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The Distribution Barrier for Self-Publishers: Less of an Issue?
When I started at Writer's Digest in 2001, my first assigned beat was the
self-publishing scene. I was given Dan Poynter's Self-Publishing Manual
and The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing by Marilyn & Tom Ross, as
primers on the topic.
I edited the magazine's column on self-publishing (discontinued), the
newsstand-only special issues on self-publishing (also discontinued),
and helped coordinate the judging for the Self-Published Book Awards
(still going strong).
Back then, one of the biggest hurdles for any self-published author was
securing bookstore distribution for a printed book—a near impossibility
unless you could strike a deal with a wholesaler or distributor (also nearly impossible).
Much of the advice we gave in the magazine, and elsewhere, focused on how
you could distribute and sell your book directly to readers, or through
specialty sales channels. (Fortunately, 50% of books sold in this
country are through specialty and mass-merchant accounts. A few
examples of a specialty account: Michael's craft store, salons, gift
shops.)
The indie scene is much different now for a few reasons:
(1) It is easier to take a risk on self-publishing your work
electronically since there is usually very little upfront investment.
(2) You can e-publish your work for a variety of channels
(including the free-to-use Amazon DTP program), without securing an ISBN, and without granting
exclusivity to any one channel or retailer.
(3) Avid readers are beginning to buy and even prefer books in
electronic format, whether through Kindle, Sony Reader, or mobile
That said, don't take this as a sign that it's easy to realize
overnight success through self-publishing options, whether
electronically based or not. I really love Christina Katz's "back to
reality" advice, Good-bye, Cinderella: Self-Publishing Isn't the Only or Always the Best Choice for Writers.
There are many viewpoints, and there are just as many changes taking place daily in the industry. Just take the latest
announcement today from Smashwords, Sony Reader, and AuthorSolutions.
People who use Smashwords or AuthorSolutions to publish their work can
have their e-book made available on the Sony
Reader.
I spoke to Smashwords founder Mark Coker yesterday about the news, and
it's impressive to see what his service can now offer an indie author
(for free!):
Your e-book available for sale (or you can make it free to readers) in nine different formats,
including HTML, JavaScript, Kindle (.mobi), Epub, PDF, RTF, LRF (for
Sony), Palm Doc, and plain text (download or online view). This conversion process is totally automated, very fast (minutes), and based on
a Word document that you submit to Smashwords.
Automatic distribution to people who use iPhones or Android-based phones.
Distribution to BarnesandNoble.com, including Fictionwise and their
eReader app (distribution to B&N is contingent upon your files meeting format
requirements, e.g., having a proper cover image and copyright page)
And, as of today, distribution to people using Sony Reader.
Mark says that he's in talks with other major online retailers for even
more distribution opportunities. (I bet you can think of at least one
major book retailer not listed above.)
I see physical distribution becoming less of a meaningful barrier as authors can
distribute e-books in all the same places that traditional books are
It doesn't equate to instant or even easy success, but authors who are
able to create demand for their work, and aren't afraid of sweat-equity,
have the potential for success if happy readers (fans!) help spread the
good word.
Do you have an e-publishing experience to share? Or what questions does
this raise for people who are wondering if this path is worth the time
and energy?
My previous blog post: Do Writers' Futures Lie in Indie E-Publishing Platforms? (includes interview with Mark Coker)
Feature package on self-publishing from March/April issue of Writer's Digest magazine
My previous rant on self-publishing
How to publish on Smashwords (at their site)
Jane Friedman is a full-time entrepreneur (since 2014) and has 20 years of experience in the publishing industry. She is the co-founder of The Hot Sheet, the essential publishing industry newsletter for authors, and is the former publisher of Writer's Digest. In addition to being a columnist with Publishers Weekly and a professor with The Great Courses, Jane maintains an award-winning blog for writers at JaneFriedman.com. Jane's newest book is The Business of Being a Writer (University of Chicago Press, 2018).


When I had my first two daughters, fertility issues were not something I had to think about. Then, I had a miscarriage. And everything about the way my body was supposed to work in a "womanly" way appeared to be broken. It was the first time I had to think about infertility personally. I had friends that had experienced it, but it had been sort of taboo to discuss. I'd heard of donor egg success stories. I'd heard of friends donating eggs. I've had a friend of a friend that had a baby via surrogacy. It wasn't personal until it was.
I didn't like that it was taboo. It was so hard because people that hadn't been there had so little understanding of what was happening.
And when I was pregnant with our fourth, she was in the middle of her family's struggle to get pregnant. We talked about what I had done and what she had done. I asked her to share her journey with you all; to make it less taboo; to make more people understand. She and I both wanted to share her donor egg success story.
I am a 38 year old professional. I obtained two undergraduate degrees and a Masters. I love photography and gadgets. I married at 30.
My husband and I decided to try to start getting pregnant at age 32, two years after we were married. I started my monthly cycles at a young age (10) and was afraid that I might go into menopause at a young age as well. It figures that just about the same time we decided to start trying to get pregnant, we also had issues with job security. My companies that I worked for kept getting sold and closing the office that I was located in.
I had my annual checkup at 32 and asked my OB when I should be worried if I wasn't getting pregnant. She stated that if I did not get pregnant within the first couple of months I should schedule another appointment with her and she would try to help things along. She was able to prescribe a drug that is taken on certain days of your cycle, which should help to release eggs. After 3 rounds of this prescription, she referred me to a local fertility clinic.
Right about this time, my first company announced the office closure. We decided to put getting pregnant on hold until I was able to get established in a new position.
About 1 year into my new position we finally reached out to the local fertility clinic. My husband and I are on the heavy side, and as such my husband has health issues (gout and diabetes). The first issue the fertility clinic was able to establish was that one of my husband's prescriptions was working against our getting pregnant. At the same time (and keep in mind there are mean and there are nice doctors) the initial doctor we spoke to told us that we would have to lose weight prior to the fertility clinic being able to help us. The doctor was not really nice about it, and it left a pretty bad taste in our mouths.
Weight was lost, appointments were made, and tests were taken, by this time, I am 34 years old. We went through several more rounds of the prescription then we decided to move forward with an IUF (Intra Uterine Fertilization). I have described this procedure as a complicated turkey baster. After our first treatment, I was notified that my office was going to be closed, again pausing the pregnancy track. Please keep in mind that during this time we did not do anything to prevent pregnancy, we just didn't do anything to help either.
As a side note, around this time, we had some friends that were also struggling to conceive who decided to move forward with embryo adoption. The procedure took, immediately, and produced a beautiful little girl. Since then, in February of 2015 they gave birth to child that was naturally conceived.
Christmas of my 36th year was miserable. My husband pretty much ruined Christmas by moping about the whole time. The lack of children was affecting his disposition. By this time I was trying to accept the fact that we were never going to have children. I told him that on my 37th birthday (May), I would go back to the fertility clinic and try, one more time.
We were able to request a different doctor, who was much nicer and willing to work with us. She finally told me that I suffered from hyperovarianism AND that my quality and quantity of eggs was low. She suggested that we try a couple rounds of IUF and if that did not work, IVF or other methods were going to be our only options.
We tried 3 rounds of IUF to no success. The doctor sat me down and informed me that every day the chance of getting pregnant was slimmer. She gave me a 10% chance of conceiving with IVF but stated that my likelihood of conception with egg donation was 50%. My husband and I spoke and decided to at least attend the information meetings regarding egg donation.
Honestly, from the time of my 37th birthday to our decision to obtain more information 3 months had past. We were also interested in embryo adoption, but at this point knew that his sperm was viable.
We wanted to know how much was going to be covered by our insurance (my husband's insurance policy is written out of Illinois where they have a state law requiring companies to cover some infertility treatments).
We wanted to know financing options (even after insurance covered the IVF portion of the procedure we still had a hefty bill for the cost of the eggs).
We wanted to know about the screening procedure of the women that donated eggs.
We wanted to know the medical procedure and the steps that we would have to take.
What do you wish you would have known going into it and that you could tell others?
I was allergic to the oil that housed the hormones I had to inject for 15 weeks. If you are uncomfortable, ask if it is normal. If it is not, they can prescribe something else. I ended up with welts and bruising and the inability to sit for long periods of time because I didn't ask.
My husband and I likened it to a dating website. We were able to filter based on certain "traits". He and I both looked separately and wrote down our top choices. It just happened that both of our top choices were the same donor. We were given a wealth of information on the available donors.
A health history and a family health history, goes back to grandparents.
Basic characteristics of donor (also included family characteristics up to the grandparents) i.e. height, weight, race, eye color, hair color blood type.
Essays with personal information about the donor.
Once we choose the specific donor, those eggs are put on "hold" for us.
Once that decision was made to move forward, everything began to move quickly. Since you are willing to invest more money in the procedure the doctors want to make sure that your body is viable for implantation. I was scheduled for a Hysteroscopy in August. During that procedure they found several polyps on my Uterus. The polyps did not mean that I could not get pregnant, but they also would not help my in the process either. They immediately scheduled me for a Hysteroscopy Polypectomy (September).
At the same time we were given access to the website to choose the donor and we scheduled an appointment with a Psychologist. Our clinic screens both the donor and the recipients to ensure they are stable enough to go through the procedure. What was awesome about the appointment was the Psychologist provided a list a books that will aid in telling our daughter how special she is and how this wonderful woman gave a tiny piece of herself so that we could have her.
Once I was fully healed from the Hysteroscopy Polypectomy I began taking hormone pills (two different pills several times a day) and injections (once a day) to prepare my body for the transfer. The injections continued for 12 weeks after the transfer, as they would for any IVF patients, to insure that my body produced the right amount of hormones to encourage sustainability and growth. The injections sucked, but the end product was so worth it!!
Nowadays, unlike in the past, doctors are aware that it is just as likely for one egg to take as it is for two. They suggested that only one egg be transferred, as multiples cause more difficulties. We agreed.
We started with 8 eggs. From those eight eggs we had 5 viable embryos. They implant the embryos at the blastocyst stage (5 days after fertilization). They are able to determine which of the five blastocysts was the strongest and that was the one that was transferred. We have a picture of the blastocyst on the day that it was transferred, our baby's first picture. We also have 3 remaining embryos that were eventually frozen (one did not develop past the blastocyst stage). We can choose to transfer more embryos in the future or donate the remaining.
Is there anything else you would want somebody to know that is in your same shoes?
You are not alone. Oh and if you are older it is not your age, but the age of the egg that determines if it is a high risk pregnancy. My egg was 29, so I did not have to go to the specialist.
My transfer occurred on October 21. I was declared officially pregnant on Halloween day, though I "knew" before. I gave birth to a healthy baby girl less than a month after my 38th birthday. She was 3 weeks early; due to a condition that I developed called Polyhydramnios during pregnancy. I delivered her via C-Section and she was 8 lbs 9 ounces, 20.5 inches. She is the light of our life!
We went into the pregnancy with an open mind. We knew there would be issues, but we decided that we would do what the doctor's suggested and not try to fight. When the doctors initially told us that we would probably deliver via C-Section they were shocked at how calm I was and repeated themselves several times to make sure I understood what they said. I told the doctor it is what it is and it is pointless to get upset over it.
We ended up taking a "loan" from our 401(k) plan in the amount of $14,000. We decided this was the best option, as we would have costs after the child was born as well and didn't want to have a loan out there that we may not be able to pay. We also did not want to deplete our saving. The donor eggs cost right at $9000. Then you have all of the procedures and medicines. We were lucky to be covered with insurance. I believe it could have easily cost over $20k without insurance. The annual storage fee for the remaining embryos is $400.
I didn't explore surrogacy. I wanted the experience of being pregnant. I don't know what we would have done if the result had been different. We may have investigated this option.
If you are looking for more information about egg donation, or seeking the right program, you may want to consider Family Creations, LLC®. They are an internationally recognized Egg Donor and Surrogate Program. Their experience and devotion to their clients has earned Family Creations, LLC® the reputation of being one of the most renowned Egg Donation and Surrogacy agencies in the world. They choose to work with people who have their passion for this very special kind of sharing and their team is committed to providing the very best assistance to each of their clients. Family Creations, LLC® addresses every family's concerns each step of the way – not only do they work to help with egg donation and finding donors, but they also work with recipient families, too. They have a very rigorous process for both the donor and the recipient to make sure that it runs as smoothly as possible.
While my friend didn't explore surrogacy, it could have been an option for her, too. Surrogacy is when one woman carries another woman's child (either with her own eggs and her spouse's sperm, or donor's or a combination of both). Family Creations, LLC® also has a very thorough process of helping families obtain a surrogate to help them become parents, making sure that they are healthy and matched in the best way possible.
If you are interested in becoming a surrogate, Family Creations, LLC® is currently looking for surrogates in the Georgia area (as well as the others listed below). To become a surrogate, they require that a woman be between the ages of 21-40 with a BMI (body mass index) under 35. She must be a non-smoker and must not use drugs. For surrogacy with Family Creations, LLC®, a surrogate candidate must reside in California, Texas, Colorado, Illinois, Georgia, or Nevada, have had at least one easy pregnancy with no complications and must not be receiving any type of government assistance.
I'm so happy for my friend's story and their beautiful child. I know the struggle is not something anybody wanting to become a parent should endure, but I'm so glad she found services like those offered at Family Creations to help her and her husband became the parents they dreamed they could become.
« Morning Bizarre or Morning Approved?
What a wonderful story for that family! Lots of sweat and tears to a beautiful end. Congrats to them!
She's totally the cutest and happiest little girl, too!
thank you for sharing this story. I think it will help a lot of other couples.
Great story to share! Congrats on their healthy baby girl!
I know she's reading (well, mom), so I'm sure she appreciates your comment!


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Four Leon volleyball players sign letters of intent
By Dominic Miranda
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) - The Leon Lions volleyball team added to their stellar 2021 campaign on Thursday by having four players sign to play at the next level.
Capping off a national ranking, a 25-5 record and a five-set regional final heartbreaker, the Lions have a lot to be proud of.
Saniaa Dickey (Lake Sumter State College), Sanaa Simmons (Clark Atlanta University), Alexa Washington (McNeese State) and Cailen Demps (Southern Miss) were all celebrated Thursday afternoon to sign their National Letters of Intent to play volleyball at the collegiate level.
Lions head coach Angie Strickland sang the praises of the four young women and what they've mean to the Leon program over the course of their time there, saying that this is what it's all about.
"This is an amazing moment for these kids and its something that you look forward to when you're coming here with the hopes that you will sign to a university or a college at any level," Strickland said. "It's just a great gift that they're getting today to further their education, not only that which is the most important part, but they get to use volleyball as the vehicle to do that."
Copyright 2021 WCTV. All rights reserved.
In the Nole Zone: FSU students establishing hoops culture
In the zone: FSU students establishing hoops culture
Down goes No. 6: FSU defeats Duke, 79-78, in overtime

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Happy St. Patrick's Day
St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17 in observance of the death of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland.
Historically, the festival was a religious feast-day in Ireland, but now it is celebrated across the globe! Festivities differ from country to country., but the goal is the same- to celebrate Irish culture with parades, traditional foods, music, dance, and a whole lot of green!
Our artists have celebrated this holiday with a lot of amazing imagery. To see what we have to offer, take a look at our St. Patrick's Day selection: http://www.artlicensing.com/product-search?s=st+patrick%27s+day
Categoies:
Paddy's
licensed art
jack appelman
Posted by: syrenam
Moises Levy featured in a COLOSSAL way!
We are super excited for our photographer, Moises Levy, as he will be featured in one of the largest visual art, design, and culture blogs on the web: Colossal! They are best known for celebrating the work of both established and emerging artists across a vast field of creative endeavors.
Moises Levy will be featured so they can celebrate how he captures unique moments of human and animal interaction in his street photography, most often centered around activities at the beach. You can check his amazing photographs on his Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moises_levy_street/
If you are interested in licensing his images, check out his licensing portfolio.
Update (October 26, 2018): the blog has been posted!! Check it out today by clicking here.
Anthony Paladino's photo was chosen as one of "Peter's Picks".
Art Licensing artist, Anthony Paladino, was recently featured in the Image City Photography Gallery exhibit, 'Through the Student Lens 2018', where his photo was chosen as one of "Peter's Picks".
Anthony's photo, titled 'Light and Water on Colorful Sandstones', was selected for the exhibit after winning an award in one of the monthly competitions established by Camera Rochester, a photography group in the greater Rochester, NY area.
The exhibit's main attraction was a selection of photographs from local high school students, representing 18 different schools in the Rochester area. Also featured were works from Wilson Foundation Academy's Studio 678, The Rochester Area Nature Photography Meetup Group and other members of the Camera Rochester group.
Peter Marr has served as a judge, in both local and International photographic competitions, for the past 20 years and is a former President of the Kodak Camera Club, as well as a past Chairman of numerous Kodak Camera Club organizations. His photography has won him numerous awards throughout Kodak and in International Salons, including 5 George Eastman Medals, which is the top honor awarded to the most outstanding picture in the Annual Kodak International Salon.
Here is what Peter had to say about Anthony's photograph: This lyrical waterscape, superbly seen and artistically captured by the author, is an impressive example of an image that is both timeless and magical. From the title, one knows that the photograph is about the playful interaction of light and water over colorful sandstones, which could be interpreted as the enchantment of moving water with the vitality of inert rocks. For myself, I am fascinated by the rhythmic interplays of colors in the water, which range from deep blues which gently merge into lighter shades of aqua blues and turquoise. Below the surface, the orange and yellow-gold hues could easily be imagined as from goldfish gently swimming over the sandstone rocks. Every viewer should take the time to look beyond the quiet beauty of this memorable print, relax the mind and try an emotional response, which could be a reflection of their own dreams. My own visual commentary is twofold. Firstly, it is easy to imagine that one is looking at an impressionism era painting, and secondly, the gentle flow of the water is musically reminiscent of a quiet passage from Claude Debussy's La Mer. Photographically, Anthony has captured this image creatively, particularly by using a shutter speed that is exactly right in order to capture the profound serenity and emotional impact of this image.
To License some of Anthony's images, click here.
Anthony Paladino
Carrie Schmitt was recently featured in a short documentary about her work!
Our artist, Carrie Schmitt, was recently featured in a short documentary about her work!
The short film was created and posted by artistsnetwork.com, an online community for visual artists with nearly 390,000 subscribers. In the video, Carrie explains how in 2009 she was diagnosed with a life threatening affliction. When she was at her lowest, it was small acts of kindness and patience that helped to gather her creativity again. She goes on to say that her love for painting has blossomed into something more- something that Carrie has chosen to share with others through "Art Retreats" that she puts on.
To see the full video please click the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ6tkGsDfS4
If you are interested in licensing some of Carrie's beautiful designs please browse her portfolio by clicking the following link, http://artlicensing.com/content/carrie-schmitt
Carrie Schmitt
Josh Byer's "The Cat Who Stole the Sun" goes viral!
Our wonderful artist, Josh Byer had an image which recently went viral on the popular social networking site Reddit; gathering more than 100,000 views!
As a result, Josh was interviewed by A UK News Wire and the story was shared among a variety of publications. The image that went viral is called "The Cat Who Stole the Sun" and it is inspired by a dream that Josh had.
He described the dream in the interview, "I had taken my shirt off because I was sweating. There was a lot of noise. The sky was overcast and shimmered like gasoline.That's where the cat appeared, between clouds. He stole the sun while I watched, smiling with tiny little eyes. There was nothing I could do to stop him". Josh went on to say that he draws much of his inspiration from his dreams or "visions" as he put it.
To read the interview first hand see any of the links below. If you would like to license work from Josh Byer please feel free to check out his portfolio here: http://artlicensing.com/content/josh-byer or follow him on Instagram at @vancityjoshb .
The Independent: https://www.independent.ie/world-news/and-finally/this-bizarre-dream-about-a-sunthieving-cat-has-been-turned-into-a-wondrous-work-of-art-36709303.html
The Evening Express: https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/news/this-bizarre-dream-about-a-sun-thieving-cat-has-been-turned-into-a-wondrous-work-of-art/
Breaking News: https://www.breakingnews.ie/discover/this-bizarre-dream-about-a-sun-thieving-cat-has-been-turned-into-a-wondrous-work-of-art-832767.html
The Irish News: https://www.irishnews.com/magazine/daily/2018/03/15/news/this-bizarre-dream-about-a-sun-thieving-cat-has-been-turned-into-a-wondrous-work-of-art-1279791/
The Bailiwick Express: https://www.bailiwickexpress.com/jsy/life/fun/bizarre-dream-about-sun-thieving-cat-has-been-turned-wondrous-work-art/
The Belfast Telegraph: https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/Viral/this-bizarre-dream-about-a-sunthieving-cat-has-been-turned-into-a-wondrous-work-of-art-36709310.html
The Shropshire Star: https://www.shropshirestar.com/entertainment/lifestyle/2018/03/15/this-bizarre-dream-about-a-sun-thieving-cat-has-been-turned-into-a-wondrous-work-of-art/
Europe Breaking News: https://www.europebreakingnews.net/2018/03/this-bizarre-dream-about-a-sun-thieving-cat-has-been-turned-into-a-wondrous-work-of-art/
Express & Star: https://www.expressandstar.com/entertainment/lifestyle/2018/03/15/this-bizarre-dream-about-a-sun-thieving-cat-has-been-turned-into-a-wondrous-work-of-art/
Two Eggz (China): http://www.twoeggz.com/int/7667757.html
European News: http://www.europe.easybranches.com/ireland/This-bizarre-dream-about-a-sun-thieving-cat-has-been-turned-into-a-wondrous-work-of-art-280842
Online Information Hub: http://onlineinformationhub.com/this-bizarre-dream-about-a-sun-thieving-cat-has-been-turned-into-a-wondrous-work-of-art/
josh byer
Who is CB Studios?
CB Studios is one of Art Licensing's most adored whimsical artists. Although trained in graphic design, she is now a full-time illustrator with a passion for drawing animals and fairies. Much of CB Studios' drawing experience comes from observation and exploration rather than formal education. From a young age, she regularly immersed herself in the classic works of Beatrix Potter and Margaret Mary Tempest, among others.
"They had a sweetness about them, which partly came through their soft execution. The stories were based around goodness and being together, and that was a world I wanted to be part of, which I found through drawing."
Throughout her childhood, CB Studios' drawing skills brought considerable attention, convincing her that she wanted nothing more than to pursue a career in the arts. Although also somewhat interested in becoming a veterinarian, she ultimately decided that she would attend an art college rather than aim for a more traditional education experience.
After completing her foundation year at art school and working for a while in graphic design, CB Studios was greeted with an opportunity to create images for worldwide licensing purposes, including home décor, greetings, crafts, stationery, educational, needlecrafts, book illustrations and private commissions.
"It was my whimsical fairy and animal work which became not only the work I most enjoyed, but also proved to be my most commercially popular."
CB Studios' love of animals – particularly cats and kittens – allows her to bring out the character and mood of her subjects through her work. Whilst striving for detail, in both her fairy and her animal work, CB Studios aims to create designs that encompass a sentimental, timeless and enchanting quality – and always with a touch of cute.
We recently reached out to CB Studios, to learn more about how Karen approaches her illustrations – and she was kind enough to provide a wonderful overview of her artistic process.
Ideas for paintings are frequent, and often just pop into my head at any time or situation. I will send these ideas either as a descriptive text, or a very rough thumbnail, to Syrena [AL Licensing Director]. As soon as an idea is chosen, I go straight into a full-size sketch.
I create the sketch by hand on 2 A4 (10 ins x 8 ins) sheets of thin paper, using a 5 x 7 format in either portrait or landscape. This is very detailed and neat, despite being just a sketch. It is vital that all of the painting's content and details are seen at this stage, in order to establish the final result and achieve the best image to sell, and also because it is easier to make changes at this stage.
Any necessary amendments to the sketch are made through discussions with the team at AL and then I create a "colour rough" using the sketch. This is such a vital part of the process, as it can often highlight possible colour clashes we don't want and also helps determine good colour balance across the scene.
Once any amendments on the colour rough are finalised, I then draw the scene out neatly and lightly, onto a good quality paper around 11 ins x 16 ins, using a lightbox and my rough sketch. I then "stretch" this sheet of paper onto a board. Stretching paper allows me to use wet media to do the painting, without the paper buckling and involves soaking the paper in water, taping it down onto a board and allowing it to dry overnight. Some artists draw on the paper after stretching, but I like the clean lines I get by drawing it prior to stretching.
If the paper dries with buckles – often because I haven't taped it down fully and air has snuck in, then I have to re-draw the neat piece on a fresh sheet and stretch again. Fortunately, this rarely happens as I've got this part down to a tee now. The rest of the process is to simply paint the scene using watercolour and pencils, using as many bright and uplifting colours as possible.
Karen Middleton
CB Studios
ALI Heads Across the Pond!
Recently, Syrena and Russ went across the pond, as they say, to attend the 2018 Spring Fair in Birmingham, England.
This is the first time Art Licensing has sent representation to attended this show and what an amazing experience it was! Syrena and Russ were so excited to go into uncharted territory in effort to meet new clients!
The National Exhibition Centre (NEC) – Birmingham is the largest exhibition center in the UK. It is set on grounds of 611 acres and is made up of 20 interconnected halls. Syrena and Russ walked all 20 halls, made countless contacts, and saw a plethora of new trends for 2018 & 2019.
Some of the trending animals Russ and Syrena identified were unicorns, flamingos, and llamas. Llamas were everywhere, on wall décor, blankets, greeting cards, flags, puzzles and so on. Another hot topic that Russ and Syrena identified was something they are calling "blinged-out-rustic" or rustic with flare. In other words, rough textures like burlap or birch wood with pops of gold, silver, or bronze; metallic colors in a variety of forms are still as popular as they were in 2017. Although the show is called Spring Fair, Syrena and Russ saw quite a bit of products with Christmas designs on them because Christmas is always trending it just varies in style.
One of the top Christmas artists that we represent, The Macneil Studio, was also in attendance at the show. We had the wonderful opportunity of walking the show with Dan Macneil, son and manager to Richard Macneil the artist behind The Macneil Studio. In addition to being a great tour guide to first time attendees Russ and Syrena, Dan also helped make introductions to new customers. Upon their return to the US, Russ and Syrena raved about the show, the amazing turnout, and the potential for new business.
As things return to normal after the trip and the deals begin to unfold, it is clear that this new customer base will be a great new marketplace for ALI to explore. Spring Fair 2018 has proven a huge success for ALI, and we are excited to attend this show as well as other tradeshows in the near future. If you have inquiries about licensing opportunities please visit our "Contact Us" page and reach out to one of our licensing agents.
No Sleep Till Brooklyn!
Once again, members of the Art Licensing team recently ventured out of the quiet countryside of the Green Mountains, on a special road trip assignment. ALI President, Matt Appelman, along with photographers Joe Mozer and Justin Ordway, departed Vermont in the early hours of a cold November morning to meet the pop-art mastermind, Dean Russo, in his colorful Brooklyn, NY studio.
Once the crew had checked into their hotel, they headed over to Dean's place at Industry City Studios – Brooklyn's newest creative hub, located in a complex of former warehouses on the waterfront in Sunset Park – to get to work. After a brief tour of the studio space, the first order of business was to set-up their equipment and capture some highly detailed digital files of Dean's newest paintings. The guys quickly devised an efficient system of operation and managed to turn out over 75 new, high-resolution files for our licensing archives! After a long and successful day, the team retreated to their hotel, enjoyed some dinner and rested up for day two.
Their second day at the studio gave the ALI guys a glimpse into Dean's brilliant and unique approach to painting; Not only did they get to witness the artist in action on his traditional medium of choice, canvas, they also observed Dean putting his creative touch on a commissioned Buddha sculpture! Throughout the day, the team worked with Russo to produce some "thank you" videos, for customers of companies that work with Art Licensing International and feature Dean's work on a variety of awesome products.
The group relaxed and enjoyed a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant in Brooklyn, accompanied by Dean, to conclude their second day in the city and celebrate a job well done. The next day, the ALI team hopped in the car and headed back to Vermont. They were excited to get out of the office for a couple days, but ready to go home and get back to work!
To learn how you can license Dean's images, contact us today.
Dean Russo. Art Licensing
Who's Who in American Art? Stanton Manolakas, that's who!
Jack Appelman, CEO of art Licensing, is thrilled to announce that ALI watercolor artist, Stanton Manolakas, has recently been inducted into Marquis Who's Who, recognized as a worldwide lifetime achiever!
Who's Who in American Art is a biographical directory of noteworthy individuals in the visual arts community in the United States, published by Marquis Who's Who. Since 1899, it has remained a standard for reliable, comprehensive biographical data and every year, they strive to continue the tradition established by their founder, Albert Nelson Marquis. The individuals chosen to be represented by Marquis Who's Who have excelled in their respective fields for many years and deserve to have their accomplishments acknowledged and showcased. Manolakas is no exception and we are proud to represent his beautiful work!
Stanton Manolakas was born in Detroit, Michigan where he was influenced as a child by the culture of the city, its architecture, the dominance of the automobile and their interaction with elements of nature. He believes that these aspects of urban life combine to create a powerful aesthetic and interesting visual experience.
He began painting in 1981 choosing watercolor to create his realistic vision of American life from 1850 to present. With in four years his works were selling in galleries and became part of corporate collections of Bechtel Industries, the Marriott Hotel Corporation, and Wolverine Bronze as well as the private collection of Henry Dupont. His museum credits include the Dossin Great lakes Museum and the Lake Superior Marine Museum.
To see his complete licensing portoflio, click here!
Stanton Manolakas
Get Unreal with Sheena Pike!
For Canadian illustrator Sheena Pike, there was just something rather uninspiring about drawing realism and, after years of chasing perfection with her pencils, she eventually lost interest in drawing altogether.
Turning to graphic design as an alternative creative outlet, Sheena switched gears and took a hiatus from drawing. However, the universe had other plans for her future as an artist and there eventually came a day when Sheena once again found a pencil in her hand.
With a fresh perspective and a dream of achieving commercial success, Sheena began to rediscover and reinterpret her imagination, experiencing her creativity in new and exciting ways.
"When I began envisioning my drawings as products, the possibilities, the ideas, and my ambitions were endless. I began enjoying my work significantly more, and it greatly reflected in my creativity."
Inspired by many things, Sheena enjoys exploring the beautiful, imaginative world of pop surrealism by combining realistic and illustrative styles. Whimsy and otherworldly, her work often evokes an intensity, giving you a glimpse into her creative mind and the way she sees the world.
Sheena Pike was featured in Colored Pencil Magazine's Winter 2015 issue, as well as a 2016 article highlighting her mixed media techniques. Check out the latest issue of Colored Pencil Magazine to read more about Sheena and her journey to becoming the stunningly talented artist she is today!
Sheena Pike. Art Licensing


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Costly ballot question 3 shot down
Government |
KEN RITTER
LAS VEGAS — Nevada voters answered a nearly $100 million question on Tuesday with a resounding vote against amending the state constitution to break up a monopoly held by the state's dominant electric utility.
The fight over Question 3 pitted NV Energy against two of its big energy customers, casino company Las Vegas Sands and data storage firm Switch, and became the most expensive ballot measure in state history — drawing more spending even than the races for U.S. Senate and Nevada governor.
Nearly three-fourths of voters had given the measure initial approval in 2016. But as a constitutional amendment, it required a second vote to become law.
Dave Chase, manager of the Yes on 3, campaign insisted late Tuesday that competition would drive prices down and increase renewable energy choices. He promised to continue the fight.
"The fact is, NV Energy spent more money opposing Question 3 than anyone has ever spent in the history of Nevada politics," he said.
Voters also decided Tuesday to enshrine victim rights in the state constitution, repealed taxes on feminine hygiene products and medical equipment, provided for automatic voter registration at the state motor vehicles department and agreed to speed the pace and raise the requirement for electricity generated from renewable energy sources.
Backers of the energy choice initiative, led by Sands and Switch, spent nearly $33 million telling voters that companies and consumers should not be forced to buy electricity from one provider and that market forces and competition would drive prices down.
LV Sands, Switch and some other large corporations want to quit NV Energy and buy electricity elsewhere. But they face stiff exit penalties that would compensate smaller customers whose rates could be affected.
NV Energy, which faced the loss of its exclusive franchise, underwrote much of the $63.4 million spent against Question 3. Opponents characterized the initiative as a bid for unpredictable deregulation that would drive prices up.
NV Energy promised to invest billions of dollars in solar energy production if the measure failed, and to partner with six solar power development firms around the state to buy enough renewable energy to supply more than 600,000 homes.
The contest also was framed as a battle between billionaires. Investor Warren Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, owns NV Energy while casino mogul Sheldon Adelson heads Las Vegas Sands, owner of the Venetian and Palazzo resorts on the Las Vegas Strip.
The victim rights measure was backed by California billionaire semiconductor company co-founder Henry Nicholas in memory of his slain sister, Marsalee "Marsy" Nicholas, who was killed by her ex-boyfriend in 1983. It was approved by the state Legislature in 2015 and 2017, but needed voter approval as a constitutional amendment.
It expands the definition of a victim and lists 16 rights including privacy, protection from a defendant, refusal of interview or deposition requests without a court order, notice of court and parole hearings and "full and timely restitution."
The so-called "pink tax" repeal for feminine hygiene products, Question 2, needed voter approval as a tax law.
The medical equipment tax, Question 4, was framed as a patient tax relief initiative. It needed statewide approval as a constitutional amendment a second time, after passing with 72 percent of the vote in 2016.
The automatic voter registration issue, Question 5, amends state law to change what amounted to an opt-in system at the state Department of Motor Vehicles to an opt-out rule. That will require a person to check a box to decline voter registration.
The other energy question on the ballot, Question 6, won its first statewide vote. It will need voter approval again in 2020 as a constitutional proposal to raise the minimum amount of power that electric utilities generate or acquire from solar, wind or geothermal sources to 50 percent in 2030.
Sisolak orders Nevada National Guard to prepare a quick response unit ahead of inauguration
Nevada lowers age to get vaccines from 75 to 70; Sisolak extends 'pause'
Congress confirms Joe Biden's presidential election win
Longtime Nevada State Sen. Joseph M. Neal, Jr., dies
Should Nevada move to a full-time Legislature?
Nevada Appeal E-Edition
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Lahontan Valley E-Edition
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Aine O Donnell
joined on 26th January 2012
The Ghosts of Glass Boxes...
By Kevin Freeney
'The Ghosts of Glass Boxes Dreaming Under Tombstones; The Screen as a Final Resting Place' is a non-narrative experimental art movie being made for the NCAD Degree Show.
Lynda Cullen- Album Release
By Lynda Cullen
Lynda Cullen -Album Release We are delighted to be embarking on the recording of a full album of songs, and hope that you can be a part of this exciting journey!
Chucky's River: Debut Album
By S.I.L
We are recording our debut album in February 2012 and with your help, we will release it in April.


The Sparrowfart is a road ride run on a Saturday morning with a 7:30am start. These are shorter rides around 30 miles aiming to get people home in time to spend the majority of the day with their family.
The start point is the traffic lights at Newbold, routes generally head west into the Peak District and as a result are quite hilly.
Pace fits in with our club "Red" pace, which is around 14-15mph average over the hills.
The Sparrows ride year round, applying the Velominati rules #5 and #9.


Through a caring environment, education, vocational preparation, and independent living skills young people can transition from welfare to self-care.
Education and vocational training need to be complemented with independent living skills training so that onceyoung people depart the institution, foster home, or training center, they are prepared to face the future.
Vocational training opportunities must be based on market research and with actual job procurement in mind to alleviate the too common problem of trainees being unable to find a job in the profession for which they have been trained.
Vocational training, when possible, should be made accessible to all children, so that children with special needs can train alongside others without disability or handicap.
Initiatives should concentrate on peoples' strengths, not their weaknesses.
An appeal for ACN assistance should not be made without some thought given by the prospective NGO grant recipient as to how ACN assistance can be phased out from the second year onwards so that the project can eventually become self-supporting.
DO NOT INCLUDE: Administrators' salaries in your project's budget.
INCLUDE: Your organization's contribution to the success of the project, photos and anecdotes about current projects and/or projects already successfully completed, your website link, a contact's email address, and any onformation that will help ACN better understand the population you are serving.
For more information on whether your project qualifies for ACN support, email ACN at info@assistingchildreninneed.org.


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You are here: Home / Game Reviews / Antichamber: A Review
Antichamber: A Review
Posted on December 8, 2016 Leave a Comment
"You are in a twisty maze of passages, all alike."
This is a (somewhat) well-known description of a non-linear maze in Colossal Cave. Going one way and then doubling back did not always mean that you ended up in the same room. These types of mazes were common and commonly annoying in early text adventures, the rooms randomly connected. Antichamber is a game that takes this idea and mashes it with M. C. Escher inspired geometry and perspective to create an unforgettable puzzle game. The world does not necessarily adhere to any physical rules of the world we know and inhabit and withing the first few minutes of the game, everything you thought you knew about videogame logic is thrown out the window. Stairwells go up and up and yet the next floor is the same one where you started ascending. Corridors and doors appear and disappear depending on the angle you are looking at them. The world changes when viewed through different colour lenses or objects. Disorienting at first, but ultimately satisfying, half the puzzles are about navigating a world free from physics. The puzzles are about observation, experimentation, and thinking in ways that we are not used to when playing videogames.
The other half comprises of different coloured blocks that you can manipulate with your block gun. For example, one colour creates blocks you can step on, another creates or removes walls. The player uses these coloured blocks to solve puzzles in a myriad of ways. Antichamber is that kind of game that throws you in and asks you to figure it out yourself. Despite this, the game does a good job of teaching players the logic needed to solve the puzzles as long as they are willing to experiment.
As you go through the game you come across these small panels with a simple drawing and a quip about life that could have come from a fortune cookie. These "lessons" are collected on a mural at your hub, a room from where you manage the game. Together these form a sort of tapestry that describes life. I rolled my eyes at some of them. They provide hints at what comes ahead, and a few were wisdoms too easily forgotten as we live our lives. Interestingly, in earlier versions of the game, these messages were apparently negative instead of the positive ones in the final release. This changed as Alexander Bruce, the creator, was working on the game. From the Gamechurch interview:
"This doesn't really fit with the rest of the game, which is about positive reinforcement to overcome challenges. I can't not have this message here because its important that I say something about it, but I don't want to lie. I don't want to say a positive message that I don't believe." I guess because I care so much about the game and am learning so much about myself outside of that, I can just change my beliefs and write a positive message in the game. Then I can just change my beliefs in the real world moving forward as well," and that just makes you a more humble positive person.
This makes sense when you listen to Alexander recount his experience of the game's development at his GDC talk on it. It took him 7 years to make this game and he poured every ounce of life he had into it. At the end of the talk, when asked what he wanted to do next, he said (paraphrased) "that it won't be making a videogame. If I feel like that I don't want to do that shit again". The drive that made Antichamber successful came partially from Alexander's fear of never completing the game and wasting time and him thinking of and implementing ways to create a game that will stand out from the crowd while still staying true to what he wanted to make. Indie developer burnout is a very common thing but I felt that the approach Alexander took was lateral, this thinking outside of the box and taking opportunities in cycles of intense drive, reflection, and learning. In this context, Antichamber is a personal work. It challenges players to break their rules, to grasp opportunities, and to partake in the cycle of observe, reflect, learn.
Comparing Antichamber to Portal is common but also doesn't give Antichamber credit. Portal is a puzzle game centred around a gimmick and an admittedly unforgettable antagonist, but Antichamber is a puzzle game that challenges our world view. It might be just the world view of how videogames should work but the process of going through it and discovering how it works is more rewarding and more natural. Often puzzle games just give you tools and then challenge you in how to use them. Antichamber makes you challenge yourself. It encourages a type of thinking that is beneficial outside the scope of the videogame. This is something most games just can not do.
Antichamber teaches us how to break our perspective on things we think we know, things we think we are experts at. Introspection is important. Perception is important. Antichamber is about challenging these things and hopefully after you finish the game, you will learn a little more about how you see the world around you.
The Last Express: Review
No Pineapple Left Behind: My Own Experience in Cultivating Pineapples
Off-Peak: A Review
Filed Under: Game Reviews Tagged With: Antichamber, Portal


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Unia es el quinto álbum de estudio de la banda de power metal proveniente de Finlandia, Sonata Arctica, tras el álbum Reckoning Night. El primer sencillo del álbum fue "Paid In Full", lanzado el 27 de abril de 2007. Este disco cuenta con unas guitarras más agresivas (la mayoría de los temas del álbum fueron grabados con guitarras de 7 cuerdas), una mayor proliferación de teclados aunque con menor protagonismo en la partes instrumentales. Constantes juegos vocales, donde hay muchos toques operísticos, apuntando a un power metal un poco más progresivo, también se muestra un mayor énfasis en el bajo. Unia es el partitivo plural de la palabra finlandesa "Uni" que significa "Sueño".

Este es el último disco en el que participa el guitarrista Jani Liimatainen.

Temas
 In Black And White (5:03)
 Paid In Full (4:24)
 For The Sake Of Revenge (3:23)
 It Won´t Fade (5:58)
 Under Your Tree (5:14)
 Caleb (6:16)
 The Vice (4:08)
 My Dream's But A Drop Of Fuel For A Nightmare (6:13)
 The Harvest (4:21)
 The Worlds Forgotten, The Words Forbidden (2:57)
 Fly With The Black Swan (5:08)
 Good Enough Is Good Enough (5:16)

Pistas adicionales Europa
10. To Create A Warlike Feel (5:03)

Pistas adicionales Japón
 They Follow (4:50)
 Out In The Fields (Gary Moore) (4:06)
 My Dream's But A Drop Of Fuel For A Nightmare (Instrumental) (6:22)

Miembros
 Tony Kakko – Vocales
 Jani Liimatainen – Guitarra
 Marko Paasikoski – Bajo
 Tommy Portimo – Batería
 Henrik Klingenberg – teclado

Álbumes de Sonata Arctica
Álbumes de 2007
Álbumes de power metal
Álbumes de Nuclear Blast Records
Álbumes de heavy metal

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


I was in EV for around six weeks at the beginning of 2016. I had a fantastic time. If you have any doubts in your mind about going...you should go, even if you're scared about whatever creatures you might find in the jungle!
The Amazon is a truly amazing place and EV really gives you the chance to work, see and enjoy it all. One of the reasons I selected to go was that the price seemed to much cheaper than some of the other stuff you find on the net, and I can say it is good value for money.
I worked with tree planting, GPS mapping and GIS, in addition to helping with animal care tasks (food prep, cage cleaning) and construction work. I was also incredibly lucky that during my stay, three baby monkeys arrived and I, along with everybody else, was able to share the experience of helping to look after them, probably my number one highlight!
However, it is important to remember, that these are wild animals, that hopefully will be released, so try not to become too attached!
Douwe and Olivia were fantastic and I learnt a lot from both of them in such a short time. They are both very knowledgeable at different things and are a great team. I can honestly say I really admire them for the way they are prepared to commit their entire lives to a worthy cause.
Of course living in the jungle does have its challenges; the humidity, cockroaches, snakes, spiders, no fridge etc. But really, this a part of the experience, and being away from home comforts makes you appreciate them so much more, and realize, actually how little you really need them.
I would also recommend maybe going with an idea beforehand about what you really want to get from your stay; a project in mind, learning ecology of certain species, habitat management restoration, wildlife photography, as having this an really help you make the most of your time there.
vacuum storage bag (if you're happy to buy the plastic), stuff will get damp there and it's a good way to prevent this.
Zinc tape / Headtorch / Good quality poncho / Bungee cords (never know when they could be useful).
Finally, I wouldn't bother taking anything like nice clothes and our experience was that there were old clothes to use for work there.
It's a great environment, you will help a good cause, the people are friendly and you'll have a wicked time. My only regret is I didn't stay longer and could go back again!


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Maine Voices
Much could be gained from stricter enforcement of existing gun laws
With the defeat of the background check initiative, we need more muscle in the controls we've got.
By Michael P. BaconSpecial to the Press Herald
WESTBROOK — In their Dec. 2 editorial ("Existing laws won't stem felons' gun purchases"), the editors of this newspaper lamented the defeat of Question 3, the ballot initiative that sought to regulate private-party gun sales. As one who deplores the level of gun violence in our society, I voted in favor, and I share their disappointment.
However, the suggestion by the opposition that we focus instead on better enforcement of existing laws is a good one. Although it may seem unnatural to gun control advocates, they should take their cue from this, examine more critically how criminals acquire their guns and ask whether existing laws regulating the distribution of firearms are being adequately enforced.
Michael P. Bacon is a resident of Westbrook.
Virtually every gun used in a crime was once for sale in the shop of a licensed dealer. What are the paths by which they are distributed from there to the criminal class?
Prior to the Brady Act of 1993, which mandates background checks, anyone, with or without a criminal record, could simply buy from a federally licensed dealer. That path has now been blocked. Another is private sales, blocked in the few states that regulate them.
There is good evidence that these measures make a small (but non-negligible) dent in the problem. It is now harder and requires more determination for a criminal to obtain the weapon he desires. Still, there are too many guns too easily available to the wrong people.
Loss or theft from lawful gun owners, including dealers, is another path. Perhaps a public information campaign reminding gun owners to secure their weapons in a safe when not in use would help. It might also reduce the number of suicides, which account for two-thirds of U.S. gun deaths.
But the most significant paths are (1) so-called "straw purchases," in which one who would fail a background check simply finds a willing surrogate purchaser, and (2) bulk purchases, usually from multiple dealers, by gun traffickers. Often straw purchases, which are illegal, are abetted by negligent or corrupt dealers.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the federal agency responsible for combating illegal distribution of firearms, carries out traces, through the serial numbers, of guns used in crimes back to the dealers who first sold them. They reported that in 1998, more than 85 percent of licensed dealers in the U.S. had no crime guns traced to them at all, while only 1 percent of them accounted for 57 percent of the crime traces.
There could hardly be a clearer indication that most dealers are exceptionally good but that a few are exceptionally bad. Society places a great responsibility for its safety on our arms dealers by licensing them to sell, but some of them are letting us down.
Are we giving the ATF and other law enforcement agencies all of the tools, financial support and clout they need to keep illegal guns off our streets? Probably not. In the past, Congress has actually passed laws restricting the activities of the ATF and denying them tools that would help them do their job effectively.
Do gun dealers need to be more closely audited and have their books and inventory examined more frequently? Probably so. Inspections and audits do burden lawful dealers just to catch the few "bad apples," but they are a responsibility that should come with a license to sell lethal instruments.
The measures I have outlined rarely come up in discussions of gun control, but they should. They merit a full debate, eventually in Congress, to decide whether they would make good policy. Tighter enforcement of existing laws controlling the distribution of guns, including stiffer penalties for violating them, would tackle a bigger part of the problem than would the controversial expansion of background checks, as important as it may be.
These are steps that those on both sides of the debate should be able to support, for they would impinge not at all on the rights or convenience of the law-abiding – only on the activities of the criminal class.
Gun manufacturers, who seem to care only about making every last sale and distributing their products to every last corner of society, regardless of the consequences to public safety, thereby giving gun owners a bad name, might object. But it is time for them to think about their responsibilities. What we now need is a Congress with the ability to recognize that there is a problem and with the motivation (which must come from us, the voters) to do something about it.
background checks, ballot questions, gun violence, maine voices
Browse more in Opinion


Whilst writing Trivium 21c I came across the work of Richard Sennett, I would recommend his writing to anyone interested in arts, crafts, community, organisations and creativity. In The Craftsman he has some interesting things to say re: mastery, expertise, guilds and professional organisations. I try and get the gist of some of his ideas here and look at what implications they may have for our current debates in teaching.
Sennet talks about there being two sorts of expert, the sociable and the anti-sociable. One can quibble about silly dichotomies but this interested me. He posits the idea of the sociable expert as the master craftsman who was, from the middle ages onwards, central to the medieval guilds and their civic and religious rituals; participation and experience were key. However, as time went by, the 'foraging curiosity' of the amateur but experienced Master Craftsman was seen as being of lesser value than specialised knowledge. More recently, professional associations, that had started with similar community values as the guilds, became more in thrall to the knowledge of experts. In the twentieth century professional associations weakened over time as market forces and centralised bureaucracies took their toll. The professional, marked out as more than a mere employee, found herself having to react mainly to the whims of the law and legislation, dictating the very content of her expertise and thereby destroying 'sociable expertise' and replacing it with 'anti-sociable expertise: the surrender of the mastery of the craftsman to the superior specialised knowledge dictated from above.
The 'master' craftsman possessed sociable expertise, through time, because of specialisation, this was replaced by anti-sociable expertise. This is where the conflict arises, if you know 'so much' about something, if you are 'superior', your expertise can be anti-sociable, because you may look upon the community from which you are now 'apart' as foolish. Sennett looks at the work of Vimla Patel and Guy Groen: they compared brilliant, novice, medical students with experienced doctors. The 'by the book', novice, applies the rules rigidly. The more experienced doctors focus on the patients and look beyond immediate cause and effect. The experienced doctor can see further ahead than the novice who knows 'a lot'. The two sorts of expertise can be in conflict.
To paraphrase Sennett: 'Treating others as whole persons, in time, is one mark of [mastery] sociable expertise.' The master or sociable expert sees overall purpose, can make, make do and mend as part of a continuum. The master is good at mentoring and advising, reaching out with an open hand to the community of fellows and 'customers'. Turning outward is the essential part of this sort of expertise.
Anti-sociable expertise institutionalises the inequality between the expert and the non-expert. This can lead to the experts feeling contempt for others as they withdraw into themselves becoming a group apart. You then have a profession of those 'who know' and the others 'who don't'. The non-experts feed on resentment and the institution becomes marked by division. Expertise becomes about showing off knowledge rather than sharing it. It can, when driven by competition, succumb to the need to beat others, often by cutting corners, and by not seeing the 'whole picture' due to the drive to see immediate rather than longer term results.
In teaching the discussions about the role of professional associations, professional development and 'what works' research could do with discussing some of these ideas. Can an organisation encompass expertise that is at once both specialised and sociable? Can we ever recognise the value of experience and realise the Burkean idea of seeing institutional wisdom, exemplified in the tradition and carried out by experienced practitioners, passed down through the generations, as having importance and even value it alongside specialised expertise?
I like the idea of associations that grow from the grass roots, formed like the old guilds, that have their rituals and sociability ingrained in their community. I like the idea of experience being honoured as having a different form of expertise than one that is measurable or noticeable in the shorter term. I worry about expertise coming from outside of the profession and possibly passed down on tablets of stone via anti-sociable experts. This is what happened with ASTs, Expert teachers, QCA and the GTCE, a whole raft of expertise drawn from outside of the profession was used via these agents to dictate to the profession. It arguably 'de-professionalised' some members of our profession (vocation).
A college of teachers needs to be sociable and not built around the anti-sociable concern of teaching. It needs to be drawn from the community it serves, and within that community experience needs to be valued and not derided even if 'the knowledge' the expertise holds is seen to be inferior to the knowledge of the experts who 'know'. I think this is crucial, institutional knowledge in the collective memories of experienced people needs to be harnessed. If an association of teachers tries to bypass the human relationships, for the 'specialised' knowledge from outside of the association by experts answering to the Government's (or even Pearson's et al) desire to ensure we top the PISA tables, then this is not a sociable guild it is an anti-sociable dance of expertise from outside the association fawning to whatever the current direction of the OECD dictates. In the long term this will be to the detriment of the very people we all desire to have flourishing lives: the children we teach. It is by valuing the teachers' expertise that we can then help grow that expertise. Outsource that expertise, you lose it and you derail the tradition.
How can the researcher be brought into the association? And the consultant, the journalist, the nursery teacher and the university professor? How can we harness and share all this expertise and experience in a sociable way? At the same time how can we ensure an association is not a guild-like secret society protecting its tradition against outside influence? Who is valued, in the hierarchy of the association? To me it needs to be the 'craftsman'*. The role of the teacher is central, it is her passion and experience that should 'be' the community, drawing on knowledge and expertise, from wherever it may come, but knowledge and expertise that she sees as relevant, rather than having this 'driven' by outside forces who see an association as a method of controlling teachers in the short term interests of the current whims of government and/or global organisations.
*for want of non generic terms – Master/Mistress Craftsman/Craftswoman I am aware I am using 'masculinised' terms though 'mastery' is not explicitly gendered… I try to counteract this by using she and her within the text.
"I worry about expertise coming from outside of the profession and possibly passed down on tablets of stone via anti-sociable experts. This is what happened with ASTs …." What makes you think ASTs came from the "outside" – the whole point of them was that they were people still in the classroom?
I don't say ASTs came from the outside. I am very aware of how ASTs worked.
Thank you Martin. I don't think education should be a mysterious 'secret garden' run by experts. We should be aiming for a 'sociable' profession which honours teachers' skill and experience and which is also accountable to the wider society for its work.


On Sunday December 13th the Belgian Hairdressers Award show was held in Château du Lac – Genval. Steff Vranckx, the overall winner 2014, gave a fantastic show during the event. Sevda Durukan won the Women Up-To-Date Limburg – Vlaams-Brabant award and also gave a show. It was for sure a night to remember. The event was sponsored by JOICO and we couldn't be prouder of both Sevda and Steff!!


Ria has always loved helping people achieve their goals. Originally from South Africa, Ria first attained a Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Pretoria. She worked for a long time as a math and science teacher, focused on helping students realize their dreams and lay a platform to attain them. Ria then obtained her real estate licensed where she was able to focus on helping families achieve their dreams of owning the perfect home.
Since arriving in Fort McMurray, Ria owned and operated a tutoring franchise. However, her love for helping people achieve their real estate goals eventually took the forefront. Ria has been a professional REALTOR® for five years – and she loves every minute of it.


Simple model of a filamentary current structure in a low-density plasma, such as a Birkland Current. Currents flow parallel to the magnetic field. The lines in the figure represent both current paths and magnetic field lines. The magnetic field derives partly from an external axial field and partly from the toroidal field produced by the current itself (see Alfven and Falthammar, 1963). The current is strongest at the axis and becomes weaker further away from the axis as depicted by the decreasing thickness of the lines.
THEMIS Spacecraft recently re-discovered Birkeland currents, though without reference to Kristian Birkeland's work published in 1908 (Norwegian Aurora Polaris Expedition, Vol I & II). A NASA journalist has likened the interaction to a 30kV battery in space, noting "THEMIS discovered a flux rope pumping a 650,000 Amp current into the Arctic."
According to NASA scientists, every 8 minutes —about the time it takes one to read this article— there's a peculiar and still unexplained event going on way overhead. The magnetosphere —the protective magnetic bubble that envelops the planet, Earth's equivalent of the heliosphere —opens up, providing a direct magnetic connection with the Sun, situated 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) away. Tons of high-energy particles pass undisturbed, carried by the solar wind, through the gateway of the magnetosphere, before it is shut once again.
It's called a flux transfer event or 'FTE'," shares David Sibeck, a space physicist from the Goddard Space Flight Center. "Ten years ago, I was pretty sure they didn't exist, but now the evidence is incontrovertible." There's even more to just that, he indicates, as the FTE phenomenon may take place twice more often than previously accepted. The series of 4 Cluster-type spacecrafts of the European Space Agency, as well as NASA's 5 THEMIS probes, have closely and intensely studied and measured the process, while flying in close proximity of it.
They eventually demonstrated the process was real. While Earth's magnetic field presses against the Sun's, every 8 minutes they merge into a cylindrically shaped portal about the width of the Earth. "We used to think the connection was permanent and that solar wind could trickle into the near-Earth environment anytime the wind was active. We were wrong. The connections are not steady at all. They are often brief, bursty and very dynamic," explains Sibeck.
Based on his latest calculations, he states, "I think there are two varieties of FTEs: active and passive. Passive FTEs may not be very important, but until we know more about them we can't be sure." The active form allows for an easier access of the particles, while the passive one induces more resistance. Done: the FTE that has possibly begun when you started reading this has now ended.
A new study supported by NASA and the National Science Foundation has reached more thorough results related to the way solar storms affect the Earth's magnetic shields, making the old views inaccurate. Depending on the alignment with the Sun's magnetic field, our own develops two huge holes which allow large amounts of solar particles to breach it. Based on some characteristics of the field, researchers can now determine the strength of the upcoming solar storms.
The magnetic field of the Earth behaves as a protective wall against the constant pummeling of the Sun's particle jets thrown towards us. Given that the ions and electrons of the jets are electrically charged, the planetary field can successfully respond to their charge and deflect most of them. Previous theories stated that when the Sun's field was facing a direction opposed to that of ours, giant doors would open for the particles to pass unscathed, and when the directions were similar, the gates would shut.
The new research, based on the results of NASA's Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms mission (THEMIS), comprised of a fleet of five spacecraft that measured the size of the leak, indicated that the opposite is, in fact, valid. "Twenty times more solar particles cross the Earth's leaky magnetic shield when the sun's magnetic field is aligned with that of the Earth compared to when the two magnetic fields are oppositely directed," explained Marit Oieroset from the University of California, Berkeley, quoted by Scientific Blogging.
"The discovery overturns a long-standing belief about how and when most of the solar particles penetrate Earth's magnetic field, and could be used to predict when solar storms will be severe. Based on these results, we expect more severe storms during the upcoming solar cycle,"
LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico, September 9, 2010—A scientist examining the solar wind suggests that our understanding of its structure may need significant reassessment. The plasma particles flowing from the Sun and blasting past the Earth might be configured more as a network of tubes than a river-like stream, according to Joseph Borovsky of Los Alamos National Laboratory's Space Science and Applications group.
In a paper in this week's Physical Review Letters, "Contribution of Strong Discontinuities to the Power Spectrum of the Solar Wind," (Physical Review Letters 105, 111102 ), Borovsky challenges the concept that the solar wind is of fairly uniform structure, and therefore, our entire interpretation of spacecraft data may not be correct.
"For decades we have been interpreting the spectrum of fluctuations in the solar wind as a measurement of turbulence in the wind. However, it turns out that impurities (discontinuities) in plasma dominate the signal. Hence, the spectrum is not a clean measurement of turbulence, and it may not even be a measurement of turbulence," Borovsky said. In simpler terms, perhaps, we couldn't see the forest for the trees.
"Because we might be misunderstanding the solar wind, we might be misunderstanding its impact on the Earth's environment. Understanding solar wind allows us to understand the initiation and evolution of geomagnetic storms," said Herbert Funsten, chief scientist for the International, Space & Response Division at Los Alamos.
Borovosky argues that the discontinuities are part of a structure to the solar wind that looks like spaghetti, with the discontinuities being the boundaries between adjacent noodles (magnetic tubes). In this concept, the wind plasma is structured rather than being homogeneous. He suggests that the spaghetti structure of the solar-wind plasma reflects the "magnetic carpet" on the surface of the Sun, with the spaghetti in the wind being loose strands of the magnetic carpet.
"We have also argued that the spectrum measured in the wind is a 'remnant' of the carpet on the Sun rather than a signature of turbulence in the wind plasma," he says.
The research data came from NASA's ACE satellite, which has been operating upstream of the Earth since 1998. A satellite "sits" in the wind and makes measurements as the wind blows past supersonically (typically Mach 8 or so, typically 300 - 700 km/sec). The information about the measurements is telemetered to Earth and delivered to institutions such as Los Alamos, where data-analysis software converts the satellite readings into physical measurement quantities such as wind speed, wind density, wind temperature, magnetic-field direction. Those physical quantities are put into publicly available data sets, which researchers can use to interpret the space weather, to make comparisons with theoretical models, and generally try to better understand the space environment surrounding the planet.
This page was last modified on 7 September 2015, at 09:42.


The first phase of any effort to boost the efficiency of a piece of machinery in order to lower its operating costs and reduce power consumption is gathering accurate data on the machine's initial performance, particularly torque data. The ability to measure torque reliably is crucial for applications ranging from determining the level of force required to lower an automobile's window to testing a tugboat's high-horsepower engines.
The nature of turbo machinery can make it especially challenging to measure torque accurately. Electric motors, pumps, compressors and turbine engines can all generate high torques at high RPMs. In addition, torsional vibration can sometimes lead to premature failures in the driveline. Historically, this has created limitations on how torque can be measured both accurately and safely. This article addresses some of the basics associated with minimizing torque measurement uncertainty to allow making more informed modifications to a machine's design or operating parameters.
As every former first-year engineering student should recall, "torque" is defined as the amount of force needed to rotate an object about an axis, fulcrum, or pivot. The mathematical equation for torque is "force multiplied by distance." To illustrate, imagine a foot-long lever arm attached to the center of a wheel; if hanging a one-pound weight on the end of the lever arm makes the wheel turn, the force needed to turn the wheel can be described as 1 lb-ft of torque.


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Calif. Dealer Group Amends Lawsuit Against TrueCar
January 6, 2016 • by Staff
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California New Car Dealers Association has amended its May 2015 lawsuit against TrueCar. The modification asks the court to declare that the Santa Monica-based vehicle-buying site continues to be in noncompliance with California Vehicle Code sections requiring vehicle dealer and auto broker licensure.
The amendment also alleges that TrueCar violates state and federal advertising laws with the "no surprise or hidden fees" promise it includes in its advertisements. The association claims the car-buying site fails to disclose to consumers that it receives a fee on each sale made through its website.
"TrueCar actually matches a buyer and a seller and gets paid for doing so," said CNCDA President Brian Maas in the association's Jan. 5 press release. "This is brokering and TrueCar isn't licensed as such."
When the lawsuit was originally filed, TrueCar responded by saying that the California Legislative Counsel Bureau had previously determined that the operation of a web-based service such as TrueCar does not constitute autobrokering or operating as a dealer.
TrueCar continues to claim that they operate differently than traditional auto dealers. However, Patricia Glaser, trial attorney for Glaser Weil, the law firm that filed the litigation against TrueCar, the firm's business model "simply doesn't meet the legal structure in place to protect consumers."
"TrueCar must follow the law like the rest of us," Glaser added.
On Dec. 23 2015, Brian Kabateck, president of the Consumer Attorneys of California, also filed a lawsuit against TrueCar on behalf of class action plaintiff who used the TrueCar network and a guaranteed savings certificate to purchase a vehicle. The lawsuit claimed that TrueCar should have been licensed as a dealer and an auto broker. Additionally, because the fee paid to TrueCar was not disclosed, TrueCar was unjustly enriched by the dealers who paid it, the complaint claims.
Read more about broker California New Car Dealers Association CNCDA dealer litigation TrueCar
California: An Unlikely Compliance Model
I propose that your F&I and sales disclosure compliance models mirror the sales and F&I processes at dealerships in California — what is required by statute in California, should be considered best practices in the other 49 states.
Tips For Recovering Debts From Departing Employees
Many scenarios exist where employees can leave an employer owing the dealership money. The likelihood of your being able to recover money for these purposes depends in large part on a handful of proactive processes and procedures.
Why Comply?
We live in an 'Age of Compliance Awareness' and someone is always watching. We should care about what they see.
Data Breach 101
By all reports, billions of records have been exposed by reported data breaches. If the unthinkable occurs, having a well thought out data breach response plan will help you manage the challenges you and the dealership will face.
SMART Payment Plan Resolves CFPB Investigation
SMART has completed a 4 year investigation with the CFPB.
Reigning in Franken-agency
On June 29, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was unconstitutional. A compliance expert shares why this matters, and why it matters to dealers in particular.
The FTC Suggests We Buckle Up
The FTC recently issued a report that summarizes its enforcement actions, roundtable findings, consumer workshops, and in-person interviews with 38 Washington D.C. metro-area consumers focused on deceptive advertising practices, spot-delivery, and voluntary protection products.
Compliance Considerations When Texting Automotive Customers
The TCPA has been around for more than 25 years but remains one of the most litigated consumer protection statutes. By having proper compliance in place, your dealership can enjoy the benefits of contacting consumers with peace of mind.
Data Privacy in Automotive: How the CCPA Will Impact the Industry
As car shoppers enter their personal information in web forms in search of the best offer, it's important for dealers to have clear guidelines on data they collect.
Who's Zoomin' Who?
Whether businesses interact in person or virtually, they must do so in a safe and secure manner to retain customer trust and comply with applicable law.


An FX swap is a financial instrument that represents the exchange of an equivalent amount in two different currencies between counterparties on two different dates.
The two exchanges are based on the same currency pair, with the two payment flows in the opposite directions.
For example, an FX swap might represent the payment of USD 1,000 and the receipt of EUR 932 on one date, and the payment of EUR 941 and the receipt of USD 1,000 at a later date.
Gets the currency pair in conventional order.
Gets the foreign exchange transaction at the later date.
Gets the foreign exchange transaction at the earlier date.
Creates an FxSwap using two FX rates, near and far, specifying a date adjustment.
Creates an FxSwap from two transactions.
Creates an FxSwap using decimal forward points.
Creates an FxSwap using decimal forward points, specifying a date adjustment.
The transactions must be passed in with value dates in the correct order. The currency pair of each leg must match and have amounts flowing in opposite directions.
The FX rate at the near date is specified as nearRate. The FX rate at the far date is specified as farRate. The FX rates must have the same currency pair.
The two currencies are specified by the FX rates. The amount must be specified using one of the currencies of the near FX rate. The near date must be before the far date. Conventions will be used to determine the base and counter currency.
The FX rate at the near date is specified as nearRate. The FX rate at the far date is equal to nearRate + forwardPoints. Thus "FX forward spread" might be a better name for the concept.
The two currencies are specified by the near FX rate. The amount must be specified using one of the currencies of the near FX rate. The near date must be before the far date. Conventions will be used to determine the base and counter currency.
The FX rate at the near date is specified as nearRate. The FX rate at the far date is equal to nearRate + forwardPoints Thus "FX forward spread" might be a better name for the concept.
This provides details of a single foreign exchange at a specific date. The payment date of this transaction must be before that of the far leg.
This provides details of a single foreign exchange at a specific date. The payment date of this transaction must be after that of the near leg.


Showing results for tags 'hendrix'.
Does anyone have any old altamont shirts/hoddies/flannels they are looking to get rid of? preferably older seasons (2006-2009) size XL (maybe size large since older seasons tend to run big) not interested in pants. will buy anything in Decent/good condition. ALTAMONT HENDRIX T SHIRT WANTED!! let me know thanks!


Small vintage style special occasion bag in grey and cream patterned silky fabric. Large bow with opposite colourway. Cream satin lining. Magnetic clasp fastening. Over-arm handle with cream velvet trim.
The small handbag which goes over the arm, enables both hands to be free to hold your drink and canapes! Big enough to hold 'phone, wallet etc.
Code: 1509 Size: W.23cm H.18cm Handle when folded 18cm.


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The Stand: IUPAT District Council 5 Apprentices, Donors Give Food Bank a Facelift
Reprinted from The Stand.org
(Sept. 28. 2015) — The Puget Sound Labor Agency, which is celebrating its 40th year of service, provides food and other necessities for more than 38,000 people each year in the local community and to union members in need.
Given its budget challenges, sprucing up the Food Bank at the Seattle Labor Temple has been low on the PSLA's priority list. However, with the assistance of Fernando Arevalo, IUPAT District Council 5 representative and the Finishing Trades Institute NW 15 second year Commercial Painting and Decorating Apprentices, the PSLA received an incredible gift.
"Those apprentices came and painted our walls and refinished our doors," said Lynn Nishimura, PSLA Executive Director. With the assistance of Mark Metcalf, owner of Foley Signs, and the employee benefits law firm of McKenzie, Rothwell, Barlow & Coughran, P.S., through Partner Les Coughran, the PSLA logo was added to the wall. The project coordination was handled by Instructor Ron Tate and Coordinator Dave Jones with FTINW.
"This amazing donation is so greatly appreciated and will bring smiles to our clients who have lived with our drab and worn hallways for years," Nishimura said. "We will proudly serve our community and be deeply appreciative of the generosity of the organizations that made this happen."
TAKE A STAND — YOU can help the PSLA continue its 40-year legacy of building wheelchair ramps for disabled citizens who can't afford to install them, providing a union member emergency assistance program in partnership with union locals, and operating its Food Bank, a vital resource for the community, providing groceries and other necessities to families in need. Please make a generous donation today at the the PSLA website.
Short URL: http://www.thestand.org/?p=43750


What a wonderful day to meet so many brides, some grooms, lots of moms and friends at the Knoxville Convention Center last Sunday for the bridal show. We had a booth near the stage and had a great time. Jenni, Rebekah and myself were all able to be at the booth speaking with brides and families and seemed to have a really great response to our photography, philosophy and pricing. Hey the 3 P's.... I like that. For those of you who did not attend and are interested, I am still giving an additional $100 print credit with any new booking from now until June 1st 2009.
Here's a photo of the ad that is in the newest Premier Bride Magazine.


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Scandal: Mitt Romney Worked In Private Equity!
Private equity is a controversial and perhaps disreputable business to work in. That's the message that seems to animate today's front page New York Times article about Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. The story tells the story of how Romney wound up as the founder of Bain Capital, and how he made a fortune in the leveraged finance business. By all accounts he was fantastic at the job—great at convincing business owners to sell, bankers to lend money, and investors to hand over funds for management.
But we can't escape the impression that the Times article—written by political reporter David D. Kirkpatrick—is suggesting that there is something at least a little bit dirty about leveraged buyouts and private equity firms. There's the implication that running a private equity firm isn't like running a business. It's more like being some sort of super salesman, or maybe even being a politician, the article says. And we cannot help but think that a little bit of editing by someone in the business section might have made this description of leveraged buyouts a little less contentious:
He made his money mainly through leveraged buyouts — essentially, mortgaging companies to take them over in the hope of reselling them at big profits in just a few years. It is a bare-knuckle form of investing that is in the spotlight because of the exploding profits of buyout giants like Bain, Blackstone and the Carlyle Group. In Washington, Congress is considering ending a legal quirk that lets fund managers escape much of the income tax on their earnings.
As far as it goes, that seems accurate. But it doesn't go far enough. It leaves out the fact that buyouts typically involve purchasing all the outstanding shares of a company, delivering shareholders a premium above the market price. And it paints those in the private equity business as especially greedy, twice mentioning profits—"big profits" and "exploding profits"—and implying that fund managers are tax dodgers. (Even the phrase "mortgaging companies" is a bit loaded coming so soon after the public has heard about the subprime mortgage meltdown.)
We don't spend too much time with the A Section of the New York Times. This story was a good reminder of why that is.
Romney's Fortunes Tied to Business Riches [New York Times]
Private Equity & Politics: Mitt Romney Winning The PE Primary
Sex Scandal Rocks Private Equity
What's Behind Private Equity's Warnings About Debt?
Does Private Equity Need A New Name?
Mitt Romney And Porn
Private Equity's Access To Better Debt
The Rise of Private Equity
The Debate Over Private Equity In Banking


Signature "Ichiju Sansai" SetToggle visibility of menu section "Signature "Ichiju Sansai" Set"
Please select your main dish, soup and rice.
It comes with 2 appetizers and multigrain rice.
Rice Bowl and SoupToggle visibility of menu section "Rice Bowl and Soup"
Steak donburi with your choice of soup.


Find football pitches in Dublin for 5 a side, 7 a side and 11 a side. Get a game in after work, or keep up the passion on the weekend.
Looking for a badminton court in Dublin? Search and book some of the best courts in Ireland.
Search for and book tennis courts in Dublin. The stage is set to showcase your skills at your local tennis court.
Find a squash court near you in Dublin. There is no better sport to give you a competitive and intense workout.
Find your local sports pitch or court in Dublin by searching our vast database of sports facilities in the Irish capital. Whether you're looking to play sport after work or organise a weekly game, MyLocalPitch can help you discover your nearest sports facility.
So you've found your ideal pitch, court, gym or club. Now it's time to get you booked in. You can either contact the sports facility directly via the enquiry form on our website or, where available, make an instant booking online through our calendar.
All that's left to do now is make sure you're ready for the big game. The stage is set for you to prove you're the best sports player or team in Dublin. Go out there and give it your all and once you've got the taste of victory, you'll be counting down the days until you can do it all over again.
The MyLocalPitch blog showcases the best places to play sport in Dublin and keeps you up to date with the latest grassroots sports news.


GraphQL is revolutionizing the way developers build APIs. Gone are the days when the server decided the shape of the response data. GraphQL puts the client in control so it can fetch exactly the data it needs and nothing more.
React with Apollo on the frontend?
Find out as we unpack a full-featured app together, layer by layer!
Absinthe makes building a GraphQL API a breeze for Elixir developers.
Absinthe is a world-class GraphQL implementation in Elixir. Combine that with the super-fast Phoenix framework, and you've got yourself a robust, high-performance GraphQL API. Then build a frontend using Apollo React for a seriously cool full-stack application!
In this video series we explore the design and code of a full-featured application that let's you search for and book getaways to unique places.
We start with the completed app and unpack it layer by layer so you come away understanding how everything works together in harmony.
No need to piece together solutions yourself. Use this full-stack application as a springboard for creating your own GraphQL apps!
Indeed, our eyes glazed over every time we tried to write a definition for you. So we decided to take a different approach!
Howdy! Before diving into the Absinthe + Phoenix + React app, let's make sure you have your development environment set up so you can explore the code and design alongside us.
The application we unpack lets us book getaways to some really cool and unique places. We can search for a place, book a place, and write a review for a place.
To get a bird's eye perspective of the entire app end-to-end, we look at the overall design and architecture.
The first layer of app we explore is the data model. A good understanding of the four entities, their relationships, and corresponding Ecto schemas with changesets and validations is solid bedrock on which to layer the rest of the app.
Moving up a layer, we have Phoenix contexts that encapsulate all the low-level Ecto queries and database details. The first of which is the Vacation context which is the boundary layer for finding and booking places, writing reviews, and other vacation-related functionality.
All of the account-related functionality, including fetching, creating, and authenticating users is neatly wrapped in the Accounts context.
We start building the GraphQL schema using Absinthe macros: query, object, field, arg, and so on. First up is a query to find a specific getaway place.
To fetch the data that the place query asks for, we write our first resolver function which acts a conduit between the schema and the Phoenix contexts. We also begin to explore the GraphQL API using the super-useful GraphiQL interface.
Next up, we define a more complex GraphQL query which searches for places based on various criteria using a dynamically-built Ecto query.
It's idiomatic to organize resolver functions in separate modules, so we do a bit of refactoring. This kind of separation of concerns will serve us well as the schema gets more involved.
To query the bookings for a place, we write a custom resolver function and explore common pitfalls when querying relationships.
As the app stands now, we have a classic N+1 query problem. Dataloader to the rescue! It's an extremely powerful and must-have tool for crafting efficient GraphQL APIs. We start by giving Dataloader a whirl in IEx to understand how it works.
Now that we know how Dataloader works, we use it to efficiently load data in batches when querying for associations. The result is less code to maintain and no risk of N+1 query problems when requesting data.
Dataloader goes beyond simply loading data in batches. It also supports a flexible way to filter and order the data. We put that to good use by defining filtering and ordering rules for various query fields.
🎉 Special Early Access Price!
Curious about GraphQL. You've heard about it, and perhaps even noticed that some of your favorite platforms now support a GraphQL API. But you're wondering what all the hoopla is about. You need someone to cut through the hype and walk you through a pragmatic example of a GraphQL API and a frontend that uses it. In other words, you're looking to keep up to date with modern API development.
Considering if GraphQL is a good fit for your application and team. You're already using the Elixir/OTP platform to good effect: it's robust, scalable, and fast! But perhaps your RESTful API isn't quite as flexible or maintainable as you'd like. Or maybe you're developing a new API from scratch and want to explore what GraphQL can do for you.
Creating a full-stack GraphQL application and want a jumpstart. No need to get bogged down in figuring out how to put all the pieces together yourself. Save time and frustration by using our full-stack application as a springboard for creating your own app!
Still not sure if this course is for you? Ask us!
New to Elixir and OTP? We've got you covered! Our 6.5-hour video course will help you master functional programming the Elixir way and take advantage of the power of OTP.
While you're waiting for this course, find out how to put together a full-stack, channel-based application that lets you compete at buzzword bingo with multiple players in real time.
Bruce Williams is the co-creator/maintainer of the Absinthe project, the GraphQL toolkit for Elixir, and co-author of Craft GraphQL APIs in Elixir with Absinthe, published by The Pragmatic Bookshelf in 2018.
Many thanks to Bruce for reviewing the application code! His unique insights and suggestions based on hard-earned experience with GraphQL were instrumental in the design of this course.