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The Undercover Soundtrack – Jake Kerr
Posted by Roz Morris @Roz_Morris in Undercover Soundtrack on January 14, 2015
'Music was solace, understanding and escape'
Once a week I host a writer who uses music as part of their creative environment – perhaps to connect with a character, populate a mysterious place, or hold a moment still to explore its depths. This week's post is by award-winning science fiction author Jake Kerr @jakedfw
Soundtrack by Crosby, Stills and Nash
When I was 10 years old I had two passions in my life: Music and reading. I was never that good at producing music, so I did the next best thing–gathering up all the 45 RPM records I could, stacking them on my cheap plastic phonograph player, grabbing a laundry clip, and then pretending I was a DJ. Similarly, I wasn't very good at writing, so I would write reviews and commentary about the books I read. I would discuss what I liked about the stories, what the writer did well, and all the things that I didn't like and how he or she had failed. I would type these up on sheets of paper, staple them together, and then collect them in a drawer.
I wasn't really a DJ, and I wasn't really a literary critic. And I definitely wasn't a musician or a writer.
Such is how dreams are born.
At the age of 27 I was hired to move to Los Angeles to write a column about music and the radio industry. I told all my friends: 'I'm not really a DJ playing music, and I'm not really a writer or writing about stories, but I have achieved this amazing thing of merging my two dreams into one: I'm writing about music and DJs.'
It took about six years before I realized that this wasn't really my dream. Music wasn't something I wanted to do. It was part of who I was. I lived through music, where it would provide me with solace, understanding, and escape. But I didn't want to actually create it or write about it. I experienced it. It was me. But I needed more from books. I did want to create. I did want to write the books, to tell the stories.
Such is how dreams are formed.
So I live the dream, and I write the stories. But make no mistake: The music is still there. Sometimes it is the soundtrack to what I'm writing, inspiring me even as it sets the tone and attitude of the words forming in my mind. Sometimes it is the source of the scene I'm writing, providing me with raw material that I never would have experienced otherwise. And sometimes it is the story. But the role of music in my dream is always there.
The song is the story
This is happening right now. I am writing a story for the third volume of Hugh Howey and John Joseph Adams' Apocalypse Triptych. As I began thinking of the story I wanted to write, the song Southern Cross by Crosby, Stills and Nash was playing, and I immediately realized that this particular song was the story. There are lines in that song that are both heartbreaking and yet oddly hopeful. The more I thought about it, the more it integrated with my ideas for this apocalyptic story. It didn't just set the tone of the story; it was the story.
So I put the song on repeat and started writing. The song, with its gentle rhythms and bittersweet lyrics took me exactly where I wanted to be for my story. The melancholy, the hope, the dream, the freedom—it was all there.
It's odd. For various rights reasons I couldn't actually include the song in the story. As a result, no one who reads the story will know of its importance. This is common. For many of us, certainly me, while there is not always this explicit a connection between the music and the words on the page, some kind of connection is always there, and it is powerful. I somehow knew it when I was 10. It just took me many years to understand how to put the pieces together.
After 15 years as a music industry journalist Jake Kerr's first published story, The Old Equations, was nominated for the Nebula Award from Science Fiction Writers of America and shortlisted for the Theodore Sturgeon and StorySouth Million Writers awards. His stories have subsequently been published in magazines across the world, broadcast in multiple podcasts, and been published in multiple anthologies and year's best collections. A graduate of Kenyon College, Kerr studied fiction under Ursula K. Le Guin and Peruvian playwright Alonso Alegria. He lives in Dallas, Texas, with his wife and three daughters. His debut novel, Tommy Black and the Staff of Light, an adventure story for teen and pre-teen readers was released in 2014. Find him on Facebook, on his website, find more about Tommy Black here, and tweet him as @jakedfw.
Alonso Alegria, Apocalypse Triptych, authors, Crosby Stills and Nash, drama, entertainment, fantasy, Hugh Howey, Jake Kerr, John Joseph Adams, looking for a life path, male writers, music, music for writers, music for writing, My Memories of a Future Life, Nail Your Novel, Nebula Award, playlist for writers, Roz Morris, science fiction, speculative fiction, StorySouth Million Writers Award, The Undercover Soundtrack, Theodore Sturgeon, Theodore Sturgeon Award, undercover soundtrack, Ursula K Le Guin, writers, writing, writing to music
'Music was solace, understanding and escape' – Jake Kerr
Posted by Roz Morris @Roz_Morris in Undercover Soundtrack on January 12, 2015
My guest this week describes a journey – of looking for a life path, of circling around it many times until he found where he was meant to fit. He says he thought he wanted to be a DJ because he loved music, and indeed became a music industry journalist. Then one day he started writing stories – and realised this was how he wanted to use the experiences that music gave him. It was clearly a good move as he has been nominated for the Nebula, the Theodore Sturgeon and StorySouth Million Writers awards. He studied fiction under Ursula K. Le Guin and Peruvian playwright Alonso Alegria and is now contributing to Hugh Howey and John Joseph Adams's Apocalypse Triptych. He is Jake Kerr and he'll be here on Wednesday with his Undercover Soundtrack.
Alonso Alegria, Apocalypse Triptych, authors, drama, entertainment, fantasy, Hugh Howey, Jake Kerr, John Joseph Adams, looking for a life path, male writers, music, music for writers, music for writing, My Memories of a Future Life, Nail Your Novel, Nebula Award, playlist for writers, Roz Morris, science fiction, speculative fiction, StorySouth Million Writers Award, The Undercover Soundtrack, Theodore Sturgeon, Theodore Sturgeon Award, undercover soundtrack, Ursula K Le Guin, writers, writing, writing to music
- The Undercover Soundtrack is a series where writers - and occasionally other arty folk - reveal how music shapes their work.
- It began as a companion to my first novel, My Memories of a Future Life, and now thrives as a creative salon in its own right. Pull on your headphones and join us.
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What is The Undercover Soundtrack?Sleeve notes here
For the soundtrack of My Memories of a Future Life, you'll need Chopin's Sonata in B Minor, Rachmaninov preludes, lashings of Grieg's piano concerto in A minor and The Clash's Rock the Kasbah (they go together well).
You'll also need Samuel Barber's Dover Beach on piano, although that doesn't actually exist so do the best you can.
And the novel's undercover pieces. You can find them here
Previous guests
- Aaron Sikes
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Two years into a decade-long plan to free up wireless spectrum to handle an explosion in mobile data traffic growth, Washington politics are crippling the Federal Communications Commission's ability to reach any of its goals.
In March 2010, the FCC identified in its National Broadband Plan a dire need for more spectrum in the U.S. It outlined a timeline for getting 300 megahertz of spectrum in the pipeline by 2015 with an additional 200MHz opened up for auction by 2020. In total the plan would create 500MHz of new wireless spectrum that could be auctioned off, or nearly double the amount of spectrum currently available for wireless data.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said he would make freeing up more wireless spectrum his top priority. He has talked about it often in one stump speech after another. But two years later, the agency is woefully behind on the plan it outlined as part of the National Broadband report. The reasons behind the hold-up are largely political.
"I am very proud of the spectrum chapter of the Plan; indeed, very proud that there even was one," Blair Levin, who was in charge of drafting the National Broadband Plan for the FCC two years ago, said during a speech in January. "For a while I was optimistic we would march quickly toward our spectrum goals. I fear, however, we have gotten off course."
What does this mean for wireless consumers?Without additional spectrum in the pipeline, wireless networks will become more congested, which means slower downloads for consumers at peak times in densely populated areas. Many in the wireless industry have already called the looming shortage a "spectrum crisis." Ultimately, carriers will have to get more creative about how they use their existing spectrum, which will likely result in stricter caps on usage. Consumers who use more data will likely be charged higher prices for that data.
"Consumers are already feeling the pain," said Larry Downes, a communications policy consultant and author and CNET blogger. "Wireless operators are simply going to have come up with a Plan B."
Indeed, traffic on wireless networks is growing at a tremendous rate. In the FCC's National Broadband Plan in 2010, the agency said that AT&T had reported a more than 5,000 percent increase in traffic on its network in the previous three years. Just this week, John Donovan, a senior executive at AT&T, said in a blog post that AT&T's traffic has been doubling every year since 2007. In fact, over the past five years, data traffic has grown by 20,000 percent, Donovan said.
And it doesn't look like traffic growth will slow anytime soon. In a new report issued by Cisco Systems, which tracks data growth on mobile networks on an annual basis, mobile data traffic in the U.S. will grow 16-fold from 2011 to 2016 at a compound annual growth rate of 74 percent. And by 2016, mobile data traffic in the U.S. will be equivalent to four times the volume of the entire U.S. Internet in 2005.
How did we get here?
Despite bipartisan support for a spectrum bill that would generate billions of dollars in revenue for the U.S. government by reallocating unused TV broadcast for wireless broadband use, the FCC has still not gotten the necessary authorization from Congress to even begin designing the auction or identifying spectrum that could be sold in the auction. After months of wrangling, however, a compromise may finally have been worked out. On Thursday, Congressional leaders said they have tacked on authorization for spectrum auctions as part of a bill extending payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits now before Congress.
And just this week, the FCC put the kibosh on the use of 40 MHz of satellite spectrum owned by the startup LightSquared, because of a very successful lobbying effort by the GPS industry to kill the network.
As for other spectrum outlined in the plan, the federal government is still sitting on about 90 MHz to 95 MHz of spectrum that it has still not begun to clear for commercial use.
All told, the FCC is at least a year behind in reallocating almost every sliver of wireless spectrum it identified as a possible auction candidate in the 2010 report. As a result, it's extremely unlikely the FCC will even come close to reaching its goal of getting 300MHz of wireless spectrum into the market by 2015.
Here's a detailed look comparing the FCC's five-year plan for several specific swaths of spectrum, all outlined in the National Broadband Plan, with what has actually happened to the spectrum identified in the report.
2.3GHz Wireless Communications Service (WCS) Rules (20MHz)The WCS spectrum in the 2.3GHz band was first auctioned in 1997, but due to rules that would help prevent interference with satellite radio providers such as Sirius-XM, the spectrum wasn't that useful for wireless broadband. Despite new rules that were passed in May 2010 to help make this spectrum more useful for wireless broadband, it's still not that valuable.
In fact, AT&T, which was willing to spend $39 billion on T-Mobile USA for its spectrum last year, was also trying to get rid of its WCS spectrum. The company acknowledged this spectrum wasn't of much value for building its 4G LTE network in a blog post written by Joan Marsh, a vice president of regulatory affairs for AT&T, on October 27, 2011.
"The WCS service rules effectively require 2.5 MHz of each block to be used for a guard band against interference," she said. "The 2.5 MHz of remaining spectrum in each block is not suitable for LTE or even HSPA, both of which require wider channels and paired spectrum."
Advanced Wireless Service 2 and AWS 3 and federal spectrum (60MHz)In its original plan, the FCC proposed auctioning up to 60 MHz of spectrum from the Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) bands, which also included about 20MHz of reallocated 1.7 GHz (1755MHz - 1850MHz) spectrum used by the federal government. The idea was that this spectrum could be paired with 20MHz of AWS-3 spectrum. The FCC had hoped the National Telecommunications and Information Administration would complete its analysis of the spectrum by October 1, 2010. At that point, the FCC would have been able to move forward with reallocating the spectrum.
In January 2011 the NTIA said that it would evaluate the 1755-1850 MHz band of spectrum for commercial use. But so far, NTIA has not released information on the progress of this evaluation. And some in Washington blame the Defense Department for dragging its feet.
700MHz D Block Auction (10MHz)The D Block spectrum is a 10MHz chunk of spectrum that was supposed to be auctioned off during the rest of the 700MHz auction. The spectrum came from television broadcasters vacating those airwaves as part of the transition from analog TV broadcasting to digital.
The rules of the D Block auction stipulated that it would be sold to a commercial service provider who would share the network in times of crisis with the public safety community. But the rule was deemed too restrictive by bidders, and the minimum price for this spectrum was never reached. Since then, the FCC has been trying to decide what to do with the spectrum.
The FCC's National Broadband Plan recommended that the D Block spectrum be auctioned off for commercial use with technical requirements that would allow public safety to have access to the spectrum.
But public safety groups lobbied Congress to give them the entire 10MHz of wireless spectrum for free, so they could build their own network without allowing any of the spectrum to be used for commercial services. For more than a year, the D Block spectrum was engulfed in a political debate in Congress. Finally, a compromise was hashed out that would give public safety the spectrum and would even provide funds to build its network.
Because the D Block is being considered as part of a larger spectrum auction package, the bill has not yet become law. That said, the most recent Payroll Tax compromise bill will include the D Block compromise and funding for the public safety network.
One thing to note is if the D Block is given to public safety, this means that 10MHz of prime 700MHz spectrum, which is already cleared and ready for use and would have been ideal for 4G LTE services, will not be used by commercial operators to help alleviate network congestion. In other words, another 10MHz of spectrum will be lost.
Terrestrial Deployment of Mobile Satellite Spectrum (MSS) (90MHz)Several years ago, the FCC changed the rules so that satellite providers could also supplement their space-based networks with on the ground terrestrial services. But the outdated rules have made it difficult for satellite spectrum license holders to offer a terrestrial-only service. As a result, about 90MHz of wireless spectrum has simply been underutilized. The National Broadband Plan outlined a strategy so that this spectrum could be used for land-only wireless broadband services.
As a first step toward this goal, the FCC granted a waiver to the wireless broadband startup LightSquared in January 2011 on the condition that its network didn't interfere with other spectrum holders, namely GPS.
LightSquared was planning to use 40MHz of the total 90MHz the FCC had identified as possible wireless broadband spectrum in the satellite bands. LightSquared's network, which would have sold wholesale 4G LTE access to other carriers and retailers offering wireless services, would have covered more than 260 million consumers. And it would have offered another major competitor in a market that is dominated by AT&T and Verizon Wireless. LightSquared expected at least part of its network to be up and running in some regions of the country by the end of 2012.
But again politics intervened. Despite the fact that LightSquared and its predecessors have owned this wireless spectrum since 1989 and despite the fact that the FCC cleared the spectrum for terrestrial use in 2005, the GPS industry managed to kill the company's hopes of building its network, because it claimed the network would interfere with existing GPS devices.
LightSquared offered concessions to mitigate the interference. But in a test conducted by the NTIA, results still showed interference. LightSquared said the tests were rigged and that the GPS industry selected out of date and obsolete equipment to be tested.
The fight over LightSquared had become so politically charged in recent months, that pretty much everyone in Washington expected the NTIA and FCC to cancel the conditional waiver. And that is what happened earlier this week.
LightSquared has vowed to continue its fight. But Jeff Carlisle, executive vice president for regulatory affairs, noted that if the GPS industry prevails against LightSquared, it will continue to challenge any other company looking to make commercial use of spectrum in the satellite bands.
"There are other satellite bands that could be used for mobile broadband," Carlisle said. "But the problem is that most of it sits right around the 24MHz of spectrum the GPS industry uses. And essentially they want to keep a 40 MHz to 50 MHz buffer on either side of them to ensure there is no interference."
In other words, Carlisle said that the GPS industry wants to tie up 100MHz of spectrum so that it can use 24 MHz worth of spectrum.
"Without requirements on these GPS receivers, there is no incentive for the GPS industry to use the network resources more efficiently," he added. "And if that continues to be the situation, then you can forget about making any significant amount of spectrum available."
TV Broadcast Spectrum (120MHz)The most ambitious piece of the National Broadband Plan called for freeing up 120MHz of spectrum from TV broadcasters. This spectrum is highly valuable for wireless broadband use because it propagates over longer distances and can penetrate through walls and other obstacles. The National Broadband Plan proposed that the government ask TV broadcasters to hand over unused spectrum for auction in exchange for taking a cut of the auction proceeds.
According to the plan, the FCC hoped to get authorization for the auctions in 2011 and then begin the auction process in 2012 or 2013. And it anticipated that the spectrum could be cleared and ready for use in 2015.
Levin, who was in charge of writing the broadband plan, said recently he has been disappointed by the inaction of Congress.
"We were hoping that Congress--in which there is a rare bipartisan agreement on the wisdom of incentive auctions--would quickly pass a one-sentence bill saying 'The FCC should have authority to share auction proceeds with any licensee who turns in its license to allow the spectrum to be auctioned,' he said. "We wanted a simple expansion of auction authority. Two years later, we still have a bipartisan consensus. But we have no new auction authority."
Indeed, as with the D Block spectrum and LightSquared, the so-called "incentive auctions" have become highly politicized, which has resulted in deadlock and inaction. While both Democrats and Republicans agree that incentive auctions will help bring much-needed revenue into government coffers and simultaneously help relieve the impending spectrum crunch, they disagree on how the FCC should be allowed to conduct the auctions.
And that has become a major sticking point for authorizing these auctions. In the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, the proposed bill would change the law and restrict the FCC from being able to add conditions to the spectrum auction, as it has been able to do in every auction since 1993. And in the Democrat-controlled Senate, the bill gave the FCC the same authority in conducting auctions it has always had.
Now it looks as though the two sides have finally reached a compromise. Because the incentive auctions will generate billions of dollars in revenue for the government, auction authorization is part of the Payroll Tax extension bill that is winding its way through Congress.
On Thursday, Republicans and Democrats said they reached a compromise on the total Payroll Tax package. And in this latest piece of legislation, there is also a compromise on the incentive auctions. The new bill does not include the restrictive language of the House bill, but the FCC's authority has been limited a little bit. In other words, neither side got exactly what it wanted, but it's a compromise everyone seems to be able to live with.
What's next?While it is good news that Congress may finally be moving toward authorizing the first major block of new wireless spectrum for auction, the political roadblocks that have stood in the way the past two years don't look to be easing. And it will likely continue to be difficult for wireless operators to get the wireless spectrum they all say they desperately need.
That will likely put more pressure on wireless operators to look for more spectrum through mergers as well as to introduce new wireless service plans to encourage more efficient data use.
"These goals are going to be very hard to meet," Downes said. "There's no question that wireless industry is going to have to get very creative to stay ahead of demand."

subset: commoncrawl


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Facing Failure as a Parent
- Hal Runkel, LMFT ScreamFree Parenting
- 2007 1 Oct
Ever feel like you've blown it? You've faced a critical test (with your kids this morning, for instance), you had every desire to respond in the right way, do the right thing, and you do the very thing you swore you'd never do again. You blew up at your kids, or caved in, or just checked out, and now you feel like you've blown another opportunity to make some progress in those relationships. You just blew it.
Please forgive the sports metaphor, but Brad Lidge knows how you feel. Lidge is the "closer" for the Houston Astros, my favorite baseball team. As closer, he is called upon to finish the game. His team has the lead with one inning to go, and it's his job to get the last three outs and claim victory. In dramatic wording, this feat is called "saving" the game.
So what happens if he doesn't get the save? What's that called? You guessed it: a "blown" save. What a job, huh? Out there on the world's stage, out there for the world to see and judge, Lidge and other closers like him can "save" the game. Or they can "blow" it.
Well, one particular game, Lidge got his chance. Thanks to a late-inning homerun, the Astros came to the ninth inning with a two-run lead over the St. Louis Cardinals. The Astros simply needed three outs to win the game, win the series, and move on to the World Series for the first time in their existence. He got the first two outs easily, and he quickly rang up two strikes on the last batter. The crowd began to lather up with 45 years of pent-up frustration and hope. The First Couple of Astros fans, George and Barbara Bush, stood up with eager anticipation just behind home plate. This was a chance to ease all the pain and make up for past mistakes, and set in motion a new pattern, and new standard of excellence.
A base hit, a walk, and a towering three-run homer later, however, and the Cardinals had a miraculous comeback to bring the series back to St. Louis. And Brad Lidge had nothing but the worst blown save of his career. Ask him and he'll tell you: he absolutely blew it. In front of God and everybody, he blew it.
Maybe you can feel his pain. You probably know what it's like to blow it. Like this morning. With your kids. And it hurts. It hurts knowing you could have done better. It hurts knowing how many people were depending on you to do it better. It hurts knowing you've blown a moment that you can never re-create, never get back.
Now your teenaged daughter doesn't want to talk to you. Now your school-aged son is feeling more insecure than before. Now your toddler knows your breaking point, knows just how to push you there, and doesn't realize that knowledge isn't good for her. Now your spouse is moving a little closer to your kids, and a little farther away from you.
Worst of all, now you begin to resent them all. And begin to lose a little more confidence in yourself and your own self-control. You've blown it.
But Here's The Good News
After the gut-wrenching, heart-breaking experience of that game, Lidge was mobbed by reporters. And understandably so. Can you imagine being surrounded by the press after your screaming fest through the door of your daughter's bedroom? Or your "just stop the whining!" battle in Wal-Mart?
"Well, Hal, how does it feel to have blown it this time? How does this embarrassing scene of losing it with your son compare to your famous Waffle House incident?"
But that's what Lidge signed up for by becoming a professional athlete. And his answers can teach us a lot.
Yes, I blew it, and in many ways I can't believe it. I'm going to be up all night wrestling with this. And it hurts beyond belief.
But tomorrow morning I'm going to wake up and get ready to do it again. And I'll be ready.
As a lifelong Astros fan, I have a hard time hearing this. I was emotionally hungover from the night's binge of unbelievable high and devastating low. It was difficult to sleep. This one really hurt. I didn't want to even read about it the next day. But I gave in to the temptation and got online first thing in the morning. And then I read Lidge's words, that amazing balance of heartfelt sorrow and yet confident resolve to get back on the horse, do it better next time.
And that's when I thought about parenting.
One thing I preach is that whenever you feel you're being tested by your kids, you are. Our kids are constantly testing us for our own good. It's their tests that challenge their growing individuality and our own. It's their tests that ask us to keep growing toward our own mature, calm, integrity. Think about it, who else continually asks you, by their actions and words, to say what you mean, mean what you say, and follow through on both? Who else challenges you to be more patient than your kids?
And it's during those tests, whether it's at the grocery store, the principal's office, or late at night past curfew, that we so often feel like we've blown it.
But what Lidge's experience teaches us is that there is always tomorrow. Yes, there is tonight and all the pain that comes with self-awareness of our mistakes. And yes, there is a definite time to wrestle with the meaning, the consequences of it all. But tomorrow is not only a new day—tomorrow will bring a new test. Probably several. And our team still needs us to shake it off, grow a little, and get ready to do even better next time.
The more I can have that perspective after I've blown it, the less chance I have of blowing it the next time. That's what growth is all about.
Hal E. Runkel, LMFT is a licensed marriage and family therapist and author of the groundbreaking book ScreamFree Parenting: Raising Your Kids by Keeping Your Cool, from Waterbrook Press. Visit www.screamfree.com for more information.


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Amazing candlesticks. So minimal. I also love the round wool rug available from nordicbliss.co.uk The beautiful neutral colours and texture are perfect for this time of year. I think it pairs up very well with the natural materials of the candlesticks. Joe (hopperandspace)
I love them! Have some similiar in white and they would fit perfectly together!
Love your blog,
These are absolutely fantastic, would love to win them !
what is there not to like its a lovely range, would be honoured to win these candlestick x
I love the Candlesticks, solid and cool.
Having looked round the Nordic Bliss Webshop I found lots of things I really liked but one of my favourites is the Ylva Skarp print "Be Yourself". I can just see this on my wall.
Thanks for the giveaway :o)
These candle sticks are simple but elegant. I would love to display them at Christmas. These would make great gifts as well!
Oh so beautiful,i like it.
Many wishes
I'd love this wooden magazine holder in black, I could get rid of the pile that are under the coffee table at the moment. http://nordicbliss.co.uk/product.php?id_product=93
I really loev the Wooden Table – http://nordicbliss.co.uk/product.php?id_product=85
Lovely candlesticks, I also really like the owl tealight holder 🙂
Such a wonderful giveaway! I love the wooden candlesticks! I have spotted one unique thing, that I would love to have – a lamp base! Lots of other things to buy too but nice to find new things. Love the black wall lamp as well! Hope to be a happy interior girl with nice new candlesticks! 😉
Very pretty candle holders and happy first bloggerversary Nordic Bliss! A very interesting shop to have come across indeed! I really enjoyed all their small storage products and Baskets in felt and Wire baskets were my favourites!
The Nordic Candlesticks look very stylish and nice with the natural design. The other product I like from the website is this special lamp: http://nordicbliss.co.uk/product.php?id_product=99
okay…so busy times, but my friend i´m here and read your lovley inspirations…;)…and jump into your sweet GIVEAWAY…they are so lovley…and i love the Industrial pendant lamp in black, too…would be perfect for our new house…yes, we will move in November…yeah…give you a big hug and we stay in contact…especially for the Munich Event…;)…a big hug…cheers…i…
Ooooo, love these candle stick holders, and just in time to light up the winter too 🙂 I am a big fan of Nordic Bliss already and after careful consideration (there are just so many desirable things) I think, other than these candle sticks of course, I love the felt storage baskets. Great give-away! 🙂
Gorgeous candlesticks! The wood and the simple design is so calming.
Right now, I'm also lusting over this table: http://nordicbliss.co.uk/product.php?id_product=126
Love your blog Igor – love how you always come across as being so happy 🙂
I love these candlesticks. Simple yet lovely. I'm also loving the lovely Golden Bowls and the round wool rug.
Kind Regards,
No worries Tim, you have a EU address anyway, so you're in!
I want one of this!!!
Goodmorning from rainy Paris! I just moved to a new apartement so after revisiting my decoration ideas, I would be so happy having this pair of Candlesticks in the living room… I am often following your blog Igor and the one of Nordicbliss and I am visioning my life through your posts ; ) I love the felt basket (in grey), as well as the wire basket. And the glass vase kai and kate, put together they seem so nice!
Well, I whish you a happy day, and looking to hearing from you soon ; )
She's a clever girl that Marianne! I'm looking forward to meeting her at our next London bloggers get together! Simple and beautiful candlesticks-my absolute favourite in her shop at the moment though has got to be the Ylva Skarp prints! 🙂
I like this candlesticks! Also I like Ylva Skarp prints and textiles 🙂
Did I see you in Glasgow this Summer? Getting good ideas here for hibernating over the Winter. Tom
I really like the lambswool ipad cover and the wire baskets, which would look great with fruit in on my new kitchen shelves
What a great giveaway Igor. I love Nordic Bliss and I always visit regularly to check out the new products that Marianne picks out with her stylish eagle eye! At the moment my favourite items are the desk lamp with antique finish and the wire storage baskets. Divine!
The giveaway is closed now and we have a happy winner thanks to random.org. It's the comment by the user 'Magalerie'! Congrats!!! Please send an email to firstname.lastname@example.com with your address!
These are awesome candlesticks, definitely wanna win them!!
Hey Anthony, I am very sorry but the giveaway has already closed. But there are more giveaways on the way. Stay tuned on the blog!
HAPPY INTERIOR BLOG is a place where you will find everything that inspires IGOR JOSIFOVIC for a happy home. Inspiring interiors and design, home decoration, travels and plants for Urban Jungle Bloggers are the focus of this blog. Inspiration in everyday life is the basis for beautiful interiors and home decor. HAPPY READING!


text: Marriage ceremonies are some of the most unique and significant occasions in one's lifestyle. As a result, good friends and households are often welcomed with the pair to share with you this momentous celebration together. To help make the case much more unique, the couple generally chooses a location in get together of their union.… Continue reading Ballroom Halls For Weddings


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Club hoping company will loan, donate vehicle
WALTHAM, Mass. —The Waltham Boys & Girls Club is looking for help and answers after staff members found one of the organization's transportation vans torched earlier this week, Wicked Local reported.
Someone got into the van, found a flare in the emergency kit, lit it and threw it in the backseat, police said.
When a staff member from the club went out to the back parking lot early Tuesday, the van was still smoldering and the Fire Department had to put it out. Police are investigating.
"We were just shocked," said Erica Fitch, director of operations at the club.
The van was older — a 1995 Ford — but it was working perfectly, Fitch said. The 15-seater was one of three vans the organization uses to take after school program members from school to the club on Exchange Street.
While the club does still have the other two 10-seaters, it needs that third one, Fitch said. The club has a transportation schedule — there is a time during the day when all three vans are supposed to be out picking up children.
In addition, the vans take athletes on traveling teams to their games. With basketball tryouts this week and the season starting this month, the club is in a bind.
So the club is hoping that any company with a passenger van or bus could loan or donate a vehicle, Fitch said. Any monetary donation would help as well.
"There's a lot of activity going on transporting kids around," Fitch said. "We really depended on that van. It was used every single day."
It's not really an option to buy a new van, as it's not in the budget at this time. The club will get some money from insurance on the old one, possibly a couple thousand dollars, but a new van would cost upward of $25,000, Fitch said.
Club staff were left scratching their heads over why anyone would want to destroy one of the vans and Fitch didn't know of anything like that happening before.
"At the end of the day, they're hurting kids," Fitch said.
The vans also bring the youth on field trips. Being down one could limit how many people can take advantage of, for example, recently donated tickets to "The Nutcracker."
"It's going to be difficult bringing as many kids as we'd like," Fitch said.
In addition, during the summer, that van is used to distribute meals to people in need.
"I would hate to see services in the community suffer because we weren't able to provide that transportation," Fitch said.
Police said they have some video of the incident, but the matter is still under investigation. Fitch is confident in the authorities working on the case that someone will be brought to justice.
Anyone with any information should reach out to the Waltham Police Department at 781-314-3600 or call the hotline at 781-314-3636. People can also send tips through social media on Twitter, Facebook and Citizen Observer.
To contact the Waltham Boys & Girls Club, call 781-893-6620.


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Wolf Blitzer delivers the most important breaking news and political, international, and national security stories of the day. Tune to The Situation Room weekdays 5-7pm ET on CNN.
A tweet from U.S. Rep Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) has been called insensitive to the Native American population.
RELATED STORY: Congressman apologizes for #TrailofTears tweet
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text: Those humans who live in the northern parts of the US call themselves "snow birds", when they flee to the dry hot south. Then there are those who know the true meaning. Summer comes in the south, its time to fly north. Above the arctic circle the aviary populations flock to the breeding grounds. Life in the north is full in the summer the influx of animals bringing abundant food sources to the hardiest of the carnivore, the polar bear and arctic fox. Yet for the most part, the snipe, arctic goose, king eider, redpoll, common murre and even snow bunting, find refuge to raise their fledglings. And on the edge – the seals, narwhal, bowhead whale plies the rich krill and fish filled waters.Read More


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19.04.2014 15:48
Singer-songwriter-pianist-guitar virtuoso celebrates the continued ascent of her "Truth In Music" series with the release of the mind-boggling video for her ominous yet insanely catchy folk inspired tune "Wickersham Lane." The video depicts the singer and her guitar in a strange plethora of locations and ends with Venson and companions dragging a female body and shovels. Between the mystery the video leaves the viewer with and the track's hooky chorus, the "replay" button will surely be used aggressively for this "Truth in Music" update. Jackie Venson lets her creativity shine though "Truth In Music". Initiated in February 2013, the sessions feature Venson's original R&B and soul compositions and guitar virtuosity as well as a few covers, including a stunning blues-soaked rendition of Adele's "Rolling In The Deep." With each new video she posts and her views climbing towards 20,000, Venson gains fans in her native Austin and far beyond. Her upcoming album The Light in Me will be released June 29th.
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Art educators have to deal with a lot of issues, so we've created topics that will help you find what you're looking for. Each one covers a different area relevant to art teachers today so go ahead and explore them.
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Can a regional summit break Zimbabwe's crisis deadlock?
Leaders from Southern Africa began emergency talks in Swaziland on Monday.
| Johannesburg, South Africa
In theory, Zimbabwe has a coalition government in which the two main parties have agreed to share power equally.
In reality, the troubled nation's top leaders have been deadlocked over how to share ministries for several weeks, worsening an economy where fuel and food are scarce and inflation stands at 231 million percent.
Last week, the long-ruling party of President Robert Mugabe, ZANU-PF, allotted itself all the chief financial and military ministries and left its opponents less-important ministries such as sports, arts and culture, and constitutional and parliamentary affairs. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has dismissed this as unacceptable and warned that the Sept. 15 power-sharing agreement is in jeopardy.
On Monday, regional leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) kicked off an emergency summit in tiny Swaziland to get the two sides to agree on a joint cabinet and a fair allocation of ministries. Newly inaugurated South African President Kgalema Motlanthe – the current chair of SADC, who is seen as less sympathetic to Mr. Mugabe than former South African president and Zimbabwe mediator, Thabo Mbeki – is leading a delegation to the summit, prompting fresh hope that talks can be revived.
"That is the last hope, for SADC to insist on a proper sharing of power. If Mugabe gets the military, then Tsvangirai should get the police," says Raymond Louw, editor of the Southern Africa Report in Johannesburg. "What alternative is there for Tsvangirai? The only other thing is to give up, and then Mugabe takes all the power."
Zimbabwe's seven-month-long political crisis has been a test of patience for ordinary Zimbabweans, who voted nearly 2 to 1 in favor of Mr. Tsvangirai against Mugabe in the first round of elections held on March 29, but who now struggle to feed their families. Few regional leaders seem to know how to break the impasse – the neighboring country of Botswana urges deep sanctions against Mugabe, while regional mediator Mr. Mbeki calls for patient negotiation. But a continuation of the crisis puts an unbearable economic burden on the entire region. More than 4 million Zimbabwean refugees have fled to other countries, 3 million of them to South Africa alone.
Until negotiators made a breakthrough on Sept. 15, with a signed power-sharing agreement, the previous seven months had provided little hope that the crisis could be resolved. Tsvangirai insisted that he should have been named president, since the first round of the elections were relatively free of intimidation and manipulation. Mugabe claims he won the second round of the elections, even though he in fact ran unopposed. Tsvangirai pulled out of the second round because of Mugabe's brutal use of police and armed militias to intimidate opposition supporters.
Small wonder, then, that today's main sticking point is the Ministry of Home Affairs, which controls the police. Tsvangirai's supporters say the opposition must oversee the police in order to prevent further abuse by Mugabe. They also insist on control of the Ministry of Finance, since Mugabe's henchmen have generally used that ministry to bankroll their own business deals and to print currency to keep the economy going.
"Without Finance, and without Home Affairs, there is no deal," says Gordon Moyo, a pro-democracy activist in Bulawayo and a senior adviser to Tsvangirai. "Zimbabwe needs an extensive influx of funds; you can't reconstruct Zimbabwe without foreign funds. There is no way the international community, the World Bank, the [International Monetary Fund], the donor countries are going to channel funds to anything that has a ZANU-PF odor, a ZANU-PF smell to it. They have totally failed to manage funds."
Yet Mugabe's ZANU-PF have insisted that Home Affairs is nonnegotiable. Before the elections, chiefs of the Army, Air Force, and police all insisted that Mugabe had to stay on as president, regardless of the election results. Insiders in the ZANU-PF said that senior military officials worry that a Tsvangirai-controlled police force could be used to arrest them and send them before the International Criminal Tribunal to face human rights charges, similar to those lodged against Liberian President Charles Taylor.
With no guarantees in place to reassure the military chiefs, Mugabe's party is unlikely to give up the police. And with so much to gain from controlling the Zimbabwean currency, they have no reason to budge on control of the Ministry of Finance.
The only solution at this stage would be for regional mediators, led by a weakened former South African president Thabo Mbeki, to insist on a fairer sharing of power. Yet, during the past seven months of negotiation, Mbeki has refused to take a hard line with Mugabe.
"You have a situation that looks like power-sharing, but that allows [the ruling party] to carry on doing what they want to do, but with some junior partner in government," says Steven Friedman, a senior researcher at the Institute for Democracy in Southern Africa. "The basic reality is that you have a ruling group that has maintained its power through the police and the military, and maintained its economic well-being through manipulation of the currency through the Ministry of Finance. I don't think anything will change that."


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Saturday, May 03, 2008
4 Brano's 'C-Thru' Frame
Brano Meres' C-Thru frame and bicycle, one which he displayed at the NAHBS 2008 earlier this year, is not to be mistakenly confused with an isotruss frame as some of you may. The geometries are quite different. While one has a well defined open lattice structure, this one just has "holes". For more pictures, visit Brano's website link here.
Brano is a mechanical engineer and when I caught up with him last week to ask him what his plans are with this bike, he did mention that "I just wanted to use and test this framed structure for the bicycle. I built just this one frame and I don't want to build another one."
For a fun show bike project, I have to say that it looks really marvelous.
By now ofcourse, you should have known that the isotruss bike (famously the Arantix Delta 7) although very creative and original, has come under overwhelming criticism from critics and riders all over. Personally, when I look at this frame, I first ask the question : "What great need is it satisfying?" Like many people with whom I have exchanged comments, I feel that it is a misapplication of engineering, the costs are over the edge and the aerodynamics and aesthetics are way down there. Even if they do plan on covering this frame up with a sheath, it may, as one engineer told me, lead to the development of inefficient 'eddies' that will probably just double the problems.
Everything that can be done on bicycles in terms of raising stiffness and strength by appreciable quantities has already been done. The other marginal differences are just a way to make you pay more out of your pocket. Out-of-limits stiffness, like I say, is actually counter effective and contributes nothing to performance.
To be a believer, watch videos of Johan Museeuw destroying his competition on relatively "flexible" Colnago steel bikes, including some at the cobbled Paris-Roubaix. Apparently, even steel was stiff enough for him.
As far as the C-Thru and aerodynamics are concerned, Brano said : "I plan to compare it with the standard tubed frame in the wind tunnel, just for the interest."
4 comments:
"Everything that can be done on bicycles in terms of raising stiffness and strength by appreciable quantities has already been done." = Caveman statement!!!!ReplyDelete
How can you say something so middle ages. I really enjoy your blog but this is the first time that I've seen something so out there from you. I don't believe we've done everything and the isotruss may not be the aerodynamic miracle you've been waiting for but surely it may open other doors as most technologies do. A few years ago people thought Gary Fisher and friends were crazy trying to ride in the mountains, now its as big as road riding.
le blaireau,ReplyDelete
You do have a point and that is as technology advances, we will push further the boundaries. So going strictly with that, my statement was wrong.
In the months and years ahead, we're going to make further advancements in CNT tubes, we'll probably incorporate self healing tires and tubes and even self repairing paint for bicycles. The cabled bicycle may become history and new manufacturing practices could make acquiring composite structures and metal tubing more cheaper (they already came up with one recently for Titanium).
But I'm opionated. We've seen that for the past 100 years little has really changed dramatically in frame design. Starley's diamond truss design is relatively unchanged even today. Large diameter tubing brought some appreciable changes to stiffness since it increases as the fourth power of the tube cross-sectional diameter.
Okay, if the UCI lifts its current limitations of permitted bicycle design, we can factor in all those odd designs that people have come up with over the past few years.
But again, the big question is, how much of an improvement can they deliver? Neither is there a good peer reviewed scientific paper out there that shows generous amounts of stiffness has anything objective to contribute to cycling performance.
I remain on the conservative side, and I will say this again, that these new "marginal" technologies that show up every 5-10 years are just a way to make people pay more.
I appreciate new technology but its also important to get back to the real world. For bicycle companies, its okay to be imaginative/creative. Otherwise, they'd never remain in business. Consumers need not be so naive, in pouring thousands for little or no improvements.
Thanks for reading! Sorry for the confusions.
- Anonymous1:18 PM
To the first comment,you're quick to quote but you missed out the key point. He mentioned "appreciable". If your brain is so developed as to differentiate between .5mm and .3mm of lateral deflection at the bottom bracket, thats extraordinary. Most people can't and that difference hardly means anything serious to the racing cyclist.I think he was trying to put things into perspective here, not shut down any further ideas on bicycle development.ReplyDelete
- Anonymous1:22 PM
Gary Fisher trying to ride in the mountains has nothing to do with the topic at hand, which is stiffness in bicycle frames.ReplyDelete


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Here's a little review on another new and affordable Stabilizer Vest System for lightweight camera setups to medium sized cameras. This is the Came / Laing X-15 Vest+Arm matched up with the Laing P-04 Hand Held Stabilizer.
The Laing products have been around for quite some time, and I hear about RED Camera operators using the larger Laing stabilizers as an affordable option for flying heavy camera systems. The kit I have here is pretty heavy duty, each part feels very solid, and the entire bundle comes with a nice padded carrying bag.
The Laing P-04 Stabilizer handle matches up perfectly with the small post on the X-15 ISO Arm. If you're thinking about trying to match this up with a Glidecam, just be aware that the standard rotating post is pretty short. The bottom weights can shift forward/back on the sled, the bottom post is adjustable, and the Gimbal can be positioned vertically along the post. It's pretty much got every adjustable feature available.
The top stage has a quick release cheese plate and features all the fine tuning knobs you'll need to balance your camera. Just be aware that the top stage may require a bit of cork to keep your camera from shifting it's position.
The Laing Stabilizer Vest can be adjusted to fit taller or smaller frames, and the Arm is mounted to a quick release socket block. Velcro straps adjust the vest very nicely and buckles are used to climb in and out of the vest.
The X-15 ISO Arm can easily be dialed to support an even lighter setup than my Canon 5D Mark II + Sigma 20mm lens, but can also be dialed up to support heavier camera setups than the BlackMagic Cinema Camera. Hopefully that gives you a general idea of the weight range it supports to see if it will work with your current equipment.
I can say for DSLR Video Shooters or even BlackMagic Cinema Camera shooters this vest is good. Actually for the price you could consider it to be very very good. Is it as good as the real Steadicam brand? Well, with my lightweight DSLR camera setup I felt the arm wasn't totally as smooth as my Steadicam Merlin ISO Arm, but results were much better once I mounted a heavier camera system like the BlackMagic Cinema Camera. On it's own, the Laing P-04 Stabilizer works excellent, but it seems adding a bit more weight to the X-15 Arm and Vest will yield better performance from the arm.
For more information about the Laing X-15 Vest Arm and P-04 Hand Held Video Stabilizer System, you can find more details on the following eBay product pages (click here).
Laing X-15 Vest w/ Laing P-04 Hand Held Stabilizer
Laing P-04 Stabilizers available now on eBay


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In the holiday spirit, I'm giving my readers a little gift – for this week only, from 17-24th December, all of the short videos on my iPad App are now just $1.99 (down from $5.99). So, if you've wanted an introduction to masking or basic retouching, or been curious how my ACR workflow looks, now's the time to indulge. 🙂 Happy Holidays! MT
Ming Thein's Photography Compendium for iPad is available here from the App Store.


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Challenge your skills and join this Cube-Crush-HD tournament!
Combining the excitement of a 3 and 4 color mode into a challenge for everyone.
The goal is simple: Crush as many cubes as possible.
The more cubes you can crush with one click, the higher your score will be.
This game will definitely challenge your skills to the max!


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Two of the state's top 10 endangered artifacts, as identified by a subcommittee of the Oklahoma Cultural Heritage Trust, are under the care and preservation of the University of Oklahoma.
The Oklahoma Cultural Heritage Trust's Top 10 Most Endangered Artifacts program was created to raise awareness and support for proper collections care and preservation for historical items within Oklahoma's archives, libraries and museums.
Möller Master Organ Player Rolls, circa 1920, housed at the American Organ Institute Archives and Library in the OU School of Music, and Spiro lace, circa 1400 AD, from the historic Spiro Mounds in eastern Oklahoma, housed at the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, were selected from nominations made by 25 organizations from across the state.
Discovered by an OU excavation team in the late 1930s, the Spiro lace was buried beneath Craig Mound at the historic Native American Spiro Mounds site in eastern Oklahoma, which is known as one of the most significant ceremonial sites in North America. The site was actively used from 800 to 1450 AD.
According to Elsbeth Dowd, museum registrar, archeologists discovered many artifacts beneath the mounds, and the lace survived in part because of its probable proximity to copper plates, whose metallic properties served as a preservation tool.
"This fragment of lace survives as one of Oklahoma's oldest textiles and offers previously unknown information about the way Native Americans lived centuries ago," said Dowd.
Dowd believes that much can learned from this small piece of fabric about an ancient artistic and technological tradition of textile production that has been largely lost to history. She hopes that being selected as an endangered artifact will provide the support needed to reassess the conservation needs of this exquisite artifact.
"We are thrilled the Spiro Lace was chosen as one of the Top 10 Most Endangered Artifacts," said Michael Mares, museum director. "We are working hard to ensure this piece and our entire collection receives proper care so we can continue to share these treasures with visitors for many years to come."
Also selected as one of the Top 10 Most Endangered Artifacts is a massive collection of paper rolls held by the American Organ Institute. Weighing in at nearly 12 tons, each roll was created by the M.P. Möller Organ Company in the early 20th century as part of an extremely sophisticated and lucrative system that allowed pipe organs to be played automatically via perforated paper rolls, much like player pianos that operated on the same principle. The complete collection includes more than 700 rolls, containing music of every genre.
Often, the rolls recorded live performances by famed musicians of the era. With the advent of high-fidelity recordings, the demand for player organs subsided, and the rolls, as well as the equipment used to create copies, ended up in a barn in northern Michigan for many years. In extremely fragile condition, they must be examined closely by conservators and a plan to stabilize and preserve them must be developed, as well as a method of recording the data they contain so that if their physical condition makes them unusable, they can be recreated.
"When we play these rolls for the public, as we expect to in the near future, we will hear a perfect reproduction of the original performance, given some 90 years ago," said John Schwandt, director of the American Organ Institute. "The music will be performed as though the long-dead artist was actually sitting at the instrument."
He added, "This collection is particularly important because there are no audio recordings of organs from the early days of recorded sound, when the technology could not cope with the extreme sonic range and power of the instrument. These rolls tell us how people played and heard music nearly a century ago."
Organizations from across the state nominated their most endangered works and 25 finalists were selected. In all, more than 177,880 votes were cast. A panel of historians, conservators and experts selected the artifacts by considering each item's immediate condition and conservation need.
The other top 10 most endangered artifacts selected were the George W. Long Glass Plate and Nitrate Negatives, circa 1910-1940, from the Museum of the Western Prairie; Oklahoma Land Run Registers, circa 1889-1895, from the Oklahoma Department of Libraries and Archives; Pawnee Bill's Calliope, circa 1910, from the Pawnee Bill Ranch and Museum; Cheyenne War Bonnet, circa 1872, from the Philbrook Museum of Art; Oklahoma State Flag, circa 1925, from the Pioneer Woman Museum; Payne County, Oklahoma Territory Agricultural Census Volumes, circa 1898-1906, from the Stillwater Public Library; Will Rogers' Polo Suit, circa 1933-1935, from the Will Rogers Memorial Museum; and the U.S. Army Pigeon Basket, circa 1944, from The American Pigeon Museum and Library.
The Oklahoma Cultural Heritage Trust, an alliance between the Oklahoma Department of Libraries, Oklahoma Historical Records Advisory Board, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma Museums Association and many additional supporting partners, sponsors the Top 10 Endangered Artifacts program. The Oklahoma Cultural Heritage Trust is dedicated to working together with Oklahoma's collections-based archives, libraries and museums to improve support for collections care through training and public awareness. The Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency, fund activities. For more information about the trust, visit www.culturalheritagetrust.org or call (405) 522-3515.


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Boxes of beer from breweries are always welcome, and when they are domestic, it means I don't have to fork out any money for duties and VAT. The package I got the other day was from Lervig Aktiebryggeri in Stavanger.
When Ringnes/Carlsberg closed down their brewery in Stavanger in 2003, this led to lots of local protests – and a new brewery. Initially they focused on varieties of pale lagers, but they have gradually evolved into a more interesting brewery. The four beers I received for review are good examples.
White Dog is their wheat beer, easily recognised bu the bubble gum and lemon in the nose and the hazy yellow color. Not totally a true to type German Hefewisse, it is a bit Belgian, too, a hint of soapy coriander. Very refreshing, a good and honest wheat beer. I hope this will be a regular.
Betty Brown is a brand new beer, a brown ale. The lady on the label is clad in a sou'wester hat, and the beer is, according to the label, the beer to go for in typical wet Norwegian summer weather. It is a deep dark red rather than brown color with a dry cocoa aroma. IT has caramel, burned sugar and dark fruit, a lovely bittersweet flavour. Lots of flavour for its 4.7% ABV, I would not mind being stuck somewhere with Betty Brown while the summer rain pours down. But I think a slightly stronger version could have been even better.
Lucky Dog is an American Pale ale, and the room is filled with lovely hop aroma as you open it. The flavour has a full hoppy character as well. Flowers, some pine, fresh herbal finish. Not extreme in any way, a fine step upwards for a lager drinker. The question is more how to market this to a local public when ads are banned.
The last one is a more serious beer than the others, Konrads's Stout is an Imperial Stout, a part of their Brewmaster's Reserve series, which also includes their Winter Ale. The beer is pitch black, with low carbonation. Lovely flavour of tar and old ropes. Smoke, liquorice, coffee, bitter chocolate. A perfect late night tipple, and a serious competitor to similar beers from Nøgne Ø and Ægir.


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I've got five new smalls to show you, one new one and four recycled ones, a fluffle of rabbits and a gaggle of geese, oh and a sheep too…
I started this cross-stitch about three weeks ago, I'd grabbed the pattern and flosses when I was just about to go out, not realising until it was too late that to get the finished size I wanted I would have to stitch it over one thread, not my favourite cross-stitch!!! Luckily I had it with me when the train I was on was stranded for five hours…you can really get a fair bit done in five hours!! It gave me the push to keep going with it and a couple of days ago I finally finished it. This is where I was when I last showed you…
It's a lovely design by a French designer called Il Est Cinq Heures, it's a freebie and I thought it was very cute. Cute without being twee! Of course with such tiny stitches I made a few mistakes, the main one being the little red cart, it's meant to be about four stitches wider, so my flowers are a bit squashed together! I love the sheep with his swirls on his fleece, the little rabbit is very sweet and the allium flowers at each end just finish it off. It was meant to have clouds in between the words as well, but I'd had enough of tiny cross-stitches by then so I moved the butterfly along and made the birds fly a little higher!
My bee fabric matched perfectly, bringing out the blue too. The design was also meant to have a zig-zag of cross-stitch along the bottom, so I added a length of ric-rac instead! The blue cord made from two shades of DMC floss just finish it off.
A few weeks ago we had a big clear out 'under the eaves', our general dumping area, I think every home has one! I still have boxes of my children's clothes etc so I had a bit of a sort out. I've kept all the ones I made and a couple of special ones and given lots to charity. In amongst the clothes I found some bibs I embroidered and a nappy pin cushion. Yes I used terry nappies, way back then I was very uncomfortable with disposable nappies that would still be on a rubbish tip when their grandchildren were born. Roll on 20 years and despite all the discussion about plastic waste there is very little mention about disposable nappies, most of which will be wrapped in a single use plastic nappy bag!
Anyway, I've climbed down from my soap box…I decided that as these bibs would realistically never be used again as they were looking decidedly past it, I would make the cross-stitch into smalls. The bibs were terry with a strip of aida across the bottom, so I trimmed them down and found a fat quarter in my stash that matched perfectly.
I made the bouncy rabbits one first, I was planning a few buttons under the length of vintage broderie anglais, especially as I found a Peter Rabbit button which was used first on my kids clothes. However I couldn't get it to look right so I made the cushion a bit smaller and it looked much better.
The biggest one is the geese and teddy. For this one I did manage to use an old baby button of a duck together with some pretty simple ones.
The pincushion was looking pretty shabby so I took it apart, the little duck was on the back. It's pretty small so I added three rows of embroidery at the side and stitched on the blue fabric. A length of blue check ric-rac just finishes it nicely. At the moment the mother goose has just been made into a simple pad with a fresh blue back, I haven't decided yet how to trim it. I feel it needs a little something, either blue cord, ricrac or mini pompoms.
I'm pleased with my new smalls, just in time for an Easter display!
I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday, a celebration of all things hand stitched, why not follow the link and see what everyone else has been making.


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Our opening graphic is from the blog Abandoned to God.
** Derek Webb, All Sons and Daughters, Robbie Seay Band, Charlie Hall, Shane & Shane and Shaun Groves are among the 45 artists on #SongsForWest, a fundraising album download for West, Texas with a suggested $10 donation.**
Here's this weeks links:
- Opening Link: A pastor and his wife in Watertown, MA are caught in the middle of a shootout in the wake of the Boston bombings. "We were trapped, with active gunfire on three sides of our home."
- Here's another new movie to be aware of, opening in US theaters on Friday: King's Faith.
- Watch (or listen to) a great sermon by Gary Burge preached midweek at Willow Creek a few weeks ago. Check out Acts 11:1–18. Once you're 5 minutes in, I guarantee you'll want to finish.
- An journalist who had originally interviewed Megan Phelps-Roper in 2011 before her departure from Westboro Baptist Church offered some additional detail and updates on her story.
- This one is disturbing. Seems that people serving at Steven Furtick's Elevation Church are being asked to sign some type of loyalty/confidentiality agreement, with legal consequences if you break the contract. Never criticize your pastor.
- A Minneapolis preacher is still in the pulpit at age 105. "Noah Smith has no plans to retire — ever. He said he tried that once when he was 90 and it didn't work out too well."
- Here's how one church kid defines his faith. But if you're in Christian Education or Youth Ministry, his response is somewhat disappointing.
- By contrast, here's Greg Koukl at Stand To Reason with a 7-minute video describing an appropriate response to the question, What is Christianity? (He actually gets to it at the 2:40 mark.)
- For those can't enough of blogging, here's the direct link to Faith Village's Java Juice Blog House which we featured here a few days ago…
- …And if you've got friends investigating Christianity or just starting out, here's Faith Village's Square One.
- Pete Wilson's Cross Point Church has a daughter church in India which he tries to visit as regularly as possible. Last week he suddenly learned his visa was denied, and he was summoned to India's embassy in Washington, DC. Now he's been granted a six-month visa, which isn't quite the 5-year one he had…
- …And here's a 2-minute audio clip on YouTube of Pete discussing people who leave his church, or arrive from somewhere else because they weren't being fed.
- After ten years of keeping us aware on several social issue fronts, veteran Christian blogger La Shawn Barber moves on to other platforms.
- Your church needs to rethink tithing options in a world where nobody writes checks (or in some countries, cheques) anymore.
- Our blog discovery of the week is Anabaptistly. Established in Spring 2011, recent activity includes a number of Eugene Peterson quotations like this one.
- Another blogger notes audience reaction to the movie 42.
- The people who use GodTube sure like music reality show clips from X-Factor or [Name of Country]'s Got Talent. Here Simon Cowell is led to believe a man is going to impersonate a whole choir.
- If homeschoolers aren't already over-represented on social media, now they have their own theme song.
- Yea! We made another Top 200 Ministry blogs list!
- More links all week on Twitter.
- Finally, in our Truth is Stranger Than Fiction department, Jamie The Very Worst Missionary is breaking all her own rules and going on a women's retreat. Say it isn't so!
A closing word from Francis Chan:


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If you've watched the heart-pounding trailer for Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity, out today, then there's no spoiling the film's essential plot line: Astronauts Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) fight to stabilize and survive in orbit after a barrage of space junk rips apart their spacecraft and all weightless hell breaks loose. The story is sparse, elegant, and simple—it's a disaster movie in the void. And it is no pure thought exercise. This will happen, if not so cinematically.
It's already dangerous up there, and I don't just mean because space is inhospitable and the universe is trying to kill you. We're not giving away much of movie to tell you the cloud of debris that annihilates Stone and Kowalski's space shuttle is the result of Russia destroying its own spy satellite. Tom Jones, former astronaut and PopMech contributor who attended our screening of the film last night as a spacewalking expert, reminded the audience that this plot point is plucked from real life: In 2007, China obliterated its own satellite into thousands of chunks of junk just to prove to the world that it could. That doubled the risk to astronauts aboard the International Space Station, Jones said.
Today, spacefaring nations realize the threat of space junk and are a little more considerate. Modern satellites are designed to either fall into the Earth's orbit and burn up at the end of their useful lives, or push themselves out to a distant, safe parking orbit. And China, which is launching its own manned space effort and hopes to send astronauts to the moon, is probably going to be a bit more contentious about orbital safety now that it is sending up its own people.
That doesn't help us in the short term, though. A great many of the small pieces of debris will burn up in the atmosphere in the next couple of decades, improving the situation in orbit. But before then, the rise of the private space industry will carry more humans into orbit than ever before, first with the wealthy buying tickets on short suborbital hops for a quick taste of weightlessness and eventually with more of us launching to some kind of tourist destination high above the Earth. The suborbital hops produce no new space junk, but the increased use in space adds to the risk of what Jones called "a conjunction" in space. NASA does a great job of tracking debris larger than about the size of a fist, Jones said. But they can't track everything. And more traffic in orbit, he argues, means that some kind of orbital disaster is inevitable.
Space travel messes with our notion of risk assessment, which is already suspect: Most obviously, even though people are far more likely to die in a car accident, we're far more likely to be afraid of flying, since flying feels more unnatural and fails more spectacularly. Space takes both of those to the extreme. Drifting weightless around the planet in an incredibly hostile environment makes flying like a bird appear ordinary. And losing people in space, as we saw with the two space shuttle accidents, marks a national tragedy.
You might depart the theater after Gravity with mixed emotions about going to space yourself. Cuaron's tracking shots and sweeping vistas of the blue marble below evoke a sort of spiritual response, especially in the spaces between suspense when the movie gets quiet. Of course, the Bullock and Clooney characters spend much of the film spinning and flailing in mortal danger, dodging hunks of metal that become ballistic missiles at orbital speed. Jones sees Gravity as appearing amid a rising wave of interest in space brought on by the emerging private space industry, and that's a hopeful trend. But humanity has to be realistic about risk assessment, and ready for the high drama of trying to rescue space travelers after a disaster in orbit. Perhaps when space travel becomes common, and not simply the domain of professional astronauts, we'll treat space disasters like plane crashes—tragedies that can be made extremely uncommon, but never eliminated. And that will be a good thing.
Andrew's from Nebraska. His work has also appeared in Discover, The Awl, Scientific American, Mental Floss, Playboy, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn with two cats and a snake.


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My meeting the other day with a hot new San Francisco startup began routinely enough. Ikea-furnished office full of Macs, shaggy company dog, high-end iced coffee—check. Then former PayPal CEO Max Levchin walked in and started talking about cervical mucus. And about sexual positions, and whether certain configurations work best for conception. "Does female orgasm make a difference?" asked Mike Huang, one of the startup's co-founders.* It was around the time that Levchin declared his intention to "help crowdfund a lot of babies" that I worried I'd been sucked into an Onion parody of TechCrunch. (Or a @FakeJeffJarvis tweet.)
In 2010, Levchin sold Slide, the social-media company he founded, to Google for more than $200 million. He left Google in 2011, and now he's assembled a team of software engineers and designers at a tech incubator called HVF, which stands for "Hard, Valuable, Fun." The incubator's latest incubation is Glow, a fertility-tracking app that launches in the iOS App Store on Thursday.*
There are lots of apps and sites that do what Glow does, plus several products that are much more precise at predicting fertility than calendar-based tracking. (My wife and I found these pee-on ovulation tests messy and hard to read, but also cheap and effective.) But Glow isn't a mere ovulation calendar. Instead it's something more ambitious and, depending on your views about your personal data, it's creepier.
It's a data tracker. Rather than just letting you know when you should try to have a baby, Glow asks users to routinely enter extremely detailed information about their health and sex lives. The app is the first instance of a dream Levchin has been talking up for the past few months—to improve health care through the large-scale collection and analysis of data.
But I'm skeptical that Glow can do that, for one simple reason: It is astonishingly intrusive, asking you more about your life than you'd feel comfortable telling even a doctor. For most people, though, the app won't provide much immediate benefit in return for the data they divulge. Glow is inspired by the rise of the much-hyped "quantified self" movement. These tech-loving, early adopter types argue that as we all begin to collect our health information through apps and small wireless sensors, we'll all gain a greater understanding about illnesses, sleep cycles, and even emotional well-being. Yet more than showing off the possibilities for how data might change medicine, Glow underscores all the hurdles to making large-scale tracking a mainstream pursuit—and shows why, for the foreseeable future, quantifying yourself seems destined to remain a fad.
Every day, Glow wants to know as much about you as you have time to answer, including your morning body temperature; the texture and "wetness" of your cervical mucus; whether you had sex and, if so, the position (the choices are "On bottom," "In front," "On top," and, helpfully, "Other"); if you are experiencing "emotional discomfort" (select green check mark or red X); your weight, if it's changed; and whether you're menstruating. The app also asks the male half of the couple questions about his nutrition and physical activity. And Glow isn't just for people who are trying to have—or actively want to avoid having—a baby. Ideally, Levchin would like every woman to use Glow, even those who haven't given any thought to having babies.
Why? Because data. Data, data, data, data, the vague and all-powerful buzzword at the core of Levchin's—and quite a few other startups'—ultimate goals. In the short run, the more information that Glow collects about women's menstrual cycles and sex lives, the more precisely it can predict when people should try to have a kid. With enough data, though, HVF hopes to make much larger predictions about people's health, nutrition, relationships, and reproductive outcomes.
Hence our discussion about sexual positions and female orgasms. "Surely you have heard position matters, but is that true?" Huang says. "There's talk about it, but we don't know. With this, we'll know." That is, if the Glow team notices that women who chose "On top" end up getting pregnant more often than women who selected "On bottom," it will have answered a question for which medical science has no definitive proof. (I don't know what would happen if "Other" turned out to be the most effective position.) With enough data, Glow could even spot correlations that few in medicine might ever think to study. "Like if we find that men drinking 10 Mountain Dews a day is the surefire solution," Levchin jokes. Then he adds: "It would be awesome if we could be partly responsible for finding a cure for infertility."
OK, really? Could this really work? Critics of the quantified-self movement—the writer Evgeny Morozov heads the pack—say that folks like Levchin are helping to impose a nearly totalitarian, privacy-free future in which we'll all be forced to track our bodies all the time. In my multithousand-word debate with Morozov earlier this year, I took a more pragmatic view of health-tracking technologies: Devices like the Fitbit and Up can be helpful when they point out things about your life that you can improve—for instance, that you should walk more. Often, though, I've found that these technologies provide few useful insights. I've tried out several sleep-tracking gadgets and found them useless. I already know I don't get enough sleep. Wearing a wristband is only making me feel worse about it.
Glow will face a similar problem. "We need you to enter the data not 100 percent of the time, but still relatively consistently," Levchin says. In beta tests with a few hundred users, HVF discovered that people who had already experienced some problem conceiving were more likely to engage with Glow. "When you move from a casual user into an obsessive user, we had no difficulty getting people to volunteer all kinds of information," Levchin says.
But the vast majority of people who try to have children face no trouble at all; they'll get pregnant without the app, sometimes without even meaning to. Levchin concedes that others who do consult the app will likely get pregnant after just a month or two. What immediate benefit do those people get for entering all the data Glow asks of them, especially when there are more conventional ways for them to determine their fertility? Little benefit, it seems. Levchin says that in Glow's beta tests, these early stage users were less willing to divulge all their data. That's a problem for Levchin's dreams of data-fueled insights. If a whole lot of women are getting pregnant using sexual position "on top," but they're not diligently entering in their data because they don't yet find the app useful—after all, they're getting pregnant very quickly—Glow's data will miss the effectiveness of that sex position. "The No. 1 challenge with this product will be compliance," Levchin says.
So what's his solution? As Florence Williams wrote in Slate earlier this summer, Glow's most novel feature is a form of infertility insurance called Glow First. Users can contribute $50 a month to the plan; people who get pregnant forfeit their money, while those who don't conceive after 10 months will receive a portion of the money in the fund to pay for infertility treatments. Glow takes no cut of the fund. It also makes no guarantee about the eventual size of the fund. Levchin is contributing $1 million of his own money, though, and he hopes that the fund will grow large enough to pay for couples' in-vitro fertilization, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars. The fund can also help with data collection—people who are paying $50 a month for the service might be more committed to enter their data than those who are using it for free.
The problem with Glow First is that it suffers from obvious adverse selection. Most insurance plans don't cover infertility treatments, so when people who've been having trouble conceiving hear of a $50-a-month plan that will get them some financial help in 10 months, they're going to rush to sign up. Meanwhile people who aren't having trouble have little reason to pay—especially if they find that the app asks too many questions. So I don't see how Glow First can sustain itself.
When I pressed Levchin on some of these questions, he didn't deny the challenge. Instead he looked to the future. Not long from now, he suggested, an app like Glow won't need to ask as many questions as it does. Instead it would automatically gather data through sensors that you attach to your body. A wireless thermometer that sticks on a woman's skin, for instance, could provide Glow with enough data to figure out when she's ovulating. If we connect them and analyze their data, sensors for weight, activity, and other physiological metrics would be able to suss out lots of other medical conditions, he says. For instance, congestive heart failure is often presaged by a sudden spike in weight over a period of a few days. If people were regularly stepping on intelligent bathroom scales, we might be able to spot heart failure before it's too late, saving lives and billions of dollars in emergency room visits.
Again, though, the trouble with this scenario is incentives. Why would people buy these scales if they're not prone to heart failure? Why would women who have no interest in conceiving attach wireless thermometers to their skin? Levchin says that at some point, such tracking devices will lead to such obvious improvements in health—and savings in medical costs—that insurance companies might require that we use them. This happens to be the exact scenario Morozov fears—that by creating a market for these devices, quantified-selfers will make tracking devices requirements, not fads.
I'm not so scared. I think that before we get to a world where insurance firms mandate tracking devices, we'll need to see a lot of evidence that large-scale health-data tracking can be useful and isn't just a gimmick. Glow is one of the first apps on the market that will test that proposition. And from what I've seen of it, I think most people will be better off sticking to the pee sticks. Messy as they are, you can be sure they won't ask you to describe, exactly, what you mean by "Other."
Corrections, Aug. 8, 2013: This article originally misidentified Mike Huang as a product manager at HVF. He is a co-founder. (Return to the corrected sentence.) The article also identified Glow as the company's first product. It is the second. (Return to the corrected sentence.)


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This year's MTV Video Music Awards were so much fun to watch not just because of all the ~amazing~ performances (5SOS, Ariana Grande, Iggy, and Rita!!), but also because it was basically the biggest girls' night of all time!
Miley Cyrus snapped adorbs pics with Ariana Grande and Lucy Hale.
And Lorde hung out with her bestie and biggest supporter, Taylor Swift.
More From Seventeen
And got friendly with Nina Dobrev after receiving her award for Best Rock Video.
Nina Dobrev had a great time goofing around with bestie Julianne Hough!
Meanwhile Jordin Sparks, Demi Lovato, and Taylor Swift had a great time catching up during the show and looking gorge while posing for pics.
Katy Perry and Miley were hanging out and laughing all night, and although Sam Smith joined the girls' night, no one cared because he's so awesome!
And in addition to all the fun bonding, we love how even though some of the girls were up for the same awards, no one threw any *shade.* That's a true sign of girl power!
What was your favorite VMAs moment? Comment below!
Ariana Grande and Big Sean Get Cozy at the VMAs!
See the Hottest Looks From the VMAs!
Jordin Sparks and Jason Derulo Were White Hot In Matching Outfits at The VMAs!
Photos: Getty Images


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The European Union will begin a program to help East African nations improve maritime security as pirate attacks in the region decline, EU Ambassador to Tanzania Filiberto Ceriani Sebregondi said.
The so-called Regional Maritime Capacity Building program will cover Somalia, Kenya Tanzania, Djibouti, Seychelles and Mauritius, Sebregondi said in an interview yesterday in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's commercial capital. "The program starts in a couple of weeks or months, and will last for one to two years, with a possibility of extending it," he said.
The EU also plans to spend 16 million euros ($21 million) extending its anti-piracy program off the coast of Somalia over the next two years to secure United Nations food shipments to the war-torn country, he said. Sebregondi spoke on board the HNLMS Van Amstel, a multi-purpose military vehicle that has been docked at Dar es Salaam since April 21.
Global pirate attacks fell 28 percent to 102 incidents in the first quarter as naval interventions reduced incidents off the coast of Somalia, the International Maritime Bureau said yesterday. Attacks near Somalia declined to 43 from 97 and the number of vessels that were hijacked also dropped.
In Somalia, the capacity-building program will focus on enabling the police and the judiciary to start handling the piracy problem domestically, Sebregondi said.
The bloc also plans to sign a pirate-transfer agreement with Tanzania "soon" to allow the EU to hand over suspected pirates captured at sea to Tanzanian authorities, Sebregondi said.
Busiest Waterway
The EU's so-called Atalanta Operation started in 2008 to curb piracy off Somalia's coast and to secure vessels used by the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia known as Amisom. Ships travelling through the Suez Canal, the world's busiest man-made waterway, must travel by Somalia's coastal waters. Total trade valued at $1 trillion moves through the region, according to the EU naval force.
The EU's intervention helped secure UN deliveries of food aid to Somalia, which has lacked a functioning central government since civil war erupted in 1991, Richard Reagan, the World Food Programme's representative in Tanzania, said in a separate interview yesterday from Dar es Salaam.
"Since our merchant-chattered vessels going to Somalia got this protection, we have not had any piracy incidents," he said. "I may not give you exact numbers, but we had several incidents in the past."
'Life-Saving Assistance'
The UN food agency is now reaching more than 1.5 million people with "life-saving" assistance, said Reagan. The Horn of Africa region experienced the worst drought in 60 years last year that triggered a famine in six regions in Somalia.
The WFP successfully delivered 854,181 metric tonnes of food to Somalia through its main port of Mogadishu, as well as the towns of Merka, Bossaso and Berbera port in Puntland with protection from the EU Naval Force, according to Hans Veerbeek, commanding officer of the HNLMS Van Amstel.
About 150 WFP ships and 126 under Amisom have been safely escorted since 2008. Total pirate attacks are 539 in the same period, while 126 ships have been actually pirated, according to information from the EU. The naval force has disrupted 114 attacks, according to the information.


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NFL: Tom Brady's missing Super Bowl jersey found
NEW YORK — The search for Tom Brady's missing Super Bowl jersey is over.
The NFL says it was in "possession of a credentialed member of the international media." Houston police Chief Art Acevedo tweeted Monday that it was found in Mexico.
Former executive of Diario La Prensa was involved in the case of Tom Brady's missing jerseys, according to the company.
The NFL says the jersey was found through the "cooperation of the NFL and New England Patriots' security teams, the FBI and other law enforcement authorities." The league referred other questions to the FBI.
Brady said his jersey went missing after the Patriots' 34-28 win last month over the Atlanta Falcons.
The statement adds that an ongoing investigation also resulted in the retrieval of the jersey Brady wore in the Patriots' 2015 Super Bowl win against the Seattle Seahawks.


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It started with a scratchy throat and a few errant sneezes, but by the end of last week it was apparent that full force of the cold and flu season had descended directly on my sinuses. And from the sniffling and coughing going on around me at ASCO HQ, it sounds like I'm not the only one.
So with all of the germs surrounding us this time of year, how can we make sure that we and those we care about stay healthy?
According to most doctors, the most important thing you can do is to get a flu shot each year. Getting a flu shot is especially important for people with cancer and cancer survivors, as well as their family members, friends, and caregivers. Cancer and cancer treatments weaken the immune system, making people with cancer and cancer survivors more likely to get sicker from the flu and develop complications, like pneumonia, that could put them in the hospital. (Sometimes, people with cancer should not be vaccinated against the flu, though, so talk with your doctor.)
Although it's best to get a flu shot before flu season begins, the vaccine is still beneficial if you receive it later in the season. After receiving the shot, it takes your body about two weeks to produce specialized cells called antibodies that will protect you from specific flu viruses.
Even if you already got a flu shot this year, there are still a number of other things you can do to reduce your chances of catching the flu. Because this disease usually spreads from person to person through droplets that travel through the air when a person infected with a flu virus coughs or sneezes, you should:
Try not to touch your nose, mouth, or eyes after touching shared objects or shaking hands with someone.
Wash your hands often with soap and warm water. Using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer when you can't get to a sink is another great option.
Clean the phone, computer keyboard, steering wheel, and any other items a sick person touches using soap, disinfectant, or rubbing alcohol before you use them. Flu viruses can live up to eight hours on the surface of objects.
Ask people not to visit if they are sick or live with someone who has the flu. The flu can be spread very easily, and people who have been infected with flu viruses can spread them even before they have a fever, cough, sore throat, stuffy or runny nose, body aches, chills, or other symptoms.
Don't get near people who are sick or look/sound ill. If you have been near someone who has the flu and you have cancer or are a cancer survivor, talk with your doctor. Your doctor may recommend taking an antiviral drug, which can help keep flu viruses from making you sick.
If you are sick and need to be around someone who has cancer, cough and sneeze into a tissue or into your sleeve to keep from spreading your germs.
For more flu facts for people with cancer, listen to this Cancer.Net podcast.
A transcript is also available.