text:
Reading for Henry VIII
Oxford, England
by James G. Brueggermann
I'm in a rented morning suit, minus the hat. Looking down the slender nave of a church finished eight hundred years ago, with a man in a full suit of armor lying carved in stone one room over, I'm trying to get used to the idea that I'm supposed to read in here. Out loud, in public. We're early, on purpose.
Tom, a friendly vestryman my age, takes me up the aisle to the place I'm to read from. It's a carved dark oak lectern with two steps, halfway up on the right. People on both sides will be facing each other across the center aisle, he explains, except where the lectern looks directly across at the wedding party. A bit further up is where the priest will give her message and officiate the ceremony. When the time comes to do the witnessing, the priest will escort the couple and their parents all the way forward to sign the documents at the high altar, above the handwriting of the Archbishop of Canterbury. My neice had asked me to read at her wedding as her godfather. We worked it all out by email.
"Of course! I would love to," I responded. "It will be an honor! Where will the wedding be?"
"At Christ Church Cathedral, in Oxford," she replied. Where she and her fiancée teach and study.
My wife Carolyn and I were very excited. What a perfect opportunity to see Oxford, celebrate with family, tour the University, walk the Cotswolds.
It's Henry VIII's cathedral. He took the place from the Catholic Church about 500 years ago when there was a lot of fighting over property and ideas between monks and kings. Like now, except these days it's between political parties, gangs and governments. Besides, there aren't as many monks around, and hardly any kings.
After Tom's briefing, I got a short course about the stone knight and the cathedral from Sally, an interested congregation member. The knight was important, but the place wasn't about him. It was all about Frideswide.
Frideswide was the daughter of Oxford's ruler in the 600's. She took vows, started a convent and seemed to be doing fine until a nearby king decided to take her in marriage by force. When Frideswide prayed for her safety, the king (and/or his soldiers, depending on who's telling the story) was struck blind at the Oxford gate. Once it all died down, Frideswide agreed to restore everyone's vision on the condition they fully repent, which of course they did. She went back to running her priory. By the time she died, it had monks, nuns, a school and a convent church, the predecessor of this cathedral, in which they buried her.
In 1525, Cardinal Wolsey dissolved Frideswide's priory in order to build himself a College in its place. It would be called, not surprisingly, Cardinal College. Unfortunately for Wolsey, he had a job-limiting problem, which was that, try as he might, he couldn't get the Pope to annul Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon.
But Henry really wanted that annulment. He sidelined Wolsey, proclaimed himself the Supreme Head of the Church of England, had his own Archbishop Cranmer make the annulment, married Anne Boleyn and got himself excommunicated by the Pope. Personally. After that, he dissolved the English monasteries and took their property, including Cardinal College which he renamed Christ Church. Which is where we are standing.
Back to Frideswide.. In 1553, a former nun named Catherine Dammartin died. She was the wife of a Protestant divinity professor working in the College at Christ Church. They buried her in the cathedral close to Frideswide, who had by this time been a saint for centuries.
Bloody Mary (Henry's daughter with Catherine of Aragon) took the throne that year. High on her list was restoring England to Catholicism. On that agenda, Cardinal Pole ejected Catherine (the deceased now-Protestant former nun) from Saint Frideswide's church, dumping her remains into a manure pile out behind the stables. Elizabeth I (Henry's daughter with Anne Boleyn) was next in line for the throne when Bloody Mary died. Elizabeth was Protestant. Catherine was headed back inside.
Her remains were retrieved from behind the stables and mixed with the bones of Frideswide, in what must have been quite a service, right here in this very church. They were re-buried together beneath the floor, the Catholic saint and the Protestant married nun, not far from the stone knight.
I would read a passage from the Song of Solomon, my niece had said. She gave me the verses to rehearse.
"Set me as a seal upon your heart," the middle part goes, "as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave."
Wow. I wondered if Henry ever read that. I hoped so.
Love, death, passion, graves. They're all here.
I needed to get calm. I wanted to read the words the way Solomon would have recited them, surely how the wedding party wants to hear them.
Tom the vestryman smiles. He sees I have the words typed out, slipped into a leather-like folder I can carry up to the lectern. I think he knows the folder will mask my shaking hands.
I step up behind the lectern. "OK. It's time. Henry, are you there? I'm going to read now."
Oxford, the Cotswolds and Stratford-upon-Avon Day Trip from Oxford including Shakespeare's Birthplace
Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford
James Brueggermann is a physician who practiced clinical neurology and medical administration. Since retiring in 2000, he has traveled with his wife in Europe, Asia and the Americas (independent travel as well as volunteering in Conversational English Teaching and Habitat for Humanity projects). He has compiled a group of about fifty personal essays, many of them travel-related, which are ready for publication. Since 1978 he has published personal essays, medical articles, prose poetry and haiku in Ars Medica, Group Practice Journal, Journal of Emergency Medicine, Medical Humanities, Modern Haiku, Minnesota Medicine, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, Physician Executive Journal, Pudding Magazine and The Lutheran.
Christ Church Cathedral interior by Diliff / CC BY-SA
Tagged With: England travel, Oxford attractions Filed Under: UK Travel
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Police have charged the owner of a now-closed funeral home in Hendersonville with obtaining property by false pretenses by writing bad checks.
HENDERSONVILLE � Police have charged the owner of a now-closed funeral home in Hendersonville with obtaining property by false pretenses by writing bad checks.
Fifty-three-year-old Richard J. Mosley of South Park Funeral and Cremation Services has been charged in the case. Mosley faces 16 felony counts of obtaining property by false pretense, two felony counts for writing bad checks and one felony count of trying to obtain property by false pretense.
Mosley also is charged with obtaining embalming chemicals last summer without a proper license.


I participated in a campaign for Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Kohl's. I received a gift card as a thank you for participating. All opinions expressed are my own.
Whether spring has already sprung where you live or you're expecting yet another snowstorm, your mind is probably thinking about walking outside into the sunshine wearing your favorite sleeveless dress and peep-toe flats. Before you start replenishing your spring wardrobe, find out what the prevalent trends are for the season by checking out the Kohl's Spring Fashion Google Hangout, where Kohl's Vice President of Trend, Sofia Wacksman, along with four popular fashion bloggers, reveal the must-have fashion items for Spring '14.
My three favorite spring fashion trends this year are the pink hues, rolled cuff denim, and feminine blouses. Pink is one of my go-to colors for the warmer months and looks very flattering with most skintones, as well as most hair and eye coloring. Although I have a few pairs of roll cuff denim already, I look forward to picking up one or two new pairs in fashion colors at Kohl's. Lastly, relaxed feminine blouses are the perfect alternative to grabbing a t-shirt and hoodie for a slightly less casual look without sacrificing comfort.


text:
Comarch: IoT connectivity management platform
September 2020 •
Comarch exploits its strong reputation as an OSS/BSS supplier and experience in system integration to cross-sell the IoT Connect platform to existing customers. However, its sales strategy has limitations.
This company profile provides:
key data about Comarch
an overview of the company's strategy and its connectivity management platform
an analysis of the company's strengths and weaknesses.
Topics related to Internet Of Things
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Automotive IoT Market Research Report by Component, by Connectivity, by Communication, by Application - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19
Automotive IoT Market Research Report by Component (Hardware, Services, and Software), by Connectivity (Embedded, Integrated, and Tethered), by Communication, by Application - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19 Market Statistics: The report provides market sizing and forecast across five major...
Vietnam Internet of Things Market, By Platform, By Component, By Type, By Application, By Region, Competition, Forecast & Opportunities, 2015 – 2025
77 pages • By TechSci Research • Jan 2021
Vietnam Internet of Things Market, By Platform (Network Management, Application Management and Device Management), By Component (Hardware, Services and Software), By Type (B2B, B2C, B2G), By Application (Consumer Electronics, Smart Mobility & Transportation, Building & Home Automation, Connected Logistics, Smart Retail, and Others),...
GLOBAL IOT SECURITY MARKET FORECAST 2021-2026
159 pages • By Inkwood Research • Jan 2021
KEY FINDINGS The global IoT security market is set to project a CAGR of 21.99% during the forecast period, 2021-2026. The increasing demand for IoT applications, growing cyber-attacks, rising awareness of secure IoT network, and industrial automation in the manufacturing sector, are factors estimated to propel market growth. MARKET...
Big Data Market by Leading Companies, Solutions, Use Cases, Infrastructure, Data Integration, IoT Support, Deployment Model and Services in Industry Verticals 2021 – 2026
314 pages • By Mind Commerce Publishing • Jan 2021
Overview: This report provides an in-depth assessment of the global big data market, including business case issues/analysis, application use cases, vendor landscape, value chain analysis, and a quantitative assessment of the industry with forecasting from 2021 to 2026. This report also evaluates the components of big data...
Western Europe 5G and IoT Spending Forecast, 2020-2024
This IDC Market Forecast, the first of its kind by IDC in Europe, forecasts the total IoT spending for the 16 countries that comprise Western Europe and outlines trends and drivers of IoT-related adoption, including 5G cellular, which is the fastest-growing portion of the M2M cellular market. It includes connections and revenues across the...
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This IDC Perspective provides insights into the current trends in IoT data integration. As the Internet of Things continues to grow and expand, questions about how best to harness the data that flows from sensors and collectors at the edge to be used at different levels of decision making continue to be asked. This IDC Perspective provides...
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The global smart space market size is projected to grow from USD 9.4 billion in 2020 to USD 15.3 billion by 2025, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10.2% during the forecast period. The increasing green building initiatives and environmental concerns to drive market growth. • By component, the service segment to register the highest...
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The global Green Technology and Sustainability market size to grow from USD 11.2 billion in 2020 to USD 36.6 billion by 2025, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 26.6% during the forecast period. The increasing awareness related to environmental concerns and the growing consumer and industrial interest for the use of clean energy resources...
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The global data historian market size is expected to grow from USD 1.1 billion in 2020 to USD 1.3 billion by 2025, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 5.0% during the forecast period. A data historian solution, also referred to as process historian or operational historian, is a software program that deals with time-series data. A time-series...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Ajax function, live call? I have a little box in my sidebar populated by ajax. I have 2 ajax function: one adds items to the list and the second deletes them if the user clicks on the delete button. My html is a simple unordered list like so:

Item

Item

Everytime I call any of the two functions they will replace the ul list with an updated one (selecting the items from the database after inserting or deleting). They work fine until I want to delete right after I inserted an item to the list.
My ajax function for inserting (the other one is very similar):
var valor=$("#alcrearuta").attr('class');
$("#alcrearuta").click(function(){
    $.ajax({
        type: "GET",
        url: "../ajax/ruta.php",
        data: "url=" + valor,
        dataType: 'html',
        success: function(data) {
            $("#listaruta").html(data);
        }
    });
});

My ruta.php file gives me another ul list with the same structure as the original, just with the items updated.
As far as I understand this, since I update the ul via my ajax function, the other function doesn't know that the list was updated, it only "remembers" the older list so it does nothing. If I refresh the page, it wil delete with no problem. I'm guessing this would be solved by using live()? But I have no clue...
EDIT: Ok so now I can get my ajax call to work, except that when I delete right after I update, the value that I'm passing to the ruta.php file (the variable that will help me find the field I need to delete from database) will be set to 'undefined' giving me a query like so: Select id from poi where url='undefined'
Again, if I reload, it will work. The change I did to the ajax function was:
    $("#alcrearuta").live('click',function(){
     $.ajax({
                   ....
        });
     });

A: The problem is that you are saving the value of the attribute at the beginning of the request, you should save it in the click event:
$("#alcrearuta").click(function(){
    var valor=$(this).attr('class');
    $.ajax({
        type: "GET",
        url: "../ajax/ruta.php",
        data: "url=" + valor,
        dataType: 'html',
        success: function(data) {
            $("#listaruta").html(data);
        }
    });
});

Hope that helps.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Meet baby Klara Franciszka, born during World Youth Day
Supplied image
Marta Brzezińska-Waleszczyk - published on 07/30/16
During the pope's homily about Christ's birth, a woman's strong, unexpected contractions began...
Sylwia was not planning to meet with the pope in Częstochowa. At the end of the day, however, she decided to visit the Jasna Góra Shrine because friend Beata really wanted to participate in the Holy Mass celebrated by the Pope. Beata was in her ninth month of pregnancy, but not yet due to deliver.
The friends met in Częstochowa, taking a tram to the central street of the town (named after the Blessed Virgin Mary) where huge crowds had been gathering since dawn. The faithful were anxiously waiting for the most important guest, Pope Francis, who would be escorted by the officers of the Government Protection Office and police patrol cars. Due to Beata's advanced pregnancy, the two friends did not try to push their way closer to the Jasna Góra monastery, but chose a quiet spot, far from the excited crowd of the pilgrims.
Suddenly, Beata felt a contraction, and then another one, and became anxious. Discussing it with Sylwia, both women decide there is nothing to worry about, that these could be normal Braxton-Hicks contractions, and even if it was a sign of true labor, there would be a lot of time passing between these first contractions and the delivery.
The Holy Mass began. During the first and second readings, Beata felt another contraction. Finally, after the Gospel, the pope's homily, which they had been waiting for. The pope, referring to the words of St. Paul, spoke about the advent of the fullness of time and about God, who sends His Son, born of a woman.
Beata tried to quip that even Pope Francis speaks about deliveries, but Sylwia was not laughing as her friend was wincing in pain. Beata was no longer listening closely to the sermon because her head was spinning. She shivered to hear Francis's words — "God comes to us as a child born of a mother" — and thought, this is happening right here and right now! God comes to us in another person! Now! In this baby who wants to be born!
The friends realized that Beata was fully in labor. Fortunately, an ambulance was waiting nearby. At the sight of a visibly pregnant woman, her face contorted with pain, the medical team immediately recognized what was going on. After a quick examination, they recognized what was going on; after examining Beata they made a decision to head to the nearest hospital.
Reflecting on it all later, Sylwia said, "Normally I am prone to panic but at this time I was filled with so many wonderful emotions that there was simply no time for panic. I kept looking at Beata and at the Image of Our Lady of Jasna Góra, alternately, and thought that the two have come to better understand each other.
"When in the ambulance, we were both joking with the paramedics. I do not remember a single serious sentence. No sweat at all. Beata wanted to delay the ambulance in order to receive Holy Communion yet the doctor suggested that I should do it on her behalf," recalled Sylwia in an interview with Aleteia's Polish edition.
More to read: What was the cutest moment at World Youth Day?
Sylwia stayed near the shrine. As requested by Beata, she received Holy Communion while praying for the safe delivery of the child. She cannot explain how it happened, but the pope learned about the delivery that began during the Eucharist (possibly because he was notified about any the pilgrims hospitalized during his Holy Mass). He asked his spokesperson to tell Beata that he conferred his blessing on her and her newly-born child.
The baby was born in a Częstochowa hospital at 2:31 pm, just a little before the Hour of Mercy, the focus of Pope Francis' teaching. The parents named her Klara, as planned but — as Sylwia tells us — they also decided to add a second name, Franciszka. "We quipped that the Holy Father should actually be her godfather," says Sylwia.
Aleteia asked Sylwia how she feels about it all. Was this a miracle for her? A grace? A sign? She laughed and answered, "For me this is an incredible ocean of grace. July 28, 2016 will be a red letter day for me. I will be telling my grandchildren how I went to assist at my friend's delivery during the visit of Pope Francis in Częstochowa."
She adds: "I am certain that the whole day was one huge gift from God. He saw that I had been down in the dumps for some time. Yet I did not expect God to offer me such an invaluable present which has transformed me.
"Before leaving Częstochowa, I returned to the main street leading to the shrine and, raising my eyes to look at it, I said out loud with growing thankfulness: Glorybe to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. I kept smiling on my way back home; my heart was full of joy."
*Sylwia described her incredible adventure on blog na Bosko.pl, where I learned about Klara Franciszka. Fortunately, I was able to interview her for Aleteia.pl :)
PolandPope FrancisWorld Youth Day


Heaven on Seven is a cajun food place in downtown chicago.
Even those words look like strangers when they're in a sentence together.
I subsequently went to Thailand and ate pad thai from street vendors and he was right. The two experiences weren't comparable. Since then I've eaten Thai food in the states that's every bit as good as the food I ate in Thailand.
I've eaten in New Orleans and I've eaten cajun food elsewhere and I can say with certainty that every time I've eaten cajun food outside of Louisiana, it lacks a certain something. I don't know why this is and I don't know if it's just me but Heaven on Seven is no exception to this rule of mine: Cajun food belongs in Louisiana.
and the barbq came with an several sides (condiments, sides and dipping sauces comprise the trifecta of my perfect meal scenario).
It was good. But it wasn't as good as New Orleans.
But that's ok because I'm going to New Orleans next week. So consider this the opening volley and start preparing yourselves for a week of posts about Mardi Gras beads, cajun food and late night jazz. And maybe I'll figure out why cajun food can't be exported.
This entry was posted in Chicago, Good eating, IL, Illinois and tagged cajun food, Chicago, heaven on seven. Bookmark the permalink.
← Bikram Day #1. Again.


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Discussion for CPUKeys 6.0 crack.
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The Working Girl's Shoe Closet: What Would Project Runway Shoe? Episode 11: Poison Ivy, Working Up a Sweat!
Oh the drama! We got it served up with a side of karma last night. This week's challenge was to create a look to be added to Heidi Klum's new line of active wear, Heidi Klum for New Balance, #HKNB. In giving the designers an additional two looks to present on the runway, they brought back all of the designers that were sent home this season.
Instigating more drama and looking for vindication it seems, Ivy kept talking smack to the other designers about how she called out Michael C. for his cheating. She says, "I definitely believe in karma" and the gracious editors quickly cut to Ivy screaming, "AAAAGHH!" where she got poked in the eye by something. Tim Gunn then has the designers gather 'round and puts a kabash on the issue and tells them it's a non-issue so work, work, work.
And work it out they did! They turned out some really very innovative designs with active wear. I think this was pretty hard considering it's a rather limited genre of clothing. There were definitely a few pieces in each of the designers' collections that proved they have the talent to still be in the competition. Karma made another appearance to give Andy the win with his chiffon accented asymmetrical pieces. The looks grew on me as I looked at them more and more, especially as separates. Sadly, Christopher was sent home. Check out all the designs here: Project Runway on LifetimeTV.
When thinking of great shoes to match with the winning looks, I instantly thought of the Puma ballerina flats with the patent and shiny fabrics. (I had to go with the cat to keep up with all the cattiness! ;) ) I picked three of my favorites that go with all three of Andy's great looks. The first is the Espera II in white with violet.
The swoopy strap design compliments the asymmetry of the chiffon strips nicely. The pop of violet adds a little color to the white, grey, black color scheme. These are on sale for $63.
The second is the Sabadella in black patent with mesh fabric and a little suede as well. The shiny patent finish on this ballerina flat elevates the outfit from looking like you just left the gym. The airyness that the mesh offers goes with the easiness of active wear and reflects the stylishness that is inherent in Andy's designs. These are on sale too for $42.
Lastly, I'm loving the Saba Sequins Ballerina Flats in the aged silver/metallic silver. Adding the bling with the sequins really steps up the active wear look to ensure that your outfit never enters the frumpy galaxy. I think that the shiny sequin ballerina flats truly go with this type of activewear. The fashion forwardness vibe really needs a shoe that can bring that same level of fierceness without being too much. Currently, these retail for $75.
I'll meet you at Amazon.com where we can buy all of Andy's winning looks as part of the Heidi Klum for New Balance collection. We're nearing the last of the runways and next week determines who shows at Fashion Week. Let the nail biting begin!
Those Saba Sequins look great & super comfy!!
I may have to try a pair!!
All 3 provide all day comfort with a feminine style. They're great for any girl (or guy) on the go.
Shoe Gal Had A Little L.A.M.B.


text:
Q: ValueError: Axes instance argument was not found in a figure, Question with same name has no answer I am trying to create a seaborn Facetgrid to plot the normality distribution of all columns in my dataFrame decathlon. The data looks as such:
      P100m   Plj  Psp  Phj  P400m  P110h   Ppv  Pdt  Pjt  P1500
0       938  1061  773  859    896    911   880  732  757    752
1       839   975  870  749    887    878   880  823  863    741
2       814   866  841  887    921    939   819  778  884    691
3       872   898  789  878    848    879   790  790  861    804
4       892   913  742  803    816    869  1004  789  854    699
 ...   ...  ...  ...    ...    ...   ...  ...  ...    ...
7963    755   760  604  714    812    794   482  571  539    780
7964    830   845  524  767    786    783   601  573  562    535
7965    819   804  653  840    791    699   659  461  448    632
7966    804   720  539  758    830    782   731  487  425    729
7967    687   809  692  714    565    741   804  527  738    523

I am relatively new to python and I can't understand my error. My attempt to format the data and create the grid is as such:
import seaborn as sns
df_stacked = decathlon.stack().reset_index(1).rename({'level_1': 'column', 0: 'values'}, axis=1)
g = sns.FacetGrid(df_stacked, row = 'column')
g = g.map(plt.hist, "values")

However I recieve the following error:
ValueError: Axes instance argument was not found in a figure

Can anyone explain what exactly this error means and how I would go about fixing it?
EDIT
df_stacked looks as such:
     column  values
0     P100m     938
0       Plj    1061
0       Psp     773
0       Phj     859
0     P400m     896
 ...     ...
7967  P110h     741
7967    Ppv     804
7967    Pdt     527
7967    Pjt     738
7967  P1500     523

A: I encountered this similar issue when running a Jupyter Notebook.
My solution involved:

*

*Restart the notebook

*Re-run the imports %matplotlib inline; import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

A: As you did not post a full working example its a bit of guessing.
What might go wrong is in the line where you have g = g.map(plt.hist, "values") because the error comes from deep within matplotlib. You can see this here in this SO question where its another function pylab.sca(axes[i]) outside matplotlib due to not being in that module available, is being triggered by matplotlib.
Likely you installed/updated something in your (conda?) environment (changes in environment paths?) and after the next reboot it was found.
I also wonder how you come up with plt.hist ... fully typed it should resemble matplotlib.pyplot.hist ... but guessing... (waiting for your updated example code).


text:
Durango and Bayfield catch rain for education
4CORE establishes first Colorado rain collection demonstration sites
Friday, July 12, 2019 5:03 AM
Lance Trujillo, 4, looks at the rain chain that brings water from the shed roof into the rain collection demonstration barrels at Pine River Community Garden in Bayfield.
Shannon Mullane/Durango Herald
Andrew Trujillo, a Pine River Garden Club board member, peered into the murky depths of a 50 gallon barrel of captured rainwater at Pine River Library Community Garden in Bayfield June 28.
About two weeks after the rainwater harvesting demonstration barrel arrived, it was almost full.
"I'm actually probably going to use this water to create a worm tea," Trujillo said, referring to a brew involving worm waste, water, molasses and a fish tank aerator. "It creates this really organic, natural fertilizer."
The Four Corners Office for Resource Efficiency (4CORE) built the garden's demonstration site as part of a larger educational initiative promoting rainwater collection – an initiative that is the first of its kind in Colorado, said Laurie Dickson, executive director of 4CORE.
4CORE, an environmental nonprofit, worked with Pine River Library Garden Club and Bayfield Primary School in Bayfield and Powerhouse Science Center in Durango to install rainwater harvesting demonstration sites at each location. Residential rainwater collection could save residents a few dollars on their water bills in the process, while decreasing the burden on water-treatment systems and conserving water in an arid landscape.
"After such a drought last year, I think it really brought it to the forefront for people how critical water is in this area and how it makes a lot of sense to scrimp and save every little drop that we can," said Kami Larson, another Pine River Garden Club board member.
The demonstration sites feature two covered 50-gallon rain barrels connected to the gutter system and a sign that explains how residents can start their own water collection sites. 4CORE and their site partners will be holding educational presentations over the summer and into the fall, Dickson said.
Along with the rain barrels, 4CORE placed these signs at each demonstration site – Bayfield Elementary School, Pine River Library Community Garden and Powerhouse Science Center – at the end of June.
Courtesy of Pool Creative
4CORE built the sites with an $11,000 grant from the Colorado Water Conservation Board. The nonprofit has been offering residents resources to collect water since 2017, when they held grant-funded workshops on how to construct rainwater collection systems. Since then, they have helped at least 200 people set up residential systems.
"People who are actively collecting rainwater now are pretty amazed really at how much water they can collect even in a year that's really dry," Dickson said.
For example, Colorado's average annual rainfall is about 14 inches, according to U.S. Climate Data. If 14 inches of rain falls on a 1,000-square-foot roof, a resident could collect over 8,700 gallons of rainwater.
Even if just half an inch fell on the same sized roof, a resident could collect about 300 gallons, according to the Innovative Water Solutions Rainwater Catchment Calculator.
Collecting rainwater wasn't legal in Colorado until 2016, when former governor and current presidential candidate John Hickenlooper signed HB 1005 into law, allowing for residential rainwater collection.
Collecting water before it entered the stream system was a controversial idea, mainly because of Colorado's carefully allotted water resources and complicated prior appropriation system, which gives the oldest water rights priority over newer water rights.
However, in 2015 and 2016, legislators considered studies about where rainfall went when it fell on residential rooftops. They found that generally rainfall did not leave the property, said Chris Arend, communications director for the Colorado Department of Natural Resources.
To avoid undermining downstream water rights, the law stipulates that residents collect water only from their rooftops and use it for nonpotable outdoor uses.
HB 1005 gives residents an exception to the prior appropriations system, but the exception doesn't apply to the three rainwater harvesting demonstration sites.
They collect water from non-residential roofs. The demonstration site managers would have to temporarily stop collecting water whenever the Animas or Los Pinos rivers couldn't meet their water appropriations.
That's unlikely for the Durango site since the Animas River has never been called upon. The Los Pinos River has been called in the past, so those sites could be affected later in the season, said Tracy Kosloff, deputy state engineer with the Colorado Department of Natural Resources.
4CORE and the project managers hope the sites educate the community about the uses of collecting rainwater at home, said Larson and Dickson.
Not only could it save water costs, rainwater collection has the ability to control moisture around the base of the house, and plants thrive on rainwater as opposed to treated water. It also protects river water that becomes polluted as it flows down streets into streams, Dickson said.
At the Pine River Library Community Garden, the demonstration site added another element to an educational and water-efficient garden.
"I love teaching my children to eat healthy and enjoy the garden," Trujillo said, while his three kids tried almost-ripe cherries and picked basil. "I think the more we can conserve water ... and use techniques that are around to capture and hold that moisture in the soil is really beneficial."


text:
<?php

namespace PharmaQuiz\CoreBundle\Entity;

use Doctrine\Common\Collections\ArrayCollection;
use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
use Knp\DoctrineBehaviors\Model as ORMBehaviors;
use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints as Assert;

/**
 * QuizQuestion
 *
 * @ORM\Table(name="quiz_questions")
 * @ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="PharmaQuiz\CoreBundle\Entity\QuizQuestionRepository")
 */
class QuizQuestion
{
    use ORMBehaviors\Translatable\Translatable;

    /**
     * @var integer
     *
     * @ORM\Column(name="id", type="integer")
     * @ORM\Id
     * @ORM\GeneratedValue(strategy="AUTO")
     */
    private $id;

    /**
     * @var boolean
     *
     * @ORM\Column(name="published", type="boolean")
     */
    private $published;

    /**
     * @var integer
     *
     * @ORM\Column(name="category_id", type="integer")
     */
    private $categoryId;

    /**
     * @ORM\OneToMany(targetEntity="QuizAnswer", mappedBy="question", cascade={"all"})
     */
    protected $answers;

    /**
     * @ORM\ManyToOne(targetEntity="QuizCategory", inversedBy="questions")
     * @ORM\JoinColumn(name="category_id", referencedColumnName="id")
     * @Assert\NotBlank()
     */
    protected $category;

    /**
     * Proxy method calls to the translation class.
     */
    public function __call($method, $arguments)
    {
        return $this->proxyCurrentLocaleTranslation($method, $arguments);
    }

    /**
     * Show the title of the translation using the __call proxy.
     *
     * Sta questions anti gia
     * 'Item "PharmaQuiz\CoreBundle\Entity\Page:000000000b170ead00007f6ae9dc88fb" has been successfully updated.'
     * emfanizei
     * 'Item "Terms of use" has been successfully updated.'
     */
    public function __toString()
    {
        return $this->getTitle();
    }

    /**
     * Constructor
     */
    public function __construct()
    {
        $this->answers = new ArrayCollection();
    }

    /**
     * Proxy getter calls to the translation class.
     */
    public function __get($name)
    {
        $method = 'get' . ucfirst($name);
        return $this->proxyCurrentLocaleTranslation($method);
    }

    /**
     * Proxy setter calls to the translation class.
     */
    public function __set($name, $value)
    {
        $method = 'set' . ucfirst($name);
        return $this->proxyCurrentLocaleTranslation($method, array($value));
    }

    /**
     * Get id
     *
     * @return integer
     */
    public function getId()
    {
        return $this->id;
    }

    /**
     * Set categoryId
     *
     * @param integer $categoryId
     * @return QuizQuestion
     */
    public function setCategoryId($categoryId)
    {
        $this->categoryId = $categoryId;

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Get categoryId
     *
     * @return integer
     */
    public function getCategoryId()
    {
        return $this->categoryId;
    }

    /**
     * Add answers
     *
     * @param \PharmaQuiz\CoreBundle\Entity\QuizAnswer $answers
     * @return QuizQuestion
     */
    public function addAnswer(\PharmaQuiz\CoreBundle\Entity\QuizAnswer $answers)
    {
        $this->answers[] = $answers;

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Remove answers
     *
     * @param \PharmaQuiz\CoreBundle\Entity\QuizAnswer $answers
     */
    public function removeAnswer(\PharmaQuiz\CoreBundle\Entity\QuizAnswer $answers)
    {
        $this->answers->removeElement($answers);
    }

    /**
     * Get answers
     *
     * @return \Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection
     */
    public function getAnswers()
    {
        return $this->answers;
    }

    /**
     * Set category
     *
     * @param \PharmaQuiz\CoreBundle\Entity\QuizCategory $category
     * @return QuizQuestion
     */
    public function setCategory(\PharmaQuiz\CoreBundle\Entity\QuizCategory $category = null)
    {
        $this->category = $category;

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Get category
     *
     * @return \PharmaQuiz\CoreBundle\Entity\QuizCategory
     */
    public function getCategory()
    {
        return $this->category;
    }

    /**
     * Retrieve only the correct answers.
     *
     * @return \PharmaQuiz\CoreBundle\Entity\QuizAnswer[]
     */
    public function getCorrectAnswers()
    {
        $correct = array();
        foreach ($this->getAnswers() as $answer) {
            if ($answer->getIsCorrect()) {
                $correct[$answer->getId()] = $answer;
            }
        }

        return $correct;
    }

    /**
     * Retrieve the number of the correct answers.
     *
     * @return int
     */
    public function getNumberOfCorrectAnswers()
    {
        return count($this->getCorrectAnswers());
    }

    /**
     * Set published
     *
     * @param boolean $published
     * @return QuizQuestion
     */
    public function setPublished($published)
    {
        $this->published = $published;

        return $this;
    }

    /**
     * Get published
     *
     * @return boolean
     */
    public function getPublished()
    {
        return $this->published;
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
**Marketers Lead the Way Online
BOSTON — After gushing about the growth of the Internet, complete with slides showing exploding volcanoes and the latest statistics from Jupiter Communications, Direct Marketing Association President/CEO H. Robert Wientzen said yesterday that the leaders on the Internet are direct marketers, not the major retailers or flashy Internet pure plays.
Wientzen took the opportunity, during the DMA's Net.Marketing fall conference and exhibition keynote address to preach to the choir. A full ballroom of conference attendees, who — judging from traffic the night before — were all exhibitors, listened intently.
Wientzen revealed the findings from the DMA's State of the Interactive eCommerce Marketing Industry Report: 2000, complete with a pitch to attendees to buy one for $500-plus in the lobby.
Some of the top-line results positioned direct marketers as trailblazers. For example, 97 percent of DMA members use the Web in their business operations, up from 90 percent last year. Forty-four percent of these companies conduct sales online.
Some 69 percent of the respondents claimed to have profitable online sales in 2000, compared with 49 percent in 1999.
"From our vantage point, a lot of traditional direct marketers who are staking out their online claims in fact are making money," Wientzen said.
This is happening because traditional direct marketers are "doing something right in the e-marketplace," he said. "It is not about the fancy site and the bells and whistles. … Increasingly it is about consumer customer service, it's about trust, and it's about satisfaction."
Tried-and-true direct marketing practices are winning, he said, because "we are already experts at some mundane skills, perhaps: sophisticated order taking, fulfillment, customer service processes and systems that develop effective lifetime relationships."
Direct marketers will be the teachers for the future because "five years ago, we were employing database technology information to offer and develop one-to-one marketing," he said. "[We were exploring] collaborative filtering. Customer lifetime value was being talked about, and we were doing data warehousing and working with relationship marketing concepts. None of this is flashy or glamorous. … However, if something works and makes money — flash and glamour are not exactly a major concern."
Survey respondents said the benefits realized by their Web presence are greater visibility (76 percent); cost savings (56 percent); new business opportunities (56 percent); time savings (52 percent) and increased revenue (46 percent).
The top online promotional methods are search engine optimization (66 percent) and e-mail marketing (54 percent). Respondents rated search engine buys as "somewhat effective" and e-mail as "most effective."
Other findings: 91 percent of respondents maintain inhouse e-mail lists, and 92 percent do not send unsolicited e-mail.
Catalogs are the "most effective and frequently used traditional direct marketing technique," he said. "Telemarketing, radio and TV were all found to generate only mediocre return on investment."
Wientzen then cut the lovefest short by making a direct plea to attendees to create privacy policies with "guts and muscle" or they would all likely suffer when the government inevitably steps in to take control.
R.R. Donnelley Redirects Print Business to E-Tail
R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. was disappointed in the second-quarter results for its direct mail business and laid…
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The third annual Ad Network Study from ad network Collective Media, which was released today and surveyed more…
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Homestore.com, an Internet home and retail network based in Thousand Oakes, CA, said yesterday it is expanding its…


Tom is the founder of TMS Protection Limited, and his commitment to the business has been vital for its growth into one of the south east's leaders in the security industry. Tom served as a Police Officer with Kent Police, and has implemented the skills and knowledge gained during this time in the business model. Currently studying for his NVQ Level 5 in Security Management, Tom's vision and experience are key to the company's success. Tom is also a director of TMS Protection's sister company Proforce Cleaning Services.
Karl has recently joined the TMS Protection management structure, and has quickly become a valued member of our team. Using his years of experience gained whilst working as a door supervisor and close protection officer, Karl understands the importance of working together as one team to achieve our goal. During his time with the business, he has been pivotal in the progression of our operations into new markets across the country, whilst nurturing our existing work force and clients.
An approved SIA trainer and experienced close protection officer, Sean has been instrumental in developing our workforce to ensure we are compliant with approved contractor regulations. Responsible for our training sector, contracts management and ensuring our policies are implemented, Sean has become a vital part of our business.


Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Palouse, Aug 6, 2009.
39? I thought I read somewhere he said he was 28? LOL. BC have a wonderful and blessed day.
39 is the new 28?
today's you're birthday... Happy Birthday to ya!
Happy Birthday! Hope your day is filled with fun, friends, and family!
Happy birthday Mark! I hope you have a great one.
Happy Birthday BC!! Thx again for the 300...Time for your 700??? Have Fun!!!
Hope this is a great day for you Mark. Happy birthday and may you have many more.
Happy BD Mark, rest assured if you go FX, I will be glad to come over and relieve you of all that old DX stuff. Have a good one.


text:
Reading Dante
Commedia DVD
Monarchia 2009
Monarchia DVD
Monarchy 1996
Times Literary Supplement, 7th October 1983
Prue Shaw, The long production line
ALBERTO ASOR ROSA (Editor)
Letteratura italiana: Volume I, Il letterato e le istituzioni
1075 pp. Turin: Einaudi.
L. 70,000
88 06 05475 9
Under the general title Letteratura italiana, the Turin publishing firm of Einaudi launches an ambitious new series (nine projected volumes in all), of which this bulky tome of over 1000 pages forms the introduction. Although the subject is literature and the approach historical, this is not a literary history in any normal sense: we must wait for volumes Seven and Eight to be given a Storia e geografia della letteratura italiana (and then the symptomatic addition of "geography" to the expected "history" points us firmly away from the conventional model). In an already crowded field – every major Italian publishing house seems to have its own history of Italian literature – only some substantial novelty of approach would seem to justify yet another offering. The publishers themselves make large claims on this score, saying "there may be better works than this, but certainly none that resembles it, inside or outside Italy". On the evidence of this first volume, their claims are justified.
This is a literary history for the 1980s, which has taken on board formalism, structuralism, deconstruction, semiotics, and every fashionable recent development in literary and linguistic theory. It is broadly Marxist in its sympathies, avowedly eclectic in its methods. It does not describe writers, readers, books, but rather producers, consumers, products (Volume Two is to be called simply Produzione e consumo). The production/consumption model provides the key to an approach which is sociological, economic, and ultimately political. Literature is no longer a privileged category, but simply a part of the continuum of human activity.
This first volume, whose general title is Il letterato e le istituzioni, divides into two lengthy sections, each organized on historical lines, with chapters contributed by experts, many of them historians rather than literary critics. The first section (Letteratura e potere) chronicles the relationships between intellectuals and power in Italian society from the medieval courts up to the death of Pasolini in 1975; the second (Letteratura e istituzioni culturali) surveys the role played by cultural institutions (universities, religious orders, Academies, journals) in relation to men of letters over the same lengthy period.
There is much here that is interesting, although for scores of pages at a time we lose sight of literature altogether. Of 115 pages on medieval courts in Italy only the second half has much direct bearing on literature as distinct from literacy, although when we do finally come to the matter of the troubadour immigration into Italian courts, which led to the birth of Italian lyric poetry, the treatment is excellent. But even if Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio have their names at the heads of three consecutive chapters, nevertheless the unwary reader who turns to them expecting some general assessment of their achievement or even a simple list of what they wrote, will be disappointed. The text assumes a familiarity with their lives and works, and on the basis of this shared knowledge hazards some generalizations about intellectuals, society, the commune, and bourgeois power. This proves to be the pattern throughout the first section; in the second section we are taken through, inter alia, the history of the Dominican order and the Italian education system, and the connection with literature becomes, if anything, even more attenuated.
The long chapter, particulalry vigorous and searching, on the period 1940-75 is by the formidable Marxist critic Alberto Asor Rosa, who also contributed the introduction ("Letteratura, testo, società"), which explicitly outlines the methodological premises on which the whole enterprise is based. Sandwiched betweent the two main sections on political and cultural power structures is a series of thirty-two illustrations, ranging from Cimabue's Assisi fresco of St Luke at his desk to Pasolini hunched over his typewriter (irritatingly, the photographs are not dated). The introduction and the illustrative material stand in a curious relation to one another: the pictures, richly evocative as they are and evidently intended simply to illustrate "the tools of the man of letters", in fact subtly undermine the theoretical premises of the book.
The jargon which in the text is used with sufficient discipline becomes risible in the pretentious captions to the photographs. Could Sbarbaro, evidently not the tidiest of men, have imagined that the "disturbing presences" in his study ("the old shoes, the chair whose straw seat is unravelling, the cardboard boxes, the flasks, and, on the wretched little table, only folders of dried lichens") symbolized a radical rejection of literature? In Ungaretti's study "the very concept of the ordered display of written products" is absent (i.e. there is no bookcase). (But couldn't there have been a bookcase behind the photographer's back?) Pasolini's "modest biro" apparently underlines both his commitment and his solitude. The captions say too much: they assume a naivety in the "reader" of images which is curiously at odds with the sophistication assumed in the reader of texts. They also say too little, glossing over the question of self-image and self-projection (acknowledged only with the flagrantly posturing D'Annunzio), the question of the choices made by painter or photographer, and, above all, the question of the contradiction inherent in capturing the "solitude" of a sitter. The only illustrations which avoid these complexities are those where no human figure is present, the most moving of all being the juxtaposed pictures of Leopardi's first and last studies: the library in the family home at Recanati and the desolate room of his final years in Torre del Greco, the two poles of an itinerary where the notions of commitment and solitude spring unbidden to mind.
With two exceptions – the pictures of the Accademia dei Pugni, and of Alfieri chatting to the Countess of Albany, early versions respectively of the seminar and the tutorial – all the pictures of writers show writing as a solitary pursuit. The sense of continuity across the centuries in this respect is far more striking than accidental divergences in dress, interior decoration or technology. It forces on the reader a central question: what is it precisely that the writer does? Most histories of literature make Romantic or post-Romantic assumptions about creativity, imagination, genius (or at the least, talent). They assume that writers are gifted, that the value of literature is connected with its genesis in the human psyche and in human experience, and that it is the business of the critic and literary historian to make value-judgments. This book dispenses with such concepts, or uses them very guardedly ("so-called creative literature" being the recurring, off-handedly dismissive phrase). It is almost devoid of value-judgments: any oggetto letterario can yield interesting conclusions, the experience of any practitioner, however mediocre, can be instructive.
The overall impression created is that of seeing familiar terrain in an entirely new perspective, a perspective which disconcertingly reduces the peaks to hillocks or removes them from view altogether. In one sense it is refreshing to have one's expectations thwarted: Dante is treated at precisely the same length as his teacher Brunetto Latini; every nuance in Vittorini's thinking about literature and politics is examined while Montale scarcely rates a mention. It is in the nature of things that certain writers lend themselves to treatment in these terms while others do not, and that even those writers who do, tend to be discussed in terms of their minor works rather than their major ones (Dante of the Convivio, Leopardi of the Operette morali). The introduction argues that it is characteristic of Italian men-of-letters to practise, though not necessarily or exclusively or even consecutively in any given case, two extreme and opposite modes of literary production, that of civil-political commitment, and that of the cult of rhetorical formalism. Presumably the second mode and those who favour it will dominate the landscape in Volume Three, Le forme del testo, whereupon, one hopes, some of the misgivings this volume arouses will be quelled; just as one hopes that the whole question of value and evaluation may be given an airing in Volume Four (L'interpretazione), or perhaps in Volume Six (enigmatically entitled simply Questioni). The signs here are good. Asor Rosa rightly dismisses with contempt those who, in the name of "scientificity", are unable to distinguish between "a wretched sonnet by Serafino Aquilano and a composition of the divine Petrarch".
In focusing on the relationship of writers to the power structures in the world at large the authors of this volume are examining an aspect of experience which writers share not only with each other but with all men, and ignoring what makes them distinctive as a group ("the mafia of talent", as it has been called) and unique as individuals – in short, precisely that dimension of their experience we call "literary". Perhaps after all the most controversial thing about this book is its title. Certainly it is a book for the converted. The liberal humanist (that dying breed) will find much here to instruct, stimulate, provoke, but nothing to dissuade him from his central conviction that literature, and more generally art, has a unique if problematical value, and that "so-called" creative literature is so called with good reason.
CLICK HERE to return to 'Other Publications'.
Designed by Dawn Mancer


The highly-anticipated Celebrity Family Feud episode starring Kanye West and his family, along with wife Kim Kardashian and her family, is finally airing on June 10.
After news of the forthcoming episode emerged in February, Kris Jenner just took to social media to share a thirty-second clip of what you can expect to see from the premiere.
Kanye West and Kim Kardashian will be in the same team, along with a few other members from the West family, as they will face off against the Kardashian-Jenners, represented by Kris Jenner, her mother Mary Jo Campbell, Khloe Kardashian, and Kendall Jenner.
You can watch the this full episode of Celebrity Family Feud on Sunday, June 10 at 8 p.m. EST on ABC.


text:
El piscol verde (Browningia chlorocarpa (Kunth) Marshall) es una especie fanerógama perteneciente a la familia de las cactáceas. Es endémico del norte de Perú en Huancabamba, Piura y Cajamarca.

Descripción
Es un cactus arbolado con densas coronas de tronco corto, que alcanza los 1.5 m de altura  o más; con 9 a 10 costillas; las areolas de color marrón y de 1 a 4 de  desiguales espinas centrales de hasta 5 cm de largo y de 8 a 10 radiales de 1 cm de largo. Las flores son de color naranja y nocturnas.

Taxonomía
Browningia chlorocarpa fue descrita por (Kunth) Marshall y publicado en Cactus and Succulent Journal 17: 114, en el año 1945.
Etimología
Browningia: nombre genérico otorgado en honor de  Webster E. Browning (1869–1942), director del Instituto Inglés en Santiago de Chile.

chlorocarpa: epíteto latíno que significa "con semillas verdes".
Sinonimia
Lemaireocereus chlorocarpusCereus chlorocarpus
Gymnanthocereus chlorocarpusSeticereus chlorocarpus
''Cactus chlorocarpus

Referencias

Enlaces externos
http://www.desert-tropicals.com/Plants/Cactaceae/Browningia.html
http://cactiguide.com/cactus/?genus=Browningia

chlorocarpa
Flora de Sudamérica occidental
Flora de América del Sur continental
Cactus y suculentas
Plantas descritas en 1945
Plantas descritas por Kunth
Plantas descritas por Marshall

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Cape Town 7's Share
USA 7's
Uganda 7's
There is no news for this match.
Download the Ultimate Rugby App!
Cape Town 7's 2022
P+/-
USA 7's 3 2 1 0 93/29 8
Great Britain 7's 3 2 0 1 64/60 7
Australia 7's 3 1 1 1 69/40 6
Uganda 7's 3 0 0 3 10/107 3
New Zealand 7's Vs Samoa 7's at Newlands 11th Dec 2022
USA 7's Vs South Africa 7's at Newlands 11th Dec 2022
Fiji 7's Vs Argentina 7's at Newlands 11th Dec 2022
Australia 7's Vs France 7's at Newlands 11th Dec 2022
Aus 7's
Canada 7's Vs Kenya 7's at Newlands 11th Dec 2022
Canada 7's
Kenya 7's
Newlands


text:
Steam Greenlight, four months later, an early premortem feature - Arelite Core
Arelite Core
Dragon Slumber | Released Feb 2017
A brand new JRPG crafted in the tradition of 16 bit aesthetics with a modern day flair. It takes inspiration from SNES JRPGs with a story story and cinematic presentation, but without disregarding modern day tropes like customising the fighting styles, forging your own weapons, animated monsters in battle and more. We want to take special care in making this game stand out above the crowd. Although we're not presenting too many screenshots for now, a lot of systems are already in place, such as a bestiary, a colosseum mode with a scoring system and a leaderboard and a 90 page main game script which aims to provide around 12h of non grinding gameplay. We have a lot more planned too, so stay tuned.
Post feature Report RSS	Steam Greenlight, four months later, an early premortem
Four months ago, I put up my JRPG Arelite Core on Steam Greenlight. Today, I am only at 57% of the way to the top 100, and my ranking is slowly sliding down. so I figured that I would share some numbers with you, as well as my marketing efforts during that time period.
Posted by dragonslumber on May 4th, 2015
Before it was on Greenlight
First, a bit of a marketing timeline. I started Arelite Core in May 2012, building the engine as a makeshift tech demo. In October 2012, I launched www.dragonslumber.com, a landing page for the company I registered which also acts as a dev blog. One month later, I released "The Guardian", a tech demo which I would use to search for an artist to team up with, to profit share. Failing to connect with someone, I eventually decided to work on the game on my own, acting as programmer, designer, writer, producer and of course, marketer for the game.
Arelite Core quickly evolved over the course of 2013, as its design was fleshed out, it's UI completed, and various artistic decisions were made. In August 2013, I cut ties with Lycus Arts Entertainment, an Indian firm which effectively stole several thousand dollars from me. My first facebook post was made in September of the same year and in December , I launched www.arelitecore.com, a second website which would be entirely dedicated to promoting the game.
There's little to say about most of 2014. By then I had 6-7 contractors working on the various visual aspects of the game. Design turned to alpha-ish, things were starting to make sense and in December, I released my first trailer. I also applied to the Indie Megabooth for PAX East, for which I was eventually rejected.
I mention all of this to show the efforts I put into marketing the game prior to launching on Greenlight. Besides doing a Kickstarter, I feel that most reasonable efforts for a one person team managing such a large project were taken. Nevertheless, I can't say that my efforts to that point had really succeeded. The facebook only had a handful of subscribers, the website had very few views and only spiked when I had new job openings. I never understood how to leverage Reddit, I didn't have a kickstarter, I don't use twitter very well, and since I had so many jobs to do, marketing did suffer as a result.
So, finally we come to January 3rd 2015, the date I put Arelite Core on Steam Greenlight. I did my due diligence, made the press releases and all of that, and after four days, the results were ok at best.
I wasn't really surprised however, due to how the marketing had gone to that point, and the fact that I'm promoting a JRPG. I think I have a solid design, but it's easy to see yet another RPG Maker and move along. I would say that a 36% yes ratio isn't quite what I wanted. And in the end, I do feel that votes for the game almost immediately stagnated.
Only 20% to the top 100, graph shows how well under the top 100 game's performance I am. The game had some fans, and I made sure to respond to all comments, but the writing was on the wall, at least for it's initial push. I wouldn't make it much further than this on from the Greenlight listing alone. I did what I could, submitting some articles to IndieDB, promoting the game on Facebook groups, creating a banner for my website and so on. I even registered and use www.forgeyourlegacy.com as a link to the Steam Greenlight, to make it easier to list and make it more user friendly. Weeks later, I was at 25%.
Now, I do want to give this one silver lining: over the course of the greenlight lifespan, the ratio of "Yes please" did increase, although I must wonder how many of those would translate to sales. We all know how to tap into indie resources to scratch each others backs, so the actual number of yeses in there must be lower than that.
It was around this time that I went to a small local convention with the first public demo for my game. The con japan culture themed, and a lot of the people I met were clearly not usual gamers, being impressed by some tropes which has become industry standards. Still, the feedback was generally positive, I distributed about a hundred fliers and came out of it with reasonably positive expectations.
But the numbers tell a whole other story. As you can see, there are less than three hundred more people who went to vote during that 2 month period and I didn't really see any bump from the convention attendance, either in votes or Facebook likes. One interesting fact however, my ranking jumped from 42% to 62%, which I'm guessing has less to do with my efforts than Steam approving other games. In fact, within 12 days, I slowly dropped to 57%.
So, four months later, where do I stand on getting greenlit? Well, mathematically I'm half way there, but if I don't act, I know there won't be any push. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve, I'll soon be finalizing a demo which will finally show off all of various gameplay improvements I've made, and can hope to create some buzz that way. I also intend to release a second trailer with more emphasis on the battle system, since I feel that I need to sell people on battles before I sell them on Arelite Core's story. Finally, I'll be doing a Kickstarter before too long, I have a lot of creative ideas outside of the game, like a card game, and since I have amazing assets and artists, I can properly leverage those.
In the end, the fight continues. Like every other Indie Dev, I believe my game is worth it, but it's success is entirely reliant on how much effort I'm willing and able to put into promoting it properly. It's a tough job, especially being the sole guy on the project for all intents and purposes, but that's what I signed up for so that's what I'm going to do.
To find out more about Arelite Core, you can visit the following links:
Website: arelitecore.com
Facebook: facebook.com/DragonSlumberGames
Steam Greenlight: forgeyourlegacy.com
RonixRising May 6 2015
We are currently preparing for Steam Greenlight ourselves and this was a useful read. Quick question: have you tried doing press outreach and if yes, what were the results?
I like the game's concept and design. The website also looks good ;)
At the same time, I have a suggestion that might help. I noticed that there are no images on your Steam Greenlight page.
Why not add a few, as well as separate the text into meaningful sections? Not only will this help with navigation, but it will also make the page visually more attractive.
The game's art style is OK, but as you mentioned, it really doesn't help Arelite Core differentiate from that 'typical game made with RPG Maker look'. This might be a tough decision, but have you considered improving the visuals?
Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
dragonslumber May 6 2015
Hey Ronix, thank you for your response
I've tried doing a bit of press outreach, but clearly not nearly enough as warranted. I think they say you need to reach 100 people to get 2 or 3 answers and I didn't manage to do that much. At the end of the day, because I'm balancing so many jobs, that does become a problem and I'm starting to consider to bring a marketing person onboard to manage social networks, forums, press liaison and so on. It's just too much work to be done well by a single guy in my position.
I'm not sure I understand about the Steam Greenlight images, is it a section on IndieDB I'm unaware of? Because my actual Steam Greenlight page does have screenshots and what not. Unless you mean in the body of the page?
The game has definitely suffered from being a one man project, especially when it comes to visuals since that is my weakness. You'd be surprised how many artists I've cycled through over 2 years just to get this level of quality. A lot of this is second iteration stuff, if not third. I think the battles look great, so that's where my marketing push will go on the short term. That being said, I really hope to find a good stable artist for my next project, something I can partner up with and share the management load.
For now though, I'm already in debt and I'm still tens of thousands away from just finishing the game like this. I'm looking into doing a Kickstarter but after KS fees and rewards costs, I don't expect to make more than a handful of thousands.
But you know, Rome wasn't built in a day. Or for cheap. Or by a single man, but whatever :P
Reply Good karma+1 vote
Hey Kevin,
Getting some help with marketing is definitely a viable option to consider. We are a team of 7 and still the amount of work related to social stuff, pr, etc. can be staggering.
With regards to images on SG - yes, I did mean including them in the body of your Greenlight page, as well as placing a few selectively in the description. Here's an example of what I mean - Steamcommunity.com
Reply Good karma Bad karma+2 votes
Hey Ronix,
Yeah, being one means more control, but it definitely can become a bit overwhelming at times.
That's a good example you presented, I'll definitely look into improving that page. I definitely tend to be more verbose than I should, and less visual. I crack myself up at how non user friendly my game engine is when designing maps and events.
Thank you for all of your advice, I definitely appreciate it.
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February 21, 2017 | Dick Minnis
Newsletter: Spring 2017
In the Vineyard: February is always a good time to take a mid-season look at the winter rainfall totals. The Western Regional Climate Center collected weather data for Plymouth, California from 1943 until 1963. During that 20 year period, 1950 registered the highest rainfall total at 41.5 inches. This year, through mid-February, our gauges have totaled over 39 inches of rain, and with the forecast for more storms in February, we could easily surpass the 1950 totals. A record year by any account, and 3 months of the rainy season still to go. However, it will be the soil moisture content which dictates whether or not the vines need a mid-summer drink. The wet winter will certainly delay that action. An additional side effect of the wet weather are the complications it brings to the start of the dormant season pruning cycle. The task which usually begins in February has been somewhat hampered by the rain. Care has to be taken to ensure that the mechanical equipment does not unnecessarily compact the wet soil around the vines.
Around the Winery: We would like to take this opportunity to announce that Joel Medina has been given the official title of Winemaker at Bray Vineyards. Joel came to the Shenandoah Valley in 1997 from Acanbaro, Guanajuato, Mexico and until 2006 worked at the Deaver Flower Farm. He came to Bray's the following year and worked with both the grape vines and general gardening duties. In 2008, Joel began his apprenticeship as a winemaker under the mentorship of John Hoddy, our head vigneron. John will remain as executive winemaker to oversee the Bray style while Joel accepts responsibility for the day-to-day operations of crafting our fine wines. The Bray winemaking team is augmented with inputs from our Consulting Winemaker, Marco Cappelli, and Thomas Allan, our assistant manager and also the sommelier at Taste Restaurant.
Up-coming Events:March 4th and 5th is the Amador Vintners' annual "Behind the Cellar Door" wine tasting extravaganza. Bray Vineyards will be joining 45 other wineries in presenting the best of the food-friendly wines of Amador County. Eric Burns will be serving his delicious meatballs with raspberry and roasted chipotle sauce over polenta. We will be sampling a barrel of our 2014 La Dama Oscura, a Brunello clone of Sangiovese, alongside a barrel of our 2014 Sangioveto clone of Sangiovese. Learn to discern the different characteristics between clones of this important Italian varietal.
Both the Brayzin Hussy Blonde, and Brayzin Hussy red will be available for a special event discount of $99 per case. Feel free to mix and match in order to get your perfect combination.
Visit the Amador Vintners Association website at: Amadorwine.com for tickets and event details. Presale tickets are $55 for both days, $45 for Sunday only and $10 for a designated driver. These will be available online until February 28th at 11:00 pm. Tickets can be purchased the day of the event at participating wineries for an additional $5 each.
Trivia: What grape varietal has the potential to express the bracing acidity and minerality of Riesling, the floral bouquet of Pinot Gris, and the mouthfeel and fruit of Viognier? The answer is Albarino, Bray Vineyard's newest varietal, and the subject of this month's newsletter trivia section. A source of high quality white wines from the Iberian Peninsula, Albarino is an important cultivar that is both morphologically diverse, and subject to a considerable amount of name confusion. The grape is known as Albarino in the Galicia region of northwest Spain, (Galicia is an autonomous area of Spain, containing several provinces and located directly north of the Portuguese border). The grape's name changes to Alvarinho when you move south across the border into northwest Portugal. Although these two similarly named grapes are in fact genetically identical, there is considerable doubt about other synonymous varietals. Two in particular, Cainho Branco (from Portugal) and Cainho Blanco (from Galicia), were once thought to be morphological divergent strains of Albarino. The DNA analysis says otherwise, and the current evidence indicates that these two grapes are the same varietal but a completely separate cultivar from Albarino. To add to the confusion, there are regions in northwest Spain growing grapes that are locally known as Albarino but which are genetically related to a grape named Savagnin which itself is genetically identical to Gewurztraminer.
Albarino displays a large amount of morphological diversity which is usually considered an indicator of an ancient grape varietal. As with most old varietals, there is always some unsubstantiated romantic folklore associated with their time and place of origin. In Albarino's case locals thought the grape to be of German ancestry because the name "Alba-Rino" translates as "the white from the Rhine". Riesling was thought to be the parent grape. After all, there are some very noticeable similarities between the two grapes, both in the morphology of the vine, and in physiological characteristics of the finished wine. Legend has it that the 12th century Benedictine Monks from the monastery in Cluny, Saône- et Loire, France brought the grape to Spain during a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, the Capitol of Galicia and alleged burial site of Saint James the Apostle.
Unfortunately for the romantics, the earliest documented records of Riesling date from the 15th Century, and recent DNA analysis shows zero correlation between the two varietals. There is a partial DNA relationship with another old Iberian varietal called Louriero, but whether it is as a parent or sibling is unclear. It also has a close DNA relationship to the Malvasia Fina grape which was documented growing in the Minho Provence of northwest Portugal as early as 1790. The Malvasia family of white wine grapes are thought to have originated in Greece. However, there were no written references to Albarino in Galicia until 1843 when a document referred to a parcel of 40 vines that were thought to be between 200 and 300 years old. If true, that would certainly indicate that Albarino has been grown in northwest Spain for a very long time. Immigrant, indigenous, or crossbred from both, the exact ancestry of Albarino, like many European varietals may never be definitively established. A case in point: there are currently over 80 cultivated modern grapes that can trace part of their ancestry to Gouais Blanc an old prolific varietal grown by peasants in medieval times. However, much of that lineage is still conjecture owing to numerous parent grapes being extinct and unavailable for DNA analysis.
Today, the premier growing region for Albarino is the Rias Baixias Denominacion de Origen or DO (a Spanish classification similar to an appellation, but which covers other food products like cheese). Albarino accounts for over 90% of the wine grapes grown in Rias Baixias which is further divided into 5 distinct sub-regions; each with their own micro-climate and winemaking traditions. Subject to a maritime influence from the Atlantic Ocean, the region's overall climate is cool, humid and very wet with annual rain totals sometimes exceeding 70 inches. Albarino is a thick skinned grape with tight clusters, and the damp climate requires care to prevent powdery mildew. Growers typically train their vines on high trellises or pergolas to provide plenty of air circulation but even then a stringent spray regimen is required. While the wines styles can vary by sub-region, they all tend to be bone dry with a pale golden color, crisp acidity, and alcohol levels around 12%. Aromatic profiles can include white peach, apricot, melon, pineapple, mango and honeysuckle.
Spanish winemakers have enthusiastically embraced the entire pallet of modern winemaking techniques. Pre-fermentation maceration, wild yeasts, barrel fermentation, extended lees contact, and malolactic fermentation are all possible depending on the producer. Regulations on planting density, pruning, training methods, and authorized yields have also had a positive influence on quality.
Traveling south into northern Portugal, Albarino (Alvarinho) is one of a number of white grapes permitted in the Vinho Verde DOC (denominação de origem controlada: the Portuguese appellation system for agricultural products). In the early 16th century the Portuguese established regulations designed to maximize the production of maize. As a result, grape vines were restricted to the margins of fields and grown around the trunks of trees and draped over bushes surrounding fields that were used for other purposes. Today, there are still some vineyards that are relics of this practice, but most vineyards have transitioned to traditional trellis systems. One aspect of viticulture that has not changed is the Portuguese practice of over cropping the vines. High yields coupled with a cool maritime climate result in grapes with less than optimum ripeness, and wines with alcohol levels less than 10%. Vinho Verde literally means "green wine" but actually translates as "young wine". Most of the whites, Albarino included, are destined to be blended into this early drinking low alcohol wine. These wines are sometimes bottled with a little CO2 added to give them a light sparkling and refreshing sensation in the mouth. In two smaller sub-regions of the area, Monção and Melgaco, Albarino is destined for single varietal wines with higher alcohol, and those grapes are carefully nurtured to achieve the optimum ripeness necessary for that style.
Inevitably, Albarino has found its way to the grape growing regions of the New World with varying degrees of success. The Australians began importing the grape in the 1980's and have achieved some success with their version of this varietal's wine. However, in 2009, a French ampelographer identified some of the vines in Australian vineyards as the French grape Savagnin, which DNA testing subsequently confirmed. Apparently the original 1951 clippings in the Spanish collection were actually miss-identified cuttings of Savagnin. True Albarino clippings were added to the collection in 1975. So depending on when they were planted, some vineyards in Australia are imposters and some true Albarino. It has become a marketing and legal nightmare.
Fortunately, with the grape being a more recent arrival in California, vintners here avoided the Albarino identity crisis. According to the California Grape Acreage Report, there were less than 2 acres planted prior to 2001, with a gradual expansion to 280 acres by 2015. Today there are vineyards in the Santa Ynez Valley, Clarksburg, Napa, Edna Valley, Los Carneros, and in Amador's Shenandoah Valley. While the climate of these areas is markedly different than Spain's Rias Baixias region, the vinicultural practices, particularly in regard to lower yields, may be more in line with Albarino's needs.
The Bray Vineyards Albarino was grafted over to established rootstock and we have 220 vines that are now 3 years old. Selective pruning kept the 2016 crop small and in balance with what the young vines could support. We processed only enough grapes to produce 12 cases of wine for our first Albarino vintage. The inaugural release is scheduled for March at the "Behind the Cellar Door" celebration. This is a light, medium bodied wine with only 13% alcohol. The nose is predominately floral with hints of green apple, while on the pallet the refreshing acidity combines with overtones of honeysuckle and pear. This easy drinking Albarino will be a perfect summer time choice for hot lazy afternoons.
Remember, if you have a question that is looking for an answer, then E-mail it to newsletter@brayvineyards.com
Website: Brayvineyards.com is the place to go for additional information on the winery, upcoming events, and past issues of this newsletter. It is also the online store for our current inventory of direct shipment wines, the available library wines, Bray logo clothing, and other winery paraphernalia. If you can't visit us in beautiful Amador County, then perusing the website is the next best thing.
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Newsletter: Fall 2018
Newsletter: Late Spring 2018
Newsletter Winter 2017
Newsletter: Summer 2017
Newsletter: Winter 2016


The nurseries are open from 8am-6pm 51 weeks of the year.
This includes morning snack, lunch and afternoon snack.
This includes morning snack and lunch.
A Family Discount is operated whereby families with more than one child at the nursery full time will have a discount applied to their fee. Please see the "Fee's" section of the website for more information.
A healthy freshly prepared lunch is provided daily and is included in the fee. Fresh local produce is sourced where possible and menus are reviewed regularly. Our menus have been built with lots of suggestions from both parents and children.
The nurseries all operate as Smile Nurseries in partnership with the NHS and pay special attention to oral health.
Tooth brushing is part of the daily routine and oral health is considered when planning snacks and lunches.


My first full day in Leeds was spent on the unique and exciting activity of sleeping very late, then trying to scrape up cheap lodgings in London. Still working on that. I did get out in the afternoon, and basically walked back to downtown. Saw old buildings, threaded through an area of densely criss-crossing shopping arcades, bought truffles -- some boozy by my intention, the rest turning out to be boozy too, I thought I was just getting a box of truffles -- ran into some gay bars, ate a not-as-fancy-as-it-tried-to-be hot dog in the old Corn Exchange (which is a neat building), eventually walked part of the way back. Waited for a bus, but the sign in the stop said "3 minutes... 1 minute... due now... 3 minutes... due now... 34 minutes..." without anything coming. So I kept on walking. Eventually it caught up with me, and I got on, though I might have been faster walking. Legs getting tired, though.
Oh right, the museum. Around 16:30 I ran into the Henry Moore Institute and Leeds Art Gallery, and went into the latter. Partly for public toilet, but there was some neat art inside too. Small eclectic collection, from modern weird sculpture to a room of impressive 18th-19th century paintings, including a big Nordic landscape surrounded by smaller British landscapes, nice contrast. What I infer is the main Leeds library was just through an open door, too.
Dewey Decimal seems to be the favored system in the Isles.
I compared the street I'm on to 10th. It's also like Kirkwood -- or maybe 10th at night, too -- in being full of college kids going to bars or parties or parties at bars. A group of devil girls, a group in mostly green like St. Patrick's Day only it's September, a group with animal makeup (like cat whiskers), and lots of short skirts and bare arm dresses which would look sexier if I didn't keep thinking about how cold it is.
On the walk up to where I'm staying, which is up a longish path as the building is quite recessed from the road, my path was crossed by what I'm pretty sure was a fox. At least, more like a fox than any other creature I could think of. It turned and watched me from the grass, then bushes; I wanted a photo but it was camera shy. Or object in human hands shy.
Building -- Hinsley Hall -- isn't that old; 1867 training center for Methodist ministers, known as Wesley College. I guess that's why it looks a bit churchy.


Public support for legalizing marijuana has gained traction and for the first time in the history of the United States. In the latest nationwide survey of 1,501 people polled in mid-March about the subject 52 percent of those surveyed favored making weed legal, and 72% said that efforts to enforce anti-marijuana laws bring more cost than benefit.
Medical marijuana available through prescription only gets used to treat a variety of disorders including the loss of appetite, chronic pain, anxiety, arthritis, cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, Multiple Sclerosis, insomnia, ADHD Epilepsy, inflammation, migraines and Crohn's disease. The drug is also used to ease pain and improve quality of life for people who are terminally ill.
Even better with legalization that it would strike an enormous blow to organized crime, free up the overflowing prison system and reduce the violence along the Mexican-American border.
In the state of California alone new tax revenues from sales would exceed $1 billion. New tax revenues from legalized marijuana sales could exceed $1 billion. It would give a valuable source of revenue for the additional 49 states and be a major boost to the economy.
If legalized marijuana gets regulated, an estimated $8 billion would be saved annually in government spending on law enforcement, which includes the FBI and border security.
Last November, with voters in Colorado and Washington state leading the way, ballot initiatives legalizing, taxing, and regulating recreational marijuana use passed for the first time. An Oregon effort would almost certainly have prevailed, too, if proponents there hadn't overreached with toxic legislative language that scared off donors and earned ridicule from the media.
According to a new Pew Research Center survey, over the next four years, the federal government is likely to decide to treat the drug more like alcohol, passing tax-and-regulate legislation after the states force its hand.
The times are forever changing. What was taboo yesterday, will be the next big thing tomorrow. The benefits of legalization outweigh any risks. The government is spending exorbitant amounts of money to fight this issue when they could be collecting billions from taxation.