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Legendary opera singer Jessye Norman will give a free lecture at Rollins College this Wednesday, Feb. 13, as part of the college's Winter Park Institute.
"A Conversation With Jessye Norman" will take place at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in Tiedtke Concert Hall, Keene Music Building on the Rollins Campus, 1000 Holt Ave., Winter Park.
Norman, 67, will discuss her life and work.
"It is with enormous pleasure that I look forward to my visit to Rollins College, with the students as well as the general community," Norman said Monday. "In a time when the arts are being put aside in too many instances in the misguided idea that mathematics and science are more 'important' fields of study, it is marvelous to find a school where the arts are understood and fostered for what they are: the gateway to the culture of a nation, a community, indeed a people.
"The arts nourish all parts of us: our minds and our bodies. Let us celebrate the fullness of humanity in our embrace of the true depth of our spirits: art!"
Born into a musical family in Augusta, Ga., Norman learned the piano as a child. She pursued formal musical studies at Howard University, then later at the Peabody Conservatory and the University of Michigan. She made her operatic debut in a 1969 production of "Tannhaeuser" at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. She soon was seen on stages from Lincoln Center to Covent Garden, Carnegie Hall to La Scala, the Paris Opera to the Vienna State Opera.
Among her myriad honors: The French named an orchid after her and gave her the Legion of Honor, the United Nations made her an honorary ambassador. She's a lifelong member of Great Britain's Royal Academy of Music and she sang at Bill Clinton's 1997 presidential inauguration.
"Listening to Jessye Norman find her way into a song is like watching in wonder as a beautiful morning reaches the climax of noon," once wrote music critic Octavio Roca. "Warmth and blinding light are everywhere in her voice."
Launched in 2008, the Winter Park Institute sponsors public lectures, readings and seminars throughout the year. Upcoming speakers include activist and author Azar Nafisi and filmmaker Oliver Stone.
"Jessye Norman makes a wonderful addition to our spring schedule," said Gail Sinclair, executive director of the Winter Park Institute. "This season will be one of our most diverse yet, ranging from musical legends, to activists, to award-winning filmmakers."
No tickets are required for Norman's lecture. Free parking is available in the SunTrust parking garage at 166 E. Lyman Ave. For more information, go to http://www.winterparkinstitute.org or call 407-691-1995.
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Benchmarking can be a useful wake-up call.? Looking at how well others are doing stimulates ideas and opens your eyes to opportunities for improving the performance of your business.
But in my experience all the effort is wasted if you compare against the wrong things.
The lessons of this article are
There?s one compelling reason why this is a waste of time.? It?s because your customers don?t care how well you do against your competitors, they care about how well you do for them.? So the return on investment (RoI) is zero.
Some argue that by benchmarking your service against competitors you can identify best practices within the industry or your own function, and by raising awareness of the issues that need to be addressed, then customer experience will be improved.? I say that?s a distraction and even if you comprehensively outperform your competitors you may still be underperforming for your customers.
To illustrate the point, consider an extreme example ? like banks or phone companies, two groups that have consistently poor satisfaction ratings.? If you are a large bank, you make huge profits on the back of revenues from your customers. So don?t compare yourself to the snails with whom you compete when, in view of your resources, your customers expect you to perform like an Olympic sprinter.? Hold that thought.
In contrast to the zero RoI from measuring against your competitors, the RoI can be substantial if you meet the benchmark expected by the people who pay you, and upon whose verdict your reputation depends.
If you measure how you?ve done against how a customer expected you to do, you can guarantee that customer is satisfied, every time you deal with them.? Providing you check at the right time to make sure, and providing you recover from any service failures immediately.
Success in the customer?s eyes leads to repeat business, and more personal recommendations through which you can acquire new customers for free.?? So if you are to measure anything, and I recommend you do, invest your energy being brilliant at measuring up against your customers? needs.
Repeat business plus new customers equals high RoI.
A couple of weeks ago I emailed two different people in two different companies.? I wanted to pay them money and I needed bank details so I could pay online.
How long do you think it took for the replies to come?
Both came within the hour, and the bank details were complete and correct.? That was impressive.
In fact compare that with the response times to my last three customer service enquiries (not the same companies as the payments) in which replies came after 2 days, 6 days and?still waiting.
So what standard of performance and consistency would leave your customers talking about you and sharing their good experiences concerning all their interactions with you?
I don?t recall ever hearing someone recommend I buy from a company because they?re lightning fast at taking my money.? But I do pay attention when I hear that a company always replies quickly, gets it right first time more often than not, and makes it very easy to resolve when there?s a problem.? That?s what we all talk about to one another ? because it feels so rare.
Impressive customer service performance is not primarily achieved through targets, measures and processes, it?s about people and culture and values.
However when all of those things come together there are impressive and sometimes heart-warming results, such as this example of a young boy who contacted Lego.
?Boy writes letter to LEGO after losing minifigure, gets awesome response?
You?ll also see from the comments that other customers share the good feeling about Lego, which shows they?re consistent.? That too comes more from people and culture than benchmarks, though measures can certainly help the people to control the results.
Consider the return on investment in each case?
Blisteringly fast accounts dept?? You get the money you?re due.? Maybe a little sooner.
Outstanding customer service?? You lose no customers to your competitors, they?re more willing to buy from you, they recommend that their friends become customers too.
If your goal is ?slightly less bad than everyone else? then by all means benchmark against your competitors.? If your goal is to make customers happy about spending more money themselves and recommending you, then you?ll want to aim a little higher!
Source: http://blog.customersure.com/2013/02/11/how-not-to-waste-time-benchmarking-your-customer-service/
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If you follow obscure app-related news, you might remember that Samsung, MusicQubed and the Official Charts Company launched a UK Top 40 app last summer for owners of certain Samsung devices. That promotion's now come to an end, and this time around it's O2 that's partnering with the Charts Company with its own Top 40 app, fittingly dubbed "O2 Tracks."
When you first sign up there's a complementary free trial period -- 8 weeks for O2 subscribers, 2 weeks for anyone with another operator. After that, O2 customers can subscribe for £1 per week, while for others it's £5 per month. The music itself is delivered through a bright blue, O2-themed interface, with extra tabs for tawdry "celebrity news and gossip," if you're into that sort of thing.
Like the old Samsung app, tracks are downloaded to your device at regular intervals rather than being streamed, so any worries about data usage shouldn't apply here. For what it's worth, O2's app looks relatively well designed and clutter-free, but we doubt it'll be tearing anyone away from the likes of Spotify and Google Play Music anytime soon.
In any case, if you want to give it a try, O2 Tracks is available on Google Play at the link above, or for other platforms at the source link down below.
Source: O2 Tracks; via: Eurodroid
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In this Feb. 1, 2013 photo, pictures of Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Cuba's President Raul Castro hang on the wall of a home as a television shows the Venezuelan channel Telesur in Havana, Cuba. Telesur, which is bankrolled primarily by Venezuela, has been broadcast live about 12 hours a day on the island's open airwaves since Jan. 20. Telesur's outlook may be sympathetic to Cuba's socialist model, but it's still a relatively unfiltered news source, and many say the decision to carry it here is as groundbreaking as other recent reforms, such as legalizing more private businesses or allowing greater travel freedom. Telesur was conceived as a force for regional integration and as a counterweight to Western channels such as CNN and the BBC. (AP Photo/Ismael Francisco, Cubadebate)
In this Feb. 1, 2013 photo, pictures of Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Cuba's President Raul Castro hang on the wall of a home as a television shows the Venezuelan channel Telesur in Havana, Cuba. Telesur, which is bankrolled primarily by Venezuela, has been broadcast live about 12 hours a day on the island's open airwaves since Jan. 20. Telesur's outlook may be sympathetic to Cuba's socialist model, but it's still a relatively unfiltered news source, and many say the decision to carry it here is as groundbreaking as other recent reforms, such as legalizing more private businesses or allowing greater travel freedom. Telesur was conceived as a force for regional integration and as a counterweight to Western channels such as CNN and the BBC. (AP Photo/Ismael Francisco, Cubadebate)
HAVANA (AP) ? There have been some strange sights on Cuban TV sets recently.
News-starved viewers watched an Ecuadorean opposition candidate liken the government of President Rafael Correa, one of Havana's staunchest allies, to a moonwalking Michael Jackson: He walks like he's moving ahead, but he's actually going backward.
On another day Cubans learned a quarter-billion of their fellow Latin Americans have access to the Internet ? something less than 10 percent of islanders can say themselves.
Cubans even watched a live broadcast of U.S. President Barack Obama's inaugural address.
Such images would be unremarkable in most countries, but they're a break from the stodgy, tightly scripted state-run television that has long been the only fare in Cuba, with its mind-numbing tributes to efficiency, constant diatribes against the U.S. economic embargo and remembrances of minor anniversaries from the early years of the 1959 revolution.
The change has come not from U.S.-funded TV Marti, which few Cubans can see, but via the left-leaning Latin American news channel Telesur, which is bankrolled primarily by Venezuela. Since Jan. 20, it has broadcast live about 12 hours a day in Cuba.
Telesur's outlook may be sympathetic to Cuba's socialist model, but it's still a relatively unfiltered news source, and many say the decision to carry it here is as groundbreaking as other recent reforms, such as legalizing more private businesses and allowing greater travel freedom.
"It's a window onto the world. It's a different way of seeing things," said Marcos Guizaldivar, a 41-year-old restaurant worker in Havana who said he was fascinated by Telesur and had all but tuned out Cuban state TV. "It would be great if they had it on 24 hours a day."
Guizaldivar and many others are captivated by Telesur's global newsgathering, fresh, real-time reports and slick production values, all novelties for an audience accustomed to low-budget weather graphics and word-for-word readings of lengthy essays by retired President Fidel Castro.
Even Telesur's critics welcome its arrival on the island.
"I think it is a positive step in Cuba, where all media are controlled by the Communist Party," said Carlos Lauria, senior Americas program director for the New York-based Committee to Project Journalists, a media advocacy group.
But he noted that Telesur is unlikely to report on internal issues that reflect poorly on Havana's government, such as Cuba's tiny dissident community or problems with the country's crumbling housing.
It's "limited, because there is no different or critical vision where dissent is expressed," Lauria said.
Telesur was conceived as a force for regional integration and as a counterweight to Western channels such as CNN and BBC. It began broadcasting in 2005 and receives majority funding from Venezuela, with the governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador and Nicaragua contributing lesser shares.
All those countries are run by leaders considered part of the Latin American left, most notably Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, and critics of the channel point to examples of ideologically driven coverage, such as its pro-regime reports during the Libyan uprising against Moammar Gadhafi.
Arturo Lopez-Levy, a Cuba-born economist and University of Denver lecturer, said that no matter the editorial line, competition with private channels across the region means that Telesur doesn't have the luxury of ignoring major events.
A speech by a U.S. president, for example, was almost unheard of on Cuban TV in recent decades.
Telesur's programming gives islanders a close-up look at the more modern, messy, consumer-driven world outside.
One recent commercial urged viewers to use a smartphone app to follow Ecuador's elections ? something that's prohibitively expensive for most Cubans.
On a recent evening, Telesur covered a Venezuelan congressional session in which opposition lawmakers stridently defended themselves from critics across the aisle. That was an unusual image for Cuba, where parliament generally passes legislation unanimously, with discussion but without visible debate.
"The population will be exposed to a political model that distinguishes loyal opposition from treason ... that does not imply uncritical acceptance," Lopez-Levy said.
Telesur carries musical and historical programs, as well as documentaries with investigative journalism and reporters grilling their subjects. That, too, is a significant departure from the softball questions typical of Cuban news and the echo-chamber analysis of the nightly TV public affairs show.
And once baseball season begins, Cubans will watch highlights by Aroldis Chapman, Yoenis Cespedes and other Cuban stars whose names disappeared from official media after their defection, even as fans continue to pass news of their exploits in Major League Baseball by word of mouth.
"Telesur is something completely novel for us," said Felipa Martinez, a 68-year-old retired government office worker. "What's also valuable is that you can stay current on international events."
As with the recent law making it easier for Cubans to travel abroad, the government apparently is betting that familiarity with the outside world won't make people pushier about demanding political change or material goods.
"Putting Telesur (on air) is a challenge that the government has accepted," analyst and former Cuban diplomat Carlos Alzugaray told The Associated Press in Havana.
Telesur broadcasts every day in Cuba from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and again from 8 p.m. until it goes dark sometime after midnight. Cuba has carried the channel before, but only for two hours a day and with a delay that presumably let it avoid any objectionable content.
It's practically the only media available to most Cubans that's not filtered through the government. All newspapers and airwaves are state-controlled and carry the same dry content. Internet access is not widely available in Cuba, and foreign magazines and newspapers are nonexistent. U.S. government-funded Radio Marti and TV Marti broadcasts beamed at the island are mostly jammed by Cuba, and reception is spotty at best.
Some Cubans have had some increasing access to outside media in recent years. Hundreds of camouflaged, illegal dishes on rooftops capture satellite channels from Florida. Workers at hotels and foreign businesses can glimpse a cable service that offers foreign programming in Spanish, English, a handful of other European tongues and even Chinese.
Purveyors of pirated DVDs with the latest Hollywood movies and seasons of "CSI" are not only tolerated but licensed and regulated. Reruns of "Desperate Housewives" have become a mainstay on the open airwaves.
President Raul Castro has urged Cuban journalists to elevate the quality and creativity of their reporting, though there have been few examples of any newfound independence as yet.
Alzugaray, the former diplomat, said Telesur could provide an example for local reporters and their Communist Party-conscious bosses and help them shed the long-held mentality that it's risky to be too inquisitive.
"It's a different model of journalism, a model that many of us are demanding from Cuban journalism," he said. "It's a way of saying, 'Well, we can have revolutionary politics and still have discussion and diversity.'"
___
Andrea Rodriguez on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ARodriguezAP
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In ancient days, the primordial gods withdrew from the world to allow humanity to decide their own fate. However, in the modern age, humanity finally manages to destroy itself. Now, new civilizations rise under their gods and the guidance of their Avatars
Owner:
Game Masters:
This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?The Gods: New Genesis?. Anything posted here will also show up there.Topic Tags:
Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.Very few times does the God leave the Realm of the Gods to directly interfere with what mortals does, and rarely is it gone unpunished by their peers.
Avatars:
Avatars typically possesses some similar powers to their God, for example the avatar of the God of Magic is most likely going to be an Arch-Wizard Master, while the avatar of the Goddess of the Elves might possess Druidic powers.
[THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE AVATAR PER GOD (Twin Gods won?t give you 2 avatars!)]
Unlike Avatars, Heroes can die from age and poison, and while they are not as skilled as the Avatar may be, they certainly haven?t earned the title ?Hero? for nothing. These men and women have fought hard to be where they are now, each being a special man of his kingdom, whether it is magical, martial or simply pure cunningness, they are some of the few who can truly represent their kingdom/empire.
[Unlike Avatars, there is no limit for the amount of heroes there can be, however you?ll also have to play them.]
Regulars:
[You won?t be expected to play any regular characters. Only if you want to.]
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