This is Allisa and I learning how to belay.
Me climbing (these are rock climbing shoes and no I have no idea why there is not grip on them)
Belaying Allisa
At the top and forced to stop.
The edicts have been issued to maintain a good image, say the communities, and they have been applied to teachers, janitors, firefighters and others.
"We didn't want to offend some people in the community," says Capt. Armando Hogan, spokesman for the Los Angeles City Fire Department, where employees were ordered last spring to cover all tattoos while on duty. "I have been on drills and on scene where someone has said, 'I wouldn't want that person working on me,' and we've had to educate the individual who made the comment."
Among the cities:
• Bountiful, Utah, decided in August that new employees must not show any tattoos.
• The Pasco County School Board in Florida has ordered employees to hide "offensive" tattoos.
• In Missouri, the Joplin School Board will vote on a no-visible-tattoo policy this year.
The orders to cover up have been growing as tattoos become more popular, especially tattoos on the face, neck, hands and fingers. Some workers feel the policy is unfair.
"We don't allow discrimination based on skin color, yet we came up with a policy that discriminated against people with color on their skin," says Steve Tufts, president of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City.
Joplin Schools Superintendent C.J. Huff says students are getting teaching degrees, getting tattoos, and then applying for jobs. "We're saying before you get a tattoo, you have to think about how big it is and where it's located before you think about getting a job in our school district," he says.
The rule in Bountiful was passed after applicants with hard-to-conceal tattoos showed up for interviews for jobs in the police, streets and sanitation departments. City Manager Tom Hardy says city leaders had to decide: "Either we're going to do nothing about it, or we're going to do something about it."
In each community, officials cite the exploding popularity of tattoos.
Bob Baxter, editor in chief of Skin & Ink magazine, agrees with the restrictive policies. Baxter says neck and face tattoos used to appear only on heavily tattooed people who ran out of space.
"What's happening (now) is that a lot of young people figure that the best way to show that 'I'm in the tattoo community' is to get tattoos in very conspicuous places," Baxter says. "I don't think it's a good idea. It's hard to get work."
Comment: (ones I found most interesting)
Legendary actor Paul Newman dies at age 83
Saturday September 27 9:16 AM ET
Paul Newman, the Academy-Award winning superstar who personified cool as an activist, race car driver, popcorn impresario and the anti-hero of such films as "Hud," "Cool Hand Luke" and "The Color of Money," has died. He was 83.
Newman died Friday after a long battle with cancer at his farmhouse near Westport, publicist Jeff Sanderson said. He was surrounded by his family and close friends.
In May, Newman he had dropped plans to direct a fall production of "Of Mice and Men," citing unspecified health issues.
He got his start in theater and on television during the 1950s, and went on to become one of the world's most enduring and popular film stars, a legend held in awe by his peers. He was nominated for Oscars 10 times, winning one regular award and two honorary ones, and had major roles in more than 50 motion pictures, including "Exodus," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "The Verdict," "The Sting" and "Absence of Malice."Newman worked with some of the greatest directors of the past half century, from Alfred Hitchcock and John Huston to Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese and the Coen brothers. His co-stars included Elizabeth Taylor, Lauren Bacall, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks and, most famously, Robert Redford, his sidekick in "Butch Cassidy" and "The Sting
He sometimes teamed with his wife and fellow Oscar winner, Joanne Woodward, with whom he had one of Hollywood's rare long-term marriages. "I have steak at home, why go out for hamburger?" Newman told Playboy magazine when asked if he was tempted to stray. They wed in 1958, around the same time they both appeared in "The Long Hot Summer," and Newman directed her in several films, including "Rachel, Rachel" and "The Glass Menagerie"
With his strong, classically handsome face and piercing blue eyes, Newman was a heartthrob just as likely to play against his looks, becoming a favorite with critics for his convincing portrayals of rebels, tough guys and losers. "I was always a character actor," he once said. "I just looked like Little Red Riding Hood."
Newman had a soft spot for underdogs in real life, giving tens of millions to charities through his food company and setting up camps for severely ill children. Passionately opposed to the Vietnam War, and in favor of civil rights, he was so famously liberal that he ended up on President Nixon's "enemies list," one of the actor's proudest achievements, he liked to say.
A screen legend by his mid-40s, he waited a long time for his first competitive Oscar, winning in 1987 for "The Color of Money," a reprise of the role of pool shark "Fast" Eddie Felson, whom Newman portrayed in the 1961 film "The Hustler."
Newman delivered a magnetic performance in "The Hustler," playing a smooth-talking, whiskey-chugging pool shark who takes on Minnesota Fats played by Jackie Gleason and becomes entangled with a gambler played by George C. Scott. In the sequel directed by Scorsese "Fast Eddie" is no longer the high-stakes hustler he once was, but rather an aging liquor salesman who takes a young pool player (Cruise) under his wing before making a comeback.
He won an honorary Oscar in 1986 "in recognition of his many and memorable compelling screen performances and for his personal integrity and dedication to his craft." In 1994, he won a third Oscar, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, for his charitable work.
His most recent academy nod was a supporting actor nomination for the 2002 film "Road to Perdition." One of Newman's nominations was as a producer; the other nine were in acting categories. (Jack Nicholson holds the record among actors for Oscar nominations, with 12; actress Meryl Streep has had 14.)
As he passed his 80th birthday, he remained in demand, winning an Emmy and a Golden Globe for the 2005 HBO drama "Empire Falls" and providing the voice of a crusty 1951 car in the 2006 Disney-Pixar hit, "Cars."
But in May 2007, he told ABC's "Good Morning America" he had given up acting, though he intended to remain active in charity projects. "I'm not able to work anymore as an actor at the level I would want to," he said. "You start to lose your memory, your confidence, your invention. So that's pretty much a closed book for me."
He received his first Oscar nomination for playing a bitter, alcoholic former star athlete in the 1958 film "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Elizabeth Taylor played his unhappy wife and Burl Ives his wealthy, domineering father in Tennessee Williams' harrowing drama, which was given an upbeat ending for the screen.
In "Cool Hand Luke," he was nominated for his gritty role as a rebellious inmate in a brutal Southern prison. The movie was one of the biggest hits of 1967 and included a tagline, delivered one time by Newman and one time by prison warden Strother Martin, that helped define the generation gap, "What we've got here is (a) failure to communicate."
Newman's hair was graying, but he was as gourgeous as ever and on the verge of his greatest popular success. In 1969, Newman teamed with Redford for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," a comic Western about two outlaws running out of time. Newman paired with Redford again in 1973 in "The Sting," a comedy about two Depression-era con men. Both were multiple Oscar winners and huge hits, irreverent, unforgettable pairings of two of the best-looking actors of their time.
Newman also turned to producing and directing. In 1968, he directed "Rachel, Rachel," a film about a lonely spinster's rebirth. The movie received four Oscar nominations, including Newman, for producer of a best motion picture, and Woodward, for best actress. The film earned Newman the best director award from the New York Film Critics.
In the 1970s, Newman, admittedly bored with acting, became fascinated with auto racing, a sport he studied when he starred in the 1972 film, "Winning." After turning professional in 1977, Newman and his driving team made strong showings in several major races, including fifth place in Daytona in 1977 and second place in the Le Mans in 1979.
"Racing is the best way I know to get away from all the rubbish of Hollywood," he told People magazine in 1979.
Despite his love of race cars, Newman continued to make movies and continued to pile up Oscar nominations, his looks remarkably intact, his acting becoming more subtle, nothing like the mannered method performances of his early years, when he was sometimes dismissed as a Brando imitator. "It takes a long time for an actor to develop the assurance that the trim, silver-haired Paul Newman has acquired," Pauline Kael wrote of him in the early 1980s.
In 1982, he got his Oscar fifth nomination for his portrayal of an honest businessman persecuted by an irresponsible reporter in "Absence of Malice." The following year, he got his sixth for playing a down-and-out alcoholic attorney in "The Verdict."
In 1995, he was nominated for his slyest, most understated work yet, the town curmudgeon and deadbeat in "Nobody's Fool." New York Times critic Caryn James found his acting "without cheap sentiment and self-pity," and observed, "It says everything about Mr. Newman's performance, the single best of this year and among the finest he has ever given, that you never stop to wonder how a guy as good-looking as Paul Newman ended up this way."
Newman, who shunned Hollywood life, was reluctant to give interviews and usually refused to sign autographs because he found the majesty of the act offensive, according to one friend.
He also claimed that he never read reviews of his movies.
"If they're good you get a fat head and if they're bad you're depressed for three weeks," he said.
Off the screen, Newman had a taste for beer and was known for his practical jokes. He once had a Porsche installed in Redford's hallway crushed and covered with ribbons.
"I think that my sense of humor is the only thing that keeps me sane," he told Newsweek magazine in a 1994 interview.
In 1982, Newman and his Westport neighbor, writer A.E. Hotchner, started a company to market Newman's original oil-and-vinegar dressing. Newman's Own, which began as a joke, grew into a multimillion-dollar business selling popcorn, salad dressing, spaghetti sauce and other foods. All of the company's profits are donated to charities. By 2007, the company had donated more than $175 million, according to its Web site.
In 1988, Newman founded a camp in northeastern Connecticut for children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases. He went on to establish similar camps in several other states and in Europe.
He and Woodward bought an 18th century farmhouse in Westport, where they raised their three daughters, Elinor "Nell," Melissa and Clea.
Newman had two daughters, Susan and Stephanie, and a son, Scott, from a previous marriage to Jacqueline Witte.
Scott died in 1978 of an accidental overdose of alcohol and Valium. After his only son's death, Newman established the Scott Newman Foundation to finance the production of anti-drug films for children.
Newman was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the second of two boys of Arthur S. Newman, a partner in a sporting goods store, and Theresa Fetzer Newman.
He was raised in the affluent suburb of Shaker Heights, where he was encouraged him to pursue his interest in the arts by his mother and his uncle Joseph Newman, a well-known Ohio poet and journalist.
Following World War II service in the Navy, he enrolled at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where he got a degree in English and was active in student productions.
He later studied at Yale University's School of Drama, then headed to New York to work in theater and television, his classmates at the famed Actor's Studio including Brando, James Dean and Karl Malden. His breakthrough was enabled by tragedy: Dean, scheduled to star as the disfigured boxer in a television adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's "The Battler," died in a car crash in 1955. His role was taken by Newman, then a little-known performer.
Newman started in movies the year before, in "The Silver Chalice," a costume film he so despised that he took out an ad in Variety to apologize. By 1958, he had won the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival for the shiftless Ben Quick in "The Long Hot Summer."
In December 1994, about a month before his 70th birthday, he told Newsweek magazine he had changed little with age.
"I'm not mellower, I'm not less angry, I'm not less self-critical, I'm not less tenacious," he said. "Maybe the best part is that your liver can't handle those beers at noon anymore," he said.
Newman is survived by his wife, five children, two grandsons and his older brother Arthur.
I read this yesterday. It made me sad. Paul Newman was a fantastic actor as well as a great man. Plus I was going to marry him! :( ;)
A rooster I painted today for a shop in Marlow.
This is my Venice painting Lou wanted me to post."Sincerely" is formal notes and "Affectionately" in intimate notes are the two adverbs most used in present day, and between these two there is a blank; in English we have no expression to fit sentiment more friendly than the first nor one less intimate than the second.
"Cordially" was coined no doubt to fill this need, but its self-consciousness puts it in the category with "residence" and "retire," and all the other offenses of pretentiousness, and in New York, at least, it is not used by people of taste.
"Warmly yours" is unspeakable.
"Yours in haste" or "hastily yours" is not bad form, but is rather carelessly rude.
"In a tearing hurry" is a termination dear to the boarding school girl;but its truth does not make it any more attractive than the vision of that some young girl rushing into a room with her hat and coat half on, to swoop upon her mother with a peck of a kiss, and with a "-------by, mamma!" whirl out again! Turmoil and flurry may be characteristic of manners of to-day; both are far from the ideal of beautiful manners which should be a assured, as smooth, as controlled as the running of a high-grade automobile. Flea-like motions are no better suited to manners than to motors.
---Etiquette by Emily Post, 1922
Sydney is a silly dog. Bull Terriers are know as the clowns of the dog world. Both of mine certainly are!
Roughly 15 years ago, as one of my underwater photography seminars ended, a student pulled me aside and said something like "I understand the material you covered, but I really want to be good at underwater photography, so will you please tell me what you really do, you know, the things you don't usually share with others."As an instructor, I felt a little kick in the gut, as if I had been accused of holding back the most valuable information.Article and images are from Dive Training August 2008
That incident caused me to make certain that early on in my in my seminars I get two very important points across to every student. Those points are that to consistently produce pleasing image, you must get a grasp of fundamentals of underwater image making, and the more often you apply those fundamentals, the more likely you are to be pleased with your photographs. in other words, the "secret" information us, do your best to apply the fundamentals, and when you can;t apply them, change something so you can. Don't just shoot and hope that because your mother loves you, a miracle will occur and your images will be great.
Below are five fundamentals concepts. In the two images that accompany this piece, you can see you can see that even though the subjects are different, and that one is wide-angle while the other is macro, the same concepts helped make each shot a winner.
1) Proper exposure and sharply focused subjects are musts. Don't just read about but be sure you learn how F-stops, shutter speed, ISO, strobe power and strobe-to-subject distance work together, to determine exposure. Those concepts are not difficult, but until they are mastered, your composition is usually irrelevant.
2) Get close to your subject. Getting close translates to sharper images and richer palette of colors in your images. When you think you are close, get closer.
3) Get low and shoot up. At least consider this approach. An upward angle often adds dramatic appeal and helps you separate your subjects from their background so your subjects stand out in your images.
4) Pay attention to the background. No matter how colorful marine creatures appear to us, in many cases they have evolved to blend into or "break up" in their immediate surroundings and background. Try to compose your images so subjects are separated from their surroundings. With small reef creatures, look for color contrast between subject and background. With bigger animals, try shooting them against blue (or green) water backgrounds, not dark reef or water.
5) When composing your shot, check the edges of your frame for potential problems. Too often unwanted intrusions such as other divers fins or a half of a fish often surprise and disappoint us with we review our pictures. Those surprises weren't seen wen composing the shot because we only concentrate on the center portion of the frame.
Applying these concepts will help you consistently get good result. More insights into the fundamentals will come your way in the future issues.
You Are Salsa |
 You are an extremely outgoing and vivacious person. You are quite tolerant and open minded. You rather accept people than judge them. Adventurous and unpredictable, you have the reputation of a daredevil. Your taste in food leans toward very spicy and exotic dishes. Whether it's thai food or an extra spicy mexican meal, you're into the hot flavors. You get along with hot sauce personalities. Everyone else, not so much. |
To some, nine o'clock s the morning man sound rather eccentric for a wedding, but to people of the Atlantic Coast it is not a bit more so than an evening hour--less so, if anything because the morning is unconventional anyway and etiquette, never being very strong at that hour, is not defied, but merely left quiescent. If, for any reason, such as taking an early morning train or ship--an early morning wedding might be good suggestion. The bride should, of course, not ear satin and lace; she could wear organdie ( let us hope that nine 0'clock wedding is in summer!), or she cold wear a very simple white crepe de chine. Her attendants could wear the simplest sort of morning dresses with garden hats; the groom a sack suit or flannels. And the breakfast--really breakfast--could consist of scrambled eggs and bacon and toast and coffee--and griddle cakes!
The above is not written in ridicule; the hour would be very "unusual," but simple early morning wedding where every one is dressed in morning clothes, and where breakfast is suggests the first mean of the day--could be perfectly adorable! The evening wedding on the other hand, lays itself open to criticism because it is a function--a function is formal, and the formal is always strictly in the province of that austere and inflexible lawmaker, Etiquette. And Etiquette at this moment says: "Weddings on the Atlantic seaboard are celebrates not later than four-thirty o'clock in the afternoon!"
---Etiquette by Emily Post, 1922
I found this one in a Google search for stupid signs.
Walking thought the gates as we finished the maze. It was hard! But fun. Dad and my brother did not finish. My brother tried for three hours.
Red Silk Hibiscus
Pineapple
Bird of Paradise
Rainbow tree. I like this tree. It is very colorful.
This was our Dole Plantation garden guide. He made me laugh. He made the tour very entertaining.
The is the inside of the theater. Sorry for the poor quality of the picture.
Me in the nerdy 3D glasses
Allisa and Kat in the nerdy 3D glasses.
This is for Lou she said I had to write my name in the sand. 
The Waikiki Aquarium
Stingrays
Humuhumu-Nukunuku-Apua'a is fish that is in the center of the picture. The one with back brown and yellow stripes. The Humuhumu-Nukunuku-Apua'a is the Hawaiian state fish. What a name! I know! In the Wikipedia article it says that the Humu has the longest name in the in the English language. The fish in the left hand corner swimming towards me is the fish that stalked me while snorkeling, the goat eye fish.
Octopus
A boat at the Honolulu wharf.
