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Toys In Popular Culture
Published: 17th August 2015
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Here are a few toy references in popular culture that caught my eye.
LEGO - the Ninjago World and the 80s movie - the Beastmaster
The two famous ferrets Kodo' and Podo' first appeared in The Beastmaster (1982). They played fairly large parts in the film. We remember them as the sneaky little thieves. LEGO's Ninjago Battlefield's has a Ninjago Monastery. The monastery's has two main guards- Kodo Pandaheart and his brother Podo Pandaheart. They are both named after these ferrets from this 80s movie.
The Rubik's cube and "The Pursuit of Happyness"
How we heart Will Smith! If you loved him as a doting father to Christopher and you sobbed as and when he did, you will clearly get the reference I'm making. That moment when Chris makes a desperate attempt to impress the broker in the backseat of a cab? And well he does get it right.
Ernö Rubik's mad genius took the world by a storm. The Rubik's cube is an obsession of first order and a revolution in itself. The simple looking yet complex puzzle enhances logical thinking, mathematical abilities, motor skills, color comprehension and a host of other positives.
Give it up for Meek Mill and Monopoly
Meek Mill's, the famous hip-hop artiste quoted "Monopoly" in the lyrics of his famous song "Versace." The Monopoly's suggested reference points towards Mill's recent success in the music scenario. When on the verge of winning Monopoly one takes over the others and that's exactly what Meek Mill's talking about.
LEGO Star Wars saga
Had it not been for the genius of George Lucas, the world wouldn't have witnessed the Star Wars epic. Aren't we all fathomed by the plethora of Jedi and Yoda references? That's the beauty about these classics. They inculcate learning by way of story-telling.
Taking inspiration from the eponymous saga, LEGO created their series of StarWars. From buildable galaxies to the old republics, they have it all. These series not only help you to create, imagine and build but also develop life skills through these characters.
Fun Fact: Sheldon Cooper of the famous "Big-Bang Theory" fame is a hard-core StarWars fan and was a LEGO blocks builder as a kid.
Haven't we all played the famous board game "Ludo." And little do we know about this classic game that has been a worldwide hit for decades. Ludo's first inspiration came from the popular Indian mythology -Mahabharata. Aren't the images of Shakuni Mama playing in your head? Well, if they are, you got it right. The Mahabharata's version of Ludo is known as Pachisi.'
Aqua and the Barbie
"I'm a Barbie girl, in my Barbie world" topped music charts worldwide after its immediate release. Even today Aqua is associated with this major hit. It immediately takes us back to the surreal Barbie's wonderland. Barbie dolls revolutionized the toy industry. These dolls help in enhancing your child's role-play experience. Play might be fun with these dolls but they also encourage the development of some really important life-skills.
Fun fact: Did you know that in Italy there are more Barbie dolls than there are Canadians in Canada?
Reconstructing Little Danny
Give it up for pup-love. The yelping Danny was a major part of my childhood. Here's an amazing creation by Artiste Peng Hung Chih who recreated "Little Danny," in 2001. The exhibit was made of 660 wind-up Little Danny dogs that start yapping and moving when you enter the room.
Watch close, you might just discover your own find. And don't forget to add to our list.
For the purpose of collating the article together we would like to thank Yellow Giraffe - online toy store
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The ceiling was coming down, the walls were crumbling and two sinks were leaking. But Joan and Curtis Garrett, senior citizens on fixed incomes, couldn't afford to hire commercial contractors to repair their home in the Germantown section of Philadelphia and they weren't in any shape to do the work themselves.
"I can't fully extend my left leg," explained Curtis Garrett, a retired electrician whose knee has never fully healed from surgery.
Getting lucky
But the Garretts, whose home is in the 1000 block of East Syndney Street, were lucky. They got help with their home repairs from the Urban Resource Development Corporation (URDC), a faith-based organization that rebuilds and repairs homes for low-income people in Northwest Philadelphia.
"That's the passion of this — to fix the one house" before it brings down the value of an entire block, said Joe Waldo, executive director of URDC.
The non-profit organization is financially supported by a dozen churches in Northwest Philadelphia and small grants.
It offers below market-rate repairs on homes for low- and moderate-income people, with any profits plowed into future projects.
Home owners are also asked to make some contribution, whether that be coveirng part of the cost or volunteering their own labor to help with the repairs.
The group's annual budget of about $175,000 is also supported by rental income from three homes owned by URDC.
Nearby neighborhoods, too
The URDC, which started in 1995, concentrates its work in Germantown, but has also worked in nearby neighborhoods like Mount Airy and West Oak Lane.
When it began, the organization aimed to buy, fix and sell homes to first-time home owners "It was great," Waldo recalled as he explained how the organizaiton renovated and sold houses in the early days. Its goal was to stop a neighborhood from decaying by fixing the first neglected house and turning it into a sturdy home.
At the start, the URDC was making money on renovations, but when the recession hit and developers became more active in the neighborhood, things changed. "We weren't making money and couldn't sell to the intended target" (first-time home owners,), Waldo said.
Sales to rehabs
In response to market forces, the agency shifted its focus in 2006 to repairing or rehabbing homes but not selling them, Waldo explained. "Ninety percent of our work now is rehab," he said. "We generally help with the smaller jobs because we can help more (people)."
The Garretts' situation is common among Germantown home-owners, many of whom struggle to pay their bills. "At any given time, we are working at three (houses)," Waldo said. Last year, the group served 50 families; in 2017, URDC aims to serve 55.
"God's work"
Waldo said the members of URDC are "trying to do God's work," which makes the group different from commerical developers.
Currently, 12 faith-based organiztions, including Protestant and Catholic parishes, are members of the URDC. Two joined in the last month and the organization is looking for more.
The newest member is Mishkan Shalom Synagogue and the group hopes to add a Philadelphia mosque to its membership list soon.
Waldo, who got involved with the URDC because he was a member of First United Methodist Church of Germantown, one of the participating congregations, talked about the organization's volunteers. "Now I'm staff, but I was a volunteer," he said.
Volunteers help
The URDC organizes four or five volunteer days a year where the organization gets anywhere from five to 20 volunteers a day. "Sometimes it's just cleaning. It doesn't take too much skill, " Waldo commented.
While the City of Philadelphia has a home repair program known as the Basic System Repair Program (BSRP), which provides free home repairs for low income and senior homeowners, the URDC's three-to-four-month wait time is about six times faster than the city program, Waldo said.
When committing to a project, the URDC looks at three things — whether the property is within its service area; the size of the job; and the willingness of the home owner to contribute what Waldo called "sweat equity." He said that might mean making a finacial contribution, getting a low-interest loan with the help of URDC or volunteering to help with the rehab work themselves.
Recently, the URDC has developed another way to cover its costs — getting a referral fee from financially secure residents who call URDC seeking the names of trustworthy contractors. "We've had many people who can afford it call us to give them people they can trust," Waldo said.
Protecting people from scams
He said the referral service helps protect the community from scam artists seeking quick bucks for shoddy workmanship. "This area has had a problem with (bogus contractors) taking advantage of people who need help. It just breaks your heart. Finding a contractor you can trust is huge," Waldo said.
For their part, the Garretts say they were pleased with the work of URDC contractors who installed grab bars in the bathroom, added railings on the steps to the basement, replaced facucets, and fixed and painted walls and ceilings.
Joan Garrett called URDC "a godsend." She added: "You don't hear of a lot of programs for moderate-income areas."

subset: commoncrawl


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A perceptive thing called marketing
The royal TV debate 'mob' really was representative, and the new Mars ads will attract women. Just trust the marketers
The new year could hardly have got off to a better start for marketing. The howling, baying, drunken mob who formed the audience at Carlton Television's much derided national debate on the monarchy were carefully chosen by market research companies, proving beyond doubt that the industry knows its stuff.
Many of the panel, however, were ungrateful. Former transport minister Steven Norris walked out before the programme began, complaining that the atmosphere was a cross between a pantomime and a beer garden (should that have been beargarden?). Sir Bernard Ingham huffed and wheezed his disapproval, and the journalist Ann Leslie was beside herself with disgust.
"One member of the audience," she says, "his piggy eyes scrunched up in rage, his hands forming a trumpet round his cavernous mouth kept yelling, 'Wot abaht democracy! Off! Off! Off! Shaddup! Shaddup!' My God, I thought – this thug has a vote."
Thriller writer Frederick Forsyth dismissed piggy eyes and his 2,999 fellow citizens assembled for the occasion at the NEC in Birmingham as unrepresentative. "Anyone who is willing to get into a charabanc and be driven on a round trip of 300 miles to take part, for no money, in something like this is not your average person," he explained to Miss Leslie.
Well, Mr Forsyth knows a lot about thriller writing but not too much about marketing. Steve Clark, Carlton's controller of factual programmes, put him right. "I would take issue with claims that the audience were not a fair representation of the public. We spent more than four months with research teams to make sure we had the right ethnic and social classes."
The misunderstanding arises because the 39 panelists were drawn from what used to be called the intelligentsia but is today better described as the chattering classes. It is common for such people to belittle advertising and marketing as worthless occupations not far removed from huckstering. How little they know. It takes skill, learning, expertise, analysis, artistry and craft to divine the workings of the rabble.
Mars, for example, in a recent advertisement for graduate recruits, explains that its continuing success "stems from the vision, professionalism, and sheer hard work of a team dedicated to winning…We want to hear from enthusiastic, graduate calibre individuals who are looking for an exciting career challenge".
By coincidence, on the same day the ad appeared, the company announced that, after 38 years, it was dropping its famous slogan, "A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play" in favour of a campaign designed to appeal to women. The new TV ads feature an old American Indian struggling to climb a mountain with his son. He says: "Son, this is a good day to die." He lies down exhausted. As his son moves to cover him with a blanket, a Mars bar falls from the young man's pocket. The old Indian eats the bar and a voiceover says: "There is nothing like the great taste for Mars – it's the taste for life."
The Indian, revived, turns to his son with a tear in his eye and says: "Son, it would be really cool if you fixed me up with Little Flower."
Now, to Ann Leslie, Frederick Forsyth, Bernard Ingham and others, it might seem incomprehensible that women will be attracted by a few seconds of film showing an ancient and withered Native American (as we are now advised to call them) miraculously transformed from near-death to lubricious life by eating a sickly item of confectionery. How little they know.
A spokesman for the company, whose vision, professionalism and hard work has got them where they are today, says: "We hope that the blend of humour with an emotional approach will appeal to women."
It doesn't do for lay people to delve too deeply into the subtleties of another's profession, but the intelligentsia may be assured that, however absurd it may seem, a now-he's-dead-now-he's-not aboriginal with horny intent will have women running to get their teeth round a Mars bar. There's nothing mysterious about that, provided you understand these matters.
Similarly, there was no mistake in the audience selection at the NEC. Teams of marketing researchers laboured for no less than four months to bring to our screens a wholly representative sample of the ill-educated, intemperate, intolerant, loud-mouthed, boorish, fun-loving riff-raff that comprises the admass.
How absurd of Miss Leslie and her colleagues to say what they wanted, and expected, was a reasoned debate. If that's what you want, you don't invite the public. Even more foolish was the assumption that television is capable of providing a forum for measured and constructive argument. Television is for the admass: they feed off each other, they understand each other perfectly.
The veteran broadcaster Sir Robin Day, cuts a rather sorry figure as he laments the ineluctable evolution of the institution which he helped to form. "The programme," he says, "consisted of two hours of ignorance, distortion, prejudice, half-truths, crude assertion, bad temper and cheap personal abuse… If the monarchy debate was a foretaste of future television discussion in an election year, God help this country."
So Sir Robin joins Ann Leslie calling on the Almighty to unfold the baffling mystery of the crass ignorance and ugliness of the nation's voters. But there is no need to invoke the Divine. Just ask someone in marketing.


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According to the agency Over the years Sprite has become synonymous with smart thinking. Clarity of thought combined with a bit of ingenuity has forever bailed out the Sprite protagonist from a tight situation.
Campaign India has the details
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See official URL
Add-on package Rling: Download from the companion website or as an R workspace (.RData)
Part 1. Introduction to statistics
Part 3. Numerical variables: basic statistics and graphs
The materials are also available at GitHub (link).
Main data types and basic methods for corpus-based dialectometry (pdf)
An overview of statistical methods: CA, MDS, logistic regression, conditional inference trees and random forests (pdf)
Tutorial with step-by-step R code (docx)
The companion data set Dutch is available here: Dutch.RData
Part 1. What is statistics? (pdf)
Part 2. Introduction to R (pdf)
Part 3. Basic descriptive statistics and plots (pdf)
Part 5. Introduction to logistic regression (pdf)
The slides are available here: Bayesian Logistic (Multinomial) Models with MCMCglmm: A brief tutorial (pdf)
The companion data set letting is available here: letting.RData
Semantically similar constructions and lexemes are a challenge for linguistic theory and practice. According to the Principle of No Synonymy (Goldberg 1995) accepted by Cognitive Linguists, if two constructions are different in form, they should also differ in function. Nowadays, usage-based linguists have been able to find the functional distinctions between near-synonyms in such tricky cases as the Saxon vs. Norman Genitive (Szmrecsanyi 2010), the double object dative vs. the to-dative (Bresnan et al. 2007), or the position of phrasal verb particles (Gries 2003). Their experience has shown that advanced multivariable statistical techniques are a necessity in this task. My puzzle at the moment is Dutch causative constructions with the auxiliaries doen 'do' and laten 'let'. I'm using multiple logistic regression with fixed and random effects (Baayen 2008). In the graph below you can see the influence of some semantic and syntactic factors on the odds of doen vs. laten in a context. The more to the right, the higher the odds of laten. The strongest pro-laten and anti-doen factor is animacy of the causer (CrSem=Anim). Article submitted for publication.
In the Structuralist era, systematic relationships between linguistic units were the focus of attention. This is why lexical fields were very popular. The early Cognitive Linguistics was busy with polysemy and the relationships between senses, but interest in related words and constructions has been growing recently (see Constructive Competition). My model, based on multiple correspondence analysis, can deal with more than several related items at different levels of schematicity. The items - lexemes or constructions - are projected onto one conceptual space, which is constructed on the basis of usage events. The example below is a conceptual space of German categories Stuhl 'chair' and Sessel 'armchair' based on the data from online German furniture catalogues. The size of the symbols reflects the frequency of usage events. The analysis showed that Sessel is associated with comfort (e.g. reclining back) and relaxation, whereas Stuhl is a more functional piece of furniture.
The second example shows the Dutch causative constructions with doen and laten in a two-dimensional conceptual space formed by different semantic and syntactic features. The map shows, for example, that doen is semantically restricted to causation patterns with mental caused events and inanimate causers (e.g. 'It makes me feel sad'). Article in preparation.
studies relationships between the formal, conceptual and social dimensions of language variation. For example, a quantitative analysis of Dutch
causatives with doen
and laten
shows that some of the
conceptual features boost variation between Dutch in the Netherlands
and in Belgium. The figure below demonstrates an interaction between Transitivity and Country. Transitive verbs in the Netherlands have on average less chances to occur with doen than in Belgium. From the other perspective, the geographic difference between the countries is more outspoken for transitive verbs (the NL-BE slope is steeper for transitives than for intransitives). Article submitted for publication.
Different languages construe causation and causal relations in
different ways. The plot below shows a semantic map of English
causative constructions with the Dutch ones plotted on it (see From Lexical Fields into Constructional Spaces). It is interesting that some semantic distinctions where English displays
variation in the form of the verb are made in Dutch with the help of the
prepositional marking of the causee. For instance, compare the English have + Ved (Past Participle) and the Dutch laten + Vinf + causee marked with preposition door "by" (laten_door_V) in the top left sector.
Like living organisms, languages can adjust to the same challenges in structurally different ways. Article submitted for publication.
Acknowledgment: the graphics were
produced with the help of the R language and environment
The script for the 3D-graph was written by Dirk Speelman.
Copyright 2013 - Natalia Levshina Disclaimer
This page was last modified on: 13.01.2018


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Morgan police
Jacob Bruning, 33, Fort Morgan, domestic violence, assault, false imprisonment and obstruction of telephone service, 221 W. Platte Ave., between 11:30 p.m. Feb. 25 and 5:15 a.m. Feb. 26, held at Morgan County jail without bond.
Ashley Hernandez, 22, Fort Morgan, driving while under the influence of alcohol and violation of interlock device, 300 block of State Street, Feb. 25, 2:30 a.m., held without bond.
Jeffery Lanckriet, 37, Fort Morgan, Morgan County Sheriff's Department warrant arrest, 112 W. Kiowa Ave., Feb. 24, 10:19 p.m., held on $2,000 bond.
Theodore Peggrame, 21, Fort Morgan, driving while ability impaired by drugs, 200 block of West Riverview Avenue, Feb. 25, 4:16 a.m., held on $1,000 bond.
Jose Felix-Gonzales, 34, Fort Morgan, attempted shoplifting of disposable razors, Walmart, Feb. 23, 11:13 a.m., held on $300 bond.
Marisela Meza-Guadian, 31, Fort Morgan, assault on a juvenile, 102 Century Ave., between 8 p.m. Feb. 20 and 9:24 a.m. Feb. 23.
A juvenile was charged with underage consumption of alcohol and curfew violation, 200 block of Lake Street, Feb. 25, 3:39 a.m.
Lorri Schlueter, 52, Fort Morgan, reported the theft of jewelry, keys and a leather case worth a total of $1,760, 230 Lake St., Feb. 22, between 4:45 and 7:20 p.m.
Marcia Rivera, 33, Fort Morgan, reported the theft of a video game system and damage to a door frame, 218 Grant St., Feb. 24, between 5 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
James Bunting, 80, Fort Morgan, reported the theft of china plates, 212 Prospect St., between 10:30 p.m. Feb. 21 and 1:38 p.m. Feb. 22.
Chad Baluska, 35, Fort Morgan, reported the theft of a digital reading device, 124 Detroiter Ave., Feb. 23, between 7 and 8:30 p.m.
Martin Rodriguez-Gonzalez, 44, Fort Morgan, reported damage to a vehicle, 601 S. Sherman St., Feb. 25, 1:22 a.m.
Priscilla Call, 31, Fort Morgan, reported the theft of a wallet and damage to a vehicle driver's door, 920 Delores St., between 6 p.m. Feb. 24 and 10 a.m. Feb. 25.


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Our manufacturing process is totally vertical: it begins knitting yarn in order to deliver natural textiles, which are then moved to our dyeing and finishing departments. Later, the fabric arrives at our lamination area, where the latest generation of waterproof and breathable polyurethane membranes are applied. Our laminated fabrics are finally cut and sewn into ready- made products which are packaged & distributed around the world.
BSensible branded bedding products are designed and manufactured by Bedding Industrial Beguda SL. Located around 100 miles northeast of Barcelona, Spain.


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Dancing With The Stars Apolo Ohno Writes Of Getting Back On Track And Finding New Inspiration
Apolo Ohno has written a new blog at People.com. He says he and Karina have had some issues, but, they've cleared the air and feel even closer now. They are also going to treat every dance as if it's their last. Lots more below on this past week's struggles, their new dance and how much it means to him and Karina.
Going into this week's competition, I told Karina, "Let's clear the air. Let's get back on track and find new inspiration." We went out, we talked, we had a good time. I told her we should treat every week like it's our last. I want to just forget about the scores and the comments, and use the criticism as constructive. I know for me, that means emotionally showing a different side that perhaps people haven't seen.
This song is about cancer. This song has a personal connection to both Karina and me. I have to go into a very different place, all while trying to perform this dance. It's really beautiful and really smooth. I really like it, but it's really emotional. I'm inviting kids from the City of Hope who have gone through or are going through cancer treatments, so I hope they enjoy it.
We just have this whole new approach and we've been kicking each other's ass in the studio. It's awesome. We've been hitting it hard every single day. I'm happy with the dance. We're just continuing to keep polishing.
Be sure to read the full blog at People.com. It's a good one! I hope he and Karina give new meaning to the word "connection" and make all the nay sayers eat their words.


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The Wet Lab LaunchPad in the Innovation Quarter provides affordable laboratory space and an urban lifestyle for your emerging company.
Located in the Richard H. Dean Biomedical Research Building (also home to the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine), the Wet Lab LaunchPad is a unique space that includes three individual labs and accompanying office space.
Each furnished suite features: a prep area, an open lab with island, wall benches, mobile and adjustable lab equipment, two furnished offices and a storage area. A shared conference room with visible presentation technology and a break area are added benefits.
Location Benefits
- Urban location within vibrant Innovation Quarter community
- Small- to mid-size, multi-tenant companies
- High concentration of academic research and development
- Private airport (Smith Reynolds Airport) within minutes of the Innovation Quarter
- Connectivity with Wake Forest University, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, financial institutions, venture capital firms, law practices and business support agencies
- Convenient to major highways including I-40, I-85, I-77 and future I-74
- Less than 30 minutes from Piedmont Triad International Airport and the FedEx hub
Lab/Facility Features
- 1,600+ to 2,000+ sq. ft. per lab
- Standby generators
- 16-foot floor heights
- Exterior windows
- 4-story secured parking deck
More Accelerator Space
For more information about leasing space in the Wet Lab LaunchPad, please contact firstname.lastname@example.com


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Tom is the Chief Executive Officer of O'Rourke Hospitality Marketing, LLC. He is responsible for the strategic direction and daily operations of the agency as well as growing and globally expanding O'Rourke's sister company, Mobile Media Applications, LLC.
Prior to founding O'Rourke, Tom partnered in the growth and development of two successful enterprises, honing his ability to move a concept into a reality with dramatic results by applying solid business practices – market research, product development, sales and marketing resource deployment – and a high level of creativity.
Tom continues to grow O'Rourke and works with partners across the globe on innovative projects in mobile. His insight into upcoming trends, combined with his strategic thinking, has made him a leader in hospitality marketing. Tom has been asked to share his ideas with Hospitality and Marketing MBA students at Universities including The Roosevelt University, Chicago, and The European Center of International Hotel Management, Paris, France.
Tom holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from the Limerick Institute of Technology in Ireland, a Master's certificate in Internet Marketing Strategy from the University of San Francisco and a certificate in Hospitality Marketing from Cornell University.← Back to Team


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Saturday, 10 December 2011
A lure in a storm
Image Above: Foiled diving lure
A bit of a storm blew in on Thursday and after demolishing half the trees in the island's small wood and knocking out the power supply it blew its self out. The power took a little longer to return and earlier this evening I spent a couple of hours tying feather rigs under the light of a head torch. In the meantime I managed to finish another diving lure and attempted to take it for a testing session but the boat's engine is running a little off beat at the moment. I carved the lure from pine and then foiled it and coated it with epoxy. It runs at about a couple of feet below the surface on moderate retrieve and casts very smoothly.
Posted by Paul Adams at 15:37 No comments:
Labels: epoxy coating, fish, fishing, foil, hand carved, lure, pine, storm
Monday, 5 December 2011
Making lead fishing weights in wooden moulds
Another how-to video. The exciting world of lead smelting.
Posted by Paul Adams at 11:27 1 comment:
Labels: casting, fishing, handmade, homemade, how-to, lead, make, mould, sinker, smelting, weights, wooden
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Yet another easy one! Also another water solution.
As stated in a previous tip, about 45% of water use occurs in the bathroom. An easy way to cut down on this use is to shorten your showers, like our mother was always telling us to do. Especially if you were me, living in Colorado in the middle of a decade long drought, as a teenage girl with a lot of hair to wash. (it's not like washing mattered, I could have washed it with peanut butter and it would have looked better than the god-awful styles I was putting it in.)
But I digress.
Shortening showers is not always easy. Sometimes you just got back from working out, sometimes you need to shave, sometimes you it's really cold and you're really tired and the water is just so heavenly that it's nearly impossible to get out, and sometimes you're a teenage girl preparing to style her hair in yet another horrible way.
But most shower heads use about 2 gallons of water per minute of showering, and some older ones (once again, like the ancient houses we live in as college students) use up to 5 gallons of water a minute. An easy (and cheap in the long run) solution is the water saving shower head!
They can come as cheap as $5 or have a massaging spray, or even come with an apparatus to control the flow. They typically range between 10 and 15 dollars and can shave a few dollars off your water bill a month, eventually paying for itself.
They tend to be easy to install, only needing the removal of one screw.
So for tip #3, save some money and save some water with a water saving low-flow shower head!


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Photo: Gaels President Tom Walsh awards Club Persons of the Year to Kyle Shane (L) and Brian McCarthy (R) at Christmas party at the Celtic Tavern
By Sam Westmoreland – -
The Denver Gaels are bringing one of their most successful and exciting years ever to a close, and what a year it's been, from start to finish. Between new members joining the club, veteran members getting more involved and more success at the NACB finals, the club had plenty to celebrate when they got together at the Celtic Tavern downtown for the annual Christmas party.
It was a fantastic time once again, as the club took the opportunity to recognize some of its most successful members on and off the pitch. After a delicious dinner, it was time to give out the annual awards.
First up was camogie, which saw Kelly Naumann bring home camogie's most improved player award, and Sarah Faller be awarded camogie player of the year.
Next up was football, which saw Jeff Posey win rookie footballer of the year, and Shay Dunne net footballer of the year. Then came hurling, who saw Sean Sweeney bring home newcomer of the year, Matt Jakubowski and Eamonn Ryan win Junior C and B hurlers of the year, respectively. Finally, the club awarded a dual Club Person of the Year, to both Kyle Shane and Brian McCarthy, for all they've done to build the club and improve the quality of play throughout the past year.
Then, it was on to the music and the dancing. Adam Agee and Jon Sousa entertained the crowd with traditional Irish music, while Billy Canaly provided Irish dancing once again.
With a full slate of club activities already scheduled for next year, the club would like to wish all of you a very happy holiday season, and safe travels to wherever that season may lead you. May the coming weeks be full of craic with family and friends, and delicious food.


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BOGOTA, May 31 (UPI) -- Colombian presidential candidate Juan Manual Santos claimed nearly twice as many votes as his nearest rival but not enough avoid a runoff, officials said.
Santos, a former defense minister, and former Bogota Mayor Antanas Mockus will be in a June 20 runoff unless Mockus drops out, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.
After Sunday's votes were counted, Santos took 46.6 percent to 21.5 percent for Mockus, officials said.
Santos, front-runner for much of the campaign, was a defense minister during President Alvaro Uribe's successful battles against leftist guerrillas. He capitalized on his relationship with the president, pledging to carry on security gains that helped improve Colombia during the last decade.
"This was clearly a vote for continuity," Cynthia Arnson, director of the Latin American program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, told the Times.


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Learned how to do "plastic" buttons in Photoshop! These are clickable on the front page, though they're kind of a kludge because of how WP.com handles images. More important, though, was learning how to do it; these are the instructions I followed, and here are tutorials for 53 more kinds of buttons.
Here's a mahogany gameboard I made for my Dad:
Recently I did a silly Beatle calendar page (February's dates fall on the same weekdays in 2010 as in 1965), in case anybody wants to live a month in the Beatles' lives:
I've designed some elements for my Aggie Journalists blog:
I've cross-stitched for years and like to create my own designs. I made these two for my parents – a map of the Goodnight-Loving cattle trail and a rendering of a German lullaby my mom used to sing me. The type and all other elements in both are original except the capital G and L and the bird and flower, which came from design books. Click to view larger:
In college, I drew and painted 'stained glass' windows for my roommates and me (bearing our initials). They're still in the door of the house we shared in College Station, though the red of the roses has faded:
… so as a Christmas gift, last year I went to the house and photographed them, converted the photos into patterns via Photoshop, then recreated and framed our windows:


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The story of the Week 7 Power Rankings revolves around five protagonists: The Unbeaten.
While the Falcons earned their first blemish in Week 6, the Patriots, Packers, Bengals, Broncos and a pesky group from the South keep plugging away.
cmon @HarrisonNFL dont disappoint with the panthers placement in tomorrow power rankings please!â Tyler Keleher (@tkeleher7)
October 19, 2015
I won't, Tyler. See below.
@HarrisonNFL How does Elliot Harrison like his crow on Monday morning, baked or deep fried!? ?? #CARvsSEA #KeepPounding @NFLHQâ John Causey (@JohnCausey)
October 19, 2015
I hear he likes it blackened, with a side of hush puppies. Speaking of, why do hush puppies continue to be so criminally underrated? At least Long John Silver's knows their value ...
The Panthers are no longer underrated here, as they make a strong move into the top five, even leapfrogging another unbeaten. As for your favorite team, see below and share your thoughts: @HarrisonNFL is the place.
Let the dissension commence!
NOTE: The lineup below reflects changes from our Oct. 13 Power Rankings.
PREVIOUS RANKINGS: Week 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Preseason
Patriots remain at the top, coming off a business-as-usual (sort of)
road win against a potential playoff team.
With that bit of accounting out of the way, we feel it important to bring you a list of the most arduous strategic challenges Bill Belichick has faced in his coaching career, in order:
a) Stopping the "Greatest Show on Turf" Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI.
b) Guiding the Pats to an 11-5 record with Matt Cassel at quarterback in 2008.
c) Figuring out some way to stop that wicked-scary Colts fake-punt formation Sunday night.
The Packers survived a furious
Philip Rivers rally and, for now, barely hold their spot at No. 2. Although the mass media has yet to notice,
Aaron Rodgers' statistical pace has slowed from that of a Ben Sheets fastball to that of a Lynn Dickey dead sprint --
white-guy Afro included. Take a look at the numbers:
» Rodgers' first three games: 73.6 percent completion rate, 10:0 TD-to-INT ratio, 135.4 passer rating.
» His last three games: 62.6 percent completion rate, 5:2 TD-to-INT ratio, 96.4 passer rating.
Those stats are still formidable, but not nearly what we're used to seeing from the reigning league MVP.
For anyone who didn't believe in the
Bengals, uh, now is the time to start. Putting up 34 points
on the Bills' defense, on the road, in inclement conditions, would meet any sort of litmus test, especially one week after Cincinnati
came back from a 17-point deficit against the
Seahawks. Sure, this team was fortunate to get
EJ Manuel instead of Tyrod Taylor. But that shouldn't diminish the shine on this win.
By the way, Bengals tight end Tyler Eifert is on pace for, like, 91 touchdowns this year.
What a grand occasion for the Panthers to put a complete game together. All three phases -- offense, defense and special teams -- contributed heavily to Carolina's victory over what had been deemed a quality team. To that point, the Panthers had run clean through a relatively easy slate. Beating the Seahawks in Seattle -- handing the home team just its third loss in CenturyLink during the Russell Wilson era -- also required the Panthers to produce in the air, something we haven't seen them do much in 2015. It wasn't perfect, but Cam Newton overcame two interceptions to hit Greg Olsen right in the chest on the game-clincher with less than a minute to play. The big jump here is well earned, folks.
That was one fugly interception in overtime from Peyton Manning. And the pick-six Manning threw earlier was clearly behind intended target Ronnie Hillman. But when Manning had to make plays on the final drive of overtime, he made them. It wasn't pretty, but with a defense that scores touchdowns almost as easily as the offense struggles to score them, the Broncos escaped with a win in Cleveland. Don't hate, though. Look what happened to the previously undefeated Falcons (whose fans all wanted me to place them above Denver on these here Rankings last week.)
Call it a blow to the team ego. Or call it divisional football on the road. Dan Quinn didn't look panicked on the sidelines during the loss to New Orleans -- nor should he have. Remember, when he was the Seahawks' defensive coordinator, he saw Seattle get beaten by big special-teams plays in St. Louis last season and still make it to the Super Bowl. Neither this squad nor its leader seemed shook. The real test will come in Weeks 14 and 16, against one team. Take a guess as to which.
Yet another win for Todd Bowles and company, who have quietly gotten off to a sturdy 4-1 start and are in sole possession of second place in the AFC East. (Does anyone care about being in sole possession of second place?) That Jets defense shook off a few Redskins impact plays before ultimately shutting the door in the second half. And Ryan Fitzpatrick added a sweet touchdown run in which he clocked about a 6.4-second 40. Still counts, man.
Landry Jones will be getting free Yuenglings for the next three months following that performance. Maybe my Twitter inbox won't blow up from all the frustrated Antonio Brown owners in fantasy. I guess one catch for minus-2 yards -- Brown's total production Sunday before Mike Vick left -- doesn't light their fire. Speaking of fires, defensive coordinator Keith Butler is starting to light mine as an Assistant Coach of the Year candidate.
The Cardinals had no business losing that game at Heinz on Sunday. Personal fouls killed Bruce Arians' club in the first half -- Arizona was called for six penalties for 75 yards before intermission. The refs failed to call a clear hold of Michael Floyd in the end zone in the second quarter. Obviously, Mike Mitchell's fourth-quarter pick of Carson Palmer in the end zone was the key sequence in the defeat. Those plays aside, Palmer missed several open looks on a day when the win just wasn't to be.
Congrats to the Vikings on the win. And specific kudos go to the defense, which has been the stalwart foundation of this team. Meanwhile, quarterback Teddy Bridgewater has been up and down -- at best. He missed a rollout throw on third-and-1 late in the fourth quarter that could have helped the Vikes salt away the clock. It's little plays like that, hidden from the box score, that are oh so important. We're still waiting to see the Bridgewater who completed more than 80 percent of his passes in the preseason. That said, this club is 3-2 without that brand of Bridgewater. Who says Minnesota lands a wild-card spot?
Philly looked dominant on defense Monday night. Flat-out dominant. If that group can play that way, week in and week out, then concerns about how Sam Bradford and DeMarco Murray fit into this offense -- or why Riley Cooper inexplicably stops on deep routes -- become a bit less pressing. Fletcher Cox looks like a First-Team All-Pro. Connor Barwin was bull-rushing Giants tackle Marshall Newhouse like a man possessed. Even Nolan Carroll was balling out there.
Win, loss, win, loss, win, loss ... That's the story for the Buffalo Bills this season. After their complete dismantling of the Dolphins down in Florida, many of us thought this Bills squad was a playoff team for sure. Now? Tough call. Yes, the club has suffered several injuries, but this peak-and-valley jazz, combined with a key guy like Mario Williams starting to question the defensive system, makes for a giant crud sandwich in Western NY.
Andrew Luck looked a little off Sunday night, even if the Colts' franchise quarterback finished the evening with decent numbers (30 for 50, 312 yards, three touchdowns and zero picks). At least Indy's coaching staff made up for it by pulling some sweet special-teams planning that rivaled the greatest in-game strategy in history, like a mix of Eisenhower's Operation Overlord and LeBeau's Zone Blitz.
Yes, the
Giants are
still reeling from the Fourth of July. Opposing quarterbacks routinely ignore New York's pass rush, or lack thereof.
On the other side of the ball ...
The play calling on Monday night either left something to be desired, or the Eagles just knew everything that was coming. Combined with the fact that Rueben Randle looks hobbled and Eli Manning kept getting hit ... You get the point.
Bye week for the Rams, whose 2-3 season qualifies as Rams-esque at this point. Todd Gurley is certainly a welcome addition, though; the rookie put up 146 yards and 159 yards in his first two career starts, which far exceeds the first two career starts of two Rams luminaries, Jerome Bettis (33 and 85 yards) and Eric Dickerson (91 and 88 yards). Of course, Dickerson's debut came in Week 1, and the big kid from SMU finished with 1,808 yards -- a total that Gurley is not likely to approach, given that he didn't get going until Week 4. Still, we're comparing Gurley to Hall of Famers for a reason.
This isn't funny anymore. That is to say, the Seahawks deserve the freefall here. We've held fast to the notion that the defense is still a top-three unit, while the offense would come around with Marshawn Lynch back in the fold. Couple that with the tremendous home-field advantage ... ah, whatever -- Seattle is getting flat beat right now, and there isn't a damn fluky thing about it, regardless of what you can blame on miscommunication in the secondary. That's the game. The Seahawks can't just roll the football out there, to use a Sean Payton expression, and expect to win.
The Chargers could be a playoff team. Yet, their approach -- specifically that of coach Mike McCoy -- puts the entire outcome on the shoulders of Philip Rivers. The franchise quarterback calls much of the offense from the line of scrimmage, and he carries the burden of having to play at an elite level all the time for San Diego to win. It should be noted that Rivers did have Danny Woodhead open in the flat on that second-and-goal incompletion to Antonio Gates in the closing moments of the loss to Green Bay. It should also be noted that, had the game seeped into overtime, Rivers (503 passing yards on 65 attempts) could have threatened one of the oldest records on the NFL's books: Norm Van Brocklin's 554 passing yards, set in 1951.
It was an off week for the Raiders, following a narrow loss to the Broncos in which the offense failed the team. One big key for Oakland: getting Latavius Murray in gear again. The third-year back has run 28 times for just 88 yards over the last two games combined, coughing up the football twice to the Bears in Week 4. The Raaaaaiiiders can't get to .500 without Murray being hugely productive.
The Redskins made it interesting for a bit in the new Meadowlands. Then the second half happened. Washington's offense gained all of 77 yards -- including six on the ground -- after the break, giving up two turnovers for good measure. Six games into this season, the 'Skins have been outscored 46-3 in the third quarter. That casts doubt on halftime adjustments ... which casts doubt on coaching.
Last week, we openly fawned all over Josh McCown? (Question mark intended.) This week, a more understated approach to this blurb. McCown's interceptions were not fun, the second coming with Cleveland driving for a potential game-winning field goal. The ball was lofted across the field, right into the arms of David Bruton Jr. Watch the replay again. See if you can make sense of it. Whew boy, this was the 1987 AFC Championship Game all over again, with the Browns coming back from a multi-score deficit against the Broncos ... before committing a terrible, game-altering turnover. Ugh.
This was the appropriate time to make the change from Brandon Weeden to Matt Cassel, with Dallas off last week. Another benefit of the bye: The Cowboys didn't have to play another game without Dez Bryant, who could be close to returning -- possibly even for Sunday's game against the Giants. Same with Randy Gregory, who could be back in action for the first time since Week 1, when he injured his ankle. (That pass rush will look pretty good with Gregory back in the fold.) Tony Romo, on the other hand, is several weeks away from suiting up. Cassel should provide the Cowboys a better shot at winning this Sunday. His career TD-to-INT ratio (96:70) is much better than Weeden's (28:30), and unlike the latter, Cassel has experienced success in the NFL before. Granted, it came in 2010, but work with me here.
Told you these Dolphins would respond to Dan Campbell. Well, at least for one week. Miami got the defensive response the organization was looking for when it committed $60 million guaranteed to a boy named Suh in the spring. How about Reshad Jones delivering an early knockout blow with that pick-six? Scoring defense never goes out of style.
Direct some of your football love toward Colin Kaepernick, who threw for 340 yards and two touchdowns in the 49ers' win over the Ravens. Two weeks since calmly telling reporters he doesn't walk into the team facility worried about job security, Kap has provided back-to-back strong outings. That, my friends, is called walking the walk. Of import: two deep balls uncorked by No. 7. The first, a 76-yard scoring strike to Torrey Smith. That sucker was a beaut. And then the running heave to Anquan Boldin -- which set up Quinton Patton's fourth-quarter touchdown -- was both lovely and the play of the game.
Oh, man -- if only the Bears could have pulled off the road win at Ford Field. Nobody -- and I mean nooooobody -- expected Chicago to climb back to 3-3 after the 0-3 start. Jay Cutler and company came thisclose to doing just that. There was so much back and forth in this NFC North contest, including Cutler getting it done (again) on a last-gasp drive in the fourth. This time, it was two completions to Alshon Jeffery for 49 yards that only ate up 17 seconds. Unfortunately, Jeffery couldn't come up with a ball on third down in overtime, and the suddenly feisty Bears ran out of claws. Give Cutler and this roster credit, though, for not being the destined-for-the-first-overall-pick team people were labeling them as three weeks ago.
DeAndre Hopkins is a better overall wide receiver than Odell Beckham Jr. right now. That's right. Said it on "NFL HQ" -- only to draw a bunch of weird looks from my cohorts -- and I'm saying it again here. What can't Hopkins do? The third-year pro can run 9 routes, handle the possession stuff and routinely highpoint the ball in the red zone. In six games, Hopkins has put up 726 yards and five touchdowns. That translates to a 1,936-yard season with 13 touchdowns. Read that yardage total again.
Don't look now, but the suddenly pesky Bucs are 2-3. Granted, we still don't really know how impressed to be with wins over Jacksonville and New Orleans -- but hey, the Saints did beat the Falcons, right? Consider last week's bye an opportunity for Jameis Winston to get more comfortable in the offense and -- hopefully -- be more careful with the football going forward. Much of the time, these off weeks are about study habits. Let's hope Winston has study habits -- good study habits, I mean.
Nice jump after a convincing win over the previously undefeated Falcons. It was difficult not to pull for the Saints on Thursday night, kinda the same way I felt about the Matt Hasselbeck-led Colts one week prior. Everyone in the football world was saying the Saints were done -- that this was the end of the road for Drew Brees, and that Sean Payton could get dealt in a trade of Jon Gruden proportions. All this, and the rival Falcons were coming to town to beat the snot out of them. But then the blocked punt happened, much like in 2006. Hey, Falcons: Never punt.
Hard to believe a John Harbaugh-coached football team is 1-5. As with all of the
Ravens' prior losses this season --
to the Broncos,
Bengals and
Browns -- one or two plays go slightly differently
Sunday in San Francisco, and Baltimore is putting a mark in the win column. The loss to the
49ers was most like the season-opening defeat in Denver, when a contested ball in the end zone
slipped through Crockett Gillmore's hands, as
Steve Smith Sr. had one slide through his mitts on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Ravens' secondary is so bad, Brady Anderson could go deep on them. (Remember that one year he somehow hit 50 bombs out of nowhere? That was a strange era for baseball. Some people would use another "S" word to describe it.)
That was one unhappy Ken Whisenhunt after the 28-point loss to the Dolphins on Sunday. Tennessee keeps coming up short, so the frustration is certainly understandable. However, Whiz was ticked off in the postgame about Marcus Mariota taking what his coach perceived to be a cheap shot from Olivier Vernon. Yes, Mariota suffered a sprained MCL on the play -- which is unfortunate -- but it sure didn't look intentional. Vernon put two moves on the blocker in front of him, then either was knocked into or stumbled into (or both) the back of Mariota's legs. To me, Whisenhunt's frustration seems misguided. Am I missing something here? Would love to know your thoughts, Titans fans. (@HarrisonNFL)
So the Royals are in the ALCS ... Not sure where to go with this blurb.
Let's see ... Charcandrick West can't fumble that football. Alex Smith is not playing like the 10th-best quarterback in football. (Yes, some hack said he'd be that in 2015. Can't remember who ...) And now Jeremy Maclin is banged up.
Forgive Chiefs fans if they are wearing Dan Quisenberry jerseys, scoring baseball games and re-living the glory days of Tecmo Super Bowl. #Okoyehittingpower
YAAAAAY!!! ... Yaaay!! ... Yay. The Lions finally brokered their first win of 2015. And of course, by Tuesday, we're still writing about a 1-5 team. But hey, that's better than an 0-6 team, right? My colleague on NFL Now, Maurice Jones-Drew, thinks Detroit can go on a run after getting that first win out of the way. The Lions play host to the Vikings this Sunday, then travel to Kansas City, have a bye, play the Packers at Lambeau and have a pair of home games against the Raiders and Eagles. Is Detroit really that much worse than any of those teams -- outside of Green Bay, of course? Maybe the Lions win three or four of those five contests. Maybe.
Think your team is hard to watch? Try being a Jaguars fan. Jacksonville is 15-55 since the beginning of the 2011 campaign. Fifteen and fifty-five. Blake Bortles continues to put up fantasy numbers, leading the casual fan to surmise that he is ascending rapidly. Until you watch the end-zone interception he threw at the end of the first half on Sunday. Down 10-7, the Jags needed points there. Funny thing is, that wasn't even Bortles' worst throw to the other team -- or even to Andre Hal, for that matter. See: this pick-six.
Follow Elliot Harrison on Twitter @HarrisonNFL.


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Christian Formation is a lifelong and multi-faceted process as well as an exciting adventure. This year at Trinity we hope to broaden and deepen formation opportunities for all ages and life stages and invite and encourage you to participate in ways old and new. Weekly Formation
Sundays 9:15 am—Faith and Fiction in the Parish House. In "Faith and Fiction" we read selected short stories and look for glimmers of the divine, illustrations of God's grace, and insights about how to live our lives in accord with the teachings of Jesus. As with the parables, in reading stories about others, we often gain better understandings about ourselves and how to live. This class resumes in the fall.Wednesdays6:30 am—Men's Bible, Prayer and Breakfast meets weekly in the Parish House. Resumes in the fall.
1:30 pm—Intercessory Prayer Group has been meeting together and praying for our congregation for over twenty years. Each week we pray for one another, share our joys and concerns, and pray for those who have requested our prayers. Please join us in the Moore Library. For those who have children in school, we plan to wrap up in time for car pool.Daily E-Mail Meditations
Hundreds of members of Trinity Church receive a bit of scripture, a short reflection, and a prayer for the day six days a week, delivered right to their email inbox. The reflections are usually prose, but sometimes include poetry, art, and even icons created by Trinity members and staff. It's a great way to continue doing Christian Formation from wherever you are! To join the list or to volunteer to contribute, contact Maria Elliott at email@example.com.
Contact TrinityMailing Address:Trinity Episcopal Church1329 Jackson Avenue New Orleans, Louisiana 70130
Phone:504.522.0276Fax: 504.522.9960
© 2012 Trinity Episcopal Church
1329 Jackson Avenue | New Orleans, Louisiana 70130 | 504.522.0276


text:
Armor Shop
- Coral Ring
- 50,000
- Angel Ring
- 50,000
- Fire Ring
- 50,000
Item Shop
- Eye Drop
- 20
- Antidote
- 30
- Tonic
- 40
- Cornucopia
- 50
- Maidens Kiss
- 60
- Soft
- 150
- Phoenix Down
- 1,000
- Tent
- 250
Magic Shop
Time Magic
World 1: Easterly Village
Most guides have you gallivanting off to Istory after you visit Crescent. Why put off tomorrow what you can do today? After you gain control of the Fire-Powered Ship you can sail off into the sunset… or the northwestern part of the world.
This is another sleepy town that doesn't believe in pubs. Apparently they are nonviolent as well because they don't even have a weapon shop. No beer. No swords. No treasure. What do they have? They have plenty of sheep. You might be wondering why you are in this god-forsaken fleece farm. There are actually a couple of good reasons.
Toad Black Magic
If you talk to one of the hyper little girls scampering about, she'll tell you that she found something nice while running around the flowerbed. Perhaps you too could find something nice while running around the flowerbed. Head north from the entrance to town towards the armory. Ignore it for now. Go west and then north again. Talk to the green mage hanging out at the base of the hill. He will tell you something nonsensical about being surprised frogs are still asleep when it's so warm out. Go up the hill and run around on the flowerbed once (smashing all the pretty flowers that someone worked so hard to plant and grow). A surprised toad will pop out from the middle of the flowerbed. After he runs off into the forest you gain the Toad black magic.
Love Song
The blue-haired hippie to the west of the sheep pen has a Romeo's Ballad just for you. The problem is how to get over the fence to talk to him. It's really not hard, although it is morally questionable. Talk to the little sheepherder in the center of the pen. She tells you not to talk to the sheep in the corner because he has a "baaad attitude" and will kick you. Of course your top priority now is to talk to that sheep. You can talk to all the other sheep too, but they just bleat at you. One would think that one would talk to a sheep face to face. Not this sheep. This mean ornery sheep, you need to go around and talk to its butt. After a couple frightening motions, the angry sheep hurtles you over the fence where you can collect your song from the hippie by answering yes to his question. You can answer no and still be able to collect the song by talking to him again. To exit this area walk north then east and weave through the trees until you find yourself on the world map again.
Nothing exciting is happening at the inn. There are no adventurers, just four beds to fill. You can rest in them for 30 Gil a night and sleep with a lovely wool blanket.
Magic Shop
This is another disappointing magic shop. They only have a proprietor for Time Magic, and he must be off the trade path because by this time you should own all of these spells. If you don't, this place might not be such a letdown.
The only interesting shop in town is the armory. It sells only three relics. I can never seem to scrape up the money to buy any of them since they retail for 50,000 Gil each. I just stand around and drool wondering what the lovely rings would look like on my fingers. You can purchase the Flame Ring that, as the green mage to the left of the shop will tell you, absorbs fire, protects against frost and is weak to water. Also for sale is the Coral Ring (which is rather infamous as a tool in a battle much later with the legendary Shinryu). The Coral Ring absorbs water, protects against fire, and is weak to thunder. The last ring in the armorist's inventory is the Angel Ring. The Angel Ring prevents the status effects of Zombie and Aging. They're all great relics if you can afford to pick them up.
hp: 4,000Boss Battle: Ramuh
One little old lady in town talks about an odd old man wandering around the forest who hits you with thunder. This odd old man is none other than the summoned monster Ramuh who can be yours to call upon if you best him in battle. Ramuh roams the forest to the east of Istory. You won't find any other monsters in the forest until you beat him.
This can be a challenging boss. He is fairly singular about his attacks. Most of them are strictly thunder elemental, and unfortunately you still don't have a way to defend against elemental damage. Ramuh's favorite attack is Thundara. He averaged 363 points of damage to one of my unlucky party members. His Electrocute attack is similar, causing thunder damage to one character, but it is much weaker only inflicting about 70 points of damage. Just so he doesn't pick on only one party member all the time, he rounds out his thunder attacks by casting Thunder on your entire party for about 150 points of damage. When Ramuh gets frustrated he steals mp from your characters casting Osmose. To add insult to injury he casts the blue magic Flash that blinds your party. Occasionally he gets bored and just attacks physically.
Ramuh has no weaknesses. He absorbs water-elemental damage. There is a dirty exploitive way to beat him. You can resort to casting Death Claw and reduce Ramuh to 2hp before lightly tapping him and finishing him off. If you weren't lucky and haven't learned Death Claw, you can use Gravity instead. It's not as efficient and it has diminishing returns, but the initial 2000 hp of damage is quite sizable. Bring out your staple fighter or mage. It doesn't really matter. You might also try using your ninja and throwing things at him. My Flame Scroll did 640 points of damage, far higher than any of my attacks were doing at the time. Flinging a shuriken at him caused over 1,600 points of damage.
User Submitted Strategies
In the forest where you run into Ramuh you can run into 6 minidragons that at first appear to be very challenging. The newly acquired toad spell usually turns them into toads and makes their attacks completely ineffective. They give up just over 1000 exp.
Posted at 9:58 AM on October 18, 2009 by meph
Guys, if you missed Ramuh, just wander around in the garden in front of N-Zone Tower, he may pop out :)
Posted at 11:03 PM on May 9, 2007 by Ayron
Erm... and... if i forgot to take him? ^^" I'm now in post game, and i wanna complete my Bestiary, is there any way to fight him?
Posted at 7:40 AM on April 22, 2007 by Ayron
summon Ifrit many times and Ramuh would speak to Ifrit, thereby stopping him from attacking my party.
Posted at 4:08 AM on February 12, 2007 by Miguel
It is hilarious to note that after defeating Ramuh I had no idea how to use the summon. I ran around for several minutes trying to figure it out before I actually opened up my item menu and "used" the Ramuh item. Then the summon appeared. Not my finest moment.
Posted at 2:03 PM on December 18, 2006 by Trevor
I used Ifrit on him a couple times and eventually he started talking to Ifrit, and he was convinced to give up the fight without beating him!
Posted at 12:34 PM on December 13, 2006 by seldumonde
from blackflame you can learn blue magic spell black shock
Posted at 12:28 PM on April 7, 2005 by finland
Add Strategy
Area Enemies
|hp: 600
|mp: 200
|exp: 270
|gil: 114
|Steal: Tonic
Steal: MythrilArmor
|Drop: MythrilGlove
|hp: 220
|mp: 100
|exp: 290
|gil: 174
|Steal: Speed Drink
|Drop: Speed Drink
|Stone Golem
|hp: 1,000
|mp: 0
|exp: 550
|gil: 177
|Steal: Soft
|Drop: Potion
|hp: 1,000
|mp: 100
|exp: 900
|gil: 180
|Steal: Dragon Fang
|Drop: Nothing
|hp: 4,000
|mp: 300
|Steal: Potion
|Drop: Ramuh
Song Treasure
- Love Song
"Talk" to the ornery sheep's behind. After he flings you over the fence, talk to the bard.
Summon Treasure
- Ramuh
The thunder god roams the forest east of the village; beat him to gain the spell.
Black Magic Treasure
- Toad
Run in a circle around the flowers on the hill


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15 Next-Level Mac and Cheese Recipes Worth the Splurge
We know you thought mac and cheese was your boyfriend, but there's a new love in town. The classic mac has gotten a major upgrade with rainbow mac, fried mac, jalapeño popper mac, mac pizza, mac pancakes, grilled mac 'n' cheese sandwiches and, yes, even a highfalutin' lobster mac — OOH LA LA! If you're already salivating at the thought of these craaaazy mac concoctions, keep scrolling for *the* most outrageous mac and cheese recipes you've ever seen.
Skillet Mac and Cheese (Pizza Style)
Oh em gee — it's everyone's two faves, pizza and mac and cheese, cooked up in a single skillet. This double-delicious dish will get thumbs up from even the pickiest eaters at the table. (via Heather's French Press)
Lobster Mac and Cheese
This homemade mac and cheese is made the old fashioned way, with a floury roux-based cheese sauce. The combination of cheddar and Parrano cheese is extra tangy, and pairs just right with the lobster. Your tastebuds will thank you for your trouble. (via Amy in the Kitchen)
Macaroni and Cheese With Bacon and Caramelized Onions
Everyone's childhood favorite is all grown up in this mac and cheese with bacon and caramelized onions. Elevate this dish to food-throwdown perfection by subbing prosciutto or pancetta in place of the bacon. (via Julia's Album)
Four-Cheese Caprese Mac and Cheese
This recipe is so simple, yet *so* delicious. Take your basic mac and cheese and load it up with four cheeses — cheddar, mozzarella, Havarti and Brie — then top with a fresh basil pesto and some heirloom tomato slices. It's everything you ever wanted in a mac and cheese: creamy, luscious and OH-SO-good. (via Half Baked Harvest)
French Onion Mac and Cheese
Vidalia onions are spilling over at the greenmarket, and this soup takes full advantage. Everyone knows the best part of onion soup is the cheese, right? But let's up our game by adding macaroni and cheese, to turn this soup into a tasty meal that's deeply satisfying. (via Hungry Couple)
Gluten Free Mac and Cheese With Zucchini Noodles
This one's for all the GF peeps in the house. This mac and cheese comes with a delectable sauce made of Greek yogurt, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese that's served over zucchini noodles. This low-carb, low-cal copycat clocks in at just 250 calories and tastes out of this world. (via Food Faith Fitness)
An Irishman's Mac and Cheese
Okay, we promised you crazy, and this dish can bring it! Imagine an Irish colcannon with bacon, kale and potatoes in a scrumptious mash-up with a traditional mac and cheese. And if that's not outrageous enough, top it off with a crumbled mound of potato chips before serving. Bookmark this one for St. Paddy's Day and you'll be the hit of the party. (via Half Baked Harvest)
Bacon, Mac and Cheese Melt
Mac and cheese brings this grilled cheese with bacon sammy to a whole new mind-blowing level. It makes a perfect second-day lunch when you've got some leftover mac and cheese in the fridge. (via Real Food by Dad)
Mac & Cheese Burgers
Look out, Juicy Lucy, you are about to be out-ranked. You can't get any better than a burger stuffed with cheese, unless it's stuffed with mac and cheese of course. Invite some Insta-friends when you make this, because you're gonna want witnesses to document this food-porn-worthy spectacle. (via Just Add Hot Sauce)
Fried Mac and Cheese
Because everything tastes better fried, this TGI Friday's copycat calls for homemade mac and cheese to be chilled, formed, then dipped in egg and covered in breadcrumbs before hitting the fryer. Golden brown, crusty and oozing cheesy goodness, these bites won't last a minute — so you'd better make a double batch for that next BBQ. (via Spicy Southern Kitchen)
Bacon Mac and Cheese Bites
These appetizers are easy to make and bacon-anything is always a crowd pleaser at parties. Bonus: They can be prepped ahead of time and warmed up right before serving. (via The Gunny Sack)
Macaroni and Cheese Pancakes
Mac and cheese pancakes, isn't that some sort of crime? We'll plead the fifth — all we know is these three-cheese mac griddle cakes are browned to a crisp and incredibly delicious. The best part? There's a hidden veggie in the batter, but no one will ever know! (via The Breakfast Drama Queen)
Rainbow Mac + Cheese Recipe
Homemade cheese fondue is drizzled over dyed pasta and served up in a wild spectrum of color across your plate. Get ready to dig in and taste the rainbow. All the kiddies — big and small — will love this one. (Brit + Co)
Jalapeño Poppers With Mac and Cheese Cheetos
These poppers are stuffed with cheesy macaroni, then covered in crunchy Cheetos and doused with melted cheese. SWOON. Have some ice cold beer handy, because these things are addictive and the jalapeños pack a punch. (via Foodness Gracious)
Mini Italian Meatball Mac and Cheese Stuffed Peppers
When cooking something everyone likes seems almost impossible, here's your secret weapon! Mac and cheese and spicy Italian meatballs are stuffed inside colorful bell peppers, then bathed in savory marinara sauce. Reluctant short order cook FTW! (via Half Baked Harvest)
- 17 Healthy Spins on Mac + Cheese for a Guilt-Free Game Day Potluck ›
- Banish the Box! 25 Homemade Mac and Cheese Recipes - Brit + Co ›
- 10 Recipes to Upgrade a Box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese - Brit + Co ›
- 3 Vegan Mac and Cheeses That Basically Taste Like the Real Deal ... ›
- How to DIY Slow Cooker Mac and Cheese - Brit + Co ›
- This Homemade Rainbow Mac and Cheese Recipe Will Change ... ›


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We wouldn't be at all surprised if this was one of those books where the title preceded the content. Still, Hammer Glamour is an enjoyably fang-in-cheek compendium of the distressed lovelies who squealed their way through the camp schlock-horror films in the Sixties and Seventies.
The book features images of some of the more famous members of the Hammer harem including Raquel Welch (One Million Years BC), Stephanie Beacham (Dracula AD 1972) and Joanna Lumley (The Satanic Rites Of Dracula), as well as more, er, rarefied beauties such as Mary and Madeleine Collinson (stars of the aptly named Twins Of Evil). It's an eye-popping selection and a surprising paean to the goat-skin bikini.
Hammer Glamour by Marcus Hearn (Titan Books) is out today


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| Southern UK Jivers Calendar
Serving dancers across the south of England for over ten years!
Click here to enter the Southern UK Jive Forum
Share your views at the Southern Jive Forum. Freestyle threads, Jive Music discussions, etiquette and much more
NEW!!! Directory of weekly class nights
Vote for what else you'd like to see on this site (Facebook login needed)
|Tuesday 28 January 2020
|Click on icons for different views :
|Events for day: Thursday 14 November 2019
Dance Yourself Dizzy Freestyle at Minstead Village Hall, Minstead, Nr Lyndhurst, Hants. SO43 7FX (New Forest). 8:00pm - 11:00pm.
Entry just £5
Tel: 07530 841447
Click here for map. ...
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The following are companies I use and would genuinely recommend. Feel free to talk to me about them, but if you want to sign up, please use these links as they will give me a referral credit! This site is run and paid for by one person so this will go towards running costs


text:
3323 N Clark St.
Chicago, IL 60657
(773) 755-2500
(773) 755-0373 (fax)
M-F 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Sat 9:00 am - 1:00 pm
Sat 9:00 am - 1:00 pm
Countryside Bank offers banking that helps you build your best life. We believe builders are everywhere. Whether it's growing families, expanding businesses, constructing houses or preparing for retirement – people are actively moving ahead. When builders bank with Countryside Bank, we place them on the fast track for reaching their goals. Our motto, "It's grow time," demonstrates our commitment to helping our customers grow through life's stages and attain their goals.
Corner of Clark and Buckingham -- just north of Belmont


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Jagiellonian University in Krakow is one of the biggest and highest rated universities in Poland. Established in 1364 by king Casimir the Great, it is the second oldest university in Central Europe, with a nearly 650 year tradition of educating and conducting academic research. It runs its activities in accordance with the Great Chart of European Universities and is a signatory of Polish Universities for Quality Education Agreement. Currently, it has nearly 45,000 students and over 7,000 staff.
Situated in a beautiful city of Krakow, considered the cultural capital of Poland, the university shapes an inspiring, dynamic and interdisciplinary learning environment. It has a strongly international profile which offers both students and researchers/teachers major opportunities for participation in regional and worldwide academic networks. Having a long-lasting experience in hosting students and staff from abroad, the university places a strong emphasis on increasing its links with its international partners and developing international programmes taught in English.
When you are not studying, Krakow offers many excellent, affordable leisure activities. There are some 500 pubs, 50 museums, about 100 private galleries, several movie theatres and countless food and shopping places within walking distance of the university.
To learn more about Jagiellonian, go to: http://www.uj.edu.pl/
To learn more about Krakow and nearest surroundings, go to: http://www.transatlantic.uj.edu.pl/main.php?id=31
To learn more about Poland, go to: http://en.poland.gov.pl/


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Choose the option below to either get signed up for the Free Intro class. Or book in for the full 8 week course at discounted price.
Full details below (scroll down)
Whitland – Wed 4th March at 7pm – Salsa 8 Week Beginners Course & Party
£0.00 – £40.00
Choose the option below to either get signed up for the Free Intro class. Or book in for the full 8 week course at discounted price.
starting: Wednesday 4th March 2020 at 7pm.
Then every Wednesday for 8 weeks – last lesson on 22nd April
Plus 1 x Party for you to enjoy (to be taken within the 8 weeks)
Held at: Whitland Town Hall, 1 King Edward St, Whitland, SA34 0AA
Stop putting it off and join our community today!
In this course you will learn the fundamental movements for you to dance the night away on the dance floor 💃
Cost of the 8 week course & party:
£40 if booking online before the free Introductory lesson
Or £49 if booking in the free introductory lesson (Cash/Card)
(Original Price £58)
NO BAR! – Please bring drinks
We have a wide age range of students attending our classes.
From 16-70+ (You must be 16+ to join in the fun)
Unsure if Salsa is for you?
Then come along and try our FREE Introductory lesson, which is on the first lesson of every new 8 week course!
In this lesson we will do our best to give you a taste of what Salsa dancing is about and the social dance nights we provide. If you would then like to sign up you can do so on the night – which costs £49.
Although booking online before the start date helps us in regards to knowing who is coming. So we offer a £9 discount if you book your spaces online early.
Please also remember our courses are only available every 8 weeks and are hugely popular, so make sure you get booked in to avoid disappointment 🙂
Learn the Basic Salsa Steps (Footwork)
Frequently Asked Questions
If you have dance but never Salsa then yes, it is important to get the basic fundamental understanding of each dance style so you can comfortably progress. If you have danced salsa elsewhere but never with us, please get in contact with us, so we can best advise what class you will need to do. Thank you
We will aim to progress every week covering; Understanding the Salsa Rhythm, Salsa History, Finding the beat, connection and movement in partnership, some of the step covered will include Basic steps, side step, back step, open out, right and left turns for lead and followers, Crossbody Lead, Crossbody Lead Walkthrough, Crossbody Lead Inside turn. With the emphasis on keeping the rhythm and listening to the music in these steps.
No, you do not need to come with a partner as we constantly swap partner's during class. This means you will get to dance with everyone throughout the class. Making it better for learning, and creating a more social experience.
We encourage everyone to make an effort to make all the classes, as we progress each week, and it will be best for your learning. However if you miss the odd class please do not worry, as we recap everything from the previous week.
Additional information
Free Introductory, 8 Week Course (DISCOUNTED)


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Home > Beer Kits - Home Brew > Bitter Beer Kits
Model: 333102822Brand: Still Spirits
In stock, immediate despatch
Known as an elixir often taken after a large meal to aid indigestion. Drink over ice in a brandy balloon
Makes 1.125L (1.5 Bottles)
Take 710ml of 40%ABV Alcohol,, Add Flavouring and top up to 1.125L with water. Mix well, store or serve
To get the best out of the flavouring we recommed the use of the base packs, but is not essential
Parcel Force will deliver your parcel within 2-3 days
Under 1kg UK, Royal Mail = £3.12
Orders Over £65 - Free delivery (UK Mainland)Orders Under £65 - £6.50 (UK Mainland)
Zone 1, Mainland UKOrders Under £65 = £6.50Orders Over £65 = FREEZone 2, Scottish Highlands and IslandsOrders Under £65 = £14.15Orders Over £65 = £7.66Zone 3, Northern Ireland, Isle Man, Isles of ScilyOrders Under £65 = £15.96Orders Over £65 = £9.46Zone 4, Isle wightOrders Under £65 = £11.50Orders Over £65 = £5.00
Be the first to Write a Review for this item!


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I always look for new ideas, new ways and life improvements that push me forward. Sometimes its only reading an article about it, how other people do this.
This was an inspiring article to me.
>This 10 minute Routine Will Increase Your Clarity And Creativity
To be honest, its a twenty-minutes-task every day.
Ten minutes before sleep and ten minutes after waking up… 10+10 = ?
BUT its about Creativity not about Mathematics.
My favorite qoute-qoute of the text:
"A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances." — James Allen


text:
Originally Posted October 27, 2009- As I was thinking of a retro post to re-publish, this one jumped to the forefront of my mind this morning. I've been slacking off on using my mission field in the way that I should. Sometimes it takes a reminder of what child like faith feels like to reignite the fire in one's heart.
I learn things from my kids all the time, but last night Sadie taught me a major lesson. My sweet, little, 5-year old daughter was chosen to be the star student this week in her kindergarten class. (I am proud as a peacock!) One of the privileges of the being the star student is that you get to bring in your favorite book and the teacher reads it to the whole class. Sadie has about a million favorite books, so I was curious to see what she would pick. Last night when it came time to pick her book, she chose one called The Parable of the Lily. It is a story about a little girl whose grandfather gives her a crate of dirt with a bulb in it as a gift. The girl is less than excited about a box of dirt and throws the bulb out in the yard out of frustration. She forgets all about it and on Easter morning she is shocked to find that the ugly old bulb has bloomed into a beautiful Easter lily. Each page has scriptures relating to the story and how Jesus transforms our lives into something beautiful.
Sadie goes to a public school and I just knew that taking this book was not going to fly. So I told her that she couldn't take it and would need to choose a different book. She asked why and I told her that I was afraid if her teacher read it to the class that her teacher might get in trouble. Sadie just didn't get it. How in the world would I explain to my innocent child that Christ just isn't allowed in schools? I searched for words. How can I explain something that just doesn't make sense to me either. Finally, I told her that her teacher couldn't read that book to the class because not everyone believed in Jesus. And do you know what my awesome daughter said? She said, "But mom, if they don't believe in Jesus, it's my job to tell them he's real!" She is absolutely right! That is our job! And there I was trying to sabotage her mission field. I was ashamed of myself. In the end, I let her take the book to school in addition to another of her favorites. We got to have a great talk about telling our friends about Jesus. "After all" she says, "If they don't believe in Jesus, who do they think made all the Earth?"
I am so proud of her! I love that she is uninhibited in her faith and rock solid in her beliefs. I could definitely stand to take a lesson from my daughter about what it means to go and tell the nations and to be unashamed of the gospel! Thanks Sadie for the reminder! Oh, how I love that girl!
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If you're a child of the digital era, there's a 99% chance that you've committed some type of fabrication growing up.Perhaps it was in the form of doctoring that good 'ol progress report so that your mom didn't wreak bloody hell on you for a midterm grade that you knew was going to come up anyway (why get her blood pressure up, right?). Damn those quizzes.
Maybe it was copy-pasting a little bit too much from Wikipedia into that book report than any sane person would care to admit (If you change the sentence order and use a thesaurus it counts as original work, right?).
I've even known young boys who delete "questionable" material from the history of their family computers. "Fabrication by omission"? Hmmm..
These minor misgivings don't make us BAD people. If you say you've never done anything like this in your life, you're flat out LYING.
We commit minor mistruths everyday just to keep wheels turning smoothly. Sometimes it's not the right time to reveal information that you know will soon change anyway. Sometimes it's to avoid an uncomfortable conversation or altercation that would just aggravate an already tense situation.
So any of you George Washingtons left out there on a white horse claiming to be shining examples of honesty, please dismout. I'll wait.
Now, can I be honest for a second? It's usually the smartest people who are able to come up with the most creative solutions and work-arounds. The downside to this ability is that sometimes smart people put so much work into a "shortcut" that they could have just spent the time to do the work correctly the first place.
They spend more energy trying to be lazy than it would actually take just to DO the work.
Ever watched the movie version of a book, then poured over ALL the SparkNotes in detail just to avoid actaually reading the book in it's entirety? Exactly.
My personal position is to advocate honesty and doing the job right the first time. It just makes life simpler. I think Lincoln said "Nothing is easier to remember than the truth."
Still, there are times in our personal and business lives when a good piece of digital fabrication can serve us quite well and be used ethically to redirect situations with people, companies or organizations who are just being complete jackasses.
Nobody talks about this type of stuff and I don't know why. We all do it. So I'm writing the first article in what I hope will be a series on digital work-arounds for tough situations. Leave me a comment letting me know if you like this type of stuff. (or if you hate it, that's fine too).
Here's a story that happend to me that emphasizes exactly what I'm talking about. It's the primary reason I'm writing this post.
You be the judge — tell me what YOU would have done in my shoes.
The Pit Bull Fiasco
A while back when I'd launched my first freelance business as an SAT coach (I talk about that extensively in the Rich20Something book), things were going really well and I wanted to move into my dream apartment in midtown Atlanta. It was a big deal for me and I was super excited.
So I went to fill out the lease. They checked my income, my credit and everything was cool.
Except for one thing….
Back in my old place (2 apartments ago) my pit bull had…how should I say this…spread her love all over the apartment. In reality it wasn't that bad, but the carpet had to be replaced in some areas that had been torn.
The old apartment complex that I was in never forwarded the bill to me for some reason and it ended up going on my credit as a "failure to pay" under the lease agreement. This is the same category that evictions fall under — so obviously this was a no-go for the new apartment complex in midtown.
I was pretty shocked and pissed about this. So I called the creditor that had the account. The bill was $387.
Not too bad. So I figured I could just explain the scenario to the new apartment complex, pay the outstanding balance and everything would be cool.
But as you probably know…
Some people can be completely unreasonable idiots…
I paid the bill and asked the creditor to fax the confirmation to the new apartment complex. Then I could sign the lease and move in.
They wouldn't do it. The creditor said it was against their policy to send any outgoing faxes without a direct request from a land lord. I would just have to wait for them to send the confirmation to the new apartment complex via snail mail. In 2 weeks. I asked them if I could make the request and they could just fax it to me. I mean, it was MY bill after all. And I'd just paid it. They said "no". What the hell.
So I went to the new complex and said "All you have to do is fax the creditor the request and they'll send you the document stating that I'm all paid up. Then I can sign the lease." They wouldn't do it. The land lord said it was against their policy to request any type of document from a creditor and it had to be faxed directly to them.
So let me get this straight: the collections company that I just paid won't confirm that I've paid (per their policy) and the place I want to move into won't ask for the confirmation that I've paid (per their policy).
What type of fuckery is this?
If I didn't get that document to the new complex I wouldn't be able to sign the lease and I'd lose my dream apartment.
rock | me | hard place << get it?
I felt like it was one of those situations where the only person that cared about me….was me.
What would you do at this point?
I'd tried all the traditional "ethical" solutions.
I'd talked to both parties. I'd tried to connect them and come to a mutually beneficial, nearly painless solution.
I'd tried talking, coercing, being kind and gentle, being authoritative and firm.
These bullshit policies were literally going to stop me from getting the apartment because both sides were too bound by policy to think like humans rather than mindless robots.
I'd already told my girlfriend we'd gotten the place and dammit, I was going to make sure we got it. So I took it into my own hands. The solution was very simple.
I used what I call the Middleman Technique (more on this in a future article): I went to a FexEx Kinkos and printed up a letterhead with the logo of the landlord (grabbed it off their website), and posing as the landord, I faxed the creditor a letter formally requesting the confirmation that the debt had been paid.
The creditor faxed back within minutes.
Then, posing as the creditor, I submitted the confirmation to the new land lord.
Both parties believed that the other party had followed procedure and everything went smoothly. The entire process probably took 35 minutes. It was mind-numbingly easy and just confirms the fact that they could have done it all along, they just didn't want to.
I signed the lease to my dream apartment the next day.
Rather than wait for either one of the two dumb ass sides to contact one another while I missed out on the apartment, I facilitated the agreement by role playing and taking destiny into my own hands.
Did I bend the rules by "impersonating" both sides in order to get the lease signed? Sure.
Was the act "unethical"? I don't think so.
The "fine print" (you knew it was coming)…
There are many situations where morals, ethics and rules do not always intersect. Rules are often created to serve organizational, logistical purposes — not because what they enforce is "right". They are not created with the little guy in mind. They are created to make life easier and more profitable for the rich guy.
As a little guy, I hate this.
As long as you're not hurting, desparaging or otherwise inflicting harm on an individual — I think it's perfectly ok to use work-arounds like the Middleman Technique.
I also think it's ok to use them sparingly when you're being treated aggressively or unfairly. Or when you've genuinely messed up and need another shot that you won't get by just asking for one.
In the rest of this article, I'll break down an incredibly powerful framework for creating a digital email fabrication that is deadly effective at saving your ass time and time again in multiple scenarios.
Disclaimer: I fully believe that there are times when you just need to "man" or "woman" up and accept the consequences of your actions. These work-arounds aren't meant to be staples of your daily life and they are not encouraging deception as a lifestyle. I am not encouraging you to commit any type of crime and any crime committed in conjunction with the use of these techniques is the sole responsibility of the offending party. Use these skills with great care in a responsible, ultimately benevolent manner. Cool?
Still, I know that there are situations where being able to create well-crafted digital fabrications can be really helpful when the system is stacked against you.
I told you that I'd teach you how to become a digital bad ass, didn't I?
Ok then. Let's go.
Framework Number 1: The RobotLoop
Description: this framework utilizes the mailer daemon in an email client to generate a false "failure" message and make it appear as if an email has been sent and rejected…even if it hasn't.
When it's useful:
- When you just plain forgot to submit that assignment on time to your professor
- When your boss may need proof of an email that you didn't get a chance to send yet
- To reframe the a situation by putting the onus of responsibility on someone else
Using the framework:
Let's say you missed the deadline on an assignment that will cost you the grade in a class, or the promotion at work.
My thoughts are: YES, you should learn from the lesson and commit to NOT missing any more deadlines — but in the meantime, why stomach an "F" just to teach yourself?
The RobotLoop allows you to take advantage of your mail client's robot mailer daemon to create a fabricated response that gets you off the hook.
Ever gotten a weird auto-email like the one below when you tried to shoot someone a message?
We've all gotten one or two of these at some point in our email lives. There are several reasons the mailer daemon can kick your email back.
- Sometimes it's because the recipient's inbox is full.
- Often it's because you misspelled the recipient's email address and there is no address with that name.
Either way, this is good for us. If you miss your deadline, but need a slight extension, wouldn't it be good to blame the lapse on a computer problem? Here's how to do it.
The breakdown
Step 1: Start by creating the email that you intend to send. If it's an assignment that requires an attachement or something besides the actual email body, make sure everything in that attached document matches the date that you need to reflect.
Don't incriminate yourself by being sloppy! Always check the dates on the document!
Step 2: Instead of sending it to the person who you intend to receive the email, send it to a bogus email address that you know doesn't exist so that you can get the email returned to you immediately. You can mash a bunch of buttons and add "@gmail.com" (or any carrier you want).
Something like "email@example.com" should work just fine.
Step 3: Wait for the kickback (it should look something like the picture above). It will usually come immediately after you press send, but sometimes it can take up to 5 minutes. This is the mailer daemon basically saying "hey dummy, this email address isn't valid". Great. Now we're going to doctor this email up a wee bit.
Step 4: Press "forward" and get ready to forward this garbled error message to the intended recipient. Important: do not put their address into the "to" field until you are 100% prepared to send. It's critical that you check all dates and line all the pieces up before pressing "send". Don't want to hit "send" by accident.
Step 5: Change all the dates to make the email appear "on time". See the sequence below.
Edit #1
Edit # 2
Step 6: The last piece of the RobotLoop involves writing the "confused message" that indicates to your intended recipient all or some of the following basic ideas:
- Shock and surprise
- Confusion as to why it happened
- Regret
- Mild fear (of repercussions)
- Intent for immediate action
The most important part is the last bullet – indicate that you were surprised and then IMMEDIATELY follow up with a phone call (if possible) to try and catch them before they even read your forwarded email. This will set the tone for you appearing to be the proactive person, alerting them to the problem before they were even aware of it. The immediate follow up will give you the opportunity to set the frame for the tardiness being system error, not a human error. Remember to show genuine surprise!
This is a model. Make yours better and more personalized:
The "confused message"
That's it for framework # 1.
There are even more powerful frameworks and hacks to get you out of trouble – but I'm hesitant to write more. Again, my default is always honesty. But I know there are times when we all NEED these types of quick fixes, and I hate pretending like they don't exist.
Leave me a comment. Did you like this? Would you consider using the RobotLoop?


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Greetings from Saratoga Springs, New York where last week, the first snowman and snow angels of the winter season were built. (It's a melted mess now) I hope you enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday with your family and friends, shared a … [Read more...]
Have a HEART – A Dirty Little Secret – Part 2
Welcome back to Have a HEART, Part 2, Exploring the role of EMOTIONS in todays business world. In part 1, I introduced the subject of emotions in business and why they're becoming increasingly important in staging customer experiences and … [Read more...]
Customer Experience Tip # 3 – Customer Surprise Creates Talkable Memories
Welcome back to the stage that is all about engaging customers...& yes...Rocking them with great experiences. The video below is a little warm up for today's topic -staging 'Customer Surprise'. I should warn you that the video is a little … [Read more...]
Your Backstory Revisited – It Matters
Going Back to The Future ! "Your BackStory" A Gateway to Emotion Connection & Engagement Part 1 Hellooo Again from Story Mavericks ! Just a quick little "Hope all is going well so far in Twenty 12." What a difference a year makes. If … [Read more...]
There's No Better Time Than Now For A ThinkAbout !
It was a brisk September Morning in September of 2005. I was sitting in an outdoor amphitheater, anticipating the opening session of 'tHINKABOUT', a two-day business conference held that year in The Rocky Mountains of Colorado. The event staged (and … [Read more...]