text:
For frontline managers to perform their care and growth role requires in the first instance a mindshift from seeing their jobs as getting results out of people to enabling excellence in them. This will only happen however if those people are given the means and ability to perform the role and then held accountable for doing so. The Legitimate Leadership process, run over 12-18 months, has consistently delivered the kind of frontline managers described in this article – in branch banking, in motor retail, in manufacturing, in call centres, and in fashion retail. For these Legitimate Leadership case studies, see (Fuelling Peformance in Fashion Retail, Opening A New Store A New Way, Care & Growth Impacts Motor Retail Results, Reflections On Implementing Care & Growth).
OUR EXCERPTS FROM THIS ARTICLE: A retail manager responsible for more than $80 million in annual revenue, an airline manager who oversees a yearly passenger volume worth more than $160 million, a banking manager who deals with upward of seven million questions from customers a year. These aren't executives at a corporate headquarters; they are the hidden—yet crucial— managers of frontline employees.
Found in almost any company, such managers are particularly important in industries with distributed networks of sites and employees. These industries—for instance, infrastructure, travel and logistics, manufacturing, health care, and retailing (including food service and retail banking)—make up more than half of the global economy. Their district or area managers, store managers, site or plant managers, and line supervisors direct as much as two-thirds of the workforce and are responsible for the part of the company that typically defines the customer experience. Yet most of the time, these managers operate as cogs in a system, with limited flexibility in decision making and little room for creativity. In a majority of the companies we've encountered, the frontline managers' role is merely to oversee a limited number of direct reports, often in a "span breaking" capacity, relaying information from executives to workers.
Such managers keep an eye on things, enforce plans and policies, report operational results, and quickly escalate issues or problems. In other words, a frontline manager is meant to communicate decisions, not to make them; to ensure compliance with policies, not to use judgment or discretion (and certainly not to develop policies); and to oversee the implementation of improvements, not to contribute ideas or even implement improvements (workers do that). This system makes companies less productive, less agile, and less profitable, our experience shows.
Change is possible, however. At companies that have successfully empowered their frontline managers, the resulting flexibility and productivity generate strong financial returns.
One convenience store retailer, for example, reduced hours worked by 19 to 25 percent while increasing sales by almost 10 percent. It achieved this result by halving the time store managers spent on administration; restructuring their work (and that of their employees) to focus on the areas most relevant to customers, such as the cleanliness of stores and upselling efforts at the cash register; and creating easy-to-understand performance metrics that managers now had enough time to coach employees on daily.
The key is a shift to frontline managers who have the time—and the ability—to address the unique circumstances of their specific stores, plants, or mines; to foresee trouble and stem it before it begins; and to encourage workers to seek out opportunities for self improvement. In difficult economic times, making employees more productive is even more crucial than it is ordinarily.
To unlock a team's abilities, a manager at any level must spend a significant amount of time on two activities: helping the team understand the company's direction and its implications for team members and coaching for performance. Little of either occurs on the front line today.
Across industries, frontline managers in the USA spend 30 to 60 percent of their time on administrative work and meetings, and 10 to 50 percent on nonmanagerial tasks (traveling, participating in training, taking breaks, conducting special projects, or undertaking direct customer service or sales themselves). They spend only 10 to 40 percent actually managing frontline employees by, for example, coaching them directly. Even then, managers often aren't truly coaching the front line. Our survey of retail district managers, for example, showed that much of the time they spend on frontline employees actually involved auditing for compliance with standards or solving immediate problems. At some companies we surveyed, district managers devote just 4 to 10 percent of their time—as little as 10 minutes a day—to coaching teams. To put the point another way, a district manager in retailing may spend as little as one hour a month developing people in the more junior but critical role of store manager.
In our experience, neither companies nor their frontline managers typically expect more. One area manager at a specialty retailer with thousands of outlets said, "Coaching? A good store manager should just know what to do—that's what we hire them for." A store manager in a global convenience retailer told us, "There are just good stores and bad stores—there's very little we can do to change that." Another store manager, in a North American electronics retailer, said, "They told me, 'We don't pay you to think; we pay you to execute.'"
These shortcomings are rooted in the early days of the industrial revolution, when manufacturing work was broken down into highly specialized, repetitive, and easily observed tasks. No one worker created a whole shoe, for example; each hammered his nail in the same spot and the same way every time, maximizing effectiveness and efficiency.
Employees didn't necessarily know anything about the overall job in which they participated, so supervisors (usually people good at the work itself) were employed to enforce detailed standards and policies—essentially, serving as span breakers between workers and policy makers. Many manufacturing companies still use this approach, because it can deliver high-quality results on the front line, at least in the short term. In many service industries, the same approach has taken hold in order to provide all customers in all locations with a consistent experience.
Although attention to execution is important, an exclusive focus on it can have insidious long-term effects. Such a preoccupation leaves no time for efforts to deal with new demands (say, higher production or quality), let alone for looking at the big picture. The result is a working environment with little flexibility, little encouragement to make improvements, and an increased risk of low morale among both workers and their managers—all at high cost to companies.
The effects of poor frontline management may be particularly damaging at service companies, where researchers have consistently detected a causal relationship between the attitudes and behavior of customer-facing employees, on the one hand, and the customers' perceptions of service quality, on the other.
In service industries, research has found that three factors drive performance: the work climate; the ways teams act together and things are done; and the engagement, commitment, and satisfaction of employees. Leadership— in particular, the quality of supervision and the nature of the relationships between supervisors and their teams—is crucial to performance in each of these areas.
Clearly, the typical work patterns and attitudes of frontline managers are not conducive to good results. At a North American medical-products distributor, for example, one supervisor reflected that the company "is like California—forest fires breaking out everywhere and no plan to stop them. A lot of crisis-to-crisis situations with no plan. We've been in this mode for so long, we don't know how to stop and plan, although that's what we desperately need to do. I wish I knew how to intervene."
Because frontline managers were so busy jumping in to solve problems, they had no time to step back and look at longer-term performance trends or to identify—and try to head off—emerging performance issues. It's therefore no wonder that the company's performance had begun to decline: inventories were increasing and errors in shipments became more frequent. Companies can also get into frontline trouble if they fail to maintain well-managed operations
At best-practice companies, frontline managers allocate 60 to 70 percent of their time to the floor, much of it in high-quality individual coaching. Such companies also empower their managers to make decisions and act on opportunities. The bottom-line benefit is significant, but to obtain it companies must fundamentally redefine what they expect from frontline managers and redesign the work that those managers and their subordinates do. The examples below explain how two companies in different circumstances and industries made such changes.
Sometimes a corporate crisis drives frontline changes. A global equipment manufacturer, for example, was facing backlogs, capacity constraints, and quality and profitability issues in its core vehicle assembly business. The company's senior leaders concluded that they would have to change operations at five plants by running two shifts rather than three while also raising production levels and quality. "Substantial" results would be needed in no more than seven weeks. Frontline managers were to have a critical role in the changeover—indeed, it couldn't succeed unless they adopted a new way of working. To communicate the importance of the changes being introduced, senior leaders, among other things, ordered vice presidents to spend full days in vehicle assembly stations and sent the company's director of operations to participate in daily shift start-up meetings at each plant.3 Meanwhile, the jobs of frontline managers changed. They were to spend more time in active roles: critical processes and workflows were redesigned according to lean principles, and the managers played the principal part in implementing these changes. Administrative activities, such as writing reports to plant managers and gathering data to prepare for site visits from regional managers, were eliminated. Innovations spouted— boards posted on factory floors, for example, were continuously updated with performance information, such as hour-by-hour tracking of lost time, as well as long-term problems and the solutions found for them. End-of-shift reports let each shift know exactly what the previous one had accomplished. Weekly reports informed workers about the five most important defects to correct and the five most important actions needed to improve performance. A typical manager's span of control fell to 12 to 15, from 20 to 30. Such changes freed managers to spend more time providing on-the-floor coaching and helping teams solve immediate problems. Managers received on-the-job training in lean technical skills as well as in coaching, team building, and problem solving. They also moved their desks from offices to the shop floor and spent at least five hours a day there, literally putting themselves in the middle of the transformation. As a result, managers and workers identified and implemented other improvements—for example, making parts more available, with fewer defects, and routing materials more efficiently—so that lost production and the need for rework fell. Overall, though the transformation took ten weeks rather than seven, the initial targets were exceeded. Across the five plants, the number of completed vehicles rose by 40 percent a month—despite the elimination of a shift—and quality by 80 percent. Worker hours fell by 40 percent.
Changing the mind-sets and capabilities of individual frontline managers can be the hardest part. In our experience, many of them see limits to how much they can accomplish; some also recognize the need to restructure their roles but nonetheless fear change. At times, before the job of coaching can begin, companies must address more insidious mindsets— such as a belief that employees can't learn, their negative attitudes toward customers, or a lack of confidence that frontline managers can influence performance. The first step is to help frontline managers understand the need for change and how it could make things better. At the convenience store retailer mentioned earlier, for example, an analysis revealed that store managers spent, on average, 61 percent of their time on administration and that they struggled with poorly defined processes for interacting with customers. In addition, these managers felt that they had no control over key performance drivers (such as sales in important product categories), lacked simple tools to monitor daily performance, and had inadequate leadership and coaching skills. They were also tired of "flavor of the month" corporate-improvement initiatives that dictated more work without addressing the fundamental causes of problems. To give store managers a sense of what could be, this company showed some groups of managers a radically different model store. There, work processes such as stocking took much less time than it did in the company's ordinary stores, because similar products were grouped together, and high-volume stock was stored in a common and much more accessible location. Cleaning was easier because the layout had been improved, employees had the equipment and supplies to clean more frequently and quickly, and an if-it's simple- clean-it-now policy had been introduced. Such steps created a more attractive store environment, simplified the work of employees, freed them to interact with customers, and reduced the amount of time managers had to spend dealing with problems in these areas. Managers also gained time in other ways: for example, they no longer had to complete long weekly sales reports, respond to corporate directives that arrived at unexpected times, and accommodate too-frequent visits by district or regional sales managers.
Even when companies get frontline management right, it can be easy for them to lose sight of their gains. Consider, for example, the experience of a chemical manufacturer where shift supervisors didn't need to spend time on simple, immediate problems, because workers could solve those themselves. Instead, these managers focused on more complex, longer term improvements: eliminating defects, understanding the fundamental causes of operational problems, and coaching and mentoring operators and mechanics. From the outside, the shift supervisors didn't seem to be contributing much, so during a cost reduction effort, the company implemented self-managed teams. Although the reduced costs initially seemed beneficial, over time discipline slipped, new hires were chosen and trained less rigorously, long-term issues were no longer addressed systematically, and the self-managed teams became less reliable. In other words, they could manage the work day by day but not in the long term. As a result, about five years after the role of shift supervisor was eliminated, the company's capabilities began a steep slide: the structural integrity and safety of plants fell, costs went up dramatically, and reliability plummeted. It took the company another five years to dig itself out of the hole. Some of its businesses shut down completely, in part as a result of global economic conditions, but also because the high cost of restoring its efficiency and reliability made it less competitive.
Reporting captured fewer but more essential indicators, such as the volume of sales in key product categories. All visits from district or regional managers were scheduled in advance and followed a predetermined and performance-focused agenda. As a result, the time store managers spent on administration fell by nearly half, so they could devote 60 to 70 percent of their days to activities such as coaching workers and interacting with customers. These managers spent more time on the sales floor with individual employees and regularly discussed store strategies and performance metrics with them. The discussions took advantage of a new performance scorecard with just a few key metrics, such as the number of customers greeted during peak hours, success rates on "suggestive selling" at checkout, and immediate follow-up with customers to gauge their satisfaction. Because the stores stayed open 24 hours a day, managers weren't always present. They therefore engaged all employees in regular problem-solving sessions to create a better selling and service environment in the stores—for example, by ensuring that more employees would be available at critical times of the week. Furthermore, managers could now adapt the company's general operating model by deciding how many (and which) employees would be present in stores at any given time. This vision of a well-run store, contrasting starkly with the stores of the managers who visited it, overcame their fears. Once frontline managers have accepted the need for change, however, they must learn the new ways of working required by the demands of their redefined roles. At the convenience store retailer, training sessions and trial-and error fieldwork helped the managers develop the needed capabilities quickly. Some of these skills were technical, focused on managing more effective processes and revised daily routines, as well as keeping track of the simplified store performance scorecards. Other forms of training enhanced the managers' interpersonal skills, such as how to engage and empower subordinates; to have regular, constructive conversations about performance; and how to provide feedback and coaching. Managers were also made aware of the negative mind-sets (such as, "I am just another associate when I go on the store floor," and "My job is to make sure that tasks get done") that made it harder to develop the right skills and capabilities. They learned how to counter these mind-sets and to adopt more positive ones (for instance, "I regularly provide my employees with constructive feedback and tips," and "My job is to ensure that tasks are complete and that customers are served as well"), which promote more appropriate behavior and better performance. When the company rolled out the program broadly, the results were impressive: productivity rose by 51 percent in one region and by 65 percent in another.5 Companies that succeed in redefining the job of the frontline manager can improve their performance remarkably. Successful approaches can be applied across many industries. A mining company that implemented such a program enjoyed a 10 percent increase in tonnage per frontline employee. A bank branch found that cross-selling went up by 24 percent within a year. Total sales at a department store rose 2 percent in one six-month period. The key is to help frontline managers become true leaders, with the time, the skills, and the desire to help workers understand the company's direction and its implications for themselves, as well as to coach them individually. Such mangers should have enough time to think ahead, to uncover and solve long-term problems, and to plan for potential new demands. A nursing supervisor at a European hospital that empowered its nurses offered perhaps the clearest description of the way frontline leaders ought to think—a description that couldn't be more different from the role of traditional frontline managers: "I am a valued member of this team, who has responsibility to make sure my ward nurses have the right coaching to improve patient service while contributing to the overall functioning of our ward—for the first time, I feel as important as a doctor or an administrator in the success of this institution." That kind of frontline leader can consistently help employees to enhance their impact on an organization's work


text:
Pastors Test Expanded Hate Crimes Law
WASHINGTON – Conservative pastors rallied outside the Justice Department on Monday to test the limits of the newly expanded hate crimes law.
Calling the new law – which broadens the definition of federal hate crimes to include attacks based on sexual orientation and gender identity – a clear threat to religious liberty, the group sought to defend their freedom to proclaim biblical truths.
"You may choose to disbelieve or disagree with us but you have no right to seek to silence us," said Dr. Rick Scarborough, president of Vision America Action, as pro-gay clergy and some from the gay and lesbian community gathered with signs reading "My love is legit."
"If this law is used to silence me or any of these preachers for speaking the truth, then we will be forced to conscientiously defy it," Scarborough declared. "That is my calling as a Christian and my right as an American citizen."
After a decade-long dispute, the hate crimes legislation was tacked on to a must-pass defense appropriations bill this year and passed by the House and Senate. President Barack Obama signed the bill last month.
Clergy, religious broadcasters and conservative groups fear the legislation will subject them to prosecution for preaching what they believe the Bible says – that homosexual behavior is sin. While some believe they are exaggerating the effects of the expanded hate crimes law, the group on Monday was convinced they could be targeted for their speech and beliefs.
Janet Porter, president of Faith2Action and author of The Criminalization of Christianity, cited Title 18 of the United States Code regarding accessories to crime. It states: "Whoever commits an offense against the United States or aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures its commission, is punishable as a principal."
"That's how they go after speech," Porter explained at the rally.
The group also pointed to cases in Canada and the United Kingdom where Christians have already been feeling the negative effects of similar hate-crimes legislations.
Paul Diamond, a barrister from Great Britain, said people are scared to exercise their rights as a number of preachers, including Aake Green from Sweden, and other individuals have been threatened with imprisonment for preaching against homosexuality or for speaking out against its promotion.
"Our freedoms are very much inhibited in the last few years as Judeo-Christian values are driven from the public square," he said. "We've been there. ... We have lessons to tell you. And this is a road you don't want to go down."
Amid the arguments, a couple of ministers preached short sermons in hopes of sharing the Gospel with the homosexual community.
"God loves the homosexual," the Rev. Grace Harley of Jesus Is the Answer Ministries in Silver Spring, Md., declared.
As someone who previously lived as a transgender (as a man) for 18 years, Harley testified that God set her free and can set others free from all kinds of sexual immorality, not just homosexuality. Jesus died on the cross so that you may be saved, she preached.
Offering a personalized version of the biblical passage Luke 13:13, she said, "Immediately she was made straight and glorified God."
"I don't just walk as a woman," she noted, "but now I know the truth."
Concerned about the new hate crimes law, Harley believes she is being silenced.
"It seems the government is shutting me down," she said as she expressed her desire to share her story without fear.
The group of clergy insisted that their motivation is love.
"The love of Christ compels us to call any sin, whether this sin (homosexuality) or any other sin, wrong," Scarborough said. "Christ shed his blood so sinners can be forgiven."
"Frankly, the church is largely comprised of people who are caught up in various sins but who later came to Christ," he noted.
Those from the homosexual community were not persuaded.
Sampson McCormick, 23, says he's always been gay and has a healthy relationship with God. But he believes sermons and speeches against homosexuality incite hate and are not motivated out of love.
"They preach from their interpretation of the Bible and it forces people to hate themselves," he commented, adding that it also incites hate crimes.
But Scarborough submitted, "To fail to call homosexuals to repent of their sin and come to Jesus is the highest form of cowardice and sin for it denies homosexuals of the privilege of hearing the good news that Jesus forgives all sin and can set them free.
"The real hate speech is that which perverts the word of God to fit the latest cultural fad."
During the rally, some of the clergy delivered a five-page letter to Attorney General Eric Holder expressing their concerns with the Hate Crimes Prevention Act.
Though police authorities were present, there were no arrests made during the event.
Those involved in Monday's rally included Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission; Pat Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition; Jim Garlow, a southern California pastor who led the Proposition 8 battle; Michael Marcavage of Repent America; and Bishop E.W. Jackson of STAND America, among others.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
9 Economic Trends to Watch in 2014
From the rise of rich, stupid people to the death of peak oil, here's what's trending in the global economy.
Predicting trends is no easy task, especially in the short term. Most people who can do it accurately in the world of economics and finance are millionaires, or they should be. But if you don't have a crystal ball, at least you can watch some short-term trends with long-term implications. Here are nine of my favorites for the coming year -- and beyond.
Predicting trends is no easy task, especially in the short term. Most people who can do it accurately in the world of economics and finance are millionaires, or they should be. But if you don't have a crystal ball, at least you can watch some short-term trends with long-term implications. Here are nine of my favorites for the coming year — and beyond.
Washington's strategic pivot to Asia seems to have fizzled — but has the world's economic pivot as well? In 2013, East Asia's share of global output was expected to drop, relative to those of the United States and the European Union. For years, investors have been borrowing cheaply in the United States and elsewhere to capture high rates of return in East Asia. But a midyear signal from the Federal Reserve that the days of easy money are numbered has sent the East Asia's emerging markets tumbling, while manufacturing looks to be returning to Western shores. With China possibly cooling as well during its process of economic and financial reform, will other regions take the lead in growth?
2. Eurozone inflation worries
The European Central Bank's top officials like to say that they have a symmetric target for inflation. Too high is bad, but so is too low. Not surprisingly, inflation fell well under the target of "below, but close to, 2 percent" during the economic downturn of recent years. The question is why it has been allowed to do so again, during a more stable period in which other central banks have continued their aggressive attempts to bolster growth and employment. The officials say risks to prices are balanced right now, but are they really?
For decades, manufacturing employment in the United States has dropped as the productivity of manufacturing workers has increased. Today, about 70 percent of American workers are in private service industries. Those among them who don't compete with foreign labor — hair stylists, gardeners, doctors, and the like — have slightly more bargaining power than their counterparts in manufacturing and agriculture. But if their productivity doesn't rise, they'll still have trouble obtaining higher wages.
As I've written before, wealth inequality is much more important than income inequality in determining access to opportunity. Severe wealth inequality raises the chance that an opportunity in the economy will go to a rich, stupid person rather than a poor, smart one. This misallocation of opportunities hurts economic efficiency and growth, making the pie smaller for everyone. Right now, the United States has some of the highest wealth inequality in the world; the net worth of the bottom half of families is equivalent to just 1.5 percent of the wealth of the top 10 percent. The results of the 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances will reveal whether this trend is getting even worse.
Peak oil? That buzzword of the last several years seems nothing more than a silly catchphrase now. Since prices shot up roughly a decade ago, countries and companies have had a huge incentive to find new sources of the black sticky stuff. Rates of oil production have set new records annually since 2010, thanks to fracking and geological exploration around the world. With proved reserves having risen by half in only a decade, it's hard to imagine such a rapid increase continuing for long. Yet if it doesn't, rising demand from the growing global economy will push prices higher again.
6. Buy Japan
Remember Japan, the world's third-largest economy? It may be the perennial punching bag of the financial press, but it's still responsible for an important share of world output. Growth in Japan would give the global economic recovery a shot in the arm, and share prices tend to be a good indicator of future booms. Japan's recent shift to massively expansionary monetary policy could spark growth, but it could also lead to inflation. So far, expectations for inflation in the Bank of Japan's quarterly survey, which are consistently biased upward, haven't changed much since Shinzo Abe resumed the office of prime minister in December 2012 and launched the new "three arrows" policy regime. By contrast, stock prices have almost doubled, far exceeding the concurrent rise in the Standard and Poor's 500.
7. The price of rice
After an enormous spike in early 2008 that led to shortages, export bans, and even riots, the price of rice has finally dipped below its earlier trend. Indeed, stockpiling by governments and other policies intended to encourage production and exports have added plenty of slack to the market. Still, a return to strong and sustained growth in the economies where rice is a staple food could quickly lead these problems to recur. Next time, a global downturn might not arrive just in time to tame demand.
8. China's shadow-banking housing bubble
Given the lack of transparency in many Chinese companies, real estate is an especially popular investment in the world's second-biggest economy. Thanks to restrictions in the Chinese financial system, a huge "shadow" banking industry has arisen to finance these purchases. The industry may have been worth about $6 trillion this spring and has been growing fast. Beijing has started a combination of financial reforms that will pave the way for a crackdown on shadow banking, but any dislocations that result could cause havoc throughout the Chinese economy. Because new house prices depend in part on expectations about interest rates and the attractiveness of other assets, they could offer an early tipoff about trouble to come.
A successful currency serves three functions: as a unit of account, a store of value, and a medium of exchange. Bitcoin is making progress as a medium of exchange, with a growing number of vendors accepting it for payment through services like Bitpay. Yet the huge fluctuations in its exchange rate and the apparent ease of theft threaten its usefulness as a store of value and, by consequence, as a unit of account. Who cares how many bitcoins you have if you don't know what they're worth from one moment to the next? The adoption of bitcoin around the world is likely to continue in 2014, but it won't last much longer if the currency fails to stabilize.
More from Foreign Policy
A New Multilateralism
How the United States can rejuvenate the global institutions it created.
America Prepares for a Pacific War With China It Doesn't Want
Embedded with U.S. forces in the Pacific, I saw the dilemmas of deterrence firsthand.
The Endless Frustration of Chinese Diplomacy
Beijing's representatives are always scared they could be the next to vanish.
The End of America's Middle East
The region's four major countries have all forfeited Washington's trust.


text:
Big Ten football teams are getting two Saturdays off for the first time this year.
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says there are a lot of unprecedented things happening these days in college football because of conference expansion.
The byes give players a chance to rest and relax during two weeks when the regular season starts in late August and ends after Thanksgiving. Coaches, meanwhile, evaluate their programs, players and plays before hitting the road for recruiting.
Teams — such as Indiana against Penn State — have taken advantage of having two weeks to prepare for a game they ultimately won.
The Nittany Lions, coming off a bye, hope the extra time they had last week helps them upset No. 4 Ohio State on Saturday night.


text: Matt Wagner began his career when he created 'Mage', which was published by Comico Comics in 1984. Matt Wagner tells the story of Kevin Matchstick, a young listless man who discovers that he is a hero, and therefore must battle creatures and forces of mythological origin on Earth. In the back of the issues of his comic 'Mage', Wagner began a storyline about criminal mastermind/assassin/anti-hero Hunter Rose, also known as 'Grendel'. After a single short book and several separate short stories about Grendel, the series spun out into a 50-issue epic. Wagner also worked on 'Sandman Mystery Theatre', the 'Batman/Grendel' team-up and several other Batman stories. Some of Wagner's 'Grendel' comics were inked and colorized by Joe Matt.


text:
WAKE ME UP INSIDE by Cardeno C.
Series: Mates Collection #1
Genre: Adult Paranormal LGBTQ Romance (M/M)
Available On
UNTIL FOREVER COMES by Cardeno C.
Series: Mates Collection #2
Genre: Adult Paranormal LGBTQ Romance (M/M)
Available On
IN YOUR EYES by Cardeno C.
Series: Mates Collection #3
Genre: Adult Paranormal LGBTQ Romance (M/M)
Available On
TO TOUCH YOU by Cardeno C.
Series: Mates Collection #4
Genre: Adult Paranormal LGBTQ Romance (M/M)
Available On
Each Book in the MATES COLLECTION Tells the Story of a Different Couple, and Each Book is a Standalone Happily Ever After.
Wake Me Up Inside
A powerful Alpha wolf shifter and a strong-willed human overcome traditions ingrained over generations and uncover long-buried secrets to fulfill their destiny as true mates.
Regarded as the strongest wolf shifter in generations, Alpha Zev Hassick is surprised and confused by his attraction to his best friend. His very human, very male best friend. A male shifter has to mate with a female shifter to keep his humanity, so shifters can't be gay. Yet, everything inside Zev tells him Jonah is his true mate.
Maintaining a relationship with the man he has loved since childhood isn't easy for Jonah Marvel, but he won't let distance or Zev's odd family get in their way. When unexplained ailments begin to plague Jonah, he needs to save his own life and sanity in order to have a future with Zev.
Zev and Jonah know they're destined for each other, but they must overcome traditions ingrained over generations and long-buried secrets to fulfill their destiny.
Until Forever Comes
A sensitive wolf shifter and a vicious vampire challenge history, greed, and the very fabric of their beings in order to stay together until forever comes.
Plagued by pain and weakness all his life, Ethan Abbatt is a wolf shifter who can't shift. Hoping to find an honorable death by joining his pack mates in a vampire attack, Ethan instead learns two things: draining his blood releases his pain and his wolf, and he has a true mate – a vampire named Miguel.
Over four centuries old, strong, powerful, and vicious, Miguel Rodriguez walks through life as a shadow, without happiness or affection. When a young shifter tells Miguel they're true mates, destined to be together, Miguel sends him away. But Ethan is persistent and being together comes so naturally that Miguel can't resist for long. The challenge is keeping themselves alive so they can stay by each other's side until forever comes.
In Your Eyes
Two very different men with a tumultuous history must overcome challenges from all sides and see past their society's rules to realize they are destined for one another.
Raised to become Alpha of the Yafenack pack, Samuel Goodwin dedicates his life to studying shifter laws, strengthening his body, and learning from his father. But despite his best efforts, Samuel can't relate to people, including those he's supposed to lead.
When Samuel meets Korban Keller, the son of a neighboring pack's Alpha, he reacts with emotion instead of intellect for the first time in his life. Resenting the other shifter for throwing him off-balance, Samuel first tries to intimidate Korban and then desperately avoids him. What he can't do is forget Korban's warm eyes, easy smile, and happy personality.
When a battle between their fathers ends tragically, Samuel struggles to lead his pack while Korban works to break through Samuel's emotional barriers. Two very different men with a tumultuous history must overcome challenges from all sides and see past their society's rules to realize they are destined for one another.
To Touch You
"His name is Salvatore Rossi. He's a vampire. And he's my true mate."
By not relying on anyone except himself, Salvatore Rossi escaped a dead-end existence and reached the height of corporate success. But just when he has everything he always wanted, fate throws Salvatore a challenge he can't solve alone and a young wolf shifter comes to his rescue.
Since childhood, Yoram Smith's family was certain he would grow to become Alpha and save their beloved pack from its slow demise. When the time comes for a new leader, Yoram is forced to juggle his duty to care for a splintering pack with his duty to care for an absent mate, and his own strength suffers.
Being turned into a vampire didn't alter Salvatore's life philosophy: if you don't rely on anyone, nobody can let you down. But when the boy who saved his life becomes a man who needs his help, the icy vampire must find his humanity.
About the Series
The Mates Collection
by Cardeno C.
Paranormal Romance
LGBTQ Romance – M/M
The Romance Authors
About Cardeno C.
Cardeno C. – CC to friends – is a hopeless romantic who wants to add a lot of happiness and a few "awwws" into a reader's day. Writing is a nice break from real life as a corporate type and volunteer work with gay rights organizations. Cardeno's stories range from sweet to intense, contemporary to paranormal, long to short, but they always include strong relationships and walks into the happily-ever-after sunset.
Heartwarming Stories. Strong Relationships. Forever Love.
Author Links


text:
My husband Grant's parents came from Hawaii to visit us for two weeks in March, and during their stay we celebrated his mom's birthday. I know that she loves red velvet cake, and she also loves cheesecake, so I decided to make her a red velvet cake filled with cheesecake! I had never even heard of this cake until I read about it last year at 17 and baking (love her site!). At the time, I thought it sounded like a very decadent dessert and wanted to try making it, but I never had a chance to, until now!
The night before making the cake, I baked the cheesecake layer. I used a recipe from Dorie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours" for basic tall cheesecake. Since the recipe was for a 9-inch cheesecake, I divided everything by 1/4 since I was only making a 6-inch cake and I didn't want too tall of a cheesecake layer.
After baking the cheesecake in a water bath for 90 minutes, I propped open the oven door with a wooden spoon and allowed it continue to "luxuriate in it's warm bath" (as Dorie put it) for another hour. Then I took it out and let it come to room temperature, before wrapping it up in saran wrap and putting it in the fridge overnight.
The next day, I baked the cake layers using my favorite red velvet recipe from Martha Stewart's "Cupcakes" book, except that I divided the recipe in half and poured the batter into two 6-inch pans instead of a cupcake pan. Once they were baked and cooled, I started assembling my cake.
First I trimmed the tops off my red velvet cakes to make the surface even. Then I placed the first cake layer right side up onto a 6-inch cake circle. Next came the cheesecake - I unmolded it from the pan and placed it on top of the first cake layer. Then I placed the second layer of cake upside down onto the cheesecake layer, so that I would have the smooth bottom of the cake to frost.
Next I whipped up a batch of cream cheese buttercream, and then spread a quick crumb coat of frosting onto the cake.
Then after a quick chill in the fridge, I used the rose cake method from I Am Baker to pipe my roses all over the cake. (I've used her rose cake method a few times already, see here and here, and I still love the look every time). I started by piping the top of the cake, then I piped the sides, and then I filled in any gaps with little swoops and swirls.
In hindsight, I probably should have spread a layer of frosting between the cake and cheesecake layer, as the cake started to shift a little when I cut into it, and the frosting layer would probably have held it in place. Lesson learned.
Here's a final picture of my mother-in-law with the kids, who helped her to blow out the candles. Happy Birthday!!!


text:
Friday, 7 December 2012
Forgotten Book - The Department of Dead Ends
Julian Symons and Ellery Queen were among the very good judges who lauded the "inverted mystery" short stories featuring the Department, and thanks to their advocacy, these stories are by far the best known of the countless stories that Vickers wrote. Is the praise deserved? I think so. There is an element of formula about the stories, once you have read several, and I think it's best to read them in small quantities. But that's true, in my opinion, of the great Father Brown stories too. You can have too much of a good thing, certainly, but I am quite clear that the Dead Ends stories are good thing.
"The Rubber Trumpet", the first of the stories, is justly famous, but several others are equally good. One story is plainly based on the Brides in the Bath case, while another, the excellent "The Henpecked Murderer", explicitly references the Crippen case. I hadn't read this story before, or been aware of it, and I though Vickers used the elements of the Crippen story very cleverly to create an intriguing tale.
Vickers' preoccupation with snobbery and social climbing is very evident in this collection, happily made available to modern readership by Bello - so much so that one senses he was working out "issues" of his own. The stories are very crisp and entertaining, and some of the writing - for instance, the opening paragraph of "The Yellow Jumper" - is very good indeed. This is a genuine classic.
11 comments:
- Jerry House said...
I remember reading those stories in EQMM many, many years ago. Great stuff!
If memory serves, there were three different editions of this book, with varying contents.
- 7 December 2012 at 18:55
I've been a fan of these stories for years, and I've certainly got three editions (Faber hardback from 1949, green Penguin paperback from 1955 and Dover paperback from 1978) and they all have different contents, though with a lot of overlap.
- 7 December 2012 at 22:16
- Clothes In Books said...
I think there was a TV series of this, and I'm talking 40 years ago - I think I read the book then as a result of seeing the stories adapted on TV...
- 7 December 2012 at 22:22
- J said...
I have the Hutchinson Library Services hardcover version (1973), which claims to be based on Faber's 1954 edition. It has an introduction by Ellery Queen, but only ten stories. (Wikipedia says there are 37 Dead Ends stories in all.
- 8 December 2012 at 03:26
- Jerry House said...
I believe The Detective Book Club also offered a version of The Department of Dead Ends.
IMDB shows that two of Roy vickers' stories were adapted for the British television DETECTIVE, which ran in 1964 and in 1968-9. DETECTIVE was an anthology show which evidently adapted mystery stories by a number of authors. I had never heard of the show, but I'd love to catch some episodes. I've included a link which shows some of the authors they adapted:
- 8 December 2012 at 18:01
The Bello edition has the Ellery Queen introduction, so it's probably the same book.
I enjoyed the stories and thought they had a real feel of Edwardian true crime.
- 8 December 2012 at 19:46
- Martin Edwards said...
Many thanks for these comments. I'm especially interested in the mentions of DETECTIVE, a superb TV series. I remember the later series (and its excellent theme music) very fondly indeed. Sadly, I believe that many of the recordings were wiped by the BBC. One can only hope that some surviving episodes will resurface one of these days.
- 8 December 2012 at 22:58
- AntK said...
I hadn't heard of these, but will certainly look out for them.
- 9 December 2012 at 05:37
- Christine said...
I have just been re-reading Julian Symons' BLOODY MURDER where he praises these stories. It's a while since I read them, so maybe time to revisit.
- 10 December 2012 at 13:55
- Martin Edwards said...
Chrissie, I hope you like Bloody Murder as much as I do. Fascinating.
- 10 December 2012 at 17:12
- Ken B said...
One of my very favorite books. I think it is still in print in the USA, from Dover.
And, yes Bloody Murder is an excellent book. Symons seems widely hated on mystery blogs, by bloggers who have never read him!
- 26 November 2018 at 04:37


text:
I have "dear family member" who tends to fall for every internet rumor out there, and will either tell me about it on the phone, or Fw:fw:fw:fw:fw:fw: it to everyone in her email address book with the title of "PLEASE READ!"
The latest one just did not ring true to me. Even when hearing about it on the phone.
The rumor goes like this:
"Those 'cute' cocktail carrots you buy in grocery stores come from deformed crooked big carrots. They are put through a machine to become small cocktail carrots. But after they are cut to size they are soaked in large vats of water mixed with chlorine to preserve them.
Then she went on to tell me that they are SWEET because they are soaked in a sugar solution,or worse yet, a HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP SOLUTION! *gasp*
Great, I'm getting visions of giant mutant carrots being forced into shape....but so what? I've GROWN those mutant carrots in my garden before..you know the ones that you pull out and they have two roots on them? Or they start looking like an Orange Abraham Lincoln or something? It's a carrot.
As for the chlorine part, a check on snopes proved the following:
First, baby-cut carrots are cut down from bigger carrots, but the carrots used are specially bred to be sweeter tasting and their color is even throughout the carrot. Malformed carrots and those not the right size for baby-cut carrots will be left either as whole carrots, turned into juice or used for animal feed.
Second, the baby carrots are bathed in chlorine as an antimicrobial agent, and this is considered an accepted practice when processing all fresh-cut, ready-to-eat vegetables.
They are rinsed to remove any excess chlorine before packaging.
Third, what about that white "film" on the carrots? This is nothing more than a dried out carrot surface. Any carrot, even one from your own garden, will get this dried out look if it were peeled and not kept in a moist environment. If your carrots start looking whitish, simply rehydrate them with a little water.
Geeze Louise.....Needless to say that my doubts were confirmed. And if my relative would "Carrot ALL" (care at all) about what she was forwarding she could have checked it out. But of course, these things....these scare stories...are always good for email fw:fw:fw:fw:fw:fw: fodder.
Is it against the law to put your own relatives into your spam filter? :cÞ


text:
A Texas man told authorities he carved a pentagram into the back of his 6-year-old son "because it is a holy day" in reference to the numerical date of 12-12-12, police said.
Brent Troy Bartel, 39, of the Fort Worth suburb of Richland Hills, was in jail Wednesday on a $500,000 bond, charged with aggravated assault of a family member with a deadly weapon.
Police officers responded to an emergency dispatch call shortly after midnight from a man who said, "I shed some innocent blood," according to an audio recording of the emergency 911 call, released by police.
When questioned by the dispatcher, the man said, "I inscribed a pentagram on my son."
When the dispatcher asked why, the man responded, "because it is a holy day," according to the recording. He then hung up.
Moments later, police received a call from the boy's mother at a neighbor's house, said Officer Sheena Parsons, Richland Hills police spokeswoman. The mother could be heard on that recording crying and asking for help.
Police arrived at the Bartel home and found the boy shirtless and shivering, with a large pentagram carved on his back. Officers also found a box cutter at the house, which is believed to have been used in the attack, police said.
The boy was taken to a Fort Worth hospital for treatment. His injuries were "not life threatening," Parsons said. Police and Child Protective Services were investigating the attack.
Wednesday was 12-12-12, a date some considered significant because such a match of day, month and year will not occur again in this century.
The pentagram is a five-pointed star sometimes associated with Satanism.
What do you think motivated Bartel to torment his son and leave him branded with a Satanic symbol? Sound off below.
Reporting by Marice Richter; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Christopher Wilson
© 2012 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved
To contact us or to submit an article, click here.
Get Charisma's best content delivered right to your inbox! Never miss a big news story again. Click here to subscribe to the Charisma News newsletter.


text:
Most dental patients have no idea what various procedures cost, what percentage their insurance covers -- if they have dental insurance-- and why prices are so high, says Brighter.com CEO and founder Jake Winebaum. His company lets consumers compare dentists by price and reputation.
A survey of 1,000 people done by Brighter.com in June showed that a third of those without dental insurance have been to a dentist once or less in the last decade. In the dental care arena, says Winebaum, "there is no pricing transparency and no negotiating leverage."
Brighter has raised $13 million in venture capital, has 20 employees at its Santa Monica headquarters, and includes 25,000 dentists in its network of providers. Users who take out a Brighter subscription -- Winebaum likens the model to Costco's -- get access to its network of dentist at discounted prices, giving them the negotiating power of a group, with or without dental insurance. The company's plans start at $79 per year.
It's the ultimate supply chain: Collect trash, compost it, and sell it back to the same businesses that threw it away.


text:
Do you have a family photo that you absolutely love? If you're like most people, you struggle to capture that perfect photo of your entire family, especially one with all kids cooperating! It's so hard to get them all to look at the camera at the right time and have all of the lighting perfect. Many of us use our phones to get our family photos, but no one actually hangs these on their wall to display.
Take the stress out of getting the perfect photo. Have a professional photographer capture your beautiful family. Our studio will get you photos that are show-worthy and would make you proud to display in your home. We also do our best to have the whole family 'looking' at the camera, whether it's through editing or capturing a great in the moment shot.
We would work with you at your pre-session consultation to go over wardrobe and location ideas. These consultations are meant to ensure you get the most out of your session and so that we understand what kind of photo makes you feel happy. Use the form at the bottom of the page to contact us so we can set something up.


text:
Soup doesn't get more scrumptiously hearty than this Bacon Cheeseburger Soup from
The Recipe Critic! Her creamy soup is loaded with aromatic herbs and vegetables, tender potatoes, ground beef and bacon (be sure and check out some of her other tasty soups too!). The whole family will gobble up this amazing easy-to-make soup in no time flat!
Bacon Cheeseburger Soup
From The Recipe Critic
Serves 6
1 pound ground beef
1 pound bacon, cooked and crumbled*
¾ cup chopped onion
¾ cup shredded carrots
¾ cup diced celery
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
4 tablespoons butter, divided
3 cups chicken broth
4 cups peeled and diced potatoes
¼ cup all purpose flour
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 cups milk
½ cup heavy cream
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ to ½ teaspoon pepper
¼ cup sour cream
Get the full instructions here!


text:
The most exclusive dating website for "beautiful" men and women has dumped 30,000 "ugly" people who flew under the radar after a computer virus –-aptly titled the Shrek virus— accepted their applications despite their "ugliness":
Last month Beautifulpeople.com was the victim of a cyber attack in which the Shrek virus — named after the ugly animated character — attacked the software used to screen applicants, allowing an influx of new members, The Guardian reported.
Unfortunately several thousand of those members failed to meet the Denmark-based site's aesthetic standards, and have now been dropped.
Apparently, people are taking the rejection to heart because the website has set up a "counseling helpline" to ease the pain that comes along with having a dating website tell you you're hot and then turn around and saying you're not.
But you can't blame Beautifulpeople.com, guurrrl. You knew what Beautifulpeople.com was when you met!
Kind of an asshole:
"We have to stick to our founding principles of only accepting beautiful people — that's what our members have paid for," BeautifulPeople.com's Greg Hodge told The Guardian. "We can't just sweep 30,000 ugly people under the carpet."
The website works on a system under which members are able to rank applicants on a beauty scale. The decision to reject 30,000 cost the company more than US$100,000 in refunds and Hodge sent a regretful email to the distressed dumpees.
Basically, Beautifulpeople.com feels that it's better to lose an easy $100,000, set up a rejection hotline for the people they rejected, and devote countless hours to the removal and counsel of these folks than it would be to admit people who may not fit their standard definition of Danish-style beauty (and love of super sexy presumably Danish lions, judging from the screengrab above).
You could say a lot about this website, but if nothing else, they have their brand and they're sticking to it.
Dating Site Causes Outrage by Dumping 30,000 Ugly People [FOXNews]
Dating Site Kicks Off Members For Gaining Weight
"Hotties Only" Dating Site Starts Sperm Bank


text:
I've been a Hitt Man (pardon the expression) for about two years, after being introduced to him by a dear and gracious bookseller friend named Jerry Chadburn. Ever since, I've been on an almost (almost? who am I kidding?) obsessive mission to buy every Hitt book and find any information about him I could. Here's my Hitt-cred at present:82 paperbacks and 1 hardcover. The paperbacks include those he wrote under his own name, the pseudonyms Roger Normandie and Nicky Weaver, and the lesbian-themed books he wrote as Kay Addams. The hardcover is called "Leased" and was co-written with Jack Woodford.I was also fortunate to find a lengthy interview with the Hitt children and a detailed bibliography from a copy of "Books Are Everything!" Vol. 5, No.1, Whole Number 21. The article has photos of Hitt, both alone and with his wife, numerous book cover photos, and is a more-than-generous 48 pages. As well, I managed to find an article written by The Man himself called, "My 'Sex' Books" from the magazine "Men's Digest" #31. Unfortunately, it's only half the article, the other half appeared in #32, which I have yet to find.
To-date I've read 26 books and both articles.It always slightly irks me when I hear Hitt as having written "erotic" novels. Personally, I'd classify them as "hard-boiled" or "hard-boiled/tawdry", or even "hard-boiled/sleazy".
(Note: "Hardboiled sleaze" is the term I started using when trading emails with Frank Loose about Hitt's work.)
I must disagree with the gracious guest host, and implore that Hitt did indeed often write with the intensity of Gil Brewer, and in fact with even more intensity than many a Gold Medal writer. Possibly my disagreement comes from the fact that I consider "I'll Call Every Monday" one of Hitt's weaker books. In fact, I don't think Hitt is at his best when using James Cain-type plots. To me, Hitt's best writing comes out of two types of stories. One type is about the tough guy who juggles as many dames as he can, while also throwing a ball in the air for a major scam at whatever job he happens to be working. The tough guy is usually too-clever-by-half, and the balls come tumbling down, whereupon whatever publisher Hitt was working for at the time made sure the tough guy saw the light, reformed, and married the one good girl he had ignored throughout the book. All this in the last 3 pages of the book! The other type is about what a nightmare it was to be a woman in the 1950's. In this type of book, the woman is just trying to claw her way out of the low-income gutter, but is screwed-over every way and by every guy she comes into contact with. The worst thing that can happen to a woman in this type of book is that she become an unwed mother. Hitt wrote about this nightmarish scenario with as much passion and intensity as Woolrich wrote about death and isolation. Truly The American Nightmare. I also think Hitt writes about low-income folks better than he does about folks living in the suburbs or the upper classes.
Here are the top ten on my "Hitt Parade" (not necessarily in order of importance):
1.Shabby Street
2.As Bad As They Come (also titled Mail Order Sex)
3.Torrid Wench
4.Race With Lust (as Roger Normandie)
5.The Sucker
6.Rotten To The Core
7.Warped Desire (as Kay Addams)
9.Campus Tramp
10.Wilma's Wants (Published by Novel Books, who apparently allowed Hitt to bring out his political and philosophical side. I'd say Hitt was a fiscal conservative and a social liberal, with a pinch of Ayn Rand thrown in. While still having the same plot framework, I'd say the core of the Novel Books are significantly different from books Hitt wrote for all other publishers.)
If anyone wants any info from my Hitt articles or books I'd be happy to respond.


text:
Note: Only forum leaders may delete posts.
*HTML is ON
*UBB Code is ON
Smilies Legend
Smilies Legend
[b]NASA'S LCROSS Captures All Phases of Centaur Impact[/b]
NASA's Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) was a smashing success, returning tantalizing data about the Centaur impact before the spacecraft itself impacted the surface of the moon.
Last week, plunging headlong into Cabeus crater, the nine LCROSS instruments successfully captured each phase of the impact sequence: the impact flash, the ejecta plume, and the creation of the Centaur crater.
"We are blown away by the data returned," said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS principal investigator and project scientist. "The team is working hard on the analysis and the data appear to be of very high quality."
Within the ultraviolet/visible and near infra-red spectrometer and camera data was a faint, but distinct, debris plume created by the Centaur's impact.
"There is a clear indication of a plume of vapor and fine debris," said Colaprete. "Within the range of model predictions we made, the ejecta brightness appears to be at the low end of our predictions and this may be a clue to the properties of the material the Centaur impacted."
The magnitude, form, and visibility of the debris plume add additional information about the concentrations and state of the material at the impact site.
The LCROSS spacecraft also captured the Centaur impact flash in both mid-infrared (MIR) thermal cameras over a couple of seconds. The temperature of the flash provides valuable information about the composition of the material at the impact site. LCROSS also captured emissions and absorption spectra across the flash using an ultraviolet/visible spectrometer. Different materials release or absorb energy at specific wavelengths that are measurable by the spectrometers.
With the spacecraft returning data until virtually the last second, the thermal and near-infrared cameras returned excellent images of the Centaur impact crater at a resolution of less than 6.5 feet (2 m). The images indicate that the crater was about 92 feet (28 m) wide.
"The images of the floor of Cabeus are exciting," said Colaprete. "Being able to image the Centaur crater helps us reconstruct the impact process, which in turn helps us understand the observations of the flash and ejecta plume."
In the coming weeks, the LCROSS team and other observation assets will continue to analyze and verify data collected from the LCROSS impacts. Any new information will undergo the normal scientific review process and will be released as soon as it is available.
Contact Us | The Source for Space History & Artifacts
Copyright 2023 collectSPACE.com All rights reserved.


text:
Vail Daily obituary: Charlie Bryant, 1945-2013
Charles Lamar "Charlie" Bryant Jr., 68, passed away suddenly on May 7 in Glenwood Springs.
He was born in Happy Jack, Ariz., on Feb. 20, 1945, and was the second child of six siblings. His family moved to Flagstaff, Ariz., where he attended high school and met his wife of 49 years, Patricia Dawson Bryant. They started a family and had four children (Leilah, Nathan, Lanie and Travis). He obtained a B.S. degree in forestry from Northern Arizona University.
Charlie, a longtime Eagle Valley resident, moved to Eagle with his family in 1972, where he worked for Kaibab Industries. After Kaibab closed down, he went to work for B&B Excavation for many years as a construction foreman. After retiring five years ago, he enjoyed life to the fullest, pursuing his hobbies and passions which included fishing, hunting, throwing horseshoes, hiking, fly tying, puzzles, attending his grandchildren's academic/sports activities, and spending time with many friends and family. He enjoyed everyone's company and was considered a grandpa/father to many in the valley. One of his favorite sayings was "Hey, what are you doing? Do you want to go fishing?" Or if anyone needed fishing or hunting advice or companionship, Charlie knew where to find the game.
He was a large man with a huge heart who will be dearly missed by so many. He is survived by his wife, Patricia, of Gypsum; his children, Nathan (Ann) Bryant, of Pagosa Springs, Lanie (Blake) Martin, of Gypsum, Travis (Kaylynn) Bryant, of Phippsburg; his father, Charles Lamar Bryant Sr., 92, of Flagstaff, Ariz.; his sisters Beverly (Todd) Lawrence, of Cottonwood, Ariz., and Barbara Latham, of Flagstaff, Ariz.; his brothers, Arvel Lynn Bryant, of Flagstaff, Ariz.; Curt (Toni) Bryant, of Kansas City, Mo.; James (Carman), of Texas; his grandchildren, Megan, Breezy, Emily, Trevor, Alex, Lance, Kelsey Bryant, Tyler Mosher and Taylor, Garrett and Kylie Martin; and many aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his mother, Arvel Lee Bryant, 86, of Flagstaff, Ariz., and his daughter, Leilah Bryant Mosher.
A memorial celebration of Charlie's life will be held on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 934 Gypsum Creek Road in Gypsum. A potluck reception will follow at the church. In lieu of flowers, a memorial fund has been established at Wells Fargo Bank in Eagle.


text:
USB to COm Adapter Treiber..
06-03-2011 13:11
FunSeca Secom 3.x - RAI...
03-01-2014 18:12
C+NL gia F11_F4_F12
06-01-2011 19:29
Gamma Tools
18-09-2010 23:51
There are currently 9 users browsing this forum. (0 members & 9 guests)
Use this control to limit the display of threads to those newer than the specified time frame.
Allows you to choose the data by which the thread list will be sorted.
Order threads in...
Note: when sorting by date, 'descending order' will show the newest results first.


text:
By David Crane defrev at gmail dot com July 05, 2008 DefenseReview got the chance to test-fire two Israeli combat weapons during the firing demonstration portion of NDIA International Infantry & Joint Services Small Arms Systems Symposium 2008, which was held at the Tac-Pro Shooting Center. The two weapons we fired were the IMI-developed select-fire Negev Commando Version LMG/SAW 5.56mm …Read More »
Tag Archives: tavor
2008 NDIA Small Arms Systems Symposium Firing Demo: Initial Report
by David Crane defrev at gmail.com May 25, 2008 Aaaand we're back. Sorry for the delay in reporting in, but we've been fighting the travel demons and illness (minor and temporary) simultaneously. We shot some good video at the 2008 NDIA International Infantry & Joint Services Small Arms Systems Symposium, but we're not sure how much of it we can …Read More »
DefRev Video: IMI Tavor TAR-21 Commando Carbine and Tavor-2 Subcarbine
by David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com May 6, 2003 Several months ago, DefRev attended the AUSA 2003 Winter Symposium (Feb. 26-28). During the show, we ran into the fine people at IMI (Israel Military Industries), and got a chance to handle their Tavor assault rifle variants, the Tavor TAR-21 Commando Carbine (shortened version of the Tavor assault rifle, …Read More »
Mars Reflex Sight/Tavor Rifle Combo.
Check out this package. Israeli special forces have never messed around, but this new package looks pretty formidable. Their new Tavor bullpup rifle, combined with the Multipurpose Aiming Reflex Sight (MARS), made by International Technologies Lasers (ITL), looks to be a really potent little package. CLICK HERE to read about it. To visit the manufacturer's site, click here. For information …Read More »


text:
Father Robert Barron, a Chicago priest who has appeared often in the pages of U.S. Catholic since his interview with the editors in 1997, has brought his years-in-the-making Catholicism series to public TV this fall. Up to 70 percent of PBS stations will air four episodes (screenings listed here); the series of ten DVDs are for sale here, with a companion book and a study guide.
Catholicism is nothing if not ambitious, and the product is stunning–visually beautiful, stirring, filmed at sites in Europe, North and South America, Africa, the Philippines, Turkey, India, and the Holy Land. Barron sets out to be far more than just a Ken Burns-type historian of the Catholic Church, though his series easily equals Burns' productions in quality. Instead he seeks to tell the Catholic story for listeners in the 21st century, speaking to the head, the heart, and the soul.
Barron's is a confident Catholicism: At the Roman Colosseum, scene of torture and death for early Christians, he says he always thinks, "We won," because the church's great lesson is that love is always more powerful than hatred. Yet he also takes on the church's dark side: the Crusades, the Inquisition, slavery. "Were a disturbing number of priests and bishops wrong and even sinful in their contribution to the sex abuse scandal? Yes."
Although Barron can speak Greek with the best of them, one strength of the program is that he mostly steers clear of heady or pious language. In explaining papal infallibility, he compares the pope to a baseball umpire, the "living voice of authority" who keeps the game from dissolving into bickering. Jesus, he says, is a "dangerous, strange figure" who compels a choice, not an inspirational nice guy. Barron counters the claims of Resurrection doubters who say the apostles merely celebrated Jesus' memory: "C'mon! …Can you imagine Paul tearing into Corinth saying, 'I want to proclaim a dead man who's very inspiring?' No one would have taken him seriously!"
The very beauty of the film speaks volumes all on its own.


text:
Parker Hannifin Parker 60 Series 1/2" Coupler NPT Steel Buna Seal
Technical Specification
|Thread Type
|Female Coupler by Female Thread
|207Bar / 3000PSI
|Seal Type
|Buna Nitrile
|Series Part
|60 Series
Product Description
Technical Information
The Quick Disconnect 60 Series from Parker is a hydraulic quick disconnect style of coupling. Available in a range of materials (brass, steel, 303 and 316 stainless steel) and is supplied with fitted seals. The wide range of seal materials available means they are ideal for most types of fluid.
Special Features
These double shut-off quick disconnect couplings can be used anywhere that fluid transfer lines need to be connected and disconnected for operation or maintenance of equipment, and wherever a loss of fluid is undesirable.
These Parker 60 Series general-purpose couplings are used across a wide range of hydraulic applications. Including chemicals, water and steam. The 60 Series Quick Disconnect has also been used with some gas applications in areas such as power generating plants, off and on-shore industry, electronics industry, rubber processing, steel manufacturing, food and bottling industry, automotive industry, laboratories, hospitals and universities and aeronautics.


text:
Document library
Dixons Music Primary is part of Dixons Academies Trust, a company limited by guarantee and an exempt charity. This means we are regulated by the Department for Education rather than the Charity Commission.
Central statutory documentation for Dixons Academies Trust including Audited Financial Accounts, Master Funding Agreement, Articles of Association, Scheme of Delegation, Register of Interests etc. can be found on the Trust website Document library page
Academy specific statutory documentation can be found below.


text:
It's that fire-orange light in the doorway at right, and the overcast blue glow outside, that make this photograph stand out. If André Liohn had taken it at any other moment, in any other light, it would be just another banal image of war. That it is not just another shot has now been confirmed, since it just helped Liohn win the Robert Capa Gold Medal of the Overseas Press Club of America. (The award ceremony is on April 25.) The photo ran in the May 9, 2011, issue of Newsweek's international edition, and is from a portfolio titled "Almost Dawn in Libya," made up of striking images shot by Liohn in the besieged city of Misrata before the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. The OPC's medal-givers called the series "a first rate example of close quarters combat photography obtained at great personal risk." But for me, what matters in this particular image is the very special, very classical beauty of the light in the picture as a whole – and the fact that the fighters in it could never have acknowledged that there was anything but horror around them. The photo's blues and oranges seem to echo some of the greatest Islamic ceramics. (Their famous blue glaze, at least, is right there in the tiling of the fountain in the shot.) And the siege of Misrata represents an attack on everything such cultural treasures stand for.
For a full visual archive of past Daily Pics visit blakegopnik.com/archive.


text:
Services on Demand
Related links
- Cited by Google
- Similars in Google
Water SA
On-line version ISSN 1816-7950
Print version ISSN 0378-4738
Water SA vol.38 n.1 Pretoria Jan. 2012
On modifying the Arrhenius equation to compensate for temperature changes for reactions within biological systems
Craig SheridanI,*; Jochen PetersenII; Johann RohwerIII
ISchool of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Wits, 2050, South Africa
IICentre for Bioprocess Engineering Research (CeBER), Department for Chemical Engineering, University of Cape Town, Private Bag X6, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa
IIITriple-J Group for Molecular Cell Physiology, Department of Biochemistry, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602, South Africa
In this communiqué, we discuss the use of the Arrhenius relationship to describe the temperature dependence of reacting biological systems, such as those treating wastewater. We also discuss the use of the modified Arrhenius function, and those instances where its applicability is limited. We show that the error when using the modified relationship is 7% at 30ºC, 15% at 40ºC and 25% at 50ºC. We conclude that whilst the modified relationship is acceptable at lower temperatures, in those applications where higher temperatures are reached (above 25ºC) the error with using the relationship may not be acceptable. We present an Arrhenius equation for use in biological systems, which is applicable for all temperature ranges.
Keywords: kinetics, biological processes, Arrhenius equation
The kinetics of a process are related to temperature through the Arrhenius relationship (Fogler, 2005). For a given catalytic or microbial system, with given chemical components, this relationship is shown in Eq. (1) with the temperature given in Kelvin:
k(T) is the rate constant as a function of temperature
A is the pre-exponential factor
E is the activation energy in J/mol
R is the gas constant = 8.314 J/(mol·K)
T is the absolute temperature in K
This relationship is sometimes given in the differential form, as shown in Eq. (2):
The kinetics of the degradation processes occurring within many reacting biological systems, including municipal wastewater treatment (Benefield and Randall, 1980; Crites and Tchobanoglous, 1998; Nitisoravut and Klomjek, 2005), anaerobic lagoons (Oleszkiewicz and Koziarski, 1986), facultative lagoons (Mashauri and Kayombo, 2002) and constructed wetlands (Nitisoravut and Klomjek. 2005; Mashauri and Kayombo, 2002; Andreottola et al., 2007; Kadlec, 2009; Marsili-Libelli and Checchi, 2005; Rodgers and Dunn, 1995; Rousseau et al., 2004) are described using a modified form of this equation (denoted the Modified Arrhenius Function or MAF) given in Eq. (3), with temperature, T, given in degrees Celcius (Benefield and Randall, 1980; Haug, 1993; Kadlec and Knight, 1996; Kadlec et al., 2000).
The MAF is attractive as an experimental equation because of its ease of use; the temperature is given in degrees Celcius and the temperature correction factor, θ, is measurable. The derivation of this form of the Arrhenius Equation is based on the assumption that the operating temperature is close to or below 20ºC (Derivation Box 1). In countries with hot climates such as South Africa, and especially those with high humidity, where the effect of evaporative cooling is reduced, the MAF may not be applicable and could result in water treatment and other biological systems that do not perform to design specifications. For the temperature ranges where this assumption may not hold true, a new form of the Arrhenius Equation is proposed here that will not differ significantly from the current form of the MAF at lower temperatures, yet will follow the exponential form of the Arrhenius equation at higher temperatures.
The primary assumption to be considered when using the MAF is that the temperature is not much greater than 20ºC. This assumption allows the conversion of an exponential function into a power function, which has different mathematical properties, which are more pronounced with increasing temperature.
Methods and results of the investigation of the non-applicable temperature range of the MAF
To assess applicable and non-applicable temperature ranges for the MAF, we have used θ values related to the design of constructed wetlands. For this assessment θ has been assigned a value of 1.06 as recommended by the IWA Specialist Group on the Use of Macrophytes in Water Pollution Control (Kadlec et al., 2000) and the value of k20 is taken as 1.104/day as specified by the US EPA (US EPA, 2000), since the IWA does not recommend one single value. Using these parameters the rate constant can be calculated for a range of temperatures. If the log of Eq. (1) is taken, the following relation can be obtained:
ln(A) is replaced by α and substituted by β
The value for k was calculated for the temperature range over which the data were most likely collected; i.e., 0ºC to 20ºC (273K to 293 K) using the MAF, and a plot of ln(k) vs. 1/T is shown in Fig. 1. The points are essentially reproduced data, and these 'data'; have been regressed (the line through the points) to determine the constants in Eq. (7).
The y-intercept and the x-intercept of this plot correspond to α and β in Eq. (7). The twisting of the data around the regressed line is caused by the conversion of data found from a power function being presented as an exponential function.
These calculated values for α and β were then used to fit the Arrhenius function given by Eq. (1), such that A = 8.83·106 and = 4600. Using these 'data';, a comparison of the Arrhenius equation and the MAF was performed and the results are presented in Fig. 2.
This analysis indicates that the difference between the 2 forms of rate constant is 7% at 30ºC, 15% at 40ºC and 25% at 50ºC. This difference would become greater at higher temperatures since the exponential law reaches an asymptote at the value for A at infinite temperature, whilst the MAF increases infinitely with increasing temperature. The analysis was halted at 50ºC since there are few reacting biological process that will operate temperatures higher than this (although some bio-metallurgical operations may occur at temperatures higher than 60ºC).
Discussion of the modified Arrhenius equation
In hot climes and for certain industries (such as distillery effluents) it is possible that the effluent temperature may rise above 30ºC and thus the assumptions upon which the MAF is based may not be valid. It is with this in mind that a new functional dependence of k on temperature, given by Eq. (8), is proposed (Derivation Box 2). In this derivation, the values of k20 as measured for the MAF will still be valid (shown as k(293)). It is, however, a simple modification to change the temperature to ºC.
Whilst the MAF is used substantially for the wastewater and other industries (Benefield and Randall, 1980; Haug, 1993; Kadlec et al., 2000), and is undoubtedly applicable to cooler and temperate climates, it should be used with caution at higher ambient or reaction temperatures since it may lead to the use of a rate constant which is greater than that which is occurring. At temperatures lower than 20ºC it is not important which equation is used, because the rate constants are small and the difference between the 2 functions is negligible. In countries with hot climates, and especially those with high humidity, where the effect of evaporative cooling is reduced, the MAF may not be applicable and could result in systems that do not perform to design specifications. The MAF may also overestimate the rate constant required for designing systems to treat warm effluents, such as distilleries or for use in hot biological reacting systems such as composting or heap leaching. It should also be relatively easy to reassess existing literature to calculate the values for A and β and these could be used, with the published values for k20 to find the rate constant at any temperature.
ANDREOTTOLA G, OLIVEIRA E, FOLADORI P and ZIGLIO R (2007) Respirometric techniques for assessment of biological kinetics in constructed wetlands. Water Sci. Technol. 56 (3) 255-261. [ Links ]
BENEFIELD LD and RANDALL CW ( 1980) Biological Design forWastewater Treatment. Prentice Hall, Engelwood Cliffs. [ Links ]
CRITES R and TCHOBANOGLOUS G ( 1998) Small and Decentralised Wastewater Management Systems. WCB McGraw Hill, Singapore. [ Links ]
FOGLER HS ( 2005) Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering. Prentice Hall, USA. [ Links ]
HAUG RT ( 1993) The Practical Handbook of Compost Engineering. CRC Press, Boca Raton. [ Links ]
KADLEC RH (2009) Comparison of free water and horizontal subsurface treatment wetlands. Ecol. Eng. 35 159-174. [ Links ]
KADLEC RH and KNIGHT RL ( 1996) Treatment Wetlands. CRC Press, Boca Raton. [ Links ]
KADLEC RH, KNIGHT RL, VYMAZAL J, BRIX H, COOPER P and HABERL R (2000) Constructed Wetlands for Pollution Control.Processes, Performance, Design and Operation. IWA Specialist Group on the Use of Macrophytes in Water Pollution Control. IWA Scientific and Technical Report No 8, IWA Publishing, London. [ Links ]
MARSILI-LIBELLI S and CHECCHI N (2005) Identification of dynamic models for horizontal subsurface constructed wetlands. Ecol. Model. 187 201-218. [ Links ]
MASHAURI DA and KAYOMBO S (2002) Application of the two coupled models for water quality management: facultative pond cum constructed wetland models. Phys. Chem. Earth 27 773-781. [ Links ]
NITISORAVUT S and KLOMJEK P (2005) Inhibition kinetics of salt-affected wetland for municipal wastewater treatment. Water Res. 39 4413-4419. [ Links ]
OLESZKIEWICZ JA and KOZIARSKI S (1986) Kinetics of piggery wastes treatment in anaerobic lagoons. Agric. Wastes 16 13-25. [ Links ]
RODGERS JH and DUNN A (1995) Developing design guidelines for constructed wetlands to remove pesticides from agricultural runoff. Ecol. Eng. 1 83-95. [ Links ]
ROUSSEAU DPL, VANROLLEGHEM PA and DE PAUW N (2004) Model-based design of horizontal subsurface flow constructed treatment wetlands: a review. Water Res. 38 1484-1493. [ Links ]
US EPA (2000) Constructed Wetlands Treatment of Municipal Wastewaters. EPA/625/R-99/010. United States Environmental Protection Agency. [ Links ]
Received 28 February 2011; accepted in revised form 14 December 2011.
* To whom all correspondence should be addressed. +27 11 717-7592; fax: +27 86 211-8303; e-mail: email@example.com


text:
|I should just check myself into the morgue now and save myself that messy middle step.
|Masturbation is Bad
|Still Life with Woodpecker
|shower partners
|Since when did being spiritual matter? Since when did thread count matter?
|Your first mountain bike
|Diagnosed with 6 months to live, I become a one-man-army
|Noun: a rustling, especially of a woman's skirts
|War-based idioms
|Nudity in American college males
|Students for a Democratic Society
|Kitty interrupts his murky float with the nail gun splash of her stiletto song
|in spite (or perhaps because) of
|Getting an apartment in New York City versus getting an apartment elsewhere
|oagari kudasai
|Swap and Dannye's Camping Trip
|I was watching through the window, you were going through the dances.
|double tap
|Calling oneself a poet
|Editor Log: September 12, 2000


text:
Cinematic Style Meets Medium Format Photography
Inspired by flickering projection rooms and smokey cinemas, Lomography Potsdam Kino is unapologetically analogue. Cut from a legendary roll of German cine film, this evocative emulsion brings the analogue aesthetics of the New German cinema to 120 film. Steeped in a rich past and prestige, this mighty monochrome is not just a tribute to history – rather a part of it.
Classic Analogue Aesthetics For Gorgeous Greyscale Pictures
Just like its bigger brother, the Lomography B&W Potsdam Kino 120 Film casts an unmistakable monochrome charm on 120 format. With a medium speed of ISO 100, this panchromatic, heavy-silver film is the perfect option for bright environments and scenarios where the highest attention to detail is desired. Delivering less grain, more contrast, and a higher DMAX than Berlin Kino 400, Potsdam Kino 100 renders scenes in an even broader range of moody monochrome tones.
The Darkroom Delight
Just like the 35 mm Potsdam Kino, this evocative emulsion produces a wide range of different, yet equally gorgeous results when paired with various development techniques. Tune your desired image style with different development techniques and bring your compositions to life with the quality they deserve.


text:
DO: teach your kid basic table manners. DON'T: employ a kid-friendly Henry Higgins to teach little Madison to differentiate between salad and dinner forks.
UNLESS: you are being interviewed for an New York Times styles section piece. Then, by all means, tell us all about how 6-year-old Joaquin and 4-year-old Sisto (SISTO.) have such impeccable table manners that they pass muster at San Francisco's Chenery Park restaurant, which allows well-behaved children to eat expensive salmon, from what I've gathered. Or here, let Joaquin set the scene:
"This is a place where you come to eat," the boy says softly, explaining nice manners. "It's not a place to play."
("I see dead people," he continued in a whisper, as goose bumps peppered the skin visible below his cufflinks.)
The crux of this piece is that parents are too busy looking at their iPhones to teach kids table manners and so therefore outsource their parenting. But that is not only outrageously expensive; it's dumb, too. Some coaches told the paper that "The casual nature of the home makes it difficult" for kids to remember what they've learned when they're back amongst the cretins they call parents, eating dinner in front of the television.
So how about just teaching your kids to be polite home-school style? Hey, it's easier than cursive!
Image via Firma V/Shutterstock.


text:
- List your rentals - it's free
- Sign up or Log in
English- en
- Buy
- Rent
- Sell
- Projects
- Advice
The building (the bricks and mortar) can be owned by a non-Thai national outright in their name in what is called the house registry which secures ownership indefinitely of the structure.
In Thailand, non-Thai nationals cannot own land outright in their name. Land can be controlled through either a Thai Company or a long-term registered lease. The longest registered lease term by Thai law is 30 years, and most developers will offer 3 terms for a total of 90 years.
After you have found the right property at Casa Sakoo you have to follow these steps:
A 30-year lease period is legally protected under Thai law and ownership cannot be disrupted. It is common for developers to offer an additional two terms of 30 contractually obligating a total of 90 years.
Prior to purchasing a leasehold property, it is important to secure a copy of the lease agreement or get further clarity on these three points.
Thailand has different visas like Spousal Visa, Retirement Visa, Student Visa and Elite Visa - just to name a few options. Each visa has different requirements but they are usually easy to obtain.


text:
The free market guru Milton Friedman understood what so many progressives do not: that crises create opportunities for radical change. Naomi Klein called this the "Shock Doctrine." One of Friedman's opportunities was the brutal 1973 coup in Chile, which opened the door for the market-opening fundamentalism that Ronald Reagan and Maggie Thatcher then pushed around the world in the 1980s.
Today, the global and U.S. financial meltdowns offer such an opportunity for progressives. A progressive shock doctrine.
In this crisis, the victims are the millions of workers who have lost their jobs (600,000 in the United States in January alone) and the millions of families who are losing their homes. The villains are the executives whose reckless behavior got us into this crisis and continue to pocket massive bonuses and redecorate their offices while the economy burns.
Obama has embraced bold rhetoric, lambasting executives for their "culture of narrow self-interest and short-term gain at the expense of everything else." Even business professors, such as Harvard's Rakesh Khurana and Andy Zelleke, are trashing the prevailing corporate milieu wherein "little has been meaningfully valued by either executives or shareholders beyond the short-term accumulation of wealth."
Yet neither Obama nor most progressives are seizing the moment with bold proposals to meet the growing anger across America. A notable exception is David Korten, who has just released a 196-page Agenda for a New Economy, building on a series of articles in YES! magazine.
Korten is nothing if not bold. His answer to the financial crisis: Close down the Wall Street casino. Replace it with a revitalized Main Street by resetting economic priorities to support local economies and dignified work that best serve us all. Instead of "phantom wealth" that doesn't create anything of value, let's prioritize the real economy.
Korten also understands that we must use the economic meltdown to solve the other giant global crisis: climate chaos. His transformative agenda of vibrant local economies can deliver us a carbon-free economy within a few decades.
How do we do it? According to Korten, we have to redefine how success is measured. He has sharp ideas on how to get the market price of goods to reflect their full costs of production, including their adverse impact on workers, the environment, and communities.
In his real-wealth economy, government and citizen groups work to reallocate resources from the military to health care, from cars to public transportation, from mining to recycling, and from suburban sprawl to compact communities.
We close down the Wall Street casino through smart regulation, a transactions tax on the purchase and sale of financial instruments, and a fair tax system. We create a set of rules and incentives that favor human-scale businesses owned by local stakeholders. Korten is full of ideas on democratizing ownership and reclaiming corporate charters from footloose global firms. And, he is smart enough to know that these solutions work best if they are coordinated across countries.
The book is compelling, urgent, and easy to read. It will be a great tool to help harness the anxiety and anger gripping our nation. And it will link together the disparate parts of our country to work for progressive economic change, including grassroots groups like Jobs with Justice, which is has working with my own Institute for Policy Studies to create a new comic book on the meltdown. It will also draw in an organization Korten co-founded, the vibrant Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, which is spreading innovation among local business leaders, and YES! magazine, which has posted an excerpt from Korten's book, entitled "The Speech President Obama Should Deliver."
From low-wage workers, to local entrepreneurs, from independent thinking elected officials to the global networks that brought you the Battle in Seattle a decade ago, there's a new questioning of the Wall Street-based economy. All who are ready for a new approach would do well to spend a few hours with David Korten's big ideas as they link their work with one another.


text:
User registration bug fixedPosted by John Callender on June 19th, 2013 at 5:33 am
There was a problem with the user-registration feature for the Socalsail Gear Directory not working properly; I believe that's fixed now. If you'd like to add a listing to the directory, or submit an update for an existing listing, please feel free to register.
Registration is free, as is listing your company or service in the Gear Directory.


text:
How was your weekend? I worked on Friday night, so mine just flew by! I was so happy to be done with the craziness that was last week. I had a program start at work, another one to work Friday night and a speech to give to an important group of people on Thursday afternoon. Public speaking and I don't get along. I did fine though and in the end, preparing better notes and rehearsing in front of Craig countless times got me through the talk with no problems and just a bit of uneasiness in my voice in the beginning.
On Saturday, I did some reading and really cleaned the house in areas I hadn't touched before vacation. It felt good to get it sparkling again.
We ventured out to the mall to look for shoes for Craig and I was on the hunt for a wallet. My coin section is messed up and finding a new one has proven to be quite difficult. Sometimes I really despise shopping when I can't find what I want.
I went to a different mall on Sunday on my way to meet my mom at Costco. I had a lovely lunch at Panera--a Mediterranean veggie sandwich with black bean soup and an apple.
Our plants are growing so well this summer. We even have a little baby pepper growing!
Craig and I did some grocery shopping on Saturday night and saw these wonderful signs throughout the store, but mostly concentrated in the produce section.
I tried out a new product (sort of) on Sunday. Thanks to a word-of-mouth marketing program I am in called BzzAgent, I received Dr. Scholl's For Her High Heel insoles for free. Unfortunately, the design didn't work well with these particular shoes that I wore yesterday, so I removed them before I left the house. I will try them out with another pair of heels later in the week. They felt great, but hit my arch in the wrong spot, I suspect because these heels were so skinny on the bottom.
Do you fear public speaking as much as I do? I am so glad to be done with that experience and I really think it is great practice, but I hope I don't have to public speak for a long time.
Do you fear public speaking as much as I do? I am so glad to be done with that experience and I really think it is great practice, but I hope I don't have to public speak for a long time.