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Are Vitamins Dangerous?
Photo Courtesy Of: iStockphoto/Thinkstock
Over the past several of weeks, the media have gone wild over studies allegedly showing that vitamins have lethal consequences.
Again and again, journalists who are clueless about health have misled readers while catering to the interests of Big Pharma and their hired lackey, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Will Vitamin E Increase Risk of Prostate Cancer?
Back in 2009, the initial report of the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT) found "no reduction in risk of prostate cancer with either selenium or vitamin E supplements but a statistically non-significant increase in prostate cancer risk with vitamin E."
Then came the recently released update, which allegedly shows that high doses—400 IU's a day or more—of vitamin E may increase your risk of prostate cancer by 17 percent.
According to CNN:
"Based on the results of this trial, [the researchers] suggested that men should have a serious conversation with their doctors about whether taking vitamin E supplements is a good idea."
However, there's a glaring problem with this finding, which has been completely overlooked by conventional media, and the researchers of the study itself.
For some reason, many fail to appreciate that there are usually major differences between natural nutrients and their synthetic counterparts.
They simply do not have the same biological effects, and this appears particularly true when it comes to vitamin E.
Synthetic Vitamin E is Problematic, So Why Did They Use it?
In this case, the vitamin E used was all rac-α-tocopheryl acetate—a synthetic petrochemically-derived form of dl-alpha tocopherol, which has known toxic effects. GreenMedInfo.com has a listing of published research relating to the many ill health effects related to this compound. The Toxicology Data Network also lists numerous health problems related to synthetic vitamin E at various dosages.
Unfortunately, most studies investigating vitamins use synthetic versions. On the one hand this is good, as synthetic vitamins in general have overwhelmingly been shown to be largely harmless. However, studies such as this one—and the journalists reporting on the findings—can also do great disservice by failing to specify that the results pertain to petrochemically-derived vitamin E. The study says absolutely nothing about the health effects of natural vitamin E (d-alpha tocopherol).Part of the problem with synthetic alpha tocopherol is that it depletes gamma tocopherol.
As explained in a recent article by Life Extension:
"In 1997, we announced that taking only the alpha tocopherol form of vitamin E displaces critically important gamma tocopherol in the body. By displacing gamma tocopherol, we feared that high doses of alpha tocopherol could increase cancer risks.
In fact, three years after Life Extension's first warning, the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health released the results of a huge study (10,456 men). The findings showed that men with the highest gamma tocopherol blood levels had a fivefold reduction in prostate cancer risk. This same study showed that selenium and alpha tocopherol also reduced prostate cancer risk but only when gamma tocopherol levels were high. Confirmatory studies document higher levels of gamma tocopherol to be strongly associated with reduced cancer risks.
While both alpha and gamma tocopherol are potent antioxidants, gamma tocopherol has a unique function. Because of its different chemical structure, gamma tocopherol scavenges reactive nitrogen species, which can damage proteins, lipids, and DNA.
… The fact that supplementation with isolated, synthetic alpha tocopherol depletes plasma gamma tocopherol levels means that the researchers who designed the SELECT trial created a biological catastrophe… The fact that higher prostate cancer rates were observed in the group overloaded with synthetic alpha tocopherol in the SELECT trial was predictable and expected based upon fundamental facts Life Extension understood more than a decade ago."
I believe Life Extension is correct in their evaluation of this study: it was designed to fail in order to protect the financial interests of the cancer industry, which thrives by providing very expensive toxic drugs, radiation, and surgery.
Did You Know? Some Vitamin E on Market May Be Genetically Modified
Another risk factor of vitamin E supplements and foods fortified with vitamin E relates to the fact that it may be derived from genetically modified (GM) plants. The chemical name for vitamin E is "tocopherol." Tocopherol, which is the generic term for at least seven different types of vitamin E, are naturally formed in a variety of plants.
Tocopherol can be produced either by chemical synthesis, or by extraction from:
- Maize
- Soy beans
- Cotton seed
- Rice
- Wheat germ oil
The problem is that a large majority of these plants are now genetically modified—at least in the U.S. In Europe, foods and supplements containing GM-derived vitamin E must be labeled as such. The U.S. however, does not require genetically modified foods and products to be labeled, so there's no telling what you're getting. Unfortunately, verifying the non-GM status of tocopherols is particularly challenging as many companies that control the supply of vitamin E collect plant oils from commingled sources.
Are Dietary Supplements Risky for Older Women?
Another recent study is being reported as having found that dietary supplements are associated with an increased mortality in older women. However, this is yet another example of a flawed study being further misrepresented by poor journalism. First of all, this was an observational study based on self-reported use of supplements over a 22-year period—it was not a rigorous trial. Supplement use was reported three times, six years apart. Now, ask yourself, how accurately would your own recollection be of what supplements you've used over the past six years? Furthermore, the data collected was rather generic—there's no telling whether the supplements used were high- or low quality; synthetic or whole-food based, for example.
According to the Los Angeles Times:
"The research did not explore whether supplements contributed to the causes of death among the women … [I]t could reflect the possibility that the women who took … supplements were more likely to be sick from other causes and died from their underlying disease."
And there, in a nutshell, is the problem with the way this study is being reported in many places. That same Los Angeles Times article, for example, quotes a dietician arguing that the research "bolstered arguments against using supplements." Other articles have made similar claims.
But the study does no such thing.
It's quite possible that the people studied who were sick were trying to help themselves by taking supplements, and hence this group was biased towards being sicker. An almost identical study could be done associating frequency of visits to the doctor with increased risk of death. But you can bet that few in the media would jump the conclusion that doctor visits are deadly … even though such a statement would not be entirely untrue.
Was the Data Manipulated with Preconceived Bias?
But there's more… Upon closer review, it seems the researchers went to great lengths massaging the data to reach their own preconceived conclusions. As explained in a recent article by Alliance for Natural Health:
"Dr. Robert Verkerk, our scientific director'[s]… analysis reveals, among many other interesting points, that all of the data was "adjusted" by the authors using methods of their own choice. If you look at the study itself, the first thing you see is an adjustment for "age and energy"… After this adjustment, vitamins C, B complex, E, D, as well as calcium, magnesium, selenium, and zinc all appear to add to years lived."
So, after that first adjustment, several supplements added to longevity. Next they "adjusted out" other lifestyle factors, which then resulted in most supplements contributing to earlier death. According to Robert Verkerk:
"It must be born in mind that this is an observational study where lifestyle factors, which are known to have a far greater influence on survival outcome than typical vitamin and mineral supplementation, have been 'adjusted out'. Before this data massage process has occurred, the findings are quite different, and appear to have been largely ignored by a mass media ever keen to find ways of damning supplements to appease their pharmaceutical industry advertisers…
This is what the study actually found before the data were adjusted… Supplement users were significantly (statistically) more likely than non-users to:
- Be non-smokers
- Be more educated (graduates)
- Have lower risk of diabetes mellitus
- Have a lower body mass index (BMI)
- Have a lower mean hip-to-waist ratio
- Be more physically active
- Ingest fewer calories
- Consume more protein
- Consume less total fat
- Consume more polyunsaturated fatty acids
- Consume more fruit
- Consume more vegetables
- Consume more whole grain products
Frustratingly, the authors don't tell us how these supplement users fared over the years. However, we can assume it's quite likely that they did rather better than the non-users, and that's why the researchers have left us only with adjusted data that's meant to have removed the influence of these all-important lifestyle factors."
Interestingly enough, and quite tellingly, the authors did NOT make any adjustments for drug use, despite the fact that many drugs are highly toxic and may contribute to premature death. And many who are sick take both drugs and supplements in an effort to maintain health and treat their disease. As stated by Life Extension:
"[T]he authors admit they did not factor in the increased intake of dietary supplements that occur in response to the development of symptoms or diagnosis of serious disease. Stated differently: If a woman was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer and began ingesting 40 supplements daily, but died six months later, she would have been counted as being a heavy supplement user who died prematurely."
Smells Like a Ruse to Justify New FDA Safety Regulations…
If you ask me, the timing of these studies hitting the news couldn't possibly be more convenient. Last month, I wrote a couple of articles about the FDA's latest plan to effectively eliminate many commonly used supplements by amending the definitions for new dietary ingredients (NDI's) and retroactively applying them to products already on the market. You can read the FDA Draft Guidance on New Dietary Ingredients (NDI's) here. (A detailed analysis of the FDA Draft Guidance is also available.)
This proposed mandate goes hand-in-hand with S.1310: Dietary Supplement Labeling Act of 2011, introduced at the end of June by U.S. Senator Richard Durbin (D-Illinois). This legislation is, using the words of Byron J. Richards, "an alarming regulatory nightmare that is trying to treat vitamins as if they are drugs."
The open comment period on the FDA's proposed guidelines will expire on December 2nd, and I for one would not be the least surprised if the studies discussed above will be used as justification for driving through Durbin's legislation and the FDA's amended NDI definitions. After all, if they can sway public opinion once again into thinking that supplements can KILL you, then people will support the idea that we need to treat supplements like drugs and require them to undergo the same detailed and costly kind of testing.
This is ridiculous, as vitamins, minerals and herbal supplements have a tremendously safe track record. Meanwhile, drugs are known to cause well over 100,000 deaths per year when taken as prescribed, and two million more suffer serious side effects. For comparison, look at:
- Statistics available from the U.S. National Poison Data System, which covers acute poisonings: In 2007, 1,597 people reportedly died from drugs. Meanwhile there was not one single fatality caused by a vitamin or dietary mineral supplement that year
- CDC mortality data for 2005: Prescription drugs killed more than 33,500 people that year, second only to car accidents. That same year, the American Association of Poison Control Centers reported 27 deaths that were associated with dietary supplements (one of which was reportedly due to Ephedra; the herbal supplement banned the year before for being too dangerous. In 2005, low-dose Ephedra was also subsequently banned).
Yet, Durbin and the FDA want you to think that they're just acting in your best interest. Nothing could be further from the truth!
Up to this point, the FDA has had to prove a supplement unsafe in order to take action against it, but now they want the supplement industry to prove the safety of what in many cases amount to food, before they can reach the market. Now, since dietary supplements are not patented drugs with outrageous profit margins, very few supplement makers will be able to afford the required safety studies, which could run in the tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars per ingredient. Furthermore, the manufacturer is not the only one that would have to seek approval—every distributor that wants to use the NDI would have to file a separate NDI application.
By adding this extremely costly testing and approval process, small and medium sized supplement companies will be eliminated, which in turn will drive up costs while at the same time reduce your access to historically safe nutritional products. The end result is that fewer people will use supplements to improve their health; driving them back into the extremely profitable fold of conventional medicine and drugs.
So, Will Your Supplements Kill You?
Vitamins and minerals are essential for life. However, never in the history of man has the human body ever needed synthetic chemicals. And therein lies the crux of the matter. Most studies evaluating the health effects of vitamins investigate the synthetic versions, which in many cases are more similar to drugs than they are to food. And secondly, studies can be manipulated in any number of ways to come up with an end result that serves a particular agenda. The two studies discussed above are perfect examples of both of these problems.
Making matters worse, the media conveniently and consistently fails to report on rebuttals explaining the technical and statistical reasons why a study is invalid.
Common sense however will tell you that you cannot kill yourself with nutrition, per se.
That said, it's certainly possible to go overboard with supplements and push your health in the wrong direction by creating nutritional imbalances. It's important to understand that taking mega-doses of vitamins or minerals over extended periods of time, especially synthetic ones, can have serious health consequences.
Ideally, you'll want to get the majority of the nutrients you need from your food, which means you have to eat whole, preferably organic foods—not processed foods fortified with synthetic vitamins and minerals! Depending on your health status, you would then evaluate whether or not you might need to take a supplement to help address a particular health problem or counter any particular deficiency in your diet.
Examples of supplements I believe most people can benefit from, simply because it's very difficult to get enough of them from your diet, include high-quality omega-3 and probiotics. If you cannot get sufficient amounts of sunshine and don't have access to a safe tanning bed then an oral vitamin D3 supplement would also be in order.
In conclusion, Michael Long, ND sums this whole issue up rather nicely:
"Even with totally irresponsible use, you would be hard pressed to be killed by your vitamins… In truth, studies are published every day showing the safety and health promoting effects of vitamins, especially when used responsibly (i.e. used for a specific purpose, after objective testing showed a deficiency), and according to the evidence.
If you want to focus on something that will actually kill you, open your medicine cabinet and look at the drugs that stare back at you. Close to 1 million people die in North America every year as a direct result of adverse effects from prescription drugs. The safety record of pharmaceutical drugs is not even comparable to vitamins."


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California Department of Transportation
Date: March 21, 2014
District: 05 – Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito and Santa
Cruz Counties
Contact: Jim Shivers or Colin Jones
Phone: (805) 549-3237 or (805) 549-3189
$165 million will upgrade bridges, repair rough pavement,
and keep pavement in good condition from deteriorating
CENTRAL COAST – Californians will be driving on smoother roads, safer bridges, and enjoying the benefits of enhanced transit thanks to $334 million in new funding allocated to 53 projects by the California Transportation Commission.
The allocations include approximately $165 million to repair bumpy pavement, preserve roads that are in good condition from worsening, and upgrade bridges to make them safer and stronger. Most of California's highways are more than a half-century old, and they carry nearly half of the nation's container freight – heavy loads that pound our highways more than any other state.
"To get the most bang for the buck for taxpayers, Caltrans targets dollars where they are most effective - pavement preservation," Dougherty said. "Every $1 spent on preventive pavement maintenance saves Californians $11 that would have been spent on future pavement repairs."
Currently, 84 percent, or 42,000 lane miles of California highways are in good operating condition. Caltrans' goal is to reach 90 percent by 2023, which is a challenge as funding is declining and highways are aging. In 2013, Caltrans repaired 76,808 potholes on the Golden State's 50,000 highway lane miles. This was down nearly 100,000 potholes from a few years prior due to Caltrans' repaving efforts.
The allocations also include $64 million from Proposition 1B, a transportation bond approved by voters in 2006. To date, more than $17 billion in Proposition 1B funds have been put to work statewide for transportation purposes.
The remaining funding allocations came from assorted transportation accounts funded by state and federal dollars.
Some of the projects that received funding support include:
- $7 million to improve 10 miles of pavement on Hwy. 46 from the Shandon Safety Roadside Rest Area to the San Luis Obispo/Kern County line. This project will include improvements to metal beam guardrail.
- $3 million for the improvement of 2 miles of U.S. Highway 101 from south of Los Osos Valley Road to just north of Monterey Street in San Luis Obispo County.
- $981,000 to upgrade pedestrian curb ramps and sidewalks at various locations in San Luis Obispo and Monterey Counties to comply with the American with Disabilities Act (ADA).
- $482,000 to apply a high friction surface treatment to U.S. Highway 101 near Gaviota in Santa Barbara County. This treatment will reduce the severity and number of traffic collisions in this area.
- $400,000 to the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (SCCRTC) for the construction of bicycle lanes, curb, gutter and sidewalks near Vine Hill Elementary School in the City of Scotts Valley.
Please see the attached file for more information about all projects that received allocations.
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subset: commoncrawl


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One of my best friends in the writing biz is Blake Crouch. I've collaborated with him on multiple projects, and we talk often about the publishing industry.
I asked Blake to write a guest post for me about something he's currently doing, because I knew it would be helpful to my readers. So here's Blake...
Blake: Rights reversion is a beautiful thing.
My first novel, DESERT PLACES, was published—wow, hard to believe—almost seven years ago. Its sequel, LOCKED DOORS, came out the following year. I knew at the time that most books didn't stay in print forever, but I still quietly dreaded the day my books would no longer be available to readers.
Then, over the last couple of years, as ebooks rose in prominence and popularity, a strange thing happened. I quit dreading the day my first two novels went out of print and started wishing that day would come faster.
Unlike Joe, I didn't have 74 unpublished novels in my drawer which were good enough for public consumption. I only had two unpublished novels prior to my first sale, and NOAA actually just sealed those manuscripts in a steel chest and dropped them into the Challenger Deep so there is no chance that future generations might accidentally discover them.
This meant I didn't have any thriller novels to upload into the Kindle Store. Sure, I had a short story collection, a few novellas, including SERIAL UNCUT, which I wrote with Joe, and a quirky novel about warped celebrity called LUMINOUS BLUE, but I didn't have anything meatier. And novels seem to sell much, much better.
To add insult to injury, my publisher, who still had the rights to LOCKED DOORS and DESERT PLACES, was selling them in the Kindle Store for $6.99. My two recent novels, SNOWBOUND and ABANDON are priced at $12.99, and I get email from people castigating me for this, but it's beyond my control!
Reversion of rights is standard boilerplate in all publishing contracts (unless you are getting royally screwed) by which the rights to a book may revert to the author when certain conditions are met. There are subtle variations, but generally these conditions are activated when the books are no longer in the warehouse, when sales fall below a certain threshold, etc.
So I had my agent investigate the situation with these two books, and we concluded that, in fact, rights should be reverted. A letter was written to the publisher, requesting rights be reverted, and the publisher had six months to either initiate a new edition of the books, or to give me the rights back.
This was a challenging experience, which took every bit of six months to complete.
Joe: (Blake is being kind here. It's hell to get your rights back. Publishers want to milk them for as long as possible, especially now that ebooks are on the rise. Some publishers actually go into another printing rather than revert the rights. Compound the fact that publishers often have corporate mentalities, often putting things off and backburnering the stuff that isn't a priority to them, and it could take months of emails, registered letters, agent intervention, and even lawyers to get back the rights that are legally yours as stated in your contract.)
Blake: If you heard a shout of joy two weeks ago, that was me receiving my reversion of rights letter for DESERT PLACES and LOCKED DOORS, which meant they were mine again.
I had prepared for this, had the books poised to go in my DTP account, and all I had to do was hit publish. It felt good.
Two things to consider when getting your rights back.
Both these books had been given the full editing, copyediting, multi-round proofreading treatment, and so I wanted to capitalize on that.
My publisher, however, when I asked, didn't have the final electronic version of the manuscripts, which had been spitshined into a high gloss sheen.
So with the help of a friend who shall remain nameless, I downloaded the over-priced Kindle versions of my novels, jail-broke the text out of DRM (die, DRM!), and was able to upload the pristine, final version of the manuscripts.
Even following a reversion of rights, the publisher still retains ownership of the original cover artwork. You can't use it. Luckily, this was totally cool with me, because I never loved the covers to DESERT PLACES and LOCKED DOORS to begin with. So I asked Jeroen ten Berge (www.jeroentenberge.com), the man behind the "Serial" cover as well as many of my ebooks, to design new covers for DESERT PLACES and LOCKED DOORS. He did a fantastic job.
Here are the original covers, along with the new ones. (The new ones are clickable and link to the Amazon pages.)
I just put these books up, so it's early yet to know how they'll do in the long run, but I can't help but feel it's a wonderful new world we have, where books can find a 2nd life.
Joe: Are you using DRM on these titles?
Blake: Not a chance. These books are only available in the Kindle store right now, but I want all e-reading devices to be able to download these books (and with Caliber they can if DRM is not enabled).
Joe: My blog readers like numbers. I know that prior to your publisher listing DP and LD at $6.99, they were $9.99. What were the cumulative ebook sales through your publisher, compared to something you released (say SERIAL UNCUT)?
Blake: Last royalty period (which represents six months), these books sold about 200 copies each at $6.99. Serial Uncut, since its release this past March, has sold 2,943 copies in the Kindle store. It's also sold a fair amount through Barnes & Noble, and when I have a spare fifteen hours, maybe I'll go through the Smashwords spreadsheet and add up those sales. :)
Joe: You're writing a sequel to these two novels. Can you go into any details?
Blake: Well, it's going to be another collaboration project—the conclusion to these books, as well as the conclusion to this guy Konrath's Lt. Jack Daniels' series. Working title is STIRRED, and it's going to pit Jack Daniels against one of my nastiest villains, Luther Kite. We're going to try to write it in the same manner we wrote "Serial," bringing a true chess-like dynamic to the writing process. Should be a blast.
Joe: Both ABANDON and SNOWBOUND are doing okay on Kindle, even at the insane price of $12.99. What do you attribute this success to? And would you ever consider releasing a $12.99 self-published ebook?
Blake: I have no idea. But I think it clearly establishes that there are people willing to pay more than $2.99 for an ebook. I can't imagine releasing one myself for $12.99 though.
Joe: Especially with a cover like Snowbound, which has the be the very worst thriller cover I've ever seen. I won't ask you to comment on it because you're not into burning bridges like I am.
This is A Newbie's Guide to Publishing. So advise newbies. If they have a hot book, all ready to go, what should they do with it?
Blake: Get a great agent, and try to sell it for a lot of money. Publish short fiction in solid magazines. There's a lot of bad-mouthing lately about the "gatekeepers" but I think a publishing track record is important, and it should matter to readers. I'm a reader, and it matters to me. Put your short fiction and your novellas and collaborations up on Amazon. Keep your irons in several different fires. The truth is no one knows how this is all going to shake out, so in light of that, there's really only one smart play…diversify.
Joe: I encourage everyone to buy DESERT PLACES and LOCKED DOORS. They're terrific thrillers, and the villain from them appears in my seventh Jack Daniels book, SHAKEN, which comes out October 26. If you've read my previous Jack books, you'll love them.
Monday, October 11, 2010
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Learn the basics of creating PDF files.
Managing and maintaining the digital workflow is one of the most challenging aspects of printing today. Whether we screen print or output to digital-color printing devices, the efficiency and accuracy of graphics production depends largely on how we manipulate and move digital files throughout the process.
As we make the transition from analog to digital production, we face a formidable puzzle of digital components and procedures, with many of the pieces awkwardly arranged in precarious, unpredictable sequences. In the past, I've written about the nature of digital file preparation and how to direct customers to produce digital files we can actually use. But sadly, as noble as our attempts may be, we are unsuccessful more times than not. The complexity of the digital workflow just presents too many opportunities for mistakes when it comes to preparing and moving electronic graphics files.
Among the issues we face are an array of font-related problems, including missing screen or printer fonts, substitution of incompatible fonts (or defaulting to the dreaded Courier face), unstable font metrics (font and character spacing), and character positioning issues. Variation in font construction among the major providers, as well as differences between font types (PostScript, Bit Map, TrueType, and Multiple Master) are related issues.
We can only watch in horror as the characters we saw on our monitors are rendered in unexpected ways during printing or final output. Some progress in stabilizing these font issues has been made in recent years, but unless we convert all type to curves or paths (which makes future text editing virtually impossible), many of the issues remain.
Compositing multiple elements and layers in complex image files also presents difficulties. We are at the mercy of graphic designers to make sure that all the images or elements they used in the original layout program to build the complete graphic are included (and are the correct versions) when the composite file is saved and transferred to us.
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A panel of experts will bring cotton producers up to date on the latest cotton fundamentals and provide a cotton price outlook at the July 24 Cotton Roundtable in New York City.
Special guest speaker at the Roundtable is Joe Nicosia, president and CEO, Allenberg Cotton Co., Memphis. Other panelists include O.A. Cleveland, professor emeritus, Mississippi State University; Carl Anderson, Extension specialist emeritus, Texas A&M University; Jarral Neeper, president of Calcot, Ltd., and Mike Stevens, Swiss Financial Services.
The event begins at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time.
It will be broadcast live on the ICE Web site at http://www.theice.com and by teleconference to the Ag Market Network listening audience. The program will also be carried by KFLP radio, which covers the west Texas area. And it's available live at http://www.kflp.net, on a 10-second delay.
Questions for the meeting will be accepted from the listening audience.
An archive of the roundtable will be available at http://www.agmarketnetwork.net.
The Cotton Roundtable is sponsored by the Intercontinental Exchange, Certified FiberMax, Cotton Incorporated, Ag Market Network and Farm Press Publications.


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I have been in Australia now for almost four months and a lot has been happening. Everything from moving out of the tent in the bush, to beautiful crisp days in the mountains, to bouldering in the Grampians, and to finally booking tickets for the next step of my trip.
First up is the story of how i have changed from a total dirt bag climber/bum to lets say just a climber/bum (for now). It all started about three weeks after i set camp in the middle of the bush here in the Blue Mountains. Just another normal day out at the crag was followed by a nice hot shower and awesome dinner, at a very comfortable and welcoming home. Now that doesnt sound like the life a homeless dirt bag climber does it...? NO!! Well this is all thanks to a very nice family that we met at the crag after watching there daughter cruse up some very impressive climbs on Wave Wall. We got chatting and later found out that she was only 8 years old and had just ticked her first 27/7c!!!! WHAT!!! Her name is Angelina Scarth-Johnson, check her out on the classic www.8a.nu .
After sharing stories they soon began to feel bad for us and probably couldn't stand the smell of us for much longer so soon invited us over for a warm shower and some dinner. This then led to us house sitting for them over a weekend, and then not to long after that, we were living there. In there barn was a huge upstairs room with a pool table, power and eventually a makeshift bed topping off what has felt like a five star accommodation to me.
Other than living in a nice warm house and having amazing meals cooked for every night i have also been doing a bit of Rock Climbing surprisingly. Nice clear but cool sunny days have allowed for many amazing days out climbing here in the bluies. I have spent most of my time just climbing locally here in the Glen ticking off many awesome climbs. One of my favorite climbs was a route called 'Inertia', a steep roof climb with awesome 360 degrees campusing moves on good pockets! Its one of those climbs that the first attempt on it feels desperate but once you figure it out it goes smoothly on the second! It made me feel strong at least :) (not much of a campusing kind of a guy)
Nothing to different has happened on this trip to the mountains compared to my previous visits so i wont bother boring you with the same old stories etc so ill cut to the chase…
Other than climbing many awesome routes here in the mountains i have had the chance to explore some of the nearby bouldering spots also. All thanks to a good friend and fellow kiwi crusher Roman Hofmann. Winter is the best time for bouldering here so i took the opportunity of having a car and a guide to check them out and see if i could pull my self up some boulders. First up were the hidden sand stone blocks of sydney. Hidden in unlikely areas of suburban sydney behind peoples houses were some really nice and hard problems. One of my favorite areas was called 'The Frontline', an area with many rounded sandstone blocks with splatters of chalk everywhere you look. A problem that stands out as one of the best here would be "L' Homme Obu" (V11) A Fred Nicole line i believe with some big moves on perfect rounded sloppy edges through the cave. Unfortunately after having a really good first day, by the time we got to this problem i was already pretty tired so we decided to climb the first have of the problem which is given V8 and then the second half which is V9. Having done these pretty quickly i decided to put my last bit of energy into the link. After a few attempts and a lot of skin i had to walk away empty handed after giving it all i had and falling off with my hand in the finishing jug…
It was disappointing at the time but not for too long as we returned a few days later and it went pretty easily first go!
Another bouldering spot i checked out was a more local area called XXXX (4 X). A good little bouldering area with good rock and a fare amount of hard problems! After a few warm up problems, i was drawn to this very steep arete with what looked like some very nice moves on awesome blue mountains rock. I was given the rundown of the beta and quickly became super psyched. It looked pretty hard but i had a good feeling about it so i decided i would give it a good flash attempt. After chalking it all up i quickly put my shoes on (except it wasn't so quick as there lace ups…) and got on it! It all went pretty smoothly up an till the last move where i found my self blowing chunks with my fingers wrapped over a very small and sharp crimp, trying to find the power to go for the last move. After a couple of failed slaps for the hold i managed to stay holding on and improvised, cutting loose and throwing a heel hook high above my hand giving me that little extra strength to reach the hold before easy climbing to the top. Desperate!
Standing on top of the boulder in the dark, i felt exhausted. I have never really tried that hard i think... I was soon told that i had just become the first New Zealander to have flashed a V11/8a boulder!!It was pretty exciting but i was so tired it took a while to sink in. Super stoked but smashed.
I hadn't done to much night climbing before, so maybe that made it seem more exciting. :)
That all pretty much raps up whats been happening here in the Blue Mountains so hope you enjoyed it!
Here is the tick list :
>TuTu Sullied Flesh 29/8a >Cheesemonster 30/8a+ (2nd go) Nowra
>Tsunami 29/8a >Tripe 30/8a+
>August 1914 29/8a >Point break 31/8b
>Middle Earth 29/8a > Pooferator 31/8b
>Fabricator 29/8a >Double Adaptor 31/8b
>Cagney n Lacey 29/8a >Search And Destroy 32/8B+
>Microwave 30/8a+ >Better Than Life 32/8b+
>Temptation 30/8a+ >Moonshadow 33/8c
>Inertia 30/8a+ (2nd go)
Next up was a fun but wet three week bouldering trip to the Grampians. It all started off great with two weeks of awesome accommodation (Thanks again to the Scarth-Johnson Family), great weather, and lots of good climbing. I had been to the Grampians before but only for sport climbing so i was excited to change it up a little and check out the bouldering. I had heard its meant to be pretty good there... ;)
We spent most of our time climbing in areas such as The Cave, Andersons, and the Kindergarten, as these are the areas with most worth while lines to do. I have to say tho, i did find it a little hard bouldering when there was world class route climbing just around the corner! Especially at Kindergarten as you can practicly see Taipan Wall. Beautiful!
Some good bouldering was done for the first ten days or so, ticking off many amazing problems and also seeing some pretty hard stuff go down, as the presence from Team America and more, shook the Grampians with their pure strength combined with the odd tantrum over the bad winter weather. :)
Unfortunately our luxury accommodation soon came to an end as the rest of our new 'family' left for home, so we unpacked the tent and got back in to dirt bag mode! An extra ten days of climbing was the plan but after the first night in the tent there had already been a lot of rain and word was out that there was more to come! There sure was!!! Every day until our very last i don't think it stopped raining once so many morning were spent sulking in the warm nearby cafe. The delicious brownies definitely cheers us up tho! We did notice a pattern in the weather tho as at about 8pm or so the weather would clear and we could see the stars again. This gave us enough time to have a couple of quick night session at the Kindergarten making us feel a little happier about our selves as we had managed to pull down on some semi dry rock.
Luckily the weather gods chose to be nice to us for once as on our very last day climbing it cleared up and a fare bit of wind was around which meant most things dried up pretty quick. We took advantage of this dry rock and started off back at the Kindergarten. Of course this was one of the only dry areas, meaning almost every climber around was there. This made the atmosphere pretty cool.
I had been trying a climb called So You Think You Can Dance for a few days now and had got pretty close but was running out of power up high. My knees were getting trashed from all the knee bars so i had to walk away from it for a while. Luckily a friend had brought his knee pad so i got psyched for it again and began trying. After a few tries i managed to do it, feeling pretty happy as it was our last day.
I then continued the psyche by quickly working out all the moves on the long and powerful problem 'Point And Shoot'. After a quick brake and refuel, i jumped back on it managing to climb it pretty smoothly, giving me my second V11/8a boulder of the day. I was feeling strong! Petty it was the last day.
Grampians Ticklist:
Etch-a-Scetch V11/8a
Dead Cant Dance V11/8a
So You Think You Can Dance V11/8a
Point And Shoot V11/8a
Last Action Hiro V12/8a+
I am now on the other side of the world adapting to the very long and pumpy sport routes of Ceuse, France. It is the start of my travels here in Europe so i am very excited to check out the amazing climbing areas it has to offer. Thinking Spain next!
Living the dream!
If you have made it this far i congratulate you! Hope you enjoyed it and didnt get to bored. :)


text: On Mon, 27 Aug 2007, Jim Lux wrote: > And here's a challenge at the other end of the spectrum. > > What's the lowest cost, simplest, closest to off the shelf way to build a > small network file server that can do DHCP/PXE booting, etc. for a compact > low power cluster. Something like a LinkSys NSLU-2 (<$100 but you need to > add a USB disk, and load a new version of the OS that has dhcpd and tftpd) > could probably do it, but it would be nice to have an integrated solution. An intriguing problem, but if you are serious I think you'll have to specify your requirements and the relative weight assigned tradeoffs a bit more carefully. USB flash >>is<< remarkably cheap nowadays (although often slow unless you spend a bit more than the minimum) and there are a variety of very small devices, e.g. phones and PDAs and PDA-phones capable of running an OS, networking, and attaching a USB device or a flash chip directly. Then there are Slugs, and then there are micro-ATX form factor motherboards, and then there are chopped up laptops. Neowares have a "system unit" that is built into the monitor and is about the size of a trade paperback -- with video, networking, etc. They take a USB flash snap-in. If I bought one and chopped it up and kept only what I need I could probably make a server with a 48 GB RAID built on top of (say) four 16 GB flash sticks, a USB bridge, a neoware's guts, and a small brick that wasn't too big and would probably have decent performance and no moving parts (no fans, no disks). It would cost a few thousand, though. OTOH, there are on-web HOWTOs on how to e.g. set up a Sharp Zaurus with linux, and of course there are many embedded linux capable devices out there at this point. There are many single board computers that will run linux or e.g. Windows CE. Many of them will run a remarkably full-featured linux. Truthfully, I think that if one really pushed it, one could probably build a 50 GB solid state device (no moving parts) inside one of the small "paperback" portable USB disk enclosures like the one I have for my laptop. One could likely power it off of a USB cable or a small wall-wart, and serve the disk either over ethernet or 802.11b. It's pretty easy to find functional motherboards this size or smaller for prices as low as $52: http://www.compulab.co.il/x270cm/html/x270-cm-datasheet.htm?gclid=CIX86d3slo4CFR5uUAodVT-jQQ with all the integrated peripherals required to make a nice, little, SLOW system. Where slow means less than a GHZ -- I've run NFS servers for entire departmental LANs on systems with 20 MHz clocks, though. My current palm pilot has a 400 MHz clock, integrated wireless, etc. If one wired the flash directly onto the motherboard and got rid of the dongles and everything, you could probably build an NFS server the size of a credit card about a centimeter thick. Or, if I spent a few entertaining days learning to code my Palm, I could probably make it an NFS server for at least a small (probably tiny) filespace -- however big a memory chip add on it would accept. So, if this is a "challenge", what are the parameters, and what are the stakes? I'd bet that ~50 GB for a kilobuck, wireless or 100 Mbps ethernet, inside the size of a paperback, add your own KVM would be "easy" at the hobbyist or homebrew level. That's based on 4x$130 = $520 for 4 16 GB USB flash disks, $100-$200 for a single board low power computer (depending on features selected etc), $50 for building an enclosure, $30 for power, and a big slop budget for places I'm underestimating. For about the same one could probably do 360 GB with 4 actual laptop hard disks, but I'm not sure you could get it into as small an enclosure and keep it as cool... rgb > > > > James Lux, P.E. > Spacecraft Radio Frequency Subsystems Group > Flight Communications Systems Section > Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mail Stop 161-213 > 4800 Oak Grove Drive > Pasadena CA 91109 > tel: (818)354-2075 > fax: (818)393-6875 > > _______________________________________________ > Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf at beowulf.org > To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit > http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf > -- Robert G. Brown http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/ Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305 Durham, N.C. 27708-0305 Phone: 1-919-660-2567 Fax: 919-660-2525 email:rgb at phy.duke.edu


text:
Someone needs to call Don Cherry out on his childish xenophobic rants. Regarded as a legendary ice hockey analyst and Canadian icon, Don Cherry is known for his often inflammatory and controversial remarks, but it seems that the general public recurrently lets his ethnocentric diatribes slide rather than holding him accountable.
For years, Cherry has been characterizing European players as "cowards" for not understanding the "Canadian way" of hockey. When asked to comment on why he didn't have any European players on his junior team, he said, "They call me a racist because I don't want any Europeans coming to play for my Ice Dogs. If a kid comes over here and becomes a Canadian, I'll put him on in a minute. But I will not parachute him in so that he can grab the money and run." Cherry took similar jabs at the dazzling Czech center, Jaromir Jagr, accusing him of being "everything that's wrong with the NHL. He gets hit, he goes down and stays there. Get up!" In the same interview, Cherry compared Jagr to another hockey legend, Tim Horton, a player who, according to Cherry, would stay on the ice and finish his shift even if "blood would be coming down his face." Apparently, Cherry thinks only Canadians know how to play "tough."
So what's eating at Don Cherry these days? See number 8 on the Washington Capitals, a remarkably talented Russian left-winger named Alexander Ovechkin. Actually, to say he is "remarkably talented" is an understatement. The guy is a magician with the puck and arguably the most exciting player to watch in the NHL today. Playing in his fourth season, Ovechkin not only led the league in goals, but he has also earned his place in the pantheon of hockey superstars. Cherry's beef? Ovechkin's goal celebrations are too "over-the-top." That's right. Ovechkin's enthusiasm is too much for Cherry's "Canadian" standards.
On CBC's Hockey Night in Canada, Cherry complained that Ovechkin was acting like "those goofy soccer guys" by "jumping up and down" after scoring goals. In pure dogmatic fashion, Cherry pointed at the screen and lectured Canadian kids not to act like Ovechkin. Instead, he tells kids that they should behave the "Canadian way" and act like Joe Thornton, Joe Sakic, Brendan Shanahan, Jarome Iginla, and Bobby Orr (all Canadian-born players). I didn't realize the NHL had a "Canadians only" stamp on it.
What's more disturbing is how ethnocentric and racist Cherry's presentation is. He shows clips of dark-skinned international soccer players jubilantly celebrating on the field, calls them "goofs" and says, "Look at this! This is what we want our hockey players to act with?" Then he shows clips of Ovechkin's celebrations and yammers, "Look at this! Does he not remind you of a soccer player?" For those who missed it, here is the clip:
Cherry receives plenty of criticism for his remarks, but the problem is not just his unapologetic ego, it's also how the media and the NHL simply brush off his words as if they don't generate negative and stereotypical perceptions of European players (or any player who is not from North America). On the CBC Sports website, Cherry is showcased for his opinionated views, no matter how bigoted or how xenophobic, but the line needs to be drawn somewhere. Cherry undeniably crossed it right here (and it isn't the first time either, he once went as far as saying Russian players have "zero heart"). Not holding him accountable is to ignore the weight of the issue altogether.
Around college campuses and street hockey courts, I hear hockey fans debating about Ovechkin's exuberant celebrations. I've been watching ice hockey since 1997 when the Philadelphia Flyers went to the Stanley Cup finals (and were swept by the Detroit Red Wings), and I've never heard this kind of debate before. It's no doubt that the "celebration controversy" was generated by Don Cherry's commentary, but whether people realize it or not, it reinforces this new idea that there is a Canadian/North American "unwritten law" on how hockey players are supposed to celebrate goals. When Ovechkin scored his 50th goal of the season, Cherry ripped on Ovechkin's "hot stick" celebration and had these words for the young star, "Have a little class and do it right." In other words: Be Canadian, otherwise you're "threatening" the "Canadian way" of hockey and aren't worthy of admiration or praise. It's sort of like the Bush administration on ice.
The fact of the matter is that many aspiring hockey players admire Alexander Ovechkin, not because of his nationality, but for his extraordinary display of talent and leadership. What worries me is how people like Don Cherry want to make Ovechkin's nationality an issue. It seems that he wants us to perceive Ovechkin's style of play as "foreign" and "un-Canadian," while making us forget the fact that Canadian-born players such as Theoren Fluery, Tiger Williams, Wayne Gretzky, and countless others have also displayed plenty of dramatic celebrations in the past.
Dictating how NHL players should celebrate their goals isn't so much about hockey than it is about fascism. Calling all European players "cowards," accusing them of having no "heart," and then comparing them with "goofy" dark-skinned soccer players is not about hockey either. It's called racism. If Don Cherry is not held accountable, then what's to stop him and other sports commentators from making racially charged statements about athletes outside of North America? What's to stop the xenophobia and ethnocentrism from spilling out on the ice? Everyone remembers what happened to that other Don (Imus), right?
It's funny because amidst all this controversy, whether its Cherry yapping on about the "Canadian" way of hockey or our generation's hockey fans engaging in superficial debates about goal celebrations, a simple truth lies beneath it all: Alexander Ovechkin is one of the greatest players to have ever played the game.
Great athletes don't always have to be North American.
~Broken Mystic~


text:
imaginatik_IMTK needed a new wordpress theme design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 23 designs submitted by 16 freelance designers.
We are a well-established software and services company providing Enterprise Crowdsourcing, collaborative innovation & problem solving, and Idea Management systems to Fortune 500 clients. Our brand personalities are 1) Dynamic 2) Passionate, 3) Controversial 4) Results focused. We have been in business over ten years - and we are a public company on the London Stock Exchange.
Fortune 500 companies – US and European client base, mainly large and mid-sized firms. We are an existing firm and are looking to potentially refresh our image. Within our client base, we target business and professional people, at senior and mid-levels of the firm.
The wordpress theme must reflect our current website. We would like to keep the header with the links the same so there is consistent feel throughout.
This is an example of one of our competitors blogs. http://blog.spigit.com/Blog/Aggregated


text:
In 2002 the ****** experience started to explode. I had spent hours in chat rooms chatting with women who were sexually unhappy in their relationships.
Married women, single women, divorced women, separated women all wanting to share their fantasies hoping that they would come true. Women that wanted to be dominated, women that wanted to be raped, women that wanted to try BSDM, women that wanted to be spanked and called names, women who knew what they wanted, but didn't know how to ask for it or get what they wanted.
After reading and listening to these fantasies for several years I began to ask these women to tell me their fantasy and in return I would write an erotic story evolving them in their fantasy. Then I would email it to them, and we would chat about how it made them feel, and they would tell me how they masturbated to my erotic writings and wished I would make their fantasies come true. Eventually I would occasionally meet some of these incredible women and we would act out their fantasies in person.
After seeing what great pleasure this gave to them, and the pleasure I received from giving them what they wanted. I decided to make them happen for anyone (man or woman) who really wanted their fantasies to come true. So I started a new business, and that's how I became the "The Fantasy Maker".
The stories are written and told from the prospective of the Fantasy Requester
Painful Surprise
Monday night;
Sue, a married 39 year old female wrote: My name is Sue, I am a 39 year old married female with two children. I've put on a few extra pounds over the years, but still feel that I am attractive. I walk everyday and try to look good. I try to be romantic, sometimes I'll wear sexy outfits to get my husbands attention, but my husband apparently doesn't believe in foreplay and only wants to stick it in me, roll over and go to sleep. When I ask, or suggest sexual ideas to him he tells me he isn't into that. So after years of not being satisfied and hearing stories from my friends about role playing, nipple play, being tied up, feeling painful pleasure, all the things that I have longed for. I decided to contact "The Fantasy Maker".
My fantasy is to be forced to do things in bed that I've never done. I want to be tied up, blindfolded, lots of nipple play, painful pleasure and I want to be totally dominated.
Tuesday morning;
Fantasy Maker reply: Sue, be at the Roadside Inn on Main Street at 8:45pm on Friday night. Go to room 109, the door will be unlocked. At 9:00pm take off all of your clothes and take a shower. Your "Safe Word is GREEN". If at anytime you wish to stop, or things get too intense just say Green. 8:45pm don't be late.
After receiving the reply to my fantasy request on Tuesday, I was totally freaked out. I started thinking I was taking this too far. I was scared and feeling nervous as I thought about showing up at motel alone for sex. As the day went on I found that I was talking myself out of fulfilling my fantasy. When my husband came home that evening I was feeling pretty horny and I told myself if he makes love to me tonight I won't go through with it. I put on a sexy nighty and walked into our bedroom, and I told my husband he could do anything he wanted to do to me, I told him to be rough with my nipples and be forceful. He looked at me and said okay I'm horny too. He rolled over, started groping my tits, shaking them, then he knelt up on the bed, pulled my head to his cock and told me to blow him. So I took his cock in my mouth and began to lick and suck him, stroking his shaft while I licked his head. He pulled out of my mouth, pushed me down and spread my legs and thrust into me three time and shot his load. He rolled off and said that was awesome. I made up my mind at that very moment. Friday night was happening,
Friday night;
I picked out a sexy summer dress, a lace bra and a matching thong to wear after my shower. I packed my bag and left the house wearing a tee shirt and blue jean shorts. I showed up at the Roadside Inn at 8:30pm fifteen minutes before I was told to be there. There were several vehicles parked in the parking lot, but not a lot of activity in the area.
At 8:45pm sharp I walked up to the door of room 109 and noticed that the door was cracked open. My heart sank, and I began to sweat. I turned and looked at my car, thought about going home, and then I decided that I needed to do this for myself. I pushed the door open and entered the room. The room was empty except for a note on the TV that read, "Take a shower at 9:00pm, and don't forget GREEN is your safe word!"
At 8:58pm I opened my bag took out my dress and underwear and carried it into the bathroom, so I could put it on after my shower. I got undressed out of my tee shirt and shorts, looked at my phone and it was 9:00pm exactly. I started the water in the shower and climbed in. As I felt the water hitting my breasts and running down my body between my legs I felt a little squirt in my pussy and I yearned to cum. It had been so long since I had been given an orgasm by someone else other than myself. I soaped up making sure everything was clean, and then I began to rinse off.
As I reached down to turn off the water, the shower curtain flew opened and I almost fell down in the tub from surprise. A man wearing a black shirt, black pants and a black ski mask grabbed me by the arm and the back of my neck and led me into the bedroom. He closed the bathroom door behind me, told me to turn and face the door with my hands resting against the door. I felt him brush against me as he grabbed my hands from behind me. I looked up and saw some type of restraint hanging from the bathroom door. The masked man secured my hands into the restraints, then place a blindfold over my eyes, and turned me around facing him. I was still startled, scared and I was thinking I had made a mistake. I was ready to scream GREEN, and get out of there.
I was standing totally naked, dripping wet with my hands tied above my head when the man said to me as he lightly stroked my face, tonight is your night. He told me that my tits were beautiful and my nipples looked like they needed some attention. He forced two fingers into my mouth, then a third and a fourth, gripped my jaw and raised my head against the door and said you are mine to do with what I please! Do you understand? It was hard to speak with his fingers in my mouth, but I told him I understood.
He turned me to face the door, told me to spread my legs and open myself up to him. He moved closer behind me. I could feel his breath on my shoulders and then his lips kissed my neck, and then my back. He ran his hands across my shoulders, up my arms to my hands, then back down on the inside of my arms to my chest where he circled his hands lightly over the top of my tits, down the sides to my ribs, then my thighs all the way to my ankles. As he made his way back up the back of my thighs his hands caressed my ass, squeezed it roughly, and spread my cheeks apart. My pussy was really wet and my nipples were standing at full attention and as he spread my ass cheeks apart I could feel the cold air from the A/C hit my wetness.
He stood up behind me pulled me close with his hands on my waist, kissed my neck and shoulders. I felt his hands under my breasts. He lightly caressed the undersides of my breasts occasionally brushing my nipples. My knees gave out a little as the excitement moved through my body. It had been several years since I was touched so lovingly and gentle by a man.
My nipples were aching to be played with, I moved my body so that my nipples would hit his hands. When he realized what I was doing, he told me firmly to stand still, and gave me a light but firm smack on my ass. His fingers circled my nipples lightly, then his thumbs began to flick my nipples in a pattern. He was circling my nipples lightly with his fingers, and then would flick my nipples downward with his thumbs. I could feel my clit begin to swell. I needed to close my legs to squeeze myself together to enjoy the feeling.
He took both my nipples between his finger and his thumb on both hands, and firmly squeezed them. I could feel the blood flowing as he applied more pressure. The feeling was intense, my pussy was dripping and my clit was throbbing. I wanted him to rub my clit and make me cum. As I wriggled around on my toes, my body was on fire. I had never felt like this before.
He began to pull my nipples away from my body as he applied more pressure. I thought he was going to pull them off! He pulled them as far as they would go, the pain was intense, but if felt so damn good. With my nipples being squeezed and pulled away from my body, he began to roll them between his fingers. The pain level went up ten notches, and I felt my pussy drip a large amount of wetness onto my thighs. Never has my body acted like this before. I was beginning to moan uncontrolably at his every movement.
He released my nipples and gently ran his hands over them, easing the burning sensation. He pulled me close and held my tits firmly in his hands. I could feel his hardness pressing against my ass and as I nestled my ass on his cock he began to pinch and twist my nipples. Pulling them, pinching them, and squeezing them until I gasped for air. At one point the pain was almost unbearable and I could have screamed GREEN, but the pleasure was so incredible and I didn't want it to stop.
I felt him walk away, and then I heard him unzip a bag. He returned behind me and whispered in my ear. Do you want to cum? I said god yes! He reached around fondled my tits, played with my nipples lightly, and then began to get rougher. He then pulled my left nipple out away from my body and I felt a sharp pinch that made me scream. An instant pressure built up and the pain ran through my body. As I was catching my breath from the continuous pinching feeling, he pulled my right nipple away rom my body and then something clamped down onto that nipple. I swear I was hanging from my hands tied above my head. He whispered into my ear, "those nipple clamps look so hot hanging off your tits."
He stood me up lightly rubbed the tip, of my nipples, kissed my shoulders and told me that my nipples were getting just what they needed. He kissed his way down my back to my ass, dropped to his knees and began to kiss my ass cheeks. Licking them lightly, spreading them apart, running his hands between my thighs lightly brushing my pussy lips as he opened my thighs. He moaned and whispered about how wet I was. He slid a finger into my pussy and moved it in and out. It felt so good, but I wanted him to touch my clit. I knew I would come as soon as he touched it.
He continued to slide his finger in and out of my pussy, gradually gaining speed with his thrusts, then a second finger joined the first. Moving in and out. He turned his fingers inside me and applied pressure against the back of my pussy. It made me feel so full. He found a spot that made me feel like I had a fat cock in my pussy even though it was just his fingers. My clit was ready to explode. If my hands were free I would have reached down there and came. He instructed me to lean over against the door, and to stick my ass out.
As I followed his instruction I felt his hand lightly smack my ass. He continued to smack my ass as he forcefully stuck two fingers into my pussy. My ass was stinging, my nipples had a constant tinge of pain, and my clit felt like it was six inches long. His fingers began to move along the front wall of my pussy, and then there was this constant pressure building. It felt incredible. It felt like nothing I'd ever felt. His hand began to, move quicker and more concentrated. I felt like I had to pee. I told him to stop cause I was going to pee! He told me to just let it go. He continued to move his fingers in a rapid motion in my pussy and I felt the most incredible orgasmic feeling in my entire body. A feeling that I had never in my life and then I felt a warm liquid squirt out of my pussy. It was running down my legs onto the floor. My body was shaking and I thought I just peed all over the floor when he told me I just squirted. He untied my hands, removed the blindfold and carried me to the bed where he sat me down and lowered my shoulders to the mattress. He knelt down between my legs and began to lick my juices from my thighs, working his way to my pussy.
He reached up and removed a pair of nipple clamps as he licked the sides of my pussy. He gently rubbed my nipples as the blood from nipples returned to my body. His tongue found my clit, and I thought there was no way I would be able to take anymore, but oh my god! It felt amazing! As he licked my clit he moved his hands around my thighs and ass wiping up all of my juices, spreading my ass cheeks with his right hand. I could feel my orgasm building. I was grabbing the sheets and bearing down. I grabbed the back of his head and held it against my throbbing cum soaked pussy. I felt something pressing against my asshole, moving in a circular motion. I was temporarily distracted, but it felt so damn good. I continued to grind my pussy into his face and then he slipped a finger into my asshole, deep all the way in. Then he began to thrust it in and out. My body tensed up and I screamed I'm cumming and I came for what seems forever. He moved away from my clit to let me enjoy my orgasm, but kept his finger in my ass. As I was coming down from my high he slid his finger out of my ass and told me how beautiful I looked with a glow of satisfaction.
With one quick movement he spun me around and my head was hanging upside down off the bed and he straddled my face. He instructed me to lick the head of his cock. It was hard and warm, it felt so good in my mouth. I sucked and licked him. I wanted to make him feel good. I wanted to make him cum. He pulled away, climbed into bed with me, held me close, kissed me, and then spread my legs. He moved over top of me, and I could feel his hard cock press against my pussy. He slowly entered me, moving in slow deep motions running the base of his cock against my clit until we both came together.
He stood up, got dressed and said, "fantasies were made to come true Sue!" I said can I see you again and he replied, "send me another fantasy request." I told him he should charge for his services. He smiled and said maybe someday. And then he left the motel.
I layed there on the motel bed, running my fingers over my nipples that were still tingling, my body weak, my legs still wet. I wondered what he looked like since he had never removed his mask, but it didn't matter. I had the feeling of being totally satisfied, but I still wanted more. I began to plan my next request as I showered before returning home to my real life.


text:
Ne-Yo & Chris Brown Vs Kevin Hart In Basketball For 10 Stacks! (Chris Hits Kevin With An ILL Crossover)
s/o ImTIAZ ImTiAZ
Fast foward to 8 Min : 40 sec mark to see Chris crossing up Kevin Hart
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text:
Essential valuables can be left at the Property Lock-ups which are prominent around the Festival site. The locations are marked on Festival maps by a 'keyhole' logo. You can leave your belongings in safety, however large or small, and for whatever length of time you choose.
Property lock-ups are open 24 hours a day, and are free of charge to use. Soap and toilet rolls are also distributed free of charge from here.
The property lock-ups open on Wednesday and close at 12 noon, on the Monday – so if you leave anything in the lockups make sure that you pick up your belongings before then. (Anything left behind after this time will have to be claimed from Wagonshed Welfare and may not be available until after 4pm.)
Challenge 21 wristbands
The property lock-ups will also be issuing 'Challenge 21' wristbands. The Festival operates a 'Challenge 21' policy for alcohol sales. If you look under 21, you will not be served alcohol unless you can prove you are over 18 – by presenting ID, or by wearing a 'Challenge 21' wristband. These will be available from the property lock-ups, on presentation of a valid form of photo ID. The following are acceptable forms of ID:
- UK Driving Licence
- Valid Passport
- If you don't want to bring your passport or driving licence, use a PASS ID. See http://www.pass-scheme.org.uk/ for details.


text: Geoff McFetridge is a creator living in Los Angeles, California. He has his hand in many things, most recently the title sequence in Spike Jonze's 'Where the Wild Things Are', and never seems to disappoint. At the moment, he has a skate company called The Solitary Arts, a wallpaper company called Pottok Prints, a design business called Champion Graphics, and does gallery/museum shows in his spare time. I've been following his work for years, and his work deserves every bit of recognition is receives. I can't wait to see what his hand has in store for us next.


text:
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries
Guide to the Gisele Freund Papers
Cage 678
Table of Contents
- Summary Information
- Biographical/Historical note
- Scope and Contents note
- Arrangement note
- Administrative Information
- Controlled Access Headings
- Collection Inventory
- Series 1: Publishing Projects and General Correspondence
- Series 2: Photographs
- Series 3: Printed Material
- Series 4: Biographical and Provenance Material
Summary Information
- Repository
- Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries
- Creator
- Freund, Gisele
- Title
- Gisele Freund Papers
- Cage 678
- Date [inclusive]
- 1933-1990
- Extent
- 1.0 container.
- General Physical Description note
- .5 linear feet of shelf space.
- Language
- English
- Abstract
- Chiefly correspondence and reviews relating to photography books published in U.S. between 1980 and 1985.
Preferred Citation note
[Item Description]. Cage 678, Gisele Freund Papers. Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
Biographical/Historical note
While Gisele Freund's birthdate is cited as either 1908 or 1912, it is certain she was born in the Schoneberg district of Berlin, Germany, to wealthy Jewish parents who had a passion for collecting art. Her father's gift of a camera to the fifteen-year-old Gisèle set the course of her life. During her university years in Frankfurt, where she studied sociology, Freund took an active political stand again National Socialism. Forced to flee Germany in 1933, she landed in Paris with little more than a suitcase containing her camera and some photographic documentation of Nazi violence. At the Sorbonne her doctoral studies emphasized the history of nineteenth century French photography. Her friendship with Adrienne Monnier, the proprietress of La Maison des Amis des Livres bookshop (which published her dissertation) provided Freund with access to the literary elite of Paris.
The exigency to make a living led Freund to photography as a serious vocation. Life magazine published some of Freund's early projects in the mid-1930s. Other significant commissions from that period include the dust jacket photographs for the first hard cover editions of Andre Malraux's Man's Fate (1935) and James Joyce's Finnegans Wake (1939). In 1939, Freund had her first private showing at the Peggy Guggenheim Gallery in London. Though a naturalized French citizen, Freund fled occupied Paris in 1940, first to southern France and then to South America, where she continued her photographic assignments throughout the war. In 1947, she began a seven year association with Magnum, the photographic news agency established by Robert Capa and others, including Henri Cartier-Bresson. Freund's first public exhibition was in 1975 in New York, at the Robert Schoelkopf Gallery. Three years later, Freund was awared the photokina Kulturpreis, and she was the first woman to receive the Grand Prix National des Arts in 1980. Gisele Freund died in Paris on April 1, 2000.
Along with her documentary reportage, Freund is best known for her photographic portraits, many of them in color which, she said, came closer to life, including studies of some of the greatest literary and artistic figures of the twentieth century. This list includes James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, Leonard and Virginia Woolf, Andre Malraux, Jean Cocteau, Marcel Duchamp, and Henri Matisse. Before photographing her subjects, she worked to earn their confidence by establishing a rapport with them. Her ability to capture the "essence of beings through their expressions" earned Gisele Freund the reputation of being one of the world's greatest photographers.
Scope and Contents note
The Gisele Freund Papers consist primarily of correspondence and book reviews relating to her American publications that appeared in print between 1980 and 1985.
Arrangement note
The organizational arrangement of this collection has been imposed by the archivist, and consists of four series arranged in chronological order. Series 1, Publishing Projects and Correspondence, 1975-1990, consists of material relating to her published work, including correspondence between Freund and Joan Daves, her American literary agent, Freund's introduction to Three Days with Joyce (1985), and other material relating to publishing rights, royalties, and contractual matters. Series 2, Photographs, 1933-1974, includes prints, proofs and mock-ups, chiefly relating to the publication of her photography books and photographic exhibitions. Series 3, Printed Material, 1968-1985, contains selected writings by and about Freund. Series 4, Biographical and Provenance Material, 1982-2000, includes clippings and copies from encyclopedia entries.
Administrative Information
Publication Information
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries © 2001http://www.libraries.wsu.edu/masc
Terrell Library
P.O. Box 645610
Pullman, WA, 99164-5610
Conditions Governing Access note
This collection is open for research use.
Custodial History note
Prior to resale and purchase, this material was in the possession of Joan Daves's family (Joan Daves was Freund's American literary agent).
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
Washington State University Libraries purchased this collection of Gisèle Freund Papers from dealer George Robert Minkoff in 1999.
Controlled Access Headings
- Photography, Artistic
- Photographers
- Photographers -- Correspondence
- Photographers--Europe --20th century
Personal Name(s)
- Freund, Gisèle--Correspondence--Archives
- Arts and Humanities
- International Relations
- Literature
- Photographs
- Publishers and Publishing
Collection Inventory
Series 1: Publishing Projects and General Correspondence 1975-1990
Subseries 1.1: Gisele Freund, Photography and Society 1980
Correspondence relating to rights and royalties. 1985-1986
|1 / 1
Subseries 1.2: Gisele Freund, Photographer 1985
Correspondence relating to contractual matters. 1984-1990
|1 / 2
Agreement between Harry N. Abrams, Inc. and Gisele Freund. 1985
|1 / 2
Publicity review list. 1985
|1 / 3
Book reviews. 1985-1986
|1 / 3
Subseries 1.3: Gisele Freund, Three Days with Joyce 1985
Correspondence regarding publication of Three Days with Joyce. 1975-1990
|1 / 4
Gisele Freund, Preface to Three Days with Joyce. 1982
|1 / 5
Richard Ellman, James Joyce in 1939, introduction to Three Days with Joyce. 1982
|1 / 5
Book reviews. 1985, 1990
|1 / 6
Miscellaneous materials; description of project, list of photographs and descriptions, advertisement, clippings. 1982-1985
|1 / 6
Correspondence between Gisele Freund and Joan Daves. 1985-1990
|1 / 7
Series 2: Photographs 1933-1974
Gisele Freund, Catalog of 102 contact prints with carbon table of contents listing each photograph and date taken. Prints include numerous portraits of: Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Andre Malraux, Simone de Beauvoir, Man Ray, W.H. Auden, Samuel Beckett, Andre Breton, Andre Gide, Colette, Marcel Duchamp, Paul Eluard, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean Cocteau, Henri Matisse, T.S. Eliot, Leonard Woolf, Henri Michaux, David Siqueiros, Andrienne Monnier, Sylvia Beach, Max Ernst, G.B. Shaw, J.B. Priestley, Diego Rivera, Henry Moore, Herman Hesse, Stephen Spender, Christopher Isherwood, Paul Valery, Elsa Triolet, Simone De Beauvoir, Pierre Bonnard, Vita Sackville-West, Georges Mathieu, Ivan Illich, Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenitsyn, Marguerite Yourcenar, John Steinbeck, Philippe Soupault, Eugene Ionesco, Le Corbusier, Samuel Beckett, Jose Clemente Orosco, Iris Murdoch, Ivy Compton Burnett, Rosamund Lehmann, Christopher Fry. 1933-1974
|1 / 8
Gisele Freund, The Searching Eyes, approximately 13 proofs and mock-ups of various sizes. undated
|1 / 9
Series 3: Printed Material 1968-1985
Les Grand De La Litterature Reveles Par Leur Visage, Paris MatchApril 20, 1968, No. 993. 1968
|1 / 10
Gisele Freund, Camera, November, 1978. 1978
|1 / 10
Photographs of Personalities and Places by Gisele Freund (New York: Sidney Janis Gallery, 1979). 1979
|1 / 10
Gisele Freund. Il Mondo Il Mio Obiettivo (Milan: La Tartargua edizioni, 1984), a catalogue and history of Freund's work. 1984
|1 / 11
Gisele Freund, Photographer (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1985), partial proof of the book with dust wrapper and signature of 16 full-page photographs laid in. 1985
|1 / 11
Series 4: Biographical and Provenance Material 1982-2000
Biographical sketches from miscellaneous periodicals and encyclopedias in English, German and French language, exhibit program with list of photos (1982), New York Times obituary, April 1, 2000; invoice and accompanying correspondence. 1982-2000
|1 / 12


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Nira Arora (second from left), Morning Show Host, 94.5 Virgin Radio
"I'm in love with Sparkling Hill Resort in Vernon. I went with some girlfriends for a weekend getaway a couple of months ago and I can't wait to go back. We made it a girls' getaway spa weekend at KurSpa, but you could make it a romantic getaway or mom-and-daughter thing as well.
"I came back so refreshed and recharged – so much so that my friends thought I had work done. (I didn't, I swear!) The seven sauna and steam rooms were amazing and walking around in a robe for two days is incredibly relaxing.
"We ate at PeakFine, the restaurant at the resort, and enjoyed all our dining experiences.
"The trails there are gorgeous so I actually was inspired to go for morning runs before my spa appointments. There are amazing farmers markets and local wineries, which completes the trip."
Erin Ireland, Food Reporter
"One of my favourite weekend getaways is Tofino. With its epic, vast beaches and top-notch dining, it offers the best of both worlds – nature and luxury, that is. If we're going all-out, I love to stay at The Wickanninish. Never before have I experienced this kind of hospitality and charm in a hotel. The resort is located on the water and its in-house restaurant, The Pointe, offers a 240-degree view of the ocean. This is also home of one of my "top 3 meals of all-time" – the chef's tasting and wine pairing menu is worth the splurge. Also, they're dog-friendly!
"Ocean Village is my other favourite Tofino accomodation. Their A-frame huts, located just up from MacKenzie Beach, are clean, cozy and simply perfect for a relaxing getaway. A dinner in town at Kuma is a must. This family-owned company specializes in Japanese comfort food – the mayo-drizzled cabbage pancake is a must. The sake and cocktail menus are also excellent. Return home to your oceanfront hut for a walk on the shoreline, some beach campfire s'mores roasting and sunset gazing."
Susie Wall, Style Expert and Media Personality
"Is there anything better than a weekend at Whistler? I never need those first few hours to decompress or unplug when I roll into our little treehouse there. And I wish I could rattle off a list of spas and relaxation lounges to duck into – but the truth is I'd rather be mountain biking trails like Gypsy Drum and Tin Pants above Lost Lake, dropping into a morning flow class at White Gold Yoga or going for a solo paddleboard at Wayside Park.
"I'm a regular at Naked Sprout for a post-workout Date Shake smoothie – and my Americano plus coconut vegan banana bread combo from Pure Bread is an all-time mountain high.
"My sister (Andrea McDonald) is a registered holistic nutritionist, so a trip to the Whistler Farmers Market pre-Sunday night dinner is such an amazing experience with her.
"And a weekend isn't complete without modern tacos from the kid-friendly and super cool La Cantina (I highly recommend the Machu Picchu salad).
"And just a few steps away at Marketplace? The jaw-droppingly delightful 3 Singing Birds is an emporium for everything from Happy Spritz aromatherapeutic sprays and James Perse toppers to twine spools and washed linens."
Shaun Verreault, Singer/Guitar Player, Wide Mouth Mason
Cultus Lake
"My family discovered Cultus Lake this summer. It is a little bit of a drive (a couple of hours from where we live downtown), but so worth it.
"We made straight for the Cultus Lake Water Park and were really pleased with the selection of toddler-friendly slides and play areas there, and appreciated the complimentary kid-sized life jackets. We were also impressed with the supplies they had available to rent, including big beach umbrellas and hibachis.
"When we'd had our fill of sliding, we went across the road to the Cultus Lake Adventure Park and yahoo-ed our way around the many kid-centric rides.
"To top off the day, we had dinner at the Lakeside Beach Club's patio and stopped for fresh produce at the farmers' stands along the road home. We're planning a return trip this month and hope to make it an overnighter this time."
Ryan Dahle, Musician, The Mounties/Limblifter/The Age of Electric
Mayne Island
"My lady, Megan Bradfield, her family and I gather once a year on Mayne Island where her parents have a cottage.
"Our favourite hike starts at the end of Edith Point Road. We can easily spend a couple of hours exploring the three trails that lead out towards the point through cedars, Douglas firs, giant arbutuses, alders and even Garry oaks. There are views of Bennett Bay on one side and the Strait of Georgia towards Vancouver on the north side.
"Another hike I'd recommend – for its elevated views of the Gulf Islands, Vancouver Island and the Salish Sea – is in the middle of the Island up Mount Parke.
"For ice cream or coffee, we stop at the Sunny Mayne Bakery Café. For dinner, our favourite is The Groove Island Kitchen and also we always frequent The Bennett Bay Bistro at the Mayne Island Resort. It's a beyond beautiful location and we've heard only great things about staying at the resort. It's on the water and renting a kayak is easy.
"Some trip highlights over the years have been kayaking out of Dinner Bay near a small island full of seals, where we were surprised by a deer swimming in the ocean. We have witnessed Orcas playing around in Active Pass from the Miners Bay Wharf with whale-watching zodiacs crowding around them. It's also fun to check out the Mayne Island Fall Fair and Parade and The Japanese Garden."
Tyler Bancroft, Musician, Said The Whale
Howe Sound
"Vancouver has the best backyard of any city I've ever been to (and I've been to a lot). My favourite corner of the yard is Howe Sound. It's home to several gorgeous islands: Gambier, Bowen, Anvil, Keats, and a handful of smaller ones. It's best explored by boat, because you can drop anchor in almost any bay and stay the night. The northerly outflow will rock you to sleep, and you'll wake up the next morning to the sweet sounds of waves lapping and coastal birds chirping.
"If you don't have access to a boat, there's plenty that can be done on foot or by car. Porteau Cove campsite (book in advance), Gibsons, or Bowen Island (both ferry access) are all prime spots for blissing out with B.C.'s natural beauty, and all within an hour of the city.
"If you're thirsty, Gibsons is home to Persephone Brewing, a great new microbrewery that has an amazing tasting room in a converted barn.
"On Bowen Island, make sure you eat at Tuscany Pizza – their pear-and-brie pizza is next-level amazing."
Jillian Harris, Former Bachelorette and Co-host of Love It or List It Vancouver
"My favourite weekend getaway is Tofino where I love to walk my dog, Nacho, spa at the Wickaninnish, and have dinner at the Wolf in the Fog and Tacofino. I like to stay at the Pacific Sands Beach Resort townhouses and hot tub in the rain… OOHHH, I WANT TO GO NOW!!!!"
Grant Lawrence, CBC Personality
Desolation Sound
"The boating paradise of Desolation Sound has long been my go-to B.C. vacation spot. It started with a family cabin built 30+ years ago, then there was a big dip of interest during my teen years, but now I long for the place almost constantly.
"Desolation Sound is B.C.'s wild coast at its best, filled with feather, fur, and fin in the air, land, and sea. Because it's water access only, what you won't see is too many people. Show up outside of the height of the summer and chances are you won't see any people.
"In the nearby town of Lund, there is plenty to do once you kayak back to shore. Fine dining and a killer view can be found at the Laughing Oyster at Okeover Landing, whereas Nancy's Bakery, located in Lund's busy inner harbour, offers up casual breakfasts and lunches, along with her world-famous cinnamon buns.
"Nancy's is also in spitting distance of the water taxi to Savary Island, in case you feel the need to trade the warm waters and granite cliffs of Desolation Sound for our closest white sand beaches. I forgive you. Say 'hi' to Colin James while you're there!"
Tamara Stanners (back row, left) with family and friends, Program Director, 102.7 The PEAK
Pender Harbour
"I live in Squamish, which is like a fabulous getaway in itself, but I am also absolutely blessed to have a place in one of the most beautiful places on earth on the Sunshine Coast: Pender Harbour.
"The locals call it the 'Venice of the North' and it is truly spectacular. It's all arbutus trees and sea stars. There are hundreds of tiny nooks and crannies only accessible by water – warm freshwater lakes with rope swings and jumping fish. One lake, Sakinaw, is actually salt water on the bottom and freshwater on top. It is the only lake of its kind on the planet, and scientists are diving deep and finding never-before-seen life forms (most of them microscopic, but still super cool).
"And then, there's Madeira Park, one of the cutest little towns ever. We love boating or kayaking over to get our groceries there and checking out their funky second-hand stores.
"Paddleboarding in front of our place is magical, so much sea life, and jumping in the ocean there is one of the most life affirming things I do. We watch boats from all over the world meander their way into the harbour from our dock while sipping cocktails.
"And then there is the beautiful, if challenging (read 3 km straight up through which I feel like dying), hike to the top of Mount Daniel. The pic above is from a couple of weeks back with some of my family and friends. The view is so worth the pain!
"There are so many exceptional places in B.C. We are the luckiest humans and we should feel so grateful to live here!"
Erin Cebula (reflected), Entertainment Producer/Reporter at ET Canada
"Tofino holds a very special place in my heart. It's where – 16 years ago – I fell in love with my husband, and where I said 'yes' to his proposal two years later. Since then, rugged and beautiful Tuff City has been our oasis; the place we unwind and reconnect. Here we wander (Chesterman Beach), eat (The Pointe at The Wickaninnish), sleep (not telling) and drink (in our hot tub) just a little too much. Yes, we've done the obligatory surf camp, storm watch and zodiac trip, but what makes this place really magical is that it gives you permission to do nothing – something I get better at every visit!"
Shawn Hook, International Recording Artist
"My favourite weekend getaway is Whistler in the summer. I love doing anything outdoors, like riding the gondola up the mountain and hiking around the trails. Also, Whistler has some of the nicest golf courses in B.C. My favourite is Nicklaus North on Green Lake. The amenities of the course are world-class and if you're in a rush, you can take a floatplane form Coal Harbour in Vancouver directly to the golf course!
"After a round of golf, my favourite place to eat is The Bearfoot Bistro. It's French cuisine done right and the vodka tasting bar is a must. It's located in a -32°C ice room and you can sample vodka from all over the world.
"And getting to Whistler is half the fun. The Sea-to-Sky Highway is one of the prettiest drives in the province. There are plenty of spots along the road where you can stop and take the most picturesque selfie you've ever dreamed of."
Mary Zilba, TV Personality/Recording Artist and Producer LadyPants Productions
Clayoquot Wilderness Resort
"Beautiful British Columbia – a place with so many special and hidden treasures to visit. We are all very lucky here to be able to just get in the car, take a floatplane or even a train to see places full of stunning beauty and country charm.
"One of my favourite weekend getaways is the stunning Clayoquot Wilderness Resort, a remote sanctuary of wilderness and five-star accommodations combined. It's a place that is only reachable by floatplane. You are whisked away to the campsite which consists of five-star cuisine, white tents filled with antiques, fluffy duvets and every amenity you can imagine.
"I personally love riding one of their many horses through rivers and unexplored land, whale-watching is spectacular and if salmon fishing is your thing, it's like fishing in paradise.
"Clayoquot is a perfect weekend getaway and a place to renew your spirit and senses, while being at one with nature – a very special treat I like to give myself once a year."
Todd Talbot, Host of Love It or List It Vancouver
The Sunshine Coast
"We are spoiled for choice in B.C., but one of my all-time favourite spots is the Sunshine Coast. I'm really lucky to have the best accommodations, which come with home-cooked meals and babysitting! My parents have designed and built a gorgeous house on Sergeant Bay (which you can book on airbnb), but if I didn't have that, I'd be at Rockwater Secret Cove Resort for sure.
"The Sunshine Coast is all about ocean experiences like kayaking, fishing, and paddleboarding at dusk! I'm also addicted to golf and the three courses – Sunshine Coast Golf and Country Club, Pender Harbour Golf Course, and Sechelt Golf and Country Club – are really fun (if you need a lesson, you have to find my buddy Mike Hobson!).
"We always take the incredible hike out to Smuggler Cove, which is good for all ages, and if you want to see something super cool, try the hike at Skookumchuck Narrows Provincial Park to see the tides. There are also a number of awesome mountain bike trails too.
"Don't forget to stop by for coffee at Wheatberries and dinner at the Painted Boat."
Fiona Forbes, Host on Shaw TV
Gambier Island
"My fave local weekend getaway is hands-down my aunt's house on the West Bay of Gambier Island. It's such a peaceful, beautiful little spot. We either sail over from Vancouver or take the water taxi, which is a quick little jaunt from Horseshoe Bay (where you can always pop into The Boathouse Restaurant for a quick little pre-trip Caesar and snacks).
"We have a great little beach that's just a stone's throw from the house with kayaks and paddleboards on the ready. The pier at the foot of the property is also a perfect diving board to jump in for a cool, refreshing swim!
"Our family tradition has always been croquet matches (usually with our coffee in hand in our PJs first thing in the morning). My favourite spot to eat? My aunt's dining table... it doesn't hurt that she's a gourmet cook who could put Julia Child to shame!"
Tommy Europe, Celebrity Trainer
White Pine Beach
"I love to go to White Pine in Port Moody with the family to relax and enjoy the water. It makes for an amazing workout as well, as I bring a large inflatable boat, fill it with family and friends and push them with my flippers!
"Whistler is another go-to destination for me, and you can't beat the Fairmont Chateau Whistler for accommodations and entertainment. Araxi is a must with their mouth-watering food and fabulous service."
Sophie Lui, News Anchor, Global BC Morning News
"I love many places in B.C. – Whistler and Penticton come to mind – but Tofino is special. Every time I arrive there, I am struck by how beautiful it is. It never gets old.
"I mostly catch up on sleep when I'm there. I usually spend a lot of time walking along the beach at Cox Bay. I also like to visit the great eateries in town. Among my favourite places to eat and drink are Shelter Restaurant, Wolf in the Fog, RedCan Gourmet, and Wildside Grill. To be honest, I never feel the need to do anything in particular... other than enjoy some down time.
"I often stay at Pacific Sands Beach Resort – I love their villas! Other favourites are Long Beach Lodge and The Wickanninish (of course!).
"One of my favourite stops in town is Habit Clothing. Tofino may be a tiny town, but Habit has great clothes and accessories and I always end up buying more than I expect when I'm there."
Ashleigh McIvor DeMerit, 2010 Olympic Gold Medallist, Skicross (with husband Jay DeMerit, Vancouver Whitecaps Ambassador)
"The advantage to living just over an hour from what I feel is the most beautiful place in the world is that you can make every weekend a getaway weekend! I love that scenic drive up the highway; I actually think that, in itself, is therapeutic. My favourite things to do in Whistler vary from season to season, of course. I'll start with summer.
"Mountain biking has really blasted its way back onto the scene with new technology, making everything so much easier for weekend warriors (much like in skiing). If you don't own a bike, head to Fanatyk Co. and they'll set you up with a top-of-the-line rental, and point you in the right direction. Best is to start with the Lost Lake Trail system. There really is something for everyone, from the mellow cross-country ski trails, all the way up to technical rides with ladder bridges and steep descents. It's always nice to finish a ride with a dip in the lovely Lost Lake or cruise down the nice, paved Valley Trail to any of the other gorgeous beaches like Rainbow Park on a hot day.
"Once you're back in the village, the GLC (Garibaldi Lift Co.) patio is a fun place to catch up with friends and have a drink in the sun while enjoying the entertainment from the Whistler Mountain Bike Park. The bike park is a really great activity too, again, with something for everyone. My Mom enjoys the green trails – they are all rated, just like the ski trails, from green to double black diamond – and I like to remind people that the easy trails are actually easier to tackle than those on flat ground because you don't even need to think about pedaling!
"In the winter, just replace all of that mountain biking with skiing and you'll be sure to have a blast. I like to finish a day of shredding 'pow' with a drink at Dusty's in Creekside (if I don't have a bunch of friends already meeting me at the GLC in Whistler Village).
"As for accommodations, we have a cool place right at the base of Whistler's Creekside in Lake Placid Lodge, so we are kind of spoiled! We do rent it out here and there, but as with most Airbnb lodgings, it's sometimes tough to convince owners to host for just two nights over a weekend. Even still, there are lots of great places you can book through that platform, but be sure to check that they have the correct zoning for nightly rentals before you book.
"When it comes to hotels, my favourite place to stay is definitely the Nita Lake Lodge. I think it's one of the nicest hotels in the world, with incredibly unique, high-end finishing touches in each of the guest rooms, an elegant lounge and restaurant, and views across the pristine Nita Lake.
"My favourite restaurants are the Rim Rock Cafe, and the Red Door Bistro, both of which are at our end of town and offer fine dining with a casual Whistler vibe.
"f you do end up staying in a place without a pool and hot tub area, be sure to spend some time at the Scandinave Spa. It's magical."


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