text:
A crew from the Royal Ontario Museum has assembled in the community of Trout River to move a whale corpse from the shores of the small town near Gros Morne National Park.
In a few days, they will go to the nearby town of Rocky Harbour to recover another of the multi-tonne mammals.
Both carcasses are expected to then be transferred to nearby Woody Point, where the team will begin trying to find a silver lining in one of nature's tragedies.
Mark Engstrom, the museum's deputy director for collections and research, said the arduous process of transporting and preserving the bones is a worthwhile effort in light of a devastating blow dealt to one of Canada's most endangered marine species this past winter.
The two blue whales Engstrom's team is recovering were among nine killed by unusually thick sea ice, Engstrom said, adding that number represented about five per cent of the population in the North Atlantic.
The chance to preserve some record of a highly endangered species, he said, marks one of the more bittersweet moments in his 30-year career.
"I'm sad that the whales have died. I think that's a real tragedy," Engstrom said in an interview from Toronto. "It's a very small population, so that part I'm not happy about. But of course it's exciting to get a chance to work with a blue whale, which I never would have had otherwise. It's the largest animal that's ever lived, so it's hard not to be excited about being able to work on the biggest animal ever on earth."
Engstrom said 10 to 12 people will assemble in Woody Point over the next few days to collect tissue samples and begin preparing the whales for their 2,600-kilometre journey to their new home.
It's a dirty, time-intensive process, Engstrom said, adding that the crew will be working through the stench of what he describes as one of the worst smells on the planet.
The team will spend about two weeks stripping the corpses of all skin, blubber and skeletal muscles before taking the skeletons apart and packing them up for transport.
Backhoes attached to specialized lines may speed up the skin-removal process, but if the machinery is not available the messy task will be completed by hand, Engstrom said.
Once the roughly 60-tonne bodies are prepared, they'll be loaded onto two 18-wheeler trucks and driven to Ontario. That trip, Engstrom said, is one of the shortest stretches of the preservation process.
While the tissue samples collected in Newfoundland will be available to international researchers almost immediately, the bones won't be ready for scientific study for at least three years, Engstrom said.
The skeleton will be packed in soil and manure for a year to help compost any remaining flesh. Then comes the process of stripping the bones of the substance that allows the giant mammals to survive in the world's deepest oceans.
"They contain a lot of oil which keeps them from becoming crushed if they do deep dives," Engstrom said of blue whale bones. "It helps in buoyancy and so on. So the bones contain a lot of oil, and you have to get that oil out ... which is probably the hardest part of the whole process."
Engstrom said scientists will likely drain the bones by soaking them in water until the oil rises to the surface, adding that process can take up to two years.
But amateur marine biologists shouldn't start marking their calendars for a museum exhibit in 2017, he said. The bones would be extremely expensive to prepare and mount for display, and it's no guarantee the necessary funds would be available.
Engstrom said the time-consuming project is primarily for the benefit of the global scientific community. He believes it's worth spending "tens of thousands of dollars" to maintain a record of a historically significant species on the verge of extinction.
"There are very few of them in collections because they're so large, yet they're a very important part of the Canadian fauna and they're all very highly endangered. So if someone doesn't go about doing this kind of work now, it may not be possible to do it in the future."


text:
SCOTT SIMON ANCHORS. Need to Know's medical correspondent, Dr. Emily Senay, travels to Massachusetts to examine how that state's health care system is working six years (now seven years) after the legislature there adopted an individual mandate requiring individuals to buy health insurance and businesses to provide it or face fines.
Visit the Website: http://www.pbs.org/needtoknow
Episode #322 / Length: 26 minutes

subset: commoncrawl


text:
A grant allows Phillippi Shores Elementary fifth-graders to learn moves from the 1800s, 1920s and 1950s.
The quiet fifth-grader — who liked dinosaurs or reading books more than swinging his hips — was skeptical about the dancing lessons.
He told his mother he did not want to do it.
But Thursday morning, the reluctant 11-year-old moved with his classmates. They showed off jazz hands, arms moving like windshield wipers, strutting with canes in hand.
"I thought it was going to be some boring moves," said Douglas Goodin, a tall, thin brown-haired boy in the gifted class at Phillippi Shores Elementary. "It's so much more."
The students learned the Cakewalk, the Charleston, the Twist, dances invented generations before they were born.
A $1,330 grant from the education foundation paid for the dance instructor and the extra books for the special project at the Sarasota school.
The students danced as they did in the 1800s, the roaring 1920s and 1950s with information on historic events and cultured sprinkled in when the children needed to catch their breaths. Afterward, the students will write history research papers — the less fun stuff — but that comes after Spring Break.
Teacher Sandy Waite saw dancing lessons as a way to make her students excited learning about the past.
"It's history, which most kids think, 'Oh yuck,' " Waite said. "I want to connect history in a fun way. . . . I'm a big believer if we can get kids to feel and connect, they're going to learn."
At first, the students were leery of Deb Lombard, a dance instructor who has taught at Riverview High School and founded Doorknob Productions.
"They were very hesitant initially, and I was thinking, 'Oh dear,' " Waite said.
But now into the third and final week, the shyness was clearly gone.
Lily Moore, 11, shook her ponytail wildly. She flopped on the ground with a cane and announced, "The big finish!"
It was the kind of moment Waite hopes to catch on camera when she films the finished routines and gives each child a DVD.
"This is what they'll remember," Waite said. "This will stick."


text:
This Glo-Worm LED Light is made for the Gorilla General Purpose Lighted Warning Whips. You choose the color and style of light that you want for your lighted whip.
This listing is for a White LED Light.
Gorilla General Purpose Lighted Whips offer one of the widest selections of lighting options in the industry. All lights are built with high quality materials and electrical components to withstand any working or weather conditions.
- Model: FSLED12-6-C
- Color: White (or Clear)
- Volt: 12
- 6 Inches tall
- Easy to connect
- Works with General Purpose Gorilla Lighted Whip
More about Gorilla Warning Whips by Checkers
- Checkers works with safety managers and industry experts to develop quality warning whips that provide the highest level of reliability
- They manufacture the most popular warning whips in the highly-demanding mining industry
- Gorilla warning whips are assembled at company headquarters in Broomfield, Colorado
- Lighted and non-lighted whips are available with a wide selection of lighting and mounting options
- Extensive product and accessory assortment allows for ideal customization
- Whips are manufactured with a premium fiberglass resin creating the strongest whip in the industry
- The premium fiberglass resin is coated with a 3-5 year finish preventing fiberbloom or expose fiberglass slivers
Additional Information
|Product Condition


text:
(Redirected from Astro Drive In Cinema)
|GTA San Andreas
|Type of business
|Drive-in Theater
|Fort Carson
|Mission appearance(s)
|Stowaway (falling out of the Andromada without a parachute)
The Astro is a drive-in theater in the southern end of Fort Carson, San Andreas in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Cars can sometimes be seen driving into it although no movie ever plays. The location is a prominent alternate end setting for the mission "Stowaway." If the player falls out of the Andromada without a parachute, Carl Johnson will fall to his death by landing on a parked Admiral in the theater.
|Alternate "Stowaway" mission ending on YouTube


text:
The police officer pulled his car to a stop. He took a look around. It was one of those neighborhoods that does not appreciate the police presence. Sure enough, the locals began to scatter. No one wanted to "be" the officer's business.
Instead of gathering his tools of the trade from the trunk, the officer grabbed a turkey and a box of groceries. There were a few deliveries to be made in this neighborhood. It was Thanksgiving and a few residents needed assistance.
One by one as the local residents realized the officer came to aide one of their own neighbors, they began to return. Smiles began to garnish their faces. A few offered a helping hand. Instead of being viewed as the enemy on this day, the officer was their neighbor.
A few blocks away a young man refused to open the door when the officer rang the bell. After three visits and a phone call to his working mother he finally answered the door. With a bit of bravado, he greeted the officer but kept a chip on his shoulder. Even after being told the police department was going to drop off food for Thanksgiving, he was not so sure. Once the food came through the door, the young man was surprised. The officer was a friend for that day. He was not coming to bear bad news.
These are the stories that spring forth as the Bluffton Police Department, in collaboration with Crossroads Community Support Services, provides Thanksgiving and Christmas meals for "at-risk" families. The officers have recommended many of the families. They were families who are working hard but just can't seem to make it.
The Helping Hands Project is in its second year. Along with the support of three local churches (Christ Church, Grace Coastal Church and Vida Church) and local businesses (Stokes Brown Toyota and the Buckwalter Publix) 65 complete meals were delivered for Thanksgiving and 70 will be delivered the weekend before Christmas.
This year the Helping Hands Project needs help from the community. The expense of food has risen over the year. More families are in need of assistance. Many of the Helping Hands recipients are facing health issues. Crossroads Community Support Services provides the means and the officers provide the delivery services.
With the increase in numbers and the increase in cost there is a decrease in financial support this year. Whether it be an individual or a business, Crossroads and the Bluffton Police Department needs to raise $1,200. It costs $35 to provide a complete meal to a family. All proceeds go to the project since Crossroads is a 100 percent volunteer organization.
Would you consider supporting a family this Christmas? Would you give an officer an opportunity to shine a new light into local communities? Would you take a moment and support many who are our neighbors?
All donations are tax deductible. Checks need to be made out to Crossroads. Mail your donations to P.O. Box 3525, Bluffton, SC 29910. As members of our community join Crossroads and the Bluffton Police Department for we are the "caregivers to the community."


text:
Manchester City reportedly offered Mario Götze the opportunity to become the highest paid player in the world, before the young German midfielder agreed a transfer from Borussia Dortmund to Bayern Munich.
Borussia Dortmund announced last week that Götze would join Bayern Munich in the summer transfer window after the Bundesliga champions activated his release clause, but Metro claims Manchester City were also in the running to sign him.
Manchester City reportedly offered the 20-year-old a five-year contract worth £17 million-a-season - equating to £330,000-a-week - which would have seen Götze's salary exceed that of football's current top earner, Samuel Eto'o.
However, despite the advances of Manchester City, Götze did not even consider a transfer to the Etihad Stadium, allowing Bayern Munich to complete a deal to bring the Germany international to the Allianz Arena.
Bayern paid £37 million to capture the signature of Götze, which was confirmed last week, and the youngster will officially join the Bavarian giants on the first day of the summer transfer window in July.
Götze could make his last appearance for BVB against his future employers in the Champions League final, with both clubs odds on favourites to reach to European showpiece at Wembley in May.
Do YOU want to write for GiveMeSport? Get started today by signing-up and submitting an article HERE: https://www.givemesport.com/writeforgms


text:
Posts tagged escapism
I wanted to write, the last post being created from a perspective that had not yet completed a specific objective which required multiple prerequisites. The stress of that upcoming change, decision, or action caused ripples in the time before it, extending months. The planning that had gone into it was set into motion years before that.
I signed in, signed up, and shopped for my plan. The plan would be free, but I didn't quite know it at the moment before taking the actions. I had employed some type of psychic accounting in order to prevent liability, but I had taken it to such an extreme and I probably did not need to.
A moment here or there, sober or intoxicated, taking a peek at subsidy calculators and the current table of poverty guidelines issued by the same people that think one can live on 700 a month. I could have worked it out much more skillfully, but some frantic, manic, procrastinating, lazy fool chose to take over for a bit instead.
I still haven't done the research, but a part of me even chose a specific number as an income target. It wasn't very well thought out, except some simple math showed that I would have to make one amount in order to maintain bills, maybe save a little, and still have the reserve capacity to make big payments in order to sustain a business model that even I believe is unsustainable.
It takes money to make money. Even if I had a crazy plan to make as little as possible and still keep everything going as if nothing was wrong, there would still be times when I know I would have to come up with 500, 750, maybe even a cool grand at different points in the future. As it stands, there are only two main expenses to my entire business model. Hosting and payment processing.
Without having to file a thousand little receipts I can just pop out those two and the rest is small change. I just don't spend money. On very much at all. Ever. Sure, a few bad habits have somehow slipped through the cracks. Cheap cigarettes in the hopes I'll quit, cheap beer because I don't drink it for the taste. A 22 year old vehicle that I somehow prevent from completely disintegrating before my eyes, and a body that insists on working without intervention from a cruel and malevolent medical complex.
I don't spend money with some ignorant assumption that I'll just "write it off", because when the predicted income level is below a certain point, there is not going to be very much cash to throw around in the hopes of "writing it off". In other words, if you know you aren't going to make a specific amount by purchasing any product from the use of that product, the purchase isn't a write off, it's a loss.
Maybe my past experience of getting burned in Orlando by that mystical creature Alexis did more help than harm in the long count calendar after all. I mistakenly trusted her to access my credit, thus destroying my credit for that 7 year waiting period for everything to just disappear from the credit report. During those 7 years, one can become quite disciplined in not depending on other people's money to maintain regular expenses or splurge on what I like to call "stupid shit".
All those years of avoiding collection efforts, waiting for time to pass, and finding rental accommodations that did not depend on excellent credit really taught me some valuable lessons. To this day, I couldn't get unsecured credit if I tried, and I have made it that way on purpose. I didn't use any identity protection "service", I simply made sure that while my score is actually considered "good", I do not meet at least one of the criteria for being easily granted credit. I also monitor it myself with an alternate service that is free, except of course for all the ads that are actually paying for it.
There was a built in incentive to be super cheap when you know that the money you have stashed is all you can depend on, and there will be no "safety net" because the credit done run dry and the parents are dead, well, one of them. It provides quite an incentive to view money as "time" instead of seeing it as all the shit you have been told you need on television.
When I went through my last severe depression, I was prepared to release all possessions and live on the street for a while, just as an experiment. I was impressed and disappointed with myself at the same time as I got the job that prevented homelessness at the last minute. I was impressed because I didn't think I could really pull it off, but I was disappointed because by getting that job, I was abandoning my "plan B". I didn't have the balls to be homeless.
I was too selfish to let go of everything I had created and maintained online, even though, being homeless didn't mean being "host-less". I could still have existed comfortably on the digital plane even as I was sleeping in a 20 year old van. Hosting is just over $50 a month, rent was $450. I was ready to trade down and allow my physical self to exist in limbo in order to maintain my digital presence for as long as possible. I didn't have the balls to go through with it. Getting a job, making some cash the old fashioned way, was actually easier for me than just being a lazy fuck and panhandling until I got disability.
It didn't help that shortly after Candy's first departure, I made a friend in a guy named Mark. He was 59, and he had been homeless for about a year after coming to Baton Rouge from Chicago. I met him the day after he moved in to an apartment upstairs, just after getting his back payment from social security. This was probably in the second week after Candy left. I would need to review the video footage to make sure, but I don't think I started making little videos with him until after a month.
He was very abrasive, demanding, insulting, intolerant, somewhat racist, homophobic, unpredictable, unstable, alcoholic, and addicted to Tramadol. He was a real Archie Bunker type, but add the severe alcoholism and drug abuse. I was at a very low point, and I don't think he saw me for more than an hour of any day sober. The times he would see me sober were when he nagged at me to drive him somewhere after waking me up by phone or knock on the door to wake me up before I could start pounding vodka. Even then, I had to constantly resist the urge to down beers with him that I told him not to open before we would even return "home".
He shared quite a bit of information about exactly how to "be homeless", survive, even thrive. The information was geographically specific because he had spent the prior year learning these things right in my own backyard. If I saw him on the street at some point before really meeting him, which I very well could have, I would have refused to acknowledge him, while being aware of his presence just in case he pulled some shit on me. I have a sneaky suspicion that I had seen him too, because he was familiar, and I would have faded memories of those times when I ran some errand and had to avoid "those people".
Even with his encouragement, and offer of limited support in this venture, I couldn't go through with it. The alternative was to cut my hair, shave, bathe for once, and wait to start drinking until AFTER I went to at least 3 places in person to drop off a resume and fill out an application, if they even fucking let me. Instead of basing my search at the time on typical want ads, I created ever widening spheres of physical distance I would have to travel for each "zone" where I applied. The closest places weren't interested at all, but things started looking up when I hit about 3 miles out…
That decision changed a whole lot of future shit. It changed where I live right now, how much cash I have, what computer I'm using, if I still owned that van, and in a way, it has changed who I actually am, "right now". This changes over time, I know, but that was one of those pivotal moments when I had a distinct choice about how to proceed, and the choice I made led to a future that I am more than satisfied with.
My decision to occasionally rant and rave about this and that over the course of the last six months may have been an indirect effect of the pressure and stress brought about by my fear of missing another mark. Doing it all wrong. My occasional visit with my sometimes evil, insensitive, alcohol induced alter ego hasn't helped very much. I was in such a panic over having to pay some crazy new monthly bill, that I somehow created a plan that I don't think I allowed myself to be fully aware of at the time.
I picked a number, and I was so very amazed to see that it was less than $100 off from what I was "hoping for". I know that the number itself would not inspire very much celebration to a lot of people, because it is a very low number. I am astounded that I am able to maintain the reserve that I have while working at such a low margin for almost an entire year. I know I was sabotaging myself here and there when it came to making money. I could have encouraged someone to get off their *ss and help me out a little more often. I could have taken the massive reserve of unused content and add it to two websites that have not been updated in over two years now.
I didn't do any of that though. I got lazy. I wonder even now just how much of it was intentional, and how much of it was following along with a plan that I created when I was too intoxicated to even remember it on a conscious level. I never even bothered to do more research to find a much more exact number, or even a slightly higher number that would have still created the same result. Full subsidized healthcare.
I may have created all of this knowing that as a regular earner of one amount, I will be penalized by a lack of subsidies in such a way that would probably not seem fair or proportionate to whatever financial pain I may perceive as an individual who has lived, saved, and been very comfortable with an income level considered "%100 poverty". I haven't really worked out the math, but a part of me glanced over at the federal table of poverty level income at one point and I realized that I might not have gotten much of a subsidy at all if I had made as little as 5K more that same year. In fact, my worry was that making one dollar more than some cut off amount would lead to me making one higher amount, and then being forced to pay out so much over the course of a year that I still end up at poverty level income anyway.
If I have to just give it all to them, why even try to make more than a certain amount? It was difficult to even try writing that out without using specific numbers in an example, because I didn't do the fucking math myself. I just kind of guessed that there would be some kind of steep cut off for subsidies way too low to be realistic or reasonable. So, I went for a target income, when considering expenses, would end up at a point where I do not exceed the federal standard for %100 poverty level by more than 1K.
That was a crazy sounding plan, I know, it seems crazy as I type it. It was convenient that I worked that one full time job the year before last, and I noticed, that without the W-2 from that job, the desired target income was not that much more. It seems even more crazy to me that I would have a serious anxiety about making "too much" money. I should have been adding it up with each statement all through the year, but I was just making general estimations based on quick glances at deposits.
Now, I'm "here". I enrolled by the deadline. I almost didn't, because the state exchange that I used was going bat shit crazy on sunday night, and I just kind of gave up because I knew monday was the deadline. I am talking about a state exchange, not the feds. The feds site is such a piece of shit that they keep extending the deadline for them… Nope, my state has an exchange, and the site almost fucked me over because I had to do this big complex application, but the site shit out before I could put my "free" medicaid plan into some arbitrary fucking shopping cart. That shopping cart shit almost fucked me out of enrolling in time, which would have cost me an additional $95 as a "mandate tax".
I was lucky that I felt compelled to "double check" and go back to the site on the day of the actual deadline, because while the site did say I had "enrolled", it still forced me to do the shopping cart step, threatening me with potential non enrollment, even though I "digitally signed" this big ass document that took at least 20 minutes to fucking fill out. I came up with the term "entrolled", because I thought I was enrolled but because that shit is already more fucking complex than taxes, it is almost impossible sometimes to know for sure.
I shouldn't complain, but it was stressful. It fucked up this whole tax season procrastination thing I had going. I would have made estimated payments through the year based on estimations, but I never knew just how close my fucking estimation would be to what I ended up with. I didn't know until I was forced to do all the fucking work of filing my taxes without actually filling out the fucking web form…
I would have procrastinated to do all that shit until at least march, but now I have already been forced to do it, I have all the numbers, and as long as I don't have a deposit or buy any business related shit, I was ready to do fucking taxes before fucking christmas. That is fucking bogus. Oh well, it's done. I was also super thorough and honest in giving my future psychic prediction of exactly to the penny what I will be making in 2014 too.
I have always thought it was amazing that psychic accounting will soon become a regular term in our vocabulary, because according to the form I filled out at the state exchange I used, I have to honestly predict my income for next year under threat of fraud and perjury. It's bad enough I had to do my fucking taxes before christmas, now the assholes are going to threaten me to psychically call to the dead and ask exactly how much my fat porn is going to make next fucking year.
Wow, mood change there! I can bitch and complain about having to figure out taxes to the penny months early, but it is a genuine "first world problem" isn't it? I mean, the alternate me, on a timeline where I never got that job, would probably not be too worried about being hit up for a mandate tax that he would not have to pay because he would not have an income to pay taxes on. Although, I am curious about the details of that potential alternate reality, like, would I still be liable for a mandate tax even though I did not meet the minimum filing threshold of income. Maybe I didn't do more research on that detail because I didn't really want to know, or I just don't give a fuck because it is so detached from the future that ended up taking place.
Either way, here we are. I am not homeless, and I somehow tricked Candy into coming back willingly. 🙂 I have endured the year 2013 with a local move, and the first year payment to process visa on the websites. That was a lump payment of 750 right there. It does take money to make money indeed. All the while, I was making less than $1000 over what my government declares %100 poverty level. I keep typing that phrase out, because after enduring the alleged hardship of making that income, I still have money in the bank. Am I "poor" because of my income alone when I am still "comfortable" and actually have "savings"?
In fact, I seem to have everything I want and need, and the only pressing things I still really want are not going to cost any money. If one of my final goals is to get a specific certification, it is up to me to make it happen. Money is not an obstacle to education because I would find a cheap way to have someone else pay for it without going into debt. If I want to gain yet another type of certification that I don't want to get into, there are very defined steps for me to obtain that "license", and because of the very thing I have been complaining about, I may now start a process that will not even cost anything. I will finally have a "doctor". That could be scary, because Mark taught me some stuff about handling medicaid doctors too… 🙂
This latest experiment in living just over poverty level has been educational, not only in showing me that I could do it, but also in changing my perception of poverty in general. It is ironic that I chose to sit down and write on christmas day itself, a day which represents a loop of disappointment, resulting charity, disappointment, repeat. As a I phase out and watch local news, a part of me would be involuntarily touched for a moment by the generous act of a charity group handing out toys to poor children.
After a moment, I would realize, that I was just afflicted on a subconscious level by a phenomenon that has been created as a direct result of corporate capitalism and blind consumerism. In other words, if christmas did not exist to begin with, poor children would not be denied that specific positive event, created to raise the bottom line of retailers across the board. There is a desire, as a human, to allow myself to just flow with this feeling of charitable propaganda, because I want to feel for the children, to see them happy. The logical side of my reasoning has to ruin the party though, because I am quickly reminded that this entire system has been created out of a new type of greed and sophisticated marketing and propaganda.
I don't need all the shit on television, I don't need this or that specific thing, I have not created a ritual involving this or that over priced "treat". I have a very short list of very specific things that I would choose to have in my life, but I would let go of those things with little bitterness if my hand was forced and shit got out of control. For example, there does exist a price point where I would say "fuck this, I quit smoking!" While it seems like beer is going up and up, I am fortunate that my prior experimentation has not left me physically dependent, so even if I still enjoy psychological exploration of my intoxicated alter ego, it is not a daily habit, and a habit that can be scaled back to such infrequency that I would begin to miss it altogether, if all the assholes that sold beer passed some price point that I am not quite sure about this second.
The only thing I can't do without is a person, and I lost her before, over and over. There is no amount of money that could keep her, or lose her. There is only my bad choices that could lose her. I am lucky that one of the only bad choices I have even been tempted by was alcohol, and I am very fortunate that she was able to make a compromise to allow occasional use of a lesser source of this chemical. Trade down from vodka to beer, and attempt to restrict intake to a point that leaves me much less intoxicated than I used to get on vodka. Every once in a while, there is a breach in my own security, and a part of my own self attempt so live dangerously and push my limits. Both with myself, and with her.
I know it is wrong, I know I don't need it. I know I would always choose her over it. I guess that is where the term "guilty pleasure" comes from. There is a part of me that argues "I'm a grown man, if I want to get really fucked up on some ice beer now and then just cut me some slack!". It is not that simple though, not nearly. It never is. Compromise is a very delicate and complex thing. Both sides have to give. I am grateful she has bent to the degree that she has, and while there has been one dented wall incident from a thrown mug (not at me thank god), she has shown remarkable restraint when I have chosen to take my ice beer intake one can over the line.
I can't make excuses, I can't even really talk to her about it, because it makes her too uncomfortable. I have to assume that I am "alcoholic", even if I don't feel like I am. Even if I don't crave alcohol intoxication every day, or every other day, or I let it slip for 3 or 4 days so my resistance is super low, I still seem to thoroughly enjoy the initial intoxication, and once afflicted, I am driven to push further and further. I think that is called "binge drinking", but it is nowhere near as severe as my little relationship with vodka was.
I still "use and abuse" alcohol, like some kind of explicit street drug. I deny myself for days, sometimes really just "forgetting to drink", sometimes getting it while out, knowing that I won't be running errands for nearly a week and I want to take a little trip to fuzzy reality land just once before I have to go out again. I can't purchase a "30 pack" because at some point I might allow myself to consume more than 12. If I get a 12 pack, I have to put 6 in the cooler and give Candy the other 6, or I will most probably get up to 10, maybe opening number 11 but not being able to finish it, leaving a sorry sight of 1.5 beer total the day after I got a fucking 12 pack. I could have gotten loaded twice, but instead, 5 beer me said "fuck that shit I want to get fucked up!"
It is hard to figure all this shit out at times, if it's not one thing it's another. I felt like writing for a bit, and I came up with the title complexity before I knew for sure i wanted to write about. I didn't even get into some stuff I was thinking about when I first started, like trying harder to apologize for all my ranting and raving about weight loss surgery. I thought that subject was limited to drunk me being stupid, but it appears that frustrated sober me before mandate compliance was using distraction and misdirection yet again.
If I seem so skilled at tricking myself into this or that behavior, I have come to another theory, about how I may be able to re-align my thinking and goal orientation in such a way where I actually "forget to drink", or even better, procrastinate from drinking. That's a thought. I was using alcohol while I was committing the act of procrastination, but maybe, I can turn some shit around so that I am literally too busy with some other shit I would rather be doing to be tempted to take a trip to that place where I hang out with a part of myself that I hate but am fascinated with at the same time.
I wondered myself why I would feel compelled to hyper post all over facebook when intoxicated on alcohol. I would ask myself "who am I talking to?" I think I might kind of be talking to myself there. I have reached some point where I only get loaded about twice a week, the second time is not as severe as the first because I am still dreading the last time. This last time I did it, I noticed something about it that was already turning into a habit, a game that I was playing with myself that I wasn't fully aware of as I was doing it.
Within 2 days after one of these binges and facebook rants, I would slowly begin to remember things that I would have typed, as well as music and news articles I may have posted. If I posted photos, those will come back to me later too. One of the reasons I avoid facebook after a drunken rant session could be related to this fuzzy memory game I have been playing that I didn't "remember". When I use terms like distraction, misdirection, and even regression I might be minimizing the actual phenomenon.
What started out as using alcohol for escapism and avoiding reality has definitely evolved into something else. It is still not habit, it's not every day, I don't consume alternate substances not meant for consumption that contain alcohol, and if there was just one beer in the fridge it would not be appealing to me in the least unless I went out and picked up a sufficient amount to "peak".
It is kind of ironic, that I will take on the responsibility of having a problem with alcohol, but at the same time, I am forced to reconcile with the fact that occasional alcohol intoxication would be acceptable, if it was mild and I didn't have to push it to the point where I am starting to have trouble walking and typing. Even worse, it would not be so bad if there were not a part of myself that has a limit, but it is a very very high limit. I noticed that I stopped taking diphenhydramine to enhance alcohol altogether, because I literally can't type at a much lower level of alcohol consumption.
I realize that this problem would not even be as "bad" or unacceptable if it wasn't compounded by the past trauma and experience of my partner, who resents that fact that she can't keep multiple forms of alcohol to make cocktails with because I might raid it. She is ok with alcohol consumption, but not alcohol binging. That is very ironic, because she occasionally enjoys a food binge. We have had to fight against co-enabling by making very distinct compromises. The complexity of love… 🙂
I am running out of steam, I don't know how or why I got over 4500 words, but hey, I won't be drinking. Not tonight. 🙂


text:
- News
- Business
- Sports
- Entertainment
- Lifestyle
- Health
- Travel
- Technology
Day 9
VANCOUVER — Denny Morrison epitomized the Canadian team's feelings: dejection.
He was a forlorn figure gliding around the Richmond oval, a dark cloud hanging over his head, his face a mask of pain.
"Lost," is how his coach described him.
On Day 9 of the 2010 Games, the pressure began to show on Canada's athletes. Those who arrived with the heavy expectations of a country upon them were beginning to buckle.
Morrison, for one, was touted as a triple medal threat. He had failed to deliver.
He skated a deplorable 1,000-metre race and then finished ninth in his signature event, the 1,500.
All he could do was coast around the oval hanging his head.
"It goes back to the feeling that I don't really know what it is that I'm not doing right or what I'm doing wrong," the Fort St. John, B.C., skater lamented. "First two laps, great. Then, poof! It's gone."
For Canadians, it was Black Saturday.
Charles and Francois Hamelin swept the only non-medal positions in the five-man 1,000 metre final.
The Ste-Julie, Que., brothers had hoped to win at least one medal but were thrown off by the deafening crowd's enthusiasm.
They jumped into a quick lead, looked to be on pace for a gold, but began to fade as the race wore on and, by the end, were not in contention.
"I thought I was at a good pace for the race," a despondent Charles said. "But in the end, for the last two laps, I was just missing juice."
It wasn't much better at the sliding centre.
Bobsled medal favourites Lyndon Rush of Humboldt, Sask., and Calgary's Lascelles Brown transformed their slide into the Poseidon Adventure, overturning the sled and skidding down the chute on their helmets.
In the women's super G at Whistler, Emily Brydon of Fernie, B.C., wiped out hard.
"I feel like I've been in a train wreck," she told reporters limping off the course.
"I'm going to have one giant whopping bruise on my butt. And it's my left shin and my right arm. I won't forget that one. Definitely not what I'd hoped or envisioned or planned."
Her alpine teammates had their egos equally bruised. Shona Rubens of Calgary missed a gate and was disqualified.
Whistler's Britt Janyk was the top Canadian at 17th, well behind Austrian Andrea Fischbacher's gold-medal-winning time.
Georgia Simmerling of West Vancouver was 27th.
The cross-country skiers were also denied a podium finish.
Ivan Babikov, of Canmore, Alta., finished fifth in the men's 30-kilometre pursuit.
It was a great achievement, but he was downcast.
"I've finished fifth in the world, but when you realize it, it was one chance to get a medal," Babikov said.
"So close, yet so far."
Unbelievably, after 30 kilometres, he finished only nine seconds behind Marcus Hellner, who won Sweden's third gold of the Games.
In any other event, at any other time, the only tears that would have been shed over such a performance would have been tears of joy, but not when the hopes of a nation are riding on your shoulders.
For athletes such as Morrison, Babikov and the others, so close isn't good enough.
Day 10
VANCOUVER —_Oh, Canada — not again.
The nation held its breath after Team USA upset the men's hockey team 5-3, pushing them to the verge of elimination. At one of the most anticipated events of the 2010 Winter Olympics, the Americans bettered the vaunted Canadians.
When pressed afterward about the team's chances now that it faced a must-win game to make the medal qualifying round, Canadian captain Scott Niedermayer grumbled: "It's the situation we find ourselves in and we'll try to make the best of it,"
Although subjected to unbelievable pressure from Team Canada's superstars in the third period, USA netminder Ryan Miller was a veritable gymnast.
Canadian goalie Martin Brodeur was badly outplayed and failed to make the big stop when it counted.
Team Canada outshot the Americans 45-23.
It was not the outcome Sidney Crosby and his teammates desired.
For all intents and purposes, it was a lost weekend for Canada in spite of a silver medal win in long-track speedskating.
Kristina Groves of Ottawa won her second medal on the day dubbed Super Sunday because six medals were up for grabs.
Only one went to a Canadian.
The fans at the oval chanted "Kriss-tee-na, Kriss-tee-na." And she had a marvellous skate but even Groves felt dissatisfied.
"I really wanted to win," she said. "I think I'll be feeling happy eventually."
It was that kind of day.
It began sadly with the unexpected death from a heart attack of Joannie Rochette's mother, Therese.
The figure skating champion was staggered when told her 55-year-old mama passed away at Vancouver General Hospital shortly after arriving to see her compete.
It was another tragedy at these Olympics on a day Canadians were plagued by bad luck.
Skier Chris Del Bosco was flying towards a bronze in men's freestyle ski cross but tumbled badly on the final jump. His hopes were dashed. He came fourth.
The two-man bobsled also missed the podium by a sled blade. The Canada 2 team of Edmonton's Pierre Lueders and Jesse Lumsden of Burlington, Ont., finished fifth.
In spite of the dearth of medals, the Canadian Olympic Committee continued to wear a forced smile.
"We're going to have more medals won by Canadians than ever before in Olympic Winter Games following these particular Games," boasted Michael Chambers, president.
"I truly believe that."
But after two days of mediocre finishes, the mood within the Canadian camp was darkening.
American successes continued to mount and they taunted the Canadians about the swaggering Own The Podium program.
The Yankees said they were just renting it for the duration of the Games.
The coaching staff apparently surprised the hockey players with a "This is your time" speech from little Herbie.
Five-year-old Nashville-area kid Josh Sacco was a YouTube sensation with his imitation of American coach Herb Brooks from the movie Miracle.
Team USA cracked up.
Many were beginning to suggest that's what the Canadians needed to do — lighten up. Perhaps they were under too much pressure.
Day 11
VANCOUVER — Canadian figure skating duo Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir flawlessly danced into history, capturing hearts and a gold medal on Day 11 of the Games.
A deafening ovation from the capacity audience at the Pacific Coliseum was overwhelming as they finished their lyrical and passionate final skate to Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5.
No North American skaters had ever won the ice-dancing event before.
Yet the sparkling triumph by Virtue, 20, of London, Ont., and Moir, 22, of Ilderton, Ont., could not dispel the medal-shortage gloom gathering in Canadian ranks as the country's Olympic committee ran up the white flag.
The hand-wringing about Canada's performance began earlier in the day.
Olympic Committee CEO Chris Rudge essentially delivered a mournful rendition of Woe, Canada, conceding the country had blown the podium.
"We are going to be short of our goal," a downcast Rudge admitted.
"We'd be living in a fool's paradise if we said we were going to catch the Americans and win. We're not throwing in the towel. You never do that when you are in the middle of a fight, but it's difficult."
By Day 11 of the Games, there had been golden moments, incredible memories and multitudes far in excess of expectations enjoying the balmy weather and blizzards of cherry blossoms.
Nevertheless, the triumphs had been fewer than expected and the bitter defeats more often.
Rudge said Canadian organizers had not expected such strong showings by American, Chinese and South Korean athletes.
A few hours before the figure-skating victory, the cross-country skiing team suffered another heartbreak. For the second straight race, the skiers came within a gasp or two of capturing a medal.
Alex Harvey of St-Ferreol-les-Neiges, Que., and Devon Kershaw of Sudbury, Ont., finished fourth in the team sprint, only 4.8 seconds back of the bronze.
"We believed in our chances to finish on the podium," Harvey said. "We were so close to our goal, we proved today that we can ski with the best in the world."
Their finish was the best ever for the men's team, which placed three skiers in the top 10 of the 30-km pursuit: another gutsy performance that fell just short of the podium, but an amazing achievement nevertheless.
The Canadian women cross-country skiers finished seventh in their sprint relay.
"We gave it everything we could," Canmore, Alta.'s Sara Renner said afterwards.
And there were other bright spots for Canada: All three male skiers qualified for the aerials final at Cypress.
Canadian skip Kevin Martin of Edmonton, managed to get a bit of revenge for our staggering loss in men's hockey by eliminating the American men's curling team.
The women, too, continued their successful sweeping.
Calgary's Cheryl Bernard and her squad cruised to an easy 6-2 win over the defending Olympic champions from Sweden.
Day 12
VANCOUVER — Skier Ashleigh McIvor and figure skater Joannie Rochette didn't get the memo that these were no longer Canada's Games.
McIvor, the 26-year-old from Whistler, B.C., part hippie and part supermodel, was crowned the first women's ski cross champion with a historic win in the sport's debut at the XXIst Winter Games.
"I was just standing in the start gate, thinking everything that's happened in my life to this point has been leading to here," she explained.
"And this is where I want to be right now."
It was another brilliant performance and it set the stage for figure skater Rochette's unbelievably poignant short program, which all but brought down the Pacific Coliseum.
"For my mama," the 24-year-old from Ile Dupas, Que., sobbed in the arms of her coach, finishing the fearless performance two days after being staggered by news her mother had unexpectedly died.
She sat weeping as the ovation thundered and bouquets littered the ice.
Overcoming her grief, Rochette's courageous focus wowed the judges and rallied the nation.
She and McIvor were character, determination and guts incarnate.
Fittingly, their success came on the same day the hockey gods smiled on Team Canada.
In the must-win game against Germany, the NHL stars came through with Roberto Luongo backstopping an easy 8-2 victory.
The day, though, belonged to McIvor and Rochette.
The ingenuous McIvor's wide-eyed enthusiasm lit a fire under flagging Canadian spirits.
Her victory was instantly the stuff of folklore and legend.
In university, she earned an A for an undergraduate essay on why ski cross should be in the Olympic Games. When the sport was approved, she set her sights on winning the inaugural gold.
She virtually scripted her win.
She said it was her destiny — and she fulfilled it.
"I just felt I was made for this event," McIvor bubbled. "This is my hometown. What more could I ask for? Winning the Olympics, this is just the icing on the cake. This is just the most amazing moment of my life."
At the Whistler Sliding Centre, Calgary's Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse of Summerside, P.E.I., contributed to the resurgent mood with a record-setting start in the women's bobsled heats.
And the men's and women's curling teams continued to wage their successful campaigns.
But there were further disappointments.
The alpine ski team continued to be plagued with bad luck and to suffer from the yips.
In the giant slalom, Mont Tremblant, Que.'s Erik Guay finished 16th, Robbie Dixon of Whistler, 24th, Patrick Bicks of Orleans, Ont., 35th and Calgary's Brad Spence 42nd.
Canada's Olympic Committee predicted the elite skiers, who received a whopping $10 million in funding, would win two medals; Alpine Canada set the mark at three, including a gold.
After seven races, however, the team had none.
Guay said it's easy for sports bureaucrats to predict medal totals; far more difficult for athletes to deliver.
"I know what they were trying to do," the skier said.
"They were trying to get Canadians fired up. Setting big goals, ambitious goals for the team is a good thing. The downside is, it does add some pressure to the athletes that are competing."
The truth is, some just can't handle the pressure.
Others, like McIvor and Rochette, become diamonds.
Their performance was not so much the product of funding, but of grit and heart.
Both sent a single memo to Canadians: Believe!
They were feeling so comfortable late in the game against the Swedes that Bernard even brought in alternate Kristie Moore of Grande Prairie, Alta., who was noticeably pregnant.
Similarly, the Canadian women's hockey team continued motoring on cruise control toward a medal.
They crushed Finland 5-0 to set up a gold medal game against Team USA.
Day 13
VANCOUVER — We finally did it. On Day 13, Canada owned the podium and our athletes enjoyed their best biggest medal haul at the Olympic Games.
Veteran distance speedskater Clara Hughes won bronze, the short-track skating relay team won a surprise silver after a disqualification and the women's bobsled teams captured two medals, including the country's seventh gold.
Won by bobsledders Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse, the gold medal meant Canada was tied for most first-place finishes with the United States and Germany.
At the same time, the men's hockey team trashed the vaunted Russians 7-3 in a chippy, never-close quarter-final encounter.
The country's medal total rose to 14 medals, Canadian women contributing 11, the men three.
There was little debate, however, that the biggest cheers of the day, which echoed across the nation, came as the hockey squad trounced Alexander Ovechkin and his teammates from Russia.
It put the Canadian team back on track for gold.
As for the inspirational Hughes, in her swan-song Olympic race, she provided another magical moment for the country by capturing a bronze medal in the 5,000 metres.
It was her sixth and tied teammate Cindy Klassen's record for most medals.
"Thank you to this amazing crowd," Hughes of Glen Sutton, Que., said to the fans who bellowed their adoration. "Once again you gave me wings. I had the rhythm that I had dreamt of today."
Canada's short-track relay team finished far behind China, but was awarded silver after the second-place Korean team was disqualified.
The judges concluded the Koreans interfered with the Chinese skaters during a pass late in the race. The surprise win added lustre to the celebration at the sliding centre.
Canada had never won a medal in women's bobsled, which made its Olympic debut in 2002, so these wins were particularly meaningful.
Humphries, of Calgary, and Moyse of Summerside, P.E.I., were on competing teams in previous competitions. This day, they celebrated their successful partnership.
"We did it," Humphries enthused. "I'm so excited right now. I wasn't focused on the times. I just wanted to drive consistently. That was our goal for the first, second, third and fourth run."
Moyse, her eyes wet with tears, said it was just "awesome" to finally join up with her former rival and win.
"It hasn't quite set in yet," she said. "When it does, I'll be bawling."
Earlier in the day, at the Richmond oval, Charles Hamelin of Ste-Julie, Que., Olivier Jean of Lachenaie, Que., and Francois-Louis Tremblay of Montreal, qualified for the individual 500-metre relay quarter-final.
And on the slopes, the world's best female skier and U.S. poster girl, Lindsey Vonn, crashed in the giant slalom and broke a finger.
It made her participation in the upcoming slalom doubtful.
Regardless, the second leg of the super-G was postponed because of fog.
Austrian Elisabeth Goergl was in the lead after the first leg and the Canadian skiers were well back and out of medal contention.
Day 14
VANCOUVER — Hallelujah — hockey gold!
The women's team delivered one of the two Olympic medals most cherished by Canadians on Day 14 of the Games sparking pandemonium at Canada Hockey Place.
Tears rolled freely down the players' faces as they skated around basking in a seemingly endless ovation from an audience that included Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Canadian icons Wayne Gretzky and Michael J. Fox.
Across the nation, there were similar scenes of jubilation.
Later, the country rejoiced again as Joannie Rochette turned in another fearless performance, every Canadian heart was with the grief-stricken skater, whose 55-year-old mother died without seeing her daughter compete.
The 24-year-old delivered a brilliant routine set to Camille Saint-Saens' Samson and Delilah.
The ovation rocked the Pacific Coliseum and she captured a bronze. South Korea's Yu-Na Kim delivered a flawless performance and won the gold medal.
Queen Yu-Na set a new world record delivering one of the greatest free skates ever.
For Canadians, though, the women's hockey final was the day's crowning achievement.
Team Canada withstood a fierce third-period barrage by the Americans who threw everything they had at netminder Shannon Szabados.
The 23-year-old was impenetrable.
Two goals scored in the first period by Marie-Philip Poulin, the 18-year-old phenom from Beauceville, Que., was just enough for the win.
Still, there were disappointments for Canada.
At Cypress, Calgary skier Kyle Nissen was leading in the aerials after his first jump but fell to fifth when he failed to nail his second. He was shattered.
"It's something that I should have been able to do," Nissen said.
Canadians Steve Omischl, from North Bay, Ont., was eighth and Warren Shouldice, of Calgary, 10th.
"It's a tough way to finish," said Omischl.
Shouldice was "devastated and stunned."
Canada's athletes resurrected the country's pride after the Olympic Committee all but declared the XXI Olympiad a failure. Canada would not win as many medals as hoped, but the quality of the winning performances had more than made up for the lack of quantity.
Canada had eight gold medals — tied with Germany and the U.S. for most first-place finishes.
The Canadian Olympic Committee admitted the Americans were too far ahead in the total medal count to catch and that the $117-million Own The Podium effort had failed.
But there was no shortage of Canadian champions at these games and more were waiting in the wings.
In curling both men's and women's teams were in the sweepstakes for gold.
Kevin Martin and his rink were readying to play the final against Norway's Thomas Ulsrud.
The women too were guaranteed at least a silver.
Calgary skip Cheryl Bernard and her team faced a Swedish rink skippered by Anette Norberg, who won gold in 2006.
Team member Susan O'Connor said: "I think we're going to have a tiny bit of a celebration, just to let ourselves be happy at what we accomplished."
Canadians were doing the same — enjoying what had been accomplished: Eight gold medals.
And perhaps more importantly: One hockey gold down, one to go.
Day 15
VANCOUVER — The Canadian men's speedskating team — Charles Hamelin, Francois-Louis Tremblay, Francois Hamelin and Olivier Jean — discovered the Midas touch and in classic better-late-than-never fashion turned Canada's Games golden.
In two thrilling races, Hamelin and Tremblay won individual medals in the 500-metre sprint and the team captured gold in the 5,000-metre relay.
They were electrifying performances and ensured the 2010 Games would be a historic success for Canada.
After the final weekend's hockey game was over, the country's total gold haul stood at 14 medals — the most of any nation!
And with a total medal count of 26, Canada has surpassed the 24 medals garnered in Turin.
Charles Hamelin, of Levis, Que., was the world's best speedskater on paper but until Day 15 of the Games, he had failed to prove it.
On that Friday, he silenced his critics with his triumphs.
In the first 500m race, marred at the end by a wipeout caused by American Apolo Anton Ohno, Hamelin was the last man legally standing.
Korean Sung Si-Bak, who had been leading at the moment of the collision, crossed the finish line on his back.
Tremblay, who was bowled over by Ohno, picked himself up off the ice and finished the last few metres as the judges began reviewing the spectacular crash.
By that time, Hamelin had jumped up on the boards and embraced his girlfriend, Marianne St-Gelais.
She won a silver on her birthday 10 days earlier.
St-Gelais screamed encouragement from the stands, jumping up and down in excitement. When Hamelin won, she raced to rinkside, leaped over a railing and threw her arms around him.
They kissed passionately as the crowd cheered enthusiastically.
In the 5,000m relay, the men skated strongly and held off a late challenge from the Koreans to a similar ovation.
In curling at the Vancouver Olympic Centre, however, the crowd's applause was muted by the feeling one got away.
Calgary's Cheryl Bernard missed two key shots in the 10th and extra ends to lose 7-6 and miss the gold medal.
The defending champion Swedish rink of Anette Norberg stole a point in the final end and with it victory.
Bernard had beaten the Swedes earlier in the week, and held a 6-4 lead going into the 10th. It should have been enough to win.
But Bernard failed to clear Norberg's penultimate stone from the house and the Swede scored a pair to force another end.
Again, after several rocks, Bernard looked to be in control but went awry trying to score a double on her final throw.
The Swedish team whooped as the Canadians stood crestfallen and the audience sat stunned.
It was not the only disappointment.
Canada's female speedskaters were shut out of the 1,000-metre medal final.
Fortunately, in spite of a nail-biting final period, the marquee men's hockey team held on to defeat the Slovaks 3-2.
The U.S.A.-Finland playoff, by comparison, was an anticlimactic rout.
The Americans ran roughshod over the Finns 6-1, scoring a half-dozen goals in the first period and then cruising through the next two barely breaking a sweat.
"I think that was one of the best games of the tournament because I got to watch most of it," said American goalie Ryan Miller, who was idle for most of it.
He would need the rest for the battle for gold against the Canadians.
Day 16
VANCOUVER — When thousands of fans crammed into the Vancouver Olympic Centre spontaneously rose in a roaring rendition of O Canada, you knew Edmonton skip Kevin Martin was on the verge of leading his curling team to Olympic gold.
After more than two decades of campaigning on ice sheets around the world — from the dark days when curling wasn't even a Winter Games sport — Martin triumphed.
He, along with Edmonton teammates Marc Kennedy, Ben Hebert and John Morris, defeated Thomas Ulsrud's Norwegian rink, 6-3.
It was a sweet moment for Martin who finished fourth at the 1992 Albertville Games, when the sport was inaugurated as an Olympic event.
"Finally!" he rejoiced. "It took a long time, a lot of years. (But) the hard work was worth it."
It was a continuation of Canada's amazing final weekend at the Games.
The men's pursuit speedskating team took a second gold.
Denny Morrison, a 24-year-old from Fort. St. John, B.C., led the speedskating pursuit team, which included Regina's Lucas Makowsky and Montreal's Mathieu Giroux, after faltering earlier in the Games.
"It was cool to be able to come together after a rough week with no medals for any of the men," Morrison said. "To come away with gold as a team, there's no better way to finish off the Olympics for us."
Jasey Jay Anderson, the veteran snowboarder who returned for these Olympics to win a medal for exactly the same reasons as Martin, felt the same way.
He knifed his way through ugly conditions to win gold in the parallel giant slalom to a cheering crowd that refused to let Mother Nature drive them from their seats.
Anderson, a 24-year-old from Mont-Tremblant, Que., and a four-time World Cup champ, had competed in every Olympics since the snowboarding event was added at the 1998 Nagano Games.
But he had failed to finish higher than fifth.
"We can't base out life, our career, on one medal," he said, a grin pasted on his face that belied his winner's modesty. "It wouldn't have been the end of the wold if it eluded me again. I was getting used to it."
Sadly, the weather preyed on the jinxed alpine team.
Many, many skiers, including Calgary's Brad Spence, did not finish the prestigious slalom race because of missed gates, wipeouts or veering off course in the intermittent fog and shoddy conditions.
It was a miserable day on the slopes.
Julien Cousineau of Lachute, Que., had a tremendous second run, but it wasn't enough.
Still perhaps the saddest news of the day was that on the eve of the cross-country ski marathon, blind skier Brian McKeever was cut from the squad.
Only four skiers per country were allowed and the others on the team were demonstrably faster than the Calgarian.
And the Olympics are about stronger, higher, faster.
Day 17
VANCOUVER — With the cheers of a gold medal hockey victory echoing across Canada, the XXI Winter Olympics ended in a celebration of national pride.
A country went to bed feeling exultant.
Sidney Crosby staved off humiliation in overtime and made it official — these were Canada's Golden Games. It was a fitting, if harrowing, end to the 17 days of competition — the Winter Games that redefined a nation.
This is a country reborn, a people that have forged a new identity.
If there were doubts at the beginning, they were not to be found by the end.
Where were those rent-the-podium Yankee taunts when Crosby fired home the winning goal?
The country once defined as so civil even when its buses arrived apologizing — "sorry, full" — stood up and said just because we're polite doesn't mean we're pushovers.
Canadians won the most golds — 14, and the most ever by any country in history.
Canada was the champion of these Olympics, as both host and as a competitor.
These were the most watched, most talked about, the best attended and the most participated Winter Olympics in history.
Television ratings were through the roof and Internet traffic was off the scale.
"The People's Games," many said.
By any measure of popularity and interest, a humungous success. Far beyond expectations.
Crowds, throngs, multitudes surged through Vancouver spontaneously breaking into heartfelt, if off-key, versions of O Canada celebrating a new-found sense of national pride.
It was a glorious end to 17 days of make-believe.
The athletes came through in the end reaping an unprecedented harvest of medals — more even than the 24 garnered at the 2006 Turin Games.
The final weekend was full of sparkling victories that long will be cherished.
All of the memories were gilded — Devon Kershaw, the 27-year-old from Sudbury, Ont., skiing his heart out and earning fifth place — only heartbeats behind after a 50-kilometre marathon. Who did not cry with him?
Or with Joannie Rochette?
Together with Slovenia cross-country skier Petra Majdic, who fell breaking five ribs but managed to win a bronze medal, she was awarded the Terry Fox Award for her courage.
Their example was what the Olympics are about: Heart, hearts of gold.
There were many new inductees to Canada's pantheon of heroes, and their triumphs will live forever in our collective memory.
Ashleigh McIvor — another new hero — said she came to these games to fulfil her destiny. She did with gold.
So did Canada.
A nation was asked to believe. It did. And its faith was rewarded: 14 gold medals, seven silver and five bronze.
That's right. Canada won 14 gold. More than any other country. Ever.
As the Prime Minister said, a defining moment.
But enough said. After all, we are still Canadian.


text:
The art of recording and recording the right way for you, is a constantly changing and evolving thing. In fact, it's really so subjective, and most folks don't seem to really know where to start. I know that for me, it took a long time before I felt as if my ear and my decisions were really in synch with each other when it came to my own recordings, and how I really wanted them to be handled.
The first thing is to truly and wholly trust your engineer. Most of them have their own personal style and approach to recording, so it's best to listen to some of their previous work to try and get a sense of just what they are capable of, and in what sonic direction they tend to lean. Of course, a truly great engineer, like a truly great player, should be able to bend and adapt to each and every situation they find themselves in. For example, they should be equally comfortable and proficient at recording symphonic and orchestral instruments as they might be recording a Heavy Metal band, for instance! It doesn't mean they have no sound or touch of their own, but you want to make sure there is no challenge too big or diverse for them to tackle, and that they embrace any new ideas or challenges set before them.
Of course, many engineers these days originally started in the "harder" days of recording to actual tape, and then made the change and the "bridge" over to the digital era. Still, regardless of the actual medium of recording they are working in, certain skills will always be constants. This includes the all-important skill of mic placement and choice for the application at hand, use of EQ, how to handle the particular space you are recording in, and countless other things that all "factor in" to the final product's creation. Even the speakers you listen back on are critical. Most really good studios and engineers will have as many as 3 or 4 sets of speakers to listen back on, so you can judge your music as it would be played in many situations. There are lots of times for example, after we have a song mixed, we are sure to listen back on tiny speakers that actually mimic an old AM car radio…perhaps the worst way to listen to music, but also perhaps the most oft-listened to way in history. Back in the earlier days, this was so critical, as most folks did their listening to Pop music in the car, and it was only on the thinner-sounding AM as opposed to FM.
This process is important from beginning to end with any recording situation, and you must remember that almost all music sounds good and exciting on the BIG speakers, and when they're loud, but the true test will be on the more humble level of listening experiences. Experiment with them all, and remember that the whole process, though tedious, is also incredibly fun to take part in!


text:
Gardening done because of shade
Posted by 9b | Filed under Gardening
Giving up for gardening not to occur might be more abundant because it gets little sunshine even if it wants to do gardening to there are a garden and a veranda in the house with great pains.
However, please do not give it up. The fault of sunshiny, that sunlight is a little also has a lot of plants that grow up enough in the plant.
For instance, shade is a plant in the plant said, "Hellebore" that grows up. This flower is lovely even if it does from the name. It seems to be actually a plant that blooms in around February though there is an image where the flower blooms in around December because Christmas and the name are given. It is unexpected.
There is a thing said that it is strong also in shade and the period when the flower blooms long in the inside though the hellebore is short because the period when the flower is in blossom is other flowers and the titles of the same, too. It is a plant said, it is "Impatiens".
Is the plant said, "Impatiens" long the period when the flower is in blossom, and June?I can enjoy the flower because it is in blossom with put it at the end of autumn at the time of beginning of summer like November for a long time. Moreover, because this plant doesn't so take time, and be handy the price, it is plant in the gardening beginner glad. Moreover, I can be enjoyed every year because the flower blooms in the seed that spilt next year.
Shade might be happy in them for a lot of plants that grow up to be introduced when the Internet and the book are examined besides above when favorite I things are combined.
It can enjoy gardening enough depending on my idea even because of shade.脱毛・名古屋
Tags: and it enjoys it gardening, and the plant., It grows up, shade
Comments are closed.


text:
Get a load of this nonsense from a week or so ago: campaigners against fuel poverty trying to prevent the one thing that might bring energy prices down - concentrating on gas.
"Renewable energy would be cheaper but they're refusing to make that transition because their profits depend on gas."...
Elizabeth Ziga, from Fuel Poverty Action, said: "While we freeze in our homes and millions of us choose between heating and eating, the Government is snugly in bed with the big six energy companies.
"Hand in hand, they're plotting to increase our dependence on dirty and expensive gas power, which will mean even higher fuel bills as well as rising food prices due to climate change.
It's a bit of an indictment of the education of these kids that they can't work out that if renewables genuinely were cheaper they would not require a subsidies, feed-in-tariffs and renewables obligations. I really isn't rocket science.
Wait a minute. It turns out that Fuel Poverty Action is a project of the Climate Justice Collective. They are campaigning against the results of their own policy demands.
OK, uneducatable then.


text:
A plaque fixed to the wall at 7 Rue des Grandes Augustins, in the St Germain district of Paris, records that Picasso lived and worked at that address from 1936-55, which includes World War II and the German occupation of France. It was here that he painted his prophetic masterpiece Guernica.
During the occupation, Picasso, who was forbidden to exhibit, kept to himself but other artists did not fare so well.
A new major exhibition in Paris looks at art in France just before, during and after the war. L'Art En Guerre (Art at War), France, 1938-47, at the Musee D'Art Moderne on the Avenue President Wilson, is a huge show arranged in 10 sequences with more than 400 works by more than 100 artists, set in context by films and documents.
The exhibition opens with work from the Fourth Exposition Internationale Surrealisme in Paris in 1938. The ceiling is hung with coal sacks just as Duchamp did at the original show, and one of the first exhibits is his "found" sculpture of a bottle-drying rack.
These surrealist oddities exemplify the many things that would be swept away as "degenerate art" under German occupation during the war years. The work is uneasy with a sense of impending danger.
Even a charming little work by surrealist Max Ernst, called I Saw a Grand Duchess Who Lost her Shoe, from 1940, has dark clouds and a rocky landscape. Ernst and other surrealists would escape to the United States, with important consequences for art there.
The show's extensive documentation includes the chilling proclamation by the Ministry of Propaganda in 1940 that France would be reduced to a tourist destination, and that in every matter, "only Germany decides".
The reactionary Vichy regime that ruled most of France under Marshal Petain condoned the deportation of Jews. Important artists fled if they could or went into hiding. Dozens of Jewish artists were sent to concentration camps.
Masses of newspapers, magazines, films and photographs in the show record those events but they are all in black and white. This is in contrast to the painting in the exhibition which, whether good or bad, is very colourful.
Bright colour became the rule in the work of young French artists acceptable to the regime. Abstraction and the other extreme Expressionists savoured too much of the "degenerate art" denounced in Germany and were discouraged. The School of Paris had been noted for colour and bright light, and the artists who stayed bowed to this regime.
Young artists influenced by Matisse and Bonnard produced timid variations on their work, which were often pleasant and attractive, and there are charming examples in the show by artists such as Lapicque and Singier, who have been left behind by history.
On May 27, 1943, in the gardens of the Musee du Jeu de Paume, works by Masson, Miro, Picabia, Klee, Ernst, Leger, Picasso and others deemed degenerate were slashed and burned. Fine examples of the work of these artists are in the show to represent the splendid work that was destroyed.
Picasso's work was daring, fractured and featured weeping women and an imagery of skulls and owls as symbols of ill-omen. One of these works, the sad and elegiac L'Aubade, features in all the publicity for the exhibition.
Although artistic freedom was restored after Paris was liberated, painting in France became disillusioned, sad and ironic. The tradition of belle peinture was finished. Typical of the time was the funereal, elongated work of Bernard Buffet. His gaunt woman holding a dead chicken in Femme au Poulet is typical of its time.
In some quarters, where many of the surviving artists were members of the Communist Party, it was felt that social realism might prevail. Instead, pre-war Surrealism returned with Andre Breton.
In 1947, an 87-artist exhibition was staged at the Gallery Maeght. The cover of the catalogue featured Duchamp's rubber breast titled Please Touch. Irony and intellectual shock was back. Abstractions such as Nicolas de Stael's Composition, Nice could emerge. Yet the gloom and the movement against accepted conventions remained.
Jean Dubuffet practiced what he called Art Brut, applying materials randomly. Here he has a work called Venus of the Footpath, painted with clay and asphalt.
Art such as this makes a vivid ending to an immense and fascinating show, but seldom has the shadow of history fallen so heavily over an exhibition.
For gallery listings, see nzherald.co.nz/arts.


text:
Critics scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.
out of 100
Metascore®Universal acclaimbased on a weighted average of allcritic review scores.
There's no denying that when it comes to communicating a certain delirious romanticism of character shaped by thousands of hours spent sitting in the dark, the artist who made this showpiece is a master.
Read Full Review
Put the two parts together, and Tarantino has made a masterful saga that celebrates the martial arts genre while kidding it, loving it, and transcending it.
Here's an entertainment to warm the heart of anyone who grew up (or failed to) on the formative joys of action movies.
Kill Bill-Vol. 2 puts to shame doubts entertained about aesthetic strategies or structural imbalance provoked by "Kill Bill-Vol. 1." Now that the entirety of Quentin Tarantino's epic revenge melodrama is on view, "Kill Bill" emerges as a brilliant, invigorating work, one to muse over for years to come.
Bout No. 2 is among the best closed-quarters screen fights ever, as good as (and longer than) Frank Sinatra vs. Henry Silva in The Manchurian Candidate. And Hannah does more for an eyepatch than anyone since the late Israeli defense minister Moshe Dayan.
See all Kill Bill Vol. 2 reviews at Metacritic.com
not for kids
Sequel just as over-the-top explicitly violent.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that they should exercise the strongest possible caution in deciding whether this movie is appropriate for their families, even for those over 17. This movie is an outrageous and over the top story about people who kill other people for money and for pure enjoyment. It is extremely violent with graphic and exceptionally explicit fight scenes. There are many horrifying images including a squashed eyeball, a badly scarred prostitute, and a desiccated corpse. Many characters are killed. Characters use extremely strong language and they drink and smoke.
Messages: The movie is about people who kill other people for money and for pure enjoyment.
Violence: Extreme and very graphic peril and violence, characters killed. There are many horrifying images including a squashed eyeball, a badly scarred prostitute, and a desiccated corpse.
Sex: Sexual references.
Language: Extreme and constant strong language.
Consumerism: Not an issue
Drinking, drugs and smoking: Drinking and smoking, chewing tobacco, reference to cocaine.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology.
© Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.
Movies.com, the ultimate source for everything movies, is your destination for new movie trailers, reviews, photos, times, tickets + more! Stay in the know with the latest movie news and cast interviews at Movies.com.
Copyright © 2018 FANDANGO MOVIES.


text:
Free Download Merry Christmas Blue Background Vector Illustration. Can be used for graphic or web designs. Free Vector Background available in Adobe Illustrator Eps & Ai {Version 10+} file formats. You are free to use these both for commercial and personal use. Free Vector from www.123FreeVectors.com. Vector tagged as blue, card, celebration, decoration, glitter,
Related Vector Images
You may also interested
Premium Vectors Sponsored results by Shutterstock.
Mega Free Sampler Pack from Stock Graphic Designs
Download Now It's Free
Download sample files in one pack. Pack contains all free sample vector, brushes and T-shirt designs available in stockgraphicdesigns.com.
More Related Vectors
- Abstract Blue Background
- Abstract Light Blue Background
- All Free Download Vector
- Baby Blue Background Images
- Background Designs
- Blue and Orange Backgrounds
- Blue and Purple Background
- Blue and Red Background
- Blue and White Background
- Blue Background
- Blue Chevron Background
- Blue Christmas Background
- Blue Green Background
- Blue Grunge Background
- Blue Pattern Background


text:
The Bay Street Theatre has announced its 2013 Mainstage season and a local audition date for the productions of "Lend Me a Tenor," "The Mystery of Irma Vep," and "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." The theater has also announced a local audition date for Literature Live's fall production of "The Diary of Anne Frank."
Equity principal and non-equity auditions will be held at the theater, on Long Wharf at the corner of Bay and Main Streets in Sag Harbor, on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Local actors with housing have been strongly encouraged to attend. Those auditioning for a dramatic role should prepare a brief comedy monologue under two minutes in length. Those auditioning for a musical role should prepare 16 bars of an up-tempo song and take along sheet music in the correct key; an accompanist will be provided but may not transpose. Auditioning actors should take a picture and résumé, stapled together, and have been asked to stipulate if they have housing or residence on the East End.


text:
(Photo: Ahron de Leeuw)
It's a common English "truism" that when a place is considered important, it is "put on the map." By that definition, the people of Gaza have been in limbo for a long time. One case in point is that when Gazans complete the application for a US visa, they are forced to select "Israel" as their place of birth; no "Palestine" or "Gaza Strip" option exists. Another indicator of the "deligitmization" of the Gaza Strip in particular is the fact that no map exists that documents and guides visitors to the labyrinthine streets and points of interest that structure daily life here. That is, until now.
If Ashraf Mohammed Hamad gets the funding he is seeking, he will soon print the first "tourist" map of Gaza City - a map that can perhaps be made available in the one souvenir shop in town (along with the "world's largest prison" coffee mug) as well as given to the estimated 200-300 internationals present in the Strip at any one time. The concept of a tourist map - including points of cultural interest as well as street names - seems a bit strange to some, making funding a bit hard to come by. After all, despite the beauty of Gaza's shoreline, the four-year-long Israeli blockade of the Strip makes just getting into (or out of) the enclave a test of persistence and fortitude - if it's possible at all.
Nonetheless, as Hamad points out, aid workers often stay for weeks or months and will hopefully want to see more of Gaza than the facility in which they work (although there is a bit of a "green zone" feel here sometimes, with UN personnel racing around in white cars and most foreigners taking the best apartments by the water). In addition, might there not be one day when the siege comes to an end and tourists from Egypt etc. once again return to enjoy the beaches and rural hamlets with gardens of papayas, lemons and dates?
"After the Israeli war on Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009, a lot of foreign aid workers started coming to help rebuild," says Hamad, coordinator of the E.Work Unit at Gaza City's University College of Applied Sciences (UCAS). "But so many of the people with international NGOs just stayed on the coast, and weren't going east or, to see the old part of Gaza City. Gaza may be a war zone, but we have a history and sights to see as well."
The effort to more accurately and completely "map" Gaza actually started shortly after the December 27, 2008, invasion by Israel. Quickly recognizing that relief workers would need detailed geographical information in order to find and help the thousands of families traumatized by the massive assault, mapping experts from around the world created "Wikiproject Gaza Strip" - an online "asset register" of roads, buildings and vital community infrastructure - including schools, hospitals, mosques etc. Although some maps generated by authorities such as the United Nations, Palestinian government and international media already existed, Mikel Maron - the freelance leader of the online mapping effort - explains that "the presumption that these authorities have complete, accurate, consistent and verified data is unfortunately incorrect. They do a fantastic job, and their maps serve many useful purposes. But for one example, the road data from the European Commission that served as the basis for all the UN maps was missing road names, and at even a quick look had inaccuracies. Plus, all of these sources disagreed with each other on place names and locations."
The wikiproject also was designed to overcome copyright and licensing issues that prevented sharing among the various entities that had created the other maps. To establish a new database that could be used by any and all interested parties, the project relied on OpenStreetMap, an online project rather like Wikipedia dedicated to creating a free, editable map of the entire world using GPS devices, aerial photography, and other open sources.
"It's amazing what's possible when discussion and sharing happens in an open transparent environment," says Maron, a freelance Web developer who specializes in geographic and location-focused applications, ecological simulations and disaster-response software.
At first, there were some objections to the idea of creating a map/database of the Gaza Strip that is both comprehensive and open to everyone. Some individuals were worried that the information would only help Israel identify bombing targets etc. Maron responded in a blog post that "this is honestly one of the most preposterous and disheartening things I hear. I guess such paranoia is an understandable response given the situation, but the reality is that the Israeli military has access to much better intelligence and imagery than we'd ever have. Remember, they fly drones over Gaza! Gazans have nothing to gain by trying to keep secrets; the asymmetry of that game is overwhelmingly not in their favor."
Maron's "remote community" started the mapping project using existing imagery and eyewitness reports from bloggers etc. But the project quickly got to the point when on-the-ground mappers were required. After the Israeli invasion ended on January 18 and conditions were safer, an NGO called JumpStart International - which focuses on generating local employment - funded a project to train Gazan university graduates in the art of cartography and produce a complete, public-domain map of all roads and other points of interest that define the Gaza Strip. And that's when Hammad entered the picture.
Hamad's E.Work Unit provides UCAS graduates gainful employment with clients in other countries, particularly in the Gulf states, through projects that rely on the Internet such as web site design, translation and secretarial work. In June 2009, with funds and 12 GPS (global positioning system) units donated by Jumpstart, Hamad's engineering graduates were trained, then sent out to collect raw "traces" (x and y coordinates) across the entire Gaza Strip. By September, all roads and more than 4,000 points of interest were charted, then entered into OpenStreetMap.
"Roads are important, but life in Gaza is defined even more by the local hospitals, mosques and businesses," explains Hamad. "To be relevant to people's lives, a map has to include those as well."
For instance, one location on the map is a tiny, family-owned store called "Mr. Kazim Ice Cream," which was the first shop to offer homemade ice cream in the Strip when it opened about 50 years ago. Although competitors entered the market about five years ago, "Kazim" remains a name that is so well known that taxi drivers throughout the Strip use it as a reference point.
Hamad's team faced a challenge, however, when labeling the streets. Although most of the streets in Gaza City now at least have a name (unlike many communities outside, such as the refugee camps ), what people call them often differs from what appears on official signs. For instance, Gamal Abdel Nasser St. (named after the past president of Egypt who is revered for trying to unite Arabs throughout the region) is more commonly called Thalatheny St., after the extended family who has longed lived there. The mappers chose the official name, but many taxi drivers couldn't recognize it.
Hamad says that using the database that now exists, printed maps could be made for all of the Gaza Strip, but for now he is focusing on Gaza City, the headquarters for the government as well as the majority of the NGOs. And in the spirit of OpenStreetMap, he wants to give the map away, rather than selling it. "Information is only truly powerful when everyone has access to it," he explains.


text:
Cherry-Pecan Streusel Rolls Recipe
It's a treat watching guests enjoying these rolls. The tart cherries, sweet almond paste and crisp streusel topping have them reaching for seconds every time.—Jeanne Holt, Mendota Heights, Minnesota
Featured In: 70 Sweet & Savory Pecan Recipes
VERIFIED BY Taste of Home Test Kitchen
Popular Videos
- 1/2 cup warm 2% milk (70° to 80°)
- 1/4 cup butter, melted
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup quick-cooking oats
- 2-1/4 teaspoons bread machine yeast
- 2/3 cup chopped pecans
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup quick-cooking oats
- 1/3 cup butter, melted
- 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup dried tart cherries, chopped
- 1/3 cup almond paste, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 cup confectioners' sugar
- 4 teaspoons 2% milk
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- In bread machine pan, place the first eight ingredients in order suggested by manufacturer. Select dough setting (check dough after 5 minutes of mixing; add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water or flour if needed).
- When cycle is completed, turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Roll into a 16x8-in. rectangle.
- In a small bowl, combine the pecans, sugar, oats, butter and cinnamon. Set aside 1/3 cup for topping. To the remaining filling, stir in cherries and almond paste. Sprinkle over dough to within 1/4 in. of edges. Roll up jelly-roll style, starting with a long side; pinch seam to seal. Cut into 12 slices.
- Place cut side down in a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 350°. Stir flour into reserved topping; sprinkle over rolls. Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. In a small bowl, beat the confectioners' sugar, milk and extract until smooth. Drizzle over warm rolls. Yield: 1 dozen.
Originally published as Cherry-Pecan Streusel Rolls in Country Woman April/May 2012
Reviews forCherry-Pecan Streusel Rolls
My Review
Click stars to rate
Any changes to your rating or review will appear where you originally posted your review


text:
Explaining how the most massive stars are born, deep within their stellar nurseries, is one of the most persistent mysteries in modern astronomy. Observations at the Gemini Observatory provide convincing new evidence that these stellar heavyweights may be born in much the same manner as lightweights like the sun.
"The problem is that when the most massive stars form it happens very quickly compared to stars like our sun, and by the time they break free of their natal clouds they are already the finished article," says Ben Davies, assistant research scientist at RIT's Rochester Imaging Detector Laboratory, and formerly of the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. "If you want to see a massive star in the process of forming, you need to be able to see through the obscuring clouds to where the action is."
Davies led an international team of researchers who brought infrared sensitivity and the extreme resolution of adaptive optics to bear on the problem. This allowed the team to penetrate the obscuring gas and dust clouds surrounding the massive proto-star W33A.
Known as a Massive Young Stellar Object, W33A is located about 12,000 light years away, toward the constellation of Sagittarius. Previous studies of this object only hinted at its dynamic nature but, until now, no stellar objects have been studied at this level of detail using the combination of adaptive optics and integral field spectroscopy used by the Davies team.


text:
come now, my child. if we were planning to harm you, do you think
we'd be lurking here beside the path in the darkest part of the forest?
I personally never was overfond of those piercings, but I'm happy if you are.
I was going to do a bunch of photos this evening, but I've got a severe case of awfukitz. We'll see if it clears up sometime soon.
Nippers! :~D
Recently I heard a 'wise guy' story that I had a party at my home for twenty-five men. It's an interesting story, but I don't know twenty-five men I'd want to invite to a party. ~Joan Crawford
To that someone, this is for you.
You're really handsome coward.
I see haha. That's kinda like photo mintage
"Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking." -The Scarecrow, WIZARD OF OZ, 1939
Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education, to under-performing schools: DROP DEAD.
Make, for a man, a fire - and he'll be warm for a few hours. Set a man afire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
Satire is meant to ridicule power. If you are laughing at people who are hurting, it's not satire, it's bullying. - Terry Pratchett
So many hotties, so little time...
Great pics everyone! Handsome fellas.
Bored at work.
^Another kicking English grammar post
Very Attractive, hcguy92 !!
No gargoyle pictures until the black eye goes away.
Wow. Hot JUBBERS are HOT!
Ever wonder whats going on when your back is turned? A
Oh, don't tell me you drugged that guy!
jk, both of you look good
come now, my child. if we were planning to harm you, do you think
we'd be lurking here beside the path in the darkest part of the forest?
And shortly after this picture was taken... *ahem*, "What have you learnt today?" thread.
And thank you
Ever wonder whats going on when your back is turned? A
ms paint warz!!!!!11!
Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day.
Give a man religion, and he'll starve praying for a fish.
There's nothing about this thread that isn't kinda strange...
That we are capable only of being what we are, remains our unforgivable sin.
- Gene Wolfe
Hello Cristiano Ronaldo


text:
Apostle Islands-Bears
DULUTH, Minn. (AP) – An increase in bear activity has caused officials to close part of a national park in northwestern Wisconsin. Sand Island, one of the Apostle Islands, was closed to overnight camping on Monday because of bears entering campsites and finding human food. Park employees thought a temporary halt on camping would reduce food and bear activity. But Apostle Islands National Lakeshore Superintendent Bob Krumenaker says a bear repeatedly entered a beached boat looking for food Wednesday, so officials closed the island to all visitors later that day. Krumenaker tells the Duluth News Tribune (http://bit.ly/124IIUG) he isn't sure how long the island will be closed, but the situation will be re-evaluated frequently.
— Information from: Duluth News Tribune, http://www.duluthnewstribune.com
Comments are closed.


text:
PHILADELPHIA — While most of the focus today at Wachovia Center, where most of the Bruins spent an hour or so of their off day before tomorrow's Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series with the Flyers, was focused on the center that won't be available for the Bruins — David Krejci — another center talked about how things are looking up after three games back in the lineup.
Little by little, Marc Savard is rounding into his old form in his return from a severe concussion suffered March 7.
"I'm feeling great," said Savard, who added penalty killing to his workload and skated for 17:56 in the Bruins' Game 3 win that put the team up 3-0 in the series. "I'm feeling normal. When you first come back, everything's moving so quick. It's like 'geez, am I ready? Am I ready?' And then the next game you feel better again and then [Wednesday] night I felt more normal. So I'm feeling normal again, and that's a good thing."
It didn't take long for Savard to get involved in the physical play in this series and realized that he could be normal again soon enough.
"I think I got hit in the corner [in Game 1]. I think the big one, I got hit in the corner late in the game in over time, I think it was [Claude] Giroux over by the boards, that was a good test," he remembered. "It felt good from there on in."
Obviously, Savard needed the contact from the Flyers. Watching practices leading up to Savard's return, it looked like his teammates didn't even want to brush up against him and risk causing more injury.
"Especially this time of year, you don't do a lot of hitting drills," Savard said. "So I didn't get hit that much. I remember [Zdeno Chara] hit me a bit and he was like 'whoa, whoa.' But everything's good, I'm feeling great and hopefully it'll just continue."