text:
HFS+ Disk Quotas
HFS+ on Mac OS X supports volume=level quotas based on user and group IDs. The corresponding quota file names are .quota.user and .quota.group. These files reside in the file system's root directory. Each file contains a header, followed by a hash table of structures specifying various quota limits and usage values for user or group IDs.
Enabling Disk Quotas
To enable disk quotas on Mac OS X systems, we need to create .quota.ops.user (or .quota.ops.group) within the file system's root directory. For my example here, I'm using my MacBook Pro with a single partition.
- First, we need to escalate our privileges to root.
ecrist@Swordfish:~-> sudo csh Password: root@Swordfish:~->
- Next, we need to create an empty options file:
root@Swordfish:~-> touch /.quota.ops.user root@Swordfish:~->
- After the options file is created, we should be able to run repquoata -a to get a list of current disk usage, by user name. Note that this command, when run initially, may take a few moments.
- Rob, from Mac OS X Hints indicates he had to use checkquota -a before this command would work.
root@Swordfish:~-> repquota -a 1K Block limits File limits User used soft hard grace used soft hard grace _spotlight-- 0 0 0 2 0 0 _lp -- 0 0 0 3 0 0 _teamsserver-- 128 0 0 10 0 0 _xgridagent-- 0 0 0 2 0 0 _mdnsresponder-- 36 0 0 4 0 0 _unknown -- 14560 0 0 2 0 0 test -- 26812 0 0 664 0 0 _amavisd -- 8 0 0 6 0 0 _installer-- 326832 0 0 67 0 0 _uucp -- 1520 0 0 10 0 0 504 -- 114476 0 0 289 0 0 _xgridcontroller-- 0 0 0 2 0 0 6185 -- 0 0 0 4 0 0 daemon -- 27000 0 0 301 0 0 ecrist -- 66636284 0 0 156581 0 0 _postfix -- 0 0 0 13 0 0 _update_sharing-- 11372 0 0 10 0 0 nobody -- 9080 0 0 9 0 0 _securityagent-- 32 0 0 5 0 0 _atsserver-- 20680 0 0 5 0 0My user name, ecrist, you'll notice, has a current usage of around 6GB (listed in 1K blocks).
- Turn quotas on with the quotaon command:
root@Swordfish:~-> quotaon / root@Swordfish:~->The above command requires a filesystem device or mount path after quotaon. In my example, I've only got one mounted system. If you've got a USB device, or a second hard disk, use the mount point in place of / above.
At this point, disk quotas have been enabled, but there's currently no policy in place to enforce.
Setting Quota Limits
Once disk quotas have been enabled, we can set limits for our users. For this example, I've created a user, test, to test quotas.
We can edit user quotas with the edquota command. edquota has many options, see the man page for a complete description. For our uses, we're going to use the -u (user) option, followed by a user name.
root@Swordfish:~-> edquota -u test
You will get a vi session with a temp file opened for editing. In our example, after running the above command, we have the following on our screen:
Quotas for user test: /: 1K blocks in use: 26940, limits (soft = 0, hard = 0) | inodes in use: 664, limits (soft = 0, hard = 0)
While this isn't a vi how-to, I'll try to walk you through a bit so you can get your quotas defined. What we want to change in this file is the number (currently 0 for both) for hard and soft limits. Once vi has opened, press the i key to enable insert mode. You should now be able to use your arrow keys and change the values as you see fit. Once you're done editing the file, press ESCAPE and then :wq<enter> to quit and save your changes.
You can set both hard and soft limits. Hard limits are limits which are not allowed to be bypassed. The user, once reaching the hard limit, will be informed that there is no longer any space available on the disk.
Soft limits are able to be bypassed, temporarily. Users are permitted to exceed their soft limits for a grace period that may be specified per filesystem. Once the grace period has expired, the soft limit is enforced as a hard limit. Use the command edquota -t to change the grace period.
For reference, inodes are files on the file system. Each and every file gets a single inode. Hard and soft links each get their own inode, even though they point to another file. They are files, themselves.
Grace Period
As mentioned above, there is a configurable grace period for soft quota limits. Section 8 of the manual for edquota mentions the default limit is set in /usr/include/sys/quota.h. That file doesn't exist on most default-installed Macs, so I'll tell you it's 1 week. The noted lines from this file are as follows:
/* * Definitions for disk quotas imposed on the average user * (big brother finally hits UNIX). * * The following constants define the amount of time given a user before the * soft limits are treated as hard limits (usually resulting in an allocation * failure). The timer is started when the user crosses their soft limit, it * is reset when they go below their soft limit. */ #define|MAX_IQ_TIME| (7*24*60*60)| /* seconds in 1 week */ #define|MAX_DQ_TIME| (7*24*60*60)| /* seconds in 1 week */
You can change this default with the edquota command. Use the -t option to edit the grace period. When invoked, this command will give you, similar to above, a vi session will open, with the file to be configured. (See above for basic instruction on how to use vi.) From the edquota man page:
The grace period
may be specified in days, hours, minutes, or seconds. Setting a grace period to zero indicates that the default grace period should be imposed. Setting a grace period to one second indicates that no grace period should be granted.
Only changes to the numbers following block grace period or file grace period will have any affect. To change grace period for groups, make certain to specify -g on the command line with -t.
Setting a file number limit is easily bypassed with disk images. A disk image, itself, uses only one inode, regardless of how many files it contains, or how large it grows. The file number limit can be useful for daemon users and such which may pose a risk to overflowing your file systems with files such as logs or core dumps.
More Information
More information on HFS+ can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchical_File_System


text:
Saturday, June 6, 2009
The Air That We Breathe
A few hours later, I walked into a house in Beverly Hills where we were meeting with a spiritual advisor we've come to like. A friend of his lets him use his home for meetings when he's in LA. I took my shoes off in the foyer and was escorted to the media room. In front of me stood a wood and Lucite display case. Inside the case: one of EVH's gonzo-striped guitars. Nothing surprises me any more. Jo Ann and I live in a world where energetic, social and advocacy connections guide us through our days. We don't question which way the light guides us. We just smile, and say 'thank you.'
Half an hour after I entered the house where one of my idols' guitars lives, Jo Ann and Pablo joined me. We had just come from meeting with Dr Mascarenhas in his sixth floor office at CHLA. Jo Ann and I went there to confirm our plan for Pablo's treatment. After three weeks of pondering and searching for options, we had decided on what we thought was our least favorite idea: to surgically remove the two tumors in P's lungs. Our shift came about for two reasons: 1) Dr Stein determined he could get the tumors out in one procedure, not the two he'd originally suggested (thereby reducing P's hospital stay from three weeks to one); 2) we found a handful of exciting, acceptable drugs to throw at P's cancer post-surgery. We were excited to run down this path that we'd been entirely closed to three weeks earlier. Time helped. And Jo Ann's incessant search for information and knowledge helped. Pablo's daily increase in strength, light and vitality was the wind in our sails. Changing P to an incredibly healthy diet, with carefully selected fish and meats thrown in, was the wind in Pablo's sails.
30 minutes into our meeting with Dr M, we mentioned something that Pablo had told me that morning. We were playing in our bed, running around, jumping and screaming. Suddenly, he stopped, shifting from playful extrovert to inheld and protective. When I asked what was up, he said he couldn't breathe when he laid flat on his back. He laid back, inhaled deeply and looked pained and scared—the way a human looks when they can't get enough air. I grabbed his hands, pulled him up and hugged him. A moment later, we were playing again. Not wanting to frighten him, I just reignited the play. Didn't know what else to do. I knew something was up. His coughing had been going on for two days. Jo Ann and I talked about it constantly when he wasn't around. We'd each seen him stop running to catch his breath. He'd asked Grady if they could play something that wasn't a chase game. Francine noticed him stop to catch his breath when he was running with the kids at her barbecue.
Dr M asked us to get Pablo to CHLA right away. We called Polly, and she and Grady had him there in 10 minutes. We met them on the fourth floor of the clinic, in the radiology department. For the fourth or fifth time, Pablo stood in front of the X-ray lens and let his face fall into a glib, detached expression. Minutes later, Dr M popped out of a meeting upstairs and pulled up the images on his computer. He called Jo Ann to report what he'd seen: a considerable amount of fluid had built up in P's right lung. This was why he couldn't get fulls breaths when laying down. This is why his breathing has been shallower, and, perhaps, why he's been coughing constantly. In a general sense, the fluid restricts the lung's full potential, and causes less oxygen to be pumped into the blood, as well as a shorter breathing cycle. Such a simple bodily function that most of us never think about. Once restricted, it becomes the focus of all our attention.
The tumor in his lower right lung is not our only focus. The growth in his upper left lung is dangerously close to Pablo's airway.
The fluid build up, Dr M explained, was caused by the tumor pushing outward toward the sac that encapsulates the lung. A normal lung has fluid in this area, to lubricate the slide of the expanding lung against the sac. With the presence of a tumor nudging into this area, the body goes into overdrive, creating an overabundance of fluid. He believes there may be cancer cells in the fluid, which makes surgery impossible at this point. Imagine piercing a plastic bag filled with toxic water. Wouldn't be good. The cells could be spilled everywhere inside P's body.
As we learned this info on Thursday afternoon, we also learned that more chemo was the only option we had. Chemo is the only agent known to reduce the size of a tumor and the fluid bonanza it creates. If the chemo is successful, surgery will be possible.
So, Friday morning we arrived at CHLA at 9:30 a.m. and settled into our old routine. We were there until 5:30 p.m., a solid eight hours in a dark corner of a ward room where only hanging sheets shielded us from the three other families in earshot. When we arrived, we met with Dr M. He explained to Pablo what was going on inside his body. Pablo listened intently. I could tell he comprehended everything Dr M said. He's grown up at CHLA, of course he did. It's his body at the center of all this attention—of course he understood.
The chemo was tough on Pablo. Each of the two drugs he received has side effects. They all do. But these two have pretty specific and severe effects. Pablo slept through the last half of his infusions and immediately upon waking he began retching, vomiting, and retching some more. His head hurt. Imagine your child, any child, being injected with a liquid that could inflict serious pain on him, screaming 'My head hurts.' And the machine keeps pumping it into his body. Because it has to, in order to reverse that other dastardly effect going on out of sight, inside his body. I was scared. He was scared. Jo Ann was in a Zen state, holding P in her arms. Thank God. One of us had to be. And then more retching, more vomiting. More pain in Pablo's head.
That's the scene that we brought home. Through the night, this scene played over and over. Same thing today. Pablo is not himself. He won't be until the darkness of this drug lifts, and the sunlight of its promise basks on Pablo. We know this is possible. It's happened many times over the past 13 months. I can't remember it ever being this bad. This is the reason we never wanted to do chemo ever again. But I also can't remember Pablo needing chemo in such a direct, profound way. Today, our target is the two tumors in his lungs. They are taking his breath away. This is something we can see. When I think about it, I feel choked in my own lungs. That's a game changer. And our game against cancer has gone from a wide field of strategic options to a block + tackle scenario. To put a finer point on it: one block...and one tackle.
On a side note: every time I see someone smoking, I get mad and a little sick to my stomach. Every time I see someone smoking, I think the same thing: does that person think they are immune? And then I let it go. It's not my job....
We need your continued prayers. We need your light. We need your heart focus on our little boy. We assure you that we'll be there for you when we are able to be there for you. Our hearts are filled with gratitude for all that you have done for Pablo and our family.
Thank you.
23 comments:
We are here for you. Love to you all.
- June 6, 2009 at 5:16 PM
- Heather said...
Loving you all here in Camarillo, with all the the light and prayers we have within us.Wishing we could do something,anything, to lift this from you and most especially lift this from sweet Pablo.We will continue to focus on the positive.The fully and completely healed P.I leave you with this,a mantra we use over and over and one that hung, each and every admission,on Zoey's crib for the last 7 months:"Everything is possible ... the impossible just takes a little longer."We love you all.Continue to bask in the beauty of each other.We get the rest and will talk when we can talk.Know we are here and will be there in a moment if needed.Day,night,whenever,open ended for always.
- June 6, 2009 at 5:20 PM
- Jules said...
Always wishing and thinking and praying for Pablo. What a strong young man he will be once all of this is over - he will have already dealt with more in his early years than most have to deal with in their entire lives. Let`s pray that his struggles are occurring early in life to leave room for a simple, loving, strong, easier life ahead.
- June 6, 2009 at 5:55 PM
- Kat Ditty said...
CONSTANT love and prayers coming at you...
Kat & Garrett
- June 6, 2009 at 7:53 PM
- Unknown said...
I don't know your family. A friend had a post on a networking site to pray for Pablo while he was in a surgery a while back...so I looked at this blog...and have checked it almost every day since. I think of Pablo often, and imagine his future bright and beautiful. I don't know your family, but when I saw the post that you were in Legoland I wanted to drive the few miles from my home and hug and squeeze Pablo...and bring my 2 young boys to play with him because he seems to know how to have a really good time! I will pray for Pablo, send positive, healing vibes his way and also strength to you and your wife to keep fighting this fight. I am amazed by what I read here over and over again. Much love...
- June 6, 2009 at 8:24 PM
- Unknown said...
Sending all our love to you. Prayers come your way, every day, from all of us.
Lynn, Bruce, Claire & Colin
- June 6, 2009 at 8:27 PM
- Anonymous said...
There is not a moment in my day that I don't keep Pablo close to my heart and send him and your family love. I've never met your family, but you are part of my family now. My boys ask about Pablo often and wonder how he is doing. My youngest son, Nathan took one of the yellow Pablove bracelets to school and gave it to one of his friends and told him all about Pablo. Nathan's friend wears the bracelet reguarly and says it brings him courage and strength. I know his mother checks in regularly on Pablo now too. I want Pablo's complete and total healing so much that I think about it all the time. He is a precious little boy that will grow up to be a strong loving and dynamic young man, friend, husband, father, grandfather. That's what I am concentrating on with my whole heart. JoAnn, you are an amazing Mother, full of strength, wisdom and incredible love. Your little boy is so, so lucky he has you as Mommy!!!
- June 6, 2009 at 8:28 PM
Praying that this "block and tackle" chemo is the most effective knock-out punch imaginable for those tumors. We want you strong Pablo!!
- June 6, 2009 at 8:54 PM
I have tears running down my face as I read your description of the tumors taking your little boy's breath away. Also, I am in complete agreement with you regarding smokers. Uggh!, and to make matters worse, why do they congregrate outside hospital entrances to smoke so we have to walk through and breathe in their nasty poisonous smoke!
Your Pablo remains in our prayers. We are sending lots of love, light, and healing vibes his way. I have a good feeling about this surgery. Give that precious boy a big squeeze from us.
- June 6, 2009 at 9:01 PM
Yes, Pablo WILL be healed. That is my mantra. Go away cancer, you are not welcome in P's body! xox
- June 6, 2009 at 9:04 PM
Ginger was extremely helpful in preventing the nausea when Brad went thru chemo. They make ginger candies and ginger tea you can make and give to Pablo sweetened with a touch of organic honey. If he prefers it cold, its great over some ice! It really does help! The sea bands help too, they use pressure points, (accupressure) to control nausea.
- June 6, 2009 at 9:08 PM
Pablo should envision he is punching out that cancer monster when he punches on those stuffed animals! Punch away Pablo! Destroy that C -monster!
- June 6, 2009 at 9:10 PM
Here's some more love and hope from another stranger on the other side of the country.
Stay strong, all of you. With so many people and so much love on your side, this cancer doesn't stand a chance.
- June 7, 2009 at 7:11 AM
Constantly inspired by the grace you handle of this all with. Love to all of you.
- June 7, 2009 at 9:01 AM
- Sara said...
Jeff, Jo Ann, Grady and Sweet Pablo,
We are here for you. Always.
Lots of love,
Sara, Nick, Simon and Cheyenne
- June 7, 2009 at 10:30 AM
Pablo and your family are in my thoughts and prayers daily - many times a day. Like others who have posted, I don't know you, but have a heartful of love for you and am constantly sending it your way.
- June 7, 2009 at 11:14 AM
Dear JoAnn & Jeff,
The four of us just returned from being out of town, and because we were without internet connection, I just finished reading the recent posts... Our prayers are constant; they will never cease.
Your darling, beautiful boy is so very fortunate to have you both as his parents... truly. Your love for each other will conquer all.
May God's great comfort fill your hearts with continued strength and hope in this relentless fight. We pray that God will wrap His loving arms around Pablo to relieve him of pain and discomfort.
We're with you,
Tish & family
- June 7, 2009 at 10:15 PM
Jeff, JoAnn and Pablo...
Just wanted to jump on here and let you guys know that we are still hanging on every word that is written and are praying, praying, praying. Wish there was more we could do, but at least it is something. We continue to ask family and friends, as well, to keep the prayers flowing for Pablo! I believe in miracles, still, even in this day and age! I think I'd lose hope in everything if I didn't! You all are awesome and I am amazed at the lengths you will go! Keep climbing!
Your Wilm's buddies in Oklahoma,
Sicily and her mommy, Kerry
- June 8, 2009 at 6:55 PM
thinking about your beautiful son and family and sending positive energy your way. Praying you all receive continued strength and that Pablo starts feeling well soon.
- June 8, 2009 at 9:49 PM
- Dawn: said...
Thinking of you all every day, many times a day. Sending all my love and prayers.
- June 8, 2009 at 9:50 PM
- Dayla Corcoran Kennedy said...
in our thoughts always. love, dayla
- June 9, 2009 at 12:14 AM
We are sending light, love & positive thoughts your way -your strength is inspiring - Allison, Paul, Bruno & Thea
- June 9, 2009 at 3:49 AM
We are urgently praying for Pablo. We are sending love from across the ocean.
Love from your Wilm's family,
Molly and Laney Böttcher
- June 9, 2009 at 3:54 AM

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Sunday School – 10:00 am
Worship Service – 11:00 am
Bible Study – 12:15 pm
Wednesday Bible Study - 6:30 pm
12859 Martin Road Spur
Northport, AL 35473
In this message, Pastor Todd continues his series on God's Purpose for Israel. This sermon considers the attitude of Israel during the ministry of Jesus. He closes with Jesus' words to the early disciples just before His ascension. We pray this is a blessing to you!!


text:
Major sports event to draw 145,000 to Des Moines
A major women's sporting event has chosen Des Moines to host its event in 2017.
LPGA Tour Commissioner Mike Whan made it official during a news conference Monday morning at Des Moines Golf and Country Club.
As KCCI Sports Andy Garman first told you last month, the the Solheim Cup will be coming to Des Moines in 2017.
It's called the premier international team competition in women's golf.
The event is expected to draw 145,000 people to the Des Moines metro area. It's also expected to generate $25-30 million in economic activity.
Last month, the bi-annual event was played just outside Denver. In 2015, it will be in Germany and then in 2017 it could be in Iowa.
Garman confirmed in August that the LPGA has had discussions with officials in Des Moines about playing the event at the Des Moines Golf and County Club, in West Des Moines.
It was believed that Des Moines Golf and County, as well as the Concession Club, in Bradenton, Florida, are two of the three finalists for the event in 2017.
Officials at Des Moines Golf had no comment in August on the report.
Tom Ferrell, a spokesman for the Colorado Golf Club, told the Herald-Tribune newspaper, in Sarasota, Florida, that the event injected roughly $25 million into Colorado's economy.
Golf fans have been known to turn out in huge numbers in Iowa. In 1999, a record crowd of 250,000 turned out to watch the U.S. Senior Open, also held at Des Moines Golf and Country Club.


text:
Loading ...
COVID-19 Update: We are open and operational. Orders will continue to ship.
browser/plugin options and reloading this page
Need a replacement Gravely Ignition Switch? Jack's has them to help you get your Gravely lawn mower repair or maintenance started. We've been selling lawn mower parts and small engine parts online since 1997, so when you need a Craftsman ignition switch replacement, or other lawn mower parts, try Jack's first!
Subscribe to our email newsletter to receive promotions, helpful DIY articles, and special offers.
Copyright © 1994 - 2020
Jacks Small Engines
& Generator Service, LLC


text:
|Oracle® OLAP DML Reference
11g Release 2 (11.2)
Part Number E17122-05
|View PDF
The FILEPUT command writes data that is specified in a text expression to a file that is opened in WRITE or APPEND mode.
FILEPUT fileunit {text-exp|FROM infileunit} [EOL|NOEOL]
A fileunit number assigned to a file that is opened for writing (WRITE or APPEND mode) by a previous call to the FILEOPEN function or by the OUTFILE command.
A text expression that contains data for output.
Note:When you specify NTEXT data to be written to a file, FILEPUT translates the text to the character set of the file. When that character set cannot represent all of the NTEXT characters, then data is lost.
Transfers a record read from infileunit by the FILENEXT function directly to the file specified by fileunit. When you specify this clause, you can write selected records to an output file while continuing to process data with the FILEVIEW command.
Note:When you use the keyword phrase FROM infileunit, you cannot mix binary and non-binary files. When either file was opened with the BINARY keyword, the other must be binary too.
(Default) Specifies that a newline character is appended to the output string and written to the file.
Specifies that no newline character is added to the text written to the file.
Example 9-124 Writing Data to a File Using FILEPUT
Following is an example of a program that writes a file of sales data for three months. The name of the file is the first argument. The following program excerpt opens the file, writes the lines of data to the file, then closes it. This program takes four arguments on the statement line after the program name: the file name of the input data and three month names.
DEFINE salesdata PROGRAM LD Write Sales Data To File. Args: File Name, 3 Month Names PROGRAM VARIABLE fil.unit INTEGER VARIABLE fil.text TEXT fil.unit = FILEOPEN(ARG(1) WRITE) LIMIT month TO &ARG(2) &ARG(3) &ARG(4) LIMIT product TO ALL LIMIT district TO ALL COMMAS = NO DECIMALS = 0 FOR district DO FOR product DO fil.text = product FOR month fil.text = JOINCHARS(fil.text ' ' - CONVERT(sales TEXT)) FILEPUT fil.unit fil.text DOEND FILEPUT fil.unit '' DOEND FILECLOSE fil.unit END
Example 9-125 Preprocessing Data
The following example uses a data file with the 1996 sales figures for the products sold in each district. Only the records that begin with "A" are important right now, but you want to save the rest of the records in a separate file for later processing. The following program excerpt uses FILENEXT to retrieve each record and FILEVIEW to find out what kind of record it is. A second FILEVIEW statement processes the record when it is type "A." When not, a FILEPUT statement writes it to the output file.
DEFINE rectype VARIABLE ID LD One Letter Code Identifying The Record Type VARIABLE in.unit INTEGER VARIABLE out.unit INTEGER . . . in.unit = FILEOPEN( GET(TEXT PROMPT 'Input Filename: ') READ) out.unit = FILEOPEN( GET(TEXT PROMPT 'Output Filename: ') - WRITE) WHILE FILENEXT(in.unit) DO FILEVIEW in.unit WIDTH 1 rectype IF rectype EQ 'A' THEN FILEVIEW COLUMN 2 WIDTH 8 district SPACE 2 - WIDTH 8 product ACROSS month year Yr96: saleS ELSE FILEPUT out.unit FROM in.unit DOEND FILECLOSE in.unit FILECLOSE out.unit . . . END


text:
Paraflexx ™- Disposables from Excalibur®. These dehydrator sheets are for single use applications. This makes clean up go much faster.
Disposable Paraflexx ™sheets from Excalibur are used for:
Making Raw food cookies, pizza, bars and crackers (e.g. flax crackers)
One pack includes 36 sheets 14" x 14"
Copyright © 2020 Natural Zing's Raw Food StorePowered by osCommerce


text:
Forgot your password? Enter the email address you signed up with and we will send you a link to create a new password.
Your password reset has been submitted to the address provided.
Colors could not be determined.
Not specified
Health care consulting in the field of emergency medicine
Business in Pensacola Beach, FL


text:
When you join Trend, you become part of a unique global and diverse family, working towards securing today's connected world. Our history of nearly 30 years is marked by an entrepreneurial spirit and vision that ensure our products are always on the cutting edge in the very competitive software security field.
Check out Cysiv, our advanced managed security services company, for available positions in R&D, data science, and the security operations center (SOC).
We embrace change, empower people, and encourage innovation in a connected world.. Our diversity and multicultural workforce are key contributing factors to our success across the globe. We like to have fun while taking our culture seriously. We believe in giving back to the global community and helping our neighbors in their time of need.
At Trend Micro, we're always looking for top talent and you will work with the best. You have direct access to advancement opportunities and the freedom to make an impact. We encourage thought leadership and advocate for internal opportunities… You drive your own development. You will be recognized for your passion to succeed and allowed to be the "The Best Part of Yourself."
With us, you have the opportunity to thrive in an industry that is dominating the news worldwide. At Trend we look for people who have the passion and energy to challenge old ways of thinking and to be an agent of change. We believe in working hard, thinking smart, and having fun in the process. And we believe in rewarding our people with competitive benefits.


text:
Okogie: A Profile In Discipleship, Lesson To Jet Pastors By Bayo Oluwasanmi.
For the Archbishop Emeritus of the Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos, His Eminence, Anthony Olubunmi Okogie, it's not easy taking a stand for what's right when every Nigerian Jet Pastor around him is running after what's wrong. It's not been fun either for Okogie swimming against the current of public opinion or walking against the wind of selfish pursuits.
Standing alone may not be popular especially in a reprobate nation like Nigeria, but it is always profitable for Okogie who chooses to walk with God. Working with people is not so difficult. All you need is unfailing patience, insight, stability, and tremendous experience. And Okogie is abundantly blessed with all the four qualities – and much more.
God could have chosen to do his work another way, but he didn't. He chose to use people. People like Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and of course Okogie. God asked Moses to demand of Pharaoh, "Let my people go!" And God asked Isaiah and Jeremiah to prophesy to a rebellious nation. Moses said "I won't." Isaiah said "Woe is me!" Jeremiah said, "I can't." And God asked Okogie to fight for the poor. Okogie said "Here I am God, send me!" Yet God supplied the strength and training to prepare each messenger to deliver his message.
In like manner, when God asked the Jet Pastors to side with poor and oppressed Nigerians and confront the oppressors with truth only the truth, they said "We'll rather begin our charity abroad in our executive jets than associate with suffering Nigerians." In unison, they answered, "We can't," "We won't," and "We will never!"
Though I have never listened to Okogie's sermon, that's what he did with his life – in the choices he made, the wisdom demonstrated, the priority that he gave to prayer, and the diligence he demonstrated toward the plight of the poor and voiceless Nigerians. I'm not a Catholic, but Cardinal Okogie's outspokenness against military dictators and tyrants of a democratic government almost persuaded me to become a Catholic.
Every successive government in Nigeria has received the full brunt of Okogie's assault. Like a diligent watchman, Okogie guards the Nigerian multitude of poor by warning the "Ogas at the top" of the impending judgement. He calls and calls, but no one is listening.
The career of Okogie, presents the life and ministry of "theology of liberation" as he preaches to his once mighty nation – Nigeria – a withering flower or a passing shadow. For nearly half a century, Okogie proclaims an unpopular message to the politicians as well as the Jet Pastors: do not pray that the poor be fed unless you are willing to provide the bread.
His sermons go unheeded by the headstrong leaders who do their best to silence Okogie by ignoring his cries and counsel. Opposed, hated, and once arrested, the heartbroken priest lives to see the cruel political leaders unleash all forms of barbarity on Nigerians.
Okogie, one of Nigeria's prophetic mouthpieces – what a privilege and a responsibility – for the 77-year old priest to peer into the troubled waters of 2015 and doles out unpalatable truth to President Goodluck Jonathan not to run in 2015.
In an interview published in The Citizen Online September 22 last year, Okogie focused on 2015 presidential elections. Headlined "Don't Run, Jonathan, Don't …" the interview is a deliciously satisfying encounter with the fiery priest. At 77, Okogie remains unbowed and unbought. He dispenses the truth with divine generosity. There is still fire in the belly of the lion.
Excerpts from his interview:
On President Jonathan and 2015: "If I were Jonathan I will not try it because the writing on the wall does not favour it. We have not even got to 2015. There is so much sycophancy and flattery. It is like telling Okogie now to go into politics, 'come, you are the kind of person we want,' you think I am stupid."
"Apart from the story that Jonathan made an agreement that he would do just one term, if it is true, do you think those who were there when he said 'just one term' are stupid."
On corruption: "It is quite true and corruption has been there, but not as strong as it is now. It is now a cankerworm. The only good Lord can help us out of it. But if we want to fight corruption, we should start from the top. The man at the top is thinking when I leave office, what happens to me and he want to build an empire for himself. How did it get it?"
"Why are so many people running into politics? 2015 is two years away; see how they are killing themselves. Who even knows who will get to 2015? What do you think they are looking for, money? Nothing else. They are not patriotic; they are not. All our political leaders, how many of them can beat their chests to say they are patriotic. It is just gimmick and pancake that they are doing."
On government's plan for the youth: "They often say the youths are the future leaders of tomorrow; it is not true, because where are the plans they have for the youths; how many of them are truly educating the youths or giving scholarships?"
"Look at the ongoing ASUU strike, then consider the amount of money the senators, president, and governors collect, compared to what others are getting in Europe. And look at our schools, the citadel of learning, where the youths are supposed to be trained for the future of the country, that they claim is for youths."
"Why are they not sending their own children to those kinds of schools? And those who do not have enough money to take their children to Europe take them to Ghana and even Benin Republic. This is the problem we all have. And this is why corruption is there."
On the political parties: "The parties are chop, I chop like Fela said; they are all the same. If we are all patriotic, you do not care where the person who rules comes from…" I am looking for job, but I cannot get the job simply because I am from a particular region. What is wrong with us? So, our political leaders should guide and guard their mouths, because some of the people listening to them are stark illiterates, they hear go they do not hear come."
On unholy alliance between Jet Pastors and oppressors of the ruling class: "It is pity that a good number of those who call themselves religious leaders today are not religious leaders; they only became religious leaders because they want to feed their tummy… And they feel they can take it up, read, and interpret it (Bible) to suit themselves, but no way. And this is why they are not keeping to their calling."
The iconic figure of the Roman Catholic Mission in Nigeria, Cardinal Anthony Olubunmi Okogie retired from the pastoral governance of the See of Lagos having reached the age limit of 75 years May 25, 2012.
Born June 6, 1936 in Lagos, to a royal family of Uromi in Edo State his father was Esan and his mother was Yoruba. He holds a licentiate in sacred theology and was ordained as a priest December 1, 1966. In 1973, he became the Archbishop of Lagos. From 1994 to 2000, he headed the Bishop's Conference of Nigeria.
Archbishop Okogie is the ultimate friend and companion of the voiceless, the marginalized, the helpless, and the poor. He's the people's priest. In my opinion, Cardinal Okogie possesses one of the most revolting pens in the history of clergy in Nigeria. He's a thorn on politicians and those of the clergy and other appendages who branded with reprobate scandals. He detests their pomp, their pride, and their luxuriousness.
Over the years, Cardinal Okogie has mystified both his critics and admirers of the courage that sustained his heart, and the peace that filled his soul, were reflected upon his countenance and struck the beholders. He once volunteered to die in place of a Muslim woman who had been condemned to death by stoning by an Islamic court for adultery.
A man of super intellect, he never hide his belief in an infallible Bible and the consequences of that belief in his conforming behavior to Biblical precepts. Okogie is a solid excellent Christian, a rare gem among his fellow clergy men both at home and abroad. A man of great power with great piety. He was one of the few cardinal electors in the 2005 papal conclave that selected Pope Benedict XVI.
With a cheerful countenance and more than stoical constancy, he confronts head on the workers of iniquities that continue to annihilate the very people they sworn to serve and protect.
In June 2005 when the police acting on the orders of the federal government, laid siege on 1004 Estate, Victoria Island, Lagos; Bishop Okogie condemned the action saying "If a soul is lost there (1004 Estate), I will not hesitate to call for civil disobedience and beckon the international community against this government."
The estate has been a subject of dispute between the federal government who had one time sold the property to the highest bidder and consequently asked its occupants who are mostly civil servants to vacate the building.
Like other helpless Nigerians, the Bishop felt like a prisoner in an outworn, obsolete political and theological system. Worried that religious politics would tear Nigeria apart, the revered Bishop warned that no country could remain one when "adherents of a particular religion are being singled out for persecution and denial of their fundamental rights as citizens of this country."
Addressing newly ordained priests August 2005, the Cardinal said many priests had failed in their responsibility because of their inability to match their belief with actions. In 2006 speaking on the spate of assassinations in the country, the eminent Bishop had this to say: "The assassination of the former justice minister Bola Ige, Dikibo Marshall, Funso Williams and now Ayo Daramola portends a very great danger for our country, because the killers have not been found and prosecuted to deter others…"
On safety and security, he warned that "A nation without security is not a nation… Such a nation slides gradually into jungle justice, barbarism, anarchy and chaos." "I am no prophet," continued the Cardinal, "but if care is not taken, the way we are going, there will be many more assassinations before the 2007 elections." Events that followed however, proved him to be a prophet!
A champion of public education, Cardinal Okogie berated the federal government when seven private universities were approved. He accused government of promoting private education at the expense of public education. "They are (government) subtly killing education in this country and making same costly for parents," said the Cardinal.
Never recoiling from torments of enemies of progress and accusers of the brethren, Cardinal Okogie never missed the opportunity to condemn the extravagant riches of secular and church office. In June 2007 in Abuja at the Ordination of Seven Missionaries of Society of St. Paul (MSP), the Bishop took a swipe at priests who enriched themselves in God's name. With biting sarcasm he lashed out at their hypocrisy:
"We need good Priests to carry out the work of God and lead Nigerians to Christ," he said. "Now you see men of God involving themselves in negative attitude, bad practices such as enriching themselves with material things under the pretence of working in the Lord's vineyard. Priests of God should bear good fruits that last," he warned.
He challenged Nigerians to hold their priests accountable. "You must correct the man of God when they are not getting it right. They're not saints, they are humans… Do not hesitate to call them back when they go astray."
Okogie, "Dare to be a Daniel" is more than an old gospel song. It is a timeless challenge for the ruling class, the Jet Pastors, and for each new generation of Nigerians, calling them to be God's "change agents" wherever he might send them or whatever position he might plant them. Okogie's confidence in God is nurtured by his communication with God. To Okogie, to trust God is to talk to God, and to talk to God is to trust him all the more.
No doubt, Cardinal Okogie has left a sting in the hearts and a gnawing worm in the consciences of the enemies of the people. The lesson from the Cardinal's life to the Jet Pastors is clear: A godly life is the best advertisement for Christianity.
We wish the people's priest a retirement full of happiness and fun.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of SaharaReporters


text:
I really don't like to talk politics. I don't see myself as a Republican or a Democrat. I see myself more of a person who stands on the side of what I think is the most fair for people.
Now when it comes to the government shutdown, it really is a disgrace. And I found it pretty amusing when a co-worker read on the BBC website a comment that basically said that while the Syrians are busy blowing each other up or killing one another even they still can manage to pay their bills.
Sickening. Totally silly, unnecessary and damaging to our country. And worst of all, embarrassing. We look like fools to the rest of the world.
And beyond all of the nonsense is the fact that the president and members of the House and Senate are still collecting their paychecks while people considered non-essential are told to go home. Parks are closed and in the irony of all ironies people traveling to Philadelphia can't even visit the Liberty Bell.
Why is it that the politicians can't see the reality here? The impasse we're observing is something they see in a totally different light. They see the politics – we see the lives of people disrupted with furloughs, no checks and on and on. So how safe do you feel getting into an airplane that maybe wasn't inspected or perhaps the air traffic controller is working overtime?
And all of this is connected to Obamacare or the official title – the Affordable Care Act?


text:
If you are still waiting for Swarmageddon to break out in your backyard, it is time to stop. The great cicada invasion is winding down for 2013, and it will not be back for another 17 years.
After dwelling in the ground since 1996, the insects began to emerge in May from North Carolina to the Hudson River Valley. In yards, forests and fields up and down the coast, they trilled by the billions, mated, laid their eggs in branches and left exoskeletons on bushes and walkways. Now their song is fading.
But while many people were kept up at night by the roar of this arthropod flash mob, others were left to wonder what all the fuss was about.
"People are disappointed, because the cicadas just aren't everywhere," said Chris M. Simon, a biologist at the University of Connecticut.
In New York City, cicadas besieged much of Staten Island, but other boroughs have been quiet. In Philadelphia, the local NBC station declared this spring to be "The Cicada Invasion That Wasn't." And while parts of the upper Hudson Valley crunch from the residue of carcasses, most of Westchester County has gone straight from a rainy spring to an incursion of mosquitoes and the emergence of fireflies.
In Guilford, Conn., you can drive around most of the town and not hear any cicadas. But along a stretch of County Road, the red-eyed insects buzz lazily from tree to tree, sometimes devoured in midflight by birds. Even now, there are still fresh, dime-size holes in the ground where new adults are emerging. Meanwhile, the cicadas that came out earlier this year are dying off, their bullet-shaped bodies littering forest trails and roads.
"It makes my 6 a.m. run a little grim," said Sarah Williams, a County Road resident, as she cupped a live cicada in her palm.
But the cicada season was neither a bust nor another example of media overhype. At least scientists do not think so. In fact, scientists agree that the current brood has had a good year.
Dr. Simon and other cicada experts spent the past few weeks traveling from patch to patch to create the first highly detailed maps of the cicadas' emergence. In their cars, they have used new GPS dataloggers to record the precise location of each population they encounter. They have built several Web sites for people to submit cicada sightings online. And they are analyzing the DNA of this year's cicadas to understand how they are related to one another.
This new research promises to give scientists a better understanding of why the cicadas emerge where they do. In future cycles, we may be able to know if their numbers are shrinking, as some researchers fear.
The data that cicada researchers have gathered this spring is vastly richer than what they had in earlier cycles. In the late 1800s, American entomologists created the first good maps of the cicadas' ranges. Using a Victorian form of crowdsourcing, they sent circulars to all the postmasters in the Eastern United States each year and recorded the responses.
It became clear that the so-called periodical cicadas live in widespread broods containing billions of insects. Each brood consists of scattered populations across the country, which all appear simultaneously on either a 13- or a 17-year cycle. This year's brood is known as Brood II.
Some people who were disappointed by this year's Brood II may have gotten it confused with other broods. Brood X, for example, emerged in 2004 in much of the Eastern United States as well — but nowhere did it overlap with Brood II. The next generation of Brood X cicadas will not reappear until 2021.
The early reports of Brood II revealed a range concentrated in the Eastern states, but included pockets of cicadas as far west as Michigan. In 1979, Dr. Simon gathered a fresh batch of data on Brood II by writing an article in Natural History. She asked readers to report cicada sightings to her. She was flooded with responses, mostly from the East Coast, which she combined with the earlier reports to create an updated map.
Scientists have used Dr. Simon's map to judge this year's performance.
"Brood II has been exuberant here in Pennsylvania," said Marten J. Edwards, a biologist at Muhlenberg College in Allentown who has been mapping the insects in the state. "I have been amazed by the extent of the range, which was not documented in the historical record."
Dr. Edwards has encountered most of that exuberance in thinly populated parts of the state, however. "It's very understandable that there is a sense of disappointment," Dr. Edwards said.
This year has also brought some surprises. People in Oklahoma saw Brood II cicadas for the first time — 800 miles west of the next closest emergence this year. Dr. Simon suspects that at some time in the past, some of the cicadas from a different brood in Oklahoma fell out of their regular cycle and emerged in the wrong year. They've been part of Brood II ever since.
"That's what keeps happening all through the United States," Dr. Simon said. "That's why you get the jigsaw pattern."
Another reason for the jigsaw pattern is that cicada populations sometimes disappear. Cold springs may kill off some of the insects. And humans have played a part, too.
By clearing trees for farming, early colonists made it harder for female cicadas to find places to lay their eggs, and for larvae to find tree roots to feed on.
In 1907, the entomologist Charles L. Marlatt was already mourning the cicada's decline. "To the lover of nature," he wrote, "there is something regrettable in this slow extermination of an insect which presents, as does the periodical Cicada, so much that is interesting and anomalous in its habits and life history."
Marlatt did not realize it at the time, but the Eastern forests were about to rebound. As they grew back, it is possible that some cicada broods grew as well. But by the 1970s, development had stopped the recovery. Now the forests are on the decline again, and cicadas may be becoming even more fragmented than before.
Dr. Simon can see the effect on the cicadas when she goes back to historical sites. In Port Jefferson Station on Long Island, for example, Dr. Simon went to a forest where she had collected cicadas before, only to find a Walmart in its place.
"A big asphalt parking lot instead of a forest would definitely put a damper on the population," she said.
Unfortunately, Dr. Simon and her colleagues do not have enough data to tell the full story of Brood II's expansions and fragmentations over the centuries. "It's too bad that back in the 1700s we didn't have GPS dataloggers," she said. "It would be nice to know what they looked like before the colonists cleared the trees. We're starting now too late."


text:
Disposal Plus uses TomTom to cut telephone and administration costs more than 10%
Disposal Plus General Manager Mark Gstell says his company's manual fleet management system made it hard to communicate changes to his drivers and got bogged down in paperwork. 'We had to type out the schedules for the drivers, which meant they were pretty much set in stone,' says Gstell. 'Then the drivers had to review the schedules and plug in the address for each job into the GPS devices in their trucks.'
One unexpected benefit of the TomTom system was that it saved Gstell time calculating payments for the International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA), which US states use to track fuel tax obligations for commercial vehicles doing business in their regions. 'Keeping track of the miles we drove in Connecticut and Massachusetts was difficult with our manual system, but now all I have to do is open the report automatically sent to me by the TomTom system. We even used these reports to document our compliance for an audit last year.'


text:
There will be a Calgary Stampede, OK? There has to be a Stampede, even if the horses wear hip waders, if the barrel racers paddle through the turns, if we're still bailing out the Saddledome.
The challenges are immense. Stampede CEO Vern Kimball says volunteers are already working, damage is being assessed, suppliers are being notified, plans are forming.
"We're going to do our very best to put on a great Stampede," Kimball says.
He will go no further. The Stampede's luck could hardly be worse — the grounds are one of the hardest hit areas of the city. Two weeks before the scheduled opening day, everything's flooded.
Could it happen? For the first time in the Stampede's 101-year history, might it be cancelled because of natural disaster?
It seems possible. With services severed all over the downtown, with threats to safety and integrity of buildings, the challenges might be too much.
But, gosh, I hope not.
This year's Stampede will have tremendous symbolic value. It can be the city's defiance of the odds, the sign that we'll pull ourselves up and get going again, the signal that nothing's going to stop Calgary.
I'll tell you this — whatever the Stampede manages to pull off, whether with a different parade route, truncated events, maybe even a shorter fair, Calgarians will swamp it.
Even the legions of Stampede avoiders who flee for those two weeks will stick around.
We can take the Stampede for granted around here. Sometimes we tend to leave it to the tourists.
But this year the Stampede will really need us and Calgarians, I'm sure, will respond with a great surge of affection.
This quality isn't just Calgarian. It's Albertan. It's Canadian.
In our cities, for all their enormous diversity, we are blessed with powerful social cohesion and strength.
Here in Calgary, amid the worst disaster in decades, has there been looting? Not that we've heard.
Is there gunfire, rioting, fighting in the packed supermarkets — the terrible things that happen in so many countries when crisis strikes?
Not at all. Rather, we hear of people helping out, waiting patiently to get things done, making the best of a dreadful flood and an uncertain future.
In a crisis, when people really need each other, we become almost dorky with civility. That breeds great power for healing and revival. We can pull off a Flood Stampede, even when reason would suggest the city should let it go, when many towns would just forget it.
We could also take an example from — forgive me — Edmonton.
The finest display of civic spirit I've ever seen came after the great tornado of July 31, 1987, ripped through east Edmonton, killing 27 people.
Even miles away from the funnel, terrible winds, rain and hail ravaged the city. The bitter weather lingered, hard, grey and cold, for days afterward. Edmonton seemed flattened in spirit.
But two days later, when Monday dawned with more wind and rain, people flocked to the popular annual Heritage festival in a riverside park.
Against all predictions of a small, sombre event, they swarmed in by the thousands — big families and small, pets and all, bundled up like skiers, determined to show that nothing could break the spirit of their town.
Mind you, the challenges of that festival are nothing compared to the ones facing the Stampede. But the spirit and the symbolism are the same.
This much is certain; if it proves humanly possible to hold this year's Stampede, Vern Kimball and his crew will get it done.
They know what Stampede 2013 means to the city.
Don Braid's column appears regularly in the Herald


text:
Thursday, December 31, 2009
What are you doing New Year's ...
... New Year's Eve?
In case you don't recognize the line, it's the title of an old romantic standard, playable tonight and really any night, when you feel like dancing cheek to cheek after a ritzy evening out on the city. My own favorite rendition of it is by jazz diva Nancy Wilson, one of this or any year's best.
So here we are, on New Year's Eve! The last night of 2009, the last night of a decade. Strange. I don't feel as old as I must be.
It's been quite a year, for me personally, for friends and family, for the crime fiction community, for the world. But I'm not a big resolution person--or I am, just not on New Year's. It's the perverse streak in my nature, the reason why I can love Frank Capra movies and write noir. I'm also a list maker--I need to be, to have half a chance of getting stuff done--but for this "best of" post I'm going to be a little loosey-goosey.
I don't get a chance to read a lot outside research materials--I can't really read fiction when I'm writing, because I'm afraid the style or an idea will rub off (your brain is sort of open when you write, taking in all kinds of stimuli, and more susceptible to strong voices). And I generally watch classic film or film noir when I get a rare chance to see a movie. So ... rather than talk about my colleagues' wonderful books--because when I do read fiction, I read my friends', and am invariably thrilled by it (i.e. TRIGGER CITY is awesome!)--I'll run down a short (cause face it, you've got somewhere you want to be at midnight) little list of ... stuff that happened. So long, 2009!! You've been a hell of a year. :)
Nicest Dream Come True: This grog. Literally. Criminal Minds was born in 2009, and I am honored and gladdened every week by the outstanding company I keep and the wonderful reception we receive. Outstanding writers and readers all--I am proud to call you friends. Thank you, everybody, for making this such a warm and supportive virtual home!!
Biggest Surprise of the Year: As Becky and Mysti can attest, the biggest surprise in my entire life--never mind the year--was winning the Bruce Alexander in Hawaii at Left Coast Crime. I still don't know what I said on the podium, and really only remember sitting down in the bar for a drink with a funny umbrella. :)
Best Idea Since Sliced Bread: Jen Forbus' Six Word Memoir. Jen is one of the true treasures of the community, and participating in the Memoir project--and reading all the contributions--was just incredible.
Official Drink of Bouchercon 09: The gimlet, of course. I had the honor of introducing friends and fabulous writers Tasha Alexander and Andrew Grant to their first lime gimlets, and we hope to continue the tradition at many a Bouchercon to come. And I still owe F. Paul Wilson a *real* Singapore Sling ... :)
Coolest Home Decor Advice: Jennie Bentley, who blogs over at Working Stiffs and Good Girls Kill for Money, writes a killer series for Berkeley that combines a great mystery with some amazing home refresh tips. The next one out is PLASTER AND POISON (March 2nd). Jennie's also got a terrific novel releasing under her real name, Bente Gallagher, called A CUTTHROAT BUSINESS. This is a can't miss, don't miss read for the summer.
Best Fast Food: The cupcake truck in Manhattan, which some of us discovered at Thrillerfest. They also park outside the Flatiron Building, where my publisher is located. They obviously understand the writerly need for cupcakes. :)
Greatest Advocate: My agent and agent team. I'm so lucky to be represented by the fabulous Kimberley Cameron.
The Miracle Department: I still feel like I have the bends from this year. CITY OF DRAGONS just sold in January of 2009, and now it's out in a month. We've been very blessed by the reception--my gut's been in a knot for the last two months worrying about reviews--and I still can't believe my good fortune in working with my editor and publishing dream team. They've been behind it every step of the way, and I'm very, very thankful to them and the crime fiction community for all the amazing and generous support.
Miracles Can Happen Twice: On top of this, my editor also bought the sequel to NOX DORMIENDA... so my first series now has a crack at the majors.
So, folks, here's to 2009. I know many people will be glad to see it go--it's been a convulsive year, with a lot of challenges next to a lot of change. When I think about what it has brought to my career, I still can't quite take it all in ... but I'll be counting my blessings as I head toward February 2nd, and the release day of CITY OF DRAGONS.
And chief amongst them? Family, of course ... and the ability to call myself a writer ... and to be here, among such talented folks and good friends. :) Happy New Year!!
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Favorite Book-ish Moments of '09
Favorites of 2009
Favorites lists can seem so arbitrary. No one can possibly read every book or see every movie that comes out in a year, so what you get is one person's subjective take on a subset of a whole.
That said, I'm going to be quite arbitrary myself and give you my list of favorite 2009 book-world moments that had nothing to do with my book - and one that did.
1. Let me kick off with meeting Graham Brown. And not just because, starting next week, he will be sharing the Wednesday spot here at Criminal Minds. Meeting Graham was part of a larger production in which I met a handful of my agent's mystery clients and we formed a sort of...what? What would you call it, exactly? It's not really a club, it's more like the mob scenes on SpongeBob where the BikiniBottom citizens are unified with a single purpose, at first, and then all hell breaks loose. And it's not very exclusive, either. We went around hoovering up random people at Thrillerfest and again at Bouchercon just because...well, Boyd's at the same agency, even if he has a different agent; and then there were the people whose bar couch we wanted to steal, plus that guy I thought I'd met before but it turned out I hadn't, and we made Julie and Brad hang out with us, and I saw Becky in Starbucks and - well, you get the idea.
I can't be sure, but I think this is how decades-long friendships get their start.
Jamie Freveletti, Graham Brown, me, and Boyd Morrison at Bouchercon
2. Meeting librarians. I'll admit it, I've been a carmudgeonly patron of the local library ever since it was taken over by middle schoolers during the hours I like to visit, but while touring and attending conferences I bumped into quite a few librarians who put their hearts and souls into their work. Nothing compares to being around people who care so much about books and reading.
3. Attending a Young Adult book event in San Francisco that was attended by dozens of scary-smart teenage readers. These girls (all girls at the event I was at) were well-read, savvy, insightful, opinionated, and unafraid to share their thoughts on what makes a book work for them. It took me about two seconds to figure out that I should shut my mouth and listen if I ever wanted to have anything to say to this audience.
4. Meeting R. L. Stine. I mean, c'mon!!! Who would've ever thought it! Oh and plus, he said "hi, I'm Bob!" I mean, freakin' "bob"!!!
5. Walking into the lobby of a real, honest, gen-u-ine New York publisher. Breathing the same air that the editors breathe. Um. Wow.
6. Potato chip chicken and macaroni and cheese at Grub in L.A. with two friends I never would have met if we weren't all book people.
Oh, I could go on and on and on, but the kids want fed, the dog wants taken out, and I still need to pack for my trip, so I'll close with the one book moment I loved best - when a pair of ladies of a certain age (that age being not less than sixty) approached me at a signing to tell me they adored A BAD DAY FOR SORRY's theme. Naturally I had to ask them which theme that might be, and guess what, it was "how ladies over fifty ought to have all the sex they can!"
Okay that's it for me, Over and out until 2010!!
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
And that was the year that was
I love The Twilight Zone. Don't you? Well-written allegory conveyed through the genre of suspense-filled fantasy. What could be better than that? So believe me when I say that Stephen King's Under the Dome is the best Twilight Zone episode that never was.
The premise, for those of you who have been scared away by the novel's 1100 page girth, is simple: town in Maine (natch) suddenly gets enclosed by the world's biggest snow globe, trapping everyone inside (and viciously killing an unlucky few). The town's First Selectman is a bit of a well-intentioned dummy, so the town's Second Selectman, car dealer Big Jim Rennie, has always been the real boss, and now Rennie takes advantage of the townspeople's fear to acquire more and more power for himself. He has those loyal to him deputized. Those disloyal to him begin to disappear. By the by, Rennie also is a born-again Evangelical Christian who uses his indoctrinated faith as a justification for his misdeeds.
Get the allegory yet?
Stephen King is firing on all cylinders with Under the Dome. His storytelling gifts have never been in question, but lately his work has suffered from a certain maudlin didacticism and from a sense of recycled ideas; combined these bugaboos have hampered even the best of his prose (yes, Lisey's Story, I'm talking to you). Here, though, he is back on top, fusing that wonderfully casual voice of his to a fast-paced, character-driven narrative.
For me, genre works best when it employs the conventions of fantasy to offer commentary on reality. By fantasy, I of course don't just mean sword-and-sorcery derring-do. I mean any work of imaginative fiction. A great many thrillers are, to me, works of fantasy. One of my favorite thrillers of this decade, Dennis Lehane's Shutter Island, is a prime example. When a story pushes the bounds of the everyday - what could be more exciting than that? Protect me from ordinary stories about ordinary people, please (unless they're written with extraordinary style a la Carver or Chekhov). Give me a town under a dome.
Is Under the Dome my favorite novel published in 2009? It's certainly up there. I also was quite fond of Steve Hely's How I Became a Famous Novelist, Marc Fitten's Valeria's Last Stand, Rebecca Cantrell's A Trace of Smoke,and Dan Chaon's Await Your Reply. Fantasies all. To be honest, much of my reading in 2009 was restricted to 18th-19th century American literature (for a class I taught at my college) so there are still quite a few novels which came out this year that are on my to-read list. And I look forward to reading them all, and hoping that each will provide me with that perfectly paradoxical combination of escapism and mimesis exemplified by the best episodes of The Twilight Zone.
Monday, December 28, 2009
The Year of the Book
Meredith Cole directed feature films and wrote screenplays before writing mysteries. She won the St. Martin's/Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery competition, and her first book, POSED FOR MURDER, was published by St. Martin's Minotaur in February 2009.
Her next book, DEAD IN THE WATER, will come out in May 2010. She teaches screenwriting and mystery writing, and will start the new year on the MWA Mid-Atlantic board.
2010? Already? The last thing I remember, it was 2009 and I was waiting for my first book, POSED FOR MURDER, to debut. And now I find the year is almost over?
I'm kidding, of course. I remember all the details of my book tour. I met so many wonderful new friends, librarians, booksellers, authors, bloggers and readers (some of them in more than one category) and had a terrific time. And 2010 promises to be just as exciting. My second book, DEAD IN THE WATER, also a Lydia McKenzie mystery, will be coming out in May 2010. I get to do the book tour all over again, but perhaps now I'll be a little bit wiser and more polished. I hope.
Anyway, when I was invited to guest for Jeannie, I was asked to name my favorite books and movies of 2009. When I drew a total blank, I consulted my list on Goodreads, and it all became to come back to me.
Last year, I blogged at www.thedebutanteball.com, and I was lucky to get to read all my fellow debutante books (which are all wonderful): THE LITTLE GIANT OF ABERDEEN COUNTY, by Tiffany Baker, REAL LIFE AND LIARS, by Kristina Riggle, FIRST COMES LOVE, THEN COMES MALARIA, by Eve Brown-Waite, and BAD GIRLS DON'T DIE, by Katie Alender. I was the only mystery author in the deb class of 2009, and I have to admit that I tried to convert them all to fans of the genre.
Here are just a few of the wonderful books I remember reading (for the first time) and enjoying in 2010: TRIGGER CITY, by Sean Chercover, THE LANGUAGE OF BEES, by Laurie King, THE EIGHT, by Katherine Neville, and THE UNLIKELY SPY by Daniel Silva. I know there were more, but I don't remember when I read them exactly. Every mystery convention I go to, I'm introduced to new writers and my TBR pile gets larger and larger. Bliss.
And movies? I saw quite a few kid movies with my son this year, but the one adult movie I insisted on seeing in the theater was JULIE AND JULIA. Not much of a mystery, but Meryl Streep was wonderful and I loved all the food.
So my goal for 2010 is to see more movies, read lots of books (and write down the titles), and write my third Lydia McKenzie book. And hopefully 2011 will take its own sweet time in getting here so I can get it all done.
Happy New Year everyone!
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Running Away to the Circus
Catnapped and Doggone
If I couldn't write … yikes. You have to imagine that in the event I could not compose witty repartee among my imaginary friends and their cohorts that I would exhibit a modicum of some other talent. There are numerous individuals, including many of the prodigious talents who share this blog with me, who could put down their pen, pick up a paintbrush or a spatula and continue to be called artistes. I am not one of them. So go with me on this. Pretend, or think in fictitious terms if you'd rather, that my abilities are not confined to the written page like a convicted serial murderer to Super-Max.
If my fairy Godmother grants me a talent wish and sprinkles me with magic dust, I would be an acrobat with Cirque du Soleil's Love in Las Vegas. Pretty specific there, aren't I? And limited. A special one night only performance of Gabi the Gumby in a spotlit special appearance. Not for me the decades of fame enjoyed by Frank Sinatra. No way would I sign up for Mikhail Baryshnikov's voluminous resume. Too visible, too much pressure, too many chances to toss my reputation away with a single misstep or off-key note. I just want one chance to twist gracefully from a blue silk ribbon hanging from a fifty foot ceiling. I want to arch and bend and twist my way delicately swinging over the heads and open mouths of an awed audience of otherwise jaded Vegaphiles. I dream of skipping through a silver hoop as my compatriots roller skate up vertical inclines to flip within a hair's breadth of my elevate perch.
In my imagination, I can origami my limbs like a boneless Chinese acrobat. I can fly through the air with the grace of a dove. I can swing with more style than a Zoot-suit club kid. My toes point, my back bends, my arms delicately slice through air pounding to classic Beatles refrains.
If this is non-fiction, I am taking solace in the fact that the music will drown my scream as I crash to the ground. The splat of my body will be greeted with a laugh of appreciation reserved for the slapstick humor of a French-based circus. My blood splatter will match the psychedelic splashes of color on the sets worthy of Maurice Sendak. Except I'm smart enough, and lack adequate insurance, to have ever left the ground in the first place.
Don't you hate it when reality gets in the way of your dreams? Gotta run. Off to my aerial class. So I'm not young. I'm not flexible. I'm ten years older than anyone in my class and while they spend their days as personal trainers and professional dancers, I ride a desk and scare lawyers with the threat of paper cuts. None of that matters. If this writing thing doesn't work out, I'll need a plan B.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Better to stick with what one knows
When I was thirteen, I built a boxy wooden lamp with a secret compartment in which I could hide pot, cigarettes, and bottle rockets from my parents. In hindsight, I realize that I should have made the hinges less conspicuous. Doing so would have made the lamp aesthetically more pleasing and saved me from a month-long grounding.
I tried again more than fifteen years later when my wife and I were living in a small
When we moved to a house in
Encouraged, I've now built floor-to-ceiling bookshelves out of pine planks, steel dowels, and the metal posts usually used for street signs. Again, a few visitors have raised their eyebrows, but my wife and I like the shelves and one of our friends asked me to build similar ones for him.
The moral of all this? There are three morals, really.
1. Encouragement can be a dangerous thing. My latest project includes fishing line and pieces of pumice. Again my wife is protesting.
2. Learn from your mistakes. I'll never be a master craftsman but my furniture now, for the most part, isn't dangerous to either myself or others.
3. Always hide the hinges.
3. Always hide the hinges.
Friday, December 25, 2009
My Year of Living Painfully . . .
By Shane Gericke
What would I do if I couldn't write? I mean, besides jump off a cliff?
I'd turn back to what I did in the Nineties, when forced to take a year off from writing to recover from crippling injuries to my neck and shoulder:
I started writing professionally when Nixon was in office. Back then, ergonomics was Latin for, I don't know, Aw, Ya Gotta Owie? Get Back to Work, You Loser or something. All I know is that I worked a whole lot of hours in my quest for glory in the newspaper racket I'd adored since I was a kid, and cutting back cause my neck ached and arms twitched wasn't part of the plan.
I know, I know: Is "idiot" one T or two?
By 1993, all those years of sitting on straight-backed kitchen chairs whilst juggling computer keyboards, typewriters, layout sheets, pica poles, proportion wheels, and telephones stuffed between ear and shoulder (for taking dictation from field reporters) finally caught up with me: the muscles and tendons of my neck, shoulders and upper back locked up like concrete. It was so awful my head flopped down onto my left shoulder and stayed there. My local orthopedic doctor said the white suburban version of "Ay, carumba!!!" and hustled me off to the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago to repair what threatened to cripple me permanently.
Long story short, they were miracle workers, those Rehab specialists, and I freely did sing their mighty praises, even while they inflicted pain, though of the Happy Shiny Therapeutic variety, so everyone proclaimed it All Right. Problem was, it also meant I couldn't touch a keyboard for six months to a year. It would take that long to coax those muscles and tendons from their cast-iron rigidness to their normal state of grace.
Talk about pain.
Most everything else was permitted, though. So I read a lot. I worked around the house. Attended rehab. Chatted with neighbors. Did the laundry. Discovered socks and undies do procreate in the hamper . . .
I was bored out of my skull. I missed not being able to create stuff.
So I picked up a brush and a set of watercolors and began to paint. The creative juices began to flow, and I turned out some decent work. (Along with a lot of crap. Momumental crap. Crap to choke the universe. But hey, it was creative crap, so like the pain, it was All Right.
More important, it was fun, and engaged my mind completely.
I came by painting honestly. My maternal grandmother worked with oils and acrylics. My father worked in pencil. My mother sang with a barbershop chorus, and my paternal grandmother told tall tales whose endings changed with every retelling. All that creativity wormed its way into me, and came out in the forms of writing and painting. I couldn't do one, so I went with the other. I eventually got good enough to sell a few paintings in a halfway decent art gallery, but that wasn't the point. I was doing it to keep my head in the game till I got back to my real love:
Painting with words.
And because you can read them now, I guess I succeeded.
Thanks, Doc.
Accompanying this essay are a few of the paintings I did during my Year of Living Painfully. The horses and riders remain my favorite. The boxers were a political statement: look closely, you'll see the pale white guys in the audience urging the non-white boxers to beat each other bloody for their entertainment. Sailing explains itself, the one on the mountaintop was inspired by a trip to Mexico, and the kite was painted on a dank dark day in October--hence the moodiness.
Happy holidays to you and your loved ones everywhere!
Sincerely, Shane Gericke
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Ready for my close up ...
By Kelli
"If you couldn't write, what would your creative outlet be?"
Even when I was little, I liked to pretend to be other people. When I was six, it was Samantha on Bewitched -- minus the irritating, whiny husband, of course. Or Anne Marie, on That Girl. And sometimes Batman (never Robin).
I liked strong, independent characters, despite being inundated with images of grumpy boyfriends and husbands [did you ever notice how many 60s sitcoms featured yelling spouses and bfs? There's a thesis in there about the rise of feminism, but I'm not going to write it. ;). The most loving husband and wife relationship was on the Addams Family--which I adored, though I never particularly wanted to be Morticia ... but I digress. ;)]
Anyway, I never outgrew this habit--I just channeled it into acting when I was a little older, and eventually got a chance to trod the boards as a Drama major at my first university. A little Shakespeare, a little Euripides. It might not exactly surprise you to learn that one of my most enjoyable comedic roles was as a courtesan in The Comedy of Errors.
I fell away from acting--despite good notices and all that--because the life style was just too emotionally hard on me. But in my heart of hearts, I'm still an actress -- one reason I actually LIKE reading at signings is it gives me a chance to act. :)
So ... in a perfect world, if I couldn't write I'd still be doing that. On stage, as opposed to film. I love Sunset Boulevard--one of my favorite movies--but it's too truthful about how temporal the film industry is ... and how merciless. So, like Rebecca, I'd also like to be a film director, and actually toyed with film as a major after Drama.
In fact, one of my youthful goals was to film Ayn Rand's book We, the Living--her first book and probably her most readable--it's a real page-turner. I knew the shots I wanted to use, I could see the opening credits unfold ... and I still think it would make a great movie. [It was filmed in Italy under Mussolini, with Alida Valli as the protagonist Kira--though it was interpreted as hostile to the regime and therefore banned.]
Eventually I began to write screenplays (a useful exercise for any writer, I think) ... hoping they'd sell and someone would offer me the chance to direct, of course. :)
Of course, the cool thing is that as a writer, I get to both act AND direct ... because I write "in character" while a part of my brain watches the performance. OK, so I'm a Gemini, I can legitimately operate more than one personality at a time. But really--writing is the best of both worlds. Acting, directing and a carefully researched and composed experience that you hope you'll be lucky enough to share with readers. Writing CITY OF DRAGONS was remarkably like filming a movie, in a lot of ways.
And I've still got my fingers crossed for that directing chance. ;)
I also just wanted to take the opportunity to say Happy Holidays and a big, big thank you to my fellow CMS and all the readers who have made our blog such a joy to hang out in. :) Thank you for reading us, following us, and for your always fascinating comments and observations!! We've got a lot in store for 2010 ... and we hope you'll be on the journey with us. :) The warmest of holiday wishes to you!!
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
There IS no "couldn't write"
If you couldn't write, what would your creative outlet be?
For me, there is no "couldn't write."
Whenever I go a few days without writing, I start to seize up, like a tractor with sugar in the tank. None of my thoughts make sense to me. It's as though they have to go through the filter of the fiction process to sort themselves out.
By glorious coincidence, exactly two years ago I wrote the following post. That very day I wrote the first few pages of A BAD DAY FOR SORRY.
I hate being between books. It's an itchy feeling, a stretch of time as friendly to the growth of doubts and insecurities as a Petri dish to microscopic critters.
After being in this spot a few times, I know better than to quit writing completely. I try to push a few short stories around the way kids push lima beans around on a plate, not doing anything productive with them, really, but using the exercise as a way to delay an unpleasant task.
(Short stories produced during the hiatus reflect my unquiet state of mind. They tend to be weighed down by inelegant phrasing and lopsided pace and a general refusal to lay flat and square, even after I've applied every revising trick I know.)
I do think it's necessary to take a break between projects, even though I know there are writers who don't – who plow straight from The End into Page One. Not my place (or anyone's) to judge another writer's process, but this just strikes me as exceeding reckless, a taunt to the muses.
On the other hand, the last two times I've been here, I haven't been able to last through my planned break.
I meant to wait until the new year. Confession: couldn't do it. Got back on the bike a couple days ago. Off and running again.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Lights, Camera, Action!
If you couldn't write, what would your creative outlet be?
by Rebecca Cantrell
As a writer, my business is telling stories with words. Taking that away would be very difficult for me. Assuming I had to do something else, I would tell stories with pictures and sounds. I would be a film director. I haven't the skills or training, so no one in the Director's Guild needs to worry, but if I'm dreaming, I might as well dream big.
Writers, by and large, labor alone. Directors have to assemble a team and call on the strengths of others. I love hiding in my little cave and writing (I know, Kelli, I probably love it too much), but back in my Silicon Valley days I also enjoyed working with a team of talented people who had a shared vision. Software development is not that different from directing: get the best people you can on board, motivate with the story you want to tell, and then help each team member to excel. Maybe I could even hire that famous film editor, CJ Lyons.
I envy the control that directors have over viewers. They control your gaze in a way that writers don't. Readers can always skim over words, turn the page if they don't like. But in a theater, the director can make you look. Viewers can walk out of the theater, but I'll wager that many more readers skim than movie goers leave in the middle. Director control the pace at which the story unfolds. They can make you look at a muddy shoe until they're sure you've seen it or cut to an eye and then away so quickly that you're not even sure what you saw. For the duration of the film, they own your eyes.
Directors can also delegate things that writers can't. If I have Hannah walk into a 1931 gay bar in Berlin, I have to research that bar, find pictures, maybe some eyewitness accounts. As a director, I can just hire a set designer and trust that they will get it right (I only hire the best, remember?).
But in the end, I love the research I do for my books too much to want to let it go. I love building the entire world of the story all by myself, knowing that each word, for better or worse, is the word that I chose. I love imagining that every reader is seeing a slightly different vision of my book.
All in all, I'd better hope that I get to keep writing. But I sure wouldn't mind having a personal assistant!
Monday, December 21, 2009
Silver Screen Dreams
Finally, an easy question! If I couldn't write, I would do the same kind of storytelling as what goes on inside my head and during my dreams. I would become a film editor.
Most people don't notice the editing that goes on in movies, but I do. A few seconds lingering too long at the end of a scene, a too-quick cut-a-way from a character's reaction, a jumbled montage sequence….they can all throw me out of a movie just as easily as bad acting or a poorly written script can.
Editing can make or break a movie. In fact 2/3 of the Best Picture Oscars have also won Best Editing Oscars as well. And every film nominated for Best Picture in the last thirty years has also been nominated for Best Editing.
What would Slumdog Millionaire have been without Chris Dickens' brilliant editing? Or The Sixth Sense's Andrew Mondshein, who lost out on an Oscar in 1999 to Zach Staenberg and The Matrix.
Think of how different your favorite movies might be if not for a judicious editor with a strong sense of story-telling and dramatic tension. Film editors must be as talented "vision-smiths" as literary editors are word-smiths, bringing the director and author's dream come to life.
So, what movie would you most like to re-edit? Or to have been on the set during the making of, sharing your vision with the director?
And here's my holiday greeting to everyone--edited not by me, but by the computers at Animoto (but they did a pretty nice job, didn't they?):
Thanks for reading!
About CJ:
As a pediatric ER doctor, CJ Lyons has lived the life she writes about in her cutting edge suspense novels. Her debut, LIFELINES (Berkley, March 2008), became a National Bestseller and Publishers Weekly proclaimed it a "breathtakingly fast-paced medical thriller."
The second in the series, WARNING SIGNS, was released January, 2009 and the third, URGENT CARE, October, 2009. Contact her at http://www.cjlyons.net
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Researching Rome--Someone's Gotta Do It!
Robin Burcell, an FBI-trained forensic artist, has worked as a police officer, detective and hostage negotiator. THE BONE CHAMBER is her latest international thriller about an FBI forensic artist. Her first thriller, FACE OF A KILLER, received a starred review from Library Journal. She is the author of four previous novels. View the video trailer at her website at: www.robinburcell.com/ Or on Facebook and Twitter.
It's my last day on Criminal Minds. I hope you enjoy my final post!
Gabriella writes:
"How do you research the foreign police procedures and cultural aspects of your thrillers? Did you get to go to Rome? Do you need an assistant?"
I did my research the old fashioned way. Made it up. Just kidding! I was fortunate in that my mother lived in and taught school in Rome for a number of years and spoke fairly fluent Italian. Also I used the library and the internet. And just to make sure I had it right, I did get to go to Rome. Alas, no assistant needed. I took my mother, who was able to translate for me, and took me on the grand tour. (I think I had my picture taken with just about every carabinieri officer I saw! Loved their uniforms.) In fact we spent three weeks in Europe and traveled to every place in the book, just to make sure I had all the details right. And because of my mother's archeological background, I had the inside scoop on the ancient Roman artifacts and locales that took place in the book. Since she'd lived there for so long, she could direct me on many of the cultural aspects.
The funny thing about actually being there was that I learned first hand that some scenes I had written would not work! It's amazing how very different a photo on the internet, or even a film clip is, from the actual locale. Case in point. A scene in Naples, in which my bad guy drove up in a limo, and my good guys had to save the day (keeping it vague, so as not to create any spoilers). Once in Naples it became quickly apparent that a limo was not going to fit in the very narrow streets of the area in which I had set the scene.
By the time I got home, I had a very clear idea on what needed to be reworked.
I took about a gazillion photos. (You have to love digital cameras and high capacity memory cards!!! I'll try to restrain myself from showing them all! But if you'd like to see a quick view set to the book, do look at my video trailer for THE BONE CHAMBER--a little over a minute--painless, I promise!) My goal was to create a photo montage of the actual locations in the book, to give the reader a clear idea of where the story takes place. (This "tour" will eventually be on my website.) I made up a couple names for real locations, such as the Columbarium of the Nile Frescoes, where one of the clues was found, and the name of the hotel where Sydney stays, but they were based on real locations. Some of them I wasn't able to get into (the underground columbaria, ancient burial sites—of which I am relying on my mother's photos from when she researched them back in her archeological days), but others are very real locations (such as the Capuchin Crypt—alas, which wouldn't allow photos inside where all the bones are kept! But do check out their website, and the photos on the Wikepedia page—amazing).
And of course it was fun to try the food. One of my mother's favorite restaurants is just up the street from my fictional Columbarium of the Nile Frescoes (and up the street from a very real columbarium). The restaurant, Hostaria Antica Roma, is actually set in the ruins of some columbaria. We ate lunch there, and it became very clear that I had to set a scene in the book at that restaurant. The food was great. And the host, Paolo Magnanimi is now a friend. I can't wait to go back.
If you could research any country for a book, which one would it be?


text:
Hot Teams Meet
Getting swept in Atlanta apparently was a wake-up call for Charlie's troops. Since then, they are 12-1, including 3-game series sweeps of the Mets, Pirates and Marlins.
Eight-game winning streak is on the line tonight against the Cubs at home. Cubs are second hottest NL team, winning their last four.
Remember, Thursday's day off on the original schedule has been filled with a 7:05 game against the Padres, the result of a rain out in April. Medford Franks dollar dog night promotion in July!
Seven-game homestand looks like seven more sellouts. But, 500 standing room only tickets will go on sale prior to each game.
Unique Doubleheader
Maje McDonnell, who has been a batting practice pitcher, coach, scout, ticket seller, tour guide, Phantasy Camp instructor and goodwill ambassador in his 56 years with the Phillies, is doing a double-header, so to speak tonight.
He's retiring by throwing out the first ball, a day in which he is also celebrating his 89th birthday. Joining Maje, his family and friends at the game are Phillies Alumni Robin Roberts, Curt Simmons, Bobby Shantz and Bobby Wine.
Maje first wore # 40 in 1947 as a batting practice pitcher for the Phillies.
He fell in love with the Phillies as a 7-year-old kid when he saw them play at Baker Bowl as part of a knot-hole program. Even though he's on the door step of being 90 years old, he's always been a kid at heart. That's what makes him so special.
Unsung Hero
There are plenty of others with the Phillies who are unsung heroes such as Maje. Another one is Hank King, our long-time advance scout who's now a pro scout. He's in his 33rd year with the Phillies, a "baby" compared to Maje.
Phillies Insider is also on twitter as barons63.
1 Comment
Maje is awesome…my husband talks about him all the time; Maje was there when he tried out for the club (like a million years ago…LOL) and I have heard all about what a nice man he is and how much he loves the game. Happy Birthday Maje!


text:
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (AP) — Police in suburban Detroit say a man who opened fire in a police station was killed in a shootout with officers.
Southfield police Lt. Nick Loussia says one officer was injured. He's in stable condition with a single gunshot wound. He's a 25-year department veteran.
Loussia says a 64-year-old Southfield man entered police headquarters Sunday afternoon, pointed a handgun at an officer behind protective glass and pulled the trigger.
The gun didn't fire, and the officer ordered him to drop the gun. Loussia says the gunman refused.
Loussia says other officers then ordered the suspect to drop the gun, and he pointed it at them. The lieutenant says the officers exchanged shots with the man, hitting him several times.
Police haven't released the names of the suspect or officer.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.


text:
Easy Care Polo Shirts
Sort By:
Promotional Easy Care Wrinkle Resistant Shirts
Promotional easy care wrinkle resistant shirts are the perfect solution for outfitting your employees in branded apparel while making sure they maintain a clean, professional appearance. Your employees are like personal representations of your brand and you should ensure that they represent it in a positive manner. With promotional easy care wrinkle resistant shirts you will know that they will always look their best when embodying your brand – your employees will surely be happy too knowing they do not need to iron their clothing for work! Additionally, these polo shirts are manufactured in a special way to make sure they maintain their professional appearance. Some of the sport shirts have an anti-curl collar that resists pilling, fading, wrinkling and shrinking. Some promotional easy care wrinkle resistant shirts have even been proven in independent lab tests to maintain their appearance after up to 20 washes!
The Road to Promotional Easy Care Wrinkle Resistant Shirts
America was first introduced to the fabric polyester in the 1950s and it soon became a very popular material for clothing because it never wrinkles and washes well. With that convenience, polyester clothing flourished throughout the 1960s and the 1970s. These days however, especially with the onset of the eco-movement, people are tending to opt for natural materials instead, yet still want the convenience of the wrinkle-free characteristics of polyester. This led to the development of promotional easy care wrinkle resistant shirts like the ones we see today. Made of 100% cotton or a cotton/ poly blend, these promotional easy care wrinkle resistant shirts are more lightweight than their polyester counterparts and better for the environment, but still maintain that wrinkle-free professional appearance throughout the whole day. Additionally, many of these shirts are also stain-resistant so that they repel liquids and thus extend the life of the fabric while still retaining the fabric's natural softness. This can be especially important for those companies whose workers are in situations that are prone to spills such as the restaurant or catering industries. This can even help your company to save money if you are responsible for cleaning your employees' apparel because these shirts will clean nicely in a normal washing machine and do not need to be sent to a professional dry cleaning company.
A Wide Selection of Promotional Easy Care Wrinkle Resistant Shirts
There are tons of different promotional easy care wrinkle resistant shirts on the market today now that the technology for manufacturing them has continued to improve. Purchasers can choose from a variety of men's styles, sizes and colors that also have coordinating ladies shirts with gently contoured silhouettes. They even come in youth sizes too. There are also options of different sleeve lengths and those with striped trims on the collar and cuff. And of course companies can customize their promotional easy care wrinkle resistant shirts to their liking by embroidering their company name, logo, and even the wearer's name on the sleeves, the front, or the back.


text:
When it comes to leasing commercial or retail property today, the selection of tenant will be fundamental to the quality of the outcome for the landlord. This says that not all tenants will do or be acceptable when it comes to leasing vacant commercial premises.
So the commercial real estate agent has to qualify and understand the tenant that is enquiring on the vacant property before matters proceed. Some questions need to be asked to get the correct match of property.
When fewer properties are selling, the lease activity tends to be higher. Successful businesses still need to operate from quality commercial or retail premises. This is an opportunity for commercial property agents that specialise in commercial leasing.
So let's go back to commercial property leasing and the elements that should be considered when qualifying tenants. Here are some key factors to consider before you start:
1. Understand the capabilities of the property when it comes to tenant occupancy. Things to know will include services, amenities, and size of tenancy, improvements, fitout design, and availability, term of lease, options, rental requirements and type, and landlord plans for the property. The permitted use or legal use of the property should be understood as part of this process.
2. Get a full brief from the landlord as to the type of lease that they will do for the premises. A lease can be varied and negotiated, but you have to have the landlord's base requirements before you start. Ask the landlord about rent levels, lease terms, option periods, preferred tenant, renovation and maintenance plans for the property. These facts should be in parity to the comparable properties in the local area that are also on the market to lease at the moment.
To qualify the tenant you can take the following approach:
- Find out where the tenant has come from and if they are moving from another property. It is likely that the timing of the move will have impact on your negotiations and inspections.
- What does the tenant know about rent and properties in the local area? Have they looked at anything else in the area and if so what? It is best to know what you are up against early in the inspection process.
- Has the tenant been looking at other property with other agents and are negotiations underway elsewhere on any 'short-listed' property now? This will have an impact on your discussions and inspections with them.
- What levels of rent and lease term does the tenant have in mind? Make sure you find out about the extras of lease occupancy such as outgoings payments, and consumables including electricity, gas, water, and communications.
- Will the tenant require a long lease term and or an option period for a further term? This may not always suit the landlord.
- The numbers of tenant staff and the type of business will have impact on the improvements and fitout in the property. Ask questions about things such as car parking, loading and deliveries, office configurations, hours of operation, security, access, customers to the property, and quality of fitout.
So you can do a lot with a tenant before you take them to a property. Importantly this information is captured into your database. As a general rule do not give out any property information until the tenant has told you everything that you need first.
If a tenant is also or has been dealing with another agent, be very careful to check that they have not seen any of your listed properties with other agents earlier.


text:
The Nute Pate
This pâté is my daily staple—it's delicious, versatile, and filling. Not Tuna Pâté is the perfect addition to turn a salad into a main dish. You may wish to make a larger batch, since it will keep for five days.
1/2 cup soaked sunflower seeds
1/4 cup soaked almonds (or Walnuts)
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons minced celery
1 tablespoon minced onion
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
( you can vary the flavors with different spices/herbs)
measuring cups, measuring spoons, citrus juicer or reamer, food processor, rubber spatula, small bowl
cutting board, chef's knife, 8-inch
Put the sunflower seeds, almonds, water, lemon juice, and salt in a food processor fitted with the S blade and process into a paste, stopping occasionally to scrape down the work bowl with a rubber spatula. Transfer to a small bowl and stir in the celery, onion, and parsley until well combined. Stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator, Not Tuna Pâté will keep for 5 days.
Per serving: calories: 227, protein: 8 g, fat: 20 g, carbohydrate: 9 g, fiber: 4 g, sodium: 275 mg
Not Salmon Pâté: Add 1/4 cup of shredded carrot to the food processor along with the sunflower seeds, almonds, water, lemon juice, and salt. Replace the parsley with 1 tablespoon of minced fresh dill or 1 teaspoon of dried dill weed.