We on the Cilip Editorial board are seeking fresh, (and, even, young) members. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to send a 300 word critique of a recent publication (Gazette freely available here) to Rachel here. Your deadline is 4 December so please act quickly if this is something that would appeal to you.

The editorial board is a lovely, welcoming group of LIS professionals that meets only twice a year, so this is a very small commitment.

If you are an information architect, a developer, archivist, records manager or an SEO professional (etc.) with a new perspective you’d like to share, even better. We aren’t traditionalists, and would like to be represented by a spectrum of information folk in general.

Habitat in the News!

If you’re in the kitchen tomorrow and are looking for something to do while you cook, tune in (or set your DVR)  to News Channel 8 at 7am to watch the broadcast of the Montgomery County Thanksgiving Parade. ReStore participated in the event with a group of Churchill High School students. Look for the ReStore truck!

ReStore was also featured in the Gazette last week for the Holiday Shoppe. The 2nd Annual ReStore Holiday Shoppe is an opportunity to reuse and recycle holiday decorations. Also, any customers who bring in donations for the Holiday Shoppe will receive 10% off their ReStore purchase. Don’t forget ReStore is having a Black Friday Sale, check out yesterday’s post for more info!

Donations are accepted from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday at the ReStore, 9100 Gaither Road, Gaithersburg. Donations are tax-deductible and proceeds support Habitat for Humanity. For details, call 301-947-3304 or visit www.ReStoreMoCo.org.

Habi-Titus wishes everyone a Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow!

New elections board rule is good policy

I must say that I was disappointed in The Gazette’s recent coverage of the Board of Elections decision to not attend closed-door meetings ["Open meeting squabble in county leads to new policy," Oct. 28]. Far from being a pitched political battle waged between two political parties, as your paper portrayed it, the issue at stake was one of good policy: Should the body that is charged with ensuring basic equity and fairness in our election process be caucusing with the Democratic Party?

Let me set the record straight. First off, Mr. [Terry ] Speigner is the chairman of the county Democratic Party, not some elected official. For him to be meeting with any public body behind closed doors sets a bad precedent, which I’m sure he’d point out if the situations were reversed! Second, the idea that the Prince George’s County Senate delegation is not a public body just because the General Assembly is not in session is ludicrous. If it looks a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck, even if it calls itself a chicken!

I don’t know where Mr. Speigner’s engraved invitation to attend the board meeting went. It’s obvious, however, that he was a little upset about not receiving one. Seriously, is this what is expected? An invitation?

Mr. Speigner, despite his title, is not an elected official. Outside of the Democratic Party, he is merely a private citizen and, as such, is entitled to no special treatment. The information regarding the board’s meeting was available on its Web site, which is where I found it. Furthermore, in an e-mail that I wrote to state Sen. Jim Rosapepe on Oct. 24, I personally invited him to attend the meeting. I felt that it was important to reach across party lines to resolve this situation in an amicable way, which the county Democrats are apparently unwilling to do! Finally, a member of the general public also attended the meeting. I wonder how he found out about it. The charge made by Mr. Speigner and repeated by The Gazette that we Republicans somehow had a closed-door meeting with the Board of Elections is preposterous!

As for the meeting itself, during its deliberations, more than one board member stressed they had problems with the idea of attending a closed-door meeting! Furthermore, the board’s counsel believed that even if the Senate delegation didn’t violate the law, it might be possible for the board to do so by attending the meeting. All of the participants at the meeting agreed that, regardless of the legality of meeting with Mr. Speigner and the delegation, they had a special obligation to ensure they remain neutral in their dealings with the public and with all political parties in the county. This was the basis for the board’s decision to create an explicit policy regarding closed-door meetings. I, for one, thought it to be good policy and was, frankly, shocked that such a policy did not already exist!

Shame on Mr. Speigner for his outright lies! Shame on the county delegation for meeting behind closed doors and for hiding behind a loophole! Finally, shame on The Gazette for not having their facts in order before publishing!

What I witnessed Oct. 26 was an exercise in good public policy. Instead of condemning the Board of Elections as Mr. Speigner has, we should stand up and cheer. Honesty and integrity won out over cloak and daggers! That is something to be proud of, no matter what your political persuasion is.

Jason W. Papanikolas, Laurel

Today after church, I had a mini-reunion with one of my Thursday running friends. I was a little bit late, as I got out of my Sunday school class a little bit later than I had hoped, but I made good time getting to Kalamazoo. Nancy started without me, as she should have, but she left me a note so that I’d know where she was going to run. So, I set off on the chase. I had a good time chasing her down, and then I had fun talking with her as we finished up our run. The only real downside for me was the minor damage I did to my left foot when I rolled my ankle around the 0.5-mile mark.

Dear Emily,

I know that you told me not to damage myself any more, and I really wasn’t going out to damage myself. Unfortunately, I am both injury-prone and clumsy. It’s a bad combination. Thank you for worrying about me.

Sincerely,

Darrell

After the run (for me, it was 3.56 miles in 33:24), Nancy and I got to chat for a bit. We talked about cars, Borgess Run Camp, and goals for said training program. That last part didn’t go so well for me, as there was vague talk about — wait, why would I even think about putting her scheme in writing? Let’s skip that.

Nancy left, and I called a friend before heading back to Schoolcraft; she’s a bit under the weather, so I wanted to see how she was feeling and if she needed anything before I went home.

Okay, to be fair, I went for coffee before going home.

While I was talking with her, I sat on the bumper of my car, with the trunk open, and skimmed through parts of the Kalamazoo Gazette. As this was all going on, I suddenly heard the clicking of a camera. I looked up to find this guy taking photos of me. As you might expect, I was a bit confused; fortunately, he alleviated my curiosity by walking over to me. He’s with the Kalamazoo Gazette; he was out taking photographs of folks who were doing something other than raking leaves. Clearly, I qualified, so he snapped a few photos before walking over to me.

Yay?

The rest of my day was uneventful. I had dinner with Jen, Joe, and Tracy, as we all did random work on computers and such.

Document indispensable de contact et d’informations, la Gazette de Trélissac Avenir est de retour !!

Nombreux ont été les sujets abordés, vous pourrez y découvrir la parole de nos élus, des infos, des dossiers, … bref, un journal qui se veut constructif et utile.

TELECHARGER LA NOUVELLE GAZETTE (format Pdf)

N’hésitez pas à réagir en direct à ce journal en postant un commentaire. Si celui ci concerne un article en particulier il sera transmis à son auteur. N’oubliez pas d’être constructif, dans le respect de chacun.

I had started with good intentions.

I wanted to be positive in this piece.

To be supportive. To communicate the love I have for this town.

How much I believe in the community, and the local people. To publicly state how much i think we can achieve, if we pull together.

What I think we can be. Who we can be. How others would want to either be with us, or be us.

To inspire.

But sadly, it is not going to happen.

To chat about the places I love.

Like how great the Strand looks in the evening, with its neon blue lights lighting up the tress. It makes me want to walk along there with friends, to celebrate our town.

How great the square looks, with it refreshed clock tower. A new look to an old friend. Bit like how Danni Minogue always look a bit different but at the same time familiar at the start of every new series of x-factor.

But I can’t.

What has taken my muse?

Stolen my inspiration?

Throttled my thrust?

Swallowed my mojo?

(You get the idea).

Simple.

Argos.

It might not even be Argos, specifically. It could be some spotty 21 year old, high on  coca cola, and defended by ‘My Chemical Romance’ on their iPod, which caused them to miss the obvious error.

Or maybe the printers, against a  tight deadline, keen to reach press.

Or it could be the North Devon Gazette who’s standards had slipped to an all time low.

Who ever it is, it has made me mad. Totally and utterly mad. Driven to distraction.

The mistake?

Front page of this week’s Gazette.

Argos, Barnstaple.

Back page of this weeks Gazette.

Argos, BarnstaBle.

AARRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!

Red rag to a bull.

A bull who hates red rags, and wants to kill anything which has a red rag attached to it, laying beside it, or who has even walked past a red rag.

How low are the  standards to advertise in 2″ letters on the papers cover, where the main local town is SPELT WRONG?

Why not go the whole hog?

Spell Ilfracombe with a Z?

Or have (another) article about how the mayor of Bideford is popping off to America to find his family/ twin town/ media profile (delete as applicable), and instead of having a photo of him, have a picture of roly-poly DJ Chris Moyles?

It is so good that I am not holding up my journalistic skills to sell my paper. I set as low standard as I feel is suitable at the time I type.

This is more. This is a paper. Free, yes. But a paper who relies on advertising.

This is also a national retail chain, launching a new store, encouraging the locals to part with their money in a  credit crunch climate.

And calling the community by the wrong name.

Well, thank you Argos.

You can not bother to spell check, then I can not bother to visit you.

Our community deserves the simple but RESPECTFUL measure of correct spelling.

It is such a small thing, but means so much.

ARGUS.

Olha eu de novo! Voltei agora com o single disponível para download. Como eu não sei onde vocês acham os albuns/singles da banda, eu resolvi facilitar um pouco, colocando aqui esse single para todos. Segue link abaixo.

Download

Então, qualquer dia desses eu venho aqui com todos os álbuns que eu tenho salvos aqui para vocês, todos os links no 4shared. Espero que tenham gostado, eu acho que só volto depois de algum tempo, quando eu achar alguma coisa realmente importante para vocês!

EDIT

Só para não reclamarem depois, vou dar os créditos de onde peguei esse single e os outros singles e álbuns dessa banda. O site se chama Japan Visual Kei. Esse site tem músicas de várias bandas de J-rock. E quando eu digo várias, é VÁRIAS mesmo! Isso é bom para conhecer mais bandas de j-rock certo?

Aproveitem! E, membros do Japan Visual Kei, não me processem!!

Hoje eu realmente vim para perturbar todo mundo. Essa notícia é um pouco antiga, mais ainda é desse mês. Apesar de que falta apenas 23 minutos para chegar dia 1° de Novembro.

Vim trazer para vocês o novo single da banda The GazettE, chamado Before I Decay. Ele foi lançado dia 07.10, mas como eu não tenho costume em ficar entrando no My Space deles todos os dias, essa notícia ficou atrasada. Foram lançadas duas versões, um é o Limited Edition e o outro é o Regular Edition.

Limited Edition

- CD

01. BEFORE I DECAY
02. MAYAKASHI

- DVD

Music Clip – Before I Decay

- Special Packging

Regular Edition

- CD

01. BEFORE I DECAY
02. MAYAKASHI

- The First Limited Edition

- Special Packging

Video: Before I Decay

Vocês perceberam que eles mudam de aparência a cada single lançado?

Those that know me know that I generally like to be creative.  I’ve always been able to draw reasonably well and considered becoming a graphic designer before I (mistakenly?) came to the conclusion that it would be a rather difficult career choice in which to make money.

I toyed with drawing and design during my undergrad at UWO as the Graphics Editor for the student newspaper The Gazette.  The role required me to draw two ‘editorial cartoons’ a week and layout the comics page on Fridays.

I loved it, but never seriously thought about it as a career.

I later decided that an MBA and a marketing career would be the best option for me.  It was a good choice, but I always try to stay as close as possible to the creative.

Time has been scarce since then.  I still love to draw, but a career, married life and two awesome young kids keep me happily busy most of the time.

So, now that Nathan, my oldest, approaches the ripe old age of 3, I’m finding that I have a great excuse to get back into drawing, painting and basically anything creative.

This year Nathan has been obsessed with the movie Cars.  So when we found a race car driver jumpsuit, I thought I could take it the extra mile.  A simple Google search led me to this design for a homemade Lightning McQueen car.

So, I grabbed an old diaper box and went to town.  I spent an hour or two on it for a few nights in front of the tube.  It’s not a perfect replica of the paint and the lines are a bit shaky, but I just loved doing it.  And look at that face.  He’s the only critic I’m concerned with, and he seems pretty happy with it.

So there you have it.  One of my two greatest successes in life has allowed me to get more connected with one of my biggest passions in life.  And you just can’t beat that.

Those that know me know that I generally like to be creative.  I’ve always been able to draw reasonably well and considered becoming a graphic designer before I (mistakenly?) came to the conclusion that it would be a rather difficult career choice in which to make money.

I toyed with drawing and design during my undergrad at UWO as the graphics editor for the student newspaper The Gazette.  The role required me to draw two ‘editorial cartoons’ a week and layout the comics page on Fridays.  I loved it, but never seriously thought about it as a career.

I later decided that an MBA and a marketing career would be the best option for me.  It was a good choice, but I always try to stay as close as possible to the creative.

Time has been scarce since then.  I still love to draw, but a career, married life and two awesome young kids keep me happily busy most of the time.

So, now that Nathan, my oldest, approaches the ripe old age of 3, I’m finding that I have a great excuse to get back into drawing, painting and basically anything creative.

This year Nathan has been obsessed with the movie Cars.  So when we found a race car driver jumpsuit, I thought I could take it the extra mile.  A simple Google search led me to this design for a homemade Lightning McQueen car.

So, I grabbed an old diaper box and went to town.  I spent an hour or two on it for a few nights in front of the tube.  It’s not a perfect replica of the paint colours and the lines are a bit shaky, but I just loved doing it.  And look at that face.  He’s the only critic I’m concerned with, and he seems pretty happy with it.

So there you have it.  One of my two greatest successes in life has allowed me to get more connected with one of my biggest passions in life.  And you just can’t beat that.

The Gazette listed its endorsement for Rockville Mayor and City Council in today’s issue (October 21, 2009) and although I wasn’t among its finalists, it did recognize me as a “standout” (is that the same as “outstanding”?):

It is worthwhile to note two other standouts, Max van Balgooy and Virginia Onley. A Twinbrook resident and historic preservationist, van Balgooy believes it is critical to draw in residents to participate in government, especially with changing demographics. He also believes new technology should be used to effectively disseminate information.

I am delighted to be considered a serious candidate by the Gazette despite my underdog status and look forward to November 3 (and I suspect their endorsement will seriously color the rest of the campaign).

NOTE! : this is not categorized as 1 as the highest and to lowest number as the least fave… i all like/love them! ohohoh…

1. An Cafe/Antic Cafe - i liked the old an cafe more when BOU was the guitarist but yeah they still rock!

2. Gazette – yeah i like gazette so what?! hahaha… :p

3. L’arc~en~ciel – who doesn’t love em?

4. Ellegarden – \m/

5. Dir En Grey – yeah! fave x100!

6. Radwinps – <3

7. Girugamesh – nuf said

8. Bump of Chicken – RAWR!

9. AKFG(asian kung-fu generation)

10. Maximum the Hormone

The events/meetings of Visual Kei fans in Thailand are always at MBK Center (Mahboonkrong or มาบุญครอง) every month. MBK is a famous shopping center which has a big space for meeting at the corner of the street. It is near Siam Center, just across the street. You can just imagine of Thai girls dress as Harajuku people. People around the world know that Thai girls are very pretty, so what they will look like, … the prettiest one you saw in Japanese. No lie.

Some Visual Kei bands are so famous in groups of rich teenagers in Thailand, and a lot of Japanese animas do, too. These fans pay a lot of money for their costumes which they wear only in one day. Dir en Grey, Gazette, Miyavi (ex- Dué le Quartz) and D’espairs Ray are very famous currently. Although Malice Mizer is something old, but people always love to dress like them. Mana’s lip is very attractive and unique.

Photo of area around Siam Center by Sw Eden

Nongnut is one of classmates in high school. She got asked to dress with a white-fur costumn, because it was not fit in her friend’s body. Her group liked Hyde, L’Arc~en~Ciel so much. She gave me her drawing of Hyde, and I still keep it. Hyde is considered as the best guy in L’Arc en Ciel. He is who you should talk with and have as a friend.

Right now, let’s cross the street to Siam Center. Several buildings have small rooms for rent. Most of those rooms are for rent. Many teachers rent them and their students have to pay a lot of money to take extra classes. It sounds mean that those teachers do not teach everything they know in the school, because they need more money. Visual Kei fans also rent the rooms, too. They use it for the meeting within their own group for each band. X Japan fans liked to eat some spicy things together. Some big fans of Visual Kei also buy many CD and DVD from Japan and sale them in this place. Most of the discs are second hand, because they already watched them. I walked up and looked around in the latest time I visited Siam Center. A group of teenatures with dark-eyes-make-up watched Yoshiki played his piano.

I know an event that X Japan fans usually do in May 2nd of every year. They will meet at MBK or Siam Center and have some party. They will take a bus or train to Hua Lamphong Temple, which is one of the best place to do Coffin-Offerings. They donate money for the corpses who do not have coffin. They hope all merit to go for Hideto Matsumoto (Hide or 秀人松本), their hero.

Here’s my drawing of Hideto Matsumoto.
I do not usually put something that I do not own the copyright.

I do not usually dress as Visual Kei, but I do dress for Halloween. I had got a reward for the scariest dress. Sometimes, I dressed not for the contest. My close friend and I painted ourselves and walk around our high school. Halloween is my most favorite day of the year. So now, let’s go to class!