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Leading into the summer months, homeowners begin to crave a vacation, but what about a staycation? Whether you're considering a modern infinity pool in a city suburb or a larger lap pool in a coastal hotspot, there are an array of ways to make your outdoor space feel like a sanctuary.
These three outdoor pool areas appeal to the luxury of having the sunshine and the water in your own backyard.
Last year's The New American Home 2017 was ahead of the curve with matte black foundational elements surrounding the pool. With seating several feet from the water, this is the ultimate relaxation spot. Designed by Phil Kean Design Group; photography by Jeffrey A. Davis Photography.
This Hollywood Hills outdoor pool area achieves a modern, spa-like feel that nods to massage therapy with our Venetian Pebbles series. Designed by Studio Jhoiey; photography by Daniel Dahler, danieldahlerphotography.com.
Modern, linear, and design-forward, our Specular series overlooks a spectacular city view, complementing the flames alongside this outdoor infinity pool.
Begin crafting your own outdoor oasis by exploring our collections available for pool and spa installation.


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If you're looking for a fun way to entertain your guests during your event why not contact us today?
Are you planning one of the following:
- Wedding
- Birthday Party
- Anniversary
- Conference / Award Ceremony
- Fair or Show
Are you looking for a special way to entertain your guests and keep these memories forever?
Pix Perfect is family run and we pride ourselves on providing the best service with no gimmicks or promises we cant keep. You tell us what you want and we will deliver something extraordinary.

subset: commoncrawl


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The following figures were extracted on Hyflux Ltd for the year ended 31 December 2011.
|Change over 2010
|Profit to shareholders
|$53 m
|Earnings per share
|-11.8% points
|Dividend per share
|Dividend payout
|+24.8% points
|Net Gearing ratio (times)
|0.18 times
|0.8 times
|Cash and Cash Equivalents
|$662 m
|Net Assets per share
|Order Book
|$1.9 b
The group revenue decreased 15 per cent due to "projects in Middle East North Africa (MENA) near completion and impact of Arab Spring on new contracts and lower level of divestment activities". Its contract worth $890 million with PUB to build and operate Singapore's second seawater desalination plant in Tuas started construction in July 2011.
Profit attributable to shareholders decreased 40 per cent to $53 million. Consequently, earnings per share dropped 6.2 cents to 4.3 cents. Return on equity was lower at 5.8% against 17.6% in 2010.
The company proposed a total cash dividend of 2.77 cents (including interim dividend of 0.67 cents), which is 1.4 cents less than in 2010. But dividend payout for 2011 was 64.4 per cent on earnings. 2010 payout was lower at 39.6 per cent.
Hyflux financial position was healthy due mainly to issue of $400 million 6% Cumulative Non-convertible Non-voting perpetual Class A Preference Shares in the year. Net gearing ratio improved significantly from 0.8 times to 0.18 times. Cash and Cash Equivalents jumped to $662 million from $222 million.
Net asset per share increased 2 cents to 60.6 cents by end of 2011.
Share price as at today, 22 February 2012 was $1.58. Its share price had taken a beating since 31.12.2010 of $2.32. Hyflux's share price declined in the first quarter 2011 due in part to the unrest in Libya and the termination of the desalination project in Tobruk, Libya.
From the perspective of order book, Hyflux has $1.9 billion worth of contract in the pipe line, which was higher than 2010's $1.5 billion.
Copyright © 2012, limkimtong for Living Investment
The material presented is intended to be general and written in layman's language as much as it is possible. The author shall not be liable for any direct or consequential loss arising from any use of material written. Please seek professional advice from your financial advisor or financial institutions on material written covering financial matters.


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My philosophy is based on the value of feeling good. Everything you desire, whether it is a material object, a physical condition, a financial situation, or a harmonious relationship, you desire for only one reason: because you believe you will feel better for having it.
We all have the ability to feel good in any given situation. Feeling good is the fastest path to an even greater improvement. Making sure that you feel good before you take action is always the best process; when you do not feel good, you are unable to find inspiration to solve the problem. However, when we feel good we can think clearly.
My aim is for you to reach a place where you are willing to let go of the uncontrollable, give your undivided attention to the only thing you can control, which is how you feel in any given circumstance.
My Wellbeing proposal integrates the mind and the body. You can choose between a session of body relaxation, mental relaxation or a Wellbeing-coach session where you will learn to modify your emotional set point. You will begin to observe immediate improvement even after the first time you apply these processes.
Start feeling good now!
Natalia Villanueva García


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Medical Grade Facials
Give Your Face Some Personalized Care
Facials are not just about feeling good; they're an opportunity to promote real change in the skin. At Honolulu MedSpa our Medical Grade Facials are customized to meet your individual skin needs. Keep your pores happy and feel the difference with any of our facial services listed below.
Pure & Simple (Consultation Facial)
For those of you new to our spa, or those just not sure what treatment is right for your individual skin needs. Enjoy a customized facial treatment by our licensed professionals and receive a personalized treatment plan and skin care regimen that will keep your skin looking its very best. $100
Signature HydraFacial
A deep pore cleansing treatment that exfoliates, extracts and hydrates while utilizing super serums filled with antioxidants, peptides and hyaluronic acid. $200
Advanced HydraFacial
More than a deep cleanse, this invigorating treatment includes all the essentials of our Signature HydraFacial while targeting more specific skin concerns such as acne or aging. Keep your pores happy and looking flawless. $250
Intraceuticals O2 Facial
Pamper the skin with our Intraceuticals Hyperbaric Oxygen infusion facial. This application method delivers dramatic results to the skin to visibly plump and hydrate and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Enjoy instant results and hydrated, radiant skin. $150
Clear away dead skin cells and that pesky peach fuzz, while hydrating the skin all in one. Enjoy a combination of our popular Dermaplaning treatment + Intraceuticals Oxygen infusion for the ultimate glow. $250
A manual exfoliation that painlessly clears away dead skin cells and unwanted peach fuzz to reveal a smooth, even complexion. Enjoy smooth, soft skin. $175
Prenatal Glow
Lay back and let us pamper your skin. By incorporating the power of our HydraFacial and customizing serums which are safe for mom and baby, your skin will stay balanced and hydrated while you're experiencing the many changes that pregnancy brings. Our custom mask and massage will leave you feeling relaxed. $175
Medical Grade Facials at Honolulu MedSpa are performed by a licensed Medical Aesthetician and are recommended in intervals of 4-6 weeks for best results. We suggest you arrive to your facial appointment with little to no makeup. We use only physician dispensed products on the skin. Please inform your provider of any allergies.
"Heaven on earth describes a facial from Honolulu MedSpa. I feel like I'm floating on a cloud."
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– Arlene Kobayashi*
Read More Testimonials
"Love the HydraFacial®, it really cleans out the pores and does an awesome job getting my skin clean!"
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"I had my first HydraFacial® done, and my team member was friendly, funny, and skilled, I felt comfortable. The facial was very relaxing, and she answered all my questions and explained the whole hour process to me as requested. During the facial she analyzed my skin problems and recommended products that would help my skin."
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"The staff at Honolulu Med Spa takes extra special care of their clients. Looking forward to many more oxygen and hydra facials in the near future."
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"It was my first facial, and I must say it was heavenly! I enjoyed the entire experience and left the spa feeling so relaxed and rejuvenated! All of the staff was very polite and professional! I recommend Honolulu Med Spa to everybody!"
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"I cannot be happier with their service. I've been more than once, and every time is an exceptionally enjoyable experience. They make sure you are very comfortable with the procedure, and they work very gently and efficiently to make you feel that you're getting the best care there is."
–April Nolasco*
*Treatment results may vary. All opinions expressed are personal and subjective to each patient.
Pre and Post Care Instructions
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When you are involved in a vehicle break down or an accident and left stranded on the road, you would definitely be looking for a trustworthy towing company. The internet is a great source for finding towing companies, but which are the ones that you should keep the contact numbers? We shall examine some of the qualities to look for in a towing company.
24-Hour Services
Breakdowns can happen at awkward hours; it can be late at night or early morning. You are definitely going to rely on a towing service that can assist you whenever you need, if it doesn't then likely that company is probably not very useful in urgent times. Although most towing companies claim they provide emergency services, it is always a good idea to call them and ask if they can meet your needs.
Customer Service Level
You would want to look out for the level of customer service of the tow truck drivers of the company. Be sure to check out the reviews regarding the company that you want to engage for service. You do not want to face a rude or unreasonable driver when you are already in a stressful situation.
Size of Fleet
The number of tow trucks the towing company has will affect the arrival times. Although having a smaller fleet doesn't mean the company lacks quality, but a company with a larger fleet will more like give you help faster. It is also important to know the types of tow trucks they possess because certain times a wheel lift or tow dolly may be required, other times a flatbed tow truck is more suited for the occasion.
Service Areas
Choosing a local towing company is a good option because it can tow your vehicle to a location that is convenient for you. Furthermore, local towing companies will provide a faster response time and they tend to have better local knowledge such as the geographic locations and traffic conditions.
Price for the Service
Certain towing companies advertise their cheap and low services rates or prices. Although it is economical to choose lower rates, the level and quality of the services should not be discounted. Choose the companies with reasonable rates and reasonable service quality. You don't want to pay for a sloppy job done, only to get your vehicle damaged and need to spend even more money for repair.
The years of experience of the towing company tends to show it is apt in its performance, thus is able to stay in the competition. It shows that the company has its way of keeping the operations smoothly. It also means they have provided services well to its customers and people are patronizing them. Having a good and experienced company can be beneficial to you and your vehicle.
Contact Top Towing North Hollywood at (818) 934-8959 for 24-hour professional towing and roadside services.


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The truth is, I don't need bunny sales to support my hobby. I love breeding rabbits, this is my pride and joy and something I amazingly enjoy doing. I love showing babies that I have bred myself, and I love seeing amazing babies develop and mature into something incredible. In my eyes, anyway.
I'm in love with everything about this hobby. Especially the babies.
I decided to keep *most* babies I get from now on until they are 3-4 months at least. At that point, I will evaluate them, then decide whether to add to the herd or sell. You can get on the waiting list for a rabbit to be notified once I'm ready to sell juniors. However, rabbits are still sold on a first come, first served basis....so if you don't jump at the rabbit immediately, the one you've been waiting for, it will be sold to someone else who becomes interested.
The exception for the above rule is going to be for brood and obvious pet quality (pinched HQ, longer nose, donkey ears, and sloped HQ are just a few of things I do not want to be working with). I don't wait to keep rabbits that will pass the weight limit as an adult. I have my share of those. I might show some brood juniors, if they have good type. If you're interested in a show rabbit, get on my list and please be patient and prepared to wait a few months until I'm ready to part with one. I will not be keeping every show rabbit I produce. I will sell many. Currently I only have a limit of 4 adults, with only 2 open holes for separating young bucks/does.
Not all litters will be this way. The majority will, though, because the point of my breeding is to produce better and better Holland Lops. I don't breed for pets, though I do have those available and all show bunnies can be sold as a pet. My upcoming litter, Holly's Cinnamon x Blue Storm's Lance will be, however. I am looking forward to this litter.
If you are interested in a pet, just let me know! I will probably have babies for sale around 8 weeks. But if I don't, be prepared to wait a little bit for your dream baby. Older bunnies make just as amazing of pets as baby bunnies! :) And when I sell them, they will still be a baby, just an older baby.
I want to get to the point where I almost always have rabbits for sale. I don't want to always be needing to sell a baby to keep another one.
Sir Lancelot will be for sale later this year. I'll be replacing him with a future son of his. I love everything about him, he's just too big to be shown, and I want to be able to GC my buck. I want the new buck to look just like him - maybe with a few better qualities of Cinnamon's - in a smaller package.
Like I said at the beginning, I don't need to sell rabbits to support my hobby. I am a babysitter/nanny, a pretty busy one, and that is how I pay for all the rabbit supplies and needs. The rabbit money is only extra income. A little reward for my hard work - like the tiny, adorable, precious little babies are!
Thank you for reading. As always, if you have any questions, don't be afraid to contact me!


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|Re: Bill of Rights Day Dinner 12/15
|Joseph (email@example.com)
Sat, 04 Dec 2004 08:40:54 -0800
On Fri, 3 Dec 2004 12:43:40 -0500, firstname.lastname@example.com wrote:
> People across the country are celebrating Bill of Rights Day this
Are we celebrating its demise as well? That seems to be the direction
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It's the big, exciting news of the day today – Russell Wilson and the Seahawks have reached a new deal to extend his contract for 4 more years – worth a whopping $87.6-million! He's worth it! Read more on the story here.
That makes today's first day of training camp that much sweeter!
Blessed to be w/ this organization for 4 more years! Can't wait to get on field w/ the fellas! @Seahawks #ChampionshipMindset #GoHawks
— Russell Wilson (@DangeRussWilson) July 31, 2015


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Pai Rico Pai Pobre - Congresso 2017 - Brasil em São Paulo
Best called the creator of Loaded Dad Weak Dad-the #1 personal finance ebook of all time-Robert Kiyosaki has challenged and changed just how tens of a lot of individuals all around the world think of income. He is an entrepreneur, educator, and investor who believes that every of us has the facility to helps make variations in our lives, acquire control of our financial future, and reside the prosperous lifestyle we should have.
With views on dollars and investing that often contradict conventional wisdom, Robert has acquired an international reputation for straight chat, irreverence, and braveness and has turn into a passionate and outspoken advocate for financial schooling.
Check out our internet site: Robert Kiyosaki em São Paulo
Robert's most recent books-Why the Loaded Are Finding Richer and more Vital Than Money-were printed inside the spring of the year to mark the 20th Anniversary of your 1997 launch of Loaded Father Lousy Father. That reserve and its messages, considered around the world as being a common in the individual finance arena, have stood the examination of time. Why the Abundant Are Obtaining Richer, launched 20 years following the global blockbuster bestseller Abundant Dad Very poor Father, is positioned as Loaded Father Graduate School. Robert has also co-authored two textbooks with Donald Trump, prior to his effective bid for your White House and election as President of your United states of america.
For more information make sure you:


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The history and past decades left to the city of Venice many and some world-famous events. The Carnival, popular in the XVII century was re-invented in the 70' among citizens as a true local event. Since then it became very popular, especially to foreigners.
Another popular local event is the Vogalonga. A non-competitive rowing race thought Venice and the lagoon attracting many rowers, photographer and visitors from all over the world for this unique event. A classical Summer event is the Redentore. Famous the fireworks on the third Saturday of July featuring, on the waters right in front of St. Mark's square, hundreds of local boats that gather to spend the evening together dining and dancing on board their local boats before and after the show. This event is probably the most popular among Venetian citizens. During summer all villages scattered around the islands have their own local fest commemorating an important religious past event. Local fresh seafood, pasta, local wines, relax and dance are the main characteristics of these local feasts, once in a lifetime experiences. All these islands are reachable by boat only. Our cruiser is the right solution for a genuine Venetian Summer evening.
Wine, as everyone knows, is a big issue in Italy.
Tasting a good wine combined with selected local food, often cheese and salami, is on of the most delicious and tasty life experience. Behind each wine and food there is a lot of history dating back decades or even centuries. The region, in the area of Treviso and Verona, offers so many opportunities to visit family-owned small wineries, cheese prosciutto producers directly from their lands, so each product has a different taste.
Venice in this case is even more unique as wineries get a salty taste being surrounded by water. Local food culture was, and still is, more oriented, for logical reasons, to seafood and vegetables. A good glass of cool white wine with some baccalà (creamy stock fish), corn bread with local shrimps and vegetables can definitely deliver a true Venetian culinary experience.
The southern lagoon is an open space from Venice to Chioggia surrounded by the long strip on Pellestrina island on the east side and the main land on the west side.
Our vintage Bora cruiser is the ideal boat, comfortable and safe, to fully enjoy the sun and the cool lagoon breeze, cruising around to testimony the natural beauty, historical and cultural sites of our beloved city.
Be amazed by the history and art of Venice!
Relive the great power of the Serenissima Republic through its monuments, squares and narrow streets. Just look up while walking and find some unusual, unknown and fascinating objects, being either an ancient marble column, a statue, a bas-relief. Not to forget the contemporary art of La Biennale at the Giardini and Arsenale exhibitions, Punta della Dogana and the Guggenheim Collection. All other events and exhibitions related to local and Italian artist, such as Tintoretto and Leonardo da Vinci.
Do not miss our themed tours


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Ford Model A Pickup Restoration August 2012
Let's finish the work on the rims.
All 5 rims were first painted on both sides.
After that I have wet sanded the outer side, first with 2'000 grit sandpaper and then I have used 2,500 grit. Always use plenty of water from a spray can and regularly clean the surface.
The innermost part I did not polish, it will be covered by the hub caps later.
If you have a look from the side, you can see that between 2000 and 2'500 grit the brilliance is slowly coming back.
In order to reach the corner of the rim easily with the polishing machine, I've cut back the Velcro on the top of the polishing pad. Now there is no harm to get scratches on the surface with this pad.
Everything is polished, now I can mount the tires soon.
Copyright © 2001-2019 Markus Maurer - all rights reserved | Last modified: 23.12.2018 | Print Page


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In April, five multilateral development banks (MDB's) – the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the Inter-American Development Bank Group – signed an agreement to "cross-debar firms and individuals found to have engaged in wrongdoing in MDB-financed development projects. (See here [1] for more information).
World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick noted that with the "cross-debarment agreement among development banks, a clear message on anticorruption is being delivered: steal and cheat from one, get punished by all."
Under the agreement (here [2]), each participating institution "will enforce debarment decisions made by another participating institution" to the extent the debarment exceeds one year. However, as is often the case, notwithstanding such a commitment, the agreement also states that a "participating institution may decide not to enforce a debarment by the sanctioning institution where such enforcement would be inconsistent with its legal or other institutional considerations …"
It remains to been seen whether the cross-debarment agreement will have any deterrant effect by raising the "cost" of engaging in bribery and corruption.
For a World Bank list of debarred firms and individuals (see here [3]).
In July 2009, the World Bank announced (here [4]) "an agreement of up to a four-year debarment for Siemens' Russian subsidiary, and a voluntary two-year shut-out from bidding on Bank business for Siemens AG and all of its consolidated subsidiaries and affiliates." In November 2009, the World Bank announced (here [5]) that it "debarred [for four years] Limited Liability Company Siemens (OOO Siemens), a Russian subsidiary of Siemens AG, for having engaged in fraudulent and corrupt practices in relation to a World Bank-financed project – Moscow Urban Transport Project." For more information on what was and was not included in that debarment proceeding, see here [6].


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This lens displays the same superior image quality and perfect optical aberration correction as all other Master Anamorphics.
The Master Anamorphic lens series, developed collaboratively by ARRI and Carl Zeiss, has set a new high standard for the optical performance of anamorphic lenses. Producing organic-looking images with pleasing skin tones and crisp, natural colours, the lenses display incredibly low distortion, so straight lines stay straight - even at close focus.
For the first time, a perfect combination of compact size, minimal weight, very high speed and exceptional optical design with minimal distortion has been achieved in a set of anamorphics. With beautiful out-of-focus backgrounds and a smooth, cinematic look, the Master Anamorphic lenses are as fast and easy to use on set as other modern cine lenses.
Image quality is consistently high across the frame, with the 15 iris blades rendering out-of-focus backgrounds beautifully and giving a rounded edge to the classic oval-shaped highlights, which are evenly illuminated. The punchy separation of main subject from background and smooth focus fall-off contribute to a truly immersive, cinematic look.
The 28 mm MA28 shares the fast T1.9 aperture speed of all seven preceding Master Anamorphics, making it ideal for low light work and shallow depth of field. This lens displays the same superior image quality and perfect optical aberration correction as all other Master Anamorphics.
|Technical Data
|Lens Mount
|Close Focus
|0.65 m / 23
|Magnification Ratio
|183 mm / 7.2
|Length:: including flange focal distance
|235 mm / 9.3
|Front Diameter
|114 mm / 4.5
|Maximum Housing Diameter
|114 mm / 4.5
|Weight (kg)
|Weight (lbs)
|Entrance Pupil (mm)
|Entrance Pupil (inch)
|Angle of View H - V (Super 35 Cinemascope)
|78 36
|Image Diameter
|29.26 mm (9)
What's Included
- Master Anamorphic 28mm T1.9 M Lens


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Home > Korea
South Korea's duty-free stores soared 71.4% in sales, while Chinese tourists soared 60.9%2018-05-28 11:00:28 1998 ℃
[ Summary ] The number of foreign tourists visiting Korea in April was 1,313,709, which was a year-on-year increase of 23.8%, of which Chinese tourists increased by 60.9% year-on-year.
South Korea's "Asian Economy" news, South Korea's Duty Free Association Association released data on the 24th, South Korea's domestic duty-free shops last month sales of $ 1.5224 billion, an increase of 71.4%, last month, foreign tourists in the duty-free shops The per capita purchase amount was 747 US dollars, an increase of 26.4% over the same period of last year.
Korea Tourism Development Board also released data on the same day. In April, foreign tourists to Korea reached 1,313,709 person-times, an increase of 23.8% year-on-year, of which Chinese tourists increased by 60.9% year-on-year. Thanks to the ease of the peninsula situation and the promotion of the Japanese Golden Week holiday, visitors to South Korea and South Korea last month saw double-digit increases again after more than one year. Except for Chinese and Japanese tourists, tourists from South Asia, the Middle East and other countries visited South Korea increased by 13.9% year-on-year.
This article comes from the interface news, entrepreneurship department authorized to publish, slightly edited and modified, the copyright belongs to the author, the content represents only the author's independent point of view.
- In the previous:This summer, Koreans are the first choice for travel bookings in China and Japan.
- The next article:Returns list
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- 2018-04-25This scenic spot in China is known as the "soul homeland" by Koreans and receives over 400,000 Korean tourists every year.
- 2017-12-15Is the old people of the "ice breaking" tour group used by the company?
- 2017-12-11Why do Chinese people have to travel to Korea, what is the attraction of Korea in the end!
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- 2017-11-29Korean media said China Travel Agency will arrive in Jeju Island travel agency that did not restore team travel
- The Chinese called for a boycott to travel to South Korea for a long time, but the status quo has caused us some disappointment!
- Where to play? There are mountains and seas and international driving licenses in Jeju Island
- The number of tourists to South Korea has increased? Koreans are excited, experts: fake, flight attendants are counted
- The South Korean street, which once made Chinese tourists make a profit, is now on fire again
- After 32 tours, and more than 150 visitors to Korea Chinese investigation!
- 5 places, such as Inchon, bouquet, etc, which are recommended by the South Korean Tourism Development Bureau in December
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- 32 people from South Korea's ice break trip come back. Guess how they face the next life?
- After 8 months, Chinese tourists travel to Korea again, saying they won't buy music.
- Ice breaking South Korea tour group first, dozens of meters to buy the team reappearance, Chinese tourists return?


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A seven color print on hologrpahic foil paper measuring 18″x24″ in an edition of only 30 copies!
This print will freak you out when you turn the lights off as it glows in the dark and the girls become skeletons. Scroll over the image with your cursor and check it out!


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On Wednesday evening, 2017 Indiana long jump state champion, Prommyse Hoosier announced her commitment to the University of Tennessee. Hoosier announced her commitment in between basketball games at her high school, Warren Central right here in Indianapolis, surround by her family and coaches.
"I really love the coaches. A lot of my track friends are also coming into Tennessee. I love the campus and it's just really nice there...I'm really glad I chose Tennessee." Hoosier said of her reasoning behind picking Tennessee.
The Warren Central Senior had narrowed down her decision to just five schools a month ago, Auburn, Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana State and Oregon. Louisiana State had been on of her dream schools since she was younger, but going into her junior year, she did not believe her marks would get her any attention from the university. Then she ended up tearing her ACL in the winter. She didn't start jumping again until mid-April, where she jumped a PR at the time of 18'4". It didn't take long for her to realize she had gotten better, despite her injury a few months before. She managed to break the sectional and regional record, with an 18' 8.75" and a 19' 11" respectively. Coming into the state meet, she held the highest seed by 8.5", so expectations were set high for her to walk away with her first individual state title.
She more than went home with a first place medal around her neck, she went back to the eastside of Indianapolis with a new PR as well of 20' 1.25", topping 2nd place by over a foot. She even surprised herself with that performance. Jump forward just about 2 weeks later to the USA Junior Outdoor Championships, where she got to face her biggest competition yet. This didn't seem to scare her one bit though. It only motivated her to perform better than ever. And she did just that, setting a new PR for the 7th time that season with a massive jump of 20' 6.75", good enough for 3rd place and to become an alternate for Team USA at the U20 World Championships.
Hoosier had a couple of Indiana's best come out for her announcement. 12x champion and 2018 NCAA Champion in the 400m dash, Lynna Irby and 2017 NBN Indoor High Jump Champion Rahman Minor. All three of these athletes will be competing in the same conference again come next fall, in the SEC. All three competed in the MIC during high school.
Blessed and excited to say I'm officially a Lady Vol! #GoVols pic.twitter.com/1Vy7xmkv5f-- P.Hoosier (@PrommyseHoosier) November 22, 2018


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Kenny Omega will host a 10-hour "Kenny Omega-thon" special on Friday, December 28 starting at 2pE/11aP on AXS TV. AXS sent us the following:
KENNY OMEGA REFLECTS ON HIS JOURNEY TO BECOMING CHAMPION IN AXS TV'S 10-HOUR 'KENNY OMEGA-THON' FRIDAY, DEC. 28 STARTING AT 2pE/11aP
Los Angeles (Dec. 10, 2018) Join IWGP Heavyweight Champion and "Best Bout Machine" Kenny Omega as he revisits his journey toward becoming the champion and defending the belt at Wrestle Kingdom 13 as host of the 10-hour "Kenny Omega-thon" special on Friday, Dec. 28 starting at 2pE/11aP on AXS TV.
The marathon kicks off with Omega's historic feat as the first non-Japanese wrestler to win the G1 Climax tournament in 2016, which set him on the path to the heavyweight title, and also features Omega's acclaimed trilogy of matches with Kazuchika Okada; his run as IWGP U.S. Champion, including the highly publicized match with Chris Jericho at last year's Wrestle Kingdom; and his current reign as IWGP Heavyweight Champion.
Leading up to AXS TV's premiere of Wrestle Kingdom 13 on Jan. 4 at 8pE/5pP, the network will air a late-night strip of the best of Wrestle Kingdom on weeknights at 5aE/2aP starting Friday, Dec. 7. Highlights include headlining matches from the last five Wrestle Kingdom Events including: Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi's trilogy from 2013, 2015 and 2016; Okada's battles with Tetsuya Naito from 2014 and 2018; Naito vs. Tanahashi from 2017 and many more.
"Kenny Omega-thon" Schedule (subject to change) Friday, Dec. 28 at 2pE/11aP:
* 2pE G1 Climax 26 Final Kenny Omega vs. Hirooki Goto
* 3pE Wrestle Kingdom 11 IWGP Heavyweight Championship Omega vs. Kazuchika Okada
* 4pE Dominion 2017 IWGP Heavyweight Championship Omega vs. Okada
* 5pE G1 Special in USA IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Championship Tournament Final Omega vs. Tomohiro Ishii
* 6pE Wrestle Kingdom 12 IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Championship Omega vs. Chris Jericho
* 7pE New Beginning in Sapporo 2018 IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Championship Omega vs. Jay White
* 8pE Dominion 2018 IWGP Heavyweight Championship Omega vs. Okada (2 hr)
* 10pE G1 Special in San Francisco IWGP Heavyweight Championship Omega vs. Cody
* 11pE King of Pro-Wrestling 2018 IWGP Heavyweight Championship Omega vs. Cody vs. Kota Ibushi


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Thoughts and Musings on Poetry, Writing, Books,
Memoirs, Fiction, Self-Promotion, Family and Children.
by Author, CJ Heck
Website: Barking Spiders Poetry - CJ Heck
A Children's Story - Part 1
by CJ Heck
... I know this is true , because someone who's been there told me to tell you.
Tucked in somewhere over our stars and under our moon there's a faraway land. This land is lovely and very different from our world. It's called The Land of The Purple Moons because up in the sky at night, it has two large purple moons. There are also two bright suns that shine in the daytime that are always hooked together by a beautiful rainbow. Also in The Land of The Purple Moons, there's a thick magic forest called The Forest of Enchantment. It's called that because sometimes things happen there that just can't be explained.
This is a story about three best friends who lived near The Forest of Enchantment in The Land of The Purple Moons and an adventure that none of them will ever forget.
The first of the friends was Bartholomew Bear. His friends couldn't say that name, so they called him B Bear -- this was just fine with Bartholomew, because he couldn't say it either. B Bear was very smart and, (if anyone should be, he was), the leader of the three best friends. They looked up to him to have wonderful ideas and make important decisions.
The next was Monkey. He, (if anyone had to be, he was), the playful one of the three friends. He loved making them laugh by doing silly things and making funny noises and faces. Monkey was always hungry. Every morning, he filled his pockets with good things to eat before he left home. That was okay though, because he always shared what he brought with his friends.
The last of the three friends was Lambie, a little pink lamb. She was kind and gentle and, (if anyone could be, she was), the very heart of the three best friends. Lambie was the one who always knew when it was time to go home so no one would worry about them. She was the one who always knew when an idea was not a good idea, because she was also the one who made sure the three best friends were always good.
... I know this is true , because someone who's been there told me to tell you.
One day, the three best friends decided to meet at the edge of The Forest of Enchantment the next day. It would be a nice day for a picnic and B Bear announced that he knew the perfect spot. He told them it was near a babbling brook that whispered poetry and there was a tall gumdrop tree nearby where Monkey could climb and play. Maybe he would even toss some gumdrops down to them!
Now they wondered, what time should they meet? After much discussion, Monkey, being the silly one, said they should meet at three hairs past a freckle, eastern elbow time. The three friends laughed and, of course, Monkey laughed louder than anyone else. With Monkey holding back even MORE giggles and snorts, they finally agreed. They would meet at the o'clock of eleven fourteen.
The next morning, Monkey arrived first. As usual, his pockets were full of food -- just in case he got hungry before lunch. He sat down on a tree stump and munched on cookies while he waited for his two best friends.
B Bear was next to arrive, carrying the biggest picnic basket Monkey had ever seen! When B Bear saw Monkey's bulging pockets and saw that Monkey was already eating, he shouted in a very loud voice, "Monkey! What's wrong with you? You knew I was bringing a picnic basket. You knew it would have plenty to eat inside. Why did you have to fill your pockets with food today?"
Monkey didn't mean to make B Bear angry. He tried to make B Bear laugh by making funny faces, but it only made B Bear even more angry!
In his loudest voice, B Bear shouted, "Monkey! I asked what's wrong with you?"
Just then, Lambie arrived. She was already talking about how she hadn't forgotten to bring lots of juice in case they all got thirsty. Lambie didn't notice the mad face B Bear was wearing or the sad face that Monkey now had on. She DID notice B Bear's loud voice, though, and said, "B Bear, don't use your grumpy voice with Monkey. That isn't nice!"
B Bear told Lambie about Monkey's bulging pockets and his cheeks full of cookies. Then he told her how Monkey made things even worse by making silly faces -- it was like Monkey didn't care that B Bear was upset -- and that was why he was so angry!
Since Lambie was the heart of the three friends, she said, "B Bear, say what you mean, mean what you say, but don't say it mean. Shouting never solves a problem. Let's all sit down and talk about this calmly."
The two suns were very high in the sky by the time the three friends finally worked out the problem and were on their way to the picnic spot. Monkey agreed to put the food from his pockets into the picnic basket, except for one banana (just in case he got hungry along the way), and B Bear agreed to put away his angry voice.
... I know this is true , because someone who's been there told me to tell you.
After walking for nearly an hour, Monkey began to whine, "When will we be there? How much farther to the babbling brook? Will the gumdrop tree really have enough gumdrops for all of us? I'm tired! I'm hungry! Why do we have to go there at all? Why can't we just eat here?"
Since she was also very understanding, Lambie suggested that they sit down and rest for awhile. She told Monkey that now would be a perfect time for him to eat the banana he had saved.
B Bear was tired, too, and he had worked up a bear of an appetite, himself. His patience with Monkey and his whining was all used up. Before Lambie could stop him, he grabbed the banana from Monkey, pointed it right at him and shouted, "Monkey! Stop whining! Stop asking all of your questions! Sometimes, I wish you would just ... disappear!"
All at once, there was a quiet little sound: ((( p o o f!)))
B Bear was so surprised by what happened that he dropped the banana on the ground where he stood. Monkey was gone! B Bear rubbed his eyes and peeked through his fingers. It didn't change anything. Monkey was exactly nowhere at all! Lambie and B Bear stared at each other. How could this happen? How can this be? Where did Monkey go? Is this one of his silly games to make us laugh?
Because he was so smart, B Bear said, "It must have been the magic of The Forest of Enchantment!" He had heard stories about strange things happening here that shouldn't happen anywhere. Maybe that's it. But the thought didn't make B Bear feel very good. He didn't feel good at all!
The two best friends that were left were very upset. They walked around in circles thinking and wringing their hands. They looked for Monkey again and again, just in case it was all a terrible mistake. Monkey was still gone. Even when they called his name over and over, he didn't answer. B Bear and Lambie were very worried.
"Oh my, B Bear. What have you done? What are we going to do?" cried Lambie.
B Bear felt just awful. He was wishing he hadn't wished. He tried again and pleaded, "Monkey, please come back! You know I didn't mean it. You're my friend and I don't want you to disappear!" But Monkey stayed gone. He was totally and completely gone.
Because B Bear was their leader, he knew he would have to make a decision. He sighed deeply and then said, "I think there is only one thing we can do, Lambie. We have to go and see the great Wallah of Poobah. He's the Keeper of Truth here in The Land of The Purple Moons. Every thought you could ever think is there. Every question you could ever ask is there. Every answer to every question ever asked is there. We have to go right now! We can't wait another minute!"
Lambie knew B Bear was right. He was smart and if he said they needed to do that, then they needed to do that. The truth was, Lambie was afraid. Everyone in The Land of The Purple Moons knew the Wallah of Poobah lived on the other side of Everlie Woods -- a strange and frightening place ... and no one who had gone there had ever returned. Not once.
The two friends knew they had no choice. They put aside their fears and began to walk. They were glad they had packed a picnic because they would need it on their long journey.
B Bear and Lambie felt terrible about poor Monkey disappearing. They were determined they would make it through Everlie Woods. No matter what happened, they would go and talk to the great Wallah of Poobah. He will know what to do. He will help them bring Monkey back, and they would make it back from Everlie Woods! After all, B Bear said they would and B Bear was the smartest one she knew.
... I know this is true , because someone who's been there told me to tell you.
... to be continued ... Part Two on Tuesday, June 14, 2011.


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Renaissance Warsaw Airport Hotel
Modernist flair, right next to the airport.
Hotel Exterior
Lounge & Bar
Swimming Pool
Executive Guestroom
A few moments away from check-in at Frederic Chopin International, and a short drive into Warsaw's city center, the Renaissance Warsaw Airport Hotel is perfectly situated for business and leisure travel . A city with a long history, curious travelers will find a lot to love in the Polish capital. Highlights include a bustling, labyrinthine old town and an impressive variety of museums and art galleries.The Warsaw tradition of modernist art and bold graphic design is reflected in the hotel's decor, and all guestrooms are finished with posters and striking colors that bring to mind 1960's fashion and art house films.
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CFGS – Correia, Fleury, Gama e Silva Advogados is a dispute resolution boutique formed to provide quality business litigation and arbitration advice and representation from a more specialized and efficient platform.
The team has extensive experience in handling high profile and complex cases, representing a broad client base that includes major Brazilian companies involved in finance, infrastructure, construction, services and energy, as well as international investors based in the US, Europe and the Middle East.
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Congenital lacrimal gland fistula
V Maneksha1, Chakrabarty Sabyasachi2, Ramakrishnan Rengappa2
1 Department of Orbit and Oculoplasty, Aravind Eye Hospital, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, India2 Department of Paediatric Ophthalmology, Aravind Eye Hospital, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, India
Correspondence Address:Dr. V ManekshaDepartment of Orbit and Oculoplastics, Aravind Eye Hospital and Post Graduate Institute of Ophthalmology, 1, S N High Road, Tirunelveli Junction, Tirunelveli - 627 001, Tamil Nadu IndiaSource of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: NoneDOI: 10.4103/tjosr.tjosr_42_18
Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
DOI: 10.4103/tjosr.tjosr_42_18
This is a report of a rare case of a lateral type of unilateral congenital lacrimal gland fistula with no systemic anomalies. A 7-year-old girl born of a second-degree consanguineous marriage presented to us with painless, watery discharge from a site close to the left lateral canthus, since early childhood, which increased on crying. There was no underlying swelling or a history of trauma or surgery. On examination, an opening was found 10 mm lateral to the left lateral canthus. Probe test confirmed a tract leading to the lacrimal gland. There were no other systemic or ocular abnormalities. Examination of her parents and the sibling revealed no abnormality. The fistula was excised under general anesthesia. Postoperatively, the child developed signs of inflammation of the left lacrimal gland which subsided with low-dose steroids and antibiotics. After 1 month, the child was asymptomatic, and the fistula had healed well.
Keywords: Congenital lacrimal gland fistula, fistulectomy in lacrimal gland fistula, lateral type of lacrimal gland fistula


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Think back to your earliest memory. Perhaps images of a birthday party or scenes from a family vacation come to mind. Now think about your age when that event occurred. Chances are that earliest recollection extends no further back than your third birthday. In fact, you can probably come up with only a handful of memories from between the ages of 3 and 7, although family photo albums or other cues may trigger more.
Psychologists refer to this inability of most adults to remember events from early life, including their birth, as childhood amnesia. Sigmund Freud first coined the term infantile amnesia, now more broadly referred to as childhood amnesia, as early as 1899 to explain his adult patients' scarcity of childhood memories [source: Rapaport]. Freud proposed that people use it as a means of repressing traumatic, and often sexual, urgings during that time. To block those unconscious drives of the id, Freud claimed that humans create screen memories, or revised versions of events, to protect the conscious ego.
More than a century later, researchers have yet to pin down a precise explanation for why childhood amnesia occurs. Only in the last 20 years have people investigated children's, rather than adults', memory capabilities in search of the answer. This research has brought with it a new batch of questions about the nuances of young children's memory.
For a long time, the rationale behind childhood amnesia rested on the assumption that the memory-making parts of babies' brains were undeveloped. Then, around age 3, children's memory capabilities rapidly accelerate to adult levels.
However, psychologists have discovered that children as young as 3 months old and 6 months old can form long-term memories. The difference comes in which memories stick around. For instance, it appears that babies are born with more intact implicit, or unconscious, memories. At the same time the explicit, or episodic, memory that records specific events does not carry information over that three-year gap, explaining why people do not remember their births.
But why does this happen, and what changes take place in those first years? And if we can form memories as babies, why don't we retain them into adulthood? On the next page, we'll take a closer look at a baby's brain to find out the answer.
Memory Encoding in Children
To form memories, humans must create synapses, or connections between brain cells, that encode sensory information from an event into our memory. From there, our brains organize that information into categories and link it to other similar data, which is called consolidation. In order for that memory to last, we must periodically retrieve these memories and retrace those initial synapses, reinforcing those connections.
Studies have largely refuted the long-held thinking that babies cannot encode information that forms the foundation of memories. For instance, in one experiment involving 2- and 3-month-old infants, the babies' legs were attached by a ribbon to a mobile [source: Hayne]. By kicking their legs, the babies learned that the motion caused the mobile to move. Later, placed under the same mobile without the ribbon, the infants remembered to kick their legs. When the same experiment was performed with 6-month-olds, they picked up the kicking relationship much more quickly, indicating that their encoding ability must accelerate gradually with time, instead of in one significant burst around 3 years old.
This memory encoding could relate to a baby's development of the prefrontal cortex at the forehead. This area, which is active during the encoding and retrieval of explicit memories, is not fully functional at birth [source: Newcombe et al]. However, by 24 months, the number of synapses in the prefrontal cortex has reached adult levels [source: Bauer].
Also, the size of the hippocampus at the base of the brain steadily grows until your second or third year [source: Bauer]. This is important because the hippocampus determines what sensory information to transfer into long-term storage.
But what about implicit memory? Housed in the cerebellum, implicit memory is essential for newborns, allowing them to associate feelings of warmth and safety with the sound of their mother's voice and instinctively knowing how to feed. Confirming this early presence, studies have revealed few developmental changes in implicit memory as we age [source: Newcombe et al]. Even in many adult amnesia cases, implicit skills such as riding a bicycle or playing a piano often survive the brain trauma.
Now we know that babies have a strong implicit memory and can encode explicit ones as well, which indicates that childhood amnesia may stem from faulty explicit memory retrieval. Unless we're thinking specifically about a past event, it takes some sort of cue to prompt an explicit memory in all age groups [source: Bauer]. Up next, find out what those cues are.
Language and Sense of Self in Memory-Making
Our earliest memories may remain blocked from our consciousness because we had no language skills at that time. A 2004 study traced the verbal development in 27- and 39-month old boys and girls as a measure of how well they could recall a past event. The researchers found that if the children didn't know the words to describe the event when it happened, they couldn't describe it later after learning the appropriate words [source: Simcock and Hayne].
Verbalizing our personal memories of events contributes to our autobiographical memories. These types of memories help to define our sense of self and relationship to people around us. Closely linked to this is the ability to recognize yourself. Some researchers have proposed that children do not develop self-recognition skills and a personal identity until 16 or 24 months [source: Fivush and Nelson].
In addition, we develop knowledge of our personal past when we begin to organize memories into a context. Many preschool-age children can explain the different parts of an event in sequential order, such as what happened when they went to a circus. But it isn't until their fifth year that they can understand the ideas of time and the past and are able to place that trip to the circus on a mental time line [source: Fivush and Nelson].
Parents play a pivotal role in developing children's autobiographical memory as well. Research has shown that the way parents verbally recall memories with their small children correlates to those children's narrative style for retelling memories later in life. In other words, children whose parents tell them about past events, such as birthday parties or trips to the zoo, in detail will be more likely to vividly describe their own memories [source: Urshwa]. Interestingly, autobiographical memory also has a cultural component, with Westerners' personal memories focusing more on themselves and Easterners remembering themselves more in group contexts [source: Urshwa].
More detailed explanations exist regarding childhood amnesia. But brain structure, language and sense of self are its foundation. To learn more about amnesia and memory, don't forget to read the links on the next page.
Related HowStuffWorks Articles
More Great Links
- Adams, Jane Meredith. "What it feels like to be a baby." Parenting. November 2007. (April 21, 2008)
- Bauer, Patricia J. "Remembering the Times of Our Lives." Routledge. 2006. (April 21, 2008)http://books.google.com/books?id=BsJ9Qoq74dcC
- Fivush, Robyn and Nelson, Katherine. "Culture and Language in the Emergence of Autobiographical Memory." Psychological Science. 2004. (April 21, 2008)
- Geraerts, Elke; Schooler, Jonathan W.; Merckelbach, Harald; Jelicic, Marko; Hauer, Beatrijs J.A.; Ambadar, Zara. "The Reality of Recovered Memories: Corroborating Continuous and Discontinuous Memories of Childhood Sexual Abuse." Psychological Science. July 2007. (April 21, 2008)http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpl/psci/2007/00000018/00000007/art00002
- Goswami, Usha. "Blackwell Handbook of Cognitive Development." Blackwell Publishing. 2002. (April 21, 2008)http://books.google.com/books?id=0bNZJURnV-QC
- Hayne, Harlene. "Infant Memory Development: Implications for childhood amnesia." Elsevier. 2003. (April 21, 2008)http://www.ballarat.edu.au/ard/bssh/school/nr521/childhood%20amnesia2.pdf
- Janov, Arthur. "Primal Healing: Access the Incredible Power of Feelings to Improve Your Health." Career Press. 2006. (April 21, 2008)http://books.google.com/books?id=nHmknPNeIeoC
- Newcombe, Nora S; Drummey, Anna Bullock; Fox, Nathan A.; Lie, Eunhui; Ottinger-Alberts, Wendy. "Remembering Early Childhood: How Much, How, and Why (or Why Not)." Current Directions in Psychological Science. 2000. (April 21, 2008)http://www.education.umd.edu/EDHD/faculty/Fox/publications/04.pdf
- Peterson, Karen S. "Can Trauma Hide in Back of the Mind?" USA Today. Sept. 12, 2002. (April 21, 2008)
- Simcock, Gabrielle and Hayne, Harlene. "Breaking the Barrier? Children Fail to Translate Their Preverbal Memories Into Language." Psychological Science. 2002. (April 21, 2008)
- Solms, Mark. "Freud Returns." Scientific American Mind. 2006. (April 21, 2008)


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Spring weddings are all the rage. People love to have the sun out, giving more of a feeling of love and togetherness. Wedding favours are an important addition to show your guests how much you appreciate them being there. Here are three ideas for your spring-inspired wedding.
Sugar Almonds in Cotton Gift Bags
Sugared almonds are the most common wedding favour ideas around. The benefit is that they are cheap to put together, and you can use cotton gift bags to fit your wedding theme and colours. Cotton is also an excellent material to work with in the summer, as it is thin and lightweight.
The downside is you need to watch out for people with allergies. Make sure they know that your wedding favours are nuts. If you know of anyone coming with an allergy, it's best to avoid completely.
Photo Frames as Name Places
Another option is to let people take their name places home with them. This is great if you use photo frames; just small ones will be enough. They can use a photo from the day to place in the frame afterwards to remember your wedding.
This is another that you can use cotton gift bags. Hand them out at the end of the meal or place them in the middle of the table to encourage people to take them away.
A Local Sweet
Going back to a sweet idea, these become popular when they are local delicacies. For example, Scottish weddings can involve tablet instead of sugared almonds. You can also place them in cotton gift bags to keep the sweets from being affected by the early summer heat.
They are just three ideas for wedding favours for your spring wedding. You just need something small that lets people know you're grateful for them attending your big day.


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About Colorado Discover Ability: In The News
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Website services provided pro bono by WebCreate.com and Biz Net Technologies.


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I like hard SF and no longer mind fantasy / soft SF that much.
"#" means I will read anything they ever publish
He has a really distinctive style, and you have to work pretty hard to figure out what's going on. Similar to Gibson. I first read Blindsight and was impressed. Then Echopraxia and was like, whoah this guy really has it together. He must read the same blogs as me. Went back and read Rifters and thought it was pretty great too. But wow, this guy has a dark view of the human condition. He needs more Darwinian Happiness... I've been told the rest of the Rifters books aren't as good, but will try them anyway. He also has a bunch of short stories up on his site which I'll read.
Great. The Player of Games is a good intro to the culture series. Consider Plebas is also good. The later ones are really fun, the earlier ones are a bit more science fictional, but they're all great. Huge loss when he died. The Quarry was a good, non-sf novel he wrote as he was dying. The Business was okay, a novel with semi-SF trappings. Against a Dark Background was interesting, very dense and hard to read at the time. The Algebraist is super fun, non-culture SF.
Spaceland was really good. Frek and the Elixir was really good. He's a prolific, creative psychedelic surfer physicist. What a guy! software, hardware etc. are really creative, wild, fun.
Sort of like Greg Egan - really hard SF from a physicist. They are readable, but he is not quite as trippy or quite as good of a writer as some other authors. Still, pretty good. (Later) I have gone back and read a bunch of his short stories and can't help but be impressed. He has a long term future of humanity built out, which is pretty different than what anybody else has done, and is consistent, too. A lot of the stories were pretty touching... it's the story of human individuals being transformed into a greater, cultural organism trying to take over the universe. But each "cell" still has its own independence and consciousness... so it's offers millions of stories from the various times & jobs existing there.
One of my favorite authors. Hard near-future SF. More of an all-around futurist than a scientist. He's really into global warming and design, also. He also writes the Viridian newsletter which has (commented) articles about climate change, and his awesome speeches at various tech/design/sf conferences. Distraction, Heavy Weather, A Good Old-Fashioned Future (short stories) were all great. They're set in the near future (less than 30 years probably) and focus on how media, tech gadgets, climate change, networking etc will change us. In one shocking moment the main character is walking through a European city and stops by the central river, and drinks from it. We can make the natural world clean again, even in cities! Schismatrix, Crystal Express - cyberpunk, awesome, 80s. The Difference Engine - written with William Gibson. Alternate history where Babbage's experiments with mechanical computers in the 1880s really take off. Steam-punk. It was pretty good.
If you ever want to enjoy "normal" SF again, don't read Vinge. I compare all the SF I read to him now, and almost nothing stands up. It's thoughtful, exciting galaxy spanning human-alien interaction/deserted island/introducing-modern-tech-to-ancient-cultures stuff. Deepness in the Sky is probably my favorite SF novel, I read that and Fire upon the Deep twice they were so good. I'm getting ready to read deepness again. I haven't reread things like this since I was a kid. I've been waiting for the next one to come out for a couple years now, but no luck. Vinge also thought of the idea of the technological singularity, a massive compounding increase in machine intelligence beyond which prediction is impossible. Once we make AIs, we teach them to make themselves smarter, and they will rapidly become godlike. I'm reading his earlier stuff now. The Peace War was interesting but not major. Some good ideas but the technology he introduced was really amazing. I can't imagine how you would live in a world with bobbling technology, even once people got their freedom. Still, it's a good post apocalyptic rebuilding society book. The Witling was pretty interesting. Very physicsy, but definitely Vinge. Really short, lots of action. Like a good pulp. Annoyingly complex character names, though.
Famous for the Hyperion series, which is great. The first two are awesome, the 2nd two good. Carrion Comfort is also great horror. If the horror genre, which I've read nothing of, has more authors as good as this then I've got a lot of reading to do. The one about Hemingway in Cuba in the 50s The Crook Factory was good and held together all the way to the end.. The "Case" series reads like a screenplay, super violent and ugly. Is he trying to become Michael Crighton? I'll read Illyrium when it comes out in paperback. Children of the Night was pretty good. This guy knows how to end a book, which is nice. The first couple stories of Lovedeath were pretty good.
A modern-day Heinlein. Orbital Resonance is a good start. It's a somewhat conventional YA novel, but with lots of little bits & changes in society that show how smart he is. You can always rely on Barnes to put an edge on things. He pays attention to economic & political issues too. And like Heinlein, he can go way over the top sometimes... The one problem is that he's pretty obsessed with the darker side of human existence. Mother of Storms gets pretty graphic, but is fun mega-storm book that turns to his real interest in human transcendence. Candle is another good first book of his to read. The concept of "One True" and meme wars is just great. Gives a "V for Vendetta" feeling. I also read Kaleidiscope Wars. A Million Open Doors was fun too.
Directive 51 doesn't get very dark; his editor must have cut out all the rape & murder scenes.
Patton's spaceship is fun Barnes-style nazi killing alternate universe time travel book. Yep, that's what it's about.
Duke of Uranium is the closest to a Heinlein juvenile.
Brightness falls from the Air was sooooo good. Houston, Houston do you Read? was also great. Incredibly good writing about sex, psychedelia, and addiction. I still have to find her other books. I think there are some short story collections I don't have. So, so wonderful. If I had Brightness with me I'd read it again right now.
Neuromancer, Mona Lisa Overdrive, Count Zero are all famous and good cyberpunk. It's interesting that this vision of the future is basically wrong. Things are still holding together. We've got some years yet. He's at least half a crime/detective/noir author whose books happen to take place in a bad future. The later books are also good, Virtual Light, Pattern Recognition etc. and get better over time.
Snow Crash is great, if incredibly unrealistic. The Diamond Age was good. I can't imagine we'll get that far in nanotech without first totally changing ourselves genetically, or at least reaching a singularity, though. Cryptonomicon was really good. All the cool stuff about WW2 - secret codes, secret missions, special forces, etc. He also throws in Tempest and EM bombs. I mean to read his later huge books like Quicksilver, etc. Also he's got one about the surveillance society that recommends putting total surveillance in the hands of the public as our best option. Anathem was 950 great pages long, I have read it twice. Totally loved it. Reamde was a great read, handled China wonderfully, just a super fun adventure story written by a smart & knowledgeable guy. Seveneves was great fun, thrilling, a bit long winded here and there, but I could have easily dealt with it being 3x as long. After reading it I went online & searched for fan fiction... I want more stories about the future world... survival stories set in the different cultures... It'd be a great setting for an RPG... the exploration of future earth, pretty sharply defined cultural & racial groups, technology & style differences, ancient mysteries hidden everywhere.
Publishes boingboing, is also a good writer. Kind of like Bruce Sterling, lots of thoughts on how technology will change society. Has a few short novels available online. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is great. The idea of "whuffie", a social currency that would replace money, is brilliant and is the first revolutionary political/evolutionary idea I've read since the communist manifesto. Basically it's just about extending and automating the ratings systems ("was this review helpful to you?" from amazon) to everything in life. So every time you think something good about someone, they get points. And you can spend points to get people to do stuff for you. It automatically rewards people who create good public art. It's awesome. The novella also introduces extreme human-computer interfaces, brain backups, immortality. Still, it feels human. (Later: rereading this, it's still good, but he really goes quite far into Disneyland fanboyism. Cool ideas in there, still though.)
I read Dawn for a SF class. I thought it was really interesting, definitely had some good ideas. Aliens find the remains of post-nuclear war humans and try to reconstruct us, but they want to make modifications. Similar to Greg Bear's Anvil of Stars in having a bunch of humans with no culture being raised by aliens who don't understand them. And in some ways it's similarly annoying - there's this major thing where the aliens refuse to give the woman paper and pencil, because they've just assumed she has eiditic memory. Takes a while and a lot of annoyance to clear that up. Of course Dawn is still way better than Anvil of Stars though. I should read her other stuff.
(later) Mind of my Mind and Clay's Ark are gripping thrillers with honest, good SF inside. She's an incredible writer. I really want to read the rest of hers. And I've still never gotten around to Kindred, her most famous book.
Permutation City was really good, if heavy. Schild's Ladder was good. Distress was really great, too. His short story collections are EPIC, some of the most awesome SF ever.
Meta-engineering and gratuitous sex, like Niven. The most memorable part of Titan was two girls' months long climb up a tree-covered 50 mile tall ventilation shaft inside a huge living moon. Not really hard SF. Kind of 70s. I should give him another try really.
(later) I went back and found that I love a bunch of his stories. Equinoctal and Phantom of Kansas are both unforgettable. I read the Barbie Murders collection and there weren't any other big standouts, though. I should reread his Titan series and other novels, too.
Ugh. Some of them are ok but generally, they're really dated. His later work absolutely sucks. Don't waste your time. I'd recommend reading just the first three Foundation books and a few of the robot stories to get the idea. That is enough. Definitely don't waste time reading the extended Foundation series, or the Robot City books, and definitely do NOT read Azazel.
Starship Troopers is awesome. I go back to it every few years and come out a republican for a few days. Some of the juveniles are great, especially Have Spacesuit, Will Travel and Farmer of Ganymede. The Puppet Masters and By his Bootstraps were good, total classics & inventing new genres Very memorable, and I have read 'bootstraps multiple times. Stranger in a Strange Land - eh. Sixth Column I remember as being nicely anti-christian. The others mostly sucked. Farnham's Freehold was really anti-asian. Read most of them as a teenager... but my lasting impression is of a libertarian asshole. Starship Troopers is awesome though. Must Read.
Rendezvous with Rama was really good. The 3 sequels were absolute garbage. 2001 and 2010 were ok, 2061 was bad, 3010 was absolutely awful. After a few pages I realized it, and started a list "things clarke hates about the 1980s." Typically for SF authors, the early stuff is good, later stuff sucks. Childhood's End was good.
Her books are about sex and gender and living in foreign countries, especially China. It is what SF should be - it's mainly about non-tech things, but it lets it influence how basic human things are considered. China Mountain Zhang - I really liked this one. It has a gay american chinese construction worker who dreams of getting his visa to go back to China. It has hang glider racers. It has living in an isolated arctic research station. Mission Child - I liked this one too. An isolated planet is recolonized by more modern humans. The part about the tribesperson refugee becoming a druggie in the city is memorable. So damn good.
So funny. Brilliant.
The Stars My Destination - I read this a couple times as a teenager and loved it. The idea is that someone discovers a way to mentally instantaneously transport yourself to anyplace you've memorized the location of. In that future a fugitive is searching for a man he witnessed commit an atrocity. The prison scenes are really memorable. It's hard SF in spite of the semi-magical premise, because it does a good job of imagining how transportation changes society. I recently reread this and it was quite different. It's really fast and light, still good though. A fast 60s SF novel. I've got his others and am waiting to read them. ...I started Golem Hundred but quit after 100 pages or so. It was a failed return to SF apparently. Awful. The Demolished Man has amazing praise from asimov etc... it was ok. But not as good as Stars...
I read City on Fire, it was all right. I don't see what's the big deal though. A little too magical for my taste. Probably better classified as fantasy. I read The Praxis, wanting to give him another chance. But it was just utter crap. Not awful and the first page or two is good, but just not SF, not deep or thoughtful. Apparently you can have galaxy spanning empires without changing human nature at all. The aliens who conveniently forbid all post 1990s technology helps too. Soap operas in space. Post Vinge this doesn't cut it anymore.
Prolific. Early stuff good, some hack work later. Likes meta-engineering projects. Ringworld was good, the sequels were ok. The most interesting idea is the "droud", a mechanical device that stimulates parts of the brain for a herion like-effect. The main character becomes an addict after being zapped by one randomly on the street. Also, the super-cautious puppeteers are interesting. The Integral Trees was a great idea, a gas ring around a sun with huge trees growing in it and the descendants of stranded human colonists. Life directly in a zero-0 ring of air with floating blobs of water. I don't remember the plot at all though. I read a bunch of the Man Kzin Wars series but I can't imagine they'd be any good now.
Really prolific, I've only read Cyteen. I read the first of the three books and thought it was amazingly great. But nothing happened in the next two books and I was a bit disappointed. It takes place in a scientific authoritarian society where citizens run genetic labs that breed, clone and raise people who are in effect slaves. However, they have a good understanding of psychology so they treat them really well, and sometimes allow them to become citizens. The description of the upbringing of two kids destined to be bodyguards is awesome. From age 3 they are trained, subjected to hypnosis and all kinds of mental analysis. Not in a brutish way at all though - it's more like japan-style conditioning, which takes into account human needs and desires. The book is about people trying to control the nurture aspect of upbringing, not just nature. There is also a secret project to clone a genius and replicate her entire upbringing (i.e. giving her the same type of mother, the same type of friends etc). Foreigner - um, this book was awful. Page 50 to page 250 could and should have been condensed to 5 pages. Unbelievably annoying dialog style. Way too much of the whiney narrator's thoughts. I read Downbelow Station, her other Hugo award winner. Um. She is shit. I'm sick of it. There were a few good ideas in there but they were overwhelmed by 200 pages of moaning. Why do I keep reading her? I'm done now. Done. Enough. All her male characters are indecisive. And all haunted by some kind of sexual abuse that they always refuse to talk about or deal with. They just beat themselves up mentally all the time and you have to read ALL of it. Cheryyh's got like 30 books... I'll look at her timeline and see if i can locate the good period... After reading Cyteen I realized that I have actually read another of hers, but I was too young for it. 40,000 in Gehenna was mentioned at the end of Cyteen. Two competing spacefaring civs have a disputed zone. One sneaks 40,000 lab-raised clones onto a planet in the zone, mindwipes them, and lets them start a society secretly. Later when the other side figures out the space has been 'mined 'they're pissed. I was too young when I read this, it sounds interesting when I think back on it. But now that I know Cherryh's annoying, pretentious style, every time she does it (about 5 times a page) it breaks me out of the book.
The Years of Rice and Salt is great, great stuff - not really SF at all, though. Fascinating alternate religious history of asia. The one about futuristic musicians, A Sense of Whiteness was good & enjoyable. The one of his I read first, Red Mars was pretty good. I don't know what to think about it really. It got incredible amounts of praise from the new york times etc. It was good all right... The characters feel way more real than something in say Vinge. There was an awful lot of mars geography in there though. I didn't really bother to figure it all out. I liked it enough to plan to read the next two. Robinson knows something about arabic culture evidently. Green Mars was pretty good. Yet more tons of martian geography. I wish I'd gone to nasa's mars site before I read all these. I guess I'll read the next one, if only because 2 ends right in the middle of something important. Aurora is supposed to be really good.
Terminal Cafe started off annoying wanna-be gibson, all in love with death etc. It got much better once it switched to the other characters. It's good SF, but the plot lacks something. It was all familiar to me, yet I'd never read it before. Turned out it was a prequel to The Days of Solomon Gursky, a novella which I'd read somewhere and loved. It's a posthumanist immortality romp. So great.
S/he's won a million Nebulas, so I got one of the Miles Muscovian series. I wasn't impressed, stopped halfway through. Seemed like simplistic moralistic tales set in a future where nobody knows what to do with their technology. It's pitiful when you read a book set in the future yet today we can do more advanced things with tech. Not SF.
The Forever War was good. We get involved in a war with some aliens and there's lots of relativistic travel changing sexual morals hijinx. Turns out the whole thing was dumb, just like vietnam. The Forever Peace was ok.
I read a bunch of it when I was a teenager. Seemed all right. One interesting bit was the idea that man evolved to chase down antelope on the plains. They can sprint way faster than us but over a few days of running we can wear them out. I don't know how true that is, but it'd be cool.
I read the first one, Ender's Game. it was pretty good. People rave about the others, should read them sometime I guess. I read one of the later YA books about magic, etc. and it was pretty good. Well-written, at least. I also tried to read one that was apparently modelled after the "true tales of the early days of mormon history" and it was kind of pointless if you didn't understand the symbolism of all the voyaging around. But, it did have an awesome "static" world where an AI monitored people's thoughts for 40 some million years and prevented them from making any technical breakthroughs... but it's breaking down, and some kids figure out what is going on and begin to think previously forbidden thoughts - but they do it for the forces of good! to restore the old, controlled world. That wasn't enough to make me keep reading, though.
Gold at the Starbow's End was really interesting, even if totally wrongheaded. Send out 7 super smart but varied people on a mission to a star many years away. Give them math problems to work on to pass the time. In actuality, there is no destination - they're being sent to their deaths, on the hope that in the isolation they will discover amazing things. It turns out to work and they become godlike before they get to their nonexistent destination. After reading Guns, Germs, and Steel this idea seems absurd - whole countries of millions of people (China) foundered and didn't advance because they were too controlled and didn't have outside perturbing influences - Europe did so well because it was hard to control all of it, so there were always competing countries and evolution of political and military systems continued. Japan had better guns than Europe in the 17th century but since they had no competing countries, they eventually abandoned them and went back to swords (until the west came in again). So the idea that 7 people on a spaceship would be able to remain innovative and not settle down into some stable pattern seems doubtful.
Speed addict and crazy, but wrote some good stories. A Scanner Darkly is great. Some of his short stories are good. Not hard SF. I haven't read Ubik or or his other later speed head books. The short story Second Variety was memorable.
Famous for Riverworld, which I haven't read yet. A bit of a hack from what I can tell - I've read his one about an attempt to create a modern tarzan, and the one that's to Frankenstein as back to the future 3 is to back to the future 1. Both were amusing. Basically a huge, bad hack, though.
I've read the first 7 or 8 of the Amber series. They're pretty good, not SF though. There are some promising SF ideas in the first one but they never reappear. The main character has the ability to move between an infinite number of worlds, all more or less similar to the true center of the universe, a sort of medieval city called Amber. Earth is just one of the fairly distant alternative worlds. The main character never thinks of doing what I would do if I had the power to easily switch like that - go find some really great music, food, girls, books. And find some really really great go players. Everyone is just obsessed with controlling the city of amber. The second 5 bring in straight up magic; I lost interest.
Bones of the Earth was pretty good. Deterministic time travel and dinosaurs and a really crazy end, plus anti-fundamentalist Christian stuff. Jack Faust was... um... I'm glad I read it, and it was really fast, didn't drag. Swanwick is pretty good, but I don't know... maybe he's secretly a fantasy author or something.
Dune is great. I've read the next 3, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, and God Emperor of Dune. They were all right. I kind of liked God Emperor though. It'd be interesting to reread these in light of The Blank Slate - Herbert's definitely got genetics playing an important role, but in God Emperor the emperor tries to change society by destroy all history books and making an invincible woman army.
A Canticle For Leibowitz - The first two parts are really good, the third is ok. Postapocalyptic, religious.
Prolific. Probably his short stories are better than his books. I read one of the Valentine books, didn't get into it. Too much juggling, and really predictable. Tom O'Bedlam was better, but still predictable. Better than Philip Jose Farmer but similarly seems to be lacking something to really grab me. I have read the one where there is this gigantic wall and a society at the base that keeps sending people up to climb it - not that impressed. He also has a short story about psychological simulation of historical characters that is pretty cool.
Contact was good. The movie sucked, though.
Everybody constantly talks about the Old Sun and New Sun series. I started reading one but couldn't get into it.
Brave New World is pretty good. God, where are the modern versions of this guy? All destroyed by drugs, probably.
Polish "I'm not SF dammit!" SF author. Novels mostly revolve around describing some weird but inert/alive alien environment. His short stories are great and funny. Also has some incredible mathematical poetry which translates well from Polish.
Depressed good "I'm not SF dammit" author. Super depressing, but great books.
A really good writer, but basically fantasy. American Gods was really well written. But it was still just a bunch of myths, it's all outdated and unreal. I'm just not interested. The one set in underground london was cool, but not really SF either.
Tales Of Neveryon kind of PoMo Le Guin style. Some was ok. The Fall of the Towers was awful.
Guest Law is a great intro short story to his hard, very formal world. The Golden Age is completely amazing and wonderfully creative. The rest of the series is good but I may not have fully gotten it. I read one of his allegedly YA novels and was turned off. He also runs a very Rush-Limbaugh-style blog which just seems a foolish way to interact with the world. But seriously, The Golden Age makes it all worthwhile. I think of it often.
His books have gotten better and better. At first he wrote hard space SF, lately he's written bioscience thrillers. Eon was absolutely awful. The Forge of God was all right, but the sequel Anvil of Stars was awful. Darwin's Radio and Vitals were both really enjoyable. I plan to read all of his new work, and the sequel to Darwin's Radio. Dead Lines was a horror crossover. It was just ok. Compared to Dan Simmons' horror it was a letdown.
Arrogant hack. The Xanth books are ok for 12 year olds. Bio of a Space Tyrant is a fucked up thing for a kid to read. However, he did write one extremely memorable short story collection, Anthonology. I'll never forget the torture story in that one, and a few other stories are just brutal. His introduction starts out "I submitted a story in college, and when the professor read it, he just laughed and said, oh, you have an amazing talent, congrats you're a writer"
Darwinia was pretty good. But I later read Blind Lake and thought it was pretty terrible. Super slow, completely ignored the interesting economic side of the situation, and had a pretty bad ending. Also, predictable.
Picoverse was pretty good. It's one of those books that despite having lots of hard pysics, includes the magical idea that physics knows something about the human body. The human body is not well-defined, so there can't be machines that operate on the human body as a unit. "A is touching B" for physical objects is not well-defined. I was also surprised at how despite messing with incredibly powerful pysics and jumping through wormholes, the physical environment remains conducive for human life. I'd think that having half your body exist in one universe and half in another would really really mess you up, even for the half a second that it takes you to jump through a portal.
He has about 20 Discworld books. I've read the first one and it was pretty good. It's fantasy. I'll probably eventually read a few more of them.
Cold Fire was just surprisingly good. Mostly horror, I suppose. Light, fast, he's a better writer than 90% of SF authors.
Mind Swap was fun and I want to read more of this era SF - smart, but not locked into genre. And funny. Apparently he is pretty well-respected, but forgotten today.
Wrote hundreds of stories in the 40s-70s, super creative mixtures of SF and fantasy. I've read a bunch & find them really fun time capsules from the past.


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Former U.S. Army Ranger Sean Parnell and Outlaw Platoon author recently stopped in the Charlotte area as an ambassador with the Boot Campaign.
In writing the book with John Bruning, Parnell relives the experiences of being commander over the 10th Mountain Division in Afghanistan. The writing process proved to be a powerful catalyst in unearthing his war trauma and personal healing.
(Read more about Outlaw Platoon.)
Travels with the Boot Campaign and other speaking engagements gives Parnell the opportunity to talk to America. To the veteran he says, "Don't let war trauma destroy you from the inside out." His message to civilians: "America needs to own these wars."
Boot Campaign Ambassador
It's a way to usher in a new era of patriotism by buying a pair of boots. Sean Parnell
The Boot Campaign started as a grass-roots initiative by five Texas gals and has grown exponentially.
Here's the concept. Buy the officially-branded Give Back Boot for $130, and $25 of that will be given to a partnering veteran charity:
- Marine Recovery Fund — administered by the Boot Campaign
- Lone Survivor Foundation
- Military Warriors
- Wounded Wear
- Not Alone
- Special Ops Survivors
- Armed Forces Foundation
Celebrity supporters, like actors, musicians, business professionals, politicians, athletes and even NASCAR drivers, are putting their boots on for awareness and support for our troops. In fact, Parnell was in the Charlotte area for a photo shoot with Ray Evernham — racer, NASCAR crew chief, car owner and businessman. Evernham's photo will be released shortly.
America Needs To Do More
It's not just the VA, American society needs to be there when they (troops) come back. Sean Parnell
Day one of combat experience changed his life forever:
We were targeted by enemy fire. A rocket overshot our position and landed in a playground in the midst of children. The girl I picked up died on route to our base. That moment, part of me died, too.
The 485-day combat deployment for the 10th Mountain Division goes on record as being the longest, dating back to World War II.
Parnell credits the brotherhood and love, leaning on each other to make it through.
When he returned stateside and started talking about his war experiences, he found it made those around him uncomfortable. "I could see it was hurting them — those stories can be depressing." Yet, he knew if he locked it away inside, it would destroy him from the inside out. "Ultimately, that's why I came to write the book — part of why I joined with the Boot Campaign."
Parnell speaks to veterans, colleges and universities, rallies and corporate functions underlining and emphasizing America's role in helping the returning troops.
The burden of war rests with the American society; those that don't fight need to bear the burden and help. Sean Parnell
Parnell adamantly conveys his message. "I don't think Americans do a good job at sitting down and listening. Civilians need to make an effort. The burden rests with the society that sends them."
The social component is "huge" in unearthing combat trauma and initiating healing. Parnell says veterans need to tell their story unflinching, and American society needs to listen.
Take Action
Here's a tangible way to give back to our troops. Go here to get your boots on!


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Also known as "Squib Quidditch" and "Real-Life Quidditch"
On November 14, Trevor and I attended the fourth Annual Quidditch World Cup! And just in time for the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (and you know how excited we were about that)! It came to NYC that weekend, it was free, and we got to go. I have to admit, I was a little hesitant to be truly excited. I didn't know much about real-life Quidditch, but it did sound a little silly. This all changed within five minutes of being at the makeshift stadium in Dewitt Clinton Park. As I sat on the curb waiting for my friends, a girl dressed in a yellow jersey, gold sequined shorts, and yellow socks ran by me at top speed. Moments later, her pursuers flew by, identical looks of determination on their faces and brooms in hand. I had just seen the two opposing Seekers attempting to catch a Snitch. It was awesome.
We ended up watching several of the matches, including both the semifinal and final games. As the day wore on, we were more and more excited. Of course, this Quidditch differs quite a bit from the Quidditch in J. K. Rowling's world. We're still not witches and wizards (much to my everlasting disappointment) and so we can't exactly, you know, fly.
Players run with brooms between their legs, the Snitch is a human being who taunts the Seekers until one of them grabs a small ball tied to the Snitch's waist, and Bludgers are closer to dodge balls than lethally fast balls that could break your arm. Other rules remain the same: The Quaffle is still the ball that scores the points, Beaters still protect the Seekers, and the Keeper still guards the three rings at each end of the field.
The college where Muggle Quidditch was invented took the cup home, once again. Middlebury College beat out Tufts for the trophy, in what was a very exciting and well-played match. And we were screaming and cheering just as hard as any seasoned Quidditch fan!
Here are some of the pictures we grabbed that day:
If I wasn't already rereading the books for the movie, you can bet that this event would have pushed me right back into this wonderful series.
You can find the complete Harry Potter set on Lucky and Arrow this November!


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Well the last couple of days have been quieter for me. Yesterday was a day, completely at home I stayed in my jammies and I didn't go anywhere! Today I had an appointment for my hair (it was getting way too long!) and dinner at the In-Laws.
Besides that I've been either online, napping, or stitching. I've been working away on Hark by The Heart's Content Inc. from the Just Cross Stitch 1997 Ornament issue. Its all stitched over one so its taking me awhile. But I need to get it done and out in the mail! Its part of the Retro JCS Ornament RR I'm in and it should of been mailed out the week before Christmas!
Tomorrow is another at home jammie day and hopefully I'll HD this ornament and move onto the next one which I received in the mail last week.


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How do I flush a computer's DNS cache?
The following article explains how to flush a computer's DNS cache. When a computer visits a website for the first time, it stores the website's DNS information in cache. The next time the computer visits a website, it looks in the cache to see if the website's information is present to use. This can cause problems if the website's DNS information has changed since the computer's last visit. Flushing the cache removes all the information stored in cache, forcing the computer to find the new DNS information for the website.
To flush DNS for a computer running Windows, please follow these steps:
On your local machine, open a command prompt.
Within the prompt, type ipconfig /flushdns.


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Today I am going to share a tutorial for creating a simple variation on a traditional patchwork quilt, using a shape traditionally called "tumblers". (This post has been updated to share the full tutorial content.)
This pattern is great for really showing off cute fabrics with a variety of scales of prints.
Cutting the blocks for this quilt is so much easier with a template. I used Lori Holt's large "Thimble" ruler for my blocks. You can see Lori's other awesome rulers here.
Fabric requirements for this 58″ x 72″ lap quilt:
- At least 15 different 1/4 yard cuts of fabric for the blocks
- 3 1/2 yards for backing
- 1/2 yard for binding (cut into 7 strips, 2 1/2″ x 42″. Binding tutorial here.)
To cut your blocks, trim your yardage to the width of the tumbler template – in this case I cut it to 8 1/2″. Place the template about 2″ from the outside selvage edge and cut on both sides of the template.
Now flip the template upside down and match the diagonal edge with the cut edge of the fabric. Cut again on the opposite edge of the template.
Continue flipping the template and cutting.
By using this method you will get 5 large tumblers plus a left wedge and a right wedge from each 1/4 yard. Hang onto the wedge pieces as well. Use the same process to cut out tumblers from the remaining 1/4 yards of fabrics. You will need a total of 72 tumbler blocks, 10 right wedge pieces, and 8 left wedge pieces.
Lay out the first row of tumbler blocks starting with an upside down right wedge, and then 8 alternating tumbler blocks, finishing with another right wedge. For the second row, start with a left wedge followed by 8 alternating tumbler wedges going the opposite direction from the blocks in row 1. Repeat the process for next 7 rows – laying out 9 rows total.
As you pick up blocks to sew together, match right sides of blocks together but leave a small point (less than 1/4″) hanging off the end of the bottom fabrics and a small point of the top fabric hanging off the other end. Sewing with a 1/4″ seam allowance, your seam should cut right through where the right sides meet (see threads above). This way, when you open your blocks the top and bottom edges will be aligned. It may take a little practice, but soon you'll be eyeballing and sewing quickly.
As you assemble your rows, press the seams to the left on the odd rows and to the right on the even rows.
When you go to sew the rows together, the seam allowances should butt up against each other, helping you match your corners. Sew rows together in order and press seam allowances all the same direction.
After the rows are assembled, add the batting and back and quilt as you desire. Mine was custom quilted by Melissa Kelley – I love the custom cabbage rose pattern she used to set off the springy prints. Here are links to tutorials if you need help with quilting or binding.
I hope that you'll enjoy creating your own Tumbler Quilt – a fun variation on traditional patchwork and very simple to put together. For other simple quilt tutorials, please visit my Tutorials Page.