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Smith and Jain Dental and Implant Practice is one in a group of six dental practices in Hong Kong and on Lantau Island. We give you the added flexibility of seeing us in any of our other practices:
Diestel and Partners Family Dentistry, Central
Operating for 40 years, Diestel and Partners is the original and longest-established of our four practices. It's ideally located in the heart of Central, offering convenience for people who work in the city and families who live nearby. The clinic has a fresh and welcoming feel with four dental suites, each with modern equipment and comfortable chairs.
Room 1914, Melbourne Plaza
33 Queen's Road, Central
Phone: 2522 2099
Website: www.diestelandpartners.com
Opening hours:
Monday – Friday: 9am to 6pm
Saturdays: 9am to 1pm
Closed on Sundays and public holidays
Bayside Dental Discovery Bay
We opened Bayside Dental Discovery Bay in 2011 because we saw how our team of expat and local dentists could benefit the large expat and family community in this area. Overlooking beautiful Yi Pak Bay, and with four modern dental suites, this is our most stunning and welcoming clinic.
Unit 1, G/F, Office Block 1
North Plaza, Discovery Bay
Phone: 2987 0855
Website: www.baysidedentalhk.com
Opening hours:
Monday – Friday: 9:30am to 6:30pm
Saturdays: 9:30am to 1:30pm
Closed on Sundays and public holidays
Bayside Dental Tung Chung
Bayside Dental Tung Chung opened in March 2014 and is extremely convenient for people who live in the Caribbean Coast apartments. There is also parking nearby, making it an easily accessible dentist in Lantau for residents from all over the Island. Its spacious waiting area and four modern dental suites are bright and inviting.
Shop 26, Caribbean Square
Caribbean Coast, Tung Chung
Phone: 2185 6550
Website: www.baysidedentaltc.com
Opening hours:
Monday – Friday: 10am to 7pm
Saturdays & Sundays: 10am to 2pm
Closed on public holidays
Dr Richard Tinlin and Associates
Dr Tinlin has been practicing in Hong Kong for over 20 years and built a reputable practice, which we are proud to now be part of.
Room 701-702, Century Square
1 D'Aguilar Street, Central, Hong Kong
Phone: 2117 4180
Website: www.drrichardtinlin.com
Opening hours:
Monday – Friday: 9am to 6pm
Saturdays: 9am to 1pm
Closed on Sundays and public holidays


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I am that mom
March 25, 2016
Maybe I am that mom
Actually, I totally am.
March 2016
By Nathalie Hardy | Yamhill Valley News-Register
Recently, as I was walking my boys to school, I noticed a couple of women point and cluck as they walked their purse-sized dogs.
I glanced at the three of us, trying to determine what the tsking might be about.
Ah, yes. My 6-year-old with the tank top and no coat.
I can see, to a passerby, that could raise an eyebrow. Perhaps even the question: What kind of mother sends her kid to school without a coat?
Right here. I do. I'm that mom.
But in the moment, I suggested to him we go back to the house and grab a coat, "Maybe just carry it so people know your mom cares."
"I'm not cold," he said. "And, you're not wearing a coat," he added,staring at me with the same brown eyes and expression I make when I've driven home my point successfully.
"I thought we aren't supposed to worry what other people think." With the same face as before, I realized I was giving in to the same kind of peer pressure to which I'm trying to raise them to be resilient.
Some may say it's not the same thing at all, but actually, it is. Because I have a solid, thought-out reason for allowing him to choose whether or not he's cold, and it's actually pretty simple: I want him to listen to his body and make decisions accordingly.
At the age of 6, he is plenty old enough to know if his body is cold.
Every office has that one employee who is always hot, or always cold, regardless of the setting on the thermostat. In adults, we allow for these ranges of preferences. Why is it so hard for some to comprehend that it might be the same for children?
A few weeks ago, we were walking out the door. We reached the fence before he told me he'd be right back.
He returned with a coat and hat because, "It's sure chilly today."
There are plenty of places I intervene and override the impulses of my young boys. But I do my best to honor their initial instinct, because I want them to do the same for themselves.
Ironically, the same day Jake pointed out I was not practicing what I preach with the whole "who cares what other people think" thing, he learned an additional life lesson.
At school, another caring adult was concerned he wasn't wearing a coat. It turned into a thing I won't detail here, because I know with my whole heart she was doing her best to take care of a little boy who looked cold.
The thing is, even if he was cold, he didn't need to be rescued. He could've stayed cold for the small amount of time he was outside and then maybe being cold and uncomfortable would clue him into perhaps taking a coat to school in case he wanted it later in the day. This is a small-stakes lesson for the life skill of thinking things through and planning ahead.
So you see, it's not just a coat to me. I'm okay with letting my kids shiver a little.
When the boys were younger, I spent more time padding the edges to protect them from pain and discomfort. As they've grown out of their toddler years, it's time to offer a little less cushion and a little more opportunity to suffer, or benefit, from the consequences of their choices.
It's not exactly like I'm handing over a book of matches and seeing what happens. It's just a coat.
If my son were sick, shivering and upset that his mom didn't let him wear a coat, or that he didn't have access to one, that's the time for a grown up to help the kid out.
For the record, I love and appreciate my boys' teachers, and the staff at their little school. We aren't always going to agree on how a situation should be handled, but I know that we trust each other to do the best we can in any given moment.
I've learned, for example, not to send an e-mail with all caps and exclamation points until I have all the information. I've also learned to be a little more upfront when needed.
Last week, Jake opted out of dinner. Then he insisted he was starving, because he missed dinner and hadn't had anything to eat for breakfast.
Actually, there were plenty of healthy options for breakfast. He just didn't want any of them.
So I posted this message for any concerned adult in his life that day:
"Jake may be hungry this morning. Let the record show, it's not that I didn't give Jake dinner last night, it's that he opted out.
"Please help him understand that's not the same thing. And thanks for the way you love our kids, including your desire to keep them warm.
"xo Nathalie."
Hardy writes in the margins of her life with two young boys who understand deadlines come before dusting.

subset: commoncrawl


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Located Inside: Mirage
John, Paul, George and Ringo. As The Beatles, they changed the world. LOVE, Cirque du Soleil's interpretation of their legacy, has changed entertainment.
Beyond tribute, this is a physical manifestation of their music and lyrics. Using the master tapes from Abbey Road Studios, Sir George Martin and his son Giles created the three-time Grammy-winning soundtrack. These songs, so well-known and yet reinvented, are brought to electric, exuberant life by some of the best aerialists, acrobats and dancers in the world.
The Beatles lent so much to the consciousness of our culture. We agree wholeheartedly with this—LOVE is all you need.


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LSD and Hallucinogens/Psychedelics Addiction
Hallucinogens and psychedelic drugs are closely associated with the culture of the 1960s, especially by the popular use of Timothy Leary. Timothy Leary was a Harvard psychology professor who experimented with LSD and other hallucinogens. Hallucinogens, or psychedelics, is an umbrella term referring to many individual drugs that cause the user to hear, see, and feel things that seem real but in fact do not exist. This can be very dangerous for the user or other people near the user.
When searching for LSD and hallucinogen addiction treatment, it's important to keep in mind that quality is key. A mark of quality for a solid drug rehab clinic is to be JCAHO accredited. Recovery Ways has received the Joint Commission of Accredited Healthcare Organization's Gold Seal of Approval. Only 6% of the nation's rehab centers earn this honor. We are committed to an integrated quality of care that is comprehensive, person-centered, and recovery focused. Meaning we don't just treat the initial drug use but work on treating the whole person and looking at any co-occurring disorders. We help our patients get their lives back and enjoy them healthy and clean. Our multiple diverse treatment options allow for patients to get the individualized help they need to overcome these hallucinogens.
Are you ready to seek help for your LSD abuse or addiction?
Hallucinogen or LSD abuse treatment is accessible and available. Simply contact our highly skilled admission department who will review your insurance and walk you through the admissions process, finding the best addiction rehab for your needs.
LSD (d-lysergic acid diethylamide)
The National Institute on Drug Abuse states that this drug was found in 1938 with its active ingredient being lysergic acid from the ergot fungus or mold found on rye and other grains. LSD is the most potent hallucinogen known to man and is most often sold as tiny pieces of decorative absorbent paper on which the liquid form of the drug is dropped. The user can then place the paper on or under their tongue. It can also be sold in capsule or tablet form. It is colorless, odorless, and tastes slightly bitter. The user's high or "trip" can last up to 12 hours or more and when it goes bad it is known as a "bad trip". LSD affects the neurotransmitter serotonin causing the user to lose touch with reality and even have a blending of the sense such as hearing colors. LSD can cause tremors, euphoria, anxiety, paranoia, mood swings, sweating, hypothermia, increased heart rate, cardiac arrest, dilated pupils, horrifying thoughts and/or severe injuries or death from bad judgment while high. The long-term effects of LSD mostly involve the brain and psyche than the body. Even if an LSD user hasn't used in months, or even years, they still may succumb to flashbacks that can last for a minute or up to a few hours. These may cause users to need medical therapy similar to that used for schizophrenia. These flashbacks are known as "hallucinogen persisting perception disorder," or simply HPPD.
Common LSD Names
- Acid (Battery Acid, Cid)
- Microdots is tablet form (Dots, Doses, Tab)
- Window Panes is gelatin squares (Pane, Heavenly Blue, California Sunshine, Yellow Sunshine)
- Loony Toons is absorbent paper decorated with cartoon characters on them (Superman, Golden Dragon)
- Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (Hippie, Zen)
Mushrooms and Peyote (Mescaline)
These are both natural substances and have been used in many religious ceremonies in an effort to increase consciousness and connection. Mushrooms contain psilocybin and psilocin which are chemically similar to LSD. Peyote is most well known for the association with the Native American Church and culture. Users report a state where sounds, colors, and sensation seem more vivid. However, mushrooms can cause nausea, vomiting, and drowsiness. Peyote can cause anxiety, sweating, increased heart rate, headaches, vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness, and flushed skin. People who use mushrooms may unknowingly ingest toxic mushrooms.
Common Mushroom Names
- Magic Mushrooms
- Psychedelic Mushrooms
- Shrooms
- Mushies
- Booms (Boomers)
- Magics
- Gods Flesh
- Caps
- Simple Simon
- Buttons
Common Peyote Names
- Bad Seed
- Half Moon
- Britton
- Tops
- Hikori
- Seni
- Hyatari
- Hikuli
- Nubs
PCP (Phencyclidine)
The National Institute on Drug Abuse says that PCP was originally developed as an anesthetic until studies suggested it did more harm than good. It is typically sold as a powder that can be swallowed, snorted, smoked, or injected. It is also sometimes added to other drugs to increase their psychedelic effects. The drug causes anxiety, paranoia, delusional thoughts, feelings of invincibility, and hallucinations. It can also cause unusual eye movements, drooling, loss of balance, nausea, vomiting, drastically slow breathing, seizures, comas, and death. PCP affects the dopamine production in the brain which increases the risk for addiction. PCP increases pleasure and decrease pain leading to a manic stage where users may feel invincibility or unreality and do something life-threatening.
Common PCP Names
- Angel Dust
- Trank
- Embalming fluid
- Wack
- Killer Weed
- Ozone
- Zoom (Rocket Fuel)
- Peter Pan
- Super Grass
- Lethal Weapon
- Peace Pills
This is produced from the seeds, stems, and leaves of the hemp plant which is usually smoked. The active ingredient is THC. Some users experience changes in their sense of hearing, light, and smell and a distorted sense of time and space. Not all users experience this. It can also cause red eyes, dry mouth (cotton-mouth), and hunger.
See Marijuana Page for More Information.
While the majority of these drugs may not technically be addictive the sensations for people may be. When use continues and does not stop, it is time to suggest help.
Effective treatment for LSD & Hallucinogens
If you or a loved one is in desperate need of LSD & hallucinogen abuse rehab, Recovery Ways can help find the best addiction treatment program available. Our admission coordinators are here to take your call, listen to your issues and verify your benefits. We can review your insurance and find out if it will cover the costs associated with addiction treatment.
If you're ready to start the admissions process please call 1-888-986-7848.


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It was about three in the afternoon and high summer, the end of July in 1831, when Alexis de Tocqueville and his traveling companion, Gustave de Beaumont, reached Detroit via Lake Erie on a steamboat called Ohio. Detroit, Tocqueville reported, was "a little town of two or three thousand souls," founded by French Jesuits and still full of French families. Earlier in the day, the French-built Catholic church in British Fort Malden, now in Windsor, Ontario, had reminded him of a village near Caen or Evreux, with a rooster-shaped weathervane atop its bell-tower. A Parisian whose aristocratic family was rooted in Normandy, where Tocqueville lies about equidistant between Evreux and Caen, the young traveler sought restlessly for such points of contact between the old world and the new: they were essential helps in making sense of the Americans for his European audience.
Such comparisons failed him. In what Norman village would the bell-tower cock look down on a British soldier of the Highland regiments, fully uniformed in kilt, red tunic, and ostrich-feather cap, and set on guard at the border of the empire; then spin in an east wind to regard "two stark naked Indians, their bodies streaked with dyes, rings in their noses … in a little bark canoe"? The frontier of European settlement was also the border country of empires, where civilizations crossed like the merchants of many languages and religions who streamed through the ancient port cities of the Mediterranean. Unsettlement, movement, the mutual jostling of people displaced by choice or force, was what Tocqueville found in the Northwest Territories. The emblems of European nations that he met on the frontier were fragmented images on the vast canvas of the new continent.
In the American pioneers, the forest-clearing, town-building leading edge of settlement, Tocqueville found a people entirely without terroir. They had, he reported, none of the flavor of a place and its soil, no regional idiosyncrasy or rough peasant culture. The man one met in New York upon disembarking from a trans-Atlantic voyage was the same man one met at the doorway of a log cabin northwest of Pontiac, on the very edge of settlement. Unlike the laborers and aristocrats of France – at least as Tocqueville imagined them – these Americans did not spring from the land and carry its mark in rooted, place-based cultures. Instead, they aimed their vagrant, conquering strength at a continent they were determined to master, indifferent to its detail and variation except where these promised wealth. The European travelers' wish to see trackless wilderness for its own sake made no sense to their American hosts. As Tocqueville reported – playing up the scene for effect – he and Beaumont had to pose as speculators, then manoeuvre into a faux-casual question about where the least desirable land lay, to get directions to the wilderness.
These directions led them to a woods northwest of Pontiac, in what is now Michigan, which became a set-piece in Tocqueville's portrait of the new American nation. The setting was of devastation. The first sign of settlement was burnt-over ground, scorched limbs, and trees dead but standing, having been strangled by girdling, stripping a ring of bark to stop sap from circulating. Here, "all the trees seem to have been struck by sudden death," and "[i]n full summer their withered branches seem the image of winter." In this deathly forest, a proliferation of weeds and wheat, corn and oak shoots, grew on ground newly opened to the sun. At the center of this crude clearing, dead trees gave way to stumps of trees cut but not yet grubbed up, and amid the stumps stood a log cabin.
In this crude building, with a window hacked out of the log walls and furniture assembled from untrimmed tree limbs still sprouting leaves, a few details pointed to the meaning behind the rough labor of frontier survival. A muslin curtain and cracked teapot promised a gracious domestic life in decades ahead. A bible, a prayerbook, and "sometimes, a poem of Milton or a tragedy of Shakespeare" the cabin's ties to the past, while a few newspapers maintained a desultory but persistent tie to present events. Other than a deerskin or eagle feathers, Tocqueville mentioned only one pure decoration, one piece of visual display: a map of the United States, stretched to the right of the fireplace, lifting and fluttering in the breezes that passes through cracks in the cabin wall.
The map was an appropriate symbol. If the American pioneers lacked all terroir and pleasure in the details of unsettled land, if the terrain they shaped was haphazardly ugly, they were nonetheless in the grip of a continental vision. Tocqueville, who reveled in paradox, saw in the Americans a heroic spirit deployed for utilitarian ends, the vitality of savage warfare joined with the cool calculation of self-interest. He called the settlers "a race to whom the future of the New World belongs, a restless, calculating, adventurous race which sets coldly about deeds that can only be explained by the fire of passion … that submits to living the life of a savage without ever letting itself be carried away by its charms, that only cherishes those parts of civilization and enlightenment which are useful for well-being." The American nation, he judged, "like all great peoples, has but one thought, and presses forward to the acquisition of riches, the single end of its labors, with a perseverance and a scorn of life which one could call heroic, if that word were properly used of anything but the strivings of virtue." Here was something new in the world: heroic effort for everyday purposes, self-sacrificing devotion without self-immolating passion, were the qualities of a people who could achieve the focused violence of conquest and sustain the orderly power of rule. Thus Tocqueville called the Americans "[a] nation of conquerors … whom rivers and lakes cannot hold back, before whom forests fall and prairies are covered in shade; and who, when they have reached the Pacific Ocean, will come back on its tracks to trouble and destroy the societies which it will have formed behind it."
What such a nation meant for the continent was palpable: clearing, settlement, cultivation and also a kind of devastation. What did it mean, how did it feel, to be such a person, one of these new Americans? It seemed to Tocqueville that these calculating conquerors became emotionally flat, almost two-dimensional, and lost the savor of living for its own sake, without some instrumental reward. He described the pioneers as cold-blooded, stiff, austere, and so emotionally isolated that they hardly took pleasure in ordinary sociability. Indeed, he saw them as consumed by their nation-building vision an hardly able to acknowledge the reality of fellow human beings: "Even [the pioneer's] feelings for his family have become merged in a vast egotism, and one cannot be sure whether he regards his wife and children as anything more than a detached part of himself." This was, for him, part of the paradox of a "great" people, a nation that would turn the wheel of history, that spent its energy in chilly, deliberate fashion, turning a continent to production and profit, from wilderness to property.
The image of the pioneer as what we might today call a narcissist – self-aggrandizing, emotionally truncated, isolated from others to the point of doubting their reality except as projected aspects of one's self – was one that would later form a central and enduring image of the second volume of Tocqueville's Democracy in America. There he portrayed, not just frontier settlers, but Americans in general and, by extension, the democratic personality of the future, as emotionally insensate, among others yet unable to feel them, with each man shut up alone in himself. It is striking to find an origin for this idea in Tocqueville's observation of Americans' relation to land and the natural world. Although what struck Tocqueville was the lack of terroir in Americans, that did not mean Americans were not defined by a relation to the land. Instead, they were defined by an abstract and general relation to nature, as a field of economic value which they extracted and exploited wherever they found it, building a nation as they went. This relation to nature was well captured in the abstract image of the nation that Tocqueville saw on the cabin walls of the frontier: the map of the United States spreading across a continent, subsuming rivers and mountains, swamps and deserts, forests and plains within its borders. It seemed to him that its consequences were also palpable in the casual destruction that had turned a Midwestern summer to winter and left trees to decay and collapse as weeds and new crops grew up together under their dead limbs. Although Tocqueville did not trace the emotional economy that tied this chilly isolation to certain kind of world-historical mission on the continent, his intuition was that Americans' isolation from one another, their evasion of their own warm and passionate energies, and their relentless, muscular, but cold-blooded struggle with nature were parts of a coherent outlook.
Alexis de Tocqueville was an opinionated observer of the American scene, and his judgments were motivated by an intense concern with Europe's future, which he supposed was presaged in the democratic United States. Even saying this understates the matter: reading Tocqueville, one learns as much about him as about the people he observed. He often seemed to imagine that only refined characters like him were capable of genuine reflection, while others were swept along by the currents of opinion and history, their words and ideas symptoms of the great trends that Tocqueville traced. His writing is thus marked by reluctance to reflect on his own preoccupations and a sharp limit on his considerable gift for imagining his way into others' experience. He approached the world somewhat as a tremendously bright student of literature might approach a novel that he had been assured was structured by a few major themes, which it was his assignment to discern. For all the acuity of his particular observations, then, his real talent lay in the sharp yet sweeping general claim about such things as "American character" or "democratic experience," which might or might not exist, and might or might be as they seemed to one uncommonly articulate French aristocrat on a short visit.
For all these reasons, it has been unfashionable to begin a study of American experience with Tocqueville, or, for that matter, to follow him in making American experience a topic at all. Yet there are also reasons to do both things. Tocqueville's arresting frontier vignettes are a window into a quiet moment within an extraordinary chapter of American social, economic, and ecological history: a settler people's violent sweep across North America. As Tocqueville recorded in miniature, pioneers burnt hundreds of thousands of acres of forest, strangled and eventually leveled and grubbed up much of the rest, cut the deep and tangled roots of prairie sod with the plow, and drained wetlands and redirected rivers. The scope and vigor of the transformation suggested a military campaign. So did the one-sided warfare that Americans waged on predators. Wolves, for instance, were the targets of more than a century of something like total warfare, including massive poisonings, great bounties, and vaunted expeditions against the strongest and most elusive individuals. This was not the first time human beings had transformed a landscape, and some of the difference from earlier episodes was a matter of more powerful technology, but it was an extraordinary remaking of a continent.
As Tocqueville suggested, the settlers carried, and were carried by, an idea of what their work meant. Indeed, even more than he seems to have realized, the American project of clearing and settling the continent was involved with an interpretation of nature. [It all depended on…] [I think the strongest statements of the providential republic view, at least rhetorically, need to go in here. That way, it's evident early that this is not just Great Books.]
[All the world was America]
John Locke's claim that, "In the beginning, all the world was America," is perhaps the most pregnant passage in his thought. It crystallizes the speculative history that underlay Locke's political thought. Humanity began, on this account, in a world not yet owned, where no property lines marked mine from yours, and anyone could exercise his natural right to use whatever resources he needed for his survival or convenience. Those who wandered this world were in what Locke called the state of nature, where all were equally free to act as they wished, so long as they did not harm one another. There were no slaves and no masters, no rulers or ruled. Although it was a world not yet owned, it was not immune to ownership: one who used something, whether by clearing a field or gathering apples, acquired a property right in it, which others had to respect. The only limit on this right to acquire property was that the natural men must leave enough for others to satisfy their own needs. History began in a world of extensive liberty and radical equality, organized by a modest dose of natural law, a world without government but infused with without order and principle.
Locke's state of nature contained the seeds of a much more extensive system of law, the explicit, usually written law of a formal political system. That was not accidental: the point of his imagined "America" was to provide an account of how organized government could come into being as an extension of natural freedom and equality. Government, in Locke's telling, arose when men in the state of nature voluntarily surrendered some of their extensive freedom in exchange for the security that government provided. The advantage of this theory was that it explained why legitimate government must have limited powers: it was bound by the same natural law that pertained in the state of nature, including respect for property rights, and could exercise only the powers that natural men would have granted it to protect their lawful interests. Natural freedom and equality were speculative postulates, not direct limits on real-world governments, but as the cardinal points of Locke's political theory they drew a line between those acts of government that subjects must obey, because they were compatible with the consent of free and equal natural men, and those commands that subjects could resist, because natural men would not have consented to them.
This image of a primordial, unclaimed land, where freedom and equality could unfold themselves, had great meaning for the continent Locke used to imagine the beginnings of history: North America. This continent became a present instance of a world before government, a landscape under natural law. This meant that settlers had a chance to replay Lockean history, divide the continent among themselves and make, by common consent, a constitutional government to rule them all. They could take freedom and equality as the premises of a practical enterprise, building an "empire of liberty" westward from the Atlantic. What had been theoretical postulates in Locke's thought now became cornerstones of a vast undertaking.
It is widely recognized, of course, that discovering an open continent changed the course of European, and world, history. Max Weber, the great German social thinker, reflected that human freedom owed an incalculable debt to a "wind from the west," the ferment of experiment, new wealth, and open borders that rebels and dissidents could flee across, and it seemed to Weber that such a wind might never blow again. Early Americans, too, endlessly claimed that open land and rational experiments in government made them the pivotal nation in human history, the ones whose success could revive Roman freedom, show the proper form of Christian government, or establish once and for all that a people could govern itself by choice and reason, not chance and inheritance. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the Northern ideal of American democracy, as a republic of smallholders, was firmly established, and it was commonplace that a republic of free men, each dignified by making his living through free labor, depended on the availability of free land on the frontier.
What is easier to miss is that early Americans' ideas were not simply about history, politics, and freedom. They were also about nature: what the natural world was, where its value lay, and how human beings should use it. To see this in some detail, let's stay a little longer with Locke, where the logic is especially clear. Locke argued, against earlier theorists of natural law such as Hugo Grotius and Thomas Hobbes, that although the world originally belonged to all in common, an individual could turn it into his own property by appropriating or improving so much of it as he could use. This act, creating a legal right of ownership, did not depend on either the consent of the rest of humanity (which was, after all, losing its claim), which Grotius had argued, or the act of a sovereign government to declare "mine and thine," as Hobbes believed. Instead, property could arise before government, was among the interests that natural men sought to secure by creating government, and thus was one of the limits on what legitimate government could do?
And how could we know this, according to Locke? "God, when he gave the World in common to all Mankind, commanded Man also to labor, and the penury of his Condition required it of him. God and his Reason commanded him to subdue the earth, i.e., improve it for the benefit of life…." Locke continued, "God gave the World to Men in Common; but since he gave it them for their benefit, and the greatest Conveniencies of Life they were capable to draw from it, it cannot be supposed he meant it should always remain common and uncultivated. He gave it to the use of the Industrious and Rational (and Labour was to be his Title to it;)…." There were two sources, then, for Locke's view of natural property, both deeply involved in the human relation to nature. First was the curse of Adam, the command to labor that accompanied expulsion from Eden. This, however, is not purely a curse in Locke's hands: rather, those who obey the command are a morally favored group, the "industrious and rational," and it is to them that the world really belongs. The second source of Locke's view was an interpretation of the human predicament in the natural world. People were needy, vulnerable, and poorly provided for by "un-assisted nature," but the world's stinginess, and humanity's "penury," need not be permanent. Instead, when men mixed their labor with the world, it bloomed, producing a hundred times or more the wealth it yielded when "un-assisted." Property, which guaranteed to owners the fruits of their work, was the rational response to human needs in a world that met those needs abundantly when fertilized with labor, scarcely at all when left fallow. Locke persistently referred to land that had not been turned to property as "waste," a word with a double sense: of resources squandered or not used, an affront to the "industrious and rational," and also emptiness, a sense rooted in its origins in the Latin vastus, a desolate space. The natural world, so far as it had not come under the fruitful power of labor, was empty, incomplete.
For Locke, contemplating the natural world and the human place in it revealed principles that were binding on social and political life. This was true because humans were part of nature, and nature, in turn, pervasively exhibited divine purpose in the harmonies of its design. So far as human purposes were legible from nature's design, they were natural law, part of the world's fabric. Thus, though natural men were free and equal with regard to one another, they were subordinate to God, the divine legislator, and not at liberty to defy the design that nature expressed. As Locke memorably put it, "nature must be altogether negated before one can claim for oneself absolute liberty" – a course of action that he was not recommending. Instruction in divine design came from rationally contemplating nature, a task that required discipline and effort, since, like precious metals buried underground, the principles of divine law "do not present themselves to idle and listless people." Therefore, as making nature fruitful required forging a virtue out of Adam's curse of labor, so learning the duties of natural law itself required people to join the industrious and rational, for whom the world was made. The world taught humanity that they should subdue it with labor to make it bloom, that it belonged to the industrious and rational; but this truth was clear only to those who had labored to discern it.
[The material on exclusion of Native Americans and on settler colonies.]
The settlers of the United States followed Locke in how they described their right to the continent and their duty to develop it. This meant that they gave their continental project a distinctly environmental justification. Other imperial claims to land and jurisdiction relied on Christian conversion and the theory of just war (Spain in Latin America), utilitarian accounts of progress for backward civilizations (the British in India), and the need for humanitarian intervention in violent, rights-abusing societies (the Belgians and others in central Africa). The American claim rested distinctively on an interpretation of the human place in nature, which made clearing and settlement both a right and a duty. Using the continent productively was the basis of the nation's claim to it in the first place, what legitimated pushing aside its original inhabitants, and the national task Americans had adopted.
This does not exactly mean that Locke's writings on legitimate government, the origins of property, and natural law should have rested alongside Milton on the rough-hewn mantel of Tocqueville's archetypal settler. It is true that early Americans were broadly literate, often with a rudimentary sense of law, and frontier settlers, as much as the drafters of the Declaration of Independence, did make Lockean claims to the land. The point, though, is that regardless of whether they read Locke or the many jurists who followed him on these points, Americans developed a public language, a proto-democratic way of talking about the national identity and project, the proper uses of government and duties of citizens, a whole civic vocabulary of praise, exhortation, and reprimand, that rested on the same view of nature that founded Locke's philosophy. In doing so, they were of course engaged in the practical business of politics: finding phrases and arguments to motivate fellow citizens, align interests conveniently with principles, and deal with the immense, grittily practical, and often bloody work of nation-building. They were also, however, making a philosophical choice. They were aligning the country with a view of nature, and the human place in it, that was one point in a controversial set of debates. Like the broadly Lockean view that entered the public language of the United States, the alternative positions also tied ideas of nature to theories of political and personal freedom. The American engagement with nature grew out of a broader debate on the same themes, one closely connected with some of the most essential issues in politics, value, and knowledge.
A public language will not serve its purpose in a democracy unless it resonates with the experience and identity of everyday people. If they cannot recognize themselves in its phrases, it will have only the abstract clink of official ideology. For this reason, public language about nature interacts with environmental imagination, the ways that citizens perceive and encounter the natural world as they work and play, and how nature fits in their religious, civic, and intimate lives. The choice of public language acknowledged that environmental imagination already fit a broadly Lockean image. It was also, however, a choice to honor and propagate the sort of environmental imagination that fit this image, and to honor less the other ways a person might encounter the living world. Much of the rest of this book is devoted to understanding what these choices entailed, where they placed Americans within the spectrum of environmental imagination available in their time, and what Americans have done since with this legacy of public language and environmental imagination.
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Making homemade beer is more than just mashing and mixing stuff and letting it sit. It's sort of like an art form that involves technique aside from the technical. For example, temperature is a really important thing to keep track of so you'll end up with professional-quality and good-tasting beer. One tool that can help you monitor the temperature when you're brewing is the BrewBit Model-T.
The BrewBit is a WiFi-enabled temperature controller with open source software, so you can hack it and modify it to perform other functions, if you're not a homebrewer. It's equipped with dual independent temperature probes and dual independent outputs. You can choose to control one, both, or none of the outputs for logging purposes. Its makers explain that the BrewBit can help "keep your fermentation and mash temperatures where you want them to be", resulting in high-quality, great-tasting beer.


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The Team
Parent Employees
Who we work with
Enterprising Child Ltd is registered in England & Wales, company reg. 8089138. 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ. 'Enterprising Child' and 'because their future starts with you' are registered trademarks of Enterprising Child Ltd. 'Can-Do Child' is a trademark of Enterprising Child Ltd.
Web Design by
Just Great Design and Marketing
Website build and programming by
West Coast Web Works


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Gentle protection against environmental influences
It has been said that the eyes are the mirror of the soul. But they are also a reflection of our environment. Pollution, air conditioning, computer screens and contact lenses cause strain and irritation to our eyes every day. With revitalizing ingredients such as demeter-Ghee, organic oils and waxes, Lakshmi® kajals soothe your eyes with their cooling effect all day long.
Cooling freshness through camphor
Certain Lakshmi® AYURVEDIC BEAUTY Kajals bear the description cold, a term which reflects their pleasantly cooling camphor content. Purified natural camphor has antibacterial properties and helps prevent inflammation. Its astringent properties also help rid the eyes of unsightly red capillaries, leaving them clear and bright.
Functional form, captivating colours
Lakshmi® AYURVEDIC BEAUTYs smooth cone-shaped kajals are gentle to apply and ideal for the sensitive inner rim of the eyes. Placing the tip sideways and rotating it during application ensure that the colour is applied evenly and that the kajal retains its shape. This technique makes the kajals very economical in use. An applicator or brush can then be used for the lower, broader base of the kajal.
Available as coloured kajal (with 0.5% camphor) and coloured kajal cold (2.6-2.8 % camphor). Choose an enchanting look for your soothing eye make-up with diverse nuances of blue, brown and green, shimmering rainbow colours and extravagant modern trend shades.


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I've come
upon the last lines, it seems like everytime,
I stand up, I fall back down again...
I put my life on rewind, the daylight is saving time,
By leaving you behind!
And i'll take it back someday, and then start again one day!
(Back up your front, back up your front, stealing the feeling you shot in
cold blood!)
I came upon the last lines, it seemed like everytime,
I stood up, I lost my place again...
But this time it's a new sound, this battle field's a playground,
Her orders: SHOOT TO KILL!!!
(courus) 2x
Break the dawn,
and hang the sun!!
Back To Lyrics
Disclaimer. Copyright � 2002 30yw.
All Rights Reserved.


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Looking for a career, one might not always consider becoming a data scientist. But given the demand for Big Data analytic specialists or data scientists, a career in Big Data can seem a good choice or even the best one for most new age junkies.
Since an increasingly large number of medium-scale and multi-billion dollar companies are now using Big Data, the demand for big data specialists or Data scientists (as they are better known) has risen tremendously.
Today, all businesses, small and big, require data scientists who know how to manage the influx of huge information and draw a conclusion and insight from the tsunami of data. Thus, when looking for an option at college course or a career change, you can give Big Data a chance.
Data scientist is by far one of the most sought after career options, not just because of its demand, but also because data analysts are commanding impressive salaries, which are at par with some big career positions.
Career in Big Data
Big Data is basically extremely large amounts of structured and/or unstructured information/data, which is too much for the traditional databases and tools to handle. This large amount of data comes from all possible sources such as social media, posts, multimedia and files (to name a few). Businesses need to set up state-of-the-art technologies to manage and comprehend all this data. They need someone who can help them manage and draw insights from the data; insights that help increase profits in one way or the other.
This is why the position of a data scientist becomes all encompassing in an organization. The position is spread across three specialist fields – technologists, statisticians and quantification experts.
Technologists – these are data scientists who are experts at writing algorithms and codes to transverse such large amounts of data. Statisticians and quantification experts on the other hand are creative fellows expected to navigate content and find things others can miss.
Skill set required to be a data scientist
Having already understood that Big Data analysts can have a great career, since it is driving job growth, we need to understand how one can get into the position of a data analyst. It is important to know the skills need to pursue a big data career?
If seen from a larger prospective, Big Data jobs need a wide range of skills. But in a very realistic sense, many of the Big Data jobs do not require major programming skill, instead strong analytical skills and knowledge of analytical tools is probably something that is more required.
Education to acquire requisite skills
You may be able to acquire many skills on-the-job, but if there is still a need to enhance your data analyzing skills, interested candidates can enroll with a good big data training school or institution for a well planned course program and acquire necessary skills. Vendors like EMC and IBM also offer courses on Big Data. In addition to these, colleges and universities also offer degree programs in analytics and other related fields to prepare the prospective aspirants for a Big Data career.


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In the latest edition of the Blatant Homerism Podcast, Jason Kersey of NewsOK.com and The Oklahoman joins the show to talk about the biggest stories around the Sooners heading into two-a-days.
Jason and I cover:
- Transitioning back to the Air Raid;
- The quarterback competition;
- Talk of Mike Stoops experimenting with multiple defensive fronts;
- Hot seat talk around Bob Stoops;
- And more.
(The Sooner Sports Radio app is now available for download on your iPad and iPhone. You can also subscribe to the show via iTunes.)


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The 2014 MSA Spring Classic was based in north Wales at the Village Chester St David's Hotel, ideally placed to enjoy a weekend of classic motoring exploring the stunning roads and scenery in both north Wales and England.
The MSA Spring Classic started on Saturday morning from the Village Chester St David's Hotel in north Wales. Following the coastal road, the route took us to the picturesque Victorian seaside town of Llandudno for our morning coffee stop at the St George's Hotel. We couldn't visit Llandudno without taking a drive around the infamous Great Orme (a limestone headland measuring 2 miles by 1 mile) before we headed off towards Anglesey for a visit to their race circuit, passing en route the medieval Conwy Castle, a World Heritage Site, and travelling over the Menai Bridge, the first modern suspension bridge in the world.
The circuit also hosted a round of the BARC Championship on this day, however we had exclusive use of the International circuit for 2 hours between 12:00 - 14:00 hours. A light lunch was provided at the circuit before we headed off for the more scenic part of the day towards Snowdonia, crossing the Llanberis Pass which provided some fine mountain scenery.
Our next check point was in Betws-y-Coed, the official "Gateway to Snowdonia". From here we headed east taking in part of the "Evo" triangle, before arriving back at our hotel base for our Gala Dinner.
A leisurely start to the day as we headed south toward the Horseshoe Pass which, at a height of 417 metres, offered some fabulous views combined with excellent driving roads.AD by the Romans, on our way to our final destination at the Heritage Motor Museum, Gaydon, where a visit to the museum was incorporated with a light lunch. The Heritage Motor Museum is home to the world's largest collection of British cars; it boasts nearly 300 cars which span the classic, vintage and veteran eras and is a mecca for car enthusiasts.
Click HERE for the 2014 MSA Spring Classic Entry List.


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Rare remix to 702's 1997 single and promotional single for the Nickelodeon film Good Burger. Both sides play the same and the only difference between the Bone and Bink Dog remix is the length. Features an appearance by ex-Lost Boyz rapper Mr. Cheeks.
1. Bone Radio Mix
2. Bink Dog Mix
3. Instrumental
4. Bone Radio Mix
5. Bink Dog Mix
6. Instrumental


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This trend is confirmed by a Gartner survey that finds, "77% of respondents were either restarting or renewing EA efforts (18 percent), initiative EA for the first time (34 percent) or taking EA efforts to the next level (25 percent)." Enterprise Architecture practices are delivering business value, which is great news, but there are proactive steps you can take to accelerate and elevate your EA practice. If you focus on delivering tangible results back to the business, you can elevate your EA practice and increase your influence throughout your organization.
Most EA programs are stuck in this first stage where EA is seen as making a lot of noise ("don't make any moves until I catalogue and architect everything first"). If business leaders don't feel the positive impacts of the architecture, then enterprise architecture is just seen as extra work and unnecessary. How many times have we heard the phrase architecture for the sake of architecture? To move from this stage into stage 2, begin successfully implementing use cases to illustrate real business value. You need to have a picture of what that end-state looks like and think strategically about the future goals of the business but start with small wins. Each step forward should work towards the company's broader vision.
When you start implementing use cases that deliver on business outcomes, you're able to produce real value and now you can start earning trust outside of the IT department. From here you can gain traction and buy-in from business leaders and begin to transform into a business unit seen as helping the organization reach strategic goals. At this point, if you haven't already, you should start shifting your focus to supporting business operations. You will implement additional use cases, building towards that strategic plan, but always focused on business outcomes. As your use cases expand, the amount of data you use and maintain grows, and this increases your business value.
As you start building a reputation for delivering greater value, you'll see your influence increase and you'll become more trusted. You'll start being a source of truth for reliable information and you'll get requests for help with additional use cases. Once you've gain trust from the business, you can start shifting your focus from business operations to strategic planning and make the C-suite your key stakeholders. You should have a comprehensive view of the enterprise (maintained in your repository at this point) to support rapid impact analysis and transformation scenario simulations.
Once you're in the influential stage, congratulations are in order, because now business leaders see you as a strategic partner. You'll know you've arrived at this stage when they start consulting you before undertaking new initiatives. How's that for elevating your EA practice? To remain in this stage and not take steps backwards, continue focusing on capabilities and the needs of the business, providing tangible business value, and driving transformation and innovation.


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(813) 234-5944
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813. 234.5944
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"If they (Northwestern) shoot like that they'll make the Final Four." – Karl RavechThe above quote was said at halftime of the ESPN2 broadcast of tonight's game and I think it pretty much sums up my feelings. I honestly think NU still has a number of areas that need improvement, but if you aren't impressed with the way the Wildcats shoot the basketball, well, then put simply, you must be awfully difficult to please. NU's 55-point first half was actually better in terms of offensive execution than their very impressive first half against Creighton. I would suspect that any opposing coach who watches that tape will be beyond perplexed at how to defend as NU as the 'Cats got great production not only from Drew Crawford and John Shurna, but also from JerShon Cobb, Alex Marcotullio and a number of others.
Obviously, John Shurna played his usual solid game. He finished the day with 21 Pts, 1 Reb, 2 Ast, 2 Stl, 2 Blk. That total of 21 points will actually lower his average, but like a number of Wildcats he has only himself to blame as even Shurna, a solid free throw shooter, struggled from the charity strip tonight making only 3-of-6 freebies.
As good as Shurna was, it was Drew Crawford (19 Pts, 6 Rebs, 3 Ast, 3 Stl) and JerShon Cobb who really stepped up early for NU and set the tone. Georgia Tech actually started off quick with a big dunk from Glen Rice Jr. and the 'Cats found themselves in a hole. When that happened, both Crawford and Cobb made tough shots to ignite a Wildcat run that to be perfectly honest continued all the way until the break. Bill Carmody mentioned Cobb wasn't too happy with his limited playing time Sunday night, and to be honest I was worried about the youngster's confidence if Coach Carmody decided to go with Jeff Ryan or Mike Capocci in that spot, but after tonight I suspect Cobb is happy and I feel happy for him. Like Crawford last year, it seems to have taken a little time for Cobb to get totally comfortable and healthy, but he brought out an assortment of moves tonight which show why he's got a great future. His second basket of the game, a reverse layup after a lighting-quick drive, needs to make every highlight reel of this game and this season. Cobb finished with a career-high 10 points as well as 3 rebounds and 2 assists. Most importantly, though, he likely found a comfort level which will carry him into the rest of the season.
Before the game reader Mikey K said NU needed a big game from Crawford and I have to give him credit for that observation. Without Crawford hitting tough shots early I think things could have gone bad quickly. Crawford also had an under the radar big play in the second half when he took the ball to the hole hard for two after Georgia Tech got a dunk and seemed to gain some momentum.
Together Crawford, Cobb, and a much more aggressive than ever Juice Thompson are giving NU more players than ever before who can get the ball to the hoop and finish on their own. That doesn't even include John Shurna who might not be as quick off the dribble as those three, but who also goes to the rack with authority when he sees the opening.
NU made 12-of-19 threes tonight and some major credit needs to go to Alex Marcotullio who made 4-of-4, including one he converted into a 4-point play after sinking a shot while drawing a foul. Coach Bill Carmody was actually most impressed with Marcotullio's only non-three point field goal saying that Alex, "threw in a runner on the baseline ala Tim Doyle," when talking with Doyle postgame on WGN.
In my ideal vision of this season Marcotullio is the guy off the bench who can bring NU instant offense and he showed up big time in that role tonight. He also (along with Jeff Ryan and Cobb) provided his usual solid defense atop NU's 1-3-1 zone. NU played both the switching man and the 1-3-1, but Georgia Tech's aggressive style made playing the 1-3-1 and almost goading Tech into driving into the middle of the defense where NU could collapse and force a mistake a better option for the 'Cats tonight.
Some other big plays tonight came from Juice Thompson who had 14 points and 4 assists. Those assists gave him 403 for his career. The NU record is 452 by Patrick Baldwin (the point guard on the last NU team to go 5-0 and to win a postseason game). Also, Luka Mirkovic was credited by Coach Carmody as being "terrific" tonight. If you eliminate the skill of free throw shooting, where Luka went 3-of-7, I agree. Luka played well on defense (7 defensive rebounds), was spectacular as a passer (a team leading 7 assists), and attacked the basket in one-on-one situations well enough to score 11 points. When combined with Davide Curletti (who didn't play as much because Luka did play so well) NU's center's posted a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds. With Luka's 7 assists, they barely missed a triple-double. I'd bet anything Carmody would take those numbers from that spot every night. Also of note is that thanks to the effort of those two centers, and some solid shooting, NU outrebounded Tech 32-28.
Really, I have only two major criticisms after tonight. First, NU still has a number of players who get beat off the dribble simply because they don't get low in a defensive position and move their feet. Second, unless they plan to shoot 64.6% from the field every night (which would fine) NU can't only shot 56.7% from the free throw line. Think about that—NU almost was 10% better from the field. They were if you take out a few late game heaves from the bench players.
One other note, the attendance of 4455 isn't awful for an NU home game, but the crowd could be much better. It could also look a lot better on TV if people in the purple seats decided to show up. It's really bad when the announcers are in close-up and behind them are only empty seats. I really think NU needs to start to find a way to move the season ticket holders who show up every game but are either in the upper level or the bleachers over to the better seats which are almost always unoccupied.


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Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Monday, October 30, 2006
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Step right up and make yer guess!
What do YOU think the price tag is for two ER visits (each with x-rays), and a visit to the orthopedic doctor (included x-rays and splint)?
Any guesses.... anyone?
I'd tell you now but I have to change my underwear.
Friday, October 20, 2006
I miss good radio
It seems like forever since I was exposed to any really good new music.
The radio stations in T-town just make me want to scream, cry, and tear at my clothing every time I try to listen. The capacity of these local radio stations to be repetitive and incredibly, unbelievabley boring is truly astounding.
I have looked at satellite radio, but I just can't bring myself to pay for it when there are only one or two stations I would be interested in listening to.
I suppose I could make myself some CD's to listen to in the car, but I don't really have the time it will take to accomplish that task.
Recently I have been listening to a book on CD. (My Life by Bill Clinton. Interesting listen. LOOOONNNGG. 21 discs, and apparently this is just part 1. I am on disc 15 right now. It is currently way overdue to the library. But I gotta finish it after going this far.) It has been enjoyable, but sometimes I just need some good tunes while I drive.
Hmmm...this has turned in to a pretty whiny post.
Some things you just don't get over I suppose. One of those things for me apparently is the loss of a really good radio station that I LOVED.
Help me.
Monday, October 16, 2006
It's our One Year Anniversary Sale!
I just realized that this blog has been up and running for a whole year now.
I really thought that I would have given this up LO-ooong before now.
So what has changed n this here blog over the past year?
Let's see...
- Far less frequent posting
- Wa-hay fewer pictures
- I seem to have abandoned the ever popular Hottie of the Week(ish) entries
- I now have people making comments that are not people I have known most of my life
I think that covers it.
Wonder what changes the next year will bring?
Will I even continue to blog over the next year?
Hard to say. Life seems to get busier by the day. It is much easier and faster to just check other blogs and occasionally make silly comments, and then there is my ever waning confidence in my ability to keep this stuff even the slightest bit interesting.
Well I am not going to answer those questions now and maybe never will answer those questions. I need to go to bed if the construction of the last sentence is any indication. It is late, and my day starts ear-lye in the morning.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Hey Ma! I'm Doin' a show!
Get in touch with me if you want information about the upcoming production I am involved in. I decided that I am not comfortable with putting all the info out in to cyberspace. There is a very important event happening with the production tomorrow so get in touch soon!
Monday, October 09, 2006
No surgery (Thanks for the chants Val!)
a new splint
orders not to return to school until Friday. F-R-I-D-A-Y.
another appointment for Friday morning at which time we will apparently do the same thing that we did today.
So there you have it.
Good news..the bones are in the proper place to heal correctly so no setting was required. Getting the new splint was painful though. So if we are indeed doing the same thing Friday that we did today...I am not so much looking forward to it.
I personally am hoping for a cast Friday. I am really just not comfortable sending her back to school in a splint. Just walking to her classroom today to get school work I felt like I needed to be her bodyguard to keep her from being ran into or knocked over. Granted I am a bit hyper-sensitive to potential dangers for her right now.
Oh yeah...by 6:00 chocolate milk spilled on the newly wrapped splint.
Good times....
Saturday, October 07, 2006
In Case I Forgot to Mention it...
I hate seeing my child in pain.
I hate seeing her scared.
I hate not being able to truly help her feel better.
I hate giving her medicine with codeine in it.
I am beginning to hate re-telling the story to the many well-meaning people who have asked.
I hate that people have felt compelled to ask me if she is going to require surgery. I REALLY hate it that when I say the possibility was not mentioned to us by anyone at the ER the same well meaning people seem to feel it is necessary to offer their lay-person opinion that surgery is likely. I had not considered that thank you very much, and NOW I have one more thing to worry and fret about. Once the idea was presented oh... 5 or 6 times it was hard not to go there. Especially for me. I have discussed the very tentative hold I have on my ability to stay away from the crazy place when things like this happen in some previous post some months ago, so I won't bore you with it again.
This is only day two.
My Worst Fear
Mine happens to be getting a call at work from whomever has my child in their care and reporting that they have an injury of the type that requires a visit to the emergency room.
Yesterday afternoon at about 3:00 I am wrapping things up at work and very near to being on my way out the door when my cell phone rings.
I notice that it is the school calling. (Odd thing. I usually keep my phone set to the vibrate mode and keep it in my purse checking it from time to time so as not to have the disturbance during sessions. For some reason this week I have felt compelled to keep it on my person instead, which as it turned out yesterday was a good thing. Mother's intuition? (cue dramatic music) I don't know.....)
So I answer it:
"This is so and so from the school. We need you to come and pick up #2. She fell on the playground and we think she broke her arm."
Despite my shaking and horrific anxiety, I managed to convey that I was on my way, and even proceeded to call beloved and tell him that he needs to get to the school. Of course this was after I snapped at the poor innocent secretary who had the misfortune to answer my call. I told her from the get go this was an emergency. I waited while she paged him and waited...waited some more. She got back on the line and said that she had paged him three times and he was not in the building. I begged to differ with her and said he was at rehearsal and suggested she look for him there. Now I may have been a little shall we say....abrupt with her. I don't do well when my babies are hurt. Niceness goes Fuh-LYING out the window at warp speed.
I managed to get to the school without having an accident or getting a ticket. The drive (all of about 5 minutes give or take) was JUST enough time for me to go through about a bazillion different scenarios of what I would find when I got there. The most vivid being me hearing her screams from the parking lot because she has bone protruding through her skin.
Fortunately it was not that dramatic. What I found was a very sad and scared little girl with her arm in a splint sitting with her big sister. That diffused my anxiety by several levels. (Props to the school for thinking to get big sister right away.)
The nurse explained what happened. #2 had been trying to flips on the bars on the playground. She fell and landed on her hand with her arm fully extended. The first time she came to the nurse she checked her out and there did not seem to be any swelling, disfigurement or dislocation. She gave her some ice and sent her back to class. Not too long after that #2 was back still obviously in a lot of pain and crying so she splinted her up and made the call.
About flips. #2 has been trying to learn to hang from her knees on the acrobar on our swing set at home just like #1 can. After several attempts and at least two incidents of falling on her head I put the Ki-bosh on this skill building activity at home. Much as I wish I could, I can not control what she does on the playground at school, and unfortunately my predictions of dire and doom from continuing that activity came true. I like being right, but not about this stuff.
So we wait for Beloved/Daddy to get there and off we go to the emergency room.
Apparently when you come in with a small child who is crying and is wearing a sling you get speedy treatment. I have never been processed through an emergency department so quickly.
They gently examined her arm, gave her some Tylenol with codeine and an ice bag and we were off for x-rays. Fortunately Aunt J was working and came down to do the x-rays, which helped certain little people (and big) feel a lot better.
Shortly after that the doctor comes back with the bad news. We do indeed have a broken arm. Fractured right below the elbow.
One splint, prescription for Tylenol with Codiene, and an appointment with an orthopedic doctor for Monday...we're on our way home.
About an hour and a half later the fussing, crying begins. Unfortunately we are an hour away from another dose of pain medication.
Time for more pain medication and bed. We are fairly confident that soon our injured little angel will be out like a light.
Little more than an hour later we are stil waiting for that pain medication to kick in. We have more crying and complaints of pain. So Beloved poses the question to #2. Do you want to continue to try and go to sleep, or do you want to go back to the Hospital? #2's answer without hesitation take me back to the hospital.
I get the hospital people on the phone, explain what is going on and they tell me to bring her back in. So off we go. Of course once we get in the car she is down right chipper and chatty and I am thinking that this is about to be a wasted trip. It turned out it was probably a good thing we went ahead and went back.
Another examination shows a wrist that is swollen. We did not x-ray the wrist first time around, so more x-rays. No broken wrist. The first splint was kinda funky and had her hand at a strange angle and her fingers all squished. We decide to do a different kind of splint. We put this splint on and #2 seems more comfortable than she has since it all began. The doctor showed us in detail the x-rays from earlier and #2 did a pretty good number on her arm. Looks to be fractured in about three different spots right below the elbow. We are sent back home. More pain medication is given we are tucked in to bed and go right to sleep.
The rest of the night wasn't too bad, we did have one wake up when the pain meds wore off. The next dose seemed to last much longer, and she is still uncomfortable today which is to be expected, but NOTHING like last evening.
Today we are having a movie marathon so that we can keep the arm elevated and iced. I expect a repeat of these activities tomorrow. Keeping the arm propped is a bit of a trikc
#2 wants to go to school Monday morning, but I am more inclined to keep her home. Our appointment isn't until the afternoon and I will feel much better turning her loose among the kindergarten masses once we have a full report from the specialist and a full cast on the arm.
Ok, I gotta go. Keeping this kid's arm propped up is not as easy as I thought. She is slippery I guess. I have to help her sit up and readjust about every half hour or so it seems.
Hope all of you have a better weekend!


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Zestyverse is launching a new series!
Zesty has reached out to artists of all kinds with physical or mental health conditions and asked them to share their experiences, thoughts, fears or processes.
Despite the obvious and varied issues in exposing such personal stories, the response has been overwhelmingly positive and we are looking forward to posting the pieces as they come in.
I'm a big fan of The Four Agreements. In brief, they are:
1. Be Impeccable With Your Word.
2. Don't Take Anything Personally.
3. Don't Make Assumptions.
4. Always Do Your Best.
For less than able people, challenge is everywhere.
Keep your word? Well, if possible, but who knows how tomorrow will be, and if I'll be able to do what I said I'd be able to do.
Don't take anything personally? Kind of hard when you're getting side-eye for being 'able on the outside.'
Don't make assumptions? That's easy, except why does it seem to be so hard for everyone else?
And finally:
Always do your best.
Well, that's an interesting one. What is your 'best' when best is different everyday and sometimes close to what would have been your worst once upon a time?
Chronic pain, debilitating pain, lack of mobility, excessive fatigue, mental stress and disorders all call into question the one thing we like to take for granted: our identity as human beings. Receiving judgment of outsiders on top of the constantly working inner analysis that rates us low on a scale of effective, productive human beings can have terrible consequences.
No one can live in anyone else's body or mind – at least, not yet. With the help of varied contributors, we hope that Dear Able People will shine a light on issues that are clouded in shame, the labyrinth of the health care system, legal issues, and downright exhaustion. It's hard to be activist when you can't get out of bed.
If you are a creative with a long-term or chronic physical or mental health issue and are interested in contributing to this series, please feel free to get in touch.
Other posts in the series:
Wearing the Inside Out by Jerry Garcia
Other posts in the series:
Wearing the Inside Out by Jerry Garcia


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Helen Gardiner, one of Toronto's most beloved cultural philanthropists, died yesterday at her Caledon East farm, just four days after her 70th birthday.
She had planned to mark that milestone with a small group of people in Tuscany, but she was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer a few months ago. So she spent her birthday at home in bed, as family members took turns holding her hand.
She was born to working-class parents in Kirkland Lake on July 18, 1938, where her father was a carpenter. Later the family moved to Toronto, where her father worked for General Electric.
She was a divorced working parent when her life changed as a result of meeting the late George R. Gardiner, a Bay Street leader.
Together they assembled a spectacular ceramics collection and not only gave it to the people of Ontario, but built the museum that houses it. Until recently, the total value of the Gardiners' gift, more than $40 million, was the largest single cultural donation made in Ontario.
And as the co-founder and recent capital campaign chair of the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Helen Gardiner took the cultural gem they established to greater heights of achievement than even her visionary, strong-willed husband imagined.
"Her husband was a powerful man with great force of personality and, despite her many virtues, while he was alive she stood in his shadow," the museum's executive director, Alexandra Montgomery, explained. "But in recent years, she came into her own, especially by taking on the challenging role of chair of our capital campaign."
That campaign, which raised $17 million to expand and reinvent the museum, was extremely successful, and insiders give much of the credit to Helen Gardiner.
"She made the museum her own and contributed to its growth in a way that he was no longer able to do," Montgomery said. "She had tremendous charm and patience and people skills. She was an amazing woman: thoughtful and generous, with a real sense of adventure."
George Gardiner, a successful financier who founded Canada's first discount brokerage firm and was part of a group that gained control of Maple Leaf Gardens, got involved in ceramics after reading in Fortune magazine that they outperformed stocks and bonds as an investment in inflationary times, former business partner Jim Fleck said.
By the late 1970s, George and Helen segued from being casual collectors to serious and expert investors. A turning point came when they acquired a yellow ground tea and chocolate service manufactured in 1740 by Meissen, the first European hard-paste porcelain factory. The 50-piece service once belonged to the Rothschilds.
Helen signed up for a year-long course in the decorative art offered by Christie's, the London auction house. She became an expert at identifying artists and factories, with a shrewd instinct for the right price-point at auction.
By 1981, the Gardiners owned 2,000 ceramic pieces. They made a deal with Victoria University to acquire a piece of land for a museum, across the street from the Royal Ontario Museum. They paid $500,000 for a 99-year lease.
The Gardiner Museum opened to the public in 1984.
It became an official Ontario museum under Conservative premier Bill Davis and later a subsidiary of the Royal Ontario Museum, which it was for a decade.
In 2006, after a two-year renovation funded by the SuperBuild program and private money that Helen Gardiner helped raise, the museum had a triumphant reopening. Gardiner was subsequently named to the Order of Canada.
"Helen's leadership allowed the Gardiner to participate fully in Toronto's cultural renaissance, and to become more fully integrated into the life of this city as a result," said Montgomery. ``She has left an extraordinary legacy."
A funeral service will take place at 11 a.m. Monday at the Cathedral Church of St. James at Church and King Sts. The Gardiner Museum will be closed for the day as a mark of respect.
Gardiner leaves her mother, Helen McMinn; her brother, Bob McMinn; and her daughter, Lindsay Barrow.


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Interest in computer forensics at conferences in the US was noticeably higher at the end of last year than previously, says a New Zealand specialist.
Otago University IT senior lecturer Hank Wolfe, who travelled to the US late last year to give presentations on the subject, says the September 11 attacks and war in Afghanistan have greatly increased interest in and awareness of computer forensics.
"It's not a good thing, but because of what's happened people are now more concerned about it."
Computer forensics involves the location and extraction of data from devices such as computers, handhelds and mobile phones, increasingly to produce evidence for legal procedings.
Wolfe says the attacks on the US were facilitated in part by computers, he says and computer forensics skills will be put to the test in producing evidence from PCs and other devices seized in Afghanistan.
"Someone has to go through those computers and they have to do it in such a way that the machine isn't damaged -- it has to be done properly, so that what comes out is useful evidence."
US-born Wolfe spoke at West Point military academy and at an expo in Detroit.


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Los Angeles, CA, September 7, 2015 -- /EPR NETWORK/ -- Jazz collective Sasha's Bloc will join special guests for KKJZ's (KJAZZ) first annual fall benefit concert featuring Grammy nominated vocalist Jane Monheit and Take 6's Alvin Chea. The jazz collective take influence from the Big Band Jazz sound of the 1920's, 30's and 40's, and to a performance style that evokes such seminal acts as Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Count Basie, Scott Joplin, Ella Fitzgerald and more.
The benefit concert will take place at 8pm in Beverly Hills at the Wallis Center for the Performing Arts with tickets ranging from $50-$150. Showcasing their electrifying live show for this special night, Sasha's Bloc will bring their 15 piece band comprised of Brandon Fields, saxophone; Alex Budman, saxophone, clarinet; Kye Palmer, trumpet; Bob McChesney, trombone; Kevin Winnard, drums; James Lum, guitar, banjo; Andy Langham, piano. Guest artists on the upcoming album include: Jane Monheit, vocal; Alvin Chea, vocal; Jesse Palter, vocal; Tony Galla, vocal; Princess Fortier, vocal; Glynis Leflore, vocal; Akua Willis, vocal, Jason Fabus, accordion; Marc T. Bolin, tuba. Gershman plays upright bass and electric bass.
An amalgam of varied artists, nationalities and experiences, Sasha's Bloc is fueled by bassist and songwriter Alex Gershman that all together delivers a sound that is consistently big, boisterous, full of spirit and rich.
The group has built a name for itself in recent years via multiple sold out concerts at the key Jazz Clubs in Los Angeles, including Catalina Bar and Grill, Vibrato, Baked Potato and Vitello's.
For additional information on the show please go to:
Tickets: $50-$150 and can be purchased in advance
To purchase tickets please go to:
For more information about Sasha's Bloc or to set an interview with Alex Gershman or other band members, please contact Chip Schutzman at Miles High Productions:
323-806-0400 or email@example.com
Chip Schutzman
Miles High Productions
P.O. Box 93157
Hollywood, CA 90093


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I watched the game with the sound off so I'm playing back the 9th now to hear the heckler, awesome stuff, I want to buy that dude a ticket for the next Philly game.
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Few thinkers of the latter half of the twentieth century have so profoundly and radically transformed our understanding of writing and literature as Jacques Derrida (1930–2004). Derridian deconstruction remains one of the most powerful intellectual movements of the present century, and Derrida's own innovative writings on literature and philosophy are crucially relevant for any understanding of the future of literature and literary criticism today. Derrida's own manner of writing is complex and challenging and has often been misrepresented or misunderstood. In this book, Leslie Hill provides an accessible introduction to Derrida's writings on literature which presupposes no prior knowledge of Derrida's work. He explores in detail Derrida's relationship to literary theory and criticism, and offers close readings of some of Derrida's best known essays. This introduction will help those coming to Derrida's work for the first time, and suggests further directions to take in studying this hugely influential thinker.
• Accessible to all; assumes no prior knowledge of Derrida's work • Offers detailed explanations of key works and theories by Derrida • Explains Derrida's relationship with other critics, theorists and schools
Preface; 1. Life; 2. Contexts; 3. Work; 4. Reception and further reading.


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Wave energy might go the way of Australia's solar industry, writes Mathew Murphy.
LACK of government support for the fledgling wave energy industry is forcing Australian companies to increasingly invest overseas despite having the world's best wave resource off our coastline. Several Australian wave energy proponents have started projects in such places as Hawaii, Central America and Ireland, saying Australia's risk-averse tendency is holding back investment. While none has made the tough call to relocate just yet, and all those interviewed by BusinessDay are still hopeful of commercialising their technology in Australia, positive policy settings in other corners of the world are offering these companies the best opportunity to grow their businesses.
Clean energy advocates are concerned that wave energy could experience the same sort of brain drain that has hit the Australian solar industry over the past decade. David Mills took his solar thermal company, Ausra, to the US nearly a decade ago and last year hit a financial wall because of lack of funding. University of New South Wales researcher Zhengrong Shi was forced to take his business, SunTech, to China, creating one of the world's biggest solar photovoltaic firms.
Australian-listed Dyesol, which makes photovoltaic cells, found greener pastures in Wales, successfully commercialising its power-generating steel panels, which it was unable to do in Australia. Ali Baghaei, the chief executive of Oceanlinx, said that while the federal government has been relatively supportive of more mature renewable energies such as wind power, its policy settings needed to support developing technologies in order to get the right mix of power generation.
"It is not about going cap in hand and begging for money for a lifetime", he said. "There should be an amicable way where the government can support a new renewable technology for five or 10 years and then if they do achieve their targets and deliver what they said they would then they can stand on their own feet and won't need any additional help". Oceanlinx has been testing its technology, which uses the rise of waves to drive a column of air through a turbine, at Port Kembla in NSW, but also has interests in Victoria and King Island in Tasmania.
Mr Baghaei said he was keen to develop wave energy projects in Australia. "I haven't given up all of my hopes yet of government support, either federal or state governments, but it is clearly a concern that we probably aren't getting as much support as what is available outside Australia", he said. "We are fortunate in that our technology is transferable and because of that we have subsidiaries in Hawaii and in Central America which have more advanced projects. There is no doubt we are behind countries like the US, UK and Portugal".
Mike Ottaviano, the managing director of the Australian Securities Exchange-listed Carnegie Corporation Wave Energy, is pushing ahead with plans to establish a wave energy project at Garden Island, 50 kilometres from Perth. This has been achieved without support from the federal government. Despite Energy Minister Martin Ferguson launching the government's $300 million Renewable Energy Demonstration Program at Carnegie Corporation's pilot plant in April last year, the company missed out on funding, surprising the market and sending its share price from about
25.5¢ to its current level of about 9¢.
One of the four grants was awarded to US-based Ocean Power Technologies and Leighton Holdingss, which together won $66.5 million to construct a 19-MW wave farm near Portland, Victoria. A total of $65 million from the fund was not allocated. Dr Ottaviano said a lack of strategic insight into policy settings was hurting local wave companies. "If you look at Ireland as an example, you have a dedicated wave energy grant pool. You have a dedicated wave energy tariff. Your power is guaranteed for 15 years and you have a wave energy target.
So the combination of those policies is what gives investors confidence which is lacking here", he said. "We certainly aren't saying that we are packing our bags and heading offshore, but all of our business development activities and investments are focused offshore and three of our directors are in Europe. That is no accident because the market there is about 10 years ahead of us in terms of wave energy".
Matthew Warren, the chief executive of the Clean Energy Council, said it was disappointing that Carnegie Corporation, the most advanced in wave energy in Australia, had missed out on funding. "It sends the wrong message in that if you manage to make it to the last quarter, like Carnegie Corporation, don't expect to receive the right help", he said. "Our concern is that if we don't get this right then we could potentially be importing technology like Carnegie Corporation's in 10 years rather than exporting it to the rest of the world.
"The problem with allocating funding in four large cheques is that you have four winners and 38 losers. I am not critical of any of the projects that received funding but it's like betting on a roulette wheel you are more likely to get a return if you put on a number of small bets rather than a few big ones", Mr Warren said. "The Southern Ocean is the greatest single wave energy resource on Earth, and Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina and Chile are the only countries that can access it at scale. Out of those five, Australia is quite clearly the most advanced economically and technically and has the greatest capacity to drive that forward. Yet despite the chance to harness that more cost effectively than perhaps others do we are yet to see a concerted effort by governments to really assist that potential".
Source: FFG Gippsland.


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Bike tour Thailand's gulf from Bangkok to the islands
Cycle south down the beautiful coast of Thailand finishing at one of the stunning islands of Ko Tao, Ko Phangan or Ko Samui. This trip runs Bangkok to Ko Samui.
Looking for a more interesting way to reach the islands of Thailand? Why not take the slow road and cycle with us on this achievable bike ride that follows the southern coastline, taking back roads and traveling through National Parks. So much better than flying and missing all those interesting places along the way!
Peak Season Surcharge
For tours commencing from Dec 20 to Jan 5, and Apr 13-16 there is a peak season surcharge of 15% on the price of this tour due to hotel rate increases at this time of year.
Tour details
5 days duration
222 km distance
Difficulty: Mild-Moderate
Trip Features & Tour Inclusions
What makes Grasshopper so special?
Find out how your next ride goes the extra mile.
Click on each icon below to see more...
Good Wheels
Quality, well maintained Merida mountain bikes in a full range of sizes are included in your tour, fitted with hydraulic disc brakes, hybrid tyres for touring. Handlebar bags for your personal possessions and a reusable sports bottle are also provided.
Comfy Beds
The hotels we use are a great, and sometimes unexpected, part of this tour. In the larger cities and established tourist centres we use stylish and supremely comfortable hotels and resorts, while in the smaller and more out of the way areas we stay in the best available accommodation, which is often simple yet always well run, clean and comes with air-conditioning and a private bathroom.
Your Host
An experienced English speaking, local leader will host you on this trip who is well spoken, very well informed, and charming. Our leaders are often cited as being the main highlight of the tour. We use local leaders who have a passion for their country and are always well informed on topics ranging from history, politics, cuisine and importantly local customs and cultures. Our leaders will take pride in introducing you to every aspect of their country and will help you to connect with the villagers you meet along the way.
More Support
For groups of 6+ people a bike mechanic will join the group. Whilst not a master of linguistics, our technical team always make an effort to form a bond with the group and provide not just mechanical support, but additional encouragement to those who may find themselves at the back of the group. Our drivers support the group by ensuring that the freshest fruit and tastiest snacks are picked up along the way.
Support Van
An air conditioned backup support vehicle is always available in case you want a break from riding, and to carry your luggage.
Great Eats
Thai food is internationally famous, and for good reason. This trip is as much about food as riding with all the best of Thai food provided throughout the trip. Included meals are listed in the day by day itinerary, and drinking water is always included with meals. Any soft or alcoholic drinks are not included and will be at your own expense.
Energy bars and local snacks are provided to keep your energy levels up for the riding, and clean water and electrolyte drinks are always available to keep you well hydrated.
Take It Home
A beautiful souvenir Grasshopper cycling jersey is yours to wear and take home. We also provide a Grasshopper drink bottle as an extra memento.
2 to 14
This tour is guaranteed for a minimum of just 2 travellers. And we limit the group size to only 14 travellers so that you get all the attention you want in an intimate group.
There is no surcharge for single travellers - we will match you with another same sex single traveller. If you want a single room there is a an optional upgrade that you can book.
100% Hopper
This tour is 100% operated by Grasshopper Adventures. The guides are our full time employees, the hotels booked by our local office staff, and the bikes are part of our fleet of over 300 bikes. We are not outsourcing any element of this tour so you can be assured of 100% Grasshopper quality.
Tour Itinerary
for Cruising the Coast to Samui
Transfer & Cycle Bangkok to Pranburi
34km cycling
After pick up from your hotel in Bangkok it is a 2-3 hour transfer to Hua Hin,the start of our ride. Today offers an easy ride following back roads through small towns and along quiet coastline. In Pranburi we stay in a comfortable resort right on the coast, well away from the bustle of Bangkok where you started the day. Meals: LD
Cycle to Prachuap Khiri Khan
68km cycling
More quiet back roads and beaches await on this great day of riding. A highlight of today is cycling past the stark limestone mountains of Sam Roi Yot National Park. If you are really lucky you might spot monkeys hanging onto the rocks. Prachuap Khiri Khan sits on a beautiful curved beach and is a small relaxing provincial town which few tourists visit. This makes it a perfect place for us to stay! Meals: BLD
Cycle to Ban Krut
70km cycling
Leaving Prachuap we cycle through an Air Force base and over their runway to visit a colony of gentle langur monkeys. A little further down the road we stop at Waghor Aquarium, an amazing centre that displays the wonders of the underwater world that is just off the coast that we are cycling by. Passing through the narrowest part of Thailand - only 11km wide - the ridge to our right marks the border with Myanmar. Today we ride on a mix of sealed and unsealed roads, passing fishing villages on the way to Ban Krut and another lovely resort on the coast. Meals: BLD
Cycle & Transfer to Chumphon
50km cycling
Today's ride will take us alongside more beautiful coastline and beaches but also through plantations of fruit and rubber. We'll make a stop at one rubber plantation to learn about the long process of extracting the tree sap to turning it into car tyres and condoms. The ride ends at lunch and then we transfer to Chumphon, just north of the main town and ferry where we enjoy a last night on the Thai mainland. Meals: BLD
Ferry to the Islands
An early start is required this morning to make it in time for the ferry to the island of your choice: Ko Tao, Ko Phangan or Ko Samui. When you arrive at the island we will have a transfer arranged to take you to your hotel. If you would like to return to Hua Hin or Bangkok we can transfer you in our support vehicle. Meals: B
What's the Riding Like?
Mostly flat terrain
4 days riding
222km distance
This is a predominantly flat ride (with only a few small hills) on back roads so it is achievable by anyone who can ride a bike for the distances involved - and if not just jump in the air conditioned support vehicle for a rest. We take a slow and relaxed pace so this trip is well suited to fit riders looking for a relaxing ride or those new to cycle touring who are looking to find out what it's all about. We do spend two very short sections of less than 10km each on the main highway, but if you don't feel comfortable with this just jump in the support van for these bits.
Coolest time: Nov-Feb
Wettest time: Jun-Oct
Our favourites:
Dec-Jan & Jul-Aug
Central, North & Northeast Thailand
This region of Thailand has three seasons: 'the cool', 'the hot' and 'the wet'. November to February is cool and dry (sometimes even chilly in the far north), with temperatures starting to rise in March to reach a peak in late April and May. The onset of the rains, in late May, helps to bring temperatures down, with showers being generally heavy but short.
The South
Unlike the rest of the country the south only really has two seasons - dry and wet. The rainy and dry seasons in the south alternate from coast to coast; when it is dry season on the Gulf of Thailand Coast (east side) it's rainy season on the Andaman Coast (west side) and vice versa. The Andaman Coast is rainy from April until October while on the Gulf of Thailand Coast most the rain falls from September to December.
Our recommendation
While without doubt the best riding conditions are during the coolest part of the year (December & January), Thailand is at its most beautiful at the height of the rains (July & August) when the fields are a vibrant emerald green and the rice paddies full of water.
Extend Your Stay
If you are arriving early into Bangkok why not join us for one of our #1 rated half or full day rides. Since 2010 we have been rated the #1 bike tours in Bangkok on tripadvisor.com. It's a reputation that we are proud of and that we are working hard to maintain. You can see and book any of our Bangkok tours on this website.
The Islands
If you are planning to stay longer in Ko Samui, Ko Phagnan or Ko Tao, hotels can be booked online through our friends at agoda.com:
> Find hotels in Ko Samui
> Find hotels in Ko Phangan
> Find hotels in Ko Tao
Create Your Own Date
Don't see the date for this tour to suite your schedule? No problem - create your own date. Chose the dates that you would like to travel and as long as you are happy to open the tour to other people joining we will charge the standard tour price - no markups!
Please note:
1. You must have booked and paid your deposit for travel dates that are at least 3 months in the future. This just gives us time to promote the trip and find other people to join you.
2. Create Your Own Date for this tour applies for bookings of two or more people only. If you are a solo traveller we can do our best to get a group for the dates you choose but we cannot guarantee standard pricing until we achieve a minimum of 2 people.
3. This offer is subject to availability. In peak season we may not have the capability to add tour dates to our already busy schedule.
What our guests tell us...
Just a selection of our great reviews!
Another fabulous trip by Grasshopper Adventures! I've done several with them in various countries and this one awesome as well. Our guide Woody and the support team were amazing. They were excellent, knowledgable, accommodating and really took great care of us. The accommodation was great and the meals were delicious. Woody made sure we had the option to try all the local delicacies while also keeping in mind everyone's dietary restrictions. The attention to detail and service that Grasshopper provides is unparalleled.
On a great cycle tour thru beach trails and pikes we visited several agricultural farms before always a great lunch and /or dinner … Thanks Kan and the Grasshopper Team, we will use your services again!
Biking offers full immersion into parts of Thailand that most tourists never go with a guide to tune the experience to your liking … Having a guide that we trusted opened parts of Thailand to us that we would have never seen.
Video testimony from other tours...
Other Multi-day Tours in Thailand
We have an exciting range of multi-day cycling tours in Thailand. Bike down the coast from Bangkok to the Gulf of Thailand islands, explore the ancient kingdoms of Northern Thailand, cycle to the popular island of Phuket, visit the famous Bridge on the River Kwai or venture overland on trips that cross into neighbouring Cambodia or further on to Vietnam.
Cycle Bangkok to Chiang Mai
Bike Tour Thailand's north from Bangkok to Chiang Mai
A great adventure for your biking holiday, from the vibrant city of Bangkok to the north...
Chiang Mai Kingdoms of the North Bike Tour
Cycle & explore the highlights of Northern Thailand
Join the ultimate cycling exploration of northern Thailand on this 9-day tour that takes...
Bridge Over the River Kwai
Cycle western Thailand's River Kwai region
Explore the Thai-Burma Railway and the Bridge Over the River Kwai while cycling to ancien...
The Bangkok to Saigon Explorer
Explore Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam by bike
An epic multi-country journey, achievable for bike riders of all ages and abilities. Sta...
Cycle Bangkok to Phuket
Tour Thailand by bike from Bangkok to Phuket
Take an adventurous vacation as you cycle the Gulf of Thailand, Khao Sok ...
Slow Road to Angkor
Cycle Thailand to Cambodia, city to city
Make the most of this incredible route by bike touring from Bangkok to Angkor, the ultim...


text: When I pick up a stick of charcoal, or the paintbrush, or carve wood, or cut glass I am following the "Art Spirit", which so many have followed before me. To me this makes the creation process and it's product a universal language like music a form of communication, without boundaries. I create because that is what I am meant to do.


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Here at Toilet Twinning we've got lots to be thankful for, and it's all down to you, our supporters. So instead of writing a letter to Santa at the North Pole, we're putting a virtual pen to paper to say a resounding 'Thank You' to you all.
|Letters in the post: US Christmas postage stamp depicting a mail box, issued on 21 October 1977
Back in November, we set out to encourage 50 generous people to twin their toilets on World Toilet Day, 19 November. Not only did you smash this record for us by about half way through the day, but by midnight we'd received 96 twinning requests!
|Generous gifts: Faroese stamp illustrating a traditional Christmas counting song. The gifts include: one feather, two geese, three sides of meat, four sheep, five cows, six oxen, seven dishes, eight ponies, nine banners and ten barrels
This month, generosity has overtaken you once again. Twins to date are more than 30% up on the same period last year. That's a huge increase at a time when we know many people are planning a relatively frugal Christmas.
|What's in the toe of the stocking? Christmas stamp issued by South Korea, 1960
In fact you are now not far short of having twinned 20,000 toilets (we're expecting to be able to make that announcement next month), which is a brilliant result when you consider it was only July when you passed the 15,000 milestone.
|Like an Angel: Two Christmas stamps from Ukraine, with a Kiev postmark
|Presenting gifts: Postage stamp issued by Latvia in 1992 depicting the Christmas nativity: The Wise Men visit Jesus
But in the meantime, feel pleased with yourselves, and THANK YOU!