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EDGB Podcast – Season 2, Episode 1 – Gratitude with Gina Hamadey
Every Day, Getting Better Podcast – Season 2, Episode 1
Gratitude with Gina Hamadey
Gratitude with Gina Hamadey – Gina is the author of the book, "I want to thank you". Gina and Ryan talk about the book and explore ways that we all can show more gratitude in our daily lives.
Purchase Gina's book: I Want to Thank You by Gina Hamadey
Visit Gina's website and subscribe to her newsletter: https://www.ginahamadey.com/
How to Write a Good Gratitude Letter – by Gina Hamadey, published in the New York Times
Listen to Season 2, Episode 1 – Gratitude with Gina Hamadey
Ryan Wakefield
Welcome to everyday getting better. I'm your host, Ryan Wakefield and today's podcast is about gratitude. What better ways to talk about gratitude than to share the set with Gina Hamadey. Gina joins us to talk about her new book titled, "I want to thank you."
Over the course of 12 months, Gina wrote 365 letters and joins us for a candid conversation about what she learned in the process.
This is the first episode of season two of the everyday getting better podcast and upfront. I want to take a second Thank you, our listeners for being here from the beginning. And joining us for today's episode.
Gina, thank you so much for joining us today here at everyday getting better. I want to set the table for our conversation a little bit and and just tell you where our podcasting journey has been in the last year. The last episode that we recorded was early on in the spring kind of mid pandemic, and it was actually about crisis leadership. And honestly, it was episode I think everything it really turned out well. And after that, I hit the pause button, literally and figuratively, because I really just felt like the you know, the COVID. And the negativity around everything was dominating the conversations. And it wasn't something that I wanted to talk about, because I didn't want to focus on on negative, just the negative aspects of life at that time.
Gina Hamadey
So you are the first episode of season two of our every day, getting better podcast.
I'm really excited for that. Because your your book has really gave me an opportunity to pause and reflect at actually the wonderful, positive things that happened throughout the last year. And the moments that maybe we took for granted that now you know being removed from them, we get to look back and really realize that there was some special things that occurred within our family and our communities that, you know, hopefully we never get to experience again, but really need to go back and reflect on them. So that's kind of where we are getting started today. So thank you so much for being the jumping off point of season two. We're really excited for it. And I'm just so glad that you're here with us today.
Oh, well, I'm thrilled to be here. And thank you for giving me that that background. I'm honored to be the first one and I totally hear you it was a really strange, the tone is really hard to find as somebody who makes content, you know, you didn't want to
I don't know, I kept thinking about everybody who's losing family and friends. And how could I post a picture of the book I'm reading? I don't know, it's like we've even doubt and kind of figured it out. And in those moments, I think it was really difficult to find that the right tone.
Absolutely. I just I really agreed so so on the tone let's I want to talk about your new book.
It is absolutely. Wonderful. So I your full disclosure about halfway through it. Okay, but
I appreciate that you've read it. I've spoken to so many people who haven't, which is fine to
Verbatim I actually have written Holy shit, it's an amazing ride. so far. I don't I'm not I don't swear on the podcast too often. But I have laughed, I have cried. And most importantly, I've stopped so many times with, you know, just epiphany moments that have just gotten me thinking about my daily action. So showing you some gratitude from the beginning. Thank you for, you know, just the just the ride that I've been on so far. It's you know, a, you know, I view it as an adventure as an era as a journey as a ride. It's been so many just the range of emotions that have gone through. So kind of the first thing I want to know from you is what are the reactions that you've heard from people that have received the book? And were they the reactions you expected? You know, now that you've, you know, close the project out in or are on the, you know, the publicity tour?
Let's see, well, first of all, I'll say any reactions are so welcome. And I feel like now that I'm, you know, I'm a first time author here, so I'm seeing it for the first time on this side. I mean, I've been a journalist all my life. So I certainly have put things into the world. But I feel like people are hesitant to reach out to authors, they don't want to bother them or something and I'm here to say, if you like this book, please bother me. You know, it's like I'm, I love to have that conversation with people just to hear not that I'm not that I need or want flattery but for some things, but I love to hear what you know what is moving to people or what made them think and it's sort of my absolute favorite thing is to get into that conversation. So what have I heard so far, I've heard a lot of While this is making me feel really good as I'm reading it, I feel really good like I, you know, it's a nice thing to go to bed with, I read a chapter and I sort of feel nice and happy, and I go to bed and that feels great to me. I've heard some I can't put it down, which is like one of my favorite compliments. For sure. I've heard a lot of surprise, I feel like people pick it up. I don't know, I've heard a lot of people are surprised, maybe at what it is, I think because you know, there's a little bit of like a, for lack of a more positive word. It's like a little bit of a gimmick, maybe. And I'm sure there's a better word for it. But, you know, I sent through engine 65 notes in a year I wrote about it. And so maybe people are thinking, a lot of people just think it's those 365 notes in a book. You know, or that maybe? I don't know, I'm not sure what people expect. But I certainly put everything in this book. I'm very personal. I really don't hold back I'm, I really sort of let you know me. And I was, I don't know, I feel like I was super, super honest and vulnerable. So I feel like people are surprised maybe at I guess how deep I go. Maybe
I like that, you know, it's the last part, you you hit my, you know, my prejudge my preconceived notions and my reactions right on the head. I mean, I initially kind of took it to I anticipated it to be kind of a Hey, look, what I did book, you know, I wrote I wrote 365 letters, you should be proud of me for doing that. Instead, what I found is an absolutely beautifully written, vulnerable book, you use the word of single yourself, but if you were you were so vulnerable, in the stories that you share, and you just put put the stories out there and the pages so beautifully for everyone. And I absolutely didn't expect to how to book. You mean, and even as I reached out to my community to, to source some questions, because it's one of things I want, you know, our listeners to be able to, you know, have we be a medium for them to ask questions. So when I got that question, you know, how would I start something like this, and I was really happy to reply back to that person and say, ironically, that's really what the book is about is if you want to go on one of these journeys, it's really it's, it's laid out there for you to do that. But I mean, was, when you started, you started your project, did you start the project with the book idea in mind, or did the book idea come later, down the road of the letter writing campaign?
So when I had the idea to send 365 notes in a year, I'll just tell that story quickly, just to give that context. So I wrote, yeah, I wrote, I had a batch of thank you notes to write in January 2018, two donors have a fundraiser, I ran for city harvest. And as I was writing them, I felt this very specific, undeniable, pleasant, lovely feeling that I, you know, I wrote 31 notes over the course of the month. So I kept feeling it. And it became more and more apparent. And at the end of the month, I was reflecting on that and thinking I had, I did not anticipate feeling, you know, writing thank you notes to feel so pleasant. It's not one of these people that have like, a meeting these people now that treasure their thank you note writing over their life. I'm like, I didn't hate it. But it wasn't something that was a big thing for me. But the way it made me feel and the focus that it gave my brain just felt so good that I wanted to keep it up. I'm vaguely thinking about this on a train ride home from the consulting gig I was doing. When I realized I've written 31 notes. It's January 31. So this whole concept came to me, I feel like we get this maybe once in our life. We're like a concept. This whole concept came to me in this little neat package. And because I have this, I have a background in journalism, I was traveling her food and wine and I were to Oprah Magazine, and Rachael rays magazine. So my brain kind of sinks in these little in like a content calendar is what a brand would call it. Right? You know, so I, the whole thing came to me very quickly, which is if I'm going to write 365 notes in a year, here's how I would do it, I would seem it by the month, I just did charity with January that's already done. So I need to think of 11 more themes. And you know, each month I'll sort of tackle that in a in a different way. And I'll figure that out as I go. And I'll write a list of the people at the beginning. Not that, you know, so that all came to me super fast. And because I'm a writer, I did and because and I should say and because I was on the lookout for a project. Like an a, like a gratifying kind of personal work project because I had been doing a lot of content marketing for brands, which I actually really enjoy and love more than I thought I would. But I mean, you know, it's not like awful when you're doing work for other people. versus yourself. Wait, wait. So I had an especially actually, as I, you know, as the year turned to January 2018, that was sort of one of my resolution intentions, like, let me find something to write for myself, even though I'm busy. Even though I have two little tiny kids, I need something. So I don't know that I thought of it as a book. I mean, there was maybe a part of me that was like, wouldn't that be cool, but I definitely didn't say, I'm gonna do this as a book, I thought maybe some essays for medium or something, you know, let me, let me just start this and see how it goes. And I want to turn it into something I want to write about it in some way. Maybe an essay, you know, maybe a story for Oprah Magazine. And probably a little, little voice in the back of my head. Like, maybe it's a book.
You do have a story that was published in the New York Times about about gratitude. Was that? Did I see that correctly? I've not read it. Okay.
Yeah, it's, it's how to write a gratitude letter. So that like, if, if any of your listeners are, you know, looking for that sort of first step, if you just Google my name in New York Times how to write a gratitude letter comes up. And that's really like a good one page, like, you just want to write one gratitude letter, see how it feels, that's a pretty good
price. And we'll link to that in the show notes. I saw it when I was when I was doing some of my research I saw I have not taken a chance to read it yet. So when you you have the idea, and how does it start to come to form? And how do you set the tone for really what you're wanting to share? You know, from this journey with your readers?
Meaning like, how am I starting to write the notes? Or how do
you mean, you kind of unpacked how you've got to the point in your writing, you're writing the letters. And as the book idea comes to mind, I mean, you have to figure out what the tone of that book is. And it really it really, and we've talked about it already. It The tone is such a light and refreshing, you know, tone. And I really, I I think I would struggle to be able to take a you know, a series of letters and weave it like that. I just really am impressed with how you did that. So I'm just curious of how you how you initially set that tone.
Thank you so much for saying that. It's so nice. Yeah. So first of all, I was lucky because I thought maybe I'm going to write an essay about it or something. I thankfully, I took a picture of every note that I wrote. So as I said, I got to the end of the year, I did the whole year without writing really anything about it. Toward the end of the year, somebody who I had written to wrote an article about it in a cup of joe blog. And as that was happening, I started a new Instagram account, just kind of saying like, oh, I've been doing this. I've been doing it kind of secretly announced, FYI, I've been doing this. And at the end of the year, once it was totally done, and I felt like wow, that really was an amazing year. And I have a lot to say. And I I feel like it could be a book then I I sort of I started writing a book proposal. It was I mean, it's I don't know how interesting this is to people first, like the mechanics of this, but I'll say quickly in cases,
it's actually it's very, it's very interesting. I love to go with it.
Yeah. So I wrote up a book proposal, I reached out to a couple agents that friends of friends kind of connected me to one of them was kind enough to share some book proposals with me, which is so helpful, because those are really hard to find. And in fact, if anybody asked me, I give them my book proposal, I'm like, I, I mean, I could almost like I think, even thought, I'm actually just thinking of this now, I almost would put it up on my website. It's sort of like, Who cares? Like, why is this like a secret? Like, if anybody wants to use this, and help them write their own proposal, I'm happy to share it. So I was, you know, I looked at a couple of proposals that were sort of similar to this book. And I started thinking through it, because some, you know, it's, there were so many ways that could go, I could just some people were like, maybe you just, you know, publish all the notes. I'm like, how could that be interesting, you know, so I wanted to put it into context, because I had each of those themes. You know, every month, you my career mentors month was so different from my friend's month, which was so different from the month I think my husband every day for a month. I sort of I knew that I wanted each chapter to tackle each one of those months. I know there are a lot of these books out there that are like a year of whatever, right here
with the writing prompts and things like that, you know, for even for our boys, I know my wife's got a couple gratitude journals for them. You know that I think they start out well intended, and then they quickly collect dust somewhere.
That's what I always say about gratitude journals. And that's what I always feel about the difference with writing. Thank you notice that there's a little feedback Not that I did that. In fact, I very purposely sent these out as gifts without any expectations. But of course, you do get some feedback, which sort of helps keep the project going instead of just writing it in the gratitude journal. Anyway, long story short, mate, wrote up a proposal, sent it out, got a lot of feedback, wrote a second book proposal. took another month. And just all this time just thinking, you know, one agent said something really helpful, which is I want to be able to, like learn the lessons that you learned without, I don't know, like without having to like, sift through. So then I organized it the way I did with every chapter pulling out a benefit in a lesson and a surprise.
Trying to ask, they didn't have a great way to phrase it. But that organizational piece was like I said it, it sets the tone, really easy, you know what to expect. And it really sets the tone really well. So so it was, you know, I like I like that great feedback that you got from the agent to do that. It sets things up wonderfully. So I'm gonna spend the next hour just praising your book, because I'm on such a high for reading it right now. So hopefully there's room.
It really feels good.
Yeah. So I initially again, didn't expect to have images in there. You have very beautiful, simple images in the book.
Oh, yeah, the illustrations. Yeah. The first
one that you see is on the dedication page. And I, when I started to crack the book open. I don't know why I expected the dedication page to be another, you know, really special. Thank you gratitude note, and you kept it so simple. Was that was that intentional?
What for Jake Henry and Charlie? Man?
It's just so with the heart below it? It is it is so I don't know if it was, I guess I'm just curious, was it intentional to leave it just as simple and pure as that and not turn it into one more thank you note,
you know, the acknowledge I have an acknowledgments page at the end, where I get like more specific, right. So I guess after writing that, I was like, No, it's just, it's just, you know, it's just to my family who was so wonderful with me while I was writing this, you know, just gave me so much grace and time. So yeah, I did. I did keep it simple. Thank you book. It's true. I could have like gone on and on.
Yeah. Well, again, as I you know, you you prejudge and you know, it's in the mail coming to you, I gotta, for those listening was able to get a pre release copy. And, and so you kind of start, you really build the anticipation of what it's going to be before you open it. So it was a fun process. So one of the quotes that you have, at the beginning, I want you to unpack a little more for us, because I think it really helps sets the tone. You use the term, you know, you know, in the your expectations you set for yourself, give everything and expected nothing in society. wheeze maybe a little backwards at times where we expect a lot but often don't give. So share that share that just that that theory with is that you know how you came to that realization of what you wanted to do with the project?
Yeah. So in my very first month, I mean, technically it was February, my second month, but my first month was accidental. Okay, so my first month, intentional month, February was to the neighbors. And I started by writing out a list of neighbors on a spreadsheet. And I very quickly realized that one of those columns would naturally be a reply, you know, did they reply, what did they say? And I erased the spreadsheet. I was like, I'm, I'm gonna I will keep I opened up a Google Doc. And I wrote a list there. Because I didn't want I didn't want that stress on my mind of, did they get it? What did they think? Did they think it was weird? Why aren't they responding right away? It's especially at the volume I did, you know, at that volume that I have my output, it just would have been so much pressure on me to think, I don't know, I just was like this. I had this indication. And I feel like over time, I can articulate why it was smart. But at the time, I had just an impulse, that that would be a bad idea. And it wouldn't be good for me. And now that I've been through it, I think why that is a good idea. There's a few reasons. One, this was my This was my Thank you Here what I called right, it's nobody else's Thank you Your time. So it's totally unfair to put an expectation on somebody else, to respond in kind and expect them to be in the same mental and emotional place that I am, you know, and want to sit down and write something or, you know, so that's, that would be unfair, first of all. Second of all, you know, people have I'm not I've never read that love language book. But you know, this is like my love language for this year. Right? And like other people have other ways that they express their feelings. So, you know, it just it just felt unfair to them and unfair to me to feel to to have that expectation and then be immediately disappointed. If I send 30 notes. Of course, they're not going to all right 30 letters back so it's like, you're just guaranteeing disappointment when instead if I expected nothing. Any response that came back any little selfie that said, This made my day just felt like a gift. So that was like a such a win. And the other thing that I've definitely only realized now after it's all over, is, you know, something like this brings up feelings and people, like, for example, my friend Susan, who was a career mentor, I wrote her a really sweet note. And she only recently apologized for never replying. And I told her Truthfully, I didn't even realize it, because I was so good at this, give everything and never think of it again, only, you know, treat all the any sort of responses a gift. So first of all, I didn't know that she hadn't responded, because I was so good at that, right, you know, following my own direction. But second of all, she said, You know, I received it at a time when I was wasn't feeling so great about myself wasn't and wasn't feeling like the things that you said were true. Or at least, I didn't feel like I was being, you know, I mean, listen, we're in magazines, this is a magazine mentor, like everybody is struggling in magazines, obviously, you know, so she was feeling low in her career and at a low point. And so that brought up those feelings for her. So that would have been hard for her to kind of, it would have wouldn't have been honest for her to write back, a peppy gratitude note in return. So she sort of she kept it. And she kind of sat with those feelings. And then she was able, more than a year later to express that to me and tell me that it did mean a lot to her, but that she couldn't quite accepted at the time. You know, so it's like, you just don't know what people are going through? And how could you expect anything, you know, when when it's purely a guest. And I wish that there were more I don't know, even like with emails, like, I wish that society was a little bit less seconds of a response, you know, an email has a timestamp. Right now, I'm dealing with this, because so many people are reaching out to me and saying that they, you know, my old college roommate and three paragraphs about how much he loved the book. And it's like, there's a timestamp on it. And I've always competing, you know, things, and it's like, it's a stress in the back of my mind, and I am going to respond to her. But I wish that in general, our society was a little bit more like that, of like, just giving these things and not assuming that if you don't hear back or don't hear back right away, or don't hear back with a three paragraph email, that it was like unappreciated, or,
sure, and even, even in no text messages now with read receipts, you know, you can easily look and say, well, you you read that message. And you've not replied to me in the psychological warfare that that happens between those. So yeah, we definitely, you know, ironically, that you talk about the technology because, you know, that was, you know, kind of put the phone down moment on the train is really what, what almost seems like it sparked this for you. And even in that you talk about how just that simple act, allowed things around you to slow down. And you as a parent, myself, you talked about in the book, you're at that phase with your children, where you don't want it to go faster. And so I think you really can appreciate that slow down aspect. But, you know, society we do, we go so fast. And even in the book, you talk about, you know, the social media, you know, the epinephrine hit the brain gets from the notifications and everything. I think that that concept of slowing down, and and just trying to figure out how we slow down more as a society, maybe people writing some more letters and expressing some more gratitude will will spark even just those moments of pulling out of their devices, and in showing other ways to show appreciation.
Yeah, I mean, for me, I, it's like, at the end of a long day, your phone and your Netflix, or it's not like I burned them, like I definitely still use those things. But they sound better sometimes than they feel, you know, like, especially, you know, in those train rides, where I had almost an hour to myself in a quiet car, with no child on top of me like it's, it's Heaven, right. But I was spending it naturally, as many of us do on my own in my list in my email in my feeds. And it's a frenzy. And it's, you know, something about sitting just with a paper and pen and focus. It's like, my brain was just like, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This is exactly what I needed right now. I never would have known it, you know?
Yeah, it's interesting. So, let's, I want to get into some almost logistical questions about the book. Yeah. You know, 365 notes, 12 months, 12 themes. Do do the 12 things resonate as much with you now, as they did or, you know, do you have any buyer's remorse and think, oh, man, I could have used you know, October to write about something different. I don't I don't know what October is a generic compare. Listen, I don't know how to read out my head. So Oh, God, let
me think if I would have any do overs, you know, I don't think so. I don't think so. I mean, there was one. I'm not sure if you're there yet, but there was one month that I scrapped because it wasn't working. Okay, so not there yet,
but I will be soon.
Yeah, it's June. So in June, June, topic was home. And when I got there, I was like, what's the home? Like, what am I, you know, I just couldn't make it work. And I tried all months to make it work with different writings from, and I just couldn't. And so I just scrapped it. And I just moved on to July. Okay. And then I stuck myself with a makeup month. So I actually ended up writing 30 notes in the last two days of the year, to make up for it. So, I mean, I just, that's one that I regret, but it was I mean, you know, it was just part of the thing. And it was, it was just a good lesson too. And like, I don't know, it was just a reminder. And throughout the year, I kept coming up against this thing, which is, you know, I don't know, like so many things in life, you could find an obstacle that will stop you. But why, you know, it's, it's why, you know, like that could have just derailed the whole thing, because I could have just kept trying to make it work and it wouldn't have been wouldn't have and then months would go by and then then I would have been the woman who wrote, you know, 120 notes in spot in five months and said, you know what I mean? And it's there were so many things like that, like so many questions kind of boiled down to like, what I see is like these unimportant things, not to be dismissive, but it's like people get caught up in their handwriting they get caught up in, I don't think I know how to say this, right. And it's all stuff that basically, the stuff that you're thinking of on this ends, is, the person on the receiving end isn't thinking about any of that stuff. So once you realize that simple facts, it's easy, because you're thinking about God, I don't I don't, I wish I had nicer stationery, my handwriting kind of sucks. It's not pretty at all. And I want you know, I hope they can even read it. got somebody else could be writing this more beautifully. I don't even I'm not even that great of a writer and like, you're thinking about all this stuff. And you're kind of making these decisions, and second guessing whether they're the right ones. And the person, on the other hand is just thinking, what a wonderful gift amid all my bills and Restoration Hardware catalogs. Like there's a gift in here for me,
I get a wait, I am to get a handwritten letter is is such a rarity. I mean, I think we honestly, in our, you know, if we look at the people in our circles, you know, probably in one hand, you could you could name the people that write handwritten letters on a regular basis. Right, you know, I think, you know, two that come to mind, really, you know, in my and I, and they're the things that we keep, we don't keep emails, maybe maybe people print emails or kill us, or we don't keep them. But those handwritten cards, you know, for whatever the reasons are the ones that that we do tend to keep into saves. So it's interesting. You You did a project in a believers month two with photographs. Can you want to share that idea? Briefly? I have never heard of that. And I didn't even realize that you could use a photographic postcard. Yeah, but now I'm tempted to try it. Just because it was such
a unique idea. Yeah, so you know, so at the top of every month, I didn't really I plan out the whole month in the sense of the whole year in the sense that I brainstormed a bunch of topics and kind of slid them into their month. But then at the top of every month, I would kind of look at it and think what's the best way to go about this? What would my list be? What am I really writing about? What the How do I think a friend, right? Because it's not just it's not just I choose friends, and I choose 30 of them, and write to them about nothing. There's the challenges of Thank you. Right? So what am I writing to them about? What am I thanking them for? And the friends month was a tough one at the beginning to plan out because I don't know, it's, there's something about thinking neighbors sort of easy, because I thought your neighbors are kind of always doing your favor, if you're lucky. You know, maybe they're lending you something or you know, our neighborhood stores. You know, they're nice to my kids is easy, right? If that was easy, and it was two or three sweet sentences. And it was like just a great exercise and lovely. And then friends it was like, that's different. Like you're not thinking friends for favors for what like somebody people I've been friends with for decades. Like, what am I thinking? What kind of favor Am I thinking important? That's not really what it's about. Right? So, once I remembered one of my, somebody used to work with Rachael Ray magazine, my old boss Miley, she used to send her Christmas cards were a picture just like a printout, you know, flimsy picture that she would cryovac and write it on the back of the photo and just send them out like that. I always thought that was just cute. I don't know. I just thought that was a cute idea. So I remembered that and I went to my little local mail store with like, all these things like how do I do it? Like do I do I put up anyway, so he kind guided me through it, I bought like a four by six mailing labels in a, like a roll of four by six mailing labels. And I just stuck them on the back of four by six photos, there's a little overhang and I just wasn't what I'm saying is it wasn't very neat, you know, like it. Sure. And you explained that in the book a little bit too. So keep going. I love this. Yeah, there's a little art project, and I'm not an artist. So it's not like it was like these beautiful, you know, artifacts or anything, it was just, but there were, you know, cool old photos from when I was in high school and college and whatever. And middle school and you know, reinforced with a mailing label, and then that's a postcard, you just, you know, slap a postcard stamp on there. And what was nice about it was that, you know, it takes some of the first of all postcard takes the pressure off because you just can't You can't be wordy, right, you have three sentences Max,
you limited space,
you have limited space, and then I have something to write about for my friends the picture, you know, and I started each one almost the same way and that is a little tip, which is you know, I didn't generally write these one a day literally, I usually batch them up in like five or eight or 10 and kind of sat with them for an hour and did it over a lunch period or something like that. I say lunch period like I'm still in school.
I'm not a teacher I don't have lunch periods anymore, but I apparently I do in my mind. So I would start almost the same way which is remember when we were young and carefree you know because I guess that's what I was thinking about at the time that these are people that I used to spend all my time with hours weekends, you know, trip days, and now we're just so busy. When's the last time I seen them? I don't know it's been years. But I guess I just wanted to reestablish that connection and tell them that I still love them and think about them. So I sort of would start with that sentence get specific for a sentence or two something about the picture what I remember you know and just end with you know, basically so grateful for our friendship right kind of thing
I love it was so creative pens and paper you know there are people that have their you know their special stationery I've got my you know everyday getting better cards that I that I use when I'm when I'm writing to people my my sister I don't know where she gets it from but has the most awesome stationery always tell me what your pens and paper journey and I know the same thing with pens I know people that are obsessive about their their writing tools to the to the point of it's an unhealthy hobby
you know, God it's funny, I was just before this I was looking for a pen and I think sort of like all downstairs now so it's like I have to remember that's the Oh, I might have to actually like run down and get them because I feel so strongly about them. It's the night the pens that I used in magazines and I I've tried so many times I'm like looking in drawers over here to be like if I was any way over here are they all downstairs? Anyway, I'll get there but so I happen to love I studied abroad in Florence and I love these Florentine before and classic Florentine print like that read and kind of that classic print. So I did splurge on some of those that you can get through Etsy and crane actually makes them too I splurged on some of those and in the beginning I would go to my local stationery place called measure twice and get some of those but at this volume, it was just too much like anything was too expensive. So this is another one where it's like okay, if I I don't know it's like I could buy into this but like I need to spend a lot of money on personalized stationery or really nice stationery and cards and like you know $3 times 30 times 12 that's a lot of money. Yeah, so I just bought it a target this like American Greetings, like 100 pack of like basically colored index cards,
like the rainbow pack of all the different colors. That's the the Wakefield family uses those her birthday cards for when they always go to birthday parties. They're wonderful.
Yeah, they're wonderful. Yeah, and now I bought a second pack for my boys because they also they use them all the time and you know what, that's fine so I guess you know for some people like some people aesthetic for really important my sister it's like I think she could never ever buy that and use that because it everything has to be so beautiful. For me it just wasn't the point so there were months when I use those and then you know for my career mentors month when those were longer and it wouldn't have fit on a little card so I did by you know i splurged for my career mentors, but I guess my point is go down that rabbit hole if you want. But don't let it be a deterrent. Sure that to me, it's not what matters. You know?
What about what about penmanship? I can see that being a roadblock for a lot of people and and probably You know, I'm sure that you know, the general consensus of people who have not seen your letters and I actually saw some on the today shows piece, probably think that you have the most beautiful penmanship in the world to write.
It's not great. I mean, that
kind of a hot mess, which made me feel a lot better about mine. But again, that's the vulnerability in the in the, in the principle of, you know, you know it you know, I'm doing this for you, not for me, so it really doesn't matter how pretty it is. But talk to us about penmanship.
Yeah, yeah, I'm so glad you said that. Yeah, it's I To me, the point is to express your personality. So my handwriting is very unique to me. And it's mostly legible. So I would always rather use it then type something out in print. Some people do that, though. And that's like, there's no problem with that. If you're truly illegible handwriting, sure, typing on computer printed out and send it like fine. But I feel like it just goes into what I was saying. Which is, you have a hang up about your handwriting. Nobody else cares, as long as they can read it. And in fact, it just shows your personality, like perfection is boring. It's so boring, you know? And like, Okay, if you could write in calligraphy and if you have like the creamiest most beautiful stationery like, it doesn't, you might be impressive, but it won't be more meaningful. Right? You know what I mean?
Absolutely, I preface and I believe on I put we posted a blog post today where we shared the third our today's show story and just the short, you know, like maybe a little six minute video with you where they actually show people holding up the letters. And, and I believe if I'm remembering correctly, one of the one of the ladies one of the letter says, I saw the handwriting instantly knew and knew it was yours. I mean, so it's kind of a unique, the uniqueness that we all have. I mean, I you know, vividly know my father's handwriting and there's people that we know what that penmanship looks like. So, you know, it makes it unique. It's, it's, it's a wonderful thing. How about the way you ended your letters? Do you have a specific way that you would sign off your letters or? Or everything?
I don't I love those like i when i read, I'm not like a student of, I don't know, historical letters or anything. Although I can imagine going down that rabbit hole at some point. I do love how they used to sign them like so specifically like yours in. You know, I don't I don't know her suity or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But no, I just listen, probably mostly probably, like, I love and miss you for people I know. And otherwise, like, excited to see soon. I don't know, I didn't I didn't have a signature move.
Okay, two more questions that I have from the book. And then I want to kind of do some rapid fire, you know, with our community questions here. Early on, you compare, you know, the word gratitude and you use it you say it's, you know, it's become more of a platitude. You know, is there a term you like to use more, you know, for your adventure specifically than than gratitude.
So, do you could I, can I read you that? I know you're not there. But do you mind? Could I read you from the last chapter? Oh,
absolutely. Let's let's dive in. I love this. Okay.
Okay, hold on,
let me took a lot of self control for me to not jump to actually I started reading even late this morning reading really, really fast. And I made myself just close the book, because I started skimming and I didn't want to cheat myself for it. So I'm excited to share a little bit head force.
Okay, the word gratitude once graded on me, I avoided it when naming this project. Now I fully embrace the word as I have so much else that's vulnerable and embarrassing and uncool. Basically, so basically, I mean, yeah, and gratitude has that like, hashtag blessed thing, which I think I was really allergic to, and really didn't want to be associated with, like, you know, like, I just didn't want to be associated with with that world of like, I mean, I think on Instagram, people are saying, toxic positivity, right is like, a thing right now. So I just didn't want to be associated with like, gratitude, you know, like, in a cheesy way. So I have now embraced the word gratitude. I think it's, it's, there's no better word. I mean, I call it my Thank you here instead of my gratitude here, for that reason. But I'm good with the word gratitude. We love made up.
I love that. This is a really weird segue. In the neighbor's section, you, you talk about waving and I want to kind of set the question up a little bit, because I love this concept, but one of my very first mentors, you know, anytime you would, you would ride with him, you know, especially through a neighborhood specifically his own but a neighborhood. You know, his rule was, you always have to wave at people you see walking down the road, you know, and you that was just, you know, that was just the general rule. And it's kind of now become a family rule as we pull into our small subdivision here
in New York City, right.
I know, I'm in Montana. I'm in small town America.
So you'd be you'd be a psychopath if you live in New York City, so
By Ryan Wakefield|2021-04-29T17:26:42-06:00April 29th, 2021|Library, Podcast|Comments Off on EDGB Podcast – Season 2, Episode 1 – Gratitude with Gina Hamadey


text:
The couple visited and held their soon-to-be daughter, even took pictures, on March 2.
On their way home from the hospital, the women received a call from CPS. The Youth Court judge had changed his mind.
Ashley said the woman on the other end of the phone raised her voice, saying, "You're not going to get that baby."
The couple lives in Lamar County. The woman on the phone told them Forrest County Youth Court Judge Mike McPhail wanted the baby to stay in Forrest County. LaNisha is active-duty military, and the couple plans to move to New Mexico in May.
"We already told them we would stay behind until the adoption is finalized. We would do anything we need to do. We would move into an apartment in Forrest County if that's the case," Ashley said.
CPS does have a policy requiring that foster children be placed in their home county or within 50 miles of the home from which they were taken. The Davis' Purvis home is within 50 miles of Hattiesburg.
Ashley said she never could argue her case because administrators at the Jackson and local CPS offices stopped returning calls.
"We didn't hear from anyone. Everyone was ignoring us. We were waiting for over an hour, sitting in the (Forrest County CPS) office with someone who didn't know what was going on," Ashley said. "The social worker said she didn't understand why and said this has never happened before."
"That made us feel like we were being discriminated against," she said.
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In a state that has long denied marriage and adoption rights to same-sex couples, the Davises think the resistance they've faced is because they're both women.
It's only been two years since the state began allowing same-sex couples to adopt — or at least stopped outright denying adoption to same-sex couples.
"They have no choice to do what the law says." That was Ashley's attitude after the U.S. Supreme Court recognized same-sex marriage in 2015 and a federal judge struck down Mississippi's ban on same-sex adoptions in 2016.
The judge found the adoption ban unconstitutional, saying it "obviously targets married gay couples and limits their rights." The state chose not to appeal.
Newly confirmed CPS Commissioner Jess Dickinson, a former state Supreme Court justice, wrote the dissent in the state's same-sex divorce case, suggesting the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision on gay marriage, Obergefell v. Hodges, had "no basis in the Constitution or (United States Supreme Court) precedent."
Dickinson, who heads the agency that oversees placement for abused and neglected children, later said his dissent had nothing to do with his stance on same-sex marriage.
A CPS spokesperson said the agency does not collect data on sexual orientation or whether a married couple is same-sex when it comes to foster parents or adoptive parents, so it's difficult to estimate how many same-sex couples have had success becoming parents through CPS since the ban was lifted.
Dickinson told the Clarion Ledger in March that he didn't even know the state used to have a same-sex adoption ban but that regardless, his agency doesn't discriminate.
"That's a legal call. They have a legal right to do it," Dickinson said of same-sex couples adopting. "I would never take any action whatsoever to prevent a same-sex couple from being a foster parent or from adopting a child because the law doesn't allow me to do that."
CPS doesn't have full control over where a child goes — judges across the state do. Judge McPhail did not return calls to the Clarion Ledger, but it is not common for judges to discuss their cases or decisions.
The Davises have wanted children for five years, about as long as they've been married, but they really focused their efforts after same-sex adoption became legal in the state. They always planned to adopt, but after not getting any calls from CPS for babies available for adoption, they switched to a foster-to-adopt plan.
They were officially certified as foster parents in January 2017. Caseworkers told the Davises they were the first same-sex couple to receive foster care certification in Forrest County.
"The one chance they had to do right by the law, they just shut us down. They didn't even give us an option to try and fight it," Ashley said.
Despite hurdles for the LGBTQ community, Mississippi has actually led the nation in the highest proportion of same-sex couples raising children, nearly 30 percent according to a 2014 report from the Williams Institute, a research group out of UCLA School of Law that focuses on sexual orientation and gender.
The Davises aren't the only ones who feel they lost the child because of discrimination. A week after CPS began stonewalling them, Ashley said she found an anonymous letter in their mailbox that she thinks is from someone at the agency.
"Please contact the following people who may be of some help to you," the letter reads, followed by the contact information for Roberta Kaplan and Susan Hrostowski. Kaplan is the attorney who fought Mississippi's same-sex marriage ban, and Hrostowski is a University of Southern Mississippi professor of Social Work and was a plaintiff in the same-sex adoption case against the state.
The couple reached out to an attorney but were told they don't have grounds to challenge the judge's decision. Ashley also said they're not up for a multi-year legal battle.
Another attorney raised the Davises' concerns with Dickinson. Because the agency is bound by confidentiality, Dickinson could not comment on the case.
Mississippi may not be able to deny adoption to same-sex couples, but that's clouded by a law passed in 2016 called the Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act, or House Bill 1523.
The law says the state shall not punish any religious organization that provides foster care or adoption services because the organization "declined to provide any adoption or foster care service, or related service, based upon or in a manner consistent with a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction."
In Michigan, same-sex couples say they've faced discrimination and been turned away from private adoption agencies on the basis of religion. Michigan contracts with these organizations to place children in the state's foster care system into homes.
The American Civil Liberties Union is suing on behalf of the couples, alleging that by allowing the contracted agencies to deny services to same-sex couples, Michigan is violating the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
Mississippi handles adoptions through the state foster care system itself, but it does contract out some training services — required to become a foster parent — to private agencies.
The contractors who provide training in Mississippi — Mississippi Community Education Center and Family Resource Center of Northeast Mississippi — have nondiscrimination policies that include sexual orientation.
A host of faith-based organizations contract with the state to certify foster parents for therapeutic and respite care, such as for children with special medical, emotional or developmental issues. Southern Christian Services, for example, follows the state's requirements for licensing and does not deny services to same-sex couples.
Another state contractor, Catholic Charities, on the other hand, does not license same-sex couples for foster care, though a Catholic Charities spokeswoman, Maureen Smith, said the organization does sign the state's non-discrimination policy.
The policy — which includes protections for race, color, creed, sex, age, national origin, physical handicap, disability, genetic information, and "any other consideration made unlawful by federal, state, or local laws" — does not specifically include that discrimination based on sexual orientation is prohibited.
Smith said the couples have other options for licensing.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Students at the State University of New York are heading back to many campuses where budget cuts have taken a heavy toll, according to the president of the nation's largest higher education union. Phillip H. Smith, president of United University Professions (UUP), says that the sharp budget cuts instituted last year for SUNY threaten the quality of education students will be receiving this fall semester.
Based on a review of published information on SUNY's state-operated campuses and on reports from UUP leaders on those campuses, UUP finds that campuses across the state have cut staff and/or positions, imposed hiring freezes, boosted the size of their classes, or increased their reliance on adjuncts. Campuses cutting staff and/or positions include UAlbany, where 105 faculty positions have been eliminated, and the University at Buffalo's Health Sciences Center, where 10 long-term faculty are not being renewed and the rehabilitation medicine unit is closing. The other SUNY campuses hit by job cutbacks: Buffalo State, Canton, Fredonia, New Paltz, Plattsburgh, Potsdam and Upstate Medical University. A dozen campuses have a hiring freeze in place: Albany, Binghamton, Brockport, Canton, Cortland, Fredonia, Geneseo, New Paltz, Oneonta, Plattsburgh, Potsdam and Upstate Medical. At least six campuses have increased the size of their classes: Cortland, Fredonia, Geneseo, New Paltz, Plattsburgh and Purchase. Four campus are relying more heavily on adjuncts: Cortland, Farmingdale, Plattsburgh and Purchase.
Smith is asking the governor and state lawmakers to take SUNY's economic plight into consideration and find ways to minimize any further financial impacts for the rest of the state's current fiscal year as well in the 2009-10 fiscal year. Smith is also calling upon SUNY to use the $75 million in reserves that the Legislature authorized in this year's budget. The funds are targeted to prevent any further erosion of academic quality, to stop increases in class sizes, and to avoid cancelled classes.
"SUNY must be properly funded to meet its mission: to offer an affordable, quality education to all qualified students," Smith said.


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text:
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text:
Oakland Privacy Group Oakland Citizens Fight Spy Center Vote by City Council
If Schneider Electric is approved, this would be the final vote before construction would continue on the DAC.
Staff ,
OaklandPrivacyWorkingGroup
Oakland, CA – A wide-ranging coalition of Bay Area activists will converge at Oscar Grant Plaza this Tuesday, March 4th, 2014 from roughly 6pm onward, to speak out against Oakland City Council's plan to approve Schneider Electric as the contractor for Phase II of construction of the proposed Oakland Police Department's surveillance hub, the Domain Awareness Center (DAC). If Schneider Electric is approved, this would be the final vote before construction would continue on the DAC. Activists are braced for this possibility and are ready to launch a lawsuit against City Council to halt construction, based on civil liberties violations and noncompliance with the city's own contracting policies, including its Nuclear Free Zone Ordinance.
The DAC is a proposed $10.9M Department of Homeland Security-funded, 24/7 surveillance center, which has generated a firestorm of press, from such media outlets as The New York Times, The Guardian, Al Jazeera America, Russia Today, Boing Boing, AlterNet, Truthout, Common Dreams, TechDirt, and the East Bay Express. Locally, it has spawned a fierce groundswell of resistance, uniting a disparate coalition of impassioned residents representing the entire political spectrum from left to right who are unwaveringly saying "no" to government surveillance and the militarization of our community. The project, which was initially sold to City Council under the auspices of protecting the Port of Oakland's infrastructure, has grown exponentially in scope since its inception and would now enable law enforcement to engage in widespread warrantless surveillance of Oakland residents, using large numbers of surveillance cameras, license plate readers, thermal imaging devices, gun-shot detection sensors, toll payment tracking for those using electronic passes, and social media monitoring, along with other tools. Though the project is slated to receive federal start-up money by way of grants from the Department of Homeland Security, this funding will expire after two years, leaving tax-paying residents to foot the continued expenses of running a state of the art, round-the-clock surveillance center.
A letter in support of not awarding Schneider Electric the contract (*document attached*) has been signed by the following community groups and group members: Normon Solomon, Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus, Phat Beets Produce, Women for Genuine Security, Access, National Lawyers Guild, East Point Peace Academy, The Justice 4 Alan Blueford Coalition, Bill of Rights Defense Committee, ONYX Organizing Committee, former council member Wilson Riles, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Arab Resource and Organizing Center, CODEPINK, Elaine Brown, former Chair Black Panther Party, Alameda County Against Drones, Oakland International Socialist Organization, Veterans for Peace, California and Alameda County Democratic Party delegates, and Prison Activist Resource Center, among others.
The coalition seek the unequivocal termination of the project, which they feel violates the legal rights andprivacy of ordinary, law-abiding citizens; has little to no accountable oversight and no privacy framework in place to dictate policies regarding retention and dissemination of the collected data. It will create even deeper distrust between citizens and law enforcement in a city which has for decades been the epicenter of police violence against citizens – at a time when the Oscar Grant and Alan Blueford murders and the near-lethal brutality seen in the Occupy Oakland demonstrations are still fresh on people's minds. It has tremendous potential for data leaks, whether from outside hackers or from inside operatives; and would be an incredibly poor use of public funds, when the city budget is already strapped for cash. Demonstrators are resolute that the DAC will not be built in Oakland. They are asking residents to come out to send a clear message to CityCouncil that if this project isn't terminated, City Council will be in for a fight!
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan Admits Cities Coordinated Crackdown on Occupy Movement
Embattled Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, speaking in an interview with the BBC (excerpted on The Takeaway radio program–audio of Quan starts at the 5:30 mark), casually mentioned that she …
Gregg Levine ,
Capitoilette
For additional information on the DAC, the mounting efforts to stop it, and a complete list of the press coverage it's garnered, the best resource is Oakland Wiki.
This article is a Truthout original.
Oakland Police Ruling: Judge Approves Deal Granting Himself Power Over Department
US District Judge Thelton Henderson has signed off on an agreement that places sweeping powers in the hands of a court-appointed compliance director who will be able to spend …
Matthew Artz ,
MercuryNews


text:
Мари́я Улада́евна Ха́халова — депутат Верховного Совета СССР 1-го созыва (1937—1946) от Бурят-Монгольской АССР. Участница лыжного перехода Улан-Удэ-Москва зимой 1936-1937 года.

Биография

Родилась 7 апреля 1919 года в улусе Хандала (территория современного Кабанского района Бурятии).

Училась в  Хандалинской начальной школе, в свободное от занятий время работа в своем колхозе. Затем закончила Бурятскую семилетнюю школу в городе Верхнеудинск (Улан-Удэ).

Мария Хахалова получила всесоюзную известность после знаменитого лыжно-пешего перехода из Улан-Удэ в Москву зимой 1936-1937 года. Команда лыжниц состояла из 5 девушек-комсомолок:  Вера Любимская, Софья Тыхеева, Мария Хахалова, Елизавета Константинова и Анастасия Сункуева. В команде Мария была самая юная - 17 лет.

После завершения перехода Мария Хахалова направлена на работу в Народный комитет по земельным вопросам Бурят-Монголии. В 1937 году избирается депутатом Верховного Совета СССР I созыва.

Мария Хахалова училась в Сельскохозяйственной академии имени Тимирязева, которое закончила в 1947 году. Работала ведущим специалистом на ВДНХ до 1988 года. Здесь она курировала Дальний Восток и Восточную Сибирь, включая родную Бурятию.

Мария Уладаевна Хахалова скоропостижно скончалась 2 декабря 1988 года во время поездки в Баргузинский район.

Награды и звания

 Орден «Знак Почета» (1937)

Примечания

Ссылки
 В Улан-Удэ отметят 80-летний юбилей пеше-лыжного перехода Улан-Удэ-Москва
 Большой праздник для маленького села
 Депутаты Верховного Совета СССР I-го созыва, избранные 12.12.1937

История Бурятии
Депутаты Совета Национальностей от Бурятской АССР
Депутаты Совета Национальностей 1-го созыва
Персоналии:Бурятия
Персоналии:Улан-Удэ
Женщины Бурятии

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Lebanon pastor to be tried in faith healing death
Daniel Walmer
A Lebanon pastor whose granddaughter died of untreated pneumonia will be headed to court after a Berks County district judge refused to dismiss felony charges on Wednesday.
The possibly one-of-a-kind case pits freedom of religion against the state's interest in protecting the welfare of children.
Rowland Foster, 72, of Lebanon, is the pastor of Faith Tabernacle at 414 N. Ninth St. in Lebanon, which shuns medical care in favor of prayer for healing. His granddaughter, 2-year-old Ella Foster, died in November of a form of pneumonia that a specialist previously testified could have been treated with antibiotics.
Magisterial District Judge Ann Young called the case "tragic and sad beyond belief" to all parties involved at a preliminary hearing Wednesday, but said her job was to apply the law. And the Commonwealth demonstrated a prima facie case against Foster, Young said.
She set arraignment in the case for Aug. 28.
Read more:Children have died from Lebanon's Faith Tabernacle for 100 years
More:Charges refiled against Faith Tabernacle pastor
More:After girl's death, legal victory for Faith Tabernacle
Berks County District Attorney John Adams had charged Foster with failure to report or refer, a third-degree felony rooted in Pennsylvania's requirements for reporting knowledge of possible child abuse to state authorities. In Adams' view, Foster failed his obligation as a minister to report that Ella Foster's parents were not providing her needed medical care.
Several children's health care advocates previously told the Lebanon Daily News that they were unaware of any previous cases in the United States in which a minister was charged with failure to report abuse in a case related to a children's death from religious-based refusal to provide medical care.
That tactic "could be a new tool to save the lives of children," Rita Swan, president of advocacy organization Children's Healthcare is a Legal Duty, wrote in an email.
Although ministers have been mandated reporters of child abuse since the 1970s, Pennsylvania passed stricter laws with stiffer penalties in the years following the scandal involving former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
Berks County Magisterial District Judge Andrea Book previously dismissed the charge against Foster on April 19. Berks County refiled the charge, however, and Book recused herself from the second hearing, Adams said.
At Wednesday's hearing, Berks County Chief Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Kurland presented the transcript of the previous preliminary hearing, as well as a video recording of police interviewing Foster. Foster told authorities he anointed his granddaughter with oil on the night before she died.
Young said Foster's relatively mild description of Ella Foster's illness in that interview was "inconsistent" with "compelling" testimony forensic pathologist Neil Hoffman gave at the previous preliminary hearing. According to PennLive, Hoffman had testified that Ella Foster would have appeared seriously ill before her death, coughing severely and fighting for breath.
Kurland said Wednesday that by understating the extent of his granddaughter's sickness in the police interview, Rowland Foster revealed "consciousness of guilt." Foster never reported the death, and authorities only became aware of it after the funeral director reported it, Kurland said.
Despite his religious convictions, "he's obligated to follow the law like everybody else," Kurland said.
Christopher Ferro, an attorney representing Foster, said he was "frustrated but not surprised," by Young's ruling, since it is relatively easy to demonstrate a prima facie case as compared to the proof required at the Court of Common Pleas level.
"I think the Commonwealth is going to be unable to prove this charge beyond a reasonable doubt," he said.
Hoffman's previous testimony had revealed that there are a lot of unknowns about the speed with which Ella Foster's illness progressed, and Hoffman acknowledged that even a trained medical professional could have misdiagnosed it, Ferro said.
While Ella Foster's death was a tragedy, he urged Young not to make the "secondary mistake" of allowing Rowland Foster to be prosecuted.
"We have a grieving grandfather, not a criminal," he said.
At least 20 members of Faith Tabernacle attended the hearing, but they were largely silent after Young's ruling. Several church members declined comment following the hearing.
As previously reported by the Lebanon Daily News, the church has a long history of medically preventable deaths. In 1924, the city of Lebanon quarantined church members after a fatal diphtheria outbreak at the church threatened public health.
Ella Foster's parents, Jonathan and Grace Foster, have been charged with felony involuntary manslaughter and misdemeanor endangering the welfare of children, according to court records. They posted $100,000 unsecured bail. They also give up custody of their other six children, the Reading Eagle reported.


text:
Steam enters testing phase on select Chromebooks
Google has announced that Steam, the digital game store of valve, is available for testing on "Selected Chromebooks". Who broke the news was Google Product Director for Games Greg Hartell at the Google for Games Developer Summit event.
In a brief mention, the exec said that "Steam alpha [versão em testes iniciais, anteriores à fase beta] just released" for ChromeOS. Watch it in full below at 2:00 p.m. (in English):
He urged interested parties to keep an eye on the official community forum, but no further details were released. The official page says the following:
Want to stay up to date with the best tech news of the day? Access and subscribe to our new youtube channel, Canaltech News. Every day a summary of the main news from the tech world for you!
"Hello Chromebook community,
As you may have heard, our team is working with Valve to bring Steam to Chrome OS. We are excited to announce that we will soon be releasing a first version of Steam on Chrome OS, in alpha quality, to the Dev channel for a small number of Chromebooks. Don't hesitate to come back to the forum for more information!"
The company hasn't revealed which models will be able to run Steam, but the 9to5Google site found that some devices were digging into the system's source code. most are Acer and Asus brands. Check out the full list of computers, with their respective codenames:
Back – Acer Chromebook 514 (CB514-1H)
Pane – Acer Chromebook 515
Voxel – Acer Chromebook Spin 713 (CP713-3W)
Delbin – ASUS Chromebook Flip CX5 (CX5500)
Drobit – ASUS Chromebook CX9 (CX9400)
Elemi – Chromebook HP Pro c640 G2
Lindar – Unidentified Lenovo Chromebook
Additionally, the site found out what technical specifications will be needed to run the gaming rig. At a minimum, the Chromebook needs an 11th Gen Intel Core i5 or i7 processor and 7GB of RAM – fairly high settings for Chromebooks in general.
Basically, Google announced that something is coming that has been happening since 2020 (Picture: Disclosure/Google)
This list, however, may change over time; after all, it's still an alpha-stage program. 9to5Google claims to have found evidence that Google is "testing Steam on older 10th Gen Intel Core processors as well as AMD chips". There are also indications that Nvidia is directly involved in the development of Steam for ChromeOS.
The first time the company said the store would be coming to the system was in early 2020, and there hasn't been any news since then. We still don't know what games will run on ChromeOS, or how developers will work with the platform.
Source: Google SupportThe edge (1, of them)
The new iPhone SE could bring Apple up to $20 billion, analyst says
Google Pixel 7: smartphone features are already circulating on the Internet
WhatsApp begins to receive a global media player on Android
Kingdom Hearts doxx Sora fans, find your realistic apartment in Tokyo
Xiaomi launches new Redmi Buds 3 Pro for Genshin Impact fans
Two giant spots in Earth's mantle could explain Africa's strange geology
Our Moon has been slowly moving away from Earth for 2.5 billion years
Your name, on a USB key, on the way to the moon? NASA has opened registrations
Gamer kills one of the toughest enemies with magic attack • Eurogamer.com
Psychonauts 2 is Double Fine's best-selling game, says developer
iPhone 12 Pro Max with USB-C? You just need to win the eBay auction


Dream beaches are clean beaches: For relaxation, sunbathing, dreaming and for children to play. Always as though they were the first to discover their sands. With the BeachTech beachcleaners every day like new.


Last week we baby-sat for our friends 1.5 year old son and it was amazing. I didn't get home from work until 7:30pm and my husband was already home baby-sitting. He is so proud of himself that he changed his first poopy diaper ever. =P As soon as I walked in the door, I went from super stressed and "flip my sh**" mode into "yay we have a baby in the house!" mode. Anyone knows me, knows that I have baby fever, and I have it BAD. That being said, we are *not* trying to have a child yet, as we know we just are not ready to start a family. We are still too selfish and too much in debt and have too much to work on within ourselves before we can bring new life into the world. That being said, we do plan to start the trying-to-get-pregnant process within the next year, we just need to get a bit more squared away first. But it was really encouraging that I instantly got into mommy-mindset when I got home from a really awful day. Granted, I don't have to come home to a kid every single night, and I just might change my mind once I have my own running around, but at least for now, it was a saving grace.
The same night that we baby-sat, there was cajun pulled pork brewing in the crock pot. I was so proud of my husand (in addition to changing the poopy diaper), because I didn't have time to throw everything in the pot before leaving for work, so I asked him to. I gave him step-by-step instructions on what to do as I was flying around the apartment finishing getting ready, until he finally said, "Whitney, I know how to read directions!" And he did a great job.
That being said, this was not the best pulled pork in the world, I must be honest. Also, it was my first time using liquid smoke, but I feel like I have to use it on its own to truly figure out the flavour and what it adds to a dish. I'm pretty sure it's the water that negatively affected this dish. It was more dry than hearty. And let me be clear, I love pulled pork. Here are some other pulled pork dishes I have made: barbecue pulled pork (which is the same blogger as this cajun dish) and regular pulled pork sandwiches. However, it did make a ton of leftovers, which provided a ton of lunches.
-Put the meat into a large plastic zipper bag with brown sugar and all spices. Seal well and shake to coat. Then pour contents of bag into the crock pot. If the meat is too big for the bag, then just put it into the crock and rub the seasoning all over it (I'm actually not sure what my husband did on this one).
-Top with chopped onion, butter, and liquid smoke, then pour in water.
-Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours, or until meat shreds easily with a fork.


That was a question I found myself floundering to answer about 3 months ago. Given I was becoming involved in a group of people looking to set up one in Norwich focusing on digital businesses. So I decided to invest some time into immersing myself into the world of accelerators and incubators. As is the case today I started to do that online and then I quickly identified some of my key connections who knew a lot more about it than I did. Then bought them a coffee or promised one to get their views.
Suffice to say I am still not overly convinced I not what they are exactly. This is because there are so many types of them. Not only that they actually to me do not offer anything that is not already out there or have not been offered before. Finally there is no evidence in my opinion that they do a better job, but in fairness they are largely to young to fully judge them. Like most genres there are the 'poster childs' like Y Combinator that are held out as the norm, but we all know they are not.
My current opinion is that I need to immerse myself a bit deeper before I can fully answer the question with confidence. I'm therefore off on a few trips over the next few months to visit a number of existing ones. If any of my followers can point me in the right direction that would be great.
In the meantime I'm hatching the idea of setting up one with an incubator based on focusing on Mission-Based startups. There are some out there already doing this. I've started to have a few conversations with key 'movers' locally and it's got their interest so far.
I'm therefore very keen to proceed with this conversation. So if this has caught your interest then please get in touch and let's have a coffee.


In 2016, the European Union (EU), via the European Neighbourhood and Partnership funding Instrument (ENI), provided the Israeli NGO Il'am Arab Center for Media Freedom Development and Research a total of €365,803 (2017-2019) for "The Creation of the Freedom Protection Council: Ensuring democratic space for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Israel." As indicated by this title and noted explicitly by the EU, "The overall objective of this action is to ensure active engagement of Civil Society Organisations by countering systemic barriers that limit their participation in policymaking processes."1 The EU database lists the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute as a partner, and Van Leer refers to the role of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel in formulating this agenda.
In response to media inquiries about this project, the EU claimed that it "finances independent projects and NGOs, and these do not work for the EU. The claim that EU funded projects operate as lobbying bodies for it is unfounded."4 The strategic document, among other aspects, suggests otherwise.
These grantees are highly politicized organizations whose activities suggest they are not focused on dialogue, or on facilitating the core EU objective of peace based on dialogue and a two-state framework.
In 2015, ORG's Palestine Strategy Group published a strategy report that supports "resistance in all its forms including the growing global movement for boycott sanctions and divestment."8 In many of its projects related to the conflict, ORG promotes politicized rejectionist agendas.


January 1st, 2013 - I try to keep "meta-blogging" to a minimum, and we'll get back to Donkey Kong shortly, but there's now a build-up of matters that need to be addressed.
The last update to this blog came a couple of days before Thanksgiving (over a month ago). In it, I implied that I'd be back within a few days, but... well... here we are.
I realized a few days after stepping away from the blog, once I'd had a chance to take a deep breath, that I needed to stay away for a while. The Kong Off 2 coverage ended up being more of an undertaking than I'd anticipated. I work on this blog for fun, as a guilty pleasure, but it was beginning to chew up a disturbing and irresponsible proportion of my time and mental energy. It was starting to feel like work.
It was time to take a break and work on other things.
This wasn't the first time that I've left Donkey Blog untouched for a long stretch of time, and (just as a heads-up) it will not be the last! I'm involved in about eighteen dozen projects and I tend to work on each in obsessive, concentrated bursts, as opposed to a steady drip.
I'm going to use this opportunity to make a suggestion: if you see this blog go dark for an extended period, don't be afraid to ask for updates. I won't take offense. Indeed, the only way for me to know you want more is if you ask for it.
At the end of the last update, I mentioned that I would be returning to discuss a decision that I had made "in response to current events."
I have since reversed that decision.
But since I'd already put myself on the spot, I'm obligated to at least tell you what it was!
The new ownership of Twin Galaxies announced at the Kong Off 2 that taped submissions for non-world record scores would no longer be accepted. This would have crippled, and had the potential to kill, competition on the Donkey Kong scoreboards.
I believe that anyone who wants to see their name on the scoreboard, regardless of place, should have that opportunity. Different gamers have different motivations, and not all of them are gunning for first place. Some are happy to be in 2nd, or 9th, or even 50th. This is true for Donkey Kong in particular: competition at this game has reached a level where even twentieth place is a significant achievement, and cracking the top ten takes serious dedication to the craft.
If Twin Galaxies was no longer interested in tracking any score other than the record, I felt that someone ought to pick up the torch.
My proposal, therefore, was to found a new, community-run scoreboard, devoted specifically to Donkey Kong, which would incorporate and aggregate all existing Donkey Kong scores—whether verified by Twin Galaxies, Aurcade, MAME Action Replay, or any other reputed entity—as well as accept, review, and verify new submissions.
Soon after Thanksgiving, I revealed the idea during one of Dean Saglio's live streams. Several top players on the stream at the time (including Vincent Lemay, Mitchell Elliott and Dean himself) expressed support for the idea.
However, a major development ensued.
In a move that came as both a surprise and a relief to many in the gaming community, Twin Galaxies announced on their Facebook page that they had reversed their "world records only" decision (along with several others announced at the Kong Off), and that they would continue to accept all submissions.
In other words, the problem that I was stepping forward to solve ended up solving itself!
I have, for this reason and others, decided not to move forward with my idea.
Those of you following the Kong Off 2 coverage here may remember the update I posted just after Twin Galaxies' Arcade Culture stream, where I voiced a few harsh words in reaction to what I had just heard.
At this point, most of us know and love Richie Knucklez, myself among them, and feel just fine about him being one of the new co-owners of Twin Galaxies.
Jourdan Adler, however, is someone the community doesn't know as well, and is to most of us still a stranger. What I heard on the stream made me wary, to put it mildly.
But with his response to the feedback generated by the policy changes (namely, to take action on those that were unpopular), Jourdan has since made something very clear: that he is listening.
That's really all I needed to hear. I now have renewed confidence in Twin Galaxies, and in Jourdan himself, and am looking forward to seeing what the future brings.
If you happen to pay any attention to this blog's pageview counter, you might have noticed that the number has exploded. The total was less than 60,000 before Christmas. It's now over 200,000.
Several of you are curious as to what the heck happened.
Long story short: Eminem's Donkey Kong Ambitions got "frontpaged" on Reddit.
On the morning of December 25th, A Redditor linked to the story from the "Today I Learned..." sub-Reddit.
One thing led to another, and by 3:00 PM—based on the comments, votes, and general amount of attention that the article was receiving—the link had managed to climb its way to Reddit's main frontpage.
As a result of that feat (and the inevitable Tweets, re-Tweets, re-blogs, and shares that came with it), Donkey Blog received nearly 100,000 visitors over the next 48 hours, with a steady trickle of residual traffic that continues to this moment.
More exciting to me personally than the Reddit event itself was the link and the kind words from überblogger Jason Kottke, whose work I enjoy and respect.
How strange for an old story (that was already old even when I wrote about it) to suddenly wake up and go flying!
But while it was a fun and surreal moment when I checked my realtime traffic monitor at the height of the surge on Christmas Day to see over a thousand readers on the blog simultaneously, I knew that it wasn't anything to get too terribly excited about.
I've been making websites and blogs for 15 years. Let's just say that this isn't my first "flash crowd." I learned a long time ago that a traffic-bomb, especially on a blog like this one, generally doesn't have much of an effect in the long term (or even in the short term).
A few numbers should speak for themselves in that regard: out of all of those tens of thousands of visitors, I got a grand total of 2 comments and 3 new subscribers to the Facebook page.
In other words, they came, they peeked, and then they went back to looking at pictures of cats. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but in the end, it changes nothing.
The content on this blog is designed to garner casual outsider interest while simultaneously satisfying the DK faithful. The fact of the matter is that the potential size of the "core readership" is small... and just about everybody in that group is already present and accounted for!
Nonetheless, this past week's guests were more than welcome to stop by and take a look, and I was happy to see them.
I've decided that it's never too late to recap the Kong Off 2 (especially since I'm more than halfway done with my write-up), so that will be along in due time.
Hank Chien has prepared a draft of answers to questions about Donkey Kong that he gets asked too often. I'll be looking at this more deeply and posting it soon.
Vincent Lemay is in Denver at this very moment and will be kicking off a multi-day attempt at the Donkey Kong world record from The 1up, beginning just a few hours from now. Rumor has it that the event will be streamed. I will post a quick story tomorrow if this stream does indeed come together (followed by a bigger story if and when he succeeds!) Good luck, Vincent.
Finally, I wanted to mention that I recently secured the top MARP ranking on the MAME version of Donkey Kong II: Jumpman Returns (which I consider to be the greatest "homebrew" video game hack ever made). I know Ben Falls can beat the score, to say nothing of Dean Saglio, Eric Akeson, and others, but what the heck, after a year of off-and-on play, I'm proud. In the wake of this achievement I acquired the arcade hardware and it is now installed in my Donkey Kong machine. I'm ready to do some damage!
See you all (hopefully) soon.
D2K is a nightmare, 256K is a good score.


text:
Q: Strange behaviour of Qt application on raspberry pi I have cross compiled Qt for the Raspberry pi with QtMultimedia and Gstreamer1.0 support with platform xcb and eglfs
Now if I run an app to play a video using platform eglfs it runs and video plays and if  I use platform xcb for app it gives an error that videosink is not working
So how can I get video played using xcb plugins?
The errors I am getting are
xvimagesink xvimagesink.c:1443:gst_xvimagesink_get_xv_support:<xvimagesink1> error: Could not initialise Xv output

xvimagesink xvimagesink.c:1443:gst_xvimagesink_get_xv_support:<xvimagesink1> error: No port available

I am working on Raspbian Wheezy armv7

A: Ok I will compose an answer instead of making tons of comments.
You could try to change the source code for the QGstreamerVideoWidget here In that function you see xvimagesink.
Interesting is that there already is fallback to ximagesink if xvimagesink is not working.. I would try autovideosink which should always work..
void QGstreamerVideoWidgetControl::createVideoWidget()
{
    if (m_widget)
        return;

    m_widget = new QGstreamerVideoWidget;

    m_widget->installEventFilter(this);
    m_windowId = m_widget->winId();

    /// --- CHANGED HERE (xvimagesink -> autovideosink) -----
    m_videoSink = gst_element_factory_make ("autovideosink", NULL);
    if (m_videoSink) { /// --- maybe this if is not needed anymore ---
        // Check if the xv sink is usable
        if (gst_element_set_state(m_videoSink, GST_STATE_READY) != GST_STATE_CHANGE_SUCCESS) {
            gst_object_unref(GST_OBJECT(m_videoSink));
            m_videoSink = 0;
        } else {
            gst_element_set_state(m_videoSink, GST_STATE_NULL);

            g_object_set(G_OBJECT(m_videoSink), "force-aspect-ratio", 1, (const char*)NULL);
        }
    }

    if (!m_videoSink)
        m_videoSink = gst_element_factory_make ("ximagesink", NULL);

    qt_gst_object_ref_sink(GST_OBJECT (m_videoSink)); //Take ownership
}

Or maybe its QGstreamerVideoWindow here
again replace xvimagesink with autovideosink, maybe it will help.
I am not sure what exactly is being used by your code..

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Forward Reports Fiscal 2014 Results
in Packaging & Containers, Picture Gallery / by Presse / on Dezember 9, 2014 at 11:45 pm /
WEST PALM BEACH, FL — (Marketwired) — 12/09/14 — Forward Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ: FORD) ("Forward" or the "Company"), a designer and distributor of custom carry and protective solutions, today announced financial results for its fiscal year ended September 30, 2014.
Forward generated an operating loss of ($0.1) million in fiscal 2014 compared to operating income of $0.7 million in fiscal 2013. Notwithstanding an increase in sales volumes and net sales revenue year on year of approximately 8% to $33.4 million in fiscal 2014, primarily related to increased demand for our diabetic product line, our cost of sales in the period eroded the gains from this revenue growth, rising by approximately 9% to $26.8 million in fiscal 2014. This resulted in a decline in our gross margin from 21% in fiscal 2013 to 20% in fiscal 2014. In addition, our sales and marketing expenses increased $0.6 million, or 28%, to $2.8 million in fiscal 2014 compared to $2.2 million in fiscal 2013, due primarily to higher personnel costs as a result of Forward management–s decision to expand and restructure our sales and sales support departments. Our general and administrative expenses also increased $0.3 million, or 10%, to $3.8 million in fiscal 2014 from $3.5 million in fiscal 2013 due primarily to increased professional fees related to our M&A efforts and the legal support and representation surrounding the lawsuit filed by our former Chief Financial Officer, James McKenna, and our pursuit of counter-claims against Terence Bernard Wise in his ongoing proxy campaign.
– Compared to the fiscal 2013 results:
Net sales increased $2.5 million, or 8%, to $33.4 million in fiscal 2014 from $30.9 million in fiscal 2013 due to higher sales in both product lines. Sales in Diabetic Products increased $2.0 million and sales in Other Products increased $0.5 million.
Gross profit increased $0.2 million, or 3%, to $6.6 million in fiscal 2014 from $6.4 million in fiscal 2013. As a percentage of sales, our gross margin declined to 20% in fiscal 2014, compared to 21% in fiscal 2013. The gross profit increase was driven primarily by a year over year increase in sales volume.
Sales and marketing expenses increased $0.6 million, or 28%, to $2.8 million in fiscal 2014 compared to $2.2 million in fiscal 2013, due primarily to higher personnel costs as a result of expanding and restructuring our sales and sales support departments, including their respective compensation schemes.
General and administrative expenses increased $0.3 million, or 10%, to $3.8 million in fiscal 2014 from $3.5 million in fiscal 2013 due primarily to increased professional fees related to our M&A efforts and the legal support and representation surrounding the lawsuit filed by our former Chief Financial Officer, James McKenna, and our pursuit of counter-claims against Terence Bernard Wise in his on-going proxy campaign.
Other (income) expense, net, was $0.4 million of expense in fiscal 2014 compared to $0.7 million of expense in fiscal 2013 primarily as a result of realized and unrealized gains and losses on investments in marketable securities and the change in the fair market value of warrant liabilities.
Net loss from continuing operations was ($0.5) million, or ($0.08) per basic and diluted share (after deducting preferred stock dividends and accretion), in fiscal 2014 compared to $5 thousand of income, or ($0.07) per basic and diluted share (after deducting preferred stock dividends and accretion), in fiscal 2013.
Net loss from discontinued operations was ($0.3) million, or ($0.04) per basic and diluted share, in fiscal 2014, compared to ($0.2) million, or ($0.02) per basic and diluted share, in fiscal 2013.
Robert Garrett, Jr., Forward–s Chief Executive Officer, commented: "In the face of challenging conditions in our core market, the Company grew sales by 8% to $33.4 million. We continue to believe that the investments we have made in strengthening our design and sales support teams have improved the level of service we provide to our customer base, allowing us to both protect and grow these important relationships as well as target a new customer base with our innovative and differentiated solutions.
"While we note that the Company–s operations continue to generate a profit, excluding the legal and professional expenses explained above, we are also realistic and understand the growth challenges that we face, which include our customer and product concentrations, which impose on us a heightened sensitivity to fluctuations in sales demand and downward pricing pressure.
"Accordingly, and as part of our fiduciary duty to shareholders, we must consider all strategic alternatives, including reinvestment in organic growth, non-organic growth through acquisition, an outright sale of the legacy business and/or other monetization of assets. Your board has retained experienced financial advisers to help maximize value to shareholders in the process."
The tables below are derived from the Company–s audited consolidated financial statements included in its Annual Report on Form 10-K filed today with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Please refer to the Form 10-K for complete financial statements and further information regarding the Company–s results of operations and financial condition relating to the fiscal years ended September 30, 2014 and 2013. Please also refer to the Form 10-K for a discussion of risk factors applicable to the Company and its business.
In addition to the historical information contained herein, this press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, that reflect Forward–s current expectations and projections about its future results, performance, prospects and opportunities. Forward has tried to identify these forward-looking statements by using words such as "may", "should," "expect," "hope," "anticipate," "believe," "intend," "plan," "estimate" and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to the Company and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause its actual results, performance, prospects or opportunities to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements. No assurance can be given that the actual results will be consistent with the forward-looking statements. Investors should read carefully the factors described in the "Risk Factors" section of the Company–s filings with the SEC, including the Company–s Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2014 for information regarding risk factors that could affect the Company–s results. Except as otherwise required by Federal securities laws, Forward undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, changed circumstances or any other reason.
Incorporated in 1962, and headquartered West Palm Beach, Florida, Forward Industries is a global designer and distributor of mobile device cases and accessories. Forward–s products can be viewed online at .
Terence Bernard Wise, a current director of the Company, together with other participants (collectively, the "Wise Group"), has filed definitive proxy materials with the SEC indicating an intent to solicit proxies for the election of individuals as directors in opposition to the Company–s slate of director nominees at the 2014 Annual Meeting of Shareholders. The Company believes the Wise Group failed to properly nominate its alternative slate of director candidates in compliance with the nomination procedures established in the Company–s Amended and Restated By-Laws. As a result, the Company believes any purported nomination by the Wise Group at the 2014 Annual Meeting of Shareholders is invalid. The Company is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief from a New York State court to prevent the Wise Group–s invalid and improper solicitation. At a hearing on December 1, 2014, the court denied the Company–s request for preliminary injunctive relief. On December 2, 2014, the Company filed a notice of appeal of the court–s order to the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division, Second Department and on December 3, 2014, the Company moved before such appellate court for the preliminary injunctive relief denied below. That motion remains pending, as does the case before the lower court.
Unless the court determines that the Wise Group–s nomination is invalid, shareholders may receive materials from the Wise Group, including a proxy statement and proxy card, soliciting proxies for the election of its slate of alternative director candidates.
The following directors and executive officers of the Company may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from shareholders in connection with the Company–s 2014 Annual Meeting of Shareholders (each individual–s beneficial ownership of shares of Common Stock of the Company is set forth in the parenthetical opposite his name): Robert Garrett, Jr. (249,491 shares), Frank LaGrange Johnson (202,855 shares), Robert M. Neal (69,347 shares), John F. Chiste (45,000 shares) and Joseph E. Mullin (15,000 shares). You can obtain free copies of these documents from the Company as described above.
Forward Industries, Inc.
Robert Garrett Jr.
Tags: forward-industries