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By Matthew Schafer
Copyright 2006, All Rights Reserved
Everyone should know how to de-escalate an argument; if you know how to de-escalate arguments you can stop an aggressive person before they get to the violent stage. You should always assume that every argument can end in violence and be prepared to both calm the other person down as well as deal with them if they become violent. Just knowing how to de-escalate arguments can stop the majority of assaults both by acquaintances and strangers.
A 1986 study in The New England Journal of Medicine found that:
"Over 80 percent of homicides noted during our study occurred during arguments or altercations. [I]n cases of assault, people tend to reach for the most lethal weapon readily available. Easy access to firearms may therefore be particularly dangerous in households prone to domestic violence."
Make no doubt, the time in your life when you are most likely to be assaulted, murdered, robbed, or raped is during or just after an argument. Often people get so angry that they are driven to violence and often pick up the closest thing to use as a weapon. Sometimes people do walk away only to find themselves in a kitchen and they end up grabbing a steak knife and coming back to settle their perceived injustice. This is why the most common knife people are stabbed with in the U.S. is a steak knife.
Calming someone down and de-escalating a potentially violent situation is not as hard as many people make it. You don't need to go and get a fancy degree in psychology, all you need are the nine simple rules listed below and a couple of tried-and-true techniques.
The Eleven Rules Of De-Escalation
People get upset and aggressive for one reason: they feel that they are being attacked in some way. Someone may feel that you are attacking their intelligence or integrity and so they get defensive, and then as the situation escalates they get loud and aggressive and then perhaps violent. Since it is the fact that they feel that they are being attacked in some way that is making them defensive, in order to calm them down you have to express to them that you are not attacking them, personally or otherwise. In order to effectively express this to them there are eleven rules you must follow:
1.) See the two of you as not combatants but rather teammates trying to solve a common problem. If someone is arguing with you it is because they see a problem and the only way to calm them down and get cooperation for them it to address the problem, as THEY see it. Try to get to describe the problem as clearly as possible and listen without interrupting. Even if the person is delirious, on drugs, or just making things up go with their understanding of the problem, because even if they are wrong or crazy what they describe as a problem is the actual problem as they see it.
Build the sense of teamwork by using words like "we" and "us" when speaking with them. Listen to their problem and when you try to help them solve the problem as they see it you will start to get them to calm down and cooperate with you.
2.) Respect personal space by giving them 5-6 feet. Your job is to make the other individual feel safe and that it is ok for them to stop being defensive, and one of the easiest ways to do the opposite of that is to encroach upon their personal space. Everyone has a space around them that extends approximately 3 or 4 feet outwards (roughly their arms length) that is considered theirs and you want to make sure that you stay out of that area. Stand back 5 or 6 feet from them to give them plenty of room and allow them to feel comfortable talking to you. Doing this also gives you the benefit of having greater reaction time in the event that they do become violent.
3.) Have non-aggressive body language and if possible angle your body to the side. You want to act and appear non-aggressive because if you appear aggressive or like you're trying to assert dominance in any way the other person may respond by trying to do the same. Aggressive body language includes things like staring with a fixed gaze, tightening facial muscles, raising your chin, lifting your shoulders, and sticking out your elbows, so you want to do the opposite. Make sure that your gaze is relaxed, your chin is down, your shoulders are lowered normally, and your elbows are not flaring out. If it is possible you want to turn your body to the side so that you are at a 45-90 degree angle to them. The reason for this is that if you are slightly turned to the side you are not perceived as towering over them or trapping them. By turning they will not feel like you are blocking their escape and this will help to avoid triggering their defensive instinct. When you do this they can turn around and leave as well as walk by you.
4.) Take time to think before you speak. The natural reaction is to say whatever comes to mind but you want to avoid doing that. Every time you get ready to say something you should stop and pause for a second to reflect on whether it is the right thing to say, and then open your mouth.
5.) Be calm and talk in a tone that's lower than the one the other person is using. The angrier and louder you get the angrier and louder they will tend to get. What you need to do is relax, be calm, look them in the eye, and speak to them in a calm and even manner. Your natural reaction will be to match their volume but you want to speak calmly and in a tone lower than the one their using because this will help to calm them down.
6.) Deflect insults with deflecting statements. During an argument or emotional situation people will often insult you. The two worst things you can do are to respond to them or to ignore them. If you respond to their insults you can in feed into their emotional energy and get angry yourself; if you ignore their insults you can make them angry because they feel you are ignoring them and they may become more emotional or get violent. Instead what you should do is first realize that the insults come not from the person but from the emotions and often the person will deeply regret them later on when they calm down. Don't take them personally; after all it is not them insulting you it is their emotions.
Using a deflecting statement shows them that you heard their insult but it bypasses it and gets back to the task of addressing the core issue. The two I use the most are: "I appreciate your opinion but…" or "I appreciate that." You could also say, "I respect your opinion but…" or "I respect that." Use these statements then immediately get back to dealing with the issue causing the argument or emotional situation.
7.) Don't talk in absolutes and don't use the words "always" and "never". This is one of the biggest mistakes that people make when arguing. Never ever tell someone that they "always do this" or that they "never do that" because this will just serve to anger them and chances are that there are exceptions to disprove the allegation. Using these words will almost always result in an escalation of the situation so instead tell someone that they "usually do this" or they "usually do that".
8.) Phrase everything as "I feel...". One of the easiest ways to get someone mad is to accuse them of something, and if you repeatedly accuse them of things you will almost always cause them to get defensive. Never ever say, "You don't do this", "You don't like me" etc., because this puts the focus on them and their perceived shortcomings which normally makes them get defensive. Instead you should say, "I feel that you don't do this" or "I feel that you don't like me". By phrasing everything in relation to you and your feelings you take the focus off of them of put it on you and the way you feel. Just by taking everything you want to say to them and phrasing it to them as "I feel that..." you will help them to avoid getting defensive and open the lines of communication.
9.) Always talk about the specific behavior you have issue with instead of talking about them personally. In any situation your goal is not to run the person down, it is to address and hopefully get them to change a behavior. If someone does something you don't like you shouldn't talk to them about how you don't like them and how horrible they are for doing it, rather you should talk about the specific behavior that you have issue with and how you don't like it. By doing this you're not attacking them personally you're only talking about the fact that you don't like something they did. Instead of saying something like, "What's wrong with you, why would you do that?" you might instead say, "I don't like what happened, that behavior needs to change". Always restrict your focus to the behavior you didn't like and don't talk about them personally.
10.) Focus on the future instead of the past. Every second you spend talking to them about the issue that's responsible for the argument is a second the person could snap and get violent. Instead of spending time talking about the past which cannot be changed you should talk about the future which will give you or the other person a chance to do things differently. Rather than fight about what has happened switch the focus to next time. You might say, "Next time this situation comes up this is how I will handle it" or "Next time this situation comes up this is how I want you to handle it". Don't dwell on the past, rather focus on the future.
11.) Don't argue with an emotional person. When people get upset and angry they don't respond to logic and reason so you shouldn't try using them. If someone is really upset then be quiet and let them vent without responding to what they say and after a few minutes it should be out of their system and they should be able to listen and process what you say to them better. If someone is irate then simply walk away or tell them to come back when they've calmed down. Give people the opportunity to calm down and get themselves under control before seriously engaging them in conversation. Also, when they're venting don't take anything that they're saying personally because, again, they aren't being logical or rational and they will often say and do things they don't mean if order to hurt you. Always remember, emotional people aren't logical so let them calm down first and then reason with them.
Now we will go to two of the most effective techniques available for calming angry and potentially violent people down.
Technique #1: Repeat, Approve, Respond
"Repeat, approve, respond" is a simple and highly effective technique for taking the emotional energy out of a situation, so effective that it is used by everyone from psychiatrists to telemarketers and from used car salesmen to hostage negotiators. If you talk to a good salesman and really listen to what they're saying you might hear them use it.
The best thing that you can do in a heated argument, or any argument, is to remove the emotional energy. It is the emotional energy that causes people to disregard logic, reason, and common decency. It is that emotional energy which causes people to "see red" and do and say things they would never do otherwise, and there are few better techniques to that than this.
Step 1: Repeat The first thing you want to do is repeat back to them what they just said in a calm and non-judgmental manner. It doesn't have to be word-for-word but it should be the general message. If someone is telling you that you never listen to them you would simply start off by calmly listening to everything they have to say and then when they're finished you'd say, "I don't listen to you" or "So you feel that I don't listen to you".
By opening your response by repeating back to them what they just said it will put them at ease because 1.) they know that you are actually listening the them and 2.) you just said something that they like and that sounds familiar and intelligent to them, which of course it does because they just said it.
Step 2: Approve Now you have to say something that shows that you approve and/or understand the statement you just repeated. For example: "I don't listen to you...I can see how you feel that way", "So you feel that I don't listen to you...thank you for being honest", or "I'm not listening to you...you might be right. Thank you for bringing it to my attention".
Even if you don't agree with them or they're not making any sense you want to say something that shows that you understand them and are compassionate to their argument. Nine times out of ten this will stop them dead in their tracks and they will just look at you shocked. Approving shows that you are open to their argument and let's the emotional energy out so they can respond with reason.
Approving is usually the hardest part of the process for most people. If you get stuck thinking of something to say, just say something that shows that you approve of the communication process as a whole. Examples are: "Thank you for bringing this to my attention", "great, I love open communication", "thank you for being honest with me", "Its good you told me you feel that way", "I like the fact that you're being open and honest", "I'm glad you told me that", etc.
Step 3: Respond At this point you've demonstrated to them that you are listening to them and you've shown that you are willing to hear their argument so now it is time to respond. "I don't listen to you...I can see how you might feel that way. Maybe I do get to busy and..."
Respond back but make sure that you follow the eleven rules of de-escalation: 1.) see the two of you as a team working to solve a problem, 2.) respect personal space and give them 5-6 feet, 3.) make sure that you are not displaying aggressive body language, 4.) take time to think before you speak, 5.) be calm and talk in a calm and even tone, 6.) use deflecting statements to deal with insults, 7.) don't talk in absolutes or use the words "always" and "never", 8.) phrase everything as "I feel...", 9.) keep the conversation focused on the thing or behavior you have issue with instead of them directly, 10.) keep the conversation focused on correcting the issue in the future instead of dwelling on the unchangeable past, and 11.) don't argue with an emotional person.
Another great thing about this technique is that it not only takes away their emotional energy but it also removes yours. You can't be yelling back, losing your cool, and saying things you'll regret later if your busy repeating, approving, and responding.
This is a technique that you can do over and over again. You go through the process once and then after you respond they say something else and if there is still some emotional energy left you just repeat the process until all the energy is gone. If the energy leaves and then comes back 5 minutes later you use the technique again.
A rule of thumb is that you don't do the technique more than 5 times in a row because it is at about that number that people start to notice that you're repeating what they've said back to them. So you might do it 4 times in a row and then take a break for a few minutes and then use it again.
You need to practice with this technique to make sure that you have the hang of it. The great thing about this is that you don't need an argument to use it. You can use it in any conversation to make yourself seem more intelligent and thoughtful (repeating back to people what they've just said usually has that effect). I recommend practicing it in every day conversations regularly so you can do it smoothly under duress.
Technique #2: Agreeing
Agreeing is another technique you can easily employ to remove yourself from an unwanted hostile situation. In this technique someone says something stupid to try to provoke you and instead of engaging in an argument you just agree with them. There are two versions of this technique, one for when you are in a situation where you can leave and one for when you're in a situation where you can't.
An example of the first version would be if you're walking down the street and someone yells something nasty at you and you have to respond (the BEST tactic is to ignore them totally because any response my escalate the situation). In this situation you can just say something short such as, "Yep, your right", "I sure am", or even just "Yes" to agree with whatever accusation they're making and then keep walking.
By agreeing you are not adding any emotional energy to the situation, but you might not be taking any out either. If you find yourself in a hostile situation and you want to leave quickly it is far more advantageous to just agree with whatever name you are being called then to argue, but in this technique if someone says something stupid you just agree and walk away.
The second version is used when you can't leave the situation but you don't feel that you in real physical danger; perhaps you are speaking with a friend, co-worker, or a child. When they say something stupid to provoke you, you simply agree with it and then quickly change the subject.
For example, let's say that a co-worker is in a bad mood and they're telling you that you are horrible at you job. In this situation you could easily get into an argument that would get you nowhere or you could avoid the argument and get back to work just by quickly agreeing with them and then changing the subject. That may go something like this:
Them: "YOU'RE HORRIBLE AT YOUR JOB! WHAT ARE YOU STUPID OR SOMETHING?"
You: "Yup, I sure am. Does anyone know what time the meeting is today?"
If the argument was with your child it may go something like this:
Them: "YOU NEVER LET ME GO ANYWHERE! I HATE YOU, YOU'RE A HORRIBLE PARENT"
You: "Oh yeah, I'm like a meaner version of Hitler. Have you seen the cat lately?"
By quickly agreeing and then changing the subject you can avoid a lot of arguments and save yourself the work of having to de-escalate them.
Technique #3: Acting As If You Feel Worse Than Them
This a technique is not for de-escalating an argument, it is for when you are being verbally assaulted, you can't escape the situation, and you feel you may be in physical danger. This is designed for someone berating you with insults and trying to make you feel small, weak, and stupid.
This technique works because if someone is insulting and belittling you they are do it so that you feel bad, but if you show them that you feel even worse than they're trying to make you feel they won't have any place to go with their insults and will normally give up and walk away.
Let's say that you get out of your car and someone runs up to you and starts screaming that you cut him off in traffic. It is clear that this could turn into a violent situation so you want to de-escalate it as quickly as possible.
You could throw your hands up in the air and say, "YOU'RE RIGHT! I'M SO STUPID! I MUST BE THE WORST DRIVER ON THE PLANET!" Then you might look at the ground (towards his feet so you can keep him in your peripheral vision) scrunch up your face, and start slapping yourself in the side of the head saying, "STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!"
The point is that you want to make a scene that shows that you feel worse about what happened then they want you to feel. On a scale of one to ten of how bad you could feel about yourself, if you think that they want to be at a ten then make a scene to show them a twelve, or a fifteen. If they're looking for a ten and you show them a twelve they have nowhere to go and often just write you off as crazy and leave.
If you think the situation can't be de-escalated and violence is imminent you should immediately go to the technique described next and get ready to start striking targets and causing injures.
De-Escalating Social Aggression
Let's say that someone that makes you feel uncomfortable has approached you and you want to make them back off and leave you alone. That's what we're dealing with in this section.
If someone comes up to you and starts to bother you and you want to make them back off you have three options: 1.) You can be passive and you probably will encourage the aggressor and the situation may escalate, 2.) you can be aggressive and the person will either leave or become aggressive themselves and then a physical confrontation is likely, or 3.) you can use de-escalation techniques to make them disengage and back off at about a 90-95% rate, even with violent criminals.
When They Approach You
When someone approaches you, you want to do two things:
1.) Check to see what their hands are doing. You want to see what their hands are doing because if they attack you it will be with their hands. If one of their hands is in a fist then they're probably planning on throwing a punch; if they're hands are in their pockets or behind their backs they could be hiding a weapon (be careful of anyone who only has one hand in their pocket because the only reason for that is to grab something). If someone is walking towards you and one of their arms is hanging naturally but the other is stiff and not moving then that is a sign that that hand contains a weapon (in the security field this is generally referred to as a "dead arm"). Also notice if they are continually tapping or rubbing an area of their body. If they're doing this usually it is because they have a weapon on them and they are making sure it is still there. Look at people's hands as see what they're doing, take care to notice if they move towards their body.
2.) Look around and check your surrounding area. Look around you and behind you to see who and what is there. Is there anyone else approaching you, from behind possibly? Is there an exit nearby you can run to? Often one criminal will approach you from the front and try to distract you while another attacks you from behind.
Initial Contact
When someone is planning on attacking you usually they will come up to you and try to start a conversation or ask you something. During this time, known as an "interview", they will try to distract you and feel you out while they slowly creep their way closer to attack. When this happens the first thing you want to do is to assertively establish a boundary around you and make eye contact with them. If someone that makes you feel uncomfortable is just walking by you, you should just make quick eye contact with them and get out of their way. However, if you feel that they might attack you (especially if you notice their reaching in their pockets as they near you or one arm is "dead") you should make brief eye contact with them and then put distance between the two of you, like abruptly crossing the road, while keeping an eye on them. Hopefully you have pepper spray or another weapon ready just in case something does happen.
If someone approaches you and you feel threatened you should make eye contact with them. There have been several studies done with repeat violent offenders in various prisons and even the most violent agreed that if their intended victim made eye contact with them it was usually enough to make them pick someone else. Criminals like attacking by surprise and usually just making eye contact is enough to make them feel that their element of surprise has been lost.
If they engage you verbally the first thing you should do is look them in the eye and speak in a calm but assertive voice, establish a boundary, and try to determine their intentions. One of the best questions you can ask is simply "What do you want?" because it cuts to the chase and makes them decide their intentions.
You want to establish a boundary about 5 or 6 feet away from you and make sure that they don't cross it. The more distance there is between the two of you the more reaction time you'll have if they do attack you. If they start to cross the boundary you should first assertively inform them that they need to back up. Most people, of good intentions, will feel foolish and apologize if you look them in the eye and assertively say, "Excuse me, you're getting too close and making me feel uncomfortable! I need you to back up!"
First, inform them of their error and make your feelings about it known because if they're not planning on doing something criminal and you bring their ill manners to their attention they'll usually back up and apologize. This also shows that you are in control of the situation and if they want an easy target they have to go look elsewhere. An example of how this may go is as follows:
They approach you and say, "Hey there, how are you doing?"
You look them in the eye and say in an assertive manner, "Excuse me, you're getting a little too close and I feel uncomfortable! I need you to back up!"
They reply, "Sorry, I just wanted to talk..."
"Well I don't! Please go away!"
When you're at this point you really need to stick to your guns and demand that they respect your boundary because this is where a criminal will try to put you at ease and con their way closer. Whatever they say just ignore it and continue to demand that they back up and give you your space. Don't let up!
If they're persistent you can also say to them assertively, "Give me 5 feet!" Saying this to a criminal generally brings pause and then they tend to obey because this command is a common one used by guards in almost every prison in America. If they are a criminal who has been in prison then saying this will usually give them pause because they'll wonder how you knew to say it to them.
If you're at this point and they still don't respect your boundary then it's time to become aggressive with them and use the "bad dog voice".
The "Bad Dog Voice"
The "bad dog voice" is probably one of the most useful tools at your disposal when dealing with unwanted people. What you do is to give them direct commands with the same tone and inflection as you would if you were scolding a dog who you found defecating on an expensive rug. Upon seeing the dog you'd shout, "NO! BAD DOG! KNOCK IT OFF!" at him and he would respond by flinching away from you. The dog most likely wouldn't understand your words but he definitely would understand your tone.
People respond to that voice just the same way as the dog. There is something about the tone that makes people stop in their tracks and pay attention. If you are trying to get someone to back off the "bad dog voice" has proven effective in stopping them about 90-95% of the time. The trick is to practice and make sure that you are speaking in the same tone as you would as if you were scolding a dog.
You want to use short and direct commands that tell the individual exactly what they need to do to comply with you. You might shout, "STOP! GET BACK! LEAVE NOW! YOU NEED TO LEAVE NOW! BACK AWAY! GO! NOW! BACK OFF!" You don't need to get fancy or be creative with this, you can just keep repeating "BACK AWAY NOW!" over and over until they comply.
If you aggressively shout these phrases while using the "bad dog voice" you will most likely make them actually jump back. In any case you will be making so much noise that they will be worried about someone hearing and if they are criminals they'll most likely leave to find another victim. Even if they are violent criminals about 90-95% of the time they'll start uttering profanities and turn around and leave.
Even if a criminal confronts you and pulls a knife you still might be able to make him back off and leave by using this technique.
If you do this technique and they don't leave then there is no doubt that plan on doing violence to you and you need to prepare to use either weapons or self-defense techniques.
You want to stand in a confident manner, however, appearing to be confident is not nearly as important as keeping your head up and frequently looking around to be aware of who and what is around you. A criminal will typically choose to victimize someone who is appearing to be confident over someone who has their head up and is frequently checking out their surroundings. A confident person may or may not resist but with a little skill the criminal can just take them by surprise, but a person who is aware of their surroundings may seem them coming and start running and few criminals want to do that much work or draw attention to themselves by giving chase.
When you begin this technique you want to have your feet about shoulder width apart, put one foot ahead of the other, raise your arms and hold your palms out. You want to make sure that you don't straighten your arms and lock your elbows because if they grab a hold of your arms and they're locked then with a simple tug they can pull your entire body around. However, if your elbows are bent slightly and relaxed and they grab your arms and tug your arms can move independently of your body and you can remain in control of your balance.
You want to be very aggressive and shout repeatedly, "BACK UP NOW!" while using the "bad dog voice" and continue until they leave or attack. Often when you begin the technique a criminal will first respond with surprise, then once the surprise wears off they will try to intimidate you to see if you'll back down but if you keep it up you'll soon realize that it won't work and they'll leave. The key is to aggressively continue until they turn and leave.
Since any normal person will turn and leave when confronted with this technique if they stay or proceed to come closer there is little doubt that they plan on attacking you. If they come forwards again you should respond with a preplanned physical response such as using pepper spray or another technique such as clawing their eyes or attacking their groin with an upward slap or hard kick with your shin.
Ideally you should have pepper spray on you and you should have it in your hands as soon as you enter a transitional area like stairwells, elevators, parking lots, alleys, hallways, etc. If you have pepper spray and you are confronted you should hold it against your body and have the other hand held out with your palm extended towards them while you use this technique. Then if they come towards you, you should spray them in the face and then run away.
Even with the best de-escalation skills you should have the necessary physical skills to defend yourself in case the individual attacks rather than leaves. It is imperative that you take a reputable self-defense class to learn effective techniques and then practice those techniques at home to prefect them. You should also learn to use pepper spray properly and make sure it is in your hands before you enter transition areas. Regardless of what weapon you have, if it is not in your hands when the altercation starts you should forget about using it for the time being.
Handling Intoxicated People
When confronted by an intoxicated person the first technique you want to use is simple redirection. When intoxicated the individual is unable to process information as effectively as they should and redirecting their attention off of you and onto something else has proven to be quite effective. To do this you simply ignore what they are saying and pick an object or activity for them to focus on and then simply suggest it to them.
To give you an example, let's say that you are in a public situation and an intoxicated person comes over to you and starts to bother you. You could look past their shoulder and then say, "Hey, that guy is waving at you!" When they turn and look or question you about it you could suggest that the person has just walked around the corner and that they should go and find out what they want because it looked important. Very seldom will they not take the bait and when they leave it will give you time to leave the area as well.


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Once bitten by Open Source, hooked forever?
So some would claim. But having just read the news from Munich, I would re-iterate the need for some soul-searching as to the truth of that claim. The news being that the City of Munich, having decided to switch from Microsoft to Linux in 2004, is considering going back to Microsoft. Sure, there may be some shady business involved but reading the article, there are valid problems that the users are raising.
There are undeniable benefits of Open Source stuff and I won't bore everyone with going into them again. And undoubtedly some issues stem from users just being so used to Microsoft. But what stood out for me was the comment Munich's mayor Dieter Reiter made about the complications with managing email, calendars and contacts and that in his view, Linux is sometimes behind Microsoft.
Now before y'all start listing the amazing tools I can sudo onto my Ubuntu machine, that's not the point. The point is that what Microsoft does offer and which still eludes the Open Source scene is integration and end-user friendliness. Ubuntu sort of makes a stab at that but in my view still falls short.
I will forgo my usual verbosity and simply pose some questions:
- Was it really smart of Mozilla to ditch the official development of Thunderbird (their email client) and Lightning (the calendar that goes with it)? Rather than integrating it further with Firefox and coming up with a webmail service based on it?
- Why is there still so little cross-project coordination and cooperation in the Open Source scene?
- Could this be a painful lesson that OS is not an addictive drug to most users and that they will come off it if they're having a bad trip? Does this mean that the cavalier way in which most OS projects approach issues of usability and the user interface are coming round big time to bite us?
Don't get me wrong. I still think it's the only sustainable way forward, especially for SMLs (small to medium locales). But pride in amazing code will not cut the mustard with Mrs McGinty down the road who just wants something she can use out of the box and link to her phone and with a calendar for her webmail so she won't forget her next appointment with the orthodontist. Without resorting to command lines that would make Linus weep.
While 420km below the ISS a Dani is sharpening his stone axe
Sometimes the world of software feels a bit like that, a confusing array of ancient and cutting edge stuff.I see you nodding sagely, thinking of the people still using Windows 98 or even more extreme, Windows 3.11 or people who just don't want to upgrade to Firefox 3 (we're on 29 just now, for those of you on Shrome). I actually understand that, on the one hand you have very low-key users who just write the odd email and on the other you have specialists (this is most likely something happening at your local hospital, incidentally) who rely on a custom-rigged system using custom-designed software, all done in the days of yore, to run some critical piece of technology and who are loathe to change it since… well… it works. I don't blame them, who wants to mess around with bleeding tiles when they're trying to zap your tumour.
But that wasn't actually what I was thinking about. I was thinking about the spectrum of localizer friendly and unfriendly software. At the one extreme you have cutting edge Open Source developers working on the next generation of localization (also known as l20n, one up from l10n) and on the other you have… well, troglodytes. Since I don't want to turn this into a really complicated lecture about linguistic features, I'll pick a fairly straightforward example, the one that actually made me pick up my e-pen in anger. Plurals.
What's the big deal, slap an -s on? Ummm. No. Ever since someone decided that counting one-two-lots (ah, I wish I had grown up a !San) was no longer sufficient, languages have been busy coming up with astonishingly complex (or simple) ways of counting stuff. One the one extreme you have languages like Cantonese which don't inflict any changes on the things they're counting. So the writing system aside, you just go 0 apple, 1 apple, 2 apple… 100 apple, 1,000 apple and so on.
English is a tiny step away from that, counting 0 apples, 1 apple, 2 apples… 100 apples, 1,000 apples and so on. Spot something already? Indeed. Logic doesn't really come into it, not in a mathematical sense. By that I mean there is no reason why in Cantonese 0 should pattern with 1, 2 etc but that in English 0 should go with 2, 3, etc. It just does. Sure, historical linguists can sometimes shed light on how these have developed but not very often. On the whole, they just are.
This is where it gets entertaining (for linguists). First insight, there aren't as many systems as there are languages. So much less than 6,000. In fact, looking at the places where such rules are collected, there are probably less than a 100 different ways (on the planet) for counting stuff. Still fun time though (for linguists). Let me give you a couple of examples. A lot of Slavonic (Ukrainian, Russian etc) languages require up to 3 different forms of a noun:
- FORM 1: any number ending in 1 (1, 11, 21, 31….)
- FORM 2: ends in 2, 3 or 4 – but not 12, 13 or 14 (22, 23, 24, 32, 33, 34…)
- FORM 3: anything else (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27…)
That almost makes sense in a way. But we can add a few more twists. Take the resurrected decimal system in Scottish Gaelic. It requires up to 4 forms of a noun:
- FORM 1: 1 and 11 (1 chat, 11 chat)
- FORM 2: 2 and 12 (2 chat, 12 chat)
- FORM 3: 3-10, 13-20 (3 cait, 4 cait, 13 cait, 14 cait…)
- FORM 4: anything else (21 cat, 22 cat, 100 cat…)
Hang one, you're saying, surely FORM 1 and FORM 2 could be merged. 'fraid not, because while the word cat makes it look as if they're the same, if you start counting something beginning with the letter d, n, t, s, the following happens:
- FORM 1: 1 taigh, 11 taigh
- FORM 2: 2 thaigh, 12 thaigh
- FORM 3: 3 taighean, 4 taighean, 13 taighean, 14 taighean…
- FORM 4: 21 taigh, 22 taigh, 100 taigh…
Told you, fun! Now here's where it gets annoying. Initially, in the very early days of software, localization mostly meant taking software written in English and translating it into German, French, Spanish, Italian & Co and then a bit later on adding Chinese, Japanese and Korean to the list.
Through a sheer fluke, that worked almost perfectly. English has a very common pattern, as it turns out (one form for 1 and another for anything else) so going from English to German posed no problems in translation. You simple took a pair of English strings like:
- Open one file
- Open %d files
and translated them into German:
- Eine Datei öffnen
- %d Dateien öffnen
Similarly, going to Chinese also posed no problem, you just ended up with a superfluous string because (I'll use English words rather than Chinese characters):
- Open one file
- Open %d file
also created no linguistic or computational problems. Well, there was the fact that in French 0 patterns with 1, not with the plural as it does in English but I bet at that point English developers thought they were home and dry and ready to tick off the whole issue of numbers and number placeholders in software.
Now I have no evidence but I suspect a Slavonic language like Russian was one of the first to kick up a stink. Because as we saw, it has a much more elaborate pattern than English. Now there was one bit of good news for the developers: although these linguistic setups were elaborate in some cases, they also followed predictable patterns and you only need about 6 categories (which ended up being called ONE, TWO, FEW, MANY, OTHER for the sake of readability – so Gaelic ended up with ONE, TWO, FEW and OTHER for example). Which meant you could write a rule for the language in question and then prep your software to present the translator – and ultimately the user – with the right number of strings for translation. Sure, they look a bit crazy, like this one for Gaelic:
Plural-Forms: nplurals=4; plural=(n==1 || n==11) ? 0 : (n==2 || n==12) ? 1 : (n > 2 && n < 20) ? 2 : 3;\n
but you only had to do it once and that was that. Simples… you'd think. Oh no. I mean, yes, certainly doable and indeed a lot of software correctly applies plural formatting these days. Most Open Source projects certainly do, programs like Linux or Firefox for example have it, which is the reason why you probably never noticed anything odd about it.
One step down from this nice implementation of plurals are projects like Joomla! who will allow you to use plurals but they won't help you. Let me explain (briefly). Joomla! has one of the more atavistic approaches to localization – they expect translators to work directly in the .ini files Joomla! uses. Oh wow. So to begin with, that DOES enable you to do plurals but to begin with you have to figure out how to say the plural rule of your language in Joomla! and put that into one of the files. In our case, that turned out to be
public static function getPluralSuffixes($count) {
if ($count == 0 || $count > 19) {
$return = array('0');
elseif($count == 1 || $count == 11) {
$return = array('1');
elseif($count == 2 || $count == 12) {
$return = array('2');
elseif(($count > 2 && $count < 12) || ($count > 12 && $count < 19) {
$return = array('FEW');
Easy peasy. One then has to take the English, for example:
COM_CONTENT_N_ITEMS_CHECKED_IN_0="No cat"
COM_CONTENT_N_ITEMS_CHECKED_IN_1="%d cat"
COM_CONTENT_N_ITEMS_CHECKED_IN_MORE="%d cats"
and change it to this for Gaelic:
COM_CONTENT_N_ITEMS_CHECKED_IN_1="%d cat"
COM_CONTENT_N_ITEMS_CHECKED_IN_2="%d chat"
COM_CONTENT_N_ITEMS_CHECKED_IN_FEW="%d cait"
COM_CONTENT_N_ITEMS_CHECKED_IN_OTHER="%d cat"
Unsurprisingly, most localizers just can't be bothered doing the plurals properly in Joomla!.
Ning is another project in this category – they also required almost as many contortions as Joomla! but their mud star is for having had plural formatting. And then having ditched it because allegedly the translators put in too many errors. Well duh… give a man a rusty saw and then complain he's not sawing fast enough or what?
And then there are those projects which stubbornly plod on without any form of plural formatting (except English style plurals of course). The selection of programs which are still without proper plurals IS surprising I must say. You might think you'd find a lot of very old Open Source projects here which go back so far that no-one wants to bother with fixing the code. Wrong. There are some fairly new programs and apps in this category where the developers chose to ignore plurals either through linguistic ignorance or arrogance. Skype (started in 2003) and Netvibes (2005) for example. Just for contrast, Firefox was born in 2002 and to my knowledge always accounted for plurals.
Similarly, some of them belong to big software houses which technically have the money and manpower to fix this – such as Microsoft. Yep, Microsoft. To this date, no Microsoft product I'm aware of can handle non-English type plurals properly in ANY other language. Russians must be oddly patient when it comes to languages cause I get really annoyed when my screen tells me I have closed 5 window…
A lot of software falls somewhere between the two extremes – I guess it's just the way humans are, looking at the way we build our cities into and onto and over older bits of city except when it all falls down and we have to (or can?) start from scratch. But that makes it no less annoying when you're trying to make software sound less like a robot in translation than it has to…
PS: I'd be curious to know which program first implemented plurals. I'm sort of guessing it's Linux but I'm not old enough to remember. Let me know if you have some insights?
PPS: If you're a developer and want to know more about plurals, I recommend the Unicode Consortium's page on plurals as a starting point, you can take it from there.
Sometimes being anal-retentive works
But mostly, it doesn't. As is my conclusion regarding the "security" settings in Windows 8 where they've frankly tied themselves into a knot that would do the Midgard Serpent proud.
I only became aware of this knot when trying to install a program recently, in my case this was the highly innocuous LibreOffice update (which is basically a re-install that keeps your personal files and addons rather than an upgrade). So for the purposes of what I was doing, let's treat this as a new installation. You get half way through and what happens? Error 1303 is what happens, the one about "installer has insufficient privileges to access blablabla":
So basically it's telling me that I, the one and only user of this machine who also happens to be logged in as an admin, doesn't have the necessary rights to install a program. Rrrright…
There are two ways I can look at this. The cynic in me says they're trying to force the bulk of users (who are out-of-the-box users who don't "mess" with their systems) into using the pre-installed, approved and expensive junk their computers come with. Because the solutions to this problem start at the Gordian level and spiral upwards, some involving command prompts or a staggering array of permission setting windows that looks more like a digital card-house than system administration.
The other of course is sheer idiocy, where some developer figured that the best way of stopping users from cough using their systems would be the implement a fiendish array of permissions and user levels that would prevent unauthorised programs from installing themselves or users from accidentally messing up things. The only Ymir-sized snag is that you end up with users, desperate to install the things they actually want, from fiddling around with the permission settings for users and admins. Usually in the form of trying to create at least one super-user to get around all these issues. Which brings us round in a neat circle, where anyone gaining illegal access to the system has all the privileges they could ever want. I believe sporting natures describe that as an "own goal". Nice one chaps.
Oh, but I did find a fairly simple workaround in the end. Amusingly, this anal-retentive approach seems to apply mainly to system folders and folders the system created. Such as Programs or Programs (x86). If you tell the installer to create a new directory, such as C:\Programan\LibreOffice4\, then it doesn't bat an eyelid. "Oh my" as George Takei would say…
When peer review goes pear shaped
Well I'm glad I asked. What happened was this…
I had a request from someone asking if I could localize TinyMCE (a WYSIWYG editor – think of it as a miniature form of Word sitting within a website) so they could use it on their website for their Gaelic-speaking editors. There aren't that many strings and the project is handled on Transifex using po files so the process seemed straight-forward too (if you don't know what a po file is – the main thing about them is that there are many translation memory packages which handle them and, if you have already done LibreOffice or something like that and stored those strings in the memory, there will be few strings in a project like TinyMCE for which there are no translation memory suggestions. In a nutshell – it allows an experienced software translator to work much faster).
So off I go. Pretty much a cake-walk, half a Bond film and 2 episodes of Big Bang later, the job was done. Now in many cases once a language has been accepted for translation and when you have translated all or at least most of the project, these translations will show up in the released program eventually. But just because I'm a suspicious old fart (by now), I messaged the admins and asked about the process of getting them released. Good thing too. Turns out they use an API to pull the translations from Transifex and onto their system (they've basically automated that step, which I can understand). The catch however is that it only grabs translations set to Reviewed.
Cue a groan from me. To cut the TinyMCE story short at this point, it seems this is down to Transifex (at least according to the TinyMCE admin) so they were quite happy for me to just breeze through them and set them to Reviewed myself. Fortunately it wasn't a large job so 15 minutes later (admittedly, I have a about 14 other jobs on my desk just now which I would have rather done…), they were all set, thank goodness to keyboard shortcuts.
But back to the groan. I have come across this approach before and on the face of it, it makes sense. If you do community translation (i.e. you let a bunch of volunteers from the web translate into languages you as admins don't understand and don't have time to QA) but you'd like to have at least some measure of QA over the translations, by adding this step of peer reviewing, you can be at least more or less sure that you're not getting 'Jamie is a dork' and 'Muahahaha' type translations.
The only problem is, peer review in online localization relies on large number of volunteers. Only a small percentage of speakers have any inclination towards translating pro bono publico and even fewer feel like reviewing other people's translations (there is something slightly obscene about proofreading, it's like having someone else put words in your mouth, they almost always taste funny…). I once did some rough and ready stats on the percentages of people of a given language who will be engaged in not-for-profit localization (of mainstream projects like Firefox or LibreOffice). It's about ONE active localizer for every 500,000 speakers. So German can call upon something like 20 really active localizers. Scottish Gaelic on the other hand statistically has … well, it has less than 60,000 speakers. You work it out. So it's seriously blessed by having TWO of them.
In any case, even if you disbelieve my figures (I'd be the first to admit to not being great shakes at numbers), the percentages are really small. So if you set up a translation process that necessitates not only translation but also peer review, you're essentially screwing small languages because the chances are there will never be a reviewer with enough time or energy (never mind ability) to review stuff. It's one of the reasons why we haven't touched WhatsApp yet, they simply won't let a translation into live without review.
So if you design a process like that and want to make sure you're not creating big problems for smaller languages (and we're not just talking Gaelic-style tiny languages, even languages like Kazakh or Estonian have such problems) make sure you
- allow enough wriggle-room to over-ride such requirements, for example by allowing a localizer to demonstrate their credentials (for example through long-term participation in other projects) and
- design a system where, if it's absolutely necessary to set specific tags, admins can bulk-tag translations for a certain language.
Over and out.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Conventional Lipid Panel
The conventional lipid panel:
- Cholesterol ~ Is an alcohol-sterol and is used by the body in the production of hormones and bile acids for cell membranes.
- Triglycerides ~ Are blood fats or esters of glycol, and like cholesterol are vital sources of energy for the body.
- HDL ~ High Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol: is an indicator of how well the body utilizes fats
- LDL ~ Low Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol: is an indicator of a patient's risk for atherosclerosis.
More to the story
However… it's really the size of the lipid particles that matters. To really assess for risk of heart attack or stroke a Lipoprotein Particle Test would reveal more information.
There are five major subgroups of Low Density Lipoproteins (LDL): IDL (intermediate density lipoprotein), I, II, III and IV. IDL is the largest, least dense and most buoyant, while LDL-IV is the smallest and most dense. LDL particles that are small are also dense and these terms are often used interchangeably. The smaller the LDL particle, the more dangerous it is. In fact, small dense LDL (LDLI-II and LDL-IV) is three times more atherogenic than buoyant LDL.
According to the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP), only about half of the variability in coronary heart disease risk can be attributed to conventional risk factors (i.e. LDL, HDL and triglyceride levels). Other, more specific risk factors, enhance predictive power of cardiovascular disease in individuals. Small – dense LDL is one of these specific risk factors that may be independent of other lipid-related risk factors. Lipoproteins transport cholesterol throughout the body. But it is the actual lipoprotein particle, not the cholesterol within them, that penetrates the arterial wall and causes heart disease. That is why it is necessary to know the number of small LDL particles.
Why is small-dense LDL so harmful?
Smaller particles of LDL can more easily penetrate the arterial wall than large LDL particles simply due to their size. Therefore, the smaller the LDL particle, the more likely it is to enter the arterial endothelium, where it becomes oxidized, is taken up by a macrophage cell which then becomes a foam cell, which eventually stick together to build plaque within the arteries. Evidence also suggests that small-dense LDL is associated with vascular dementia.
It is also important to know how many LDL particles are present, in addition to their size. Just as small LDL particles can fit through the arterial lining more easily than large LDL particles, the more LDL particles there are, the more likely they will enter the arterial intima, regardless of size. It is therefore imperative to measure both the size (density) and number of LDL particles.
- Small, dense LDL: these atherogenic particles are easily oxidized and penetrate the arterial endothelium to form plaque
- Lp(a): this small, dense LDL is involved in thrombosis
- RLP (Remnant Lipoprotein): is very atherogenic, has a similar composition and density of plaque, is believed to be a building block of plaque and does not need to be oxidized like other LDL particles
- HDL2b: positively correlates with heart health because it is an indicator of how well excess lipids are removed


text: Health and Safety Print Common Baseball and Softball Injuries By Elizabeth Quinn Elizabeth Quinn is an exercise physiologist, sports medicine writer, and fitness consultant for corporate wellness and rehabilitation clinics. Learn about our editorial policy Elizabeth Quinn Updated on June 24, 2019 David Madison/Digital Vision/Getty Images More in Fitness Health and Safety Beginners Motivation Sports Nutrition Fitness Trends Running Strength Walking Workouts Cardio Flexibility Yoga Pilates Tools and Equipment View All Playing baseball or softball, you are running, jumping, throwing, and swinging a bat. This brings the risk of overuse injuries with long hours of practice. You are also at risk of falls and collisions, as well as being hit by the ball. Baseball and softball injuries are generally defined as either cumulative (overuse) or acute (traumatic) injuries. Overuse injuries occur over time due to stress on the muscles, joints and soft tissues without proper time for healing. They begin as a small, nagging ache or pain, and can grow into a debilitating injury if they aren't treated early.Acute or traumatic injuries occur due to a sudden force, or impact, and can be quite dramatic. Learn about the most common baseball and softball injuries. Get In Shape for Baseball with Weight Training Shoulder Shoulder overuse injuries are very common, especially for pitchers. In softball, the windmill pitching motion can be especially stressful on the body. For other players, the overhead throwing position can also lead to shoulder problems. Shoulder Tendinitis, Bursitis, and Impingement Syndrome: These overuse injuries are common for young athletes who use overhead throwing.Torn Rotator Cuff: Tears can develop in the rotator cuff tendons.Frozen Shoulder (Adhesive Capsulitis): This is more common in older players, but those with frequent shoulder injuries may also be at risk.Shoulder Separation: This is usually a traumatic injury that happens in a collision or fall with an outstretched hand.Shoulder Instability: Baseball and softball players are prone to this due to their overhead throwing activities. They stretch the shoulder capsule and ligaments. This can lead to loose joints and even dislocation.Glenohumeral Arthritis: This post-traumatic arthritis can occur when the shoulder joint undergoes repeated injuries. Elbow Elbow pain is also very common in these sports, especially damage to the ulnar collateral ligament (UCL). It stabilizes the elbow during pitching. Ulnar Collateral Ligament Injuries: While skiers often have traumatic injuries to the UCL during falls, pitchers develop chronic injuries due to pitching action.Little League Elbow (Medial Epicondylitis) Also called golfer's elbow, this overuse injury is caused by the action of the wrist flexors pulling on the inside of the elbow.Bursitis of the Elbow: This inflammation of the joint sac most often occurs after falling on the elbow.Tennis Elbow (Lateral Epicondylitis): This overuse injury is felt on the outside of the elbow and can make it difficult to lift or grasp objects. Wrist and Hand Baseball and softball can cause traumatic injuries due to catching, falling, or colliding, in addition to overuse injuries. Wrist Sprains: These can be caused by a fall or impact with the ball or another player.Finger Fractures: These can be caused by impact with the ball or by falls.Wrist tendinitis: This is an overuse injury, often from pitching or throwing. Back Catchers can especially be prone to back injury due to their crouched position and overhead throwing. Softball pitchers may also have back strain due to the windmill pitching action. Muscle Strains of the BackLow Back PainHerniated Disks Knee Running and sudden changes in direction can result in acute knee injuries and overuse injuries. Knee pain requires an evaluation and proper diagnosis. Here are common baseball and softball injuries to the knee. Knee Ligament Injuries: Ligament injuries to the knee are very common in sports that require stopping and starting or quickly changing directions. These extreme forces on the knee can result in torn ligaments. The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and the medial collateral ligament (MCL) are the most often injured, but the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) and the lateral collateral ligament (LCL) can also be injured. Cruciate ligament injuries don't always cause pain, but typically cause a loud "pop." Most of these injuries are confirmed with an MRI. Arthroscopic surgery is sometimes the best way to find a partial tear.Torn Knee Cartilage and Meniscus Injuries: Torn knee cartilage is usually a torn meniscus. These small, "c" shaped pieces of cartilage act as cushions between the thigh bone (femur) and the tibia (shin bone). There is one on the outside (lateral meniscus) and one on the inside of the knee (medial meniscus). Meniscus tears are often the result of twisting, pivoting, decelerating, or a sudden impact. It can be identified by various manual tests a physician can perform to detect torn cartilage.Chondromalacia: This term refers to softening and deterioration of the underside of the kneecap that results in a dull pain around or under the kneecap that worsens when walking down stairs or hills, climbing stairs, other weight-bearing activity.Knee Tendonitis and Ruptured Tendons: Tendonitis is an inflammation or irritation of a tendon often caused by overuse. Tendonitis is often identified due to tenderness at the point where the patellar tendon meets the bone, just below the kneecap. Impacts and sudden movements (such as trying to break a fall) can force the quadriceps muscles to contract forcefully and cause the quadriceps tendon to be strained or possible tear (rupture). Miscellaneous Pain and Injuries Baseball and softball players can also incur these common injuries. Blisters: Players may get foot blisters from running or hand blisters from the rubbing of the glove or ball.Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS): This muscle pain, stiffness, or soreness occurs 24 to 48 hours after particularly intense exercise or a new program.Sprains and Strains: These are acute injuries that vary in severity but usually result in pain, swelling, bruising, and loss of the ability to move and use the joint.Stress Fractures: Stress fractures in the leg are often the result of overuse or repeated impacts on a hard surface. Preventing Baseball and Softball Injuries Many sports injuries result from overuse, lack of proper rest, lack of proper warm-ups, or poor conditioning. The following safety precautions are recommended to help prevent help prevent injuries: Warm up thoroughly prior to play.Use good technique and play by the rules.Check the field before play and clean off debris.Have a first aid kit on hand.Get adequate recovery.Stay hydrated. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Get exercise tips to make your workouts less work and more fun. Sign Up You're in! Thank you, {{form.email}}, for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. What are your concerns? Other Inaccurate Hard to Understand Submit Article Sources Verywell Fit uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial policy to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Preventing Baseball Injuries. American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine. http://www.stopsportsinjuries.org/STOP/Prevent_Injuries/Baseball_Injury_Prevention.aspx. Preventing Softball Injuries. American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine. http://www.stopsportsinjuries.org/STOP/STOP/Prevent_Injuries/Softball_Injury_Prevention.aspx. Continue Reading


text:
Although you and your spouse may have decided to part ways, you will both always be parents to your child. Aside from cases where an abusive situation exists, it is almost always best for a child to maintain close relationships with both parents. A parenting plan specifies with whom the child will live and preserves as much as possible their routine, while making adjustments for the new circumstances surrounding it.
Of all the issues that need to be decided in a divorce, custody and visitation are often the most stressful. The more details of a parenting plan a couple can work out together, the easier the transition will be for the child. It is important for all parties to remain flexible and put the best interest of the child first when creating the parenting plan.
There are many factors to consider in drafting a parenting plan. These include:
An experienced family lawyer can be invaluable in creating a fair and enforceable parenting plan.
In situations where spouses cannot reach an agreement about child custody and visitation, mediation can be helpful. The mediator specializes in bringing two sides together to create a fair and lasting parenting plan that has the interests of the child at heart.
Keep in mind that if you cannot come to an agreement together about custody and a custody complaint is filed, then the matter will be decided by a judge in the Pennsylvania Circuit Court whose location is most closely associated with the child. A judge can also order mediation, which can delay the entire legal process if the order is issued at the initial proceeding.
Pennsylvania law does not favor one parent over the other. However, if a couple is not legally married, paternity must be established in court in order for a father to assert rights over the child. There are different ways of establishing paternity:
Once paternity has been established, the court treats all parties as equal regardless of gender.
Generally, the court will try to leave a child in the custody of one or both parents whenever possible. However, in some cases, third parties may be considered for partial or complete custody of a child. Under Pennsylvania law, grandparents have more rights than other third parties to request visitation, partial custody and/or full legal custody of a grandchild.
Grandparents have the right to visitation or partial custody under the following circumstances and when it has been proven that this would be in the child's best interest:
The following circumstances may result in grandparents receiving legal custody of a grandchild when the court decides it is in the best interest of the child:
A parenting plan is one of the most important legal documents to come out of a divorce and should only be drafted under the guidance of experienced legal counsel. Investing time and effort in a good parenting plan now can save you the trouble and heartache down the road of having to modify a plan that is not successful. Working with a skilled child custody lawyer can help you avoid common pitfalls and will result in a parenting plan tailored to your family's unique situation.
Contact a skilled Chester County child custody lawyer at Eckell, Sparks, Levy, Auerbach, Monte, Sloane, Matthews & Auslander, P.C. for help negotiating, modifying, or enforcing your parenting plan. For a confidential consultation to discuss your legal needs, call us at 610-565-3700 or contact us online. We have offices in Media and West Chester to service clients throughout Delaware County and Chester County, Pennsylvania.


text:
|I blended the gold into the blue, then back into the gold just below my brow bone to tie it together.
What I used:
Too Faced Shadow Insurance
NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil "Milk"
Gold- Urban Decay "Half Baked"
Navy- Ingot 428 P
Makeup Geek "Corrupt" (black to darken outer v)
Highlight- Urban Decay "Bootycall"
L'oreal Lineur Intense Carbon Black liquid liner
Revlon Photoready 3D volume mascara "Blackest Black"
I think it was a nice smokey look with the unexpected pop of gold when I looked down. I wanted gold to be as much a part of this look as the blue. I hope you like this look Erika! You'll have to send me pictures of what you end up doing!!
And on an unrelated note, I just wanted to post a couple things that fellow bloggers have said recently. Yesterday Makeup Geek shared the picture of my purple and coral look on their facebook page and there was one girl on there who said, "It's cool but for drag queens. This is way too much makeup unless you're a performer." Now everyone is entitled to their opinions but I know this was meant as an insult (which I don't understand, honestly, if you don't like something, don't wear it yourself. There's no need to go around trying to make people feel bad). Unfortunately for her, this did not offend me. I wish that look was good enough to be worn by drag queens.
I told a few of my blogger friends about the comment and this is what they had to say, which I think is important.
"I don't understand women using "It looks like a drag queen." or "It looks like something a drag queen would wear" as an insult. That's not an insult honey, that's a compliment. Drag Queens are FIERCE creatures and there is nothing shameful about what they do or what they look like. It's ignorant to think that you can use that as an insult to offend someone and their makeup. Really, get over yourself and grow up. I'm not talking about me and my makeup (which I would be HONORED if a Drag Queen wore!), but a friend (actually a few of them) who have been told this as a means to be insulted. And the women who toss around this supposed insult have to be the most cowardly, ignorant, and unclassy "women" I have ever seen. The internet sure does bring out the stupid in people in the worst way." -Dawn from Makeup by Siryn
"As someone who gets called a drag queen/transsexual on a regular basis because of my makeup I would like to highlight the two problematic sides to this. A) I have the UTMOST respect for Drag performers. What they do is art, it's amazing and I only wish I could be at that level artistically. This is not an insult to a makeup artist. Period. B) Drag Queens and Transsexuals are NOT one and the same, first of all. Educate yourself. Secondly, equating either of those people with things that you dislike or using their identity as an insult to someone is ignorant, hateful and disgusting. If you do it. Stop. If you don't do it, call people out who do and put a stop to this ridiculous culture of hate in the beauty world. ♥" -Meredith Jessica from Pigments & PalettesSo please, if you're using these terms in a negative way, please stop because being a drag queen is not a negative thing and people need to stop making it seem like it is.
So that's my post for today!! Thank you as always for checking this out and for supporting me!!


text:
Earlier, people had to make several rounds of the DTCP office, and then wait for several weeks, sometimes even months, for approval. Concerned over the huge backlog and harassment faced by people, the department has decided to speed up the building approval plans process. According to an official, directions have come from Chandigarh to clear pending cases of building plan approval.
On an average, DTCP receives applications for approval of 10 building plans a day in Gurgaon, ie, 300 a month.
Residents will also get to know the status of their application without much hassle. "All officials have been directed to "positively" dispose building plans submitted under self-certification policy for individual houses, within five days. This means should the application warrant technical approval, rejection or an observation (for changes), it shall be conveyed at one go within the five days, failing which, strict action will be taken," said district town planner (DTP) R S Batth, adding he will monitor the status of building plans and review progress every Friday.
Planning officer Jaibir Sharma said under the self-certification policy (for individual houses), DTCP checks only four parameters — FAR (floor area ratio), height of building, ground coverage and fees and charges, before approving or rejecting the application. "These four things can be checked within five working days," said Sharma.
Batth said the objectives of the move is to ensure the public gets their work done without any hassle, while also removing middleman from the process and delivering the status of applications on time. "If anyone faces any issue, they should approach me or the department via SMS or e-mail ," said Batth, adding they have been received several complaints on delays in approval.
"The chief minister has given clear direction to all departments to ensure transparency and honesty. We started with installation of CCTV cameras in the department. Now, with the new directions, we're trying to develop a new working system where people do not face any issues while dealing with the department," Batth further added.


text:
This dish was inspired by my partner's request for something 'vegetabley' and 'maybe with halloumi' so from that vague brief came this lovely dish. It tastes like summer, and you could easily eat without the brown rice if you wanted it for a less filling lunch of side.
Asparagus is in season at the minute, so if you can find British asparagus then do use it! Don't miss out the Harissa paste either, it really brings this dish to life.
Halloumi, Asparagus and Harissa Brown Rice with Roasted Veg
Serves 2
1 bundle asparagus – around 8-10 spears.
1 pack halloumi cheese
100g cooked brown rice
1 pepper – any colour (I used yellow)
1 medium courgette
1 medium red onion
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
3-4 tablespoons flour
A few knobs of butter
2-3 tsp Harissa paste (depending on your spice tolerance)
3 garlic gloves
Preheat your oven to around 150C and pop a large baking tray in to get warm. Slice up your vegetables – the courgette, onion and pepper into large chunks. I like to half the courgette down the middle, and then cut chunky "chips" almost, but cut it anyway you like, as long as they're all even. Keep your garlic cloves in their skins.
Take your warmed baking tray out of the oven and add a splash of oil and spread out the vegetables and garlic cloves. Roast for around 20-25 minutes or until just softened and the onion is starting to caramelise.
Trim the asparagus and roast in with the vegetables and the knobs of butter for 8-10 minutes at the end of the cooking time, or in a separate dish if you prefer. Remove the halloumi from packet, rinse slightly to remove any excess brine and pat dry. Cut into large chunks, and then roll in the flour, shaking off the excess.
Take a deep frying pan and add the oil, place each floured chunk of halloumi into the pan a few at a time and try to avoid moving them too much, or the flour will fall off and they won't brown evenly. Turn occasionally until browned all over.
Mix the roasted vegetables and garlic with the rice and add the Harissa paste. Stir until combined and plate up. Add your cheese and asparagus on top and serve!


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by: Brent Smith at the Common Constitutionalist
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The old adage that, "America is great because America is good," is as true an aspiration today as it was when it was first uttered.
In a speech given by President Ronald Reagan on 25 July, 1986, Reagan repeated that line, adding, "And if America ever stops being good, America will stop being great."
He was/is right, as he was regarding numerous things. America will stop being great, when our goodness wanes. However, he was incorrect regarding the source of the quote.
Before I proceed further, allow me to clarify something about the above "old adage."
Time for some fun with facts: In his speech to the American Legion Boy's Nation, Reagan attributed the oft-repeated line to the French diplomat and historian, Alexis de Tocqueville. Eisenhower did also – on three separate occasions, as did Clinton, Pat Buchanan and many others. Problem is – the "adage" is not found in any of Tocqueville's writings. Not in "The Old Regime and the Revolution", nor in his seminal writing, "Democracy in America." read more


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Although Grupo Bancolombia already had internal control policies and procedures in place prior to the establishment of the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the financial group went a step further by adopting and implementing an internal control management system to help ensure compliance.
To aid in the design and assessment of the internal control system, Grupo Bancolombia implemented Internal Control-Integrated Framework from the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO) and COBIT®, which was developed by ISACA, and is available as a free download from www.isaca.org/cobit.
Grupo Bancolombia is a financial group that operates multiple banking services including investment, factoring, fiduciary, leasing, renting and stock market, and it is the first bank in Colombia for assets and market participation. Founded in 1875, Bancolombia operates in Colombia and El Salvador; has subsidiaries in Panama, the Cayman Islands, Puerto Rico and Peru; and has an agency in Miami, Florida, USA. Approximately 650 of the group's 17,000 employees work in information technology (IT).
Grupo Bancolombia recognized that efficient and secure technology improves overall efficiency, profitability, growth, reliability and compliance. To help achieve its goal of enterprisewide process integration, the group needed a framework that would assist in numerous areas needing improvement—a disjointed IT process with little governability, audit gaps, a lack of documentation and a reactionary approach. COBIT was chosen to help Grupo Bancolombia address its challenges and meet business requirements.
The board of directors of Grupo Bancolombia adopted COBIT as a reference model based on three premises:
In addition, COBIT was chosen because it facilitates a balance between compliance and performance and because it complements COSO, the group's organizational internal control model. Grupo Bancolombia utilizes COBIT to proactively address internal and external audits and operating risk compliance.
Grupo Bancolombia has achieved excellent results using COBIT. There is now a shared vision, a unique language, alignment between business strategic planning and IT strategic planning, clarity in roles and responsibilities, a stronger sense of teamwork, and the knowledge of strengths and weaknesses. Several initiatives are still underway, including consolidating all IT throughout the enterprise.


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Well, hello there! Yes, I've been absent for the past few weeks...and my absence was due to the most pathetic reason ever. I was procrastination on writing 2 reviews. Now, I enjoyed both books (Kiss Carlo and Lift and Separate) and was excited to tell you all about it...but it just took everything in me to actually sit down and write the reviews. I still have one more to write (you'll see it on Wednesday) and, while I thoroughly enjoyed the book, the review has yet to be written. Sigh. You just know that once I finish that one--the last solicited review I have on the docket at the moment--I'll probably get the urge to review all the books. Because that's how things go.
Anyway, this past week was a hectic one as it was my daughter's first of two weeks of day camp. It's the same thing this coming week, except the drop-off is farther away and we have to be there earlier. Because, again, that's how things go. After this, though, we have nothing planned for the rest of the summer. We are hoping to go up to my father-in-law's house to do some camping at some point and we might squeeze in a road trip. We have yet to make it to the beach this summer, so I'd like to see that on the docket as well. My kids start back to school on August 29th, so it is still a question how much we can fit in before then.
It's Monday...What Are You Reading? is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date. Please visit her blog to link up and join the fun! Also, if you are participating in the meme, please be sure to link to your blog in your comment so that I can visit!
So, I realized this week that I have too many books that have been languishing on my Currently Reading list for far too long. So, my current project is to get through these books before I start anything else (well, I'll probably start a new audiobook once I finish my current one..but the others are top priority!).
I was really concerned about Lust & Wonder: A Memoir. The only other book by Augusten Burrough's I've read was Running with Scissors, which I hated. But, so far, this one seems a bit easier for me to handle and I think I'm in it for the long haul.
I've been waiting ages to read An Extraordinary Union (The Loyal League) and just now was able to get to it. It's my current eBook and, sadly, I'm not having as much time to devote to it--partly because I have all the other books to read and partly because I don't have a lot of waiting-around-time when my kids aren't in school. I do, however, try to only bring my Kindle when we travel, so I should plow through some titles if we get out of town.
I'm still working on The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates. I put it aside when we went north for the 4th because, as I said, I don't like to bring print books when we travel--and that one is a library book and I'm paranoid that those will be left behind. Anyway, I'm getting back into it again.
I was trying to "work" through Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere), but now I've decided to just read it through and then go back and do the exercises. I think that I need to have the complete view before I get too deep in the actual writing. But more on the writing later (probably much, much later....)
I had started reading The Littlest Bigfoot to my daughter, but I think the subject matter was just a little too old for her. I don't mean that there was anything objectionable, but that my daughter just couldn't quite relate to it yet. So, the two of us will try again later. In the meantime, I'm going to finish it!
I'm still working through the audiobook of In Her Shoes and I hope to be finished soon. I can't think of anything more to say that I haven't already said. I've already read it, so the story is not new. I'm enjoying the story, but I think the narrator (Barbara McCulloh) is miscast for it.
My goal is to finish all these books this week and then have a completely new, and shorter, slate to share with you all next week. Fingers crossed!


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Ana Lopez
International Franchise Liaison
Ana is part of the LINK Franchisor team, focusing particularly on supporting the US offices and working on high-level projects. Her Bachelor in Communication, combined with her Masters in International Law & International Relations, has given her a strong ability to think critically and has developed her intellectual curiosity.
Ana's work experience spans the US, UK, Spain, Australia and New Zealand, within various industries including government, project management and travel/tourism. These differing cultural and business environments have cultivated her high level of adaptability and allow her to hit the ground running. Above all, she places great importance on effective communication to build open and trusting relationships.
Ana's innate love for experiencing the world and meeting new people has led her to travel to 25+ countries and live in 7, now finally settling down in New Zealand. Her newest home allows her to enjoy wine tastings in stunning vineyards, craft beer in funky breweries and go on weekend adventures through the striking landscapes of NZ. Plus, who doesn't love a kiwi?


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Bees pollinate more than 130 fruit, vegetable, and seed crops that we rely on to survive. Bees are crucial to the reproduction and diversity of flowering plants, and the economic contributions of these irreplaceable insects measure in the tens of billions of dollars each year. Yet bees are dying at an alarming rate, threatening food supplies and ecosystems around the world. In this richly illustrated natural history of the bee, Noah Wilson-Rich and his team of bee experts provide a window into the vitally important role that bees play in the life of our planet.
Earth is home to more than 20,000 bee species, from fluorescent-colored orchid bees and sweat bees to flower-nesting squash bees and leaf-cutter bees. This book takes an incomparable look at this astounding diversity, blending an engaging narrative with practical, hands-on discussions of such topics as beekeeping and bee health. It explores our relationship with the bee over evolutionary time, delving into how it came to be, where it stands today, and what the future holds for humanity and bees alike.


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Pam was a spunky, outspoken, passionate, hard-working woman. At the time of filming she had medical benefits and a small amount of income from social assistance but most of her income came from her work as a personal support worker. She agreed to participate in the film as part of her advocacy for those who live in poverty and to help provide some insight into poverty for those not affected. As long as she can remember, she has wanted to make the world a better place. She described being 4 years old and telling her mother that when she grew up, she would "make a difference" for people who are poor and "save the world." She joked that she couldn't even save herself—but that didn't keep her from trying to make a better world. Pam described herself as a "second-generation" single mom, with a teenage son at the time of filming. Her son's father was 15 years older than she was, and became abusive once she unexpectedly got pregnant. She left him before her son was born and applied for social assistance to support herself and her son.
Pam grew up in the Kingston area with her mother and two older brothers. Her mother worked long hours at a dry-cleaning facility, leaving Pam's two brothers to get her off to school in the morning and to look after her after school. At the age of five, Pam was sexually abused by one of her brother's friends. This left deep scars, including posttraumatic stress disorder, a profound sense of powerlessness, and vulnerability to repeated betrayals in relationships with men and women. As she said, you feel powerless, you grow up powerless. You pick the wrong boyfriends, you trust the wrong people.
A " nervous breakdown" in her early thirties was a turning point for Pam; she was hospitalized and received mental health care. She described that at this point in her life, everything was taken away from her, including her dignity, self-esteem, and her son, who was in foster care for seven months. During the hospitalization and during treatment afterward, she gained insight into the traumas that had affected her and how to start setting personal boundaries. Despite the trials and tribulations of her life, Pam has a strong belief in people's inherent goodness. She fiercely defends the integrity, dignity and generosity of those who live in poverty and is indignant about the unfairness of the way that poor people are often treated, especially by the social services system. She is outraged by the inherent injustice of poverty, and the hypocrisy, pretentiousness, and mean-spiritedness she sees in many people who have money and education.
After her son was born, Pam took a couple of university courses but found herself "way out of her league" and felt like she was being looked down on. Eventually, after her hospitalization, she took a personal care worker (PCW) course through the local community college, to try to restore some dignity in her life by working and getting off the system. This left her $10,000 in debt, because she could not be in post-secondary education and collect social assistance at the same time. She was making small monthly payments, hoping to eventually pay it off, but recognizing it would probably take decades. Though she believed that education was the only way out of poverty, it was hard to see how she would ever find herself above the poverty line. She believed that society didn't really care about poor people or helping them get ahead. Otherwise, as she said "the world would be more even and more balanced and we would have a lot more equality."
It was intensely hurtful to her that her son swore he would never bother with a college education because he didn't want to be saddled with debt like his mother. Pam felt that she had done the best she could for her son, and sacrificed her own needs to buy what he needed to fit in at the school in their upper class neighbourhood. But by the time he was in his mid-teens, she was very concerned about his rebellious and angry attitude, and worried that he was getting into trouble.
Pam volunteered regularly at the school breakfast program at her son's school and she regularly attended meetings of the parent council. For her job as a PCW, Pam had several regular clients that she looked after, and she was proud of the work she did to assist them. Without a vehicle, she walked everywhere, including to her clients' homes and for all her errands, including grocery shopping. Her inexpensive shoes never lasted very long and her feet and back always hurt. She was a life-long smoker, buying illegal "native" cigarettes, which are inexpensive because they are not taxed. While she knew they were bad for her health, she also used the cigarettes as a form of stress release and therapy. In 2011, she was diagnosed with lung cancer, which she vowed to fight. And she did, until she could fight no more. Pam died on 18 June 2013. Like her mother, she became the second generation to die far too young.


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Discover how to turn your project into a live 3D interactive experience in no time!
Design with your favorite CAD software, sell with VORTEK Spaces
VORTEK Spaces
is fast…blazingly fast
VORTEK Spaces
is a sales platform
Sharing from
the ground up
Blazingly Fast
Load your SketchUp project, add lights, and configure your materials. You're done in minutes
Change light parameters live!
Change materials live!
Focus on Sales
Select & change materials instantly from our library of real suppliers
And many more!
Scalable experience
Got a showroom or sales office?
Got a distributors network?
- 360 interaction on tablets
- VR headset support
- Multiple 3D display support
- Immersive CAVE system support
Then VORTEK Spaces is the stunning high impact interactive presentation software you need.
VORTEK Spaces can also be branded with your logo and colors and only provide your material library selections. You material library will always be up-to-date and synchronized across your network.
Features & Pricing
Forget about
offline rendering
- Limitless showroom
- Interactive 3D walkthrough
- Live interactive lighting control
- IES light profiles
- Instant material changes
- High-quality material library
- Custom waypoints
- Sketches and other camera effects
- Screenshots, videos (including 360 views) to share projects
- Direct email and social media sharing
- 3D TV support
- CAD software support: SketchUp, Cabinet Vision, and more coming!
- Always up-to-date through the Windows Store
- And much more
* Based on an annual subscription plan for a single license
Always evolving
Spaces is offered as a software-as-a-service (SaaS).
It will continuously evolve by adding new features
and supporting more CAD software.
IES Light Profiles
360o Videos
|Fully compatible with SketchUp
and Cabinet Vision.
|And more coming!
Designers and architects can use their favorite CAD software to design and then use VORTEK Spaces to sell.
What are they saying?
Virtually walk
and touch your
Alain Ouzilleau
Cabico Group
James Young II
Host of DIY Network's
I Hate My Kitchen
The quickest
I've ever done.
Tara Dennis
Better Homes
& Gardens TV Show
I had been dreaming for a long time about the promises of this technology. VORTEK is a true asset!
Mathieu Simard
Simard cuisines
et salle de bains
VORTEK Spaces at IWF 2018 Atlanta
We're thrilled to take part in the International Woodworking Fair (IWF) 2018 in Atlanta. Throughout the event, we'll be demoing VORTEK Spaces and will create stunning video walkthroughs of kitchens, bathrooms and other interior projects while showcasing the benefits of the software. Come to see us along with our partners Planit Canada and Vero Software at…Read More
VORTEK Spaces at AWISA 2018 Sydney
We're excited to take part in AWISA 2018 in Sydney, Australia. Come to see us along with our great partners Planit Cutting Edge Solutions and Joinery IT from New Zealand at booth 1601 or 4601. Throughout the show, we'll be demoing VORTEK Spaces and will create stunning video walkthroughs of kitchens, bathrooms and other interior…Read More
VORTEK Spaces at the WMS in Toronto
We're glad to take part in the Woodworking Machinery & Supply (WMS) Conference and Expo 2017 in Toronto with Planit Canada. Throughout the event, we'll be demoing VORTEK Spaces and will create stunning video walkthroughs of kitchens, bathrooms and other interior projects while showcasing the benefits of the software. The WMS is the largest event for the…Read More
VORTEK Spaces unites with Uniboard and Summum Granit at Circuit Index-Design in Montreal
Thanks to everyone who attended our joint event at Circuit Index-Design in Montreal on September 14th. We had fun demoing VORTEK Spaces to interior designers and architects while creating projects with selected Uniboard and Summum Granit products in 15 minutes, literally. Also, a very special thank you to Microsoft who accepted to lend us two Surface Studio units so…Read More
Meet Us at KBIS & IBS 2017 January 10-12 Orlando
Attending the NKBA The Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS) or NAHB The International Builders' Show (IBS) 2017? Visit us at Cabinet Vision Booth S4080 along with our partners for VORTEK upcoming features sneak peek and live demos. KBIS, in conjunction with the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA) is an inspiring, interactive platform that showcases…Read More
Meet Us at IWF 2016
Attending IWF Atlanta 2016? The International Woodworking Fair. Meet us at Booth #4613 along with our partners Vero Software Cabinet Vision & Planit Canada. Don't forget to step by Arauco North America's Booth #3237 to see our "SketchUp + VORTEK Spaces" and "Cabinet Vision + VORTEK Spaces" technical sessions during the show. See you at…Read More


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Rapid Magazine takes out five flat-bottomed creekers for the ultimate river runner shootout. The Wave Sport Diesel, Dagger Mamba, Liquid Logic Stomper, Jackson Zen and Pyranha Burn get put through the paces to find out which boat suits your style of paddling.
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Famous Quotes of Inspiration..."Speed provides the one great modern pleasure."


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"A British museum said the mousetrap that caught an invading rodent recently wasn`t there for pest control, it was a 155-year-old piece on display.
The University of Reading`s Museum of English Rural Life said workers arriving Thursday morning noticed an unusual email from an assistant curator: There appears to be a dead mouse in this mousetrap ... which is not described as being there on the database.
The mouse apparently walked inside the Victorian-era mousetrap, which wasn`t baited, and quickly found itself trapped inside."
If the old adage is true that if you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door, then the folks in England should be beating a path to the museum where this 155-year-old mousetrap is on display.
The dead mouse is sufficient proof that this mousetrap still works after all these years. But it`s a shame that after a century and a half people still hate mice, they are adorable little creatures.
In this enlightened age we shouldn`t buy mousetraps that kill or injure the rodents, we should purchase one that traps the mouse, so that we can release it outdoors.
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Follow Robert Paul Reyes on Twitter: http://twitter.com/robertpaulreyes
Photo Credit: Wikipedia


text: Image We naturally and often subconsciously (our pedagogy wants to make this process visible) align ourselves to receiving it, transforming it. We enact this from informal spaces (primarily). A cafe. A daily scene. So I walk into my favorite park. I initiate an engagement with that bench where I like to reflect and watch the sunset. I am in turn seduced by my environment. I am fueled by this seduction to find patterns everywhere. From wicker chairs to alignment patterns in buildings. I began to write meaning on all of it. I initiate a search throughout London capturing symbols. I find evidence. Saving my badge locally Seoul Station, Korea Spot the mistake! michaelseangallagher.org is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Share :


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Adventure Medi Mountain Series: Day Tripper - First Aid Kit
$ 32.99
Available: Out of stock
This product is currently out of stock and unavailable.
The Day Tripper first aid kit is designed for adventurers who demand professional quality medical supplies even on shorter trips. Perfect on fast-and-light daylong treks or ambitious overnights, this kit has the same premium features including advanced wound cleaning and closing supplies, a wide array of dressings and medications, and Dr. Weiss's Comprehensive Guide to Wilderness and Travel Medicine - as the larger kits in the Mountain Series in a very compact, sub-1 lb. package. Adventure Medi - Mountain Series: Day Tripper includes:
• Antiseptic wipes and butterfly bandages for closing small wounds.
• A wide array of medications to treat pain, inflammation, and common allergies.
• Nitrile examination gloves plus biohazard disposal bag.
• Die-cut Moleskin plus Skin Tac™ topical adhesive to protect against the hiker's #1 injury.
• Comprehensive Guide to Wilderness & Travel Medicine By Eric A. Weiss, M.D. The most up-to-date information on wilderness and travel medicine.
• Trip Duration: Multiple Days
• Group Size: 1 - 5 People


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Dear readers, I experienced the blessing of walking through the New York Botanical Gardens a few days ago. Now, don't get the wrong impression about the walking part, I utilized the tram and walked just a bit. Yet, I walked in spirit through it all.
I am so grateful my spirit is enabled within my disabled body.
I truly believe all living species have a collective memory and we all breath the same air, and being in the midst of such beautiful surroundings I felt as if I could brush the sky with the tips of my fingers as the century old trees that live there and me became one.
When I was catching my breath sitting on a bench in the Rock Garden, I couldn't stop thinking about Heaven.
People depending on their experiences have different perceptions on what they think Heaven may or may not look like. Since, I'm a generational gardener, for me it's all in the soil. So, for a brief moment I had my little piece of Heaven.
With a grateful heart I closed my eyes and made a silent prayer for myself, asking God to give me guidance so I can be my best version, never taking advantage of anything or anyone to someday live in my eternal garden in peace with the life I lived in this wonderful world.
Thanks for stopping by, be gentle with yourself and others. Gentle goes a very long way.
Hasta pronto!


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Martha's in the House!
We've received our shipments of her Craft Paints & Stencils in at BOTH of our Stores!
These paints come in several different finishes:
We love the stencils! Look at these beautiful designs and modern alphabet fonts!
Using the NEW paints and beautiful stencils,
Darcy made some lovely examples of how versatile these paints are...
One paint, all surfaces!
Shown here on paper, glass, metal, fabric and wood!
Shown here on paper, glass, metal, fabric and wood!