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WURA: Burning $250,000 Building the Nollywood Netflix
WURA was an on-demand video platform for African and Nollywood movies. Mike hired a few developers to build it and spent $35,000 on Facebook marketing. The business grew fast and he was making $3,861 per month. However, YouTube competition and cash flow killed the startup.
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Hi Mike! What's your background, and what are you currently working on?
I'm Mike, 28 years old based in Atlanta GA. I was born and raised in Lagos Nigeria, moved to the US when I was 12 years old and I fell in love with the computer from an early age. I started simple coding in High school and that would later lead to my career now as a web developer/ internet entrepreneur.
WURA started as a pet project, and for 2 years it really was that. My family and I loved to watch our native African/Nollywood movies and we generally had access to those movies on YouTube, except they were all over the place. You had to search and dig through the dirt to find a good quality movie. WURA was a way for me to curate a playlist of titles so to speak. It was an on-demand video platform we one came and built their own playlist of high-quality titles that were readily available. It wasn't until I had some cash in the bank though that I started thinking about the project more like a business. My other businesses took off and I had the capital to turn it into a legitimate business. And that I did, hired a team of 10 with myself included. And we put together a nice platform to watch movies on your pc and mobile devices. For a monthly fee of $3.99, a user had access to hundreds of new titles (movies and TV shows) both in English and other local dialects.
My main task was to oversee everything. I was the owner but I was also part of a team of 9 other incredible people.
What motivated you to start WURA?
When I started WURA in 2013, I was actually just recovering from a failed startup the year before. My background is in web development but I consider myself more as a project manager as I rarely get hands-on anymore with my projects. Between 2008 and 2012 I was in the flash gaming business and I ran a successful network of gaming websites, up until early 2012. Several events happened that year that shut down about 80% of my business. First was Google Panda update or Penguin, whichever it was, I lost my Search engine rankings and that alone completely decapitated my business. Also, by this time smartphones had already taken over the market so many gamers that would typically come on the site to play games now go to their mobile phones. And in my efforts to transition to mobile games and join the trend, I essentially lost about $21,000 to a sham game developer on Elance (be very careful when using freelancers for big projects).
Long story short, by the time the year was over, I went from making $75k a year to barely making ends meet. I shut down the servers, sold my car, cleaned out my apartment, and moved back in with my parents. As an entrepreneur, your best insurance policy is mom and dad because when things go south (and they will at some point) you at least have a place to lay your head and try to recoup.
And so, it was a few months after living on my parent 's couch that the idea of WURA came about. When you live on the couch, you tend to consume a lot of TV and online videos. At least that was the case for me. When I kept watching these movies on YouTube, that's when the idea came to me. Also, it helped that I saw another person (IROKO TV) running with the same Idea. Later that year Iroko went on to raise $8 million. And I thought for sure there is a big opportunity here.
Again, when I first started, it was more of a side project because of my current situation at the time. I had to work a fulltime consulting job. But while I could, I initially set up a WordPress website and I remember using the WordPress theme 'detube'. I made a list of features I wanted to add to the site to make it more usable and easier for users to find titles or build their own playlist. I played around with it by myself for a few months, and then towards the end of the year (2013), I was able to find a buyer to liquidate what was left of my gaming business. I got about $49,000 from that sale, and with the additional income from my day job, I felt I had enough to get serious about WURA.
So, I did, and the first person I hired was a PHP programmer/coder, and we started adding that list of features to the site. Then I began reaching out to Nollywood producers and movie makers to acquire titles for a licensing fee
Some of the major obstacles I faced were dealing with the West African business ecosystem, also having to transact with people thousands of miles away came with its own challenges. Sometimes hard drives would get lost in shipment or sometimes I get the hard drives and it has the wrong content in it. And this wasn't something you can just drive to the store and return. It would cost $100-$150 to ship hard drives back and forth. And internet connection there, is not strong enough to send very large files through the cloud. So, to reduce risks, I had producers send me hard drives first that contained several movies. Then from there, we chose 3-5 titles that we really wanted. Over time, that saved a lot of money and headache
At the time I was building WURA, I also had a successful entertainment blog that brought in enough revenue for me to continue funding the project. I went on to hire a team of 9 people, designers, writers, editor etc. and my programmer was also brought in full time. Hired a mobile developer as well. So, I had a legitimate business. Had the people, invested thousands in acquiring new titles. All was left was launching and executing with the right marketing plan. Or so I thought.
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Which were your marketing strategies to grow your business?
For marketing, we had a Facebook and YouTube page, did some SEO, built a mailing list through the site, and I reached out to several startup and entertainment blogs to get our name out there. We also offered promotions and free trial periods to get people in the door.
We spent about $35,000 on Facebook alone, that helped get some signups both free and paid, also increased our mailing list. The blog outreach helped build some link juice for SEO for the most part. A mailing list was effective in converting free users to paid.
Facebook was a terrible investment. For 2 reasons:
Although we gained a lot of new users that signed up through Facebook (and we had a 1 click Facebook signup button on the site), we could not email those users our newsletters because Facebook apparently hides users original email addresses and gives them a Facebook email instead; for example mike@facebook.com and because of this, when we send out a newsletter, those to the Facebook domain would bounce back. FYI: about 70% of WURA total users were Facebook users. We later found this out but we had already spent thousands of dollars to get all those users.
Facebook algorithm sucks! Every time Facebook changes its algorithm, those with public Facebook pages suffer. After spending all that money and getting all the thousands of followers to our Facebook page, we realized that those followers were almost useless because anytime we made a post, we were only reaching about 3% of our entire followers.
Which were the causes of WURA failure?
The main cause of failure for WURA was YouTube. Probably with some mistakes and carelessness on my part as well, but YouTube was the ultimate giant that rendered the business model unsustainable. Sadly, I didn't realize this fact until much later on.
Remember when I said that I thought there was a big opportunity once I found out IROKO TV raised $8 million? Apparently, hundreds of others thought the same, particularly the movie producers. So, the same guys we paid a fee to license their contents went behind our backs and flooded YouTube with the same titles and much more. This basically erased whatever monetary value the movie titles had.
I considered WURA more of a service than just a movie or video site. But it is extremely hard to sell that service to anyone if their ultimate goal is to watch a movie and that movie is already available somewhere else for free. And not just somewhere else, but YouTube, which was and still is the most recognized name in online videos.
That said I had some responsibility for the failure of WURA as well. For one, I focused way too much on the product itself, that I misjudged the market. And in focusing on the product, I made way too may alterations and customizations. I also licensed way too many more titles than I should have. My marketing strategy was backward. I should have had a marketing plan and execution in place before even launching the product. I'd assumed that guys like Iroko had already proven the concept that I just need to gain some of that market share. Wrong!
When it was all said and done, I started to realize that the business may not hold due to the trend I was seeing on YouTube, literally every day I would see a new channel pop up showing the same titles that we carry. Although ours were in much greater quality and high definition, still didn't matter.
I naively stayed in the game and hoped for a different outcome or tried a different approach at may be changing the type of content we carried, but even if that were to be successful, I was already running out of cash by this point. Ultimately, I let everyone go and shut down once I ran out of my entire life savings.
And for a while there I still left the site online and gained new users daily. I recently just completely shut down the site/server and many of the online social pages. It took about 2 years for me to get there; shut down completely. That's the emotional attachment and pain many of us entrepreneurs deal with. But sometimes you just have to let go.
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Which were your biggest mistakes and challenges you had to overcome?
I wouldn't say there was a particular BIG mistake or mistakes. I think I had a lot of small things that added up and here I'll list them.
I went too fast and should have taken more time.
Should have vetted producers and movie titles much better. Looking back, I spent 3-4 times more than I should have spent on licensing.
I moved from New York to California. This was actually one of my biggest mistakes. I had a track record and a stable group of people and connection in NY that would have helped me grow even further. Moving to Los Angeles California, I knew no one and emotional that was bad. Also, California is not business friendly. I paid so much in fees and taxes that I swore to never go back there.
I had no exit strategy. As someone who is extremely passionate about what they're doing, this is the last advice I would give anyone. But having gone through my experience with WURA, I believe that if you're going to build anything that will cost you north of $100,000, best to have an exit plan. And that could be knowing when to stop or stopping after you've invested X amount of dollars of your own money.
Which were your expenses? Did you achieve some revenue? In the end, how much money did you lose?
Expenses were mainly:
Titles - $100,000 total
Employees - $9,000/monthly
Server - $1200/monthly
Equipment/production - $20,000 total
Marketing - $40,000
WURA made roughly $3,800 per month in revenue. I lost at least $250,000 in cash investment alone.
If you had to start over, what would you do differently?
There are a few things:
I focused too much on the product and didn't pay much attention to the market.
My Marketing strategy should have come before product launch.
Facebook was not the right platform to use as primary advertising
I had way too much money. Looking back, I wish I didn't have as much money to spend because I would have been much more disciplined with my execution and not invest in useless things. I actually made a video discussing this here.
Doing business with Nigerians can be a headache. And it's not because of the people you're doing business with, it's the infrastructure there. Simple transactions to send and receive money can be a mile walk.
I made some business decisions based on gut feeling rather than use facts and research. Those later came to bite me.
Lastly, I would caution myself to take my time and not try and run someone else's race. Looking back now maybe I was sucked into WURA because someone else seems to be doing well with the same concept. Perhaps it was their idea and product to launch, and not mine, to begin with.
Which are your favorite entrepreneurial resources?
There are many:
Websites: Youtube – YouTube is the best go-to place to learn just about anything. I've learned more for my career on YouTube than I did 20 years going to school
Books: Traction - A startup guide to getting customers - I recommend this book to any entrepreneur or startup founder who is looking to launch a product. So many key nuggets that teach you the right steps to take about your marketing strategy.
Tools: Google Analytics, WordPress, Google Webmaster Tool - These are the best 3 tools for any webmaster or business with an online presence. The best part is they are all free to use.
Podcasts: The School of Greatness - This is a great podcast for entrepreneurs and anyone who is interested in self-growth and mental wellness.
Where can we go to learn more?
You can visit my blog, or check my YouTube channel!
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Why Battle of Bennington Matters
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in Senate Report
By Sen. Bill Doyle
On August 16th, Vermont will celebrate the Battle of Bennington. Edward Conant in his History of Vermont said the battle was "the first of a series that led to the surrender of Burgoyne's army. It was the turning point of the Revolutionary War, as it led to the recognition of the independence of the United States by France and other European countries and to a treaty with France, on account of which she assisted the new nation with money, fleets and armies. The victory of the Americans at Saratoga, N.Y., has been reckoned among the great battles of the world, but the victory at Bennington was necessary to that of Saratoga."
Despite declaring Independence, 1776 was a difficult year for the new nation. Great Britain had never made a greater military effort abroad. Against 32,000 disciplined troops, General Washington could only muster 19,000 Continental and state troops. Under the circumstances, it was not surprising that the British forced the Americans off Long Island and out of New York City and drove Washington across New Jersey into Pennsylvania.
1777 looked worse. The British planned a knockout punch designed to isolate New England. General William Howe, who had pinned down Washington's army at Valley Forge, would move north to Albany to meet General "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne coming from Canada, thus trapping the Americans in a giant pincers movement.
Fortunately, Howe devised his own plan, took Philadelphia, which was then the capital, and never marched to Albany. Meanwhile, Burgoyne was making great progress along the New York-Vermont border, capturing a series of forts, including Ticonderoga and Mount Independence in Orwell, Vermont, and gaining advantage in Hubbardton.
Burgoyne, however, was not prepared for guerilla warfare. Bridges were burned, axmen felled trees along the roads. The British army was forced to build 40 bridges, and at one point, it took the army 24 days to cover 26 miles.
As supplies dwindled, the British decided that their best course was to send a
diversionary force to capture Bennington, where the Americans had their headquarters and where supplies could be obtained. The actual battle would take place in Hoosick, New York near the Vermont line.
By August 15, 1,600 Americans under General John Stark had gathered at Bennington. The force consisted of New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts troops. The Vermont troops were led by Colonel Seth Warner and militia from Bennington and Wilmington. Last to arrive, wet with drenching rain, were volunteers from the Berkshires, led by Reverend Thomas Allen.
After giving the attack signal on August 16, Stark was said to have exclaimed: "There are the Redcoats, and they are ours, or this night Molly Stark sleeps a widow." In his report to his commanding general, Stark stated that the battle was "the hottest I ever saw in my life–it represented one continual clap of thunder." Parson Allen described the American attack of one of "ardor and patience beyond expectation" and referred to the British fire as "peels of thunder and flashes of lightning." The battle lasted until dark of the 16th with the British in full retreat. The Patriots took 750 prisoners, 1,000 muskets and 4 cannons.
The Massachusetts Legislature, in thanking Stark for his leadership, paid tribute to the troops at Bennington: "The events of that day strongly mark the bravery of the men who, unskilled in war, forced from their entrenchments a chosen number of veteran troops of boasted Britons." A few days after the battle, George Washington, camped near Philadelphia, paid tribute to the Bennington Battle by calling it a signal victory.
Burgoyne continued to press on toward Albany but did not have the supplies he needed, and the American forces grew daily. Finally, two months after Bennington, he was surrounded by a much larger force and surrendered with 5,700 men at Saratoga. Burgoyne developed a high appreciation of the fighting qualities of Vermonters: He described Vermont as "a country unpeopled and almost unknown, now abounds in the most active and most rebellious race of the continent, and hangs like a gathering storm upon my left."
The Battle of Bennington on August 16, 1777 was important in the quest of our nation's independence. That is the reason we celebrate the event as a state holiday.
Senator Bill Doyle serves on the Senate Education Committee and Senate Economic Affairs Committee, and is the Senate Assistant Minority Leader. He teaches government history at Johnson State College. He can be reached at 186 Murray Road, Montpelier, VT 05602; e-mail wdoyle@leg.state.vt.us; or call 223-2851.
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The Mercury Business Awards are the biggest of their kind in the Stamford, Bourne and Rutland area and for the last two years, under the ownership of Iliffe Media, have grown substantially. This year we have InvestSK as our headline sponsor and we are also delighted to be announcing the return of Rob Persani as the host of the event.
Rob has hosted the event for the last two years and said he was "privileged" to be returning, adding: "It feels like coming home."
There will be 10 awards up for grabs so there's really something for every business across the area to get their teeth into.
The winners will be announced at a glittering awards ceremony and we are delighted to annouce that this ceremony will once again be held at Greetham Valley - our long-standing event partners.
On our dedicated award website, readers and businesses can fill out a simple nomination form. From there, a comprehensive nomination pack will be sent to the nominated businesses and these must be filled out and returned to our events and sponsorship coordinator Sharron Marriott before the businesses are eligible for the next stage in the process.
A panel of judges will consider all the applications and draw up a shortlist of three in each category.
Each of these three businesses will then be invited to the ceremony on Friday, September 20, which will include a three-course meal and promises to be a fantastic night.
Kerry Coupe, editor of the Mercury, said: "We are delighted to be welcoming back Rob Persani as host of the Mercury Business Awards as we know he's as passionate about shining the spotlight on successful local businesses as we are.
Tickets to the Mercury Business Awards 2019 will soon be on sale and if you want to find out more about ticket sales, sponsorship opportunities, or more details on how to enter, just e-mail: sharron.marriott@iliffepublishing.co.uk.
Has your business been a roaring success in its infancy? Has it exceeded all your expectations or is it exactly on the right track, looking strong and with excellent prospects for the future? You may be a one-man band looking to expand, or you may have started at a larger scale and already proved your ideas would work. This award is open to companies in business for up to three years from the date of the launch (Friday, April 5, 2019).
This award is to celebrate dedication and commitment to the business. The title will go to the employee or team who always go the extra mile and exceed expectations within their company. The judges will be looking for an employee or team who can demonstrate how their attitude, commitment and dedication to their job has delivered significant benefits to the company they work for.
The winner will be an individual who stands out from the crowd, has an entrepreneurial spirit, demonstrates outstanding achievement and inspires others around them. The winner of this award will have been instrumental to the success of their business, growing the reputation of both their business and the area in which they operate.
This award will recognise the firm, irrespective of size or sector, that can prove it really does put the customer first. Has your business excelled to help one customer in particular or perhaps you have introduced new ways of working to help every customer? The organisation must have objectives for high quality customer service and clear methods of monitoring and evaluating standards.
This award is open to charities and social enterprises which can demonstrate significant commercial and social impact of their activities.
This award is open to a business trading for more than three years with up to 20 employees and which is able to demonstrate excellence and innovation in its field, management with the ability to drive the business forward and funding arrangements and investment plans for the future of the business. It must show it understands its market, has arrangements to respond to change and can demonstrate why the business should win.
Any business within the Mercury's news coverage area - which includes Stamford and the Deepings, Bourne, Rutland and surrounding villages - can enter from now until the deadline of 5pm on Friday, June 21, 2019. Complete nomination packs must be returned by Friday, June 28, 2019.
Businesses can enter a maximum of three categories and readers can also put forward businesses, giving as much information as possible.
After the closing date, the judging panel will shortlist three finalists in each category. The three finalists will be visited by the judges before the winner is revealed at the awards on September 20.


As temperatures hovered around zero, 117 people in Maple Ridge bundled up and braved the cold on Saturday to raise money for the homeless and hungry.
The Coldest Night of the Year walk collected $15,000 for the Salvation Army's Caring Place and gave people a glimpse into life on the street.
"It's rather ironic that an event called the Coldest Night of the Year was indeed a really cold night of the year," said Rebecca Awram, who walked with a team of 21 from Maclean Homes.
Across Canada, 64 communities participated in the annual event, raising $2.2 million.
Participating for the second year, the walk was a tangible way for Awram to give back.
"It was not just about raising money. It was about making a statement," she said.
Participants from 18 teams signed up to walk a five or 10 kilometres loop through the streets of downtown Maple Ridge and ended their trek at the Caring Place where they warmed up with hot chocolate.
"A lot of people are a little bit scared of the Caring Place but this event gives you a chance to go inside and talk to the people and have a bite to eat with the clients of the Caring Place," said Awram.
Caring Place director Darrell Pilgrim was thrilled by this year's turn-out.
"It was cold and wet but it allowed people to feel what it's like to spend even a little bit of time outside," said Pilgrim.
The Caring Place reports that all its shelter spaces have been filled since temperatures began dipping below zero. That includes all 15 of its cold-wet weather mats, available until the end of March, and the 25 beds it has year-round.
The dump of wet snow over the weekend prompted the shelter to add 10 cold-weather mats to its existing 15 and bring in extra staff.
Metro Vancouver is getting ready to count the number of homeless people on its streets, a tally conducted every three years.
During the 2011 Greater Vancouver Homeless Count, Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows were the only municipalities in Metro Vancouver, where the number of people without a roof over their heads increased. One hundred and two people were found homeless in March 2011. That was up from 90 in 2008.
The municipalities were the only place in Metro Vancouver where the number of street homeless also rose – to 61 from 40.
The count also identified a growing homeless youth population, one that was tallied at 29 in 2011 compared to 22 in 2008.
Agencies who work with the homeless believe there's been a reduction in people living on the streets of Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows since the last count was conducted due to subsidized housing and targeted outreach.
The count takes place March 11-12 and organizers say the numbers should be viewed as a snapshot, not a full, accurate picture of homelessness in Metro Vancouver.


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4. Remove a torrent of distributions from torrent or transfer the game to another folder. Don't throw your game folder to the desktop, there'd only be a shortcut. If you moved the game folder to another location, then repeat step 2.
5. Open the right-click properties of the game folder and uncheck the attribute "read only", apply to all folders and files inside.
6. The access to the folder with the game must be allowed to you (check it in the folder properties). For full access permission open the properties folder with right click, go to the tab "Access", click "sharing", select or add the user, give him full access, then go to the "Security" tab, click "Edit" for the group "Authenticated users" to select all items in the column "Allow", save and close.
7. Run WowB.exe with administrator rights.


"World RadioSport Team Championship 2018" presentation by Colin Jenkins (KU5B).
The December BOD minutes were read, motion was raised by Charlie (KT5BBQ), seconded by Bob (WB3EWP), and approved by club members.
Three (3) new member applications were presented and approved by club membership: Chuck Abramson (K9CFA), Marc Abramson (KC9VW), and Steven Chun (KD5SIP).
KARS BOD has recommended the purchase of a portable generator & telescoping mast and tripod for use at club events. Motion was raised by Darrel (K5TWT), seconded by Shawn (W5AQY), and approved by club members.
Saturday, January 19th: ESD48 Smoke Alarm Blitz. This will take place in the Governor's Place subdivision, Katy. Anyone interested in participating, please contact Jimmy Vance.
KARS Winter Field Day, Jan 26-27, 2019: Will be held at Cullen Park West, same location as last year's event. All members are encouraged to participate.
There were 31 members and 5 visitors in attendance.
Meeting adjourned at app. 8:40 PM.


Solved: Show tasks by assignee in GreenHopper 6.x?
Show tasks by assignee in GreenHopper 6.x?
I'm on the "work" board (for now default "rapid" board) and I want a quick, easy way to show tasks only for a particular developer.
Is this not possible without setting up a quick filter for each one? That doesn't seem like something I should have to set up for each developer on every project just to get this kind of view. Also, it may muddy that section up if there are something like a dozen or more.
You can use swimlanes to categorise the issues. A swimlane is a row on the board that can be used to group issue, and you can group them by Assignees.
Please see Configuring Swimlanes for more details about it.
Thanks, though it seems clunky that often I will want stories w/ their sub-tasks as swimlanes and I have to go into configuration to change it.
I agree, I'm trying to eval Jira for real-world production from a competing product and I'm finding it's lacking small things in some areas when it comes to real world usage. There a way to add features we want added to Jira somewhere somewhere?
Swimlanes work fine for most people.


text:
Most people who love movies and kind of understand the process realize that if you do a character like Gollum or Jar Jar or any major digital character, that costs twice as much as having Tom Cruise in a movie.
I don't have to do emails, I don't have to protect myself about anything, I don't have any chain of command. My job is just to try and give everybody the tools that they need to express themselves.
It's so dense, every single image has so many things going on.
Source: collider.com
People , Character , Movie Love
Jobs , Trying , Giving
"The Phantom Menace Review". Comedy, www.imdb.com. 2009. Source
It has absolutely no meaning to me to be an executive producer on a film that I have nothing to do with except come to the wrap party or the premiere on; it's just meaningless.
Party , Film , Producers
Every single frame, every single shot in the movie, has a digital effect.
Shots , Digital , Effects
We're hoping that in three or four years time, we'll have to never have to answer another question regarding 'Star Wars,' ... With the series, we're trying to do 100 hours worth and answer every single thing anybody has ever dreamed of, thought of, imagined or hoped for.
Years , War , Stars
Nobody sets out to make a bad film, but so many of those compromises are made and often they're made because of vanity, pride and ego.
Ego , Pride , Vanity
One of the great things is, you're never a producer unless you're making a movie.
Producers , Great Things
You need somebody to have the idea, you need somebody who can deal with the studio and the normal things, but it's too different of a credit. That credit is usually given to the executive producer. It's not the producer.
Ideas , Needs , Different
It's easy to be a backseat driver. It's even easier to be a backseat driver when you're not even in the same car.
Easier , Car , Easy
Producers don't really publicize movies.
The average film has eight or ten producers on it. That is just in a world that would be unthinkable to me, because to me, to really be a producer of a film, you have to be a line producer.
Average , Would Be , Eight
The only way I can stop people from stealing is also not to steal myself, and it's one of the most difficult things.
Way , People , Stealing
There's so many people that are interested in film and especially in terms of the technology side of film, that suddenly the fruits of everybody's labor is really starting to manifest itself all across the planet.
People , Technology , Fruit
You have to be producing to be able to be called a producer.
Able , Producers
Profession: Film producer
Special Effects Artist
Matthew Jacobs


Rupert Holmes is a playwright, composer, songwriter, and novelist. His works include the Tony Award-winning musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood, the Emmy Award-winning television series Remember WENN, and multiple Edgar Award-winning stage mysteries. His novel Where the Truth Lies was adapted into a major motion picture in 2005.
There, we did it. A full paragraph on Rupert Holmes without mentioning his ubiquitous hit, "Escape," or as it's commonly referred to, "The Piña Colada Song." The one Charles Barkley sings in that commercial with Spike Lee and Samuel L. Jackson. The one Homer sings in The Simpsons and Cameron Diaz grooves to in The Sweetest Thing. The one that makes you smile every time you hear it, even if you are into yoga.
The story of that song is indeed fascinating, but wait till you hear about "Timothy," the first (and to our best recollection, only) hit song about cannibalism. Rupert did that one too.
Carl Wiser (Songfacts): Let's talk about "The Piña Colada Song."
Rupert Holmes: "The Piña Colada Song" is technically called "Escape," although even I have long since given up referring to it as that. It's my most successful song and probably the least typical of my work.
I realized the tune had kind of a catchy bounce to it, and I started to write a lyric to it. The song was called "People Need Other People," and it had a bridge and several modulations and some very subtle chord shifts. I went to a studio called Plaza Sound Recording Studios which was atop Radio City Music Hall. It used to be an old CBS broadcasting studio. I recorded the song with some people who were serving as my band at the time. The drummer, Leo Adamian, suggested we have two drummers on the session because it was an interesting beat that was hard to pull off with one drummer alone, but he said it would be interesting with two drummers. We got the second drummer in and we did one take of the tune. It had some very interesting chord changes and the bridge and changed key several times, and I'm singing away this lyric, "people need other people." We go in to hear back the first take and we listen to the cut, and I say, "You know, we can definitely do better than this," and I look and I see that the second drummer was unconscious from having too much fun. We were able to wake him up and get him into a taxi, and that was that.
We weren't going to record any more of that track. I figured I'd just put the song away. I wasn't that crazy about the lyric anyway. Then I found that I really desperately needed another uptempo song on the album and the budget was getting low and I wasn't sure what to do. That's when we did something that now is pretty commonplace but was pretty unusual at the time: We did a very primitive version of sampling. I found there were 16 bars of music on that first take that were very tight - everybody was in a very nice groove on it. So we duplicated those 16 bars onto another multi-track master over and over again and edited them all together. I think there were 60 edits to make up a reel that was 5-minutes long of this 16-bar vamp. The trick was writing a song that would be fun to balance some of the more serious ballads on the album.
Right as I did that, I remembered there was a hit record out called "Cruel To Be Kind," so I couldn't use that.
Now it's the day before the last scheduled day of recording and I have no lyric. Because the song is just this steady vamp, I realized that I've got to make the lyric the focal point of the song because the music is repetitive. I was in my apartment and there was a copy of The Village Voice. Sometimes I look at personal columns to get ideas for songs because people fascinate me. I saw this ad that this woman had placed in which she described herself in such glowing terms that I thought to myself, Why on earth, if you're this wonderful, do you need to place an ad in the personal columns? Trying not to be cynical, I thought, Let's be fair, maybe she's just looking for an adventure. Maybe she is as wonderful as she says, but she likes the idea of meeting a stranger and seeing what fate has in store for them. She wants something out of the ordinary.
Then I thought to myself, What would happen if I answered this ad, and I thought, With my stupid luck, I would answer the ad and find out it had been placed by the woman I was living with, never realizing that she was bored with me. The story sort of took hold of my mind.
People always ask me if it was based on something true, and I know they would love to know it was based on a true incident, but it wasn't. It was based on the "what if" scenario that I conjured up in my mind that evening.
The original lyrics said, "If you like Humphrey Bogart and getting caught in the rain." On the way to the session the next morning I read the lyrics to a cab driver and asked him if he got the twist ending before I got to it. He said no, and he thought the story was good. When I got to the session, I turned to my guitarist, Dean Bailin, and said, "I've just written a lyric. It's a story song. I don't want you to get ahead of it, so I'm going go on mic and sing the song without stopping. If I don't sing a line perfectly I'm not going to stop because I want you to hear this song in one listening. Pay attention to the lyric because I want to see if it catches you by surprise."
As I was getting on mic I thought to myself, I've done so many movie references to Bogart and wide-screen cinema on my earlier albums, maybe I shouldn't do one here.
I thought, What can I substitute? Well, this woman wants an escape, like she wants to go on vacation to the islands. When you go on vacation to the islands, when you sit on the beach and someone asks you if you'd like a drink, you never order a Budweiser, you don't have a beer. You're on vacation, you want a drink in a hollowed-out pineapple with the flags of all nations and a parasol. If the drink is blue you'd be very happy. And a long straw. I thought, What are those escape drinks? Let's see, there's daiquiri, mai tai, piña colada... I wonder what a piña colada tastes like? I've never even had one.
I thought that instead of singing, "If you like Humphrey Bogart," with the emphasis on like, I could start it a syllable earlier and go, "If you like piña-a coladas."
I had them roll the tape that we created and I sang this story that I concocted the night before. I get to the chorus and sing, "If you like Piña Coladas," and I sing it all the way through, never stopping to fix a line. I run into the control room and ask Dean if he anticipated the surprise ending, and he said, 'No, it caught me by surprise. I like the ending - I'm not crazy about piña colada." I said, "Let me pop on a little harmony track and see how it sounds."
I raced back out and ad-libbed a little harmony track a third above myself on the chorus, and that was the last I thought about it because I knew I would do the proper vocal in a day or two because we had other things to overdub. I would never release a scratch vocal - you want to get it perfect.
The next day I went to do the perfect vocal, and I could not get the energy, excitement and enthusiasm I had singing it that one time straight through for my lead guitarist. I said, "These other vocals are more correct, but they're not as much fun. I was having fun when I sang that through. I was kind of making up the phrasing as I sang it and it had more spontaneity, more energy.' Jim Boyer, who was producing the album with me, agreed, and that became the vocal.
When you hear "The Piña Colada Song," the story was written the night before. The line, "If you like Piña Coladas," was invented about five minutes before I started actually singing, and the vocal you hear is the first time I ever sang the song, and that became the vocal you hear on the record. I didn't think that was the single from the album, I thought the single was a song called "Him."
In overdubbing I tried to improve some of the color by putting in an instrumental break which I overlaid on those same 16 bars. It's still that vamp, but you hear surf, I put in some flutes playing whole-tone patterns and Dean's now trademark double-tracked soaring guitar line, and a couple synthesizer things from a mini-Moog that was supposed to sound a little bit like coconuts to give it some color in those sections.
Had I known that this would be a #1 record I probably never would have made it because it's too simple musically and harmonically. It's not like what I write, but I didn't know that - it was just supposed to balance out the album.
The record label at that time, Infinity Records, was a small, boutique label on the East Coast which was a division of a big label, MCA Records, on the West Coast. They said, "We don't think the single is 'Him,' we think it's 'Escape.'" I said, 'I'm not going to argue if you're enthusiastic about it."
They got it played on a station in Washington and it was like out of a movie: The record just took off on its own. People started calling in to the radio station wanting to hear it. They raced up to me and said, "We've got a problem. You called the song 'Escape' and everyone is calling in to radio stations asking for 'that song about piña coladas.' They're going to record stores asking for 'the piña colada song' and the record stores don't know what they're talking about. Can we make it 'Escape (The Piña Colada Song)?'" I said, "And compromise my artistic integrity? How can I do that?" They said, "If we don't make it 'The Piña Colada Song,' it's not going to sell. I said, "I guess it's 'The Piña Colada Song.'"
The record vaulted up the charts. WABC-AM, which never played anything until it was Top 5 everywhere else in the nation, went on the record when it was #60 in Billboard with a bullet. It was jumping sometimes 15, 20 points a week and by December of 1979 it was a #1 record, and it was also a #1 record in January of 1980, so I can honestly say that it was at the top of the Billboard charts for two decades without interruption.
If I had ever known that was going to be the song that I'd be most associated with, I might have had second thoughts about a lot of it. It was never meant to be heard 100 million times; it was meant to be a little short story with a little wink at the end of it, and that was supposed to be it. It was also not supposed to make the piña colada a popular drink in Idaho and other land-locked states where they had never heard of a piña colada. If I had known that in advance, I would have gone to Coco Lopez, which makes the coconut ingredient in the piña colada, and asked for a commission.
Every songwriter wants to have a hit that everyone remembers, and I can't complain for getting what I wished for. It just would have been nice if it was one of the more profound songs I've written.
It was in Shrek. Cameron Diaz sings it in The Sweetest Thing along with my voice on the radio. That's probably the closest I'll come to a duet with Cameron Diaz. It's in American Splendor. It's quoted in The General's Daughter and Will And Grace. It's sung in Six Feet Under, Simpsons. Sometimes I think it's more popular now than it was 15 years ago.
I was put under a lot of pressure to write "The Scotch And Soda Song" or whatever. I said to the label, "No, that's it," so I don't think there's a sequel in store.
People forget that I'm not the guy telling the story. This is a character for whom I'm writing. It's the woman who's really the inventive person: She places the ad, he merely responds to the ad. He starts with this attitude of, "I was tired of my lady, we've been together too long." He's kind of callow in that he hasn't picked up on the fact that the woman he's with is bored with him, perhaps even more so.
Songfacts: So what becomes of this couple?
Rupert: I like to think that they looked at each other with chagrin and realized that before either one of them runs off to find some fantasy that probably doesn't exist in reality, they might reinvestigate their own relationship because there's a lot there they haven't yet explored. I think it's a happy ending with a footnote: They both are a little shocked, but neither can point the finger too hard at the other because they both were willing to try a new relationship, and happily their possible indiscretion led them to each other again.
Songfacts: Where did the "bar called O'Mally's" come from?
Rupert: Everyone has in their mind what a bar called O'Mally's looks like. I have one in my mind and that's where it came from. There's an O'Mally's bar near where I live, but I didn't discover there was such a bar until after I'd written the song. It could have been O'Grady's. Everyone knows an Irish bar where people might meet each other, and I'd like to think that the one you envision is different than the one I envision. There was no specific O'Mally's.
Songfacts: What's it like being so associated with that song and having it in some ways supercede your other accomplishments?
Rupert: It used to be a source of some discomfort for me in that I was the first person in broadway history to solely win Tony awards for Best Book and Best Score of a musical that also won Best Musical. I created an Emmy Award-winning television series - Remember WENN. I've got a novel out called Where The Truth Lies. Despite all this, people still have a tendency to say, "You're the guy that sang 'The Piña Colada Song.'"
I have a feeling that if I saved an entire orphanage from a fire and carried the last child out on my shoulders, as I stood there charred and smoking, they'd say, "Aren't you the guy who wrote 'The Piña Colada Song?'"
It's tough when you have this one thing that pulls focus from all these other things that you've done, yet every songwriter lives to have a song that most everybody knows. One time I had no ID and I was taking a flight. I stood there and sang the song and they let me on the flight.
Songfacts: Tell me about writing the song "Timothy."
Rupert: I was 20 years old. I had been in the record business for about a year. The record business probably wasn't going to find out about this for another six months. I was struggling and I would do anything that anyone wanted me to do in the music business. I was so thrilled to be in the record business on any level - I arranged the Charlie Pride song folio; I wrote lead sheets for The Blind Boys Of Alabama; I wrote the marching band arrangement for "Jingle Bell Rock" and the high school arrangement of "Oye Como Va" by Santana. I would be the voice of studio groups. I wrote short and sassy shampoo commercials for Dorothy Hamill. I would do anything in the business I was asked to do.
I had a friend who was a junior engineer. His name was Michael Wright at Scepter Records recording studio, which was at 254 W. 54th, in the same building that Studio 54 was later in. He had the keys to a recording studio on the weekend when it wasn't in use. We'd go in every weekend and make any kind of record we could. He found a group out of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania named The Buoys, and somehow Scepter Records, which was the label of Dionne Warwick and B.J. Thomas, agreed to release one 45 that they would record, one single. They may not have even agreed to a B-side. Michael came to me and said, "I don't know what I'm going to do. I've got this group, The Buoys, and they only have a deal to make one single, and I know the label doesn't know about them or care about them. They're not going to promote it. It doesn't matter what I record - it's never going to get heard. What do I do with this kind of fake opportunity?"
I said, "I would have them record a song that gets banned." He said, "What's the logic in that?" I said, "Well, it's not going to do anything anyway. If it gets banned there will at least be controversy about the group. You can go to other labels and say, 'This is that record that got banned. It's that group that's so controversial, and if it hadn't been banned it would have been a smash hit.' And maybe then they'll give you a proper record contract, sign the group and promote them." He said, "Will you write me a song that gets banned?" I said, "I'm not sure what I would write, but I'll think about it."
And I think, "You know, that almost sounds like a recipe: muscle and blood and skin and bones, bake in a moderate oven for two hours, top with Miracle Whip. I had seen the movie Suddenly Last Summer about a week earlier on TV, and it had a revelation about cannibalism in it, and I thought, If it's good enough for Tennessee Williams, it's good enough for The Buoys. So I thought, Cannibalism during a mining disaster, that'll get banned.
It's not like I'm really telling people to go out and eat someone. This is just this dark, horrible thing that happened in this story. So I write this lyric, "Timothy, Timothy, where on earth did you go?"
Three boys with water but no food are trapped in a mine for maybe a week. When they're pulled free, they don't remember what happened, but they know they're not hungry. One of them is missing, and that's Timothy.
We record this record on the weekend and I don't think about it again. Bill Kelly was the lead singer of The Buoys, and he sang a nice Irish tenor.
I don't think about this record again. Scepter Records puts it out and a little radio station somewhere would play it. The kids would hear it and they'd figure out what it was about. They'd start calling the radio station saying, "You've got to play that song again." The radio stations, surprised by the phone response, would then listen to the song to find out what it was about. They played the song originally because it had a nice rhythm, kind of like a Creedence Clearwater Revival feel. It was catchy enough, but then they'd hear what the song was about and say, "We can't be playing this. It's about cannibalism!" and they'd pull the song off the air. The kids would call in and say, "Why'd you pull the song off the air," and they'd say, "Because it's disgusting. You shouldn't be listening to stuff like that."
Well, all you have to do is tell a teenage kid that he shouldn't be listening to something because it's disgusting and vile and loathsome, and he'll demand it. So the record, unlike "Piña Colada," which vaulted up the charts, went up like one or two digits every week. It was on the charts forever. It would go from 80 to 78 to 77. It would lose its bullet but go up to 76. Then it would go up to 74 and get its bullet back. What was happening was, stations were playing it, kids were clamoring for it, it would move up the charts, then the station would pull it, the kids would clamor more and some other station would go on it to satisfy that demand. It just kept going up the charts.
Scepter Records in the beginning did not even know it was on their label. The promotion men for Scepter Records, who were trying to break a Beverly Bremers single, would say, "We couldn't get it on that station. They went with this stupid song called 'Timothy.'" Finally, someone said, "You idiot, it's on our label."
Now they have a problem, because now they're getting up towards the top 20, and they know there are some big stations that are simply not going to play this record. WABC-AM, the biggest station at the time, they never played it.
Whenever people talk about "Timothy," I always say, "Where did you come from?" Because that always lets me know. If they were from Florida, it was big there. If they were from Pennsylvania, very big. Texas, they know it. But if you're from New York you've never heard of it.
Scepter Records started a rumor that Timothy was a mule to try to get the taint of cannibalism out of the picture and try to make it a Top 10 record. Someone called me and said, "Was Timothy a mule? You wrote it." And I said, "No. What can I tell you - they ate him."
It peaked at #17 on the Billboard charts. "Timothy" inched its way to #17.
I wrote a song that got banned. It did better than we intended it to do. It was supposed to just start the controversy, instead it actually was a hit.
Did I have deep, personal feelings about sharing the joys of cannibalism with the listening public? No, of course not. I was a 20-year-old kid hungry not for human flesh, but hungry to do something successful in the music business. I think I diagnosed a dilemma that a friend of mine had and found an effective way of solving his problem.
This group did get an LP deal from Scepter Records out of it. They had a couple of other records that placed in the Top 100, and one of them ended up being a hit in Europe, so "Timothy" did the job for which it was artificially created.
My sole purpose was to help out a friend in need who had a one single deal.
Songfacts: You also wrote "You Got It All," which was a big hit for The Jets.
Rupert: I was busy on Broadway with The Mystery Of Edwin Drood, that just won all the Tony awards. My manager knew a fellow who had this act, this family group from the isle of Tonga. I said, "Is there really an isle of Tonga? I thought that was a made up thing from King Kong movies." He said, "There really is a place called Tonga, and they're from there. They do this sweet act: They sing and do Hawaiian fire dances, things like that, and they're really nice kids." I said, "Kids? How old?" He said, "Oh, 14, 15, 16." He said, "You've been Mr. Theater for the last year. Would you do me a favor and write them a song? They've got some good dance stuff, but they need a ballad, a love song.' I said, "Who's going to sing it?" And he said, "The one with the nicest voice is the girl singer, she's 14."
I thought writing a love song for a 14-year-old girl would be tough because some of my lyrics used to be about some pretty strange characters. I thought it would be a challenge: see if I can write a love song that sounds appropriate sung by a 14-year-old girl. This was before we had all the Britneys, Mandy Moores, and all these teen stars. I purposely tried to write a very clear, simple, unaffected lyric that would have a little lilt to it, that would be a positive song for a young girl getting over her first heartbreak. Letting her know that this boy she just lost, or who didn't treat her appreciatively, was not going to be the only boy she'd ever have as a boyfriend.
I also wrote it thinking of my daughter who was at that time 10 years old. I thought maybe it would be a song she would enjoy and be fun to hear with her friends and say, "My father wrote that."
So I wrote it that way, and they recorded it. They had a big hit with a song called "Crush On You," then they brought out "You Got It All." It went to #3 on the Pop chart, #2 on the R&B chart and #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart.
Songfacts: Where do you typically find inspiration for your songs?
Rupert: For me, the greatest source of inspiration for songs is watching and listening to people. In airports, in bus terminals, in restaurants. Couples that sometimes don't make sense, you look at them and you say, "I wonder what brought them together? I wonder what they see in each other? I wonder why she's with him? I wonder why he's with her?" In trying to imagine what brings couples together and what tears them apart, you'll find a lot of material for songs.
There's a lot to be said for having characters in your songs. Not every song has to be spoken by you, and not every song has to be an anthem of devotion.
Robin Vosbury from LouisianaWonder if RH knows this was the last Billboard #1 of the 70's! December, 1979.


text:
Samsung S11 revealed with advanced camera and repositioned selfie camera
A fresh leak has brought us some more details about the Samsung Galaxy S11, which is likely due to be revealed in February. Among the new confirmed features are a 108-megapixel main camera and 25-Watt charging.
91mobiles and @OnLeaks have created renders of the Galaxy S11 based upon what we know so far. Photo: 91mobiles/@OnLeaks
There have actually been a handful of separate leaks about the Samsung Galaxy S11 recently. Even though the phone is still a couple of months away from being revealed, we can now be pretty sure of quite a few of the specs of Samsung's upcoming flagship.
Earlier this month, tech blogger and famous smartphone leaker, Evan Blass, revealed the screen sizes for each of the three S11 models. The S11 will come equipped with either a 6.2-inch or 6.4-inch display, while the S11e and S11+ will get 6.7-inch and 6.9-inch displays respectively. All S11 models will also get curved-edge displays.
Additionally, Evan Blass confirmed that only the S11 and S11e will come in LTE and 5G variants. The S11+ will be only be available in 5G.
The latest leak
Today, MatrixLife's Nick Oikonomou revealed some more information about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S11, apparently sourced from Samsung itself.
The three main hardware features revealed by MatrixLife today were the Samsung Galaxy S11's CPU, camera setup and charger rating.
The S11 will get an octa core Exynos 990 CPU and 25-Watt charging. This charger rating has raised some questions about why the Galaxy S11 won't feature the same 45-Watt charging found on the Note 10 Plus. Abundary has reached out to Samsung for comment on this decision and we'll update the article if we receive any information.
Finally, on to the camera setup, which is usually one of the most exciting parts of any new phone reveal.
The Samsung Galaxy S11 range will include three different models. Photo: 91mobiles/@OnLeaks
The latest leak suggests that the Samsung Galaxy S11 will have four rear cameras. The main camera will feature a 108-megapixel sensor, most likely the ISOCELL Bright HMX, which Samsung developed in partnership with Xiaomi.
The Galaxy S11 will also get a 48-megapixel telephoto sensor which is equipped with 10x lossless and 100x hybrid zoom.
Oikonomou also confirmed that the Samsung Galaxy S11 will have a 'hole-punched' selfie camera, which will give users an additional few active pixels at the top of their screens.
Clues found in the Galaxy Note 9 Android 10 beta
A couple of days ago, sleuthing by Ice Universe, a Korean tech blogger, revealed some more interesting information about the Samsung Galaxy S11's screen setup.
Ice Universe found a menu option in the Android 10 beta for the Galaxy Note 9 which allows you to switch from a 60 Hz screen refresh rate to 120 Hz.
A 120 Hz screen refresh rate would put the Galaxy S11 at the top of the pack in terms of screen smoothness. Photo: 91mobiles/@OnLeaks
The odd thing is that the Galaxy Note 9's screen isn't capable of supporting a 120 Hz screen refresh rate.
This suggests that this menu option is actually intended for the Galaxy S11 series, which means it is safe to assume that at least one of the three models will get this feature.
Henry Bewicke
Henry is a freelance journalist and copywriter currently based in Berlin. Ever since his first Gameboy Color he's had a fascination with tech, and now he gets to write about it for a living.
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text:
Can you have a period 2 years after menopause?
Will I feel normal again after menopause?
How long does postmenopause last on average?
Can a woman get pregnant after menopause?
Why do my breasts keep growing after menopause?
What happens to a woman sexually after menopause?
Why are my breasts growing after menopause?
How can I lose weight after menopause?
Can you regain muscle after menopause?
What is the best diet for postmenopausal?
It is not normal to bleed or spot 12 months or more after your last period. Bleeding after menopause is usually a sign of a minor health problem but can sometimes be an early sign of more serious disease.
Women are said to be "post-menopausal" when a year has elapsed since their last period. As hormone levels stabilise, either naturally or through Hormone Replacement Therapy, the symptoms disappear and many women feel better than they have in years. Try hormone replacement therapy.
Postmenopause includes the years following menopause. During this stage, menopausal symptoms tend to subside, but may continue for an average of four to five years. Fortunately, they also decrease in frequency and intensity.
Once you're postmenopausal, your hormone levels have changed enough that your ovaries won't release any more eggs. You can no longer get pregnant naturally. Continue reading to learn more about the stages of menopause, fertility, and when in vitro fertilization (IVF) may be an option.
Rest assured boob growth with age is normal. According to Victoria Karlinsky-Bellini, MD, FACS, a New York-based cosmetic surgeon, it is often the result of fluctuating hormones as you go through perimenopause and menopause. "For many women, the drop in hormones can trigger weight gain," she explains.
The loss of estrogen and testosterone following menopause can lead to changes in a woman's body and sexual drive. Menopausal and postmenopausal women may notice that they're not as easily aroused, and they may be less sensitive to touching and stroking. That can lead to less interest in sex.
Many overlapping factors could contribute to a size increase, including changes in levels of hormones, a tendency to gain weight in all parts of the body, and water retention. With the menopausal drop in estrogen, which affects all body tissues, the texture and composition of the breast tissues change.
Here are a few other tips that can help with weight loss during menopause or at any age.
Eat plenty of protein. ...
Include dairy in your diet. ...
Eat foods high in soluble fiber. ...
Practice mindful eating.
A recent study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that post-menopausal women can reduce their body fat, increase muscle mass, build up their bones, and improve their balance by lifting moderately heavy weights on a regular basis.
A whole-foods diet high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, high-quality protein and dairy products may reduce menopause symptoms. Phytoestrogens and healthy fats, such as omega-3 fatty acids from fish, may also help.
How much caffeine can a 13 year old have?
Does God bless obedience?
What are the disadvantages of monogamous marriage?
Can high blood pressure cause burning feet?
Is it true that if someone appears in your dream they were thinking about you?
How do I start seeing a therapist?
How do you tell someone to stay strong?
How many helplines are there?
How do I know if a attachment is secure?
How often should you text someone you're dating?
What is an example of functional Fixedness in psychology?
What is the difference between LCPC and LPC?
What is meant by object identity?
Can people start fires with their mind?
What are the characteristics of an ethical person?
How long do you date before you become exclusive?
What does it mean to be spiritually poor?
Which is better sublimation or screen printing?
When should I be concerned about loose stools?
What do New mums need for themselves?


Traditional charm and home. Who says you can't have it all? This all brick low maintenance home has room to move and then some. Freshly designed landscaping all around home. Private fenced backyard for entertaining around your in-ground salt water pool. Save time for a hot-tub soak or enjoy your favorite beverage inside the screened in porch. This home features 4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths with the Master en-suite on main level with 2 large walk-in closets. Home also has 2 car drive in garage and 1 car drive under. The basement is unfinished and has shelving for storage. The property is located in well kept Russell Acres sub-division. Close to city with only paying County Taxes.


text:
using VI.Neural.ActivationFunction;
using VI.Neural.ANNOperations;

namespace VI.Neural.Factory
{
    /// <summary>
    ///  (Activation) LayerCreatorOutputActivations
    ///  (SoftMax)    LayerCreatorOptmizer
    /// </summary>
    public class LayerCreatorOutput
    {
        private int size;
        private int connections;
        private float lr;
        private float mo;

        public LayerCreatorOutput(int size, int connections, float lr, float mo)
        {
            this.size = size;
            this.connections = connections;
            this.lr = lr;
            this.mo = mo;
        }

        public LayerCreatorOutputActivations Activation_f()
        {
            return new LayerCreatorOutputActivations(size, connections, lr, mo, ANNOperationsEnum.Activator);
        }

        public LayerCreatorOptmizer SoftMax_f()
        {
            return new LayerCreatorOptmizer(size, connections, lr, mo, ANNOperationsEnum.SoftMax, ActivationFunctionEnum.Nothing);
        }
    }
}


The caped and cowled man stopped abruptly, wondering what was wrong with himself.
Shaking his head, he kept on down the strangely spacious and broad sewer tunnel, dodging the odd rat, reservoir dog, rodent, and large insect along the way.
He had come down into the disgusting underworld due to a tip given him by one of his slightly-crazier acquaintances, who had told him about a gathering of rather well-armed people near back-alley sewer entries, and references to a 'Worm' of some kind. Hoping and fearing simultaneously that it was indeed the dreaded Conqueror Worm, the King of Suits kept his mouth shut and trudged on, his eyes peeled for any signs of a trap in the dank depths.
Lucy tried to spend as many hour as she could helping out at the Soup Kitchen over at the Our Lady of Mercy.
Mostly it was because as a confused woman on her first day awake she stumbled into the Soup Kitchen where the sister, based on her dress, assumed she was a volunteer and set her to work. This had allowed her to collect her thought and get a grip of her new life.
But it also allowed her to gather rumor and gossip about what was going on around the city. It's amazing what a homeless person could see around the city and fact she had witnessed herself.
Though when one of the regulars starting talking about armored people coming out of the sewers she hadn't paid it much heed. In a city full of Super-hero's it was a fairly common occurrence. When he mentioned the other one she did pay attention.
Seems the super had been more interested in his sighting especially when he mentioned about them talking about a "Wormâ€. It meant nothing to her but it must have been important for him to go traipsing around in the sewers.
So a few minutes later she was lifting a manhole cover near where the other guy had entered, to descend into the sewers.
Actually it didn't smell as bad as she would have expected.
The King of Suits looked carefully at the wall next to him. It was incredibly old by the looks of its thick covering of mortar and irregularly joined bricks, and eons of humidity hadn't made it any stronger, so it was little surprise to find a long deep scratch in the mortar, running directly down the wall for as far as he could see.
Marceau knew that rats didn't make scars like that, and the careful straightness of the line told him that it had been done "A'purpose", as his instructor Sabina, the Jack of Spades and detective and forensics expert, would have put it. What had made the scratch, the King of Suits could hardly guess, but he figured it might be a guide of some sort.
Or a 'clue' that would lead him into a trap.
With a quiet sigh, he smoothly got to about half his full height and was about to head off in the direction the scratch had been dug when he heard something.
The sound of a manhole cover being lifted.
It was the work of a moment to slide neatly around the corner of a junction between three sewer tunnels, where Marceau readied himself for what was to come down, listening for the sound of approaching footsteps down the watery tunnel.
Marco Alvarado sat in a bathroom stall in a 7-11, talking on the phone with his cousin Jesus. The noise of the fan ensured nobody would overhear them from outside. In front of him was a sports bag with his mask and costume. Putting it on would make him Mala Suerte, Lucha Legend. In a matter of minutes, he was about to make his debut in Freedom City. But first, he was making final arrangements.
"I walked to the 7-11 by our place. I'm putting the sports bag behind the dumpster. When I hang up, drive over and grab it," he said to his cousin, breathing heavily.
"The cashier will see you man!" Jesus shouted back. "Find a new place!"
"No. The bathrooms are outside. I'm not stupid. It'll be fine."
Three days ago, Jesus told Marco about an overheard conversation at his job. A woman he works with said that she saw three hooded men crawling into a manhole armed with machine guns. She was afraid to call the cops, in case there were more of them. Yesterday, Marco heard a similar story from a regular at the gym he worked at. Both lived in different parts of Freedom City. This required some looking into.
Opening up his bag, Marco took his white mask and pulled it over his head. He adjusted it in the mirror, then tightened it. The effect wasn't noticeable, but when placing things back in the back he realized how weightless it was. He opened the door, left the bathroom, and dropped the bag behind the dumpster of the 7-11.
After finding a manhole, Mala Suerte pulled it off, took the ladder down, and then closed it. He then began searching around. If he was smart, Mala Suerte would have brought a flashlight or glowsticks or something. He had to hope he didn't miss threats coming at him until it was too late.
As Lucy carefully descended into the sewers she again wondered how Supers got in contact. Was there some kind of signal or maybe they shared telephone numbers. Maybe the operator connected them with some kind of code word?
As she reached the bottom she took out the newly purchased torch, and inspiration struck. Rather than skulking about she could move boldly with full torch light to light the way. Either the good guys would find her or trouble would, possibly both.
Whistling a tune Lucy strolled down the sewer tunnel.
The sound of another manhole lid being pulled up and the distant sound of a whistler drawing closer caused Marceau no end of irritation. Thanks to the labyrinthine(I must learn how the sewer maintainers keep this place upkept. I'll ask Jose later he thought distractedly) construction of the sewers, he had little idea if the lids had been opened at opposite ends of the tunnel next to him, if it was two entirely different locations, or if they had been opened individually from the same place.
With that in mind, he risked sticking his head out from his hiding spot and calling softly "Who comes there?".
Marco's eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness in the sewer. There were small traces of light to be found when you focused enough. The sewers naturally stunk to high heaven, and it made Marco's eyes water. He only took breaths when he needed to. It wouldn't be heroic to hurl in his mask. His boots were also soaked, and it was beginning to permeate through. Not fun. Marco had supered during heavy rains before, but this was worse. He'd be spending days getting the smell out of his costume.
Eventually, Marco heard whistling ahead of him. He picked up the pace, and started following that. The sewers limited his freedom of movement greatly- he couldn't bound ahead without smacking into wall after wall. And since said walls were coated in decades of slime, he'd pass on that. The whistler drew closer and closer, and occasionally Marco saw glimpses of light. This person was either a sewer resident, another person investigating, or one of the mysterious figures with guns. Either way, Marco hoped he could get somewhere so this trip into the sewer wouldn't be in vain.
As Lucy stomped through the tunnels she was sure she could hear footsteps behind her.
Then she spied a dark looking shape peer out of a junction ahead of her. Resisting the urge to shine the light in there face she instead illuminated her own, whist trying to look as non-threatening as possible.
While he was hardly unused to odd sights, the sheer pallor of Revenant's skin and antique clothing were..jarring when set against his expectations of a thick-set thug, clean-cut youth in spandex, or..really almost anything but a neatly-dressed young(?) woman with an unhealthy lack of melanin in her skin walking through a sewer with a flashlight. A second after processing this, he started guiltily: she had just asked him a question,after all, and seemed friendly enough.
"I go by the moniker of the 'King of Suits', miss. I'm a superhero around the Fens and doubt you've heard of me. It is a pleasure to meet you, Revenant, as I too have heard reports of armed men, working for a criminal called the 'Conqueror Worm', a vicious anarchist. As you're here to take care of it, I thank you, and offer my aid as much as far as it will go" ducking neatly out from behind his corner, he walked up to her with an outstretched in an offered handshake.
"I just found a deliberate mark on the wall over there" he gestured to where the offending scar was "I'm fairly sure it's either a sign of where to go, or else just a signifier that someone has come down here often enough to leave marks on the walls with an eye for being level and making distinctions between different tunnels"
Deciding that any comments on her appearance would be terribly rude, he simply said "Would you mind telling me what, in general, you can do? I'm a pretty good detective, with some small combat ability. I prefer to keep hidden, however"
Cocking his ears at the sound of approaching footsteps he added quietly "Hopefully you know better where that sound is coming from and what might be making it, I've no idea"
Marco heard the whistling stop, and instead heard talking. There were two voices- a man and a woman.
Another Super. Great. Marco thought to himself. Perhaps she would be able to make up for his unpreparedness. I still can't believe how badly I dropped the ball. Maybe I should get a utility belt. Fix it up to look like a wrestling title belt. Have the plate in the front emit light or something.
The man then introduced himself as the King of Suits. Immediately in Marco's head an image of an imposing man wearing a tasteful suit with high-tech gear in it and weaved with bulletproof fabric with a crown on his head came in mind. He shared information about information he got from investigations. He was saying a lot, and it was drowning itself in echo.
Marco turned the corner, and gazed upon the two supers. The woman Revenant was completely white and wore a pantsuit. Hardly sewer-slogging wear. The King of Suits was large, but rather than looking like he came out of a Men's Warehouse, he wore a cape and cowl with the image of suits of cards on his chest. He kinda liked his image of the King of Suits better.
When he came into view of the two of them, Marco raised his hands in the air- a universal sign of 'I mean no harm'. "I am Mala Suerte," he said. "I'm investigating, like you two."
Lucy was happy that her skin didn't show her blushing. Miss indeed, she was old enough to be his great-grandmother.
Then it seemed that her follower turned up, another hero. She must find out how they all find out, maybe it's a memo or something.
"Pleased to meet you, Mala Suerte. I'm sure we can all get well acquainted as we walk. This way please, and mind your heads" the cowled figure led the way with long, heron-like strides down the dank tunnel, his voice slowly quieting as he went.
"The Conqueror Worm is a leader of anarchists, and is a surprisingly dangerous person. They(he or she or it is not known), has many followers that attempt to spread chaos throughout the city, destroying anything that disrupts: utilities like power plants, water supplies and waste-disposal centers; airports, docks, anything that can make people's lives that much worse. I think(not being an anarchist I do not know) that the idea is that their discomfiture will make them more aware of how great it would be if the things supplying many of those supports of civilization were removed. Anyway, this person is not the first to bear the name of the Conqueror Worm. A few decades ago, another anarchist bore the title. He was a foe of the first Raven, and fell to his death after a battle with the blue guardian onto some broken water piping"
Pausing at the end of the line, Marceau carefully examined the area around him, gesturing for the others to do the same. As he scanned the walls, ceiling and (when he could stand it) the floor for clues he added genially "I don't suppose anyone here has any amusing sewer stories they'd like to share?"
Mala Suerte looked around the tunnel for more of those manmade marks. How was he supposed to tell the difference between intentional marks by anarchists, scratches left by bored sewer-dwellers, results from a scuffle down here, and a giant crocodile-man honing his claws? The last one reminded him of a villain he dealt with once in Miami, when he wasn't busy disrupting gang activity.
He let himself move toward the back, only because the man had the detective skill and the woman had the flashlight. He had Lucha.
"I did deal with a were-alligator once back at home," Marco said. "Maybe we'll meet his cousins down here."
Marceau shuddered at the mention of were-alligators. He wasn't very fond of the idea of such creatures at the best of times, and the(somewhat) close confines of the sewer made the concept even more unnattractive.
Wedging a boomerang into a small crack in the mortar, he used the curved metal bar as a support to allow him to peer closer at a likely spot on a nearby wall. "We're looking for neat, level marks" he explained to the other two "Something made by someone who wanted to be careful how they were making the scratch. Anything else you find that wasn't put there by apparent accident is also a probable clue, I'm guessing whoever uses this place regularly will want to make sure their marks are where they can easily be see, but not identified as anything significant. Near head-level I'd say would be the more likely region"
While still employed in his careful scanning of the wall he added "Why don't you tell us a little about yourself, Mala Suerte?"
"Why don't you tell us a little about yourself, Mala Suerte?"
Isn't the point of a mask to not have people know about you? Marco thought to himself. Mala Suerte Primero, the spirit of the previous bearer of his mask, had been quiet recently, but this would have been a perfect moment for him to jump in. The old man usually kept quiet during hero time anyways.
"I'm a Luchador. Pretty famous in Mexico. Just came to Freedom City recently, heard rumors about armed men entering the sewers from two parts of town, so I figured I would investigate." Technically all true. Marco wasn't a rookie, but he wanted to sort of imply that he's been the same Mala Suerte who was most recently active in Mexico. Apart from two public retirements, the mask has changed hands an indeterminate number of times. Probably in abandoned alleys from a dying man to a bystander who defended him, just like Marco's case. Bit morbid there Marco. Sewer's getting to you.
Marco tried looking around for more marks, but saw absolutely nothing. I REALLY need a flashlight, he thought to himself. "I can't see anything. You?"
Wait what was that, she shined the torchlight on a patch of unremarkable stonework near a junction. They were faint and well hidden but there were some kind of figure marked onto the stonework.
"Wait stop, urm King of Suit what do you make of this.†She shone the light on to the markings.
The King of Suits had just spotted a well-hidden carving on the wall his boomerang was lodged in, and was about to declare ts existence to the other two when Revenant called him over to look at something she'd found.
Stepping quickly over to where to beam pointed, he crouched next to the beam of light illuminating the wall. Squinting at the collection of symbols, he ventured that "Well..at least it's there for a reason. Looks like a triangle and two arrows. I think the arrows are different colors but the glare of the flashlight keeps me from being sure" he looked at Revenant apologetically "I think it may have something to do with those tunnels there" he gestured to the ones he meant across the shallow flow of watery sewage "But I saw a carved figure of a crowned worm with a sword looking that way" he pointed down the way they had been going "May be that there's a trap down there? Or maybe it leads directly down to the Worm's hideout, and the other signs are meant for excursions into other parts of the city, like street signs for the underground"
He looked at the other two "Your thoughts?"
Marco thought it was obvious. The wormsign was a trace directly to the layer. The rest were for navigation elsewhere. Who else would be down here to misdirect? Oh, right. Investigating costumed heroes. Still, he didn't know anything about this Conqueror Worm, but with a name like that they'd probably want to direct attention towards themselves. Unless this was one of those anarchy things and the true path was the one not pointed to. Maybe they had an illusion generator and one of these walls was just a hologram. Like that Labyrinth movie.
"Follow the worm and sword sign I guess. If it's a trap and we attract trouble, we just follow where the trouble came from."
Lucy guilty lowered the torch a little, whilst ponder the whole situation.
She straightened up and put on her best determined face.
She gave a little sigh and a longing look at her feet.
The King of Suits mulled the issue over in his head for a moment. On the one hand, they were in largely unknown territory with an enemy who had entirely unguessable control over the area. On the other hand, they were still human(he hoped), and could doubtless be defeated. It wasn't as if he was on his lonesome either, so he could afford to trust their judgement on this without it having to worry about any one of them being taken by surprise without hope of help.
He nodded "Very well, that seems entirely reasonable. Thank you for the offer, Revenant, as you have the flashlight and are as you say the toughest of us, I'll gladly follow"
Getting up he was careful not to hit a rat skeleton dangling by its legs above him. He gestured to the way ahead "After you, Revenant, if it's alright with you Mala Suerte, how about you go just behind her and I bring up the rear?"
Marco looked at Revenant. She was at least eight inches shorter than him, and over a foot shorter than the King of Suits. Yet she claimed to be the toughest of them all. As Mala Suerte, he had been shot, slammed through buildings, and thrown out of an airplane. Appearance didn't matter, but it was usually a good indicator. He would have taken the flashlight and the lead gladly, but she knew her abilities and limits far better. Taking the middle would be be a good compromise.
"I'm no pushover, but I guess I can jump ahead in case."
Whilst Lucy couldn't see her face, she was pretty sure what was going in beneath that mask.
It seems that men haven't changed that much in the last 80 years. Still at least they're letting me go first.
She pauses and turned back to the path.
Cautiously she started down the path, trusting the others to follow.
The King of Suits followed close to Mala, walking backwards to keep a watch on their rear. He knew he looked silly, but at least it would be that much harder for someone to creep up on them from behind.
While he walked with bird-like strides, he wondered about what Revenant had said. A regenerator? What does that mean here? Is she altered on the genetic level? Does she have some kind of extra organ or something that supplies her with more material to patch up wounds faster? Something Else entirely?
While such thoughts buzzed about his head, he kept a careful ear out for the sounds one doesn't hear unless someone is nearby and trying not be heard. The dripping of water, scuttling of rats and the ever-present flow of the sewege down the main tunnel did their best to mask anything unusual however, and Marceau kept turning his head to re-assure himself that the other two were still there.


To highlight and emphasize the flavors in our natural environment, occasionally we will "run the board" with an ingredient when it is abundant. By using it across all of our brews (beer, cider, mead, jun, and kombucha), it can be tasted from multiple perspectives.
Past examples of running the board include: strawberry, mint, peach, sweetfern, and blueberry.


text:
Boston Beer Loads Up Wholesalers with Truly for the Summer
Justin Kendall
Apr. 25, 2019 at 5:14 PM
Boston Beer Company
Boston Beer Company's first-quarter shipments increased 32.5 percent, to a record 1.1 million barrels, in an effort to supply its wholesalers with about six weeks of Truly Hard Seltzer ahead of the summer selling season.
The company — which also makes the Samuel Adams, Twisted Tea and Angry Orchard brands — posted double-digit first-quarter growth in revenue, shipments and depletions. Through the first 13-weeks of 2019, Boston Beer reported a 32.1 percent increase in net revenue, to $61.2 million, along with an 11 percent increase in depletions.
Coming into the year, the company was facing tougher comps, after increasing shipments 15 percent and revenue nearly 18 percent in the first quarter of 2018. After more than doubling its shipment growth in Q1, Boston Beer has adjusted its shipment and depletion growth projections from between 8 and 15 percent to between 10 and 15 percent.
Boston Beer founder and chairman Jim Koch, and CEO Dave Burwick, spent much of Wednesday's call with investors and analysts discussing the potential of Truly and addressing Samuel Adams' continued declines.
Despite the launch of several new hard seltzer brands this year, Burwick said Truly and competitor White Claw have maintained control over about 80 percent of the hard seltzer market in scan data, according to market research firm IRI.
"So far, nobody's really put a dent into the leadership positions of us and White Claw," Koch added.
According to Burwick, "more than half" of Truly's volume is coming from drinkers who shop outside of the beer category, primarily in the wine and spirits aisles, while some of the volume is being siphoned from light lagers.
One analyst asked about the longevity of hard seltzer compared to products such as hard sodas, which fell victim to the "boom-splat" phenomenon. Koch said hard sodas were driven by "trial" but failed to garner repeat purchases once consumers discovered they were "loaded with sugar" and high calories. Hard seltzer is different, he explained, because it's low in sugar and calories. He added that the category is likely to remain relevant even when the growth slows due to "coming down on a bigger volume base."
"If it triples in volume and the growth rate goes down to 50 percent, that's still a lot of new cases," Koch added.
Koch admitted that meeting the demand for Truly has proven challenging. He described the process of packing the seltzer's variety pack as "ugly" due to the company hiring "hundreds" of temporary day laborers to hand pack the boxes. To ease some of those constraints, the company has purchased an automated canning line, which won't be operational in time to help alleviate the summer demand.
"My hope is we're doing just as much contract production next year because we've underestimated the volume again," Koch added.
Nevertheless, Truly's growth has come at an ever bigger cost. Boston Beer's first-quarter gross margin declined 1 percent, to 49.5 percent, due to increased use reliance on contract production to build Truly inventories. According to CFO Frank Smalla, the company expects its gross margin to improve as the year progresses.
Meanwhile, after seeing improved trends due to a new advertising campaign for the Samuel Adams brand in Q4, the brand regressed in Q1, Burwick said. He added that the company is hopeful that new packaging, as well as a "lighter and brighter" taste profile for Summer Ale, will help change the brand's trajectory. Additionally, he said New England IPA is "growing rapidly" in Year Two, while, the company has "some work to do" on Sam '76.
"Sam Adams will always be at the heart and soul of the company, but we have evolved our portfolio and our mix to a point where we can deliver nice double digit growth without Sam Adams contributing to it," Koch said. "It's just a fact of life at this point that our portfolio is able to grow double digits, despite some of the softer trends in craft beer."
Asked if retailers and wholesalers are cutting Boston Lager from store shelves due to its declines, Burwick said wholesalers have stood behind the brand. Koch added that Samuel Adams "continues to be the lead craft beer" for many wholesalers.
"We're not really losing to somebody who is going to replace Sam Adams," he said. "We're losing share to the other 7,000 craft brewers."
According to Koch, Samuel Adams will be a "long-term beneficiary" of a shakeout as retailers shift their product mix and cuts "lower selling craft SKUs."
"Our overall business is healthy, strong and growing," Koch added. "And that's a big advantage over the rest of the craft category where they've only got one bet, there are still is on one leg and ours is on four."
Although Angry Orchard volumes declined in Q1, Burwick said the brand was cycling the national launch of Rosé. He said the cider brand's trends are expected to rebound and grow with the launch of Angry Orchard Crisp Unfiltered, as well as the introduction of a variety pack, slim cans, and 12-packs of cans and bottles.
"I think that the big overlap is behind us, and now we're looking toward a different trajectory as the year progresses," he said.
The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE: SAM) began in 1984 and today brews more than 60 styles of Samuel Adams beer. The company's portfolio of brands also includes Angry Orchard Hard Cider, Twisted Tea,...
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Reversible Apron Pattern Ties in the Front or Back.
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The Emmeline Apron Pattern from Sew Liberated is a completely reversible apron that can be tied in the front or back. Wear as a stylish coverup in the kitchen or as a trendy fashion layer with jeans. Includes easy to follow instructions with diagrams and photos. Apron pattern is one size fits most. Includes full size pattern pieces.