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Cycling Vietnam back roads
Cycling Vietnam back roads (10% offroad)
This itinerary takes you over the Tram Tom "Heaven's Gate" Pass (highest point of Sapa road to Laichau province, around 2,000 m) to explore the other side of Mt. Fansipan (highest mountain in Indochina), where few tourist ever been.
Quite road, big adventure, a lot of fun. So expect plenty of curious faces and smiling children shouting "Hello!".
Often when Sa Pa is shrouded in cloud and fog, this side is clear and blue. Descend through one of 's most picturesque and inspiring valleys. The partially rocky road meanders along the base of the mountain range past old growth forest and through the villages of Thai, H'Mong and Lu ethnic minority people.
Testimonials of this trip
That was a great tour. I have a few shots that I thought turned out pretty well. The smiling kid is from the valley we dipped into after I banged my head—you probably know the name better than I do. And the remote countryside is just a few kilometers before we stopped for lunch on the last day. The rest should be easy to figure out. I'll send more pictures when I have time to review them
Best wishes and have a great 2009.
I'll keep in touch.
Day 1: (L) Hanoi- Yen Bai : ( riding 90km)
Meet in hotel ( 7: 00AM), driving out of Hanoi city. Start riding ,It's a fascinating ride past many minority villages as we climb onto a higher plateau. We ride pass of rice field and tea plantations before arriving in the Doan Hung for lunch, continue biking to Yen Bai city. Dinner and overnight in Hotel in Yen bai.
Day2: (B,L) YenBai-LaoCai ( riding 105 km)
After breakfast we start riding on bank of Red river o Lao Cai. About 40 km off road track (pretty wide) start climbing on the left. After many villages and a beautiful narrow suspension bridge, we enjoy a long single track section, starting on terraces by long climb, leading to an off road pass (about 300m of elevation) and finishing on a long downhill through waterfalls and rain forest. Lunch with noodle soup and breads, fruits, tea coffee.Then we get to the asphalt where the minibus is waiting at BaoHa , take long transfer (35') to LaoCai. Night in Hotel in Lao Cai
Day 3:(B,L): Laocai- Sapa (+-60km)
After breakfast ride to Batxat and Muong Hum . Lunch on road, end of cycling in Sapa. Chek in hotel, free time as leisure. Overnight in Sapa
Day 4: (B,L): Sapa – ThanUyen (+-90km)
Ride down 80km of occasionally rocky road to Than Uyen . We cycle up to the Tram Ton Pass (2,019 m; 6,230 ft) the highest mountain pass in Vietnam and riding down a charming little tea town where you'll spend the night in Than Uyen local Hotel .
Day 5:(B,L): Than Uyen -Tu le (+- 90 Km)
Breakfast in hotel and starting ride down to Mu Cang Chai – Tu Le through valleys of old growth forest, tea plantations and rice paddies. After 90 km we arrived Tu le . Overnight in Tu Le local Hotel
Day 6: (B,L): Tu le – Nghia Lo (+-55km )
We will cycle through undulating road before we finally end the day in Nghia Lo. It sits on a mountain ridge overlooking the Red and Black River and is home to the Thai, Nung, H'mong, La Ha and Ma peoples. Overnight in Nghia Lo
Day 7: (B,L): Nghia Lo – BacYen (+-95km)
A 90 km ride up and down other side of the spectacular black river. Valley provides plenty of time to stop and take pictures of the local sights. Arrive in BacYen .Overnight in Bac yen hotel.
Day8: Bac Yen-Hanoi ( 72 km)
Virtually we go through an active back road biking to Thanh Son,lunch, then continue riding. End of cycling . Drive back to Hanoi ( 3hours )
Tour overview
Tour Cost
1) Self guide tour only have Hotel with breakfast, minibus stand by, bicycle
2) Prices are based per person, double occupancy, with a separate cost for solo travelers. If you are traveling in a group but prefer single accommodations, a single supplement fee applies. Triple accommodations are not available in many of the destinations we visit.
Best time to goFrom Aug to May
WHAT NOT International airfare; meals not noted on itinerary; Vietnam visa; insurance other than basic medical ; optional tipping to leader, guides and local staff; excess baggage charges; international airport taxes; cost of medical immunizations; items of a personal nature (alcoholic beverages, laundry, etc.).
Bike Hire
Trek4500, Giant Yukon including in tour price, Cannondale F3 pay 110 USD, Giant XTC team 90 USD.
Bikes suggest : XC hardtail, Freeride , All mountain
If you bring your bike please ensure that you bike is in good working order before you leave on tour. If you are not the most mechanically minded we suggest that you get your bike looked at by a professional bike mechanic. In particularly we would suggest looking and adjusting all wheel spokes, greasing all your bearings, checking your brakes/gears cable, tighten all nuts and bolts, check chain, quick release clamps, tires and put in new inner tubes and check wheel rims are not worn. In addition make sure the bike is well serviced and ride it with as much care and attention as possible.


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News and Events
Guest Speakers
The Department of Sociology and the Jeremy Tunstall Global Media Research Centre in particular regularly invite speakers from within the industry. With past speakers coming from companies such as CNBC, Eurosport, FremantleMedia and regulatory agencies such as OFCOM, the academia (recent speakers Robert Picard, Cees Hamelink, Daya Thussu, Peter Kingstone, Haim Bresheeth and Patrick Barwise), as well as journalism (Ivor Gaber, Nicholas Jones). These well-attended talks are primarily addressed to our MA and PhD students, but are open to all.
Jeremy Tunstall Global Media research seminar series for the 2017/18 academic term
All seminars will be held in room D427, 4-6pm
|11 October 2017
|Professor Jane Singer, Director of Research, Journalism Department
|'Fact-Checkers as Entrepreneurs and Intrapreneurs: Readers, Remits and Resources for a New Form of Watchdog Journalism'
|8 November 2017
|Eylem Yanardagoglu, Associate Professor, New Media Department, KIadir Has University
|'Transnationalisation of Turkish Television Series: Dynamics of Distribution Production and Consumption'
|6 December 2017
|Dr. Marco Bastos
|'Brexit Botnet and the Strategic Deployment of Twitterbots'
|14 February 2018
|Professor Jean Chalaby
|Disintermediation versus vertical disintegration: Outsourcing in the TV industry
|2 May 2018
|Dr. Dan Mercea
|'Movement Social Learning on Twitter: the case of the People's Assembly'
|6 June 2018
|Professor Petros Iosifidis, Dr. Carolina Matos and Dr. Michael Saker
|Online journalism, democracy and activism
Conference organisation
C. Matos has organised the following recent conferences:
- Postgraduate Conference for the MA in International Communications and Development January 2016. Held at City University in January 2016, with guest speakers and participation of scholars and practioners from Westminist University, LSE, Goldsmiths and University of Reading.
P. Iosifidis has organised the following recent conferences:
- Global Media and Communication, December 2013. The conference was accompanied with launch of the Palgrave Global Media Policy and Business Series
- Public Service Broadcasting in the Era of Austerity with Jean Chalaby, June 2013
- The Public Sphere and Social Networks, September 2012
- Global Media Policy, September 2011. The conference was accompanied with the launch of the research monograph Global Media and Communication Policy
- The Public Sphere and Public Service Communications, April 2010. The conference was accompanied with the launch of the edited book Reinventing Public Service Communication: European Broadcasters and Beyond
- Digital Economy and Social Inclusion, EPSRC-funded, March 2009
In 2010 D. Mercea was programme chair of the Information, Communication & Society (iCS) symposium Networking Democracy: New Media Innovations in Participatory Politics. The event was hosted by the BabeÅŸ-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania and co-organised by the Department of Sociology, University of York, UK and the Faculty of European Studies at the BabeÅŸ-Bolyai University.
Journals and Book Series
An international journal and a Book Series support the Centre's activities.
- The International Journal of Digital Television (Intellect), edited by P. Iosifidis, publishes comparative and interdisciplinary work on a wide range of topics such as switching off analogue TV, the challenge of exploiting digital television's convergence with the Internet and telecommunications, broadcasting's audience in the digital age, the future of public service television in an all-digital environment.
- The Palgrave Media Policy and Business Book Series, co-edited by P. Iosifidis, J. Steemers and G. Sussman, examines the wider social, political, economic and technological changes arising from the globalisation of the media and communications industries and assesses their impact on matters of business practice, regulation and policy.

subset: commoncrawl


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Best Mini Outdoor Drone with a Camera
Hubsan X4 Quadcopter with FPV Camera Toy
While we were on the hunt for the best quadcopter with a camera, the Hubsan X4 Quadcopter was on our list due to its high appeal for those who like the smaller side of what is available in the drone world. Though of as perhaps more fragile than other models, users are surprised at how much they like this model. Here are some of its basics at a glance:
- Instant video preview on the transmitter
- Very lightweight airframe that is quite durable
- 6 Axis Gyro Stabilization
- Immersive FPV Flight
- Availability of various types of drone cases with extra features.
- Flight videos record straight to SD card
- Video preview on transmitter
- 50-100 Meter control distance
One of the best features about this is the video preview. Even though this is not going to appear anything like the quality you will get when you step up the game and spend around 700 more dollars, this will help those who are trying to master flips, other stunt moves, and getting a feel for controlling and hovering while recording video. What many purchase these for is flying indoors, but some users claim that it can even perform well in up to 20 MPH winds.
This is a great toy for outdoors, and doing things like inspecting gutters for leaves, while just getting used to the fun you can have with a drone. Some would consider the very small size a drawback, but it has a unique appeal, and many people will also take it to indoor courts and the like during winter when they get a big craving to fly. The rotor shield can really help, because it will guard the outdoor copter a bit from the crashes you may have when you are first learning with this one.
Best Micro Outdoor Quad Copter with a Camera
Cheerson CX-10 Mini 29mm 4CH 2.4GHz 6-Axis Gyro LED RC
This is an incredibly tiny outdoor toy that some resellers are letting go for under $20. Excellent for indoor & outdoor fun, the power source is a rechargeable 3.7V 100mAH lithium battery, and is literally about the size of a small cookie. You are ready to take off after you just get a set of AAA batteries for the controller, and you can quickly start to learn the ropes. Here are some of the features at a glance:
- 6-axis design that helps with stability
- 4-8 minute flight time
- 3-level speed flip function
- 30-40 minute charge time
- around a 40-meter control distance
- Attractive drone cases and backpacks
For the price, this is actually a very stable model! even though the flight time is quite short, the charging time is a third of what some others need to be fully powered up. It does not come with a blade protector, which is a pretty minor detail. It is said that this drone is easy to crash, just because it handles completely different than some of its counterparts. Some who have piloted other outdoor models will also notice that the controller is a bit small, and the motor can seize up after a few crashes.


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Better get a stiff neck from aiming too high than a hunch from aiming too low. Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing. One cannot…Read More
Act, look, feel successful
The difference between doers and dreamers is that the latter wait for the mood before taking action while the former create the mood by acting. Success or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity. Successful people act as though they have accomplished or are enjoying something. Soon it becomes a reality. Act, look, feel…Read More


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Substitutes for Rare and Endangered Herbs
Interest in herbal medicine has dramatically increased, and along with the destruction of habitat, encroaching development, and commercial overharvesting, some healing herbs have become endangered. You can help these rare plants survive by making some simple substitutions:
|How You Can Help
|American ginseng
|Buy cultivated or woods-grown roots or products instead of wild
American ginseng.
|Black cohosh
|Substitute red clover products if you're using black cohosh for
its estrogenic effects. Substitute kava or cramp bark if using this
herb for muscle spasms. Substitute meadowsweet for arthritis.
|Blue cohosh
|Substitute yarrow.
|Buy products containing Echinacea purpurea, which are
cultivated organically, instead of wild-harvested E.
angustifolia. Both are equally effective. E.
angustifolia is increasingly available as a cultivated
|Buy cultivated goldenseal or substitute Oregon grape root,
barberry, or the Chinese herb coptis, all of which contain the same
active ingredient, called berberine.
|Use uva ursi and marshmallow root together to soothe and help
reduce bacteria for urinary tract infections.
|Slippery elm
|Substitute marshmallow root, which has similar soothing
properties to slippery elm and is a cultivated herb.
|Wild yam
|Wild yam doesn't have progesterone-like effects, according to
studies and historical use. Use wild yam only for bowel cramps,
spasms, colic, and nausea, or substitute chamomile flowers.


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CINCINNATI, Ohio – The Cleveland State University men's and women's swimming & diving teams dropped their dual meet openers to Xavier Thursday evening at the O'Connor Sports Center.
The CSU men and women fell by nearly identical scores of 162-98 and 161-97, respectively.
Junior Jason van der Touw continued his fast start to the season by winning each of the three individual events he contested Thursday.
Van der Touw started his day by placing first in the 200 freestyle in 1:41.47, well over two seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. He then proceeded to win the 100 free in 46.96 seconds and top the field in the 500 free in 4:42.13, again over two seconds ahead of the runner-up.
The next Viking behind van der Touw in the 200 free was junior Erwan Mahoudo, who was fifth in 1:46.33, while sophomore Jack MacDonald was the next Viking in the 100 free, placing fourth in 48.15 seconds.
Sophomore DJ Arslanian and freshman Dominik Niedzialek also won individual events for the CSU men Thursday.
Arslanian won the 100 butterfly in 51.66 seconds and also took third in the 200 fly in 1:55.89. He also was on both of CSU's best-finishing relays.
Niedzialek posted a trio of top-three individual finishes, highlighted by winning the 100 backstroke in 52.15 seconds. He also took second in the 200 back (1:54.88) and was third in the 200 IM (2:00.18).
Freshman Lee Moffett and junior Jared Stergar both tallied runner-up finishes on the evening, the former in the 1000 freestyle (10:00.64) and the latter in the 100 breaststroke (1:00.00).
MacDonald placed third in the 50 freestyle (22.01) and also swam on each of CSU's top relays. Niedzialek, Stergar and Arslanian joined MacDonald in the 200 medley relay to stop the clock in 1:34.52.
Sophomore Tyler Stevenson led off the 400 free relay and was followed by MacDonald, Arslanian and van der Touw to finish in 3:09.08. Stevenson also placed third in the 200 breaststroke in 2:14.56.
A trio of Viking women won individual events Thursday with junior Molly McNamara claiming two victories.
In her first individual swim of the night, McNamara won the 200 butterfly by nearly nine seconds, finishing in 2:03.60. After finishing second in the 100 butterfly by about a quarter-second (56.52), she finished strong by winning the 200 IM by well over three seconds (2:10.95).
Sophomore Gabriella Marinelli began her night by winning the 200 freestyle by well over two seconds, touching the wall in 1:55.56. She then took third in the 50 free (24.74) and placed second in the 100 free (53.79).
Senior Tobie Zeller won her only individual swim of the night while making her season debut. She placed first in the 100 breaststroke in 1:07.34. Freshman Alana Cartwright was the runner-up in the same race in 1:07.72. She also was CSU's top finisher in the 200 breaststroke, placing fourth in 2:29.57.
Freshman Lexie Kostelnik and sophomore Chuchu Yang both contributed runner-up finishes for CSU. The rookie was second in both the 1000 freestyle (10:40.71) and the 500 freestyle (5:12.18). Yang took second in the 200 backstroke (2:09.26) and was also CSU's top finisher in the 100, placing fourth in 1:00.42.
Senior Jamie VanDewerker led off both of CSU's highest placing relays.
Zeller, McNamara and sophomore Meghan Bobick followed in the 200 medley to finish in 1:48.19. In the 400 free relay, Bobick swam the second leg and was followed by freshman Irena Weclawiak and Marinelli to finish in 3:36.80.
Bobick took third in the 100 free in 54.36 seconds while freshman Dana Bender was third in the 200 IM (2:16.99).
Cleveland State will conclude its trip by facing Cincinnati in dual action Friday afternoon.


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MH370 pilot bombshell just after search suspended
A leaked confidential document with sinister implications, from the Malaysian police investigation into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, has been disclosed just a day after transport ministers from Australia, China and Malaysia confirmed that the search for the missing aircraft will soon be suspended.
New York Magazine said it had obtained a confidential document from the Malaysian police investigation that shows that the plane's captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, conducted a simulated flight into the remote southern Indian Ocean less than a month before the plane vanished.
The publication says that Malaysia withheld that fact from its lengthy public report on the investigation. It said the disclosure represents "the strongest evidence yet that Zaharie made off with the plane in a premeditated act of mass murder-suicide".
On 8 March 2014, MH370 disappeared from air traffic control radar after taking off from Kuala Lumpur on a scheduled passenger service to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew aboard.
The document that New York Magazine has obtained, which details the findings of the Malaysian police's investigation into Zaharie, notes that after the plane vanished, Malaysia delivered to the FBI hard drives that Zaharie used to record sessions on his elaborate home-built flight simulator.
The fact that the pilot used a sophisticated flight simulation program at home was never a secret. He was, after all, a pilot. Suggestions that the pilot may have been responsible for the plane's disappearance have been emphatically dismissed by his family.
It now seems that the FBI was able to recover six deleted data points that had been stored by the Microsoft Flight Simulator X program. The FBI reportedly found a flight path that led to the Southern Indian Ocean and continued until the simulated flight ran out of fuel.
Searchers believe MH370 followed a similar route.
The New York Magazine article can be read here.
The article points out that rumours have long circulated that the FBI had discovered such evidence, but Malaysian officials made no mention of it.
Late last week, transport ministers from Australia, China and Malaysia confirmed they will suspend the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH 370 once the current search area has been fully swept.
Written by Peter Needham


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The Infiniti FX50 Performance Concept was inspired by reigning Formula One World Champion and Red Bull driver, Sebastian Vettel. The 24-year old German, who is Infiniti's first ever Global Brand Ambassador, is said to have helped in the design of the FX50 study.
The Japanese company is keeping mum about the technical details of the FX50 Performance Concept, but the photo shows that it is based on the facelifted model featuring Infiniti's new corporate grille that we first saw earlier this month.
Unique elements to the concept include the redesigned front bumper with LED daytime lights incorporating a carbon fibre apron, the shape of which mimics the design of an F1 car's front wing.
Carbon fibre can also be found on the newly designed side skirts, the roof spoiler, and the rear bumper, while Infiniti did away with the roof rails. Also included are Vettel badges on the front fenders and newly styled alloy wheels shod in performance tires.


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September 11, 2015
Instagram is a vast, vast place. It also happens to provide the best sartorial inspiration you can find, if you know where to look. In her new weekly column, FADER style writer Liz Raiss goes into an Instagram K-hole and comes out with 10 great snaps from the past seven days. This go around, it's storybook hour. Come, sit down, grab a bespoke cocktail with inexplicable garnish and a microscopic hors d'ouevre, and let us tell you how we're feeling, like, three days into NYFW.


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Are you interested in writing about the weather and looking for words that describe a tornado? Tornadoes are rotating columns of air that make contact with the surface of the Earth. They can range in strength from damaging trees to leveling houses and deforming skyscrapers. Yet tornadoes come in many forms and are often mistaken for other natural phenomena.
The word tornado is thought to come from the Spanish word tronada which means thunderstorm. The word "tronada" comes from the Latin word "tonare" which means to thunder. The modern word most probably comes from a combination of the Spanish words tronada and tornar which means to turn.
In the famous 1939 film The Wizard of Oz the main character Dorothy is knocked unconscious by a tornado and wakes in the magical Land of Oz. The movie referred to the tornado as a cyclone multiple times leading to the word cyclone becoming a layman term for a tornado. The enduring popularity of the movie has led to the term cyclone stll being used today as one of the words that describe a tornado. The real definition of cyclone usually involves an area of fluid motion rotating in the same direction as the earth.
In addition to The Wizard of Oz. the movie Twister also popularized a new term for a tornado. The movie was released in 1996 and has grossed nearly $500 million since that point. The movie went on to become the first Hollywood feature film to be featured on the DVD format. Today, the term twister is synonymous with the word tornado due to the movie's immense popularity.
There are many different types of tornadoes which can be described in various different terms.
Tornadoes are some of the most destructive natural phenomena on earth. There are many ratings for the intensity of a tornado, but the most famous one is the Fujita Scale. The scale is based on how much damage a tornado can cause to man-made structures and vegetation. The scale was created by Ted Fujita in 1971 at the University of Chicago.
The awesome power of a tornado can be describe both as deadly and eerily beautiful.
There are many ways to describe a tornado as long as you remember their incredible power and the destruction they leave behind.
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James, Danny, Ben, and Waldo: the many lives of Walter Mitty
SPOILER ALERT: I'm going to discuss a bit about different incarnations of Walter Mitty in this post. If you have not read or seen the works and want to have the joy of pure discovery, I would do that before reading this. I won't get into a lot of detail
Geeks understand imagination.
We get the joy of picturing ourselves in different circumstances. Some of us go to considerable lengths to recreate the fantasy, notably with cosplay ("costume play"), and LARPing ("Live Action Role Playing").
However, what we do is quite different from how Walter Mitty was portrayed in the original short story by James Thurber in a 1939 issue of The New Yorker.
One of the key things is that it was "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (emphasis added). Walter Mitty doesn't share his imagination with others…they don't know what he is thinking.
In today's society, it might be quite different. Walter Mitty might be part of one (or several) online communities (even anonymously), playing out those situations with others.
Is Walter Mitty a geek?
Certainly, he is intelligent, well-informed, socially inept, and with a vision beyond those of the "mundane" folks in his life…I think that would fit a lot of people's definition. 😉
He has a geek's knowledge of detail…and he has fun in his mind, even if his real life is…less than thrilling.
The 1947 movie with Danny Kaye considerably changed the message of the character. Now, Mitty becomes involved in a real-life adventure. What he imagined in the past is valuable to him, but it is clearly suggested that being in the real world is a better idea…coming out of your shell.
That's a very different feel. Walter Mitty in the short story might like to come out of his shell (maybe), but there is no suggestion that will happen, or even endorsement of the idea. In the short story, these ideas are a defense to a humdrum existence…not something that will give him real world power.
To be clear, I'm a big Danny Kaye fan, and like the 1947 movie very much…but it isn't the same as the story at its heart.
There were radio adaptations (including one with Danny Kaye), and stage productions (it was part of A Thurber Carnival), but geeks may fondly (?) remember the 1975 live action/cartoon combo, The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty.
I enjoyed this odd 1975 Filmation production. There were live action pet cats and dogs, and one of them, Waldo Kitty, would have pop culture parody daydreams, which were done in animation. Waldo might become "Catzan" (Tarzan), or Captain Herc of the starship Second-Prize (a Star Trek parody), or several others. Like the 1947 movie, these fantasies actually helped Waldo deal with real world challenges.
Reportedly, it was challenged by the Thurber estate, and became a one-season wonder.
Now (releasing on December 25 2013 in the USA), Ben Stiller is doing a new version (starring and directing). While I haven't seen it yet, it appears to be taking more of the approach of the 1947 movie than the story.
Certainly, it's reasonable that you would have more character development in a movie than in a short story. I'll be interested to see how this is…I've been hearing some good things about it.
One other thing: there was a TV series called My World and Welcome to It, based on Thurber's writings, and starring geek-friendly William Windom. It wasn't specifically Walter Mitty, though, although a fantasy life was certainly a part of this show (which many remember fondly).
- Update: here is a link to the original story
- James Thurber: Writings & Drawings (including The Secret Life of Walter Mitty) (The Library of America) (at AmazonSmile…benefit a non-profit by shopping*)
- 1947 Danny Kaye version (at AmazonSmile)
- A Thurber Carnival (original cast recording) (at AmazonSmile)
- The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty (VHS: currently not available) (at AmazonSmile)
- 2013 version at IMDb
- 2013 version official site
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the The Measured Circle. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.
* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you'll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you'll get. Shop 'til you help! You can also support a non-profit you or another geek (if you are gifting something) would appreciate…one of the ones listed here, perhaps: Weird & geeky groups you can support by shopping at AmazonSmile.


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Contracts are also appealing to customers it shows a since of professionalism which can ultimately win over the customer, I use this technique all the time in my carpentry business called Green's Carpentry. Contracts are very valuable they are worth there weight in gold because if something goes wrong at least the contractor or the customer can go back to the contract to figure out what went wrong.
A contract is a written document that states that there is business and or an agreement between two or more people and they trust each other to hold up their part of the contract. There are times when I use my best judgment before I offer them a binding agreement. With repeated customers friends and family I do not need to pull out a contract for them. But I am in no why shape or form requesting for you to do the same thing.
A contract also builds up confidence and the trust of two total strangers. They have decided to enter to a bonding agreement to achieve a common goal. That is why I love using contracts with people. It states that we are both going to hold up our part of the bargain.
If a customer wants to pay in cash it is good practice to give a receipt to the customer stating that money was received from you on a particular date the more details that are on the receipt the better. In my particular business Green's Carpentry I give free estimate as well of coarse the estimates is not a binding contract nor is an attempt to enter a contract it is just an estimate.
Thanks For Reading Carpentry Contracts
Basic Carpentry Home Page


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Moving always has its way of shaking things up a bit. I like consistency. And that translates into just about every area of my life. Each time we move I have to learn a new place, unpack our belongings and figure out a new home for the pictures and dishes in differently positioned spaces. New jobs take time to become familiar, and relationships start from nothing.
All of this takes time. Time that isn't so free when you're also trying to figure out change for the other five people in your family.
If it was just me, I could wander aimlessly around town, hang pictures on the walls a million times before getting it 'perfect', and go door-to-door visiting for hours with my new neighbors. The reality is, that can't happen right now.
So, instead, I hustle to feel settled, easily become unglued and this makes me lose step to the beat that is happening around me.
//From Routine to Rhythm//
Routine has been my best friend for years. Through high school, college, single life, married, and even with children. I realize to some people this seems absurd, maybe boring, but that's just how I always felt I functioned best.
Over the past two months that we've been living in this new place, I have been extremely frustrated at what I considered the lack of routine in my life. Yes, there were fun elements to it: we went to the beach, took walks, had spontaneous dinners out–all good things. But, in my home I felt like things were out of control. Cleaning was sporadic. My two youngest always had sticky black legs from crawling around the dirty linoleum floors, and we ended up grocery shopping every few days because I couldn't decide what to plan for our meals.
Then, I read a post by the Nester on routine vs rhythm. She defined routine and rhythm like this:
At first I kind of chuckled because I would definitely fall under the 'robotic movements' and I always felt like I was messing up because we hadn't settled into a good routine yet. Later that day, as we were hanging out as a family after dinner, getting ready to start the bedtime 'routine' I realized that although we weren't following strict rules, we had a sweet rhythm.
For some reason I felt pressured to keep my consistencies in every area of my life. Breakfast is at 8, laundry is on Friday, grocery shopping on Monday, plucking my eyebrows on Sunday, etc. I was focusing on my own rules, hating that things were changing, and then berating myself for not keeping it all together. The reality was that everything was going just fine.
Myquilin said it beautifully in her post:
Where I get into trouble with pre-planning my meals is when things change and I get all worked up over changing my precious plan. Suddenly it turns into a routine that's the boss of me.
Routine had become the boss of me. Instead of providing me with the freedom and direction it had previously given, I was feeling crushed beneath the weight of expectations for myself and basically flipping out.
Releasing the idea of a routine enabled me to feel the rhythm around me. We were learning to embrace the changes, pay attention to what was taking place around us, and focus on the needs of our children. Our rhythm was good.
I started taking piano lessons when I was eight years old. It came pretty easily at first, learning how to plunk out simple tunes, memorizing the notes in each scale. But then I progressed on to Beethoven, Chopin, and Mozart and somewhere between Mary had a Little Lamb and Fur Elise, I discovered that I could not keep a beat. My teacher made me get a metronome and I would practice each day with that little machine tick-ticking away to keep time, giving me the beat I needed to stick with the rhythm.
There are a few practices in my daily life that help me to keep the beat, my metronome, if you will, making what I now call our rhythm seem not so harried, flow more smoothly, and help to keep me from getting unglued when things change. They aren't all earth-shattering practices, but I share them with you to maybe help you notice some of those things that you do (or might need to do) in order to keep your beat.
Set the coffee the night before. There's something about making coffee in the morning that just sort of sets me off. When I discovered this, it became much easier to add coffee prep in with cleaning up the kitchen after dinner, rather than grumbling about having to start it in the morning. It's also an added bonus to be lured out of bed at 5AM by the smell of fresh coffee brewing.
Plan out a grocery list and meals for one week at a time. Buying in bulk is wonderful and in the past that has worked well for us. The past two months have revealed that I dislike that right now. It's less overwhelming to prepare for one week, and I find myself more excited about cooking dinner and being creative when I only have to think ahead for seven days.
Rearrange daily activities to fit into the rhythm. As I mentioned above, breakfast has always been at 8, and my babies always stayed in bed in the morning until just before this. With Isabella's school schedule, we leave the house at 7:10, so I lost almost an hour of my morning time. This was hard for me at first, but there's no getting around it. Our kids are all in bed now by 7:30 in the evenings, so if I'm disciplined (which isn't always), I can utilize that extra time in the evening to accomplish some of the things I had previously done in the morning. Laundry, cleaning, and grocery shopping get done. But now they are squeezed into times between Mason's therapy sessions and picking Isabella up from school. Errands don't have to take place first thing in the morning, and I have learned to be okay with that. I'm just keeping with the rhythm.
Daily time with the Lord. Some days this looks different than others, but as a general rule I get up and with that coffee that got me out of bed, I journal about life. Emptying my mind of what's been running through it since the day before helps me prepare to read God's Word. Generally, I read through a book of the Bible at a time, reading just a few verses. I read and re-read, sometimes write down verbatim some of the passage, other times I might outline a little of what I understood, and often there is a prayer written down. I need Truth, and for me, starting the day out by thinking and meditating on it keeps me grounded throughout the rest of the day.
Relax. A few months ago I asked Bradley how I needed to change most. He gently told me that I needed to relax. About everything. I would get worked up over the slightest thing and it negatively affected him, our kids, and certainly me. Keeping to the beat doesn't happen very easily when we're uptight and resisting any change taking place. My best performances on the piano happened when I was relaxed and let the music flow through my fingers to the rhythm. As I relax I'm able to accept the changes that come and work with them to keep our family going.
Everybody's rhythm is different. I don't expect you to keep to mine, and I won't try to march to yours. But whatever rhythm you have, find those things that help you keep the beat, and when things change, you'll be okay to eat breakfast at 8:30, do laundry as needed, even if it isn't on Fridays, and pluck your eyebrows on Thursday instead of Sunday.
What do you do to keep the beat in your family?


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Continuing an aborted blog series of a few years ago, I was walking through Manhattan a couple of weeks ago, and overheard the following three conversational excerpts within a couple of blocks of each other:
- Immaculate woman disagreeing with companion on street corner: "No, he has a much more nineties hairstyle than that."
- Perfect-looking man, gazing adoringly at silhouetted woman under street-light: "I mean, I'm not sure, but I'm gonna say... sesame seed."
- Furious-looking, sharply-dressed woman, mouthing into her mobile phone: "no! Get three litres!"
Taste. Everywhere, taste. Glorious, pointless, incomparable, comparable, perfect, stupid taste. Get over the taste you morons! Don't you realise it's only taste? There you are posing, beautifully tatooed arm struck angularly on hip, quiff artfully folded above forehead, rivettingly expressionless vocal intonation that would make Lou Reed weep, just to specify what kind of seed was on your frigging bagel this morning? Hell man - if I looked like you, I'd be reciting Coleridge off the top of the Seagram Building through a nuclear-powered megaphone.
As The Great Gatsby peerlessly testifies, everything that is pristine and mesmerising about New York culture is also strangely weightless and disappointing. This issue points to one typically under-explored feature of a genuinely competitive, dynamic marketplace: the importance of cultivating endlessly diversifying individuals, holding endlessly diversifying tastes. As Caliskan and Callon argue in their paper on 'economization' (working paper [pdf]):
[The neo-classical economic] model of instrumental rationality is sufficiently abstract (it is enough to distinguish means from ends and to posit that individuals are endowed with adequate calculative capacities) to have a universal scope and simultaneously to account for the wide diversity of observable realities. From this point of view, the concept of culture is crucial because it makes it possible to explain why certain ends and means are valued more than others within a particular community, as individuals can moreover conform to these values or reject them.
Or to put this another way, a philosophy or methodology that strips people right back to what they are deemed to have in common, generates a great deal of space for some parallel philosophy or methodology to dictate what differentiates them. In the case of Rawlsian liberalism, the sheer emptiness of its anthropology arguably necessitated the subsequent communitarian critique, merely to fill the huge descriptive space it had opened up. In the case of neo-classical economics, this space is filled by taste: we are all rational maximising consumers, but we simply want different things.
Institutionally speaking, it's important to note that it is only open, competitive markets (as imagined by the liberal economist) which require this assumption about people. Capitalist institutions, which seek to constrain and dominate, pursue precisely the opposite strategy, to determine and clamp down on taste. Somewhere in between the appeal to freedom and choice, and strategies for control and predictability, is marketing; this is what Franck Cochoy explores brilliantly in his work.
The reason I think New York has such an extraordinary appeal to so many inhabitants of capitalist societies is that, on the face of it (and ignoring Wall Street), it is scarcely a capitalist city, but a market city. It is full of people and businesses doing the things Adam Smith imagined: trading, competing, differentiating, innovating. British people never get over the fact that restauranteurs and cafe owners in New York attempt to profit from producing better food, offering good value and coming up with better ideas. Yet isn't this miraculous system of incentives precisely what 'liberal' economies such as ours are supposed to be founded on? New York (or certainly downtown Manhattan) offers a glimpse of what economic modernity might look like without corporations, large management hierarchy, advertising and monopoly.
Of course it's an illusion mainly. Every perfectly spherical tomato got picked by a labourer on a temporary visa without any rights or social insurance, and if you return to the restaurant where you received it at 9am the next morning, it's being mopped by a Mexican man who travelled two hours to work that morning. Exploitation comes in various guises. It's just not quite a capitalist guise, in the orthodox sense of serving capital.
Who is it serving? Above all, our friends with the nineties haircuts, the sesame seeds and the three litres of whatever. It's their tastes that have spiralled so out of control, and narrowed so surgically, that requires this level of perfection to be upheld. Their energy, their capacity to want and to know - to want their eggs done in a style that is unique, but also to know which of the 2,000 breakfast joints in Manhattan will do this for them - is an absolutely necessary feature of a this liberal economic utopia.
As Caliskan and Callon point out, by simply assuming some model of a rational choosing consumer as the driver of competition and efficiency, neo-classical economics also assumed a great deal else. It assumed that cultural diversity would prevent everybody wanting the same thing. It also assumed that people had the capacity to pursue what it was they wanted, and to calculate how much energy or money to invest in this pursuit.
The problem is, as the example of my overheard New Yorkers testifies, the capacity to desire and to calculate varies tremendously. To be blunt about it, nobody in London gives that much of a fuck. If you offered them that level of choice, and that level of perfection, they'd probably still go to Pret a Manger and select an All Day Breakfast and a white Americano please. We lack what Caliskan and Callon call sufficient 'socio-cognitive prostheses' to behave as New Yorkers, a fact which neo-classical economics conveniently ignores. We're not trained to hold sufficient information in our heads to know exactly which egg we desire, nor where we can find it. This can be as much an explanation for why markets don't function as the standard definitions of market failure (and, no, it's not a bloody 'information assymetry').
Interestingly, policy-makers are now conscious of this 'socio-cognitive prosthesis' issue: behavioural economists now advise consumer protection agencies on how people can be helped to take better decisions, when faced with a range of choices. (A Callonian economic sociologist friend of mine recently described his empirical object as a 'device' to a government policy-maker, and they loved it; hence the overlap between performativity school and behavioural economics). Whether anyone - perhaps the School of Life? - will ever offer to teach people the skills to behave like a desiring, calculating Manhattan shopper remains to be seen.
Caliskan and Callon ultimately reject the plausibility of the neo-classical framework, but only on the grounds that it fails to appreciate its own important role in socio-economic constructions. It fails to appreciate that, in the cases where it is most plausible, a huge amount of cognitive and social work has gone in to the production of this self-serving, calculative, maximising behaviour. Callon says elsewhere that 'homo economicus does exist'. What he doesn't add, in view of soliloquys to haircuts, sesame seeds and litres, is that, when he exists, he tends to be a little banal, and sometimes even a brat.


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Back in the fall of 2015, I got certified for SCUBA diving. I wrote this shortly after, but never got around to publishing it. Hope you enjoy!
I've loved the water since before I could walk. My mom likes to tell stories about how, if there was a body of water around, I was in it (despite any signs or instructions to the contrary). Most of our family vacations growing up involved a lake, river or ocean for swimming, fishing, tide pooling, exploring, kayaking and snorkeling. On a couple of these snorkel outings there were a few people SCUBA diving off the boat, but we stuck with snorkeling. My mom and I occasionally talked about getting SCUBA certified "someday," but we never did. Fast forward a few years, and I started dating Greyson. His family is super into SCUBA diving, and they have been taking dive vacations all over the world since he was a teenager. With my love for the water, he encouraged me to get certified, but with all my other hobbies, SCUBA certification got pushed to "someday" again.
Fall 2015 came along and "someday" came sooner than I was expecting! Greyson's parents planned a SCUBA diving trip to Raja Ampat, Indonesia, and they invited me along. This combined with the fact that my parents got me the SCUBA certification class and gear for my birthday meant that it was time to get certified. Greyson and I spent a few afternoons in Donner Lake practicing in snorkel gear to prepare.
I finished my classroom sessions, pool dives and open water dives in September, and I'm now officially a certified open water SCUBA diver! For those of you who are interested in SCUBA diving but haven't taken the plunge (no pun intended), I thought I'd write a little about what it was like to get SCUBA certified. Going into it, I was super nervous. I was worried about the classroom part, being able to pass all the skills in the pool, not being able to handle the open water portion, etc. It turns out that all my stressing was for nothing, and I found SCUBA certification to be a breeze.
The first step of getting SCUBA certified is the classroom portion. I did my certification through Sierra Diving Center based in Reno, Nevada, which is a Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) certified center. PADI is the main diving certification worldwide, and many diving resorts and destinations will only let you dive if you have a PADI certification.
When I signed up for my diving class, I was given a packet of materials that included a DVD, a workbook and a special diving calculator. I spent a couple of hours watching the DVD while going through the workbook and finishing all of the practice problems. The problems are simple math problems to help you understand important diving safety concepts like pressure groups, volume, water pressure, dissolved gases in your body, etc. I thought the concepts were fairly straightforward, but there were definitely some in my class who struggled. Your mileage may vary.
The classroom session took place over a few hours on a Friday evening and Saturday morning. We covered the topics that were in the workbook, like equipment, safety and dangerous situations that can arise while diving, air chemistry, volume and pressure, what to do in case of emergency, and other diving related topics. We did practice problems using our diving calculators and had the chance to ask lots of questions. We also practiced setting up our SCUBA gear – tank, buoyancy control device (BCD), regulator, and computer. The SCUBA instructors I had were great – really funny, responsive to questions, thorough and knowledgeable.
After we passed all of the required quizzes and tests and asked our final questions, we headed to the pool for our confined dives. The dives in the pool were where we were tested on our physical fitness and learned and practiced the skills we'd have to complete in our open water dives in order to pass. The physical fitness tests were pretty easy for me – we had to swim 300 meters using our mask and snorkel and float/tread water for five minutes.
We got out of the water, and now it was time for the hard part – getting into our SCUBA gear and getting properly weighted. It was in the high 80s in Reno that day, so I didn't bother with a wetsuit, figuring that I'd be fine in a heated pool in just a rash guard and two piece, so I was weighted accordingly. We started off standing the shallow end, before I knew it, it was time to take my first breath underwater. It was definitely a weird feeling, but really cool! Our instructor had us practice breathing through the regulator while standing and without our masks, to prove that we could. Once everyone was satisfied that it was, in fact, possible to breathe underwater, we sunk slowly under the surface.
There is lots of sitting around and waiting during the confined and open water dives, and I eventually got pretty cold and added a shorty wetsuit. One of the instructors threw a five pound weight in one side. This would turn out to be both not enough weight and made me way uneven underwater.
At this point, we graduated from the shallow end and swam to the deep end of the pool. It was so cool to float slowly down to the bottom; I was able to clear my ears quite easily and didn't have too much problem with the pressure. I did have a problem floating gracefully to the bottom, though! I didn't have enough weight on my belt, and one of the instructors had to pull me down. Once I was actually on the bottom, the extra water pressure squeezed the air and I was able to somewhat settle on the bottom.
Even though we were all in a small pool, we followed SCUBA best practices and stuck close to our buddy. I totally lucked out with my buddy, Tessa. She was great – and super strong which is nice when you're getting in and out of the heavy SCUBA gear. We learned how to put our masks back on while under water, how to clear water out of our masks, how to share air with a buddy and other important skills. We did more sitting around while other people practiced their skills, though I was stuck in more of a bumping around, semi-kneeling position, listing to my left. This movement + short wetsuit + rough pool bottom meant my knees were super scraped up by the end of the day. This was really my only complaint about the whole class though.
I got smarter, and wore my ankle-length triathlon wetsuit for day two in the pool. The second day involved practicing and perfecting more complicated skills, like taking off your BCD and tank and putting them back on, slowly kicking to the surface with no air (but not holding your breath!), buoyancy control, and sharing air with your buddy while dragging them to the surface. I had the hardest time with buoyancy control! It's apparently a tough skill to learn, and you can take an entire separate class just to practice. We also went on some "exploratory dives" which was mostly just trying to not accidentally pop to the surface or get kicked in the face while we swam around a fairly small pool. After two days in the pool, I was feeling ready for our open water dives, which happened the next week.
One thing that was super awesome about Sierra Diving Center's certification class is that we got to do our open water dives in Lake Tahoe! Lake Tahoe is at 6,224 feet, so we got to do our first dive at high altitude. This added some complications to our calculations and set some stricter limits on how deep we could go, but it was a fun experience for our first dives.
The open water portion consisted of four dives across two days – three where we practiced our skills and a fourth "exploration dive." We dove at Sand Harbor State Park in Nevada. While I'd been to Sand Harbor a few times for the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, I'd never actually swam there before so I was excited about the opportunity. Plus the water is crystal clear and littered with interesting boulders and rock features.
We started out learning how to navigate with our compasses in the parking lot – I'm sure the other people at the park thought we were hilarious. We hauled our gear to the water (much further than usual due to the drought!), and before I knew it, my dive buddy and I were following an anchor line under water. We bottomed out at about 12 feet, and started demonstrating the skills we'd learned and practiced in the pool. I won't list off everything we did, but, if you're interested in diving, you can check out a generic list of open water skills here.
Tessa and I passed everything pretty much on our first try – my one exception was underwater compass navigation. I kicked too much and ended up on the surface on my first try. I remembered to watch my depth on my second try and it was fine. So there was more sitting around on the bottom, but it was definitely more interesting than the pool. We saw a ton of crawdads, which I knew lived in Lake Tahoe, but I'd never actually seen. After the final skills dive and a lunch break, it was time for our final exploration dive.
Our class had started out with both men and women, but, by the time of our final dive, all the men had dropped out and our class was all women (and one 13 year old girl!). We came up with a dive plan (where we'd go, how deep we'd get, when we'd turn around, etc.) and headed out. While being underwater and practicing skills had been cool, nothing prepared me for how awesome actually diving was! Our small group got deeper than we'd been before, swam around and over incredible underwater rock formations, and swam through a school of thousands of minnows.
When we popped up at our designated meeting spot, we all had huge grins on our faces. The instructors told us, "Congratulations! You are all certified SCUBA divers." We had a quick debrief session and the instructors signed our diving logs, and that was it. We were done!
Getting SCUBA certified with Sierra Diving Center was a great experience, and I'd highly recommend them for anyone looking to complete a SCUBA certification. I haven't been back in the water in quite awhile, but Greyson and I are hoping to do some diving this year.


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"I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now."
~C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle
"There is a place called 'heaven' where the good here unfinished is completed; and where the stories unwritten, and the hopes unfulfilled, are continued. We may laugh together yet."
~J.R.R. Tolkien
Well, dear friends, we have come to the end of February once more. Thank you so much for joining me in this month-long celebration of fantasy fiction, I hope you had as much fun with it as I did. Last year, I finished up the celebration with a few thoughts and quotes about Happy Endings, and this year I would like to continue that vein and take it a little further. The reason I love the happy endings that fantasy often provides is because they remind me of the ultimate Happy Ending in store for Christians when Christ returns, when sin and Satan are ultimately defeated and are no more. I can appreciate a sad ending, but there are plenty of sad endings in life as it is. In general, I prefer it when a story points me towards the ultimate happy ending. When it whispers a reminder to me that, (in the words of one of my all-time favorite songs), "This is not the end, there is so much more: / streets of gold and silver shores…. / and peace."
One of the biggest reasons I love reading fantasy is that the stories written within this genre remind me that this world is not my home. In them, I get to read about far-off, imaginary, completely amazing places that are not at all like Earth. Reading about Middle Earth and Narnia and Prydain and Hogwarts, and writing about Tellurae Aquaous and Aom-igh and Llycaelon… these places fill my soul with a deep longing for a place that cannot be found here on earth. A place that is home in a much deeper sense than I have ever experienced (and this is coming from someone whose homes have all be wonderful).
As a child, I spent an inordinate amount of time attempting to imagine myself into Narnia. I looked everywhere: through secret doors, in hollow trees, around corners, in the woods, under my bed… but I never did actually find it. Not finding it hasn't stopped me from looking, though. Whenever we stay anywhere new, I have this incurable and unquenchable desire to open up every door, every closet, and peek inside. Perhaps one day I will find fir trees and the distant light of a lamp-post peeking back at me.
Probably not.
But I keep looking.
The disappointment of not finding or discovering Narnia or being able to make my way there has stayed with me my entire life. It is an ache that can't quite be assuaged. Now that I'm older, I understand that it wasn't really "Narnia" I was looking for at all. It was Heaven. An altogether otherworldly, beautiful, perfect, dare I say "magical" place that cannot be recreated or enjoyed here on Earth, because Earth is fallen and Heaven is inherently the opposite of fallen. Fantasy reminds me that this world is not my home, Heaven is.
Perhaps C.S. Lewis said it best: "The fact that our heart yearns for something Earth can't supply is proof that Heaven must be our home."


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More from the current issue


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Condo developer Jason Sherrill says he would prefer to hand keys for his new units to families, but tighter rules from the Federal Housing Administration have him selling to investors instead.
Stricter FHA certification requirements for condo developments have made most condos ineligible for FHA-insured mortgages, the primary source of condo financing since the downturn.
"They really force people like me to build and turn them into rentals," said Sherrill, chief executive of Landmark Solutions in Windsor.
FHA-insured mortgages have a low 3.5 percent down payment and more flexible underwriting rules. That has made them popular with entry-level buyers, who are also drawn to more affordable condos.
Certification is designed to protect the FHA, a part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, from sharp drops in value that result when too many units convert into rentals or go into foreclosure.
"HUD/FHA is trying to manage risk to the insurance fund while still providing access to home ownership for low- and moderate-income borrowers, particularly for first-time homebuyers," said Rick Garcia, Denver-based administrator for HUD's Region 8. "It's a delicate balancing act, but HUD continues to consider public input into the process."
A depleted FHA would harm the markets, not to mention taxpayers, the argument goes. But critics charge the FHA's actions are harming those they're intended to help.
"It is an overreaction and it is hurting the market," said Jerry Orten, a Denver attorney and spokesman with the Community Associations Institute, a trade group for homeowners associations that is pushing the FHA to ease up.
HOAs are responsible for pursuing certification of developments they represent.
Rep. Ed Perlmutter, a Jefferson County Democrat, wrote acting FHA commissioner Carole Galante last month after getting numerous complaints from constituents.
Only 8.4 percent of 25,000 condo developments nationally that have FHA certifications expiring before Sept. 30 have recertified, Perlmutter wrote in his letter. Communities that have tried to recertify in recent months have been rejected at a 38 percent rate, due in part to the complexity of the rules, he added.
"In tightening down on these things, they have made it more difficult on everybody," Perlmutter said in an interview.
To qualify for certification, more than half of the units in a development must be owner-occupied, and no more than 15 percent
can be behind 30 days or more on their HOA dues.
Those requirements aren't necessarily new. But the FHA is taking a stricter interpretation on them, Orten said. For example, bank-owned properties used to be excluded from the counts. Now they count against ownership.
A change that disallowed second homes to be counted as owner-occupied has also hurt some developments.
The Lakeshore Condominiums in Loveland are popular with buyers who spend their winters in warmer climates such as Phoenix, Sherrill said.
"The government decided on a whim that second homes can't be quantified as owner-occupied," he said. "All of a sudden a project that was in compliance wasn't in compliance."
That hurts sales by locking out buyers who thought they had financing, Sherrill said.
Even when projects might otherwise qualify for certification, condo associations are declining to do so. A new liability clause subjects volunteer directors to $1 million fines and 30 years in prison if they get the information wrong. Condo developments, which had to get certified just once, must now do so every two years, increasing the liability that association's face.
Losing certification leaves condo owners with a much more limited market when it comes time to sell and excludes buyers who can't afford larger down payments.
"We don't have certification, and that has hurt all of the owners who are here," said Margie Valdez, president of the condo association for the Beauvallon in Denver.
Sellers can hold out for buyers who qualify for conventional loans, with their larger down payments of 10 to 20 percent. Some developments are seeing those buyers show up lately, given the shortage of homes available for sale.
In some developments, local credit unions are trying to fill the financing gap. But that isn't the case everywhere, and conventional buyers may be scared off.
Other options are to sell to investors who will convert the unit into a rental or, if a buyer doesn't show up in time, to let the property go into foreclosure. Both of those "outs" put condo communities deeper in the hole and make recertification less likely, what Orten and others call the "downward spiral."
Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410, firstname.lastname@example.com or twitter.com/aldosvaldi


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I think most people are familiar with the words spoken by Anne of Green Gables: each day is fresh and without mistakes in it.
I am thankful for this sentiment as a mom. Some days, I knock it out of the park. Go ahead name aforementioned park after Patty mom extraordinaire because I did everything right. Crafts, healthy snacks, patient yet firm in the right times. Well behaved children. Stories and cuddles. Imagination well used.
Then come those days more often than I want to admit that put me in the mom dog house. Tempers flare, threats are made, children are tearful. The house is a wreck.
But regardless of how each day ends, I am guaranteed a new day in just a few short hours where my opportunity to be a mommy that loves, cares and nurtures her children is possible yet again.
"Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning."
~Lamentations 3:23
This post is part of a 31 day movement. You can learn more about it here but the gist of it is that I take 5 minutes to write on a one word prompt that is provided following a theme that I have chosen. My theme is The Mom Life. So every post will center around my life and experiences as a mom and what comes to mind when I think about the prompt given. Hope you enjoy following my writing journey as much as I will love crafting the words.


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Thursday, April 30, 2009
Is it true...
Here's an image of love we found along the way...
*Happy Birthday to my hubby and my sister, Nella!
I love you both...Sincerely.
**But before I go, as we celebrate love, please join TANGOBABY in raising awareness to actively help K., a homeless mother of 3 escaping her domestic violence situation. What better way to show love than to help those less fortunate? You can read more about K. here: please please please let's help her. My grandmother always said, "There go I, but for the grace of God".
14 comments:
- vchelle said...
Oh I so agree!! um, um, um... In fact, I had a forbidden piece today and it was so worth it!
- April 30, 2009 at 2:35 AM
- http://rebeccahannay.blogspot.com/ said...
Children have a nack of finding these things don't they!!!...my love thursday is about my son..heres my link
- April 30, 2009 at 4:43 AM
- margie said...
happy birthday to all the husband and the family. i hope you are making pink and white cake!! tangobaby is an inspiration to all of us. she was recently laid off and is still running around helping others!! one love.
- April 30, 2009 at 7:46 AM
- sunnymama said...
You found a great sign for Love Thursday! Mmmmmm, chocolate :)
I just read the story you linked to on TangoBaby's blog. I cried looking at the pictures of K and her beautiful children. Thanks for bringing our attention to this. I used to work in a women's refuge (do you call them that?) for women and children escaping domestic violence. As your grandmother said "There but for the grace of God".
Happy Love Thursday :)
- April 30, 2009 at 8:31 AM
- Katie in MA said...
How true, sister. How true.
- April 30, 2009 at 8:50 AM
- Christina said...
Happy birthday!! Tangobaby is getting the word out and so are you. You are a blessing.
Hey, love the chocolate memo. : )
- April 30, 2009 at 8:52 AM
- Wanda said...
Happy Birthday, one and all!
If we help one...we help all.
- April 30, 2009 at 12:34 PM
- Kimmie said...
chocolate makes the world go round on a happier note :)
- April 30, 2009 at 1:45 PM
- Journey Wildly said...
What sweet love!!
Am headed to Tangobaby now...
Happy Love Thursday!
- April 30, 2009 at 1:59 PM
- Gayle said...
Happy Birthday to your hubby and sister!
I'm going to visit the link now.
- April 30, 2009 at 3:06 PM
- Angela said...
Chocolate is in a class of its own. I read about Kelaya from another blog, so good to hear that the word is getting out. She has a 2 month old baby!
Thanks so much for stopping by on Love Thursday
- April 30, 2009 at 4:07 PM
- Suvarna said...
I do love chocolate! Hope your hubby and sis had great birthdays. I am heartened by Tangobaby's generosity, giving her cash away when she's just been laid off, beautiful. Kelayas situation is so true for so many needing services these days, endless waiting lists and not enough providers. I hope she will get the help she needs.
- April 30, 2009 at 5:06 PM
- Relyn said...
Happy, happy birthday to your husband and sister. I guess you've got a lot of celebrating going on around your house.
- April 30, 2009 at 7:03 PM
- vchelle said...
P.S. Happy Belated Birthday to Nella! Sending both of them love and positive energy!
I will travel over to Tangobaby and help Kelaya. Thank you for your consciousness!
- May 1, 2009 at 6:35 AM


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So, here I am, continuing with William Cavanaugh's Migrations of the Holy: God, State, and the Political Meaning of the Church. This review/synopsis will cover chapter four, which deals with the messianic nature of American nationalism.
Cavanaugh begins with a discussion of American exceptionalism, and he says there are two kinds — one which is explicitly Christian, which sees America as the"New Israel," and the other, which is grounded heavily in the Enlightenment (especially in Kant and Hegel), which sees America as history's final meaning and end. America as history's telos. While the first kind of exceptionalism is explicitly theological, the second kind avoids theological language or biblical imagery "out of respect for the human conscience." (p. 93) For Cavanaugh, the American exceptionalism founded in Enlightenment philosophy is much more important than what he calls Judeo-Christian exceptionalism:
This kind of exceptionalism is based not on the particularism of the election of Israel by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but in the universalism of certain concepts of freedom and right. In the Enlightenment narrative, the tragedy of religious violence can only be solved by a recognition of the indeterminate nature of the truth about God, at least on a public level. It is this recognition that has given priority to the freedom to worship the god of one's choice, or not god at all. The priority of freedom to the good becomes not just a political theme but an economic one as well. The priority of freedom is embodied in democracy and free markets, which hold the key to the happiness of all. The nation that is the vehicle for this hope for the world is exceptional, therefore, not because it was chosen by a particular act of the biblical God but because it is based on something prior and more universal, the freedom of the human will. The United States is not a successor to a past "chosen people," but is, a Colin Powell has said, the first "universal nation," the first to break the bonds of particularity. (p. 92-93)
Two things are very important here. First is what Cavanaugh describes as "the priority of freedom." And the second is the universality of America as the ends of human history. Before I review Cavanaugh's deeper discussion of these two (especially what "the priority of freedom" really means), I need to note that Cavanaugh's great concern about the theologizing of the American state in an Enlightenment context makes America an "empty shrine," which can then be filled up by whatever content its various worshipers choose to fill it with. That, for some believers in the American civil religion, that is the whole point — America itself is the thing that can be agreed upon. But Cavanaugh believes that explicit biblical exceptionalism actually puts America in the Bible story, and thus makes it accountable to something other than itself. Enlightenment exceptionalism has no means of accountability.
The deepest theological danger inherent in American exceptionalism, then, is that of the messiah nation that does not simply seek to follow God's will, but acts as a kind of substitute god on the state of history. When the concept of chosenness becomes unmoored from the biblical narrative, the danger is that the nation will not only be substitute church but substitute god. When the shrine is empties of the biblical God and replaced with the generic principle of transcendence, the danger is that we will not come to worship God but will worship our freedom to worship God. The empty shrine is surreptitiously filled. Our freedom itself becomes an idol, the one thing we will kill and die for. (p. 96)
From here, Cavanaugh begins a fairly thorough exploration of Roman Catholic theologian Stephen Webb's views on American nationalism as outlined in Webb's book American Providence, and finishes with a brief examination of German jurist and political theorist Carl Schmitt (who influenced Leo Strauss). I mention this the way I do because I believe Cavanaugh focuses on Webb's book because Webb's book is reflective of how many American Christians have come to understand their place as Americans and their nation's place in history.
For Cavanaugh, Webb believes the following:
- God is active in history.
- The purpose of history is to open up the world in ways that allow human beings to choose Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
- America is doing more than any other nation to make the opening possible. In fact, American government, society, institutions and capitalist economy are better ways of opening the world to the Jesus than all others.
- America in and of itself is universal freedom.
- But the point of the freedom to choose is the ability to choose Jesus, and nothing else.
The problem, in my view, is that the political presence of the biblical God is mediated through the official discourse of America, and not through a distinctively Christian body that stands under the explicit authority of Jesus Christ. The church as mediator between God and America — a church that has the critical distance to pronounce judgment as well as blessing — is in danger of being erased. What has happened in effect is that America has become the new church. When the relationship of America and God is this direct, there is little to check the identification of Gods' will with America's. America is God's people, the bearer of God's salvation to the world. … Without the irritant of the body of Christ, the body politic is free once again to divinize the political authority, to transfer the sovereignty of God to the sovereign state. (p.104-105)


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August 24, 2012
I Deeply & Sincrely Apologize
I am being informed by two or three Mensa Chapter Presidents that I am causing the disastrous 20 point decline in Todd Akin's polling (from 10 points ahead to eleven points behind).
I previously caused a similar cratering of Republican support in the case of Christine O'Donnell. When she became the nominee, the Democrat went from ten points down to ten points ahead.
I don't know why I do these things. I see a parade of strong, articulate, attractive candidates, who are will almost inevitably win on their strong moral compasses, and then I tear them down via this blog.
In each case, I take someone who will almost certainly win, "if we all just have enough faith," and turn them into a loser.
What I really must apologize for, still further, is the fact that this blog has such a powerful sway on the body politic, and yet, rather than devoting this well-nigh preeminent level of political power to helping surefire winner candidates like Christine O'Donnell and Todd Akin, I instead warn other Republicans that they're going to lose, and this process of warning -- this process of prognostication -- thereby causes the actual loss.
And what doesn't cause the loss is, say, the actual failings and weaknesses of the candidates in question, about which I am warning.
That is to say, these losses are not caused by people behaving like teenagers who think that machismo and status ride on doing stupid, reckless things, but rather are due to the adults who say things like "You shouldn't dive from a pier without guaranteeing by close personal inspection that the water is deep enough to prevent a crippling injury."
While I dress such warnings up to sound "adult," in fact these are the womanly caterwaulings of a RINO and likely homosexual. It is, in fact, those with the juvenile sense of Let's Do Something Dumb who are the true adults in the room.
Although I have chastised myself repeatedly for this nasty habit of being right in my predictions (or, I should say, more properly: Of my predictions causing the very catastrophes I warn against), I find I am incapable of stopping myself, and yet cling to this faggy notion that diving from a pier is probably a bad idea.
I'm sorry. I serve the party and the cause so poorly, and not Manfully and With Great Principle like so many others.
In this failing I join noted RINOs and suspected homosexuals Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin, and Ann Coulter. I am ashamed to note I will be joining them later for a party with the themes of Cross Dressing, ABBA, and Amyl Nitrite.
I must continue to fail you,
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We are definitely living in a global village. If you don't believe it, give a listen to The Venopian Solitude, one of my favorite recent discoveries. I don't think there could've been a musician like her before the net. If there had been, I certainly never would've found her, which would've been a damn shame.
The Venopian Solitude is a one-woman band whose sole member is Suiko Takahara, a young lady in Malaysia (Suiko is another pseudonym. She's not really Japanese — she's just very fond of Japanese culture). I was very surprised to find out just how young — 18 last time I checked, just about to head off to college. Based on her music, I expected to find someone a lot more experienced. Her voice has a nonchalant sophistication that's well beyond her years. She has a slight vibrato on some of her songs, which I like a lot.
Suiko refers to her music as anti-folk. I'm not 100 percent sure what anti-folk means or if her music truly fits, but her philosophy basically comes down to composition over execution. She doesn't want to be a virtuoso. She wants to make songs that express what's in her heart and mind. It strikes me as almost a DIY punk rock ethic. Her songs could be described as loose, at times sloppy, always charming. She plays guitar, ukelele and other instruments and records her music on a laptop herself, laying down tracks and sometimes harmonizing with herself. Some of her songs are catchy and I liked them instantly. Others turned out to be growers. She generally sings in English, but sometimes sings in Malay, or other languages. Her songs are witty, sad, joyful, funny, sometimes challenging. Her songs on the web are usually accompanied by little doodles – more DIY ethic, more charm.
She has a delightful self-deprecating sense of humor and is a lot of fun to talk to (best way to do that would probably be through her MySpace page, or her artist page on Uvumi. Also make sure to visit her blog. It's interesting to see what's on her mind.). She doesn't seem to realize just how gifted she is and keeps acting surprised at how much people like her songs. I think she's starting to get the idea, because she keeps putting out new songs and making them available — and they keep getting better. She has a real knack for songwriting.
Suiko has made quite a few albums available on Bandcamp. You could spend a very long time listening to them all, an exercise I encourage. If you find some of her songs a bit challenging, just give them time. They're bound to take over your brain sooner or later. Here are a few of my favorite Venopian Solitude songs from different albums (or maybe they're EPs?):
P.S. Suiko informs me that she's actually 19, going on 20 in December. Positively elderly.


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Pocket sized and lightweight, this comprehensive set contains a wider selection of 16 Cotman Watercolor half pans. It also comes with pocket brush, putty rubber, pencil, and handy instructional leaflet, and comes in a sturdy plastic box that features a six well mixing palette in the lid and a thumb ring in the base.
Colors included are Cadmium Yellow Pale Hue, Cadmium Yellow Hue, Cadmium Red Pale Hue, Cadmium Red Deep Hue, Alizarin Crimson Hue, Purple Lake, Ultramarine, Cobalt Blue Hue, Cerulean Blue Hue, Sap Green, Viridian Hue, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Payne's Gray, and Chinese White.
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Alaska - 70%
Arizona - 78%
Arkansas - 80%
Arkansas - 74%
California - 69%
California - 70%
Colorado - 68%
Connecticut - 73%
Connecticut - 74%
Delaware - 75%
Dist. of Columbia - 76%
Florida - 78%
Georgia - 74%
Kentucky - 80%
Idaho - 77%
Iowa - 75%
Maine - 77%
Maine - 71%
Massachusetts - 73%
Michigan - 70%
Michigan - 73%
Minnesota 75%
Mississippi - 77%
Missouri - 66%
Missouri - 70%
Missouri - 75%
Montana - 72%
Nebraska - 74%
Nevada - 72%
New Hampshire - 69%
New Mexico - 76%
New York - 79%
North Carolina - 74%
Ohio - 70%
Oklahoma - 81%
Oklahoma - 75%
Oregon - 76%
Pennsylvania - 78%
Rhode Island - 74%
South Carolina - 71%
South Dakota - 75%
South Dakota - 71%
Tennessee - 74%
Utah - 70%
Vermont - 75%
Virginia - 74%
Washington - 77%
Washington - 77%
West Virgina - 81%
Wisconsin - 71%
Wyoming - 69%
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California Assembly
Colorado House
Colorado Senate
Connecticut House
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Something happened in the 2000 presidential election that should never be permitted to happen again. The candidate who failed to win the popular vote became president of the United States.
Something just as unacceptable almost happened four years later. If John Kerry had won Ohio by a single vote, he would have become president even though George W. Bush would have won the popular vote by over 31/2 million votes.
I think it's high time we got rid of the Electoral College and elected our presidents the way we elect every other elected official in the country — by a vote of the people. The overwhelming majority of the American people think so, too.
The cause is not a new one. No other provision of the Constitution has engendered more proposed constitutional amendments. In fact, when President Nixon tried to abolish the Electoral College in 1969, he won an overwhelming majority in the House of Representatives only to be thwarted by a minority in the Senate, as it takes two-thirds of both branches of Congress and three-quarters of the states to pass a constitutional amendment.
Fortunately, we now have a way to eliminate the negative impact of the Electoral College without going through the long and tedious process of amending the Constitution: the National Popular Vote plan. It is critically important that our state joins Maryland, New Jersey, Illinois, Washington, and Hawaii in approving this bill.
Why is it so important to pass this legislation? Because under the current system, running for president means just one thing: Focus on the so-called swing states. I did it. Al Gore did it. John Kerry and Barack Obama did it, and our Republican opponents did it, too.
A big turnout in Massachusetts and more than two-thirds of the other states is irrelevant to winning the election. Only winning the swing states matters, and presidential candidates are under tremendous pressure to embrace issues and positions that will resonate in those few states. In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that in the past several presidential elections, candidates have spent almost all of their time between Labor Day and Election Day in about six states. That's not healthy, and it's not right.
For the first time in decades, our votes — for both the losing and the winning candidate — will actually matter. That's because each vote in Massachusetts will be added to all the other votes across the country to determine the winner, just like in all other elections. Because the margin of victory will matter, National Popular Vote will increase voter participation and put a premium on strong and effective grassroots organizing in all states — something that happens to be a particular passion of mine.
Finally National Popular Vote will not hurt small states. Small states get a theoretical boost from the extra votes they get in the Electoral College. But that boost has no real impact. Small states except New Hampshire have been safe states for one party or the other for decades and are ignored by presidential candidates.
We have a historic opportunity to join with other states to fix the Electoral College system once and for all by passing the National Popular Vote bill.
It's the right thing to do for the country. It will ensure that the candidate with the most votes wins and will put voters in spectator states like ours on a level playing field with voters in the swing states.
Michael S. Dukakis, a Brookline resident, is former governor of the commonwealth and was the Democratic nominee for president in 1988.


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