There's a new breed of consultants emerging in technology vendors. And they're upending the traditional sales process.
The change begins with being crystal clear about what the customer considers success to be. And that isn't getting the vendor's product working! The customer needs the product to work, but that doesn't guarantee they'll achieve success. The customer always has a bigger outcome. The product is a means to achieving that bigger outcome.
In the world of subscription pricing and recurring revenue, the vendor's revenue is tied to the success the customer has. Let's summarise this idea….
..is driven by how much success they have this time.
And success for the customer requires achievement of the bigger business outcome. We call this bigger business outcome a Success Outcome.
The Success Outcome is the real focus of the customer.
Technology products drive change in the customer's business. By definition. Otherwise, the customer wouldn't invest in them. But achieving the business change requires more than getting the product working. New processes may be needed. The staff may need new skills. And partners may play a different role.
Customers often aren't great at getting all these extra elements right. And so, they fail to achieve the Success Outcome (the bigger business outcome). Even if the vendor's product works as it should. But, even though the failure isn't the vendor's fault, it will cost the vendor revenue. The customer may cancel the subscription. Or keep using the product, but not grow usage. Either way, the vendor's revenue suffers. Because the customer didn't achieve success. And how much a customer spends next time is driven by how much success they had this time.
Because customers often aren't good at all the other things required to achieve the Success Outcome, a new type of consultant has emerged. Success Consultants.
Success Consultants understand everything required by the customer to achieve the Success Outcome. They don't need to be product experts. Other people in the vendor fill this role. Success Consultants have a different role – helping the customer do everything needed to achieve the Success Outcome.
And they can play a role in both pre-sales and post-sales. They can become the bridge.
They're different from traditional pre-sales or business consultants. Pre-sales consultants usually have a deep understanding of the software and can show how the software delivers direct benefits. They have great industry knowledge and understand the problems and challenges the industry faces. They can articulate how the software addresses the problems and challenges. They're smart, competent and have good customer presence. The customers like good pre-sales consultants.
But the customer knows the job of pre-sales consultants is showing why the customer needs to buy more product. And that pigeon-holes them. They are part of Sales. So customers accept their advice, but with a pinch of salt. And most definitely, the customer does not expect to pay for work done by pre-sales consultants. Pre-sales consultants are part and parcel of selling the customer more product.
Success Consultants have a bigger role – they understand what's required to achieve the Success Outcome. They have an appreciation not only of the software but of the processes, people skills and partners that play a role. When they write a business case, it's a business case for a project not for the product.
Success Consultants address a broad range of issues. They don't limit their focus to a set of problems the software can address. They identify everything the customer needs to achieve the success outcome. For many customers, this proves a godsend. Many customers struggle to understand everything they need to do to achieve their Success Outcome. It's often the first time they've tried. They need guidance and help.
It doesn't mean the Success Consultant can deliver every aspect. They may need the help of specialist consultants. But the Success Consultant provides the overall view. They provide the roadmap for achieving the Success Outcome.
Success Consultants focus on Success Outcomes, not products or services. They're not pre-sales consultants selling products and services. They help with most of what the customer needs for success. And, because the achievement of a Success Outcome requires commitment from both customer and vendor, the work is a joint activity. Success Consultants and customer management work together. The Success Consultant isn't selling product, they're working with customer management to evaluate a project for business improvement. And defining everything needed for success.
So, customers see Success Consultants differently. They aren't selling product. They're helping define everything needed for success. And customers will pay for the Success Consultants' advice and guidance.
And that changes the dynamic of pre-sales. The vendor doesn't carry all the risk and expense. The customer now pays for some 'pre-sales' work. And the day rates for a Success Consultant should be high, to match their skill level and salary packages. But even at high day rates, good Success Consultants have too much work. The customers love them.
The Success Consultant spends most of their time in pre-sales. But they also play a role in post-sales. They've helped the customer work out everything needed for success. In post-sales, they play a Quality role, helping keep the project focused on achieving the Success Outcome. They ensure the outcome discussed in pre-sales remains the focus in post-sales.
Stefan de Haar led the South Asia region for QAD, an ERP software company. (He now leads the entire Asia-Pacific region.) QAD has an established lifecycle for ideal customers.
Stefan's team conducted a periodic business review with an automotive components customer. They identified potential improvements in the customer's operations. The customer engaged QAD to conduct a business case study. They wanted to know if a business case for making change existed. The study focused on the customer's Design, Plan and Make processes.
The report focused on the success outcome of operational effectiveness. It didn't need to mention software or product outcomes. It included everything required by the customer to get internal approval for the improvement project—which they got.
The customer then signed substantial services and software contracts with QAD covering multiple years. Stefan's team had again shown that focusing on the customer's success outcome results in large contracts and loyal customers.


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Sparky: Geez, that is a bad wig. read more
McGonigal + SF Weekly = Pink Hair Cover
April 20, 2007 6:24 AM | Simon Carless
Was reading this on the train the other day, and now it's online - alt.paper SF Weekly has a longform profile of Jane McGonigal, called 'Future Games' as their cover story this week, and it's eminently readable.
The most interesting thread in the article is an interest to harness the power of ARGs for serious, world-changing reasons: "To explain where she's coming from, McGonigal likes to quote one of the inventors of ARGs, Sean Stewart, who works at the Emeryville-based company 4orty2wo Entertainment. Until last year, McGonigal worked with his team on their commercial games. "He said that these games create "a collective intelligence that is unparalleled in entertainment history,'" says McGonigal. "Because it is unparalleled, I believe it would be a real crime to use it only for entertainment.""
Specifically: "McGonigal wants to harness the power of the communal cerebellum her games create, and put it to work solving real-world problems. Maybe young folks in warring countries could play games together, and would be less inclined to shed each other's blood. Maybe players could analyze real scientific data in the course of a game, crunching numbers and looking for patterns just as they always do, but with a payoff that goes beyond advancing to the next stage of a game." Realistic? Certainly provoking.
Geez, that is a bad wig.
Sparky | April 20, 2007 9:03 PM

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Wondering what it is like to get a portrait taken with Sharona Jacobs?
The video below gives you a client's-eye-view into how the Boston-based photographer works with the authors, actors, professors, and other innovative professionals she photographs day-to-day. You'll hear the perspectives of several of her clients, including critically acclaimed authors Steve Almond, Jon Papernick, and Rita Zoey Chin. You'll also see examples of her work with NYTimes best-selling novelist Jennifer Haigh; TechCrunch Editor John Biggs; and film and stage actress Tracie Thoms of "Rent", "Cold Case", and "The Devil Wears Prada."
Kind words from clients from Dunwello, review site, below.
You may go directly to the review site by clicking the below image if you wish.


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Info regarding the PS3 & rosters will be posted here when available. The file is meant to be shared with the community freely. Download these files via EA. ROSTERS READY TO SEND. NCAA 14 FOOTBALL WITH UPCOMING NCAA SEASON. | eBay!. NCAA Football Roster Update - Operation Sports Forums. Work in Progress Current PS3 File: vikesfan (as of 8/4/18) Check. n. The file will be copied to the hard drive of the PS3 aparicioarquitectura.com insert NCAA 09 or any version and?youre ready to play with your newly-acquired rosters!.


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Horrific Video Shows Three Men Gunned Down After Being Cornered in Bronx Hallway
News By TooFab Staff | 7/7/2020 9:21 AM PT
The three scramble for their lives — only one of them survives.
NYPD have released horrific video showing three men being cornered in a hallway and gunned down.
The attack happened on Sunday night, at an apartment block on East 171st Street. The footage shows three men waiting in a hallway, outside an apartment; one of the men appears to hear something and walks over to the stairwell to check.
Rickey Smiley Breaks Down as He Reveals His Daughter Was Shot Three Times In Houston
Suddenly the three men flee from the stairwell as a man walks up the stairs with a gun firing shots — but there is nowhere for the trio to go.
A second gunman then appears on the same floor in what was clearly a coordinated attack, muzzle flashing as he unloads a magazine into the three victims.
The three, cornered in the dead end with nowhere to hide, scramble for their lives as the assailants fire repeatedly at them from just feet away; two try fruitlessley to open a closed door, while a third cowers on the floor and hopelessly tries to make himself as small as possible.
The second assailant backs off as if to flee, before returning to fire a final shot, making sure he hit the victim on the ground.
Both gunmen then flee the scene after the brutal 10-second attack.
Two of the men later died from their wounds, while the third remains in hospital.
NYPD Detectives Chief Rodney Harrison shared the sickening footage on Twitter on Monday, asking for public assistance in tracking the culprits down.
On Sunday, July 5th, Police Officers from the 44 Precinct responded to a 911 call for a male shot at 306 East 171 street. Upon arrival they discovered three males with gunshot wounds. Two of the victims, later died from their injuries, while one remains hospitalized. pic.twitter.com/EyKg6eduYj
— Chief Rodney Harrison (@NYPDDetectives) July 6, 2020 @NYPDDetectives
YouTube/Facebook
Black Man Pinned to Tree In 'Attempted Lynching' Caught on Video
According to the New York Post, the youngest of the as-yet unnamed victims was just 22, and was shot multiple times. The 27-year--old was killed after being struck in the neck.
The lone survivor, who is 29, was luckily only struck in the arm.
The publication reported the city is undergoing a surge of gun crime: in the week beginning June 29 there were 74 shootings, amassing 101 victims, compared to 26 shootings and 33 victims the same period last year.
It said 18 people were murdered in New York last week — six more than the same period last year.
Bell County Jail/Facebook
Woman Accused in Vanessa Guillen Murder Loses Bid to Toss Confession Because She Gave it Voluntarily


Paradise RV Resorts operates two RV parks on Lake Fork, Paradise Forest RV Park and Paradise Isle RV Park. Both parks only offer annual leases for their RV sites. Many of the sites are lake front.
Below is short video showing Paradise RV Park. Enjoy!


Ep 049 – Evil Geeks Disassembled: Return To Dimension X – The Superior Spider-Man Cometh | "The Brotherhood of Evil Geeks"
Posted on October 28, 2013, in Evil Geeks Disassembled, Evil Geeks Podcasts and tagged COMICS!, Dan Slott, Evil Geeks Disassembled, Marvel, Return To Dimension X, Superior Spider-Man. Bookmark the permalink.	3 Comments.
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Mezco has announced The One:12 Collective - Red Skull collectible figure. While his appearance (And background story) has changed over the years, Mezco has captured the menacingly evil crimson death's head that has remained part of his trademark appearance over the decades. The 1/12th scale figure features over 30 articulation points, intricate sculptural work, and a detailed costume.


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Listen: Charlie Puth unleashes 'The Way I Am'
May 4, 2018 — Leave a comment
With a week left until the release of his much-anticipated sophomore album, Charlie Puth is giving fans one more new song to hold them over until the album is securely in their hands (or mobile devices). On Thursday (May 3), the New York-based singer unveiled his fourth official single from Voicenotes; "The Way I Am." Listen to the new song above.
"The Way I Am" will join previously release singles "Attention," "How Long," and "Done for Me" on the musician's forthcoming new record. Both "How Long" and "Attention" have been certified platinum. The new album will also include a song featuring legendary R&B vocal group, Boyz II Men ("If You Leave Me Now") and a new tune featuring James Taylor ("Change").
Voicenotes will be released on May 11 through Atlantic Records. Pre-orders for the album are currently available on Puth's website here. Voicenotes is the highly anticipated follow-up to the musician's 2016, RIAA-certified platinum debut album, Nine Track Mind.
In support of the upcoming release, Puth announced a massive summertime tour late alst year. The Voicenotes tour will kick off on July 11 at the Budweiser Stage in Toronto, Ontario and conclude a month and a half later on Sept. 1 at the Coral Sky Amphitheater in West Palm Beach, Florida. The complete list of upcoming summer tour dates can be found here.
This entry was posted in Music News, Streaming and tagged audio, Charlie Puth, music, music news, new music, new song, stream, streaming, The Way I Am, Voicenotes. Bookmark the permalink.


This series was shot in one day in 1975 while exploring outside of London with my wife, Nancy. We were both in London as part of an abroad program. The photos were shot with 35mm black and white infra-red film. Infra-red adds a fantasy type quality to them.


With U.S. health consumers spending $45 billion out-of-pocket for prescription drugs in 2011, pharmaceutical products are morphing into retail health products.
As such, as they do with any other consumer good, consumers can vote with their feet by walking away from a product purchase or making the spend based on the price of the product and its attributes, along with whether there are substitutes available in the marketplace.
When it comes to prescription drugs, it's not as clear-cut, according to the Centers for Disease Control's analysis of data from the 2011 National Health Interview Survey titled Strategies Used by Adults to Reduce Their Prescription Drug Costs, an NCHS Data Brief.
1 in 5 consumers ask doctors for cheaper meds, as shown in the chart. 13% of people under 65 don't take their Rx as prescribed, and 6% use alternative therapies. These forms of self-rationing away from the more expensive branded Rx are more pronounced among people under 65 except for asking doctors for lower-priced medications — with 1 in 5 older people doing this as well as those under 65.
Thus, the presence of Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage doesn't mitigate that behavior for the same percentage of older Americans.
Underneath these trends, 11% of people under 65 delayed filling a prescription, 9% took less of the medicine than prescribed, and 8% skipped doses to save money.
The kind of insurance a consumer has influences their Rx self-rationing behavior. 19% of people with commercial insurance ask for lower-cost meds, versus 15% on Medicaid and 24% of the uninsured. 9% of privately-insured people didn't take a prescription as directed, compared with 14% of those on Medicaid and 23% of the uninsured. 12% of the uninsured use alternative therapies compared with 4% of those with commercial insurance and 5% of people on Medicaid.
Only 2% of U.S. adults self-import prescription drugs.
Health Populi's Hot Points: This is another wake-up call for branded pharmaceutical manufacturers, and all bio/life science companies, to understand that after FDA approval, prescription drug formulary inclusion, and physician-prescriber acceptance, there's a fourth hurdle of concern: the patient, who makes the final decision as the 'real' consumer of the drug.
With 1 in 5 asking physicians to recommend a lower-cost medication, it's not just generics that are being suggested. For someone being recommended a statin, for example, a physician/prescriber may refer the patient to red yeast rice, from which high cholesterol managing patients may benefit with sustained use. Or, the doctor will recommend a period of trying out diet and exercise, enabling a patient with a mobile health app or two to track daily behaviors such as calorie-counting and exercise.
Pharmaceutical companies who don't pay attention to increasingly-engaged consumers put themselves at further risk of alienating the end-users of their products. Consumers' role in medication must be considered along the value-chain, from initial evaluation of portfolio strategies ruling new research 'in' or 'out' for R&D, through FDA approval processes, commercialization, marketing, and promotional strategy development. The consumer's impact may vary depending on the condition at every point in this value-chain — but the fact remains that the patient is wielding growing power as a retail health consumer at the end of this value chain. The life science company that can figure out the consumer nuance throughout the chain will benefit from such engagement, beyond the pill.


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Up To No Good
by Marsha Cornelius
Someone in the neighborhood is making porn videos in their home? Busybody Rachel Sanders has got it in her head that because the shades are always closed, something unsavory is going on inside a house down the street. Hey, it's not just the shades. There are never garbage cans at the curb, or a hose dragged out and left for days. She's decided no one really lives in the house, they just slip in at night to make their adult films. Determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, Rachel ropes h... more
The Beckoning Ice
by Joan Druett
It is February 1839, and the ships of the United States Exploring Expedition are thrashing about dreaded Cape Horn, on their way to a rendezvous at Orange Harbor, Tierra del Fuego, on a crazy mission to be the first to find Antarctica. A sealing schooner hails the brig Swallow with a strange tale of a murdered corpse on an iceberg--surely a case for Wiki Coffin, half-Maori, half-Yankee "linguister," who is the representative of American law and order with the fleet. But circumstances are aga... more
Red Horse (A Dark Paradigm Conspiracy Thriller Book 2)
by Jay Tinsiano & Jay Newton
Haleema Sheraz, a cyber hacker for the Iranian government, discovers her father has gone missing. Frustrated at the lack of urgency from the police, she investigates and soon reveals a kidnapping network that spans back to Operation Paperclip in World War II. Meanwhile, her brothers join an ISIS-inspired uprising that is wreaking havoc inside Iran, and finding her father quickly becomes a mission to save her family. Joe Bowen and Hugo Reese continue to prepare Liberatus for a wider global ... more
BLOODGOOD
by G. Franklin Prue
Synopsis BLOODGOOD takes you to the mountains of Honduras to die. The story centers on four women military Officers out of the Iraq war of Desert Storm. They are now contract killers for the CIA. BLOODGOOD is about their lives and how they cope with killing enemies of the U.S. Government through drugs, sex, and isolation with the help of each other. They are our new Amazonian warriors in Special Ops. BLOODGOOD shows you the history of the Special Ops Unit all women's group-The Black Knights.... more
The Girl With No Past (Predestination, Book 1)
by Rachel Ledge
In the year 1919, a woman wakes up in rural Ohio, unable to recall even the most basic facts about herself. Her quest for answers turns up more questions, until she meets Damian Glass, an espionage agent from the future. When counter-agents come calling from Black Hand, a mysterious organization that manipulates history to their benefit, she finds herself catapulted into a world of passion, intrigue and danger, where friends and foes merge together. When she finally uncovers the mystery ... more
The Camel's Back
by Brian Christopher Shea
Three people, each at their own breaking point, collide. The resulting impact will forever change their lives…if they can manage to survive it. Declan Enright, recently fired after a controversial on-duty shooting, facing an insurmountable financial burden makes a desperate move to right his family's circumstance. FBI Agents Nick Lawrence and Izzy Martinez cross paths with Declan during a subsequent investigation. Their personal and professional challenges are displaced as they are forced to st... more
Harrington Manor
by Ronald M. James
This book has a Publisher's Weekly review made in November 2016, sent by my then publisher Big Sky Press. They closed their doors in February 2017.
When We People the Land: A Sergeant Frank Hardy Novel (The Sergeant Frank Hardy Mysteries Book 2)
by Wendy M. Wilson
Book 2: The Sergeant Frank Hardy Mysteries. New Zealand, 1878: With his new private investigation agency established in Palmerston, Sergeant Frank Hardy is ready to marry, but fiancee Mette Jensen is reluctant to leave her job at the book shop. Then Frank disappears during a case and the man Mette thought he killed to save her appears at the shop looking for someone to investigate the murder. Meanwhile Frank awakes in a mysterious underground prison and must uncover what he knows or has seen tha... more
The Worried Man (Q.C. Davis Mystery Book 1)
by Lisa M. Lilly
She loved him, but did she know him? The night before they plan to move in together, Quille finds the body of the man she loves dead in his apartment. Police point to his failed medical career and past alcoholism as evidence of suicide or accidental overdose. His ex-wife agrees. Marco's son insists his father was stable, sober, and excited about his future with Quille. Suspicious of the police based on bitter experience, Quille vows to find the truth and help Marco's son. Using her s... more
BERING STRAIT
by Francis Xavier Holden
Without warning, Russia starts a lightning operation to seize control of a vital arctic waterway off the Alaska coast.
For America, it's a threat to national sovereignty.
For Russia, it's a matter of life or death.
For hot-wired naval aviator, Karen 'Bunny' O'Hare, it's about to be a very bad day at the office.
NOT everyone is as relaxed about impending nuclear amageddon as O'Hare... more
A Glance at My Other
by Bruce Wilkerson
Synopsis: Paris was only supposed to be a break from college until Josh Cohn is evicted from his lodgings. While sulking in a bistro, he notices a beautiful Arabic girl, who minutes later, he saves from drowning. But then josh is killed while pulling her unconscious form from the water, and when the two strangers spirits meet, Josh's consciousness is thrown into the young girl's body. Immersed in the unfamiliar fundamentalist lifestyle of Neïla's family, Josh is forced to wear the hijab, t... more
The War Within
by H. A. Pell
Jack Thomas, an Iraq War hero, returns from service and finishes law school. He's now an FBI Special Agent and SWAT team leader. Thomas is assigned as commander of a joint terrorism task force . Calvin Hendricks is a Viet Nam veteran turned mercenary. He fought with the mujahideen in Afghanistan against the Russians, married a tribal chief's daughter, and took up the Taliban cause. Hendricks is the mastermind and leader of a homegrown terror cell. W... more
by Dana Stewart Quinney
The Phoenix Series: The Complete Set, Book 1 & 2 (The Phoenix Mission)
by L. Sydney Fisher
The critics say, "You won't forget this book!"
From the bestselling author comes a supernatural suspense inspired by the U.S. Military's clandestine program, Stargate. For two decades, the U.S. Army trained special agents in remote viewing. In 1995 during the Clinton Administration, the program was shut down. Now twenty years later, a new story emerges. Meet Sergeant Major Seth Phoenix. He's spent his entire life guarding his extraord... more
The Phoenix Codes (The Phoenix Series Book 2)
Sergeant Major Seth Phoenix's story continues in The Phoenix Codes as he battles the CIA and the U.S. government's plans to duplicate his DNA codes for future use in the Human Clone Research programs already being explored in Russia. When he meets Russian Agent Nikita Oleshun for the second time during a rescue mission in Srebrenica, Bosnia, Phoenix realizes that the would-be enemy is actually an ally and attempting to defect from Russia.
Phoenix races ... more
The Devil's Board
Experience the terror of The Devil's Board in this new supernatural thriller from the Amazon #1 Bestselling Author, L. Sydney Fisher.
Inspired by TRUE EVENTS.
On an American college campus in 1987, three students began playing a seemingly innocent game of contacting the dead. Word spread fast around campus and curiosity grew, expanding the group to more than forty people. Spirits were summoned almost daily, and the dark world's influence began to take its toll as one stude... more


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Live Review – One Electric Day – Gold Coast 2022
by Hear2Zen Magazine - November 29, 2022 November 29, 2022 0
There were signs of a thunderstorm, but the only spark was that of the stunning lineup of this year's One Electric Day finishing the final leg of an incredible tour in Sunny Queensland's gold Coast. (Well, kinda sunny?)
Australia's royalty of musical heavyweights The Chocolate Starfish, The Screaming Jets, Baby Animals, The Angels, and Noise Works supporting the incomparable, glamorous, stunning, classy, and sexy! (I could go on…) Suzi Quatro.
Review: Fistfull Of Rock – Brisbane 2022
by Hear2Zen Magazine - May 1, 2022 0
Artists - Fistfull Of Rock (The Poor, Rose Tattoo, Baby Animals, The Angels)Date: 29/04/2022Venue: Eatons Hill Hotel - BrisbaneReviewer: Mert TysonPhotographer: Andrew Treadwell Photography I felt like my DeLorean took me back to 90's when the Poor were heading for Aussie Hard rock domination! Well ladies and gentlemen grab your drink and hold on! Skenie and the boys are back and blew the roof of Eaton's Hill last night. What do you get when you throw these lads into the mix? Well, you get a fucking Queensland cyclone of passion, raw energy and full-on entertainment. Belting out classic's "poison" "Manowar" and "Dirty Money" and the cracker new single "Paybacks a Bitch" A strong thumping masterclass rhythm section led by Gavin Hansen
Festivals: RHST Presents – Great Southern Land 2022 – The Concert Series
Festival Announcements
by Hear2Zen Magazine - October 24, 2021 0
THE RED HOT SUMMER TOUR PROUDLY PRESENTSICEHOUSETHE GREAT SOUTHERN LAND CONCERT SERIESJAMES REYNE, THE ANGELS, BABY ANIMALS, VANESSA AMOROSI, CHRISTINE ANU & EMILY WURRAMARA TICKETS GO ON SALE 10AM LOCAL TIME TUESDAY 26TH OCTOBER 2021 The RED HOT SUMMER TOUR is back in 2022 with two special Queensland shows celebrating the 40th anniversary of ICEHOUSE's classic hit Great Southern Land. The highly anticipated shows, at long time RED HOT SUMMER TOUR venues Queens Park in Toowoomba and Harrigans in Jacobs Well, will bring together a coveted line-up not only headlined by the iconic ICEHOUSE, but also featuring James Reyne, The Angels, Baby Animals, Vanessa Amorosi and Christine Anu. Organisers are excited to bring these two special shows to Queensland in 2022. "We are thrilled to be able to
Tours: The Red Hot Summer Tour returns in 2022 to sort Unfinished Business
HUNTERS & COLLECTORS,JAMES REYNE, THE LIVING END, THE ANGELS, BABY ANIMALS, KILLING HEIDI & BOOM CRASH OPERA TICKETS GO ON SALE FROM 10AM LOCAL TIME THURSDAY 14TH OCTOBER 2021 The RED HOT SUMMER TOUR is back in 2022 to sort Unfinished Business with the return of its 10th anniversary line-up headlined by ARIA Hall of Fame inductees Hunters & Collectors, with special guests James Reyne, The Living End, The Angels, Baby Animals, Killing Heidi and Boom Crash Opera. With dates from February to May 2022, the tour will visit New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Queensland. Organisers are excited to announce the 2022 tour, something they have been working on solidly for the past 18-months. "We are thrilled to be able to return to the
News: The Angels and Baby Animals Team Up For Split Single And Tour
by Hear2Zen Magazine - October 1, 2019 October 1, 2019 0
The split single sees The Angels covering 'One Word' from Baby Animals' chart-topping self-titled debut, while Baby Animals deliver a blistering version of The Angels' Face To Face classic 'Marseilles'.


Hashem's hashgacha is other worldly to put it mildly. Reb Simcha Bunim from Peshischa interpreted the passuk of רבות מחשבות בלב איש ועצת ה' היא תקום as follows that many thoughts and plans lie within the heart of Man however only the counsel of Hashem will determine the outcome at the end. Reb Simcha adds the insight that the plan of Hashem will come to fruition through the many thoughts of man even if their intention was to sabotage the plan of Hashem. We don't have to look further that the brothers of Yosef. After they heard his dreams they planned to kill him thereby turning his dreams into ash. They sold him as a slave to Mitzrayim a land upon which Chazal describe as no slave ever escaped from there. Mitzrayim was the place where Yosef will be lost forever and they need not worry further about his delusions of grandeur.
Yet Hashem had a different plan. The fulfillment of Yosef's dreams will be executed by the brothers own hands. For by selling Yosef to Mitzrayim Yosef rose to power to become its viceroy. He became the sole controller of the food distribution in Mitzrayim. The brothers all came down to bow down to him for they too needed food for their families. Because of his power and leverage position Yosef made sure to have even Binyamin come down to Mitzrayim to fulfill the dream completely to the tee that everyone of his brothers would bow down to him. They thought to dash his dreams by getting rid of him for good. Hashem took their plans and wove them within a tapestry that only Hashem could put together so that their own actions caused the dreams of their hated brother to come to fruition.
A similar example is in our parsha. Pharaoh's astrologers gazed at the stars and got a premonition that a savior to the Jewish People will be born. They did not know if he will be Jewish or Egyptian. Nevertheless, to avoid such a catastrophe to himself and to the land of Egypt, Pharaoh decreed that all children born on that date should be killed by throwing them into the Nile. Moshe was born and placed into a basket and set afloat on the river as Miriam his sister watched by. The daughter of Pharaoh Basya went down to the river to bathe and she saw the basket and realized the baby was Jewish and took him to the palace. When Moshe refused to be nursed by Egyptians, Miriam suggested to hire a Jewish woman to nurture the child. Basya agreed and Miriam brought Yocheved, Moshe's mother, to nurse him. Moshe was then raised in Pharaoh's house as a prince with nobody except for Basya knowing his true identity.
Here once again we see how Pharaoh himself with his plans and strategies brought upon the entire Egyptian civilization its downfall. He decrees to kill every child born that day lest the future savior will survive and emancipate the Jewish nation of slaves. Yet through his very own plan, the Jewish savior Moshe was saved by the water which was supposed to drown him. The savior of Moshe was ironically Basya the daughter of the one who decreed that he should be murdered in the first place. The one who nursed Moshe and raised him from a baby was no one else but his own mother. Then he was raised in the very palace under the nose of the evil Pharaoh who made the decree in the first place to ensure that the savior will not survive the day.
In Yiddish there is a saying a mentsch tracht un G-t lacht. Man makes plans and Hashem laughs. People say if want to make Hashem laugh just make some plans and watch what happens. A Yid always accompanies his plans with the bitachon words of אם ירצה ה' or בעזרת ה' which is a tefillah that Hashem should fulfill them if it is beneficial for him. But from the two stories above we see a demonstration of a greater capability beyond human endeavor and that is to fulfill His ratzon through the very actions with which man tries to offset His will.
This we see in the Purim story upon which the Megillas Esther capsulizes it with two words ונהפוך הוא all the plans of Haman fell back upon him. The Navi says עת צרה ליעקב וממנה יושע (Yirmiyahu 30,7) when the time of tzarah reaches the Jewish People, from it we will be delivered. One of the commentators wrote that the word וממנה also spells ומהמן and from Haman we will be saved. Haman himself brought about his own downfall.
His goal was to make Mordechai humiliated and feel as low as vermin. Yet Haman through his brazen haughtiness and self conceit was the one who instructed the King to honor, unbeknown to him at the time, Mordechai the individual he despised the most and was about to hang. He was to ride Mordechai on the King's horse with all the royal accessories and he became the one who was humiliated by parading Mordechai in the streets of the capitol announcing as he went this is what happens to the one who the King desires to honor. Instead of making Mordechai feel like garbage, it was his daughter, thinking that Mordechai was the one who is leading her honorable father on the royal horse, poured the garbage over her father thereby disgracing him in public. Here we have Hamam who prepared a tree to hang Mordechai and a noose that he even tried out on himself, relishing all the time that soon it will be Mordechai's head with the noose around his neck. This hashgacha was Hashem's way of laughing at Amalek ונהפוך הוא. How could one think that one could go against the plan of the Creator of the world and the One who sustains it every second. Shlomo Hamelech said it very clearly (Mishlei 20,5) אין חכמה ואין תבונה ואין עצה לנגד ה'.
Even at the Pesach Seder we declare this same principle of Ironics והיא שעמדה לאבותינו ולנו והקב"ה מצילנו מידם even though in every generation the nations of the world plan and strategize to annihilate us from the face of the earth, Hashem saves us מידם from their own hands. When the Egyptians shot arrows towards Yisrael at Yam Suf the Clouds of glory bounced them right back at them. They in essence killed themselves instead of killing the Yidden.
On Shabbos one brings to heart the revelation of the authenticity of Hashem's constant Hashgacha in the world. Even the question of צדיק ורע לו רשע וטוב לו doesn't bother one on Shabbos. As we say in the Mizmor Shir Leyom Hashabbos איש בער לא ידע וכסיל לא יבין את זאת בפרוח רשעים כמו עשב להשמדם עדי עד only fools and unlearned people don't understand that if there is Hashgacha of Hashem why do the wicked still prosper in this world? The answer is להשמדם עדי עד in order to give them their reward for their few mitzvos in a fleeting world and not the eternal world. On Shabbos an observant Yid has a deeper understanding in Hashem because of his neshamah yesairahand thereby his emunah is fortified and deepened to believe strongly in Hashgachas Hashem. That is why the words יום השבת is the same gematriahofאין חכמה תבונה עצה . The difference between Shabbos and the six days of the week is that during the week Hashem laughs at us but on Shabbos as we look back at the past week, we find ourselves laughing together with Him.


The site has options of reverse address lookup, reverse phone lookup and regular name search. When installed on these mobile phones, it automatically displays the identity of all new callers.
For instance, you can type a phone number on the website to get the other details of the user.
SEVGI1 — 20.04.2014 at 18:14:47 Because you are assured that.
skazka — 20.04.2014 at 17:57:20 Your get in touch with join their membership plan and.


text:
Letter to constituents on a new Cambo oil field
Thank you for contacting me about your opposition to the new Cambo oil field in the North Sea. I have been contacted by a large number of my constituents about this proposal and I wanted to set out to you my own views on this matter below.
As you know, the Labour Party has called for Cambo to be scrapped. Responding to the climate crisis means that we must be ambitious. If we want to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, we cannot continue to rely on fossil fuels for our energy.
Disappointingly, Ministers already look set to miss this 2050 target that Parliament legislated for just over a year ago. What's more, they are not even on track to meet the less ambitious goal that preceded it.
It is clear that 2050 is too late for the UK to end its contribution to climate breakdown and runway global heating. According to the UN, we have less than ten years left to avoid the worst impacts of catastrophic climate change. I have spoken out about the urgent action that is required when it comes to climate change over the past 15 years as an MP. The UK government needs to act with far greater urgency and ambition.
I was proud to stand on a bold and radical plan to tackle the climate crisis in the 2019 General Election. It is bitterly disappointing that Labour cannot enact this vision in government.
Having seen first-hand the role that the UK can play in leading a global strategy to tackle climate change when I attended COP 15 in Copenhagen back in 2009, I am disappointed that the government are failing to take the opportunity it has to show real global leadership in tackling the climate crisis, especially as we approach COP 26, which the UK is hosting in Glasgow later this year.
If the UK government was to go ahead with its plans to create a new oil field in the North Sea, our international credibility would be undermined ahead of COP 26, which is set to be such a crucial moment in our fight against the climate crisis.
I can assure you that I and my Labour colleagues will continue to press the government on this proposal. In the Labour Party, we recognise the importance of a green recovery from the Coronavirus pandemic. In my view, a new Cambo oil field would represent the exact opposite.
Thank you again for your email about the important issue. I will continue to watch developments on this matter closely – I understand that, if the government approves a permit for the proposal to go ahead, Greenpeace have said that they will mount a legal challenge.
If you have any other points you would like to raise with me, you are welcome to do so.
The Rt Hon. Emily Thornberry MP
Islington South and Finsbury
Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade


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On Wednesday morning four TSS Indigenous students and Yalari scholarship holders attended the 'Yalari' Annual TSS breakfast at the Tattersalls Club in Brisbane. Mr Wayne Bennett was the guest speaker on the morning and he inspired the young students by exploring issues such as: self-confidence, leadership, facing adversity and perseverance. The Indigenous TSS boys were honoured to meet such a humble, honest and renowned figure in the community and cherished the opportunity to ask questions and speak with the coaching great.


I've got a Pastel Goth Makeup Tutorial to share with you. I created this last night in the Facebook Poise Chat group on Facebook Live….
Happy Friday! Today I have some Ofra Long Lasting Liquid Lipsticks to share with you. This formula is not kiss proof or smudge proof….
Happy Top Ten Tuesday! Today I've got my top 10 Favorite Summer Beauty Products to share with you. All are cruelty free and many are vegan….


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On this second album of Willy and his Giants (The Hague) called ''Guitar Giant" you can hear again how unique the guitar sound of lead guitarist Willy Wissink is and that it has not changed at all sinds the early Rock and Roll days. The name of the album ''Guitar Giant'' is rightly earned be course of his unique style of playing the guitar. The songs of this album are new and certainly worth it, especially the songs 'And The Bird Are Singing, Willy's Melody, Jumping Jack and Johnny Guitar''. It's an album that must belong in every guitar fans collection, a true Guitar Giant. (see also the 2 other albums by Willy and his Giants).


Texas High Schools to Offer Vocational Training to Meet Anticipated Need for "Anatomy Inspectors" to Enforce New Bathroom Bill | Work Well. Be Well.
At the press conference yesterday, Patrick described in graphic terms what the inspectors will be looking for, and hopefully preventing, from entering the state's women's rest rooms. He even volunteered to do some of the inspecting himself.
To keep pace with the anticipated changing job scene in Texas, Patrick plans to drop math and science from high school curriculum and replace them with "Anatomy Inspection" courses. "It will be truly 'hands on' training," he says.
Patrick predicts that high school students will soon be "cancelling their academic classes and registering in droves" for the new vocational curriculum. And he's probably right. "There is no more exciting career than being an anatomy inspector, and I want it so bad I can almost taste it!" exclaimed one high school sophomore who spoke on condition of anonymity.
If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy a related story about North Carolina's bathroom bill. And, please share! The more people we get to laugh at Dan Patrick, the less likely he and the other men running the Texas legislature will be able to pass their so-called Women's Privacy Act.


Continuing a look at some US Presidential items in the leadup to the elections. Today, something from 100 years ago . . .
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt (1858 – 1919) was the 26th President of the United States, 1901 – 1909, the youngest ever President (one year younger when he became POTUS than JFK) and the winner of a Nobel Peace Prize. Born a sickly child who suffered from asthma, he engaged in strenuous physical activities to compensate. Before becoming President at age 42 he was a naturalist, explorer, hunter, author, rancher and soldier. In 1898 he formed the Rough Riders, a volunteer cavalry regiment that fought in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. (Interestingly, he was nominated for a Medal of Honour for his actions in that war but this was disapproved. In 2001 Congress granted the award posthumously). Elected Vice President in 1900, he became President on the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901. His two terms as President were characterised by breaking up of large monopolies and regulation of business, fair treatment of citizens ("square deal"), conservation of the environment and an increasing American presence in world affairs.
Roosevelt disliked being called and referred to as "Teddy". He referred its use as "an outrageous impertinence". Nonetheless he remained known as Teddy to the American public, even becoming the inspiration for the still popular Teddy Bear (a future Bytes).
He remained active to the end of his life and died of a heart attack in his sleep in 1919. The Vice President, Thomas R Marshall, commented ""Death had to take Roosevelt sleeping, for if he had been awake, there would have been a fight."
Roosevelt's Presidency came to an end in 1909 when his second term expired. He anointed William Taft as his successor and Taft was duly elected President, but Roosevelt became disillusioned with the directions in which Taft took the government and the Republican Party. He announced himself for nomination as the Republican candidate in the 1912 elections but was unsuccessful in securing the numbers to be appointed as the Republican candidate ahead of Taft, having left his run too late. Undeterred, Roosevelt left the convention hall and walked to a nearby theatre where he and his followers formed a new political party, the Progressive Party.
While campaigning in Wisconsin on October 14, 1912 a saloonkeeper named John Schrank shot him in the chest. The bullet passed through Roosevelt's metal eyeglass case and 50 sheets of paper before entering his chest. Roosevelt believed that because he was not coughing blood he did not need to go to the hospital immediately. He mounted the podium and gave a 90 minute speech, all the while blood seeping from the wound. His opening words were "Ladies and gentlemen, I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot; but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose."
Doctors decided against surgery and the bullet remained in his chest for the rest of his life.
In the 1912 elections Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, was elected President, obtaining 42% of the votes as against Roosevelt's 27% and Taft's 23%. Roosevelt had 88 electoral votes to Taft's 8 electoral votes, Taft thereby becoming the only incumbent president to place third in a re-election bid.
And what of John Schrank, the unsuccessful assassin?
Schrank maintained that the assassinated President McKinley, whose death had elevated Roosevelt to the Presidency, appeared to him as a ghost in a dream. The ghost identified Roosevelt as his murderer and instructed Schrank to kill Roosevelt. Schrank spent the rest of his life in institutions for the insane. Whilst being taken by train to the Northern Hospital for the Insane at Oshkosh on November 25, 1912, Schrank gazed at the Wisconsin countryside. Someone asked him if he liked to hunt. He replied, "Only Bull Moose."
Billy Wilder (1906 – 2002) was an Austrian-born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist and journalist. He became a screenwriter whilst living in Berlin in the 1920's but, being Jewish, left for Paris as the Nazi Party grew in power. In 1933 he left Paris for Hollywood where his career spanned over 60 films. He is one of only 5 people to have won Oscars as producer, director and writer, for a 1960 turkey of a movie that also won the best pic, The Apartment.
In 1957 Wilder was filming Love in the Afternoon in Paris, with Audrey Hepburn, Gary Cooper and Maurice Chevalier.
The following anecdote is from the book Billy Wilder in Hollywood by Maurice Zolotow.
Much of Love in the Afternoon was filmed on location in Paris. While Billy was over there, Audrey [Wilder] suddenly got the most irresistible craving for...a bidet! She had to have a bidet. She could not live without her very own bidet in the master bedroom. She cabled Billy to purchase a bidet and ship it to their Westwood apartment. Unable to locate a French plumbing supply firm which exported bidets, Wilder replied: IMPOSSIBLE TO OBTAIN BIDET STOP SUGGEST YOU DO HANDSTANDS IN SHOWER.
Google Earth has revealed some interesting landscapes and geographical items, indeed some people make it their hobby to scan the images on GE to come up with items of interest. Some of them will be featured in a future Bytes.
One such image that came to attention in 2009 as a result of GE was an aerial view of the island of Galesnjak, located off the coast of Croatia. It is naturally heart shaped and hence has been called Island of Love and Lover's Island. It is privately owned and is not inhabited. There are 3 burial mounds dating from Roman days and the foundations of an ancient building. The beach which runs around the shores of the island is 15km in length.
"It has been incredible. We think it is the most perfect heart-shaped island in the world. Nobody lives there so if lovers really do want to spend time alone it's the perfect desert island. We always thought it looked a bit like a heart but since it's been on Google Earth everyone else has seen it too and the whole world seems to want to stay here.
Glass heart. Nahhh, I made that one up, everyone knows that heart of glass is by Blondie, not Nature.
"Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh?" he whispered.
"We'll be Friends Forever, won't we, Pooh?' asked Piglet.
"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That's why we call it the present."
Winnie the Pooh, aka Pooh Bear, is a fictional bear created by A A Milne in various stories and collections of stories that appeared between 1924 and 1928. Originally named Winnie-the-Pooh, the hyphens were dropped when Disney acquired the rights and produced its own features.
Milne named the character after a teddy bear owned by his son Christopher Robin.
Winnie was the name of a popular Canadian black bear in the London Zoo. That bear had been purchased in Canada as a cub from a hunter by Lieutenant Harry Colebourn. Colebourn was a Canadian en route to England in WW1 and he purchased the bear in 1914. He named the bear Winnie after his hometown, Winnipeg and smuggled it into England, where it became the unofficial mascot of the Fort Garry Horse. Winnie was left with the London Zoo whilst Colebourn's unit served in France. After the war she was officially donated to the zoo and she became a popular attraction.
Christopher Robin with Winnie at the London Zoo.
Christopher Robin had been given a large doll bear for his first birthday, which he had named Edward Bear. Because Christopher was one of Winnie's greatest fans and a frequent visitor to the zoo (where he was allowed to enter Winnie's enclosure, above), Christopher renamed his doll bear Winnie the Bear.
Christopher Robin with Winnie the Bear.
Pooh was the name of a swan that Milne and his son encountered whilst on holiday.
An alternate explanation is also offered in another work, that Pooh was what Christopher Robin had called a swan. With the swan gone, Christopher Robin changed the name of the doll bear to Winnie the Pooh to remember the swan.
Christopher Robin's names for his other toys were used for the additional characters in the Pooh stories, except for Owl and Rabbit.
The toys are now on display in the New York Public Library.
Original Winnie-the-Pooh stuffed toys. Clockwise from bottom left: Tigger, Kanga, Edward Bear ("Winnie-the-Pooh"), Eeyore and Piglet.
"Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!
Milne's mother kept his hair long and dressed him in girlish clothes, having wanted a girl. The girlish hair and clothing also appear in the Pooh books.
Christopher served in the army for 5 years during WW2. Originally rejected on medical grounds, his father was able to secure him an enlistment, serving in the Middle East and Italy where he was wounded. Ironically both Christopher and his father had been pacifists.
Whilst serving abroad, Christopher became resentful at what he considered to be his father's exploitation of his childhood. He came to hate the Pooh books and stories which prevented him having an identity in his own right. Even at boarding school as a child he had been constantly teased about the Pooh association.
In 1973 he wrote that as a child "I quite liked being Christopher Robin and being famous. There were indeed times . . . when it was exciting and made me feel grand and important."
"had spent over 40 years trying to get off his knees from saying his prayers. Perhaps the most famous of all tiny boys (by comparison Little Lord Fauntleroy was a mere starlet), A.A. Milne's golden-curled son grew up loathing the Pooh books."
In 1948 Christopher married his cousin, a marriage disliked by his mother in that she did not get on with her brother, who was the father of his bride. His mother had not spoken to her brother for 30 years.
Despite his association with the Pooh character and his hostility to it, he opened a bookshop with his wife in 1951. It was a moderate success.
He saw his father occasionally before his father's death in 1956 but had no further contact with his mother for the next 15 years until her death. On her deathbed she refused to see him.
A few months after his father's death in 1956, Christopher's daughter Clare was born, and diagnosed with severe cerebral palsy. She would later run a charity for the disabled called the Clare Milne Trust.
Christopher battled for some years with myasthenia gravis, a neurological disease, and passed away peacefully in his sleep on April 20th, 1996.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was born in Spain but spent most of his adult life in France, his first trip to Paris being taken in 1920.
In 1937 the German Luftwaffe, assisted by the Italian Fascist Aviazone Legionora, bombed the Basque town of Guernica in Spain. A focal point of Basque culture, it was also an area of Republican sympathy during the Spanish Civil War. The attack by planes of the German Condor Legion supported both Nationalist advances in the area and Franco's forces already in place. The bombing caused widespread destruction and killed a large number of defenceless civilians. Some commentators have argued that Guernica was an early example of terror bombing, the deliberate targeting of civilians to psychologically demoralise the enemy, a conscious policy of the Luftwaffe; others maintain that high civilian casualties were collateral damage from bombing of military and strategic targets. Whatever the policy, raid after raid bombed Guernica from the air, a town that had remained distant from the civil war and which had no air defences. The attacks took place on a Monday when most of the population was at the markets. After 8 waves of carpet bombing raids, a forerunner to the later German blitzkrieg, planes strafed the roads in and out of the town.
Guernica, the most ancient town of the Basques and the centre of their cultural tradition, was completely destroyed yesterday afternoon by insurgent air raiders. The bombardment of this open town far behind the lines occupied precisely three hours and a quarter, during which a powerful fleet of aeroplanes consisting of three types of German types, Junkers and Heinkel bombers, did not cease unloading on the town bombs weighing from 1,000 lbs. downwards and, it is calculated, more than 3,000 two-pounder aluminium incendiary projectiles. The fighters, meanwhile, plunged low from above the centre of the town to machinegun those of the civilian population who had taken refuge in the fields."
The number of dead has been debated, numbers varying from 126 to 3,000.
"I urged him [Adolf Hitler] to give support [to Franco] under all circumstances, firstly, in order to prevent the further spread of communism in that theatre and, secondly, to test my young Luftwaffe at this opportunity in this or that technical respect."
It was through George Steer's article that Picasso found out about the tragedy of Guernica in the country of his birth.
Picasso had been commissioned by the Spanish Republican government to create a mural for the Paris International Exposition at the World's Fair, to be held in Paris in 1937. He became aware of the tragedy of Guernica from reading Steers' article and immediately abandoned what he had been working on without enthusiasm for months, instead painting Guernica, an oil in black, white and grey, on canvas. Its images are stark, horrific, poignant, but I will save analysis of the painting for a future Bytes.
It attracted little attention at the time. Today it is regarded as one of the greatest symbols against war and Picasso's most famous work.
In 1968, Franco expressed interest in having Guernica return to Spain. Picasso refused, stipulating that before Guernica returned to Spain, the country had to be a republic, with public liberties and democratic institutions. Picasso died in 1973, Franco died in 1975, the painting was delivered to Spain in 1981.
It's that time of the week again, Friday, which also means that it's time for some humour.
Today's target: Catholics. Part 1 today, Part 2 next Friday.
A new convert to Catholicism decided to go to confession to deal with his transgression. In the confessional, he told the priest that he had sinned.
"What was your sin, my son?" asked the priest.
"I stole some lumber, Father," replied the man.
"How much lumber did you steal?" asked the priest.
"Father, I built my German Shepherd dog a nice new doghouse."
The priest replied, "Well, that's not so bad."
The man continued, "Father, I also built myself a 4-car garage."
"Well, now, that's a little more serious."
"Father, there's more. In addition to the doghouse and, the 4-car garage, I also built a 5 bedroom, 4 bath house!"
With a pause, the priest finally spoke. "That is a little more serious. I'm afraid you'll have to make a novena."
"Father, I'm not sure what a 'novena' is, but if you've got the blueprints, I've got the lumber!"
Years ago in Ireland, there was a priest who was very anti-British. Every Sunday he would blast them from the pulpit. He became so notorious that the Pope himself summoned the priest to Rome for an audience.
"Father," said the Pope, "I want that there should be peace between the British and the Irish. You're not helping matters at all. I want you to kiss my ring and swear by the Blessed Virgin that you'll never so much as mention the British in public again."
"But Your Holiness, I - I - " the priest stammered.
"No buts," said the Pope. "Swear it here and now or there'll be trouble!"
"Aye, Holy Father," sighed the father. "All right. I swear it."
The very next Sunday just happened to be Easter, and the priest was back at his pulpit in Ireland, giving his annual Easter sermon.
He got to the part of the Easter story where Jesus said, "And one of you shall betray Me."
"Then that dirty dog Judas Iscariot slowww-ly rises to his feet. And he looks the Lord right in the eye and says, 'Blimey, Mate. Ya think it's me?"
A man walked past the kitchen of a monastery and saw a robed figure at the stove preparing fish and chips.
"Are you the fish friar?" he asked.


text:
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Since April 2015's Pension Freedom reforms took hold, we have heard from many customers who are signed up to pensions that do not provide drawdown facilities, and many of them want to know whether there are alternative to taking out an annuity.
How do I find the best drawdown pension for me?
What kind of pension can you transfer in?
What's the best pension drawdown rate for me?
How much should I draw down per year?
What are typical pension income drawdown rates?
What's a typical drawdown pensions growth rate?
How do I get the best drawdown pension returns?
It goes without saying that there is no one best drawdown pension account (i.e. a pension which is able to facilitate the changes made by Pension Freedoms), such as full drawdown access) for everyone. If there was, articles like this would be redundant.
Instead, it's worth considering what you, specifically, need out of a pension drawdown product and, as such, what would make such a pension best for you and your circumstances.
One way to get clear on this is to speak an advisor, like one of the experts we work with.
There are three main types of pension that you could transfer in from - 'defined contribution', 'capped drawdown' (this mainly relates to Defined Contribution aka Money Purchase pensions) and 'final salary' (most pensions experts would only advise a transfer in a minority of cases). Not all providers will accept each kind.
Some companies will require new customers (or existing customers who don't have a drawdown account) to take financial advice before opening an account, some don't.
Most providers don't set an upper limit on the size of your pension pot, but many of them have a minimum that they'll accept.
This one's paramount. Every fund and fund provider will charge differently - some will charge more than others. And of course, the less you pay in charges, the better your returns will be - everything else being equal.
It's also worth remembering that some providers will become more economical if your pension pot is larger - as they decrease their fees for larger pots.
Your provider is legally obligated to let you know about every fee, but the way that they do this isn't always clear. When in doubt, get advice from an independent advisor.
What the fund invests in will help to determine what kind of returns you get, and the kind of risks your funds are subjected to.
An advisor will conduct an Attitude to Risk analysis to determine what level of risk you should be exposed to. This will be redone at regular intervals and, as is often the case, reduced as people get closer to retirement and want to secure the capital they have accumulated.
Seeing as there is the possibility of loss, it's important to pick a fund that matches your level of risk tolerance, and that invests in assets that you would be comfortable holding.
Everything else being equal, a provider with a larger selection of fund choices will be a better option for you, as it's more likely that one of the funds will be suited to your specific needs.
What is the best pension drawdown rate for me?
In April 2018 The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries suggested that people draw down at a rate no higher than 3.5%. For years, much of the industry took 4% as the 'going rate' - despite many considering such drawdown pension withdrawals to be wildly optimistic.
But as a rule of thumb, don't follow the rule of thumb here.
How much to draw down in retirement is very much a 'case by case' basis. It's dictated by your current and desired lifestyle, the size of your pot, the performance of your investments, and a host of other individual lifestyle factors.
An advisor can help with this. They can take a holistic look at your needs and circumstances, and help you to draw up a budget and a plan that takes into account your needs, both now and in the future.
Is there a limit on UK drawdown income rates?
Only for those still on Capped Drawdown pension schemes, which were replaced by Flexi Access in 2015.
For people in this boat, pension drawdown rates for 2019 (and every year) are set by the GAD (Government Actuary's Department ) - who determine the maximum amount you can withdraw every year, based on your age (the rate is unisex).
As a rule of thumb - the older you are, the more you're allowed to withdraw. You can find up to date tables on maximum income drawdown rates on the government's website.
That said, the GAD hasn't made the figures particularly easy to understand, so if it's your first time, or you'd like a little help calculating them - speak to one of the expert advisors we work with for a better idea of what you might be entitled to.
Is there a 'safe' pension drawdown withdrawal rate?
Not really. In 2018, The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries recommended a drawdown rate of no more than 3.5% a year - but everyone's circumstances are different. As such, how much an individual wants or needs to drawdown will be determined based on their needs and circumstances.
Your fixed expenses, pension pot and return rates all need to be factored in. As a rule of thumb, the lower your withdrawal rate, the 'safer'.
Get in touch if you'd like one of the advisors we work with to provide you with a pension drawdown estimate.
What's a typical drawdown pension's growth rate?
Most providers advertise an average return on pensions that facilitate drawdown between 2-6% - depending on which specific product you choose.
But remember, these rates are predicted, not guaranteed.
This is a tricky one - income drawdown fund performance are typically linked to the performances of a particular market or fund manager.
As the old financial services saying goes - 'past performance is no indication of future results', and the rate you'll get on your pension is not something that anyone can predict with any degree of accuracy.
That said, one way to get the best returns (seeing as you can't directly control how well your funds perform) is to ensure that you pay as little as possible in fees and charges.
Then sit back and let us do all the hard work in finding the pensions expert with the right expertise for your circumstances. – We don't charge a fee and there's absolutely no obligation or marks on your credit rating.


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The Wag
Merry Christmas from the Wag
Returning Traveler
Soundtrack to a Silent Movie
Ordinary Day
Photo by Jeff Crespi
The Wag at The Back Porch on 9/22/18 – CA Tour
Date: Saturday, September 22, 2018 at 6:00 pm
Venue: The Back Porch
Categories: California Tour 2018
Come see The Wag tour California! Our first gig of the tour will be at Back Porch Music! This will be our debut at this fabulous venue! $20.00 suggested donation includes a good time, food, the moon, the stars and music! Feel Free to bring your own anything! 🙂
6-6:45pm: Alesia XO Duo
7-7:45pm: Emiko
8-8:45pm: The Wag
Hope to see you there! 🙂
https://www.facebook.com/thebackporchmusic/
The Back Porch, 24766 Choke Cherry Lane, Newhall, CA 91321
The Wag's 3rd Friday at Espresso Joe's on 7/19/19 at 7:00 pm
The Wag at The Beatles vs. Stones show on 7/20/19 at 6:30 pm
The Wag at the Soulsational Wellness and Music Festival on 7/27/19 at 11:15 am
The Wag at the Bradley Beach Gazebo Concert Series on 7/29/19 at 6:00 pm
The Wag at The Stone Pony – With Summer Stage Headliners: Ben Folds & The Violent Femmes on 8/2/19 at 5:30 pm
The Wag – "Everybody Said" (Official Music Video)
The Wag's music video for "Everybody Said" was selected by The Jersey City Popup Film Festival and The Garden State Film Festival!
The Wag's music video for "Everybody Said" was selected by The Garden State Film Festival!
The Wag – "Feels Like Christmas" (Official Music Video)
The Wag – "Your Eyes" (Official Music Video)
The Wag's 2017 Japan Tour Promo Video!
About The Wag
Got songs? Got harmonies? Got fun and unbridled enthusiasm? Then you've got The Wag! Hailing from the Bayshore area of New Jersey, this 4-piece unit has been entertaining and moving audiences for 20 years but still sounds as fresh as it did on day one! With 4 alternating lead vocalists, catchy melodies, and sophisticated harmonies, they will take you on a journey of pop rock delight!
Learn more about The Wag!
"If the Beatles and the Cowsills got it on backstage at Ed Sullivan, The Wag would totally be their love child." -Wil Wheaton (Actor, Author)
Remembering our brother, friend, and drummer of 14 years, Brian Mowery.


So here it is, the 21st of December, and my kids are getting out of school for the holidays today. No time like the 11th hour (and I do believe it was about 11 p.m. last night that we finished) to get gifts done for their teachers, right? :) I wanted to share this idea with you, and the nice thing is that this idea can be used for any teacher at any time of year. No Christmas/holiday theme needed!
First off, I must say that I have been loving mustaches as a design element for several months now. They are cute and quirky and make for a really fun play on words. So I decided on the theme of Stash (of candy, stickers, erasers, etc.) that a teacher could keep either on his/her desk or hidden away.
Many thanks to one of my FAVORITE digital designers, Dani Mogstad, for the supplies from her SO-BEAUTIFUL Snap Happy digital kit.
You'll also get two .jpg images so you can arrange them on a document for printing multiples. However you'd like to roll. I've zipped them all together with a sample photograph.
Click here to download the Teacher's Secret Stash Printable.
Print each image on to Presentation Paper (not white cardstock) and trim out.
Adhere the circle image to the top of the jar.
Wrap the glitter tape around the neck of the jar.
Layer the doily, the tag, and the paper star together, with the doily centered behind the tag, and the star in the top right corner of the tag. Punch through all 3 layers. (You may want to add a bit of adhesive to the layers to keep them together.
Wrap the baker's twine around the jar so that the two ends come together and are facing you. Pull the ends of the twine through the hole in the tag from back to front, then tie in a bow to hold the tag to the jar.
Add the brad through the hole on top of the twine and bend the prongs out to hold the tag to the twine.
Fill the jar with any awesome thing, and prepare to knock the teacher's socks off!
The lids are circular and the sides are flat, which makes the possibilities with this jar pretty endless. I got the 32-oz size, which has a lid size of about 4 1/2 inches across.
I'd love to see anything you make with this!
Have a wonderful Holiday and Happy Friday!


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Q: how to run python script in javascript how I use python scrip in JavaScript ?
I want to make a live web scraper. And Python is the best for web scraping. But I'm trying to run Python code on the front-end. So that the performance of my application is good.

A: <!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://pyscript.net/alpha/pyscript.css" />
    <script defer src="https://pyscript.net/alpha/pyscript.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
    <py-script>
        print('Now you can!')
     </py-script>
</body>
</html>

A: I'm not a Python developer, so maybe python is better for web scraping... however web craping is done on the back-end, and there for you would not need python on the front-end (it is an option, but it wont make a difference).
In fact, JavaScript would perform better than python on the front end because it is 1 - made for the browser without the need for plug-ins, and 2 JS is the fastest dynamic language.
my advise would be to send the data from your python backend in JSON to your JS front end, and you will get the best of both worlds.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: VTIME and VMIN don't seem to change the blocking behaviour of the posix read() call I am trying to understand how VMIN and VTIME works to control the blocking behaviour of the read() posix call.
In my example, I have set VTIME to 10 (and have tried other combinations too) which should block the read for 1 second until it's unblocked, yes? That's my understanding but that doesn't seem to be the case.
I opened minimum on my host, and I see read() would only unblock as soon as I hit enter in minicom as opposed to waiting for 1 second to unblock.
Is my understanding incorrect? If not so, what could be wrong?
int Serial_Open(char *port)
{
    int serial_port = open(port, O_RDWR);
    struct termios tty;

    // Read in existing settings, and handle any error
    if(tcgetattr(serial_port, &tty) != 0)
    {
        printf("Error from tcgetattr: %s\n", strerror(errno));
    }

    tty.c_cflag &= ~PARENB; // Clear parity bit, disabling parity (most common)
    tty.c_cflag &= ~CSTOPB; // Clear stop field, only one stop bit used in communication (most common)
    tty.c_cflag &= ~CSIZE; // Clear all bits that set the data size
    tty.c_cflag |= CS8; // 8 bits per byte (most common)
    tty.c_cflag &= ~CRTSCTS; // Disable RTS/CTS hardware flow control (most common)
    tty.c_cflag |= CREAD | CLOCAL; // Turn on READ & ignore ctrl lines (CLOCAL = 1)

    tty.c_lflag &= ~ICANON;
    tty.c_lflag &= ~ECHO; // Disable echo
    tty.c_lflag &= ~ECHOE; // Disable erasure
    tty.c_lflag &= ~ECHONL; // Disable new-line echo
    tty.c_lflag &= ~ISIG; // Disable interpretation of INTR, QUIT and SUSP
    tty.c_iflag &= ~(IXON | IXOFF | IXANY); // Turn off s/w flow ctrl
    tty.c_iflag &= ~(IGNBRK|BRKINT|PARMRK|ISTRIP|INLCR|IGNCR|ICRNL); // Disable any special handling of received bytes

    tty.c_oflag &= ~OPOST; // Prevent special interpretation of output bytes (e.g. newline chars)
    tty.c_oflag &= ~ONLCR; // Prevent conversion of newline to carriage return/line feed

    tty.c_cc[VTIME] = 10;    // Wait for up to 1s, returning as soon as any data is received.
    tty.c_cc[VMIN] = 0;

    cfsetspeed(&tty, B115200);

    if (tcsetattr(serial_port, TCSANOW, &tty) != 0)
    {
        printf("Error tcsetattr %s\n", strerror(errno));
    }
  return serial_port;
}

int main(void)
{
  char buffer[100];
  int ret;

  int fd = Serial_Open("/dev/ttyUSB4");

  while(1)
  {
        ret = read(fd, buffer, sizeof(buffer));
        if (ret <= 0)
        {
           printf ("No data or error\n");
        }
        else
        {
           printf ("Rxd data: %s\n", buffer);
        }
  }
  return 1;
}

A: I cannot duplicate the claimed behaviour, using the following example program:
// SPDX-License-Identifier: CC0-1.0

#define  _POSIX_C_SOURCE  200809L
#define  _GNU_SOURCE
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <termios.h>
#include <signal.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <errno.h>

static int             tty_fd = -1;
static struct termios  tty_old;

static void  tty_close(void)
{
    if (tty_fd == -1)
        return;

    tcsetattr(tty_fd, TCSAFLUSH, &tty_old);

    if (tty_fd != STDIN_FILENO  &&
        tty_fd != STDOUT_FILENO &&
        tty_fd != STDERR_FILENO)
        close(tty_fd);

    tty_fd = -1;
}

static int  tty_open(const char *ttypath)
{
    struct termios  tty_new;
    int             fd;

    if (tty_fd != -1)
        tty_close();

    if (!ttypath || !*ttypath)
        return errno = ENOENT;

    do {
        fd = open(ttypath, O_RDWR | O_NOCTTY | O_CLOEXEC);
    } while (fd == -1 && errno == EINTR);
    if (fd == -1)
        return errno;

    if (!isatty(fd)) {
        close(fd);
        return errno = ENOTTY;
    }

    if (tcgetattr(fd, &tty_old) == -1) {
        const int  saved_errno = errno;
        close(fd);
        return errno = saved_errno;
    }

    tty_new = tty_old;

    /* No input processing.  No input flow control.  Ignore parity.  Break reads as '\0'. */
    tty_new.c_iflag &= ~(IGNBRK | BRKINT | INPCK | ISTRIP | INLCR | IGNCR | ICRNL | IUCLC | IXON | IXANY | IXOFF);
    tty_new.c_iflag |= IGNPAR;

    /* No output processing. */
    // tty_new.c_oflag &= ~(OPOST | OLCUC | ONLCR | OCRNL | ONOCR | ONLRET);
    tty_new.c_oflag &= ~OPOST;

    /* 8 data bits, No parity, 1 stop bit, no hardware flow control, ignore modem control lines. */
    tty_new.c_cflag &= ~(CSIZE | PARENB | CSTOPB | CRTSCTS);
    tty_new.c_cflag |= CS8 | CREAD | CLOCAL;

    /* Raw mode, no signals, no echo. */
    tty_new.c_lflag &= ~(ICANON | ISIG | ECHO | IEXTEN);

    /* VMIN=0, VTIME=10 */
    tty_new.c_cc[VMIN] = 0;
    tty_new.c_cc[VTIME] = 10;

    if (tcsetattr(fd, TCSANOW, &tty_new) == -1) {
        const int  saved_errno = errno;
        close(fd);
        return errno = saved_errno;
    }

    /* Some of the above settings may not have been applied.
       We could check, but really, we don't care that much. */
    tty_fd = fd;

    return 0;
}

#ifndef  TTY_BUFSIZ
#define  TTY_BUFSIZ  128
#endif

static unsigned char           tty_buf[TTY_BUFSIZ];
static volatile unsigned char *tty_head = tty_buf;
static volatile unsigned char *tty_tail = tty_buf;

#define  TTY_NONE  -1
#define  TTY_EOF   -2
#define  TTY_ERROR -3

static int tty_getc_read(void)
{
    tty_head = tty_tail = tty_buf;
    if (tty_fd == -1)
        return TTY_EOF;

    ssize_t  n = read(tty_fd, tty_buf, sizeof tty_buf);
    if (n > 0) {
        tty_tail = tty_buf + n;
        return *(tty_head++);
    } else
    if (n == 0) {
        return TTY_NONE;
    } else
    if (n != -1 || (errno != EINTR && errno != EAGAIN && errno != EWOULDBLOCK)) {
        return TTY_ERROR;
    } else {
        return TTY_NONE;
    }
}

static inline int tty_getc(void)
{
    if (tty_tail > tty_head)
        return *(tty_head++);
    else
        return tty_getc_read();
}

static volatile sig_atomic_t  done = 0;

static void handle_done(int signum)
{
    if (!done)
        done = (signum > 0) ? signum : -1;
}

static int install_done(int signum)
{
    struct sigaction  act;

    memset(&act, 0, sizeof act);
    sigemptyset(&act.sa_mask);
    act.sa_handler = handle_done;
    act.sa_flags = 0;
    if (sigaction(signum, &act, NULL) == -1)
        return errno;

    return 0;
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    if (argc != 2 || !strcmp(argv[1], "-h") || !strcmp(argv[1], "--help")) {
        const char *cmd = (argc > 0 && argv && argv[0] && argv[0][0]) ? argv[0] : "(this)";
        fprintf(stderr, "\n");
        fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s [ -h | --help ]\n", cmd);
        fprintf(stderr, "       %s TTY-DEVICE\n", cmd);
        fprintf(stderr, "\n");
        fprintf(stderr, "This reads in raw mode from the TTY device.\n");
        fprintf(stderr, "\n");
        return EXIT_SUCCESS;
    }

    if (install_done(SIGINT) || install_done(SIGTERM) ||
        install_done(SIGHUP) || install_done(SIGQUIT)) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Cannot install signal handlers: %s.\n", strerror(errno));
        return EXIT_SUCCESS;
    }

    if (tty_open(argv[1])) {
        fprintf(stderr, "%s: Cannot open TTY: %s.\n", argv[1], strerror(errno));
        return EXIT_FAILURE;
    }

    printf("Press CTRL+C to exit.\r\n");
    fflush(stdout);

    int  last_none = 0;

    while (!done) {
        int  ch = tty_getc();

        if (ch == TTY_NONE) {
            printf(".");
            fflush(stdout);
            last_none = 1;
            continue;
        } else
        if (last_none) {
            printf("\r\n");
            fflush(stdout);
            last_none = 0;
        }

        if (ch == TTY_EOF) {
            printf("End-of-input received.\r\n");
            fflush(stdout);
            break;
        } else
        if (ch == TTY_ERROR) {
            printf("Read error occurred.\r\n");
            fflush(stdout);
            break;
        } else
        if (ch == 3) {
            printf("Received 0x03 = \\003, assuming Ctrl+C. Exiting.\r\n");
            fflush(stdout);
            break;
        } else {
            if (ch >= 32 && ch <= 126)
                printf("Received 0x%02x = \\%03o = %3d = '%c'\r\n", (unsigned int)ch, (unsigned int)ch, ch, ch);
            else
                printf("Received 0x%02x = \\%03o = %3d\r\n", (unsigned int)ch, (unsigned int)ch, ch);
            fflush(stdout);
        }
    }
    if (last_none) {
        printf("\r\n");
        fflush(stdout);
    }

    tty_close();
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Specify the serial or terminal or pseudoterminal device path on the command line; use $(tty) for the current terminal/pseudoterminal.
Comparing OP's, Serial_Open() and my tty_open(), I do believe the terminal settings are essentially the same (and moreover, any differences there are do not explain the difference in behaviour).
You can compile the above example (example.c) as e.g. gcc -Wall -O2 example.c -o example and then run it via ./example $(tty) to read input from the same terminal window.
This leads me to believe the problem is in the other end: that whatever OP uses to generate the data read by this end, is line-buffered.


Every year multiple people die from lightning strikes, cattle are killed, crops can be damaged, and fires started, impacting both homes and land. With a temperature 5x hotter than the surface of the sun, you can expect a lot of problems when lightning strikes the Earth. And with over a billion strikes per year globally, lightning is something of which you should be aware. WeatherOps can help by showing both current lightning and a prediction of where it may happen.
If you have an interest in knowing where lightning is or has occurred, WeatherOps Commander has the information you seek. You can view the data by either cloud-to-ground strikes, displayed as a colored circle, or cloud-to-cloud strikes, shown as an x.
You can also view a comprehensive image of all lightning that has been detected over the last half hour.
The coloring of the strikes designates the timing; the latest bolts are white, and the oldest ones are dark purple. By zooming in and clicking on an individual strike, you can find out its age, peak current, and exact position.
WeatherOps' Lightning Prediction Algorithm predicts the threat of lightning for the next 60 minutes by showing moderate and high threats.
Polygons are derived and output every 5 minutes from an algorithm that combines radar data and detected lightning. Multiple time steps of radar mosaics are used to determine the direction and velocity of all storm cells in the gridded domain. Detected lightning is then used to identify the area currently affected by lightning and advect that area along the forecast path of the storm cell.
Lightning can threaten outdoor events, agriculture, those who work outdoors and more. Be better prepared next time a storm strikes. After all, knowledge is power.


LGBTQ+ / Media / News What happened to Dane Tidwell?
The creator of the gay website Opus Chicago disappeared and reemerged—but his troubles persist.
Dane Tidwell vanished August 13, which was his 40th birthday and also the day he and his roommate were evicted from their apartment on Magnolia Street. Fearing for his life, friends notified the police. Tidwell was the creator and operator of the gay website Opus Chicago, and Gerald Farinas, who edited the site for him, told DNAinfo that Tidwell "faced an intensifying sense of hopelessness."
Eight days after he disappeared, Tidwell contacted people close to him and told them he was alive and safe. On October 2, on a personal website, he posted a brief meditation that he called "Fail Forward—It's only the end if you stop trying." The post began, "I am the king of failure." On October 18 he wrote again, this time much more specifically about his troubles. "Here's the story everyone's been waiting to hear" was the headline of his post.
I was in the perfect relationship and had a beautiful home. I was the CEO of a media company that spanned local and national news websites, an entertainment site, several mobile apps, a weekly news broadcast, a book imprint, two licensed self-help brands, a design firm, an office in the Merchandise Mart, and a custom built content delivery platform. We were even in the process of partnering with a real estate developer to open a coworking / incubator space for media startups.
In reality, the business was constantly lurching from one breakdown to the next and took every penny I had to keep it going, sacrificing my family's wellbeing in the process. I battled severe anxiety and depression for nearly five years, but was adept at putting it in a little box to deal with later. I withdrew from my friends. I didn't leave the house very often. It all wore on my relationship with my partner, even though he had no idea the magnitude of the situation.
On August 13 "everything came crashing down around me."
There was no hiding it anymore. There was no money to pay business bills due the next day, my partner left me, and I lost our home. All before 10 am on my 40th birthday. As the sheriff was parking in front of the house to evict us, I calmly walked down to the basement and hanged myself with an extension cord. Whether you believe in God, luck, or I was just a sucky Boy Scout, the cord slipped down the pipe and I didn't die.
Opus Chicago shut down; Tidwell went into therapy. "I'm not better, but I'm getting there," he said in his post. He'd learned that constant happiness is a pipe dream but that it's possible to achieve contentment. He'd learned that "I deeply enjoy helping people," and that although he grew up a poor farm boy in Oklahoma he's a "richer person for it" and "wouldn't change a thing."
But if Tidwell's troubles led him to insights about himself, he still seems a considerable distance from serenity. I first wrote about Tidwell in 2011, when he was coowner of Gay Chicago in that bar rag's final days. When he disappeared I wrote again and spoke to two former landlords. His landlord on Magnolia, Holger Schlageter, said Tidwell and his roommate, Adam Henderson, owed him more than $14,000. An earlier landlord said the eight months she'd spent trying to evict the pair had been "the worst eight months of my life."
Days before Tidwell told story on his website, Schlageter e-mailed me. Aware that as many as half a dozen landlords in all had previously taken Tidwell to court, Schlageter said he felt a duty not to let him "walk away like nothing had happened." As Tidwell wasn't working but his former roommate Henderson had a steady job, Schlageter was attempting to garnish Henderson's wages. Schlageter forwarded to me two e-mails that he said Tidwell sent him October 9 in response.
Remove the garnish from Adam's paycheck or you will never be licensed to practice in Illinois. I will spend every minute of every day making sure that you will ever want to live in this city. Your debt is with me, and you know that.
If you don't stop the garnishment against his check, which you know is wrong, I'll just have him file for bankruptcy. You'll never see a penny. Ever. So you can either work with me on this or you can not, and I promise you not working with me is not the right option.
I asked both Tidwell and Henderson for comment. Both turned me down, though Tidwell sent me a link to his blog post.


text:
Back to Event Search
Oregon Coast Council for the Arts (OCCA)
The Oregon Coast Council for the Arts presents three visual art camps during July at the Newport Visual Arts Center. Each camp provides an engaging opportunity for young artists to have fun while exploring hands-on art making through a variety of activities—from sketching and watercolor painting to assemblage sculpture and bookmaking. Projects help campers build a foundation of art techniques and concepts, and the resulting artwork will be part of a public exhibit at the VAC. Each camp also includes outdoor adventures in Newport's historic Nye Beach neighborhood. Each camp is designed for particular age-groups (see below), and camp fees include all materials, snacks and a customized art camp T-shirt.
Instructor Jane Myrick teaches the first of these for students aged 9 to 11 years, Coast Creations, which runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 15-18. Using the Oregon Coast as inspiration, campers practice multiple artist mediums, including sketching, watercolor painting, paper quilling, mosaics and more. Registration fee is $225; students should bring brown-bag lunches; class size is limited to 15.
For more information or to register, contact OCCA Youth Arts Coordinator Sara Siggelkow, at 608-346-0697 or artslearning@coastarts.org. Or register online at https://forms.gle/DVwQkaeJs6paDueX6.


The Corporation is organized and shall be operated exclusively in order to perform and carry out charitable and educational purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Experience the fun and excitement of driving your car at speed on the best road racing facility in North America. Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.


Did you realize that 27 percent of the American population rents a home or apartment? If you are looking for a great long-term investment, buying rental properties is a great idea. While owning and managing a rental property can be extremely challenging, it is well worth the time and effort you invest.
One of the best ways to make managing a rental home or apartment complex easier is by using the right property management software. Luckily, there are a number of programs on the market that are designed to make the life of a rental property owner easier.
Choosing the right software is only possible with a great deal of research. Rushing through this process can lead to the wrong programs being chosen.
The following are just some of the tech tools you need to use to make property management easier.
The backbone of any successful rental property is a well-informed and experienced maintenance staff. When problems arise in one of your units, you need to know that the management team you have in place can handle it. If you are looking for a way to make the job of managers and maintenance personal easier, using collaborative operations software is a great idea.
This cloud-based software allows your managers to create and expedite maintenance and repair requests in a matter of seconds. Once these requests are created, the crew you have handling this work will be notified.
With this software, you can manage the progression of a particular project from just about any smart device. Being able to see this progression in real-time will help you evaluate whether or not your tenants are receiving the timely turnaround they deserve.
As any rental property owner knows, filling vacancies in a hurry is not nearly as easy as it sounds. The longer your properties stay vacant, the harder you will find it to maintain this source of income. For the most part, modern property owners don't use newspaper ads or other traditional advertising methods to showcase their rental homes or apartments.
The best way to show a large audience the rental properties you have to offer is by putting them on social media. Creating an online presence will help you reach lots of people in your area.
Taking the time to make videos that provide potential tenants with a virtual tour of a property is a fantastic idea. When done the right way, this type of social media marketing can help you keep your properties full. Failing to take your property listing strategy into the 21st century can make it hard to edge out the competition in your area.
Most newcomers to the world of rental properties are usually surprised to learn just how many people are looking for a quality home o apartment to rent. Finding a way to narrow down the list of potential tenants should be one of the main priorities you have.
Implementing the use of technologically advanced tenant screening systems is essential when trying to avoid the headache of bad renters. These programs will allow you to look at a potential tenant's criminal and rental history. Once you have entered all of this information into the system, it will give you a risk assessment.
If a tenant screening system says a tenant is risky, you probably need to avoid renting them one of your properties. While it may be hard to tell a person you can't rent to them, it can help you avoid damage to your rental homes and apartments.
One of the most powerful tools you can have as a rental property owner is an endless supply of relevant data. Getting data on things like how much properties around you are selling for and even the crime rate in an area can be beneficial.
As you collect this data, you can start to make decisions regarding whether you need to hang on to a piece of property or sell it before it loses value. Working with IT professionals is a great way to find out how to keep the data you collect safe and accessible.
When choosing new property management software programs, you should find out if it has integration capabilities. The future of data collection and management is all about programs co-existing and feeding each other important information. By investing in software that features this type of integration, you can future-proof your tech solutions.
Collecting rent is one of the most time-consuming things you will have to do as a landlord. If you are like most rental property owners, finding a way to make this process less stressful and more efficient is probably a top priority.
One of the best ways to make rental payments easier for you and your tenants is by allowing them to pay online. An overwhelming number of Americans pay their bills online due to how easy it is. When looking for an online payment processing software, you need to pay attention to the security measures they have in place.
The last thing you want is to use a system that will sell information to a third-party. By taking your time to research all of your online payment processing option, you can find a safe and effective program to use.
Embracing the power and convenience of property management software can be a bit intimidating at first. With the right technology in place, you can manage your properties more efficiently than ever before.
Are you looking for more information about how to manage your rental properties? If so, be sure to register for The Landlord Property Management Academy today.
What are the Basic Functions of Property Management Software?