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Tag Archives: Recovery
Last Dance: The Tall Tale TV Audio Edition
Chris Herron at Tall Tale TV has done an audio version of my HandCannon short story, "Last Dance." Chris himself has a great personal story, having turned on to audiobooks when he was suffering from temporary legal blindness in 2015. He's since recovered, but launched this project both as a way to give back to folks who can't experience stories the traditional way, and to give authors like me a promotional boost without having to shell out for the expense of creating an audiobook on our own. I think he's done a terrific job and his project deserves more eyeballs and earholes, so how about you give this, and other Tall Tale TV stories, a listen?
Posted in comics lovers, free books, Short Fiction, Stephen Brophy, superheroes, supervillains, The Villain's Sidekick, TV, Uncategorized | Tagged audiobooks, Bedazzled, comics, Dazzler, disco, disco ball, Donna Summer, Get Right Back Where We Started From, Gloria Gaynor, HandCannon, Houston, I Will Survive, Last Dance, Maxine Nightingale, novellas, pulp fiction, Recovery, revenge, Science fiction, Sequin, super villain, superhero, superhero fiction, Texas, The Villain's Sidekick, tragedy, writing | Leave a reply
Black Holes and Revelations
When I started this blog, it just seemed like a necessary move to kickstart my "web presence" in the wake of publishing my first book. I don't tend this little thoughtspew garden as frequently as I assumed I would, because I am prone to sloth by nature and because I have a LOT of other shit to do most every day. Sitting down to journal is a luxury from a past life. I had forgotten how much I used to do it until I cracked open a trunkload of my old spiral diaries and faux-leather-bound notebooks , vigorously and desperately maintained from the mid- '80s through the late '90s, a wild minddump of my (pedestrian, suburban, naively whitebread, hopelessly adolescent) innermost feelings, scraps of poetry, false starts at novels and short stories and scripts, and my most significant creative outlet until I started writing in genuine earnest and eventually getting paid for it sometimes.
What surprised me, and in equal parts heartened and frustrated me as well, was that much of the writing, in spite of the sometimes pathetic, navel-gazing, fear-stunted subject matter, was actually pretty good, especially for a guy in his 20s. Heartening because I know that writing is hopelessly entwined with the strands of my very DNA, and frustrating because I didn't have the werewithal, back in those long-lost floundering days, to see things through to completion and start making my mark in some small way when I burned with that youthful energy and helpless need to find a way to connect with the world. When I had all the time in the world with me and ahead of me. And there's that part of me that can't help pondering, however uselessly, how different my life might have been if I had just knuckled fucking down and done it. But then I remember how much I genuinely like, even love, my life as it is now and realize that it's all okay, and I can forgive myself my mistakes and lapses and not let them freeze and paralyze me in place the way they evidently did when I was young. Because I still have all the time in the world, even if I do have less of it.
I don't know why I stopped journaling, except maybe I felt less desperate and started looking out more than in, or maybe my laziness just manifested in some new way, but honestly, what is a blog but a journal for the whole world to see (well, let's be realistic–for the few dozen of you who might even bother to read this). The fact is, I'm supposed to be journaling as part of my sixth step in recovery, but I'm not sure I'm ready to bore, disturb, or frighten you all with a litany of my defects of character.
But I do recognize that my entries here, from the first one, have functioned as a kind of confessional self-appraisal blended–with little to no nuance–with my pop cultural obsessions. So as I continue to focus and figure out what I'm doing here, I figure I'll just stumble forward in that direction, and I'll either alternate or find unusual, hopefully interesting, frequently hamfisted ways of confronting my recovery while continuing to talk about my process as a writer, what I'm putting out in the world–or attempting to– creatively, and espousing the genuine virtues of comics, graphic novels, science fiction adventure, superpeople and capepunkers.
There will be the aforementioned navel-gazing, the requisite "what to watch/read/listen to" suggestions, the occasional shameless plugs for my books when they're on sale or on the verge of publication, and whatever else crosses my fevered, frenzied, sometimes inspired, often dog-tired brain.
And this being October, I might as well suggest some horror shit for you people to investigate at your leisure.
I probably don't have to tell most of you that the "Walking Dead" premiere was as good an episode as that show has done–fast-paced, probably a little slim on genuine character beats except for Tyreese and Carol, but filled with action that bordered perilously and brilliantly close to cinematic. Also shied ferociously away from that show's tendency to drag things out when it comes to settings and certain main characters' old tendency to spend more time talking than surviving. This one managed to be brutal, tense, and had me cheering for Rick in a way that I have been since he bit that son-of-a-bitch's throat out. I was worried he was on the verge of becoming Jack from "Lost," but Sheriff Grimes is really coming into his own. And it even managed to end on a warm, upbeat note in a way this show almost never allows for, with all of our heroes finally together and moving as one. I hope they can maintain this kind of confidence in both narrative and character going forward. This show might finally be ready to become great.
Speaking of WD, I started reading "Outcast" by the creator himself, Robert Kirkman, and artist Paul Azaceta and I gotta say, so far, so great. It's about a lost soul with an apparent gift for exorcising demons, which is a good thing because they seem to be popping up pretty much everywhere in his world. Terrific art and intriguing characters. Definitely worth a look.
And finally, because I do have some of that other shit to do today, if you're looking for some supremely weird and at times darkly funny low-budget horror, you could do worse than "The Banshee Chapter," currently streaming on Netflix.
This caught my interest when I learned that Ted "Buffalo Bill" Levine from "Silence of the Lambs" and the amazing adenoidal voice and too many memorable character roles to count, was one of the stars. Only when I started watching did I realize that he was playing a Hunter S. Thompson analog (with savory dollops of Philip K. Dick mixed into the sauce) in a story about ill-advised MKUltra experiments involving a powerful psychedelic drug that opens a doorway to a very dark, Lovecraftian dimension. There are some "found footage" elements but it doesn't stay stuck in that subgenre rut. It's not easy to follow, but it's fun to try and fathom what the fuck is going on. The acting is solid and Levine is amazing. Creep yourself out.
And while this probably deserves to be a post all on its own, this weekend marks the third (fucking unbelievable) anniversary of the unexpected, tragic passing of my brother Michael. I have more thoughts and feelings around this than I can hope to process here or anywhere, but suffice to say he was special, wildly important to me and my family, and while I've found a place for my grief over the passing years, I still get frustrated, furious, and sloppily sad whenever it occurs to me (almost daily, really) that I will never get to share anything new with him ever again, and that he won't be there to comfort me when the other inevitable tragedies of time befall me and the rest of my family. And while I was writing this post, this song came up on my iTunes. It's a song that made me think of my siblings–for obvious reasons–from the first time I ever heard it, and I insisted it be played at his funeral as my way of saying goodbye. It's called "Orange Sky" by Alexi Murdoch and I only recommend clicking if you're in the mood to weep.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 12-step, capepunk, comics, higher power, Narcotics Anonymous, Outcast, Recovery, Science fiction, superhero fiction, superhero science fiction, The '90s, The Banshee Chapter, The Walking Dead, tragedy | 2 Replies
Infinite Midlife Crisis
If I were to try and trace the beginnings of my midlife crisis–such as it's been–I imagine I could source its origins back to early 2008, when I was deeply unemployed and desperately depressed enough to seek help via a depression study I heard about in a radio ad. I'd been in a deep funk for months, the kind of constant emotional turmoil and pain that was reminiscent of the darkest depths of heartbreak I'd experienced at the crash-and-burn of romantic entanglements, or the bleak apocalyptic despair that inexplicably overwhelmed me during my first semester at college, when my personal uncertainties about the future manifested in the certainty that mankind as a species was doomed. A chronic self-medicator, I'd eschewed therapy and prescribed chemical assistance for the depression that had been my bane for most of my existence, from at least adolescence onward.
That depression, which the octogenarian head of the study would later refer to as "profound," consisted of some fairly straightforward talk-therapy sessions, some very "Parallax View" computer memory tests, a little bit of cognitive conditioning, one of the scariest blood draws I ever experienced in my life (the slightly daffy, possibly incompetent nurse couldn't seem to locate any of my admittedly pale veins, and I doubt GPS tracking would have helped her), and the administration of a drug that may or may not have been akin to Lexapro. It was a blind study, and of course no one could tell me if I was in the control group or the experimental group, so I had to take it on faith that I was actually getting help in that regard. I drew my own conclusions when, within two weeks, I started to feel like a human being and not a shambling meatbag full of simmering anxiety, swampy self-pity, bitter resentments and societal rage all swirling in my personal shame spiral.
Equally important, my wife noticed too, which was fantastic because my moods were not exactly contributing to harmony in the homestead, as you can imagine. Our son was a toddler at the time and my inner lethargy and emotional muck-wallowing meant I could barely see past the tip of my dick, much less offer any meaningful parental assistance. So in the nick of time, and while I had the time, thanks to unemployment, I took some action–mildly absurd action, it felt at the time, but at least a research study seemed like an interesting thing to do–and managed to rescue myself from ennui and maybe oblivion in the bargain.
There were still plenty of challenges to come–shitty jobs and worse bosses (but at least I was working again), personal setbacks, life shit, plus while things got easier at home, they didn't suddenly become perfect. Magic pills they may have seemed, but even magic takes effort to keep working. I've remained on medication ever since, and fortunately I react well to what I'm on–no noticeable side effects and no recurrence of major depression, which is a big deal considering that in those early years I was still augmenting the meds with alcohol and drugs, self-medicating my mid-life away.
I suppose phase two of this crisis made itself known in earnest around 2010, when I was deep into popping a constant stream of unprescribed (at least to me) painkillers while simultaneously rekindling my long-shelved love of funnybooks. I've written a bit about this before, but I blame Ed Brubaker, particularly his Sleeper, Incognito and Captain America, in re-igniting this fire, to the degree that I began reworking a straightforward but stagnating (and still not quite finished) scifi novel I was writing into a superhero-stuffed opus involving Nazi scientists, atomic-powered sex goddesses, human-ape hybrids, ultrasecret agents and all manner of mid-20th-century craziness (gimme a couple more years and a few more books in between and I promise you it's on its way).
The drug and alcohol abuse went the way of the dinosaur, but the reborn passion for comics didn't. Good timing, too, because somewhere in there my wife bought me a Kindle and I discovered the joys of comixology and digital comics in general (if you're a Luddite print-freak who takes issue with this, I respect that, but I still selectively collect when I can, and I only got so much shelf space). Not to mention the fact that Marvel's complete takeover of Summer blockbuster cinema also coincided with all this, and suddenly my deep middle ages are a pretty incredible time to be a fan of well-made escapist entertainment.
Don't get me wrong–I still enjoy serious grounded arthouse drama onscreen and on the tube and on the printed or computerized page–but if I have to be honest, 40-something me seems to crave, desire and appreciate the indulgent fun of alternate realities and costumed crusades more than adolescent me ever did. Which makes sense, seeing as I'm more or less the same age as a lot of my favorite creators of this material.
I'm also fortunate that, in creating and publishing my own superhero-centric fiction, I've discovered a whole vast narrative prose subgenre, much of it of great quality and sophistication. From Austin Grossman's "Soon I Will Be Invincible" to Mike Leon's "Kill Kill Kill" to Casey Glander's Gailsone series and on and on, there is just a wealth of this stuff to be found on Amazon and elsewhere at very affordable prices and it's a shit-ton of quick-reading fun that covers a lot of ground, from balls-out satire to sharply human drama to blood-soaked action.
And then there's TV. I mean, seriously, just between Arrow and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. alone it is truly a great time to be a fan of this stuff, weekly doses of genuine comic book awesomeness beamed straight into my eyes for free! And if you're a true Marvel fan who checked out on S.H.I.E.L.D. in the early, pre-Winter Soldier portion of its first season, I strongly urge you to give it another shot because not only did it come screaming to life after that shot in the arm in the back half of last season, it's come roaring out of the gate in season two with a kind of confidence in its characters and storytelling that makes it seem like everyone on staff over there started taking the creative equivalent of supersoldier serum over the Summer. Seriously, last year Arrow was my favorite piece of pure entertainment on the idiot box, but so far this year S.H.I.E.L.D. is just crushing everything in its storytelling path. But I digress.
I guess my point, if I have one, is that there are certainly worse ways to "suffer" a midlife crisis. My life is better than it's ever been. I'm writing, I'm creating, I'm being a better husband and father than I ever thought I could, and in between, I spend a lot more time with superheroes than I do with drug dealers.
So my Bukowski and Hunter Thompson-worshipping/emulating days are behind me. I'm not going to buy a Harley, have a tawdry affair, go on a wild bender, quit my job and run off to an ashram. Or at least, I won't as long as I can keep getting my superhero fix.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 12-step, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., capepunk, Captain America, comics, higher power, midlife crisis, Narcotics Anonymous, Recovery, Stephen Brophy, Super soldier, super villain, superhero fiction, superhero science fiction, The Villain's Sidekick | 3 Replies
The Bruised Idealist
How Captain America Became My Higher Power
"I'm ready to make it, don't care 'bout the weather
Don't care 'bout no trouble, got myself together"–Marvin Gaye, "Trouble Man"
In the relatively brief period when I collected comics as a kid, I had a few mainstays, favorite characters that became such as a result of my luck in stumbling across them at a time when the books had creative teams that were reinventing and reinvigorating the characters and the medium as a whole. Frank Miller's "Daredevil" run, Chris Claremont and John Byrne's early '80s "X-Men" work, the Bill Sienkewiecz era of "Moon Knight," Miller and Claremont again, teaming up on the first-ever solo "Wolverine" mini-series (comics readers born since that time period would be shocked to learn that there was a time when Logan was not a ubiquitous character with his name gracing multiple X-titles and pulling multiple duty in the Avengers and dozens of recurring guest appearances all across the Marvel Universe). I suppose I was a Marvel guy by default, because I couldn't tell you who was pulling creative chores on Batman, Superman or the Justice League in those days (though I remember enjoying the hell out of some borrowed '70s Batman issues when Marshall Rogers was doing the pencils–best presentation of the modern, super-psycho Joker up to that point).
So it wasn't until recently, when my parents mailed me a boxful of the old comics they'd been carting from house to house for me for the last three decades, that it struck me that there was another character I was evidently drawn to in those days, even though the writing and art in those books was mostly undistinguished, and other than Roger Stern and John Byrne, I'd be hard-pressed to recall who was writing them. But however you slice it, I've apparently been a fan of Captain America for a long-ass time.
Flipping through those brittle yellowing issues from the '80s, some of which I can distinctly remember plucking from the spinner rack at the neighborhood Walgreen's, already crumpled and well-past mint even then, the one thing that stands out now (and probably did even then, compared to those other titles I mentioned) is that they're pretty lame. Uninvolving or utterly ridiculous stories with absurd enemies (Ameridroid, anyone?) and undistinguished writing and art. Sure, I suppose Steve Rogers traveling to merry old England to fight Nazi vampire Baron Blood within the walls of a castle (and ultimately beheading him with his shield) was exciting to my young mind, but it didn't seem like a very intriguing adventure for a time-displaced supersoldier who traipses around literally draped in the American flag.
In the intervening years, as my political leanings evolved (I'm sure some fellow Texans from my past would say devolved) into a diehard leftist "question authority" stance, Cap became an antiquated symbol of patriotic nationalism, the Boy Scout in blue whose flag-waving rhetoric seemed representative of everything I couldn't stand about knee-jerk conservative "real American" values. Of course, this was patently unfair, considering he'd rarely been written or portrayed as a jingoistic propagandist in his modern incarnation, even if that was what he was created to be in the early "simpler times" of WW2. If anything, he came across like a staunch old school progressive, a protector of the poor and downtrodden, proudly teaming up and sharing a title with one of the first black superheroes in the racially charged '70s.
Still, among the subset of people I ran around with in those days, a guy branded Captain America registered as patently unhip, and when held up against the dark psychology of Bruce Wayne, the troubled, tragic life of Matt Murdock, or the constantly careening rollercoaster of the X-men's interpersonal dynamics, how interesting was the hopelessly idealistic upholder of old-fashioned American values–even if they were legitimately the best of what America's values were meant to be? Add to that a costume, with its chainmail shirt and buccaneer boots, that was in serious need of an upgrade it wouldn't get until the early 21st-century, in Mark Millar's "Ultimates" series (and thankfully the solo Cap movies, which took their cue for costume inspiration, if not Cap's more assholish behavior, from those titles), and Cap was unironically retro, possessing all the dimensions and depth of a crepe.
Cut to 2011, when I was in the depths of two things, one that almost destroyed me, and one that helped pull me out of the abyss, believe it or not. On the one hand, I was several years into an unplanned and utterly surprising addiction to prescription painkillers (not prescribed to me; I drove around to seedy apartments and residence hotels as part of my "doctor shopping"), and in the midst of a reawakening of my love for comics in general and superhero adventuring in particular. I was lucky enough to get introduced to the work of Ed Brubaker, whose dark-hearted and tragically delicious "Sleeper" was just the kind of grounded-yet-fantastical tale of espionage and betrayal in the margins of a superpowered universe that would ignite my troubled brain. My friend Rodney Ascher, who loaned me the books, described it quite accurately as "The Departed with superheroes." It had all the edge of Miller's early "Sin City" stories (and a lot of the rough-edged misogyny as well), but was far less trite in its pulp indulgences. It may have helped–or hurt–that I was reading it during a period of mind-cracking insomnia brought on by the hell I was playing with my brain and body as I overindulged and then went through physical withdrawal from the opiates I couldn't seem to stop ingesting on a near-daily basis (in fact, the only thing that ever stopped me during that time was running out altogether–hence the withdrawals).
Even as one addiction was nearing its bitter conclusion, another one was rising to take its place, and thanks to Ed Brubaker, I was back on the comics teat all over again, realizing "Hey, this Sleeper/Criminal/Incognito guy is not only really great, he's the same guy who wrote that Death of Captain America/Winter Soldier arc everyone was crowing about a couple years back. Maybe I need to look into this." And so I snapped up as many trade volumes of Brubaker's run up to that point as I possibly could, and pored over them in opiate-addled ecstasy, feeling for maybe the first time ever like here was someone who really got this character, placing Cap in a paranoid conspiracy espionage thriller with lots of great action set pieces, sly humor (I especially loved how often his heroes muttered "Ouch!" after taking a spill or a beating that would leave an everyday human broken and comatose), over the top weirdness, callbacks to previous adventures, copious flashbacks to his days in the war, and satisfying arcs for his deep bench of recurring and regular characters, both friends and enemies alike. The Ameridroid was, mercifully, left off the table (for a long while anyway. Sigh.). I was hooked into the world of a mainstream superhero comic like I had not been since I read Marvels fifteen years before.
That same summer, Captain America: The First Avengers hit theaters, and while many would rate it as one of the MCU's lesser "first wave" flicks, it hit me right in the sweet spot. I loved that they didn't just cram his origin and WW2 background into the first third or even half of a more conventional superhero movie, but went for a full-on sepia-toned period piece. This displayed a surprising level of confidence in not just Cap, but all of their franchises, and the wide array of stories they could tell and the tones they could use to tell them. I was a sucker for the poignant portrayal of the scrawny kid with the huge heart and all the suggestive details of the Marvel Universe yet to be (the original Human Torch, the early repulsors on Howard Stark's ill-fated flying car, the rise of Hydra and the feints toward the fate of Bucky) and the very earthy portrayals by several first-rate actors (Tommy Lee Jones and Stanley Tucci in particular imbued their characters with respective amounts of grit and soul) and an underrated and very low-key performance from Chris Evans as Steve Rogers. I loved the shorthand Joe Johnston and the film's writers used to show his smarts (pulling the pin on the flagpole to lower and capture the flag and earn the ride back to camp in the jeep), his bravery (the "live grenade" scene) and his determination ("I can do it! I can do it!" when they try to shut down the experiment for fear it's killing him). While Robert Downey, Jr. gets the showy, flashy fun role as Tony Stark (and nails it), Evans had to do something far less blatantly crowd-pleasing and potentially thankless, and make us love this shy, quiet, noble and even occasionally hokey kid. For me, he did it. Post-transformation, I knew I loved the movie even harder when we were treated to the USO musical montage of the cheesy-costumed Cap stumping for war bonds across the country. And seeing him carry the old-style shield into battle his first time out, and the functional, utilitarian take on the classic uniform with its muted colors and worn leather belts and pouches. Cap firing a gun, like soldiers do, not looking like someone who was shooting just to wound. Cap fighting the motherfucking Red Skull on screen forty feet tall and not looking like the whole thing was filmed for Saturday morning television. I thought it was a smart, sweetly nostalgic, appropriately badass, take on this particular origin story, as much an homage to old movie serials as "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (and superior to ANY of that classic film's disappointing sequels). And on top of all that, because of the very nature of that origin, the movie had permission to be gently tragic in the end, with Cap's "death" over the Arctic proving real enough for the people who had to live the next 75 years under the assumption that he was dead, and the love of his life lost forever to time.
I won't go into all the details of how my addiction caught up to me and nearly brought my whole world crashing down, because I don't want to write a book-length ramble here, but I will say that when it finally did, and I had to throw myself into the program, a sworn atheist in a world of Higher Powers, it took me awhile to settle on one. And when I did, at first it was strictly ironic. If I had to give thanks, praise and power to a fictional character, it might as well be one I genuinely loved and respected. Besides, you'd be amazed how neatly "Cap" fits into all kinds of places, like, "Cap, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change…" or "I humbly asked Cap to remove my shortcomings…" But as time wore on, in that way that it do, I started to realize that my ironic choice actually made a lot of sense for me. Because at his best, in the hands of Brubaker or screenwriters Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus, I realized how much me and the old dinosaur of the Marvel universe have in common. We're both bruised idealists, with ideas about how we think the world should be that are often damaged, if never quite destroyed, when they run up against the harsh realities of the way the world really is. Now, it's not an entirely fair comparison, because I've definitely succumbed to cynicism, pessimism, and depression in my life and I haven't been through half the shit he has, and those are sentiments he only rarely allows himself. For Cap, despair is the feeling that comes when it seems that all is really, hopelessly lost. Then again, like me, he's almost always proven wrong at the last possible moment. So his bottom's a lot lower than mine, so what? Guy's fictional!
While people of a certain stripe write him off as all those things a mentioned before–blindly patriotic, ossified and old-fashioned, without all the self-doubt and darkness that makes our modern heroes so "complex" and "interesting"–the fact is, he's the kind of patriot who will question his country to its face and to its core, because he believes so strongly in the ideals and the dream of what this place could be if everyone could just set ideology aside long enough to realize we all need the same things–food, love, friendship, security, a sidekick and a vibranium shield. For an old fart whose last memory is from the mid-'40s, he's proven surprisingly adaptive, engaged and resourceful when it comes to assimilating into the modern world (just look at the mixed martial arts fighting styles he's picked up in "The Winter Soldier," not to mention his carefully tended list of things to explore and discover). And while he's not a troubled neurotic like Batman or an arrogant alcoholic like his pal Tony Stark, he's well-stocked with plenty of righteous anger, moments of soul-deep disappointment, and there'll always be that hint of the wounded weakling lingering inside, the powerless kid who can't fight back no matter how hard he tries.
I think if my Higher Power can't be a genuine Godlike being in the heavens above, but more of a symbolic aspirational higher self, the best me I could possibly wish to be, and the embodiment of a possibly unattainable but still worthy ideal, even if I don't have the supersoldier serum to get me there, Cap is as good a choice as I could probably hope to make.
Read more: Marvin Gaye – Trouble Man Lyrics | MetroLyrics
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged 12-step, Captain America, comics, higher power, Narcotics Anonymous, Recovery | 2 Replies


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Q: Get default printer name from command line? How can I get the name of the default printer on my machine through the Windows command line?

A: Microsoft Windows XP comes with a VBS script to manage local and network printers from the command line:

*

*Get the default printer details from command line:

cscript C:\windows\system32\prnmngr.vbs -g

*Get the list of printers added to the system from Windows command line:

cscript C:\windows\system32\prnmngr.vbs -l

*Set default printer from windows command line:

cscript C:\windows\system32\prnmngr.vbs -t -p "\Servername\printername"

Official documentation and more usage examples can be found at:
MS WinXP Product Documentation for the Prnmngr.vbs File

A: Basic classical scripts are often more practical than vbs or powershell scripts: there are no dependencies nor prerequisites to check, just put it in a cmd file...
I would rather use this command on W10 (should work on Win7 as well but I didn't test):

for /f "tokens=2 delims==" %%A in ('wmic.exe printer WHERE
default^=TRUE get name /VALUE') do (set "default_printer=%%A")

As a result, you get the default printer in the environment variable %default_printer%
The other proposed solution (based on registry reading) is not properly working: if you change the default printer and call again the script, the modification is not taken immediately into account in registry (maybe it would after next reboot). But this one works.

A: Using a batch file:
@echo off

::Get printer CLSID
for /f %%a in ('reg query HKCU\Printers\Defaults') do (set regkey=%%a)
::Get printer name from the previous CLSID

for /f "tokens=3*" %%a in ('reg query %regkey%') do (set printername=%%a %%b)
echo Printer name is: %printername%

I wish that could help you

A: In PowerShell 5.1+, you could use the following:
Get-CimInstance Win32_Printer | ? Default | select Name

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Dual Temperature Control
SYNC2 Infotainment System
Dynamic Torque Vectoring
Ecoboost 2.3 engine
Turbo Setup
Bi-Xenon Lighting
Driving Modes
Performance Shift Light
Stall Recovery System
Door Protectors
Home > About the Car > Features > Standard Features
As befits a car costing £30,000, the third generation Ford Focus RS has an impressive mechanical specification and is well equipped in standard form.
Part of any performance car is, of course, its engine. Whereas the second generation RS was powered by a 5 cylinder, Volvo-derived unit, the 2016 RS comes with Ford's new 2.3 litre, 4 cylinder Ecobooost engine. It's smaller, lighter and more efficient than the 5 cylinder unit and offers.
better fuel economy, lower CO2 emissions (down around 20% in comparison to the second generation RS) and, in standard trim, more power and torque (345 bhp and 470NM).
An automatic stop/start system (which can be deactivated by the driver if so desired) is fitted as standard and is one of the reasons for the RS's much improved fuel economy (28.3 miles per gallon as opposed to the second generation RS's 21.1 mpg) on the EU urban test cycle.
Being able to stop quickly and in a controlled fashion is even more important than being able to accelerate quickly. Consequently, ABS and all-round disc brakes are fitted as standard to the RS. As the weight distribution of the RS (like most front-engined cars) is front-biased, larger (350mm diameter) Brembo discs with four piston calipers are fitted to the front wheels. Painted calipers are available as a cost option (currently £100).
Gearbox and Launch Control
The 2016 Focus RS comes with a six-speed manual gearbox as standard. There are no automatic or dual clutch options. Driver selectable electronic launch control is fitted as standard.
Unlike both previous generations of the Focus RS, the 2016 incarnation comes with Ford's newly developed all-wheel drive system, which monitors throttle, steering brake and other inputs at the rate of 100 times per second and allows up to 70% of available torque to be transmitted to the rear wheels. The result is a car that handles more like a rear wheel drive car than its predecessors and is highly resistant to understeer.
Torque Vectoring
The new AWD system also features torque vectoring. This allows up to 100% of the torque supplied to the rear axle to be sent to one of the rear wheels to help ensure that the RS stays balanced during hard cornering.
To take full advantage of its advanced AWD system, the RS comes with a system that allows the driver to select from four different modes. Normal and Sport modes are for use on public roads, while Track and Drift are specifically intended for circuit use only.
The settings of the following components are varied according to the selected Drive Mode: AWD system, dampers, steering, engine, Electronic Stability Control and the exhaust valve.
On public roads, Normal mode is likely to be the most widely used, with Sport mode being available whenever the driver desires enhanced response and feedback.
Track mode is designed to deliver optimal performance on track and Drift mode is intended to allow drivers to indulge in lurid on-track slides without loss of control.
The 2016 Focus RS comes with 19 inch silver multi-spoke alloy wheels fitted with 235/50 Michelin Pilot Super Sport tyres as standard. Forged multi-spoke alloys, available only in black, are available as a cost option (currently £595). The forged alloys are 950 grammes per wheel lighter than the standard items and offer handling and control benefits resulting from the reduction of the RS's unsprung weight.
In certain other markets, the forged alloys can be supplied as a option package along with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 semi-slick tyres. This option is not presently offered in the UK.
The Focus RS is supplied with half-leather Recaro front seats as standard. The seats are supplied in one colour – charcoal – and there are no seat colour options. The sole exception to this is that the seat bolsters of RS's finished in Nitrous Blue metallic (a cost option) are blue in colour.
As an alternative to the standard seats, RS purchasers can specify Recaro 'shell' seats designed to provide extra support during hard cornering. These seats, a £1145 option, lack the height adjustment of the standard seats.
Heated front seats are available as a cost option for buyers of US market cars, but are not presently available on UK specification cars.
As the performance flagship of the Focus range and the sole RS model available in the UK, the Focus RS features a number of styling enhancements including a redesigned front bumper and grille, and a high-mounted rear spoiler. These, say Ford, are intended to reduce drag and increase downforce
Paint finish
Only one colour is available as standard: Stealth Grey, a solid, non-metallic finish. Buyers have, however, a choice of four other colours as cost options. These are: Frozen White, also a solid rather than metallic finish (£250), Shadow Black, a pearlescent finish (£525), Magnetic, a grey metallic (£525) and Nitrous Blue metallic (£745).
The 2016 RS comes with a number of interior refinements, principal among which are: Ford's SYNC2 multimedia system (which includes a nine speaker radio/CD/MP3 system and allows voice control of both the sound system and compatible mobile phones); electric windows front and rear with one-touch raising and lowering; dual zone electronic automatic temperature control and a start button.
The third generation Focus RS also comes some noteworthy exterior features, including a heated windscreen, powerful HID adaptive headlamps, headlamp washers, automatic rain-sensing windscreen wipers and heated washer jets.
In addition to those already mentioned, a number of cost options can be specified by RS buyers.
The most expensive of these (other than the Recaro 'shell' seats) is the Luxury Pack, which adds electrically folding exterior mirrors, parking sensors, cruise control, keyless entry and rear privacy glass to the RS at a cost of £1000.
Satellite navigation (integrated with the SYNC2 system), uprated speakers and a rear-view camera are available as an options pack at a price of £465.
A tilt/slide sunroof can be factory fitted at a cost of £575, Ford's Active City Stop system (designed to avoid – or at least minimise the effect of – accidents if the vehicle is travelling at 30 kilometres an hour or less) can be added for £200, and front and rear door edge protectors cost £85.
Need to know more about the site? Visit our FAQs.
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The Mk3 Focus RS Club is run by genuine enthusiasts with a real pasion for the RS line. We are creating a special community for a very special car. Come be a part of it.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


a syndrome in which scattered lesions of the pyramid, sensory tracts, inferior cerebellar peduncle, nucleus ambiguus, and oculopupillary center cause hemiplegia and numbness on the opposite side from the lesions, ataxia with paralysis of the soft palate and vocal cords on the same side, and horner's syndrome.
contralateral hemiplegia, hemianesthesia, and loss of pain and temperature sensibility, with ipsilateral hemiasynergia and lateropulsion, paralysis of the larynx and soft palate, enophthalmia, miosis, and ptosis, due to lesions of the brainstem.
An extremely rare syndrome first described in the late 19th century, characterised by pharyngolaryngeal or glossopharyngeal paralysis, contralateral cerebellar hemiataxia and all the symptoms of the Babinski-Nageotte syndrome (except the ipsilateral cerebellary hemiataxia due to the sparing of the posterior spinocerebellar tract).
Cestan-Chenais syndrome - contralateral hemiplegia, hemianesthesia, with ipsilateral hemiasynergia and lateropulsion, paralysis of the larynx and soft palate, enophthalmia, miosis, and ptosis, due to lesions of the brainstem.
Louis J., French physician, 1872-1950.


text:
Fontbonne
Fontbonne (4-8-0, 4-6-0) 2 3 5
Westminster (3-9-2, 3-6-1) 0 1 1
Photo by Caleb Maassen.
1st - 41:00 - Kaleb Wilson (Fontbonne)
1st - 43:03 - Joe Noah (Fontbonne)
2nd - 46:44 - Joe Noah (Fontbonne)
2nd - 75:53 - Andrew Sprengel (Westminster)
2nd - 76:27 - Zack Lyeki (Fontbonne)
G: 2 Players (#10, #11) - 2
A: 6 Players (#3, #7, #8, #11, #15, #17) - 1
Sh: 2 Players (#11, #17) - 3
Sv: Dominic Haggard - 2
G: Andrew Sprengel - 1
A: Brantley Estes - 1
Sh: Andrew Sprengel - 4
Sv: Conner Benefield - 5
Fulton, MO, 10/16/21 – The Blue Jay men's soccer team came into tonight's SLIAC matchup with the Fontbonne University Griffins trailing the Griffins in the standings by a game. The Griffins were able to flip the script on the Blue Jays turning an earlier year loss into a 5-1 win. The win allowed the Griffins to split the season series 1-1 and extended their lead for the fourth-place spot in the conference tournament which would come with a home tournament game. The loss dropped the Blue Jays to 3-9-2 overall and 3-6-1 in the SLIAC. The Griffins would improve to 4-8 overall and 4-6 in the SLIAC.
Fontbonne would score the games first three goals before the Blue Jays would get on the board. Senior Andrew Sprengel (Winfield, MO / Winfield) took a pass from senior Brantley Estes (Glasgow, KY / Glasgow) and scored in the 76th minute to cut the lead to 3-1. It was as close as the Jays would get. The Griffins would score less than a minute later to go up 4-1 and tempered any thoughts of a Blue Jay comeback. The Griffins would score their final goal in the 82nd minute for the final score of 5-1.
Chris Lannom (Forney, Tx. / Forney) started in goal and gave up two goals on the only two shots on goal he faced. Conner Benefield (Wentzville, MO / Timberland) played the second half in goal for the Jays. He gave up three goals while making five saves.
Fontbonne outshot Westminster 16-8 overall and 11-3 in shots on goal. The Griffins attempted one more corner kick than the Blue Jays 4-3. The Blue Jays and Griffins were each whistled for nine fouls.
The Blue Jays will be back in action on Wednesday October 20th when they travel to Greenville University. The game is scheduled for a 5:00 p.m. kick off.
November 2, 2021 Blue Jays Season Ends In Road SLIAC Quarterfinal Loss
October 29, 2021 Sprengel's Hat Trick Propels Blue Jays to 8-1 Victory
October 23, 2021 Blue Jays Lose Heartbreaker In Overtime
October 20, 2021 Second Half Comeback Comes Up Short In 5-3 Loss
October 16, 2021 Blue Jays Fall To Griffins
October 12, 2021 Second Half Goals Doom Blue Jays In Road Loss
October 9, 2021 Blue Jays Shoune The Way To Senior Day Win
October 6, 2021 Blue Jays Fall To SLIAC Leaders
October 2, 2021 Blue Jays Fall At Blackburn
September 27, 2021 Blue Jays Drop Road Game
September 25, 2021 Blue Jays Battle To Scoreless Draw
September 21, 2021 Smith Scores Game Winner in 4-3 Blue Jay Win
September 18, 2021 Smith's Two Goals Lead to SLIAC Opening Win
September 10, 2021 Blue Jays Rally For Two Goals Late To Earn Draw On The Road
September 8, 2021 Blue Jays Fall 1-0 To Owls In Crosstown Showdown.
September 4, 2021 Blue Jays Fall 1-0 On the Road
September 1, 2021 Nene Goal Not Enough As Blue Jays Fall In Season Opener
August 26, 2021 Men's Soccer Picked Fifth In SLIAC Preseason Coaches Poll
July 22, 2021 The Return: Men's Soccer Releases 2021 Schedule


Lotty joined inVentiv Medical Communications in September 2012, initially working primarily on accounts in oncology and haematology. Her role has since developed to account leadership across projects in Medical Communications and other functions within the inVentiv network. Lotty has also been instrumental in expanding the inVentiv Medical Communications offering in CNS communications through the 'CNS Centre of Excellence', involving a core group of experts in CNS and Psychiatry within the inVentiv Medical Communications London team, who together define the guiding principles for our approach to client work in CNS.
This activity has led to an increase in the inVentiv CNS client base and these accounts now form a significant portion of the Medical Communications team revenue. In the last year, Lotty has led a team in the delivery of a Medical Affairs strategic and tactical plan for a prelaunch CNS product, navigating client relationships across a company Alliance and cross-functional teams. The account has expanded to involve projects with Public Affairs, Brand and Digital teams linked to the product following the outstanding work produced last year.
Lotty's next steps include a partial secondment to work for the aforementioned client in-house upon their request and after coming highly recommended by multiple existing client contacts, in a Publications Management role to further broaden her experience within Medical Communications and CNS.
Lotty proved herself to be a focused individual with an innovative and collaborative approach to business. We particularly liked her work setting up the pioneering CNS hub for the agency and her contribution to Inventiv's revenue growth. Her in-house experience was also an added dimension. A very able contender.


Audi is one of the most successful car manufacturers in the luxury vehicle segment. Their philosophy of "Vorsprung durch Technik," a German phrase that is usually translated into English as "advancement through technology," has inspired the innovation and integration of advanced technologies that elevate customer experience in both Audi's vehicles and retail networks worldwide.
ZeroLight, an AWS Partner Network (APN) Advanced Technology Partner with the AWS Industrial Software Competency, is an automotive real-time 3D visualization specialist, creating interactive digital retail and online experiences for car brands worldwide. Incorporating the latest technologies into one central marketing and sales platform, ZeroLight empowers Original Equipment Managers (OEMs) to sell smarter and engage customers across every touchpoint.
Audi is focused on delivering the best customer experience at every touch point. With the influence of the internet on the automotive purchase journey, Audi worked with strategic partner ZeroLight to revolutionize their online proposition, translating their highly successful digital dealership experience to the web.
To do so, ZeroLight needed to find a way to render and deliver real-time 3D visualization software in a way that is accessible across multiple networks and devices while also being commercially viable. Utilizing Amazon Web Services (AWS), ZeroLight created a secure virtual infrastructure that harnesses Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) G2 instances, providing the graphical processing capabilities needed to render their software in the cloud.
When customers access the 3D configurator online via Audi's website, they receive a live 3D representation of their chosen Audi model that is fully configurable. The stream is accessed within five seconds and replicates the visual quality a customer would see in any Audi store.
An initial pilot of the real-time 3D configurator on Audi.de saw user engagement increase by 66 percent when compared to the traditional 2D solution, along with increased satisfaction ratings across a range of qualitative KPIs.
The pilot also led to an average 9 percent increase in additional feature selection per vehicle, driving a significant uplift in the average online basket value. The same results were achieved when the pilot was further expanded to a new market in the Netherlands, while also including a wider range of car models.
Audi's solution is now on worldwide rollout, with all car models available in 25 markets before the end of 2018.
"The results reflect the fact that the real-time 3D user experience is a drastic improvement over typical 2D experiences. Quality has always been the biggest challenge when looking to implement 3D solutions in the past.
ZeroLight is an AWS Competency Partner. Their customer-centric and scalable real-time 3D retail experiences drive higher specification sales. Car brands worldwide trust ZeroLight to deliver highly-engaging digital experiences to their customers in-store and online.


text:
Reformation Charlotte
News – Apologetics – Evangelism
Republication Policy
March 1, 2019 No comments Blog, Uncategorized
LGBT Researcher With Ties to TGC and ERLC to be Keynote Speaker at 'Gay Christian' Conference
Posted by JeffMaples
Mark Yarhouse is famously known for his extensive "research" into various sexually deviant behaviors, their causes, and his approach to dealing with them when they arise. Yarhouse is the author of the book Do Ask, Do Tell, Let's Talk: Why and How Christians Should Have Gay Friends, which is promoted by the Southern Baptist Religious Liberty Commission which discusses various methods of embracing the homosexual as a friend and a fellow Christian.
Yarhouse is a researcher at the Institute for the Study of Sexual Identity, and according to the website, "he chaired a groundbreaking symposium at the American Psychological Association's annual convention that brought together gay psychologists and Christian psychologists to discuss common ground in treatment options for those who experience sexual and religious identity conflicts." He also wrote a white paper on sexual identity which D.A. Carson, a co-founder of The Gospel Coalition recently edited for him.
Yesterday, Yarhouse gleefully announced he would be the final keynote speaker at the infamous Revoice conference — a "gay Christian" conference that has been denounced by the wider Evangelical community.
The Revoice conference has been denounced by conservative Evangelicals, and even by some of the more mainstream "moderate" Evangelicals, such as Al Mohler. Further, much of the terminology to reference sexual deviants promoted by Yarhouse — like "sexual minorities" — have actually been denounced even by contributors of The Gospel Coalition.
The Gospel Coalition has no doctrinal standards and is pretty much a free-for-all for anyone to come on and promote whatever they want without distinction. It has been the mission of The Gospel Coalition to build bridges not only between the progressive wing and the conservative wing of Christianity but also between Christianity and the Pagan world. Hopefully, people will wake up and see that Christians are not called to build bridges with the world, but to send the life-saving flotation device — the gospel — to rescue people from the world.
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text:
Kim Jong-un wants to shed his earlier image and encourage sports
Olympic games 2020 - Tokyo – Japan (Image credit – Cesar I. Martins, Wikimedia Commons)
North Korea could participate in 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics and 2022 Beijing Winter Games.
by Prabir Ghose (article) and Margarita Danya (video)
April 1, 2018 at 12:06 PM April 1, 2018 at 12:06 PM
Kim Jong-un wants to shed his earlier image and encourage sports - Video
The visit to Beijing has done a world of good for Kim Jong-un who met the IOC president Thomas Bach in Pyongyang and discussed the prospects of his country's participation in future international games. Kim is focusing on the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics and the 2022 beijing winter games.
New York Post reports that Thomas Bach told sources in the media about the interaction he had with Kim while watching a football match at Pyongyang's May Day Stadium. Bach also added that Kim was all praises for the way IOC handled the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in South Korea.
Kim is changing
According Thomas Bach, the leader of North Korea has realized that sports can contribute to the betterment of society in terms of education and health. Kim Jong-un has apparently confided in Bach that his country's active participation in the 2018 Winter Olympics and both the Koreas marching under a common flag has prepared the groundwork for a peaceful dialogue.
Bach is the first foreign official to meet Kim after his return from Beijing. The IOC president was in Pyongyang to discuss development of sports in North Korea and the preparation of its athletes for subsequent international events like the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Games.
Thomas Bach has added that the leader of North Korea believes sports can play a major role in the development of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The signs are positive
The visit to Beijing appears to have influenced the outlook of Kim Jong-un and he is expressing his thoughts on subjects like the future of sports in North Korea. This was his first known trip abroad since he took over the reins in 2011 following the death of his father.
He is slated to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in in April and US President Donald Trump in May. There are also possibilities of a meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Kim.
Thomas Bach has met the sports minister of North Korea who has agreed that the country will participate in the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Games.
Obviously, the 2018 Winter Olympics in Seoul have broken the ice and kindled hopes of normalcy returning to the Korean peninsula.
The tension in the region had led to threats of a nuclear confrontation which appear to have receded. However, the sudden change in the attitude of Kim is strange and could be attributed to the effects of international sanctions that must have had a direct impact on the economy of North Korea.
Randy Moss' tight end son could emerge as Tom Brady's target, Gronkowski's replacement
Rapper Eminem mentions Tom Brady in opening track of new album; Stidham praises TB12
Ex-Patriots linebacker: Dynasty not yet over, Tom Brady has a lot of football left in him
Prabir Ghose
I am a retired engineer from India and have served as Senior Manager in an aircraft manufacturing company. I have also been blogging since 2004. My blogs cover a wide variety of subjects and, at present, I have four of them running as on 9/7/2018 – (i) Citizen Journalist: covering travel, tourism, foods, environment and strange news (3099 posts) (ii) Violence and Atrocities (819 posts) (iii) Entertainment (388 posts) and (iv) Ramblings - satire (513 posts) Cumulative view of these four blogs as on date (9/7/2018) is 510168.
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Michelle Obama's school lunch menu may be scrapped by the Trump administration Climate activist Greta Thunberg on the warpath before Davos summit Mexico Border Wall to come up by November 2020 before Trump's re-election
Margarita Danya
Alexander Gates
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Q: Why can't object refer to parent object and child object? Look, I'm facing this basic problem where I want to construct sort of nodes where node is a category and it could have parent category and list of it's children categories, I just realized that it's impossible in OOP or am I wrong? I can handle my case in a way that each object will have only list of its children but then I'll have to (in my opinion) unnecessarily filter through all of the categories to find it's parent here is a basic idea of problem I'm facing

Why is this happening?

A: All your constructors require the parent and child to be constructed before the current object can be constructed. That is impossible in your case as the references form a dependency cycle (First -> Fourth -> Third -> Second -> First, therefore First can't be fully created till after First is created, etc.).
One solution would be to make the Node abstract (or an interface) and only fetch the values when they are requested (i.e. in the getters):
interface Node {
    val number: Int
    val parent: Node?
    val child: Node?
}

object First : Node {
    override val number = 1
    override val parent get() = Fourth
    override val child get() = Second
}

// Similar for Second, Third, and Fourth

If you're interested in why you got that particular pattern of nulls, it's important to remember that objects in Kotlin usually aren't created till the first time they are used.

*

*The first object you use (in main) is First, so it's constructor is called.

*The first* thing its constructor does is get a reference to Fourth, which in turn does Third, which in turn does Second, which in turn tries to do First, but First is already in the process of being created, so its reference is null.

*Then (we're still in Second) it tries to create Third (as the child), which is in the process of being created, so its reference is also null. At this point Second is done, so any future reference to it will not be null.

*Third now has a valid reference to Second, and moves on to trying to create Fourth, which is still being created, thus null. Now Third is done.

*Fourth now has a valid reference to Third, and moves on to First, which is still being created, thus null. Now Forth is done.

*First now has a valid reference to Fourth, and moves on to Second, which already exists and is valid. Now First is done.

*Technically the second, since the first thing it does is set the number, but it's the first thing that matters for the purposes of this discussion.


Students at DHHL cannot wait for summer vacation, and since we are now in the fourth marking period, it is less than 50 days away! June 21st is the first official day of summer in 2019. Have a blast and go crazy! There are so many things you can do like playing with friends, going on vacation, going to the pool, relaxing, and playing outside just to name a few. Many students and staff from DHHL have so many things they love to do during the summer and so many things to look forward to.
As you know, since we had many snow days this winter, the last day of school has been pushed back. As of today, our last day of school is Monday, June 10. Everyone cross your fingers that we have no more snow days so that we can start to enjoy our summer break!