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Biking on Carriage Road at Eagle Lake

A 6.1 mile (9.8 km) Carriage Road goes completely around Eagle Lake in Acadia National Park and is a popular place for walking, jogging, or biking. The access point is in Bar Harbor about 3 miles (4.8 km) west of the town pier on Route 233. There are parking lots on both sides of the highway. (click photo for next)
Biking and jogging on carriage road next to Eagle Lake in Acadia

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Alo Bariatrics is a renowned Obesity Surgery Center offering its patients proven and comprehensive Bariatric Programs in Weight Loss Surgery. Guided by Lead Surgeon Doctor Alejandro Lopez, Alo Bariatrics the Surgeons and Staff provide the attention to every Patient from Pre-Op through Post-Op. Alo Bariatrics provides full-service weight loss solutions with 3 locations in Tijuana, Guadalajara, and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Dr. Alejandro Lopez
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Dr. Edgar FariasAnesthesiologist
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Dr. David OrozcoSurgeon
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Dr. Antonio MolinaInternist
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Dr. Helmut HilkeGeneral Doctor
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Dr. Leonardo GraxiolaGeneral Doctor
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Dr. Azucena AlvarezGeneral Doctor
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We offer the best procedures in the industry for overcoming your weight struggles with state of the art equipment and the top surgeons in Mexico

The most beautiful and safe areas of Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta, and Tijuana. ALO Bariatrics is part of the specialized Obesity Clinic at Hospitals all over Mexico. World renowned for its cutting edge treatment of obesity

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Politicians Must Steal – Rochas Okorocha

Rochas Okorocha, Governor of Imo State, has revealed why some Political Officeholders ‘must Steal’ public funds.

In an interview with Channels TV, which has now gone viral on social media, Okorocha explained that “no man on earth” lives on his monthly pay, hence governors should not be exempted.

He argued that what is most important is for governors to make the people happy with their performance.

“What the people have failed to know is that… for God’s sake let them give targets. I am for targets,”

“If I give you target and you perform it, that is good enough. But if you keep searching for some level of corruption, that’s when it looks like it’s vindictive —because there is no man on earth, in Nigeria, from A to Z, who will say he lives with the money you pay him monthly.

“The salary of a Governor is N750,000/month. So if you don’t have a second office and you don’t have something else to do, you must steal; excuse me. Every political office holder who does not have a second office must steal.

“But if you give target, excuse me, you then perform your work, and people see the way you have done it and it is correct, they’re are fine.

In Imo state now, people are happy with the performance; they are happy that their children are going to school without school fees, they are happy that they are no longer suffering… free education is there up to university; they’re happy.”

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Are you sure?

ONP Holdings calls option for 100,000 PannErgy shares

ONP Holdings called an option on Friday for 100,000 shares treasury shares of alternative energy company PannErgy at a price of HUF 950 per share under a contract signed on November 9, 2009, PannErgy said.

ONP Holding's American-type option for a total of 1 million PannErgy shares was also extended from October 31 until December 31, 2010.

After the transaction, PannErgy held 2,900,703 treasury shares accounting for 13.78 % of registered capital.

PannErgy said in November that ONP Holdings, owned by Otto Albrecht, chairman of Cashline, one of the bourse's biggest brokerages, would raise capital in PannErgy Polifin, PannErgy's unit for geothermal energy projects, in several steps. (MTI Econews)


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[UPDATE] It appears that I am a credit poacher.

Update: See below.

In the run-up to Hurricane Florence, I became aware that the town of Leland, NC had issued a State of Emergency Notice which banned the lawful possession of firearms outside one’s own property. Being an advocate for individual human/civil rights, I contacted the town and pointed out that they were in violation of state law. So did other people and groups.

I thought it was a good thing for them to get hammered with complaints, to hammer the point in.

I stand corrected.

As GRNC volunteers continue to diligently monitor the state for “State of Emergency (SOE) Gun Bans,” it seems that other organizations are taking credit for our successes. No one, not credit poachers like the Firearms Policy Foundation, nor any other organization that “sends a letter” can claim credit for the work GRNC has been doing for years—work that made SOE Gun Bans unlawful and forced government entities to repeal these bans.

So I’m a “credit poacher.” And here I thought I was helping.

Yes, my TZP column did mention FPC’s letter. It mentioned my — multiple — emails with the town. I would have mentioned Grass Roots North Carolina‘s specific contacts if I’d been aware of them.

I did specifically mention — and link — GNRC’s lawsuit, which should have prevented the Leland rights grab in the first place, in my column. That was the point of my column.

But since GNRC views help as “credit poaching,” I’ll respect their turf in the future and ignore any further NC rights violations. I’ll leave GNRC alerts out of the weekly newsletter.

Update: Via email from F. Paul Valone, President, Grass Roots North Carolina:

I confess to being puzzled as to why you think the “credit poacher” term is being applied to you. I’m quite certain we didn’t mention you in the alert (particularly given that I didn’t even see your column), and I presume you were only recounting what was sent to you in a press release from the Firearms Policy Coalition, as did Ammoland.com, guns.com and other sources.

To blame you would be quite literally shooting the messenger which, of course, is why we mentioned *only* the organization which initiated the credit grab, namely the Firearms Policy Coalition.

I hope this addresses any miscommunication we may have had.

So the use of plurals — “poachers,” “Organizations,” “like the Firearms Policy Foundation, nor any other organization that “sends a letter” — only meant Firearms Policy Coalition, and he assumes little ol’ I wouldn’t have deigned to interfere in GRNC’s territory. That I merely passed on an FPC press release.

In the future, that will be true. I won’t deign to help.

P.S. The FPC also spoke with one of our volunteers asking us to join litigation against Leland, which would be ridiculous (and unsuccessful), since they immediately complied with the letter our lawyer sent them on September 11, 2018 (attached). Rather than some huge act of malfeasance on their part, I suspect it is merely the product of their lack of awareness that we changed the State of Emergency law.

When did GRNC send their letter? When was “immediately”?

I saw FPC’s press release. I congratulated them. Then I spent some time finding the actual statute on the NC state site. I tweeted that at the town since the offending SOE notice was still live, meant in support of the action by FPC (that being the only specific action of which I was aware, though I’d seen posts that suggested other were or would contacting that town).

Shortly after my tweet — after FPC’s letter — the town updated the SOE on its web site…

By changing the statute referenced, but not the offending “ban” language.

At 6:57 PM EDT, I contacted the town manager to question that. David Hollis informed me they’d fixed it.

By searching the town web site, I found a new SOE — without the ban language, and with the correct statute cite — but the edited original was still live. I pointed that out to Hollis at 7:29 PM EDT, and noted that people who bookmarked the SOE for future reference and saw that it was being actively maintained might assume it was still official, and thus would have no reason to look for a new one at a different URL. Look for something you have no reason to think exists?

At 8:01 PM, Hollis admitted the legally incorrect version was still up.

Sometime after 8:13 PM (when I posted the TZP column), it was finally deleted.

Which is why I wonder when GRNC’s letter was sent. If before FPC’s letter and my subsequent tweet, then the town may have played GRNC with the “revised” old SOE, and only fixed it when called out by FPC and I (and I’m pretty sure others).

Or GRNC sent their letter after FPC’s (and possibly after my first tweet and email) and thought they got that fast compliance.

Yes, I had an active, if minor role. Getting rid of the bogus SOE may not be terribly consequential, but I thought it was something.

And I thought that people around the country joining together to let the town know we’re watching was a good thing.

In the future I will refrain from “poaching” on GRNC’s turf. They can handle everything all by themselves.

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Share to raise climate awareness

Below2°C is our new website. It is premised on the overwhelming consensus that our planet must not exceed two degrees Celsius of warming. The Paris Agreement’s “central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.”

Published on Nov 30, 2015
Standard YouTube License

You’re likely to hear the term 2°C a lot during the next two weeks as world leaders, scientists and policymakers meet in Paris in one of the most important climate change conferences in years. They seek to come to a binding agreement that keeps the planet from warming 2 degrees Celsius from pre-Industrial temperatures. But why that target? And what happens if we go past it? Climate Central chief meteorologist Bernadette Woods Placky has the answers.

Climate change is the most critical issue of our times. And it’s by far the greatest threat to our civilization. The rate of warming of our planet is accelerating with the ten hottest years occurring since 1998. And 2016 was the hottest year ever recorded, besting 2015 which bested 2014. If left unchecked, humanity will face runaway climate change with unprecedented or unimaginable catastrophic consequences.

2°C of warming is an important threshold. It will be the most meaningful number for decades to come. It will be on everybody’s mind as we continue to pass thresholds and tipping points. Holding warming well below two degrees Celsius is fast becoming the singular goal.

We Have The Solutions

Solutions are at hand but the fossil fuel economy of the last 100 years has created incredible momentum and inertia to change. The climate denial industry remains strong. Paid lobbyists with vested interests continue to spread misinformation and lies about climate change to influence government policies, resulting in half-measures and out-and-out bad decisions by world leaders.

But there is hope. The renewable revolution is happening at an ever quickening pace. Tipping points for renewable electricity generation, battery technology, electric cars, green fund growth, the divestment movement, etc. offer multiple opportunities for rapid progress and the compelling economic logic needed to shift quickly.

Canada has an engaged, well-informed and intelligent citizenry that takes climate change seriously. Our work must be to ensure that our politicians accept the urgency of climate action and make the right choices.

We call on all of you to JOIN US in the battle to save the planet. Let’s keep it @WellBelow2C.

A fossil-free Canada during our grandchildren’s lifetime

  1. To raise awareness about the need to limit the warming of the planet to less than 2°C.
  2. To influence our politicians at all levels to take pressing action on pricing carbon.
  3. To facilitate and accelerate our transition to a clean energy platform by 2050.

Please Help Us Achieve Our Collective Goals

Share to raise climate awareness

  1. Nice launch of ‘Below2°C’

    Hope it is a success and everyone who cares about the future of our planet can connect here to make sure that our leaders make the right choices to keep rising temperatures below 2°C while planning for a future using green technologies and a circular economy.

    I’ll be sure to connect @WellBelow2C and @BoomerWarrior on Twitter too!

    • Hi Colette,

      I’m currently in Spain, in Barcelona. I know you’ve been this way in your travels.

      Thank you for the support. I hope all our supporters will help promote the site. The purpose of the site is simple – to raise awareness about the dangers of warming to 2C or higher. We cannot, must not, let that happen.

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How to Create Raw File for Use as SSIS Data Source?

The use of raw files as SSIS data source is highly recommended for huge volume of data due to its superior read/write performance. Raw files store data in a very basic format that requires almost zero translation and parsing. This enables faster data reads/writes when compared to Flat Files and even faster than Database tables. Continue Reading

High Speed Data Transformation Using Raw Files

This post explains a SSIS technique that transforms large volume of data in shorter time by using Raw Files. Continue Reading …


WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: application/xhtml+xml

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Dion’s ‘Abraham, Martin and John’ @ 50

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Violence and protest dominated the news in 1968. No honest portrait of the year would dare to pretend otherwise: the escalating war in Vietnam and the movement to end it; racial strife and riots in the streets, college campuses erupting. It was all part of daily life in ’68.

That the tense events affecting us spilled over into our music was a given: 1968 gave us the Beatles’ “Revolution,” the Rolling Stones’ “Street Fighting Man,” the Doors’ “The Unknown Soldier,” James Brown’s “Say It Loud—I’m Black and I’m Proud” and many other songs that spoke to the social and political mood of the time.

“Abraham, Martin and John” was something different though. It wasn’t fueled by rage and anger. Instead it was a lament for hopes and promises squandered, a gentle ode to what could have been—and a plea. It asked that we stop and take stock of ourselves, consider where we were going and how we wanted to get there.

Written by Dick Holler, who had, strangely enough, co-written the Royal Guardsmen’s 1966 novelty hit “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron,” “Abraham, Martin and John” focused on three fallen leaders—Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy and civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King—each slain by assassins while trying their hardest to make the world a better place. Lincoln and Kennedy were in the past, the former more than a century earlier, JFK only five years. King’s murder was still fresh in the minds of everyone, having only taken place months earlier, on April 4, 1968.

By the time the song was committed to vinyl, another senseless assassination of a major figure would shake our already fragile world, that of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy on June 6.

“Abraham, Martin and John” was a profoundly moving recording in the folk-rock style, its instrumentation including violin and harp alongside acoustic guitar, oboe, flugelhorn, bass and drums.

But perhaps what surprised listeners the most was the artist singing the song: Dion.

When most rock fans had last heard from Dion DiMucci, the Bronx, New York, native had been another pompadour-topped teen idol type, turning out hit after memorable AM radio hit, from 1958’s uptempo doo-wop “I Wonder Why” through youth anthems like “A Teenager in Love,” the #1 “Runaround Sue” and “The Wanderer,” songs that still hold up today for their sincerity, rawness and attitude even if their storylines are dated. Unlike some of the other solo male hitmakers of the day, Dion exuded street smarts—because, after all, he was from the streets, having gotten his start singing in harmony with his friends on the corner.

Watch Dion sing “Abraham, Martin and John” on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1968

Those early hits, both with his group the Belmonts and solo, were all on Laurie Records, but by 1963 they’d dried up and Dion had switched over to the Columbia label, scoring a few more top 10 singles with “Ruby Baby” (a Drifters cover), “Donna the Prima Donna” and another Drifters tune, “Drip Drop.”

Related: Which other early rockers are still with us?

That last one charted in Billboard just days before the JFK assassination. Then, for five years, nothing. As far as record buyers were concerned Dion had disappeared.

Of course, he hadn’t really, but Dion DiMucci had bigger problems to contend with. He’d been a longtime junkie whose next hit from the needle was more important to him than the next hit record. When he tried to kick heroin, he turned to alcohol. He didn’t stop making music but he was operating below the radar while he battled his demons, performing folk and blues tunes on acoustic guitar in New York City clubs like the Bitter End while trying to make ends meet.

Then, finally, he had enough. Turning to religion for salvation, Dion left the addictions behind and came out of his slump.

Related: What were the other musical highlights of 1968?

The events of 1968 brought Dion back to us. Again recording for Laurie, he was uninterested in returning to the kind of teen-centric songs that made him famous. He was older now, more mature, and his interests had changed. “Abraham, Martin and John” was a song he felt deeply, a song for 1968; he took a chance.

The first stanza…

“Has anybody here, seen my old friend Abraham?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
He freed a lot of people, but it seems the good, they die young
You know I just looked around and he’s gone.”

Dion repeated the verse, substituting the first names of King and Kennedy. He added a new last verse after the shooting death of Robert Kennedy. Before it, in the chorus, he conveyed the moral, the song’s purpose:

“Didn’t you love the things that they stood for?
Didn’t they try to find some good for you and me?
And we’ll be free
Some day soon, it’s gonna be one day.”

“Abraham, Martin and John” landed on the Billboard singles chart on Oct. 26, 1968, and rose to #4, the last top 10 for Mr. DiMucci. But Dion, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, is still going strong as of early 2018, singing new and old songs of his own and favorites from the worlds of blues and folk. He continues to perform and released a fine album in 2015 called New York Is My Home, which included a duet with Paul Simon on the title track.

Fifty years later, we’re still waiting to be free, but hopefully, some day soon…

Watch a more recent solo performance of the song by Dion

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Jeff Tamarkin

Jeff Tamarkin

Best Classic Bands Editor Jeff Tamarkin has been a prolific music journalist for more than four decades. He is formerly the editor of Goldmine, CMJ andRelix magazines, has written for dozens of other publications and has authored liner notes for more than 80 CDs. Jeff has also served on the Nominating Committee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and as a consultant to the Grammys. His first book was 'Got a Revolution! The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane.' He is also the co-author of 'Shell Shocked: My Life with the Turtles, Flo and Eddie, and Frank Zappa, etc.,' with Howard Kaylan.
Jeff Tamarkin
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text:
Reports of the Board of Trustees, 1899-1904

Lyman School for Boys

1 v..
Arranged chronologically.
The State Reform School was founded in 1847 and opened in 1848 at Westborough for the instruction, discipline, employment, and reform of male juvenile offenders in Massachusetts. It was renamed the Lyman School for Boys in 1884 and closed in 1972. During the period 1895-1911 it was administered by the Trustees of the Lyman and Industrial Schools, who held monthly meetings to vote on decisions concerning the school and its students. Reports issued to the superintendent are abstracts of trustee minutes, documenting decisions regarding the status of individual students and the administration of the school.
Votes concern finances, maintenance and improvement of the school, and personnel. There are also votes relating to disposition of inmates, including probationary release, discharge to other state institutions, and release upon petition. Information in such vote records includes inmate name, case no., short case history, and recommendation for future placement.
Agency history record (CStRLIN)MASVAH0072-A describes the history and functions of the Lyman School for Boys.

Related Resources

View this description in WorldCat: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/77786868


text: No sport is more stats driven than baseball. We have all your team hitting and pitching stats here. These will help with your over/under bets and your prop bets too. Don’t go placing bets without all the stats. Not when we have them right here. And remember the old baseball saying, good pitching beats good hitting. This is especially true in the post season.


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oval modified brilliant cut diamondThe oval brilliant cut is one of the more recent cuts introduced to the diamond industry and had since gained a great deal of popularity with the ladies.

In a market that is overshadowed by the influx of round diamonds, the oval shape offers a refreshing alternative to people who want break away from the usual trends. With its elongated shape, ovals exuberate an air of elegance that no other shapes possess.

One of the key advantages of selecting an oval diamond is that it can flatter the fingers by making them appear longer and slimmer. For women with smaller sized hands or shorter fingers, it is the perfect complement to your jewelry needs.

Now, I’ll walk you through the complete process of selecting an oval cut diamond and show you the things you need to keep an eye on.

A Brief History of the Oval Brilliant Cut

The oval cut was conceived by a Russian man named Lazare Kaplan. He was an expert cleaver who specialized in odd shaped rough diamonds that were extremely difficult to work with. In his hands, these rough crystals could be turned into beautiful gems that could fetch higher prices.

Besides his diamond cutting skills, Lazare Kaplan was also an inventor and patented the laser inscription process as well as HPHT treatment process. Due to his contributions to the trade, he went down in history as one of the most important cutters of all time and was honored in the Jewelers International Hall of Fame. Till date, his legacy still remains with a brand of diamonds that were named after him.

The oval cut typically consists of 56 facets and has an ideal length to width ratio of 1.33 (L/W). Due to the oval brilliant’s unique shape, many people had also term them as “squashed round brilliants” – which takes its name after how a round brilliant diamond would look if it was squashed.

In real life diamond cutting processes, the diameter of different stones depends on how the cutter decides to work with the rough. As a result, the depth to diameter ratio will vary from one diamond to another which results in unique appearances.

length to width ratios of oval cut diamond

For an oval diamond to produce maximum brilliance while minimizing the bow tie effect, a depth percentage between 62% – 66% is recommended. Ovals with depths that fall below 60% usually have low pavilion angles which can cause prominent bow-ties to form.

When the diamond is cut to deep proportions (depth of more than 68%), the bow tie effect is reduced significantly. However, the optical performance of the diamond is also adversely affected. This results in a diamond that is usually dull and take on a darker appearance.

Recommended Proportions for Oval Cut Brilliant Diamonds

Excellent Very Good Good Fair/Poor
Table % 54% – 58% 52% – 60% 51% – 64% Outside Ranges
Depth % 62% – 66% 60% – 68% 56% – 70% Outside Ranges
Polish/Symmetry Excellent – Very Good Good Outside Ranges
Length to Width 1.30 – 1.35 1.25 – 1.29
1.36 – 1.40
1.20 – 1.24
1.41 – 1.45
Outside Ranges
Girdle Thickness Thin – Slightly Thick V. Thin – Thick Outside Ranges
Culet Size None Very Small Small Outside Ranges

* Note: The recommended proportions for oval cut diamonds should be used as a reference only. It is designed to help you eliminate poorly cut stones and narrow down your choices. Subjective observations for personal tastes and tangible light performance data like ASET images should always take higher precedence.

Browse through 700+ amazing oval cut diamonds using 360° videos at James Allen today!

Examples of Oval Diamonds With Different Outlines And Shape Appeal

Buying fancy cuts without seeing the diamond is a mistake many consumers make at places like Bluenile. This is because most oval diamonds are cut to dismal proportions and it is very easy for the uneducated customer to make a bad purchase.

Below are some examples that show diamonds with poor outlines when they aren’t cut properly and sadly, these kinds of “oval” diamonds are common sights in the market.

example of poor oval diamond cut proportions and symmetry

Seriously, do the diamonds look oval to you? They take on an elliptical appearance instead.

oval diamond with 2 unbalanced sides

The uneven bellies are a result of poor symmetry and looks plain awful.

NEVER Commit the Same Mistakes Others Make

As you can see, buying fancy shapes based solely on a grading report isn’t a wise thing to do. I need to stress the importance of working with a jeweler (e.g. James Allen) who is able to provide magnified images/videos for your examination. On top of that, you need someone who is able to provide tangible light performance information to help you make an educated purchase decision.

d color if clarity 1 carat oval brilliant
i1 oval badly proportioned

You want to buy brilliant looking stones (left) and avoid the majority of ghastly ones (right).

Like some other fancy cuts, oval diamonds have an intrinsic bowtie effect that can be seen from a face up view. This is an attribute you need to be careful with during your selection process. On the following page, we will delve deeper into this…

Next Page >>

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  1. Kenedy Ssemuyaba-
    June 22, 2016 at 4:35 pm

    Dear Sir/ Madam,
    A friend in Africa has 3 blue diamonds but they seem a bit rare according to the blue diamond stones. I would like to send you some photos of the diamonds so you can tell me if they are some of those you would buy if i transported them and how much the pricing for them. Too bad i do not have where to attach the photos here

  2. Guillermo-
    September 29, 2016 at 9:31 am

    Dear Paul,

    Your website is the best website on the internet with respect to diamonds, it’s unparalleled. I can’t believe I almost bought an engagement ring for my girlfriend before reading all of this useful information.

    After reviewing your website, going to jewelry stores to check the engagement rings (Cartier, Tiffany’s, etc) and visiting jamesallen.com, I think I have found a good diamond.

    This one has a 54% table, 63.70% depth, and very good symmetry. The only problem is that the girdle is thick-very thick.

    Also, even though it has only VS2 clarity, i think it looks good.

    Could you please let me know what do you think.

  3. Medina-
    August 30, 2017 at 12:00 pm

    Hi Paul,

    I’m curious to know more about your thoughts on depth % in the oval cut. Most general guidelines say 58-62% for an excellent cut whereas you’re recommending 62-64%. Generally I trust your very informed recommendations but this part confuses me now in my search for the perfectly cut oval diamond :)

    All the best,

  4. Medina-
    August 30, 2017 at 12:01 pm

    …of course I meant to write you recommend 62-66% as per the table above…

  5. Paul Gian-
    August 31, 2017 at 5:46 am

    Don’t get hung up by numbers. I have specifically stated that very clearly in my write up below the proportions table. What matters most is getting a video and an ASET to help you decipher shape appeal and performance.

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text:
A Heartbreaker: Joyce’s “Araby” (More Motley Reading)

I can’t help it–this story gets to me every time.  It’s not my favorite story in Dubliners; in fact, I avoid it in the gazillion anthologies it graces (mostly because I don’t want to read it to death).  But then when I do read it,  every ten years or so, the narrator sends his story right back around my heart and squeezes.  I love the boy–his questing, his longing, his normalness, his imagination, his possibility.

I love how each of these first three stories builds, one to the next. (Another reason I don’t like it to be anthologized, for it belongs with the other two, grows out of them, revising my sense of what was going on in the one before, and the one before preparing me for the one I’m reading and the one to come.  “Eveline” changes things up big time..but more on that story after I read it again.)  The images from one story call to the next as though they are houses themselves along North Richmond Street. I’m thinking here, again, about Alan’s observation that reading these three stories is like “peeking into a musty window of these people’s lives.”  The shuttered world of “The Sisters” becomes the full city in “The Encounter” becomes the wild swing between inside & outside, imagination & reality, domestic and other in  “Araby.” The rhythms and sounds of the first two–those remarkable cadences– prepare us for the astonishments of this story:  “…shook music from the buckled harness” or “Her dress swung as she moved her body and the soft rope of her hair tossed from side to side.”   So simple those soft syllables. The boy has slowed down enough from the “career of [their] play” to notice, to sense, to feel.

Chris mentioned in his post the indebtedness of so many twentieth-century writers to Joyce.  I think here in “Araby” of Flannery O’Connor’s use of sentence rhythm and sound–the way Joyce breaks up a sentence– in  the magnificent opening of her “Parker’s Back”: “Parker’s wife sat on the front porch floor, snapping beans. Parker was sitting on the step, some distance away, watching her sullenly.  She was plain, plain.”  I love to reorder Joyce’s sentences to learn from him, to see how the meaning comes out of his grammar, his syntax. The opening sentence, for example–What if it read, “Being blind, North Richmond Street was a quiet street except at the hour when the Christian Brothers’ school set the boys free?”  Or even worse, “Except at the hour when the Christian Brothers’ school set the boys free, being blind, North Richmond Street was a quiet street.”  What he does with word order and punctuation.  (Watch out–wait until we get to “The Dead” and that opening sentence!)  There are many, many sentences in this story that just knock me down.

I love the language of “Araby” and how it, too, grows out of “The Sisters” and “The Encounter.” We’re ready for the mix of peculiarly childish perspective and adult use of language–the child’s fresh hearing of “Swaddlers! Swaddlers!” from “The Encounter” becomes the more nuanced language of longing when he describes her hand on the railing .  Something has intensified in “Araby,” sharpened and matured–the gauzy confusion felt by the boys in the opening stories lifts in the presence of longing.  Where in “The Encounter” the streets are “noisy”, in “Araby it is “flaring.”  “Araby” ends in “anguish and anger,” a stressed declaration of feeling that the other stories do not find, one just ending mid-sentence, the other penitent. (Going back to my earlier point about the sounds and rhythms carrying so much of the power: imagine if Joyce had ended the story in “anguish and rage”…)

I love that this story (the other two, as well) are narrated in the first person, but using the past tense, and thereby keeping us–and the narrator– at a distance from the events.  This is told through the scrim of memory, and that the narrator is telling the stories must mean that he keeps returning to these memories, catches on them like a wool sweater on a nail.   In fact–and this is in response to something Chris said in a discussion with Nancy about the language–I do not think at all that Joyce missteps a bit with the swings between elevated and simple language.  I think he offers us another divide here between adult and child, a deeper angst, sadness, and impossibility precisely because the stories are told by the older self re-entering the younger self.

Araby, II

So much to respond to in this story, so fun to read it slowly aloud, but I’ll leave it here for now.  I’m rather enjoying this motley reading:  writing a bit here, responding a bit there, sending off another bit in a postcard, messing around with photos I took on my last trip to Ireland. What a gift to be on this journey with such a motley crew.


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School Site Council (SSC)

The SSC is a decision making council for the Consolidated Application program operated at the school to improve student’s achievement through the Single Plan for Student Achievement.

  • Throughout the school year the SSC shall develop, monitor and approve the SPFSA in consultation with all stakeholders, with the review, certification and advice of any applicable school advisory committee (EC 64001).
  • The SSC shall write and develop the Comprehensive School Safety Plan or may delegate this responsibility to a school safety planning committee. Each school district is responsible for the overall development of all comprehensive school safety plans for its schools (EC 32281).
  • The SSC shall receive the necessary training annually to enable it to carry out its responsibilities to develop, monitor, and modify the SPFSA and the budget (EC 64001).
  • The school’s principal has the responsibility for the proper functioning of the SSC.

At the Intermediate level, the council shall be constituted to ensure parity. Half of the membership shall be constituted by: the principal, classroom teachers, and other school personnel (staff side). Classroom teachers are a majority of the staff side. The other half shall be constituted by: half parents and other community members elected by parents. The membership of the Council shall be no fewer than twelve members.


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Nearly a year after its introduction, the Galaxy Note 7 is preparing for a triumphant return. This time around, the phone will sport a non-exploding battery, and it’ll be more gentle to your wallet. That said, a brand new leak brings us a powerful reminder of why you should just skip the Note 7 and wait for the Note 8 instead.

Discovered on Geekbench, a benchmark test for the SM-N935S reveals what we’ve always known: the Galaxy Note 7 is a 2016 flagship handset that wants to experience a second life this year.

The Galaxy Note 7 was one of the best Android of 2016, but it’s no match for this year’s flagships. Even if it’s going to be cheaper, it’s still not a great deal considering that it features an old design — no Infinity display for you — and old hardware.

Image Source: PrimateLabs

Furthermore, there’s really no incentive for Samsung to keep it updated to the latest Android versions out there. After all, Samsung will only sell a couple of million Note 7 units at best. At least this listing indicates the phone will run Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box. But Samsung is only selling a safe version of the phone because it’s the easiest way to recycle the recalled stock. Plus, it’ll help it recoup some of its losses.

The Galaxy Note 8, meanwhile, will deliver the next-gen design that Samsung introduced earlier this year with the Galaxy S8 and significantly increased performance. It will, however, be more expensive than the Galaxy Note 7, which may be a deal-breaker for some. If that’s the case, you should check out the OnePlus 5. Launching soon, the phone should deliver Galaxy S8-like specs for a price that might be even better than the Galaxy Note 7’s.


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Residential GLASS

Decorative Glass

Desk tops

Cabinet Glass

Glass shelves

Custom Mirror Frames

Shower Doors / Enclosures

Specialty Glass

Decorative Glass

Heat Treated Glass

Window Glass Replacement

Patio Glass Replacement

Plexiglas – acrylic/plastic glass

Lexan – Polycarbonate Glass

Low E Glass – energy saving

Insulated Glass – Double paned

Wood Putty Frames

Big River Glass has been providing quality residential services since 1985! We pride ourselves in using only the best installation techniques and the highest quality materials. We understand what your house means to you and our technicians are trained to be courteous and professional from start to finish resulting in our award winning service!

Do you already have existing bathroom mirrors that you would like to fancy up? Take your ordinary mirror and turn it into a custom framed wood mirror!

BRG offers 2 options:

Our homes are the largest investment most of us will make in our lifetime. We take pride in our landscaping, light accents, gnomes and overall curb appeal of our homes! The last thing we want is for our homes to have white cloudy windows!

Click here to see the different types of glass edgings we can do.

Have you ever cleaned your window only to discover you couldn’t clean it spotless? Was there a haze or cloud that you just couldn’t remove? If so, your insulated unit has probably failed or began the failing process. Once your double paned glass has failed, it is time to replace it. No need to fret over the cost of removing the entire window, BRG can replace just the double insulated glass saving you time and money on costly entire window replacements!

Click here to see a fogged double paned glass replacement.

When an insulated glass fails, the glass loses its ability to perform as it originally did. Moisture has now entered the 2 panes of glass and the overall performance has diminished. The only way to regain the energy performance of the window is to replace the faulty glass.

Click here to view a double pane glass.

Click here to see how a dual pane window works.

Big River Glass uses only the leading shower door manufacturers.

We can make the following types of mirrors:

  • Custom Vanity Mirrors/Bathroom Mirrors
  • Workout room Mirrored walls
  • Beveled Mirrors
  • Door Mirrors

Click to view larger

Have questions or a project inquiry?


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Nokia answers ROKR with Music Pack

September 19, 2005

Nokia 6630 and Music Pack

Nokia has announced a Music Pack to further sweeten the MP3 player capabilities of compatible Pop-port enabled handsets. Visit the Music Pack homepage or read the specs and FAQ.

What you get in the pack:

  • Nokia Audio Adapter AD-15 (lets you plug in standard 3.5mm headphones)
  • Nokia 256MB MMCmobile card MU-9 (you can up this yourself to 1GB RS-MMC if you need more space for tunes)
  • Nokia Stereo Audio Cable CA-72U (converts the Audio Adapter output into RCA connectors to plug into a stereo system)
  • Nokia USB MMC/SD reader DD-10 (an MMC and SD card reader, for loading tunes onto the RS-MMC card)

Music Pack has apparently only been announced for EMEA availability so far, but marry the pack with a 1GB RS-MMC and a 6630 or 6682, though, and you’re getting awfully close to what I believe a successful cellpod needs.

Is this a carefully timed response to ROKR E1 destined to be available in other geos too sometime soon? You be the judge.

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DKK 56.25

Graphic Monday - Illustrator (In English)

26.10.2015 kl. 18:00 Studenterhus Aarhus, Aarhus C
Buy ticket

Ticket sale has ended

DKK 56.25

Studenterhus Aarhus tilbyder et introduktionskursus i Illustrator.

Graphic Monday - Illustrator
(This course is in English)

The Studenthouse in Aarhus offers an introduction course in Illustrator.

You need to bring your own computer for the course and have Illustrator installed in advance. If you don’t have Illustrator you can download a trial version on this link:

The course is from 18-21 and there will be a break were there will be served sandwiches.

The ticket costs 50kr
We are having the course in both Danish and English.


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fresh biscuits buttermilk flour ingredients

Promotions, Offers, Contests

Check out our seasonal promotions and enjoy the Flavor of Local.

The Very Cherry Flavor of Local

Our popular Spicy Chicken and Honey features all-natural chicken from Springer Mountain Farms in Georgia: Super-spicy, Southern-fried, and drizzled with pure, light-amber honey produced in Winston-Salem. To complement its sweet heat, we’re pairing it with ice-cold Cheerwine®, the uniquely Southern, cherry-flavored classic from Salisbury, NC. It’s a fire-and-ice, flavor-of-local combo!

Red Velvet Chocolate Chunk Muffin is Back!

Fresh from the oven, the ultimate in cozy, comfort food for the upcoming holiday season.

English Muffin Sandwiches

At Biscuitville, local is going high-protein with our new English muffin sandwiches, featuring our Grilled Chicken, Egg, and Cheese English Muffin with 34 grams of protein. Goodbye, protein bars!

Learn more about the local chicken story.

Local Ingredients Family Activity

Did you know our country ham comes from Wilkesboro, North Carolina? Or that the flour for our delicious, scratch-made biscuits is from a local milling family down the road in Henderson, North Carolina? We're big on supporting local family businesses - because we're one, too!

Download the coloring sheet to share with your family to learn more about our local ingredients story. Be sure to bring your finished coloring sheet to your favorite Biscuitville FRESH SOUTHERN® restaurant to receive a FREE biscuit (see sheet for details; offer expires 12/31/18). Learn more about our local partner stories here.


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The 2018 Pick-Your-Own season is currently underway! Apples, Pears, Raspberries & Pumpkins  are open for picking in Guilford and Apples in Northford on weekends and Columbus Day. Hours for both locations are 10am-5pm.

Before heading out, please call 203 458-PICK for daily updates. Remember the Farm Market is open 24/7, year round.

At Bishop’s Orchards we work hard and take pride in growing the highest quality fruits to enjoy year after year from our family to yours. All the fresh products are available either seasonally at our Pick-Your-Own (PYO) locations and/or annually at our farm market.

The summer sun shining down on our orchards provides an ideal location to spend part of the day to enjoy the fun of picking your own quality fruit directly from the bushes or trees. Each year the Pick-Your-Own season may vary due to weather and crop abundance, yet generally runs from mid-June until the end of October. You can see the breakdown on our PYO Calendar. To ensure you have the most accurate information, we recommend calling ahead at our 24-hour information phone line of 203-458-PICK (7425). This phone line is also updated daily during the picking season to provide the latest information to all our valued customers.

We look forward to having your family and friends enjoy the fun and experience of our popular Pick-Your-Own season at Bishop’s Orchards! Plan ahead and see when your favorite fruit will be ready for picking to snack on shortly after picking or to prepare delicious meals or canned jams.

AND this season at Bishop’s Orchards – while you, family and friends are enjoying yourself at Pick-Your-Own among our freshly-grown, flavorful products – we invite you to share your experience in our Pick Bishop’s Campaign. Click any fruit in the menu below to reveal more info.

  • Strawberries

    Mid June – Early July

    As the first Pick-Your-Own fruit of the season, our sweet and juicy strawberries provide a healthy snack as is or can be prepared within a variety of tasty recipes from salads to desserts. Typically starting in mid-June and lasting until early July, there are varieties that we grow that have been carefully selected due to their flavor and ability to cultivate well in our New England soils and weather. Although the season for picking strawberries is short, it is worthwhile picking your batch as soon as possible before they are gone until next year.

  • Blueberries

    Mid July – Late August

    A small berry is readily available mid-July and continues into late-August with approximately a six-to-seven week harvest period. As with our strawberries, we grow several varieties of blueberries on our lands that continuously ripen throughout the season. Do not take their small size the wrong way as they are very versatile and have excellent eating, cooking and freezing qualities. When picking, it is recommended that the berry has a full blue color to guarantee a full, sweet flavor. With a longer availability for picking, we rotate our picking areas to ensure a steady, uniform supply of ripe berries from the start to the end of the season.

  • Peaches

    Mid August – Mid September

    Our soft, fuzzy-skinned freestone peaches are full of color and sweetly juicy with each bite. The season begins in mid-August and extends until mid-September. Due to their ideal tree-ripened picking and unpredictability, the Pick-Your-Own times are typically known a few days in advance. Do not let their temperament deter you from enjoying this sweet fruit because they are well worth the wait once they are ripe. Peaches are also a great source of Vitamin C and dietary fiber among other small quantities of vitamins and minerals including potassium. Enjoy all the health benefits and savor this luscious fruit fresh or prepared as a dessert and/or addition to your summer BBQ dinner.

  • Raspberries

    Late August – Late October

    A fragile fruit with deep red coloring and sweet, tangy flavors are available to be freshly picked starting in mid-to-late August and continues until late October with September being its peak time. In addition to their natural beauty and flavors, raspberries also offer a great source of dietary fiber and Vitamin C. To avoid spoilage, we recommend using them within a day unless properly stored fresh or frozen. With that said, there are many ways to use raspberries in salads, yogurt, juices, sauces, cakes and cookies.

  • Pears

    Late August – Mid September

    Our own pears come in various sizes, shapes and colors with a distinct waist tapering to the stem. The season begins in late August with Bartlett Pears and runs until mid-September with Bosc Pears. Both pear varieties are distinct in their own way; Bartlett’s are juicy, sweet and excellent for eating, canning and cooking while Bosc’s are crisp and best for eating and cooking. Unique to Bishop’s Orchards, Bosc pears are available in our Farm Market typically from September until April. Regardless of which type of pear you choose, they are a great addition to your diet due to their natural source of dietary fiber, Vitamin C and low GI (prolonged energy due to slow carbohydrate digestion) and low potassium.

  • Apples

    Late August – Late October

    As the primary fruit of our orchard, apples are readily available from late August to late October. On site, we grow over 20 varieties of apples that suit all your needs whether it be for cooking, gifts, or a quick snack on the go. At our Pick-Your-Own locations, we provide bags at no cost and on the weekends a tractor trailer rides takes you from our parking area into the orchard. For specific varieties, we recommend calling us before you come in to make sure we have just the right apple for you! Other than the Pick-Your-Own season, we always have a wide selection of apples year round to choose from right in our Farm Market due to our special storage units that keep the apples “Tree fresh” long after they have been picked.

  • Pumpkins

    Mid September – Halloween

    To wrap up our Pick-Your-Own season we have the hearty, sphere-shaped pumpkins ready to be used as a decoration during Halloween and Thanksgiving or prepared as a food item from pumpkin seeds to soups. Accompanying the apples, this is a fun time of the year to come for PYO to celebrate being outdoors with the fresh crisp air in our pumpkin crop. The season starts in mid-September and lasts through Halloween. In addition to pumpkins, we also have excellent pairings of mums, corn stalks, gourds, squash, Indian Corn and plentiful family activities to enjoy. From scarecrow-making to the annual hay maze challenge, enjoy this colorful part of the year while making your fall decorating easy with quality products right from your local farmer’s market.


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Observations From The Boat

Countless are the times that I have travelled by boat. I come from an island and for a long time the only way to get a glimpse of civilisation was by taking the ferry to the mainland (the mainland being located a few hours away by boat). As countless are the hours that I have spent in the cafeterias and bars, looking at people, listening to them, being inspired by them. Yes, I am that quiet person in the corner, what you say might be recounted later – in some other time, and in another place, than where the original story was whispered, shouted, cried out, narrated.

Today the cafeteria is not that full, but there are some people here. One man talking on the phone (to his wife?) while telling the person on the other side of the line about his day. He has a typical Finnish accent. There are also a lot of young men (and surprisingly few women) – they all look very typically Nordic. Blonde, medium-height. Funny accent (not a typically Nordic characteristic). Most people drink beer and have a late dinner. There are some children playing, and someone is talking about skagenröra. Google Translate tells us that skagenröra is mayonnaise – in fact, it is more than mayonnaise, it’s prawn salad. The Swedish kind that you have on toast or with baked potatoes. Do not trust GT on this one!

Winter In Stockholm
Winter In Stockholm

There are 323 people on board. And I’m on my way to the Åland Islands and I will be there in less than two hours. Going abroad from Sweden (and back) will cost you 50 SEK (that is approximately 5 €). You hop on the bus in the Stockholm Central Station (actually, avoid that place on Fridays if you can – it will drive you crazy, unless someone runs you over first!). The bus takes you to the port, where the boat is waiting. In less than two hours you will be in a new country. During that hour and a half, you can drink beer, have something to eat, or just sit here and observe people. You can also pay a visit to the duty free shop. I’m quite happy eavesdropping on some Polish people – lovely language, that one, but they could really try to mind their vocabulary.

Practical trips: there are three main shipping companies you can use to get to the Åland Islands. See the links at the end of this post for those. From the Åland Islands, it’s possible to continue your journey to Finland or Estonia, unless you want to stay there or return to Sweden.

People are fairly calm here. The buzz is relaxing, and most of my co-travellers seem to be happy about wherever it is that they may be going. I’m going to visit my parents and eat a lot of delicious Finnish bread. And in less than two days, I will be back in Sweden again.

Considering the amount of snow outside, you might not blame me for dreaming back to another boat trip…

By Boat in Istanbul

By Boat On The Baltic Sea

Are you interested in travelling by boat (we are talking passenger ferries, really) across the Baltic Sea?

Take a look at the following pages

Happy Travels!

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HPE Discover 2017: HPE Makes Operational Technology Software-Defined to Help Analyze IoT Data

Companies that collect large amounts of data from connected devices can only act on that data if they can mine it for insights.

The worlds of IT and operational technology are sometimes separate, but these days they often converge. Internet of Things data from connected devices is often collected by OT systems; for businesses to make the most of that data, they need to analyze it in real time.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is aiming to help businesses analyze data more efficiently by introducing what it calls “Software Defined OT.” The new software product makes HPE’s open, x86 Edgeline Systems and OT functions software-defined.

The goal is to make it easier for businesses to analyze data, including IoT data, at the network edge — the world beyond a company’s data center, close to end users.

Collecting OT Data from Connected Devices

Operational technology, Gartner notes, “is hardware and software that detects or causes a change through the direct monitoring and/or control of physical devices, processes and events in the enterprise.”

“We’re on the front lines powering the intelligent edge as your enterprise stretches from deeply connected digital workplaces to intelligently monitored operations to transformative experiences for your customers,” HPE CEO Meg Whitman said at the HPE Discover 2017 conference in Las Vegas this week.

“We’re getting more and more data at the edge, so that data doesn't have to travel back and forth to the data center or to the cloud, and the reality is that often data has to be captured and analyzed at the edge, reducing latency,” Whitman added.

In a company blog post, Ron Neyland, HPE’s senior director of software and solutions, and Tom Bradicich, HPE’s vice president and general manager of servers, converged edge and IoT systems, take a deep dive into HPE’s vision for merging IT and OT.

They note that a main source of OT data comes from connected devices “and is related to OT functions such as control systems, direct wired data acquisition systems, and industrial networks. This convergence of OT and IT is driving new products and services that optimize business operations, address engineering challenges, and accelerate scientific discovery.”

Even as IT and OT converge, Neyland and Bradicich note that “you can’t act on the data you can’t analyze, you can’t analyze data you don’t collect, and you can’t collect what you don’t measure.”

HPE refers to the steps of this data collection process as the 3 As: acquire, analyze and act. “One of HPE’s strategic missions is to help customers acquire, analyze, and act on the data across their operations,” Neyland and Bradicich write. “This data can come from the far extremes of their operational universe, the Intelligent Edge, or from their data centers and clouds.”

HPE’s New Software-Defined OT Platform

About a year ago, HPE launched its Edgeline Converged Edge Systems, which help integrate both OT and IT. Via that solution, OT controls, data capture and industrial network systems are combined with computing, storage, remote systems management, all in one box. That gives businesses a “smaller footprint, fewer items to buy, deploy, and manage, lower energy, and higher reliability,” Neyland and Bradicich note.

The new software-defined OT solution includes several elements. The key piece is HPE Edgeline Services Platform, which serves as the foundational software upon which HPE and its partners deliver applications and services that enable HPE to implement IoT solutions. The goal is to have those IoT operations run at the edge — in factories, refineries, vehicles and end-user devices.

The solution also includes the HPE Edgeline Data Aggregation App, an OT app that ingests and combines data from multiple existing or new OT devices (such as programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems) and aggregates it in a single data collection.

Further, the platform includes the HPE Edgeline Address Translation App, which converges the task of network address translations from a larger network (for instance, within an entire factory) to one or more subset networks (such as a specific manufacturing line in a factory). That app uses a software-defined configuration to control its activities, which means it can be easily managed and orchestrated remotely, note Neyland and Bradicich.

Using HPE's Intelligent Edge Tech in the Real World

HPE highlights a case study of how this kind of technology can work. The company worked with Texmark Chemicals, a family-owned chemical processing plant in Galena Park, Texas, to create a “refinery of the future.”

“By creating a more connected and automated refinery, Texmark is gaining new analytic insights into areas such as asset tracking and lifecycle management, predictive maintenance, worker safety, video analytics and more,” says JR Fuller, HPE’s worldwide business development manager for IoT Edgeline.

Texmark’s refinery, like many other refineries, is a harsh environment that requires specialized equipment to avoid chemicals or gases from interacting with electrical machinery that could spark.

“This potentially lethal combination makes installing basic technology nearly impossible,” Fuller wrote. “In Texmark’s case, the plant had been running the same low-level communications protocols for more than 40 years because the alternatives required an unacceptably high level of power and risk.”

HPE helped by installing an Aruba instant wireless access point in a heavy-duty box designed for deployment in hazardous conditions, allowing it to implement Wi-Fi in the plant. That made it possible to deploy Aruba Bluetooth Low Energy beacons and Meridian location-based software, which in turn enabled services within the refinery such as indoor-outdoor wayfinding and location-based services and content. Texmark can use data from those services, Fuller notes, to automate processes and help ensure workers are operating in a safe environment.

Edge computing, processing data at the edge, allows companies to “respond more rapidly to anomalies,” Fuller notes.

“Before the advent of edge computing, analyzing video sensor data from industrial sites wasn’t economically feasible, since it required sending extremely large video files to remote data centers for processing,” Fuller notes. “By installing HPE Edgeline EL4000 converged edge systems onsite, Texmark can perform near-real-time advanced video analytics on the video as it is streaming.”

Read articles from BizTech coverage of HPE Discover 2017 here.

Jun 08 2017


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Review: GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 2 – Icky Goo

This thing went right into the category “How-did-they-come-up-with-this?”, of course. It’s a classic weird GURPS book, although one with a lower-case w. It doesn’t have the quite same weirdness level as GURPS I.O.U. or Weird War or even Bunnies and Burrows, but its right there with classics like the Creatures of the Night series and Hotspots – Renaissance Florence.

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At first glance you might wonder why Steve Jackson Games publish things like these, but if you think about it for a while, you realise it’s actually pretty logical. And no, that’s not because the line editor can damn well publish anything he likes. It’s because nobody else is publishing these. They might not find more than 500 buyers, but those 1800 bucks are apparently enough to pay author, editor, layout team and publishing costs while building up brand reputation for GURPS.

GM: I need a system that has a realistic representation of all kinds of fantastic slimes I can let loose in a detailed representation of 9th century Byzantium only all the player characters are adolescents bonded to alien bio-suits that they think are manifestations of the Holy Spirit.
Game shop clerk: Er, you know what? I’m going to give you 20% off the GURPS Basic Set and Powers if you promise never to talk to me again.

As this is my first review on this site, I’ll explain some of the terms I use a while I go along. These paragraphs are in italics.

Author: Sean Punch (Dr. Kromm)
Date of Publication: 2015/06/04
Format: PDF-only (Warehouse 23-only)
Page Count: 22 (1 title page, 1 content page, 1 index page (+special goo index), 1 ad page)
Price: $5.99 (PDF), $ 0.33 per page of content; Score of 4/10

This book is part of the Dungeon Fantasy line (more specifically it made Dungeon Fantasy Monsters 1 finally worthy of the numeral), so it’s mostly addressed to the folks who play DF or – as many do – use the line as a quarry for useful rules, monsters and gear. It’s, however, quite a bit more focused than a normal DF supplement, DF 12 – Ninja comes closest in terms of unity of content and also in page count, though DF 14 – Psi is actually more linked thematically. I think I won’t spoil anything if I mention that some of those slimes might be elder spawn.

For those of the readers who have read and enjoyed DF Monsters 1, the book on hand might come as something of a shock as the structure is very different: Instead of handy 1-page write-ups for each monster (including an atmospheric picture), we get a section each of for fungi, jellies, moulds, oozes, puddings, slimes and spore clouds. Each of the seven is two pages long and starts with monster stats for a generic specimen, but that’s where the similarity stops. Some sections list differently coloured specimens, some give different modes of attack and others describe at length what makes the gooey enemy in question different from all other gooey enemies described.

These sections are framed by a page of general gooey characteristics and two pages of how to GM for goo. Of especial importance is the caveat of when not to use – few players enjoy fighting disgustingly tough foes that don’t have any treasure. And that’s where I stumbled: Why start of your cool series on monster types with a book on oozes? Sure, it’s original, but that’s about it. A GM, possibly still at school, who spent six bucks on this book will want to use it, but it’s really easy to over-use gooey foes in any context. Even in a swamp or river dungeon the players are going to groan after the third encounter with weird slime. It’s a bit of a head-scratcher, but that doesn’t detract from the books usefulness. And that’s the meat of the matter.

The meat is the heart of most RPG splatbooks, what’s generally referred to as crunch. Basically rules that can be used by players and GMs. For a GURPS book – barring historical and fictional setting books – that is usually the meat of the matter. So I’ll call it that. Some books are less interested in rules and that will be reflected in the scoring.

DFM 2 contains a host of useful crunch. If you count all the variants there are 36 different fungi, 2 kinds of jellies, one of them deliciously adaptable depending on its latest meals, 27 variants of moulds (admittedly a pretty passive hazard), 1 type of ooze that scales heavily with total mass, 6 types of puddings, 15 types of slimes and 36 types of spore clouds.

Now most of these are just minor modifications, but it’s still an impressive array and enough to confuse even those players who quickly buy up supplements and try to memorise them. I’m not sure these exist, but I grew up with Knights of the Dinner Table and try to be on the paranoid side where it’s fun.

All the monsters are ready-to-use for Dungeon Fantasy and the ones with double-digit numbers of subtypes even feature tables to roll on for extra randomness. The GM tips are more extensive than in DFM 1 – simply because there’s more space for each type and general information is on the introduction page. There are good hints on how to make things more interesting for the players.

On the whole the information is dense, while easy to use, but it doesn’t quite reach the nice at-a-glance nature of DFM 1.

Meat score: 9/10 (very hearty – solid GURPS rules crunch, albeit very specific)

Now everybody likes meat (I’m joking of course), but what we really appreciate is the cheese (not joking any more – cheese is great). Folks generally call setting details that don’t impact rules very much fluff. I find the term (along with its sibling crunch) a bit annoying, so I’ll go with cheese instead as a synonym for all the good things that make life worth living.

DFM 2 doesn’t offer a whole lot. This lack of fluff is typical and intended for the Dungeon Fantasy line. It’s supposed to plug into any vaguely Tolkienesque fantasy setting.

Here we get just some hints about what scholars think of the whole gooey business and some ideas of how the everything relates to certain elder things. And of course, there’s habitat information, but that almost veers over into crunchy meat territory. That’s basically it. Oh and barbarian culture uses umlauts while dwarves g0 heavy 0n the apostrophes and limericks. Not a ringing endorsement, I know, but fluff is really not the focus here.

Cheese score: 3/10 (nothing to see here folks)

You could see the sauce as superfluous, but don’t be fooled, nice art, good pull quotes, complete and correct indices and above all well-written prose are what makes reading books fun. And if they’re not fun to read, they’re often just skimmed. And that often leads to annoying mistakes.

The writing style is a no-brainer in this case as the good doctor’s skill level in writing is well above professional level. Even the description of game mechanics are pleasure to read and everywhere you can find the tongue-in-cheek humour that makes DF the Munchkin among GURPS products. Especially of note are the cringeworthy box headings (from “Goo Things Come to those who Wait” to “Breaking the Mould”). There’s even bonus poetry content: a dwarven limerick on the content page and a bona fide sonnet in the glossary. If you want nothing else to do with this book you still owe it to yourself to check these out. They are part of the free preview.

Unfortunately, the art is a step back from DFM 1, no make that three steps – DFM 1 was the first 4th Edition book with really great art. Now, it doesn’t matter too much when we’re talking of slimes and stuff, but the spore cloud art is basically a sphere of dots and the others are not much better. The picture of the pudding in the preview is actually one of the better ones. While it doesn’t quite reach the depths of GURPS Magic‘s poser art the art is really weak.

Pull quotes are fun, proof-reading is top-notch and the index is useful with an extra goo index that covers goo from other books. The only mistake I could notice is that the Slime bookmark redirects to the last page on Puddings. Not that you really need bookmarks for a book of this length.

Sauce score: 6/10 (great writing, uninspired art)

Generic Nutritional Substance

Given the generic nature of GURPS it’s quite important how adaptable the material is for other settings. That depends mostly on things like subject matter and relative power levels.

DFM 2 is pretty good in this regard. Actually, the material presented here almost seems more appropriate for a weird SF or supers campaign. Most goo is definitely a tough challenge for DF groups, because of its Injury Tolerance. For supers with area or explosive powers that don’t cost FP the GM might want to add Injury Tolerance: Damage Reduction, but for most space operas explosive weapons are dependant on an ever short supply of ammunition. All in all it’s easy to port the material to other settings that are at least border-line weird. Moulds and even fungi might make an appearance in campaigns that are only mildly cinematic. None of the critters in here are suitable for a thoroughly realistic setting, though.

Generic Nutritional Substance score: 7/10 (pretty generic if specific)

A really nice GURPS supplement that is fun and useful, but suffers a bit from the specificity of the topic matter, the lack of interesting in-world fluff and good art. Still a good buy for Dungeon Fantasy GMs and everybody interested in things gooey.

Total score: 7.2  (really decent stuff for those who like it, but not necessarily everybody’s thing)
Total score is composed of a weighted average of Meat (50%), Cheese (15%), Sauce (20%) and Generic Nutritional Substance (15%). This is a meat-oriented book. A “cheesy” setting book would turn the percentages for cheese and meat around.

Value score: 5.6 (slightly average for the price)
Value Score is composed of the average of Total and Price.

GURPS is a registered trademark of Steve Jackson Games, and the art here is copyrighted by Steve Jackson Games. All rights are reserved by SJ Games. This material is used here in accordance with the SJ Games online policy.


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Currently Browsing: rainbow dark

New Swarovski Innovations and a Fun Contest

Swarovski has announced their Innovations for Fall/Winter 2017/18 and we’re so excited to dive into the new colors, shapes, effects, and more! So excited, in fact, that we are running a cool contest where you can help us give the new pearl coating a nickname. Take a look at a little sneak peek of the […]


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The Eternally Dismissive

The Eternally Dismissive

I search and long for simplicity in this trying time. Perhaps if I can boil the events of the last week, the last year, the last decade, the last century, into its purest essence, then perhaps I can effect change. Perhaps I can drag a few out of the darkness that hate has created.

I ask myself if one man can save another? I was raised to believe God would save man. But in my short time here, I’ve more often than not, witnessed man use God to further hate, rather than exile it. So I feel drawn to step in. I feel I must speak up. I don’t know why I feel this need. I’m a poor boy from Kentucky who holds the keys to no doors, who is preceded by no reputation that demands any person listen.

But what am I to do, when my closest of friends, a black male of the same age as me, cries out? He struggles. He has faced a lifetime of first hand oppression that my privilege has shielded me from, an oppression that I and my people have entirely dismissed. My friend is told silly and dismissive things, almost daily, by white men like: his only problem is that he buys into what the media is selling. He “falls” for their trick. To add insult to injury, a white man, a Facebook friend, we’ll call him Jack…Jack shares a YouTube video of the one black person Jack can find that agrees with Jack…my friend’s voice is useless against Jack…against white people like Jack…it always has been…my friend needs another voice…he needs all the voices he can get, not to speak for him, but to speak with him, to make his voice louder. Maybe, just maybe, this realization is why I feel the need to speak up.

I feel the need to speak because an entire race’s struggle is being entirely and unequivocally dismissed. My people are statistically bad with statistics, we have the test scores to prove it, yet we do silly things like, share graphs that prove black on black violence is the perfect reason to dismiss things like police violence and institutionalized racism. My people have a bad habit of rewriting history to make ourselves feel better. Truman did the right thing…the whole ‘slaughtering of Native Americans’ thing, we can just forget about that. Let’s forget about slavery while we’re at it. That’s what we would like, to just forget. But, when we’re pushed on it, when these atrocities are rehashed and once again shoved in our faces, boy are we ready to fight. “No one alive today was a slave, just get over it.” Oh how my people just don’t get it. Our dismissive attitude doesn’t allow us to see the pain in our neighbor’s eye, much less to consider for a single second how mindsets from 100+ years ago might just have adapted, renamed themselves, hid themselves away, but never have actually left. We just don’t get it. We are content in our dismissive blindness.

A man sits on the bench for a football game, in protest. We loose our minds. He thinks about what he is doing, and he makes a change. He realizes sitting might have indeed been the wrong choice, it might have indeed been disrespectful. So next time, he kneels instead of sitting. Kneeling has never been a sign of disrespect to anything or anyone. Surly, they’ll get it, he must have thought. Of course, we didn’t get it. We lost our minds further. We dismissed his and his people’s plight entirely and immediately. We took the side of our white President…because there are sides here, there always have been…media or no media…we took a side…the wrong side…like we always do. We instantly dismissed any chance of ever discussing what this young man wanted to bring to light. We wrote and entirely controlled the narrative. It’s not about race. It’s about respect. We used our graphs and outdated phrases to not only drive our point home, to prove why we were right…and righteous…but also to drown out any chance he had of being heard. We mindlessly demanded respect for our service members, instead of taking the time to ask what our service members think. We did what we always do, we dismissed and pushed forward.

We don’t know it yet. But the name Kaepernick, love it or hate it, will one day be discussed in the same sentence as King and Parks. His name will deserve to sit in that place of honor. Despite this, my people will still, her and now, grumble at the mention of his name, as many did at the mention of King and Parks in a time not so long past. We will grumble on, completely oblivious that we, not only mirror our past, but insure that it will come again and again. Perhaps this is why I question why I feel the need to speak up. Because, maybe, just maybe, I have no faith in my people? So why even bother?

My words will disgust many today. If you’ve read this far, I hope this won’t be the case. I hope you’re not disgusted. No matter what side your opinion falls on this matter, I hope I have, in some way, in any capacity, convinced you to consider the trouble that being dismissive can cause. I hope you can consider how being dismissive might have played a part in getting us to where we are today.

Be considerate. Adhere to unsettled convictions. Don’t be dismissive.

The Eternally Dismissive
Dallas Blanton

Source: Unstripped Voices – News

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Home decor

5 autumn decorating ideas

Fall is my favourite time of the year. As stockings are getting thicker and we start layering our clothing I wonder: how could I improve my autumn home decor game. I think about colours right away: adding orange, brown and silver cushions to my sofa, taking out my favourite, hand knitted large blanket and making […]


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Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Still here and still going! (Part 1)

Well it has been a very busy few weeks in the house. My Mom and Mémère came up in June for a whole weekend to help me get the house in order...and really it was awesome! We really only did a few rooms, but the impact of that change can be felt every day.

M&M (Mom and Memere- he he) helped me get rid of a lot of junk and stuff for the garage sale at my Mom's place. We managed to get rid of some side tables (my Mom is using them as night stands), finish a bunch of projects just hanging around and they Jeff gave us some awesome ideas on how to move some of the furniture in the living room for a better look!

So here is the lowdown (pictures to come, I promise)

Living Room:
  1. Got rid of the too big end tables and coffee table from the living room.
  2. Put all the CD's in a box to go through and make into MP3 (when time permits)
  3. Moved the Ikea corner shelf from the corner of the living room everyone sees when they come in, to the corner of the room no one notices. (this was a HUGE change and all of the Jeff's idea - my Mom was so excited that we made the change right away!)
  4. removed all of my crystal glasses from said shelf, washed them and put them in the kitchen glass door cabinet so we could use them.
  5. Jeff rewired all the sound system to work with the TV in the living room and put it in my credenza that had extra room after I got rid of a bunch of useless serving pieces. So that let us get rid of his Sony audio rack to put for sale. Now the TV works with the Internet and we have great sound. We moved the sub woofer to where the old corner cabinet was and the speakers now flank the credenza.
  6. Cleared the top of the credenza for only my candle holders and my Port (yum! Can't wait to drink that again! - the whole space is so airy now...I can't even believe it was my house!)
  7. Put up some artwork that hadn't been hung, and my curio cabinet for all my cool thimbles people pick up for me on their travels...I have so many and now people can see them!
So we did some plant re-potting, got rid of nick knacks and a lot of little things...I had a Ikea Billy CD rack that was in the dining room (left over from when I had all my bookshelves in the dining room) went downstairs to the home theatre for the blue-rays, so all of my corners were empty of clutter. We moved the water dispenser to the dining room corner. What has happened is that my dining room tables now fits properly in the space! I just need new chairs or even a bench. I have even managed to keep the whole room clean for almost a month now! I just need to do some dusting.

  1. Jeff and I finished the moulding around the window and finally finished the hardwood floor with the proper edging.
  2. Mom and I put in some of the de-clutter tools in my Ikea kitchen cabinets. I have only had them for 4 years in the packaging! LOL
  3. Jeff and I only need to finish the door frame, painting the door and the quarter round near the door. I hope we can do that this weekend. Then the rest will be caulking and painting the trim.
Sewing room:
  1.  Jeff and I finished the floor in the sewing room, and managed to get all the floor moulding and quarter round isn't the prettiest but what a little caulking and paint will do to fix it. I am hoping next spring to repaint the room.
  2. Mom bought me my Ikea 5 high bookshelf for my room! YAY it looks so cool! So we built everything and I have started putting all the fabric away.
  3. I declutter my fabric stash of fabrics I won't ever use (my old Fabricland days) - I actually cleared out 6 Rubbermaid bins to go to the garage sale. WOW! Can't believe that either.
  4. As you saw earlier I have put up some of garb for sale...I still have all the pieces, so if you are interested please let me know.

Sorry for the bad photo - but aren't the cubes awesome! There is the 1x5 that Leif gave us right beside it!

So I have started to move stuff back to the sewing room, still not done yet, but I should be able to get a lot done in the next week or so.

The baby room is still not completed, in fact the office is still there, so tonight we are looking at moving the rest of the sewing stuff into the furnace room, so we can start moving the office down. That is really the priority for this week, as M&M will be coming either this weekend or next to help with round 2!

So Here is the partial June to come the outside of my house and the Garage sale...what a tale with that one!

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Michael Wesch

Michael Wesch is an anthropologist with an interest in the Internet. He posted an interesting video a while back (The Machine is Using Us) that got quite a bit of attention.

I just saw (via John Battelle's Blog) a video of him presenting at the Library of Congress. It is interesting to see him analyze and reflect on some of the changes that have occurred in the last few years, and how it is changing our world.

As someone who rarely spends much time watching video on the small screen, I enjoyed all of this 55 minute video.

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Blog Ipsa Loquitur

FiveThirtyEight Oliver Roeder reviews a new academic paper from two professors at Clemson analyzing the tweets which were part of the Russian election interference. The findings are impressive, but I worry that real headline is buried at the end of the article:

Russia’s attempts to distract, divide, and demoralize has been called a form of political war,” the authors conclude in their paper. “This analysis has given insight into the methods the IRA used to engage in this war.” This war may or may not have had an effect on the 2016 election, but it certainly wreaked havoc. The man who would be named national security adviser followed and pushed the message of Russian troll accounts, according to the Daily Beast, and Trump’s eldest son, campaign manager and digital director each retweeted a Russian troll in the month before the election. Twitter itself informed 1.4 million people that they’d interacted with Russian trolls.

But the researchers emphasized that the Russian disinformation and discord campaign on Twitter extends well beyond even that. “There were more tweets in the year after the election than there were in the year before the election,” Warren said. “I want to shout this from the rooftops. This is not just an election thing. It’s a continuing intervention in the political conversation in America.”

Hoo boy.


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Tuesday, August 14, 2007

some thoughts on knitting patterns

i wonder sometimes how easy it is to get a crafty book deal. not because i have any desire whatsoever to write a pattern book or any book (besides that future-bestseller on how to behave) but because i seriously question sometimes the pattern writers themselves. it appears that sometimes a writer can get a book deal because his or her blog or podcast or whatever is popular, but being a good blog writer and having crafting expertise are two very different things. i guess one successful example of this is the Mason-Dixon Knitting book, which is one of my favorites. in this book, the writers are able to retain the familiar style of their blog (i think--i actually don't read their blog regularly) and the purpose of the book seems to be to compile a collection of patterns that fit their style. i could be wrong on this, but i don't think that the writers themselves created very many of the patterns that appear in the book.

but sometimes i hear about Such-and-Such, who puts out a book solely because he/she has a popular blog or podcast. and S&S's book will contain X number of sock patterns, or lace patterns, or whatever, because S&S is known for primarily knitting these items. and then i will read S&S's blog where he/she will tell a story of having some crafty disaster because he/she is unable to properly fit a pattern that S&S is knitting, or otherwise shows evidence of being a "slave to the pattern."

this scares me. should S&S really be writing a book of patterns, expecting others to purchase and follow it when he/she can't even knit someone else's pattern without some fatal error? shouldn't we expect all pattern writers to at least be at highly advanced levels, if not experts? i'm not advocating formal training or master's knitting guild certification or whatever, but i am saying that we should expect pattern writers to whom we pay good money to be able to modify existing patterns to suit their needs or have experience in all the basics. Nancy Bush has put out a shit-ton of sock pattern books, and i have bought almost every one of them, because Nancy Bush has clearly done her research and she can teach me a shit-ton about knitting socks. When I read S&S's blog and it says something like, "oh i never knit cables because i don't know how...Buy my book!" i feel it is valid cause for concern.

i just worry that the market is becoming diluted by patterns whose writers may enjoy knitting (and may even be pretty good at it) but are lacking in proper expertise to really instruct others. basically, i feel i should try to avoid buying books from authors who have skill levels in my range or below--that is to say, barely competent :-) --, and i fear that there are already too many of those on the market. and although i might know enough to avoid these titles, others may not.

  1. I'd never stopped to think about it, but that is scary.

  2. hm, not sure what the answer is here, but i do agree with you; i think the market is totally over-saturated with mediocre knitting literature right now, which makes it even harder for the really good ones to stand out.

  3. Hear, hear. I could not agree with you more. Being able to write an entertaining blog does not mean you can design things worth publishing, and even more importantly, being a good designer does not mean you can write patterns in a way that gets your point across clearly. My personal pet peeve is when a designer touts one way of doing things as being "better" than all other ways for the sole reason that it's easier. Yes, easy is good, but if you're publishing patterns, you should understand the choices that you're making on a deeper level than "easy" and "hard." Sigh, I should probably stop before I go into full-on rant mode...

  4. Well now I'm just darn curious as to who S&S is or are? I've never encountered this myself. But then again, I think it's pretty well known I don't ride a majority of the popular blogger/podcaster trains. But hey, I guess those people have to feed their cats/children/husbands/wives/significant others/dogs/selves too and if they can't think beyond the pattern themselves, but can score a pattern book deal that the masses will slurp up with a straw causing them to roll in the dough if even for 15 minutes...more power to them.
    I enjoy the "undiscovered" knit bloggers with true talent more anyway.

  5. I feel like such a hater sometimes, but I am so. tired. of knitting blogs that turn into, "My Big Fat Knitting Book Blog."

    Well, unless the person is actually good at knitting and writing and only mentions the book once in a great while. Then my narrow parameters for what is okay are satisfied.

  6. Yeah, the gossip in me wants to know if you're talking about someone specific, but I'll be good.

    I think it's important to know one's limitations. If you haven't attained a certain level of expertise, how can you even explain something clearly enough for others to understand?

    The sad thing is that the way the market is going right now, with the popular bloggers/podcasters getting so much attention and possible book deals, I think it makes it harder for the more qualified but less popular people who want to get knitting books published. It seems to make getting published even more difficult for these unknowns.

  7. I'm inclined to agree with you, but on the other hand what if those book authors have always been out there being published, only now you know what their knitting skill is because of their blogs? If you think of it that way it's good because at least now we can avoid these books!

  8. It seems like you are talking about someone specific, or at least someone specific came to my mind when I read this. I think one of the biggest problems, and I don't even know if this can really be rectified, is that most of the people in publishing aren't knitters, and don't read blogs, so it seems like they really don't know the temperature of the discussion, nor what is going to be 'hot' in 1 1/2 or 2 years, which seems about as long as it takes to get a book turned around. I think because of the success of Debbie Stoller's SnB book, a lot of imprints are looking to cash in on the regular how to knit book instead of honing in on people who have a more distinct point of view (which I think SnB and the follow-ups do) and possibly a narrower interest base.

    I think that was about 3 1/2 cents worth- sorry to go on and on.

  9. If a publisher approached me based on my blog, I'd leave skid marks!

    I'm dying to know who you are talking about; however, I enjoy reading your blog and don't want you to get sued!

  10. ^__^ I've noticed this kind of book deal, too. My take on it is that publishers are more likely to choose a successful blogger over a technically proficient knitter because of the built-in sales. A blogger brings a fan-base to the table, and we can assume that a certain number of these fans will buy the book reflexively because they consider the blogger almost a friend. Plus, the blog's readership is almost proof that its author is marketable.

    I don't like it, but I think the trend will continue.

  11. I've noticed this myself. It irks, but the market is rich for knitting 'anything' and therefore glutted with crapola. Caveat emptor.

    I also cannot bear it when a certain popular knit blogger posts about a discovery or rather an invention of theirs that is nothing new at all. It's only new to them and all their fans/commenters. A couple of years knitting experience does not make you the 'go to' professor of knitting. (Hey YH! I'm writing criticism in public about someone! I think they can take it, they're big people.)

    But then, I am easily 'irked' by blowhards, know it alls and incompetents who think they are the shit.

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Quoting Tom, LII director, who was channeling Frank Wagner, the longest serving Reporter of Decisions for the US Supreme Court,

“The work of a legal publisher is an exercise in serial nitpicking.”

No quibbles with that. I’ve been indulging in some nitpicking. Until this morning, this is what a portion of 26 CFR 1.263A-3 looked like on the eCFR tab:

Enumerator and its enclosing braces are not properly bolded.

Note how the enumerators 1, i, ii, 2, and their enclosing braces are not properly bolded. Not good! Since I am the sort that deems suspicious, anyone who posts a Craigslist advertisement with grammatical errors, I can see why someone would take issue with a publisher improperly rendering the bolding on a piece of text. So, it’s fixed.

Now, since I am also basking in the euphoria induced by fixing this presentation problem, I will not bore anyone with the details of negative look-ahead, greedy, non-greedy, capturing, and non-capturing pattern matching with regular expressions in python, while carrying my laptop, uphill, both ways to and from my office, ….

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Monday, 25 July 2016

2016 #14 Shadow Box Frame {by Ruth Mescall}

 2016 Topic 14: Colour mixing

Hi everyone Ruth here.

Tonight I'd like to share with you this evening with a post about mixing and using complementary colours.

I love experimenting but frequently play safe with my colour schemes and use colours near each other on the colour wheel. I find monochromatic and analogous palettes really pleasing to my eye but wanted to get a bit more savvy in using opposite or complementary colours in my work as I've had mixed success probably more by luck than design!

I admire Dina Wakley's use of white space with pops of colour and thought I'd try and combine this modern fresh look with beautiful vintage Ink and the Dog mini images. These are a perfect size for ATC's, but in this instance I've used a playing card size which is slightly narrower to create my 'When I grow up' shadow box frame.

Step One: The images and background stamps I've used are Ink and the Dog  Mini 03Mini 04Mini 11Mini 12Mini 23 and Mini 29 and I thought a blue and orange colour scheme would work best with these. 4 strips of Smoothy stamping card have been base coated with Snowflake fresco acrylic paint, then I used the gorgeous Glass Blue which is a translucent and mixed a little China in to give some opacity. The technique I've used is the card scraper technique or faux printed look (see Kim Dellow's you tube video here). I scraped less on each piece as I went along.

Step Two: I decided to make a monochromatic background for one of them (far left) and then use blue and a blue green to complement the orange. For the monochromatic one, I've also used white -snowflake to create tints and black - Little Black Dress to create shades which I used to stencil some circles on. I've already knocked back the one on the far left with snowflake to create a more subtle base for the stamped images and create more white space to rest the eye.

Step Three: Where I've usually gone wrong in the past is in trying to use equal amounts of all the colours, so this time I've made the second one predominantly blue, the third green and the fourth orange, all with small amounts of the other colours still in there.

For the blue green shade I used Caribbean Sea mixed with a little Captain Peacock. The blues and greens overlapping were fine but the orange, a mix of Yellow Submarine and Tango didn't, mainly because it's a translucent, so they look like they have been mixed together. So to get around this I brayered white over some areas before I added the orange. I had also been scrapping any remaining paint on to brown gummed tape to use around the outside of the box, this was inspired by a recent Jo Firth Young post here.

Step Four: Next to see where each image looked best before stamping in Cobalt Blue archival Ink. Once trimmed I used Treasure Gold in Florentine around the side of the card.

Step Five: The frame was  a sturdy box I'd salvaged and coated in snowflake. I added some stamping to the border before adhering.

Step Six:  I masked off and stamped a border strip on the inside in blue archival to match the outside border. To create depth and visual interest I used foam pads and small tubes of card to support the cards at different levels.

Think this is my favourite image, I even managed to get a touch of orange on the starfish.

I really enjoyed exploring this topic, creating something vintage with a fresh twist, something I want to keep developing. I've generally felt I had a good eye for colour but found it interesting referring to the colour wheel and seeing what I think of as orange or blue/ blue green isn't always the true colour but slightly further around on the wheel and why it could alter your final result. Blues seemed to suit the sea theme but you could try the opposite, orange and yellow orange to complement a blue, or use other complementary colours such as red and green, violet and yellow. Enjoy exploring the colours you have and see what beautiful hues you can create.

Ruth x

Ruth this is such a great explanation of complementary colours, and a really great tip with the snowflake layer before the orange. Love that tape idea too! Thanks so much for sharing, particularly on a colour combo that can be a tad tricky to execute! ~Gillian

We would love to see how you interpret this Colour Mixing topic by linking what you make to our 2016 Challenge #14: Colour Mixing, on this page HERE.

All of our bloggers love to see your twist on their ideas,  particularly if you were inspired directly by their post.

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Colour Mixing link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, Aug 7th 2016. The winner will be announced 2  hours later at 19:00.

Helen said...

Beautiful Ruth.

Julie Ann Lee said...

So effective, Ruth! I know how tempting it can be to stay with colours we have come to love and that we know will work well for us. You stepped out of your comfort zone and created a really eye-catching piece. xx

Mac Mable said...

Such an informative blog post, thank you so much and loving the 3D effect you've created, thank you x

Miriam said...

Lovely project Ruth.... really like the pop of colour with the white :)

Craftyfield said...

I love all 4 ATCs! Well worth trying new colour schemes...

Hazel Agnew said...

Great explanation, great colours Ruth. Clever piece of art it! Xx

Lauren Hatwell said...

Really enjoyed this Ruth. You explained everything so succinctly and the results are great. Lx

Lucy Edmondson said...

Lovely, Ruth, love the white with the bright colours and cobalt ink,

Lucy x

Lin said...

Love this Ruth..excellent step by step x

craftytrog said...

Wonderful project Ruth! Love the colours and those stamps! x

craftytrog said...

Wonderful project Ruth! Love the colours and those stamps! x

Inky and Quirky said...

Gorgeous creation Ruth, yes Dina's stuff is lovely isn't it :)
Donna xx

craftimamma said...

Fab project Ruth with excellent step by steps. Love the colours you worked with and I am currently enjoying Kim's scraping method of applying paint too. I really like the complimentary strip around the outside and the less obvious stamped strip on the inside pulling the whole piece together.

Lesley Xx

Chris Cresswell said...

Gosh I've only just caught up with this. How gorgeous are these ATCs in the decorated tray. Love the way you created the strip around the outside. Gorgeous colour mixing.

A View from PaperArtsy HQ

A View from PaperArtsy HQ

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A View from PaperArtsy HQ

A View from PaperArtsy HQ