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Lovely Clothes. Beautiful Wardrobes. Smart Budgets. Life Adventures. Daily Domesticity & More.
Friday, August 29, 2014
Shopping Simplified@Madewell: Extra 30% Promo-Priced Items & Sale Styles, an Extra 20% Off Select Dresses & Boots + Free Shipping on All Orders - YESYES!!!
4 comments:
Love the Skinny skinny crop jeans in tempest wash. I sized down from my usual Madewell jean size. Also bought the Yarnmix cardigan in Heather Coal. I tried on Linen swingline tee. It's a little sheer even in dark cabernet (great color!). I didn't like how short it was in the front.ReplyDeleteReplies
Oh I like those jeans too, lolcatgirl! I really wish that I could wear the skinny skinny ones. That wash is fabulous. Perhaps I could make them work under a tunic or one of the shorter dresses that are on my new arrivals list for what I'm loving right now...Delete
How does the Yarnmix cardigan fit? Did you size down or go with your normal size?
My feeling on the Yarnmix cardigan is that it runs big. I had assumed they were going for a slouchy look but the description says "A lean, throw-it-on shape". I sized down.Delete
Ok thanks. Let me know what you think of it once you get it. Also, if you would like to share a review of it, the jeans, or any other Madewell items you can email the review/reviews to me, and I'll post it/them here on my blog. :)Delete


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Sterling Silver, Gold, and Turquoise Watch Bracelet by Wilbur Taylor (#05)
5 1/2" with 1" clasp
We offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee on every purchase.
Not all of us have opted for the sleek electronic timepieces of today; many still prefer the kind of wrist watch you need to wind. Anglo craftsman Wilbur Taylor combines Sterling Silver, 14k gold, and turquoise into a watch band that compliments any traditional watch. Rugged and sturdy, this helps keep you on schedule and makes a fashion statement at the same time.
About the artist:See all items by Wilbur Taylor
Related categories:Navajo Jewelry See all items in this category
Related legends:
Precious Stones
Turquoise; Precious stones have symbolic implications. For example, turquoise if a "collective term for all the precious stones, wealth, or mixed offerings. Good fortune is attributed to this stone." Both white shell and turquoise are emphasized in Kinaalda? More about this legend
Silversmith Work
When and how the Navajo acquired the art of working metals is unknown but there are reasons for supposing that it was introduced among them, or at least more developed and improved upon by them, since the time they have occupied their present country?More about this legend

subset: commoncrawl


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Air Canada has launched their traditional St Patrick's day promotion to get some bookings in between March 10 – 17, 2016.
Member will get their share of 10,000,000 miles when they book using promo code STPATRICK2016 and travel by May 31, 2016.
You can access this offer on Air Canada's website here.
Note that the number of Aeroplan miles you get per purchased ticket is dependent of how many are purchased using the promo code over the period.
You can expect to receive somewhere between 1,000 to 2,000 bonus Aeroplan miles per issued ticket based on the experiences over the past couple of years. There is a minimum bonus of 500 Aeroplan miles per ticket issued.
This is an easy way for those that fly on Air Canada and have not booked their tickers yet for the Spring travel to earn some bonus miles.
Here are the terms and conditions:
Eligible bookings will include bookings made until March 17 by 19:59 Eastern Time inclusively (GMT, March 18 by 00:59.
- To qualify for this offer, you must be an Aeroplan Member at the time of booking. If you are not an Aeroplan Member, you can visit the Aeroplan website (www.aeroplan.com) and enroll today to receive your new account number to apply before you complete your new Air Canada booking. Membership is free.
- Offer is eligible exclusively for new online bookings on aircanada.com. In order to be eligible to receive the Bonus Aeroplan Miles, you must first sign in with your Aeroplan Number and make sure you provide your Aeroplan Number and the promotion code STPATRICK2016 when you or your travel agent completes your purchase online at aircanada.com. Bookings must be made online either at aircanada.com or aircanada.com/agents to qualify for this promotion.
- Bonus Aeroplan Miles for the purchase of eligible flights on aircanada.com will be awarded for new bookings made between March 10 and 17, 2016, for travel between March 10, 2016 and May 31, 2016. In order to qualify as a new booking, the booking must have been created for the first time with a new booking reference number during the eligible booking period of the promotion. Any booking made prior to the start of the promotion that is subsequently changed to include travel dates within the qualifying travel period will not be considered a new booking that is eligible for the promotion.
- A minimum of 500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles will be given for each new booking where the promotion code STPATRICK2016 appears. Only one bonus per new booking, regardless of the number of passengers on the reservation.
- The 10,000,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles will be divided equally amongst all eligible Aeroplan Members who make a new booking on aircanada.com and apply the promotion code STPATRICK2016 to their new booking between March 10 and 17, 2016, for travel until May 31, 2016. The number of Bonus Aeroplan Miles to be awarded to each eligible member will depend on the total number of eligible members who participate in the promotion.
- Valid on all eligible scheduled non-stop flights operated by Air Canada (including flights operated under the Air Canada Express banner) and Air Canada rougeTM for travel between March 10, 2016, and May 31, 2016, system-wide.
- To qualify, all the flight segments must be travelled in the eligible fare options (booking classes) indicated: Tango (W, G, S,T, L, A, K); Flex (M, U, H, Q, V, W, G); Latitude (Y, B); Premium rouge (O, E, N); Premium Economy Lowest (E, N); Premium Economy Flexible (O); Business Class Lowest (C, D, Z, P); Business Class Flexible (J)
- Valid on published fares eligible for Aeroplan Mile accumulation. Offer is not valid when traveling on ANY Air Canada Flight Pass.
- The Air Canada promo code and Aeroplan Number cannot be applied after the booking has been completed on aircanada.com.
- You must provide your Aeroplan Number and the promotion code STPATRICK2016 before completing the booking. No Bonus Aeroplan Miles will be awarded when bookings on aircanada.com are made without logging in as an Aeroplan member. Aeroplan Numbers and promotion codes cannot be added once the booking is completed and the Bonus Aeroplan Miles cannot be retroactively credited.
- The promotion code STPATRICK2016 has no cash value and is required at time of booking for Bonus Aeroplan Miles offer eligibility.
- Bonus Aeroplan Miles will be credited six to eight weeks after the last travel date (May 31, 2016) of this promotion.
- Bonus Aeroplan Miles are not Altitude Qualifying Miles and do not count towards Air Canada AltitudeTM.
- Aeroplan Flight Rewards are not eligible for mileage accumulation.
- Bonus Aeroplan Miles cannot be sold and are non-transferable. They have no cash value and cannot be converted to cash or refunded if unused.
- Offer is subject to change at Air Canada's sole discretion without notice; other conditions and restrictions may apply.
- aircanada.com additional conditions only: The Aeroplan Miles awarded for booking online will only be credited to the Aeroplan account holder who made the online booking and completed their travel. Member must have signed in with their Aeroplan Number, be the first passenger listed on the reservation and name must be an exact match to the name on the Aeroplan account.
- aircanada.com/agents additional conditions only: The Bonus Aeroplan Miles for this offer will only be credited to the first Aeroplan Number listed (appended) on the reservation. Should this passenger cancel his/her flights the Bonus Aeroplan Miles will be awarded to the Aeroplan Number which is now the first listed on the reservation.


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A Novel
Thomas Clerc; Translated from the French by Jeffrey Zuckerman
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
(4.35 m2)
The doorbell rings. I go. Peephole. Nobody. I grab my keys. I open the door. The 3rd-floor hallway. Empty. A glance. The stairwell. "Anybody there?" I can't have been dreaming. I go up some steps. I go back down. I'm in front of my open door.
This door isn't standard. Squat, shoved into its frame, it evokes some brutish epoch when people might have stood in front of caves, expecting monsters to poke their heads out. Its orange tinge is jarring, like primer paint before the final coat. It's old, it'll stay orange, with its uneven crust. Just looking at it, anyone would guess that the ceiling was low, the whole building too, this modest late 18th-century structure with 6 floors but only 2 façade windows. Ancient but inglorious: I live on 1 of those Paris streets Prefect Haussmann's equalizing regime left unrazed.
He Rings His Doorbell
If he wants to listen once again to that muted, shrill tone, which caught him by surprise, he'll press the little white disc embedded within its black plastic rectangle mounted on the right side of the doorjamb. He hears it rarely and rings it even more rarely still. His visitors generally don't notice the discreet button and so they knock on the door. Knocking on the door makes them seem more neighborly, since the doorbell's timbre is as impersonal as a luxury residence or a doctor's office. There's no name on the door. He enters.
He Enters His Home
I push open the door with the momentary twinge I always feel when coming back after some long absence or voyage: here's hoping nothing's happened. The molding on the inside panels makes it impossible to reinforce this door; only its old oak offers any bulwark against attacks. The Italian-style lock that I engaged with 1 double turn (€500) is really just makeshift: the vertical bar with multiple rivets wasn't properly sawn off at both ends, the screws are unevenly tightened along the doorframe, and the circle bored into the wooden floor for the bar to sink into is more hole than precisely cut ring. 1 small wooden doorstop wedged/jammed behind the bar is supposed to protect it from crowbars, but this rudimentary safeguard positively reeks of amateurishness, even though I let a specialist do it. I can't really say I regret doing so, considering that the burglary I suffered on February 8, 2006, was accomplished not by breaking through the door but rather by shattering the living room window, contrary to all those statistics indicating that 80% of burglars come through the front entrance. It was then, out of sheer precaution, that I had my lock changed. Even though the burglar entered through the living room window, I can't be sure that he didn't go back out through the door, relocking it with 1 of the keys I (idiotically) keep in the entryway, so that he could come back later. The scenario may be unlikely, but I can't rule it out entirely. If I'd known how many copies I'd made of my keys, I could have deduced whether he had stolen 1; but, like so many other people, I never pay attention to these sorts of things and so the theoretical stolen key is simultaneously present and absent: by describing my apartment as faithfully as I can, by presenting this detailed inventory to my reader, not only will I be in a position to calculate the number of keys in my possession, but I'll know how to correct the mistake of leaving my keys out for everybody to see. Isn't writing a form of material proof, an observation that collapses uncertainties? Since there was no way I could allow myself to go on living in fear of yet another break-in, even without forced entry, I hired 1 of those locksmiths that we in France call "Louis XVIs" (it's a long story) to come and change this undamaged lock that was now threatened by Schrödinger's key.
Locked Out
Keys make their power felt only in being lost, thereby turning doors into walls, if not outright barricades—as in the classic misadventure that befell me on October 5, 2005, just as I was heading out. Grabbing my set of keys and shutting the door as usual, with 1 firm yank, I immediately realized on the landing that I had thoughtlessly taken along the keys for my Nanterre office instead of the keys for my apartment and was now locked out. Without my wallet or phone or anything more than 1 pair of office keys, I very quickly descended into frustration, worry, despondency, and self-hatred. No question about it: my day had been ruined.
This mistake has 1 identifiable cause: that same morning, I had learned of my dear friend the writer Guillaume Dustan's death at 39 (I, too, was that age). Perturbed as I was by this news, which I'd heard just before leaving to teach, on the threshold of my apartment, unsettled by the idea that someone of my own generation could die so early and so brutally, I found myself, immediately after my lunch at home, in the situation I have described, alone on the landing, helpless, reeling dizzily, heading toward the 1st café I could find and using their phone so someone could get me out of this mess.
Having crossed the doorway and shut the door with its 2 massive hinges so reminiscent of primitivist works of art in their 13-centimeter height and diameter that they aroused whistles of admiration from my locksmith (compliments carry 0 value save when delivered by experts), I step into the entryway. At the moment I enter my place, I reflexively slam the door: the burglary I've just described doesn't have any bearing on that action, since I'm not obsessed with security the way my colleagues are. The breach of my domicile, as unpleasant as it may have been, didn't drive me to reinforce my home with heavy-duty security doors, alarms, surveillance cameras, door chains, bars over the windows, or any other such paranoiac apparatuses. No, it's more my desire to remain hermetically sealed from the outside that prompts me to twist my wrist and shut myself in. This sanctuary in the heart of the city, this warm or cool oasis standing sentinel against the street. With that essential gesture, I dam the deluge: I enter my kingdom. The key's metallic click as it turns 2 times in the lock prefigures my passage into this other world. I do so even when some visitor leaves: as soon as he's out, he can hear me turning the key right behind him, setting off laughter on both sides of the door: the loon is locking himself in.
The Key to All Keys
At which point I leave the key in the lock, in its natural place. While my eyes stay fixed on the cluster of keys hanging and swinging like a clock's pendulum, in regular undulations that soon slow and come to a stop, I look for other elements bearing this double function (both organization and utilization). These keys are 3 in number: the largest 1 governs the entrance to my apartment and opens 2 doors—the door leading to the street, for which it isn't really needed, since punching the code (54 B 68) does the trick; and the door leading to the courtyard, for which it is very much necessary—while the 2nd key, with a black plastic cover on its bow and its short, crenellated shaft, is used for the apartment door; the last, very small key opens the mailbox. In 1 sense, these keys aren't mine; I'll have to return them when I get to the end of this book and I've left this apartment. These keys, weighted not so much by their volume as by their symbolism, signify ownership without wholly embodying it. The persistence of keys through history astonishes me: unlocking a door remains a terribly human, antiquated gesture forever haunted by the risk of failure.
In the Poe House
The 1 ideal, enduring key chain design I've always sought is now finally in my possession: a miniature book made of silvery metal and about 2 cm by 2.5 cm, with ring attached, the book's cover reading EDGAR ALLAN POE, the 3 words arranged vertically. The "book" has a spine also debossed with POE, and on the back cover, in small engraved letters, is the sentence I BECAME INSANE WITH LONG INTERVALS OF HORRIBLE SANITY. I bought this superb key chain in New York on July 26, 2009, while visiting the Poe Cottage, an antiquated wooden house tucked into some corner of the Bronx, on 1 small square right between 2 massive unwelcoming avenues, and which I found only through sheer perseverance, even as my queries to passersby went unheeded; nobody in the population of poor black people and working-class white people milling around that neighborhood had any apparent knowledge of Edgar Allan Poe's house.
The book's $1.50 gleam, weighting the fetters of my small key ring, is testament to my reverence for the author of "The Philosophy of Furniture."
Old Oak
A door, like a sheet of paper, has 2 sides, and on the verso of mine I see unappealing wood. Deceptive ornamentation barely hides its defects, which I've tried to cover up with wood filler. A useless undertaking: gaps and bumps still hint at the oak's paradoxical fragility, which my slipshod job only accentuated. When I feel it with my hands, the door seems knobbly, but not solid; it's more screen than proper door. Like a cardboard cutout of a knight that I could simply knock over.
A Peephole Named Judas
The peephole is at neck height for me, so I have to bend down slightly to use it. A position rarely employed: few and far between are those who seek to breach the boundaries of my apartment, fewer and farther still are those who arrive unexpectedly, and fewest and farthest are those occasions when the 2 categories meet and warrant a preventive glance, which is to say the moments when strangers present themselves at my door. The peephole's rounded magnifying lens creates a visual distortion, an effect I would say approximates anamorphosis. Since the French word for peephole is judas, sometimes I decide to play the betrayer and use this tiny panopticon as a base from which to spy on all the people going up or down the stairs—and when I'm also able to hear their voices too, then all that's left would be for me to scribble down their conversations here … But at heart I can't bear to be a backstabber. The only secrets I'll betray are my own.
Having slammed the door, I double my foyer's defenses in the winter with a portière that keeps the draft out. It's always cold in my entryway since the stairwell leads directly to the courtyard and outside air: a defect perhaps due as much to its builders' indifference as to the modesty of means at their disposal. (I wonder who actually built my building? Some artisan who left no signed work behind, as opposed to those great architect-engineers who took pride in forever engraving the letters of their last names into the flesh of bourgeois stone…) In the 19th century, interiors started being insulated from the elements; but in my apartment I have to do this work myself, stuffing the door's crevices with foam and hanging a rod above the doorframe for holding 1 thick green velvet curtain bought at the Saint-Pierre Market and hemmed by a Kurdish tailor at Château d'Eau. The length of the cloth is incorrect—a flaw that continues to annoy me, since I was the 1 who miscalculated the door's dimensions, as well as those for hemming the portière and then the relationship between the 2: the velvet lets cold air trickle out the left and right sides, while most of the wintry chill sits in 1 big heavy mass down low, held in by all the extra velvet on the floor. Sometimes, when I'm bored in the winter, I wave my hand around to enjoy those faint currents of cold air that, despite these defense systems, permeate my apartment; I sweep them from place to place as, with a slight frisson, I savor the carelessness of the unmodern world and of France itself, with its centuries-old architecture so ill adapted to the needs of the present day.
I note the small rod's awkward position: to get out, I have to push the curtain to the left, but because it isn't set on the door but above it, the cloth's thickness prevents the door from opening all the way. Of course there's no real need to open the door all the way, but at certain moments (several people coming in at once, or the sheer width of a new piece of furniture being brought in), this causes a huge pile-up, as we might say on the road. The curtain's way of hampering the door is an affront to the natural order of things: cloth somehow being elevated above wood. If by chance someone insisted on pushing the door all the way open, the curtain's thickness would, as it resisted, drag down the all-too-light rod holding it up, and so pull its screws out of their wall mounts, bringing the curtain and everything else attached crashing down to the floor. The internal limits of a system are endlessly fascinating. Luckily, nothing and nobody ever reaches 100%.
Fiat Luxury
1 wall switch mounted on the left controls the room's lighting, so that anyone entering the apartment is temporarily refused entry to the kingdom of light. This instrument, which manages to merge technology and poetry, execution and idea, is, in French, called an interrupteur: it interrupts the Darkness in which we dwell, and within which we must search for the Light. A little pressure from 1's finger and the hallway appears: 3.3 luxurious meters by 1 narrow meter—its white walls, its window on the right, its wooden floor, its 2 doors side by side on the left, and the egress at its end, obscured by another cloth.
Falling Light
Illumination comes from an oblong, white glass ceiling light—the only real 1 in the apartment—light falling gently down from above. Its shape, somewhat softened by the thin layer of dust coating its globe, hardly interests me, but beneath this lack of interest is outright deception: this fixture is merely a far less sophisticated substitute for the beautiful restaurant chandelier I lost in tragic circumstances. 1 afternoon, bound to my desk, I hear an enormous noise tear through the quiet of my interior. I leave my seat, I go to the entryway: the chandelier lies, shattered, in the middle of the hall, in a jumble of glass shards. Propelled by its own weight to the floor, it had subsequently flown into 1,000 pieces. The metal sconce, its poorly anchored weight having been underestimated, had abruptly come loose, bringing down the massive glass rotunda as well. What a shame that it couldn't have fallen on some burglar's head, knocking him out in the act, committing a crime of its own as it was destroyed. The thief laid low by inanimate objects, a tale too tall to be true, lit up my caricaturing imagination for an instant as I used a dustpan to collect the fixture's scattered glass slivers and its orphaned metal base. I've hardly ever suffered any similar domestic accidents, but this 1 shed light on the 2 major problems with ceiling lights: the blinding risk of just such brutal drops, which I've never let myself forget since, and the sinister gleam they cast over a room, crushing it with light forced downward rather than gently spread in all directions.
I can't stop fixating on an odd thing about my replacement light: it's cracked. But it could only have become so subsequent to contact with some object or else some violent individual, which wouldn't have been me. Upon reflection, it must be a legacy of my (actual) burglar, whether because he was looking for something hidden in the fixture (as in Family Plot, Hitchcock's final film, where a diamond is secreted in a crystal chandelier) and then broke it out of spite, or else, more likely, he simply collided with it, somehow, in his haste. As such, the 2 ceiling lights in my entryway (past and present) have each suffered damage, total or partial—as if their position overhead paradoxically doomed them both to injury.
Window on the Walls
In this light, it's possible to walk into this hallway-entryway and appreciate the natural illumination streaming from the right thanks to the window looking onto the building's courtyard. As the sight of this small, walled-in courtyard strikes me as depressing, if not sordid, considering the 10th arrondissement's relative paucity of lavish courtyards, the original inhabitants' relative modesty of social status, and the 3rd floor's relative inadequacy of panoramic views, I've draped some large white cotton curtains in front of these double casement windows. Thus filtered, their light adds to the space's serene ambiance. Held in place by 1 gray brass rod identical to the portière's, along which several small ring-clips slide, this curtain is always kept shut, even when I open the window for some air. Its natural-fiber cotton, acquired at the Roissy IKEA, protects me from the walls of facing buildings and the windows of fussing neighbors.
I'm caressing the curtain's slightly quilted texture; I'd like not only to give my readers a guided tour of the museum-of-sorts that I consider my apartment, but also to make them rub their fingers over every inch of it; literature moves me because it respects nothing.
Concierge Services
Around the sides of the white curtain I peer out at the courtyard. I bring my eye to the lateral gap and, like a silent spy, I let my gaze take in the slow, lugubrious rhythm of this interior space, largely uneventful, but not always—as when snow falls.
Modern White
Like all the other rooms of my apartment, the entryway is painted white, and while I do happen to have a personal preference for all that is bright, I'm also following the current cultural taste, which has established white as the color par excellence, and which divides interiors into 2 hermetic categories: "contemporary" spaces, and everything else. Pared-down classical styles have become equal to modernist interiors that disdain all decorative and chromatic excess. As I welcome Adolf Loos into my place, he whispers Ornament is a crime while sipping a Mauresque aperitif. In fact, all this whiteness only reinforces the greenery-bereft-greenhouse or charmless-clinic effect of my little entryway.
On the Ground
Continuing to creep forward, on the left wall of the hallway-entryway (which will lead us to the main room in due time) we'll find the bathroom and, immediately thereafter, the toilet. But taking in the whole space means we mustn't ignore the floor.
Buffet Down Low
With any luck, nobody's toes will get stubbed on the low Buffet on the right wall; and I don't mean buffet as in side table, but rather as in this painting by Bernard Buffet (or, at least, this reproduction thereof) set on the floor, depicting some harbor town I've never managed to identify on a canvas measuring 94 × 58 cm and in a sickly green typical for this painter. It's not actually all that serious if I accidentally kick this daub I found on the street, thrown out from the by-the-hour hotel under renovation nearby, because the attachment I feel toward it is uncertain at best. It's not this wall decoration's woeful state of preservation (its upper left corner is damaged; the picture is just glued onto hardboard) so much as the sheer fact of its existence, owing to Buffet's style—alluring due to its horrendousness—that's brought it low; allowing all who walk past to appreciate just how necessary some famously bad artists may be: their radically poor taste serves as a reprimand to our hubristic self-confidence. We can all be brought low.
Terra Infirma
As for the floor itself, the entryway's is adorned, like pretty much the rest of the apartment (aside from the bathroom and the toilet), with old oak parquet, once covered by linoleum, a bequest of the previous owner, which then had to be sanded and varnished away. The beautiful wood paneling's pattern unfortunately does little to hide its structural problem: sloping slightly from the entrance to the bathroom, the floor forms 1 small depression over 10 cm2. Determining the origin of this indentation is fairly easy for anyone well versed in the colossal amount of structural work that my home has required: it's likely that the floorboards beneath the parquet are in terrible shape and that, as with the bathroom, before I had it completely redone, the rafters holding the ceiling of the floor below have rotted away. Since repairing this trench would be far beyond my financial means, I tend to avoid this area … and yet, when I'm at my most anxious, visions of this sinkhole yawning open beneath me tend to plague my mind, and I see myself falling through the floor and landing in my 2nd-floor neighbor's apartment. At the same time, I can't deny the positive appel du vide this potential rift holds for me. When I feel the floorboards sag beneath the pressure of my toes, I relish the act of pushing deeper, testing the physical integrity of the entryway, an action that terrifies and excites me all at once, or maybe like a sore in my mouth or toothache that I can't keep from probing with my tongue. Reducing the problem by fortifying the floor with a massive injection of concrete would certainly be 1 practical solution; but, then, shouldn't these structural problems be solved with a complete and proper overhaul? I leave the sagging area for terra firma.
Charted Territory
The only furniture in the entryway stands at its end, filling the right-hand wall, sneering at everyone who enters. It's no more or less than a gray metal filing cabinet with 4 drawers, its height 1.32 meters, its width 41 cm. This piece of furniture, blandly functional in style, and hard to date precisely—just think of all the "modern" eras it must have endured over the course of its reign—adds to the room's understated tone. Its bureaucratic grayness accentuates its bulk, which provides a gentle reminder of the Balzacian fortitude I had to summon in order to capture it: during a stroll down the rue du Dahomey in my old neighborhood, I stopped in front of a social security office under renovation and, seeing this filing cabinet among a heap of discarded furniture, I decided to claim it for myself. As its weight and my inability to get a good grip on it would have made this a backbreaking prospect for me, I went to the Kiloutou equipment-rental company nearby and got 1 of those things that delivery people use all the time and that we simply call a "dolly," to cart this filing cabinet 500 meters. I managed, with much huffing and puffing, to get it up to the 4th floor, thanks to the furniture mover I had no idea was buried deep within my muscles. This is how people form attachments to their belongings: by paying the price with their own bodies.
The delight I take in my accidental discovery of this monolith, a phenomenon called serendipity, is compounded by the pleasure of having salvaged it myself from the junkyard, by the spontaneous nature of such urban redistributions, and by their near-total unexpectedness. This fortuitous furnishing therefore bears witness to my self's particular tendencies, my self's agency within this urban ecosystem.
1 has to reckon with an ingenious constraint when opening the cabinet's drawers: only 1 of them can be drawn out along its runners at any given time, because having 1 open locks all the others shut, which in turn makes it possible to concentrate solely on the open drawer. Coherent and authoritarian: functionalism follows the form of its function. In the 1st drawer from the top are all my school papers in color-coded folders: these are, in the main, handouts for the classes I attended at various points in my education and which I kept because they were so well done—some are so good, in fact, that I reuse portions of them, thereby reinforcing the stereotype that teachers just copy their work from each other ad nauseam. But, really, what else could a class (or a book) be, anyway, if not a patchwork of other, older material, served up with some personal flair? Everything's here in this 63-cm-deep reserve that I like to open all the way, pulling the drawer out to its fullest extent so as to appreciate the metal's resistance against the weight of so much paper and to hear the click! as the runners hit their limits.
Drawer 2
In the 2nd drawer are my financial files (bills, bank statements, pay slips, tax forms, etc.), kept in an ever-changing order, because I can never decide whether it's easier to reach a folder closer to the inside or the outside of the drawer. I like the shifting positions. Anyway, the red folder specifically dedicated to my 2nd job as maître-conférencier, or lecturer, labeled ADMINISTRATION NANTERRE, is usually easily accessible, so it's simple enough for me to produce whatever documents are needed for everything to go smoothly in that sphere. The requirements of social life force me to open this drawer often: all in all, the irritation most people feel when confronted with "paperwork" is unfamiliar to me; on the contrary, I like the idea that a life could be summarized thus, could be made to fit into a single envelope. I once knew a famous actress who told me about a member of her family who had brandished an old yellow envelope bearing, in black letters, the word JUIF: documents conferring upon her an identity at once fundamental and contemptuous, as seen through 1 particular administrative lens—giving her life substance even while putting it under threat. There's a bit of the archivist in me, after all; I'd never have undertaken this massive documentation of myself if I weren't convinced that archives, like capital L Literature, tell the truth. And while it's true that a conversational approach might do more justice to a person's biography than a dry presentation of all the evidence pertaining to it, the problem is that this argument has so often led to our being made to gloss over the material conditions of these lives—as if the "soul" were more noble than a tax form!—that I find it's completely out of the question for me to pass over these documents and even the least element of my interior in silence.
The money file contains all my statements from the Banque populaire Nord de Paris, which I've kept since I opened my account there in February 2002—the beginning of a new stage in my life. The pitiful state of my finances deserves a novel of its own, but I am barred from belaboring those details here owing to the self-imposed constraint that there be 0 discussion in these pages of any subject that might be the focus of some future literary work. In effect, talking about money—rich vein that it is—would wind up producing a hypertext to this project contrary in spirit to the surfacist descriptions intended for it. All the same, anybody perusing this drawer could easily see that my €3,000 per month suffices to rank me among the 20% best-off French people, which in fact grants me the right to buy this 50 m2 2-/3-room apartment in Strasbourg–Saint-Denis that you're visiting in absentia.
While looking over my bank statements, 1 overpaid consultant noted that, for the year so far, my monthly mortgage payment of €925 hadn't changed, nor had my €150 in maintenance fees, whereas my taxes had gone from €645 to 715, suggesting that my financial situation is improving. As this apartment's owner knows all too well what it costs to own, and especially not to own anything, it can be concluded that the tranquility any apartment provides its owner is a preview of social transformation: a room of 1's own, that's the start of the Revolution. The thick cardboard box bound with a strap and holding smaller folders related to the apartment (files pertaining to the property deed, fees, insurance, and so on) is the administrative counterpart to these lines I've sketched out here on my computer. A folder titled "miscellaneous pay slips" specifies the various supplementary payments I receive that allow me to improve my daily life: alongside my main métier in academia, I practice the thankless art of criticism, the unappreciated art of being a columnist, and the scenic art of performance.
Model Home
Leaning against these folders (unless it's the folders that are leaning against them—with any 2 objects in relation there can be at least 2 relationships) is a shoebox into which is welcomed all evidence of my recent outings: invitations, programs, prospectuses. "Recent outings" isn't exactly right, because it's only when the box has been filled, which might take several months or even years, that it's moved to another part of my apartment (? BEDROOM) and a new box takes its place. Given their multitude, it's impossible to inventory all these pieces authoritatively. My need to preserve these traces of my activities shouldn't surprise any reader aware of my propensity for building monuments to myself. The only rule I have for conservation is this: I have to have been physically present at the event thus memorialized (plays, concerts, soccer games, etc.), so that the evidence might figure in this social cartography of my existence.
Examining the older shoeboxes of this sort reveals that I spent 1 particular stretch of time carving out a cultural life for myself: if I hadn't attended my share of films, performances, and other such outings, I wouldn't really have felt as though I'd truly "lived" … a stance that could only ever be considered contemptible by such despisers of worldliness as those socialites who seem to believe that the pleasure of beholding anything other than their own selves each day must be some sort of vice. In their presence, standing all alone in a corner just looks pathetic—whereas escaping just feeds into their system of exclusion. Nothing could be more unsavory than these false hermits striving to proclaim their insularity—but I can sidestep the dangers of such disagreeable duplicity if I just make use of my strong, incontestable propensity to sit watching the entire French Open on TV without feeling the least discomfort. Leaving my apartment, as will be clear by the end of the book, is something I believe I must earn.
The 3rd drawer is where I keep everything needed for home maintenance: tools, light bulbs, extension cords, etc.—piled up in no order, stashed out of sight thanks to this furnishing's setup, which, by concealing items of 0 aesthetic interest as easily as it does the choicest baubles, thereby fulfills its egalitarian design. I open this drawer, which I equate with misfortune, as little as possible: it's not just that I have so little equipment in here, but also that I feel nothing but dread and terror as regards this array of tools. Since utopia, in my mind, would be a place where machines work quietly all by themselves, devoting so restricted a space to this "toolbox" of mine follows from 1 secret strategy: deep within myself is the foolhardy belief that "I don't need what I don't have," and that accumulating more and better tools would simply increase, almost reflexively, the reasons to use them … In other words, that things anticipate the needs they serve, and as I don't know how to make any sort of minor improvement to my apartment, or indeed how to fix anything, I have instead succumbed to this especially fragile superstition: that catastrophes may be averted by divesting myself of their remedies (a tactic equally useful for the medicine cabinet ? BATHROOM).
Hammer Without Smith
This hammer, my only real tool, was stolen from the worker who came to fix the hot water tank in my bathroom, and who absentmindedly left it behind on the tile (the advantage of having practically 0 furniture is evident here): as an unpremeditated theft, an appropriation by omission, a countertax levied against the exorbitant rates charged by a category of professionals intent on plumbing home-repair budgets to their fullest, this vengeance exacted by an intellectual against a technician delights me. As much as I'm in favor of homeownership necessarily being private, I'm also in favor of sharing tools, consistent with a communist ethos. The semicommunism I aspire to consists of collectivizing everything that's uninteresting. Mr. Green, in the entryway, with the wrench, would thoroughly approve.
The sheer lack of space granted to tools in this drawer results in general disorder, since I keep numerous wholly unrelated things there, thereby giving this shambles an atmosphere much like the 1 the surrealists attributed to flea markets: 1 map of France assembled out of cut-up pink carpet (a gift from my friend Bruno Gibert during his "contemporary art" phase); 1 Polaroid camera, unused for eons; 1 water gun for attacking rhetoricians; 1 flashlight sans battery; some spare light bulbs; 1 cassette labeled THOMAS CLERC DEFENDS HIS THESIS; 1 disk drive; 39 road maps; 1 rectangular metal lampshade in which I've stuffed the box for 1 Montblanc pen that I've never used; 1 3-meter tape measure the same size and color as a wasp; elegant copper nameplates meant to make 1's front door look especially sophisticated; 1 Lip watch, definitively stopped; some cables; and a cookie tin full of nails—all in all a mass of what people from the Pays de Loire region might refer to with that odd regionalism la jaille and what we here just call junk. There's also 1 travel chess set, the memento of a bygone era when I was obsessed with this game for months, before eventually giving it up as violently as I'd taken to it, obeying a particular corollary of the law of caprice, namely, that 1 can avoid exhausting a primary enthusiasm by trying out some alternate dilections, the better to go back to the original with fresh eyes—just as a trip to a foreign country makes it easier to love 1's home upon returning. Chief among these manias would be soccer, for which I save my televisual fervor, or the used bookstore that occupies the Sunday mornings of whosoever agrees to accompany me there.
The Past
Finally, in the lowest drawer, the humblest 1, shoved there for convenience's sake, are all the old folders underscoring the geological strata of my past: the residue of bread-and-butter work for various publishing houses, trip tickets and other travel papers kept in manila envelopes, souvenirs of my time as a student, and other now distant activities I could easily call to mind, but rarely do, like the particulars of a book read out of obligation. These papers, and the memories they summon up, have to be laid out horizontally: roles both on- and offstage at the Artistic Athévains theater (1983–1996); the archives of the literary magazine Le Mérou (14 issues), which I founded along with some young Turks in 1986 and which fell apart in 1995; the minutes from a secret society—Les 4 Fages—founded that same year and scuttled in 1996. 3 activities (the theater, the literary magazine, and the secret society) that only call for 1 brief description, the point they share in common—aside from a delight in life's pleasures—being that of communal living: I don't live in a house but in an apartment. Apartments contain rooms that contain some furniture that contain folders wherein a life has been stored away; life isn't a simple directory of personal belongings. Life overpowers death.
Sliding Along the Runners
As I pull open the heavy drawer, I'm amazed by how smoothly it comes out of its recess. The system of sliding runners surpasses the rough friction of wooden drawers. It simplifies the process of managing memories.
Downside Up
Each drawer bears 1 small rectangle where 1 small piece of card stock is supposed to indicate its contents. Only the 1 on top—WARNING PLEASE READ SAFETY INSTRUCTION PROVIDED IN TOP DRAWER—has been kept. I've handwritten CONFIDENTIEL on the other 3, which makes 0 sense because Literature only pretends to be secret.
I keep 2 types of objects on top of this cabinet: category 1 contains such objects as 1 round ashtray, which I've repurposed (I don't smoke) as a key holder—it's deep enough for the job. This tinplate ashtray, stolen from a waterfront café on some Saint-Raphaël beach in 1994, under the disapproving gaze of my friend, who at the time had a business relationship with the café's owners, is midnight blue with a world-map design, and holds 1 copy each of the keys to my apartment, the keys to my Nanterre office, and the key to my cellar space: keys, keys, keys. I've put this key tray here specifically to be within arm's reach whenever I enter or leave my apartment, so that I won't have to go through the same ludicrous experience that drives me nuts every time I see it happen to other people: trying to find their keys before heading out; but this seeming convenience could pose serious problems should there be another burglary. Keeping my keys in full sight is a security risk; it would be better to hide them away, far from their respective locks, in a place known only to myself (I've now done so).
Keys to the Kingdom
Rusty like tombstones, lonely like men, chilly like corpses.
Made in Cogolin
The other item belonging to the 1st category, here, however, was purchased—from the Romanies in the flea market at Cogolin, a town in Var well known for its pipes and rugs: this 26 cm metalloid rectangle composed of trapezoidal shafts, with 4 black rubber-coated feet and a row of 36 engraved numbers—or, if it's better for each item to be given a name, this record rack (for vinyl singles)—can also be used to organize mail; even so, I leave its beautiful structure devoid of all paper.
Édouard I
The item on top of my filing cabinet belonging to the 2nd category transcends its status as a mere object to achieve the status of "work of art": it pertains to 1 52 cm × 52 cm color photograph that my vice-friend Édouard Levé gave me in thanks for a piece I wrote on his work. This photo, in a pine frame, is part of his Homonyms series, and depicts The Homonym of Raymond Roussel; it was shot in 1998, back when he and I were very close; I chose Raymond Roussel's homonym, among the other possibilities on offer (Emmanuel Bove, André Breton, Eugène Delacroix, Georges Bataille, and Yves Klein) in a coded homage to the identity of the man who gave it to me, rather than any aesthetic reason, which would in any case be antithetical to this work's conceptual nature. Conceptual art is, in my view, the most beautiful of all the arts, and if I had to choose here, for myself, the sort of classification that, as a critic, I easily impose on some of my colleagues, I'd consider myself a postconceptual writer.
Inalienable Objects
1 last glance brings to the fore those items that no apartment dweller could possibly forget: that aggregate of inalienable objects preceding 1's own presence and in time succeeding it—objects belonging not to the resident, as such, but rather, being necessary to the apartment's proper functioning, acting as its real masters: pipes, outlets, meters, drains, etc. 2 different elements are most prominent in this array of wholly impersonal objects that the law calls property in mortmain: 1st, on the right wall of the entryway, the electrical panel, made up of the fuse box, the circuit breakers, and 2nd, the gas meter itself. This equipment is so visually interesting because it's mounted on 1 slab of extremely old dark wood, which contrasts with the plastic switches. Out of this block of backcountry wood come 4 thick wires sheathed in fraying cloth, which once caught the eye of an extremely French electrician from Électricité de France: "You're running a risk," this electrician sighed, reinforcing the dilapidated setup with some black tape. This patch, as touching as a beggar's rags, sets these other details in harsh, cold relief.
The impressive number of fuses (15) in my fuse box causes me some anxiety: I don't see why there should be so many, and I only ever touch the 4 main 1s, which I only consider "main" because they're labeled on a single placard listing the names of their corresponding rooms: I assigned the role of "bedroom" and "office" to their respective rooms only because of these preexisting labels. Fortunately, the fuses almost never blow, but when they do it's in the winter, because having 3 heaters, the lights, and the washing machine all running at once (I don't count the computer because it's practically always on) inevitably results in blown fuses. Restoring power by flipping the breaker from 0 to 1 is the only act of technical proficiency that—once I've gotten the better of my paralyzing fear of being stuck without any heat through the worst of January—I am able to carry out.
Gas on Every Floor
The 2nd inalienable object demanding our attention is on the opposite wall, facing the 1st: the gas meter, 1 small brass block hanging from 2 pipes that run the entire length of the room. Only its grommet touches the wall, so subtly that the pipe almost seems to be floating. At the moment I'm writing these lines, the reading on the counter has gone up to 22/04, which is nearly my birth date. The last official to have taken an official reading from this piece of unseizable property was 1 fairly butch woman who, perched on a stool, kept praising my taste in music as the strains of Amy Winehouse's Back to Black reached our ears, mere days after the news of the singer's death.
The 3rd impersonal object, a white-corded intercom, which unlocks the courtyard door, is fixed to the wall. It was manufactured by the Acet company, and presents me with 1 unlock button and a 2nd button bearing a logogram I simply can't decipher. I don't know what this 2nd button does when I press it (maybe it's producing an unexpected effect at this very moment, with consequences that affect me only later—such as flashing my name on the intercom screen downstairs?), but I've been forced to accept that this supposed intercommunication device doesn't allow any actual communication to occur. In some cases, its function has even been overpowered by the unadorned human voice: certainly, in the summer, when my window is open and someone rings downstairs, if the door doesn't unlock automatically, as is supposed to happen when I utilize the object under discussion, my visitor will yell "It's not working!" and I'll yell "Wait!" It feels particularly absurd to shout a capella what should have been intoned through the intervening intercom; but this noncoincidence between handset and entrance, and thus between my visitor and myself, generates a small yet fascinating physical tension.
Object Failure
Several scenarios draw attention to this object's shortcomings: the impatient visitor who, ringing and not getting any immediate response, simply presumes the proprietor absent (though I remember that when I used to ring at the door of the massive bourgeois apartments of my childhood, I always had to wait a fairly long while before anyone opened the door, indicating the affluence of the owners thus summoned, forced to cross not only a succession of rooms but a hallway and an entryway before being able to answer my call, wealth being measurable in both space and time); the timorous ringer who, not having pushed the intercom button long enough, waits in vain for me to respond when a 2nd, longer press is all that's required; not to mention the frequent hysteria resulting from the 2 parties involved simultaneously doing contradictory things and so preventing the door from properly unlocking, for example X giving it a shove before I've even been able to unlock it. 1 of the most bizarre cases I can relate was that of my friend who, impatient to see me, pushed the lowermost button so hard that the entryway buzzer's subsequent blare knocked the handset off its perch, with only the tangled braid of its cord preventing it from hitting the ground; the doorbell's violence had been so extreme that the momentarily unusable device had barred me from buzzing in my dear friend. Still, this minor domestic downfall at least underscored just how all our domestic telephonic devices struggle in vain to mediate our overflowing humanness—the object in question being brought low by the simple transmission of desire.
Édouard II
It's time to leave this room, but not before looking back and noticing, on the floor, against the wall separating the entryway from the bathroom, the 2nd artwork I own; it's also by Édouard Levé and also framed under glass. This 35 cm × 18 cm black-and-white photograph, dating from 1998, is titled Thomas Clerc refuse le prix Goncourt and depicts me during a conference at the Canadian embassy on the topic of failure. I would have liked to appeal to Édouard Levé to take another photo with a different caption. This possibility having unfortunately been made impossible, I've set this lucky charm out of harm's way.
As I turn around to glance 1 last time at my entryway, seeing this room as more of a patchwork than an artwork, the synthesis of its elements (the green portière, the parquet, the white cotton over the window, and the glass-brick wall of the bathroom, which we'll get to in due time) communicating a distinctive sparseness resulting in a "light, chic feeling" … I have to say I do like it. Considering its modest objective qualities, I've tried to make the best—or anyway the least worst—of it. Playing the presumably-minimalist-but-not-radically-so card, what I wanted was to set up the rest of my apartment along a qualitative slope leading toward contrasting, increasingly impressive effects. My life's work!
But then it hits me. The room's very name is a deception, because even though 1 must certainly enter an apartment in order to be inside it, dedicating a whole room to that function isn't strictly necessary: 1 has either entered or 1 hasn't (indeed, some small apartments without front steps don't even have an entryway). And yet, though its congruity with the hallway partially deprives it of any specific identity, my entryway exists a bit all the same. Some days, I'm touched by this effort it makes to exist; others, its smallness annoys me as it would any beleaguered bourgeois.
There's nothing to do in the entryway but enter or exit: interior architecture hasn't managed to invent any other functions for the space, though I sometimes dream of adding a sliding glass door that might somehow sanctify it. But what else is there to do here? Head in. Open the door. Walk through. Turn on the light. I never linger there.
The Doorbell Rings Again
There's the sound of the doorbell ringing again. This time, since I'm right by the door, I open it more quickly. Nobody. I glance through the peephole again. I slam the door shut, then take 2 steps from the entryway into the 2nd room.
Copyright © 2013 by Éditions Gallimard


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When Should I Send my Wedding Invitations
So you have set your date, now you are starting to think about who to invite and when to send your invitations out This is a a quick guide to the basic wedding stationery you will need.
Save the dates
These are important especially for midweek weddings, destination weddings and those taking place around bank holidays. Send these 12 – 18 months before
Wedding Invitations
Your invitations are your formal invitations for your guests. Day and evening invitations are often sent separately to allow evening guests to be 'bumped up' to day guests should someone decline. Send these 3-6 months before
On the Day Stationery
This consists of your place cards, table numbers and table plan. As soon as you have all your rsvp's back start to work out who is sitting where. (you may need a glass of wine for that). On the day stationery can often take a considerable amount of time to put together depending on design so try to order this around 4-8 weeks before
*Don't forget*
This timeline is when you should send out your invitations and save the dates. Make sure you order them in plenty of time. Some designs can take up to 4 weeks to produce.
To order your wedding stationery visit my invitations page to see the full range
If you have any questions visit my facebook page


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In Pictures: Republic of Ireland U21 1 - 4 Italy U21Fri, Mar 25 2016
The Republic of Ireland's under-21 European Championship qualification bid was dealt a blow as they suffered a harsh 4-1 defeat at home to Italy.
Matt Kirkham chose to take in some of the stars of the future on Thursday evening as he brought his trusted camera along to the RSC for this clash. You can read Eoghan Rock's match report from the game here.


text: Review and Onsite Photos by W.A. Demers, Senior Editor Additional Photos Courtesy of Antique and The Arts Weekly GLOUCESTER, MASS. — The first fitful raindrops ahead of an early fall nor'easter were falling as the parking lot outside the North Shore Art Association began filling up with cars carrying patrons for Kaminski's specialRead More


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Supported housing provider joins forces with foodbank
- 27 May
Sanctuary Supported Living has begun working with Deal Area Emergency Foodbank to help people who have housing issues.
Funded by Kent County Council, the service works with other professionals, agencies and individuals and has strong links with vouchers holders at Deal Area Emergency Foodbank. The housing service provides support and life skills for independent living, reports Kent Online.
Julia Thompson, foodbank project co-ordinator, said: "Sanctuary Supported Living has an amazing team of support workers who all go the extra mile to help clients. Our partnership is really effective as we can provide help as needed via our outlets or with emergency supplies and we refer clients to them where they have housing issues and have seen some wonderful outcomes. We are indebted to our community who donate the food for us to operate the Foodbank and to our partners like Sanctuary Supported Living, who are often available at our outlets, to step in and provide that support and care in complete anonymity."
What do you think of this? Tweet us your comments @suppsolutions
Image source: http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/115354
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Exempt Accommodation, Welfare Reform and Vulnerable Tenants Another excellent session from Support Solutions - excellent value for money and excellent training D.A - St Vincent's Housing Association


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Ruthless by Gina Maxwell
Today we have the blog tour for Ruthless by Gina Maxwell! Check out this fantastic sexy romance and grab your copy now!
About Ruthless:
People call me Ruthless for a reason.
Whether I'm in the court room or in the bedroom, my reputation is well-earned. I'm either working hard, working out, or working my way into some woman's panties. But none of them share my particular kink, and I walk away feeling unsatisfied.
Until I met her.
She's a friend of a friend, which makes her off-limits in my book. But then temptation had me by the balls and I had her up against a wall. She literally fucked my world off its axis, but it can't happen again.
My plan was avoidance, but that got blown to shit when my firm hired her as a new junior attorney. Now I'm her boss, and I'm supposed to act like I don't want to bend her over my desk every five minutes.
But I've never held myself back with anything before, so consequences be damned. It's time to take what I want and show her how damn good it feels…to be ruthless.
Get Your Copy Today:
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Amazon UK: http://bit.ly/RuthlessUK
Amazon CA: http://bit.ly/RuthlessCA
iBooks: http://bit.ly/iBooksRuthless
Kobo: http://bit.ly/RuthlessKobo
About Gina Maxwell:
Gina L. Maxwell is a full-time writer, wife, and mother living in the upper Midwest, despite her scathing hatred of snow and cold weather. An avid romance novel addict, she began writing as an alternate way of enjoying the romance stories she loves to read. Her debut novel, Seducing Cinderella, hit both the USA Today and New York Times bestseller lists in less than four weeks, and she's been living her newfound dream ever since.
When she's not reading or writing steamy romance novels, she spends her time losing at Scrabble (and every other game) to her high school sweetheart, doing her best to hang out with their teenagers before they fly the coop, and dreaming about her move to sunny Florida once they do.
Connect with Gina:
Author Website: www.ginalmaxwell.com
Author Twitter: @Gina_L_Maxwell
Author Facebook: www.facebook.com/ginalmaxwell
Author Street Team/Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/themaxwellmob
Author Instagram: www.instagram.com/ginalmaxwell
Author Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/ginalmaxwell
Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6446604.Gina_L_Maxwell
Newsletter: http://bit.ly/GLMnewsletter
Enter Gina's Giveaway:
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Holy smokes, Gina will set your pages (or e-reader) on fire with this scorching hot addition to the Playboys in Love series. I couldn't get enough or Roman and Addie. From the very first page I was pulled into the story. I read Ruthless in one afternoon.
Roman is hot hot hot! He has rules about who he gets involved with. Friends of friends are definitely off limits for Roman. He is determined to keep his relationships separate to avoid any messy complications. Addie has different plans though, she knows what she wants and she is determined to get it. The relationship between these too is explosive with the right amount of humor throughout the story.
This is one story you aren't going to want to miss.


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ISTMO Yoga and Adventure Retreat, Panama –
The "Hidden Luxury" Venue for Unforgettable Retreats
Nestled in the jungle, steps away from a secluded tropical beach, and famous for our world-class food and service, ISTMO is the perfect retreat center to host a transformational retreat, participate in a yoga retreat, obtain your yoga teacher training, or take a tropical vacation. Oh, and did we mention? We're family-owned and operated.
Host a Retreat your students can't stop raving about
We work with Retreat Leaders to create custom-crafted, life changing retreats. Leave the details to us, so you can focus on your group. Let us help you lead retreats that are personalized, fun, effortless, and transformational.
Treat yourself to one of our Upcoming Retreats
Come as you are, connect through community and travel. Our evolving retreat calendar has a variety of offerings – yoga retreats, meditation retreats, yoga teacher trainings, weekend retreats, women's retreats, wellness retreats and paddleboard vacations.
Book a Room at our Retreat Center Hotel
The best way to experience ISTMO is by participating in a retreat! However, if you just require a little time to reconnect with yourself and your family, or escape the city and disconnect from the world, a few nights at ISTMO may be what you need!
What our Guests are saying:
Istmo will always have a special place in my heart
Ro Richards, USA - Retreat Participant
Istmo is the perfect intersection of natural simplicity and comfort
Margaret-Ellen Christensen, NYC, Retreat Participant
Panama's best beach!
Trina Trul - https://www.trinaphoto.com/about
This is truly a simple, pristine, informal, healing place
Fabia Tetteroo-Bueno, Brazil - Hotel Guest and Retreat Participant
Istmo met or exceeded all of my expectations.
Julia Paddison, Yoga Teacher/Retreat Leader, Philadelphia, USA - www.juliapaddison.com
Our location allows you to do as little or as much as you desire. Spend all day lounging at one of our hammock areas, swimming and SUPing at the beach, or discover the varied activities that beautiful Panama has to offer. Our tours include a Cloud Forest hike and visit to a local market, a visit to an Indigenous Embera Village, a day trip to Panama City and the Panama Canal, a stand-up Paddleboard tour to a Mountain Lagoon, and much more…
Our Food
As a guest commented, "The food alone at ISTMO is worth the trip!" We offer wholesome seafood and vegetarian meals cooked from fresh local ingredients. Our menu has been lovingly crafted by professionally trained chef and owner, Sean Davis. We happily accommodate various diets, from vegan to gluten-free and everything in between.
Your Hosts
Istmo is a family run business, with owners Sean, Ayesha, and their young family living on the property. We strive to be welcoming, accommodating to your requests, and to make you feel at home. We look forward to having you here, and sharing our piece of paradise with you!


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This cute little therapy dog at the Ronald McDonald House
would just lay down in its owner's lap and take a rest
Not to be outdone, this giant therapy dog did likewise
These therapy dogs are really sweet.
The golden on the left is also really huge (105 pounds).
Anyone got a saddle?
Mama Martha, inspired by Susan's photos, took some photos of our animal friends back in Virginia.
I also prefer the dogs.
But they don't eat mice.


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Social Wall
2020 half-year results Analysts Conference Call replay
Motor, home, agricultural, services, business, professionnals and local authorities
Individual health, individual protection, life insurance – individual savings/pensions, group insurance
Asset management, property management, employee savings, banking
21 December 2015
Caisse des Dépôts and Groupama indicate considering, in continuity of their partnership, simplifying the structure of ownership of their interest in Icade as reference shareholders of this company
This simplification would consist in a merger of HoldCo SIIC into Icade. HoldCo SIIC, held by Caisse des Dépôts at 75.07% and by Groupama Gan Vie at 24.93%, currently holds a stake representing 52% of the share capital of Icade.
Following this transaction, Caisse des Dépôts and Groupama would become direct shareholders of Icade, Caisse des Dépôts holding approximately 39% of the share capital of Icade and Groupama holding approximately 13%.
HoldCo SIIC has no other fixed assets than its interest in Icade. Thus, the exchange ratio would be transparent on the only basis of the value of Icade shares and would be the subject of a report of the merger auditors pursuant to article L.236-10 of the commercial code. This transaction would have no impact on the activity of Icade, its financial situation and its legal organization.
This transaction, that is subject to certain condition precedents, will be proposed to the board of directors of Icade and to the vote of the shareholders' meeting of Icade which will be convened to approve the financial statements for the financial year ending December 31, 2015.
It would be accompanied by the conclusion of a new shareholders' agreement between Caisse des Dépôts and Groupama, acting in concert, that will organize their relationship as shareholders of Icade and replace the existing agreements between the two groups.
The provisions of this new shareholders' agreement would mainly focus on the composition of the governing bodies of Icade and in particular will provide the composition of its board of directors, in accordance with the recommendations of the Afep-Medef code.
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Today being the most romantic day of the year (who decided Valentines day should be during the winter??) I'm feeling a bit flustered. I've been thinking a lot about what I would be doing today, but not actually planning enough. Haha, I had these great plans that I would cook Nick a beautiful dinner and build a blanket fort and light candles and we could watch Casablanca -- but I didn't buy any groceries, or find Casablanca since we don't own it. Nor do I have enough blankets to build a fort. Turns out I suck at being romantic. Ah well, lucky for me my man isn't too picky.
|Joe Fresh T, Dorothy Perkins skirt, vintage scarf, gifted bag (Thanks Tonni!) gifted necklace, hand made (although not by me) earrings, H&M boots and socks, HUE leggings
What are YOU planning for today?


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The year 1846 was a dark year for the German immigrants
By Myra Lee Adams Goff The year was 1846, a year after Hermann Seele arrived in Texas. It was the time of year that we, in Texas, understand – July and August. The heat continued to increase and thunder storms made the Guadalupe River rise. A ferry boat at the
New Braunfels Conservation Society gets windfall
By Myra Lee Adams Goff A windfall of big proportions happened to the New Braunfels Conservation Society. They now own a piece of property that is known as the Arnold-Rauch-Brandt Homestead that goes back to the mid-1800s, located northwest from New Braunfels in an area known as Mission Valley. The
Morales Funeral Home early business in Comaltown
By Myra Lee Adams Goff Dr. Ferdinand Roemer in his book "Roemer's Texas," when he arrived in the village of New Braunfels in 1846, wrote that a speculative American had laid out a new city in between the fork of the Comal and the Guadalupe within view of the city
"The Captured" tells story of captured children
By Myra Lee Adams Goff The story of the capture of children in 1800s Texas is told through the research of Scott Zesch in his book "The Captured". Many children were captured by the Plains Indians. In his book, he studies in depth the life and eventual release of nine


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Kashi* Chia Granola Bars - Dark Chocolate, Almond & Sea Salt
Sweet and salty flavour plus 0.2 g omega-3 polyunsaturates per serving from chia and canola oil make up one deliciously nutritious, chewy granola bar.
Our chewy granola bars are truly lovable. They are a delicious combination of whole grain oats, whole roasted nuts and succulent dark chocolate. With 4 g of fibre per serving, they are as nourishing and tasty.
Naturally, you won't find any partially hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, or artificial anything but what you will find in our chewy granola bars is just what you'd expect from Kashi—minimally processed natural goodness you can see as well as taste.
Combining dark chocolate, roasted almonds and a touch of sea salt with chia means you can enjoy sweet and salty flavour with 0.2 g omega-3 polyunsaturates in one satisfyingly chewy granola bar.
- Non-GMO Project Verified
|Serving Size:
|1 bar (35 g)
|Total Fat:
|5 g
|135 mg
|Dietary Fiber:
|3 g
|7 g
Ingredients:Whole grain oats, brown rice syrup, almonds, dried brown rice syrup, dark chocolate (cane sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla extract), whole grain brown rice flour, chocolate liquor, vegetable oil, chia seeds, vegetable glycerin, oat hull fibre, sea salt, cocoa, natural flavour.
Allergen Notes:Contains oat, almond and soy ingredients. May contain peanuts and other tree nuts.
See packaging for current product information


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Accurately given the additional title 'DUMP' on the road sign when leaving the infinitely more pleasant Farnham, Alton is one of those Hampshire towns that has pretensions of grandeur, only allowed by the fact that to the east is Guildford, and to the west is Winchester. It is primarily populated with people who never have, and never will, leave, probably because the limited gene pool doesn't allow it. On the other hand there are the brave, or ill informed, soles known as 'outsiders'. People who are sick of cities and want to be "closer to the countryside", but still less than an hour from 'the big smoke'.
Born and bred locals are like characters from the League of Gentlemen; hideously inter-bred and festering in this backwater spitoon of modern, and not so modern civilisation. On the streets everyone is either 60+ or under 16, the latter invariably with at least one child in tow. They congregate, it would appear, in the high street, perhaps as the hideous concrete monstrosity that is the post office is near by, and provides many benefits, especially those they are not entitled too.
The idea of people being close to idyllic countryside in this car park filled toilet bowl of North Hampshire is frankly ludicrous. Leave the relative safety of your vehicle and you will then be confronted by the 'locals', hoards of which you must go through to get the very few decent shops – two in fact. This being part of the main route for a legion of cider swilling, gel slicked oiks, the town is permeated by the stench of piss, puke and rotting kebabs.
On the plus side (yes there is ONE) the town is well served by the A31, which provides quick exit routes to both the east and west, plus it is possible to use a number of other rat runs into the surrounding countryside, which incidentally is quite beautiful. It is here you find those who live in the villages, staying a safe enough distance from the town to only use it when the extra 5 minutes to Farnham seems too much.


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- Number of Bedrooms
- 6
- Asking Price
- $3,995,000
- Number of Bathrooms
- 7
- Taxes
- $15,075 (2013)
- Year Originally Built
- 1906 (Winnipeg)
- Rebuilt
- 1979 (Calgary)
- Number of Square Feet
- 9,800
- Community
- Springbank Hill
- Lot Size
- 1.4 Acres
- Realtor
- Sam Corea
A rare opportunity to acquire one of the largest and most majestic properties on the west side of Calgary. Original, classic design meets the best of modern amenities and offers in excess of 9,800 square feet of total living space, perfect for those who love to entertain on a grand scale. Impressive, private grounds surround the house offering almost 63,000 square feet of land (1.4 acres) with an oversized triple garage (the original carriage house), a circular drive and full width veranda with Italian terra cotta embellishments. Moved from Winnipeg, brick by brick, the home was completely rebuilt in 1979 and extensively updated, yet retains all of the character and charm of a turn of the century mansion. The renowned architect was L.S. Buffington who pioneered the use of the steel skeleton method of construction for high-rise buildings, and, in fact, there is an extensive amount of steel in this property. It offers all the conveniences of modern living that we all love so much including an elevator offering access to all levels, a renovated spa-like ensuite bathroom and an exquisite, renovated chef's kitchen with heated tile flooring, top-of-the-line stainless steel appliances, a butler's pantry and granite countertops. There are two stairways to the upper floors, the second level features five bedrooms, four fireplaces and access to a balcony. The large master suite was extensively renovated and features a walk-in closet with book-ended rosewood built-ins and an ensuite with steam shower, soaker tub and limestone pedestal vanity. Adjacent to this room is a dressing room (or bedroom) with large closet and ensuite bathroom with antique marble jetted shower. Both of these rooms have spectacular mountain views. There are three additional bedrooms, one with its own ensuite and the other two share a Jack and Jill ensuite.
For more information on this property contact Sam Corea of Sam Corea Real Estate
Tel: 403.870.8811
E-mail: email@example.com
Website: www.samcorea.com


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Aviation safety investigations & reports
Runway excursion involving a Fairchild SA226, VH-OGX, at Archerfield Airport, Qld on 23 January 2014
On 23 January 2014, at about 1520 EST, a Fairchild SA226 aircraft, registered VH-OGX, departed Thangool for a charter flight to Archerfield, Queensland. En-route, the pilot received the current Automatic Terminal Information Service (ATIS) for Archerfield, which indicated cloud at 800 ft and that the runway was 'wet'.
At about 1615, the pilot commenced an instrument approach to Archerfield. Approaching the western boundary of the aerodrome, the pilot sighted the runway and circled at 900 ft above ground level before approaching to land on runway 10 Left. When lined up on final, the aircraft was to the right of the extended runway centreline and the pilot elected to conduct a go-around.
The second circle was still tight, due to low cloud to the west of the runway, and the pilot reported that the aircraft was about 30 to 50 m right of the extended runway centreline when on final. It was raining heavily as the aircraft touched down close to the runway centreline and about 300 m beyond the runway threshold. The pilot reported that as the wheels touched down, the aircraft commenced sliding towards the right, possibly due to aquaplaning. The aircraft veered off the right side of the runway and onto the grass. The aircraft then slid along the runway and veered off to the left side. The left main landing gear entered the grass and the aircraft came to rest at an angle to the runway.
A runway inspection revealed standing water on the right side of the runway near the threshold. This incident highlights the importance of conducting a go-around as soon as landing conditions appear unfavourable.
To download, click the link, then right-click and select Save As.
Copyright in material obtained from other agencies, private individuals or organisations, belongs to those agencies, individuals or organisations and should be credited accordingly.
General details
|23 January 2014
|Investigation status:
|Investigation level:
|Short - click for an explanation of investigation levels
|Location (show map):
|Archerfield Airport
|Occurrence type:
|Runway excursion
|Release date:
|27 March 2014
|Occurrence category:
|Serious Incident
|Report status:
|Highest injury level:
Aircraft details
|Aircraft manufacturer
|Fairchild Industries Inc
|Aircraft model
|Aircraft registration
|Serial number
|Type of operation
|Damage to aircraft
|Departure point
|Thangool, Qld
|Archerfield, Qld


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The Mazda MX-5 25th Anniversary Edition has been created to celebrate 25 years since the launch of the iconic roadster.
Since its launch in 1989, more than 940,000 MX-5s have been produced, gaining it a place in the Guinness World Record books as the best-selling two-seater sportscar.
The special 25th Anniversary Edition is based on the 2.0-litre 160PS Roadster Coupe, and is available only in Soul Red Metallic.
If features Brilliant Black-painted roof, A-pillars and door mirrors, plus off-white leather seats and door trim, and a hand-finished Piano Black dashboard panel.
Bilstein dampers and 17-inch Dark Gunmetal alloy wheels are also fitted, promising to make the most of the MX-5's handling.
Mazda has also unveiled the SkyActiv chassis that will underpin the next generation MX-5.
The company says they have been able to move the engine closer to the vehicle's centre, with a lower centre of gravity. They also believe the finished model will be 100kg lighter than the existing model, while retaining body rigidity and crash safety.


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by Jamie McNish, Trainee Solicitor.
Public rights of access are something which all landowners in Scotland should bear in mind when managing their property, especially where that property contains areas to which the general public may wish to have recourse. A recent case looks at circumstances in which there can be a public right to vehicular access over – as well as a right to park vehicles on – private land.
Although the 'right to roam' is often the first phrase which springs to mind when considering access rights, this was only introduced by the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 (see our Briefing Note for more information). The public had, however, historically been entitled to take access over specified, and more limited, public rights of way. These required to be between two public locations, and for the purpose of transit only – this contrasts with the broader range of activities, including recreation, allowed under the 2003 Act. With their more limited scope, public rights of way have seen their importance somewhat diminished in the right-to-roam era.
The case of Kolhe v Robertson 2018 GWD 25-324 has, however, highlighted the continued importance of public rights of way, and shown why landowners must continue to pay specific attention to them over and above the public's general right of access under the right to roam.
Kolhe v Robertson
This case concerned a harbour and pier in Cove, south of Aberdeen, over which access rights were exercised.
The judgment can be broken down into two main strands. The first element – the dispute around which the case arose, and which attracted the majority of the press attention – concerned the storage of small boats and other equipment by creel fishers on ground owned by the pursuer, Mr Kolhe, and a demand that these boats and other equipment be removed. The considerations in this part of the judgment are slightly different to the question of general public rights of way and vehicular access, and shall not be discussed in detail here. It is worth noting, however, that the landowner was successful and the boats and equipment, notwithstanding that they had been stored at that location since time immemorial, were ordered to be removed.
The second element which was considered was the general public's access to the pier and harbor; whether a public right of way existed and, if so, the form that this took. In terms of pedestrian access, reliance on a public right of way is, as mentioned above, of lesser importance after the coming into force of the 2003 Act. The public would be entitled to take access whether or not there was an existing right of way. However, it is in considering the question of vehicular access that the Kolhe case shows the continuing importance of public rights of way.
Vehicular rights of way
While the 2003 Act allows pedestrian access for a wide range of purposes, vehicular access across land is specifically excluded from the right to roam (other than for persons requiring assistance due to a disability). This is not so for public rights of way, where vehicular access can be established in the same manner as pedestrian access. Where the required tests (including public termini, a continuous journey from end to end, a definite route, and continuous use) are met, and where there has been use by vehicles for the prescriptive period of 20 years, a public right of way for vehicles can be established.
The use and route criteria will be determined through evidence. In Kolhe, one element which was however discussed in greater detail was what constituted a "public place". The private road in Kolhe led from the public road to the pier. While it is obvious that the public road is a public place, it is less evident that this is the case for the pier. However, the sheriff considered the pier a place to which the public had 'resort for some definite and intelligible purpose' – including sightseeing, walking, fishing, kayaking, and scuba diving. As such, it was a public place and could constitute a terminus for a right of way.
It can be taken from this that a range of areas which are in private ownership could nonetheless be considered public places – including beaches and other areas of recreation – and that access taken to them could qualify as a public right of way, if the other necessary criteria are met.
In addition to finding that a right of vehicular access to the pier existed, the judgment in Kolhe indicated that this could include a right to park on the pier to facilitate this. So people taking canoes, fishing equipment etc, to the pier were entitled to park their cars on the pier when they did so. While the public could not park along the route of the right of way, they could do so at the public place (the pier) which constituted the terminus. It is possible to envisage that a similar scenario could arise in bringing recreational equipment, or just travelling by car for a walk, to a private beach or other recreational area, with a resulting right to park a vehicle at that location.
While the Kolhe case does not necessarily establish new rights, it is an important reminder of the position of vehicular rights of way, and a statement of their extent. Landowners may not necessarily expect that the public could be entitled to drive over their land, and much less park there; this is something which must be borne in mind when managing land, and particular roads and tracks over which the public has made use.
Public rights of way
If a public right of way exists across a property, having been established for the requisite time period, the landowner is not entitled to block this access, or take steps to discourage its use. It is therefore important to be aware of potential rights of way affecting your property so that the appropriate action is taken.
While there is no definitive record of all public rights of way, ScotWays (the Scottish Rights of Way and Access Society) does maintain a searchable list, as do local authorities.
In many cases, however, it will be a case of local knowledge and historical practice which are required in order to establish the existence of these routes, and ultimately in managing their exercise.
Further advice
For more information on rights of way or statutory access rights, please contact us on 0131 228 8111 or through the website.


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Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR Revealed at Wörthersee
Super fast special edition claims a top speed of 164 mph
GTI fans are in for a treat—a near-production-ready Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR made its debut at Reifnitz am Wörthersee in Austria this week.
The special edition is the street version of the TCR race series Golf GTI. Under the hood, a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine offers 286 hp and 273 lb-ft of torque. It's mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission.
VW claims a top speed of 164 mph—but the car is currently limited to 155 mph. Since its debut in the mid-seventies the marque has moved more than 2.2 million GTIs.
The Golf GTI TCR Racing Car was revealed in 2016 and only 20 were built. The hot hatchback packed 326 hp and 310 lb-ft of torque from its 2.0-liter inline four. It has a 0-62 mph time of 5.2 seconds and a top speed of 143 mph.
From the sketches and photos provided by VW, the four-door special edition GTI TCR shares similar traits borrowed from the race car minus the deep hood scoop and big ass rear wing.
It joined several thousand GTI fanatics at this year's tuner gathering in Wörthersee that continues through May 12.
Volkswagen says the Golf GTI TCR will launch in Europe this winter.


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Workshops are here!
Posted by emily porter on
The May-June workshop series is here. Hope you can make it out and keep your eye out for more coming soon.
front fill... use it
Posted by emily porter on
This week we are focusing on front fill. As we add some front fill options to our rental stock we were thinking about why more people don't autimatically reach for front fill as part of their sound system. If you are doing anything live and have a space with over 200 people, you should try front fill. This article is a good place to start reading: FOHonline At your next event try it, even if it is a monitor wedge turned toward the audience space, and see what a difference front fill can make to the image and coverage. Let...
ahhhhh APRIL!!!!
Posted by emily porter on
ok ... the end of March was a lion and that is not a comment on the weather... Thank you to all you busy people for keeping us so very busy!We are now putting our nose back to the grindstone on those workshops we have been promising! Our workshop for CITT with playground studios on Qlab went well and we are looking forward to more with that bunch! You will be hearing lots form us this month, but for now HAPPY SPRING!!
march in half over!!
Posted by emily porter on
Hey Folks, Our 3nd weekly special has been posted, check it out here. We are putting the final touches on our first round of workshops! Admittedly it has taken longer then we planned to get it all organized, but the wait will be worth it!! the CITT workshop is happening and you can get more info & register here!!
more website improvements!
Posted by emily porter on
We continue to improve the website offerings as fast as we can. We are also putting the final touches on our spring/summer workshop series. The details can be found on the workshop page at the end of the week. Also, we are working with CITT and playground studios on a Qlab workshop covering both audio and video March 25th. We will post the registration info as soon as it is available! Our new and improved quarterly newsletter will go out soon. Make sure we have your contact info by signing up at the bottom right of this page!!


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Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 (JP) (also called Super Mario Advance 3, SMA3, or YISMA) is a Game Boy Advance remake of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island for the SNES, as well as the only reissue in the Yoshi's Island series. Along with the remake, it also features a remake of Mario Bros. The game had minor differences with the original Yoshi's Island, though was the first time it ever appeared on a handheld console.
Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 was released in 2002 and has a number of differences from the original surrounding gameplay, content and graphics, as listed below. It was the last Yoshi platforming game developed by Nintendo. Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 was re-released on the 3DS's Virtual Console exclusively to 3DS Ambassadors in Australia on December 15, 2011, and in Japan, North America, and Europe on December 16, 2011. Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 was re-released again on the Wii U's Virtual Console in North America and Europe on April 24, 2014, Australia on April 25, 2014, and in Japan on October 15, 2014.
The game follows the same story as its predecessor in which Yoshi and Baby Mario must save Baby Luigi after he is kidnapped by Kamek.
The player moves Yoshi by using the Game Boy Advance's Pad. Holding the up arrow on the Pad makes Yoshi look into the air, causing the screen to move up slightly. Holding the down arrow makes Yoshi crouch and if the screen has been moved up it will bring it down again. Using A makes Yoshi jump and holding it makes him Flutter Jump. B causes Yoshi to use his tongue to eat enemies, when an enemy is in Yoshi's mouth pressing B again makes him spit the enemy out and pressing down on Pad makes him swallow the enemy and create an egg. When Yoshi has an egg pressing R causes a target crosshair to come up, pressing R again makes Yoshi throw the egg, whilst pressing L makes the crosshair lock in place and pressing B cancels the crosshair. Pressing "Start" brings up the pause menu and pressing "Select" brings up a menu showing the player's current score on that level, the high score they have achieved on that level and any items they have collected from minigames.
- Yoshi
- Baby Mario
- Baby Luigi
- Kamek
- Baby Bowser
- Poochy
Changes from this game to Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
- The game added the voice of Kazumi Totaka as Yoshi's voice, whereas in the original the dinosaur just made simple grunts. The voice samples were taken from the Nintendo 64 game Yoshi's Story.
- Additionally, the game also adds the voice of Charles Martinet as Baby Mario's voice while the original crying sound-effect was used for Baby Luigi.
- Six new levels titled "secret levels" that were increasingly harder than the standard levels.
- The stage More Monkey Madness no longer has twenty-one Red Coins, but just twenty.
Reviews of the game were generally favorable. GameRankings.com has collected various game reviews and have decided that the average rating is 89.49%. IGN rewarded the game with an impressive 9.4/10, stating that it has "some of the most clever, brilliant, and versatile level designs...it is one of, if not the best 2D platformer ever designed." Unfortunately, of the four games released in the Super Mario Advance series, Yoshi's Island fared the worst, selling 2.91 million. While impressive, the other games have sold nearly twice that amount. Super Mario Land and New Super Mario Bros., two other 2D Mario platformers for a Nintendo handheld (Game Boy and Nintendo DS, respectively), both sold over 18 million copies.
|Yoshi games
|Main series
|Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (1995, SNES) • Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 (1995, SNES) • Yoshi's Story (1997, N64) • Yoshi Topsy-Turvy (Universal Gravitation) (2004, GBA) • Yoshi Touch & Go (2005, DS) • Yoshi's Island DS (2006, DS) • Yoshi's New Island (2014, 3DS) • Yoshi's Woolly World (2015, Wii U) • Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World (2017, 3DS) • Yoshi's Crafted World (2019, Switch)
|Yoshi (Mario & Yoshi) (1991, NES) • Yoshi's Cookie (1992, SNES) • Yoshi's Safari (1993, SNES) • Kuruppon Oven de Cookie (1994, Super Famicom) • Tetris Attack (1995, SNES)


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Causes of Congenital CataractsIn many cases, the cause of congenital cataracts cannot be distinctly determined. However, a number of preexisting medical conditions may also contribute to the development of congenital cataracts in newborns. Congenital cataracts in newborns occur rarely. Medical conditions causing congenital cataracts may include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Congenital rubella, or German measles contracted by a newborn's mother
- Chondrodysplasia syndrome, or a group of disorders affecting the skin, eyes, skeletal system, and mental functioning
- Down syndrome, a physical and mental growth delay resulting from abnormal genetic development
- Lowe syndrome, a rare genetic condition causing mental and physical handicaps and various medical issues
- Galactosemia, a condition during which the body cannot properly metabolize the simple sugar called galactos


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Podcast (chicago-music-guide-interviews): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:17 — 40.5MB)
Subscribe: Android | Google Podcasts | RSS
ohGr Interview
From the blackest bubbling cauldrons boiling within the bowels of the human (and inhuman) psyche comes unDeveloped, the fourth and fiercest descent into abstract nightmare pop from ohGr.
Conceived and personified by legendary dark experimental electronic music pioneer (and newly minted actor) Ogre and sonically grounded by mad machine music scientist Mark Walk, ohGr's distinctive brand of psycho-sexual sound shock screams and slithers across the creepy canvas of unDeveloped's fourteen interconnected tracks, birthing a majestic, layered tapestry of icy, death's-head metal-dance music that is as intense and emotionally provocative as it is playfully macabre.
Evolving from the initial wreckage of Ogre's groundbreaking and influential (and long since smashingly reborn) band SKINNY PUPPY, the concept behind ohGr was to shed some much needed light on the frightening audio/visual assaults that put PUPPY on the map and forever draped the frontman/lyricist/performance artist in shadowy myth. Their first release, 2001's WELT, did just that, cleaning-up Ogre's infamous acid gargled vocal treatments to reveal more of his humanity and humor while – with the aid of Walk's kinetic orchestrations – never letting the high-tech aural horror relent.
Their 2003 follow up album SunnyPsyOp was another example of the duo's high energy anti-anthem aesthetic, with a sound that seemed forged from broken robots, satanic guitars and psychedelic buzzsaws.
2008's DEVILS IN MY DETAILS however– produced after Ogre, Walk and Cevin Key revived SKINNY PUPPY in 2004 with the album THE GREATER WRONG OF THE RIGHT and immediately following Ogre's appearance as the mad, narcissistic Pavi Largo in director Darren Lynn Bouseman's cult 2007 shocker REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA– delved much deeper into the bloody, primordial muck, delivering a gleefully grim, spiky, black and hard edged conceptual record that owed as much to Ogre's own signature musical history as it did to the darker moments of early GENESIS and mid-period PINK FLOYD.
unDeveloped – which also features work by longtime SKINNY PUPPY and ohGr mix-master Ken 'Hiwatt' Marshall – continues on in DIMD's surreal and aggressive vein but takes things down deeper into the evil abyss.
From the coiled fetal cover imagery by artist Steven R. Gilmore, to the album's creeping bio-mechanical opening strains that sound akin to a transmission from a hell spawned HAM radio, to its melancholy, downbeat yet undeniably sensual mid-section and its rousingly theatrical closing symphonies, unDeveloped is Ogre and Walk at the peak of their creative powers, a primal yet refined work of odd audio sculpted by dogs who are dedicated to bucking conventions …and who are apparently even more blood hungry now than they were in their collective youth.
Listening to unDeveloped front to back is like running afoul of some sort of rage-crazed, fire breathing monster. An impossibly huge beast that wants to crush your cities and eat your children and yet, even as it finally catches up to you and gets you in its scaly, taloned grasp, pulling you toward pulp caked maw and bearing down on you with its fetid breath and razor-sharp teeth, you can't help but love every terrifying, agonizing – and yet oddly charming – minute of your destruction.
THIS is unDeveloped.
THIS is ohGr.
– Chris Alexander, editor-in-chief, FANGORIA MAGAZINE
Check out more great interviews here!
Official: N/A
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ohGrOfficial/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ohGrOfficial
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ohgr_official/
Skinny Puppy:
Official: http://www.skinnypuppy.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialSkinnyPuppy
Twitter: https://twitter.com/skinnypuppy_
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialskinnypuppy/


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About CTPA
The Canadian Tamil Professionals Association (CTPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization focused on developing career opportunities for emerging and established Tamil Professionals through professional networking, professional development and mentorship. CTPA addresses the needs of Tamil Professionals by creating a community-based platform that connects our members and provides them with valuable career development resources.
Event Planning Associate
Toronto, Canada
About the Position
In 2018, CTPA's signature summer networking event, Toast to Success, will expand to a series of 2-3 enhanced networking events. It will combine the success of our networking mixers and Toast to Success to provide an educational and meaningful networking experience for Tamil professionals in the Greater Toronto Area throughout the year.
Roles and Responsibilities
- Along with the Director of Networking, brainstorm themes for each networking event that will appeal to a broad range of professionals and fits within CTPA's strategic goals and vision.
- Find potential venues in the GTA that will accommodate the event and maintain a database of these venues and their contacts.
- Research potential venue, entertainment, media or catering partners obtaining information, such as photos and preferred vendors, as well as cost estimates.
- Contact potential speakers or panelists and maintain a database of these individuals and their areas of expertise.
- Establish and build professional relationships with vendors and partners.
- Plan and manage event day logistics, such as registration, vendor relations and general run-of-show.
- Collaborate with other volunteers and Directors to create a meaningful and worthwhile experience for Tamil professionals.
- Maintain an accurate and complete database records.
Skills and Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree (or in final year of completion)
- Experience in event planning, public speaking, and/or customer service.
- Demonstrated interest in networking events, cultural happenings and educational programming
- Excellent communication, interpersonal and organizational skills.
- Ability to multi-task and handle various large projects at once
- Works well within a team as well as independently, following through on tasks assigned to the best of their ability.
- Total of 3-5 hours a week, with some evening and weekend time for events is required
- Self-directed
- Social justice oriented considered an asset
How to Apply
Volunteer applications are now closed.
Please email email@example.com to learn how to get involved.