The term "remote" implies distance—but with regard to working remotely, time is just as critical a factor as the distance between you and your remote team members. Why? Because time affects communication.
The completely remote company I work for uses both synchronous (real time) and asynchronous (not concurrent) communication. We do so because we're spread out over North America, within four different time zones.
The smaller marketing team I work on consists of two people in California (Pacific time) and two in the Philadelphia area (eastern time). So I'm going to tell you about how we use both synchronous and asynchronous communication, to not only be productive, but to maintain positive working relationships.
Our Philly folks (my boss and my direct report) generally start at 8 a.m. eastern time. I'm not ashamed to say that my alarm hasn't even gone off when they come online. So I will say that my mornings are like "drinking from the firehose"—there are a lot of "asynchronous communications" waiting for me! These include informational email messages, meeting requests, messages about changes to our shared Google documents and spreadsheets, and more.
The first hour or so of my day involves going through email, accepting meetings, and reviewing all the work that's been done while I was still drooling on my pillow.
From about 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 am. Pacific time is when our synchronous communication begins kicking in. This time period is usually reserved for instant messages and one-on-one phone calls. These synchronous communications are often tactical in nature: make these copy edits, approve those visuals, and so forth.
What I call "the big overlap"—10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. (PST)—comes next. This is where the magic happens with our team and the other people we collaborate with in the company. It's reserved mainly for strategic meetings; we'll have five to eight or so people on a call to discuss higher-level objectives. For example, we'll brainstorm our next campaign, discuss overall marketing and branding themes, or talk about how we can turn our latest competitive intelligence into opportunities.
For these conference calls, we use Skype, but without video. When we have larger calls, such as our all-company meetings, we use UberConference and other dial-in solutions. One reason we're not on video is we're often looking at a shared document, via Google Drive, or screen-sharing using Skype or Join.me. It's these modern tools that help make our company's synchronous communications so effective.
This time of day is when I do most of my individual work—writing and editing—and preparing the asynchronous communications for the next day. For example, I'll create a new document, write draft copy for a marketing message, and share it so my Philly colleagues have work to review while they're drinking their coffee.
I think it's obvious that the more spread out your virtual team is, the more asynchronous communication you'll have to do—and the more care you have to take with scheduling synchronous communication. We've all heard of teams on different continents having meetings where one part of the team is about to go to lunch, while the other part is up past their normal bedtime.
If your team all works on the same continent, though, it's easy to agree on a mix of synchronous and asynchronous communications (and workflow) that benefits everyone in your company.
Synchronous: Agree on an "overlap" time where people in all the time zones your company covers can communicate and collaborate in real time. Remember that instant messaging is great for tactical items, while voice communication is better for strategic discussions.
Asynchronous: Take special care to craft your asynchronous messages for clarity. This will enable the receiver to easily respond to or act on them, without having to wait to reach out to you in real time for an explanation.
If you have thoughts you'd like to share about these types of communication, I'd love to hear from you (as would the nice people at Remote.co who gave me this guest-posting opportunity!).
[Q&A with Remote.co], a company that creates innovative marketing, technology, and data solutions for the education market. He has a bachelor's degree in organizational communication from Pepperdine University.


Two very quick weeks have flown by since my Spanish teaching experience began here in Mesa, Arizona. Twelve classes weekly, and we are about to add one more. Several of my intermediate students have requested a conversational class – Spanish only! Being a native speaker, yet not using the language daily for far too many years, I am a bit rusty…..but it comes back! I have nearly 250 students spread over the twelve classes, many more than I expected. Teaching very enthusiastic adults is a lot of fun!
The Good Life Resort, where I am parked for three months, really does offer the good life……or, at the very least, the busy life. This resort is one of at least nine that Cal-Am manages in the Mesa area. Each resort is amazing. I teach at eight of them, and I am flabbergasted at the activities at each resort. The list of classes offered at no charge is endless and covers everything from techie knowledge to music to arts and crafts to quilting to languages to dancing and so much more. There are pools and spas, outdoor grills, miniature golf, shuffle board, pickle ball, tennis, card games of every kind, golf driving cages, bicycling, and the list goes on. I saw a Farmers' Market at one resort, and several of them have flea market type gatherings on occasion. Live musical entertainment is offered by the pools or in one of the halls almost daily.
No time yet to get out and explore the area yet. I'm looking forward to an opportunity to go hiking in the Superstition Mountains just a few miles from here. For those of you familiar with the area, I am open to suggestions on must-see places to visit. I think my time here is going to go quickly, and I am in the process of determining where my summer location will be.
Just this evening I attended a Gospel Quartet Concert here at Good Life. What a treat and so convenient! "Keepers of the Faith" is a group of talented young men from the state of Washington. Their harmony and deep faith were uplifting.
Moments of grace: I am so grateful for the many blessings in my life, from the wonderful place to call home for a few months to the great people I work with. Thank you for beautiful voices that are unafraid to profess their faith loudly and to do so is such a special uplifting way.
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Hi Pat. Gayle Zyla from VDO.. Are you teaching spanish again this year? I sure hope so. I will be in the park by Dec 1. Hugs and blessings to you.
Unfortunately, I will not be returning to Mesa this season. Last May my mother's advanced age and deteriorating condition precluded that I return to CA to care for her. My brother and sisters all have homes they are tied to, while I, living in my RV, was most flexible in being able to fulfill Mom's wish to remain at her home. I am here in Modesto, CA and will remain for as long as Mom and the family need me to. It is my gift of peace of mind to them.
I am very sad not to return this season. I truly enjoyed teaching Spanish, but my students and new friends were the best! I will miss you all. Hopefully I will be able to return sometime. Please keep up your studying – you have a wonderful talent for the language. All the best!
Now that you're in AZ and close I'd like to meet up with you and share some of your stories! I can come to you, I live in Phoenix. Call or text me at 602-696-5608… would like to connect!
Pat, as a high school and lifetime friend of Nancy Wilkinson, I am happy to recommend a couple of places to see/visit. We have stayed at Venture Out many winter seasons and love that park, so many things to do and learn, free or little charge.
Hope this helps. Enjoy your stay 8n Mesa.
We are spending winter in FL this year.
Hi Sue, thanks so much for reaching out to me. Your suggestions are appreciated, and I have actually now done quite a few of them. My delay in responding to you is due to WordPress' failure to notify me of messages, as they used to do. When I am in one place for several months my blogging slows way down! All the best to you! A friend of my Nancy and Jim is a friend of mine!


text:
describe('Home section -', function() {

  	beforeEach(module('app.home'));

	it('"reverse" filter should reverse a string', inject(function(reverseFilter) {
		expect(reverseFilter('123')).toEqual('321');
		expect(reverseFilter('ABCD')).toEqual('DCBA');
	}));
});

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The scene at the Garden, one hears, has been surreal of late, and no wonder. The dog show just wrapped, with Genghis Khan, Martha Stewart's Chow Chow, taking Best in Breed, amid protests against Mitt Romney's maltreatment of an old Irish setter named Seamus, whom Romney once strapped to the roof rack for a family road trip to Ontario. (The protesters' signs read "Mitt Is Mean" and "Dogs Aren't Luggage.") Sean Avery, the Rangers' on-again, off-again agitator, logged more time at Fashion Week than in the penalty box. And the world's tallest pro basketball player, according to Guinness, Paul (Tiny) Sturgess, who is seven feet eight, spent Valentine's Day handing out roses to commuters at Penn Station while dressed in his sweats. So what if he plays for the Globetrotters? Nobody watches the Knicks.
Nobody can watch the Knicks is more like it. About two million of us couldn't, at any rate, owing to a contractual dispute between Time Warner Cable and the MSG Network over the past seven weeks. The same goes for the Rangers, who apparently own the best record in the N.H.L. The last time they were this good, Newt Gingrich was hawking his Contract with America, and their captain, Mark Messier, was tight with Madonna. Quick: can you name the current Rangers captain? Time Warner, in its negotiations with MSG's demanding chairman, James Dolan, seems to have been betting on the fact that you're stumped and don't care. That the Knicks' roster boasted a couple of bona-fide stars, Carmelo Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire, didn't much matter, either. Dolan's teams have underwhelmed with such regularity, in spite of ample budgets, for the past decade that local partisans can be forgiven for having adopted a more passive approach to winter fandom. Call us in April. Wake us—or, better yet, alert security—if you see Isiah Thomas.
But a lot can happen in seven weeks, or even two, as the case may be with the Knicks. Your best player can hurt his groin. Your other best player can take a leave of absence after a death in the family. And ticket scalpers' prices, in turn, can . . . skyrocket? Incredibly, while your screens were black, and with a lineup of virtual scabs, the Knicks went on a historic run, winning seven straight games and nearly exploding the Internet in the process.
"It's been nutty," Spero Dedes, the Knicks' radio announcer, said the other day, likening what he'd been witnessing (and what many hadn't) to a Disney movie. "I was talking to Clyde Frazier, and he said he hadn't seen anything like this going back decades." Time Warner subscribers, catching glimpses of the headlines, may have felt a little like latter-day Rip van Winkles—groggy, befuddled at all they seemed to have missed. Had Spike Lee suddenly taken over coaching duties from Mike D'Antoni, inspiring John Starks and Reggie Miller to call off retirement? What else could explain this level of hysteria? Was Dolan buying off the refs? Or had he hired an undrafted, couch-surfing Harvard graduate with Taiwanese parents to man the point? Bingo. Naturally, the new guy outperformed even Kobe Bryant. Then Tim Tebow showed up, and started connecting with him on a series of heavenly alley-oops. Not yet, maybe, but the point guard in question, Jeremy Lin, is also a devout Christian. Welcome to Linsanity.
By late last week, with rumors swirling that Kim Kardashian had a bed available that might be more comfortable than a couch, the Rangers clearly wanted in on the action. Having already won eight of their last ten and still suffering from a deficit of attention, they took out a full-page ad in Newsday. It featured an image of their league-leading goalie, Henrik Lundqvist. Above him, in all caps, read the word "LINQVIST!" A season-ticket holder who'd been travelling for much of the blackout decided to revisit the Garden and see what was up. He was quickly disappointed. There was no residual Linsanity in evidence—no cardboard cutouts of Asian faces or bad puns—and no Lundqvist, for that matter. Martin Biron, the understudy, was between the pipes, and the visiting Blackhawks potted four goals on their first six shots. "Maybe the newspapers have been lying to us," the spectator texted to another Time Warner client, who, back home in Brooklyn, had settled for watching "Swamp People," on the History Channel.


text:
Category: Film
Alternate Realities <3 <3 <3: "I Dream of Singapore"
By Poh Yong Han (1,279 words, 7-minute read) I Dream of Singapore follows an injured Bangladeshi migrant worker, Feroz, who is temporarily residing at a Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) shelter, Dayspace, as he waits for his case to be…
Here's a list of the top 10 ArtsEquator articles in 2019: Enter Stage Right: Tay Tong by ArtsEquator "It is amazing how one's identity is so associated with one's job. Especially for me – after 30 years, all of…
"Medium Rare", "God or Dog" and the makings of a Singaporean monster
By Alfonse Chiu (1,700 words, 7-minute read) Content warning: References to violent or disturbing behaviour In late January 1981, the body of a young girl was discovered in a brown PVC bag about a metre high by a young…
Celebrating the monstrous other: "Anak Pontianak" and "Nobody" at LumiNation
By ila (1,100 words, 6-minute read) The year is 2049: two hundred years since the Pontianak first appeared in writing, marked insignificantly in Hikayat Abdullah as residues of superstitious and foolish beliefs of the Chinese and Malays that have persisted…
"In Time To Come" at LumiNation 2019
We asked our readers what they would put in a time capsule. The answers were heartwarming, quirky and intriguing – through each of them, there was a consideration of what deserves preservation, and an imagination of our futures. In Tan…
'Maaf Senin Tutup': 1998 through eclectic eyes of Anggun Priambodo (via The Jakarta Post)
Anggun Priambodo's latest exhibition is framed under the guise of a fictional character he created for his last movie of the same name, Maaf Senin Tutup (Sorry, Closed on Mondays) — an artist named Eva who is trying to establish herself in…
Asian Restored Classics 2018: Revisiting the Past In New Light
The annual Asian Restored Classics (ARC) festival is an initiative by the Asian Film Archive (AFA). It's the first of its kind in Singapore, providing a platform to celebrate the best of Asian cinema by screening the restored historic and…
The World Cup, The Japanese Occupation and Our Painful Inheritance
This article is republished from the Singapore International Film Festival editorial. It is part of New Waves 2018, an annual series of screenings and dialogues with regional filmmakers. For this third edition of the New Waves series, SGIFF invites participants…
The Pontianak Talks Back: Two Women Discuss Monstrous Femininity in Their Art
Sentiments of Space: Reading Between the Frames of Don Aravind
ArtsEquator's Picks: Southeast Asian films at SGIFF 2017
By Meta Setiawan Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF) returns this year from 23 November to 3 December 2017, presenting an exciting array of films from Singapore, the region and all other corners of the world. ArtsEquator.com is excited to see…
ArtsEquator Viewpoints 6
Sundance of Southeast Asia: Luang Prabang Film Festival 2 – 7 Dec 2016
If you're in withdrawal now that the 27th Singapore International Film Festival 2016 has ended, you have two days left to catch the Luang Prabang Film Festival (LPFF). Founded in 2010 by Gabriel Kuperman, the Luang Prabang Film Festival has…
Serendipitous releases: "PheNoumenon" by…

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Tag: David Davis
Alien Resort: The Bride Was Lovely
Posted on July 31, 2020 July 31, 2020 by Kathy Waller in Uncategorized
King Benjamin of the Archipelago reported the marriage of Coy and Susan on the Alien Resort blog, but in a just-the-facts-ma'am account, lacking the detail readers expect in the Sunday Society rotogravure. Well, that is men for you. Fortunately, I paid attention to the matters of most importance and am pleased to supplement King Benjamin's account. King Benjamin gave me permission to post this, although he noted it's awfully fancy. ~ Queen Ramona
Not Consuelo Vanderbilt's wedding dress. See note at end of post.
Coy of Alien Resort and Susan of Alpha Pegasi exchanged marriage vows on Wednesday, July 15, 2020, with Spaceship Captain Plucky officiating.
Social distancing was in effect at all times.
The bride was lovely in a floor-length gown of cream satin with a ten-foot train, fashioned after the dress worn by Consuelo Vanderbilt at her 1895 marriage to the 9th Duke of Marlborough. Her low-heeled slippers were of cream peau-de-soie.
Susan carried a tropical cascade bouquet of Asiatic lilies, ranunculus, and bright blue orchids. Around her neck she wore an antique pearl choker belonging to Queen Ramona, thus completing the tradition of old-new-borrowed-blue.
Ladies-in-waiting were attired less sumptuously but just as attractively in floor-length gowns of orange organza with ruffles at neckline and wrist.
The groom, best man Deadpan, and groomsman Dan Rosandich of Dans Cartoons wore black Vera Wang notch lapel tuxedos. The soles of the groom's shoes were painted black so they wouldn't look all dusty when he knelt.
Best man Deadpan carried the rings. Coy had considered having a juvenile ring bearer but dropped the idea when Susan reminded him that children, although cute, are unreliable.
Queen Ramona wore a rhinestone tiara and her Writers' League of Texas sunglasses, the latter in hopes that no one would recognize her.
The altar was tastefully decorated with a lovely gift of flowers from bluejayblog.
Security was provided by Jett of Comically Quirky and Toby of the Adventures of Bitey Dog. All guests being of a peaceable nature, no biting occurred.
Following the wedding ceremony, guests partook of refreshments of brownies, mixed nuts, and pink champagne, with the option of plain pink punch for teetotalers.
Coy and Susan were especially honored by the presence of a Special Guest, the author of mydangblog, who came all the way from Canada to attend the reception.
Unfortunately, the bride and groom skipped the brownies and left for their honeymoon immediately after the service, and most of the guests followed throwing birdseed, so the crowd at the reception was rather sparse, and the guest author was stuck talking to Queen Ramona and an anonymous Truck Driver. The Queen and the Truck Driver enjoyed the conversation immensely, and the mydangblog author proved a really good sport.
When the festivities ended, King Benjamin announced that a good time had been had by all.
Queen Ramona surveyed the leftover brownies and begged guests to take as many as they could carry because there were at least 3,000 and the palace freezer wouldn't hold them all. She said she'll store the champagne in the wine cellar for future celebrations.
After a honeymoon of sightseeing at the main island of the archipelago, Coy and Susan are at home at their spaceship at Alien Resort.
Coy and Susan extend thanks to all who celebrated with them. They're especially grateful to Zoom for assistance with social distancing.
Image of wedding rings by Arek Socha from Pixabay
Image of brownie by S. Hermann & F. Richter from Pixabay
Image of pink champagne by Jill Wellington from Pixabay
Image of the dress not belonging to Consuelo Vanderbilt comes from Flickr and is in the public domain. It is identified as American and dated 1894. It's not so opulent as that worn by Miss Vanderbilt, no ten-foot train (or five-foot train, depending on the source) but it's as close as I can get without possibly violating copyright or paying a licensing fee.
Many and varied dresses show up on the Internet identified as the Vanderbilt wedding gown. The one I believe is accurate, which appeared in a magazine of the time, is available for use on the web for about $44.00. I'm not that desperate.
Tagged Adventures of Bitey Dog, Alien Resort, bluejayblog, cartoons, Comically Quirky, Consuelo Vanderbilt, Dans Cartoons, David Davis, mydangblog, society page, wedding receptions, weddings1 Comment
Invisible Men Battle It Out in Hurst
Posted on June 30, 2019 by Kathy Waller in Uncategorized
We're pleased to announce that "Invisible Men Invade Earth" was named audience favorite at the Central Arts Short Film Battle in Hurst last night. It competed with "Don't Die" by Cody Lovorn from San Antonio.
As winner, "Invisible Men" will compete with other 2019 audience favorites later in the year.
After the Battle, a 90-minute feature film, The Monster of Phantom Lake, produced by Film Battle organizer Christopher Mihm, was shown. The Creative Spotlight terms Mihm a "retro-styled director." Of the film, it says,
"Made on a nearly non-existent budget, this B-movie went on to garner much critical acclaim, appear in many genre-based film festivals, win multiple awards, and continues to screen across the world."
Without further ado, here are pictures of writer-director-producer-camera man-sound engineer-casting director-key grip-best boy-etc. David Davis, stars William the Cat and Ernest the Cat, and one wall of the theatre.
Photos of David Davis by Kathy Waller
Photo of wall by David Davis
Photos of William and Ernest by Charla, our vet tech cat minder, for whom William and Ernest always pose nicely, because they like her more than they like David and me
Tagged cats, catwatching, Central Arts Short Film Battle, David Davis, Ernest the Cat, film festivals, indie films, William the Cat2 Comments
Score: Fifteen – Love
In less than an hour, David and I will have been married fifteen years and nine hours. Or slightly less; the wedding began at 2:00 p.m., but with all the singing and marching and reading and plighting, it was probably 2:30 before the minister told us we could leave. To me, it seems like we've been married only a few months. I don't how it seems to to David, and I'm not going to ask.
Anyway, we're celebrating with a night at the Omni Hotel at Barton Creek, where we're conferring, consorting, and otherwise hob-nobbing with our brother and sister wizards. Or as David would put it, we're mixing with the quality.
I spent the morning and part of the afternoon at the Mokara Spa, getting nails, hair, and face done. Fifteen years ago it wouldn't have taken that long, but things happen.
David took before and after pictures. I don't know whether After will look much different from Before, but in real life, I walked out of that place looking a lot better than I did when I went in. I had color in my face. Or, more accurately, on it.
When I was thirteen, my mother handed me a lipstick and said, "Use it. You're very pale." She was the only mom in Creation who wished her daughter would use more make-up. I didn't know how bad it was until I was in my forties, when I saw a picture of myself sitting in the church choir. Everyone else looked normal. I looked several shades past anemic.
It's a Waller thing. My grandfather was tanned by the sun, but when he rolled up his khakis to wade into the river (on some mission related to his boat or his trotlines) his legs were unimaginably white. After meeting one of my cousins, David delicately and in a voice filled with concern, asked me if she had some kind of illness or condition. No, I said, that's what's known as alabaster skin. Unfortunately, I missed the alabaster, but I got the pallor. Until I get embarrassed, at which time I turn beet red.
A dermatologist once said to me, "Well, you have blonde skin, you know." His tone was downright accusatory. I got my father's black hair, which comes from the other side of his family. I know they don't go together, but it's not my fault. I have no control over my DNA.
Anyway, the Mokara make-up lady has me looking downright alive. She also did a pretty good haircut. I showed her a ten-year-old picture and she got about as close as anyone could get.
What, you might ask, did David–the other half of this anniversary thing–do while I was being gussied up? What he does every day. He sat with his Chromebook and worked on Alien Resort and whatever else he works on. I never know what he's doing until he tells me a newspaper has picked up his cartoon or that a film festival is going to screen one of his videos.
Which brings this post to a turn I didn't expect it to take: while I was writing this, David forwarded me an email from Central Arts of Hurst Short Film Series – Round Three saying that his "Invisible Men Invade Earth" will be screened this Saturday, June 29. It will be
"competing against "Don't Die" and, based on audience reaction and input, a winner will be crowned at the conclusion of the evening. The winning film will then be invited back at the end of the screening series to compete in a "Battle Royale" to see which film is crowned "King" (or "Queen" or "Non-gender-specific Monarch," take your pick)! SO, in the interest of giving your film the best chance to win, we very much encourage you to invite EVERYONE you know to this event!"
"Invisible Men" has garnered positive responses ("sweet and innocent"; "a film you can tell he made just because he wanted to") at all showings, and it stars the cats (last-minute unscripted but welcome appearance), so I can, with confidence, pronounce it the best film of the year, bar none.
Nevertheless, if you're in the Hurst-Euless-Bedford-Dallas-Fort Worth-Oklahoma area this Saturday evening, feel free to drop in (although they say to get a ticket early because they often turn people away at the door). And if you come, vote for David's film. Because the other people in attendance might have poor taste and vote wrong.
We don't know when the Monarch will be named. The film festival is a monthly event. The first in the series was in December 2018, so we assume the competition will be held toward the end of this year. We'll let you know, since we are encouraged to invite EVERYONE we know. David appreciates all compliments, admiration, adulation, and adoration that come his way, and I'm sure he'd be okay with his film's being crowned. The ultimate designation, though, is weird. That's what an Austin reviewer called it. High praise. It's an Austin thing.
So that's the story of our anniversary celebration. The only things omitted are 1) the steak; half of mine is in the refrigerator, none of his resides there; and 2) the tantrum I had when, after both David and I spent a half-hour searching for the photographs I had transferred from my camera to the Google Drive, and after David said, How do you stand the mouse opening and closing tabs when you're not looking and I said, I cuss under my breath, and he figured out how to fix it, almost—as I said, after all that, I discovered about four hundred words had disappeared from this post and the deletion couldn't be undone and all revisions were gone gone gone.
It wasn't much of a tantrum, because I knew I should have saved before running off after errant photos, but then, WordPress shouldn't have autosaved an incomplete document.
And the mouse, which I'm certain is to blame, should have minded its own business.
If you've gotten this far without wishing the missing four hundred words had never been reconstituted, bless your heart. Now I have to go wash off all this makeup and fade into the background.
Wedding photo by Atelier Wong
Tagged Barton Creek Spa, celebrations, coloring, complexion, David Davis, film festivals, Invisible Men Invade Earth, marriage, Waller family, wedding anniversaries6 Comments
Comicpalooza Day 1: Men's Rooms, Thor, & Lumbar Support
Posted on May 11, 2019 by Kathy Waller in Uncategorized
We're in Houston for the screening of David's short-short animated video, "Blood Bank."
Before most trips, I stay up half the night doing laundry, but last night I stayed up cooking pot roast. The fixings had been around for several days–I'd told David to buy them and I would cook, but then life got in the way, some of it legitimate, like not having enough cooking oil–and the roast was almost to the cook-it-or-freeze-it point. I would have frozen it but the carrots, potatoes, and onion wouldn't have frozen well, so I cooked and froze the result.
On the positive side, that roast was absolutely delicious. I know because I tried it before going to bed. A darned good roast. Even if I did forget to put in the potatoes until late and had to let it cook for an extra hour. Or more.
On the negative side, I am absolutely wiped out. I thought I was doing pretty well on the drive over until we stopped for gasoline and trail mix and I followed David into the men's room. And couldn't figure out why he was waving at me so vigorously. Sort of flailing like a windmill.
I used a men's room in Paris with David as lookout–the other ladies' restroom at the Musee D'Orsay was closed, and I got tired of standing in a line that stretched down the hallway–and nobody said boo. But Americans are more sensitive about those things than are the French.
Anyway, we got to the hotel around noon and had lunch and then I crashed. Then we had dinner and went to the screening. Then we went back to the restaurant because I wanted glass of wine.
I don't drink–at least, that's what my doctor said when I told him how much alcohol I imbibe per year–but I am so tired that I was afraid I wouldn't sleep. I thought a medicinal glass of wine might knock me out.
So David ordered a Stella Artois for himself and ordered me a glass-and-a-half of Fleur de Mer. That's nine ounces as opposed to a glass, which is six. I don't like most wine, but rosé isn't bad. A dessert wine I had at a Greek restaurant years ago was excellent, but I've forgotten what it was, so I'm stuck with rosé.
I would have had Dom Perignon if it hadn't been $350 a bottle. I've been trying to remember if I'd ever been in a restaurant that had Dom Perignon on the menu. A restaurant we went to for Valentine's Day a couple of years ago was serving some kind of steak for $150. I guess that's the closest I've to Dom Perignon that I've come. David said it was a joke and no one would order steak for that price, but I pointed out you never know what some men will do to impress a girl they aren't married to.
The glasses our beverages came in were just this side of mammoth. David took pictures. It was rather gauche of us to notice the glassware, but that's just the kind of people we are. Furthermore, I'm from the country.
I'd been gauche once earlier in the evening: I asked (had David ask) for catsup. Fried catfish was on the buffet, but there were no condiments, and I'm sorry, but I grew up eating fried catfish on my grandfather's front porch, and I know that with catfish, catsup is a necessity, even if Conrad Hilton doesn't.
I used to think that staying at a Hilton meant I had to arrive looking like I'd made an effort, and I guess back in the '50s that was true, but judging from the other guests wandering in from the parking garage, it ain't true any more. So I've given up trying.
No, that's not true. I do try. It's just that nobody can tell it.
Anyway, we sat in the restaurant, and David drank his beer, and I drank my wine, and then I got into the wheelchair and David wheeled me to our room. I can walk just fine, except when I haven't had enough food or enough sleep, or when someone is watching, and then I stagger, and I don't go too far too fast under any circumstances, so on our film weekends, I get wheeled a lot.
My fault. I was forced to be sedentary for a while and liked it so much I just kept a-goin'. I've been walking more lately, though, and am doing quite well. If no one is looking. I've also registered at a gym.
Sad to say, however, I've come to enjoy being wheeled around. It was embarrassing at first, but I've gotten over that. Why walk when you can ride? Only at huge film festivals, though. Comicpalooza is huge.
Tomorrow we'll wheel around the George R. Brown Convention Center, looking at people dressed like their favorite comic book characters. I think some will dress however they please. They're all entertaining. If I had my old Davy Crockett outfit, I would wear it, if it weren't too small. I got it for my birthday a million years ago. The coonskin cap was especially nice. Somewhere there's a snapshot of me wearing the outfit and holding my pet hen, Dickie.
There will be signs saying to ask permission before taking pictures of people in costume. I cannot for the life of me figure that one out. When anyone over the age of eighteen walks around in public around dressed up like Buzz Lightyear, he shouldn't be surprised to see flashbulbs going off. Although I'm not sure we have flashbulbs any more.
Last year at lunch, we sat very near Thor. He told the man he was with that he needed lumbar support. I didn't take his picture because I knew just how he felt. But the experience dampened the thrill of being only yards away from a Germanic god. Too much wielding of that hammer, I suppose.
But when I want a photo, I do ask. Rather, David asks. I'm shy. I wait till they walk away and and then take pictures of their backs. I got one tonight. "Cat Lady Squad."
Well. That's my day. Thank you for asking.
The last time I posted, WordPress had a spell/word check on the toolbar. Tonight it seems to have disappeared. So if this post is riddled with errors, talk to WP about it. I proofed and proofed but that glass of wine is beginning to kick in and standard usage is falling by the wayside.
"Tor's Fight With the Giants" by Marten Eskil Winge, public domain, via Wikipedia
Tagged Alien Resort, animated films, Blood Bank (video), cartoonists, comicbook characters, Comicpalooza 2019, conventions, cosplay, David Davis1 Comment
Weird Again in Houston
Posted on May 5, 2019 by Kathy Waller in Uncategorized
The Davises are off to Houston next weekend for Comicpalooza and the screening of David's short-short animated video, "Blood Bank."
Whatever you're thinking "Blood Bank" is about, it's probably not. David's films are weird. That's guaranteed. Otherwise, they're unpredictable. Totally.
According to publicity, Animation Shorts comprises "Short film finalists in the Comicpalooza Film Festival that feature the best in animation." "Blood Bank" is one of only three to be screened. It's also his first attempt at animation.
Comicpalooza, "the largest annual, multi-genre, comic book, science fiction, anime, gaming, and pop-culture convention in the Southern United States," has its unpredictable side, too. You never know whom or what you'll see.
Here's a sample of what we saw last year.
I can predict this year we'll see Austinite Manning Wolfe, author of the Texas Lady Lawyer mystery series. She'll be among the celebrities and guests appearing over the weekend.
Watch for more on Comicpalooza and "Blood Bank" next week–same time, same station, if you're old enough to know what that means.
"Blood Bank" will run in Animation Shorts, Friday, May 10, at 8:00 p.m.
See David Davis' print cartoons at Alien Resort. His film "Invisible Men Invade Earth" appears on Youtube.
Tagged Blood Bank (video), cartoons, comic strips, Comispalooza 2019, David Davis, Invisible Men Invade Earth1 Comment
I Is for I Like Alien Resort: #atozchallenge
Posted on April 10, 2019 April 10, 2019 by Kathy Waller in Uncategorized
About a zillion words into a post about ifferisms, I discovered I was so bored I couldn't go on, and if I couldn't go on, neither could anyone else. So I abandoned it. That left a void in the topic area, but the only I word I could think of was I.
Well, they say write what you know: I like these books. I like these movies. I like chocolate.
Then David gave me permission to write about Alien Resort, a cartoon peopled–or, more accurately, aliened–by visitors from outer space.
Creator, writer, and illustrator, Earthling David Davis, is aided by the four ETs pictured below: Coy, Plucky, Deadpan, and Lmao. Coy founded Alien Resort after crash landing on Earth. The others arrived later. Read their bios here.
Alien Resort. © David Davis.
The cartoon appears in newspapers from California (Alameda Sun) to Brooklyn (Canarsie Courier) to Cumbria, UK (Egremont 2day ) to Australia (Dunoon and District Gazette), plus a number of other publications along the way. They're listed at the Hall of Fame.
Here's a sample of what you see at Alien Resort:
In 2015, David's submission won John Kelso's Funny Christmas Card Contest (Austin American-Statesman).
His short film Invisible Men Invade Earth has been screened at a number of festivals. It was named Most Original Concept at the 2016 Houston Comedy Film Festtival and Judges' Choice at the 2017 What the Fest in Dallas. Read more about it and watch it on vimeo.
Tagged #AtoZChallenge, Alien Resort, cartoons, David Davis, ETs, short films, UFOs, writers
William and Ernest Make America Great. For the Second Year in a Row. In Dallas.
Posted on November 3, 2018 November 3, 2018 by Kathy Waller in Uncategorized
David and I are in Dallas for What the Fest 2 at the Pocket Sandwich Theatre, and we are officially chuffed. David's "Invisible Men Invade Earth," which was named Judges' Pick in the 2017 WTF, was screened last night, first on the program–and will be shown again tonight.
What the Fest highlights films that don't fit into any particular genre. (An understatement if there ever was one.)
Last night's fan favorite was "Deletion," the story of a psychiatrist who specializes in erasing patients' memories. My favorite was "Toasted," a look at what appliances, including a Scotch tape dispenser that handles tape about as well as I do, get up to when the master isn't home.
Everyone in the audience received a raffle ticket for door prizes. If you let them stamp your forehead, you got an extra raffle ticket. Well, why not? David won a tote bag. Or maybe I did. I gave him my tickets to care for, and we don't know whose number was called.
At the second intermission, girls* came around with a black light thingy and took pictures of our foreheads. Results are under Well, why not, above.
Pocket Sandwich Theatre is little and cute and specializes in melodrama, as you can tell from the carpet of popcorn on the floor.
What the Fest is my favorite of all the festivals we've been to, in part because little and cute also means informal–the principals say they're a family, and they act like it. They have fun. So does the audience.
They also like David's film. When they introduced it, they said they'd watched nine hours of submissions, and to keep themselves going throughout the arduous task, they periodically played "Invisible Men," because it made them giggle. When we were leaving, a couple of the guys said they watch it a lot and also quote some of the lines ("Well, that sucks," and "It is not a coincidence.") One of the girls said she watches it with her mother.
In Austin, "Invisible Men, the story of two cats who save Earth by facing down a horde of space aliens," and David's other films are called weird."** The folks in Dallas speak of "purity" and "a place of love." In other words, it's the kind of film you can take home to your mother, and that says a lot.
Once again, stars William and Ernest chose to stay home under the twice-a-day supervision of Charla, who feeds them, pets them, and gives William his insulin injection. They don't like the carriers or the car, but they like Charla a lot. Charla emailed us that they're playful.
We're now using the wi-fi at the Denny's next door to our hotel. The hotel's wi-fi keeps slipping off the Internet and refuses to let me upload photos, but Denny's is excellent.
In about four hours, we'll head back to Pocket Sandwich Theatre to see "Invisible Men Invade Earth" and several new films. Last night, the audience started laughing before the first scene ended. I'm sure tonight's viewers will be just as discerning.
*A purist would call them women, but where I come from, women that age are girls unless you're trying to make a point.
**In Austin, weird is a compliment. I don't know who decided Austin is weird, but "Keep Austin Weird" is right up there, or maybe above, "The Live Music Capitol of the World." Weird may have started when Jim Franklin drew that armadillo. Oh. I just looked it up. Here's who decided Austin is weird.
Further note: Lone Star used to be the National Beer of Texas, and I guess it still is. I haven't seen the commercial in a long time, but there's a video on youtube extolling its virtues. (See link above.) According to the expert, It's got a perfect taste that's hard to describe.
Tagged cats, David Davis, David Davis Film Production, film festivals, Invisible Men Invade Earth, science fiction, What the Fest 2, William and Ernest
"Invisible Men Invade Earth" Wins at What the Fest
Posted on October 15, 2017 by Kathy Waller in Uncategorized
The video "Invisible Men Invade Earth," written, directed, and produced by David Davis, was declared What the Fest Winner Judge's Pick at Dallas' Pocket Sandwich Theatre last night.*
Judges said "Invisible Men" has a "purity" that shows it comes from a "place of love," and they could tell David made it simply because he wanted to.
David still claims he made it because he wanted something to do that didn't require leaving the couch.
His videos have been recognized before– following Fantastic Fest 2015, Andrew Whalen described him in Player.One as "the eccentric director behind the weirdest festival entries in Austin"–but this is the first time his work has been judged #1.
We arrived at Pocket Sandwich Theatre in time to hear the last scenes of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Judging from the chorus of boos and hisses and the popcorn blanketing the floor, the audience had a rollicking good time.
Not as good a time as David and I had, of course.
Only one thing is missing. William and Ernest, who made it all possible, couldn't be with us. Or, more accurately, wouldn't be with us. Since that ill-fated trip to the vet last June, the sight of a suitcase sends them flying under the bed. A vet tech now comes to the house twice daily when we're away to feed them and give William his insulin injection.
They like her. After eight years of hiding from company, William sashayed out, snuffled her hand, and invited her to give him a tummy rub. They agreed to star in "Invisible Men Invade Earth," but that was when they were young. They have since given up the stage. Awards mean nothing to them.
David and I, though, are officially chuffed. And we'll stay that way for the next couple of days at least.
*In truth, David's video was declared winner early this morning. The program started at 11:15 p.m. last night and it comprised twelve videos and one intermission plus intros and miscellaneous talk, so the awards portion didn't roll around till about 2:00 a.m.
Tagged awards, cats, Dallas TX, David Davis, David Davis Video, Ernest the Cat, Humor, Invisible Men Invade Earth, Pocket Sandwich Theatre, science fiction, Weresquirrel Productions, What the Fest, William the Cat
Love Among the Aliens (and the Weird)
Posted on February 14, 2017 February 14, 2017 by Kathy Waller in Uncategorized
Valentine @ Alien Resort. © David Davis
Tagged Alien Resort, aliens, cartoons, Coy, David Davis, extraterrestrials, flying saucers, LMAO, love, lovers, UFOs, Valentine, Valentine's Day
Dedicated to the kindness of strangers
Posted on July 9, 2016 by Kathy Waller in Uncategorized
Alike and Different
In June, David's "Alike and Different," a video "dedicated to the kindness of strangers," won the Out of This World Award at the Lionshead Film Festival in Dallas.
The emcee who introduced the video said–and I wrote this down so I would get it right–"Not much I can say. Four minutes." And then, to the audience, "We'll see what you say."
But he was half grinning/half giggling, which said a lot. And the audience laughed in all the right places.
When people you don't know, and who don't know you, laugh in all the right places–well, it makes you feel darned good.
Afterward, the emcee said David's video shows what can be done using just a few household objects. I assume the household object to which he referred was my vegetable steamer. It does make a stunning spacecraft.
David @ Lionshead Film Festival, June 2016
When David told me the festival would be held at Valley View Center, an old mall on Preston Road, I said, "I know Preston Road." And that is true. Sort of. I know approximately two blocks of Preston Road. Or, I knew two blocks of it. My knowledge peaked sometime between, oh, 1957 and 1965.
Consequently, as a navigator, I was hopeless. I read the big green exit signs and said things like, "There's Walnut Hill Lane. I know that." And, "There's Belt Line. I know that." I'm just a bit hazy on how all the streets I know fit together, like on a map.
[Typical on-the-road conversation:
David: The mall is in the Galleria area. Do you know where the Galleria is?
Me: Yes. It's in Houston.]
Fortunately, David had performed due diligence and we reached our destination without having to depend on the kindness of strangers.
The Lionshead festival was smaller than others we've attended: all fifty-two films were screened in one small room. But I was impressed by the quality. "Call for a Good Time," was one of my favorites. It was named Best Student Comedy Micro Short. The director, a student at Baylor University, said it was inspired by Baylor's Moody Memorial Library, which serves as an unofficial social center. He said you have to get pretty deep into the library to study, which is what his characters do. Sort of.
My other favorite was a comedy titled "Hard Broads." I can't explain. You have to see it for yourself. It was named Best Female Directed Short. I didn't see a Best Male Directed Short on the list.
Two days before the festival, the Dallas City Council voted to tear down Valley View Center to make way for the Dallas Midtown development. It seems it's "a dead mall on life support." Dead, maybe, but I liked what I saw of it–art galleries and studios and kiddie rides and a train. I'm a sucker for trains. And stuffed animals, and a store displaying the most well-endowed mannequin I've ever seen. I snapped a few of the highlights.
For more out-of-this-world experiences, check out Alien Resort.
It's official, finally: By year's end, Valley View Center will be torn down for Dallas Midtown
Dallas Midtown, the Valley View redo, now one vote away from $36 million in TIF money, demo deadline
Tagged Alien Resort, aliens, Alike and Different, Call for a Good Time (film), Dallas Midtown development, David Davis, film festivals, Hard Broads (film), indie film festivals, indie films, Lionshead Film Festival, UFOs, Valley View Center2 Comments
Saints, Angels, Bananas, and Bricks
Posted on March 12, 2016 by Kathy Waller in Uncategorized
David made banana pudding.
I'd planned to make it myself. We had spotty bananas. David made a special trip to HEB for sugar, flour, cream of tartar, vanilla wafers, and other ingredients Miss Myra required.
Then I ran out of steam.
That was Friday.
Saturday the bananas were even spottier. Definitely on their way out.
I was the same, minus spots.
That's when David said the magic words: "Shall I make banana pudding?"
Who was I to say him nay? I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid.
I emailed him the link to Miss Myra's Banana Pudding recipe. He took his Chromebook to the kitchen, pulled up the web page, located the egg separator I gave him last Christmas (not dreaming he would ever have reason to use it), and got cooking.
I sat.
The result is pictured below.
After the pudding chilled awhile, David sampled and pronounced it good. He said it tasted like someone else made it.
I wanted a bite but, having feasted on the extra vanilla wafers and milk, I was in no mood to partake. Mañana.
The point I wish to make: David is a saint. An angel. A veritable paragon of virtue.
Or, as Polly Pepper would say, David is a brick.
Miss Myra's Banana Pudding, Made by David Davis, Certified Saint, on March 12, 2016
Today we take up the question, Is meringue necessary?
Tagged banana pudding, Cooking, cooks, David Davis, desserts, food, Miss Myra's Banana Pudding, Polly Pepper, pudding, recipes, The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew6 Comments
The Best of Fantastic Fest: My Husband, His Films, and a Flying Vegetable Steamer
Posted on September 30, 2015 September 30, 2015 by Kathy Waller in Uncategorized
Last week a friend asked what David and I have done for fun lately.
A long silence followed.
Fantastic Fest 2015 tee-shirt
After a courtship comprising concerts, coffee houses, radio spots, tacos Tapatio on Christmas morning in Ciudad Acuna, and a road trip that David's brother termed a kamikaze vacation to Maryland, Washington, D.C., New York City, and Georgia between Christmas and New Year's (if there's territory to be covered, we cover it), we settled into a quiet married life complete with a washer, a dryer, a microwave, and two four-pawed children. We're happy, but our definition of fun tends toward the stodgy.
Today, however, we leave our cool sequester'd vale and plunge into the madding crowd at the Alamo Draft House for Fantastic Fest.
Three of David's short films will be screened today in Shorts with Leg, starting about 2:00 o'clock. They first aired last Friday, so we're a repeat audience.
According to Fantastic Fest's website, Shorts with Leg are "the strangest and most compelling eccentric short films we've seen all year, from polished excursions into existential surrealism to enthusiastic reveries of outsider art madness." It also refers to "the most mind-meltingly bizarre short film submission this programmer has ever seen!" We're not certain, but the way it's phrased, that seems to apply to one of David's films. I'd not thought of it, but mind-meltingly bizarre is accurate.
The three films, which will reappear on his Vimeo page after the festival ends, are
Alike and Different;
Reverse Effects; and
Superhero.
Click on Alike and Different and read that "David Davis becomes your new favorite outsider artist in this lo-fi satirical look at a first contact scenario." You'll also see a photo of a flying saucer that closely resembles my vegetable steamer.
Madding Crowd at Fantastic Fest 2015
Other Shorts with Leg were made by professionals–one said he'd just finished editing Warren Beatty's latest film–which makes David's "outsider status" pretty darned special. Even better–in my estimation at least–was audience reaction to his films: They laughed. And laughed. And laughed. What higher praise is there? His films were bright spots in an otherwise strange, dark two hours.
After the screening, directors appeared on stage and answered questions. To wit:
Question: What inspired your film?
David: I wanted to make something simple and cheap.
He accomplished his goal. Actors, singer, arranger, pianist, costume enhancer, and flying saucer donated their time.
In short, he done good. I knew I was marrying a writer and a kamikaze, but I had no idea I'd end up as consort of a film producer/director/editor and all the rest.
Having described David's success, I'll move on to mine.
Me, at certain times of the year
For photo IDs, the Fest wanted shaky faces, meaning we were supposed to shake our faces back and forth and snap a picture at the worst point–when flesh had practically parted from bone and was wobbling all over the place.
I refused. Instead, I sent in an old drawing I'd made to represent how I felt during allergy season. If they refused to issue me a badge, I was going to sit outside on a bench and read.
But I got my badge. The picture is on sideways, but it's there. I realized last Friday morning that if I didn't brush my hair, I'd look just like it.
This post should have gone online last night, but I ran out of steam. No matter. I am not used to working in advance of need.
Time to leave. I have to stop this and throw on my tee-shirt. If we happen to meet in the lobby, please look at my photo ID. No one else has.
Oh–Publicity mentions that Elijah Wood will be the DJ at the closing party. The Elijah Wood? I don't know. David said he's not interested in going to the parties because it would just be young people behaving boisterously. I concur. We're going to El Mercado and then to see Mark Pryor at BookPeople instead.
See? I told you our fun tends toward the stodgy. And, thank goodness, toward the literary, which is not stodgy at all.
Mark Pryor's HOLLOW MAN
PS Author Mark Pryor will be at BookPeople tonight at 7:00 p.m. His new book, HOLLOW MAN is–I can't think of an adjective besides amazing, and that's used so often it's become meaningless–but just take my word for it that this book is what a mystery/suspense/thriller should be. Plotting reminds me of Ruth Rendell's books, and she is the best. So–BookPeople tonight for Mark Pryor and HOLLOW MAN.
Tagged Alamo Draft House, Austin Texas, David David Video, David Davis, Elijah Wood, Fantastic Fest 2015, film directors, film festivals, fun, Mark Pryor4 Comments
Roswell: JPEGs
Here, in no particular order and, possibly, of no particular interest, are photos taken the weekend of the 2012 Roswell Cosmic-Con and Film Festival: uncaptioned, uncropped, just thrown out into cyberspace.
A few remarks to help in the deciphering process:
The first are from Friday night's costume party at the Roswell Zoo. We expected to see space creatures but found zombies, executioners, and belly dancers as well.
The belly dancers danced with pythons. The dancer on the left has one wrapped around her arm. She was returning it to its basket.
That's David in the tee-shirt with spacemen on the front.
The baby was cute, so I took her picture.
The space car was parked at the Holiday Inn. I don't know whether it's a permanent fixture or a visitor.
Billy (now Bill) Mumy was on the premises, but I didn't see him.
The alien streetlights are a hoot.
Roswell, New Mexico here we go! (quefregados.wordpress.com)
Senior CIA Agent Bombshell – "One hundred per cent guarantee, Roswell happened." (topalternativenews.com)
Project Cosmic Clearance: a Crash Before Roswell (starcopia.com)
Tagged aliens, David Davis, Film Festival, road trips, Roswell Cosmic-Con and Film Festival, Roswell Incident, Roswell New Mexico, UFOs3 Comments
Invisible Men Invade Again
Posted on June 9, 2012 by Kathy Waller in Uncategorized
The McDonald's located at 720 N. Main in Roswell, New Mexico models its PlayPlace as a flying saucer. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
David's short film Invisible Men Invade Earth will be screened at Roswell Cosmic-Con and Film Fest in Roswell, New Mexico this month.
A thousand thanks to our friend, Lee, who told David about the call for submissions, and to David's wife, who said, "Submit it submit it submit it!" (Wife wants to get out of Austin.)
That's about all I know, except that some events will take place at the McDonald's pictured at the left.
Official seal of City of Roswell (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Why Roswell? Because in July 1947, a press release written by the public information officer at the Roswell Army Air Field reported, under orders of his base commander, that the Army had in its possession a flying saucer that had crashed on a local ranch. The Associated Press picked up the story. The next day a second press release ordered by a higher-ranking officer stated that the flying saucer was actually just a weather balloon.
That might have been the end of it if civilians hadn't found the wreckage in the first place. Witnesses told stories of four alien creatures, one of whom survived. A Roswell mortician received phone calls from the air base morgue regarding how to preserve bodies. The military asserted pressure, and witnesses stopped talking.
Around 1980, a UFO researcher discovered the incident and started looking for witnesses. He found a number of them, including the public information officer who wrote the press releases. From there, the story took off.
That's a summary of the story as it appears on Roswell's International UFO Museum. Other sources suggest there's more. Or less, as the case may be. At any rate, Roswell and flying saucers are now irretrievably linked.
Hence the Roswell Cosmic-Con and Film Festival. And the screening of Invisible Men Invade Earth.
And the Davises invading Roswell.
Note: In her book Area 51, Annie Jacobsen's history of the top-secret military base in Nevada, the author repeats a story she was told about the Roswell Incident. She states the story could not be substantiated and does not present it as fact. But starring Stalin and Dr. Mengele, it fits right in with the rest of the Roswell lore.
The International UFO Museum And Research Center At Roswell, New Mexico (gadling.com)
Roswell UFO Crash, A Myth Or Reality? (mysteryworlds.wordpress.com)
Your next box set: Roswell (guardian.co.uk)
Tagged Annie Jacobsen, David Davis, Invisible Men Invade Earth, New Orleans, Roswell Cosmic-Con and Film Festival, Roswell UFO incident, UFO11 Comments
I Haven't a Thing to Wear
Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes. ~ Henry David Thoreau
David's video "Invisible Men Invade Earth" will be screened at the Boomtown Film and Music Festival in Beaumont.
Asked whether he's excited about the event, David said, "Well, I will be." He doesn't like to expend emotion in advance of need. At just over three minutes, it's the shortest of the Short Narrative Fiction, so it will be the first in that category to be shown.
I, on the other hand, feel rather giddy. I will be going as the Producer's Wife. Mrs. Producer Davis, to be exact. At times like this it's okay for a liberated woman to drop Ms. MaidenName and assume her husband's surname.
(It's also okay to do that without a film festival, but this Ms. MaidenName is afraid she'll slip up and then various governmental agencies will get things all out of whack. And then she'll never get her passport renewed ever again. She wants to return to the family castle [several times removed] on the Isle of Mull and to eat haggis in Oban. She can't do that if TSA agents bar her from boarding the plane.)
Anyway. Wanting to dress appropriately, I googled "film festival dress" and pulled up several million hits, most of them concerning what to wear to Sundance. First on the list was a Sundance catalog, the highlight of which (to my mind) was a pair of denim crops (pedal pushers for those who remember their first incarnation) that have been "destructed by hand" to look like something my mother would not have let me wear in public if I had ever managed to destruct any denim to that degree. Price: $176.00.
Moving right along, I searched for images of past Boomtown festivals.There was no Boomtown catalog, nor was there any photo that suggested I should grab my checkbook and run out to the mall. The festival is in Beaumont, not Dallas. Thank goodness. My Austin wardrobe will suffice. That's just as well, because David and I will match. His Austin wardrobe goes everywhere.
"Invisible Men Invade Earth" stars William and Ernest. They're born thespians. Rotten at taking direction, but good when called upon to ad lib. And they work cheap.
For a look at their artistic side, click here.
Tagged Boomtown Film and Music Festival, clothing, David Davis, Ernest, Henry David Thoreau, John Singer Sargent, Sundance, video, William6 Comments


text:
Q: Put values from Spark RDD to the same HBase column with default timestamp I'm using Spark and trying to write the RDD to the HBase table.
Here the sample code:
public static void main(String[] args) {
// ... code omitted
    JavaPairRDD<ImmutableBytesWritable, Put> hBasePutsRDD = rdd
            .javaRDD()
            .flatMapToPair(new MyFunction());

    hBasePutsRDD.saveAsNewAPIHadoopDataset(job.getConfiguration());
}

private class MyFunction implements
            PairFlatMapFunction<Row, ImmutableBytesWritable, Put> {

    public Iterable<Tuple2<ImmutableBytesWritable, Put>> call(final Row row)
            throws Exception {

        List<Tuple2<ImmutableBytesWritable, Put>> puts = new ArrayList<>();
        Put put = new Put(getRowKey(row));
        String value = row.getAs("rddFieldName");

        put.addColumn("CF".getBytes(Charset.forName("UTF-8")),
                      "COLUMN".getBytes(Charset.forName("UTF-8")),
                      value.getBytes(Charset.forName("UTF-8")));

        return Collections.singletonList(
            new Tuple2<>(new ImmutableBytesWritable(getRowKey(row)), put));
    }
}

If I manually set the timestamp like this:
put.addColumn("CF".getBytes(Charset.forName("UTF-8")),
              "COLUMN".getBytes(Charset.forName("UTF-8")),
              manualTimestamp,
              value.getBytes(Charset.forName("UTF-8")));

everything works fine and I have as many cell versions in HBase column "COLUMN" as there are number of different values in RDD.
But if I do not, there is only one cell version.
In another words, if there are multiple Put objects with the same column family and column, different values and default timestamp, the only one value will be inserted and another will be omitted (maybe overwritten).
Could you please help me understand how it works (saveAsNewAPIHadoopDataset especially) in this case and how can I modify the code to insert values and do not a timestamp manually.

A: They are overwritten when you don't use your timestamp. Hbase needs a unique key for every value, so real key for every value is
rowkey + column family + column key + timestamp => value
When you don't use timestamp, and they are inserted as bulk, many of them get same timestamp as hbase can insert multiple rows in same millisecond. So you need a custom timestamp for every same column key values.
I did not understand why you did not want to use custom timestamp as you said it works already. If you think it will use extra space in database, hbase already use timestamp even if you don't give in Put command. So nothing changes when you use manual timestamp, please use it.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Santa Will See You Now, But You'll Need A Reservation First
Published November 26, 2017 at 10:32 AM PST
Children feel Santa's beard at a shopping mall in Santiago, Chile.
Updated at noon ET Monday
The time-honored tradition is as steeped in lore as Father Christmas himself: child nestles on Santa's knee, rattles off the coveted goodies, then a snap of the camera preserves the memory in all of its seasonal glory.
Frederic J. Brown / AFP/Getty Images
This toddler in Los Angeles cries for her mommy who placed her on Santa's lap.
Matt York / AP
An unhappy child has his photo taken with Santa at the Chandler Mall, in Chandler, Ariz.
Or, this:
Interminable lines, artificial pine and a whiskered stranger decked in red. It's more than some kids and, yes, even parents, can take.
Now, in an effort to swap some of the experience's impulsiveness for efficiency: Santa is taking reservations at Macy's flagship store at New York City's Herald Square. That's the site of the 1947 classic, Miracle on 34th Street.
The company says each year it receives around a quarter million visitors to "Macy's Santaland," its 13,000 square foot North Pole-like display there that runs through Christmas Eve. And it wants to speed Santa's guests along by barring walk-ins. Patrons can sign up online to get on Santa's calendar in half-hour time slots from as late as 30 minutes before the planned visit to as early as five days ahead.
The wait to see Santa can stretch up to three hours during peak times, according to Macy's, which says it expects the new system will cut that time to less than an hour.
The store Santa will see children for free, but a professional photo package of the visit begins at $20.99.
How disappointing @Macys. Seeing Santa should not be so stringent. It is a magical moment for children. #BooMacys https://t.co/SoM9uToaLK
— Kathy Horn (@ChangemakerPR) November 20, 2017
"Santa's a popular guy, so the wait times to meet him have been quite long in previous years, especially on our busiest days," Macy's said on its web site. "The new reservation system is designed to minimize this by scheduling visitors to join the line at a time of your choice, allowing for the best possible holiday experience."
We are on line to see santa @Macys herald square. Yes we are nutz! Only in #nyc do you make reservations to see #santa and you still have to wait in a long line 😂 pic.twitter.com/TAzCR1pknH
— Lyss Stern (@divamoms) November 24, 2017
But some social media users described the change as a Grinch-like move.
And others complained of long wait times, even with reservations.
"I believe, I believe," said young Susan (Natalie Wood) in Miracle on 34th Street. These days that Christmas spirit might just require an online booking first.


text:
Home » The Stars and the Blackness Between Them (Hardcover)
The Stars and the Blackness Between Them (Hardcover)
By Junauda Petrus
Coming Soon - Available for Pre-Order Now
Told in two distinct and irresistible voices, Junauda Petrus's bold and lyrical debut is the story of two black girls from very different backgrounds finding love and happiness in a world that seems determined to deny them both.
Trinidad. Sixteen-year-old Audre is despondent, having just found out she's going to be sent to live in America with her father because her strictly religious mother caught her with her secret girlfriend, the pastor's daughter. Audre's grandmother Queenie (a former dancer who drives a white convertible Cadillac and who has a few secrets of her own) tries to reassure her granddaughter that she won't lose her roots, not even in some place called Minneapolis. "America have dey spirits too, believe me," she tells Audre.
Minneapolis. Sixteen-year-old Mabel is lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling and trying to figure out why she feels the way she feels--about her ex Terrell, about her girl Jada and that moment they had in the woods, and about the vague feeling of illness that's plagued her all summer. Mabel's reverie is cut short when her father announces that his best friend and his just-arrived-from-Trinidad daughter are coming for dinner.
Mabel quickly falls hard for Audre and is determined to take care of her as she tries to navigate an American high school. But their romance takes a turn when test results reveal exactly why Mabel has been feeling low-key sick all summer and suddenly it's Audre who is caring for Mabel as she faces a deeply uncertain future.
Junauda Petrus's debut brilliantly captures the distinctly lush and lyrical voices of Mabel and Audre as they conjure a love that is stronger than hatred, prison, and death and as vast as the blackness between the stars.
Junauda Petrus is a writer, pleasure activist, filmmaker and performance artist, born on Dakota land of Black-Caribbean descent. Her work centers around wildness, queerness, Black-diasporic-futurism, ancestral healing, sweetness, shimmer and liberation. She lives in Minneapolis with her wife and family. www.junauda.com
"Deeply spiritual and bursting with light, The Stars and the Blackness Between Them is a gorgeous love letter to the African diaspora."—Brandy Colbert, Stonewall Award–winning author of Little & Lion
"The Stars and the Blackness Between Them is a sweeping, heartfelt, and engrossing debut, a story so expertly crafted and beautifully written that you'll want to return to it again and again. I got lost in the poetic, infectious voices of Audre and Mabel, two teens struggling with their own identities in a world that wants them to be easily categorized. This is THE queer read of 2019, and its final pages will haunt you long afterward. If Petrus is the future of YA (and I sure hope she is), then we are in good hands."—Mark Oshiro, award winning author of Anger Is a Gift
★ "Readers seeking a deep, uplifting love story will not be disappointed as the novel covers both flourishing feelings and bigger questions around belief and what happens when we face our own mortality. ... A cosmically compelling read."—Kirkus, starred review.
Publisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: September 17th, 2019
Young Adult Fiction / People & Places / United States / African American
Young Adult Fiction / Social Themes / Death & Dying
Young Adult Fiction / Romance / LGBT
Kobo eBook (September 16th, 2019): $10.99


Yankomaniac wrote: God I love that parody.
You have a very deep devotion to Al.
Thats one of my favorites on that album as well!!
"They only show you their gums when......they smillleee.."
I'd honestly love hearing one of the songs off this album in a concert. Maybe Dog Eat Dog.
I didn't know that. Didn't get out for that tour.
I agree. If DTBS can make a comeback in 1999 and then again in 2010, Dog Eat Dog should get a second comeback on the next tour.
I'm all for it. Dog Eat Dog is a great song, with a fantastic costume... that I really want.
I re-listened to this album earlier today (the first time I heard the album all the way through in a long while!).
"Toothless People" seemed to go on forever, while the rest of the album seemed to go by very quickly.
With only 10 tracks yeah it is a very quick album, like many say I think the originals definitely outdue the parodies on this album. "Toothless People" is pretty much always a skip for me, I may have actually only listened to the full song a few times.


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New Relic to Provide Application Management for Engine Yard Solo
New Relic's RPM™ Rails performance management solution helps organizations deploying Rails in the cloud
New Relic and Engine Yard have a close partnership and this is further demonstration of that
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) February 5, 2009
New Relic, Inc., the leading provider of Ruby on Rails application performance management solutions, today announced that it has reached agreement with Engine Yard to provide their customers using Engine Yard Solo with a free, fully supported license to RPM Lite.
Solo, the web-based platform for on-demand management of Ruby on Rails web application on Amazon's cloud computing infrastructure was released by Engine Yard in January. RPM Lite is the entry-level version of RPM, the leading solution for managing Rails applications. Solo users will be able to create an RPM account automatically and begin to monitor their applications running in the Amazon EC2 cloud infrastructure minutes after deployment.
"New Relic and Engine Yard have a close partnership and this is further demonstration of that," said Tom Mornini, founder and chief technology officer of Engine Yard. "Both companies share a mutual interest in helping customers deploying Rails in the cloud to achieve optimal performance and low cost of ownership."
"We are pleased that Engine Yard will integrate RPM into their Solo offering," said Bill Lapcevic, vice president of business development for New Relic. "As more organizations rapidly deploy new capacity on cloud infrastructures like Amazon Web Services, they will need to monitor and manage those applications with the same ease and cost effectiveness. The RPM and Solo combination will allow them to do that."
The integration will be available by the end of March, 2009.
About RPM™
New Relic offers RPM, a subscription-based Rails Performance Management solution that enables developers to quickly and cost effectively detect, diagnose and fix application performance problems in real time. The real-time metrics provided through RPM allow rapid discovery and analysis of performance bottlenecks and their root causes. RPM installs as a Rails plug-in in seconds allowing critical performance data to be collected immediately. RPM Lite is a free, fully supported version for unlimited use in production or pre-production. Installation and setup take less than 5 minutes. Sign up by visiting http://newrelic.com/RPMlite.html.
About Engine Yard
Engine Yard provides the platform and expert support for deploying Ruby and Rails applications to the cloud, giving customers the peace of mind and stability needed for building sites and applications on demand. Headquartered in San Francisco, Calif., Engine Yard was founded in 2006 and is backed by Benchmark Capital, New Enterprise Associates, and Amazon.com. Visit http://www.engineyard.com.
About New Relic
New Relic, Inc. offers RPM, a Rails Performance Management solution that enables developers to quickly and cost effectively detect, diagnose, and fix application performance problems in real time. More than 1000 top Rails organizations use New Relic RPM to monitor and optimize their production applications, including customers 37signals, Ourstage, iOffer, Shopify, Getty Images, New York Jets, and AboutUs.org; and partners Engine Yard, RightScale and Pivotal Labs. Funded by Benchmark Capital and Trinity Ventures, New Relic is a private company headquartered in San Francisco, California, USA. To learn more about New Relic, visit http://www.newrelic.com.
Stephanie Breslin


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School advocates say Cuomo budget shortchanges kids; others hit $2B tax cut for wealthy
Tax cuts for wealthy attacked as more for needy schools sought
Casey Seiler
Jan. 22, 2014 Updated: Jan. 22, 2014 10:56 p.m.
It's the political equivalent of Newton's third law of motion: Every executive budget proposal creates an equal and opposite push-back from advocates.
The Alliance for Quality Education, which advocates for increased school spending, officially kicked off push-back season Wednesday morning, a day after Gov. Andrew Cuomo laid out budget blueprint for the coming fiscal year. His plan included a $608 million increase in formula-based aid to school districts — a sum that AQE and others see as woefully inadequate to the needs of high-needs districts around the state.
Backed by Capital Region lawmakers including Assembly members Patricia Fahy, John McDonald and Phil Steck, plus state senators Cecilia Tkaczyk and Neil Breslin — all Democrats — AQE Executive Director Billy Easton called the governor's proposal "simply devastating."
He said Cuomo's proposed $100 million downpayment on statewide prekindergarten education was "clearly not adequate to be a universal pre-K program, and should not be an excuse for blocking New York City from paying its own way" through a tax increase on the city's wealthiest residents, as proposed by Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Fahy said that the new stream of money for pre-K — Cuomo plans to devote $1.5 billion to that effort over the next five years — could actually disadvantage K-12 education in the struggle for resources.
"The last thing we want to do is pit pre-K advocates against K-12 advocates," Fahy said. " ... We cannot talk about $2 billion in tax cuts in this state while we're knocking the knees out from under education, and you can't talk about raising standards without providing some funds to do so."
There were even harsher words for Cuomo from Schenectady City School District Superintendent Larry Spring, who has filed a civil rights complaint against the governor, the state Education Department and the Legislature for what he alleges is discrimination in the state's application of the school aid formula.
"(Cuomo's) values in action show that he is very willing to put poor black and Latino students on the back burner and encourage a system that persists in second-class education for those students," Spring said.
Guilderland Superintendent Marie Wiles said her district has done all it can to find ways to reduce costs and redirect funding to instruction. "Frankly, we've done everything the governor has asked, and more," she said.
Wiles said the district would next week be forced to examine "what we will cut this time that will make Guilderland less of a school district that it is this year, and than it was last year. So what will it be the following year?"
Later, a coalition of progressive groups and labor unions announced it would launch grassroots efforts to knock out what it described as giveaways to the wealthy in the executive budget proposal.
"Right now, we cannot afford to spend a $2 billion surplus on tax cuts for the wealthiest New Yorkers," said Ron Deutsch of New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness.
He singled out proposed changes to the estate tax and reduced business taxes as "a misguided effort" in a state with what advocates says is the nation's most profound income inequality.
"Our state can't afford a billion dollars a year in new tax cuts for millionaires, billionaires and Wall Street," he added, indicating that the groups backing the effort "have proven over the last several years that people power can beat money power when it comes to big tax and budget issues."
Cuomo's spokesman Rich Azzopardi said the governor "works for the people of the state, not special interests — and as this week's Siena poll showed, there is overwhelming broad-based support for the Governor's agenda with more than 65 percent of New Yorkers supporting the individual tax items proposed in this budget."
cseiler@timesunion.com • 518-454-5619 • @CaseySeiler
Reach Casey on
Casey Seiler is the Times Union's editor. He previously served as managing editor, Capitol Bureau chief and entertainment editor. He is a longtime contributor to WMHT's weekly political roundup "New York Now."
Before arriving in Albany in 2000, Seiler worked at the Burlington Free Press in Vermont and the Jackson Hole Guide in Wyoming. A graduate of Northwestern University, Seiler is a Buffalo native who grew up in Louisville, Ky. He lives in Albany's lovely Pine Hills. Contact him at cseiler@timesunion.com or (518) 454-5619.


Students want to have fun and socialize in college and throwing a party can be a great way to do that. Whether for fun, notoriety, extra cash or whatever, house or apartment parties have been a part of college life for generations. But it's no secret that many party hosts, guests and neighborhood residents have experienced harm related to students' drinking at off-campus parties, such as injury, violence (including fights and sexual assault), property damage, noise and fines. If you throw a party—not just a get-together with close friends, but loud music, kegs, drinking games, and line-out-the-door crowds—you may be contributing to these problems and putting yourself at risk for potentially costly consequences. The tips and information provided here are meant to help party hosts create an environment that is safe and fun for all.
The best party host is a responsible host who helps to ensure guests are safe. Before you throw a bash, take our party host quiz to see how you score. Score 1 point for each item you do before, during, and after your party.
How did you do? The higher your score, the better host you are. We hope you'll consider these guidelines to keep your party fun and safe for everyone involved.
52% of first-year students reported that the last time they had a drink it was at an apartment party.
In 2008-09 academic year, almost half of all student conduct violations involved alcohol.
In 2009, 38% of undergraduates at LUC reported engaging in some form of public misconduct (such as trouble with police, fighting, DUI, vandalism) at least once in the past year due to drinking or other drug use.
We would like to acknowledge the University of Wisconsin's PACE coalition, the source from which many of the guidelines provided here were adopted.


Yes, we just said chafing…it's getting real in here. Chafing is probably one of the most surprising and oddest discoveries of new runners. While all that running can bring on better moods and a healthier cardiovascular system, it can also make your skin blister and hurt from rubbing against other skin, clothing, or even the material in your shoes. Luckily Body Glide, the specially formulated anti-chafe balm, is here to save the day, by creating a dry, invisible barrier on your skin. Better yet, it's allergen-free, vegan approved, and never tested on animals. Now you can return to your regularly scheduled running high.
Swipe some Body Glide over your skin (the way you would with deodorant) before putting on your running clothes. Focus on areas that rub together the most on the move: thighs, arm pits, back of the knees, and belly. If it's a long race you're prepping for, swipe it pretty much everywhere you can because more time running=more time for chafing.
Shop Body Glide here. The For Her formula is fortified with Vitamins A, B,E, and F; Skin Glide provides extra rich hydration; and Foot Glide specifically targets blister prevention.


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Point of Sale Design
Does your business Need a Brand Personality Type?
One of the subtleties of branding is that consumers sometimes fail to notice how brands identify with certain types of people. It is the rare brand, such as Coca-Cola, Toyota or Tylenol, that is type-neutral. New business owners and entrepreneurs are therefore faced with an identity crisis, so to speak.
In developing their brand, they must discover how to appeal to those certain types. So how should they approach the subject of brand personality type: which personality type should your brand have? Glad you asked.
How Do You Define Personality?
We are all drawn without volition to the public speaker who bounces across a stage, full of energy, wit and charm. Just so are we attracted to the ad full of colour, jokes and just the right wording. In people, however, the word is not so easy to define. There are business owners who are all work and no play, business owners who laugh all day and press the flesh in a happy manner, and business owners who work hard on identifying with his or her customers.
That's not all there is to personality, though. Personality is in how we use our knowledge, how we listen and converse with others, with what colours, scents, feel and sound we imbue our words, and yes, a few jokes every now and then. So what does this have to do with a brand?
Tone in Branding
Brand personality has a lot to do with emotion as well as attraction according to personal characteristics. The new business owner or entrepreneur offers a service or product which will not have a gender, but it will appeal to one. As an example, do you remember back in the day when Gloria Vanderbilt smiled that it was a shame to call them jeans? Those pants were obviously meant to appeal to the feminine population. How many times did you fellows want to look just like the Marlboro Man or the guy who slapped on Old Spice and was immediately surrounded by girls? While no man would be caught dead smoking a Virginia Slim, no girl would care to be seen in a pair of Wranglers. Most advertising today is emotional in essence, in order to appeal to a consumer whose own personality would benefit from the use of a product.
Research shows that colour, shape, pictures and typeface elicits the emotion that attracts people to a brand. The simplicity of the brown truck with the equally simple UPS logo instils a sense of trust in consumers. The same could be said of a simple apple with a bite taken out of it. People know and recognise this shape and colour as the best of computer and phone products. Perception is a large part of branding. The use of pictures and typeface means that a consumer is attracted to the cute little kid smiling that Band-aid doesn't come off even in water. On the other hand, MTV with its upper-case letters just shouts "popular music here"! Will your brand personality be sincere and trusty or perhaps informal or fun?
Imagination in Branding
The second portion of branding personality involves excitement over the product or service being offered. A brand identity is a little different from the voice with which it is represented. Nowadays, the celebrity endorsement has segued into the outside-the-box approach to advertising. When a business owner tosses a little creativity into the mix, s/he will generate excitement in their niche, to-wit:
The blue-tongued, blue-eyed girl dressed in a blue tank drinking Sprite Ice Blue
The girl squatting at the pavement's edge thumbing a lift from a Mini Cooper
M&Ms arranged and lettered like a QWERTY keyboard
The picture of a small guy singing into the ear of a bigger guy from his MP3 player
The guy sticking his head through what looks like a letter box marked Password because the Lenovo IdeaPad now recognises faces
Competence in Branding
If you needed car insurance, you'd go with the guy asking if you're in good hands, wouldn't you? Should you be in need of food, you'd probably rather have something that is finger lickin' good or food that someone asks you to eat fresh than junky food, right? Cars that are built like a rock, planes that are now free to move about the country, and the fuel going into them is a tiger in their tanks sound competent to you, yes? It's the guy who goes with Charles Schwab who understands competence. While your brand should have a personality, it should also instil confidence in your niche market.
Classical or Pop in Branding
Such brands as the sophisticated Macy's is preferable for some people to K-Mart. A certain type of people would rather use Mercedes than Volkswagen. Some consumers wouldn't be seen eating at Shoney's Big Boy when they could dine at a Michelin-rated 5 star restaurant.
Why would a woman wear just any old shoe when she could capture attention wearing Manolo Blahnik? The business owner searching for his or her brand personality should decide whether the product should be eternally classically elegant like Lauren Bacall or perhaps popular and splashy such as one of the Kardashians.
Ruggedness in Branding
Last but not least, ruggedness has been determined as one of the elements of brand personality. Instantly recognisable is the advertising of the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company or 3M. Need a chemical for some reason? There's no one else to whom to go than DuPont. You could also define rugged as "stronger than dirt" when you need a cleaner like Ajax. The new business owner or entrepreneur needs to know if his or her product or service will stand the test of time like the above products as well as appeal to that portion of consumers' personalities.
When you're faced with the identity crisis of finding your Brand Personality Type, when you need to know what type to whom you need to appeal, and when you wonder if you can squeeze all this into a workable personality for your brand, contact us. We do this every day, and we will help you figure it out.
Fancy a coffee to discuss your creative brief?
Give Red Lounge Agency a Buzz on 02 9114 9810
Branding to sell: How Branding Effects Your Business Value
Why Branding for Social Media is Crucial to Your Success
Branding Trends in 2017 You Should Keep an Eye Out For
Create an Impression: How to Create the Perfect Sales Brochure
Does E-Commerce Packaging Design Matter?
Branding Brand Promotion Business Card Design Business Success Design Graphic Design Packaging Design Point of Sale Design Rebranding Typography
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"It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future" – Yogi Berra.
Making predictions – it's rarely wise, but always fun! Here are Everoze's bets for the UK electricity sector this year, with a few wildcards thrown in at the end for good measure…
1. Crowdfunding buzz continues for demand response and storage – but not renewables
2015 saw crowdfunders take a punt on new entrants in demand response and storage: demand flexibility enabler Tempus Energy smashed its £500,000 crowdfunding goal, whilst Tesla-challenger Powervault raised £700,000 in under four days. Expect this buzz to continue through 2016 as investors are drawn to start-ups offering solutions to the challenge of variable renewables generation.
Meanwhile, UK-based FinTech[1] for renewables will face leaner times, because policy changes will limit market volume, and the comparatively low risk/reward profile of this more mature sector lacks the sizzle-factor of storage. Crowdfunding platform the Trillion Fund has already announced that it has no plans to offer new renewable energy loans, focusing instead on other sectors. Of course, a tough home market won't stop UK-based entrepreneurs scaling up new renewables models abroad – such as global matching platform Megawatt-X and aspiring peer-to-peer lending platform The Sun Exchange.
2. Solar sector seeks salvation in storage – but with no easy answers
2015 saw a flurry of activity in energy storage, as the technology soared to the top of the Gartner hype cycle[2]. Bracing itself for painful subsidy cuts, the solar sector had hoped that its PV development expertise could be transferred to storage. But, as interest turns to analytical investigation, 2016 will be the year of dawning realisation that storage is fiendishly complex.
Deployment through 2016 will surely increase, and may yet dodge the "trough of disillusionment" predicted by Gartner's theory. But progress will almost certainly fall short of today's feverish expectations. Instead, this will be a year of laborious modelling, research and lobbying to help pin down the value proposition, given the multitude of possible services and fuzzy regulation.
3. Wind industry focuses on end of life decisions – not development
After a year of desperate lobbying to defend the wind development market, onshore wind developers will see policy-induced boom then bust. Reluctantly accepting a shrunken market for new projects, focus will shift to efficient asset management. With wind projects from the '90s reaching the end of their design lives, the big question will be: repower, extend project life or decommission? There will be no 'one-size-fits-all' answer, with economic, commercial, financial, regulatory and technical drivers being analysed to reach a case-by-case, risk informed assessment (we'll be blogging about this soon).
Longer term, hope for new wind projects will slowly return. A strong £/€ exchange rate may push UK onshore wind closer to unity with gas, whilst also significantly pushing upwards the value of CfD projects to be constructed in the UK in 2016/17. Prospects for offshore wind will be rosier than onshore, with over 3GW of UK offshore projects expected to reach financial close, and the next CfD auction for at least a 1GW of capacity kicking off by year end.
4. Demand response finally takes off due to technology developments – not policy
2016 will be the year when demand response aggregation finally gains momentum. The primary driver will not be National Grid's Power Responsive initiative, or even the follow-on from the EC's energy market's consultation last year – though both are welcome.
Instead, the catalyst will be private sector innovation. Big data and analytics-driven forecasting and the Internet of Things will prove to be more than just technology buzzwords. At the same time, demand response aggregators will sharpen up their commercial offering, employing savvy Product Managers to turn an acronym heavy 'soup' of incentives (STOR, FFR, DSB, DUOs etc) into a coherent offering for mid to large business customers. Newer entrants such as Limejump will show that the line between energy supplier and aggregator is increasingly arbitrary.
5. Wave & tidal energy seeks life support from EU blue economy – not green energy
After two years of painful private sector bankruptcies and divestments, Westminster and Holyrood funding for wave and tidal energy will dry up. Forced to think outside the box for support, in 2016 the fledging sector will look beyond green energy and towards the European Commission's overlooked "blue economy" initiative, which supports sustainable growth in seas and oceans.
In this strategic repivot, wave and tidal energy will not be considered in the context of renewables, but rather alongside aquaculture, coastal tourism and marine bio-tech. This may take off the pressure for ocean energy to show a competitive levelised cost with wind and solar for the time being, if it can instead prove job creation and economic growth potential in Europe's waters.
And maybe, just maybe in 2016 or beyond…
The Hinkley Point C nuclear deal falls through.
The UK votes to leave the EU – discarding its 2020 energy targets in the process.
Heavy investment by Google in Makani energy kites results in a technological breakthrough, meaning that high altitude wind is no longer pie in the sky.
But who knows…?
Of course, these are just a handful of predictions and there are other high profile companies and entrepreneurs with exciting business models that could take the industry by storm.
[1] Financial Technology
[2] The Gartner Hype Cycle provides a graphic representation of the maturity and adoption of technologies and applications, and how they are potentially relevant to solving real business problems and exploiting new opportunities.
Happy New Year 2020! Reflections on five years of success in UK onshore wind
As Paul Reynolds embarks on his career as an Everoze partner, he takes a trip back to the future for onshore wind in the UK.
Looking back on 2015: who said optimism was dead?
Joe Phillips is in optimistic mood as he reflects on the first four months of being an Everoze Partner.
We have assembled some of the most experienced and competent consultants in the renewables and energy storage sectors. We listen carefully to our clients. We are flexible on when, where and how work is delivered. Meet the team.


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Rebuilding [FLASHBACK]
Posted on Fri Jan 8th, 2021 @ 6:31pm	by Lieutenant JG Soto Gantt
There had been no way to fix it without breaking it first. Gantt brushed back his long hair that fell like a hood around his face. He fingered the broken guts of the old console he'd found in a junk heap on the space station. It was the same model that had powered his Uncle Mateo's house. On this same model he'd cut and scraped his hands trying to figure out the inner workings. Uncle Mateo had encouraged the tinkering during drunk moments, and rarely had sobered up enough to stop Gantt.
Gantt began to separate the tubes, bolts, and chips from the larger fragments. There was peace to retooling that he'd never found with new parts pulled from a replicator. Breaking down and rebuilding let him see himself. His entrance to Starfleet was a major result of his uncle's drunken tutoring. The classes, the practicums, the tutoring all added nuance and refinement to skills picked years before he had matured enough to consider the consequences of a wrong adjustment.
"What are you up to now, Uncle?" said Gantt, glancing up at the photo of the two of them above his desk. He picked up an old fitting and began cleaning it. "What are you working so hard to keep buried? Were you the result of genetic bastardization, like me? Did you try to beat the shadows back and fail, or just drown helplessly wondering how to escape?"
Gantt set aside the fitting. He began another, moving through each part that would go back together. The console had been reconfigured from its original habitational controls to run a life support system, then work on damage reporting and control. A few other jobs, too, until it simply broke. Maybe that's what had happened to Uncle Mateo.
"Maybe the only difference, Tío, are the people who nudged us back from the edge," said Gantt. But the bones of the original were there. Fittings. Bafflers. Relays. His magnolinear scalpel honed each piece into clean joints and edges. The junk became a piece of equipment. On the first day as a new ensign Natalie Keys had expected him to perform. Jackson had simply appeared, as though he and Gantt had always been friends. His first measurable steps towards embracing his Bajoran heritage, the connection to Gantt's mother he had come to this ship to find, had started with aid from Ina Nici. Then, Luka Stern had awakened another part of his heart until the slow realization that he couldn't take his journey with someone. He didn't really own his own life yet, and his abuela had told him many times that you can't give away what isn't your property.
"Actually, Tío, she was always telling you that," said Gantt. "I heard it a lot because I was almost always with you. Dad worked and Mom was–" He stopped, the rest of the words transforming to thought. A ghost who drifted through the home, taking up almost no space. Gantt took a deep breath and reached for the empty console, feeling the edges with his palms. A drop fell on his hand. Gantt looked down and realized that it was a tear. They were rolling down his cheeks. He slumped forward letting the emotions roll from his year up a throat thick with memories, and stream from his eyes. When they slowed he wiped his eyes and nose and grasped a part from the pile.
Piece by piece. Joint by joint. Circuit by circuit. Gantt began to piece everything together. His fingers nimbly turned parts around as he studied each one, considered its function, and carefully felt them snap into place. Slowly the smaller parts were fit together into components, the components were joined into systems, and the system into a whole. Once connected to a PADD the computer introduced functions, from the most basic methods that talked between components to sophisticated software that interpreted complex verbal input to multivariable actions. Diagnostic reports were within acceptable limits.
Gantt stretched his tired fingers. Midnight had slipped past unnoticed. Crossing the room, he caught a reflection in the mirror of himself with the console in his arms. Everything on the inside was different but you couldn't see the changes. Outside it was the same but everything internal had been painstakingly reformed. He looked into his reflection's eyes beneath the thick mantle of dark hair. The console might look the same but he knew home much had changed under the hood. He knew and thanked the Prophets for the help along the way.