Community Leadership Summit 2009

Just a quick message to let you all know that today I announced the Community Leadership Summit 2009 on the 18th and 19th July 2009 in San Jose, California. The event takes place the weekend before OSCON in the same venue: the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. The goal is simple: if those passionate about building great communities can get together to compare notes and discuss and debate these topics, we will all benefit from better communities. The summit gathers together community managers, leaders and organizers as well as the projects, organizations, commercial vendors, ISVs and others who have an interest in building a strong and enabled community. The purpose of the event is to get everyone together to talk about the many nuances of building strong and effective community, such as governance, creating collaborative environments, conflict resolution, transparency, open infrastructure, social networking, commercial investment in community, engineering vs. marketing approaches to community leadership and more. The event is very much a summit: it’s primary focus is around discussion. It will be run in the style of an unconference; a clear and open schedule in which attendees can volunteer sessions and engage with other attendees. This will ensure the summit packs in a healthy chunk of diversity, covering a wide range of topics and perspectives. In addition to the discussions the summit will feature some scheduled presentations, panel discussions and social events. The event is entirely free, but you need to pre-register here. You can read more about the event at www.communityleadershipsummit.com. In its first day day many community managers have signed up to attend such as Joe ‘Zonker’ Brockmeier (OpenSuSE Community Manager - Novell), Dave Neary (GNOME Foundation Board Member - Neary Consulting), Brian Proffitt (Community Manager - Linux Foundation), David “Lefty” Schlesinger (Linux Foundation Mobile Advisory Board, GNOME Foundation), Karsten Wade - (Fedora Community Leader - Red Hat) and John Mark Walker (Community Manager - Collab.net). Rock and roll.

Unstoppable

Rascal Flatts picked a fitting name for their new album: Unstoppable is projected to sell over 300,000 copies in its first week, likely making it the number one album on the Billboard 200 chart, and Rascal Flatts fourth chart-topping album. [Billboard.com] R.I.P. gospel patriarch David Pop Winans, who died Wednesday in Nashville, TN at age 74. Along with his wife Delores (a.k.a. Mom Winans), Pop helped establish the Winans family gospel legacy in Detroit, which includes the Winans and Bebe and Cece Winans. [DetNews.com] Britney Spears Vancouver tour date was stopped mid-concert when the audiences cigarette and marijuana smoke became too dense for the performers and crew to continue. The show continued once the air was clearer and Spears thanked the audience after the final encore, saying, Thanks Vancouver. You were wonderful. Drive safe. Don’t smoke weed! Rock out with your cocks out! [RollingStone.com] Riceboy Sleeps, the project of Sigur Ros vocalist/guitarist Jon Thor Birgisson and Alex Somers, will release their self-titled debut album this summer. [NME.com] South Park target Kanye West is creating an energy drink for the organic brand Guru. Next up for Kanye: His own fragrance. [Pitchfork.com] Check out Silversun Pickups hotly anticipated second album Swoon at MTV.coms The Leak. [MTV.com] And then there were seven: American Idol sent visually impaired contestant Scott MacIntyre home this week. [Idolator.com]

Difficult to borrow money???

The other day, one of my roommates asked us to lend her some money. She hoped each of us can lend her 50RMB. But to my surprise, the others were silent for a while after listening. Then one of them said: OH, I'M POOR AND I DON'T HAVE EXCESS MONEY. Another said: OH, NOW I'M LACKING IN MONEY, SO... Obviously, they refused her politely. I am puzzled. Why do they act like this?? They doubt whether she can give money back or something else??? I suddenly find it is difficult to borrow money from roommates. I wonder whether only close or true friends can lend you money. Is the one who don't lend you money when you are in trouble your true friend??? I THINK MONEY IS REALLY A TEST OF FRIENDSHIP.

optimists gather

By Michael Stott - Reuters Thursday, February 5, 2009 MOSCOW: A dwindling but hardened band of Russia enthusiasts has descended on Moscow for an investor conference, some drawn by the possibility of bargain prices on assets, others hopeful that the financial crisis will accelerate overdue changes.Russia has been in the investor doghouse since a combination of war in Georgia, government interference in major companies and a collapsing ruble made its stock market one of the worst performers in the world last year.The RTS stock index in Moscow plummeted 75 percent from its highs in 2008 and has fallen further this year.Underlining the grim mood at the Russia Forum 2009, organized by the local brokerage house Troika Dialog, news arrived on the opening morning Wednesday that Fitch had downgraded Russia's credit ratings. And the top government speaker, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov, signaled big cuts in government spending to preserve dwindling Russian cash reserves.Adding to investor perceptions of heightened political risk, Kyrgyzstan, a Central Asian ally of Russia, announced on the eve of the investor forum that it would close an important U.S. military base, a move diplomats saw as inspired by the Kremlin.But despite the gloom, some investors were still bullish."You have some assets here with a 25 percent dividend yield," said Jochen Wermuth, chief investment officer of Wermuth Asset Management, based in Frankfurt. "And how bad can it get if you have a company with $18 billion of net cash on its balance sheet?"Wermuth was referring to Surgutneftegaz, one of the largest Russian oil companies. Analysts say concerns over its opaque ownership structure and corporate governance was why the market values the company at no more than the value of the cash on its balance sheet.Several speakers at the conference said the collapse in the price of crude oil, the main Russian export, would pressure Moscow to clean up its act."When oil was at $147 a barrel, people would overlook institutional issues," said Joel Kurtzman, chairman of the advisory firm Kurtzman Group. But with oil currently at about $40 a barrel, he added, "they are not willing to overlook some of these issues."Shuvalov, addressing investor concerns, said the crisis was good for Russia because it would require the country to go through real restructuring."The glamour period is over," a participant who took notes in the closed session quoted Shuvalov as saying. "Now businessmen are turning to what they should be doing - running their companies efficiently."Recalling past financial storms that buffeted Moscow, Ian Bremmer, head of the political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, noted that "Russia was more investor-friendly when it had a more challenging economic environment."He said that the country's highly centralized system of power meant that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was "the world's most powerful individual" - a possible advantage in a crisis that required rapid government responses.Wermuth agreed. "The great time of arrogance" in Russia "is behind us," he said. "I remember birthday parties where you wouldn't speak to people unless they were worth $1 billion."Now, he said, investors should give the Russian government a break. "Maybe they are actually doing the right thing," he added.Herbert Henzler, a senior adviser to the chairman of Credit Suisse, pointed to Russia's success in attracting direct investment from a raft of big German companies including Siemens, Daimler, Adidas, E.ON and BASF. "I would just watch what is happening on the micro level," he added.But with companies' valuations here near fresh lows, many investors seem to have given up on Russia already.Alexei Novikov, head of Standard & Poor's in Russia, said foreign direct investment was very low as a share of gross domestic product. "Why? The answer is country risk," he said. "This creates a lot of mistrust and a lot of fear."

When You Can't Talk To Anyone Else...

I found out yesterday that someone very near and dear to me has cancer. The words they spoke to me were "the full extent is not known yet, but it is bad". They then asked me not to tell anyone, because they don't want to deal with a ton of people calling asking how they are coping .So now I am stuck with this thing on my mind; I am unable to talk to anyone heredue to wanting to respect the wishes of the person involved. It's my Mom. I knew it was going to be bad news when I was told yesterday she wanted me to call her; my family doesn't just chat on the phone for the sake of talking; anytime someone calls, it is always bad news. She has only told 4 of the 7 of us (my brothers and sisters) so far. I'm just really freaked out; I don't know how I am gonna handle this. Granted, my Mom and I have had some bad feelings between us over the years; for a 5 year period we wouldn't even speak, and I was pointedly NOT invited to Thanksgiving and Christmas at her house.For the last few years though, Mom and I have been slowly patching things up, and now this... I'm devastated. So I'm not sure what my real point here is. I guess I am just wondering how do you cope when you find out someone you love might not be there much longer.

Engadget

A wise man once said: "Life moves pretty fast -- if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." At Engadget, that's more than true. We're usually so busy with our heads down -- fingers furiously tapping away on keyboards, news flying in at a breakneck pace -- that we barely have time to take measure of it all. We've been so busy, in fact, that we somehow managed to miss our own 5th birthday... by over a month! If you want to date check that, you can read our very first post right here. Luckily, we happen to have the most amazing group of readers in the world, and one of them, rock99rock, shook us out of our news-trance and reminded us that we should probably spare a little time for reflection. So, we don't want to make a huge deal of it, but we do want to thank everyone who visits the site everyday and keeps making it what it is. We'd be nothing without the eyes and minds of the obsessive, brilliant, and frankly handsome fans that are as voracious about reading tech news as we are about writing it. You're the soul of Engadget, and we thank you from the bottom of our cold, robotic hearts. -Team Engadget Bonus round: Stay tuned for a contest in celebration of the big event coming later today -- and have some cake for us!Filed under: AnnouncementsEngadget turns 5!

Simos Xenitellis

In Designing a command-line translation tool for GNOME, I described how a CLI translation management tool would be used to ease the work of a translator with commit access. The discussion was continued with Leonardo’s post Parsing damned-lies’ releases.xml.in in the command line. The stage we are now is that we have a tool (not official GNOME tool, but rather at beta testing phase!) that can manage the repositories for us, so that the checking out and committing can be fairly automated. The source is available at http://github.com/simos/intltool-manage-vcs/. We show two working examples. Let’s say we want to update the documentation for gcalctool. We run $ ./intltool-manage-vcs --language el --release gnome-2-26 \ --username simos --module gcalctool --transtype doc --init Release : gnome-2-26 Language : el Category: admin-tools Category: dev-tools Category: dev-platform Category: desktop Module: gcalctool, Branch: gnome-2-26 Download completed successfully. $ _ In the PO/ subdirectory there is a PO file for gcalctool. We update it using our favourite translation tool, and then $ ./intltool-manage-vcs --language Greek --commit Sending el/el.po Transmitting file data . Committed revision 2475. $ _ Let’s see another example. We want to update the gnome-games documentation. These are several individual PO files, for each of the games. $ ./intltool-manage-vcs --language el --release gnome-2-26 \ --username simos --module gnome-games --transtype doc --init Release : gnome-2-26 Language : el Category: admin-tools Category: dev-tools Category: dev-platform Category: desktop Module: gnome-games, Branch: gnome-2-26 Download completed successfully. $ _ There are several files, $ ls PO aisleriot.gnome-2-26.el.po gnibbles.gnome-2-26.el.po gnotravex.gnome-2-26.el.po README blackjack.gnome-2-26.el.po gnobots2.gnome-2-26.el.po gnotski.gnome-2-26.el.po same-gnome.gnome-2-26.el.po glchess.gnome-2-26.el.po gnome-sudoku.gnome-2-26.el.po gtali.gnome-2-26.el.po START glines.gnome-2-26.el.po gnometris.gnome-2-26.el.po iagno.gnome-2-26.el.po gnect.gnome-2-26.el.po gnomine.gnome-2-26.el.po mahjongg.gnome-2-26.el.po $ _ We enter the PO/ subdirectory and we update those files we wish. We can also run scripts on the PO files. For example, all these documentation files contain the same fragment of the FDL license, so we can translate the license once, and then merge automatically to all translations. Finally, $ ./intltool-manage-vcs --language Greek --commit Sending el/el.po Transmitting file data . Committed revision 9014. Sending el/el.po Transmitting file data . Committed revision 9015. Sending el/el.po Transmitting file data . Committed revision 9016. $ _ In the above example, we updated the documentation of three of the games. Here are tips when using this tool There is a –dry-run option that is useful when experimenting or trying for the first time. You can filter which group of a release to download, based on category. Existing categories are desktop, admin-tools, dev-tools, dev-platform. Also, on translation type, either documentation or UI (if you do not specify, we get both). On module, by providing the module name. And the current limitations We currently only support SVN. This will change once the repositories move to git.gnome.org, in about two weeks time. You need to have at least an initial translation (currently, the script does not svn add files). To be fixed once we move to git. We do not currently update ChangeLog files. That’s why gnome-games is so cool for these experiments. Due to the git move, we would not need to mess with ChangeLog files. We are dependent on the http://l10n.gnome.org/languages/el/gnome-2-26/xml URLs (replace el with your language). These URLs expose the release modules information in a nice XML file. Previously, the information used to exist in an XML file in the repository of damned-lies. Now, the information lies in the mysql database of damned-lies+vertimus, and is exposed through the above type of URL. Due to the previous point, we commit to branch or trunk, depending on what is available in the latest release (gnome-2-26). That means, my translation fixes in gnome-games have not made it to trunk (HEAD). This is something that can be fixed with a workaround. It would be actually cool to use this tool to commit to both gnome-2-xx and master at the same time. We currently do not deal with figures. Considering that damned-lies+vertimus will be having commit functionality soon, I think that having more than one option for easy commiting translations is good.

Here's Bo! Obamas show pooch with 'star quality'

First pooch Bo got star treatment and his first backyard romp at the White House on Tuesday — and even presidential clearance to visit the Oval Office. But he better not get any inflated ideas about doggy sleeping arrangements. "Not in my bed," declared Barack Obama.First Family parades their new 6-month-old pup around the South Lawn before a throng of reporters Tuesday afternoon.Pres. Obama tells reporters: "He's got star quality... That's a good-looking dog." Also says Michelle Obama's new garden may be "in danger" because Portuguese water dogs apparently like tomatoes.After a reporter reminded Pres. Obama of Pres. Harry S. Truman's line, "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog," Obama joked, "I finally got a friend."

Penis trucks. They bother me.

Penis trucks.They bother me.You city folk have no idea.Out here in the "country", where the roads are plow-it-yourself, the Penis Truck rules.A definition: a Penis Truck is a great big Ford F 150 or some monstrosity that one needs a step-ladder in which one can enter the cab. It is usually red. Sometimes it has a thingamajigy with Rams Horns on it's front.Boys in my neighbourhood own Penis Trucks. It seems to be a requirement to live in this part of the country, although I have not yet gotten the memo stuffed in my mailbox, in the way I get the card-party notice and the newsletter outlining when is Bingo Nite at my local community centre.The Boys seem to know, however. And they appear to have a contract with the plow driver. That contract reads something like this: "I won't plow (says plow-driver) if you Penis Truck boys plow for me. For free! And it will be fun! And you will have fun doing it! And prove you have a Big Penis! And scare Menopausal women in their dotage because you can!"It reminds me of many years ago, when I dated this dude from "Upper Canada" who thought he was superiour to Islanders. He got really possessive and quite upset that I dated a "typical Islander".He said: "You're just going to marry an Oisland man with a jean jacket with a courdroy collar, turned up (sneer)." This was before he stalked me and made my life hell for a while.But I think he may have hit on something.Hey, I am a country girl. (Well, yes, I admit I was never allowed to drive the tractor because I was a "girl"). I was bought a mini-bike at age 12, and grew up on snowmobiles, and the first car I ever had was a stick shift, and I learned how to drive a car, and a truck, and how to "gear down" and "rock it" and get out of snowdrifts, and dig out of the ditch. And all that shit. And I did all that crap. And milked the cows, to boot. And other country wench stuff. (Although I never churned butter).Anyway, I am feeling now there is a problem with these Penis Truck sorts.I think it's the commercials those truck and SUV people put on television with John Cougar singing in the background. Coupled with stupidity, bad genetics, and small penises that must be compensated for.So tonight I had to drive home in a snowstorm. There was no visibility. The roads were drifting. You couldn't see. and it was slippy. Or slippery, to quote that stupid Upper-Canadian boy.So I'm driving, as usual, on my Plow-It-Yourself road. I'm going 50, with my studded winter tires, because that is as safe as it is. In my opinion. And I'm feeling safe. I can handle this. . .As usual, a Penis Truck blows up behind me. With his extra-long-penis high-beams on. He sits on my ass, approximately one quarter of an inch from my ass, in a snow-storm, and I can feel his Penis Rage blowing down my neck.I continue on.He blows past me. On a solid line. With no visibility. And snowdrifts knee deep."Hah." I think. "I hope you end up in the ditch you stupid Penis Fucker".Oh, but two seconds later, his buddy comes up behind me. With His Penis Truck. And His Brights.I am sorry, but they are having a chase! For fun!Second Penis Truck Boy also blows past me. On a solid line, with snowdrifts knee deep.They both proceed in front of me, in a raging blinding snowstorm, on the wrong side of the road. Where they stay. For fun! Chasing each other!Well, by this time, I am about to reach for my estrogen cream. Just for stability.But I have forgotten, this is Plow-it-Yourself, for Fun, in my neck of the woods.So I drive through drifts that consistently get higher, and thuddier, and in second gear I must stay hard left, because the drifts have gone hard right to left, I continue to meet on-coming Penis Trucks, which won't concede one inch of space, nor slow down less than 80 kilometers an hour. They make me stop. And wait them out. I think. Evil thoughts."I want to see you ALL in the ditch, on your rooves. Not dead, but seriously injured."Then, I think: "Also, I want a Penis Truck. Why don't I have one that is BIGGER than yours, you fuckers?"I blame commercials, bad genetics, and Penis Trucks.Bastards.

Sarah Brown and the truth behind that £9,000 top

From Alice Miles' column It is all very well for David Cameron to promise to remove the second-home allowance from any of his ministers with grace-and-favour properties; by the time he is in office it will have been scrapped anyway, and many of his senior colleagues can afford to keep two homes. Labour ministers, on the whole, are not as wealthy. I heard a story this week that made me think about the extra costs and pressures that we pile on to our political families. I realise that the climate is not right to ask for sympathy for them, but have a think. There was an article in The Times during the G20 summit, applauding Sarah Brown for wearing a “£9,000 top”. Idly I wondered how she could afford to pay for that. It turns out that she couldn't. She has no income of her own, having given up all paid work when her husband was Chancellor to avoid any appearance of a conflict of interest. She is not allowed to receive gifts, nor to borrow clothing, not even for a summit. So to look the part for Britain, Mrs Brown has to rent these outfits, the ones that we all scrutinise so brutally, paying a tenth of their value (excluding shop mark-ups) each time. She paid hundreds of pounds of her own money to rent that top, and returned it afterwards.

WOW!!! Heaven I tell you.

Unbelievable! September already. It feels like summer today in balmy Ottawa though...it's a super sunny day...and warm to boot. It seems if we're not complaining about the weather, we're complaining about gas prices. Reading the newspaper daily has put these trivial things into perspective. My heart goes out to those who have been affected by Katrina. What a devastating loss...there are no words.Here, in the cozy confines of my home and in my car, I have been cranking out a few instant gratification projects. Especially after a visit to this shop. WOW!!! Heaven I tell you. We have a pretty good selection of shops in Ottawa...but none that really carry the yarns I've been coveting (read=buying on ebay). So when I found this website...I nearly passed out! I came out with my Visa still intact, but was able to scoop up a few balls of Kureyon (fingerless mitts), some novelty stuff for a scarf for my mom and some Colinette Fandango for this scarf...The pattern is in this booklet...fun stuff!As a last hurrah, we took the little man to Montreal to see the Biodome...well, really the penguins. You see, I HAD to see March of the Penguins. People...I was the only one giggling throughout the entire opening scene. Such majestic creatures, yes, but man...such a funny sight to see thousands of them, walking along in a line. Hee hee!!! Small things amuse small minds I suppose. Such a great film, and excellent choice in narrator (Morgan Freeman truly rocks!). Anyhoo..off the the Biodome. Which kept the little man's attention for such a short period of time, we decided to introduce him to the Metro. We don't have a subway system in Ottawa...so we thought he'd get a kick out of it. He did...witness below.Montreal is a fab city...so much to see and do. We hit the usual Old Montreal haunts-Notre Dame, Old Port, etc. and grabbed a bite to eat. Grilled paninis...yum. We hopped back on the Metro, and drove on home! I was able to finish a quick scarf for my mom using a skein each of Pom (funky novelty yarn to work with) and some navy eyelash sort of stuff as well. Honkin' needles=done quick. Mom doesn't like her scarves long...just wide...so VOILA...Sunday...my better half was scuba diving near Rockport, along the lovely St. Lawrence River, and Noah and I spent the day shopping for micro clothes. (Read=little man scored bags full of clothes, mommy=nada).Monday we were off to Gatineau Park. I love it here. We spent many days hiking here, before we had Noah and even when he was a wee lad. It's a bit cumbersome to hike now...little man's legs can't quite keep up and there's some pretty rough terrain on some of the trails. We still go up and stomp around the MacKenzie King estate...which is stunning...truly. Here's a few pics of the man hanging out in the ruins..And...well...here's Kureyon hanging out in the ruins too!A quick trip back to Ottawa (not totally unscathed...I ended up with a huge gash on the palm of my hand and a disgusting bruise on my leg...way to go Miss Graceful!)-I was able to finish up a fingerless mitten though...Voila...a fingerless mitt in lovely Noro Kureyon..which, gasp, I can now get at a LYS! YAHOO!!! Pattern compliments of Wendy.Tuesday...Noah started back at his Montessori School. All went well....the only separation anxiety being felt was by Mommy and Daddy. We soothed our aching hearts (enter drama queen!!) with vats of latte...and felt much better. Here's the man in the parking lot...this is the only pic we could snag...he refused to show off his little summer uniform. In the fall he'll be wearing the full dress pants/shirt and tie/cardigan ensemble. So. frickin. cute. Enough said.I rec'd an order from Knitter's Review awhile back and forgot to post...here she is......my little basket full o'stuff! I love this basket, but was a bit surprised by the size of it. It's a fab size, but I honestly thought it was smaller. It had been on back order for a few months, so I was super delighted to receive it, along with some other goodies in the mail. Yay!You may also see a drop spindle peeking out...I took the bait and ordered one from ebay, along with an instructional book and some practice fleece. I have already begged a local shop owner to give me a hand...so this may be my next little hobby. Sigh...so much to do, so little time!Other tidbits...I attended a fantastic little seminar on Buddhism at the local library last night. My Catholic mom went silent on the phone when I told her. Funny...it's good to keep your folks on their toes I think! Hee.Also attended my first stitch and bitch...very weird feeling. Almost like a blind date no? We chatted as though we'd known one another for ages...kinda cool. I'll probably catch up with them again in a few weeks.Quilt guild is gearing to start up soon as well and I'm contemplating joing the Knitting Guild as well. We'll see...there are still some courses I'd like to take at the local college to finish up my Trauma/Addictions counselling certificate thingy.More time please....I'm off...little man is causing some serious chaos somewhere outside...he's awfully quiet which is never good!

The Fathers Day Celebration

Fathers Day is another reason to celebrate another responsible adult in the family. If some of our media sources would have it though, you would think that there are no real fathers around to celebrate on Fathers Day.Sure there may be many deadbeats who not only have never given a bath, given pep talks to their children or never cooked a meal for their family but there are way, way more good Fathers willing to go that very last mile for their family! But for some very odd reason, it is not publicized like the negatives around fathers.So what can you do to honor the father in your life who's willing to run to the store in the middle of the night for a last minute treat? So what can you do to honor the father who figures out how to pay that unexpected bill? So what can you really do to honor the father who makes sure if it's within his powers to make sure his family has a place to sleep, food to eat and more, honor him and here are some suggestions;Fathers Day - Honor Suggestion!

Make every effort possible to have a peaceful family day and for dinner everyone can share with dad why he is so special to them. For example mom, you could lead with "I am glad that the kids have you as a father, we made a great pick." And assist the smaller children - ask them did you enjoy for example playing with dad? And if they say yes, tell them to tell him.Fathers Day - Honor Suggestion!Give him a free day from his life responsibilities and duties by pampering him. Men also need breaks or down time to renew from life! And please don't pitch a fit if he decides he would like to spend the rest of his last few Fathers Day hours with the guys - hopefully respectful hours. Pamper him on this day.Honor all the fathers in your life by letting them know how you feel! Remember this old saying, "action speaks louder than words?" Well, nothing beats words and action with meaning from the heart.Angela Renee really enjoys giving moms the information they need to succeed in every aspect of their life as a woman, as a partner in a relationship, and as a mother.

no-drug way to ease back pain

"I do a lot of my day sitting. I would get up like this, and the pain would be so bad i would walk along like a little old lady,"

But last fall, she spotted an article online about a treatment called the Alexander technique.
British researchers say 6 sessions of the Alexander technique ease back pain better than standard physical therapy.


The Technique is based on being aware of how our bodies are built, and how they move naturally.


Today, actors, opera singers, and dancers routinely study it during their training.
Lieb says many people over-tense muscles, and put their spine into stressful positions, causing pain.

She says, "No circulation is getting in there, and no blood, and we're tired and we're sore."
And she ticked off the many ways we do this to our bodies.

"If your chair is too low, you can cause your back to either overarch or underarch. Operating a mouse, handwriting, typing, sitting down or standing up from a chair, sleeping strangely, jogging, leaning over to brush your teeth, putting on your mascara - all are motions we can do by compressing and shortening, or we can do by lenghtening and expanding, and getting more space," said Lieb.


While it won't help everyone's back pain, Lieb says 95-percent of her students notice results after the first lesson.


Liz says, "Marty runs the field, I run the office."

Each have their own aches and pains.

Marty says, "Usually the lower back, the back of my legs."

Liz, "I can definitely feel it in my tailbone. Sometimes, I wind up with a headache."



Weiss also lowered her keyboard, and added a pillow to help straighten Liz' spine.
Plus, she showed her a better way to make movements, such as reaching for the phone.
Weiss tells Liz, "We lead with our head, and let our body follow."

She also helped Liz relax her typing, aimed at doing the same task, but with less energy.
Weiss said the goal is simple, "You will get your work done, actually m ore efficiently, and feel better at the end of the day."

She explains, "I am helping people learn about their own physical selves, and I'm teaching them to understand the relationship between how they think, and how they move."

Outside, Weiss showed Marty how to put less stress on his neck for digging.

She told him, "Instead of being hunched over like that, a little more like that."

"Yeah," he said with a smile.

She also showed him how to pick up items, taking the spine in its natural movement, without putting stress into his neck.

"Your head's going to roll foward, but in a lengthening direction up off your spine," she says as she guides the movement.

"Oh, that tool box felt much lighter," Marty remarked.

In the past week, Liz & Marty say they've noticed changes.

Liz says, "I'm not reaching, and extending my body unnecessarily, and causing more aches and pains. I'm not as stressed anymore."

Marty has noticed he has more energy, "At the end of the day, I'm not as ready to crash on the couch."

Weiss works with them for a second lesson, fine-tuning some movements. She helped Liz relax her arms further during typing, "Let those elbows just fall away from your shoulders."
Marty says he's passed the lessons along to his workers.

"At the end of the day, they feel a little bit better. If we can get through the spring without a lot of the aches and pains we normally have, the guys will be a lot happier to come to work, even if they know we have a lot of digging to do," he says.

Weiss says she's seen a surprising trend - more young people are in pain.

"Kids are sitting in front of computers, computer games, more and more. They are carrying back packs which are way too heavy. To see that in a 16-year-old, who says they've felt that way for years, is a bit shocking. So that is a trend I've seen.

In the 4 months Charlotte has been practicing the Alexander Technique, she's discovered movements that contribute to her back pain. One was to lean forward onto her desk on one elbow, to concentrate on the computer. She discovered it was causing her to overreach and twist her spine.

She's made adjustments in her movements and is now almost pain-free.

She told us, "The pain has dramatically lessened. It's just amazing."

How to recognize the symptoms of anxiety in the elderly

Anxiety is so common in the elderly as in younger adults. Although issues such as declining physical health, cognitive impairment and loss of loved ones provoke anxiety disorders in older people, research shows that many who suffer from an anxiety disorder in late life also experienced anxiety when were younger. Although many older people suffer from generalized anxiety disorder, often ignore the symptoms, but that focus on physical complaints. Due to the identification of anxiety in the elderly population can be difficult, concerned family members should learn to read the signs to look for their aging parents .

Note whether any new development on apathy or loss of interest in the activities of their parents once enjoyed. Fear, accompanied by loss of confidence, are often caused by a fall or any other debilitating medical condition .

Note if your father is often restless or irritable .

Heed their parents to avoid social situations. A change in daily routines or habits, secluding oneself or in the home may signal a problem .

Consider any excess concerns of the parents could voice, especially if they appear to occur more frequently or are out of proportion with reality. Ask your father if they have trouble sleeping or if other physical symptoms like chest pains, palpitations or shortness of breath. Ask if any of these symptoms are especially severe when one thinks about situations. Typically, these symptoms can not be explained by a physical problem. However, you should be concerned about any symptom that persists for two weeks.

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