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WordsA Poem by Mercedes Childers
It's funny how they say words are like knives when really, they're not.
They are two completely different things.
But what's the main difference?
Words hurt MORE than knives.
I'd rather have someone hurt me by cutting me,
than yell hurtful comments towards me.
Cuts can go away.
They'll heal up and they won't hurt anymore.
Yeah, there will be a scar or two left behind,
but it doesn't hurt as bad.
Stab wounds?
They heal too.
The blood will stop flowing out,
The pain numbs itself,
And the knife can be washed clean.
But words?
Words are everything.
Words have meaning.
They can enter your head,
But they never leave.
They keep you up all night,
And can stop you from being yourself.
They breach the skin,
Rip your heart in two,
And leave permanent scars that will never heal.
Permanent scars that will always reopen,
And memories that will never escape.
So do you get it now?
How words are not knives,
But WORSE than knives?
Knives can kill your body,
But words can kill you,
And you'll never die.
© 2018 Mercedes Childers
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Shelved in 1 LibraryAdded on January 30, 2018
Last Updated on January 30, 2018
Mercedes Childers
Shelbyville, IN
AboutNormally, I'm not one for writing books, but I am a Singer/Song Writer, so poetry(in the form of lyrics) comes naturally. I do read sometimes, and my favorite book is either "The Bodies We Wear" by Je.. more..
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NEWARK, New Jersey (Reuters) - New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on Monday said the president of Rutgers University made a mistake but not a fireable one when he left it to aides to view videos of the men's basketball coach physically and verbally abusing players.
A firestorm of criticism surrounding Robert Barchi, president of the largest public college in New Jersey, intensified on Monday as students at a town hall meeting on the Newark campus demanded his resignation in the scandal surrounding basketball coach Mike Rice.
A jeering crowd of hundreds of faculty and students hoisting signs reading "Give Barchi the boot" booed as he addressed criticism that under his leadership, the school put athletics before academics.
He also attempted to fend off questions about how the school tolerated coach Rice's homophobic slurs against players in the wake of another Rutger's scandal - the 2010 suicide of gay freshman Tyler Clementi after his roommate spied on his romantic liaison.
ESPN sports network last week broadcast videos of coach Mike Rice throwing basketballs at players' heads and berating them with homophobic slurs during practice.
The videos first came to Rutgers in November and Barchi delegated subordinates to view them. The university subsequently suspended Rice for three games and fined him $50,000.
The recent ESPN broadcast touched off an uproar among students, faculty and fans that cost Rice and three other school officials their jobs.
Christie at a press briefing on Monday called Rice an "animal" who needs anger management training. Still, Christie said, Barchi's decision not to view the videos himself when they first became available in November was a "mistake," not a fireable offense.
"He relied upon the people who worked for him," Christie said. "You can not micro-manage every issue, and he had an experienced athletic director in charge of direct supervision of Coach Rice. He also had his lawyer, the general counsel, who reviewed it for him, and recommended for him, based on what they had seen, the appropriate action."
At the town hall meeting, Barchi acknowledged he made the wrong decision last fall.
"Do I regret that I didn't look at the video myself? Absolutely," he told the angry crowd.
Since Rice's ouster, three other officials have left: Athletic Director Tim Pernetti, interim University General Counsel John Wolf, and Assistant Coach Jimmy Martelli.
Rutgers on Monday announced the appointment of Carl Kirschner, a former dean at Rutgers, as interim athletic director, and the formation of a search committee for a permanent replacement.
Christie focused his criticism on Pernetti, saying his resignation was necessary.
"This conduct apparently was going on for three years under Mr. Pernetti's supervision," Christie said.
Rutgers, meanwhile, promised to commission an independent review of how the school handled allegations that its men's basketball coach physically and verbally abused his players, Rutgers officials said.
"It is our intention to move quickly with this review," Barchi and Ralph Izzo, the chairman of the school's board of governors said in a statement.
Christie said the scandal has damaged the reputation of the 58,000-student university.
"It's significant. You know, you spend a week's time being on top of the national news about your coach using homophobic slurs, screaming and yelling at players, basically assaulting them — that's not a good week," Christie said.
Additional reporting by Dave Warner; Writing by Scott Malone and Barbara Goldberg; Editing by John Wallace and Andrew Hay

subset: commoncrawl


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Loyalty Programs 101, or 5 Points for Your Points Program
Your customers are your most important asset, but did you know it costs 6-7 times more to acquire a new customer than to engage a current one (Bain & Company)? And did you know that existing customers spend 67% more than a first timer (BIA/Kelsey)? It's true! So how can you target your existing customers and increase their purchases with you and not with your competition?
Loyalty programs are a proven way to encourage your existing customers to buy more and buy more often. Also known as rewards or points programs, loyalty programs allow customers to earn points while they spend which can be redeemed for rewards and freebies. Today, any business that depends on repeat purchases and bumps up against direct competitors could benefit from a loyalty program. But what makes a great loyalty program a hit rather than a miss? Below are five key features of a successful loyalty points program to inspire or optimize your rewards program.
1. A Great Loyalty Program Is Easy to Join
Joining your loyalty program needs to be easy. In the days of a physical punch card, a clerk would give customers a card to keep in their wallet or purse, ensuring their sign-up. Today, in the digital era, your loyalty program might require an online sign-up, an app download, or a registered cell phone number. Whatever the subscription mechanism, the sign-up process needs to be as frictionless as possible to maximize participation.
To assist in this, many loyalty programs often provide a welcome offer or incentive. The welcome offer accomplishes two things: (1) wets the consumer's whistle and gets them in the mood for earning incentives, and (2) helps you outweigh any potential barriers to signing up. If your sign-up process has a high barrier to entry, consider an awesome incentive to welcome your new loyalty member.
Many airline credit cards, such as Southwest's Rapid Rewards card or the American Airlines AAdvantage card – offer up to a 50,000 mile sign-up bonus for new cardholders. Since joining a program like this requires a high barrier of a credit card application, it makes sense that the sign-up offer needs to be high. Your sign-up offer doesn't need to be nearly as large, but it does need to be valuable enough to entice your current customers to join.
2. A Great Loyalty Program Is Easy to Understand
Great loyalty programs have a simple incentive structure that customers can remember. If customers can recall what they'll earn and how, they're more likely to make a purchase and participate in your loyalty program.
U.S. coffee titans Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts each have a payment-based app loyalty program that benefits from its frictionless purchase experience and a super easy-to-understand incentive structure. At Starbucks, every visit is worth a "star," and 12 stars equals one free reward, which can be redeemed for a drink of your choice or a food item. Dunkin' Donuts leverages a dollar-based loyalty program, awarding points for each dollar spent: $1 spent equals five points, and 200 points scores you one free drink of your choice.
Each approach – visit-based or dollars-based – has its pros and cons, but both programs are easy to remember and understand. Customers know what they need to do to earn points, and when their rewards will be coming. Speaking of rewards…
3. A Great Loyalty Program Has Great Rewards
The backbone of any rewards program are the rewards themselves. Whether it's free merchandise, VIP treatment, exclusive perks, or cash back, the rewards need to be valuable to your target customer. Popular products or new products are a great place to start when you're considering what rewards to provide. Also, think about including branded promotional products along the way. Your loyal customers will love the chance to sport their loyalty on swag.
The most popular rewards programs feature rewards that resonate. For instance, Best Buy's Reward Zone gives us customers something they love: cash. For every 250 points earned, they get back $5, so they can choose what they'd like to spend their reward on. Research what might attract your target customers when choosing your rewards, and think about offering them a choice of reward or a rotating selection.
4. A Great Loyalty Program Stays in Touch
The best loyalty programs aren't silent between rewards. They build and nurture the customer relationship through ongoing communication. Traditional and digital direct response channels are available, from direct mail to email to SMS, to engage your customers even when they are not actively shopping.
Walgreens Balance Rewards program sends monthly emails to its members in order to highlight current promotions as well as communicate the member's current reward point balance. By reminding their customers of their point balance and how close they are to their next reward, Walgreens is able to move customers up the rewards funnel and increase their purchase frequency and size.
5. A Great Loyalty Program Is Profitable
If you gave away a free car every time a customer spent $5 with your business, you'd have the most popular loyalty program of all time. You'd also have the least profitable one. When you're building your program, be sure to do the math and make sure you're getting a return on your investment. Track customer spending habits and particular product margins carefully when you're first designing your program to ensure it'll be a success. Account for different levels of customer participation to ensure that you're profitable at nearly every step and that the entire initiative represents a return for your business.
In addition to planning, be sure to persevere and commit to your new loyalty program. You'll need to promote it, perhaps with branded products advertising the new program (i.e. "[Your Business] Rewards," "[Your Business] Perks"), and stick with it. Your customers will be disappointed if they learn the program they've been earning points in has been abandoned only a few months after launch.
If you're thinking about adding a loyalty program to your business' marketing mix, consider these five points about points programs when you're designing it. Research your favorite programs and borrow from the most successful ones, making sure it makes sense for your particular business. Do your research, make a plan, and follow these five tips, and you'll be on your way to building customer loyalty and your bottom line.
Does your business have a loyalty program? What works for you? What are your favorite loyalty programs?
Image Credits:
Coffee Loyalty Cards: Nick Webb | Elite Access: Larry Johnson | Profit Piggy Bank: TaxCredits.net
Bubba is the Quality Logo Products mascot. He may have started out as "just a stress ball," but he's come a long way since the company's launch in 2003. Bubba has been immortalized in numerous vector artwork designs for internal and external promotions, and you can see him change outfits on the Quality Logo Products homepage whenever a holiday rolls around. Oh, and he thinks pants are for the birds. You can connect with Bubba on Google+
Great article! All of this seems like common sense stuff, but when you really think about it you could easily miss some of these concepts!! I could see how many small companies could make the mistake of not being profitable on their program. But I think that would be the most important part of it! Really great stuff! Keep up the good work!
I love this post! I think these are great when you shop at a place all the time. It makes the company show that they are grateful for your business! Although, I feel like some rewards at some places are a little steep, requiring you to place hundreds of dollars and then you get something small in return. I think when starting up your own, you want to make sure the rewards are worth it for your customers and that you are not losing out on anything in the process. 😀 Like stated previously, I think it's a must for where you commonly order from.
Great article, Zach!
That is crazy that it cost that much more to gain new customers! Who would have known? Thanks blog guru.
I do feel that loyalty programs are now getting somewhat convoluted. Everyone seems to have one, on different terms, and sometimes companies get too caught up in trying to make them catchy or "different". For me as a consumer, the simpler the better. It's also difficult to keep track of all of the different companies that you are currently a member of. I personally don't feel like carrying around 20 different tiny keychain cards, or stuffing them all in my wallet. If you have an app like KeyRing, it will electronically store all of those for you in one place. But if you happen to be like me, that means out of sight, out of mind. One day I'll get good at technology, I swear…
I definitely agree with everything you've brought up for what makes a good loyalty program. One step further for me would be that simplicity factor: buy 3, get 1 free, or spend a certain amount, get a set amount back. The programs that I am apart of are simple, easy to use, and because of this they keep getting my business!


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27 SEPTEMBER, 3:15 p.m.
The two men in the beat-up Chevy had been sitting in the same position for more than two hours, their eyes hidden behind wraparound sunglasses, their minds tuned into the little earplug each wore in his left ear. On this busy street on the north side of Chicago, with active small businesses on the first floor of most of the apartment buildings, the men's presence had gone relatively undetected. Even if someone had noticed them, it was highly unlikely that anyone would approach to question their motives; like New Yorkers, most Chicagoans had long ago learned to ignore anything not thrust directly into their face as a threat.
"They been going at it for forty minutes, for chrissakes!" the shorter of the two men muttered, rubbing the spot where the cord ran behind his left earlobe.
A shrill, shuddering cry echoed in their ears, and the taller man turned to his partner and smiled. "She sure is a good actress."
"How do you know it's an act?" the other asked with a leer. "Could be real."
"Right. With that loser?"
A deeper series of grunts sounded for almost twenty seconds, then there was silence. A man's voice was heard, the first words in the third floor apartment across the street in quite a while.
"I've got to go, Jill. I've got to get back to the office."
A woman's voice purred in reply. "How about another twenty minutes, babe?"
There was a pause, then the sound of a bed creaking. "I'd love to, but I've really got to go. Tony's stopping by and I have to give him some paperwork."
The taller of the watchers removed a revolver from a shoulder holster, snapped open the cylinder, and checked the rounds. "He's a stupid fuck, mentioning names like that."
His partner laughed, not a particularly pleasant sound, as he inspected his own weapon. "He's out of his league."
The tall man snapped the cylinder shut with a flick of his wrist, the noise of metal on metal loud in the close confines of the car. "He's about to get sent back to the minors."
They listened to the sounds of the couple dressing. Their eyes now focused on the front door of the building.
"Can I see you tomorrow?"
"Why wait until tomorrow? You can have me tonight—full time— if you really wanted, Phil."
"Oh, come on, babe. Don't start on that. I've explained it all to you a thousand times. It just isn't possible right now."
"Why? All you have to do is—"
"Please! Enough, all right? Just drop it for now."
There was a long pause, and the two men strained to hear the sound of the apartment door. They were disappointed when the woman's voice came back.
"All right. I'm sorry. It's just that I miss you so much and it gets so lonely here at night."
The short man started laughing again. "What a buncha bull. Does he really believe that crap?"
The taller man didn't bother to dignify the question with an answer.
"So. Can I see you tomorrow?" The man's voice was edged with pleading.
The voices faded slightly. They were moving out of the bedroom. "Sure. Just give a call so I can be ready. All right? We'll do something a little different tomorrow."
"You'll just have to wait, hon."
At the sound of the apartment door closing, both men pulled out the earplugs and threw them under the seat alongside the receiver for the bug.
"Party time."
The short man stepped out of the car as the other started the engine. The short man was just outside the building's front door when Philip Cobb opened it, right hand fumbling in his pocket. Cobb was a tall man with a pudgy face and wore round spectacles. His hairline had moved back as the years had gone on, complementing the comfortable roll of fat around his waist, which defied his sporadic diets and exercise routines.
As the building door slammed shut behind him, Cobb saw the muzzle of a gun pointed at his face and froze in his tracks. A car pulled up to the curb with a screech, the door to the backseat swinging open.
"Get in the car, asshole."
"Who are you?" Cobb looked at the cold black eyes that were staring at him over the muzzle of the gun and realized the futility of the question.
"Get in the car."
Cobb stepped forward, feeling his body being pulled to the car by the command in the man's voice and the power of the weapon. He couldn't think; his brain refused to process information as a wave of cold fear swept over him. The man grabbed his suit jacket with his free hand and propelled him forward.
"Hey! You! What are you doing?"
The short man swung his gaze to the left; his gun quickly followed as he spotted the uniformed police officer walking toward them from the corner. While the officer was trying to pull his weapon out of his holster, the short man fired off three rounds in rapid succession. The cop dove behind a parked car. Cobb stood frozen, the sound of the gun echoing in his ears. The short man had let go of his jacket to shoot at the cop, and now he turned back toward Cobb, centering the muzzle of the gun on Cobb's forehead.
"Let's go!" the driver of the car screamed, gunning the engine. "Forget him!"
"I'm gonna finish him!" the short man yelled back as his finger tightened on the trigger. He flinched as the cop fired for the first time, the deep-throated blast of the pistol reverberating through the cool fall air.
Changing his mind, the short man turned and jumped into the open back door of the Chevy, and it was gone with a roar down the street. Cobb still hadn't moved.
The cop came running up, yelling into his portable radio. It was only then that Cobb realized he had soaked his pants. He staggered back against the welcome support of the building wall and resumed breathing.
"Are you all right?" the cop asked as he returned the radio to its slot on his belt. "I got backup coming and I sent out a description of the car. Did you know those guys?"
Cobb shook his head weakly. "I don't know who they were."
A crowd was starting to gather, and Cobb felt foolish with the large stain clearly visible on the front of his pants. The sound of sirens pierced the air.
"Are you all right, Phil?"
Cobb turned in surprise to see Jill standing in the doorway to the apartment building, clutching a robe around her.
"Get out of here," he hissed, glancing nervously at the police officer, who was trying to get the crowd back.
Jill bit her lip and nodded, backing reluctantly into the dark of the building foyer.
Two hours later, Cobb was still within twenty feet of the site of his almost death, sitting in the backseat of an unmarked police car, trying not to cough from the stench of the detective's cigar. Detective Guyton sat two feet away, staring at him with passionless eyes. He was a large man, his muscular bulk encased in a well-cut suit. His hair was gray, almost silver, and his face was flat and hard, with twenty-four years of street experience etched into it.
"So let's go over this one more time, Mr. Cobb. You're a real estate developer and you say you were here to see a client. A Miss Jill Fastone? Is that correct?"
Detective Guyton nodded. "Uh-huh. So why didn't you tell the officer who was first on the scene why you were here when he asked you two hours ago?"
"I was confused. I'd just been shot at, for Christ's sake."
"Couldn't be something funny going on between you and Miss Fastone, now could there, Mr. Cobb?" Guyton asked, glancing down at the wedding band on Cobb's left hand.
Guyton leaned forward. "Bullshit. Don't fuck with me. A cop almost got his head blown off saving your sorry ass. And you sit here and lie to me. I know who you are and I know who you work for.
"Don't bullshit me anymore. The name Michael Torrentino mean anything to you?"
Cobb closed his eyes and sagged back against the worn upholstery. His already fragile world was crumbling.
"And don't you think I know who Jill Fastone is? She used to work for Torrentino—if you want to call what she does work. Maybe she still does. I know you do." Guyton shook his head. "You should have stayed in your little real estate office in the suburbs, Cobb. Did Fastone bring you into all this? Did you think you could start laundering money and being a middleman for the number one guy in 'The Outfit' here in Chicago and no one would notice? Wake up." Guyton tapped Cobb on the chest with a stubby finger. "You got any idea why those two guys tried to grab you?"
Cobb shook his head.
"You'd better talk to me," Guyton growled. "'Cause if you don't talk to me, you know what I'm gonna do?" He didn't bother to wait for an answer. "I'm not gonna take you downtown. I'm gonna let you get out of this car and go home. And I can guarantee you one thing: next time they try to whack you, they'll do it. You were lucky this time."
"But I don't know who they are or why they would try to kill me," Cobb whined, missing the look of satisfaction that settled on the detective's face.
"You been juggling the numbers? Maybe skimming where you shouldn't have been?"
"No. I swear it."
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Italian Resistance
From the onset of German-Soviet conflict in 1941, Communist parties throughout Europe were notable for their active and dominant in local resistance against Nazi occupation.
After September 1943, partisan Resistance groups were active throughout northern and much of central Italy. Many were recruited, organized, and armed by the anti-Fascist parties or at least owed vague allegiance to one of them. Partisans were fighting three types of war: a civil war against Italian Fascists, a war of national liberation against German occupation, and a class war against the ruling elites. Communist Party groups fought all three types. Catholic or monarchist partisans, on the other hand, fought only one or two of these.
The Communist Party, although still very small in 1943 (about 5,000 members), led the largest group of partisans (at least 50,000 by summer 1944). Success in the Resistance transformed the Communists into a major force in postwar Italian politics. After the war, the three largest parties were the Christian Democrats, Socialists, and Communists.
Jewish partisans in Eastern Europe
Individual Jews or groups of Jews engaged in planned or spontaneous opposition to the Germans and their allies. Jewish partisans were especially active in the east, where they fought the Germans from bases established behind the front lines in forests and ghettos. Because antisemitism was widespread there, they found little support among the surrounding population. Even so, as many as 20,000 Jews fought the Germans in the forests of eastern Europe.
What many dont like to acknowledge is that these partisans supported and made up the communist governments of eastern Europe after 1945. And in fact, "partisan" activity had begun way before the war.
Example: St. Nedelya Church assault from April 16, 1925 from Bulgaria, committed by Bulgarian Communist party. Max Goldstein terror attack in 1920 in Romania – the first terror attack in Romanian history.
War and revolution were wanted in Europe since 1919 Bolshevik revolution, in order to create the chaos that is needed to justify the installment of a new regime – communism. World War Two created the perfect conditions for that.
1985 – Controversy Flares Over Role of Communist Party in French Resistance
In February, 1944, the Nazi occupation force, preparing to execute 23 members of the French Resistance, slapped copies of a poster on buildings throughout Paris that pictured and identified 10 of the condemned men.
Not one had a French name: Manouchian, Grzywacz, Elek, Wasjbrot, Witchitz, Fingerweig, Boczov, Fontanot, Alfonso, Rayman. All were immigrants. The Germans identified the leader, Missack Manouchian, as Armenian, and the others as five Polish Jews, two Hungarian Jews, one Italian and one Spaniard. All were Communists.
This "red poster," venerated in a 1955 poem by the French writer Louis Aragon, has a hallowed place now in the annals of immigrants who fought against the Nazi occupation of France, for it is a glorification of their role and of their martyrdom. The poster was pasted up all over town for a far different reason, however.
The Nazis wanted to sully the name of the Resistance by making it seem Communist, foreign and Jewish. There was enough truth in that assertion to trouble the French then and to continue to trouble them now.
Party Accused
Now, more than 40 years later, a controversy has erupted over the arrest and execution of this band of anti-Nazi battlers, known, from their leader's name, as the Manouchian group. The French Communist Party has been accused of allowing these Communist resisters to fall into the hands of the Nazis.
According to the accusation, denied vehemently by the party, the Communist leaders wanted their comrades out of the way to make sure that, as liberation approached, the Communist wing of the Resistance would be controlled by native French and not foreign immigrants. This may have seemed even more necessary toward the end of the war when the Communists were in competition with the native French followers of Gen. Charles de Gaulle for control of the Resistance movement.
This summer, a documentary about these resisters was scheduled, banned and then finally shown on national television. A two-hour debate followed the documentary on television, and for a time arguments about the role of the immigrants and Jews in the Resistance filled the national newspapers and magazines of France.
Fall From Grace
The troubling controversy reflected both the great difficulty that the French have in dealing with their behavior during the Nazi occupation and the extraordinary, recent fall from grace of the Communist Party, which now faces challenges to some of its most cherished myths of World War II.
The documentary's director, Serge Mosco, may have erred in trying to touch both nerves. Even some of those who lobbied for the telecast of the film, such as the prominent Jewish lawyer Serge Klarsfeld, believe Mosco was wrong to bring up the Communist betrayal issue. Klarsfeld says that the controversy has drawn attention away from the real issue of the film–the nature of the French Resistance.
"It was mostly immigrants–and most of them were Jews–who killed Nazis," Klarsfeld said in a recent interview. "In the first year of the war, France was like a sanitarium for the Germans. They could go there for a rest." It was not until the Jews and immigrants began battling that the Resistance got under way.
"What is important for us," Klarsfeld said, "is that everyone should know that Jews were among the most important members of the Resistance of France."
Image Doesn't Fit
All this conflicts with an image that most French like to have about the Resistance–the image of many native French abhorring the Nazi occupation, secretly supporting the cause of De Gaulle and his Free French Forces outside France, and early on joining the Resistance in France to battle the German oppressors. The image does not fit the historical record.
Until June, 1941, when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, there was no resistance at all inside France. The majority of the French supported the pro-Fascist Vichy government of Marshal Henri Petain. De Gaulle discouraged acts of terrorism by his followers for fear of reprisals against innocent civilians. The Communist Party was not going to attack Germans so long as the Soviet Union had a nonaggression treaty with Germany.
After the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union, however, the Communists began the French Resistance. A large number of their recruits were young immigrants, many of them workers with Communist backgrounds.
Leadership Blamed
Tthe party leadership, following the anti-Semitic tone of Stalin after the war, later tried to erase the role of the Jews and other immigrants from the history of the Resistance. The Resistance would be French, not foreign and Jewish.
Mosco's documentary, called "Terrorists in Retreat," was largely a memoir of survivors of the Manouchian unit who re-enacted some of their old terrorist acts and talked about the days of the Resistance. Some of their accents were so heavy that their spoken French was reinforced by French subtitles on the screen.
There were more direct accusations, as well. In a crucial analysis on the program, historian Philippe Ganier-Raymond said: "The underground Communist Party saw that the army that would rise from the shadows after the war would be an army made up of foreigners, of Jews. . . . It was inconceivable that the resisters come from Central Europe and not from old-line French families. In my opinion, the leaders of the Irregulars and Partisans decided, with great cynicism, to sacrifice and abandon them."
Still, Ganier-Raymond went on, without further proof he could not conclude that the party "delivered" these immigrants to the Gestapo.
The Yugoslav Partisans
(National Liberation Army)
The Yugoslav Resistance was an anti-Nazi resistance movement led by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia during World War II. Its commander was Marshal Josip Broz Tito. By September 1941, it is estimated that there were about 70,000 resistance fighters in Yugoslavia. British supplies began to arrive in 1944 for the Yugoslav Communist Resistance.
During World War I, Josip Tito served in the Austro-Hungarian army. He was captured as a prisoner of war and transported to the Russian interior. He joined a Bolshevik group while in prison and after escaping, he joined the Bolshevik Red Guards several months before the October Revolution.
Back in Yugoslavia, he continued his revolutionary work. He was picked up and spent six years in prison. He was released in 1934 and joined the Comintern in Moscow. Visited Moscow several times and was appointed Secretary of Yugoslav Communist Party in 1937.
After Nazi invasion, set up his Partisans in Serbia in 1941, and led by far the most powerful resistance movement in Europe, supported by various British, Soviets and others. By end of the war, Tito's forces had control of the whole country. He remained leader of the country until his death in 1980. Though not under direct Stalinist control, Yugoslavia became communist as well.
Albanian resistance
(National Liberation Front)
Faced with an illiterate, agrarian, and mostly Muslim society monitored by King Zog's security police, Albania's Communist movement attracted few adherents in the interwar period. In fact, the country had no fully-fledged Communist Party before World War II. The Albanian National Liberation Front was later transformed in May 1944 in the government of Albania and its leaders became government members. It was replaced in August 1945 by the Democratic Front.
After the Italian invasion there was no resistance to the Italian army. Meanwhile the communist activity in Albania increased and culminated with the creation on 8 November 1941 of the Albanian Communist Party. The communist party began to create their own groups of resistance. These detachments started to engage in various acts of sabotage to the Italian forces. They also started to make antifascist propaganda in order to gain the attention and the support of the masses.
The communist partisans regrouped, attacked the Germans and gained control of southern Albania in April 1944. In 29 November 1944 partisan forces liberated the last city and this is the official date of liberation of the country. A provisional government the communists was formed in 1944, until the elections of December 1945, in which the Democratic Front (made up of communists) won 93% of the vote.


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Keeping you up to date
Keeping up-to-date with changes in the MCA and DoLS can be difficult. Here are the key links to help you stay engaged with the changing landscape of the MCA and DoLS.
Mental Capacity Act Code of Practice - code of practice giving guidance for decisions made under the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
Deciding right: A guide to support health or social care professionals through the process of making care decisions in advance for people who will or may lose capacity in the future; who have already lost capacity for those decisions or never had capacity.
SCIE: A huge range of resources on the MCA/DoLS.
39 Essex Street Chambers Mental Capacity Newsletter: A fantastic monthly newsletter that gives regular updates on the most up to date case law.
39 Essex Street Chambers Mental Capacity Law Cases: Provides summaries on many Mental Capacity and Deprivation of Liberty Court of Protection and Supreme Court Decisions.
RiPfA Case Law and Legal Summaries: monthly overview and analysis of selected cases, highlighting implications and recommendations for practice.


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Issue 50 (2015) : Special Feature KiKu-50
Nikolai Dostal': Penal Battalion (Shtrafbat, 2005)
reviewed by Jeremy Hicks© 2015
A Turning Point in Collective Memory
In looking back at post-Soviet cinema's approaching quarter-century, I want to reflect upon the TV series Penal Battalion (Shtrafbat, 2005), not because it escaped attention or was neglected (in fact it enjoyed popular and critical success, and has been widely and insightfully analyzed by many of the leading scholars of Russian film and media—see Beumers 2009; Hutchings and Rulyova 2009; Norris 2012; Prokhorov 2006), but rather because from today's vantage point the series has gained further in significance and prominence as symbolizing a turning point, marking a shift in Russian attitudes towards the Soviet past in general, and more specifically to World War Two and Stalin's crimes. Its contribution to the recalibration of collective memory is echoed by its position within its format, where it stands out as one of the most accomplished examples of the Russian TV serial, itself a distinctive and prominent post-Soviet Russian cultural form. Penal Battalion is indicative of the overall shift in that genre from an emphasis upon the contemporary and crime to one on historical themes. But it is the nature of the film's molding of Russian attitudes to the Soviet past for which it demands our attention. The series both reflects and shapes a wider shift in perceptions of the Stalinist past, and to World War Two, that has defined the last ten years of Russian views of the past and memory politics. Initially it was not clear that this represented a break. Thus, when Penal Battalion was first broadcast, it was possible for observers to interpret the series as part of the ongoing reappraisal of World War Two not as glorious, but as a largely destructive enterprise. This reading can draw on the fact that the series touches upon a number of subjects that were either taboo or rarely depicted in Soviet and even post-Soviet representations of the war: the prisoners of war captured by the Nazis and their harsh treatment as traitors when they managed to escape to their own side; the Nazis' enlisting of Soviets, including ethnic Russians, to the Nazi anti-Bolshevik cause; the use of penal battalions recruited from the Gulag; wartime Soviet anti-semitism; the counter-productive actions of the NKVD during the war, and other topics that all might be part of an attempt to rethink memory of the war as other than ennobling and nationally unifying. Writing at the time, it was possible to see the series in the light of what had come before, as continuing the critical attitude to the war and anti-militarist culture of the glasnost period.
However, what is extraordinary about Penal Battalion is that it tackles all of these divisive themes, yet successfully integrates them into a new myth of World War Two, one which it serves to unite and reconcile the whole nation: kulak, Communist, priest and thief. In a sense, its narrative succeeds in making concrete the often replayed defense of the Stalinist terror as being retrospectively justified or redeemed by victory in the war: the inmates of the Gulag are ennobled before our eyes. By showing that even prisoners from the Gulag felt national pride and were willing to sacrifice themselves for their country, militarism and patriotism themselves are redeemed.
All of this is significant, precisely because the subsequent 10 years have seen memory of the war elevated to an ever higher status, playing an ever more uplifting role in Russian culture. Of course, we might point to other particular films, such as The Star (Zvezda, 2002, dir. Nikolai Lebedev), as does Greg Carleton (2011), which came earlier and may be seen as playing an important role in relegitimizing the war film. But Penal Battalion's significance lies in the way in which it combines this change of emphasis with (and at the same time downplays memory of the Gulag and collectivization) divisive memories that do not foster trust and belief in the Russian state, nor a sense of triumphalism and Russian superiority. While Stalin's crimes have not been denied outright or entirely forgotten, the attention directed at the war makes them seem less relevant. But Penal Battalion goes further, by not just overshadowing the Gulag, but by explicitly rescuing it and its overwhelmingly criminal inmates for patriotic meaning. Thus, it is no surprise that, as Stephen Norris has noted (2012), the same motif is recycled in Nikita Mikhalkov's sequel to Burnt by the Sun, entitled Exodus (Utomlennye solntsem 2: Predstoianie, 2010). Penal Battalion's emphasis upon religion, suggesting through the character of a priest who joins the unit, that belief in Orthodox Christianity was an important motivating factor in the Soviet war effort, is one that has been taken up and repeated by a number of subsequent films. In its recreation of the Soviet period to suit contemporary Russian society's conservative attitudes to religion and gender roles, Penal Battalion typifies the truism that historical films tell us more about the period when they were made than about the one in which they are set. Penal Battalion goes further than this and reflects and shapes emerging post-Soviet Russia's historical self understanding, or lack thereof.
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Works Cited
Beumers, Birgit. 2009. "The Culture of Serialization, or the Serialization of Culture," in The Post-Soviet Russian Media: Conflicting Signals, edited by Birgit Beumers, Stephen Hutchings, Natalia Rulyova, London: Routledge, pp. 159–77.
Carleton, Gregory. 2011. "History Done Right: War and the Dynamics of Triumphalism in Contemporary Russian Culture," Slavic Review 70.3: 615–636.
Hutchings, Stephen and Natalya Rulyova. 2009. "Unfulfilled Orders: Failed Hegemony in Russia's (Pseudo) Military Drama Serials," in Television and Culture in Putin's Russia: Remote Control, edited by Hutchings and Rulyova, London and New York: Routledge, pp. 114–138.
Norris, Stephen. 2012. Blockbuster History in the New Russia: Movies, Memory and Patriotism, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Prokhorov, Alexander. 2006. "The Shtrafbat Archipelago on Russia's Small Screen," KinoKultura 13.
Penal Battalion Russia 2005
Color, 550 min (11 parts).
Director: Nikolai Dostal'
Screenplay: Eduard Volodarskii
Cinematography: Aleksei Rodionov
Cast: Aleksei Serebriakov, Iurii Stepanov, Aleksandr Bashirov, Il'ia Kovrizhnykh, Roman Madianov, Dmitrii Nazarov
Producer: Vladimir Dostal'
Production: MakDos
Nikolai Dostal': Penal Battalion (Shtrafbat, 2005)
reviewed by Jeremy Hicks© 2015


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"He was very angry…"
So said a little girl who managed to escape the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
Two more murder-suicides by angry young men have happened in the U.S. in the last week. This time close to home in a mall where I held my first job and in a small affluent town in Connecticut. My thoughts are that these tragic stories that have become a trend of the last decade since Columbine High always seem to have one thing in common: they are young men, and they are mad.
It may be unprecedented that this style of behavior is happening all over the place and there seems to be relatively little documentation (as of 2012) on the idea of people going on killing sprees and then killing themselves for no apparent reason. When a man murders to get revenge or to steal something, we get it. When a man goes on a premeditated killing spree of people he doesn't know just for the sake of killing and then shooting himself, no one gets it. History doesn't seem to have much to say to this sort of thing.
Are the men of our times going mad?
The Scientific American, in an article released in April of 2010, has the following to say:
Mad Men
In 1995 the late psychologist David Lykken of the University of Minnesota wrote that if we could magically place all boys and men between the ages of 12 and 28 in a cryogenic freeze, we would slash the rate of violent crime by two-thirds. The data bear out Lykken's thought experiment. In the U.S., the rate of violent crime for girls and women aged 10 and older is one in 56; the corresponding figure among their male counterparts is one in nine. Men commit close to 90 percent of the murders in the U.S. and more murders than women in all the countries researchers have examined, according to a 1999 report by psychologist Anne Campbell of Durham University in England. (Arkowitz, 2010)
So what is going on in the American male world anyway?
There is another peculiar piece to add to the puzzle. The Journal of Criminal Justice has the following to say:
Whereas murderer–suicides were found to be highly depressed and overwhelmingly men… (Wormer, 1999)
So it would seem like this is a 'disease' that is beginning to spread (and it is definitely spreading) and young men in the United States are the ones most vulnerable to it. Has anyone considered these facts?
I have so far not seen any significant material that rationally addresses this clear pattern. I have also yet to find similar stories taking place in other countries. It used to be that a mad, deranged man might become an infamous serial killer or rapist. But now it's angry, highly depressed young American boys who feel so torn inside by their world (which they have only just begun to experience) that are being led to believe that not only is their own life utterly worthless but the lives of their fellow humans as well and that the best thing they can do is destroy it all. Age, race, and gender make no difference to them. Pointedly, and I believe not insignificantly, Christians do seem to make a difference to them as they are repeatedly singled out in these tragic events. It is a sinful anger that takes its full course, all self-control lost. Anger at life itself.
Not four days had passed after the Clackamas Town Center shootings when another murder-suicide killing spree shook the nation nearly to its knees. This one forced even the President of the United States to make a statement. There's nothing unusual about lots of people being murdered or killed in this world. But when it is a matter of many young boys finally driven to the point of believing that the entire human race is their enemy that they must kill all—women, children, and even babies–and so plan out a way to take as many human lives as possible before going out themselves, that says something very, very loud about the sociocultural world they come from. The pain the nation feels is from seeing the reality of what is essentially self-inflicted terrorism. Talk always arises of "mental illness", "psychological problems" and other explanations which speak to little more than defective brain cells. But the macro-view of this trend in random murder-suicide sprees by loner 20-year old boys shows just that: a pattern. I, for one, can't see it as just a random disorder. Obviously it's not entirely consistent, but the trend appears to be happening around the world as we saw today in China as well. What did these knife-wielding men in China have to do with their victims? Nothing. Except for the fact that they were human, and they were vulnerable. It's much more than mental illness that's causing these horrific episodes. It is a total contempt for life. If these young boys committing these atrocities had weapons of mass destruction in their hands, I don't think anyone of us would question what they would have done.
Since I am one to enjoy studying socioeconomic, and sociocultural topics around the world, I couldn't resist running a search on comparative depression statistics around the world. France and the U.S. are the number one depressed countries in the world (Have you noticed the prevalence of anti-depression drug commercials lately? Yes there is a lot of money to be made here…). A 2011 BMC Medicine Study found that the two most 'depressed' countries were France, with a 21 percent prevalence, and the U.S., with a 19 percent prevalence. And research has, in fact, suggested depression as an illness of affluence.
So with a small look into the confounding situation of murder-suicide by young males going mad we find a pattern of affluence, wealthy nations with bad income disparity, depression, and males between the age of 12 and 28 going mad. Many common denominators, but it still fails to make sense.
Sons of Destruction
The last common denominator–males between 12 and 28 (the age of the male gunman in the Clackamas shooting was 22)–is a significant fact. Our sons of this generation make up the most fatherless generation in the history of this nation. 1/3 of our kids are without their fathers. According to Wade Horn, a Ph.D. and Assistant Secretary for Children and Families with the US Department of Health and Human Services,
Perhaps most tragically of all, children who grow up fatherless also are more likely to commit suicide than those who grow up in a home with both their mother and father.
What seems clear is that children growing up without their father in the home face an increased risk of developing significant problems. This does not mean that all children who grow up in fatherless homes will encounter problems. Indeed, many of them will do just fine. But research indicates that fatherless children face more obstacles than those who grow up with both a mom and a dad, and are at greater risk for a host of developmental problems. (Horn, 2004)
Anger is one of those developmental problems that occur in most children without a dad present in their lives. For sons in particular, that anger is often channeled into aggression and violent behavior. In extreme cases these sons are driven to mass-killing and suicide. All of these young lads who have gone on rampages killing total strangers and children mercilessly have come from turbulent homes with father not around or otherwise disconnected and unavailable. This is not to lay blame on these fathers. Rather it is to emphasize that powerful influence that a dad has on his children's emotional life. The children have not known love or failed to recognize it. Their peers ignored them and "let them alone". They became lonely. No one ever reached out to them. They became social outcasts. Mom tried her best but it means nothing to an angry boy. The kingdom of hell finally gets its grip on him and he obeys a powerful force beyond himself. There is no hesistation or second-guessing but an evil plan executed without repentance. And the rest is history.
Dad: The Path out of the Hell Hole
In a sense, we're all to blame for the loss of our sons to destructive ways. We did not reach out to them when we should have. We were too absorbed in ourselves to bother with a hurting, torn young teenage boy with no identity in the world. We closed the door of life and all it has to offer in their faces by calling them weird, laughing at them, bullying them, and worst of all ignoring them. All they needed to know was Love.
Foremost however is the absence of the father and I believe that the only answer to this murder-suicide trend unfolding in our world today is to turn this principle human relationship around in the right direction. Darkness is getting a hold of our boys, and we need to get them back. Dad is the means by which value is instilled into the hearts of children. Jesus was the only teacher who taught us that we have a hard time recognizing just how valuable we are (Matt. 10:29-31). And it's a value that is placed on each of us by the Dad of all dads: the very hairs of your head are numbered by him. Our society continues to rack it's brain over the cause, especially as it's an unprecedented problem. But there is another unprecedented problem unfolding in our time and I believe there is a direct correlation: a fatherless culture.
God has a very strong mandate in regards to this issue:
He will turn the hearts of the fathers [wisdom of the just] to their sons [the sons of disobedience], and the hearts of the sons to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse." Malachi 4:6 NASB
The instantaneous reaction of our society to such tragedies has been to completely acquit itself of any and all responsibility whatsoever. That will never, ever solve the problem. A loving, healthy society takes responsibility for its children. Love will not just stand by while that which is loved destroys itself. God is so serious about the father-son relationship that he will take tough action if that relationship has been compromised to epidemic proportions. It's his form of divine correction. It shows his deep and abiding connection with all of life. Is not seeing our "kids killing our kids" cursed enough to make us reconsider our ways? I hope so, for if it isn't it's only going to get worse until we do. Hope will come soon…
Arkowitz, et. al. (2010, 04). Are Men the More Belligerent Sex?. Scientific American. Retrieved 12, 2012, from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-men-the-more-belligerent-sex
Horn, W. (2004, 03). My Family Story. World Congress of Families III. Retrieved 12, 2012, from http://worldcongress.org/wcf3_spkrs/wcf3_horn.htm
Wormer, K.; Odiah, C. (1999). "The psychology of suicide-murder and the death penalty". Journal of Criminal Justice 27 (4): 361–370.
Cevallos, (2011, 07). Depression higher in wealthy nations, research suggests. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 12, 2012, from http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/26/news/la-heb-depression-wealthy-countries-20110726
Bromet, E., et. al. (2011). Cross-national epidemiology of DSM-IV major depressive episode. BMC Medicine, 9 (90). doi:10.1186/1741-7015-9-90


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A wise man once asked: "Why do we need heroes?" It's a valid question. The most honest answer is simply this; It's because we're less than perfect. This question and its subsequent answer is as true in sports as it is anywhere in life.
As I write this piece, I'm watching the ESPN 30 for 30 entry about Bo Jackson, one of the most mythical figures in the history of athletics. It occurred to me the other day that sports really can bring out the best in us. Our sweat, blood, and tears are spilled on whatever sporting surface we happen to be playing on as we dedicate our life to the games we love. Sportsmanship and comradery are alive in their truest forms. It's an inherent truth that we all know, and nowhere is this more apparent than in ESPN's groundbreaking 30 for 30 series.
Wayne Gretzy, Michael Jordan, the 1984 SMU team – men and groups such as this have had their unique stories showcased in these segments, as ESPN delves into topics of the sports greats.
But more importantly, this series shows us how those who are imperfect can achieve greatness in the face of such adversity. Individuals like Terry Fox and Dewey Bozella – ordinary people who did extraordinary things – now have a venue for their stories to be told.
Sports film and documentaries will never be the same because of 30 for 30, and that's a good thing. Every time I watch one of these entries, I'm inspired to be a better athlete, regardless of my level of play, and I hope everyone else feels the same way after watching just one of these brilliant productions from ESPN.


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This weeks challenge is this: 'What inspires you. For this special mid-week photo challenge, we want to see portraits of you doing something that inspires you to blog. Continue reading
Tag Archives: NaBloPoMo
Special photo challenge: Inspiration21 Nov
Weekly Writing Challenge: A Picture Is Worth 1,000 Words.5 Nov
I will tackle this challenge from an autistic child's point of view, how I think they might interpret this image.
Thousands to be struck of the Special Needs register: are teachers to blame?5 Nov
This Daily Prompt led me to search the obvious: special needs. the 11th item in the list was an article in the telegraph, saying that thousand of children are to be struck off the special needs register in the latest round of government reforms: rather a hot topic. Continue reading
Loneliness in a crowd4 Nov
I found this Daily Prompt and it really struck a chord with me.
I used to cover a module of work entitled loneliness. The students were asked to write a letter to someone back home, imagining that they are lonely.
What did they write? Continue reading


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Hiring a new employee can be difficult enough without having to think about whether the candidate you are considering has been in trouble with the law.
When a business is in the process of choosing and hiring a new employee, more often than not if a candidate declared that they had a previous conviction, the employer is likely to be put off and either find someone else or refuse them the job. However, what some business owners are not aware of is that this could be against the law.
Unless your company requires a DBS check and the candidate is deemed not suitable for the role, you can't discriminate against someone who has previously had a conviction or caution when it is classed as 'spent'.
This essentially means that if a candidate had a conviction and served their sentence, it can be effectively ignored after a specified amount of time. The amount of time for rehabilitation depends on the sentence imposed, not on the offence.
However, there are some clauses:
- If someone has served a sentence of over 4 years, they do not qualify for a rehabilitation period and therefore you are within your right to refuse the job offer.
- If the sentence is less than 4 years, the conviction will become 'spent', meaning there is a rehabilitation period and you cannot refuse the job offer.
- For a custodial sentence between 0-6 months the rehabilitation period is 2 years, for 6-30 months it is 4 years and from 30 months – 4 years it is 7 years.
- For non-custodial sentences including community service and a fine, the rehabilitation period is 1 year (after the community order is served) and (1 year from the date of conviction).
- The rehabilitation period is halved if the candidate was under 18 when they were convicted.
- A conviction only becomes 'spent' after the rehabilitation period is over and therefore it is only against the law to refuse the candidate then.
- Simple cautions become 'spent' immediately; conditional cautions become 'spent' after 3 months.
It is important that as a business owner, you stay neutral in your decisions when hiring new employees. If a candidate has a conviction but it is classed as 'spent' then be aware that they are not legally obligated to inform you of this.
It is however always recommended that when you do decide on a candidate, you make sure the process is done correctly.
If you do require a DBS check you must always declare it to the applicant. This will help prevent them wasting their time by applying and your time by accessing their application.
As a company, it is important that you provide equal opportunities for all applicants. It is important to remember that everyone has a past and can make mistakes; it's how they redeem themselves that is crucial.
If someone with a criminal background applies for a role it is vital you give him or her a fair chance.
Here's why:
- You won't know their offence or the reasons behind their conviction; don't judge a book by the cover.
- They could be an asset to your company and be an incredibly hardworking person ready to turn their life around.
- Just because they have been convicted or had a caution doesn't mean they wouldn't have the skills or talent to perform well in the role.
Screening is an important element of the recruitment process, the outcomes of which should be taken in to account.
However, if they are eligible to apply, the conviction is spent or the offence was minor, decisions should be made based on their application and interview not so much on the candidate's past.
Article by: Simon Houlton – CEO – IScreenYouScreen
Recruiters love this COMPLETE set of Accredited Recruitment & HR Training – View Training Brochure


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ABINGDON, Va. - Registration is now open for a series of classes and training events designed to offer networking opportunities and to prepare farmers to become growers for the Appalachian Harvest Herb Hub.
Herb hub grower information sessions are free. Registration is open and is required at www.regonline.com/asd-2018. Attendees will learn about becoming a grower for the Appalachian Harvest herb hub. Appalachian Sustainable Development (ASD) is seeking growers of native medicinal herbs, such as ginseng, goldenseal, and black cohosh to participate in their Appalachian Harvest herb hub. Located in Duffield, Virginia, the Herb Hub provides growers a processing facility for washing, drying and packaging herbs, as well as technical training and marketing assistance.
Information Sessions:
» Feb. 8, 6 -7:30 p.m., Appalachian College of Pharmacy, 1060 Dragon Rd.Oakwood, Virginia;
» Feb. 15, 6 -7:30 p.m., Wise County School Board Building, 628 Lake St. NE., Wise, Virginia;
» Feb. 20, 6-7:30 p.m., Forest Farmer Grower-Industry Expo and Training : Appalachian Harvest Food Hub, 280 Boone Trail Rd., Duffield, Virginia. There is no charge for the expo, and a $15 fee is for the afternoon technical sessions. Registration is open at www.regonline.com/asd-2018. The expo will connect herb companies, apothecaries, and herbal product makers with experienced and aspiring forest farmers for a day of networking and learning.
Panel discussions with forest farmers and buyers will share valuable experiences and advice, and technical training sessions will be offered for all skill and experience levels. Topics will include herb cultivation and propagation techniques, plant conservation, certification, value-added production and more. Vendors are encouraged to attend, with a limited number of tables available;
» May 19, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.: The Forest Farmer Field Day: Registration at The Renaissance Center, 1200 E Center St., Kingsport, Tennessee, Includes a catered lunch, $15 fee. Registration is open at www.regonline.com/asd-2018. The day will start with a tour of the Appalachian Harvest herb hub and a discussion on the economics of cultivating forest-grown medicinal herbs. After a catered lunch, attendees will tour forest farmer Ryan Huish's farm, learning about his plans for cultivating forest herbs, along with plant identification and information on site selection and more. The tour will include a mildly strenuous hike through diverse forest ecosystems;
» May 20, 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m., Appalachian Harvest herb hub, 280 Boone Trail Rd., Duffield, Virginia.
All events in the series are sponsored by Appalachian Sustainable Development and partners in the Appalachian Beginning Forest Farmer Coalition. For more information or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities, contact Emily Lachniet: email@example.com or 276-623-1121.
About the Appalachian Harvest food and herb hub
Since 2000, Appalachian Sustainable Development's food hub, Appalachian Harvest (AH), has helped produce farmers access markets by securing orders from food brokers and retailers, providing aggregation and distribution support, training in food safety and handling, organic certification and marketing services. Appalachian Harvest revenue has climbed to more $14.6 million and its products are available in approximately 3,800 stores from Maryland to Georgia.
About Appalachian Sustainable Development (ASD)
Nationally known and respected for its commitment to local farmers, Appalachian Sustainable Development is transitioning Appalachia to a more resilient economy and a healthier population by supporting local agriculture, exploring new economic opportunities and connecting people with healthy food.
Since 1995, Appalachian Sustainable Development (ASD) has been working in 15 counties in Central Appalachia. ASD's reach has since expanded to include eastern WV and KY and southeast OH. ASD uses 6 strategies to accomplish its work: closing the knowledge gap, increasing local food production, developing markets, increasing distribution of local agriculture products, engaging strategic partners, and researching/consulting and advising. ASD operates programs that create jobs in farming and agriculture and address food insecurity.
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Hello! My name is Tina Zabriskie. I make cosmetics, write the blog, and record the video and audio features for Dark Heart Designs. I started making cosmetics in the beginning of 2010 to bring beautiful, quality cosmetics to my local area & online network without emptying their pockets. I've had a love of make up and the beautiful things you can do with it for years, which inspired me to start doing research and create my own brand. I've met some incredible people along the way, and had the chance to do something that I love. I am beyond grateful for my friends and customers. I never would have been able to accomplish anything without their support.
My mission is to make beautiful, affordable cosmetics, and help people along the way. Dark Heart Designs is more than just a cosmetics company. I want it to be a resource, an inspiration, and a brand that makes you feel like you're a part of something. Make up is just the beginning.


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A brilliant activity resources for the Christmas period - maths word problem challenges, with a Christmas theme. This resource is fully editable so you can adapt the questions to suit your class. You can also enlarge, shrink or remove the included images, should you wish to do so. - Printable Classroom Activities and Games by Teacher's Pet. Primary school resources, including premium downloadable, printable classroom activities and games. Resources for Early Years (EYFS), KS1 and KS2 including challenge cards, board games, CVC, VCOP, stickers, posters, wordmats, signs, roleplay activities and much much more! A sparklebox alternative! - problem, solving, word, problems, calculations, one step, two step
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Modernly Designed 3BR Furnished Apartment
QR 17000 per month
Property Features
Property Highlights
DTZ is pleased to offer the opportunity to lease this two bedrooms apartment within one of the finest towers in West Bay. All rooms are ensuite with kitchen and bathrooms modernly designed.
Situated within the heart of the city with easy access to all areas, offering great selection of city or sea view.
The unit comprises the following features that comes with soft furnishing, linen, towels and cutleries.
– 3 Bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms
– Living Area
– Dining Area
– Kitchen
– Parking
Property Facilities
– Outdoor Swimming Pool
– Jacuzzi, Sauna and Steam Room
– Kid's Play Area
– 24 Hours Reception and Security
– Access to the Meeting Room
– TV Lounge
West Bay is a newly developed area in Doha. It is considered as one of the most prominent districts of Doha that includes many modern buildings. Some of the tallest skyscrapers in Qatar are found in this area.
Area Amenities
– Fitness Center
– Coffee Shops
– Restaurants
– Supermarkets
– City Centre Mall
– Embassies
– Parks
Subject to finalizing the deal, DTZ would be entitled to a half month fee payable upon signing of the binding agreement.
These particulars were prepared November 6, 2018. Ref No: AP580
As Qatar's oldest established global real estate advisor, our team can help you to find the ideal apartment or villa to rent in Doha's competitive residential property market. To stay up to date with the property market in Qatar, download our quarterly market reports by clicking the link at the top of the page.
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Tel: +974 3354 1237
Fax: +974 4483 7408
Other links
View all properties in West BayView all residential properties


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Donna Wildrick has been building fine custom homes in the Davidson-Concord area since 1995.
River Run Team of Builders
For over 25 years Davidson, NC builder Eric Johnson of E.S. Johnson Builders has been building fine crafted custom homes in the Lake Norman Region.
John and Ryan Kearey understand the secret of building true custom homes of exceptionally high quality.
It's about craftsmanship and creating a masterpiece you will love.
Tom Palmer Homes builds high-quality, aesthetically pleasing homes in the greater Lake Norman and Charlotte areas.
Peachtree Residential Properties
Peachtree Residential Properties is celebrating 28 years of building new homes.
Owner Karl Plattner believes superior custom home building begins with careful planning and design and continues with meticulous management of the construction details.
PresPro is a Custom Home Builder who interprets your vision through award-winning design paried with expert craftsmenship to build a home that is beautifully fit just for you.
Arthur Rutenberg Homes has long been know for offering exceptional plan and product design throughout the Carolinas and Florida.
Southern Cottage Corp. offers the latest industry trends and innovations paired with responsible home design and implementation.


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RECAP > RECAP News and Field diaries > 2015 RECAP Field diaries > Interesting but more a...
08 June 2015
Interesting but more and more brittle ice
It became a day of excitement at the ice core processing table. After we passed some 1.1 m of glacial ice from the Younger Dryas period yesterday, we anticipated to encounter some 2 to 4 m ice of the milder Bølling and Allerød periods today. We indeed got ice from those periods, but that section appears to be around 10 m of thick in the core. Later we dived into ice from the last glacial maximum that is characterized by a very low ECM signal. Finally, we encountered two warming events that we believe are two Dansgaard-Oeschger events, but this needs to be verified by the water isotopic climate record.
The ice is indeed turning more and more brittle. Most of the drilled ice cores are 1.8 m long sections with no or just a few internal breaks. But as the core is being handled or just left on the processing table, larger pieces of core tend to break off, and internal cracks form. The cutting with the circular saw does not introduce additional breaks and we are quite satisfied with the saw, but still it is impossible to avoid the unfortunate core cracking this close to the brittle zone. Fortunately, we got some high clouds coming in and outdoor temperatures dropped somewhat, so it was possible to continue drilling and processing until dinner time. The logging depth is 544.94 m.
Weather: Starting out with blue sky, we later got complete overcast with high clouds and light snow fall. Wind has been turning 270 deg. anti-clockwise starting out in NW and now in NE. Temperatures -5°C to -7°C. Pressure has been dropping over the last days.
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The New Theatre, Abington Street, Northampton
Northampton Theatres Index
The New Theatre in Abington Street, Northampton was designed by the respected Theatre Architect W. G. R Sprague and opened on the 9th of December 1912, the same night as The Theatre Royal, Guilford, with a Variety show, the highlight of which, according to the local paper of the time, was 'Smaragda's performing cat.'
In 1939 Reginald Foort who was the staff organist at the BBC brought his Mollor Organ to the New Theatre for a week and it was apparently so huge that it required five giant Pantechnicon trucks to deliver it and the Gallery Entrance of the Theatre had to be excavated by three feet in order to get the largest part of the organ into the building, part of which weighed two tons. The job took twenty men from noon on the Sunday until 5pm on the Monday to complete and was only just ready for the evening performance by Mr. Foort. The instrument was later to become the BBC Theatre organ after its original Compton was destroyed in the war. Later the Organ was moved to the Methodist Church in Hoxton.
In its later years the New Theatre became a Number Two Variety house under Freddie Butterworth, but it did very poor business, and in its final years it staged mainly strip tease shows, thus earning the title of' 'The Newd Theatre.' The Theatre closed its doors for the last time after the last performance of 'Strip, Strip Hooray' in 1959. Its contents were then auctioned off before the building was demolished in 1960.
Half a century later a Primark store now stands on the site of the former New Theatre, (See photo below.)
Alan Chudley writes: 'The only time that I went to Northampton was in 1967 when the late Osborne Robinson, the Northampton repertory Company's resident designer was designing "Jack and the Beanstalk" for use at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford.
The New theatre by that date was demolished having closed in 1959. In my time The New theatre was leased to Sam Newsome of the Coventry Hippodrome, who made the lease over to FJB theatres in the early 1950s. - Alan Chudley.
Below are some pictures of the demolition of the New Theatre which were published in the Northampton Chronicle & Echo in 1959 and were kindly sent in by Alan Ashton, former projectionist at the Savoy Cinema, Northampton.
Northampton variety star Bertha Willmott pays a final visit to the doomed theatre where she was so often top-of-the-bill
From the Northampton Chronicle & Echo of 1959 - Courtesy Alan Ashton.
Other Pages that may be of Interest


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28 Nov How a High-End Photographer Makes Sure You Look Good
The extra steps I take to make sure your photos come out spectacular
When we speak of monochrome, we're usually referring to non-color photographs, also called toned photographs, that includes those intentionally given a color cast to enhance their emotional impact. In the old darkroom days photographers used toners to add to the character of images, usually with sepia (light brown), gold, blue (cyan) or selenium (reddish brown). Today all this is done digitally rather than chemically, and the intensity can be precisely controlled. The sepia photographs of 100 years ago have an antique quality about them, which can be effectivetoday in certain circumstances. I have found, however, a very slight sepia effect is very powerful to warm up an image almost below the level of awareness, yet it tends to draw the viewer's eye into the photograph more than a completely neutral black does. This can be extremely effective in portraits and emotional images.


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Australian mum Terry-Ann Tunks had already experienced a great deal of loss. She wasn't willing to go through it again. Her pregnancy with her first son, Taj, had been completely normal until she went into labor. Sadly, she lost him.
About a year later, Terry-Ann became pregnant with identical twin girls. It was discovered that her cervix was weak, and at 18 weeks pregnant, complications began. Terry-Ann was suffering from what doctors called an "incompetent cervix." It was unable to hold a baby.
However, the mother did her own research and demanded a cervical stitch.
"I was devastated, but both me and Cameron refused to give up. And that's when I realized a single stitch could save my twins," she said. "I had to push for it, and every week, as my cervix became weaker, the chance of our girls surviving became less."
The doctors agreed to do the procedure at 18 weeks.
"I defied all doctors' expectations.
Terry-Ann came forward with her story to encourage other mothers to always ask for what they need in situations like this.
"I would encourage any mums to always push for the treatment they need," she said. "The stitch saved both my girls, and I know that without it… they wouldn't have survived."
Please SHARE this story with your family and friends on Facebook!


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No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani was on the phone with Jackie & Bender of KISS 106.1 FM in Seattle on Monday (February 12). Gwen talked about her baby son Kingston, her tour plans, "kinda sniffing around about a No Doubt record", what she has left to accomplish, and much more. kiss1061.com has since removed the audio.
Gwen Stefani Talks With Phoenix's 104.7 KISS FM
Johnjay and Rich of 104.7 KISS FM in Phoenix had No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani on the phone to discuss her new tour. She talked about the talks to do another No Doubt record, working with Ric Ocasek, being influenced by the '80s, being a huge Julie Andrews fan, the "miracle" how big No Doubt became, opening for U2 right after 9/11, and more. 1047kissfm.com has since removed the audio.
Gwen Stefani Visits KIIS FM
Gwen Stefani was in the studio with Ryan Seacrest of KIIS FM in Los Angeles on Friday (February 9). She talked about flying with Kingston, preparing for her new tour, the Grammys – which she won't be attending, putting out another album with No Doubt, and much more.
The interview audio at kiisfm.com has since been removed.
Next Up For Gwen Stefani, Another No Doubt Album
In an exclusive interview airing Thursday (February 8) Gwen Stefani revealed to 'Extra' that No Doubt will be recording another album and soon. Stefani is embarking on a solo tour in April and tells 'Extra' correspondent Tanika Ray, "I'm so excited about the tour and it's going to be starting in April. I'm just starting to get into rehearsals now. I have two whole albums to choose from." Stefani added, "It will definitely be the only time to see these songs live. If you want to come see them, come see them, because I'm sniffing around with No Doubt. We're going to record another record next."
Ups And Downs In Gwen And Gavin's Marriage
No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani spoke with Elle magazine in their cover story, talking about her marriage to Gavin Rossdale of Institute. "There are negatives and positives, but for most part, it works," Stefani said. "He can tell me about things going well or badly and I can totally relate to that. We were very lucky to find each other and we have this ongoing crazy love affair, with its peaks and valleys, like everyone else's… Having Kingston has been the most romantic thing to have happened to us."
Gwen Stefani Not Concerned About Fergie Emulating Her
No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani is on the cover of the February/March issue of Bust magazine, where she addressed talk Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas is totally biting her style on her solo album. "You know, I took Black Eyed Peas on my last tour, and she's a really nice girl, and if she bit anything off of me, it would be a compliment," Stefani responded. Read more.
Gwen Stefani: No Beef With Madonna
Gwen Stefani tells the new issue of Elle magazine that there is no bad blood between her and the Material Girl. "Madonna's had us over to dinner and stuff, and she's always been very nice to me," the No Doubt singer explained. Gwen counts Madge as a role model, adding, "A lot of my influence came from her early work, like directly, like a Xerox." Read more.
Angelina's Sweet & Sour Opinions On Madonna's Adoption
January 7, 2007 – Angelina Jolie criticized Madonna for taking 14-month-old David Banda out of Malawi "illegally" in an interview with the French magazine Gala. "Madonna knew the situation in Malawi, where he was born," she said. "It is a country where there is no real legal framework for adoption. Personally, I prefer to stay on the right side of the law. I would never take a child away from a place where adoption is illegal." Still, the actress voiced sympathy for the attacks on Madonna since the adoption. "I have been horrified by the attacks she has been subjected to," Jolie said. "All that should count is the happiness of her little David." The full story at sundaymirror.co.uk has since been removed.
Oprah Backs Madonna's Adoption
January 4, 2007 – Oprah Winfrey is voicing her approval of Madonna's recent move to adopt David Banda of Malawi. "I applaud Madonna," the talk-show queen gushed to 'BBC Newsnight' on Wednesday (January 3). "I think it is an amazing decision… Madonna and her husband and children had to make a decision that we are going to bring a child from a different culture, and not just a different culture from our family, he even looks different from our family. He's not even the same color… It makes me sick that people criticize her, because there are millions of children in this world who will die because no one came to save them."
Malawian Father Wants To Hear From Madonna
January 3, 2007 – The Daily Times of Malawi reports Yohane Banda, father to David, a boy adopted by Madonna last September says he is dying to speak to his son's new parents on how the boy is fairing in the United Kingdom. However, Banda says his efforts are hampered by lack of Madonna's contact details. "I don't have her phone numbers and mailing addresses," Banda said. "I want to find out how my son is but I don't know how I can do it. If there are people who can help me to get these details, please come forward. I would appreciate very much." He added, "All I want is to find out how he is fairing and not that he should come back."
The Good And Bad Of Being Madonna's Brother
January 3, 2007 – The Miami Herald caught up with Christopher Ciccone and asked him about what's best about being Madonna's brother. "The best thing about being Madonna's brother is that it gave me the access to being creative," he responded. "I got to design all her houses. I got to work with her on a lot of projects. Like the Girlie Show tour, which I designed and directed. As far as I'm concerned, it was a peak for both of us creatively." As for the worst thing about being the Material Girl's brother, he responded, "She casts a very big shadow." Asked if she's aware of that fact, Ciccone responded, "It's not really her problem, is it? We don't really talk about it."
Touring Pregnant Made Gwen Stefani Cry
Before giving birth in May to son Kingston Rossdale, Gwen Stefani tells Elle magazine for its February issue pregnancy wasn't so easy for her. "I would be seriously crying before I went onstage," the No Doubt singer recalled. "I didn't know how I was going to get through the tour, putting on nine costume changes on a stage in front of 12,000 people every night. And I didn't want people to know (I was pregnant). I didn't want to become the Gwen Freak Circus Show – 'Watch it grow onstage.'" Read more.
New Year's Eve TV Appearances
CNN's 'New Year's Live' with Anderson Cooper will feature The Killers, the B-52s, the Goo Goo Dolls, Sister Hazel, Montgomery Gentry, Preservation Hall Jazz Band in New York, Lionel Richie, Smashmouth, OK Go, Rock Star Supernova, Nelly Furtado, and Scissor Sisters.
NBC's 'New Year's Eve with Carson Daly' will feature Hayden Panettiere of 'Heroes', Motley Crue and Rock Star Supernova drummer Tommy Lee, The Panic Channel guitarist Dave Navarro, and OK Go.
'Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve 2007′ on ABC will feature Christina Aguilera, Rascal Flatts, Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas, Natasha Bedingfield, Meat Loaf, and RBD.
MTV's 'New Year's Eve 2007' features No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani, Nas, Fall Out Boy, Three 6 Mafia, Pussycat Dolls, Ciara, and AFI.
FOX's 'FOX's New Year's Eve Special' features Toni Braxton and 'American Idol' season five finalist Christ Daughtry's band Daughtry.
Gwen Stefani Leaving Casa Vega With Kingston
Gwen Stefani was spotted at Mexican restaurant Casa Vega the other night, holding her baby son Kingston James as she climbed into the backseat of a car, putting the tyke in a car seat just before they drove off.
Video footage at TMZ.com has since been removed.


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This week saw the first of our herbal workshops for children for 2011 - even the light rain could not deter our budding horticulturists! After discussing what herbs and particularly what lavender is, the different varieties, the history and the uses of God's little miracle plant, we donned makeshift rain capes in the form of bright orange plastic recycling bags and made our way into the muddy lavender fields and surrounds to take cuttings and a little yoghurt tub filled with river sand back to the craft room. Once there, the children learned how to strip the lower leaves, dip the raw heel into rooting powder and then press into river sand - with care, these little cuttings should root within the next 4 weeks or so, and be ready to be planted out into a bigger container. The children also learned how to repot a lavender seedling plug, complete with established roots and this was theirs to keep!
|Even the rain didn't stop the young horticulturists!
After a quick stop for some juice and biscuits, it was back to the craft room to learn how to make a lavender sachet with dried lavender. The children were so intrigued by the strong smell of the lavender as they worked - they could not believe that I had not put perfume on the dry flowers! They did a wonderful job - from the smallest to the tallest - and I was so impressed by their creativity once again in their unique choice and use of decorative ribbons. Yet another lovely morning spent with little minds, eager to learn!
|Look what we made!
|Hard at work!


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The inspiration for this dish came to me after watching an episode of Nigel Slater's "Dish of the Day" TV series. I love the man! I find that him and I share the same approach to cooking, as in by not really following a recipe but letting the ideas come from the ingredients sitting in the fridge or in the cupboard, or from what looks good on the market stalls or supermarket shelves when we go shopping. That's how Nige and I roll :-) I watched him making fennel and feta linguine and a few days later made my own version for a Saturday lunch, since all I had left in the fridge at that point of the week was a fennel bulb. It was delicious: through the cooking process, the fennel loses his distinctive aniseed taste and all you are left with is a moreish sweetness.
INGREDIENTS (for two people)
- 160 gr of spaghettini De Cecco n. 11 (or you can use normal spaghetti if you wish)
- 1 fennel bulb
- 1 medium white onion
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper


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Renoir and Plotless Cinema – Jonas Mekas
January 26, 1961
There is a new book by Ezra Goodman, The Fifty-Year Decline and Fall of Hollywood. Goodman quotes D.W. Griffith as saying: "The simple things, the human things are important in pictures. There are supposed to be only seven or eight plots. They are relatively unimportant. The most important thing is humanity." The old man of cinema knew it all the time.
It is an important point, this plot business. It almost makes the whole difference between entertainment and art, between purely commercial cinema and author's cinema. Crazed about the plot, the critics almost killed Picnic on the Grass and Another Sky, two of the beast movies to come to town in a long time. Kurosawa's Drunken Angel they did not even notice. Now they are trying to kill Buñuel. The critics prefer plot, the artist prefers the regions beyond plot.
The masterpiece of the personal, "plotless" cinema is Jean Renoir's Rules of the Game (at the 8th Street Playhouse). And it is in Rules of the Game that we see the superiority of Renoir over Bergman, Cinema vs. theatre. Whereas Bergman sustains his scenes through the dramatic climaxes, Renoir avoid any such dramatizations. Renoir's people look like people, act like people, and are confused like people, vague and unclear. They are moved not by the plot, not by theatrical dramatic climaxes, but by something that one could even call the stream of life itself, by their own irrationality, their sporadic, unpredictable behavior. Bergman's people do not have a choice of free movement because of the imposed dramatic construction; Renoir's people have no choice because of the laws of life itself. Bergman's hero is the contrived 19th-centruy hero; Renoir's hero is the unanimous hero of the 20th century. And it is not through the conclusions of the plot (the fake wisdom of pompous men) that we learn anything from Renoir; it is not who killed whom that is important; it is not through the hidden or open symbolism of the lines, situations, or compositions that Renoir's truth comes to us; but through the details, characterizations, reactions, relationships, movements of his people, the mise-en-scène. Gradually, as the film progresses, plotless as it is, the whole nerve system of the pre-World War II French aristocracy is reveals to us, sickening as it is.
And that is the secret of the art of Buñuel and Renoir. The very last image of They Young One, with Zachary Scott standing there alone by the waters' edge, the burning patch of sun behind the trees, and the over growth of the trees—this in itself is worth more than all the New York film critics and their papers put together. Our film critics are butches of the human and the beautiful. And so are there papers.


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> Flowers >
Flowers in Vase
Cool Lemonade
Your Montreal Florist
1340 Notre-Dame West, Montreal
This cheerful arrangement combines bright summer blooms and fresh lemons in a glass vase. Cool down on a warm summer day with an arrangement that is as refreshing as a glass of fresh lemonade.
Product Code:
F Vase Gerb 2
Montreal 16 February 2019 11:54 AM


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The recently crowned queen of Swedish reality television called police last Thursday after she and her husband became embroiled in an argument over Anna's decision to fire one of the couple's housekeepers, the Aftonbladet newspaper reports.The following day, the 68-year-old Paul Anka filed for divorce from his 38-year-old Swedish wife, whom he married in 2008.Related: Justin Theroux Bails On Stephen Colbert Interview Even though we're just hearing about their marital problems, it sounds like the separation was a long time coming. As we reported last week, Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux called it quits after two years of "marriage." Related: Jennifer Aniston & Justin Theroux Through The Years Although the , his name is no longer on the roster as of Monday.
But this wasn't the only buzzworthy moment featured on social media!Paul Anka will not be a victim of the political correctness that prompted more than a dozen charities to cancel or move fundraisers from Mar-a-Lago following President Trump's remarks about the violence in Charlottesville, Va.Anka, 76, a pop star since he was a teenager, was booked to perform Dec. (CN) – Musician Paul Anka claims his wife, a former model and current cast member of "Swedish Hollywood Wives," spread "false and defamatory" rumors about him in the Swedish press, emotionally abused him and battered him. Paul Anka, who wrote the theme song for "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson, says Anna Anka, born Anna Aberg, implied to the Swedish press that Paul had forged her signature on the couple's prenuptial agreement and claimed that she had only married him to get on TV."I never signed any prenuptial agreement," Anna allegedly told Expressen, a Swedish newspaper with a circulation of 300,000. If he claims to have one, it's a fake." Paul called Anna's claim "ludicrous," saying the couple signed and notarized their prenuptial agreement shortly before their July 2008 marriage in Italy, along with a separate declaration stating they each "understood the legal effect of the prenuptial agreement and had no questions about it." Though they had a few fights while they were dating, Paul says Anna's behavior became "increasingly volatile" after they married.Anna allegedly claimed the photographer planned to use the photos "in a porno" and spent the trip worrying that their son would be "kidnapped and sold into slavery." On Nov.


text: KURDWATCH, September 11, 2010—On September 8, 2010, the military prosecution in Aleppo released ʿIsmat Hasan Schaykh Hasan (b. 1961, married, nine children) from custody. Hasan, a PYD supporter, was arrested by members of the Air Force Intelligence Directorate on March 30, 2010. After four months in solitary confinement at the Air Force Intelligence Directorate, Hasan was transferred to the Political Security Directorate in Aleppo. His proceedings are still pending before the military court.


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Sunday, 12 February 2017
DIY Painted Doormat
Surprise! It's not a book review or child update! Enjoy!
First off - The saying on this doormat is meant to be a funny take on 'welcome home' - no offence intended!
We are currently about 75% done painting the exterior of our house (slow progress but we are getting there!) and of course we painted the front first so it looks finished from the street!
To go along with the newly painted entrance way, we decided to get a new door mat. I couldn't find any I liked that didn't cost upwards of $30 so I found a plain coir (coconut fibre) door mat from Briscoes (not sponsored) and guess what! They were on sale! I got one for the front door and one for the back.
I drew inspiration from dontbeadoormat for the text and found a font that I liked. Then, since I'm weird, I spent 45 minutes drawing it out onto 3 pieces of a4 paper taped together. In my defense the font didn't get big enough to print it out.
Then I used my craft knife to cut around the words to create my stencil.
*Tip - you can use the mat as the cutting surface.
Then I took the mat and stencil out to Dave's shed for him to spray paint since I have a track record of blurred edges. He was busy making way cooler stuff so it got put on the backburner for the night. So I grabbed it back the next day and decided to tackle it with a paintbrush and some textile paint (any paint should work though).
Since the stencil was on thin printer paper, the skinny bits were threatening to ruin the stencil if they flipped up so I came up with the brilliant idea of using sewing pins to hold it into place.
Then I just took a largeish art brush and the black paint and started dabbing (as opposed to doing strokes). I went over it a couple of times being quite generous with the paint.
Then I took out the pins, carefully removed the stencil and put it somewhere safe to dry, then took a look at the new mat.
I was happy with the amount of paint and the edges look nice and sharp so I called it done! Obviously allow it to dry before using it unless you want some interesting footprints all over the floor. (Jif will get it off wooden floors by the way).
Then just put it at the front door and enjoy the great feeling when you are greeted by such a nice entrance way.
Stay tuned for the back door mat - coming soon!
3 comments:
I am so looking forward to seeing photos of your house!ReplyDeleteReplies
Haha it's a matter of getting it tidy enough to photograph, which as you know, toddlers aren't great at keeping it tidy!Delete
I love both of the doormats!!! We have one outside our side door that used to say "hello" but it's faded so much. I'm thinking I need to get out some paint!ReplyDelete
I would love to hear from you!
Non Googlers can post under Anonymous but leave your name so I know who you are!
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Beardstown holds off West Central for 5th win
The Beardstown football team became playoff-eligible Friday night, beating West Central 38-28 to finish the regular season with a 5-4 record.
Beardstown built a 15-0 lead at the half on a 38-yard touchdown run by Pascal Guilavogui, a 55-yard TD pass from Isaac Riddle to William Cramblitt and a field goal by Guilavogui.
West Central scored early in the third quarter on a 35-yard pass from Austyn Noble to Caleb VanDeVelde to cut it to 15-6, but the Tigers answered with two more touchdowns, on a two-yard run by Brady O'Hara and an 11-yard run by Drake Wrobleski, to pull away.
O'Hara added a 40-yard run at the end of the third quarter, and Guilavogui kicked a 24-yard field goal in the fourth to help Beardstown withstand three more VanDeVelde touchdowns, on runs of five, 19 and two yards.
Carrollton scored 22 points in the second quarter to break open a close game en route to a big win over Triopia Friday night in Carrollton.
The Hawks, who lost their first three games of the season, improved to 6-3.
Quarterback Wade Prough had a huge game, completing 16-of-18 passes for 310 yards, with no interceptions. Prough ran three yards for a touchdown and completed two touchdown passes — 88 yards to Alex Bowker and 27 yards to Jeremy Watson. Prough also caught a 40-yard TD pass from Jerrett Smith.
Smith led Carrollton in rushing with 69 yards on 11 carries. He ran for three touchdowns of 15, three and four yards.
Class 2A Mendon Unity wrapped up a perfect 9-0 regular season with a win over the Tigers Friday night.
Mendon clung to a 7-0 lead at the half before scoring 22 points in the third quarter to open up the lead. Quarterback Brodie Dunker threw four touchdown passes covering 20, 35, 42 and 47 yards. He also ran for a TD.
Jacob Foiles scored both of Greenfield-Northwestern's touchdowns on a two-yard run and a six-yard run.
Greenfield-Northwestern finished the regular season with a record of 6-3.
New Berlin fell short of qualifying for the playoffs with a loss to Auburn Friday night. Auburn led 26-7 at the half and held on from there.
New Berlin fell to 4-5 while Auburn improved to 5-4.
Rushville-Industry trailed 13-9 going into the second quarter, but Elmwood-Brimfield scored 29 unanswered points to win going away.
Rushville-Industry finished the regular season with a 5-4 record.