text:
"The breadth and depth of the insights delivered by our observational method when applied on this scale will make a real and lasting contribution to the industry's understanding of how media consumption and use is evolving," said Mike Bloxham, CMD's director of Insight and Research. "The findings will provide an important platform for analysis and debate as the council pursues its mission to inform future best practices in cross-platform video measurement.
"Ball State and Sequent Partners are extremely proud to be working with the council in this capacity on such a major and ground-breaking study."
All day observation
Using the same observation techniques CMD staff members developed during the pioneering Middletown Media Studies I and II earlier this decade, researchers will shadow participants as they interact with media from the time they wake up and until they go to sleep.
Participants' actions will be recorded in 10-second intervals as observers categorize media exposure, life activities, location and attention. A sample of 350 people nationwide will be measured twice over a six-month period.
CMD also will observe 100 people in the Indianapolis area both before and after introducing a media acceleration process, a research method designed to help predict adoption and usage of emerging technologies and their impact on existing technologies.
Beyond television
The decision to proceed with a comprehensive study of media usage follows the successful completion of a pilot study by CMD and Sequent Partners in 2007. The pilot study demonstrated that full-day observation can produce a comprehensive view of a respondent's video usage and that it is possible to include in the study all relevant consumer segments, including high-tech respondents and ethnically diverse respondents.
"The migration of video usage beyond traditional television is an increasingly important issue for media companies, advertisers and their agencies," said Paul Donato, chief research officer for The Nielsen Co. "In a world where people increasingly watch programming online, on mobile devices and outside the home, this study will help us better understand how people are changing the way they consume media so that we can make informed decisions on how to measure it."
CRE was created by Nielsen Media Research in 2005 through a dedicated $2.5 million research and development fund. It was renewed for an additional $2.5 million in 2006 and 2007, for a total of $7.5 million. CRE serves as an independent forum for Nielsen to gain greater insights and to ensure that client priorities are reflected in Nielsen's research and development spending.


text:
Friday, May 30, 2014
The last day of photoshop called for us to take a famous work of art and put it in graduate attire. I admit that all I did was add a hat and a diploma, but it was very difficult to find a picture that would go along with the size of the graduate clothes pictures that were online. It definitely could've been done better, but I still find it funny when the Mona Lisa is sporting such a lopsided cap.
Another work for days of photoshop, I made an animation of a plane. Nothing really special about this one, just a plane flying across a partially cloudy sky. Peaceful don't you think? Vroom vroom
While the prompt for this day of photoshop was a scary sign, I took it as being a sarcastic sort of situation. Make a "scary sign". So, I took the least scariest thing of all, in addition to having a heart that says I love you, and made it into a caution sign. Please. Beware of cuddles.
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Part of the days of photoshop, this is a picture of the iconic movie Forrest Gump, during which Forrest is explaining his life's stories to strangers. The project was to turn the icon into a sculpture, so I chose to turn Forrest (and his box of chocolates) into a statue. I find it quite funny, a tribute to one of the best movies of all time.
Thursday, May 22, 2014
This is for the next day of photoshop. I made Barnzilla, taking Barney from a popular kids tv show and gave him a movie poster. Taking the text from the 2014 Godzilla movie (I recommend seeing it, I liked it) I put Barney in the background giving him a city to trample as well. Not a bad poster if I do say so myself.
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Taking a picture of a cute little puppy, I took and added a layer mask. From there, I took and proceeded to create lines in the mask which allowed part of the picture to poke through the mask and thus resulting in the puppy string you see here. I think this creation was very fun to make and resulted in a nice little picture
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Literal Interpretations
Monday, May 19, 2014
This is the 3D picture I created, a picture showing a space scene flowing out of a picture frame. I was pretty proud of how the rock and background turned out but the area where the rock turns to cloud became a little sloppy, which made me a bit frustrated. Oh well, I think it came out pretty nicely if not perfect.
Thursday, May 15, 2014
This is the picture I created for the fourth day of photoshop. I turned a simple sword play picture into one where the girl is not fight another girl but a bear instead. Pretty extreme right? Especially with a fake sword...
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
This is a piece I made for the third day of photoshop before summer break. I took my favorite candy (Reese's obviously) and wrapped the wrapper around one of my favorite animals, the red panda. After warping the many wrappers around the animal, I changed a couple of things up so you can somewhat see the panda through the many wrappers she's wearing. I really like this picture though it probably could have been done better.
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
True Reflection
This is for day 2 of the special one day projects. I had a lot of trouble finding images for the shadow so I eventually just took out the lion on the shadow picture and changed it to a cat. I then had to touch up the background with the clone stamp tool which looks okay everywhere but the tree shadow on the road which I finally gave up on because I could not get it to look right (the shadow was covered up by the lion on the original picture). I'm pleased that the grass in the background looks fine but I do wish I had been able to execute this project a bit cleaner.
Monday, May 12, 2014
This is a combination of the Logitech logo and the Razer logo. Both of these are computer peripheral makers and each one makes quality products. I replaced the Logitech logo's image with the snake emblem from the razer logo and put it over the Logitech name, thus combining the two.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
He calls me Anais, the sad mermaid. I was born long, long ago, longer than I can even remember, in the abyss of the dark ocean. I took shape from a random thought you see, God just imagined for a second how a being half human half fish would look like and from His dream we took shape. But as every random thought, we were shortly forgotten so never completely finished. Without any soul or reason, we live only in dark waters and very seldom see the surface and the sun.
Since the first day I came to life I was a rather restless creature. Not satisfied with the gloomy living of my people I liked to adventure to surface and play my beautiful songs for the homesick sailors. I could put so much sadness and despair into those songs, pure passion as intense as they have never experienced before. I loved charming them with my wicked spells, luring them to the swirls of the sea. And they would follow me blindly, for a second enlighten with a vision of a world and of a feeling unexperienced before. They would always come so full of joy only to find their doom in the cold abyss of my cruel world. They were merely a game to me you see, and I was just a bored player looking for more challenging prey. And one day he came to me.
The ship did not appear different than any other. I could hear from far away the noisy sailors, the grumpy captain, and the same sleazy jokes and I could smell the drunkenness in the air. And yet this time there was something different. From somewhere inside the ship I could hear the most enchanted music. There was no sadness in it, or passion or treachery. It was just sung with amazing love of life and light, and nature. And in just a few seconds I was absorbed by it. I got closer and closer to the ship and I started to feel the most puzzling happiness, so much different from the one I feel during windy storms on the ocean. It was a calm and perhaps a bit threatening overwhelming joy. I felt I was no longer controlling my senses, a pray of my own game. I tried to sing myself but my voice was gone and I felt I was beginning to turn into stone. Just then I suddenly felt two hands catching me, the song ended and I felt that in some peculiar way that I was saved.
I woke up the next morning to find myself in human shape. My skin was gone and was amazed to discover my human legs. Like a swirl of thoughts I remembered accounts from the past that the elders have always told me. Any water Nereid can change into human form once her skin is stolen and is bound to stay with the stealer until the skin is recovered and she can return to her home again. So I was a prisoner. Taken away into exile, far away from the safe darkness of my world and thrown into the wicked light I so much feared.
The door opened and I could see entering a handsome light haired man, so opposite to my merpeople. He was kind and gentle and yet I could see caution and perhaps some fear in his voice. He stayed there, next to me for hours, silent, expecting me, to wake up. I blinked for a second and he started talking. He was admiring my glossy skin and mingled hair. But I could not hear anything else. His voice was the one of my enchanter and I knew I was lost. How could I, one of the cruelest of my kind feel such excitement over a human? He was there, next to me and I knew I was forever a prisoner to his voice. So I followed him. Always silent and obedient I forgot my people and my cold underwater world and I learned to live in the sun.
Years past and the charm did not disappear. It grew stronger every day and some may even say what I felt was close to love. He never sang to me, as if he knew it would bring my destruction but he cared for me like I did not think it was possible. We lived in what they say to be human village and he gave me the name of Anais, though he most often called me under the human term of wife. How weird beings humans are sometimes. They bond each other in pointless commitments they call marriage and call themselves in love but yet they seldom listen to their companions and most often hurt them deeply. But as hard as it is for me to understand them I can see it's just as hard for them to understand me. They suspect my unholy nature as I never go to church, or pray or even pronounce His name. I never cry or laugh and in the times of storm I go alone and wander through the waves, like a ghost from another world. And yet I can feel joy, the joy of having him next to me.
It sometimes seems weird even to me how far I am now from the rebel, cruel creature that played with the lives of so many sailors. I live in a dream of the past, the dream of a song that took my life away and gave me a new beginning, a new reason to live a new life. He doesn't seem to care about my silence or my weird habits. He is too fascinated with my glossy skin and dark eyes and I sometimes think he sees me more like an amazing exotic possession, just as important as his enormous shell he found on a nearby island that everyone envies him for. And yet people much rather condemn him for having me than praise.
And can I blame them? Humans have a sense for feeling the evil, and although it is no longer at the surface I can still feel it dwelling there, deep inside me, thirsty for lives and ready to sing deadly songs once again. I sometimes feel the call of the ocean so strongly that my every bone hurts and I have to use every grain of will I have left to keep myself from going into a world now unknown and deadly to me.
Summers pass by and I can feel I'm growing older. Old? This is a new feeling for me. My near-mortal nature keeps me from growing older while I'm away from the sun, deep in the abyss of my world. But here, no longer safe, time leaves its mark on my human body. I have experienced the miracle of bearing children and now I have two twin girls and I sometimes wish they were entirely human but I can see in them the cruel grain of the cruel water spirits. Just like me they like wandering alone on the ocean shores, perhaps answering the call that torments my dreams. They seem mesmerized by the mad storms and hurly winds and I fear for their human souls that would get eaten by the darkness of the deep ocean.
It is September and the waters are more agitated then ever. I can hear their call every day, in every dream, in every hidden wish that tries to come to surface. My two daughters are playing outside, happy about the evening wind with some kind of glossy cloth they found under a bed. I just look closer and I have the revelation. It is my skin, there, next to me, so close I can go and touch it. I run like mad away from my husband, away from this world and I can feel all my senses revived a the thrill of being myself again. I go and I grab it from my daughters and I can not hear anything anymore. It's all just a big swirl in my head. Ocean and earth, sun and darkness, charms and songs, voices screaming, calling for my return into the sea, where I belong. I can hear them all louder and louder and I start screaming, singing with joy and despair, crying and laughing dancing around like a madman and then there is all silence again. I meet my husband's eyes lost again into mine and I remember everything again. My life, his voice, the calmness and happiness. A choice has to be made I know between cruel and kind, calm and agitated, between right and wrong, forgiveness and revenge, human and beast. All I feel is lost in my memories and my wishes. I want to cut myself into two and be able to separate the beast in me from all that I have as a human. I want to be able to love and hate and live according to reason and grow old and hear him sing once more. And yet there is the skin, lying there, so close to me, tempting me to wear it and fulfill my duty as a mermaid. Just taking it and leaving forever to my home is what is right, it's all the beast in me has been taught how to do. I think of God and his horrendous mistake and I curse the day he made us. I curse his mistake and I wish he had left us plain beasts rather than giving us just a glimpse of what we could never have, a soul. But now thinking has no point anymore. My decision is made and I know no storm or sunshine in the world could ever change it.
I move slowly, enjoying every step, every random thought. I touch the shells, the water and I swim once more. I can see the skin, lying there next to my husband on the white sand. I look at him once more and I realize that I have overcome my instincts because all I feel is joy and profound love. I call him, speaking for the first time the words that should have never had spoken, breaking the law of my people. I don't sing I just call and he comes a bit puzzled, a bit afraid. And we swim like madmen and wander on the beach and cry of the happiness of finding each other. I can see his face and I understand he now feels my charm too, not knowing that it's too late.
The sin has been committed. I chose to go against my nature and I know that I am doomed. But my choice has already been made long before. I go on the beach and I ask my lover to sing, just as he did on the first day. And he sings so beautifully and so full of joy that I feel the intense passion I used to give to sailors so long ago. I know I am turning slowly into stone but I ask him not to stops, and keeps on singing, so passionate in his song for me. And when it is over I will be gone, just a thought left in his mind, a black stone on the white sands, a mistake finally having been corrected.


text:
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Merco Crit
March 5, 2011
Masters 35+ 1/2/3
Team mates Tom and Steve
11th of 60-70 ish
The crit course was different this year due to constrcution - it had a180 and it went clock wise. It was maybe 400 meters out of the hairpinto the line. Most people hated it, but I LOVED it. At 40 laps, thiscrit is one of the longest the masters do all year (it was 70minutes). The race started slow, with a few half hearted attacks, soabout 5 laps in I launched my first attack of the 2011 season. It feltgood to be back in the mix!
After that I was either covering most moves, or starting trying tostart them them. I spent a good deal of time off the front.Unfortunately, when I came back gassed from an effort with 14 to goBrian Bosch went and I didn't respond. One other rider (Darren Divine)followed him and that was it. They were gone
I tried to get across several times, with various riders, but it justwasn't meant to be. With about 8 to go I started to sit in and thinkabout the sprint for the minor placings
With two to go Steve rolled up and asked how I was feeling. He was allset to guide me to the front and set me up. But, coming out of thehairpin when we were seeing one to go he cramped! I didn't realize itquickly enough and I totally missed the swarm moving up. I tried tomake up ground on the back side of the course, but could only get sofar. My position going in to the sprint was less than ideal. Out ofthe hairpin I just had no where to go I was too far back to have aclean line anywhere. I never got out of the saddle or was able to openup my sprint - too much traffic. I just had no where to go around.Finished 11th and feeling way too fresh at the end
The good news is that I felt great, and jumping 40 times out of thehairpin was no problem. Fitness is there, the rest will come together
Merco RR
Masters 35+ 1/2/3
March 6, 2011
Team mates Tom and Steve
13th of ~75-80
Despite riding motorcycles, eating way too much, and sleeping well, Iawoke to some tired legs. Back to back race days for the first time ina long time... nothing to do but get out there and do it
Unlike Saturday's perfect 70 degrees and sunny weather, our 8 am startwas about 50 degrees and raining. And it rained the whole race.Fortunately the pack was very sane, and everyone rode smoothly andreally well
My legs were slow to come around. Lack of warm up probably didn'thelp. I covered a few early moves. But, I missed the first big movethat went on the first lap. I tried to bridge a few times, but noluck. I drifted back to sit in some and try and get the legs to wakeup!
As we hit the rollers on the first lap Billy Innes set a hard tempothat lined the group out. It looked like we were catching the breakand I put in a dig up the Snelling feed hill. But, the riders I passedhad Pro/1/2 numbers on.I was confused, and assumed that we WEREN'Tcatching the break. But, I kept going, and had one other guy with me.We got pulled back, and Billy, Yahoo!, and MacNeill put in a few digs,but I still thought the break was up the road. We were nearing thefeed, I drifted back in the pack and ate something and drank abottle. Of course, while I'm back there, Innes and Klein go away. Andwe HAD pulled back the break. So I missed a really key move
Now Innes and Klein were up the road with one other. They only had 3though, so it was likely they could come back. On the last lap, Tomcame up and put in some monster pulls, really impressive, to helpbring it back. Along with the Folsom Bikes team, who did a good jobsetting tempo to help pull the move back
Right before the rollers the break was brought back. I tried to stayup front, but honestly I was hurting. I couldn't let Tom's work go towaste though, so I hung in there. As Tom was rolling back and I'mmoving up. Tom says "okay, they are back. Think Tigerblood!" orsomething like that. In reference to the Charlie Sheen ramblings allover the internet earlier in the week. So I sucked it up, and had todig deep to hang in there and focus
I was trying to stay near Bosch and Briggs - I knew they would betrying to set one of them up for the win. After the Snelling hillSteve came up and was ready to help set me up. I think it will takeanother race or two to work out the kinks - it's been a while since weraced together. But, we'll get there
As I said, my tactics and wheel surfing are rusty. I got swarmed andlost his wheel as he hit the front with 1.5k to go. I hung out a bitand moved up as I could before the left hander at the base of the hillup to the sprint. I was on the inside line there and we came out ofthat and I sprinted up the hill. Both to move up, and because I had nochoice. I crested the hill 10th, but was GASSED. I seriously couldn'tstand up to sprint at that point. Rob MacNeill came FLYING by me andfinished 5th. I just could not get out of the saddle. I got passed bytwo others at the line to finish 13th
That's a hard finish for me, with that little sprint hill before thereal sprint. A little better positioning and maybe I could have beenin contention for a top 5. But really, I think that's my best finishever in that road race, and not *too* bad for the first road race in avery, very long time after a hard crit the day before
Things will start to click soon. I know it
rint hill before the
real sprint. A little better positioning and maybe I could have been
in contention for a top 5. But really, I think that's my best finish
ever in that road race, and not *too* bad for the first road race in a
very, very long time after a hard crit the day before.
Things will start to click soon. I know it.
Posted by Track Ninja at 12:00 PM No comments:
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text:
Balanar Snow
A sorceror with a dark past and vengeance in mind
Balanar is the bastard son of Lord Wulther, a prominent noble in the human capital of Port Pembrook. He has long suspected himself to be the product of an unholy union between his human father and a demon or devil mother. Only that would explain his innate magical ability, his disturbing crimson eyes, and the nature in which he was raised.
Balanar was not so much raised as he was kept. His adoptive mother, Lady Elenna, despised and beat him, while his half-siblings treated him no better. His father, while for some reason determined to keep Balanar alive and under his purview, offered nothing more than the bare minimum to ensure his survival.
It wasn't until his sorcerous powers finally manifested at the age of 17 that he would have a modicum of revenge. During one particularly savage beating, Balanar lashed back at Lady Elenna with his still maturing powers. Killing her instantly and securing his escape from Hampton Manor and Lord Wulther's lands.
Now a fugitive, chased by his half-brother Phillip and all the men his father could muster, Balanar found refuge among the ranks of the Black Hand. Ultimately, however, they betrayed him to his father forcing him to seek passage out of the city.
A chance meeting with a Guild official who caught Balanar trying to sneak into his caravan led to Balanar's eventual recruitment. Within the Guild, Balanar was shielded from his father's attempts to retrieve him through legal means or being forced to face the consequences of the murder he had committed. However, he still swears vengeance against his father and looks for his birth mother in hopes of discovering more about who or what he really is.


text:
Friday, 25 March 2011
15 comments:
- Teresa said...
Oh what great finds. Love the cream frame you put the bunny in. Would never have thought to put something other than photos in the cube. You are so creative.
Teresa's Heartfelt Stitches.
- 25 March 2011 at 16:01
- Cath said...
Wow ,you have been super busy , and with great success . Everything looks great . x
- 25 March 2011 at 18:14
- Lesleyanne said...
Wow Jane everything looks fantastic. Love the attich frames you recycled - they are pefect for the cross stitch you put in them. The key holder is stunning and the rabbit looks as though it was made for it. The cube looks stunning with your projects in it. Look forward to seeing your new stash.
- 25 March 2011 at 18:37
- Chocolates4Breakfast (TerriBoog) said...
Your framed pieces look wonderful and your key cabinet couldn't be sweeter and your photo cube turned out great as well! Super job!!!
- 25 March 2011 at 18:46
- Denise said...
Your recycling came out wonderfully! The key box was inspiring and LOVED the cube. Can't wait to see your stash photos!
- 25 March 2011 at 19:21
- Mouse said...
ooo well done on the up-cycling and on your finds too ... your pieces look lovely in their new homes :) just love the rabbit one though and buttons yummmm :) love mouse xxx
- 25 March 2011 at 19:45
- Carol said...
What a great group of recycled frames, Jane! I love the way you added the fabric and buttons to that darling bunny riding on the rooster piece--great idea! Guess I should go check my attic fro some possible reusable frames :)
- 25 March 2011 at 21:37
- Karen said...
How industrious to reuse your frames! All of your projects are wonderfully finished... great job!
- 25 March 2011 at 22:59
- Lisa V said...
Your frames are all soo lovely and your stitching matches in perfectly. I also love your special finds, especially the key box.
- 26 March 2011 at 01:18
- CalamityJr said...
What a great lesson on recycling, and I love your use of the cube! Thanks for sharing.
- 26 March 2011 at 03:44
- Kate said...
Great finish with the fabric and buttons. Love the key box - and great to use it for jewellery. The farm animals look great in their new home too.
- 26 March 2011 at 05:48
- Michelle May (Shell) said...
Fantastic Jane! I love everything, especially that white bunny!
Too fun!
xx, shell
- 26 March 2011 at 21:04
- Sally said...
What fantastic finds, Jane, and those frames from your attic are perfect!
- 27 March 2011 at 13:41
- Lynn said...
I love what you've done with your attic finds. Recycling works for me! Your key box is fantastic! The bunny works really well with it. Your cube is a really unique way to show off your stitching too. I never would have thought of using it.
- 28 March 2011 at 02:27
- Lois said...
What great finds in the attic! Both frames perfect for your pieces and I love the added fabric and buttons on Springtime Social. Your cupcakes piece looks wonderful too! Love the key box and your cube. All in all, I love everything!! xox
- 28 March 2011 at 09:41


text:
Cougar Hot Springs are like an It's-It Ice Cream Treat:
- It's uncomplicated as far as it lets the ingredients speak for themselves.
- It's unquestionably good from a value for money perspective.
- But it's over more quickly than you'd like, unless you make an attempt to savour it.
At the foot of Cougar Hot Springs you will meet the Enchanted Gnome, protector of this aquatic realm. He disclaims to you, as he must to all travellers, that dropped trou lies ahead. You consent with a knowing wink and pay your nominal $6. Taking a big swig out of his gallon-sized coffee goblet, this rosy-cheeked friend bids you good bathing, and points up towards the path ahead. There is only one road leading to Cougar: along a steep and unrailed ledge, then through the thick Cascadian greenery. The trail and the baths themselves are not embellished. A verdant fernscape surrounds the bases of impossibly towering trees–D-Firs in Portland hipster parlance. After a quarter mile walk you spot the wooden construction, enough to hang your clothes up but not to house a shower.
The 4 baths themselves are products of intentional rock rearrangement that divert hot spring water to trickle rather than rush down the hill. Given that the water cascades between the pools, the hottest lies at the top, which is comfortable enough even in the midday sun. If you're looking for a scalding McCafé experience these may not be your baths. The hot springs are not designed with seating in mind, but a group of ten Tetris masters could optimize a pool. Due to the natural roughness, interpool navigability requires some degree of scampering and creative perching lest you pumice your perineum. The demographics we found there ranged from Nordic parent/adult-child trios, fruit offering Gaia couples, and lone wolf semicreepers with faithful canine companions. You might well be the recipients of wafting sage smoke, a nug, or a haphazardly sliced watermelon.
Even if you take a luxurious 15 minutes per tub, the running time is only a third of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (in which you can glimpse the aforementioned Gnome in minute :56). A typical time extension strategy at these places consists of out-of-water relaxing. The lack of lounging planks at Cougar make these intermissions challenging to take. Coupled with lack of on-site drinking water, an entire round here is capped at about an hour.
If the major things on your mind are that your boss is a wanker and you haven't got your mom a present for her birthday yet, then Cougar will not be the most generous gelato. However, if you're armed with the attention to really appreciate this melting ice cream of a hot springs, there'll be plenty to lick off your fingers.


text:
Monday, May 9, 2011
walking flagstaff on a rainy windy haily delightful day
Posted by George Breed at 2:00 PM
2 comments:
- AnonymousMay 9, 2011 at 2:28 PM
it is quite delightful!
thank you!
- AnonymousMay 10, 2011 at 12:40 AM
So much going on in and around Flagstaff! Feels like home. Thanks for all of it! Hugs!ReplyDelete
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text:
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Miracle Makers led to adversity
New York Times photographer Ozier Muhammed captured this moment after the young lady on the right was forced to wait nine years to be adopted by her foster mom (on right), due to ineptitude by the Miracle Makers foster care agency.
New York City paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to Miracle Makers foster care agency as per their contract to provide classes in independent living.
Yet when a 16-year-old client who was preparing to age out of foster care tried to enroll in one of those classes, she found out the truth: The independent living workshops did not exist. They had not been offered for over a year.
This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what was uncovered in the New York Times' investigation...
New York City officials had no reason to believe that Willie Wren, founder of Miracle Makers, was qualified to lead a foster care agency in the first place. He was a church deacon with no experience working in foster care.
Yet, in 1986, city officials approached Mr. Wren, telling him that they were flooded with abandoned children, due to drugs, AIDS homelessness and teenage pregnancy, and calling on him to help.
The staff and board members of Miracle Makers were equally unqualified. The board consisted of a pastor, a homemaker and a bank employee, none of whom had social work training or experience. Board members did not evaluate Mr. Wren's performance, approve budgets or receive copies of financial statements.
The agency was staffed by family members of its founder; his wife, his niece, his sister and his sister-in-law. Additional staff members, recruited from the general public, reported lack of training.
How did Miracle Makers end up turning into a multi-million dollar agency?
For the most part, this was because its services were not subject to regulation. In 1991, the city's foster care oversight committee was disbanded and replaced with cursory evaluations. While this might have saved the city money in the short-term, in the long-term this decision did nothing to safeguard the safety of children.
And so Miracle Makers continued to exist – and even expand.
The warning signs were evident:
1.) A letter from the State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities in 2001, citing serious flaws in its housing program for the mentally handicapped
2.) The results of EQUIP(Evaluation and Quality Improvement Protocol system) revealed that Miracle Makers was in last place regarding foster care; the waiting time to reunify children or free them for adoption was longest and their program to prepare teenagers for the adult world rated a zero.
Miracle Makers continued to finish at or near the bottom for the next three years.
3.) An investigation of Miracle Makers uncovered: huge caseloads, lax hiring practices, poorly supervised staff, poorly trained supervisors, unqualified administrators and an ineffectual board.
4.) Miracle Makers bounced at least 280 checks, costing their agency thousands of dollars in overdraft fees (one month, the overdraft fees totaled $2,340). Apparently no one on staff was trained in basic bookkeeping principles and funds for various programs were intermingled.
5.) Miracle Makers claimed to have spent $2,399 on Palm Pilots for pre-kindergarten children. Yet, when questioned by the city's Education Department about why these devices were considered appropriate for such young children, the agency claimed to have 'lost' the Palm Pilots.
My greatest concerns are for the children and teenagers being 'served' by this ineffectual agency, such as:
- Two children who weren't given counseling after being sexually abused, because of staff turnover and a foster mother who kept missing appointments
- One girl who was forced to languish in the agency's care for nine years before being adopted by her foster mother. Miracle Makers did not file the petition to terminate her abusive father's rights. Nor did they respond when the court threatened the agency with arrest for not showing up at hearings.
- Miracle Makers lost the documents necessary to terminate parental rights for another child, and as a result, she is still in foster care. In another case, staff neglected to read the birth certificate, and wasted time and resources proceeding against a man who was not the biological father.
To read more, please visit my source:
Weiser, Benjamin. City slow to act as hope for foster children fails. New York Times, Nov. 6, 2007.
Labels: accountability, independent living, miracle makers
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Since my last post, I had my first spinning lesson on my wheel. I still need to work on drafting and am practicing treadling while knitting. I also started meeting with a knitting group at Starbucks in Danville VA. I will be starting a knitting/crocheting group in Reidsville at the Backstreet Buzz on February 28.
OTN--my chevron pullover, a mini-sock, Wendy Johnson generic toe-ups, another pair of dorm socks and mid-month dishcloth KAL.
Next in the queue--another pullover which will be a multicolor using a stitch from the Harmony guide, Loopy Laces socks, Lancet Braid socks and an Angel of Love fingertip towel.
Here are some pictures of projects completed either since my last post or left off from last post.
This is a Bookmark KAL designed by Karen Bonter. Yarn is Patons Grace.This is January dishcloth KAL. There's a football in there somewhere.This is mid-January KAL. Yarn is potpourri ombre from PnC. Designer is Janet Nogle


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Through research and clinical trials, the goal of the Neuromuscular Division is to advance diagnostics, prevention, drug development, and treatment to improve outcome of neuromuscular diseases. Research teams with multidisciplinary interests and strengths in basic and clinical science skills work closely to identify and pursue promising new areas of research to improve the lives of patients with these disorders.
Movements, and especially skilled movements, are at the foundation of human behavior. We take the ability to make skilled movements largely for granted until suddenly this ability is stolen from us by disease or injury. Our division of the IND focuses on conditions that have in common the fact that they all affect muscle activity and our ability to make movements - amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, peripheral neuropathy, myopathies, myasthenia gravis and Parkinson's disease. Although these conditions all target central and/or peripheral components of the neuromuscular system, their underlying etiology and pathology are fundamentally different.
Neuromuscular physicians and researchers are engaged in translational programs aimed at understanding these disorders and developing new treatments. One of the mechanisms for conducting translational and clinical research within the IND is a program called Frontiers, which has headquarters at KUMC. Frontiers: The Heartland Institute for Clinical and Translational Research is part of a national consortium of NIH-funded Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA).
KUMC is one of 25 sites designated by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to participate in the Network of Excellence in Neuroscience Clinical Trials. At KUMC, this unit is the Heartland Unit for Neuroscience Trials (HUNT).
Peripheral neuropathy affects 20 million people in the U.S. Initial symptoms include numbness, tingling and pain (burning, aching, electrical) that often interferes with sleep and function. The hands and feet are typically affected. While the causes of neuropathy are numerous, most commonly neuropathy is due to diabetes or prediabetes.
Myopathies are diseases of skeletal muscle in which there is typically proximal muscle weakness without sensory loss. Some myopathies are autoimmune, toxic or due to other acquired causes while others are hereditary. Myopathies are due to a primary structural or functional impairment of muscle including genetic metabolic disorders and disorders of ion channels in membranes (channelopathies) that mediate the electrical signals responsible for muscle contraction. Diseases of muscle structural proteins or muscular dystrophies are caused by mutations in genes encoding for essential membrane or extracellular matrix proteins, sarcomeric components or nuclear envelope molecules. Disorders of muscles can be categorized and subdivided so that it is generally possible to characterize a particular myopathy based on its distinctive features.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a rare mostly sporadic degenerative disease of the adult motor neuron system. In the United States, about 2-3 out of 100,000 people develop ALS per year, and men are affected more frequently than women. It usually presents with focal onset of weakness of the leg or arm or with difficulty with speech or swallowing. Weakness progresses in the area where it presented first and spreads to adjacent areas, until it affects the entire body. Death is usually due to respiratory failure. ALS affects both lower motor neurons in the spinal cord and upper motor neurons in the cerebral cortex, resulting in muscle wasting, twitching and stiffness.
Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disease of the neuromuscular junction - the junction between motor neurons and muscle that transmit signals for contraction. It affects both genders and any age group with 2 peaks, one in younger women and a second in older men. Initial symptoms include eyelid droop or double vision. Other symptoms include arm or leg weakness, chewing, swallowing or speech difficulty and shortness of breath. MG is responsive to immune system suppression.
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurological disorder. Average age of onset is 60 years, but onset can occur as early as the third decade of life or at any point thereafter. It is estimated that over 1,000,000 people suffer from PD in the United States and an additional 50,000 to 60,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. This represents approximately 0.3% of the general population, 3% of persons over the age of 65 and 10% of persons over the age of 80. Although we know that the loss of dopamine in an area of the brain called the substantia nigra is related to the development of PD, the cause of PD is currently unknown.
Multiple System Atrophy is a rare form of Parkinsonism resembling Parkinson's disease but with more rapid disease progression. Currently there are no treatments for Multiple System Atrophy.
Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) is a rare disorder which is in some ways similar to Parkinson's disease. It involves early problems with speech, balance and eye movement abnormalities. There is currently no treatment for PSP.
Brian Ackley, PhD, Molecular Biosciences - KU
Richard Barohn, MD, Neurology
Paul Cheney, PhD, Molecular and Integrative Physiology
Arthur Dick, MD, Neurology
Mazen Dimachkie, MD, Neurology
Richard Dubinsky, MD, Neurology
Barry Festoff, MD, Neurology and Pharmacology - VAMC
Stephen Fowler, PhD, Pharmacology, Toxicology & Therapeutics - KU
Phillip Gallagher, PhD, HSES-Health, Sport & Exercise Science - KU
Paige Geiger, PhD, Molecular and Integrative Physiology
Erika Geisbrecht, PhD, School of Biological Sciences - UMKC
Michael Johnson, PhD, Chemistry - KU
Wen Liu, PhD, SAH Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Sciences
Susan Lunte, PhD, Chemistry - KU
Kelly Lyons, PhD, Neurology
Jules Nazzaro, MD, Surgery Neurosurgery
Hiroshi Nishimune, PhD, Anatomy & Cell Biology
Randolph Nudo, PhD, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine
Mamatha Pasnoor, MD, Neurology
John Stanford, PhD, Molecular and Integrative Physiology
Russell Swerdlow, MD, Alzheimer's Disease Center
Yunxia Wang, MD, Neurology
Mike Werle, PhD, Anatomy & Cell Biology
Doug Wright, PhD, Anatomy & Cell Biology


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Lily's primary teacher from Fayetteville called today, he's called a few times since we left. Today he called to see how we are doing and asked if we are being taken care of by our new ward (don't worry he doesn't know anything about my past feelings) & to see if we had home teachers- isn't that super nice? I assured him we are & we do. Lily loved him & his wife. & she was so excited to learn that Sis. S. had her baby (so was I) He said he was looking forward to seeing Lily in April (Gary's graduation) but unfortunately the mini's aren't going. So I told him to check out my blog because I put pics up of the mini's all the time. So when I checked my blog to see what pics they'd be seeing I realized I haven't posted pics of them for a while. So I promise my next few posts will be lovely photos of the trouble makers.
These are pics I took for my photography class that I never posted. The assignment was to take a picture of the subject's face & feet. I was trying to figure out all the exposure & aperture settings so please forgive the fuzziness, brightness & darkness (that stuff is hard)
This girl cracks me up- she's giving me the one-too-many pictures face


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It's 9:30am, Saturday morning, a few hours before Matt's first basketball game with the Upward Basketball Program. This is a new program for us...a Christian based program that teaches not only skills of the game, but also "skills" on how to live your life as a humble and good human being.
About a month ago we had a parents meeting at the church that walked us through what the program was like, what to expect, and what their main goals were for the season. It was all great!! I thought this is a fantastic program! And then they showed a video presentation of last years season and some of the highlights. When they got to the part of explaining there is a tunnel that leads out from the locker room that the kids run out of right after there name is called is where I stopped listening. I thought to myself...Tunnel? Name announced? A jog around the court? This is going to be a problem.
You see, I have lived this scenario SEVERAL dozen times in my living room. Matthew comes over (dressed head to toe in his Lakers uniform) hands me a hair brush microphone and says..."I'm going to go down the hall. Don't announce me until the end, because they always announce the best players at the end." So like a good mother I announce all other mediocre players first and then in a deep loud voice I say, "And from Lodi, California....last, but never least....CRYBABY KOBE BRYANT!!!!!" And then that leads to him running in and yelling at me to "STOP IT AND PLAY THE GAME RIGHT!!" So, then I play fair and call out his name and he comes down the hall and does a couple of laps around the living room giving me and ten others imaginary high fives. Do you see where I am going with this?
If not, then they me tell you what he said to me last night...
Matt: Mom, you know tomorrow when they announce our names and we go out and run around the court?
Mom: (Deep sigh) Yes...
Matt: What do you think my dance should be?
Mom: (Spitting food from her mouth) Dance? What do you mean DANCE???????
Matt: You know, I need some kind of dance once I come through the tunnel.
Mom: No, no, no, no, no, no. No dancing. No dancing. Matthew, when they announce your name, you smile and follow your team out and listen to whatever direction your coach gives you. NO DANCING, PLEASE!
Matt: (Smiling) Alright.
Because I wanted him to digest that for the night, I waited until this morning to ask him to make sure he does three important things today. 1. Play defense. 2. Pass the ball. 3. Congratulate each teammate after every shot, regardless of if they made it or not. He said, "Okay!" And as he was walking away, I threw in... "And remember no dancing!" (rolling his eyes) "I know Mom!"
Stay tuned....
Okay, were home and it was great. As you will see in the ONE picture below, that Matt did not dance his way out of the tunnel. He had a great game with a couple of really good blocks and he made several baskets.
Today was the first time that Matthew has played a game where they kept score. And they had a 10, 9, 8....count down for final shot. The entire game I could see his eyes watching the score and the clock. This will become his focus. I guarantee you that these two things will become his obsession and his play will revolve around it.
And I deserved to be fired. I didn't have the camera charged. And I forgot my cell phone at home. So this is the only picture I have from this morning from our camera. The other is in the bathroom right before we left.
Please try to ignore the toilet seat in the back.
There he is....look closely...coming out of the tunnel. Better pics next week---PROMISE!!!


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Collaborative Learning Environment
The Collaborative Learning Environment consist of four rooms on the first floor of the Dana Engineering Building. It contains two modern, flexible collaborative studios (132 and 134) and two accompanying seminar or breakout rooms (130 and 136). The two seminar rooms seat 12-16 students. The collaborative studio in Dana 134 seats 36-40 students and is equipped with notebook computers, while that in Dana 132 is designed to seat 24 students and has 12 fixed, Windows workstations. All four rooms contain modern projection facilities, and Dana 132 housed video conference equipment.
This collaborative environment is used to develop and explore new methods of instruction aimed at helping all Bucknell engineering students learn their subject material more effectively, while at the same time learning the methods of collaborative work to solve open-ended, real world problems like those they will face in the workplace after graduation.


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A Short Sabbatical
Monday, September 21, 2009
We're on a short sabbatical. We've been sharing that it was a vacation, but after much thought and reflection, it's far more than a vacation...it's a sabbatical of sorts!
Sabbatical or a sabbatical (from Latin sabbaticus, from Greek sabbatikos, from Hebrew shabbat, i.e., Sabbath, literally a "ceasing") is a rest from work, or a hiatus...In recent times, "sabbatical" has come to mean any extended absence in the career of an individual in order to achieve something.
There is a reason. There is a purpose.
2 years ago on our first anniversary, Alex and I dreamed big in our little cottage at Madden's Resort in Brainerd. We took the weekend to ask big things from the Lord and well he answered.
-we watched a lot of flip that house (we didn't have cable then, so on vacation we watched tv)
and we dreamed big...what would that look like, wouldn't that be fun to flip a house?
-we discussed our house and where we would live, when to sell and if we should sell
-we cast vision for South Face and our desire to work as a team in growing the company
Well, if you know us, you know the Lord has answered, directed, established, and blessed our prayers. In the past two years, despite many days and weeks of sweat, tears, labor and love we accomplished all of these.
-We bought and sold our first flip and learned to depend on the Lord in new ways
-After a year and a half of fixing, remodeling, and relinquishing, our house on the lake sold
-After two years, the Lord answered our prayers for clarity on where to direct South Face
The Lord has answered, directed, established and blessed us. Now it's time to refocus, reenergize, and seek again His guidance for these next years. May You direct our minds to see Your will for our lives.
Our trip to Great Britian is not quite a vacation. It's really a sabbatical. We're taking a rest from work to reevaluate, refocus, reenergize: so we can hit the ground running when we get back and most importantly reconnect as a couple. These past two years have made us stronger, but there hasn't been a lot of time to relax and really enjoy each other.
After 10 years of owning his own company and all that entails, Alex has earned a break. It's not easy.
Things we're dreaming of right now: a family, a design firm that allows us to work as a couple in the best capacity possible, a chance to flip another house, to be a couple that does not waste their life but instead lives it with a single passion: to display Christ.


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Hi there!! Another week passes and it's been a quiet week on my blog. I promise that I'll be getting back in the rhythm of the cards. It's just so hard when you look at the beautiful sunshine!! This week at Stamping Bella, our challenge was called "Celebrate Good times". I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to use the set called "Snookums". For my card, I have stamped the image with Archival black ink and then colored with Prismacolor pencils and gamsol. The layout for my card is the current Mojo Monday sketch challenge. Go me!! LOL!!!
Next week's challenge is a sketch so make sure you play along :-) Just make sure you use a current image and get your card in to Emily at email@example.com by 10 pm EST on Thursday.


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Sunday, September 9, 2007
Coyote Ugly Nightclub
Coyote Ugly DetailsHours of operation: Bar opens daily at 6 p.m.
Nightclub: 9 p.m. - 4 a.m.
Cover price:
General admission: $10 (Men and women, beginning at 9 p.m.)
Front of the Line: $20 (Men and women, beginning at 9 p.m.)
Payment information: All major credit cards and cash accepted.
Location: Inside the New York-New York.
Music: A jukebox plays Kid Rock, Metallica, Aerosmith, Mary J. Blige and AC/DC.
Resident DJs: N/A.
Clientele/Age Group: 21 and older.
Attire: No sandals, worker or hiking boots, athletic gear, sleeveless shirts (men) or hats.
Occupancy: 200.
Parking: Garage parking and hotel valet.
Reservations: N/A.
Seating: Yes.
Handicapped accessible: Yes.
ATM: Inside the New York-New York.
Special events:
See Video
Posted by Practically Speaking at 5:37 PM
Labels: 24 hours, coyote ugly, Las Vegas Blvd., nightclub
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I love the fact that our church is a missions minded church! We are interested in missions because God is a missionary God! Think about it. Jesus was the greatest missionary who ever lived. He communicated the truth of God cross-culturally. That is, He left the grandeur of heaven and came to dwell among us so that He might show us what God was like. In that way, the incarnation was a missions trip! Similarly, when we attempt to share the Gospel cross-culturally, we are embodying the Gospel for the people to whom we minister. We become the hands and feet of Christ extended to people. This is at the same time both a wonderful privilege and an awesome responsibility.
Last month, a team of our men visited our work in Nicaragua. They testified to the same thing that many others have experienced on this kind of trip. They went to be a blessing to others, but what they found was that God used the experience to bless them and draw them all closer to Himself. I am very proud of that group and the work they accomplished for the kingdom. I am also moved to see how the encounter with God impacted their lives. We can never out give God!
On July 1st, we are sending a team of our youth to the same area in Nicaragua where the men worked. I know they will encourage the Nicaraguans, but I am even more certain that they will have an encounter with God for themselves that they can't even imagine. They will not be in the USA for fireworks celebrations or 4th of July cookouts, but they will have a great freedom celebration as they see lives transformed (including their own) and set free by the gospel! I am thrilled to know that our youth are interested in serving the kingdom of God in this way.
Later in July, we will also be sending a group to Youth Quest in Atlanta, GA. This will be a great time to showcase their talents as well as encounter the Lord in the services they attend together. Pray for this time, as well, that God would use the experience to ignite passion in their hearts.
So, we are definitely a sending church and a going church; however, missions is not just about what we do for people overseas. It is also about how we reach out to people right here in NC. In case you haven't heard, we will be taking a trip to the beach on July 31st! More accurately, the beach will take a trip to us. The theme for our Vacation Bible School is "SonSurf Beach Blast". That will be an exciting Sunday as we kick off this ministry designed to introduce children to Jesus. VBS presents us an incredible opportunity to teach our own children, as well as to reach out to those who may not have a church home. The kick-off Sunday will be an event you and your family will not want to miss! Why not consider inviting a child in your neighborhood to come along? What would happen if every family brought one child who didn't have a church home? What if that child came here and accepted Jesus into their hearts? If that excites you, it means that your heart resembles the heart of the Father!
These ministry highlights reflect the missionary heart of God. As we engage in this activity, we are embodying the love of Jesus for people abroad as well as here at home. Please pray for these ministries, but don't stop there. Find a way you can help. You may not be able to travel, but you can send someone. Maybe you can volunteer some time for VBS. Maybe you can help with some of the resources needed to pull off this event. Don't let this exciting work for the Lord pass you by without finding a way to be a part of what God is doing among us!


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Monday, April 26, 2010
Taking a break - from the computer
Bob Kaku: Taking a break for me means taking my eyes away from the computer monitor. I'm an IT worker, which means I spent about 95% of my workday in front of a computer. It's gotten worse. Face-to-face meetings, even with people on the same campus, have been replaced with virtual meetings where we're staring at the monitor and talking into a speakerphone. While I enjoy writing, it also means my evening hours in front of the computer.
I don't want to think about all the electron particles and radiated waves that are bombarding my eyes. Oh God help!
To take a break from this, I go get a cup of tea. But I don't do that frequently enough. I tell myself to take a break every hour or so. I've even set an alarm on my computer to flash a reminder. But that doesn't work that well, because sometimes I'm right in the middle of concentrating on something, and I just hit the Dismiss button. It's the same with writing. I don't want to lose my train of thought. Alas, it's a hopeless battle. :-)
I can relate to Bob on this one - and what I find myself doing is getting up and running to the washroom when I don't really need to. Or is that more than you wanted to know?
With that in mind, here is my thought/question of the day. Do you do what you can to save your eyes in this electronic age? If you decided to get your eyes unglued from the computer regularly, how would you do it?
2 comments:
Heh I am like a little kid. I try to talk myself OUT of getting up and going to the washroom so I can finish what I'm doing on the computer. LOL Too busy playing with my toys. But I understand what Bob means. Sometimes it does get a bit much. It's also not good for circulation to be sitting all day. My dog helps me with that because he rings the bell constantly to go out. I am up and down all day long, with him, doing laundry, cooking meals etc. If I just want to get away from the computer, I can, as unlike Bob it is not my job to sit here. Even the things I have to do can be done in my own timing. I just make the decision to get away for a while and read or watch TV (which is essentially the same thing I guess, eyes glued to a screen), call or visit a friend or whatever. I rarely sit at the computer for a long stretch.ReplyDelete
I understand. Now I bake or make dinner to take a break. I am either on the computer or on my blackberry (which I love/hate, by the way) so I feel bombarded by technology. I love switching gears and making something to eat. It's just so far from technology!ReplyDelete


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Last night (my 2nd injection) was awful! I just couldn't do it, I held the needle there for about 5-10 mins until I was traumatized over it. I don't know if it was because I didn't use the numbing cream or what, but I just could not inject it. Kerry insisted on doing it for me and it took me a little bit to allow him to because I was so worked up over it. I closed my eyes and turned the radio on. I didn't feel the needle but once he started pushing the liquid in, it was bad, felt like I walked into a beehive. Then he tried to rub my belly with his hand and I about came unglued as it stung so bad. I cried and didn't sleep well. I hate Lupron and I got at least 11 more days of it. I wonder if I'm having a reaction to it as I don't see others experiencing near as much pain. Bring on the wimp cream!
This morning, I put the wimp cream on my upper arm and Kerry injected for me an hour later. The needle was fine, but again, the stinging was so bad!!! I didn't think I would be feeling this through the lidocaine. I feel like the lidocaine only numbs the surface. I had blood running down my arm with this one.
So much for this getting easier! I'm so NOT brave! I just keep telling myself, it will all be worth it in the end!


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John Calvin, in his commentary on the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke), writes this with respect to Mark 13:22/Matthew 24:24 ("False christs and false prophets will arise and perform signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, even the elect."):
"This was added for the purpose of exciting alarm, that believers may be more careful to be on their guard; for when such unbounded freedom of action is allowed to false prophets, and when they are permitted to exert such powers of deceiving, those who are careless and inattentive would easily be entangled by their snares. Christ therefore exhorts and arouses his disciples to keep watch, and at the same time reminds them that there is no reason for being troubled at the strangeness of the sight, if they see many persons on every hand led away into error. While he excites them to solicitude, that Satan may not overtake them in a state of sloth, he gives them abundant ground of confidence on which they may calmly rely, when he promises that they will be safe under the defense and protection of God against all the snares of Satan. And thus, however frail and slippery the condition of the godly may be, yet here is a firm footing on which they may stand; for it is not possible for them to fall away from salvation, to whom the Son of God is a faithful guardian. For they have not sufficient energy to resist the attacks of Satan, unless in consequence of their being the sheep of Christ, which none can pluck out of his hand (John 10:28). It must therefore be observed, that the permanency of our salvation does not depend on us, but on the secret election of God; for though our salvation is kept through faith, as Peter tells us (1 Peter 1:5), yet we ought to ascend higher, and assure ourselves that we are in safety, because the Father hath given us to the Son, and the Son himself declares, that none who have been given to him shall perish (John 17:12)." Harmony of the Evangelists, Vol. 3, p. 141
P.S. I notice that in Mark 14:35 and Matthew 26:39 this same phrase in Greek for "if possible" (ei dunaton) appears in Jesus' prayer in Gethsemane: "My Father, IF POSSIBLE, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." Here is another example of something that is impossible and will never come about from the perspective of God's sovereign will, yet that exerts real influence as warning or prayer.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Calvin on the Perseverance of the Saints
Posted by NickandKasey at 7:56 PM
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Thinking of learning some new skills? There are still lots of dates remaining for kayak classes on Lake Lansing:
Friday, June 10, 5 – 8 pm: Beginner session
Friday, June 17, 5 – 8 pm: Beginner session
Wednesday, June 29, 6 – 9 pm: Women's clinic
Wednesday, July 20, 6 – 9 pm: Intermediate session
Wednesday, August 24, 6 – 9 pm: Intermediate session
Each class is a three-hour one-session workshop, including dry land topics and lots of on-the-water paddling. All equipment provided: the latest new demo kayaks from Summit Sports, paddles, and life jackets. $50. Held at the MSU Sailing Center, on Lake Lansing in Haslett.
For more information and to preregister, email email@example.com, or call 517-333-9716


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It's not always easy to know who we are, where we are going, and what we are going to do in life. However, there's something inside of us that's always longing to find out these answers. May this haiku encourage you to find your purpose. Enjoy!
Hidden deep within
Lay the passion of my soul
I've found my purpose.
"Be Inspired" simply means walking in the divine and appointed purpose God has set for your life.
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Don't Abort Your Dreams
It's amazing to me how often we abort our dreams and our passions with excuses, taking advantage of time, and allowing others tell us who we are. Well who are you, and what do you want to do in life?
I too am guilty of falling into the trap of the excuses such as "I will accomplish this dream later, it will take too long, I am not good enough, they won't like it, and so on and so on." I have come to realize that it all starts with me, and I must not be afraid of the greatness that's inside of me. I am the only one that can make my dreams become a reality. God has already given you and I the power to make our dreams happen, and to become wealthy with the gifts and talents we possess within.
I encourage you today to take control of your life. Don't allow everything about you, or that belongs to you to die. There's Greatness in you. Accept it and walk in it.
Posted by Melinda J at 4:55 PM
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Is almost over and in its final stages of last minute tweaking and testing. Probably getting ready to "Go-Live"??
9 long months of making sure things are going right, loosing sleep and appetite and now when its finally getting closer to implementation – Im all apprehensive about the implementation date and hoping for a successful no hitches, smooth product delivery – maintaining 100% quality too!
And though I have my team ready – Yes! I finally get to be the PM :-), Im already thinking of the life long Post-Implementation support!
Counting days now and keeping fingers crossed…


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Shugal Melaa is a blog of Fun and Entertainment. So Chill and View World Records, Laugh at Funny Pictures, Desktop Wallpapers, Get Latest Entertainment News, Watch Funny Videos, View Awesome Photos, Know About Sports & Celebrities, Read Funniest Jokes, Cricket Fun and Do all the Fun You Want on Shugal Melaa!
Monday, 5 December 2011
Imran Khan talking about Assets of Veena Malik
Imran Khan talking about Assets of Veena Malik
PTI Chairman Imran Khan talking about a joke regarding Veena Malik assests in Express News talk show 'To The Point with Shahzaib Khanzada'. A joke is very popular now a days that Veena Malik has shown her assets and now she is eligible to join Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
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By John Chimunhu|
Now Daily|
Chronicle editor Mduduzi Mathuthu has confirmed that he is in the United Kingdom but claims he is on "annual leave" until August 4.
On Friday, Mathuthu tweeted in a neutral tone about the progress of MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai's address at the prestigious Chatham House think tank in London.
Mathuthu is the target of a purge by Zanu PF faction members opposed to his appointment to the top job – usually reserved for a loyal party cadre -by information minister Jonathan Moyo in 2013.
Moyo was quizzed by police detectives Thursday about his role in recruiting Sunday Mail editor Edmund Kudzayi, the man the cops say is Baba Jukwa, a divisive character who spilled Zanu PF secrets and clandestine strategies.
Political commentator and former MDC St Mary's MP Job Sikhala said the Baba Jukwa issue was just a smokescreen for a wider attack on Jonathan Moyo, aimed at driving him out of Zanu PF party politics.
Sources said the police wanted to interview Mathuthu, who wrote an article claiming to be the publisher of Kudzayi's first Baba Jukwa posts at Newzimbabwe.com before the account was allegedly hijacked by forces opposed to president Robert Mugabe.
Vice-president Joice Mujuru is said to have directed party administrator Didymus Mutasa to deal with Moyo and her archrival Emmerson Mnangagwa. Mutasa said Moyo – accused of being a 'weevil' by Mugabe – should be eliminated using 'gamatox', widely interpretted to mean murder.
(c) 2009-2014 Kingdom Television Africa.


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The new iPad mini is shown next to a full sized model at an Apple event in
San Jose, California October 23, 2012. -Reuters Photo
San Jose, Calif., USA.
→ Apple unveiled the smaller iPad, the iPad mini, the 7.9-inch tablet computer has made its debut on Oct. 23, 2012, Tuesday morning in San Jose, California, USA.
"This is iPad mini," Apple's senior vice president for marketing said as he displayed the device at an Apple event in San Jose. The device is as thin as a pencil and weighs .68 pounds. The price starts at $329. Its touchscreen screen measures 7.9 inches diagonally compared to 9.7 inches on the original iPad.
"This isn't just a shrunken down iPad," he said. "It is an entirely new design". "It's as light as a pad of paper," said Apple's senior vice president for marketing chief Phil Schiller.
Here's a video of the Apple Event in San Jose, Calif. courtesy of HonestTechGuys in Youtube.
The Wi-Fi model starts at $329 for 16 GB of storage while its cellular counterpart begins at $459.
The iPad mini will be available for pre-order on Friday. The Wi-Fi version will go on sale on Nov. 2, while cellular versions of the device will arrive two weeks later.
Rumors have swirled for months that Apple was designing a competitor to Amazon.com's Kindle Fire HD and the Google Nexus 7, smaller and cheaper devices that appeal to on-the-go consumers who don't want to shell out for the pricey iPad.
Apple is looking to expand its share in a growing, highly competitive tablet market. The iPad mini stands to target price-sensitive users and the e-reader crowd.
"Given the global economic uncertainty, we think price-sensitive users could gravitate toward an iPad mini instead of making a PC purchase", said JP Morgan's analyst Mark Moskowitz in a note to investors ahead of the media event.
Apple has sold more than 84 million iPads since its debut in April 2010.


text:
The poem did not reveal itself to me.
Instead, I got a letter, a syllable, an unidentifiable shape of a thing
and then nothing
but a wanting
a deep ache, a frustrated inability to communicate.
It was a lump in my throat for days.
Every time I tried to say something- something else- it was there
stuttering. Every time someone would ask me how I was,
it was suffocating me,
flicking at the back of my neck with its finger.
I was considerably distracted.
The poem did not ask to be written.
It was unsympathetic to my struggling with it,
and it would not be treated like a hassle.
For something that must be- for the sake of my own life-
it would not go easy on me.
I thought 'if I can just give it time, wait it out' but no.
Pushing it away like that only made it worse.
Like a plaster cast left on too long
that itch that drives the wearer to the brink of madness
this poem would not wait for me.
So, I got shit faced and staged a break up.
I said "I've had enough!
When push comes to shove, you only want more!"
"Yes!" the poem said to me "And you will give it!"
And that was all.
I sobered up and found a pen.
I fumbled through a first draft
and then I laughed at what I'd written.
I decided to get back at it by giving the poem a silly name.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
creative constipation
Posted by MissTeaTree at 10:59 AM
Labels: Poetry
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text:
Grey December 23, 2006Posted by WishBoNe in Career, Emotions & Feelings.
It's been raining for a few days now. I've been doing OT for the past few days too. Sianz. Last night was the latest I had reached home. You know the story of Cinderella? I reached home just before midnight by taxi. I was so tired and no energy to do anything else except sleep. This month has taken a toil. It killed my passion for IT totally. I feel like giving up but I don't know where else to go. It's now 1.15pm and I'm at home. The rain just started again and I've to take the taxi to work soon. 😦
I don't like to work on weekends, it's lousy to work on a grey afternoon especially on weekends. Now, I've to to the office. I want my life back soon. I can't take any of this any longer. I haven't been able to see DD even though it's December whereby you're supposed to be free.
I ought to seriously think about moving to another line.
- 1. Moody « A Mind of My Own - December 23, 2006
[…] As a follow up to my previous post this afternoon. My mood is now officially moody, the only icon I can find here is […]


text:
Recommended for colorful small-town creepiness and old-fashioned visual excess.
This is a film from first-time director James Gunn, a Troma Entertainment veteran who (among other things) wrote the screenplay for the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead. I rented it partly to see what Nathan Fillion was like when he wasn't playing Malcom Reynolds, Captain of the Serenity. And in fact, he's a lot like Mal, even when he's the sheriff of Wheely, a little town someplace in the heartland.
Wheely is the kind of town where they welcome deer season with a beer fest, and where the police have a hand grenade in their arms locker (taken from someone who was going to use it to do a little trout fishing). The lonely hearts hang together at the karaoke bar, and the high school is named after Earl Bassett, one of the heroes of Tremors. These folks are average in an aggressively average, inbred way.
There are few surprises as far as the plot. Strange meteorite lands in woods, little slug-like thing crawls out, local is infected and proceeds to lay the foundation for general world domination. In that sense, you've seen it all before. What makes it lovable and different is the way the characters take things in stride. The way the local's lovely wife (Elizabeth Banks) still looks at him fondly when he's more squid than human. ("You're just sick, is all, honey...)
Since they went for the R rating, we also have the kind of language that's appropriate to the situations, instead of the usual PG-13 stuff. So when the sheriff is confronted with a particularly horrific moment, he can express himself with great honesty: "Now that is some fucked-up shit."
23 May 2007
Posted by Chris Riemer at 12:05 PM
Labels: Comedies, Science Fiction
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text:
Two weeks ago, at a family gathering celebrating our oldest son's birthday, one of my daughters-in-law received a call informing her of the death of her cousin, a Marine, in Afghanistan.
The worst of times:
- Thinking of his parents, his widow, his sons, his extended family, and his friends.
- Realizing that this young man was my youngest son's age.
- Not being able to go to California to pay our respects and support our daughter-in-law and her family.
The best of times:
- Traveling to this young man's childhood hometown for a memorial service.
- Driving to the church in the procession escorted by fire trucks and police cruisers, turning the corner and seeing what would become hundreds of people standing at attention, waving the flag of the country for which this young Marine died, and displaying such affirming messages to his family.
- Honor guards at the church, both inside and out.
- His commanding officer, who made sure all knew that if it hadn't been for this young man's bravery in 2005-2006, he, himself, would probably not have been there.
The bittersweet times:
- Remembering this young Marine in his dress uniform, escorting his wife at his cousin's wedding.
- Spending Easter with him and his family and enjoying him interacting with his boys and wife during the egg hunt.
- He believed that he was doing called to do what he did, as have so many of our service people in the USA. Semper Fidelis. You will be missed, you will be remembered.


text:
Amy King
As If A Lantern In Love Led
Like you I have
forgotten everything
spoken so far,
I knew the dinosaurs
in their history
and I have a complex tie
that longs to be subtracted.
All together, we make each other
up. I gave you
a little slice of heartache
to latch onto
& a sixty-pound cumulous cloud
cools her way
straight to the top.
Bashfully enamored eyes
descend as we speak
silently above
the moonlit stove of midnight.
I Too Am Chicken
An author thinks she knows more than
she does. She knows even less.
For example, someone else wrote this.
Thoughts approach in the shower;
she watches them haunt her swirling tides.
That's the cliché declarative.
She thinks,
Whenever I exist, people name me at the gate;
I trip over my own grass velvet heart
and I am the only person left on this flight.
In the distance, I see no one who can take
off and no perfect landing.
Alas, her red robin eyes to and fro
twitch lightly in their sockets.
A Final Note
There is a deliberate pleasure in watching
someone smoke cigarettes. Even the echo
of that sentence smells like a stolen observation
that the smoker is deeply, darkly thinking.
In books, they brood; on screen, they are the rebel
or daring victim being slowly, unknowingly undone.
I have always wanted to occupy my mouth
in similar fashion and gather great thoughts
from the shadowed glow erasing my face.
I suckle sweet cigar substitutes instead:
savor the proximity of nature we're taught.
Toast the lung in all its sanctity and encourage
its diverse role within ourselves. As always,
let the credits scroll down your face
before stubbing out the coal.
The Spirit Is Near
Wrapped in personal pity, betrayer sphinx slinks
and eats; he privately shuffles our motivations.
I like the capability of my eyes, the way they
brighten the woman on the curb by the church.
She will burst alive in two minutes. You cannot
believe the wind last night. The things it sells.
The sun buffs the surface of technology across
our city of cracks and cataracts, which in turnig
nores the shoes rubbing my feet from their bones.
Enter some disease where the woman sells
her tears prior to civilization. That moment is now
upon the funeral pyre. In the crumblings & ramblings
of old men seated in tired t-shirts on stoopsever
lasting, they survey remainders of wars over-lived
and fat berries beyond the perimeter ripened
with blood brought back from dust fields
by worms underfoot and pregnant.
We make wine to toast the cross and tender liars.
-All poems previously published at Poetry X


text:
I was looking through flickr and I saw this picture and I thought this picture was funny so I wanted to share it on my blog and I also saw some other funny pictures of cats and kittens but none were as nearly as this funny
bug eyesReplyDelete
This cat almost looks like a pug with those eyes! Did you add the text, or was it part of the picture when you embedded it into your blog?
BTW - what would all of your fish say about thi cat?
Love the picture, it is scary, I mean cute ;)
I like your guinea pig too, I hope I did not overfeed him.
Hi! This is Mary from Philippines. Just dropping by to say you have an excellent page. Keep it up! Please check out this site http://maryrosetudio.blogspot.com/ and follow me. Thank You!ReplyDelete
That kitty looks like it's looking directly at me!ReplyDelete
That's probably what I looked like last week when 4th period killed my poor little sea monkeys!
Oh boy, it's hot. Do you want to come over and swim this weekend? We get a long weekend. Do you?


text:
" Milet is a victim of the unjust regime of her country, from which she escaped. A country that everyone knows, but nobody cares about. Milet is a victim of our frontiers, as legitimate as unjust, when they are bumped into the face of the people and close inexorably before their cry of help. Milet is the victim of a so-called civilized society, that names principles, those of fraternity, freedom, equality, principles in whose name people have been persecuted and killed. Principles that are not applied equally to everyone. There are those who are more brothers, more free and more equal than others. This is an injustice our civilization must be ashamed of. Milet is a victim of so many files that lie for too long on the tables of those who have responsibilities, of unjust procedures that become a dilation in giving justice to the poor asking for help "
Translated from Italian.
Michele Luppi & Andrea Quadroni, 'The deaths of the border in Ventimiglia', Open Migration