text:
Efficacy and Safety Study of SPD489 in Combination With an Antidepressant in the Treatment of Adults With Major Depressive Disorder
|The safety and scientific validity of this study is the responsibility of the study sponsor and investigators. Listing a study does not mean it has been evaluated by the U.S. Federal Government. Read our disclaimer for details.
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01436149
Recruitment Status : Completed
First Posted : September 19, 2011
Results First Posted : November 19, 2014
Last Update Posted : January 4, 2019
- Study Details
- Tabular View
- Study Results
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
This study will examine SPD489 in subjects aged 18-65 with major depressive disorder (MDD) who are taking certain types of antidepressants but continue to have residual depression symptoms. Eligible patients will remain on their antidepressant but will be randomized to either receive supplemental SPD489 or placebo (i.e. sugar pill). The purpose of this study is to help answer the following questions:
- How safe is SPD489 for the supplemental treatment of depression and what are the side effects that might be related to it?
- Can supplemental SPD489 help patients who still have residual depression symptoms while taking an antidepressant?
- How much SPD489 should be given to patients with depression who are also taking an antidepressant?
- How does SPD489 compare to placebo in depressed patients who are also taking an antidepressant?
|Condition or disease
|Major Depressive Disorder
|Drug: SPD489 (Lisdexamfetamine dimesylate ) Drug: Placebo
|Phase 3
|Study Type :
|Interventional (Clinical Trial)
|Actual Enrollment :
|1262 participants
|Intervention Model:
|Parallel Assignment
|Quadruple (Participant, Care Provider, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
|Primary Purpose:
|Official Title:
|The SPD489-322 Phase 3, Multicenter, Randomized, Double-blind, Parallel-group, Placebo-controlled, Flexible Dose Titration, Efficacy and Safety Study of SPD489 in Combination With an Antidepressant in the Treatment of Adults With Major Depressive Disorder With Inadequate Response to Prospective Treatment With an Antidepressant
|Actual Study Start Date :
|October 27, 2011
|Actual Primary Completion Date :
|December 23, 2013
|Actual Study Completion Date :
|December 23, 2013
|Experimental: Antidepressant + SPD489
Drug: SPD489 (Lisdexamfetamine dimesylate )
Antidepressant (either escitalopram oxalate, sertraline hydrochloride, venlafaxine hydrochloride extended release or duloxetine hydrochloride) oral, once daily + SPD489 (oral, 20, 30, 50 or 70 mg, once daily) for 8 weeks
Other Name: Vyvanse
|Placebo Comparator: Antidepressant + Placebo
Drug: Placebo
Antidepressant (either escitalopram oxalate, sertraline hydrochloride, venlafaxine hydrochloride extended release or duloxetine hydrochloride) oral, once daily + Placebo (oral, once daily) for 8 weeks
- Mean Change From Baseline in Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) Total Score at up to 8 Weeks [ Time Frame: 8 weeks ]MADRS is a validated, 10-item rating scale with each item being scored on a scale from 0-6 with a total score ranging from 0-60. Lower scores indicate a decreased severity of depression.
- Change From Baseline in Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS) Total Score at up to 8 Weeks [ Time Frame: 8 weeks ]Designed to evaluate the extent to which illness symptoms impact a subject's life in 3 areas: work/school, social, and family/home. Each area is scored on a scale from 0 (no impairment) to 10 (highly impaired) with a total score ranging from 0 (unimpaired) to 30 (highly impaired). Lower scores translate into less impairment.
- Percentage of Participants Achieving a 25% Response on the MADRS [ Time Frame: up to 8 weeks ]The percentage of subjects who achieved a 25% response (i.e., ≥25% reduction in MADRS total score from Lead-in Baseline, Visit 2; Week 0). A comparison was performed at Visit 14/Early Termination (ET) (Week 16/ET).
- Percentage of Participants Achieving a 50% Response on the MADRS [ Time Frame: up to 8 weeks ]The percentage of subjects who achieved a 50% response (i.e., ≥50% reduction in MADRS total score from Lead-in Baseline, Visit 2; Week 0). A comparison was performed at Visit 14/ET (Week 16/ET).
- Percentage of Participants Achieving Remission on the MADRS [ Time Frame: up to 8 weeks ]MADRS remission was defined as a MADRS total score of ≤10. A comparison was performed at Visit 14/ET (Week 16/ET).
- Mean Change From Baseline Over Time in MADRS Total Score [ Time Frame: Baseline and up to 8 weeks ]MADRS is a validated, 10-item rating scale with each item being scored on a scale from 0-6 with a total score ranging from 0-60. Lower scores indicate a decreased severity of depression.
- Mean Change From Baseline in the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology - Self Report (QIDS SR) [ Time Frame: up to 8 weeks ]The QIDS-SR is a self-administered questionnaire designed to rate depressive symptoms. The scale contains 16 items, each scored using a 4-point scale ranging from 0 (representing the most favorable response [low amount of symptom]) to 3 (representing the least favorable response [frequent/intense symptom]). The total score could range from 0 (no depression) to 27 (very severe depression). Higher scores represent more severe depressive symptoms.
- Mean Change From Baseline in the Short Form-12 Health Survey V2 (SF-12V2) [ Time Frame: up to 8 weeks ]Total score ranges from 0 (lowest level of health) - 100 (highest level of health) on the assumption that each question carries equal weight. The lower the score the more disability. The higher the score the less disability (i.e. a score of zero is equivalent to maximum disability and a score of 100 is equivalent to no disability). Higher scores are associated with better quality of life.
- Mean Change From Baseline in the Quality of Life Enjoyment Satisfaction Questionnaire Short Form (Q-LES-Q-SF) [ Time Frame: up to 8 weeks ]The short form is a 16-item self-report questionnaire which evaluates general subject satisfaction with health, mood, relationships, functioning in daily life, and the treatment being taken. Overall level of satisfaction is evaluated on a 5-point scale from 1 (very poor) to 5 (very good). The total score ranges from 14-70 (last two items on the form are not included in the total score). A higher score indicates a better quality of life.
- Clinical Global Impressions - Global Improvement (CGI-I) [ Time Frame: up to 8 weeks ]Clinical Global Impression-Improvement (CGI-I) consists of a 7-point scale ranging from 1 (very much improved) to 7 (very much worse). Improvement is defined as a score of 1 (very much improved) or 2 (much improved) on the scale.
- Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) [ Time Frame: up to 8 weeks ]C-SSRS is a semi-structured interview that captures the occurrence, severity, and frequency of suicide-related thoughts and behaviors during the assessment period. The interview includes definitions and suggested questions to solicit the type of information needed to determine if a suicide-related thought or behavior occurred. The assessment is done by the nature of the responses, not by a numbered scale.
- Amphetamine Cessation Symptom Assessment (ACSA) [ Time Frame: up to 8 weeks ]ACSA scale has 16 symptom items rated on a scale from 0 (not at all) to 4 (extremely) with a possible total score range of 0 to 64. Higher scores indicate greater withdrawal symptom severity.
Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contacts provided below. For general information, Learn About Clinical Studies.
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|18 Years to 65 Years (Adult, Older Adult)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Inclusion Criteria:
- Subject is able to provide written, personally signed, and dated informed consent to participate in the study.
- Subject is between 18 and 65 years of age.
- Subject has a primary diagnosis of non-psychotic MDD (single or recurrent).
- Subject has a MADRS total score 24.
- Subject who is female, must have a negative serum beta human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) pregnancy test and a negative urine pregnancy test at the and agrees to comply with any applicable contraceptive requirements of the protocol.
- Subject is able to swallow a capsule.
Exclusion Criteria:
- Subject whose current episode of MDD has not responded to an adequate treatment regimen with 2 or more approved single antidepressant agents.
- Subject who has a lifetime history of treatment resistant depression.
- Subject has a current co-morbid psychiatric disorder. Excluded are: any significant Axis II disorder (including borderline personality disorder), any bipolar disorder, any current or lifetime psychosis, post traumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, any pervasive development disorder, anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.
- Subject has been hospitalized (within the last 12 months) for their current MDD episode.
- Subject has a current or lifetime history of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
- Subject has a first degree relative that has been diagnosed with bipolar I disorder.
- Subject has a recent history (within the last 6 months) of suspected substance abuse or dependence disorder
- Subject is considered a suicide risk in the opinion of the Investigator, has previously made a suicide attempt within the past 3 years, or is currently demonstrating active suicidal ideation.
- Subject has a concurrent chronic or acute illness or unstable medical condition.
- Subject has a history of seizures (other than infantile febrile seizures), any tic disorder, or a current diagnosis and/or a known family history of Tourette's Disorder, serious neurological disease, history of significant head trauma, dementia, cerebrovascular disease, Parkinson's disease, or intracranial lesions.
- Subject has known history of symptomatic cardiovascular disease, advanced arteriosclerosis, structural cardiac abnormality, cardiomyopathy, serious heart rhythm abnormalities, coronary artery disease, or other serious cardiac problems.
- Subject has a history of thyroid disorder that has not been stabilized on thyroid medication or treatment within 3 months prior to the Screening Visit.
- Subject has a known family history of sudden cardiac death or ventricular arrhythmia.
- Subject has glaucoma.
- Subject has a history of moderate to severe hypertension.
- Current use of any other medications (including over-the-counter [OTC], herbal or homeopathic preparations) that have central nervous system effects.
- Subject has had electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for the current depressive episode 3 months prior.
- The subject has a known or suspected intolerance, hypersensitivity, or contraindications to their assigned antidepressant treatments (escitalopram oxalate, sertraline HCl, venlafaxine HCl extended release, or duloxetine HCl).
- Subject has a positive urine drug result.
- Subject has a body mass index (BMI) of <18.5 or >40.
- Subject is female and is pregnant or nursing.
To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT01436149
|Study Director:
|Study Director
|Responsible Party:
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|Other Study ID Numbers:
2011-003018-17 ( EudraCT Number )
|First Posted:
|September 19, 2011 Key Record Dates
|Results First Posted:
|November 19, 2014
|Last Update Posted:
|January 4, 2019
|Last Verified:
|December 2018
Depressive Disorder
Depressive Disorder, Major
Mood Disorders
Mental Disorders
Behavioral Symptoms
Lisdexamfetamine Dimesylate
Central Nervous System Stimulants
Physiological Effects of Drugs
Dopamine Uptake Inhibitors
Neurotransmitter Uptake Inhibitors
Membrane Transport Modulators
Molecular Mechanisms of Pharmacological Action
Dopamine Agents
Neurotransmitter Agents


text:
Diane Disney Miller, a Bay Area winemaker and the daughter who inspired her dad, Walt, to create the Happiest Place on Earth, died Tuesday in Napa, Calif., at age 79.
Walt Disney had said that came up with the idea for Disneyland after watching daughters, Diane Sharon, ride the merry-go-round at Los Angeles' Griffith Park.
Now, families who flock to Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. and Disneyworld in Orlando, Fla., can thank those two girls for that simple ride.
"We are deeply saddened by the loss of Diane Disney Miller and our thoughts are with her family during his difficult time," The Walt Disney Company said in a statement. "As the beloved daughter of Walt Disney and one of his inspirations for creating Disneyland, she holds a special place in the history of The Walt Disney Company and in the hearts of fans everywhere. She will be remembered for her grace and generosity and tireless work to preserve her father's legacy, and she will be greatly missed by all who knew her."
Miller succumbed to injuries suffered in a fall a few months ago in Napa, where she had a home, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. She had lived in the Bay Area since the mid-1980s, according to the Chronicle, and supported many charities and community functions.
As the only surviving child of Walt and Lillian Disney, Miller was the president of the Walt Disney Family Foundation and co-founder, with her son, Walter Elias Disney Miller, of the Walt Disney Family Museum. It opened in 2009 on the Main Post of the Presidio of San Francisco, not far from her residence on Russian Hill. Last year more than 100,000 people visited the museum, which is on track to hit 150,000 in 2013.
Miller was a generous philanthropist whose support of Frank Gehry as the architect for the Walt Disney Concert Hall is widely credited with allowing that building's construction to go forward when Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan questioned Gehry's firm's abilities.
When Miller was born in 1933, the Times' headline read: "Mickey Mouse has a daughter." Her death came one day after the 85th anniversary of the introduction of Mickey Mouse, who made his debut in the 1928 short film "Steamboat Willie," according to Today.com.
Miller was Disney's last surviving child. Sharon died in 1993; Walt Disney died in 1966, and his wife Lillian in 1997.She is survived by her husband of 59 years, Ron E. Miller, who served as president and briefly as CEO of the Walt Disney Company, and their seven children.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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text:
Somehow I found myself in the middle of a new project in February. It's not exactly genealogy, but it's my first chance to work with a publisher. My goal has always been to write, not just for the enjoyment of it, but to produce something that is of interest to others. When I recently met the Pacific Northwest regional editor for Arcadia Publishing, Julie Albright, she gave me a proposal packet, which I looked over about a week later. Like an anvil suddenly dropped on my head, I realized I could do it! And so, together with my extroverted and indispensable husband who is serving as the chief "Go-Fer," I am compiling a book of archival images about our own neighborhood: Snoqualmie Pass, Washington. The contract has already been signed, and we have a deadline of June 5th. I'm hoping the book will be available at bookstores and online sometime in the autumn of this year, but it depends upon the publisher's schedule.
Creating this book is quite exciting for me, and I am learning so very much throughout the process. Yes, it is a lot of hard work, although you'd think that collecting images would be easier than actually writing a whole book. In many ways, it is, but it is still time consuming. There are archives and libraries to check, prints and scans to order, and permissions to acquire. There is research to conduct, because the photo captions need to be legitimate and factual. In the private sector, there are people to call, appointments to keep, albums to go through, and once again, permissions to acquire. Copyright is an issue that I take very seriously! After all of that, there is scanning, scanning, and more scanning, and finally, planning the layout and pulling it all together.
I'll post more information about "Snoqualmie Pass" when it is complete. For more information about Arcadia Publishing, please visit www.arcadiapublishing.com.


text:
From an article in the Ottawa Citizen by Don Butler comes the news that the Library and Archives Canada is going to outsource its library catalogue called AMICUS to an American company – Computer Library Centre Inc. (OCLC). This also involves 1,300 other libraries across Canada.
To read the article, go to http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Library+Archives+Canada+moves+outsource+national+catalogue/9687461/story.html
So what do you think? Is this a good or bad move for the LAC? Does it change your opinion of the future of the LAC, or are you not surprised by this move?


text:
p6spy plugin
compile "org.grails.plugins:p6spy:0.5"
p6spy pluginP6Spy lets you monitor the JDBC queries by proxying your database driver. In addition to logging the prepared statements, it also logs the sql with parameters in place so you can copy and paste the exact sql into your favourite database client to test the results.This Grails plugin makes it easy to utilize P6Spy in your Grails applications.
Please create issues in JIRA if you encounter problems.
IntroductionThis plugin contains 2 files - the p6spy jar and spy.properties. After installing the plugin in your Grails application, you can find them in:
- <project directory>/plugins/p6spy-<version>/grails-app/conf/spy.properties
- <project directory>/plugins/p6spy-<version>/lib/p6spy-1.3.jar
- // String driverClassName = "com.p6spy.engine.spy.P6SpyDriver"
Example useInstall the plugin using
- grails install-plugin p6spy
In DataSource.groovy, comment out the HSQLDB driver and uncomment the p6spy driver:
grails create-app spytest cd spytest grails create-domain-class book grails install-plugin p6spy
Edit Book.groovy and add a property:
// String driverClassName = "org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver" String driverClassName = "com.p6spy.engine.spy.P6SpyDriver"
Now create an INTEGRATION test (test/integration/BookTests.groovy) to exercise the database:
class Book {
String author
Now run your tests:
class BookTests extends GroovyTestCase { void testBook() { def book1 = new Book(author:'paul') book1.save() assertEquals(1, Book.count()) def book2 = Book.get(book1.id) assertEquals('paul', book2.author) def books = Book.list() assertEquals(1, books.size()) } }
The file spy.log is created, which contains a trace of the sql statements invoked during the test.
grails test-app
This file has several columns, delimited by the | (pipe) character. The last column is the most interesting - it contains the SQL with the parameters inlined.More information about configuring P6Spy can be found on the P6Spy website.Contact paul @ javathinking.com
20:07:16|16|1|statement||select sequence_name from information_schema.system_sequences20:07:16|2|1|statement||create table book (id bigint generated by default as identity (start with 1), version bigint not null, author varchar(255) not null, primary key (id))20:07:20|0|1|statement|insert into book (id, version, author) values (null, ?, ?)|insert into book (id, version, author) values (null, 0, 'paul')20:07:20|0|1|statement|call identity()|call identity()20:07:20|2|1|statement|select count(*) as y0_ from book this_|select count(*) as y0_ from book this_20:07:20|-1||resultset|select count(*) as y0_ from book this_|y0_ = 120:07:20|0|1|statement|select this_.id as id0_0_, this_.version as version0_0_, this_.author as author0_0_ from book this_|select this_.id as id0_0_, this_.version as version0_0_, this_.author as author0_0_ from book this_20:07:20|-1||resultset|select this_.id as id0_0_, this_.version as version0_0_, this_.author as author0_0_ from book this_|20:07:21|0|1|statement|delete from book|delete from book


text:
Events Calendar
SPEAKER: Elizabeth Fast, Spencer Fane LLP
Elizabeth Fast is a partner with Spencer Fane Britt & Browne LLP where she specializes in the representation of financial institutions. Elizabeth is the head of the firm's training division. She received her law degree from the University of Kansas and her undergraduate degree from Pittsburg State University. In addition, she has a Master of Business Administration degree and she is a Certified Public Accountant. Before joining Spencer Fane, she was General Counsel, Senior Vice President, and Corporate Secretary of a $9 billion bank with more than 130 branches, where she managed all legal, regulatory, and compliance functions. She is a member of the Missouri State Banking Board by appointment of the Governor.


text:
Recently i have been occupying my free time writing a remake of a game i used to play at school. It is called Merlin's Castle, and it's a text-based adventure game where you move around in the world, picking up items to overcome obstacles. It's great fun!
You can play Merlin's Castle at http://merlinscastle.net.
Last week Russell Smith visited eden to pair for a day, and we got talking about MongoDB, a document oriented database. I had already been thinking about switching Merlin's Castle to a document oriented database, so it seemed a good opportunity to try out MongoDB with Russell's help.
I found it was very easy to switch over to MongoDB using the MongoMapper Ruby object mapper gem. I have found many benefits of switching over to MongoDB, so yesterday i did a tech talk to share how i did it, and what i learned from it.
You can watch my presentation at http://vimeo.com/17815778.
I like document oriented databases – they make a lot of sense to me. I used to work with Lotus Notes a long time ago. I also tried out CouchDB a few years ago. I'm very pleased to have an application that uses MongoDB, and i'm sure i'll be using it again in the near future.


text:
I am starting to think that blogging about the Christmas Pageant last week really took it out of me since I haven't actually been able to sit down and write about anything that has happened since then. And it's not that nothing has been going on either. Though it doesn't feel quite like the holidays I suppose I can blame that on the 60 degree rainy dreary awful weather that Atlanta is experiencing right now. I know that Christmas is coming because I have been wrapping gifts (exquisitely) and actively avoiding any place that is within a five mile radius of any mall in Buckhead (this is actually much harder to do than one would think normal). My parents live in an area of Atlanta where I could be at Lenox/Phipps mall in about 3 miles or at Perimeter Mall in about 4 miles. This does not make for the best holiday traffic. Atlanta finds it helpful to turn off all the traffic lights on main roads like Roswell and Peachtree and replace them with humans. Humans in the form of City of Atlanta Police Officers. The DOT clearly does not understand the concept of "human error", especially with Atlanta cops (please call to mind my ticketing incident back in September). SO, in summary, if you feel like going anywhere in Atlanta, inside the perimeter, at any time of day, I would urge you to think about just how badly you want to go there or just how badly you NEED to go there. It might not be worth it.
Deaner got into Atlanta on Sunday evening for the Christmas holidays. Evans was so excited to see him and has had no problem at all adjusting to Daddy being here. We have done a couple of things together including taking Evans to the aquarium yesterday. Evans has always loved the aquarium but I have to say that it might have lost it's magic for him this time. For some reason the child was way more interested in crawling around on the floor than looking at the fish. You won't be able to tell by the pictures but it just didn't hold his attention like it used to.My favorite pictures from the day are below. Evans looked at this gigantic ugly fish and said "HI" while waving at it. The fish did not return his enthusiasm.I am pretty sure it could have eaten Evans for breakfast. Of course there are no pictures of me because if it weren't for me, there would be no pictures AT ALL. I guess that is the way it goes being the Mom. Santa Claus was scuba diving in the tank while were watching the whale sharks, which was cool, but I think perhaps E will understand all of this a bit more next year.I believe we are going to take Evans to see Santa Claus on Christmas Eve and that ought to be interesting. I got nervous last year waiting until the last second but it wasn't crowded on Christmas Eve and we got right in. Something tells me that Evans will not be as happy to see him this year but it should make for a good story and picture! I hope that everyone is having a very merry Christmas week and that y'all are eating as much junk as I am. Seriously, stop bringing the toffee to my parent's house. I have very little will power at 10:00pm!! Happy Wednesday!
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Merry Christmas Week!
I am starting to think that blogging about the Christmas Pageant last week really took it out of me since I haven't actually been able to sit down and write about anything that has happened since then. And it's not that nothing has been going on either. Though it doesn't feel quite like the holidays I suppose I can blame that on the 60 degree rainy dreary awful weather that Atlanta is experiencing right now. I know that Christmas is coming because I have been wrapping gifts (exquisitely) and actively avoiding any place that is within a five mile radius of any mall in Buckhead (this is actually much harder to do than one would think normal). My parents live in an area of Atlanta where I could be at Lenox/Phipps mall in about 3 miles or at Perimeter Mall in about 4 miles. This does not make for the best holiday traffic. Atlanta finds it helpful to turn off all the traffic lights on main roads like Roswell and Peachtree and replace them with humans. Humans in the form of City of Atlanta Police Officers. The DOT clearly does not understand the concept of "human error", especially with Atlanta cops (please call to mind my ticketing incident back in September). SO, in summary, if you feel like going anywhere in Atlanta, inside the perimeter, at any time of day, I would urge you to think about just how badly you want to go there or just how badly you NEED to go there. It might not be worth it.
Posted by Gleatie at 10:49 AM 2 comments
Monday, December 12, 2011
Coffee Drama 2011 Explained
So if y'all read the last pageant post, you know what I am referring to by the great coffee drama of 2011. I finally got an email back from Evans' teacher this weekend explaining the costume disaster of the much anticipated Christmas pageant. Apparently there were a ton of volunteers in and out of the Fellowship Hall while the stage for the pageant was being built (I can't understand exactly what needed to be "built") and a bunch of mother's helping keep the kids occupied while they were in the "holding area". Someone obviously left their coffee cup in a corner on the floor and thankfully, my son found it for them. The coffee was old and cold so Evans was fine. His costume didn't fair as well but really, what can I do? I mean, I've accidentally let Evans climb the stairs like 7 times today. I know how fast he can get away. It's just unfortunate that it was a WHITE angel that found the coffee. His teacher told me that she would be bringing the incident up in their year end meeting but I assured her that it was not necessary. What are they going to do? Finger print the cup and/or interrogate church volunteers? I think that I'm just going to have to let it go. I am going to choose to believe that none of the other mothers noticed that my child's costume was on backwards. Oh yeah, I can get his clothes back when school starts again. I wonder if they will have been washed?
We had a pretty uneventful weekend. The highlight for Evans was getting to have breakfast on Sunday morning at Waffle House. No where else does he get to eat sausage AND bacon in the same meal. As his entire meal. With a quarter or two of waffle. He didn't eat again until dinner. I wish everyone could have seen his face when the waitress put this plate of bacon down in front of him.We left wearing grease all over the Ole Miss sweatshirt (no big deal, Ole Miss sucks anyways) and smelling like grease. Evans took a three hour nap after his pig fest. To think that I considered giving him a hotdog for dinner is embarrassing. All and all it was a quiet weekend but we enjoyed ourselves. This week I need to focus on finishing my Christmas shopping and getting my gifts wrapped. Does anyone remember my wrapping paper obsession? I'm already stressing out how they will look this year. I picked out my paper last year after Christmas when it went on sale and now I'm second guessing myself. I guess there are worse things in life! Happy Monday!
Posted by Gleatie at 8:09 PM 1 comments
Friday, December 9, 2011
Christmas Pageant Drama
Does anything around here ever just go smoothly? Like according to plan without any hitches? I don't think I really have to answer that question. So why should the Christmas pageant be any different? The early early morning came shortly after the late late night of hosting a Christmas Party with my Mom and sister for 100 of our closest friends. I probably should have reconsidered the 8:30am check up at the pediatricians office when I was already committed to having Evans at school for the pageant at 9:30am. Somehow Evans was measured, weighed, poked, prodded and given two shots in the leg AND we made it to school by 9:40am. When I dropped Evans off in his classroom I offered to go ahead and get him into his costume since I found both teachers on the floor wrestling with 1.5 year olds attempting to get them into the angel costumes. Plus, I knew just how "snug" Evans costume was to get onto his body. Surprisingly Evans was cool, calm and collected and he didn't even whimper (a vast improvement). There was a little boy who was screaming so loud that I'm pretty sure it scared Evans into silence. He was happy and didn't even notice when I left.
I'm not sure if I really stressed how great Evans' costume was. My sister worked on it for a week after it took my mom and I an equal amount of time to pick out the pattern at the fabric store. I spent something ridiculous like $32 on the materials when I thought it might cost like $7 or something. Aunt Mimi took measurements with a string and made us have TWO costume fittings. It was very comical. The final product was worth the wait and I was so excited to see Evans in his costume. I was SHOCKED to see Evans come out onto the altar and actually sit on the front step and shake his jingle bell in time with the music. He didn't cry, he didn't try and crawl away and he did what was expected of him. Amazing. When the performance was almost over I came down from the balcony to take a few pictures up close.I know that these pictures aren't the greatest but at least they prove that he is not crying, he is sitting and he is enjoying his jingle bell. Then I started to notice that something was a bit off. I was a little annoyed that his costume was hiked up over his pants because it was a long gown and should have covered him easily. Then I saw that the two blue ribbons that closed the outfit in the back were somehow now in in the front. What? I got Evans dressed. I certainly did not put his costume on backwards and I know he didn't do it himself. How could this have possibly happened? When I collected Evans from the altar I asked his teacher why his costume was on backwards. I was not prepared for her to answer that somehow Evans spilled COFFEE all over the front of the costume before the pageant started. I might as well say upfront that I still do not know the whole story and that I'm waiting on an email explanation from his teacher. I mean, was he just enjoying a midmorning cup of coffee? Was it hot when it poured over his entire front? I know this school is sophisticated but I don't even drink coffee and I'm the mom. So here is what the front looked like after the incident.I wondered how his white turtleneck was left unstained when I could see the stains on his khaki AND on his socks. It wasn't until I was getting him ready to take a nap this afternoon that I realized the turtleneck he was wearing wasn't his. Huh. My email to the teacher also included questions like 1. whose shirt is this? 2. Where should it be returned? 3. Where is my child's shirt? I'm just wondering after all!
So E's beautiful angel costume with the hand sewn sequins now smells like a starbucks. Oh well. You win some you lose some right? He was still the cutest angel on the altar.The whole program was so cute and it was awesome to watch these little kids having so much fun. Old Dad came to watch Evans and E jumped right into his arms.It was definitely the highlight of my week. I'll have more updates regarding the Coffee Incident 2011 when I hear back from his teacher. I do expect some sort of explanation since I do still need to know where his clothes are. Pictures from our Christmas party on Monday......Happy weekend!
Posted by Gleatie at 9:21 PM 1 comments
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Never Lose Sight
Of your child that is! Yesterday I think Evans really had it out for me. If I had to hear this train/bus/whatever it is blare it's music one more time, I was probably going to die. Why do toy manufacturers make them SO loud? And of course, Evans LOVES it. He dances, he sings and generally looks to die for cute so it is hard to take it away. Anyways. Yesterday afternoon we were at my Aunt's house watching the twins and Evans was sitting with the train (I really think it is a train even though I refer to it as a bus most of the time) in front of the TV in the kitchen. I have a major pet peeve of the television being too loud so the combination of both was really making me rethink wearing ear plugs. Evans was happy and I was playing with Molly on the couch. After a couple of minutes I realized that it was very quiet in the house. I don't follow Evans everywhere he goes because he normally stays between the kitchen and the den, where all the toys are. I started calling his name and instead of hearing rustling around like I normally do, there was silence. I got up to walk into the den, all while calling his name, but it was very clear he wasn't in the den either. I called his name much louder this time I heard the thuds of rapid crawling above my head. I ran to the bottom of the stairs and there was that train about 3/4ths of the way up the stairs while Evans rounded the corner from the top to grin down at me at the bottom of the stairs. I was stunned. I knew he could go up stairs but he doesn't normally pay too much attention to them so I don't ever block them. And this was a staircase of probably 15 stairs at least. AND I can see the staircase from where I was sitting on the couch and I STILL didn't see him go by. This could be a problem. My solution?Brilliant right? Well here was Evans' response as soon as I walked back into the kitchen.I think I am going to have to be a little bit more creative. I wedged this chair and stool in much tighter this morning and he still shimmied underneath the chair. I should probably come up with a better approach before I go wake him up from his nap in a little bit.
So tomorrow is the big day with the Christmas Pageant! It also happens to be Evans' 15 month checkup BEFORE school so I will be up at the crack of dawn. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that my mom, sister and I are hosting a Christmas open house this evening for all our girlfriends. It promises to be a fun night with plenty of good stories to tell tomorrow! Happy Thursday!
Posted by Gleatie at 11:02 AM 6 comments
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
I don't really have anything good to report today. It's sort of been a boring day. It's rainy and hot and humid. Go figure Atlanta. This morning upon turning into the school parking lot Evans was aware that something was afoot. He was so happy when we left the house but by the time we parked, he knew. He was going back to school. Sobbing crying at drop off. I'm sort of getting used to it. I was so anxious to hear how he did when I picked him up. But I can't tell you how his day went because when the teacher put him in the car and I asked how he did she replied, "Oh, I work in pre-k so I don't know". Hmmmm. Thanks, I'll just ask my 15 month old. There were no signs of crying, no runny nose and no red eyes. As you can see in this picture, our Christmas tree it up. My parents Christmas tree is dripping in ornaments. We even have a special tree in the other room with the expensive ornaments. All seems to be a recipe for disaster to me. For some reason Evans has really not shown any interest in the tree. Maybe he is scared of it, maybe not, as long as he doesn't bat the ornaments or knock it down, I don't care. I'm planning on taking many more pictures with him in front of this tree. It is hard to think that at this time last year, we would have a big fire in the fireplace and Evans would lie on a pallet in front of it, just staring. I cannot believe how big he is this year. Makes me wonder how it will be next Christmas.
Posted by Gleatie at 3:01 PM 2 comments
Monday, December 5, 2011
Getting Ready For Our Pageant
Well, I cannot disclose a picture of the super awesome Angel costume that Aunt Mimi made for Evans for his Christmas pageant on Friday but we had the "final fitting" on Saturday during the Georgia game and this is what we were wearing for the game. Evans was pretty excited for the game and it was his first big disappointment of being a Dawg fan. I had to explain to him that it would probably be just the first of many if he is going to root for the Dawgs, the Rebels and/or the Hoos. He needed to learn this lesson early with that repertoire of teams to pull for. And the Dawgs are the best bet! Anyways, Aunt Mimi made us try on the angel costume and it is going to be great. It might be a little difficult to get on due to Mama not picking a very stretchy fabric but as long as you smash him in, it fits fine once on the body. I might have to stay on Friday morning and help him get into it and I suppose we can always cut him out if we have to. I really fell down on the job of angel wings and just bought some cheesy ones at the store and I'm not sure I will ever forgive myself but I have to get over it. I can't wait to see the performance and hope that at the very least, Evans will stay on the altar. On Friday Evans brought home a memo from school with a couple of tips for parents to keep in mind for the pageant. I feel like several of them are too good to not pass along.....
--All costumes must be received at school no later than Tuesday, December 6th. This is because they are having a full dress rehearsal on the 6th AND ON THE 7th. Really? Two full dress rehearsals? Do the teachers hate themselves?
--Costumes should be comfortable for your child to walk in (first problem), rather than fancy and dangerous. Again, really? Anyone who knows me knows that Evans costume will be fancy but even I draw the line at dangerous. I really can't help them with the walking issue.
--(picture this is bold writing) Please, do not use any cotton balls as part of your child's costume. Someone will have to enlighten me on this one.
--Cameras, camcorders, etc are allowed. Are there really schools that don't allow cameras at their pageants?
--Please bring a try of "goodies" to share after the performance. I call not bringing fruit!
--As in years past, we would like to give a token of our appreciation to our two custodians. If you can, please send a small cash donation in an envelope with your child so we can buy them each a necklace from Tiffany. Ha ha! Just kidding! (I will be doing this happily so no one get mad).
After this list, is there anyone that is NOT excited for Evans' pageant on Friday? I didn't think so. Even Evans was very excited when I told him about it this weekend. He celebrated by eating ALL his bacon and NONE of his eggs.We are trying to get into the holiday spirit by wearing Christmas pajamas every night. Tomorrow is a school day and I'll be sure to give an update. We have a fancy new Christmas longall that Evans is hot to ruin. Off to bed, I must mentally prepare for tomorrow.
Posted by Gleatie at 8:28 PM 1 comments
Friday, December 2, 2011
You Win Some, You Lose Some
This morning I was pretty sure that we would be losing again. While looking very cute for school I think that Evans is starting to learn that if I wake him up in the morning and then get him dressed immediately that he has a reason to be suspicious. We loaded up and went on our way. I have to mention something off topic here but Evans doesn't really like to ride in the car anymore unless he is holding this turquoise matchbox truck. I don't know what it is about the truck but he is obsessed. It used to be the green Percy tank engine but he snubs Percy now for the turquoise truck. Evans held onto the truck all the way to school and when we got there and I pulled into a parking space I looked back at him. I watched his face as it rapidly dawned on him that we were back at school. His eyes narrowed, he glared at me, slung that truck on the floor and started bawling. Loud rage crying only this time with big fat tears rolling down his face. Gosh, I felt so bad but we trekked on in. Evans' teacher is great and I let her know that if he had another bad day like Tuesday that I could come pick him up at anytime because maybe it was too much for him. And then I left my wailing child in the arms of someone else while he was reaching out to come with me. Pain. Then I got over it because I realized I would probably get a call in an hour to come get him. My phone was silent all morning and I was the first person in the carpool line at 1:30 to fetch him. When the teacher brought him out she paused on the steps and pointed to me in the car saying "there's Mama" and Evans gave me a little nonchalant wave like he was thinking "oh, YOU AGAIN"? There was no emergency binky clipped to his outfit and no puffy red eyes. They told me that Evans had a GREAT day and he didn't cry at all! VICTORY! I was so happy. I wish he could talk and tell me everything he did but since he can't even walk I realize this is a long shot. I will feel much better about dropping him off on Tuesday, along with his angel costume for the Christmas pageant, and will hope for another good day!
Posted by Gleatie at 2:45 PM 4 comments
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Nighttime Snuggles
Evans has never lacked in the department of stuffed animals or bed time snuggle buddies. His crib is filled with a stuffed frog, a monkey, an orange dog and a white lamb. One of which is actually featured in this picture of E while we were in the hospital after he was born. I always make sure to have a couple animals in the crib with him at night when he goes to sleep just in case he wants to take a liking to one of them in particular. We have winnie the pooh luvies, lamb luvies, giraffe luvies and a rabbit luvie. On top of the furry friends we have four blankets. Cotton blankets, cashmere blankets and satin blankets. And binkeys. OH we have binkeys GALORE. Now, one would think, given all these obscenely nice choices, that Evans would have taken to one of these. However, when we go to bed at night, there are three things that we must have.
1. A binkey in his mouth.
2. A binkey in his hand.
3. And this in his other hand.Hmmm, are you thinking that this doesn't look like a very comfortable item to sleep with? That is because it is a plastic rock. That's right. A plastic boulder that came with his Thomas the Train "Rock Quarry" set. I'm sure it was a $75 train set and with as much as he loves this rock, I guess it was worth it? Here is my problem. He also wants to play with it during the day. Rocks, especially ones that are round, roll. They roll under couches, under beds, under cribs, under tables and basically anything that sits more than three inches off the floor. And we only have one. One two inch rock and over 4,500 square feet of house. Let's be honest, the odds are not in my favor. I see disaster in my near future. So, for now, I try to encourage that the rock be left in the crib every morning. Just so it can offer its warm comfort every night.
In other news, tomorrow is a school day. Grrrrreat. Everything is ready to go and tomorrow I am feeling positive will be a better day. At least it will be a great outfit. It is December after all and we can move on to our Christmas longalls! (Evans chose them)
Posted by Gleatie at 8:35 PM 1 comments


text:
What They Said About Fan and Fred
Cross posted from: http://wsj.com/article/SB122290574391296381.html
- Video House Financial Services Committee hearing, Sept. 10, 2003:
Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.): I worry, frankly, that there's a tension here. The more people, in my judgment, exaggerate a threat of safety and soundness, the more people conjure up the possibility of serious financial losses to the Treasury, which I do not see. I think we see entities that are fundamentally sound financially and withstand some of the disaster scenarios. . . .
Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.), speaking to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez:
Secretary Martinez, if it ain't broke, why do you want to fix it? Have the GSEs [government-sponsored enterprises] ever missed their housing goals?
* * *
House Financial Services Committee hearing, Sept. 25, 2003:
Rep. Frank: I do think I do not want the same kind of focus on safety and soundness that we have in OCC [Office of the Comptroller of the Currency] and OTS [Office of Thrift Supervision]. I want to roll the dice a little bit more in this situation towards subsidized housing. . . .
* * *
House Financial Services Committee hearing, Sept. 25, 2003:
Rep. Gregory Meeks, (D., N.Y.): . . . I am just pissed off at Ofheo [Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight] because if it wasn't for you I don't think that we would be here in the first place.
Fannie Mayhem: A History
A compendium of The Wall Street Journal's recent editorial coverage of Fannie and Freddie.
And Freddie Mac, who on its own, you know, came out front and indicated it is wrong, and now the problem that we have and that we are faced with is maybe some individuals who wanted to do away with GSEs in the first place, you have given them an excuse to try to have this forum so that we can talk about it and maybe change the direction and the mission of what the GSEs had, which they have done a tremendous job. . .
Ofheo Director Armando Falcon Jr.: Congressman, Ofheo did not improperly apply accounting rules; Freddie Mac did. Ofheo did not try to manage earnings improperly; Freddie Mac did. So this isn't about the agency's engagement in improper conduct, it is about Freddie Mac. Let me just correct the record on that. . . . I have been asking for these additional authorities for four years now. I have been asking for additional resources, the independent appropriations assessment powers.
Brian Carney of the Editorial Board on the hearings Congresspeople don't want to remember. (Oct. 2)
This is not a matter of the agency engaging in any misconduct. . . .
Rep. Waters: However, I have sat through nearly a dozen hearings where, frankly, we were trying to fix something that wasn't broke. Housing is the economic engine of our economy, and in no community does this engine need to work more than in mine. With last week's hurricane and the drain on the economy from the war in Iraq, we should do no harm to these GSEs. We should be enhancing regulation, not making fundamental change.
Mr. Chairman, we do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac, and in particular at Fannie Mae, under the outstanding leadership of Mr. Frank Raines. Everything in the 1992 act has worked just fine. In fact, the GSEs have exceeded their housing goals. . . .
Rep. Frank: Let me ask [George] Gould and [Franklin] Raines on behalf of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, do you feel that over the past years you have been substantially under-regulated?
Mr. Raines?
Mr. Raines: No, sir.
Mr. Frank: Mr. Gould?
Mr. Gould: No, sir. . . .
Mr. Frank: OK. Then I am not entirely sure why we are here. . . .
Rep. Frank: I believe there has been more alarm raised about potential unsafety and unsoundness than, in fact, exists.
* * *
Senate Banking Committee, Oct. 16, 2003:
Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.): And my worry is that we're using the recent safety and soundness concerns, particularly with Freddie, and with a poor regulator, as a straw man to curtail Fannie and Freddie's mission. And I don't think there is any doubt that there are some in the administration who don't believe in Fannie and Freddie altogether, say let the private sector do it. That would be sort of an ideological position.
Mr. Raines: But more importantly, banks are in a far more risky business than we are.
* * *
Senate Banking Committee, Feb. 24-25, 2004:
Sen. Thomas Carper (D., Del.): What is the wrong that we're trying to right here? What is the potential harm that we're trying to avert?
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan: Well, I think that that is a very good question, senator.
What we're trying to avert is we have in our financial system right now two very large and growing financial institutions which are very effective and are essentially capable of gaining market shares in a very major market to a large extent as a consequence of what is perceived to be a subsidy that prevents the markets from adjusting appropriately, prevents competition and the normal adjustment processes that we see on a day-by-day basis from functioning in a way that creates stability. . . . And so what we have is a structure here in which a very rapidly growing organization, holding assets and financing them by subsidized debt, is growing in a manner which really does not in and of itself contribute to either home ownership or necessarily liquidity or other aspects of the financial markets. . . .
Sen. Richard Shelby (R., Ala.): [T]he federal government has [an] ambiguous relationship with the GSEs. And how do we actually get rid of that ambiguity is a complicated, tricky thing. I don't know how we do it.
I mean, you've alluded to it a little bit, but how do we define the relationship? It's important, is it not?
Mr. Greenspan: Yes. Of all the issues that have been discussed today, I think that is the most difficult one. Because you cannot have, in a rational government or a rational society, two fundamentally different views as to what will happen under a certain event. Because it invites crisis, and it invites instability. . .
Sen. Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.): I, just briefly will say, Mr. Chairman, obviously, like most of us here, this is one of the great success stories of all time. And we don't want to lose sight of that and [what] has been pointed out by all of our witnesses here, obviously, the 70% of Americans who own their own homes today, in no small measure, due because of the work that's been done here. And that shouldn't be lost in this debate and discussion. . . .
* * *
Senate Banking Committee, April 6, 2005:
Sen. Schumer: I'll lay my marker down right now, Mr. Chairman. I think Fannie and Freddie need some changes, but I don't think they need dramatic restructuring in terms of their mission, in terms of their role in the secondary mortgage market, et cetera. Change some of the accounting and regulatory issues, yes, but don't undo Fannie and Freddie.
* * *
Senate Banking Committee, June 15, 2006:
Sen. Robert Bennett (R., Utah): I think we do need a strong regulator. I think we do need a piece of legislation. But I think we do need also to be careful that we don't overreact.
I know the press, particularly, keeps saying this is another Enron, which it clearly is not. Fannie Mae has taken its lumps. Fannie Mae is paying a very large fine. Fannie Mae is under a very, very strong microscope, which it needs to be. . . . So let's not do nothing, and at the same time, let's not overreact. . .
Sen. Jack Reed (D., R.I.): I think a lot of people are being opportunistic, . . . throwing out the baby with the bathwater, saying, "Let's dramatically restructure Fannie and Freddie," when that is not what's called for as a result of what's happened here. . . .
Sen. Chuck Hagel (R., Neb.): Mr. Chairman, what we're dealing with is an astounding failure of management and board responsibility, driven clearly by self interest and greed. And when we reference this issue in the context of -- the best we can say is, "It's no Enron." Now, that's a hell of a high standard.


text:
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Team Canada routed the defending Spengler Champs HC Davos by a score of 5-0, a dominating performance that saw the Canadians in control of all facets of the game from the opening face off.
With single goals from John Tavares, Ryan Smith and Jason Williams, as well as a pair of markers from Byron Ritchie
The only thing in question by the time period three started up was whether Canadian goaltender Devan Dubnyk would claim the shutout on behalf of Canada.
Canada has the day off on Friday, no doubt cheering for the Davos squad to top Mannheim, which would move Canada to the top of their pool and put them in a fine position heading towards New Years Eve and the Championship game.
The Spengler Cup this year is showing some fine flashes of the kind of hockey that North Americans have missed out on since the NHL lockout, the players in effect having joined the witness protection program of professional hockey, as they play out the lockout with European clubs.
Still, for the short burst of the holidays, North Americans will once again hear the names of Thornton, Spezza, Pominville, Tavares and a host of others, a familiar theme from the thirty member teams of the NHL. Now exiles to a fashion, playing their game for Davos, Ufa, Mannheim and others club teams stretched across the European continent.
When New Year's Eve comes and goes, TSN's helpful broadcast journeyman Paul Romanuk might want to pitch the idea of a game of the week to some of the North American networks looking for some hockey to fill in the scheduling gaps of a long, long NHL lockout.
Should the NHL pull the plug on hockey for 2012-13 in mid January, maybe a certain Hockey Night institution might want to pick up that particular torch, giving Donald Cherry and his sidekick Ron MacLean even more opportunity to weigh in on some of that fancy skating and such from the continent once a week.
Before that might happen however, there is still the matter of determining a champion for Spengler 2012, the Canadians did themselves a huge favour with such an impressive showing on Thursday, keeping up the pressure and finding that chemistry will be the key to making it through til New Years Eve.
Some of the reviews of the shutout of Davos can be found below
CBC-- Canada rebounds against defending Spengler Champs
CBC-- Unheralded Canadians getting job done at Spengler Cup
Sportsnet- Canada responds at Spengler, beats HC Davos


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Do you need to motivate your employees? Is your work team unmotivated? Do your people produce good results but you feel they could do better? Do you feel like your team is struggling with too much routine and have lost motivation in their work? Or would you simply like to maintain, improve and strengthen your work team's motivation? Then we have the solution, with this course on Positive Motivation Techniques you will find out about and learn proactive strategies to motivate your virtual work teams.
Motivation is the fuel of life, and with it people mobilize their potential to reach the goals they set for themselves. This course will let you get acquainted with motivating employees as a concept, and go in depth on its importance to the work team, both to achieving the objectives of your projects and to maintaining an excellent virtual work environment, where you are a vital part of the circle of motivation, counted on to spark the chain of motivation and spread it to the people around you.
You will learn the different types of employee motivation and identify the current motivation level of your work team, reviewing which members of your team are thriving and which ones could use more attention. Moreover, you will learn how to keep a balance between the types of motivation and combine the tools each one offers in order to develop and strengthen the motivation of your virtual work team.
You will become familiar with the concept of Positive Motivation, which represents an excellent alternative for keeping your group motivated and happy with their job. Some of the many advantages this type of motivation offers are:
- Generating wellbeing and comfort.
- Increasing security
- Strengthens trust and commitment
- Produces a healthy, pleasant work environment
- Fosters trust between team members
You will know the principles and techniques of positive employee motivation and how to implement them in your work team effectively and firmly, picking up guidelines and recommendations that can be applied to your specific situation regarding projects. Furthermore, you will learn how to personalize strategies to motivate your team, recognizing the diversity and richness in play in a multicultural team and the full resource that can be brought to bear in creating a healthy, pleasant work environment.


text:
"Last Man Standing" En Garde Tournament at HoD
Thursday, December 24, 2009
How long can you stay undefeated on an En Garde track? This is your chance to show your strength!
Heart of Dragons [SLURL] will have 3 tracks set up for competition from December 26th. And you have more than a week to attempt to get the most wins in a row. The 3 best players - with the longest winning streaks - by January 3rd, are awarded.
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Labels: en garde, tournament
Please don't scrape me
Saturday, December 19, 2009
I spent some time today going through my server logs, trying to figure out why my CPU usage has gone up 200% this week. I found that someone has been running a script to grab the En Garde ranking scores every two minutes. I'm not sure why anyone would want to do such a thing, except maybe to redisplay them somewhere else.
Please don't scrape data from this site like that. If you do need statistics please contact me first; maybe we can work something out.
Whoever was doing the scraping has been banned from the site. So if you're seeing a bunch of "Access Denied" when you try to get to playprocyon.com, send me an email or IM.
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Labels: website
Instant Message Chaos
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Second Life has started sending or resending old IM's. It's not clear if these are repeats of messages that were previously sent several months ago, or if they never got sent in the first place and are only now getting through, or even if they were originally sent to me in the first place.
With the large volume of customer requests I get, it makes it impossible to sort out which are the real ones and which are "ghosts." So, if you've sent me a question or request via IM in the past 48 hours and haven't heard back from me, please send it again, but use my email address this time. I can be reached at rifkin (at) playprocyon.com. That's the safest way to contact me.
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text:
Skid Row To Drop New EP 'United World Rebellion – Chapter One' on April 16
It's been seven years since Skid Row have released any new music but all that is about to change come April 16 when the New Jersey rockers deliver their new disc 'United World Rebellion – Chapter One.' The EP serves as the first offering in a series that the band plans to roll out in the near future.
Although it's been a long time coming, guitarist Snake Sabo enjoyed the writing process for their latest effort, explaining, "We seem to be at our best when we're faced with adversity." He continued, "It's us against the world again — and by us I mean the band and the fans who stick with us and carry the Skid Row torch without fail."
That torch was snuffed out in 1996 when the original lineup of the band called it quits, marking the permanent departure of vocalist Sebastian Bach. The band later reformed with singer Johnny Solinger, who continues to provide vocal duties for the band to this day along with Sabo, Rachel Bolan on bass, Scotti Hill on guitar and Rob Hammersmith on drums.
Bassist Bolan recently talked about reintroducing Skid Row to the masses and trying to create a future for the band without depending too much on the past. "When we put the band back together, we needed to reintroduce Skid Row as relevant without relying too much on past success," explains Bolan. "We sunk our heart and soul into it, letting people know we weren't doing it for lack of nothing better to do."
The band decided to go the EP route this time around due to the current musical climate and its constant twist and turns. "The idea [of releasing EPs] really appealed to me," said Bolan, "Especially with the constantly changing musical climate. I like the idea of a steady flow of new music, as opposed to releasing a full-length album then riding it for the next two years."
Sabo also explained that Skid Row still has a lot left in them, which should please rock fans. "I will always be that 16-year-old kid in front of the mirror, pretending to be Ace Frehley or Michael Schenker," admits Sabo. "It's still about writing a great song with your friend, praying it connects with someone. That has never left me. That willfulness will always exist, and there's so much left to say!"
'United World Rebellion – Chapter One' drops April 16 via MRI and can be pre-ordered at Amazon.com.


text:
Hi all,
Sorry if these topics were discussed on this forum but I'd like to get more web resources for Cantonese learners. I had trouble finding good Cantonese learning sites, at least not as good as you could find for Putonghua or Japanese (if interested, send me a message, I'll share with you). If you have some links please post here.
I would greatly appreciate some links where can get written Cantonese text (preferably as TEXT, not Flash or image file), some pronunciation guide (in whatever romanization used - Jyutping, Yale, etc) and/or audio files you can download and listen off-line (wav, wmv, rm, etc). (Plenty of those for Putonghua and Japanese).
Is there a freeware/shareware word processor you can use to type in Cantonese characters phonetically on a Western PC? I've been using NJStar, it's pretty good but not 100% suitable for Cantonese, a lot of characters are missing, try for example pasting 哋 (DEIH) character into NJStar Chinese or CQuickTrans. With Microsoft IME, I couldn't get the Chinese (Hong Kong) IME to work at all - it always types in Latin only, using Chinese (PRC) to type in simplified characters and Chinese (Taiwan) in traditional. I forgot how to set it up to type in using hanyu pinyin! Very annoyed. My question is, what is the best way to type in Cantonese PHONETICALLY, if there is one? If you mastered the way Microsoft IME for Cantonese works or can use Chinese (Taiwan) for the same purpose, please explain, in brief, how it works.
Is there software on- or offline to convert Cantonese character text into a romanized text (something like NJStar Chinese does to Putonghua/Guoyu)? I am probably pushing my luck here but I'll ask any way.
If you have your own - offline stuff (e.g. MP3 files acompanyng Cantonese text or similar), offline Cantonese tutorials for English speakers, we could probably swap, let's talk about it.
In case you haven't saved these links in favorites, here are some Cantonese links I found:
Cantonese lessons (with sounds):
Very basic romanized:
Some fun lessons using Flash
A good one:
Dictionaries (some are very good, please read instructions)
Software - gives various pronuncitions and meaning for characters, you can paste a whole Chinese text and get listing for all unique characters. Unregistered version doesn't allow to copy to another program, though.
CQuickTran (JQuickTrans for Japanese)
And of course, NJStar word processors and a communicator.
Jackie Chan fan site, download some songs - most are in Mandarin but plenty in Cantonese as well with lyrics (in image files, not text).
About myself: I am 38 years old, native Russian, live in Australia. Have been learning Japanese on and off for many years and dabbled in Mandarin - didn't approach it systematically, so haven't progressed much. Now I spend more time with both Mandarin and Japanese, bought great books, CD's and other learning material and very curious to learn Cantonese in parallel to Mandarin. Just got the "Teach Yourself Cantonese" textbook and Cantonese-English phrasebook, will look for the acompanying CD's or tapes.
I'm fluent in Russian, English and German. Passively functional in French and Polish (can read some newspaper materials). Can't boast about my Japanese, have mastered a few novels - but I know it on the high school level - teaching my daughter Japanese as well.
Another question on top of the others I asked. Do you know of any Cantonese text-to-speech synthesizers?
For example, these are the first 2 dialogs from Teach Yourself Cantonese (Hugh Baker and Ho Pui-Kei). With a voice synthesizer, I would paste this text in a window or select the text and click a button to hear a voice reading it.
噢﹐ 對唔住﹐貴姓呀﹖
Here's a link to Chinese Pen download page (stops working after 3 months of use).
http://www.simtel.net/product.download. ... p?id=78312
You can use this program (above) to draw simplified/traditional Chinese characters, read selected text aloud in Putonghua(in male or female voice). (You can set up both the speed of writing and reading). The quality of reading aloud may not be 100% but it's very close, if you struggle with tones.
Here's an online tool (Bell Labs Mandarin Text-to-Speech Synthesis)
I don't know any such tool for Cantonese or Japanese (there are probably some commercial expensive tools for Japanese) but such a tool for Cantonese probably doesn't exist.
Actually, the tool exist, as I just found out but is not available to public(?). Some examples (3 sentences) of synthesized voice for Cantonese are in the middle of this page:
I am not impressed with the quality but it's a good start.
Cantonese language online and offline resources
Topics related to learning Cantonese.
6 posts • Page 1 of 1
Ziguang Pinyin
Can someone provide a working link to Ziguang Pinyin and some instructions on how to install it in English, please?
Re: Cantonese language online and offline resources
I know some site for the Cantonese.cantonese.ca This site offers information for learning colloquial Cantonese (Yue Chinese) as it is spoken by today's youth in Hong Kong and in overseas communities such as Canada, the United States and Australia.
World Connect
World Connect
Re: Cantonese language online and offline resources
HiAnatoli wrote:Can someone provide a working link to Ziguang Pinyin and some instructions on how to install it in English, please?
I have same question Can someone provide a working link to Ziguang Pinyin and some instructions on how to install it in English? need help.
Re: Cantonese language online and offline resources
this is a handy little tool for converting large slabs of chinese text to Jyutping (cantonese pinyin):
http://download.cnet.com/ChineseTransli ... ?tag=mncol
this is a handy little tool for converting large slabs of chinese text to Jyutping (cantonese pinyin):
http://download.cnet.com/ChineseTransli ... ?tag=mncol
Re: Cantonese language online and offline resources
This site contains everything you need for Cantonese learning. It has Cantonese learning books, Cantonese-English dictionary, Cantonese pronunciation help and even resources for written Cantonese.
This site contains everything you need for Cantonese learning. It has Cantonese learning books, Cantonese-English dictionary, Cantonese pronunciation help and even resources for written Cantonese.
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Comparativo de metodologias de mensuração de VAR para o mercado financeiro brasileiro
Many methodologies to measure market risk have been developed and improved in the last few decades. While some methodologies are non-parametric, others are parametric. Some methodologies are theoretical, while others are ...


text: According to the latest data from the UK broadband comparison website Broadband Genie, only around one in ten (11 per cent) mobile broadband users are satisfied with the speed of their mobile broadband. The data claims that exaggerated advertising and unrealistic 'up to' speed claims have given the public an unrealistic expectation of mobile broadband that the service cannot live up to. And of course, some operators are better than others as this comparison between Vodafone UK and 3 UK shows. At least from this person's experience, 3's mobile broadband service just does not work.