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Chapter Five: A Hog-killin' Time
"I just know that there are two theories when arguing with women.
And neither one works. "
Kahlan isn't a hypocrite. She knows full well that the Armadillo Saloon is not a beacon of respectability. Just like Plainview's establishment, it has its share of prostitutes and gamblers. And unlike much of her fellow townsfolk, Kahlan harbors no ill will towards the den of iniquity. Every soul has its own version of sin. It's part of being human.
But Plainview is a different animal. There is an extreme type of lawlessness here, and it sets Kahlan on edge as she climbs the stairs of a building that is by far the most impressive on the street. It's solid and sturdy, a full two stories, and the music and voices that float out of it are loud and chaotic. There is no rhyme or rhythm here and Kahlan feels suddenly like a little girl playing dress up in a crowd of mercenaries.
With her adopted tribe, Kahlan was raised to be confident and secure in her own femininity, but the American West has no such respect for her gender. And although Armadillo has its share of bigots and misogynists, at the very least Kahlan held the Marshall's respect, and the fear that came with her notoriety as the 'Mother Confessor' kept many men from taking liberties.
In Plainview, not even Zedd has the power to give her much more than a fortifying smile. So she focuses instead on the straight, confident posture of the woman who leads her, following Cara through the swinging, creaking wooden door and into the establishment.
At first she can only notice the smell. It's foul. The stink of alcohol and body odor settles over the room like a fog, and the smoke of cigars and pipes stings her eyes and clogs her nostrils. She hears Zedd cough behind her, grumble furiously about his health.
The look on Cara's face as she looks back at her is amused. It's eerily reminiscent of a housecat toying with a mouse. The Mord'Sith is in her element here, a whore in a whorehouse. This is Cara's world, and now that they are inside of it, it's suddenly quite clear how much trust and faith Kahlan has given to her.
A rush of anxiety overwhelms her, as she remembers Zedd's warnings.
"Are you alright?" she hears. Cara is now standing close enough to have her palm pressed against Kahlan's forearm, touching gently. It's odd and disconcerting that Kahlan only presses in closer, just enough to recognize the scent of the other woman and allow it to steady her; a desperate attempt to clear her head.
"I'm fine," she manages. Crystal eyes lock with hers, testing her strength, and that smirk fades, along with Cara's touch.
"Stay close, Kahlan." Cara's words miss her now familiar sarcastic bite. "In here you are no Confessor."
She understands. Of course she understands. Now she becomes aware of the stares, the suspicious glances that could be quite easily mistaken for murderous. She is nothing but a stranger here, a woman and with no man to speak for her but an old coot who is sniveling and hacking up a lung.
In Plainview there is no Marshall with a gun and a cell and no badge to give her any sort of authority. In this room full of strangers she and Zedd have no friend but Cara.
It's terrifying that somehow she thinks that's enough.
"Cara Mason." It's a foreign voice that intrudes. Cara steps away from her to reveal a beautiful harlot coming towards them, a look of recognition on her face as she eyeballs the Mord'Sith. The woman is older, but not by much more than a few years. There are lines on her face that tell of a hard life, but it is the only give away. She wears her blonde hair in golden ringlets that fall tantalizingly over her bare shoulders, and her dress is a fashionable one, with an expensive bustle and tiny bits of fabric that speak to its expense. "What a pleasant surprise."
She walks with her head held high and a smirk on her face. It's eerily reminiscent of Cara's own smile – one that does not match her eyes and offers menacing suspicion rather than friendly comfort.
"Sister Denna," Cara says, tone calm but solid, carrying easily over the piano player's jaunty tunes and the patronage around them, clinking drinks, gambling, and bartering for whores. "Life has been treating you well."
Denna shakes her head and tuts at her, eyes lowering demurely. "Not sure that's entirely appropriate now, Cara," she responds, enunciating her name sharply. "After all, you may still be in Mord'Sith leather, but it's been quite clear for some time now that Darken Rahl is nothing more to me but another paying customer." She speaks with a lilt, as if this is part of an amusing dance, and Cara is her willing partner. "Though with the company you keep, people may talk about you," she continues as her focus shifts past Cara herself, to Kahlan and Zedd. "I see no sisters with you, Cara."
This Denna is shrewd, and though Cara made no mention of it, it's perfectly clear that this stranger is a former Mord'Sith herself. A sudden horror grips Kahlan as she locks eyes with the woman and realizes that, just as with Cara, there is no ability to read her.
She feels naked and vulnerable, and perhaps it shows on her face, because the smile that widens on Denna's face brings Cara that much closer to her, until she's nearly pressed against her, a solid wall of support in form of a shorter woman.
"Then you have eyes," Cara drawls with an acidic snap. "We need to talk, Denna."
Kahlan waits and watches as the silent conversation takes place with tense glances that pass between both women.
"Fine," Denna says after a moment, louder than before. Her head tilts back. "I have a room upstairs. Not HIM," she continues, barking back as Zedd makes a move to come up behind them. "No men upstairs unless they have paid for it."
"I'm a respectable man!" growls Zedd, offended. It's disconcerting – how immediately two burly men with side arms come forward to lay rough hands on Zedd's shoulders, keeping him in place. "Kahlan!" he yelps.
"Zedd!" she snaps, but Cara who holds her back with a strong grip on her elbow and a warning glare.
"Enough with the theatrics, Denna," she spits. "He's an old man and harmless."
"And there are rules that must be respected," Denna replies, just as coldly. "Just because you coddle old men doesn't mean I have any such inclination. If he's truly a friend then he can sit at the bar and enjoy a drink, courtesy of the house, of course."
"Fine," Cara answers. Kahlan's mouth opens, ready to protest. "I'm telling him to wait and have a drink and maybe a whore," Cara snits at her, a furious whisper that's not exactly quiet. "It's hardly torture."
"I won't leave Kahlan!" he shouts stubbornly.
Cara's glare pins him with intense dislike. "Kahlan will be fine. She will be with me."
"That's small comfort," he retorts.
Perhaps Cara in her frustration of Zedd doesn't notice the way Denna's mouth quirks, her careful observation of the group and the dynamics, but Kahlan does.
It's the literal equivalent of a gambler showing his hand, and will help no one.
"Zedd, that's comfort enough for me," she states, loud and clear, with as much authority as she can muster.
As useless as her talents as a 'Confessor' seem to be against Cara and her kind, they seem to work perfectly on Zedd. The old man swallows, but understands.
With a reassuring smile, she steps away from the Zedd, and closer to Cara. "I'll be back."
He has no choice but to stand still. In this saloon, being a man has no bearing when the patron is the madame and a former Mord'Sith. "I'll be here," he mumbles, and eyes the bar. "Getting drunk."
As Kahlan follows Cara and Denna closely up the creaking stairs, past women dressed in fancy dresses and others in hardly anything at all, she discovers that she envies him.
Denna's 'room' is an extravagant thing, filled with linens and expensive imported furniture. She obviously takes pride in it, watching with a proud smirk as she and Cara take in the state of it – the luxurious bed and the wooden vanity.
It reminds Kahlan of a room that would be seen in a gentrified town like Blackwater, not in the wild backpost that is Plainview. Clearly the work of a madame suits her.
"A drink?" Denna asks, and doesn't wait for an answer. She begins pouring amber liquid into glasses that sit on top of a nearby desk.
"We have no time for that, Denna," Cara snaps, and Denna falters in her actions, smirk fading at Cara's shortness.
"There's no need to be rude, Cara. I'm merely trying to be social to you and your new friend." Once again, Denna's eyes look her over. She's being studied, in such a way that Kahlan feels almost naked.
Maybe Cara senses it. Once again, she moves in front of her, blocking her from Denna's curious eyes.
"You and I have never been social."
"I beg to differ," Denna purrs back. She comes forward, creaking steps on the wood, forgetting Kahlan completely as she presses the drink into Cara's hand and deliberately does not move back. "I remember a time when you and I were … quite close."
The room remains silent, but Kahlan is no fool. She feels a flush overtake her at the insinuation, in how Denna's fingers trace against Cara's over the glass. They speak of possession and sensual intent. An attempt to stake a claim that should repulse her and it does, but not in the way she wants it to.
Her sudden intense dislike of Denna has nothing to do with the American morality thrust upon her and everything to do with the images that now assault her imagination.
"I think it's quite obvious that you and Cara haven't been close for a very long time," she finds herself snapping. Both women turn to pin her in their dark stares, and yet she does not retract. "Perhaps instead of trying to relive ancient events you listen to what Cara has to say."
For a moment, neither woman speaks. Kahlan's hands head to her hips. Her chin juts up challengingly.
"Your kitten has claws, Cara," Denna says, with a sudden chuckle, like Kahlan is a furry animal she has decided she would like to pet instead of kick. "Quite impressive to win the Mother Confessor over so quickly."
She betrays her shock with an inward gasp and immediately regrets doing so. Kahlan shouldn't be surprised. Cara knew who she was, and she told her explicitly that the Mord'Sith had made it a point to know of her existence.
Still, the knowing smirk on Denna's face, the familiar way she smiles at her, is chilling.
Cara's eyes meet her own. She regards her intensely, but instead of responding, she moves away from Kahlan, towards the bar itself. Without preamble, she pours another glass of whiskey. As she turns, she brings her own drink to her lips and takes a hard swallow, grimacing at the taste. She holds the glass she just poured out to Denna.
"You and I both know this isn't a social call, Denna," she states, voice rough from the burning alcohol. "I came to you for information."
Denna eyes her old friend, and there is a breathless moment, before Denna glances quickly at Kahlan and turns away from her, dismissing her in favor of Cara and her offered drink. "And what makes you think I'm willing to give it to you so easily?" she asks, enjoying this shift of balance far too much. "I'm no longer Mord'Sith, Cara. I harbor no loyalty to you or your leathers."
"Funny thing," Cara responds dryly. "Neither do I."
Denna absorbs that. "Since when?"
"Since I was betrayed, beaten, left for dead and nearly lynched."
The shock on Denna's face is almost refreshing to see, but she recovers quickly, with a sip of her whiskey and a low, sadistic chuckle. "My," she muses after a moment. "You have been busy." She eyes the whiskey. "I was wondering about the bruises. I won't lie and say I don't find a bit of poetic justice in it. You know, Kahlan, when I left the Mord'Sith, Cara told me I was a fool for turning my back on him."
Cara doesn't look at Kahlan, but Kahlan discovers that it's not hard to believe. The Cara Mason she met in the cell was a cold, calculating woman.
Why is it that it suddenly seems so long ago?
"Would you like an education on what Cara did to me exactly when I left Darken Rahl, Confessor?"
The glass in Cara's hand slams down on the dark desk, sloshing over liquid and putting an end to further conversation from Denna. "What's done is done. And don't tell me you wouldn't have done the same thing."
"And clearly someone did," Denna remarks, nodding to the bruises that mar Cara's tan cheek.
"I'm grateful," Cara says after a moment, tongue darting out to brush against the scab on her lower lip. "I'm done with taking orders. Darken Rahl is the fool for letting me live. He should have killed me." Denna's mouth quirks, but the smile falters quickly when Cara continues. "I know what you pay him in exchange for your freedom. You may not wear the chaps but you are as indebted to him as you ever were."
Denna takes a moment to take another drink, crossing her legs and eyeing the other woman with mistrust. "And you'll save me from my servitude?" she asks, voice dripping the now familiar sarcasm. "How noble and chivalrous." Her eyes once again meet Kahlan's. "She's charming when she's like this. Don't you agree?"
"I'm offering to rid you of an inconvenience." The harsh tone in Cara's voice indicates she's losing her patience. "But to do that I need to find him."
"You'd betray your Darken Rahl?" Denna asks. Her expression smacks of disbelief and sadistic amusement.
"He betrayed me first."
Denna plays with her drink, before lifting hooded, calculating eyes. "And what does Dahlia think of all this?"
The emphasis she places on the name is significant. It's meant to mean something to Kahlan, and smacks of yet another reminder that she knows next to nothing of Cara Mason.
The woman, the stranger who still seems so familiar, stiffens her shoulders and does not look at her. "Dahlia's thoughts and actions are no longer my concern."
"Yes, I've noticed you've recently enjoyed a change of scenery." Denna means of course, Kahlan. The way she observes Kahlan now reminds her of the way she's seen prospectors view a potential horse. "A brunette. Your taste has changed, Cara."
She speaks to Cara with hidden innuendos and thinly veiled secrets, as if this is a game and Cara and Kahlan are both play things. It arouses the same anger as before, protective and fierce. "Perhaps you don't know Cara as well as you thought you did."
Denna tosses a smirk Kahlan's way. "Then isn't she lucky she's run into someone who knows her so well?"
"Denna, enough." Cara it appears has lost her patience as well. "We don't have time for this."
"You're wrong, Cara." The smile fades from Denna's face, and her expression is now serious as she regards her former Mord'Sith sister. "I have all the time in the world."
"Tell me where he is."
"Tell me why you're after him," Denna replies flatly. "And do not say revenge. That isn't good enough. Not for us."
"It's no secret that Rahl has been teetering on the edge of madness for quite some time."
Denna considers that. She swallows the last of her drink, and studies the rim. "And if he's tipped, what do I care?"
"You know as well as I do that Rahl trusted no one like he did me." That information is new to Kahlan. She watches Cara intensely, but again, she is ignored. There is a connection here, a past and a sisterhood of which she has no part. "If he turned on me he can turn on you, Denna."
"If Rahl truly has turned his back on you then by helping you I would have sign my own death sentence."
"Not if I can get to him first."
Denna laughs – too loud and boisterous to be anything but mocking. "With what? An old man and a half breed witch?"
"That's not your concern," Cara says, as close to shouting as Kahlan has seen. It's an odd reaction, nearly visceral and emotional, and it shouldn't be coming from Cara. Denna has struck a nerve.
Denna sees it too. "It should be," she snaps, but her demeanor calms. "But I'm not unreasonable. If you need information, I'm sure we can come to an arrangement." Denna's words are drawn out, soft and silken like a deadly serpent's hiss.
The meaning hands in the air, as the world around her comes to life. Kahlan hears the grunts of a man in the room next door, the over-exuberant cries of pleasure from the whore that services him.
She sees the bed, with the rumpled sheets, and the look in Denna's eyes as she lets them linger over Cara's body, from the dark boots to the breasts that press against her buttoned vest. Kahlan recognizes it as lust.
It's startling, to see it so shamelessly displayed on the face of a woman, but the intention is clear.
They are bargaining for a devil's deal and Cara's services.
"Cara," Kahlan begins, suddenly horrified.
"Kahlan," Cara responds quietly. "Go check on the old man. Knowing the swill Denna serves, he may be passed out in a gutter by now."
Denna's smile widens. "Yes, Kahlan," she says melodiously, tipping her finger to the door. "Run along and let the adults talk."
The distaste for the other woman tastes like bile on her tongue. "Cara," she pleads. "I won't let you sell yourself like a -"
"Like what, darling?" Denna interrupts sweetly. "A whore?" Kahlan snaps her mouth shut, eyes glaring murderously at the woman. "That's what she is. That's what we all are," Denna adds. "And there are worse things to be."
Kahlan turns, but it's Cara who stops any movement toward the other woman. She grips her with a solid, firm hold, fingers wrapped around her wrist, keeping her attention focused on her. "You said you trusted me."
"Trust me now. Richard is the one who needs saving. Not me."
The tears that threaten to spill over sting with the reminder, and yet Kahlan will not give Denna the satisfaction. She turns away from Cara, because this feels like a betrayal and yet nothing could be further from the truth.
What exists in her mind is not their reality, and Kahlan is never more aware of it as when she heads for the door and steps through into the hallway, and closes the door behind her.
Outside of the door, the world continues to move on in Plainview. Kahlan rests on the banner, unwilling to move away just yet. Her fingers grip the wooden support, and for a moment she is overwhelmed.
Cara has invaded her. She has breathed her in and it has intoxicated her.
The old mother spoke once of people with spirits so strong their energy could become blinding, rising above the physical to infect the mind. These are the people that others die for. These are the people whose faces start wars. Who can convince a man to kill.
These are the people who are loved more than they can love.
She warned of such people, told Kahlan that more often than not they were wild spirits, destined to roam and to never be tamed.
To win the loyalty of such a person is considered a feat to be admired.
To be loyal to such a person is shameful and stupid.
And yet it has been only but a day, and Kahlan feels her heart pound and her chest tremble, because she has been infected with dreams and visions that skew her vision of the woman that she needs.
She needs Cara in order to save Richard.
There is no other reason. Cara Mason is a whore. She is a killer. And the reason she protects Kahlan is because she is repaying a debt. Nothing more.
For all of Kahlan's visions, for every phantom memory that festers in Kahlan's brain of this woman's lips on her body, branding her with overwhelming emotional and physical need, the reality is that those memories are a dangerous falsehood.
She thinks on Richard. She tries to picture his smile. The way his eyes shine with his goodness. How every emotion flows through him. She can read him perfectly. He is not a complicated man and he has no wish to be. Kahlan knows that the kindness in him flows out of him until it inspires those around him.
His destiny is to become a leader.
It is not to die at the hands of a mad man.
It is for him that she is doing this, and it is for that reason that Cara's deal with the devil named Denna should be honored. Denna has information and Cara will acquire it.
Kahlan exhales. She discovers her knuckles are white. Carefully, she loosens her grip, and looks over the gambling floor below her. She takes notice of the men that crowd around the gambling takes, the stink of piss and whiskey that floats up from the floor, and the jaunty tune of the piano player, who seems lost in his own world. Flitting about between them are Denna's woman, who laugh too loud and slap playfully, who lift their skirts and display their sensually with such ease that for a moment Kahlan feels almost envious.
Western civilization does not agree with Kahlan to the extent it does Zedd and Richard. Growing up with the Old Mother, Kahlan was taught to never be ashamed, but modern propriety seems filled with that emotion.
It doesn't take long to find Zedd.
Kahlan makes her way down the stairs. She ignores the men who whistle at her and when one reaches for her, she quickly takes hold of his thumb and twists it, leaving him howling and the men who are with him hooting in appreciation.
Kahlan is in no mood. She settles herself next to Zedd, and when he looks at her, takes his drink and tilts the liquid into her throat.
The look of surprise and relief that floats over his face is instantaneous, but it fades completely when he realizes that she is alone.
"And where's the Mord'Sith? She told me she wouldn't leave you."
She grimaces; shoots him a look. "Her name is Cara, Zedd. She's getting the information that we need," she tells him tersely. She's used to the noise now… she's getting used to the smell. Kahlan's eyes float back up the room with the closed door.
Maybe she's still not used to anything.
"Good," Zedd grumbles. "The sooner we leave this place the better."
Already irritated, Kahlan finds her annoyance growing. "It's a whorehouse, Zedd," she snaps. "Nothing more, nothing less. There is no shame in what these woman do."
It's harder, meaner than Kahlan's usual character, and Zedd is confused. He stares at her. "Kahlan, I simply meant that it means we can get to the border and closer to saving Richard. I know very well what a whorehouse is." He sighs. "I'm ashamed to say that in my earlier days I knew them quite well."
It's not a surprise. Kahlan's heard rumors before of Zedd's bachelor life. A saint he was not. "Tell me, Zedd. When you saw those women, laid with them-"
"Kahlan," he sputters, clearly shocked by her course language.
"Did you ever consider them as women? Or were they simply whores?"
Zedd frowns. "Where is this coming from, Kahlan?"
Kahlan considers the woman in this place, considers Denna. "You don't know the circumstances behind any woman in this room. The choices that were made or the choices that they didn't have. Who is to say that had you or Richard not taken me in, I wouldn't have ended up in the exact same position?"
The idea seems to absolutely horrify Zedd. "Kahlan, that would have never been an option for you. And when we get Richard back, you can be married and- "
The anger is nearly blinding. Kahlan's hand slams down on the bar, making the old man jump with the force of it. "I don't care to marry Richard, Zedd!" she spits out, pulse pounding with her absolute annoyance. "There is no part of me that wishes to makes him my Lord or master."
In the wake of her outburst, she seems to have stolen the very breath out of Zedd. He stares at her as if he sees a stranger, and Kahlan finds her emotion bleeding out of her.
She sighs heavily, rubbing her palm against her neck and closing her eyes.
"I'm sorry," she hears in a hurt, spiteful tone. "If that's what you think marriage is, then you are truly mistaken."
"And you are mistaken if you believe that my love of Richard comes from any desire to be his woman. I am his friend and his equal and as his equal I will die for his sake, as he would for mine. But not because he is a man and not because I am a woman. It is because Richard is my family. I'd like to think that if I the positions were reversed, Richard would think the very same of me."
Zedd has nothing to say to that.
The man behind the bar spots the empty glass and pours it full again.
They sit together, the old man and the Confessor, and share another drink.
It's begins with a murmur. A whisper of a conversation that at first blends in with the noise around them. Kahlan pays no attention to it at first. Zedd is mumbling in her ear about the obvious cheating of the man at the poker table, preferring to change the subject in the wake of Kahlan's rant than continue to discuss the awkward topic. The crusty man behind them with the dirty beard could be talking about anything, until she hears that fateful word 'Mord'Sith'.
"It's just one Mord'Sith whore!" she hears, and her hand goes immediately to Zedd, shutting him up with a press against his forearm.
"You know as well as I do that if there's one of them whore there's ten right behind 'em. It's suicide."
"T'ain't what I heard. Cowboy that rode up from Fort Mercer says there's a bounty on that whore. A big one."
"You're shitting me."
"Shit you not, boy. I say we posse up and deliver that whore back up to that Armadillah sheriff."
Kahlan's chest constricts. She sucks in a harsh breath, feels the press of her gun against her ribs as she shares a wild look with Zedd.
"Bounty or not, if we touch a woman in Denna's place she'll have our heads."
"So we get her when she leaves. That whore ain't staying. You know Denna. She don't like competition." Kahlan swallows hard, feels the bob of emotion in her throat that is almost painful. "Get the boys together and snag her horse-"
She has heard enough. "Damn that girl for being stupid enough to wear those leathers in here," Zedd mumbles, and leans forward, voice quiet and urgent, whispering into her ear. "You need to warn Cara and warn her now."
"What will you do?" she asks, urgent and anxious as Zedd frowns, thoughts flying across his pupils as quick as lightning.
"The pepper bombs," he breathes. "It'll be enough to distract them. Go."
The men behind them start to move, and suddenly there is no more time. Kahlan launches out of her seat, leaving Zedd to swivel off the stool in the other direction.
This time she pushes, both whores and men, out of her way, making her way up the stairs and toward that damn closed door.
No one stops her. Kahlan briefly wonders if perhaps it's because no one would dare enter Denna's room without knocking.
She does not wonder at the consequences. She shoves hard against the door, pushing her weight against it to launch it open.
She does not make any conclusions as to what has taken place. She sees that Cara's vest is unbuttoned. She sees the familiar way Denna splays across her bed, the strap of her dress falling off of one shoulder, leaving nearly nothing to the imagination. But Cara is rising out of the chair across the room, a scotch in her hand, and the look on both women is surprise at the intrusion.
There is no expectation. There is no time for disappointment or jealous bitterness.
Denna pushes off the bed. There is a scowl on her face. "What gave you the nerve-"
Kahlan pays her no mind. "Cara, a group of men downstairs noticed your chaps. They heard about the reward the Marshal put on your head. They're forming a posse and they're planning to ambush us once we're outside."
Cara whirls, all her fevered attention suddenly on Denna, but the other woman just shakes her head in annoyed discontent. "They should know better than to plot against me in my own establishment." She straightens, as Cara moves toward Kahlan, reaching for her forearm to pull her further into the room, shutting the door behind her.
Already, she is pulling the Colt weapon out of her holster, checking the chamber for the bullets. "Where is the Wizard?"
"He plans to distract them with pepper bombs." Both women give her blank looks. Kahlan shakes her head in impatience. "You yourself call him the Wizard. What do you imagine he's done to earn such a name?"
"Do you have horses?" Cara asks, and surprisingly, Denna nods.
"Come with me," she says, pausing only to lift her skirts and produce a tiny gun that's pinned against her garter. "They're outside."
Kahlan puts her hand on Cara's waist, keeping her from following. "I told you they were possying up outside!"
"What kind of fool do you take me for?" Denna spits. "You can take the whore out of the Mord'Sith, but a Mord'Sith she'll forever remain. The front door isn't the only exit in this place."
She jerks her head toward her door.
Kahlan knows her eyes look anxious, but as she looks toward Cara, the other woman does not mirror her sentiment. Instead, a smirk curls on the full lips, enough to cause Kahlan to pause, unsure of the look.
"What is it?" she breathes.
Cara's brow arches. "Yet again, you've taken it upon yourself to save me from certain death. I'm not a cat, Kahlan. I have only one life to live and only so many debts I can repay."
In the face of this threat, Cara's response is … almost playful. Kahlan discovers that it throws her, knocks away the anxious fear that grips her heart and tugs a smile on her face that feels foreign and familiar all at once.
Trust this stranger to decide to be charming at a time such as this.
"Then I trust I'll never be rid of you," she finds herself tossing back, and does not wait for Cara's response. She finds Denna pushing into another room, and is abruptly startled by the grunting man who jerks off the squealing women as they pass.
"Time's up. Get out," Denna snaps and the man begins to sputter.
"What the hell do yo-"
He shuts up quite quickly when Cara steps forward and grabs hold of his collar, jerking him up with a burst of strength and speed that's almost astonishing. The pants that are currently around his ankle trip him off, and the result is him staggering, struggling against Cara's grip like a gutted fish.
The whore beneath him scrambles up immediately and flees without a backward glance.
"Unless you'd like me to stick the muzzle of this gun into a hole that usually secretes, I would listen to Miss Denna."
It's only then that Kahlan realizes that the Colt Cara holds is positioned in a rather … unfortunate way against the man's testicles.
There's a distinctive click, and the miner hollers as Cara lets go, stumbling to his feet and then crawling madly to the door.
Denna has no reaction at all. Her focus instead is on pushing aside a piece of carpet that hands on the wall, and reveals behind it a door.
"A secret passage?" Kahlan breathes. "I've only read of such things in Zedd's books."
The look Denna gives her reeks of disdain. "Well then isn't this exciting for you?" she sneers, and opens the door, revealing a rickety stair case. "Come on."
"Wait-" Kahlan breathes, suddenly struck by a horrifying thought. "What about Zedd?"
Cara stills. She glances toward the door that leads to the saloon and says just as quickly, "We said we would leave him at the border. We have no choice but to leave him now instead."
It's unthinkable. "We can't!"
"He was meant to be a distraction, then let him distract," Cara snaps, and suddenly she is being pulled, down the stairs and into an old cellar. Denna is already there, moving around bags of grain and kegs of liquor, toward the stairs that obviously lead to an exit.
"Through here," Denna snaps, and pushes at the doors. The sunlight bursts through, nearly blinding Kahlan with the brightness. "The horses are tied in the stable next door. You need to hurry."
But Kahlan doesn't move. "Why are you willing to help us now?"
"It's not YOU, I'm helping, Confessor," Denna sneers. "And Cara cannot deliver what she's promised if she's dead, can she?"
"Kahlan, let's GO!"
But she can't. She jerks her head back towards the Saloon, back to the man who would regard her as a daughter. "Cara, I won't leave him."
Cara whirls. Her colored eyes give no room for sympathy. "If you want to save Richard, then you have no choice."
Her words are final. Too final. Kahlan understands that they cannot waste time, and yet once again she remains caught, forced to choose between a friend and the woman in the Mord'Sith leather, who stares are her defiantly and juts out her palm, willing her to take it.
Before her lies Cara and the promise to save Richard.
Behind her is Zedd, his promised distraction.
"Denna will explain to him," Cara snaps, and Denna blinks in surprise.
"Will I?"
"Denna, not NOW. Kahlan," Cara says, and this time it sounds like a plea.
Instinct is what propels her, as Kahlan takes a step forward and looks into Cara's eyes, hears her worried breath.
The world sways, tips… and falls back into place.
It's then, and only then, she notes that she's placed her fingers into Cara's, entwined them.
Fingers clasp tightly around her own, and Kahlan is pulled away from Zedd and into the sunlight.


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If the ChorusOS system is bound to an NIS domain, you can use ypcat(1CC), ypmatch(1CC) and ypwhich(1CC) to obtain information from the NIS database.
The following example uses ypcat to find "demo" networks mentioned in the NIS database:
$ rsh target arun /bin/ypcat networks | grep demo started aid = 22 demo 129.157.171 demo2 129.157.176
Note that ypcat, ypmatch and ypwhich require access to the NIS database in order to look up information. See "Name Services and ypbind" for suggestions about binding to the NIS server for the domain.

subset: commoncrawl


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"There are multiple ways to say goodbye" Story by Alistair King
For the past couple month's students have been perplexed by one thing… What's Mrs. Amanda's big news? Some people got close with guessing that she would be travelling overseas, and the top guesses were Pregnancy/Ability to Conceive, and Husbands Paperwork came through. While these weren't correct Mrs. Amanda Stated that "It would be lovely to see his green card."
Today we finally found out the truth, and the news is that she got
accepted to Washington State University with a full scholarship to get her masters in Spanish. Mrs. Amanda stated that "As a teacher you can't get ahead in a bachelors degree, it's not enough money."
That's what makes this an amazing opportunity; she has been offered a full ride as well as a stipend to attend the school. Not only that but full health benefits. Mrs. Amanda states "This is my dream." She applied for this opportunity and out of a mass of teachers, "they were crazy enough to pay me to go back to school."
Teachers these days are not even remotely paid enough to get this opportunity by themselves. They often have to rely on spousal support,
Mrs. Amanda will be studying Spanish literature such as Don Quixote, other traditional Spanish literature, and some modern literature.
Another question is now in people's heads is why did she hide this from the students? As she puts it "I'm not afraid of going back to school, I'm afraid I'll hurt people by leaving. I don't want people to be hurt."
Mrs. Amanda will be kept close to us in these following years as she gets her Masters degree. She has taught us a lot and would like to leave us with this final message.
"I wanted to say that in foreign languages there are multiple ways to say goodbye. I'm not saying goodbye, but when we meet again. Even in death I don't believe in goodbye. I'll always be around."
Thank you, Mrs. Amanda, for your kind heart and everything you've given us; we will see you around.


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In today's TV Picks, bloody bikers roll back into town in a shocking season premiere, top dancers are revealed and a top tennis player gets the spotlight. Plus, find out how President Obama's speech on Syria will impact the TV schedule.
Up first, FX's "Sons of Anarchy" (9 p.m. on cable channel 43), which returns for a sixth season with a strong -- and, likely, controversial -- 90-minute episode.
This is the show's second-to-last season, per showrunner Kurt Sutter's plan, and he steers that direction in a big way tonight. We pick up shortly after last season's finale: Clay (Ron Perlman) is jailed, framed for a murder by estranged wife Gemma (Katey Sagal) and stepson/rival Jax (Charlie Hunnam). Jax's wife Tara (Maggie Siff) is also behind bars, accused of aiding in the jailhouse death of a nurse that was the sister of the gang's nemesis, former U.S. Marshal Lee Toric (Donal Logue).
For most of its running time, tonight's installment feels pretty standard, a scene-setting episode showing how Jax is still hoping to move the club away from its worst excesses and find income that's dirty but not that dirty. Toric's plot is fairly devious, and we learn more about his personal demons pretty quickly. But when a seemingly unrelated runner throughout tonight's episode explodes at the end in a majorly surprising twist, the season and, possibly, the series' endgame comes in focus a little better.
The network also launches a new postshow talk show tonight like AMC's for "The Walking Dead" and "Breaking Bad." "After Anarchy" debuts after the premiere at www.afteranarchy.com, with fan Margaret Cho taking part with stars Jimmy Smits and Kim Coates.
Also on:
- "So You Think You Can Dance" (7 p.m. on FOX, cable channel 13): The top male and female dancers of the season are revealed in a two-hour finale that will be interrupted by the president's speech. FOX plans to run the first hour, then break away for the speech. Approximately 15 minutes later, they'll air the rest of the finale on a tape delay, so pad out your recordings by up to 30 minutes to be safe. NOTE: The speech won't be broadcast on cable networks other than the news stations, so other new shows tonight won't be affected.
- "American Masters" (7 p.m. on PBS, cable channel 3): Tennis great Billie Jean King is profiled 40 years after her victory in the "Battle of the Sexes" match against Bobby Riggs.
- "The Million Second Quiz" (7 p.m. on NBC, cable channel 5): It's night two of the Peacock Network's big stunt. Are you watching?
- "Covert Affairs" (8 p.m. on USA, cable channel 25): Auggie (Christopher Gorham) has a realization about Calder's (Hill Harper) loyalties, and Annie (Piper Perabo) travels to Copenhagen to arrest Teo (Manolo Cardona).
- "Rizzoli & Isles" (8 p.m. on TNT, cable channel 42): In the midseason finale, the duo struggles with conflicting evidence in a homicide case, while Maura (Sasha Alexander) tries to decide whether to take in her recently paroled grandfather (Richard Herd), and Jane and Casey (Angie Harmon and Chris Vance) try to decide the future of their relationship.
- "Face Off" (8 p.m. on Syfy, cable channel 59): The remaining makeup artists craft Mother Nature-type goddesses inspired by their own moms.
- "America's Got Talent" (8:15 p.m. on NBC): That start time is approximate, but whenever the episode does begin following the president's speech, the Top 12 will perform.
- "Cold Justice" (9 p.m. on TNT): Tonight's installment of this cold-case reality show focuses on the unsolved death of a beloved community figure in a small Louisiana town. It's pretty heartwrenching.
- "Chopped" (9 p.m. on Food Network, cable channel 65): Four community heroes compete in a special episode.
- "Suits" (9 p.m. on USA): Louis (Rick Hoffman) persuades Jessica (Gina Torres) to let him handle the partnership dissolution talks, and Mike and Rachel (Patrick J. Adams and Meghan Markle) take a big step in their relationship.
So, what are you watching?


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Another Veterans Day has passed. Tragically, Washington creates more veterans every day. American politicians are constantly going to war for no good reason.
Special Forces to Uganda. What vital U.S. interest is threatened there? Bombing Libya. Why should Washington bail out the Europeans yet again? Nation-building in Afghanistan. Did any American imagine that more than a decade after 9/11 U.S. personnel would be dying trying to create a modern centralized nation state in Central Asia?
There's the unnecessary, counterproductive, and duplicitous invasion of Iraq. The hypocritical and wasteful attack on Serbia over Kosovo. Foolish deployments in Somalia and Haiti. Bizarre little wars against Grenada and Panama. Crazy intervention in Lebanon.
American presidents appear to go to war simply because they can do so. The U.S. is the planet's most powerful military power. No one forces the president to obey the constitutional requirement for a congressional declaration of war. So why not unleash death and destruction from time to time? Sadly, doing so seems to be the best way for presidents to get a high rating from historians.
About the only positive thing is that today's wars are less costly than in the past—to America, at least. Some 200,000 Iraqi civilians probably died in the civil carnage following the U.S. invasion, more than 44 times the number of American deaths.
However, the consequences would be far worse for this nation if Washington managed to get into a shooting war with Russia or China. That may not seem likely, but it is possible. During the Russia-Georgia war in 2008 the Bush administration apparently considered military intervention; Washington has ambiguously committed to Taiwan's defense against China. Wars in both of those cases could lead to nuclear exchanges.
Unfortunately, past policymakers have exercised no better judgment. The U.S. ended up in an extended and costly conflict in Vietnam out of fear that dominoes would fall to the communists. America's Cambodian and Vietnamese allies collapsed—to be followed by the fall of communist dominoes years later.
The Korean War grew out of a series of dubious decisions by Washington—dividing and occupying the Korean peninsula, allowing the emergence of an authoritarian and belligerent ally, and failing to arm the Republic of Korea. Nearly six decades later the U.S. is still entangled in the Korean peninsula, defending its populous and prosperous dependent even as the latter subsidizes its bankrupt adversary, North Korea.
World War II at least featured serious aggressors with serious ambitions. But World War II did not occur in a vacuum. It reflected the unfinished business of the Great War, later called World War I. And it is World War I which gave birth to Veterans Day.
Veterans Day started out as Armistice Day, commemorating the armistice which on November 11, 1918 ended more than four years of mass killing. After the far more destructive World War II and surprisingly costly "limited" conflict in Korea, Congress changed the holiday to Veterans Day.


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Practice of Architecture ; And, The Builder's Guide: Two Pattern Books of American Classical Architecture
Da Capo Press, 1994 - Art - 116 pages
Asher Benjamin (1773-1845) published the first American builder's guide, and his architectural books played an invaluable role in disseminating the new language of the Greek Revival. When originally published, they were remarkably popular, and were among the most influential of all Greek Revival handbooks. Throughout the American South, Midwest, and New England, one still comes across houses built in the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s patterned directly after Benjamin's designs.The two books incorporated here, Practice of Architecture (1833) and The Builders Guide (1839), are his most accomplished Grecian pattern books. With the growing number of contemporary architects who are designing buildings based on the forms on nineteenth century Grecian architecture, Benjamin's books should prove an invaluable resource for all lovers of the Greek Revival - builders, owners, preservationists, historians, and architects alike. Thomas Gordon Smith is chairman of the school of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame. His books include Classical Architecture: Rule and Invention and a newly illustrated edition of Vitruvius's Ten Books on Architecture/
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Examples of Pedestals for four of the orders Plate XXIV
Details of the Ionic Portico XXXI
Examples of Cornices for external finishing XXXIII and XXXIV
Common terms and phrases
angles antae arch architects architrave Asher Benjamin bar one foot base beam bed mould breadth breaking weight Builder's Guide building capital carpentry centre Composite orders composition Corinthian order cornice corona crown moulding cubic foot curve cutting cyma cymatium decorated dentil depth describe diameters in height distance divide door Doric order draw lines drawn echinus elevation employed entablature equal exhibits an example face mould figured in minutes fillet finish floor flutes foot long frieze front Grecian Greek half imitation inch square intercolumniation Ionic joists king post length metopes minutes in height mutules ornament outline ovolo panel parallel pedestal piece of timber pilaster placed plancer plinth portico pounds Practice of Architecture projection proportions radius rafters rail Roman roof scale shaft shows side soffit Specific gravity square inch strain surface temple thickness tion triglyph truss Tuscan order vertical Vitruvius volute wall


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If you want to take advantage of Instagram's beautiful new tilt-shift features, but can't get away from your Twitter stream, install this free Chrome extension, Instatwit, on your browser to enjoy the best of both worlds. Sorry Firefox and IE, this is only available for Chrome users.
Users on mobile could still experience the in-Twitter Instagram experience with apps like Tweetbot. Another workaround is by using this IFTTT recipe that bypasses Instagram's turning off of Twitter cards.
Twitter's new Aviary-powered photo filters and the impending photo war with Instagram and Facebook might be growing tepid already.
Via Memeburn


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Polystichum acrostichoides
Shield Fern family (Dryopteridaceae)
Description: This perennial fern is 1½–2½' tall, consisting of a loose tuft of several leaves that are erect to ascending. The compound leaves are up to 2' long, 5" across, simple-pinnate in their structure, and evergreen. Fertile leaves are longer than infertile leaves. Each compound leaf has 20-40 leaflets, which are arranged in two ranks on either side of the rachis (or central stalk); the compound leaf is oblong or oblong-lanceolate in outline. Most of the leaflets are arranged alternately along the rachis; they are yellowish green to dark green, lanceolate to lanceolate-oblong in shape, glabrous, leathery, and rather lustrous in appearance. Leaflet margins have narrow fine teeth that are spaced moderately apart from each other. Leaflet bases are often asymmetric – one side of a leaflet base is longer and more pointed than the other. Leaflet venation is pinnate; the lateral veins are straight, but they are not very conspicuous.
The leaflets also have short petiolules (basal stalklets) that are less than 1/8" (3 mm.) in length; they are attached closer to the less pointed sides of the leaflet bases. The rachis (or central stalk) of each compound leaf is light green to medium green, rather stout, and conspicuously scaly; the membranous scales are white to light brown. The light to medium green petiole (up to 6" long) is shorter than the rest of the compound leaf; it is also rather stout and even more scaly than the rachis. The sori (spore-bearing structures) are restricted to the upper leaflets of fertile leaves; they are small, round, and reddish brown. The sori can be found in two rows along the central vein and near the terminal points of lateral veins on the leaflet undersides; sometimes they cover the entire underside of a leaflet. The sori develop and release their spores to the wind during the summer or early fall. The root system consists of a stout dark rhizome with remnants of leaf stalks above and abundant fibrous roots below. Plants can occur individually or in small loose colonies.
Cultivation: The preference is light shade, mesic to slightly dry conditions, and soil that is loamy or rocky with abundant leaf litter.
Range & Habitat: The native Christmas Fern is occasional to locally common in southern and central Illinois, becoming uncommon in northern Illinois (see Distribution Map). Habits include mesic woodlands, rocky upland woodlands, wooded bluffs, slopes of wooded ravines, and shaded cliffs. This fern is especially likely to be found where either limestone or sandstone comes close to the ground surface in hilly woodlands. These habitats are dominated by deciduous canopy trees.
Faunal Associations: An aphid, Amphorphora ampullata, sucks plant juices from the Christmas Fern and other ferns. During the winter, the evergreen fronds of this fern are eaten sparingly by White-Tailed Deer. In addition, young fronds may be eaten by such upland gamebirds as the Ruffed Grouse and Wild Turkey. Overall, the value of this fern to wildlife is limited.
Photographic Location: The edge of a wooded bluff in Vermilion County, Illinois.
Comments: The common name refers to the practice of gathering the evergreen leaves during Christmas time as a holiday decoration. This attractive fern is fairly easy to identify because of its scaly stalks and leathery leaflets with asymmetrical bases. It is the only member of its genus in Illinois. A related species, Polystichum braunii (Braun's Holly Fern) is typically found in the coniferous forests of northern boreal areas. This latter species has bipinnate or pinnate-pinnatifid leaves and its ultimate leaflets have stout sharp teeth. Thus, it has a very different appearance from the Christmas Fern. Some Asplenium spp. (spleenworts) superficially resemble the Christmas Fern because of their simple-pinnate leaves; their leaflets sometimes have asymmetric bases. However, the spleenworts are smaller in size (up to 1½' tall) and more delicate in appearance; the petioles and rachises of their leaves are not conspicuously scaly and the margins of their leaflets lack the narrow fine teeth of the Christmas Fern.


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Burger Smackdown: Three new South Sound burger restaurants
Since 2008, I've taken you on tours of burger stands, bar burgers, highfalutin burgers, fair burgers and the finest handcrafted veggie burgers in the South Sound.
With three gourmet burger joints that have just opened in the South Sound — one in October, two in January — I thought it time for another burger pilgrimage.
Today's burger trail encompasses the land of "chain restaurants," a term that usually strikes fear deep in the gut of a dining critic.
Don't worry. These aren't those mindlessly homogenous could-be-in-Toledo-or-Tacoma chains. These chains are small and Washington-born and bred: Blazing Onion, Lunchbox Laboratory, and Bob's Burgers & Brew.
Whose burgers proved best? That designation goes to Blazing Onion for superior burger construction, skilled service and pricing that won't bust your wallet.
I rated each restaurant for variety, construction and flavor. I ate similar burgers at each: a "classic" cheeseburger, a blue cheese burger, a burger with a smokey flavor profile, and a wild-card burger from the "other than beef" category. Each restaurant was visited twice. Read more »


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am working in UAEi am a man 23 years old
am working for 11 hours in a day -8am to 6 pm - i wake up at 6am and i start to go work at 7am and i reach back to my room at 8 pm huuhhhh
am from india , i have just joined here as a assistant engineer ,
but i like to get some leisure time in my life ,,
in week
there is 6 days is working day , most of people are working like a slave
but we are not getting that much salary also !!!!
am getting only 500 $ in a month !!!!! its ok because am a beginer am satisfiying by this becoz
i need to get experience in my profession
but i was like bird in my life
i would not stay in a place , even i would not wait for consulting doctors also !!!!
but now am in fix
i am losing my life here
even i don't get time to sleep , i should wake up at 6.00 am
where as i have aim in my life i need to go any western countries for work and live i don
becoz i heard , the western rules of work is so nice
and i like their culture also
basicly am from india , but we will not get this much salary in india
becpz of the exchange rate , indian 12 in same to UAE 1
so if i get 2500 UAE dirhams , it will be better for me loll
and now am getting 2200 dirhams ,
now am trying to get money to go to any western countries
so please pray for me
It doesn't make sense to me that you say you are working as an "assistant engineer" in the UAE yet you are getting $500, which if you convert to Emirati Dirhims it will be around AED 1800 not AED 2500 as you are saying! - I'm quite sure that an assistant engineer would for sure make more money than that!

Plus, the UAE labor law states that you should be working for only 8 hours, of course we all get late at work, that's everywhere and in all countries, but don't tell me that the official company timing is to work for 11 hours and it is fine! That's illegal and I really wonder where do you work!!!

Ps. the timing you have mentioned makes you work 10 not 11 hours!
2200 dirhams ,

in uae & said a slave

Emmmmmmmmmm not fair at all
Good luck...

you remind me of my country, we work 8 hours here officially but to get the job done you work all the time and, pay is like you say

Maybe you can cut the cost by getting a university scholarship in a western country, if you have some work experience they will let you study and you can work separately as something like pizza delivery than after you finish you can get a job there in the studies feald, so you skip the "I have to make money in the worst place to make money" phase.

I'd do that but i have other issues that i cant overcome.


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Okposo Looks to Continue to KO the Competiton
Throughout the first five full NHL seasons of Kyle Okposo's career, he has been mired in mediocrity. He was a young player on a rebuilding team, but never seemed to take the next step in being a difference maker. Okposo was a 2nd and 3rd line player that that suffered with the dreaded label of being consistently inconsistent. The inconsistency seemed to come to a head early in the 2011-12 season, when Okposo was a healthy scratch for 3 straight games in November, after not scoring in the first month and a half of the season. He responded well from the benching by scoring 20 goals that season for the first and only time.
Kyle did not carry over the good vibes to the next season, however, as he only accumulated 4 goals and 24 points in the lockout shortened season of 2012-13. Even with the poor numbers, something happened that has seemed to click in Okposo's game toward the end of last year's regular season; some may say teaming him Frans Nielsen or putting Kyle on the top line with John Tavares to start this season. These are both good reasons, but it appears that the number one reason for the transformation of KO happened on the night of May 3rd, 2013 in Pittsburgh.(flickr/Official New York Islanders)
On that evening Okposo took exception to a check that Matt Niskanen finished on Matt Mouslon in the neutral zone during the 2nd period of Game 2 of Kyle's first NHL playoff series. He immediately came to his line mate's aide and dropped the gloves with Niskanen, eventually sending the Penguin defensemen back to the Pittsburgh locker room with blood gushing down the side of his face.
Not only did Okposo win his first ever scrap in his professional hockey career that night, he would win the game a period later and tie the series up. This night has done something for Kyle Okposo's career and ever since then he has been a force to be reckoned with.
"A force to be reckoned with" are strong words and they may be putting pressure on a player to perform at a certain level, but pressure is something that Okposo has been dealing with a lot lately.
The 25 year old Minnesota native was highly touted going into the 2006 NHL Entry Draft with many scouts drooling over the way he plays on both ends of the ice, how strong he is with the puck, his decision making skills and how he gets after it in the dirty areas, all of which all of which seem to have come to fruition throughout the first month of this season.
Currently Okposo has been put front and center by playing on a line with two world class hockey players that can not only make plays but score as well, in Tavares and newly acquired Thomas Vanek. Kyle has been criticized for years, some even didn't like that he was on the top line to start the year stating that he should be on a "short leash", but it is finally time to give number 21 some due. Coach Capuano has stuck with Okposo and his decision is paying off ten fold.
Kyle has always referenced his favorite player, Peter Forsberg, as the man he tries to model his game after and if Okposo can continue his hot streak he should be considered one of the top all-around wingers in the National Hockey League, just like Forsberg in his day. He is currently 6th in the in points and tied for 3rd in assists in the league through just a month of play.
Being able to represent your country is an honor that very few people are able to achieve. To represent the USA in Sochi, Russia this winter is something that KO has been working hard at, unfortunately it looks like he has done too little too late, but being right on the cusp means that he is one or two injuries away from an Olympic appearance on behalf of his country.(flickr/Official New York Islanders)
The current pace will be tough for Okposo to continue, but don't count this guy out. He seems to have been counted out and passed over his entire tenure in the NHL, but with the current status of the team in the standings and the prospect of being a part of the 2014 USA Olympic team in February he will be motivated to continue his torrid beginning.
-Chad DeCarlo
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Glad to see this article on the headline. This is pretty significant news for both fans, and even the Isles front office. Before JT came around, the fan base really looked to KO as a sign of good things to come. Ever since they replayed his over and around the net goal on the jumbotron, we had thought the next coming of a superstar was upon us. Glad to see he's finally producing and hope this continues.
Great article, Chad. Keep it up. Always looking forward to your input down here in sunny south florida!
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Tharold Simon, the Seattle Seahawks fifth-round selection, has provided his version of what happened on Thursday night, when he was charged with public intimidation of an officer, resisting an officer and unnecessary noise -- all misdemeanors -- and obstruction of a roadway, which is a felony -- in his hometown of Eunice, La.
"It's my fault," the cornerback told reporters on a teleconference after he was drafted. "I mean, I shouldn't have been parked on the side of the road. But I was just chillin' in my grandmother's house. And my car was parked on the side of the road by my grandmother's house. And I seen a car pull up, and it looked like a cop car.
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"So I went out there. And when I went out there, he told me to move the car. And then I moved the car. And when I turned the car on, the music was up. And so when I pulled up in the driveway, he told me to give him my license. And I gave him my license.
"And then I just sat on my car. He was running my license through. He called another cop to bring him a ticket book, because I guess he was going to write me a ticket. And one of my friends had come to congratulate me on the draft that was going on and stuff. And he told my friend to move around. And then I had got out the car and I was like, 'Man, you trippin' for nothing. I mean, there's nothing serious really going on around here.'
"And I guess he said my pants was low. So he was like 'Pick your pants up before I take you to jail.' And I picked my pants up. And then he just grabbed me and said, 'You know what, matter of fact, put your hands behind your back.'"
Simon said he had his girlfriend's car keys, and he was trying to throw her car keys to his cousin, which the officer interpreted as him resisting arrest.
"I never ran," Simon said. "I never flinched or moved or nothing. I'm a humble guy. I'm embarrassed about what happened. It shouldn't have happened. But like I said, everything happens for a reason. And right now my focus is to get up to Seattle and go compete."
Eunice Police Chief Ronald Dies said Simon, 22, was jailed Thursday night and released on $11,000 bond Friday.
Eunice Mayor Rusty Moody had planned to proclaim Friday "Tharold Simon Day" and throw a draft party at 6 p.m. at the Southwest Community Center in Eunice, but Simon's family on Friday called the mayor's office and had the event and the declaration canceled.
"I own Eunice," Simon told the officer, according to Eunice Police. "You are going to be mine."
Simon also allegedly told the officer that Moody was on his side and that the officer would be fired for ticketing him. Simon moved his car, but he drove it in an angry and aggressive manner, turned the music up very loud and and screeched his tires, Dies said. The officer proceeded to call another officer to transport Simon to jail.
"He's a kid who made a mistake. But once he was arrested and calmed down, he was very cooperative," Dies said. "He apologized to the officer and said he shouldn't have done what he did. He was sincere and shook hands with the officers. We try to treat everyone the same."
Simon's agent, Peter Schaffer, issued a strongly worded statement in which he said his client did nothing illegal and will pursue civil action in reply to the charges.
"I've thoroughly investigated this matter including getting statements from almost 30 witnesses who will corroborate complete story that he did absolutely nothing wrong and he acted with total class, peacefulness and dignity," Schaffer said. "The police officer was way out of bounds and had absolutely no reason to arrest or interact with Mr. Simon. We will be filing an immediate civil action against the officer and the Eunice Police Department for harassment and civil rights violations for the activity (Thursday) night."
"We were able to speak with his attorneys and be comfortable with his situation," Seahawks general manager John Schneider said.
Simon had four interceptions last season for the Tigers. He was suspended for a game in October 2011 along with Tyrann Mathieu for failing a drug test, according to multiple news media outlets.


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The bridge was apparently blown up at a checkpoint between Horlivka and Dzerzhynsk in the Donetsk region of Ukraine.
In the video, posted online on Thursday, men can be seen waiting near the checkpoint before the huge explosion.
Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels have both blamed each other for the incident.
Source: Liveleak


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A former Suffolk County Police Officer has received an almost $1 million verdict from a federal court jury ruling that the Suffolk County Police Department and three of his superiors harassed and retaliated against him following a boat explosion that left him injured and unable to work.
On March 11, 1998, Thomas Wallace, 47, was injured by a massive boat explosion while on the job with the department's Emergency Services Unit. As a result of the explosion, he underwent numerous surgeries and is suffering from a severe degenerative joint disease in his lower left leg, a herniated disc, a bulging disc in his lower vertebrae and arthritis in his left hip.
After the accident, Wallace attempted to notify the department of improper training and equipment that led to the explosion and his injuries, only to be repeatedly rebuffed by his superiors in the department.
"He was injured in the course of doing his job protecting the public," said his attorney, Tom Ricotta of Leeds, Morelli & Brownin Carle Place. "And he comes to them with these issues rather than biting the bullet. He was doing right in making sure these issues with respect to training and equipment are addressed."
As a result, he was also threatened to keep quiet, put back on light duty despite doctor's orders and had his retirement papers sent in without his consent, Ricotta said.
The suit was filed against the department, former Police Commissioner John Gallagher, former Chief of Department Phillip Robilotto and former Deputy Commissioner James Abbott.
The jury awarded Wallace $200,000 from the department and $225,000 from each of the defendants.
"The jury found a clear pattern of harassment," Ricotta said. "The gist of it is that it's sad. It is a shame. You expect the department to protect the public and protect its own in order to assist in protecting the public."
Here is the complaint:[scribd id=17711707 key=key-2igzz69j98rzoekgb2pc]
And the verdicts:[scribd id=17711715 key=key-g7gwg2uzm725mfawnlp]


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As a former scholar of Philippine Science High School, I'm curious on who has made it and will be the next scholar of Pisay. There are two screenings that students are required to pass to be a scholar for Philippine Science High School. Recently, the results of the first screen went out.
Congratulations to those who passed!
To know if you have passed, check out the official Philippine Science Website. Just type in your first name or surname.


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Last fall, singer/songwriter Toby Lightman stopped by the City Winery in New York to record a One On One session, including a solo, acoustic take on "Every Kind Of People," the title track to her self-released fifth album. Stripped of the sleek production and smooth funk instrumentation of the studio version, this solo rendition emphasizes Lightman's smoky, powerful vocals.
Lightman says, "'Every Kind Of People' is my view of living in the city. So many different people, roaming around, living their lives. All really looking for the same thing, happiness. The record of this song is super vibey and I love it, but I wanted to record a video of it acoustically to bring a little more attention to the lyrics and the story."
After releasing two albums on an Atlantic Records subsidiary in the mid-2000s, Lightman has released her last three albums, including 2014's Every Kind Of People, on her own T Killa Records. She has appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman and NBC's Today and has placed her songs in a number of movies, TV shows and commercials. Watch her stripped down version of "Every Kind Of People" below:


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Check out the recent news coverage of CenterState CEO initiatives.
CenterState CEO Host Annual Meeting & Announces Business of the Year Winners
CenterState CEO and the CNYIBA host seminar on Exporting to China
CenterState CEO and The Tech Garden Launch The Germinator
Empire Brewing Company Partners with Chinese Tea Manufacturer Jinwei Fu Tea Company to Expand Both Company's Markets
CenterState CEO Opens The Tech Garden II
CenterState CEO President Rob Simpson Comments on Governor Andrew Cuomo's Proposed Upstate New York Economic Revitalization Competition
CenterState CEO Hosts 2015 Economic Forecast Breakfast
NUAIR Hosts Inaugural Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Industry Days
CenterState CEO Mentioned in Creating Jobs in America's Cities: Three Frontiers in Economic Development
NUAIR Recieves Second COA to Begin Test Flights at Griffiss
CenterState CEO Drives Business and Tourism Opportunities in China
Preservation League Names Federal Historic Tax Credit to Seven to Save Endangered List for 2014-15
Grants for Growth Announces Round 11 Recipients
NUAIR Recieves First COA to Begin Test Flights
CenterState CEO and Local Foundations Launch $1M Workforce Initiative
CenterState CEO Announces New B2B Marketplace
Clean Tech Center Graduates Three
Upgrades Launched at The Tech Garden
Centscere Wins Startup Labs Syracuse, $200K in Cash and Prizes
• Syracuse.com
The Tech Garden Expands with 18,000-square-feet in AXA Tower One.
• Syracuse.com
Ben Baldanza, Spirit Airlines, to Deliver Keynote at CEO Annual Meeting
CNY Needs to 'Go Global' to Strengthen Economy
Startup Labs Syracuse Finalists Compete for $200,000 in Prizes
CEO Announces Commission on Goverment Modernization
CEO Presents Economic Forecast for 2014
CenterState CEO & Local Stakeholders Advocate for Tax Reforms
Simpson Comments on Cuomo's State of the State
Startup Labs Announces Finalists
NUAIR Announes First Client for Unmanned Aircraft Testing at Hancock Air Field
FAA Designates NY/MA to Operate UAS Test Site
CEO Moves Offices to Pike Block January 6, 2014
Buy Local Bash Kicks Off Buy Local Month
New Power Up Room Unveiled at The Tech Garden
CEO, Brookings, and Regional Partners Release CenterState Agenda for Economic Opportunity
CenterState CEO Joins in launching the New Central New York International Business Alliance
2013 CenterState Business Showcase
CenterState CEO Launches Round II of Startup Labs Syracuse
CenterState CEO Announces Grants for Growth Round 11
CenterState CEO Brings Chinese Officials to Syracuse to Explore Export and Investment Opportunities
CenterState CEO Awarded Federal Funds to Promote Exports
CenterState CEO Seeks to Open Doors for CNY-China Business Trade
CEO Awards 6 Companies Grants for Growth
Five Companies Receive Commercialization Assistance
CEO Annual Meeting Examines Reinvention, Announces Business of the Year and Startup Labs Winners
Xerox Executive Advises CNY Businesses to Embrace Change, Reinvention
CEO Announces Business of the Year Finalists
CEO Announces Move to Pike Block
Startup Labs Finalists Compete for Utlimate Prize at Demo Day
Xerox U.S. President to be Keynote Speaker at CenterState CEO Annual Meeting
Simspon Speaks on Economic Growth at Cayuga County Chamber Forecast Luncheon
Startup Labs Syracuse Announces 5 Finalists
CenterState CEO 2013 Economic Forecast
CNY Receives $93.8 Million in Regional Council Round 2 Funding
Finalists Selected in Startup Labs Syracuse Business Competition
CenterState Chamber Alliance Welcomes Cayuga County Chamber of Commerce
Grants for Growth Announces New Round of Funding
CenterState CEO, SyracuseFirst Announce Buy Local Month
CenterState Business Showcase & Economic Champions Celebration Draw Thousands to Downtown Syracuse
CenterState CEO Affiliate 40 Below Launches Co-working Space
CenterState CEO Wins International Award for Mobile App
CenterState CEO Kicks Off New to Membership Campaign
CNY Regional Council Submits Pitches Projects to Governor & State Experts
CNY Regional Economic Development Council Submits Update, Priority Projects to State
Simpson Encourages CNY to #ThinkDifferent About the Regional Economy
CenterState CEO Launches Startup Labs Syracuse
Syracuse Student Sandbox #3 Among Best College Business Incubators
Pike Block Advances with Bond Building Demolition
CNY Regional Council Projects Progressing on Schedule
Simpson Speaks on Regional Economic Development in Oswego
CenterState CEO and Mohawk Valley Chamber Launch CenterState Chamber Alliance
Land Bank Approval a Key Win for City & County
CEO Hosts NY Fed President
CEO 2012 Annual Meeting: New Export Plan Unveiled; Business of the Year, $200,000 Emerging Business Competition Winners Announced
CEO Announces Top 5 Finalists in $200,000 Emerging Business Competition
New Plan to Double Exports for the Region to Be Unveiled April 4
Delta Launches New Jet Service Between Syracuse and LaGuardia
CenterState CEO Partners with Companies to Offer Biomass Internships (Project ION)
Oswego Daily News
CenterState CEO Announces All New Business Showcase for this Fall
Business & Municipal Leaders Discuss Mandate Relief
Work Continues with Brookings, Region's Companies to Increase Exports
Five Companies Win CAP Funding
CenterState CEO Hosts Lt. Governor to Discuss Budget Proposals
CenterState CEO Continues Work to Advance Land Bank
Simpson Comments on Manufacturing Jobs in CNY
CEO Economic Forecast Sees Year of Recovery
Simpson Calls COR's Inner Harbor Proposal "transformative for the entire region"
CenterState CEO Supports New Jet Service to NYC
CNY REDC Award Announcements
CNY REDC Pitches Strategic Plan in Albany
CenterState CEO Assists Anheuser-Busch
CNY Submits Strategic Plan
Startup Weekend Syracuse Turns Ideas Into Businesses
Syracuse Common Council Approves New Airport Security Deal
CenterState CEO Celebrates its 2011 Economic Champions
Regional Alliance Launches 6th $200,000 Emerging Business Competition
CenterState CEO Argues Importance of CNY Military & Defense Sector
Nanotechnology Excellerator on Track at Electronics Park
SyracuseCoE/CenterState CEO Announce CAP Awards
Business Council Names CenterState CEO a Chamber of the Year
Regional Economic Development Holds First Open Forum
Regional Economic Development Councils Initiate Work
Simpson to Co-Chair Governor's Central New York Regional Economic Development Council
Region Poised to Compete in Governor's New Economic Development Process
Member-company Novelis Announces Major Expansion
"Innovate NY Fund" to Provide Venture Capital to Early Stage Companies
Regional Export Survey Seeks Input from Businesses
Startup Weekend Aims to Launch New Business Ventures in 54 Hours
Syracuse Ranks 8th in Cleantech Jobs
CenterState CEO Promotes Improved Air Service for Buisness Travelers
Pike Block Redevelopment Set to Start this Summer
CenterState CEO Hosts South Korean Ambassador to Discuss Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreemeent
Syracuse/CenterState Region to Work with Brookings Institution on New Business Plan and Export Initiative
Tech Garden Facilitates Advancement of New LED Technology
Entrepreneur Scott Case: Five Things to Consider When Starting a Business
CenterState CEO Receives Historic Preservation Award
Land Bank Support
2011 Creative Core Emerging Business Competition
Grants for Growth Program Extended
Downtown Committe Organizes 150 Volunteers in Spring Clean Up
ProTerra LED and SunEnergy Europe launch U.S. headquarters at The Tech Garden
CenterState CEO
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Pair of Porcelain Foo Guardian Lions
More questions? Get in touch
Fantastic vintage pair of white porcelain Asian foo guardian lions. Beautiful detail and scale.
WIDTH: 6½ in | HEIGHT: 15½ in | DEPTH: 8 in
Shipping Estimate: $35 | FedEx
Domestic shipping within the 48 continental states is quoted on each item via FedEx or White Glove delivery.
International shipping can be arranged upon request.
Delivery times will vary depending on the locations of origin and delivery, packing requirements, and the method of shipping used.
Once your order is processed, you will be notified of shipping status and given an estimated time of delivery.
We accept payment by Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover through our secure portal. We also accept payment via check, money order, or wire transfer. All payment options are available at checkout.


text: On Mon, 26 Mar 2007 21:57:03 +0100 David Laight wrote: DL> On Mon, Mar 26, 2007 at 11:34:37AM +0300, Mikolaj Golub wrote: >> >> On Thu, 22 Mar 2007 20:44:19 +0000 David Laight wrote: >> >> > Someone with the odd round-tuit to spare could look at making sysinst >> > ask the user for network setup at the end of a non-network install. >> > Most of it is just plumbing existing functions into different places. >> >> Below is my attempt to resolve this. After unpacking the sets sysinst will ask >> if user want to install network configuration in /etc. If network has already >> been configured before, sysinst also asks whether user want to store this >> configuration. DL> I don't think it is necessary to ask the user 2 questions. I thought about situations where user want to use other network settings during regular use than when installing (or network is needed to install only). I don't think these are impossible situations (imagine sysadmin that use some static IP allowed to access ftp server during install, but want network auto configuration for this machine when it is in regular use). Saying so, I don't insist on my patch. My point is to show, that modifications are trivial to get necessary functionality. It is more difficult to decide how it should be made to satisfy everyone. I think, someone weighted in community (e.g. David) just should resolve this in his preferred way and make commit :-). -- Mikolaj Golub


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Kudos to Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. They have opened their second traffic training park in Delhi to promote safe riding on Delhi's busy roads.
The traffic training park, which is spread across some 1,172 square metres, is staffed by Honda's expert safety instructors, and teaches riders from the age of thirteen to experience and handle over one hundred possible road dangers.
The park also caters to teaching younger riders from age nine to twelve on imported Honda CRF-50 bikes.
Mr. Yadvinder S. Guleria, Vice President-Sales & Marketing, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd, said, "For us, most overwhelming was the enthusiastic response of Delhi women who came forward and enrolled themselves to learn 2 wheeler safe riding program. From 18 year old college students to 45 plus home-makers and working women, over 2100 females enrolled in our Delhi traffic park. To facilitate the same Honda has launched Dream Riding – a safe riding initiative exclusively for females."
Good for you, Honda. This is something that would help immensely in other countries as well.


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What can I say, its silly. It just popped into my head suddenly. Blame the muse (I will, as soon as I discover the one that's responsible for this!)
I do not own the Obernewtyn Chronicles (And if I did, they'd probably take them away from me because I put them into weird fics like this one and pair the characters with.. well... unusual others.)
Anyway, Read and Review!
They faced off for the last time, two adversaries standing against each other for the last time. It was a battle that would decide the fate of the world. Deep green eyes met icy blue one's, cruelty obvious in their depths.
Casting her mind from herself, Elspeth could sense her allies approaching. The Daywatcher and the Moonwatcher--Gahltha and Maruman--calling for her desperately. She knew that by the time they reached her, the world would either have been saved or would be doomed to die, engulfed in another Great White, one that would never break.
She could tell that he was watching her, following her every move for some sign of what she would attempt. She wondered if she could just kill him now, use her deadly mindpower and be done with it. No... in her heart of hearts, perhaps in subtle information from the mindstream itself, she knew that it would not end that way.
Across from her he smirked, a slight upturn of the lips that made her seethe. He was so calm, not as if he could potentially destroy the world, the Land, Obernewtyn, her friends... everything.
He spoke then, his voice insidious and deadly and hungry, as if feeding from her terror and despair that she might lose. "Choose Elspeth Innle, Seeker. Choose."
She sighed and picked up the token, the one that would be used to save everything, its red colour bright against her pale skin. The board was laid out before her, all she had to do was play one final piece and her terrible quest was over. But what to do? How to play it?
Slowly, silently she leaned forward, her mind embracing everything as she dropped the token into place. I slipped into position with a *clink*, linking with three other similar tokens.
She looked at her opponent, a true smile, the first in the weeks since her quest had truly begun, appearing on her face. "I believe that I win H'ryka!"
Ariel stared open mouthed at her, then looked back down at the blue board filled with yellow and red pieces., then looked back at her. "Bugger! I knew I should have chosen Yahtzee instead of Connect Four."


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After months of promises, Weezer finally made good on releasing a Weezer Snuggie, perfect for fans who want to cozy up with the band's new album Raditude, out today. Rivers Cuomo and gang even star in a new infomercial for their blanket with sleeves, which comes in one size and three awesome colors. "A Wuggie is basically exactly like a Snuggie, except it says Weezer on it," Cuomo told Rolling Stone in May when he first floated the idea. "The people at Snuggie are doing it with us and promoting it with us. It's a totally legit Snuggie."
Check out Rivers Cuomo's Surf Wax Adventure: photos from his new RS shoot.
Weezer's official Website is selling the blue Weezer-branded Snuggie for $30, but that's not all: Act fast, and your Snuggie purchase will also include a copy of the standard version of Raditude. Weezer's official site is also offering a Snuggie Safari option that includes the deluxe Raditude and a zebra-patterned, Weezer-branded Snuggie for $50. Or, if you love Weezer but hate Snuggies, you can purchase Raditude complete with a bonus MP3 of "Turn Me Around" at the Amazon MP3 store for $3.99.
In other Weezer news, the band's live AOL Sessions visit has been posted online, which finds the band hooking up with unlikely collaborators like Kenny G (a saxophone solo on "I'm Your Daddy"), Sara Bareilles (on "(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To") and Chamillionaire, who fills in for Raditude's guest of honor Lil Wayne on "Can't Stop Partying." The set also includes Cuomo singing Pinkerton's Butterfly and a piano-based rendition of Green Day's "Brain Stew."
Related Stories:
• Rivers Cuomo on Adam Lambert Team-Up, Favorite Pop Stars
• Weezer Riff Like Metal Gods, Party With a Hip-Hop Star at Tour Launch
• Working With Weezer: All-American Rejects on "Raditude" Sessions


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Babe's Bulky Production Wheel Conversion Kit to a Delta Flyer
Delta Conversion kit for a Bulky Production Wheel which uses supports and bobbins that came with wheel.
Consists of only the maiden, Delta flyer with 2" orifice, 72" drive band and whorl.
On backorder. Please call for information.
- Model: J008BYW


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Dragonfly Design is a full-service graphic design studio located in Tiburon, CA. We specialize in creating an image that accurately reflects your business through strategic and innovative design.
We design and illustrate a variety of graphics projects, including logos, business cards, letterhead, brochures, direct mailers, websites, product packaging, and invitations.
We can provide your business with any level of design support it needs (be it a simple logo or a full scale print campaign). Our designs create lasting impressions unique to your company.


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Q&A with Lina Jazi, president and CEO of Terra Nova Consulting Inc.
Equipped with $1,500 and a laptop, Lina Jazi graduated from college in 1995 with a couple of degrees and a plan to start her own business as an environmental scientist.
She co-founded Environmental Consulting Services and went to work taking soil and water samples. Two years ago, the shale boom reverberating across the U.S. caught her attention and she transformed the business into what is now Terra Nova Consulting Inc., which she is building to serve the oil and gas industry. During the next 18 months, Jazi expects 70 percent of Terra Nova's work will be in the oil patch.
Today, Jazi is president and CEO of the firm, which is ranked No. 19 on HBJ's Largest Houston-Area Environmental Companies list, ranked by number of current projects.
Jazi sat down with HBJ reporter Deon Daugherty to talk about her plans to triple her employee-count to 30 and take her company to international locales, all the while staying true to her passion for protecting the environment.
What gave you the confidence to start your own business?
I come from a line of entrepreneurs. My dad started his own business back home (in Lebanon). He's in the textile business, and he started his business at a very young age, maybe even younger than I. He had always directed us to be independent. I have a sister and two brothers, and he always wanted us to get the highest degree possible. He was kind of upset that I didn't go on to get my Ph.D, but he's very happy than I've followed in his footsteps to be very independent.
In the beginning, I was very scared. I didn't have my own money because I had never worked. My dad had offered to make an investment, and I said no because it's my first take, and if I lose it, I didn't want to lose (his) money and have to live with that on my conscience for the rest of my life.
Because we had no clients, I had to work from the yellow pages — just cold-calling. The first real break we got was with the city of Houston for an environmental site assessment. A few months later, a (Request for Proposal) went out and we submitted and won our first contract in 1997. That was a three-year job to do environmental work for the city of Houston.
After more than 10 years in soil samples and testing groundwater, why did you decide to engage in the energy field?
Being in Texas, it comes naturally. It was maybe something we should have gone into before. You need to be aware of the environment and how you can prevent pollution and health-related issues of contamination that you can cause. But at the same time, the field has to keep moving because we need different sources of energy. There has to be some balance between the two fields, and I'm hoping I can provide this. Not coming to a point where we're scaring the oil and gas people so they don't want to talk to you or don't want to hear from you, but to help them to make sure they don't pollute or they don't cause a lot of damage.
What advice would you give a young woman who wants to start her own business?
Go for it. It's very rewarding. You feel like you're really accomplishing (something important), getting yourself to a higher level and a sense of fulfillment. I definitely think every woman should try to go out on her own and start a business, whatever it may be.
It's good to try internships — we welcome high school students during the summer, and of course, college students. Dab into it — it's not as scary as it seems. I was definitely scared when I first started, and I have to admit that many times I got to a point of asking myself, "Can I do this? Should I keep going?" But you get to a point where you go to sleep thinking, "Oh, I can't do this," and then you wake up and realize, "Yes, of course I can," so don't get discouraged. There are a lot of things along the way, but you have to persevere, keep going and keep trying.
I think we live in a city that really encourages that. We live in a city of entrepreneurs.
What interested you in environmental work?
I initially wanted to go into medicine. I was very much into the health of people, and I still am.
I could see the way we were heading if people don't start taking (environmental health) seriously. I felt that the environment and health are very closely related. A lot of health issues are caused by environmental problems — breathing trouble, cancer — so I started getting more and more interested in the field, and thought this could be the future.
So instead of looking for the cure, I was looking at prevention.
What's been the challenge of starting from scratch?
The toughest part has been to actually get on the map. The biggest thing was to come in and see that a lot of companies are already established, everybody knows who they are — they've been doing this forever. I wasn't worried about getting here, but (rather) to have people recognize that we can do as good of a job as anyone else.
Hometown: Houston since 1989
Hobbies: Exercise, travel
Education: The American University of Beirut , The University of Texas Medical School at Houston
First job: Earned $150 for asbestos sampling
What are you reading? "House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family and a Lost Middle East," by Anthony Shadid


text:
Never let you go / Erin Healy.
View other formats and editions
Record details
- ISBN: 9781595549501 (sound recording : hoopla Audio Book)
- ISBN: 1595549501 (sound recording : hoopla Audio Book)
- Physical Description: 1 online resource (1 audio file (10hr., 02 min.)) : digital
- Edition: Unabridged.
- Publisher: [United States] : THOMAS NELSON : 2010.
Content descriptions
|Restrictions on Access Note:
| Digital content provided by hoopla.
|Participant or Performer Note:
| Read by Ann Harrison.
|Summary, etc.:
| Losing everything has Lexi clinging to her daughter. Hell is determined to loosen her grip. It's been seven years since disaster struck her family. Lexi Solomon has held it all together since then--just barely. But now Lexi is losing it. The husband who deserted her is back in town, wanting to see their daughter Molly. Her sister's shameless murderer is up for parole. An unsavory old friend is demanding payment for debts that Lexi knows nothing about and can't begin to meet. And something else is going on--something Lexi feels but can't explain. A dangerous shift is taking place between this reality and the next. Forces beyond her imagination are vying for control. A rare novel that will satisfy a wide range of readers, Never Let You Go explores the high-stakes decisions played out in the thin spaces between heaven and earth. As the enemy's grip tightens around Lexi, she will have to decide what's truly worth holding on to. "Keeps you glued to the pages until the very last."--Tosca Lee, author of Havah: The Story of Eve
|System Details Note:
| Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Search for related items by subject
|Mothers and daughters > Fiction.
Divorce > Fiction.


text:
Facebook Tuesday announced Mobile Games Publishing, a new initiative aimed at enabling small and midsized game developers with limited advertising resources promote their applications, in exchange for shares of revenue generated by those titles.
The social network said in a post on its developer blog that the pilot program, which developers must apply to, provides promotional support for games across Facebook's mobile apps, adding that the following developers have already begun working with Mobile Games Publishing to promote their respective games:
- 5th Planet, card-battle role-playing game Dawn of the Dragons
- Brainbow, Dr. Newton: The Great Brain Adventure, an adventure game with puzzles
- Certain Affinity, pirate-themed strategy game Age of Booty: Tactics
- Dragonplay, social poker game Live Hold'Em
- Gameloft, medieval strategy and simulation game Kingdoms & Lords
- Gamevil, train-management simulation Train City
- KiwiGames, quest-based exploration game Shipwrecked
- Outplay Entertainment, Monster Legacy, an explore-and-battle fantasy game
- Space Ape, multiplayer combat-strategy game Samurai Siege
- WeMade Entertainment, endless-running game WINDrunner
Software Engineer Victor Medeiros provided more details about Mobile Games Publishing in the developer blog post:
We continue to see record numbers of people playing games on Facebook, and the games ecosystem is steadily growing as developers keep building high-quality desktop and mobile games people love to play. As the mobile app ecosystem expands, breaking through and getting discovered in a crowded marketplace is the biggest challenge for mobile games. Facebook has already been helping with app discovery through products such as mobile app install ads. However, there are many developers with awesome mobile games that don't yet have the upfront resources for a paid strategy, and we want to help them find a path to success, too.
With more than 800 million monthly users of our mobile apps and more than 260 million people playing games on Facebook, we are using our unique reach and targeting capabilities to help games in our program find and engage a valuable audience of the right users. This program is designed to reach people who already play games on Facebook with new games that may interest them. For example, we will help strategy game fans find strategy games and casual game enthusiasts find casual games.
We are invested in the success of these games, and, in exchange for a revenue share, we will be collaborating deeply with developers in our program by helping them attract high-quality, long-term players for their games. We'll also be sharing analytics tools and the expertise we've gained from helping games grow on our platform for more than six years.
Game developers: Would you be willing to tap into Facebook's resources with the Mobile Games Publishing program in exchange for a share of revenue from your apps?


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I Did, Indeed.I learned that falling in love with someone when you are only 11 years old, is futile. When the parents decide to move to another city, 11 year old kids really don't have the option of a long distance relationship. At least, they didn't, back in 1955.
We did remain friends, though, right up until he died, in May 2011.
Serenitree 70+, F 0 Oct 28, 2012


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Cesare Prandelli admits "Mario Balotelli is not like the others, but we want him to be a player and not a personality."
The striker was sent off during last night's 0-0 World Cup qualifier [12] in the Czech Republic, then apologised after a series of angry tweets [13] aimed at his critics.
"Balotelli is not a player like the others, but he has to realise that we want him to be a player and not a personality. He mustn't think that he needs to win the game all by himself," said the Italy Coach.
Prandelli was speaking in Florence at an event called La Repubblica delle idee.
"He needs to be one of the important players, but the attitude must be that of a team player."
Gigi Buffon said today that Super Mario is targeted for provocation and Prandelli sees some truth in that.
"In media terms, he is not the same as the others. We go round the world with champions like Buffon and Andrea Pirlo, but the one who gets more attention is Balotelli.
"The kids especially go crazy for him. The fact they accepted him and decided he can be the new symbol of Italy, this black guy who wears the Azzurri jersey, means perhaps kids are more advanced than adults when it comes to barriers of race."
Prandelli's contract with the Nazionale expires after the 2014 World Cup and he was asked about his plans.
"I would like an experience abroad. I am not thinking about it right now, but every time I spoke to a colleague who worked overseas they have been enthusiastic.
"There's a different quality of life if you are a Coach, that is for sure. When you lose a game, you don't have to be afraid that on the way home people are going to throw rocks at you.
"There is far too much pressure in Italy and that is a problem, because if you are happy then you can give your best."
See the latest Serie A predictions and betting tips with Eurotips.co.uk [14]


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Welcome to the Child Development Program Infant Nursery and Preschool. For more than 30 years the Child Development Program has fostered the social, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual development of children. We look upon each child as individual and welcome diversities among our students. We are dedicated to teaching developmentally appropriate skills and concepts that will prepare preschool aged children for the next step of their academic journey.
However, our ultimate goal is to provide a nurturing atmosphere where children feel comfortable and secure—an environment that cultivates independence and respect, and most importantly, a place where children can challenge themselves and the world around them.