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It's a little scary how important your credit score is these days.
Between all the warnings to check your credit reports regularly and how you can't do this or that without fear of credit score reprisal, it's easy to get discouraged and just say, "Forget credit scores, I'm going to do whatever I want."
[See 50 Ways to Improve Your Finances in 2012.]
While that emotional outburst might feel good, paying higher interest rates on mortgages and car loans won't feel good. But let's say, just for fun, you wanted to absolutely destroy your credit score.
The following list will damage good scores more than bad scores, but these things will all hurt (See what is a good credit score?)
Stop paying your bills. This one is in the obvious column, but your credit score is hurt whenever you miss a payment. Some companies will report a miss after 30 days while others won't report it to the bureaus until it has been 60 days or longer.
It doesn't matter if you miss a payment because you don't have the money or if you simply forgot--companies don't care. They just care that you missed it, and that will certainly hobble your score significantly.
Remember, your credit score is a measure of your default risk, or the likelihood that you'll default on your loans, and missing a payment is a key indicator that you're likely to default.
Eventually, when you do default, collection companies will be notified and it will get reported. A collections notice is one of the most damaging records you can have on your report, right up there with bankruptcy.
This pretty much knocks your credit score out for several years.
[See 3 Ways Your Credit Score Affects Your Retirement.]
Apply for everything. The marketing department for credit card companies are full of clever marketing folks who aim to entice you to apply for and use their card. They'll come out with fantastic promotions like free money or miles when you spend a few hundred or a few thousand dollars.
They know that once they get a "share of wallet," a place in your credit card rotation, they'll earn plenty off transaction fees they charge merchants. There are plenty of promotion-bonus chasers out there who happily apply for every new credit card offer as if there was no penalty.
Unfortunately, there is a penalty. Every time you apply for a credit card, the company checks your credit. That will appear as a hard credit check on your credit report and your score will go down.
Unlike inquiries you make yourself, known as soft credit checks and are harmless, the hard ones hurt.
After a few months, the decrease will have subsided, but applying for cards on a regular basis, especially right before a large loan application such as a mortgage, can hurt you in the long run.
Max out available credit. Credit utilization, the percentage of available credit you're currently using, is a big factor in calculating your credit score. Since your credit score is a measure of default risk, the ideal credit utilization is not known, but many people believe the ideal figure is in the high single digits.
Ultimately, this isn't something you can game to improve your score, but I'm certain it doesn't help if you have a very high utilization ratio. What's high? 50 percent is probably high, but still within reason. If you really want to kill your score, get it as close to 100 percent as you can.
[See Should You Pay Off Debt or Save for Retirement?]
You can do this by either by using a lot of your debt or canceling and reducing lines of credit so your total credit limit is smaller. Remember, the ratio is total debt used divided by total debt available. You can either increase the numerator (debt used) or decrease the denominator (debt available) to increase the ratio.
While I wrote most of this tongue-in-cheek, I don't think you should do any of these things (in fact, I want you to avoid them all).
It's important to understand what can destroy your credit score.
This post originally appeared on U.S. News & World Report.


text:
Not an official OTO or Thelema Lodge Website. OTO material carried by permission.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
At home in Northern California, view from the entrance lane toward the frontage gardens, 3/24/08 e.v.
Thelema Lodge Calendar and Thelema Community Calendar back issues.
For both dial-up and broad band download, OCR PDF's formatted to resemble original editions (more to come). Size indicated and most under three megabytes:
For broad band download only, English language (mostly) book page images:
For broad band download only, Latin language book page images:
(After I collect a few more PD "orphans," I'll set up a separate page for them.)
I'll be adding to this page from time to time...
If you have comments or suggestions, email me at firstname.lastname@example.com

subset: commoncrawl


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I can't see my post.
I've left a post in the admin chat .
Thanks for the numbers! I was curious. Is this based on probability only? Just also wondering a bit about the computation. Would this mean, in your opinion, it's worth trying having pillage end at 1v2? Seems so to me
Hey Guomundr if your running the numbers or estimates, as you mentioned in the chat, what's the probability of a comeback if pillage ends 2v1 rather than at 1v1. You mentioned an estimate of 29% with the current system/game state
Is this how we can communicate here?
Technical Director
Factions veteran


text:
Dj SouthanBred [Soulja Boy's Ex DJ] Breaks Down His Side Of Why He Was Fired?! "He Fired Me Cause Of Jealousy"
SpitYoGame reports "Why Did Soulja Boy Fire DJ southanbred? Video Blog"
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
Comments will only be displayed by verified emails. No Spamming or Racism.


text:
HOUSTON – Starting this fall, WHR Architects Inc. (WHR) will begin accepting applications from graduates of accredited architectural schools for the Tradewell Fellowship, due on or before January 24, 2011. The year-long Fellowship begins and ends in July, and includes employment at WHR Architects.
The Tradewell Fellowship was created to help build careers of aspiring health care architects. The Tradewell Fellow is involved with clients in early master planning and design stages, with particular focus on healing environments and collaborative design methods.
"This fellowship offers a very unique opportunity for someone interested in health care facility planning and design," says Charles Cadenhead, FAIA, FACHA, senior principal, senior medical planner and Tradewell Fellow mentor. "The Fellows gain broad experience during their year at WHR and many have stayed with the firm. All have achieved great things."
In addition to working directly with senior medical planners on design projects, Fellows receive career guidance from leaders at WHR and a network of past Tradewell Fellows. Upon the completion of the Fellowship, participants have begun to develop the skills and experiences to become leaders and mentors themselves.
The Tradewell Fellow is someone who wants to be a lifelong learner and teacher. In order to develop expertise and explore an area of his or her interest, the Fellow chooses a topic related to the design of healing spaces, and explores that topic in a way that is suitable for publication. The Fellow also receives a scholarship to attend a health care architecture conference, and the opportunity to attend many in-house educational presentations. Other educational opportunities include: assisting with teaching a graduate level course on health facility planning, design and construction; participating in evidence-based design activities; and assisting members of the firm in authoring speeches, articles or books.
Stephanie Schwindel, the current Tradewell Fellow, notes, "Through the Tradewell Fellowship, I will develop skills necessary to be a great designer and have the opportunity to collaborate with people making a difference in the health care industry."
WHR Architects is a full service architecture, interior design and technology planning firm. The firm's commitment to critical thinking is balanced by an ingrained empathy that results in both improved project outcomes and positive working experiences for their clients. With more than 160 people in Houston and Dallas, Texas, Washington D.C., and Lake Como, New Jersey, the 30-year-old firm is working on projects throughout the United States for top–tier public and private education and medical institutions. WHR was named the 2008 AIA Houston Firm of the Year.
To learn more about the Tradewell Fellowship and to read the Tradewell Blog, visit
WHR's website: www.whrarchitects.com/tradewell.


text:
For the first time after a long long long lonnnggg time, I failed to win the game. =(
Stupid Mihara Shiki! I'll be friends with Sudou Mizuki instead! lol
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Tokimeki Memorial Girl Side
Posted by kurokei at 11:14 PM 1 comments
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Wedding Dinner
Posted by kurokei at 6:47 PM 2 comments
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ReadWriteThink has a variety of resources for out-of-school use. Visit our Parent & Afterschool Resources section to learn more.
Home › Parent & Afterschool Resources › Podcast Episodes
Episode 44 — Visual Texts for Teens
|6 – 12
|Podcast Series
|Text Messages: Recommendations for Adolescent Readers
See all episodes in this series
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|Original Air Date
|Published November 15, 2011
Music in this podcast is courtesy of Scott Andrew.
Episode 44 Visual Texts for Teens
Episode 44 Visual Texts for Teens
Readers of picture books and graphic novels know that visual images sometimes tell a story in a way that words cannot. Although the majority of visual texts are published for children, a growing number of books written for teens incorporate visual material in ways that can challenge and stretch older readers. Tune in to hear about newly-published middle grade and young adult fiction, graphic novels, biographies, travel memoirs, and informational books, all of which use visual material in ways that enrich the text's meaning.
After listening to this episode, be sure to print out this list of recommended titles to take to the library or book seller.
Books featured in this episode:
- Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt (Clarion Books, 2011)
- Page by Paige by Laura Lee Gulledge (Amulet Books, 2011)
- Winter Town by Stephen Emond (Little, Brown, 2011)
- Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick (Scholastic, 2011)
- Into the Unknown: How Great Explorers Found Their Way by Land, Sea, and Air by Stewart Ross (Candlewick, 2011)
- Trapped: How the World Rescued 33 Miners from 2,000 Feet Below the Chilean Desert by Marc Aronson (Atheneum, 2011)
- To Timbuktu: Nine Countries, Two People, One True Story by Casey Scieszka and Steven Weinberg (Roaring Brook, 2011)
- Drawing from Memory by Allen Say (Scholastic, 2011)
- Lost and Found by Shaun Tan (Arthur A. Levine, 2011)


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Alioth has been switched off. You cannot use it anymore!
Please see Salsa for the replacement.
In particular the gforce component is broken in many surprising ways, and there is nobody around to fix it or work around its quirks. Please do not pester the remaining caretaker with requests.
This page contains guidelines to help you setup collaborative maintenance of packages on Alioth. You may also want to check the other Alioth pages: Alioth and Alioth/FAQ.
1. Collaborative maintenance of a single package
If you maintain collaboratively only a single package, you probably don't need a full Alioth project with mailing list and everything. You should use one VCS (subversion repository, GIT repository, bzr repository, ...) of the collab-maint project. Thanks to ACL, all Debian developers have write access on those repositories. For SVN, commit notifications are automatically sent to the Debian Package Tracker (provided that you enable the "vcs" keyword, check the package tracker documentation).
To integrate your package in a new subversion repository, use svn-inject (with option -o to avoid storing upstream sources) with the following URL: svn+ssh://svn.debian.org/svn/collab-maint/deb-maint/ It is also possible to import all your previous changes from an existing repository into the collab-maint repository, see Alioth/CollabMaintImport. If the package is maintained by external contributors, it should be put in the ext-maint directory instead of deb-maint (it can easily be moved later if needed).
If you need to grant access to external contributors, please send a signed email to firstname.lastname@example.com (and CC the contributor) saying:
Please grant access for FIRSTNAME LASTNAME (USERNAME-guest) to collab-maint. We are going to work together on project PROJECTNAME.
Contributors no longer need to apply to join the project first.
Debian maintainers do not need an advocate, they can ask access by sending signed email like this:
I am a DM and I need access to collab-maint. My alioth account name is NAME-guest and I am going to work on project PROJECTNAME.
1.1. Discussions between co-maintainers
Since you don't have a dedicated mailing list for the maintenance, you have 2 solutions:
- use extensively the BTS. You can submit wishlist bugs on your package to keep track of improvements that you want to do. Since co-maintainers are subscribed to the package tracker, they will receive everything and the discussion can happen via the BTS itself. The BTS is the TODO list for your package and every contributor can follow your plans (and offer help and patches!).
use the alias <package>@packages.debian.org: the maintainer gets the mail directly and the co-maintainers get the mail through the package tracker (if they are subscribed to the "contact" keyword)
1.2. Non-collaborative maintenance
If a maintainer wants to maintain his/her package within a VCS, (s)he can use the collab-maint repository even if the package is not (yet) collaboratively maintained. This is always useful since contributors are more likely to propose patch if they can be sure that the work has not yet been done. That's why the use of a VCS repository should be documented through the Vcs-* field in debian/control.
2. Collaborative maintenance of a set of related packages
If you plan to maintain many related packages with the help of a team, you can request a dedicated Alioth project. Its name should start with "pkg-". This gives you access to all the services associated to an Alioth project (website, mailing lists, trackers, forums, etc.).
Examples of such projects are: pkg-perl, pkg-gnome, ...
2.1. Configuring SVN to send commit notifications
It is very important that you install a SVN hook to send commit notifications to the Debian Package Tracker since this is the canonical way for many people to follow what's happening on a given source package.
Svnmailer is a python script that can be configured to handle this complicated task (extract the package name from the changeset and send out the diff to the right email) and it's available on svn.debian.org. You can find a sample configuration file with full comments (and a sample of a post-commit file for the hooks directory of a subversion repository) in the collab-maint SVN repository: post-commit and svnmailer.conf
You may need to modify the for_paths variable if packages maintained in the repository are somewhere else than in /packages/. If you have a mailing list which should receive all commit notifications, you can comment to_fake and use to_addr, listing there your mailing list for commits.
Please never disclose publicly the dispatch+package_vcs _AT_ tracker.debian.org email address used to send the commit notification. That's why the default configuration above uses bcc_addr instead of to_addr to effectively send the mail to package_cvs@... while pretending to send to package@....
Feel free to ask on #alioth on IRC if you need more information on this subject.
2.2. Setup a basic web site
Having an empty project web page doesn't look good. Please put some useful information in /org/alioth.debian.org/chroot/home/groups/<project>/htdocs, at the very least some links to the subversion repository, to the web page used to follow the status of all the packages maintained within the project, etc.
Check for example http://pkg-perl.alioth.debian.org/.
See also: Alioth/Web
2.3. Configure mailing lists appropriately
If you put a mailing list as Maintainer of a package, you must configure the list to accept mails from anyone otherwise people submitting bug reports and other legitimate mails will get notices indicating that their message is in the moderation queue.
For that, go to the mailman administrative page of the list and click on "Privacy options", "Sender filters" and there you have to change the option "Action to take for postings from non-members for which no explicit action is defined" to "Accept".
This configuration is perfectly acceptable as the anti-spam filters are quite effective. Whitelisting BTS mails is possible with the option "List of non-member addresses whose postings should be automatically accepted". You need to put "^.*@bugs.debian.org" in that field. You should also add "firstname.lastname@example.com" to get notifications by bts-link if upstream uses a bug tracking system that's supported by bts-link. Also consider adding "email@example.com" and "firstname.lastname@example.com" where "PKG" is the source package name. In such case, also set "require_explicit_destination: No".
We strongly encourage you to use the "open to everyone" policy as this is the standard for all lists on lists.debian.org. To do so, in addition to turn off moderation, you have to set "generic_nonmember_action" to "accept" in Privacy options... / Sender filters, set "require_explicit_destination" to "no" in Privacy options... / Recipient filters, and set the value of "max_message_size" at the bottom of the "General Options" to 0.
2.4. Disable Alioth services which are not needed
An Alioth project provide many services like trackers, forums, surveys, file download, etc. Most of those services are activated by default. Please disable all that you don't use via the administration web page.


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Hi, and welcome to RPGWW! New here? Congrats, you're in the right forum! Feel free to make an introductory post telling us a little about yourself (no personal details necessary) and what brings you to our community.
So! RPGWW is an online roleplaying community. If you're interested in putting forth the moderate effort and commitment involved, you're welcome here! It doesn't matter if you're new to the idea and want to try it out for the first time or if you're a veteran of many years, we've got people ready to game with you.
If you've got questions about the way we RP here, or if you're just not sure what to make of things, you can ask RP-related questions in the OOC forum. Or, if you like, you can just hang out and chat wherever--the off-topic forum, Kotoki's Inn, is a good place for just that.
And that should arm you with the basics! Again, welcome, and may the good times roll.


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There are really bad, dogmatic ways to defend evolution, and every once in a while I run into them. And because I'm a wicked jerk, I criticize the people who do that, even when they announce that they are atheists. So this morning I ran into this nonsense on Twitter:
@DrewJPS 'Evolved from mokeys' is theist bollocks. As is 'Macro/micro evo'. Never been uttered in by scientists. Ever. Ignore.
And with that, mine eyes looked up, and beheld Steven Stanley's Macroevolution: Pattern and Process on my bookshelf before me, and I did query @DrewJPS.
Damn. So all my books about macro/micro don't exist?
And I listed a few well known authors who have written books on this topic. Not creationists, but respected scientists and science journalists. And @DrewJPS doubted me.
@DrewJPS .@pzmyers So you're willing to defend macro/micro evo'? Show me peer-reviewed papers. Not yours.
And therefore did I drop the PubMed bomb upon him. And I waited, expecting retraction and apology, and new learning to dawn in the brain of @DrewJPS. Instead, I got an abrupt change of subject.
@DrewJPS @pzmyers Ok, read it. How, as a a free-thinker, did you get rapped up in this 'RadFem' bullshit? Atheismplus is bullshit.
I think I can regard his authoritative contempt for feminism with the same low esteem I hold his opinion on evolution. Bye. Blocked.
Fellow atheists, don't be that guy. Please. It's embarrassing.
It just gets funnier. Now his friends are joining in the act.
@DrewJPS clearly he's a creation scientist. No main stream scientist recognises that term. Francis Collins is a theist and rejects that term
@Brazen_Thinks Also a witch-hunting twat that will send you to prison with no evidence #AtheismPlus
@DFCW It's an group of 'RadFem' that call themselves Altheists. Mental. Not in my name http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Atheism_Plus …
@DrewJPS militant feminists are really annoying.
Clearly, the only possible reason that I would point out their ignorance of a body of thought about evolution is that I'm an annoying militant feminist.


text:
The first image from the set of what may or may not be Steven Soderbergh's last film has a director has landed online. His pre-sabbatical pic is a biopic of famed artist Liberace that he's been developing for quite some time, and we now get our first look at Michael Douglas as the flamboyant pianist and Matt Damon as his lover Scott Thorson in Behind the Candelabra. The scene in question seems to be from Liberace's earlier years given Douglas' hair color, but the two actors definitely have the 70s look down.
Produced by Jerry Weintraub, Behind the Candelabra is skipping the theatrical route and will make its debut on HBO. The impressive ensemble cast includes Rob Lowe, Dan Aykroyd, Debbie Reynolds, and Scott Bakula. I'm eager to see what kind of tone Soderbergh has settled on and whether we're in for a straightforward biopic or something a bit different. Knowing Soderbergh it's most likely the latter, which is a very good thing. Hit the jump to check out the image.


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This page is a historical archive and is no longer maintained.
For current information, please visit http://www.cdc.gov/media/
Press Briefing Transcripts
Weekly 2009 H1N1 Flu Media Briefing
October 29, 2009, 2p.m.
- Audio recording (MPEG)
Operator: Welcome and thank you all for standing by. At this time I'd like to remind parties that your lines are in a listen only mode until the question and answer session at which time you may press star to ask a question. Today's call is being recorded if you have any objections, disconnect at this time. I will now turn the meeting over to Dave Daigle. Thank you, sir, you may begin.
Dave Daigle: Hi, I'm Dave Daigle from CDC Media Relations. Today the Dr. Anne Schuchat, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases will give us an update on the H1N1 virus.
Anne Schuchat: Good afternoon, everyone. We've been carrying out twice weekly full press briefings and today we're just going to give you a little bit of an update. We know that a lot of people have been asking about a few issues. A lot of people are asking about a few issues about vaccines and antivirals. So I'll just briefly catch folks off that. The vaccine distribution and a little bit about anti-viral use. We're expecting a more full briefing tomorrow with new epidemiologic data as well. I want to let you know that as of today, there are 24.8 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine that are available for the states to order. That's 1.6 million more than yesterday. And as we've been saying, although we aren't where we want to be with vaccine availability, we are seeing forward progress with more and more doses becoming available regularly. I know that it's hard to find in many places. And a lot of people do want to be vaccinated which is great. I appreciate the frustration people are seeing as they are unable to find vaccine. And over the next several weeks it should become more easily available. And as I've been saying each day we are seeing forward progress. We're expecting a lot of vaccination effort this is weekend in a number of places. I want to express my appreciation for the incredible work that the state and local health departments are doing in what is a challenging circumstance. We all had hoped to have more vaccine by now than we have. And so states and locals have had to adapt their plans about how many doses will be coming in the days ahead and where to have them delivered, about how to run those clinics. But as you've been seeing around the country, more and more states have been finding that they have sufficient doses to initiate school located clinics and some other mass clinics. As well, many doctor's offices are beginning to get doses. So hopefully things will be getting better. As I said, we're not where we had hoped to have been at this point.
I want to mention a few things about antivirals. There have been some reports about people having trouble finding antivirals, particularly for children. So, what have we been doing about this? A few weeks ago the secretary ordered 300,000 courses of the liquid Tamiflu for children to be shipped out to the states. And that's all going out to the state through the strategic national stockpile. We know there are also capsules of the anti-viral medicine. There are many different size capsules. Many of those are fine for children. In addition, we're working closely with the manufacturers to really understand the supply horizon and understand what is out there in the commercial sector. We're working closely with the states who are managing their stockpiles of these antivirals to get them to the places that don't have them. What we think is going on is really much more of a spot shortage that here and there, you know, there's a pharmacy that doesn't have usually the liquid formulation. But there is quite bit of the capsule formulations out there. There are ways that pharmacies and pharmacists can use the capsules to adapt dosing that is appropriate for children. And we've worked with the FDA and the pharmacists and pharmacies to get information about how to use those capsules, something called compounding where you basically break up the capsules and mix it with a liquid syrup and can have an appropriate dose for kids. So we know that a number of chain pharmacies are doing compounding now. And this should be much more accessible to parents.
There's also information for parents. If your doctor prescribed capsules for your kids but your kids are just not going to take a capsule, there's a way for you to at home break up the capsule, mix it with a liquid syrup like chocolate syrup or unsweetened chocolate syrup and have something that your child can tolerate. I want to remind people about antivirals. They are very important part of our response to the H1N1 virus. Fortunately, most people who get infected with the H1N1 will do fine just with a few days of bed rest and care and, you know, not going to work or school and infecting other people. But don't even need to seek care. But some people do need to seek care and do really need to receive the antiviral medicines. And there are really great tips for parents on flu.gov about warning signs to look for in your child, whether it's important to seek care or not, or whether things are looking okay but start to look worse and you really need to get back in touch with your provider. So when antivirals are prescribed, we want to let people know that there is more out there in the supply system. The formulation that you thought you were going to get may not be the one you were expecting. But that kids can take the capsules mixed in with the syrup and that should be just fine. We're working very closely with the states to understand their needs and be able to fill the gaps that are there. So with that I want to move to questions that people may have. We can start with something in the room if there's a question here.
Betsy McKay: Betsy McKay with Wall Street Journal, a couple questions. I wondered if you'd be able to tell us how many doses have been shipped and also how many -- do you have how many doses have actually been administered? And the second thing is do you have an update on pediatric deaths?
Anne Schuchat: Tomorrow we'll be updating on the pediatric deaths. We do know that a number -- the number of children who have died has increased since our last report. But the full summary will be available tomorrow. And we expect there to be more, unfortunately. The issue with the doses shipped, last spring we sent out about 11 million courses of antivirals including a number of courses for children. October 1st there was an order for an additional 300,000 bottles of the liquid Tamiflu to go out to states to supplement what was already there. The commercial sector is increasing production of the Tamiflu and, of course, there is also Ralenza available. Important to say that capsule production is what is -- has really been increased. There are more and more capsules being made or shipped out. And what we want parents to know is that capsules are fine for kids, even kids that can't swallow pills because there's a way for either the pharmacist or for you at home to convert that capsule into a liquid. The -- I think those were your questions. Did I miss one? I'm sorry. Okay. Right. So that number I don't have. It will come tomorrow. What we're trying to do, just to say we realize that people want information. We want to get you more information, more readily than we have. And I believe pretty soon we'll start to really just post something every day so you can keep track of it. But the shipping information comes in a little bit later than the doses allocated. So hopefully fairly soon you'll be able to follow the progress without us having to call you all in for a press briefing. Okay, another one from the room?
Beth Galvin: Thank you. I'm with Fox 5. I'm just wondering, talking to the flu vaccine manufacturers, what are you hearing from them? What about the delay? Is that going to be something that's going to be ongoing into the future?
Anne Schuchat: There's very active communication with the manufacturers. Of course, we have been talking about this delay in production. And a couple of the factors that led to that are the slow growing virus, the virus just not cooperating in the eggs. And really working closely with the manufacturers to understand what's coming out of manufacturing and what we can expect week to week. Very important to get accurate information so that we can pass that along to the states who are really planning how to use very quickly the doses that get to them. So I know that there's active dialogue. I don't have an update on projections. We had announced that, you know, we were not expected to make the targets by the end of this month. Of course, we won't be making them. But as I said, we are at, as of today, 24.8 million that is allocated to the states for order. So going forward, I think, you know, there is some of the challenges that they have which we believe they've been able to improve. You know, changing the strength so the virus is growing better and some of those fill-finish lines that need to be cleared are now cleared. But we're really trying to avoid estimating exactly how much we're going to have from week to week other than working closely with the states so that they can use the doses as they come out to them. Question from the phone?
Operator: Elizabeth Weise, USA Today your line is open.
Elizabeth Weise: Thank you for taking my call. I wanted to find out, you were talking about the pediatric death rates. Do we have overall death and hospitalization rates for the first wave in the spring and then now the full ever since the flu began?
Anne Schuchat: Right. I can call people's attention to a paper that just came out online in Emerging Infectious Diseases. Carrie Reed is the first author of that paper. She and her colleagues here at CDC estimated the burden of disease in the spring really going from April when this virus first emerged to I think it's July 23rd, really using a modeling approach to take cases that were reported or hospitalization that's were reported and estimating how much really happened? We have been saying that we were just finding the tip of the iceberg with our laboratory confirmed reporting. And, of course, in July we switched away from an individual case counting to other methods. In that paper, although there have been about 44,000 lab confirmed cases reported during that time period, the estimate was between 1.8 and 5.7 million total cases. So a lot more cases than were actually reported through that lab individual case system. Now when you have common conditions like this, it's just not that efficient to use resources to individually count every one of them. And what we do is move to modeling approaches.
They also estimated that there were between 9,000 and 21,000 hospitalization cases during that same time period. Again, more than what we got reports of from the lab confirmed system. And just to think it through, not every case that occurs will result in a person seeking medical care, not every person who seeks medical care will be tested for flu. Not every person who is tested for flu will have a result that is positive. Not every positive result will get reported. And so forth. And so you can imagine how what we count, whether it's cases or hospitalizations or deaths will be underestimates of the full burden. And more and more epidemiologists are looking towards modeling. We don't have an update since the July 24th with this modeling approach. But as Dr. Frieden said last week, we believe many millions of people have already contracted this virus here in the U.S. and that we have had, you know, probably by now well more than 20,000 hospitalizations. This model suggests that even by July we had 20,000 hospitalizations possibly. So, you know, the important thing to say is we're working actively on understanding what's going on and looking forward. And really the priority is to minimize the continuing serious illness and death that we're seeing through these interventions like prompt use of antiviral medicines and vaccination as soon as it becomes available. Another question from the phones?
Operator: Mike Stobbe from Associated Press, your line is open.
Mike Stobbe: Hi. Doctor, thank you for taking the call. Hey, the Tamiflu shortage for children that was first reported a month ago. Can you tell me has it been getting worse or better or have the shortages been moving to different parts of the country? What's been going on in that last month?
Anne Schuchat: You know, we've seen an increased use of the Tamiflu or oseltamivir from the surveillance tracking systems. We're seeing increased use. We believe a higher use among those with underlying conditions who are, you know, when they get flulike illness we recommend they be treated. We are not aware that things are worse. When he done supply projections last month that led to that shipment. October 1st we shipped out the liquid Tamiflu based on projections. We were looking forward at how much is out there and how much is in the system and if things continue with children and children getting ill, will we have enough of the different formulations? So we tried to ship that out before there was a problem. We're not aware of a widespread problem. We are aware from media reports of anecdotal concerns where people are having to call around a lot to find a pharmacy that has the medicines. And so we take that kind of concern seriously and want to let people know that the capsules should be an ample supply and the adult capsules in very ample supply and there are ways pharmacies or you can convert the adult capsules into medicines for kids. And then, of course, the pediatric capsules can be mixed up at home with the syrup. So we're not aware that it's getting worse. We're just aware that, you know, we're seeing a lot of people with flu illness seeking -- who are being prescribed medicine. We want to help with the spot shortage that's have been reported. So another call -- question from the phones?
Operator: The next is from Daniel DeNoon, WebMD.
Daniel DeNoon: Doctor, going back to the EID paper. There is a multiplier that has been used to estimate the cases of 79 cases for each report that you received. Do those -- and a similar is for three per hospitalizations. Do the multipliers still apply? Could we use those kinds of modeling to guess how many people, how many cases there have been and how many hospitalizations there have been as of now?
Anne Schuchat: I think that paper is very helpful in providing a method, a methodology. I think the multipliers need to be taken for a grain of salt. If we think back to April and May, early cases, of course, there was a keen interest in finding out whether this virus had arrived in a place. And a lot more people with milder symptoms were being tested. We don't actually get reports anymore of the individual cases. We only get summary reports of hospitalizations. So the case multiplier would be a challenging thing to track. The hospitalization multiplier might also need to be taken with a grain of salt at this time because we do also have a possibility that some people were being hospitalized early in this outbreak for different reasons than they would be now when this was a new -- newly recognized virus. There were probably some precautionary hospitalizations. So I think that it's an instructive and very helpful analysis. But taking it sort of exactly as is with those multipliers might lead to problems. Next question from the phone?
Operator: The next is from Robert Bazell, NBC news.
Robert Bazell: Hi, doctor. Thank you for taking my call. Two questions if I may. The first is speaking to practitioners, especially pediatricians and internists who are not infectious diseases specialists, they say they're mighty confused by the CDC's recommendations about when to use antivirals. I know you've changed them over time and that the perception of whether there's going to be a shortage and the perception of whether there is a risk of creating resistance has changed over time. And I don't know that you could clear this up in a second. But do you understand why that's the case? And I do have a second question if you'll stay with me.
Anne Schuchat: Sure. Clinical judgment is always important. And I really value the hard work that private -- the frontline practitioners are doing to care for people and to determine whether their patients should come in to see them or just talking with them over the phone. What we recommend right now for antiviral medicines is that focus be on treatment, not on preventative use of the medicines. And that the focus be on treatment of people who have severe presentations, anyone who is hospitalized with suspect or likely flu, whatever kind of flu, should be treated. And you shouldn't wait for the results of a test because that test results even a negative may not be right and it may take some time. So prompt treatment of people with severe illness like those who are hospitalized is important. People with respiratory symptoms and fever, influenza like illness who have chronic conditions like asthma, who are pregnant, who have diabetes, who are very young like children under 2, those are groups where we do recommend antiviral use be the general approach. And then for people who are older -- healthy, otherwise healthy without the chronic conditions who are not pregnant. If they have severe presentations or warning signs, they may not be hospitalized, but they may be actually showing some warning signs in terms of difficulty breathing and so forth that medicines could be important in those circumstances. But for the vast majority of people who have an illness that isn't severe and who don't have the underlying factors like very young age, pregnancy or chronic health conditions, probably just bed rest, fluids and a little TLC is the right way to go. You know, in all of our guidance we really stress that that provider-patient relationship is very important. We think doctors probably do know their patients well and can sense whether things just aren't right. For parents, at flu.gov, there is really helpful information about warning signs to watch for in your children. I encourage you to take a look at. You don't have to just look once. If your child is ill and things are changing a little bit, go look that up again and see how they're doing or give your doctor another call if you're worried. We know that parents have pretty good intuition of something not being right with their children. You have a follow-up?
Robert Bazell: Yes, can still understand why parents and providers is going to be wanting to have antivirals because of just fear and this is the drug that's out there, it's available and it can be used. And you say the patient-doctor relationship is important. Of course this is something that is fairly new to a lot of people. They haven't seen so much illness in young adults. This is one thing. The second thing is that I want you -- would like you to answer is that -- we talked to pharmacists who say they will not formulate Tamiflu because they don't know how to do it. Yet, you're saying that parents should do this at home. Isn't there a danger of parents mixing up drugs at home with chocolate syrup or something else that could end up giving the child the wrong dose?
Anne Schuchat: Thanks for those two questions. I definitely understand that the challenges of our anti-viral -- of our antiviral messages. This is not a black and white situation. Unfortunately, a lot of clinical medicine is like that that evaluation, careful evaluation, talking to the parent really understanding what's going on is very important. What we've tried to do at CDC and with health care community in general is to put out put algorithms that can be helpful, warning signs to watch for, general guidance that can be benchmark for people knowing that that clinical judgment is just as important. Unfortunately we don't have a perfect black and white test that will tell you that this personal absolutely needs medicine, this person definitely doesn't. But we can say that the vast majority of people get better without medicines. And that some people need medicines very promptly. So it's tricky message. It's one I hope it's one we can work together in getting out more clearly.
Your second question is about the pharmacists and parents. It's just apples and oranges. We are asking pharmacists to do something called compounding. They're taking capsules and looking at body weights and dosing and sort of mixing up a couple capsules, maybe more than one capsule with a certain amount of liquid and doing something really under pharmacist's attention that is with a prescription sort of guidance. We know that some pharmacists don't want to do that, but a lot more and more are saying that they will be part of the solution. A number of the chains, I think I mentioned Walmart and Walgreens, I think I've heard recently that Rite-Aid and CVS and many states are saying the pharmacist will do this compounding. Very, very different what we're telling parents. Parents should not compound. At flu.gov, there is information for patients. If you come home if the pharmacy with a prescription from your doctor that is pills and says one pill a day or whatever and you can't get your child to take that pill, there is -- there is a way for you to break up open that pill, mix it with a little syrup and have your child take the full spoonful of the syrup. Very, very different than what we're asking the pharmacist to do. We don't want parents to have to become pharmacists. You have a full-time job being a parent. Next question from the phones?
Operator: Dr. Jon LaPook, medical correspondent, your line is open.
Jon LaPook: Hi. Public health officials believe that ICU's release of antivirals and soon vaccination will make a big difference in the survival of people with H1N1. In parts of the world that don't have these resources right now, is there evidence of increased mortality compared to that seen in the United States?
Anne Schuchat: I'm not aware of information about that yet. But that's a really good question. We work closely with the World Health Organization and partners around the world to understand what's going on and try to help with the situation. We do think that each country has their own challenges and so I don't actually have data to speak to that. I can say, though, that the way that we track illness is a bit different in different countries. You know, some are focusing on illness that's in the hospital. Some are focusing on community surveys of what's going on. So even just comparing what the mortality is country to country is relatively complex. And I think we have time for one more question from the phone.
Operator: The next is from Brian Hartman, ABC. Your line is open.
Brian Hartman: I wonder how tightly do you control the throttle and production of the vaccine? I know that, you know, once the initial you are rush of doctors who really want this vaccine get their shots and get the nasal spray. How do you then calibrate the supply so you don't just end up with a warehouse full of doses that nobody's ever going to get?
Anne Schuchat: We are working very closely with the manufacturers and the states and the private sector to make vaccine available as quickly as it's produced. You know, it's going from manufacturers to a central distributor and then out to the states. And they have a population based formula for how much they get. They are using it as quickly as they can, you know, ordering it as it becomes available and sending it out to many places. I think over the weeks ahead we'll get an idea of where things are with better and better supply and possibly changing demand. One thing I do want to say, though, is over the weeks and months ahead, we may see fluctuations in disease. Disease may go up further. It may start to come down. Even if disease comes down, I think we need to be mindful of the lessons of the past. In 1957 disease went up and then came down towards the end of the fall. And people thought, you know, we don't need to bother to vaccinate. It turned out there was a big, big wave after the first of the year in February and March. And so I think that we'll need to be keeping our eye on demand, as well as the increase in supply and really understand the best way to prevent disease as much as we can. So thanks everybody for this and there will be something more detailed tomorrow.
Dave Daigle: I think we are shooting for 1:30 tomorrow with Dr. Frieden. Thanks. Thank you.
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Grand Opening set for Peter Chang's
Get ready, Charlottesville, the culinary event of the year happens Tuesday, March 1. That's when Peter Chang, the elusive chef who came and went, will have the VIP Grand Opening for Peter Chang's China Grill in the old Wild Greens space in the North Wing of the Barracks Road Shopping Center. According to Chang's partner, Gen Lee, an impressive list of folks are coming to the invite-only affair, including a few well-known journalists and perhaps a movie star or two. But will the chef himself be there?
"Of course," says Lee. "This is Peter Chang's China Grill!"
The day after the grand opening, Chang's will be open to the public for lunch and dinner. See you there, foodies!
Update 2/28: Looks like Barracks Road Shopping Center is organizing a Grand "public" Opening at Chang's on Wednesday, March 2
58 comments
So they welcome this guy with open arms, but give Padow's the boot. Nice.
Calm down everybody, it's just a restaurant. He didn't return because he loves you *so much*, he came back to see if he could make some money here.
@Caroline, exactly.
So who will be the big celebrities that will be at the opening? Sissy Spacek, John Grisham, The Rock, Howie Long, Al Groh, Norm Sprouse???
Celebrities? Invite only? guess I'll have to eat at home next Tuesday... This might take years of therapy but I'm determined to get over it.
He is a busy little chef...just opened a restaurant in Atlanta area in Dec.... http://www.accessatlanta.com/atlanta-restaurants-food/first-look-peter-c...
Well Dave, I suppose YOU'LL be invited! Do you need a date for dinner?
Seriously though, I'm excited he's finally opening. I imagine it's going to be rough going at first because of the crowds. Just hope that he can keep up the quality control from Atlanta.
Will you be there Dave?? Make sure you order a lot then you can have leftovers and take them home with you so you can feast on it for days.
I for one am very glad the General Lee will once again be there. Those Duke boys around here love them some spicy style cooking.
I myself never tried the other restaurant because he was already gone and what's the point then? I will try this place out but only for take out or we can all have a meet up there and people can buy me dinner.
Come on, people: this is a win-win for everyone. If you're a happy foodie-snobby type, you're happy because you can go eat there and tell everyone how good it is. If you're a grumpy foodie-snobby type, you're happy because you can go eat there and tell everyone how overrated it is and how you've had better. If you hate foodie-snobby types, you can complain about how duped the masses are and how you're so much smarter to stick to Applebee's. And if you're Dave, you've got a goldmine of writing material for the next couple months (and, with any luck, an invite to the grand opening!).
I'll try to time my visit just right: after the crowds have thinned a bit, but before the Master decides to move on to greener pastures (Asheville? Burlington?).
really how many ways can you cook rice. whats this one number 40. lets get something else olive garden friendlys dennys
Really, the food at TOC is the same goodness it was when he was there. It's not a big deal if he moves on.
Rambo will be first in line when the restaurant opens up. Remember to ask if they serve pizza
I hope Clayton Stiver will be there.
So much for free speech. Hope you are happy Dave
Dave, you are so right. I apologize.
So who are the well known journalists that were invited? Bob Woodward, Edward R Murrow, Peter Arnet, Peter King, Anderson Cooper??
Rambi apologized!
@ Orchid-- I beg to disagree. I had high hopes that the quality at ToC would remain the same, but for me it hasn't.
I wonder if the celebrity will be a big name like Jim J. Bullock. We can only hope that it will be.
If his mom will let him stay out that late, I hope Henry Graff is there.
Wow, a whole day of posts without the wackos from both sides making this political - you know, from the left "It's Bush's fault he left in the first place.", and from the right "Obama promised Perrellio he could lure Chang with stimulus money."
Good food is good food. I'm looking forward to it!
Will they be serving RAT-a-touille How about chicken-MEOW main ? All the cat and rats near the barracks shopping center Look Out !!!
Will the whole Newsplex staff attend They can just record the news share it with each other and no one will know the difference.
If they have a table for 12 I will bring my entourage.
I love Chinese food, as well as the many facets of Asian culture in general! this is VERY exciting news...
I'm sure he does like it here and I look forward to tasting his legendary food. There's just this funny assumption (I've lived in the area for almost 30 years now, for what it's worth) that businesses come here solely because Charlottesville is so magically awesome. And while that is true to some extent, any smart entrepreneur is looking at his bottom line...and knows people here will follow the buzz and open their wallets accordingly.
Do people here ever eat twice at the same Chinese restaurant?
I have pretty low standards for Chinese, but I can't imagine it.
Oh sure they do. It's not Chinese, it's Vietnamese, but I could eat at Mekong in Richmond every day of my life. Or Tara Thai. *sigh*
Best chow-mein east of Memphis. Quote me.
Everyone knows Olive Garden has the best chow-mein.
So I wonder how expensive the meals will be. Speaking of Olive Garden I use to love going there all the time. When will they build one in Cville? The soup and salad deal can't be beat. Better yet they should build a Maggianos here in Charlottesville. Any of you nuts been there?? It's pretty good for italian and they give you a ton of food. Come on someone take me out for dinner.
I just looked up Mekong on yelp and that place has good reviews. I'll have to try that place out next time I'm down in Richmond.
Yes, Thanks Katherine for the word on those spots in Richmond.
Frankly, I don't have much hope for Chang's. Sure, the people who are eating in Taiwan Garden and Flaming Wok are gonna love it.
What's the point of going to a renowned chef's restaurant if you don't even know what to order? When Chang was at TOC I heard people ordering the same American-Chinese food you find at any crappy chinese restaurant. Chang's thing is cooking Chinese, not Chinese-American, so don't bother going if you plan on ordering crag rangoon and sweet and sour chicken. And TOC is still fantastic.
mudge: you are 100% correct on both counts. If you are just planning order the American Chinese stuff, you might as well go to the other absolute crap Chinese restaurants that Cville has been cursed with over the years. And yes, ToC is still very very good.
I was disappointed I never got a chance to go to TOC while Change was still there. Definitely looking forward to trying this place. I just wish I got an invite to the private grand opening. I Pee U Poo seems to think Norm Sprouse might be there!!!!!
Most Chinese restaurants outside of real Chinatowns serve crap food. Ifyou want good Chinese food you have to eat at restaurants where you see Chinese people eating. I am excited to try Chang's new place and I will continue to eat at TOC.
@Red Fields - you are absolutely right, good Chinese food is found where Chinese people are eating, but it goes beyond that - you have to order what they are eating as well. It's a shame most of the would-be Chang foodies don't even know what a hot-pot is.
I think some good chinese food is dim sum. Who in here has had dim sum??? That stuff is great as you get all types of different types of food. It's like tapas. I doubt this place will have that but I love it. So who is the big celebrity that will be there? Schylyer Fisk and the SPCA? Jack Fisk?
Not really a "Grand Opening" if it's only open to a few people that day. I've lived here all my life, and I have never heard of a restaurant publicizing a private opening, this is not NYC.
The real Grand Opening is March 2nd.
I have eaten at Taste of China, Peter Chang's previous Charlottesville (ad)venture at least 20 times since he scuttled off to generate buzz elsewhere, and it is still an excellent Szechuan-style restaurant. Chang strikes me as neurotic and manipulative. Big fish in a little pond.
iobehmom what do you recommend to get from there??
@ Red Fields
"If you want good Chinese food you have to eat at restaurants where you see Chinese people eating."
Not necessarily. Chinese people eat some scary stuff. I'm not so sure I want to eat *real* Chinese food for that reason. ;D I'll continue being a delusional white American who's happy with my buffets full of fake Chinese food. :D
What luck! I just drove by Peter Chang's and found the place open for a soft opening. Probably the only time I won't have to wait for a table for the next few weeks. Food was great.
Charlie C- Were you hungry an hour later? Think about it, now, were you?
Outside at the place in Barracks Road it says on the front of the building "Peter Chang China Grill"....is it Peter Chang's China Grill? And the service is deplorable there. Worst I have ever seen in Charlottesville... Food is delicious... I hope they figure it out!
"Kitchen Nightmares" 2011...
The Charlottesville hipster dbag crowd overrates Chang and the service was horrible at his last restaurant.
What is it with the headlines on the front page? Every other time I load the Hook page it seems like the main headlines revert back to what the headlines were a week ago. All the "current" headlines up there now, including this story, Padows, the Ragged Mountain fire, Donald Trump, Corsair, etc. are old news. Then I reload the page again and it's the current headlines. Then I reload again and it's back to the headlines from 1-2 weeks ago. Is this something on The Hook's end, or is it my computer cookies or something??
@ I Pee -- MEKONG in Richmond, absolutely fabulous. Worth the drive.
Haven't eaten at Chang's yet, just waiting for the hype to die down. My understanding is that the man himself has already headed back to Atlanta. Not sure what impact if any this will have on the quality of food there. As I said initially, he came to C'ville to open a restaurant and make money...not because he loves us special.
Finally ate @ Chang's yesterday. Honestly? It was good/very good, but I can't say excellent. Pork buns were pretty much like dumplings you find anywhere with the caveat that the wrapper was a very nice texture. The fried eggplant appetizer, while seasoned well, was too salty in some bites and not salty at all in others. Also, the cornstarch breading was too thick/not quite right....I've made this at home with better results. Seafood pot w/ numbing sauce was tasty -- difficult to get cellophane noodles up from the bottom of the pot and the sauce itself was super OILY! The food was tasty enough to go back for, but I can't say it's the "best" Asian cuisine I've ever had. Perhaps Chang should have hung around longer to train the chefs? Also, the waiter and maitre d' acted like we were visiting the White House or something: "Is this the first time you've been here??!!" repeated several times. Yes I will go back to give it another shot. (p.s. no full BAR? seriously...)


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I had slips of paper with their name on it (in Lego font of course) so they just needed to write their estimation on it. This jar and an empty jar to place their slips in were on the party table. After most everyone arrived we played the hit of the party, especially among the boys!
It is similar to Pictionary and they do sell it as a Lego game called Creationary. I spent some time on YouTube checking it out. First of all I wasn't going to invest more into this party (the game isn't cheap) and second, the reviews weren't great. They said the idea behind the game was good, but there weren't enough bricks. So I decided to create the game myself. First we sorted our Lego bricks by color. I used a party tray (veggie tray) to store them in. Next I made the cards. I made 9 cards in five different themes. We had animals, nature, vehicles, buildings, and food. I printed the pictures off on white paper and then I printed number cards on colored paper with each number having its own color. I cut all the cards out and glued a picture to a number card keeping all the same theme with the same number/color of paper. For example all of the nature themed cards were on green paper with the number 5 on the back. I then laminated the cards for durability.
|These are the building cards.
I didn't give the winners anything special. Instead after each child played each game they were able to go pick a Lego Crayon Man:
Sorry this isn't the best picture. I went a little crazy in the crayon prep and made a whole bunch of these cute men. We laid them out in rows of color and wrote their color at the bottom of the row. After each game was completed they picked out a new crayon. So far two games were played - guesstemation (being a little creative with the words - estimate/guess) and the creationary game.
Next we played pin the head on the Lego man with the heads they created:
Using a projector at work I traced a Lego Figure onto a large piece of paper. I brought it home to create our Lego Man. First I took wrapping paper in red and blue. Using spray adhesive I adhered the paper wrong sides together so it became double sided. I cut out the pants out of blue, shirt out of red, and the hands and head out of yellow paper. I drew on some details. We gave the front of our Lego Man a face, but left the back blank. I hung him on the glass door and taped some balloons in his hand (it turned out to be a VERY windy day so the balloons ended up getting taped in several places). When the party goers came to the door our Lego Man was there to great them. When it came time for the game you could still see him on the inside minus a face. If you look at the collage above you can see some of their artistic abilities.
We announced the winners of the guessing game and then had cake, ice cream, and presents. Then it was back to more games.
For this game you had to use a straw and move all your Lego pieces off of your plate and onto the floor using only your sucking power. You could also spread out Lego pieces on a table, set a timer and see how many pieces you could put on your plate using a straw and sucking in a set amount of time. The birthday girl liked the first idea so that is what we did:
To make it more fun I took yellow square plates and drew Lego faces on them. We also added the top part of the head by cutting it out of construction paper and gluing it on. I used polka dotted straws and hot glued a Lego head to it. I forgot to take pictures, but they are the same heads I used for the juice straws. We put equal bricks on the plates, same size and amount on each plate. They formed a circle with their backs to the center. On go they moved those bricks off their plate as fast as the could. After the game they could keep their plate and straw if they wanted.
The next game was memory. I had a friend save baby food jars. I painted them like I have seen on various blogs. I used spray paint, but it has been cold, wet, and windy here. Unfortunately I don't have a garage so I tried to cheat and many of them didn't turn out well. So I switched tactics (wish I thought of this first) - I put some yellow paint inside the jars, swirled it around and then dumped out the extra. They were nice and smooth and pretty. To make the faces I wrote on the jars with a sharpie. The jars that had paint inside were actually easier to write on.
On the bottom of the jars I put pictures of Lego pieces. I had two of each picture. The kids played just like memory. Inside of the jars I had Lego Mini Figures. I was going to use them for the next game, but we ran out of time.
The last game ended up being fun. We played it on Date Night. (To see how we do Date Night see this post).
This was an idea floating around Pinterest, but it was just a picture, no game. I wanted to play the game so I created it. You need one die, a mini figure (one per player), a board, and Lego bricks. Above the kids used a 2x4 Lego block but a 2x2 or 2x3 would fit a little better. I made a couple options. I chose to print the first link (it used less ink) and trim it down. I then glued it to colored card stock and laminated. To play you roll the die and follow the instructions. They always have one base block and can never lose that one. They loved the game and played it several times.
If you choose to download, please become a follower first (on the right). I'm happy to share my creations with my followers. If you would like to leave a comment too that would totally make my day!
I link up with parties listed here.
Lego Party Part 3 Coming soon.


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Diskit Monastery
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More Information
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Want something a little different than your typical meet up spot or lounge downtown, here's an option – PaintLounge. Paintlounge is located around the Highway 7 and Warden area in Markham. Samantha the Chief Paintlounger or aka, the brains behind it all didn't graduate with an art degree or something, in fact it was far from that. She's coming from an engineering background and even worked as a banker. But before becoming 'responsible', she has always loved painting. In fact, she started when she was 3 and once she got hold of a paintbrush, she couldn't put it down.
| paintlounge.ca
118 Main Street N
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(416) 900-2633
When asked to put into seven words or less for how she would describe Paintlounge, Sam answers,
"A space for everyone to create art."
That was the inspiration behind it all. She found that space and supplies was always a problem in Toronto and art studios tended to be primarily for artists. There wasn't really a space for "non-artist" to simply come in and paint without worrying about the hassle of supplies. Sam found art to be a good way to relax during her free time, a little break from it all.
How it works at Paintlounge is everything is supplied. All you have to do is pick your canvas size and all the paint and paintbrushes are provided. The cost does increase as bigger canvas sizes are selected, but you can always have a few friends help you create your masterpiece (max 3 people per canvas). As well, there are some light snacks like cookies and cupcakes that are supplied by awesomeinabox. Your usual suspects like coffee, lattes and tea found at a coffeshop are also available. In fact, I would recommend the Fiz Tea which is nice and light. It's a little drink that's actually made completely in house. If you find yourself coming back more often, then becoming an Elite member would be a good option. For $30 a year you get perks like a XS Canvas that's 16×20″ (Valued at $30) on your birthday, priority waitlist for events and discount on all snacks and drinks.
If you're a little less gifted in art like I am, there are talented staff on hand to even help someone like me create something memorable. Adult and kid workshops are also available if you want a more dedicated and focused program to hone in your skills. In addition to these workshops, Paintlounge host a number of events each month. They have an event called, Espressions which focuses on painting and music. People can come in and share their thoughts and mingle with a live band that plays right on site. This happens every last Saturday of the month. IHeartArt is another event that happens once every quarter where they mix speed dating with art. It's an interesting concept that's been really well received. They've already had 3 events so far with the next one slotted in for November.
Overall, I enjoyed Paintlounge. I mean, I wish there was a location downtown but I got a feeling that will come in time. And Samantha really embodies the spirit of Paintlounge… "a space for anyone to paint, just for a few hours, with supplies included and helpful staff to give you advice if you need some." I hope you all get a chance to drop by. Maybe even bring a date to show your artsy side. =P. Here's a little something to our readers. The first 5 comments to be added on this post on what painting means to you will get a $10 Discount off on your next visit to Paintlounge. We'll email you a special discount that's been given just to us. So check out Paintlounge, it's a place to paint that masterpiece of yours that's always been in your head. A place to let loose and get away from it all, even if it's only for a few hours.
The Damage: starting at $30 for a XS Canvas (More prices here: Canvas Prices)


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Very thankful to be in the company of tireless, dedicated patriots here in South Florida.
The last meeting before the do-or-die 2010 midterm elections was held the other night in West Palm Beach. At my friend Steve Rosenblum's suggestion, all candidates in attendance were afforded an opportunity to speak first before attending to other business. I am so proud of everyone running and can only say that after listening to their presentations, I more excited than ever about next month's elections. Florida has an excellent slate of candidates, and I am thrilled to support them via precinct walking, robo-calls (in the case of Pam Bondi), blog posts, social media and every form of activism available to us in the 21st Century.
One of the most dynamic, passionate and gentlemanly among them is Bernard Sansaricq, an intelligent, articulate voice for American freedom who is running against impeached judge/thug Alcee Hastings in Florida Congressional District 23. Bernard exuberantly announced Newt Gingrich's recent endorsement of his campaign, to the delight of the entire audience, before noting that Belle Glade — Hasting's place of birth and the poorest area of the state — is suffering with 42% unemployment.
At a recent Belle Glade debate reported on by my friend and tireless patriot Yomin Postelnik, Hastings threatened Sansaricq after challenging him to a debate in which the statesman noted:
"I have visited Belle Glade 20 times since the beginning of the campaign and I intend on being YOUR Congressman. And I won't tell you that you need to hire a lobbyist when you need something from me. That's because your congressman is elected to be your lobbyist!
Belle Glade has a 42% unemployment rate. You can be sure that when elected, I won't hire some girlfriend and pay her $160,000 of the people's money when those funds can be used to hire eight people in Belle Glade. I also won't take trips to Europe with that girlfriend on the taxpayer dime. I will remain here and have a presence in the district, fighting for you."
Alcee's response, in full earshot of all of the assembled elderly residents of the no longer Quiet Waters, "You'd better travel safe! You'd better travel safe! You'd better travel safe!"
For those who don't understand thug-ese, that's a desperate threat (albeit an empty one) on Bernard Sansaricq's life. — Yomin Postelnik
In case it's not perfectly clear from that short excerpt, Florida CD-23 is in desperate need of strong, principled leadership — and Bernard Sansaricq is the perfect man to deliver it. Please visit his site and donate anything you can.
In fact, take a look at each of these great candidates and do whatever you can to help. Our freedom depends on it.


text:
IMPOSSIBLE! Clash of Clans War Bases From Creators o...Galadon Gaming - Clash Royale, Clash of Clans and More
- Video description
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Milwaukee Brewers to open season at home against Braves
The Milwaukee Brewers will open the 2014 season at home March 31 against the Atlanta Braves.
After a three-game home series, the team will leave for Boston and Philadelphia.
Mobile users, click here to see schedule
The Brewers will play at home on Mother's Day, Memorial Day, May 26 and Father's Day.
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Back in August we had our first homebrewing workshop of 2013 at 091 Labs, and it was a great success! A member of the local brewing community guided nine intrepid attendees through the ins and outs of their first kit brew, from basic theory, through fermentation to bottling and conditioning. Their reward: twenty bottles of beer they had made themselves and the basic skills needed to move on to their next brewing project with confidence. We really couldn't have done it without the skills and patience of Geoff, homebrewer extraordinaire, and the participation of Home Brew West, Ireland's largest supplier of homebrewing equipment.
Starting this Saturday the 12th of October at 12pm we'll be kicking off our second round of workshops geared towards first-time brewers who want to be shown the ropes by an experienced home brewer and learn to avoid the common pitfalls that can ruin a first brew. The cost of this workshop is €35pp and attendees will get to bring home 20 bottles/20 pints/10 litres of their brew at the end of the course. The course will be run with 2 people per brew kit (basically sharing the workload and end product brew).
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This is a strictly over-18s event, ID will be required if necessary.


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David A. Okken
Last year was a very difficult year for our young church in Nakaale. The attacks of the Evil One were severe and felt deeply. It was heartbreaking to see church members falling into sin, especially as it happened among three men whose faith in Christ and growth in grace had so encouraged us.
Our hearts ached as we asked ourselves, "How could these dear brothers be following some of the very practices that they had renounced?" As believers in Christ, they had promised to walk in obedience to his commandments. In particular, they had professed their belief that God desires marriage to be between one man and one woman. As husbands, each had promised to be faithful to his one wife. Now, we were discovering, they had decided to take additional wives. In almost twelve years of ministry in Karamoja, I had never felt so discouraged.
In an e-mail update, I shared these struggles that we were experiencing. Among the many encouraging responses that I received was a communication from one brother who reminded me of the great difficulty that the apostle Paul had with immorality in the early church. When we think of Corinth, we remember that the gospel of Jesus Christ had come to an evil culture. That it had come in great power was evidenced by the men and women who had been converted out of extremely wicked lifestyles.
In his first letter to that church, Paul reminded them that some of their members had been sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, greedy, drunkards, revilers, and swindlers (1 Cor. 6:9–10). And even though Paul could write that they were no longer such, but had now been washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God (v. 11), the struggle with sin was not over. It seems that their pagan background continued to aid and abet their sinful natures.
Add to that the insidious false teachings within the church (e.g., antinomianism) condoning immorality. Believers faced the danger of being deceived into thinking that they could be Christians while willfully continuing to follow the sinful practices of the culture. Hence Paul's strong warning (v. 9): "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived." Similar warnings in other epistles (Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5) indicate that the problem was not unique to Corinth. Sinful practices from pagan backgrounds threatened to creep into Christ's church in many places.
In Karamoja, we are struggling against an approach to marriage that is deeply embedded in the culture. Sometimes it feels like, in telling our friends to abstain from certain practices, we are asking them not to breathe. This is a culture in which young girls are commonly treated by their parents or husbands more like possessions than persons created in the image of God. After a man and a woman have already begun living as husband and wife, parents retain ownership of their daughter until the dowry has been paid in full. Generally, that does not happen for many years. So a "wife" may be reclaimed by her parents, even if it is contrary to her wishes, and given to a better suitor who can more quickly pay the cows (the dowry).
It saddens us deeply to see persons going in and out of "marriages" this way. Furthermore, polygamy is rampant. The commonly prescribed remedy for a troublesome wife is to take another one. It is common even among members of the Roman Catholic and Anglican Church (Church of Uganda). Folks are certainly taught by example, if not by false doctrine, that you can be a Christian and live by the standards of the world.
In 2001, when we first came to Karamoja and observed all of this, I was determined that it would be different in the Presbyterian and Reformed churches that we would plant. We just needed to preach the true, clear biblical gospel in all of its fullness. Surely the Spirit would work powerfully in the hearts of men and women, so that they would see the glory and grace of Jesus and turn to him in true repentance and faith. They would gladly leave behind the polygamy, along with all of the other unsatisfying, sinful practices of the culture. Our churches would be full of examples of godly, monogamous Christian marriages. Well, here we were, eleven years later, in 2012. Our dear brothers, members of Nakaale Presbyterian Church, had given in to the influences of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Heartbroken, how could I not ask myself, "What have I done wrong here?"
There is no doubt that we have made mistakes in our ministry. Nonetheless, my friend's encouragement was right on. We were facing struggles very similar to those that Paul faced. Had Paul preached a deficient gospel or compromised his life or doctrine? As we read his letters to the Corinthians, every indication is that he proclaimed and lived the gospel without compromise (see, for example, 1 Cor. 9:23–27). Surely, Paul could say to them what he told the elders from Ephesus: "I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:27).
Yet Paul too found himself heartbroken over sin in the church. Prior to his visit to Corinth, while ministering in Macedonia (Acts 20:2), Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "I fear that when I come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality that they have practiced" (2 Cor. 12:21). Such sin was no doubt a significant cause of the daily pressure he felt from his anxiety for the churches, which he listed along with all of his other sufferings for the gospel (2 Cor. 11:28).
Such is life in God's kingdom as it exists in this world, and we await its coming in glory. Yes, as it was for Paul, so it will be in Karamoja and the church everywhere, as the gospel continues to fill the earth. There will be an ongoing conflict with sin, even among the saints. And we should be encouraged that, even amidst the "lost battles," God is at work. Christ is in control and continues to fulfill his great purposes.
In the case of Paul, within three months of arriving in Corinth (Acts 20:2–3), he penned his epistle to the Romans, in which he wrote that his work in the East (including Corinth) had been fulfilled. We do not know the details of the confrontation that occurred between Paul and the Corinthians, but it seems likely that the Spirit worked repentance on the part of many. In this way, the sin in the church became an occasion for Christ to bring a great victory in the fight against immorality. No doubt the battles would continue. Yet Paul would not look back on his ministry as a grand failure, but could instead write that he had "fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ" (Rom. 15:19).
May this encourage us all never to give up in the battle against sin. Let us persevere, even through the heartaches. Christ is faithful. This is a war that he has won! In Karamoja, we were encouraged that all three men were willing to stand before the congregation of Nakaale Presbyterian Church and confess their sin. It was a great opportunity to demonstrate before the world that sin should not simply be overlooked among God's people who are called to be holy. What a humbling reminder to us all of our need of grace! We praise God for forgiveness through Jesus' blood and for the ongoing work of the Spirit in us all. Let us press on until that day when the battle will be over, sin will be no more, and we will be with Christ forever in the dwelling place of righteousness (2 Pet. 3:13)!
The author is an OP missionary in Karamoja, Uganda. New Horizons, May 2013.
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