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Breathable waders .. keep in mind that it makes it difficult if you got to go ! So if you get away without waders .. LOL ..it's convenient. But if you do not have complete control of your bladder or whatever... go without
This will be my first winter Surf Fishing and have to believe at some point the water will cool down. Was wondering if anyone can provide some pointers on what type of waders work best for the beach. Any help or advice would be appreciated!
Breathable waders .. keep in mind that it makes it difficult if you got to go ! So if you get away without waders .. LOL ..it's convenient. But if you do not have complete control of your bladder or whatever... go without
Bladder controllable at this point. Looking to perhaps head north from OC for larger BSP. Seen a few guys with waders but they don't look like a typical fly fishing setup with the boots and all. I would think sand becomes a problem at some point.
I just re-read my response, and woo ! I did not know how you understood that LOL ..multi tasking ..scrambles the thought structure. Somehow you knew what I meant.
Anyway, the waders I purchased is extra large...and it still a bit small on the waist. Imy waist was 34, and the waist it showed in the measurement was 38, I figures 4 inches plenty of space...felt kinda tight. I purchased mine online. Probably better buying it in person. I also went for breathable waders, only because of the reviews that it keeps you warm and dry. I have not even used it. It came with built in ort sewed on soft cushiony sole. And I also bought the Wader boots...one size above my size. Since it's been getting very cold, I think now is the time to try it.
The trick is not to get wet, waiters have a problem with making you feel that you can go in deeper try to stay out of deep water especially in this time of the year when the water is colder and the surf up, stay out of the water. try to only fish from dry shore if you're hunting for bait in the shallow water use you can use a wet suit pants or use your waiters then but stay out of the surf unless its flat calm
Last edited by tunamaster; 10-02-2016 at 03:04 PM.
We don't need no stinking casting control nob...
I know guys use waders in the surf, but I feel they can give you a false sense of confidence. And maybe there are different types of waders, but If you trip, slip, or a wave ends up over the belt, they fill with water and you are now in a very dangerous predicament. I slipped in a river fly fishing and was full of water in seconds. Thank goodness it was only a couple feet deep. I could not stand up though, and in the surf would have had to drop my rod just to keep my head above water. I had to take them off in the river just to stand up. Was really dang cold the rest of the day. This will be my first winter fishing from the surf, and I figure I will just put on my wetsuit, and leave the arms and torso hanging off my waist. The wader I had were boots, pants and suspenders all in one.
I use what are called "boot foot" waders (Cabela's) which are breatheable. I mainly wear them for protection and warmth in winter. Tunamaster is right, stay in the shallow water.! I am considering getting a pair of "flat walkers" (I think that's it?) for warmer times, kind of like dive socks, but are a bit sturdier and cinch up above the ankle (Cabela's again). I use to go barefoot in the summer, but after you step on a couple of sharp things (trash buried in the sand or a piece of sharp shell) you have second thoughts about going shoeless. Stay Safe!!
Always be sure to use a wader belt on the outside of your waders so that if you get knocked down they don't fill and you drown. I know a great many lucky anglers who almost lost more than just a fish!
if you have to get in the water use a wet suit, it will keep you afloat and warm you can buy one at most second hand store at a discount
Attachment 1790
We don't need no stinking casting control nob...


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I carry a knot of sorrow in my chest. It started tightening a week or so ago, when I learned that food blogger Jennifer Perillo's husband, Mikey, died suddenly of a heart attack. That's him on the right. I've never met Mikey, and I'm embarrassed to say I can't remember meeting Jennie. A conference, perhaps? A party? I do know we've tossed a few bon mots back and forth on Twitter, but that's about it.
Mikey leaves behind a woman too young and vivacious to be a widow; two small daughters too innocent to lose a father, a protector, a prince to their princesses. Plus bills, obligations, half-read books, good intentions, a Blackberry that needs charging–the evidence of a lived-in life.
My sadness is fed in part by my lack of connection to what appears to be, and what I've heard is, a loving family. Jennie, Mikey, and I could have been friends. Maybe. There were 140-character overtures blinking on my Twitter feed, but I mostly politely ignored them. Perhaps the Perillos and The One and I might have gone out to dinner, us picking apart the meal like the food savants we think we are. If we were friends, maybe I might have given their daughters an airplane ride like Mikey used to do. I never pursued it–too busy was I.
My sorrow is most palpable when I realize I make so little time for the people in my life. I'm constantly chained to my desk, to this god-forsaken computer. "Tomorrow" is my mantra. Just ask The One, who eats too many meals alone, sits by himself in the living room at night reading, goes to gallery shows and plays and musicals with friends. All because I'm working. Always working. A few friends have fallen away, I know, but I'm too preoccupied to feel the emptiness left by them.
I thought of Jennie and Mikey a lot this weekend. If The One suddenly died, what would I be left with? His Fiesta collection that threatens to overtake our kitchen, the Shaker chairs whose seats we insanely decided to weave by ourselves, the neat pile of photography books on the left side of his desk. Things. I'd be left with things. But not enough memories. Never enough memories. Not even photographs, because, since I've gotten fat, I stupidly forbade any pictures of us, putting an end to the visual reminders of the narrative of our life together. And the worst, if he passed there would be too few close friends to lean on.
It takes only a second for life to change irrevocably. One moment you're a wife. The next, you were a wife. Or a husband. Or a mother, father. Or son, daughter, lover, friend.
I know I must wring dry every moment of time I spend with those I love. I must push back from my desk at 6:00 p.m. and make dinner for The One. I must refuse to work on the weekends. I must slow down. I have Jennie–a woman I don't even know–to thank for that realization.
Love has always been on the clock, ticking down for all of us—even families like Jennie's that clung close, played together, breathed in each other's worlds. Some dear friends of Jennie's have helped create "A Fund for Jennie" (#afundforjennie) to collect donations for her and her little girls, Isabella and Virginia, through the non-profit organization Bloggers Without Borders. Bills are piling up, the weight of single motherhood is pressing down.
If you've experienced the kind of loss Jennie has or, like me, want to cling fully to life and to those you love, won't you please donate to A Fund for Jennie? Just click on the button below. It'll take you straight to the secure PayPal account. Every little bit helps.
Please note: The donations are closed.
Photo © 2011 Jennifer Perillo. All rights reserved.

subset: commoncrawl


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Gabriel needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 73 designs submitted by 34 freelance designers.
We're launching a localized (romanian) news aggregator site. Think google news for Romania. We need a good logo to go along with it.
Soon to launch news aggregator for Romanian newspapers complete with user voting and comments. We would like a logo and a color scheme for the site. We're really interested in combinations of red/black orange/black or anything to go with black.
The logo must be concise and not extremely artistic, easy to remember.
- concise logo
- a color scheme suitable for online news reading
- psd logo can (but doesn't have to) include visuals for voting, discussion, news - be creative
- 2 colors, maximum 3 only if really needed
- artistic logo with sylized handwriting
- fancy and sophisticated stuff
- bright in-your-face colors
- all capital letters
- color gradients
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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Box Planter Ideas (3) is free HD wallpaper. This wallpaper was upload at October 08, 2018 upload by Farica Gaby in Garden & Exterior.
Box Planter Ideas (3) in your computer by clicking resolution image in Download by size:. Don't forget to rate and comment if you interest with this wallpaper.
Download by size:Handphone Tablet Desktop (Original Size)
hen spring comes around, it's time to think about what kinds of flowers and planters you want on your front porch. Flowers on the front porch make guests feel welcome and provide a much-needed pop of color to your home. Many of these ideas feature vintage or repurposed containers and are very easy to put together. All you need is a little paint and a big imagination. Some of these planters, like the laundry hamper, only take a little bit of creative thought.
Extraordinary Home Planter Ideas For Cool Front Yard Decoration
Home planter designs can easily transform your outdoor living space
Back To 24 Extraordinary Home Planter Ideas For Cool Front Yard Decoration


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Lots of questions this week dealing with the workplace. Let's dig in.
My work is now offering a Roth 401(k) option in addition to the normal 401(k). We're down to one income right now so I reduced my contribution to 6% which still gets me the full company match. Raises come out next month so I was thinking of adding a percent or two to my contribution. Would it be worth it to start a new Roth 401(k) with only 2% contribution, leaving my initial 401(k) as is? I'm at around six figures now, barely, but don't want to assume I'll be in a lower tax bracket in retirement… I do have a Roth IRA with ING, but I rarely contribute to that since it requires a lot of extraneous paperwork related to my job. I hope to continue increasing my contribution rates, but I'm not sure if I should go with the new option.
– Christina
The Roth 401(k)'s advantage is that it's funded with after-tax dollars, which means that you'll pay the taxes on the money now instead of later. If you have a high income and anticipate it dropping significantly in retirement, then there is no real benefit to the Roth 401(k) in comparison to a normal 401(k) – in fact, the latter is probably better, assuming investment choices are the same.
If I were you, I'd probably just contribute more to my normal 401(k) at this point, unless you have reason to believe yuor income in retirement will be comparable to what you make now.
Also, I'm not sure why an external Roth IRA requires paperwork for your job. The usual method of funding those is to simply withdraw money from your personal checking account, which shouldn't involve your employer at all. If your employer makes this difficult, don't involve your employer in it at all.
My husband has a Citi credit card for about 20 years. This was his first and only credit card until they started increasing the rate about 5 years ago. They would also charge for random things like credit protection services that were never authorized. He would call and get the charge removed, but all the actions just felt very smarmy. We decided that we wouldn't close the card due to the long history, but he just wouldn't use it anymore. He opened a credit card with his credit union five years ago and usually pays it off each month. Yesterday we received a letter from Citi saying that they would begin charging a $60 annual fee, but he could avoid the fee if he charged $2,400 annually on the card.
We have had a mortgage for 7 years and had a couple car loans through the years that we've always paid on time. His credit score is in the mid 700's.
My question is would his credit be greatly affected if we closed the card?
– Tina
Given that you have a credit card with a five year history, an outstanding mortgage, and a solid credit score right now, I'd assume you must have a history of making payments on time and likely don't have a big outstanding balance on either card.
If those things are true, I wouldn't worry a bit about canceling the old card. You might receive a small negative bump right after the cancellation, but that bump would be small and temporary, vanishing over the next year or so.
The truly frustrating thing about credit scores is that we don't know exactly how they're calculated – all we can do is make best guesses based on observations and the guidelines the credit agencies provide.
My husband and I have the opportunity to sell our long time business that is actually still doing ok here in MI. We want to relocate and have picked out a place to go, Raleigh, NC. I interviewed for a job down there two weeks ago. This is with a major company that actually does what I do (only in a different way and with a little different philosophy). At the end of the interview, they sent me for a urine test and said they would also do a background check.
It's been two weeks. I called a week ago to see how things were going and was told that because I lived out of state that "it would probably take longer" to do the background check. We have lived here for 30+ years, the business has been going for 26 years.
The job I applied for has been taken down from Monster.com.
What do you think?
1. I have the job in my pocket but they are just slow responding to me, busy or haven't gotten back the information.
2. They found someone they like better. (I find this hard to believe with the experience and schooling that I have, the two checks I have had to take are perfect, no drugs, no arrests or dramas in my life at all.)
3. They were "just looking" for the future (although they told me that they did have an opening).
4. ?
It has been 20+ years since I interviewed for anything and I realize things are done differently now. When I called, he was a little guarded with me but then maybe he was busy or distracted or really didn't know what to say. Wouldn't you think that they would have called or written a letter or something if it wasnt' going to work?
I don't mean to take up your time but I don't know who else to ask. You don't have to write back a long note, just do you think I should call them again, write them,ignore them? I really want the job but if I appear too eager, they would surely offer me less, if I ignore them, they will think I'm really not that interested.
– Millie
Given the current job market and the fact that they posted the job on Monster, my guess would be that they have a fat pile of applications and they're sifting through them.
You may or may not be their leading candidate – that's hard to determine from this information. My suggestion would be to be patient with it and give it a little more time. They may be interviewing several people before making a decision.
One other thing: never put all your eggs in one basket when it comes to a job search. Keep looking and keep applying. The businesses you applied to are certainly going to look at plenty of applicants – there's no reason you shouldn't apply to plenty of businesses.
What is your opinion on life insurance – do you need term or whole life and how much?
I am a 52 year old woman, making $40,000 annual and have $50,000 life insurance supplied by my employer. I have some additional whole life ($50,000) that I am considering surrendering and purchasing term, but not sure what amount I need. This policy has a loan against it. I have some health concerns (diabetes, overweight, high blood pressure). I am married and have two grown children (youngest is in his 3rd year in college).
My husband is 54 years old, making $80,000 annual and has $260,000 life insurance through his employer. He also has some whole life ($20,000 on a policy he has had since he was 17 and a $100,000 policy). We are considering surrendering the $100,000 policy and purchasing term. He has the same health concerns as myself.
I would appreciate your thoughts on this. My husband and I will be meeting with our insurance representative on Friday this week so a quick answer would be appreciated if it could be done.
– Connie
If you're just starting out, the best move is usually to buy term life insurance. In general, the first few years of investment-based insurance models have pretty poor returns.
However, once you've been through that first decade or so with a whole life policy, you have to tack those first years up as water under the bridge. Those years are lost. You can't worry about them now.
In your current position, the whole policy might actually be a good thing. It sounds like you've had the whole policies for a while. I would spend some time looking at the actual returns they're providing today and see whether or not you feel that it's giving appropriate value.
The key, though, is to recognize that the past years are past. The choices you make today can't alter what happened then. Make the choice based on where the policies will go from here.
We are expecting $50,000 inheritance shortly and we don't what to do with it. At issue is that we have a balloon note for our second mortgage coming due next October in which we will owe about $45,000. We are underwater on our house so it seems to me that I should try and negotiate this loan instead of paying it off since we will still be underwater, effectively throwing the money away for nothing. I was thinking about putting half toward debt (we have about 80K in various types of debt at various interest rates) and half in savings in anticipation of the bank not willing to work with us and demanding the money. The money we save each month from eliminating debt, combined with the other half we put aside should give us some options when the note comes due.
What do you think?
– Eric
If your lender is open to negotiation or refinancing, that's the road I would go down before doing anything else. Balloon notes are mighty dangerous things for both the lender (risky) and the borrower (painfully expensive).
I would hold off on making any decisions about the money until the refinancing is finished up. Put the money in a savings account for now and sit on it until that's taken care of (except perhaps to use some of it to cover any fees related to the refinance).
Once everything is in place, I'd then look at all of your finances and see where the remaining money should go.
In 2004 I bought a condo. I knew at the time I would only need it about 2 yrs, as I was just using it as an office. Had I put it on the market a few months earlier in 2006 I would have made about $40K, Today, I am underwater $40K.
I am 41 years old, will never marry, have no kids. I earn $50k a year, I have $100 (yes $100) in savings. I have $27K in 401K, I currently have a tennant in the condo, but the rent does not entirely cover my mortgage payments, association fee & property taxes. To cover those I have to supplement an additional $500/month. I have not been able to afford home owner's insurance, (or landlord's insurance,) on the property, so far I have been lucky. I need to purchase that asap because hurricane season is approaching, and this is located on the east coast of Florida. Cost on that will be another $666 annually.
Currently, I rent an apt on the other side of the state, with no desire to ever live in the town the condo is located in again. Financially, the condo is draining and burdonsome. Morally, I don't feel comfortable to think about turning the property back over to the lender. My credit score is in the 750 range. What would you do if you were in my shoes?
– Mary
Sell it and take the loss.
All of those extra costs are adding up quickly. You're losing $500 a month to this situation – for what? Every month you hold onto it, the financial situation gets worse and the only way you'll recoup any of it is if the housing market suddenly undergoes a tremendous rebound, something which I don't anticipate happening in the next couple years or so.
Much like the previous question, you have to ignore what might have been and look at the situation as it is now. What nets you the most money? Selling it now? Or holding onto it, watching $500 a month vanish, and hoping the housing market rebounds enough that you can recoup that $500 a month in lost money?
I wouldn't bet on the housing market.
How is your "losing weight" resolution going? What strategies are you using?
– Sammie
It's going fairly well. I set a goal of losing an average of a pound a week in 2010 with the knowledge that it would be harder for me to lose it in the winter months than the summer months because, where I live, you can't really do a whole lot outside in the winter unless you want to freeze or you want to bundle yourself up like that younger brother from A Christmas Story. So far, I've lost an average of 0.6 pounds a week, which I'm happy with.
I've decided to use the idea that Michael Pollan proposed in his excellent In Defense of Food – namely, I'm acting as a vegetarian until 6 in the evening, at least during the week. That means that my breakfasts and lunches are strictly vegetarian right now.
As for exercise, I'm mostly just playing exercise games on the Wii (mostly EA Active, lately) when I can fit them into time gaps in my day. I'm at a point where I have a nearly-overstuffed schedule of things to get done each day so this is a convenient way to simply get my heart rate up.
I look forward to more outdoor activities when the huge piles of snow on the ground melt and spring comes to Iowa. I vastly prefer to take long walks.
I have a secure job (I know I'm not irreplaceable, but my work is unique) with good pay and benefits, while my husband is laid off for the second time since we've been married (12/01 & 9/09, economy both times). I have no education beyond high school, while he has an MBA. We live in the second largest city in Michigan but even so, his employment prospects are not good. We are at least $20K underwater on our mortgage and we couldn't get enough in rent to cover the mortgage payment, so we are unable to move to where the jobs are.
We have a decent emergency fund, I have a steady paycheck, my husband still has several weeks of unemployment left (he was fortunate to land a paid tax season internship at a local CPA firm but that will end mid-April), and we have about $8K in CC and student loan debt. No car payments, no other loans. We kind of saw this last layoff coming so we started saving pretty seriously a few months beforehand and also started paring back our expenses. Because of those precautionary measures, we have about $10K in our emergency fund (ING), have not had to withdraw any money from it yet (and don't foresee the need to even after a few medical and car repair bills), and are still able to save a little each month.
Our dilemma is this: we really want to get rid of the debt, but (and mostly because) we have no idea what the future holds. The monthly payments for the student loan and CC total $290, although we always pay more on the CC ($250-$400 depending on how things go that month). The interest rate on the student loan is variable but currently at 2.23% and the CC is 9.25%. Does it make sense to pay one or both of those debts off with our current savings (earning a paltry 1.20% APY) and then put those payments (and the extra) back into our emergency fund? Or does it make more sense to sit on that money and just keep making the payments as we have been since we don't know what's going to happen after April?
We could almost live on my salary alone but our mortgage payment would eat up a little over 2/3 of my monthly pay. We're hoping it doesn't come to that, but we just don't know if my husband will be able to find a job before his unemployment runs out. Not having that debt would give us at least $300 more breathing room each month, but $10K would give us about 8 months of mortgage payments. Both options have benefits as well as drawbacks; which one makes the most sense to you?
– Cassandra
I would choose the path that keeps your head above water the longest in the event that your husband doesn't find work. From my perspective, that would mean leaving the cash in the emergency fund for now and using it to cover the mortgage payments down the road.
The enormous uncertainty of your husband's job is the real crux here. At this point, I think you have to bank on the idea that he's not going to be bringing in a large income for the near future. In that situation, your best bet is to have the cash on hand to cover your mortgage payments and not worry as much about paying off unsecured consumer debt – that can wait a bit.
I would also suggest that your husband try to find any work he can during this rough stretch, even if it means working at a store or something like that. Income is income. When he's not actively working – and even during the evenings right now – he should also be trying to make a name for himself in his career path online. Start a blog. Find people on Twitter in his career area and interact with them. He needs to get his name out there as much as possible.
How do I find paid blogging work on the internet that's not a scam? My neighbor blogs once a week for amazon.com giftcards which would be the most awesome thing ever since it would make it so much easier to be able to buy books for my family guilt-free (I re-read almost every book I own so paperbook swap and the library just make me grouchy) guilt-free. Unfortunately, my neighbor won't tell me what the name of her site is, for some reason or other. So, how do I find these things on my own? Thanks so much.
– Erin
Hello, I live in Canada and I am looking into ways to boost my income. Can you recommend any websites that promote legitimate work at home opportunities, websites for bloggers (who want to be professional), or any other reasonable possibilities?
– Tina
I'm combining these two questions because I get them – or some variation on them – all the time. I've even answered similar ones in earlier mailbags. This is going to be my definitive answer on the subject.
There are very few legitimate work-at-home jobs that can be found on the internet for people to simply show up and apply for. Most of the legitimate jobs are either self-made (like mine, where I started The Simple Dollar from scratch and built it in my spare time) or take more of a "we'll call you" approach (where people approach you with writing opportunities).
There are many ways to earn a little bit of money online via things like Mechanical Turk, but those are good to earn a few supplemental dollars while watching television or something like that. They don't earn enough to actually be a functional income.
How do you get involved in opportunities where they will want you to work for them? For starters, you have to show what you can do. Start your own blog. Write your best stuff there. Then, you have to get the word out. Join Twitter and talk about your area of interest. Converse with people there. Share links to your best stuff – and links to stuff you really like.
It takes time. It doesn't happen overnight, no matter what you want to do.
Most importantly, ignore the people who tell you that you can start earning tons of money quickly via a work-at-home opportunity. Think about it – if that legitimately worked, wouldn't they be doing it over and over again themselves instead of trying to sell you some shifty product? If something is a guaranteed money maker, it's not sold as a product – it's used by the person who throws their energy into the money maker, not into packaging something up to sell to you.
Got any questions? Ask them in the comments and I'll try to include them in a future reader mailbag.


text:
The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of Peanut Butter Software
Company, LLC.
© Copyright
The built-in Peanut Butter Browser utilizes the Windows internal browser and is therefore the same as latest version of IE on your computer. Even though IE 8, 9 and now 10 have significantly upgraded the IE rendering engine to be more CSS and HTML compliant, the Windows internal browser is still stuck in the old IE 7 rendering by default.
We will tackle this in a future release. But, if you are not faint-of-heart, we have an immediate solution for you.
Changes made to the Windows registry happen immediately, and no backup is automatically made. Do not edit the Windows registry unless you are confident about doing so.
1. Run regedit and find the following Key...
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\MAIN\FeatureControl\FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION
If it doesn't exist, just create it.
2. Now, create a new DWORD value called "pbbrowser.exe" without the quotes.
3. Now modify the decimal value to one of the following...
Internet Explorer 9. Webpages are displayed in IE9 Standards mode, regardless of the !DOCTYPE directive.
Internet Explorer 9. Webpages containing standards-based !DOCTYPE directives are displayed in IE9 mode.
Webpages are displayed in IE8 Standards mode, regardless of the !DOCTYPE directive.
Webpages containing standards-based !DOCTYPE directives are displayed in IE8 mode.
Webpages containing standards-based !DOCTYPE directives are displayed in IE7 Standards mode.
4) Close regedit
5) Now we will test the things by running pbbrowser.exe from the Peanut Butter PC directory and manually entering the following address... http://thismachine.info
6) If all goes well, the new emulation will be reflected on the screen.
Good luck and email us if you have any questions.
Currently rated 5.0 by 1 people
Okay, so maybe you don't remember the iconic flying toasters screensaver of the early 90's. But, you probably use a screensaver of some sort today. The ResetAfterScreenSaver option, like the Timeout option, will exit out of any running program and return to the welcome screen. This is especially helpful if you are using older software that can be affected by screensavers (a notorious problem).
Just open the settings.xsd file and look for...
Change the "false" to "true" and restart PBPC
J.R. Benning
Peanut Butter Software
PS - Don't forget to download the new Beta.
Currently rated 2.0 by 1 people
No, we haven't started advertising on Bill O'Reilly. Just another backroom option we put in place for one of our resellers. It seems not all of our users are fans of the spinning program icons. We happen to love them. But, if you are in the camp that likes catatonic icons, we've got a treat for you. Just open the Settings.xsd file with Notepad and look for...
Change the "false" to "true" and restart PBPC. That's it. No more spinning.
Currently rated 1.0 by 1 people
If you have PBPC in your school or library, you know more often than not the kids leave the computer without exiting a game or program. Wouldn't it be nice to have the system automatically reset to the Welcome screen after a certain timeframe? Well, you actually can. It's a hidden feature in our Settings.xsd file. Just open it up in Notepad and look for...
The value represents the number of minutes without mouse or keyboard movement that it will wait until it resets. This is a very popular feature with our library clients!
Currently rated 4.0 by 1 people
Since Peanut Butter PC was designed for toddlers, there are only a couple spots where kids could see written text. The "Volume" knob (which we really consider part of the image) and the "Click on a Picture" which appears in the Welcome screen. Since some schools have opted to use different kid accounts to represent different grades, they wanted a way to update this text. We added it to the Settings.xsd file I mentioned last week. The tag to update is listed below. Just remember that you have limited space to place your new label.
Oh, and don't forget to download the new Beta. If you find a problem and want to switch back, just uninstall it. You won't lose any of your settings.
As a small company we can turn on a dime and often make feature changes as quickly as our customers request them. However, some features just aren't needed by the average user. So, we'll handle these through a file called SETTINGS.XSD. If you open this file up with Notepad, you'll see it's an XML structured document with two parts. The first section, <Main>, handles the general settings and the other section pertains to the kid accounts you've set up.
Today, we're going to talk about screen resolution.
The two tags above are used to restore your computer's resolution after an errant game/program has changed it. Many DOS and/or graphics heavy programs change the computer's resolution when they run. If game ends unexpectedly, it doesn't change the resolution back. This is a problem for computers in Libraries that receive very little administrative attention.
To use this feature, just find out what resolution you're running now from and enter it into the appropriate tags. If you want to disable the feature, just set them back to zero.
I'll discuss some of the other hidden features next week.
J.R. Benning
Peanut Butter Software
Yesterday we opened up our first public Beta. This is a milestone for us, as we have always done our own testing in our own labs. But, for this release of Peanut Butter PC , the changes are too big and important.
Our goal from the beginning was for Peanut Butter PC 4.0 to resolve our two biggest support issues: Flash Installs & Administrator privileges.
It has frustrated me for some time that when a customer struggled with Flash (through no fault of our software), it reflected negatively on us. We've seen corrupt installs of Flash, unpatched versions, or plug-ins installed for every browser accept the one we need. If you ask me, the corrupt Flash installs were the worst because they caused really odd behavior in Peanut Butter PC (again, looking like bugs in PBPC). Fortunately, Peanut Butter PC 4.0 no longer needs Flash installed on the computer, so these troubles will soon be behind us.
We also think we've also resolved the quandary of needing privileges in order to remove privileges. Frankly, the irony was never lost on me. Schools and libraries have lead the charge to move away from running Peanut Butter PC from an Admin account. They always feared a teacher or librarian would add a non-child-safe program like Word to Peanut Butter PC and basically open the floodgates.
Yet, I think we have an elegant solution in Peanut Butter PC 4.0. You can launch the software in any account (guest, admin, standard user). If the current user does not have sufficient privileges, a login window will appear. This will capture the admin credentials needed for some of Peanut Butter PC's low-level security changes, while still enabling games and applications to be launched from Peanut Butter PC with the same rights as the logged in user. There's a whole lot more to the story, but I won't bore you with the details. Basically, Microsoft doesn't make it easy to launch programs non-elevated programs from an elevated one.
Since both of these changes really stretch the boundaries of what is allowed under Windows, we realized they needed to be field tested. You just can't mimic real-world scenarios in a lab. So, please download the new Beta and take it for a test spin. If you find a problem and want to switch back, just uninstall it. You won't lose any of your settings.
Currently rated 3.0 by 1 people
A few months back my kids asked me to help load some music videos onto their iPod touches. When I asked why they couldn't just use the built in YouTube app they proceeded to enlighten me. It seems rather obvious now, but I came to discover that when the kids are away from home (school bus, swim meet, etc.) they don't have Wi-Fi. Then I was shown how frustrating streaming videos can be with them suddenly stopping to let the buffer catch up.
So, they made a good arguement and I found myself on my computer downloading the videos they wanted, and sync'ing their iPods (knowing full well they would be tired of them shortly and I would have to start all over again).
That's when the idea for our latest product came to me. A solution that "just works!" I won't spill the beans today, but it's going to be popular. In fact, this is our first product aimed at all age groups. That's right. You're going to want this for yourself.
So, for now, it's with Mr. Jobs... awaiting approval. If all goes well, we'll be unveiling the app sometime next week
Currently rated 1.4 by 7 people
It's been a long road, but we finally released version 3.0 yesterday (Christmas Eve). I'd like to thank all those who helped test the Beta and offered feature advise throughout the development process. Our main goal was to make this version more FUN. I'm proud to say, "Mission Accomplished!"
Our previous versions served us well and did exactly what we needed... They protected our computers and files, while giving our children a place to launch approved programs and websites. But where Peanut Butter PC 2.x was a way-point to children's edutainment, Peanut Butter PC 3.0 is a destination in its own right.
We've added so many fun things, from animated characters on themed desktops, to multimedia support. My kids (4, 5 1/2 and 7) can't get enough of our new video player.
We've downloaded their favorite videos from totlol.com and shared family movies. I think the simple interface (just click to change movies) makes it perfect for all ages. Oh, and here's an undocumented features... You can download YouTube videos, too. Just place the YouTube URL in the textbox on the Videos tab and have at it.
We have a couple more undocumented features that I'll save for my next blog entry. Hopefully I'll have more time to write in the new year .
But for now, let me close by wishing you all a very safe and happy holiday season.
J.R. Benning
Peanut Butter Software
We use an undocumented feature internally for demoing Peanut Butter PC at trade shows and to schools. It's a command-line parameter that allows us to point the software to different directories or drives.
This gives us the ability to have more than one setup on the same computer. For example, we may show PBPC with several children, each having their own programs and websites. But, we can also show the system using grade levels to separate the programs and websites. Or, we can just separate the websites from the programs.
In each case, we replicate the directory structure under
Just copy all the files and directory structure into a new folder. For example, we use
Then create a new shortcut for the PB_PC.exe file
1) Right-click on the desktop and select New|Shortcut
2) Browse to the find the PB_PC.exe and select it.
3) The textbox will now read something like,
Currently rated 1.5 by 2 people


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How about a trip to the culinary hotspot of East Africa? Book flights to Kigali and explore this pleasant city in the heart of Rwanda. Experience the friendly atmosphere of Kigali and sample Rwandan delicacies. Nature lovers will also have plenty to explore here: take a short climb to the summit of Mount Kigali and enjoy sweeping views over rocky mountains, rivers and green valleys. Breathtakingly beautiful!
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By Nathan Jones
My brothers and sisters in Christ, it's time to gather for a family meeting.
Maybe you remember family meetings as a child or even as a parent held some with your own family? If so, you know the purpose of these family meetings is to address some issue or make some decision that affects the whole family in order to discern solutions, achieve peaceful familial accord, and provide direction. And so, let's gather in the living room and talk.
I subscribe to a plethora of e-newsletters covering the range of politics, education, media, technology, Web marketing, news, Israel, and, of course, Bible prophecy. I receive Bible prophecy e-newsletters from Hal Lindsey, Jan Markel, Chuck Missler, Bill Salus, Kade Hawkins and a half-a-dozen others. I love reading as much as I can from each of these great sources, and value all they have to say, whether I personally agree with their conclusions or not.
One of the Bible prophecy e-newsletters I'm always interested in reading is Ray Gano's Prophezine. What a shock it was for me to find the latest (3/30/09) Prophezine e-newsletter was about us here at The Christ in Prophecy Journal. Here's what Ray wrote to all the brethren signed up to receive his e-newsletter:
Special PZ Insider Report & Announcement
"I have one thing to say to Joel and all of his cronies and thugs: Get the hell off of this blog and go back to your little hole in the ground!! Get a life and just admit that you don't know what the heck you are even talking about. You and your damnable eisegesis can go to hell along with all of the other cultists and malcontents who reject what our Lord and savior have to say. Amen!"
I have learned from several people of the absolute trashing of fellow believers on a very popular Bible prophecy teacher's website. This is being condoned and supported by the webmaster because these prideful (and potty mouthed) individuals agree with "their" position.
What amazes me is that provable errors are being presented as truth, and it seems that these errors no longer matter and in fact are being supported. I was reading some very good posts on this site showing very solid evidence both scriptural and historical and yet the hate and venom coming from these people are mind blowing.
The teachings of man are being elevated higher where reason, logic and properly applied hermeneutics are all being thrown out. Scripture is ignored and the witness for Christ has been destroyed.
Look for a special issue and announcement in the very near future.
In His Service,
Ray & Tracye Gano
Wow! I have to say it again — Wow! Where to begin...
Well, first off, may it be known that I like Ray Gano. I've always enjoyed running into him at conferences and sharing Web ministry ideas. I may have gotten the position at Lamb & Lion that he applied for, but he's never (that I've known of) held a grudge that the Lord wants me serving here and himself serving at Prophezine.
Second, I have to thank Ray for not saying our website or my name directly, and instead using "very popular Bible prophecy teacher's website" and "webmaster." Although, from the letters that came in from folks flabbergasted that a Bible prophecy ministry like Prophezine would waste pixels lambasting another Bible prophecy ministry's website, folks knew what and who he was referring to.
So let's talk about the comment the Prophezine e-newsletter states was posted on this blog. Because, it was. On Tuesday, March 17, 2009 6:21:00 PM CDT, someone using the default name "Anonymous" posted an angry comment inside the thread discussing the Sunni view of the Mahdi, a sub-topic of the much debated "Antichrist will be a Muslim" theory. It was a rather strange comment, really, not in character with any of the visitors I'm familiar with, and out-of-place in the discussion. But still, the discussion was heated as folks who held either side of the discussion felt frustrated others weren't accepting their point-of-view. So, the comment could have been made by one of our regular visitors, but I personally doubt it.
What I think many of us agree is a perk to this site is the opportunity to have a free discussion of topics without needing approval before one's comment is posted. It generates a lot more discussion and builds good dialogue. For me, I've even made new friends with this format.
I read every comment every person leaves, and per our discussed rules delete comments that swear, are too long-winded (which we all can be), double as spam, or are totally irrelevant. As per our rules, I deleted that comment. In the time delay that it took me to do that, if the comment caused anybody offense, as it did seem to Ray, my deepest apologies if it offended.
As for those who get involved in the blog discussions and the many that just observe without posting, I defend their right to discuss various theories, express their emotions, talk about God's work in their life, share advice, and just generally work out their salvation with fear and trembling. That we're a prideful, potty-mouthed group of Dave Reagan-worshippers who are beyond reason, logic and applied hermeneutics, as Ray put it, I most vehemently disagree. What makes The Christ in Prophecy Journal great for me is the blessing of so many people that add so much richness by adding their various biblical interpretations, well-researched verses, varying theories, and most importantly their devotion to God. Sure we get a few Muslims and atheists join in, but everyone reaches out to them in love, taking the opportunity to share the Gospel with them.
What I have discovered in reading previous Prophezine e-newsletters and from some supporters of the "Beast from the East" Antichrist theory, is that they are dismayed that many of those who support a Roman background for the Antichrist are just not convinced by their arguments. They go on to assume that since we haven't found their arguments have altered ours, that we must be blindly following the teachings of unenlightened men. That we have so much discussion on this site is proof that our readers want to know what both sides believe, and are well read on the subject. I'm sorry, Ray, that me and others are not convinced by your theory, but that does not make us stupid, blind, or ditto-heads.
And here's the real crux of the issue... all this fuss over the origins of the Antichrist really doesn't matter. Sure, some who hold to the Post-Tribulation view feel very strongly that they have to know who the Antichrist is in order to avoid the Mark of the Beast and thereby avoid eternal damnation, and I give them that. But, what the origins of the Antichrist really are is not even secondary doctrine, much less primary.
When it gets down to it, some Bible prophecy teachers have rested their entire teachings, and thereby their entire relevance, on this one "Antichrist origin" non-issue. Because their reputations and even livelihoods are based on this theory, they must make sure it stays in the discussion. It can be the only reason Ray's keeping this going, and even plans yet another special issue to talk about us talking about it.
I've been asked many times what I'd do if I found myself living in the Tribulation and wrong about the timing of the Rapture. Like many other noted Pre-Tribulation Rapture supporters have answered, "write about where we went wrong." Lamb & Lion Ministries will only hang our hat, and our reputation, on the primary, essential doctrines and continue to preach the soon return of Jesus Christ.
Thank you, Family, for your time! Now, let's get back on track and move on united in bringing souls to Christ.


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Made of Earth
One of my sculptures was recently featured in VegNews magazine. My sculptures are glazed and oxidized ceramic pieces that are typically about two-feet tall. I have had two exhibitions, including my first solo-exhibition in New York City last year at Figureworks Gallery in the heart of Williamsburg Brooklyn.
I currently have 15 pieces that are all available from my private collection and two that are in the Figureworks collection. In addition, I do commissioned, custom, decorative and functional work. Please contact me if you are interested in investing in some art!
Many of my sculptures are about our relationship with animals and the wild. Often, I put the animals upright, atop a phallic structure (a symbol of power in our culture) giving them clout in a very western sense - a privilege rarely granted to animals in actuality. Many historians and philosophers believe that civilization can be attributed to patriarchy. In the pieces like "Woody" and "Flesh" (below), the phallic appearance of the figures can be connected to this idea. I believe that the expressions on the faces of the figures ride a fine line between ecstasy and death, celebrating the luxuries associated with the domination of nature, and slowly dying as a result of its consequences.
In other sculptures, I explore the personal turmoil of our destructive relationship to nature and the desire to dominate, control, and subdue nature. Because many people see the human race and civilization itself as something that is countering and destroying what is wild, many of us find ourselves in an awkward position. We need the natural environment to survive, and at the same time – we foster activities that destroy our very source of life, and in essence, ourselves. It is, in effect, a death urge.


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The pole juts up from Mi Santa's back, held in place by a rope tied under the mare's belly. Bags of saline soak in a bucket of warm water. "It's better if the saline goes in warm," explains Ignacio "Nacho" Cardozo, the horse's co-owner. He hangs the bag on the pole and connects it to the IV in Mi Santa's neck. Another member of her entourage, or "stud," holds her by the reins. When the bag is half empty, Nacho cuts off a corner with his knife. Using a large syringe, he squirts in liquids that turn the saline from clear to pink to yellow. The bags read electrolytes, rehydrate, metabolism. Nacho will repeat this process for the seven other bags of saline—in total more than two gallons of fluid.
Eight men make up the stud, including Nacho, Leo Ruiz and Nacho's older brother Marcos. They arrived in the small, 5,000-person city of José Pedro Varela earlier in the day, driving two hours south from their hometown of Melo. They are in their late 20s to mid-30s, except for one 14-year-old errand boy. All of them are crowded into the tiny stall, made even more cramped by Nacho's imposing size. If this were America, he'd be playing defensive end in the NFL.
The stall has plank walls, a metal roof and a single lightbulb that gives the space the warm glow of a Nativity scene. A few men sit in folding chairs. The rest stand or sit on the sawdust floor. They drink whiskey using only two glasses, passing them back and forth, as is the custom in Uruguay. Now and then they step outside to smoke.
The night is full of sounds—noise from the carnival in the city square, less than a mile away, barking dogs, passing motorcycles, crickets, cumbia music on the battery-powered radio. The horse that usually occupies the stall snorts, upset at having been cast outside to the small corral. It's mid-October, early spring, and chilly enough that the horse is draped in a jacket.
The men discuss strategy.
"Hay caballos que vienen a largar."
"La yegua está bien entrenada."
"Ciriaco los pela, pero hay unos cinco caballos que le van a dar pelea."
They are collectively optimistic about Mi Santa's chances of winning tomorrow's race. Or if not winning then at least finishing in the money. Looking at her, it's easy to see why. The nine-year-old yegua is all rippling muscle, with a lustrous brown coat, a handsome white stripe down the length of her nose and white rear ankles that give her added panache. There are standard equine terms for these white markings: blaze and half cannon. But on Mi Santa they look original, unprecedented. All horses are beautiful. Mi Santa is exquisite.
Around the fifth bag of saline, two men leave the stall for Nacho's truck, parked in the driveway. Two 200-gallon blue barrels take up most of the bed. The men fill the barrels with water from the garden hose, careful to do so quietly. The host family is already asleep, their small house dark and silent.
An hour later the saline is finished. Nacho removes the IV and swabs the incision. The pole is taken to the truck, along with Nacho's medical kit. The men pile into the truck bed, and Nacho drives them the few blocks back to the salón comunal for more drinking and eating. The pig that has been cooking since early afternoon is nearly ready.
The jockey, however, stays behind. His name is Maximiliano de Cunto. He is 28 and has been a jockey since he was 16. This will be his first time running Mi Santa. "She's the whole package," he says, "especially in her gallop, which is long and consistent." He takes Mi Santa for a short walk, guiding her along rutted dirt roads unlit by street lamps, past the single-story whitewashed houses with their log-and-wire fences, laundry-laden clotheslines, side-yard chicken coops and the occasional satellite dish. Her clip-clopping lingers in the brisk air.
"I care a lot about the horses I ride," he says. "Like a good friend—that type of closeness. This is much more than just a profession to me."
Tomorrow Mi Santa and 50 other horses will sprint 60 miles across eastern Uruguay among a convoy of roughly 400 people piled into a battalion of pickup trucks, creating a swirling hurricane of thundering hooves, car crashes, blinding dust, utter pandemonium and possibly even death. It's been like this for more than a hundred years. They call it El Raid.
Endurance horse racing is said to have originated in 1955. That's when five Auburn, California businessmen and riding enthusiasts sought to prove the 100-mile journey between their hometown and Lake Tahoe could be completed on horseback within 24 hours. They succeeded, and the first Western States Trail Ride became an annual affair, growing in size each year. Now called the Tevis Cup, it remains the most famous endurance horse race in the world. More than 150 entrants, some from as far away as Japan and Australia, entered the 2013 race.
The Tevis Cup isn't shy about its legacy. Its website declares the Tevis "the oldest modern-day endurance ride" and "the inspiration and model for the most challenging endurance rides worldwide." In 2010 The New York Times proclaimed, "The modern-day sport of endurance riding began in the 1950s in California." By then, El Raid had already been taking place in Uruguay for four decades.
Originally called El Raid Hípico (el raid referring to any long-distance sporting competition and hípico meaning "all things horse"), the first was held in 1913. The route ran roughly 90 kilometers (about 60 miles) in a round-trip between the town of Sarandí Grande and the city of Florida. Thirteen horses participated. When the event was repeated the following year, the results were disastrous: Riders pushed their mounts so hard that only one horse survived.
As a result, the event was disbanded for more than two decades until it was revived in 1935 to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the Battle of Sarandí, which helped Uruguay secure its independence from Brazil. By 1944 there were seven Raid clubs and a new governing body, the Federación Ecuestre Uruguaya. Today the Federación oversees 45 clubs, some with as many as 150 members subdivided into studs consisting of a horse's owners, jockey and trainers. Mi Santa is one of seven horses Nacho has part ownership in. All of them fall under the banner of Centro Raidista de Cerro Largo, one of two clubs in Melo—which, with some 50,000 residents, is the capital city of the Cerro Largo department. (Uruguay is divided into 19 departments—states, essentially.)
"Horses are a huge part of the culture and economy of Cerro Largo," Nacho says, "from back in the days when the caudillos were living in Uruguay's version of the Wild West. The Raid is really a part of the whole tradition of Melo."
It was Nacho and Marcos's father, Jorge Cardozo, who founded the Centro Raidista club in the early 1980s. Behind Jorge's house is a small barn where Mi Santa is boarded with a couple of other horses, while the house itself—its stucco walls and tiled roof modestly middle class by American standards but a mansion in Melo—is a shrine to El Raid. Trophies and framed photos cover the countertops and cabinets. In each of the photos, many of them black-and-white, is evidence of the key difference between El Raid and all other endurance horse races, the crucial factor that makes comparisons to the Tevis Cup or any other competition irrelevant.
The vehicles.
Unlike other endurance racing, which takes place on trails, El Raid is run on commuter roads: 30 kilometers and back, an hour rest period and veterinary inspection, then another 15 kilometers and back. During the race, trucks speed alongside the horses, each with a numbered placard that matches the number painted on the flank of their horse. The stud acts as a sort of mobile pit crew, spraying the horse from a hose connected to barrels of water in the truck bed so the animal, averaging 20 miles an hour, doesn't overheat. As horses pass and jockey for position, trucks swerve, collide, brake and speed up. It's part Kentucky Derby, part Daytona 500, a chaotic mash-up of Seabiscuit and Mad Max.
Today, Raid is a major sport, second only to soccer. There are several magazines dedicated to it and TV and radio broadcasts of events. Racing season lasts from early March through late November, and almost every club hosts a race, meaning there is a race nearly every weekend for nine months—42 races in 2013. Most are 90 kilometers, though they can range from 80 to 115 kilometers. First prize is usually 100,000 pesos, or about $5,000. If $5,000 doesn't sound like much, consider the average Uruguayan's yearly income: roughly $13,000. No matter how many horses the field comprises, one fifth of them receive some prize money—provided they survive the race, of course. And that's far from guaranteed.
Salón comunal translates to "community center." The one housing Nacho and the rest of the stud is a bare cinder-block shelter. The men unfurl bedrolls around the perimeter of the concrete floor, though there's little need. Just after midnight, when they've had their fill of the pig, they drive into town for the remate, the Raid betting system.
Raid is more than a race. Uruguay is roughly the size of the U.S. state of Florida, but its population is less than 3.5 million, compared with Florida's nearly 20 million. Almost half the country lives in the capital city of Montevideo. Only one other Uruguayan city has more than 100,000 residents; most have only a few thousand. There are few restaurants and even fewer movie theaters. Soccer is popular, but of the 16 teams in Uruguay's premier league, only two are based outside Montevideo. So the weekend El Raid comes to town is a hedonistic free-for-all, a sleep-deprived orgy of drinking and eating and gambling and dancing. It puts the Churchill Downs infield to shame. Hell, it puts Coachella to shame. The only equivalent is what Pamplona's Fiesta de San Fermin must have been in Hemingway's time, before all the tourists ruined it.
Things kick off Saturday morning. Spectators, drinking beer and yerba mate and eating chorizo sandwiches called choripán, gather at a corral to watch the horses check in and undergo an initial veterinary inspection. This is followed in the early evening by shorter races—roughly 10 kilometers—when there's even more drinking and eating. Many of the younger men, including Nacho and his stud, dress casually, in polo shirts and hoodies. But even they wear at least one traditional item—the beret, the bombachas—as a tribute to their ancestors. Uruguay is an impressively progressive country. It has universal health care. It averages a 96 percent voter turnout as the result of mandatory voting. (If you don't cast a ballot, you're fined.) It has legalized gay marriage and marijuana. But when it comes to haberdashery, it is enviably stuck in the past.
The country is also lagging in technology—at least when it comes to the remate. There are no tote boards, no pari-mutuel windows. The process is closer to a live auction. There are multiple rounds of betting, and a horse can be bet on by only one person—whoever offers the highest bet each round. Bets are for "win" only; there is no "place" or "show." If the horse you bet on wins, you receive the total money bet in that particular round—minus a 30 percent cut for the local club. There are as many rounds as there are people who wish to bet. There is also a roughshod strategy. Betting in the early rounds yields a bigger pot for the winner, since there are more people eager to place their bets—and on a wider variety of horses—than in the later rounds. Yet you also have to put down—and risk losing—more money than in the later rounds, when there are fewer bettors to compete against. To an outsider, it's an utterly confounding, absolutely maddening system.
"We just don't have the technology here to do real-time betting like in the States," Leo explains. "That's just the way we do it. We like it that way."
The remate for Sunday's Raid is held Saturday night in the Varela Raid club's headquarters: a large, hot, windowless hall with an attached bar facing the city square, which this weekend is filled with carnival rides, game booths and choripán vendors. Hundreds of people jam the hall, overflowing the many tables and chairs and squeezing tight against the walls, abandoning their places only for more beer. On a stage, a large white canvas is strung between a pair of tall wooden beams. Onto this is projected a spreadsheet with the names of all 51 horses entered in the race and columns for each round of betting, updated by laptop. An MC paces the stage, rapidly yelling the horses' names and escalating bets into a microphone while pointing to the flashing hands of bettors. At a table near the stage, a group of officials exchange money for claim tickets.
Some horses don't receive a single bet. Most horses, including Mi Santa, receive bets of $10 or $20 per round. Then there is the favorite, Ciriaco, a hulking bay representing Club Nacional in the city of Sarandí del Yí. So far in the 2013 season, Ciriaco has competed in six Raids and won four. The bets on him range from $250 to $700 per round. Since bets and total pots vary from round to round, overall odds are not easy to tabulate or even applicable. But Mi Santa's chances of finishing ahead of Ciriaco are clearly slim at best. A total of $200 is bet on Mi Santa—most of it coming from Nacho and his stud—and $3,500 is bet on Ciriaco. Between the short races Saturday, Sunday morning's Raid and a few short races Sunday afternoon, the weekend's combined wagering will total $50,000. Saturday night's remate begins at eight p.m. and doesn't finish until two a.m., after 28 rounds of betting.
By then, the night is just beginning. As is tradition, a dance is held, this time in a drab ballroom on the opposite side of the square from the Varela Raid club. At three a.m. the line stretches down the block and around the corner. Inside, the dance floor is packed with couples grinding to live cumbia and singles cruising for partners, their faces obscured by the scanning fluorescent spotlights and the smoke machine's artificial cumulus. The guys are still in gaucho garb, but the girls pay little mind to sartorial tradition. Their heels are high, their dresses cut low. Many of them are still dancing at six a.m., as Mi Santa trots by on her way to the starting line.
Ruta No. 14 bisects Uruguay east to west. In the summer, the road is used primarily by those bound for the beach town of La Coronilla. During the rest of the year it's busy with big rigs transporting milk, harvested crops and other provisions from the farms that dot the pastureland spanning to the horizon. It's still dark as 6:35 comes and goes. Nothing happens. I wait in the bed of Leo's truck with the rest of Mi Santa's stud, about a mile from the starting line. A car unaffiliated with the race speeds past, away from town. Wherever they're headed, they know to leave early. Later in the morning, a milk truck isn't so wise and is forced to the side of the road for more than an hour.
At last: the glimmer of approaching headlights and the faint sound of hooves. It starts as the patter of light rain, builds to a steady drumming and crescendos to an ear-pounding hailstorm. And yet, in the enveloping dark, still none of the horses are visible, only the headlights fast bearing down.
Finally the lead horse passes, ridden by a female jockey. (There are one or two in every Raid, rarely more.) Then a second horse, followed by a third and a fourth. One by one they go, the orderliness as magnificent as the animals themselves. Then the scene unravels into complete disarray. Trucks overtake us in a flood, streaming by on both sides, kicking up dust and grass as they brake hard, the men in the truck beds signaling with raised arms that there is congestion ahead. Most trucks have four men packed into the bed; one has four in the bed, four squeezed into the rear of the cab and two up front. Most of the men stand casually in the beds without holding on to anything or sit perilously on the edge. They look unfazed by the unfolding frenzy, smoking and sipping yerba maté and passing thermoses of hot water between the speeding trucks. I flop around in Leo's bed, struggling not to get thrown as the wind whips dirt into my eyes and mouth.
With little distance separating the horses, especially early on, and anywhere from 20 to 100 trucks trying to stay abreast of their horse—on a two-lane road, no less—the result is sheer chaos: Drivers honk and yell at one another as members of the stud dangle off the side of the truck with one hand as they lean out to spray down the horses. Steam rises off the charging steeds as they're doused. Jockeys dart their mounts between trucks to the other side of the road to get ahead of the pack. A police motorcycle weaves and wobbles between horses and trucks, as if ensuring some measure of order. A few compact cars with press signs on their dashboards zip by, providing the radio play-by-play. Every truck is tuned to the broadcast, and every truck's windows are rolled down, giving the effect of one giant loudspeaker shattering the early-morning tranquility of the Uruguayan countryside.
Around mile 10 the sun begins to break through the clouds. Spectators line the roads. By now the horses have divided into three groups: in the lead group, half a dozen; in the second, 20 or so; followed by the rest. This is typical for a Raid, and it means nothing. Although Ciriaco is in the lead group, most of these horses won't finish. The pace is simply too fast.
Mi Santa is near the front of the second group. Through the cab's sliding rear window, I ask Leo how she looks.
"Good," is all he says, with a hint of surprise, leaving me to suspect she's exceeding even the stud's most optimistic hopes. I find myself wondering if Mi Santa can actually win this damn thing. Soon, though, I'm faced with another, entirely alternate likelihood. It is the one scenario that, in all the narratives I envisioned for this weekend, somehow never occurred to me.
It happens just as the horses make the 30-kilometer turn and begin heading back toward the rest area: Mi Santa exhibits an odd tic. Every few strides she jerks her head to the left, as if annoyed by something behind her. It's a small change in her poise, barely noticeable. She isn't losing speed and Leo hasn't commented on it. Atop her, Maximiliano de Cunto remains stone-faced. I try to dismiss it, but I can't: Something is wrong with Mi Santa.
The Federación employs strict rules to protect the horses. Along with the veterinary inspection the day before the race, horses must have blood drawn for drug testing. Blood is tested again, along with urine, on the Monday after the race. If the results come back positive for those horses within the money, they forfeit their winnings. And the jockey and owner of any horse that tests positive for doping are suspended for one year.
There's another veterinary inspection during the rest period—after the first 20 minutes of which the horse must exhibit a heart rate of 65 beats or less per minute or face disqualification. Horses that pass the pulse test can still be disqualified at the veterinarians' discretion. Vets can also label a horse "with observation," which means they noticed something but can't definitively say it merits a disqualification. In such cases it is left to the owner to decide whether or not to proceed with the last 30 kilometers of the race. However, if a "with observation" horse continues and suffers an injury, the owner faces a suspension of anywhere from six months to life. And after a horse runs a Raid—finish or no—it's not allowed to race again for three weeks.
The owners are also extremely careful with the horses. Preparing a horse to compete in a Raid is a lengthy and expensive process. Horses are confined to running on a sand track until they're four or five years old. From then until they're seven or eight, they compete in shorter races, slowly increasing their distance. But even when a horse has proven it can handle a full-fledged Raid, it's not immediately allowed to compete. It then has to make the transition to running on paved roads. Different surfaces call on different muscles, and if the owners are too hasty, the horse can easily break an ankle. Raid horses cost several thousand dollars. And with an average horse competing in eight Raids per year—barring injury—there are many more thousands in prize money to be won.
"With horses you have to get to know their manner to understand what they want," Nacho says. "If one is brave or timid, you'll take care of the horse in a different way. The training changes as we get to know the horse's nature. That's what excites me, every day learning something new about the horses."
Sometimes safeguards are not enough. Ninety kilometers is still a hell of a long way for a horse to run in a single morning. During the 2012 Raid season, roughly 1,600 horses competed. Five died. In 2013, prior to the Raid in Varela, four horses had died.
That weekend it looked like it might happen again.
Around the two-hour mark, the first group, including Ciriaco, arrives at the rest area, a huge, lush green field with a tiny pond that looks more like Ireland than South America. Jockeys leap from their horses as members of their stud furiously tear off the saddle and hand it to the jockey, who sprints to a nearby scale. The jockey, holding the saddle, must weigh within a couple of kilograms of 85 kilograms, or about 185 pounds. (This is to make sure jockeys don't have an advantage by being too light, as well as to protect the horses against carrying too much weight. There are also jockey weigh-ins before and after a Raid.) The crew then leads the horse to a line of 14 barrels filled to the brim with water. Men dunk plastic buckets and metal pails into the barrels and in the same motion fling the water onto the horse, desperate to cool the beast and bring its heart rate to 65 beats per minute or less. Eventually, all 14 barrels will be emptied.
Some studs forgo the barrels and lead their horses straight into the pond. One jockey wades in himself, submerged to his waist in the water, dumping buckets of it over his horse. A member of another stud holds two soda-bottle-shaped blocks of ice against each side of his horse's neck. All this is accompanied by whistling from the jockeys and other stud members: The sound encourages the horses to urinate.
Veterinarians and their assistants roam through the maelstrom. When a stud is ready, the vets are called over. If the horse does not pass the pulse test, it is done for the day and the stud breaks out the IV, the pole and the bags of saline. In a weekend of surreal sights, two dozen horses meandering around a Technicolor-green field with IV poles extending from their backs ranks first. Fifty-one horses enter that weekend's Raid. Forty-seven depart the starting line. Twenty continue to the race's second half.
Mi Santa is not among them.
At the rest area, her odd tic becomes something more. She is now in plain distress, violently lashing her head back and stamping her right front foot. Nacho doesn't wait for the vets to tell him she's finished. He hooks her to the IV, not even wasting time with the pole but rather holding the bag himself. The entire stud—all eight men—gather around Mi Santa, each with a hand on her. Together, they walk her around, farther and farther from the pond and the rest of the crowd, hoping to give her space and privacy. A second IV is quickly inserted, another member of the stud holding the bag. The fluid doesn't help—not fast enough, anyway. Mi Santa begins to stagger. Then she goes down.
In the end only a dozen or so horses cross the finish line. Ciriaco pulls up lame somewhere along Ruta No. 14. The final result is even more unlikely than Mi Santa winning: a tie. More inconceivable still, a tie between two jockeys from the same town. Twenty-three-year-old Diego Prego and 54-year-old José Gussoni, both of Sarandí Grande, are neck and neck with three kilometers to go. The old friends decide to finish the race together and cross the line holding hands, arms raised high. They split the first-place prize money, and anyone who bet on either horse wins that particular round, though only half its pot.
The finish line is situated just outside the ballroom. The crowd swells on both sides of the road. As soon as the men cross the line, they are mobbed—pulled down from their horses and showered with hugs and congratulatory shouts, then seized by TV and radio reporters. The horses are led around the block and sprayed with cold water from a gas-powered hose. The pressure is firehose strength. The horses don't even flinch.
Such a tie in El Raid is called a puesta. It is extremely rare. It's been years since the last. And no one can remember when, if ever, a puesta involved two jockeys from the same town. "You don't know how lucky you are to see this," Leo says in the midst of the surging, cheering crowd. It certainly would have been a magical, even providential end to this story, made even more meaningful by the difference in the riders' ages. Two men, one barely out of adolescence, the other on the back end of middle age, holding hands as they cross the finish line. What better metaphor for the current state of Uruguay, a country rich in history and tradition, trying to reconcile with the present and embrace the future. Yes, it would have been one hell of an ending, if that were where this story ended.
An hour later, with the crowds gone to the short track for the weekend's final races, the inflatable arch over the finish line carted away and Ruta No. 14 once more clear for milk trucks and other traffic, Mi Santa still lies on her side in the field—now empty except for a couple of lingering studs and their supporters. The shadows of the surrounding trees encroach.
When she first went down, Mi Santa tried to get back up, with the stud's help. Leo and a few of the other men crouched behind her and pushed, driving their shoulders into her as if she were a football blocking sled. The consensus was that she was cramping, in which case lying down would only make her tighten up and increase her discomfort. She stayed upright only a few moments, then fell again. After getting her up once more, for an even shorter time, the stud changed strategy. A few of the men lay on top of the horse to keep her down and help conserve her strength. Mi Santa resisted at first, kicking so hard that she tossed two of the men into the air. Vets injected her with a painkiller. After a few minutes she settled down and just lay there.
Now, two of the men sit in the grass beside Mi Santa, stroking her for reassurance. They drink beer. The entire stud does. Nacho has driven his truck over and the cooler is steadily depleting.
Veterinarians confer to the side. It has been determined that the horse's stomach is the problem. This is likely due to dehydration and is not uncommon for horses during a Raid. They almost always feel better after the fluids and painkillers, which can take up to six hours to work. So it's still early. But the vets are concerned. If in the next hour or two Mi Santa can't get back on her feet, surgery will have to be considered. However, the nearest veterinary hospital is four hours away, and to keep Mi Santa sufficiently sedated and comfortable for that long of a ride would be difficult. Surgery could be performed right here in the field, but that too is problematic.
"There are much better conditions at the hospital versus doing it in the field," says the eldest vet, Ruben Acosta Fernández. "The surgery is two to three hours. Could be a piece of dead intestine. We'd just cut it out and sew it together and close her up."
But if it's something more serious, something the vets are ill-equipped to treat outside of a hospital, they'd then have little recourse but to euthanize the horse. That's another option: Just put Mi Santa down and spare her and everybody else the ordeal of surgery.
It's still too soon for any of this talk. And none of this has been proposed to Nacho. Not yet. But his worry is plainly visible. He gnaws his bottom lip, shakes his head dolefully, runs a hand through his short black hair, puts his hands on his hips and paces.
"Every horse is different," he says. "Mi Santa has responded well from the time we first started training her. That kind of horse always endears herself to a trainer or owner, because it's a good feeling to see her understand and improve. She has so many of the traits I like to see in a Raid horse. Sometimes a horse will get hurt early on and can't compete anymore. It always hurts when it's a horse you've developed a close relationship with."
"I thought the yegua could get herself right in there and place in one of the top positions," Maximiliano de Cunto says. "Winning a Raid is really complicated, so many factors.…"
It is time for my photographer and me to leave. Neither of us has slept and we don't want to navigate the strange, sparsely lit highway in the dark on our four-hour drive. As we cross the field toward the car, we hear shouting and look back. Mi Santa has risen. The men drop their beers, bolt up from where they're sitting and rush to her side. Each places a hand on her, as if hoping to somehow confer a bit of their own vitality. She looks steady, walking in a circle. Several of the men back away and begin backslapping and cleaning up the empty beers. It is a celebration, a victory, even this far from the finish line.
Then she falters and goes back down.
Later that night, back at my hotel room in Montevideo, I receive an e-mail from Leo. Mi Santa finally managed to stay up and walk to the trailer. She'll be taken to the hospital the next day for an X-ray. But first she'll attend the trophy ceremony in the Varela city square. The Monday after a Raid, all the studs show up for the trophy ceremony with their horses, even if they didn't finish.
"That way they show to everyone else that their horse is okay," Leo tells me. "It's a matter of pride."
This article originally appeared in the May 2014 issue of Playboy.
Photography by Luiz Maximiano


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Duchess Cocktail
1/3 French Vermouth. (3/4 oz Noilly Prat Dry)
1/3 Italian Vermouth. (3/4 oz Cinzano Rosso)
1/3 Absinthe. (3/4 oz Marteau Verte Classic)
Shake (or stir?) well and strain into cocktail glass.
Not the most wildly appealing looking cocktail. The combination of the louched Absinthe and Italian Vermouth gives it a murky brown tan color. Kind of like tea with milk in it.
Fairly tasty, however, if you enjoy Absinthe.
This post is one in a series documenting my ongoing effort to make all of the cocktails in the Savoy Cocktail Book, starting at the first, Abbey, and ending at the last, Zed.


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Made in England using quality ingredients, Blick Studio Oils offer great performance at an affordable Blick price. They're ideal for artists of all levels seeking large volumes of color on a limited budget.
Color Swatches created using heavy application/medium application/50% tint and were applied on acrylic primed canvas (7 oz) material.
chromium oxide
Chromium Oxide Green is a dull, dense, willow or pale green color that is completely opaque. It has an average drying time and a low tinting strength. It is fairly flexible in oil form and is suitable for all purposes and mediums. This pigment is less versatile in mixtures than Viridian and Phthalocyanine Green, but mixes well with other colors without overpowering them.
Chromium Oxide Green has excellent permanence, even at high temperatures.
Chromium Oxide Green is slightly toxic. Evidence of Chromium(III) carcinogenicity is inconclusive. Chromium(III) salts appear in greenish pigments such as PG17. Chromium(VI) salts, which appear in yellowish pigments, have been proven to cause cancer.
Louis-Nicolas Vauquelin discovered the element chromium in lead chromate in 1797. It began to be used as an enamel and ceramic color in 1809, but it had limited use as a pigment until 1862, because of its cost. It is the most commonly used green for military camouflage because it appears the same shade as living foliage under infrared light.
Chrome Oxide Green, Olive Green, Permanent Green. Varieties of Chromium Oxide Green include Arnaudon's Green, Dingler's Green, Plessy's Green, and Schnitzer's Green.
Pigment PY74 is one of the most commercially important pigments of the Hansa Yellow group, considered superior to many others in its class based on both tinting strength and lightfastness. Several PY74 grades with different particle sizes are available. Grades with finer particle size are more brilliant and transparent. Pigment PY74 ranges from reddish yellow to greenish yellow, with temperature shifts from cool to warm hues. It has high tinting strength and average to slow drying time.
This Hansa Yellow has better lightfastness that other yellow monoazo pigments, particularly in the darker shades.
Hansa Yellow has no significant acute hazards, though its chronic hazards have not been well studied.
Hansa Yellows were first made in Germany just before WW1 from a series of synthetic dyestuffs called Pigment Yellow. They were intended to be a synthetic replacement for Cadmium Yellow.
Arylide, Arylide Yellow, Azo, Brilliant Yellow, Monoazo, Monolite Yellow, Permanent Yellow.
titanium dioxide
Titanium White is the most brilliant of the white pigments. It is considered an all purpose oil color useful in all techniques and the best all around white. Its masstone is neither warm nor cool, placing it somewhere between Lead White and Zinc White. It is less prone to cracking and yellowing than Lead White, but it still yellows easily. Titanium White dries slowly in oil form, more slowly than Lead White but more quickly than Zinc White. It is opaque in oil and acrylic forms and semi-opaque in watercolor form. This pigment has good chemical stability, and its tinting strength is superior to both Lead White and Zinc White.
Titanium White has excellent permanence and lightfastness.
Titanium dioxide is highly stable and is regarded as completely non-toxic. Animal studies give no indiciation that it is absorbed biologically, even after long periods of exposure. The primary safety concern is with inhalation of fine pigment dust particles. Titanium White, if inhaled in large amounts over the course of several years, may cause a benign pneumoconiosis that is visible on x-rays. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) considers fine titanium dioxide particles, if inhaled, to be a human carcinogen. The primary concern for artists is to avoid exposure to fine particulate dust from raw pigments.
Titanium is the ninth most abundant element in the Earth's crust, however mineral deposits that are economical to mine are less common. Titanium dioxide was first discovered in 1821, although it could not be mass produced until 1919. Widespread use of the pigment began in the 1940s. Since that time, it has become the most commonly used white pigment. The name comes from the Latin word Titan, the name for the elder brother of Kronos and ancestor of the Titans, and from the Greek word tito, meaning day or sun.
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NEW YORK -- Carlos Ruiz set out from Pennsylvania on Saturday night for a 125-mile drive to New York City, where he could finally rejoin the Philadelphia Phillies.
A long trip, sure, but one he had been waiting all month to make.
"I was real happy on the way," Ruiz said. "It was a nice feeling that everything was over."
Philadelphia's steady catcher returned to the lineup Sunday after serving a 25-game suspension for using a banned amphetamine.
Ruiz, an All-Star last season, batted fifth and went 1 for 4 with a double as the Phillies beat the New York Mets 5-1 to complete a three-game sweep. He said he was glad to be back with the team and had put the penalty behind him, though it was hard to watch Philadelphia play without him because he felt as though he wasn't doing anything to help.
"I feel like I had very good at-bats today and made good contact, so that was big for me," Ruiz said.
Philadelphia opened 11-14 minus Ruiz, who said supportive teammates kept in touch with text messages throughout his suspension.
With his regular batterymate behind the plate for the first time this season, Phillies ace Cole Hamels overcame six walks to earn his first win of the year Sunday.
"It's huge. He's been our leader," Hamels said. "Just kind of excited to have him back. Just to kind of make our lineup feel more complete I think is huge."
Affectionately known as "Chooch," the 34-year-old Ruiz had a career year in 2012 when he batted .325 with 16 home runs and 68 RBIs in 114 games. He missed a little more than a month with a foot injury.
Ruiz's suspension was announced on Nov. 27 following his second positive test. An initial positive for a stimulant does not trigger a suspension, only that the player must undergo follow-up testing.
The catcher apologized in a statement, saying he was "sincerely regretful" for his mistake "in taking a prohibited stimulant." He apologized to teammates and fans again at spring training.
Ruiz reportedly tested positive for Adderall, an amphetamine commonly used to control attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Asked on Sunday whether he took any steps with Major League Baseball to get an exemption for his medicine, Ruiz said: "I don't know, man. I don't have anything to say about that."
Ruiz was eligible to participate in spring training, including exhibition games. He was hit on the left wrist by a pitch in an extended spring game April 19, but X-rays were negative and he said he is healthy.
"I feel great. For me, that's very important," said Ruiz, looking squat and strong. "Now I'm here and I'm going to help every day."
Ruiz played four minor league rehab games as his suspension was winding down. He drove up to New York on Saturday night from Pennsylvania, where he played a pair of games with Double-A Reading.
"The last two games I felt great," Ruiz said. "I played a lot of innings down there."
Even on the road, Ruiz was greeted Sunday with a chorus of "Choooooch" as he stepped into the box for his first at-bat. One fan held up a sign welcoming him back, and he reached on an error by Mets third baseman David Wright.
In the final season of his contract, Ruiz said he was looking forward to his family in Panama being able to watch the game.
"Chooch is a big player in our lineup," manager Charlie Manuel said.
To make room on the Phillies' roster, backup catcher Humberto Quintero was designated for assignment.
Erik Kratz got most of the playing time behind the plate while Ruiz was out. Kratz was hitting .191 with two homers and seven RBIs in 68 at-bats, while Quintero batted .250 with no homers and two RBIs in 20 at-bats.
"I was real happy when I saw my teammates," Ruiz said after the game. "They were excited to see me here in the clubhouse."


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Items where Author is "Al-Arfaj, A. R. A."
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Jalil, P. A. and Beltramini, J. and Al-Daous, M. and Al-Arfaj, A. R. A. Characterization of tungstophosphoric acid supported on MCM-41 mesoporous silica by using n-hexane cracking, benzene adsorption, and xray diffraction. Applied Catalysis, A: General (2001),, 207(1,.


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This is an excerpt from Campus Recreational Sports by NIRSA.
Campus Recreational Sports as a Career
As the activity offerings grew and more campus facilities were dedicated specifically to recreational pursuits, institutions also needed more full-time administrators. As a result, what started as a group of physical educators, teachers, and coaches helping students plan sporting events eventually emerged as a profession in its own right—one that now includes a myriad of positions.
Scope of Employment
While the primary function of all campus recreational sports professionals is of course to provide recreation programs and services, the field now encompasses a diversity of positions, many of which require unique capabilities and skill sets. Career paths or areas of specialization include, but are not limited to, the following:
Though each of these areas involves unique preparation and expertise, they all require practitioners to apply management principles of planning, scheduling, communicating, budgeting, staffing, assessing risk, allocating resources, and implementing plans.
Job Titles and Responsibilities
Institutions often use their own unique titles to indicate specific levels of responsibility on their particular campus. Organizational structure—which establishes the reporting lines of the organization—also varies widely across the country. It is based on many factors: the structure of the institution itself; the institution's population (e.g., the total number of students; the mix of undergraduate, graduate, and professional students; and other characteristics such as student age and residency); and the placement of the campus recreational sports program, which may be located in student affairs, auxiliary services, athletics, or another administrative area. For example, though this is not always the case, an institution with a large undergraduate population is more likely than a smaller one to establish a large campus recreational sports department that includes many levels of staff and offers a myriad of programs and services.
As a result, when pursuing job opportunities in the field, you are well advised to explore the unique characteristics of each position and institution. Pay close attention to the job description and list of responsibilities. A position listed as coordinator at one school may be comparable to a director position at another school or assistant director at a third school. Some assistant director positions are considered to be entry-level—that is, jobs for someone with little experience—whereas others require several years of professional experience. One important distinction between even entry-level recreation positions in the collegiate setting and those in other areas of recreation is that almost all campus recreational sports positions require in-depth experience (e.g., a graduate assistantship) and a degree beyond the bachelor's degree. The following overview lists various job titles found in university recreation departments and outlines general duties and responsibilities commonly associated with various levels of responsibility. Remember, however, that the level of responsibility assigned to a title may vary between institutions.
Learn more about Campus Recreational Sports: Managing Employees, Programs, Facilities, and Services.
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|Picture of the BEST paleo chocolate chip cookie recipe out there.
As a starting point, I used a recipe closest in taste and appearance to a traditional chocolate chip cookie (Recipe #6 of my Paleo Cookie Recipe Comparison). Tasters of the original Recipe #6 griped about the oiliness, sweetness, and flavor of the oil, so I began testing changes to the recipe.
|BakerGal's delicious paleo chocolate chip cookie recipe!
In the process of making so many batches, I learned a few things that are important for the success of this cookie, including sweetener substitutions and measuring almond flour. I've noted these in the recipe notes of the final recipe below.
|Best Paleo Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
5 oz (1 1/4 cups) very finely ground blanched almond flour (NOT Bob's Red Mill...see notes)
1/4 teaspoon salt (I know you're supposed to avoid salt, but this is seriously important for flavor)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
A scant 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips. I used Guittard Extra Dark chocolate chips (63% cocoa and incredibly smooth). Using a darker chocolate (for example, the Guittard 72% Cacao Baking Discs) will make the cookies less sweet.
- Heat oven to 325.
- Mix almond flour, salt, and baking soda well. In a small bowl, mix agave nectar, Macadamia nut oil, and vanilla. Combine wet and dry ingredients, mixing well. Add dark chocolate chips. Batter should be thick enough that you can roll a small ball between your palms and set it on the cookie sheet without it drooping or losing shape (see notes).
- Make 16 - 20 small balls of paleo chocolate chip cookie dough and space them evenly on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Press the cookies down as flat as possible with the palm of your hand. This is important! The cookies will NOT spread out on their own.
- Bake about 6 minutes. Watch closely and remove when the edges start to brown. . . they could be done at 4 minutes or at 8 minutes depending on the size of the cookie and your oven calibration.
I prefer agave syrup's flavor and performance in the recipe, but tested some substitutions:
Raw honey: It works just as well. I tried a batch that turned out looking almost identical, feeling a little bit chewier, and tasting faintly of honey.
Date paste: If you prefer "whole sugars" that come embodied in their originating fruit, I also tried a date paste that worked but yielded a slightly wetter cookie with slightly less traditional flavor. To make a date paste substitute, take 8 pitted dried dates and chop them very finely. Add 1/4 cup water to the chopped dates and heat in a pan or microwave, stirring frequently until they've softened and absorbed some of the water (about 30 seconds in the microwave, stirring every 10 minutes). Add water as needed to keep them hydrated and jam-like in consistency. Remove from heat and mash the dates as thoroughly as possible with a fork. Add another few teaspoons of water if needed and heat again briefly to further soften the mixture. Place the paste in a measuring cup. If you don't have 1/4 cup of date paste, add enough water to bring the mixture up to the 1/4 cup line. Proceed with recipe as written.