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- Windows
- Business & Productivity
- HR Cube - The HRIS Software
HR Cube - The HRIS Software for Windows
HR Cube - The HRIS Software
You may also like
Windows based Humans Resource Information System for keeping employee records, manage Payroll, Recruitment, Training & More
New HR Cube 2015 is free to try for up to 20 Employees' information. Here is what you will have in HR Cube 2015
Summary of HR Cube Functions
1. Keeps personal, professional profile of employees along with list of their family dependants and facilities offered by company
2. Payroll functions with management of Loans & Advances, Bonuses, etc.
3. Keep history of change of employees' designation and department.
4. Keep record of leaves granted to each employee long with their application in word file.
5. Upload documents of each employee and access them whenever required.
6. Record Employee/Company Internal & External Documents.
7. Recruitment Module
8. Training Module
9. Travel Module
10. Compliance Information and non-compliance records
11. Legal Issues information recording.
12. Software security with authorization using password.
13. Attendance sheet based payroll calculation
14. Payroll reports
15. Improved Dashboard.
16. Performance and KRA functions
This program is for the user who are either HR Professionals or manager who wants to keep records of the employee.
One of the major benefits of software is that it provides a single location to save all the data of employees along with their respective documents.
The software keeps track (history) of all the changes that has been made in designation or department of the employees.
New HR Cube 2015 has included many requirements of users and clients around the world. Hence it is now more helpful and hence worth trying.


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From time to time, subscribers might wish to delete recently view Netflix history data from their account to prevent others from knowing what they've watched. Unfortunately, the company has yet to incorporate this type of technology, and the issue has left many frustrated subscribers asking 'where can I watch movies on the Internet without having to expose my choices?'
Many Netflix subscribers have complained that they're been made to feel uncomfortable when their children, spouses and friends have been allowed to see what they've recently watched via streaming technology on their television. According to Netflix, movie licensing companies will not allow them to disable recent history, because they want this information to use in marketing campaigns. To date, Netflix hasn't been able to find a way to remedy this issue, and many customers have fled to competing streaming providers in response.
What you can do
Although you cannot delete your Netflix history, you can set up a secondary account under the main one and alter the password to protect your privacy. Unfortunately, there aren't many other options at this time, and other competing companies, such as Blockbuster, have similar problems.

subset: commoncrawl


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Stars Premier
Stars Premier Site
Stars Premier, the travel component of Super Soccer Stars Premier – is a soccer program unlike any other! Stars Premier's Philosophy is centered on proving players with a nurturing yet challenging environment which encourages every player to express themselves, to creative and take educated risks on the soccer field. While Stars Premier is a competitive program by description, it is developmental in nature; technical improvement and confidence building remain the program's primary objectives.
Please check out our website by clicking the button below.


text:
Alright man, y'all win
I won't say it,...at least for this song, hey
[Verse 1]
Said they lookin for the realest, well I'm real as it get
Rap to the nigga dealin hard who livin in jets
Til some better nigga wit her, ain't delivered 'em yet
My mouth big but I got a pistol bigger than that
I live and die by my respect so I honor the code
Peep niggas who be out here flexin, stuntin for hoes
And if you ain't never chose to remember nothin before
Just know the game is some you win, it's somthing ya know
But if you already begin again, start, it go
Learn to shoot a pistol, flip a O or its hard to grow
Man if you ain't ever heard of Pimp Squad before
You better ask a real nigga or a broad you know
Cause you ain't ready for the pros, get it outta ya brain
You in over your head, way out of your lane
I'd be insane I'm filthy rich and got it from caine
So would you say them niggas know if they done got it the same, right?
Cause you know who, you know what
Of the you know where, goin against us, too unfair
Cause everywhere you do a show, we got kinfolk there
And now you know I ain't no more, not a tinfolk there
It's you know who, you know what
Of the you know where, beef now don't you go there
And if you do, don't use our copy producers, he won't care
If he leave the hood alone, pimpin he won't share man
[Verse 2]
I know you think you out there gettin it in
But whatcha doin, I don' done it once and did it again
I had a trap between runnin while living in sin
He done settled down, turnin nine millin or ten
I give a damn if I never sell a million again
I gotta thank you a million for just lettin me in
But now I'm settlin in, gettin used to the view
On top, won't stop til I'm huger than you
Don't flop? Who? Me, pimp you losin your screws
What kinda dope have you been lettin niggas shoot into you
No, you ain't ready for the shit I'm introducin to you
The roof in the back of the Bach ain't translucent as you
So now your nigga dressin up, man do what you do
I got style, pimp, it's more than just the suit and the shoe
This been proven, I'm the truth, stamp government seal
I'm what it is. These other niggas, just suckers with deals, for real
Song #14 on TIP's 4th studio album.
After bragging on songs like "King of the South" and "King Back", TIP realized that it was time to be more subtle with the boasting of his self-appointed title.


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Job Today gets a $16M top up as it preps for Brexit bump
Accel-backed mobile-first jobs app Job Today has pulled in another $16M — an expansion to its November 2016 $20M Series B round. It raised a $10M Series A in January of the same year. The 2015 founded startup offers a mobile app for job seekers that does away with the need for a CV. Instead job seekers create a profile in the app and can apply to relevant jobs. Employers can then triage potential applicants via the app and chat to any they like the look of via its […]Read more


text:
Jon Burke
Mahomet Seymour High
Memories of Jon Burke
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Employers, are you ready for interviews ?
I was recently talking to Mike Clyne from Feman consulting about the perils of a bad interview for both parties. It is not always the candidate who is ill equipped for a good interview, we know of many interviews that end up going south because of inexperienced interviewers ! Here at Ten2Two we work closely with the candidate counseling and preparing them (hints and tips can be found on this website) but we rarely get asked for advice from the interviewer. Mike spends lots of time with many organisations in his capacity as a specialist HR consultant and has given plenty of advice and suggestions on this topic. He has been kind enough to share his top ten tips with us.
Top ten interview preparation thoughts for interviewer.
Have you really thought through what you are looking for? Do you really want to hire someone? Have you considered all of the skills / experience and maybe separated between those you MUST have, SHOULD have and COULD have? Could you hire a part time employee instead of a full time person?
Are you ready to interview ie is your interview process ready to be quickly and efficiently? There is no point starting to recruit when one of the interviewers is about to go away on a business trip or holiday.
How many people do you want each candidate to see? Have they all been fully briefed on what you are recruiting for? Maybe consider each interviewer focusing on different aspects of the candidates or the role so you don't end up with four almost identical interviews.
Have you outlined your recruitment process to the recruitment agency and the candidates? Do they know who they will be seeing, over what time period, whether any tests or non-interview selection steps will be used? When will candidates hear the outcome?
Are you ready to issue an offer to the successful candidate? How will you do this? Will it be face to face, on the phone etc? Are you ready to send out the contract immediately? How long do you want to give them to decide?
Is your business disciplined enough to say to itself 'we've seen a handful of candidates and none of them are suitable. We need to consider whether our search for candidates may need to change if none of them came close' and so on. Don't settle for the least bad candidate.
Will you just do interviews for candidates or maybe something else? For example if you are hiring someone to do data analysis why not test their excel skills when they come in? Don't forget to tell candidates that they will be doing this. If you are hiring for a position that will bring skills to the company that no-one else has, then maybe you need external help (eg if you are hiring a finance manager then ask your accountant to meet them to test their technical knowledge).
Are you ready to quickly communicate with unsuccessful candidates? Don't forget, it is a small world and they are a potential future hire / future customer / future contact.
How will you successfully integrate your new candidate into the business? Have you prepared an on boarding plan prior to the recruitment phase? If not you should do so and share this (excluding any sensitive data) with the candidates ahead of their interview.
Will you be undertaking pre-employment screening of your successful candidate? If so then probably best to tell them at the start of the process.
Don't miss out on finding the right talent make sure you are prepared!


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Create an Account - Increase your productivity, customize your experience, and engage in information you care about.
View All Calendars is the default. Choose Select a Calendar to view a specific calendar. Subscribe to calendar notifications by clicking on the Notify Me® button, and you will automatically be alerted about the latest events in our community.
May 28, 2018, 9:00 AM - June 16, 2018, 3:00 PM @ North Davidson Public Library
Registration for North Davidson Public Library's 2018 Summer Reading Program "Library Rocks" will be May 28th through June 16th. Programs for all ages begin June 13th and will continue through July. summer Reading calendars are available. Please register at the library.
June 11, 2018, 9:00 AM - July 27, 2018, 8:00 PM @ Thomasville Public Library
Thomasville Library will hold their Summer Reading Program June 11th through July 27th, 2018. Registration for Summer Reading begins on June 1st. There will be programs and prizes for children, teens and adults! Come see what you local library has in store for the summer!
June 14, 2018, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM @ Denton Public Library
Denton Library Summer Reading registration begins Monday, June 1st. The Summer Reading Kick-off event will be held on Thursday, June 14th beginning at 3:00 PM. The entertainment for the event will be the "Big bang Boom". Bring the family and enjoy the fun!


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Working with the Palette
- Drag and Drop for Nodes
- Any of the sample node representations from the Palette tool window can be dragged into the active editor window (using a mouse drag gesture) to create a new node that uses this visual representation.
- Drag and Drop for Edges
- Dragging a sample edge representation onto a node in the active editor window starts creating an edge of the corresponding kind at that node.
- Setting Defaults
- Default representations for the nodes or edges of a graph can be defined by double-clicking a respective sample in any of the sections of the palette. When a new node or edge is created in the editor window, the currently active default representation is used to define the visual characteristics of the graph element. The defaults for closed groups and for open groups can be set in the same way.
The Palette SectionsThe palette tool window consists of several sections with predefined or user-defined templates for visual representations of nodes and edges.
Sections with Predefined RepresentationsThese sections provide several representations for nodes and edges:
- 'Shape Nodes'
- geometric shapes (rectangle, circle, diamond, triangle, ...)
- 'Modern Nodes'
- rectangular shapes (with/without rounded corners) with different gradients and shadows
- 'Edge Types'
- "Polyline," "Arc," "Bezier," "Quadratic Curve," and "Spline" edges
- 'Group Nodes'
- different representations for open and closed group nodes; group nodes can contain other nodes (including other group nodes), thereby creating a hierarchical organization; also, open group nodes can be closed and their contained nodes are no longer rendered, which leads to clearer diagrams
- 'Swimlane Nodes and Table Nodes'
- specific representations for group nodes as used in 1-dimensional (horizontal and vertical orientation) and 2-dimensional Swimlane diagrams;a description of the features and properties of swimlane nodes and table nodes, respectively, is in Support for Swimlane Diagrams
- 'People'
- stylized representations for persons; the available representations are (SVG) vector graphics that are appropriately scaled when zoomed in/out
- 'Computer Network'
- representations for computer hardware and network devices; the available representations are (SVG) vector graphics that are appropriately scaled when zoomed in/out
- specific representations for elements as used in UML diagrams
- 'Flowchart'
- specific representations for elements as used in flowchart diagrams
- specific representations for elements as used in BPMN diagrams
- 'Entity Relationship'
- specific representations for elements as used in Entity Relationship diagrams; in particular, edge representations support Crow's Foot notation
- Apply
Allows you to apply the sample node (edge) representation to the currently selected nodes (edges) from the active editor window.
This effectively changes both type and attributes of the selected elements to that of the sample.
Applying a group (table) node representation to a normal node will change the selected node into a group (table) node. Similarly, applying a normal node representation to a group (table) node will change the selected node into a normal node. When changing an open group (table) node into a normal node, the contents of the changed node will be assigned to its parent node. When changing a closed group node into a normal node, the contents of the changed node will be discarded and lost.
- Apply Type
Unlike "Apply" the type of the selection changes according to the sample, but the other attributes remain mostly unchanged. Whereas "Apply" for example applies the fill color of the sample with "Apply Type" a selected node keeps its own fill color. What actually changes is the type of a selected node or edge. You can transform a modern node to a geometric node or an edge with bends to a rolling one without changing the color or line type at the same time. If "Apply Type" is applied to a geometric node with a geometric node sample only the shape of the selected node changes.
Group and table nodes are treated as with "Apply".
- As Default
- Sets this sample representation as the default for graph element creation of the respective kind. A visual feedback is used to indicate the current default sample.Note: Setting the default sample can also be achieved by simply double-clicking on the sample.
Section 'Current Elements'This section dynamically displays sample representations for the different kinds of nodes and edges in the current graph. The distinctive features used for computing these representations (e.g. fill color of a node or target arrow of an edge) are configurable using the context menu as described below. The maximum number of displayed sample representations is limited. The limit can be configured. The context menu for this section provides the following entries in addition to the entries for predefined sample representations.
- Select Matching Graph Elements
- Sets the selection of the current graph to the elements which match the entry under the mouse.
- Configure Distinctive Features...
- Opens a dialog for configuring the distinctive features used for computing the representations in the section 'Current Elements'. While the dialog is open, the effect of the current selection of distinctive features can be tested by pressing the 'Apply' button. The 'Reset' button allows you to reset the set of distinctive features to those which were active when the dialog was opened.
User-defined SectionsAside from the aforementioned predefined sections, a user may create and manage custom palette sections using yEd's Palette Manager. All user-defined sections are saved on application exit and are available when yEd starts up again. Additionally, the context menu that is displayed when right-clicking on the title bar of a section provides convenient access to most of the palette manager's functions.
- Hide Section
- Removes the clicked-upon section from use in yEd. A removed section can be added for use again in the palette manager.
- Import Symbols...
- Imports image or SVG files from the local hard disk into the clicked-upon section. Importing symbols is only available for user-defined palette sections.
- Convert to Document
- Converts the clicked-upon section into a new document for editing. The document is opened as a new editor window, which becomes the active editor window.See Editing Palette Sections for more information.
- Adopt from Document
- Replaces the elements in the clicked-upon section with the elements in the currently active document. Adopting the contents of a document is only available for user-defined palette sections.
- New Section...
- Creates a new palette section. New sections can be created as empty sections, as copies of existing sections, or as sections containing the diagram elements of the currently active document.
- IconFinder...
- Opens the IconFinder dialog. IconFinder can be used to import symbols from an icon search engine. Importing symbols in this manner is only available for user-defined palette sections and requires a live Internet connection.
- Import Section...
- Creates a new palette section from a GraphML file.
- Export Section...
- Stores the clicked-upon section as a GraphML file.
- Manage Palette...
- Opens the Palette Manager dialog.
Adding Sample Representations to User-defined Palette SectionsSample representations of nodes and edges can be added to user-defined palette sections as follows.
- From the active editor window
- The current selection of nodes or edges from the active editor window can be added to the sample representations of user-defined sections in the Palette tool window by choosing 'Add to Palette' from the editor's context menu.
- From the file system
- The Import Symbols... menu entry in the context menu of user-defined palette sections and the Import Symbols... button in the Palette Manager dialog can be used to load image and SVG files which are added to the corresponding palette section.
- From the World Wide Web
- The IconFinder... menu entry in the context menu of user-defined palette sections and the button in the Palette Manager dialog can be used to open the IconFinder dialog and import symbols from an icon search engine into a user-defined palette section. Importing symbols in this manner requires a live Internet connection.


text: Beginning on Feb. 20, 1944, and lasting through Feb. 25, 1944, the United States Strategic Air Forces (USSTAF) launched a series of missions against the Third Reich that became known as "Big Week." In six days, the Eighth Air Force bombers based in England flew more than 3,000 sorties and the Fifteenth Air Force based in Italy more than 500. Together they dropped roughly 10,000 tons of bombs. The daylight bombing campaign was also supported by RAF Bomber Command operating against the same targets at night. The campaign helped the Allies achieve air superiority, so the invasion of Europe could proceed. While U.S. industrial might could entirely replace losses during the "Big Week," Germany was unable to do so.


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Weekend studio vacation- to go work in another studio!
In case you are wondering, the transition of having Kenn help with management/organization is going great. We are working well together and it has been a huge improvement for me. Orders are being processed in a more timely fashion and things are going where they are supposed to go. It is a real relief to feel like I am on the other side of the problem and that my business is doing what it should. I know longer cringe when I go to read my emails or answer questions.
I have been writing a much longer and heavier blog post about what this year has been like for me, and for those I love. But I think I will leave that for another day. Let's just enjoy these days. Have hope, my friends. It is what pushes us through to the next day- and the day after that.
2 comments:
Dear Jeanette,
I´ve recently discovered your products on Etsy and I love them, I like the colours, I like all the shapes and most of all I like the fact that they are vegan.
Regarding this, I have a questions. Are your products fired twice? Or do you fire them once and then apply the paint? I´m asking this because normally ceramics products are fired twice, but I´m not aware of any vegan glaze which could resist at over 1000 grads Celsius so this means, they are fired once and painted with acrylics? Are they food safe in this case?
Thank you for your reply. BR.Alina
- January 26, 2015 at 12:11 PM
- jeanette said...
Hi Alina,
My pottery is fired twice. The components of most pottery is mined from the earth- meaning they are derived from minerals, not from animal sources. One should be aware of bone china and bone ash, but these are not terribly common in handmade pottery.
I formulate my glazes from earth elements that are mined. Not from any type of animal slaughter.
(some elements are from the decomposition of animal bones over millions of years- talc, for example. But these are not currently made from animal production. They are mined from the earth. Much like petroleum and fossil fuels.)
Feel free to email me at email@example.com, if you have any further questions. Or if you have a correction for me!
- January 26, 2015 at 3:53 PM


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Luxury Seaside Royal Suite
This top-floor apartment guarantees you wonderful holidays by the beach. Offering all the best of both the seaside and the culturally-fulfilled city center, the luxury penthouse for rent and its building boast an impeccable design by Bruce Graham, Antoni Puig, Jaime Treserra and Jose Juanpere. The property features two bedrooms and sleeps up to four guests. An additional bed can be placed in one of the rooms upon request. Both bedrooms enjoy king-size beds and private bathrooms with double sinks, bathtubs and separate showers. The bathrooms are fitted with Asprey amenities. The living room comprises a dining area and a sitting area opening on a terrace furnished with a table and four chairs and benefiting from spectacular views over Barcelona. There is a flat-screen TV with a DVD player and access to international channels, an Bang & Olufsen stereo system and a radio, an iPod docking station, a laptop, wifi and a direct telephone. The kitchen is fitted with all the modern amenities you might need, including a fridge and a freezer, a hob, an oven, tableware and kitchenware. The luxury apartment boasts a private gym. The renters will have access to the spa, pool and restaurants located in the five star building. The spa area offers the guests a wide range of care treatments, including massage, facial and corporal treatments, manicure and pedicure; there is a sauna and a gym.
|Preis pro Nacht
|Preis pro Woche
|Preis pro Monat
|02 Jul 15
|22 Jun 19
|On Request
|On Request
2 Nachte


text:
Our experience tells us that clients can improve the three aspects of operational performance – Quality, Cost and Delivery - simultaneously, by pursuing the right Operational Excellence strategy. Improving the quality of products and services doesn't need to increase costs, rather it can reduce them. Reducing costs, through the elimination of waste and failure demand, should also improve quality.
We help clients:
We have created two specific service offerings for 1) improving the ease of rolling out of the Smart Meter programme to all UK power customers and 2) assessing the capability of factories across multi-site operations. Further details are available through the links below.
Defining and taking the real operational choices; progressively building an integrated Target Operating Model; and supporting clients through implementation and optimisation
Applying Lean and Six Sigma thinking; implementing core quality concepts; and up-front problem solving training to lay the foundations for sustainable improvement
Developing Supply Chain cost of quality models; assessing Supply Chain maturity; and developing and implementing improvement plans
Developing and deploying a QCD performance framework, and using this to drive and sustain improvements
Developing the CI strategy and infrastructure; building capability and a common approach to problem solving; and embedding a CI culture.
The savings of the projects after 12 months are estimated at six times the initial investment (excluding future savings), which is an outstanding result. Such a success would not have been possible without your expertise, professionalism and availability.
Laurent Troquet
Quality Director


text:
Getting Better All the Time
by jacquelynheat
If you're not a gamer, I'm about to take you into a world that's probably completely foreign to you. I sincerely hope you'll stay with me on this journey down the rabbit hole, because there's a happy ending at the bottom.
The online gaming world is rife with homophobia. Whether you play Xbox, Playstation, or PC – if you play competitive games with other human beings over the internet, you will very likely hear and see the words "gay", "homo", and "faggot" slung about as insults. Yes, you will hear them in addition to just seeing them typed, because most online games today are played while connected to other players via an internet voice chat service. So often, "faggot" is reserved for the absolute worst offenses, such that when spoken, it is spouted with the most vicious, focused anger.
I am an avid gamer. I always have been, since I was 3 years old with a Commodore 64. In the late 90s, my video gaming shifted from consoles like Nintendo and Playstation to primarily PC games. And in 2000, I entered the world of massively-multiplayer online games (MMOs). Fortunately for me, I met some really excellent people in the games I played. Those people became my online gaming family. As years went by, we jumped from one game to another together. When voice chat became available over the internet, we actually HEARD each others' voices for the first time, having already been thick as thieves for like 5 years! As time went on, we grew closer as friends and got to know each other outside of the games we played. We still play together to this day.
Thanks to that gaming family, I've been largely insulated from the homophobic chatter happening outside of our little crew. But I became aware that it was happening out there. I saw it in the public text chat channels. I heard it over voice comms whenever we joined another group of players for a combined adventure. Still, I had tremendous support from my gaming family, as well as all my friends and family outside of gaming. So while offended, I refused to be frightened into silence by such language.
The more aware I became of the extent of homophobic culture embedded in the gaming community, the more certain I became that I had a responsibility to wave my rainbow flag high while gaming online. Visibility and awareness are our greatest weapons against homophobic culture. Most of the gamers who use such slurs don't actually have anything against gay folks. When confronted with an actual gay person, such transgressors will most often backpedal, apologize, and insist "I didn't mean it THAT way." They don't realize how harmful words can be.
All of that said, I'm going to take you now into my current online gaming adventure.
At the moment, I'm playing a game called Eve Online. Eve takes place in outer space. Your time playing is mostly spent looking at the outside of your spaceship, as you warp from solar system to solar system around a galaxy called New Eden. Even though you rarely see your character (your avatar) walking around, you do get to design what she or he looks like, and you pose your character and take a headshot. That headshot appears next to your name in chat windows or when someone looks you up in the interstellar yellow pages.
My character's name is Jexit. This is "me" in Eve Online:
Viva la resemblance, no?
There are many many things you can do in Eve Online. It's a make-your-own-destiny kind of game. As Jexit, I spend a lot of my time scanning the endless void of space for ruins of old starbases, or abandoned starship wrecks. My ship is specially equipped to salvage usable parts, as well as hack into any still-functioning computer systems to recover valuable data. Some of that stuff can fetch a nice price on the interstellar market. There are players who make their "living" in Eve manufacturing ships, starbase parts, weapons, asteroid mining lasers, repair drones, anything that appears in the game really! There are even players who make ISK (Interstellar Kredits) trading commodities and playing the market.
Now, if I want to get to the real good stuff before any other scavengers do, I need to venture out into the lawless parts of the galaxy. Out there, CONCORD (the interstellar police) can't protect me, and other players make their way as pirates, preying on folks like me, hoping to catch me off-guard while I'm scanning and hacking. So I get myself into some nailbiting situations now and then.
BUT, not every minute of Eve is filled with excitement. A lot of it is just flying from station to station in the more metropolitan areas of the galaxy. During those times, you might set your course, turn on autopilot, and listen to some music. And you'll probably chat with other players via text in one of the many chat channels in Eve. This is where you get into the real *community* of the game – the social aspect of life in New Eden.
One of the creative projects spawned from the community of Eve players is Eve Radio. Eve Radio is a streaming internet music station hosted by DJs who play Eve. It has no connection to the company that makes Eve; Eve Radio is purely a fan-run thing. Hundreds of players tune into Eve Radio while they play Eve, and many of those players also hang out in the Eve Radio text chat channel while in-game. In that chat channel, the DJs and listeners talk about music, what's happening in the game, whatever's on their minds.
Lately, I've been an active part of this Eve Radio social group. I tune into Eve Radio, and I type in the Eve Radio chat channel while I play. Sexual jokes abound, so there was ample opportunity to out myself quickly, which I did. I'm out-n-proud to everyone in Eve anyway; my character bio, which is visible to anyone who cares to look me up, is spangled in rainbow colors and clearly identifies me as a "gaymer". So the Eve Radio crowd is well aware of my gayness, and it's cool, whatever man, we just go on chatting about the music and the game and entertaining each other.
The other day, I log into Eve and tune into Eve Radio to find a bit of a talk show going on with a few (maybe 4?) of the regular DJs. We, the listeners, have gotten to know each of these guys individually, and it's pretty fun listening to them banter and crack jokes at one another's expense. They're also watching the chat channel and responding on the air to listeners' comments.
One of the DJs is a guy from Texas who goes by the handle BigCountry (BC for short). Another DJ is playfully taunting BigCountry, saying that BC should back up an earlier remark by taking action in-game, then insinuating that BC won't in fact take action because he's a "fag". My rainbow flag rattles its pole in the turbulence of that statement. I want to say something, but I also want to make sure *when* I say something it's effective and persuasive. I don't perceive a strategic opportunity in that moment, so I remain silent for the time being. None of the other DJs call him out on it, which is disappointing.
I don't have to wait long for the opening I want, however. Less than a minute later, the same guy calls BigCountry a "homo". I've got a shot. I'm taking it.
(The following is paraphrased from memory)
Jexit > Why are we accusing BC of being a homo like it's a bad thing? BC would be an awesome homo if he were one.
PlayerX > BEAR!
PlayerY > Good point!
PlayerZ > He'd totally be a bear!
"Listener Jexit in the in-game chat makes a good point here. She says, 'Why are we accusing BC of being a homo like it's a bad thing? BC would be an awesome homo..'"
"If I were one!"
"'…if he were one.'"
"I totally would be!"
"BC would be a great homo!"
"Listeners are saying you'd be a bear, BC."
"I'd be such a bear!"
"Total bear!"
"I couldn't deep throat, though. I have a terrible gag reflex."
Comments continue in a very silly, but distinctly positive vibe, both on the air and in the in-game text chat. BC is happy to joke about his hypothetical gay self. Somewhere in the background, a voice is heard saying, "Well that turned around on me quick." The conversation is flipped completely from whatever they were talking about, which no one seems to remember at this point.
I can't help but feel (from experience) that if I'd charged headlong into that first "fag" insult with righteous fury, I'd have been rebuffed and seen as overly sensitive. I'd have been right to do so, but right isn't always the same as effective. I needed to find the convergence of the two. With a little finesse and humor, I was able to expose the positive and progressive vibes I'd sensed brewing under these gamers' hardened exteriors, and the result was a joyous rejection of a homophobic slur by the vocal majority. At least for that moment in time. But memorable moments like that – a big conversational left turn full of laughter and armed with a valid point – they stick with you. And hundreds of Eve players shared that moment with us as they listened to that radio show. That gives me hope. I really do think it's getting better.


text: I've heard Kathy Freston's name a lot over the years, but I never really looked into her. This week I decided to check-out her Instagram page (@kathyfreston). I really enjoyed it! If you are interested in great food, good times, green smoothies and furry friends — you might like it too.


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On 12th May this year I noticed the headline 'Family lives in fear of deportation' and read about Cherie Vermaak and her children facing deportation from New Zealand. I immediately offered my help and have recently had news, but as background hereis where is all started:
A South African family that has been "fighting an immigration battle for the past five years" is now unlawfully living in Christchurch and says imminent deportation is more frightening than sleeping on the streets.
The article went on to say that:
She could not afford to pay rent next week and had been slowly selling "everything I own" to feed her two teenage children, Kyle, 19 and Zelda, 16.
Despite "pleading" for help from agencies, the family was not eligible for Government support because they did not have residency, nor could they temporarily sleep in their car because that had also been sold.
This was someone who clearly needed help – we met for the first time on May 16th and, as soon as Tammy and I found out the circumstances of the case, we offered our help. I'd like to thank The Press for running the story on Cherie's situation, without this we would never had known anything about it.
Making a difference
Over the past 7 years as move2nz, Tammy and I have been able to give help in supporting people – for example our recent work with Charmain Timmons.
Our focus is on fairness and transparency in immigration. No matter how good information you give out is sometimes people fall between the cracks and end up in terrible situations. Rather than standing around 'tut-tutting' we take action to make a positive difference.
Immigration help
Now as a licensed immigration adviser it was great to be able to offer Cherie direct help with her immigration problems, something we previously had to rely on others for with varying degrees of success. I was pretty disgusted to find that she had been working with an adviser since she arrived in NZ, but they had walked away when the family ran out of money.
So move2nz (offering family support) and New Zealand Immigration & Settlement Services (providing immigration advice on a pro-bono basis) swung into action.
The first step was looking after the family: the Press ran a brilliant story and offers of help flooded in. Kiwis are amazingly generous when they realise a hard-working mum just needs a fair-go and this help made a huge difference.
With immediate fears of being turned onto the street taken care of we contacted the Ministry of Education to get Zelda back into school.
Sorting out the immigration situation
I collected a foot-high pile of papers and spent hours working out what had happened. It was great to be able to help with this and I soon worked out the problem.
Over the years working for the council Cherie had only ever been offered a 12 month contract. Because of this she could only get a 12 month visa and never move to the safety of residence. She was in the process of applying for yet another Work Visa when she was offered a permanent contract after helping through the devastation of the Canterbury earthquakes. Finally she could apply for residency and be safe.
Unfortunately there was one problem: her police clearance certificate from South Africa didn't turn up in time. Her application to renew her Work Visa was declined so she lost her job – no visa = no work = no money.
As we've been saying on move2nz for years, migrants on temporary visas are vulnerable and this case proved that very well. Over time the family's savings got used up and they sold off all of their possessions. As temporary migrants they were not entitled to any benefit or government help meaning eventually they would become destitute and have to be deported unless Cherie could get another visa.
You've got six weeks
I spoke to Cherie's immigration case-officer to explain the situation, wrote a couple of letters and explained just how useful Cherie as a skilled worker was. After some good discussion the answer back from INZ: Cherie had six weeks for Cherie to find a skilled job that matched her qualifications and experience.
This was a very slim chance for the family knowing how long it can take to get a job offer and we needed to move fast. I re-wrote Cherie's already good CV and she worked night and day contacting employers about potential jobs. Meanwhile the media continued to run stories (see below).
The six weeks went very quickly and most of the employers Cherie had applied to were only just finishing advertising, meaning they wouldn't interview for days or weeks. Things started to look pretty serious for the family as their deadline to get out of New Zealand loomed.
In the next installment of this story I'll tell you what happened next ;o).
News stories:
- 29/06/12 – S African family's deportation looms;
- 18/06/12 – Immigrants get help adapting to Christchurch (video);
- 15/06/12 – Two weeks till deportation for S African family;
- 12/05/12 – Hard wait for South African family in 'limbo';
- 24/05/12 – South African family offered help;
- 23/05/12 – South African family gets last chance for immigration (video);
- 12/05/12 – Family lives in fear of deportation.


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The existence of Basturma can be traced to the Byzantine Empire. This ancient delicacy has maintained its recipe for centuries, and for good reason. The dried, cured, and coated beef has a flavor that is indescribable. You need to taste it to truly understand why it is prized so much. The entire process from start to finish lasts 45-50 days, during which only the finest cuts of beef are trimmed, cured, dried, pressed and coated. The fenugreek in the coating gives basturma its distinct aroma and taste. You owe it to yourself to taste this at least once in your life. The care and attention that goes into each piece carries on to the taste. Taste the tradition, taste the history that is Eureka Basturma.
$ 21.99
Where to Buy
Product Description
Basturma is a delicacy rightly revered since its origins at the tables of the Byzantine Empire. Words truly do not quite do this dried, cured, and spice-coated beef's incomparable aroma and flavor justice. However, a single taste is an experience no lifetime is truly complete without.
Every unmatched cut of superb beef undergoes a process that can last from 45 to 50 days. It begins with a regime of trimming, curing, drying, pressing, and coating perfected across centuries. One bite, and you'll cherish every moment of each cut's careful preparation.
The secret to the aromatic, boldly flavored coating is fenugreek, an ingredient whose leaves offer a sweet, nutty flavor as a dried, aged herb and whose seeds bring curry powder's savory notes to the surface in Indian cuisine as a spice. Prized for centuries throughout the Indian subcontinent, it's the foundation of the finishing coating that gives Basturma such and intoxicating, unforgettable taste that lingers on the tongue.
For us, there's no way to honor this ancient delicacy than with the preparation and ingredients that have stood the test of hundreds of years. This is one of the recipes we're proudest to have honed for three generations since our grandfather first sold his hand-prepared meats and sausages door-to-door from one town to the next in our family's homeland of Armenia. This tradition and others have followed us from our home, through Greece, and at last to America with the freshest, finest all-natural meats, sugar, salt, and old-world spices always riding shotgun.
Basturma, to this day, is a meat decadently spicy enough to be well worth every moment of the nearly two months that go into preparing each cut. We at Eureka have not doubt whatsoever you'll agree that it's an unmistakable taste worth all that goes into it, for the love of meat.
Size: 1-1.25lb, sizes may vary
Ingredients: beef, salt, sugar, sodium nitrite, coated w/ water, fenugreek, paprika, garlic, cayenne pepper
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Household Books Published in Britain: all volumes
About the Database
SANTIAGOE, Daniel born 1864?
- The curry cook's assistant
The | curry cook's assistant; | or | curries, | how to make them in England | in their original style. | By | Daniel Santiagoe, general servant, | son of Francis Daniel, butler and fiddler, Trichinopoly, | Madras, India, and Columbo, Ceylon | Ceylon tea house waiter | Royal Jubilee Exhibition, Liverpool, 1887 | International Exhibition, Glasgow, 1888 | Third edition
London: Kegan Paul, Trench and Co; 1889
16.0 x 10.0 cm Pp [i-v] vi-vii [viii-ix] x [xi] xii-xiv [xv] xvi-xvii [xviii] xix-xx, [1] 2-80, [i-ii] publ ads Rebound
GB: LB LWel *LoEN OB
The third edition includes the prefaces to the first and second editions. The preface to the first edition was written by A. Egmont Hake who, with Mr Haldane, brought Santiagoe and his fellow servants from Ceylon to England. The first edition appears to have been published in 1887 since the author includes a note from his first edition dated Ceylon Court, R. J. E., Liverpool, England, 1887. There is also a review of the first edition reprinted from "Saturday review" of 22 October 1887. The review refers to the work as "a little pamphlet". Santiagoe says in his preface to the second edition that 500 copies of the first edition were printed, 400 of which were sold at 6d each, the remainder presented to friends in England and Ceylon. The preface to the second edition is dated International Exhibition, Glasgow, 1888.
This third edition contains sixty-one numbered recipes for Ceylon curries. The text is written in the author's imperfect but colourful English and is laced with delightful descriptions. On page 9, f
Subjects: ceylon, cookery of, curry,
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Digital Vidya Announces Its First Search Engine Marketing Workshop
Digital Vidya Editorial Team 2 Min Read
Digital Vidya, India's leading Digital Marketing education firm announces the launch of its first Search Engine Marketing Workshop, scheduled for 21-22 November 2013 in Bangalore, India.
Digital Vidya has been contributing to the growth of Digital Marketing Industry in India since 2009 through its practical training programs. Over 3500 professionals and students from more than 1000 organizations and institutions across Asia have participated in more than 150 training programs organized by Digital Vidya.
In addition to offering Digital, Social and Email Marketing workshops, Digital Vidya is delighted to announce another latest addition to their training programs – Search Engine Marketing. This hands on, case study driven workshop will focus on different aspects of SEM such as strategizing PPC campaigns, Ad writing techniques, campaign management, Market Analysis and a lot more.
According to Marc Ostrofsky, "Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization are critically important to online businesses. You can spend every penny you have on a website, but it will all be for nothing if nobody knows your site is there." This simply states the importance of SEM for digital marketers. Digital Vidya's two-day Search Engine Marketing workshop is scheduled for 21st November in Bangalore for Sales and Business Development professionals, advertising and marketing professionals, entrepreneurs, Digital Marketing Professionals and any marketer who wants to generate leads and increase traffic from PPC campaigns.
Speaking on the launch of this workshop, Pradeep Chopra, CEO and Co-founder of Digital Vidya said, "This workshop will help you target audience based on their interests, location, demographics, time and so on. We are delighted to add this new workshop to our training programs and will soon announce the dates of this workshop for other cities in India."
Some of the outcomes that you can expect after attending this workshop are – you will get an overview of Google Adwords, Miscrosoft AdCenter and Yahoo Search Marketing, you will be able to strategize PPC campaigns and learn effective segmentation of keywords. SEM management is another USP of this workshop, which will help you to optimize the display network campaigns and track and measure view through conversations.
Looking at the learning opportunities, this workshop is expected to fill quickly. Interested people can find more details and register online for Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Certification Course


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The number one reason I've been too swamped to blog is that early last month we moved into a new house. We spent most of June, July, and August wrapped up in the whole process. We put our house on the market and had 4 offers within the first week! That was great, but it made us feel like the race was really on to find a new house that we loved. We finally found the right one and moved in on Labor Day weekend. The day of the big move was the first day of my third trimester, so needless to say it has been challenging. We have finally settled in for the most part, and best of all, Lily has adjusted very well to the new house. We are really happy with the extra space, especially when our families come to visit and we can accommodate guests again.
All that being said, I never really knew or was fully prepared for how much I would miss our old house. 10 years of memories, 8 pregnancies, lots of loss and tears, immense joy in finally bringing a baby home... all wrapped up in that little house. Of course it was also hard to leave our lovely, big backyard with our special tree that we planted in memory of our babies, but we know that we carry their memories within us wherever we go. We were able to share the meaning of the tree with the new owners and they assured us that they would take great care of it, and even left an open invitation for us to come visit anytime. It was very nice of them but we're really doing okay. There is something to be said for starting over again and making new memories, too. The babies we lost are safe in heaven and will always be in our hearts. And there's nothing that says we can't plant a new tree in our new backyard to serve as a visual reminder!
Our little family is doing well. Lily turned 2 years old on September 21, just a few weeks after we moved in. We had her birthday party here, surrounded by family and friends. She had a great time and loved her Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme! We just had her 2-year checkup and she was 28 lbs (75th percentile) and 36" tall (95th percentile). She's such a big girl all of a sudden and I can't believe she's almost a big sister.
Lily Rae is 2!
This weekend I'll be 34 weeks pregnant with baby sister, Anna. Besides the stress of the move, it has been a good and uneventful pregnancy so far. I do have borderline gestational diabetes this time around, which only means that I've been on a low carb diet for the past couple of weeks through the end of the pregnancy and am watching my weight. Not the easiest thing in the world to do, but most certainly not the hardest either. I'll be having another C-section after 39 weeks, so she will arrive (unless she surprises us) sometime the last week of November. We are scheduled for Wednesday, November 28 at the hospital, but only because Monday and Tuesday are completely booked. So, if by chance there is an opening, we may get in on Nov. 26 or 27.
No matter when she comes, we are excited to meet this new little one! She is so much more than what we imagined -- the icing on the cake and a truly wonderful gift. We chose the name Anna because we have loved it for many years, and because we love the story of Anna in the Bible (found in the second chapter of Luke). The name means "gracious, merciful," which the Lord has certainly been to us. Her middle name will be Evangeline, which means "messenger of good news." The middle name is also a nod to our beloved home state of Louisiana and Henry W. Longfellow's poem of the same name about the Acadian Exile. We absolutely love her name and cannot wait to see the face of our little Anna Evangeline in about five and a half weeks.
I hope this finds each and every one of you doing well. Even when I'm away from the blog world, you remain in my thoughts often and I always wish you the very best. I'll leave you with a few recent family pics that we had taken just a couple of weeks ago. Thanks to those of you who still read and follow this little old blog! I've appreciated your thoughts and prayers for my family over the years more than I can ever express.


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Law and the City
Many universities used to be institutions that served purely academic goals of teaching and research without any visible connection to the region they are part of. Nowadays they are, much more than in the past, expected to engage with other institutions or stakeholders in the city or the region. Universities are not high in the clouds somewhere; they are rooted in a specific city and region. They are a people-intensive type of organisation, to begin with: you need a lot of people, academics and supporting staff, to run a university. And because many of them are well educated and well paid, they and their families spend money in the community. Universities also come with students. They, too, live in the city or its region and contribute to the local economy.
Other sources of economic impact are the goods and services connected with research and education; impacts associated with industrial investment connected to research, e.g. a science park; or impacts associated with the output from research activity, such as benefits of licensing and the impact of spin-off and start-up companies. Higher education may also have an impact on local tourism: think, e.g., of family and friends visiting international students, as well as the graduates returning to the university they once studied in later years. Academic conferences and other events hosted in the city or its region also have a major impact on local and regional tourism. Recent research into the Leiden situation shows that investing in education and research is extremely profitable in financial terms, with a multiplier of 3.9; for each euro invested the return is almost 4 Euros.
However, it is not only the economy that matters. Since Charles Landry's book, The Creative City, appeared in 2000, a new planning paradigm has emerged for cities all over the world. Globally, more than half of all people live in cities nowadays, and their number is growing. The concept suggests that conditions need to be created for people to think and to act with imagination in addressing urban problems. The concept of Landry's idea was supported by a second book, in 2001, The Creative Economy, by John Howkins on how ideas are transformed in terms of money and prosperity. In 2002 a third book appeared, The Rise of the Creative Class, by Richard Florida. This book, which turned out to be a best-seller, describes the creative class in the U.S. as comprising of 40 million workers—30% of the U.S. workforce.
What specific community impact can law schools have? That may range, I think, from quite basic things – such as do you allow the local public to use the law library or your premises? – to more fundamental activities, for instance by setting up law clinics with law professors and students dedicated to making justice more accessible to local citizens. This sort of engagement can enhance the core missions of teaching and research – the region serves as a laboratory for research. A telling example is a study by Leiden criminology students of rave violence in Leiden as compared to other university cities (outcome: less violent incidents in Leiden than elsewhere).
Other impacts include public lectures by the academics, local debates or think-tanks where their areas of academic expertise overlap with areas of public interest or concern, law festivals, law students and their professors actively engaging in local political bodies and committees, so on and so forth.
Do readers of this blog have other successful examples of how law schools contribute to the places they are physically rooted in? What role, e.g., can law schools play in the midst of multicultural cities such as The Hague, London, or New York; or in cities and townships like Mumbai, Jakarta or Johannesburg?


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In this post, you will face the configs of the NSX 6.2.6 on-demand LB what was spun up by vRA 7.01.
1. For HTTP, you can select Cookie or Source IP for Persistence.
2. For HTTPS, SSL Passthrough is enabled by default. No persistence is configured. You can select Source IP or SSL Session ID for Persistence.
3. The algorithm is configured Round-Robin by default.
4. Enable acceleration is not enabled, ie. L7 load balancer will be used.


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Everest Receives Donation
The Everest Cricket Club (ECC) on Wednesday last received a quantity of cricket gear from overseas-based Guyanese and cricket enthusiast, Dhanpaul 'Danny' Singh.
Singh, who resides in the United States, said that he was pleased to be associated with the club and happy to be able to contribute to the further development of the sport. He said that apart from him, a number of close associates back in the USA were also instrumental in assisting with the purchasing of the equipment. Singh disclosed that the gear are to be used by the junior members of the club since it is his wish that many more talented cricketers who might not have afforded the equipment will be given the opportunity to make full use of them.
Club president Rajesh Singh thanked the donor on behalf of the management and members of the club and promised to fully utilise the gift. Among the other donors were King's Jewellery World, Travel Span, Leonora Kiddy's Cricket, Fazal from Alba Fuel, Leslie Lowe, and 'Zubbie'.
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SIAM Conference on Applied Algebraic Geometry
Date 08/03/2015 - 08/07/2015
Location NIMS
Sponsor: SIAM Activity Group on Algebraic Geometry
All sessions will be held at National Institute for Mathematical Sciences and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.
The purpose of the SIAM Activity Group in Algebraic Geometry is to bring together researchers who use algebraic geometry in industrial and applied mathematics. "Algebraic geometry" is interpreted broadly to include at least: algebraic geometry, commutative algebra, noncommutative algebra, symbolic and numeric computation, algebraic and geometric combinatorics, representation theory, and algebraic topology.
These methods have already seen applications in: biology, coding theory, cryptography, combustion, computational geometry, computer graphics, quantum computing, control theory, geometric design, complexity theory, machine learning, nonlinear partial differential equations, optimization, robotics, and statistics.
We welcome participation from both theoretical mathematical areas and application areas not on this list which fall under this broadly interpreted notion of algebraic geometry and its applications.
SIAM Conference on Applied Algebraic Geometry is a satellite conference of the International Congress on Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ICIAM 2015)


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A good political leader or writer knows about skin in the game, or the idea that whatever you write about should be related to the risks that you take. You can't just say something and not pay the price for your thoughts. One of the courageous and admirable people these days that understand the consequences of skin in the game is Adam Milstein, and he's the man writing for Jewish News Syndicate.
Inspired by the anti #Israel propaganda of the pro #Palestinian – J Street, #Jewish actress Natalie Portman refuses to go to Israel to receive the prestige Genesis Prize https://t.co/kTswgoL9q0
— Adam Milstein (@AdamMilstein) April 20, 2018
The Latest Article
One of the latest articles today that Adam Milstein is writing about is the risks posed by radical Muslims and the threats they cause to the society. It is the professional opinion of Adam Milstein that the radical Muslims are delegitimizing Israel, and they're also destroying the values of the Western culture. It is also his opinion that the anti-Semitism of such fundamental Muslim beliefs promote the kind of anti-semitism that isn't supported by the American values.
Anti-semitism, according to Adam Milstein, is already a prevalent issue in the global politics and one of its threats is the fact that it is growing. There are many reasons why this is happening. There's also a lot of analysis that may not be easy to verify, but the fact of the matter is, this anti-semitism is highly most likely rooted in bigotry, hate, and racism.
We should also state here that Adam believes that North America is already showing signs that it is holding an alliance with Europe in addressing the rise of anti-semitism. Radical Muslims have been stoning women and executing gays and trampling on the minority, and this is something that should be avoided by the Western world, according to Mr. Adam.
About Adam Milstein
As an author on the JNS.org Blog, Mr. Milstein has built a reputation for being an expert on international political affairs. He's also the managing partner at the prestigious Hager Pacific Properties, which is a role that's responsible for overseeing the firm's financing plans, including its disposition and property management. He also served in the Yom Kippur War, and a graduate of the Technion in 1978, with an MBA degree at the USC.


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Customer Service: How to Order
Gare Express - direct service from Gare
Our Gare Express service is available to those ceramic businesses that have no Gare distributor near them. (Please understand that we only sell to businesses and will need proof of such to set up an account).
If you are interested in Gare Express, please contact us so we can learn more about your business and how we can be of service:
Phone: (888) 289-4273 ext. 219
Fax: (800) 292-0885
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Business hours: Monday-Friday, 8:00am - 4:30pm EST
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Ceramic businesses that purchase direct from Gare through Gare Express can now register to order on-line for key product lines.
If you are interested in registering to order online, please contact our Sales department so that you may be qualified as a ceramic business and be assigned a user id and password. If you are already registered and would like to place an order or view the protected portion of our web site, please sign in.
From a Distributor
We sell our products to ceramic businesses and consumers through a network of distributors in select areas throughout the U.S. and internationally or, where there is no distributor, direct from Gare with a service we call Gare Express.
- To see a list of the distributor nearest you, please click here for our worldwide distributor listing.
- If you have no distributor near you, please contact Gare directly.
Price Lists
- Our bisque pricing can be found by logging into your account.
- Our color price sheet can be found by clicking here: Color Price Sheet.


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In the life-writing course I teach each year, students often struggle to understand the distinction between memoir and autobiography. The words are sometimes used interchangeably, after all, and even bookstores (or, at least, the brick and mortar ones still standing) place autobiographies and memoirs side-by-side on their shelves. One mega book-selling chain mixes biographies, memoirs, and autobiographies and puts them in a section titled
Biography. No wonder some folks are confused.
Although both autobiography and memoir are written in first person, and ostensibly by the narrator him or herself, other distinctions separate these two genres. Autobiography often covers the span of a writer's life, highlighting important details of that life up to the point of the book's writing. Memoir, on the other hand, focuses on one aspect of a life; it is often organized around a theme or idea; it does not endeavor to be comprehensive, and sometimes, the details left out may be as significant as those the writer chooses to include. Although there are exceptions, too, I would argue that autobiographies are often written by those whose public life will be especially interesting to a reading public: presidents and dignitaries, business leaders and Hollywood stars, famous athletes, and the likes of teen pop star Justin Beiber (whose autobiography, written when he was still a teenager and out of legal trouble, must surely be a slim volume).
In the history of Mennonite letters, the first-person narratives written and published have primarily been autobiographies, book-length stories of Mennonite leaders, academics, missionaries, and others who have dedicated their public lives to church service, and whose work readers might consider exemplary. Yet while Mennonite autobiographies are still being written and published, in recent years, more and more Mennonite authors are turning to the memoir, suggesting a shift—however small, potentially imperceptible—in how Mennonite women and men figure their life stories.
The increasing popularity of the memoir, both in wider and in Mennonite culture, also challenges notions about whose narratives we privilege, for the memoir—unlike the autobiography—makes wider berth for ordinary people to tell their stories, rather than relying only on those with rich public lives to recount their experiences. Of course, some public figures choose the memoir as the best way to narrate their life stories, too; but the memoir also makes space for others whose lives might hold interest for readers: because they are unique or even because, in some ways, the writers' lives are just like ours.
Although autobiographies about Mennonite leaders continue to find an audience—as, for example, Robert Kreider's Coming Home, published in late 2012—several memoirs produced in the last two years exemplify the notion that ordinary people might also have important stories to tell. These new memoirs are written by women whose lives have not been lived in public spheres; they are not Mennonite leaders, nor are their books necessarily focused on their working roles. Instead, they tell stories of quiet but astounding experiences: of an Amish woman, Saloma Miller Furlong, who decides to leave her tribe; of a Mennonite poet, Jean Janzen, whose understanding of the world is shaped by her art. Another memoir published in 2013 was written by a Mennonite leader, Shirley Showalter. Yet instead of narrating her ascendency to leadership and her time as president of Goshen College, Showalter's memoir focuses on her youth, and on the conflict she felt, between being in the world but not of it.
Showalter's excellent book, Blush: A Mennonite Girl Meets a Glittering World, stands out as some of the best work done by Mennonite memoirists and, I think, will mark a shift in Mennonite letters. For while she might well have detailed her public life from its germination to its conclusion, Showalter made different choices, and wrote a far different book: one that has enjoyed broad popular and critical acclaim, having gone through three printings in the five months since its release in September 2013 and having been honored as one of the 50 best spiritual memoirs of the year by the Spirituality and Practice website.
Showalter begins her own narrative with her parents, Barbara Hess and Richard Hershey. Rather than miring Blush in long genealogical lists, as many Mennonite autobiographies in the past have done, Showalter creates rich characters in her parents, allowing us to see—through narrative—who they were, what their dreams entailed, the times when they struggled. We learn that Showalter's mother was intrigued by Shirley Temple (hence her daughter's name), but would never see a Shirley Temple movie in a theatre; that she wanted to become a writer, which became a dream deferred; that she was attracted to
the glittery worlds of pretty clothes and acting on stage and being popular, but instead became a plain Mennonite,
wearing both a prayer covering and the cape dress, but only as long as the church commanded it.
The details Showalter lovingly provides about her mom—and then her dad, and then their marriage—creates a foundation for everything that will follow in her memoir, which itself focuses on Showalter's family life. Like her mother, Showalter also experiences the tension between wanting to be part of the
glittering world and remaining in the conservative Mennonite world into which she was born—a tension that thematically unifies her memoir to its very last page.
In Blush, Showalter narrates what seems a mostly happily childhood in Lilitiz, Penn., relying on that dictum embraced by any good writer, showing us, rather than telling us, about her experiences. Through her careful detail, we can really know what it must have been like growing up the oldest child in a large family, living in a centuries-old farmhouse, attending public schools and longing to be recognized by adored teachers.
And also, what it must feel like to have a sister die weeks after her birth and watch a mother overcome by grief; or to witness a father struggle for acceptance in his own family; or even, more broadly, to negotiate what it means as a Mennonite teenager to be in the world, but not of it. Because Showalter covers this ground too, in Blush, acknowledging that even in a sweet life, there is some sour, which Showalter says is part of
everyone's childhood.
For Showalter,
childhood was sweetest when surrounded by family, including the forty families in our church who called me by name and knew where I lived, what grade I was in, and what part I sang when we opened the hymnals together. Her stories about this community—even its darker parts—are seasoned with a measure of grace, reflecting Showalter's love for her people and her Mennonite upbringing.
Portions of Showalter's memoir will be appreciated by those with similar Mennonite pasts. Blush will recall for some readers culture phenomena particular to ethnic Mennonites, as Showalter narrates her experiences with Walk-a-Mile (what she terms a Mennonite form of speed dating), with Mennonite meals, and with box socials. She alludes to hymns prized by Mennonite traditions, and to the rituals of worship with which many Mennonite readers will be familiar.
And yet, despite the specific Mennonite culture about which she is writing, Showalter's Blush explores themes most any reader can appreciate, including the tension between individualism and community, learning to accept the past while living in the present, and struggling to stay grounded when the
glittering world is so alluring.
Showalter's memoir succeeds exactly because of this: because she is able to take the particularities of her Mennonite upbringing, and make them widely understood through her narrative. This is—or should be—the mark of any great memoir, that the writer has taken her individual experience and made it universal.
In this way, Jean Janzen's Entering the Wild: Essays on Faith and Writing also succeeds as a memoir, by taking the material of her life as a poet and a professor, and inviting us all as readers to enter in. Janzen, who now lives in Fresno, Calif., is already the author of several poetry collections, including most recently Paper House, published in 2008. Her work has appeared in a number of literary journals and poetry anthologies. Rudy Wiebe, considered by many a father of Mennonite letters, has said that
Jean Janzen writes our songs, praise both figurative and literal. Metaphorically, Janzen's poetry inscribes the life of her people, the Mennonites; but Janzen has also written songs for a revised Mennonite hymnal, published in the early 90s, including
Mothering God, You Gave Me Birth and
I Cannot Dance, Oh Love.
In Entering the Wild, Janzen narrates the process of crafting these hymns; and I found this chapter, titled
Three Women and the Lost Coin: How Three Women Found Me, the memoir's most compelling. In 1990, Janzen was asked to be on a committee to recreate a Mennonite hymnal that might
nourish . . . congregations for twenty years or more. The committee, wanting to include several hymns honoring the feminine characteristics of God, turned to Janzen. Janzen describes encountering the work of three mystic women—Julian of Norwich, Hildegard von Bingen, and Mechtild of Magdeburg—and finding there
the possibilities of devotion and celebration that opened windows to my own imagination.
Janzen wonders whether the Mennonite church would
allow this medieval, yet fresh, language into our hymns, and my inclination is to immediately respond to this question: I can't imagine that they would. Yet Janzen unfolds her answer to the question, tracing her own journey through the medieval texts, revealing how the women's writing opened up God—and her imagination—in new ways, and showing how the Mennonite hymnal committee gave Janzen a substantive gift she hadn't even known she'd needed.
Their gift to me, Janzen says,
was the opportunity to create out of the writings something I had not sought.
The chapter includes some lyrics for each of the three songs Janzen wrote, allowing us to read Janzen's powerful reframing of the mystics' texts, refracting their understanding of the feminine divine. She gives new voice to women speaking God's love centuries ago. Janzen's poetry here—and the story of its creation—expands our perception of God, renaming God for us; God becomes Root of Life, Eternal Vigor, Saving One, Moving Force, Mother. Mennonite readers will certainly notice the potentially subversive nature of her words and the risk taken to have them included in a hymnal used by most Mennonite churches.
Those seeking a comprehensive memoir will not find it here. At times, I hoped for something more: more story, more detail, more insight into Janzen's life as a mother and as a poet. What we have are glimpses of Janzen's life journey: hints at the challenges she faced as a wife to a successful medical doctor; flashes of insight into her development as a poet; and some connections, all too fleeting, to her Mennonite roots, primarily in Russia. Still, there is power in compression, and the beauty of lyrical prose. Entering the Wild is fundamentally poetry, and might well be read as such.
This is not the case for Saloma Miller Furlong's Bonnet Strings: An Amish Woman's Ties to Two Worlds, which tells a mostly chronological narrative of Furlong's decision in the mid-1970s to leave her Amish community when she was 20 years old. Furlong's story was recently featured in the PBS documentary The Amish: Shunned; there, she tells her story of leaving the Amish, then working with others who are also faced with the choice to remain Amish or seek another life.
After Furlong's initial escape from her community—her leaving feels very much like a covert operation—Furlong travels to Vermont, a state she's chosen because of the beautiful photos she views in Vermont Life. Once there, she finds room and board at a YWCA, meets women who soon become fast friends, and begins dating David Furlong, a
Yankee who makes and sells children's toys. Several months later, Furlong finds herself back in her Amish community, trying to decide whether she belongs there—or whether the freedom she experienced in Vermont might be God's will for her. A good portion of the book details her return to the Amish, and the cool reception she receives there as someone who has left and then returned.
Furlong describes trying to integrate herself back among her people, taking on a teaching position in an Amish school, baking goods for a market, attending church—and even, on one occasion, hosting church in the small house she has occupied when living with her family seems unfeasible.
Although she continues to communicate with friends in Vermont, and even though the man she dated there comes for a visit, Furlong feels, to a degree, committed to remaining Amish. Still, despite this commitment, Furlong seems a pariah within her community, ostracized by others and publically criticized by those who have leadership roles. Feeling a pull toward Vermont and away from the Amish again, Furlong must contend with the idea transmitted to her early and often in her childhood: that leaving the Amish will mean eternal damnation.
Bonnet Strings does an excellent job of exploring the tension Furlong feels between the pull of her community and her heritage, and the independence offered by the outside world. Recognizing she cannot have both her community and freedom, her religious heritage and the opportunity to be all God means for her to be, Furlong must make a heart-rending choice, covered in the memoir's final chapters.
Although Furlong's story is specifically about her experience attempting to straddle two worlds, she notes in the introduction that the memoir reflects a universal journey we all must make,
choosing between our need for community and belonging and our desire for the freedom to walk the path that is most authentic to who we are. While readers may not be able to relate to Furlong's experience in an insular religious community, they will certainly connect to the larger ideas Furlong explores, as is the case in any well-written personal narrative.
Bonnet Strings is the second of Furlong's memoirs. Her first, Why I Left the Amish, was published in 2011, and describes her return to her Ohio home for her father's funeral, 24 years after she left. Reading the first memoir is not necessary to appreciate the second, although taken together, Furlong's books provide an important antidote to the highly romanticized portrayal of the Amish to which many readers have become accustomed, given the current popularity of Amish romantic literature.
While the three women reviewed here are writing in the memoir genre, Robert Kreider's Coming Home is very much in the vein of a traditional autobiography, covering his life from 1952, when he became an assistant professor at Bluffton College in Ohio, to 2011 and his retired years surrounded by family. Coming Home follows his first autobiography, My Early Years, which documents Kreider's life as a child growing up in the Midwest, the son of a college professor; his time at Bethel College and in Civilian Public Service; and his marriage to Lois. Kreider concentrates his narrative in Coming Home on his years spent at Bluffton and at Bethel, with the final chapters devoted to his life after retirement, his travels, and his family.
In many ways, Kreider's life exemplifies that of a Christian servant; and in his autobiography, his description of each decision made reflects his sincere desire to follow God's leading. For example, Kreider describes the difficult decision he had to make in late 1959, when he was called to become president of Bethel College. He was only 40, had four young children, and had not served a long tenure in college administrative. Receiving an invitation to a college presidency was
startling, something Kreider had not anticipated. In his autobiography, he recalls his feelings regarding the offer:
I needed divine help to disentangle my thoughts and feelings: the honor of it, the divine weight of it, the imponderables. Although Kreider felt God telling him
no to the opportunity, the option of leading Bethel College returned early the next year. Again Kreider prayed; again, Kreider declined the offer.
I am convinced I made the right decision, he writes, noting that he
did not feel equal to the task.
Coming Home makes clear that other vocational opportunities were likewise prayerfully considered, some easier to make than others. Indeed, the process through which Kreider made vocational decisions is a key component of his autobiography, something he returns to often in his text. As a highly valued leader, Kreider was often approached to take on work for different Mennonite organizations, and Coming Home details both the times Kreider assumed new leadership responsibilities, as well as the times when he prayerfully declined. Some readers will find this aspect of Kreider's work to be most interesting, especially those invested in Mennonite organizational and missional history. For while Kreider's life seemed essentially grounded in Mennonite institutions of higher learning, especially Bluffton College (where he eventually became president, serving from 1965-1972), Kreider also served in several capacities with Mennonite Central Committee and other mission organizations.
Woven into this narrative of Kreider's public life are smaller stories of his private life, and of his wife and four children. It is clear from his work that Kreider's home and family mean a great deal to him, and still, much as he wishes to turn away from his public self in parts of his narrative, the public and the private remain intertwined. Yet when he turns to his home life, Kreider seems his most animated, as in the chapter
House in the Woods, where he details his family's purchase of two acres outside of Bluffton, describing as well the home they built and his children's adventures there. He asserts that
the house in the woods is for us a place of fond memory. Here we could express our creative impulses . . . it was a congenial place for a growing family. And, Kreider writes, his wife Lois
was the heroine who held things together until they sold the farm after moving from Bluffton.
As Kreider's autobiography comes to its conclusion, he reflects on his life journey, on the
satisfactions of career which
fade away while
the joys of family deepen. Here too, in this final chapter, Kreider's voice is at its strongest and most reflective as he considers old age, his scattered family, and the ways he has been called to do kingdom work. Taken in toto, it's clear that Kreider's life, both public and private, has been a rich one, though even the concluding chapter of Coming Home—and the accompanying timeline—that the public life has served to shape and to drive the story Kreider tells about his life. This is not a critique so much as a recognition that Kreider's autobiography represents a different type of text entirely, far different than the more reflective, tightly focused, and personal memoirs reviewed here.
Whether Mennonite life-writing is undergoing a larger paradigm shift, away from autobiography and toward memoir, remains less clear. The critical and popular success of Showalter's Blush, and the appeal of Furlong's Bonnet Strings as an authentic narrative of Amish life, suggest there might be a wider audience for life stories focusing more on the personal, rather than the public. And in the next year, several Mennonite memoirs will be published that continue the trend toward more focused, reflective, and creative works.
Still, what a text like Kreider's Coming Home offers readers is the long view, an opportunity to know about Mennonite history as it was lived in a particular place and time, and from a particular perspective. Coming Home especially provides an excellent recounting of Bluffton College's history in the mid- and late- 20th century, documenting a Mennonite institution in the crossroads, its leaders making decisions that would shape Bluffton into the school it is today.
In other words, there remains room on the bookshelf—virtual or otherwise—for both types of Mennonite life-writing, even if we remain a little unsure of what we should be calling these texts that help us understand, in different ways, what it means to be Mennonite. And also, what it means to be human.


text:
Dust crashing
Gas burning
Stars forming
Continents crashing
Rocks burning
Earth forming
Trees crashing
Forests burning
Life moving
Rocks crashing
Iron burning
Tall buildings
Air crashing
Fuel burning
Planes flying
Cultures crashing
Passions burning
Endless jihad
Planes crashing
Buildings burning
Bone Machine
It's burning
We're burning
Nowhere else to be
What is this burning?Buddha's Fire Sermon
He's touched your perfect body with his mind
The words to a song.
He's the Christ.
He could be the Buddha.
He could be you.
He is you.
He is, if you let it be so.
Walking through life,
driving through life,
being in life,
being life,
Who is it?
Who wonders who it is?
Is it?
What is it?
Who wants to know?
How will I find out who it is?
No way to write of it.
No way of it.
No way.
No it.
No self to speak of.
No self to speak.
No self.
Walking through the room.
Who's there?
Who's walking?
Who? Who? The owl wants to know!
Ask the owl! Who! Who!
Flashing existence
One way journey into night
Earth, the Bone Machine
Bone Machine: the title of an album by Tom Waits. He could be you. He's pointing at something. Let's be sure to find what's being pointed at and not focus on the fingernail like some cat.
Bone Machine
Existence flashing
Into night


text:
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text:
The Arab state fragments
Claire Spencer, bitterlemons-international, March 8:
With the language of multiple and inter-related crises dominating descriptions of the Middle East, it is easy to believe that the Arab state is fragmenting into fiefdoms, sectarian strife and trans-nationally inspired chaos. Yet of the 22 member states of the Arab League, only three – Sudan, Iraq and Lebanon – show signs of current or potential collapse. The rest, with the ever-present exception of the Palestinian state-still-to-be-created, continue to adapt and change with a resilience that belies current perceptions.
Much hinges on how one defines the Arab state. For an increasing majority of Arab populations, the state has long since ceased to be a public entity, accessible to its citizens. Instead, it is a largely privatized concept, controlled and inhabited by the minority of those who populate its decision-making apparatus and exclusively determine the dispensation of its assets. For all the talk of democracy, it is accountability and access to a broader concept of the state that the Arab world's dispossessed citizenry seeks most. But even in the societies where civic space has (haltingly) opened in the form of elected parliaments and press and public freedoms, their purpose has been for discontents to let off steam, not to extend their political access. Few institutions of state function as mechanisms to bring transgressors to account or to change official policy, despite occasional concessions to a wider set of interest groups. Still less can public debate direct or influence "public" spending toward productive and sustainable ends.


text:
The Sports Xchange
By Andrew Wagner, The Sports Xchange
Brewers ride five-run inning to win over Cards
MILWAUKEE -- After dropping nine of their first 11 meetings with the St. Louis Cardinals this season, the Milwaukee Brewers decided to pull a page out of their NL Central rivals' playbook.
A night after being done in by yet another late comeback, Milwaukee scored five runs in the fourth inning and held on for a 6-3 victory over St. Louis Tuesday night at Miller Park.
"We hit some balls good that inning, we got some breaks that inning," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said. "That certainly was huge. Against them, we don't get many of those."
As the Cardinals did Monday, the Brewers produced a big inning Tuesday on a string of singles.
With Milwaukee trailing 3-0, Jonathan Lucroy and Aramis Ramirez opened the fourth inning with back-to-back base hits off Cardinals right-hander Lance Lynn. Lynn's throwing error allowed Khris Davis to reach, loading the bases for Scooter Gennett, who singled into center, scoring Lucroy.
Sean Halton followed with a base hit that scored Ramirez and Davis, tying the game at 3-3, and Milwaukee took the lead when Logan Schafer's flare dropped into short left field, scoring Gennett.
Brewers pitcher Kyle Lohse advanced the runners to second and third with a sacrifice bunt, and Norichika Aoki made it a 5-3 game with a sacrifice fly to left.
"That's baseball," said Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong, who finished 3-for-4 with a double and a stolen base. "One team's going to get breaks that's going to be the deciding factor."
Halton, a rookie, added an RBI single in the fifth, giving Milwaukee a 6-3 lead.
Starting in place of first baseman Juan Francisco, Halton made the most of his opportunity, going 2-for-3 with a walk, a run and a career-high three RBIs.
"It's always good to answer back," Halton said. "They had a big inning last night, and it was good to answer back with a five spot today. Now we have to try and get another one tomorrow."
Milwaukee's big inning helped Lohse (9-8) finally beat his former team. The right-hander entered the night 0-3 with a 5.00 ERA in three starts this season against the Cardinals, for whom Lohse went 55-34 with a 2.90 ERA in 136 starts over the previous five seasons.
"It feels good," Lohse said. "I don't put any more emphasis on any one game over the other. I went out there and tried to do what I've been doing. The team did a great job battling back after I put us down in a little hole, and other than that, it doesn't mean any more beating them. I know we have a stretch here where we're playing a lot of teams that are contending for playoff spots, and I don't care who it is, it feels good to kind of hurt teams' chances."
His only misstep came in the fourth, when Yadier Molina hit his 10th home run of the season, a two-run shot to left-center that gave St. Louis a 3-0 lead.
"(Pitching coach Rick) Kranitz went back and checked the pitch and said it was right where we wanted it," Roenicke said. "(Molina) is a pain to get out, but Kyle thought he made a good pitch and he still ends up hitting a home run on him. Other than that, he was good. His cutter and slider were really good, fastball was located well, and he threw some nice changeups."
Brewers closer Jim Henderson worked a scoreless ninth for his 19th save of the season.
Molina, who went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs, is hitting .417 (20-for-48) with six doubles, two home runs, nine RBIs and nine runs against Milwaukee this season.
Lynn (13-7) went six innings and allowed six runs (four earned) on nine hits and three walks. He struck out two.
"Actually, he had good stuff," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "Then the fourth inning rolled around, and things kind of snowballed and didn't stop. Just like we did yesterday, lots of hits in a row."
NOTES: Milwaukee starters have a combined ERA of 7.39 in 12 games against the Cardinals this season. St. Louis' starters, meanwhile, have a 3.08 ERA against the Brewers. ... Francisco didn't play Tuesday after striking out in his previous eight at-bats. He is 1-for-17 with 13 strikeouts in his past five games. ... With a day game Wednesday, Cardinals manager Mike Matheny rested 2B/3B Matt Carpenter and 1B Allen Craig, who lead the team in runs scored and driven in, respectively. Carpenter pinch-hit in the ninth, drawing a walk.


text:
Smallholding is a word I learned in the UK. It denotes a little farm, such as mine. It usually means it's a subsistence farm for a family, with few or no cash crops.
I have 14 acres near Roy, Washington. Technically, it's all ours but mMost of it is actually owned by the Nisqually River when it is in flood stage. Some day, the river may decided to shift in my direction and keep that land for a few years. I don't argue with the river. I let the trees grow and I walk on it, but do little more with it than that. There is enough high and dry tillable land for potatoes and beans and such, and there is a pond for my ducks. The road past my house is a lot busier than it used to be, but it's still pretty quiet out here. It's a good place to write.
With a smallholding comes work. If I were to ignore the land, the broom, the tansy ragwort and the himalayan blackberries and the other invasive species would quickly claim all the pasture. Currently, I don't have a grazing animal, so we must keep it cut. That's a lot of mowing with the Kubota or the lawn tractor.
Then there is our vegetable garden. There is a time to plant, and a time to reap, and if I miss those times, I've missed my harvest. Carrots early in the spring, beans when the soil is warmer, squash and melons when the sun bakes us. Often I have a conflict between my farm and my writing. I come home from a book tour or a convention to find the raspberries have ripened, and birds (or grandchildren) have harvested them all before I could even pick one. A hot spell while I'm gone can mean the radishes and spinach have 'bolted' or abruptly gone to seed, leaving the radish roots hard as wood and the spinach leaves small and chewy. Even when I'm at home, a deadline can mean that I don't do my garden chores. Miss a morning watering, and if the day gets really hot, the plants wilt flat. When there's a writing deadline versus a harvest deadline, I know I have to play farmer by day and writer by night.
Today I am making strawberry jam. Strawberries ripen in June, and June is rapidly coming to a close. I will leave for Denver on Thursday, so by the time I get back, strawberry season will be over.. I grow strawberries, but the grandchildren were here, so today I purchased, for $46, two large flats of strawberries from Spooner Farms. I'm doing all my prep. I have a big pot of water on the boil for the boiling water bath, I am sanitizing my jars in the dishwasher, I have lids and rings, I've measured my sugar and I've measured crushed strawberries for the first batch. I think I have enough berries for four batches of jam, once I've allowed for the random nibblings of passing family members.. Any left over by this evening will have to go in the freezer. Fresh berries spoil very quickly. And these are fresh, fragrant farm grown berries. Red all the way through, and dripping juice if you bruise them. They are nothing like those green-shouldered, white in the middle, no fragrance sour things that are sold in grocery stores. These are real strawberries.
I'm late getting to my jam making, so this is my last opportunity to make strawberry jam for 2017, as tomorrow I depart for Denver Comic Con.
I'm not packed yet. And my fingernails have the look of someone who has been gardening all week. I've got some yellow paint still on my wrists where I painted the picnic table. I've got some repair work to do before I introduce myself to Denver as Robin Hobb.
And it's not just work on me. There's a list of writing work that needs doing.
I need to complete the questions for my interview with the Greek fantasy site, Will o'wisps I have several book reviews I want to put up on Goodreads. I've two outlines that I'm working on for possible stories. I have a bank deposit to do, a lot of email to answer, and a Denver Comic Con schedule to print out. I need to charge the tablet, and replace a faulty computer mouse. I need to find my spare phone batteries. And I'd like to go on Twitter, oh, and I should do a Facebook post. I need to load pens, bookplates,the phone charger, and some business cards into my briefcase. Remember to take my pocketknife out of my purse, and be sure my passport is in there to keep airport security happy. Lots to do.
But for this moment, making the strawberry jam trumps all that, because if I don't do it today, we will have a winter with no home made strawberry jam. Perhaps not a disaster, but surely a disappointment.