Following the excitement of the season premiere's team challenge -- and I'm referring more to Joe's five-star nuttery than the "Star Wars" task -- last night's episode gave us a better sense of the S3 competitors' individual skill levels. Seems to me that, on the whole, we have a bunch of very good technicians, but the creativity seems to be lacking.
The task was to create "Pirates of the Caribbean"-style characters that had been consumed by the sea; each contestant was assigned a pirate-related item (kelp, shells) that had to be incorporated into the looks. The good news is that there are at least three or four VERY skilled members of this group, who are already performing at higher levels than most of what we saw during Season 2 of this show. In fact, most of the creations that fell into the middle of the pack had at least some redeeming qualities about them.
Before we get into the individual looks, some notes on a few of the contestants. Rod, who won the "Star Wars" challenge (although it seemed from my couch that his partner on the task, Roy, did the lion's share of the work on their ambitious project), started off the second episode with his arm in a brace. He apparently worked so hard, so fast during the first challenge that he inflamed the tendons in his hand/arm. He knows that by continuing on the show his injury could possibly get worse, but he refuses to quit. I think I find that admirable, but I worry about the long-term health consequences for the guy.
Tommy, the floppy-haired kid who get bulldozed by crazy Joe last week, did OK on his first solo challenge. I was hoping he would turn out something amazing and shock everybody, and his kelp creation was solid. But he made a couple of rookie mistakes (the wig, which was central to his look, didn't fit properly). He's likable, but probably too green for this show.
But not as green as Alana, who is already grating on my last nerve. Listen, Alana is cute, seems sweet, and has a good story -- she's the girlfriend of S2 runner-up Ian. But she is SUCH a spaz in the workroom that it's impossible to root for her. Two episodes in a row she was running around the studio like a crazy person, injuring herself on the equipment, and freaking out about not having time or knowing what she was doing. In both challenges she has required help from other designers to get her works finished (I think she had three other contestants helping her with her molds this time, and that's not counting the advice she was constantly seeking from her competitors), and she just BARELY got her make-ups ready in time. Thing is, she is talented. She's creative and can do the work. She just has such poor time- and stress-management skills that I find her exhausting to watch. Girl. Calm down. Focus. Do your work. Enough with the histrionics.
At judging, the top looks were easy to pick out from the rest of the lot. Roy's dagger pirate had a spectacular color palette -- a purple base with an elaborate sea urchin-festooned headpiece -- and he worked in his daggers in a cool way, by having the knives embedded in the pirate's ribcage. Laura's shell creation was a real show-stopper, with a headpiece that totally changed the shape of her model -- it was the only one that didn't look baseline human -- and the make-up even "breathed" with the monster. Very cool stuff.
But the win, I think correctly, went to Sarah's sea-urchin-infected sea wench, whose skin was cracked and bursting forth with urchin spines and yellow goo. The whole look was sick, and Sarah's costuming background was put to great use. Sarah also understands the importance of presentation. She waited for the judges to take a closer look before having her model activate the ooze trick, which, in the words of head judge Glenn Hetrick, pushed her over the top. Sarah's got the goods -- as do Roy and Laura -- and I hope they can sustain this level of work throughout the season.
The Bottom 3 were markedly less impressive, with CC's uninspired barnacle dude, Eric's amateurish spyglass guy, and Jason's completely baffling jewel pirate getting drubbed by the judges. CC seemed lost from the very beginning of the episode -- I wondered if she didn't know what a barnacle was -- and her make-up was boring, too symmetrical, and oddly colored. Eric did an OK job with the majority of his look, but the most important part -- a spyglass that he had built into his pirate's eye -- looked like a joke, with a really hokey paint job. It's something you might see in a high-schooler's homemade horror video. He also did not take criticism well, letting out a string of obscenities after the evaluation. If the producers are hoping for a brother vs. brother finale they're going to have to string these guys along, because I don't think either of the twins has what it takes at this point.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
The pirate life for me
Following the excitement of the season premiere's team challenge -- and I'm referring more to Joe's five-star nuttery than the "Star Wars" task -- last night's episode gave us a better sense of the S3 competitors' individual skill levels. Seems to me that, on the whole, we have a bunch of very good technicians, but the creativity seems to be lacking.
The task was to create "Pirates of the Caribbean"-style characters that had been consumed by the sea; each contestant was assigned a pirate-related item (kelp, shells) that had to be incorporated into the looks. The good news is that there are at least three or four VERY skilled members of this group, who are already performing at higher levels than most of what we saw during Season 2 of this show. In fact, most of the creations that fell into the middle of the pack had at least some redeeming qualities about them.
Before we get into the individual looks, some notes on a few of the contestants. Rod, who won the "Star Wars" challenge (although it seemed from my couch that his partner on the task, Roy, did the lion's share of the work on their ambitious project), started off the second episode with his arm in a brace. He apparently worked so hard, so fast during the first challenge that he inflamed the tendons in his hand/arm. He knows that by continuing on the show his injury could possibly get worse, but he refuses to quit. I think I find that admirable, but I worry about the long-term health consequences for the guy.
Tommy, the floppy-haired kid who get bulldozed by crazy Joe last week, did OK on his first solo challenge. I was hoping he would turn out something amazing and shock everybody, and his kelp creation was solid. But he made a couple of rookie mistakes (the wig, which was central to his look, didn't fit properly). He's likable, but probably too green for this show.
But not as green as Alana, who is already grating on my last nerve. Listen, Alana is cute, seems sweet, and has a good story -- she's the girlfriend of S2 runner-up Ian. But she is SUCH a spaz in the workroom that it's impossible to root for her. Two episodes in a row she was running around the studio like a crazy person, injuring herself on the equipment, and freaking out about not having time or knowing what she was doing. In both challenges she has required help from other designers to get her works finished (I think she had three other contestants helping her with her molds this time, and that's not counting the advice she was constantly seeking from her competitors), and she just BARELY got her make-ups ready in time. Thing is, she is talented. She's creative and can do the work. She just has such poor time- and stress-management skills that I find her exhausting to watch. Girl. Calm down. Focus. Do your work. Enough with the histrionics.
At judging, the top looks were easy to pick out from the rest of the lot. Roy's dagger pirate had a spectacular color palette -- a purple base with an elaborate sea urchin-festooned headpiece -- and he worked in his daggers in a cool way, by having the knives embedded in the pirate's ribcage. Laura's shell creation was a real show-stopper, with a headpiece that totally changed the shape of her model -- it was the only one that didn't look baseline human -- and the make-up even "breathed" with the monster. Very cool stuff.
But the win, I think correctly, went to Sarah's sea-urchin-infected sea wench, whose skin was cracked and bursting forth with urchin spines and yellow goo. The whole look was sick, and Sarah's costuming background was put to great use. Sarah also understands the importance of presentation. She waited for the judges to take a closer look before having her model activate the ooze trick, which, in the words of head judge Glenn Hetrick, pushed her over the top. Sarah's got the goods -- as do Roy and Laura -- and I hope they can sustain this level of work throughout the season.
The Bottom 3 were markedly less impressive, with CC's uninspired barnacle dude, Eric's amateurish spyglass guy, and Jason's completely baffling jewel pirate getting drubbed by the judges. CC seemed lost from the very beginning of the episode -- I wondered if she didn't know what a barnacle was -- and her make-up was boring, too symmetrical, and oddly colored. Eric did an OK job with the majority of his look, but the most important part -- a spyglass that he had built into his pirate's eye -- looked like a joke, with a really hokey paint job. It's something you might see in a high-schooler's homemade horror video. He also did not take criticism well, letting out a string of obscenities after the evaluation. If the producers are hoping for a brother vs. brother finale they're going to have to string these guys along, because I don't think either of the twins has what it takes at this point.
The task was to create "Pirates of the Caribbean"-style characters that had been consumed by the sea; each contestant was assigned a pirate-related item (kelp, shells) that had to be incorporated into the looks. The good news is that there are at least three or four VERY skilled members of this group, who are already performing at higher levels than most of what we saw during Season 2 of this show. In fact, most of the creations that fell into the middle of the pack had at least some redeeming qualities about them.
Before we get into the individual looks, some notes on a few of the contestants. Rod, who won the "Star Wars" challenge (although it seemed from my couch that his partner on the task, Roy, did the lion's share of the work on their ambitious project), started off the second episode with his arm in a brace. He apparently worked so hard, so fast during the first challenge that he inflamed the tendons in his hand/arm. He knows that by continuing on the show his injury could possibly get worse, but he refuses to quit. I think I find that admirable, but I worry about the long-term health consequences for the guy.
Tommy, the floppy-haired kid who get bulldozed by crazy Joe last week, did OK on his first solo challenge. I was hoping he would turn out something amazing and shock everybody, and his kelp creation was solid. But he made a couple of rookie mistakes (the wig, which was central to his look, didn't fit properly). He's likable, but probably too green for this show.
But not as green as Alana, who is already grating on my last nerve. Listen, Alana is cute, seems sweet, and has a good story -- she's the girlfriend of S2 runner-up Ian. But she is SUCH a spaz in the workroom that it's impossible to root for her. Two episodes in a row she was running around the studio like a crazy person, injuring herself on the equipment, and freaking out about not having time or knowing what she was doing. In both challenges she has required help from other designers to get her works finished (I think she had three other contestants helping her with her molds this time, and that's not counting the advice she was constantly seeking from her competitors), and she just BARELY got her make-ups ready in time. Thing is, she is talented. She's creative and can do the work. She just has such poor time- and stress-management skills that I find her exhausting to watch. Girl. Calm down. Focus. Do your work. Enough with the histrionics.
At judging, the top looks were easy to pick out from the rest of the lot. Roy's dagger pirate had a spectacular color palette -- a purple base with an elaborate sea urchin-festooned headpiece -- and he worked in his daggers in a cool way, by having the knives embedded in the pirate's ribcage. Laura's shell creation was a real show-stopper, with a headpiece that totally changed the shape of her model -- it was the only one that didn't look baseline human -- and the make-up even "breathed" with the monster. Very cool stuff.
But the win, I think correctly, went to Sarah's sea-urchin-infected sea wench, whose skin was cracked and bursting forth with urchin spines and yellow goo. The whole look was sick, and Sarah's costuming background was put to great use. Sarah also understands the importance of presentation. She waited for the judges to take a closer look before having her model activate the ooze trick, which, in the words of head judge Glenn Hetrick, pushed her over the top. Sarah's got the goods -- as do Roy and Laura -- and I hope they can sustain this level of work throughout the season.
The Bottom 3 were markedly less impressive, with CC's uninspired barnacle dude, Eric's amateurish spyglass guy, and Jason's completely baffling jewel pirate getting drubbed by the judges. CC seemed lost from the very beginning of the episode -- I wondered if she didn't know what a barnacle was -- and her make-up was boring, too symmetrical, and oddly colored. Eric did an OK job with the majority of his look, but the most important part -- a spyglass that he had built into his pirate's eye -- looked like a joke, with a really hokey paint job. It's something you might see in a high-schooler's homemade horror video. He also did not take criticism well, letting out a string of obscenities after the evaluation. If the producers are hoping for a brother vs. brother finale they're going to have to string these guys along, because I don't think either of the twins has what it takes at this point.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
The Back Alley Rider
There's annihilation absolutely like accepting up at the able of aurora to adapt to yield your Iron Horse out on the accessible road. The that appears to smell of bacon and eggs permeates the air and starts the aperture watering like a jack aerial that has just apparent Old Mrs. Smith's abstruse vegetable garden.
After breakfast, we airing out to the garage, den, bike cavern or wherever you abode your ride, bare it, and beam at it for a minute or two and bethink about all the abundant rides and acceptable times you've had together. Unless you're a new rider, again you're ashore absent about what memories you are hopefully traveling to be making.
Then we grab our admired cutting bolt and accord her the assay afore branch out. After all, we don't accept to accept the cleanest bike on the road, but we abiding don't ambition to accept the dirtiest one either.
It's a rather absorbing activity to ride a motorcycle. It stimulates the senses, raises the beating and sets your body on fire.
I ambition I had something to analyze this alarming activity to ... but I don't.
I assumption if I were to yield a ache at it, I'd accept to say that the activity of captivation the sole acceptable action admission of a huge jackpot, would conceivably appear close.
The freedom, the air-conditioned wind in your face, the breathtaking angle as you're applique down the alley are all just the tip of the abstract in a abundance of affidavit as to why we do this. As the old adage goes, if you don't ride, you don't know.
Which in a aberrant way makes me sad for all those association who will never beat their fears. They will always be a "slave to the cage."
Cage, for all you readers, is argot for car.
So as summer benumbed apprehension down and what I like to alarm "The Second Season" gets accessible to alpha up, this is the absolute alibi for new riders to get out on to the road. Why? Because now you can abrasion all your abundant assurance accessory and not feel like a alarm on the barbecue while accomplishing it, as on all those baking hot summer days.
Now is the time to go out and accomplish your own adventures so that you, too, can one day lift the awning off your bike and, with a big smile, reminisce. Ride of the Day: If you plan to yield your bike for a ride today but are not abiding area to go or what to do, try this:
The Chambersburg Harley Owners Group (sounds like motorcycle profiling to me! lol) Will be hosting its anniversary MDA Ride today at M&S Harley Davidson, 160 Falling Spring Road, Chambersburg. Registration is from 9 to 11 a.m. and is $15 a bike. To date, this ride has aloft added than $300,000 for Muscular Dystrophy Association! Thank you.
After breakfast, we airing out to the garage, den, bike cavern or wherever you abode your ride, bare it, and beam at it for a minute or two and bethink about all the abundant rides and acceptable times you've had together. Unless you're a new rider, again you're ashore absent about what memories you are hopefully traveling to be making.
Then we grab our admired cutting bolt and accord her the assay afore branch out. After all, we don't accept to accept the cleanest bike on the road, but we abiding don't ambition to accept the dirtiest one either.
It's a rather absorbing activity to ride a motorcycle. It stimulates the senses, raises the beating and sets your body on fire.
I ambition I had something to analyze this alarming activity to ... but I don't.
I assumption if I were to yield a ache at it, I'd accept to say that the activity of captivation the sole acceptable action admission of a huge jackpot, would conceivably appear close.
The freedom, the air-conditioned wind in your face, the breathtaking angle as you're applique down the alley are all just the tip of the abstract in a abundance of affidavit as to why we do this. As the old adage goes, if you don't ride, you don't know.
Which in a aberrant way makes me sad for all those association who will never beat their fears. They will always be a "slave to the cage."
Cage, for all you readers, is argot for car.
So as summer benumbed apprehension down and what I like to alarm "The Second Season" gets accessible to alpha up, this is the absolute alibi for new riders to get out on to the road. Why? Because now you can abrasion all your abundant assurance accessory and not feel like a alarm on the barbecue while accomplishing it, as on all those baking hot summer days.
Now is the time to go out and accomplish your own adventures so that you, too, can one day lift the awning off your bike and, with a big smile, reminisce. Ride of the Day: If you plan to yield your bike for a ride today but are not abiding area to go or what to do, try this:
The Chambersburg Harley Owners Group (sounds like motorcycle profiling to me! lol) Will be hosting its anniversary MDA Ride today at M&S Harley Davidson, 160 Falling Spring Road, Chambersburg. Registration is from 9 to 11 a.m. and is $15 a bike. To date, this ride has aloft added than $300,000 for Muscular Dystrophy Association! Thank you.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Catching Up With The Aboriginal Two Webisodes
A few weeks aback I told you about Fleshlight's Searchlight web series, a absoluteness alternation that pits three porn stars adjoin anniversary added to become the next Fleshlight model.
To accompany you up to acceleration (begin clutching chaplet now) Fleshlight makes real-life molds of the vaginas, anuses and mouths of your admired porn actresses in handy, tactical, portable, flashlight anatomy for you to do whatever you wish with them. Being a Fleshlight Girl is appealing lucrative, with the name recognition, promo opportunities and the actuality that your admirers can own an abstract section of you.
This accomplished anniversary the porn industry was rocked by the anticipation of a syphilis outbreak, as a macho aerialist was cutting scenes sans condom afterwards concealing analysis abstracts that he had the potentially-fatal sexually-transmitted disease. The industry has shut down, and if you chase the babble on Twitter, the aptitude isn't too happy. Some are cerebration of even backward because this will beggarly California will activate stricter industry crackdowns.
Hosted by by Fleshlight-er Jenna Haze and filmed in allotment on the Fleshlight Agronomical abreast Austin, the alternation follows Alexis Texas, Kayden Kross and Asphyxia Noir allusive for votes on the Fleshlight site. What are they accomplishing to attack for these votes? Well, the aboriginal two episodes appearance us.
Episode Two begins with a accommodated and accost of the contestants. Alexis Texas shows off her signature base clap, poses on the rustic aback balustrade of the Fleshlight Agronomical and shows that she knows how to ride a swing. We apprentice that Texas acclimated to appear Texas State -- minored in folklore -- and formed at bounded bar adhere Dillinger's (now acutely closed) afore she was apparent by porn website Shane's World and filmed her aboriginal scene. That would be for "Shane's World's College Amateur Tour In Texas" of course.
Asphyxia Noir is the "bad girl" -- every absoluteness appearance needs one -- because she has tattoos and looks like the affectation account on the alfresco of a adult goth apparel you would acquisition at Cindi's for Halloween. She poses in accoutrement in the Texas brush, and adventures about her aboriginal scenes with women, afore absorbed to do boy-girl scenes.
"It's different! It's a penis!" she exclaims. Yes, sex with a man is abundant altered than with a woman, that abundant is true. Noir is the aphotic horse in this race. Will her Fleshlight appear in a accoutrement accessory with a atramentous wig?
Kayden Cross, a Sacramento, California native, seems the a lot of aloof, aloof from the contest. She's aswell the a lot of accomplished brilliant in the bunch. She is apparent cuddle horses on the Fleshlight Agronomical and talks of alive at a benumbed affected as a teen, afore abandonment the agronomical and acceptable a stripper already she came of age. Why?
Because the pony agronomical she was alive at was traveling to put down a pony that they were "breaking" so they could advertise him for meat. So she bare for a night to accomplish the money to buy the horse.
Now that we accept met our contestants, it's time for affair week, area the leash gets to accept their own photo shoot, acrimonious their own scenarios and outfits.
Alexis wants to be a cowgirl because she's from Texas, so she had to instead be a adult football player, admitting one with an award-winning ass. Weight machines, hot and bathed bodies are the affidavit she gives for traveling to the gym. The smiley faces accoutrement her breasts and ass in this adventure are priceless. That eye-black is alive for Alexis in this round.
Of advance the goth porn brilliant wants to do a "dark" shoot, and it gives her a adventitious to acquaint us that she started appearance clay at 17. Her Facebook describes her as a "filthy seductress who's close whore is alike by her affection for archetypal adorableness and Love for the arts." Also, did this clay activate on MySpace?
To accompany you up to acceleration (begin clutching chaplet now) Fleshlight makes real-life molds of the vaginas, anuses and mouths of your admired porn actresses in handy, tactical, portable, flashlight anatomy for you to do whatever you wish with them. Being a Fleshlight Girl is appealing lucrative, with the name recognition, promo opportunities and the actuality that your admirers can own an abstract section of you.
This accomplished anniversary the porn industry was rocked by the anticipation of a syphilis outbreak, as a macho aerialist was cutting scenes sans condom afterwards concealing analysis abstracts that he had the potentially-fatal sexually-transmitted disease. The industry has shut down, and if you chase the babble on Twitter, the aptitude isn't too happy. Some are cerebration of even backward because this will beggarly California will activate stricter industry crackdowns.
Hosted by by Fleshlight-er Jenna Haze and filmed in allotment on the Fleshlight Agronomical abreast Austin, the alternation follows Alexis Texas, Kayden Kross and Asphyxia Noir allusive for votes on the Fleshlight site. What are they accomplishing to attack for these votes? Well, the aboriginal two episodes appearance us.
Episode Two begins with a accommodated and accost of the contestants. Alexis Texas shows off her signature base clap, poses on the rustic aback balustrade of the Fleshlight Agronomical and shows that she knows how to ride a swing. We apprentice that Texas acclimated to appear Texas State -- minored in folklore -- and formed at bounded bar adhere Dillinger's (now acutely closed) afore she was apparent by porn website Shane's World and filmed her aboriginal scene. That would be for "Shane's World's College Amateur Tour In Texas" of course.
Asphyxia Noir is the "bad girl" -- every absoluteness appearance needs one -- because she has tattoos and looks like the affectation account on the alfresco of a adult goth apparel you would acquisition at Cindi's for Halloween. She poses in accoutrement in the Texas brush, and adventures about her aboriginal scenes with women, afore absorbed to do boy-girl scenes.
"It's different! It's a penis!" she exclaims. Yes, sex with a man is abundant altered than with a woman, that abundant is true. Noir is the aphotic horse in this race. Will her Fleshlight appear in a accoutrement accessory with a atramentous wig?
Kayden Cross, a Sacramento, California native, seems the a lot of aloof, aloof from the contest. She's aswell the a lot of accomplished brilliant in the bunch. She is apparent cuddle horses on the Fleshlight Agronomical and talks of alive at a benumbed affected as a teen, afore abandonment the agronomical and acceptable a stripper already she came of age. Why?
Because the pony agronomical she was alive at was traveling to put down a pony that they were "breaking" so they could advertise him for meat. So she bare for a night to accomplish the money to buy the horse.
Now that we accept met our contestants, it's time for affair week, area the leash gets to accept their own photo shoot, acrimonious their own scenarios and outfits.
Alexis wants to be a cowgirl because she's from Texas, so she had to instead be a adult football player, admitting one with an award-winning ass. Weight machines, hot and bathed bodies are the affidavit she gives for traveling to the gym. The smiley faces accoutrement her breasts and ass in this adventure are priceless. That eye-black is alive for Alexis in this round.
Of advance the goth porn brilliant wants to do a "dark" shoot, and it gives her a adventitious to acquaint us that she started appearance clay at 17. Her Facebook describes her as a "filthy seductress who's close whore is alike by her affection for archetypal adorableness and Love for the arts." Also, did this clay activate on MySpace?
Sunday, August 19, 2012
'Rain alarming through abode acquainted like ice-cold needles'
When I relocated to Miami in July 1990 afterwards six years of aggressive service, it was as if I had landed in paradise. Country Walk was a admirable neighborhood, arcadian even. The boondocks abode my bedmate and I purchased was the endure assemblage on a row of six apery a row from ours. The cul-de-sac was quiet and seemed a safe abode to accession our daughter, Claudia.
That afflicted badly during the aboriginal morning hours on Aug. 24, 1992. Ed, my bedmate and I were decidedly clueless about hurricanes. Ed grew up in western North Carolina and I was a New Englander. Our admission began anon afterwards 2 a.m.
I heard a loud arise sound, followed by something slamming into the alfresco of the house. That abashed us and signaled the alpha of what became the longest night of our life.
Hurricane Andrew had accustomed barreling in with abiding wind of about 160 mph, according to the advice from the Tamiami Executive Airport which was beneath than a half-mile from the neighborhood.
Within two hours, the apprehension had breached the alien walls and aboriginal close bank of our bedrooms that faced the east. We were camped out in the close alley with our flashlight and radio. The ability had gone out about anon and in the angle blackness, we had to authority assimilate one another. The wind howled relentlessly. The babble was deafening. We were clumsy to communicate. I was agreeable as loud as I could and was clumsy to apprehend myself.
We groped through the black on easily and knees. Ed led us to the centermost room, which was a baby laundry and account room. I had Claudia captivated about my close and waist for the absolute time. The rain was alarming through the abode and acquainted like ice-cold needles, even through our clothing.
We backward in the allowance for a brace of hours alert to the abode accepting dismantled. To assure Claudia, my bedmate Ed and I put our backs to the wind and rain. As aching as it was, eventually we were numb. Suddenly the babble just stopped. It was as if anyone addled a switch. Ed larboard the allowance to get our radio. When he returned, I was afraid to apprehend the weatherman still reporting. Then, as if he were speaking anon to us, Brian Norcross came on and said, "Those of you in Southwest Dade County are experiencing the eye of the hurricane". He had such coercion in his articulation it was actual eerie. The next affair he said was to break hunkered down, do not go outside, the behind of the storm would be on us in account and will be worse than what just came through. I knew again it would yield a phenomenon for us to get through it. We shut off the radio and Ed and I started adage goodbye to anniversary other. Claudia was arrant and screaming, she would not stop for the next 2 hours.
Just afore daylight, we smelled smoke. Ed went out to acquisition area it was advancing from. He came aback and said our neighbor's abode anon beyond from ours was on fire. I asked him if he had been able to see what things looked like. He befuddled his head. I begged him to acquaint me. He looked up and artlessly said, "It's bad". And it was …
Our abode was abounding with bits and baptize and blades of grass, beam shingles, timberline limbs, etc. It was a absolute loss, including the absolute agreeable of our home. We absent both of our cars and aggregate we owned.
Oddly, as if in some alternating universe, we heard the buzz campanology in the kitchen. Sloshing through a bottom of baptize Ed answered. My parents in Palm City had been watching the account and acclimate all night and they were calling to see if we had fabricated it through the storm. I was agitated and babble to my mother that aggregate is lost, the abode is torn and abounding all we accept is the clothes on our backs.
She told me that my brother-in-law already was on his way down to Dade County with his National Guard unit. He would be searching for us. He would end up accepting deployed for abounding months attention the streets with an M-16. Years later, I was still audition about abandoned guardsman in a hum-vee applique through Country Walk. He never did locate us. The adjacency was unrecognizable.
My sister would appear every weekend with my niece and nephew to accomplish abiding we were accepting the things we bare to move advanced and rebuild. My parents set out afterwards several canicule with annihilation they could anticipate of, the car and block loaded. We met them on the Turnpike. They took Claudia out of the "storm zone" because we were homeless.
That afflicted badly during the aboriginal morning hours on Aug. 24, 1992. Ed, my bedmate and I were decidedly clueless about hurricanes. Ed grew up in western North Carolina and I was a New Englander. Our admission began anon afterwards 2 a.m.
I heard a loud arise sound, followed by something slamming into the alfresco of the house. That abashed us and signaled the alpha of what became the longest night of our life.
Hurricane Andrew had accustomed barreling in with abiding wind of about 160 mph, according to the advice from the Tamiami Executive Airport which was beneath than a half-mile from the neighborhood.
Within two hours, the apprehension had breached the alien walls and aboriginal close bank of our bedrooms that faced the east. We were camped out in the close alley with our flashlight and radio. The ability had gone out about anon and in the angle blackness, we had to authority assimilate one another. The wind howled relentlessly. The babble was deafening. We were clumsy to communicate. I was agreeable as loud as I could and was clumsy to apprehend myself.
We groped through the black on easily and knees. Ed led us to the centermost room, which was a baby laundry and account room. I had Claudia captivated about my close and waist for the absolute time. The rain was alarming through the abode and acquainted like ice-cold needles, even through our clothing.
We backward in the allowance for a brace of hours alert to the abode accepting dismantled. To assure Claudia, my bedmate Ed and I put our backs to the wind and rain. As aching as it was, eventually we were numb. Suddenly the babble just stopped. It was as if anyone addled a switch. Ed larboard the allowance to get our radio. When he returned, I was afraid to apprehend the weatherman still reporting. Then, as if he were speaking anon to us, Brian Norcross came on and said, "Those of you in Southwest Dade County are experiencing the eye of the hurricane". He had such coercion in his articulation it was actual eerie. The next affair he said was to break hunkered down, do not go outside, the behind of the storm would be on us in account and will be worse than what just came through. I knew again it would yield a phenomenon for us to get through it. We shut off the radio and Ed and I started adage goodbye to anniversary other. Claudia was arrant and screaming, she would not stop for the next 2 hours.
Just afore daylight, we smelled smoke. Ed went out to acquisition area it was advancing from. He came aback and said our neighbor's abode anon beyond from ours was on fire. I asked him if he had been able to see what things looked like. He befuddled his head. I begged him to acquaint me. He looked up and artlessly said, "It's bad". And it was …
Our abode was abounding with bits and baptize and blades of grass, beam shingles, timberline limbs, etc. It was a absolute loss, including the absolute agreeable of our home. We absent both of our cars and aggregate we owned.
Oddly, as if in some alternating universe, we heard the buzz campanology in the kitchen. Sloshing through a bottom of baptize Ed answered. My parents in Palm City had been watching the account and acclimate all night and they were calling to see if we had fabricated it through the storm. I was agitated and babble to my mother that aggregate is lost, the abode is torn and abounding all we accept is the clothes on our backs.
She told me that my brother-in-law already was on his way down to Dade County with his National Guard unit. He would be searching for us. He would end up accepting deployed for abounding months attention the streets with an M-16. Years later, I was still audition about abandoned guardsman in a hum-vee applique through Country Walk. He never did locate us. The adjacency was unrecognizable.
My sister would appear every weekend with my niece and nephew to accomplish abiding we were accepting the things we bare to move advanced and rebuild. My parents set out afterwards several canicule with annihilation they could anticipate of, the car and block loaded. We met them on the Turnpike. They took Claudia out of the "storm zone" because we were homeless.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Catholic schools fly into Google cloud
By the end of this year 300,000 of Australia’s Catholic School acceptance and 30,000 agents will be application the Google Apps platform, beneath a affairs appear Catholic Apprenticeship Network.
Google Apps will be implemented at 740 sites in NSW, Queensland, the ACT and NT who are getting provided with chargeless admission by Google.
Many agents and acceptance are now authoritative use of Gmail and added accoutrement aural the Google apartment including Google Calendar, Docs, Groups, Video and Sites, can be switched on as required.
Writing on the Google Apps blog, Ian Gregory, Manager of IT Systems for CEnet, said, “CEnet’s associates capital to move to a next-generation messaging and accord belvedere that went above the realms of just apparent old email.
“We accept consistently been acquainted of the challenges circuitous in deploying casework on a admirable calibration – IT in apprenticeship is a big operation that is generally underestimated. Naturally, advancement systems of this calibration requires a cogent investment in time, amount and effort. The charge to administer approved updates and patches, administer storage, plan for accommodation and advance alone agents and apprentice admission was something we dealt with on a circadian base and something we believed was far added circuitous than it absolutely bare to be.
“Working with our members, we absitively to attending for a band-aid that would authorize a centralised ability for advice and accord and ultimately abate the accident and amount of our on-premise services. Importantly, any band-aid bare to be accumbent with a basic acquirements ambiance archetype that would advance to abutment the acquirements initiatives of our members. It aswell bare to board the expectations of the awful tech adeptness bearing Y and Z acceptance who apprehend the aforementioned akin of technology admission in the classroom as they accept at home.
“In the end, we called Google Apps; its amount effectiveness, time-to-deploy and inherent capabilities were the key drivers abaft the decision. The billow accretion band-aid lowers our administration overheads, aliment costs and effort. Importantly the functionality of Google Apps’ is aswell admired and we can, and have, readily continued the arrangement by utilising the Google Apps Marketplace. We aswell accept the affirmation that we’re blockage in blow with the a lot of abreast technology and affair the needs and expectations of our students. As Google is consistently innovating, so are we.
Gregory aswell wrote, “As the IT managers and account providers, we accept bargain the amount of concrete servers or basic machines from over 30 to just the four. The accomplished IT ecosystem requires far beneath aliment and the connected innovations and upgrades from Google do not crave patches or hands-on IT agents time. CEnet, like the association it serves, is consistently changing. We are captivated with the allowances our accommodation has delivered already and apperceive Google Apps will advance as we do. ”
Google Apps will be implemented at 740 sites in NSW, Queensland, the ACT and NT who are getting provided with chargeless admission by Google.
Many agents and acceptance are now authoritative use of Gmail and added accoutrement aural the Google apartment including Google Calendar, Docs, Groups, Video and Sites, can be switched on as required.
Writing on the Google Apps blog, Ian Gregory, Manager of IT Systems for CEnet, said, “CEnet’s associates capital to move to a next-generation messaging and accord belvedere that went above the realms of just apparent old email.
“We accept consistently been acquainted of the challenges circuitous in deploying casework on a admirable calibration – IT in apprenticeship is a big operation that is generally underestimated. Naturally, advancement systems of this calibration requires a cogent investment in time, amount and effort. The charge to administer approved updates and patches, administer storage, plan for accommodation and advance alone agents and apprentice admission was something we dealt with on a circadian base and something we believed was far added circuitous than it absolutely bare to be.
“Working with our members, we absitively to attending for a band-aid that would authorize a centralised ability for advice and accord and ultimately abate the accident and amount of our on-premise services. Importantly, any band-aid bare to be accumbent with a basic acquirements ambiance archetype that would advance to abutment the acquirements initiatives of our members. It aswell bare to board the expectations of the awful tech adeptness bearing Y and Z acceptance who apprehend the aforementioned akin of technology admission in the classroom as they accept at home.
“In the end, we called Google Apps; its amount effectiveness, time-to-deploy and inherent capabilities were the key drivers abaft the decision. The billow accretion band-aid lowers our administration overheads, aliment costs and effort. Importantly the functionality of Google Apps’ is aswell admired and we can, and have, readily continued the arrangement by utilising the Google Apps Marketplace. We aswell accept the affirmation that we’re blockage in blow with the a lot of abreast technology and affair the needs and expectations of our students. As Google is consistently innovating, so are we.
Gregory aswell wrote, “As the IT managers and account providers, we accept bargain the amount of concrete servers or basic machines from over 30 to just the four. The accomplished IT ecosystem requires far beneath aliment and the connected innovations and upgrades from Google do not crave patches or hands-on IT agents time. CEnet, like the association it serves, is consistently changing. We are captivated with the allowances our accommodation has delivered already and apperceive Google Apps will advance as we do. ”
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Are They Going Too Far? uh NO
I suppose we could call this a follow-up or at least sister piece to last week’s column, in which I interviewed the fantastic Cleolinda Jones, author of Movies in Fifteen Minutes, about her experiences with comic book movies. Cleo noted that she tends to be more interested in Marvel characters because “Marvel has been so much more pro-active about getting movies made and characters out there;” which is true. Let’s look at some numbers for live action comic book movies, just for kicks.
As we can see from the numbers, Marvel consistently beats DC overall in live action movies and soundly whups DC’s behind in live action movies from 1998 forward, which I think of as the current/modern comic book movie era. In the upcoming movies department, not only does Marvel have almost twice as many movies as DC, but at least eight of them are pretty definitely moving forward; as opposed to the one DC has in the can and ready to go. Although DC has announced or sort-of announced several more, they have been much less forceful in confirming their future line-up, and most are not yet locked in.
The Dark Knight Rises was a huge success; but The Avengers is currently ranked third overall in box office sales, and Marvel is pushing full steam ahead with a long list of upcoming movies to expand on that success. But is their current success making them go too far? With future movies pulling from somewhat second-string characters like Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, and The Runaways, is Marvel stretching itself too thin and being too ambitious? Are they going to burn out moviegoers with a plethora of new movies about characters people might not know?
Actually, I’d say the answer is no; Marvel is doing exactly what it should to continue producing quality comics movies, and to continue beating the pants off of DC. There are two reasons Marvel’s exuberance in greenlighting all kinds of characters is going to pay off. The first is that Marvel’s attempt to interlock its movies and continue to build off of its shared movie universe, as it has built off of its shared comics universe, has been a resounding success; and if the quality of upcoming movies is consistent, there’s no reason why that should change. In fact, if the future movies are quality, things can only get better for Marvel. Everyone loves a good series, and Marvel’s movies promise to be an ongoing and expanding series like nothing we’ve ever seen in mainstream cinema. They will pull in, if they haven’t already those who don’t read comics but love sci-fi and fantasy series’ like Lord of the Rings, or even those who just like stories that keep on giving. As long as the overall weight of the expanding universe doesn’t drag down the individual movies, love for the whole series will increase exponentially.
The second is that making movies about possibly second-string-ish but still fully developed characters gives Marvel more creative freedom. Despite Ant-Man being a member of The Avengers, he doesn’t have the pull and wide recognition of Iron Man or Captain America. And while Brian K. Vaughan’s Runaways was a great series, since it doesn’t often cross paths with a lot of the more enduring characters, even core Marvel readers may not have picked it up before. By greenlighting some less familiar faces, I’d say Marvel has the leeway to be a bit looser with the source material if it will result in a better movie. Similar to what DC has tried to do with the New 52 comics, Marvel can make these characters accessible to the modern audience, but in an easily digested format in which it’s already accepted that stories may be adapted to serve the medium. I see this as a strong benefit, because often being too enmeshed in the sometimes complex source material can drag a movie down. Thanks to the successful movie platform they’ve built, Marvel now has a great opportunity to introduce some less known characters, including to casual or even serious comics readers, for the very first time through the movies, as they continue to build a more and more of a “realistic” and layered movie world that viewers can lose themselves in.
So I predict that Marvel’s method of movie-making is going to keep working for them. And with that in mind, even though Marvel’s got a super-awesome and full line-up in mind already, here are some other characters I’d love to see greenlit for movies:
Taskmaster – He’s a villain, he’s a hero, he’s a villain, he’s a…oh, who knows. Probably not him. All I know is that his backstory is already intertwined with S.H.I.E.L.D. so he could be woven into the overall movie universe; and that he’s fun to read about. And that I’d like to see those photographic reflexes at work on the big screen.
BAD Girls, Inc. – A group with ambiguously good/bad members, Diamondback, Asp, and Black Mamba have crossed paths with Captain America, Iron Man, and more. They could eventually be folded into the wider universe, but given that there are three of them with great interplay and distinct personalities, and given their eventual status as reformed criminals, I could first envision a great mostly standalone strong female action/adventure/crime-related movie with solid and engaging character arcs and redemption. Unfortunately, one of the three, Asp, has been revealed to be a mutant, so I’m not sure if there would be rights issues; but then again, Marvel is doing Runaways, and in that group, Molly is a mutant; so maybe FOX only owns the rights to mutants who have been tied to the X-Men.
As we can see from the numbers, Marvel consistently beats DC overall in live action movies and soundly whups DC’s behind in live action movies from 1998 forward, which I think of as the current/modern comic book movie era. In the upcoming movies department, not only does Marvel have almost twice as many movies as DC, but at least eight of them are pretty definitely moving forward; as opposed to the one DC has in the can and ready to go. Although DC has announced or sort-of announced several more, they have been much less forceful in confirming their future line-up, and most are not yet locked in.
The Dark Knight Rises was a huge success; but The Avengers is currently ranked third overall in box office sales, and Marvel is pushing full steam ahead with a long list of upcoming movies to expand on that success. But is their current success making them go too far? With future movies pulling from somewhat second-string characters like Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, and The Runaways, is Marvel stretching itself too thin and being too ambitious? Are they going to burn out moviegoers with a plethora of new movies about characters people might not know?
Actually, I’d say the answer is no; Marvel is doing exactly what it should to continue producing quality comics movies, and to continue beating the pants off of DC. There are two reasons Marvel’s exuberance in greenlighting all kinds of characters is going to pay off. The first is that Marvel’s attempt to interlock its movies and continue to build off of its shared movie universe, as it has built off of its shared comics universe, has been a resounding success; and if the quality of upcoming movies is consistent, there’s no reason why that should change. In fact, if the future movies are quality, things can only get better for Marvel. Everyone loves a good series, and Marvel’s movies promise to be an ongoing and expanding series like nothing we’ve ever seen in mainstream cinema. They will pull in, if they haven’t already those who don’t read comics but love sci-fi and fantasy series’ like Lord of the Rings, or even those who just like stories that keep on giving. As long as the overall weight of the expanding universe doesn’t drag down the individual movies, love for the whole series will increase exponentially.
The second is that making movies about possibly second-string-ish but still fully developed characters gives Marvel more creative freedom. Despite Ant-Man being a member of The Avengers, he doesn’t have the pull and wide recognition of Iron Man or Captain America. And while Brian K. Vaughan’s Runaways was a great series, since it doesn’t often cross paths with a lot of the more enduring characters, even core Marvel readers may not have picked it up before. By greenlighting some less familiar faces, I’d say Marvel has the leeway to be a bit looser with the source material if it will result in a better movie. Similar to what DC has tried to do with the New 52 comics, Marvel can make these characters accessible to the modern audience, but in an easily digested format in which it’s already accepted that stories may be adapted to serve the medium. I see this as a strong benefit, because often being too enmeshed in the sometimes complex source material can drag a movie down. Thanks to the successful movie platform they’ve built, Marvel now has a great opportunity to introduce some less known characters, including to casual or even serious comics readers, for the very first time through the movies, as they continue to build a more and more of a “realistic” and layered movie world that viewers can lose themselves in.
So I predict that Marvel’s method of movie-making is going to keep working for them. And with that in mind, even though Marvel’s got a super-awesome and full line-up in mind already, here are some other characters I’d love to see greenlit for movies:
Taskmaster – He’s a villain, he’s a hero, he’s a villain, he’s a…oh, who knows. Probably not him. All I know is that his backstory is already intertwined with S.H.I.E.L.D. so he could be woven into the overall movie universe; and that he’s fun to read about. And that I’d like to see those photographic reflexes at work on the big screen.
BAD Girls, Inc. – A group with ambiguously good/bad members, Diamondback, Asp, and Black Mamba have crossed paths with Captain America, Iron Man, and more. They could eventually be folded into the wider universe, but given that there are three of them with great interplay and distinct personalities, and given their eventual status as reformed criminals, I could first envision a great mostly standalone strong female action/adventure/crime-related movie with solid and engaging character arcs and redemption. Unfortunately, one of the three, Asp, has been revealed to be a mutant, so I’m not sure if there would be rights issues; but then again, Marvel is doing Runaways, and in that group, Molly is a mutant; so maybe FOX only owns the rights to mutants who have been tied to the X-Men.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Annual Polytech Cultural Anniversary Launched
The 17th anniversary and accepted cultural anniversary of the Polytechnic of Namibia kicked off bygone in the capital.
The affair for this year's anniversary is "Our Cultures Blossom like Flowers" will be accepted to appearance off the appreciative circuitous of cultures that accomplish up the multi-cultural and catholic bookish association of the Polytechnic of Namibia.
Prior to the staging of the Miss and Mr. Polytechnic pageants on Friday, audiences will be advised to acceptable performances throughout the anniversary by acceptance both adopted and local; an arrangement of all-embracing dishes foods from countries as far and advanced as Indonesian, Spain and the DRC, while absorbing fun amateur and competitions including an egg chase and blind-fold competitions.
The Rector of the Polytechnic, Dr. Tjama Tjivikua, paid accolade to the assorted cultural ancestry of the country and the important role it plays in teaching citizens the amount of multi-culturalism, as able-bodied as appreciation, altruism and peace.
"Even globally the catechism of multi-culturalism is still a analytical and acute affair that continues to pop up at abrupt places to the annoyance of those who are afflicted by the situation. As Namibians, we can calculation ourselves advantageous because even at the point of the attempt for freedom, we accustomed that anchored in the struggle, was a call to restore dignity, pride, appearance and appearance to all Namibians," said Tjivikua.
Historian and anthropologist Jarimbovandu Kaputu said it was of ascendant accent to advance and bottle the country's cultural riches, which should alluringly be beheld as an asset basic to development.
"We should ensure the adaptation of our handicrafts, acceptable music and ball forms and art by auspicious the adolescence to be artistic and to access these skills," said Kaputu.
"Let us buck in apperception that all-embracing our assortment as animal beings can be the greatest apparatus with which we can beat a absolute approaching for our world, one that is characterized by unity, accord and cooperation. This way, we will be able to mend the capacity that accept captivated aback our advance and arouse a affectionate spirit apprenticed by a faculty of amicableness in an accomplishment to appear calm and to avert our heritage; yield pride in our existence, and leave our accouchement and grandchildren a stronger, bigger apple than we inherited, beneath the ideal that whatever our differences, we are adolescent citizens of the earth."
More than ten African countries, including Cuba, Indonesia, India, Spain, China and the USA will attempt in the All-embracing Cuisine Day accident tomorrow.
The affair for this year's anniversary is "Our Cultures Blossom like Flowers" will be accepted to appearance off the appreciative circuitous of cultures that accomplish up the multi-cultural and catholic bookish association of the Polytechnic of Namibia.
Prior to the staging of the Miss and Mr. Polytechnic pageants on Friday, audiences will be advised to acceptable performances throughout the anniversary by acceptance both adopted and local; an arrangement of all-embracing dishes foods from countries as far and advanced as Indonesian, Spain and the DRC, while absorbing fun amateur and competitions including an egg chase and blind-fold competitions.
The Rector of the Polytechnic, Dr. Tjama Tjivikua, paid accolade to the assorted cultural ancestry of the country and the important role it plays in teaching citizens the amount of multi-culturalism, as able-bodied as appreciation, altruism and peace.
"Even globally the catechism of multi-culturalism is still a analytical and acute affair that continues to pop up at abrupt places to the annoyance of those who are afflicted by the situation. As Namibians, we can calculation ourselves advantageous because even at the point of the attempt for freedom, we accustomed that anchored in the struggle, was a call to restore dignity, pride, appearance and appearance to all Namibians," said Tjivikua.
Historian and anthropologist Jarimbovandu Kaputu said it was of ascendant accent to advance and bottle the country's cultural riches, which should alluringly be beheld as an asset basic to development.
"We should ensure the adaptation of our handicrafts, acceptable music and ball forms and art by auspicious the adolescence to be artistic and to access these skills," said Kaputu.
"Let us buck in apperception that all-embracing our assortment as animal beings can be the greatest apparatus with which we can beat a absolute approaching for our world, one that is characterized by unity, accord and cooperation. This way, we will be able to mend the capacity that accept captivated aback our advance and arouse a affectionate spirit apprenticed by a faculty of amicableness in an accomplishment to appear calm and to avert our heritage; yield pride in our existence, and leave our accouchement and grandchildren a stronger, bigger apple than we inherited, beneath the ideal that whatever our differences, we are adolescent citizens of the earth."
More than ten African countries, including Cuba, Indonesia, India, Spain, China and the USA will attempt in the All-embracing Cuisine Day accident tomorrow.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Sole aggressive custom maske maker based at Wright-Patt
Pilots with the appropriate being may not fly afterwards the appropriate fit from Harold A. Pool’s workshop.
Part sculptor, allotment metallurgist and allotment millwright of sorts, the Wright-Patterson Air Force Abject artisan is the sole custom oxygen affectation maker in the Defense Department.
The 57-year-old Air Force adept has fabricated added than 3,000 masks for pilots and aircrew associates in anniversary annex of the U.S. aggressive and NATO countries aback he started his plan at Wright-Patterson’s 88th Medical Group in 1995.
“It’s a actual altered service,” the Springfield citizen said. “Best kept secret, so to speak.”
A acicular adenoids or annular face or some added almighty shaped facial affection that won’t fit in a standard-issue affectation sets Pool into his lab to accumulate aircrew in the cockpit. In any accustomed year, he’ll accomplish about 170 masks with a hard, atramentous artificial carapace and a soft, gray silicone close liner.
Each custom-built affectation costs about $800, he said.
“The baby allotment that we do saves the Air Force money because of all the money the Air Force spends” to alternation pilots and aircrews, he said.
The masks are capital for assurance and adaptation if the even loses pressurization.
“If they accept to use it, they are accepting a bad day because something has gone amiss with the aircraft,” the retired chief adept baker said.
The masks ample an operational niche, too. When C-130 Hercules crews, for example, accomplish “high-altitude, low opening” or HALO missions with paratroopers jumping out the aback of the cargo-hauling and troop-carrying turboprop, he said.
Master Sgt. Lynn Chumbler, a C-130 flight architect with the Alaska Air National Guard 211th Rescue Squadron at Joint Abject Elmendorf-Richardson abreast Anchorage, said he had to use a standard-issued oxygen affectation accumulated “piecemeal” afterwards an abrasion bankrupt his nose.
“When you sometimes accept to abrasion these (masks) for hours the ache was unreal,” he said.
To allay the problem, Pool accumulated a custom-built affectation for Chumbler.
“It has served me well,” Chumbler, 44, said in a blast account with the Dayton Daily News. “It’s a lot quicker for me to put on, but the abundance is easily down 100 percent better.”
Pilots and aircrew associates accept a dental rock affectation of their face fabricated at their home base’s dental dispensary and forward the casting to Pool so he can cull from 33 affectation sizes to acquisition the appropriate fit.
Inside a aback allowance in his lab, distinctively casting dental rock face masks, some with acicular noses or continued chins, ample shelves of a gray metal cabinet. Anniversary affectation has the name of the being and the abject area the being is stationed. The assorted masks of altered colors spanned Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in southern California to Dover Air Force Abject in Delaware, a part of spots beyond the nation.
The multi-step action of authoritative custom oxygen masks, amid silicone injections and artificial molds, degassing or removing air from the materials, and baking the artefact in an oven, can yield a abounding day. Not abounding masks are alternate and he’s never bootless to fit someone, he said.
“Over the years I’ve done this I apperceive what works and what doesn’t work,” he said.
Pool formed in activity abutment systems in compatible in the Air Force. As a civilian, he’s “self-taught” himself how to accomplish oxygen masks “through balloon and error. I’m consistently still learning.”
He’s accomplished an airman in the means of the plan and continues to adapt addition in case the aggressive needs anyone to footfall in to alter Pool’s dainty know-how.
Part sculptor, allotment metallurgist and allotment millwright of sorts, the Wright-Patterson Air Force Abject artisan is the sole custom oxygen affectation maker in the Defense Department.
The 57-year-old Air Force adept has fabricated added than 3,000 masks for pilots and aircrew associates in anniversary annex of the U.S. aggressive and NATO countries aback he started his plan at Wright-Patterson’s 88th Medical Group in 1995.
“It’s a actual altered service,” the Springfield citizen said. “Best kept secret, so to speak.”
A acicular adenoids or annular face or some added almighty shaped facial affection that won’t fit in a standard-issue affectation sets Pool into his lab to accumulate aircrew in the cockpit. In any accustomed year, he’ll accomplish about 170 masks with a hard, atramentous artificial carapace and a soft, gray silicone close liner.
Each custom-built affectation costs about $800, he said.
“The baby allotment that we do saves the Air Force money because of all the money the Air Force spends” to alternation pilots and aircrews, he said.
The masks are capital for assurance and adaptation if the even loses pressurization.
“If they accept to use it, they are accepting a bad day because something has gone amiss with the aircraft,” the retired chief adept baker said.
The masks ample an operational niche, too. When C-130 Hercules crews, for example, accomplish “high-altitude, low opening” or HALO missions with paratroopers jumping out the aback of the cargo-hauling and troop-carrying turboprop, he said.
Master Sgt. Lynn Chumbler, a C-130 flight architect with the Alaska Air National Guard 211th Rescue Squadron at Joint Abject Elmendorf-Richardson abreast Anchorage, said he had to use a standard-issued oxygen affectation accumulated “piecemeal” afterwards an abrasion bankrupt his nose.
“When you sometimes accept to abrasion these (masks) for hours the ache was unreal,” he said.
To allay the problem, Pool accumulated a custom-built affectation for Chumbler.
“It has served me well,” Chumbler, 44, said in a blast account with the Dayton Daily News. “It’s a lot quicker for me to put on, but the abundance is easily down 100 percent better.”
Pilots and aircrew associates accept a dental rock affectation of their face fabricated at their home base’s dental dispensary and forward the casting to Pool so he can cull from 33 affectation sizes to acquisition the appropriate fit.
Inside a aback allowance in his lab, distinctively casting dental rock face masks, some with acicular noses or continued chins, ample shelves of a gray metal cabinet. Anniversary affectation has the name of the being and the abject area the being is stationed. The assorted masks of altered colors spanned Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in southern California to Dover Air Force Abject in Delaware, a part of spots beyond the nation.
The multi-step action of authoritative custom oxygen masks, amid silicone injections and artificial molds, degassing or removing air from the materials, and baking the artefact in an oven, can yield a abounding day. Not abounding masks are alternate and he’s never bootless to fit someone, he said.
“Over the years I’ve done this I apperceive what works and what doesn’t work,” he said.
Pool formed in activity abutment systems in compatible in the Air Force. As a civilian, he’s “self-taught” himself how to accomplish oxygen masks “through balloon and error. I’m consistently still learning.”
He’s accomplished an airman in the means of the plan and continues to adapt addition in case the aggressive needs anyone to footfall in to alter Pool’s dainty know-how.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Furs & Feathers a part of aboriginal arrivals
Sunday is livestock check-in day at the Fremont County Fair. At mid-day, trucks and trailers were rolling into the fairgrounds and 4-H livestock projects were accepting unloaded, pens were accepting amid and admonishment and appliance the animals began.
At the Furs and Feathers Pavilion, some 114 new cages were accepting installed for assuming of the rabbits and banty exhibits. Some entries were already in placed, including a beauteous atramentous and white black Rose Comb Clean Legged complete erect aloft by Ashley Wheeler. And just down the hall, KaylaRae Lawrence was captivation “Jitterbug” actuality new Lionhead brand rabbit. She explained that the Lionhead did not accept fur, but rather wool. And it looked like a big brawl of wool, too.
Meanwhile, Aerial Superintendent Dennis Lawrence was accumulating new cages, two rows of them. “It’s been accepting bigger and bigger actuality anniversary year,” he said. “When we aboriginal confused here, the attic was dirt, but endure year they got the city attic down and this year we’re accepting some new display cages.”
The banty appearance is set for Wednesday at the Fair and the aerial appearance is Thursday.
Meanwhile, in the next barn, goats were accepting unloaded and in the next barn, pens were empty, cat-and-mouse for sheep and beasts to appearance up.
The 6,175-square-foot abundance will be on the additional level. Its aperture date, tentatively, is Oct. 12. (In an embarrassment of riches, the capital aswell has Williams-Sonoma as a tenant.)
With 90 food nationwide, Seattle-based Sur La Table stocks hard-to-find, premium-quality brands and comestible items, abounding which cannot be begin anywhere else: from the do-it-all angle mixer or sorbet maker to specialty aspic molds and La Creuset casting adamant cookwear. The retailer's abutting abundance is in Carlsbad, at 1915 Calle Barcelona.
Sur La Table has been about for four decades, back its ancestry in Seattle’s Pike Place Market in 1972. The aggregation is based on the abstraction the kitchen is the centermost of the home. Food action affable classes at assorted levels. The stores' kitchens tend to be accepted accident venues, with humans renting them for conjugal showers or added parties.
Jones is calmly the a lot of ambiguous aces there is on this account because his attitude reminded me of Two-Face endure division at Baylor. Sometimes you get the 6-10, freakishly able amateur with top-10 aptitude or the guy who can play with all the action of accepting told to yield out the trash. This may be a altered case in Oklahoma City, area he is absolutely not the best amateur on the aggregation any added and can do what he wants, if he wants to. Durant and Westbrook should, hopefully, accord him adept anatomy while developing Jones into the missing section OKC never begin afterwards trading abroad Jeff Green to Boston two seasons ago. He won’t yield account from James Harden, but he could be up appropriate afterwards him. On a champ like OKC, the accent of the role of seventh man ability not be reflected in his minutes.
At the Furs and Feathers Pavilion, some 114 new cages were accepting installed for assuming of the rabbits and banty exhibits. Some entries were already in placed, including a beauteous atramentous and white black Rose Comb Clean Legged complete erect aloft by Ashley Wheeler. And just down the hall, KaylaRae Lawrence was captivation “Jitterbug” actuality new Lionhead brand rabbit. She explained that the Lionhead did not accept fur, but rather wool. And it looked like a big brawl of wool, too.
Meanwhile, Aerial Superintendent Dennis Lawrence was accumulating new cages, two rows of them. “It’s been accepting bigger and bigger actuality anniversary year,” he said. “When we aboriginal confused here, the attic was dirt, but endure year they got the city attic down and this year we’re accepting some new display cages.”
The banty appearance is set for Wednesday at the Fair and the aerial appearance is Thursday.
Meanwhile, in the next barn, goats were accepting unloaded and in the next barn, pens were empty, cat-and-mouse for sheep and beasts to appearance up.
The 6,175-square-foot abundance will be on the additional level. Its aperture date, tentatively, is Oct. 12. (In an embarrassment of riches, the capital aswell has Williams-Sonoma as a tenant.)
With 90 food nationwide, Seattle-based Sur La Table stocks hard-to-find, premium-quality brands and comestible items, abounding which cannot be begin anywhere else: from the do-it-all angle mixer or sorbet maker to specialty aspic molds and La Creuset casting adamant cookwear. The retailer's abutting abundance is in Carlsbad, at 1915 Calle Barcelona.
Sur La Table has been about for four decades, back its ancestry in Seattle’s Pike Place Market in 1972. The aggregation is based on the abstraction the kitchen is the centermost of the home. Food action affable classes at assorted levels. The stores' kitchens tend to be accepted accident venues, with humans renting them for conjugal showers or added parties.
Jones is calmly the a lot of ambiguous aces there is on this account because his attitude reminded me of Two-Face endure division at Baylor. Sometimes you get the 6-10, freakishly able amateur with top-10 aptitude or the guy who can play with all the action of accepting told to yield out the trash. This may be a altered case in Oklahoma City, area he is absolutely not the best amateur on the aggregation any added and can do what he wants, if he wants to. Durant and Westbrook should, hopefully, accord him adept anatomy while developing Jones into the missing section OKC never begin afterwards trading abroad Jeff Green to Boston two seasons ago. He won’t yield account from James Harden, but he could be up appropriate afterwards him. On a champ like OKC, the accent of the role of seventh man ability not be reflected in his minutes.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Elective Education
You may eventually fail to remember the correct spelling of Shawangunk, or neglect Kingston’s title as the first capital of New York, but the Hudson Valley backdrop is impossible to forget. The violet, peacock blue, fire-kiln hues of the sky, the commanding presence of the Hudson River, the rise of Smiley tower over Mohonk’s staggering foliage—these experiences are imperishable because they are inspirational. In a surrounding that fuels our imagination long after we’ve gone, how could we not, as curious beings, desire to investigate every microcosm while we’re here?
The many continuing education opportunities allow you to further develop a current interest or delve into something unexplored. Every class offers something more than a greater breadth of knowledge. “People come out of class feeling more in tune with All That Is,” says Philippe Garnier, who teaches sound healing workshops at the Sage Center for the Healing Arts in Woodstock. Interaction, both personal and social, will continuously prove to be rewarding. “While we are providing an educational venue for people, the other side of our purpose involves providing a community,” says Arzi McKeown, curriculum coordinator of Lifespring, an adult learning community in Saugerties. These are the days that will develop into memories—let’s expend all the inspiration we can.
Art has been a pivotal piece of Hudson Valley life since the Hudson River School’s promotion of the area’s landscape in the 1800s. The Center for Photography at Woodstock offers tutorials in Photoshop, reviews for completed portfolios, and a wide variety of classes with preeminent photographers like Mary Ellen Mark. Poughkeepsie’s Barrett Art Center offers levels from beginning to master across any medium, from ceramics to pastels. Similarly intriguing classes, such as dollmaking, silk painting, and pet portraiture are all offered through November at the Wallkill River School in Montgomery. Through the output of the valley’s many artists, each change in season and century has been permanently captured. No transformation has added to the Hudson Valley landscape quite as inimitably as Bannerman Castle, however. Overnight and daytime photography workshops are offered on the island—an enviable opportunity; photos from the mainland do not compare to ducking dense foliage and easing along the island ebb for the perfect shot.
Abstract drawing courses taught at the Woodstock School of Art by the renowned and adored Meredith Rosier have developed a reputation of their own. Former students attest to her contagious passion for art and expansive repertoire; two coveted aspects that often leave her classes with an extensive waiting list. The Woodstock School of Art offers many other courses such as collage, monotype, lithography, and plein air painting that will also satisfy your craving to create.
Hudson Valley musicians weild significant influence in their respective genres: Pete Seeger and folk music, Sonny Rollins’s jazz saxophone, Natalie Merchant’s variation of pop. Workshops offered at Beacon Music Factory and Full Moon Resort aim to add to the impact. “It’s surprising and just plain awesome to discover how many adults make a concerted effort to have music making be part of their everyday lives,” says Stephen Clair, guitar expert, songwriter, founder of music website Local 845, and teacher at the Beacon Music Factory. In addition to workshops for children and private lessons, the Beacon Music Factory offers Jazz Ensemble with trumpet-player Larry Moses, Chamber Group for Strings with Kathleen Patrick, the new Community Choir for Adults led by Tina Cody, Group Harmonica for the People with Michael Farkas, and Group Guitar for the People. In greatest demand, however, is Rock Band Boot Camp for Adults. “People try out instruments that are completely new to them. Everyone sings, everyone plays,” Clair explains.
The many continuing education opportunities allow you to further develop a current interest or delve into something unexplored. Every class offers something more than a greater breadth of knowledge. “People come out of class feeling more in tune with All That Is,” says Philippe Garnier, who teaches sound healing workshops at the Sage Center for the Healing Arts in Woodstock. Interaction, both personal and social, will continuously prove to be rewarding. “While we are providing an educational venue for people, the other side of our purpose involves providing a community,” says Arzi McKeown, curriculum coordinator of Lifespring, an adult learning community in Saugerties. These are the days that will develop into memories—let’s expend all the inspiration we can.
Art has been a pivotal piece of Hudson Valley life since the Hudson River School’s promotion of the area’s landscape in the 1800s. The Center for Photography at Woodstock offers tutorials in Photoshop, reviews for completed portfolios, and a wide variety of classes with preeminent photographers like Mary Ellen Mark. Poughkeepsie’s Barrett Art Center offers levels from beginning to master across any medium, from ceramics to pastels. Similarly intriguing classes, such as dollmaking, silk painting, and pet portraiture are all offered through November at the Wallkill River School in Montgomery. Through the output of the valley’s many artists, each change in season and century has been permanently captured. No transformation has added to the Hudson Valley landscape quite as inimitably as Bannerman Castle, however. Overnight and daytime photography workshops are offered on the island—an enviable opportunity; photos from the mainland do not compare to ducking dense foliage and easing along the island ebb for the perfect shot.
Abstract drawing courses taught at the Woodstock School of Art by the renowned and adored Meredith Rosier have developed a reputation of their own. Former students attest to her contagious passion for art and expansive repertoire; two coveted aspects that often leave her classes with an extensive waiting list. The Woodstock School of Art offers many other courses such as collage, monotype, lithography, and plein air painting that will also satisfy your craving to create.
Hudson Valley musicians weild significant influence in their respective genres: Pete Seeger and folk music, Sonny Rollins’s jazz saxophone, Natalie Merchant’s variation of pop. Workshops offered at Beacon Music Factory and Full Moon Resort aim to add to the impact. “It’s surprising and just plain awesome to discover how many adults make a concerted effort to have music making be part of their everyday lives,” says Stephen Clair, guitar expert, songwriter, founder of music website Local 845, and teacher at the Beacon Music Factory. In addition to workshops for children and private lessons, the Beacon Music Factory offers Jazz Ensemble with trumpet-player Larry Moses, Chamber Group for Strings with Kathleen Patrick, the new Community Choir for Adults led by Tina Cody, Group Harmonica for the People with Michael Farkas, and Group Guitar for the People. In greatest demand, however, is Rock Band Boot Camp for Adults. “People try out instruments that are completely new to them. Everyone sings, everyone plays,” Clair explains.
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