antonycarrickxx: March 2012

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Motherhood At Its Not So Finest | Wise Family Living

This post is a talk I gave last week to the women?s group at my church.?

One day, not too long ago, I was a really good mom. I was up and out the door every day. My family operated on a schedule. I read parenting books and put their advice into practice. I had a discipline philosophy.

I read scripture with my children. We sang worship songs. We memorized verses and psalms. We prayed together every night.?I was organized and my home was in very good order. There was a system for everything.

My older daughter was in school five days a week. My little one took two naps a day, so I had plenty of time on my hands. I exercised, had quiet times, gardened, and went out to lunch.

My life wasn?t perfect, but I loved being a mom, I was happily married, and things were really good.

And as a family, we were on our merry little way and we had lots of plans, dreams, and expectations for the future.

And then about a year ago, I took Bette to an ENT, because we had noticed her not responding to sound. And while we were a little concerned, we mostly just chalked it up to her being a quirky baby.

At the ENT, she took three new patient hearing tests, and she failed all three of them. More tests were scheduled and we learned that she was completely and profoundly deaf. She was a year old and she had spent the entire first year of her life in a world of absolute silence.

When we received her diagnosis, we were devastated.?But we were given the news that Bette would be an excellent candidate for cochlear implants. It was great?news, but it left us with a big decision to make. Do we leave her as she is and learn to sign as a family or do we put her through the surgeries to get implants, which would allow her to hear?

And after a lot or prayer and research, we decided that we wanted Bette to be able to hear. Her first surgery was in July and her implant was turned on three weeks later.?Because Bette had never heard sound before, her first implant was turned on initially at a very soft level. And over time, the sound was slowly turned up, so that it wasn?t until about mid ? October that she was able to fully hear.

And you would think things would become at least somewhat easier and better, with Bette finally able to hear. And I am not kidding, at the same time Bette was finally able to fully hear, she became the neediest, fussiest, most demanding child ever. She was unhappy, she cried all the time and all she wanted was to be held. And it went on for months.

I, of course, had another child that needed love and attention, whom I had also decided to home school this year, which is not easy to do when your other child cries all the time.

It did not help that the noise level in our house was out of control. Because Bette was finally able to hear, everything had to be loud, just to make sure she could hear it. We talked loud, the TV and radio were loud, and Bette was loud. When her ?ears? (cochlear implants) are on, she can hear everything. And she loves being able hear the sound of her own voice. But when her ?ears? are off, she can?t hear anything. She returns to being deaf. But she still wants to hear herself, so she is even louder.

Bette had her second surgery in December and her second implant was activated three days before Christmas ? which on one hand was the best Christmas gift ever ? that my child could now hear out of both of her ears. On the other hand, it just ramped up the noise and the chaos even more.

By New Year?s, things hit a low point. Bette was so unhappy, and no one, least of all me, could figure out why. I spent most of my time managing her and then trying to make sure that Lilla was okay. Home schooling was nonexistent. And most of the things I used to do were impossible. I couldn?t garden, I couldn?t exercise, and I absolutely never went to lunch with friends.

I was not doing one single thing well and I was at the end of my rope. Mostly,?I just hoped that we would survive and in the process, I did not screw up my children.

********************************************************

I think when tragedy strikes ? you get the diagnosis, you suddenly lose someone you love, you get the bad news ? there is an immediate period when work must be done. You create the treatment plan, you start the job hunt, or you plan the funeral. But when that part ends, you are then left on the long hard road of recovery.

Right now, we were on the long hard road of recovering Bette?s hearing, which will take years. And this is by far the hardest thing I have ever done.

Because every single day I wake up, and I have no idea what is going to happen. Every single day is another day on the learning curve of how to parent a deaf child. Very little of what I learned parenting my first child relates to how I need to parent Bette.

So it will probably come as no surprise when I say that we also don?t sing hymns anymore. We don?t learn memory verses or psalms. Our children?s bible has actually been missing for six months and I have no idea where it is.?We don?t wake up and do our school work. I simply cram it in throughout the day whenever I can.

All my systems have fallen apart.? My house is constantly out of order and extremely loud. Most days, I cannot find my shoes.

Every day, I count down the minutes until nap time. And bedtime is my absolute favorite time of day, because it means the day and the chaos is over.

At this point, I don?t have the time or energy to do so many of the things Christian parenting books say you should do to be a good parent. I don?t have it together to do a lot of ?spiritual? things for my family.

But there is one thing I always try to do for my family, and that is to pray for them.

Because the greatest blessing I can give to my children is to pray for them. And not just pray about where they are now, or the issues they are currently dealing with, but who they are growing up to be and who they will be in the future.

And I have gotten into the habit that as I pray for my children, I also pray for my grandchildren and my great grandchildren. Because I can?t think of anything more eternal, more lasting, or more significant that I could give to my family than prayers that last through the generations.

Right now, my best and most effective weapon as a parent is prayer, because I can do it anywhere at anytime. I can do it on my knees, I can do it washing dishes, and I can do it while Bette is crying out a tantrum in her crib. There is no limit to how much I can pray. And it is my best weapon as a parent because I know Jesus is in heaven praying along with me and interceding on my behalf and on behalf of my children.

God is writing a story with each of our lives and wherever you are in your story, I encourage you to pray for your children. Because even if you can?t do anything else, and even if what is happening in your life dismays you, you can still pray for your family and children and that, more than anything else we can do as mothers, makes all the difference in the world.

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Source: http://www.wisefamilyliving.com/2012/03/29/motherhood-at-its-not-so-finest/

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US consumer spending up 0.8 pct., but income lags

WASHINGTON (AP) ? U.S. consumers boosted their spending in February by the most in seven months. But Americans' income barely grew, and the saving rate fell to its lowest point in more than two years.

The Commerce Department said Friday that consumer spending rose 0.8 percent last month. Income grew 0.2 percent, matching January's weak increase. And when taking inflation into account, income after taxes fell for a second straight month.

Still, consumers are spending more after the best three-month hiring stretch in two years. Paul Dales, an economist at Capital Economics, suggested that estimated annual growth for the economy in the current January-March quarter may be revised up ? to around 2.5 percent, compared with earlier estimates of about 2 percent.

Dales cautioned, though, that at some point, consumers won't be able to draw further on their savings. Further job gains are needed to boost consumers' income.

Some of the higher spending last month reflected surging gas prices. But consumers spent more on other goods and services, too. After excluding inflation, which was due mainly to gas prices, spending rose a solid 0.5 percent.

The saving rate dropped to 3.7 percent of after-tax income in February. That was the lowest level since August 2009. The saving rate had been 4.3 percent in January. It had averaged 4.7 percent for all of last year.

The economy has added an average of 245,000 jobs a month from December through February. That's lowered the unemployment rate to 8.3 percent, the lowest in three years. Most economists expect a similar number of net jobs added in March.

Still, more robust hiring has yet to lift growth. Economists predict growth slowed in the January-March quarter to an annual rate of 2 percent or less, down from 3 percent in the October-December quarter. Consumer spending drives 70 percent of economic activity.

Most economists expect growth to rebound later this year as further hiring lifts the economy. And there are indications that a pickup in spending may already be under way.

Americans stepped up spending on retail goods in February, the government said earlier in the month. Consumers bought more autos, clothes and appliances. They also paid higher prices for gas.

On Thursday, the national average price for a gallon of gas was $3.92, according to AAA. In 11 states, the price is more than $4 per gallon.

Higher gas prices could eventually slow growth by causing some people to cut spending on other goods, from appliances and furniture to electronics and vacations. Gasoline purchases provide less benefit for the U.S. economy because about half of the revenue flows to oil-exporting nations, though U.S. oil companies and gasoline retailers also benefit.

Despite paying more to fill their tanks, consumers remain optimistic about the economy. The Conference Board, a New York-based private research group, said its gauge of consumer confidence held nearly steady in March after reaching its highest level in a year in February.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-03-30-Consumer%20Spending/id-1136604d853749ae8015d85c4117bfaf

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Friday, March 30, 2012

On the Coexistence of Family, Motherhood, and Art | SANDBOX ...

One can either have great art or great life

I?ve spent seven years meditating on this statement, and I always arrive at the same The Devereauxs conclusion: it is true.?

It is true because great art and great life both require great sacrifice and, ultimately, every artist will choose whether it is her art or her life which will give way to make the other preeminent.

Twenty years ago, I would easily have given my life for the sake of making great art. I never dreamed of getting married, having children, or working a ?real? job. Creating in the rehearsal room and performing on the stage were the only places I felt at home, the only spaces where I felt alive. My purpose and passion were completely fulfilled in producing art.

But at the age of twenty, I made a life-altering decision (which I will share in a later post)

Nicole, Michael, and Maren

that led to me getting married a year later. It quickly became clear that I needed to focus on my marriage if I wanted it to last. So I walked off the stage for a then-undetermined amount of time that turned into five years of wondering if I would ever have another artistic opportunity.

I?ve now been married for almost twelve years, have a 3-year-old daughter, and am about to give birth to a second child this summer. And I am confident that the sacrifice I made at the beginning was more than worth it. My husband and I counsel couples every year, and I am constantly reminded that great marriages require great effort. I can honestly now say that if I never stepped on stage again, but succeeded as a wife and mother, then I would have no regrets.

Yet, I am somehow, still, an artist. As a member of Sandbox Theatre, I get to participate in making great art. I personally am not great, but because I work with an ensemble, because I rely on the collaborative efforts of a group of artists, I still receive the reward of producing excellent, original, inspiring art.

And I can do all this because I have a husband who is willing to make sacrifices for me. My husband understands that I don?t need to create and perform, but that I love doing it, with this company, towards these ends. Sandbox, too, makes sacrifices for me. Sandbox, too, understands that art is my joy but my family is my life, and that I am unwilling to give up this great life for the sake of art.

So, perhaps, one could say that I am unusually blessed to have both great art and great life, the seemingly impossible coexistence of incredibly difficult realities. And it does require daily sacrifices on many sides, from many people. But I think that this group effort towards greatness, in life and in art, is what makes both so very beautiful. Neither life nor art was ever intended to exist alone.??

-Nicole Devereaux

Nicole Devereaux A?Sandbox ensemble member since 2010, Nicole is the co-project lead for Sandbox?s 2012 production?Beatnik Giselle.

Source: http://www.sandboxtheatreonline.com/family-motherhood-and-art/

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IOC wraps up final inspection in London

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ioc-wraps-final-inspection-london-102738744--olympics.html

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Dow back in black as Wall Street cuts losses near quarter's end

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wall-street-eases-energy-materials-sectors-weigh-013032369.html

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Trayvon Martin PSAs: Chaka Khan, Other Celebrities, Ordinary People Pay Tribute to Slain Teen

A pair of videos - one featuring celebrities, one starring ordinary people - have surfaced online as public service announcements and tributes to Trayvon Martin.

In the first, singer Chaka Khan enlists help from celebrity friends Kelly Price, Eric Benét, Eva Pigford, Kenny Latimore, Terry Crews, Angela Bassett, Kimberly Elise and Loretta Devine, creating this public service announcement for Trayvon Martin:

Chaka Khan - Super Life (Trayvon Martin Tribute)

Donning a black hoodie, Chaka sings “A mama’s cryin’ ’cause another young man has gone and died. He’s not some statistic. He’s an awesome destiny denied.”

In a second video, filmmakers from Newark, N.J., assembled 30 African-American males to lend their voices to speak out on the Trayvon Martin case and the way they believe black males are being perceived in the media and society.

They, too, wear hooded sweatshirts as audio of a 911 dispatcher speaking to George Zimmerman, and Geraldo Rivera's comments, play in the background:

Trayvon Martin PSA

The tributes are moving, however, some have suggested that Martin becoming a national symbol and media obsession has indirectly led to bias against George Zimmerman, who claims self-defense and has not been charged with a crime.

Martin's death is a tragedy and the public is right to question why an unarmed teen was slain. Yet making Trayvon into a martyr or entertainment form oversimplifies a complex matter does little to honor his memory - or the accused's right to due process.

It's important to consider all sides of the issue. Do you agree?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/03/trayvon-martin-psas-chaka-khan-other-celebrities-pay-tribute-to/

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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Secrets For Real Estate Agents In Promoting Homes ...

Skills and competitive edge is what seller need in the tough market of real estate. Home staging is one way of making our home appear the best to our buyers. Staging is about making your home appealing to a broad range of buyers. You should make your home an aura of a lifestyle that many buyers could not resist. You should make them imagine themselves living in your home. That is what real estate agents who sell homes in Orange County California do to sell.

I can give you some secrets on how you can use home staging to your advantage and make your home appear in various listings such as Orange County listing.

First thing that you can do is to declutter. The trinklets and trash were sometimes being focused on by buyers instead of the architectural design of the home. Decors that you don?t want to be thrown could be just put away.

Make sure that you have chosen what furniture would be best displayed on the time that you have a buyer visiting your home, that is the next. Large furniture would make your home smaller, and small furniture in a large room would make it disproportionate.

Making sure that we have a proper lighting is third. The room would make better if there would be a proper lighting. It is advisable that you use CFL Lights in ?daylight? colors. By using this, it would make your room light and bright even during the evening hours.

Another thing is to make sure that you have fresh flowers everywhere in the house. You should remember that flowers can add life and fragrance to the room. When you look at some homes in Orange County CA that is being sold, you might notice that they are flowers everywhere.

These are just some tips that you might want to take advantage for home staging of your home. There are still a lot more to learn. Though it might sound easy but when we applied this strategy, we might be shocked when we can sell our home easily.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 27th, 2012 at 10:17 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Source: http://www.ondaproductions.com/2012/03/27/secrets-for-real-estate-agents-in-promoting-homes/

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New ancestor grasped at walking

Foot fossils unveil a species that lived near Lucy?s kind

Web edition : 2:28 pm

An ancient member of the human evolutionary family has put what?s left of a weird, gorillalike foot forward to show that upright walking evolved along different paths in East Africa.

A 3.4 million-year-old partial fossil foot unearthed in Ethiopia comes from a previously unknown hominid species that deftly climbed trees but walked clumsily, say anthropologist Yohannes Haile-Selassie of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and his colleagues. Their report appears in the March 29 Nature.

To the scientists? surprise, this creature lived at the same time and in the same region as Australopithecus afarensis, a hominid species best known for a partial skeleton dubbed Lucy. Another recent fossil discovery in Ethiopia suggests that Lucy?s kind walked much as people do today (SN: 7/17/10, p. 5).

?For the first time, we have evidence of another hominid lineage that lived at the same time as Lucy,? says anthropologist and study coauthor Bruce Latimer of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. ?This new find has a grasping big toe and no arch, suggesting [the species] couldn?t walk great distances and spent a lot of time in the trees.?

Lucy?s flat-footed compatriot adds to limited evidence that some hominids retained feet designed for adept tree climbing several million years after the origin of an upright gait, writes Harvard University anthropologist Daniel Lieberman in a comment published in the same issue of Nature.

Armed with only eight toe bones, Haile-Selassie?s team doesn?t have enough skeletal evidence to assign a species name to the new find. But this mysterious hominid?s foot shares more in common with 4.4 million-year-old Ardipithecus ramidus, largely known from a partial skeleton nicknamed Ardi (SN: 1/16/10, p. 22), than with Lucy?s crowd.

Ardipithecus evolved into an initial Australopithecus species by 4.1 million years ago, paving the way for Lucy and her kin (SN: 4/15/06, p. 227). Haile-Selassie?s discovery may come from a hardy Ardipithecus lineage that managed to survive near A. afarensis for hundreds of thousands of years before dying out, comments anthropologist C. Owen Lovejoy of Kent State University in Ohio.

As in gorillas, Ardi and the newly discovered hominid possessed short, curving big toes capable of grasping against the second toe. Other toe bones from Ardi and the new discovery formed joints that enabled a two-legged stride.

The newly found fossils include an unusually long bone from the fourth toe that unexpectedly resembles corresponding toe bones of monkeys. No such fourth-toe bones have been found for Ardi?s and Lucy?s species.

An Ardipithecus species might have lived alongside A. afarensis in East Africa, but the evolutionary identity of the new foot fossils can?t be determined, remarks anthropologist Tim White of the University of California, Berkeley, who led excavations and analyses of Ardi?s remains.

?Haile-Selassie?s discovery highlights our lack of knowledge about hominid feet,? White says.

Found in: Anthropology and Humans

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/339522/title/New_ancestor_grasped_at_walking

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Monday, March 26, 2012

Why You Should Hire A Pest Exterminator To Treat Your Home ...

By Marcela Y. Stephens

Selecting a trained pest exterminator should be considered just another factor of owning your own home and property, as not investing in these services can be quite risky. Just as you care for your lawn, routinely power wash the exterior walls, and invest in small home improvement projects, pest control is only another part of maintaining a good environment.

Some homeowners falsely believe that the right time to search for this type of help is after they have already noticed a clear issue with bugs or vermin. The truth is that you really need to focus on this type of professional assistance shortly after you have picked out your first home. Although a thorough cleaning regimen will reduce the risk of many sorts of infestation from ever occurring, some insects, like termites, can sneak up on you and begin a path of systematic destruction, regardless of how clean you keep your home.

Termites and even the standard roach can bring incredible damage to the average home, destroying appliances and causing walls to become like paper, falling apart at the slightest touch. If you intend to prevent something like this from occurring, the best thing you can do is schedule routine care through a trained professional who can help set up a system made for not only stopping these critters from damaging things, but also preventing them from doing it. The homeowners who wait until they can see mouse droppings or hear the subtle sound of termites eating away at their walls, often find themselves in an unfortunate place of such extreme disrepair that they must practically build their home over again from the ground up. The world is sadly littered with homes that have been abandoned in the name of an overrun of pests. It is important to note that some pest control companies offer their clients a contract that functions much like insurance, with this type of set up if the damage occurs while you are under contract it is often covered. Yet another reason that you must look at this type of service as a requirement rather than a luxury.

When you prepare to buy your first home, it is important that you consider including a pest exterminator contract as part of your maintenance budget. Maintaining this form of service is crucial to home ownership. The payments related to managing this type of service on hand is well worth avoiding the heartbreak of watching one?s beloved dream home fall into shambles. The best way to keep from having to struggle through tragedy is to prepare ahead of time by getting on top of the situation before an infestation has the chance to occur.

Are you finding pest controller in your area? You can find at Pest Exterminator or you might be also be interested on Pest Control Dallas.

Tags: bug, bugs, exterminator, insect, pest, pest management services, pests, service, services

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 25th, 2012 at 5:56 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Source: http://articles4net.com/blog/archives/301853

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Sunday, March 25, 2012

Enhancing Business Sales Statistics By Hiring SEO Services ...

Topseos

Advanced definition of company search engine optimization, topseos, search page optimization and pay per click marketing company

Operations and financial are probably 2 departments that ensure the correct functioning of the company or a company. The incorrect SEO can destroy your chances, shoving your website to the bottom of the search results and marking it as junk e-mail. Thinking about acquiring site visitors via search engines like Google is really a technique that can be very effective if you?ve got the appropriate search engine advertising experts that will help you.

The reason being it will lead to more visibility of your site, hence increased traffic, more prospects, more conversions and higher earnings. The SEO team will set your website towards the most crowded site on the internet which is the social networking sites. The best as well as optimum effect can result in got form the hiring the services of a Search Optimization Business which will automatically get the business running because the most sought after by clients all over.

Banner advertising also include keywords, that really help connect internet surfers to specific brands and products. Hiring a firm that employs strong press release writers that can write news produces that bring local customers for your business is an invaluable resource. One of the essential things that you should request your potential seo company is what precisely can they caused by help your website rank up?

This is the process of increasing the ranking from the articles, web sites and web pages of a business. If they are nowhere to be found in the search engines, then you definitely cannot anticipate much from their store. The web solution supplier should be ready to deliver supporting information towards the client around the tools, hyperlinks and high quality that will see their website and webpages receive top rankings.

Determining quality SEO services is however, probably the most arduous tasks that most people run into in the initiatives of increasing visitors into their websites. Companies have recognized that the appearance of their name at the click of the mouse is exactly what gives their business a boost and helps them reap profits.. Price Freeze Guarantee ? Make sure the SEO package you are interested stays with the same cost for a minimum of Six months to 1 year.

A good Internet marketing solution provider must have the capability associated with integrating various tactics that will generate more traffic towards the website of the customer. You also have to know that a reliable SEO company does not have a fixed cost for their SEO services. Finally, the best SEO services provided by the best SEO companies would come with a comprehensive report about the whole process.

Because there is no actual ?certification? process in order to license an individual to practice SEO as well as SEM, there tend to be THOUSANDS much more incompetent folks advertising that these people market websites than competent, competent people who are proficient at it. Getting got fatigued and frustrated with poor, misleading techniques and temporary page ranks because brought in very unintelligently by a good non-Indian SEO company of a nation that gets outsourced jobs a lot from abroad, a website proprietor from the United kingdom decided to discontinue giving them additional assignment while he became fed up with their unctuous SEO knowledge and professionalism. It can be achieved via paid addition, paid placement and contextual advertising.

As such, this becomes the best tool to use in reaching them with their advertising messages. Webmasters are guaranteed to remain competitive in the online business if they stick to SEO experts. For you to appreciate all these advantages that the search engine optimization brings to you, you have to make sure that the strategies used by the actual SEO Optimization Company tend to be reliable and that they can be reliable.

This ensures if the company has a firm belief in white hat SEO or not really. In the event that one?s business does not have SEO Internet marketing methods, he or she will need help from SEO experts. A professional SEO firm can use their knowledge to not only help your website ride out fluctuations in what search engines are looking for, but to use those fluctuations to boost your website higher.

You should find an SEO firm or professional that stays current on the newest changes as well as trends inside search engine optimization and traffic building.

For additional information concerning pay per click best, topseos, mobile search engine optimization and pay per click firms please follow the link.

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Source: http://pentaminor.com/enhancing-business-sales-statistics-by-hiring-seo-services.html

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96% Pariah

"Pariah," from first-time writer/director Dee Rees, doesn't break much artistic ground. It tells the same gay/lesbian coming-out story that we've seen a million times. But it's told particularly well and from within a black urban context, which I don't believe has been done before. It also goes a bit deeper into the hearts and minds of the homophobic parents than typically is done, which was great. Unfortunately, it only scratches those surfaces. Kim Wayans, who of course has a long history in comedy, shows she has major dramatic talent, playing the homophobic mother of the main character. The cast is universally good, but Wayans is the stand-out. The main character is a black teenage girl in Brooklyn going through the coming-out process. She has fully come out to herself as a lesbian, and she has even found her way into a lesbian circle of friends. She even frequents a women's night club. But she hasn't told Mom or Dad about any of this, both of whom are homophobic. Mom is particularly venomous in her hatred of gays and lesbians. You can see that Dad, a detective in the NYPD, in his heart of hearts is not a bigot. Thrown into the mix to complicate things a little bit is a bisexual girl eager to have lesbian experiences to explore herself. But she tosses lesbians aside like useless candy wrappers after she's had her fun. If I were going to give Dee Rees advice, I would say this: Ms. Rees, in "Pariah" you started digging into the parent characters with some real psychological and artistic depth. I encourage you to go more deeply in that direction. I think your true gifts as an artist lie there. I would give anything to see a sequel where you explore what happened to that mother and what she's really fighting. You hint that her husband is beginning to stray, but I think there's more in there. Help us see it. Remember when that great schoolteacher tells Alike that she could "go deeper" with her poetry? You could go deeper with your films. I know you could.

January 1, 2012

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pariah_2011/

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maria - Organizing Organization A picnic to market Team-Building ...

You will find other ways to build extremely effective along with practical groups inside your business. You can search diverse team-building pastimes like business picnics or even company excursions. This particular action it not just a simple trip with your workers. It is a team development plan-and an excellent venue-for the employees in order to connect together and boost their company that may be very important simply because elevated camaraderie can raise your employees? productiveness. Nonetheless, the achievements each task will be tremendously based on the different actions and discussions arranged with the team development celebration organizers.

As a result your question: how do you consider Personeelsuitje eindhoven? How do you establish which people that are finest appropriate to resolve your firm?s requires? Who have the harder applications plus more experience? You?ll find other ways to guage a particular business to choose notebook computer. Among the numerous issues that you should contemplate could be the plans that they can coordinate, your offers they offer in addition to their capacity to meet up with the firm?s needs. Firm trips and also a picnic seriously isn?t concerning finding the right location or maybe the the majority of sumptuous meals for the individuals. It?s also concerning preserving your participants, the staff in this instance, serious while advertising their own team development skills as well as developing.

If you intend to activate Vrijgezellenfeest rotterdam, you have to initial existing them one of the issues the organization suffers from and get these with regards to assistance or even tips. For example, for anyone who is having issues by using a distinct part in your organization, you may inquire corporate and business excursions coordinator to make a tailored strategy along with package that will directly concentrate in to the challenge that you just pointed out and respond to your needs. There are lots involving celebration preparing companies that cannot blend entertaining and also operate mechanics within their pursuits. You will end up surprised in the amount a lot of them have no idea which in turn items as well as routines are enjoyable for your workers during a picnic as well as outings, even though some will not know about the way to assess the interior operation through the company world. These firms are not able to immediately respond to your requirements thus stay away from.

Among the many reason these types of Groepsuitje rotterdam companies can?t observe the characteristics from your corporate environment is really because are not equipped inside exact same world. People guiding these kinds of team development occasions companies get minimum or perhaps zero venture understanding that is why they?re not capable to connect their particular routines for that requirements through the business. But that?s not to imply which they are not able to organize activities and also games. They could, however they are great for personal or friends nevertheless is not helpful to respond to selected ?corporate? wants. During the original phase, when you request an answer to get a problem which you explained, you are able to easily determine if the business is usually a company as well as the leisure company.

Team building are not able to take place without worrying about needed helpful pursuits that ought to be supplied by individuals who have business or even coaching experience. Actively playing helpful game titles is just not team building events events with there being additional characteristics included. To organize the top firm getaway or perhaps have a picnic to your staff, you will need to locate a team building occasions leader that will is aware exactly what group improvement is actually and the proper ways to achieve it in a fun, interesting way.

Source: http://www.switchboardwm.org.uk/organizing-organization-a-picnic-to-market-team-building/

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Source: http://nisivo.livejournal.com/14861.html

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jaredgnarly: Omg I probably didn't get a callback from the coffee bean cause they went on my twitter

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Omg I probably didn't get a callback from the coffee bean cause they went on my twitter il y a 43 minutes via Twitter for iPhone

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Source: http://twitter.com/jaredgnarly/statuses/183421033850748933

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Aliso Viejo Condominium Market Update | Real Estate Industry Blog

This Market Update is for all Condominiums currently active for sale and units that have sold in the recent past for the City of Aliso Viejo . This market report is brought to you by the professional realtors at eVantage Real Estate here in Orange County, CA. Currently there are 19 attached condos listed for sale, and these units have a median price of $429,900 and an average price per square foot of $259 . These condominiums range in price from a low of $324,700 for a unit comprising of 3 bedroom, 3 bath, and 1,286 square feet, that is situated in the Hamptons Tract. The maximum price is $539,000 for a roomy condo consisting of 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, with 2,043 square feet found in the Tivoli II Subdivision.

There are 39 Condo units now pending in escrow in Aliso Viejo , that have a median price of $389,000 . These units range in price from $205,000 for a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1,236 square foot condominium, situated in the 0 Subdivision. On up to a high price of $500,000 for a fine condo comprised of 3 bedrooms, and 3 baths, with 1,900 square feet, located in the Woodlands Subdivision.

For attached Condos Sold in the past 3 Months, there were 24 such units that succesfully closed escrow in Aliso Viejo , California. The median price of these attached units was $390,000 with an average price per square foot of $254 . These sold condominiums ranged in price from a low of $312,000 for a 2 bedroom, 3 bath, 1300 square foot unit found in the Hamptons condo Tract. The maximum priced sold condo was $525,000 for a nice unit comprised of 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, and 1,817 square feet found in the Woodlands Tract.

For more info about condominiums for sale in Aliso Viejo , please feel free to contact us at: (949) 388-3396, or email us at: Info@eVantageRE.com . Of visit our Aliso Viejo Condos for Sale Website.

Source: http://www.wannanetwork.com/2012/03/23/aliso-viejo-condominium-market-update/

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The Echo Nest CEO On What Big Data Means To The Music Industry

The Echo Nest is possibly the hottest music data company around right now. They've signed deals with Nokia, EMI, Clear Channel, Spotify, and most recently, Vevo. So chances are if you enjoy music, The Echo Nest has something to do with what songs you're recommended.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/8tVJqR0r7vM/

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Saturday, March 24, 2012

Refurb Samsung Galaxy Tab 7" 16GB Android Tablet for $250 + free shipping

johny641 via eBay offers the refurbished Samsung Galaxy Tab Plus 7" 16GB WiFi Google Android Tablet, model no. GT-P6210MAYXAR, for $249.95 with free shipping. (The price shows at checkout.) That's $30 under our mention of a new one from two weeks ago, and $50 under the lowest total price we could find for a new unit today. This wireless-only Android tablet (no 3G connectivity) features a 7" 1024x600 touchscreen LCD, 16GB memory, 1.2GHz dual-core processor, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS, 2-megapixel front camera, 3-megapixel rear camera, Android 3.2 OS (Honeycomb), and more.

A 90-day warranty applies, although it's unclear who supports it.

Source: http://dealnews.com/Refurb-Samsung-Galaxy-Tab-7-16-GB-Android-Tablet-for-250-free-shipping/561140.html?iref=rss-dealnews-recent-deals

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What is the Secret to Austin, Texas' Jobs Success?

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Source: video.foxbusiness.com --- Friday, March 23, 2012
Austin Texas Mayor on boosting job growth ...

Source: http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/1527028719001/what-is-the-secret-to-austin-texas-jobs-success/

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Friday, March 23, 2012

MarkCare: Making Health Insurance More Affordable for Small ...

Colleen Curtis

March 22, 2012
09:23 AM EDT

Mark Hodesh, the owner of a home-and-garden shop in downtown Ann Arbor, MI, thinks there?s a lot of misinformation about the Affordable Care Act and its impact on small-businesses like his: ?A lot of people say it?s a job killer. In my experience, it?s a job creator.?

To maintain a strong staff for the past 12 years, Mark works to provide health care coverage to his full-time employees and sees it as a key component to the store?s success. As Mark says, ?We rely on long-term, well-informed good employees to compete with our box-store competition. The best way I know how to attract and keep good people is to have a good benefits package. Health care is a big part of that.?

The Affordable Care Act allows employers to claim a tax credit for up to 35 percent of their health insurance premiums. Mark says that while his insurance rates have skyrocketed over the past 10 years, the tax credit gave him the ability to hire another employee to his current staff of twelve.

The health care law?s tax credit has lowered health insurance costs for small-business owners, who on average have paid about 18 percent more than large firms for the same health insurance policy.

Starting in 2014, the small-business tax credit goes up to 50 percent for qualifying small businesses who will have access to a choice of private health plans through State-based Affordable Insurance Exchanges.

Other provisions of the Affordable Care Act have also been important to Mark?s employees, such as barring insurers from discriminating against children with pre-existing conditions; in 2014, no one can be denied coverage due to pre-existing conditions.? The health care law also prohibits low annual and lifetime limits on how much care insurers cover.

Additionally, Mark, his employees and millions of other Americans with private insurance or Medicare are able to get many preventive care services, such as flu shots, cholesterol screenings and cancer screenings like mammograms and colonoscopies with no co-pay or deductible.

And, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, small businesses are no longer in the dark about their health insurance premiums. Now, insurance companies are required to justify rate increases of 10 percent or higher. This has contributed to a decline in rate increases; in the last quarter of 2011 alone, States reported that premium increases dropped by 4.5 percent.?

The health care law is giving small businesses more affordable options for health care and health insurance coverage, and as Mark says: ?The Affordable Care Act is making it easier for us to do better.?

If you have a story like Mark?s, share it at www.Healthcare.gov/MyCare.

Learn more about how the Affordable Care Act is helping Americans:

Gorbachev says revive Russian social democratic party

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev proposed on Wednesday reviving a social democratic party in Russia in the hope of uniting leftist groups opposed to President-elect Vladimir Putin.

Gorbachev, 81, was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying he was ready to relaunch a movement he led from 2001 until 2004 but that he would not be its leader.

He has little public support because he is widely blamed for the Soviet Union's collapse, and his party made little impact in its previous incarnation, when it failed to win any seats in the lower house of parliament before it was dissolved in 2007.

Many Russians were skeptical about Gorbachev's proposal.

"It is not productive. Despite all my respect for Mikhail Sergeyevich's state service, he can't move this rock alone," said Gennady Gudkov, a protest leader and opposition lawmaker.

"Gorbachev is popular abroad, but it would be a gross exaggeration to speak of his popularity at home," he said, adding that the opposition should look to reforming leftist parties with seats in parliament.

Gorbachev, who launched "perestroika" (restructuring) reforms and "glasnost" (openness), appears worried that leftist groups are too disunited to take advantage of draft reforms that would make it easier to register political parties.

"There is a lot of confusion about party-building in Russia now and a social democratic party could bring together a wide circle," Interfax quoted him as saying.

"I don't intend to lead this new party but am ready to play a very active role in its creation and I encourage all those who were in the last team of Social Democrats to get involved."

Gorbachev, one of Putin's most vocal critics, ran in the presidential election in 1996 but failed miserably. While unlikely to have wide appeal, his proposal could serve as a wake-up call.

Other leftist leaders have been discussing joining forces to challenge Putin, inspired by the biggest protests against him since he rose to power 12 years ago and the announcement of moves to ease party registration.

The Kremlin, responding to complaints that Putin and his United Russia party dominate the political system, submitted a draft bill to parliament in January that would reduce the number of members a party needs to register from 40,000 to 500.

The draft has completed two of the three readings needed for passage through the lower house and could become law by the time Putin is inaugurated on May 7 for his third term as president following four years as prime minister.

Political analysts say opposition leaders need to unite if they want to challenge Putin because changes in the party registration law could lead to the creation of numerous small parties which would cause him little trouble individually.

Political reform, including the registration of more political parties, has been one of the main demands at rallies triggered by outrage over fraud allegations in a parliamentary election won by United Russia on December 4.

There are seven registered parties in Russia, four of which are represented in the lower house.

(Reporting By Timothy Heritage; Additional reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel; editing by Tim Pearce)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gorbachev-says-revive-russian-social-democratic-party-160452387.html

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Thursday, March 22, 2012

Online Video Marketing Tips For Success | Internet Marketing and ...

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Online video selling is becoming a popular option for advertising presently. And it?s something that the great majority of people cannot reject. Video will and always will work ? a lot of surveys and studies have proven this lot. And in truth, many businesses nowadays are into online video marketing because of a scattering of reasons : it?s not going to put a hole in one?s pocket to create a video and once you put a video online it?ll stay there for keeps. It is how you present your video that the competition kicks in. Naturally, you can?t just simply make a web video and expect results. These are some handy tips to make online video marketing successful on your side. You simply need to prep your video and follow these pointers to reap its maximum potential.

Number one tip is to make sure that your title is exceptional enough to make interest from potential customers. If a great title works for movies and headlines, it sure works for your video as well . When it comes to video marketing online, it?s easy to get two advantages from having a great title. One advantage is that, as I?ve already stated , it can get attention. Another reason is that given you have created a good keyword, your video would be most likely to appear on the 1st page on search engines once folk are looking for your topic.

Never forget that you have to include your URL in yor video. This is one thing that most people ignore ? your sole purpose is to attract people to go to your website. If you are having difficulties on how to put up text on your video, try to explore your video maker software. It is pretty much easy to do. All you need to do is to put a text box to your video and type your URL there. Make use of the video to expose your website and people will most likely to click on your video.

Apart from your URL, you should also give your viewers an HTML link. If you notice, there is a small space below your video on Youtube that has a little blurb on it. You can use this text box to your advantage by typing your HTML link on the first part of it. This will help you get people to go to the website you wish them to go to.

People may prefer watching your video, but who likes a video that has content that is as dull as a wooden spatula used as a meat carver? Seriously though, content is just as important. You need to come up with great content that would get the attention of your ideal viewer. Your content should be something that your market would find of importance. One example of a video with great content is a how-to video or instructional video. Not only are you giving your viewers your share of what you know, but you are also giving them the idea of what you can offer. Thus, they will come back for more.

So you got great content? That?s cool but wait, is that minutes long? Sure, your chops on your video are great, but you are trying to sell something here and not telling your life story. Try to keep it short enough to make them glued on their seats long enough to have their attention on you.

Want To Get A Head Start On Web Video Production For Business? Get Help From The Experts At http://www.melbourneseoservices.com/.

Source: http://www.neiljw.com/6181/online-video-marketing-tips-for-success/

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 review (Verizon Wireless LTE)

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 review (international edition)

Verizon Galaxy Tab 7.7 with LTE hands-on

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus review

Samsung's Galaxy Tab series boasts seven distinct models. Throw in all of the variants of each one -- LTE, WiFi, WiMAX and even the Galaxy Note 10.1 if you want to be picky -- and all of a sudden the number of tablets produced by the Korean electronics giant over the past sixteen months shoots up to exceed twenty. In a vast sea of incredibly similar-looking Android slates, there's one model that dares to be different: the Galaxy Tab 7.7, an oddly sized tablet with a stunning Super AMOLED Plus display.

Last month, we were given the opportunity to review the global version, and definitely liked what we saw. It's an understatement, then, to say that we were ecstatic to give Verizon's LTE version a run for its money (which, at $500 with a two-year commitment and $700 without, is a lot). What did Big Red choose to tweak? How's the battery life once you factor in that next-gen network? These answers and more are coming your way after the break.

Gallery: Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 LTE overview

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 review (Verizon Wireless LTE)

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 review (Verizon Wireless LTE) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/21/samsung-galaxy-tab-7-7-review-verizon-wireless-lte/

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Space Opera Creator George Walton Lucas, Jr. | Modern Digital Art ...

Posted by Santhosh Koneru on Mar 20, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments

George Walton Lucas, Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American film producer, screenwriter, director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones. Lucas is one of the American film industry?s most financially successful directors/producers, with an estimated net worth of $3.2 billion as of 2011.

Early life and education

George Lucas was born in Modesto, California, the son of Dorothy Ellinore (n?e Bomberger) and George Walton Lucas, Sr. (1913?1991), who owned a stationery store.

Lucas grew up in the Central Valley town of Modesto and his early passion for cars and motor racing would eventually serve as inspiration for his USC student film 1:42.08, as well as his Oscar-nominated low-budget phenomenon, American Graffiti. Long before Lucas became obsessed with film making, he wanted to be a race-car driver, and he spent most of his high school years racing on the underground circuit at fairgrounds and hanging out at garages. However, a near-fatal accident in his souped-up Autobianchi Bianchina on June 12, 1962, just days before his high school graduation, quickly changed his mind. Instead of racing, he attended Modesto Junior College and later got accepted into a junior college to study anthropology. While taking liberal arts courses, he developed a passion for cinematography and camera tricks. George Lucas graduated from USC in California.

As a child, Lucas never learned to swim, which became a source of embarrassment and frustration as he became older. Lucas has expressed in several interviews that his inability to swim was ?the passion that drove me to succeed in filmmaking? [It] gave me the chip on my shoulder that I think was critical to my later success?

During this time, an experimental filmmaker named Bruce Baillie tacked up a bedsheet in his backyard in 1960 to screen the work of underground, avant-garde 16?mm filmmakers like Jordan Belson, Stan Brakhage and Bruce Conner. For the next few years, Baillie?s series, dubbed Canyon Cinema, toured local coffeehouses. These events became a magnet for the teenage Lucas and his boyhood friend John Plummer. The 19-year-olds began slipping away to San Francisco to hang out in jazz clubs and find news of Canyon Cinema screenings in flyers at the City Lights bookstore. Already a promising photographer, Lucas became infatuated with these abstract films.

?That?s when he [George] really started exploring? Plummer recalled. ?We went to a theater on Union Street that shows art films, we drove up to San Francisco State for a film festival, and there was an old beatnik coffeehouse in Cow Hollow with shorts that were really out there.? It was a season of awakening for Lucas, who had been an uninterested slacker in high school. At an autocross track, Lucas met his first mentor in the film industry?? famed cinematographer Haskell Wexler, a fellow aficionado of sleek racing machines. Wexler was impressed by the way the shy teenager handled a camera, cradling it low on his hips to get better angles. ?George had a very good eye, and he thought visually,? Wexler recalls.

Lucas then transferred to the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. USC was one of the earliest universities to have a school devoted to motion picture film. During the years at USC, George Lucas shared a dorm room with Randal Kleiser. Along with classmates such as Walter Murch, Hal Barwood and John Milius, they became a clique of film students known as The Dirty Dozen. He also became very good friends with fellow acclaimed student filmmaker and future Indiana Jones collaborator, Steven Spielberg. Lucas was deeply influenced by the Filmic Expression course taught at the school by filmmaker Lester Novros which concentrated on the non-narrative elements of Film Form like color, light, movement, space, and time. Another huge inspiration was the Serbian montagist (and dean of the USC Film Department) Slavko Vorkapich, a film theoretician comparable in historical importance to Sergei Eisenstein, who moved to Hollywood to make stunning montage sequences for studio features at MGM, RKO, and Paramount. Vorkapich taught the autonomous nature of the cinematic art form, emphasizing the unique dynamic quality of movement and kinetic energy inherent in motion pictures.

Lucas saw many inspiring films in class, particularly the visual films coming out of the National Film Board of Canada like Arthur Lipsett?s 21-87, the French-Canadian cameraman Jean-Claude Labrecque?s cin?ma v?rit? 60 Cycles, the work of Norman McLaren, and the documentaries of Claude Jutra. Lucas fell madly in love with pure cinema and quickly became prolific at making 16?mm nonstory noncharacter visual tone poems and cin?ma v?rit? with such titles as Look at Life, Herbie, 1:42.08, The Emperor, Anyone Lived in a Pretty (how) Town, Filmmaker, and 6-18-67. He was passionate and interested in camerawork and editing, defining himself as a filmmaker as opposed to being a director, and he loved making abstract visual films that create emotions purely through cinema.

After graduating with a bachelor of fine arts in film in 1967, he tried joining the United States Air Force as an officer, but he was immediately turned down because of his numerous speeding tickets. He was later drafted by the Army for military service in Vietnam, but he was exempt from the draft after medical tests showed he had diabetes, the disease that killed his paternal grandfather.

In 1967, Lucas re-enrolled as a USC graduate student in film production. Working as a teaching instructor for a class of U.S. Navy students who were being taught documentary cinematography, Lucas directed the short film Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB, which won first prize at the 1967?68 National Student Film Festival, and was later adapted into his first full-length feature film, THX 1138. Lucas was awarded a student scholarship by Warner Brothers to observe and work on the making of a film of his choosing. The film he chose was Finian?s Rainbow (1968) which was being directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who at the time was revered among film school students of the time as a cinema graduate who had ?made it? in Hollywood. In 1969, George Lucas was one of the camera operators on the classic Rolling Stones concert film Gimme Shelter.

Film career

George Lucas is a filmmaker, with a film career dominated by writing and production. Aside from the nine short films he made in the 1960s, he also directed six major features. His work from 1971 and 1977 as a writer-director, which established him as a major figure in Hollywood, consists of just three films: THX 1138, American Graffiti, and Star Wars. There was a 22-year hiatus between the original Star Wars film and his only other feature-film directing credits, the three Star Wars prequels.

Lucas acted as a writer and executive producer on another successful Hollywood film franchise, the Indiana Jones series. In addition, he established his own effects company, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM), to make the original Star Wars film. The company is now one of the most successful in the industry.

Lucas co-founded the studio American Zoetrope with Coppola?whom he met during his internship at Warner Brothers?hoping to create a liberating environment for filmmakers to direct outside the perceived oppressive control of the Hollywood studio system. His first full-length feature film produced by the studio, THX 1138, was not a success. Lucas then created his own company, Lucasfilm, Ltd., and directed American Graffiti (1973). His new-found wealth and reputation enabled him to develop a story set in space. Even so, he encountered difficulties getting Star Wars made. It was only because Alan Ladd, Jr., at Fox Studios liked American Graffiti that he forced through a production and distribution deal for the film, which ended up restoring Fox to financial stability after a number of flops.

Star Wars quickly became the highest-grossing film of all-time, displaced five years later by Spielberg?s E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. During the filming of Star Wars, Lucas waived his up-front fee as director and negotiated to own the licensing rights (for novelizations, T-shirts, toys, etc.)?rights which the studio thought were nearly worthless. This decision earned him hundreds of millions of dollars, as he was able to directly profit from all the licensed games, toys, and collectibles created for the franchise. This accumulated capital enabled him to finance the sequel himself.

Over the two decades after the first Star Wars film, Lucas worked extensively as a writer and/or producer, including the many Star Wars spinoffs made for film, TV, and other media. He acted as executive producer for the next two Star Wars films, assigning the direction of The Empire Strikes Back to Irvin Kershner and Return of the Jedi to Richard Marquand, while receiving a story credit on the former and sharing a screenwriting credit with Lawrence Kasdan on the latter. Lucas also acted as executive producer and story writer on all four of the Indiana Jones films, which he convinced his colleague and good friend, Steven Spielberg, to direct. Other notable projects as a producer or executive producer in this period include Kurosawa?s Kagemusha (1980), Lawrence Kasdan?s Body Heat (1981), Jim Henson?s Labyrinth (1986), Godfrey Reggio?s Powaqqatsi (1986) and the animated film The Land Before Time (1988). There were also some less successful projects, however, including More American Graffiti (1979), the ill-fated Howard the Duck (1986), which was arguably the biggest flop of his career; Willow (1988, which Lucas also wrote); and Coppola?s Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988). Between 1992 and 1996, Lucas served as executive producer for the television spinoff The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. In 1997, for the 20th anniversary of Star Wars, Lucas went back to his trilogy to enhance and add certain scenes using newly available digital technology. These new versions were released in theaters as the Star Wars Trilogy: Special Edition. For DVD releases in 2004, this series has received further revisions to make them congruent with the prequel trilogy. Besides the additions to the Star Wars franchise, Lucas released Special Edition director?s cuts of THX 1138 and American Graffiti containing a number of CGI revisions.

The animation studio Pixar was founded as the Graphics Group, one third of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm. Pixar?s early computer graphics research resulted in groundbreaking effects in films such as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khanand Young Sherlock Holmes, and the group was purchased in 1986 by Steve Jobs shortly after he left Apple after a power struggle at Apple Computer. Jobs paid U.S. $5 million to Lucas and put U.S. $5 million as capital into the company. The sale reflected Lucas? desire to stop the cash flow losses from his 7-year research projects associated with new entertainment technology tools, as well as his company?s new focus on creating entertainment products rather than tools. A contributing factor was cash-flow difficulties following Lucas? 1983 divorce concurrent with the sudden dropoff in revenues from Star Wars licenses following the release of Return of the Jedi.

The sound-equipped system, THX Ltd, was founded by Lucas and Tomlinson Holman. The company was formerly owned by Lucasfilm, and contains equipment for stereo, digital, and theatrical sound for films, and music. Skywalker Sound and Industrial Light & Magic, the sound and visual effects subdivisions of Lucasfilm, respectively, have become among the most respected firms in their fields. Lucasfilm Games, later renamed LucasArts, is well respected in the gaming industry.

In 1994, Lucas began work on the screenplay for the prequel Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, which would be the first film he had directed in over two decades. The Phantom Menace was released in 1999, beginning a new trilogy of Star Wars films. Lucas also directed Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith which were released in 2002 and 2005, respectively. Numerous critics considered these films inferior to the previously released Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi.

In 2008, he reteamed with Spielberg for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Lucas currently serves as executive producer for Star Wars: The Clone Wars, an animated television series on Cartoon Network, which was preceded by a feature film of the same name. He is also working on a so-far untitled Star Wars live-action series.

For the film Red Tails (2012), Lucas serves as story-writer and executive producer. He also took over direction of reshoots while director Anthony Hemingway worked on other projects. Lucas is working on his first musical, an untitled CGI project being produced at Skywalker Ranch. Kevin Munroe is directing and David Berenbaum wrote the screenplay.

Semi-retirement

?I?m moving away from the business,?from the company, from all this kind of stuff.?

?George Lucas on his future career plans

In January 2012, Lucas announced his retirement from producing large-scale blockbuster films and instead re-focusing his career on smaller, independently budgeted features. He did not specify whether or not this would affect his involvement with a fifth installment of the Indiana Jones series.

Awards

In 1991, The George Lucas Educational Foundation was founded as a nonprofit operating foundation to celebrate and encourage innovation in schools. The Foundation?s content is available under the brand Edutopia, in an award-winning web site and via documentary films. Lucas, through his foundation, was one of the leading proponents of the E-rate program in the universal service fund, which was enacted as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. On June 24, 2008, Lucas testified before the United States House of Representatives subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet as the head of his Foundation to advocate for a free wireless broadband educational network.

The American Film Institute awarded Lucas its Life Achievement Award on June 9, 2005. This was shortly after the release of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, about which he joked stating that, since he views the entire Star Wars series as one film, he could actually receive the award now that he had finally ?gone back and finished the movie.?

On June 5, 2005, Lucas was named among the 100 ?Greatest Americans? by the Discovery Channel.

Lucas was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Directing and Writing for American Graffiti, and Best Directing and Writing for Star Wars. He received the Academy?s Irving G. Thalberg Award in 1991. He appeared at the 79th Academy Awards ceremony in 2007 with Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola to present the Best Director award to their friend Martin Scorsese. During the speech, Spielberg and Coppola talked about the joy of winning an Oscar, making fun of Lucas, who has not won a competitive Oscar.

In 2005, Lucas gave US$1 million to help build the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial on the National Mall in Washington D.C. to commemorate American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.

On June 17, 2006, the Science Fiction Hall of Fame inducted George Lucas and three others.

On September 19, 2006, USC announced that George Lucas had donated $175?180 million to his alma mater to expand the film school. It is the largest single donation to USC and the largest gift to a film school anywhere. Previous donations led to the already existing George Lucas Instructional Building and Marcia Lucas Post-Production building.

On January 1, 2007 George Lucas served as the Grand Marshal for the 2007 Tournament of Roses Parade, and made the coin toss at the 2007 Rose Bowl.

On August 25, 2009, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver announced that Lucas would be one of 13 California Hall of Fame inductees in The California Museum?s yearlong exhibit. The induction ceremony was on December 1, 2009 in Sacramento, California.

On September 6, 2009, Lucas was in Venice to present to the Pixar team the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement during the 2009 Biennale Venice Film Festival.

Personal life

In 1969, Lucas married film editor Marcia Lou Griffin, who went on to win an Academy Award for her editing work on the original Star Wars film. George and Marcia adopted a daughter, Amanda, in 1981, and divorced in 1983. Lucas has since adopted two more children: Katie, born in 1988, and Jett, born in 1993. All three of his children have appeared in the three Star Wars prequels, as has Lucas himself. Lucas had been in a long relationship with and engaged to singer Linda Ronstadt. He has been dating Mellody Hobson, president of Ariel Investments, since 2006 and she has accompanied him to several events including the 79th Academy Awards ceremony in February 2007, an American Film Institute event in October 2007, the 2008 Cannes Film Festival held in May, and the 2010 Golden Globes.

Lucas was born and raised in a strong Methodist family. The religious and mythical themes in Star Wars were inspired by Lucas? interest in the writings of mythologist Joseph Campbell, and he would eventually come to identify strongly with the Eastern religious philosophies he studied and incorporated into his films, which were a major inspiration for ?the Force.? Lucas eventually came to state that his religion was ?Buddhist Methodist?. Lucas resides in Marin County.

Lucas has said that he is a fan of Seth MacFarlane?s hit TV show Family Guy. MacFarlane has said that Lucasfilm was extremely helpful when the Family Guy crew wanted to parody their works.

Lucas has pledged to give half of his fortune to charity as part of an effort called The Giving Pledge led by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to persuade America?s richest individuals to donate their financial wealth to charities.

Santhosh Koneru

Santhosh Koneru is a freelance graphic designer based in India. He recently completed his college courses majoring in 2D Animation, and has decided to continue on to Film Production. His weapon of choice: Photoshop.