text:
Syria Crisis - Beyond the Borders
With the crisis in Syria now entering its fourth year, the devastating cost in human suffering shows no clear sign of abating.
In addition to the tragic loss of life, the crisis has set Syria's development back an estimated 35 years, a legacy which may require decades to reverse.
The bloodshed in Syria has also driven over 2.5 million Syrians to flee into neighbouring countries.
This is the largest movement of refugees since World War II.
The massive migration into countries like Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq has placed extreme pressure on already scarce resources and fragile infrastructures.
UNDP is connecting humanitarian, recovery and development responses to the crisis through a resilience-based approach. This focuses on supporting affected communities in Syria and neighbouring countries to cope with the refugee influx: meeting immediate needs; initiating and promoting recovery; and placing countries back on sustainable development pathways.
More detailed information on UNDP's response to the Syrian crisis can be found in the publication "Resilience-based Development Response to the Syria Crisis."
More information on UNDP's work in the Arab States region can be found on the RBAS website.
UNDP is supporting farmers' in northern Lebanon. See a photo essay of Hassan's story here...
UNDP is grateful for the generous funding from donors and partners for supporting our work inside Syria and the regional response in Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, including Ecuador, European Union, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Monaco, OCHA, Russia, Spain - Lebanon Recovery Fund, Switzerland, UNHCR, United States, World Bank.


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A $12-million pier-spanning wooden roller coaster that will dive beneath the boardwalk and race across a cantilevered bridge before navigating a series of high-speed twists and turns is expected to open in 2013 at Morey's Piers seaside amusement park on the Jersey Shore.
The Wildwood, N.J. waterfront park describes the new coaster as an "air in your face, down and dirty Jersey Shore experience." The Morey brothers have yet to decide on a name for the new coaster: Jack likes Wildwoody while Will prefers Boardwalk Flyer.
The one-of-a-kind ride by Great Coasters International will top 50 mph and pull 4 Gs over 3,100 feet of track.
After climbing to the top of a 110-foot lift hill, riders will descend down a twisting first drop that dives beneath the Surfside Pier into a high-speed tunnel with a left-right surprise.
Rocketing back above the boardwalk, the Millennium Flyer-style trains will cross a pier-spanning bridge featuring a low camelback hill.
Inspired by the work of Spanish architect
, the cantilevered bridge will look like the main sail on a boat with guy wires descending from a central spire.
On Hunt's Pier, the twisting and turning coaster will take riders through a series of zero-G camelbacks and extreme banked turns before heading back across the bridge. For the finale, the train traverses a short bunny hop before plummeting into a tunnel that offers one last surprise dip.
The twister-style coaster joins more than 100 rides and attractions at the beachfront park, including the 1996 out-and-back
wooden coaster.
The new wooden coaster replaces two classic Morey's Piers rides, the Wipe Out giant slide on the Surfside Pier that marked the start of the seaside park and the 1960 indoor
mine train coaster on Hunt's Pier that was relocated to
in Pennsylvania as
Family-run since 1969, the proudly tacky
has been voted one of the world's best seaside amusement parks by Amusement Today.
In 2010, the park added the $3-million Ghost Ship walk-through haunted maze with audio-animatronic monsters and 20 live "scareactors."

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Featured News - Current News - Archived News - News Categories
by Larry Austin
Everybody remembers their first day of school on a school bus, said Jack Burns, the director of transportation in the Grand Island Central School District.
"We want it to be the best day," he said of his department, which has been working all summer to achieve that end when school starts on the Island Monday, Sept. 9.
While residents may think summer is vacation time for district employees in the Transportation Department, head bus driver Kelly Lesinski called this "the craziest time of year."
"It's always the question that people have. 'Do you work in the summer?' " Burns added. "And I always tell people probably the most important work that we do during the course of the year is what we get done during the summer."
Summer school started July 1, and the school district ran 10 special education runs off-Island all over Western New York through Aug. 18, Burns said. Meanwhile, the department began looking at routes for the new year as part of its non-stop process of adjusting to constant changes. A bus run one year "could have a whole different dynamic" the next year in terms of bus capacity, Burns said, with as little as one or two students changing schedules, such as advancing from elementary school to middle school.
"That one or two students extra basically is the straw that breaks the camel's back and it means that I have to start revamping things, and then it basically dominos throughout all the other routes," Burns said.
Head bus driver Theresa Alizadeh said, as a result, each year the department is "re-looking at routes, determining times and stops, using the best, safest stop for each kid."
The department has to account for the rural nature of certain routes, the extension of routes to new subdivisions, the addition of kindergarteners to the system, and the habit of parents who register new students at the last minute, Burns said. Even the schools off-Island to which the district travels make drastic changes.
"We had three schools move" over the summer, Alizadeh said.
On the Island, new speed zones at Kaegebein on Love Road and the high school/middle school complex on Ransom Road, and construction on the bridges that impacts the volume of traffic near the roundabout at Staley Road and Grand Island Boulevard, have forced adjustments.
"As much as everybody thinks that everything stays the same, we basically dismantle everything and rebuild it" each summer, Burns said. "And that takes time."
Just before school starts, route plans go to the district's 70 drivers, who then report back with suggestions, Alizadeh said. It may take two weeks for things to settle down, Lesinski added.
Alizadeh said drivers will often "pre-trip" their route.
"What you'll see is a lot of the drivers in their own cars going to check out the route, being really prepared," Alizadeh said.
One simple yet critical safety improvement in the preparation process, Burns said, is for residents to add big address numbers to both sides of their mailboxes to make house identification easier and faster.
"I'll take my own car and be out there routing. I think sometimes people call the police on me. 'Who is that strange man circling through the neighborhood at 2 mph looking at our house three times?'" Burns said. "Or you see kids and they recognize you. 'Oh, there's Mr. Burns!' They start chasing you. Or you have mothers see me coming down the street, going, 'Put the stop here! Put the stop here!'"
Burns said community-based transportation stands on four pillars:
•A bus driver teaching safety.
•Students following safety rules.
•Parents looking as a second set of eyes to help at the bus stop.
•Motorists aware of what is going on around them.
"It takes all four of that to have a safe school year," Burns said.
Motorists have to remain alert for both buses and walkers heading to school both in the morning and afternoon, Burns reminded.
"Just generally if you see a bus in an area, you know that has to be kids around coming to it, and even if you don't see the bus, you've got kids getting to the bus stop ahead of the bus arriving," Burns said.
Burns said he relies on Lesinski and Alizadeh, the head bus drivers, since the district entered into a shared service agreement this year between Kenmore schools and the GICSD transportation departments. Burns is spending some of his time off the Island in Kenmore, which wouldn't be possible without a experienced team at home.
"I'm most pleased with the knowledge and quality of work" of the department, Burns said, praising Lesinski, Alizadeh, mechanic Tim Blevins, and Denise Golebiewski, among others.
"We have quality, they know what they're doing and they know how to do it," Burns said. "Without them it couldn't be done."
One nuance added to the safety program this year, Burns said, is the Steffi Glove, developed by a Lake Shore School District driver to make bus drivers' directions more visible to both students and other motorists.
"When it's dark out, or when the sun's glaring, sometimes it's hard to see in the windshield at what the driver is doing," Burns said. Students and motorists will be better able to see the driver's signal.
"Safety a lot of time is nuances and what you've done to make things better," Burns said, noting other improvements such as LED flashing strobes on the top of buses, safety messages on the back of the buses, safety mirrors and thermal pane windows, all which the Transportation Department has added as extra factors of safety in recent years.


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Skipper avoids prosecution over horrific death at sea
A skipper has avoided prosecution over a deckhand's death on board a commercial fishing boat off the Great Australian Bight.
The South Australian Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by SafeWork SA.
Jack Salvemini, 36, was crushed to death after he got tangled in a fishing net.
It was being winched onto the deck of the shark fishing boat in the Bight in 2005.
The company, Jean Bryant Fisheries, was found guilty of breaching workplace safety laws and fined $70,000 in the Industrial Court.
Skipper Arthur Markellos was fined $17,000 but his conviction was overturned on appeal.
The Supreme Court has now dismissed SafeWork SA's appeal, ruling Markellos was an employee rather than a self-contractor, so not liable to face prosecution over the workplace death.
The victim's father, Lee Salvemini, said he was extremely disappointed that nearly seven years after his son's horrific death, the skipper could get off on a technicality and he wanted a meeting with the Attorney-General.
"It's crap, it's just crap, I just can't believe that the courts come up with those sorts of things," he said.
"I think the Crown Solicitors have done all they can. I'm grateful for what they did but it's the court system, it's just wrong.
"The Attorney-General John Rau is going to have to step in here and do something about it. He's going have to do something, it can't end here.
"I'll never give up, as long as I'm alive I won't give up. My son lost his life in this accident and he's not here to defend himself and I'm the only person that's here defending him. No-one else seems to want to know about it."
Whilst this is about legal aspects of the laws as they stand, what it's really about is a son who never came home from workJuanita Lovatt, SafeWork SA
Mr Salvemini said the death has had an enormous impact on his family.
"I feel very let down, I mean it has destroyed our family. This has been going on six years... we're 29 days short of seven years and it's still not finished here," he said.
Mr Salvemini said he was happy with proposed national legislative amendments to close the loophole in the workplace safety laws, but he said there remained more room for improvement, so other families could avoid going through what his has.
Juanita Lovatt, a director of strategic interventions at SafeWork SA, said her team would review the judgment and the Crown Solicitor's Office would consider if there were any further avenues of appeal.
She became emotional during media interviews as she spoke of ongoing tragedy for the victim's family.
"Whilst this is about legal aspects of the laws as they stand, what it's really about is a son who never came home from work," she said.
"In this day and age nobody should get killed at their work.
"Jack's death and so many other deaths at work are preventable."
She said the current laws were written in the mid-1980s but had become in desperate need of review.
SA Premier Jay Weatherill said he sympathised with the victim's family.
"I share their anger, I believe that a legal technicality of this sort should not permit somebody to escape responsibility for what otherwise would be regarded as a breach of the occupational health and safety legislation," he said.
Both the Government and the Opposition have blamed each other for delays in the passage of the workplace safety legislation.
Topics: courts-and-trials, law-crime-and-justice, workplace, work, fishing-aquaculture, sa, adelaide-5000, port-lincoln-5606, australia
First posted


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Reviewed By Bernard B (Annapolis, MD) Reviewed for a 2003 Infiniti G35 —5/13/2014 6:42 AM
Nice kit, nicely presented. However, be aware that you really need a wheels free lift to fit, its not as simple as the advertising makes out. In the end I had a shop do the fitting - they had experience with these kits & it took them 5 hours with all their professional equipment at hand. Once fitted it works really well. Pleased with the result.


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ADRIAN — She did it again.
An Adrian Township woman on probation for having sex with a teen during a party admitted continuing a relationship with a paroled sex offender. Marcy Ann Rowe served a 230-day jail term for seeing the man in 2011 after being warned to stop by probation officers.
Rowe, 42, gained notoriety during her 2010 jury trial on charges of having sex with a teenage boy she gave alcohol to at a New Year's Eve party. She admitted frequently providing alcohol for her daughter's friends at her home.
After a plea conviction in that case, Rowe violated probation by starting a romance with a paroled sex offender she met while serving time in a work release program.
Rowe pleaded guilty to another probation violation Wednesday in Lenawee County Circuit Court. She admitted having the man in her home in January last year and lying to her probation officer.
"Were you in fact seeing him, or sneaking around trying to see him?" asked Judge Margaret M.S. Noe.
"Yes," Rowe answered.
She was arrested Tuesday after her probation officer discovered the violation.
"You have been busted. The doors are off. You are going to go to prison. All this dancing around we have done to prevent it is going to be for nothing," Noe told Rowe.
Defense attorney James Daly asked for a two-month delay in sentencing and an opportunity to mend the damage.
"We would ask for one more chance although we understand the court says she is out of chances," Daly said.
"I'm hoping she takes the time to convince her probation officer that she now gets it," Daly said. It would also give Rowe "the rope to truly hang herself if that's what she chooses to do," Daly said.
Noe agreed to release Rowe on personal recognizance and ordered her to meet weekly with her probation officer until she is sentenced on March 20.
Mom faces prison over probation-violating romance
ADRIAN — She did it again.


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Railing against a dark period of American politics
By Nicole Robson
As another Bush era draws to a close, Theodore "Ted" Hamm, founding editor of monthly paper "The Brooklyn Rail," tracks the rise of liberal media in his new book, "The New Blue Media: How Michael Moore, MoveOn.org, Jon Stewart and Company are Transforming Progressive Politics." His polemic against "the madness of King George" reads like a humorous op-ed, echoing the didactic, activist and satirical voices that yielded their success. Combining diary and reportage, Hamm chronicles the outlets' influences and limitations, concentrating not only on what happened, but how humor got us through this "dark time."
The wavy-haired 41-year-old, moved to Williamsburg in 1998 when it was still a burgeoning art scene. Started with four other Rutgers graduates, "The Brooklyn Rail" began as an open forum for discussion on arts and politics. Each week 500 double-sided A4 sheets were Xeroxed and distributed around local bars and restaurants. In 2000, the paper went nonprofit, morphing into a full-fledged free publication with a circulation of more than 15,000. Here, the Chicago native discusses the "Rail" and his decision to document these liberal commentators.
How is the Rail different from other local NY papers?
Since we're not dependent on advertisers it gives us more freedom to be critical, as we're not worried about developers buying ads in our papers and so on. The nonprofit model is liberating because we can say and do what we want and not worry about what our advertisers think. The downside is that we're not thriving financially.
What's the Rail's political agenda?
We lean towards the left and try not to be another cheerleader for development, but strive to maintain an independent perspective. As a nonprofit we can't endorse any candidates, but our sensibilities are left of the Democratic Party.
What inspired "The New Blue Media"?
It started by watching how these media were growing as a model for the Rail. Although we're not as commercial as some I write about, I had an eye out for how they chose to position and define themselves.
I was actively engaged in the 2004 'Anyone But Bush' campaign and observed the work of Michael Moore, MoveOn and Jon Stewart. Much of their coverage mirrored my opinion that John Kerry was flawed in his inability to make up his mind on the main issue of the campaign the Iraq War. His only clear message became that Bush must go, or as The Onion called it, Kerry's 'One Point Plan for a Better America.'
I came to this project thinking here's this movement that failed to oust Bush, but where does it go after 2004? Their agenda was not only about targeting electoral politics, but drawing attention to media and the government. The more a media outlet keeps pressure on the Democratic Party, and holds them accountable for their decisions, the better.
How did you approach the book?
As a historian I wanted to capture the rise of significant players on the political scene, but also evaluate how media can transform politics. I insert my perspective, so it's a mix of criticism and reportage.
I didn't set out to write P.R. for these media outlets and do outline their failures. Most criticism occurs when they start playing ball with the Party, as when MoveOn which rose to prominence as an antiwar group in 2006 started supporting candidates who weren't taking a clear position on ending the war. These media are most effective when they act as an insurgent voice than just going along with the mainstream.
Is there a common thread between the new blue media?
In their own ways they're contributing to a new approach, matching the activism component with the entertainment side of politics. Although The Onion probably wouldn't endorse that interpretation, they, like 'The Daily Show' and Colbert, present material through satire. Their goal is to make audiences skeptical and question what's going on.
Although most of these media started in the Clinton years, they grew exponentially after 9/11. People realized they couldn't rely on an ineffectual Democratic Party and had to mount their own counterattacks against Bush. In the 2000 and 2004 campaigns, it was 'just vote for the Democratic Party,' but these media have changed that mentality. Now it's about holding the party accountable and ensuring it's acting in the best interest of the voters.
New blue media includes print, web, film, television and radio, but singles out talk radio as the only area liberals haven't been successful. Why is that?
Air America's business model was flawed. They started nationally instead of as a syndicated network, trying to provide around-the-clock coverage and paying their hosts exorbitant amounts. In reporting, they were a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party. At the time, the party had nothing to say and turned off a lot of left-independent thinkers.
Is Internet campaigning the way of the future?
Certainly. Right now McCain is an old media character, relying on his relationships with journalists to get his message across. Ron Paul and Huckabee utilized the Web a little, but in the future Republicans will have to make better use of the Internet. Obama's candidacy is a perfect example of the netroots' influence. MoveOn cranked out volunteers, who showed up at caucus states that were pivotal to his victory. These media are more than just a force, and actually impacting what is happening in politics.
In this exciting time for Democrats, do you wish you'd waited to write the book?
No. I watch the changing events daily and think how I could have incorporated what's happening into my chapters, but my book is about a specific time and not forgetting the Bush years.
I relay that these outlets need to keep a mindful eye on the pro-war and pro-corporate wings of the Democratic Party. Just recently, Obama came out supporting an update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act bill, which would grant legal immunity to telecommunication companies who participated in government eavesdropping since 9/11. MoveOn and the liberal bloggers went after him and forced him to backtrack. He has since flip-flopped, but this is exactly what these media need to be doing, calling him out when he moves too close to the center, especially on economic issues. The new blue media are most effective when 'sticking to their principles,' rather than blindly supporting the party.


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Jones error helps Yanks down O's
Bronx, NY – Adam Jones' fielding error with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning allowed the deciding runs to score and give the New York Yankees a 5-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles in the opener of a three-game series from Yankee Stadium.
Jones couldn't handle a deep fly ball off the bat of Vernon Wells with two outs and the score tied at 2-2, with CC Sabathia and Mariano Rivera protecting the lead over the final two innings to nail down the Yankees' fourth consecutive win.
The duo was aided by a triple play from the Yankees' defense that ended an Orioles' threat in the eighth.
"It was huge," said Yankees shortstop Jayson Nix of the rare feat. "CC was trying to get through that inning and they scored on him the inning before, so it was perfect timing."
Sabathia (2-1) scattered eight hits and held the Orioles to two runs -- one earned -- while striking out nine over the first eight innings, with Rivera working a scoreless ninth for his 610th career save.
Kevin Youkilis and Robinson Cano each drove in runs for New York, with Youkilis finishing 3-for-3 on the night and Cano going 2-for-4.
Jones' miscue saddled Orioles starter Miguel Gonzalez (1-1) with the loss after the right-hander was charged with permitting three runs -- two earned -- over six-plus innings of work.
Manny Machado went 2-for-4 with an RBI for Baltimore, which entered the set off a pair of wins at Boston, with J.J. Hardy also contributing a run-scoring single in defeat.
The Yankees had just one on and two out in the bottom of the seventh before Youkilis was intentionally walked and Baltimore reliever Troy Patton hit Travis Hafner with a pitch to fill the sacks. Wells followed with a drive to straightaway center that Jones was able to get a read on near the warning track, but had the ball pop out of his glove as all three runners crossed the plate to break the 2-2 deadlock.
"You could say whatever you want," Jones said. "I was there. Didn't catch it. Cost my team the game. Trust me, it's quite frustrating. Some days you're the hero, some days you're the goat."
Baltimore responded with back-to-back singles from Alexi Casilla and Nick Markakis to begin the eighth, but Sabathia got out of the jam with the help of some shaky base-running by the Orioles.
Machado hit a line drive to second that Cano scooped up on a hop and flipped to Nix at second to force Markakis. Casilla, who initially believed the ball had been caught, was then tagged out in a rundown between third and second. Machado then attempted to advance to second, but was gunned down by Lyle Overbay after the first baseman received a throw from Youkilis across the diamond.
"I should have stayed at first," said Machado. "It was just in the heat of the moment, things that you don't think about."
Baltimore had knotted the score with the help of a couple of lapses by the Yankees in the top of the seventh. Matt Wieters reached base when Youkilis misplayed his leadoff grounder to third, then took second when Sabathia was called for a balk. Two batters later, Hardy came through with a ground ball that trickled up the middle to tie the game.
Sabathia had a streak of 12 consecutive scoreless innings end after Alexi Casilla opened the bottom of the third with a double and came home on Machado's one-out single through the right side of the infield for a 1-0 Baltimore lead. The big lefty retired the next eight straight Orioles hitters, however, and the Yankees went in front with single runs in both the third and fifth frames.
After a walk to Brett Gardner and a Cano single put runners on the corners in New York's half of the third, Youkilis laced a base hit to left to pull the Yankees even.
Gonzalez walked Francisco Cervelli to lead off the bottom of the fifth and Gardner followed with a sacrifice bunt to bring up the red-hot Cano, who ripped a liner into left-center field to plate Cervelli and give the Yankees a 2-1 edge.
Game Notes
Yankees shortstop Eduardo Nunez exited after two innings after being struck on the right wrist by a Gonzalez pitch in his only plate appearance ... Youkilis has now hit safely in all nine games this season and is hitting .424 (14- for-33) over that stretch ... Jones had a nine-game hit streak snapped after going 0-for-4 ... Casilla ended 2-for-3 to increase his career batting average to .583 (14-of-24) against Sabathia ... In his last encounter with the Orioles, Sabathia tossed a complete-game four-hitter in the Yankees' 3-1 win over Baltimore in the deciding Game 5 of last October's ALDS.


text:
SUPER v2010 Build 41
Vista / Win10 / Win7 / Win8 / WinXP
If you need a simple, yet very efficient tool to convert (encode) or play any Multimedia file, without reading manuals or spending long hours training, then SUPER is all you need. It is a Multimedia Encoder and a Multimedia Player, easy-to-use with 1 simple click.
SUPER supports a wide variety of input/source file format to play or encode (to & from) without any additional third party software:
Video format: 3gp/3g2 (Nokia, Siemens, Sony Ericsson), asf, avi (DivX, H263, H263+, H264, Xvid, MPEG4, MSmpeg4, etc..), fli, flc, flv (Flash), mpg (MPEG-1 & MPEG-2), mov (H263, H263+, H264, MPEG4, etc..), mp4 (H263, H263+, H264, MPEG4), ogg, qt, rm, str (PlayStation), swf (Flash), viv, vob, wmv
Audio format: ac3, amr, mp2, mp3, mp4, ogg, ra, wma
AviSynth Script Files: avs. ALL Input/source files that fail to encode, will be encoded without error when using AviSynth scripts.
Please note! Program is nowadays adware and asks you to co-install an advertisement element when installing the software itself.
HTML code for linking to this page:
super encode convert gui easy asf avi
1License and operating system information is based on latest version of the software.
Thanks Afterdawn !
I have converted 6 films from 2D to 3D to watch on TV. Amazing
YKWBS?!!! The installer of Super Converter. Installer WILL EXPIRE after few installation times on computers, which is ANNOYING! Can you REMOVE that shit, its pain-in-the-ass forcing users to update, update and always update! I dont want it! Id rather stay with 2011 and nothing else... (installing) Uh, shit, cannot install just to warn user to update it... Better get other converters, coz this is BULLSHIT!
for those claiming malware, you are wrong.
has tons of options and now it comes with this recorder.
It is 10/10
However, in every browser Ive tried, with all extensions/script blockers disabled and java enabled, I get an error that the web pages cant be loaded.
Furthermore, upon Googling SUPER, I discovered that the latest builds include TONS of adware/bloatware and make hundreds of unnecessary registry changes. Sounds like SUPER isnt super anymore, just sucky spyware. Too bad.
It doesnt "take control" but a window with the adware will pop up over and over and over moving your mouse to next button each time. Conveniently making it easy to accidentally click the Next, installing the adware.
download this software off of erightsoft.com for legit copy.
I must say that there IS ABSOLUTELY NO ASWARE in here.
EULA is extremely clear and transparent related to this matter. Uncheck the box in case you want to decline. Is it that hard ???
I rated 5 stars cause its a brillant freeware.
pros: plenty of config to get file to whatever desired result you want
contrary to the bs stated in this topic by other you get what you dont decline so hit it even if it appears greyed out
cons:perhaps too many config options..lol..
as red would say "dumbasses" will have problems after installing
Afterdawns reply starts here: Thank you for contacting us. Some other people have reported this to us, too. However we tested it on one of our Win7 PCs here and it caused no problems, altho suggesting we to install an adware during the installation process (but by simply checking that the box wasnt ticked was enough
to prevent it). Is this something you experienced .. or?
I made the actions of Super very clear, my email to AD.com starts here: It is your obligation to test this program again. It is your obligation to test this program again. Assisting or ignoring the spread of malicious software is an unforgivable act.
You could not have tested the same file I downloaded from your server. This/my computer is a fresh install of Win7 64, with Microsoft Security Essential and AVG 2013 running with real time protection. This is my company's video editing computer; it never sees unknown/porn websites.
After opening that setup file, I had no control of my mouse as the install was controlling it, constantly moving it to the edge of the screen. If I moved my mouse, it would shoot back to the edge of the screen. This kept me form closing the install.
The install also, Tab-ed its way through more than one (Next button), then toggling the (I accept) on more than one checkbox, accepting whatever it wanted.
Using Task Manager was also not helpful, as the install instantly regained focus. The only way I stopped the install was to shut down the OS by holding the power button.
I have no other Free/trialware on my computer aside from Avisynth, and Virtualdub, while waiting for one of the downloads to start, I saw Super as one of the suggested program to try. I was there getting program for testing render speeds against Adobe Media Encoder. Now, I know you are not going to tell me Avisynth, or Virtualdub is behind this type of behavior.
It is your obligation to test this program again. Assisting or ignoring the spread of malicious software is an unforgivable act.
Extremely fast rip off mp3 or aac from youtube files. Great job
Very rich with codecs & options.
Very easy for converting videos on my Galaxy Note II
the current version available here ate afterdawn has become totally useless.
The Setup file throws an error message saying: Outdated, Obsolete version.
THIS IS NOT BUILD 50 hosted in here.
the new Build.50 is 49MB
afterdawn.com did not update correctly.
it is always ranked amongst the "Top downloads" on this site.
i mostly use it to convert any video fotmat to WEBM
anybody know how to fix it? or if they are working on a fix?
It has a very rich video and audio codecs settings and the failure ration is extremely low.
we have tested/tried around 9 other encoders in vain..
It works great!
Other softwares propose many containers. SUPER is very rich in video and audio codecs with a whole range of containers.
It also join, split, mux and demus files.
A great program, the best
It deserved the 5 stars and for whoever worked on this piece of software I would say: THANK YOU!
I surely recommend using this 2011.b.47 version of super encoder.
Thats awesome, i am converting most my MKV file to my PSP flawlessly.
I also encoded couple of old MPG file to flv and hosted them at YouTube. Thank you for providing this great application for free.
Excellent freeware easy to use to render Webm format for my HTML5 website
Avoid downloading and installing the new version, and find an older version and you will be in great shape.
Sadly, its slow and requires tons of cpu resources.
Many times, after 24hrs of video encoding, Ill playback the file and itll look terrible. Ive played with all the settings and have yet to find a good setup.
Works great with all the audio files and has handy presets.
As promised a few choice were made and the program delivered a working mpg.
However I did find that in order to make the program work you must be in at least 1026 x 860 otherwise the controls to encode are not displayed. The only other problem was where the output file was going. This was hidden in the right click menu. I do not see why it is not present like all the other choices on the main window.
As someone mentioned before, this is NOT a piece of spyware or a trojan or any type of malware. I also scanned it using several scanners when someone said it was dangerous. There's nothing wrong with it.
The only thing that prevents me from giving SUPER 5 stars it that it cannot convert SWF files to another format.
Don't waste your time downloading this.
I hope the "Developer' of this program is reading this. I downloaded this program and installed it two different times ... and somehow it crashes my other programs ...
1) My DVDShrink preview window all of a sudden looks wqashed up (the best that I can describe it).
2) It crashed my "DirectVobSub" player.
3) The "Preview" feature of the SUPER program runs funny ... the Video playback looks "Washed Up" color.
Program seems to work ... like I said if they can fix up the other problems I think it would a "Great Tool".
Also maybe someone can write a "Dummy Guide" for those of us that don't knwo all the proper Scales and formats.
Message to aRTynz above:
On my W2K box I had headache with the menus as well, but after I changed the skin from the right-click menu it sorted itself out. So, obviously skin related. Works perfectly with another skin :-)
Just one thing - I have the latest version, build 19, and the drop down menus do not work properly. They do not drop down when clicked. The only way I can negotiate them is to click and then use up or down arrow and repeat this to move through all items. My system is Win-XP and is fully up to date with software upgrades.
I cannot find a place to send email so this seems the only place I can mention this. Thanks.
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text:
The Children�s Museum of Jacksonville held its inaugural Don Williamson Nissan Zing Zumm Runn on March 23 at Jacksonville High School.
To the editor:
The Children�s Museum of Jacksonville held its inaugural Don Williamson Nissan Zing Zumm Runn on March 23 at Jacksonville High School.
The event was an overwhelming success.
Once again, our community came together in support of efforts to bring an interactive children�s museum for Jacksonville and the surrounding area by participating in this Saturday morning fun event.
More than 175 children and adults braved the early-morning chill to run in either the one mile or 5K races. All enjoyed watching the children run in the 100-, 200- or 400-meter races, as well as crawlers in their own Diaper Dash.
We are most grateful to everyone who paid the registration fee to support us financially and came out to run or walk in the very neighborhood where we anticipate opening our doors in the future � the current fire station on Barn Street.
Thanks also to our website followers and Facebook fans who �liked� our 23 days of good health suggestions leading up to the Zing Zumm Runn.
It is with tremendous gratitude that we thank Don Williamson Nissan for being our title sponsor and supporting us through not only their financial sponsorship, but their enthusiasm for this event and the future of the Children�s Museum of Jacksonville. We appreciate everything.
Thank you to our Gold, Silver and Bronze sponsors: Jacksonville-Onslow Sports Commission, Trophy Case, Forkful, State Farm Insurance ( Victor Wilson), Heavenly Eye Photography, Synergy Physical Therapy, Budget Blinds, Marine Federal Credit Union, Century 21 Champion Real Estate, Onslow Memorial Hospital, Stoneworks Incorporated, Dotson Law Office, First Bank, Step Ahead Gymnastics, Melissa & Company Photography, Second Wind, Jump In Jax, Travel Leaders, Hadley Chiropractic, Johnson Drugs, Bright Entertainment, Brynn Marr Jewelers, Shear Magic, Jeff�s Burgers, Dogs & Shakes, Diana�s Dance Academy Act II, and Courthouse Cafe.
We truly appreciate your donations and generosity � what a fantastic business community we have here in Jacksonville.
Special thanks also to the Swansboro Young Marine unit for their color guard participation and the Marine Corps volunteers from New River Air Station for being with us on Saturday � we couldn�t have done it without you.
Thank you to The Daily News for its articles on our Zing Zumm Children�s Museum and run details. The pictures of the precious children published the next day really captured the spirit of this great family fun event.
Thank you again to everyone involved and hope to see you next year.
Chris Phelps
Melissa Russell
Editor�s note: Chris Phelps and Melissa Russell are board members of the Zing Zumm Children�s Museum of Jacksonville and were co-chairs of the Zing Zumm Runn. They submitted this letter on behalf of the museum board of directors.


text:
Farewell, Fred Voodoo
A Letter from Haiti
Amy Wilentz
Simon & Schuster: 352 pp., $27
When an earthquake struck Haiti in 2010, killing thousands, Amy Wilentz tried to stay away.
This wasn't easy for her to do. The Haitian people, their language and the unique beauty and madness of their country have been her obsession for a quarter-century. Indeed Wilentz, a Los Angeles writer and award-winning journalist, knows Haiti as well as any American writer has known a country that's not her own.
Wilentz, author of the acclaimed book "The Rainy Season," didn't go to Haiti because she couldn't stand the idea of seeing that country of proud dreamers treated as just another group of pathetic disaster victims. She knew she'd have to witness the "sheer awfulness" of all the aid groups that would be fighting one another "for a piece of the Haitian action."
"I was trying to outrun Haiti, to evade it before it took me over once again. In vain," she writes in her excellent and illuminating new book, "Farewell, Fred Voodoo: A Letter from Haiti."


text:
When 10th-graders Andrew Impeduglia and Luke Patrick returned last summer from a church mission trip to Guatemala, the faces of the children who live in the city trash dump stayed in their minds.
When 10th-graders Andrew Impeduglia and Luke Patrick returned last summer from a church mission trip to Guatemala, the faces of the children who live in the city trash dump stayed in their minds.
�It was my first experience out of the country, and I didn�t know what to expect,� said Impeduglia , 16. �When I got there, I fell in love with serving people.�
He and his friend plan to go back again this summer, but started thinking, �What are we going to do the 11 months we are not there?� Impeduglia said.
The people have many needs, but the teens specifically wanted to help provide dental care.
They got together with two other friends, Jonathon Beatty and Seth Strickland, to brainstorm about ways to raise money for a dental clinic in Guatemala. All four are members of Pleasant Ridge Baptist in Boiling Springs and active in the youth group there. The church group started going to Guatemala in 2012, and Cameron West, the minister to students, has made five trips to the country since then.
Although Beatty didn�t go on the trip last summer, he pestered his friends to think of a way to raise money.
�I would annoy them, because every time we went to Seth�s house, I wanted to make something,� he said.
Because they specifically wanted the money to be used for dental care, at first they thought about making gum to sell.
�That didn�t even last 24 hours,� Impeduglia said.
They approached West with the idea of making gum, and he said, no, but offered an alternative: chocolate.
The teens didn�t know anything about making chocolate, but started searching the internet for recipes.
�We found several recipes and tried three or four,� Strickland said. �We added chocolate or sugar until we got the right taste.�
They use fair trade ingredients: cocoa powder, cocoa butter, sugar and powdered milk. Making a product they were all happy with took pounds and pounds of cocoa butter, West said.
�Cocoa burns at a low temperature,� he said. �And you get fudge if you have too much moisture in it.�
After settling on a recipe, they made some candy bars and invited members of the youth group for a taste-test. They purchased several chocolate bars from the grocery store and asked the youth to compare their bar with the others.
Since July, a refrigerator has been donated to the church to help with the project; the kitchen at Pleasant Ridge has been licensed and inspected for making chocolate; and they�ve learned how to package the bars.
�I think it�s awesome that everything has fallen into place,� Beatty said.
The chocolate bars have been added to the product list of a nonprofit West had already started to sell coffee for Guatemala. The organization is called Love Coffee-Love Chocolate. They also sell beads and jewelry made by the women in Guatemala. Proceeds from the chocolate sales will continue to fund dental clinics, and a purchase of coffee helps the following ministries: El Amor de Patricia, Zona Juvenile Youth Ranch and Cristo es el Camino.
Several thousand people live in the dump community, West said. They search for food among the trash and also recycle tires and bottles. Some of them scrounge for pieces of soap, melt them down and make more soap to sell. The average income for the families who live there is 30 U.S. dollars a month, he said. That doesn�t leave money for dental care, and most of the people have rotting or impacted teeth.
The first dental clinic was held in Guatemala Oct. 18. Three Guatemalan dentists donated their time and the supplies were purchased with money from the chocolate sales.
�Faith is a strong thing,� Strickland said. �If God thinks you are going to do a good thing, he will help you out.�
Love Coffee-Love Chocolate
To find out more about the ministry in Guatemala or to purchase coffee or chocolate, go to http://lc-lc.org/.
The coffee and chocolate are also sold at Broad River Coffee and Cone, 105 S. Main St., Boiling Springs.
Pleasant Ridge Minister to Students Cameron West is also available to speak to groups about the Guatemala mission.
For information, email firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
This is my first attempt at a story. I'd love to hear some feedback at firstname.lastname@example.com
This is a work of fiction. Any similarities to persons alive or dead are purely coincidental. All the usual disclaimers apply.
Chapter 2: Bad Dreams
I was so excited and yet scared to death at the same time. School was letting out in two days for the summer and I and my friends had made lots of plans for fun stuff to do during the break. The very first thing I had to do though, the thing that had me stuck in my bedroom for the last thirty minutes or so, trying to summon sufficient courage, was to talk to my parents. Every time I made up my mind to go downstairs for breakfast and get it over with, I'd get as far as my bedroom door and I'd freeze. My hands would tremble as I reached for the door handle and I'd feel sick to my stomach.
"I can do this! I have to do this!" I said aloud to myself.
Somehow I had been brave enough to tell my two best friends yesterday and was sooo relieved when they didn't reject me outright for it. Stacy just gave me a huge hug and we both cried a little; me from the relief of getting what felt like a huge weight lifted from my shoulders and her in sympathy for what she could sense I'd been going through. She said at the time that she had suspected for a while but didn't want to ask me directly in case I wasn't ready to admit it to myself.
Mike had a different reaction. He was very quiet and just sat on my bed looking at me with an unreadable expression on his face. When he finally looked away, his eyes roamed the room and finally came to rest on a framed photo of the two of us. It was taken last summer when our families had visited a local water park together. We had our arms around each others shoulders and were grinning at each other. We were having so much fun.
"Are you sure? I mean this could just be a phase or something, right?" He suddenly asked quietly without looking at me.
"I'm pretty sure Mike, I think I've known for sure that I'm gay for a while now." I responded. "Do you hate me?"
I could feel my eyes threatening to tear up but I managed to force them down and I looked away from him. I was afraid of what I'd see in his face if he turned to look at me again. I hunched forward on my desk chair, my elbows resting on my thighs, my hands lightly clasped and I stared at my shoes, waiting.
"I couldn't hate you Jon." He said with a sigh. "I just need to think about this. I..I'd better go. I'll call you later, OK?"
He got up to leave and as he got to the door he turned to me again.
"Jon? Don't worry OK? I will call you later." And then he was gone.
I gave in to the tears and covered my face with my hands. "Oh God!" I thought. "What have I done!?" I can't lose Mike, what if he never wants to see me or speak to me again.
Mike had been my best friend since I moved into the neighborhood six years ago and lived in the house just over the road from me. We felt more like brothers than best friends and we did everything together, well nearly everything. We had the same taste in movies and music, were in a lot of the same classes together and on the swim team together. We had the same dry sense of humor and were forever playing practical jokes on each other, each trying to out do the other.
I heard the front door close as he left and I stood and walked to my window. I watched as Mike walked slowly back to his house, his hands in his jeans pockets his head slightly bowed. I watched him until he entered his house and closed the door behind him. The sight of his door closing made me feel even worse and I walked over to my bed and lay down upon it. I buried my head in my pillow and sobbed.
I must have fallen asleep as the next I knew I could hear my Mom arriving home from her studio. Mom's a successful artist and was very busy lately organizing another exhibition of her work in a New York gallery; which was now just a week away.
"Are you home Jon?" I heard her shout from downstairs. I would often be over at Mike's place at this time of day, so she always checked to see if I was at home before phoning me at Mike's to tell me to come back for dinner.
"Yeah Mom." I shouted back. "I'll be down in a minute". I got off the bed and walked through to the bathroom to freshen up. Looking in the mirror I was surprised by how much of a mess I looked. My eyes were red from crying and my hair was in disarray. I splashed some water on may face and tidied my hair a little with my fingers then went downstairs.
When I walked into the kitchen my Mom was putting away some food supplies and had her back to me.
"I was thinking maybe I'd make a Lasagna today, with some of that garlic bread you like so much, what do you think?" She asked me without turning around.
"Sounds nice." I said. There must have been something in my tone of voice because she stopped what she was doing and turned to face me.
"Jon, what's the matter? Are you OK?" She said walking over to me and putting her hands on my shoulders.
"I'm OK Mom." I lied. "I just have a headache, do you have some Aspirin I could take for it?" I was relieved when she let me go and went to find me an Aspirin and pour me a glass of water to take it with. If she'd have kept on fussing over me I would probably have burst into tears again.
"OK, well you go lie down for a while and I'll call you when dinner's ready." She said as I swallowed down the tablet.
I went back upstairs to my room but instead of lying down again I turned on my computer to see if Stacy was online. I thought maybe I could get her to speak to Mike and find out what he was thinking. There was no sign of her so I sent her an email instead. I didn't want to put too much info in the email as I knew her parents checked up on her online activities from time to time. So I just wrote that I had "told Mike the news" and was worried that he was upset about it and if she could call him if she gets this email in the next hour or so and then call me back afterwards.
I looked out of my bedroom window over at Mike's house but I couldn't see any activity. His bedroom window was facing mine but the blinds were down so I couldn't see in. I tried not to read anything into that as the blinds were often down.
To pass some time and to take my mind off Mike I browsed around the web for a little while. Soon enough my Mom was calling me down for dinner. My Dad must have come home in the meantime without me hearing him as we never eat dinner without him, unless he was working late at the college. Dad was a professor of History and was in the process of writing another book on the subject, which often had him spending long hours in the library after teaching all day. I washed my hands in the bathroom and went downstairs.
Dinner was awkward for me. I didn't have much appetite and was feeling a little nauseous from worrying about Mike. I tried not to let it show to Mom and Dad and passed off my lack of appetite as the after effects of my earlier headache. I asked mom to save the Lasagna I hadn't been able to eat so I could warm it up in the microwave when I got home from school tomorrow.
Damn! I had forgotten about school. What if Mike avoids me tomorrow? Or worse, what if he outs me other kids!? No, he said he didn't hate me, didn't he? He wouldn't do that to me. I would die if everyone found out about me! And what if it got back to my Mom and Dad!? What then?
"Jon?" I heard my Dad say. "It's about time you told us the truth, isn't it?" He had a serious expression on his face.
"H..Huh?" I stammered, suddenly panic stricken. "Th..Th..The truth? About what?"
"The truth about you not really liking your mother's Lasagna." He said with a smirk in my Mom's direction. "It's a little spicy for my taste too." He added.
My Mom gasped in mock outrage. "Well! I've never been so insulted! If you two don't like my cooking then we'll have to see what you both can come up with for dinner tomorrow night. I suddenly feel the need for a night off for a change." She crossed her arms and tried to glower at the two of us from across the table.
This had the desired effect and my Dad was soon backpedaling. "No, No dear! I was just joking, you're Lasagna is perfect just the way it is, isn't it Jon?" This last was delivered along with a couple of elbow nudges to my ribs. It's not as if I needed the encouragement. I had tasted my Dad's cooking before and it's not something I'd be in any hurry to experience again.
"Yeah Mom, I love your Lasagna, really!" I enthused. "I'm just not that hungry at the moment, you know, with the headache and all." I tapped my finger against the side of my head to emphasize the point.
"Hmmm." She said. But she had a smile on her face now, so we knew she wasn't really upset. Mom and Dad liked to have these little digs at each other and it was never meant in any way other than just kidding around.
I asked to be excused and left them to finish their meal. I still felt a bit shaky from what my Dad had said to me. For a second or two there I really thought that he was asking me to confess to being gay.
I was about to head upstairs again when the phone rang.
"I'll get it, Dad" I said as I dashed into the lounge and picked up the handset. I must have been too eager as it slipped out of my hand and I almost dropped it. A frantic little half-dive half-juggling move allowed me to save the phone but left me prostrate on the couch.
"Hello? Stace?" I finally managed to say into the mouthpiece, once I'd turned it the right way around. I was dying to hear how Stacy's call to Mike had gone.
"Hey." Came Mike's reply." I quickly righted myself into a seated position and gripped the handset tightly against my ear.
"M..Mike? Sorry, I wasn't expecting it to be you. Look Mike, I..." I was about to start apologizing to him about our conversation earlier but he interrupted me.
"Listen Jon, can you come over? We should talk about...you know...what you said earlier. Can you come over now?" Mike's voice was oddly unemotional so I couldn't tell anything about how he was feeling.
"S..Sure, I guess." I answered hesitantly. "I'll be there in five minutes, OK?"
After a brief pause then in the same flat tone Mike said, "OK, good, see you in five then." There was a click as he hung up. I sat there looking at the now inert handset for a few seconds then stood up, returned the handset to it's base and went back into the kitchen. Mom and Dad were still chatting over their nearly empty plates and looked up at me as I walked in.
"Who was on the phone?" Mom asked.
"Just Mike, he wants me to come over for a bit, is that alright?" I said. I must have sounded a little anxious or something, although I don't think 'anxious' is a strong enough term for how I felt at that moment, as my Mom's forehead creased into a slight frown.
"Is everything alright honey?" She asked with a concerned tone to her voice. "You look a little frazzled today? You coming down with something?" She had walked over to me as she said this and placed her hand on my forehead in a motherly fashion to check my temperature.
I stepped back a little out of her reach. "I'm fine Mom, just thinking about tomorrow's history test. That's what Mike wants to talk to me about." A half-truth. There was a big history test due the next day, not that I was worried about it though, History was one of my favorite subjects and I always aced the tests. "So can I go over?"
"OK Jon, but be back by 9pm so you can get a good night's sleep. You'll need to be wide awake for your test tomorrow." She said patting me on my arm and returning to the kitchen table. Dad gave me a smile and a little wave and I was dismissed.
I quickly ran upstairs to my bathroom and checked myself in the mirror. I tidied may hair again and splashed a little water on my face to freshen up. Returning downstairs I slipped my shoes on at the front door but didn't bother with a jacket. I was only going to be over the road after all.
I went outside onto the porch and stood there for a few seconds composing myself before heading across the road to Mike's house. I was just about to knock on his front door when it opened and Mike was stood there in front of me.
"Er...Hi." I offered quietly.
"Come on in." He said gesturing with his hand for me to follow him inside. "We'll go up to my room."
I followed him inside and closed the door behind me. I couldn't hear any sound coming from the kitchen or anywhere else so I asked him where his parents were.
"They're working late tonight, some sort of last minute contractual problems so they won't be home until around 11pm. They left me money for pizza again." Mike's Mom and Dad were both lawyers and worked for the same firm. They specialized in business law and often had to put in long hours, especially when putting together contracts for important clients. So Mike was used to having to order takeout food whenever the need arose.
He headed up the stairs and I followed him up. I resisted the temptation this time to take a sneak peak at his butt as he climbed. I didn't think that being caught perving on him would make this evening go any smoother. Instead of going into his bedroom he stopped just outside the closed door and turned to me.
"Jon..." he said placing both of his hands on my shoulders and looking me square in the eyes "...we've been friends for years, right?" I didn't get chance to respond before he continued. "I think I know you better than anybody, we're practically brothers after all. So when you told me earlier today that you thought that you were...that you were...Gay, it didn't make any sense to me. I mean, if you were gay then I would have known right? As we're so close and everything I would have seen it." He took a breath and continued. "So 'cause I didn't see it and as I still don't see it now either, 'cause you don't act gay or do stuff gays do, then you can't be gay, don't you see? So this must just be a glitch or a phase or something and we're going to prove it to you."
I was struck dumb by what he had just said. He didn't believe me! Didn't he see how serious I was when I told him, how difficult it was for me to say? He thought just because he couldn't see something it didn't exist? Was he seriously that arrogant? That's so not like the Mike I thought I knew. Wait...what did he mean by "we're going to prove it to you"? I couldn't get my thoughts in order so I just stared at him and said "What?"
"Hey relax Jon, you'll enjoy this I guarantee it! You see when Stacy phoned earlier to talk about it she was sort of convinced that you telling the truth and that you were really Gay. Hehehe, she's so dumb sometimes. Anyway I told here the same thing I just told you and she finally saw things my way. That's when we came up with the idea of how to prove to you that you're really straight."
This was getting to be too much for me. "Wait...stop Mike, what are you talking about...really straight? I'm not..." I couldn't get out what I wanted to say and I was getting frustrated and more than a little mad at Mike for not believing me. And now he had apparently also convinced Stacy that I wasn't gay, what the hell!?
Mike continued. "Yeah, so you know I've got some money saved up and Stacy helped a bit too, so we went online, you know, to some of those sites I like to visit hehehe and that's where we found her. I called her up and when I explained what the problem was she was happy to help us out, said she'd even give us a discount as it would be your first time. So anyway, here you go dude." He said pressing something into my palm and closing my fingers around it. "No time to lose, she's waiting for ya, hehehe. Go get her tiger!!". With that he opened the door and pushed me through into his darkened bedroom. I couldn't see anything and when the door closed behind me I just stood there totally brain-locked.
It was the sensation of the object in my hand that Mike had passed me that I focused on and I felt its contours with my thumb and fingers. It appeared to me a small flattish packet - metallic foil by the feel of it - containing some sort of flexible, squishy ring about an inch and a half across. What the hell was this? WAIT!! What the fuck!! Was this a...a CONDOM!! That was when she spoke from the direction I knew Mike's bed to be in.
"Hello Big Boy, come and get it while it's hot?" Her voice was low, practically a whisper. My head snapped up upon hearing it and I caught the sense of movement in my direction as my eyes were trying to adjusted to the darkness. I screamed, or at least I tried to. What came out was a cross between a squeak and a croak as I turned and madly scrabbled at the door, trying to find the handle. After what seemed like an eternity I managed to find the handle and wrenched the door open, bolting out into the hallway straight into Mike's waiting arms and the sound of his hysterical laughter.
"Hahahahaha, got you again sucka!!" He proclaimed whilst I struggled frantically yet fruitlessly as his grip tightened around me. "Whoa big boy, hehehe! We were just kidding, calm down, take a breath."
I twisted slightly and saw Stacy standing in Mike's bedroom doorway with her hand over he mouth trying, not very successfully, to stifle her own laughter.
"What...Stacy?...who...but..." OK, I wasn't making any sense, again, but who could blame me under the circumstances. "What the hell is going on!" I shouted at Mike. He and Stacy both stopped laughing and Mike pouted at me. "Aw come on Jon, we were kidding. I think that joke just trumped anything you've ever pulled on me? You'll never beat that, hehehe. Come on let's go inside." With that, he let me go and steered me back into his bedroom. Stacy, already partly in the room went over to Mike's bed and sat down. Mike indicated that I should sit next to her and he took his computer chair, straddling it and crossed his arms over the back of the seat.
"OK, before you start freaking out again let me say something here." He began, holding his hands up in a placating gesture. "Stacy phoned me earlier because she was worried about whether I was OK or not with you being gay. Let me say straight away that I am 100% OK with you being gay Jon. It doesn't make any difference to me, as far as I'm concerned you're just you and that's all that matters, OK?"
"You are? Why didn't you say so earlier when I told you?" I asked him.
"Well, I wasn't expecting it, you caught me by surprise and I was half thinking that it was another one of your pranks. But then I saw how upset you looked over it so I thought I'd go and get my head straight before we talked about it. I thought it might give you a little time to calm down too, guess I was wrong on that count huh?"
"You can say that again!" I shot back at him. Followed quickly by, "Don't you dare Mike!" as he took a breath take advantage of the opening I'd given him and repeat his last sentence. I knew him too well.
"Hehehe, OK sorry." He chuckled then became serious again. "So anyway, Stace and I were worried about you being too stressed over it so we got our heads together and sort of thought that the best way for you to get over it was to blow it up out of all proportion. That way you'd see that it wasn't really that big a deal, for us anyway. We thought if we made a joke out of it you would have to lighten up a bit too, do you get it? He asked with a hopeful expression on his face.
"Well I suppose I get it, but crap Mike I almost had a heart attack when I thought I was stuck in a room with a...a prostitute." I responded running my hands though my hair, a habit of mine when feeling frustrated.
Stacy slung her arm around my shoulders and gave me a sideways hug. "Probably a good job then that I didn't grab your ass like Mike wanted me to huh?" She said giggling.
"Yeah, probably. If you'd done that you might have ended up with more than a cheap feel 'cause I would have crapped myself!!" I retorted.
"Ewww!! That's gross Jon!" She replied releasing me from the hug and slugging me a good one in the arm. She's stronger than she looks.
"So, are we good?" asked Mike. "You know that we know your gay and you also know that we don't have a problem with it."
"Yeah, were good." I sighed. "But are you both REALLY sure you're OK with it?" I asked looking from Mike to Stacy and back again.
Stacy nodded vigorously and smiled at me. Whilst Mike rose from his seat and walked over to where I was sat on the bed and took my hand. "Jon, stand up." He ordered and I rose and stood in front of him.
"This is how much I'm OK with it." He said and laying his hands on my shoulder he pulled me to him and kissed me on the lips lightly then drew me into one of the warmest, most loving hugs I've ever had. "Friends forever Jon." He whispered in to my ear.
When he let me go my cheeks were wet from the tears I'd been unable to hold at bay but they were good tears. I just nodded and smiled warmly at him. "Thanks Mike, you too Stace." I said inclining my head in her direction. She got up then and we three shared a group hug.
"So..." Mike said eventually, "when are you going to tell your Mom and Dad?" I gasped involuntarily at his question. "I think you should," he continued, "your 'rents are great, they wouldn't mind at all, I'm sure of it."
"Your probably right, but it was hard enough just telling you two. I'll have to time it well. But what if we're wrong, what if they kick me out or send me off to some re-programming camp for gay kids or something..." I was starting to panic again.
"JON!" Mike raised his voice to get my attention. "Stop! Don't think about it too much or you'll always be asking 'what if this' or 'what if that'. You know your parents are cool and you know how much they love you, so relax OK?"
"OK, you're right, sorry." I knew Mike had a point but it was difficult not to worry, the last thing I wanted was be a disappointment to Mom and Dad.
"I think you should go and get a good night's sleep and then tell them over breakfast." Mike suggested. "That way, if things get a bit weird, you can go to school and they'll have the day to get used to the idea. Waddya think?"
"I think that's actually a good plan." I told him glancing over at his alarm clock . "I should be heading home now anyway, I promised I'd be back home by 9pm and it's not far off that now."
We all shared another hug and went downstairs. Mike said goodbye to Stace and I at the door with a promise to talk more on the way to school. Stace and I said our farewells at the end of Mike's driveway and she headed down the road to her place whilst I walked slowly back to mine.
I had some serious thinking to do. Should I tell Mom and Dad about me so soon? Would it make any difference to put it off for a week, a month, a year? Probably not. I was brave enough to tell my two best friends and that turned out fine, well apart from the whole heart attack inducing prostitute incident. Hehehe. I'm soooo going to get Mike back for that!! I should tell them and the sooner the better, just not tonight. I think I'll take Mike's advice and sleep on it, I'll be braver in the morning.
So here I was the next morning apparently stuck in my bedroom, too much of a coward to take the plunge. I was just about to try again, my hand reaching for the handle, when my Mom shouted from downstairs.
"Jon honey, you're gonna be late if you don't get a move on!" I flinched back from the door as if she had spoken from the other side of it.
"OK Mom." I shouted back taking a few deep breaths and running my hands through my hair. "Come on Jon, don't be a such a wuss". I admonished myself silently and opened the door. The hallway and stairs seemed to recede away from me as I stepped forward towards my fate. I was shaking slightly by the time I had reached the kitchen. Mom and Dad were both there, Mom just finishing a bowl of cereal and Dad cradling his morning coffee and flicking through the newspaper.
I went to the fridge and fetched myself a glass of OJ and then joined them at the table. I stared into my OJ and couldn't bring myself to look up at them. mentally kicking myself again I bit the bullet and cleared my throat.
"Umm...Mom, Dad? Can I t..talk to you both for a minute." I stammered slightly.
"Sure Jon, what's up?" My Dad said, putting down his newspaper and turning towards me. Now that I had both of their attentions I could feel myself clamming up again so I cleared my throat again to give me a little momentum.
"I've got something sort of important to tell you both." I looked down at my class of OJ again. It was a little easier to talk when I couldn't see their faces, although I could still feel their eyes on me.
"I hope this doesn't upset you too much but I think I might be...no what I mean is, I don't think I am, I KNOW I am...well, you know what I mean don't you? So?" I babbled at them picking up speed the more I said. I closed my eyes and held my breath at the end waiting for a response from either of them.
"Er, what?" Said Dad "Can you try that again in English please Jon?"
I let out my held breath in a rush. "I'm Gay." I whispered.
I held my breath again and waited. Nothing. No explosion, no screaming or wailing, nothing. My chest was beginning to burn from holding my breath. So I had to let it out and take another. As I did I opened one eye and looked first at my Mom and then at my Dad. They were both still staring at me which was really unnerving but not nearly as much as the smiles on both their faces. SMILES!? They were smiling at me! My head snapped up and I looked rapidly from one to the other.
"You don't mind?" I asked timidly. "You're OK with it?"
"Of course we don't mind, why would we?" Mom asked in a gentle tone. "The question is, are you OK with it? You seem to be a bundle of nerves lately, is this what that was all about?"
"Well yeah, I guess so." I responded, contemplating how stressed out I'd felt recently. "It's just been getting harder and harder to deal with you know, keeping it a secret and all."
"Jon, you've got nothing to worry about, OK son?" Dad said leaning across the table and placing his hand gently on my forearm. "We love you no less than we did five minutes ago. We just want you to be healthy and happy. Who you love doesn't matter in the least from our perspective."
"Oops, look at the time, we're all going to be late if we don't hustle." Mom stood and gave me a hug and kiss. "We'll all sit down tonight and talk it through together, OK? You get off to school and don't worry about a thing honey. And Jon," She took my face in her hands and looked me straight in the eyes. "I'm sooo proud of you for having the courage to tell us."
She let me go and ruffled my hair as she went past me to get her purse from the lounge.
"We're both proud of you Jon." My Dad said as he also got up and left the kitchen leaving me sat at the table nursing my glass of OJ in a bit of a daze. Was that it? I couldn't help feeling a little let down that they didn't have a more dramatic reaction. I know I've been stressing lately and I've imagined all sorts of negative outcomes to my coming out. So when the actual end result is just a simple acceptance, it's sort of hard to think of it as 'no big deal'.
Shaking myself out of my reverie, I finished my OJ and walked to the front door where my parents were getting ready to leave for work.
"What do you say we have a special dinner tonight, Jon? To celebrate." Mom asked as she was rummaging in her purse for her car keys.
"OK Mom, that would be great." I answered with a grin.
"Well good." She said. "I've got an idea for a special recipe to mark the occasion, but I might need to go to the market to get a few extra supplies. So I may be a little later than usual getting home, OK?"
"Sure Mom, I'll probably be over at Mike's when you get back anyway, so just give me a ring." I said as we all left the house. "See you later!"
I left them to retrieve their cars from the garage and I jogged over to Mike's house to collect him for the bus ride to school. I could have got a ride to school from Mom or Dad, as they both drove past the school on their way to their respective workplaces. But Mike, Stace and I always liked to take the bus together.
Mike's Dad's car wasn't in the drive so I knew both his parents had left already. As his parents worked for the same law firm they didn't see the need to run two cars. I knocked on his front door and waited for him to open it. I turned as my Dad honked his car horn at me as he was leaving and gave me a cheery wave. Mom's car was just pulling out of our drive and I gave her a wave as she followed after Dad. I turned back to Mike's front door only to be confronted by him standing right next to me pulling a stupid face.
"Arghhh!" I exclaimed jumping back a little in surprise. "You asshole! Hehehe." I shouted at him but couldn't help but laugh, he was such a doofus sometimes.
"Are you ready or what? We'll be late to collect Stace and you know how she gets if we make her wait on us." I asked him.
"Yeah, yeah! Just let me get my bag and we're all set." He said leaning into his doorway to retrieve his book bag.
"Oh, by the way," I said in a deliberately casual tone. "I came out to my Mom and Dad this morning." He stumbled as he spun around too quickly and caught one of straps of his book bag on the handle of the door which caused the door to swing closed. There was a 'thunk' sound as the back of Mike's head met the wood of the closing door as he comically tried to recover his footing.
"Ow!" He said scrunching his face up and rubbing the sore spot. "You need to work on your timing dude. So come on, tell me all about it. How did you tell them and more importantly what did they say when you told them?" he asked excitedly.
"Let's go get Stace and I'll tell you both about it at the same time." I said starting down the drive."
"Aww, come on Jon! Tell me, I can't wait that long! Pleeease?" He pleaded, trying to pout and make sad puppy dog eyes at me at the same time.
"Hehehe, no way dude, you'll have to wait all of five minutes till we get to Stacy's." I walked on down the road towards Stacy's house less than a block away. Mike made two more, unsuccessful attempts to extract information en route. It was kinda fun keeping him in suspense.
Stace was outside her house waiting for us as we rounded the corner. I could see she was irritated by the way she kept looking at her watch and tapping her foot rhythmically. She kept this up even after she spotted us walking down the sidewalk towards her. She hates being kept waiting for anything.
"Let me tell her OK?" I asked Mike under my breath as we came to a halt in front of her. He silently nodded his assent and smirked at me. He does tend to just bust out with things sometimes, especially other peoples secrets and I wanted to make sure he was clear that it was my news to tell.
"Finally!" She huffed. "I was just about to leave without you two. Come on or we'll miss the bus." With a last disdainful glance at us she turned and started marching off in the direction of the bus stop. I grinned at Mike as we fell into step behind her.
I waited until we got to the bus stop before saying anything. I didn't know how she'd react to the news and I definitely didn't want to do anything to cause her to miss the bus. There were a few other neighborhood kids waiting when we got there idly chatting amongst themselves. Before we got too close to them I took hold of Stacy's arm gently but firmly.
"Just a sec Stace." I said, glancing around to make sure I wouldn't be overheard. "I did it. I told them this morning." I whispered to her.
She raised her hand to her mouth her eyes wide in shock. "Omigod! Really? What happened? Are you OK?" She tried to whisper back at me, only it came out like more of a shriek. It was certainly loud enough to get the attention of the other kids who were now glancing at us and wondering what was going on.
"Shhh! Keep it down Stace!" I hissed, leading her a few paces further away from the bus stop and hopefully out of earshot of the other kids. Mike stayed close to us of course, being just as keen as Stacy was to hear what had transpired.
"I told them both over breakfast. It was hard to say, really hard." I explained, recalling how tongue tied I'd been at the time. "But they were actually...cool about it. If 'cool' is the right word? They just said it didn't matter as long as I was happy. Oh, and my Mom's cooking a special meal for us tonight so we can celebrate."
Trying to suppress a squeal, Stacy pulled me into a hug. "Oh Jon, that's so great! I'm so glad it went OK! I mean, we were sure it would be OK but it's just fantastic to hear that you told them and everything was OK." She gushed enthusiastically. "So how do you feel, now that you've told them?"
"OK, I guess." I shrugged, taking a moment to think how exactly I did feel about it. "Relieved that I don't have to hide how I feel from them anymore and that I don't have to pretend to be somebody I'm not. I can just be me, you know?"
Mike clapped me on the back. "Good for you, Jon, good for you."
Luckily the bus made an appearance at this point or I may have become emotional again. We boarded and took our usual seats and for the next 30 minutes just chatted about this and that. Mostly about the fun we were going to have over the summer. We couldn't really talk safely about my coming out to my parents for fear of being overheard and I definitely wasn't ready to be out at school. Hell No!"
Actually, the closer we go to school the more anxious I found myself becoming. Having come out to my parents, would there be anything different about me that would be detectable by the other kids at school. I glanced nervously about the bus but nobody appeared to be paying me any more attention than usual. Phew! 'OK, just relax, there's no way they know anything.' I kept telling myself. But when we got off the bus and entered the school I couldn't help feel a little paranoid about it.
After dropping off our bags we made our way to our History class. At least Mike and I did. Stacy didn't have quite the same schedule as us so we shared fewer classes together. So she blew us both a kiss and disappeared upstairs for her English class with a promise to catch up with us at lunch.
As expected the History test was a breeze and I had finished with at least 10 minutes to spare. Mike wasn't too happy though, History wasn't one of his favorite subjects. I had tried to tutor him a few times but he just didn't seem that interested, so I left him with the offer of help if he needed it and dropped the matter.
The remaining classes before lunch were uneventful. With summer break fast approaching there was an almost palpable tension building in the student body. Recognizing this, teachers tended to scale back on the work load and so classes the last week before school let out were usually quite relaxed.
Mike and I met up with Stacy outside the entrance to the cafeteria and walking in together we joined the a la carte lunch line. As we were selecting our food there was an announcement over the Public Address system.
"Would student Jonathan Barrett please report to the Principal's Office immediately. I repeat, would student Jonathan Barrett report to the Principal's Office immediately." The Principal's Secretary's somewhat nasal voice requested.
I frowned and looked at both Mike and Stacy in bemusement. "Mike can you take my tray for me. I'll go find out what they want and will be back in a minute OK?" I asked, making sure to give him enough cash to cover the cost of my lunch.
"No problems." Said Mike and, balancing the proffered tray precariously, made his way to the cashier.
I left the cafeteria and made my way to the Administrative wing where the Principal's Office was located. Opening the door to the secretary's office I was shocked to see my Dad sitting in the waiting area. He looked awful. His face was drawn and his eyes looked a little bloodshot.
"D..Dad? Why are you here? What's wrong?" I asked him. I was starting to get some really bad vibes from this situation.
Dad just got up and walked over to me. "Jon, get your stuff, you have to come with me now." He took my arm and led me out of the waiting area, nodding to the secretary curtly on as we left. "I'll explain everything in the car on the way."
"On the way where Dad? Where are we going?" I asked anxiously as we walked to my locker to get my bag.
"Not yet Jon. Wait till we get to the car OK son?" There was something about his tone that scared me but I didn't ask any more questions. When we got to my locker I struggled with the combination lock because my hands were shaking. It took three attempts to open the lock. I retrieved by bag, shouldered it and closed my locker then followed Dad out of the main entrance an over to where he had parked the car.
Getting into the car, I threw my bag into the back seat and waited for Dad to get into the driver's seat. I looked at him expectantly but he just sat there for a few minutes with both of his hands on the steering wheel and his head slightly bowed.
"Jon, we need to get to the hospital, your mother's had an accident." He suddenly said whilst turning to look at me.
"What! What sort of accident, is she OK?" I exclaimed.
His eyes met mine briefly and I could tell this was going to be bad. "A car accident. She phoned me about an hour ago to say she was shutting up the studio early and going to the market for those supplies she wanted for our meal this evening. She said she wanted to get started on it as soon as possible as she also wanted to bake a cake for you and for it to be ready for the time you got home from school." He looked at me again and reached over and squeezed my hand. I don't know if he was trying to comfort me or himself, probably both. "She's in a bad way son. The hospital called me to say she was in Intensive Care and to get there as soon as possible. Jon, they're not sure she's going to pull through."
A whole host of emotions were playing out in my head. Shock and fear being the strongest. I was starting to feel nauseous too and my chest was feeling tight. Every breath felt like it was taking twice the usual effort. I gripped his hand tightly and squeezed my eyes shut to try to get control of the panic I could feel welling up inside me.
After a few seconds I felt a little better and looked at Dad again. "Well let's go then Dad, what are we waiting for?" I said letting go of his hand and fixing my seatbelt.
The drive to the hospital was tense. It only took 10 minutes or so but every traffic light was torture. It felt like every other driver was conspiring against us to delay us as much as possible. When we finally got there Dad parked and we made are way quickly into the hospital and went straight to the reception desk to find out where Mom was. We were given directions to the Intensive Care unit on the 4th floor and after a short elevator ride we were walking up to yet another reception desk. Dad spoke to the nurse on duty, giving his and Mom's names and asking for information about Mom's condition.
The nurse showed us to a waiting room and told us that the doctor would be through to speak with us very soon. She handed Dad a bundle of forms to fill in and went back to desk. How the hell could they expect Dad to fill in forms at a time like this? I expect they were for insurance but I couldn't see given the angle Dad had them on his knee. It was probably only 10 minutes before the doctor finally appeared and approached Dad. I couldn't read anything in his face to indicate how Mom was doing.
"Mr Barrett, I'm Dr Charlton. Would you care to come with me please to one of our meeting rooms so that we can discuss you wife's condition?" He said indicating to several doors down the hall with a wave of his arm.
Dad and I both stood and made to follow the doctor as he turned and led the way. When he saw that I was also coming along he paused.
"Um, Mr Barrett, maybe it would be better if we were to speak alone at this time." The doctor said with a concerned look in my direction.
Dad looked at me and then back at the doctor. "No." He said emphatically. "Anything you have to say to me you can also say to my son."
The doctor didn't appear too keen on the idea but acquiesced to my Dad's request. "Very well Mr Barrett, this way if you please." He continued down the hall and opened one of the doors and ushered us both inside.
The room was small and spartanly furnished. There was a row of three chairs on one side and two on the other with a small desk in the corner. The doctor took on of the chairs in the row of two and Dad and I took seats opposite him.
"Mr Barrett I don't know what information you've received about your wife's accident but I'll sum up what I know from the ambulance crews' verbal report. You wife was involved in a car accident a little over an hour ago. Her vehicle was struck on a crossing by another car which had apparently run a red light. The other car was traveling at a considerable speed and impacted your wife's car on the driver's side. You wife received the full force of this impact. When she arrived at the Emergency Room she had several serious injuries the most severe of which were a fracture to the skull, a collapsed lung and internal bleeding. Her left arm was broken in several places and her left knee was dislocated. We were able to re-inflate her lung and stop the internal bleeding and have reset her knee and stabilized her broken arm." This was all delivered with the practiced efficiency of someone used to being the bearer of bad news. "Of most concern to us at the moment is the head injury. An initial CT Scan indicates that there is significant swelling of the brain caused by the blunt trauma. We are currently keeping your wife in a chemically induced coma to limit the effects of this swelling. We are monitoring the inter-cranial pressure and may still have to operate to relieve the pressure if it gets too high. Do you have any questions?"
"Can we see her." Dad asked quietly.
The doctor nodded. "Yes, although as I said, your wife is currently in a coma and will be unable to respond to you. I must also warn you that her appearance my be shocking for you and I would strongly advise you to see her on your own in the first instance." Dad looked at me and I shook my head at his unasked question. I wasn't going to wait outside. I wanted to see her regardless of how she looked.
Dad turned back to the doctor. "We'll go in together doctor, thank you." He said placing an arm around my shoulder and giving me a sideways hug.
The doctor stood and opened the door. "Very well Mr Barrett, please come this way and I will take you to your wife."
We both stood and Dad kept his arm around me as we followed the doctor further down the hall to one of the ICU patient rooms. Before he showed us inside he turned to my Dad again and placed his hand on Dad's shoulder.
"Please let me know if you have any further questions or if I can help in any way." And with that he opened the door and we were presented with scene from my worst nightmare.
I gasped when I saw her and involuntarily clasped at my Dad's arm for support. It was horrible. She hardly looked like Mom at all. What I could see of her face looked raw and swollen. Both of her eyes were blackened, more so on the left side and her head was swathed in bandages. Her left arm had some sort of metal frame around it and there appeared to be metal wires fixed to the frame that were actually piercing my Mom's arm. There was also thick bandaging on her exposed left leg, all the way from her ankle to her hip. She looked so broken and vulnerable I felt like sobbing but fought back the tears. If I started I might not be able to stop.
There were banks of monitors and what looked like yards of plastic tubing and wiring. There was a thick tube in Mom's mouth attached to what I assumed was a ventilator. I had seen this kind of scene in lots of TV shows but I never imagined I'd ever get to see the real thing. It's not something I'd ever want to see again either.
We approached the bed and the nurse who was taking readings from the various monitors stepped out of our way so we could get closer. We went around to the left side of the bed and Dad took Mom's uninjured right hand in his.
"Julia? Julia, we're here sweetheart." Dad said softly and his voice broke a little. I looked up at him and there were tears in his eyes. I don't think I've ever seen my Dad cry. In some ways it was more disturbing than than the sight of Mom's battered body. Dad had always had a quiet strength, a calm self-assuredness that I had taken for granted I suppose. To see him on the brink of emotional breakdown was massively discomforting.
"It'll be OK Dad, Mom'll be back on her feet in no time, you'll see." I said the words in the hope of bolstering my Dad's flagging spirits, but looking at my Mom I didn't know whether I believed what I was saying.
Dad offered me a weak smile and just squeezed my shoulder again.
We managed to stay with Mom for another 30 minutes before the ICU nurse suggested it would be better for Mom if we left her to rest. I kissed Mom on the cheek and told her that I loved her and as we left the room I paused in the doorway, looking back over my shoulder.
Sensing my hesitation Dad squeezed my shoulder again. "Come on Jon, let's have another word with the doctor and then we can head home. She's in good hands."
We found the doctor at the ICU reception desk flicking through some papers. Dad approached him and asked how soon it would be before they knew whether Mom was out of the woods. The doctor told Dad that they would perform another CT Scan in the morning and if the brain swelling had reduced sufficiently they would bring Mom out of the coma and allow her to wake up slowly. They would then perform a battery of tests to evaluate if there were any functional problems.
He had actually said 'functional problems' but I had heard 'brain damage'. I dismissed that notion though as soon as it entered my head. Nope, not my Mom. Dad thanked the doctor again who assured us he would do everything he could to ensure Mom had a positive outcome.
The drive home was quiet, Dad and I both lost in our own thoughts. Before I knew it we were pulling into our drive and Dad was switching off the engine. Neither of us made any move to get out of the car.
"Are you hungry?" Dad asked. "You missed lunch didn't you?"
"I don't know." I responded unable to really recall much of what happened before Dad picked me up, it all seemed a bit hazy. My stomach rumbled noisily at this point. At least a part of me knew how it felt.
"I'll take that as a yes, come on I'd better eat something too. Your Mother will skin us alive if we don't take care of ourselves while she's unable to." He forced a smile and I forced one back. We weren't fooling each other but we went through the motions anyway. We both got out of the car and went into the house.
I sat at the kitchen table and allowed Dad to fix us a bowl of cereal each. Apart from the crunching of cereal as we ate the meal was a silent one. When I finished I just sat there staring into my empty bowl until Dad had finished his.
"Why don't you go and have a nap Jon? I bet you're as exhausted as I feel." As he said it I suddenly felt a wave of tiredness wash over me and, nodding in assent, it was as much as I could do to drag myself upstairs to my room. My limbs felt leaden and my eyelids kept trying to stay closed when I blinked.
Reaching my bed I collapsed upon it and curled myself into a fetal ball, my arms hugging my knees and my head tucked in. I was out like a light.
I don't remember if I dreamed, but the next thing I knew I was opening my eyes and my room was dark except for the faint moonlight shining through my window. I lay there unmoving for a few minutes, listening for any sounds of life. Nothing. No distant sound from the TV or activity in the kitchen. Then it all came flooding back, Mom had been in an accident and she was in the hospital seriously hurt. I jerked up off the bed and stumbled slightly as my joints felt a little stiff. I must have slept in one position for...how long had I slept? I didn't know what time it was when I came upstairs but worked out it must have been around 3pm and it was now...looking at my alarm clock the digital display read 11:15pm...shit! I'd been asleep for over eight hours!!
I left my room and headed downstairs. All the lights were still on so I assumed my Dad hadn't gone to bed yet. The kitchen was empty so I poked my head into the lounge. My Dad was sitting on the couch in front of the TV which was on mute. He had the phone in his hand and was just sitting there staring at it.
"Dad, are you OK?" I asked causing him to start slightly but he kept his eyes locked on the phone. He blinked a few times then looked at me.
"She's gone." He said flatly and turned back to stare at the phone.
"What? Dad? What are you talking about?" As I said it I realized that I didn't want him to answer me.
"The hospital just phoned. They said that the pressure on her brain suddenly increased and by the time they were ready to operate it was to late, too much damage had been done. They couldn't save her. She's gone, son. She's gone." He seemed to shrink in upon himself as he spoke and by the time he'd finished the floodgates had opened and he was openly sobbing. He dropped the phone and covered his face with his hands.
I ran over to him and wrapped my arms around him. As what he had said sunk in, I too was now crying freely. She's really gone. My Mom was really...dead and I was never going so see her again. This can't be happening. She was fine this morning, we were happy. We were going to have a nice meal tonight...Oh God! She was going to the market to get supplies for the meal when the accident happened. This was all my fault!! If I'd never told them about me then Mom wouldn't have gone to the market and she wouldn't have crashed and she wouldn't be dead now. What have I done?!
"D..Dad?" I said between sobs. "I'm s..sorry Dad, I didn't m..mean to Dad. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."
"Jon, it's OK son, it's alright..." I could hear Dad's voice but there was a roaring in my ears and I couldn't stop. This was all my fault. "...I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."
"JON, WAKE UP!!" I felt myself being shaken and then Dad was there holding me with a concerned look on his face. "Jon, it's OK son, you were just having a bad dream."
"Huh?" I glanced about the aircraft cabin. I realized that the roaring noise I had heard was just the sound of the jet engines. Some of the nearby passengers were looking at me with curiosity. Even the boy from a few rows down was looking back at me again. I turned away from their gazes and looked back at my Dad. "Dreaming? Yeah, just a bad dream. Sorry if I disturbed you."
"Are you OK son? Do you want a drink of water? We'll be landing soon enough and we can have a bite to eat before we continue our journey." He asked with that concerned tone I'd gotten so used to in the last few months.
"No thanks Dad I'm not thirsty and don't worry about me, I'm fine." I lied, I was very fucking far from fine. "It was just a bad dream."
To be continued...
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text:
Old-school driving enthusiasts who pine for the days of lightweight European sports cars will find a lot to like in the BMW 1 Series M Coupe. That's because this short-lived, smallest member of BMW's high-performance M lineup illustrated the truth of that old saw about how "less is more."
Its 3.0-liter six-cylinder that produced 335 horsepower would seem far less impressive than the fire-breathing engines found in other M-badged cars, but with twin turbos and less weight to lug around, it still managed to match muscle cars at the drag strip. Better still, with suspension, steering and brakes adapted from the M3, the 1 M nearly matched its esteemed bigger sibling's handling ability.
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Most Recent BMW 1 Series M Coupe
The BMW 1 Series M Coupe was produced for the 2011 model year only. Based on the regular BMW 1 Series coupe, the 1 M was offered in a single body style and one well-equipped trim level. Power came from a twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter inline six-cylinder engine that cranked out a healthy 335 hp and 332 pound-feet of torque that could be momentarily boosted to 370 lb-ft via an overboost button. A six-speed manual was the only transmission offered.
The 1 Series M Coupe came with a long list of upscale standard features including 19-inch alloy wheels, adaptive xenon headlights, 10-way adjustable manual sport seats, leather upholstery and suedelike Alcantara trim, dual-zone automatic climate control and a premium sound system. An optional Convenience package added rear parking sensors, keyless ignition/entry, a navigation system and the iDrive electronics interface. An available Premium package included auto-dimming power-folding outside mirrors, power seats, an auto-dimming rearview mirror, Bluetooth and an iPod/USB audio interface. Some of these items were available as stand-alone options along with heated front seats, satellite radio and a premium Harman Kardon audio system.
The 1 Series M Coupe's passenger cabin wasn't quite up to the quality of more expensive BMWs, but its leather upholstery, contrasting orange stitching and Alcantara trim spruced things up nicely. The front sport seats offered a good combination of comfort and support in spirited driving, and believe it or not, the standard manual seats offered greater adjustability. The backseats were a tight squeeze, but the trunk offered a surprising amount of room for a car this size.
While all that practical stuff is fine, it's the coupe's performance that's obviously the main attraction. While it didn't wail away to a high-strung redline like other M engines, the 3.0-liter twin-turbo six-cylinder produces a great deal of torque and benefits from magnificent midrange power. In our track testing, the 1 M hit 60 mph in 4.6 seconds -- practically equal to the contemporary M3.
The car's light weight and retuned suspension gave the car a distinct sense of agility and a stable attitude in hard cornering, while large cross-drilled disc brakes at all four corners provided abundant stopping power. The quickened steering ratio and the transmission's short throws added to the feeling of precision in a wide variety of driving conditions. Unlike some high-performance models, the 1 Series M Coupe was easy to drive at normal commuting speeds, and its surprisingly comfortable ride quality helped make it a realistic daily driver.
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The Cruiser line is versatile and well rounded. It offers looks, performance and of space. The cabin comes with a mattress and an optional toilet for extra functionality. The impressive model lineup gives plenty of choice.
laminated table in cockpit
color line
hydraulic steering pump
chemical toilet
mattress set
passengers seat
fuel installation