1, Feng will be honored in a short ceremony before teeing off Thursday at the CME Group Tour Championship. "You couldn't ask to work for a better person, and it's nice now to see her getting the recognition she deserves. After winning the Cambia Portland Classic, Lewis donated her 5,000 first-place check to helping the Hurricane Harvey relief effort in her hometown.
She said Wednesday she is channeling the winnings through the St. Lewis and her mother, Carol, identified a specific neighborhood they wanted to help, one hit particularly hard by flooding. The winnings will go to help with repairs to 15 to 20 homes. – Although there are still plenty of moving parts when it comes to the 2018-19 PGA Tour schedule, some elements seem to be coming into focus.
And now Natalie Gulbis has officially tied the knot with Josh Rodarmel, a former Yale quarterback and former co-owner of the Power Balance bracelet.
The couple announced their engagement in July and were married Monday in California. 3 So Yeon Ryu withdrew Wednesday from the CME Group Tour Championship Pro-Am to rest her ailing right shoulder.
The star was previously married to Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns Since their split, notoriously private Natalie has been linked to a number of famous men.
But not to the gorgeous 37-year-old reporter as she found her love of her life with the dashing Irish footballer Jonathan Douglas. The couple first started dating in 2015 and since then they are going strong and together.
"If you slide back two weeks, three weeks, those guys have to go the other direction. It's amazing to me that they get it done." As to where the RSM Classic fits, however, Love plans to continue to be the loudest voice.
Somebody has to move behind [the Tour Championship] if you're ahead of it [now]," Love said. "I'm still going to go complain and beg for my day, but I also understand when they say, this is your date, make it work, then we'll make it work," he said.
The image was taken as the pair holidayed together in Panarea, a small island to the north of Sicily, and fans were quick to offer their congratulations to the happy couple. Magic," wrote one, while another remarked: "You look happy Natalie, wish u all the best." A third added: "What a beautiful couple." Natalie Imbruglia has seemingly confirmed her romance with Matt Field It's not known exactly when Natalie and Matt started dating. Love you." Natalie later replied to his post in the comments section, writing: "Awww… Love you." STORY: Rio Ferdinand is introduced to girlfriend Kate Wright's mother during night out Prior to her romance with Matt, Natalie – who lives in London and has been a naturalised British citizen since 2013 – dated Ryan Bienefelt.
In May, Matt shared a photo of the star up on stage during her performance at Union Chapel in London, and wrote: "Well done @natalie_imbruglia, that was nothing short of sensational. She was previously married to Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns.
Details include:- 6E-9112 will depart from Bangalore at 3 pm and will arrive into Chennai at 03.55 pm- 6E 9113 from Chennai will depart at 5 pm and arrive into Mumbai at 06.55 pm- 6E 9113 will depart from Mumbai at 07.35 pm and arrive in to Delhi at 09.45 pm Chennai updates till 8 am:- People living at Dheeder Nagar (Saidapet) who suffered huge losses recounted their sufferings- Light drizzle hit Chennai - Southern Railway resumes train services after heavy rains disruption- Tamil Nadu Finance Minister O Panneerselvam distributes milk & water packets to flood affected- Tamil Nadu Health Minister Vijaya Bhaskar visits emergency ambulance control centre to take stock of situation along with officials, holds meeting with top health officials- Chennai Corporation Commissioner Vikram Kapoor reviews flood relief distribution- Chennai Corporation officials undertake repair of bad roads after heavy rains- Bharat Petroleum dispatches additional oil for flood affected areas- City bus service resumes after heavy rains- Water logging reported at Mambalam Area- Coast guard team providing relief material to stranded people DMK faults AIADMK govt over death of 18 patients Lashing out at the AIADMK government for its handling of the rain situation, DMK chief Karunanidhi on Saturday asked why Tamil Nadu had not announced a relief package like Puducherry and criticised it for "snapping" power supply to a hospital here where 18 people died.
They build up and always get presented in the same order, so you end up spending a lot of time skipping them before you get to new faces.
Can you trust him to value your feelings even when he doesn't understand you?


Some people take their computer wallpapers very seriously.
The background image should be selected with the utmost importance but you never knows if you might find a hidden picture in that background photo.
TheFishPenetrator uploaded a video to Youtube on Wednesday, when he thought he was losing his mind after thinking he saw as bizarre image hidden within his computer wallpaper.
When you move closer to the space background a face becomes more visible from a certain angle.
You never know what horror may lurk in your computer.


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De eindafrekening 2015 is de lijst van nummers die het tijdens het jaar 2015 het best hebben gedaan in de Afrekening, de wekelijkse lijst van Studio Brussel. De eindafrekening 2015 werd op 02 januari 2016 gepresenteerd door Joris Lenaerts op Studio Brussel.

Muziek in 2015
De Eindafrekening

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Though this Long Island girl never imagined she'd live in the south, the decision to move to Nashville was a relatively easy one, all things considered. After all, I'd packed up my life and headed to southern Africa when I was only nineteen. Choosing a U.S. city to settle in on my return Stateside didn't seem quite so consequential.
But that didn't make my transatlantic move any less heartwrenching.
The summer of 2011, I arrived in Nashville, broken in every way.
My decade-long marriage had ended, my ex running off with my (ex-)friend. As founders of a donor-driven nonprofit, when news of infidelity and then divorce was made public, financial support started to dry up. Eighteen months later I was forced to make the most devastating decision of my life: closing down our organization (and, in doing so, laying off over 60 staff members).
In one grand swoop (that seemed equally far too fast and painstakingly slow, all at the same time), I lost my marriage, career, home, friendships, future, and country. My entire adult life had been spent on African soil. And in a proverbial instant, it had all vanished... shattering into a million pieces.
When I relocated back to the U.S. after 13 years abroad, I felt like an absolute and utter failure.
Friends graciously welcomed me into their homes with open arms (and open hearts) in far-flung places around the country, like Ohio and Georgia and Oregon. Most days, getting out of bed was considered a win. The days I went to counseling, or engaged the "free therapy" of my own writing, or swallowed my Prozac (along with my pride), or allowed myself to laugh? Those were the days I knew I was taking healthy steps forward.
Don't ever let anyone fool you: Healing is hard work.
All the while, I had my sights set on Nashville. I'd visited a few times over the years, had some friends here, even completed the half-marathon just days before the fateful flood... After living in a rural agricultural region of South Africa for so long, I craved city life. But I'd also grown to love some aspects of small town living that I wasn't ready to give up just yet. Nashville seemed to be the best of both worlds, fitting the bill of the "manageable" city I was looking for.
But the biggest reason I moved to Nashville was to chase down community.
I knew I needed to be intentional about surrounding myself with quality people. If I'd learned anything in my 30+ years of life, it was that I can't do this thing on my own. I need a strong support system. We all do. We're wired for it, built to require it. And the handful of friends I had here (almost all of whom I'd met through social media in my early days of blogging from the mission field) were the primary reason why I knew this is where I should put down roots.
Chase down community. It became my mantra. My touchstone.
And it proved to be far more difficult than I ever thought possible.
In my first year here, almost all of my friends moved away, relocating for work or love or adventure. Others drifted in the way that friendships sometimes go when different life seasons take over. I struggled to build new relationships, having limited opportunities or contexts in which to meet people. I was left feeling incredibly unanchored. Disconnected. Unsettled.
Community isn't as easy to come by as I'd hoped. Maybe it's Nashville. Maybe it's my age. Or my stage of life. Or my personality. Or maybe it's a Rubik's Cube combination of all those things together. Who knows.
What I do know is this: Developing a life support system gets way harder the older I get.
And it will never just happen on its own.
But eventually, slowly, I began to find those true heart connections again. One relationship at a time, I started to find and build community. I've found it in Instagram connections turned friends. And in wine-infused porch conversations that run late into the night. I've discovered it in the bartenders and staff at my local Cheers. And in laughter and heartache and shared bowls of pasta.
It was years in the making, but I realized its presence in a solitary instant one night last fall. As my autumn porch party was winding down, I looked around at friends old and new, spilling from the kitchen in the back of my house all the way through to the front yard, and it just hit me all of a sudden: I finally have that community I'd been chasing.
I noticed it in the same way you suddenly realize, as winter starts to fade, that it's no longer pitch black out by 5 PM.
That seasonal transition never seems quite as gradual as it really is. It sneaks up on you. You just look around one evening and it takes you by surprise to discover that there's sunlight where previously there had been only darkness.
My circle of friends is small, but deep. And they strengthen and support me in countless ways (as I hope I also do for them). But I finally feel that sense of belonging. Of connection. Of settledness. I feel more anchored than I have in years, and as I approach my fifth Nashiversary, I do so with immense gratitude.
My heart discovered sunlight again in this little big town, with its creativity and innovation, its social mindedness and collaboration, its food scene and its musical pulse. And, most of all, its community.
I didn't find a home here.
"When I asked you how you were feeling, you said it was a high-pain day. But you looked to be having such a great time — talking, laughing, mingling with the group. So it just doesn't add up."
I couldn't believe a friend — one of the few I'd candidly opened up to about my chronic health issues at that point — had written this to me. And had already spoken to other mutual friends about me. Out of "concern," of course.
She was calling my integrity into account. For my health issues to be as severe as they are, she decided I should always be forlorn. Quiet. Listless.
And all at once, my back was up against the wall, with me defending what shouldn't need to be defended.
"I can push past it when I need to, for limited amounts of time..."
"A smile on my face doesn't mean I'm being dishonest about how I'm feeling..."
"There are plenty of days when my health determines my plans..."
"When you feel something constantly, it's not what comes to mind when asked how you're doing..."
"I can feel awful, and still have a good time..."
I immediately hated myself for scrambling to explain, for working so hard to make her understand.
Sadly, she wasn't the first to respond so hurtfully about my health issues.
And she wasn't the last.
I've been treated as though I'm crazy, or, at the very least, exaggerating wildly.
I've been called a liar.
I've been told to stop being so dramatic.
I've been scolded for not having enough faith.
I've been preached at, talked down to, pitied.
Enduring chronic anything—all day, every day, in varying degrees—is crazy-making, lonesome, and challenging all on its own. Skeptical tones, judgmental eyes, critical words—all they do is make me regret opening my mouth.
I still feel tremendously uncomfortable talking about my chronic pain and health conditions—though I try to force myself to open up about them more than I used to.
My breath quickens as I struggle to find words for what seems indescribable and yet is, at the same time, my "normal". With each syllable, I grow increasingly anxious that I am being judged. Criticized. Unheard. Misunderstood.
And being misunderstood is just about the worst feeling in the world—and one of my greatest fears.
to be understood as to understand..."
So on this high-pain day, I am going to swap my fear of being misunderstood for a fear of misunderstanding those I love. I'm going to be more intentional to put aside my own experiences and opinions so that I can truly listen and open my heart to understand even that which is unfathomable to me.
Because though our pain looks different — physically, emotionally — at the core, it is all the same.
And that I can understand.
Originally posted on A Deeper Story.
How different would things be if I approached each situation, each person, with bravery?
That's the question that scratched away at my heart and made me choose brave as my OneWord365. I really wrestled with committing to a word like that, for—well—lots of reasons.
At least for me, brave is a big, scary, monstrous word. I have never felt brave. Ever. It's not a word I would ever use to describe myself. I've done brave things at times, sure. I've taken some risks. I've made some choices others have deemed courageous. But deep down, I would never categorize myself as a brave person.
I want to be someone who's life is marked by bravery.
Don't hear me wrong... I don't want to be known for living an adventurous life. I'm not trying to be edgy, or reckless, or thrill-seeking.
I don't want to do brave things. I want to be brave.
And, I'm discovering, there's a big difference.
It's more about the posture of my heart than about my actions. It's about changing my internal dialogue—the words I say to myself, about myself. It's a willingness to lean into who I really am... and live it out wholeheartedly.
Six full months into the year, I paused to take stock. And I have to admit—I'm a little surprised by all the ways I've seen bravery come to bear in my life so far this year. It's probably not been in ways that others might expect (or that they'd even call brave), but it's usually the smallest steps of bravery which are the most difficult. For me, anyway.
I've opened my heart to possibilities. I've let myself enjoy the present without knowing what the future holds. I've let my guard down. I've let others in. I've leaned into relationships. I've used my words more. I've embraced hard truths. I've taken steps towards healthier boundaries. I've put myself first in areas I'd always put myself last. I've started going to church again. I've stuck my neck out work-wise. I've resumed regular writing commitments. I've made big financial decisions. I've intentionally dug into enjoying my now-life. I've faced a huge loss and didn't fall apart like I once thought I would.
I don't expect to feel like I've crossed some huge finish line in December, having arrived-at-last at being brave. But I do sense that I am already becoming brave. And that is what I want to feel every day for the rest of my life.
The process of becoming holds more value than the being, and I don't want to lose the wonder and vulnerability of the journey.
So I take a deep breath, and I close my eyes, and I ask for an extra dose of courage for everyone and everything I will face.
I'd love to hear about your OneWord365 journey at this halfway point.If you blog about it, please share the link. Otherwise, would you share a few thoughts in the comments?
The list of roles I played in my former life that I no longer play in this after life is staggering. Wife. Founder. Leader. Missionary. Pastor. Ministry Director. Daughter-in-law. Aunt.
And though not the largest, nor the least, of the losses I faced through my divorce, I no longer fit among certain groups of people. Like pastors' wives, or ministry leaders, or ex-pats, or even just people who only spend time with other married couples. I lost a lot of relationships. And a lot of opportunities.
It feels at times like my history has been erased.
So when my friends at A Life Overseas asked me to share with their online community, I was blown away. Shocked, actually. Though I no longer direct a nonprofit overseas, their invitation told me they still value my voice and experience in that arena. And I can't even begin to tell you what that did for my heart.


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THE MOVIE JUNKIE
Movie & Series Reviews
Marcus Lopez
The Mandalorian Disney Plus series review
With a new, highly anticipated season of Disney's "The Mandalorian" just days away from premiering on Disney Plus, what better time than now to reflect on the first season of the series and see why so many people are looking forward to the premiere of the second season. First things first, the show is good, many would call it great, and there is a community of Star Wars fans online calling this series the best thing to come from the Star Wars franchise since the original trilogy. Now, it would be unfair for me or anyone who wasn't around when the original Star Wars trilogy premiered in theaters to make such a statement, but having watched the Mandalorian and the original trilogy I can understand the parallels being drawn between the two. Much like the original Star Wars film trilogy, the first season of the Mandalorian is a fun, exciting adventure with a masterful mixture of levity and gravitas that die-hard Star Wars fans and the average television viewer can enjoy in equal measure.
Mando and the "baby"
The cast of the Mandalorian is not a distinguished line-up of academy award-winning actors, and I couldn't care less. Pedro Pascal, whom many know from his roles as Oberyn "The Viper" Martell in HBO's Game of Thrones or Javier Peña in Netflix's Narcos, does another great job playing an independent rogue struggling to do the right thing. That is not to say that he carries the show, former MMA fighter Gina Carano as Cara Dune, a former rebel soldier turned mercenary, and veteran actor Carl Weathers as Greef Karga, the leader of a bounty hunter guild play these recurring roles in the series to perfection. Each casting choice in the Mandalorian serves to help with world-building and making the audience feel as though we are viewing a diverse, living universe without any glaring errors that I could find.
Ok, I'll try to keep this spoiler-free, but I won't make any promises so proceed at your own risk. The parallels that the Mandalorian draws to the original Star Wars trilogy of the 1970s is understandable because at its core the Mandalorian is a fun adventure through space. Though, that is only what draws the audience in, what will keep you watching more than anything is the main character, Din Djarin, who is commonly referred to as "Mando". Compelling, interesting, complex, and shrouded in enough mystery to keep you on the edge of your seat without distracting from the main overarching narrative of the series. Also, the relationships "Mando" has with the other characters both good and bad are always entertaining and interesting. This is especially true for one character that "Mando" encounters early in the series, the character that is with "Mando" most consistently. I am going to give a spoiler alert if you don't want to know anything about the series at all before watching it. Now, the character I was referring to earlier, the one with "Mando" more than any other is one that I'm sure you've seen in countless memes and pictures all over the internet. Yup, I'm talking about the world-famous "Baby Yoda". The internet fell in love with him because of how cute he looked but his inclusion in the Mandalorian is so much more than a cute face they put on toys (though I'm sure Disney isn't too mad about that). I refuse to get into specifics because I really want people to experience this for themselves, but "Baby Yoda" serves as the moral center of The Mandalorian, while simultaneously adding something new to the lore of Star Wars. Without "Baby Yoda," the character arc of "Mando" would not be nearly as interesting or satisfying as it would be without the little, cute, green guy in the series. But more than anything else, the story of The Mandalorian has something that words by themselves cannot do justice. It just feels like Star Wars, more than most Star Wars media has in a long time, that's why I don't want to give away any spoilers, it would be a disservice to those reading this because I want everyone who watches "The Mandalorian" to be as presently surprised as I was watching the series.
All guns blazing!
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I have mentioned multiple times The Mandalorian "feeling" like Star Wars, but the story is not the only reason, it cannot be the only reason. No, a big part of what makes the Star Wars universe unique is that it builds a fictional world that is fantastical and lore-filled that encourages exploration. The Mandalorian masterfully balances those elements while also managing to tell a compelling story. The Mandalorian is also a breath of fresh air because it is one of the few times on-screen that the galaxy's force-sensitive characters have not been the focus and it is one of the few times we have seen the lore of a faction that is not force-sensitive explored. This is not to say I hate the continuous duel between good and evil that the light-side and the dark side of the force are eternally locked in. However, it's interesting seeing how people without superpowers live in such a fantastical world. Also, seeing how these "regular" characters react to seeing the force being used by others makes the force feel fantastic and special. Also, the designs of the aliens and the practical effects that bring them to life are just fantastic. There is an unforgettable alien that "Mando" meets early in the season that adds both levity and intrigue to the story of that episode and the Star Wars universe. This alien we meet early on is just one of the new aliens introduced in the series that you'll be intrigued by, but The Mandalorian also shows us aliens seen before in Star Wars in a whole new light. But more than anything else the exploration of Mandalorian society and culture is something longtime fans of Star Wars have always wanted, while for newcomers to the universe it will give them a grounded introduction to such a fantastic universe.
Beskar steel anyone?
What could be better
The Mandalorian is a great show for the whole family, but it is not perfect. The most consistent issue that I had with the series was that there were times where it could be very predictable. There are betrayals and double-crosses that are Scooby-Doo levels of obvious! These are treated like Chris Nolan level twists when all they'll really do is make you roll your eyes. There is also an issue with consistency with our main character "Mando' which may add to the eye-roll count. Portrayed from his first moment on screen as a no holds barred, suspicious, intelligent, loner, it seems odd to me how often in the series "Mando" is betrayed and/or tricked. Most of the time is fiercely resistant to change, trust, and extremely protective of "Baby Yoda" and his people but there are times where "Mando" may give "Baby Yoda" to a stranger, endanger his people, or trust someone who clearly has questionable morals at best. Again I'll try not to get too specific to avoid spoilers. Also, there is an interesting idea that a character "Mando" speaks to at the beginning of the season that I wish was explored a bit more in the series. The idea that this character brings up is that the rebels toppling the Galactic Empire did not actually save the galaxy, but only served to destabilize the galaxy and made things worse for average people. It would have been interesting to see this idea explored further as I'm sure there were regular people in the galaxy whose lives were improved by the Galactic Empire and subsequently made worse by the fall of the Galactic Empire. For better or worse, The Mandalorian is a Disney series, which means they are going for mass appeal and unfortunately that means things will be made overly simple and obvious at times in an attempt to keep as many people watching as possible.
Watch it. Let me say it again, watch it. Whether you are a Star Wars fan or not, young or old, this show has something for everyone. Like I said before, The Mandalorian is not going to blow you away like Breaking Bad or The Wire but what it is, is one of the best pieces of Star Wars media produced in the past 20 years. The Mandalorian can also serve as a great introduction for anyone not familiar with the Star Wars universe (which I'm sure series runner and writer Jon Favreau was aiming for when penning the series). So, if you have not already seen The Mandalorian then I suggest you binge season one as soon as possible and then go watch season two when it comes out.
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Dash and Lily- Netflix Series Review
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©2021 by Yadav Venugopal.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Ascension: New Excerpt
By Gregory Dowling
Ascension by Gregory Dowling is an historical mystery set in the Venetian past (Available September 13, 2016).
When a young tour guide, Alvise Marangon, offers to help an English Grand Tourist, little does he know that it will lead to his being embroiled in blackmail and conspiracy. To add to his woes, he is then forcibly recruited into the city's powerful secret service to investigate a murder case. A reluctant spy he may be, but he is a gifted one.
Amidst the world of gambling dens and courtesans, something momentous is being planned for the Feast of the Ascension, Venice's most important and spectacular holiday, and it seems that only Alvise can prevent the day turning into bloody mayhem.
I should not have interfered. I would have avoided a good deal of trouble if I had listened to that faint inner voice of prudence – or if I had listened to Bepi, a not so faint outer voice.
"Leave them alone," he said in his terse Venetian.
"Why should we?" I said.
"They'll have their reasons."
"Yes, but what sort of reasons?"
"That's their business."
All good sense. Bepi is a practical man, as gondoliers have to be. And why should he quarrel with a scudo for doing nothing, when the whole afternoon's work would have earned him at best half as much? That was what this ganzer, whom he had never seen before, had given him, as a reward for not offering his services to the new English arrivals here on the edge of the lagoon. I had not been given anything myself, so self-interest might have played a part in my urge to interfere.
There is always a good deal of bustle around the landing stage at Fusina around mid-afternoon, which is when most of the carriages arrive bringing the foreign visitors from Padua. Many of them take the slow barge down the Brenta Canal, which takes them all the way into Venice, but some want to put off to the very last the moment when they commit themselves to water. And for these passengers that moment occurs here, at the landing stage of Fusina.
So in the hours before sunset the gondoliers, ganzeri – literally, the "hookmen" who pull the gondolas ashore – and guides cluster around, offering their services, mostly in a few practised phrases of Venetian-accented French. My fluent English is naturally a great asset when the milords arrive, and by now the gondoliers accept my right of precedence with these passengers. And they all know that Bepi and I are a team, so they let him move forward as well, together with Bepi's brother, Tonin, who takes care of the baggage.
But this time we had been pre-empted by a ganzer new to us: a wiry-looking man, with grey hair pulled back into a pigtail, who had leapt off a gondola rowed by two men dressed in black. Bepi did not know them, which is fairly unusual, especially since they were both wearing the red caps of Castello, just like Bepi himself.
As soon as the hired carriage bringing two English gentlemen and a servant arrived, this ganzer had darted forward, cutting in front of Bepi. "These are for us," he had said.
Of course, it often happens that private gondoliers are sent to Fusina to pick up specific passengers, but the two gentlemen had given no signs of expecting a pre-arranged escort – and then the ganzer had made it perfectly clear that this was not the case by pressing a coin into Bepi's hand and saying, "Leave them to us."
Bepi, after a glance at the coin, had shrugged and strolled back towards me. At which point I had expressed my perplexities.
"Yes, but what sort of business can it be?" I said, to myself as much as to Bepi. I looked at the two Englishmen. The types were clear enough: a young English nobleman on his Grand Tour and his "bear-leader" or tutor. The young man looked amiable enough: he was gazing around at the scene with frank interest. Presumably all very different from the decorous orderliness of his home, where his mother would have bidden him farewell with a stately bow of the head and his father with a manly handshake. Here at Fusina a family of Venetians were exchanging raucous shouts, hand-slaps, kisses and lively embraces with relatives who had crossed the lagoon to meet them. Gondoliers and servants in bright liveries were transferring parcels and trunks to waiting boats and yelling at one another for no apparent reason, and across the lagoon the towers and domes of Venice shimmered in the golden haze of early spring sunlight. The scene appeared to fluster the tutor; he was in his late thirties, with a slightly lopsided wig, and an expression of anxiety on his round face that might have been habitual but now looked especially acute. Their servant hung back, a squat young man with an expression of frank suspicion on his face, as the ganzer took charge of their luggage. Only the young aristocrat appeared to have noticed the view across the lagoon, and was clearly appreciating it.
I made up my mind and moved forward. "Excuse me, sir," I said in English, doffing my tricorn hat. I heard Bepi give a resigned groan behind me.
The young man swung round towards me. "Oh, hello," he said. His voice was as amiable as his expression.
"I hope you won't mind my addressing you like this. I thought I had best tell you about the man who's transferring your baggage to his boat."
The ganzer had stopped to listen. He did not understand a word but his expression was suddenly suspicious.
"Oh yes? What about him?" asked the young man.
"It is just that he seemed exceptionally keen to take charge of you and your belongings. He actually paid my gondolier to hold back from offering his own services."
"Really? Is that usual?"
"Not at all, sir."
The ganzer came forward and addressed me aggressively in Venetian. "What are you pushing in here for? What are you saying to him?"
"I'm just letting him know about your odd transaction with Bepi here. I thought he ought to be warned."
"Your Bepi seemed happy enough to take the money. Now get out of it." And he gave a nod to one of the gondoliers, who came towards me. He was a hefty man, with a pockmarked face like the kernel of a walnut, and I began to think Bepi probably had a point. Still, it would look feeble to back down right away.
"I just thought the gentleman ought to know so that he can make an informed choice." I hoped my voice sounded more confident than I felt.
The ganzer gave another nod to his gondolier and suddenly my shoulder was gripped by something that felt like a vice.
"Tell your man to get his hands off me," I said.
"I say," said the Englishman, "what's going on?"
The tutor put in a word: "Oh dear, this all seems rather uncalled for. Had we better, em…" But he clearly had no idea what to propose; this was a contingency for which his travel guides had not prepared him.
Suddenly my shoulder was released. I swivelled and saw that the walnut-faced man had been jerked away from me by Bepi. They stood facing each other; Bepi was quite a bit shorter than the other man but that did not seem to bother him. He darted a quick smile at me but then his eyes went straight back to his opponent.
"Thanks, Bepi," I said, and rubbed my shoulder. I put my hat back on.
Without taking his eyes off the other gondolier, Bepi pulled out the coin he had been given and tossed it to the ganzer. "Here, I've changed my mind."
There was another flash of metal and this time it marked the sudden appearance of a knife in the walnut-faced man's hand. The babble of voices all around us seemed to stop for a moment, and then it was resumed with an added note of shrillness. Bepi tensed.
The ganzer spoke. "Leave it," he said to the gondolier. For a moment or two the walnut face seemed on the point of cracking, and then the man thrust the knife away inside his jacket. He gave us a vicious scowl and turned away. The ganzer stood still for a second or two, his dark eyes fixed on us. Then, with one lithe snake-like movement, he stooped, picked up the scudo from the grass and pocketed it. "I'll remember you," he said to me, and followed the gondolier towards their boat.
"Thanks," I said to Bepi again.
He shrugged. "Couldn't just leave you, I guess."
"I'll make up that scudo," I said, then added, "as soon as I can."
He flashed another smile, laconic this time. He knew my financial situation better than I did.
"What's going on?" said the Englishman.
"They've changed their minds," I said. "We can take you to the city."
"Then we must get our baggage back," he said.
I looked towards the landing stage. The black-clad gondoliers had put the last trunk down and were looking towards the ganzer for further instructions. There was a moment when it seemed the ganzer was toying with the idea of loading the luggage on to their boat anyway, but then he evidently thought better of it; he gave a quick flicking gesture of summons, stepped nimbly into the gondola and they pushed off.
"That seems to have been settled," I said to the Englishman. "Maybe we should have thanked them for taking it at least to the water's edge."
"I don't know," I said, "but they seemed very keen to have the honour of taking you into Venice. Are you expected?"
He gave a quick glance at his tutor, who still appeared flustered. "Not as far as I know," he said.
"No, no, certainly not," said the tutor, in quick nervous fashion. "How could we be? We have sent word to the English Resident, but we didn't specify a date."
There seemed little point in pursuing this issue. "Well, gentlemen, if you wish, our gondola and sandolo are at your disposal. Have you already decided on a inn?"
"We were told the Queen of Hungary is reliable," said the young man. "But would you mind telling me who you are? You're English, aren't you?"
"English-Venetian," I said. "My mother was Venetian but I grew up in England. So I speak both languages and if you wish I can offer my services as cicerone during your stay here. Bepi will be happy to provide transportation."
The young man glanced at the tutor. I had come to realise that the rules varied regarding control of the purse strings for these tours. It really depended on the instructions that had been given to both tutor and pupil by the family; and that depended, I suppose, on the amount of trust the fond parents felt they could repose in their offspring's behaviour during his first excursion beyond the confines of Albion.
I used a formula I had developed for these occasions. "If you wish to consider the matter I will attend to your baggage." This allowed the young man to conceal the possibly embarrassing fact of his limited financial responsibility. He nodded with a touch of relief and I turned to Bepi.
"Let's get the luggage on to the barge. Regina d'Ungheria."
He nodded. He had recognised the inn's name; he had picked up a few English words over the last few months working with me. Inn names, the principal sights of Venice, numbers – these last with reference to zecchini, and so never beyond single figures.
"Let's hope there's no more trouble," he said, gesturing out to the lagoon. Our recent rivals had set off towards Venice, but at present they seemed to be lingering some twenty yards off.
"You've really never seen them before?" I said.
"Not the gondoliers. But the ganzer, I've a feeling I've seen him somewhere. Not on the water. There's something about the way he moves…"
I remembered the lithe, serpentine body. "Distinctive, definitely," I said.
"They're leaving," Bepi said with a note of relief. They had been joined by another gondola, which had set off from the shore a few moments earlier, and now both boats began to row towards Venice.
"Who was in that second gondola?" I asked.
"Not sure; a gondolier from San Marcuola, I think."
"Yes," I said thoughtfully. I turned to our customers. "Sir," I said, "do you have any special reason to go the Queen of Hungary?"
"Only that I heard it was good. Why?"
I gestured to the lagoon. "Our friends from earlier … you saw they were waiting out in the lagoon?"
"They were waiting for someone to tell them which inn you will be staying at."
"Oh really," he said with a touch of disbelief.
His tutor spoke up; there was a quiver in his voice but he was clearly decided. "Sir, we cannot afford to take any risks. Let us take these people's advice."
"In that case, can you recommend a inn?" said the young man, turning to me.
"The White Lion is equally good," I said. "Close to the Rialto."
"And don't tell me, it's run by your brother," he said, and gave a sudden barking laugh, which made several people around us jump.
"You can believe that if you wish," I said levelly. "And you can decide to hold to the Queen of Hungary. It makes no difference to me. The prices of the two inns are more or less the same."
"All right, let's get devoured by your Lion." Out came that bark of a laugh again. "As for your services beyond today, let's see how things go, shall we?"
"As you wish," I said, with a polite bow, trying not to let my frustration show. It would not help my chances for him to see just how much I needed the job.
Copyright © 2016 Gregory Dowling.
Gregory Dowling grew up in Bristol before studying English at Christ Church, Oxford. He moved to Venice in 1981, where he is Associate Professor of American Literature at Ca' Foscari University of Venice. He has published novels, co-edited anthologies of poetry, and written various non-fiction books and academic articles on Italian, British, and American literature.
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How many sub-miniature Minox are out there being used?
(c) how many of the sub-miniature Minox cameras are still operational and in regular use in north America.
I would assume that most users do not cut their own film, and accordingly the suppliers of submini film must have a rough idea as to the number of regular Minox shooters.
The total number of Minox 8x11 cameras ever made is over one million, as inferred from the SN range.
Since Minox 8x11 camera is very durable, I estimate about 60-70% still remains, probably in drawers, attics, basements; some collectible ones in showcases.
USA has long being an important market for Minox, I guess, half or more than half of these camera is in North America, the rest in Europe.
Hard to guess how many Minox 8x11 cameras are still in use. Optimistically at 100,000, in the hands of 10,000 Minox affectionados, each hogging ten or more.
Majority of Minox users use factory loaded film and factory processing.
-- martint ai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), April 07, 2000.
Ten or more? I say: Such iniquitous shameless hoarders! Redistributive measures are called for. The government should, no, MUST intervene, in the interest of fairness and equity.
-- Dan Iggers (iggers@hotmail.com), April 07, 2000.
So the average Minox 8X11 owner has TEN of them? I guess I better go buy 8 more. Seriously, I would venture to say that the majority of Minox USERS only have one. Notice I said USERS, not COLLECTORS. BTW, I am a user, I shoot B&W in one B and color in the other.


text:
Bandwidth Unlimited Pty Ltd
A lesson in love comes from a surprising quater
I was awoken this morning by my mobile at the ungodly hour of 7:50am. It seems the changes I made last night caused BU to cease to work. Which is weird since I made the change at 1am, and the traffic graphs indicate it was all working fine until 6am. Maybe a daily cron-job decided to rearrange things for me? Either way, it took under a half-hour to fix, another two hours of mucking about with the network to see where we stood on the issue, at which point I decided that rather than go to work and have a late lunch, I'd have an early lunch and spend a long afternoon at work before cruising on to ANUAS.
I don't remember what happened at this point, but I think it involved more mucking about with BU stuff and similar. Or I might have played with the L2TP stuff.
Either way, I agreed to be available at about 4pm, so I figured at this point I'd kick back, watch The Jerry Springer Show, and chat to people on IRC and IM. I was also playing with the L2TP stuff during this, but it was largely kernel compiling so it was "type command, wait an hour" type work. Being on IRC reminded me of my occasional project to create a PGSM Music Video. In order to do this, I obviously need to have seen the whole series. Hence I decided to finall watch my PGSM Special Act DVD.
(The lesson learnt is inside the spoiler tag. I'm sorry, but it's the final scene of the whole show. I'm also gonna talk about the story of Hitch. Yes, I saw Hitch last night. It's good. ^_^)
Wow. Absolutely no Beryl (which shot my plan for Beryl + Jaedite set to Elephant Love Medley onto the backburner) and in fact a surprisingly small amount of senshi action. Largely due to their inability to transform for the entire sequence. I really must rewatch Final Act, and possibly Act.48 as well, and/or get around to watching the latter part of the series with subtitles, rather than waiting for the MGC to get up to it at the end of the year.
I was very pleased to see that Motoki got Mew Makoto in the end, after what I think was four years of persistence in the face of almost complete indifference. I guess the lesson learnt was that persistence and patience pays, both in a general sense, and specifically in my designs upon the person of one Azama Mew. I watched Hitch last night, which taught me that someone, somewhere, will find your personal foilbles endearing. I'm combining these thoughts into the idea that if I keep hoping, worshipping and stalking Mew, she'll find my personal foibles adorable. ^_^
Oh, and for some reason the image of a pregnant Sawai Miyuu made me laugh. It just seems so implausible. I think I have trouble picturing any thin Japanese woman pregnant. (That's thin by my standards. It includes almost every Japanese woman I've met. Maybe small is a better word than thin?)
It was nice to see that Ami had moved on to a nice American university, populated by a German doctor who tries to steal her credit, an Australian doctor who sees her running desperately down the corridor and points out that the operating theatre is in fact in the other direction, like he (or in fact anyone) sees running Japanese women in hospital corridors all the time, and another person who doesn't speak, and may or may not have been American.
I suspect Japanese television shows populate their gaijin quotas by randomly pulling gaijin off the street, dressing them up, and slowing their English until it's identifiable without being understandable. Certainly Ami's response to the Australian ("But Japan is this way") took two watchings to understand, and I probably wouldn't have worked it out except for it being the obvious comedic response, and the helpful Japanese subtitle. The only American accent you get to hear in PGSM is Mamoru's English friend. Yes, that's right. The one non-American gaijin in the show, and he has an American accent. ^_^
It also looked to me like the American diet had affected Ami, she no longer looked like she blow away in a strong wind. Given how Hama Chisaki's diary entries during PGSM filming usually centered around the enormous amounts and varieties of foods she'd eaten, I dread to think what she'd eaten to actually look like she'd gained weight. Or maybe puberty finally caught her up?)
Makoto was stunning as always. Just in case I didn't make that clear above. I also liked her in reading glasses. And the green dress with choker. I thought the top with the one button was a bit weird looking, but I can forgive it for two reasons: anything which gives one-button access to a naked Mew is a good thing; and even with the button done up, any kind of movement showed off alternatively a bra strap, and a wonderful expanse of upper right torso and shoulder.
I also cracked up when the Shitenou showed up at the wedding, and no one seemed to bat an eyelid. Maybe only Mamoru could see them (like in the manga), or maybe everyone just happened to be facing the wrong way (like in most of PGSM. ^_^)
And possibly a lot of trouble could have been avoided all around if someone had pointed Mio at an English->Japanese dictionary with the definition of "Dark" in it. A brightly lit throne room and clowns certainly don't appear there, Beryl's dark brooding-room, the grey and black-decorated piano room, and the Nazguul (I don't think they were ever distinguished from the other youma, but I've taken the liberty to do so. You know which ones I mean. Act.31 onwards. ^_^) certainly fit the idea of "Dark Kingdom". Mio's was more like "Completely-psycho-whacked-out-princess kingdom". Kinda Queen Nephelia's kingdom, at least what little we saw of it at the beginning of Sailor Stars.
Of course, this still doesn't explain who Mio is. Maybe it was explained in the series somewhere, and I missed it (very possible), but I figure she's the reincarnation of Beryl (as Usagi and the other are reincarnations of Queen Serenity et. al) which only slightly complicates matters as Beryl's not actually died yet. (Or maybe she did at the end of Final Act? I don't see how though, Jaedite survived. I like to think Jaedite's working hard in his off time (which covers the missing four years, and most of Special Act) and has set up some kind of love nest in an inexpensive studio apartment, while Beryl tries to find some kind of job suitable for her outstanding talents. Then again, I like to think Nephrite's running Crown Karaoke while Motoki's spending all day wandering around Makoto's florist, waiting for Ami to return from America. On the other hand, this would preclude Jaedite working at Crown, since the only way Jaedite and Nephrite could work together is with a strong personality to manage them. And while Motoki is many things (engaged to Makoto, for a start) a strong personality he is not. I'm glad Nephrite didn't kill him during the TV series. (Although then Mew Makoto would have been free still. But that's TV, not reality.) Still, I hope Jaedite has found a nice steady job, and Beryl recognises a good thing when it throws itself at her. Certainly, he seemed in a good mood in Special Act, so I like to think they found happiness together. (And that she kept that purple dress. I could find happiness with someone who can wear that well. ^_^) What can I say, I'm an incurable romantic at heart. Since I see nothing romantic happening for Kunzite or Zoicite. Kunzite and Minako could certainly have formed a good friendship, having suffered as first warrior under a leader (or two in Kunzite's case) who let love cloud their judgement. If it went further than that, it would be a… torrid affair to say the least. And I'm sad to say that I think Kunzite's gay, and has it for Endymion. And he is never going to be more than a third wheel there. Maybe he can appear on Queer Eye for the Senshi or something. Oh crap, I just inspired myself to writea fanfic. (Not Queer Eye. The rest of this paranthetical diversion.)) It would explain the weird connection thing they had which caused everyone to believe (or at least everyone on IRC I was talking to) that Mio was some kind of clone of Beryl, or a construction Beryl was using. I think my theory's better.
If you want to make sense of that last paragraph, highlight everything between matching parenthesis and ignore it. Then read the bit in parenthesis. Repeat this process until things make sense. Congratulations, you've just had a glance into the thought process of a TBBle. In fact, the TBBle. ^_^
And no, Usagi doesn't get pregnant, but I think she manages to mention babies in one of the very early scenes. it was certainly nice to see that four years and engagement managed to completely not change Usagi at all.
Rei was way underutilised in Special Act. I suspect Keiko's modelling career may have been at a particularly high point at that time, while Mew seems to be in the lull between modelling and idoldom at the same time. I hope Mew makes the transition well, and I also hope Keiko does. Her minimal work in Special Act against showed hints of acting talent which were mocked by detractors ("I… Am…. Rei…") back at the beginning of PGSM, but which will hopefully stand her in good stead in an acting career in J-Dramas; while I expect Mew may have more of a career as an actor and idol lined up, with her strong singing/dancing skills and demonstrated acting skills (by all reports Mew is very different from Makoto in personality, which is not surprising due to something I term tall-girl syndrome, which due to Japanese social training means tall Japanese girls (the ones I tend to refer to as stunning ^_^) become somewhat quiet/introverted during schooling in order to achieve certain aspects of femininity (Makoto's solution was not to be quiet, but to be good at cooking, sewing and other feminine arts. Sakai-san from Azumanga Daioh went the path of introversion and a strong obsession with the small and cute. Both she and Makoto had "florist" on their list of career choices.) I can't say if this is a good thing or not. But it's an interesting phenomenon to observce both in popular culture and personal interactions.) Anyway, I look forward to seeing more of Kitagawa Keiko acting in the near future, and more of Azama Mew in my arms in the near future. (Hey, if I'm in a relationship, and have a celebrity clause, she'd be it. ^_^)
For reference, the current AMV plan is the Shitenou set to "Knights Of The Round Table" from Monty Python and The Holy Grail. It has the huge advantage of being only a minute long. ^_^
Anyway, Special Act was a surprising DVD, in that there was no omake, and the menu only appears at the end, which has the choice of Whole Movie, or one of six chapters.
As far as the story goes, I enjoyed it as far as I understood it.
Then I got ahold of the guy I needed to talk to to get the rest of the BU changeover done, and we worked through and identified the last of the remaining issues, and he went off to work on them.
At this point I was getting hungry for lunch (being about 6pm) when Shane walks in and says "If you want barbecue for dinner, you'd better go get some stuff, Julia and Bek are coming around in five minutes." Needless to say, (but I'm going to) I did. Sometime over an hour later, Sean, Julia and Rabekah arrived. We barbecued, watched some of the Canturbury VS St. George NRL game, and Shane went to bed and the others retired to Sean's house (across the road) once more leaving me on my lonesome. >_&lt. This I think may point the sorry state of my social affairs when I'm disappointed when people stop watching a rugby league game and leave. I consoled myself with the best of the Melbourne Comedy Festival, and a repeat of The Glass House from Wednesday (Still funny the second time around), and by harassing Julia over MSN when I could. I also at chocolate cookies. ^_^;;;
Those of you playing along at home may have observed that the above overlapped the ANUAS screening. Which is correct. Kaz had the membership stuff, so my presence wasn't neccessary, and I was debating whether to drop in at the end when Shane arrived and triggered the above.
I tried a Cruise Juicy tonight, and it was OK, but too juicy for my taste ie. too much like overstrong cordial. They're also only one standard drink per, which makes them weaker than a standard cruiser.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to plug Television Without Pity as an amusing website of episode recaps for various TV series. The only one they're tracking that I'm watching (largely because the number of TV series I'm watching is down to Battlestar Galactica, The Glass House (these two class on Wednesday night), Little Britain, and Rosemary and Thyme) is Battlestar Galactica. And I'm enjoying it. ^_^
Here's PGSM Special Act. I got this with the 7-DVD box, which now holds PGSM Vol.1 through Vol.7. The second box comes with PGSM Act.Zero, shipping end of March. (Also below. ^_^)
Yay Mew!
2005年 3月 12日 TBBle	Australia, Bandwidth Unlimited Pty Ltd, Clubs, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon	2 Comments
Beware semantics lecturers, they know what you mean
It seems my misgivings were somewhat misplaced as far as Prof. Anna's artice on "Happy". Once the Semantics class got to that point of the lecture, our lecturer immediately observed that there is a clear difference between "Happy" and "Happy with X", which was a point I thought was completely ignored in the article. (See yesterday's Linguistics post.)
The ensuing discussion, and the 45-minute conversation with my lecturer (it would have gone much harder if a dear friend of mine hadn't already made me consider the nature of happiness and my relationship to it) highlighted that semantics is _hard_, and emotions is a hard facet of semantics. A psychologist is sadly not much help with this, as their approach to emotion generally involves trying to remove the language component and get at the thoughts, which semantics as we're studying it teaches that language and emotion are terribly intertwined. And this was highlighted in the ensuing discussion of facial expressions, and the difference between Anglo and Chinese expressions thereof. (Interestingly, the issue isn't a difference of meaning, but a difference in description. A Chinese person will describe someone's facial expression by the parts that make it up, while an Anglo person will describe it by the emotion it represents. I also got to show the lecturer horizontal smilies eg. ^_^)
Anyway, the definition of "happiness" my classmates came up with (or rather, "happy" as it relates to "happiness" rather than as it relates to "satisfaction") was something like: (Look, NSM in a blog! -_-)
Something good happened
Because of this, I feel something good
I don't want anything more/else
OK, it's not NSM, but the idea's clear.
On the other hand, my own interpretation of "happiness" is something like
I want some things
I have (achieved) some of these things
I am trying to (have/achieve) others of these things
I am able to (have/achieve) all of these things
Becaue of this, I feel something good.
It was an interesting discussion with my lecturer. A point I made was that I manage my own happiness by maintaining the list of things I want seperately from the things I'd like. When I realised that Computer Science (B.SEng) wasn't making me happy, I evaluated my wants, discovered that a second language, and academia, had crept up my list, and was unhappy until I changed into my current degree, and discovered linguistics. ^_^
Happiness isn't something you aim for, it's the journey you take to get there.
(Emotional enough? You know who you are. ^_^)
Oh, and I've started a wiki for information storage. (As opposed to this. If I do any _good_ explications in NSM for example, that'll go there.) The only thing there is the start of the documentation of my wireless setup, but I'm sure it'll grow. The WinNY stuff will appear there, as will… I dunno, whatever else shows up. Translations maybe.
2005年 3月 10日 TBBle	Bandwidth Unlimited Pty Ltd, Linguistics	Leave a comment
My how things change
Today in Learning Languages, we watched a video demonstrating the "Communicative" method of teaching English. It was focussed on making the students talk in English, under a particular situation, in order to acquire a particular function and structure in the relevant social context. It is characterised by having the students freely produce English, and with an almost complete lack of correction (barring recasting of mistakes). The theory behind it is that language can be acquired by practice at a level slightly above the learner's current level, based on the ideas of "Communicative Competence"
This was a marked difference from last week's, where we saw the "Audio Lingual Method" which is focussed on demonstrating and memorising a pattern. This method involved the class memorising and performing a set of lines, with a little bit of work with substitutions into the pattern. Any mistakes are immediately and directly corrected. This method is based on the Behavioralist idea that language is simply a set of habits which must be learnt.
Due to the hetrogenous nature of the class, the native language of the speakers is not given much of a chance to interact with the learning process, which is a shame as both methods provide different approachs to the inclusion of native language in second language learning and acquisition.
Coincidentally, on Monday afternoon driving home from the same class, I overheard a discussion in federal parliament (House of Representatives) on language, and from the hansard transcript, I got the following quote: (Pages 46-51 of the PDF, 30-35 nominally, this quote was page 51/35)
The argument is clearly that the best acquisition of English occurs when you teach as long as you possibly can in the first language. The literature is complete — it is irrefutable — in that the longer you teach in their first language, the better the acquisition of English is going to be.
(The debate was ajourned until today, but today's hansard isn't up yet.)
This is interesting, as it goes against all the theories of language learning we've considered so far. Admittedly, we're only up to the 1970's, so maybe we're building up to that point? I'll have to remember to ask Louise about it next week.
On the other hand, there's Semantics. I finallly did one of the readings, which was a piece by Professor Anna about "happiness" and "happy" in cross-cultural context. As I usually seem to find in Prof. Anna's articles, it was mainly a criticism of preceeding work (I've no problem with that per se.) along with what I feel was a fairly flimsy justification for an argument that "happy" in English is untranslatable to other languages, and is somehow disconnected from "happiness". The evidence comes from the fact that English, unlike other European languages, allows constructs such as "Are you happy with the decorations" which has little or no effect on one's situation of "happiness". This however highlights one of the issues I seem to come across a lot in semantics, which is the conflation of a word with a concept. In this case, "happy" w/out object and "happy" with a (possibly assumed) object (happy with/about OBJ) are different, and have different cultural scripts. The intransitive "happy" does to my mind tie directly to happiness. "Are you happy?" can hardly be said to have nothing to do with happiness, although the answering of it is often broken down into a categorised consideration of the various aspects of one's life, which then brings in the transitive "happy". The transitive "happy" can be seen as closer to "satisfied", and as Prof. Anna observes, does not have the "I cannot want anything more" effect that "happiness" does. Even so, I'm not convinced that happiness in English has this facet, either.
So in short, the article's main thrust (Proving English-speakers are happier by asking people if they are happy is flawed beyond doubt) is reasonably argued, but the NSM-ised details for me fall very short of convincing.
I'll put this to my Semantics lecturer tomorrow. It should be an interesting lecture.
I'm finally starting to read the Semantics textbook, hopefully that will hang together better than some of the bits I've read so far. (Well, everything else was done in Cross-Cultural Communications a few years ago, so my memory is somewhat coloured by the negative feelings I associate with that class. >_<)
(I also got the IPSec stuff working with OpenSwan and RSA keys, but not x.509. I moved to isakmpd, but haven't gotten that working with x.509 either. I haven't tried it with RSA yet though. I might go back to OpenSwan, I found that easier to work with.)
I was gonna talk about tonight's MGC screening, but it's 2am and I need sleep. ^_^
2005年 3月 9日 TBBle	Bandwidth Unlimited Pty Ltd, Linguistics	Leave a comment
Fansubbing done good, timewasting done bad, and Japanese homework done
After last week's triumphant return to IRC, I wandered back onto IM (ICQ, MSN, YIM) tonight. The only people online were Matt Duggan (who immediately proceeded to make my head hurt with math) and a friend of mine from Singapore, whom I met on IRC last year.
While I was on IRC, gumbaloom sent me his and Aniko's latest Seramyu output, being the Shin Kaguya Shima Densetsu Promo and Fan Event, wanting feedback. Apparently it's been downloaded a lot, but in the usual places no feedback, good or bad, has appeared. I'd like to take this opportunity to say that it was excellent, and I look forward to the finished product. (I already enjoyed Aniko's translation of Kakyuu Ouhi Kourin in February at the MGC, but via a different fansubbing group). I watched another Seramyu, Last Drakul Jyokyoku, unsubtitled a year or so ago and it was OK, but it's _much_ better with subtitles. I highly recommend this when it comes out, and in the meantime, see if you can dig up the CVME sub of KOK. Be warned, KOK is a retelling of Sailor Stars, so if you've not seen it (or read it ^_^) then you might want to finish it first. Which reminds me, I must finish it sometime. -_-;;;
I managed to get a little BU work done today, but skipped out on ActewAGL since I was disorganised this morning, and by the time I left home I would have had to leave work after 90 minutes. So I stayed home, did more BU work, and went in to class. (And was still late. >_<)
Ah! I've finally removed shift-space as a shortcut to activate UIM. Now I don't flick into Japanese input mode every time I type a capital letter and then a space. (Yes, I have poor keyboard habits…)
Only class today was Teaching Languages, and today we looked at the idea that you can't learn a language just by listening to it, you need to apply it to learn it. We also looked at the various stages of word order that language learners master. These are apparently absolutely ordered, which lends credence to the theory that languages are acquired in a certain order, and teaching cannot influence that. Tomorrow we get to watch a class being run based on that theory. (I'll prolly talk about _that_ more tomorrow.)
Anyway, I've got a Japanese Lexicon assignment due tomorrow, and I just spent two hours doing it. I should have done it on the weekend, but I was seriously unassable for most of the weekend, apart from some time spent doing BU stuff. If there are any IPSec experts reading this, I'd love to know. I think I've gotten it conceptually wrong…
Still, at least my bag's packed, my laptop's loaded with MGC screening videos, and I've told the guy I'm meeting at ActewAGL in Fyshwick that I'll be there by 9am or I'll call. I think I'm gonna call, and get to uni by midday.
So, here's some links for things you can buy. Today, it's Seramyu. I'll link in the MGC shows once I actually talk about them. ^_^ (And of course, it's all Japanese. Like PGSM, there's no official English version.)
美少女戦士セーラームーン 新/変身・スーパー戦士への道
Last Drakul Jyokyoku may be that last one, but it looks like it's out of print in VHS, and not yet in print on DVD. Oh well. I've seen it.
2005年 3月 8日 TBBle	Anime, Bandwidth Unlimited Pty Ltd, Japanese, Linguistics, University	Leave a comment
Webhosting made difficult
You'd think Apache's mass domain support would make it easy to host a group of websites, some of which are owned by various different groups.
For example, I'd expect such support to work in the following style:
VirtualHost *:80
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName Override.tbble.net
# Blah here... DAV support or something...
<MassVirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot /var/www/%2-/%1
# or even "DocumentRoot /var/www/*/%2-/%1" if I could be so lucky....
ServerAdmin webmaster@%2-
php_admin_value open_basedir /var/www/%2-/
ErrorLog /var/log/apache/%2/%0_error.log
CustomLog /var/log/apache/%2/%0_access.log
</MassVirtualHost>
Which is to say, a MassVirtualHost tag which interpolates the requested Host into its arguments, and if DocumentRoot comes out sensibly, returns it. It'd have to come at the end, since Apache takes the first VirtualHost hit it matches, and obviously MassVirtualHost will match anything… (Unless you also allow some syntax for denying??? Oooh, there's a thought)
OK, I realise Apache 1 doesn't do this, but I'd have thought by the time they developed Apache2, someone would have noticed this deficiency….
Anyway, the Apache (both 1 and 2!!!) mass virtual domain support lets you interpolate two values… DocumentRoot and ScriptAlias. I mean, really! You can't even make ServerAdmin default to something sensible… Actually I suspect it does anyway, as long as by sensible I mean webmaster@host….
I wonder if now's a good time to look at the Apache2 source, and see if it's even possible to get something like this implemented…
Or maybe over Christmas?
2004年 10月 7日 TBBle	Bandwidth Unlimited Pty Ltd, Bubblesworth Pty Ltd	1 Comment
Where are the now?
Well, I got everything but tbble.com back. ^_^ >_< ^_^.
Also, due to psychotic work commitments I've had to drop my remaining university units. In the process of doing this, I discovered that I'm not enrolled in Japanese Pre-Honours anyway this semester.
2004年 9月 30日 TBBle	Bandwidth Unlimited Pty Ltd, Bubblesworth Pty Ltd, Japanese, Linguistics, University	1 Comment
今日の思う事: 2004年 8月 10日
遅くてすみません
The server seems stable. ^_^
The tutorial to make up for the tutorial I missed on Monday, turns out to be during one of my two remaining lectures this week. (And the other lecture is for the same class, so a clash is unlikely)
Work expands to fill the available time. And the unavailable time. >_<
I don't think this needs much explanation. Suffice it to say, I didn't do this last-night 'cause I got home and was dozing off on the couch within half an hour…. This is at 11:30pm, which is unusual for me. -_-,zZ
2004年 8月 11日 TBBle	Bandwidth Unlimited Pty Ltd, Bubblesworth Pty Ltd, Japanese, The good, the bad and the educational, University	Leave a comment


text:
North Miami és un poble dels Estats Units a l'estat d'Oklahoma. Segons el cens del 2000 tenia una població de 433 habitants.

Demografia
Segons el cens del 2000, North Miami tenia 433 habitants, 169 habitatges, i 125 famílies. La densitat de població era de 879,9 habitants per km².

Dels 169 habitatges en un 33,1% hi vivien nens de menys de 18 anys, en un 53,8% hi vivien parelles casades, en un 12,4% dones solteres, i en un 26% no eren unitats familiars. En el 23,1% dels habitatges hi vivien persones soles el 10,7% de les quals corresponia a persones de 65 anys o més que vivien soles. El nombre mitjà de persones vivint en cada habitatge era de 2,56 i el nombre mitjà de persones que vivien en cada família era de 3.

Per edats la població es repartia de la següent manera: un 28,6% tenia menys de 18 anys, un 9,5% entre 18 i 24, un 24,9% entre 25 i 44, un 21,9% de 45 a 60 i un 15% 65 anys o més.

L'edat mediana era de 36 anys. Per cada 100 dones de 18 o més anys hi havia 96,8 homes.

La renda mediana per habitatge era de 23.125 $ i la renda mediana per família de 30.521 $. Els homes tenien una renda mediana de 26.806 $ mentre que les dones 17.708 $. La renda per capita de la població era de 10.087 $. Entorn del 13% de les famílies i el 15,9% de la població estaven per davall del llindar de pobresa.

Poblacions més properes
El següent diagrama mostra les poblacions més properes.

Referències

Comtat d'Ottawa (Oklahoma)
Pobles d'Oklahoma


Information about Greece for our curious tourists.
Helper, for those who choose to stay in Greece.
Wide range of services during your holiday in Greece.
Phrasebook to communicate during your stay in Greece.


On Holocaust Remembrance Day, Dan Shacham, Israel's non-resident ambassador to Africa, met one of the most notorious dictators in the world, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe.
Mugabe, who is considered one of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's closest associates, has been slapped with harsh sanctions by Egypt and the European Union for grave human rights violations and "blood diamond" trade.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Yigal Palmor noted that the ambassador was aware of the sensitive timing of their meeting and therefore invited the Zimbabwe Jewish community's rabbi, Moshe Silberhaft, to the credentials ceremony. "Throughout the ceremony, the two told President Mugabe of the special meaning of Holocaust Remembrance Day, and the latter even discussed the matter in great lengths," said Palmor.
Zimbabwe's Jewish community is made up of only 250 people, after most members of the community left the country in the 1980s after its independent, when white residents were harassed by Mugabe's regime. On the eve of Yom Kippur in 2003, the central synagogue of Bulawayo was torched in an anti-Semitic attack.
In an interview with the local magazine of Zimbabwe's Jewish community, Silberhaft said the subject of Holocaust Memorial Day indeed came up at the meeting, and that he himself informed Mugabe that the government does not interfere with the lives of the country's Jewish community, which is given free exercise of religion.
This story "Israel Ambassador Meets Zimbabwe's Mugabe" was written by Haaretz.


text:
Home » Sen Gillibrand announces bill to spur growth of science and technology jobs
Sen Gillibrand announces bill to spur growth of science and technology jobs
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) announced legislation to spur the growth of new science and technology jobs in Western New York and across New York. The "America Innovates Act" would help scientists and researchers secure valuable resources and training to turn their discoveries into marketable products, new high-tech companies and jobs.
"New York is home to some of the world's brightest minds and best ideas to grow our economy," said Sen. Gillibrand. "This common-sense legislation will help develop scientific breakthroughs into cutting edge businesses and new jobs. Providing our scientists and students with practical business skills will go a long way towards creating high-tech industries and building the next generation of innovative leaders."
The America Innovates Act would spur growth of high-tech jobs in Western New York and across the nation by making capital available for innovators and by training students to turn their discoveries into products, companies and jobs. The bill would create an "American Innovation Bank" to help universities and other research institutions establish and grow the development and commercialization of initial discoveries, making potential products more attractive to state, local and private investment.
Under this funding stream, universities would be able to create or strengthen their "proof of concept" funds, aimed to help researchers prove that their research can be practically and concretely used. Once proved practically, investors are much more likely to risk capital on the commercialization of research, thereby increasing the chances that the idea would turn into a new business or create new jobs at an existing company.
Universities would be able to use grants to hire additional staff for specific experiments, purchase testing equipment, test products in an industrial setting, clinical development, access expert advice in business strategy and patent and regulatory laws. Funds could also be used to build business incubators or other facilities that would support researchers.
To help build the next generation of innovative leaders, this legislation would also provide business training for graduate students in science, training students in intellectual property protection, commercialization and product development. Under this bill, existing science fellowship programs would be expanded to allow students to perform research in industry settings. Universities would also be encouraged to develop professional science masters programs and graduate degrees that will provide students with the skills they need to pursue careers in industry.
United States Ethics/Regulatory


text:
Digital Lavender
Winter Trends
Yay for Us! Marie Claire Wins Journalism Awards
This week Marie Claire won two awards and was named as a finalist for a third.
By Marie Claire
Marie Claire is burning up the journalism awards circuit. This week, the magazine won two awards and was named as a finalist for a third.
Editor-at-large Abigail Pesta has won a Jane Cunningham Croly Award for Excellence in Journalism Covering Issues of Concern to Women (opens in new tab). The award, presented by the General Federation of Women's Clubs, is for Pesta's story on honor killings, "An American Tragedy," (opens in new tab) which tells the life story of a young Iraqi-American woman named Noor Almaleki (pictured), who was killed by her Iraqi-born father for refusing to marry a man of her father's choice. Separately, writer Ralph Blumenthal has won a Sigma Chi Delta Award for Magazine Public Service (opens in new tab) for his story "Still Waiting After All These Years." (opens in new tab) The award, presented by the Society of Professional Journalists, is for his story about the ongoing problem of untested rape kits in America. Also, Pesta has been named as a finalist for a South Asian Journalists Association Award (opens in new tab) for her story "An American Tragedy," in the category of Outstanding Story About the Worldwide South Asian Diaspora.
The General Federation of Women's Clubs (opens in new tab) is a Washington D.C.-based organization with 100,000 members and a 120-year history of philanthropy and social and political advocacy. The Society of Professional Journalists (opens in new tab) is a journalism organization with a 102-year history of promoting journalism and free speech. The South Asian Journalists Association (opens in new tab) connects and serves more than 1,000 journalists across North America and is headquartered at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in New York.
24 Hours With John Legend
The singer, record producer, husband, and entrepreneur reveals how he maintains youthful, glowing skin.
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What Is Co-Washing, and How Do You Do It? Experts Weigh In
Skip the shampoo.
Digital Lavender Is About to Be the Biggest Color of the Year
Barbiecore got a "Lavender Haze"-inspired makeover.
By Julia Marzovilla
35 Ways Women Still Aren't Equal to Men
If anyone tries to tell you otherwise, show them these statistics.
How New York's First Female Governor Plans to Fight for Women If Reelected
Kathy Hochul twice came to power because men resigned amid sexual harassment scandals. Here, how she's leading differently.
By Emily Tisch Sussman
Why the 2022 Midterm Elections Are So Critical
As we blaze through a highly charged midterm election season, Swing Left Executive Director Yasmin Radjy highlights rising stars who are fighting for women's rights.
By Tanya Benedicto Klich
Tammy Duckworth: 'I'm Mad as Hell' About the Lack of Federal Action on Gun Safety
The Illinois Senator won't let the memory of the Highland Park shooting just fade away.
By Sen. Tammy Duckworth
Roe Is Gone. We Have to Keep Fighting.
Democracy always offers a path forward even when we feel thrust into the past.
By Beth Silvers and Sarah Stewart Holland, hosts of Pantsuit Politics Podcast
The Supreme Court's Mississippi Abortion Rights Case: What to Know
The case could threaten Roe v. Wade.
By Megan DiTrolio
Sex Trafficking Victims Are Being Punished. A New Law Could Change That.
Victims of sexual abuse are quietly criminalized. Sara's Law protects kids that fight back.
By Dr. Devin J. Buckley and Erin Regan
My Family and I Live in Navajo Nation. We Don't Have Access to Clean Running Water
"They say that the United States is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Why are citizens still living with no access to clean water?"
By Amanda L. As Told To Rachel Epstein


text:
Rudolph de Harak, also Rudy de Harak (April 10, 1924 – April 24, 2002), was an American graphic designer. De Harak was notable as a designer who covered a broad spectrum of applications with a distinctly modernist aesthetic. He was also influential as a professor of design.

Career

De Harak was born in Culver City, California. After serving in World War II, de Harak was influenced by two lectures given by Will Burtin and György Kepes which compelled him to pursue graphic design. Along with Saul Bass, Alvin Lustig and others, de Harak helped found the Los Angeles Society for Contemporary Designers before he moved to New York City to become art director for Seventeen for just 18 months. At the same time, de Harak drew illustrations for Esquire and soon began his long tenure in teaching.  De Harak served "as the Frank Stanton Professor of Design, for a quarter century at the Cooper Union, and visiting professor at Yale, Alfred University, Parsons, Pratt Institute and other schools."

He designed a three-story digital clock installed on the exterior of 200 Water St. (previously 127 John St.) in New York City. The clock consists of "72 square modules with numerals that light according to date, hour, minute and second". He also designed a neon-illuminated entrance and a scaffold covered with brightly covered canvas outside.

De Harak was a member of the 1989 Art Directors Club Hall of Fame. He was the recipient of a 1992 AIGA Medal.

Influences
De Harak's work was influenced by modernism and the International Typographic Style. He was also influenced by abstract expressionism, Dada, op art and pop art.

References

Notes
 Heller, Steven, "Rudolph de Harak, 78, Artist And Environmental Designer", The New York Times, April 30, 2002. The New York Times
 Heller, Steven, "Rudolph de Harak – A Playful Modernist", Baseline 45, edited by Mike Daines and Hans Dieter Reichert, Bradbourne Publishing, 2004.
 Heller, Steven, "A Humanist's Modernist", AIGA Medalists at aiga.org A Humanist's Modernist
 Forester, Russel, "Rudolph de Harak", Graphic Design Archive at rit.edu Rudolph de Harak, Graphic Design Archive at rit.edu
 "Rudolph de Harak", the 1989 Art Directors Club Hall of Fame at adcglobal.org 1989 Art Directors Club Hall of Fame at adcglobal.org

1924 births
2002 deaths
American graphic designers
Cooper Union faculty

AIGA medalists


Unisex adjustable handmade bracelet with INOX component. The shape of the component represents Angistri island.
Unisex adjustable handmade bracelet with INOX component. The shape of the component represents the Greek flag.
Materials: INOX, sterling silver, brass and cord. Each flag has its own color combinations. The size is adjustable. Colors and shape may look slightly different in reality.


text:
North America > United States of America > Mid-Atlantic > New York (state) > Adirondacks
1 Towns and villages
1.1 Eastern Lakes
1.2 High Peaks
1.3 Old Forge and Western wilderness
1.4 Tri-Lakes and Northwest
1.5 Great Sacandaga and Southern Woods
2 Other destinations
3.2 Landscape
3.3 Flora and fauna
5 Fees and permits
10 Eat
The Adirondack Park is both the largest and the first government-protected park in the contiguous United States. It covers a vast expanse—bigger than New Hampshire—of rugged, thickly wooded, mountainous terrain in northeast New York State. The Adirondacks are a popular destination for all lovers of outdoor activities, from hiking and skiing to ice and rock climbing.
Towns and villages[edit]
Villages and towns in the Adirondack Park
As the Adirondacks are for the most part protected parkland, there are no major cities. The strict restrictions on development do not apply within the various incorporated villages which were already extant at the time of the park's creation, but the largest of these settlements have no more than a few thousand permanent inhabitants.
Eastern Lakes[edit]
This region is directly south of Plattsburgh at the southern edge of Lake Champlain, along I-87 or US-9.
43.677-73.8471 Chester — Chestertown plus several surrounding hamlets and lakeside communities on the other side of the Northway from Lake George.
43.95-73.4372 Crown Point — Ruins of former British fortress (and site of an earlier French fortress) near a bridge to Vermont.
44.192-73.5943 Elizabethtown — The Adirondack History Center Museum is a former school house which houses a local history museum.
44.31-73.3524 Essex — Historic federal town in Essex County, once a War of 1812 shipbuilding facility, now a small agricultural village with well preserved early 1800s architecture, galleries, marinas and access to the Champlain Area Trails network.
43.426-73.7125 Lake George — Vacation spot in upstate New York situated on a lake.
43.858-73.4546 Ticonderoga — Home of Fort Ticonderoga, a Revolutionary War Site.
44.184-73.4357 Westport — Cottage country and birthplace of the popular wooden Adirondack chair
High Peaks[edit]
44.26-73.798 Keene and Keene Valley — Great rock and ice climbing, hiker's gateway to the Adirondacks.
Tahawus (aka Adirondac or McIntyre) — An iron and titanium mining ghost town north of Newcomb; fewer than ten buildings remain,
Old Forge and Western wilderness[edit]
43.855-74.4389 Blue Mountain Lake - A small hamlet in the town of Indian Lake. Midpoint on the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, hosts the Adirondack Museum.
43.71-74.9710 Old Forge - A small town which serves as the western gateway to the area from the Mohawk Valley. It is the starting point for the Northern Forest Canoe Trail.
Tri-Lakes and Northwest[edit]
44.375-73.72811 Jay - Home of the Covered Bridge
44.285-73.98512 Lake Placid - Host to two Winter Olympiads (1932 and 1980), it's now a charming, but tourist town.
44.326-74.13113 Saranac Lake - An "All American City", this village is host to North Country Community College and adjoins a tiny hamlet which houses Paul Smith's College.
44.233-74.46614 Tupper Lake - Home of the Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks.
44.388-73.81515 Wilmington - Near Lake Placid. Home of Whiteface Mountain and the North Pole (New York) Santa theme park
Great Sacandaga and Southern Woods[edit]
43.47-74.41316 Lake Pleasant
43.225-74.17517 Northville
Other destinations[edit]
Whiteface Mountain, near Wilmington, is a major Olympic alpine ski destination.
" The lands of the state, now owned or hereafter acquired, constituting the forest preserve as now fixed by law, shall be forever kept as wild forest lands. They shall not be leased, sold or exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, public or private, nor shall the timber thereon be sold, removed or destroyed. "
—New York State Constitution (1894), Article VII, Section 7
Tourism to the Adirondacks was initially spurred by the 1849 publication of Joel Tyler Headley's Adirondack; or, Life in the Woods and by passenger rail travel. Thomas C. Durant's 1871 Adirondack Railway, the first of multiple lines into the region in an era of wildly-speculative rail construction, is now the Saratoga and North Creek Railway (a heritage railway). Because of the relative ease by which rail brought New York City and Albany's wealthy elite northward, by 1875 there were more than two hundred hotels in the Adirondacks and the well-to-do were building "Great Camps" along the lakefronts as recreational property.
A Dr. Ed Trudeau, great-grandfather of Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau, opened a tuberculosis clinic (the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium) in Saranac Lake in 1884, believing the cold, clear mountain air of the region to aid in medical recovery. Hundreds of "cure cottages", houses with large, glass-enclosed porches where patients would take in the mountain air, were constructed in this era. Robert Louis Stevenson, author of 'Treasure Island' and 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde', spent the winter of 1887-88 in Saranac Lake writing 'The Master of Ballantrae.' Sixty-three of the cottages still remain on the National Register of Historic Places, although the introduction of suitable antibiotics in the mid-1940s largely eradicated tuberculosis a decade later.
In the immediate post-Civil War era, logging caused extensive deforestation in the southern Adirondacks, with the topsoil runoff fed directly into the Hudson River and Erie Canal watersheds. Adirondack Park was created by New York State in 1892 to protect key natural resources, including freshwater and timber. Waterways which fed from the park into the Erie Canal system and to the Hudson were seen as vital to the continued contribution of the canal to New York's commercial shipping industry. The Adirondack Forest Preserve (the part of the Adirondack Park under state control) was listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1963 and attracts several million visitors annually.
Landscape[edit]
A small mountain lake east of the High Peaks
The Adirondack region is mountainous with about three thousand small lakes, many streams and extensive old-growth forests. Forty-two of the 46 Adirondack High Peaks are above 4,000 feet (1,219 m), with the remaining four (Blake Peak, Cliff Mountain, Nye Mountain and Couchsachraga Peak) just under four thousand feet in height. Whiteface Mountain, near Wilmington and Lake Placid, served as a winter Olympic ski venue in 1980; in summer, a trail is open for mountain biking.
Flora and fauna[edit]
There are 53 known species of mammals in the park; various attempts have been made (with varying success) to introduce or re-introduce beaver, elk, fishers, American marten, moose, Canadian lynx and ospreys. Deer are plentiful. Hawks, owls, fox and weasels have been known to prey upon many species desired by hunters. Wolves and cougars also prey upon other species in the park.
Hunting and fishing are allowed in some portions of the Adirondack Park, but are strictly regulated. Some portions are protected from human encroachment as wilderness areas.
Climate during the winter months can be severe, with temperatures occasionally falling below −30 °F (−34 °C). The air is cold and clear.
The High Peaks from Giant Mountain
From NYC, Albany and Montréal: The main route along the eastern edge of the Adirondacks is Interstate 87, commonly known as "the Northway." There are no tolls north of Albany on I-87; the highway continues north through Montréal (as Autoroute 15) into the Laurentians. The Northway has beautiful views of the mountains, but limited services north of Lake George.
From Northern New York: From Watertown, take NY 3 (Arsenal Street, Watertown's main street) through the park to Saranac Lake. It's also possible to reach the park from the north side by taking US 11 to Malone, then turning south on NY 30.
From Utica-Rome: NY 28 runs north into the park from Herkimer; to pick up NY 28 from Utica use NY 12 northbound, from Rome use NY 365.
From Vermont: The Green Mountain State is largely separated from the Adirondacks by Lake Champlain. This usually means crossing by ferry, but there is a Lake Champlain Bridge between the Chimney Point state historic site (on VT 17) and the Crown Point historic area (in the park, on NY 185). Another option is to head south and miss the lake entirely (so Fairhaven and Rutland VT to Lake George is overland). Traffic originating at the northernmost edge of the state (St. Albans, Jay Peak) takes the US 2 bridge at the north end of the lake to Champlain and Rouses Point, then follows I-87 or US-9 through Plattsburgh to the park.
See also: US without a car
There is limited Trailways bus service from Rochester, Syracuse and Albany to points north including Keene Valley, Lake Placid, Tupper Lake and Plattsburgh.
See also: Amtrak
Amtrak's aptly named Adirondack train runs between Montreal, Quebec, and Penn Station in New York City. Stops in-region include Port Kent (seasonal, Burlington VT ferry dock), Westport (connection to Lake Placid bus), Port Henry, Ticonderoga and Whitehall. The train leaves Montreal at 9:30AM daily, and New York at 8:30AM. The trip takes approximately 10 hours but expect delays at the border. It used to be one of the most delayed in the whole Amtrak system, but in the early 2010s some of the issues causing delays have been addressed, notably improving on-time performance.
The main Plattsburgh-Burlington ferry crossing runs from Grande Isle VT (west of Colchester across the US 2 bridge) directly to Plattsburgh; from there, take I-87/US-9 south to the park.
There are also Vermont/Lake Champlain ferry crossings within the park:
A ferry crosses from Burlington (Vermont) to Port Kent, near Keeseville
A ferry crosses from Charlotte VT to Essex (New York)
A ferry crosses from Larrabees VT to Ticonderoga
Cape Air provides subsidised Essential Air Service twice-daily to Saranac Lake from Boston and a similar service to Plattsburgh.
Additional flights are available in Burlington, Montréal-Dorval and Albany.
Fees and permits[edit]
Except for improved public campgrounds, there is no fee to camp or travel on state land.
It is illegal to transport untreated firewood more than 50 miles from its source. Local firewood can easily be found in roadside stands and convenience stores. Retailers include a slip of paper documenting the source of the firewood. Without this proof, your firewood may be seized.
Interstate 87 runs along the Eastern edge of this area, following a similar path to its predecessor, US Highway 9. NY 30 enters the park from Malone in the north. Access to most of the park is via two-lane New York State highways.
NY 86 joins Lake Placid to Saranac Lake, from which NY 3 goes to I-87 in the east or I-81 Watertown in the west.
The main roads around the High Peaks region are Route 73 to the north and east which runs through Lake Placid, routes 3 and 30 through Tupper Lake to the west, and route 28N and Boreas road to the South. Fuel stations are available about every 20 miles in these areas.
The Adirondack Scenic Railroad runs a tourist train from Lake Placid to nearby Saranac Lake, as well as a train in Old Forge.
Waterfall in Keene Valley
Cruising on small craft is permitted on most of the larger lakes such as Lakes George, Champlain, Raquette, Tupper, Indian, Schroon, and Blue Mountain Lake. Hundreds of smaller lakes, ponds, and streams provide canoe routes of varying length, but not all are open to motorised vessels.
Boat tours are available on Lake George.
Local museums include the Adirondack Museum and store in Blue Mountain Lake, the Hyde Collection Art Museum and Historic House in Glens Falls (near Lake George), the Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks in Tupper Lake and the Paul Smith's College Visitor Interpretive Centre in the hamlet of Paul Smiths (near Saranac Lake).
In Lake Placid, John Browns Farm State Historic Site preserves the last home and burial site of a famed abolitionist, while the North Elba Historical Society Museum (in the former New York Central rail terminal) and a Winter Olympic Museum (in the Olympic centre) recall sporting history and the 1932 & 1980 Lake Placid winter games.
Fort Ticonderoga, an 18th-century French fortress which overlooks Lake Champlain from Ticonderoga, offers tours, historic galleries, walking trails and gardens for visitors.
Montcalm Point on Lake George
The region is famous for winter sports, particularly downhill skiing. Lake Placid is in the unusual position of having hosted not one but two Winter Olympiads, in 1932 and again in 1980. The Olympic ski competition took place at Whiteface Mountain, near Wilmington (New York) and other Olympic facilities can be found in Lake Placid.
The many huge, open spaces appeal to outdoorspeople, where the many lakes and streams draw fishermen, canoeists and nature lovers.
Live theatre venues include the Adirondack Theatre Festival in Glens Falls, the Pendragon Theatre in Saranac Lake, the Depot Theatre at the Westport rail station and the Lake Placid Center for the Arts, a year-round performing and visual arts facility.
Sightseeing tours are available on lake boats in Old Forge.
Various traditional crafts and rustic wooden furnishings are manufactured in the region.
The Adirondack chair, originally a "Westport plank chair" designed by Thomas Lee in Westport, New York in 1903 and patented by carpenter Harry Bunnell in 1905, is simple in design. One plank of hemlock, pine or cedar is cut into eleven pieces and assembled onto a simple wooden frame as a distinctive outdoor chair which tilts slightly back. The patents for the chairs, popular among cottagers, have long expired; woodworkers in many faraway places (including a few Amish communities) have readily adopted the basic designs. While there have been endless knockoffs, ranging from Ontario's "Muskoka furniture" of similar construction to the mass-market composite, resin or recycled plastic imitations which turn up at hardware and lumber dealers nationwide, some of the original wooden chairs are still made in the region and shipped far and wide.
As the handful of villages within the park boundary are small (typically fewer than 5000 people each), most of the local merchants are small independents. The closest major shopping mall is the Champlain Centre in Plattsburgh.
As fish and game are abundant, culinary options can be as local as smoked venison, roast duck, and fresh rainbow or brook trout caught in the Adirondacks and cooked over an open camp fire. Locally-harvested maple syrup can also be had in season.
Conversely, everything from Asian or Italian cuisine to Tex-Mex can be had from various local restaurants in the villages. The area around Saranac Lake and Lake Placid, once the home of the "Great Camps" of New York City's wealthy and powerful elites, offers various opportunities for fine waterfront dining and eateries in all price ranges.
Food and drink establishments are plentiful in the various small villages within the park boundary. There are a few wineries, microbreweries and cider makers in the region, as well as a distillery.
Get a tent, sleep almost anywhere.
NYS DEC Campgrounds. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation runs a few dozen campgrounds scattered throughout the park. Reservations may be required, especially during peak season and holidays. ~$20 a night, with a $5 nightly surcharge for out of state visitors. (updated Aug 2016)
Another option is to stay in any of the villages within the park boundary, which typically offer the full standard range of accommodations from bed and breakfast or small independent motels or hotels to the name-brand chains or the luxury lakeside resorts around Lake Placid, Lake George, Saranac Lake, Old Forge, Schroon Lake and the St. Regis Lakes.
There is very little crime in the Adirondacks. Still, be vigilant when driving alone at night on back roads. Think twice before stopping the car for strangers on the road. As anywhere, the road conditions can be dangerous in the winter months. In all seasons, be on the lookout for deer on the road.
The most common problem is travelers going into the wilderness without proper experience or equipment. There is prevalent wildlife throughout the Adirondacks, and interactions between humans and wild animals are common.
In some areas, bear resistant canisters are required. Check the areas where you are staying to see if this is the case.
One can take a ferry across Lake Champlain to get to Burlington, a lively college town and the biggest city in Vermont.
Central New York and the North Country are also nearby, as is Saratoga Springs. To the south, the Erie Canal and American Industry Tour both pass through the Albany state capital region.
One could also continue northwest into the Thousand Islands or north into Canada. Montréal is relatively easy to reach from Plattsburgh and Ottawa-Gatineau less than an hour's drive from Ogdensburg. Ontario's Algonquin Park is the closest provincial park of comparable size and scale.
This region travel guide to Adirondacks is a usable article. It gives a good overview of the region, its sights, and how to get in, as well as links to the main destinations, whose articles are similarly well developed. An adventurous person could use this article, but please feel free to improve it by editing the page.
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This travel guide page was last edited at 03:11, on 20 September 2020 by Wikivoyage user Ground Zero. Based on work by Wikivoyage users Ikan Kekek, Yvwv, SelfieCity, Mx. Granger, Wrh2Bot, LtPowers, K7L, Andree.sk and AndreeBot and others.