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Public to Homeschool
How to Survive – and Thrive –the Transition
Homeschooling is not the same thing as doing schoolwork at home. When you and your student transition from a public school to homeschool environment, you may both find yourself on an emotional rollercoaster. So we've gathered seven pillars of strength and practical advice to help you create a productive, thriving environment for this grand undertaking.
1. Gather Your Endurance for the Long Haul
If you are struggling with homeschooling, be encouraged — the first year is always the toughest, say Carolyn Morrison and Jennifer Leonhard of Guilt-Free Homeschooling. "Remind yourself that you have chosen to homeschool your children for very important reasons. There is a definite adjustment period involved in switching from public school to homeschooling, and that period can last at least a year."
Even when parents and children are eager to homeschool, the change in attitude may not happen immediately, says Lee Binz of The Home Scholar. To illustrate, Binz offers the experience one homeschool mom, Kelly, who describes the gradual process that allowed her son to go from "the deadness of school" to sounding independent and happy. "After a year and a half of homeschool, the lights are starting to come on. He is realizing what an opportunity he has and the desires are starting to show. He is 'getting it.' He's thinking creatively about high school courses. He is sounding independent."
2. Understand the Emotional Changes
If your student had difficulties at public school or did not enjoy that experience, he or she may be relieved to be away from that setting, say Morrison and Leonhard. "At the same time, he may miss some of his acquaintances or the reliable routine of scheduled activities. Enjoying school, not enjoying school; missing the other students, not missing the other students; excitement, depression; up, down — most children do not have the maturity to effectively cope with the emotions they will experience." The experts at Guilt Free Home Schooling recommend "help and hugs from their understanding parents."
Shelly Frost, a freelance writer specializing in parenting and education, advices, "Talk to your child about the transition from the public school to homeschooling. Address her concerns or questions about the new schooling method without disregarding her feelings."
3. Key on Your Student's Interests
Morrison and Leonhard also encourage you to "spend some one-on-one time with your child, endeavoring to learn what things he is interested in and how he would prefer to study them, and then tailor a few lessons specifically towards those areas. "Find his areas of personal interest and focus on those. It can make a tremendous difference in his level of motivation and create a valuable bond between the two of you at the same time. (Mom is letting me study this?) Remember, education was taking place long before the first textbook was ever written."
Topics that are rife with educational opportunities that will truly motivate your child include filmmaking, photography, acting, cars, dolls, boats, building toy models, to name a few.
4. Create Space
Creating your child's learning environment will be one of the most important elements of your homeschooling success. You will also want to gather supplies/infrastructure that are fun, useful and tidy.
In "8 Steps to Homeschool Success," Scholastic Parent & Child Magazine asks these questions: Will you be conducting classes at the kitchen table? Do you need a blackboard or a desk? How about empty wall space to post schedules, calendars, and completed work? Is there a computer nearby that's connected to the Internet? Get organized by purchasing storage cabinets and bookshelves for holding textbooks and workbooks. Baskets are also useful for keeping loose supplies under control.
5. Create Time
You will want to create a homeschooling schedule with both structure and flexibility.
Linda Dobson, author of The Homeschooling Book of Answers: The 101 Most Important Questions Answered by Homeschooling's Most Respected Voices, says, "While a schedule makes some people feel hemmed in, it helps, especially in the beginning, to be organized and have a mission. Purchase a plan book and consider how you want to break up your child's academic schedule and each subject you want to work on. Consider how you want to break up your learning week by week, too. Make time for field trips and visits to the library. And remember, flexibility is one of the key appeals of homeschooling. You can always adapt your schedule to your child's changing needs.
Morrison and Leonhard also encourage a casual discussion of expectations between teaching-parent and student may clear up many misunderstandings and motivate the child with the promise of free-time activities once the schoolwork has been completed.
6. Find a Good Curriculum
As a homeschool parent, you'll be making up a lot of things as you go. But you don't have to invent everything on your own. YesPhonics™ Express offers a comprehensive phonetic language arts curriculum, for example, that comes with a Program Manual, complete lesson plans, a Spelling Notebook, Chart of Spelling Rules, worksheets, the Creative Coloring Book, the Sound-A-Long DVD and CD, and more.
All the tools in the YesPhonics™ Express programs are built on proven educational principles. Each is designed to stimulate different senses (sight, sound, touch) to help fast and effective learning. No other phonics program provides the comprehensive program that YesPhonics™ does. Read more about the comprehensive YesPhonics™ Express Program for teaching reading, writing and spelling.
7. High School Diplomas
If you homeschool older students, they will eventually need a curriculum that offers a high school diploma, and prepares them for higher education as well as greater success in life. YesPhonics™ recommends American School. This is one of the oldest and largest distance education institutions in the world, which has helped more than three million students earn their high school diplomas. American School provides a top-quality curriculum in both print and online format, providing all the books, lesson plans, and educational materials, as well as teachers that grade each assignment. Attending the American School allows your student/s to earn their diploma faster than ever thought possible – up to twice as fast as classroom high schools – offering an accredited diploma that is recognized by major universities.
Something to Remember
Your child will be experiencing a completely different learning environment, as you move him or her from public school to homeschooling. It some cases, it will feel as though you're all starting over from the beginning. Applying these guidelines will help you through this transition while not losing educational ground.
• "Transition from Public School to Homeschool Takes Time," Lee Binz, the Home Scholar
• "Deschooling Gently: A Step by Step Guide to Fearless Homeschooling," Lee Binz, the Home Scholar
• "Surviving the First Year of Homeschooling after Leaving Public School," Carolyn Morrison and Jennifer Leonhard, Guilt-Free Homeschooling
• "8 Steps to Homeschool Success," Scholastic Parent & Child Magazine
• "How to Pull a Child from Public School & Start Homeschooling," Shelly Frost for Livestrong • American School – Distance learning for high school diplomas
About Kyla Cheney
Kyla Merwin is a freelance writer, editor and blogger. She writes about travel, pets, phonics, and people, with credits in regional and national magazines, and scattered throughout webpages everywhere. She writes for the travel & recreation website, Northwest Road Tripper [http://www.nwroadtripper.com], and serves as the executive director of the Northwest Outdoor Writers Association. Her first book, "Lost & Found in Egypt" [http://kmc-media.com/books] was released in September 2103. She lives and writes in Bend, Oregon. (Photo Credit: Joseph Eastburn)


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The first tip is - buy the new Windows version! More than just a Windows conversion, it has hundreds of new capabilities
to makes aircraft design easier and more fun. However, the old tips for RDS-DOS are
provided below for those who are still waiting for their copy of RDSwin, or
who just love that classic clunky DOS look.
To simplify installation, RDS comes with a utility program (INSTALL.EXE) that sets up a new directory and copies the RDS program files to that directory. This does not make any changes to your Windows setup other than creating a new directory, and its use is optional.
To run RDS in Windows, you must next set up a Windows Shortcut as described below (see next Tip) then click on it to start RDS. Do not run RDS just by clicking on RDS.EXE - it will probably run, but not in a full screen display and without proper settings for memory and the mouse.
To run RDS in DOS, simply enter RDS from the DOS prompt. You can also start RDS in most versions of Windows by calling up the DOS prompt but it is more cumbersome than using a shortcut, and may not allow full screen operation.
The first time you run RDS it will ask a few questions about your computer to confirm the directories and to set printer usage. If you are running RDS through Windows, unfortunately you will not be able to directly print to a printer (this is a Windows-DOS problem, and only Microsoft knows why). Therefore, select NONE when printer options are given. When you are running RDS and wish to print out results, select Print to File and open the resulting file in Word, Wordpad, Excel, or some other program, and print from there.
If you are installing RDS-Professional, the first time you run it a message will appear with an alphanumeric code generated from parameters in your computer system. Email this to the address provided and an unlock code will be sent to you. This must be entered only one time.
If you wish you can change the Icon to the RDS Icon (right-click here). Download it into your Windows directory then select right-click on your RDS Shortcut and select Change Icon. This option may be in an Advanced tab or button.
My apologies for the extra trouble, but really - it isn't too much effort and you only have to do it once. An RDS user says "I Googled DOSBOX and was directed to their website and was able to download it for free. The DOSBOX website says that it is meant for legacy games and that it will be slow, but it has not been a problem."
It is probably best to set up a shortcut for running RDS in DOSBox as follows:
Create a file called "RDS.bat", with these contents:
Then create a Windows desktop shortcut with target:
"C:\Program Files\DOSBox-0.73\dosbox.exe" "C:\RDS\RDS.bat"
This will start RDS in one step.
Main Menu Page Opens but Mouse Doesn't Work and/or Cursor Blinks Insanely: This is most likely a problem with your mouse driver or the mouse itself, or maybe your mouse driver isn't exactly the right one for the mouse you have. The Windows default mouse driver may not work as RDS expects for a given mouse. As a result, the mouse driver may not be returning anything when queried, or it may be returning a mouse motion even if none exists. Test this using a simple little DOS program called MiceTest (click here to download it). This uses the actual RDS mouse routines and prints the returned codes as you move the mouse. If this shows the returned codes are not changing as you move the mouse, or it shows them changing when you haven't moved the mouse, the problem is very likely to be in your mouse, mouse driver, or mouse-related Windows setup. Try re-installing the mouse driver from the original installation disk that came with your mouse. BTW, I use a Logtitech trackball rather than a mouse, and RDS works just fine.
Only Aircraft Data File Works: If RDS will start, and the AIRCRAFT DATA FILE module runs, but all other modules won't run, you probably have a bad RDSCONFG file. This often happens when someone copies RDS from one computer to another (no stealing, please!). RDS can't "find itself" because that file indicates what directory to look in to find the other modules. The solution is simple - exit RDS and delete the file RDSCONFG from your RDS directory, then restart RDS. A new file will be created. For a sneaky way to fix this, see Raymer's Secret RDS Hacks below.
RDS Won't Run, or Strange Termination Errors Occur: If RDS will not run or you get strange termination errors when saving or going from one module to another, one possibility is that Windows has mysteriously set the attributes of some needed RDS files to Read-Only. Go to Windows Explorer and highlight all the files in your RDS program directory. Right-click, select Properties, and make sure that Read-Only, Archive, and Hidden are not checked. Another way to fix this - open the command box (Start-Run) and enter C: attrib -a -r -h RDS (assuming your RDS program directory is C:\RDS as recommended).
If RDS or a module still will not run,
you may not have sufficient free DOS memory. First, if you are running RDS under Windows, doublecheck that your
Shortcut has EMS and XMS set to NONE (right-click on the RDS shortcut icon and
select MEMORY). Next, check your free
memory using the Windows System utilities or the DOS MEM command.
You need about 550k free memory to run RDS. You can free up memory
using the DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS driver, and by setting memory as shown in
the sample CONFIG.NT file below (CONFIG.SYS in older versions of Windows).
These settings may not work for all computers, so ask an expert if you can't fix this yourself.
You may want to try running the DOS MEMMAKER
command, and if that still doesn't free up enough memory, you may try some
aftermarket memory management program. Removing terminate-and-stay-resident
programs will also free up memory. Most modern computers will
not have such problems unless they are chock-full of memory-hogging software - or spyware.
Sample CONFIG.NT to provide more memory dos=high, umb device=%SystemRoot%\system32\himem.sys files=100 Sample CONFIG.SYS to provide more memory DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS DOS=HIGH,UMB DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE 4096 ram512 /x=B000-B7FF /x=C800-CBFF /i=E000-EFFF m9 DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE INSTALL=C:\MOUSE.COM FILES=30 BUFFERS=20 SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS\ /p STACKS=9,256
Graphs and Design Layout Module Don't Work:
If all the text-mode portions of RDS-DOS work fine, but attempting to create graphs or enter the Design Layout Module
just produces a blank screen, your
computer may be using some non-standard graphics driver that isn't supported by the compiler. Try disabling
it using the Windows Control Panel as follows:
{Control Panel /Appearance and Themes /Display /Settings /Advanced /Adapter /Properties / Disable Device}
Then reboot and see if that fixes it.
Startup & Run Problems With RDS-DOS Version 5+:
RDS Student 5.1 Installation Program Produces Only Blue Screen of Death: On the first print run of the RDS-Student Version 5.1 CD-ROM, the INSTALL program won't work because the program files were inadvertently put into a subdirectory named "RDS-Stud51" which has more than the 8 characters permitted for a DOS-based program. My apologies, and for now please use the copy-it-yourself method described above.
Design Layout Module Starts but No Menus are Shown: The last person who used DLM exited in Menuless Operation Mode - press Alt-M to return to Menu Operation.
DLM always starts in FPS units: Another minor bug in V5.1 - the DLM always starts in FPS units even if you work in MKS. A fixed version will be posted here
Startup & Run Problems With Old Versions of RDS-DOS (Versions 1-4):
Old DLM Crashes Way Too Often: Older versions of RDS-DOS use an entirely different Design Layout Module (DLM) which had several bugs, some fixable and some unfixable. This is one of the reasons it was replaced in Version 5 with an all-new and far superior DLM (the new Windows version was based on this). When using the old DLM, you are advised to save often - about every 5 minutes! If it crashes and you've lost some work, see Recovering Design Layout Module files after abnormal termination.
Old DLM will not run: If ONLY the old Design Layout Module (DLM) will not run you may be experiencing a CPU timing problem in the Borland TurboPascal compiler that the old DLM was written with - a modern CPU is just too fast. Several fixes are available. A site at the University of Freiburg has a complete explanation of the problem, and has a download for TpPatch. Another site has MoSlo, a commercial program, but you can download a free limited version.
In the old DLM recovery was possible but more complicated. Go to Windows Explorer or DOS and find the file named (yourfilename).BK~ . Rename it (yourfilename).DSN and return to the Design Layout Module. The lost working file is now there - maybe!
However, it is not certain if the software protection system that RDS-Pro uses is always compatible with a Mac emulating a PC. Here's a better idea - purchase a cheap low-end PC just for RDS.
In Menuless Operation you can get rid of the prompts at the top of the screen by pressing the "~" symbol just before pressing "B", then press "~" again to restore the prompts.
Once you've made an RDS bitmap you can directly copy it into an application program. However, RDS bitmaps are very large (~1 mB) and may not have the colors you desire. You can open and improve them in an image/photo manipulation program such as Photoshop, IrfanView, or the Paint program that comes with Windows. Once in such an application program, RDS illustrations can be cropped, scaled, sized, colored, color inverted, contrast enhanced, and finally stored in a more compact file format such as JPG or GIF.
RDS-Professional has an additional capability to save an ASCII data file of the aircraft's lift, drag, thrust, and fuel consumption for input into simulation programs such as TAC BRAWLER. This is selected from the OPTIONS menu in the AIRCRAFT DATA FILE EDIT Module.
You can enter inputs in MKS or FPS, and can switch at will between them by selecting units from the OPTIONS menu. Or, you can instantly switch units by pressing `#' (the pound sign) anytime RDS is waiting for a numerical input.
To facilitate such designs, the Design Layout Module (Version 5+) allows wings and tails to reflect across their own root chord rather than across the aircraft centerline as is the usual practice. This allows a wing or tail which is laterally symmetric but is not centered on the aircraft's centerline.
For a truly wild design, completely different left-right wing panels can be separately created and placed. Create each separately, selecting "One Side of Global CL" when prompted for symmetry. Enter desired areas, aspect ratios, and taper ratios as if each wing panel would be reflected across the global centerline. In other words, if you are creating the left panel which is to have an area of 50 by itself, enter 100. When creating the wing panel for the right side of the aircraft, again enter double the area, but use a negative value when entering aspect ratio. This will invert that wing panel to the other side of the aircraft. You can instead use positive aspect ratio when creating the right-side wing panel then later scale it by X=-1. Another approach - create the left-side panel, copy it, scale it by X=-1, then make whatever other changes are needed.
The reason for treating these one-side wing panels as if they were part of a complete wing is simple - it allows converting from reflected to nonreflected and back again without changing the wing trapezoidal geometry.
For weights and aerodynamics analysis you must CAREFULLY review and revise the geometric inputs estimated by the Design Layout Module in the output TAB file. It is suggested that the wing geometric inputs be defined assuming an equivalent total trapezoidal planform based on the total wing area and total span, the total exposed wing area, and an averaged sweep, taper, and thickness.
In RDS-Pro there is a point-by-point airfoil input capability which you can select instead of picking an airfoil. There is also a routine that will create NACA airfoils from a few simple inputs.
If you want to convert a SuperConic component to Points, use MiscCompOptions-Convert. There is currently no capability to convert a Point component to SuperConics - you have to build it that way from the start. And, why wouldn't you?
BUG ALERT 1: On the first print run of the RDS-Student Version 5.1 CD-ROM, the INSTALL program won't work because the program files were inadvertently put into a subdirectory named "RDS-Stud51" which has more than the 8 characters permitted for a DOS-based program. My apologies, and for now please use the copy-it-yourself method described above.
BUG ALERT 2: There is a programming bug in the first release that makes problems if design layouts are saved in a subfolder.
BUG ALERT 3: Another minor bug in the first release of V5 - the DLM always starts in FPS units even if you work in MKS. Press # to switch to metric.
BUG ALERT 4: Don't turn off prompts in the DLM main menu options. It does turn off the top line of prompts in menuless viewing as it should, but when menus are being used it makes an error (#5) during various operations like moving a point.
These bugs are fixed in a free download - click here.
Home | RDS | CRC | Books | Design Classes | Drawings | Links | Other Stuff | Raymer Bio

subset: commoncrawl


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Release Date: July 10, 2017
Expiration Date: July 10, 2020
Course Objectives
Karen R. Koenig, LCSW, Med, has been treating clients with dysregulated eating for 30 years. She is the author of six books on eating and weight, including several foreign language editions. Her articles have appeared in Social Work Focus, Social Work Today, and Eating Disorders Today. A founding member of the Greater Boston Collaborative for Body Image and Eating Disorders, Ms. Koenig has served on the professional advisory board of the Massachusetts Eating Disorder Association and has taught seminars for the Simmons College School of Social Work, the Boston University School of Social Work, the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology, the National Association of Social Work, the Massachusetts Dietetic Association, and the National Organization for Women. A graduate of Simmons College School of Social Work, Ms. Koenig practices in Sarasota, Florida.


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From Peter Rabbit to Peppa Pig: Award winning digital bookshop featuring celebrity narrators encourages reading amongst children
Award winning digital children's bookshop delights young readers across the world
Featuring: celebrity narrators & unique 'draw & record technology'
All the top titles
Read. Listen. Record. Save.
Me Books is rapidly becoming the 'go-to' app for families of little storytellers
Get the app!
Me Books Shop: 130 of the best-loved children's books on shelf now - new
titles added each week.
Me Books is a magical new app for the iPad and iPhone that lets you and your little ones create personal editions of some of the most popular picture books ever published. Me Books is bursting with classics like Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit and vintage Ladybird fairy tales to modern favourites Elmer, Topsy & Tim and Peppa Pig.
The first time I clapped eyes on Me Books I was blown away....


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automatic delivery
Customer's oil tank will be filled automatically based on your usage during the heating season. Deliveries are made using the degree day method which is calculation using the high and low daily tempeatures.
Will Call Delivery
Customer "will call" to place order for fuel delivery for the number of gallons or dollar amount they choose. Call for current prices or listen to our voicemail message for prices.
Budget Plans
Flex Budgets
10 month Begins in May, June and July Catch - up plans available until 10/15 Call for details
Build up your funds as a credit on your account by making payments when and how often you decide, in increments that you choose which would then be applied to your future "will call" delivery. Flex Budgets start anytime. (Call for details)


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#AbhishekBachchan graced the special screening of upcoming spy thriller drama #Raazi, starring #AliaBhatt and Vicky Kaushal, helmed by #MeghnaGulzar, and junior Bachchan is all praises for junior Bhatt, says he finds her "Gifted'.
Meghna Gulzar directorial Raazi, is based on a novel "Calling Sehmat" by Harinder Sikka's novel Calling Sehmat, about an Indian spy married to a Pakistani military officer during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.
Abhishek Bachchan took to his social media profile and praised the entire cast and crew, especially Alia Bhatt.
He wrote, "Had the pleasure of watching Raazi last night. Enjoyed every moment of it. Taught, edge-of-your-seat and relentless! @aliaa08 is…simply put, gifted! Such talent and maturity is wonderful to watch. My brother @vickykaushal09, restrained, dignified and honest and earnest. Bravo"
Further adding, "So, so happy for @meghnagulzar…Always knew she was great…And she proves her craft and her confidence in it in Raazi. Audacious! @karanjohar - what to say about you? You don't care what people think of you all the best to the entire team. Such a worthy film. Do watch guys"
The movie stars an impressive ensemble of Alia Bhatt as Sehmat, Vicky Kaushal as Iqbal Syed, Rajit Kapur as Hidayat, Shishir Sharma as Brigadier Syed, Jaideep Ahlawat as Khalid Mir, Ashwath Bhatt as Mehboob Syed, Amruta Khanvilkar as Munira, And Soni Razdan as Teji.
On the work front, Abhishek is playing the lead role in Anurag Kashyap 's Manmarziyaan starring opposite Tapsee Pannu which is expected to bring Abhishek to the list of Top actors of the industry back again, expected to release in September 2018.
Abhishek is also committed to Sanjay Leela Bhansali production which is a biographical film about love story of poet Sahir Ludhianvi and author Amrita Pritam, as reported.
Source - News Helpline


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If yes, then read this……..
How long have you been in a job?
Maybe 5 years, 10 years or maybe 15 years. I know how it feels to work day in and day out. For some, it's not working, it's slogging. And when you toil to make a living, it makes you hollow. You search for excuses every day to slip out of work. It's never easy, because if you keep on slipping, you may well be fired.
Waking up and going to work can be really annoying, particularly when you do not enjoy your job. Many of you somehow manage to tolerate the daily rigours of putting up at a place where you don't enjoy. And you do it, not out of choice, but out of necessity, because you don't have any options left. (more…)


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Communication is key. One of the worst things that could happen is if a customer calls your business in Tampa and is unable to connect because of your outdated business phone service. You also want to make sure your customers feel like they aren't calling in vain. So, what can you do to ensure that your business phone service delivers the quality that your customers in Tampa expect? Well, you could invest in an automated attendant. Having an automated attendant can help your business in Tampa deal with high call volumes that can put stress on your business phone service. It also allows your employees the ability to handle calls more effectively.
Using an automated attendant gives your business a few advantages over more traditional methods. It can give off a more professional feel when customers call. Another advantage is that it can help your customers easily navigate to find what they need. Before implementing an automated attendant service, keep these three things in mind:
- The Script
A crucial step is determining the auto attendant's script. When your customers call, they will be reacting to your script. Therefore, it is important that the virtual menu is simple to understand and easy to use. If your customers are confused that can hurt your business and scare them off.
- Research
Now that you have the script down, make sure it works. You'll need to experience what the customers will, once they call your business. If you are having trouble navigating your own virtual menu, you can guarantee that your customers will also. So, take the time to fine tune your automated attendant in order to have happy customers.
- Growth
It's always important to plan ahead. Think your growth rate. Depending on which system or service you use, it could be tied into your voicemail service. If it is limited due to its size, make sure you have a plan in place to accommodate the influx of calls as your business grows.
Want to learn more? Contact us today at (813) 734-8994 and learn how PBX-Change can help your business with its communication needs.


text:
Organization : Xerox
Job Role : Software Developer
Location : Bangalore
Qualification : BE/ B.Tech
Experience : Freshers
Salary : Rs 2.5 – 4 LPA
No.of Vacancies : NA
Website : www.xerox.com
Apply Mode : Online
Last Date : ASAP
About Organization:
Xerox is leading Software Company,Xerography was invented more than 75 years ago, and enabled Xerox to engineer a better way for the world to share information. Since then they have continued engineering how the world works by applying our expertise in imaging, business process, analytics, automation and human centric design to make a real difference for our customers and their customers. And that means they have changed the way the world shops, learns, parks, does banking, receives healthcare and, of course – works. By helping businesses and governments of all sizes solve their biggest and nethermost challenges, they're making the world work a little better, every day.
Job Requirements:
* Candidate should be BE/B Tech from a recognised university.
* Candidate should have an aggregate of 60% through out academics.
* Should use the best practices and knowledge of internal or external business issues to improve products or services.
* Must act as a resource for colleagues with less experience.
* Should require in-depth knowledge and experience.
* Must have decisions guided by policies, procedures and business plan.
* Should have generally domestic scope/accountability.
* Should plan, design, develop and test software systems or applications for software enhancements and new products.
* Should be able to develop a range of products including device drivers, patches, operating system modifications, graphics modules, etc.
* Must analyze, program, and modifie software enhancements and/or new products used in local, networked, or Internet-related computer programs.
* Must be using current programming languages and technologies, writes code, completes programming, and performs testing and debugging of applications.
* Should plans and directs studies of potential electronic data processing applications.
* Must develop and install programs to support general business applications running on PCs.
* Must design web pages, including graphics, animation, and functionality; develops infrastructure and applications related to pages.
* May make hardware or software purchasing recommendations regarding web development and all other duties as assigned.


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Melissa Satta is back to talk about the unpleasant affair that involved her boyfriend Kevin Prince Boateng.
The former tissue, you read about gossip.it, it clarifies the situation of boyfriend: "This must be clear: Kevin was not fired, but only suspended. It 's still under contract with Schalke. A contract that expires in Exactly one year ".
For the young Sardinian Boateng against the measure it is related to the prejudices: "My man is not a bad boy. But a man of 28 who loves football, loves his job and does it as a professional. Just because it's tattooed and his hair with peroxide crest there is a kind of injury. "
Finally, the showgirl spoke about the market rumors that want the Ghanaian midfielder back in Italy: "Milan is my home. And if we come back here, I'd be happy. But we'll see."


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Kochi: Nuns of the Kuravilangad convent today staged a protest outside the Kerala High Court against the delay in the arrest of rape-accused Jalandhar Bishop Franco Mulakkal. The dissenting nuns claimed that both the government and the diocese are shielding Mulakkal after he was accused by a nun of rape and several others of sexual harassment.
Earlier this year, a nun from Kerala accused the Bishop of raping her on multiple occasions between 2014 and 2016. After she filed an official complaint against him and a Special Investigative Team (SIT) was formed to investigate the matter, the complainant alleged that her life was in danger and even accused the bishop and those allegedly shielding him of making an attempt on her life.
In fact, following her complaint, three other nuns also came forward with allegations of sexual harassment against the Bishop. They said that Franco Mulakkal approached them with malicious intentions and even touched them inappropriately on several occasions. He misused his position and even forcefully hugged other nuns, claimed one of the complainants.
Reports had suggested that the SIT looking into the matter is planning to issue summons to the Bishop to appear before them in connection with the case. However, the same has not been confirmed as of yet. Meanwhile, the Bishop who is currently in Jalandhar has not issued any statements over the allegations levelled against him by multiple complainants.
The nun who had initially accused Franco Mulakkal of rape had even told media personnel that a letter was sent to her sister asking her to refrain from taking the legal proceedings against the Bishop any further. A statement by the SIT following a preliminary investigation had revealed that the Bishop had confined the nun to a guestroom in St Francis Home in Kuravilangad in Kottayam district of Kerala where he raped her repeatedly.
Must Read:


text:
For Immediate Release
Contact: Shannon Currey ǀ Marketing Director
919-479-6620 ǀ firstname.lastname@example.com
Hoffman Nursery Recognized for Promoting Plants for Green Infrastructure
NC Green Industry Council's Blue-Green Innovator of the Year award goes to Hoffman Nursery
Rougemont, NC (27 June 2016) — Hoffman Nursery received the 2016 Blue-Green Innovator of the Year Award from the North Carolina Green Industry Council (NCGIC). It was presented at the 6th Annual Green Industry Water Symposium in Raleigh, North Carolina in June.
The award recognizes outstanding leadership and innovation in environmental stewardship in regard to water conservation, water use efficiency, and the development and implementation of green infrastructure (GI) by an individual, organization, or government entity.
In keeping with this year's conference theme of green infrastructure, NCGIC Board Member Doug Chapman noted that Hoffman Nursery has positioned itself as a supplier to GI markets nationwide. The nursery team works with other wholesale growers to help them see the potential of grasses, sedges, and other plant species in meeting the needs of local and regional governments for GI projects. In addition, Hoffman Nursery is working to develop more demonstration areas on site. They want to show customers and visitors how the plants work and provide feedback for selecting new species and cultivars for GI.
The award also addresses water conservation and efficiency. Hoffman Nursery handles water on site with a series of bioswales and wetland areas to increase infiltration and clean the water. The system can treat the first inch of stormwater, and runoff is stored in ponds to be reused for irrigation. Buffer zones around ponds and waterways within the nursery also help ensure runoff is treated.
Jill and John Hoffman accepted the award and thanked both the employees of Hoffman Nursery and the North Carolina Green Industry Council for their hard work and dedication to improving the environment. According to John, "We're happy to be increasing awareness of plants for green infrastructure, and we love seeing the market expand. The most fun, though, is implementing GI projects at the nursery. Seeing the plants in action and knowing they're creating a better environment is pretty exciting."
About Hoffman Nursery, Inc: Founded in Rougemont, North Carolina in 1986, Hoffman Nursery specializes in ornamental and native grass liners for the wholesale trade. They grow over 150 different species and cultivars of grasses, sedges, and grasslike plants, shipping them to wholesale customers across North America. Since its founding, the nursery has expanded to include a greenhouse and production facility with automated mixing and potting equipment and over 60 cold frames and hot houses.
Further media information is available from Marketing Director Shannon Currey via the contact information listed above.


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I'm a lucky girl this year. In September I'm off on another holiday, this time with my best friend Maria. In order to celebrate our 22nd birthdays* we're going back to Sorrento in Italy. We had a holiday there a few years ago to celebrate our 21st birthdays and so thought it only fitting that we should return to mark the latest milestone. (I have some photos of that to share with you, but I can't find the lead to connect my camera to the computer, and GG's asleep so I can't use the scanner, so you'll have to wait for them!)
However, last time we went was pre-motherhood and I was a good two stone lighter. So I've decided that I'll try to lose 1.5 stone by the time we go away, or half a stone each month. My aim is to reach this target by the end of August so that any holiday clothes shopping can be done in the early part of September, before I go away.
What I really need to focus on though is my exercise. I'm fully aware of what I should be eating, thanks to the Rosemary Conley GI diet which has been my diet of choice over the past few years (it does work when I have the willpower to stick to it!). Rosemary Conley also writes a blog which helps me with the motivation, and each evening she tweets a short fitness challenge to keep you on your toes. Last night we had to go up and down stairs four times consecutively and then do ten press ups. Well, this inspired me to move to I slotted a half hour power walk in the middle of it. I tweeted this when I got home, and had a direct message reply from Rosemary telling me well done. What a motivator!
I wrote the rough draft of this post on the way to work, and there was a little girl on the bus with her mother, around a year old, screaming her head off. I well remember the embarrassment of that situation and the feeling of helplessness when there's nothing you can do to calm your child, as well as the feeling of being trapped inside the bus with thirty pairs of hostile eyes burning holes in your back! I don't miss that part of my childrens' babyhood at all! Situations like that were definitely the sort that would send me to eat to comfort myself. I still comfort eat a lot, mostly when noone is watching, but I recognise that I do it now, and a lot of the time I can stop myself by trying to work out why exactly I want to eat. I don't always manage to talk myself out of it, but I'm definitely improving! On the way home this afternoon, there was another baby girl on the bus with the most infectious chuckle. I got off the bus feeling happy myself after listening to her contented giggles for twenty minutes!
Anyway, so far I'm 4lbs down and 17lbs to go, so any words of inspiration are welcome! I just hope that noone gives me anything edible for my birthday. That would definitely slow me down. I've not yet grasped the concept of 'everything in moderation'.
*22 years and 96 months, if you're being picky
Filed under: Motherhood and family life | Tagged: diet, exercise, family, life, losing weight, Rosemary Conley, thoughts |


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The gardens which were laid out by landscapists Jules Buyssens and René Pechère include a labyrinth and rose garden.
Additional Information:
van Buuren Museum Website
Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.
My other blogs
· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/
· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/
· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/


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Type: Practitioner
Purpose: The purpose of this article was to explain a crisis where less students are choosing computer science as a major and the impact of a lack of K-12 curriculum may have on the impact of students not choosing CS as a career.
Findings: "The percentage of students who take computer science in U.S. high schools has dropped from 25% to 19%" (p. 17). Several NSF projects are currently underway to broaden student participation as well as fund computer science research. Some of these projects include Computing Education for the 21st Century (CE21); CS10K to train 10,000 CS teachers by 2016; CS4EDU in a joint effort between Purdue University's Computer Science department and College of Education; and Exploring Computer Science to bring CS courses to Los Angeles Unified School District.


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Di-Nero (Finalist FICS 2016)
Keeping Feet Intact
Project Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Hammad Mehmood Cheema(HOD, SEECS- NUST)
Team Di-Nero from SEECS- NUST
Muhammad Taihami Tariq, Mubariz Zaffar, Muhammad Alp Arslan,
Umama Malik, Dayan Afridi
Loss of sensation leading to limb amputation is the major complication of Diabetes, proposed a non-invasive and user friendly device for it's early detection and wearable for artificial sensation. The idea targets diagnosis of loss of sensation which is a precursor to diabetic foot. Patient can keep this device at home and test once a month. The data collected on cloud is presented in the form of info-graphics and patient can see if his levels are decreasing and start taking medication at that early stage. The wearable is for those who already have loss of sensation. It provides artificial sensation to prevent the patient from burns, ulcers and pressure sores.


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Via Nazionale (Rome)
This article does not cite any sources. (February 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Via Nazionale is a street in Rome from Piazza della Repubblica leading towards Piazza Venezia.
Already begun as via Pia, named in honour of Pius IX, who had wanted to connect Stazione Termini to the city-centre, the street was completed at the end of the 19th century through the ambition of several figures of the Risorgimento to create a "new Rome" as a capital of the unified Kingdom of Italy.
The enlargement of this artery was necessary to create a link between Rome's central station and the most populous part of the city, and the new road was extended to the east bank of the river Tiber by the Corso Vittorio Emanuele II. However, the construction works ripped the heart out of the city by demolishing buildings in its path (including palazzi such as the National Dramatic Theatre), which substantially modified the previous street's route. On it are to be found:
- Palazzo delle Esposizioni (1883)
- Palazzo Koch - site of the Banca d'Italia (1892)
- The 17th-century Roman Villa Aldobrandini, whose gardens were truncated by the construction of Via Nazionale in the 19th century.
- Largo Angelicum off of which is found the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum
- Santa Caterina a Magnanapoli
- St Paul's Within the Walls (1880)
Coordinates: 41°53′59″N 12°29′30″E / 41.89972°N 12.49167°E
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Via Nazionale (Rome).
|This Italian road or road transport-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.


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Thursday, May 16, 2013
The Star (for Helani)
7 years ago, my daughter was born, inspiring me to dream a better future (and now) for all women and girls.
My sister wrote this poem for her when she was two-years-old. It captures so much of her specifically, but also encapsulates my vision for the future of all girls. I included the poem in The Girl God book.
She pulses
back and forth
the rhythmic language
of her swaying body
pulling and releasing
the waves against the shore
She moves across the earth
in streams of water
through tricking moonlight
overflowing from her breasts
sustains awaiting lips
rising in the mists of morning
and disappearing when the sunlight casts its gaze upon her
A still picture cannot capture her essence
For she is fluid and
Defies containment
Quietly insisting that nothing is so rigid it
Cannot be dissolved
If it is hard it
Will yield to her
In due time and
So will the sharpest edges
At long last surrender to her
She holds the cup of transformation
Through her
Jagged little stones become
Smooth round pebbles
-Arika Escalona
Painting by Elisabeth Slettnes
I would have loved to included her picture here, but I am no longer posting pictures of my children online.
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You may all go to Texas, and I will go to Denver.
a travel essay of sorts
I gave Houston a shot. A hell of a shot.
I moved back home to Houston three years ago, which in itself was a difficult enough decision, as the previous eighteen and a half years I had dwelled in its suburbs were, well, nothing to write home about. But I'd finished grad school, my then-girlfriend had accepted a four-month gig on a cruise ship, and I wasn't making enough money at my dead-end, $8 per hour library job in the Austin suburbs to justify staying.
Six weeks and several cat videos later, I found a full-time library job in an altogether different suburb than the ones I'd grown up in, signed a six month lease at the apartment complex immediately across the street, finished Infinite Jest, made a couple more cat videos, et cetera. My then-girlfriend moved in and shortly thereafter became my then-fiancé. We got a second cat. She found a job on the exact other side of the county, and we moved into the city to even out our commutes a bit — cutting hers in half, and making mine approximately thirty times longer.
As fate would have it, we fell in love with the city. Restaurants, coffee shops, museums, food trucks, bars, and tennis courts all within walking distance of our reasonably priced garage apartment. We were particularly drawn to the mobile community. There were periods where we'd eat at a different food truck every day of the week. We became so inspired that we decided to start up our own mobile enterprise – a bookmobile, purveyor of food for thought. We decided on a name (The Billy Pilgrim Traveling Library) ran a crowdfunding campaign, spent that and some of our savings on traveling to Ohio to purchase the truck and driving it back, and had our Grand Opening in February of 2013.
We moved into a house in a new neighborhood with a driveway long enough to store the bookmobile. I moved to a position as a part-time Reference Librarian in order to focus more on our venture. My then-fiancé became my now-wife. Our food truck friends started giving us free food. Our cats stopped having fleas. Things were going pretty well.
But lately, or maybe gradually, I've been experiencing something of a falling out with Houston. Part of it has got to be career-related. Underemployment. In the three-plus years I've lived here since finishing grad school, I have yet to find full-time work that requires my Master's degree. There are plenty of studies that'll tell you that Houston is thriving in all kinds of ways, and they're right. But that doesn't really help me find what I'm looking for here.
Things started showing through the cracks. Like how nobody uses a turn signal. Or how summer in Houston is basically a five month long sauna. And how every other national news story is about some horrifying, tragic murder in the Houston suburbs. And since when does it rain every single Sunday? And why the hell are there so many cockroaches?
Life had reached a sort of level of peak monotony. We were both bored with our jobs. We'd committed the vast majority of our previous seventy-five weekends to the bookmobile, having never properly honeymooned, and I'd come to accept the fact that the BPTL would never turn into a full-time gig. I'd written about six pages of that book of short stories I'd intended to write. We'd finally finished The West Wing.
We really had no choice but to go to Denver.
Denver had been on the radar for a while. Several months ago, I applied for what I might call my "dream job" (or anyway, that's how I described it in the cover letter) — coordinator of a brand new outreach program for a county library which, among other things, involved driving a bookmobile around Denver. Not entirely surprisingly, I was granted a phone interview. And not entirely surprisingly, I bombed that phone interview, to the extent that I am still, to this day, embarrassed when I think about it. Least surprising of all, I did not hear back from them.
I applied for that job on a whim (because bookmobile) without, I think, being mentally invested in the process – the phone interview, the in-person interview, the traveling to Denver for the in-person interview, the moving to Denver once I got the job, the telling my family I moved to Denver after the fact, et cetera. That isn't to say I would have gotten the job if I had been mentally invested, but it almost certainly would have helped.
This failure, and the malaise that surrounded it, made Denver somehow more real to me, and more necessary. I took those faint, twenty-year old memories of vacationing in Denver with my folks at age eight and ran with them. In the weeks leading up to our trip, I researched the neighborhoods and restaurants and food trucks and museums and libraries and bookstores and markets and breweries and dispensaries (!) of Denver. I'd developed such an idealized vision of Denver that by the time we got to IAH I was already daring Denver to prove me wrong.
And in the four days that we were there, it continuously and stubbornly failed to do so.
It was something of a trial getting there, though.
Spirit Airlines. Have you heard of these guys? If you have, there is absolutely no way it could be in even a remotely positive light. Sure, the tickets are cheap, but they nickel and dime you all the way to whatever bank Spirit Airlines does business with. A ticket buys you a randomly selected seat with just (and only) enough leg room to be able to maintain circulation throughout your body for the flight's duration. You could pick your own seat, but you'd have to cough up an extra twenty bucks. You are allowed one free personal item of a ridiculously specific and anxiety-inducingly small size. If it is too big, you either have to pay a $50 checked bag fee or a $100 carry-on fee. Water? $1.75, and you have to pay with a credit card. Didn't print your boarding passes at home? $10. Need a floatation device? That'll be $1,000!
So we're waiting to board our flight, sitting at our gate. I've just gotten a grande Blackberry Mojito Tea Lemonade from the IAH Starbucks (because with a name like that, how could I not?), and the barista charged me $2.30 when he should have charged me $3.30, and so I'm feeling pretty good.
We're sitting in the row closest to the windows, facing the windows, staring at our phones, when this family of six, either Australian or the least charming Brits you'll ever meet, arrives and sits in the row of seats directly behind us. One of them (maybe the mom?) is explaining to another (let's say her daughter) the steps she'll need to take, now that they are at the departure gate, in order to smoke a cigarette at the airport. The daughter belligerently rants about how hypocritical it is to be able to drink but not smoke inside an airport. A third, more rational but no less loud member of their party postulates that it probably has something to do with secondhand smoke.
We sigh. We roll our eyes at our phones.
There's another family of six on our row, two parents and four children under five, the kids sprawled out on the floor and drawing to pass the time. The parents had apparently packed four clipboards for this very purpose. One of the girls comes and sits in the seat right next to me to do some drawing and in the process, totally obliviously, knocks over my grande Blackberry Mojito Tea Lemonade. I pick it up and in the nicest possible way, say to her, "Don't worry about it, that's just my drink." The girl remains completely oblivious and shifts her attention to a stuffed bear, untying and retying the bow attached to it.
"This magazine doesn't have anything about the Kardashians," I hear from behind me. The stuffed bear starts playing a lullaby, jack-in-the-box style. Then it does it again. Then again. I take a break from my game of Minesweeper to break into a minute-long fit of maniacal laughter. When I've finished, the girl and the stuffed bear are no longer in the seat next to me.
The Aussie family decides it needs to take a series of selfies at the window, which for whatever reason requires standing in the now-vacant seat right next to me and repeating the word 'selfie' over and again. "You wanna go stand over there?" my now-wife asks.
So we've boarded the plane. Miraculously, our two randomly selected seats are next to one another – my now-wife has the window seat, I have the middle seat. Maybe you see where this is going.
Moments later, the cigarette rant girl from the Aussie family plops herself down in the aisle seat next to me. Shortly after settling in, she drops everything that had been in her lap onto the floor, proclaiming, "My mac and cheese!" She then eats some of her mac and cheese with the fork she's just dropped on the floor, then after a few bites, seals it, gets up, and puts it in the overhead compartment.
The flight itself was mostly without incident. The cigarette rant girl played various children's games on her tablet the entire trip. One of the bros a couple of rows back, at the volume he'd spoken for two hours straight, misidentified Colorado Springs as Denver. Spirit Airlines tried (one might say desperately) to sell me a credit card during our descent.
My now-wife's brother (my now-brother-in-law) picked us up, and Blucifer, that magnificent, laser-eyed creature, welcomed us to the city of our future.
We'd arranged to stay in a condo in Capitol Hill through Airbnb. After settling in, the three of us walked a half-mile or so to grab a bite to eat at Steuben's. We sat on the patio, because that (not to mention walking outside) is something you actually want to do during the summer in Denver. Steuben's struck me as an establishment that carried draft beers, and so, in accord with my resolve to sample as many different local brews as humanly possible, I ordered a Collette, from Great Divide Brewing Co. The waitress carded me and I said that I was flattered, because why wouldn't a twenty-eight year old say they were flattered by being carded? She came back with a twelve-ounce bottle, so I guess $5 bottles of beer are just a nationwide plague. Meanwhile, the now-wife ordered a Zombie, which on the menu says you can only have two of in one outing, and the waitress came back with an eighteen-inch tall glass of dangerous deliciousness.
Unaware that it would be a menu item at each succeeding restaurant at which we'd eat that trip, I ordered the Cubano, which was quite good. We introduced the now-brother-in-law to Brussels sprouts, of which he politely ate a couple, and we generally had a good time.
On the way back to the condo, we grabbed a couple of six-packs (including Left Hand Brewing's Good Juju) at the neighborhood liquor store, found the ram horn bottle opener in the kitchen, settled into our borrowed living room, and called it a night.
Sleeping that first night was not without its difficulties. Summer in Denver has this odd quality where it is actually nicer outside than it is inside. Because it's so nice, open windows can justifiably serve as a substitute for central air conditioning. The only downfall to this, particularly if you're staying in the center of town, is the noise pollution. Cars passing below, an ambulance in the distance, a group of drunks stumbling home. You can hear all of the groans of city life. It was something we adjusted to over the course of our stay, but earplugs were integral to even a remotely decent night's sleep.
We never quite adjusted to Mountain Time, though, since the sun seemed to rise an hour earlier than usual. It wasn't until mile seven or so of the near-half marathon we walked on day two that I, having not even given a thought to sunscreen that morning, was informed that Denver was among the sunniest cities in the U.S. This information was stored away for later use.
We started our first full day in Denver by walking to Jelly. There was a half-hour wait at Jelly, so we walked to Thump Coffee. We ordered a couple of iced lattes and a couple of pastries, and found a table at a window facing the street. There was a sign on the table stating that we were in a "social area" of the café, asking us to please refrain from using our phones and other antisocial devices. I hadn't noticed the sign until I'd covered the table with sticky bun detritus. I assume this policy is so that the café looks more appealing to passersby — that they'll want to come into Thump to do all of their socializing for the day. In hindsight, Thump management might have preferred that I had my nose in my phone than to have struggled so visibly with that sticky bun.
Afterwards, we strolled towards the Civic Center. Though the three days that followed tried their damnedest to outdo it, this stroll was the part of the trip that spoke to me the most – the part that really revealed Denver, home of the first Quiznos, as the city of my future.
We stopped by the Colorado State Capitol building, admired its gold-plated dome, contemplated the statue out front commemorating Colorado's involvement in the Civil War, which consisted primarily of the contentious (to say the least) Sand Creek Massacre. We moseyed over to the Colorado Judicial Center, sat on some "bench-style sculptures." We circled the Denver Art Museum and the Denver Public Library, took in their awe-inspiring architecture and massive public art installations. We passed a 24-hour ballot drop-off box that said VOTE on its side, considered how something so simple could encourage civic responsibility so profoundly.
This was what a civic center was supposed to look like. This was what a city was supposed to be built around.
We doubled back to tour the Denver Public Library, and its insides proved to be as spectacular as its exterior. After exploring five of its seven stories — the Patents and Trademarks of Steve Jobs display, the RFID-fueled return system, the exhaustive reference collection, the entire floor dedicated to public computers — I left with the distinct feeling that this was the library I would grow old in.
From there, we hiked over to Tattered Cover on the 16th Street Mall, then on to Riverfront Park, where I was able to take a moment to look down at my arms and realize how pink they'd become. My NBIL picked us up and drove us to the River North Art District (RiNo) for the grand opening of The Big Wonderful, an aptly named, open air, food, craft beer, and urban farmers market.
What I mostly saw at The Big Wonderful was potential, of which it has plenty. It promised fifty local vendors, but it was really closer to twenty-five. And it didn't seem particularly busy, which made it pretty awkward when an older couple asked if they could join me at the table I'd staked out for the three of us. I said sure, gave it a minute, then left for one of the several remaining open tables. It actually reminded me a lot of a Houston market we parked the bookmobile at earlier this year, Watershed Market – conceptually fascinating and something I'd want to be involved with, but with its fair share of growing pains.
Which isn't to say that I'm not glad to have gone. For one, it was our only Denver food truck experience. There were three food trucks (and one smoothie truck) there, and we each ordered something from a different truck. I got a generous portion of pulled pork pierogis from Baba & Pop's Kitchen, along with an Apricot Blonde ale from Aurora's Dry Dock Brewing Co. And the DJs were surprisingly great.
The Big Wonderful seems like something that will grow organically, especially since it's a weekly market (as opposed to Watershed, whose second market was postponed, makeup date still TBA), and I look forward to visiting it again in the future — perhaps even to parking a bookmobile of some sort there. But as it was, we halfheartedly played cornhole while finishing off our drinks and went out to explore more of RiNo.
It was at about this point in the trip that I became over-eager to visit a dispensary. Y'know, just to see what they were all about. Coming from Texas, I thought finding a dispensary would be like spotting a unicorn in the wild. As it turns out, it was more like spotting a normal horse on, like, a horse ranch. We'd glimpsed quite a few of these horses during our first eighteen hours in Denver, but hadn't, to take a metaphor to its brink, stopped to pet one just yet.
The door from the outside leads us to an 8'x4' room. We're greeted by a security guard who, from the other side of a bulletproof (conjecture) glass window, needs to see some ID. It's a familiar setup, like at a bank or a movie theater or a sports venue. Except it takes place inside a holding cell, and you are about to commit a federal crime. We slide our IDs through the slot. He slides the now-wife and me each an enumerated orange card, the tourist's card color. He tells my NBIL that he can't let him inside because, while he is 21, and while his ID is not expired, it is a minor-issued ID (portrait, not landscape), and for whatever reason that's supposed to make sense. The guard buzzes us in through the second door; my NBIL goes and waits outside.
The second door leads to a waiting room, where five more orange carders, one blue carder (recreational residential), and zero red carders (medical) already sit. We text our apologies to my NBIL. The blue carder hypes this dispensary as the best and cheapest dispensary in the Mile High City. He and the New Yorker next to him openly discuss weed consumption for the next fifteen minutes or so. A group of customers appears from the back hallway with three large bags full of product. On their way out, one of them looks at me and says, "Have fun."
About twenty minutes in, we're next in line. An employee greets us and takes us into a back room, which is, quite literally, a cannabis candy store. We have $34 and some change in cash and three days to consume what we buy. We end up with two chocolate bars (one mint chocolate, one with coffee beans) with 80 mg of tetrahydrocannabinol ($11 each) and one fat sativa joint ($7). Factor in the 21.12% marijuana retail sales tax rate and I had just enough in my wallet to pay for it all.
Walking back with my hardly inconspicuous large white baggie, I lamented this tax rate a bit, not because it made the cost of my purchases unreasonably high (hardly the case), but because it made the price tag deceptively low. It is actually rather brilliant for the state of Colorado to impose such a large tax on recreational marijuana sales and to funnel the revenues (estimated to be $130 million for the next fiscal year) into improving public schools and infrastructure. Legalization has created this new strain (if you will) of "cannabis tourism" for Colorado, and it is thriving because of it. But claiming something, particularly in this industry, is $7 when the actual cost is one and one-fifth that wasn't something I was fully prepared for. Our visit was pretty low stakes, but I can't imagine how much tax that three baggie group ahead of us paid.
Back at the condo, consuming some THChocolate. The guy at the dispensary had said about 25 mg ought to do the trick. Each bar had been divided into ten 8 mg chunks, so I broke off three for each of us. A late afternoon storm rolled in while we sat in the living room and posted photos to Instagram, waiting. Thumbing through other photos that had been tagged with the #denverstreetart hashtag, I came across a picture of a sofa sticking out of a dumpster. I lost it. I showed the photo to my now-wife and NBIL, and they lost it too. None of us would find it again until sometime the next morning.
The storm passed, and for whatever reason, we were hungry. After twenty-four hours in Denver, a brewery was pretty much the only thing still unchecked on our Denver checklist. So we found one that served food nearby and started towards it.
For whatever reason, I had a series of epiphanies on the way there. I thought about how legalization had made it acceptable to be high in public, and how because it's acceptable you feel less paranoid about being high in public, and how because you feel less paranoid it is generally a more enjoyable experience to be high in public. I thought about how accessible dispensaries were and how economical and worry-free the whole process was – how you could just nip in whenever you wanted and not feel obligated to buy in bulk, and how that actually contributes to a healthier lifestyle. I thought some more about how brilliant that sales tax really is, about how well the state of Colorado is covering its bases by pumping the money from something thought to make you dumb into public education. I took in how green it was everywhere, thought about how difficult it must be for something to not grow on land so lush and fertile, considered how relatively effortless it would be to farm in the middle of the city. I thought about how pedestrian and bike friendly, and just generally friendly the city was, and how enjoyable it was to explore it in the middle of July, sunburnt but without a drop of sweat. And these sidewalks! Why weren't there any trees growing out of them? Why didn't I have to look down the entire time I was walking for fear of tripping?
What was this place?
We were seated at a high top next to the brewing tanks at LowDown Brewery + Kitchen. "I'll Make Love to You" was blaring overhead. I ordered their 1927 Brown Ale, and the now-wife and I got a pizza and a side, for the second consecutive dinner, of Brussels sprouts to split.
While we waited, a vehicle rounding the corner outside caught my eye. It was a poo-brown van, with off-white lettering on the side that read, "STANLEY BRITISH PRIMARY SCHOOL." Somewhat alarmed and infinitely curious, I reported my findings to my tablemates. They were equally puzzled. Was Stanley British someone's name? Was a British Primary School something that existed today, here in Denver? Did we need to call the police?
The now-wife consulted her phone and discovered that the Stanley British Primary School was in fact a Denver-based British Primary school. Their website offered plenty of information about the differences between traditional and British Primary classrooms, but the van had told enough of the tale for me. "Does any of the marijuana tax revenue go to British Primary schools?" I asked. "Because that van would suggest otherwise."
From there I moved to a rant about the size of our side of Brussels sprouts. LowDown has a Brussels sprouts appetizer, Kurt Brussel, and a $3 side Brussels sprouts, which were just called Brussels sprouts, on their menu. The plate of Brussels sprouts we received certainly seemed generous for a $3 side of Brussels sprouts, and I voiced my anxieties as to whether we had received the side or the appetizer, stated that the waitress probably brought us the appetizer, the Kurt Brussel, quote-unquote "by mistake," that we should only eat three-eighths of the plate and say, "We didn't order this," et cetera. When I was finished, my now-wife informed me that the waitress had come to check on the table while I was saying all of this, which in retrospect explains the somewhat curt responses she had given.
Anyway, we were charged $6 for the Brussels sprouts. Who knows where that number came from. We paid for all of them, and even took some back to the condo with us, where we watched It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia on Netflix until all three of us passed out in the living room.
Sunday was technically our anniversary, but we didn't change things up much.
My now-wife and I were up first, and so the two of us ventured over to Voodoo Doughnut, were greeted by a line out the door (a brief glimpse at the menu will show you why, and why it's well worth the wait).
While waiting outside, I noticed a woman standing on a nearby street corner, throwing her hands up at each car that turned right in front of her. A late-middle-aged man, in not great shape, stood in the middle of the road, pushing his walker across the street. Surely as a result of her deft crossing guard abilities, he eventually made it across, and they planted themselves on a bench at the bus stop directly across the street from us.
The man lit up a cigarette. Why not? The woman tried to engage another man at the bus stop, frequently gesturing across the street and, with all the disgust she could muster, screaming, "Voodoo Doughnut!" I was too far away to hear most of her diatribe, but near enough to observe her belligerent gesturing, and to note that she placed particular emphasis on the phrase "Voodoo Doughnut!" This lady seemed to have it in for Voodoo Doughnut, or the people in line for Voodoo Doughnut, or, probably, both, though I can't say I understand why. There's nothing particularly extravagant about spending $1.30 on a donut. Everyone in line that day seemed nice enough. Maybe there was a history there, or a medical condition that prevented them from enjoying Voodoo Doughnut? Maybe she was just batshit.
The couple in front of us played "Which parent do you like more?" with their daughter, which I, a child of divorce, had no idea was a game, as we were herded closer and closer to the front of the line. We ordered five donuts and I asked about the sunglasses, which were spinning around the display case with the donuts. The pair I'd brought had broken the previous day, so I was in the market for a new pair, and these sunglasses had donuts on the lenses. The girl taking our order apologetically said, "The sunglasses are sixteen dollars." So we paid for the donuts and left.
That lady was still across the street screaming, "Voodoo Doughnut!" Was their bus ever going to come? Were they even waiting for a bus?
We stopped by Thump on the way back to the condo, drawn in by the people socializing at the tables by the front window.
After breakfast, the three of us strolled through Cheesman Park, where three guys were tossing around two Frisbees. As we passed, one of the guys got clocked in the mouth by a Frisbee. Maybe there was a lesson here. Maybe that guy won't toss around two Frisbees at once ever again.
There was a farmers market going on in West Highland, but by the time we got there everyone was taking down. We explored the area a bit anyway and dropped into Julia Blackbird's New Mexican Café to grab a bite to eat. It was a quaint little hole-in-the-wall type, buried away off the street. It's one in the afternoon on a Sunday, and we are the only customers at Julia Blackbird's. And while this was the most underwhelming meal of our trip, it is a travesty that that place was empty when we got there, and that it was empty again when we left.
But as it was, since we were the only ones there, we were treated like royalty. Our waiter told us that the queso might take a while and brought us some complimentary chips and salsa (ordinarily $2) to hold us over while we waited. The queso arrived two minutes later. I hadn't ordered an adult beverage, while my accomplices had. The waiter conspiratorially asked me if I'd like a Corona, on the house. I couldn't see why I wouldn't. We ate our queso and tacos and elote, took in the bric-a-brac. I watched the little girl who'd been floating around (presumably Julia's daughter) take a glass off a shelf, blow whatever had been in her mouth through a straw into the glass, and replace the glass on the shelf. With our check, the waiter handed us each a card for a complimentary margarita the next time we come to Julia Blackbird's. I suggested we go outside and then back inside Julia Blackbird's right then, then handed my card to the NBIL. He'll make good use of it, I'm sure.
After a brief stop in Regis at the NBIL's place of residence, we made the fifteen minute jaunt to Golden, at the doorstep of the Rocky Mountains, to visit a couple more breweries. First up was Golden City Brewery. We ordered at a window — a pint for the NBIL, a six-beer flight for the now-wife and I to split — and joined an older couple at a long picnic table in the beer garden. Jessie's Smokin' NOLA food truck was parked out front, serenading us with zydeco and the blues. Then we headed down the road to Mountain Toad Brewing. We ordered inside — a pint for the NBIL, a five-beer flight for the now-wife and I to split — headed out to their patio and seated ourselves in a place ripe for people- and dog-watching. East Coast Joe's food truck was parked out back, with no discernable sound system. An afternoon storm rolled in. We finished our paddle of microbrews and beat the storm back to Denver.
So we're back in Cheesman Park, sampling the sativa. After finding the gazebo to which we were heading was taken, we've staked out an inconspicuous spot on the grass in front of a small patch of trees. We're passing it around, minding our own business, when the man we were trying to avoid from the gazebo approaches us. We know the end-game here. He tells us we don't have to be so secretive about it, that we should have just joined him in the gazebo. We laugh nervously and not impolitely. He introduces himself as Melvin. Nice to meet you, Melvin. He asks if he can "get a hit of that." I weigh this question for, I think, an inconsiderate amount of time, apologize to Melvin for taking so long, and pass it over to him. He hits it, hands it back, and heads back to his gazebo. I stub it out and pocket the other half for later. We head back to the condo, where I posit, to two neuroscientists, that rocks have life.
Later on we went for dinner at Biker Jim's Gourmet Dogs. I can't say I remember too much about our experience there (see also: the twelve different beers and one Melvin I had encountered that day). The guy at the register wasn't really interested in helping me decide which of their many intriguing rare meats to pair with The International toppings. I ended up going with wild boar, no thanks to him. It does seem like a place that's got it figured out, though. You could go there once a week for a year and never order the exact same thing.
The NBIL dropped us off at the condo. We took two pieces of chocolate apiece for good measure and watched Food Network until we passed out. Somewhere in there we ate some leftover Brussels sprouts and pizza.
We got kind of a late start on Monday, our last day in Denver. We figured the Monday late morning crowd at Jelly would be smaller than it had been on Saturday. We figured wrong. But this time we stuck around. We ordered a couple of coffees and found a window seat facing the restaurant while we waited for a table. A guy was sitting at the end of the bar, consumed by his book. A girl sat down next to him and opened up a book of her own. Soon enough, we were seated at a booth in front of a Rainbow Brite cereal box. It seemed like our waitress was playing her own little game of good waitress/bad waitress with us. She asked the now-wife if she needed any more iced coffee, to which the now-wife replied that she was drinking a latte. "Oh, she drinking a latte," the waitress said, at once mockingly and charmingly, to no one in particular. She slammed our waters down on the table and walked away. We thanked her, and she turned and, quite pleasantly, said, "You're welcome!" She slid in next to the now-wife to take our order and approved each choice. She danced and sang as she rung up our order at the register next to our table. She was good waitress enough. And the food was exceptional. I had the Red Flannel Hash. Beets in a hash. Who knew?
Afterwards, we explored the rest of that block. That phenomenal block. The main draw for me, for possibly obvious reasons, was Kilgore Books & Comics. As a proprietor of a fellow Vonnegut-inspired establishment, I couldn't help but feel that Kilgore and the BPTL were kindred spirits. Before even making it inside the store, I had concocted a plan where the BPTL would forge a partnership with Kilgore and reinvent itself as Kilgore's bookmobile. Pairing with Kilgore is really the only sensible way to relocate the BPTL to Denver to join the Greater Denver Area's fleet of bookmobiles. I imagined returning to Houston with a deal in place, with the future of the BPTL and my future in Denver decided in one fell swoop.
Kilgore was closed. They'd put a sign on the door saying they were out to lunch, that they'd be back "in fifteen minutes." But how long ago had the sign been put up? How close to the end of this fifteen minute break were we right then? If we stood around and waited, would we be waiting for fifteen minutes in perpetuity? This was markedly anti-Vonnegutian – the exact opposite of becoming unstuck in time. We were stuck inside of this indefinite fifteen minute period.
Fortunately for us, Kilgore is sandwiched between two different stores called Wax Trax Records. One's a vinyl record store, the other a used CD store. We went in the vinyl store first, but then remembering all of the Spirit Air nonsense we'd have to deal with for the flight home, we moved over to the used CD store. I browsed the new arrivals and found the latest WHY? LP, Mumps, Etc. for six bucks.
Near certain fifteen minutes had elapsed, we walked back over to Kilgore to find that damn fifteen minute sign still up. There was a cart of clearance books outside the store (which, of course, you couldn't purchase until these fifteen minutes passed), so we browsed those for a while, and found a few that we wanted. Impatient, and out of books to browse, I tried to hide the ones we wanted behind some other books on the cart. We went back to the condo, waited, oh I don't know, fifteen minutes or so, then headed back to Kilgore. Finally, we had become unstuck from the fifteen minute lunch break. The books I'd hid were still hidden, and we took them inside.
Inside was your traditional indie used book store fare, perhaps better curated, and with a substantial science fiction section. More books than shelf space, the top shelves just within reach. A shelf marker for Vonnegut, but no Vonnegut books on the shelf. We browsed a bit, but I stuck with my original three clearance cart selections. I told the guy behind the counter that we ran a Vonnegut-inspired library in Houston, but failed to convey my new business plan to him. He seemed mildly interested in what we were doing with the BPTL, but the conversation didn't get very far.
After dropping the books off at the condo, we decided to venture over to the Art District on Santa Fe. It's about a two mile walk from where we were staying, but I'd heard good things, it was another beautiful Colorado summer's day, and we both had on sunscreen, so we made our way over.
What we found was a ghost town. There was a single art gallery open. The artwork was interesting enough, but it was the two of us, two employees, and a couple who were deciding whether they should have their wedding inside of it. One of the employees asked us what we were up to today, and we told him we had hoped to check out the Art District, but it didn't look like there was much open. He informed us that the area typically shut down on Mondays, since none of the museums were open on Mondays. We thanked him for the information and went outside to figure out what the hell to do now.
And it was at about this point in our trip that my left foot completely gave out. In retrospect, I probably should have packed more than just my boat shoes for such a perambulation-heavy trip. Really, I should be blaming those sticklers at Spirit Airlines for this injury. I'm not sure if it was a bone bruise or wear and tear or what. It wasn't entirely debilitating, but I wasn't going to get anywhere very quickly, and I wasn't going to enjoy the journey at all. And I was gonna look pretty friggin' stupid in the process.
We walked back towards Speer and stopped in at this café called Gather, mostly just to rest my old man bones. Turns out it was more of a co-working space that happened to sell food and drinks, connected to "digital startup hub" Galvanize. The NBIL had agreed to meet us there, so we sat at a high-top table, drank iced drinks, and tried to will my foot back to health while we waited.
He took us to South Broadway to explore. I assured them both I was fine to walk around, but my gait told a different story. We stopped in a couple of stores and that was about all I could take.
Back at the condo, I sampled some more of the sativa. Y'know, for the foot.
Sometime later, we walked to Park & Co for our last meal in Denver. I'd figured out by then (probably thanks to the sativa) that if I walked exclusively on the toes of my foot that walking would be considerably less painful. So that's what I did. And I'm sure it was hardly noticeable.
Park & Co is two businesses down from where we'd had our first meal in Denver, Steuben's, and likewise had preferable patio seating. Our waiter greeted us by shaking our hands and asking each of our names, which he mostly accurately used to address us for the rest of the meal. Jeopardy! was on the outside TV, but the TV was muted. What was the point of watching Jeopardy! on mute, I asked. Some guy in not great shape walked up to the patio gate, gestured towards no one in particular and exchanged words with himself. He may or may not have been saying, "Voodoo Doughnut!"
Afterwards we walked/hobbled over to Prohibition for a cocktail. We sat down in a semicircular booth facing the bar. The Home Run Derby was on the TV. A family of five walked by to leave, which I thought was strange, bringing three kids to a bar, but I guess it's actually more of a restaurant we decided to have drinks at than a bar that happens to serve food. But, I mean, it's called Prohibition. They never prohibited food. Kind of a misnomer, really. So we had our Monday-night-cocktails-at-a-restaurant, then called it a day.
Back at the condo, we said our goodbyes to the NBIL. He'd dragged us around this great city for four straight days, and we were grateful. We gave him the book we'd bought him at Kilgore and a to-go baggie with our leftover chocolate and sativa to show our gratitude.
The next morning we Ubered (am I doing this right?) a ride to the airport. Blucifer was there. He looked sad to see us go.
But maybe I was just projecting.


text: Hellforge has an interesting post up now about the causes of several subscription MMOs tanking in the past year. The author posits poor execution as the cause, and while I don't disagree that that was an element in sales numbers, I'd suggest that even if these efforts had been supported by adequate execution it would have been a pyrrhic victory. These games simply could not have succeeded on the business model under which they were conceived. Continue reading "Why are New MMO Games Dropping like Flies?"


text:
"Brrr" is no excuse to queue up Netflix, at least not until after you've had your workout. Frosty weather or not, the CDC says we need 2.5 hours of cardio per week in order to help stave off chronic disease. In fact, we probably need even more to keep from packing on the winter (ahem: holiday sugar) padding.
True, keeping up with a winter cardio regimen isn't easy. It's cold, it gets dark early, and some of us get cabin fever just thinking about being stuck on a treadmill at the gym. But fear not: some of the best cardio for winter includes activities you can do despite snow, inversion or sub-zero temps, that won't give you "gym fever."
1. Indoor Cycling Class
Indoor cycling, or Spinning, is an indoor, instructor-led cycling class offered at many gyms and fitness studios that, according to my friends, delivers one sweaty cardio workout.
From what I hear, there's no time to get bored—unlike your typical stationary bike + TV-watching experience, you're pedaling with a team, varying your pace and resistance level, and incorporating moves like standing and sprinting.
A typical spin class usually lasts 40-60 minutes. You also have the benefits of a pre-commitment and camaraderie (just don't try to hide in the back).
2. Dance Lessons
The possibilities for learning a new dance style and also getting a killer workout are endless: ballet, tango, Brazilian samba, Zumba, belly dancing, tap dance, Bollywood-style Masala Bhangra… in a one-hour dance class, you can burn as many as 400 calories.
Whether you take lessons or just grab a workout DVD, the mental challenge of learning new moves will keep you engaged.
And dancing isn't just for girls, by the way. It was a male friend's recent date with his lady to a tango class that inspired me to add this to the list.
He said they had a blast!
3. Swimming
Swimming is a great aerobic activity and there are plenty of advantages to frequenting your local indoor pool during the winter months.
You'll be ready for summer vacations at the beach or lake. You'll have a head-start in training for triathlons. And you'll get to brush up on an important survival skill (not to mention, get a really strong upper body).
If you need an extra challenge, how about dive or scuba lessons?
4. Tennis in the Bubble
Many tennis clubs erect a heated "bubble" over their courts this time of year, making it a great winter option.
Tennis, along with racquetball, challenges the mind and it's a social sport, so it's easy to get hooked and stay motivated. Tennis also keeps you on the move and delivers a full-body cardio workout.
I took group lessons last year and stuck with it throughout the winter (in part, no doubt, because I had prepaid for classes—another bonus).
5. Bundle Up and Resume your Outdoor Cardio
Some people need nature in order to enjoy exercise, and I don't blame you.
If you can brave the winter cold, you can still walk, run, cycle—or if you live near mountains, ski!—outdoors with the right gear. For me, running in the cold isn't so bad when layered up, with a moisture-wicking material closest to the skin. For cycling in the cold, a great idea is wearing a helmet cover to stay dry (and of course, a fleece headband so the wind doesn't whip your ears senseless). You can also use a mountain bike and lower tire pressure for more traction in inclement weather. Final tip: warm up for 10 minutes before you head outside!
Winter doesn't have to mean hibernate. In fact, picking up new winter cardio activities is a great opportunity to round out your fitness repertoire. What's your top choice for winter exercise?
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A Happy Feast of St. Nicholas, from the elves in Canada to you!
Around here, St. Nicholas' Day gets a little more festive every year. We are very fond of this good kind bishop and we take the excuse to eat chocolate coins and read our new St. Nicholas day books, all day long, without getting out of our pajamas.
I made the boys some new St. Nicholas day hats. They are very good sports to wear them, for five seconds, for the pictures. I understand, I really do, that they are big boys now and mama's silly hats are not quite cool enough for big boys.
I mean....ears? Seriously, mom.
Here are the tomten hats:
Hugh is taking his chocolate up to his room, in this picture, to consume it privately, quickly, and silently. He's no fool, Hugh.
St. Nicholas Day tomtens. OOOOOOOooooo, how cute!


text:
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