My first day with the TWC folks was nice.  Everyone was very kind and helpful: Just like the people I met when I joined DCS with the State of Indiana.

I received an overview of the TWIST system; the architecture of the system, and the various technologies utilized for the system.  My work with DCS was very discipline specific (e.g. PowerBuilder, PL/SQL, etc.); with TWC my duties will be more cross-cutting from architecture to database programming to front-end development.

The soup-to-nuts work should keep things very interesting and fun!

“This song is about love end …. disaster”

“Hungry Man”

November 22nd, 2009

There is no question that I have been highly critical of Dexter this season, which isn’t to suggest that I wasn’t also critical of season two (where the conclusion fizzled) or season three (where things felt as if they wrapped up too neatly): this is a show that I have always felt struggled in the balance between the parts and the whole, and this has been especially clear this season. While I’ve enjoyed the majority of the story surrounding the Trinity Killer, and Michael C. Hall is delivering as compelling a performance as ever, I’ve found myself watching episodes out of obligation more than interest, and fastforwarding through anything not involving Trinity, Dexter, or Deb.

If we follow that strategy, “Hungry Man” contains perhaps the best connection yet between Dexter and Trinity, offering glimpses of two theoretically similar Thanksgiving dinners that in reality tell two very different story or, more problematically for Dexter, two very different stages of the same tale. The problem is that this isn’t actually a new theme, having effectively been the purpose of the Trinity story since we meant “Arthur,” and despite some really fantastic execution throughout it (like seasons before it) feels a bit too on the nose, thematically.

However, when you have a show that likes to meander about as it does and (in my opinion) waste our time with storylines that are irrelevant until the show decides to deliver a bombshell like at the end of this episode, I’ll take compelling contrivance over mundane mind games any day.

What bugs me about showing the dangerous side of the Mitchell family is that it was so inevitable. The storyline has always been an extravagant excuse to investigate Dexter’s family more carefully, a conveniently Miami-based serial killer who happens to also have a family. Over the past number of episodes, the show has created excuses for Dexter to see what Arthur is made of, discovering last week that he’s not even close to stable and discovering this week that his family has consequently suffered. And in those scenes the show has created a lot of legitimate dramatic tension, as Arthur/Trinity is unpredictable in a way that Dexter simply isn’t. We know how Dexter responds to situations, and we’re so far inside his head that the show has felt the need to more consistently use Harry as a second voice in order to diversify his inner monologues. To have a new character who is similarly complex to be able to investigate is both useful for Dexter (who loves self-inflicting psychoanalysis) and for the show, and Lithgow has been a great addition as a result.

However, my problem is that this episode goes too far to vilify Arthur, to take him so far away from Dexter’s current position that he becomes simply a cautionary tale rather than a complex individual to be dissected by Dexter and by the audience. It’s one thing to shatter his image of the perfect family by suggesting that his son resents him for the emergence of his violent tendencies, or to suggest that he is over-protective of his daughter to the point where he locks her in her room and has effectively turned her into both a creepily sexual 15-year old and a replacement for his dead sister. I think those cracks in the perfect family were both really interesting (especially with the daughter, who until this episode seemed a waste of the acting talents Vanessa Marano showed on Six Feet Under or Gilmore Girls), and they created consequences that wouldn’t be visible from behind a tree in his front yard, Dexter’s first vantage point into this family.

And yet, when Jonah went off during Thanksgiving dinner and Arthur went on a murderous rampage choking out his son and throwing his daughter across the room, the scene went too far. Yes, the scene was an enormously compelling piece of drama, and we’re conditioned to gasp when Dexter reveals the Dark Passenger to Arthur in that moment, but it makes things far too easy, which is the same thing that has happened in every past season. In Season Two, Lyla was a lifeline for Dexter, someone that he was able to talk to about his problem (albeit veiled in the context of Narcotics Anonymous), and killing someone who offers him solace would have been an intriguing moral dilemma; of course, she turned into a kidnapping arsonist psychopath, so all questions of morality disappeared. The same happened in Season Three when Dexter found Miguel Prado, someone who could be a friend and confidante who knew about his problems but understood and even assisted with it; however, he was revealed to be a corrupt attorney who was using Dexter to kill innocent victims, which made Dexter’s decision to kill him less morally complicated and more “satisfying.” It was a “Hell yeah” moment on a show that, late in each season, loves shifting into that mode.

For once, I’d like to see one of Dexter’s foils actually remain complicated to the point where Dexter doesn’t know if he should kill them. I’m aware that Trinity doesn’t make a great candidate for this considering the fact that he has murdered nearly 100 people in his lifetime, but having Dexter witness it first hand in such vivid detail creates too simple a trajectory. Dexter is at its best when it is investigating moral complexities, in particular within Dexter, and that ship has officially sailed: from now on, we’ve switched from being compelled by the intricacies of this friendship to a sort of bloodlust, hopeful that Dexter “gets another kill” (a common complaint amongst some fans is that they aren’t satisfied unless Dexter draws blood). The scene was enormously compelling, don’t get me wrong, but it also signals that the compelling series of episodes more carefully investigating Arthur have passed, and a serial killer is effectively all that’s left.

I thought that this hour was one of the best so far this season in terms of connecting Trinity and Dexter’s experiences, and Harry’s observation that Rita was, at one point, also just a cover for his true identity is spot on. Dexter has been holding onto hope that Arthur somehow figured it out, but in this episode any sense that Arthur has anything under control was eliminated as soon as his family was revealed as so tragically flawed. While it involved one of the subplots I fastforwarded through (Elliot and Rita’s transgression), it was interesting to see how Dexter returns to his family and sees what he believes to be happiness (Cody volunteering thanks for Dexter, the same thanks that had to be coerced out of the Millers) when in reality Elliot has whispered in Rita’s ear that Dexter isn’t around as much as a real father should be. It allows Dexter to believe his family is different when, based on what we know (and what Dexter should know, considering Rita’s less than stable past) there is every chance that ten years down the line they could be just the same.

But, unfortunately for the season as a whole, this is as far as this investigation is really going to get, if we follow the traditional patterns of the season structures (which, as noted, to this point have been almost slavishly adhered to). While we learn that Christine is Trinity’s daughter, and Deb puts together that she was likely the person who shot her and killed Lundy, we’re entering into the part of the season that completely demystifies the villains in an effort to allow Dexter to be a hero. Now, killing Trinity is avenging the thirty years of murders, protecting against future murders, protecting the Miller family, and protecting himself (now that Arthur knows his inner demon); there’s nothing complex about that, an inevitability tied as much to Lithgow’s guest star status as it is to the show’s ongoing pattern.

And if this was all surrounded by a more compelling set of ancillary storylines, I’d probably be less likely to complain about it, but forgive me if Batista/LaGuerta and Quinn/Reporter aren’t doing it for me.

Cultural Observations

• I do think that Jennifer Carpenter deserves a lot of credit this season. She was really solid in her scenes with Cody/Astor tonight, and more importantly did a good job of various revelatory moments that wouldn’t have worked without a good performance (as she’s basically acting with herself).
• However, I thought Masuka at Thanksgiving dinner was a huge disappointment: instead of letting him loose comically, they tied him up in Rita and Elliot’s drama, which could potentially lead to long-term hilarity but actually makes me less likely to care about the character moving forward. Did Masuka really need to be connected to that storyline?
• I’m going to presume that the title is as much a reference to the TV Dinners (which defined Deb and Dexter’s post-Mrs. Morgan Thanksgiving traditions) as it does to Dexter/Arthur’s hunger to kill.
• I thought Deb’s realization that the killer is working on a school pattern makes sense, but wouldn’t the bludgeoning have taken place during the school year, thus making Deb realize that he’s Miami-based? I know that she was at Thanksgiving Dinner and not in front of the board, but it was just something that she didn’t get to follow through on.

Bu da araya girdi biraz ama napalım. Bu hafta tembellik yaptım biraz, bence kazaklı versiyon daha iyi oldu. Bu arada yazlık versiyon da buradaydı. Evet bu eteği seviyorum =)

Etek&Hırka: Zara \ T-Shirt: Twist \ Kazak: Mango \ Çorap: Penti \ Bilezik: Park Bravo \ Ayakkabılar: Boutique 9

I came across a posting today at WebMD about commonly held Fitness Myths.  I consider myself a bit of a “de-MYTH-stifyer”, so I read the list with great interest.  Of all of the solid information the article had to offer (you can’t spot-blast belly fat for example) there was one myth that stood out:  Myth #8.

Fitness Myth #8: Machines are a safer way to exercise because you’re doing it right every time.

Although it may seem as if an exercise machine automatically puts your body in the right position and helps you do all the movements correctly, that’s only true if the machine is properly adjusted for your weight and height, experts say.  “Unless you have a coach or a trainer or someone figure out what is the right setting for you, you can make just as many mistakes in form and function, and have just as high a risk of injury, on a machine as if you work out with free weights or do any other type of nonmachine workout,” says Schlifstein. (Emphasis added)

The truth is, we have become dependent on machines for our fitness.  We depend on them to tell us how to sit, how much weight to lift and how far to extend our range of motion.  This is a trend that is as old as the fitness movement itself; with roots in the circuit training and cardio machine boom of the 80’s.  A great big segment of exercisers believe they can’t get a good workout without their favorite machine.  You know what I have to say to that?  Bollocks.  That’s right – BOLLOCKS! 

Your fitness is no more dependent on a machine than it is on the tooth fairy.  And while the WebMD article points out that  machines don’t guarantee an injury-free workout; it doesn’t tell the whole story.  So I will.  Not only do machines not guarantee your safety, THEY DON’T GUARANTEE RESULTS EITHER.  That’s right, I said it.  If you are locked into a gym membership until the next ice age, I am sorry, but the truth had to be told.  All that big equipment won’t get you anywhere you want to go – -  if where you want to go is healthier, happier and better able to function in real life.  It might get you big.  It might get you thin.  But it can’t get you truly fit.   

The health and fitness industry has sold us a bill of goods.  They have told us that big bulky equipment will get us the results we want and that simply isn’t true.  Why would they do that?  They have 17 Billion reasons every year to keep singing this song.  Bottomline?  The health and fitness industry is driven by sales.  The sale of big equipment, big gym spaces and even bigger membership numbers.  We have been systematically conditioned into thinking that we can’t get fit without involving a third party and the failure of 40 years of that kind of thinking speaks for itself.  Americans have never been fatter, sicker or less productive.  Something has to change.

Fitness, true fitness, is not dependent on a machine, or a gym or any other outside force.  True fitness is dependent on one thing:  that beautiful brain between your ears.  The same one you were born with and the one you are going to have to use if you want to be truly fit.

I want to empower you to take back your fitness from the big corporations and health club conglomerates that have stripped you of your dignity and your wallet.  It might seem scary at first, but I promise it is worth it.  What you have to gain is the life of your dreams and the body that can take you there.  No membership, no machines, no crazy diets required.  All you need is you:  your body, your mind, your will…you.  Stay tuned, right here, for all the common sense information you need to take back your health and be truly fit.

As spinners, weavers, and knitters we spend a lot of time and energy in winding and unwinding the yarns with which we work.  Take a good look at your tools.  How may involve some sort of winding process?

My current weaving project underway is using a ribbon yarn.  The yarn “begs” to be kept flat, however this has proven to be most challenging.  I began by winding from the skein onto my ball winder to create a more usable yarn package for warping my loom, and to begin weaving.  It wasn’t too far into the ‘direct warp’ process, I realized the trouble I created.

Twist.

Yes, the meer act of drawing from the center-pull ball I carefully created added twist to the ribbon yarn thwarting my efforts to keep everything flat throughout the weaving process!  I knew this happened, but with “conventional” plied yarns, additional twist is hard to see and readily neglected.  This fact was not in the front of my mind.

With the twist very visible in the ribbon yarn, I decided to record some observations.  Hopefully, these will assist you in managing any unwinding process that adds twist, namely…

Unwinding from a center-pull ball, or off the END of a cone, spool, bobbin, or pirn – Creates Twist

But, we all knew that… didn’t we?  Looking closely as the ribbon was unwound by pulling off the end of bobbin, and I found…

Further testing showed this also applies to pulling the yarn from a center pull ball and observing the direction the yarn unwraps as you pull.

Looking at this issue further, by turning the bobbin end-for-end and pulling the ribbon from what is now the other end, twist is created in the opposite direction – as the unwind direction changes.

Twist is created at the rate of one complete twist per “lap” the yarn takes around the circumference of the spool.  Therefore, with a small diameter spool, the yarn will have to unwind many laps when pulling off one foot of yarn.  Many twists are inserted in this process.  If a spool is bigger around, fewer laps are taken and less twist is inserted.

And, just so all is not lost…

Unwinding from the SIDE of a ball, cone, spool, or bobbin does NOT create twist!

So why might this be important?

How your ball (cone, spool, pirn, etc.) is unwound will…

• tend to loosen or tighten the plies in a yarn as it’s unwound
• potentially loosen the twist in a single ply yarn to make it more difficult to use while knitting
• create unwanted twist – in the example of the ribbon yarn I was trying to keep flat
• enable you to tighten up a loosly spun yarn

Thankfully, most of the time this inserted twist is negligible and can be ignored.  But when it can’t, understanding how it’s created and can be managed is helpful.  Change the direction of how you are unwinding and see the results!

Bon tricot,
Steve

We have a genetic urge to reproduce and eat alot.  That ain’t rocket science.  Too many babies, too many people, eating too much and we have got a problem.  The good news?  All in the urges in the world can not FORCE a human being to do something against his will. 

What this article does is make a good case for what we are up against from our own biology.  The challenge?  To map out a strategy to overcome these urges to do what is good for our bodies, our species, our world. 

Enjoy the article.  I found it thought provoking.   Hopefully, you will too. 

Will we fight our genetic urges? Slim chance | Helen Rumbelow – Times Online.

This little known article, the Soft American, was written in 1960 by then President-Elect John F. Kennedy.  The status of President Elect carries with it a great amount of power in a town that admires popularity.  At a time when JFK had peak political capital, he chose to write an article about the health and fitness of the American people. 

This article is unique because it was written prior to the age of super muscle men and cardio mania that would start in the 70’s and continue to this day.  As such, it gives a glimpse into the historical connection between physical fitness, metal prowress and a strong society that is not tainted by the current climate of strength and cardio centric exercise.  By connecting fitness to the ancient Greeks and Romans, JFK reminds us what it means to be truly fit at a time when the true definition of fitness had not been hijacked by celebrities and corporate america. 

Why is this important?  Our country hangs in the balance.  Never before have more Americans been less healthy, less happy, less productive.  I believe this is directly connected to a consistent, disturbing trend of poor performance of our great country both economically and academically when compared with the rest of the world.  This movement toward mediocrity is rooted in a lack of discipline that can be seen in the waist lines of our citizens.  The cure?  Individuals must throw off their bad habits, disregard popular opinion and take responsibility for what they do with their bodies. 

Enjoy the article.  It is a gift from JFK to us through the generations.  His wisdom is as true today as it was then. 

But no matter how vigorous the leadership of government, we can fully restore the physical soundness of our nation only if every American is willing to assume responsibility for his own fitness and the fitness of his children. We do not live in a regimented society where men are forced to live their lives in the interest of the state. We are, all of us, as

JFK: A champion of true fitness

free to direct the activities of our bodies as we are to pursue the objects of our thought. But if we are to retain this freedom, for ourselves and for generations yet to come, then we must also be willing to work for the physical toughness on which the courage and intelligence and skill of man so largely depend.

All of us must consider our own responsibilities for the physical vigor of our children and of the young men and women of our community. We do not want our children to become a generation of spectators. Rather, we want each of them to be a participant in the vigorous life.

Kabukicho is now full of ads for this new (?) host club called Smappa!, which seems a blatant rip-off of SMAP, the boy band now entering middle-age. The Smappa ad for Shun-kun above hilariously promises 夜のロハス, night-time lohas.

Lohas means Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability, and applies to a 30 something female demographic. What has made hairspray and men’s make-up sustainable? I think actually, like the club name, it is a blatant attempt to connect with larger pop culture themes (like a bad porn title that mimics a Hollywood blockbuster).

From their incredibly complete Smappa! website, I have borrowed these staff images. Scroll to the bottom to see their onsen/ryoukan holiday. These boys are well-documented. Check their Smappa website for more!

love is one of the most beautiful gift, but has it ever occurred to you what happens to love after a few years ahead

BEFORE MARRIED…

Guys: Finally, I’ve been waiting for this   moment arrived for a long time
Girl: Are you willing to have me go?
Guy: Of course not!! Do not ever think about that
Girl: Do you love me??
Guy: Sure!! i Will forever remain so
Girl: Did you ever having an affair??
Guy: No!! I would never do that bad things
Girl: Will you kiss me??
Guys: Yes
Girl: Darling …. …

After 5 years of marriage … read from bottom to top!!

the blood soaked walls augur ghastly findings

pure born hatreds overflowing with calculated malice

smiling bayonets lapping at their supine captures

machetes twisted-turned sideways and returned

bullet travelled flesh prostrate as though in eternal supplication

murals awashed in the scents of noon-day agonies

roundly severed hands tucked into the adjoining creek

broken bones thinly veiled in roving flies

the roving sounds of panicked trains ferrying them to hades

ah! such be but our daily runings

wednesday

Did you ever find it difficult when doing tests, remember when the days at school when you’re really stuck in a working test you may just leave it just like that
but not for some people, well let’s see

did you see,hha
your math teacher gonna be proud with you lol(then gonna kick you out)

mmphh muahha i got mad about thats one when i relize that the answer is true lol

what is it mean?even your little brother  can mock you mhha

teacher: expand it!!
peter: i think this is “expand” enough sir..
teacher: what the &%#@

no comment anyway

Kötü fotoğraflar için üzgünüm, yanıma almayı unutmuşum makineyi =( ( Ceyda kızma tamam).

Jean: Topshop \ Booties: Nine West \ T-Shirt: Twist \ Cardigan: Mavi

I’d be curious: did Michael Caine and Jude Law talk about Alfie on the set of Sleuth? Did they compare performances? Did they get drunk and watch the Stallone version of Get Carter? Or did they just stare at each other threateningly until Kenneth Branagh shouted “Roll camera”?

The Sleuth remake sounds like quite a compelling proposition at first: one of the grand old English actors facing off against a glittering, promising young guy. (Admittedly, Jude Law hasn’t quite followed up on the promise of his early films, has he?) Directed by Kenneth “Four fucking hours of Shakespeare” Branagh, who has a deft hand behind the camera when he isn’t trying to showcase his own thespian ego. And the original play and film adapted by Harold Pinter, master of intellectual menace and keeper of the weasel under the cocktail cabinet.

In practice, though, Sleuth is dead as a film. It has occasional moments where the individual contributors flare up and come to life, but it’s like putting an electrical current into a dead frog. Its twitches are easily mistaken for signs of life, but the poor little green guy is still as dead as, well, a dead frog.

Michael Caine probably fares best. He slips into the Pinteresque dialogue with ease and manages to make it sound relatively natural. Caine comes closest to convincing us that the film has a beating heart – but even he cannot sustain this against the wooden staginess of the proceedings. The script might work on stage, with the immediacy that a live performance brings to things, but if some scripts jump off the page, this movie lurches back onto the page.

I’ve liked Jude Law in a number of films, first and foremost Gattaca, The Wisdom of Crocodiles and The Talented Mr Ripley, and he’s got moments in Sleuth where he shines – but all too many of his line deliveries sound as if he imagined that This Is What Pinter’s Supposed To Sound Like. It gets worse in the second part of the film, after the first major twist, which I felt was badly handled; I sat there wondering whether it’s a genuine twist or whether the film suddenly decided to go all post-modern on us. I would have prefered the latter, since the twist made the characters even less credible. In any case, after half an hour Law turns up as a new character, but while his body language is convincing, his accent couldn’t be more fake. Yes, he’s supposed to be fake, but if it’s so transparent to us that this is Jude Law in disguise, it makes the Michael Caine character look stupid if he doesn’t get it… and since the film tries to convince us that the characters aren’t stupid while showing them doing utterly stupid things, it’s difficult to take anything happening on screen seriously.

The third act introduces a homoerotic component that seems to have popped in from a different film altogether. While the casting should work brilliantly here – Law has always had a peculiarly feminine quality – seeing Michael Caine trying to get his menacing paws on the younger man rarely feels anything other than awkward because the development comes out of left field, from another game, in a different country altogether.

Would the film have worked better for me if I’d seen the original? Perhaps – but I doubt it. Branagh’s main mistake in the end was to think that the staginess of the script could be counteracted by ‘clever’ (read: obvious) cinematographic choices. However, no weird camera angle will distract from the script and the performances if they’re geared towards the stage. Seeing this live might have been riveting. Seeing the film? Well. Dead frog.

Well the Amazon.com store is up and running! Lets hope this works out well, we had four people call yesterday just wanting one box.

Yesterday I saw Cake Wrecks! It was lots of fun and we had cake! Then we went to Tw!st! Which was lovely of course. MMMM Blackberry margarita.

Today should be interesting since its Sales meeting day.

I also talked to Mr. Twitter yesterday. Just because. I feel good about the way things are going

Hey,

Sorry for getting delayed in posting. This is my September personal animation to practice body mechanics. These are the martial arts move known as Butterfly Twist and Jump Twist. Your comments and critiques are welcome.

However, I had received so many comment and critiques, I will be redoing this again in near weeks or months. Thanks.

From Dresdencodak here’s 42 essential 3rd act twists that keep you laughing for a while !!
Link