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From a letter to my brother, Feb 1999 – The Adventures of Big Dog & Little Dog.
After the wedding on July 25th, Tonya and I didn't have a honeymoon. We had planned on at least spending the weekend in the mountains up in Asheville. But her car was running hot (remember that I bitched about that?). We didn't know if we could make it to Asheville or not. So we wound up spending the night in the Comfort Inn in Kings Mountain. That was kind of funny. We were so exhausted that all we did was sleep. Romantic, huh? But I guess it shows what realists we are. We needed sleep more than we needed hanky panky, and we had the rest of our lives for the latter.
After the wedding, we stayed with my mom for a few months. We had been sleeping on the mattress and box strings from my bed, out in the storage building behind my mom's house. I know that sounds incredibly bad, especially to a city boy like yourself (grin), and I guess in some ways it'll make funny stories someday. But we had a drop cord threaded out there, with a lamp and a nightstand. And we had my kerosene heater for when the nights got cold, and a fan for when it was warm. It was a storage building, and we were surrounded by stuff, but it wasn't so bad. We had slept out there the winter before, and hadn't died. (grin)
I was working at a warehouse, but fucked it up. I had hurt my ankle a few weeks before the wedding when I lost an argument with my forklift. It was a long time healing. But by the time the wedding came around, I was able to walk fairly solidly, although I still had to be careful. When I was finally able to resume my full duties at work, I discovered that I had been replaced. Someone else was on my forklift doing my job. And my employers didn't seem to know what to do with me. So they made me a checker, which meant that I went around and checked completed orders after they were pulled. I hated it. For one thing, it was hot as hell in there when you rambled around on a forklift. But when you had to stand in one place and count boxes all day, it was like standing in a sauna. On top of that, quite frankly, being a checker was a hell of a lot more responsibility, but I was making the same amount of money as I was making on a forklift. And the latter job is largely a no-brainer. So I hated my job.
One day on the way to work, thinking about things had changed with a job that I had liked before hurting my foot, I took a left and went to the temporary agency who actually paid my paycheck. I told them that things had changed since I hurt my foot, and I was not happy there. I felt like I was a spare part, and that if it hadn't been an on-the-job accident that had messed up my ankle, they would have fired me long ago. It seemed like they were trying to get me to quit. So I asked Creative Staffing to reassign me. And they agreed that it would be no problem. But they never did find me another job.
Sometime in early August, my aunt Loretta stumbled across an ad for a house for rent. $350 a month. Just outside of Kings Mountain. So we went to take a look at it. It was a tiny place. But it was back in the woods, on the outskirts of town. It wasn't so bad. And the yard was nice. Just six feet or so behind our house, it was total forest. Naturally that appealed to a couple of Pagans like us, so we took it. We paid a deposit and the first month's rent with the money we received from you and from her parents, and we moved in around August 12th.
Like I said, it was a tiny place. We didn't have room for most of my stuff. But we settled in quite nicely. The key word here is "quaint." It had no air conditioning, and no screens on the windows. So to stay cool we had to make peace with the bugs and mosquitos. And we were regularly invaded by grand- daddy-longlegs spiders. But there was a certain charm to the place. It was off the beaten track. And it's easy to be at peace in a place where you're all surrounded by woodland. It wasn't exaclty out in the styx or anything, but that's what made it nice. It was close enough to town that going to the store wasn't a problem. But it was far enough out that we felt kind of isolated. We loved the location, if not the house. But we wouldn't stay there long.
Early in October they called Tonya into work early one Friday. They told her that the company had been bought out, and that all operations were moving to the parent company's main headquarters in Greenville, South Carolina. So she could either find other work, or move to Greenville. Tonya went down and looked the place over, and it wasn't so bad. They even offered to pay for moving expenses. Since I wasn't working yet, moving didn't seem to be much of a problem. So we agreed to move to Greenville.
Naturally, this put an end to my job hunting in North Carolina. There wasn't much use in getting a job I wouldn't keep but a few weeks. So instead I spent my time packing things, while we felt out leads for houses. It just so happened that a lady whom Tonya worked with knew some people with some houses in Ware Shoals, which is about 35 miles south of Greenville. We both thought that was a long ways out, but thought we'd see the house, anyway. So we arranged to look at it.
Man. We loved the house. Big yard. Big house. Big trees. And Ware Shoals was such a pretty little place. We decided to take it. And we decided to move down within a week or two, which would be at the end of October. God. That was our first mistake. But we really didn't have a choice. Can you imagine moving on Halloween weekend? There were no trucks anywhere. Seemed everyone else had the same idea. We had begun to think that we wouldn't find anything, and we really needed to move as quickly as possible. We were running behind in our rent in preparation for the move. And if we stayed any longer, we'd have to pay it.
Luckily, Tonya's mom stepped in. She reserved a U-Haul truck for us using her credit card. That's the only way we could get one.
Okay. First adventure. The U-Haul story:
We arrived in Charlotte to pick up our truck. We were about an hour late from the time we were supposed to pick it up. But it didn't matter. They didn't have a truck for us, anyway. They had reserved a truck for us that hadn't been turned in yet. So we had no choice but to wait. We sat out in front of the U-Haul place for over an hour, waiting on this truck to be returned. But it never was. Finally we asked them if they could give us another, larger truck. They had a few larger trucks sitting around. And while it'd be more expensive, we didn't have a choice. It was already past noon, and we had planned to leave that night. But there we were in Charlotte, waiting.
They agree to give us a 24' truck for the same price as the 17' truck we had reserved. Lucky for us, too, as it turned out that we needed the extra space.
Anyway, we got the truck, car trailer in tow, and headed back to Kings Mountain. I don't need to tell you what a mess moving is. I'm sure you're all too familiar with the torment involved. But what we discovered was that we had bitten off far more than we could chew. We had stuff at our house, and I had a bunch of stuff at my mom's house. We quickly realized that there was simply no way we could leave on Oct. 30th, like we'd hoped. So we packed and loaded what we could that night, and then went at it again the next day. We were finally ready to roll late on Halloween night, and actually left around 12:30. I guess that would be Monday morning, on Nov. 1st.
The drive down was a trip. The truck (as all U-Haul trucks are, I think) was a clunker, and liked to ramble all over the road. To boot, I had my Thunderbird in tow on the car trailer. That was fun, let me tell you. Tonya followed in her Grand Am, with our cats riding in her lap (we took my tom, Hannibal, and her cat, Scotty, and left Moe with my mom). Except for feeling like I was driving a semi, the trip itself wasn't so bad. Tonya believes that with the car in tow, the truck was just about the length of a semi. And I just about agree.
We got down to Ware Shoals around 4:30am Monday morning on the 1st. The truck was supposed by turned in by noon. No problem, right? I'd unload the car and then we'd get to unloading the truck. So I pulled the truck down to a mill parking lot down behind the house to unload the Thunderbird. And guess what? The damned thing wouldn't crank.
We couldn't unload the truck until we got my car unloaded. But it wouldn't crank. So we couldn't get it off. We didn't know what the hell to do. I figured it was out of gas. The gas hand was below empty. But with that car, there still should have been enough gas to crank it and get it into the yard. So we left in Tonya's car looking for a gas station. Now, Ware Shoals is a tiny town. It shuts down completely at night. So there was nowhere to get gas. But there was a gas station about seven miles up the road, so we headed there. We got some gas and came back, put it in the car, but the damned thing still wouldn't crank.
We ended up doing the only thing we could. We waited until sun-up and went knocking on our new landlord's door. I had hoped that he could jump off the car, and we could unload it, and get on with the task at hand. So around 9:00 he pulled his truck around and tried to jump my T-bird off. But it still wouldn't crank. It wouldn't turn over. It just wouldn't crank. We eventually wound up, with the help of a fella who stopped by, pushing the car off the trailer. We left it in the parking lot of an abandoned clinic across the road from our house.
Okay. Problem one down. I unhooked the trailer and pulled the truck down to the house, and we proceeded to unload it. Man, that was rough. We arrived exhausted from two days of packing and loading, and now had to unload the truck. We set at it like the troopers we were, though. So finally, about 10:30am, we started unloading the truck. I won't bore you with details there. Just suffice it to say that we kept at it, and kept at it, and kept at it. But when 12:00 was drawing near, we saw that there was no way we were going to return the truck at noon. So Tonya called the return place. We were supposed to return the truck in Greenwood, but there was a garage here in town that served as a U-Haul center. U-Haul said we could turn it in there, so Tonya called them to tell them we would be late. Luckily, the lady who handled U-Haul returns wouldn't be in until 4:30pm. So we had bought some time.
Anyway, we returned to the chore of unloading the truck. We were already zombies. We had been awake since 8:00am the day before, and were about dead on our feet. But we kept at it. Eventually 4:00 was approaching, and we were still only about 2/3 finishing unloading the truck. We decided that the only way to get the truck unloaded and returned on time was to start sitting stuff off in the yard. And that's what we did. Couch. Refridgerator. Recliners. The big stuff. Lots of boxes, too. And somehow we were finished by 4:30. Since the U- Haul place was only a block away, we would make it. We went back up and got the car trailer, and dropped the truck off, only fifteen minutes late. Well, 4 and 3/4 hours late, technically, but they didn't notice.
Well, the lady who handled the U-Haul returns still wasn't there. So we couldn't get the $80 deposit her mom had secured the truck with. No big deal. We figured on taking the deposit and living off of it until Tonya got paid next, then paying her mom back. But it wouldn't hurt us to wait until the next day.
We walked back to the house and resumed our hellish task. And believe me, by that time we felt like we were trapped in a purgatory from which there was no escape. Tonya was so exhausted she was getting sick, so she rested a bit while I kept bring stuff in. Somehow we managed to get just about everything in. I wound up having to take the door clean off of the frame to get the refridgerator into the house. And by the time we got to our sofa, Tonya's arms were hurting her so bad that she couldn't help carry it. So I got under it, with its legs over my shoulders, and trudged through the yard, dragging it behind me.
I know I'm going into pointless detail. Guess I'm just trying to point out how incredibly exhausted we were, and what a nightmare the move was.
Finally, around 7:00pm, we had everything in the house.
We collapsed in the bed around 7:30.
The next morning Tonya got up and went to work. And when I got up, I headed up to the U-Haul place to get our deposit refund. I went up the steps that lead to the road, and headed down the sidewalk toward Scott's Automotive (the U- Haul place). The first thing I noticed was that my car was gone. My fucking car was just gone. It wasn't in the parking lot across the street.
I was still too tired to be very upset. Our landlord, Gerald, had told me the car would be okay parked over there. But I knew it had been towed off. I knew no one would steal it. For one thing, it wouldn't crank. And for another, who in their right mind would want a beat up old Thunderbird?
Anyway, I went on up to U-Haul place. The mechanic on duty told me that the U-Haul lady wasn't there. She and her husband had went to Greenwood. But they would be back in about half and hour. So, while I was waiting I walked down to the police station to see if they had towed my car. Indeed, they had. I was livid, but too tired to be really angry. The lady there told me that they had assumed it was abandoned, since it had a dead tag on it. I asked her if they were in the habit of hauling off cars as soon as they came across them. After all, it hadn't even sat there 24 hours, and there were no signs posted saying that parking there was forbidden. And as for the car, about all they could tell me was that it had been towed by Greg's Auto. I'd need to get in touch with them to arrange having it brought back.
So I went back to the U-Haul place. The U-Haul Lady was still not there. So I used their phone to call Greg's and see what I'd have to do to get my car back. I was told that there was an $85 towing fee, plus a storage fee of $12 a day as long as they had to keep it. At this point, I don't think stunned was the right word for it. Outraged? Naw, I was too tired for that. I was angry, though. Not only had the cops hauled off my car with no good reason, but this son of a bitch was going to ream us out. $85 for a towing fee? That was outrageous!
Oh, well. I'd deal with that later. Maybe with the $20 I had in my pocket and the $80 we'd get back from our deposit on the U-Haul, we could work something out. But first I had to get our deposit back. So I sat down and waited for the now mysterious U-Haul lady to finally made an appearance. And, finally, she and her husband drove up.
We signed off on the paperwork, and then I was told that there would be no deposit refund. Since the deposit had been made with a credit card, they could only return the deposit to the credit card, no matter that the remainder of the bill had been paid in cash. I was stunned. Tonya and I had $20 to our name, and it was a full week before she got paid again. And my car was being held hostage by some backwater redneck, who wouldn't even have the car if it hadn't been for the cops not having anything better to do. The U-Haul lady and her husband had seen my car getting towed. They had passed as the wrecker was hooking it up the night before, sometime around 11:00. So my car had sat there for all of about 12 hours before it got towed.
But there was nothing that could be done right then. So I went home, hurt and angry, and maybe even a little scared. I didn't know what we were going to do. We didn't have any money. How the hell were we going to get my car back? Especially when every day it had to sit there tacked $12 more onto our bill?
I paced the house for a long time, angry. I couldn't call Tonya, since we didn't have a phone. And the only pay phone was 1/2 mile away. Not a major walk, but I was still exhausted and sore from our Halloween marathon. In the end, I finally needed to blow off some steam. I walked down to the police station again (which is a block from our house), just to find out why they had towed the car. The lady behind the desk seemed concerned by this time, I suppose wondering if I was going to go ape-shit or something. But she contacted the cop at home who had had my car towed off. He was nice enough, and explained to me that it hadn't shown up in the records when he had ran the tag (because it hadn't been running or legally registered in several years). He didn't know who to contact about it, so he figured it was either stolen or abandoned. And in addition, a couple of old ladies who lived on that block had complained that they couldn't see around my car there at the stop sign. So he had it towed.
I thanked him and hung up. I looked that lady behind the desk dead in the eye and said "Welcome to Ware Shoals, huh?"
When Tonya got home from work, her first question upon coming in the door was "Where the fuck is your car?" And I told her. I also told her about us not getting the deposit back. So, in short, we were in a world of shit. We decided that since her car had a full tank of gas, we would spend our last $20 by splitting it: half on food, and the other half held back for gas. We drove up to the Piggly Wiggly (a grocery store) to get some food, and Tonya called Greg's again just to confirm what he had told me.
When we got back, I paced for a bit. And I finally decided to go ask our landlord about the city government. Did Ware Shoals have a mayor or a city manager? Stuff like that. In other words, who did I need to go talk to to raise total hell about my car getting towed off?
Gerald, our landlord, told me not to worry. He would check into it to see what he could do. The next morning he came and knocked on the door, and asked me if I was ready to go get my car. He figured since he told me that the car would be okay parked across the road, it was his fault that it had gotten towed. He had paid the $85 towing fee, and persuaded Greg to waive the storage fees. So we were to go pick up my car. Of course, when we got out to Greg's, the car still wouldn't crank. They tried jumping it off. They tried pouring started fluid down the carburator. They tried dropping in a new battery. Nothing worked. So finally Greg offered, as a favor to Gerald, to tow it back for free, saying that they were about the break for lunch, anyway, and would just drive the wrecker.
So by the time Tonya got home from work, the T-bird was sitting in the yard, and we were both eternally grateful to Gerald and his wife, Sherry. We had both forgotten that there were still people like that in the world.
After the great move, things sort of settled in. I spent most of November going to Greenville with her, putting in job applications. But since we didn't have a telephone, it wasn't very likely I was going to find anything. How would they call me? I gave them Tonya's work number, but no one ever used it. Plus, I had my same old problem. All my references were gone. Every major place I've ever worked no longer exists. And now on top of that, I was a new resident of South Carolina. With a North Carolina drivers license, at that. :-/
Then on December 9th, while coming back from Greenville, a lady pulled out in front of us. We hit her. It wasn't a terrible wreck. Tonya smashed her head on the windshield. But everyone involved walked away from the wreck, which is something to be thankful for. But now we had no car. The front end of Tonya's Grand Am was fucked up, and it wasn't drivable. So we had to leave it in the parking lot of a Home Depot until we could figure out what to do. Our insurance had been cancelled just before we left North Carolina, and we were to get more a week later. But we had the wreck before that, and had no insurance. So we were fucked. Luckily a friend of Tonya's from work had stopped by, and he gave us a ride home. Otherwise, I don't know what we would have done.
So we spent a few days not knowing what we were going to do. We didn't have any money, and we didn't have a car. Man, a cloud of doom hung over us. To make matters worse, our heating oil ran out. And one night we had to walk a five mile round trip to go get kerosene for my space heater. It was a bad time.
The wreck put us in a royal bind. We didn't know what to do. Tonya couldn't get to work. And since we didn't have a phone, no one could get in touch with us. But a few tension filled days later, Tonya checked her voice mail from a pay phone, and a lady from Nationwide insurance had contacted her about the wreck. While Tonya had been charged with allowing a vehicle to be maintained without insurance (an automatic $250 fine in South Carolina), the wreck had been the other lady's fault. So Nationwide was prepared to make arrangements with us. They got us a rental car for a week, and on the last day of that week they finally sent out an evaluator to Home Depot to check out her car. They totalled her car, saying it was beyond repair. They paid Tonya for the week she missed from work, and gave her $3,000 for her car.
We opened up an account with NationsBank, putting $2,000 in checking and $1,000 in savings. But since it was coming up on the Christmas weekend, they told us they would have to hold the money until after Christmas. So we had $3,000 in the bank, but couldn't use any of it. :-/
During that week we had been looking at cars. We were making arrangements to buy a Dodge Neon when I spotted a 1995 Thunderbid. Much to my surprise, Tonya decided she wanted the Thunderbird. So we let the Neon go and tried for the Thunderbird. Since I was unemployed and had bad credit besides, we had to try for it in Tonya's name. Her parents agreed to co-sign for the loan, and we got it.
In the meantime, since we only had the rental car for that one week, we decided to sink some money into my Thunderbird so that she would have a way to work, expecting that we would only need to drive it for a few weeks until we got a new car. That's an adventure unto itself, and I'll tell you about that before getting to this new Thunderbird.
The guys at Greg's had suspected that my spark plugs were fouled, which is why my car wouldn't start. So I knew I needed to replace the spark plugs. My alternator was also fried, so I needed to replace that, as well. I changed the spark plugs with no problem. And I studied my T-bird manual long enough to feel confident that I could change the alternator. So I took off the alternator belt and started unbolting the alternator. But it wouldn't come off. The pivot bolt was fused to the alternator. The bolt and alternator would move a little, so the bolt wasn't fused in the engine block. It was just stuck in the alternator. And since the alternator would only move so far, I couldn't just screw it out by turning the whole alternator. I was fucked. I went up to Scott's (the garage where we turned in the U-Haul) and asked them if they could do it. But they were in the middle of moving to a new location and couldn't do it. But I had seen a place across from Piggly Wiggly called Sullivan's Garage. I walked up there and asked them if they could get the alternator off for me, and they agreed. So I went back home, bolted down the old alternator, put back on the alternator belt, and prayed. But when I put some gas in the carburator, the old car cranked right up. I drove it up to Sullivan's and left it, and by the next day she was ready. They had to cut off the old alternator with an power welder. But they got the new alternator on. We were ready to roll.
We had a car for the time being. Of course, it was highly illegal. Dead tag. Dead inspection sticker, etc. But we didn't have a choice. It was all we had. We would just have to drive it until we could get it squared away. But at the very least, Tonya could get to work.
So I cranked the car that first Monday after returning the rental to take Tonya to work. The brakes were acting up, and I was worried about it, but it was running, and I thought the brakes would hold. We could get to Greenville. So we set out that morning. About two thirds of the way to that gas station I mentioned (the one that's about seven miles from the house), there was steam coming from under the hood and the temperature gauge was going up. By the time we reached the gas station, it was running hot. I discovered that the upper radiator hose joint was leaking. I'd noticed that it was a little loose when putting in the spark plugs, but thought it'd be okay. I was wrong. I got some radiator sealant and some electrical tape, and rigged up the joint so that we could at least get somewhere. We were afraid to try for Greenville, so we turned for home. Good thing, too. By the time we got back to Ware Shoals, the brakes were barely working. It would slow the car, but at any stop sign or light, the car would slowly inch forward, with the brake pedal all the way to the floor.
We were lucky that Tonya had just gotten paid. We sent the car to a garage near the house. They had to replace the master cylinder, which is the reservoir that holds and pumps the brake fluid. Mine had quit working. They also soldered that radiator joint. When we got the car back, the brakes worked, but the radiator still leaked. Not as bad, though. We could drive it as long as we put water in it before leaving for Greenville, and water in it before heading home. But at least Tonya didn't miss much work.
While we still had the rental car, I had ran around and tried to get things squared away to make the car legal, figuring on getting the tag switched over to South Carolina. I started by getting a South Carolina drivers license, and by getting insurance for my car, and then started working on the car itself. But what we quickly discovered was that I couldn't get a South Carolina tag for the car. To switch it over I needed the title. But the title was being held by a finance company in Kings Mountain. In order to get it switched over, I would have to file a request with the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles for a new title. They would then contact the state of North Carolina with the request. The state of North Carolina would then contact Amity Finance and tell them to send in the title. Amity Finance would then send the title to the state of North Carolina, North Carolina would cancel it and notify South Carolina. South Carolina would issue a new title, which they would send back to North Carolina, and North Carolina would send the new title back to Amity Finance. By the time we turned in the rental, the car was still illegal. We didn't have time to wait for getting the title changed over. Needless to say. We needed the car legal, and fast. Luckily, since it WAS still carrying a North Carolina registration, I could get a North Carolina tag for it, even though I now had a South Carolina drivers license, because our new insurance company was a nationwide agency (State Farm).
But illegal or not, and leaking radiator or not, we managed to make it up to North Carolina to spend Christmas with my mom. Lucky thing, too, since I got to see Pilar, and that was a wonderful Christmas gift. I just wish we had gotten to spend more time with her. But we didn't dare stop down at Joanne's on the way back home. I wasn't so much worried about the radiator, but I was worried about having a dead tag. So since I was planning on coming back to North Carolina after Christmas to get a tag, I promised to drop in and see her.
And so a few days later I took Tonya to work one morning and then headed back to North Carolina, praying that the radiator would hold out and that I wouldn't get stopped with a dead tag and no inspection sticker. I went to my mom's house, where a friend of her's had brought her car for me to drive to Shelby and the courthouse. I went and paid the property taxes on my car, got a tag, and then went back to Kings Mountain (the friend's car was trying to run hot on me, too). Then I took my car and had it inspected. So we still had a radiator problem, but the car was now legal.
A week or so into January, 1999, Nationsbank finally cut loose our $3,000. We could go ahead and make that downpayment on that 1995 T-bird I mentioned some while back. The loan had gone through and was approved. So all we had to do was go sign the papers and drive the car home. We started calling around to see about insurance, and that's when we ran into our next problem. See, Tonya already had points on her license for a wreck she was in a year before we got married. Our last wreck, where she got charged for allowing her car to operate with no insurance, added more points to it. And since the car was going to be in her name, the insurance had to be in her name, as well. We discovered that insurance for that car was going to be over $500 a month. To give you an idea of how much money that is down here, Tonya makes pretty good money, and brings home around $600 every two weeks. So essentially, if we got that '95 Thunderbird, one of us would be working just to pay for the car. $500 insurance, plus the car payment, which was going to be around $275. 80% of one of our salaries would be going just to pay for the new car.
Needless to say, we didn't get the '95 T-bird.
We settled on the only other option we had. And that was to get my car straightened out. We would have to drive it until we could save up the money for a cheap little car which we could pay cash for (and which we could put in my name). So we took some money out of the bank and bought a new radiator for my car. I put it on myself (one of many firsts I've had to master because of that car) to save money. Of course, by this time the carburator was acting up. It had been acting up for awhile, but it was getting worse. I don't know if you have ever heard of "loping," but that's what it was doing. That's when an idling car sounds like someone is pressing the accelerator over and over. And in between gas surges, it tries to cut off. I turned up the idle speed so that it wouldn't cut off, but it was still doing it. Basically, my carburator was shot. During this time I changed the spark plugs again, and found that the new ones, a little over a month old, were getting fouled. So there was a problem.
We had a court date on January 16 over the wreck, and dished out the $250 fine. Since Tonya had never gotten her South Carolina drivers license, they couldn't do much to her. But part of her sentence is that when she ever gets her South Carolina drivers license, it's automatically suspended for three months. So if she goes and gets her license changed over, they'll immediately take it away from her for three months. Gotta love South Carolina.
Anyway, we were planning on putting on a new carburator. The next day I was scheduled to take the car back to Sullivan's so that he could check out the carburator and tell me if he could fix the one we had or if we should just get a new one. We left the court that Thursday and I took her back to work. I noticed as I let her out that the car was acting strange and was trying to cut off. But I thought it would be ok. My job hunting was on hold until we could get the car straightened out, but I had an interview that following Monday. Anyway, I dropped off Tonya and went to my usual spot in the parking lot of a Bi-Lo to read a book until she got off work. Later that day, around 5:10, I decided to go up to a McDonald's to use the bathroom, and then I was going to go pick up Tonya from work.
When I cranked the car, it ran like shit. It ran so rough that it felt like the motor was going to fall out. I mean majorly rough. Something was wrong. It wasn't loping as much as it sounded like something had come loose and was rattling around inside the engine. Needless to say, we couldn't drive it back to Ware Shoals. So we got a rental car from the Budget Car Rentals who we were going to buy that Neon from. We left my Thunderbird in Greenville and came home. The next day I took Tonya to work and then arranged for a wrecker to come pick up my car to tow it back to Ware Shoals. To give you an idea of how outragerous that towing fee was when the cops had my car towed, that cost $85. This other wrecker service only charged us $75 to tow it 35 miles from Greenville to Ware Shoals.
Anyway, Les, the mechanic at Sullivan's, looked the car over the following Saturday and decided that the carburator was beyond repair. Our only option was to put on a new one. And since that was something he couldn't get for us, I'd have to arrange it. So we ordered a new carburator that day. It came in the following Wednesday, I took it to Les, and we finally got my car back on Friday. The bill for the rental car was $400. The bill for the new carburator and installation was $300. Go figure. (grin)
Well, we figured we were ready to roll after that. Little did we know.
Wednesday of last week, January 27th, I was again biding my time in Greenville, reading a book and waiting for Tonya to get off work, planning to resume the great job hunt on February 1st. I again went to McDonald's to use the bathroom before picking up Tonya from work. The car was running fine. The new carburator was doing well. Things were looking up. I came out of McDonald's, got in the car, cranked it up, same old same old, and put it in reverse. I backed out of my parking space. But when I went to put the car in drive, nothing happened. The shifter moved, but nothing happened. The shifter just moved freely, like it wasn't connected. Les had warned me that the transmission would go out before the engine would, that the engine was in great shape, but the transmission needed work. Well, there it was.
I did the only thing I could do. I swung the car around and backed into another space. I don't remember feeling anything. It was just another in a long string of mishaps, like yet another mine going off in the middle of a war. I wasn't angry. I wasn't sad. I was just tired. And this was one more thing. I called Tonya, hating to tell her that something else had gone wrong, but didn't know what else to do. I couldn't exactly hide it from her. She didn't take it very well, and I can't say that I blame her. How much more could happen to us? She was very upset, and crying over the phone. And I stood there, staring at the car in complete resignation. To me it was just one more thing. I know I should have been upset. At least as upset as Tonya was. But like I said. It was just another explosion in the midst of a hundred others.
I called Aamco transmissions and arranged to have them pick up the car. I initially asked the fella I talked to about how much a new transmission would cost. He said depending on the transmission, it could be between $550 and $1,200. But he assured me that it could be something minor and I shouldn't jump to conclusions.
So I left the key under the mat. Tonya came and picked me up by the graces of one of her co-workers who had driven her over. And thanks to the graces of another co-worker, we had a ride home that night. We didn't try to get another rental car. We knew we were into something major here and that we needed to save our money. Luckily her company let her work from home for a few days. One of the benefits of working in web development. While they would prefer for her to be at work, she could do the same work from home. At least on a temporary basis.
I talked to the gentleman from Aamco the next day. He told me that the problem had been a grommet in the linkage between the transmission and throttle. That was a minor problem. But he pointed out that the transmission itself was in bad shape and needed work, and asked me to let them pull it to find out what kind of shape it was in. I didn't know what else to do, so I told him to go ahead. I talked to him again the day after, and he told me it was shot. The rings were bad. This was bad. That was bad. It needed a complete overhaul. And the price for this would be $949. I about choked. Geez. We didn't have that kind of money. Well, maybe we had it, but just barely. And we weren't sure of that.
So I started looking for alternatives. I had already talked to some people from Advance Auto Parts about getting a new transmission. Aamco told me what kind of transmission I had, and it turned out that we could get a new one for $575, but with the core charge (which means the amount they'd give us back if I turned in my old transmission), it dropped down to $325. We could swing that. I contacted less at Sullivan's and he said he could put it in for $150. $475 for a new transmission. Of course, we now owed Aamco $300 for their work, towing fee, and pulling the transmission. Plus we'd have to have the car towed back to Ware Shoals. And then we'd need a rental car. So we were going to be hurting either way.
Then Aamco surprised me. Steve Curry, the gentlemen I had talked to many times over several tense days, called me back. He knew that I was looking for alternatives. And he made a proposal. They could fix the transmission for $787, and if I let them, he would waive the $300 we already owed them. This was unexpected, but was greatly welcomed. And so we decided to let them go ahead and fix it. It'd save us getting the car towed, plus several days of rental cars fees, ordering a transmission, then having to pick it up and take it to Les.
That was a few days ago. They finished the car on Tuesday, but we stalled them. We weren't sure we had enough money. We paid our rent on the 1st, and still had $1,000 in savings, but we would have to rent a car to get back to Greenville. But we squeeked by. Since we stalled until today, Thursday, we're sitting better. Tonya gets paid tomorrow, and this paycheck will be direct deposited into our checking account. Since we've handled all this electronically on a Visa check card, we've already paid Aamco. Technically we don't have the money in the bank at the moment to cover the rental car, but we figure if we turn the car in after 2:00pm tomorrow (which is NationsBank's daily processing cutoff), her check will be deposited by the time we turn the car in. Of course, we might still have the money in our account to cover it, but we might not. So I guess this constitutes a gamble of sorts. Still, we don't have a choice. And if something goes wrong somewhere, we can always sort it out later. At least the car is fixed.
The transmission is the last major thing that needed to be fixed on the car. That's good, since this latest little mine has finished off the last of the $3,000 we had in the bank. We're again poor as church mice. But at least from here on we can reasonably expect the Thunderbird to run well. All that's really left to be fixed is that it needs new shocks, and there's a linkage in the steering wheel that's loose. Nothing major, and nothing that could keep the car from running should anything go wrong. I can't see that anything else could go wrong. We have a car with a new battery, a new radiator, a new alternator, a new carburator, and a newly overhauled transmission. All the major groups have been covered.
I know this sounds like famous last words, but I think we've finally licked our mechanical problems. Now if we can just manage to keep the house from burning down. And on the plus side, we both have our W2 forms from our employers. It won't be much, but we're poor enough to get a few breaks from the Government. So we should soon have a small nest egg to put back into the bank, or to spend on the many other things which we need to take care of (like Tonya's wisdom teeth).
All in all, while we still feel like we're in the middle of a minefield, at least for the moment the explosions have abated. So maybe we're looking forward to at least a short time when we won't be so shell-shocked and battered about.
Now if we can just keep fate from learning that we've found at least a little breathing room, we'll do okay. hehe
All I really know is that it's unusually warm here for a February, and feels a lot like spring. The other day I fixed a rattling door on the T-bird, and took the car for a spin to see if it still rattled. I had the windows down. It was nice. Warm without being hot. Cool breeze. And I was tooling around in my Thunderbird. Something I haven't been able to do for years. It almost felt normal, and that's a sensation I hardly remembered. But it brought a certain peace to my soul, and I returned home smiling.
I hope to resume the great job hunt next Monday. I'm a little nervous about it. It seems like every time I set up interviews, something blows up in our faces. But at least I'm facing it with a positive attitude now. That's a change of pace. And hopefully it'll make the difference.


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Foxconn Worker Jumps To His Death in Chengdu
A 23-year-old Foxconn worker, surnamed Xie, jumped to his death from an apartment building outside the factory on Wednesday. Reuters reports that his death is the first suicide since the company, which is the main supplier of Apple and makes products including the iPad and the iPhone, agreed to improve work conditions in March. Chengdu police are now investigating the incident.
Just last week, 1,000 workers at the Chengdu plant rioted in a dormitory for over two hours. The Taiwan-based company, which is one of China's largest employers, has faced numerous allegations of workplace abuse since 2010, after about 13 workers died in apparent suicides. Three workers were killed and eighteen injured in an explosion at the Chengdu plant in May of 2011. Earlier this year, 300 people at a plant that makes Xbox consoles threatened to kill themselves over a pay dispute.
Foxconn has denied the accusations against it, while raising workers' salaries. These increased by 70 percent at its China plants in 2010; in February of this year, Foxconn increased workers' wages by 25 percent. In March, following an independent review by the Fair Labor Association (FLA) that found violations in wages and overtime at three Foxconn plants, the company agreed to hire tens of thousands more workers, in addition to the 1.2 million it already employs.
The company is also seeking to use a million robots, as noted in Chinese Business News (via Agence France-Presse). Currently, about 10,000 robots paint, weld and perform assembly tasks. Foxconn plants to use 300,000 robots by next year and then the full one million in 2014.
Some of the abuses endured by Foxconn workers include working an excessive amount of hours of overtime (60 hours a week in some cases); new regulations say that people cannot work more than 49 hours by July 1, 2013. Robots, of course, can work round the cock and as much and as long as their human operators wish. No surprise that Foxconn is seeking to employ more of the machines, now that it is being required not to treat its human workers as such.
Related Care2 Coverage
1,000 Foxconn Workers Riot in Chengdu
Why iPads Won't Be "Made In America" Any Time Soon
Strong Unions and Labor Laws Protect Foxconn Factory Workers in Brazil
Photo by 81403

subset: commoncrawl


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Welcome to Andrew Seagust ltd one of Malton and Norton's largest independent garage and Malton's only two lane mot station. Situated just on the outer edge of Malton on the York road business park so still easily within an acceptable walk to the town centre of Malton or you can make yourself comfy in our newly refurbished office and waiting room with a good supply of coffee and tea. For customers having larger jobs done we run four courtesy cars and two vans so we should be able to cover all your needs
Dedicated Team
With a dedicated team of trained technicians myself having 23 years in the motor trade with a full set of city & guilds and a peugeot / citroen trained master tech overseeing the day to day running of the workshop.The mechanics and mot testers have full support in this busy workshop so your car or van is safe in our hands whether it be for a replacement bulb to a full engine rebuild.
Spacious Workshop
From our spacious workshop we are able to carry out mot's on class 3 trike's, reliants, class 4 cars, light vans and ambulance's class 7 large 3500 kg vans and class 5 minibuses with up to 17 seats in the two mot bays, and still have three ramps for repairing other vehicles and two working bays for repairs on the floor for such as diagnostic investigating, air-conditioning regas service and tyre fitting. We also care for you when your out and on the road by offering customers 24 hour breakdown / recovery service including horse & horsebox using a new ifor williams trailer and 4x4.
Additional Information
We provide complete car and commercial vehicle air con servicing, fault finding and repairs, all work being carried out at the customers chosen location. Our friendly staff are City & Guilds trained and the company is a member of Institute of Vehicle Air Conditioning.MOBILE CAR AIR CONDITIONING SERVICE specialising in car aircon recharge (regassing), servicing, aircon parts fitting, and repair of car, van, and agricultural vehicles air-con systems.
Product and Services
Initial system test, Check system components such as hoses, belts, condenser,compressor, fans, electrics etc, Check internal system controls, flaps, heating etc, Recover any existing refrigerant from the system, Vacuum A/C system, Regas (recharge) A/C system with refrigerant to vehicle specific levels, Add A/C oil and leak detection dye, Leak test components, Full post re-gas system test
Languages Spoken
Payment Options
Year Established
Write a Review For
Andrew Seagust Motor Vehicle Repairs


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Hi all!
I'm writing on this forum because i know of all yours are fond of japaneses Games!
So here i'm in little dead end for this game and i don't really know why I laybe have missed somes basics s
If someone have complete this game it would nice to help me because i really like it!
So i'm playing Eve Burst Error since a week now, this game has two protagonists in it ( Each have a different story) .
At the beginning you choose one and i choose the guy, Kohjiro!
So i play this story and at a moment i couldn't do anything. I have already done everything possible at this but it unlock nothing to continue.
So i looked for a walktrought and i found only one wich explained that, at this i have to start the second story and reach a step in it which would unlock my first story.
I played the second story and reach a dead-end like the first one. I thought that the first one would be unlocked, i load my previous saves... and nothing, everything the same!
So i want to if some of yours had successed to this game, of there is maybe a special manipulation to do, in order to connect my two saves s or anything else!
Thanks in advance!


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The term 'culling' is not one that I for one am particularly fond of as it always conjures up negative associations with pest control. However the concept is very apt and more worryingly has slowly wriggled its way into the affiliate industry with an increasing number of merchants adopting cleansing strategies on their programmes. This article will review common reasons why merchants may conduct affiliate culls and then focus on some of the arguments against carrying out this activity. Important considerations for the management of affiliate culls will also be explored.
Brand Protection
Often affiliate culls are a favoured course of action for merchants who wish to exercise greater control over where and how their brand is promoted online. Brand repositioning is often cited as a reason for merchants to review the quality of affiliate sites and traffic sources, and this is something that networks and affiliates have had to accept.
However, before any affiliate is removed the merchant, with support from the network, must always undertake an extensive affiliate audit and be able to provide valid reasons to the affiliates about why they are not deemed a right fit for their brand. Before conducting any suspension it is considered best practice for merchants to always provide a fair notice period (recommended minimum of 30 days).
It is imperative that any brand conscious merchant looking to launch within the channel is selective right from the start. Merchants must provide clear quality criteria in their programme description and operate a manual affiliate vetting process to prevent any future culls.
Value of the Longtail
For most affiliate programmes it is fairly typical to see a smaller number of affiliates driving the majority of the sales: the 80/20 rule. Sadly this results in the 'longtail' affiliate base coming under intense scrutiny as merchants want to see results; it is after all a performance based industry. This has led to strategies being employed where merchants choose to focus all their time and efforts on optimising the top 10-20 affiliate performers on their programme.
Whilst the prospect of trying to optimise 1000+ affiliates would be a daunting task for any affiliate manager it would be foolhardy to ignore or in the worst case remove the longtail affiliates who do generate a low volume of sales as collectively these sales will still make a valuable contribution to the merchant's overall revenue stream. The same applies for the affiliates that generate a high number of impressions but no sales; is removal the best solution if they are generating a good level of exposure and not harming the merchant's brand?
This scenario should rather be viewed as a prime opportunity for all parties to discuss the ways to improve click-through rate (CTR) and ultimately conversions.
Stop damaging my conversion rates
Affiliates who drive lots of clicks but fail to generate any sales are a major cause of concern for merchants as this will have a negative impact on overall conversion rates and can make the programme look less appealing for new affiliates. In these cases rather than removing these affiliates, merchants should actively communicate with them and ascertain why their traffic is not converting, providing support and suggestions about how to improve their campaigns.
It could simply be that the affiliate is showcasing out of date creative or promotional offers and a simple refresh of the site content is all that is required to remedy the issue. If the affiliate refuses to act upon advice given or is unable to demonstrate any improvement over an agreed period of time then the merchant has every right to review the long term viability of the relationship.
Dormant Affiliates
It is also common for dormant affiliates to be first in line for the chopping board. These affiliates are categorised as those that apply to join a programme and then do not drive any traffic or sales.
Whilst this is frustrating, merchants need to appreciate that a lag in sales generation can ensue whilst new affiliates learn about the space and develop their sites and campaigns and therefore shouldn't be penalised for non-performance. A better approach would be to communicate with these affiliates to find out more about their plans and whether they intend to start actively promoting the programme in the near future.
The merchant and network are ultimately responsible for providing the right tools and advice to help new affiliates get started .You never know, the right engagement might even uncover a future super affiliate. Merchants should also consider tailoring programme incentives such as competitions and prize draws to motivate the whole affiliate base rather than always focusing on the top performers.
Fortunately removing affiliates en masse is still not a standard practice within the industry, however as merchant programmes mature more analysis will be carried out on the true value each affiliate partner brings to the table. Without careful management cleansing strategies can cause a considerable amount of damage to a merchant's brand reputation, angering affiliates and providing a strong disincentive for them to promote the merchant again in the future. Networks and merchants must work together to ensure that the reasons for making such dramatic changes to a programme are the right ones for all parties involved.


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Waste firm Panda wins bin-service contract
DÚN LAOGHAIRE Rathdown County Council has appointed private waste company Panda to take over its bin collection service.
The council announced in May it would no longer operate its own grey and green bin waste service. The announcement came after a report from local government auditor Anthony Doheny revealed there were almost €27 million in bin charge arrears from households. Labour councillors tried unsuccessfully to block the move to privatisation last month.
The appointment of Panda followed a public tender process and the company is to take over both the grey bin service and the green bin service, operated by Greyhound, from July 26th. It will also provide a brown bin service for organic waste from December.
The service will be free for six months to existing domestic council customers and when charges are introduced, they will be 20 per cent below the current council charge. The waiver scheme will also be applied.
Director of water and waste services Frank Austin, said the new arrangement was a "win-win" for customers and the council.
But Independent councillor Victor Boyhan said the arrangement would effectively give Panda control of the bin collection market in Dún Laoghaire Rathdown and he called for the establishment of a waste management regulator.


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Moralism and the arts: The risks in judging artistic expression
'Upside-down' artist Baselitz celebrated in retrospective
Finding infinity
in the female form
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Gemmayzeh's ArtLab Gallery is now hosting "Persian Maxis," gathering more than 30 works by 13 Iranian artists, including Morteza Khosravi, Hena Hanzali, Arman Esmailpour and Nahid Kazemi.Layer upon layer has been applied to the canvas so the paint protrudes from the surface like an invasive sculptural presence, as if the artist were luring onlookers into the very fabric of the piece.In Esmailpour's works, the artist confronts the viewer directly."Persian Maxis" is a sequel of sorts to the gallery's January exhibition "Persian Minis," which featured a range of minuscule works by nine Iranian artists that, though small in size, were replete with different perspectives the creator's vision of their native country.Kazemi's small watercolors are dominated by landscape scenes.
Moralism and the arts: The risks in judging artistic expression
'Upside-down' artist Baselitz celebrated in retrospective
Finding infinity
in the female form
Beirut blast photos compete for gold
Ali Rafei's message and street aesthetic
Abstract architecture of superstructures


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Recently, I started to think of which order should post-process effects should run. Its an interesting problem since its a often a matter of balancing performance, quality and correctness.
The usual post-process effects that you would find in a modern game are, Anti-Aliasing Resolve, Tone-Mapping, Bloom, Depth Of Field, Motion Blur and Color Correction.
- The AA Resolve is the process of downsampling a high-res image (rendered usually using the hardware Multi-Sampled Anti-Aliasing support) to an output resolution. It give a nice anti-aliased image. We could replace that pass with other Anti-Aliased post-process such as the recent MLAA technique.
- The Tone-Mapping is the process of taking a high dynamic range (HDR) image to a displayable range (LDR).
- Bloom is a process of blurring an image, and adding the result back on top of the source image. This gives a nice effect of light-bleeding.
- Depth Of Field is a process of having an object in focus sharp, and objects out of focus blurry.
- Motion Blur is a process of blurring areas of the screen that are in motion.
- Color Correction is a process of changing the color palette of your image. It usually also includes a brightness/contrast pass.
Typically, on the current platforms (XBox 360 and Ps3) you would have a game render frame that would look like the following:
1- Scene Opaque (in MSAA)
2- AA Resolve
3- Scene Transparency
4- Bloom
5- Tone-Mapping
6- Depth Of Field
7- Motion-Blur
8- Color Correction
I've integrated the position of the Scene rendering just to give us a better idea of how it all fits together within the frame.
But this is not exactly correct. Depth Of Field and Motion-Blur should be done in HDR, not LDR, so pre ToneMapping. Also, since Bloom simulates light bleeding, Depth Of Field and Motion-Blur should also be done pre Bloom. This will give a nice glow effects around moving and out-of-focus lights.
Color-Correction needs to be done in LDR. This because color-correction is an artistic tweak over the rendered image. We can easily represent LDR colors, harder to do so with HDR colors. Also, color should be preserved post-color correction. If the color correction was to be done in HDR (pre Tone-Mapping) colors would change.
There is the remaining question of the Anti-Aliasing, and the order of Depth Of Field with Motion-Blur. Lets remind ourselves of the new proper order of post-processing effects:
1- Opaque
2- AA Resolve
3- Transparency
4- Depth Of Field
5- Motion Blur
6- Bloom
7- Tone-Mapping
8- Color-Correction
For anti-aliasing to look the best, you would want to put it in the very last stage or your rendering pipeline, so all way after Color-Correction: You would get this new full-screen effect pipeline:
1- Opaque
2- Transparency
3- Depth Of Field
4- Motion Blur
5- Bloom
6- Tone-Mapping
7- Color-Correction
8- AA Resolve
This requires to have all your other effects to be done at full MSAA resolution, which can be costly. On current console hardware, this is almost impossible to do without sacrificing some big quality for performance, or just frame-rate (which ultimately results in a quality loss).
Now when it comes to Motion-Blur and Depth Of Field, ideally, you would want those two effects to be combined into one. Or you want the 2nd effect, to have information on how the 1st effect happen, to make sure the effect is more correct overall. Its a similar issue that you have between Bloom and Motion-Blur. You want the blurry pixels resulting of the Depth of Field to be Motion Blurred properly, and you want also the blurry pixels caused by motion blur to be properly blurred out depending on their depth (knowing even that their depth have changed during motion), so Depth of Field needs to be temporal, like Motion-Blur.
In the world of video-games, this is almost impossible to do with current technologies, so I guess you would have to choose what is the best for your game. Some games choose to even only do one or the other: They would for example, at very slow movements, only have Depth of Field, and at fast movement have only Motion-Blur.
To finish, I'm sorry I don't have a demo, or a set of screen-shots to illustrate my post. This is all very theoretical. Some are conclusions that came from my experience in implementing those effects in God Of War 3 and Mercenaries 2. I hope to be able to illustrate this, and deliver a demo very soon, but I hope this will help you think a little bit more about the problem, and how to resolve it.


text:
Meaning of function symbols
The catalog of "R650X1" is downloadable (it links to an external site.) details can be checked.
For machining industries in Automotive parts, Motor cycle parts.
The list of machining examples of "R650X1" can be checked.
Operation movie of other machine tools "Tapping center" and "SPEEDIO"
high speed 2-face pallet changer QT table
The QT (Quick Turn) table is Brother's original turn table - type high-speed 2-face pallet changer. High-speed pallet change is enabled by avoiding lift-up operation while achieving high reliability through a sealed structure.
Enlargement of Machining Area
Making use of our original pallet changer technologies that have been installed on over 15,000 units, the machine provides sufficient travels and a large jig area.
High Productivity
Enhanced speed and acceleration, and optimal control with any waste operation and time eliminated, drive machine performance to the fullest, demonstrating high productivity.
Machining capabilities
The highly rigid structure and a high-power spindle motor provide high-range machining capabilities from heavy-duty machining to high-speed high-efficiency machining.
High Reliability and Environmental Performance
High reliability is achieved by improving chip discharge performance and enhancing maintenance functions, contributing to the improvement of the machine's operating rate.
Distributors- Inquiry & Purchase- Repair & Service
Contact infomation for distributors in your area
Brother GlobalTechnical Center
Contact information for Brother Technical Centers in Europe and other areas


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Mother's Day is coming up soon and I'm pretty sure you're all preparing something wonderful for your mothers. I lost my mom when I was a kid, so unfortunately I don't get to give mother's day gifts. But if she was here, I would have made this for her.
It's a favorite recipe of mine, actually a Swiss roll, but I felt like turning it in to a layered heart shaped cake instead. My mom would have loved this. She baked a lot herself and I know she would have loved to know how much I enjoy baking too. Well, maybe she knows.
1. Measure out a piece of carton ca. 20 x 20 cm, fold it and cut out "half" a heart from it.
2. Make you Swiss roll mix and spread onto a baking tray 30 x 40 cm.
3. Make your filling
4. When the cake has cooled, cut out three hearts by using the heart shaped piece of carton. (Make one heart in two pieces, to make it fit)
5. Cover a plate with three sheets of baking paper. Place the first cake layer here. The sheets can overlay, but they should not reach more than to the middle of the plate.
6. Take almost 1/4 of you filling and spread on layer one. Place layer two on top of that and add another 1/4 of the filling here.
7 Place the last layer (i used the two halves here) on top of that and spread what's left of the cream filling, covering top and sides.
8. And you're done! Now gently pull out the baking sheets from each side. You can use a fork at the bottom to lightly hold back the cake, when you pull out the sheets. Decorate your cake with strawberries or raspberries as you wish.
Have fun making your mother's day gifts.


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Article Side
Online Article Directory!
Best Mattress Toppers for Phoenix Heat
Burning Up in Phoenix on Your Mattress Topper?
If you are like me and will do anything to escape the Phoenix heat that can effect your sleeping then you probably tried adding a mattress topper to your bed. The problem is most of the mattress toppers found in Phoenix are not designed to eliminate heat but rather reflect it back at you. Yuck! That's not what we need here. We need a cool mattress pad that will allow our body heat to flow through the bed instead. The toppers found in the mega warehouse stores, even though they are blue and lead you to believe are cooler, are in fact just slightly cooler than the regular memory foam. Sure they got some gel beads in there but if you look at the reviews by actual customers you will see they too are hot!
Latex Mattress Pads Dissipate Heat the Best
The open cell construction of a latex mattress topper allows air to pass through the pad and give you the cooling effect we all desire in these hot summer temperatures. Most other mattress toppers are made with closed cell foam which does not breathe well at all and only complicates our sleep here in Phoenix, AZ. Most mattress toppers are designed to relieve pressure points and both memory foam and latex foam do just that, but latex does it without the heat factor.
Cool Mattress Pads Without the Nasty Smell
If you were one of the millions who's purchased a memory foam mattress topper then you know what I'm referring to. I had a customer just yesterday tell me she wished she had found me a couple of months ago because she bought one of those new blue mattress pads and found it to be no different than her other memory foam pad and it too made her sweat at night. She also had to leave it outside for 3 days before the smell went away enough for her to even bring it into the house. Latex toppers come from mother nature and only have a slight natural rubber smell and are completely non-toxic.
Women with Hot Flashes – Help is Here with a Latex Mattress Topper
You know what I'm talking about gals, it's a miserable time in your life and a memory foam bed and/or topper only complicates your ongoing issues. My solution – get rid of it. Go to what is known to help with the heat factor and get yourself a cool mattress topper made with latex foam. We carry them in several configurations including 2″ and 3″. Both regular latex and slow recovery latex for those who like the feel of memory foam but without the side effects. We also carry the Pure Latex Bliss mattress toppers which are pure elegance and comfort.
The addition of a latex pillow will also help with those night sweats you've been experiencing. I'm not saying it's going to eliminate them but it surely will help.
Get Your Mattress Topper in Phoenix Today!
Don't wait, get relief now. We have all sizes and can even offer you custom sizes for RV's, Campers, Boats, etc. For a more in depth look at our line of mattress toppers just click the "Order Online" button at the top for a complete description and pricing for all our mattress toppers available in our Phoenix factory showroom.
Amanvarma - About Author:
Ken Hightower is President of Arizona Premium Mattress Company, a Latex Mattress specialist, and invites you to learn more about the contents of this article at Latex Mattress Company.
Article Source:
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Veterans and Families are invited to spend some time with horses and ponies and find out how these animals have been helping vets nationwide. Come pet a horse, schedule some future family time, individuals, groups, riding, Equine Assisted Learning, Sept 11, 4-7PM, come for a few minutes or a few hours, plan to come back! 489 Main St, Van Buren. Perfect Ponies Learning Center. This is the only veterans/horses program available in northern Maine. FMI 868 6324
Veterans' Open House WHOA (Warriors Horses Of America) Project Sept 11
Community Author:
Post Date:


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43 CFR 424.1 - Regulations.
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§ 424.1 Regulations.
Pursuant to the provisions of Article 34 and 25 of repayment contract I1r-1534, dated September 20, 1948, between the United States and the Okanogan Irrigation District, it is ordered as follows:
The Okanogan Irrigation District shall require that all recipients of cabinsite and recreation resort leases on Federal lands situated on Conconully Lake (formerly Salmon Lake) and Conconully Reservoir, Okanogan County, Wash., comply with applicable Federal, state and local laws, rules and regulations pertaining to water quality standards and effluent limitations for the discharge of pollutants into said reservoirs, including county regulations governing subsurface waste disposal systems.
(The Reclamation Act of June 17, 1902, as amended and supplemented, Articles 34, and 25 of the Repayment Contract I1r-1534 dated Sept. 20, 1948, between the United States and the Okanagon Irrigation District)
[ 42 FR 60144, Nov. 25, 1977]


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My goal is to create a space for the enjoyment of DSP enthusiasts and for the dissemination of DSP-related news, ideas and technologies. I'd like this blog to help building a connected, vibrant and collaborative DSP community across the ranks of academia and industry. Because DSP technology has become pervasive and ubiquitous, keeping up-to-date will all the developments in this area is a daunting task, so please contact me with all kinds of comments, tips, information and suggestions. Andres Kwasinski
Sorry, but you are looking for something that isn't here.


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Six of the best exfoliating pads for a flawless face
Get youthful-looking skin with the help of an innovative cleanser. By Pippa Bailey.
1. Pixi Glow Peel Pads: £24, Asos
These are the pad pals of the much-loved Pixi Glow Tonic, with all the brightening, anti-ageing effects of the toner, but with four times the glycolic acid content, at 20%. Used twice a week, these pads gave the best results for the money of everything we tested.
2. Zelens PHA+ Bio Peel Resurfacing Facial Pads: £65, Look Fantastic
You can always rely on skin aging expert Zelens for visible results, and these pads are no different. They give a post-facial-esque glow, using four acids (polyhydroxy, lactic, citric and salicylic) to sweep away dead cell build-up, resurface skin and reduce scarring and pigmentation. They've got a slightly eye-watering smell, so less seasoned users may want avoid breathing in while doing the nose area.
3. Rodial Super Acids X-treme Pore-Shrinking Cleansing Pads: £38, Rodial
We're immediately suspicious of anything that claims to be pore-shrinking, but we love these gentle and effective pads from Rodial, which sells high performance skincare products. Unlike most others we tested, they use a blend of apple amino acid and salyclic acid to exfoliate, without stripping moisture and they also contain olive oil for deep cleaning. Our tester has sensitive skin but found these were fine for everyday use.
4. Elizabeth Arden Skin Illuminating Retexturizing Pads: £35, Elizabeth Arden
These differ from the other pads we tested as they have a slightly gritty texture, which more sensitive skins may find irritating. Our tester, however, found that the glycolic acid content left skin glowing and smooth, without stripping moisture, thanks to the amino acids in the formula. They're best used three times a week as part of a more indulgent skincare routine.
5. Dr Dennis Gross Skincare Alpha Beat Peel Extra Strength: £70, Cult Beauty
Dr Dennis Gross's formula is unusual in that it is a two-step formula. The first pad contains five acids - glycolic, lactic, malic, citric and salicyclis - and the second contains retinol, along with all its anti-ageing benefits. Despite all that, they are not harsh at all and are suitable for daily use. For those who can face the extra faff, they deliver excellent results on older skin.
6. Nip + Fab Glycolic Fix Exfoliating Facial Pads: £6.49, Boots
These are the cheapest pads on our list and the price does show a little in that they leave slight residue - combat this by rinsing your face 10 minutes after use. But they are gentle, smoothing and excellent on hormonal or teenage skin, as the inclusion of witch hazel is great for tackling breakouts. If you are on a limited budget or want to try out exfoliating pads, without investing a lot, these are a great place to start.
Belfast Telegraph


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In the music video for her latest single, Victoria Justice sings : "My best friend's brother is the one for me." And apparently, those aren't just the words to a song. The Puerto Rican actress/singer—who is currently recording her debut album—says the song was inspired by a real-life crush.
"I actually have had a crush on my best friend's brother," Victoria revealed exclusively to Latina.com. "I wrote this song last summer and I totally had him in mind. I figured if I've felt this way, I couldn't be the only one."
Victoria says she told her real-life best friend she was crushing on her brother. "I've played the song for my best friend, but I'm not sure if her brother's even heard it," admits Justice. "I'd love to see his reaction."
The 18-year-old star of Nickelodeon's hit series, Victorious says her crush is a few years old. "We had a thing for each other when we were young," she explains. "I was around 14, almost 15. It never really went anywhere. If I were to see him now, things would be totally cool—we'd laugh about it."
WATCH: Victoria Justice Channels Tom Cruise in "My Best Friend's Brother"
Victoria—who is rumored to be dating Ryan Rottman who guest starred on an episode of her hit show, Victorious—told us exclusively what she looks for in a guy. "I look for the three S's—someone who's sweet, sensitive and supportive," says Justice. "It's also important to be able to laugh with someone—I like a guy that's not afraid to make fun of himself, someone who doesn't take life too seriously. You have to be able to unleash your inner goofball with me," she says.
And that's not all Victoria looks for in a guy. "Loyalty, honesty and trust are such huge things. I need to know that you'll have my back no matter what," she says. "Oh, and I need a gentleman—someone mature, considerate and chivalrous. I feel like I'm placing an ad in the paper…did I mention I like long walks on the beach?" she jokes.
We asked Victoria—who is blowing up right now with a movie, music and TV career—if it's weird that people want to know so much about her personal life, including who she's dating. "I guess because people are more aware of who I am, they're going to wonder about my personal life," says the humble star. "It's human nature," she reasons. "I get it."
Still, that doesn't mean she's going to tell the media who she's dating. "I'm a pretty private person when it comes to that sort of thing. I don't really want people to know who I'm dating and I try really hard to keep it separate from everything else," she says.
But lately, Victoria says that's been tough to do."It's become more difficult," says the teen, whose star is quickly on the rise. "I realize now that paparazzi, camera phones, Twitter, etc. don't necessarily make it easy to keep that part of your life private. Somehow it seems that the terms have changed for me and I will have to be very aware of that going forward."
Welcome to stardom, Victoria!


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More On The Differences Between Mr. Bloomberg & Me
By Daniel Millstone
Our Billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg is part of the problem and so far, even the advice of progressive thinker Andrea Batista Schlesinger (who started work for the Bloomberg campaign this past week) has not helped him think about becoming part of the solution. Will falling poll numbers wake him?
Earlier this week Mr. Bloomberg -- in a move that marks him as a principled, not just an opportunistic, disciple of Mr. Bush -- refused to allow 13-14,000 (in my book a large number) of very low income New Yorkers access to food stamps unless they were enrolled in a NYC-run work experience project In my opinion, keeping food from these people is not just cruel (and it is cruel), it's dumb. See, this NY Times editorial in Wednesday's (2-25-09)
Read full article at:


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PPRuNe Forums
Wannabes Forums
Interviews, jobs & sponsorship
> Club 328
View Full Version :
Club 328
22nd Apr 2005, 15:01
They seem to be expanding very rapidly with a few ads in flightinternational.com,but has anyone had an interview yet?
22nd Apr 2005, 16:33
received a thanks but no thanks today
2500 hours corporate environment total time and over 200 hours jet.
But better look to everyone else
22nd Apr 2005, 16:50
Same for me...
At least, we did not have to wait too long for a reply!
Min Drag
22nd Apr 2005, 17:20
How long ago did you guys apply? I've heard nothing back yet.
22nd Apr 2005, 19:06
same for me, thanks but no thanks we'll keep you on file for 6 months :(
applied last week
Compass Rose
23rd Apr 2005, 07:05
Ditto here. My reply, almost by return of post, said that all positions had been filled and they would keep my application on file etc.
My hunch is that they were trawling the market to see who might be around for future expansion.
23rd Apr 2005, 14:38
Judging by the size of the advert, it's a fairly expensive way of probing the labour market...
I bet they don't need to do that with the number of unsolicited CVs they receive.
23rd Apr 2005, 22:41
I've known a few companies do this every now and then, especially if they are getting some bad press - i.e Euromanx advertising for Saab 2000 crews!!!!!!
24th Apr 2005, 14:50
Was this for Club 328 or for Euromanx? I believe the 2 are now split. I've been trying to get hold of Euromanx's pay rates and T&Cs for ages. Anybody out there got them?
SEO by


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Subdivisions in Bossier City, La. have many differences, and cause many home buyers from out of town scratching their heads. In this section we will attempt to inform you with everything you will need to know about each and every Subdivision in Bossier City. We will attempt to answer any questions you may have about any area in Bossier City, La. Here are a few of the questions…………….
What Bossier City Elementary School will my kids attend?
Whats the average price of a house in the Subdivision?
Does it have a club house?
Is there a community pool?
How big are the yards?
Do most of the homes have privacy fences?
How old is the Bossier City subdivision?
Here are most of the subdivision's in North Bossier City
Oak Alley GreenAcers Place GreenBriar Brownlee Estates Rosedale Place Lakewood Oak Creek Cross Creek
Bayou Bend Legacy Willow Lake St. Charles Court Kingston Plantation Cypress Bend Autumn Creek The Colony
Plantation Estates River Bluff Green Acers


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106 KAR 1:180. Project application.
RELATES TO: KRS 39A.050(2)(j), 39C.070(2), 42 U.S.C. 5196
STATUTORY AUTHORITY: KRS 39A.050(2)(m), 39A.070(3), 39C.100, 42 U.S.C. 5196
NECESSITY, FUNCTION, AND CONFORMITY: KRS 39A.050(2)(j) and 39C.070(2) direct the division to require a local emergency management agency to submit a project application, with supporting material, to request financial assistance from the Emergency Management Assistance (EMA) Fund for administrative or operational equipment and for capital and procurement projects. This administrative regulation establishes an application form to request financial assistance from the EMA Fund for a project.
Section 1. Definitions. (1) "Emergency Management Assistance Fund" or "EMA Fund" means the funds defined in 106 KAR 1:140, Section 1(5) and (6).
(2) "Project" means a purchase or procurement of administrative or operational equipment, or a capital expenditure, in excess of $500.
(3) "Project application" means a completed KyEM Form 170, "Division of Emergency Management Project Application".
Section 2. Project Application Requirement. To apply for financial assistance from the Emergency Management Assistance Fund for a project, a local director shall submit a completed project application.
Section 3. Incorporation by Reference. (1) "Division of Emergency Management Project Application, September 2000" is incorporated by reference.
(2) This material may be inspected, copied, or obtained, subject to applicable copyright law, at the office of the Director, Division of Emergency Management, State Emergency Operations Center, 100 Minuteman Parkway, Boone National Guard Center, Frankfort, Kentucky 40601, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (27 Ky.R. 1975; Am. 2835; 3074; eff. 5-14-2001.)


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Biography: Hi! My name is Maestro, and I just turned 4 years old! This picture was taken last year at a camping trip with my mom and dad. I just finished burying a piece of sausage they gave me :) I love playing ball and chasing my dad!
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If your dog is taking prescription drugs, try to think back and remember if the weight gain started around the same time as the drug. If so, first try and cut back on food slightly, followed by stepping up the exercise. If this doesn't work, you will need to take your dog back to the veterinarian to see if you can possibly switch the medication or at least lower the dosage in order to prevent further weight gain.
As disgusting as it is to us, dogs tend to love warm, moist feces for dessert. Be it their own, other dogs' or even a cat or rabbit's, some dogs will eat just about anything. Keep litter boxes away from dogs, block off any holes in your backyard fence to prevent rabbits or other animals from coming in, and call your dog back inside immediately after they relieve themselves. Getting your dog out of the habit of eating anything other than their own food will help ensure a longer life, one that points away from obesity.
Dogs' metabolisms are just like ours; they slow down as they age. Spaying or neutering a middle-aged dog can enhance this affect as it also causes the metabolism to slow. Though spaying or neutering is unavoidable, changing the dogs' diet is completely in your control. When the dog reaches middle-age (between 5 and 7 years), it's time to start cutting back the food.
First and foremost, change the diet. Start measuring out your dog's food instead of just guessing. Cut out all table food and unhealthy treats and substitute carrots, ice cubes, broccoli or green beans. Give your dog 15 minutes of your time each day for exercise. Go for a walk around the block, take a trip to the dog park, or even just toss a ball back and forth in your yard. Fifteen minutes of exercise each day may be all it takes to get your dog back to a healthy weight. Finally, track the dog's weight to ensure he's losing, and if he's still not, it's time to see the veterinarian.
How to teach your dog to walk in booties
How to train your dog
Do dogs feel guilty?
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I've become fixated on the idea of partnering with local musicians, performers, and DJs as subject experts/advisors on the library's music collection. Think about it. You can have members of a native band, a local rapper, or a DJ explore your music stacks, select their favorite albums from the library's collection, explain the rationale behind the selections and why this music is important to them, and then publicize the partnership. (The musicians will no doubt do the same, providing you with some pro bono outreach in the process.)
Having local, working musicians recommend albums that library users could and should check out keeps the collection as a vibrant and living thing. It even makes it a tool to help aspiring musicians do their apprenticeship.
At the same time, how great would this be for fans who want to find what makes the artists whose music they enjoy tick. It's like an investigation into their musical DNA that they can do for free at the library. Your favorite band likes this album. Why don't you give it a try? You can find it here!
More perspectives
I'm not at all downplaying or denigrating the abilities of library professionals to recommend knowledgeably edgy and/or interesting music to patrons' far from it. (I help staff our library's virtual Music Advisory desk.) Recommending music is such a fascinatingly subjective exercise that this doesn't at all impinge on a librarian's turf; it just adds more voices and perspectives for patrons to consider.
This is one of those library partnerships that equally benefits both sides. The musician gets that quasiacademic credibility that working with a library can bestow (to say nothing of the points scored with skeptical family!), while the library will, one hopes, see extra circulations on the strength of the recommendations plus deeper ties with the local creative community and a pool of local knowledge upon which to draw as needed.
It's also a self-replicating program. Once word spreads that musicians have participated, all sorts of other musically inclined types are going to want to take part, too. They'll find you, trust me. Musicians can be a competitive (though friendly) bunch.
Theory into practice
My colleague Andrew Coulon and I have tried to turn this theory into practice by inviting a few Florida musicians and DJs on the radio show we host to spin some of their favorites from the library's collection' or those by artists that have profoundly affected their work' and then have a conversation about the songs' significance to them.
Our first and, so far, most successful foray was the interview with hip-hop artist Paten Locke about some of his favorite music. He brought a wonderfully eclectic selection' James Brown's The Payback, Koko Taylor's Wang Dang Doodle, Run-DMC's Beats to the Rhyme, Horace Silver's Song for My Father, and Miles Davis's All Blues. Locke held forth on each cut with a mix of personal anecdote, encyclopedic musical knowledge, and surrealist humor. He even brought in a new, unreleased song of his own to play on the show!
A few weeks ago, Clark Lunberry, an English professor at the University of North Florida, Jacksonville, was our guest and walked us through the career and music of classical composer John Cage (1912' 92) in conjunction with local events to commemorate what would have been Cage's 100th birthday. Lunberry brought some very judiciously chosen selections to deflate the general notion of Cage as some trickster who sat in front of a piano and didn't play a note, instead revealing some of Cage's most lyrical and evocative pieces.
Street cred
But this idea goes beyond mere broadcasting' a pretty niche application, admittedly. Feature musicians' selections in a display, making it an ongoing thing like a record store's employee picks rack. Record a podcast with the performers asking them to talk about their picks, and put up a page on the library's website with direct links to the library's catalog.
It will give your collection a whole new level of street credibility within segments of the community that might not necessarily make regular use of your collections and services. There's also a huge element of surprise. People always want to know more about their favorite bands, and this gets to the very heart of their music' and you can be a direct gateway to the sounds that shaped them!


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University at Albany sophomore Christopher Onuorah abides by one personal rule: Be content but never complacent.Read More
School of Public Health Hosts International Conference on Infectious Disease in Latin America
April 27, 2009
Delivery of medication is one of the keys to helping curb complications from infectious disease in Latin America. (Thomas Plaut, Mission MANNA Inc.)
It costs 40 cents to provide the penicillin that can successfully treat a mother with syphilis during pregnancy and avoid the complications of congenital syphilis in her baby. Why then, has there been an increase in the number of children suffering from this disease in Latin America?
"It's an issue that is not really talked about. As with a lot of infectious diseases in Latin America, the problem is a lack of medication," said Suniah Ayub, a UAlbany graduate student in public health from Ashburn, Va. "There needs to be more consistent delivery of services to get rid of the problem."
Ayub is helping Carol Whittaker promote a May 1 international conference at UAlbany's School of Public Health on how to fight a reported increase in congenital syphilis in Latin America.
"We welcome this opportunity to provide a forum for discussion and generation of ideas for addressing the needs of those infected with the disease both in Latin American countries as well as immigrant populations in our own country," said School of Public Health Dean Philip C. Nasca. "This is a preventable disease and we are certain to learn a great deal about best practices which can guide us forward toward the reduction or elimination of congenital syphilis, a long-held goal."
Whittaker directs the Center for Global Health, which is providing new opportunities for UAlbany SPH students like Ayub to work on international health care issues.
Dr. Juan Carlos Salazar, associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, said congenital syphilis is "absolutely preventable and treatable. With a proper health care infrastructure, it shouldn't happen." Its presence is a marker of the state of a nation's health services.
And while infectious diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS tend to draw public attention and funding, there is less awareness of congenital syphilis.
Center for Global Health Director Carol Whittaker plans the May 1 conference with graduate student Suniah Ayub. (Photo Mark Schmidt)
The consequences of not addressing the problem are deadly.
"If syphilis is unrecognized and untreated, a third of the pregnancies will result in fetal death, a third will end in an apparently healthy baby born with clinical evidence of congenital syphilis, and a third will have a healthy baby who is at high risk of developing complications from the disease later in life," said Dr. Alvaro Carrascal, assistant professor of epidemiology at UAlbany's School of Public Health.
Each year in Latin America, 330,000 pregnant women who have syphilis go untreated. As a result, more than 100,000 children die due to congenital syphilis and 100,000 more are born with the infection, Carrascal said.
The chances of a mother passing the disease to her child are high. If a pregnant woman has HIV and is untreated, there is a 20 percent chance her baby will have it. With venereal syphilis, however, there is a 95 percent chance the mother will pass the disease to the developing fetus.
Costa Rica has been a model in fighting infectious diseases. Other countries have had successful strategies as well. In rural Haiti, for example, health care workers are going out into the community rather than waiting for patients to walk miles to come to them. "Now they can diagnose the disease and treat it on site," said Salazar.
By simply providing early detection for pregnant women in Cali, Colombia, the incidence of congenital syphilis has been cut in half, according to Salazar. Dr. Alejandro Varela, director of the City of Cali Department of Health, will address this subject at the UAlbany conference.
Many UAlbany students will be attending. "Just the fact that we are bringing all these extraordinary experts to Albany to discuss this important topic provides an outstanding experience for our students," Whittaker said.
For more news, subscribe to UAlbany's RSS headline feeds


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Tiny Snowflake Necklace
Snowflakes are a sweet and festive part of Winter. They spark cherished memories. Our Tiny (as in seriously tiny) Snowflake Necklace is handmade and encompassed on a delicate yet sturdy chain. It will soon become a wardrobe fave.
- available in sterling, or 14K yellow gold
- snowflake approx 8mm
- snowflake and chain can be different metals
- 1mm cable chain
- allow 2 weeks for delivery


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Catatonic schizophrenia is serious neurological or psychological condition in which two kinds of behaviors are typically displayed: stupor and motor rigidity or excitement. When people experience rigidity or stupor, they are unable to speak, respond or even move. In other cases, people will exhibit severe excitement or mania. Those experiencing catatonic excitement will exhibit manic behaviors such as babbling or speaking incoherently. Those suffering from catatonic stupor remain in this motionless state for extended periods of time.

Common Characteristics

The catatonic schizophrenic evidences strange positions and movements, or long periods of motionlessness. She may stay in uncomfortable-looking positions for long periods. She also resist attempts to reposition them in more comfortable or natural positions.

In addition to a lack of mobility, the catatonic schizophrenic may display excessive movement. In cases where people experience excitability as a symptom, they may move in an erratic and extreme manner. Pacing in a repeated pattern and making loud exclamations may also occur. These actions serve no purpose and are not in response to any environmental stimulus or event.

People with this disorder may also have other signs of schizophrenia including hallucinations, delusions, cognitive problems, social withdrawal, bursts of anger, poor personal hygiene, social issues, and an inability to express emotions.

Diagnosis

Catatonic schizophrenia is typically diagnosed through a series of medical exams and psychological evaluations. Patients receive a medical exam to assess overall physical health. A blood test is usually given to check for the presence of drugs and alcohol. MRIs and EEG may then be used to check brain function and to look for any lesion or unusual brain wave patterns.

During the psychological evaluation, a patient will be asked questions about their thoughts and behaviors. A psychiatrist will attempt to discover how long the patient has been experiencing the symptoms in question. In some cases where the patient is in a catatonic stupor, he or she may be unable to provide such information. In such instances, the doctor will assess such symptoms and may interview family members about the patient's past behavior.

Misdiagnosis

Because this type of schizophrenia is characterized by motor syptoms, it is sometimes mistaken for a psychotic mood disorder.

Likewise, the catatonic schizophrenic may sometimes display facial contortions, strange limb movements, or unusual body positions, and are therefor me they are sometimes misdiagnosed with a disorder known as tardive dyskinesia.

Catatonic schizophrenia is also often marked by echolalia (repeating what others say and echopraxia (copying another person's movements), which might sometimes lead to a misdiagnosis of Tourette's syndrome.

Treatment

Catatonic schizophrenia is a lifelong, chronic condition. Even when the patient does not exhibit symptoms of the disorder, they are still schizophrenic and require ongoing treatment to prevent the return of symptoms.

Medication

Medication is the most common form of treatment for schizophrenia.

Benzodiazepines are perhaps the most common approach to treatment. These drugs act as depressants on the central nervous system, which is why they are often used to treat anxiety. Because these drugs are fast-acting, they can often relieve catatonic symptoms quite quickly. However, they can be habit-forming, especially if when used as a long-term treatment.

Other drugs such as barbiturates, antidepressants, and antipsychotics are occasionally used to treat catatonic schizophrenia, but they are not as effective as benzodiazepines.

ECT

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), or shock treatment, has sometimes been used to treat catatonic schizophrenia. This technique involves sending an electrical current through the brain. Since ECT is so controversial and can produce severe side effects such as memory loss, it is generally only used in severe cases where patients have not responded to medications, are severely depressed, and are at risk of suicide.

Psychotherapy

While medication is usually the first-line approach to treatment, it is often combined with psychotherapy. Psychotherapists help patients better understand their feelings, behaviors, and responses. People in therapy learn a variety of coping skills and acquire new ways of dealing with stressful events in their lives.

With appropriate treatment, individual suffering from catatonic schizophrenia can find relief from their symptoms. Treatment can also help patients avoid many of the dangerous complications associated with this disorder including substance abuse, family issues, and suicide.

More Psychology Definitions: The Psychology Dictionary


text: In Message <email@example.com> , Gary Duzan <firstname.lastname@example.com> wrote: => With a kernel from this morning, every time I try to start up =>xclock it gets stuck in genput (as seen from "ps axl"), and afterwards =>any other access to the NFS mount which holds my home directory =>gets stuck in vnlock. If I don't start xclock, things seem ok. I tried =>attaching to xclock with gdb but didn't get a valid stack. Recompiling =>xclock didn't help either. Quick update: xv hangs, too. Gary Duzan


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Tag Archives: Card
Tea-riffic DIY Valentine's Day Card
Like a lot of crafts and DIY cards, this Tea-riffic Valentine's card is not restricted to your Valentine. The card would probably make a pretty good birthday card or you could pop two tea bags on the front for a quirky anniversary card and write a witty slogan underneath (if the recipient is a fan of tea of course). This card doesn't require a lot of craft supplies or skills so it's suitable for children and adults alike and great if you've forgotten to buy a card for someone special.
To make the Valentine's card you will need the following items:
1 Teabag
1 Blank card & Envelope
1 set of eyes
1 Black felt tipped pen
1 piece of paper smaller than your card
Glue or Glue Dots
Start by preparing the card topper, A plain sheet of A4 white paper was used for this card and a ruler was used to cut it so the edges were not perfect, you could also use watercolour paper which rips really well or sugar paper.
The tea bag was glued to the paper using glue dots and the string and little heart label was stuck down using a small bit of PVA glue. If the label is coloured you might want to use some washi tape or cut a small piece of plain paper.
Eyes were attached with some PVA glue and a sharpie was used to both draw a mouth directly on the tea bag, and to write the Valentine's Day message "You're Tea-riffic". If you have time and the skills a calligraphy message would look fantastic on this card. The teabag topper was stuck on to the card with glue dots and it was ready to be delivered to my Valentine.
If this card isn't your cup of tea (excuse the pun) you might like this Valentine's card from last year which was inspired by a danish weaving basket, it was a little tricky to make but the end result was worth it.
Don't forget to pin this DIY Valentine's card for later.
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POSTED IN: Card, Craft, Valentine
POSTED IN: Card, Craft, Valentine