My aunt is currently renovating her house. Since she knows I deal with interiors and decoration, she called up to ask about a good paint color for her house walls. I suggested to her, why doesn’t she try out wallpapers. Now she hasn’t been to my house yet. So she had no idea about the kind of wonder wallpapers do to our homes. So, when I suggested it her wallpapers, her immediate response was, “Aren’t they limited in patterns?”

This is just another myth about wallpapers. Wallpapers are available in every kind of shade, pattern and texture you can think of. Also as I have already mentioned in my previous post, a variety of other kinds of materials like jute, silk, metallic are also available.

Patterns like stripes and geometric are the evergreen ones. You can get unlimited styles in them. You can always find a new perspective every time you look at them. They never grow old or boring.

Also wallpapers are available in a multiple number of textures which gives a chic finish to your walls.With so much to select from, once you finish wallpapering your house, it will definitely be a dream home!

• Create a Fancy Search Box using CSS | ZENVERSE
  Nowadays, most websites come with a search box to improve surfing experience. To make your website looks good, beside having a nice looking theme, you would need a fancy search box to replace the classic ones.
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• Essential WordPress Hacks to BOOST your Blog | tripwire magazine
  This article is an attempt to offer the majority of WordPress users an supplement to Codex, plugins by providing really nice to have WordPress Hacks that anyone can use. Finally this article provides a list of the best resources ever to find hacks for WP.
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• 40+ Awesome Tutorials and Techniques For WordPress Theme Developers | tripwire magazine
  If you want to create your own templates or if you’re planning to alter an existing you should get familiar with Codex ASAP. Lets get started with the WordPress tutorials and techniques!
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• WordPress Blog Services – 10 Useful WordPress Loop Hacks
  The loop is a very important aspect of WordPress blogs. In fact, the loop is what allows you to get posts from your WordPress database and print them on the screen. A set of useful and user-friendly functions, the loop is incredibly powerful. With it, you can get a single post, a list of posts ordered by date, title or category, a list of posts written by a specific author and much more.
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  I came across an interesting question the other day. A user wanted to know how to query a specific number of sticky posts for the front page. Generally, I just point people to the Definitive Sticky Posts Guide for WordPress, but this question was not covered.
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• لا حاجة لاستخدام برامج تحميل التورنت بعد اليوم | عالم التقنية
  معظمنا إن لم يكن جميعنا يعرف ما هو التورنت، وبعضنا لا يستغني عنه يوميا في القيام بعمليات التحميل سواء لبرامج أو مواد تعليمية أو مواد للتصميم وغيرها. ولمن هم مثلي من غير المعجبين بنظام التورنت وعمليات المشاركة عن طريقه؛ فتواجههم مشكلة كبيرة حينما يعثرون على مادة من قبيل الصدفة ويرغبون بتحميلها ولا يجدون سوى رابط تورنت لها أو أنهم لا يرغبون بالدخول في موال البحث في مواقع التورنت الشهيرة ومن ثم التحميل بإحدى البرامج الوسيطة (البرنامج العميل) كـ Utorrent أو BitTorrent و azureus وغيرها الكثير. حسناً فلقد قدمت بعض المواقع تطبيقات وخدمات مجانية لحل هذه المشكلة، فسنستعرض معاً بعضاً من هذه الحلول.
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• تعرف على أكثر عشرة أحداث تأثيراً للانترنت في هذا العقد | عالم التقنية
  ا شك أن العقد الحالي كان يحمل الكثير من المفاجئات في طياته لهذه الشبكة العنكبوتية التي تلقب بالانترنت سواء من أحداث أو مشروعات قلبت كل الموازين وجعلت من الانترنت هو العالم المثالي لتحقيق جميع أحلام ورغبات مستخدميه ورواده، وعلى هذا الأساس قامت مجموعة “ويبي اوردز/ جوائز ويبي” بإطلاق تقرير وإعلان تحت مسمى “أكثر عشرة لحظات تأثيراً للانترنت في هذا العقد”؛ وبالطبع يقصد هنا بالـ(لحظات) هو الأحداث التي وقعت في هذه الأوقات و(العقد) كما هو معروف للجميع وهو فترة زمنية تُقَدر بعشرة أعوام. في التالي سنتعرف على هذه الأحداث المؤثرة وتلخيص لكلاً منها.
  (tags: تعرف على أكثر عشرة أحداث تأثيراً للانترنت في هذا العقد | عالم التقنية)
• WordPress Theme Design Tip with Options Adminstration | AEXT.NET
  Are you running WordPress? And how are you controlling all options of your current wordpress theme? WordPress offers you get_option() function to get the options of your wordpress. However, all of default options wordpress gives to you are not enough. You maybe want to add more options that easy to implement on your theme design. How to do that? This tutorial will help you create options and administrate them in wordpress admin page.
  (tags: WordPress Theme Design Tip with Options Adminstration | AEXT.NET)

The Variety Screening Series will feature Iron Cross on Tues Dec 15th at the Sunshine Cinema!

This screening will feature a Q&A with Writer/Director Joshua Newton and Alexander Newton.

Please see their website for more information.

http://www2.variety.com/screening/movie_details.asp?movieid=398&FilmTitle=IRON%20CROSS

When I was on the beat, I was never sure what to make of Ryan Kavanaugh. He always had a million financial deals going, but didn’t talk like one. He was always running late, and seemed a bit scattered. And there were rumors about his finances, a couple drunk driving incidents….

Yet studios like Universal and Sony kept doing big slate deals with him.

A couple weeks ago, I had a chance to sit down with Ryan for this Billion Dollar Producer section Variety ran in last Friday’s paper. Ryan was running late, of course, but once the interview began he was all mine. The interview stretched several hours as he showed off several projects he’s working on. Just as I suspected: He’s always running late because he gets caught up in the moment.

Here’s my feature story, which addresses his remarkable energy and those pesky rumors about his business, a story about Rogue, and his ambitions for VOD. At 34, he’s already a mogul.

What a $258.8 million dollar audience looks like

$258.8 million.  That’s the worldwide 5-day gross for New Moon.

That’s $140.7 million domestic.  The film also broke the All-Time Single Day and Friday Opening records, not to mention the Biggest 2-Day total.

It’s now the third biggest opening of all time — following only Spiderman 3 and The Dark Knight.

And it did all of this in NOVEMBER, when kids still have to go to school and the masses aren’t seeking the theater for heat relief.  Crucially, the budget for New Moon = Just under $50 million.  Add in $25 million for promotion, and you’ve already got a film (and franchise) firmly in the black.

The rhetoric flooding the film blogosphere is filled with words like “jaw-dropping,” “huge surprise,” and “phenomenal.”  Nikki Finke and Variety both point out that not even the film’s distributor, Summit Entertainment, thought the film would open this big — estimates were for between $100-$110 million domestic, no small number itself.  Why?  Because it’s what is known as a “two quadrant” film (the four audience ‘quadrants’ = men under 25, men over 25, women under 25, women over 25.  Most blockbusters are films that appeal to all four quadrants — see Spiderman, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Dark Knight, Titanic, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, etc.).

The audience is not only ‘two quadrant’ (apparently 80% female) but young.  50% of attendees were under 21.  Variety sums it up best:  “the female-fueled New Moon explodes the myth that you need an all-audience film to do that level of biz, or that fanboys hold all the power.”

So does that answer my question?  Is that what $258.8 million could mean? That girls can power movies — especially when there’s a romance (and abstinence porn) involved?

Sorta.  Because it could also mean much, much more.

*It could legitimize the female market.

After big openings for Sex and the City, The Proposal, and Julie and Julia, risk-adverse studios may begin to invest more earnestly (and consistently) in properties that cater specifically (and unabashedly) to the female market.  Of course, the studios have long counterprogrammed with ‘girly’ fare, but the key word is counterprogram — they try to pick up the ‘dregs’ who aren’t flocking to the supposedly four-quadrant blockbuster released the same weekend.  This weekend is actually a fascinating example of counterprogramming, as The Blind Side, starring Sandra Bullock, did surprisingly well — presumably picking up the anti-Twilight female audience and scattered males who had been convinced by the football-time ad campaign that sold the film as a football-oriented triumph-of-the-will.

*It could (and already has) opened the female market to misogynist and ageist critique.

This is the ugly underbelly to what might otherwise be viewed as a ‘girl power’ triumph.  For as anyone familiar with the franchise knows, the text is not immune to criticism.   The original text has been criticized for its conservative, anti-feminist views; the second film in particular has been subject to scathing reviews from most popular critics.  I’ve seen denigrating, clearly misogynist critiques of the film, from both men and women, on a diverse set of blogs and Twitter feeds — many of which interpret the success of the film as the failure of America, reason to hate themselves, their family, their loved ones, the end of the world, etc.  I realize that some of this quips are in jest, but they also interpret a mass movement of females — seeking out a specific type of pleasure — as nigh-apocalyptic.  As if the success of Twilight somehow ushers in the end of good taste.

Such a critique is misogynistic not only because it demonstrates a clear case of cultural amnesia — if any success indicated the end of good taste, it was that of horror porn and boy-oriented Transformers — but also because it explicitly and unabashedly constructs female consumers as rabid, mindless, brainwashed schmucks.  Whatever one thinks of Twilight (and I’m not saying that the text should be exempt from critique), we still need to recognize the fact that the audience is not monolithic, nor is it mindless.  By reproducing those beliefs, we (as scholars, as film critics, as film bloggers and cultural critics more generally) extend the general subjugation of women’s pleasures, tastes, desires, etc.  Indeed, such beliefs contribute to the ghettoization of female-oriented art and artistry in a broad sense — whether female-directed film (if you need a reminder that it’s tough for women in Hollywood, just check out A.O. Scott’s recollection of the most important films of the last decade.  Not a female director to be found.)

I heed the argument that the success of Twilight might contribute to the marginalization of less hegemonic products (with less traditional interpretations).  But I also want to underline the fact that many women — and not just feminist women like the ones with whom I attended the premiere — are engaging in negotiated readings of this text.   Some are reading it as satire, some are rewriting the ending using fanfic.  But as is the case with almost any text, audiences make the text meet them where they are — a 13-year-old girl might love the romance, another might identify with the plainness of Bella, others might crave the family dynamic of the Cullens, older women may crave the thrill of first romance, and others may just relish the chance to escape — either in the books or the films — and become absorbed by a text.

In other words, the females who attended New Moon got to be ‘fan-girls.’  Is there something threatening and wrong with that?

*It will lower the bar for the sequels.

This is a crucial and disheartening point.  New Moon very clearly had higher production values than Twilight — the stunts are far less cheesy, there are CGI wolves, and they hired Dakota Fanning and Michael Sheen to play the baddie vampires.  They shot in Rome; they had all sorts of sweet helicopter and trick shots.  The lighting was more even; the Native Americans’ wigs were less visible.  Why, then, would the bar be lowered? Because Twilight is a superior film.  There.  I said it.  I’m curious to know if I’m in the minority here, but I felt far less magic in the second film — no matter of CGI wolves could make up for the absence of Catherine Hardwicke, who helmed the first film.  Hardwicke, who also directed the superb Thirteen, has a certain way with teen situations.  The way she directed the scenes at the high school — and the deviations from the book, including the classic line “This dress makes my boobs look totally awesome” — absolutely made the film for me.  I could gloss over the clunky vampire jumping from tree to tree — so long as I had the intimate moments between Bella and her dad, Bella and her awkward teenage friends.

Now that New Moon, with its streamlined narrative, has garnered such a substantially higher gross than the original,  it’s only natural that the forthcoming films will heed its lessons.  I’d love for the series to take a Harry Potter bent, exploring various color palettes, alterations in tone, and senses of burgeoning humor with each director.    This seems unlikely.  As Transformers 2, Spiderman 3, and Pirates of the Caribbean 3 have proven, a sequel, however bloated, however much it pales in comparison to the original, will do even better business.  So why concern yourself with quality?

Stars in the making? I'm not so sure.

*It won’t necessarily make stars out of Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner.

This might seem counter-intuitive.  They attract huge crowds!  People put their faces on their t-shirts!  But these actors have become so incredibly wed to their characters, it’ll take critical and financial success in non-Twilight roles to break away from their picture personalities as Bella, Edward, and Jacob, respectively.

My bet for non-Twilight success is firmly on K-Stew, whose forthcoming turn as Joan Jett in The Runaways seems poised to do at least moderately well.  She’s already wrapped Welcome to the Rileys, a small production that should continue to bolster her cred as an actual actress.  (She has to sigh and look scared a lot in the Twilight saga, but I do think the girl can act.)

RPattz might be doomed to Edward-style brooding, as exemplified by his role in Remember Me.

It stars Chris Cooper, Pierce Brosnen, and that girl from Lost, but is it a hit?  Middling?  Fueled by Twilight fans?  (They tried to make that work with RPattz as Salvador Dali this summer in Little Ashes, but I couldn’t even watch the preview (complete with Pattinson in Dali moustache) without laughing.  Pattinson is scheduled for two additional films, Unbound Captives and Bel Ami,  in pre-production — both with big names, if not big directors, attached.  His future outside of Twilight will depend wholly upon the success of such non-vampiric roles.

As for Taylor Lautner, he’s already filmed a small part in the Love Actually-esque Valentine’s Day (opposite his supposed love Taylor Swift, no less).  But other than Eclipse, he’s got nothing.  Not even in pre-production.  He’s the most wooden of the three, and he’ll have to secure another romantic turn — presumably in a teen-geared comedy/drama of some sort — in order to sustain his fan base.  He’ll also have to sustain gossip, either through authenticating his relationship with the other Taylor, re-dating Disney star Selena Gomez, or creating new teen hand-holding buzz.  Odds of success = slim.  He may have great shoulder muscles, but so does Matthew McConaughey.

So what does $258.8 million mean?  It means we have an opportunity to reconsider the way the industry works.  Everytime a movie hits big — and especially when it outperforms expectations — we reach a similar landmark.  A chance for people like me to challenge the idea that the way that Hollywood works is ‘natural,’ inevitable, or necessary.  As director Kevin Smith tweeted following the release of the Friday numbers, “Tween girls can get shit DONE, man.”  Indeed they can — and so can 30 and 40 something moms with their daughters, and 20-something women prefunking with white wine and flasks.  And it’s a lesson we — and Hollywood — is still learning.

SHINee’s Jonghyun, Key, and Taemin were among the audience at Gag Concert which was broadcasted on November 22.

Wang Bi Ho poked fun at SHINee’s Jonghyun and said he must have been Kim Mi Hwa’s son due to their resembling looks.

He also continued to talk about SHINee’s latest single, ‘Ring Ding Dong’ and its repeating lyrics. Wang Bi Ho said ‘You must be creative with the lyrics. Our comedians can make so much fun on that” and created a big laugh from the audience.

cr mariacherrieyl@youtube

If you guys haven’t seen what Tablo’s brother said about Infinity Challenge in New York than you might want to check it out here : http://www.allkpop.com/index.php/full_story/tablo_brother_criticizes_inifinity_challenge_in_new_york/

Even though it seems as if he’s way too harsh on them he somewhat has a point. But I don’t think he had to go so far into saying that they disgraced Koreans. If I saw them in New York I would’ve ran up to them and screamed because I love Infinity Challenge. If the people they tried to interview knew they were comedians then it wouldn’t be like they were some morons acting like idiots because they’re not. I love Infinity Challenge and I think they’re hilarious. If people listened to their music and watched their variety shows just like me I think they would love korea a lot. If anyone is disgracing Korea it’s him.

YEP! You’ve heard of it and you’ve read about it and now we’re bring you MORE of it!! WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!

From MTV News

1. “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” ($72.7 million)
2. “The Blind Side” ($10.9 million)
3. “2012″ ($8.1 million)
4. “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” ($3.6 million)
5. “Planet 51″ ($3.2 million)

With “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” in over 4,000 theaters nationwide, there was virtually no chance that the continued romance of Edward Cullen and Bella Swan would fall anywhere short of first place — but perhaps no one could have predicted just how far ahead of the competition “New Moon” would end up.

The second “Twilight” installment has already shattered records and expectations by earning $26.3 million from midnight showings alone, decimating the record previously held by “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” Additionally, “New Moon” enjoyed the single most lucrative opening day in the history of cinema with $62.2 million, a record previously held by “The Dark Knight.” Combined with the midnight intake, “New Moon” has already earned $72.7 million — and the weekend isn’t even over.

LA Times

Though the debut day for “New Moon” was unprecedented, the full opening weekend will probably be merely massive. Ticket sales for the first “Twilight” film, which opened on the same weekend last year, plunged 41% on the Saturday after it opened. “New Moon” will probably see an even bigger drop, given the massive amount of interest that helped it set a record as the biggest pre-seller on online ticketing services Fandango and MovieTickets.com.

Nonetheless, a total weekend gross of more than $110 million is all but certain and more than $120 million is very possible. That would give “New Moon” the biggest domestic weekend gross for any film this year, the biggest for an opening outside the summer movie season, and one of the top five of all time, not accounting for inflation.

Ticket sales from the 25 other countries where “New Moon” is opening this weekend will almost certainly push the worldwide weekend gross to more than $150 million.

Summit spent only $50 million to make “New Moon,” including tax incentives from Canada, where it was produced. Even including marketing costs, the picture is certain to be profitable based on ticket sales alone, even before Summit starts making money from DVD and other post-theatrical markets.

Studios usually keep about half the revenue a movie collects from theatrical ticket sales.

ABC News

The vampire romance sequel earned $72.7 million across the United States and Canada on Friday, a figure that includes record-breaking midnight sales of $26.3 million, said the film’s closely held distributor Summit Entertainment.

The old record for a single-day opening was $62.2 million, held by last year’s “Batman” sequel “The Dark Knight,” which went on to become the second-biggest grossing movie of all time in North America before accounting for inflation.

Such heights could be difficult for the “Twilight” sequel to attain. Still, industry observers expect it could finish up with upwards of $125 million for the weekend once Saturday sales data and Sunday estimates are issued early on Sunday.

Variety.com

The opening day for “New Moon” posted more than a 100% gain over the first Friday of “Twilight” which made $36 million a year ago and a three-day weekend of $69.6 million.

For a franchise that has clearly targeted females, “New Moon’s” first day is so exceptional that it’s probable that the film played beyond its core crowd to males. However, Summit plans to release the pic’s moviegoing demos, as well as international results, in its three-day estimate report tomorrow. Ever since the first installment finished its play in theaters, the production of “New Moon” has garnered non-stop headlines on glossy covers and fansites with the media savoring details on the film as well as its cast members Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner.

California Chronicles

Manager Gary Burgess said: “We had a lot of hysterical girls. It was quite manic. When we opened yesterday we still had screams.

“The only thing I could compare it to is like girls at a pop concert.”

Lorna McFadzean, general manager at the Odeon in East Kilbride, said the film’s opening days have been phenomenal: “I can’t remember seeing anything like this in my time at the cinema. It’s busier than Harry Potter and Star Wars.

“We expected our audiences to be mostly teenage girls but we have had older people, couples, groups of guys.” Tim Richards, CEO of Vue Entertainment cinemas, said the movie is massive: “These were the largest attended midnight shows we have ever done.”Independents also saw a rush. Andrew Poole, boss of The Pavilion in Galashiels in the Borders called New Moon “the most popular film we have ever had”.

It shattered opening day records in America, beating the sixth Harry Potter film and The Dark Knight.

ProNetworks.org

SATURDAY NUMBERS: Early estimates show The Twilight Saga: New Moon taking in another $43M on Saturday. Adding in Sunday projections means a $140M weekend may be taking shape.

This would translate into a 40% drop from Friday to Saturday, about the exact same percentage decrease Twilight had one year ago (down 40.8% Saturday, down 41.9% Sunday). Adding the $43M estimate to Friday’s official number of $72.7 brings the total to $115.7M. Another 40% drop going into Sunday is projected to yield in about $24M, based on advance sales, tracking polls, and other industry formulas. That would bring the weekend total to around $140M and put New Moon in third place overall for all-time opening weekends, behind The Dark Knight and Spider-Man 3 but ahead of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.

These numbers are not official and are only estimates based on early reports. However, these preliminary figures are usually fairly close to the final data.

CSMonitor

New Moon Opening Night: From Britain to China – fans are going crazy.

“New Moon” was the fastest advance-selling film of the year in Britain, exceeding the £1 million ($1.6 million) mark, according to the country’s largest cinema chain, Odeon.

In India, teenager Ritisha Mishra was so outraged at having been bypassed by the first movie that she rallied likeminded partisans online – and galvanized distributor PVR into bringing both the first and second films to the big screen over the next two weeks.

And in China, where at least one of the books in the series has perched atop the bestseller list for nearly a year, hundreds of thousands of admirers have been soaking up pirated versions of the first movie, which opens in general release only next week.

Ursula Mackenzie, CEO at Little-Brown, Twilight’s UK publishers, told the Daily Telegraph that the success of the franchise spoke to the broad appeal of Meyer’s focus: “She touches on themes – rebellion, angst, and finding your place in the world against tough odds – that resonate with girls and boys, teens and adults.”

Rea, a South African 8th-grader, says the book series is popular among teenagers because, “It has romance, it has trust and friendship, love, and hatred, it has it all.”

Dhalyn, an American 8th-grader who attends school in Johannesburg, is impatiently rereading “New Moon’s” 500-plus pages as she awaits the movie, which won’t open till Dec. 4.

She says it’s all about the storyline. “[It] has that kind of a hook to it that makes you want to read all the books,” she says. “There’s not a lot of stories about girls falling in love with a vampire.”

“I would say over 60 percent of the readers are middle school and high school girls,” says Chang Xiaowu, deputy marketing director of Jieli, the publishing house that bought the Chinese rights. “Edward [Cullen] is a vampire, he is dangerous. Girls love to fall in love with this kind of dangerous boyfriend.”

Edward’s appeal reaches beyond teenagers here, though. Many of his fans are young women in their twenties. “He is supposed to be the evil one, but actually he is a good person,” says Sun Junmei, a 26-year-old financial consultant in Beijing who downloaded audio versions of three of the books.

KansasCity.com

Robert Pattinson IS Edward Cullen (sometimes)

“Rob shifted into character and my jaw dropped open,” Meyer said in a fan forum that’s linked on her Web site.

“Suffice it to say, he really nailed it. He’s not playing a version of Edward, he’s playing Edward. There is still quite a difference between Rob’s Edward and the Edward in my head, but there are moments when they look eerily similar. I’m still not sure how he does it, but I’m glad he can. As for emotions, I think he does a great job.”

In the meantime, Meyer says she loves “New Moon,” which opened last night at midnight, and says she can’t name just one favorite part.

“I love so many things. Bella’s and Edward’s first conversation in the parking lot … the painting (of the Volturi — it comes alive!) … Jessica’s monologue … the scenes in Jacob’s garage … the first time you see the werewolves!! … Jacob in Bella’s room — thanks, Chris! (that’s Chris Weitz, the director) … the underwater moment … what you see while Thom Yorke’s amazing song is playing … everything in Italy … and I could go on. It’s all so good.

]]> http://freeopensourcedirectory.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/links-for-2009-11-21/ Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:02:18 +0000 FosBlogger http://freeopensourcedirectory.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/links-for-2009-11-21/

• IE NetRenderer – Browser Compatibility Check -
  IE NetRenderer allows you to check how a website is rendered by Internet Explorer 7, 6 or 5.5, as seen from a high speed datacenter located in Germany. Just type in a URL in the field above and try it out – it's free!
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• My DebugBar | IETester / Browser Compatibility Check for Internet Explorer Versions from 5.5 to 8
  IETester is a free WebBrowser that allows you to have the rendering and javascript engines of IE8, IE7 IE 6 and IE5.5 on Windows 7, Vista and XP, as well as the installed IE in the same process.
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• Browser Sandbox – Run any browser from the web
  Browser Sandbox – Run any browser from the web
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• 16 Useful .htaccess Tricks and Hacks For Web Developers
  The .htaccess files (Hypertext Access file) is a very powerful configuration tool on Apache web server. The Apache web server has a number of configuration options that are available to the server administrator. The .htaccess is a simple ASCII text file placed in your website root directory. You can create and edit an .htaccess file using a text editor like notepad.
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• Stupid htaccess Tricks • Perishable Press
  Welcome to Perishable Press! This article, Stupid htaccess Tricks, covers just about every htaccess “trick” in the book, and is easily the site’s most popular offering.
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• Using htaccess Files for Pretty URLS – Nettuts+
  Using htaccess Files for Pretty URLS
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This is the third post in a series on lament.

————————–

I was reading through several psalms recently, and realized something that rocked my world.  My prayers do not mimic the psalmist’s.  I think it’s arrogant and sinful to pray like the psalms.  That is messed up!  Here is the very book God has given us to help express ourselves, and I have practically written much of it off as irrelevant.

Reasons We Do Not Lament

• We believe if we complain to God or express sorrow or talk about anything in life that we are not happy about, we will be challenging the sovereignty of God.  In other words, our sorrow reflects a lack of trust in God.
• We believe we are supposed to be happy all the time.  Every Christian should be delighted in every way with every circumstance.  Never should any circumstance sway our plastic smiles.
• We read words like Psalm 69:3, “I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched,” and we realize this is not an appropriate or politically correct form of religious expression.  Not to mention those verses about dashing the children of our enemies against the rocks.
• We believe that if we lament or sorrow or are honest with God about our feelings on life’s circumstances, that it will be a poor reflection on him and people will reject our efforts to evangelize them.

Reasons We Should Lament

• It’s in the Bible.  And we’re not talking about a proof text here and there to build into a monument to my own interpretive methods.  There are more lament Psalms than any other genre.  There’s a whole book of lament: Lamentations.  There is lament throughout Scripture, both Testaments.  Why do we think the prayer and worship of Scripture is not appropriate for us?
• It’s the truth.  It’s reality about sin, the world, our God, and our hearts.  A religion that is not true to the realities we know and see in our world is not a compelling provider of answers or insight to realities of the unseen world.
• It offers a way to express how we feel.  The God beyond history has provided a way to express our emotions.  He has built this into the one true religion, and yet the people who claim that religion have almost entirely ignored this provision!  My mind is boggled, because my heart cries for the opportunity to express itself in ways beyond positive energetic praise.
• It is the best evangelism.  Why do we sanitize the experience of living, slap a happy smile on the front, and believe this facade will speak meaningfully to any human being?  I am convinced that honesty with the world we see around us and the hearts inside our bodies is the best evangelism.  If people can trust what we say about life’s pain and hurt, maybe they can trust the God we have come to know and love.
• It is discipleship.  Throughout Scripture it is clear that God grows his kids through tough times.  It does not jive with this reality if we believe we must be endlessly positive.  Being realistic about the challenges of life is part of growing as a disciple.

What do you think about lament? Pros? Cons? Do you do it? Do you wish your church did it?  Chime in. The next post will outline biblical material to get you thinking about lament from a truly biblical perspective.

• Brian Austin Green (David, Beverly Hills 90210) will be returning to Smallville.
• There’s a small feature on Brett Claywell (Tim, One Tree Hill) in the Dec. 1 issue of Soap Opera Weekly (my old stomping grounds!).
• Leighton Meester (Blair, Gossip Girl) was a presenter at mtvU Woodie Awards.
• Rachel Bilson (Summer, The O.C.) is mentioned in this article on How I Met Your Mother.
• MTV has an interview with Olivia Wilde (Alex, The O.C.)
• News Blaze has an interview with Nikki Reed (Sadie, The O.C.)
• Variety says Busy Philipps (Audrey, Dawson’s Creek) might “break through.”
• I should’ve mentioned this a while ago: Julie Bowen (Aunt Gwen, Dawson’s Creek) is one of the leads in Modern Family.

After having discovered kettlebells some years ago I incorporated them in my training routines. Variety as they say is the spice of life and kettlebells, sandbags, rocks, tires and other objects fit the bill.

What I do is go through four to eight week cycles where I’ll use free weights and kettlebells routines as auxiliary routines. After a given cycle I’ll use kettlebells as the predominant part of the training and free weights as auxiliary.

During a given cycle the routines are very strict, there is a progression until I reach a max (Squats, Deadlifts, Swings) after which I tapered down and have about a week off any heavy lifting.

What you see here is a variation on a staple of kettlebell routines. Swing with a rope or a towel. Tougher than it looks!

Well kids- today is the big day. Most big days don’t get blogged about around here, as I am afraid of the internet. But this one, I’m pretty sure, is no secret.

First- a little objectivity:

Variety Review (they didn’t like it)

MTV Review (they did like it)

Secondly- this video is funny. Especially since Tom Cruise is kinda a tool.

Thirdly- I have a story:

Also, this is a gem, and I can’t believe I’m going to blog/write about this…. The other day I won radio contest tickets to a “Meet and Greet with two{D-list} cast members” from Twilight. Now, you must know, I always call into radio contests but somehow this time I got through (shout out to Kelsey for the other time:) So it was decided, I had to take advantage of the win. Meg went with me- and it was, needless to say- hysterical. We were foresure the oldest people there, average age being about 15.  And we were one of only a few who weren’t wearing black New Moon t-shirts which apparently everyone had been given who paid for (not won) their ticket/wrist bands.

The whole event was rather hilarious. Tons of girls screaming and excited- for the guy who plays Laurent (the black vamp with dreads) and Caius (also a vamp, super pale and British) – they signed a poster for us inside (get this) Hot Topic. YEP. Hot Topic. No Robert Pattinson or Kristen Stewart though. nope nope

Here's me and Meg (my first pic on the blog. what a momentous occasion)

We didn’t want to wait in line- so we went and shopped and came back and got in at the very end. So that was nice, not having to wait in the line but still getting to “meet and greet” (aka smile and walk). After that, and we got our signed poster(ha), there was a ridiculous “Q&A Session” outside where tons of girls asked things like “Will you give me a hug I drove 5 hours to see you?” “What is Robert Pattinson like?” and (for real) “Will you marry me?”

It was insane and we were officially thirteen for an evening

And lastly-  here’s a Twilight ‘freak’, and her “reaction video” to the New Moon trailer. Anyway, this video is so awkward you will most definitely wince and want to cry and laugh at the same time. (This is for Meg- who has a new appreciation after the event)

]]> http://poopsandwich.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/237/ Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:43:56 +0000 Lydia http://poopsandwich.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/237/

MGM is officially for sale. They’re going to divide up their assets and sell them. They owe 3.7 billion in debts. They said they are “beginning a process to explore various strategic alternatives including operating as a standalone entity, forming strategic partnerships and evaluating a potential sale of the company.” That’s really too bad. They’ve made some of the great classic films like Gone With The Wind and Ben-Hur.

But let’s take a look at what they’ve done lately…Fame, The Taking of Pelham 123, The Pink Panther 2, Valkyrie, Soul Men, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. The only hit lately was Quantum of Solace and even that cost $200 mil to make and only made $168 mil in the US. I’m sure they made up the difference over seas and on the DVD, but still it’s not impressive.  I guess with flops like Valkyrie, it’s not much of a wonder that they are going under. They do own The Hobbit, so hopefully they can sell it and it can actually get made someday.

Here’s some other film news from Variety:

by Michael Fleming.

 Disney has put “Captain Nemo: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” in dry dock.

The picture, tentatively scheduled to begin production in February, has been halted indefinitely, and McG is no longer steering the ship.

The studio confirmed that it won’t proceed with the film for now, and reps for the director confirmed he has withdrawn. While names like Will Smith were rumored as possible stars, no cast was ever set. The project had been on a fast track under the Dick Cook regime. Studio sez event pics like “20,000 Leagues,” “John Carter of Mars” and “Tron” are still priority under new chief Rich Ross.

Disney’s next big water-based shoot will likely be the fourth installment of “Pirates of the Caribbean.” Pic is expected to set sail in May, with Rob Marshall in talks to direct.

McG will concentrate on other projects that include “Dead Spy Running,” a Warner Bros. drama that Stephen Gaghan is writing. McG is also attached to “Terminator 5,” though that movie is on hold indefinitely as the Terminator franchise works its way through bankruptcy court. McG also just teamed with “Borat” helmer Larry Charles on a new NBC comedy (Daily Variety, Nov. 16).

Kristen Stewart e Taylor Lautner la notte scorsa erano a Knoxville
( terza città dello Stato del Tennessee dopo Memphis e Nashville)
a scopo benefico.

FOTO, clikka per vederle tutte.

Video: