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Stylish Smock Dresses - Simple But Elegant Fashion Trend For Summer

Smock style dresses are one of the most comfortable, favorite dresses that cover all flaws with its flare and gathers. They are trendy, stylish flowing downward from a square or round Victorian-type yoke often trimmed in ruffles. These stylish dresses are made of romantic fabrics like cotton calico, challis or flowery cotton prints.

Smock outfits are enrich with high ruffled collars, crochet edging and white collars or cuffs. Get them from Victorias Secret, Chadwicks, SmartBargains and have a cool, stylish look! Wear it with low-cut shoes or Bare sandals. Always opt for materials and patterns that suit personality.

Fashion freak person should choose bright and vivid patterns while conventional type can go for solid colors and simple patterns. Accessorize your look with chunky bracelet or broad buckle belt. Team bold accessories with solid or plain color smock dress styles.

Eyelet smocked dress
: A perennial favorite that's perfectly pretty with or without straps. Empire waist, babydoll shape. Imported cotton. Original price of Eyelet smocked dress at Victorias Secret is $65 but now you can have it for $49.

Eyelet smocked dress

Terry smocked jumpsuit: Cozy comfort in a fresh shape, for on-the-go or lounging around. Ties at neck. Wide leg. Imported cotton/polyester. Original price of Terry smocked jumpsuit at Victorias Secret is $45.50.

Terry smocked jumpsuit

Terry smocked cover-up dress: Cozy comfort in a fashionable shape, for on go or lounging around. Front pocket. Imported cotton/polyester. Original price of Terry smocked cover-up dress at Victorias Secret is $35.50.

Terry smocked cover-up dress
Today, market is full of floral and dressy styles that go beyond all age groups. Smock dresses was earlier related with maternity wear, but not anymore. So, don't wait! Get your kind of stylish, cool smock dress from Victorias Secret. You can buy these stylish dresses from Victorias Secret at discounted prices by using Victorias Secret promo code available at

Get Decent look with Trendy Denim Capris

In fashion world, there are some styles that catch on very quickly and stay around for a long time. One such fashion which is very popular nowadays is Capri pant. There are many capris in market like metallic, denim and lots more. They are stylish, fashionable and quite famous among young, middle aged, older women and can be worn to school, to work, summer barbeque's, to beaches, anywhere.

Best things about capris is they come in all types of fabrics, keep you cool, comfortable and great for office. These capris give casual and elegant look with long sleeved v-neck shirt, flat or low heeled shoes. They look best with wedge sandals, clogs, ballet slipper and flats.

Choose traditional color for capri and trendy hues for tops like forest green, fluorescent yellow and bright pink. Get these stylish, fashionable, exotic pants from some of the very famous store like Avenue, Nordstrom and many more.

Tie Hem Denim Cargo Capris: These cool denim cargo capris have adjustable tie hems for an extra touch of unique style. Buttoned cargo pockets. Adjustable drawstring hems, seaming details, contrast stitching, single button with zip closure, 5-pocket styling, back button pockets.
Tie Hem Denim Cargo Capris
Original price of Cargo Capris at Avenue is $28.90.

Art 2 Wear Destroyed Striped Denim Capri: Ripped details and a cool railroad stripe print make these denim capris in a fashionable league of their own. Cuff em for more style!
Art 2 Wear Destroyed Striped Denim Capri
Original price of Striped Denim Capri at Avenue is $34.90.

Diamante Denim Capris: Glittering rhinestone details are a chic contrast to faded wash of these stretch denim capris. Double button with zip closure, 5-pocket styling, Stitching on back pockets, split hems.
Diamante Denim Capris
Original price of Diamante Denim Capris at Avenue is $33.90.

For more sophisticated look for pool parties, summer barbeque's, nights in town and evening parties wear strappy sandals, ballet slippers or backless sandals with denim capri pants. Wear denim capri with big black metal designer belt gives stylish and elegant look. Don’t forget to use Avenue coupon codes available at while shopping from this store.

Exotic Spring Collections of Pencil Skirts by Signature

Pencil Skirts created waves in market almost sixty years back.Popularity of these fashionable skirts never ceased and it became all time favorite among fashion lovers. They are one of the must haves for Fall and perfect wardrobe basic. These skirts are generally knee length tight fitted skirts, enhances sensuality in woman. You can have different looks from pencil skirt like wearing jacket or blazer over this skirt gives executive look and can be worn to a formal official meeting, loose fitting top give casual look.

For workplace, choose skin-colored pantyhose and for other occasions get black one to have sexy and fashionable look. Flat gladiator shoes go well with casual top, whereas for a formal occasion, wear high heeled shoes. A string of pearl necklaces with high-waist pencil skirt is a perfect office wear.

Signature Sequined Cashmere Collection Pencil Skirt: Easy elastic waist. Knee length; 25" long. Perfect for layering in a soft silk/cotton/cashmere jersey knit blend with nylon and a touch of spandex for a smooth finish. Allover matte- and shiny-finished sequins add sparkle.

Signature Sequined Cashmere Collection Pencil Skirt
Original price of Pencil Skirt at Spiegel is $129.00.

Signature Graceful Jersey Collection Cascade Pencil Skirt: Shirred waistband, cascading front panel. Mid-calf length; 29” long. Sleek and polished in versatile cotton, with spandex for comfort and a flawless fit.

Signature Graceful Jersey Collection:Cascade Pencil Skirt
Original price of Cascade Pencil Skirt at Spiegel is $34.00.

Signature Pinstripe Suiting Collection High-Waist Pencil Skirt: High-waist pencil skirt with button detail, flap pockets. Hidden back zip. Knee length; 27" long. Woven polyester blended with spandex for two-way stretch comfort.

Signature Pinstripe Suiting Collection:High-Waist Pencil Skirt
Original price of High-Waist Pencil Skirt at Spiegel is $49.00.

Signature Washed Linen Collection Pencil Skirt: Bandless waist pencil skirt in ultra-soft, garment-washed linen. 25" long. Original price of Washed Linen Pencil Skirt at Spiegel is $39.00.

Signature Washed Linen Collection Pencil Skirt

Go casual by pairing it with a button down shirt and pair of flat shoes. For a professional look in business meetings or even in interview, simply add a matching blazer and a classic black heel.

You can also dress up pencil skirt for an evening out by wearing a trendy blouse, strappy sandals and accessories. Get versatile, stylish pencil skirts from Spiegel, Chadwicks, Nordstrom and thousands more.

New Trendy Plus Size Dresses for Fabulous Look

Plus size dresses are no longer restricted to floral prints but they are almost completely redefined. These dresses are form fitting yet flattering and as stylish as dresses that have been designed for regular sized women. There are lots of variety in plus size dresses in range of styles, colors, fabrics that make you look and feel sexy and great.

Some of the new styles in these dresses are sleeveless tiered dress with jacket, studded dolman sleeve dress, halter neck dresses, belted tube dresses and many more. Choose these elegant, gorgeous plus size dresses from some of very famous and popular stores like Macys, New York and Company and lots more.

Try to get dark colors like burgundy wine, deep brown, black they make dress appear to be flattering and give slimming effect. Accessorize your plus size dress with some metallic heels for a very elegant classic look, add a heart shaped necklace.These days, you can find plus size dresses not only in floral print but also in stripes, solid colors, polka dots, cottons, silks and so on.

INC International Concepts Plus Size Dress, Sleeveless Embroidered: A vintage-inspired floral pattern adds a striking element to INC's flattering plus size tunic dress.
INC International Concepts Plus Size Dress, Sleeveless Embroidered
Original price of Sleeveless embroidered dress at Macys is $89.00.

Adrianna Papell Plus Size Dress, Sleeveless Tiered with Jacket: Ideal for a wedding or any special occasion, Adrianna Papell's gorgeous plus size dress features a paneled bodice and tiered skirt with a texture-rich style with plenty of glamour.
Adrianna Papell Plus Size Dress, Sleeveless Tiered with Jacket
Original price of Sleeveless tiered with Jacket at Macys is $268.00 but now you can have it for $200.99.

INC International Concepts Plus Size Dress, Studded Dolman Sleeve: Allover studs lend a glam look to INC's sexy draped plus size dress. Original price of Studded dolman sleeve dress at Macys is $99.00.
INC International Concepts Plus Size Dress, Studded Dolman Sleeve
Plus size dresses are becoming more popular these days and there is wide selection of them. Population of plus sized beautiful dresses dominate market and designers are now providing fashions specifically for plus sized women. Choose your dress according to climate of area, strappy sun dress or a long sleeved dress look great to any party or special occasion. Dolman wrap dresses are available in different colors and patterns and give absolutely stunning look!

Stylish Prom Gowns by Jump for Stunning Look

Gowns are most favorite choice of Fashionista's and is enjoying status of fashion forward dress. Choice and range of trendy, chic, totally affordable prom gowns are enormous. These prom gowns are stylish and elegant and make a girl feel that she is at an elegant, high society ball hobnobbing with rich and famous ones. Beautiful long flowing silky prom gowns with spaghetti straps are available in a variety of shades and styles. Gold, silver and bronze shades remain as famous as ever and they do not require outlandish accessories as dress is in itself a huge statement.

Get most beautiful and elegant prom gowns from some of the very famous online stores like Macys, TJFormal, Nordstrom and lots more. Tried and trusted Cindrella-like fantasy ballgown, work fine for those who need that princess like look, charm and are available in various colors and styles. Strapless prom gowns with scooped neckline is quite elegant and also offsets a stylish and matured appearance. The volume of skirt is often enhanced by added layers of tulle or taffeta and ideal for hour glass look.

Jump Prom Dress, Satin Mermaid Ballgown: Red hot: In cherry red satin, this striking prom gown by Jump features a unique mermaid skirt with cascading chiffon ruffles.
Jump Prom Dress, Satin Mermaid Ballgown
Original price of Satin Mermaid Ballgown at Macys is $229.00.

Jump Prom Dress, Embroidered Split Skirt Gown: This elegant ballgown by Jump features a fit made for a prom princess! Flower applique and sequined embroidered detail at neckline and front bodice.
Jump Prom Dress, Embroidered Split Skirt Gown
Original price of Embroidered Split Skirt Gown at Macys is $179.00 but now you can have it for $139.99.

Jump Prom Dress, Butterfly Print Floor Length Gown: Hippie-chic style goes glam in this floor length halter gown by Jump. Halter neckline; self-tie at back neck, brooch detail at center front.
Jump Prom Dress, Butterfly Print Floor Length Gown
Original price of Butterfly Print Floor Length Gown at Macys is $149.00 but now you can have it for $109.99.

Simplistic but exquisite designs are best choice to set off a magnificent gown or attire. Jewelry accentuates facial features, neckline and blend in with outfit. Prom gowns look stylish with beautiful pair of earrings and are enough to complete entire look. No matter what design you choose, but ensure that you feel comfortable and confident while wearing dress. Spice up prom gown with accessories like hand bags, jewelries, shoes, gloves, hair accessories and look charming.


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A review of PMMM Bronze Edition

.intro_image {max-width:500px;}

Review Overview
  • Sales Rank – 43.61

  • Refund Rate – 50

  • Link authority – 21.05

Review too long? Well you just have to read this summary where I give PMMM Bronze Edition an overall score. My objective has been to make use of stats to create a totally fair review that helps to provide a clear idea of whether or not you should get this product. I looked at the sales figures, the refund rate and the authority of the product’s website to establish an overall idea of reliability. It’s a computer algorithm, yes, but it should be a great help nonetheless. So, the final score is 53.51/100 – pretty good!.

PMMM Bronze Edition

Welcome to another great review at courserating.co.uk. This blog is focused on helping you to make a superb choice when purchasing something. I manage this, mainly, by examining sales data but I also make certain that each and every item on this website has a 60 day cash back guarantee. OK dear followers, let’s commence! Ah, it nearly slipped my mind. I offer free stuff for people who buy via my link. You can read about all of that here. You have to know that this site does use affiliate links. So, just how do I remain impartial? In fact, you can read about it here: How This site is Financed. Done that? Terrific, now let’s really begin.

Sales Stats

To begin with, an admission. I tend to be impacted by the popularity of products. If I see everyone is buying something I have a tendency to go along for the ride. My reasoning? Well, if everybody wants it, it must be good quality, right? Obviously, that’s not usually true but sales volume can be a good indication of quality. Fortunately for you, I actually have some sales information for PMMM Bronze Edition. First, I have a little something called Gravity which comes straight from the payment processor. It gives us a rough proof of sales volume. PMMM Bronze Edition has a gravity of 0.04, which should start the alarm bells ringing as it’s pretty low. Now, this gravity figure might not mean much to you. Hence, dear readers, I’ve evaluated the gravities of every product on this web site and produced a sales rank! A rate of 100 indicates it is the most popular product here … and all the way down to 1 with the worst seller. So what about PMMM Bronze Edition? Basically, it receives a sales rank of 43.61, which means it’s undoubtedly below average – I’d advise you see if any options do better.

Refund stats

Of course, I prefer to give my readers more than just sales stats. You want to know about a product’s quality. Unfortunately, my time restrictions (and bank balance!) don’t allow me to try every product personally. So I use another stat – the refund rate.This stat comes directly from the payment processor, when it was available for a short time. PMMM Bronze Edition scores 3 /5 which is the average score and indicates we either don’t have any refund data or the refund amount is at an acceptable level – should be Okay to proceed here.

Do we know anything else?

The a href='/external_link/209632'PMMM Bronze Edition/a Homepage

The PMMM Bronze Edition Site – what does it reveal?

All right, what else can I tell you? Well, why don’t we have a look at the website that this product is bought from (parallaxmindmembersmonthly.com)? There are a few stats available that will give usa better idea about how effective the product is. For starters, we know the website has 5 pages – the theory is that the more pages it has, the older and more trustworthy it is. So, in this case, 5 is not really that many and could mean this site is new. But, naturally, you can’t just judge a website by the number of pages it has. They could all be rubbish! Instead, let’s learn something from Google’s book and have a look at the amount of other sites that are linking in to this one. Lots of links from quality websites means this one is bound to be quality too. So parallaxmindmembersmonthly.com has 1 backlinks with an authority score of 21.05/100, which means it has some links coming in, but it’s still below average (tread carefully).

Other products – what else is this merchant selling?

We’re approaching the end of this review now, but I still think there’s a few more info to be found. I’ve hunted high and low and created a list of all the other products this supplier is selling, and also any specials they have on right now. Let’s take a look… So, it seems PMMM Bronze Edition has 4 special product(s) on sale.

20% Off PMMM Bronze Edition$7.97

20% Off PMMM Silver Edition – $15.17

20% Off PMMM Gold Edition – $22.37

20% Off PMMM Platinum Edition – $86.47

.img-right {float:right;margin-top:-50px;}

And what about any other products?

PMMM Silver Edition – $18.97

Parallaxmind Members Monthly - Structured Personal Development Plan product box

Shinka Members Total Access PMMM Gold Edition – $18.97

PMMM Silver Edition – $49

PMMM Gold Edition – $49.25

PMMM Platinum Edition – $49.4

PMMM Gold Edition – $33.84

Parallaxmind Members Monthly - Structured Personal Development Plan product box

PMMM Platinum Edition – $117.37

Parallaxmind Members Monthly - Structured Personal Development Plan product box

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University Of Pune PhD Entrance

University of Pune offers explore plans in unlike subjects listed in Statute No. 160 and in inter-corrective areas conducting to the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

A person shall usually work in a discerned place of research excluding the University sectors and Research Institutes recognized by the University of Pune under the management of a research guide recognized by the University.

The University of Pune (UOP) plans to bring in an attract test for the Ph.D research studies by the end of November as per the new counseling’s for Ph.D/M.Phil registrations announced by the University Grants committee (UGC). Vidyasagar said, “The proposal we had presented to the meeting dealt at length with unlike issues, excluding when and how to behavior the Ph.D arrival test, who shall specify for the same, what about domestic students attempting doctoral explore, etc.”

Dy. Registrar,
Academic Section,
University of Pune,
Ganeshkhind, Pune 411007.
Phone Nos: 2560 1257/1259

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Overview of Drought Task Force Research Objectives

3) Improving Drought Prediction

Improved drought prediction is the key to developing a useful drought early warning system. Central to this effort is improving the prediction of precipitation on intraseasonal to seasonal and longer time scales. The usefulness of improved precipitation forecasts (especially necessary in the warm season) will depend on the extent to which predictable signals in soil moisture and stream flow emerge. Currently, the accuracy of hydrological forecasts extending out one or two months is a result of the hydrological system's memory of the initial conditions (e.g., soil moisture, snow). Little additional improvement is gained from forecasts of precipitation, with the exception of precipitation patterns influenced by the occasional strong ENSO event. Studying the three designated Northern American drought cases can help illuminate the influence of initial hydrological conditions and precipitation forecasts on regional heterogeneity of drought. The extent to which these improvements lead to useful and actionable information in the variables and at the spatial scales of importance to users will be assessed.

The task force applies a wide array of tools towards the goal of improving drought prediction including coupled climate models, very high-resolution atmospheric and land models, hydrological models, and various data sets for initializing and validating the model results. Accordingly, various individual research projects will address the challenges described above from different perspectives. The Task Force Test Bed will play a coordinating role.

--- Content provided by Siegfried Schubert, NASA and other DTF PIs ---

Climate Program Office
1315 East-West Hwy, Suite 1100
Silver Spring, MD 20910

Americans’ health, security and economic wellbeing are tied to climate and weather. Every day, we see communities grappling with environmental challenges due to unusual or extreme events related to climate and weather. In 2011, the United States experienced a record high number (14) of climate- and weather-related disasters where overall costs reached or exceeded $1 billion. Combined, these events claimed 670 lives, caused more than 6,000 injuries, and cost $55 billion in damages. Businesses, policy leaders, resource managers and citizens are increasingly asking for information to help them address such challenges.


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Wednesday, June 5, 2013

1306.0696 (Stanislav Shabala et al.)

The effects of frequency-dependent quasar evolution on the celestial reference frame    [PDF]

Stanislav Shabala, Jonathan Rogers, Jamie McCallum, Oleg Titov, Jay Blanchard, Jim Lovell, Christopher Watson
We examine the relationship between source position stability and astrophysical properties of radio-loud quasars making up the International Celestial Reference Frame. We construct light curves for 95 most frequently observed ICRF2 quasars at both the geodetic VLBI observing bands. Because the appearance of new quasar components corresponds to an increase in quasar flux density, these light curves allow us to probe source structure on sub-100 microarcsecond scales, much smaller than conventional VLBI imaging. Flux density monitoring also allows us to trace the evolution of quasar structure. We test how source position stability depends on three astrophysical parameters: (1) Flux density variability at X-band; (2) Time lag between S and X-band light curves; (3) Spectral index rms, defined as the variability in the ratio between S and X-band flux densities. We find that small (<0.15 years) time lags between S and X-band light curves and low (<0.10) spectral index variability are excellent indicators of position stability. On the other hand, there is no strong dependence of source position stability on flux density variability in a single frequency band. These findings can be understood by interpreting the time lag between S and X-band light curves as a measure of source structure. Monitoring of source flux density at multiple frequencies therefore provides a probe of quasar structure on scales important to geodesy, but below the resolution limit of VLBI imaging. We show how multi-frequency flux density monitoring allows the exact dependence of core position on frequency (the core shift) to be elucidated. Knowledge of the position-frequency relation has important implications for current and future geodetic VLBI programs, as well as the alignment between the radio and optical celestial reference frames.
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Saturday, July 4, 2015

A Couple of Other Corporate Bizjet and Turboprop Visitors to Hamilton Island Airport

Over the last couple of days there has been a few interesting comings and goings at Hamilton Island Airport particularly on the corporate bizjet and turboprop scene.

File photo taken by Jamie C  ©

On Saturday 4 July, Sundown Pastoral's smart little Hawker Beechcraft Hawker 900XP VH-EVF (shown above at Gladstone in previous years) arrived from the Gold Coast (where it is based).

On Friday 3 July, Balmoral Air's Dassault Falcon 2000LX VH-WIO made yet another visit, calling in for most of the day from Bankstown.

On the slightly smaller side of the corporate movements, Hawker Beechcraft G58 Baron VH-EZD departed Hamilton Island for its Monto base on Saturday 4 July, while Taylor Aviation Cessna 210 VH-TLR was noted departing Hamo for its Townsville base also on Saturday.

Agile Aviation (of South Australia) Pilatus PC-12/47E VH-TCP arrived at Hamilton Island from Adelaide and Longreach on Wednesday 1 July and returned home, again via Longreach, on Friday 3 July.  Meanwhile, on Thursday 2 July, another interstate visitor in the form of Alizzi Aviation Beech B200 King Air VH-ZOS (pictured below at Shute Harbour) returned from Hamo to its home at Ballarat on Victoria.

Finally, Brisbane-based Cessna 340 VH-LKM called into Hamo from Gladstone on Wednesday 1 July and departed later to Cairns.

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Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Sane Quilting Catch Up

I have a few projects that are waaayyyyy behind and when that happens, I can't seem to focus on new things. I feel guilty about starting new when there is so much old. These quilts really deserve to be finished and will allow me to play with a different slate and new ideas.

My purple quilt is the one that got the binding sewed on today. I have never bound a guilt of this size before. I am trying to do this one by the book and I suppose that is why it has taken me this long. It has been on my table for 3 years off and on. It is close now. My first attempt at mitering bindings too. That was my sample miter that a lady at my old group in Milford showed me and I kept it for reference. They say that the binding not only looks better but wears better too. Now for the last bit of hand stitching it down. I don't know how the quilting on the back will show up. I just piece them (so far) and a girl I met here in Baraga quilts them for me on her longarm.

The batik bear paw just came home. It got quilted last week and now needs binding. I am a batik freak and love the way Cindy quilted it with the leaves. It looks really feminine.

I also finished sewing the McKenna Ryan BOM ( block of the month) blocks together today. I really need to get that one done as now it is turning into BOY (block of the year). Sighhhhhh...

It is hot and humid for being up north (90's) and from what we hear, unusual for so early in the summer. My kitchen window box is loving it though and the sweet potatoe vines are going nuts. I may have to take out a loan on hummingbird food, too. I fill two 16 Oz feeders every week. I have yet to get a good photo of them.

All in all it was a good day. I am going to be taking the next block out that I have now for the CQ RR. This is Carrolls. Both she and Wippy did fabulous on them and I need to make my plan and start early on it. God, I hope I get better at it as I love it so much!

Monday, June 25, 2007

Wippys Block

I have just finished my first CYOT CQ block of the Round Robin for Wippy. Her theme fabric had every color of the rainbow in it and without me having many things available related to her "sewing theme", I did my best to comply with beads and buttons. Wippy, I hope you like it!

I have been looking at all the photos of everyones work and wonder if maybe I have jumped in too deep. The Fairy Tale Blocks, Spring Flings, and Egyptian Motifs are stupendous! These gals have blown me away. Obviously everyone has their own style and my only hope is that with each block I do, I will get better at stitch placement, intricasy, and finding my own niche with this CQ needlework.

Tomorrow, I am sewing a binding on a sane quilt so I can take it with me Thursday to a stitch & bitch. I can sit and do the handstitching of it there.
I am finding a good group of quilters up here to hang out with!

Monday, June 11, 2007

What Can Happen in 10 Short Days

I can't believe it is mid June already but lots of progress has been made in a short time. By the end of the week we should be able to get the things out of the storage unit in town and out here into the new garage. Especially the items residing in the house that have no business being here.
Yeeaaaahhhh!! We have a garage.

We went to Marquette as planned last Saturday and got the last of our hardware items. We spent 2 1/2 hours in Menards working off the list... hinges, hooks, shelving, lights, towel rods, toilet paper holders , etc. We have gotten most of it put up except 2 towel rods.

On the way back we stopped in Michigammee to the Country Garden Quilt Store. I got some Perle Cotton and a couple fat quarters. I love that place in the middle of nowhere!

Dan keeps reminding me that we can't do it all in a day, that we have to eat the "elephant" one bite at a time. But we are getting a routine down now and a sense of settlement that we haven't had till now. I think the toilet paper holder had something to do with that !

The dogs are loving it here too as you can tell by their smiling faces.

Friday, June 1, 2007

True Springtime

We did a bit of treking today... Houghton and back...purchased stain for garage and checked out a few stores that we hadn't been in. Tomorrow we head for Marquette to bring out the "big guns" at Menards. We should be done with the house purchases and be able to get the doo dads we need from town here. A couple of weeks of hard labor lie ahead to get the yard defined and grass planted.

We ended up at the Slate Falls... the air around the falls with the cedar and balsam was heady. I saw some awesome wave patterns in the water that looked like batik and the texture of the mosses was as velvet. Nature has it all going on right now!!

The lupines we picked on the way home... they will be blooming on the roadside for the next month or so. I had paper pieced the little quilt some time back and it kinda looks like sane CQ to me, minus the embellishments. I am working with Caroles block and the new templates and having fun with some ideas. Photos to come soon. Thanks also to Crazy Judyth!! She was kind enough to make me up an awesome inspiration baggie and I can not wait to see it in person.

Ohhh, Blessed Springtime ! It is good!


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Woman Owned Wisconsin/Costa Rica Company Recognized as Top Business

by Director of Intergalactic Communications and Marketing on January 21, 2012

Patrick, Goodness, CEO of The Goodness Company is proud to be recognized for the sixth consecutive year to the DiversityBusiness.com Top Business List.

“The Goodness Company is a majority woman-owned and woman staffed company with offices in Wisconsin and Costa Rica. The Goodness Company was the only Wisconsin advertising agency named to this privileged list and we are excited to be recognized for our contributions in advertising and marketing as a privately-held Wisconsin business,”

says Goodness.

“We are doubly proud this year,” In addition to being recognized as #64 of the Top Privately Held Businesses in Wisconsin, The Goodness Company was also recognized as #24 of the Top 50 Woman-owned businesses in Wisconsin in 2012.”

says Goodness.

Alejandro Chinchilla, the company’s General Director in Costa Rica, believes that The Goodness Company is just beginning to realize its global potential and will witness incredible growth in the coming years.

“The Goodness Company is now recognized as the leading marketing agency in the medical tourism and global healthcare industry with accounts in the Bahamas, Mexico, USA, Colombia, Costa Rica and more.  As one of the fastest growing segments in the world today, our continued expansion in this category will strengthen our company’s position as an innovative marketing leader,”

says Chinchilla.

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zondag 27 april 2014

Hi all!

Wow, this week has really flown by! It's Sunday again, so a new challenge at Robyn's Fetish! This week we want to see GET WELL CARDS. Our sponsor this week is Imagine That!....digis by Kris, and she is offering 3 stamp sets of the winners choice! Just click on the banner below to go to the shop.
The image I used is also generously sponsored, and this is what I created.

I bought myself a new paperpad a few weeks ago, and I haven't even used them yet, so I decided to use them for this card. The papers are by BoBunny, Primrose collection. I reallt love the soft colors.
The image I used is called Well Wishes, and can be found here. I used my Copic Markers to color the image, and I used the following.
Wishing Well: E40, E41, E43, E47 and E49
Flowers, bird and butterflies: RV10, RV13, RV14
Leaves: G40, G43
The sentiment I used is by Studio Light, and stamped with Versamark Onyx Black ink on kraft card stock.
I made a little banner by cutting one end to a little flag.
The pale pink ribbon I used is from my stash, and the color is exactly the same as in my papers.
The flowes I used are by Wild Orchid Crafts.

That was it for today, I hope you all like it. Please pop over to Robyn's Fetish and spread some love to my DT-sisters as well!

Hugs, Sandra

7 opmerkingen:

susan zei

I love this and the colors are perfect with that ribbon, too. Great coloring work and pretty layout design. Thank you for a great card!

Laurence zei

Really like your card, specially the papers you've used.
Laurence DT Sis

Denise Goeldner zei

Beautiful card, love this colour combo. Those DP's & embellishments are great.
~ DT Sis ~
{Denise's Patch of Creativity}

cass zei

Love how you designed your get well card with the Wishing Well

Michelle zei

I love the paper that you used. I love how all the colors go so well together. Beautiful flowers with the pink bow.

Michelle (DT SIS)

Edwina zei

Hi Sandra, I love your card! It is so gorgeous! I love your coloring of the wishing well. It looks so real. Love the flowers and ribbon you used. Thanks for sharing. Edwina Brown

Sherry zei

Sandra This Is Gorgeous I Love Browns N Pinks This Is Beautiful . Sherry Dt Sis


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Monday, June 23, 2014

Bokeh Tech happy bday from owl of us Card

Created this birthday card with an Owl theme. Used Stitchy Bear digi, Oona Owl. I had used the digi before & had added a wobble so again I added a wobble to this one which when you use the wobble you get the Bokeh effect. Stamped Hero Arts Owls using Bokeh Technique. Stamped Hero Arts sentiment. Embossed with a Woodgrain embossing folder. Added gems & Owl ribbon.

Supplies List

digi: Stitchy Bear Oona Owl
embossing: the Paper Studio Woodgrain
gem: 2
ink:  Memento Rich Cocoa
paper:  cardstock - browns
ribbon: the Paper Studio Owls Twill
Spellbinder: Shape Grommet Tags
stamp: Hero Arts Howl Are You - Owls at bottom & sentiment
wobble: added to back of Owl

Entering this into the following challenges:

6/23 Cuttin & Stampin Ch14-24 Birthdays 3E(#3) 6/17
6/23 Die Cuttin Divas Ch#170 Things w/ Wings 3E(#3) 6/17

6/27 A Blog Named Hero Ch#46 Bokeh UE comb5totch 6/15
6/28 One Stitch At A Time Ch218 Anything Goes 3EnonSDS UESDS(#1) 6/22

1 comment:

  1. What a super cute owl! Thanks so much for joining Cuttin' and Stampin's birthday challenge! Hope to see more of your great work for our new challenge--4th of July!


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Thursday, August 3, 2017

The New Colossus, by Emily Lazarus

© Sylvia Liu
The news caused me to look up the original poem that is engraved on the Statue of Liberty, written by Emma Lazarus (1849-1887), one of the first and successful Jewish-American authors. This is the text of the poem she wrote to raise money to pay for the pedestal of the statue.

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Professional and creative media solutions by Jake Alexander

I have produced over 75 videos for the popular music website, JamBase. For each of these videos, I record and edit both the audio and video, create animations for title sequences, and publish the final product. At this point the videos that I have personally produced from start to finish have received over 1.5 million views.


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Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Grounds for memories

Pete Douglas, one of the knowledgable ground staff at the refurbished Kensington Oval. Ask for his memories of the old Oval and he will tell you: the epic one wicket win in the West Indies-Australia Test in 1999, Charl Langeveldt's ODI hat-trick in 2005 and Alec Stewart's two tons.


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Wednesday 11/29/2017

Warm up: 3 rounds

  • M/E Strict Pull Ups
  • 20 Walking Lunge
  • 10 Sit Ups
  • 10 Supermans
  • 25 ft Handstand Walks

  • Min 0-2 Hi-Hang, Hang & Snatch @ 70%
  • Min 3-5 Hang & Snatch @ 80%
  • Min 6-8 Snatch @ 90% +

4 rounds for time:

  • 400 Meter Run
  • 10 Alt. KB Snatches (53/35)
  • 10 Goblet Squats
  • 15 V-Ups

*Well, maybe its an addiction. Almost four months ago, July 1st to be exact, I decided to get my health back in order and get myself into better shape. I joined an intense (extreme?) workout regiment called CrossFit. For those that have spoken/seen me in that last few months, they know I cannot shut up about it. Well, one of the guys in my "Box" wrote an interesting piece on his website regarding his first 3 months as a CrossFit member. His articulate article puts everything I feel/experienced about CrossFit in one piece. If you have time and/or are thinking of getting back into shape, or if you are physically fit and are looking for a new physical challenge, I highly suggest you read the article.

November 1st will be my 120th day as a CrossFit member. To date, I am just shy of losing 30lbs. The weight loss, however, doesn't tell the whole story. The amount of lean muscle mass put on has been equally impressive. I hope to hit my goal by next week.

PS. My wife joined as well for moral support & in the process has gotten hooked too.*

Miguel Torres - Addiction vs. Obsession *Results will vary on each individual*,

Quick Contact Information

2450 Charles Court,
Bellmore, NY 11710.
Phone: 516-308-4070
Fax: 516-809-9949


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20-minute Monday

BIG NEWS! We’ve added a weekly women-only free beginners’ class on Mondays at 7-8pm, starting TONIGHT! Spread the word and sign up now!
Try a FREE BEGINNERS’ CLASS: Wednesdays @ 9am & 7pm, Saturdays & Sundays @ 10am. Click here for the schedule.
#109 starts March 16 SOLD OUT!
#110 Tue/Thur @ 8pm, starts March 23 (only 2 slots left)
#21 (in Williamsburg, BK) Mon/Wed @ 8pm, starts March 29 (1/2 the Manhattan price = $150)
#111 Mon/Thur @ 6am, starts March 29 (4 slots left)
#112 Mon/Wed @ 8pm, starts March 29 (only 1 slot left)
#113 Tue/Thur @ 9pm, starts April 6

Monday 100315
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
15 Back extensions
15 Knees to elbows
95 pound Overhead squat, 15 reps
Post rounds and fractions of rounds completed to comments.

A muscle-up 70 years in the making!
Easy and amazing roast chicken
Vitamin D may prevent flu and asthma
A fine line between optimism and denial
Congratulations to Jim Herrold who competed close to home at the Pennsylvania-Maryland-Delaware Sectionals this past weekend.
The first of the three WOD’s was a 3-minute “Grace” done by the men with 155 lbs. It was the one that knocked Jim out of contention. (Still, how many of us can get 155 lbs from the ground to overhead 17 times in 3 minutes?)
Jim’s performance on the second WOD was better than that of one the top ten competitors, and his performance on the third WOD was better than five of the top-ten competitors.
We will be sending an Affiliate Team to the Northeast Regional Games. Jim’s performance this past weekend has certainly captured the notice of the Black Box talent scouts.
Jim overhead squats with the KB at this weekend’s sectionals:

  • Scaling options for today’s workout, courtesy of the CrossFit BrandX forums:
    Big Dawgs:
    as Rx‚Äôd
    Women – 65#
    Complete as many rounds in 15 minutes as you can of:
    15 Back extensions
    15 Knees to elbows
    65 pound Overhead squat, 15 reps
    Women – 45#
    Complete as many rounds in 12-15 minutes as you can of:
    10 Back extensions or supermans
    10 Knees raises
    10-25 pound Overhead squat, 10 reps
    Complete as many rounds in 10-12 minutes as you can of:
    10 Back extensions or supermans
    10 Knees raises
    pvc -15 pound Overhead squat, 10 reps

  • Tim B

    Jim – awesome

  • Emerson

    Push press 3×5 @ 75lbs
    Deadlift 1×5 @ 175lbs
    Did the WOD as AMRAP in 10 minutes: 2 rounds plus 10 k2e

  • Tim B

    Anyone up for a 4 mile in Central park on Allison’s birthday?

  • Jenn

    Congrats on the muscle-up Jacinto!!

  • Lisa

    Great work, Jim!

  • Adam R

    Nice work, Jacinto!

  • Zach Singer

    Nice work, Jim! Way to represent out there! Bum luck on the heavy Grace.
    And congrats on the muscle-up, Jacinto!

  • Jeffrey B.

    Jim and Jacinto,
    Great work!

  • Lt Gabe

    Congrats Jacinto!!! Now you’re officially the most badass Septuagenarian I know.

  • Court

    Awesome work, Jim and Jacinto!

  • Mike K

    Nice work Jim and Jacinto!!

  • Matt K

    Congrats Jim!
    Awesome Jacinto, knew you would get it! Wish I would have seen it.

  • Kirk

    Nice work, Jim.
    Felicidades, Papi!! Brilliant work, Jacinto! It is fantastic how you are constantly learning and doing new things – challenging yourself.
    You are a motivation and an inspiration to the Morning Posse – and everyone!

  • Rickke

    7 rounds + 15 back ext + 2 K2Es
    subbed 65# OHS
    Great work, Jacinto & Jim!

  • Lenny

    Great job Jim and Jacinto!!

  • jacinto

    Thanks everyone for the kind words It sure took a long time to get it.

  • Lt Gabe

    Rx’d 7 rounds. Got my last OHS with 7 seconds to spare.

  • jacinto

    Hey Jenn where have you been
    8am class is too quiet.

  • Jenn

    Jacinto! I know, I’ve been away from the Box for too long. First I was injured, then I was homeless, now I’m sick, blah blah. Enough of my sob story though – I’m planning to make it tomorrow morning, I promise!

  • Emily

    Posting up in Park City this week. today’s WOD:
    5 rounds
    7 deadlifts 185#–scaled to 135#
    30 squats
    7 HSPU’s–subbed ring push-ups

  • james keller

    5 rounds + 8 kte (ohs was 65#)
    ohs felt good and could have probably done 75/80ish on it

  • dex

    congrats Jacinto! way to go Jim!

  • Jonathan P

    Today: 85#, 5 rounds MINUS 8 OHS; last three rounds xten’s on GHD, 1st 2 on floor
    Yesterday: 90-100-110F-110F-100-100F-90; BW 151

  • Brian

    Congrat’s guys, nice work

  • Matt K

    5 rounds plus 15 back ext plus 15 knees to elbows Rx’d

  • Steve S.

    3 OHS short of 5 rounds. RX’d.

  • Lenny

    15 Back extensions
    15 KTE
    15 OHS
    9 rounds, 5 back ext

  • Mike K

    Took the squats easy at 275, but hamstring is feeling mostly better… just didn’t want to push it too far.
    9:23 for metcon with 165 for presses

  • Sara

    part 1:
    A1. AMRAP Bench Press – 135#; rest 180 sec
    A2. AMRAP Row Cals in 60 sec; rest 180 sec
    5 sets
    rest 3 hours
    part 2:
    for time;
    Run 400 m
    300 double unders
    Run 400 m
    A1. 95#, 16-16-13-13-12
    A2. 18-18-17-17-16
    Congrats Jacinto and Jim!

  • Hari

    6 Rounds Sub 75 lbs
    Congratulations, Jacinto!
    Nice work, Jim!

  • Leslie

    Very happy with my workout today.
    Completed 6 1/2 rounds.
    OHS 21 lbs
    also worked on my pullups
    20 with the small blue band


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Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Reboot: Wizardry V

I decided to go with a "good" party this time.

Wizardry V is fresher in my mind than either Sentinel Worlds or Star Command was when I "rebooted" them, but it's still been over three months, and I really couldn't remember what was going on in the game when I last left. I'll keep my maps, but I'm going to start over with a new party.

This new party, incidentally, is my permanent party. I'm done with this swapping-out characters nonsense. It takes too long. From now on, if any of my characters dies and the resurrection turns him to ash, I'm re-loading. I'm also re-loading if I suffer a full-party death. Even typing that, I cringe. Somewhere, I can hear Andrew Greenberg laughing at me. "You may win the game," he's saying, "But you won't have truly beaten me! Bwu-hah-hah-hah!" Screw you, Greenberg. 1980 called; they're looking for their graphics.

My party comprises three fighters, a thief, a priest, and a mage. I spent a lot of time rolling and re-rolling until everyone started with a bonus score of at least 20. That wasn't enough to make the first two characters a lord and a samurai, which is what I wanted, but their stats were just on the cusp of what they need for those two classes, and I planned to switch them after a few level-ups increased their stats.

Jack basically needs one more of everything to be a samurai.
If you don't remember the plot, it takes place beneath the Kingdom of Llylgamyn. A rogue sorceress named The Sorn has created an "unnatural, magical vortex" deep within the dungeon called Maelstrom, and she has imprisoned the Gatekeeper, a demi-god who is our only hope of stopping her. I have to make my way down to her level and find some way to free him.
Advice from a priest whose god is named "La-La."
Unlike the first few games, which were fairly straightforward dungeon crawls with the occasional inventory puzzle, Wizardry V relishes multi-level puzzles involving goofy characters. For instance, I had to buy a rubber duck from some giant called the "Mad Stomper" on Level 3 so I could return it to a character named the Duck of Sparks on Level 2 in exchange for a wand that I need...somewhere, I guess.
Sigh. Could you at least pretend you're an entry in a seminal CRPG series?
The puzzles chain together. In a long day of playing yesterday, I:

  • Visited a tavern on Level 2 and got a clue that I needed to search a room for a hacksaw; found the hacksaw.
  • Got a recipe for a "Spirit-Be-Gone" potion from the Duck of Sparks.
  • Used the hacksaw to cut the chains off a door leading to a lab.
  • Mixed the potion in the lab.
  • Used the potion to scare away a ghost guarding a chest.
  • Found a jeweled scepter in the chest.
  • Used the scepter to enter a temple on Level 3.
  • Fought and killed the temple's guardian, winning a blue candle as my prize.
  • Used the blue candle in front of a dead-end wall to find a secret door leading to a set of stairs.
  • Descended the stairs to find myself at a place called the "Jigsaw Bank & Trust," where I now have to manipulate some disks something open the vault, maybe.

My current puzzle.
I don't yet have any clues about the right disk order, but I'm sure I'll find something in some unexplored part of the dungeon.

Unlike the linear progression through the levels of the first Wizardry, this focus on puzzles requires you to frequently backtrack, often finding new sections of previously-explored levels. As I indicated in my December postings on the game, the levels are quite large. Level 1 alone took up 30 x 39 coordinates, although the game doesn't use every space. At least, I don't think it does. Some of the secret doors have taken multiple searches, and I don't have time to search every blank wall multiple times.

I think I'm done with Level 1, but you never know when a new staircase or portal is going to make use of some of this filled-in space.

Blackadder and Jack Burton eventually got their lord and samurai class changes, although I didn't realize the game resets all your attributes to 8 when you change classes. That seems a little unfair. But the two prestige classes get spells (priest and mage, respectively), which makes it worth it.

Changing from a fighter to a lord.

I elected not to adventure with a bishop (a combined priest/mage) this time. The major advantage to this class, other than the spells, is the ability to identify unknown gear. Identifying items costs as much as their sale value, which gets into the tens of thousands of gold pieces for some magic items. Fortunately, reader Jonesy, who commented on my original Wizardry postings a few months ago during his own replay, gave me an idea: create the bishop, but have him just sit in the tavern. Swap him in when I need to identify something, and then boot him out when I'm done.

"Identifier" prepares to get to work on a load of unknown items.

This has worked out fairly well, but items have a chance of instilling fear in the bishop trying to identify them, a condition that prevents any further identification until cured. In some ways, his services have been more of a hassle than they're worth.

At this point, my characters are a couple levels below the last party I played in my December-February bout, but I've explored more of the map and solved more of the puzzles. I'll pick up from here with more detailed descriptions of the gameplay.

As I prepare to finish exploring Level 4, I have one mystery: On Levels 3 and 4, I encountered several pools of water that gave me the option to swim in them, and at multiple levels each.

In a comment in December, Delmoko tried to explain these pools to me, but I'm not getting anywhere with them. My characters keep drowning in the pools, which is a huge pain in the neck, because I have to haul them up to the temple for healing. Delmoko suggested that there were stats increases in some of the pools, but all I've managed to find are damage, poison, stat reductions, and encounters with monsters. Do these pools really serve any useful purpose? Can I just ignore them?

Finally, I think we might have a new entry in the "Most Annoying CRPG Enemies" list. Their name says all you need to know about them:

Nothing like watching a $6,000 platemail +1 disappear in one bite.

Despite my barely-disguised disdain for the silly NPCs and plot elements, I had a reasonably good time building up my characters and re-exploring the first four levels of the dungeon. Things go a lot faster when you're not continually rolling and building new characters, nor dealing with full-party deaths. I want to try to bang this out in a week. I have big plans for NetHack.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Star Command: Final Rating

Star Command has no more use for a group of seasoned, decorated veterans.

Star Command
Strategic Simulations, Inc. (1988)
Winston Douglas Wood, Eric Liebenauer
Date Started: 10 July 2011
Date Ended: 25 May 2012
Total Hours: 12
Difficulty: Moderate-Difficult (3.5/5)
Final Rating: 43
Ranking at Time of Posting:  48/61 (79%)

I felt that Star Command was a fairly good game, especially in the opening stages. Although the plot veered into nonsense towards the end, it held together better than Sentinel Worlds. The game offered lousier graphics than Worlds but a more challenging, tactical gameplay. It led me on a roller-coaster ride of difficulty, alternating easy milk-run missions with multi-stage ordeals involving dungeon exploration (with adventure game-style puzzles) and massive ship combats.

It appears largely overlooked in the history of CRPGs. After I completed the game, I could only find one walkthrough. Barton doesn't cover it in Dungeons & Desktops. The Wikipedia entry is barely a stub. On the latter, the entry indicates that it was based on a board game by Avalon Hill, but I don't know about that; I can't find anything in the copyright or credits in the game manual, and the one contemporary review I was able to find (Computer Gaming World seems to have ignored it) doesn't mention anything about it. If anyone has information about that board game, I'd be interested in hearing what it's like.

Nothing about Avalon Hill, though I am vaguely interested in which portions are copyrighted by Microsoft.
On to the GIMLET:

1. Game World. The game takes place in a densely-populated sector of the galaxy, in which humanity huddles in a "triangle" anchored by three starports. The world is fairly open but not terribly memorable as science fiction RPGs go. The races you encounter (insects, lizards, robots) are somewhat derivative of Starflight, and the political situation calls to mind both Sentinel Worlds and Star Trek. The game responded minimally to my actions. For instance, although pirate ships disappeared once I defeated Blackbeard (and frankly, this might have just been because I stopped visiting their sector), the insects didn't stop attacking after I destroyed their queen. The overall setup was easy to understand, if fairly cliched by this point in the genre. Score: 4.

The galaxy is large and full of planets. If only there had been more on them.
2. Character Creation and Development. The game begins with an original character creation process. After defining your character's class (pilot, soldier, marine,  or esper), you send him through the academy for eight years, choosing what skills you want to develop during this time. Certain skills are restricted to certain classes, and you have to choose your areas of focus carefully. You can train in skills or send your characters to "officer school" to increase ranks (and therefore pay) or "survival school" to increase attributes. There's a lot of choice in this process--and fairly original choice at that--which drew me into the game immediately.

The composition of the party is also an important choice. Only pilots and espers can increase in astro-gunnery, but the pilot and copilot don't man gun positions. That means that if you want to have a pilot firing a gun, you have to take on more than two pilots--which might help you in space combat but will hurt you significantly in ground combat. Soldiers, espers, and marines all have their strengths and weaknesses, and I'm not sure I had a very good balance in my party.

Training my first marine. Note that I've invested heavily in scouting and heavy arms, excluding everything else.
Increasing levels is similarly rewarding. I didn't like that there was no experience, and you could only train after completing missions (or paying lots of money--see below), but I liked the process of training, in which you can choose an attribute and then a skill to increase. I learned that it was better to focus on a couple of skills rather than spread your points out (e.g., heavy weapons and recon for a marine, not heavy weapons, light weapons, recon, and hand weapons), and only towards the end did my characters begin to max out their categories. Overall, character development was one of the best parts of the game, although the types of characters you choose don't effect the encounters. Score: 6.

3. NPC Interaction. There were very few NPCs in the game: a hermit, a couple of guys in a bar, a captured lizard, and a few computers. The game's system for talking with them, by entering keywords, recalls Ultima IV and other Origin games, and was kind of fun. I just wish the NPCs had more to say, and that the most important--the space hermit--wasn't so manifestly goofy. It would have been a little better if there were more NPCs to engage and learn about the various races; in a science fiction CRPG, only Starflight has done that well so far. Score: 4.
4. Encounters and Foes. The special encounters in the game brought out the worst tropes of adventure games, requiring illogical combinations of commands to produce unlikely outcomes. Fortunately, the game has limited inputs, so barring a couple cases where I blew something up and needed to reload, I got through them by just trying every command until something worked. Not many CRPGs of the era try to blend in some adventure game elements, so I appreciate the innovation, but it just didn't work well in execution.

I am unable to convince three insect freighters that I am their god.
Perhaps even more frustrating was the shallowness of the encounters with various enemies in the game. Upon encountering ships or land-based forces, you almost always find yourself locked in combat; strategies like plead, demand, and bribe worked so rarely that they might as well have not been there. I don't think I ever got "impersonate a deity" to work,  nor did I ever talk myself out of combat with a superior foe. Late in the game, when enemy ships outmaneuver and outnumber yours, each encounter produced only one viable option: fleeing. Even more nonsensical was the way that civilian freighters and luxury ships kept engaging me in combat, to their own inevitable destruction.

The foes themselves were unoriginal and tended to attack the same way in combat regardless of type. I do have to give my usual point for respawning and allowing grinding, though I don't appreciate how all the foes in the game increased with my level. Score: 3.

5. Magic and Combat. The tactical nature of both ship and ground combat were flawed, but still appreciated after the rote combat of Sentinel Worlds and so many other games of the era. There were considerations of weight, movement, weapon type, damage, terrain, type of attack (including the "aiming" rounds), ammunition, reloading, and several other factors that I'm probably forgetting. I never really mastered it all. Ship combat became far too difficult towards the end, and it was tough to even grind at that point, because every encounter tended to produce five deadly enemy ships.

On the other hand, I found the "magic" system to be fairly stupid. I never thought I got anything out of my esper, whose best magic attack only affected one enemy per round, that made him invaluable. If I had to play again, I'd forget about his psychic abilities and invest all his skills in astro-gunnery, or perhaps even replace him with a pilot for that purpose. Score: 5.

"Psychic scream" is about to fail again.
6. Equipment. There is a very wide variety of weapons, armor, accessories, and special items to buy, and a lot of statistics to balance as you make your choices. I didn't mind so much that combat tended to break these items, but I did mind that every combat tended to break them. I also think it would have been more fun if, as in most CRPGs, you could pick up your enemies' weapons and armor after combat (for resale, if not replacement). Overall, though, this was one of the better parts of the game. Score: 5.

7. Economy. At first, I thought I loved it. There was always something new to buy: ship upgrades, weapons, armor, accessories, and ammunition. And if I was comfortable with all that, I could buy a clone to protect against death or even pay $200,000 for training sessions in between missions!

If things get bad enough, the game has the option to "declare bankruptcy." You lose your ship and all personal and ship's equipment, but you get $90,000 to start over (after a lecture from high command).
But in practice, I found the economy deeply flawed. There are only a few ways to make good cash: completing missions and getting paid, and finding espionage items (of which there are a limited number). Defeating enemy ships is often not a viable option, as repairs to and rearmament of my ship usually meant that I was making negative progress. The game had a trading system (I didn't really cover it) by which some planets would sell special items and others would buy them, but the profit margins were so small you'd have to make thousands of the transactions to make a difference. Paying for training remained tantalizingly out of range for the entire game; by the end, I couldn't even afford a decent ship. Someone with more grinding patience or better combat tactics may be able to do more with it. Score: 5.

8. Quests. There were 17 total missions, with enough varied content to make them interesting: destroy a ship, explore a base, rescue a princess, deliver supplies, and so on. They came rapidly enough and, as I previously discussed, the rewards were tangible. Regrettably, there are no side quests (including a few might have helped with the economy) nor any decisions to make during the main quests. However, a few of the main quest stages are randomly generated, allowing for some minimal replay value. Score: 4.

9. Graphics, Sound, and Interface. In the GIMLET, graphics don't have to be terribly good, just not "distractingly bad," but I have to say the graphics in this game were almost distractingly bad. Audio was okay, with different sounds for different weapon types and such, but often annoying--such as when scoring repeated hits against an enemy. The controls were great--very intuitive and responsive--although I wish ships and parties had the ability to move diagonally.  Score: 3.

 10. Gameplay. I guess what I like most about the game was its relative speed. I'm not saying that I always want to race from quest to quest in a CRPG, but when there's not much in between--not many flowers to stop and smell, as it were--I'd rather just get a pair of coordinates and zip on over to them. Not only was each mission pacing fairly good, but the overall game pacing pleased me, too. It didn't overstay its welcome.

At first, I was entranced with the open game world--the whole galaxy to explore at the outset (if you have enough fuel), but that was when I thought I might find interesting encounters on the planets.  An open game world doesn't mean much if there's nothing to find within it, and ultimately I don't think the game, in its non-linearity, really outperformed Sentinel Worlds, which only had three planets.

Perhaps the most frustrating element of the gameplay was its extremely variable difficulty. The first few missions were cakewalks. Then it got harder, but nothing that a little grinding wouldn't help. Then all of a sudden, towards the two-thirds mark, the ship battles became functionally impossible. But during this time, when I was hyperspacing away from every ship that engaged me, the missions themselves were fairly easy, and the last battle (as you can see from the last post's video) was disappointingly easy. Score: 4.

That gives us a final score of 44, which outperforms every game I've played since Wasteland. That feels right. It was an interesting game with innovative ideas and good moments, and it motivated me to play to the end, even if the overall package is a bit flawed. It didn't really stand out in any one category, but neither did it completely fail in any one category.

This was apparently the last game from Winston Douglas Wood and Eric Liebenauer, the team that designed the Phantasie series for SSI. As with other SSI offering, the company's war game roots show in the game's devotion to tactical combat, which was uneven but innovative. I look forward to playing a lot more SSI in the coming months, as we enter the golden age of the "Gold Box" games.

Now, if I can just finish up Wizardry V, we'll be out of 1988 forever!

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Star Command: Won!

Wow. Every headline in the "traingle!"

Star Command was fun for a while, but I feel that it fell apart in its last act. It was already getting silly at the time of the last posting, when I needed to consult a mysterious "space hermit" to find out information about the insect alien threat. For some reason, he lived in a huge maze and needed me to find four gems, also hidden in the maze, before he could tell me anything useful. All he told me were the aliens had a master plan for their attack against humanity, but the plans had been stolen.

The Bar was an interesting combination of "outdoor" and "indoor" mapping.

Somehow, my superiors at Star Command divined that I might find them at The Bar, a wretched hive of scum and villainy. The Bar presented an interesting "dungeon," with a quasi-outdoor map of ships surrounding the bar itself and a storage building. There were some light puzzles here. I had to gamble with a lizard until he got drunk and passed out, then steal his keys, then board his ship and recover the plans. I don't really know where the lizards came from. They started popping up towards the end of the last mission, but I never got a sense whether they were allied with the insects (apparently not, since one of them stole their plans) or what.

We tore that ship apart until we found those plans.

With the recovered plans, I learned that the insects were building a "radiation bomb" on one of their planets, and I was assigned the task of destroying the central computer and, thus, the bombs. This was the most frustrating dungeon in the game because the puzzles didn't make any sense. I had to solve them through brute force--by trying every possible command--until, for some reason I don't understand, a tuning fork helped me get hold of some sheet metal that I used  to protect myself from falling acid and reach the central computer. The computer required a password that was spelled out in the dungeon's walls (honestly, who would build a dungeon like that?)--a fact that I only uncovered because I happened to use my esper's "view" ability just to test it out. Anyway, in due course I ordered the computer to self-destruct and fled.

Tips on securing passwords:make them a minimum of eight characters, include a mix of upper and lower case, and don't build them into the sodding floor plans of your secret base.
About this time, I started to find that I couldn't win a single ship combat. The difficulty of ship encounters appears to be based on your characters' levels and not the distance from starport, so even battles right out of dock were killing me. I started encountering a lot more robot ships, which were nearly impossible to hit. My ship was already way overloaded and I couldn't spare the weight for more, or better, guns. This was particularly compounded because so many missions were now occurring in deep space, and I needed to defeat enemy ships to get enough fuel to return home.

This was one of many combats that did not end well.
Thus, I engaged in some grinding until I had enough money for a ranger frigate, which took  more than twice the weight and fuel of my dagger-class escort. I christened her the ISS Kellandros after my own encyclopedia of all things Star Command.

Unfortunately, I hadn't done quite enough grinding. With the money I had left over from buying the ship, I was only able to purchase one gun position in addition to the defensive hardware I felt I needed. This was offset by the fact that I now had enough fuel to hyperspace out of most combats. Thus, ironically, even though I bought the Kellandros to improve my chances against enemy ships, I don't think I won another ship combat afterwards.

My commanding officer is prone to hyperbole.
The last couple of missions had me return to the space hermit to get more information about the insects. He said he needed the "Gem of Death" from a lizard base. The whole hermit/gem thing was horribly explained. I infiltrated the base, got the gem, fought about a billion melee combats against the lizards, and returned. The hermit said that the insects are ruled by a queen, and that if I destroyed her frigate (he helpfully gave me the coordinates), the threat would end.

Yeah, that's what they said about al-Qaeda.
This turned out to be my last mission, and it was actually one of the easier missions in the game. I simply flew to the coordinates and scanned around until I found the alien frigate.

I don't know if my one gun position would have been enough to defeat her in ship combat, but I didn't wait to find out. I boarded the frigate and killed the queen and her minions. I lost one of my characters in combat.

Returning to starport without incident, I was awarded all kinds of cash, and each of my characters received "medals of honor" in a little fireworks ceremony. After that, the game offered the ability to keep playing, but there were no more missions.

After winning it once, I did it a second time and recorded it. You can watch it below, but I'd recommend doing it with the sound off. It was the middle of the night, I was tired, and I sound like I must be drunk or something.

My biggest question after winning is: what the hell was with the robots?! At the beginning of the game, I was told that humanity faced three threats: pirates, insect aliens, and robots. I figured I'd be taking them on in turn, but the robots were just there; they didn't really have a story of their own. Who made them? Why were they helping the insects? Maybe I missed something in  one of the computer banks.

Just a few notes before I sign off:

  • I had promised a detailed analysis of melee combat in this posting, but now that I've won, I've kind of lost interest. You can see the basics in my two YouTube videos on Star Command.
  • The most frustrating part of the game, aside from the extremely-difficult-to-hit robot shops, was the continual destruction of my equipment in every melee combat. Repair kits took the edge of this annoyance, but it was rare that I exited a dungeon with every character holding a working gun.

Gelt and Exmin are fighting with their hands because they had their RPGs destroyed. Meanwhile, everyone else is running out of ammunition.

  • The end of the game was melee-heavy. I must have fought 30 battles in The Bar, against almost every enemy in the game, and another 30 in the lizard dungeon.  This required multiple trips back to starport to restock.

There were a host of events like this, against pirates, insects, and lizards, upon both entering and exiting The Bar.

  • The lizard dungeon had one of those annoying scripted events where you wander into a room, get gassed, and wake up in a prison cell without your equipment. The resolution (shock the jailer with some exposed wires) only took a few rounds and made the entire episode pointless.

One of the most tiresome RPG tropes.

  • As Kellandros has pointed out a couple of times, the game tends to remember dungeon maps and special encounters even when you haven't saved. For instance, after successfully obtaining the Gem of Death from the lizard base the first time, I died in an attack from some robot ships on my way back. When I reloaded and returned to the dungeon, I found that all of the doors were open and all of the puzzles were solved, even though I had never saved my progress after the first visit.

In total, I felt the game was promising and had some good elements, but its difficulty was extremely variable and the story got absurd towards the end. Let's see how she fares in the GIMLET.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Star Command: Upgrading

Meet the new ISS Bolingbroke. I've already managed to overload her.

In a comment a couple of days ago, Giauz suggested that maybe I hadn't done such a great job summarizing the plot of Star Command, so even though Kellandros replied with a good summary, I thought I'd recap. My group of federation officers and noncoms is part of Star Command, the last defense of humanity, whose denizens are confined to a "triangle" drawn among three starports. The frontiers of the triangle (and I talked about the silliness of these two-dimensional terms in my first Star Command posting) are being assailed by three hostile groups: pirates, insect aliens, and robots.

I haven't heard anything about the pirates since I killed their leader, Bluebeard, on a previous mission, nor have I encountered any more of their ships, so I'm assuming I dealt with them. I started to encounter the insect aliens late in the pirate missions, and my latest batch of missions has dealt with them exclusively. Then, towards the end of that batch, I started to encounter robot ships, so I assume the game will progress to this more serious threat.

Shortly after my last posting, I recorded a narrated video to highlight the various gameplay elements. In it, you can see me explore some planets, fight some ships, engage in melee combat, and ultimately sell my old ship and buy an upgraded one. The rest of this posting takes place, in narrative terms, after the video, so watch it if that's your thing. If not, I've put most of this information into my postings already.

The antitoxin mission that I mentioned at the end of my last posting was a bit of a milk run, but I did encounter my first two robot ships at the end of it. It was a good thing that I upgraded my vessel, as they were extremely difficult. More on that in a minute when I get to ship combat. The next mission after that involved the rescue of a princess (Really? Humanity still hasn't progressed beyond monarchy?) who had crash-landed after her ship was beset by aliens.

Sergeant Cowboy developed a bit of a crush for her, but she just called him a "scruffy nerf-herder" and walked off.

The game didn't give me any idea where she was; just that she had recently gone through a black hole. At first, I thought I was going to have to explore every system, but it turns out that the black holes really stand out:

I had no idea that "black holes" were so colorful. And visible.

I explored three of them before I finally found her.

Women get treated like objects even when they're princesses.

The next mission had me investigating reports that the insect aliens were trading with some other ships. These turned out to be more robots, and I destroyed them only after getting killed twice myself. There were a couple of fetch-and-carries after that, but ultimately I got to infiltrate the insects' main base. The game kindly alerted me to the unbreathable atmosphere in the base before I entered.

Ultima just would have killed me.

The base was guarded by a locked door. I've given one of my characters, Gelt, a lot of recon skill, but he never seems to be able to pick any locks. I had to make a couple trips back to starport to get enough chemical torches to finally cut through.

The base turned out to house a bunch of computers. Trying the different options, I was able to get out of them that the insect aliens think humanity is a plague and the insects are the cure. Also, they seem really interested in some psychic energy coming from a particular planet.

My next mission was to investigate that planet. The game tried to screw with me by giving  me the wrong coordinates in my mission. Compare the screenshot above to the one below.

I don't know if that was a bug or if the game just wanted to see if I was paying attention, but in any event I found the base where the energy was coming from. At this point, the game tossed a dungeon at me that I really don't think I'm going to like.

Who would build something like this?!

In the upper-left corner is the "Space Hermit," who has some information for me if I bring him the gems in the other three corners. Passage through the maze is interrupted by robot warriors (bad enough) and radiation traps (even worse). I have a radiation detector, but all it does is help me find the traps. I still have to disarm them at that point, and my scouting character only has a 50/50 success rate. Irradiated characters slowly die until you get them back to the medical bay at a starport, so setting off a trap is an immediate exploration-killer. Why does every damned CRPG have to have poison?

The maze remains where I'm stuck now, so let's talk about ship combat. As I mentioned, I upgraded my ship to a dagger-class escort. There are nine ships in the game, ranging in price from $57,600 to $516,000, and the dagger-class escort is about in the middle. Like everything in this game, however, bigger isn't always better. The most expensive ship, the warrior frigate, carries the most weight and fuel, but pays for it in a lower movement rate and defense bonus.

There are five classes of equipment to buy for the ship: weapons, shields, missile killers, defense systems, and armor. Weapons come in three types: missile weapons, torpedoes, and beam weapons. Beam weapons consume fuel, so I'm not sure if they're ever a good option. I've outfitted the Bolingbroke with three SS-28 "rogue" missile stations, which I think balance damage, weight, and cost. It fires two missiles per round from each weapon, each doing a maximum of 200 damage points. I probably won't get better weapons until I upgrade my ship again, as the ammunition for the better weapons weighs a lot. Some of the better weapons only fire once per round and require more frequent reloads.

For defense, I've got four shield stations, each of which can accommodate one of five types of shields, again increasing in protection and weight along with cost. I filled up the stations with cheap, light shields.

There are three types of missile killers which, as their name suggests, have a chance of blasting incoming missiles. The best only has a 50% chance, though. Armor is the last bit of defense, and it's measured in points. I try to keep the ship at the maximum of 1000. When it goes below 0, you're basically dead in the next couple of shots. Finally, there are five types of "defense systems" that increase your defense and movement bonuses; I was able to buy the most expensive.

All of this new gear has come in handy, because space combat became much more difficult when the robots showed up. Here's me facing one of them after destroying one:

Two things make them difficult: First, they have excellent defense bonuses, meaning that in order to hit them, I have to spend two or three rounds "aiming" at them to increase my attack bonus. That's what Nanelia is doing above. Second, their movement rate matches mine, so there's no hope of fleeing (without jumping to hyperspace, which uses 30 units of fuel) or even maneuvering so that you're fighting only one ship at a time.

Such is my normal strategy. Faced with these four insect ships, for instance...

...I would fly in the direction that my ship is pointing, until I'm away from the enemies. Then I'd turn around and engage the top ship, killing it before his friends could join in. I'd then dance around the edges of the other three ships, taking them one at a time. This isn't possible with the robot ships unless I downgrade to a faster ship, and I can't do that if I want to keep my guns and defensive equipment.

If you didn't already know that this game was made by SSI, you'd probably know from my description of the weapons and combat. I'm hard-pressed to think of any game that I've played on this blog that a) was truly tactical in its combat; and b) was not made by SSI. Wizardry comes closest, but its tactics are mostly about choosing the right spell. Considerations of weight, balancing accuracy and hits, movement rate, offense and defense...SSI has been working to master this since Wizard's Crown. They dumbed it down a bit in Shard of Spring and Demon's Winter, but found almost the perfect balance in complexity with the "Gold Box" series. The tactics in Star Command aren't on par with Pool of Radiance, but they're still quite good--a hell of a lot better than the brute mashing of keys that was Sentinel Worlds.

In the next posting, I'll talk about melee combat (and also about my characters and their skills). I really have no idea how far into this game I am. My highest-ranked character is a commander, which is 6th out of 13 ranks, so perhaps I'm about half way done?

Monday, May 21, 2012

Star Command: Disease and Danger Wrapped in Darkness and Silence

This was the most staggering moment of the game. My entire party died because the tow link was destroyed?!

After my last posting, the game got so difficult for me so swiftly that I suspected I was doing something wrong. For every successful sortie from starport--and when I say "successful," I don't mean finishing missions; I just mean returning alive--there were five or six in which my ship was destroyed or my party was wiped out.

These deaths happened more often in melee combat than in ship combat, so I put some effort into upgrading my weapons and armor. Key to the difficulty eventually stabilizing (it hasn't by any means gotten "easy" yet) was purchasing better armor and targeting equipment to improve my characters' accuracy. Kellandros's tips on melee combat also helped quite a bit.

Cash remains exceedingly precious, however. As I've discussed repeatedly, I dislike games in which you pile up cash with no place to spend it. This is definitely not the case with Star Command. Most trips, after I resupply my ammunition, fix my broken equipment (some personal weapon breaks in every damned melee combat), and repair my ship's armor, I'm lucky if I have as much as when I left starport in the first place. I don't know if I'll ever save up enough for a new ship, or to explore some of the more costly options in the game, such as cloning my characters in case they die, or paying for extra training levels.

I desperately need a new ship, though. My current one is doing all right in ship combat, but its cargo capacity is awful. If I mount three guns on her, stock up with a decent supply of ammunition, protect her with a few missile-killers and such, she's too heavy to maneuver in combat. As soon as I have $150,000, I'm buying a dagger-class escort, which can accommodate twice the weight. I have $71,617 right now, but that's mostly because I got $50,000 from Blackbeard the Pirate's hoard, so it's going to take a while.

This was a gratifying moment.

Watching my personal weight was important in helping to win melee combats, too. Yesterday, I said, "I learned the hard way that I want to keep a couple of backup weapons with me, because they have an annoying habit of breaking in the middle of combat." Well, this turned out to be stupid. Carrying more than one weapon encumbered some of my characters so much that they were too exhausted to fight. Even one weapon with a decent number of reloads tends to exceed my maximum capacity, especially if the character has a couple other bits of equipment on him, too.

Gelt couldn't carry another thing.

I thought I'd talk a little about personal equipment in this game today, because I mostly understand it. My next postings will probably cover ship equipment and combat and then melee combat, in that order. I hope that by then, I'll be close to the end.

There is quite a bit to buy and use in this game. In this category, it is in the top echelon of games so far, around the range of Might & Magic and NetHack. First, we have weapons, which come in four categories: hand, light, heavy, chemical, and explosive. Hand weapons seem interesting--they include a "lightsword"--but I feel like I've done something wrong if my characters actually get in hand-weapon range of enemies. I haven't invested much money or skill points in these.

Purchasing weapons.

I gave my two soldiers skills in chemical and explosive weapons, and they've been using these exclusively. My three marines are are built up in heavy weapons; I couldn't see a lot of reason to go with light weapons, which do less damage, although I probably could have taken backups of those without overweighting myself. Anyway, as you can see from the above, there are multiple sub-categories of each type of weapon and about 4 or 5 individual items. I count 60 total weapons, which--like the long list that included every pole arm in Pool of Radiance--seems like little overkill. Among the choices I have to make on the list are, for instance, between a 9mm MAC-10 submachine gun and a 11mm "Lead Hose" submachine gun (the difference is 2 damage points and 1 pound) and 20mm flame thrower and a 25mm flame thrower. For chemical weapons, the two options are a nerve gas canister and a caustic mist bomb; the latter does 5 points more than the former but otherwise they're practically identical.

Figuring what weapon to use is a long process--although I'm not arguing that it's bad--of studying the large table that accompanies the Star Command manual:

Damage isn't the only consideration: you also have to consider the number of rounds it can hold, the weight, the range, the weight of the ammunition, the weapon's accuracy rating, and of course the cost.

Armor is a little easier. There are 16 types in the game, and the only considerations are protection, weight, and cost. When I could finally afford it, I outfitted everyone in something called "scout exo" which has an excellent protection/weight ratio, exceeded only by "electroactive armor," which costs $34,488 each; I won't be seeing this for a while. Like in Sentinel Worlds, buying a new set of armor simply replaces the old set.

Beyond weapons, ammunition, and armor, there are two other categories of things to buy: sighting hardware and "miscellaneous." For sighting hardware, which increases accuracy in melee combat, I waited until I had enough money to buy the best ("compusight aiming assistant") and just bought it for everyone. It greatly increased my effectiveness in melee combat.

Essentially, these options modify my accuracy. I almost wish there were similar categories of equipment that modified other attributes.

But miscellaneous items are exceedingly important. They include medkits for healing, repair kits for fixing weapons and ships, a "helmet scanner" (not sure what that does), motion detectors to get some warning while exploring areas, sonic and chemical torches for breaking through locked doors, and radiation detectors--I learned the hard way that I really needed to have one of those active at all times while exploring indoor areas. There are also oxygen masks, oxygen cylinders, and environment suits; I figure I'll need these eventually to explore space or atmosphere-less planets, but it hasn't come up yet.

In total, there's a host of stuff to keep track of, and to save money for. This is all keeping with SSI's emphasis on strategy and tactics in its games. You have to carefully manage your inventory, carefully manage your ship, and carefully negotiate your way through combat. It's a far cry from the relative simplicity of Sentinel Worlds.

Finding Blackbeard's base.
In plot terms, I haven't advanced much since the last posting. On Sunday, I had received a quest to go to Blackbeard's base and destroy him. This took me about 20 successful sorties; I died lots, lots more. I died so many times in Blackbeard's base that I got to the point where if I even mapped a new room, I would leave and return to base to save. Part of the reason that it took so long is that by the time I reached Blackbeard's base each excursion, my fuel was almost gone. I had to fight and capture a ship orbiting his planet each time so I could refuel.

There were several interesting encounters in the pirate base. I noted last time that exploring indoor areas is a bit like Phantasie, as a top-down map slowly reveals itself:

It's also like Phantasie in the nature of the special encounters you face. In the fortress, I encountered a kid who wanted to challenge me at a video game, a bar with several tables, a slot machine, an information kiosk, and a mechanical drill. Each of these encounters offered a set of default options like "demand information," "attack and destroy," "take," as well as sets of encounter-specific options and the ability to enter a custom command.

The game has a lot of  interesting special encounters in "dungeons."
While playing, I lost so much money to the slot machine (it seemed to pay back $3 for every $4 bet), I blew it up, revealing a secret passage behind it. This led me to a series of five titanium doors guarding Blackbeard's chambers. I had no hope of getting through them. But in another part of the base, I found a rock drill with no fuel. It took a while, but I solved this puzzle, which was to buy the most potent alcohol in the bar and use it to fuel the drill.

Only in a game would this be necessary, instead of, you know, bringing fuel from my ship.
I drilled through the rock on the back side of Blackbeard's headquarters, entered, and killed him and his minions--after about 7 attempts in which I died.

Blackbeard could stand to teach his information kiosks to be a little less forthcoming.
My next quest was to visit one planet, retrieve some antitoxin, and deliver it to another planet. This sounded easy, but the coordinates were very distant from any starport--much further than I could hope to make on 100 units of fuel, which is all my ship can carry. I knew right away that I would have to take advantage of two other fueling options: planets that sell it, and the ability to steal it from other ships. I found a couple refueling depots on planets near Blackbeard's place, but so far they seem few and far between, and I had to carefully explore to find them and make my way to the distant sectors.

The manual notes that pirates are only one of several threats against humanity; another big one is a race of insect aliens. As the missions have progressed, I've been encountering insect scout ships in greater numbers. They haven't been very difficult so far--much easier than the pirates, in fact.
Melee combat with insects after boarding their scout ship.
As I sign off, let me say that I'm not sure what good my "esper" is. Granted, he's the only character. His psychic attacks rarely do anything, and I feel like his slot would have been better spent on another marine. I'll have more on that in my melee combat posting.

I think perhaps the difficulty of the game was a calculated decision on the parts of the developers. If it wasn't difficult, each of the missions would take about 10 minutes, and you'd win the game in a couple of hours. It might be that they intended the player to successfully complete each quest only after multiple tries. On the other hand, no one else seems to be corroborating my assessment of the difficulty, so maybe I'm just a bad player.


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How Your Heritage Affects Your Vision Health

eyes heritage

Where Did You Get Those Baby Blues?: Eye Color and Heritage

The color of your eyes is influenced by the areas of the world in which your ancestors lived. The amount of melanin in your eyes, a pigment that gives your skin its color, also affects eye color. Take a look at the way heritage influences these eye colors.

Brown eyes contain the most melanin and are the most common eye color in the world. They are particularly common in people of Asian, African, Eastern European, and Southern European heritage.

Blue eyes, never a common color, have decreased in recent years, as members of the various ethnic groups are much more likely to have children together. Since blue eyes are a recessive trait, both parents must carry the trait. Blue eyes are more common in people of Irish, English, and Northern European origin.

Green eyes are rare and more likely to occur if your ancestors were from Ireland, Iceland, or Germany. They are also found more often in women.

Have you ever wondered where your gray eyes come from? They are most common in people who ancestors were from Lithuania, Russia, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland.

This unusual yellow-copper eye color is found in people with South American or Asian heritages.

How Your Heritage Affects Your Vision Health

Your height, weight, and eye color are influenced to some degree by the genes inherited from your ancestors. Unfortunately, you can also inherit an increased risk for developing certain eye conditions and diseases. Learning which diseases are more common based on your ethnicity will help you identify early warning signs that could indicate that you have a vision problem.

Your risk of glaucoma increases with age, but that's not the only factor that can raise your risk. If you are Hispanic, African American, or Asian, you are much more likely to develop glaucoma. The disease damages the optic nerve and can cause loss of vision and blindness if it's not diagnosed and treated promptly. The problem occurs when too much pressure builds inside your eye.

Symptoms of angle-closure glaucoma develop suddenly and can include severe pain in the eye, redness, blurred vision, or loss of vision. If you have this form of the disease, it may seem as if a curtain suddenly drops over your field of vision. Low-tension glaucoma, another form of the disease, can occur without any symptoms. Your eye doctor can detect this type of glaucoma with a simple test performed during your annual vision examination.

Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD)

Macular degeneration damages the cells in the macula, the area of the retina responsible for central vision. Caucasians are more likely to develop the disease than any other group. If you have AMD, you may notice that your vision looks blurry or distorted. It may be difficult to recognize faces or read a clock because you can only see the outline of objects. Although there is no cure for AMD, vitamins, and laser treatment may slow vision loss, in some cases.

Cataracts are associated with aging, but you may be more likely to develop the condition if you are Hispanic or African American. A cataract occurs when proteins inside the lens of your eye clump together. Since the lens is transparent, these clumps prevent light from reaching your retina at the back of your eye. If you have cataracts, you may notice that your vision is blurry or cloudy. You might have trouble seeing at night or see halos around lights. As the cataract grows, it will begin to substantially affect your vision. Cataracts are treated by replacing the lens during a surgical procedure.

Diabetic Retinopathy

Ethnic groups that have a higher risk of developing diabetes, including African Americans and Hispanics, are more likely to also develop diabetic retinopathy, a complication of the disease. The condition occurs when high blood sugar levels cause tiny blood vessels in your retina to leak, distorting your vision. As the problem progresses, new abnormal blood vessels may begin to grow in the retina.

There are often no symptoms during the early stages of the disease, and you may not even know that you have it until your vision has been damaged. Diabetic retinopathy is treated by injections, corticosteroids, and lasers that stop leaking and prevent new blood vessel formation.

If your heritage puts you at increased risk for developing an eye disease, regular eye examinations are a must. Call us today to schedule your exam.

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Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Enchanted by Holliewood Studios

This kit is filled with magic. It's an enchanted place where you never know what might delight you around the next corner. Fairies? Alice? Prince Charming? That's for you to discover.
and its on sale at the moment.. go check it out..
You can see it at Deviant Scrap HERE

and Hollie also has a  new freebie Glitter Swirls and you can get that  HERE

My page is linked to my Deviant Scrap Gallery

:)) ;)) ;;) :D ;) :p :(( :) :( :X =(( :-o :-/ :-* :| 8-} :)] ~x( :-t b-( :-L x( =))

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Visualization: Brain Connectivity

Interactive Web Application for Visualization of Brain Connectivity

David Caldwell, Jing Wu, Kaitlyn Casimo, Jeffrey Ojemann, Rajesh P. N. Rao

Interactive Web Application for Visualization of Brain Connectivity

We present here a novel, lightweight, web-based application for visualizing patterns of connectivity between 3D stacked data matrices with large numbers of pairwise relations. Visualizing a connectivity matrix, looking for trends and patterns of interest, and subsequently dynamically manipulating these values is a challenge for scientists from diverse fields, including neuroscience and genomics. Neuroscience data sets with high-dimensional connectivity data include those acquired via EEG, electrocorticography, magnetoencephalography, and fMRI. We demonstrate the analysis of connectivity data acquired via human electrocorticography recordings as a domain-specific implementation of our application. Neural connectivity data often exists in a high-dimensional space, with multivariate attributes for each edge between different brain regions, which motivates a lightweight, open-source, easy to use visualization tool to allow for the rapid exploration of these connectivity matrices to highlight connections of interest. Here we present a client-side, mobile-compatible visualization tool written entirely in HTML/CSS/JS that allows for in-browser manipulation of user-defined files for the exploration of brain connectivity. Visualizations can highlight different aspects of the data simultaneously across differing dimensions, allowing for rapid exploration and analysis of the data. Input files are in JSON format, and custom Python scripts have been written to allow for the parsing of MATLAB or Python data files into JSON-loadable format. We envision applications for this interactive tool in fields ranging from neuroscience to genomics to any other field seeking to visualize pairwise connectivity.