What everyone loves… getting free stuff! Here’s how to do it:
1. The Greenhouse. It is between Millsberry Academy and the grocery store. Once you’re in you can: Collect pollen to get a free plant, GROW a plant or get something either awesome or SUPER AWESOME!
2. Sylvie. Sylvie is located at Sylvane lake. To get there, got to downtown. There is a billboard that switches between Grow Good Farms and Sylvane lake. When it flashes Sylvane Lake, click on it. If you’re lucky, Sylvie will be out.
Sylvie is out 3 times per day. She appears the first time between 7:00am and 12:00pm EST and is out for 1 hour. It’s always from the top of the hour to the bottom of the hour (8:00 to 9:00, for example) as opposed to random times (like 8:17 to 9:17).

She makes her second appearance 5 hours after the initial appearance. So if she’s out at 10:00am she will be out again at 3:00pm

The third appearance doesn’t seem to have any time pattern but it’s always in the evenings. She is out for 1 hour each evening but you can’t be sure of the time.

3. GROW GOOD FARMS. You make pizzas, and for each pizza you donate, General mills donates an amount of money to Feeding America, depending on the amount of toppings on your pizza. Each topping you put on it is worth 5 cents to Feeding America. And after you donate your pizza, you get a prize relating to pizza or a pizzeria. The more toppings on yuor pizza, the bigger the prize!

4. Go to Millsberry academy. It is near the Greenhouse and Peabody Park. Go to the Gym, and click the soccer ball near Coach Danner. He will give ti to you to practice.

I hope this helped!

For “Getting Lost,” the new series in which John S takes a look at the most salient questions from last night’s episode of Lost, he’s borrowing Tim’s interlocutor style:

What was the deal with that opening? As many were predicting, the opening scene of Lost Season Six was a quasi-replay of the first airplane scene from the show’s pilot. Panning back from the wing, we see Jack looking out the window, and the flight attendant comes by to ask about his drink. In other words, the plan worked, and we are now witnessing an alternate timeline.

Last May, when Juliet set off the hydrogen bomb on the Island, people immediately starting hypothesizing that Season Six would be the story of what happens if and when Oceanic 815 actually landed at LAX (a hypothesis strengthened when the title of the season premiere was announced). My biggest worry about this storyline, though, was that it wouldn’t be interesting. I, for one, never really cared much about these characters’ off-Island lives.

The scenes on the plane and at LAX seemed to justify this fear. There was certainly the intrigue of seeing old characters (like Boone, Charlie, Bernard, etc.) and pointing out differences from the pilot,* but once that wore off, there wasn’t much there. Most of the scenes revolved around Kate’s attempt to flee from her U.S. Marshall escort (using a pen she stole from Jack), and I got tired of the whole “Kate likes running away from people” thing at the end of Season One.

*Those differences include, but are probably not limited to: Jack, not Rose, being nervous on the plane; Charlie already being in the bathroom, not running to it when Jack gets up; the dialogue is slightly different; Shannon is not on the plane; Desmond IS on the plane; Hurley describes himself as “the luckiest guy in the world”; Jack has a mark on his neck. Oh yeah, and the plane doesn’t crash.

Come on, didn’t you like that scene between Jack and Locke at the lost baggage station? Yeah, that was pretty good. I’ve always felt that the Jack-Locke tension was the aspect of the show with the most squandered potential. They represent two very interesting and distinct philosophies (pragmatism vs. faith, free will vs. destiny, skepticism vs. acceptance), and many of their scenes have been the best of the show.

And the producers sometimes feel compelled to keep them separate for entire seasons (over the course of Seasons Three and Four, I think they had maybe four scenes together). When they do put them together, they always portray it as Jack having a violent and unjustified hatred for Locke that makes him seem ridiculous.

So the scene at the airport (scenes, if you count the look Jack gives Locke when they are the last two to get off the plane), in which they meet for the first time, was very well done.

Speaking of lost baggage, how does an airline lose a body?  Yeah, that’s a pretty big mistake.

Can’t Lost afford some better CGI? You would think. That sequence in the beginning, showing the Island underwater was pretty lame.

What about all this “alternate timelines” shit? Can people exist in two places at once? The on-Island aspects of the story, in which Kate, Miles, Sawyer, Jack, Sayid, Hurley, and Jin all wake up on the Island, presumably after the blast, was much more interesting than the plane/airport stuff.

For one, I’m glad that Sawyer is not as wishy-washy on his feelings as Kate and Jack are. His anger at Jack, blaming him for Juliet’s death, continued the leap Sawyer made last season, into maybe the show’s most heroic and likable character.

Jacob’s appearance to Hurley was also cool, mainly because I like the way the actor (Mark Pellegrino) plays him. Also, Jacob’s admission that he died “about an hour ago” was refreshing, because I still had some doubts that A) Jacob was mortal, and B) Ben effectively killed him.

Finally, there was the mild cliffhanger of Juliet having something “very important” to tell Sawyer before she died. (For a second, I thought she was going to say that she was pregnant.) Sawyer asks Miles to use his hearing-the-dead abilities to find out what Juliet wanted to say, but all he gets from her is, “It worked.”

Any ideas on what this means? Well, kind of. I did for a while, at least. During the hiatus between seasons, I figured that Season Six had to be a reset. After all, Juliet set off a fucking hydrogen bomb. The only other alternative is that the characters are just dead.

And so the scenes with them on the Island can’t possibly mean that those six just survived an explosion, or that the bomb never went off (there is also the fact that, before the explosion, there were bunch of Dharma folks with them, who are nowhere to be found). For a while, I thought they were dead. I thought they were in some kind of afterlife that was perpetual night, and was going to give us some insight into how exactly ghosts survive and exist on the Island (which was, if you recall, one of the essential questions the show needed to answer).

This idea, though, was kind of punctured when the sun came up and the group went to the Temple. Introducing a whole new set of characters at the Temple makes it seem much more likely that the group simply moved somewhere on the space-time continuum, likely closer to the “present.”

Do you give a shit about these Temple people? Not at all. I’m always wary of shows introducing new characters so late in the game (see: The Wire), particularly when there are so many things to rap up.

It also doesn’t seem like these new characters are all that interesting, either. They follow the same tropes that the show is already used to. There’s a Mysterious Leader—who knows English, but won’t speak it because of “how it tastes on (his) tongue”—as well as helpful Second in Command, who wants to be nice but is willing to use force. Oh, and OF COUSE the mysterious new people have access to magical healing waters that work in ambiguous ways that can’t be explained.

But at least the magical waters restored Sayid! Well, did they? They didn’t seem to work initially, and even the Temple natives were surprised when he woke up. We’ve learned to be suspicious of apparent resurrections on this show, haven’t we?

Yeah, is Locke really and truly still dead? NOOOOOO! We finally got confirmation of the fact that Locke is the embodiment of the smoke monster. Watching him kill all those armed “bodyguards” of Jacob was pretty badass, but what was the deal with the circle their leader created? Is there some kind of smoke monster force field?

The really important fact, though, was that Locke 2.0’s identity was revealed to Ben, who disliked being used (hurts, doesn’t it, Ben?) and realized suddenly that Locke was the monster. Locke 2.0’s response, “Let’s not resort to name-calling,” was great.

Also revealed was the fact that Smokey/the Man in Black/Locke 2.0’s goal is “to go home”—wherever that is—and the fact that he has a relationship with Richard that involves Richard in chains. All of this, combined with the fear that Richard displayed when he realized who the new Locke was and Locke 2.0’s contempt for the original Locke, reinforces the idea that Smoke/the Man in Black represent “evil” to Jacob’s “good,” but I hope they give that some more depth.

What about those fireworks? The fact that Richard and his group (which still includes Lapidus and Sun) could see the fireworks that the Temple folk set off upon hearing that Jacob was dead shows that they are in the same timeline, which should place all of the Island action in 2007.

This also seems like the beginning of an all-out war between those loyal to now-dead Jacob, and Locke 2.0/Smokey/the Man in Black. Presumably, Jacob stands in the way of Locke 2.0’s return home.

Is this the “war” that Charles Widmore was referring to last season? And does the fact that Widmore helped the real Locke in his quest to return to the Island mean he is on Jacob’s side? Or the Man in Black’s? And if Widmore is on one side, is Ben on the other? Ben, who seemed to regret murdering Jacob almost immediately, is almost certainly on Jacob’s side, right? Had any of the Others ever actually met Jacob?

As usual, last night’s episode of Lost left me with more questions than answers, but there are still 17 episodes left.

Aren’t you psyched? I am.

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA) Liberation of Auschwitz Anniversary

“Auschwitz took the lives of many; Greek Jews were dispro­portio­na­tely numerous among them. Greeks of other faiths also paid a heavy price, often in defence of their Jewish brethren.

Many have been declared Righteous among the Nations and their names are engraved at the Holocaust Memorial of Yad Vashem,” Alternate Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas said in a statement, issued on January 27, on the 65^th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp.
This year also marks the tenth anniversary of the Stockholm Declaration which launched a fertile rethinking of the Holocaust in Europe and Greece is proud to be among the original signatories of this epochal document, said Droutsas.

“Greeks in Auschwitz-Birkenau” 

At a press conference at Greece’s Press and Communication Office in New York, on January 26, the head of the Foreign Ministry’s Diplomatic and Historical Archives, Fotini Tomai presented a series of evidence, documents and testimonies that reveal and highlight the extent of human tragedy as recorded in the book “Greeks in Auschwitz-Birkenau.”
This publication of the Foreign Ministry (in Greek and English) will be presented today at a special event at the Greek Consulate General in New York. 
See also: UN, International Holocaust Remembrance Day;
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: International Holocaust Remembrance Day;  Greek News Agenda: Special Issue – The Jews of Greece

ในตลาดรถใหม่หรือไม่ ถ้าใช่โอกาสที่คุณได้พิจารณาอาจรถ ลูกผสม. จำนวนผู้ผลิตกำลังเสนอตัวแบบที่นิยมที่สุดของพวกเขาตั้งแต่ compacts ขนาดเล็กกีฬารถสาธารณูปโภคในลูกผสม. รถยนต์เหล่านี้มีศักยภาพที่จะช่วยขับประหยัดใหญ่ที่ปั๊มและลดผลกระทบกับสิ่งแวดล้อม.

กับราคาก๊าซเกิน $ 4.00 แกลลอนในหลายๆสถานที่ให้ ประสิทธิภาพน้ำมันเชื้อเพลิงเป็นจุดขายที่สำคัญสำหรับ drivers. บางไดรเวอร์เงินที่พวกเขาหวังว่าจะประหยัดค่าใช้จ่ายเชื้อเพลิงออกน้ำหนัก ลูกผสม 'ราคาสูง s. ขณะที่รถยนต์เครื่องยนต์ ลูกผสม จะมีประสิทธิภาพดีกว่าเครื่องยนต์ธรรมดาเป็นสิ่งสำคัญสำหรับไดรเวอร์ที่จะทราบว่าประเภทของการขับรถพวกเขาจะพิจารณาการออมโดยรวมของพวกเขา. โปรแกรมควบคุมผู้กระทำจำนวนมากในเมืองหยุดและไปขับรถมักจะดูประหยัดที่สุดมากกว่าเครื่องยนต์ธรรมดาขึ้นอยู่กับรุ่นเครื่องยนต์โดยเฉพาะ ลูกผสม.

ลูกผสมรถยังน่าสนใจ "ทางเลือกสีเขียว" เนื่องจากพวกเขาผลิตปล่อยต่ำว่าเครื่องยนต์ธรรมเนียม. ผู้ที่ต้องการลดผลกระทบสิ่งแวดล้อมของพวกเขาในขณะที่ยังคงต่อเนื่องขับรถยนต์อาจพบคุณสมบัติที่น่าสนใจโดยเฉพาะนี้. อีกครั้งแบบตรงและแบบเครื่องยนต์จะพิจารณาในการลดการปล่อยกว่าเครื่องยนต์ธรรมดา.

Californians บางคนแม้ได้รับเอกสิทธิ์พิเศษเมื่อขับขี่รถ ลูกผสม. จำนวนจำกัดรถมีปัญหาถูก "Clean Access สติกเกอร์" ที่ให้ลูกผสมไดรฟ์ในเส้นทาง carpool ช่วยตัดผ่านเข้าชมได้อย่างรวดเร็วในเช้าวันทำงานไม่ว่าง. ไดรเวอร์สามารถตรวจสอบกับ DMV ท้องถิ่นของพวกเขาเพื่อดูว่าโปรแกรมที่คล้ายกันอยู่ในพื้นที่ของตน.

กับความสามารถในการช่วยขับประหยัดเงินในเชื้อเพลิงและลดผลกระทบสิ่งแวดล้อมที่ จะไม่น่าแปลกใจที่รถ ลูกผสม อยู่ในความต้องการสูงในหลายส่วน ของ ประเทศ. ในปริมณฑลบางส่วนเช่น LosAngeles มีรายได้รอรับรถใหม่. ก่อนที่จะตัดสินใจว่าตัวเลือก ลูกผสม คือตัวเลือกที่เหมาะสำหรับคุณแม้ว่าคุณจะพูดกับผู้จำหน่ายและเรียนรู้เกี่ยวกับค่าใช้จ่ายและการออมเกี่ยวข้องกับเจ้าของรถ ลูกผสม.

Credit : Hybrid Bikes Cables Htcbatterycharger

Twenty years later, the Cosby Show OP is still relevant.

What if Louis Armstrong had landed on the moon? What if the New York Yankees was a Counterstrike: Source clan? What if R.L. Stine was elected Prime Minister of the UK?

What if anime OPs didn’t suck?

And that, folks, was my thesis paper for my marine biology degree. Let’s face it, whenever you come across someone’s “Favorite Anime OPs of 2009″ list, what you’re really reading is an annotated bibliography of my asshole a list of the OPs that didn’t make them want to hang themselves. Once, I was going to make one of those lists myself, but then I got high.

So here we are in 2010, and the studios are still making the same shit. I’m not going to knock anyone who actually enjoys the songs used in anime, but I can count the number of times I didn’t automatically skip the opening sequence of any show on one hand. One thirty-finger hand.

This year, however, I’ve decided to finally take action. I’ve selected a few hit shows from recent times and reimagined their OPs with music from my personal collection. Gone are the recycled J-Rock no-hit-wonders of yesterday, and here to stay are these refreshing and fitting soundtracks from around the globe. Don’t forget to watch in HD!

Darker Than Black (Youtube Link)

First in line is Bones’ 2007 monsterpiece, Darker Than Black. The show itself was an addictive and rewarding thriller, deserving of an equally awesome OP. Unfortunately, the blood-pumping, rage-filled “Howling” from the Abingdon Boys School (who denied my application, by the way) was decidedly not what the doctor ordered. Not even that floating pink girl could save this atrocity.

But some New Zealand folk songs certainly can. Check out Darker Than Black version 2.0 featuring the Ruby Suns’ chipper “Tane Mahuta,” and wish you could turn the clock back to 2007 to watch DTB as it was meant to be watched.

To Aru Kagaku No Railgun (Youtube Link)

The only thing worse than the dreadful opening song for the 1950’s sci-fi action series/talk show To Aru Majutsu No Index is the song for the wildly successful spin-off, To Aru Kagaku No Railgun. I will admit, I can see fripSide’s “Only My Railgun” being played at a railgun convention (slang for ”nowhere”), but its driving beat and infectious melody just seem highly inappropriate for this aging gem of a show.

Instead, pull out your pipe and rock out to a true classic from Optiganally Yours. Biribiri would be proud. Note: the quality is a bit dated as I used original footage from the 1953 broadcast.

Kimi Ni Todoke (Youtube Link)

Kimi Ni Todoke gets my vote for Best Looking Show of 2009, and one needs only to take a look at the opening, the most visually surreal 58 or so seconds in the history of film, to become a believer. Notice I didn’t mention anything about how it sounds. That’s because Tanizawa Tomofumi’s radio-friendly, mother-approved theme song is anything but surreal. It’s a fucking joke, really, and no one’s laughing.

This one was a hard one to match mainly because I was tripping out on mushrooms the entire time, but I finally settled on the cryptic soundscapes of Ryoji Ikeda’s dataplex. It was a perfect match.

Canaan (Youtube Link)

This one was too easy. Type Moon’s work is always a natural fit for Rodney Dangerfield, and Canaan is no exception.

I hope you enjoyed the series. While uploading these, I noticed that some others have tried their hand at re-soundtracking OPs, but they were swapping songs out with tunes from OTHER ANIME. WTF. Like, that defeats the entire purpose of doing this shit in the first place. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, so to speak.

I might continue this project in the future if this doesn’t feel like a complete waste of time by then. I will post my own “Favorite OPs/EDs of 2009″ list at some point relatively soon, but in the meantime check out some other people’s lists I approve of:

Moetron: Top 25 Anime OP/ED of 2009 / “Poo” as #1? I’m sold.
Kitsune’s Thoughts: Best Anime Fall 2009: OP and ED / Solid. “Poo” is on here, too.
JanaiBlog: Top 5 Most Disappointing Anime of 2009 / Not music related, but I agree with every fucking word in this post, especially concerning Kimi ni Todoke. I haven’t seen anyone else bash that show yet, and it’s about damn time.

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA) Alternate Defence Minister Panos Beglitis will inaugurate the OSCE’s Forum for Security Co-operation with an address at the Organisation’s headquarters in Vienna today.
Greece assumes the rotating chairmanship for the first four months of 2010.
The Forum constitutes the OSCE’s autonomous political and military body, and deals with issues of the so-called “tough security”, with its own Presidency, that alternates in alphabetical order every four months, as well with its own “Troika,” which functions in a coordinating manner.

These days anyone can complete the Rubik’s Cube, there are YouTube videos showing us how.
It’s time to get creative.
Here’s a few suggestions for alternate uses.
For more cube information and games go to…
http://www.playrubiks.com …

Shopping store: buy cheap & discount

101 Uses for a Rubik’s Cube

by eclectech (Category: Comedy)

Call this method onload of your page with the table id for which the alternate row colours need to be generated. 

function alternateColorToTableRows(id){  

if(document.getElementsByTagName){  

var table = document.getElementById(id); 

 var rows = table.getElementsByTagName(“tr”);  

for(i = 0; i < rows.length; i++){ //manipulate rows  

if  

(i % 2 == 0){  

.odd 

} 

{background-color: #CCFFCC;.even 

} 

{background-color: #FFFFCC;} 

else{ rows[i].className = “odd”; } 

} // For loop 

}// If 

} // Function 

 where even and odd or css styles.like this 

 .odd {background-color: #CCFFCC;} 

.even {background-color: #FFFFCC;} 

that creates alternates colors to table rows. 

Okay, today’s mission is easy (I think): Think of a mission and post it in the comment box below (click on the title)! I will also give you a hint for tomorrows mission… It involves a comment below. That’s all for today.

Alternate mission: Buy and eat a banana.

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA) Alternate Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas outlined Greece’s foreign policy priorities for 2010 during a press conference held yesterday.

Together with Deputy Minister Spyros Kouvelis, Droutsas highlighted that protecting Greece’s sovereignty and putting an end to past inertia will constitute the ultimate objective for the country’s foreign policy.
Referring to issues of particular national interest, Droutsas stressed that Greece has conveyed a message of friendship and peace to Turkey and expects the latter to respond to it.
The alternate minister mentioned the possibility of a meeting with the Turkish Foreign Minister sometime in the near future.
On the Cyprus issue, underlined the government’s commitment to actively helping Cyprus with actions rather than words, pointing out that the first foreign visit carried out by Prime Minister George Papandreou had been to Cyprus.
As regards to the country’s relations with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the alternate minister reiterated that Greece enters negotiations with an open mind and keeps an edifying stance on the matter.
Droutsas pointed out that in the communiqué forwarded by the European Union in December, it was made clear that Greece’s support to FYROM’s European course depends on reaching a viable solution to the name issue.
Greek News Agenda:  Greek Foreign Policy- Challenges and Prospects

I have an old EEEPC running ubuntu 8.10. I spent a lot of time seeking for a method to perform in order to upgrade it to the current version of ubuntu, which is 9.10. The only problem that I found is I don’t have enough space to perform an upgrade. After spending a few hours researching, here is a list of steps that I’ve done:

1. Download ubuntu alternate iso images for 9.04 and 9.10
2. Find a thumbdrive, something like 1GB will work just fine
3. Copy the image to the thumbdrive, start with 9.04
4. Plug it into a netbook, in my case it’s a 4GB eeepc
5. Open a Terminal. If you can’t find it, it’s under Applications > Accessories > Terminal
6. Type:

sudo mount /path/to/file.iso /cdrom -o loop

In my case, it was: sudo mount /media/UNTITLED/ubuntu9-4.iso /cdrom -o loop
(If you noticed my laziness on the thumb drive name, it’s a yes, I don’t bother renaming my thumb drive after formatting)
7. Perform an upgrade with a little trick by running this command

sudo /cdrom/cdromupgrade

8. Follow the usual upgrade steps

9. Remove the “cdrom” from apt sources.list

sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list

10. Repeat [3] for ubuntu 9.10

Ok, there is the explanation of what it does:
Since there is not enough space on my netbook, I decided to perform and upgrade based on CD. However, this funky netbook does not have a CD rom or DVD and I don’t want to spend a few bucks on an external DVD. Therefore, I mount the usb image as an actual CD rom on the system. Yes, it’s pretty neat Then I go to my “virtual CD rom” and perform an upgrade.

Dark Chocolate and Coconut Truffle Trio with French Dessert Wine

Food Creation, Preparation and Prop

Well I wasn’t involved in the actual making of the truffles so I can’t talk that much about it (it’s her secret recipe ). One thing I know is that she use bits of orange peels so the truffles actually have a dash of citrus taste when you eat it. But I digress. 

Initially I was trying to use my other verrine that I used in my previous post. However I could only fit two truffles into it and the formation didn’t look good. It’s like two chocolate balls hanging in the glass with no purpose. Anyway I did try to use different combination of truffles, use two verrines with two dark chocs and the other verrine with two coconut truffles but they just didn’t work. So I gave up using my favourite verrine and settle with this tall verrine. It turns out that fits exactly three truffles into it. Perfect! 

Now that I decided on the verrine I need to decide on what combination of truffles to put it. Assuming I’m going to use one verrine, I have several choices: all three in dark choc, all three in coconut, alternate dark – white – dark, and alternate white - dark – white. I voted for the alternate colour one – it would be a waste for me not to use the available combination. And I just happen to like the dark choc more so I chose the dark – white – dark combination. 

I always associate dark chocolate with elegant dessert finishing off a fine three course dinner. So again, low key setup come into mind.  What else comes with dark choc? Dessert wine maybe? What? of course it’s French dessert wine! It’s also an excuse for me to use my favourite verrine in this shot. 

Also notice that I create a similar copy of the main setup and put it as a background. 

The shooting 

Camera is rather in low angle position to accentuate the height of the verrine. Softbox is at 2-3 o’clock pointing down 45 degree from the top. I did try to lower the softbox to light the verrine from the side but the reflections are so bad that I abandon the idea straight away. 

The camera is set to F3.5 1/25th at ISO100. 

Observation 

The dessert wine is slightly out of focus, which is delibarate. I made them both in focus at first but find them competing with other for attention so I opened up the aperture a bit to throw the dessert wine a bit off focus. 

Also I angled the camera so that the bottom dark choc has the white plate as it’s background and the middle coconut truffle has the black background. Now I did have problem with the top dark choc truffle because it is dark and the background is also dark, giving a bad contrast – you can hardly see the edge of the top truffle. This is the main reason why I create a second copy of the setup and put it in the background. I positioned the second copy so that the top truffle has something bright as background. 

Also noticed that the top right part of the glass have some choc powder on the glass surface. That’s deliberate otherwise I couldn’t get the edge of the glass visible enough against the background. 

There you go, my last verrine project for the year. I hope you enjoy it and Merry Christmas everyone!

A great exercise to develop coordination and dexterity for you left and right hand. For all levels!