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Well, it's come to this. Our last trip in Europe during our stay in Germany. Where to go? That's pretty easy for Jeff and I, our favorite city in all of Europe, Munich!! Yes, we've been there plenty of times before over the last couple years; just to be there, to pick up a new car, to be a part of a number of different beer festivals, with friends, with family and by ourselves. Every trip to Munich since we first visited the city in 1984 has been wonderful and that's what we got on this, our last trip.
Thursday, 17 January 2013
We're in Mannheim after the train from Kaiserslautern. There's our train, the ICE 515, the high speed train to Munich.
We're on board sitting in 1st class right behind the train's engineer; Jeff and I in a compartment of eight seats, all by ourselves. When you're on a train going over a hundred miles an hour what's the one thing that can make it even better? A beer!!
Along the way to Munich we made stops in Stuttgart, Ulm and Augsburg. Each stop was very quick and efficient, only 3-5 minutes. Here's the weather we saw all day; very steady flurries. Obviously, we're in Ulm.
From the train station here's an image to Ulm Minster which has the highest steeple in the entire world, 530 feet. Another interesting fact about Ulm, the home town of Albert Einstein.
A video of our train to Munich.
See, these things go faster than the 100 mph mentioned in the video above. This is about 125 mph. Later we were going even much faster.
After we arrived in Munich we immediatly got on the S-8 S-Bahn that would take us out into the Bavarian countryside southwest of the city. The last stop on the S-8 is Herrsching, a short taxi ride to the village of Andechs where we spent the night.
In all of Germany and Europe, this is one of our favorite hotels. the Hotel zur Post Garni in Andechs.
Our room was on the top floor and a self-contained apartment with kitchenette complete with dishes and utensils.
The other side of our apartment/room at zur Post in Andechs.
Out nest is built at the hotel and we're on our way to Kloster Andechs, one of our favorite places in Germany.
After a short, beautiful walk through the village of Andechs, there it is on the "holy mountain," Kloster Andechs.
Oh yeah, it's snowing outside and we're inside the warm, welcoming environ of the Kloster Andechs brauhaus. Here's Jeff with two Kloster Andechs Doppelbock Dunkels; world's best beer.
Gotta have a BAB, Big Ass Brezel, too.
Now it's time for the main meal, Schwein Haxen!!!
The ultimate meal, Schwein Haxen, German potato salad with a liter of Kloster Andechs Doppelbock Dunkle.
Above one of the tables in the Kloster Andechs brauhaus is this sign claiming this to be a Stammtisch, a local's table. This one, however, is only reserved for locals on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday (Mi + Sa + Su) after 6PM (ab 18 uhr). Gotta have a picture of Ludwig II to make it official.
Outside it was a winter wonderland, amazingly beautiful. Prost!!
Back inside the warm and inviting Kloster Andechs brauhaus. It's a long, narrow room that comes alive as the night wears on.
The heart of the Kloster Ancechs brauhaus. Pay for your beer on the right, pick it up fresh poured on the left.
Friday, 18 January 2013
Next morning we're on our way back into Munich. It snowed all night and continued into the morning. This is from our hotel room.
Back in Herrsching, we're waiting for the train back into Munich. Here's a typical German mailman's delivery bicycle. These bikes aren't just something used in the quaint villages of Bavaria. They're used by the German postal service across the country; big cities, towns and villages.
As you can see by this clock outside the Herrsching train station, in this part of Bavaria, Kloster Andechs is king.
We're checked into our Munich hotel so it's time. Yes, the Hofbräuhaus!!
There's no place else in the world like it, the Hofbräuhaus. Beautiful!!
Oh yeah!!
The band's unique tip mug at the Hofbräuhaus.
Now those are happy people!!
Heaven on earth.
OK, we can't spend our entire time in Munich in the Hofbräuhaus so we're on the move. Here's a few scenes of wintry Munich. The two domes of the Frauenkirche (Cathedral of Our Dear Lady) and the tower of the new Rathaus (city hall) which houses the famous Munich Glockenspiel.
The maypole in the Viktualienmarkt. Although the market was up and running the beer garden was not. Beer wimps!
A closer image of the tower of the new Rathaus. In front is the Mariensäule (Marian Column) erected in 1638 to give thanks for the withdrawal of Swedish forces. What the hell were the Swedes doing down here?
We've taken this picture almost every time we've visited Munich; Jeff and the wild boar statue in front of the Hunter and Fisherman's Museum.
It is a Fisherman's Museum too so we might as well get a picture with the BAC, Big Ass Catfish.
So here's our destination after leaving the Hofbräuhaus. If you've read our blogs or know your beers you might guess where we are. The JW is part of the logo for one of Munich's favorite beers.
It's Augustiner. The JW is for Joseph Wagner who purchased the brewery around 1880. We're in the Augustiner Großgaststätte, another great beer hall in Munich. Who would have guessed.
Jeff and I at the Augustiner Großgaststätte.
Some snobby folks think that these beer halls in Munich are too touristy but, really, that's a big part of the fun. This is our new friend Len from South Africa. We spent a great hour and a half with Len and his wife and two adult kids. Great conversation!!
Walking back to the hotel through the beautiful snow covered Kaufingerstraße, one of Munich's main shopping streets that opens onto the Marienplatz.
Winter night in the Marienplatz and the new Rathaus. You can see the famous Glockenspiel in the tower.
It's the end of another great day in Munich. We're back at our hotel, the Torbrau, right next to the Munich's medieval gate, the Isartor.
Saturday, 19 January 2013
The Monopteros, built in 1836, sits atop a favorite sledding hill in the English Garden.
Beautiful scene in Munich's English Garden.
Me and the Monopteros in Munich's English Garden.
The Chinesischer Turm (Chinese Tower) which is surrounded by a 7000 seat beer garden. Not much beer sold here today but it was available. The Chinese Tower was originally built in 1790 but was destroyed by fire in 1941 after an Allied bombing raid. The present Chinese Tower was reconstructed in 1952.
After a beautiful walk through the wintry English Garden, what better place than the old standby to warm up. Yeah, the Hofbräuhaus. As you can see at the lower right, established in 1589.
Pretty big, and a very good, band playing at the Hofbräuhaus this day.
Awww, the perfect thing for cold lips.
The best Stammtisch (locals table) sign in the Hofbräuhaus.
The Hofbräuhaus kitchen. It's an amazing and big operation.
Sunday, 20 January 2013
We're visiting the Deutsches Museum in Munich, just a short walk from our hotel. It's the largest science and technology museum in the world.
The Deutches Museum actually sits on an island in the Isar River which is referred to as museum island.
The main tower and entrance to Munich's Deutsches Museum.
There are some 50 areas of science and technology on display in the Deutsches Museum such as astronomy, bridge building, electricity, mining, tunneling and much, much more. But, our interest was the aerospace wing which includes everything from kites to gliders to planes to jets and on into to space travel. I think that by far this is the most popular section in the entire museum. Here on the first floor, in the ship/sailing section you can look above into the aerospace part of the museum.
I don't remember what type of airplane this is but it's an original, early 1900's German plane. It was built to very closely match the shape of a bird. Towards the back of the fuselage, not surprisingly, is a beer advertisement.
Although there were some replicas in the museum most of the planes on display were orginals such as this Wright Flyer and the Fokker Dr.I triplane.
This was a pretty cool display. I sat at the controls of an airliner and all my inputs from the rudder pedals and yolk moved this model plane appropriately.
An impressive Fokker Trimmotor. These planes were built in the 20's and 30's and used commercially and by the Germany military. We've seen one of these more than once flying around Germany.
Germany's premier fighter plane in WW II, the Messerschmitt Bf 109. Germany built almost 43,000 109's during WW II.
On the floor is the very first operational jet fighter, Germany's Me 262 Swallow. The Me 262 appeared toward the end of WWII and was much feared by Allied pilots. Hanging from the ceiling is the Me 163 Komet, a rocket powered fighter plane. The Komet was an interesting plane, powerd by peroxide like rocket fuel. It had a tendancy to blow up on takeoff.
A quirky German attempt to build a vertical takeoff and landing fighter, the VJ-101 experimental jet. It's got jet engines at the end of each stubby wing. The engines rotate to achieve the vertical takeoff and hover capability. In addition, it was supersonic. It never went into production though.
Museum done. Time for lunch. How convenient, just a short walk away is the Hofbräuhaus. This is one of our favorite tables near the front entrance, although it was a bit chilly this day when the big entry doors were opened. This table is fun to sit at and watch people walk into the Hofbräuhaus for the first time. They almost always have a universal expression of WOW and a big smile.
Besides the location of the table we like to see this Texas A&M logo that our daughter Megan, Class of 2007, and her husband carved into the table top in December 2010. Gig 'Em!
This is an awesome picture of the Hofbräuhaus taken from our table where we spent the rest of the evening. The band and the high vaulted ceilings put the Hofbräuhaus into a wonderful perspective.
Here's one of the Munich locals, the type that some folks say never go to the Hofbräuhaus. I think on every visit we've made to the Hofbräuhaus during the last couple years, this gentleman was there. He and his group of local friends.
As you can tell from this video, music played in German beer halls is not Polka. It's German beer-drinking-let's-have-fun music. And, that's what the Hofbräuhaus is, lots and lots of fun.
Monday, 21 January 2013
Time to get back and so the next morning we hopped on the train and after a relaxing four hours we're almost back to our German home and only days aways from returning to the U.S. and our Texas home.
Regretfully, that's it. The next few days were spent out processing from Ramstein Air Base, packing up, tying up loose ends and saying good-bye to the great friends we'd made over the last couple years. What wonderful experiences we've had and fantastic places we've visited. We hope you've enjoyed our travels, gotten ideas for your own adventures and learned something along the way too. Thanks for all the comments we've received from friends, family and folks around the Internet. It's been so much fun doing this blog and share our memories with you and so, for one last time, PROST!!
Thursday, 24 January 2013
Life goes on. We've just arrived back in Texas. Some chips, guacamole, queso and margaritas will help sooth the European separation anxiety. But we can hardly wait to get back. So for now, we're Rowdy In Texas. Bye Ya'll!!


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Remains of the Husky-like dog, buried 7,000 years ago in Siberia, suggest people saw it as a thinking, social being.
Burial remains of a dog that lived over 7,000 years ago in Siberia suggest the male Husky-like animal probably lived and died similar to how humans did at that time and place, eating the same food, sustaining work injuries, and getting a human-like burial.
"Based on how northern indigenous people understand animals in historic times, I think the people burying this particular dog saw it as a thinking, social being, perhaps on par with humans in many ways," said Robert Losey, lead author of a study about the dog burial, which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology.
"I think the act of treating it as a human upon its death indicates that people knew it had a soul, and that the mortuary rites it received were meant to ensure that this soul was properly cared for," added Losey, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Alberta.
For the study, Losey collaborated with excavation director Vladimir Bazaliiskii and researchers Sandra Garvie-Lok, Mietje Germonpre, Jennifer Leonard, Andrew Allen, Anne Katzenberg, and Mikhail Sablin. Bazaliiskii found the buried dog at the Shamanka cemetery near Lake Baikal, Siberia.
"Just like the humans in the cemetery, the dog was buried with other items, (such as) a long spoon made of antler," Losey said.
The dog was carefully laid to rest lying on his right side in a grave pit that, at other levels, also contained five partial human skeletons.
DNA and stable isotope analysis determined the animal was indeed a dog and that he ate exactly what humans at the site consumed: fish, freshwater seal meat, deer, small mammals, and some plant foods.
The canine's life, as well as that of the people, wasn't easy, though.
"The dog's skeleton, particularly its vertebrate spines, suggests that it was repeatedly used to transport loads," Losey explained. "This could have included carrying gear on its back that was used in daily activities like hunting, fishing, and gathering plant foods and firewood. The dog also could have been used to transport gear for the purposes of relocating settlements on a seasonal basis."
Additional fractures suggest the dog suffered numerous blows during its lifetime, possibly from the feet of red deer during hunting outings. The researchers cannot rule out that humans hit the dog, but its older age at burial, food provisions, and more suggest otherwise.
From the same general time period, the scientists also found a wolf burial at a site called Lokomotiv near the Irkut and Angara rivers in Siberia.
The wolf, which did not consume human-provided foods, appears to have died of old age. Its remains were found wrapped around a human skull. There is no evidence the wolf interacted with the person when alive.
"Perhaps the burial of the wolf with the human head placed between its feet was done to send the spirit or soul of the wolf with this particular human to the afterlife, perhaps as its protector," Losey said.
Susan Crockford, adjunct professor of anthropology at the University of Victoria and author of the book "A Practical Guide to In Situ Dog Remains for the Field Archaeologist" (2009), told Discovery News that she was "surprised to see the description of the wolf/human internment," she added. "That is definitely unusual."
Crockford isn't supporting any particular interpretation of the burials just yet, however, since she said, "There can be many reasons for the ritual treatment of dogs, including ones we might never imagine."
Viegas, Jennifer. 2011. "Prehistoric Dog Lived, Died Among Humans". Discovery News. Posted: February 28, 2011. Available online: http://news.discovery.com/animals/ancient-dog-burial-siberia-110228.html

subset: commoncrawl


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On July 26th, 2015, there was a shooting in Milwaukee, outside a bar. One man attacked another. The man who was attacked defended himself by shooting the attacker, who died at the scene. We know that the story is close to that because the Milwaukee prosecutor has ruled that the shooting was in self defense. What is worth thinking about is that the shooter was carrying the gun he used to defend himself illegally. As a convicted felon, Augusta Walton, 34, has been charged with one count of possession of a firearm by a felon.
From Fox6now.com:
MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee police say a July homicide has now been ruled self-defense.Being a convicted felon places a person on the federal list of people who are barred from purchase and possession of firearms by federal law. There are about 1.9 million people who are in that category and on the federal list of prohibited possessors.
The homicide happened on July 26th, 2015.
Police say they have been notified by the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office that this incident has been ruled self-defense.
The suspect in this case, 34-year-old Augusta Walton, was charged with one count of possession of a firearm by a felon.
But does the right to defend one's life end with conviction for a felony? In Augusta's situation, it was legal for him to defend themselves, but not to possess the means of defense.
Currently, it is very difficult for someone with a felony conviction to regain the right to arms. In some states it can be done, though it is a laborious process. It is almost impossible to have a federal felony conviction reversed. One of the few ways to do so is to get a presidential pardon for the crime. Some are given; I have seen exactly one, presented to me by a student at a concealed carry class, to show that he was eligible for the concealed carry permit.
A path to regain rights lost should be clear and obvious, and not take an enormous amount of money to activate. It would act as an incentive for felons to stay on the right side of the law. And that would mean that everyone wins.
©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch


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Location |
5000 Orchard Park Circle (on-campus, near the ARC, right by Russell Park and The Domes) |
Hours |
M-F, 8:30am-12:00pm and 1:00pm-4:30pm |
Phone |
(530)752-3959 (please look at the Student Housing website first before calling about the application process) |
Website |
Student Housing "the parks" website |
Parks Redevelopment Project |
Rent |
One-Bedroom: no one bedroom apartments Two-Bedroom: $915/month (2013-2014 Academic Year)
Orchard Park is one of two campus-managed apartment complexes located on campus (the other is Solano Park). Apartments are tiny (594 square feet), very basic, and inexpensive, but the complex has a large courtyard and two playgrounds for children as well as laundry facilities and a community center available to all leaseholders. If you have children, both Orchard and Solano Parks are nice because there are so many other people with children; neighbors often help each other out with babysitting and the community offers lots of after-school programs to entertain kids and provide family support. There is a nearby Child Development Center that may offer a discount to families living in either Orchard or Solano Park. Only two bedroom apartments are available. The waiting list is prioritized in the following order:
Students with children,
Married students/domestic partnerships (documentation required)
Graduate students with no children,
Undergraduate students with no children
Orchard Park was built in 1964. In the next year, residents will be moved to Solano Park as Orchard Park buildings are replaced, with everyone moving out by July 31, 2014. Until that time, there may be increasing numbers of vacancies. The residents will then be moved back to the new Orchard Park, and Solano Park will be retired, July 31, 2016.
There is an Orchard Park Garden, like the Solano Park Gardens, but it was abandoned in favor of the the EC Garden in 2005. In 2011, a brave group of residents are resurrecting the expansive, but overgrown garden. Plots are $30 for a whole, $20 for a half, larger and cheaper than the EC Garden.
To learn more about rental housing options in Davis, please take a look at our Rental Housing Guide as well as our Apartments pages.
If you are concerned about the increased rent costs for Orchard Park, and the lack of plans to rebuilt Solano Park as student family housing, visit Save the Parks. Administrative information can be found at Parks Redevelopment
The entire complex is currently fenced off in preparation for redevelopment. Status updates about the redevelopment process can be found on the Graduate StudiesStudent Family Housing Redevelopment website.
How was your experience at Orchard Park?
You must be logged in to comment on this page. Please log in.
2009-04-20 21:24:27 Are pets really prohibited at Orchard Park? Or rather, is that policy enforced? I'm hoping to move to Davis with two very small dogs, but am having trouble finding places that allow dogs. —harvardslacker
2014-01-22 19:58:03 I heard they were completely tearing down this place, including the children's park that is located in the complex. I've heard that they will be erecting a new apartment complex that is not affiliated with the University. I am so sad to see the actual park go. It had the best swings and a really cool rope climber. I'm surprised no one else has written anything here. —jenb
2014-01-23 12:10:45 There will be a town hall meeting Saturday 1/25/2014 at 10:00am in Wall Hall put on by the developers. See http://housing.ucdavis.edu/buildings/wallhall.asp. —NicolasBallJones
2017-01-19 23:37:41 my mother died here in 2011. Dont tear it down. —liadresden


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The weather is getting colder. How do we keep our kids safe and warm, while letting them enjoy winter activities to the fullest? The article below, taken from
www.healthychildren.org, will provide us with some very useful tips.
"Tips to Keep Kids Warm All Winter
Whether winter brings severe storms, light dustings or just cold temperatures, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has some valuable tips on how to keep your children safe and warm.
What to Wear
Dress infants and children warmly for outdoor activities. Several thin layers will keep them dry and warm. Always remember warm boots, gloves or mittens, and a hat.
The rule of thumb for older babies and young children is to dress them in one more layer of clothing than an adult would wear in the same conditions.
When riding in the car, babies and children should wear thin, snug layers rather than thick, bulky coats or snowsuits. See Winter Car Seat Safety Tips for additional information.
Blankets, quilts, pillows, bumpers, sheepskins and other loose bedding should be kept out of an infant's sleeping environment because they are associated with suffocation deaths. It is better to use sleep clothing like one-piece sleepers or wearable blankets.
If a blanket must be used to keep a sleeping infant warm, it should be thin and tucked under the crib mattress, reaching only as far as the baby's chest, so the infant's face is less likely to become covered by bedding materials.
Hypothermia develops when a child's temperature falls below normal due to exposure to colder temperatures. It often happens when a child is playing outdoors in extremely cold weather without wearing proper clothing or when clothes get wet. It can occur more quickly in children than in adults.
As hypothermia sets in, the child may shiver and become lethargic and clumsy. Speech may become slurred and body temperature will decline in more severe cases.
If you suspect your child is hypothermic, call 911 at once. Until help arrives, take the child indoors, remove any wet clothing, and wrap him in blankets or warm clothes.
Frostbite happens when the skin and outer tissues become frozen. This condition tends to happen on extremities like the fingers, toes, ears and nose. They may become pale, gray and blistered. At the same time, the child may complain that his/her skin burns or has become numb.
If frostbite occurs, bring the child indoors and place the frostbitten parts of her body in warm (not hot) water. 104° Fahrenheit (about the temperature of most hot tubs) is recommended. Warm washcloths may be applied to frostbitten nose, ears and lips.
Do not rub the frozen areas.
After a few minutes, dry and cover the child with clothing or blankets. Give him/her something warm to drink.
If the numbness continues for more than a few minutes, call your doctor.
Safe Winter Sports and Activities
Set reasonable time limits on outdoor play to prevent hypothermia and frostbite. Have children come inside periodically to warm up.
Using alcohol or drugs before any winter activity, like snowmobiling or skiing, is dangerous and should not be permitted in any situation.
Ice Skating
Allow children to skate only on approved surfaces. Check for signs posted by local police or recreation departments, or call your local police department to find out which areas have been approved.
Advise your child to:
Skate in the same direction as the crowd
Avoid darting across the ice
Never skate alone
Not chew gum or eat candy while skating
Consider having your child wear a helmet, knee pads and elbow pads, especially while learning to skate to keep them safe.
Keep sledders away from motor vehicles.
Children should be supervised while sledding.
Keep young children separated from older children.
Sledding feet first or sitting up, instead of lying down head-first, may prevent head injuries.
Consider having your child wear a helmet while sledding.
Use steerable sleds, not snow disks or inner tubes.
Sleds should be structurally sound and free of sharp edges and splinters, and the steering mechanism should be well lubricated.
Sled slopes should be free of obstructions like trees or fences, be covered in snow (not ice), not be too steep (slope of less than 30º), and end with a flat runoff.
Avoid sledding in crowded areas.
Snow Skiing and Snowboarding
Children should be taught to ski or snowboard by a qualified instructor in a program designed for children.
Never ski or snowboard alone.
Young children should always be supervised by an adult. Older children's need for adult supervision depends on their maturity and skill. If older children are not with an adult, they should always at least be accompanied by a friend.
All skiers and snowboarders should wear helmets. Ski facilities should require helmet use, but if they do not, parents should enforce the requirement for their children.
Equipment should fit the child. Skiers should wear safety bindings that are adjusted at least every year. Snowboarders should wear gloves with built-in wrist guards. Eye protection or goggles should also be used.
Slopes should fit the ability and experience of the skier or snowboarder. Avoid crowded slopes.
Avoid skiing in areas with trees and other obstacles.
The AAP recommends that children under age 16 do not operate snowmobiles and that children under age 6 never ride on snowmobiles.
Do not use a snowmobile to pull a sled or skiers.
Wear goggles and a safety helmet approved for use on motorized vehicles like motorcycles.
Travel at safe speeds.
Never snowmobile alone or at night.
Stay on marked trails, away from roads, water, railroads, and pedestrians."
Source: American Academy of Pediatrics


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Use Adobe Illustrator Draw on your mobile device to create vector drawings that can be edited in Illustrator or shared easily.
What you'll need
To get started with Draw, sign in with your Adobe ID or create one for free. We're using Draw on an iPad Pro. Some features and the user interface may vary between iPad, iPad Pro, iPhone, and Android devices.
Start a new project
See all your projects in Work view. Tap (+) to create a new project, and then tap a Document Preset to select a format — all presets include helpful details like size and resolution. Once in your new document, tap (+) and choose an Image Layer to place an image from your Camera Roll. You can also choose a reference image from other sources like Adobe Stock. See Quickly find and buy Adobe Stock assets to learn more.
Use a two-finger pinch to zoom the image, and then tap the Image Layer and reduce the opacity. Next, drag the Image Layer below the Draw Layer in the layer stack so it's ready to trace.
Trace or draw freehand with brushes
The main toolbar contains five brushes and an eraser. Long-press a brush to see the available brush types, or double-tap a brush to change its settings. Drag up or down on the Size and Opacity controls to change the values, and refine your brush in Brush settings. Make changes to attributes such as Roundness, Angle, and Taper, and then start tracing.
Tip: You can switch out a default brush with a new one. If you like using a certain brush for your work, add it to your toolbar in different sizes, opacities, and settings.
Work with color
Choose a brush and tap Color. Choose a color from the built-in color themes or mix a color using the color Picker. Tap (+) to save a favorite color to your Library — now you can access it from your Library anytime, and also from other Adobe apps like Adobe Photoshop Sketch. As you paint, you can long-press on a closed stroke to fill it with color. Or long-press on Color and drag an eyedropper to sample a color from your artwork.
Tip: The default choice in the color Picker is Wheel, but you can also choose colors from RGB or from History (colors you've used before).
Add shapes and work with layers in your drawing
Organize your drawing by placing colors and objects on separate layers. Tap a layer for more options — give the layer a unique name, adjust its opacity and Blend Mode (which controls how colors interact with layers below it), and hide or show the layer by tapping the eye icon at the top.
Tip: Double-tap a layer's thumbnail to quickly hide or show it.
Tap the shape icon at the top to add straight lines, curves, and shapes. Drag along the edge of a shape to trace it, double-tap to stamp it, or long-press to fill with color. We added a halftone texture — a vector shape created in Adobe Capture and saved to a Library — and deleted unwanted parts of the layer with the Eraser tool. To use our halftone screen in your designs, open the Halftone Library and click Save to copy the library to your account. View Capture colors, shapes, and brushes on the go to learn how to capture your own shapes.
Save your drawing and share it
Draw auto-saves your project as you make refinements. Tap Close at any time to return to Project view. Tap (+) to add another document to the project. You can duplicate, delete, or move documents from one project to another by tapping "…" and selecting the document you want to affect. You can do the same with entire projects in Work view.
In Document view, tap the share icon to explore ways to export and share your work. You can refine your artwork on the desktop (Adobe Desktop Apps > Illustrator), publish your project to Behance in one step, or add it to your Camera Roll (Image > Save Image). Or save a PDF (Creative Cloud Files as PDF) and generate a sharable link (Link to Project).
View what others have created with Illustrator Draw
Visit our curated Adobe Illustrator Draw Gallery to get inspired.


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One of the best ways that new parents, grandparents, and babysitters can prepare for the unexpected is to take classes in first aid and infant cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Knowing what to do in the event of an emergency will help you remain calm, think quickly, and take action with confidence so that you can help your child. Here's how to handle some of the most common injuries and emergencies that affect children under a year of age.
Head and eye injuries
Head bumps and eye irritations should be treated with care — babies' developing brains and eyes are very fragile. Even if it doesn't seem serious, it's a good idea to check with the doctor.
Head injuries
This type of injury is common in young children because a child's head is relatively large in proportion to the rest of her body. A child who falls from a significant height (two or more feet) or is in a motor vehicle accident could have a head, neck, or back injury. Call 911 if your baby loses consciousness, has a seizure, oozes blood or fluid from the ears or nose, has bruising around the eyes or behind the ears, or acts lethargic. Do not move her, as this could cause further injury. Call a doctor even for apparently mild head injuries; your child might have suffered a concussion.
Eye injuries
All eye injuries (common ones include bruising around the eye, scratches on the cornea, and cigarette burns) should be evaluated by a doctor. If an irritating substance is splashed into the eye, flush it with water for at least 15 minutes and seek medical care. Don't rub the eye, apply medication, or try to remove an embedded object yourself.
Marianne Neifert, M.D., is the author of Dr. Mom's Guide to Breastfeeding.
If your baby has a skin wound
Skin wounds
Most minor cuts can be treated at home; more serious wounds will require medical attention. Your child may need stitches or a dose of DTaP vaccine, which protects against tetanus.
Minor cuts and scrapes
If the injury barely breaks the skin, wash the affected area with soap and water, pat it dry, and then apply an antibiotic ointment (such as bacitracin or Neosporin) and a nonstick bandage. Keep the wound clean and replace the bandage at least once a day to prevent it from falling off and becoming a choking hazard (watch to make sure your child doesn't pull it off, as well). Call a doctor if the area becomes swollen or red, there is a pus discharge, or your child has a fever or acts ill.
A bruise results when blood vessels are damaged, causing bleeding under the skin. The area may be red or purplish, then fade to yellow-green. Apply a cold compress (wrapped in a cloth) to decrease pain, swelling, and further bleeding. Call your doctor for large bruises, swelling, ongoing pain, or abdominal bruising.
Deep cuts
If the wound is severe and continues to bleed for more than five minutes, call 911 and apply firm pressure with sterile gauze or a clean cloth to the bleeding site. Elevating the injured limb above the heart will help control bleeding. If a sharp object such as a nail is deeply embedded in the skin, don't remove it. Wrap it in bandages (to keep it from moving), and seek medical care.
If your baby is choking
A baby's airway can be blocked by a small object or risky foods such as nuts, whole grapes, hot dogs, and popcorn. A child who is coughing while choking is able to get some air into the lungs — watch her carefully as her reflexes work to clear the airway. If she doesn't cough up the object and her cough weakens, she can't make a sound, or she stops breathing, have someone call 911. If you're alone, provide one minute of care (see below), and then call.
1. Give five back blows. To do this, first position the infant facedown on your forearm, resting your arm on your thigh for support. Support her chin with your hand, and make sure her head and neck are lower than her torso. Then use the heel of your free hand to give her five firm back blows between the shoulder blades.
2. If she doesn't cough up the object, turn her onto her back. Rest her on your forearm, using your thigh to support her body and your hand to steady her head. Make sure that her head and neck are lower than her torso. Give five chest compressions (as described in the CPR printable pullout).
3. Repeat back blows and chest compressions until the object is coughed up or the baby starts to breathe or cough. See the doctor afterward, even if your baby seems fine.
4. If a choking baby becomes unconscious, deliver two rescue breaths (see steps 1 and 2 of the CPR section on page 87 for technique). If the breaths don't go in, the airway is probably blocked. Tilt the baby's head farther back, lift her chin, and give two more slow rescue breaths. If the breaths still don't go in, give five chest compressions.
5. Look for a foreign object. Open the baby's mouth and look for an object that is blocking the airway. If you see it, use your little finger to remove it. (Don't fish for it if you can't see anything.)
6. Give another rescue breath. If the chest still does not rise, continue the cycle of five chest compressions, looking for a foreign object, and giving a rescue breath until help arrives. If the breath goes in, and the chest rises, give a second breath and check for breathing and circulation.
If your baby is burned or ingests a dangerous substance
A baby's skin is far more sensitive to heat than adult skin. Burns are classified by severity as first degree (redness), second degree (blistering), and third degree (charring of the skin). Follow these steps if your child is burned.
1. Remove the baby from danger and cool the burned area by flushing it with cool water (unless it is an electrical burn, as described below). Remove the baby's clothing unless it's stuck to the skin.
2. Loosely cover the burn with a clean, dry gauze dressing to reduce pain and prevent infection. Never apply ice directly on the burn, and do not put any ointment on a significant burn, as it can seal in heat. Likewise, stay away from home remedies such as butter, grease, or powder; they don't work to heal the burn, and they can actually cause infection.
• For a serious burn (second-degree), call 911; severe burns can cause loss of fluid from the body and breathing difficulties. If the burn has affected a large portion of the baby's body, wrap him in a clean sheet and cover him with a blanket (to keep him warm) after stopping the burn and cooling it with water.
• For a chemical burn caused by contact with a household product such as paint remover, drain liquids, oven cleaners, or household bleach, call 911 and flush the area with cool running water until help arrives. If possible, remove clothes with any chemical on them.
For an electrical burn, such as when a child puts a metal object into an outlet or bites an electrical cord, call 911 but don't cool the burn with water; just cover it with a dry, sterile bandage. Electrical burns may appear deceptively minor yet can cause severe harm.
Keep the number of the poison control center (PCC) — 800-222-1222 — near the phone. If you suspect that your baby has ingested a toxic substance — medicine, cleaning product, or pesticide — call the center immediately (even if she has no visible symptoms). Report exactly what was ingested (read the ingredients from the label), how much is missing, and the time of the event. The PCC will tell you whether to give home care or call 911.
The American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend syrup of ipecac or activated charcoal as routine at-home poisoning treatments. If your child vomits spontaneously, turn her on her side to prevent choking. Save some of the vomited material in case it is needed for analysis.


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Bontrager Circuit Windshell Gloves
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This is the second time my family has worked with Class 101. With my college planner's help, I was able to improve my grades and write an amazing essay while abroad in Frankfurt, Germany. This made the distance between the two of us negligible, even before social distancing measures were put in place! Without Class 101, I would have been lost within the endless information required for applying to college. Thank you for making this difficult transition year so much more bearable!
Kai Oddo
Centre College
Because of Class 101… wow, I really don't think I can put it into words. I'm headed to my dream school. I have a resume that I'm proud of. I got my ACT score up. I've experienced the impact that positive affirmation can have on an overscheduled and under slept teenager. I understand the research process to find a school that fits for me. I'm not going to fall into the never-ending pit of despair that is student debt. I'm ready for whatever happens next.
I truly am.
Taylor Galavotti
High Point U
Because of Class 101 I have grown as a student and as a person. Preparing for college can be tricky for high schoolers. Picking a college, deciding a major, and preparing for the ACT are just some of the things that Class 101 has been able to help me with over the last few years. My college planner, Tom, was able to guide me through one of the most important chapters in my life and I am forever grateful. I joined Class 101 as a sophomore with very little idea of what direction I wanted to take my life in. Now, I am just a few months from beginning my first semester of nursing school at the University of Louisville. Without the help of Class 101, I would not have as much confidence in myself and my decisions. Every moment over the last few years has been worth it.
Julian Palmisano
U of Louisville


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This is the prize promotion page for all the prizes being given away for the read-a-thon. We have a couple of amazing book prizes donated from some very generous authors and a couple of prizes from me! At the end of this post, you will find details regarding how the prizes will be awarded at the conclusion of the read-a-thon.
Note: These fine authors who so generously donated their books would greatly appreciate a review, if you win, on your blog and/or on Goodreads and Amazon. Thank you!
This first prize is free for everyone participating in the read-a-thon!
Leave a comment below with your email address if you would like the book and I will email you the download link to get it for free! (available format - ePub)
Numbers 16:32 by Brady Koch
Joseph's Sunday morning routine of church, beer and solitude is interrupted by a ragged screaming coming from the the far side of his farm land. What he finds there will challenge his resolve in ways he hasn't faced since losing his wife or confronting the horrors of the Korean War.
About the author
Brady Koch lives in Aurora, Illinois with his wife and two children. Feel free to read over his shoulder if you see him working on a new novel or short story at the coffee shop, library, or BNSF Metra commuter train into Chicago.
Website: www.BradyKoch.com Twitter: @BradyTheWriter
The Shadow Wolves by Jared Sandman (1 eCopy - International)
They are the Shadow Wolves, members of an elite unit that defend the border between Mexico and Arizona's Tohono O'odham Nation. They protect the reservation from both drug traffickers and illegal immigrants alike. The secret to their success is the dark bond they share, for when the full moon blossoms they stalk the desert as creatures of the night. Some call them werewolves, while tribal elders have an older word for them: skinwalkers.
When a former FBI agent joins the team, he's welcomed "into the pack." Scout Hemene revels in his newfound abilities, powers that someone like Hector Villalobos would kill to experience.
As leader of Mexico's most vicious drug cartel, Villalobos wages war to destroy the shapeshifters. The battle not only pits the Shadow Wolves against Hector's violent gang, it also tests their loyalties to one another.
Which is more powerful, Man or Beast?
In the annals of Hollywood cinema, the name Gregory Kincaid is as synonymous with Jack the Ripper as Bela Lugosi to Dracula. He portrayed the infamous serial murderer in half a dozen films, spanning a five-decade career filled with monster movies and sci-fi schlock. Twenty years ago, weary of celebrity's harsh spotlight, he withdrew from public life, never to be seen again — until now.
After a wartime accident seriously injures journalist Jenny Pearce, she turns her attention to reporting entertainment news. More comfortable on frontlines than the red carpet, she jumps at the opportunity to track down the notoriously reclusive Kincaid.
The damaged pair forges an unlikely friendship, working together to write the actor's memoir. Except someone doesn't want Kincaid's tell-all all told, somebody who aims to protect secrets best left buried. Fighting for their lives, Kincaid and Pearce are forced to unravel a murder mystery gone unsolved for over seventy years.
About the author
Jared Sandman lives on Florida's Gulf Coast, where he's working on his next novel. Visit his website at JAREDSANDMAN.COM for free stories, updates and discounts, or follow him on Twitter (@JaredSandman).
Giveaway Details: This is a read-a-thon participant only giveaway. To be eligible, you must sign in at the starting line post when you start to read and complete a wrap-up post at the end and link it here at Seasons of Reading at the official read-a-thon wrap-up post (I will give everyone until Tuesday (5/6) at 11:59pm CST to complete their wrap-up posts). We have a total of 4 prizes (not including the free download for anyone who wants it Numbers 16:32). This means there will be 4 winners. I'm going to do things a bit differently this time and this is only because it takes so long the way I was doing it previously. I'm going to award prizes as they do during Dewey's Read-a-Thon. That means first come, first served. I will draw the four winners with random.org and email all four at the same time. The first person who emails me back with their choice gets that prize. I will mark off the prizes as they are taken. All eBook prizes will be sent to winner via email - please specify what format you require in your email. Winners will be chosen after the wrap-up post deadline (see above).
Good luck and Happy Reading!


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In a conversation about Russian Orthodoxy some dozen years ago, that famous source who can only be quoted off-the-record, the Senior Vatican Official, said to me, "They only know how to be chaplain to the czarwhoever he is."
Such asperity reflected deep frustration over the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow's continued rudeness (some would say, cruelty) to John Paul II and its nasty habit of throwing sand into the gears of the international Orthodox-Catholic dialogue. And my interlocutor surely knew that there were exceptions to his rule: men like the late Fr. Alexander Men, axe-murdered in 1990, almost certainly because politicians and senior Russian Orthodox churchmen feared that this son of a Jewish family might, in a free, post-Soviet Russia, help craft a new relationship between religious and political authority; men like Fr. Gleb Yakunin, a founder of the Christian Committee for the Defense of Believers' Rights who did hard time in the Gulag as a result; men like the country pastors who, since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, have been rebuilding Russian Orthodoxy in the countryside, one wounded soul at a time.
Yet there were also hard truths in that Senior Vatican Official's comment. The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) has been in thrall to political power for centuries, and its twentieth-century history was a particularly unhappy one. The Bolsheviks hated pious priests, so Lenin and his successors ruthlessly crushed authentic Russian Orthodox religious lifethe expression of a great spiritual and theological traditionwherever they could; the list of ROC martyrs to communism is a long and noble one. After Stalin rehabilitated the ROC in his campaign to ramp up Russian nationalism after the German invasion of June 1941, the leadership of Russian Orthodoxy, the Patriarchate of Moscow, became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Soviet regime, and specifically of its secret police, the KGB. Patriarchs of Moscow were senior KGB officers; the present Patriarch, Kirill, began his career as an ROC representative at the World Council of Churches in 1971 when he was twenty-five years old, a sure sign of KGB affiliation.
In recent years, Kirill and his "foreign minister," Metropolitan Hilarion, have been mouthpieces for Russian president Vladimir Putin's efforts to reconstitute something like the old Soviet Union in the name of a "historic Russian space," an exercise in Great Russian irredentism that has taken a particularly grave turn in Ukraine; concurrently, they've conducted a campaign of seduction in the Vatican and among American evangelical Protestants, putatively in service to a united front against western decadence and secularism. But in the ironies of history (or the strange ways of divine providence) the Ukraine crisis, in which Kirill has been duplicitous and Hilarion mendacious, just might initiate a break in this historic pattern of Orthodoxy playing lap dog to authoritarian power among the eastern Slavs.
As the people of Ukraine rose up against the kleptocratic and despotic government of Viktor Yanukovych last year, in the Maidan movement of national moral and civic renewal, the Ukrainian Orthodox Churches faced a dramatic choice: stand in pastoral solidarity with the people, or stand with the state that was brutally repressing Ukrainian citizen-reformers? The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), largest of the Eastern Catholic Churches (Byzantine in liturgy and Church organization, but in full communion with the Bishop of Rome), did not face this dilemma; the UGCC was long the safe-deposit box of Ukrainian national consciousness, and in the post-Soviet period it has devoted its public life to building Ukrainian civil society. But the Ukrainian Orthodox Churches did face a historic fork-in-the-road: civil society, or the state?
The choices made have not been unambiguous. But the evidence to date suggests that more than a few Ukrainian Orthodox leaders and believers have chosen to stand with civil society, rejecting the Patriarchate of Moscow's support for Putin's Great Russian nationalism. If that new alignment holds, it may eventually lead to a history-changing revolution in Orthodox understandings of the right relationships among Church, state and society: a development that would, among other things, vindicate the memory of Orthodoxy's twentieth-century martyrs.
George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of Washington's Ethics and Public Policy Center. His previous articles can be found here.
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Global climate change is a serious environmental threat, and sound public policies are needed to address it effectively and sensibly.
There is now significant interest and activity within both the U.S. Administration and the U.S. Congress to develop a meaningful national climate policy in this country. (If you're interested, please see some of my previous posts: "Opportunity for a Defining Moment" (February 6, 2009); "The Wonderful Politics of Cap-and-Trade: A Closer Look at Waxman-Markey" (May 27, 2009); "Worried About International Competitiveness? Another Look at the Waxman-Markey Cap-and-Trade Proposal" (June 18, 2009); "National Climate Change Policy: A Quick Look Back at Waxman-Markey and the Road Ahead" (June 29, 2009). For a more detailed account, see my Hamilton Project paper, A U.S. Cap-and-Trade System to Address Global Climate Change.)
And as we move toward the international negotiations to take place in December of this year in Copenhagen, it is important to keep in mind the global commons nature of the problem, and hence the necessity of designing and implementing an international policy architecture that is scientifically sound, economically rational, and politically pragmatic.
Back in the U.S., with domestic action delayed in the Senate, several states and regions in the United States have moved ahead with their own policies and plans. Key among these is California's Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, intended to return the state's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2020 to their 1990 level. In 2006, three studies were released indicating that California can meet its 2020 target at no net economic cost. That is not a typographical error. The studies found not simply that the costs will be low, but that the costs will be zero, or even negative! That is, the studies found that California's ambitious target can be achieved through measures whose direct costs would be outweighed by offsetting savings they create, making them economically beneficial even without considering the emission reductions they may achieve. Not just a free lunch, but a lunch we are paid to eat!
Given the substantial emission reductions that will be required to meet California's 2020 target, these findings are - to put it mildly – surprising, and they differ dramatically from the vast majority of economic analyses of the cost of reducing GHG emissions. As a result, I was asked by the Electric Power Research Institute – along with my colleagues, Judson Jaffe and Todd Schatzki of Analysis Group – to evaluate the three California studies.
In a report titled, "Too Good To Be True? An Examination of Three Economic Assessments of California Climate Change Policy," we found that although some limited opportunities may exist for no-cost emission reductions, the studies substantially underestimated the cost of meeting California's 2020 target — by omitting important components of the costs of emission reduction efforts, and by overestimating offsetting savings some of those efforts yield through improved energy efficiency. In some cases, the studies focused on the costs of particular actions to reduce emissions, but failed to consider the effectiveness and costs of policies that would be necessary to bring about those actions. Just a few of the flaws we identified lead to underestimation of annual costs on the order of billions of dollars. Sadly, the studies therefore did not and do not offer reliable estimates of the cost of meeting California's 2020 target.
This episode is a reminder of a period when similar studies were performed by the U.S. Department of Energy at the time of the Kyoto Protocol negotiations. Like the California studies, the DOE (Interlaboratory Work Group) studies in the late 1990s suggested that substantial emission reductions could be achieved at no cost. Those studies were terribly flawed, which was what led to their faulty conclusions. I had thought that such arguments about massive "free lunches" in the energy efficiency and climate domain had long since been laid to rest. The debates in California (and some of the rhetoric in Washington) prove otherwise.
While the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 sets an emissions target, critical policy design decisions remain to be made that will fundamentally affect the cost of the policy. For example, policymakers must determine the emission sources that will be regulated to meet those targets, and the policy instruments that will be employed. The California studies do not directly address the cost implications of these and other policy design decisions, and their overly optimistic findings may leave policymakers with an inadequate appreciation of the stakes associated with the decisions that lie ahead.
On the positive side, a careful evaluation of the California studies highlights some important policy design lessons that apply regardless of the extent to which no-cost emission reduction opportunities really exist. Policies should be designed to account for uncertainty regarding emission reduction costs, much of which will not be resolved before policies must be enacted. Also, consideration of the market failures that lead to excessive GHG emissions makes clear that to reduce emissions cost-effectively, policymakers should employ a market-based policy (such as cap-and-trade) as the core policy instrument.
The fact that the three California studies so egregiously underestimated the costs of achieving the goals of the Global Warming Solutions Act should not be taken as indicating that the Act itself is necessarily without merit. As I have discussed in previous posts, that judgment must rest – from an economic perspective – on an honest and rigorous comparison of the Act's real benefits and real costs.


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Mining Truck 2
Mining Truck 2
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These days, martial arts are something that everyone should know. With crime at an all time high, knowing how to defend yourself is essential. For the children, martial arts can mean a lot of things. Even though martial arts is great for adults to know and practice as well, it is also a great way for children to stay in shape and learn how to defend themselves from attackers.
Although martial arts can teach children how to defend themselves, it will also teach them self control and self confidence as well. If your child has a bad temper or low self esteem, learning a martial art can actually help them to get back on the right path. Martial arts will help children with life in general – which will take them a lot farther in life.
The first thing you will need to do when getting your child involved in martial arts is pick a style that they will enjoy. With several different styles to choose from, it can be a very difficult choice to make. Among the most popular for children are Karate, Taekwondo, Judo, Muay Thai, and Jiu-Jitsu. When making the decision, you should go by what your child has interests in, such as punching and kicking, or ground grappling and submission.
Once you have a style in mind, you'll need to start checking out the local martial arts centers and dojo's. If you live in a big city, you'll have a lot more to choose from than those who live in smaller areas or rural towns. Those who live in smaller towns or rural areas may be very limited on the choices available for themselves and their children.
Rural and smaller towns are limited in choice, although what they offer is normally among the best styles of martial arts. The instructors are black belts and above, with the highest ranked students helping them instruct classes. If the classes are small in attendance, the instructors and student teachers can spend a lot of hands on time with the kids to help them improve in their weakest areas.
When you decide to enroll your child in martial arts, you should always check out the dojo or classes first. You don't want your child to be in a class that isn't goal focused, nor do you want them to have a teacher who doesn't know what he is teaching. The environment is also important, as you want to be sure that the dojo and equipment are clean, and that everything is up to the latest and greatest standards.
Even though a martial art may be beneficial to your child, it won't do them any good unless the facilities and the instructors are good. You want to make sure you get the best available to you, which is why it always pays to look around. If you look at all of your available choices, you'll normally be able to find the best for both you and your child.
When it comes to children and their future, martial arts is a great way for them to start. Martial arts can help them improve in many different areas, not just self defense. A martial art can help a child develop a lot of essential areas, including self control and responsibility. The longer a child studies a martial art, the more goal oriented and responsible they will become. Martial arts are a great investment for parents and children – which is why they are so very popular.


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Time to add a brilliant pop of color to your outfit with this bold and contemporary extra large scarf! Made of extremely soft silk (satin finish), it is so cozy and so versatile that it is delightful to wear all year round: wrap it around your shoulders to show its dazzling design, use it as a sarong or simply wear it around your neck in a casual and trendy way. Whatever you prefer, you can't go wrong with such a gorgeous scarf!
Fabric, Size and Finishing: 100% silk (satin finish) - 47x47" (120x120 cm) - Hand rolled hem
Packaging: This scarf is delivered in a luxury ANNE TOURAINE Paris™ gift box
Online Availability: In stock
Shipping: Free 2-day Priority Shipping in the USA
Retailers SKU #: ET120B


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As I got this cool, new mesh baggy pants from Neurolab Inc., I thought about what I can do to let them shine in pictures as they earn it 😉
After all the glamour and high fashion I thought I can try something different and make the "MESH Baggy Pants" for woman in camo and uni color, center of my post 🙂
So I thought of a 'workers day' :). As I can not go only with the great "MESH Baggy Pants camo" in white I had to add at least a white tank top, for this post it was one from Maitreya.
To complete the 'working girl' look I got me some welding goggles and a bit dirt in form of a mud tattoo 🙂
Shoes… have to match that look as well and none of my pumps worked*grins* so I decided to go with 'dockers' style shoes without any heels :p.
The "MESH" Baggy Pants" for females are available in different colors and fabrics. For my post I was wearing the white version of the camo style, but even the camo you can purchase in different colors…
If you take a closer look, you will see how detailed this pants are made. The pockets, as well on the back, look so realistic and with the 'mesh' feature even the knee part looks so cool.
As mentioned before if you are not the camo fabric type you can make your choice from all the awesome uni colors that you will find at the Neurolab Inc. Mainstore as well. The pants come in 2 sizes as well to make them fit best to your shape.
Pants: Neurolab Inc. – "MESH Baggyz Woman" /camo & uni, size 1 – NEW
Top: Maitreya – "RB Tank" /white
Skin: Glam Affair – "Castalia" /natural 03
Goggles: TLG – "BrassLeather Goggles"
Shoes: Shiny Things – "Flare Oxford" /pants version
Hair: Baiastice – "Arisa" /black
Lashes: Amacci – "Beaute"
Tattoo: ViGo – "Dirt all over"
Model & Photographer: Wicca Merlin


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It has been almost a year since we've seen "Bazooka" Joe Valtellini in action. At GLORY 17 Los Angeles Valtellini was victorious over then-champion Marc de Bonte securing the GLORY Welterweight Championship. Since then fans have been anxiously awaiting the rematch between Valtellini and Nieky Holzken, Holzken himself feeling rather impatient over how many times the bout has been pushed back.
Now we know why and it is pretty heartbreaking. According to our friend John Joe O'Regan over at BloodyElbow the GLORY Champ has been suffering from Post-Concussion Syndrome, which includes sensitivity to light or loud noises and has kept him on the shelf for a while now. According to Valtellini there is still no real timetable for him being able to start training again and return to the ring so he made the tough decision of vacating the championship. Valtellini notes that it could be a matter of weeks until he is better or it could be a matter of months, it's simply difficult to tell at this point.
Here's hoping to a speedy recovery for Valtellini and we will hopefully see him vying for that GLORY Welterweight Championship again in no time.


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On the sufferings of the world
The Essays here presented form a further selection from Schopenhauer's Parerga, brought together under a title which is not to be found in the original, and does not claim to apply to every chapter in the volume. The first essay is, in the main, a rendering of the philosopher's remarks under the heading of Nachträge zur Lehre vom Leiden der Welt, together with certain parts of another section entitled Nachträge zur Lehre von der Bejahung und Verneinung des Willens zum Leben. Such omissions as I have made are directed chiefly by the desire to avoid repeating arguments already familiar to readers of the other volumes in this series. The Dialogue on Immortality sums up views expressed at length in the philosopher's chief work, and treated again in the Parerga. The Psychological Observations in this and the previous volume practically exhaust the chapter of the original which bears this title.
The essay on Women must not be taken in jest. It expresses Schopenhauer's serious convictions; and, as a penetrating observer of the faults of humanity, he may be allowed a hearing on a question which is just now receiving a good deal of attention among us.
Unless suffering is the direct and immediate object of life, our existence must entirely fail of its aim. It is absurd to look upon the enormous amount of pain that abounds everywhere in the world, and originates in needs and necessities inseparable from life itself, as serving no purpose at all and the result of mere chance. Each separate misfortune, as it comes, seems, no doubt, to be something exceptional; but misfortune in general is the rule.
I know of no greater absurdity than that propounded by most systems of philosophy in declaring evil to be negative in its character. Evil is just what is positive; it makes its own existence felt. Leibnitz is particularly concerned to defend this absurdity; and he seeks to strengthen his position by using a palpable and paltry sophism. [1] It is the good which is negative; in other words, happiness and satisfaction always imply some desire fulfilled, some state of pain brought to an end.
[Footnote 1: Translator's Note, cf. Thèod, §153.—Leibnitz argued that evil is a negative quality—i.e., the absence of good; and that its active and seemingly positive character is an incidental and not an essential part of its nature. Cold, he said, is only the absence of the power of heat, and the active power of expansion in freezing water is an incidental and not an essential part of the nature of cold. The fact is, that the power of expansion in freezing water is really an increase of repulsion amongst its molecules; and Schopenhauer is quite right in calling the whole argument a sophism.]
This explains the fact that we generally find pleasure to be not nearly so pleasant as we expected, and pain very much more painful.
The pleasure in this world, it has been said, outweighs the pain; or, at any rate, there is an even balance between the two. If the reader wishes to see shortly whether this statement is true, let him compare the respective feelings of two animals, one of which is engaged in eating the other.
The best consolation in misfortune or affliction of any kind will be the thought of other people who are in a still worse plight than yourself; and this is a form of consolation open to every one. But what an awful fate this means for mankind as a whole!
We are like lambs in a field, disporting themselves under the eye of the butcher, who chooses out first one and then another for his prey. So it is that in our good days we are all unconscious of the evil Fate may have presently in store for us—sickness, poverty, mutilation, loss of sight or reason.
No little part of the torment of existence lies in this, that Time is continually pressing upon us, never letting us take breath, but always coming after us, like a taskmaster with a whip. If at any moment Time stays his hand, it is only when we are delivered over to the misery of boredom.
But misfortune has its uses; for, as our bodily frame would burst asunder if the pressure of the atmosphere was removed, so, if the lives of men were relieved of all need, hardship and adversity; if everything they took in hand were successful, they would be so swollen with arrogance that, though they might not burst, they would present the spectacle of unbridled folly—nay, they would go mad. And I may say, further, that a certain amount of care or pain or trouble is necessary for every man at all times. A ship without ballast is unstable and will not go straight.
Certain it is that work, worry, labor and trouble, form the lot of almost all men their whole life long. But if all wishes were fulfilled as soon as they arose, how would men occupy their lives? what would they do with their time? If the world were a paradise of luxury and ease, a land flowing with milk and honey, where every Jack obtained his Jill at once and without any difficulty, men would either die of boredom or hang themselves; or there would be wars, massacres, and murders; so that in the end mankind would inflict more suffering on itself than it has now to accept at the hands of Nature.
In early youth, as we contemplate our coming life, we are like children in a theatre before the curtain is raised, sitting there in high spirits and eagerly waiting for the play to begin. It is a blessing that we do not know what is really going to happen. Could we foresee it, there are times when children might seem like innocent prisoners, condemned, not to death, but to life, and as yet all unconscious of what their sentence means. Nevertheless, every man desires to reach old age; in other words, a state of life of which it may be said: "It is bad to-day, and it will be worse to-morrow; and so on till the worst of all."
If you try to imagine, as nearly as you can, what an amount of misery, pain and suffering of every kind the sun shines upon in its course, you will admit that it would be much better if, on the earth as little as on the moon, the sun were able to call forth the phenomena of life; and if, here as there, the surface were still in a crystalline state.
Again, you may look upon life as an unprofitable episode, disturbing the blessed calm of non-existence. And, in any case, even though things have gone with you tolerably well, the longer you live the more clearly you will feel that, on the whole, life is a disappointment, nay, a cheat.
If two men who were friends in their youth meet again when they are old, after being separated for a life-time, the chief feeling they will have at the sight of each other will be one of complete disappointment at life as a whole; because their thoughts will be carried back to that earlier time when life seemed so fair as it lay spread out before them in the rosy light of dawn, promised so much—and then performed so little. This feeling will so completely predominate over every other that they will not even consider it necessary to give it words; but on either side it will be silently assumed, and form the ground-work of all they have to talk about.
He who lives to see two or three generations is like a man who sits some time in the conjurer's booth at a fair, and witnesses the performance twice or thrice in succession. The tricks were meant to be seen only once; and when they are no longer a novelty and cease to deceive, their effect is gone.
While no man is much to be envied for his lot, there are countless numbers whose fate is to be deplored.
Life is a task to be done. It is a fine thing to say defunctus est; it means that the man has done his task.
If children were brought into the world by an act of pure reason alone, would the human race continue to exist? Would not a man rather have so much sympathy with the coming generation as to spare it the burden of existence? or at any rate not take it upon himself to impose that burden upon it in cold blood.
I shall be told, I suppose, that my philosophy is comfortless—because I speak the truth; and people prefer to be assured that everything the Lord has made is good. Go to the priests, then, and leave philosophers in peace! At any rate, do not ask us to accommodate our doctrines to the lessons you have been taught. That is what those rascals of sham philosophers will do for you. Ask them for any doctrine you please, and you will get it. Your University professors are bound to preach optimism; and it is an easy and agreeable task to upset their theories.
I have reminded the reader that every state of welfare, every feeling of satisfaction, is negative in its character; that is to say, it consists in freedom from pain, which is the positive element of existence. It follows, therefore, that the happiness of any given life is to be measured, not by its joys and pleasures, but by the extent to which it has been free from suffering—from positive evil. If this is the true standpoint, the lower animals appear to enjoy a happier destiny than man. Let us examine the matter a little more closely.
However varied the forms that human happiness and misery may take, leading a man to seek the one and shun the other, the material basis of it all is bodily pleasure or bodily pain. This basis is very restricted: it is simply health, food, protection from wet and cold, the satisfaction of the sexual instinct; or else the absence of these things. Consequently, as far as real physical pleasure is concerned, the man is not better off than the brute, except in so far as the higher possibilities of his nervous system make him more sensitive to every kind of pleasure, but also, it must be remembered, to every kind of pain. But then compared with the brute, how much stronger are the passions aroused in him! what an immeasurable difference there is in the depth and vehemence of his emotions!—and yet, in the one case, as in the other, all to produce the same result in the end: namely, health, food, clothing, and so on.
The chief source of all this passion is that thought for what is absent and future, which, with man, exercises such a powerful influence upon all he does. It is this that is the real origin of his cares, his hopes, his fears—emotions which affect him much more deeply than could ever be the case with those present joys and sufferings to which the brute is confined. In his powers of reflection, memory and foresight, man possesses, as it were, a machine for condensing and storing up his pleasures and his sorrows. But the brute has nothing of the kind; whenever it is in pain, it is as though it were suffering for the first time, even though the same thing should have previously happened to it times out of number. It has no power of summing up its feelings. Hence its careless and placid temper: how much it is to be envied! But in man reflection comes in, with all the emotions to which it gives rise; and taking up the same elements of pleasure and pain which are common to him and the brute, it develops his susceptibility to happiness and misery to such a degree that, at one moment the man is brought in an instant to a state of delight that may even prove fatal, at another to the depths of despair and suicide.
If we carry our analysis a step farther, we shall find that, in order to increase his pleasures, man has intentionally added to the number and pressure of his needs, which in their original state were not much more difficult to satisfy than those of the brute. Hence luxury in all its forms; delicate food, the use of tobacco and opium, spirituous liquors, fine clothes, and the thousand and one things than he considers necessary to his existence.
And above and beyond all this, there is a separate and peculiar source of pleasure, and consequently of pain, which man has established for himself, also as the result of using his powers of reflection; and this occupies him out of all proportion to its value, nay, almost more than all his other interests put together—I mean ambition and the feeling of honor and shame; in plain words, what he thinks about the opinion other people have of him. Taking a thousand forms, often very strange ones, this becomes the goal of almost all the efforts he makes that are not rooted in physical pleasure or pain. It is true that besides the sources of pleasure which he has in common with the brute, man has the pleasures of the mind as well. These admit of many gradations, from the most innocent trifling or the merest talk up to the highest intellectual achievements; but there is the accompanying boredom to be set against them on the side of suffering. Boredom is a form of suffering unknown to brutes, at any rate in their natural state; it is only the very cleverest of them who show faint traces of it when they are domesticated; whereas in the case of man it has become a downright scourge. The crowd of miserable wretches whose one aim in life is to fill their purses but never to put anything into their heads, offers a singular instance of this torment of boredom. Their wealth becomes a punishment by delivering them up to misery of having nothing to do; for, to escape it, they will rush about in all directions, traveling here, there and everywhere. No sooner do they arrive in a place than they are anxious to know what amusements it affords; just as though they were beggars asking where they could receive a dole! Of a truth, need and boredom are the two poles of human life. Finally, I may mention that as regards the sexual relation, a man is committed to a peculiar arrangement which drives him obstinately to choose one person. This feeling grows, now and then, into a more or less passionate love, [2] which is the source of little pleasure and much suffering.
[Footnote 2: I have treated this subject at length in a special chapter of the second volume of my chief work.]
It is, however, a wonderful thing that the mere addition of thought should serve to raise such a vast and lofty structure of human happiness and misery; resting, too, on the same narrow basis of joy and sorrow as man holds in common with the brute, and exposing him to such violent emotions, to so many storms of passion, so much convulsion of feeling, that what he has suffered stands written and may be read in the lines on his face. And yet, when all is told, he has been struggling ultimately for the very same things as the brute has attained, and with an incomparably smaller expenditure of passion and pain.
But all this contributes to increase the measures of suffering in human life out of all proportion to its pleasures; and the pains of life are made much worse for man by the fact that death is something very real to him. The brute flies from death instinctively without really knowing what it is, and therefore without ever contemplating it in the way natural to a man, who has this prospect always before his eyes. So that even if only a few brutes die a natural death, and most of them live only just long enough to transmit their species, and then, if not earlier, become the prey of some other animal,—whilst man, on the other hand, manages to make so-called natural death the rule, to which, however, there are a good many exceptions,—the advantage is on the side of the brute, for the reason stated above. But the fact is that man attains the natural term of years just as seldom as the brute; because the unnatural way in which he lives, and the strain of work and emotion, lead to a degeneration of the race; and so his goal is not often reached.
The brute is much more content with mere existence than man; the plant is wholly so; and man finds satisfaction in it just in proportion as he is dull and obtuse. Accordingly, the life of the brute carries less of sorrow with it, but also less of joy, when compared with the life of man; and while this may be traced, on the one side, to freedom from the torment of care and anxiety, it is also due to the fact that hope, in any real sense, is unknown to the brute. It is thus deprived of any share in that which gives us the most and best of our joys and pleasures, the mental anticipation of a happy future, and the inspiriting play of phantasy, both of which we owe to our power of imagination. If the brute is free from care, it is also, in this sense, without hope; in either case, because its consciousness is limited to the present moment, to what it can actually see before it. The brute is an embodiment of present impulses, and hence what elements of fear and hope exist in its nature—and they do not go very far—arise only in relation to objects that lie before it and within reach of those impulses: whereas a man's range of vision embraces the whole of his life, and extends far into the past and future.
Following upon this, there is one respect in which brutes show real wisdom when compared with us—I mean, their quiet, placid enjoyment of the present moment. The tranquillity of mind which this seems to give them often puts us to shame for the many times we allow our thoughts and our cares to make us restless and discontented. And, in fact, those pleasures of hope and anticipation which I have been mentioning are not to be had for nothing. The delight which a man has in hoping for and looking forward to some special satisfaction is a part of the real pleasure attaching to it enjoyed in advance. This is afterwards deducted; for the more we look forward to anything, the less satisfaction we find in it when it comes. But the brute's enjoyment is not anticipated, and therefore, suffers no deduction; so that the actual pleasure of the moment comes to it whole and unimpaired. In the same way, too, evil presses upon the brute only with its own intrinsic weight; whereas with us the fear of its coming often makes its burden ten times more grievous.
It is just this characteristic way in which the brute gives itself up entirely to the present moment that contributes so much to the delight we take in our domestic pets. They are the present moment personified, and in some respects they make us feel the value of every hour that is free from trouble and annoyance, which we, with our thoughts and preoccupations, mostly disregard. But man, that selfish and heartless creature, misuses this quality of the brute to be more content than we are with mere existence, and often works it to such an extent that he allows the brute absolutely nothing more than mere, bare life. The bird which was made so that it might rove over half of the world, he shuts up into the space of a cubic foot, there to die a slow death in longing and crying for freedom; for in a cage it does not sing for the pleasure of it. And when I see how man misuses the dog, his best friend; how he ties up this intelligent animal with a chain, I feel the deepest sympathy with the brute and burning indignation against its master.
We shall see later that by taking a very high standpoint it is possible to justify the sufferings of mankind. But this justification cannot apply to animals, whose sufferings, while in a great measure brought about by men, are often considerable even apart from their agency. [3] And so we are forced to ask, Why and for what purpose does all this torment and agony exist? There is nothing here to give the will pause; it is not free to deny itself and so obtain redemption. There is only one consideration that may serve to explain the sufferings of animals. It is this: that the will to live, which underlies the whole world of phenomena, must, in their case satisfy its cravings by feeding upon itself. This it does by forming a gradation of phenomena, every one of which exists at the expense of another. I have shown, however, that the capacity for suffering is less in animals than in man. Any further explanation that may be given of their fate will be in the nature of hypothesis, if not actually mythical in its character; and I may leave the reader to speculate upon the matter for himself.
[Footnote 3: Cf. Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, vol. ii. p. 404.]
Brahma is said to have produced the world by a kind of fall or mistake; and in order to atone for his folly, he is bound to remain in it himself until he works out his redemption. As an account of the origin of things, that is admirable! According to the doctrines of Buddhism, the world came into being as the result of some inexplicable disturbance in the heavenly calm of Nirvana, that blessed state obtained by expiation, which had endured so long a time—the change taking place by a kind of fatality. This explanation must be understood as having at bottom some moral bearing; although it is illustrated by an exactly parallel theory in the domain of physical science, which places the origin of the sun in a primitive streak of mist, formed one knows not how. Subsequently, by a series of moral errors, the world became gradually worse and worse—true of the physical orders as well—until it assumed the dismal aspect it wears to-day. Excellent! The Greeks looked upon the world and the gods as the work of an inscrutable necessity. A passable explanation: we may be content with it until we can get a better. Again, Ormuzd and Ahriman are rival powers, continually at war. That is not bad. But that a God like Jehovah should have created this world of misery and woe, out of pure caprice, and because he enjoyed doing it, and should then have clapped his hands in praise of his own work, and declared everything to be very good—that will not do at all! In its explanation of the origin of the world, Judaism is inferior to any other form of religious doctrine professed by a civilized nation; and it is quite in keeping with this that it is the only one which presents no trace whatever of any belief in the immortality of the soul. [4]
[Footnote 4: See Parerga, vol. i. pp. 139 et seq.]
Even though Leibnitz' contention, that this is the best of all possible worlds, were correct, that would not justify God in having created it. For he is the Creator not of the world only, but of possibility itself; and, therefore, he ought to have so ordered possibility as that it would admit of something better.
There are two things which make it impossible to believe that this world is the successful work of an all-wise, all-good, and, at the same time, all-powerful Being; firstly, the misery which abounds in it everywhere; and secondly, the obvious imperfection of its highest product, man, who is a burlesque of what he should be. These things cannot be reconciled with any such belief. On the contrary, they are just the facts which support what I have been saying; they are our authority for viewing the world as the outcome of our own misdeeds, and therefore, as something that had better not have been. Whilst, under the former hypothesis, they amount to a bitter accusation against the Creator, and supply material for sarcasm; under the latter they form an indictment against our own nature, our own will, and teach us a lesson of humility. They lead us to see that, like the children of a libertine, we come into the world with the burden of sin upon us; and that it is only through having continually to atone for this sin that our existence is so miserable, and that its end is death.
There is nothing more certain than the general truth that it is the grievous sin of the world which has produced the grievous suffering of the world. I am not referring here to the physical connection between these two things lying in the realm of experience; my meaning is metaphysical. Accordingly, the sole thing that reconciles me to the Old Testament is the story of the Fall. In my eyes, it is the only metaphysical truth in that book, even though it appears in the form of an allegory. There seems to me no better explanation of our existence than that it is the result of some false step, some sin of which we are paying the penalty. I cannot refrain from recommending the thoughtful reader a popular, but at the same time, profound treatise on this subject by Claudius [5] which exhibits the essentially pessimistic spirit of Christianity. It is entitled: Cursed is the ground for thy sake.
[Footnote 5: Translator's Note.—Matthias Claudius (1740-1815), a popular poet, and friend of Klopstock, Herder and Leasing. He edited the Wandsbecker Bote, in the fourth part of which appeared the treatise mentioned above. He generally wrote under the pseudonym of Asmus, and Schopenhauer often refers to him by this name.]
Between the ethics of the Greeks and the ethics of the Hindoos, there is a glaring contrast. In the one case (with the exception, it must be confessed, of Plato), the object of ethics is to enable a man to lead a happy life; in the other, it is to free and redeem him from life altogether—as is directly stated in the very first words of the Sankhya Karika.
Allied with this is the contrast between the Greek and the Christian idea of death. It is strikingly presented in a visible form on a fine antique sarcophagus in the gallery of Florence, which exhibits, in relief, the whole series of ceremonies attending a wedding in ancient times, from the formal offer to the evening when Hymen's torch lights the happy couple home. Compare with that the Christian coffin, draped in mournful black and surmounted with a crucifix! How much significance there is in these two ways of finding comfort in death. They are opposed to each other, but each is right. The one points to the affirmation of the will to live, which remains sure of life for all time, however rapidly its forms may change. The other, in the symbol of suffering and death, points to the denial of the will to live, to redemption from this world, the domain of death and devil. And in the question between the affirmation and the denial of the will to live, Christianity is in the last resort right.
The contrast which the New Testament presents when compared with the Old, according to the ecclesiastical view of the matter, is just that existing between my ethical system and the moral philosophy of Europe. The Old Testament represents man as under the dominion of Law, in which, however, there is no redemption. The New Testament declares Law to have failed, frees man from its dominion, [6] and in its stead preaches the kingdom of grace, to be won by faith, love of neighbor and entire sacrifice of self. This is the path of redemption from the evil of the world. The spirit of the New Testament is undoubtedly asceticism, however your protestants and rationalists may twist it to suit their purpose. Asceticism is the denial of the will to live; and the transition from the Old Testament to the New, from the dominion of Law to that of Faith, from justification by works to redemption through the Mediator, from the domain of sin and death to eternal life in Christ, means, when taken in its real sense, the transition from the merely moral virtues to the denial of the will to live. My philosophy shows the metaphysical foundation of justice and the love of mankind, and points to the goal to which these virtues necessarily lead, if they are practised in perfection. At the same time it is candid in confessing that a man must turn his back upon the world, and that the denial of the will to live is the way of redemption. It is therefore really at one with the spirit of the New Testament, whilst all other systems are couched in the spirit of the Old; that is to say, theoretically as well as practically, their result is Judaism—mere despotic theism. In this sense, then, my doctrine might be called the only true Christian philosophy—however paradoxical a statement this may seem to people who take superficial views instead of penetrating to the heart of the matter.
[Footnote 6: Cf. Romans vii; Galatians ii, iii.]
If you want a safe compass to guide you through life, and to banish all doubt as to the right way of looking at it, you cannot do better than accustom yourself to regard this world as a penitentiary, a sort of a penal colony, or [Greek: ergastaerion] as the earliest philosopher called it. [7] Amongst the Christian Fathers, Origen, with praiseworthy courage, took this view, [8] which is further justified by certain objective theories of life. I refer, not to my own philosophy alone, but to the wisdom of all ages, as expressed in Brahmanism and Buddhism, and in the sayings of Greek philosophers like Empedocles and Pythagoras; as also by Cicero, in his remark that the wise men of old used to teach that we come into this world to pay the penalty of crime committed in another state of existence—a doctrine which formed part of the initiation into the mysteries. [9] And Vanini—whom his contemporaries burned, finding that an easier task than to confute him—puts the same thing in a very forcible way. Man, he says, is so full of every kind of misery that, were it not repugnant to the Christian religion, I should venture to affirm that if evil spirits exist at all, they have posed into human form and are now atoning for their crimes. [10] And true Christianity—using the word in its right sense—also regards our existence as the consequence of sin and error.
[Footnote 7: Cf. Clem. Alex. Strom. L. iii, c, 3, p. 399.]
[Footnote 8: Augustine de cìvitate Dei., L. xi. c. 23.]
[Footnote 9: Cf. Fragmenta de philosophia.]
[Footnote 10: De admirandis naturae arcanis; dial L. p. 35.]
If you accustom yourself to this view of life you will regulate your expectations accordingly, and cease to look upon all its disagreeable incidents, great and small, its sufferings, its worries, its misery, as anything unusual or irregular; nay, you will find that everything is as it should be, in a world where each of us pays the penalty of existence in his own peculiar way. Amongst the evils of a penal colony is the society of those who form it; and if the reader is worthy of better company, he will need no words from me to remind him of what he has to put up with at present. If he has a soul above the common, or if he is a man of genius, he will occasionally feel like some noble prisoner of state, condemned to work in the galleys with common criminals; and he will follow his example and try to isolate himself.
In general, however, it should be said that this view of life will enable us to contemplate the so-called imperfections of the great majority of men, their moral and intellectual deficiencies and the resulting base type of countenance, without any surprise, to say nothing of indignation; for we shall never cease to reflect where we are, and that the men about us are beings conceived and born in sin, and living to atone for it. That is what Christianity means in speaking of the sinful nature of man.
Pardon's the word to all! [11] Whatever folly men commit, be their shortcomings or their vices what they may, let us exercise forbearance; remembering that when these faults appear in others, it is our follies and vices that we behold. They are the shortcomings of humanity, to which we belong; whose faults, one and all, we share; yes, even those very faults at which we now wax so indignant, merely because they have not yet appeared in ourselves. They are faults that do not lie on the surface. But they exist down there in the depths of our nature; and should anything call them forth, they will come and show themselves, just as we now see them in others. One man, it is true, may have faults that are absent in his fellow; and it is undeniable that the sum total of bad qualities is in some cases very large; for the difference of individuality between man and man passes all measure.
[Footnote 11: "Cymbeline," Act v. Sc. 5.]
In fact, the conviction that the world and man is something that had better not have been, is of a kind to fill us with indulgence towards one another. Nay, from this point of view, we might well consider the proper form of address to be, not Monsieur, Sir, mein Herr, but my fellow-sufferer, Socî malorum, compagnon de miseres! This may perhaps sound strange, but it is in keeping with the facts; it puts others in a right light; and it reminds us of that which is after all the most necessary thing in life—the tolerance, patience, regard, and love of neighbor, of which everyone stands in need, and which, therefore, every man owes to his fellow.