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Shop Talk: Does 'The Bachelor' Discriminate?
Shop Talk: Does 'The Bachelor' Discriminate?
Host Michel Martin checks in with the Barbershop guys about the latest in pop culture and entertainment. A new lawsuit charges ABC reality shows The Bachelor and The Bachelorette of racial discrimination. The guys also weigh in on the passing of Dick Clark of American Bandstand and New Year's Rockin Eve, and his influence on African-Americans.
And now we head into the Barber Shop for our weekly visit. That's where the guys talk about what's in the news and what's on their minds.
Sitting in the chairs for a shape-up this week are freelance journalist Jimi Izrael with us from Cleveland. Civil rights attorney and author Arsalan Iftikhar here in Washington, D.C. From Durham, North Carolina, Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal. And in St. Petersburg, Florida, Eric Deggans, TV critic for the Tampa Bay Times.
Take it, Jimi.
JIMI IZRAEL: Thanks, Michel. Hey, fellows, welcome to the shop. How we doing?
ARSALAN IFTIKHAR: Hey, hey, hey.
MARK ANTHONY NEAL: What's up?
ERIC DEGGANS: What's up, Jimi?
IZRAEL: Hey, let's get a little caffeinated. Dr. Neal. Mark Anthony...
NEAL: What's up?
IZRAEL: It's so nice to hear your voice. You haven't been in the shop in a while. Welcome.
NEAL: I'm glad to be back.
IZRAEL: My man. All right. Well, let's get things started. We've got a pop culture Barber Shop this weekend, guys. I want to talk about the ABC television show "The Bachelor." I know it's among your favorite shows. Can you believe the casting agents turned me down during my single years?
MARTIN: Yes.
IZRAEL: Clutch the pearls.
MARTIN: Yes.
IZRAEL: But - all right. Well, I'm - look, I'm having some fun here.
NEAL: Did you hit them with your dreads?
IZRAEL: Right. But two black men filed a lawsuit against "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette" reality show, claiming racial discrimination. Michel, do we have a clip for our listeners who aren't familiar with the show?
MARTIN: We do. And for those who aren't fans, "The Bachelor" is a reality show - watch the air quotes - where a single guy is set up with 25 women and the goal is for him to choose a woman to date exclusively or propose to by the end of the season. Vice versa for "The Bachelorette." Here's a clip of the rose ceremony, which is a nice way of saying the elimination ceremony where you catch the Timberland at the end of every episode. Here it is.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Chantel, will you accept this rose?
CHANTEL: I do.
CHRIS HARRISON: Marissa, Lisa, sorry. Take a moment, say your goodbyes.
IZRAEL: Nice.
MARTIN: Arsalan's drying his eyes here. Give him a minute.
IFTIKHAR: Oh, man.
IZRAEL: Thanks, Michel. You know what? Let me get this out. First of all, you know what? And forgive me, but since Kevin Powell, reality TV - you might remember Kevin Powell from "The Real World." Reality TV really hasn't...
NEAL: Man, you're really reaching back on that one.
IZRAEL: I'm reaching back to - I'm going way, way back, back into time.
NEAL: That's a golden oldie.
IZRAEL: You know, word to Jimmy Castor, but you know, reality TV hasn't really crafted any images of black men that are particularly desirable. Now, I'm going to say that at the top, but this is what I want to say as a whole. I'm not really convinced that any TV enterprise has any obligation to integrate its content. That might surprise you, but guess what? People that produce TV - they're in business to make money. They make TV for their audiences and I'm not mad that there are no black folks - or no black guys as bachelors.
You know what? There's a similar conversation happening right now about HBO's new show "Girls," because, you know, I guess apparently these young white women have no black girlfriends and they're living in New York City, that's virtually devoid of people of color. Listen, these are shows by white people written for white people about the way white people are living now.
You know, TV - but TV - to be fair...
IZRAEL: ...TV aimed at black folks has few, if any, of any other minorities or whites, so you know what? It's TV, I say. Discrimination of some sort, you know, it's kind of just the nature of the beast.
MARTIN: Well, now that we know how Jimi feels...
MARTIN: Eric?
DEGGANS: Man, I'm representing a union.
IZRAEL: Jump in, Diggy.
DEGGANS: Well, the only thing I would say, number one, I can't believe that you didn't site Flavor Flav as one of the best images of black men in reality television.
IZRAEL: I know. Right?
DEGGANS: Because "Flavor of Love" is one of - is on my Netflix list. But anyway, what I will say is that these shows are for everyone. They're not just for white people.
IZRAEL: Hmm.
DEGGANS: And I feel like - I mean we all have this experience of watching television and sort of learning what our possibilities are as people by watching what we see on television.
IZRAEL: I hope not.
DEGGANS: And so I think - well, you know, I would challenge you and I would say...
DEGGANS: ...that whatever you watched as a kid gave you a sense of what your possibilities were as a person in this world.
And the other thing I would say is these reality TV show producers have no idea whether or not minority people, whether or not a minority bachelor would draw an audience because they've never tried it. And they very specifically cast these shows. They talk about how no minorities or few minorities try to be on the shows, but they constantly recruit for these shows.
IZRAEL: Wait a second, Diggy.
DEGGANS: "Survivor" in particular reaches out and calls people and ask them to participate in the shows. So if they wanted to diversify their cast, they could actively recruit people to be on the show and they haven't.
MARTIN: But you know...
IZRAEL: You know, what Diggy, respect, respect. But here's the problem with that. You know, you watch reality TV. You do it for a living.
DEGGANS: Unfortunately.
IZRAEL: Can you name a black reality male star that posts up an image that is desirable or coveted in any way, shape or form?
DEGGANS: Can I name a reality star that posts up an image?
IZRAEL: Yeah. Yeah.
DEGGANS: I mean who wants to be like Snooki or "The Situation"? I mean come on.
MARTIN: Well, what you seem to be saying 0 Jimi, just hold on. Let's move it around a bit. 'Cause, you know, Mark Anthony, I know you want to weigh in, and Arsalan wants to weigh in on this. Mark Anthony Neal?
NEAL: My first reaction, particularly to the two guys filing a lawsuit is kind of, Negro, please.
But, you know, so much of race and television functions around this idea of tokenism. And so you could have a white bachelor and throw in one or two black women and vice versa. I think the difficulty now is that once you cast a black man as the bachelor, it changes this model of tokenism that you can use because I think the other side of it, I think that maybe audiences might not be interested in seeing a dozen black women vying for the attention of this black man. So I think it's not only just in terms of who the bachelor is, but what kind of women would you pull together in order to be, you know, the objects of his affection.
MARTIN: Arsalan?
IZRAEL: Hmm.
IFTIKHAR: Well, you know, although I am loathe to admit this, my wife actually loves watching "The Bachelor" year in and year out. And I remember asking, you know, as far back as two or three seasons ago, you know, why haven't we ever seen a black bachelor. You know, to me it always seemed like a lily white fraternity sorority reunion of Zeta Beta Potato, where we were seeing, you know, just the same pool of people.
I mean if you look at other reality shows, "Dancing with the Stars" or "Survivor," you know, at least there's some diversity of, you know, minority representation there. And so, you know, it's something that a lot of us have noticed with the lily white "Bachelor."
MARTIN: You know what I'm puzzled by, though, Eric Deggans, is that, you know, Will Smith is one of the highest-paid and most popular actors in Hollywood on the movie side. So I'm just wondering why it is - and clearly he is one of the most highest-paid and most popular actors in Hollywood because of his universal appeal. So I'm just wondering why that doesn't offer a template for the television casting agents.
DEGGANS: My theory has always been with a lot of this stuff - and feel free to contradict - but I feel like a lot of times white actors and white characters on these shows get to fail and black actors and black characters don't. So they are very hesitant to quote/unquote "take chances" with casting people of color in key roles in TV shows and movies. But if a white person stars in a reality show and it fails, they don't go, oh well, we can't cast white guys in reality shows anymore. It's the concept failed, the execution failed, or whatever failed. But if a black person were cast as "The Bachelor" and they were to get historic low ratings, well, then not only has ABC hobbled one of its big franchises, I think the verdict would be America doesn't want to see a black bachelor, when it might be that America didn't want to see the women or they didn't want to see the execution or they picked the wrong black bachelor.
NEAL: Right.
DEGGANS: You know, that's the problem.
MARTIN: Well, now I just want to point out one other thing, and Arsalan, I know you want to weigh in on this, is this is, this seems to be a black issue, not a people of color issue per se because there were two non-white, I don't know what you would call them, performers, picked as winners on both "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette." Mary Delgado, a native of Cuba living in Tampa was selected by bachelor Byron Velvick in 2004. Roberto Martinez, who is of Puerto Rican descent, won bachelorette Ali Fedotowsky's heart in 2010, Eric, according to your reporting. So...
DEGGANS: According to my blog...
MARTIN: According to your blog, which I'm reading. But, you know, Arsalan to this point, you know, there's another story about this, which is the Jerry Seinfeld Super Bowl commercial for Acura. A casting call document was made public and the document calls for a, quote, "not too dark," unquote, African-American actor to play a car salesman. Now, Acura has issued an apology. It says the casting - this is on the casting agency, not them. But you have a thought about this.
IFTIKHAR: Yeah. I mean this definitely gets my redonkulous award of the week. I mean, you know, here we have something that's essentially put down on paper, you know, where you can obviously talk about the demographic features, 18 to 49, you know, general, you know, ethnic demographics features. But to say not too dark, you know, just to me, you know, even as a non-black man, I was patently offended by this. And but, you know, it shows that Hollywood still has a long way to go in terms of being sensitive to, you know, racial and minority issues.
MARTIN: But what about Jimi's point, and then move on. Jimi's point is they don't have an obligation to be sensitive. They have an obligation to sell cars and if they think that, you know, people want to - don't want to look at too dark people, then that's it.
IFTIKHAR: Well, I mean, but again that's playing on, you know, the tired trope of, you know, darkness not being beautiful. I mean I would give the name of Viola Davis, you know, Idris Elba, some beautiful, beautiful dark skinned people out there that are Hollywood stars and so, you know, this is absolutely the most redonkulous thing that I've heard all week.
MARTIN: If you're just joining us, this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. We're having our weekly visit to the Barbershop with civil rights attorney Arsalan Iftikhar, that's who was speaking just now; TV critic Eric Deggans; Professor Mark Anthony Neal; and freelance journalist Jimi Izrael.
Back to you, Jimi.
IZRAEL: Thanks, Michel. All right. Moving on. Moving on to America's oldest teenager. "American Bandstand" host, Dick Clark, he died this week at the age of 82. He had a long and successful career as a personality and a producer with his hands in all kinds of game shows and award shows. And, of course, "New Years Rockin' Eve," which he was at this past one, with Seacrest.
MARTIN: He was.
IZRAEL: Seacrest out. Anyway.
IZRAEL: And he's been credited with introducing African-American musicians to wider audiences. Michel, we've got a clip here.
MARTIN: We do. You know, this is from the 1960s, when Chubby Checker performed "The Twist" on "American Bandstand." He was one of the first African-Americans on the show and he appeared several times. Hit it.
DICK CLARK: Ladies and gentlemen, here's Chubby Checker.
CHUBBY CHECKER: (Singing) Come on baby. Let's do the twist. Come on baby. Let's do the twist. Take me by my little hand...
IZRAEL: Wow. Thanks for that, Michel. You know, Berry Gordy, the man behind the legendary Motown Records, he issued a statement and he said that Dick Clark was always there for him and Motown, even before there was a Motown.
Now Mark Anthony Neal, Gordy also said Clark was, quote, "a major force in changing pop culture and ultimately influencing integration," end quote. Now, there's been some controversy about early segregation on "American Bandstand." Black dancers were not initially allowed to dance with whites. How do you feel Clark's influence - about Clark's influence on African-Americans?
NEAL: I think much of it has been overstated and a bunch of scholars have written as such in saying regard in terms of Dick Clark. He was critically important. If you were at the top tier of African-American artists, you would have visibility because you could be on Dick Clark. But he was also very conscious of what kind of black artists were going to show up in that kind of space. Motown is a perfect example. Motown was finely tuned. They were very critical in terms of understanding this notion of black respectability. Those were the kind of acts that Dick Clark very often tried to book for the show because those were the kinds of acts that were most palatable to white audiences.
And so in some ways if Dick Clark had been as successful as we claimed that he was in terms of integrating the space in terms of black music, I mean Don Cornelius would have never have had to create "Soul Train" to actually bring another perspective of what black musical culture looked like at the time.
MARTIN: Well, before...
IZRAEL: Eric Deggans.
MARTIN: Well, before we go - no, we have to move on. We're going to move on to Tupac.
IZRAEL: All right.
MARTIN: Sorry. Before we go, there was a surprise appearance this year at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Here's a clip of the performer.
TUPAC SHAKUR: What up, Dre? What up, Snoop? What the (bleep) is up, Coachella?
DEGGANS: Wow.
MARTIN: That's a digital production...
DEGGANS: What could he possibly have said in that little beep...
DEGGANS: I have no idea.
MARTIN: So Arsalan...
IFTIKHAR: Yeah.
MARTIN: Was this cool or creepy?
IFTIKHAR: It was a little bit of both. But you know, for me I think that this will, you know, be fodder for Tupac conspiracy theorists out there. And it reminded me of the classic, classic "Chapelle Show" skit about how Tupac's songs are eerily clairvoyant. When, you know, Chapelle is in the club with Qwest Love from The Roots and you hear a Tupac song about how I wrote this song long time ago, I wrote the song in '94, you know, I think, you know, now we're going to start to see Michael Jackson holograms and other people holograms, I think it's going to get played out real quick.
MARTIN: Eric, what do you think? It's cool or creepy?
DEGGANS: Both. You know, one of the things I think is that the fans are going to put a limit on what they can do with this because there is no more obsessive guardian of an artist's legacy than a rabid Elvis fan or a rabid Michael Jackson fan. And if they do something really stupid with these holograms, the fans are going to let them know in a hurry.
MARTIN: Hmm. Mark, what about you? And Jimi, I'm going to give you the last word.
NEAL: I think is a little of both. I also find it incredibly problematic. You know, as soon as he opened his mouth or the hologram opened its mouth, I'm like wow, this sounds like Tupac from 1995. You know, I didn't wait 16 years to hear Tupac sound exactly the way that he did in 1995.
MARTIN: That's frightening.
MARTIN: Jimi, what about you? Cool or creepy?
IZRAEL: Well, maybe a little bit of both, but nothing new here. Celine Dion did the same thing with Elvis at "American Idol" in 2007. Now, granted, the effect has matured a little bit. I mean Tupac looked very real, very 3-D.
IFTIKHAR: He did.
IZRAEL: I guess now the question is, what's next? You know, who's going to come back now? You know, I don't know.
IZRAEL: Yeah. I don't know. Jam Master Jay.
MARTIN: Would you go?
IZRAEL: Bring them all back.
MARTIN: Would you go? Jimi, would you go?
IZRAEL: Absolutely.
MARTIN: Because?
IZRAEL: Because it was a good show. I mean I like, it was, I mean the idea of using that technology to create a good show, I'm all about. You know, so yeah, I'd be there.
DEGGANS: I think they should do the "This Is It" tour with the holograph Michael.
MARTIN: Ew. No. No.
IZRAEL: No.
MARTIN: No. Sorry, I want to be the girl here. No. Ew.
Jimi Izrael is a freelance journalist, author and presidential fellow at Case Western Reserve University. He was with us from member station WCPN in Cleveland. Mark Anthony Neal is a professor of African and African-American Studies at Duke University. He was with us from their campus in Durham, North Carolina. Eric Deggans is a TV critic at The Tampa Bay Times. He was with us from St. Petersburg. Arsalan Iftikhar is an author, civil rights attorney and founder of themuslimguy.com. He was here with us in Washington, D.C.
Gentlemen, thank you all so much.
IFTIKHAR: Peace.
DEGGANS: Thank you.
IZRAEL: Yup-yup.
MARTIN: And that's our program for today. I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Let's talk more on Monday.
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text:
Two weeks ago at this time, I was starting to have some contractions. In one sense it seems like forever ago, but in another it seems like just yesterday. I realize that makes little to no sense, but oh well. These past two weeks have been a blast. I'm really enjoying having two girls, and by God's grace, it hasn't been as challenging as I thought it would be. Getting up in the mornings is difficult, but thanks to DVR we have an endless supply of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, so I can lay on the couch and rest some more for an episode or two (or three or four...), knowing Charlotte won't be roaming around the house getting into trouble. I usually hit a brick wall in the afternoon, but the timing of Charlotte's nap with Naomi's feedings and naps have allowed me to sleep for an hour on most days.
Charlotte is still loving on her baby sister, but is not yet convinced that her name is Naomi. A coworker of Jared's asked her what her sister's name is and Charlotte answered "Baby". She still runs over to Naomi whenever she fusses or cries, which isn't often, and tells her, "It's okay, Baby." On the way home from the store yesterday, Naomi had a couple minutes of loud screaming, which Charlotte hadn't heard from her sister, and it really upset her. She has such a sweet heart :)
But enough talk, here's what everyone really wants... (they're in reverse order with the most recent first... I'm too lazy to change the order).
She managed to escape the swaddle
Look at those lips and cheeks!
Can you see the spit bubble?!
Staring at her Papa
Cuddling with her Grandmom
Charlotte holding Naomi for the first time
Giving Naomi some shade
Kissing her baby sister :)
Those cheeks!
The hospital picture... they managed one shot with her eyes open
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Naomi Faye
Two weeks ago at this time, I was starting to have some contractions. In one sense it seems like forever ago, but in another it seems like just yesterday. I realize that makes little to no sense, but oh well. These past two weeks have been a blast. I'm really enjoying having two girls, and by God's grace, it hasn't been as challenging as I thought it would be. Getting up in the mornings is difficult, but thanks to DVR we have an endless supply of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, so I can lay on the couch and rest some more for an episode or two (or three or four...), knowing Charlotte won't be roaming around the house getting into trouble. I usually hit a brick wall in the afternoon, but the timing of Charlotte's nap with Naomi's feedings and naps have allowed me to sleep for an hour on most days.
Posted by Brittany @ The Rollins World at 9:08 PM 2 comments Links to this post
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Life With Two
WARNING: Gushy, hormonal momma bragging on her babies in an excessively long post with no pictures. (Don't worry grandmas, I'll post more pictures in a day or two!)
I have officially survived my first week home with a toddler and a baby! Granted, this is only the second day I've been by myself with the girls all day, but still, quite the accomplishment, no?
Naomi is doing wonderfully. She has such a sweet disposition already and is a very relaxed and calm baby. She seems to be a typical second-born. The only times she has really fussed were when she had lots of air in her tummy or had an upset stomach from me eating too much dairy (Charlotte has issues with milk, as do I, but I didn't realize this until I weaned her to whole milk... What I thought was acid reflux when she was younger, I'm now pretty sure was lactose intolerance). But other than those couple of times of spitting up and burping enough air to fill a Macy's balloon, she hasn't really complained much. She is a cuddler, which I love, but she's also content to sit in her bouncy seat and look around.
Naomi is quite expressive. Her facial expressions crack us up. She's very ticklish, especially on her neck and cheeks, so of course she is
tortured tickled constantly by her Daddy. And I know they say babies can't smile or laugh at this age, but I am dead serious, she giggled in her sleep on Monday night. The belly and chest were bouncing, she had the biggest smile on her face, and she even made a giggling sound. Oh how I wish we had it on video! It was priceless!
How She's Sleeping and Eating
Naomi is a great sleeper! She has slept through just about everything. Jared was blowing off the back porch and the only thing between him and Naomi in her bassinet was about three feet and a sliding glass door. She was not phased one bit. Nor has she been phased by Charlotte's giggles, squeals, and loud talking.
Because she is such a great sleeper, she has a hard time waking up enough to take a full feeding through the night, so she tends to wake up every 2 hours. Last night I let her squirm for a little while and she got herself back to sleep so that when she did wake up to eat around the 3 hour mark, she was a more awake and ate more. I have a tendency to be a bit delirious through the night though, so when I hear her stir, I jump up thinking she needs to eat right away. After trying to wake her for a couple minutes, I've had enough time to come to and realize there's no waking her.
Breastfeeding has been much easier this time around. Not nearly as difficult or painful. For some reason she doesn't have a great latch on the left side so she takes in more air, but it seems to be getting better.
How Charlotte Is Adjusting
Charlotte has done a great job adjusting to the role of big sister. We have yet to convince her that her name is "Naomi" rather than "Baby", even though we talked about Naomi for months. She hasn't made the connection that the two are one and the same. :) She loves giving her kisses and gets very concerned when Naomi fusses or cries. She comforts her by saying, "It's okay, Baby. It's okay." Melts a Momma's heart! She hasn't shown any aggression towards Naomi and there haven't been any displays of jealousy. The only hint of anything of the sort was yesterday when I was feeding Naomi and Charlotte wanted me to see something in her room. I told her I had to finish feeding Naomi but as soon as I was done I would go with her. She looked at me with the most serious expression on her face and said, "Baby night-night. Baby in bed," telling me to just put the baby in her bed. It was a simple solution in her mind!
It took her a few days to realize that Naomi would be sticking around. One morning when either Jared or one of our moms was here, I walked out of the bedroom with Naomi in my arms, and when Charlotte saw her she said, "Baby again?!" Yes, Baby again... and you may notice a trend of Baby again from here on out :)
Labor and Delivery
I've had lots of questions about the labor and delivery. I guess that's what happens when you're only 5'1" and you birth a 9 lb. 3 oz. baby! I started having contractions around 9:45 on Sunday evening. They were 3-5 minutes apart but weren't really intense as far as contractions go. They continued throughout the night but didn't get any more intense for a while, and even started to get more time between them. I got really scared that it was false labor, especially since we had called/texted some of the family and we had 4 people here awaiting her arrival. Around 6 a.m. Monday morning they got much more intense and I was certain she would be born that day (December 7th, Pearl Harbor day and Charlotte's due date). We left for the hospital right at 8:00 and thankfully traffic was not an issue. I started bawling on the way there because I realized I had just hugged Charlotte for the last time as my only child. That still makes me tear up. Hormonal much?
The nurse checked my dilation and said that I was 7 cm dilated. I could have done cartwheels! When they first checked me with Charlotte I was 2-3 and progressed very slowly. Having all those small numbers behind me was so encouraging. By the time the doctor came in to check me, I was at 8 and he went ahead and broke my water. It wasn't long before I was at 9, then seemed to hang out around there forever. I felt the urge to push before the cervix was completely gone so I had to fight through that. Torture. Pure torture. Especially since the nurse was demonstrating how to blow through the contractions by blowing right in my face. I'm too nice to say anything, even in labor, but in my head I was throwing a pack of Tic-Tacs at her.
After maybe 15 minutes or so of feeling like I needed to push, I finally got the green light and began pushing away. It only took 15 minutes of pushing (as opposed to 20 with Charlotte), but it was much more intense and painful this time around. I guess an extra two pounds squeezing out will do that. I'm also really bad about pushing "with my face"- holding my breath and tightening all the muscles in my face while I push- so I managed to pop a blood vessel (or two or three) in my eye, which I did with Charlotte as well, but this time I also got lots of splotchy freckly bruise type marks on my face. They're faded now, but let me tell ya, I was scary looking for a few days! Red eye with a splotchy, swollen face. It wasn't pretty, ya'll!
Funny story about being pretty during labor... Shannon came to meet her niece and complimented the pearl earrings I was wearing. I laughed and told her that I had been planning for a while to wear them when I delivered Naomi. I had looked back at the pictures right after Charlotte was born and realized how horrible I looked. At the time, I couldn't have cared any less about that, but now when I see myself in those pictures I think, "Yikes!" And the Southern gal that I am, I believe pearls not only make any woman look better, they'll make you feel prettier too. So for the last month the only earrings I would wear were my ridiculously fake pearls so I would be ready for labor the moment it happened :) (Hindsight: The pearls really didn't do much for me looking better. They're pretty, but apparently not miracle workers.)
Almost immediately after delivering Charlotte I was sure that I would want to do that again. In the middle of delivering Naomi and even for a few days afterwards, I was pretty sure that would be my last delivery. It was just so much more intense this time around that I knew the rest of our children would be adopted. But a week has passed and I'm on board with the possibility of another pregnancy and delivery. The recovery has been much easier this time. I'm exhausted, yes, but I feel better than I did after Charlotte.
I was able to have another completely natural, drug-free delivery, which I am very grateful for, but I do have to give a lot of credit to my wonderful husband who coached and encouraged me through it all. After my delivery with Charlotte, he kept saying that Tim Tebow wore Brittany Rollins pajamas (a reference to the "Chuck Norris wears Tim Tebow pajamas" saying that was so popular amongst those in the Gator Nation). Naomi's birth was right after a game that doesn't need to be remembered so no Tebow references were made this time, but Jared was encouraging and supportive throughout the entire process. I know I would not have been able to make it through naturally if he weren't by my side.
Life With Our Girls
Having two is not as challenging as I expected it to be. Granted we're only one week into it, but things seem easier this time around. I'm not as nervous or anxious, I don't feel the need to call the pediatrician for every little spit up. I feel like I can enjoy it more now that we're parenting experts ;) But I really am enjoying it so much. I love saying "our girls." I love snuggling with a tiny baby again. I love seeing Charlotte give her baby sister kisses. I love that we're experiencing all of this for the second time at the same time of year that we did with Charlotte. I love the shock that I get when I put down Naomi and pick up Charlotte. She's not a baby anymore and having Naomi has made me realize just how far from the baby stage Charlotte really is. It has made me appreciate how much she is growing and changing, even within this past week.
God is so good to us. I can't get over how great of a life we have.
Posted by Brittany @ The Rollins World at 7:42 AM 1 comments Links to this post
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Welcome Naomi Faye!
Naomi Faye Rollins
Born 12/07/09 at 10:18 a.m.
9 lbs, 3 oz
21.5 inches
She is finally here! God has continued to bless our family beyond what we could imagine. I just cannot get over how much love I feel for my husband and my girls. Girls, did you catch that? It's plural. We have two now!
The hospital wouldn't allow any children under 5 in the labor/delivery area, so it was Wednesday before Charlotte was able to meet her little sister. Wednesday also happened to be our 3rd wedding anniversary! On the way home with my wonderful husband sitting beside me, our two daughters sitting in the back seat, and the first time we were all together as a family of four, it was easy to say that it was one of the best days of my life.
I'll post more pictures later, but here are a few to hold you over...
Her Daddy is already smitten
Snuggling with her Grammy
Meeting her Toto
Charlotte loves giving Naomi kisses and loved that she came home wearing a bracelet
Posted by Brittany @ The Rollins World at 7:17 PM 7 comments Links to this post
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Her Name Is...
Thanks to everyone who voted in the poll for Naomi's middle name! Kate was by far the most popular, with Lynn and Anne following, respectively. We also had a write-in for "Olivia" (thanks Stephanie!), but were really only drawn to a one syllable middle name for some reason. Having a one syllable middle name will be easier to yell when she's getting into trouble :) We also realized that we were favoring names with a long A sound. So after much deliberation, our daughter's name shall be...
Naomi Faye!
Yeah, I know, hate us that it wasn't even on the list. We fell in love with it a day or so after I made the poll. But that was one of the rules, remember? "As the ones who contributed DNA to this child, we reserve the right to pick the least popular, the one you didn't vote for, or one that isn't even on the list."
Faye also happens to be the middle name of my best friend, but I got her permission and she's on board with it too :) We weren't seeking out to use a name of someone in the family or someone we know (we actually tried to avoid that, as illustrated by us not using the name Olivia as a first name), but our families are too large and we know too many people to completely avoid that. And if Naomi will have to have a namesake, she could do much worse than her Aunt Shannon.
Whew! What a load off now that we have our child named! Now we're ready for the labor and delivery part... take a hint, Uterus!
Posted by Brittany @ The Rollins World at 8:21 AM 2 comments Links to this post
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
STILL pregnant
Charlotte came three weeks early so I am in disbelief that I am still pregnant. Seriously. Every pregnancy is different, I know that. I've had so many women tell me, "Oh, my first was three days early, my second was a week late..." But I always silently thought, "Yeah, but three weeks early is a little different than three days or even one week." Then Jared's boss had to go and tell Jared that one of his kids came three weeks early and the other one came two days late. Heart-Breaking. So I'm trying to get it into my head that I might be dealing with the aches, pains, and discomforts of pregnancy for two or more weeks still. But I'm still hoping, praying, and keeping my fingers crossed that Naomi will be here sooner rather than later! In the meantime, I'll do my best to focus on enjoying the movements, kicks, and hiccups that carrying such a blessing brings.
Pretend like the lighting isn't absolutely horrific and that the mirror doesn't have toothpaste splattered all over it. But look how low I'm carrying her! It has to be soon, right?
Posted by Brittany @ The Rollins World at 7:00 AM 6 comments Links to this post

subset: commoncrawl


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Appetizer, Baking, Dinner, pastry, roasted, savoury, summer, tomato, tomatoes, Vegetables, vegetarian
(I am so proud of this post because it marks my first food article in the Herald's revamped Sunday edition. My photo of my little roasted tomato tart was on the cover of the 'mix' section. For those that haven't seen the new Sunday edition, that means the photo was the entire front of the 'mix' section. Yay! And a warning, this post is photo heavy! What can I say? I had a hard time paring it down.)
And now, back to the article.
I have an unabashed love of tomatoes. Meaty slices of them wedged between two pieces of buttered toast with a sprinkle of salt and pepper is my idea of comfort food. Roma tomatoes drizzled with a little balsamic vinegar and good olive oil make a simple side dish. And I love that burst of seeds and flavour that comes when biting into a plain cherry tomato.
I once bought a perfume called Tomato because it smelled like the aroma given off after brushing up against the green stalks of a tomato plant — that verdant scent of heat and summer. A few spritzes on my wrist could transport me back to being a kid and visiting my grandparents on one of the Gulf Islands where I sometimes helped in the garden.
Enclosed in chicken wire to protect it from ravenous deer, the garden produced sweet tiny carrots I ate straight from the ground after a quick rinse from the hose, grape vines that tangled their way along trellises, and rows of tomato plants.
I would use a plastic watering can to fill the coffee tins with water, from which my grandfather had removed the bottoms, nestled into the earth next to the plants — a trick that allowed the water to get right at the plant's roots. And I would brush up against the stalks, filling the air with that distinct smell.
If any were ripe, I'd pull them sun-warmed from the dark green plants and eat them unadorned.
There is no taste like a vine-ripened tomato.
But sometimes I like to roast them to intensify their essence and bring out more of their natural sweetness.
Baking halved Roma tomatoes in the oven with a few unpeeled garlic cloves is an excellent base for a good tomato soup.
Cherry tomatoes, when roasted, shrink and wrinkle to softish pouches of concentrated tomato flavour. I've made simple pasta sauces like this, topped only with shaved Parmesan and a sprinkle of basil or parsley if I have them lying around.
I thought recently — after seeing a clamshell package of multicoloured cherry tomatoes at the farmers market — that they would make a good savoury tart, particularly if paired with a hearty crust.
When I began imagining a roasted cherry tomato tart, I thought there was potential in adding a few handfuls of Parmesan cheese to the dough to bring out a nice nutty, rich taste when baked.
A little research led me to realize I wasn't the first person to think of this, but I didn't love any of the recipes I came across. I am by no means a pastry expert, but was willing to give myself a chance to experiment.
Using ideas from several different recipes, I decided to create a hybrid pastry that used cream instead of water and a cup of Parmesan cheese, finely grated and blitzed with the other ingredients in the food processor.
The dough was easy to work with and resulted in a golden crust that played nicely against the sweet, soft tomatoes.
(This would likely work just as well, though, with a regular pastry.)
Because cherry tomatoes are so juicy, there was a lot of liquid bubbling away as the tart was baking. (Truth be told, I was a bit nervous about just how much I could see as I peered through the oven door.) Some of it did cook off in the process, but there was definitely a thin layer of tomato liquor when I pulled the tart out. Some may call it soggy; I prefer to think of it as tomato-infused pastry. Either way, the base of the tart pastry was crisp and I liked the taste of it.
A sprinkle of basil gave it a nice fresh taste when added as the tart cooled slightly. (And yes, you'll want to let it sit for a few minutes because cutting into the tomatoes will likely cause some to burst. Ouch.)
Roasted Tomato Tart
- 1½ cups (375 mL) flour
- 7 tbsp (115 mL) butter, cold and cut into small cubes
- ½ cup (125 mL) cream
- 1 cup (250 mL) finely grated Parmesan
- pinch salt
- 1-1¼ lb. (500 to 625 grams) cherry or grape-sized tomatoes
- 1 tbsp (15 mL) olive oil
- 1 tsp (5 mL) salt
- ½ tsp (2 mL) fresh ground pepper
- 2 tbsp (25 mL) fresh basil, chiffonade (rolled like a cigar and cut into strips)
Add the flour and pinch of salt to the bowl of a food processor, then sprinkle the butter cubes on top. Pulse two or three times until the butter starts to break down, then add the Parmesan. Pulse until the mixture is crumbly and the butter is in pieces no larger than a pea.
Add the cream slowly while pulsing until the dough starts to come together. (It will bunch up and the food processor noise will change.)
Empty the contents onto a lightly floured surface and knead it a few times to pull the dough together.
Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or as long as overnight.
Preheat oven to 325 F (160 C).
Toss the tomatoes in a bowl with the olive oil, 1 tsp salt and pepper. Set aside.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until it is about 1/3 inch to 1/4 inch (8 millimetres to 6 mm) thick. Press into tart tin (9 inch/23 cm round tin or a 14-inch/35 cm rectangular tin), stretching it as little as possible, and cut off excess. Arrange tomatoes in the tart tin.
Bake for an hour until tomatoes are soft and pastry is golden brown. Remove and let cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Roll basil leaves like a cigar and then slice them to make herb strips. Sprinkle over tart.
Serve while still warm.
Cook's note: The amount of tomatoes will vary depending on how tall or fat they are and how well they fit together in the tart tin.
This story first appeared in the Real Life section in the Calgary Herald. For more delicious recipes, visit CalgaryHerald.com/life.


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KAYGEN is an emerging leader in providing top talent for technology based staffing services. We specialize in providing high-volume contingent staffing, direct hire staffing and project based solutions to companies worldwide ranging from startups to Fortune 500 and Managed Service Providers (MSP) across a wide variety of industries
We are looking for some experienced folks who can be productive from day 1.
At KAYGEN, we are always looking for dynamic, talented and experienced individuals. We invite you to join our team of talented IT professionals, consulting at client locations across the globe. Our culture is team-orientated; we strive to stand by our core values of respect, honesty and integrity. Our team of experienced staffing experts will work with you to find you the best opportunity. For more information please visit us at www.kaygen.com.
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First Aid Kit
Firstaidkit is an automated recovery tool that brings together common recovery processes and applies them to a system. The way that Firstaidkit handles the recovery processes is by means of plugins. The idea being that a plugin will focus on a particular issue in the system, like grub, init scripts or Xserver. Firstaidkit is designed to automatically fix problems while focusing on maintaining user data integrity. In other words, Firstaidkit will try its best to fix your system while giving you the possibility to revert the changes.
- Name: MartinSivak / JoelGranados FIXME: please link names to wiki home page
Current status
- Targeted release: Fedora 10
- Last updated: 2008-07-20 (version 1.2.1 is in rawhide)
- Percentage of completion: 95% . The only thing that keeps me from putting 100% is the fact that we keep doing small changes to the backend. Additionally lots of plugins are still to come, but most, if not all, the backend work is done.
Detailed Description
For a long time, people have asked for a task based approach to rescuing their systems. Rescue mode is an okay start, but we can do a lot better by automating simple and common recovery tasks. Obvious things would be
- dmraid rebuild and recovery
- reinstall bootloader
- recreate the initrd
- reinstall some "base" packages
Implementing these as individual pieces rather than entirely tying them to anaconda would be the most beneficial way to do it. Then we can tie them together with a relatively simple "Fix my System" menu and also make use of them from a graphical version of the same on the LiveCD.
See the upstream project at https://fedorahosted.org/firstaidkit/
Benefit to Fedora
Makes it easier for users to rescue their systems in case of problems
- FirstAidKit is planned as a package. It will be a pluggable application that can house all kinds of plugins. Each plugin will be one automated recovery task.
Test Plan
- test features from old "rescue" mode to see that they still work or have equivalent functionality
FIXME--much more detail needed here, preferably steps that someone unfamiliar with the package can follow to complete testing.
User Experience
In case of any mishaps with the user's system. He/she should be able to run the rescue environment or livecd and use the FirstAidKit environment. Either by running an automated "Fix whatever is wrong with my system" process, or specific tasks from specific plugins for the more advanced user.
None for now.
Contingency Plan
FIXME--imost likely you can explain that this is not applicable because it is a new feature that is not depended on by other applications.
Pydoc generated from the code to ease the plugin developer experience and user documentation.
Release Notes
FIXME--include rough draft of how the release note should read. Reusing some of the wording from the summary and description would work well.


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Reporter: Paige Quiggins
In the small town of West Liberty, one four legged family member was the talk of the town.
Veterinarians and his owner said they have never seen anything like it and have no explanation for the outcome other than equine divine intervention.
"After what we went through every day is a blessing to us," said David Green.
Green and his family look upon their land in Morgan County with hope after devastation.
"A tornado or nothing else is going to keep us from living here," Green said.
He and his family are rebuilding their homes after the Mar. 2 tornado. They said their extended family would be included when they came back.
"He is my horse and I love him," said 8-year-old Colten Conley, a grandson of Green's.
"We think of them of them as family and we don't want any harm to come to them," said Green.
After a tornado destroyed David and Barbara Green's home, the walls were left still standing...
"I didn't think we were going to survive the tornado," said Green."
"Then, after it was over, I had went to the front door to try to get us out of the home because I was afraid a wall would cave in on us or something and my wife said look, there's a horse in the kitchen! I said now is not the time to be joking around."
Their gelding, "Chief," had been picked up by the twister and placed in the kitchen.
The family and the vet said that after all the devastation they went through they believe there is a reason why a story like this came to be.
"I think that is where the Lord wanted him put," said Dr. David Fugate of West Liberty Veterinary Clinic.
"I think the Lord is why myself and my wife are still alive and weren't injured in the tornado also," said Green.
Some called it a miracle.
"He was not dropped, he had to have been eased onto the floor of that kitchen," said Fugate.
Fugate said he never expected to see anything like it.
"I can't explain how the wind and the force and the wind can pick up a 1,100 pound horse and set it inside a house without breaking one of its limbs, a fracture or a terrible laceration except the good Lord wanted it that way," said Fugate.
They said "Chief," also known as "Twister," helped them on the road to recovery.
"He is lucky to be alive," said Conley.
Fugate said the story was uplifting and he enjoyed telling the Palamino's story to others.
"It's one of the good ones," said Fugate.
"He has been kind of a source of inspiration for me."
The family said they hope to ride "Chief" again one day


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Our Legacy
Long before recycling was the "in" thing, I thought it was something you just did in order to survive. Take for instance, my dad's white shirt. Farm life was hard and there was not much money for "store-bought" things. Dad wore his white shirt to church every Sunday. When the collar began to get frayed my mother would unstitch it from the shirt, turn it over and sew it back on. Now it looked pretty good again except Mother washed it so often with her home made laundry soap it was no longer quite as white. After the collar was worn out again, Dad used it as a work shirt. No one cared if the collar looked worn. When the white shirt got stained or there were too many holes to be patched, Mother would cut off the buttons to reuse and cut the shirt into cleaning rags and smaller pieces for "nose rags." When we needed to blow our nose, we would go to the top left hand drawer of her old treadle Singer sewing machine and get a white rag. After a good blow, it was taken to the cook stove where it contributed to the fuel supply. The final use of the white shirt became part of the ashes from which my mom would make her laundry soap on an open fire in a big copper kettle so she could—you guessed it—wash Dad's white shirt! – Clyde Seely
'Legacy' in Action
When it came time to demolish Three Bear Lodge after the fire, the principle of the "White Shirt" that I grew up with protected the historical and sentimental materials from being crushed and hauled to the land fill. Even though it was not known at the time what some of the items would be used for, because of the "Legacy of the White Shirt", they were saved. I invite you to visit our historical displays throughout the Lodge to discover how and where these items were re-used – you have touched some already. It is a pleasure to share this part of history and our lives with you. – Clyde and Linda Seely


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Umpqua buying Sterling Financial in $2B deal
Umpqua Holdings Corp. says it is buying fellow regional bank Sterling Financial Corp. in a $2 billion cash-and-stock deal.
The two said Wednesday they will combine under the Umpqua name to form a bank with about $22 billion in assets and branches in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, California and Nevada. Umpqua is based in Portland, Ore., while Sterling has its headquarters in Spokane, Wash.
Under the terms of the deal, Sterling shareholders will get 1.671 shares of Umpqua common stock and $2.18 cash for each share of Sterling common stock. The deal is expected to close in the first half of next year.
Umpqua CEO Ray Davis will remain at the helm of the combined bank, while Sterling CEO Greg Seibly will become a co-president.


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This course is based on NFPA 1521: Standard for Fire Department Safety Officer Professional Qualifications. The course is intended for the member within a fire department or emergency service organization who performs the functions of an Incident Safety Officer or who serves as an assistant to the Incident Safety Officer.
Certification Course Syllabus
Practical Exam Materials
Alternative Certification:
Individuals not certified to the Fire Officer I level completing equivalent coursework as approved by the Commission are eligible for alternative certification under the following conditions:
Alabama state licensed Emergency Medical Technicians certified to the EMS or Rescue Officer I level may be certified as EMS Safety Officer I.
Individuals certified to the EMS or Rescue Officer I Level and able to demonstrate particular competence in the area of rescue operations may be certified as Rescue Safety Officer I.


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Good afternoon campers! I hope you had a ball this weekend. Speaking of round things, I've just come accross these uber bright ball chairs by Finn Stone for Bodie & Fou. Made from recycled ABS (virtually indestructible polypropylene) these coloured balls of fun can be used inside to add a modern touch or outside for your summer bbq!
The chairs were inspired by Vernon Panton's use of colour and shapes and are suitable for any bottom over the age of 6. Costing £165 each from notonthehighstreet.com, adding this piece of colour to a room could be very expensive, but it would certainly make it pop.


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EXCLUSIVE: Death Cab For Cutie Wax Nostalgic on 'Thank You For Today'
Plus, the band channels Yoko Ono on "Gold Rush"
With twenty years under their belts, Death Cab for Cutie are waxing nostalgic on their upcoming ninth studio album, Thank You For Today, which is set for release later this summer.
The album's lead single, "Gold Rush," samples Yoko Ono's 1972 track "Mind Train" and serves as "a requiem for a skyline"—a sort of ode to the Seattle (frontman Ben Gibbard's hometown) that once was. Gibbard tells us that he's realized his memories are intrinsically tied to specific places, so when the buildings in which he formed memories began to change or disappear, as they do when a city's in flux, so did some of the memories attached to those places.
"You are very aware of the passage of time in a way that you weren't necessarily before because the setting for that time in your life has disappeared," he explains. "'Gold Rush' is a song about how we connect our memories to physical places."
Before the album was recorded in Santa Monica with producer Rich Costey, Death Cab noticed Costey consistently exchanging the words "Thank you for today" with another band after each studio session—a phrase Death Cab initially repeated ironically; however, the irony faded into sincerity, and the band realized, as Gibbard puts it, "It was just kind of a nice way to end the day in which you just kind of acknowledge the experiences that you had with your friends and bandmates."
Thank You For Today introduces the sound of two new band members: Dave Depper and Zac Rae. Following founding member Chris Walla's 2014 departure, Gibbard, bassist Nick Harmer, and drummer Jason McGerr invited guitarist/keyboardist Depper and keyboardist/guitarist Rae on tour in support of 2015's Kintsugi. After the tour wrapped, Gibbard, Harmer, and McGerr asked the newcomers to contribute to Thank You For Today.
"There's a nervousness about bringing new people into the creative process, especially if you have lost a seminal member of the band," says Gibbard. "But Dave and Zac were fans of the band before they were members, so they have a unique perspective on the music that the other three of us can't see."
You can hear more from the newly formed quintet on Thank You For Today, which drops August 17. Pre-order your copy here and listen to its first sampling via "Gold Rush" below!
Thank You For Today track listing:
1. I Dreamt We Spoke Again
2. Summer Years
3. Gold Rush
4. Your Hurricane
5. When We Drive
6. Autumn Love
7. Northern Lights
8. You Moved Away
9. Near/Far
10. 60 & Punk


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16 Questions People Want Answered About Stephen Colbert's 'Late Show' Takeover
CBS announced Thursday that Stephen Colbert will succeed David Letterman as the host of The Late Show in 2015.
The news came as somewhat of a surprise, so, of course, Twitter was abuzz with reactions — both good and bad — and many, many jokes. But most of all, people seemed to have questions.
How will Stephen's introduction change the late night world? How will Colbert, known mostly for his faux-patriotic-right-wing-political-pundit persona (cultivated on his Comedy Central show The Colbert Report, running since 2005) adapt to mainstream comedy?
We compiled a list of the most hard-hitting questions about Colbert, from totally valid to completely absurd.


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Harmony and the City
A stay at our luxury Aruntara Boutique Hotel in Chiang Mai, situated on the banks of the Mae Ping River, allows our guests peace and tranquility but is still close enough to Chiang Mai's vibrant and exotic city should you wish to taste the best of both worlds.
Nestling on the banks of the Mae Ping River, the Aruntara Boutique Hotel is a unique way to experience Chiang Mai, one of Thailand's most vibrant and culturally exotic cities. The design of the hotel is an architectural marriage between British Colonial and Northern Thai influences, this can be seen by the traditional Lanna style handcrafted teak columns and high ceilings. Every piece of furniture in the hotel is exclusively designed and traditionally handmade by Thai craftsmen which enhances the overall Lanna concept. All the rooms are portrayed by one of the four classical elements (Earth, Wind, fire and Water) which bring peace and tranquility to this Buddhist cultural theme. Aruntara Boutique Hotel connects the present with memorable anecdotes from the past.
|Aruntara Riverside Boutique Hotel Chiang Mai is a true treasure for hotel aficionados.
It's British colonial design is complimented by Northern Thai influences that embrace the present while respecting the past.
High ceilings sit above beautiful towering teak columns traditionally crafted by Thai tradesman.
Each of the luxurious guest rooms is designed to offer stylish accommodation with
an expansive open-plan living area and an abundance of room to relax and unwind.
Deluxe Suite (40 Sq.m., Courtyard View)
Water element
This themed room encases you with its calming peacefulness let any troubles float away with the closeness of the Mae Ping River. Here you can drift away in total relaxation and enjoy its quiet ambience as it is secluded by a tree filled courtyard. The rooms come with a writing desk, flat screen TV / DVD player.
Wind element
Nestle in this wind themed room to greet the breeze as the calm wind takes itself through the room. Poises to the tree filled courtyard, the Wind Rooms sway the rattling leaves so hypnotic, defining a true getaway. The rooms also come with a writing desk, flat screen TV add DVD player.
The Elephant Suite (62 Sq.m., Private balcony)
Fire element
Retreat to the heart warming humble aboard. The Fire Room is a luxurious and specious that boasts a private balcony with your own vibrant panorama with exclusive view of Mae Ping river as the lead songstress. The lush scenery is complimented by a daybed, separate bath tub and shower. Nothing defines privacy that brings home to your getaway than our Fire Rooms. Each room also come with a large writing desk, flat screen TV and a DVD player.
The White Elephant President Suite (86 Sq.m., Veranda and ping river view)
Earth element
All four of our Earth Rooms are the paradigm of the glorious Mae Ping scenery. The spacious surrounding of delicate white decorations is breathtakingly spacious and luxurious. The double daybed brings you and your loved one ever so near the gentle river of life. Each room serves to your pleasure with a companion friendly size bath tub. Separate the tub and a dual pressure shower is a glass wall. Each room has a large work desk, flash screen TV and DVD player. Two connecting Earth Rooms on the second floor share a large private balcony, a gorgeous and spacious common ground for family and close friends to share the memorable scenery.
At Tara restaurant you can sit outdoors and watch the life on the river float by
or stay cool and be seated inside the air conditioned dining room.
The restaurant boasts a varied selection of Thai specialties along with Western cuisine.
Our signature menus are "East meets West" (Thai Fusion) resulting
in contemporary Thai cuisine and a truly diversified dining experience.
Bar is situated opposite the restaurant having an extensive drinks list, here is an ideal setting for a pre-dinner or lounge drinks, the Bar also serves a variety of wine and cocktails.
The Four Elements Spa lets you experience relaxation in a pleasant environment,
the therapists will take you to a world of tranquility and relax you mind,
body and soul after a long days sight-seeing. With a wide variety of
Spa packages to choose from the Four Elements Spa has something for everybody.
|Aruntara Riverside Boutique Hotel is an elegant retreat offering all the pleasures of hotel living in the heart of a historical city. The hotel is idyllically located on the Mae Ping River bank, just 5 minutes drive from the famous "Night Bazaar" and 5 Kilometers from Chiang Ma International Airport.


text: So let's send Tannehill's rookie season of in style. I'm making the trek with my brother and Father all the way from Australia, and want to know what is a good time to get there, what area's are good to tailgate etc? I'm a rookie and would love some help, my first Fins game ever..


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The West Virginia State Treasurer's Office facilitates the electronic transfer of funds (EFTs) to and from bank accounts via the Federal Reserve's Automated Clearing House (ACH). This process greatly reduces the expenses and paper involved in both issuing and receiving checks. It offers a safe, convenient and reliable method of conducting business with the state.
Where is my payment?
To assist with payment questions, the Cash Management Division offers the payment hotline.
Call the payment hotline at: 1.866.243.9010 or 304.558.3599
Email the payment hotline at: firstname.lastname@example.com
Requests for Proposal/Quotation
State Agency Contracts
FOIA Requests
West Virginia Code
Privacy Policy
West Virginia State Treasurer's Office
1900 Kanawha Boulevard
Capitol Complex Building #1, Room E-145
Charleston, West Virginia 25305
304-558-5000 Toll Free: 800-422-7498


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It's a one-of-a-kind feeling when you fall in love with one of these wedding dresses from Martin Thornburg. Perfect for the modern bride that's looking to create her storybook moment, Martin Thornburg wedding dresses feature sophisticated and elegant bridal styles that are sure to enhance your natural beauty. From vintage-inspired a-line wedding dresses to simple and clean high-neck bridal styles, a Martin Thornburg wedding dress will make you say "yes" as soon as you lay eyes on it.
Popular wedding dress styles from Martin Thornburg:
The Spring 2020 collection from Martin Thornburg is finally here and with it came all of the modern bridal trends you've been looking for. Iris, a favorite of the season so far, features incredible floral lace detailing, a plunging v-neckline, an open low back and a curve-loving fit and flare silhouette. The fact that this wedding dress style is a favorite from Martin Thornburg this season shows us that brides are focusing on wedding dress silhouettes that accentuate their sexy figure while also staying true to the romantic bridal vibe. Another popular style is ball gown wedding dress, Payton (which also comes in plus sizes - wooh!), which includes a sheer lace bodice, v-neckline, low open back and full tulle skirt. This wedding dress style exudes regal charm with it's princess-esque ball gown silhouette and eye-catching beading. Clearly, Spring 2020 is the season for hopeless romantics - from timeless lace detailing to ultra-feminine silhouettes, it's a great year to be a starry-eyed bride.
What you should look for when buying a wedding dress:
It's only right to pick a wedding dress style that let's you be you. Martin Thornburg wedding dresses are made to be inclusive for all body types so that no matter your shape or size, you feel full of confidence as you walk down the aisle on your special day. You should also pick a wedding dress that highlights your unique personality because this is the day you're meant to stand out. Are you a minimalist loving bride? Choose a sleek high neck wedding dress with a figure-flattering fit and flare silhouette and simple crepe fabric. Or maybe you're the type of bride with an eye for detail - opt for a dramatic ball gown wedding dress with sheer long sleeves and intricate floral lace detailing. Whatever type of bride you are, pick a wedding dress style that brings out your best without you having to do all of the work.
No matter your size, there's a Martin Thornburg wedding dress for you:
Here at Martin Thornburg, we pride ourselves on making diverse wedding dresses that will flatter all body types, not just the stereotypical ones you see in the media. We love our curvalicious brides and that's why our plus size wedding dresses are some of our favorites. From bold ball gowns to sexy lace fit and flare gowns, plus size wedding dresses from Martin Thornburg come in a wide variety of styles and silhouettes so that you don't have to sacrifice your unique style for the right fit. It won't be a challenge loving your curves when you step into one of these figure-flattering wedding dresses from Martin Thornburg.
Create your favorite love story in one of these wedding dresses from Martin Thornburg.


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I think this is a world record. Yes, pretty sure that the weekend has gone the fastest ever, it seems like only a few hours ago I was sat in front of Jools utterly captivated, all misty eyed, enraptured.
Frank and I had had a couple of pints in the boozer we have to default to in times of Rugby and Football nonsense, in this instance his missus was out on a jolly with her girlfriends and he felt it best to stay clear, wisely. Frank was a bit stressed out when he arrived due to an exhausting week but by the time we parted we were both in good cheer. I nipped home and prepared supper at about the same time Myfwt strolled in. Glasses were raised over a sensational seafood wrap that I made from scratch and than, quite bizarrely, Myfwt went out of the room to make a phone call to her pal Patty, and arrived back 4 fucking hours later after much guffawing from the kitchen.
No matter, I quietly imbibed with my headphones. British Sea Power were due on Jools, an act I'm pleased to say made their debut on Piqued a couple of weeks ago. They were sensational, even Jools looked a bit unsteady on his pins after due to the sheer exhilaration of loaded euphoric sound. Not even , who I must say hasn't really done it for me in the past, couldn't quite trump them. I have to say he made a sterling effort though… I really enjoyed his International Playboy wotnot…actually, one thing I'd like to say at this point. I noticed that Morrissey's act had balls because he was singing over a wadge of distorted guitars, pounding drums and thundering bass, not tinny, whiny breezes of corrugated air (appropo The Smiths) but fucking hard, heavy rock -they all come round in the end.
Saturday began late, after a breakfast of bacon sandwiches I dashed round Sainsbury like I was ablaze (quick mention of my commiserations to Camden, glad no known was hurt. Crying shame though). Myfwt met me at home and we drove to Marylebone as I'd an appointment with a hairdresser. Fed up with me having my entire face obscured by a gargantuan stack of keratin she'd arranged and agreed to pay for the appointment. The hairdresser was actually quite good, I'm vaguely pleased with the result but have no more to say on the matter. We arrived home after 8 and I popped up the road to meet James for a couple of sherberts, it's been a while since I'd seen him so it was jolly good to catch up, he, like me, is in the process of moving. An awful business with potentially splendid rewards. I got home and made prol pizza and squandered the rest of the evening burping and drinking beer in front of an excellent programme about Stiff records, look out for some samples this week (but not today).
I got up at lunchtime and ate kippers with toast, Myfwt was already half way to Berkshire to visit her niece and nephew and I was preparing myself to do the same. It was the first proper bike-friendly day of the year, mild, sunny and wholly wrong for mid February. I fucked off out of London like a man possessed, I was actually yelling under my helmet due to sheer exhilaration; let this act as a symptom of my irresponsibility. I arrived at my folks in record time gurgling like an idiot.
After a few cups of tea and a chat, I headed out into darkest Surrey to visit my sister, bro in law and niece, who I've not seen in over a month. She now has fucking teeth and has got all interested in spoons and cups, she's all chuckles and wind, and has got a thing for leather… she wouldn't leave my leather trousers alone, after clawing at my knee pad she started to gently bite it, pat it before vomiting all over it following a protracted grunt.
After a jolly few hours I headed home. The traffic wasn't too bad, it would seem that most of London hadn't taken advantage of the unseasonably clement weather, much to my delight.
The weekend ended as it had begun, Frank and I hooked up the boozer for a pair of ales. I was home before Myfwt got back from seeing her family, when she arrived it was late so we poured a couple of g&t's and watched TV in bed. We accidentally began watching Graham Swifts Last Orders with the intention of turning in before midnight. No such luck, we couldn't stop, it's flawed but with a cast like that, only a twat would've switched off.
My Black Bitch is going to have to go to bike hospital tomorrow. I'm worried sick.
…but for now, it's metal Monday (metal no booze Monday, bah)


text:
Living Water Ranch
Religious Camp: All Denominations
Co-ed - Day and Overnight Camp
Religious Affiliation: None
Olsburg, Kansas, USA - (785) 468-3594
Living Water Ranch is a non-profit Christian camp and conference center. We can serve up to 125 guests at a time. We are open all year round. We are located in the Flint Hills of Kansas right off of Tuttle Creek Lake. We have ATVs, swimming, watersliding, canoeing, archery, hiking and much more.


text:
Authorities rescue dogs used in 'trunking' fights
No arrests made in Fla. case
There is apparently a way to make dog fighting even less humane, and animal welfare officers say people are doing it.
Miami-Dade County Animal Services told WPLG-TV that they have rescued dogs that they say have been used in a form of dog fighting known as "trunking."
Animal welfare groups say the dogs are locked inside a car's trunk with the music turned up to drown out the noise while the vehicle is driven around for up to 15 minutes. Then the participants toss out the losing dog's body and force the winner to continue fighting.
A witness told animal services Wednesday that a man in Goulds has been seen repeatedly placing dogs in his truck, and authorities told the TV station that they rescued five adult dogs and four puppies from horrendous conditions.
Many of the animals had scarring, open wounds and broken bones, among other injuries, and were kept in kennels without food or water.
Investigators said they had not yet made any arrests in the case.


text:
It's been just under four months since Arkansas fired Bobby Petrino for hiring his young girlfriend to an athletics department position, paying her extra under the table, and lying about it. Four months is barely enough time to break in a new hairstyle, but, naturally, Petrino has found the time to search his soul, change, and tell ESPN's Joe Schad about it.
Today, ESPN.com posted Schad's sit-down on-camera interview with Petrino and a lengthy piece detailing the coach's contrition. The interview and the piece combine to form a sap-dribbling bullshit colossus, one constructed for the sole purpose of getting Bobby Petrino another job. Preferably one that allows him to recoup the "$21 million in potential earnings" that Schad says Petrino lost.
We've encountered Schad's shtick before. Last we met, he was bro-hugging Auburn's PR guy over email ("I have been tweeting about Cam/Heisman and about how Auburn is the best environment in college football right now!"). He's a stooge of the highest order.
The interview clip consists of Joe Schad holding Petrino's hand as the two of them enjoy a nice picnic in the park together. Schad lays his head in Petrino's lap while questions like, "What do you think has been your biggest weakness as a person?" flutter upward from his mouth. Petrino tries his hardest to look serious before running his hands through Schad's hair and eventually saying:
I've made mistakes, I'm going to be a better person because of it...I really feel like I'll be a better coach because this happened, because I'm now gonna know that I'm gonna coach the person as much as the player, and help the person, when he has made mistakes...
They sip champagne, and one pops a strawberry into the other's mouth.
Schad goes on to do even more propping up in his piece, which ends with these paragraphs:
Petrino has a proven record as a head coach, playcaller, quarterback developer and offensive mastermind. He has won 74 percent of his games as a college head coach, a better showing than Nick Saban, Les Miles, Steve Spurrier and Mack Brown.
Petrino's offense was among the top three in the SEC in each of the past three years. And his offense at Louisville was among the top 10 in the nation for four consecutive years. And yet he said he understands that there are no guarantees he'll ever get to run another program.
Does he need to coach again? "I think I do," he said.
Does he think he'll ever coach in a high-profile situation again? "I don't know that right now," he said.
Since being dismissed by Arkansas, schools such as Cal and NFL teams such as the Tennessee Titans have asked him to visit with their coaching staffs. He has done so and might continue.
Petrino won't coach this season but he said he hopes someone gives him at least one more chance.
"I would like to be able to explain the mistakes that I made," he said. "I think I've got to take this one day at a time, continue to improve as a person and as a husband. I'm also going to continue to work on football. And I just hope and pray that I get that opportunity again."
Thank god Joe Schad is here to allow Bobby Petrino to tell us that he will be a better football coach for lying about his affair with a 25-year-old team employee, and to remind us what a good football coach Petrino was in the first place. We're all really jacked about this information, Joe.


text:
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VAT No. 787 440 102 © Woodhouse Clothing 2020


text:
BOSTON — Employee 401(k) accounts grew more than 4 percent in the third quarter as a rising stock market boosted investment returns, and contributions from workers and their employers increased.
Fidelity Investments, the nation's largest 401(k) administrator, said Thursday that the average balance of $75,900 at the end of the quarter was the highest since it began tracking the data in 2000.
Three months earlier, the average account balance among the 12 million accounts that Fidelity administers was $72,800.
The Standard & Poor's 500 stock index rose nearly 6 percent in the July to September period, boosting investment returns in 401(k)s. The gain helped investors recover from a nearly 3 percent market decline in the previous quarter.
Workers' 401(k)s are typically invested in bonds as well as stocks to help reduce volatility. A broad U.S. bond market index rose about 1 percent in the second quarter, substantially less than the stock market. So workers with large portions of their accounts invested in stocks enjoyed better performance than those with more in bonds.
Account contributions from employees' paycheck deductions also rose in the latest quarter, as did 401(k) contributions from employers, known as company matches.
Annual contributions from workers now average about $7,900, up more than 7 percent from the level five years ago. Company matches average $3,420, up 19 percent from the third quarter of 2007.
Many companies reduced or suspended their 401(k) matches to conserve cash during the recession that began in late 2007. But as the economy has gradually improved, many employers have restored those matches, and then some.
"When employers were cutting contributions, many told us that they felt badly about it, and that restoring them would be one of the first things they wanted to do once they saw signs of improvement," said Beth McHugh, vice president of market insights at Boston-based Fidelity.
The latest employer contribution numbers show that most companies "are back, and fully committed," she said.
Investment earnings and contributions can grow tax-free in an employer-sponsored 401(k) account, which is a key reason why they're a popular way to save for retirement.
The average employee contribution in Fidelity-administered 401(k) plans has remained steady at around 8 percent of annual pay for the past three years. In the latest quarter, 4.6 percent of participants increased the amount of their paycheck deductions for their 401(k), while just 2.8 percent decreased their deferral rate.
That's consistent with the trend since the financial crisis. Balances have grown a cumulative 64 percent since early 2009, when the stock market meltdown reduced the average balance to $46,200.
Yet workers who have stayed in the market long term have found it difficult to rely solely on investment gains to build up 401(k) savings. Stocks remain about 11 percent below their historic peak in October 2007.
Over the past 10 years, about two-thirds of annual increases in account balances have been due to workers' added contributions and company matches, with one-third the result of investment returns.
401(k) average balance grows 4 pct in 3Q
BOSTON — Employee 401(k) accounts grew more than 4 percent in the third quarter as a rising stock market boosted investment returns, and contributions from workers and their employers increased.


text:
THE task of beating the world number one is not achieved by matching excellence but by sustaining it. A Swiss player who was not Roger Federer found he could play Novak Djokovic, and for five hours he could stay with him.
But after five sets, five hours and two minutes, and at 1.41am, Novak Djokovic finally prevailed over journeyman Stan Wawrinka in the most extraordinary match of the Australian Open.
"It's hard to find the words to describe the feeling we had tonight, especially in the fifth set. He deserved equally to be a winner of this match," Djokovic said after winning 1-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-7, 12-10 early on Monday.
"I give him a lot of credit, he has my respect ... he was the aggressive player on the court. I was just trying to hang in there, trying to fight. This match means a lot to me and to him.
"It's incredible, it's nearly 2am and so many people stayed to watch, it brings back the memories from 12 months ago with Rafa.
''The body feels great, it's only five hours of a match," he joked, when asked about the toll the five-set epic would take on his body. "We are only midway through the tournament but it feels like a final to me."
Djokovic confronted the very real possibility that for the first time in 15 consecutive grand slams he would not make the quarter-finals. Not since he was dismissed in the third round of the French Open in 2009 has the reigning world number one not featured in at least the quarter-final stages of a grand slam.
The ousting of Djokovic from the tournament would have opened up a chance for Federer to re-claim the number one ranking, were he to go on and win the Open and thus also claim an 18th major.
It was not to be. Djokovic, challenged and out-played for long periods, displayed his peerless ability to hunt down balls others would not and drew on the confidence that comes from having won three of the last five major tournaments.
"I just believed all the time I could fight my way back into the match... it could have really gone either way, this match," Djokovic said.
Wawrinka played superbly, then mentally baulked, went into his shell, came out again, cramped, fatigued, picked the crowd up to go with him, and pushed, cajoled, made errors on line calls, harried, hustled, and fought, but eventually, after five exhausting hours, he had to concede defeat.
Wawrinka ensured early on that this was a night to up-end sporting assumptions when he not only won the first set but also totally outclassed Djokovic. He broke Djokovic in an extraordinary five consecutive service games to take the set 6-1 in just 25 minutes. Djokovic was not necessarily playing poorly, Wawrinka was simply playing much better.
The pep in Wawrinka's game seemed to take Djokovic by surprise. Not that he would underestimate a 15th seed, but there would have been a reasonable expectation he would have Wawrinka covered, having beaten him the last 10 times they have met, and not having lost to him since 2006 in Vienna when he was but a teenager.
Wawrinka skipped out to a 5-2 lead and was 30-0 up on serve, just two points from taking a two-set lead in the match when one sensed that he realised the precipice on which he stood. It seems the "is this really happening" thought began ticking through his mind as, at the moment he needed to go for the kill, he went for the hot water bottle. He looked like a man who realised he had the chance to beat the world number one and didn't know how to do it. Where he had been daring, suddenly he was cautious.
For an hour and a quarter, Djokovic was uncertain, fidgety and flummoxed for answers. He had changed his shoes - to no avail - and changed his approach to the game, also to no avail. The change in the match came not from him, but from Wawrinka.
It was like watching the look of sad fatalism in Sam Stosur's eyes as she resigned herself to an inevitability and converted certain victory into certain loss. You could see a change come over Wawrinka's face and the complexion of the match late in the second set. Djokovic seized his moment. He attacked and won six consecutive games to take the set and and gain a first-up break in the third set.
Djokovic took the third set relatively comfortably and thus had the advantage. But by then, Wawrinka had warmed to the idea that on this night he was the equal of the world number one. A Davis Cup and training partner of Roger Federer, he is not overawed by the idea of truly great players and he attacked Djokovic despite his cramping, tired legs.
Impressively, Wawrinka extinguished his self-doubt and once more began attacking. His game no longer had the blistering certainty it had in the first set and a half, but he was again drawing errors from Djokovic with his punishing backhand and heavy serve. Djokovic was doing his best to recover everything Wawrinka delivered, but even he could not squeeze back Wawrinka's ground strokes.
On the stroke of midnight the Swiss - with the efficiency of a clock - pushed the match into a new day and a fifth set.
But that set was an epic within an epic. It took 104 minutes, 22 games, and three match points, but finally, after a rally befitting the match itself, Djokovic prevailed.
Michael Gleeson is an award-winning senior sports writer specialising in AFL and athletics.


text:
Survey: People Want Phone Number for Life
More than 80 percent of respondents would like to have the option of a permanent number they can take anywhere.
Brussels, Belgium-based Voxbone, provider of DID phone numbers and VoIP transport services worldwide, this week released the results of a survey that samples consumers' attitudes about the necessity of changing telephone numbers when they change their city or country of residence.
Bottom line: They don't like it. Seven out of ten people surveyed report having lost contact with people as a result of phone number changes. Over one-fourth have had 20 or more numbers over the course of their lives. And an overwhelming 82 percent expressed enthusiasm about having a permanent, movable number wherever they happen to move.
Voxbone co-founder and CEO Rod Ullens commented: "It seems crazy in this day and age that people are still regularly forced to give up or change a vital part of what identifies them to other people just because the majority of the telecoms industry still deals with its customers in a way that is line-focused rather than based around the individual.
"As the world population becomes increasingly migratory, phone numbers need to evolve to reflect users changing expectations," Ullens continued. "Theres a new geography being created that's about local presence and global relationships rather than distance or national borders."
It is no coincidence that Voxbone offers one of the few solutions to this problemif not the only solutionin its iNum or international numbers initiative. iNums uses the +883 area code to route calls to any destination in the world.
Voxbone provides these numbers, gratis, to wholesaler carriers and service providers, who in turn give them at no cost to their customers.
When an +883 is dialedanywhere in the worldthe call is initially routed through one of four participating carriers and/or peering exchanges, which in turn route the call to the network of the issuing provider.
Note that iNums are currently reachable only through the networks of the 25 participating carriers (see list here), although Voxbone assures us that "eventually," they'll be reachable from any network. In the mean time, iNum has established local access numbers in 62 cities and countries around the world.


text:
Here's the reaction to this morning's worse than expected employment (or lack therof) report:
The headline number jumped from 322,000 in May to 467,000 in June, a number much worse than expected by the "experts." The unemployment rate jumped to 9.5% on the headline number. I'll cover this report in more detail in a separate post.
Also released today was the weekly unemployment data. It came in well over 600k once again, this time at 614,000 with continuing claims falling slightly to 6.702 million. Again, there are now people dropping off the rolls on the backside.
Here's Econoday's report on the Weekly Unemployment report:
June's payroll data are a disappointment but not jobless claims data which do show weekly and monthly improvement. Initial claims totaled 614,000 in the June 27 week for a 615,250 four-week average that's down nearly 17,000 from May's average. Continuing claims for the June 20 week totaled 6.702 million for a four-week average of 6.752 million which is just about unchanged from May. Stocks were retreating this morning as were commodities in reaction to the monthly employment data. But next week focus will return to this report and whether improvement in initial claims is extending into this month.
Factory orders are released at 10 Eastern and there is the usual and unbelievably massive Treasury auctions scheduled for today as well. Of course the markets are closed tomorrow in advance of the 4th which is Saturday.
Yesterday's rise was on lower volume and I'm sure that the entire week will be very low volume. If prices remain depressed today, it's pretty bearish that this week will not be real positive as seasonality would generally make it so.
903 is an important level and it is being tested right now. A weekly close below that level is bearish and I note that the 912 pivot was already taken out and will now be overhead resistance again. The next lower pivot point is all the way down at 848.
As the employment data points out, people were getting their green shoot expectations too high. This will be no V shaped recession, heck, it's not even going to be an L shaped recession. It's going to be a SPLAT recession!
Doors – When the Music's Over:


text:
find . -type f -name "*.log" -exec /bin/bash -c '(tail -n 500 "$1" | grep -q "not in gzip format") && echo "$1"' _ {} \;
Sometimes we need ruby installed with shared libraries. It can be done easily as per: https://github.com/sstephenson/ruby-build/issues/35
CONFIGURE_OPTS=--enable-shared rbenv install 1.9.3-p194
Gary Bernhardt uses this in his fantastic Destroy All Software series.
:map ,t :w\|:!ruby %<cr>
CREATE DATABASE dbname CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
Great article on what goes on here:
I can't claim credit for this, but we recently removed a bunch of 'dev tags'. The git command to do so is:
git tag -d tag_name git push origin :refs/tags/tag_name
Viscosity is my OpenVPN client of choice. Recently I wanted to be able to route through my office to connect to some clients that have ip rules limiting the source of the connection. It's easily done:
For each IP you wish to route through the VPN:
1. In the Routing section click the + button to add a route. An Add Route dialog will pop up.
2. Add the IP address of the host you're trying to connect to in Destination.
3. Add the bitmask 255.255.255.255.
4. For the Gateway, select VPN Gateway.
5. Click Add.
Once you're all done, click Save.
Next time you connect traffic to the specified host should be routed through your VPN connection.
Check your work using:
netstat -nr
* http://www.petri.co.il/how-30-and-32-bit-ip-subnet-masks-can-help-with-cisco-networking.htm
* http://www.schaare.net/?p=53
* http://devcry.heiho.net/2008/11/networking-routing-and-bit-masks.html
* http://www.digipro.com/Papers/IP_Subnetting.shtml
I was having a problem with ruby. After upgrading I reinstalled bundler and bundle installed only to find the mysql gem was failing to install. Weird, it installed fine way back when. This is the error:
$ gem install mysql Building native extensions. This could take a while... ERROR: Error installing mysql: ERROR: Failed to build gem native extension. /Users/brendan/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p374/bin/ruby extconf.rb checking for mysql_ssl_set()... *** extconf.rb failed *** Could not create Makefile due to some reason, probably lack of necessary libraries and/or headers. Check the mkmf.log file for more details. You may need configuration options. Provided configuration options: --with-opt-dir --without-opt-dir --with-opt-include --without-opt-include=${opt-dir}/include --with-opt-lib --without-opt-lib=${opt-dir}/lib --with-make-prog --without-make-prog --srcdir=. --curdir --ruby=/Users/brendan/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p374/bin/ruby --with-mysql-config --without-mysql-config /Users/brendan/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p374/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:381:in `try_do': The compiler failed to generate an executable file. (RuntimeError) You have to install development tools first. from /Users/brendan/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p374/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:461:in `try_link0' from /Users/brendan/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p374/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:476:in `try_link' from /Users/brendan/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p374/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:619:in `try_func' from /Users/brendan/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p374/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:894:in `block in have_func' from /Users/brendan/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p374/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:790:in `block in checking_for' from /Users/brendan/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p374/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:284:in `block (2 levels) in postpone' from /Users/brendan/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p374/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:254:in `open' from /Users/brendan/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p374/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:284:in `block in postpone' from /Users/brendan/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p374/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:254:in `open' from /Users/brendan/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p374/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:280:in `postpone' from /Users/brendan/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p374/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:789:in `checking_for' from /Users/brendan/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p374/lib/ruby/1.9.1/mkmf.rb:893:in `have_func' from extconf.rb:45:in `<main>' Gem files will remain installed in /Users/brendan/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p374/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/mysql-2.9.0 for inspection. Results logged to /Users/brendan/.rbenv/versions/1.9.3-p374/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/mysql-2.9.0/ext/mysql_api/gem_make.out
I thought the error about developer tools was referring to a lack of a proper compiler, but I have Xcode and Command Line Tools installed.
Anyway, long story short. The 'trick' was to uninstall mysql and re-install it. My guess there was a link error, though I'm sorry to say I didn't dig into it too much. I'm using homebrew and I installed mysql before upgrading to Mountain Lion, so:
brew uninstall mysql brew cleanup # I also did a cleanup but not sure if that is necessary brew install mysql gem install mysql
I found it took me a little time to find a workflow I like with git. This is what I've settled on for now:
git checkout -b some_topic
git checkout master git pull
git checkout some_topic git rebase master
git checkout master git pull git merge some_topic
Check this out too: https://github.com/plainblack/Lacuna-Server-Open/wiki/how-to-rebase-your-code
As an alternative you could do this:
git fetch git rebase origin/master
If you know the Unicode character code and want to decode it you can do something like this:
puts ["2665".hex].pack("U") ♥ => nil
puts "\u{2665}" ♥ => nil
The other day I was trying to copy a large gzip file onto a USB drive and it kept erroring out when it hit the 4Gb mark. I realized (face palm) that the drive is formatted as a vfat filesystem. Obviously vfat is limited to max a max file size of 4Gb. So simply split the file into 4000MB chunks with:
split --line-bytes=4000m foo.tar.gz foo_ &
Copy the pieces onto the USB drive. Take the USB drive to the other copmputer. Copy the files off the drive and rejoin the file with:
cat foo_a* > foo.tar.gz &
Sadly I need to work with a rails 2.3.3 and 1.2.3 app now and then and the latest rubygems has issues with these old versions of rails. For example:
rake my:task:name rake/rdoctask is deprecated. Use rdoc/task instead (in RDoc 2.4.2+) rake aborted! uninitialized constant ActiveSupport::Dependencies::Mutex
So I have to downgrade. Not a huge deal. I'm now using rbenv
gem update --system 1.4.2
Recently a bot figured out how to submit my comment form. It was pretty funny I had more than 700 comments telling me how interesting my post on how to install a jar in maven was. I decided to add captcha support and while I was at it, make the comment form use DWR for submission so that the page didn't refresh etc.
I have created a little example application demonstrating how I integrated JCaptcha with DWR. The example is also (hopefully) serves as an example of how to use the new Spring Namespace support that has been added to DWR. I think if you're using DWR with Spring 2 and you want to keep all your configuration within Spring, you should use the Namespace support for configuring DWR. It's just easier. Please note this example only runs in a Java 5 environment and that if you're using DWR 2.0.rc2 there is a small issue with using Spring 2.0.1 or better so I've had to use Spring 2.0. This issue is fixed in CVS HEAD so if you want to build DWR yourself from source you should have no problems with Spring 2.0.1 or 2.0.2.
To keep things simple, in this example all the DWR configuration is done in the spring-catpcha-controllers.xml spring configuration. First we register the DwrController using:
<dwr:controller id="dwrController" debug="false" >
Now we need to tell DWR what domain objects we'd like to expose using javascript. DWR does this using Converters. In this case I'm really only exposing the Comment domain object:
<dwr:convert type="bean" class="com.kuripai.example.domain.Comment"> <dwr:include method="id" /> <dwr:include method="title" /> <dwr:include method="postedBy" /> <dwr:include method="website" /> <dwr:include method="email" /> <dwr:include method="body" /> <dwr:include method="createdAt" /> <dwr:include method="humanResponse" /> </dwr:convert>
The next step is to configure and expose the service that saves comments. I've created a very simple WeblogService for this purpose which just saves the comments into a java.util.List. Obviously a production version would save the comments in a database or similar. Here is the configuration:
<bean id="weblogService" class="com.kuripai.example.service.WeblogService" > <dwr:remote javascript="weblogService"> <!-- Methods that are allowed to be exposed via javascript --> <dwr:include method="getComments" /> <dwr:include method="saveComment" /> <!-- Filter to handle Captcha --> <dwr:filter class="com.kuripai.example.dwr.captcha.CaptchaAjaxFilter" /> </dwr:remote> <property name="validators"> <list> <ref local="captchaValidator" /> <bean class="com.kuripai.example.domain.CommentValidator" /> </list> </property> </bean>
As you can see you configure your service as normal with the additional
public Errors saveComment(Comment comment) { Errors errors = new BindException(comment, "comment"); for (int i = 0; i < validators.length; i++) { ValidationUtils.invokeValidator(validators[i], comment, errors); } if (!errors.hasErrors()) { comments.add(comment); comment.setId(Long.valueOf((long) comments.size())); } return errors; }
You might have notices the
public Object doFilter(Object object, Method method, Object[] params, AjaxFilterChain chain) throws Exception { if (logger.isDebugEnabled()) { logger.info("Processing method '" + method.getName() + "' on service '" + object + "'"); } HttpSession session = WebContextFactory.get().getSession(); CaptchaResponseHolder.setCaptchaId(session.getId()); Object reply = chain.doFilter(object, method, params); return reply; }
The CaptchaValidator then is a regular org.springframework.validation.Validator:
public void validate(Object target, Errors errors) { ValidationUtils.rejectIfEmpty(errors, CAPTCHA_FIELD_NAME, "form.error.required", new Object[] { new DefaultMessageSourceResolvable( "form.captcha") }, "Please enter the validation word"); if (errors.getFieldError(CAPTCHA_FIELD_NAME) != null) { return; } CaptchaAware captchaAware = (CaptchaAware) target; if (!isCaptchaValid(captchaAware.getHumanResponse())) { errors.rejectValue(CAPTCHA_FIELD_NAME, "form.error.captchaInvalid", "Please enter the security word again"); } } private boolean isCaptchaValid(Object response) { String captchaId = CaptchaResponseHolder.getCaptchaId(); if (logger.isDebugEnabled()) { logger.debug("Validating captcha response '" + response + "' for captchaId '" + captchaId + "'"); } Boolean isValid = captchaService.validateResponseForID(captchaId, response); return isValid.booleanValue(); }
That's pretty much it. I've zipped up the source code for the example here -> (I will put this up in the next few days). Unzip this into a directory of your choice and type mvn tomcat:run after completing the steps below providing of course you have maven 2 installed. You should also be able to import the project into eclipse to take a look at it.
Installing JCaptcha and Other Required Libraries in your Maven Repository
Unfortunately there seems to be a problem with the version of JCaptcha in on ibiblio. So you will need download and install the jar in you maven repository yourself following these steps (assuming you have Maven 2 installed):
Download jcaptcha-1.0-RC3 binary from the projects download page.
Unzip the downloaded jcaptcha binary and cd into the directory where you unzipped it.
Install the jar using this command:
mvn install:install-file -DgroupId=jcaptcha -DartifactId=jcaptcha-all \ -Dversion=1.0-RC3 -Dpackaging=jar -Dfile=jcaptcha-all-1.0-RC3.jar
h2. Running the Example
You should now be ready to run the example. From the command line, cd into the directory where you downloaded the example. Type:
mvn clean tomcat:run
Maven should download a whole bunch of jar files including a enough to run an embedded version of Tomcat. Which will start up and run. Navigate to http://localhost:8080/dwr-captcha/example/comments.html and you should see a regular looking comment form with captcha that never refreshes.


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