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Terms & Conditions
1 Definitions
1.1 The "Buyer" means the Account Applicant or person who buys or agrees to buy Goods from the Seller.
1.2 The "Seller" means Coldene Castors Ltd, Unit 6 Anglo Business Park, Smeaton Close, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, HP19 8UP
1.3 "Terms and Conditions" means the Terms and Conditions of Sale set out in this document and any special conditions agreed in writing by the Seller.
2 Our Contract
2.1 These Terms and Conditions govern the supply of goods sold by the seller to the buyer. These Terms and Conditions constitute the entire and only agreement between us in relation thereto. Our acceptance of your order by delivery of the goods constitutes a legally binding contract between us on these terms and conditions.
2.2 These Terms and Conditions supersede all previous terms and conditions issued by the seller and the buyer agrees to be governed by them in all matters arising from the purchase of goods or services from the seller.
3 Price and Payment
3.1 You can pay for your order by Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, and PayPal via Sage Pay.
3.2 The price payable for the goods you order is as at the time you place your order or, if you order from one of our catalogues, as set out in the catalogue from which you order provided it is a current catalogue, plus any charges for carriage.
3.3 Subject to clause 3.4, we must receive payment for the whole of the price of the goods you order, and any applicable charges for carriage and insurance, before your order can be accepted unless we have agreed otherwise in advance in writing.
3.4 If you are an account customer, payment shall be made in full at the end of the month following date of invoice. Time shall be of the essence for payment. We may revoke credit if you fail to make payment when due. If payment is not made when due, interest is payable at the rate of 3 per cent over RBS's then current base rate on the amount outstanding from the due date for payment until receipt by us of the full amount (including any accrued interest) whether before or after judgement, together with any reasonable legal or other recovery costs.
3.5 All prices quoted are subject to VAT at the prevailing rate on the date of despatch (currently 20%).
3.6 Prices are valid for a period of 30 days from the date of any written or verbal quotation creation.
3.7 No payment transaction will be completed until immediately prior to the point of despatch.
4 Delivery and Title
4.1 Unless you tell us you wish to collect the goods, we will deliver them in accordance with your order. A valid signature will be required on collection or delivery.
4.2 Title of goods will remain with Coldene Castors Limited until such time as all goods are paid for in full. Immediately prior to despatch of the goods to you, title in the goods will pass to you when the order has been accompanied by full payment.
4.3 In the unlikely event that you have not received all the goods within 21 days of the date of delivery (or where you have requested a delayed despatch within 21 days of the requested despatch date), you must notify us immediately.
5 Availability
5.1 While we endeavour to hold sufficient stock to meet all orders, if we have insufficient stock to supply or deliver the goods ordered and paid for by you, we may, at our discretion, supply or deliver a substituted product or refund you the price paid for such goods as soon as possible and in any case within 30 days or, in the case of an account customer, we may, in our absolute discretion, as soon as possible raise a credit to offset the amount invoiced to you.
6 Returns, Shortages and Items Received Damaged
6.1 You may return any unwanted, faulty or damaged goods to us within 30 days there is a 25% handling charge & restocking charge providing the goods, including packaging, are in a re-sellable condition.
6.2 In the unlikely event of your order being supplied incomplete or goods arriving damaged in transit you must notify us in writing within 3 days of delivery.
6.3 We will refund the same method of payment used to purchase the goods once we have received the goods and confirmed that they are in compliance with 6.1 and/or 6.2
7 Liability
7.1 If you have notified us of a problem with the goods, we will either make good any shortage or non-delivery; replace or repair any goods that are damaged or defective upon delivery; or refund to you the amount paid by you for the goods in question.
7.2 We will not be liable to you for any loss of profits, administrative inconvenience, disappointment, indirect or consequential loss or damage arising out of any problem in relation to the goods and we shall have no liability to pay any money to you by way of compensation other than any refund we make under these terms and conditions.
7.3 This does not affect your statutory rights as a consumer, nor is it intended to exclude our liability to you for fraudulent misrepresentation or for death or personal injury resulting from our negligence.
8 Termination
8.1 The seller may suspend further supply or delivery, stop any goods in transit or terminate our contract by notice in writing to you if you are in breach of an obligation hereunder or you become unable to pay your debts when they fall due or proceedings are commenced by or against you alleging bankruptcy or insolvency.
8.2 Upon termination, the buyer's indebtedness to us becomes immediately due and payable and we shall be under no further obligation to supply goods.
9 Force Majure
9.1 In the event that the Seller is prevented from carrying out its obligations under a contract for sale as a result of any cause beyond its control such as but not limited to Acts of God, War, Strikes, Lock-outs, Flood and Failure of third parties to deliver goods, the Seller shall be relieved of its obligations and liabilities under such contract for sale for as long as such fulfilment is prevented.
10 General
10.1 If any part of these conditions is invalid, illegal or unenforceable (including any provision in which we exclude our liability to you) the validity, legality or enforceability of any other part of these conditions will not be affected.
10.2 Where any terms or conditions may be valid by the inclusion or exclusion of one or more conditions it will be considered that those amendments have taken place.
10.3 This contract shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with English law.
11 Health and Safety
11.1 By purchasing from Coldene Castors Ltd you acknowledge that you are aware of all Health and Safety requirements pertaining to the products and their application.
11.2 By purchasing from First Castors you assume full liability for the consequences of your actions and acknowledge that you are obliged to report any misuse or abuse of the sellers products and/or services.
Coldene Castors Ltd
Exact products may vary from that shown. All products are subject to availability.


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Universities Push Fetishes On Campus
Universities have long abandoned the idea that some lifestyles are better than others. Morality is an outdated idea on your typical college campus. Events such as these–promoting behavior that has no place in a decent society–are the result of an environment that refuses to distinguish between the moral and immoral.

subset: commoncrawl


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On Monday evening, it was pretty clear Highway 210 wouldn't be open for long. I was about halfway through one portion where water had covered the road when I had the image of Mary Lucia telling the story of the blogger who got himself swept into the flood by doing something he knows he shouldn't have been doing. "Turn around, don't drown," National Guard Capt. Chuck Moore intoned when I told him about the situation later.
A Chevy Cavalier isn't much of an off-road vehicle.


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Sullivan Alliance for Sustainable Development (SASD) is a network of individuals, businesses and organizations whose goal is to implement a new economic model for Sullivan County based on projects that are socially and environmentally responsible.
SASD's mission is to foster economic development that is environmentally and economically sustainable as well as socially responsible, generating jobs that provide a living wage within the greater Sullivan County region.
SASD shall accomplish its mission through, but not limited to: providing educational forums and workshops; publishing articles; cooperating with business, governmental and community organizations; conducting and collaborating on studies; serving as a resource for maintaining and disseminating relevant data and information; and planning, promoting and coordinating green building and renewable energy projects.


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This whimsically themed vacation resort combines the fun of surf, sand and sun with the creativity of LEGO® bricks on a picturesque site next to Lake Dexter, adjacent to the Theme Park. Distinguished by a colorful LEGO lighthouse, the village-style, lakefront resort features 83 single-story beach bungalows, offering 166 separate accommodations that sleep up to five.
Sign up below to receive updates!


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The basic rules of successful business engagement haven't changed much since early man discovered the benefits of bartering goods in a rough form of trade. Modern business owners still use this model: it's about knowing what clients need and being able to deliver on these needs in exchange for profit.
While these rules remain static, business environments have become far more dynamic—and considerably faster. Think of it as shooting clay pigeons as they fly through the air. You need to adjust your sights and shoot just ahead of your target to make sure that as those clay discs move forward in their trajectory, your projectile is there to meet it head on…and you have to do it quickly. The business implication is that not only do you have to change your action – you have to change your strategy to meet rapidly changing demands. Not only do you need speed, you need to apply that speed to customer demands that will migrate.
So the elements of speed and adjusting your reaction to customer needs has come into play. Businesses who take aim at their customers' needs and try to shoot incrementally closer to what they think might be the bulls-eye of client expectations are doing it wrong already: primarily because delivery methodologies are slow and expensive to change.
How then can businesses stay competitive in an environment that changes at this speed? Of course the first step is to more regularly assess the needs of clients, and to adjust before one's competitors do. Then one needs to be able to do business where and when customers demand it, and to adjust communication and business models quickly and seamlessly. When it comes to taking your business mobile, one simply has to look around and recognise that there are compelling ways for businesses to shoot just ahead of target. This requires both a cultural adaptation that recognises that change is a constant, and the technological platform to be able to react fast and at low risk and cost levels.
Making sure that you can engage with your target market on their terms will within a few years become non-negotiable. Businesses that cannot do this will disappear. This is why more and more businesses are developing mobile strategies and launching apps to further convenience their customers.
With this in mind, the success of your business is purely contingent on whether you are able to engage with your target market on their terms and to do so at low levels of cost and risk, - faster than your competition.
Measuring the true cost of change
Given the chequered past of application development, CFOs have been sceptical of attempts to introduce new business-driving applications. And with good reason: tying up and prioritising IT skills and resources into certain applications and delaying development of others has hurt top lines. But history has also taught us that application development takes a long time and often involve overruns and problems that no one was able to predict. They often become budgetary and operational nightmares.
There used to be a real risk of undertaking application development that would starve the bottom line, and yield little return on investment. Happily, times have changed. New age application development and deployment environments enable businesses to develop applications using the skills and legacy systems (whether that's a server environment or an ERP system) at hand. Seamlessly building on and integrating with what you have means you are spending so much less on developing and deploying business-boosting innovations.
Because businesses can use the developers and systems they have in place, and develop business solutions on average six times faster – businesses using these tools are saving up to 75% of their development costs and significantly reducing risk and development time. Because the old rule still applies: the quicker you change, the less it costs. Less development time, quick deployments, empowering the workforce you have to drive the change and using thesystems at hand means that developing apps have suddenly become significantly less risky, and a whole lot less expensive
Add to that the fact that developers are using open, industry standard code and server stacks without being locked into a proprietary framework – the long-term cost benefits reveal themselves. The IP belongs to the user, and once the app is deployed there is no long term reliance on any single platform – securing the investment for the long haul.
In the end, however, it still boils down to the customer. Loyal customers have their needs addressed instantly. When developers can respond to customer needs quickly without compromising the integrity of the application – it means costly development and the risk of downtime has been reduced.
And with the cost of change dramatically reduced, the cost of doing nothing, and the inevitable result of stagnation has just become so much higher.
Craig Terblanche: Director at OutSystems South Africa


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Special delivery! Why not send a spectacular balloon in a box gift delivery.
The box has tissue inside and the balloon is attached to a weight. When the box is opened the balloon will spring out! The box itself is decorated with ribbon and a bow.
© Balloonland . 2015


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'Better Call Saul' Latest Teaser Revealed.December 23, 2014
To Saul Goodman "MONEY is the point," Walter White's future ATTORNEY explains on the AMC throwback series
Saul Goodman is seeking atonement in the new teaser trailer for AMC's "Better Call Saul."
Well, that's not entirely correct: It is actually James M. McGill — what Goodman used to be known as — who makes that declaration in the 30-second snippet for the upcoming "Breaking Bad" prequel. And, also, he doesn't really care about the humanity aspect of the atonement — he just wants the money and the courtroom "W."
At one point during the short-yet-footage-filled teaser, Goodman/McGill is dumped in the desert, tied up and gagged with duct tape. That's a look the lawyer would get used to later in his career.
Also popping up in the short video is star Bob Odenkirk's fellow sketch comedian Michael McKean, who clearly is less about the Benjamins than ...read more


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Editorial, by Stone Korshak
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Many of our regular heavy readers may have noticed something new on The Rio Times web site, which started as a "soft launch" earlier this month. After reading more than three articles per week we are charging a small subscription fee of US$5 per month (or US$50 per year), in the publishing business this has been called a "paywall" and it is the newspaper industry's best chance at surviving.
The way it works is that a "meter" is now on the site, and it keeps track of how many articles you are looking at. After the first two articles it tells you that for the price of a fancy coffee drink or a bottle of beer per month, you can help us continue to provide English language news about Rio de Janeiro and Brazil. But if you still feel like you should not have to pay, you can close that message and continue.
Next, after the third article in a week (that means twelve articles per month), you are asked again, and this time in order to continue we require that you pay for the service. About 85 percent of our readers are looking at under ten articles per month or less, so this effects about fifteen percent of our audience, and we hope that group of regular heavy readers will see the value.
We have been considering this model for years like most news publishers, and the general industry trend is going in this direction. It may not save the news business, but it is its best hope of being able to continue to pay for reporters and editors, production services and the administration needed to create the product – the news that you read.
The general thought on paywalls is that the more specific and niche the content, the more valid it is to charge for it. We feel we have a very specific news product, and that the fifteen percent of our regular heavy readers should be able to pay this small (let's face it nominal) cost, and unfortunately those that can't or won't, probably are not who we should be focusing on as a business.
Those that are close to The Rio Times, either our past and present news team, advertising partners and friends and family know how challenging keeping this service alive has been. In our six-year history we have lost money every year but in 2011, when Brazil was booming, and in the last six months we have gone through major changes trying to find a sustainable model.
We know, even after all this rationalization, that many readers will simply not pay to read news online. Even my family and best friends will raise their hands and say out of principle this will not stand. Yet it is the future of online news, and something we literally have to try. Even more so, we feel the work we do and the product we provide is worth paying (or getting paid) for.
To help ease the transition, we have offered a "Give the Gift of The Rio Times" option for the holidays. So you can buy a year subscription of US$50 for your friends and family (or yourself), the gift of knowledge. Read local news about Rio de Janeiro and Brazil in English, and help us continue to provide this service. Tis the season, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!


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#auto haus
About South Bay Autohaus
South Bay Autohaus is the leading Independent Mercedes-Benz Dealership offering San Diego Mercedes-Benz owners quality Sales, Parts, Service & Repair. We have been family owned for over 20 years and have always serviced San Diego Mercedes Benz owners with the a focus on trust, integrity and honesty.
Our technicians are highly trained, skilled and certified to perform all maintenance and service work. Our in-house parts department allows us to complete most services in the same day for your convenience.
Our selection of Pre-Owned Mercedes-Benz vehicles are of the highest quality in San Diego. Each vehicle is fully serviced and inspected prior to being displayed on our showroom in order to meet highest level of standard and excellence Mercedes-Benz owner's expect.
If you are buying a new Mercedes-Benz, contact us regarding our trade-in purchase program that will allow you to maximize the value of your previously owned Mercedes-Benz
South Bay Autohaus is your Mercedes-Benz solution in San Diego. Follow us on our social media channels and subscribe to our newsletter to stay connected to South Bay Autohaus promotions and news.
Meet Co-Founder Gary Flanagan


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Since 1989, the Pennsylvania Bar Foundation, the philanthropic partner of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, has recognized and rewarded outstanding pro bono service with the annual presentation of the Louis J. Goffman Award.
This year, the Foundation honors Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity (PLSE), a nonprofit legal aid organization founded in 2010 by four civil rights lawyers dedicated to delivering direct legal services to communities most affected by criminal history record information and other social justice inequalities.
Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Equity has just two full-time attorneys and four attorneys who contribute significant pro bono hours annually, a remarkably small organization to have achieved such big results. Its co-founder and Executive Director is Michael B. Lee, a member of the PBA Leadership Institute Class of 2013 – 2014, a 2015 recipient of the Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network's Excellence Award, a 2015 recipient of the Hispanic Bar Association's La Justica Award and the Barristers Association's Outstanding Young Attorney of 2015. PLSE Staff Attorney Zane Johnson is an Equal Justice Works Ameri-Corps Legal Fellow and the recipient of the Philadelphia Bar Association's Eve Biskind Klothen Law Student Award for his commitment to pro bono service. Providing sustained pro bono service are four highly experienced attorneys: PLSE co-founder and Board Chair Ryan Allen Hancock, of Counsel and chair of the Employment Law Department of Willig, Williams & Davidson; part-time PLSE Staff Attorney and PA Bar Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Carl "Tobey" Oxholm III; of Counsel for PLSE Michael Hardiman, former Chief Counsel of the Pennsylvania Human Relationship Commission who manages FEOP; and Henry M. Sias, of Counsel for PLSE, an appellate oriented civil rights and immigration lawyer who manages PLSE's appellate practice.
Every interaction with the police and the criminal justice system becomes an entry on an individual's criminal record. Those entries remain part of the person's criminal record, even if the charges do not result in conviction, and that record is publically available. With the rise of criminal background checks and more and more employers viewing criminal histories during the hiring process, the impact of a criminal record can result in "civil death," creating barriers to employment, promotion, housing, professional licensing and government benefits in addition to the social stigma. PLSE's Criminal Records Expungement Project provides free expungement services to low-income individuals with criminal history record information through more than 60 community-based clinics.
PLSE has streamlined the petitioning process and leveraged a pro bono workforce comprised of 200 law students drawn from the four neighboring law schools (the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law and Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law), 30 young lawyers and a consortium of community partners including bar associations, re-entry organizations, the People's Emergency Center, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania's STAR program, Mural Arts, Philadelphia Housing Authority, H.U.D and others to help thousands of low-income individuals move past the impediments and social stigma caused by a criminal record.
PLSE has filed approximately 7,000 expungement petitions. Over 95% of those petitions have been granted causing over 20,000 different "individual charges" to be eradicated. When it finds evidence of illegal employment discrimination, PLSE refers clients to the Fair Employment Opportunities Project (FEOP), an organization it helped to create in 2015. FEOP brings cases on behalf of job applicants whose rights under Pennsylvania's Criminal History Record Information Act may have been violated by potential employers. Working with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Public Interest Law Center and pro bono lawyers from the private bar, PLSE and the FEOP have successfully represented seven individuals unlawfully denied employment because of arrest or stale conviction information.
A future PLSE innovation is the Pardons Project. Through this initiative, PLSE clients who have successfully obtained expungements and have maintained a clean conviction record will be referred to practicing lawyers who help prepare applications for pardons and represent them before the Board of Pardons. The program anticipates using a blue ribbon panel of senior members of the criminal bar to review all draft applications. The panel will help determine what can be done to improve the quality of the applications, which applications should ultimately be represented by PLSE and which applications might be eligible for accelerated disposition by the Board of Pardons thanks to the investigative and preparatory work done by the project's pro bono attorneys.


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Can you afford to buy here? If you like, we can get one of our mortgage experts to tell you exactly how much you can borrow, which is the best mortgage for you or how much they could save you right now if you have an existing mortgage. Click here to get help choosing the best mortgage rate
When our research team crunched the numbers we calculated that Havelock-Belmont-Methuen has a median home price of $399,000.
Across Canada the most common number of bedroom property being listed has 3 bedrooms, in Aug this neighbourhood's most common listing has properties with fewer bedrooms.
According to our stats, Havelock-Belmont-Methuen is the neighbourhood that has the 406th most properties available to real estate investors in Ontario.
Ontario has hundreds of possible neighbourhoods for you to invest in and there is lots of data to sift through to help you narrow your search down.
One of the important leading indicators for property investors is whether the amount of stock on the market is increasing or decreasing – as more comes on buyers have more choice so prices can tend to drop. In Havelock-Belmont-Methuen, the amount of stock on the market has increased which is a negative indicator for house prices. Three months ago there were 15, this month we show 16.
Can we guarantee how well Havelock-Belmont-Methuen is going to do next year? No, but we can look at the data we have and use it as a starting point before doing research.
Just fill in a few details, and we'll arrange for a Mortgage adviser to help you find the best mortgage for your needs


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It seemed a natural thing to do. God didn't want to hear my thoughts as a tangle of mess. Writing it down now, I realize how wrong I was. God is the one who helps me untangle my thoughts. Without him, I would be in a total mess.
Going further, isn't that my excuse when I read the verse "pray continuously" 1 thes. 5:17? I think, "God just heard what's happening in my life, I don't want to overload him with information!" Again, I am very far from the truth.
God loves it when we keep him in our lives always. When we keep him out, we aren't doing anything good for ourselves. As always, God knows better. With him in perspective, worldly things are given a shove from God down the ladder of importance. They aren't erased all together, but they become less stressful. This usually means we can get on and do whatever we thought was "way too hard", because now we understand, God is there for us even if we fail.


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You're invited to a Free Viking Information Session
10.30am – 11.30am Ocean Cruising
12.30pm – 1.30pm Europe River Cruising
3.00pm – 4.00pm Europe River Cruising
6.30pm – 7.30pm Ocean Cruising
Whether you've already experienced the Viking difference, have booked a future trip or just want to find out more, our information sessions are the perfect opportunity to learn more and plan your next exciting journey.
Discover more about how we have reinvented ocean cruising and become the world's most awarded cruise line in our first three years on the oceans. Discover more about our immersive itineraries – with more time spent in port than any other line.
Learn more about our river cruise fleet – the largest and most modern in the world, and our extensive range of river cruise itineraries visiting traditional favourites and trending hotspots across Europe.
But most importantly, learn about what truly sets Viking apart, including our positioning as the 'Thinking Person's Cruise', our award-winning Scandinavian design, focus on cultural immersion and wide range of inclusions.
These events are perfect to help you plan a truly unforgettable adventure. Strictly limited offers will be made available to those who attend.
Coffee and tea will be served throughout the day. Secure your seat now as places are limited.
We look forward to meeting you soon.


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Author: Tim Harford
Publisher: Little Brown
Release Date: May 2011
Pages: 320
The Undercover Economist takes on the world - the new book from global bestseller Tim Harford.
Everything we know about solving the world s problems is wrong.
Out: Plans, experts and above all, leaders.
In: Adapting - improvise rather than plan; fail, learn, and try again
In this groundbreaking new book, Tim Harford shows how the world s most complex and important problems - including terrorism, climate change, poverty, innovation, and the financial crisis - can only be solved from the bottom up by rapid experimenting and adapting.
From a spaceport in the Mojave Desert to the street battles of Iraq, from a blazing offshore drilling rig to everyday decisions in our business and personal lives, this is a handbook for surviving - and prospering - in our complex and ever-shifting world.
Tim Harford's "Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure" is a book about economic case study, written in an engaging, fast-moving way but without losing any of its erudition.
The book puts forth that there are three essential steps for successful adapting: The first is to try new things with the knowledge that some will fail; to make failure survivable since some of the attempts will surely fail and to make sure you know when you have failed.
The essential steps seem fairly straightforward. But Mr. Harford takes the reader on a journey through history, recalling many failures - Robert McNamara's handling of the war in Vietnam; Donald Rumsfeld's stubbornness dealing with the war in Iraq; The Piper Alpha rig explosion in the North Sea; and the Lehman Brothers financial meltdown.
Book looks into various industries such as: government, military and private sector. Although so called experts have a greater chance in making a correct guess on outcomes of certain actions, their predictions are hardly full proof. Experts are better in making predictions only when compared with guesses of non-experts making guesses on the same topic.


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Choosing a Major for the Next Four Years
Choosing a major can have lifelong consequences for career opportunities. It is also how you will choose to spend your time and energy for four (or so) years. Let's set aside the expectations to figure out your entire future at 17 or 18. Instead, what does a major mean in your immediate future? -It will dictate which classes you take
-It will choose who your classmates are
-It will demand the highest percent of your mental energy
When trying to decide a major, it can be tempting to choose engineering or finance for the prospective salary. However, if you didn't like math or physics in high school, it is unlikely you will suddenly uncover your passion for equations amidst a lecture hall. Choosing pre-med because you like to help people seems to make sense. But how do you feel about biology and chemistry? If they were your favorite classes in high school, that bodes well for surviving organic chemistry.
It is important to weigh your post-college options as well as your experience during college. Here are some good questions to balance when considering majors.
-Will I enjoy the material I have to study in the classes on a daily basis?
-How do my skills line up with the requirements (math, writing, drama, etc.)?
-Did I enjoy similar classes in high school?
-Is there time to pursue other interests while in college, either extracurricular or academic?
Ultimately, "making money" and "saving the world" are good goals. In order to reach them, you have to answer the more mundane question, "Do I want to spend 40-100 hours a week of mental energy on the classes required for my major?"
Because that is what you're going to do.


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John W. O'Kane, Jr., M.D.
Bob and Sally Behnke Endowed Chair for the Health of the Student Athlete
Associate Professor, Department of Family Medicine
Head Team Physician, University of Washington
Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine
Dr. O'Kane received his M.D. from the University of Vermont and completed a family practice residency and a sports medicine fellowship at UW Medicine. Dr. O'Kane is a primary-care sports physician with additional expertise in in pediatric sports injuries and non-operative orthopaedics.
Learn more about:
- John W. O'Kane, Jr., M.D.
- Department of Family Medicine
- Department of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine
If you're interested in this field, please consider making a gift to this fund through the UW Foundation.


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If you've ever searched for web hosting companies you'll know that there are a lot of them. A hell of a lot of them and let's be honest, all of them tend to offer the same sort of thing. All of them offer a selection of shared hosting, reseller hosting, cloud/vps solutions and fully dedicated servers. Sure, the package spec may change and the name of the package itself, but effectively, they're the same thing. So, given they're of a similar calibre, surely it's all about the price right and the cheaper the better? Wrong. Having below par hosting can dramatically affect your chances of success when it comes to your project. You may think that sounds somewhat far fetched but imagine having a popular site that goes down for a couple of days at a time because of shoddy hosting? Do you think you'll retain your search engine positions? Do you think your regular visitors will keep visiting andu visiting when they realize your site is down? Probably not!
This article serves not as a complete guide as to how to find web hosting, no. It's more of a thought provoking checklist of things to consider when taking out a new hosting plan. The sort of things which will assist you in making an informed and educated decision as to where to host your site.
Finding Reputable Companies
The good thing about web hosting is that there are a lot of companies out there who are all competing for your business. This means that you can probably find exactly what you're looking for at a relatively competitive price. What is difficult however is finding a host who is reputable. Not just in terms of security but in terms of uptime and reliability. These are equally important as mentioned above. Fortunately for you, the Internet is full of people who like to have an opinion particularly if it's negative! So you should have no trouble finding web hosting reviews of your potential partner. Keep in mind though that customers do get aggravated and a handful of bad reviews doesn't make a host bad. For the most part you should take them with a pinch of salt but they do provide somewhat of an insight.
Plans and Packages
As mentioned above, pretty much all web hosting companies offer the same solutions, the same plans and the same packages. You can search around trying to find one which suits you but for the most part it'll be the same thing offered by the next guy. What is important though is not to be distracted by the bells and whistles that come with the packages. Do not pay more for features you don't need. The same goes for disk space, memory, cpu, bandwidth etc. pay for what you need.
Location is Important
By location I am talking about two things. Firstly, the physical location of your dedicated server. If your visitors are accessing your site primarily from the United States then make sure your server is physically located in the United States. Lots of people don't bother looking into this but serving your website to visitors on the other side of the world can add a lot of unnecessary transfer speed which may adversely affect your website. The second reason why location is important is because of support. If you've ever been in Europe and tried to raise American support staff in the middle of the morning it's not the best experience. If you're in Europe, choose a European host. The same goes for the United States. Although if you do opt to go with one of the large American providers then they'll no doubt have 24/7 support anyway.
Scalability is Key
Finally, make sure your solution is scalable. Most shared hosts don't allow you to scale up your packages but solutions like this one allow you to customise a virtual server and have it configured with the resources you need. As it's all software controlled it makes it quick and easy to assign more ram/cpu/space etc at the click of a button. Gone are the days of someone needing to physically go down to the server rack to slot in another bank of ram!
As mentioned above, there are a lot of hosting companies out there and the market is highly competitive. There are not just good and bad hosts, there is whole spectrum with lots of average companies in between and there is probably always someone better out there or coming along shortly. So you can never get it perfect. As a footnote, my advice would be to use a reputable firm who are priced competitive and who are located (both server and support team) in your home country. This will make things a million times easier when it comes to dealing with them.


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cardyon™ - A brighter use of CO2
cardyon™ is an innovative raw material for the production of high quality, flexible polyurethane foams. It is made with up to 20% carbon dioxide.
A better cold chain with 10 % more effective insulation performance
As a result of up to 40% smaller cells, BAYTHERM® Microcell, an innovative product from the latest generation of polyurethanes, can improve insulation performance by 10%.
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All DemosAll Demos
This game demo showcases the idea of affective camera control. Several computational models of affect have been created based on data from previous players. Metrics are collected during the game and used to direct the camera behavior in order to drive players experience according to the selected mode.
- 3D prey/predator in which the player controls a ball inside a maze trying to pick pellets and avoid enemies.
- The virtual camera that determines how the game world is displayed on screen is controlled by the game engine.
- Artificial Neural Network models trained on historical data are used to assess different aspects of player experience (fun, challenge and frustration) and influence them through adaptation of the virtual camera behavior.
G. N. Yannakakis, H. P. Martinez, and A. Jhala – Towards Affective Camera Control in Games User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction, Springer, 2010.


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Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Working Together
6 comments:
Aww! That's wonderful that you guys get to spend more time together now. My husband was a chef and it was always hard not having the same days off and him working late. Now we both have M-F 9-5 jobs and it's so much better!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 19, 2012 at 2:18 AM
So cute!! I used to work with one of my boyfriends and it was super fun :)ReplyDelete
Morgue x
yay! i'm happy for you two:)ReplyDelete
Great news! I'm happy y'all can enjoy each other's company in a more 'normal' schedule now. :) My husband and I had to endure the same type of thing when we were in the military. I was always working a crazy schedule in my squadron and felt like I only ever saw him on my weekends, which weren't Saturdays and Sundays. It sucked.ReplyDelete
I'm sure you'll be indulging in lots of yummy foodies!! That's always a great thing!
Awwww how neat!!! Will it be a semi-permanent thing?ReplyDelete
woooooo. so exciting. and refreshing.ReplyDelete


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health systems
Global Fund's management and framework for investments in health systems need significant improvement, OIG says
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted the first audit of the Global Fund's Resilient and Sustainable Systems for Health (RSSH) investments aiming "to provide reasonable assurance on the adequacy and effectiveness of Global Fund processes for the management of RSSH activities".
Are African countries ready for the Global Fund's Sixth Replenishment's push toward greater domestic financing to end HIV, TB and malaria?
This year (2019) is a replenishment year for the Global Fund. With every replenishment comes a greater push for more domestic financing. Are the African countries ready?
Three multi-country initiatives were among grants approved by the Global Fund Board
Among the grants approved by the Global Fund Board on 21 December 2018 (see GFO article) were three multi-country grants. Two of the grants were for Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA); the third was for West and Central Africa. (See table.)
The Global Fund's Country Coordinating Mechanism evolution project prepares consultants at Casablanca workshop
The Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) hub of the Global Fund Secretariat organized a workshop in Casablanca, Morocco, from September 17 to 21, 2018, aimed to orient consultants who have been selected to support the 18 countries included in the pilot phase of the Global Fund's CCM evolution project.
Peter Sands calls for increases in funding from implementing countries and for health's share of ODA
"It is a false dichotomy to have a tension between Universal Health Care or 'ending the epidemic'," said Global Fund Executive Director Peter Sands at the 22nd International AIDS conference, where scores of formal and thousands of informal discussions focused on the need to integrate HIV testing, care and treatment into the broader global health agenda.
OIG annual report says governments and partners are key to enabling the Global Fund to address quality of service issues
"There is often an asymmetry between the high level of accountability for impact that the Global Fund is generally held to and the sometimes low level of control that the organization has on many of the factors that drive such impact."
BACKUP workshops in Africa explore bottlenecks to implementing Global Fund grants
Political instability, decreasing resources and a resurgent malaria epidemic: A challenging environment for Global Fund grants in Burundi
Capacity issues and delays in implementation plague otherwise successful Global Fund grants to Zambia, OIG says
Zambia's TB/HIV funding request to the Global Fund has ambitious targets and is well aligned with national programs and strategies
The third batch of funding approvals by the Board (see GFO article) included two TB/HIV grants from Zambia. In this article, we report on the comments from the Technical Review Panel (TRP) and the Grant Approvals Committee (GAC) on the funding requests from which these grants emanated.


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Welcome to our new web site!
To give our readers a chance to experience all that our new website has to offer, we have made all content freely avaiable, through October 1, 2018.
During this time, print and digital subscribers will not need to log in to view our stories or e-editions.
The "dean" of producers? Melissa Kaplan.
She keeps busy. She has more than 80 productions to her credit, since she started organizing and coordinating productions at Lansing Community College since 2003.
She pulls together main stage, black box, and summer stage productions at Lansing Community College, and this doesn't count the LCC dance and music productions, nor her immersion as a co-founder of the annual Renegade Theatre Festival. On sabbatical this year, she brought in an environmental production on climate change.
Climate Change Theatre Action 2017, Kaplan notes, "was an exciting opportunity to be part of a worldwide event, contributing performance with awareness, about one of the most important concerns of our time. We utilized alumni of our Studio Theatre Program, who used their art to make a difference."
Fellow producer Gary Mitchell, is no slouch himself, having produced many of Riverwalk Theatre's best productions. Mitchell notes that he's always had a deep respect for Kaplan's marketing and promotional skills when it comes to selling a show to the public. "She's the producer's producer," Mitchell said. "The measuring stick all of us are judged by."
Planning starts early in the academic school year at LCC with faculty assigned to direct specific plays as much in advance as two years to 18 months.
Kaplan orchestrates the planning meetings in which directors are selected. Plays proposed for submission are discussed with a substantial committee.
She heads this up, bringing together the faculty chair, John Lennox, along with other key faculty from the theater program, and with additional input from music Professor Jon Ten Brink, history Professor Kevin Brown, and community theater input from Blake Bowen, as well as technical director Bon Fernholz, costume designer Chelle Peterson, and interim producer, while Kaplan is on sabbatical, Paige Tufford.
Bowen, a co-director of Peppermint Creek Theatre Co., simply observes this. "She gets things done" adding, "In the arts world, there is a lot of pontificating and theorizing as to what to do. Melissa takes all of this in, says — yes, let's do it — and moves forward to deliberate action."
LCC faculty directors handle much of the heavy lifting. Deb Keller, who trained at the Tisch School of the Arts, says of Kaplan, "She has a warm curiosity, engages the world with a spirit of inclusion, is a strong leader, makes things happen."
Kaplan laughs at this. "For myself, it is the joy of seeing the performances. One of my all-time peak production moments was when 'Never Swim Alone' won a coveted spot at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival," Kaplan said. "When the 400-seat house sat in rapt attention, then erupted into a cheering standing ovation, my heart almost burst."
Photo credit: Mary McElgunn


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Battier's back with karaoke fundraiser
Former Miami Heat player Shane Battier will perform under the lights with other athletes this month — but not on the basketball court.
Instead, South Florida athletes and celebrities will join Battier in an effort to benefit his nonprofit Battier Take Charge Foundation at its fourth annual karaoke event "South Beach Battioke" Tuesday at the Fillmore Miami Beach.
"This combines the ultimate party with the ultimate karaoke," says Battier in a phone interview. "We are undefeated because we haven't had anyone who has said, 'You know what? I didn't have a great time.' Everyone has a great time."
Notable past karaoke participants include Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Pat Riley, James Jones, Norris Cole, Udonis Haslem, Greg Oden, Jimmy Buffett, Gabrielle Union and actor Ken Jeong.
This year, expect the unexpected, Battier says.
"It starts off as fun and games, but the competition level rises, and people later are trying to win the competition," he says. Local restaurants have also donated food for the event.
The NBA champion and his wife, Heidi, founded the organization, which is dedicated to providing resources for the development and education of underserved youth and teens.
"If I didn't have the opportunities I had through basketball, I don't know where I would be today because of my financial situation growing up," Battier says. "I promised myself that if I ever made it big, I would make it my mission to help hard-working kids reach their dreams. That's why we started the foundation."
South Beach Battioke is the foundation's largest event. Last year more than 600 people attended and raised more than $300,000. The goal is to break last year's number.
"The support has been fantastic from the city of Miami," says Battier, who is now a commentator for ESPN. "We have people who care."
Currently, the foundation has 12 children in the program, and three have graduated. The majority are from South Florida, but there are other youth from Houston and Detroit.
"We are proud to help their journey," Battier says.
South Beach Battioke: 8 p.m. Tuesday, Fillmore Miami Beach, 1700 Washington Ave.; $175 in advance; $250 at the door. First 100 general admission tickets sold will receive a personalized Shane Battier autograph. www.takechargefoundation.org.
Rodolfo Roman


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Anyone recommend a budget amp?
Discussion in 'CB and Export Equipment and Accessories' started by Limeybastard, Jun 7, 2017.
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Stakeholder Group on Current and Future Meat Controls
Last updated:
16 August 2014
The Current and Future Meat Controls Stakeholder Group (CFMC) is the core group of key meat stakeholders. The Group's main purpose is to inform the Agency's work in developing proposals for more risk-based and proportionate meat hygiene and TSE/SRM requirements and the official controls relating to those requirements. The first meeting of this Group took place on 25 June 2010.


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A thin-webbed shoe for use on the track or on turf. The internal metal spine allows for maximum adjustment to a wide variety of hoof shapes and sizes.
Vertical flexion allows the heels to move independently. Lateral flexion allows the hoof to expand and contract with every footfall. Integrated metal spine for shaping and strength. Open Toe allows shoe placement for optimal break-over.
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Alḥamdulillāh, I've managed to summarise the main points of the issues into a long article. See PDF attachment: The Ruling On Supererogatory Fasting on Saturdays
Virtues of fasting, the month of Ramadaan, rulings and useful insights.
The Six Fasts of Shawwaal and Other Related Matters
In the Name of Allāh, praise is due to Allāh and may prayers and peace be upon the Messenger of Allāh.
Allāh the Mighty and Exalted has scattered His immense blessings and mercy across different times and places in order to allow us to be able to benefit from them whatever time it may be and in whichever place we may reside. Part of that blessing and mercy is the fact that He has specified particular acts of virtuous deeds which we can perform throughout the year in different Islamic months whilst attaining unimaginably generous rewards and remission of sins. The month of Ramaḍān has just passed us by and we all know the virtues of Ramaḍān which include the obligatory fasting, the night prayers, the last ten nights which includes the Night of Decree and the fact that the rewards are determined by Allāh as He wishes etc. Following Ramaḍān is the first of the three months of Ḥajj: Shawwāl. This month has its own virtues and deeds which can be performed to earn even more rewards. Part of that are the six fasts of Shawwāl.
This article discusses the subject of the six fasts of Shawwāl and its related Fiqh issues which would be of interest to those engaging in this virtuous deed. The evidences establishing this practice are mentioned and a brief mention of the grading of the evidences. Following this, the fiqh issues related to the fasts are mentioned in which the discussions revolve around the exact ruling on these fasts, the rewards, the wisdom behind these fasts, how and when they should be fasted, some of the innovations that have developed around the month of Shawwāl and whether perpetual fasting is supported by the fact that the reward for fasting the six fasts of Shawwāl after having fasted Ramaḍān is equivalent to a year's fasting. So let us begin.
The Proof-Texts
There are a number of different routes to the ḥadīth with two different wordings with regards to the analogy of time mentioned in the text. The first of them and the most popular compares it to al-Dahr (more on that later) whilst the other compares it more specifically to one complete year:
From Abū Ayyūb al-Anṣārī (raḍiyAllāhu ʿanhu) that he narrated that the Messenger of Allāh (ṢallAllāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) stated:
"Whoever fasts Ramaḍān and then follows it up with six from Shawwāl, it is like fasting al-Dahr."[1]
Ibn Mājah (no. 1715) reports a more specific wording for the timing from Thawbān (raḍiyAllāhu ʿanhu) the client of the Messenger of Allāh (ṢallAllāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam), from the Messenger of Allāh (ṢallAllāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) that he said:
"Whoever fasts six days after al-Fiṭr, it is [like] a complete year. Whoever performs a good deed has ten times its like."
Grading of the Ḥadīth
The aḥādīth mentioned above are sound according to the masters amongst the muḥaddithūn. The first version for instance is mentioned in none other than Imām Muslim's Ṣaḥiḥ.
Fiqh of the Ḥadīth
It is the 10th month of the Islāmic lunar calendar year following the blessed month of Ramaḍān and is also the first month of the Months of Ḥajj. It is said that it is called Shawwāl because "it coincided with the season when the she-camels raised their tails or because of their milk becoming then withdrawn" due to the scorching heat and the scarcity of sufficient fresh herbage.[2] The plural is Shawwālāt.
This term is applied to varied lengths of abundant time. The intent here however is a lunar year based on the second ḥadīth mentioned amongst the proof-texts which specifically limits the time to a complete year.
The ḥadīth indicates that it is mustaḥabb or highly recommended to voluntarily fast six days of Shawwāl after having fasted the whole month of Ramaḍān.
There is an aberrant view held by Imām Mālik and also ascribed to Abū Ḥanīfah that it is disliked to perform these fasts. Imām Mālik's fear was that to do so every year would give the impression that it is obligatory due to its close proximity to Ramaḍān. This is based on weak reasoning and thus incorrect for the following reasons:
- If we were to take this position it would mean that praying the optional prayers connected with the obligatory ones (rawātib) every single day is disliked. This necessary conclusion is false and the falsity of this necessary conclusion indicates the falsity of the premise which necessitated it. [3]
- Furthermore, the thing that they fear can easily be removed via teaching and explanation.[4]
- Aside from the above, the simple fact that the ḥadīth mentions the practise unrestrictedly is enough as an evidence for its permissibility. For this reason, Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr seeks to exonerate Imām Mālik by mentioning a number of reasons why he adopted this untenable position[5]:
- This ḥadīth did not reach Mālik and if it had he would have adopted it
i. This is despite the fact that one route of the ḥadīth reached us via an inhabitant of Madīnah, the very place in which Imām Mālik resided. This is why later on in his explanation of the Muwaṭṭa' he states that he does not believe that Imām Mālik was ignorant of the ḥadīth
- He was extremely cautious about preserving the dīn for the general masses and for this reason he adopted the position of it being disliked to fast the six days of Shawwāl
- He considered the ḥadīth to be inauthentic and not practically applicable due to it not having reached him via sound routes
We learn from the above ḥadīths that the reward for following up the fasting of the month of Ramaḍān with six days from Shawwāl is equivalent to fasting a complete year. This is because each good deed is worth ten in Allāh's account. Thus, 30 fasts of Ramaḍān multiplied by 10 is equivalent to 300 fasts. Add six days from Shawwal which is equivalent to 6 multiplied by 10 which is of course 60 and add that 60 fasts to the 300 fasts of Ramaḍān and you have a grand total of 360 fasts for the year – or a fast for every day of the year.
Or more simply, 1 month of fasting in Ramaḍān is equivalent to 10 months of fasting. Fasting another 6 days in Shawwāl is equivalent to 2 months of fasting. Add 10 and 2 and you get 12 months of fasting in total. This is how some of the scholars have explained the meaning of the ḥadīth, thus if a person does that every year it is like as if he has fasted nonstop every year of his life!
There is a popular inauthentic report regarding the reward of fasting six days from Shawwāl which states:
"Whoever fasts Ramaḍān and follows it up with six from Shawwāl; he leaves from his sins like the day his mother gave birth to him"
One of the narrators by the name of Abū ʿAbd Allāḥ al-Ḥimṣī is according to al-Albānī a man known by the name of Muḥammad b. Saʿīd al-Asadī the crucified liar and forger whose name has been altered around a hundred times by other less credible narrators to hide his notoriety. Consequently the ḥadīth is inauthentic and at worst forged[6].
The scholars have listed a number of wisdoms of this particular act of worship:
- To provide an opportunity for people to attain the reward for having fasted the whole year with little effort
- To ensure fasting is not neglected immediately after Ramaḍān since many people will have become exhausted physically from the previous month and may avoid fasting again for a while. This encourages them not to turn away from fasting so quickly.
- To allow this optional fast to cover the imperfections that may have harmed our obligatory fasts in the same way optional prayers cover the imperfections and short comings in our obligatory prayers
A person can fast them in the beginning of the month or in the middle or end since there is no evidence to state explicitly that they have to be performed in the beginning of the month etc and because the ḥadīth is absolute in its meaning without any restrictions[7]. Whoever ends up fasting six days of Shawwāl during the month then he has successfully and correctly applied the ḥadīth and followed up Ramaḍān with six from Shawwāl – and that is sufficient.
However, as with all acts of worship, some methods are of a higher level of piety than others which is why for instance al-Tirmidhī states that the famous scholar ʿAbd Allāh b. Al-Mubārak was of the view that it is better to fast them at the beginning of the month[8]. Before delving further into when it is best to fast these fasts we need to look at the issue of fasts that have to be made up for Ramaḍān:
Qaḍā' Or Six Days of Shawwāl First?
If one intends to fast the six voluntary fasts of Shawwāl then the obligatory fasts must be made up before one can begin fasting for the six days of Shawwāl. This is because:
- The Qaḍā' is a binding obligation upon the person which takes precedence over all other voluntary fasts.
- Voluntary acts of worship are not accepted until the relevant obligatory act is completed. There is an authentic athar from Abu Bakr (raḍiyAllāhu ʿanhu) in which he said that Allāh does not accept acts of worship from a person if he has obligatory ones pending.[9]
- The ḥadīth states 'Whoever fasts Ramaḍān…". One who has not made up the Qaḍā' has not fasted Ramaḍān and therefore cannot attain the reward mentioned in the ḥadīth until they have been kept.
Now returning back to when one should keep the six fasts of Shawwāl, an obvious point to note is that fasting 6 days from Shawwāl excludes the Day of ʿĪd which is the 1st of Shawwāl because of the prohibition of fasting on the Days of ʿĪd. Additionally, according to al-Albānī it also excludes Saturdays.
One should avoid fasting on Saturdays due to the prohibition of fasting on Saturdays unless it is an obligatory fast. The Prophet (ṢallAllāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) stated:
"Do not fast on Saturday except for what is obligatory upon you and if one of you does not find anything apart from the skin of a grape or the bark of a tree then let him chew it."[1]
It is best to fast them immediately after the Day of ʿĪd because:
- We should hasten to do good deeds
- It indicates that a person is desirous of fasting and engaging enthusiastically in acts of worship and is not lazy or bored
- It reduces the chances of something preventing the person from completing the fasting
- One's body is already accustomed to fasting and this allows the person to complete the fasts more effectively and continue some of the good habits acquired during the month
There are two ways the scholars have mentioned these fasts can be kept:
- Consecutively
- Separately
Although it is permissible to fast them in either form, Shaykh al-Albānī for instance takes the view that it is better to fast the six days consecutively but Friday and Saturday must be avoided because it is impermissible to fast voluntarily on Saturday except obligatory fasts. He holds the same view for the White Days (13th, 14th and 15th of each month).
Accordingly, one can fast for instance from Sunday to Thursday which would be 5 days and then fast on the Sunday after missing Friday and Saturday and that would be considered a consecutive fast according to the Shaykh's opinion.
It is better to fast them consecutively because of the same reasons mentioned above for why we should fast them immediately the day after ʿĪd.
ʿĪd al-Abrār
Some of the common people refer to the 8th of Shawwāl as the ʿĪd of the Pious based on the fact that those who rush to do good deeds do so by fasting the six immediately after the day of ʿĪd which is from the 2nd of Shawwāl until the 7th of Shawwāl thereby completing their 6 days of fasting for the month. This is an innovation since there is no evidence from the textual sources to support this. As Shaykh Ibn al-ʿUthaymīn, echoing Shaykh al-Islām before him, so eloquently puts it, it is neither the ʿĪd of the Pious nor of the Impious.[10] Furthermore, this belief of theirs implies that those who do not fast six days from Shawwāl are not pious and this is a mistake for the one who completes his obligation is pious without doubt even if some acts of piety are more perfect than others.[11]
Avoiding Marriage and Consummation of One's Marriage
The pre-Islāmic Arabs used to consider marriage during Shawwāl to be an evil omen. They believed that a woman who gets married during Shawwāl would prevent herself from her husband just as a she-camel prevents herself from the male camel during the same period.
However, no attention should be paid to such superstitions. It is sufficient to cite the fact that the Prophet married the Mother of the Believers, ʿĀ'ishah (raḍiyAllāhu ʿanhā) during the month of Shawwāl. She stated: "The Messenger of Allāh (ṢallAllāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) married me in Shawwāl and consummated the marriage with me in Shawwāl…"[12] Ibn Kathīr states that the fact that the Prophet consummated his marriage with ʿĀʾishah (raḍiyAllāhu ʿanhā) during Shawwāl refutes the misconception of some of the people who believe it is disliked to consummate one's marriage during that period for fear of the spouses being separated.[13] Al-Nawawī goes further and states that it is recommended for one to marry in Shawwāl and consummate the marriage therein based on ʿĀʾishah's ḥadīth.[14]
Combining Intentions
It is technically permissible for a person who is making up obligatory fasts in the month of Shawwāl to combine the intention with that of the six days of Shawwāl. However, al-Albānī states that the person would only receive one multiple of ten rewards for doing this whereas if he did them separately he would receive two multiples of ten rewards as they would be two separately practised good deeds.
What If You Receive An Invitation?
It is not obligatory to break one's fast but it is obligatory to attend the invitation unless there is a legitimate excuse. He should supplicate for the host if he does not break his fast:
Abū Hurayrah (raḍiyAllāhu ʿanhu) reported that the Messenger of Allāh (ṢallAllāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) said:
"When one of you is given an invitation let him respond, if he is fasting let him supplicate and if he is not then let him eat".
One can break their voluntary fast and eat because of the maxim that a person who begins a voluntary act of worship is not obligated to complete it whereas one who begins an obligatory act of worship must complete it:
Umm Ḥani' (raḍiyAllāhu ʿanhā) narrated that the Messenger of Allāh Allāh (ṢallAllāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) said:
"…The one who is observing a voluntary fast is his own master; if he wishes he may fast and if he wishes he may break his fast."
[Ṣaḥīḥ al-Jāmiʿ, 3854]
If, however, one feels that the host would be hurt if he did not break his fast and eat then it is better for the person to eat and he can make up that fast later if he wishes:
Abū Saʿīd al-Khudrī (raḍiyAllāhu ʿanhu) narrates an incident in which some food had been prepared for the Prophet and when it was served one man refrained from eating with the excuse that he was fasting. Upon hearing this, the Prophet (ṢallAllāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) then stated:
"Your brother has invited you and gone through some trouble. Break your fast today and make it up another day if you wish."
[Irwā', 1952 and it is Ḥasan].
Not Being Able To Fast During Shawwāl
If one is unable to fast during the month of Shawwāl due to a legitimate Sharʿī reason such as being prevented due to sickness or having to make up the whole month of Ramaḍān then it is permissible for that person to fast them even if Shawwāl has passed and he will have the reward written for him. This is based on the analogy that an obligation which is delayed due to a legitimate reason such as when an optional prayer connected with the obligatory prayer is delayed beyond its time then it is permissible to make it up as evidenced by the Sunnah.[15]
Perpetual Fasting – Recommended or Not?
Ṣiyām al-Dahr is to fast every single day voluntarily. It is impermissible to perform this type of fasting as it would involve the fasting of prohibited days such as the two days of ʿĪd and the Days of Tashrīq and Saturdays.
Some have argued that the fact that the reward for fasting six days from Shawwāl after having fasted Ramaḍān is equivalent to fasting nonstop for the year just as fasting three days out of every month is as well, is an indication that Ṣiyām al-Dahr is superior to all forms of fasting and its reward is also greater and that this is an act that people should aspire to for the Prophet made an analogy of the reward with perpetual fasting.
This form of reasoning however is invalid for the following reasons:
- The Prophet (ṢallAllāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) explicitly stated in a sound ḥadīth which is agreed upon that the best form of fasting is that of Dāwūd (ʿalayhissalām) which is to fast a day and break it for a day i.e. to fast alternate days and that there is nothing better than it. This explicit ḥadīth takes precedence over any other implicit deductions made from other proof-texts.
- The fact that the Prophet (ṢallAllāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) compared six fasts from Shawwāl and three days from every month to perpetual fasting does not necessitate its permissibility let alone it being recommended as a righteous act as Ibn al-Qayyim argues in Zād al-Maʿād[16]. The similarity is only in the reward if it had been a recommended form of fasting. The evidence against this reasoning is in the very ḥadīth itself for it states explicitly that fasting three days out of every month is equivalent to perpetual fasting for every good deed is ten times its like which means the person attains the reward of fasting 360 days and it is known definitively that fasting every single day of the year is ḥarām according to consensus. Consequently, it is known that the intent is the attainment of the reward and not the form.
- Even more explicitly, the Prophet (ṢallAllāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) stated clearly in the version of the ḥadīth in Ibn Mājah which was mentioned in the beginning of this article regarding the six fasts of Shawwāl which ends with the words, "Whoever performs a good deed has ten times its like". Thus the analogy is with regards to the reward and not the mode of fasting.
- Finally, the Messenger of Allāh (ṢallAllāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) routinely compared one act of worship which was within the capability of a person with one which is usually impossible to perform. He did this to emphasise the greatness of the act and its reward in terms of its quality even though the act is less than the comparison in terms of quantity. So for example, when the Prophet (ṢallAllāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) was asked regarding an action which is equal to Jihād, he compared it to praying nonstop without taking a break and fasting without breaking one's fast. Now, the act of Jihād is within a person's capability but in order to emphasise its greatness and reward the Prophet (ṢallAllāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) compared it to something that cannot be usually performed which is praying nonstop and fasting perpetually. This obviously does not contain any recommendation to perform those actions in that manner. Another example is when the Prophet (ṢallAllāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) stated that praying ʿIshā' and Fajr in congregation is equivalent to praying the whole night even though he explicitly stated as reported in Būkhārī and Muslim that the best form of night prayer is not to pray it all night but to pray a third of it.
Selected Bibliography
al-Bassām, ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. Tawḍīḥ al-Aḥkām Min Bulūgh al-Marām, 7 vols. Makkah: Dār al-Asadī, 1423/2003.
Ibn Qudāmah, al-Muwaffaq al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh b. Aḥmad al-Maqdisī. Al-Mughnī, 5th Edition, eds. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī and ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ Muḥammad al-Ḥalw, 15 vols. Riyāḍ: Dār ʿĀlam al-Kutub, 1419/1999.
Al-Tuwayjirī, ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz b. Aḥmad. Al-Bidaʿ al-Ḥawliyyah. Riyāḍ: Dār al-Faḍīlah, 1421/2000.
al-ʿUthaymīn, Muḥammad b. Ṣāliḥ. Al-Sharḥ al-Mumtiʿ ʿalā Zād al-Mustaqniʿ, 15 vols. Al-Dammām: Dār Ibn al-Jawzī, 1422AH.
Yamāmah, ʿAbd al-Sanad Ḥasan. Mawsūʿat Shurūḥ al-Muwaṭṭaʾ, ed. ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAbd al-Muḥsin al-Turkī, 25 vols. Cairo: 1426/2005.
[1] Reported by al-Tirmidhī and Ibn Mājah (Ṣaḥīḥ Sunan ibn Mājah (1403)), al-Ḥākim and others, Shaykh (al-Albānī) – may Allāh have mercy upon him – authenticated it in al-Irwā' (960) and Tamām al-Minnah (405).
[1] Muslim (1164), Ibn Mājah (1716), Abū Dāwūd (2433), al-Tirmidhī (759)
[2] Lane, vol. 4, p. 347pdf or 1623 col. 1
[3] Al-Sharḥ al-Mumtiʿ, vol. 6, p. 467
[4] Ibid, p. 467
[5] Mawsūʿat Shurūḥ al-Muwaṭṭaʾ, vol. 9, p. 368-9
[6] Al-Ḍaʾīfah, no. 5190
[7] Al-Mughnī, vol. 4, p. 440
[8] Al-Tirmidhī, no. 579 – the statement of Ibn al-Mubārak follows on from the ḥadīth.
[9] Tawḍīḥ al-Aḥkām, vol. 3, p. 535. The narration is also mentioned by al-Albānī in his fatāwā on this topic.
[10] Al-Sharḥ al-Mumtiʿ, vol. 6, p. 465
[11] Ibid.
[12] Muslim, Aḥmad, al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasā'ī and Ibn Mājah.
[13] Al-Bidaʿ al-Ḥawliyyah, p. 348
[14] Ibid
[15] Al-Sharḥ al-Mumtiʿ, pp. 466-7
[16] Zād al-Maʿād, vol. 2, pp. 77-8
The Virtues of Fasting and Ramadan
In the Name of Allāh, all praise is due to Allāh and may the peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allāh.
To proceed:
What follows is a collection of virtues connected with fasting as reported in numerous authentic aḥādīth from disparate sources contained within the book Ṣaḥīḥ al-Targhīb wa al-Tarhīb by Sh. Muḥammad Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Albānī (may Allāh have mercy upon him)[1]. With the month of Ramaḍān rapidly approaching our doorstep, I thought it would be appropriate to bring to the attention of those who intend to fast during the blessed month the tremendous virtues of fasting. The aim, if Allāh wills, is to increase one's love of the act of fasting, to make one aware of the delights that await the sincere faster which should in turn strengthen our resolve and encourage us to make the best of the aforementioned month. I will add more aḥādīth pertaining to the virtues and rewards of fasting to this post inshā'Allāh over the coming days – I've got other projects to attend to before then!
The first batch of aḥādīth mentions a number of different virtues of fasting, which seek to stir the soul of the believer with high expectations of immense reward from his Lord. Not only has Allāh, as we shall see from the narrations below, singled out fasting as an act of worship that is done for Him in contrast to other conspicuous acts of worship but also the odour of the fasting person's mouth is more pleasant to Allāh than even the smell of perfume. Additionally, Allāh does not limit the reward of fasting to the usual multiples between 10 and 700, instead He will reward it as He sees fit. Finally, the fasting person will find that his fast is a shield from the Fire and that he will experience two moments of utter joy; the moment he breaks his fast and the moment he meets his Lord.
Now let us take a look at these wonderful aḥādīth:
[978] Abū Hurayrah (may Allāh be pleased with him) said: the Messenger of Allāh (may Allāh grant him peace and security) said:
"Allāh the Mighty and Exalted said: Every action of the Son of Ādam is for him, except fasting for it is for Me and I will reward it. Fasting is a shield so when one of you is fasting let him not behave obscenely nor clamor. If someone insults or fights him, let him say: I am fasting, I am fasting. By the One in Whose Hand is the soul of Muḥammad, the smell of the mouth of the faster is more pleasant with Allāh than the smell of musk. The faster has two moments of joy; when he breaks his fast he is happy and when he meets his Lord He is happy with his fast."
One might ask the question – is not every act of worship performed by a person for him? Why did Allāh specify fasting? The response is that it means the reward for every other act of worship performed by a person is restricted between 10 and 700 multiples. However, the reward for fasting is unrestricted by normal parameters as Allāh will decide the amount by which the faster should be rewarded as we shall come to see, if Allāh wills.
In a narration of Bukhārī:
"He forsakes his food, drink and desires because of Me, fasting is for Me and I will reward it and every good act is ten times its like".
In a narration of Muslim:
"Every deed of the Son of Ādam is multiplied; good acts are 10 times its like up to 700 times. Allāh the Most High stated: Except for fasting for it is for Me and I will reward it. He leaves his desire and food because of Me. The faster has two moments of joy: a moment of joy when breaking his fast and a moment of joy when meeting his Lord and the smell of the mouth of the faster is more pleasant with Allāh than the scent of musk".
In another one of his narrations as well as Ibn Khuzaymah:
"And when he meets Allāh the Mighty and Exalted, He rewards him thus he becomes happy".
Tirmidhī reports in one narration:
"Indeed your Lord says: Every good deed is ten times its like up to 700, fasting is for me and I will reward it. Fasting is a shield from the Fire and the smell of the fasting person's mouth is more pleasant to Allāh than the smell of musk. If a person acts ignorantly towards one of you while he is fasting, let him say: I am fasting, I am fasting".
In one of Ibn Khuzaymah's narration:
"He said: Every act of the Son of Ādam is for him; a good deed is ten times its like up to seven hundred times. Allāh said: Except for fasting, it is for Me, I will reward it, he leaves his food because of Me, he leaves his drink because of Me, he leaves his pleasure because of Me and he leaves his wife because of Me. The smell of the faster's mouth is better to Allāh than the scent of musk. The faster has two moments of joy: a moment of joy when breaking the fast and a moment of joy when meeting his Lord".
The Gate of al-Rayyān is a gate in Paradise which, according to the narrations to be mentioned below, can only be entered by those who performed the act of fasting in this life. Once it is closed none else may enter it. Furthermore, those who enter it will drink and will never become thirsty thereafter:
[979] Sahl b. Sa῾d (may Allāh be pleased with him) reported from the Prophet (may Allāh grant him peace and security) who said:
"Indeed in Paradise there is a gate called al-Rayyān. Those who fasted will enter it on the Day of Resurrection, none other than them will enter it, when they have entered it will be closed and none will enter it [thereafter]".
In an addition by Bukhārī, Muslim, al-Nasā'ī and al-Tirmidhī:
"And whoever enters it will never experience thirst".
Ibn Khuzaymah reports:
"When the last of them have entered it will be closed, whoever enters it will drink and whoever drinks will never experience thirst"
Fasting as an act of worship is an effective shield from the Fire. How? There are a number of explanations for this. Firstly, we have been informed from other authentic sources that the Fire is surrounded by desires and temptations. Fasting weakens the desire thus allowing one to protect oneself from falling into the traps of temptation which would have been kindled by one's desire. Secondly, fasting is a shield in the sense that Allāh will remove a person far from the Fire by a great distance for every fast that a person undertakes sincerely.
[980] Abū Hurayrah (may Allāh be pleased with him) reported from the Prophet (may Allāh grant him peace and security) who said:
"Fasting is a shield, an impregnable fortress from the fire".
[981] Jābir (may Allāh be pleased with him) reported from the Prophet (may Allāh grant him peace and security) that he said:
"Fasting is a shield with which the slave conceals himself from the Fire".
[982] ῾Uthmān b. Abī al-῾Āṣ (may Allāh be pleased with him) said he heard the Messenger of Allāh (may Allāh grant him peace and security) say:
"Fasting is a shield from the Fire, just like one of your shield in battle and fasting is good three days of every month".
On the Day of Judgement every single soul will face an account of his deeds which will play a part in determining one's final abode as either in eternal bliss in Paradise or eternal damnation in the Fire. One of the ways in which a person will be able to attain either salvation from the Fire on the Day or an increase in his station in Paradise is through the intercession of various agents such as the Prophets, Angels, martyrs etc. What we learn from the ḥadīth below is that fasting will also intercede to Allāh for the one who used to engage in it.
[984] From ῾Abd Allāh b. ῾Amr (may Allāh be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allāh (may Allāh grant him peace and security) said:
"Fasting and the Qur'ān intercede for the slave on the Day of Resurrection. Fasting will say: "O my Lord! I prevented him from food and desires so allow me to intercede for him". The Qur'ān will say: "I prevented him from sleeping at night so allow me to intercede for him". Both will then be allowed to intercede"".
[1] It is based on al-Targhīb wa al-Tarhīb [Encouragement [to perform good deeds] and Discouragement [from perpetrating evil deeds]] of al-Ḥāfiẓ Zakī al-Dīn ῾Abd al-῾Aẓīm b. ῾Abd al-Qawī al-Munẓirī, which according to al-Albānī, is the most comprehensive and beneficial composition on the topic. See al-Albānī, Muḥammad Nāṣir al-Dīn (1421/200) Ṣaḥīḥ al-Targhīb wa al-Tarhīb. Riyāḍ: Maktabat al-Ma῾ārif, vol. 1, pp. 35-36. Forthcoming translations on the virtues of fasting are found in vol.1, p. 574ff.


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Friday, October 25, 2013
It's been 3 weeks on Sunday since I was injured. Today I went to physical therapy. I have to go twice a week for at least 3 weeks, then see the doctor again and reassess. I feel like things are starting to heal up. And I am *very* happy it's the weekend, and the kids are home. Life is pretty good, even with a hurt foot.
Enjoy YOUR weekend!
5 comments:
- MargieAnne said...
Unwinding is sooo good.
- October 26, 2013 at 1:22 AM
Good attitude. I don't envy your pain but I do have a little bit of envy towards your mini vacation. Maybe I should go fall off a bridge so I can get a week to relax too LOL! Heal quickly.
- October 26, 2013 at 9:54 AM
- Lori said...
A positive attitude can do a lot to make just about any situation better. I'm glad you have found the positive in yours.
I hope you heal quickly and keep your happy attitude too.
- October 26, 2013 at 10:50 AM
- dlamb said...
Yep, what Lori said! :)
- October 26, 2013 at 11:57 AM
- Steelers6 said...
Wow, it's been a long haul. I am so proud of you (& amazed) at your mindset. Well done with making a decision regarding attitude. That is probably important, although not necessarily easy.
When I am experiencing some kind of downtime caused by illness it always makes me reasses any negative feelings toward chores! Makes me realize how very *blessed* I am to be able to do my own housework. :) Perspective.
I appreciate your perspective; it's a good one, although not a vaca by any stretch.
Hang in there dearie.
- October 26, 2013 at 8:35 PM


text:
by Alex Smith, planning director, Sense
Nobody knows less about something than an expert.
We agencies should know this; after all, it's the whole foundation of the value we bring to a client. People who work within a brand are enveloped in its world and assured of its importance and value. They're incapable of stepping away for a moment and recognising that, to a normal person, no, the new ergonomic grip on your bathroom cleaner actually isn't that exciting.
We see the wood so that they can focus on the trees. This is a great system. But why should we consider ourselves to be immune from that same problem?
Our "product" – communications in various guises – is just as prone to blinkered thinking as a bathroom cleaner, and the evidence is all around us, in every sarcastic comment or dollop of indifference delivered to campaigns by straight-talking, normal folk. Behind every failed campaign, there's a network of marketing types who thought it was great.
This being the case, it stands to reason that the more superficially specialised a marketing discipline, the deeper down the rabbit warren its practitioners tend to go; slowly tangling themselves in a web of self-imposed dogma that would baffle someone coming to it fresh.
So, if there were an agency for agencies, which could bring a bit of naïve clarity to proceedings, what would they have to say about the "tree focus" for that most specialised and incestuous of disciplines, experiential?
Here are 3 "rules", cornerstones of imagined expertise for many experienced experiential experts, which they might identify and innocently ask – "why?"
Rule 1: You must choose between depth of experience, or reach
A humdinger, and sire of many a creative argument and zero-sum see-saw charts, which invite you to choose where on a scale you'd like pitch your activation. Do you chose short sharp cheap interaction, churning through thousands of people, or an immersive brand experience, much richer for those who interact, but expensive and time consuming, thereby decreasing your reach?
Ignoring for a moment amplification as a means to extend reach, and focussing on the primary consumer experience, this rule is predicated on the assumption that a long and involved brand experience is more impactful than a fleeting one.
Quick consideration of our real, non-marketing lives proves this to be an imaginary correlation. I'm pretty sure that someone running up to me on the street, giving me a Chinese burn – all 4 seconds of it – would impact me much more profoundly than, say, looking for eggs in a supermarket – all 20 minutes of it (I always have that problem for some reason). As anyone who's ever spotted a celebrity crossing the street and banged on about it for the next six years of their life can tell you; dwell time and impact aren't correlated.
The likelihood is that you're trying to put across one clear communication with your activity, and this can be accomplished in half a second. If it's taking you 10 minutes, then, far from maximising impact, you may actually be minimising it.
Rule 2: Footfall is king
Another rule from the days when amplification was less important, but judging by the continued popularity of high streets, stations and shopping centres as stages from experiential campaigns, a lingering one nonetheless.
Of course, it seems pretty obvious that you'd want to maximise footfall. After all, it's effectively a mirror to most other disciplines that buy media largely based on reach, and experiential practitioners can be especially tetchy when it comes to the "r" word. However, the key thing to note is that effective reach is not measured by footfall, it's measured by meaningful impacts – and these aren't the same thing.
Comparing footfall and impacts is one situation where a see-saw type chart would come in handy, as we need to balance how much we influence people with how many of them we hit. Basically, it's probably better to hit 1,000 people and influence 500 of them, than to hit 10,000 people and influence 400 of them. That's the difference between footfall and impacts.
Maximising your impacts is contingent on the idea and execution, and given that experiential is highly contextual this is quite likely to be tied to your location. Naturally going to the spot that has a new piece of unrelated experiential every week isn't necessarily a recipe for standout. But going to a spot that perfectly ties in with your idea – that is.
If you deliver impact, not raw volume, amplification and talkability might just deliver you both.
Rule 3: Experiential is face to face
I'm not sure if many people actually believe this, but it certainly gets bandied about a lot, presumably as a side effect of the many abortive attempts to "define" the discipline. Because experiential can be so varied, it defies easy categorisation, so people look to find what different campaigns do have in common, and one thing that fits the bill is people (staff, brand ambassadors, what have you).
It's not hard to find examples of experiential that defy this rule, like this… http://www.thefuntheory.com/
Or this…
Or Sense's own Sky Rainforest Rescue Discovery Trails (currently in a forest near you).
Now, you might refer to non-staffed experiential as "ambient", but really this is a case of "tomayto" "tomahto", and once again trying to impose strict and unnecessary restrictions on a monumentally broad category. I don't see any client who's bought an experiential campaign complaining that what you've delivered is "technically ambient". As I said at the outset, they aren't experts, so they won't tie you down with this meaningless distinction – an argument in favour of inexperienced clients!
In conclusion, these three points are nothing more than teething problems in what remains a young form of marketing, which everyone's still feeling their way around. Stepping back and ensuring we don't consider ourselves "experts" in something that's still developing, will allow it to continue to grow into shapes and definitions we haven't even considered yet.


text:
And to that stranger, maybe you can offer the extra comfort he/she needs. Be ready to give out and reach out when in need.
"Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind."
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
E for ... #AtoZChallenge2016
And to that stranger, maybe you can offer the extra comfort he/she needs. Be ready to give out and reach out when in need.
14 comments :
Beautiful words and thoughts Sheetal. We need to reach out for that extra bit of love that we need or dole it out to those in need. Annd yes, I love the extra topping on my pizza!ReplyDelete
@KalaRavi16 from
Sheethal, that's so true. We share our joys and achievements more easily than we reach out to ask for help. Having friends and family or even just one person that you can talk to makes such a difference. I love how you end the post. It's more about giving of your time generously - you never know how you might help. :)ReplyDelete
What a beautiful philosophy.ReplyDelete
I agree, every problem has a solution ... all we need to do is find it, take a decision and stand by it no matter what. Life never promised to be all happy and glamorous. Ups and downs are part of it. Love your thoughts.ReplyDelete
A Whimsical Medley
Twinkle Eyed Traveller
Nice take on Extra Sheetal. Yes all of like a little bit extra of everything good and would be a good idea to Give extra rather than always look to receive extra :)ReplyDelete
Very true Sheetal. You are doling out some deep wisdoms. Great.ReplyDelete
Thanks for reminding us that it doesn't take much to go the extra mile and make a huge difference.ReplyDelete
This blog post is the best you've written in this series! We all love receiving extra goodies, but never giving them ~ how true a statement!ReplyDelete
Cheers, Sheethal!
- AnonymousApril 6, 2016 at 8:51 PM
I so loved this, Sheethal. I thought about a very dear person as I read this!ReplyDelete
J here, stopping by from the #atozchallenge - where I am part of Arlee Bird's A to Z Ambassador Team.ReplyDelete
April is here and I'm excited about it. Best of luck to us both on meeting our goals of posting and hopping to other blogs.
My blog has a giveaway. There's a bonus a to z challenge each day to encourage people to visit more stops.
You make an excellent point. I try to reach out extra in April by visiting more blogs than usual. I also added a "share of the day" to my blog to raise awareness for some people who have been good to me and/or my friends.
Wonderful!!! u started with Pizza and ended with such profound philosophy!!! Too good!!!ReplyDelete
wow, great one! you made an excellent pointReplyDelete
Tina from
The Sunny Side of Life
Twinkling Tina Cooks
Just wow! So true that in the race of getting ahead of each other just to earn something extra, we have left ourselves behind. We often do not realize that we also need some extra care at times.ReplyDelete
Nibha @ Expressions
Lovely lovely thoughts... If I am in need of extra love, I am too hesitant to ask. But giving, that is not an issue :)ReplyDelete


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