like it used to on the cover of the Beasties' sophomore album (pictured above to the right). However, if you open up the album cover and unfold the panorama, the intersection is still recognizable due to a few unique features – such as the building diagonal across the intersection and the "Talmud Torah" arched sign above the building two down from Paul's Boutique.
I did my best to recreate the panorama of the intersection. Here you go:
By the way, I should mention, as we first approached the intersection, I pulled out my Paul's Boutique CD and held up the booklet inside trying to see if I could match it to the corner. Right then, a random guy walked past us and stopped for a beat, pointed at Paul's Boutique, and said, "It was right there on that corner," and then he just kept walking. I thought that was pretty cool.
This was a quick stop. We had bigger plans for the morning.
We hopped back in our car, turned off "Check Your Head," turned on "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" and headed toward the Brooklyn Bridge.
Now, this might seem odd (or maybe not), but this was the first time I'd ever driven over the Brooklyn Bridge. Every other time I've been to Brooklyn, I've taken a subway there. Also, this might have been Tim's (and definitely Kellan's ) first trip to Brooklyn. Anyway, I found the Brooklyn Bridge to be pretty cool. Great view out toward the Statue of Liberty and it has a cool walkers section in the middle. I recommend it!
It was a pretty quick drive from "Paul's Boutique" to Adam Yauch Park:
The park is a in great city neighborhood that reminded me a lot of parts of Center City Philadelphia, where I lived during law school.
The park was tiny, jammed into the space between the neighborhood and a freeway on ramp, and (most importantly) really nice. Here's what it looks like:
The boys played there for a while, but before playing, we got down to business.
Here is the "Check Your Head" album cover:
My original plan was to simply remake it in the same format with each of us playing the park of a different Beastie Boy, but with the "Adam Yauch Park" sign in the background. But, after a lot of internal debate, I decided to cut myself from the picture, and remake the album cover with Tim, Kellan and Adam Yauch.
I brought props. It took some coaching (especially with Kellan) to get the poses right (or as right as Kellan could do for playing the part of a 20-something year old guy).
So here was the initial effort (what I could do "on the street" with no computer work):
I gotta tell you: I loved it. It came out so great I thought maybe I was just done there…leave it at that with the Adam Yauch Park sign hanging above an empty spot where Adam Yauch (or someone playing his role) should have been sitting. Of course, I kept a version of the photo that way so I will always have it. And I still love it just like I took it on the street.
But, when we got home that night (and into the next day), I couldn't help tinkering and trying out my original plan. So, here is the same photo with "MCA" added in:
Again, I completely loved it! (And still do). I couldn't get Adam to sit quite right on the curb and still mesh right with Tim – probably because he's a grown man who was originally sitting next to two other grown men, not 8 and 3 year old boys – but, hey, I forgive myself. I'm not a professional photo editor or anything. The only problem is that his bass guitar case is resting on the curb instead of sitting flat on the street like in the original. But I'm okay with that.
Finally, several days later, I completed my original concept, which due to size constraints, couldn't include the "Adam Yauch Park" sign:
Not too shabby, eh?
I gotta say, after visiting Adam Yauch Park, where my boys had a ton of fun climbing around on the play toys and taking that original black-and-white photo of just my boys and the park sign, my day was pretty much made. But, as an added bonus, we still had a baseball game to go to!
We didn't have time to drive to the upper west side to park and then take the train like we usually do. Instead, we drove straight from Adam Yauch Park to Citi Field. As a bonus, we got to experience two views that we'd never seen before.
First, a cool view of lower Manhattan from Brooklyn:
Second, we drove for 2.4 miles under the 7 train…
…, which was pretty interesting. I've really never driven around neighborhoods in Queens. Lots of interesting things to see out there!
We reached the ballpark in plenty of time, which was good we had to go to the Mets fan assistance office to get our tickets printed.
While we were in line at the gates, Kellan practiced his pitching to Tim:
Once we got into the ballpark, we headed down the RF line and then quickly made our way toward section 142 in CF.
When we got down to the front row corner spot, there was already a baseball sitting in the huge gap between the seats and the shortened outfield wall. The Mets were hitting and a few Diamondbacks pitchers were milling about. Fairly soon after we arrived in CF, an groundskeeper came to grab the ball in the gap and he decided to toss it up to Kellan.
Just before the groundskeeper tossed the ball, Brad Ziegler (who was walking from LF to the bullpens) popped through the door in the OF fence and tossed us a ball. Tim was standing right next to me on the right (sort of behind me as I faced Ziegler). When I caught the ball from Ziegler, the groundskeeper refocused his gaze from Kellan to Tim, and Tim made the easy catch on that ball.
Thanks, Brad, and thanks, groundskeeper!
About 20-30 second after we got the balls from Ziegler and the groundskeeper, Josh Edgin…
…(who is the guy on the left) turned around, shouted to get our attention, and tossed us a third baseball, even though Tim and Kellan were both visibly holding balls at the time. Luckily, the second was basically empty other than us at the time.
Thanks, Josh!
At the very end of Mets BP (and, as it would turn out, BP in general), Bartolo Colon caught a pop fly. Tim called out to Bartolo, but Bartolo first ignore Tim, who did not include "please" in his request. Then, when Tim called out, "Bartolo, could you please toss me that ball?", Colon turned around and fired a strike to Tim's waiting glove:
Gracias, Bartolo! (Or, as Tim later called him, "Barlesto").
Once the Mets cleared the field, the groundscrew ran out and started taking down the nets, but they left the batting cage in place. As a groundscrew guy wheeled a screen out to the gap in CF, I asked him if the Diamondbacks were not taking BP (which, obviously, seemed to be the case, but why were they leaving the batting cage in place?). He confirmed that BP was finished. So, with a few Diamondbacks starting to appear down the LF line, we decided to relocate to the second just past third base:
It turns out that the Diamondbacks decided to take a full "infield/outfield," like back in the good old days. It was cool to watch.
Both Martin Prado and Eric Chavez were playing 3B at first. Eventually, a ball trickled by them and came to a rest on the grass behind 3B. A little while later, Chavez headed to the dugout while Prado stayed put at 3B.
I called out to Chavez after his first step toward the dugout, and I pointed toward the ball in the grass behind 3B and then at Tim. That's all it took:
Thanks, Eric!
Soon, another back squibbed by Prado, not more than 5-10 feet behind him. It stayed on the infield dirt and Prado just ignored it.
After the outfielders took fly balls from home plate, they call congregated in CF and Dave McKay fungo'd them a bunch more pop flies and they worked on their throws in to a cutoff man. Gerardo Parra was one of the outfielders taking fly balls from McKay.
When Parra headed toward the dugout, he ran right behind 3B. Prado and that stray ball were still there. I called out to Parra – just like with Chavez – and pointed to Tim. Again, that was all it took. Parra retrieved the ball and tossed it to Tim:
This ball, however, was a little bit more interesting. See Cody Ross (the next player heading toward the dugout behind Parra). He's watching the ball fly toward Tim's waiting glove. Well, the ball sailed a little to the right and sunk a bit. Eventually, Tim caught the ball (literally, not exaggeration at all) 1-2 inches in front of Kellan's face. Had Tim not reached out for the ball, it would have smashed Kellan right in the nose.
Cody Ross got all nervous and jumped a bit as the throw played out. He might have even yelled a bit. They he yelled at Parra "you almost hit that kid in the face!" But Parra was on his way out, he didn't even realize what Ross was talking about. Luckily, Tim's got a good glove!
Thanks, Gerardo & Tim! (And thanks to Cody Ross for the concern).
So, all this while, there was another kid, probably 10-12 years old, a few steps to Tim's left. He was just standing there quietly. I could tell he wanted a ball. I'm not big on giving away baseballs, because I like the personal connection we get with the player who tosses them, plus we're trying to build a wall of baseballs that needs a bunch more baseballs before we can build it. But I do like to help other kids get their own baseballs. Eventually, it seemed like Dave McKay was the only option left on the field. He was still hitting fungos and he had a big bag of baseballs. I told the kid that his name was "Dave" and that he should ask him for a ball by name when he walked into the dugout.
But the kid was too shy. Standing next to him, I could hardly hear him call to Dave. So I shouted, "Hey, Dave!!" and I pointed to the kid still standing five feet to Tim's left. McKay gave us a nod sort of like he was saying, "No problem, but hold on just a sec."
I told the kid and his dad that I thought McKay was going to toss him a ball so he should keep watching him. McKay walked down into the 3B dugout, set down the bag of balls, and then reached in and pulled three balls out. He tossed the first one high to us. As it sailed our way, I called out to Tim, "Let him catch it! Let him catch it!" But Tim reached up and made the easy grab. Oops…
I told Tim to hand the ball to the kid. McKay then fired the other two balls directly to me one-after-the-other. We all thanked McKay and then the kid and his dad thanked us. I wished the kid could have caught the ball on his own, but oh well. Nothing I can do about it now.
Thanks, Dave!
That was it for pre-game. The Diamondbacks cleared the field and we (along with Zack Hample and Rick Gold) headed back out to the CF seats where all the "boys" posed for this picture:
And then Kellan ate a ton of "pirates" (that's our nickname for a snack Tim and Kellan both enjoy) and he made a mess that amused Zack greatly:
When Kellan was all done eating, he took some picts, including this one of Zack:
We all hung out in CF while the groundscrew readied the field for the game. Check this out:
They are sweeping the grass to make the "NY" logo stand out better.
Just before game time, we grabbed some hot dogs and headed out to the picnic tables behind the bullpens (under Shea Bridge)…
…, which is one of our favorite spots at Citi Field.
After the Mets had taken the field but before first pitch, the Mets sound people blared some Beastie Boys (Sabotage) throughout Citi Field, which seemed like a fitting way to start the game on this day.
And here was the first pitch:
Like at our other game at Citi Field earlier this season, we spent a lot of time at this game in this picnic area. A lot of that time, we were playing catch (including Tim pitching to me):
Some of that time, we were posing for pictures, like this one:
And some of that time, Kellan was playing hand-baseball:
In the third inning, with the Diamondbacks already up 3-0, we decided to head out to CF to play some kids' games. On our way, we got a panorama from the back of section 141…
…and a picture of the boys in the same spot:
Unfortunately, right after we left the picnic area below Shea Bridge, Curtis Granderson hit a ground rule double into the Diamondbacks' bullpen. It would have rolled all the way to the back of the bullpen…right to where we had been hanging out moments earlier. Poor timing, I guess.
By the way, that groundrule double made the score 3-1 Diamondsbacks.
The boys had a lot of fun at the kids' whiffle field:
Both fielding balls…
…and hitting them. Kellan hit several line drives off of the LF fence and Tim hit a couple balls over the wall in LF and CF.
After numerous rounds of hitting in the whiffle field, we got some ice cream and headed back to the bullpen picnic area:
David Wright hit a homerun in the fifth inning to bring the score to 3-2 Diamondbacks. That's where the score remained into the ninth inning when we headed over toward the umpires' tunnel.
Addison Reed came in and shut down the Mets in the bottom of the ninth, including former Phillies all-star Bobby Abreu…
…who lined out to short stop (I thought it was going to get in for a hit).
So, in the end, the Diamondbacks won 3-2.
After the game, home plate umpire Jim Reynolds gave baseballs to several kids, including both Tim and Kellan.
Thanks, Blue!
And then we got a final picture (taken by Mr. Hample) before leaving the ballpark for the evening:
Check out how nice the Jackie Robinson Rotunda looked on our way out as the sun was low in the sky:
I'd never seen it look like that before. The low pre-setting sun suits the Rotunda well.
We ended up driving into Manhattan and walking around a whole bunch through Central Park. We played some eye spy and wanted to play some baseball, but the sun was down by this point and the fields were chained shut.
So, we headed back up to the upper west side where we parked (after the game) and grabbed some late dinner at Ray's on 82nd & Columbus:
A fine way to cap off an excellent day of Beastie Boys and baseball. The boys conked out quick in the car…a sure sign that it was a good day.
2014 Fan Stats
10 Teams (Blue Jays, Mets, Phillies, Marlins, Braves, Orioles, Royals, Pirates, Cardinals, Diamondbacks)
5 Stadiums (Stade Olympique, Citizens Bank Park, Citi Field, Camden Yards, PNC Park)
52 Baseballs (9 Mets, 2* Expos, 7 Phillies, 6 Marlins, 2 Mets, 3 Braves, 6 Umpires, 6 Orioles, 2 Royals, 4 Cardinals, 1 Pirates, 4 Diamondbacks)* Olympic Stadium Staff
6 Commemoratives (2013 WBC 1, Angels 50th 2, Dodger Stadium 50th 1, 2011 All-Star, 2012 All-Star, Orioles 60th Anniversary)
7 Ice Cream Helmets (Phillies, 2 Orioles, 2 Pirates, 2 Mets)
Written by Cook & Son Bats 6 Comments Posted in Citi Field
David Wright Ruins Our No-Hit Bid (4/18/2014)
Saturday, April 18, 2014 was a fun day for the Cook Boys. After an adventurous drive northeast (during which I filmed an Instant Classic Video of Kellan), the boys and I arrived in the Upper West Side of Manhattan around 3:00 p.m. We parked at 79th & Riverside, where we found this awesome fire hydrant…
…and then we set out on foot for Central Park. In case you didn't know, that building in the upper right (above) is the "Dakota" where John Lennon lived and was killed outside on the sidewalk.
Our plan was to get to Central Park with lots of time to spare so we could do some playing. But we drive took about 45 minutes longer than planned. We were going to meet up with Zack Hample at his family bookstore, which was across the park from us. So we just walked through the park, actually the boys ran through the park:
We met up with Zack, grabbed some food at a nearby deli, and hopped on the train:
Kellan got that banana at the deli and announced that he wanted to eat it once we got to our seats.
Once we reached Citi Field, we ran into a couple other guys…
… Greg Barasch and Rick Gold, who know their way around a MLB ballpark.
The boys passed the time while we waited on the gates by playing some catch along the 3B side of the stadium…
…and running around between the growing lines of fans:
Once the gates opened, we headed to the RF foul line:
And Kellan declared it to be banana time:
He destroyed that banana!
Nothing was doing on the RF foul line, so we decided to head to CF by the bullpens. Eventually, an unidentifiable Met tossed a ball to Tim:
Thanks, Mets guy!
We had the corner spot right next to the bullpen and it was relatively empty out there. But for some reason, we made the terrible decision to head over to the LF foul line where the Braves were playing catch. Left field was pretty packed. The LF line was packed too. And the Braves were essentially done throwing by the time we arrived.
We headed back to the CF bleachers, which were now fairly full in the first 4-5 rows. We hung back in row 10 or so. And Tim took a picture of me and Kellan, just for kicks:
At one point, Craig Kimbrel walked into the bullpen to use the restroom. He walked by below us and waved and said hi to the kids. So I snapped a picture of his glove when he put it down on a chair below us:
As we hung out during BP, the boys went through my backpack and cleaned out our snack arsenal.
Tim had to take a break from his snacking when an usher-type-guy down in the bullpens decided to toss a baseball up to Tim. It took three throws for the two of them to finally connect…but Tim finally go it.
Thanks, usher-type-guy!
We had a rush of action late in BP. Ervin Santana and tossed a lot of baseballs to people in the front row of the CF seats, but no one had ever gone deeper than the first row. And there were no homeruns hit into the CF seats.
Eventually, things changed thanks to these guys:
First, Alan Butts (above to the left) wandered out to straight away CF. I figured I was the only person out there who knew his name. So, at an opportune time, I shouted out, "Hey, Alan!" He turned around, scanned the seats for the source of the call, and then he tossed a ball right to us.
Then, very, very late in BP. Ervin Santana spotted Kellan sitting up on my shoulders. He tossed a ball high over everyone else right to me. I held back on reaching out for it just in case Tim could catch it. At the last minute, Tim jumped in front of me and caught the ball. It was a great catch by Tim.
Thanks, Ervin!
Ervin had to know that Tim was my son too, it was just the three of us together in the row. But right after Tim caught the ball, I could see him think that Kellan still needed a ball too. So he went and grabbed another ball, called out to me again, and tossed a ball right to my glove.
Thanks, again, Ervin!
Once BP wrapped up, we decided to head upstairs to the area above the Jackie Robinson Rotuna for some dinner. On our way up the switch-back ramps, Tim stopped to pose with the Citi Field on the backside of the stadium (behind LF):
We dined on hot dog (Tim), nachos (me) and a jumbo pretzel with ketchup (Kellan)…
…and the boys kept warm with hot chocolate.
On our long walk back down to the field level, we first stopped (somewhat) behind home plate and had an usher take our picture:
Moments before the game started, we got a random panorama from a bit further down the 3B line:
And here is the first pitch from Jon Neise…
…to Andrelton Simmons. "Ball 1."
Check out what was in the parking lot – cirque du soleil:
We headed to Shea Bridge…
…where it looked a lot like this:
The first inning ended with a 0-0 tie after David Wright…
…struck out swinging.
We spent huge portions of this game below Shea Bridge and behind the bullpens:
Check out what we found down there in the little hidden corner by the elevators:
For much of the game, Tim and I played catch across the length of the picnic area under Shea Bridge:
Late in the game, I saw on facebook that one of my wife's cousins was at the game in the LF upper deck. We headed over there to find him. We never did find him, but we got these panoramas from section 533….
…and section 531:
It was windy and freezing up there!
Hey, guess what. All this while, the Braves were winning 1-0 and Aaron Harang was pitching a no hitter!
If we were going to witness our first ever no hitter, I wanted to be closer to the action for the end of it. We started heading toward the infield. But then Kellan wanted to check out one of the little Mets team shops along the 1B foul concourse. We headed in to find that several Mets fans were taking refuge from the (not all that) cold and watching the game on TV:
Here's some random game action captured on our walk toward the 3B line:
It was the top of the 8th inning when we reached the 3B foul concourse, and Harang still had his no hitter intact. The Braves were still winning 1-0…
That is, they were winning 1-0, until Freddy Freeman went yard in the top of the eighth:
Historically, at least in my experience, the ushers at Citi Field have been insanely strict about checking tickets, even late (or after) the games. We headed over to the aisle leading down to the umpires' tunnel. During our ten minutes or so standing there, I noticed that the usher wasn't checking anyone's tickets. So, eventually, we made a move, and (with no problems) we ended up here:
When we ended up in these seats, we sat down right in the middle of a profanity laced (but good spirited) exchange between a bunch of Mets and Braves fans.
So, heading into the bottom of the eighth inning, the score was 5-0 Braves.
I was excited for Harang's potential no hitter. But check out this photo:
Because Harang had 121 pitches through the first seven innings, the Braves brought in Luis Avilan. We adjusted our hopes to at least getting to witness a combined no hitter.
Well, Avilan retired the first two batters of the inning. Four outs until a no hitter. But that brought up David Wright, and Avilan gave up a clean line drive base knock to LF to spoil our chance at history.
Booo!!!!!
(FYI, that is Wright on first base in the photo above as Avilan pitches to Curtis Granderson, who he would strike out).
For the ninth inning, we made our way down to the second row:
Check out these silly guys:
The Braves scored a sixth and final run in the top of the ninth inning when Justin Upton…
…hit a sacrifice fly.
Jordan Walden retired the Mets in order in the bottom of the ninth to complete the combined 1-hitter.
Boooo!
After the game, Tom Hallion tossed us our final ball of the day, which Tim displayed in this final photo of the night with Zack behind the dugout:
After the game, Zack, Greg, his dad, the boys and I rode the subway together back to Manhattan before splitting up in our own directions.
We had a great day packed with fun and…
…lots of walking. Sadly, I got in the car a mere 127 steps away from my first 20,000 step day. Darn.
5 Teams (Blue Jays, Mets, Phillies, Marlins, Braves)
3 Stadiums (Stade Olympique, Citizens Bank Park, Citi Field)
27 Baseballs (Mets 5, Expos 2*, 7 Phillies, 6 Marlins, 2 Mets, 3 Braves, 1 Umpire)* Olympic Stadium Staff
5 Commemoratives (2013 WBC 1, Angels 50th 2, Dodger Stadium 50th 1, 2011 All-Star, 2012 All-Star)
1 Ice Cream Helmets (Phillies)
Written by Cook & Son Bats 3 Comments Posted in Citi Field, Kellan, Tim	Tagged with Aaron Harang, Alan Butts, Atlanta Braves, braves, Captain Wright, David Wright, Ervin Santana, mets, New York Mets, Tom Hallion, Zack Hample
Sixth Annual Cook Grandfather-Father-Son Baseball Roadtrip – Game 4, Yankees at Mets (5/27/2013)
On May 27, 2013, my dad's birthday, we woke up in DuBois, Pennsylvania, with a bonus Cook Grandfather-Father-Son Baseball Roadtrip game on tap for later that night in Queens.
We had plenty of time to get to NY so we started the day with a nice leisurely free breakfast in our hotel dining area:
We had nothing but good things to say about the brand-spanking new Fairfield Inn in DuBois. A very nice place to stay for the night.
We hit the road and had a nice drive across Pennsylvania. It was route I'd never taken before. The boys did a little snacking in the car, and did some jumping jacks to burn some energy at a rest stop…
…, then it was in to New Jersey, and on to the big city.
When we reached Manhattan, we parked in the upper west side and then dined on some huge pizza slices…
…at Rays on 82nd and Columbus.
Sometimes I have trouble figuring out where we should get on the subway in the upper west side. So I gave Zack Hample a call. He pointed us in the right direction. And, wouldn't you know it, as we approached the subway…
…we ran into Zack on the sidewalk. It had only been 3 days earlier that we were hanging out with Zack in Toronto. It was cool to bump into him again on the same roadtrip, although not at another game.
My boys love riding the subway:
My dad had never been to Shea or Citi Field and he was happy to get to see the sights…
…from the 7 Train.
You know we had to get this photo right after arriving at Citi Field:
We played a little catch in the parking lot and then hopped in line. As I held our spot, my dad took the boys for a little walk so he could see the outside of Citi Field. On their way back…
…, Tim was showing off his muscles.
Once we headed into the stadium, we all headed to foul territory down the RF foul line. After a few minutes, the boys and I headed to the corner spot in RCF by the bullpens. Here was out view (to the left)…
…and my dad snapped that picture of us hanging out at the bottom of the steep RF steps. In that line up of player in RCF, the left one in from the left (closest to us) was Bobby Parnell. Eventually, a baseball was hit out to the warning track about half way between the players and us. Parnell ran over to grab it, and he was kind enough to toss it up to us.
Thanks, Bobby!
It was really bright in RCF and nice and shady in LF, so we decided to head over there. On our way, we met up with Mr. Met:
This was our view in LCF:
Nothing was doing out there. The most interesting part of our time out in LCF was getting to watch Mariano Rivera shagging fly balls.
Coming into this game, at least one player or coach from every MLB team had thrown us a baseball since Tim's first game back in 2006, every team, that is, except the Yankees. I was hoping we could cross the Yankees off the toss-up list at this game.
I was really hoping we could get a toss-up from Ichiro, but before Ichiro made it out to RF, we ran into another former Mariner, Shawn Kelley. And, wouldn't you know, the former-Mariner now in a Yankees uniform tossed us a baseball:
IN that picture, Tim is looking at me in disbelief because I had the audacity to catch the baseball that Shawn tossed to him after it sailed two feet over Tim's head. Had I not caught it, we never would have seen it again. But Tim was definitely bummed out that he didn't get to make the catch. Anyway…
Thanks, Shawn!
Then Tim's favorite player (who sadly now wears pinstriped pajamas as his home uniform) came out to field some balls in RF:
Hey, I failed to mention that, while we were in LCF, my dad found his way over to the corner spot where we got the ball from Parnell. At the time, Ichiro was blistering balls all over RF and the RF seats. When he hit a laser out to RCF, an unidentified Yankee fielded the ball and tossed it to my dad; a pretty cool birthday present from the Yankees.
We headed over to RF to watch Ichiro. He tossed several balls into the seats in foul territory, but nothing anyway near us. Once he headed to the dugout, we decided it was a bit too crowded in the seats. So we called it a day for BP, headed off to get some ice cream and headed to the picnic tables under Shea Bridge so the boys could eat their ice cream in peace:
Kellan is still only two years old and is only potty trained when he feels like it. So he wears pullups most of the time. As we pulled into Manhattan, I changed Kellan and realized that I only had one more pullup! We were far from my car when we stopped into a drug store to get a fresh pack of pullups. As the kids ate their ice cream, I counted that I had 17 pullups in my backpack — quite possibly a new Major League record. I think this meant that my dad had about 8 in his back pack too. By the way, it ended up that I did need to buy them. Oh, well…better safe than sorry.
As the boys ate their ice cream two interesting things happened:
First, a usher came over and toss a ball over the fence to the boys. Tim was mid-ice cream and couldn't get his glove on in time. After the Shawn Kelley toss-up, I knew Tim wanted to be the one to catch (or at least secure) this ball, so I literally let the ball just hit me in the chest and bounce back against the fence. Tim ran over and grabbed it with his glove still in his throwing hand (picture above to the right).
Second, the same usher came back over to us two minute later with another ball. He felt that both boys should get a ball. This time, Tim had time to get his glove on and he made a nice catch on the high toss over the fence (there he is with it in the photo above to the left). Meanwhile, Kellan was shoveling ice cream into his face.
Double thanks, Usher!
By the way, that is the usher walking away from us behind Tim in the photo above to the left.
My dad came and found us. And look who else found us once my dad arrived:
From time-to-time, Kellan has a case of the terrible twos. And this game featured a couple of them, including right when the game was about to start. That's okay though. He can sit on my shoulders and fuss it up while we walk around and have a nice time. My dad needed to see some more of the ballpark so we all headed up to the Pepsi Porch in RF. That's where we were when the game started. Here's the second pitch…
…because it ended up being a better picture than my shot of the first pitch.
The pitching match up was Jon Neise vs. Phil Hughes. That second pitch picture features a match up of Neise against Brett Gardner. Neise won that match up by way of strikeout.
My dad got his first taste of New York ushering…
…while watching Robby Cano strike out for the final out of the top of the first. Neise k'd all three batters he faced. Anyway, see that little gate to my dad's right in that picture above to the right? When we walked up to the standing room area, my dad walked up to that gate and rested his hands on top of the gate – a very natural thing to do in an SRO area. The usher told my dad that he couldn't stand at the gate, he had to move over to the left…which was a pretty pointless rule.
On our way out of the Pepsi Porch, we got a picture of Tim posing in front of the 7 Train and muffler city (that's my name for it. Whatever it's called, it is an eye sore):
And then Tim and my dad got a (bonus) picture with the Citi Field sign and some baseballs for the MyGameBalls.com photo scavenger hunt:
We were in the upper deck concourse down the 3B side in the top of the second when Ichiro came to the plate:
Tim watched on with uneasy anticipation as his all-time favorite batter took the batters' box wearing the wrong uniform. It was the first time we'd ever seen Ichiro bat in person wearing a non-Mariners uniform, and it was a bit unsettling.
We are never accustomed to wanting a Yankee to get a hit or do anything positive in a game. But all of us were happy when Ichiro laced a harmless single to CF:
It was Ichiro's only hit on the day. He went 1-3 with a walk.
If I had it my way, Ichiro would rip off another 200 hit season this year, but his teammates would always squander the opportunities and leave him stranded on base.
While we watched Ichiro bat, my dad chatted with an usher who pointed out this:
You see it? Row 6 and, right behind it, row 6. Oops!
In the top of the third, we grabbed some food and finally found our seats:
Tim and my dad enjoyed their food and ended up sitting in our seats for a while. Kellan and I were I our seats for about five minutes tops. I ended up ripping off a big piece of Kellan's soft pretzel and giving it to him to eat. I knew it was a mistake the second I did it. Kellan launched into another case of the terrible twos. Instead of letting his whining annoy our fellow fans, I decided to head back over to the bullpen area where Kellan could work the crankiness out of his system without bothering other fans. Somehow, we ended up staying there most of the game.
In the top of the sixth inning, the Yankees took a 1-0 lead. Brett Gardner led off the inning with a triple and scored on a Jayson Nix RBI single.
In the bottom of the sixth, Gardner helped keep the 1-0 Yankees lead intact. At the time, Kellan and I were in the field level concourse in LF. There were two outs when Daniel Murphy came to the plate. Murphy blasted the ball to deep LCF. It had just enough to get out of the ballpark…but it didn't have quite enough to get out of Gardner's reach. Garden jumped high against the wall and brought the homerun back into the park for the final out of the inning. Here is a video clip of the catch.
Tim and my dad ended up meeting up with us back by the bullpens around the sixth or seventh inning. We played a ton of catch back there:
Above to the left, Kellan was throwing balls against the wall while my dad played back up. Above to the right, I was throwing long tosses (essentially the entire length of Shea Bridge to Tim. No one seemed to care that we were doing there, so that was pretty cool.
You know what wasn't cool? The fans by the bullpens:
There were a bunch of Mets and Yankees fans and they were cursing up a storm at each other and putting down each other's team. It was ridiculous. Eventually, an usher came over and threatened to kick out the guy above in the Mets shirt who is facing the camera. He felt this was a grave injustice and that it was the Yankees fans who should have been threatened to get kicked out.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, David Wright launched a game tying homerun to LF.
We had signed my dad up for a "First Game" certificate at the fan assistance booth in the upper deck early in the game. They told us to come back for the certificate in the seventh inning or later. We decided to head up to grab the certificate and get a picture of the four of us.
Turns out my dad's certificate wasn't ready so they ended up mailing it to him. During the eighth inning, an usher took this photo of us on our final stop on the GFS Roadtrip:
Here was our view of the action from our SRO spot in the bottom of the eighth:
Lucas Duda ended up striking out to end the eighth inning, but the Mets fans didn't care because two batters earlier Daniel Murphy had come through with a go-ahead RBI single to CF. So the Mets were up 2-1 going into the top of the ninth.
As Bobby Parnell came in for the save attempt, we relocated to the SRO behind the field level seats behind 3B so we would be closer to the exits when the game ended.
Historically, I have found it difficult to get down to the umpire's tunnel at the end of Mets home games at Citi Field. At first, I wasn't even thinking we would try. But Kellan and I ended up walking down to the SRO area just behind the section immediately above the umpire tunnel.
The usher was not checking tickets. But we stayed in the concourse.
With one out, this was our view as Ichiro worked a walk:
In a 8-pitch at bat, Lyle Overbay ended up striking out for the second out of the top of the ninth inning. In this course of battling Parnell, Overbay ended up hitting a little foul nubber right in front of the plate. I watched as catcher John Buck retrieved the ball and gave it back to home plate umpire Fieldin Culbreth. Culbreth inspected the foul ball and then put it back in one of his baseball pouches.
Travis Hafner was the final batter of the game. As he batted, Kellan and I stood in the aisle right at the top of the stairs. Hafner ended up being retired on a moon shot, infield pop out to David Wright at 3B.
In terms of trying to get into position to get an umpire ball, pop fly outs are the best possible ending to a game. As everyone stood to watch the play, Kellan (on my shoulders) and I took off down the stairs and we had no problem reaching the umpire tunnel before Culbreth arrived. Culbreth ended up tossing a few baseballs to kids on the OF side of the tunnel. Then he turned and tossed his final baseball to us:
The baseball was all smudged and dirty. I have a strong feeling it was the foul nubber that Overbay hit before striking out for the second out of the game. Of course, there is no way to ever confirm that suspicion…but it's fun to speculate.
Thanks, Fieldin!
Right after we got the ball from Culbreth, a teenage fan standing next to us looked at me and asked, "Todd and Tim!?" "Yeah…well, Todd and Kellan," I responded. I didn't recognize him at first because he has almost doubled in size since the last time we saw him, but I was pleased to be face-to-face once again with our former ballpark buddy and MyGameBalls.com member, Alex K.
We chatted for a minute or two in the seats and then I asked if he could head up to the concourse with us so he could say hi to Tim. I knew Tim would be psyched to see him. Here's the thing about Tim, he loves people. Especially, kids, of all ages. In 2009, we met Alex in Chicago and then saw him several times in NY, along with his buddy Joe Faraguna. Back then, every time we went to a game, Tim asked, "Will Joe and Alex be at the game?"
Tim was definitely thrown off at first at how much older and taller Alex looks now. But once he realized it was Alex from "Joe and Alex," he was excited to see his old buddy. Of course, almost right away, Tim asked, "Where's Joe?"
Check out these now (2013) and then (2009) picts of Tim and Alex:
They've both grown a lot!
After chatting with Alex a bit, we headed toward the gates. On the way out, I realized my dad had missed out on a Citi Field must see, the big Jackie Robinson "42":
On the way to the 7 Train, we saw a cool Mets car:
We said good-bye to Citi Field from the 7 train…
…, the local 7 Train, that is.
It was a long but fun commute back to our car on the 7 Train and the 1 Train:
And it was an even longer commute out of NY and back to Pennsylvania. We arrived home around 2:30 a.m.
So there you go, another successful Cook Grandfather-Father-Son Baseball Roadtrip in the books. I'm pretty sure we'll be in Texas in 2014 because my dad has now seen every team play a home game except the Rangers (he saw the Astros at the Astrodome so he still needs to visit Minute Maid Park and he saw the Marlins at Sun Life Stadium so he still needs to go to Marlins Park). Can wait to help him check all of those stadiums off of his list!
16 Teams – Mariners, Royals, Phillies, Red Sox, Rays, Orioles, Yankees, Dodgers, Reds, Nationals, Marlins, Pirates, Blue Jays, Twins, Tigers, Mets.
20 Ice Cream Helmets – Phillies (jumbo) 2, Red Sox 2, Yankees 2, Orioles 2, Nationals 2, Pirates 2, Blue Jays 2, Tigers 4, Mets 2.
50 Baseballs – Mariners 6, Royals 4, Phillies 9, Rays 2, Orioles 5, Dodgers 1, Umpires 3, Reds 4, Nationals 1, Marlins 4, Pirates 1, Blue Jays 2, Twins 3, Tigers 1, Mets 3, Yankees 2.
9 Stadiums – Citizens Bank Park 2, Fenway Park, Yankee Stadium, Camden Yards, Nationals Park, PNC Park, Rogers Centre, Comerica Park, Citi Field.
16 Player+ Photos – Oliver Perez, Lucas Luetge, Hisashi Iwakuma, Carter Capps, Daniel Nava, Alex Wilson, Andrew Bailey, Pedro Ciriaco, Mike Carp, Koji Uehara, Will Middlebrooks, Joel Hanrahan, Jonny Gomes, Alfredo Aceves, Clayton Mortensen, Rick Anderson.
5 Autograph – Hisashi Iwakuma (English & Japanese), Carter Capps, Ryan Hanigan, Jesus Tiamo.
Written by Cook & Son Bats 3 Comments Posted in Citi Field, GFS, Kellan, roadtrip, Tim	Tagged with Bobby Parnell, Brett Gardner, David Wright, GFS, GFS Roadtrip, Ichiro, mets, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Shawn Kelley, subway series, yankees
Cook & Son's MLB Adventures (Vol. 1)
The offseason and January 1st are for remembering the past and looking forward to the future.
As far as remembering our baseball past goes, here's a video that I made in 2010 that I absolutely love:
I really need to put together Volume 2 soon.
That's all for now. Go Mariners!
Written by Cook & Son Bats 7 Comments Posted in Angel Stadium of Anaheim, AT&T Park, Camden Yards, Chase Field, Citi Field, Citizens Bank Park, Dodger Stadium, Fenway Park, Great American Ball Park, H.H.H. Metrodome, Kauffman Stadium, Kids Run The Bases, Miller Park, MLB Anniversary, Nationals Park, Oakland Coliseum, Petco Park, PNC Park, Progressive Field, Rogers Centre, Safeco Field, Shea Stadium, Wrigley Field, Yankee Stadium ('09), Yankee Stadium ('23)	Tagged with Felix Hernandez, Ichiro, Jason Phillips, Ken Griffey Jr., Ryan Rowland-Smith, Seattle Mariners
Every MLB Stadium: Check!
I am way behind in writing our game entries — 4 games to be exact. But, in the meantime, I wanted to share a photo compilation I completed today. This past weekend, we attended two games at Marlins Park in Miami. Tim and I have now been to every current MLB stadium, plus several closed stadiums. Here is a photo six years in the making:
As of today, Tim has been to 139 MLB games, with Safeco Field, Camden Yards and Citizens Bank Park topping the "most games" list. But here is a list of the first (or only) game Tim attended at each of his 34 MLB stadiums:
Safeco Field (9/12/06)
Citizens Bank Park (6/30/07)
Camden Yards (8/9/07)
Yankee Stadium ('23) (9/3/07)
PNC Park (9/29/07)
Great American Ball Park (8/15/08)
Progressive Field (8/17/08)
Shea Stadium (9/7/08)
Chase Field (9/12/08)
Citi Field (4/25/09)
Nationals Park (5/17/09)
Fenway Park (7/3/09)
Wrigley Field (8/14/09)
H.H.H. Metrodome (8/15/09)
Miller Park (8/16/09)
U.S. Cellular Field (8/17/09)
Rogers Centre (9/26/09)
Oakland Coliseum (6/9/10)
Dodger Stadium (6/11/10)
Petco Park (6/12/10)
Angel Stadium of Anaheim (6/14/10)
AT&T Park (6/15/10)
Minute Maid Park (5/27/11)
Rangers Ballpark in Arlington (5/28/11)
Comerica Park (7/3/11)
Sun Life Stadium (8/13/11)
Turner Field (8/15/11)
Tropicana Field (8/19/11)
Target Field (5/12/12)
Busch Stadium (5/14/12)
Kauffman Stadium (5/16/12)
Coors Field (5/18/12)
Marlins Park (8/31/12)
Since Tim's milestone stadium was his 34th stadium overall, he celebrated before the game with a little #Felixing:
Time to do it all again!
Written by Cook & Son Bats 5 Comments Posted in Angel Stadium of Anaheim, AT&T Park, Busch Stadium, Camden Yards, Chase Field, Citi Field, Citizens Bank Park, Comerica Park, Coors Field, Dodger Stadium, Fenway Park, Great American Ball Park, H.H.H. Metrodome, Kauffman Stadium, Miller Park, Nationals Park, Oakland Coliseum, Petco Park, PNC Park, Progressive Field, Rogers Centre, Safeco Field, Shea Stadium, Sun Life Stadium, Target Field, Tim, Tropicana Field, Turner Field, U.S. Cellular Field, Wrigley Field, Yankee Stadium ('09), Yankee Stadium ('23)


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Q: Squeeze multiple comments in a single word in dataframe I have the dataframe like below.
dataframe1 =
  Product  comment1                   comment2                     comment3
0   P10    not fresh                  0                            short life time
1   P11    Quality is good            comparatively cheap          nice product
2   P12    got banned 1 year ago      was not that good            demand is poor
3   P13    just got expired           0                            no demand at all
4   P14    nice product               good customer satisfaction   0
5   P15    very bad                   0                            affects health of user
6   P16    limited stock              high demand                  0
7   P17    0                          0                            high customer satisfaction
8   P18    very expensive             bad quality                  0
9   P19    shinny                     0                            cheap
10  P20    0                          always in stock              most searched product

I want to squeeze all the comments for a particular product into a single 'good' or 'bad'.
like if 'not fresh' is there in any comment, it is 'bad'. Similarly 'short life', 'banned', 'not good', 'expired', 'no demand', 'bad', 'very expensive'  etc. defines 'bad'.
Similarly, 'high satisfaction', 'nice', 'cheap', 'shinny'  etc. all defines 'good'.
The final result that I want looks like below.
Product   squeezed_comment
P10          bad
P11          good
P12          bad
P13          bad
P14          good
P15          bad
P16          bad
P17          good
P18          bad
P19          good
P20          good

how to do this?
thanks in advance.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Q: Could Provider-Hosted App be inserted in SharePoint Wiki page? Resolved:
There should be Add-In webpart(Client webpart) also added to project, here is how-to:
https://github.com/SharePoint/sp-dev-docs/blob/master/docs/sp-add-ins/include-an-add-in-part-in-the-provider-hosted-add-in.md

I used these examples and was able to deploy Provider-Hosted App example from PnP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yK5ZDc8gFY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0hsjr7S-kM&t=911s
But I don't see my App in "Edit Page" -> "Insert" -> "App Part".
How can I insert it in SharePoint page?
SP version: SharePoint Online


TGT: What would you say are the most important elements of a strong guarantee?
Risk-free. Your guarantee must state, in black and white, that your customer's purchase is risk-free. These two words speak volumes about your confidence in your product.
Refund Regardless of Reason. Your guarantee must convey to your prospect that his money will be returned quickly – for any reason whatsoever.
Reign of guarantee. Tell your prospect exactly how long your product is covered by your guarantee. The longer the guarantee, the greater your response will be.
TGT: Tell us a little bit about the types of guarantees you use.
MS: There are four basic types of guarantees that I use in my ads. Each one eliminates one more level of risk – until the prospect can actually profit from returning the product!
The Basic Guarantee. You simply offer the prospect his money back if he returns the product within a certain time period.
The "Karbo" or "Pay-Only-If-It-Works" Guarantee. Now it starts to get interesting. This type of guarantee tells the prospect that he can try the product first – and then pay for it. Joe Karbo (its originator) made millions with this guarantee.
The "Keep-All-the-Bonuses-Free" Guarantee. You let the prospect keep his free bonuses – even if he returns the product for a full refund. This technique works like a charm to increase response rates.
The customer gets a 100% refund plus shipping costs.
This guarantee is great for high-ticket items. Use it, or a variation of it, with discretion.
TGT: Any other words of advice?
No hassles – no long waiting.
100% money back plus $10.00 just for trying it.
100% money back, but you keep the free bonuses.
Postdate your check for 31 days.


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Luchthaven Oued Irara – Krim Belkacem (: Aéroport de Hassi Messaoud / Oued Irara - Krim Belkacem) (IATA: HME', ICAO: DAUH) is een luchthaven nabij Hassi Messaoud, in de Algerijnse Sahara. De oorspronkelijk door de Fransen aangelegde luchthaven is vernoemd naar Krim Belkacem, een strijder uit de Algerijnse onafhankelijkheidsoorlog.

Luchtvaartmaatschappijen en Bestemmingen
 Aigle Azur - Parijs-Charles de Gaulle
 Air Algérie - Algiers, Constantine, In Amenas, Oran
 Air Nostrum - Madrid
 Tassili Airlines - Algiers

Daarnaast wordt de luchthaven ook door de plaatselijke oliemaatschappijen gebruikt voor vluchten naar de soms vergelegen olieproductiesites. Hiervoor worden onder meer Twin Otters gebruikt.

Externe links
 Information Airport Algeria

Oued Irara

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Start the day smarter ☀ USA TODAY podcasts 🎧 Take our news quiz 📝 2023 lineups 🎶
At least 2 dead in Oklahoma tornadoes
At least two people killed in severe storms that raked Oklahoma Monday evening.
An elderly man died at home Monday after a large tornado barreled through the area of Wynnewood, KY3 reported. The victim was believed to be in his late 70s, Garvin County emergency director Bud Ramming told ABC News.
A strong tornado touched ground south of Oklahoma City, but it was not clear if this was the same tornado that killed the man, according to the news organization.
In Johnston County, the sheriff's office said another man was killed by a tornado near Connerville.
The Oklahoma Office of Emergency Management reported the storms destroyed a radio station building in Coal County and an undetermined number of homes in Murray, Garvin and Johnston counties.
The tornadoes were part of a series of strong storms and warnings affecting Oklahoma and other states Monday.
The National Weather Service said a tornado touched down in central Iowa, with no immediate reports of damage, and another hit near Nehawka, Neb., about 30 miles south of Omaha.


Swaziland, a small, landlocked monarchy in southern Africa, is known for its wilderness reserves and festivals showcasing traditional Swazi culture. Marking its north-eastern border with Mozambique and stretching down to South Africa, the Lebombo Mountains serve as a dramatic backdrop for Mlawula Nature Reserve's many hiking trails. Its population is 1.25 million and GDP per capita of USD 3,034.
Swaziland is a lower-middle-income country, which is known officially as The Kingdom of Swaziland. The country has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world with 26 percent of 15-49-year-olds living with HIV. Global Fund investments in the country aim to reduce HIV incidence and supports key populations through capacity building, prevention, care and treatment. TB/HIV co-infection also remains a key concern, and the Global Fund supports efforts to address this.. The Global Fund support also contributes to preparing Swaziland for malaria elimination through strengthened case management, artemisinin-based combination therapy, vector management and surveillance. Swaziland also faces the challenge of strengthening health systems to support an effective response. The Global Fund investments contribute to building resilient and efficient health systems through a strengthened health workforce, improved service delivery and improved monitoring and information systems.
Public health information system, neonatal and adolescent health information systems, hospital information systems and management information system (MIS).
Regulation/accreditation (EMT, Drug Formulary, Dental Act, and others).
Strategic planning, monitoring, and evaluation.
Family health: Healthy Schools Initiative; mental health; chronic noncommunicable diseases; violence; and injury prevention.
To strengthen the public health care system to provide comprehensive quality care to individuals and population groups based on health promotion and disease prevention criteria.
Primary care delivery system strengthened to provide comprehensive care.
Public health sector capacity strengthened in human resource management.
PHA planning and management capacity strengthened.
National Quality Improvement Program strengthened.
Support services strengthened to ensure quality health care.
National Emergency Unit strengthened for strategic planning and management and disaster preparedness capacity improved.
Capacity of AHO strengthened to collect, analyse, integrate, and evaluate information from different sources.
Capacity of the Public Health' strengthened for the strategic direction and management.
Improved public health sector capacity to conduct research in public health.
Health of preschool children and first graders improved.
Detection and management of child abuse improved.
Management of diabetes and hypertension improved.
Programs for the early detection and management of breast, cervix, and prostate cancer improved.
Management of STIs and HIV/AIDS improved in the Family Islands and New Providence.
Health education programs concerning hypertension and cervix and prostate cancer.
Community mental health program strengthened.
To improve the effectiveness of the managerial staff of all programs, particularly those related to vector control and water quality.
Managerial capacity of senior and middle managers improved.
Water quality standards and supporting legislation developed.
Environmental Health Information System developed.
Vector control and food safety programs improved.
To provide the administrative support needed to implement and help achieve the expected results of technical cooperation projects.
Support provided to duty travel and to hospitality.
Effective administrative support provided to the representation.


A legacy hybrid cnc provides the professional woodworker an extremely versatile production system capable of turning sheet processing and joinery. Roctech cnc router machinery can offer cabinet cnc router cabinet cnc centercnc router 1325 4 and 3 axis cnc router machining center woodworking cnc router and aluminum processing centers general 3 axis atc and manual tool changing engraving machines eps processing center and cnc plasma and laser cutting machinescnc router for sale. Laguna tools is a premium manufacturer of wood working and metal working tools.
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Please post completed projects in the appropriate flat or turned projects board. You can think of the carvewright machine as a subtractive 3d printer. Woodworking cnc router manufacturers we produce cnc wood carving machine cnc routers for wood cnc wood engraving machine china wood cnc router laser plasma cutting machines.
Computer numerical control or cnc is a method for automating 3 dimensional cutting and milling processes and the best cnc routers will let you produce factory grade work in a small home shop. New and used woodworking machinery dealer for the wood working industry. Our crew at machine king focuses all our attention on giving industrial woodworkers a safe environment to purchase pre owned equipmentits through our 45 plus years of selling used and new woodworking machinery that machine king service technicians understand the pitfalls that can occur during a machine purchase and how.
Steves woodworking is a custom parts manufacturer using cnc routers manufacturing goods in wood poly plastic and is located in myerstown pa.


text:
I Spy (estilizado como I-SPY; pt: O Espião Sou Eu / br: Sou Espião) é um filme de espionagem de comédia de ação dos Estados Unidos, dirigido por Betty Thomas e estrelado por Eddie Murphy e Owen Wilson. O filme é baseado em uma série de televisão de mesmo nome estrelada por Robert Culp e Bill Cosby na década de 1960 com o título brasileiro Os Destemidos. Houve uma inversão nos papéis dos protagonistas no filme. Na série de TV o personagem Alex Scott era negro e Kelly Robinson era branco, sendo que no filme ocorre o inverso; no filme, os nomes dos personagens também são invertidos, então Alexander Scott é agora o agente secreto branco e Kelly Robinson, o atleta negro, agora um boxeador, também mudou a premissa original de ambos serem agentes disfarçados de profissionais de tênis, com Robinson sendo um boxeador civil que é essencialmente contratado pela agência de espionagem para agir como disfarce de Scott enquanto ele realiza sua missão. O filme foi lançado nos Estados Unidos em 1 de novembro de 2002.

Este é o segundo filme em que Betty Thomas e Eddie Murphy trabalham juntos, o anterior foi Dr. Dolittle.

De um orçamento de US$ 70 milhões, o filme arrecadou US$ 33 milhões no mercado estadunidense e de US$ 50 a US $ 60 milhões em todo o mundo. Foi o terceiro fracasso de bilheteria consecutiva para Murphy em 2002 após Showtime e The Adventures of Pluto Nash.

O filme foi indicado a três prêmios Framboesa de Ouro: Pior Remake, Pior Ator para Eddie Murphy e Pior Dupla em Cena para Murphy e Owen Wilson.

Sinopse
Quando o protótipo do mais sofisticado teconológicamente avião de ataque, o Switchblade, é roubado por terroristas do governo dos Estados Unidos, não há dúvida que Arnold Gundars (Malcolm McDowell), um conhecido traficante internacional de armas, está envolvido.

O que se segue é que Gundars está em Budapeste, Hungria, onde Kelly Robinson (Eddie Murphy), o lutador campeão mundial de peso médio, vai colocar o seu título em jogo. Assim o presidente pede a Kelly que ajude a salvar o seu país, com Alex Scott (Owen Wilson), um agente especial da BNS, que se faz passar por secretário pessoal de Kelly. Como Arnold é um fã incondicional de boxe, será muito fácil para Kelly estar na grande festa que vai ser organizada na véspera da luta, onde Alex acredita que o avião vai ser vendido.

Mas além das dificuldades de numa missão desta natureza, Alex tem de controlar Kelly, que quer fazer tudo à sua maneira, sem respeitar nenhuma regra, que mais tarde pode pôr em risco a missão.

Elenco
 Eddie Murphy (Kelly Robinson)
 Owen Wilson (Agente Especial Alex Scott)
 Famke Janssen (Agente Especial Rachel Wright)
 Malcolm McDowell (Arnold Gundars)
 Gary Cole (Carlos)
 Bill Mondy (McIntyre)
 Phill Lewis (Jerry)
 Mike Dopud (Jim)
 Lynda Boyd (Edna)
 Dana Lee (Zhu Tam)
 Viv Leacock (T.J.)
 Crystal Lowe (menina bonita)
 Darren Shahlavi (Cedric Mills)
 Gábor Demszky (ele mesmo)
 Tate Taylor (Tenente Percy)
 Sugar Ray Leonard (Comentador de Las Vegas)
 Keith Dallas

Recepção da crítica
I Spy teve recepção desfavorável por parte da crítica especializada. Possui metascore de 35% no Metacritic, em base de 31 avaliações profissionais. Por votos dos usuários do site, alcança uma nota de 6.8, usada para avaliar a recepção do público.

Ficha técnica

Título original: I Spy

 Tempo de Duração: 97 minutos
 Ano de Lançamento (EUA): 2002
 Estúdio: Columbia Pictures Corporation / C-2 Pictures / Sheldon Leonard Productions / Tall Trees Productions
 Distribuição: Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Entertainment
 Direcção: Betty Thomas
 Argumento: Marianne Wibberley, Cormac Wibberley, Jay Scherick e David Ronn, baseado na história de Marianne Wibberley e Cormac Wibberley
 Produção: Mario Kassar, Betty Thomas, Jenno Topping e Andrew G. Vajna
 Música: Richard Gibbs
 Fotografia: Oliver Wood
 Desenho de Produção: Marcia Hinds
 Direcção de Arte: Doug Byggdin e Bo Johnson
 Guarda-Roupa: Ruth E. Carter
 Edição: Matt Friedman e Peter Teschner
 Efeitos Especiais: Sony Pictures Imageworks

Ligações externas
 Página oficial

Filmes dos Estados Unidos de 2002
Filmes de comédia de ação dos Estados Unidos
Filmes de espionagem dos Estados Unidos
Filmes de comédia de ação da década de 2000
Filmes de espionagem da década de 2000
Filmes sobre boxe
Filmes baseados em séries de televisão
Filmes em língua russa
Filmes em língua húngara
Filmes em língua inglesa
Filmes gravados em Budapeste
Filmes da Columbia Pictures


text:
Elliot C Smith
Will we mourn for Siri?
Photo by Omid Armin / Unsplash
I remember the first time I said "thank you" to Siri. I wasn't paying attention and had asked for a timer to be set. Nothing particularly difficult, but without much thought, out slipped "thank you". To be clear, I don't think Siri is doing what I ask out of politeness or a desire to help, but it amazes me how quickly we treat creations as human. I am also very aware that one day, maybe years from now, Siri will disappear. It might be for a new service or just an end to a product line. Whatever the reason, one day will mark the end.
I wonder if we'll feel something when that day comes.
One day soon, I'm sure, we'll mourn the loss of an AI. I see that as a critical turning point in our path to genuinely sapient AI. Not all AI in products today is front and centre. The AI that sorts my search engine results or tweets has tiny emotional real estate in my mind. However, more and more, AI-driven personas are becoming creations all of their own. Siri and other voice assistants are commonplace examples. Even though they're all feeding back to servers distributed across the planet, it is hard to remember there isn't an entity somewhere we could call Siri. Given we interact with Siri completely via voice – and the occasional screen tap – it's easy to imagine how we might respond to an AI designed for human connection.
If you think it's impossible, think back to the last time you were emotionally invested in fiction. Whether it's TV or novels, we can all find times when a character, living nowhere but in our minds, felt real.
Early steps towards this are in motion today. Miquela is an entirely fictional influencer with a substantial social media following. She may be a creation of a team from LA, but it won't be long until other fictitious personas appear that are fully controlled by an AI. Progress in generating synthetic voice, images and even content are taking us there very quickly. We're still deep in uncanny valley, and with a little bit of training, we can spot AI-generated content, but that might not make a difference.
The process of 'Parasocial Interaction' is the experience of forming fictional relationships with people we don't know. We start to consider celebrities and fictional characters friends after spending enough time viewing and listening to them. It's likely something deep in our being that looks for a way to form bonds as a means of survival.
If you can bond with a celebrity after watching too many late show clips, bonding with an AI is trivial.
I don't feel an emotional connection to Siri. If Apple's next keynote announced an end to Siri, I'd be slightly annoyed, but I doubt I would feel mournful. I think we'll see these AI personas move up a ladder of connection. Siri might feel like the closing down of a familiar coffee shop. Before long, however, I am sure we'll witness an AI death much the same way we see a celebrity who passes away. Not someone we knew but a loss we can empathise with.
As we continue to interact with AI designed to connect with us we'll begin to grow attached. The death of an AI will affect us much like the death of a pet and eventually a person.
Not a full pass of the Turning Test but something well on the way.
The Frontiers of Knowledge - Book Review
Author: A. C. Grayling Format: Audible Category: Science - General I am currently looking to move house and in preparation I've been trying to read books that have been on my shelf too long. These are books I have been meaning to get to for years. Often gifts or books
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars - Book Review
Format: Audible 32 Hours Author: Christopher Paolini Genre: Science Fiction Christopher Paolini, famous for the Eragon series, has taken a step into science fiction with the novel To Sleep in a Sea of Stars. The story follows a story of humanity expanding beyond the bounds of earth and coming face
Findings #10
This week has been all about AI sentience. This begs some deeper posts but I will touch on the high-level ideas here. It all started when a Google employee made a call that LaMDA was sentient. LaMDA is an AI that creates chatbots. After several conversations, the employee felt the
Elliot C Smith © 2023


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1 April 1992 Dimensionality of energy transfer between intercalated and surface-bound donor-acceptor pairs in DNA
Badri P. Maliwal; Jozef Kusba; Joseph R. Lakowicz
Badri P. Maliwal,1 Jozef Kusba,1 Joseph R. Lakowicz1
1Univ. of Maryland School of Medicine (United States)
Proceedings Volume 1640, Time-Resolved Laser Spectroscopy in Biochemistry III; (1992) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.58253
Event: OE/LASE '92, 1992, Los Angeles, CA, United States
The energy transfer among several fluorophores when bound to linear DNA has been studied. The intercalation and groove binding of the fluorophores and relatively large persistent length of DNA makes it a good model for one dimensional energy transfer. In this case, as predicted by Foerster's theory, the donor intensity decayed with a t1/6 time dependence. The presence of a finite volume with a restricted geometry leads to significantly different donor intensity decays from that predicted by Foerster's model. We used intercalated/groove-bound fluorophores as donors and transition metal ion complexes which only bind on the outside surface of the DNA as acceptors, to characterize energy transfer in a cylindrical geometry. Two models were used: a hard cylinder with a donor on the z-axis and acceptors on the surface, and a soft-boundary cylinder where a distribution of acceptors within a cylindrical volume was allowed. The energy transfer among intercalated/groove-bound donors and surface-bound acceptors in DNA can be described with soft-boundary cylindrical geometry with reasonable parameters.
Badri P. Maliwal, Jozef Kusba, and Joseph R. Lakowicz "Dimensionality of energy transfer between intercalated and surface-bound donor-acceptor pairs in DNA", Proc. SPIE 1640, Time-Resolved Laser Spectroscopy in Biochemistry III, (1 April 1992); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.58253
Phase shift keying
Transition metals
Time resolved fluorescence imaging and background rejection by two photon...
Proceedings of SPIE (April 01 1992)
Site to site diffusion in proteins as observed by energy...
Fluorescence studies with conformationally constrained tryptophan analogs implications on...
Transient effects in the solute quenching of tryptophan residues in...
Influence of end to end diffusion on intramolecular energy transfer...
Fluorescence lifetime based determination of anions using a site directed...
Badri P. Maliwal, Jozef Kusba, Joseph R. Lakowicz, "Dimensionality of energy transfer between intercalated and surface-bound donor-acceptor pairs in DNA," Proc. SPIE 1640, Time-Resolved Laser Spectroscopy in Biochemistry III, (1 April 1992); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.58253


text:
Product and Company News and Announcements
Press Release: OCLC [May 13, 2015]
Winthrop University selects OCLC WorldShare Management Services
DUBLIN, Ohio, May 14, 2015. Winthrop University, a public, comprehensive college in Rock Hill, South Carolina, has selected OCLC WorldShare Management Services as its library management system.
WorldShare Management Services (WMS) provide cloud-based library management and discovery applications in an integrated suite. WMS offers librarians a cost-effective way to manage workflows efficiently, and improve access to library collections and services for their students, faculty and staff.
The Ida Jane Dacus Library at Winthrop University used the same integrated library system service provider since the 1980s. Mark Herring, Dean of Library Services at Winthrop University, said it was time for a change.
"Our previous library system was becoming more expensive, and it was taking more and more staff to run it," said Herring. "We were looking for something that would do the same things as our legacy system yet not require as much staff time and effort. We visited some libraries currently using WMS and called several others to gather useful information. We selected WMS because of cost considerations, functionality and OCLC's reputation. OCLC has a good name, and it is recognized by libraries as a leader."
"We're really excited that Winthrop is joining our growing and thriving WorldShare community," said Andrew K. Pace, Executive Director, OCLC Networked Library Services. "Winthrop has been quick to recognize the efficiencies of WMS and value of WorldCat as its foundation. WMS can serve as an integral component in their state-wide resource sharing infrastructure. Winthrop's move to the cloud with WMS will be a leading example to peers across the state and across the country."
Today, more than 325 libraries worldwide are using WMS to share bibliographic records, publisher and knowledge base data, vendor records, serials patterns and more. WMS also provides libraries with the unique opportunity to share innovation, applications, infrastructure, vision and success in serving their users.
About Winthrop University
Winthrop is a public, comprehensive university that is committed to be among the very best institutions of its kind in the nation. Through an educational experience that blends liberal arts, professional programs, global awareness and civic engagement, Winthrop will help students develop the knowledge, skills, and values that will enrich their lives forever and prepare them for all the future holds. More about Winthrop University is at http://www.winthrop.edu/.
About OCLC
Founded in 1967, OCLC is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world's information and reducing library costs. More than 74,000 libraries in 170 countries have used OCLC services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend, preserve and manage library materials. Researchers, students, faculty, scholars, professional librarians and other information seekers use OCLC services to obtain bibliographic, abstract and full-text information when and where they need it. OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the world's largest online database for discovery of library resources. Search WorldCat.org on the Web. For more information, visit the OCLC website.
Winthrop University, a public, comprehensive college in Rock Hill, South Carolina, has selected OCLC WorldShare Management Services as its library management system.
WorldShare Management Services
Libraries:
System announcements -- selection
https://librarytechnology.org/pr/20610
LTG Bibliography Record number: 20610. Created: 2015-05-15 04:32:10; Last Modified: 2015-05-15 04:32:36.


Are you looking for Daisy Bail Bonds? Most Daisy bail bond companies can bail you (or another person) out anytime day or night in Daisy. Bail Bonds Network makes it simple to find and get in touch with a licensed bail bonds company in Daisy, Missouri. At your request, many bail bonds companies will come pick you up privately. Payment plans are often available depending on case by case basis.
Upon arrest anywhere in Cape Girardeau county, a person must be processed at the Cape Girardeau county jail. In order to be released from jail, several steps must occur, including being booked into jail and posting bail. When the bail bond amount is decided, a bail bonds agent is sent to post the bail bond at the local jail. Now the jail release process starts and typically takes anywhere from 1-2 hours to complete. Although cash bonds are allowed, it is usually not commonly done due to financial limitations.


text:
Kathryn Ragsdale
Kathryn Ragsdale, corporate communications manager for Toyota Motor North America, has been a National Public Lands Day volunteer since the Company began its partnership with NEEF in 1999. During this time, Ragsdale has not only helped support her local public lands, but has successfully applied two key concepts that shaped the way her plant approached NPLD.
Ragsdale started organizing NPLD events for team members at the Toyota Bodine plant in Troy, Missouri, where around 40 volunteers would participate each year. But things changed when she accepted a promotion to a significantly larger plant in Tupelo, Mississippi, in 2015. "Going from approximately 40 volunteers to more than 400 volunteers for NPLD was thrilling," said Ragsdale. "In Mississippi their NPLD was so massive that they had to pick out four or five different places to hold events."
Ragsdale realized that this sizeable a group of volunteers could make a marked difference in the cleanup and restoration efforts of a public space. But that wasn't the only thing that swayed her to make changes. "When I learned that my analyst, Emily Holland, was pulling out her hair trying to coordinate multiple sites and pull everything together," she said, "I decided we would focus on a single location."
The chosen location was Tombigbee State Park, a public recreation area six miles south of Tupelo that surrounds Lake Lee. She suggested making a five-year commitment to focus on one location, which translated into more than $250,000 in materials for the projects to be carried out by Toyota volunteers. By focusing all their effort on one park, the group could demonstrate considerable improvements, thus motivating people to get involved, and consequently, extending NPLD's reach.
She then challenged Holland to devise a new process for organizing NPLD, so that the bulk of the responsibility wouldn't fall on one or two people as it previously had. "Using the approach from my NPLD event in Missouri which focused on one location for long term partnership, I replicated (YOKOTEN) that approach," said Ragsdale. Yokoten is a Japanese word that refers to the process for sharing learning laterally across an organization, or "horizontal deployment". Holland wasted no time in breaking down the tasks and identifying people willing to lead projects. "She created a task force that came together as a team and pulled the event off," said Ragsdale.
Ragsdale has noticed an expansion in excitement in NPLD since the Tupelo team has been volunteering at Tombigbee and that team members have taken ownership of the project. "With the support and leadership of our President, Sean Suggs, the model that our team has developed has really taken on a life of its own," she said. "It's not really all on one person or department, it's a shared project."
Team Ownership
That ownership extends throughout the year. Ragsdale gives credit to Sean McCarthy, environmental specialist at Toyota MS who thinks all year about this event and serves as Project Director for NPLD in Mississippi. He works onsite with the project leaders to identify the projects for the coming year. Ragsdale says, "It's exciting to see them use their passion and expertise to drive their projects." For example, one project leader, John Paul Blaylock, a camping enthusiast noticed the park's primitive camping area could use some improvements. He designed new features and submitted his plan to the task force to be included in that year's NPLD. His team organized the materials and led volunteers at the campsites to upgrade the campsites. Ragsdale says "It's such a transformation that the campsites are now rented out frequently."
Expanding the Audience
In her previous role as NPLD site director, she included children in the activity with age appropriate games and activities targeted at protecting wildlife and the environment. One such activity was an environmental relay race that involves children taking an item out of a basket full of clean, recyclable items and running down to the sorting station to put in the proper bin and back. Another, applying peanut butter and bird seed to pinecones to make bird feeders.
Ragsdale noticed that team members really enjoyed coming out with their families and that many had not been aware of the park before NPLD. She saw this as a good opportunity to create activities for families to do together in the park and allow them to discover new things. "Not only do families get to come out and have an activity where they can volunteer and give back to the community," she said, "they also discover another place to visit with their families and camp or have a picnic in the future." In previous NPLD event's in MS was not able to allow the children of volunteers to participate. To encourage more team member volunteer engagement, Ragsdale and her team.
As NPLD grew project managers needed some assistance the day of NPLD activity. Ragsdale employed Kaizen, Japanese for continuous improvement, and reached out to the local Boys & Girls Club to recruit young people to be junior assistant project managers to help support the team leads. The selection process consisted of mock applications and interviews held at the Boys & Girls club, along with a training session on their responsibilities during the NPLD event. "They took it very seriously, but it was fun," said Ragsdale.
This year, Ragsdale and the team members in Tupelo will continue their work at Tombigbee by renovating the disc golf course, installing split rail fencing, and building workout stations along the hiking trails. At the end of the day, everyone comes together for their annual Volunteer Appreciation Picnic.
"I think it's important to remember that these public lands need to be protected. They need someone to take care of them," she said. "Find out where you can help and get started."
Ragsdale personally connects with public lands through her family as well. Taking her children to all those NPLD events in Missouri has helped to inspire her, now young adult children, to enjoy the outdoors. Her twenty-five-year-old son has participated in NPLD with the family since he was five years old. "When our volunteers broke into groups, Ryan always wanted to hang out with the park ranger," said Ragsdale. His love of the outdoors continues as he is currently hiking across the Pacific Crest Trail and will likely return and work with park services. "He graduated college, worked a traditional job, and decided to follow his passion," she said. "So many good things have come out of NPLD!"
To learn more about National Public Lands Day, or to register your National Public Lands Day event, visit NEEFUSA.org/NPLD.
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