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Devon - Crealy Adventure ParkSidmouth Road
Clyst St Mary
Exeter EX5 1DR South West England UK
Tel: 01395 233200 ext 217
Fax: 01395 233211
web : Devon - Crealy Adventure Park
The Original Crealy Adventure Park, near Exeter and Cornwalls Crealy Great Adventure Park are the South Wests favourite family attractions, with all of the rides and attractions accessible for most visitors*.
Dare to ride Tidal Wave log flume, El Pastil Loco Coaster and Queen Bess Pirate Ship. Take a trip back in time on the Victorian Carousel and discover the huge indoor and outdoor playgrounds. Magical Realm is especially for little-ones, with soft-play, Littleland Village and the Honey Swing. Animal Showtime is the showpiece of Crealys Animal Realm, where you can ride, feed, milk, groom or cuddle the friendliest animals in Devon. Unearth the Farming Realms original Great Farm Adventures and discover the famous Summer Holiday Sunflower Maze.
Maximum Fun is now Guaranteed in Cornwall with the opening of Cornwalls Crealy, formerly Shires Family Adventure Park, minutes from A30 and A39, between Newquay and Padstow. The Park is the Cornish Tourist Boards Top Tourist Attraction with fantastic rides, slides, animals, fun and adventures.
Visit the cuddliest animals at MacDonalds Farm and explore the Pets Paddock. Meet the stunning Majestic Shires the giants of the horse world!
Experience Thunder Falls log flume, Cornwalls newest and biggest ride! Sail aboard the mighty Viking Warrior! Within the Enchanted Realm discover the Dragon Kingdom indoor play and Cafe explore the Childrens Village, build a magnificent castle in the Desert Sands and visit the story-time characters in the Enchanted Forest.
Enjoy the best Cornish Pasties and Clotted Cream Teas in the historic Waterwheel Restaurant.
Experience Crealys legendary magic and adventure throughout the Parks in Devon and now Cornwall too! Step into a great adventure, where the funs non-stop and friendship is all around.
*The safety of our guests is our prime concern and, as such, Crealy Adventure Park reserves the right to refuse admission to a ride or facility if we feel that your safety or the safety of others may be at risk.
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Groups & Schools
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- Premium Grade Carrara Marble Italian White Bianco Carrera 1x3 Herringbone Mosaic Tile Polished
- Stone Sizes per Piece:
* Rectangle Pieces are 1" Wide and 3" Long
* Thickness is 3/8"
- Product has a polished finish.
- Grout Width is 1/16"
- There are 8 rows and 6 columns on each sheet, with 48 stones per sheet.
- Mosaic is mounted on one square foot of sturdy mesh to facilitate installation.
- Carefully selected; consistent in size and finish.
- Large quantities are in stock and readily available in both full pallets and containers.
- Perfect for use in commercial and residential projects
Bianco Carrara 1x3 Herringbone Mosaic Tile also known as white carrera Herringbone Mosaic. Available in honed, polished and tumbled finishes, premium grade herringbone mosaic tile perfect for both residential and commercial projects. Herringbone 1"x6" Mosaic Tiles mainly preffered as floor tiles for its clean, aesthetic qualities. A large selection of coordinating products are available and includes carrara basketweave mosaics, carrara hexagon mosaics, 3x6 marble subway tiles, 12x12 carrara marble tiles, 4x4 carrara marble tiles, carrara borders, carrara moldings and carrara baseboards.
Carrara 1x3 Herringbone
Love this Carrara 1x3 Herringbone Mosaic! Used it for a backsplash in my kitchen and it looks really pretty. Shipping was fast and very happy with customer service.

subset: commoncrawl


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The kids in the videos have been to hell and back because of bullying. Bullying's a serious issue linked to suicide among teens. Below are a few of many testimonials on youtube.
Find out how you can help, take the bullying quiz, or jump right into the action and register and start blogging -- words can be a powerful tool. Or, you may send us your video testimony (if you have one) and help spread bullying awareness that way. We'll post your video testimony on this page.


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Carnival Corp thanks passengers of the sinking COSTA CONCORDIA by offering a 30% discount on future cruises. Are they kidding? Carnival Corp's CEO Micky Arison. His company is now offering a 30% discount to shipwrecked victims of the Costa Concordia on future cruises. Is this a sick joke? Who is ... Read More »
Tag Archives: Ted Arison
GETTING THERE IS NO LONGER HALF THE FUN! COSTA CONCORDIA YOUNG DISABLED PASSENGER TOLD TO "SUE US" BY MICKY ARISON'S CARNIVAL CORP – CEO Micky Arison hires Burson-Masteller. A group of corporate media flacks to control Carnival Corp nightmare!
The Carnival Corp manner of cruising… watch this video about one of their ships… COSTA CONCORDIA YOUNG DISABLED PASSENGER TOLD TO "SUE US" BY MICKY ARISON'S CARNIVAL CORP – Is it time to boycott Carnival cruises and their brands? Is the captain to blame or the American owners? Carnival Corp ... Read More »
KIRBY SOMMERS reports on THE MURKY WATERS OF CARNIVAL CORP (OWNERS OF THE COSTA CONCORDIA) – Is the disaster the captain's fault or the owners?
COSTA CONCORDIA – The captain's fault or…? Is Carnival Corp making the captain a scapegoat to avoid questions about management or problems with the ship? Carnival Corp's first ship the Mardis Gras (former Empress of Canada) ran aground on maiden voyage. History repeats itself. Carnival Corp's Costa Concordia hit land ... Read More »
CRUISING AT YOUR OWN RISK. The RMS TITANIC tickets are smilar to Carnival Corp's contract. US Congress has done nothing to regulate cruise industry. Nothing has changed for the rights of passengers.
CARNIVAL CORP (owner of the Costa Concordia) has a history of management problems regarding their ships and many lines… Carnival Corp (owners of the Costa Concordia) have had a history of unsupervised near tragedies. A fire began with an unsupervised cutting and welding operation in a laundry room on board ... Read More »
SOPA – More "neo-Nazi" like laws from the U.S. Government to shut down the internet. Backed by congress, the MPAA and the US Chamber.
"Defeating this is a victory for free speech. Sad to see how big money and corporate greed can work to curb free speech if we the masses are less vigilant." Social History: More "Nazi" like laws from the U.S. Government to shut down the internet. Call your representatives today and ... Read More »


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The Bremont 1918 watch collection was created as an ode to the exceptional work of the Royal Air Force, which will be celebrating 100 years of history and success in 2018. As a tribute to the aerial protection of the United Kingdom and her interests provided by this institution, Bremont choose to incorporate original pieces of material taken from four remarkable aircrafts which flew during the summer of the Second World War in 1940. A Bristol Blenheim, a Supermarine Spitfire and a Hawker Hurricane have been incorporated into the propeller blade of the rotor, whilst an original piece of wood from the Shuttleworth Collection's 1917 SE5a lies at the centre of each watch.
Britain's past as a manufacturing base for pilot's watches, together with the Bremont brother's passion for flying, have become important inspiration for the direction of these special timepieces. The limited edition Bremont 1918 GMT watches are available in stainless steel, rose gold and white gold variations, offering dial colours of silver, black and blue respectively. Whilst the connection to the RAF is nothing new to Bremont, the brothers have made it a clear priority to include some features that offer something new to avid Bremont collectors.
The design of the dial is aviation inspired with a second hand for tracking the second time zone in a twelve hour format, a 30 minute chronograph scale, and an am/pm indicator for the second timezone. A date aperture has also been placed at 4:30 which is trimmed in rose gold, steel or white gold depending on the limited edition. The gentleman can view the pieces of metal and wood taken from four WWII Military aircraft through a beautiful exhibition caseback. A sheet of sapphire crystal glass opens up a window into the very heart of the calibre 13 ¼ BE-16AE automatic chronometer, complete with 26 jewels and decorated rotor. The Bremont 1918 GMT watch is 17.2mm thick, helping to protect the internal workings from 100 meter water depths. Bremont's Trip-Tick method also gives the case and the lugs a signature look from the sides and the back. A knurled crown and sporty double-step bezel also help to enhance the striking looks of the timepiece.
The baton-shaped hour and minute hands are filled with SuperLuminova treatment to enhance legibility, whilst a 43mm case diameter creates huge wrist presence – perfect for those gentlemen who like to attract attention for their refined taste in a wristwatch. As with many limited edition Bremont watches, a portion of the proceeds from the sales of these Bremont 1918 GMT watches will be going towards the Royal Air Force Association. Highly likely to appeal to the dedicated Bremont watch collector, these stunning limited editions are a novelty to own and come complete on stylish brown, black and blue leather straps, with fittings matching the metal that the case is manufactured from. Each of the leather straps are decorated with detailed contrast stitching to create an authentic finish to the entire design – a beautiful collectable piece for any sophisticated watch lover.


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A Thanksgiving Day tradition continues with the Purina National Dog Show. While many think of football, parades, and food for Thanksgiving, some 22 million people will turn on their televisions and watch as over 2,000 purebred dogs compete for the title of Best in Show. The Purina National Dog show will air at noon (all time zones) on NBC, and feature the top dogs in the nation. So, where can you watch the national dog show online?
The Purina National Dog Show will air on NBC at noon across all time zones. The competition takes place directly after the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and will feature over 2,000 dogs across a variety of breeds. The purebred pooches will be competing for the honor of being named the Best in Show as an estimated 22 million people tune in for the event.
I'm always the first of my friends to have the trendiest hair accessories… pic.twitter.com/5Tp8TecPGe
— National Dog Show (@TheNatlDogShow) November 14, 2015
According to the official National Dog Show website, over 150 different breeds and varieties compete for best of Breed, First in Group, and the coveted title of Best in Show. Each day brings different competitions and attractions. The organization notes that the National Dog Show is special because it is one of the few "benched" dog shows. Unlike "non-benched" dog shows, the dogs at this national show must remain on designated "benches" throughout the whole event. This allows access to the dogs by interested parties throughout the showing.
"This allows for all interested spectators, breeders, handlers and attendees to meet all of the participating dogs, interact, ask questions, and share information about the various breeds present at the show."
The National Dog Show is one of the oldest benched dog shows and the most watched dog show in the United States. Therefore, if you don't want to miss out on all the fun, be sure to tune in for the big event. The National Dog Show will not only be available on the television, but also will be streaming live online at NBC Sports Live. For those with a cable network or satellite subscription, you will be able to login to NBC Sports online with your cable provider information. For added convenience, you can also watch the National Dog Show from your mobile device by downloading the NBC Sports mobile app on the Apple Store or in Google Play.
If you don't have cable, multiple accounts can be signed in at once so ask a friend for login details. If you don't know anyone with a cable subscription, you can also follow the events through various social media channels. The Purina National Dog Show Twitter account is already tweeting out photos and descriptions of some of the top dogs, and will be live-tweeting throughout the event.
Are you and your squad ready? Thursday at Noon. Be ready. #squadgoals #nationaldogshow pic.twitter.com/sTVeMsHi86
— National Dog Show (@TheNatlDogShow) November 23, 2015
The official National Dog Show Facebook page has numerous photos of the top dogs, along with some backstage candid photos.
Purina will also be updating fans on the National Dog Show standings on their official Facebook page and Twitter account.
The annual National Dog Show is being hosted by actor John O'Hurley. The actor is best known for his role as Mr. Peterman on Seinfeld. The actor will be be joined by David Frei, an expert purebred analyst from USA Network's Westminster Kennel Club, and NBC sportscaster Mary Carillo, who will provide reporting from the benching area and inside the ring with the dogs.
Will you be tuning in for the National Dog Show this afternoon?
[Image via National Dog Show/ Twitter]


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Clearwater Lake & Ray Falls – Wells Gray Park
Clearwater Lake, Wells Gray Park. Beautiful, jaw dropping, dramatic, shockingly safe (as far as adventuring goes), yet slightly unaccessible unless you have a boat. So let me first give a shameless shout-out and tell you about Clearwater Lake Boat tours and the wonderfullness that they are! Family operated, a day boat tour to waterfalls and rainbows (who wouldn't want this?!?), or the ability to rent your own canoe, a great cafe (their cake is to die for), and the charismatic Ray Jones is the cherry on top! And the thing about Ray and the rest of the Clearwater Lake Crew is that they have explored some super random and wonderful places all around Clearwater Lake. So for the summer solstice Angus, Ray and I went on a mission to check out the secret Ray Falls. June camping in the mountains can always a be a bit dramatic, but while camping at Bar View Campground we saw at least a dozen storms roll through the valley over Mount Huntley… dramatic sky photos, yep we got those!! We arrived in the morning, "set sail", setup camp, and headed out to Ray Gully. A bit of a scramble as it's not a set trail, but this gully has all sorts of neat features: Lush greenery, mini waterfalls, and caves; or really large rocks all piled on top of each other creating holes to crawl through. Arriving at the falls is nothing short of spectacular: Certainly not as large as the Wells Gray classics like Helmcken and Spahats, but as you pop out of a tunnel and see the falls it is every bit as awe inspiring! The lush green around it and the tunnels you go through to get there makes it very much an interactive waterfall – My favourite!
Back at camp that evening we watched the storms roll through over Mount Huntley, "hung out" by the fire in hammocks, and of course busted out the Red Sheet for some #RedSheetSeries photos – starting to add guys to this series! Weeooo!!
To those of you now wanting to go find this hidden gem in Wells Gray Park, I suggested going to Clearwater Lake, ordering a meal at the Osprey Cafe, and chatting up Ray Jones and the gang. You will either receive directions to the secret location or at least get super excited about the area around Clearwater Lake and Azure Lake.
I always love exploring these hidden gems, but the fact that this one was right in my backyard was pretty much the best thing ever. Thanks Ray for the excursion! Angus and I are scheming a hike up Huntley Col, and Wells Grays tallest peak Garnet Mountain, maybe sometime this autumn so brace yourself!! ….. people have said that Mount Huntley is the equivalent to hiking three of the Grouse Grinds in Vancouver, who's in??
Holly Louwerse Photography 2017
Clearwater Lake Boat Tours (follow their Instagram here!)
Clearwater Lake, Wells Gray Park, Clearwater BC, Canada
Mount Huntley in all its might!!
Bar View Campground – Clearwater Lake, Wells Gray Park. Lakeside, sandy beach, with mountain views….Perfect?? I think so!!
Mount Huntley dreaming!!
See more Red Sheet Series here!!
Ray Jones – Pretty much always smiling.
So, who's ready for a hike up Huntley Col??
Holly Louwerse Photography 2017
Clearwater Lake Boat Tours (follow their Instagram here!)
Clearwater Lake, Wells Gray Park, Clearwater BC, Canada


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Paperback Covers
The paperback version of The Caged Graves will come out this August, and when it does, it will have a new cover. I showed it off on Facebook and Twitter last week, but in case you didn't see it:
What do you think? I love it.
I admit I was nervous when they said I was getting a new cover, because I LOVE the first one. The girl is the striking image of Verity Boone as I imagined her, and I want to stroke and pet all the shiny gold curlicues around the title. (In fact, I have.) Also, I saw what happened to Code Name Verity when it went to paperback.
There's no connection between my book and Wein's book other than the name Verity, but I just cringed over the new cover. I searched the internet, trying to find the story behind the change, and I think it had to do with a New York Times review saying the first cover looked like a lesbian version of 50 Shades of Gray. But ugh, how was a pastoral landscape supposed to be better? Too far in the other direction!
Anyway, back to my book. This new cover makes the photograph of the caged grave more prominent. (It's my husband's photo, in case you didn't know. Bob gets another photo credit!) And I think there's a greater atmosphere of mystery in this new version. That's what The Caged Graves is, a mystery in a historical setting.
While I'm talking cover switches, let me just mention the new paperback cover for Tiffany Schmidt's debut book, Send Me a Sign. Tiffany is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet (I know. I met her. And not just on the internet, either.) I'm delighted that her new cover is an improvement over the old one!
Can you think of any cover changes that you've particularly liked or disliked?
Don't forget — my Anniversary Giveaway is still running until the end of this month. Enter for more chances to win! Also, Marcy and I have 3 spots open in February for a first page critique. Make a good "First Impression" with editors, agents, and readers!
17 Responses to Paperback Covers
I like the new cover (but I loved the old one, too). I've been a fan of LJ Smith since the mid-ninetees and have seen her covers change over and over again with the reprints. I prefer the original ones, needless to say:)
I really love the paperback cover, especially how it's darkened a little. As a reader, sometimes cover changes throw me. I find I end up searching out the older one and compare them. Then I ask Why did they change this or that? But it's also fun, because I always find a different clue to the story and sense a new vibe.
I love your new cover! Heck, I loved the old cover, too. Win-win.
I also think Tiffany's new cover is an improvement–it captures the feel of the book better, IMO.
My publisher is supposed to be changing the cover art treatment of my series starting with the next two installments, which are coming out in hardcover. I think I'll be a little nervous until I see what they come up with. *bites nails*
I really love the new paperback cover, but I can understand your nerves after your experiences with the last ones! No connection at all!
Congrats on the new cover! It's awesome!
I love your new cover. It looks creepier. And I really love the one for Send Me A Sign. I read the book (and loved it). The new cover is perfect!!!
That new one for Code Name Verity makes it look boring. I'm glad your book isn't suffering from New Cover Syndrome.
I don't know anything about paperback cover changes (I've never really noticed) but I've always thought that books with a different cover in the UK get the short end of the stick. UK designers generally use illustrations vs photos, which often makes things look cartoonish. Congrats on the new cover. It's delightfully creepy!! 🙂
I really like the new cover. Your husband took a fantastic picture.
The cover for the paperback is great. Love it. I also liked the cover on the hardback version, so you now live in the best of both worlds!!!
Great paperback cover! I was relieved when Tor finally redid the awful covers on Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. I dreaded carrying those things around with me.
I love you new cover (and I love the original as well). I'm shocked at Code Name Verity's paperback. It looks like it's not even the same book. I wish I understood the change. The Scorpio Races and The Forest of Hands and Teeth are two books I love dearly that I dislike all but their original covers.
The new cover looks terrific. (Good thing you've got an in with such a good photographer, eh?)
Ooh, yes, that new cover is gorgeous! And I agree with you about Code Name Verity.
I think this is a great cover and I would so pick up the book to find out what's going on here…?
PS. "Oh, Jesus Christ." I am *still* laughing about your Mom!
Well, I'm not laughing *at* her, gosh no, it's that story you told and I think your Mom could have been a fine sailor 🙂
Not that there's anything wrong with sailors… I'm married to one
Oh, Jesus Christ, I'm digging a bigger hole here 🙂
Hi Dianne .. having seen a caged grave in Wales when I was there last year .. your new cover is brilliant – and I would want to know more. Code Name Verity – is cracked!! i.e. awful! Love the Dandelion one too .. that change is good, as you say ..
Cheers Hilary
It came out great! And, in case you didn't notice, there's something a bit spooky about it.


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Siwa Pen Case M
Japanese washi paper maker Onao created a hard-to-tear paper Naoron in collaboration with industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa. The Naoron emerge special texture when it was crumpled. RPF Naoron used for the pen case have the distinctive texture of paper, it does not tear easily and is highly water-resistant. The name 'Siwa' is both a reversing of the characters in the word 'Washi', and a word meaning 'Crinkle' in Japanese.
Material: RPF Naoron (Recycled PET Fiber Naoron)
Dimensions: 200 × 68 mm / 7.9 × 2.7"
Weight: 12g
Color: Grey / Black
Brand: Siwa
Origin: Japan


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A438 Villafranca in Lunigiana, in a residential and served area, flat on the fourth floor served by a lift, in the attic, automatic heating, composed by kitchen, living room with fireplace, two bedrooms, bathroom, closet, balcony and terrace. Condominium car parking. Distance from the sea 30 km. Distance from the motorway exit of Pontremoli 12 Km and 10 km from Aulla.
Energy Class: 200 kWh/m2


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Every man thinks that the solution to end his marriage problems is ending the marriage. For all you men who believe in this, Sameep Kang's Second Hand Husband is here to give you a reality check. This film introduces Tina Ahuja, the daughter of Govida and Gippy Grewal to the Bollywood industry. The movie shows us the life of Ranbir (Gippy), who wants to marry Gurpreet. The only issue that exists is, Ranbir is already married and his wife demands most of his salary as alimony which leaves him broke. Gurpreet, who plays the role of a good for nothing lawyer, fights Ranbir's divorce case. Gurpreet's parents don't want their daughter to spend her life with someone who cant support her financially. What follows is a lame, at times funny attempt of Ranbir trying to get his ex- wife married again.
The story which starts off really good, loses it's hold halfway. The writer tried to include too many things and that didn't turn out really well. The plot which is based on love, trust and relationships, loses it's feel at times making it a bore. What will keep you entertained in the movie is the little punch lines that are smartly infused in the dialogues. The director has done some great work with his characters, but they fail to deliver. Debutantes, Tina and Gippy don't really stand out and are over powered by the work of veterans like, Vijay Raaz and Dharmendra.
Why should you watch the film?
The performance delivered by every actor is commendable. If you want to watch a Dharmendra masterclass, you have to watch this movie. The veteran aces his performance and makes you fall in love with his talent. If you are a fan of peppy Punjabi songs, the music won't disappoint you.


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Sometimes it's enough to offer just a hint of something really tasty to give a bit of life to a lunch or dinner and thereby make it more original and delectable from every point of view. Today we decided to offer something really delicious, ideal for guests who enjoy having a bit of fun with their food, but nevertheless made with hearty flavours. What might be boiled in a saucepan, fried in a frying pan or cooked in the oven, depending on the recipe from My Italian Recipes? The answer is an unusual [crepes, which our chef has turned into something a little different by filling with pork and radicchio, thereby becoming a great appetizer or even main dish. Are you ready to try a new recipe and discover something a little different? Take the advice of our chef and make it unique.
Prepare the crepes according to our basic recipe. Cut the radicchio into quarters and wash under running water. Heat a pan with a little olive oil and sauté the radicchio until they are well cooked. Place inside each crepes two pieces of radicchio, two slices of roast pork and some grated Valtellina cheese. Fold over and seal the crepes, then arrange on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment. Grate some more cheese on top of the crepes and then cook them for 10 minutes in the oven at 180°C.
Finish the crepes by folding over and sealing, arrange on a baking tray, and then cook in the oven at 180°C for 15 minutes


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ADEPT BETA ALANINE is a non-essential amino acid that is used by muscle cells to synthesize carnosine. In turn, carnosine may help the body buffer the lactic acid that builds up during strenuous exercise causing fatigue by helping to maintain optimum muscular pH. This effect may help promote a boost in performance and muscular endurance for high intensity exercise.
|Beta Alanine (as CarnoSyn)
3200 mg
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.
Ingredients: Beta Alanine (as Carnosyn)
Suggest Use: On training days take 1 serving 20-30 minutes prior to training, and again immeadiately after.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Note: Manufacturers continually change product specifications. While we try our best to keep product details up to date, they may not necessarily reflect the latest information available from the manufacturer. We are not responsible for incorrect or outdated product descriptions and/or images. Consult the product label before consuming.


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An urban take on a tribal design. Dhokra pendants handwrapped on narrow cords. Get bold and show off this sexy piece de resistance.
Brass pendant and nylon yarn
PRODUCT LENGTH: 30 Inch
Every Maya product is individually crafted, and one of a kind.
Variations between the website image and the product you receive is to be expected.
We encourage you to embrace the nuances of the handcrafting process.


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The Terminate Accounts interface in your WHM control panel lets you terminate accounts on your server.
Please note that this interface should be used with caution. If you terminate an account in your control, you can't undo this action. We strongly recommend that you create and download a full backup of the account before terminating. Virgo Hosting takes account backups regularly but with each backup, older backups get removed and old backups for terminated accounts are removed as well.
Accessing the Terminate Accounts interfaceLogin to your WHM control panel using your web browser. Go to 'http://www.yourdomain.com/whm/' (without the quotation marks). So if your domain name is 'example.com' you should go to 'http://www.example.com/whm/' to login to your control panel. The Terminate Accounts interface is in the "Account Functions" tab, simply click on the name to enter.
Terminating accountsThis interface has a table you can make a selection from. The "Show only suspended accounts" checkbox lets you view only the suspended accounts. If this checkbox is not selected, all accounts get listed.
To terminate an account;
- Select the checkbox next to the username of the account to terminate.
- If you'd like to keep the DNS settings of the account, select the "Keep DNS Zone" checkbox.
- Click "Remove" button.
- Click "Yes, remove this account" button to confirm account termination.
If you need more assistance with this subject, please contact Virgo Hosting Support by opening a support ticket. We'll be happy to help.
In order to contact our support department, please follow these steps;
In order to contact our support department, please follow these steps;
- Sign in to your client portal from the following URL: https://clientportal.virgohosting.com
- Click "Support" link in the menu to access the "Support Tickets" interface. If you're accessing the client portal from a mobile device, the menu may be accessible by clicking the "MENU" icon depending on your screen resolution.
- Click "Submit New Ticket" button.
- Choose the help desk you'd like to send your support ticket to from the "Help Desk" dropdown menu.
- Enter the support ticket subject and your message in the appropriate text boxes.
- Click "Submit" button. Our support staff will reply to your ticket as soon as possible


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This is our resource page. Here you will find information related to block paving and driveways. We have also listed a few other similar trades to ours that we have worked with over the last few years and would recommend.
- Newcastle County Council
- Durham County Council
- Planning Permission
- Recycling Center
- Marshalls
- Thomas Armstrong
- Brett Paving
- Tobermore
Other Trades


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Spiderman Cosplay!
With Harley the Kid
And Apaches T.
Apache Is the Spiderman!
Harley rocks the web look as Spidey!
Hamster cosplay gear designed by Harley the Kid,
part of his
Heroes by H.
Cat/dog hero suit is from PetSmart's
Autumn13 line of Marvel cosplay stuff.
We call this one
Spiderman + Peter Parker
Late night Spiderman laughs with Harley the Kid and Apache T. xo!
BriBri as Gwen, with her Spidermen!
Check out more Cosplay at our
Family Pet Fashion Show
album page! xo!
Page design by Reggie Max!
home to
surf mac


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Gary Neville tells heartbreaking anecdote about Raheem Sterling from 2016
Neville pulled no punches on the topic of racism tonight
Raheem Sterling has dominated every conversation around football for the past two days, which is good, because this conversations needed to be had.
On Saturday, Sterling was subjected to alleged racist abuse from Chelsea fans, four of whom have been suspended pending further investigation.
On Sunday, he posted a statement on Instagram, calling out the newspapers, citing two Daily Mail articles, for helping to fuel racism and aggressive behaviour among football fans.
Since then, Sterling has received overwhelming support from his peers, and thousands of football fans. The usual suspects are playing devil's advocate, but largely, a huge step forward has been taken in addressing the issue of why Sterling receives a disproportionate amount of abuse.
On Monday Night Football, Gary Neville shared a heartbreaking anecdote from his time as a coach with England regarding Sterling and the abuse he faced from his own 'fans'.
"He came to see me one on one in 2016, three or four days before the Iceland game," Neville said.
"Pre-tournament, he was getting absolutely battered [in the press], we were aware of that. It continued into the tournament, in the stadiums. Groans, boos, that sort of thing.
"He came into the analysis room and decided to unload on me. 'Why was this happening'?
"He accepted that he would get criticised as an England player, but that it was so vicious, he felt so targeted. He didn't know what to do about it.
"I saw what I felt was somebody who's got a great mentality and is tough, but also a level of vulnerability in terms of 'how does he cope with this'?
"Really, as a coach, reflecting on it yesterday, I didn't really know how to deal with it. I went into 'protective mode', coach mode. He's one of our most important players, how would you get him ready for the next match?
"'Raheem you're a great player, we love you to bits' - which to be fair we did - as a coaching staff, and, by trying to patch him up, you'd never be dealing with the underlying issue, and maybe you never would be able to in that sort of one on one session. But actually, reflecting now, maybe we were brushing it aside a little bit.
"Really, deep down, there was a tonal difference in the attacks that he was getting compared to others.
"Directly in that tournament, Harry Kane, who is rightly the blue eyed boy of English football, he was having a difficult time in that tournament, and it was portrayed that it was because he was on corners. Raheem was having a difficult time and it was because of other, more personal reasons.
"The language used towards him was different. He couldn't understand. He was asking me why this was happening. And then post-tournament, we got knocked out and it was bad from a footballing point of view, but the abuse he received, particularly in the media beyond that tournament, the language that was used against him. I've not seen it before.
"I've lived closely, with David Beckham, with Wayne Rooney, played in Euro 96 with Paul Gascoigne. But the nastiness that I think is there [against Sterling], and looking back at that time, trying to patch him up, was that the right reaction?
"But he was willing to stand up and continue playing. And he's gone on to play at a fantastic level. But he's been carrying this with him for years, this is not just Chelsea at the weekend, this has been going on for years with him. I've known about this for years, because he came to see me in 2016. So it's a really difficult situation."
Neville went on to say that not only are there racist undertones in the criticism of Sterling, but that it is "blatant".


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Today was the day when I graduated the Abuela Doula's Preparation course. I know what your thinking, am I not already a Recognised Doula, the answer is…. yes, I am!, but you see, I happened to find this lovely lady named Mars Lord to be my mentor and a few months after having her as my mentor, she started up her very own doula preparation course due to the lack of diversity within the U.K doula world. I was happy that she decided to invite me onto her course as I could see that this course was going to be different from the one I originally did with Nurturing Birth. I knew that this course was going to reflect the different cultures we live amongst and I wanted to be part of it, I wanted to learn more.
The first day on the courses I noticed I was in a room filled with women of colour, with different cultural backgrounds and here we learnt the wisdom of Abuela Doula's, the knowledge was good, all the standard material and information you gain at a doula prep course, but the difference with this course is that I learnt more about different cultural traditions around pregnancy, birth and post-birth. When I say different, I meant I learnt about, African, Caribbean, Chinese, Asian and more cultural and traditional practices.
Why does this matter? Because every mother matters, because as a doula you want your client to feel very comfortable with you, you want to know how to best support her and her family, you want to not make her feel isolated in this westernised country/world, you want her to feel at home with you, relaxed around you and not to feel that she has to change any of her beliefs and traditions to suit.
(Abuela means – Grandmother)
This course takes you back to the times when Granny Midwife's was around, we looked at the history of midwifery and midwifery today.
I am glad that I went on to do this course as I definitely learnt somethings that I can bring into my world as a doula, as a mother, as a sister and as a friend.
If you ask me if I would recommend this doula preparation course, my answer is yes!.
I'm not 100% sure, but from my knowledge, I think I'm the first to do 2 doula preparation courses and the first to graduate with Abuela Doula's and here I am standing strong within my role supporting all women and their families to have a positive pregnancy, birth and post-birth experience because this is what I love to do.
You can find out more about Aduela Doula's here.
I said this year is going to be great and yes, I have started how I mean to continue. Wish you all a happy new year with new beginnings, achievements and success.


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text:
Some consider Crime and Punishment Dostoievsky's greatest work. I wouldn't put it quite that high. I'd say The Brothers Karamazov is his most impressive novel. I probably enjoy The Possessed most of all, because of its viciously satirical, wonderfully comic characters, but I suppose it's just a notch below The Brothers Karamazov in terms of serious literature. I'd also put The Idiot and maybe The Gambler at least at the level of Crime and Punishment.
Crime and Punishment is the story of a murder and its aftermath. The protagonist, Raskolnikov, is a 23 year old broke former student living in St. Petersburg. (But he's one of those Russians of a social class such that even when he's utterly destitute he's still socially above peasants and such.)
He comes up with the idea to kill and rob an old woman pawnbroker, reasoning that she's a despicable human being that no one will miss, and whatever morally might be said against his act, he'll more than make up for it by using the money he gains to do good in the world.
He is an intense, passionate person, obsessed with philosophical and moral issues. (In other words, he's a character in a Dostoievsky novel.) He is in turmoil throughout the story–anxious contemplating the murder beforehand, guilty about the murder afterward, panicked about getting caught, physically ill, overwhelmed by sudden other emotionally powerful issues not directly related to the murder–and we experience with him his various dreams and delusions.
He partly botches the murder, in part because he panics after having to also kill the pawnbroker's meek, innocent sister Lisaveta who shows up unexpectedly. He doesn't take everything he could have of value, he doesn't cover his tracks particularly well, he doesn't look all that closely at what he took to ascertain the value of his haul, he stashes the loot in a random hiding place he stumbles upon, and–out of guilt, a sporting defiant nature, or a belief that no one would expect the murderer to take such chances–he engages in daring exchanges with the police where he hints about being the murderer.
Meanwhile, he becomes involved with the family of a some time civil servant named Marmeladov, who cannot keep a job due to his alcoholism, and whose teenage daughter Sonya resorts to prostitution to keep the family from homelessness and starvation. Raskolnikov becomes obsessed with Sonya–even more humble and saintlike than Lisaveta–sensing at some level that she is the key to his salvation. He confides in her. She is shocked but vows to support him in atoning for his crime, which he may or may not be ready to do.
His mother and sister Dunya come to St. Petersburg to join him during this time. Dunya had recently been accused of engaging in inappropriate behavior with her employer Svidrigaylov while serving as a governess in his household. She was soon vindicated when Svidrigaylov came clean to his wife that he was the only one who had done anything out of line in pressuring her, saving Dunya's local reputation. With her good name now intact, a marriage to a businessman with money named Luzhin is hastily arranged. She and the mother are struggling financially, and just as Raskolnikov is desperate enough to commit murder to financially save himself and them, Dunya is willing to enter into a loveless marriage with Luzhin (an altogether odious character) to financially save them and her brother. They have come to St. Petersburg for the wedding. Raskolnikov bitterly opposes the proposed union, feeling like even more of a loser that his sister would think she has to make such a sacrifice to provide for the family in a way he has proven incapable of.
The traumatized post-murder Raskolnikov is pulled in multiple directions. Sonya seeks to encourage him down a Christian path of confession and suffering. He has to manage his conflict with Luzhin over the latter's intention to marry Dunya. He has to try to stay one step ahead of the police, most notably a savvy and relentless investigator named Porfiry Petrovich who seems to know just how to push a suspect's buttons psychologically to get him to confess, or go crazy or both.
Svidrigaylov comes to town for mysterious reasons, leading to more drama for Raskolnikov. He soon learns Raskolnikov's secret. Is he still after Dunya? (His wife has died in the meantime.) Will he blackmail Raskolnikov? Does he have some other scheme in mind?
My copy of Crime and Punishment happens to be from the Norton Critical Edition series. It includes a map of St. Petersburg showing all the key locations of the novel (Dostoievsky was quite specific and literal about where the events take place; Raskolnikov's shoddy, rented room is a place Dostoievsky himself lived briefly in real life), and almost 200 pages of critical essays.
One of the more interesting of these essays is a Simon Karlinsky New York Times piece from 1971. Karlinsky notes that while most people who are knowledgeable about literature are diehard Dostoievsky fans (I certainly am) and consider him one of the greatest writers of all time, that's not quite a consensus position. Vladimir Nabokov was one detractor. Virginia Woolf too didn't share the common fascination with Dostoievsky, complaining that in his melodramatic, unrealistic books, "We open the door and find ourselves in a room full of Russian generals, the tutors of Russian generals, their stepdaughters and cousins and crowds of miscellaneous people who are all talking at the tops of their voices about their most private affairs."
While people outside of Russia tend to be influenced by what they've read in Dostoievsky's books to think of Russians as somehow naturally given to histrionics, a passionate commitment to philosophical principles, and a go-for-the-gusto mentality, some Russians are insulted by this and contend that Russians are no more like that than any other people. Indeed, as Karlinsky points out, there is now a Russian word "dostoevshchina"–not an obscure word, but "a part of the normal Russian vocabulary"–that refers to just the kind of ludicrously passionate, overly dramatic behavior associated with Dostoievsky characters.
There is indeed plenty to criticize about Dostoievsky, as great a writer as he was. He routinely caricatures proponents of the intellectual and political movements that he disagrees with, basically mocking them. As I mentioned in connection with The Possessed, that's entertaining–indeed, he's so good at it that it can be laugh out loud funny–but hardly fair. There are many editor's footnotes in this Norton Critical Edition of Crime and Punishment explaining where such-and-such a line from this or that character is an oversimplification of this theory or a lampooning of that theory.
In some ways Dostoievsky is really an unappealing fellow. He's anti-Semitic. He's unapologetically chauvinistic in supporting Slav–especially Russian–superiority. He's a religious fundamentalist who is convinced that the ultimate truth that's applicable to all mankind is contained, conveniently enough, in the religion of his own culture, which is to say not only Christianity but specifically the Russian Orthodox version of Christianity.
He seems especially contemptuous of people from Poland. They typically have no more than bit parts in his novels, but when they do appear they are pathetic, foolish, sometimes overly ingratiating–the sort of folks that don't count for much and don't deserve respect. They rarely if ever even have names. He'll just dismissively describe the comic, ineffectual antics of "some little Pole" and leave it at that.
I think it's easier for me to love Dostoievsky's writing because of the considerable political distance. Had he written in the 1960s instead of the 1860s, and as an American instead of a Russian, he's the type whose every feminist character would be a man-hating, strident, bra-burning harpy, and whose every anti-war demonstrator would have been a fool parroting simplistic slogans and spitting on the returning troops. Mexicans in his books would all be disgusting little dishonest, ridiculous losers, and Jews would be, well, pretty much as the real Dostoievsky wrote of them.
I suspect I'd find him too odious to bother reading. It would be too hard to get past his politics.
Anyway, getting back to Crime and Punishment, there is some dispute among commentators as to the true motive for Raskolnikov's crime, as you can argue that it changes during the novel.
Initially, he justifies the murder in a utilitarian way, arguing (to himself) that with the money he gains through the crime he'll do so much good that it'll outweigh the evil of the murder itself.
In fact, that wouldn't be enough to justify an act under utilitarianism. Utilitarianism doesn't require just that an act have a positive "score"–i.e., more good than bad would result from it–but that its "score" be higher than that of any alternative act the agent could have done instead. If, for instance, Raskolnikov could have gotten just as much money and done just as much good with it if he'd, say, gotten a job–something he shows little inclination toward doing–then it would be better to do that than commit the murder. But it's not clear that Dostoievsky–any more than his character–has any significant understanding of utilitarianism.
I think the fact that the crime goes badly–and especially the part about the innocent Lisaveta stumbling into the middle of it and Raskolnikov killing her in a panic–is intended at least in part by Dostoievsky as a refutation of utilitarianism. The idea being that it's wrong to violate moral taboos and laws against things like murder based on the consequences of your act, because we are very fallible creatures with very limited information and so should not overrate our ability to anticipate the consequences of something as extreme as committing a murder. However the situation might appear at the time, the chances of (very bad) unintended, unpredictable consequences is too great.
Which, again, by the way, isn't a proper refutation of utilitarianism. If certain types of acts have too high a risk of unintended, bad consequences, then utilitarianism itself would have a problem with them. To cite the bad consequences of a murder in order to establish the wrongness of the murder–or of murder in general–is not an argument against utilitarianism but an argument within utilitarianism.
Later in the novel, Raskolnikov sounds more like he's operating from a sort of Nietzschean superman theory rather than utilitarianism. Nietzsche articulated his theories in the years and decades immediately after Crime and Punishment was published, so Dostoievsky didn't base Raskolnikov, or this aspect of Raskolnikov's character, on Nietzsche's philosophy, but there were precursors in Dostoievsky's time to this kind of philosophy now most closely associated with Nietzsche.
And it's not that Raskolnikov changed his mind after the fact. It turns out he'd written, and had published, a journal article well before the murder laying out his theory that there are a select few elite people who are not bound by the usual moral rules, and who have the freedom to seize power and make the rules rather than follow the rules. He uses Napoleon as the archetype of the amoral, uninhibited, supremely successful power seeker. (If I remember correctly, Tolstoy's version of Napoleon in War and Peace is kind of like that too. I'm not sure why everyone picks on Napoleon; I think there are plenty of historical figures who manifested less of a conscience and were less constrained by ethical considerations than Napoleon.)
So in addition to the utilitarian rationale for his crime, Raskolnikov seems to conceive of it as some sort of a test to see if he's one of the elite people who are able effectively and comfortably to use all means, including murder, to achieve their ends. And the traumatic thing for him is that, in his mind, he fails the test. He botches the crime and then is tortured by remorse, neither of which is supposed to happen for the superman who is above good and evil.
Unlike most commentators, I don't think these two motives–the utilitarian one of wanting to bring about the best consequences, and the Nietzschean one of wanting to establish that he is one of the select few who are entitled to be free of the normal ethical constraints–are incompatible.
I'm not saying this is necessarily what Dostoievsky had in mind–since he's no philosopher and doesn't manifest much of a grasp of the philosophical positions he criticizes or ridicules–but maybe Raskolnikov's ethical worldview is something like this:
The least controversial conventional values that you'll find in most religions and most legal systems–e.g., the prohibition on murder–are, with rare exceptions, justified in a utilitarian sense. That is, if almost everybody almost all the time obeyed them, that would have the best consequences–better than if everyone instead directly sought to bring about the best consequences. We want people to internalize these rules, to have a genuine aversion to violating them and to feel great remorse if they do violate them. Even as utilitarians we recognize that when people claim to be seeking the best consequences for all, or even sincerely believe they are doing so, self-interest, self-deception, limited information, and a limited ability to infer consequences from that information routinely lead them astray. It's better that they just stick to the rules.
On the other hand, we don't want that to be quite an absolute. Progress can only be made if an occasional Napoleon does indeed give himself permission to violate the rules and make his own decisions about what will have the best consequences. So it's best for there to be some very small number of people with a sophisticated enough moral sensibility that they don't artificially limit themselves like the masses should, but on rare occasions aim directly for the best consequences for all. These are the kind of people who are intelligent enough and emotionally in control enough to be capable of spotting when murdering a pawnbroker would have the best consequences, and to act on that realization in a cool, efficient way without remorse.
The superman kind of "above conventional right and wrong" philosophy, then, would not be an alternative to utilitarianism or incompatible with utilitarianism, but instead would be a part of a utilitarian worldview.
Anyway, that's one way to reconcile Raskolnikov's different rationales for his behavior.
Another issue related to Raskolnikov's motive for the murder and attitude toward the murder is what to make of the novel's epilogue. Under the guidance of Sonya, in the epilogue Raskolnikov accepts a version of Christian ethics that calls upon him to publicly confess his sins, humble himself, and willingly accept suffering as his only path to redemption. In the eyes of many commentators, this epilogue is just tacked on by Dostoievsky in order to bring the novel into line with his own values and the message he wants it to have, and does not flow from what we know of Raskolnikov in the body of the book, where he never really gives up his theory about elite people being allowed to transcend right and wrong, and is really only remorseful, or at least upset, about the fact that the events of the murder and his reaction to it show him that he's not one of those elite people.
I mostly disagree. I think the epilogue fits the book quite well.
Raskolnikov moves toward a Christian awakening of that kind throughout the book. It's true that it is in fits and starts, and that there are other motives, other interpretations, other emotions battling with it within him. That's why it's a struggle, and that's why it takes hundreds of pages to get where he's going. I don't think you can just pick one of the other sides of him that's in conflict with this moral journey and say that that's the "real" Raskolnikov, and the Christian stuff that contradicts it is just added on implausibly at the end by the author. The redemption-through-suffering philosophy has always appealed to him at some level, always stood as an alternative to whatever utilitarian, Nietzschean, or other philosophies have tenuously held sway over him at any given time.
That's the whole point of his relationship with Sonya after all. Think about, for instance, the moving scene wherein he insists she read aloud to him from the Gospels the story of Lazarus. He knows that it will take something akin to the raising of Lazarus to bring him back from the moral death into which he has stumbled.
Does he fight this urge toward Christian redemption through suffering? Does he insult her, and argue against her religious beliefs, and cling intermittently to some other way of viewing his moral self and his situation? Of course. Again, there's an internal conflict, and we see it played out for hundreds of pages. But he keeps coming back to her because he senses that she can guide him to something he needs, to the only thing that can save him.
There's nothing incongruous about the ending. It's exactly where the book is headed all along.
Also, it's not as if his conversion to this Christian worldview is presented as so definitive and absolute as to be unrealistic. Dostoievsky explicitly says in the epilogue that Raskolnikov's struggle will continue, that his moral renewal will be gradual, with many pitfalls along the way. Raskolnikov takes a major step in the epilogue in the same direction he'd been headed in the body of the book, but it doesn't represent the end of ambivalence for him, the end of his struggle. He's made a commitment and feels good about it, but that doesn't mean the journey is over.
The two biggest influences on my moral philosophy have been Immanuel Kant and Mohandas Gandhi, both of whom–though they differed on the details, and certainly on the applications–firmly rejected the notion that the end justifies the means. Each believed that there are things that are inherently wrong, and that they do not become right circumstantially because of the anticipated consequences. Both believed that you are not justified in partaking in evil in order to allegedly bring about good.
Moral philosophy, and specifically whether consequentialist considerations make all moral rules situational, is obviously hugely important to Dostoievsky and to Crime and Punishment. As an author he presents Raskolnikov as only eligible for redemption when he gives up his idea that as a being above right and wrong, he can justify anything up to and including murder if the consequences will be good enough. Given that, it seems that Dostoievsky too has taken the stand that there are some means that the end cannot justify.
Some questions come to mind as regards that, however. Raskolnikov at one point wonders why, if indeed he's wrong to contend that you can kill–e.g., murder the pawnbroker–as long as more good than bad will ensue from it (and/or because the usual rules don't apply to moral superman types), then what about soldiers and police and others that almost everyone believes are sometimes justified in killing people, or even businessmen and government officials and such who cause great harm even if they don't personally pull the triggers?
Also, if the end doesn't justify immoral means, then why is Sonya a hero for being willing to become a prostitute in order to get the money to bring about better consequences for her family?
Maybe the answer is that, for Dostoievsky at least, the end can sometimes justify the means after all, including in these cases, which means that these cases would have to be relevantly distinguishable from, for instance, Raskolnikov's murder of the pawnbroker.
In the case of soldiers and police and such, presumably the justification would be that violence carried out by an agent of the state, or at least sanctioned by the state, comes under different rules compared to the actions of a private citizen like Raskolnikov. Certainly that's the distinction most people would make. The vast majority of people would oppose a murder like the one committed by Raskolnikov, but only a tiny minority of them would believe that, say, a soldier killing people in a war is similarly behaving in a morally unacceptable manner.
I, though, tend to think Raskolnikov has a good point. If you're going to say there is something inherently wrong with certain acts, then it seems implausible to me that that would suddenly change if the person puts on a uniform and follows orders. A person is still a person. He doesn't become something else when he's acting on behalf of the state.
The idea that this is a relevant distinction sounds to me dangerously close to the notion that the people who call the shots for a state actually are moral supermen, that they–and those who act on their behalf–are justified in deciding on a case-by-case basis when things like killing will have the best consequences. Maybe so, but I think an idealistic, unstable student like Raskolnikov is at least as worthy of being trusted with that responsibility as your typical king, president, general, etc. (which is to say not very worthy at all).
What's interesting is that Dostoievsky's contemporary and co-giant of Russian literature–also intensely Christian–Leo Tolstoy came to precisely the opposite conclusion on this question. He believed Christianity obligated him as a private citizen to refrain from violence or from combating evil with evil, but that the same was true of those acting for the state. That is, he took the next step–which Dostoievsky never did–to pacifism and anarchism.
In the case of Sonya, I would guess what Dostoievsky would say is that the relevant distinction here is harming others versus taking suffering upon oneself. So, Raskolnikov is wrong in killing someone in pursuit of good ends, whereas Sonya is laudable for being willing to suffer in pursuit of good ends.
I'm somewhat sympathetic toward that view, but I'm not sure it's compatible with the moral views of many people, including most religious people. I believe they would categorize prostitution as something that is inherently wrong, not something that can be right or wrong depending on what you intend to use the money for.
I'm not saying I agree with a religious/moral taboo against prostitution, but for those who do–and if they also contend that the end doesn't justify using immoral means–I would think Sonya's decision to engage in prostitution in order to raise money for her and her family would be objectionable in the same way that Raskolnikov's decision to commit murder to raise money for him and his family is.
Again, by no means do I think prostitution is as bad as murder, insofar as it's bad at all. But the majority of people do think it's wrong, and not just contrary to the prostitute's self-interest in causing her to suffer, and that it should therefore–for those people at least–raise the question of whether she is using immoral means in pursuit of moral ends.
I think that question would be more likely to arise for readers if we weren't artificially shielded from the subject matter of Sonya's prostitution. Yes, we're told that she's a prostitute, but (for obvious reasons of taste and censorship) we're not shown in detail her life as a prostitute.
Raskolnikov's murder of the pawnbroker and her sister is conveyed in vivid detail in a section of the book lauded as one of its most powerful. The explicit brutality of it practically compels one to confront the moral ramifications of his act. There's nothing analogous to that for Sonya's prostitution, and I think the book is weaker for it.
We don't see all the little deceptive things she has to do to succeed in that line of work, the evil of others (pimps?, corrupt cops?) she is entangled with and facilitates, the way she turns the evil or at least weak urges of her customers into a moneymaking opportunity for her. Maybe the only way to succeed in her circumstances includes doing things like helping recruit other young women and girls into prostitution, or robbing her intoxicated customers when the opportunity presents itself. Does she do things like that?
We don't know because that aspect of her life all happens off camera. We don't know how ugly or morally dubious her life as a prostitute is, nor for that matter the specifics of how she suffers in that life. Her prostitution is abstract only, so we aren't confronted with the same questions about her as about Raskolnikov. That enables her to be presented as the sainted, pure Christian one, and he the sinner in need of redemption, even though one can make the case that both have made what moral compromises they felt they needed to make in an imperfect world in order for them and their loved ones to survive.
Characters like Sonya–morally, spiritually pure, innocent, simple-minded or at least transparently honest and uncomplicated, prone to martyrdom–are very common in Dostoievsky's work. In this book alone, besides Sonya, Lisaveta and Raskolnikov's sister Dunya fit into this category to at least some extent.
I'm tempted to say it's an indication of Dostoievsky's sexist worldview (not surprising, since this is the 19th century after all), where women are simplistic Madonnas or whores (or both!) who even in the more positive of those two roles are mostly martyr types whose value comes from what they are capable of inspiring in the invariably male protagonists.
Then again, he does have male characters like that too, such as Prince Myshkin in The Idiot and most famously Alyosha in The Brothers Karamazov. Still, at least the male versions of that character type are allowed vastly more psychological and moral complexity.
I want to say a little bit about Svidrigaylov. Some commentators have gone so far as to say that despite Raskolnikov getting several times the number of words devoted to him and his story, really Svidrigaylov is the central figure of the novel. I wouldn't go that far, but I do find him the character that my mind seems to go back to the most, even more than Raskolnikov.
The general take on Svidrigaylov is that he is a "double" of Raskolnikov (if you're of a mind to read him that way, you can find this use of "doubles" in multiple of Dostoievsky's works), that he represents one of the paths Raskolnikov could take. He is, it is said, the embodiment of Raskolnikov's notion of the superman who gives himself permission to function above right and wrong without remorse, a purely amoral villain, maximally free to pursue his ends by whatever means he chooses. And the lesson to be learned from his depiction is said to be that such freedom is no freedom at all, that it leads to a miserable, empty life, whereas accepting the constraints of the moral law paradoxically maximizes one's freedom to flourish as a human being.
I agree in part, but I find myself drawn to Svidrigaylov, more sympathetic toward him, than I would expect from that description.
It's easy to make the case against Svidrigaylov. He may well have killed his wife. He's certainly suspected of it; he allegedly had given some indication to Dunya that he was considering doing so. He somehow abused and humiliated one of the household servants to the point that the man's subsequent suicide was arguably attributable to it.
He has an unmistakable preference for young girls, such as Dunya, who he attempted to seduce and then let his wife accuse of impropriety, and a teenage girl he is set to marry late in the book (a marriage clearly financially motivated on the bride's family's part, like the proposed union of Dunya and Luzhin). I don't know what the age of consent was in 19th century Russia, but evidently one or more of his conquests was well below it. (That's an issue that recurs in Dostoievsky's work, one he seemed fascinated and repelled by as the ultimate evil.) She, like the servant, subsequently killed herself.
There's a sense in which Svidrigaylov does indeed manifest a kind of amorality, a tendency to chuckle over the way someone like Raskolnikov obsesses over the moral ramifications of his actions. But that's superficial and misleading. I don't think the key difference between Raskolnikov and Svidrigaylov is that each attempted to live in a way unconstrained by moral considerations, and Svidrigaylov was sufficiently psychopathic to pull it off whereas Raskolnikov's moral sensibilities were strong enough to torment him with anxiety and guilt.
For one thing, there's the difference of motive. Raskolnikov was hoping he was a moral superman so that he could do good in the world–remember, he has the utilitarian side to his moral philosophy–whereas Svidrigaylov seems to have been motivated far more by simple self-interest and hedonism.
But more importantly, Svidrigaylov didn't pull it off after all. He's no soulless, conscienceless hedonist. In his way he's as wracked by guilt as Raskolnikov, so much so that he deludes himself into seeing the ghosts of those he's wronged and becomes suicidal.
Both Raskolnikov and Svidrigaylov made choices that they found resulted in their feeling estranged from their fellow man, placed in a moral wasteland, tormented by the memories of what they'd done. Neither had achieved the intended fruits of their actions. Raskolnikov's murder and theft had not enabled him to lift himself and his family out of poverty and do good in the world; Svidrigaylov's pursuit of power and pleasure, especially sexual pleasure, had turned out like an addictive drug that produces less and less of a high the more you do it and that you end up pursuing joylessly as a sort of grim habit.
Raskolnikov recognized–though he fought the recognition every step of the way–that he needed a Lazarus-like rebirth, and that his only hope of achieving this lay in an embrace of certain Christian principles. I would argue that Svidrigaylov had the same partial awareness and longing for this redemption.
The key difference between the two was actually external. Raskolnikov had a Sonya; Svidrigaylov did not. Raskolnikov wasn't able to save himself, but he had someone almost superhumanly good and dedicated to him who was willing to stand by him through everything to save him, including tolerating his fighting against her trying to save him.
Svidrigaylov too couldn't save himself and sensed it. I think he wanted Dunya as his Sonya, but the tragedy of Svidrigaylov is that she was not willing and able to fulfill that role. She would not commit and sacrifice to the same extreme degree as Sonya to save a sinner.
Svidrigaylov's attitude toward Dunya and his relationship with her is an intriguing one, certainly more complex and interesting than the simple predator and intended victim one that some readers may see it as.
We aren't told nearly as much about them as about Raskolnikov and Sonya, but evidently when she was working in his house, she did indeed see him as a flawed person open to moral improvement, and she entered into a relationship with him not unlike that of Raskolnikov and Sonya, where she sought to guide him to a Christian rebirth through her loving and patient friendship. He let this happen enough for them to get closer, and then used that closeness to attempt to seduce her.
At first glance it would seem that he simply went along with what he regarded as spiritual and moral claptrap in order to give himself a shot at sex with someone young and attractive enough to interest him. But looking at all the evidence, I'm doubtful that his insincerity was so complete. I think out of habit he looked upon her as a potential sexual conquest, but that at the same time he felt some legitimate pull toward what she represented spiritually.
So when he comes to St. Petersburg to try to reconnect with her, we can see it as just an effort to complete some unfinished business and obtain her sexually–which is how Raskolnikov and others see it–or we can see it, as I do, as a mixture of that on a superficial level, and then on a deeper level the unfinished business of his moral conversion.
After all, what happens when he sets things up to facilitate raping her? He backs off. The fact that he set things up like that tells us he still has sinful desires for her; the fact that he backed off tells us that he's learned that trampling on the rights of others in pursuit of his own sensual satisfaction is losing its appeal for him. What he craves from her is something he knows he can't take by force, and that is her friendship and moral support.
His potential redemption through her will always be complicated by the fact that he's hot for her, something that there's no indication is present in Raskolnikov's feelings for Sonya. But then again, Raskolnikov for other reasons was intermittently uncooperative with Sonya's efforts to save him. There was much uncertainty along the way whether Raskolnikov would indeed achieve moral redemption under Sonya's guidance, and the same would have been true for Svidrigaylov had he been able to recruit Dunya for a similar role in his life, but Svidrigaylov knew that at least it would give him a chance, and when that hope was dashed it was the end of him.
I see him as far more of a sad than scary or evil figure. I think his motives for trying to reconnect with Dunya have at least as much good as evil in them. As far as his interactions with Raskolnikov, while Raskolnikov is understandably wary that he is up to something no good, I'm inclined to put a more positive spin on his motives here too.
While he certainly would like Raskolnikov to facilitate his reconnecting with Dunya, I don't think it's a matter of using trickery or the coercion of blackmail to get Raskolnikov to turn his sister over to him. (Not wholly anyway; I'm not denying the possibility of mixed motives.)
Maybe I'm being naïve, but I actually read him as being a lonely, anguished man who would like very much to have some kind of friendship with Raskolnikov, who he sees as much more likely than most to understand him given his own struggles, and who he envies for having a Sonya in his life. Raskolnikov is completely unreceptive to this, just as Dunya will not even consider resuming a spiritual mentor relationship with Svidrigaylov, and so Svidrigaylov's moral estrangement from the world remains complete, and remains devastating to him.
Svidrigaylov does not represent what Raskolnikov could have become had he succeeded in suppressing his conscience and living as a Nietzschean superman above good and evil; he represents what Raskolnikov could have become without a Sonya.
If you want to talk about an evil character in the book, look no farther than Luzhin. I'll take Svidrigaylov over Luzhin any day. Svidrigaylov at least has the decency to hurt over his transgressions and to crave a moral awakening; Luzhin is the much more frustrating sort of villain who sees nothing problematic in his villainy.
If Raskolnikov foreshadows the Nietzschean hero in some ways, Luzhin foreshadows the even more detestable Ayn Randian hero.
Just to quickly share a few other reactions I had to the book, I mostly was drawn in by the subplot involving the Marmeladov family (Marmeladov, again, being Sonya's drunkard father), which Dostoievsky originally intended as a separate novel.
When you get right down to it, Marmeladov appears on only a comparative handful of pages early in the book. That's easy to forget, because he's so impactful a character. His role is very small, but his importance to the story is disproportionately high compared to that.
One of the most emotionally powerful scenes in the book to me is when the widow Marmeladov–who throughout the story has been on the verge of instability due to physical illness and trying circumstances–loses it and drags her frightened and bewildered children into the street, frantically trying to get them to perform for money.
Another scene that stands out to me is Raskolnikov's dream (though it's more realistic than dreamlike, and so I think of it more as a memory that came back to him lying in bed half-awake) of being a little boy and witnessing a peasant and his friends cruelly beat a defenseless horse to death.
Most commentators seem to see it as Raskolnikov anticipating how horrific it will be to bludgeon the pawnbroker to death, a realization that he's about to descend to the same moral level as the cruel peasant of his memory. Maybe, but I'm not so sure.
My reaction was that what was most traumatizing to him in the dream/memory was his own powerlessness and frustration as a child. I see it more as his steeling himself for what he thinks he has to do, with an attitude of "If I'm to do battle with the injustice and cruelty of the world, I can't be held back by queasiness over the choice of means. Ineffectuality is not an option. I'll be the kind of Napoleon who will be strong and uninhibited enough to stand up to and defeat people like those drunk peasants beating that poor horse."
Speaking of dreams, I experienced Raskolnikov's battle of wits with Porfiry Petrovich as frustrating in a nightmare sort of way. I recognize on an intellectual level that we're supposed to root for Porfiry to win, that he's the "good guy" and Raskolnikov is the criminal, and indeed that it'll be better for Raskolnikov himself's moral wellbeing if he does not get away with his crime. But on a gut level, I couldn't help but root for Raskolnikov to escape. I developed a dislike for Porfiry and found it much easier to identify with Raskolnikov.
But it was like a nightmare reading how Raskolnikov couldn't seem to bring himself to do what he needed to do to escape, like that feeling of trying to run away in a dream and getting nowhere. I know it's because at some level Raskolnikov "wants" to get caught out of guilt, but I'm just saying subjectively I experienced it as highly frustrating. I wanted to reach into the book and grab him and shake him and shout at him that failing all else, just get out of there physically. Leave St. Petersburg as soon as possible, by stealth if you think Porfiry has you under surveillance. Go somewhere far away. Go to America (which seems to represent to the characters in the book the ultimate destination for those wishing to leave their past behind and start life over with a clean slate).
Maybe that just reflects my realization that if I somehow did something so bad that I was facing severe punishment like that, I don't think I'd be noble enough to go the confession and redemption route. I can't know unless it happens, but I think I'm more likely to react with urgency and simple self-preservation, with the attitude that I can't change the past, can't change what I've done, and so I need to focus on the future and how and where I can do the most good, which certainly won't be in a Siberian prison camp.
I'm not talking about a situation like a serial killer contemplating turning himself in rather than remaining free and continuing to kill people. I'm talking about a one-off crime like Raskolnikov's. I don't know if the right thing to do would be to sacrifice myself in atonement, but I'm admitting I'm skeptical I could do that even if I did conclude it was the right thing.
But that's precisely why it's such an excruciating process for Raskolnikov to end up where he ends up. A very large part of him does want to escape the consequences of turning himself in. He didn't anticipate arriving where he arrives at the end of the book, any more than I can see myself ending up there were I in his shoes. So who can say? But I certainly can identify with his struggle, regardless of whether our outcomes would be the same.
As should be obvious by now, I experienced Crime and Punishment as a highly thought-provoking book, which is true of just about everything I've read by Dostoievsky. This is the value of great literature–to make us think and make us feel in ways that facilitate our growth. There are very few authors who have enriched my life in that way as much as Dostoievsky has.


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Hundreds of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) volunteers today gathered at the residence of former party leader and activist Anjali Damania in suburban Santacruz requesting her to rejoin the political outfit.
Damania, however, refused to give in to their request saying there were no such plans as of now.
Over 300 volunteers from across the state assembled at the activist's residence around 9 am and stayed there till 1 pm requesting her to return to the party which she left in 2015.
Simultaneously volunteers ran a hashtag #AAPneedsAnjali from the her residence that kept trending for few hours on micro-blogging site Twitter.
"You can see, Mumbai's torrential rains too have not deterred AAP volunteers from reaching Damania's house at 9 am in the morning. We volunteers make a sincere and humble request to our party leaders to convince Anjali Damania to come back to AAP," an AAP volunteer said in a video message.
Another volunteer, Abhishek Bhat said, "It's about morals and principles which the Aam Aadmi Party stands for. We volunteers want good leaders like Anjali Damania to fight the muscle and monetary might of corrupt politicians in Maharashtra.
"We request our Delhi leaders too to convince Damania to join AAP Maharashtra again."
Deepak Dubey, another AAP volunteer said, "Ever since, Damania left AAP, she has never joined any other political outfit and she still remains with the AAP emotionally."
However, Damania, denied any possibility of rejoining the party.
"It was an emotional moment to find my volunteers appealing to me to come back in the party. I respect their feelings and AAP was once very very close to my heart, but at the moment I am not thinking about it," Damania told PTI.
Damania had quit AAP on March 12, 2015, alleging that party leadership had compromised on principles that were laid down during its formation.
Damania had left party in protest after Arvind Kejriwal allegedly tried to poach Congress MLAs to form the government in the national capital.


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Chicago teachers march to oppose budget and job cuts
Jerry White
5 February 2016
Thousands of teachers marched in downtown Chicago Thursday to oppose threats by school authorities to cut 1,000 jobs and slash $100 million from the school budget. The school board handpicked by Mayor Rahm Emanuel issued the threat after the Chicago Teachers Union bargaining committee, fearing a rebellion of teachers, rejected a concessions contract pushed by the CTU leadership.
Chicago teachers march to oppose budget and job cuts


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WILL BE SUNDAY, AUGUST 26th
WILL BE SUNDAY, AUGUST 26th
Strafford County Democrats will gather at Millennium Park in Somersworth from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, August 26, for the party's annual family picnic, chair Joe Cicirelli has announced. The park is located at 99 Stackpole Rd., between High St. and Green.
Congressional candidate and former Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter will head the list of speakers, Cicirelli said. "This is a 'don't miss' event with candidates and Democrats from throughout Strafford County and statewide rallying in advance of the 2012 election. Enthusiasm and activity has never been greater and turnout is expected to be high. We invite our friends and neighbors from other counties to join the festivities."
Democratic candidates for governor, executive council, state senate, state representative, and county offices have all been invited and will be on hand to speak with constituents.
In addition to the traditional fare of hamburgers, veggie burgers, hot dogs, home-made salads and dessert favorites, this year's picnic will feature gluten-free and vegan choices.
The shady park has a large comfortable pavilion, appealing playground equipment, and grassy lawns. It is handicapped accessible.


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University research and the fetishisation of excellence
How can interdisciplinary research proposals be more effectively assessed through peer review?
Gender studies as an interdisciplinary field has a distinctive engagement with interdisciplinarity.
Interdisciplinarity is often framed as an unquestioned good within and beyond the academy, one to be encouraged by funders and research institutions alike. And yet there is little research on how interdisciplinary projects actually work—and do not work—in practice.


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Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
Virtual Machines, Microsoft Security Essentials, Windows 7 Taskbar Toolbars, & Securing Your Router
Webinar #1 was June 12th, at 13:00 Pacific Daylight Time (PDT).
Agenda (Titles will link to specific articles created from the video segments):
Virtual Machines - What are they? - Because I use a VM to present in webinars, I figured that it'd be a good time to demonstrate what they are and why they're so cool.
Installing MSE - I'll walk through installing and configuring Microsoft Security Essentials.
Creating your own tool bar in Windows 7 - I use this to replace XP's quick launch bar; I have what I think is a pretty interesting, "I'll bet they didn't plan for this" way of using it.
Securing your router and WiFi access point - I'll review my router security article and demonstrate how my router and access point are set up.
If you have questions about how webinars work, or how Ask Leo! webinars work, have a look at this article: How do I attend one of your webinars? (And what's a webinar?)
If you missed the webinar, keep coming back to this very page. The agenda items I covered above will eventually become links to articles that contain the recorded video segments from the webinar. More on that here: How do I view your past webinars?
If you have technical questions please ask them here on the ask-a-question page.
If you have general comments about the webinar, ideas for future topics or thoughts about what would work better, please visit http://ask-leo.com/feedback and drop me you thoughts there. I can't promise to respond to them all, but I definitely read them all.
Article C4837 - June 5, 2011 « »
Like you I missed the quick launch. Using your method I deleted to toolbar name inserted a mydocs shortcut, then shortcuts to folders containing my most frequently used programs. I left the myDocs shortcut exposed, so one click opens Mydocs. Single clicking on the >> brings up the shortcut folders, and a hover opens the correct one for a single click to open my program. So 2 clicks to get what I need is better than using the start menu most of the time, the old quick launch bar, and particularly explorer/libraries, which is what I have been doing. (I keep an empty desktop, but even having the links there usually involves more work.)
Thanks for the tip.
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In this blog post we are going to look at marketing what can be termed "girly" products to men. Men DO like to look attractive and successful, but they don't always want to admit it. They also don't necessarily want everyone to know that they are doing something to enhance their appearance.
Not long ago, makeup for women was a hidden secret. Most gals would never have been caught dead going out of the house without their "face" on. Nowadays, you see them on the bus or train putting it on in public.
Men are probably never going to get to that point, but the 1960 Presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon shows just how much appearance can influence people's impressions. Nixon refused to wear the makeup offered at the TV studio. The result? A win for Kennedy. Why? Because even though Nixon was only four years older than Kennedy, he looked washed out, old, with bags and dark circles under his eyes, far older than his 47 years. By contracts, Kennedy looked young, fit, healthy and handsome.
There's a reason Presidential candidates and Hollywood actors wear makeup – it smooths out imperfections and offers a more youthful appearance. A bit of concealer stick can do wonders around the eyes.
Can I Borrow Your Mousturizer?
So too can moisturizer for the face. In addition, it offers protection from the harmful rays of the sun if it has a sun protection factor (SPF) of 30 or more. If you've ever seen an old sailor, they have a leathery, weather-beaten look due to sun and spray. But America in particular is a youth culture, so no one wants to look old before their time – including men.
Men & Plastic Surgery…
In the 21st century, the demand for plastic surgery by men has nearly doubled. The recession of 2008 actually spurred men on to become more appearance-conscious than ever before. Why? Because they had to compete so hard with others in the job marketplace that they had to match their appearance to their clothes on interview, and overall professionalism. Studies have shown that chubby people are considered to be lazy, so you soon started to see Weight Watchers ads with average-looking guys all talking about their struggles with burgers and beer.
Skincare and other "girly" products used to be the domain of the metrosexual man – young, urban, professional, and polished-looking. Now, even the Marlboro man wears moisturizer if he's smart.
So, how can you market effectively to men?
Plain, dark packaging, masculine names with action words in them, and the impression that whatever they are using is getting the job done. Men are always looking for solutions to their problems, so products that "solve" problems like greasy skin, dandruff and so on, and do it FAST, complete with a wonderful tingling or other sensation to show it is working, will put your "girly" products on the top of their shopping list.


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Rumor Mill: South Dakota's Craig Smith a Finalist for Drake Job
South Dakota men's basketball coach Craig Smith is a finalist for the head coaching spot at Drake, according to sources in Des Moines.
The 2016-17 Summit League Coach of the Year, guided the Coyotes to their first-ever regular season title in the conference, and a 22-12 record overall. USD's season ended with an opening round NIT loss at Iowa.
Smith coached South Dakota to a 79-74 win at Drake this season.
Drake have been without a head coach since last December, when Ray Giacoletti resigned, eight games into his fourth season. Drake was 1-7 at the time, 32-69 during his tenure.
Giacoletti was replaced, on an interim basis, by assistant coach Jeff Rutter, who guided the Bulldogs to 6-17 record the rest of the season, which ended with a first round loss to Bradley in the opening round of the Missouri Valley Tournament.
According to reports out of the Des Moines area, Rutter, Smith, and a few others are on the short list to interview for the opening:
Smith just completed his third season in Vemillion. He came to USD in the Spring of 2014, from Tim Miles' staff at Nebraska. Prior to Nebraska, Smith had assisted Miles at Colorado State, North Dakota State, and Mayville State. Smith was later head coach at Mayville State, where his teams went 72-29 and played in the 2007 NAIA National Championship game.
At South Dakota, the Coyotes are 53-46 under Smith.
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We're turning ONE on the 23rd October!
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13 Jun How To Plan a Bridal Shower
The 411 on celebrating the bride-to-be.
Pop the bubbly! It's time to celebrate the bride-to-be with a bridal shower! Not sure where to start? Keep reading for answers to the most frequent questions about how to plan a bridal shower.
Who hosts a bridal shower?
Between the bridesmaids, mother of the bride, mother of the groom, relatives, and close friends, there are so many people who want to share the love and honor the bride-to-be. Any of these people can host a bridal shower. Sometimes, there's even more than one shower to accommodate friends and family scattered across the country. It's wise for the mother of the bride and bridesmaids to discuss who's spearheading things so that the responsible individual(s) can get the party planning started.
When do you host a bridal shower?
Anytime from six months to a few weeks before the wedding date is a great time to get guests excited for the festivities to come. The bride will feel so special with her loved ones surrounding her, and guests will get to know other attendees before the big day.
Where do you host a bridal shower?
Whether the shower takes place at a local restaurant, event space, or someone's home (a great way to save some money!), it's important to pick a location that allows for easy mingling and allows for everyone to interact with the bride and bridesmaids.
Who do you invite to a bridal shower?
There's no "right" size for the number of guests at a bridal shower. Start with consulting the bride's wedding guest list—nothing is more awkward than inviting someone to a pre-wedding event and not the actual wedding. Typically, the key women in the bride or groom's lives are invited, plus close friends and family friends. It's particularly fun to get different generations together, from flower girl to grandmother of the bride, to bond over the bride-to-be! Shop for invitations here.
What about bridal shower decorations?
It's always nice to use the wedding color palette for bridal shower invitations, hosts' apparel, and shower decorations to give guests a flavor for the upcoming big day—check with the bride to find out her preferred colors and vibe. For an Insta-worthy focal point that's yummy too, set up a prosecco or donut wall!
What are popular bridal shower activities?
A room filled with the bride's family and friends is a wealth of knowledge—use them to your advantage and ask everyone to fill out advice cards for the bride-to-be. All of the people in attendance, regardless of their relationship status, will have great tips!
You can also decorate a wall to serve as the backdrop for a DIY photo booth, set out disposable cameras along with photobooth props. The bride can send the developed snaps with her thank-you notes!
Other helpful bridal shower advice?
When guests arrive at the shower, hand them blank envelopes from a personalized notecard set and ask them to write down their address. This way, the bride will be able to easily send a thank-you notes! And remember: Every bride is different when it comes to gifts at her bridal shower. Some brides like to do a full unboxing for their family and friends, while others would prefer gifts be left on a table. A very happy medium is a "display shower," where you ask guests to wrap their presents in transparent wrapping paper or any other way that keeps the items visible, allowing for guests to see what others gifted without requiring a lengthy unwrapping session.
Speaking of gifts: encourage the bride-to-be to create a registry with her most-desired gifts (or cash!) in time for her bridal shower. Guests will appreciate the direction once they receive their invitation! Consult our registry 101 guide to get started!
Featured image by Christanne Taylor for Wedding Chicks


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Guided Imagery to Be Used in Smoking-Cessation Study
Powered by results from her recent See Me Smoke Free study, UA nursing professor Judith S. Gordon hopes to use guided imagery to help underserved smokers harness the power of their minds to help them quit smoking.
Telephone tobacco quitlines are effective at helping people to quit, but they often fail to reach a diverse population of smokers, particularly men and people of color. Quitlines mainly use a cognitive-behavioral approach, with techniques that have been used for many years. New research, however, suggests guided imagery can be effective in helping smokers quit.
Guided imagery is a form of visualization in which a coach helps smokers harness the power of their minds in addition to changing their behaviors. Guided imagery has been used by coaches and athletes for decades to help them succeed.
Now, powered by results from her recent See Me Smoke Free study with women who smoke, Judith Gordon, University of Arizona College of Nursing professor and interim associate dean for research, hopes to use guided imagery to help smokers quit. This is the first study to develop and evaluate a telephone-based, guided imagery smoking-cessation program.
"The prevalence of smoking is at an all-time low," Gordon says. "However, some groups of people still are not getting the help they need. If you look at who is smoking, it's generally people who have lower incomes and therefore less access to care. What we're trying to do is get our message out to those people that there is help if you want to quit smoking."
Gordon's Be Smoke Free program, funded by a $700,000 grant from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, is open to smokers throughout Arizona.
The Be Smoke Free program offers participants six weekly coaching sessions delivered over the phone, four weeks of nicotine patches or lozenges, and web-based tools at no cost. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two types of coaching: guided imagery or a standard intervention.
Both programs include individual attention and the development of a personal quit plan. The standard intervention focuses on changing behaviors, while guided-imagery intervention coaches work with participants to develop guided-imagery audio files that can be reviewed on their phone, computer or MP3 player.
Gordon's team is reaching out to all smokers, particularly men and individuals from diverse racial or ethnic groups, to offer a new opportunity to quit.
"We know telephone quit coaching works, and we know that guided imagery has helped athletes win. So, we're hoping that by using this guided imagery approach, smokers will be more open to trying something new," she says.
The goal for this phase of Gordon's study is to recruit 100 active participants in a randomized trial. In the first three months of the trial, the team enrolled more than 50 participants. In addition to help with quitting, participants also receive $50 for taking part in the study.
Feedback from participants has been very positive. One participant commented, "[My coach] was very knowledgeable. I have quit multiple times in the past and have never felt so well prepared. I am proud to say that I am both smoke- and nicotine-free."
The developmental Be Smoke Free study has the potential to advance the science of tobacco cessation through the addition of guided imagery and improve public health through increased reach of telephone quitlines. Gordon hopes that results from the study will set the stage for a larger, national study designed to test the effectiveness of the guided-imagery quitline program.
For more information about joining the Be Smoke Free program, call 520-626-4243, email firstname.lastname@example.com or visit redcap.uahs.arizona.edu/surveys/?s=4FEERYPAEL.
For more information about the study, contact Gordon at 520-626-4970 or firstname.lastname@example.com.
A version of this story originally appeared on the UA Health Sciences website: http://opa.uahs.arizona.edu/newsroom/news/2018/be-smoke-free-ua-college-nursing-professor-employ-guided-imagery-smoking
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Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships Annual Conference
November 18, 2019 to November 19, 2019
Toronto, Ontario
CCC will be participating in the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships (CCPPP) Annual Conference on November 18-18, 2019 in Toronto, Ontario.
CCPPP Annual Conference is an annual conference recognized as the premier event surrounding public-private partnerships in Canada. It includes representation from all levels of government across Canada and aboriginal communities, attracting decision makers from international markets.
CCC's Director, Business Development and Sales – Infrastructure and Construction, Christian Dechamplain will participate in the event and will be available to meet with Canadian companies. To schedule a meeting with CCC, please contact us.
For more information and to register please click here.