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When George Thorne walks into his medical practice in Austin Texas, he is greeted warmly by staff and makes friendly conversation about kids and pets. An ophthalmologist for thirty-plus years, he is quick to speak fondly of his patients, medical partners, and team. It's clear he has loved his career. But at age 65, he recently decided to stop performing surgery and phase himself out of his practice altogether. "I'm not sure what's on the other side of this," he told me with a hint of anguish, "but it's time."
George is like many of the Baby Boomers I work with in my executive coaching practice. They've had high-powered careers that they've found fulfilling and are core to their identities. As they approach so-called retirement age, they are ready (or forced) to transition out of their longtime professions and are somewhat anxious about what's next. Their concerns are less financial than identity- and change-related: How can I successfully reinvent myself as I leave behind my career? What does the next phase look like for me? How can I make sure I don't get bored?
I once joked with my friend Aaron: "If you want to provoke a Baby Boomer, ask them about retirement." Many Boomers are allergic to the R-word. The reasons are understandable. Retirement, for many, implies a binary off-switch towards mortality, golf, and bingo. It suggests a fixed destination when the 21st century reality is much more fluid and personalized.
So rather than framing this work as "planning for retirement," I encourage people like George to think of it as "designing your next phase." This isn't just a cute turn of phrase. Positioning it this way, I find, creates a more empowered process. It shifts the tone by broadening the range of possibilities, by making it feel evolutionary rather than final, and by reinforcing that they are in the driver's seat. It's also more fun. This is a reinvention you get to design, not a retirement you have to plan.
Here are some tips that can help make "designing your next phase" a smoother and more fulfilling experience.
Name it. One of the first things I ask people in this situation is what they want to call it. What word should we use when we talk about it? Some stick with retirement. Others come up with thematic names like "encore career," "play time," or "giving back."
My friend Craig left his post as CIO of a Fortune 100 company two years ago after a successful, international corporate career. At 63, he no longer works in the traditional sense, but he doesn't consider himself retired either. He spends his time advising early-stage start-ups and helping out political campaigns, in addition to travel, golf, and family. When I ask him what he calls this chapter of his life, he says, "It's my repurposing phase." For Craig, "repurposing phase" is better than "retirement" because staying engaged and making a difference are important to him in this chapter. "I like having people call me on the phone," he said. "I want to feel like I'm still relevant."
Naming the next chapter is the first step in taking control over it, of making it yours. It might feel like a cheap obfuscation, but in fact it's the opposite. By naming it using your language, you bring clarity to what this next phase means to you. The name doesn't have to make sense to everybody. It just has to make sense to you.
Give yourself time to shed old skin. Two weeks ago, an executive vice president called to tell me that she had just been let go after a merger. "They told me yesterday," she said. "I don't what I'm going to do next. Maybe it's time to retire, I don't know."
"I wonder if it might help to take some time to process this before figuring out what's next," I replied. "Why don't you go hiking or something, and let's talk in a couple weeks." Yesterday I got an email from her from the mountains of Oregon. She took my advice literally! "I didn't realize how much I needed this," she wrote.
When people step away from a high-octane career, many want to power through the change. It's as if they believe a swirl of activity, or some dramatic new commitment, will alleviate the sense of loss and disorientation that comes with stepping off the treadmill.
Instead, allow time and space to land from the experience, to shed the old skin. Recognize that there will be a grieving process for your old identity. It's not like flipping a switch and suddenly being in a sunny new chapter; you will go through different stages.
Craig, mentioned above, gave himself six months "with no pressure to be productive" when he left his CIO role. "It was one of the best things I did," he said. He knew there would be process of shedding his old identity and allowed himself space to recover.
Envision your new world. One tool I find helpful in transitions is "the wheel of life." This wheel looks like a pie with eight slices representing different elements of life: Fun, Health, Money, Friends, Career, Spouse, Physical Environment (home), and Personal Growth. A useful exercise is to go through each category and write out your vision for each. Where are you now in this area, and where might you like to take these in your transition? If you have a spouse or partner, involve them in the process. Reinventions are a team sport, after all.
Another simple but surprisingly powerful exercise is to take a sheet of paper and draw your life in three years. If you don't like to draw, create vision boards within Pinterest instead. Spending some time "visioning" will create new neural pathways, allow you to "try on" different visions of your life, and can help tease out the things that are important to you (and your spouse).
Embrace experiments. As with any design process, prototyping is a useful way to see what works and what doesn't. If you're thinking of moving to a beach in Florida, rent a place there for two weeks and try it out. If you want to do volunteer work with refugees, go network with people in that world and consider taking a two-week trip to a refugee camp. If you want to write the great American novel, take a first step by joining a local writer's group.
Some people are uneasy with the uncertainty and in-between-ness of not having a firm plan. For those who crave structure, I recommend picking two or three specific things to explore, setting a specific time period for this phase, and then creating a calendar of activity. Think of it this way: your new job is to prototype these two or three specific interests or possibilities.
If you're worried about what to say when people ask what you do, just mention the work you did in the past and the two or three new areas you're investigating. Don't want to give up business cards? That's fine. Order personal cards printed with your name and contact info – they don't have to have a job title.
Stake out a new purpose and routine.
Routines are healthy – one of my favorite sayings is that "structure sets you free." But it's tough to stick to a routine when you don't have a purpose. (And conversely, routine without purpose is dull.)
And yet as people go through these transitions, there's often a period when they haven't settled into either a new purpose or a new routine. This can feel hollow, and drive those around you a little crazy. This is normal. In fact, there's something healthy about a nagging ennui during a major reinvention. But eventually, you will want to create new routines and a sense of purpose for yourself, even if it initially feels contrived.
If you have planning time before a transition, I strongly recommend preparing at least one new "identity" or interest area in advance. A law partner I know, for example, is getting credentialed as a mediator in anticipation of his retirement in two years. Another person I know is developing a relationship with a local university in anticipation of teaching a course. These may or may not work out, but they can create some initial structure.
A longtime mentor of mine, Charles, is a retired PR executive who splits his time between Alaska and Washington, DC. Charles once told me that the arc of life is: Learn-Earn-Serve. At 66, Charles has found purpose in this stage of life through what he calls "archive activism." He founded the "Kameny Papers Projects," a collection of historical documents associated with Frank Kameny, whom he describes as the Rosa Parks of the LGBT movement. For Charles, this focus was an evolution of interests over time. Eventually, he embraced it.
To thrive in this next phase, you will need a reason to jump out of bed in the morning. It doesn't matter what it is, it just has to resonate with you and your values.
Take small steps towards designing this next phase, and not just financially but as a whole person and family. You have the power to make it the most fulfilling and joyful period of your life.


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Elk Studios are a game studio based in Sweden, and they specialise in creating super fun video slots for different online gambling companies. They really bring their games to life, using the best animations possible. Some of their most popular games include Wild Seas, Bloopers and Sam On The Beach.
Toro, the marauding bull from ELK Studios, burst through the arena in 2016. First forward in October 2021, he's making a huge comeback to your favorite mobile casino. This charging slot from the Swedish developer boasts expanding reels, multiple free spins, progressive multipliers, and a maximum pay rate of 10,000x the stake. So are you ready for the wild bull run? Buckle up!

subset: commoncrawl


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SB Nation | What is the blue-chip ratio? Read the Story
As recruiting rankings continue to grow more accurate, they're now to a point at which they can help tell us which teams are ready to compete for titles. Every recent national champion first met a recruiting standard. Based on talent ratios, who's got the best shot at future titles? Who's within striking distance? And which conferences need to step it up?
Sports Illustrated | The education of Jabari Parker Read the Story
Jabari Parker was the first freshman to start at Simeon Career Academy in Chicago, where he won for state titles. A 6' 8", 235-pound forward, he was a top recruit in the class of 2013, embarking on what seemed likely to be a one-year college career. Still, Parker's freshman season at Duke has been full of adjustments, all of which have served to deepen his connection to his coach.
The Oregonian | The next man up Read the Story
Versatility has helped the Beavers piece together an unblemished start despite ace Ben Wetzler's sudden absence. Oregon State, a team that prides itself on depth and accountability, is trying to focus on what it can control.


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I was discussing semicolons with a coworker recently, when I (rather inelegantly) made a case for omitting semicolons from a new JavaScript project. I'm rephrasing it here because I don't often see this perspective in the endless public debate about semicolons in JS.
The JavaScript community has a history of piling on those who advocate semicolon-free code (although the tide does seem to be turning of late). For a long time, I was in the pro-; camp. While semicolon-free code has always looked easier to read and "cleaner" to my eyes, why would you seemingly invite bugs into your software for such a small aesthetic benefit? Also, Douglas Crockford forbade them (his views are apparently still a primary factor in the style choices of many JavaScript developers).
Before getting into the crux of my argument, I must concede that if you write your
JavaScript without trailing semicolons, you need to make a habit of adding them to
the start of the line in
two specific cases
– when you begin your line with a
[ or a
(. Otherwise in some cases JavaScript
will interpret those characters as the start of array indexing or function invocation,
Anyways, I was experimenting with semicolon-free JS on a side project a few months ago when I tripped up and forgot the two edge cases above. What I saw caused me to swear off trailing semicolons for all future projects. It looked something like this:
The screenshot above shows JSHint catching the two aforementioned cases where omitting trailing semicolons could cause a bug in JavaScript. The beauty in this example is that this feedback happened instantly in my editor (via syntastic in Neovim).
If you don't have a linter making these (and other) automated checks for you before you check in, a) you're missing out, and b) please refrain from lecturing others on programming style and code quality. If you do have linting checks in place, you can skip trailing semicolons. It's up to you, but with today's tooling support for JavaScript, code "quality" and robustness should not factor into your decision.
Further / reading / on / semicolons. Also, for a good time, read this entire thread
Postscript: There are a few more contrived cases where ASI can bite you, but in my experience they're not worth worrying about:
function thisIsTerrible() {
return // ASI would strike here; returns `undefined`
foo: 'bar'
Seriously, who writes code like this? Oh yeah, and JSHint will catch this too.


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Apple primarily talked about two major upgrades at the WWDC (World Wide Developers Conference) this year. Most of us don't have time to sit through a 2 hour keynote speech so here's a wrap up of the most anticipate features among the new Mac Operating system called Yosemite and the Mobile Operating System iOS 8.
OS X Yosemite
Apple's new operating system will be released this fall to the general public after it has worked out its major bugs. If you're anxious to try it out, you can sign up to be a part of the first time public beta testers for OS X Yosemite.
iOS SIMILAR LOOK
The latest version of OS X includes a major visual overhaul prompted by its mobile cousin, iOS. A flat looking design and translucent panels can be found throughout OS X 10.10. The flat look is coming into play more and more in all of Apple's operating systems.
Spotlight received its first big update in years with a brand-new launcher and a search box that appears in the middle of your desktop. It will be used to quickly launch apps by typing the first few letters, searching for local documents, and even search Apple Maps to contacts and events, all from within Spotlight.
Apple has been spotty on updating it's Mail app but has now released a new feature called Markup. Markup is Mail's new built-in editor for image attachments, completely separate from Preview. This means you no longer have to save an attached file, open it in a separate program, save the file, then reattach the file if you want to do minor edits like adding text or signing a contract. Beyond small edits, Markup is also smart enough to automatically transform your scribbly handwriting into clean, steady lines. Have you ever tried to send an email that was too large to go out? Apple has a new solution for you: MailDrop, a feature that lets you store attachments up to 5GB in size in iCloud and send recipients a link to download it on their own. No more returned mail or not being able to send more than a couple pictures at once to a friend.
iCLOUD DRIVE
iCloud drive is a very Dropbox-like file system for storing your documents in the cloud. iCloud Drive will be a folder that sits in the sidebar in your Finder window. You can also add your own folders and tags to iCloud Drive, and everything syncs across your Macs, iPhones, iPads, and yes… Windows too!
A long awaited feature has been introduced, you can now share files between mobile devices and Macs using AirDrop. Previously, you could only share between mobile devices or between Macs.
NO iMESSAGE, NO PROBLEM
Yosemite overhauled iMessage to include SMS messages from all Apple and non-Apple devices. You can also now send and receive phone calls from your Mac as long as your phone is in close proximity.
iOS 8
NOTIFICATIONS WITH ACTIONS: iOS STYLE
Apple now lets you respond directly to messages from the Notifications view and lock screen. As a heavy text user, this will save lots of time without having to go into the full Messages app to respond to a quick text. Along with responding to quick texts, Apple has allowed us to respond quickly to Facebook comments and even bid on an eBay item without having to open up the website.
Messages is the most-used app on iOS, and it's getting a much-needed update in iOS 8. The Messages app will allow quick audio and video messages, self-destructing messages, and temporary location sharing, among other features. The temporary location sharing of which will be my favorite new feature in the Messages app. Lastly, we are getting the very long awaited ability to add and remove certain recipients from group text messages. Many will rejoice over this feature!
Family Sharing is a new feature that will let up to six members of a family share iTunes purchases across devices, as long as each account is linked to the same credit card. Family Sharing also enables the sharing of calendars, reminders, photos, and Find My Friends locations across devices. And it lets parents approve or deny purchases made on their childrens' devices, making it more difficult for kids to run up large bills from in-app purchases. This is the perfect solution to many of our clients' issues of having separate Apple ID's with purchases on unknown devices. The ability to link all of the family devices, approve/decline purchases, as well as other main app features will be a great solution to a number of problems.
Along with iOS 8, Siri has some new tricks like learning how to listen better. Some other features would be dimming your lights or turning up your thermostat through the new smart home enviroment. There are other supporting changes too, like streaming voice recognition and improved language support, but the big news is that you'll be able to get Siri's attention without even touching your phone. Just speak the words "Hey, Siri" and it'll appear almost immediately.


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Wine tasting tours in Greece – Estate Founti
Welcome to Naoussa
the northern Greece best-known wine-producing region.
During the bike and hike tours of trigiro in the region of Naoussa, northern Greece, we visit several wineries and do wine tastings discovering the wine variety of "Xinomavro". One of our stops is in the Estate Founti, a familiar winery that starts its activity in 1930.
2nd stop Estate Founti
Foundis family originated from the village of Strantza in eastern Thrace, which they fled during the upheavals of the second Balkan War. In 1914, along with other refugees from their village, they arrived in the Naoussa area of western Macedonia, and established the settlement of Nea Strantza.
George Foundis with his son Theodore took up viticulture and in 1930 they planted the first of their own vineyards with Xinomavro variety. Theodore's son, Nicholas, enlarged the family's vineyard holdings during the 1970s and, in the 1980s, following contacts with noted members of the international wine community, he became committed to estate bottling. This led him to establish Domaine Foundis in 1992.
In 1996, his nephew, Dimitris Ziannis, on completion of his oenology studies in France, joined the Domaine as winemaker.
Today, the productive capacity of the winery comes up to 200 tonnes of grapes. Out of this quantity result seven different types of wine: three red wines, three white wines and one rose. 90% of them are produced from the Xinomavro variety, while the other 10% is produced from the varieties of Merlot and Malvasia Aromatica. All the wines belong to the categories of Wines of Quality Produced in Determined Regions (P.D.O.) and to the Regional wines (P.G.I.).
Trigiro's Tip: accompany the first spring sun shines with a glass of fresh and aromatic Fountis rose wine.


text: × Share this Article on Social Media Inman News - Letter of resignation: Why Kate Downing is leaving Palo Alto 8/12/2016 @ 3:49 PM - This letter serves as my official resignation from the Planning and Transportation Commission. My family has decided to move to Santa Cruz. After many years of trying to make it work in Palo Alto, my husband and I cannot see a way to stay in Palo Alto and raise a family here ... Share Email Read | Share on Facebook | Share on Twitter | Share on LinkedIn Close


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I'm tired of seeing yet another story of a black person being murdered in the streets. Do you know how many times it's happened in recent years? All the places it's occurred? How many times actual justice was served among all of those instances? What absurd justification their murderer gave for killing them? How each of them were killed? What each of their names are? I don't know the answers to any of those questions off the top of my head. I don't think I could live with having to consciously know the answers to all of those questions. I'll be the first one to admit that I am enormously privileged to not carry the burden and the fear surrounding knowing the answers to those questions. Not everyone in this country can say the same.
What I do know is the sickening feeling that I get in the pit of my stomach every time that I see it has happened again. Are the media going to make the victim into the bad guy again? Create a smear campaign against a dead person who cannot defend themselves again? Is our justice system going to turn its back on our black community again? I imagine how I would feel if that was my brother. My dad. My best friend. Someone I love. Someone I was thinking about a birthday present for. Someone I was planning to send a meme to. Someone I know I should have called just to catch up with recently but I didn't because you know how life gets. Someone that didn't deserve to be denied their basic human rights, their Constitutional rights, and simple respect and dignity. Someone.
Someone who took their final breaths, absolutely terrified for their fate in someone else's hands. Someone who took their final breaths probably wishing they could have said something to someone they love just one last time. Someone who did not deserve to be murdered in cold blood. This could have been me. It could have been you. But it's rarely us. Because we're not black. I cannot speak for the victims. I cannot speak for black America. I don't want to. But I can believe their experiences. I can respect them as human beings. I can stand beside them and fight with them for the equality and equity that they have always deserved, and always been denied by this country. I can hold space to let them speak for themselves. But it is up to us — the people who have allowed this systemic racism to continue — to dismantle it.
I'm tired of seeing our black friends and neighbors murdered in the streets. But do you know what else I'm tired of? I'm also tired of my fellow white people participating in and promulgating this problem. I'm tired of us sitting in our ivory towers of privilege, looking down our noses at people and playing judge, jury, and executioner like we have any right to do so. I'm tired of us — consciously or not — contributing to a system that benefits us on the backs of our black friends and neighbors. I don't care that we did not personally build this system. We perpetuate it and benefit from it at the expense of black America. We can put a stop to it. And we should.
Enough of the white saviors. Enough of the revisionist history where we are somehow the glorious heroes as opposed to the genocidal monsters and horrific oppressors and abusers. Stop pretending that this problem is not built into the very foundation of this country, where our black friends and neighbors have been treated as sub-human from the very beginning and very little has changed since then. Your squeaky white upbringing was full of privileges where Thanksgiving was about sharing corn and turkey and slavery was a not-nice thing. It conveniently skipped the true horrors of genocide. It conveniently glossed over the rape, the lynchings, the commodification of human beings. We as white people were raised to look past so much ugly, awful history that we repainted and sold as glorious and victorious. Worse still, we inexplicably defend that history and many of its worst villains while denying the myriad ways in which it actively harms our black friends and neighbors.
A lot of what I'm going to write here is likely to make you uncomfortable if you have not made any real effort to not actively contribute to this systemic oppression. Instead of getting upset or offended or dismissing what I'm writing here, ask yourself some hard questions. Ask WHY you feel those things. Ask yourself how you think people who don't look like you feel, and why they might feel that way. Try to put yourself in the shoes of someone who looks very different than you do. Remember that your experiences are not everyone's experiences, and that no one's experiences are more or less valid than yours are.
I know they say you catch a lot more flies with honey than with vinegar, but the time for honey has long since passed, and there is nothing sweet about the problem we have at hand. So let's make a couple things explicitly clear right now, including some very hard to swallow pills and some reality checks:
- Saying "all lives matter" is the equivalent of telling someone with terminal cancer that their suffering does not matter or deserve your empathy because other people are also suffering from other problems. It is saying to a bunch of people with brain cancer that ALL types of cancer are bad, as if that isn't entirely fucking obvious. When someone brings a problem to your attention, the proper response is not to say "well what about these other problems?" It's to focus on the problem at hand, and address it. If you say "all lives matter," all we hear is that you're tone deaf, actually fucking stupid, or blatantly racist and fine with it. To be clear, none of those are anything to be proud of. Do better.
- This is about black people and the systemic oppression that they have endured in this country since the first slave was brought here. This is about the oppression, abuse, objectification, commidification, and downright murder that white people have subjected black people to. Stop trying to make this about literally anything else. Even if you bring up protesting leading to rioting, looting, property destruction… you need to acknowledge that none of that would be happening if black people were not being murdered in the streets in the first place. You are responding to a symptom of a much bigger problem. If you went to a doctor with a fever, would you want them to just give you ibuprofen to address the fever, or find out what was actually wrong that caused the fever in the first place? The fever is a symptom. It is not the problem. You need to treat the problem. This is no different. Do not be distracted by symptoms, pay attention to and address the cause: BLACK PEOPLE ARE BEING MURDERED IN THE STREETS.
- We as white people have privilege. Your refusal to see it or acknowledge it does not diminish it or make that truth not so. You are privileged in your ability to walk freely on the streets of this country without fear that you might be accused of (or, as we have too often seen, killed for suspicion of) a crime. You are privileged in your ability to be given the benefit of the doubt in most (if not all) situations. You are privileged in how you are not automatically considered suspicious or problematic anywhere you go. Your privileges are vast. Even if you grew up poor and/or in a bad area, you have privileges. Even if you've had negative experiences with law enforcement officers (LEOs), you have privileges. Your privilege is directly attached to your ethnicity as a white person (and if you're a white male you have the most privilege of all, because white men have historically — and still today — hold the majority of wealth and power, even though they are not the majority of the population). We will never truly understand what our black friends and neighbors go through in their lifetimes, but we can try to empathize and change our thoughts, words, and actions accordingly. We can believe them when they share their experiences with us. Simply dismissing your privilege as "non-existent" says that you're unwilling to learn or grow, and thus are completely complicit in the suffering of our fellow countrymen. It is selfish and it is emotionally, intellectually, and morally weak. And if being told you have privilege upsets you or makes you immediately bristle and deny it, I implore you to ask yourself why. Just because you don't understand your privileges or how vast they are does not mean you do not have them. I STRONGLY encourage you to do the emotional labor to learn more about your privilege and to stop dismissing it as "absurd" or "untrue" without even considering the possibility that you're dead fucking wrong. The Internet is free, and you can very, very easily research this topic for yourself if you're not afraid of the truth. Honestly, what are you afraid of losing? Because black people are losing their lives.
- We as white people have unconscious biases (so does everyone else, but we're talking about ours right now). The University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) defines unconscious bias as "social stereotypes about certain groups of people that individuals form outside their own conscious awareness. Everyone holds unconscious beliefs about various social and identity groups, and these biases stem from one's tendency to organize social worlds by categorizing." So whether you assume all Asian people are intelligent, all Hispanic people can dance, or that all Black people are naturally athletic (or anything else you automatically assume about a group of people, whether that assumption is favorable or not), is an unconscious bias. To be clear, these biases are not limited to ethnicity, but as that's the topic of this letter, those are the examples I chose to use common tropes from. As white Americans, we have a lot of unconscious biases around our black neighbors. Maybe you were taught that they all wanted something for nothing. Maybe you believe that they're inherently violent or angry. Maybe you think they all love certain foods. These are biases, and you have them — we have them — and likely don't even realize it. "Not realizing it" doesn't mean that we should not work to discover those biases and dismantle them. Like stereotypes, they are not beneficial to us or to our society. An example of how we display unconscious biases regarding our black peers when something like this happens (a black person is murdered in the streets): we begin showing photos in the media of them where they look intimidating (think Trayvon Martin, who was murdered, and you see a photo of him in a hoodie "looking mean," meanwhile the Brock Turner's of the world commit violent crimes and you see their graduation photos in the news while they're on trial for rape). How we talk about people stems from how we think about people. So even if you do not realize it, your unconscious biases shape how you portray and perceive people, and also how you treat them.
- Punching down: don't do it. Many of you may not be familiar with this term. Punching down is anyone from a higher rank/status/position/power using their position to attack someone at a lower rank/status/position who has less power. This ties back into our privilege. It's not cool for us as white people to make degrading comments to or about those with less privilege than us, nor to engage them for the purpose of doing the same. Think of the phrase "pick on someone your own size." But change "size" to "social standing" and keep those unconscious biases and your privilege in mind. How this may appear in the current social arena is when protestors (regardless of what they are or are not doing) are called racially-fueled names like "thugs." Did you call the white people protesting with firearms that they couldn't get haircuts during a global pandemic "thugs"? (And don't even say "well they weren't looting and starting fires" — because they also didn't just witness yet another person who looked just like them murdered in the street for the umpteenth time.)
- Gatekeeping: don't do this, either. Again, this may be a phrase you're unfamiliar with. So let's unpack it. Gatekeeping is when you try to set boundaries and parameters around a group of people for how that group should act; this is done in order to limit their access to something. In the case of black oppression, white people saying things like "looting is wrong" or "why are you being so angry and aggressive about this" are gatekeeping. It's really easy to sit in your ivory tower, where you live in no fear for your life from law enforcement for simply existing, and judge the behavior of people who do not look like you. Perhaps if someone you loved was murdered for no reason, denied their constitutional rights (while white terrorists like Dylan Roof are taken into custody safely and alive), and no justice was served, you'd be pretty fucking enraged, too. Perhaps if it happened over and over and over again, in a country where, in your lifetime or your parents' or grandparents' lifetimes, it was perfectly legal to deny black people basic human rights. In fact, lynching wasn't even a federal crime until 2018. Read that again. Don't believe me? Look it up. Point being, don't tell people with less social standing than you have as a white person how to feel or how to act when this shit keeps happening to members of their ethnic group (particularly when it's so often at the hands of someone from OUR ethnic group).
- Microaggressions. Another thing that's so very real and you may not even realize that you are doing it. Have you ever said (or heard someone else say), "you're really smart for a black woman!" or "you might be the calmest black guy I've ever met." It gets better: you don't even have to VERBALIZE your microaggressions for them to be just that. Ever crossed the street because you saw a black man coming? Ever watched your purse a little closer in the grocery store aisle because a black woman was in the aisle with you? These are microaggressions (that are often based in your unconscious biases). When you think or say or act on something that is based in a negative bias you have towards someone from that group, it's a microaggression. You may have even meant to compliment them; but you're not really complimenting someone that you call "smart" when you qualify that statement by implying that OTHER people in that group aren't smart.
- "Whataboutisms." I don't care which ones you bring up — abortion, LEOs hurt/killed in the line of duty, rioting/looting/property damage, X-on-X ethnicity crime, or any other completely unrelated topic… stop it. Stop your fucking bullshit straw-man nonsense. If you are making excuses for someone's murder by saying "well what about these things that I consider murder" then you're an asshole (and, depending on the topic, possibly also a hypocrite). This is the same as the cancer example from earlier. Your "what about" logical fallacy bullshit does not belong in this very real discussion about this very real problem. We aren't saying those other things are not things (though some of them really fucking aren't), we are saying "we're talking about Y problem, so you can help us solve Y problem, or you can keep contributing to Y problem, but you cannot do both." PLEASE, choose to be part of the solution. We would love your help and support. I think you'll find it really does not cost you anything.
- Reverse racism DOES. NOT. EXIST. Racism is systemic oppression by the majority group in power of a minority group. To be clear, white people HAVE ALWAYS had the majority power in this country since its inception, and therefore cannot experience racism. In the United States, you can be prejudiced against white people, but you cannot be racist towards them. So please leave this bullshit at the door. No one wants to hear it ever again. It is not a thing.
For everything else in this list, I'm not blaming you for having these things (privileges, biases, et cetera) or participating in these phenomena. I'm also not saying they don't apply to me, because they do. As is everyone else, I am a work in progress. But acknowledging reality and making a conscious effort not to speak over or down to minorities, or make assumptions about their behaviors or actions is important. We all need to play a role in that. And that's why I say that you're either working to be (or actively being) an ally, or you're complicit in systemic racism. I'm saying "hey, this is an issue, these are contributing factors to this issue, and WE ALL need to make a conscious choice and effort to be aware of these things and try to stop promulgating them and participating in them."
We as the white community have for centuries been complicit in the pain and suffering that we (and those white people who came before us in this country) have caused the black community. Stop taking that as "oh, so I'm just as bad as a slave owner then?" For the love of all that is good in this world STOP MAKING THIS ABOUT YOU. Everything isn't about you. Stop acting like being asked to treat other people with dignity, respect, fairness, and equity is somehow a burden on you. Because imagine how it feels being treated as "less than" for your entire fucking life. Imagine how it feels to live in fear that you might not come home tonight because you got murdered for simply existing. Equality and equity are not pie. Being asked to treat other people how you have always been treated by our society does not take something away from you.
Does it make you uncomfortable or angry to hear that? Does it make you feel like people are implying you personally did something to black people? If so, I implore you to imagine how it feels being murdered in the streets because someone thinks you broke a law. No Miranda rights, no Constitutional rights, no fair trial. Just executed in the street like it's the fucking wild west. Your name and reputation will probably be ruined posthumously because you are no longer alive to share your side of the story. THAT is what should make you uncomfortable.
Imagine seeing the same atrocity happen over and over and over again — costing people their lives — and absolutely nothing is done to stop it or change it. How would that make you feel? Would you wonder if you might be next? Is someone you love? Why is there no justice? Why are other people not standing up and taking action against it? How can we prevent this from happening again? It reminds me of Martin Niemoller's poem, "First they came…" — which, if you have not read, you absolutely should.
It is so fucking easy for us as White people to judge the actions of the black community. It's so easy for us to ignore how WE wrote history and ignored the atrocities we committed against others and acted like there would be no repercussions or consequences to those actions, and as soon as "equal rights' became a thing suddenly everything was fair and square. That's not only ignorant — that's willfully ignorant. That's working HARD to ignore reality. Perception may be reality to those who perceive it, but you have to be actively trying to have no empathy or compassion if you don't care about the horrors we have committed against our black friends and neighbors. You are resting so easily on the backs of those who built this country. You're not being asked to give something up. You're being asked to acknowledge gross inequality and inequity and injustice, and you have the audacity to sit there and take it personally? To feel attacked? THAT is your privilege in action. Because if you really were paying attention and gave a fuck about what is going on, YOU WOULD BE OUTRAGED WITH THEM.
What our black peers are going through looks like what psychologists would identify as grief. And damn, do I understand, if only from my limited perspective. I know if I saw people who looked like me being murdered — and frequently — I would be angry and depressed and feel lost at what to do to stop it, also. I know if it was MY loved one who was murdered and justice wasn't served, I'd want to burn down an entire damn city on my own. So why do we act like protestors are "proving we were right" (about the stereotypes WE assigned to them), as though any protests happening in the first place are not the direct result of centuries of systemic oppression, abuse, objectification, commodification, and murder? You might as well cage a lion, hop in the cage and provoke it, and then go "See! I told you it was a vicious killer!" when it tries to defend itself against your provocations. That lion is only reacting to your provoking it. Any animal — including humans — is likely to do the same, and rightly so. Stop provoking black people and then acting like you were right all along that "they're the problem." That's called a self-fulfilling prophecy, and it's not a good look.
We need to understand that our black friends and neighbors are not responsible for sharing their experiences with us or proving their suffering to us. We cannot ask one member of a group to speak on behalf of that entire group. However, if someone from this group (or another minority group) chooses to share their experiences with you, the very least you can do is listen. Actually and truly listen. Not speak over them, not dismiss them. Just listen. Those things relate to our privilege as white people. Because we are generally believed when we share our experiences. We don't have to speak for all of us — because we're not the "token" friend. And we are listened to when we speak instead of being spoken over or down to. It is time that we use our platform to ask our fellow white people to also pause and listen. It's time that we — the people who created this problem in the first place — take accountability for it and actively work to put an end to it.
The Internet is filled with a wealth of knowledge and resources that document the history of the black experience in the United States and more information on topics I've mentioned here such as unconscious biases, gatekeeping, microaggressions, white privilege and more. You do not have to take these things at my word — you can do the research yourself and verify that these concepts are very real, and directly contributing to the systemic racism that is resulting in the deaths of our black friends and neighbors.
I can't make you believe in social systems that you are determined to deny. I cannot make you choose to be an ally and stand up for and beside those whom we have silenced and ignored for so long. And I don't want to. I want you to choose those things because you have put in the time to educate yourself on those topics; search your own mind, heart, and soul; and come to the conclusion that you think it's the right thing to do. I need you to genuinely ask yourself what it is you have to lose by fighting for other people to have the same rights that we have always had. Or if you're denying that that's the case in the first place, I want you to ask yourself why you are so convinced that your limited perspective is more valid than the millions of our fellow American citizens who are living in fear and oppression. This isn't about "white people are bad." This isn't about "ACAB." This isn't about me, and this isn't about you. There are zero things you should take personally about this. You are not being attacked. But the same cannot be said about the black community. But you should be angry. You should be angry at the centuries of injustice perpetrated and perpetuated against our black friends and neighbors. This is purely and simply about putting an end to systemic oppression so that our black friends and neighbors stop getting murdered in the streets. This is about justice, equality, and equity. Our black friends and neighbors need us. I'll be standing with them, on the just side of history. I hope that you'll choose to join us.


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Knowing where and how to forage is a skill that I feel all Homesteaders need. It's also something that varies from location to location. There is some risk to foraging, especially for novices, as many safe and nutritious plants have toxic look-alikes. Since I'm a novice, I'm going to concentrate on resources you can use for more expert information as far as plant identification, and I will share tips I was given during foraging workshops that I've taken. I'll also include links and information for some common plants that are plentiful across the US.
Why should I forage? My motivation in learning to forage is directly due to my desire to be self-sufficient. I hate to garden (so sorry, Grandma!) and because of that, I need to rely on grocery stores, farmers' markets, and my neighbors for fresh produce. Farmers' markets and neighbors are great, but I hope that someday bland grocery store produce is the exception in our home. I hope that foraging will supplement this. There are also some wonderful edibles that have not been successfully cultivated, specifically morel mushrooms.
Not only is your menu improved by foraging, but grasses, reeds, trees, even pine needles can be foraged and made into items for your home. Baskets, mats, furniture, décor, etc. can be made from bits you can find in the woods, wetlands, and prairies.
Besides, it's fun. There's a special sense of accomplishment when you find and gather food and resources for your family.
Two Golden Rules of Foraging: These are the two rules that you should never break when foraging.
DON'T EAT ANYTHING YOU AREN'T ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE IS SAFE. Eating something you aren't positive is safe is truly life-threatening. Mushrooms are especially dangerous, but there are lots of other plants that are toxic. If you can manage it, go on a couple forays with an experienced forager. At the minimum, invest in a foraging guide with clear descriptions and pictures. However, in my experience, even photographs are a poor substitute for someone with experience pointing out the authentic wild edible.
FORAGE SUSTAINABLY. You never want to be "that guy" who collects an entire patch of <insert wild edible here>. I've heard various percentages to forage from one location, but most commonly it's that one should never collect more than 50% of the plants from one location. Foraging sustainably also means that you don't kill the plant when you harvest. Sometimes this is unavoidable, like when the root is what you're harvesting. If this is the case, absolutely only harvest what is needed. Breaking this rule will result in the loss of these wild plants.
Before you go: Make sure you check regulations in your area to ensure you're foraging legally, and more importantly, with consideration. If you're going to forage on private land, be sure you've received permission from the land owner; trespassing is always a bad idea. If it's public land, make sure that foraging is allowed.
Tools for foraging: Below are some simple tools that you need to take with you on every foray.
- Basket or mesh bag: Yeah, you're thinking, "Duh. I need something to carry my loot." Which you do; however, you need to be sure that whatever you choose to use will allow any pollen or spores to escape into the environment to perpetuate the plants. Avoid plastic, metal and densely-woven fabric.
- Knife: Something with a sheath or folding makes carrying it around safer. I like a belt knife because it's fewer things I need to have in my hands. You can carry it in your bag/basket, but if it's on your belt, it's more accessible.
- Pruners or scissors: Yes, you need this in addition to your knife. Sometimes this type of cutting is just easier and better for the plant. Small hand pruners can fit in your back pocket; scissors should be in your bag to carry them safely.
- Smaller mesh or cloth bags: You may want to keep some of your loot separate from the rest. Remember; try to find a material that will allow spores and pollen to escape. In a foraging workshop I was in, someone suggested the legs from pantyhose. I haven't used this, but it makes sense to me and is something I'll probably try.
- Gloves: Gardening gloves or light leather gloves are a good choice. Some plants can irritate your skin – such as nettles – and you may need to get past thorns or burrs to get to the good stuff.
What to forage: Now that you have the tools you need and the location picked out, you need to know what to collect. As I said before – safe and available plants vary drastically from region to region, so find a workshop, experienced forager or book for your region before you go out. Below are some plants that are available in most of North America, are easily identifiable and useful in many ways.
- Cattails – There are so many articles on the internet regarding foraging cattails. Every part of the plant is useful, and everything but the leaves is edible. But don't discard the leaves; weave them into mats and baskets. Cattail fluff is one of the best tinder materials out there. When you forage, remember that cattails are highly useful to the environment as well as your foraging basket. Collect only what you need and be mindful of collecting shoots and roots especially if the water is brackish or possibly polluted.
- Rose hips – Rose hips are the fruit of roses and have ~50% more vitamin C than oranges by volume. Rose hips can be made into jams, jellies and teas. As with all fruits, they should be prepared soon after harvesting. The fuzzy seeds on the outside should be removed as they could cause irritation. The inner seeds should also be removed by cutting the hips in half to scrape the seeds out.
- Dandelions – Oh, the poor misunderstood dandelion! The attributes that make dandelions so amazing are the very things for which they're vilified. They're hardy, fast-growing, resilient and will grow almost anywhere. If this was a tomato, everyone would want them instead of waging war to eradicate them. The roots are a natural diuretic and tradition suggests they aid in liver function. Aside from the medicinal uses, apparently the roots can be roasted and used as a coffee substitute. I haven't tried this and, as a coffee addict, I'm intrigued and may be roasting some this summer. It's not only the roots that are useful, the leaves are wonderful in salads and are even being sold commercially – really – and suburbanites are drenching their lawns in herbicides to kill them?!? As for the flowers, collect them then remove the petals and add water, juice and yeast for dandelion wine. You'll never look at the lowly dandelion the same.
- Wood Sorrel – These lovely heart-shaped leaves add a surprising zip to salads. It does the same for iced or hot drinks such as tea, cider and lemonade. Please note that this plant contains a high amount of oxalic acid which can exacerbate certain kidney, bladder and arthritis issues; but so does spinach. You can lightly cook the leaves to neutralize some of the oxalic acid.
Be safe: Since foraging is much more uncommon than wandering about the grocery store, research the wild edibles you collect. I really can't stress this enough. Not only to ensure that what you're eating is safe and non-toxic, but if there could be any interactions with lifestyle or medications. Rose hips have a high concentration of vitamin C and could interact/interfere with some hormone replacement medications. St. John's Wort shouldn't be taken by anyone with thyroid issues or taking thyroid replacement medication. While I believe in natural foods, medications and remedies, I also believe in modern medicine. So, educate yourself on the foods you're eating and any medication and supplements you're taking.
Resources: There are so many resources available, both online and in print. Personally, I like to have a hard copy to carry with me on my forays as opposed to a Kindle or electronic version. This way, I don't have to worry about connectivity or battery availability and it's easier to make notes. I recommend that you find a foraging guide for your region. Amazon has a slew of options – both print and Kindle versions.
I can't even begin to cover all of the online resources out there. Of course, with anything you find on the internet, be sure to verify the information. That said, here are a few sites that I've found helpful:
There are also apps to install on your phone or tablet. Simply search the App Store or Play Store for foraging apps. Note that these are not usually region specific.
However, the best resource for the novice is an experienced forager to teach you. Someone willing to teach you these pioneer skills. I'm fortunate to live in an area that encourages foraging and I have several opportunities to go on forays with experienced foragers each season.
Try foraging in baby steps. Even if it's not something you enjoy, the knowledge could be invaluable in some situations.


text:
Consider the following scenario:
You browse to the Home view in Office Delve.
You see email attachments that are presented on cards.
You click the link to one of the attachments.
In this scenario, you receive the following error message:
We can't open this attachment
The email may have been moved or deleted.
This issue occurs when a message is permanently deleted in Outlook, or the Deleted Items folder is cleared which previously contained the attachment. Delve indexes items from Outlook but after a message that has an attachment is permanently deleted, it takes some time for it to be removed from Delve.
For more information about what you'll find in Office Delve, go to Connect and collaborate in Office Delve.
More information
Still need help? Go to Microsoft Community.


text:
I shared the story of how my family dealt with driving. It was difficult and horrible because my parents didn't know they had lost their licenses and kept driving. Our biggest fear was that they would have an accident and without a valid license … had no auto insurance. If they were in an accident, I could see them being sued for everything they owned. If you want to revisit that series of post, you can find it here.
What has been interesting to witness is the variety of my clients who have freely (but not happily) given up their car keys. There were little issues, like getting lost or having a minor fender-bender, that usually preceded the choice.
For my clients that have given up keys, the ease at which we have been able to get them to the events they want to attend made all the difference in the world. We could shown them that not driving was not going to slow them down.
Friends have mostly filled in to help get them to church, to their member groups, and even to their volunteer obligations. It is actually making their interactions with others richer. In my community, we have a local non-profit that sets up volunteer rides. You may have a similar group in your community. In the McLean area, we have a Shepherd's Center of McLean/Arlington/Falls Church. In Reston, they have RC Rides through the Reston Community Center, and several of the villages in our area provide rides to their members. To see if you have one in your area, you may want to reach out to the Agency for Aging in your county.
For one client , we incorporated personal care assistants (through an agency that we pay) that can offer on-demand rides when needed. For a few dollars more than a cab ride, he has someone who can comes once a week to help get the grocery list together, get the shopping done and put-away. The other client purchased discounted taxi vouchers so she can get to the grocery store.
I am happy that we can make the loss of the keys not limit my clients ability to continue doing the things that they love. When you face this issue, are there ways to make the loss of the keys not feel like a loss of freedom, but maybe even a move to promote socialization with friends they enjoy and community activities they love? Recommended.


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After the pronouncement against New York City, I heard the Lord say- "Trade and economic warfare" several times; "Trade and economic war is declared in the heavens against the United States of America". I heard, "Hardships, hard times, LACK and the beginning of sorrows in the United States of America". I see the merchants of the nation are stressed and perplexed; they are confused because their goods are not coming in. Their shipments are stuck, their goods delayed, and this is causing price fluctuations in the market at large. Consumer demand is higher than supply, I see arteries flowing into the body of America CLOGGED, so that the things people need are not as available as before. It is imperceptible at first, but with time everyone will see it.
I see Arabic men and men of other foreign origin rubbing their heads and beards. They are getting together to discuss this problem: the tariffs being levied against them are too high, and they cannot afford to pay. They murmur against the US Government. They are NOT the United States government; they do not get subsidies to market their goods as U.S. businesses do. They do it from their own pocket- but now their pockets are HIT because of the punishments God has brought against America. I see these men hard in prayer in their religions, and I hear the words "eastern religions". They are bowing down on prayer mats and some speak earnestly to images of other human beings held in picture frames. Some have tears with imploring, but no help is coming for them. Prayer is going up feverishly but no help is coming down. I see the words written in the air- 'This is the beginning of Jihad'. This is the first vision.
In the American fields, crops are not producing. Food is failing and I see the fancy supermarkets raise their prices. I see one brand of supermarket in particular from New York City, a behemoth and wealthy "brand" raising their prices in the night. I see the fancy gel-manicured nails of many women of non-American origin, hired by night to peel off stickers in the back rooms of these mega supermarkets. There are mounds of fresh fruit cut into clear plastic containers: these women are hired from the ethnic communities to peel off their stickers and make them ready to receive new ones in the morning. They're working all night off payroll, and in the morning, the permanent employees with medical care and all the right paperwork will attach new prices to these perfectly packed up boxes of fruit- suitable for busy executives, fancy housewives and students to grab on their way to work. These price changes take place at night, and in the daytime permanent employees will label this same fruit with new prices, but they won't know how it came to be costlier than the day before. This is the second vision.
This is the message, this is the cause of confusion and the blockage in the arteries of America: "TRADE AND ECONOMIC CHOKING, WARFARE AGAINST THE NATIONS."
I see men coming in the spirit with huge mounds of EARTH. They bring mountains of earth like in the old days, carrying it by elephant to lay it up against a mighty city that is flying her flags in the distance. They have dug huge trenches against this city, deep ones with struts in them to hold up the earth. Now they make SEIGE MOUNDS against this city that is Babylon, and anyone coming to the city with goods for sale is turned away by these men. No flow is allowed to enter her, and no one dares to open the main gate and come out. The city is being slowly starved of commerce, until her people begin to languish over a period of months and eventually cry for bread. But these men have been sent by Jesus Christ to lay siege against Babylon, at His instruction they remain there to punish her. This is the third vision.
In the fourth vision I see the United States of America playing tennis. She is all dressed up in her colours: red, white and blue, acting fancy but wow, her game is all messed up. All the umpire keeps calling against her is "FAULT! FAULT! FAULT!" She is agitated, trying to play well but all she creates is faults and unforced errors. Because of this I see a hand taking points off the board for America- she is greatly weakened by her point losses and upset about her score, but there is nothing she can do. Almost every time her racket makes contact with the ball I hear "FAULT!" and her score drops down.
And now, here is the future: I see three nations taking advantage of America's horrible game. I see the nation's of Russia, China and curiously the Philippines, scrambling up the scoreboard of trade, economic warfare and tariffs against America. I see Russia climbing effortlessly, easily the highest scoring and the fastest, with China right behind her and the Philippines coming third. The Philippines is carrying fruits and vegetables in her ascension but Russia is carrying weapons of war, nukes and tanks. China also carries technology and research materials, as well as sharp implements to impale and cut off body parts. These two nations are climbing up the scoreboard that also looks like a flagpole. Up this pole these two climb and the umpire yells "ACE! ACE! ACE!"
Russia and China are winning this match against America; that's all there is to it.
Prophecy: There is coming a shift in positions in the economic space. Nations will trade places: the first will be last and the last will rapidly make up ground against the first. Even a nation without a strong export goods roster will begin to climb the scale of economic certainty against America, as gradually her position is lost through a series of poor decisions and bad implementation of economic policy against other nations. International trade shifts will hit U.S. merchants hard; they will not cope well with tariff increases and become disgruntled against the U.S.A. FROM WITHIN. This will stir tensions along religious lines, lines that should have nothing to do with trade but they will, as communities become moved to agitate against the U.S. to protect their livelihoods. Prices will creep up in America; big stores will not be loyal to customers but will even go so far as to employ illegal labour to keep up with the need to change prices quickly. God will shut up the flow of goods against the USA as punishment for her deeds towards Him: this is what this group of visions is pronouncing for a time soon to come.


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by Carlbiker
(Minnesota, USA)
I was bicycling near the St. Croix River in Minnesota on a country road when I saw a flock of several tiger swallowtails fluttering near the roadside. I paused to take in the sight, never seeing more than one swallowtail at a time before, when I noticed a fallen swallowtail on the pavement near me. With a touch of sadness & a sense of gratitude for seeing a flock of swallowtails, I pedaled off down the road about another mile, then decided to turn around & head back. When I arrived at the spot of the swallowtails, still fluttering, I stopped in my tracks; there, on the pavement, were two swallowtails who had apparently lifted their dead comrade onto their wings, side-by-side, and were walking across the road with it to the mown grass. They continued walking carefully across the grass (all the while the others were still fluttering around the area, as if watching for traffic, or perhaps, mourning), then into the safety of the tall weeds, where they gently separated & lowered their comrade to the ground. The two then walked back to the mown grass, fluttered their wings & took flight, joining the others in an intricate flight pattern of ever-widening spirals. Finally, they all dissipated into the countryside on their own journeys.
It was as if I'd witnessed a sort of funeral procession, or ritual.
Has anyone else had a similar experience?
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Anarchy Moment 0100 – Crashing Virgins
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As I recover from working 40 hours in two days I foreshadow talking about another post going around Facebook that says looking at women is sexual harassment. I also point out that neither of the test pilots involved in the Virgin Galactic crash were women. While men are going into space women are whining about men looking at them.


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Anna Kendrick's Beauty Routine, Complete With 'Schmancy-Schmancy' Lip Cream – New York Times
Anna Kendrick's Beauty Routine, Complete With 'Schmancy-Schmancy' Lip CreamNew York TimesI'm really into lip cream. I have this one by Hourglass; it's an oil with this gold-tip applicator, and it's schmancy-schmancy. When you get to the point that your lips are cracking, the price is worth it. My sunscreen is Aveeno Smart Essentials …and more »
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Rite Aid Introduces Receutics Active Skin Repair Line
CAMP HILL, Pa.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Rite Aid introduced today a new line of over-the-counter, dermatologically tested skincare products, Receutics Active Skin Repair, at more than 200 New Jersey and Seattle-area Rite Aid stores and online at Receutics.com. Developed exclusively for Rite Aid, the 10-piece line offers affordable, effective treatment for many common skincare conditions such acne and …


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Part cheerleader, part tentacular monster from beyond space. Nothing struts the team colors like a shambling eldritch horror. And what better sports victory than to see your enemies flee the field, gibbering and soiling themselves with terror? Yes, granted, you have to  sacrifice a referee to them on the quarters and cross-quarters, but only during football season, and it's only a referee anyway. There's more.
I like her. She's got elephant legs and no head. Stumpy, headless and putty-like are all very valuable traits in a cheerleader. But it's the way she works that writhing mass of tentacles that really sets her apart from the lesser, headed, members of the cheer squad. She's not afraid to grab that ball of flailing strips of cartilage in her oarlike appendages and really show some team spirit. Or perhaps she'll raise the knot of twisted tendrils and place it on top of the void between her shoulder blades and stand in the middle of the field and just howl for like an hour, maybe two.
Underneath that somewhat conformist team color exterior, beats a heart…and other internal organs…of solidified grape pudding. Go, team. Go.


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A Suggestion to Help People in Prison
While the main purpose of this website is to help people understand the parole process in Texas and also to educate them about the importance of parole packets, we also try to occasionally offer our insights into life inside prison and what can be done to make it easier on the offenders.
We've mentioned before how a few dollars placed into an inmates commissary account can be a big deal and how uplifting "making store" can be, even if they only get a few soups and a soft drink. The prisons which are actually run by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, such as the Gurney Unit, usually serves an adequate amount of food although the taste is sometimes horrible and the food almost inedible. However, the prisons run by the "for profit" companies like GEO and CCA offer an amount of food that is minimal and often actually inedible. Reports are often received of a serving of pinto beans that has only three beans and the rest being the congealed liquid which occurs from using too few beans and too much corn starch (apparently) to cut costs.
However, before we get diverted too far, we just wanted to suggest that great gifts to send to someone who is incarcerated are books. Not just the ones we sell here and at RebellionBooks.com (including our great How to Prepare a Texas Parole Packet) but any books can help someone's mind escape from the daily hell of life on the inside.
Many people who are in prison don't think they like to read and so books aren't an obvious choice but once they get into them you never know what will happen. It may encourage them to continue to better themselves when they are released, perhaps pursue a different career, or complete an education they had abandoned.
The prison system will allow most book publishers to send books directly to a prisoner so it is one of the few gifts that is virtually guaranteed to make it to them.
Just a thought, but to change a life you have to start somewhere.
Related News
The Effect of Concurrent and Consecutive Sentences on Texas Paroles
When Texas judges impose multiple sentences after conviction for multiple crimes they often have a choice on whether the sentences all run at the same time, known as concurrent, or whether the sentences are to run one after another, known as consecutive or stacked. How the judge orders the sentences to be served as well as which sentence is imposed first can make a dramatic difference in how long a prisoner has to wait to be eligible for parole.
Judge Says Texas Must Provide Safe Drinking Water to Inmates
A federal judge ordered the Texas prison system to provide safe drinking water that doesn'tRead More
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A manufacturer of self-balancing powered unicycles
When the co-founder of Russia's largest mobile phone retailer decided he wanted patent protection for his new business venture - self-balancing powered unicycles – one of our existing clients recommended us.
The reason they were happy to make that recommendation was they knew we would deliver against his friend's critical success factors, speed of response and an all-inclusive service.
We met at very short notice and were able to demonstrate:
- The unparalleled level of dedication we afford all of our clients
- The comprehensive range of patent services we offer
- The quality of our work
As a result, we were selected over all of the other patent firms the client was talking to.
Although the concept behind the unicycles was straightforward, the main challenge was going to be to draft and prosecute the client's patent applications within extremely short timescales; as an example some new patents had to be prepared and filed within 48 hours of receiving the initial disclosure.
While unicycles obviously aren't a mainstay of our practice, this example shows we always put our clients' needs first whether those clients are an instantly recognisable multinational or a new business venture. We are ready to drop everything to deliver against any deadline and deliver without ever compromising the quality of our work.
For further details of this type of work, contact Daniel Portch.


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Spleen 2
than if I'd lived a thousand years
I have more memories than if I'd lived a thousand years. A heavy chest of drawers cluttered with balance-sheets, Processes, love-letters, verses, ballads, And heavy locks of hair enveloped in receipts, Hides fewer secrets than my gloomy brain. It is a pyramid, a vast burial vault Which contains more corpses than potter's field. - I am a cemetery abhorred by the moon, In which long worms crawl like remorse And constantly harass my dearest dead. I am an old boudoir full of withered roses, Where lies a whole litter of old-fashioned dresses, Where the plaintive pastels and the pale Bouchers, Alone, breathe in the fragrance from an opened phial. Nothing is so long as those limping days, When under the heavy flakes of snowy years Ennui, the fruit of dismal apathy, Becomes as large as immortality. - Henceforth you are no more, O living matter! Than a block of granite surrounded by vague terrors, Dozing in the depths of a hazy Sahara An old sphinx ignored by a heedless world, Omitted from the map, whose savage nature Sings only in the rays of a setting sun. Translated by - William Aggeler Spleen I hold more memories than a thousand years. A chest of drawers crammed full of souvenirs, accounts and love-notes, warrants, verses - where from bills of sale fall coiling locks of hair - guards not more secrets than my heart of woe, a burial-vault whose coffins lie arow, a potters' field that death has filled too soon. - I am a graveyard hated by the moon, where creeping worms trail slowly as remorse, fiercely destroyed each belovèd corpse. I am a room where faded roses lie and gowns of perished fashions multiply, with none but ladies in pastel to share the musk from some old jar forgotten there. no days so lame as all the days I know while, crushed by years of ever-falling snow, boredom, dull fruitage of my apathy, waxes as vast as immortality. henceforth, o living cells, ye sleep, a womb faint shudders pierce, a cold grey cliff of doom lost in a misty desert far away, - a drowsy sphynx, forgot by all today, uncharted avatar, whose tameless heart sounds only when the day's last fires depart. Translated by - Lewis Piaget Shanks The Sphinx I swear to you that if I lived a thousand years I could not be more crammed with dubious souvenirs. There's no old chest of drawers bulging with deeds and bills, Love-letters, locks of hair, novels, bad verses, wills, That hides so many secrets as my wretched head; - It's like a mausoleum, like a pyramid, Holding more heaped unpleasant bones than Potter's Field; I am a graveyard hated by the moon; revealed Never by her blue light are those long worms that force Into my dearest dead their blunt snouts of remorse. - am an old boudoir, where roses dried and brown Have given their dusty odor to the faded gown, To the ridiculous hat, doubtless in other days So fine, among the wan pastels and pale Bouchers. Time has gone lame, and limps; and under a thick pall Of snow the endless years efface and muffle all; Till boredom, fruit of the mind's inert, incurious tree, Assumes the shape and size of immortality. Henceforth, O living matter, you are nothing more Than the fixed heart of chaos, soft horror's granite core, Than a forgotten Sphinx that in some desert stands, Drowsing beneath the heat, half-hidden by the sands, Unmarked on any map, - whose rude and sullen frown Lights up a moment only when the sun goes down. Translated by - Edna St. Vincent Millay Spleen Were I ten centuries old, could I remember more? A weighty chest of drawers, crammed with a random store Of poems, billets-doux, writs, songs, balance sheets, And heavy skeins of hair rolled up in old receipts, Hides fewer secrets, surely, than my sorry brain, A pyramid and vault, whose corridors contain More corpses than the potter's field, or late or soon. A graveyard, I, abominated by the moon, Where, like a viscous worm, remorse thrusts out his head To strike forever at my most beloved dead. I am an ancient boudoir filled with faded roses In which a ruck of long-outmoded gowns reposes, Where pastels all too sad and Bouchers all too pale Alone breathe in the scents that uncorked flasks exhale. Nothing can be so long as days, limping and drear, Under the heavy flakes of year on snowy year, When ennui, fruit of dismal incuriosity, Assumes the fearful scope of immortality. - Henceforth you are no more, O mind, O living matter! Than a cold granite block which unknown terrors spatter, Dozing deep in the wastes of a Saharan daze, An ancient Sphinx unknown of our indifferent days, Omitted from all maps, a lonely savage one Who can sing only at the setting of the sun. Translated by - Jacques LeClercq Spleen I have more memories than had I seen ten centuries. A huge chest that has been Stuffed full of writs, bills, verses, balance-sheets With golden curls wrapt up in old receipts And love-letters - hides less than my sad brain, A pyramid, a vault that must contain More corpses than the public charnel stores. I am a cemetery the moon abhors, Where, like remorses, the long worms that trail Always the dearest of my dead assail. I am a boudoir full of faded roses Where many an old outmoded dress reposes And faded pastels and pale Bouchers only Breathe a scent-flask, long-opened and left lonely... Nothing can match those limping days for length Where under snows of years, grown vast in strength, Boredom (of listlessness the pale abortion) Of immortality takes the proportion! - From henceforth, living matter, you are nought But stone surrounded by a dreadful thought: Lost in some dim Sahara, an old Sphinx, Of whom the world we live in never thinks. Lost on the map, it is its surly way Only to sing in sunset's fading ray. Translated by - Roy Campbell


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Urban Concepts Launch Party to Feature Faith Evans
Tonight, US Concepts, an event marketing agency, is launching it's new division, Urban Concepts, a group comprised of urban marketing specialists, an influencer network and event promotion, viral/buzz and street team services. Faith Evans will be performing at an event, limited to 100 clients, friends and family, to toast the new venture taking the concept of the mini-concert to the another level.
by Steve Hall Jul-21-05 Click to Comment
Topic: Agencies
Topic: Agencies


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May it Please the Court: CSUN Makes History with Appellate Court Session on Campus
The bailiff banged the gavel, calling out: "All rise!"
The auditorium filled with the sounds of creaking theater seats and shuffling papers, the squeaking of Vans and Doc Martins soles, as nearly 500 CSUN students and faculty stood, watching in silence as the justices filed to their seats. Robed in black, the justices settled into their chairs.
Court — and class — was in session.
CSUN made judicial history Oct. 16, as the first California State University campus to host a session of the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Five. It's exceedingly rare for any court to hold a session outside the confines of the traditional courtroom, let alone traveling to a campus. Invited from their usual courtrooms in downtown Los Angeles by CSUN professor and former appellate justice Sandy Kriegler, the justices and the attorneys presenting the day's cases enthusiastically agreed to the court "road show" of sorts.
Their chief motivation was education — giving hundreds of undergraduates the opportunity to glimpse democracy and the judiciary in action — but also the need for recruitment, diversity and development, to encourage more young people from all backgrounds to pursue careers in the courts, law enforcement, the judiciary and beyond. CSUN, with its young and booming Department of Criminology and Justice Studies and one of the state's most diverse learning environments, was a natural fit.
"This is going to be a new experience for most if not all of you," Kriegler told the audience of students in CSUN's Plaza del Sol Performance Hall, before the justices filed onto the stage. "This is the second-highest court in the state of California (after the state Supreme Court)."
Before they heard the first of three cases, presiding justice Laurence D. Rubin thanked Kriegler and university officials for making the session possible.
"This is not an easy process to get a state-owned court out to the academics, and a lot of work went into this," Rubin said, thanking the faculty and staff of CSUN, particularly the Department of Criminology and Justice Studies.
In addition to Rubin, Associate Justice Lamar W. Baker, Associate Justice Carl H. Moor and Associate Justice Dorothy C. Kim participated in the two-hour session, where they heard oral arguments for three civil and criminal cases. As they signed in with their professors for class credit, the CSUN students received short, written summaries of the cases they would hear — including a petition from a man seeking early parole based on a recently passed state law under Prop. 57, which provided for early release for some non-violent offenders.
Appellate courts differ from the trial courts most Americans know from TV, films, jury duty or other personal experience: There are no witnesses, no defendants present, no jury. Appellate court justices review the records of the trial courts for error.
During the Oct. 16 session, CSUN students had the opportunity to hear in real-world context legal words and concepts such as briefs, State Constitution, non-violent offender, legislators, statute and due process.
On stage, a table on a short dais made up the justices' "bench," and the ad hoc courtroom included a podium for the attorneys, one table for each seated legal team, the bailiff's table at stage left and the court clerks' table at stage right.
After the arguments in the three cases concluded, the justices filed out, removed their robes and returned to the stage in suits to take a number of questions from students in the audience.
"As you could tell from the arguments, we're not used to fielding questions," one of the justices quipped. "We're used to giving questions."
Students' questions ranged from how the justices make their decisions to advice for those considering law school and what judges do to decompress in their free time.
In response to one student's question about whether it's difficult to stay impartial, Moor said: "One becomes a judge and gives up being a lawyer because one likes the position of being neutral, of listening to both sides. After a while, you just get used to it."
As in all courts, those in attendance were forbidden from speaking during proceedings. Relieved to be able to speak after the two-hour session, students buzzed afterward with questions and comments.
"I was told by my professor that this is almost a once-in-a-lifetime experience, so I knew I had to be here," said senior and criminology and justice studies major Steven Feit. "I was very excited to come, and it was really interesting."


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Whimsy Apron
Multi-colored paisleys of blue, pink, orange and green are full of energy and fun.
Beau Ties aprons are made right here in America - where our own exacting production gurus make sure that every apron (and every detail of every apron) is exactly right. Because what separates an old dish towel stuck in your waistband from an apron you'll really appreciate are the details.
That's why we spent lots of time designing what we think are aprons of perfection. Each one features:
- An ample bib top
- Long straps to wrap and tie securely
- Sturdy grommets to keep fabric from wearing against the straps
- Two big pockets (you never know what you may need quickly!)
- Tough duck cotton that will hold up, but not weigh you down
Whether it's in the kitchen, in the studio or almost anywhere where a splat of this or dribble of that may take its toll on your clothing, Beau Ties aprons are a cut above!


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SocialWorlds Publications
Export 5 results:[ Author] Type Year
Filters: First Letter Of Last Name is D [Clear All Filters]
""If These Walls Could Talk": Designing with Memories of Places", in Proceedings of the 2014 Conference on Designing Interactive Systems, New York, NY, USA, 2014.,
"House Memory: On Activity Traces As a Form of Cultural Heritage", ACM interactions, vol. 21, pp. 70–73, 2014.,
"Supporting Re-Use in DIY Software Projects: A Gray-Box Approach", in Workshop on Hacking, Tinkering, Crafts & Inventive Leisure Practices, ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, 2011. (213.18 KB),
"Discovery-based Games for Learning Software", 2012. (1.24 MB),
"Social Overlays: Collectively Making Websites More Usable", in 14th IFIP Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (Interact 2013), 2013. (1.49 MB),


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It's a dream come true for the Curry family.
Stephen and Seth Curry are facing off in the Western Conference finals, which marks the first time siblings have matched up in the conference championship or NBA Finals. It has been business as usual for Steph and the two-time defending champion Golden State Warriors this season, while his younger brother has been a scoring threat off the Portland Trail Blazers' bench after missing last season due to a surgery on his left tibia. Their matchup got us thinking about some other sibling pairs in pro sports -- and there's no shortage of notable examples.
Venus and Serena Williams
This duo has combined for 30 Grand Slam singles titles, 14 Grand Slam doubles titles as a team, and eight Olympic gold medals. Both sisters have been ranked No. 1 at some point in their careers. In head-to-head matchups, Serena leads Venus with an 18-12 record.
Peyton and Eli Manning
Peyton and Eli have combined for four Super Bowl titles, 899 touchdowns, more than 127,000 yards passing and two "Saturday Night Live" hosting gigs. Their older brother, Cooper, was also a highly ranked prospect before he decided to end his playing career due to a spinal stenosis diagnosis.
Pau and Marc Gasol
In 2015, Pau and Marc Gasol became the first set of NBA brothers to start an All-Star Game. They were also the first set of brothers to play in the game since Tom and Dick Van Arsdale made it as reserves in the early 1970s.
Jim and John Harbaugh
Jim Harbaugh had a lengthy and notable NFL career before moving to the coaching ranks, while his brother, John, got on the coaching path immediately after his college playing career. They are the only brothers to coach against each other in the Super Bowl, with John's Baltimore Ravens bettering Jim's San Francisco 49ers 34-31 in 2013.
Chandler, Arthur and Jon Jones
Arthur Jones retired from the NFL in 2017 after a seven-season career, while Chandler is still a defensive terror for the Arizona Cardinals. Both brothers have won a Super Bowl, but it's their UFC fighter brother, Jon "Bones" Jones, who might have had the most success -- he's 26-1 in his UFC career (with the one loss coming via disqualification) and, despite several controversies, remains the undisputed UFC light heavyweight champion.
Brook and Robin Lopez
The Lopez twins have had solid NBA careers after their time as teammates at Stanford. Brook has landed with the powerhouse Milwaukee Bucks, while Robin is trying to help turn the Chicago Bulls around.
Yadier, Jose and Bengie Molina
The Molinas have a combined 44 years of MLB experience and five World Series titles. Yadier went to seven consecutive All-Star Games with the St. Louis Cardinals, while both Jose and Bengie have retired. They are the only three brothers in MLB history to all win a World Series. Bengie and Jose were teammates with the Los Angeles Angels when they won the 2002 title. Jose won a second title with the New York Yankees in 2009. Yadier won titles in 2006 and 2011 with the Cards.
Henrik and Daniel Sedin
Both Sedins were drafted by the Vancouver Canucks in 1999 and spent their entire careers with the team. They combined for 633 goals and 2,111 points. The twins retired at the end of the 2018 season, when they won the King Clancy Trophy for leadership.
Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko
Both brothers were boxing heavyweight world champions at some point in their careers. Wladimir retired in 2017 with a record of 64-5 (51 KOs), having competed in 29 world title fights. Vitali is now the mayor of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. His boxing record was 45-2 (41 KOs).
Bob and Mike Bryan
Known for their dominating performance in doubles competition, the Bryans are arguably the best tennis duo of all time. The pair has won 16 Grand Slam titles and several Olympic medals, including a gold at the 2012 London Olympics.
Chris and Kyle Long
The sons of NFL Hall of Famer Howie Long, both Chris and Kyle have found success in their father's footsteps. Chris has won Super Bowl titles with the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles, while Kyle has made three Pro Bowls with the Chicago Bears.
Cheryl and Reggie Miller
Both siblings are enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, with Cheryl becoming a coach and Reggie moving into broadcasting after their respective playing careers. Their brother, Darrell Miller, also played baseball for the Angels from 1984-88.
Jason and Devin McCourty
The McCourty twins became the first pair of twins to play in -- and win -- a Super Bowl, with the Patriots' victory in Super Bowl LIII. Their mom Phyllis wears custom jerseys supporting them both, and is a major reason behind their NFL success.


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Food Drives
Over the past year the Botham Jean Foundation has had the opportunity to partner with the North Texas Food Bank and others to provide much needed food and resources to the community. These food drives serve as a way to connect to the community and understand the needs of people who deserve to be heard. Our mobile food pantry also allows us to provide to people no matter what community they are a part of.