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Digital Culture Links: February 23rd
Links through February 23rd:
Nielsen Agrees to Expand Definition of TV Viewing [The Hollywood Reporter] – Nielsen ratings reflect that online TV ratings are growing and matter: "The Nielsen Co. is expanding its definition of television and will introduce a comprehensive plan to capture all video viewing including broadband and Xbox and iPads … By September 2013, when the next TV season begins, Nielsen expects to have in place new hardware and software tools in the nearly 23,000 TV homes it samples. Those measurement systems will capture viewership not just from the 75 percent of homes that rely on cable, satellite and over the air broadcasts but also viewing via devices that deliver video from streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon, from so-called over-the-top services and from TV enabled game systems like the X-Box and PlayStation. While some use of iPads and other tablets that receive broadband in the home will be included in the first phase of measurement improvements, a second phase is envisioned to include such devices in a more comprehensive fashion."
Billboard and Nielsen Add YouTube Video Streaming to Platforms [Billboard] – The Billboard music charts in the US finally adapt to include online activity, including YouTube streaming data, and suddenly Baauer's meme-tastic 'Harlem Shake' debuts at the top of the Billboard chart! The ratings, they are a-changing.
Why I'm Done Posting Photos of My Kid On Facebook [Chicago Now] – Short but well written piece on why parents should be more careful about what photos etc they share of their kids online. Author calls parents "online guardians". "We all want to believe that Facebook takes parents' concerns about privacy seriously. But the truth is that Facebook is a publicly traded company that cares first and foremost about making its shareholders happy. We have no idea how far it will go to do so, especially since the company is not extraordinarily profitable right now. But what we do know is that Facebook is pushing our boundaries now, often, to see just how much of our privacy we're willing to give away."
Instagram users begin fightback against stolen photos [Technology | guardian.co.uk] – Solid piece on the challenges of photos from Instagram (and the web in general) being used by others without permission. Copyright, theft, credit and ethics all get a mention, but the short version is: if copyright is understood on the web (often it's not), it's often not respected whatsoever. For the Instagram examples, I can only image this will get worse, not better, with Instagram moving more solidly onto the web proper, not just mobile devices.
Introducing Your Instagram Feed on the Web [Instagram Blog] – Furthering their shift to looking more and more like parent-company Facebook, Instagram have expanded the web presence associated with each username, allowing the liking, commenting and exploring of the people you follow on Instagram without use of a mobile device. The only thing you can't do is upload an image from the web (yet).
Coming and Going on Facebook [Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project] – "Two-thirds of online American adults (67%) are Facebook users, making Facebook the dominant social networking site in this country. And new findings from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project indicate there is considerable fluidity in the Facebook user population: * 61% of current Facebook users say that at one time or another in the past they have voluntarily taken a break from using Facebook for a period of several weeks or more. * 20% of the online adults who do not currently use Facebook say they once used the site but no longer do so. * 8% of online adults who do not currently use Facebook are interested in becoming Facebook users in the future."
Digital Culture Links: Last Links for 2012.
December 31, 2012 / 2 Comments on Digital Culture Links: Last Links for 2012.
Happy New Year, originally uploaded by Tama Leaver.
End of year links:
Best Memes of 2012: Editorial Choices [Know Your Meme] – The best memes of 2012, according to Know Your Meme:
#10: Sh*t People Say
#9: What People Think I Do
#8: Overly Attached Girlfriend
#7: Ehrmagerd
#6: Ridiculously Photogenic Guy
#5: Somebody That I Used to Know
#4: Kony 2012
#3: Call Me Maybe
#2: Grumpy Cat
#1: Gangnam Style
Personally, I'd add Texts from Hillary, McKayla is Not Impressed and Binders Full of Women to the list!
Posterous Spaces backup tool available now [The Official Posterous Space] – Posterous adds the ability for users to download their entire Posterous sites as a zip file, complete with images and a usable (if dull) html interface. There hasn't been a lot of movement with Posterous since the team were bought out by Twitter, so this new tool may signal the beginning of the end of the end for Posterous, which is a real shame since it's still a more robust tool than Tumblr in a number of ways.
App sales soar in 2012 [Technology | The Guardian] – "Shiny new tablets and smartphones given as presents make Christmas Day and Boxing Day the two most lucrative days of the year for app sales. Yet in the apps economy, turkeys are a year-round phenomenon. Thousands of new apps are released every week for devices running Apple's iOS and Google's Android, but most sink without trace. With an estimated 1bn apps released so far on those two platforms alone, there are relatively few winners and many losers. This month, industry analyst Canalys claimed that in the first 20 days of November, Apple's US App Store generated $120m (£75m) of app revenues, with just 25 publishers accounting for half of that. And 24 of those 25 companies make games, including the likes of Zynga, Electronic Arts and Angry Birds publisher Rovio. But analysts suggested in August that two-thirds of Apple store apps had never been downloaded – a lifeless long tail of more than 400,000 unwanted apps."
2012's Most Popular Locations on Instagram [Instagram Blog] – "What was the most-Instagrammed place in the world this past year? The answer may surprise you. Out of anywhere else in the world, Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport tops the list. Over 100,000 photos were taken there last year! What other locations were popular in 2012? From Asia to Europe to North America, Instagrammers shared their view of the world. Read on for the full list:
* Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK) ท่าอากาศยานสุวรรณภูมิ in Bangkok, Thailand
* Siam Paragon (สยามพารากอน) shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand
* Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California
* Times Square in New York City
* AT&T; Park in San Francisco
* Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
* Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles
* Eiffel Tower in Paris
* Staples Center in Los Angeles
* Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles"
Wikipedia's most searched articles of the year revealed [BBC News] – "A study of 2012's most read Wikipedia articles reveals striking differences in what proved popular across the different language versions of the online encyclopaedia. Facebook topped the English edition while an entry for adult video actresses did best in Japan. Hua Shan – a Chinese mountain featuring "the world's deadliest hiking trail" – topped the Dutch list. By contrast, cul-de-sacs were the German site's most clicked entry. … Lower entries on the lists also proved revealing. While articles about Iran, its capital city Tehran and the country's New Year celebrations topped the Persian list, entries about sex, female circumcision and homosexuality also made its top 10. …
English language most viewed
2. Wiki
3. Deaths in 2012
4. One Direction
5. The Avengers
6. Fifty Shades of Grey
7. 2012 phenomenon
8. The Dark Knight Rises
9. Google
10. The Hunger Games"
Bug reveals 'erased' Snapchat videos [BBC News] – Using a simple file browser tool, users are able to find and save files sent via Snapchat, an app that's meant to share and then erase photos, messages and video. Not surprisingly really, since all communication online is, essentially, copying files of some sort or another.
Web tools whitewash students online [The Australian] – Universities offering web presence washing at graduation. Perhaps teaching grads to manage their own would be better.
"Samantha Grossman wasn't always thrilled with the impression that emerged when people Googled her name. "It wasn't anything too horrible," she said. "I just have a common name. There would be pictures, college partying pictures, that weren't of me, things I wouldn't want associated with me." So before she graduated from Syracuse University last spring, the school provided her with a tool that allowed her to put her best web foot forward. Now when people Google her, they go straight to a positive image – professional photo, cum laude degree and credentials – that she credits with helping her land a digital advertising job in New York. "I wanted to make sure people would find the actual me and not these other people," she said. Syracuse, Rochester and Johns Hopkins in Baltimore are among the universities that offer such online tools to their students free of charge …"
Mark Zuckerberg's sister learns life lesson after Facebook photo flap [Technology | The Guardian] – A photo from Randi Zuckerberg's Facebook page gets taken out of context and reposted on Twitter and she complains, then goes overtly moral, tweeting: "Digital etiquette: always ask permission before posting a friend's photo publicly. It's not about privacy settings, it's about human decency"The Guardian's take: "But what's most odious about the episode is the high-handedness of Zuckerberg's response. Facebook makes money when users surrender their privacy. The company has made it the user's job to defend personal information, which otherwise might be made public by default. Got a problem with that? The company's answer always has been that users should read the privacy settings, closely, no matter how often they change. … Eva Galperin said that while Facebook has made amendments to their privacy settings, they still remain confusing to a large number of people. "Even Randi Zuckerberg can get it wrong," she said. "That's an illustration of how confusing they can be."
Twitter and Facebook get on the school timetable in anti-libel lessons [Media | The Guardian] – Some private schools in the UK are now embedding social media literacies into their curriculum, especially how to avoid defamation of others, and, I guess, how not to get sued. While it'd be nice to hear about more well-rounded literacies – like managing your identity online in its early forms – this is nevertheless a step in the right direction. I fear, though, a new digital divide might appear if social media literacies are embedded for some, not all.
Top Tweets of 2012: Golden Tweets – Twitter's official list of top 2012 tweets, led by Barack Obama's "Four more years" and in second place … Justin Bieber.
Facebook's Poke App Is a Head-Scratcher [NYTimes.com] – Ephemeral Mobile Media: ".. it's hard to grasp what the point of the Facebook Poke app really is. Poke, which came out last week, is a clone of Snapchat, an app popular among teenagers. Many have labeled Snapchat a "sexting" app — a messaging platform ideally suited for people who want to send short-lived photos and videos of you-know-what to get each other feeling lusty. The files self-destruct in a few seconds, ideally relieving you of any shame or consequence, unless, of course, the recipient snaps a screen shot. (Poke and Snapchat alert you if a screen shot has been taken.) It's a bit of a head-scratcher for adults, like me and my Facebook friends, who aren't inclined to sext with one another. We're more used to uploading photos of pets, food, babies and concerts, which aren't nearly as provocative. The most interesting aspect of Poke is that you can send photos and videos only of what you're doing at that moment; you cannot send people a nice photo saved in your library …"
Game of Thrones tops TV show internet piracy chart [BBC News] – Game of Thrones has emerged as the most-pirated TV show over the internet this year, according to news site Torrentfreak's latest annual survey. It said one episode of the series had racked up 4,280,000 illegal global downloads – slightly more than than its estimated US television audience. … Despite all the closures, one episode of of Game of Thrones racked up 4,280,000 illegal global downloads, according to Torrentfreak. That was slightly more than than its estimated US television audience. The level of piracy may be linked to the fact that the TV company behind it – HBO – does not allow Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime or other US streaming services access to its programmes. It instead restricts them to its own HBO Go online product, which is only available to its cable subscribers. Outside the US, Torrentfreak noted that Australia was responsible for a disproportionate amount of illegal copies of Game of Thrones…"
Digital Culture Links: December 24th
Links for December 18th through December 22nd:
From Grumpy Cat to Gangnam Style: The Best Memes of 2012 [Wired.com] – 2012 was a big year for memes, from McKayla Is Not Impressed to Texts From Hillary. And Gangnam Style …
Gangnam Style Makes YouTube History: First Video to Hit 1 Billion Views [YouTube Blog] – Gangnam Style the first YouTube video to clock one billion views! "A million views? You know what's cool? A billion views. Today, a 34-year-old K-Pop artist made online video history when his viral video, Gangnam Style, smashed our records and became the first video ever to reach one billion views. Yup, that's right one BILLION views! PSY's success is a great testament to the universal appeal of catchy music– and er, great equine dance moves. In the past, music distribution was mostly regional. It was more difficult to learn about great artists from around the world. But with a global platform at their fingertips, people are now discovering and sharing amazing music from all over the planet, by artists like Brazilian Michel Teló and Belgian-Australian Gotye."
Your Twitter archive [Twitter Blog] – Twitter finally rolls out – for everyone – the ability to download your entire Twitter archive: "Today, we're introducing the ability to download your Twitter archive, so you'll get all your Tweets (including Retweets) going back to the beginning. Once you have your Twitter archive, you can view your Tweets by month, or search your archive to find Tweets with certain words, phrases, hashtags or @usernames. You can even engage with your old Tweets just as you would with current ones. Go to Settings and scroll down to the bottom to check for the option to request your Twitter archive. If you do see it, go ahead and click the button. You'll receive an email with instructions on how to access your archive when it's ready for you to download."
i-am-cc.org – Free your Instagram photos with a Creative Commons license! – That's a clever idea: an explicit tool for adding a Creative Commons license to your Instagram photos, and for finding Instagram photos which have Creative Commons licenses.
Germany orders changes to Facebook real name policy [BBC News] – "A German data protection body has ordered Facebook to end its policy of making members use their real names. The policy violates German laws that give people the right to use pseudonyms online, said the data protection agency in Schleswig-Holstein. The agency has issued a decree demanding that Facebook let people use fake names immediately. Facebook said it would fight the decree "vigorously" and that its naming policy met European data protection rules. "It is unacceptable that a US portal like Facebook violates German data protection law unopposed and with no prospect of an end," said Thilo Weichert, head of the regional data protection office in Schleswig Holstein, in a statement. … The decree issued by the Schleswig Holstein office was "without merit" a Facebook spokeswoman told tech news site IT World adding that it planned to fight the order."
Coming Soon: Nielsen Twitter TV Rating [Twitter Blog] – The second screen just got serious: "Today Nielsen announced an agreement with Twitter to create the "Nielsen Twitter TV Rating," an industry-standard metric that is based entirely on Twitter data. As the experience of TV viewing continues to evolve, our TV partners have consistently asked for one common benchmark from which to measure the engagement of their programming. This new metric is intended to answer that request, and to act as a complement and companion to the Nielsen TV rating. You can read more about the news on Nielsen's site here. Ultimately, we have one goal for this new metric: to make watching TV with Twitter even better for you, the TV fan. I look forward to sharing more about this effort in the months to come."
Global Media Distribution and the Tyranny of Digital Distance
October 21, 2012 / 1 Comment on Global Media Distribution and the Tyranny of Digital Distance
Here are the slides and audio from my paper 'Global Media Distribution and the Tyranny of Digital Distance' presented on Saturday, 20 October 2012 at Internet Research 13 in MediaCityUK, Salford:
Global Media Distribution and the Tyranny of Digital Distance from Tama Leaver
The paper drifted somewhat from the original abstract, but in a nutshell asks why it is taking television networks so long to escape the tyranny of digital distance (in this instance embodied by the national delays in re-broadcasting overseas-produced television shows). I look at several examples, including the recent Olympics broadcasts, as well as the deep-seated resistance from commercial TV networks in Australia. I conclude following Mark Scott that the future is already here, in the visage of young viewers and Peppa Pig fans who will never know the broadcast schedule and that these are the viewers for whom networks should be preparing to entertain today.
Digital Culture Links: September 24th through September 25th
September 25, 2012 / 1 Comment on Digital Culture Links: September 24th through September 25th
Links for September 24th through September 25th:
Disruptions and dividends: a fast broadband Australia [ABC] – A fantastic speech from the ABC's Managing Director Mark Scott, given in September 2012, highlighting the challenges and opportunities the public broadcaster faces in the era of broadband and digital distribution. Scott sees the huge amount of time-shifted streaming of children's television as a harbinger of a future driven by immediacy, while the recent move to make episodes of Doctor Who available online (on iView) the second they finish in the UK signals the only way to answer online piracy: provide a better and easier service.
Creepshots and revenge porn: how paparazzi culture affects women [The Guardian] – Disturbing but well-written piece on 'creepshots' and the broader cultural context in which they exist: "… we arguably all live in a paparazzi culture now. Cameras are ubiquitous, as is the technology to share and publicise pictures instantly. The throb of surveillance plays out in different ways. On the more benign side are the mild nerves many people feel when an email pops up to tell them they have been tagged in a Facebook photo, an image that could be from any moment in their life – recent or historical – now public, and open for comments. But it also plays out in more insidious ways. This includes the creepshot websites, and others where people collect images of ordinary women they have culled from around the internet."
Facebook Suspends Facial Recognition in Europe [Wall Street Journal] – "Facebook has voluntarily switched off its facial recognition service in Europe following a privacy audit by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC). The company says it wants to reinstate the feature once a form of consent can be found that meets the guidelines."
Gangnam Style, Dissected: The Subversive Message Within South Korea's Music Video Sensation [The Atlantic] – "Park Jaesang is an unlikely poster boy for South Korea's youth-obsessed, highly lucrative, and famously vacuous pop music. Park, who performs as Psy (short for psycho), is a relatively ancient 34, has been busted for marijuana and for avoiding the country's mandatory military service, and is not particularly good-looking. His first album got him fined for "inappropriate content" and the second was banned. He's mainstream in the way that South Korea's monolithically corporate media demands of its stars, who typically appear regularly on TV variety and even game shows, but as a harlequin, a performer known for his parodies, outrageous costumes, and jokey concerts. Still, there's a long history of fools and court jesters as society's most cutting social critics, and he might be one of them. […] Gangnam is a tony Seoul neighborhood, and Park's "Gangnam Style" video lampoons its self-importance and ostentatious wealth, with Psy playing a clownish caricature of a Gangnam man."
Digital Culture Links: August 29th through September 3rd
Links for August 29th through September 3rd:
Navigating the new multi-screen world: Insights show how consumers use different devices together – Google Mobile Ads Blog – New report funded by Google: "The New Multi-screen World: Understanding Cross-Platform Consumer Behavior" "discovered that 90% of people move between devices to accomplish a goal, whether that's on smartphones, PCs, tablets or TV. We set out to learn not just how much of our media consumption happens on screens, but also how we use these multiple devices together, and what that means for the way that businesses connect with consumers. In understanding what it means to multi-screen, we discovered two main modes of usage:
* Sequential screening where we move from one device to another to complete a single goal
* Simultaneous screening where we use multiple devices at the same time
We found that nine out of ten people use multiple screens sequentially and that smartphones are by far the most common starting point for sequential activity." [Full Report PDF]
UKNova made to halt television and radio torrent links [BBC News] – "UKNova has stopped offering BitTorrent links after becoming the latest file-sharing site to be targeted by copyright defenders. Its administrators said they took the action after receiving a demand from the Federation Against Copyright Theft (Fact). UKNova had pitched itself as a free catch-up TV and radio service and had asked its members not to add material available for sale elsewhere. It has been in operation since 2003. UKNova's use of BitTorrent links meant it did not keep any pirated material on its own servers, but rather provided the means for its members to download and upload material to and from each others' computers. […] Unlike many other file-sharing sites, UKNova did not run adverts on its pages. One of its administrators said it was not run for profit, had survived purely from voluntary donations and nobody involved had been paid."
Apple kills Star Trek [YouTube] – Clever re-dub of classic Star Trek: The Next Generation footage in the aftermath of Apple's patent lawsuits. Things don't go well for the Enterprise!
Are Apple's innovations inside us now? [CNN.com] – Douglas Rushkoff: "Imagine that we were just developing spoken language for the first time. And someone came up with a new word to describe an action, thought or feeling — like "magnify" or "dreadful." But in this strange world, the person who came up with the word demanded that anyone else who used it pay him a dollar every time the word was uttered. That would make it pretty difficult for us to negotiate our way to a society that communicated through speech. That's the way the patent wars on smartphone and tablet advances are beginning to feel to me. […] Usually, advancements of this sort are developed through consortia of companies. The HTML standards through which the Web is rendered are not owned by a single company, but developed together and used by everyone. Imagine if one musical instrument company owned the patent on the piano keyboard, and another on the tuning of a violin. Or what if every typewriter company had to develop its own layout of letters?"
Digital Culture Links: July 25th through July 30th
Links for July 25th through July 30th:
Apple, Microsoft refuse to appear before IT pricing inquiry [The Age] – "A[n Australian] parliamentary committee wants to force computer giant Apple to appear before it after members became frustrated with the company's refusal to co-operate. Hearings into the pricing of software and other IT-related material such as games and music downloads will begin in Sydney tomorrow but neither Apple nor Microsoft will appear. "Some of the big names in IT have taken local consumers for a ride for years but when legitimate questions are asked about their pricing, they disappear in a flash," Labor MP and committee member Ed Husic told Fairfax Media. "Within our growing digital economy, there are reasonable questions to be answered by major IT companies on their Australian pricing. These companies would never treat US consumers in this way." Both Microsoft and Adobe provided submissions to the inquiry."
Don't tweet if you want TV, London fans told [The Age] – "Sports fans attending the London Olympics were told on Sunday to avoid non-urgent text messages and tweets during events because overloading of data networks was affecting television coverage. Commentators on Saturday's men's cycling road race were unable to tell viewers how far the leaders were ahead of the chasing pack because data could not get through from the GPS satellite navigation system travelling with the cyclists. It was particularly annoying for British viewers, who had tuned in hoping to see a medal for sprint king Mark Cavendish. Many inadvertently made matters worse by venting their anger on Twitter at the lack of information. An International Olympic Committee spokesman said the network problem had been caused by the messages sent by the hundreds of thousands of fans who lined the streets to cheer on the British team. "Of course, if you want to send something, we are not going to say 'Don't, you can't do it',… "
Olympics 2012, Sir Tim Berners Lee and Open Internet [Cerebrux] – Great to see the 2012 London Olympics celebrating World Wide Web inventor, Sir Tim Berners-Lee. "Flash forward to last night, he was honored as the 'Inventor of the World Wide Web' at the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony. Berners-Lee is revealed in front of a computer keyboard into which he types a message, which is then rendered in lights in the stands of Olympic Stadium: "This is for everyone." and a message simultaneously appeared on his Twitter account: Tim Berners-Lee@timberners_lee This is for everyone #london2012 #oneweb #openingceremony @webfoundation @w3c
28 Jul 12. A great quote that resembles the openness and the fact that some things should belong to humanity."
The Rise of the "Connected Viewer" [Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project] – "Half of all adult cell phone owners now incorporate their mobile devices into their television watching experiences. These "connected viewers" used their cell phones for a wide range of activities during the 30 days preceding our April 2012 survey:
38% of cell owners used their phone to keep themselves occupied during commercials or breaks in something they were watching
23% used their phone to exchange text messages with someone else who was watching the same program in a different location
22% used their phone to check whether something they heard on television was true
20% used their phone to visit a website that was mentioned on television
11% used their phone to see what other people were saying online about a program they were watching, and 11% posted their own comments online about a program they were watching using their mobile phone
Taken together, 52% of all cell owners are "connected viewers"—meaning they use their phones while watching television …"
RIAA: Online Music Piracy Pales In Comparison to Offline Swapping [TorrentFreak] – "A leaked presentation from the RIAA shows that online file-sharing isn't the biggest source of illegal music acquisition in the U.S. The confidential data reveals that 65% of all music files are "unpaid" but the vast majority of these are obtained through offline swapping. […] In total, 15 percent of all acquired music (paid + unpaid) comes from P2P file-sharing and just 4 percent from cyberlockers. Offline swapping in the form of hard drive trading and burning/ripping from others is much more prevalent with 19 and 27 percent respectively. This leads to the, for us, surprising conclusion that more than 70% of all unpaid music comes from offline swapping. The chart is marked "confidential" which suggests that the RIAA doesn't want this data to be out in the open. This is perhaps understandable since the figures don't really help their crusade against online piracy."
Robin Hood Airport tweet bomb joke man wins case [BBC News] – Finally: "A man found guilty of sending a menacing tweet threatening to blow up an airport has won a challenge against his conviction. Paul Chambers, 28, of Northern Ireland, was found guilty in May 2010 of sending a "menacing electronic communication". He was living in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, when he tweeted that he would blow up nearby Robin Hood Airport when it closed after heavy snow.
After a hearing at the High Court in London his conviction was quashed."
The Instagram Community Hits 80 Million Users [Instagram Blog] – As of July 2012, after finally launching an Android app, and being purchased by Facebook, Instagram has 80 million registered users, who've posted cumulatively more than 4 billion photos.
Music stars accuse Google of helping pirates rip off material [WA Today] – "LONDON: Roger Daltry of the Who and Brian May of Queen are among rock and pop stars who publicly attacked search engines such as Google for helping users get access to pirated copies of their music. Elton John, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin have also signed a letter to The Daily Telegraph in London calling for more action to tackle the illegal copying and distribution of music. Other signatories include the producer and creator of The X Factor, Simon Cowell. The letter, which will also be sent to the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, this week, highlighted the role that search engines can play in giving people access to illegal copies. Search engines must "play their part in protecting consumers and creators from illegal sites", the signatories said, adding that broadband companies and online advertisers must also do more to prevent piracy."
Digital Culture Links: July 10th
Links, catching up, through to July 10th:
What to Watch? AUDIENCE MOTIVATION IN A MULTI-SCREEN WORLD [Screen Australia: Research] – New report from Screen Australia (released June 2012) which investigates the viewing habits of audiences in Australia. The report is careful to highlight the ongoing impact of traditional methods and advertising, but focuses most significantly on social media users. The report characterises 35% of Australians over the age of 14 as 'connectors' who both enjoy screen culture and are frequent social media users, often using social media to discuss their favourite content. The reach of these online discussions, and impact on other viewers (including those who don't use social media) is substantial and significant. [Read the full report.]
Recruiting Via Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter Continues To Grow [AllFacebook] – "A total of 92 percent of U.S. companies use social networks and social media to recruit talent, up from 78 percent five years ago, according to new research from recruitment platform Jobvite, which also found that although LinkedIn remains dominant in the sector, Facebook and Twitter continue to make inroads. Other findings in the 2012 annual Social Recruiting Survey from Jobvite: Two-thirds of companies now use Facebook for recruiting, while 54 percent use Twitter. LinkedIn continues to rule this category, at 93 percent." [Infographic]
Origin of the @reply – Digging through twitter's history [Anarchogeek] – A quick overview of the social emergence of the @reply convention on Twitter.
Some YouTube Partners Are Making Tens of Millions Of Dollars A Year [SFGate] – "Speaking at IGNITION West, Shishir Mehrotra, vice president of product management of YouTube, said the channels have increased engagement. Mehrotra also said TV creators are now running test shows on YouTube before running it on TV. "We are the world's biggest focus group," he said. Business Insider's Matt Rosoff, who was leading the discussion, questioned whether or not we are going to see big time stars come out of YouTube anytime soon. Mehrotra answered, "hundreds of people are making 6 figures, some are making tens of millions of dollars.""
Twitter ordered to hand over Occupy tweets [BBC News] – "A US court has ordered Twitter to release old messages and details about a user arrested during an Occupy Wall Street protest in New York. The micro-blogging firm contested the subpoena, saying the tweets were owned by users rather than the company. But a judge said defendant Malcolm Harris' privacy would not be violated if the material was handed over. Earlier, the American Civil Liberties Union commended Twitter for defending free speech rights. "If you post a tweet, just like if you scream it out the window, there is no reasonable expectation of privacy," Judge Matthew Sciarrino wrote in his decision. Nevertheless, the judge said he would personally review the information and would only release the relevant sections to prosecution and defence lawyers."
Facebook's email switch prompts criticism by users [BBC News] – "Facebook is facing a backlash from users after replacing email addresses listed in members' contacts with those provided by its @facebook.com system. The company said it had acted to make details "consistent" across its site. If Facebook's email system takes off it could drive more traffic to the firm's pages helping boost advertising sales. But some users have branded the move "annoying" and "lame" and publicised instructions on how to display original addresses instead of the Facebook ones." And here's a guide on Forbes showing how to change your Facebook email address back if you'd prefer.
Gamers get adults-only R18+ classification [The Age] – Finally! "An adults-only computer game rating category will at last become a reality with legislation passing federal parliament yesterday. The new law fulfils the Commonwealth's part of a deal with states and territories to include an R18+ rating in the games classification system. "These are important reforms over 10 years in the making," Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare said in a statement yesterday. "The R18+ category will inform consumers, parents and retailers about which games are not suitable for minors to play and will prevent minors from purchasing unsuitable material. […] Previously, the highest rating for computer games has been MA15+ meaning overseas adult-only games are usually banned here or given a lower classification allowing children to obtain them.
The new laws bring computer games in line with the classification system for films and other material and make Australia more consistent with international standards."
Digital Culture Links: June 15th
June 15, 2012 / 1 Comment on Digital Culture Links: June 15th
Links for June 5th through June 15th:
Hundreds of dollars, no sense as Gillard's #cashforyou tweets backfire [The Age] – Poorly thought through promotional hashtags – a new Australian tradition, it seems: "The federal government has been bombarded with scorn on Twitter this morning after its ministers used the hashtag "cash for you" to promote its School Kids Bonus. […] Ms Gillard's advisers, known as TeamJG on Twitter, tweeted: "Talking to parents & students about the Schoolkids Bonus at Marrickville West Public School #cashforyou." #cashforyou has quickly become the top trending topic on Twitter in Australia today, ahead of usual placegetters Justin Bieber and local singer Reece Mastin. But the hashtag has drawn scathing responses from users. "#CashForYou? That's the line the ALP is going for? At least when Howard did middle-class welfare he wrapped it up in patriotism," tweeted one. Another read: "I'm worried the #cashforyou message might be too subtle and nuanced to really cut through."
YouTube chief mulls paid subscription [Reuters] – "YouTube is exploring selling subscriptions to access to some of its video offerings, potentially providing a way for certain cable channels to be available outside the traditional "bundles" offered by cable network providers, said YouTube boss Salar Kamangar. Cable channels with smaller audiences will in the future migrate to the Web and become available on an "a la carte" basis, Kamangar said at the Reuters Media and Technology Summit on Thursday. […] "We don't have anything to announce now. It is something that's really important to a lot of our top existing content creators as well as ones that aren't on YouTube today, so we're taking very seriously and we're thinking about it very carefully," said Kamangar, Google senior vice president, YouTube and video."
The IOC to show live coverage of the London 2012 Olympic Games on YouTube in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa [YouTube Blog] – In short, anyone in a country that DOESN'T have a broadcaster paying the IOC for exclusive rights TV rights will be getting the Olympics for free on YouTube. Australians, however, get a team led by Eddie McGuire. *sigh* "This summer, from July 27 to August 12, the world will turn their attention to London to watch the daily trials and triumphs of the greatest living athletes at the Summer Olympic Games. Today, we're excited to announce that millions of Olympic fans from across 64 territories in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa will have a chance to watch the games live from London on the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/olympic. In total, the IOC's YouTube Channel will offer fans in these countries over 2,200 hours of high-definition sporting event coverage from London 2012, including all the medal finals."
The Yellow Australian Social Media Report 2012 [Sensis] – "The consumer survey found that 62% of internet users have a presence on social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin. Facebook dominates the social media space, capturing 97% of social networking users. it is used by more than 90% of social media users from both sexes and all age groups, with average users spending more than six hours a week on the site. Whilst some sites have dominated in the social media space, this is sometimes at the expense of other site. People were most likely to nominate having stopped using MySpace in the past year." [Full Report PDF]
picplz shutting down [blog plz] – Just two months after Instagram launched their Android version and PicPlz, one of the better (and much earlier) Android photo tweaking and sharing apps is shutting their doors. They've given a month's notice that all data will be deleted and PicPlz erased on 3 July 2012.
April 11, 2012 / 1 Comment on Digital Culture Links: April 11th
Links for April 11th:
Hillary Clinton Responds to Her Meme … With a Meme [The Atlantic] – Hillary Clinton responds to the Texts from Hillary Tumblr/meme by penning her own version and meeting with the two guys who started the Tumblr. Hilarity ensues, and Clinton's online credibility goes up about 5000%. The pundits are impressed, too.
Selling You on Facebook [WSJ.com] – Useful article from the Wall Street Journal looking at how Facebook and Facebook apps utilise user's data: "This appetite for personal data reflects a fundamental truth about Facebook and, by extension, the Internet economy as a whole: Facebook provides a free service that users pay for, in effect, by providing details about their lives, friendships, interests and activities. Facebook, in turn, uses that trove of information to attract advertisers, app makers and other business opportunities."
Angry Birds animated TV series to premiere in Autumn 2012 [Technology | guardian.co.uk] – "Rovio Mobile is launching a series of 52 shortform animations for its Angry Birds in Autumn, but has ruled out a movie until after 2014. "We're going to roll out a weekly animation series later this year of shortform content," said Rovio's head of animation Nick Dorra, speaking at the MIPTV conference in Cannes. The series will consist of 52 episodes lasting between two-and-a-half and three minutes each. "We're going to roll it out on all possible devices," said Dorra. "We're looking at building a video app for that, and we're also looking at partnerships and so on… We want to be on all screens." Those partnerships include a deal with Samsung announced in January 2012 that involves an app for the company's range of Smart TV internet-connected televisions."
Twitter UK boss says social TV happens whether broadcasters like it or not [Technology | guardian.co.uk] – "Twitter's UK general manager Tony Wang expects broadcasters to start using the microblogging service in more "artful" ways beyond showing hashtags and account handles on-air. "Broadcasters are not the ones to choose whether to have social TV. It happens whether they like it or not. But they have a choice about how to harness that social TV energy," he told the MIPCube conference in Cannes. Wang cited stats showing that 80% of under-25s are using a second screen to communicate with friends while watching TV, while 72% of them are using Twitter, Facebook and other mobile apps to comment on the shows they watch. He added that Twitter sees three distinct strategies from broadcasters when it comes to social TV: some are doing nothing, others are doing something, and a few are doing "artful" things on-air. "It's the past, present and future of social TV.""


How To Create Apple ID For FREE?
Home > Tips and Tricks > How To Create Apple ID For FREE?
Lots of people still think creating Apple ID requires credit card and have to pay some dollars. If you try from Apple website to create Apple ID you can not create it without paying money.
Today I will show you how to make an Apple ID without credit card.
The only way to make Free Apple ID is from iTunes software. Here are some secret but quite simple tricks.
How to create apple id without credit card in bangladesh.
SEE ALSO: How To Synchronize iPhone Calendar To Yahoo Calendar?
1. First install iTunes software. If already installed skip this process.
2. Open iTunes software and connect you iPhone through cable with your computer.
3. Now go to iTunes Store from upper right side corner and click Apps button.
4. From the apps menu, select any app which is free. Such as: Google, Youtube, Facebook, ShareIT etc.
5. Click on the app and click Get button.
6. From popup box, select Create Apple ID.
8. Tick Accept Terms and Conditions and click Agree.
9. Now provide your details such as email address, password, security questions and birthday. After filling up click Continue.
11. Enter your billing address correctly in below.
12. Click Create Apple ID.
13. Review your information and click Verify now.
14. Now, go to your email address which you entered when register the Apple ID. You will receive an email from Apple. Open it and click the verification link.
15. Now, sign in to Apple ID with your email address and password and manage further settings as your wish.
Bingoooo… You successfully created your Apple ID for free. Now start downloading all free apps in your iPhone.
Hope this post helps to create free Apple ID. If you face any problem don't late to ask me. I am here to assist you always. Kindly share this post with your friends on facebook and twitter.
Stay good and fit. Allah Hafez.


A simple and easy-to-use tool raygui layouts editor.
Useful for fast tools development. The perfect companion for rGuiStyler tool.
Export layout directly as plain C code, ready to edit and compile!
The tool is pretty intuitive to use, it mostly works with mouse and several key shortcuts that can be seen just pressing TAB key once program is open. Use mouse wheel to select desired control or RightMouseButton to open controls panel.
You can drag&drop .rgl files for layout loading and also .rgs files (rGuiStyler) for layout style loading. To export created layout as C code, just pres LCTRL+ENTER, you can configure multiple export options to generate the code.
To compile the code, you need raygui library (single-file header-only) and raylib v2.0 library, not yet released on itch.io but already available for early adopters on raylib GitHub, ready to be compiled.
rGuiLayout 1.0 is free software and can be used at no cost but, despite being completely free, consider a small donation for the development efforts or contributing to raylib patreon to help the author keep working on free software for games development.


text:
Q: Firebird stored procedure for concatenating all field values from multiple rows my goal is to write a stored proc that can collect all field values from multiple rows into one single output variable (maybe varchar(some_length)). It may seem strange solution but i've quite positive its the only one i can use at that situation im in. I have not used Firebird before and stored procs look way different than in other well-known  db systems.
My Firebird is 1.5 and dialect 3 (not sure what it means).
So maybe someone could help me with a algorithm example.

A: The following procedure does what you describe:
SET TERM !!;
CREATE PROCEDURE concat_names
  RETURNS (concat VARCHAR(2000))
AS
DECLARE VARIABLE name VARCHAR(100);
BEGIN
  concat = '';
  FOR SELECT first_name || ' ' || last_name FROM employee INTO :name
  DO BEGIN
    concat = concat || name || ', ';
  END
END!!
SET TERM ;!!
EXECUTE PROCEDURE concat_names;

But I question the wisdom of this solution.  How do you know the VARCHAR is long enough for all the rows in your desired dataset?
It's far easier and safer to run a query to return the result to an application row by row.  Every application programming language has methods to concatenate strings, but more importantly they have more flexible methods to manage the growth of data.
By the way, "dialect" in Firebird and InterBase refers to a compatibility mode that was introduced so that applications developed for InterBase 5.x can work with later versions of InterBase and Firebird.  That was almost ten years ago, and AFAIK there's no need today to use anything lower than dialect 3.

A: You have to test for null values when concatenating, here is an example for two fields and a separator between them:
    CREATE PROCEDURE CONCAT(
    F1 VARCHAR(385),
    F2 VARCHAR(385),
    SEPARATOR VARCHAR(10))
RETURNS (
    RESULT VARCHAR(780))
AS
begin

  if ((:f1 is not null) and (:f1 <> '')) then
    result = :f1;

  if ((:f2 is not null) and (:f2 <> '')) then
    if ((result is not null) and (result <> '')) then
      begin
        if ((:separator is not null) and (separator <> '')) then
          result = result||separator||f2;
        else
          result = result||f2;
      end
    else
      result = f2;

  suspend;
end

A: Returning multiple rows using Firebird stored procedures is very very easy.
Don't use:
execute procedure proc_name(value);

Instead use the:
select * from proc_name(value);

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Jeff Kahm
"I started exploring abstract work in the early nineties during undergraduate studies, where I was introduced to various art movements of Western art history including the tenets of modernism. Modernist practices, which set aside artistic traditions of the past in favor of experimentation, piqued my interest at the time. Although the age of modern painting began in the nineteenth century I was particularly drawn to work produced in the latter half of the twentieth century, particularly Color Field painting, Geometric Abstraction and the work of the New York School. My affinity with modern and contemporary art practices consumed me even through graduate studies and continues to this day. Importantly, Indigenous art history (pre-modern art) is another component crucial to my research of non-objective art, which includes recognizing parallels and similarities between Indigenous abstraction and the modern art aesthetic," says Jeff Kahm (Kahmakoatayo) (b. 1968).  He was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, of Plains Cree and French/Irish descent. Kahm attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in 1990 to study painting and photography and soon after was awarded a painting scholarship to attend the Kansas City Art Institute, Missouri, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1994. He then earned a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Alberta in 1997. In 2002, Kahm moved to New Mexico, a land that he has grown to love and where he now calls home. He became a permanent resident in 2003 and soon began teaching at the Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, as a visiting faculty member. Today he is an associate professor at IAIA where he teaches intermediate and advanced studio art courses. Kahm's landmark exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe; Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Art in Winnipeg, Manitoba; and Chiaroscuro Contemporary Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, highlighted his most recent work—a striking series of small works on paper and panels and an impressive collection of large scale paintings on canvas—work he describes as "rooted in Indigenous abstraction and Modernist aesthetics." His work continues to reach a wider audience through invitational and group shows nationally and internationally.
Headshot photography courtesy of Jeff Kahm
https://www.jeffkahm.com/about-c
Jeff Kahm, Converse, Digital pigment print, Overall: 36 3/4 x 29 x 1 1/2 in. (93.3 x 73.7 x 3.8 cm), Collection of Art in Embassies, Washington, D.C.; In collaboration with the Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico
BAGHDAD 2019
OSLO EMBASSY 2017

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Semicolon: Always required before conjunction if internal punctuation follows, even if no ambiguity? Is the semicolon in the following sentence necessary? Is it preferable?
To me, it seems that there would be no ambiguity if the semicolon were replaced with a comma, but the writer insists that a semicolon is required because the part after "or" includes commas.

In that factory process, the production materials can be delivered to
  the line as is; or a substance that is immune to the production
  materials and lubricant, such as B1, B2, and B3, may be included.

I wonder what "rules" there are concerning this type of usage.
The Chicago Manual of Style, for example, says at item 6.59:

An independent clause introduced by a conjunction may be preceded by a
  semicolon, especially when the independent clause has internal
  punctuation.
Maria had determined to question the ambassador; but bodyguards
  surrounding him, as well as the presence of dancing girls, prevented
  him from noticing her.

But, again, would there be any ambiguity at all in changing the semicolon after "ambassador" to a comma? If not, is the use of a semicolon in such a case just a matter of individual preference?

A: There are no strict rules governing the use of semicolons, and few consistent conventions.
By and large the semicolon is used when you want to mark a disjunction as 'stronger' than one marked by a comma but not so strong as one marked by a full stop. One fairly routine use, for instance, is to distinguish successive list items which themselves require articulation with commas. Otherwise, use of the point is governed mostly by the author's professional sense of the balance to be struck between the amount of material he wants to pack into one sentence and the mind-numbing effect of too many commas.
I suggest, as a rule of thumb, that the semicolon should be treated as a hinge on which a sentence turns: it should be used to mark a change of direction between related but in some way contrasted propositions. That contrast may be of any sort—a negation, a concession, a more detailed recapitulation, or whatever—but it has to be there for the semicolon to be required, and the two propositions should be so constructed that they mark the contrast as clearly as possible.
(For this reason I strongly dispute the suggestion that a coordinating conjunction should not follow a semicolon. The semicolon marks the turn, but the conjunction tells you in what direction the sentence is turning.)
Your second example seems admirable to me: A) heroine sets an objective; B)ut such and such agents conspire to cause her failure.
Your first example, however, is not so pleasing. The context does not demand a semicolon, because the contrast does not lie between the two clauses but between the second clause and the single brief phrase "as is". Everything before that phrase belongs, properly, to both clauses. What the author means may be more intelligibly expressed with a simple either ... or construction:

In that factory process, the production materials can be delivered to the line either as is or with an added substance, one that is immune to the production materials and lubricant, such as B1, B2, and B3.

† <rant>Contemporary usage, however, does not much like texts more complex or subtle than can be encompassed in a tweet , so the semicolon is rapidly becoming replaced by a proliferation of full stops.</rant>

A: @StoneyB 's excellent answer and suggested rewrite are effective because they bring the scope of conjunction down to a lower level. In the original sentence, you are coordinating two full clauses: The production materials can be delivered... and A substance that is immune.... In the suggested revision it is two adjuncts which are conjoined: as is and with an added substance...
If you want to rewrite it with full clause coordination, modify the second clause to include locative inversion; this puts the predicate up front and lets the reader pick up on the scope of the conjunction right away:

In that factory process, the production materials can be delivered to the line as is, or there may [also] be included a substance that is immune to the production materials and lubricant, such as B1, B2, and B3.

Personally I like the adjunct coordination version better, but it's good to know what options you have.


Media FAM Trip Day 2 Medan Indonesia – Taman Simalem, Pearl of Lake Toba, Danau Toba International Cottage & Samosir Island.
On our 2nd day of Medan trip, we went to few places. It was really tiring but worth it. The highlight of the day is Taman Simalem also known as Pearl of Lake Toba. This is Indonesia version of Cameron Highland. It is totally worth of the bus ride. 4-5 hours from Medan airport. I really want to spend a night or two over here with the loved one or with group of friends.
This place is really beautiful and totally worth every single penny. I'm highly recommend for those who want to have gateaway with your friends or family.
This trip won't happen without Fireflyz, Dinas Indonesia and Mr Jocko who invited me to this awesome trip. Hopefully the rest of you will enjoy my video and photo as much as I have fun capture it. So, if you never been to Medan Indonesia, do bookmark this blog.
Our hotel in Danau Toba International Cottage.
The view from our hotel room. Interesting isn't?
I will talk more about Danau Toba International Cottage. on my next post.
My shoes for the entire trip. PUMA Suede.
Heading down to Samosir Island. So what's good about it? I'm so excited!!!
I will talk more Samosir Island on my next post.
Tour brief by our lovely tour guide, Sari.
As usual, I'm using my HTC One M9 Plus to record my Vlog.
The only fun thing when it comes to tour is to be part of their history and culture. This is the place where people get punish and get cut off their head.
You can get variety of souvenir on your way back to jetty. The funny thing is, they will try to tell you it only cost IDR10K but once you try to buy something from them, it will turn up up to IDR100K.
"Cinta tak harus memiliki tetapi perlu diingati hingga ke akhir hayat." – Tuk Tuk King Tomok Island. The second island of the day. The king love his first love so much until he ask his people to make statue of her fiancee on his grave.
Indonesian food is always unique yet tasty. Just look at the way how they look at it. Tempting enough? So, what's your favourite Indonesian food?
Another Nasi Padang as our lunch. I will talk more about this restaurant on my next post.
What I like about Pearl of Lake Toba, is all about nature. Basically this is a Indonesia version of Cameron Highland.
On our way to Pearl of Lake Toba, we witnessed a funeral ceremony. Bad luck huh?
Our journey to the Pearl of Lake Toba is not really that easy. It was a long journey and we have to pass through some village. The journey to Simalen took us 3-4 hours bus ride. Along the road, we entertained by "awesome" bus driver driving skill and "dangdut" music video.
Basically in Pearl of Lake Toba, they have a lot of nice room available for you. From hotel-type to hostel-type. They have plenty type of room that suitable for your needs. From honeymoon, family or even school outing.
I will talk more about the rooms that available on my next post.
As usual, as photographer who love to travel, I love to take photos of fun thing. It's good when you have sporting colleagues.
They have a reason why they call it as Pearl of Lake Toba because you can see the entire Lake Toba from here.
It was a good trip in Pearl of Lake Toba. I can't wait to coming down to Lake Toba once again. Maybe on my next trip I can spend a night or two over there.
I will talk more about Pearl of Lake Toba on my next post.
Our dinner of the night. The food is ordinary but I love their eggplant. It's really crispy yet sweet and spicy.
Our room for the night, Garuda Plaza Hotel.
Good news is I found my Bebek (duck). Burrrpppp and there have one more dish I haven't eat yet ever since I reach Indonesia. Iga Bakar. My another favorite dish!!!! Unfortunately I'm still hungry and guess what? I'm here at Indomaret (Indonesia convenient store) to have my instant noodles fix.
End my day with some unhealthy food from Indomaret (Indonesia convenient store).


When should I install the AR1100 driver?
Use the UPDD driver to calibrate.
The Microchip mTouch™ ARxxxx Series Resistive Touch Screen Controllers are not recommended for new designs. Visit microchip.com/touch for our latest products.


text:
A EF-464 foi uma ferrovia de ligação que interligava Aureliano Mourão, no município de Bom Sucesso a Antônio Carlos, passando por São João del-Rei. Possuía 202 quilômetros de extensão e foi construída como parte da EFOM. Foi erradicada em 1984.

Deste trecho existe, para fins turísticos, a EFOM, ligando as cidades de São João del-Rei e Tiradentes, operado pela FCA.

Ver também
 Ferrovia Centro-Atlântica
 Linha tronco de bitola de 762mm (Estrada de Ferro Oeste de Minas)

 Ver: Anexo 3.2.2 - Relação descritiva das ferrovias do Plano Nacional de Viação

Ferrovias do Brasil

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
FRESHMAN PHENOM KONNOR GRIFFIN RETURNS TO THE MOUND, JACKSON PREP DEFEATS HARTFIELD 15-1 TO WIN MAIS CLASS 6A SEMIFINAL SERIES
By Robert Wilson
FLOWOOD – After a three-week absence, Jackson Prep freshman phenom Konnor Griffin – rated as the No. 1 player in the country in his class by Perfect Game – returned to the mound Wednesday night against Hartfield in the MAIS Class 6A semifinal series.
Griffin's teammates welcomed him back with a hitting show and Griffin joined in on the fun.
Griffin didn't allow a hit and struck out five in four innings and hit a home run and Prep banged out 18 hits in a 15-1 victory over Hartfield in the second game to sweep the best-of-three series.
No. 1 seed and four-time defending MAIS state champion Prep, ranked No. 19 in the nation by Perfect Game, improved to 29-6 and advanced to next week's state championship series against No. 2 seed Madison-Ridgeland Academy, 35-4 after sweeping Jackson Academy in the other semifinal series. Prep defeated MRA twice in the three game, regular season series this year.
No. 4 seed Hartfield finished 21-16 and lost to Prep in all five meetings this season.
Prep senior right-hander and Mississippi State Will Gibbs allowed only three hits and struck out 11 in six innings and Prep had 11 hits in a 9-0 victory Tuesday night in Game 1 at Prep.
Prep continued its dominance Wednesday.
After Hartfield scored a run without getting a hit in the first inning, Griffin was practically untouchable. He struck out the side in the second inning, had a walk erased by a double play in the third and got three straight outs in the fourth.
Griffin hadn't pitched in a game since allowing no hits in five innings in a win over Parklane on April 15. Griffin, also a shortstop, injured his hip at a track meet on April 20 and missed four games before pinch hitting against Jackson Academy on April 29. He has now not allowed a hit in his last 10 1/3 innings, dating back to April 8 against Hartfield.
Griffin – who allowed only one ball to go leave the infield Wednesday (junior second baseman Garrett Jackson hit a fly out to left field) – improved to 6-1 and his earned run average is now 0.73. He has 56 strikeouts in 38 1/3 innings this season.
After two hits in three at bats Wednesday, Griffin improved his batting average to .482 with 42 runs, 25 RBIs, 10 doubles, 4 triples and 5 home runs this season. He has made only one error.
"I'm so proud of Konnor tonight," Prep coach Brent Heavener said. "His fastball was dominant. No hits in four innings. You can't ask much more from him. Konnor hit a big home run to tie it up to help himself. Big time players make big plays when the game is on the line. He was 90 to 92 (miles per hour) tonight. Konnor said he felt good. He's almost back to where he needs to be. It is a big boost for us to have him out there. He hits the ball so well. He makes things happen. Everybody plays hard and plays well when he's out there."
"I was trying to get ahead with my fastball and establish that because I haven't thrown to live hitters in about three weeks so trying to get a feel for the fastball and went from there with the curveball," Griffin said. "It was a little hit or miss but it got the job done. It took a lot of patience (dealing with his injury). We went to PCS (Presbyterian Christian) and I had to sit and watch two games and then the whole JA series. I listened to the doctors, rested and did what they wanted me to do with coming back. I slowly got into it and now I'm 100 percent ready to go. It was awesome being back out there with my boys. And headed to the state championship. Couldn't ask for anything better."
Griffin was one of four Prep players who hit home runs Wednesday. Third baseman Matthew Cochran hit a solo home run in the second inning to give Prep a 2-1 lead. Senior catcher and Louisiana Tech signee Eli Berch hit a three-run home run over the Hartfield scoreboard in left field and senior left fielder and Louisiana Monroe signee Trey Bridges followed with a solo homer in the ninth-run third inning. Prep's first two hitters, junior second baseman Duncan Mathews and senior right fielder and Northwest Mississippi Community College signee Cy Craig had three hits each. Berch, Bridges, Griffin and senior shortstop Owen Abney had two hits each. Cochran scored three runs and Mathews, Abney and junior first baseman Graham Busbea scored two runs each. Berch had four RBIs and Craig, Cochran and Abney had two each.
"We knew we had to stay up the middle, we got some good bats and drove the ball," Heavener said. "Once we got rolling, especially in the third it kind of opened up. When you put the ball in play, good things can happen. We still have a lot of work to do going into next week. We like where we are at. It's not going to be easy. We've got to come back out and do it again next week."
"They crushed the ball," said first-year Hartfield coach Justin Smith, who was promoted from assistant coach when Chuck Box became the director of player personnel at Texas A&M. "Konnor played really well and hitting the home run gave him some juice on the mound. He's a really good player and an ultra-competitor. I'm sure having Konnor back gave their guys some juice."
Smith had a difficult first year as head coach. He had numerous injuries to key players.
Hartfield's trio of players on the Priority One Bank/Mississippi Scoreboard Metro Jackson Preseason Elite 11 Team have all been injured at different points in the season. Senior outfielder Colton Bradley broke his ankle two months ago and had surgery and just came back last week as a pinch-hitter. Senior first baseman-outfielder Lincoln Sheffield hasn't been able to pitch much due to shoulder issues. Senior pitcher and Hinds Community College signee Alex McGarrh has been out most of the season with arm problems.
Hartfield has had other key players miss action this season as well. Senior third baseman Bran Boyd, one of last year's top hitters, missed half of the season with a back injury. Senior left-hander Reid Gaston, the starting pitcher for the first game of most of the conference series this year, missed the last two weeks with arm soreness. Junior pitcher Jacob Canoy suffered an elbow injury three weeks ago.
His pitching staff was beat up by injuries Smith started eighth-grader Taylor Latham Tuesday night in Game 1 against Prep. It was only his second start this season and he had pitched only 13 innings all season.
"Every week it seemed to be someone different," Smith said. "It kept our media guys asking what the lineup is going to be. Well, so and so hurt his hand today so he might not be in the lineup. It was almost someone getting hurt. It wasn't easy. It came to a point that we realized its really difficult in this league to lose a couple of key guys and not have success. I'm looking out there and we've got a freshman playing and other team has juniors and seniors. I hope this is the last year I have to deal with these kinds of things."
CT8A0429
PreviousJACKSON ACADEMY HIRES ALABAMA NATIVE AUBREY BLACKWELL AS HEAD FOOTBALL COACH, HOPES TO CONTINUE TO BUILD ON WHAT LANCE POGUE HAS DONE WITH RAIDERS PROGRAM – By Robert Wilson
NextMagnolia Heights starts fast and finishes strong to win 16-3 and complete a series sweep over Starkville Academy – Photo Gallery
Robert Wilson is a national award winning sportswriter, author, publisher and editor from Jackson, Miss. He won dozens of awards on the national, regional and state levels in his 23 years as a sportswriter for The Clarion-Ledger/Jackson Daily News, covering high school and college sports and writing a tennis column. Wilson also produced Victories in Metro Jackson, a Christian sports publication. He co-authored a book with Dr. Joe Haynes about the life of Dr. Haynes, who was the first black football official in the SEC and was an NFL official and a Mississippi educator for several decades. Wilson is well known among Mississippians for his ability to paint a picture of the subject he is writing about and not only about their ability, but about their personality as well. Wilson is a Jackson Wingfield High, Hinds Community College and Ole Miss graduate.
GREENVILLE CHRISTIAN SURPRISES MRA 58-32 IN SEASON OPENER BETWEEN MAIS DEFENDING STATE CHAMPIONS
PriorityOne Bank High School Football Pick'em with Robert Wilson
Performance Therapy Girls Basketball Player of the Week – 12-16
Family of former Ole Miss quarterback Jevan Snead is 'on a mission' – By Billy Watkins


Spondylolysis/spondylolisthesis is a topic covered in the 5-Minute Emergency Consult.
Bilateral form has a much higher likelihood of slippage or spondylolisthesis than the unilateral form.
Spondylolysis can contribute to spondylolisthesis, which is noted in ∼5% of the population. It is 2–4 times more common in males.
Literature does not associate athletic activity with increased slippage.
Spondylolisthesis predisposes to nerve root impingement and frequently sciatica.
The most common location for spondylolisthesis is L5 displaced on the sacrum (85–95%), followed by L4 on L5.
Spondylolysis is one of the most common causes of serious low back pain in children, although it is most often asymptomatic.
Symptoms most often present during adolescent growth spurt from age 10–15 yr.
Seen commonly in athletic teens; particularly in sports involving back hyperextension (e.g., gymnastics, diving, football).
Acute symptoms are related to trauma.
Unknown; theories include congenital pars anomalies, alterations in bone density, and recurrent subclinical stress injury.
Rosen, Peter, et al., editors. "Spondylolysis/spondylolisthesis." 5-Minute Emergency Consult, 5th ed., Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2016. Emergency Central, emergency.unboundmedicine.com/emergency/view/5-Minute_Emergency_Consult/307659/all/Spondylolysis_spondylolisthesis.
Spondylolysis/spondylolisthesis. In: Rosen P, Shayne P, Barkin AZ, et al, eds. 5-Minute Emergency Consult. 5th ed. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2016. https://emergency.unboundmedicine.com/emergency/view/5-Minute_Emergency_Consult/307659/all/Spondylolysis_spondylolisthesis. Accessed April 23, 2019.
Spondylolysis/spondylolisthesis [Internet]. In: Rosen P, Shayne P, Barkin AZ, Wolfe RE, Hayden SR, Barkin RM, Schaider JJ, editors. 5-Minute Emergency Consult. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2016. [cited 2019 April 23]. Available from: https://emergency.unboundmedicine.com/emergency/view/5-Minute_Emergency_Consult/307659/all/Spondylolysis_spondylolisthesis.


Can we survive Brexit irrespective of what format it takes?
In the 19 years since the millennium we've survived the Y2K computer bug, we've weathered the storm of the financial crisis that began in 2008 and we've even managed to cope with the much-feared General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR introduced in May 2018.
Is it therefore OK to assume that we'll survive Brexit too irrespective of what format it takes?
Who knows and in truth there have been no significant developments since I last spoke to you all in late December of last year.
Ronan is joined in studio by Midlands 103's Ben Finnegan and John McCann from MCM Accountants in Tullamore to give an update on Brexit.
Ireland has been proactive in its response to Brexit with initiatives such as the Brexit Loan Scheme provided by the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI).
Many Irish businesses have some form of a Brexit strategy in place and are eagerly awaiting developments from London.
The same cannot be said of UK based SME's as the UK government has been somewhat complacent in acknowledging the scale of the threat of a hard Brexit.
Irish companies reliant on selling to or purchasing from UK based SME's should thread carefully according to John Finn of Treasury Solutions Ltd.
Issues with cash-flow and in particular problems linked to reclaiming VAT after Brexit might also jeopordise the future of Irish SME's.
John provides some key tips for Irish businesses as the Brexit process continues to weave and turn. The 29th of March 2019 is closer than ever.
Warehousing shortages in Ireland and the UK and stockpiling of pharmaceutical products are just some of the consequences of a hard Brexit.
Chief Executive of the Irish Exporters Association Simon McKeever discusses the draft Brexit deal announced last week and the barriers it faces to get past the UK parliament.
He also discusses the measures being taken by IEA members to prepare for Brexit and the supports required from the Irish government.
Handmade chocolate infused with whiskey, coconut and lemon, cannabidiol (CBD) or seaweed – discover more here!
Michael Donegan of Kilbeggan Handmade Chocolate and the Beneficial Chocolate Company dropped into studio to discuss innovation in chocolate making. His company now produce sugar free chocolate suitable for diabetics and new product containing CBD.
Are attitudes to behaviours to workplace safety, health and welfare changing?
What you should know about domestic and commercial fire safety by an expert engineer.
National Fire Safety Week runs from 1st to 8th October 2018.
Issues around fire safety in residential developments have made headline news over the past decade with numerous examples of Irish buildings failing to meet requirements and of course the Grenfell Tower tragedy in London.
Have changes to legislation and building control standards had the desired impact?
Ronan was joined by Fergal Finnerty Senior Engineer on the Fire Safety Team at ORS Consulting Engineers in Mullingar to discuss all matters domestic and commercial fire safety and to outline current fire safety legislation and requirements.
As they prepare to celebrate 100 years of business, Director Noel McMullan has put a call out for anyone with stories, memorabilia or anything else associated with Maxol, or Mex as it was once known, to get in touch on 01-6076800 or noel.mcmullan@maxol.ie. The information will form part of the research for a book by Turtle Bunbury, specially commissioned by the company.
'CULTIVATE' Farm Loans are now available through seven credit unions in the Midlands.
Ronan was joined in studio by Brendan Heneghan, Project Manager of Cultivate and a former Regional Manager with Teagasc and Michael Evans, Manager of Birr Credit Union.
The Cultivate farm loan package can offer up to €50,000 loans for a variety of purposes in line with the stakeholder/market research feedback, this is based on finance for -working capital, livestock purchase, farm development, farm machinery purchase. Start-up finance for young trained entrants to farming will also feature in the loan package. The term of the loan can be up to 7 years and over €10m has been issued already.
Credit Union farm loan officers have completed a bespoke "Farm and Finance Training course" organised by Teagasc and Pallaskenry Agricultural College.
Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) oversee employment law compliance and promote best practice. A must listen for employers!
Oonagh Buckley, Director General of the WRC, speaking with Ronan at the National Ploughing Championships in Offaly.
Is your business compliant with employment law and thus prepared for an inspection?
The WRC currently undertake 5,000 to 5,500 inspections per year including at night and at weekends.
What are the typical findings and non-compliance matters from typical inspections and what steps should be taken to increase compliance?
Westmeath auto repair company looks to the future by becoming the first Irish franchisee of a major auto-repair group.
Criostoir Sleator, MD of Sleator Kia and Sleator's Body Shop in Mullingar dropped in to discuss the move which sees the latter being rebranded to Fix Auto Westmeath.
The move will mean the company can avail of the most advanced technologies in a rapidly changing repairs market.
Criostoir was joined by Jonathan Penny, Market operations Director for Fix Auto Ireland as they prepare for the official launch on Tuesday 18th September.


Every day I have clients asking me about how to deal with sensitive skin.
In fact most of my clients have sensitive skin. It's more common than you would think! The challenges that they face range from bad product reactions, to rashes, temperature sensitivity and breakouts.
A few years back, my skin was no different! In fact, the whole reason I started Glow Picks was because whilst researching Korean skincare and my skin issues I found the core problem of all this sensitivity lies with our skin barrier function - and I wanted to share this knowledge.
To answer this simply, there are generally two causes for sensitive skin.
1. Unfortunately for some - your skin type is genetic and if one of your family has sensitive skin, you'll probably experience sensitivity too.
2. The other reason for sensitive skin is due to compromised skin barrier function and this one needs more attention. Usually, poor skin barrier function is because of something which either we are, or aren't doing in our daily skincare routines.
WHAT IS SKIN BARRIER FUNCTION?
The most extreme layer (the epidermis) of your skin features a fantastic, natural, protective barrier.
When all is in balance, it is this layer which prevents trans-epidermal water loss and stands guard from irritants and allergens making their way into the other more delicate levels of your skin.
Once you have compromised the natural skin barrier, dermatological issues including acne, dryness, chronic inflammation and overall sensitivity can come out to play havoc.
WHAT DAMAGES SKIN BARRIER FUNCTION?
This is a very common cause. Even if a product states it has a gentle AHA/BHA formulation so you can use it daily, in our opinion it's best not to!
Interrupting the skin's natural ability to regenerate skin cells by exfoliating daily - or even weekly is not helpful.
The turnover period for skin regeneration is every 28 days. So many products claim to be gentle enough for daily use - but really, this probably isn't true.
You could be doing more damage to your skin than good.
Double cleansing in particular is also over washing for sensitive skin. Although double cleansing keeps skin clean - it doesn't necessarily keep it healthy.
In fact, it can really damage the skin barrier function, depending on your skin type.
Pro Tip: If you decide to double cleanse (part of the Korean beauty routine) you need to know whether your skin is suitable for double cleansing so you don't sacrifice your skin barrier function.
3. Over-use of skincare products - It can happen!
So, you've started this intricate 10 step Korean beauty routine. Maybe for a year or two, you'll find that your skin is glowing, but at what cost? Longer term, your skin barrier function could deteriorate leaving you with potential dermatological issues.
If you find that your skin issues are coming back to haunt you, it may be a sign of damaged skin barrier function.
Pro Tip: Keep your skincare products lean. Rather than using a multitude of different steps within a Korean beauty routine over the long term, stick to a few steps with gentle, natural products.
Many Korean beauty products also contain harsh ingredients that can damage your skin's surface, removing its natural oils and leaving it hypersensitive.
Pro Tip: People tend to believe that all Korean beauty products are gentle which often isn't true. Make sure you look for gentler and milder formulations without fragrance, harsh surfactants and toxic preservatives.
WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP MY SENSITIVE SKIN?
Widely used as a humectant, (a substance that helps retain moisture), panthenol features in our fave toner the Like Dew Dew Skintoner, alongside some beautiful ingredients such as dew water.
We love Centella Asiatica. It sounds so exotic right?
Actually, it is widely used throughout so many Korean skincare products.
The issue is, that not enough of it is included in many brands. When enough of this ingredient is included in a formulation it can make a huge difference to restoring skin.
The Bonajour Derma MDK Ampoule contains around 4 times more centella extract than other products on the market - which is one of the reasons we adore it.
Sensitive skin isn't only confined to the face and neck.
It's important to ensure that you are gentle with the skin all over your body.
This SanDaWha Luxury Camellia Soothing Body Oil features a high percentage of camellia seed oil, assisting your natural skin barrier and promoting beautiful skin all over your body - and of course on your face too.
If you have been constantly changing products our advice is to use just 1-2 products in a routine and leave those 10 step Korean beauty routines to the die-hard beauty bloggers.
Your skin doesn't need that many steps and products if you have sensitive skin.
We highly recommend Make P:rem Safe Relief Cream. With only 12 ingredients, this soothing cream only has essential ingredients to treat your sensitive skin issues.
It's most likely that, with sensitive skin, you find it hard to get your hands on products that your skin loves.
To help work out what really does work well with your skin, I always advise my clients to keep a log of the ingredients in products which have caused a bad reaction.
Over time, you'll be able to identify some common ingredients to avoid. This will help you narrow down your product searches and curate a selection of products that treat your skin like the beautiful thing it is!
Feel free to contact us for a consultation to find out which ingredients you should avoid and which you should be using.
We give out FREE SAMPLES for you to try out when you reach out to us for help!


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New Music, Premiere
Skylar Grey: 'Final Warning' Single Premiere!
After showing us her more playful side on her Eminem-assisted single "C'Mon Let Me Ride," Skylar Grey returns to her roots with the premiere of new single "Final Warning"! The track serves as the second official single off her upcoming debut Don't Look Down, due out July 9. Produced by her frequent collaborator Alex da Kid, "Final Warning" brings back why we fell in love with Skylar in the first place. The song is dark, melancholic, and even a bit twisted – I love it! "This is the first time in my entire life of making music, when I made this song, where I feel like I finally figured out the way that I wanted to sound and the combination of things," Skylar told Rolling Stone. "I wrote the song three years ago, and it's still my favorite. I've written so many songs since then, yet I always go back to this one. It got me going on the whole Skylar Grey project." The song may not be able to win over a Top 40 radio audience but it should be enough to make some kind of impact. Thoughts?
BUY Skylar Grey's new single "Final Warning" on iTunes NOW!
Don't Look DownFinal WarningNew MusicPremiereSkylar Grey
'Levels': Nick Jonas Comes Through With A Super Hot Banger!
Drake: 'Hold On, We're Going Home' Single Premiere!
Becky G Switches It Up On Sultry New Single, 'LBD'!
ayee
She's like a darker Dido in a way. I love it.
Someone´s gonna get hurt and it´s not gonna be me.


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Community Projects Team
Justice Coordinating Council
The First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston is one church in two locations. The Museum District location has been a beacon of liberal religion since 1914 in the most populous city in the southern United States. Our second campus, Thoreau, has been spreading our message in Fort Bend County since the mid-1990s.
We are a member congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). Our congregation is affiliated with other Unitarian Universalist (UU) churches around Greater Houston and the world. As people focused on creating what Dr. King called 'the beloved community,' we offer our skills, talents and experience to build a more loving, just and peaceful world today.
While aligned in our desire to make a difference for the good, we are diverse in faith, ethnicity, history and spirituality, as well as gender identity and sexual orientation. We encourage members to nurture their spiritual lives with intentionality and pursue the beliefs that most resonate with each of them; we encourage members to think for themselves and ask the difficult questions; we know we need not think alike to love alike.
Our faith tradition is older than many realize. Across the globe, our legacy reaches back centuries to liberal religious pioneers in England, Poland, and Transylvania. In North America, both Unitarians and Universalists can trace their roots to the early Massachusetts settlers and the Framers of the Constitution. Those two liberal Christian groups joined to become the UUA in 1961. Today, Unitarian Universalists include people of many beliefs who share UU values of peace, love, and understanding.
Find out more about us on the UUA website:
Beliefs & Principles - our seven Principles, six Sources and common belief questions
Who We Are - our history, symbols, backgrounds and stories
Religious Practices - what Unitarian Universalists do on Sunday and every day, including holidays and rites of passage
Get Involved - find out how to connect with Unitarian Universalism, no matter where you are
If you have more questions, email info@firstuu.org
Rev. Dr. Colin Bossen
Senior Minister
colin@firstuu.org
The Reverend Dr. Colin Bossen is an award-winning preacher, scholar, and
social justice organizer. He joined First UU Church of Houston, in August 2018 as Interim Senior Minister and, in August 2020, will be transitioning to the congregation's Developmental Senior Minister. He has a PhD in American Studies from Harvard University, a Masters in History, also from Harvard, and a Masters of Divinity from Meadville Lombard Theological School (affiliated with the University of Chicago). The co-author of two religious education curriculum and the author of numerous essays and articles, Colin is currently affiliated with the Kinder Institute for Urban Research's Center for Engaged Research and Collaborative Learning at Rice University. He has taught in various capacities at Harvard Divinity School, Harvard College, and Meadville Lombard Theological School. A recognized scholar of race, religion, and politics, he gave the Minns Lectures in 2019 on "American Populism and Unitarian Universalism" and is currently working on a book for a major university press on populism and religion in the United States. Read Colin's Blog
Rev. D. Scott Cooper
Assistant Minister of Congregational Life
scott@firstuu.org
Rev. Scott recently came to the First UU Church of Houston to serve as Assistant Minister. Scott served as Sabbatical Minister at his home church, the First Unitarian Church of Dallas, and completed his Ministerial Internship at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Sacramento. Scott graduated in 2016 with his Master of Divinity degree from Brite Divinity School.
Carol Burrus
Director of Religious Community
carol@firstuu.org
Carol leads our Children's and Youth religious education and our Adult Program opportunities with a talented and devoted group of volunteers. She loves working with our church community of all ages, from baby to elder. As music is one of her passions, Carol shares her musical talents in our worship services and in our online group meetings (RE with families group and String Band). You will find Carol gathering people together to take action on issues of urgent concern, such as our climate crisis, safety for upcoming elections and protection of our democratic processes.
Mark Vogel
mark@firstuu.org
Mark leads our First UU Sanctuary Choir, arranges for all types of musical performances, and consults with the ministers on Sunday's music programming. Mark is also the Artistic Director for International Voices Houston.
Tawanna Grice
tawanna@firstuu.org
After an extensive career and experience in top financial and accounting management, Tawanna joined us to direct our finance and facilities departments. She graduated with an MBA from Texas Women's University, serves as Secretary of the Board of Trustees at First Unitarian Universalist Church, and she is also a board member at a local credit union association.
Alma Viscarra
Membership & Communications Coordinator
alma@firstuu.org
With a background in newspaper and radio, Alma is currently taking care of our online communications, website and social media. She recently contributed to the development of our new Path to Membership and our new Online Visitors Welcome process. Alma assists online visitors as they become involved with First UU Church's online programs. A native Spanish-speaker, she enjoys learning new words in different languages.
Christian Holmes
AV Technician
christian@firstuu.org
Christian spent 20 years teaching middle school and high school theatre, as well as speech, dance, and broadcast journalism. He joined the church in 2019 and has expertly led our online video production. Christian is a performer in the local theater and contemporary dance communities. He is married and has two children..
Cheryl D. Rivers
cheryl@firstuu.org
Cheryl serves as the part-time Bookkeeper and provides support to the Business Administrator in managing the church's financial affairs. She has over 25 years of experience in financial management with several faith-based and non-profit organizations. Cheryl embraces the First UU Church culture because it promotes diversity and equitable living for all.
Alex Keimig
Family Ministry Coordinator
alex@firstuu.org
Learning and working with children and families from all walks of life has been Alex' experience over the past seven years. She joined First UU Church in 2019 and coordinates religious education programs at our Thoreau campus. Her role has expanded and she also provides assistance with office administration at the Museum District campus. She likes to lend a hand wherever needed.
Copyright © 2021 First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston. All Rights Reserved.


Reika became 1 year old last week.
Besides the carrot cupcake, we had catering for her BD lunch party.
As always, we requested grandma (my mom) to do the flower arrangement.
I just love going to the flower shops with my mom and watching how she does IKEBANA.
This time, I asked her to make it baby-pink, soft color balance.
Four generations from my grandma's side got together !!
And Yosh and Diane from San Francisco joined us too.
It's amazing how they always make it for every big event in my life, such as picking my wedding dress, our wedding rehearsal dinner, reception party, etc.
And my cute little niece Anna.
She is chasing me around all the time, but now she has reika following her everywhere she goes.
So happy to see them together like this.
And these are the cupcakes i made the night before, after putting reika to bed.
Glad to see they are very popular with anna & reika.
Well, we needed to stop reika from eating one after another.
"Thank you for taking care of me for the past year."
A few days before this, reika ran a high fever, and we had to take her to the hospital.
A tough initiation into motherhood.
At the end of each day, I want to think that it was a good day for reika.
Thank you for making me your mommy, Reika.
For baby reika's upcoming first BD, i decided to make a cake that she can actually eat instead of ordering a huge decorative cake (which i would love to do anyway sometime in the near future).
Well... since she's been enjoying mommy's cooking, it was not a difficult decision.
So this weekend, i did some rehearsal baking of carrot cupcakes for babies.
in my 2nd batch, i used maple syrup and succeeded in adjusting the ratio !!
i didn't expect to get it done after only one failure. hehe.
this time, they looked OK so i made a cream cheese frosting to put on top.
Right away, i invited reika's playmate and had a little tasting party.
yeah it's fun to play with cream in your hands !!
so how do you like your first "cake," Reika ?
Hum. Yummy face !! i will stick with this recipe next weekend !!
for those moms who might want to try it, i will post my recipe for "carrot cup cake for baby" later.
on mommy's BD, Reika showed us her first crawl.
This time, she showed us her first steps for daddy's BD present.
and she has been practicing every day and improving.
it seems to have happened too quickly for us to be fully prepared for it.
we love it when she has a proud look.
gar's first BD with Reika.
she is so excited and nosy about our little event in the house.
i cooked garland's favorite dish, lasagna !!
and actually this was reika's first time to try beef.
hope she likes mommy's meat sauce.


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Cézanne Et Moi
Home » Featured » Cézanne Et Moi
Posted By Savannah Oakes on Apr 12, 2017
Danièle Thompson's Cézanne-Et-Moi is drenched with a self-importance that, though draining, is utterly fitting to the historical men it brings to life. The film follows the careers and life-long friendship of post-impressionist painter Paul Cézanne (Guillaume Gallienne) and writer Emile Zola (Guillaume Canet). In the introduction to these young boys their differences are distinct. Paul comes from a wealthy upbringing whereas Emile comes from a poor family, raised without a father. As they get older and their ambitions grow they leave the southern Aix-en-Provence of France in search of the lively Paris art scene. Rather quickly, Emile has it all–money, women and success–and Paul fights against it as he is rejected and ignored by his peers.
Luckily the film's overlong run-time felt breezy thanks to the images the film captures. All of the beauty audiences come to expect from similar period and historical dramas are on display here. When the scenes of men standing in rooms shouting and arguing over trivial matters feels a little dull, the beautiful pastel colors in the background and the attention to period design will keep you interested–at least for a while longer.
The film is occasionally lively and pleasing to the eye but what makes it bearable are the performances by the two leads. Guillaume Canet as Emile Zola is sensitive and patient but never really earns the title of hero or even protagonist. He feels more like a bullied sidekick than ever a true, full person, which is part of the point. Guillaume Gallienne as Paul Cézanne is a lot of scenery chewing. He shouts, braves and performs his best melodrama all to himself. It's Joaquin Phoenix meets Shia LaBeouf but where the discomfort level becomes funny instead of dramatically sardonic or challenging.
The film's narrative is spliced back and forth from older days to the present where the rift that has clearly developed finds its roots in their earlier relationship. Instead of providing revelations the events chosen are uninspiring and dull. The cuts from present to past are mostly inconsequential. The complex and contradictory relationship at its center depends too much on the romantic and sexual betrayals. Even the scenes that hint at something more rush by in an attempt to encapsulate many moments of their lives as opposed to the important ones. What amasses are small moments of biopic-like melodrama that lead up to long, talkie fight scenes in big studies. It makes these attempts at meaningful spats feel silly or even petty instead of heartbreaking.
The complex and contradictory relationship between Zola and Cézanne is strong on its own but bogged down by unimportant details and meandering subplots. Whole character disappear–Baptistin Baille a childhood friend and number three in the trio has little mention after the films first act. Like a lot of the film, one wonders why they even bothered keeping him in. As the film slags on it feels like an overwhelming, though informative Wikipedia article that I would have just preferred to skim. There's so much more going on beneath the surface–ambition, greed, desire–I wish Thompson would just give it to us.
Author: Savannah Oakes
A sarcastic, fairness-loving middle child, Savannah grew up in a suburb of Chicago. She currently lives in the city and attends Columbia College in Chicago where she studies film. She is a writer/director/editor who is passionate about sharing female stories. Her work tends to include topics like female sexuality, mental illness and LGBTQ issues. She is an avid Shakespeare lover and an even bigger lover of Improvised Shakespeare. The Art Institute is her second home so if she's not there catch her trancing through cemeteries, lighting her Tina Fey and Amy Poehler vigil candles or being everybody's surrogate mother.


Trumark Urban joined the staff of United Playaz and the fundraising team to celebrate a massive accomplishment—purchasing a permanent headquarters for United Playaz. It was a night of delicious food and drinks with numerous heartfelt toasts and speeches that celebrated the hard work and accomplishment.
Partners included: Former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown, Supervisor Jane Kim, The Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development, The SOMA Stabilization Fund, Chris Foley, Trumark Urban, Forest City, Platinum Advisors, Folsom Street Manager LLC, Pinterest, Millennium Partners, Devine & Gong, Ron Conway and the San Francisco Pro-bono Legal Team at Perkins Coie LLP.