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The Chronicles of Riddick
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Richard B. Riddick
Played By: Vin Diesel
"They say most of your brain shuts down in cryo-sleep. All but the primitive side, the animal side. No wonder I'm still awake."The protagonist of the series. He is shown to be a highly skilled predator, extremely mobile and stealthy, has a vast knowledge of how to kill almost any humanoid in a variety of ways, is an extreme survivalist, and is notoriously hard to contain. He is also self-admittedly a dangerous convict and murderer, yet despite this, he is sometimes shown to perform moral or even atypically heroic actions, usually against his own better judgment and survivalist nature. Riddick is a Furyan, a member of a warrior race obliterated by a military campaign that left Furya desolate, and is one of the last of his kind. One of his most defining features are his eyes, a characteristic inherent in a certain caste of his species (The Alpha-Furyans), although he implies in Pitch Black that they were "shined" by a back-alley surgical operation. This allows him to see in the dark with no difficulty at all, but also renders his eyes incredibly sensitive to concentrated light, therefore he wears tinted welding goggles for protection. Riddick was once a mercenary, then part of a security force, and later on a soldier. He is also an experienced pilot.
Hunter-Gratzner Crew
Carolyn Fry
Played By: Radha Mitchell
"I said I'd die for them, not you!"A docking pilot for the Hunter-Gratzner and usually transports civilians and cargo with her crew for a charge, in a form of space transportation. She had an unmoral and unethical moment with dropping the passenger section to save herself, indicating she is not a trustful person.
Greg Owens
Played By: Simon BurkeA co-pilot of Fry's, who tried to stop Fry from dumping the passengers to certain death.
Hunter-Gratzner Passengers
Kyra AKA Jack B. Badd
Played By: Rhiana Griffith & Alexa DavalosA young girl who was travelling on a distant planet for unknown reasons, and she was posing as a boy named Jack to avoid any suspicion.
Abu "Imam" al-Walid
Played By: Keith David
"There is my God, Mr Riddick."A Muslim preacher who was travelling to New Mecca for the annual preaching, and was stranded with others when the ship crashed. He is travelling with three young boys.
Paris P Ogilvie
Played By: Lewis Fitzgerald
"Amazing how you can do without the essentials of life, so long as you have the little luxuries."An intergalactic arts dealer selling weaponry and arts from Earth and other planets. He also provided the others with alcohol.
Sharon �Shazza� Montgomery
Played By: Claudia BlackA free settler who was travelling across the universe looking for a place to settle.
John �Zeke� Ezekiel
Played By: John MooreA free settler along with Shazza and looking for a home.
William J Johns
Played By: Cole Hauser
"Verdict�s in: the light moves forward!"A morphine-addicted bounty hunter and war veteran who is transporting Riddick to high-security prison to collect a large bounty on him. When the ship crashed, he presented himself as an intergalactic police officer and spread the story about Riddick being a serial killer so he could capture him for himself. He is also very immoral person, killing many people and other bounty hunters to capture him.
Alexander Toombs
Played By: Nick Chinlund
"Y�know, you supposed to be some slick-shit killer. Now look at you... all back-of-the-bus and shit."A mercenary who wanted to catch Riddick after a short encounter with him on the mercenary ship in Dark Fury. Nothing is really known about his past. His personality is humorous, yet obsessive and cold-hearted.
Eve Logan
Played By: Christina Cox
"Let's go, big boy."A mercenary hired by Toombs to help him hunt down and capture Richard B. Riddick.
Santana's Crew
Played By: Jordi Moll�An arrogant captain of a eight-man mercenary crew
Played By: BatistaA merc, Captain Santana's best friend and second in command, tasked with hunting for Riddick.
Played By: Conrad PlaA mercenary working under Santana, when they answered the distress call from Mercenary Station P7.
Played By: Nolan Gerard FunkA mercenary who was part of Santana's team whom Santana considered his 'good luck charm'.
Boss Johns' Crew
Boss Johns
Colonel R. 'Boss' Johns
Played By: Matt NableA bounty hunter and the father of William J. Johns, and for the last 10 years has been searching for Riddick in hopes of unearthing answers about the death of his son on a planet in the M-344/G System. He arrives to the sun scorched planet where Riddick has activated a beacon to find him.
Played By: Katee SackhoffA Nordic bounty hunter of German descent. She's second in command of Boss Johns Mercs and is the primary sniper of the group.
Played By: Bokeem WoodbineA mercenary working for Boss Johns. Moss was the tech guy of the group.
Played By: Raoul TrujilloA mercenary working for Boss Johns
Lord Marshal
Lord Marshal Zhylaw
Played By: Colm Feore
"All those poets, on all those worlds; the ones who spoke of battle being such an unsightly thing? They never stood here."The leader of the Necromongers. Before Riddick's birth, Zhylaw consulted an Elemental seer, who told him that a Furyan male would be born that would kill him in the future. In retaliation, Zhylaw attacked Furya in an attempt to massacre all male children, going so far as to personally strangle newborn infants with their own umbilical cords. He strangled Riddick with his umbilical cord and believed him dead but Riddick actually survived. At some point, he traveled to the Underverse and afterwards returned not completely human.
Lord Siberius Vaako
Played By: Karl UrbanA Necromonger Commander, serving as Zhylaw's right hand man. Though sent to kill Riddick, confused of his leader's sudden fear, Vaako uses it as an excuse to get close enough to assassinate Zhylaw to become Lord Marshall.
Dame Vaako
Dame Vaako
Played By: Thandie Newton
"Never fails to inspire, does it? Each time a dynasty falls."Wife of the Necromonger Empire commander Lord Vaako. Dame Vaako is consumed by, even defined by, overweening ambition. She is not a comfortable wife, constantly pushing Vaako to higher office, even hinting at murder to advance his career.
The Purifier
The Purifier
Played By: Linus Roache
"We all began as something else."
Played By: Mark Gibbon
Played By: Andreas ApergisA commander in Necromonger Empire.
Other Characters
Played By: Judi Dench
"In normal times, evil would be fought with good. But in times like these, well, it should be fought by another kind of evil."A member of a race known as Elementals, whose religion is based around the Balance of the universe. They actively seek to keep this balance, and their ability to use numbers and equations to calculate odds is so accurate that to others it closely resembles foretelling and prophecy.
The Guv
The Guv
Played By: Yorick van Wageningen
"There are inmates and there are convicts. A convict has a certain code. And he knows to show a certain respect. An inmate, on the other hand, pulls the pin on his fellow man. Does the guards' work for them... brings shame... to the game. So, which are you gonna be?"


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Cucumber Sandwich
Cucumber sandwiches make a refreshing lunch with plenty of crunch. Flavored with fresh herbs, spiced with nuts, or sprinkled with fruit, these sandwich ideas show how versatile cucumbers can be.See Popular Cucumber Sandwich Recipes
Tomato and Cucumber SandwichesThe Food Channel
These mini sandwiches are ideal for entertaining, especially in the summertime, when you can use fresh, home-grown tomatoes.
Cheesy Vegetable TrianglesPepperidge Farm
Cucumber and Dill-Sour Cream on English MuffinsDiabetic Living
Gazpacho Sandwich to GoBetter Homes and Gardens
Perfect for summertime picnics, this take-along sandwich features all the vegetables that make up gazpacho, but packed into a baguette.
Cucumber and Dill-Sour Cream on English MuffinMidwest Living
These cool and creamy cucumber sandwiches can be made in just 10 minutes. Enjoy them as a snack or serve as appetizers.
Cucumber Chicken Pita SandwichesBetter Homes and Gardens
Looking for a refreshing no-cook meal? Try this Greek-inspired pita sandwich.
Pretty Little Tea Sandwiches with HeartMidwest Living
Fill heart-shaped bread with the filling of your choice for these appetizer sandwiches. Choose from chicken, ham, or egg salad, or try a marmalade or cucumber filling.
All-Wrapped-Up SaladHeart-Healthy Living
Using whole grain tortillas helps boost the fiber in this fresh-tasting vegetarian sandwich wrap.
Cackling Kids Lunch: SandWitch
We've got the house decorated for Halloween, and looking at the creepy spiders, glittery pumpkins, black crows, and cloth-draped mirrors every day has really gotten me into the Halloween spirit. So much so that it inspired this week's "SandWitch"! Brew up some ghoolish fun with this spooktacular lunch!
Brilliant Kids Lunch: Bookworm Sandwich
With it being so hot these days, my girls and I made a run to the library to get some new reading material so they could practice their reading (which is important over the summer break), and most importantly, so we could stay inside and enjoy the A/C! In honor of all the good books we have read -- and those we are going to read this summer! -- I made a bookworm lunch!
Christmas Kids Lunch: Jingle Bell Reindeer Sandwich
Silver bells ring-a-ling, sleigh bells tingling, and jingle bells jingle all the way. Oh yes, the sounds of the holiday season, when nine soaring reindeer dress in their best, pull a sleigh through the winter's night sky and Christmas comes to town! To join in the holiday festivities, here's a fun, festive reindeer lunch, all decked out with his jingle bell collar! What You'll Need: ham sandwich, plus extra slice of ham cucumber apple white cheese dried cranberries To Make Jingle Bell Reindeer Sandwich: Cut an oval shape out of the sandwich. (I squeezed a plastic cup toread more
Best Cucumber Recipes: Farmers Market Faves
Cucumbers might be the only vegetable that, sliced on a plate, can convincingly be called "veggie cookies," even then you've got a limit on how far that argument will go. When cucumbers are in full swing, you've got to find ways to fit them into every phase of your summer dining experience. And so we challenged ourselves to find appetizers, salads, entrees, and even drinks and desserts that include these little green gourds.
DIY Pickles! Hands Down the Best Use for All Those Summer Cukes
"Crunch" is the sound of pickle bliss, that first bite into a crisp cucumber that's been brined and spiced and ready to slap on a sandwich or eat all on its own. One of the world's lowest-calorie snacks, the dill pickle has only about eight calories each. And when it's the peak of summer (meaning the peak of cucumber season), "cool as a cucumber" is no joke. So why not make your own? Don't let thoughts of pickling jars and sterilizers put you off. In the six recipes here, we've got a Quick Pickle recipe that takes only 45read more
10 Creative Sandwich Sensations
What would lunch be without sandwiches? They're essential to our weekdays and weekends, letting us grab food on the run and get right back to work or play. Problem is, it gets easy to fall into a rut, getting that same old plain-Jane tuna salad or turkey sandwich day after day.
One Delicious Appetizer, One Heckuva Sauce: Use It Again and Again!
On the hunt for flavorful South East Asian appetizers, I came across this recipe for coconut shrimp lettuce wraps with spicy peanut sauce and was sold!
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In Westerns, you can easily tell the good guys from the bad, thanks to the handy white (good) or black (bad) hats they wear. Unfortunately, when it comes to sandwiches, telling healthy from unheathy isn't so clear cut. Sure, there are some obvious "bad guys": though a meatball sub is delicious, it's clearly not the most nutritious. However, some sandwiches can be black hats masquerading as white hats. Take a ham and cheese on white. It sounds nutritious, but in fact, the sodium in the lunchmeat and cheese, as well as the calories in the white bread, make itread more
Lunch Envy: Top Sandwiches for Brown Bagging
Avoid a PB&J rut so early in the school year with this collection of stellar sandwich recipes to stock your lunch bags.


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Post-school project
FFA'ers At WORK: When junior and senior highers were dismissed from Gothenburg Public Schools for the summer last Thursday morning, FFA'ers gathered to sort gently used school supplies from different classrooms throughout the high school and elementary. The supplies will be taken to Nigeria, by Ken Pitkin of Callaway (who took them last year when the project started), and taken to Cuba this week by a local Presbyterian mission group. Junior Jessica Schmidt, who thought of the idea, is spearheading the project again this year. Pictured are, l-r: Alayna Collins, Courtney Brown, Bailey Rickertsen, Carlie Stevens, Rebecca Anderson, Abbie Mazour, Roman Schmidt and Abigail Cary.
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CNET editor Sharon Profis takes Apple Pay, Google Wallet and PayPal for a test drive and compares the options.
Apple launched its new mobile payment service today called Apple Pay. The goal is to let consumers pay with their iPhones instead of pulling out credit cards from their wallets. But Apple isn't the first to offer a mobile wallet. CNET.com's Kara Tsuboi tried out Apple Pay and its competitors to see how they differ and address security concerns.
The update, which became available for download Monday, adds support for Apple Pay, brings back the camera roll and launches the iCloud photo library.
Apple's payment system rolls out at some retailers and promises more protection from hackers. But Zwipe and Plastc have other ideas for changing the way we pay.
LG Electronics is set to launch a new mid-range phone that is, for the first time, powered by the company's long-rumoured, self-made application processor.
Apple Pay users report issues purchasing items in apps, and some Bank of America customers are seeing double charges. But the problems aren't all Apple's fault.
On a call with analysts, Apple CEO explains why the company's smartphone is doing well but its tablet isn't.
Apple's payment system rolls out at some retailers and promises more protection from hackers. But Zwipe and Plastc have other ideas for changing the way we pay.
The device will sport a health-tracking features and work with multiple mobile platforms, Forbes reports.
A purported note to app developers obtained by Android Police claims Google's mobile OS will lick its way to devices next month.


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Jeep Grand Cherokee offers much more refinement
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When it arrived on the scene nearly two decades ago, there was plenty of interest in the Jeep Grand Cherokee. Sales people were making a nice living off this rugged sport utility vehicle throughout much of the mid-to-late 1990s when sales were exceeding 300,000 per year.
However, when gas mileage became more of an issue and crossover SUVs came into vogue, sales of the less-refined Grand Cherokee dipped. Jeep was slow to make significant changes until a year ago when a major redesign made a dramatic refinement statement that Jeep hopes will send sales heading upward again.
The changes that came in 2011 shouldn't alarm loyal Grand Cherokee owners. One of its core traits remains - off-road features. The 2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee provides generous ground clearance (10.7 inches maximum) with its optional adjustable air suspension and another available upgrade is the sophisticated four-wheel drive system. The Grand Cherokee has climbing power and a drive-mode selector that makes it more efficient in taking on specific types of terrain.
For car buyers who care very little about off-road capability, the new Grand Cherokee should be appealing as well. It features a roomier interior, a more performance-laden engine, and the ride is much improved, with handling similar to crossover SUVs.
The Grand Cherokee base model is offered at a very reasonable $27,195 sticker price. Don't be fooled into thinking that this same bargain price also applies to the other three trim models, which rise significantly.
The standard powertrain for three of the trim models is an efficient 3.6-liter, V6 that produces 290 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque. The rear-wheel drive Grand Cherokee accelerates from 0-60 in approximately 9 seconds, which is slower than most rivals. Gas mileage has been improved to 16-23 mpg.
The lineup for 2012 also includes a new high-performance Grand Cherokee that may intrigue some car shoppers. But beware of the high price - the SRT8 goes for $54,670. And what are you getting for that major hike? A powerful SUV that features a 5.7-liter, V8 that elicits 360 horsepower and 390 pound-feet of torque, plus a sizable list of luxury features.
The SRT8 can tow up to 7,400 pounds, but note that its gas mileage (12-18 mpg) is less than traditional Grand Cherokees. The poor gas mileage isn't surprising because the SRT8 goes 0-60 mph in a very quick 5.1 seconds.
2012 Jeep Grand Cherokee
- Performance: 3.6-liter, V6, 290 horsepower
- Mileage estimate: 16-23 mpg
- Price: $27,195 to $39,895
- Warranty: 3 years/36,000 miles; drivetrain 5 years/100,000 miles; corrosion 5 years/100,000; roadside assistance 3 years/36,000
Previous Grand Cherokees were devoid of a sophisticated interior and hard plastic was more the rule than the exception. The new models feature softer material and a more appealing look, including wood trim on all but the base model. The Grand Cherokee also provides comfortable seating for both front and back seat folks, and lots of convenient storage areas.
There are several negatives that should be noted. The Grand Cherokee has no third row, so the maximum seating is five people. The cargo space is fairly limiting, but the split back seats do fold nearly flat to greatly increase the cargo capacity. The optional navigational system has a tiny screen and is very unintuitive.
There are plenty of reasons to give the new Jeep Grand Cherokee a look. The base model comes at a great price and the other trim models feature that rugged off-road experience that can't be found these days in many SUVs.
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Weidel on Wheels author Jeffrey Weidel is an award-winning writer from the Sacramento region who has reviewed automobiles for more than two decades. He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com
Follow him on Twitter at @jeffweidel.
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Heading to Vegas for EDC, a.k.a. the Electric Daisy Carnival? Make the most of your time in the desert with our rad guide to Sin City.
From the perfect place to work off that hangover to a new Polaroid photo bar, we've got a list that guarantees you won't be bored between sets. Viva Las Vegas!


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The internship is an upper-level course in your major.
The internship is an upper-level course in your major.
Patrick Kilcoyne
Graphic Design
Curley Direct, South Yarmouth, MA
"Working in a professional design setting while still a student was one of the most rewarding experiences I've encountered throughout my scholastic career. It was a really big challenge that pushed me to seek out areas of weakness in my skill set and improve on those weaknesses with the help of a highly trained and knowledgeable senior designer."


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Chelsea's Brilliant Team Goal Is The Best Of The Season
We knew what we were seeing last year when Jack Wilshere finished off that intricate Arsenal move, and we know what we saw today: the best team goal we're going to see in England this season. »
We knew what we were seeing last year when Jack Wilshere finished off that intricate Arsenal move, and we know what we saw today: the best team goal we're going to see in England this season. »
Below, Sunderland's Santiago Vergini shows off some impressive technical ability as he takes a bouncing ball and cracks it past the keeper. It would've been worthy of his personal highlight reel, if it hadn't been aimed at his own net. But for an own goal, this was a beaut. »
José Mourinho is feeling himself right now. He has the best team in England, maybe the best in the world, and they're firing on all cylinders. So his typically dismissive response to a recent controversy involving other coaches' not taking too well to his celebratory handshake routine isn't surprising in the least. »
Former Manchester United manager, laughingstock, and amateur golfer David Moyes has stayed pretty quiet since getting canned before last season's end. (Publically, at least. Don't come at him sideways at a wine bar.) Today, he spoke to the Guardian, expressing a frankly unbelievable level of naiveté about his sacking. »
Early in today's match between Arsenal and Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, Arsenal midfielder Alexis Sánchez turned to run down a hopeful ball over the top, nearly got on the end of it, and ended his run by plowing his hip through Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois's head. Courtois appeared to be knocked out cold. He… »
This story is a great example of the fundamental differences between European soccer clubs and American franchises. »
During the latter stages of last season, there were rumors that United might partake in a tour of the Middle East and Asia during the missing midweek Champions League fixtures that otherwise would've filled the schedule and coffers. It was funny enough to mention in passing, but too outlandish to be taken seriously.… »
Manchester United are taking on West Ham today, and after captain Rooney and striker Robin van Persie goals put United up two after just 22 minutes, West Ham pulled one back eight minutes before half. In the second half, the visitors settled in and began to dominate play. We've seen this movie before. »
Towards the tail end of this past World Cup, more than a few readers emailed us looking for guidance on how to become a soccer fan. Never ones to disappoint our adoring readership, we've now obliged. Here's how we imagine that conversation would go. »
In one corner, a bunch of drunken oafs fresh off leaving a United match. In the other corner, a bunch of drunken oafs celebrating a bachelor party and wearing matching Where's Waldo? shirts and hats. It's the most England video there is. »
Manchester United were supposed to play yesterday in England's League Cup. Instead, they were home chilling, because on August 26, they got curb stomped by third-division midtable side MK Dons. »
The pillars of the old crew were all there. John Terry still in the captain's armband. A ponytailed Didier Drogba in his famous number 11. The boss José Mourinho, looking upon his charges sternly from the sideline, no doubt fighting back an inner smile. And Frank Lampard, a goal down, hungry to do what he did for so… »
You see that little guy up there? That's Filbert the Fox, Leicester City's mascot. Don't worry, he's feeling great. Though his club hosted the rich and famous Manchester United today, his boys managed to take down the giants. Those aren't tears of sadness, they're tears of mockery, directed at the section of United… »
It takes a certain type of person to start an argument with a person who can't even understand what they're saying. But with Chelsea leading 3-1 at Everton with a little over 20 minutes to play, a goal already to his name, that's what Diego Costa did. »
This summer, Manchester United bought left back Luke Shaw from Southampton for £30 million. Luke Shaw is 19 years old. If you're not familiar with soccer's transfer fees, that is a staggering amount of money for a teenager. It's more than the fee paid for Wayne Rooney, another English talent of great ability and the… »
Queens Park Rangers are the latest victim of Financial Fair Play, the laudably-aimed yet poorly calibrated rules which are in theory meant to keep teams solvent but in practice keep them from sensibly spending to improve their position, or even from spending money they actually have. Yesterday, English Football League… »
This may not be news to you, but Italian soccer star Mario Balotelli, who is the funnest, is back in England after being bought by Premier League side Liverpool from AC Milan. Since he'll ostensibly be sticking around for a little while, at least, he needs somewhere to live. This is the house he's rumored to have… »
Mmmmm, this contorted, leaping volley from outside the box by Swansea City's Wayne Routledge is just delicious. How did he get his foot so high? »
It was easy to blame Mesut Özil, because it's easy to blame any athlete for anything. But last year, it was particularly easy to blame Mesut Özil. He arrived under the halo of his record £42.5 million fee at Arsenal, implicitly anointing him Savior, a title that almost always preempts failure. »
May you never have to be defended by Harry Redknapp. »


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ENGLISH Bulldog pups, AKC, call 606-528-8959More info Email a friend
I have 2 boxer puppies for sale, 1 female and 1 male. Both are fawn with white markings. They are six weeks old. Mom and Dad are registered AKC, but I did not register the pups. They have had their tails docked and have been dewormed. We are located...More info Email a friend
we have A beautiful litter of dual registered American Bully pups for sale. 4 Females and 1 male available as well as an adult female and adult male. pups will be 5 weeks old monday oct 27th. all dogs are show quality and the female and pups come from a...More info Email a friend
Standard Poodle pups,AKC. Rare black sable, and two black males. new litter ready for Christmas. Only three left from that litter. Vet checked,shots,health guarantee. parent is service dog. Great disposition!More info Email a friend
I have 2 females and 2 males, these are beautiful 8 weeks old Morkie pups,they have a full coat of hair,tails docked,dew claws removed and I have already took them to vet and got there shot records started and wormed.I have all ready started them on pee...More info Email a friend
AKC male golden retriever puppy. Family raised, de-wormed, vet checked and 1st shots. Will be ready to go to his new home Nov. 8th. Can reserve with a $200 deposit. Call or text 859-481-1062 or email firstname.lastname@example.com info Email a friend
Akc 9 weeks old,2 white males ,1 white female ,euro bloodlines,short muzzle ,good temperaments,parents on site,sire app 85 lbs,50 percent euro ,grand sire is full euro app 100 lbs,mom app 55 lbs,vet checked,updated on vaccines & worming ,6 month health ...More info Email a friend
UTD shots, wormed, vetted.More info Email a friend
Havanese pups, AKC, $750, POS Family raised (270) 843-1336, 792-0769More info Email a friend
West Highland Terrier M pups, AKC Family Raised POP $700. 270-843-1336 or 270-792-0769.More info Email a friend


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8914 Northeast 1st Street
Commute to Downtown Mercer Island
Most errands require a car.
A few nearby public transportation options.
Steep hills, some bike lanes.
8914 Northeast 1st Street has a Walk Score of 35 out of 100. This location is a Car-Dependent neighborhood so most errands require a car.
This location is in the Downtown neighborhood in Bellevue. Nearby parks include Clyde Beach Park, Medina Park and Viewpoint Park.
Nearby schools include Sacred Heart School, Medina Elementary School and St Thomas School.
The closest grocery stores are Quality Food Center, Oil & Vinegar and Williams-Sonoma.
Nearby coffee shops include Starbuck's Coffee, Espresso and Starbucks. Nearby restaurants include Chantanee Family Thai Restaurant, Taco Del Mar and Zeeks Pizza Bellevue.
8914 Northeast 1st Street is near Clyde Beach Park, Paccar Headquarters and Downtown Park.
There are some bike lanes and the terrain has steep hills. 8914 Northeast 1st Street is somewhat bikeable, there is minimal bike infrastructure.
Explore how far you can travel by car, bus, bike and foot from 8914 Northeast 1st Street.
8914 Northeast 1st Street has some transit which means a few nearby public transportation options. Car sharing is available from Zipcar and RelayRides.
Bus lines:
0.0 mi
0.7 mi
Car shares:
View all Downtown apartments on a map.
Popular apartment searches include fitness, fireplace and pool. View all Bellevue apartments and rentals.
8914 Northeast 1st Street is in the Downtown neighborhood. Downtown is the most walkable neighborhood in Bellevue with a neighborhood Walk Score of 77.


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The Baader Hyperion 28mm Finetuning-Ring will allow you to easily change the focal length of your Hyperion eyepiece. The finetuning-ring has an outside diameter of 2" and is equipped with a male M48 thread on one end and a female M48 thread on the other.
The Baader Hyperion Eyepiece T-Adapter enables you to attach cameras fitted with T-rings to Baader Hyperion eyepieces for eyepiece projection photography.
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There's a Place for Everyone
at the Lord's Table
The Men's Breakfast and Fellowship became a regular monthly event, at Hilltop Chapel, in the late 1980's. The meeting takes place on the 3rd Saturday each month at 8:00 AM. The guys get together early and spend time talking about "guy things". Then they get down to the important business – eating.
There are pancakes, a minimum of three different meat choices, a variation on the Western omelet, OJ and, of course, lots of coffee. Pastor Rod, Craig Aliano, Pascal Williamson and others cook the meal and a crew of guys, led by Craig, Bob and Warren Trost, and anybody else they can round up, do the cleanup.
There is also praise, prayer and a time in God's word, before the men head home to take of the "honey dos"!
If you've never been to a Men's Breakfast, you are cordially invited to the next meeting.
The backbone of any "body of believers" is prayer. Hilltop Chapel is no exception. From the very beginning, way back in 1953, prayer warriors have been at the forefront of all planning, major and minor decisions, building projects and, most importantly, spreading the Gospel.
No matter how big or small the need may have been, prayer was always the first activity. Nothing has changed in the intervening years. As our numbers have grown, so have the needs of our congregation and the prayer requests.
Wednesdays at 7:00 pm, Midweek Prayer Service has been an integral part of what we do at Hilltop Chapel and it is vital to the spiritual health and well being of our church.
Faithful people come out each week and sing praises, read God's Word and lift their voices in prayer for all kinds of needs. Anyone is welcome to come out on Wednesday night and join us. Praying out loud is not required and you don't have to be a great singer!
Try it and you will receive a blessing.
Helping Hands is primarily the women's group of Hilltop Chapel. It has been around for many, many years. The group meets the first Tuesday of each month at 11 a.m. There is a one-hour Bible study, a potluck lunch, and a short meeting. There is only one requirement to be a member… attend. If you come… you are a part of Helping Hands.
The early church was small and of limited funds, so the ladies made quilts and sold them to buy things for the church.
Examples of things we have done:
Remember our name, HELPING HANDS. {We used to keep a quilt on hand and several families were pleased to receive a quilt when they lost their homes in a fire. {One hundred dollars was given to an older lady in the church who was short when the PG&E bill came. {Our December offering is our Christmas gift to the pastor. {We purchased chair caddies for the folding chairs, a table caddy and tables when the church bought the new white tables. {A donation was given when one of the church ladies was called east because of a death in the family. {For many years, we sponsored (and prepared) the Easter breakfast and sponsored the Thanksgiving dinner. {More recently, we sent Christmas boxes of goodies to our church servicemen. {We have also crocheted shawls for several ill ladies. { We currently host the Spring Tea on the Saturday before Mothers' Day.}
We would invite the ladies to come and join us…check us out!
Like Helping Hands, our Ladies' Bible Study has been ongoing for many years. It is taught by the Pastor every Tuesday at 10 AM, except the first Tuesday of each month when we meet at 11 AM as part of 'Helping Hands' monthly potluck, Bible Study and meeting.
For the regular Bible Study, we meet at the church for one hour from 10 to 11 AM. Most often, the Pastor picks the subject of our study. In the present and recent past, we have been studying the individual books of the Bible.
Occasionally, we stay after study and work on postage stamps for our Stamp Ministry.
There are no rules or dues – just a time of study and fellowship.
If you are free on Tuesday morning – join us.
Tuesday Night Bible Study is the result of Hilltop Chapel's participation in 40 Days of Purpose, a few years ago. During 40 Days of Purpose, we met in small groups at people's homes. As the small groups slowly wound down, we decided to combine the groups into a single, slightly larger group and meet at the church on Monday nights, and later changed to Tuesday nights.
We called the original group 41+ Bible Study to signify that it was 40 Days of Purpose plus 1. Many topics have been presented over the years and the discussions are always lively and thought provoking.
If you haven't ever attended Tuesday Night Bible Study, you are cordially invited to join us. The study begins at 7:30 PM.


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High school students learn surgical skills
Using oranges as stand-ins for live patients, high school students learned surgical procedures at the end of a weeklong medical and science camp offered by Winthrop-University Hospital, in Mineola, and Adelphi University. They used real surgical needles and sutures to practice on the skin of oranges. Videojournalist: Chuck Fadely (Aug. 2, 2013)
Guardian Angel group patrols Huntington Station Adam Saalfield charged with stabbing death More Sandy funding from American Red Cross Cops: Driver killed when car is rammed from behind Excellent architecture on Long Island Whiskey Road Homicide, LIRR death subjects of police probe Hauppauge vs. Half Hollow Hills West Ward Melville vs. Half Hollow Hills East Bayport holiday light show preparations begin Stony Brook University partners with credit union NY Rising official talks delays in post-Sandy rebuilding


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Stars Who Shun Social Media
Tweeting and posting on Facebook your day-to-day is the new norm. From actors and actresses to athletes - everyone shares their social life endeavors and their feelings about relevant topics that are trending or are on their mind. But there are some celebs that refuse to exploit what little privacy they have - find out who says no.
Controversial Church SignsAre these church signs justified or just in poor taste? You be the judge.
Hollywood Enlightened: Spiritual FilmsThere are a growing number of small town film festivals, with just enough Hollywood...
Animals You Won't Believe ExistThe bizarre looking creatures you are about to see are not photoshopped. Prepare...


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Securing the supply of energy is one of mankind's basic needs. The exploitation of fossil fuels, (coal, petroleum, and more recently natural gas), has been one of the foundations of the development of industrial society…
Josef Auer
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Have you visited Dr. Teresa Lemma? Rate you experience below.
Pediatricians in Staten Island, NYContact Dr. Lemma
Dr. Teresa Lemma specializes in pediatric medicine in Staten Island, New York.
Dr. Teresa Lemma has been compared 157 times. Details of Dr. Lemma's 31 years experience as an MD, her hospital affiliation and education at Universidad Autonoma de Tamaulipas are available on your free doctor report.
Dr. Teresa Lemma identified specializing in Pediatric Medicine.
A hospital affiliation covers any doctor who has an affiliation, association or admitting privilege with a hospital. A doctor's particular affiliation to a specific hospital can translate to the overall quality of that provider.
Dr. Lemma is affiliated with 1 hospital:
Dr. Lemma attended medical school at Universidad Autonoma de Tamaulipas Facultad de Medicina de Tampico and graduated in 1983 having 31 years experience.
While there is no proven correlation between the quality of one's educational institution and the quality of one's professional competence, it is often an indicator. Medical schools have various levels of selectivity (some are harder to get into than others), and both the quality of their clinical training and level of research are measured. Additional medical training in both residency and fellowships and the facilities they are conducted at also provide a history of the doctors' level of training and experience.
Patients may also know Dr. Teresa Lemma MD as:
1235 Arden Ave, Staten Island, NY 10312
2907 Amboy Rd, Staten Island, NY 10306
Richmond Pediatrics, 2627 Hylan Blvd, Building C Staten Island, NY 10306
314 Seaview Ave, Staten Island, NY 10305
United World Dental, 299 Guyon Ave, Staten Island, NY 10306
Pediatric Medicine
Call for Appointment(347) 229-0281
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Please upgrade your browser for the best Refinery29 experience. Read more.
On those mornings when you would rather just go to work naked than even think about putting an outfit together — much less a forward one — you rely on finds you can just throw on and go. Sometimes, though, the pieces in question (those LBDs and checked shirts) aren't the most inspiring.
But, it is possible to whip up a creative ensemble with minimal effort. Lazy girl, meet the all-in-one layered separate — your ticket to instant coolness. These finds look like you spent a lot of time and energy expertly mashing up patterns and textures, but they actually do all the styling for you. So, if you're ready to get in on the high-concept no-frills movement, click through to shop six dresses and tops ready to streamline your a.m. routine. Say goodbye to #basic.
Market Research by Anna Jarema


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Actress Slams 'Glee' AGAIN In Homophobic TV Rant
- Victoria Jackson, the former "Saturday Night Live" star and now tea party activist, made an appearance on Headline News' "Showbiz Tonight" on Monday to address the furor...
- Read more
'SNL' Alum Victoria Jackson Rails Against Gay 'Glee' Kiss (VIDEO)
- On 'Showbiz Tonight' (weekdays, 5PM ET on HLN), former 'Saturday Night Live' star Victoria Jackson defended her opinion that a recent gay kiss between Chris Colfer and Da...
- Read more
Kardashian Kard Craziness -- the Sisters Cancel Their 'Possibly Illegal' Debit Card (VIDEO)
- If you love everything about the letter "K," the "Karsdashian Kard" was a great concept. But if you're a fan of fiscal responsibility, the "Kard" was a terrible, terribl...
- Read more
Harry Potter and the Curse of the CNN Pranksters - VIDEO
- The hell? Did anyone else see this the other day? I was watching CNN and they had a report about Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe doing Equus on stage. They showed one...
- Read more


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Casino Promotions.Win!
Monday Night Football Watch & Win Wyoming State Championship Poker Tournament
Halloween Monster Mash
Buck Fever Money Wednesday
Drive away in a hot new vehicle or walk away with cold cash! The Wind River Hotel and Casino is the only place where you will find the best weekly promotions and life changing giveaways! Poker tournaments, cash hot seats and vehicle giveaways are just a taste of the promotions going on at Wind River! So make the next promotion day, your lucky day at Wind River Casino!
Monday Night Football Watch & Win
Every Monday, September 8th - December 29th
Wind River Entertainment Room
Enjoy the game and be a winner! Every Monday night starting an hour before kick off time you can enter to Cooler Cash, the U Pick 'Em Drawing or the end of the season Flat Screen TV giveaway. It is all happening in the entertainment room where you can watch the game and get in on the fun, admission is FREE.
- Cooler Cash Drawings- Drawing held after each quarter, cash prize of $50, $100, $250 or $500! Registration will start one hour prior to kick off and will end at the end of the first quarter. Must be present to win.
- U Pick 'Em- Registration will start one hour before to kick off and will stop at the end of the second quarter. Swipe your Rewards Card at the entertainment room kiosk & receive an entry form slip. This slip will have the two participating teams names on it. Circle the team you feel will be the winner and place in the team's container. When the game is over, Customer Service will put all winning teams entries into the drum and pick one winner for a $300 cash voucher. Must be present to win.
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Wyoming State Championship Poker Tournament
No Limit Texas Hold 'Em Tournament Nov. 15th
Entry Fee is $300.00, Players will receive 10,000 in tournament chips
Calling all Poker Champions!
The Wind River Hotel and Casino will host one of the region's largest poker tournaments this November. Survive all rounds of the Wyoming State Poker Championship and the trophy bracelet could be yours! Sign up starts October 15, 2014 register ONLINE HERE or at the tablegames pit. Play starts at 4 p.m. November 15, 2014 in the Entertainment Room. Entry fee is $300 with the casino adding $4,000 to the pot. Space is limited so only 200 players will be allowed to register. Do well and a piece of the estimated $40,000 pool prize will be yours. For furthur details go here.
The winner will also win a premium silver championship bracelet and the bragging rights for the year. So step in the ring and let's see who will be the Wyoming Poker Champion!
Halloween Monster Mash Costume Party & Contest
Date: Friday, October 24, 2014 Time: 9pm-11pm
Wind River Casino Entertainment Room
Categories: Best Couples/Group Judges Choice Most Creative Best Overall
Give us a fright and we will give you cash! Celebrate the spookiest day of the year at the Wind River Hotel and Casino Halloween Creature Feature! Dress in your best costume and you could win a cash prize! The four categories include Couples/groups, most creative, judges' choice and best overall. $1,200 will be awarded out. Must be 18 or over to participate.
Buck Fever Cash Drawing Every Saturday in November Drawing @ 5pm
Swipe Your Rewards Card to Enter Starting October 26th!
It's cold outside but we're hot with Buck Fever! This November, let the Wind River Hotel and Casino warm you up with cash! Every Saturday at 5 p.m., Wind River is giving away $3,000 in prizes! Swipe your Rewards Card to be entered into the weekly drawing and you could break a sweat by winning the top prize of $1,000! Six lucky winners will be picked every Saturday in November! Must be present to win! Play with your Rewards Card for extra entries into the drawing! So let Buck Fever keep you and your wallet warm this winter at Wind River!
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The day to play the slots is Wednesday! Not only does the Wind River Hotel and Casino double your Rewards card points but also on every Wednesday, we are giving players $10 in free play! To redeem your gift, visit customer service where a representative will load $10 free play on your Rewards Card. Play your favorite slot machine on us!


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I am Sarah. Call me Bob. I like to pretend I'm funny.
Rory/Amy = OTP
Gender curious/fluid.
Sexuality = pan/bisexual
Feminine pronouns are fine.
Hit me up if you have questions about really anything I'll probably be sarcastic lbh.
Also hay. Welcome to my tumblr. Sup.
Best Valentine's gift ever.
This is starting to circulate again. This is the one post I'm proud of. It gets big every year.


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Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake Rap it Up (VIDEO)
And so we discover yet another talent of Jimmy Fallon's: Master rapper. Or at least passably competent rhyme-spitter.
Musician-turned-The Social Network star Justin Timberlake guested on Fallon's late-night talk show on Wednesday, and eventually the conversation turned to their mutual love of hip-hop.
And then, it was on.
Accompanied by Fallon's house band The Roots, Fallon and Timberlake took to the stage and ran through a virtual history of hip-hop, starting with the Sugar Hill Gang classic "Rapper's Delight" before touching on The Beastie Boys, Snoop Dogg and Eminem, among other rap luminaries.
Check out Jimmy and Justin getting their rap on in the video below. Who do you think has better skills? Let us know in the comments section.


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Identification of Swallowing Patterns Associated with Dysphagia"
This site from the University of Minnesota Duluth provides a tutorial on the phases of the normal swallow. It includes actual videos with interpretations of normal and disordered swallows in adults and children.
Material Type: Tutorial
Technical Format: HTML/Text
Date Added to MERLOT: April 13, 2010
Date Modified in MERLOT: March 25, 2011
Submitter: L Warner
Keywords: CAPCSCD, dysphagia, KASA, VFSS
Peer review 3.75 ratingPeer Reviews:
- User Rating (not rated)
- Comments (none)
- Learning Exercises (none)
- Personal Collections (3)
- Accessibility Info (none)
Primary Audience: Graduate School
Mobile Compatibility: Not specified at this time
Technical Requirements: Quicktime
Language: English
Cost Involved: no
Source Code Available: unsure
Accessiblity Information Available: unsure
Copyright: yes
Creative Commons: unsure
Browse in Categories
Discussion for Identification of Swallowing Patterns Associated with Dysphagia"
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Book Review: OUT IN THE UNION
OUT IN THE UNION, by Miriam Frank, traces the intersections between the gay rights movement and the labor movement in America. The history is drawn largely from interviews with queer labor activists, and Frank quotes them at length throughout the book, giving her work the feeling of an oral history, ethnography or series of case studies. She provides contextualizing information, but OUT IN THE UNION largely defers to the activists who pushed their movements forward. As such, the book is deeply personal and specific rather than comprehensive. This is not a book that provides a dry and complete overview of queer-labor activism, but instead is a love letter to the victories and efforts of the people who lived that activism.
The book opens with the story of a trans man in a steelworkers' union at the turn of the twentieth century. From there, the book leaps forward to cover how the emergent gay rights movement in the 1970s and 1980s was embraced (or not) as the labor movement sought to reinvent itself as manufacturing jobs moved first out of pro-union states and then out of the United States altogether. The hidden histories of queer workers prior to the 1960s are sparse in the text, emerging as context or as discrete moments in the interviewees' lives.
Prior to OUT IN THE UNION, I was familiar with Frank's work through Pride at Work, a pamphlet my own union used to better understand how and why to organize the QUILTBAG folks in our own ranks. This was years ago, back when I saw myself as a straight ally (back before I was out to anyone, even myself). The ethos of Pride at Work continues here: this is a book about organizing. The economics of unionization are supplanted by a blow-by-blow description of how various workplaces were or were not organized into unions. Frank remains an organizer at heart, and much of the book is devoted to recounts of how labor was able to use the particularities of an emerging queer activist culture to gain new ground or make new allies. In the case studies she presents—which range from bus drivers to auto workers to AIDS crisis workers—she uses organizing terms freely. Her target audience, clearly, are queer organizers out on the front lines, which necessarily limits the accessibility and audience of the book, which I think is a shame. It may find its audience out there in the front line, but from my experience working as a labor organizer there is little time to read even relevant and potentially useful books.
Reading OUT IN THE UNION was, for me, a particularly reflective and personal experience. Like many of the interviewees, I struggled with my own sexuality as I worked as a labor organizer. Fraught memories of coming to terms with my queerness are inextricably tied to the rollercoaster highs and lows of the organizing campaigns I worked for. Two regions which feature prominently in the book are southeast Michigan and Colorado—respectively why I, myself, was a campaign organizer and where I live now. Reading this book made me miss working in unions. It made me remember how hard that work is, and how necessary. It made me reflect (in a prescient and timely way given certain conditions current in my workplace today) on my discomfort living as a queer and unorganized person in a right-to-work state. I feel vulnerable, and even more so as a gender nonconforming queer individual. I feel vulnerable, like the people Frank records, and I want to fight back like they did and still are.
Frank writes with candor, both about the successful queer-labor alliances and the unsuccessful ones. Some were unsuccessful because the old guard of union leadership—typically straight white men in the skilled labor trades—struggled with creating space for and valuing the efforts of their queer brothers and sisters. Some were unsuccessful because a common source of oppression bonds communities together; Frank cites the climate in AIDS clinics where queer management overworked and exploited queer workers, but the workers viewed straight union agents as suspicious interlopers.
Frank uses the crossover of queer activism and the labor movement as a way to begin talking about class within the queer community. She points out more than once that queer people have always existed among the working class and in unions. She points out that being queer does not prevent managers from exploiting their workers. I was glad she used this lens throughout, but I wish she had taken it further. The book reads—I believe unintentionally—as very white. A handful of the interviewed activists are people of color, but most are white queer people. Given the layers of vulnerability queer poor workers of color face, it would have been a better book if race and class had both been discussed in relation to queer workers. In the epilogue, Frank cites the need for the labor movement to utilize queer immigrant workers to help reform immigration laws, but this is posited mostly as an aside.
OUT IN THE UNION ends with an epilogue tracing how the support of unions has helped marriage equality legislation get passed in multiple states. Frank uses this as a call to arms and a call to action to increase queer-labor joint activism. And while I appreciate that, I wish she had gone further. Marriage is not the only economic issue facing queer workers. Trans* workers are extremely vulnerable, often fired and rarely hired. I am, admittedly, less impressed or enthralled by the marriage equality movement, especially given that the fight has played out in legislative venues rather than in the workplace or on the streets. But, then again, most labor fights these days play out that way.
Book Review: THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING
Kelly Thompson's THE GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING is a strange little book. Slim and quick, the book follows a pair of young women who stumble upon ancestral god-like powers. The pair exist as a fixed duality: Bonnie Braverman is the good one, and Lola LeFever is the bad one. The book switches between their perspectives as both grapple with their newfound abilities.
This book is one part homage to and one part send-up of superhero cliches. There are dead-parent-origin-stories and mad-cackling-at-oddly-named-henchmen. There are several explosive fights between the hero and the villain. This book has the strengths and the weaknesses of its specific genre, and for my money, it falls prey to a common issue: the villain ends up being so much more interesting than the hero that I ended up rooting for the wrong character.
I gave this book three stars, and if I'm honest, it's because I'm splitting the difference. Bonnie's sections were a two. I found her flat, two-dimensional. She is an example of "goodness" reading as lacking in depth or complexity. She starts at least a little interesting: when the book opens, Bonnie is a silent seventeen year old living in a group home. She's been in the system since she was six, when both her parents died in a car crash which she instinctively knows is somehow related to her shocking strength and speed. She stops speaking. She becomes a ghost in her own life, and then the power grows and pushes her to intervene, to protect the people around her. And then she . . . gets a boyfriend. And starts speaking. And works a quirky bookstore job and makes a quirky bookstore friend and becomes less and less interesting with each page. The fact that she spent literal years in silence is not addressed. The feelings of displacement and uncertainty she seems to feel from being an orphan and ward of the state clear up right quick. It is possible to write an extremely good character who is also very compelling and idiosyncratic (see Atticus Finch or Minerva McGonagall) but Bonnie is not that character.
Standing in sharp contrast is Lola. Her story opens with a carefully plotted matricide. Her voice is immediately funny and heartbreaking at the same time, and the clumsy-witty sharpness of it does not let up once in the book. Her sections were a pleasure to read. The entire book is written in a stream-of-consciousness-lite first person-present tense, but Lola's sections held much more immediacy and urgency than Bonnie's did. Even as she falls prey to standard villain killers—madness, a moment of misplaced mercy, hubris—her voice remains distinct and arresting.
Honestly, though, what drew me so much more towards Lola's narrative than Bonnie's is that Lola's is, deep down, an abuse narrative. It's about Lola trying to make sense out of what she is and how she was treated and why she was treated that way. Replace "superpowers" with "mental illness" and basically you've got my childhood (without the matricide). Lola's story encapsulated a lot of questions I've spent my adult life asking myself: if my abusive parents and I share genes, but they also raised me, then what parts of me that are messed up are because it's encoded in me and what parts are scars left over from all those years in that house? How could I possibly untangle that? Where is that fine line between compassionate acceptance of my flaws and permissive self-enabling of my destructive tendencies? If history has repeated itself for generations—my great-grandmother abused my grandmother who abused my mother who abused me—then is it even possible to break that cycle? Lola reminded me of myself at eighteen, fresh out of a crappy home life and trying to posture and swagger into a better version of myself without realizing all the posture and swagger were the worst things about me.
She is a deeply real character, finely realized, and desperately tragic. I ended up rooting for her because in real life I rooted for myself. I kept hoping Thompson would subvert the Big Trope and pull a fast one on me—I very much wanted Lola to emerge as the good one, to have a redemption, to become sane and stable. That is not what happens. Well, she gets a redemption, of sorts, but it's a hollow one. All in all, the GIRL WHO WOULD BE KING is a standard by-the-numbers retelling of superhero tropes with one truly standout character.
Hoax #10: Embodiments
I am honored to have been chosen as a contributor to Hoax #10: Embodiments. Hoax is a feminist zine that gathers a variety of voices on particular theme for each issue. Like the best zines, Hoax is brimming with candor, with truth and with the kind of personal specificities that make reading through it feel like a conversation more than anything else. The contributors of this issue interpret the theme—embodiment—through a wide range of lenses. There are discussions on transnational identities, gender identities, gender identities contextualized by transnational identities and different kinds of disabilities; there is poetry, there is a short story about a mermaid and sirens, and there is even a good recipe for vegan strawberry muffins. I'm posting my own contribution here, but with the caveat that mine may actually be the least interesting essay in the bunch. All of that is to say that you should definitely check out the zine.
The Whole, Not the Parts: Performing A Nonbinary Gender
I am a nonbinary genderqueer person. I identify as trans*. My gender is a work in progress, something that is continually evolving. I dislike thinking of myself in terms of masculinity and femininity; both concepts are too loaded, too limiting and too restrictive for me. I describe myself as nonbinary and genderqueer because I understand myself through my embodied lived experience, the breadth and reach of which cannot be so neatly mapped to the either/or nature of societally sanctioned binaristic gender categories.
The concept of embodiment is foundational to my genderqueer identity. For me, my experience of my gender and understanding of it is deeply wedded to my literal physical body. The popular rhetoric of "the mind is gender, the body is sex" doesn't work for me. I distrust the underpinnings of mind-body dualism in that statement since that line of thought is so often used to disregard my gender as a 'real biological thing'. If my mind and experiences are genderqueer, then the vehicle through which I have those experiences and have those thoughts itself must be genderqueer, too. This is reflected with my relationship to my body: sometimes I have a dick and sometimes I don't. Sometimes I revel in my breasts, and sometimes I hide them. The way I use my body is as flexible and fluid as my understanding of my gender, which I believe makes my physical body as genderqueer as everything else about me. I want my gender grounded in something tangible and literal; I want my gender to be something beyond just an abstraction.
Outside my chosen family and close friends, no one else sees my body the way I do. I am not physically androgynous: I am not one of those waifish elfin-faced creatures who make people wonder what I gender I was assigned when I was born like Tilda Swinton or B. Scott or Casey Legler. Androgyny is socially constructed such that those of us with unambiguous secondary sex characteristics (the presence/absence of breasts, the width of hips, the breadth of shoulders) cannot inhabit that word. Androgyny is not understood as a body that questions the binary but instead as one that is questioned because of the binary. The whole wide world out there sees B. Scott and wants to know how they were born, what's underneath their clothes, and that's what makes them androgynous. The whole wide world sees my body—42DD breasts, hips wide enough to have birthed a child—and presumes it knows what and who I am regardless of my decidedly androgynous internal reckoning of myself. When I leave my house, I get "she" and "ma'am". But even if I got a "sir" or a "he" it still wouldn't be accurate. I wouldn't be passing as me—I am masculine but not a man. It's alright to refer to hypothetical people as "they", but a person standing right in front of you? In the (presumably) identifiable flesh? Then people feel compelled to categorize you, to place you in one of two boxes. So I get read as variants of woman because of the shape and quality of my physical body. The precise breed of woman I am read as varies depending on the day's gender expression: butch woman, lesbian, hard femme woman, just plain femme woman.
This constant stream of misgendering wear on a soul. The disconnect between what I truly embody and what the world around me sees has become a persistent chip on my shoulder. I can trace some of my introversion and social anxiety right to it. One reason I avoid going to parties because I become so hyper-aware of how the party-goers are reading my body, especially the ones I don't know. Did the host brief them on my preferred pronouns? Probably not. Is it even reasonable to think they would have done so? I don't know. And dating. I am poly, and all of my partners date all the time. They are some real Casanovas. But me? I've been on a total of maybe four dates the entire time I've been poly, and that's largely because I really don't want to have to take time out of my life to meet someone new who may or may not have the decency to "get" my gender. I was on a date with a woman, and I was talking about preferred pronouns and my genderqueer identity when she interrupted me to say it sounded to her like I was just a butch feminist. Which…I am butch (sometimes) and I consider myself a feminist, but she'd missed the point by about a mile. Who wants to deal with that? So I avoid parties and dating, and really the people I end up with are those who know me first as a friend and who have respected and validated my gender identity long before things turn more than platonic.
These are illustrations of how difficult I find it to embody and communicate my genderqueerness to the outside world. These are also illustrations of how much I want to be able to do that. But the gender binary is so culturally entrenched that I have not yet found a way to do this. Even dominant narratives about trans* identities are binaristic—MTF, FTM, I was raised Y but I always knew I was X. My own gender is so fluid, so very much a living document that it is not captured by common modern American cultural gender narratives. How do you embody something that has no name?
The deceptively simple answer is that you embody it the same way men embody manhood and women embody womanhood—through manners of speech, body language, how much space you do or don't take up, which spaces you find yourself in in the first place, and through choices in dress and grooming. Gender is performative, right? We are taught, from an excruciatingly young age, to gender the people around us. We are literally taught to look at one another's bodies, take stock of them, and plunk them into one of two categories. People look at my body, see what the doctor who delivered me saw, and assign me as female, too. My gender is as performative as anyone else's (and cis peoples' gender is as performative of trans* peoples' even if those cis people don't see it as such). The problem is that with no name, no category, the message of my performance is so often lost on the audience.
My gender performance includes all of the standard visible and nonvisible tools. It's about my foul mouth paired with my empathetic assurances that I'm still listening to you. It's about the way I use my short, smallish body to carelessly take up more space than expected. And it's also about how I get dressed in the morning. My wardrobe is typically a game of mix-and-match between traditionally masculine and traditionally feminine elements. Suspenders and pencil skirts. A carved-up men's suit vest over a vintage dress. Button down shirt and trousers, but the trousers are bright pink, that sort of thing. I am all fauxhawked haircuts and bright red lipstick. I telegraph as queer, and I always have, largely due to what has been described to me as a "masculine presence in a feminine body" which is a combination we culturally ascribe to gay women. I feel validated, in part, that it's so easy to read me as queer regarding my sexuality. I am visible in that sense, and living as a middle-class white person in Denver, CO means that's not something likely to bring about physical violence. There's a theoretical proximity of my sexual queerness to my gender queerness that makes me think that someone will eventually "get" me if they're able to "get" that I'm pansexual. In reality, I think this is an example of the way we, as a society, increasingly conceive of sexuality as something that comes in many variations and flavors but that we conflate gender and sex and see both as fixed and categorical.
All of this is running through my head when I leave my protective bubble at home. I perform my gender quite consciously, trying to guess at what the strangers on how the street are going to perceive me. Usually I'm able to say fuck it and wear whatever feels authentic that day. But, sometimes when I'm getting dressed in the morning I'll put on a dress. And I'll love that dress, and I'll look awesome in it, but I'll sigh and pull it off again. I'll pull on a collared shirt and a tie and skinny hipster pants instead. If I wear that dress, I find myself thinking I won't read as queer at all. Both my gender and sexuality will be washed away. It took me some time, after I came out to my partners as genderqueer, before I started wearing skirts and dresses again.
That internal back-and-forth as made manifest in putting on and taking off that dress is a curious thing. I think about how my privileges play out in this: as a white and no longer poor FAAB nonbinary person, masculinizing my feminine form is less transgressive (and therefore less dangerous) than the same kind of act made by a MAAB trans* person of color. It's a privilege to want my sexuality and gender understood and validated. It's a privilege to be able to express even part of that without fear of getting the shit beat out of me. Sometimes I struggle with how to own my privilege and still feel my marginalization at the crux of my gender.
Gender can be both constricting and freeing at the same time; it has the potential to be both oppressive and revolutionary. The only way I've ever found to be comfortable in my own skin is by rejecting the gender binary. I see that as an inherently revolutionary act in itself. It's all so clear to me what and who I am, but something vital always gets lost in transmission. To the cashier at the store I'm still just a muddle, a motley assortment of 'male' and 'female' that somehow do not make a whole. But it's also true that it would mean so fucking much to me to be gendered correctly on the first try by a stranger. I think if a coworker referred to as a "they" instead of a "she" or if a cashier at the grocery store called me "mixter" instead of "miss" I would start ugly-sobbing right there. I would feel acknowledged. I would feel dignified. I would feel like I counted. I would, in a word, feel like my gender was real. My gender is real—of course it is, I live it. It's me. But a thing can be real without it being recognized as such.
Book Review: IRON COUNCIL
When IRON COUNCIL ends, it brings both THE SCAR and PERDIDO STREET STATION to a close with it. The third and final book in China Mieville's Bas-Lab trilogy picks up a buried theme in the previous two installments and runs wild with it. Looking back, all three books were about history—how it's made, how meaning is made from it, how much of what really happens goes unknown and undocumented—but IRON COUNCIL puts this theme front and center.
The eponymous Iron Council is a small society of mutinous railroad workers. Years ago, they hijacked a train bound to connect New Crobuzon and other major cities and rode it into the wilderness, laying track as they went and picking it up behind them. The Iron Councillors are anarchists, living collectively, living in rapt defiance of where they come from, and back in New Crobuzon they are a symbol of hope that sometimes the poor and downtrodden win.
IRON COUNCIL is a split narrative that follows Judah Low*, a golemist who helps create the Iron Council in the first place; Cutter, a wounded cynic whose desperate love for Judah Low drives him into the center of things; and Ori, a young radical caught up in things he doesn't understand back in New Crobuzon.** This is a big book, full of plot. There is a war, and an uprising, and vigilante justice, and a secret spy, and a strange monk who goes missing in pieces. All of the plot gravitates around the turmoil in New Crobuzon and the role the Iron Council plays in that—both as a catalytic symbol and as a group of real people who must decide to return to the city or keep running from it.
IRON COUNCIL is a deeply political book. It seems very clear to me that Mieville's own politics seeped through to the pages here, that there is perhaps more of him in this book than in other ones. Having been in radical politics, I recognized a lot of the underground and fringe elements: arguments about the pitch and tenor of the paper, debates on the efficacy of guerrilla actions versus collective decisions that spun around and around. And in many ways, this is Mieville's most utopian novel, too. He takes care to paint the Iron Councillors as real people grappling with real struggles, and they are not perfect. But he writes them with such love and admiration that it's impossible not to get swept up in the romance and potential of their lives and actions.
The book ends on a strange philosophical question: when we reify history, when we relegate it to the realm of stories and divorce it from our day-to-day reality, what purpose does it serve? Is the idea of a thing enough? Here is a quote from the last page:
Years might pass and we will tell the story of the Iron Council and how it was made, how it made itself and went, and how it came back, and is coming, is still coming.
But if the Iron Council never arrives, if it's always a potential and never a reality, then is what it brings a false hope? What is the role of history? How should it guide us? Is it better to freeze things before they have a chance to fail with the idea that they could have succeeded rather than let it play out and deal with the trauma of a defeat? The book doesn't answer these questions, only dredges them up. Judah, Cutter and Ori all have very different perspectives on these ideas, on the role of ideas in praxis to begin with. I have kept chewing over all these questions for weeks after I finished the book. To call IRON COUNCIL thought-provoking is an understatement.
*I see what you did there with that name, China Mieville.
**It is a very male-centric book. There is a secondary character, Ann-Hari, who I adored. She had all the agency I wanted Bellis Coldwine in THE SCAR to have. Ann-Hari starts as a whore, and emerges as a leader, first among the whores (with whom she organizes strikes) and then as a prominent and influential figure in the Iron Council itself. Though we meet her and know her first as a love interest of Judah's, she quickly becomes much more than that and exists as herself outside of that relationship. The end to her story, more than anyone else's, was deeply affecting and horrifically tragic. It's worth reading this book for her alone, but I couldn't help but wish she had been moved to the forefront.
Book Review: THE SCAR
China Mieville's world of Bas-Lag is a strange, fascinating, massive place. THE SCAR, the second of Mieville's trio of Bas-Lag novels, starts the story in New Crobuzon, where PERDIDO STREET STATION took place, and then quickly moves out to explore far, exotic corners of the world. The worldbuilding, this organic exploration, represents the best part of THE SCAR.
THE SCAR takes place immediately after the events of PERDIDO STREET STATION. The fallout from PERDIDO STREET STATION sets the plot of THE SCAR in motion: the New Crobuzon militia is rounding up all of Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin's known associates. Bellis Coldwine, a former lover of Isaac's, flees the city before they can get to her. She learns an arcane language and secures a place on a ship bound for Nova Esperium, a fledgling colony of New Crobuzon. She plans to lie low in the colony for a few years until the heat dies down. She is forced to run, but Bellis is certain it's temporary.
Bellis' plans are ruined when the Terpsichoria is taken by pirates.* The ship is boarded, the commanding officers are shot, and the ship is comandeered. The pirates steer the Terpsichoria to Armada, a legendary city of stolen ships adrift in the Swollen Ocean. The remaining crew and passengers of the Terpsichoria are absorbed into Armada's population, given housing and jobs, but are told in no uncertain terms that they can never leave the floating city. Some, like Bellis, are horrified. But there were others on the boat who don't mind so much. Tanner Sack, a Remade man grotesquely punished for a crime by a magical reshaping of his body, was on the ship as a prisoner sent to Nova Esperium to serve as slave labor. While the press-ganging robs Bellis of her freedom and agency, to be treated as any other citizen, to be paid for his work, gives Tanner Sack his dignity back and wins his loyalty in the process.
Armada is the real star of the book. The story is primarily told through the eyes of Bellis Coldwine and Tanner Sack, both new to the city and press-ganged, but the heart of the narrative is a tale of political intrigue and the obligations those in power have to those they are supposed to serve. Armada reads as a real place, with a real economy. It's a parasitic city, but it's a living, breathing place. The factions that make up Armada spar with each other, try to undercut each other, and ultimately coexist to keep the city alive. Mieville's descriptions of the city itself, from the way comandeered ships are repurposed to become city parks and industrial areas and living quarters, to the petty rivalries between the city's leaders, are endlessly fascinating.
Madness and greed exist in Armada, too, personified here as the Lovers, the rulers of Bellis' district. The Lovers, a pair of scarred people whose codependence is both deeply disturbing and awe-inspiring, have conceived of an ambitious and dangerous plan which involves a sea monster, an ill-fated scientific expedition and quantum mechanics. The Lovers' obsession horrifies and fascinates both Bellis and the reader, and ultimately endangers the city of Armada and everyone within it.
The book is well-paced and well-plotted. The worldbuilding is wonderful. The abstract concepts Mieville toys with here are interesting. But, ultimately, the book didn't quite work. This was one of those rare books where I was totally in love with it at the start and slowly, inexorably fell out of love with it by the end. The reason was Bellis. I loved Bellis—I loved her misanthropy, her urgency, her cold, intellectualized take on the world. I loved having her as the dominant narrator. At the start of the book, Bellis was a breath of fresh air. Finally, here was a smart, remote woman lead who found her way through the narrative on her own. Truly, this felt like her story. In Bellis' voice, Mieville exercises a degree of stylistic control rare for him. The writing was simple and smirking and evocative.
But by the end of the book, Bellis is utterly, completely stripped of agency. It was as if, over and over, Bellis had to be taught a lesson, had to be cut down to size. That Bellis turns out to have been the pawn of a half-dozen equally arrogant and willful men over the course of the book bothered me. It undermined everything I liked about Bellis, everything that was subversive about her in the first place. And, honestly, I thought Mieville was better than that. Bellis Coldwine is, more or less, the polar opposite of Avice Benner Cho, the protagonist of EMBASSYTOWN, which I loved. He writes Avice as a woman who is brilliant and decisive and who changes the fate of an entire world. She doesn't really see herself as the driver of those changes, though she undeniably is. Bellis, on the other hand, believes herself to be doing things, making changes, and has that ripped away from her by the end of the book. That she wasn't seems to be a thoughtless choice. Bellis is made a fool of and for no good reason. The book is still interesting and engaging, but Mieville's misuse of her character was enough for me to realize that I didn't like this book as much as I wanted to or tried to.
*Honestly, Bellis is a case study in terrible luck.
Call for Beta Readers: "Encroachment"
"Encroachment" tells the story of the Osorio family, a Mayan family living in modern Guatemala, and the Mayan god Cantzicnal. Set against the struggles of a Mayan community against the development of a gold mine by foreign corporate investors, this completed 9,300 word short story weaves together the familiar and unfamiliar and interrogates the nature of faith in the modern world.
The Hearthstone #3/Disability Diary #4: My Mercurial Brain
My brain is mercurial. It marvels and terrifies me in turn: sometimes it works so gloriously well, and sometimes it turns on itself with such viciousness. The same brain that writes all these novels and solves all these problems and is so taken with the world around me also saddles me with anxiety and depression and crippling migraines. I have a love/hate relationship with my brain. It is fickle and tricky.
Everything about my brain—the brilliance and the pitfalls—is inherited. I come from a long line of very smart, very tortured people on both sides of my family. Big thinkers who succumbed to alcoholism thanks to recurrent depressive episodes. Curious people trapped by bipolar disorder. Creative people who stumbled under the weight of chronic headaches. All of my immediate family members—my mother, father and sister—have or had serious mental health issues just like me. My mother and sister also get migraines. The brains in my family are for all of us a curse and a blessing. Jon, too, has his own mercurial brain. He's brilliant and funny and insightful, but he is constantly grappling with anxiety. His anxiety, like mine, seems to stem in part from genetic influence.
I think a lot about my mercurial brain and his these days as I watch my kid develop. I get a migraine and I wonder whether twenty years from now she'll be lying in the dark whimpering in pain herself. I get an anxiety attack or spend months surviving a fresh bout of depression, and I wonder if the same thing lies in store for her.
Recently, Jon began dating a woman who suffers truly vicious migraines—ones worse than mine by a wide margin. She told him she didn't want kids and one reason was she didn't want to curse them with her migraines. And I understood. When I was pregnant, I thought a lot about this, about how there was little possibility of my kid skating through life with a brain that always happened to work the right way, one which was always a friend and never a foe. Did I want to subject her to this?
Internalized ableism is sneaky like that. No one wants their kid to suffer more than they have to. No one wants their kid to suffer in the ways they themselves have suffered. Noble goals, both. I still worry for her, and I still wonder whether I was right to saddle her with my kind of mercurial brain, and at the same time I marvel at just how much ableist Kool-aid I've drunk in my life. The truth is that no matter what the migraines would be debilitating and the mental health issues would suck when they are at their worst. But they are made so much worse by living in an ableist society.
If everyone had free access to quality health care (mental and physical) without stigma and shame attached, if space and care were given to those suffering without judgment—if, put plainly, the world wasn't ableist—then the disabilities I live with would be infinitely more tolerable. When we blame the brains and bodies of those who suffer instead of the society that piles on the suffering, when we say that maybe those facing life as people with disabilities shouldn't be born, that's a hair's breadth away from eugenics.
This is not to say that I think Jon's lady friend is in any way wrong in her personal decision. And, honestly, given that society is so deeply ableist I still worry. But it is to say that people with disabilities will always exist. And it is to say that I had Zadie, that she exists with her ticking-time-bomb brain, and that while I worry I don't think I have cursed her.
I can teach her all the things I learned the hard was as a person with disabilities. I can teach her the strength to survive. I can teach her how to have spine enough to advocate for herself. I can teach her to be kind enough to herself to make space to cope. I can bring her up in a household where these things are not shameful, and hopefully that foundation will be something she carries with her. I can teach her to make peace with a mercurial brain.
June was a breather
In terms of writing—specifically in terms of producing new content—June was a light month. I wrote roughly 10k words, only about 2k of which was new fiction. To put that in context, I wrote nearly twice that on a new story today alone. I didn't produce much new fiction this past month, but I did do a lot of editing. And a lot of planning. And a good amount of blogging. And that counts as writing, surely. But planning a book and drafting the prose itself are two entirely different things. Before, the planning was accompanied by a distinct terror that no matter how well planned it was this was going to be the book I would never be able to execute. The prose was going to elude me.
I only wrote about 2k of new fiction last month, and I'm ok with that. And, I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself for being ok with that.
I've written before about my process, how regimented and diligent I am. I've written about why I'm regimented and diligent—historically, a cease in writing has been followed by a vicious plague of self-doubt. There's been a sense in me that in terms of producing fiction I am like a shark: to stop an inexorable move forward, to stall in the slightest, spells death. There's been an irrational fear that to halt will dry up the well. It's like when you're running, and you haven't paced yourself, and you know that if you stop you're done for. If you stop and your burning lungs and aching legs get the chance to root you that your body will refuse to run again. That fragile kinetic well of energy has dried up. Truly, you were running on fumes long before, but the admittance of that fact spells your doom. That is how writing has always felt to me.
But I only wrote 2k words last month, and here I am refreshed and back in the swing of it. I've had to take breaks from writing before, almost always due to circumstance: there was a dissertation to finish, or a newborn baby to nurse, or depression to survive. And there was circumstance here, too: an uptick in stress and demand at work coupled with a change in my daily routine*. The resurgence of my writing this month happened seamlessly. There was no week of despondent worry. There was no girding of the loins as I sat back down to the keyboard, convinced I had run dry. It just happened. It just worked. In short, I have learned to trust myself.
I've never been one to suffer imposter syndrome in general. I was among the proud few in grad school to feel like I had definitely earned my place there. But a lifetime of thinking I was not creative led me to feel like writing fiction was a fluke rather than a stable talent I was nurturing. Maybe I've simply been hacking away at it long enough to know it's not going anywhere. Maybe it's simply me getting older and more comfortable in my own skin and my own life. I'm not sure. All I know is I don't worry that I'm going to lose it. That's progress.
*As I've mentioned before, I tend to write on my commute into work since I take the bus. But recently, in part to manage the fatigue and stress of my day job lately, I've been bike commuting in the mornings which, while very pleasant and generally restorative, has meant that I my usual writing routine was disrupted fairly substantially.
Book Review: PERDIDO STREET STATION
I have been meaning to read China Mieville's PERDIDO STREET STATION for years, now. It was the first book of Mieville's to catch my eye, though I only vaguely knew it was supposed to be very strange and somehow involve wings. I ended up reading his later stuff first, and have only now worked my way back to this.
It is a marvelous book, but it is clearly written by a younger and not quite as sure-footed writer than the man who produced EMBASSYTOWN. It is a grand, sprawling creation. It is a giddy, horrifying, sweet, philosophical wonder of a book. And it is overwritten, clunky, confusing and oddly paced.
The story takes place in New Crobuzon, a bizarre city in the world of Bas-Lag built around the partial skeleton of a monstrously huge unknown creature. The city attracts all kinds, from a beetle-headed rebellious artist to a washout brilliant scientist to a wounded and broken refugee seeking a miracle. Mieville delights in the nastiness of the city—this is a deliriously gross book in a peculiarly poetic way.
Like most of Mieville's work, this book is a philosophy told through narrative. His books are ultimately always more about the abstract concepts they grapple with than the characters who populate them. A main thematic focus of the book is transition and inspiration, how one begets the other over and over in a cycle. It comes up in the book in a hundred different ways. The other major theme is consciousness. The two are linked here, likely informed by Mieville's politics: the ways in which thought and sapience transmute and transform the material world seems to have clear roots in Marxist dialectic thought.
The world of Bas-Lag is rich with sapience: there are humans, but there are also khepri and vodyanoi and garuda and wyrmen and a mention of vampirs and the horrific handlingers. That's not even everyone. There are the Weavers: a race of multidimensional spiders whose ways of thinking are so far removed from our own as to be uninterpretable. And there is the Construct Council. Magic (here called thaumaturgy) and science bleed together to make possible the Remade: individuals whose bodies have been drastically and often grotesquely reshaped. The book is, in a word, colorful. And the plot comes to hinge on all these differences and all these paradoxes.
The plot is initially somewhat thin, but the richness and breadth of the worldbuilding is enough to hold interest. By the time the plot truly gets going the book builds momentum like nobody's business. The last quarter of the book has some of the most urgent and affecting plot construction I've ever read—it's truly shocking, and it's deft enough to dredge up a hundred different responses page to page. The ending is haunting.
That said, the book could have been condensed. There are plot lines that go not quite far enough, that aren't embedded gracefully enough, threads that could be pulled without damaging the richness of the tapestry Mieville weaves. This is a case of too much book: one where the focus feels occasionally spread too thin, where the hopping around from character to character can be frantic and disorienting instead suspenseful or revelatory. It's a wonderful, lively book that is a hair too shaggy.