How many times have you tried to email your property manager about something simple, like where a maintenance job is up too? Or how much money you will receive this month? As a landlord there are so many questions you sometimes need answered immediately but cannot get the answers you need straight away because your property manager is busy or its out of hours. How easy would it be if there was an online portal you could log into and see all the information about your investment property right there on a screen in front of you?
Well here at Jackson Bell Property that's what we do, we use a system called Property Tree, this system has a tenant and landlord portal which allow you to log in and see rent payments, maintenance, receipts, invoices and so much more. On top of this you're also able to directly chat with your property manager keeping everything in one place.
Further to this, at Jackson Bell Property we also use a program called Inspect Real Estate, this allows the agent to send on the spot updates to the landlord with details of how the open home went. The agent is also able to keep the prospective tenants details to follow up if they are going to submit an application. The other amazing features of this system relates to prospective tenants and ensuring the property is leased in a timely manner. Whenever a tenant sends through an enquiry they receive an automatic response, this leaves the tenants feeling acknowledged, this automatic response will usually specify the main details of the property, answer any generic questions the tenants may have and attached is our application form so the tenants are able to fill it out and bring it along to the inspection. The tenants are also able to book in to view the property at a time that suits them, meaning they are more like to turn up and view the property.
Inspection Manager is one of the other online systems we use, this program is used for ongoing, routine and vacate inspections. It keeps all photos allocated to each section of the property and even allows for videos to be attached to the report. Once the report has been completed the report is emailed to the landlord where they can view all videos and photos. The report is then saved to property tree to the tenant profile so we can access it at any time that's needed and refer back to when we complete the next inspection.
If your tired of your property manager posting things out to you only for you to lose or misplace, or not being able to contact your property manager when you need to, please give us a call at Jackson Bell Property 02 4936 4333.


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Q: Why does installing libapache2-mod-passenger require Ruby 1.8? Ubuntu 10.04. I have installed Ruby 1.9.2 through rvm and want to serve rails applications with Passenger. However, if I sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-passenger, it's telling me that ruby, ruby1.8, rubygems, rubygems1.8, irb1.8, rdoc1.8 is about to be installed as well as some other packages. Is there any safe way to avoid installing those, since I already have ruby and rubygems installed and don't need anything for ruby 1.8?

A: Since you're mixing a ruby installation not coming from apt-get with a package of apt-get, issues will show, like you report.
You can avoid that by installing Passenger gem gem install passenger and proceeding to install the apache module following Passenger instructions:
http://www.modrails.com/install.html

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


I wanted to continue my review saga of OM-D E-M10, and this time I intended to shoot with longer lenses, such as the 75mm F1.8 and 75-300mm F4.8-6.7 lens. In the morning I went out on the streets and shot with the 75mm F1.8 on the E-M10, while in the afternoon, I planned to shoot at the Bird Park with the 75-300mm. The purpose of these tests was to find out how the E-M10 handles with larger and heavier lenses, and how the 3-Axis Image Stabilization copes with longer focal lengths.
I have got all the equipments ready and was out shooting already, but was too exhausted to complete the task. I have had quite a full day before, conducting a basic flash workshop in the morning and a photo sharing session in the afternoon, while entertaining visitors from Jakarta in the evening till late. After lunch today my battery just flattened out and I decided to go home. As soon as I was home I crashed on the bed for hours.
Nonetheless, these are the few images that I was able to grab from the morning brief shoot at Bukit Bintang. Oh that 75mm F1.8 lens, is sexilicious.
If you are an Olympus fan, you must have heard about the Olympus E-1, the first DSLR from Olympus when they moved fully to 100% digital SLR system. E-1 was the first Four Thirds camera, with the promise of smaller and lighter camera system delivering on par performance with competing APS-C camera models in the market. The E-1 is legendary, those who have it are not letting the E-1 go, for many interesting reasons. When I ventured into the world of photography, my first Olympus DSLR was the E-410, and never had the chance to try the E-1. Now that I can finally get my hands on one (it is not difficult to guess where the E-1 came from) I can satisfy the curiosity I have always had for this camera.
I have brought along the Olympus E-1, together with the Zuiko Digital 50mm F2 Macro (oh yes I still have this lens) and attacked Pudu Market. How did a 10 years old DSLR do after I have been exposed to much newer cameras such as E-5 and the now much superior E-M1?
I have developed quite a distinctive style for my street shooting that it has become a consistent formula which I use frequently. Nonetheless, there is always room for something different, something I have not tried before, and something to explore. In photography there is always something else to try, if we only are able to keep our minds open and not restrict ourselves to just what we think is good and right. There is no right and wrong and creativity should know no bounds.
Knowing that the Olympus OM-D E-M5 has fast burst frame rate of 9 frames per second, I rarely put this into use! I am a single AF shooter and I rarely find the need to use continuous AF, at least not for the photography that I am doing. Having the 9 frames per second gave me an idea, how about shooting something really fast in motion and make a composite image out of it? This has been done countless times by many photographers everywhere but hey, I thought it would be interesting to give it a try. Of course being new to this I have had numerous failures, and I only had one final shot which I was happy enough to show here. That shot consisted of 6 shots in total (fired about 13 frames, and selected 6). I composed the image in a way that the viewer is allowed to roam around the frame, exploring the cityscape (KLCC Twin Towers at the back) and the many other pigeons lazying around the gigantic concrete drain.
I have been meeting quite a few amazing local street photographers in Kuala Lumpur recently, and I have the privilege to have meaningful conversations with them, gaining much useful insight on street photography in general and being fully inspired to just grab the camera and go out for more shutter therapy sessions. Some of the interesting points I have learned included composing differently, by adding more elements of interest within one frame. And using less of shallow depth of field and really pay attention to everything that is happening within the composition, especially true for shooting with wide angle. Yes, wide angle, to cover more things which is not my usual choice because I prefer to selectively include the elements I want in my photograph rather than working with the clutter and mess. That is the interesting thing about photography, there is always a new technique, or new style to try and explore. And it gets even more interesting when you get suggestions and comments from other fellow photographers.
This morning was the first free time slot I have had after one long week of super busy-ness with work. My hands were extremely itchy, hence I decided to go to Chow Kit. Accompanying me was a prominent Malaysian wedding photographer, Johan Sopiee, but the world was so small that we bumped into Luke Chua and his friend, Leong. We grouped up and attacked Chow Kit together. I utilize my full set of lenses, but I paid more attention to wider angle coverage for this session. Wide angle photography is not exactly my strength but I do acknowledge the importance of having and using a wide angle lens. I will not hesitate to go wide angle when the necessity arises, and I will make no excuse to make the shot happen.
For some unexplainable reasons people have the perception that I have the special ability to walk up to any stranger and get a close up portrait shot done. That is NOT true. The truth is, I do not have that super-power, and I do not attempt to shoot everyone, anyone, or anything on the street.
There are possibly hundreds and hundreds of people I come across on the street, and I would shoot, or attempt to shoot about only 5% of the total number. In simpler terms, that means in every 20 people I encounter, I will make one close up portrait shot. Or even less. And out of the possible one dozen close up portrait shots I have taken in one shutter therapy session, I then narrow the selection down to 2 or 3 to be shown in my blog entry.
I do not know how or what made people think I just randomly shoot anyone anywhere, that is so not me. I take my time to observe, and find my subjects. Normally, I only approach strangers, or people whom I feel drawn to. Perhaps it was the way they look at me, or that beautiful expression on their faces, or something in their eyes that compelled me to point my camera at them. Yes, I can be picky, and if I do not find anything interesting (ouch!) or worth shooting in that subject, I would move on to the next possible target! Choosing a strong subject content is one very important step in photography, any photography.
There is just the thrill of going up to perfect stranger and make that brief connection, and have the connection recorded in the digital photography medium. The satisfaction came again when the photographs turn out right, just like the above photograph of a wet market worker.
I was invited by dear friend Raja Indra Putra to join his amazing group of PSPJ (Photographic Society of Petaling Jaya) members' outing at Chow Kit this morning. It was a pleasure meeting so many new faces, all beautiful and friendly people who have so much passion to shoot! More interestingly, I saw more people using Olympus, and was flattered to find a few members who knew me from my blog. I am truly humbled and you know what, our conversation developed into the things we loved about Olympus, and one consistent discussion I had with all Olympus users was about the colors we get from our Olympus cameras. Yes, it was the glorious, Olympus colors.
I have had so many questions from everywhere asking me about how I "post-process" my images to get the colors to look the way they look on my blog. Seriously, I always answered the same: the colors were straight out of camera. Though I shot everything in RAW I processed them through the Olympus Viewer 3 software, which provided me with the exact same color reproduction as the camera JPEG engine. And yes, as hard as it is to believe, the colors from Olympus cameras, were already THAT good, even without doing any further processing. Honest, I did not do anything to the original camera colors, and yes, Olympus colors are really that great. I set my camera's white balance to Auto most of the time and I find that rarely failed.
And oh, the beautiful, life-like, pleasing skin tones from Olympus images. I know the color preference is a subjective thing, and may cause bloodshed if I push this discussion involving different brands (such as how Fuji people kept saying how amazing their colors are but honestly I find otherwise and I shall keep quiet now before all hell breaks loose), but if I need just one reason to stay with Olympus, just ONE, it would be because of the beautiful Olympus colors.


Peroxidation of plasma lipoproteins has been implicated in the endothelial cell activation and monocyte adhesion that initiate atherosclerosis, but the exact mechanisms underlying this activation remain unclear. Lipid peroxidation generates lipid aldehydes, including the γ-ketoaldehydes (γKA), also termed isoketals or isolevuglandins, that readily modify the amine headgroup of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE). We hypothesized that aldehyde modification of PE could mediate some of the proinflammatory effects of lipid peroxidation. We found that PE modified by γKA (γKA-PE) induced THP-1 monocyte adhesion to human umbilical cord endothelial cells. γKA-PE also induced expression of adhesion molecules and increased MCP-1 and IL-8 mRNA in human umbilical cord endothelial cells. To determine the structural requirements for γKA-PE activity, we tested several related compounds. PE modified by 4-oxo-pentanal induced THP-1 adhesion, but N-glutaroyl-PE and C(18:0)N-acyl-PE did not, suggesting that an N-pyrrole moiety was essential for cellular activity. As the N-pyrrole headgroup might distort the membrane, we tested the effect of the pyrrole-PEs on membrane parameters. γKA-PE and 4-oxo-pentanal significantly reduced the temperature for the liquid crystalline to hexagonal phase transition in artificial bilayers, suggesting that these pyrrole-PE markedly altered membrane curvature. Additionally, fluorescently labeled γKA-PE rapidly internalized to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER); γKA-PE induced C/EBP homologous protein CHOP and BiP expression and p38 MAPK activity, and inhibitors of ER stress reduced γKA-PE-induced C/EBP homologous protein CHOP and BiP expression as well as EC activation, consistent with γKA-PE inducing ER stress responses that have been previously linked to inflammatory chemokine expression. Thus, γKA-PE is a potential mediator of the inflammation induced by lipid peroxidation.


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https://paloaltoonline.com/print/story/print/2021/11/12/a-cut-above
Arts & Entertainment - November 12, 2021
Four women try to reform a revolution while dodging the guillotine in 'The Revolutionists'
by Heather Zimmerman
The leaders of the French Revolution might have talked a big game about everyone being equal, but the omissions in their motto "Liberté, ?galité, Fraternité" (liberty, equality, brotherhood) were a definite red flag. Just ask the four very different women who challenge France's Reign of Terror, each in her own way, in Lauren Gunderson's "The Revolutionists."
The comedy/drama is the second show in the Palo Alto Players' 91st season, running through Nov. 21 at the Lucie Stern Theatre in Palo Alto. The production will also be presented virtually Nov. 18-21.
The stakes are life and death, but Gunderson somehow finds room for everything from tongue-in-cheek skewerings of "Les Mis" to musings on the meaning of art, with Director Tessa Corrie keeping it steady while embracing Gunderson's deliberate chaos. The fast pace can feel a little wearying at times, but it also suits the turbulent setting.
"The Revolutionists" is highly theatrical both in subject matter and presentation, which is fitting not only for a show set at such a fraught time, but also one pointedly concerned with how stories are told. The show even takes a swipe at the tiredness of the "play within a play" device but eventually dives right into it.
Gabriella Goldstein brings an excitable energy to the character of playwright Olympe de Gouges, whose profession gives the wild story some framing: as we meet Olympe in 1793 in her Paris study, she's primed to write a masterwork on behalf of righteousness, but about what? Olympe is so caught up in having the power of the pen, she doesn't always see its responsibilities, even as three visitors to her study underscore the importance of standing up and making your story heard.
Kimberly Ridgeway imbues spy Marianne Angelle with warmth and determination. Marianne is a leader in the Haitian Revolution, fighting the French colonial forces that enslaved people on the Caribbean island then known as Saint Domingue.
Olympe is Marianne's friend, but her self-absorption renders her infuriatingly clueless in how to support Marianne's cause, despite Marianne often stating exactly how. And Marianne's frustration and heartbreak in the second act is palpable.
A stranger, Charlotte Corday (Katherine Hamilton), comes next, plotting an assassination and seeking a way to be remembered in the process. Hamilton gives us a poignant portrayal of Charlotte's resolve, which doesn't waver even when she's terrified.
Finally, the former queen of France, Marie Antoinette (Olga Molina), comes to Olympe hoping for a bit of image rehab.
The ex-queen arrives in a flurry of ribbons and melodramatic sighs, and Molina often earns some of the show's biggest laughs, but her former majesty also seems to be guarding herself a bit behind her well-publicized frivolity.
The ensemble works well together, creating a sense of distance between women who began largely as strangers, and portraying the sometimes conflicted camaraderie that grows among them.
The characters feel familiar, and not just because they speak in modern vernacular, f-bombs and all. All four women understand the importance of being able to tell one's own story, knowing the greatest power lies in who has the public platform to tell that story and how they frame it. It seems a very contemporary sensibility, particularly as we've all seen the ability of a catchy narrative to sometimes overwhelm all.
The drama is heightened by the beautifully stark palette of Lisa Claybaugh's costumes and Scott Ludwig's set design. They work perfectly with Edward Hunter's lighting and Jeff Grafton's sound design, which pull off some striking effects with nary a drop of stage blood spilled.
Palo Alto Players present "The Revolutionists" through Nov. 21 at the Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto and streaming Nov. 18-21. Tickets are $27-$57 for in-person shows and $20 per household for virtual shows. For more information, visit paplayers.org.
Email Arts & Entertainment Editor Heather Zimmerman at [email protected]
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
http://www.digitaljournal.com/entertainment/entertainment/review-tim-krompier-superb-at-governor-s-comedy-club-on-long-island/article/564642
Review: Tim Krompier superb at Governor's Comedy Club on Long Island Special
Posted Jan 5, 2020	by Markos Papadatos
On January 4, standup comedian Tim Krompier headlined Governor's Comedy Club in Levittown on Long Island, for a great turnout of fans.
Tim Krompier
Photo Courtesy of Tim Krompier
Dan Barry served as the host, and Greek-American comedian Carie Karavas was the feature act, and they warmed up the stage for Krompier.
Krompier opened up about how can't compete with women's anger issues, and how he gets stuck shopping at Marshalls, which others go to Bloomingdales. He also shared some true stories in his act, one which involved his friend proposing to his girlfriend to be his wife (which involved a lot of tears), and he shared that his wife would have wanted him to express his feelings and emotions in the same matter when he proposed to her. His responses each time were witty and clever.
He noted that he has many siblings and that his mother calls his "No. 4" as he was the fourth born. He also gave the Levittown crowd a vocabulary lesson about what a "cassette" was from the '80s, and he went on to describe "helicopter parents" as "bulldozer parents," and rightfully so.
Krompier finally poked fun at his three kids, and he closed his set by stating the real reason why he got kicked off his son's school Facebook page.
Overall, Tim Krompier's comedic show at Governor's Comedy Club was solid, impressive and relatable. He had the Long Island audience with him every step of the way. He is worth seeing each time he comes to town. One will not be disappointed. His comedic set garnered two giant thumbs up. Well done.
To learn more about comedian Tim Krompier, check out his official website and follow him on Instagram.


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Tag Archives: LGBTQ+
Almost Adults (2016)
Comedy, Drama, Elise Bauman, Friendship, Justin Gerhard, Lesbianism, LGBTQ+, Natasha Negovanlis, Review, Romance, Sarah Rotella
D: Sarah Rotella / 90m
Cast: Natasha Negovanlis, Elise Bauman, Justin Gerhard, Winny Clarke, Mark Matechuk, Pujaa Pandey, David John Phillips
Cassie (Negovanlis) and Mackenzie (Bauman) are best friends on the verge of leaving college and heading out into the wider world. Cassie has recently split up from her boyfriend, Matthew (Matechuk), while Mackenzie is coming to terms with being a lesbian. While Cassie tells Mackenzie about her love life, Mackenzie feels awkward about coming out to Cassie; she's told their mutual gay friend, Levi (Gerhard), and recently her parents, but is unsure how Cassie will react. Persuaded by Levi to look for a girlfriend on Tumblr, Mackenzie continues to avoid telling Cassie she's a lesbian, while a couple of chance encounters with Matthew lead Cassie to wonder if she is over him. Inevitably, Cassie finds out about Mackenzie's "secret", and her disappointment causes a rift between them. As they navigate the new dynamic of their friendship, with each finding fault with the other for their attitudes and behaviours, both Cassie and Mackenzie try to come to terms with all the new feelings and emotions they're experiencing. Mackenzie begins a relationship with Elliot (Clarke), while Cassie focuses on getting the job she wants. As they focus on their own needs, though, their friendship suffers even more…
In any movie where one character keeps something a secret from their family/friends/workmates (delete as appropriate), the reason for their doing so often remains unanswered at best, or spuriously explained at worst. Almost Adults opts for the second approach and never makes Mackenzie's reasoning convincing. Fortunately, this narrative misstep doesn't hurt the movie too much, but it does mean that the animosity that develops between Cassie and Mackenzie feels unnecessarily contrived; in real life, Mackenzie's reticence probably wouldn't make such a difference. But where Adrianna DiLonardo's subtly observant screenplay scores more highly is in its depiction not of two characters falling out because of a poorly motivated secret, but because they are finally learning how to be responsible adults. Their friendship – when we first meet them – is the kind that has them swearing to be in each other's lives forever, the kind of promise that teenagers make out of a desperate need to be needed. DiLonardo soon waves off this affectation, and has Cassie and Mackenzie behave like the insecure and selfish young adults they really are. When faced with the demands of moving on to the next stage in their lives – and their friendship – life soon finds them unprepared and trying their utmost to control everything around them, including each other.
Although the movie falls under the LGBTQ+ banner thanks to its inclusion of openly gay characters, it's not a movie about being gay. Rather it's a movie about finding your place in the world, and at a pivotal moment in most people's lives, when growing up becomes a mandatory requirement. Look what can happen if you don't, the movie seems to be saying, and though it does include its fair share of coming-of-age clichés, it's not weighted in favour of either character, and it does its best not to make easy judgments. Making her feature debut, Rotella handles the material with a lightness of touch that helps the movie through some of its rougher patches, and she has a knack for positioning the camera at odd yet effective vantage points. As the warring BFF's, Negovanlis and Bauman have an easy chemistry that makes their characters' falling out all the more dramatic, while Gerhard steals nearly all his scenes as the mandatory wise gay friend. The movie balances comedy and drama (with a smattering of romance) to good effect, and proves appealing throughout. It's not ground-breaking stuff, or particularly original, but what it does it does with a quiet confidence and skill, and in a way that impresses more than it disappoints.
Rating: 7/10 – by not taking the obvious route in telling its story of a friendship undone by poor choices and a crippling lack of self-awareness on both sides, Almost Adults avoids looking and feeling like every other LGBTQ+ movie you might have seen recently; enjoyable though not exactly profound, and with two praiseworthy central performances, it's a lovely, self-effacing diversion, and well worth anyone's time and attention.
Blackmail, Comedy, Coming out, Drama, Greg Berlanti, High School, Jennifer Garner, Josh Duhamel, LGBTQ+, Literary adaptation, Nick Robinson, Review, Romance
D: Greg Berlanti / 110m
Cast: Nick Robinson, Jennifer Garner, Josh Duhamel, Katherine Langford, Alexandra Shipp, Logan Miller, Keiynan Lonsdale, Jorge Lendeborg Jr, Talitha Eliana Bateman, Tony Hale, Natasha Rothwell, Miles Heizer
Simon Spier (Robinson) is in high school. He has three best friends – Leah (Langford), Abby (Shipp), and Nick (Lendeborg Jr) – loving parents (Garner, Duhamel), a kid sister, Nora (Bateman), whose culinary efforts he praises whether they're good or (usually) bad, an interest in drama, and a big secret: he's gay. Being a teenager, of course, nobody knows that he's gay, but when Leah tells him that another pupil at their high school has come out anonymously online, Simon begins talking to him via e-mail. Soon, he and "Blue" are exchanging their mutual thoughts and feelings on their personal circumstances. When another pupil, Martin (Miller), discovers Simon's e-mails, he uses them to blackmail Simon into helping him get together with Abby. Afraid of being outed, Simon does his best to set them up with each other, while also trying to bring Nick and Leah together (because Nick is attracted to Abby). But his attempts at matchmaking backfire, and Martin does what Simon has feared all along: he outs Simon to the entire school…
Widely touted as the first movie by a major Hollywood studio to focus on a gay teenage romance (and it's only taken until 2018 to happen – way to go, 20th Century Fox), Love, Simon is a tender, heartfelt, and overwhelmingly sweet movie based on the novel Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. It features a good central performance by Robinson as the modest but likeable Simon, and it hits all the right notes in its attempts to focus on his struggle to deal with the implications of being gay, the fear of being outed, and what it means to have to protect that knowledge. And yet, once Simon's secret is revealed to one and all, what has been a confidently handled, and sincerely expressed story – with a nice mystery sideline in trying to work out Blue's identity – suddenly becomes an unexpected fantasy based somewhere between the world of John Hughes' teen dramas and a return trip to the Land of Oz. All along, Simon has been dreading everyone finding out that he's gay, and it's at this point in the movie where you could be forgiven for thinking that things will start to get really difficult for him.
Au contraire, mon ami. Aside from a (very) brief moment of uninspired, and childish, leg-pulling (bullying is really too strong a word for it), the only other fallout from Simon's outing is the decision of his three best friends to avoid him – he did manipulate them after all. Otherwise, his family prove to be mega-supportive, his teachers express zero tolerance for any homophobic behaviour by the other students, Martin apologises to him while admitting his own insecurities, and when Simon challenges Blue to meet him at an upcoming carnival, what seems to be the whole high school turns out to be there for them (oh, and his friends forgive him as well). Now, there's nothing wrong with a happy ending, but this is like something out of the Thirties and early Forties when happy endings were guaranteed (back then it might have been called Andy Hardy Comes Out… of the Barn). If the movie's message – coming out is easy-peasy – is intentional, then that's fair enough, it's still a piece of entertainment, and designed to do well in the mass market. But as a reflection of what is likely to happen in the real world when coming out, then Love, Simon is a far from perfect choice from which to take your cues.
Rating: 7/10 – a wish fulfillment tale that's breezy and fun but also deliberately anodyne in places, Love, Simon is enjoyable and refreshing for its choice of topic, and benefits from good performances throughout – Rothwell's drama teacher with attitude is a highlight – as well as Berlanti's sensitive direction; becoming an entirely different movie altogether once Simon is outed, though, undermines the character's emotional struggle, and paints first gay love in such rainbow-like colours that any real sense of drama is abandoned altogether.
Broken Gardenias (2014)
Alma S. Grey, Comedy, Drama, Father/daughter relationship, Jack Morocco, Kai Alexander, LGBTQ+, Los Angeles, Review, Road movie, Romance, Suicide
D: Kai Alexander / 89m
Cast: Alma S. Grey, Jack Morocco, Caroline Heinle, Louis Dezseran, Nathan Douglas, Khelsy Raymond, Marlyse Londe, Geoffrey Kennedy, Amanda S. Hall
For Jenni (Grey), life isn't something that she feels entirely comfortable with. She's shy, has a somewhat childish attitude to her work in a plant nursery (she tells awful jokes to the plants), lives with a housemate (Heinle) who thinks she's weird, and has a crush on a fellow nursery worker (Hall) that she's too insecure to act on. When circumstances result in her losing both her home and her job, Jenni decides that suicide is her only remaining option. She goes to the park to hang herself but is stopped from doing so by Sam (Morocco), a free spirit who gets Jenni to open up about herself. Jenni tells Sam about her father, who she hasn't seen since she was six years old. All she has is an old photo of him outside the house they used to live in in Los Angeles. Sam persuades Jenni to try and find him, and they travel to L.A. There, a number of distractions hold up their search, and their new-found friendship is put to the test…
A comical quasi-road movie that features a brace of enjoyable performances from its leads, Broken Gardenias is a good-natured comedy drama that doesn't provide viewers with anything out of the ordinary, and which isn't trying to be too profound either. It's an indie movie with a surplus of charm that is in service to a script (by Grey) that sets out its stall very early on. It's about acceptance, and on various levels. Jenni is afraid of taking chances, so travelling to L.A. is a big deal for her, especially as she has no idea if tracking down her father will be successful, or provide her with some, or all – or nothing – of the answers she's looking for. Sam has a more positive outlook, but that's because she's compensating for Jenni's lack of confidence, and her own nature allows her to accept Jenni's uncertainty without necssarily supporting it. For once, the script isn't concerned with whether or not both women learn from each other and grow as individuals accordingly, but with the singular journey that Jenni takes in gaining the confidence that has eluded her for so long. There'll be tears, there'll be laughs, and there'll be unexpected sexual encounters, but above all, there'll be emotional, cathartic outbursts.
Grey and Morocco play off and against each other with considerable skill, which is beneficial on those occasions when Grey's script wanders off course (an encounter with a stoner lady who gives Jenni and Sam a lift), or scenes that drag on without adding anything to the narrative. There's also a risible sub-plot involving Jenni's housemate – and her boyfriend – who are visiting L.A. at the same time, a set up that has a less than satisfying, and very contrived resolution. With this in mind, though, Broken Gardenias has much more to offer, from the aforementioned performances, Alexander's relaxed yet en point direction, some colourful L.A. locations, Meena Singh's bright and airy cinematography, and a winsome, whimsical score by Tiffanie Lanmon. It's very much a movie that wears its lesbian laurels on its sleeve, but it's also a story that could be just as enjoyable and just as relevant if both Jenni and Sam were straight (though the romantic aspects might need adjusting). In the end, Grey has fashioned a knowing script that doesn't take either Jenni or Sam for granted, and makes their growing relationship – with all its stumbles and strides – something to cherish, and relish, for its easy simplicity.
Rating: 7/10 – a small triumph of LGBTQ+ movie making, Broken Gardenias overcomes a handful of narrative hiccups to provide an engaging and entertaining look at one woman's journey to gaining self-confidence and self-reliance; Grey and Morocco are an attractive pairing, there's a good mix of drama and comedy, and it's all set against a familiar indie backdrop that helps anchor some of the more wayward aspects of the script.
I Can't Think Straight (2008)
Drama, LGBTQ+, Lisa Ray, Literary adaptation, Review, Romance, Sexuality, Shamim Sarif, Sheetal Sheth, Wedding
D: Shamim Sarif / 79m
Cast: Lisa Ray, Sheetal Sheth, Antonia Frering, Dalip Tahil, Nina Wadia, Ernest Ignatius, Siddiqua Akhtar, Amber Rose Revah, Anya Lahiri, Kimberly Jaraj, Sam Vicenti, Rez Kempton, Darwin Shaw
The daughter of wealthy Christian Palestinians (Frering, Tahil), Tala (Ray) is preparing to get married. Hani (Shaw) is a handsome young businessman, and her fourth fiancé. The wedding is due to take place in Jordan, but Tala lives and works in London. There she meets Leyla (Sheth), the girlfriend of Ali (Kempton), one of Tala's old college friends. There's an instant attraction between the two, and soon they are finding excuses to spend time together. A trip to Oxford with one of Tala's sisters, Lamia (Lahiri), leads to Leyla and Tala sleeping together. But where this emboldens Leyla to acknowledge and embrace her sexuality, Tala cites her family and cultural traditions as reasons why she can't commit to a relationship with Leyla, and this causes a wedge between them. They go their separate ways, with Tala preparing to enter into a marriage that isn't what she wants, and Leyla choosing to make a life-changing decision. Time passes, but though both women retain their feelings for each other, it takes one more life-changing decision to allow them the chance of being happy together…
A lighter, less dramatic (and contemporary) version of Sarif's previous movie, The World Unseen, I Can't Think Straight is also another adaptation by Sarif of one of her novels. It's a semi-autobiographical tale where Leyla represents Sarif, and reunites Ray and Sheth in similar roles from The World Unseen. It's a breezy effort, more concerned with applying humour to events than focusing on the drama, and making the romance between Tala and Leyla more predictable. It's a movie where the outcome can be guessed within the first ten minutes, and where each character fits neatly into a prescribed stereotype, particularly both sets of parents, with the mothers portrayed as controlling, and resistant to truly supporting their daughters' happiness, while the fathers are entirely accepting and sympathetic. With the majority of the characters being so agreeable, Sarif has to work hard to make Tala and Leyla's burgeoning relationship the source of any conflict. And when she does, the same issue that hampers the script elsewhere also comes to the fore: it's all too inevitable to be completely convincing.
Along the way we're treated to picture postcard shots of London and Oxford, a battery of supporting characters who are all painted in broad brush strokes, and a polo match where Tala's hair and make up are immaculate – after she's taken part (the script does acknowledge this, but even so…). But what really doesn't help is the dialogue. Clunky and awkward, and often proving the better of the cast – including Ray and Sheth – Sarif and co-screenwriter Kelly Moss have concocted some truly cringeworthy lines that call attention to themselves when they're uttered. It's not helpful either that the script is peppered with lumbering references to the Israeli-Palestinian divide, and Tala's mother voices as many anti-Semitic remarks as she can manage in any given scene. Thankfully, Ray and Sheth manage to make more of Tala and Leyla than is on the page, though the rest of the performances remain perfunctory throughout. As that commonplace conundrum, the difficult second movie, I Can't Think Straight lacks the persuasiveness and focus of Sarif's first movie, and suffers accordingly. It's lightweight and somewhat superficial, and unsure if it's a rom-com or a rom-dram. In the end it's an ungainly combination of the two, and though there are occasional moments where the script does work, there aren't enough of them to make this anything more than disappointing.
Rating: 4/10 – a movie that betrays its low budget production values, and gives the impression its script needed more of a polish, I Can't Think Straight tells its lesbian love story like it was a meringue, i.e. light and insubstantial; Sarif does her own novel a minimum of justice, and there's a complacency to the material that hampers it further, making this something of a curio and nothing more.
The World Unseen (2007)
Apartheid, Cape Town, Drama, LGBTQ+, Lisa Ray, Literary adaptation, Location Cafe, Parvin Dabas, Review, Romance, Shamim Sarif, Sheetal Sheth
Cast: Lisa Ray, Sheetal Sheth, Parvin Dabas, Nandana Sen, David Dennis, Grethe Fox, Colin Moss, Natalie Becker, Rajesh Gopie, Bernard White, Avantika Akerkar
Cape Town, 1952. Amina (Sheth) is a young Indian woman who owns and runs the Location Cafe, a haven for both the local Indian community and the blacks. Miriam (Ray) is an Indian housewife and mother of three who visits the cafe and finds herself fascinated by Amina's seemingly carefree, yet proud attitude. Her husband, Omar (Dabas), opens a general store on the outskirts of the city, and for a while, things progress as expected. Omar's sister, though, puts them in danger when she comes to visit from Paris with her white husband. The police discover their presence, and Omar's sister, Rehmat (Sen), is only saved from arrest by Amina's hiding her. This helps to build Amina and Miriam's friendship, something that is aided by Omar's decision to hire Amina to create a vegetable garden behind the store. The two women spend more and more time together, and their friendship deepens until each begins to acknowledge the attraction they have for each other. But how can their love flourish when they have to contend with the social, sexual, cultural and political milieu they're a part of?
A romantic drama set in a time and place that would have heavily condemned the sexual love of two women for each other, The World Unseen is a carefully paced, judiciously mounted movie that isn't too interested in putting its central characters in too much jeopardy, while it explores themes related to the racism and homophobia of the period. Adapted from writer-director Sarif's own novel, her tale of fledgling love amidst the trials and tribulations of apartheid South Africa is a low-key affair, telling its story simply and with due care and attention to the characters of Amina and Miriam. Thanks to Sarif's script and the performances of Ray and Sheth, both women are sharply drawn, and their thoughts and feelings expertly expressed through covert looks, cautious body language, and coded language. The slow reveal of their feelings for each other is hidden behind a veil of subterfuge, and Sarif shows the mounting tension between Amina's longing for Miriam and Miriam's hesitancy over what it will mean to her marriage and her children, in such a way that the sincerity of their emotions is never in doubt.
With the movie's central relationship locked in, Sarif is free to build around it, adding sub-plots and minor incidents to help flesh out the running time. Sadly, not all of these sub-plots are as successful as they could have been, and though they don't do anything to hurt the pace of the movie – Sarif's measured direction ensures everything proceeds at an even pace – there are too many that feel as if they've been lifted from a soap opera. Amina's silent partner in the cafe, Jacob (Dennis), has a predictably short relationship with a white postmistress (Fox), Omar has a secret that Miriam has no choice but to tolerate (at first), and Amina's grandmother tries to push her into an arranged marriage. Most of these elements end as quietly as they began, and lack any appreciable impact, but thanks to the engaging quality of the material as a whole, the movie doesn't suffer as dramatically as it might have done. The rest of the performances are adequate (though Moss's permanently aggressive policeman is particularly one-note), and the visual style is consistently muted in terms of colour and light, something that robs it of any further appeal, but overall this is a quietly persuasive movie that does very well by its central characters.
Rating: 7/10 – with its well conceived romance, and passive recreation of the time period it's set in, The World Unseen is exemplary when focusing on its central characters' hopes and dreams, but less so when the focus switches elsewhere; Sarif's first outing as a writer and a director shows promise, and there's a clear message about female empowerment, but in the end, there's too much that feels perfunctory instead of important.
FiveFilms4Freedom 2018
BFI Flare, Canada, Comedy, Cultural traditions, Documentary, Drama, Gay farmers, Greece, Helpline, India, Jeff Lee Petry, Karishma Dev Dube, LGBTQ+, Matt Houghton, Milan Halikowski, Nathan Drillot, Seung Yeob Lee, Sexuality, Short movies, South Korea, Yorgos Angelopoulos
FiveFilms4Freedom is part of the BFI Flare: London LGBTQ+ Film Festival currently running until 1 April 2018. These five shorts have been shown as part of the festival, and thanks to an intitiative developed by the British Council and the British Film Institute, have also been made available online during the course of the festival.
Devi (2017) / D: Karishma Dev Dube / 13m
aka Devi: Goddess
Cast: Aditi Vasudev, Priyanka Bose, Tanvi Azmi
Rating: 8/10 – Tara (Vasudev) is a troubled teen who challenges her mother's sense of tradition and moral certitude at every turn, but takes a step too far when she turns her romantic attentions to Devi (Bose), the housemaid who has helped raise her from a child. Dube's critique of unyielding Hindi cultural traditions and strict morality plays well until you realise that Tara's actions are entirely selfish and devoid of any consideration of potential consequences – which then leads the viewer to consider if Tara is quite the sympathetic character she's made out to be at the start. Dube shows that there will always be victims in these circumstances, and the class divide is sharply illustrated by the inevitable outcome of Tara's decision to act on her impulses. By exploring not just the cultural divide, but the generational divide as well, Dube shows that Tara's behaviour is too frivolous to be tolerated by the traditions she's rebelling against, and that acceptance is still a very long way off indeed.
Handsome and Majestic (2016) / D: Jeff Lee Petry, Nathan Drillot / 12m
With: Milan Halikowski, Lynnell Halikowski, Mike Halikowski
Rating: 7/10 – Milan is a twelve year old transboy living in Canada who has suffered more than his fair share of abuse and violence in his young life, and who has been routinely let down by the teachers at his school. Having endured all this, and gone through a period of depression that saw him try to take his own life, Milan has found the strength to come out as transgender, and in doing so, he's found a friend in another transboy living just a few streets away. There are few of us who can fully understand what it must be like to feel trapped in our own body, and not to look the way we believe we should. Handsome and Majestic goes some way to explaining what that must be like, but spends too much time illustrating it by having Milan looking at himself in mirrors, and with a sad, pensive expression. Contributions from his family offer (perhaps unintentionally) stark comparisons with Milan's own struggle, but just seeing him playing with his new friends allows the movie to end on a positive note that didn't seem to be on the cards at all. It's a moving, humane documentary, and though it doesn't delve too deeply into transgender issues, it's still an informative and engaging examination of one young boy's wish to be accepted for who he is.
Uninvited (2017) / D: Seung Yeob Lee / 20m
Cast: Sum Lee, Keonyeung Kim, Jinseung Moon
Rating: 7/10 – An impending, and largely unexpected visit from his mother (Kim), prompts still-in-the-closet Jungho (Lee) to get his partner, Jae-ik (Moon), to pack most of his belongings and hide out in a nearby coffee shop while she's at the flat they live in. Despite his best efforts, though, Jungho's mother discovers evidence that points to his having a flatmate at best, and a gay lover at worst. Ostensibly a comedy, Uninvited lacks the bite needed to make this as funny as it could be, and Jungho is such a moody complainer it's amazing anyone, gay or straight, would take him on. Still, this is anchored by a surprisingly compassionate and thoughtful performance from Kim, who never lets on if her character is disappointed or ashamed or appalled by her son being gay, but instead translates passive acceptance into determined support. Like Devi and Goldfish, this is another movie where the main protagonist isn't the person who's gay or a lesbian, but the parent whose own cultural identity makes it difficult to accept unreservedly their child's sexuality.
Goldfish (2017) / D: Yorgos Angelopoulos / 14m
Cast: Michael Ikonomou, Lissandros Kouroumbalis, Eva Angelopoulou
Rating: 7/10 – It's Stratis' (Kouroumbalis) seventh birthday, and all he wants is a pet fish. His father, Yorgos (Iknonomou), wants him to get a warrior fish, but Stratis settles for a goldfish. On their way home, Stratis reveals the goldfish is called Tom, after Tom Daley the British diver. Incensed at what he perceives as yet another example of his son's effeminacy, Stratis' father throws the goldfish in the river, causing Stratis to run away from home… While it's a little too broad in its approach – Yorgos is the kind of unreconstructed Greek male that borders on cliché – and the message is rammed home a little too bluntly, nevertheless, Goldfish is an enjoyable examination of how some men feel threatened by the merest hint of homosexuality, and the often absurd reactions they display as a result. Not a movie about being gay, then, but about the unnecessary fear and paranoia that comes from prejudice about homosexuality, and the terrible emotions that take over when the source of that fear and paranoia – your own child – might never be seen again.
Landline (2017) / D: Matt Houghton / 12m
Cast: Jem Dobbs, Niamh Blackshaw, Oliver Devoti, Bradley Johnson
Rating: 9/10 – In 2010, Keith Ineson, a chaplain from Cheshire in the UK, set up a helpline for gay farmers, one that allowed them to voice their experiences, their worries, and their concerns. With the helpline still being the only one of its kind anywhere in the world, Landline uses original telephone recordings and visual reconstructions of the events being talked about to paint a powerful, and sometimes disturbing portrait of rural prejudice and intolerance. Director Matt Houghton doesn't just focus on the negative though: one perfectly judged vignette has the camera tracking through the debris and chaos of what appears to have been a terrible bar fight, only for the recording to reveal that it was one man's coming out party, and probably the best night of his life. From this it's worth mentioning the excellent cinematography courtesy of James Blann, which makes this docu-drama visually striking and compelling in equal measure.
The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)


text:
#ifndef GRPCXX_IMPL_CODEGEN_GRPC_LIBRARY_H
#define GRPCXX_IMPL_CODEGEN_GRPC_LIBRARY_H

#include <grpc++/impl/codegen/core_codegen_interface.h>

namespace grpc {

class GrpcLibraryInterface {
 public:
  virtual void init() = 0;
  virtual void shutdown() = 0;
};

/// Initialized by \a grpc::GrpcLibraryInitializer from
/// <grpc++/impl/grpc_library.h>
extern GrpcLibraryInterface* g_glip;

/// Classes that require gRPC to be initialized should inherit from this class.
class GrpcLibraryCodegen {
 public:
  GrpcLibraryCodegen(bool call_grpc_init = true) : grpc_init_called_(false) {
    if (call_grpc_init) {
      GPR_CODEGEN_ASSERT(g_glip &&
                         "gRPC library not initialized. See "
                         "grpc::internal::GrpcLibraryInitializer.");
      g_glip->init();
      grpc_init_called_ = true;
    }
  }
  virtual ~GrpcLibraryCodegen() {
    if (grpc_init_called_) {
      GPR_CODEGEN_ASSERT(g_glip &&
                         "gRPC library not initialized. See "
                         "grpc::internal::GrpcLibraryInitializer.");
      g_glip->shutdown();
    }
  }

 private:
  bool grpc_init_called_;
};

}  // namespace grpc

#endif  // GRPCXX_IMPL_CODEGEN_GRPC_LIBRARY_H

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Is recovery around the corner in residential real estate market?
The residential real estate market in India's top cities has been in tatters for a long time due to poor sales growth and rising unsold stock. But, that seems set to change now with sales picking up pace.
Sales across top eight cities rose 15% in the July-September period to 78.2 million sq ft from 67.9 million sq ft a year earlier, according to data from real estate consultancy firm Liases Foras. This was the fifth straight quarter of year-on-year growth, although sales slipped 1% on a quarterly basis.
While the market will still take a long time before it bounces back to its heydays, what has added to the optimism in recent months is the considerable improvement in leasing and rentals for office space that raised hopes for a ripple effect on the housing segment.
Indeed, some micro markets have shown an improvement, mostly because of the right products at the right price points by credible developers. This has, hopefully, pushed the broader market to a point from where it can turn around. Delhi-NCR, the worst hit from the slowdown, saw sales rise 11% though the buying momentum was led by Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Ahmedabad and Pune.
The Liases Foras report said prices in MMR and NCR have been stagnant for two years. A reduction in interest rates has reduced the gap between prices and affordability, which has translated into sales growth. Also, about 30-40% sales have been recorded in projects that are nearing completion, the report said.
While the going has been tough for the market, it has turned out to be a good fishing ground for end users. The lack of buoyancy and the absence of investors has prompted many developers to come up with projects that cater to end users over the past couple of years.
No wonder, projects in the affordable category have been the best performer. Data from Liases Foras show that sales of properties priced around Rs 25 lakh grew 40% in the second quarter on a yearly basis and 17% on a quarterly basis.
Also, almost 34% of new launches were in the Rs 25-50 lakh category. This was followed by 32% in Rs 50 lakh to 1 crore price category. The top eight cities saw an overall growth in launches at 8% on a quarterly basis, the data showed.
The slow pace of sales growth and piling up unsold stock has kept property prices stagnant over the past many quarters and the trend continued in the July-September quarter as well. Liases Foras data showed that weighted average prices across the top eight markets rose only 3% on yearly basis but remained little changed sequentially.
Prices fell in markets such as Pune, NCR and Kolkata while Ahmedabad was the only city to record a rise. Analysts say a slow market offers the best opportunity for a buyer to clinch a deal – a good combination of soft prices, flexible payment schemes, freebies and discounts, and bargaining power.
However, the pain point for the sector continues to be unsold stock, which rose 12% across the top eight markets. Kolkata added the maximum stock, followed by MMR, data from the consultancy shows. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, this was marginal at 1%.
Despite the rise in unsold stock, inventory in terms of months – time taken to clear unsold stock at the current sales velocity – dropped 2% on a yearly basis. The top eight cities have inventory of 46 months; an efficient market maintains stock of eight to 12 months.
The report said that new launched led to a rise in unsold stock but a steady pace of sales helped bring down inventory in terms of months across most locations.


MCC's Medical Assisting Technology program gives students the knowledge and skills to help ensure job placement into the ever growing medical field. Medical Assisting is a multi-skilled allied health profession whose practitioners work primarily in ambulatory settings such as medical offices and clinics. Medical Assistants function as members of the health-care delivery team and perform administrative and clinical procedures. The business administrative duties include scheduling and receiving patients; obtaining patients' data; maintaining medical records; handling telephone calls, correspondence, reports, and manuscripts; assuming responsibility for office care; and handling insurance matters, office accounts, fees, and collections. The clinical duties vary according to state law and include preparing patients for examination, obtaining vital signs, taking medical histories, assisting with examinations and treatments, performing routine office laboratory procedures and electrocardiograms, preparing and administering medications and immunizations, sterilizing instruments and equipment for office procedures, and instructing patients in preparation for X-ray and laboratory examinations. Both administrative and clinical duties involve purchasing and maintaining supplies and equipment.
Accreditation: The Medical Assisting Technology Program at Meridian Community College is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (www.caahep.org) upon the recommendation of Medical Assisting Education Review Board (MAERB).


The Fida Around The World – Sharing my favourite places, tips and reviews with fellow travellers like you!
One of the most common question I get asked is "Isn't solo travel makes you feel lonely?". The right answer to that is "Yes" unfortunately but I wouldn't say it is all bad. You will feel lonely but if not feeling lonely is your objective, there are many ways you can get around it and make the best out of your trip. 1. Go on … Continue reading Solo and lonely?
After flying with my home airline the first time in 2018, I now get what the rave was all about. Kudos for being number one again. I must say you have set the bar really high to make me not want to fly with any other airlines! For decades I've only flown with budget airlines, prioritising my money to be spent in the city I'm … Continue reading Congratulations, Singapore Airlines!


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RSL NSW President Update: 23 August 2018
News By James Brown President (2017-2019) 23 Aug 2018
Fellow league members,
This time a year ago, we made the decision to cease fundraising across the League. Our league was facing seven weeks of gruelling public hearings into ineptitude, cronyism, and a cover-up of fraudulent expenditure by former senior leaders of our charity; the NSW Police were also conducting investigations.
In twelve months, we have made enormous progress towards repairing the League, much more than I had thought possible. This has only been possible because of the hard work of our members and the team at ANZAC House. So far, we have:
Built an entirely new professional team at ANZAC House bringing into the League expertise in vital areas such as governance, law, financial analysis, and property management
Completed audited financial statements for RSL NSW, RSL WBI, ANZAC House Trust and AFOF for 2016 and 2017
Built professional board processes for State Council
Cleared the backlog of RSL Custodian issues
Set-up a dedicated sub-Branch and member support unit
Resolved the problems with the WBI Trust objects
Commenced repair of the ANZAC House Trust and RSL AFOF
Launched a higher quality Reveille magazine at a substantially reduced cost
Completed a historic congress, at which delegates made critical decisions on the future of the League
Supported our smaller fundraising dependent sub-Branches throughout the period of the fundraising ban
Improved communications through regular updates and District Council President teleconferences
Managed the difficulties of the Charitable Fundraising Act Inquiry, ACNC Investigation, and intense media scrutiny
Addressed more than 50 allegations of non-compliance within the League
Completed substantial work towards a strategic plan for the League
Fixed urgent issues in our constitution
Helped sub-Branches with urgent governance, compliance, and property issues
Upgraded IT hardware and systems to streamline operations, reduce running costs and improve efficiency
Maintained welfare, pensions, and advocacy assistance to veterans and their families
Of course, this hasn't all been smooth sailing. We have stumbled at times as we navigated complex and unprecedented issues. Thank you for your continued patience as we undertake this challenging repair task.
I also want to let you know about four major developments we have completed in the past fortnight which will help move the League forward.
A new ANZAC House
I'm pleased to announce that from October, the League will have a new headquarters directly alongside Sydney's Martin Place Cenotaph. The new address for ANZAC House is Regimental Square, 341 George St, Sydney.
We have been working to find a new ANZAC House for the past six months and I'm excited about our new location. All RSL NSW and RSL DefenceCare team members will be located on the one floor with better office space and systems to help us deliver support to members, as well as veterans and their families needing help. The new ANZAC House will be a central hub with ample meeting rooms and a lounge space which will be available to be used by sub-Branches, other veterans' organisations and RSL NSW members while they are in the CBD.
Appropriately, the new ANZAC House building is adjacent to both The Cenotaph and the Royal Australian Regiment Memorial and is close to the site of Sydney's first military barracks. It is also easily accessible from Wynyard and Martin Place Stations. Bus transport is also conveniently located and is fully accessible to meet the needs of disabled veterans. This is a HQ the League can truly be proud of. RSL NSW team members will move into the building on 17 September, and we look forward to opening the new ANZAC House to you in late September/early October.
Major reforms to RSL NSW – RSL Lifecare Governance
RSL LifeCare is a charitable institution that delivers aged care, retirement living, and home care services across more than 50 sites in NSW and the ACT. Founded a century ago to care for ageing veterans, RSL LifeCare now provides care and services for veterans and their families, as well as senior Australians. It operates 2200 aged care beds and retirement living for nearly 3000 residents and has more than 3100 staff.
Last week the RSL NSW State Council and RSL LifeCare board of directors voted to implement major reforms. These will strengthen the governance and performance of both organisations – delivering better results for veterans and their families, and the residents and clients of RSL LifeCare. These reforms complete twelve months of work by both charities to address issues identified during the 2017 Charitable Fundraising Act Inquiry. RSL LifeCare alone has conducted 24 board meetings in the past twelve months.
The Inquiry conducted by The Honourable Patricia Bergin identified several issues between RSL NSW and RSL LifeCare. In particular, the blurred accountabilities and potential conflicts of interest inherent in the presence of RSL NSW State Councillors on the RSL LifeCare board, and the dual role of RSL LifeCare directors as corporate members of the charity.
Last week, RSL LifeCare directors voted to cease their role as members of the company. RSL NSW will be the sole member of the company with responsibility for RSL LifeCare's constitution and ensuring its ongoing charitable purpose. These reforms are focused on governance, and RSL LifeCare operations and services will otherwise continue as normal for residents and staff.
RSL LifeCare's board, apart from the ex-officio director's role of the RSL NSW President, will consist entirely of independent and professional directors. RSL NSW State Councillors will no longer be appointed to the RSL LifeCare board. This will equip RSL LifeCare with the professional expertise it needs to govern the charity and deliver for its clients and stakeholders. To enable the ongoing recruitment of quality professional directors, RSL NSW will shortly approve that RSL LifeCare directors be remunerated at a level appropriate for a charity of the size and complexity of RSL LifeCare. The RSL NSW President will not accept personal remuneration for their ex-officio role on the RSL LifeCare board.
RSL NSW and RSL LifeCare, with the newly appointed RSL LifeCare CEO, Laurie Leigh, will jointly work to set a renewed long-term strategy for RSL LifeCare. RSL NSW are confident that with a refreshed, independent, professional board and a new CEO RSL LifeCare is well positioned for growth.
RSL NSW are grateful to the staff and directors of RSL LifeCare for their hard work and acknowledge RSL LifeCare directors who have been serving the company in a volunteer capacity.
RSL NSW Bill 2018
Last week the RSL NSW Bill 2018 was introduced to the Parliament of NSW. You can read it here. It aims to set new transparency and accountability measures for RSL NSW, as well as reforms aimed at making the League more democratic. We will update you as the Bill progresses through parliament.
RSL National
I resigned from the RSL National board in November 2017 because of my concerns about poor governance and misuse of charitable funds, particularly the gifting of items worth approximately $30,000 to a former officeholder. At the time, RSL National issued a media statement that claimed the gifting matter had been investigated and no misconduct had occurred. One of the reasons I resigned last November was that I believed this statement to be incorrect. In February of this year, the ACNC issued a formal direction to RSL National citing governance breaches and failures in financial decision-making processes. The ACNC concluded that the gifting did occur and contributed to the governance breaches. The RSL National President resigned on 19 July 2018.
State Council resolved that I should re-join the RSL National board as a director, and accordingly I joined the national board's meeting held last Monday in Melbourne. There is a considerable amount of work to do to fix up the RSL National organisation, and the ACT President John King has volunteered to act as an interim Chairman. The National Board has also resolved to seek independent directors to the board. I am confident that the State Presidents can work together to return RSL National to be the pre-eminent representative body for veterans in Australia. I will keep you posted on developments.
State Council Meeting – 16 August
State Council met last week to approve several items, including a new donations policy (to replace the tier system), and the model for the constitution to be proposed to members later this year. The donations policy will be sent to District Council Presidents for their feedback and pending any major changes, will be sent to members shortly. I know many sub-Branches are concerned to ensure they comply with tax office requirements regarding donations and surplus funds.
At the meeting, we confirmed we are working towards being able to apply to resume major fundraising appeals in time for Remembrance Day this year. The successful implementation of a new accounting and finance system for WBI was crucial to this.
The model for the proposed constitutional amendments was agreed to by State Council and has been sent to members of the Constitutional Review Panel for their review and input. Detailed drafting of the new constitution is still underway and will be completed soon. Once the draft constitution is completed, it will be sent to members for their feedback.
During September and October, State Council members and I will be travelling around NSW to speak to as many members as possible, so we can hear your feedback on the draft constitution. We will advise dates and times for these meetings as soon as we can. Your feedback is crucial to the constitutional reform process. After receiving your feedback, we will complete the drafting process during October, with a view to sending the final draft to members in early November. ANZAC House staff and State Council will travel again during November to meet with members and answer their questions on the proposed constitution. We will then meet as a league for an Extraordinary Congress in Sydney on 4 December 2018. On that day, the morning will be devoted to answering questions delegates have on the new constitution, and the formal vote will occur in the afternoon.
The new constitution is a critical step in repairing our league and moving us forward. Your feedback will be of utmost importance.
Finally, a personal note. When I was elected to be your President, I took six months leave without pay from my employer. I returned to work part-time at the start of this year, but after a fortnight I realised I could not do justice to both roles, so I resigned from my paid employment. I have been working on RSL NSW issues, in a voluntary capacity, six days a week since July 2017. There has been some speculation that I will enter federal politics. Let me be clear: I am fully engaged in the task of returning this league to be the pre-eminent organisation caring for veterans and their families.
Thanks for your work to get us this far, and for your ongoing service to the League.
RSL NSW President Update - 23 July 2019
Last week we held our second forum of all 23 District Councils at ANZAC House. More
RSL NSW President Update - 1 July 2019
The board has received some questions from members about the process it will follow to recruit the new CEO of RSL NSW. More
Statement by RSL NSW President James Brown
I am writing to inform you of my decision to resign as a director of the board and President of RSL NSW, effective 1 July 2019. More


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Officers are investigating after an assault in Walkden.
At around 11.30pm on 30 January 2019, a 42-year-old man was punched to the head, causing him to fall and hit his head on the pavement. This happened near to Barton Street.
He suffered head injuries which required hospital treatment.
The offenders are described as two white men in their mid-20s, wearing dark clothing and hoods.
Anyone with any information about the assault should contact police on 0161 856 5020, quoting incident number 736 of 30/01/19. Information can also be passed on anonymously by calling the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.


text:
It's back: CityPlace opponents file lawsuit in state court after failing in federal court
Dan D'Ambrosio
Opponents of CityPlace Burlington have taken their fight back to state court, having failed in federal court.
Burlington Attorney John Franco filed a lawsuit in Vermont Superior Court on behalf of four plaintiffs — Barbara McGrew, Lynn Martin, Michael Long and Steven Goodkind — alleging that developers violated a settlement agreement struck in July 2017 to end a series of earlier legal challenges to the $225 million downtown project.
Judge Helen Toor denied a motion this week to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the attorney for the defendants, Devonwood Investors, LLC, and BTC Mall Associates, LLC.
Franco's lawsuit claims a breach of contract and violation of the settlement agreement's "implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing," by the defendants.
BTC Mall Associates is a partnership of Brookfield Properties, the majority owner of CityPlace, and Don Sinex of New York-based Devonwood Investors. Brookfield, headquartered in Toronto, was identified by Forbes in May as the largest real estate company in the world, with $256 billion in assets.
NO BILLBOARDS?:Why the billboards around CityPlace Burlington construction have been removed
THE WAY FORWARD:CityPlace Burlington: What they're saying about stalled project's path forward
Although Sinex originally spearheaded the CityPlace development, Will Voegele, senior vice president of development for Brookfield, has taken over as spokesman for the project, reaching out to City Council members and neighborhood planning groups in Burlington in recent weeks.
Neither Sinex nor Voegele returned calls for comment on Friday. Attorney Karen Tyler, who represents the defendants, said it is her clients' position not to comment on ongoing litigation. Tyler has two weeks from June 25 to file her answers to the lawsuit filed by Franco.
CONSTRUCTION IS ON:CityPlace majority owner makes first public appearance in Burlington, confirms construction timeline
The development in the center of downtown has been stalled since last August, when demolition of the Burlington Town Center mall was completed. The only activity on the site since was the delivery at the end of November of structural steel that will be used to drive down to bedrock for the foundation.
Settlement agreement 'gutted'
Over the past two years, Franco filed a variety of lawsuits challenging various aspects of the project, including the amount of parking, tax-increment financing for public improvements and an exemption from Act 250.
The settlement agreement hinged on adding 200 parking spaces to the project, ending the legal challenges. But Franco claimed the developers and the city violated the agreement when the city granted a permit amendment to Sinex eliminating underground parking, without telling him.
That claim was thrown out of federal court last December when U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford ruled the city "did not have a due process obligation to notify us of the changes in the permit," Franco said.
GREATEST UNDERTAKING:CityPlace Burlington: The challenges of building one of Vermont's biggest projects ever
GOING TO COURT:CityPlace construction company sued for delays on $47M Maine project; Sinex is watching
That's when Franco decided to sue only the developers, not the city, for violating the settlement agreement, and to do it in state court rather than federal court.
"The settlement agreement was frankly gutted by the permit amendment with the city and they didn't tell us about it," Franco said. "We had a settlement entered in good faith. We're trying to enforce it."
Contact Dan D'Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosio@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDambrosioVT.


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Chase Claypool Breaks Silence on Surprising Trade From Steelers
Heavy Sports
Heavy on Steelers
By DJ Siddiqi
Updated Dec 1, 2022 at 6:09pm
Getty The Steelers are trading WR Chase Claypool to the Bears.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are pulling off a major trade.
As reported by NFL Network's Ian Rapoport just prior to the trade deadline on Tuesday, November 1, the Steelers are trading wide receiver Chase Claypool to the Chicago Bears in exchange for a second-round draft pick. As Rapoport notes, Pittsburgh is receiving Chicago's original second-round draft pick in the deal rather than the Baltimore Ravens' draft pick.
The Bears acquired a second-round draft pick from the Ravens the day prior in the trade for linebacker Roquan Smith.
"The #Steelers are receiving the #Bears original second-round pick for Chase Claypool, source said. Not the pick the #Ravens pick," said Rapoport.
A few hours after the trade was completed, Claypool took to Twitter to react to his trade to the Bears.
I will always have an unbelievable amount of love for Steelers Nation and the organization that drafted me out of Notre Dame. I am beyond grateful for the amazing people in Pittsburgh for embracing me & the lifelong memories made. Now… Back to business in the Midwest. 🐻⬇ pic.twitter.com/jCeHL1CBQ8
— Chase Claypool (@ChaseClaypool) November 1, 2022
Claypool Was Not Expected to Be Traded at Deadline
Heading into the deadline, there were reports that Claypool was unlikely to be traded. In fact, Mark Kaboly of The Athletic reported on Tuesday, October 25, that it would take a team "grossly" overpaying in order to acquire Claypool at the deadline.
"It makes little sense to me, unless some team is willing to grossly overpay," said Kaboly. "It's been put out there just to see if somebody is willing to pay top dollar for Claypool. He is under contract for the next 27 games at a reasonable price. If you feel like you want to move him, the offseason would be a place where it could bring much more of a return."
In fact, Kaboly wrote that he expected Claypool to remain in Pittsburgh until becoming a free agent after the 2023 season.
"At worst, he leaves via free agency after the 2023 season and becomes a part of the compensatory pick process," says Kaboly. "He could beckon more there than what a team is willing to trade for him now. Plus there are injuries. What do they have after Johnson and Pickens? It makes no sense to me, and I'm pretty confident he won't be traded."
On Friday, October 28, NFL insider Jordan Schultz had reported that the Steelers' asking price was a second-round draft pick.
Claypool's Production Had Declined in 2022
Claypool has been a focal point in Pittsburgh's offense since he was selected in the second round of the 2020 NFL draft. However, his role has diminished this season due to the emergence of rookie George Pickens.
The 24-year-old Claypool has 32 receptions for 311 yards and one touchdown through eight games this season. He's averaging 9.7 yards per reception and 38.9 receiving yards per game. For perspective, he averaged 14.6 yards per reception and 57.3 receiving yards per game last season.
While Claypool's production has certainly seen a decline, that has a little bit to do with Pittsburgh's stagnant offense. The Steelers are averaging just 15.0 points per game, ranking dead last in the league. It doesn't help that Pittsburgh has moved forward with rookie Kenny Pickett as its starting quarterback. Pickett has thrown two touchdowns versus eight interceptions for a 66.8 passer rating.
Considering the Steelers' 2-6 record, it's not that much of a surprise they're moving the talented young receiver — especially when you consider the high compensation associated for Claypool.
With Pittsburgh likely to complete its first losing season in 19 years, the Steelers are bringing in good value at the trade deadline.
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The Pittsburgh Steelers are making a major trade involving one of their top young stars with the Chicago Bears.


Food-O-Rama Events is proud to bring the Second Annual Atlanta Margarita and Taco Festival to the historic Old Fourth Ward Park. The event brings together some of city and region's best margarita and taco purveyors to celebrate the love of Mexican cuisine. There is also arts and crafts vendors and live music. The event is free to attend, and drink wrist bands can be purchased for $6 inside the event. Food is also available for purchase. There will be more than 40 taco vendors and 12 bars.


Happy New Year from my snowy little corner of the world! It's fun to be far enough in the woods that the snow stays pristine, none of that dirty city slush I'm used to seeing. Christopher gave me this pair of heavy duty winter boots (made by Bogs) for Christmas, in the best shade of oxblood. They make my feet look even more ginormous but they are perfect for stomping around in the snow. I'm a teensy bit sad to say goodbye to our dragged out fall weather, but also eager to dig into my hats and scarfs and thick sweaters.
I love all of the snow!


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Lake County Developments
More than 500 new homes are being planned the small city of Umatilla in Lake County
By Amanda Rabines
The conceptual site plan of the proposed Magnolia Pointe subdivision in Umatilla. (City of Umatilla/Lake County Property Appraiser)
Plans for the largest residential subdivision in the small city of Umatilla are beginning to take shape once again after never taking off in 2007 when the residential community was originally proposed.
City commissioners, last week, approved the first of two public hearings for a zoning modification request by property owner Colin Johnson and land planner Greg Beliveau with LPG Urban & Regional Planners for the proposed Magnolia Pointe subdivision.
The land development team is seeking to amend previously approved plans that called for a total of 632 residential lots to accommodate 314 single-family homes and 318 townhomes.
New plans for Magnolia Pointe call for up to 515 single-family homes on about 315 acres on the southeast corner of Mills Street and Church Street.
Leesburg Planning Commission rejects proposed estate subdivision on Lake Harris
The smallest lots in the subdivision would be 70-feet wide, but neighbors still complained about the density.
Unlike the previous proposal, the subdivision will feature about 135 acres of open space and restricted access to adjacent Lake County streets.
The new agreement is significantly less intense, Beliveau told GrowthSpotter.
"Even with less lots, the subdivision would be the largest in the city," he said. "The Great Recession paused the previous plans. It really hit Umatilla hard, as well as other parts of Lake County."
The property was initially annexed and rezoned in 2007 by Bay Pointe LLC. Records show, Johnson bought the land out of foreclosure in 2013 for about $655,000.
According to a conceptual site plan for Magnolia Pointe, the residential community will have one main access point on C.R. 450-A with an emergency gate at the south end of Church Street.
The subdivision will be built in three phases with the majority of lots (371) averaging about 50 feet in width. The remaining 28% of lots will range between 60, 70 and 80 feet in width. Amenities will include gated access, recreational trails and multiple park spaces.
A homebuilder has not yet been selected.
"Umatilla is on the doorstep of the Ocala National Forest, so any one who wants to go to the forest has to go through Umatilla first... It can get pretty busy during fishing and hunting seasons," Beliveau said. "It's a quaint city with a recently revitalized downtown."
City Clerk Karen Howard said the city's currently population has about 4,150 residents.
In an effort for the city to generate more property taxes and bring in more economic development, the city waived annexation fees from 2011 to about 2017.
Howard said an ordinance will soon be going before the city council to reestablish the waiver.
Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at arabines@GrowthSpotter.com or (407) 420-5427, or tweet me at @amanda_rabines. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Latest Lake County Developments
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