text:
I worry about making something that'll be toxic. Or explosive. I mean, the safety standards are there, and we tinker in increments, but still, I worry about making something dangerous. Some substance that seems harmless but seeps into our daily lives and destroys humanity, maybe even decades after I'm dead. So I'm vigilant.
On the flip side, I dream about making something revolutionary. Some substance that turns out to be the next core material on which humanity advances to the next stage of technology. Something that NASA could use to make the next generation of shuttles (can you imagine?). Some substance that can help fix the environment. Something that can save lives somehow.
But I suppose every field had its own dangers and promises. A genetic engineer hopes to find the cure to all disease and fears creating some organism that instead destroyed life. A programmer hopes to help scientists understand human thought by building a virtual brain and fears that brain might become sentient and turn against its makers.
I suppose compared to those fears, mine were manageable. I thought so anyway.
I was working in the Materials Science department in the Research and Development arm of one of the world's major toy manufacturing companies. My team's job was to come up with a new synthetic material that we could use to manufacture our own products, and that was also safe enough to provide to the public in its raw form for use in three-dimensional printers. We were not going to be undone by the grass roots "maker movement" that had people eschewing the purchase of pre-manufactured items in lieu of making such items at home. Something about the logic of that aim seemed off to me—large corporation supporting a do-it-yourself culture. Maybe the company's true aim was to make money off the patent. But that wasn't my department.
The substance had to be permanent and archival if that's what was needed. But it also had to be environmentally friendly, recyclable. Slight improvements to existing materials would be nice. Better still would be if we could make something that had a useful new feature, like say the ability to be melted back down and remolded into something else by the end user. Piece of cake, right?
There were only three of us on the team at that point, Robin, Maggie, and me. If we discovered any substances with potential, we'd get some more people on the team to make bigger batches and do further testing. The general non-disclosure agreement I signed with the company would have been sufficient to preclude my discussing the details of the molecular make-up of the substances. But if it hadn't, all the paperwork I've signed since we discovered F-8 would more than cover it. So I can't say what the substances are made of or how we made them.
We started with a well-known base material and called it Substance A-1. We went from there, assigning letters to each type of variation, adding numbers to those letters to identify sub-modifications. We saw, as expected, a few promising results, a few troubling results, and many, many null results. We were going along at a fair clip. And after several months, we developed Substance F-7. It was a good one. Stayed amorphous and malleable when wet. Dried and hardened smoothly and depending on what it was mixed with could be hard or elastic. We were able to dye it with our sample set of colors and F-7 took all the colors on without issues. One of my partners even discovered that the stuff would form bristles and hairs if treated with certain buffer solutions. The stuff was not biodegradable. But it was recyclable. We could treat it and heat it in such a way that it would return to its original form. We could even remove most of the dyes.
The safety tests were going well. We'd soaked the substance in a number of household chemicals, burned it, thrown it, dropped it. An air of cautious optimism was building in the lab. But the caution was fading, overwhelmed by our excitement. So we hadn't discovered some revolutionary material that would advance humanity. It was still pretty cool. And you never know. I dreamed that if Substance F-7 went to market, some kid somewhere, some home engineer, would figure out how to do something unexpectedly cool with the stuff.
We hadn't yet gotten to the stage where we could start fabricating larger batches. I had a glass bottle of F-7 on the benchtop. A fist-sized portion. I don't know how it happened. I heard the familiar sound in the air, the "whup" sound of a small flame erupting.
The bottle had a wide mouth. And the glass stopper that served as a lid was right in front of me. But the flame was rising above the mouth of the bottle. I reached for a beaker and filled it with water. I poured the water into the bottle quenching the flame immediately. A thin vortex of what appeared to be thick steam rose into the air. I reached toward it without thinking and then hesitated. In the bottle, the substance foamed up and threatened to overflow, but it stopped just short of the top.
Someone, I don't remember who, did indeed reach over with a metal rod and poked at the steam. It dissipated slowly, lazily. We all watched the bottle from the distance of a few feet as if it would explode. The foaming had stopped. There was a slight electric odor in the air. But no typical odor of a burned synthetic material. The stuff in the bottle didn't appear to be burned, no charring or blackening. It felt warm in the room. I couldn't tell if the warmth was from my nervousness and the result of the adrenaline rush I'd felt beneath my apparent calm, or if it was some exothermic reaction.
We always recorded video of the tests we performed on the substances. But we hadn't been doing any tests when the sample caught on fire. So the only video we had of that incident was the security camera footage.
We couldn't figure out how the sample had caught on fire. I took the burden of the responsibility for investigating the root cause as it was my sample and it had been a foot away from me when it happened. We tried to see if anything had been knocked loose from one of the shelves above the sample and fallen in. Maybe some combination of chemicals and compounds we hadn't tried before. The security cameras weren't great, but in this instance, they had caught the incident from three different angles. Nothing had fallen into the bottle. Nothing had happened to the bottle. The flame erupted into view as if the sample had spontaneously combusted.
We had to be careful of how we disposed of new compounds and substances. And in this case, we had to be sure there was no further danger. We placed the entire bottle in a fume hood within a cement box and put a cement slab on top. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if we had simply destroyed it then and there. The thought makes me shudder for so many reasons.
Substance F-7 is typically an off-white color with a hint of grey so slight that it's hard to tell unless you're holding it up to something else that's pure white. The morning after the burning incident, the stuff in the bottle appeared to be a bright sodium yellow. It had returned to its original volume, but it appeared to be a thick liquid or gel consistency. I put on protective gear, and using a pair of rubber-tipped tongs, I gingerly lifted up the bottle and tipped it slightly. I observed as the yellow liquid moved toward the bottle mouth in accordance with gravity. We had burned F-7 before. At the highest heat a home oven or barbecue could produce, F-7 melted and outgassed some non-toxic fumes. But if left to cool, it would harden again. It never changed color before. It never remained liquid.
It never shivered.
I couldn't believe I didn't drop the bottle when I saw that. I righted the bottle and gently set it down on the surface of the fume hood. The liquid settled and then shivered again.
"Did anyone else see that?" I asked.
Everyone had been watching carefully. So yes, everyone had seen it.
We named it Substance F-8. And while testing on F-7 continued and did so successfully, we started studying this new substance.
Attempts to replicate the "accident" that produced F-8 failed. That surprised everyone else, even those who had seen the security footage. But it didn't surprise me and it didn't surprise my partners. We had been there. Something had happened that we had nothing to do with. We hadn't set that sample on fire. We hadn't made any mistakes that day. If there had been an accident, it wasn't on our end.
So we continued studying F-8 even though I heard the occasional quip about how it should be given to some other team. People started hearing about our findings. We started getting looks from the other teams. They thought we were keeping something from everyone, especially since no one else was able to replicate what happened and make more F-8. To his credit, our supervisor, Collins, stood up for us and quieted any rumors he knew of. He had earned our trust over several years of working together. I was glad to find that meant something. We were being cautious about sharing the specifics of our findings. But we had reason to be.
Sometimes synthetic materials moved and reacted as if they were…alive. And F-8 exhibited several such properties.
Reaction to touch, reaction to heat and cold and sound. At first, it was simple things. A friendly poke with a metal rod would cause the stuff to shiver or ball up and form small protrusions. Playing a certain note of music would cause it to shift colors and that property seemed to have a pattern. High notes triggered bright colors. Low notes caused dark colors. The reaction to temperature seemed more complex. F-8 didn't stay liquid at room temperature. Sometimes it would, but sometimes it would ball up and become solid. Sometimes lowering the temperature would cause it to become liquid again. Sometimes lowering the temperature would cause it to climb up the walls of its container.
We removed all other stimuli when conducting the temperature tests. The light was kept constant. There were no sounds. The heat and cold were being applied in the same way. The bottle containing the substance was floated in a container filled with water. We would slowly raise and lower the temperature of the water. A part of me wondered if we'd see a sudden combustion, if it was some change in temperature within the lab that had caused the flame to appear in the bottle of F-7 that fateful day. But over and over we saw inconsistent results. On one day 23°C would result in a simmering liquid effect. On another day, that same 23°C would result in a crystalline solid.
"It's playing with us," Maggie joked. And I eyed F-8 with a sideways glance as if expecting an eye to form and wink at me mischievously.
The first accident had not been ours. I still maintain that. But the next accident concerning F-8 was our fault. At least, we could have been more careful.
We had discussed it over lunch. Trying something more extreme with the temperature tests. But it was our only sample. We had yet to replicate F-8. We were beginning to wonder if we ever could. There were guards on the lab now to make sure no one stole it. And we were on-call in case something happened to the sample and we had to come in and deal with it. I don't know what we were expected to do in response to anything weird happening with the unknown substance. I knew our supervisor, Collins, had put in calls to the company's administrators asking for permission to share our findings with at least a few academic labs. We were doing our best, but we needed help. And I wondered if we should let any government agencies know about what we had found. Was it that serious yet? What were the protocols on that kind of thing? I didn't know. I started looking stuff up, at home of course.
At work, I chugged along. I closed ranks with my teammates. One day, we discussed setting F-8 on fire over chicken salad sandwiches.
Collins gave us permission to separate out a portion of our F-8 sample and set that portion on fire. Till then, we hadn't been able to break up the sample. We'd tried to pour out a portion when it was liquid, but as soon as we got a small amount in another container, the sample would solidify and contract. We tried to cut a piece out with a scalpel when it was solid, but it would liquefy and foil us. That's why, as reckless as it was, we had proceeded with performing all our tests on the entire sample. We told Collins as much, but he insisted on not setting fire to our only sample of Substance F-8.
We defied him. At least, one of us did. Robin rolled F-8 out onto the cement slab that served as the lid to the cement box in which we'd kept F-8 the first night it appeared. He clicked on a kitchen lighter and brought the flame closer and closer to the bright yellow ball. And just before what happened next, I felt a sudden urge to stop him, a sudden inexplicable pity.
But he touched the flame to F-8 and all hell broke loose.
For the first time ever, I heard a sound from the substance. A weird whistling shriek and at the same time, the ball burst into a series of spikes one of which pierced Robin's glove and made him drop the lighter. The spike retracted, releasing his hand.
He cried out in pain and backed away. The lighter's flame died as soon as he released it. We took off his glove. There was a puncture wound on his right palm just under his thumb. While Robin washed his hand under the sink, letting the water run for several minutes, I watched Substance F-8. All the spikes melted slowly back into the center, all save one. The spike that had struck Robin. It had some blood on the end. F-8 shivered and I swear I heard some clicking noises from it. It was hard to tell over the rushing of the water. Robin asked us what F-8 was doing and we told him.
It formed some shape I had never seen it form before, like a jellyfish, or the polyp of some undersea animal. Amorphous with sucker-like feet. The portion of the sample stained with Robin's blood was sheared away as if by some invisible blade. It dropped to the cement slab and the rest of F-8 scooted away. The feet seemed to be feeling around and found the glass bottle in which the sample was usually kept. Substance F-8 pulled itself up into the bottle, wrapped itself up into a ball, and then went completely still.
We had joked about it before. About F-8 being stubborn with the temperature tests. About F-8 preferring country music to heavy metal. Humans anthropomorphize sometimes even when we know better. But what we had just witnessed could not possibly be random movement. F-8 just exhibited reflexes and behavior. As if it were alive. But it couldn't be. F-8 had no biological components. It came from F-7 and F-7 was undeniably synthetic. F-7 wasn't exactly the simplest of compounds, but it certainly wasn't as complex as an artificial intelligence.
The portion of F-8 that had Robin's blood on it spread out into a semi-solid over the cement slab. We were recording. So we only kept one eye on F-8 as we helped Robin get a bandage on his hand. It had stopped bleeding and he wouldn't need to go to urgent care or get stitches. But he had turned pale.
His voice cracked as he tried to joke that what had just happened was like a scene from the horror sci-fi movies when the one guy gets infected by the alien organism. He joked that he should be responsible and get himself quarantined instead of going home to his wife and kids and dogs and subjecting them to whatever hybrid human-F-8 thing he would become.
We acted before we could convince ourselves that everything would be all right. That it was no big deal and we'd imagined things. We stoppered the bottle of F-8 and put it back in the cement block where we had kept it that first night when we feared it might explode. We called our boss. Collins arrived at the lab and Maggie and I descended on him immediately, sweeping him past security and the other lab sections and straight into our offices. The first thing we told him was that Robin had gotten injured but was okay. We told him what happened. We didn't dare replicate the experiment. We showed him the video. And as we watched it with him, we shook our heads in wonder and horror as if we too were seeing it for the first time.
Collins turned as pale as Robin, if not paler. When F-8 first appeared, he knew better than the rest of us that something beyond our depth had happened. He'd been trying to get someone outside of the company to take the substance out of our hands from day one.
I thought about the video from the first accident, the one that had created F-8. We had all watched it over and over, frame by frame, that first week. Maggie saw a blink and something strange about the environment around the bottle at the moment of the accident. To me, that blink just looked like a camera glitch. And as for the change in the air around the bottle, I hadn't seen what she saw. Collins and Robbins had been unsure. I asked Maggie what she thought her observation meant. She had murmured something about miniature black holes, then shrugged sheepishly and declared she was no physicist.
I remembered that video and that conversation. And I remembered all the tests we subjected F-8 to and our discussions about the results. My thoughts and memories tripped over themselves, struggling to come together into some coherent deduction.
Collins wanted to see F-8. He suited up and went into the lab himself. It was an odd sight. We never saw him at the bench. He'd asked us to stay back in case F-8 had another outburst. We had taken to handling the bottle of F-8 with gloved hands. But Collins used the tongs to reach for the bottle and he quickly removed it from the cement box into which we'd placed it.
Robin and I gasped at what we saw. Maggie cursed. Collins froze.
Inside the glass bottle was what looked like a severed human thumb. It was even colored like human flesh. Pale pink and white, like Robin's skin. As we watched, the thumb melted and changed color to bright yellow again and reformed into a ball. The ball rolled up against the bottle's side and bumped the glass.
Maggie cursed again.
Collins placed the bottle back into the cement box and placed the slab onto the box. He quickly removed his protective gear, washed his hands, returned to the office.
"This is beyond us," Collins said. "We need help."
He gave us instructions that we were not to leave, and a quick pep talk about the four of us being in this together. He put the lab on lockdown, notifying security first to let them know that no one was to enter or exit our laboratory until they were given permission by a higher authority than himself. And then he started making phone calls. Maggie, Robin, and I waited in Maggie's cubicle, saying little.
I remembered what I'd told Collins the day after the incident that created F-8. I wasn't one to shirk responsibility. If I did something wrong or made a mistake, I owned up to it. So I was irritated at the suggestion that I'd caused some accident. I told him so. I told him that if there had been an accident, it wasn't on our end. I hadn't thought about what those words meant. Our end? Our end of what? And who did I mean by "our"? I thought about my words now. And about Robin's nervous joke about aliens. Wild thoughts leapt into my mind. We're used to thinking of life as organic. But what if F-8 was indeed alive? What if some alien or interdimensional consciousness had latched onto our inorganic substance and brought it to life? What if that fire was no accident of ours but an accident on some other plane of existence? Or what if what happened was a purposeful birth of this new being?
Things had gotten so out of control. I kept thinking, I'm just a toymaker. But I didn't have to be an exobiologist or psychologist to know what I felt in my bones, what I knew in the deepest part of my gut. What I knew in my heart of hearts. And after all that time, I said what all of us had been thinking and what none of us had said out loud.
"The substance is sentient."
When Collins came out of his office, he had a grave look on his face. He was as overwhelmed as we were. He had feared we would receive opposition from the company administrators. The substance, the data, our work, it was all company property. And we had signed agreements not to share or take that property, not without the possibility of severe penalties.
But he must have gone to the right people. Two of the administrators who were nominally in charge of the Materials Science division came down to listen to all we had to say about Substance F-8. We spoke to them on a secure internal line. We clarified all the rumors and told them everything we knew. Everything we suspected. Everything.
Before another hour passed, before we had a chance to worry over how we would get some food and water and bathroom breaks, the lab was overrun by a couple dozen people from some government agency. They had some portable equipment that they seemed to use to clear the room for safe entry. And they gave the all clear to Maggie, Collins, and me after doing a finger prick test and some scan. They took a vial of blood from each of us and told us to expect a call from someone named Agent Riese, who didn't appear to be present. But they took Robin with them for further testing. They allowed him to take his belongings, so we told him we'd call later. And I hoped he wouldn't disappear into the bowels of some secret government facility.
We asked them who they were. In response, they gave us paperwork to sign, disclaimers and non-disclosure agreements. And they told us that this Agent Riese would be in touch to let us know as much as we were allowed to know. Maggie skeptically whispered under her breath that what we were allowed to know from that point on would be nothing. But she couldn't hide the relief on her face. Neither could I or Collins.
I had always feared making something dangerous. I had always dreamed of making something wondrous. Substance F-8 was both. I hadn't made it. But even if I had, and even if it was the cowardly choice to hand over responsibility, it was also the right choice to turn the substance over to those who were better equipped to make sure that it would not harm another person. To those who might discover whether or not my suspicions were true. That F-8 was not a simple creature, but a sentient being.
I hope they would share what they learned with us. But as I watched them pack and cart away the entire cement box that contained the substance, I had a feeling that I was never to know its fate.
Copyright © 2015 by Nila L. Patel


text:
|Geology and mineral resources of the North-Central Montana Sagebrush Focal Area: Chapter D in Mineral resources of the Sagebrush Focal Areas of Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming
Missouri Breaks Project, Montana - Digitized aeromagnetic data
Previously created but unpublished map sheets were scanned, registered, and the contours were digitized. The point data released here were extracted from the digitized contour lines and include: latitude, longitude, and magnetic-field value (gamma). Data are provided in a fixed-field columnar text format.
Locatable Mineral Assessment Tracts for the U.S. Geological Survey Sagebrush Mineral Resource Assessment Project
Locatable mineral resource assessment tracts (tracts of land) associated with the Department of the Interior (DOI) Sagebrush Focal Areas in Montana, Wyoming and Utah, central Idaho, and the Oregon-Nevada-Idaho border area. Data are provided in Esri file geodatabase and shapefile formats.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Yup, it sure is a first-person shooter alright
Bethesda is bringing back Wolfenstein, the first-person shooter that lets you kill countless Nazi bastards. The New Order takes place during the 1960s in an alternate history Earth where the Nazis have taken over the entire planet with their highly advance robot fighting force. It all looks hopeless, that is, until William "B.J." Blazkowicz finally awakens from his coma.
I got to see a good chunk of the game at a recent preview showing, and story wise, Wolfenstein has this very campy, almost Quentin Tarantino style going for it. Gameplay wise, well, it's looking like the standard FPS experience that I'm quite frankly just getting tired of.
Wolfenstein: The New Order (PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One)
Developer: MachineGames
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Release: 2013
The Wolfenstien presentation opened up very strong. B.J. is on a train heading to Berlin with a fellow resistance fighter. B.J. is off getting coffee for themselves when he encounters the main antagonist of The New Order, Frau Engel, and her sexual boy toy, Bubi. Frau orders you to sit down, and you don't really have much choice, as there's a guard along with a hulking big robot in the train car with you.
Frau and Bubi are speaking in German throughout this scene, and she wants to test you to make sure you are a true-blooded Aryan. So she proceeds to pull out a set of pictures and ask you a series of questions, and you have to pick between two different options each time. For example, one set is of skulls and spiders, and she asks which one makes you feel the most disgusted.
All throughout this test, she makes it obvious that if you pick the wrong cards you will be shot immediately. The final pictures come, you select one, and then … nothing. She throws the pictures away, laughing, saying that they really mean nothing and that if you were really not of pure Aryan blood you would have reached for your gun long before the final pictures came.
The level of tension was palpable, very reminiscent of the first 15 minutes of Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds where Christoph Waltz's character was interrogating the farmer. This scene got me really excited for what the new Wolfenstein was going to offer, but that excitement quickly faded when the actual gameplay kicked in.
The next portion put us a third of the way into the game, as another resistance fighter is driving you to a top Nazi research facility in London, where a prototype helicopter you need to steal is located. You're dropped off near the front entrance of the base and watch helplessly as your friend suicide bombs the main entrance with his car, packed with a thousand kilos of explosives.
From here, you have to fight your way in, taking on hordes of Nazi soldiers and their big robots. BJ's health is presented in that old-school way with 100 displayed on the bottom of the screen when you're at full health and another 100 for full armor. The health number dwindles as you get hit but will regenerate over time. It only regenerates so much, and you need to grab health packs to get back to 100 or above (and anything above will always dwindle down to 100 over time).
There's a wide variety of weaponry at your disposal, though most of it is the standard stuff. You know: assault rifles, shotguns, pistols, and the like. You can pretty much dual wield anything, including shotguns. There is also some advanced futuristic weaponry, such as a laser that can cut through objects. You'll find a far more advanced version of this laser later in the game that can actually obliterate human enemies into red mist.
Fighting humans is your standard affair, so I was pretty excited by the idea of fighting robots as well. I was hoping that the robots would make the FPS combat feel fresh again, as killing humans over and over does wear thin. Unfortunately, the robot battles are dull. They're just big, hulking bullet sponges, and defeating them doesn't have that same satisfying feeling as taking out humans.
The level design also appears pretty linear and straightforward, with cutscenes triggered at various points. And for once, I wish a first-person shooter protagonist was actually mute. BJ talks, and during gameplay at least he speaks in a very hushed, whispered voice, as if he was in a public library. It made zero sense. When he's talking, he's spitting out one-liners that feel more flat than camp. There was one point where BJ exclaimed, "Fuck you, Moon," upon seeing that Nazi's had stepped foot on the Moon in the base's space exhibit. That got a chuckle out of me, more from how out of place it felt rather than it actually being funny.
At least the visuals are lovely. The game was being demoed on a PC on par with next-gen tech, and it was like pure eye candy seeing the game in motion. The awesome heavy metal soundtrack is a nice compliment to the experience as well.
I think what it comes down to is that I'm just finally exhausted with the first-person shooter genre in general. Perhaps I'm faulting The New Order too much, as I was hoping it'd offer something more unique over just yet another tried-and-true FPS. I'm certainly interested to play through it if the entire story presentation is as strong as the opening with Frau Engel was. That said, this is one experience I won't be rushing to get upon release.


text:
Consultant Offering International Marketing Support
Are you out of your comfort zone with your business or project?
Wondering what to do next?
The world is changing all around us – fast – and it's not easy to keep pace. Maybe it's time for some help.
It's not even easy to define exactly what you need. The only thing for sure is that SOMETHING needs to be done – and as soon as possible. It can be daunting and overwhelming to approach a marketing consultant. Perhaps you feel vulnerable, and confused.
At BlueStream Marketing we have a different approach.
A holistic approach, from review to recommendations to manageable action to results.
We are friendly and informal, and at the same time, highly professional and experienced. We work with great integrity together with you and your team, to support and mentor you.
All types of business can benefit from working with us, from a small start-up to a large multi-national corporation.
It's a cliche that "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" (Lao-Tzu), but it's true . . .
1. We make a holistic review of the current situation.
2. We work together on recommendations for a new way forward. We draw on many years of experience, buzzing creativity and practical, realistic implementation skills. You will often be surprised and enthused by the suggestions made.
3. We prepare a structured and manageable action plan together.
4. We support and mentor you and your team to implement the action plan.
Contact us today to discuss your requirements in more detail, and get started on a new road to beyond the rainbow: Contact Vanessa at Bluestream Marketing
The first step towards success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you find yourself.
Mark Caine


text:
There are no reviews yet.
Only logged in customers who have purchased this product may leave a review.
Cornwall Traditional 4.2m x 2.5m
Cornwall Traditional 4.5m x 4.5m
Cornwall Traditional 4m x 3m
Devon Traditional 4m x 3m
Cornwall Traditional 4m x 5m
Devon Traditional 5m x 5+1.5m
Devon Traditional 5m x 5 1.5m
Cornwall Traditional 4m x 5 1.5m
Username or email address *
Password *
Remember me
Log in
Lost your password?
Email address *
Password *
Your personal data will be used to support your experience throughout this website, to manage access to your account, and for other purposes described in our privacy policy.


text:
Our newsletter contains the latest no deposit bonus info and codes
Unfortunately this casino is not available in your country.
Casinos for players from United States.
Sign Up Bonus
Monthly Bonus
Weekly Bonus
Cashback Bonus
BetRebels is certainly an interesting name for this online casino. Then again, BetRebels is so much more than just an online casino. They have also carved out a reputation for being a top sportsbook, and live casino site, too. BetRebels may not quite gather the attention it deserves in the online casino world, with this Curacao and Maltese licensed casino just staying under the radar. It is perfectly safe to play at the domain, though, which has been active in the online casino world since 2011.
English, Italian, Greek, German and Spanish language casino and sports betting gaming can be had over at BetRebels. The currency of choice is the euro, although UK pound sterling can be used, too. The casino permits players to deposit using a large selection of payment methods, including uPayCard, Viva Payments, MoneySafe, Skrill, Paysafecard, Neosurf, Neteller, ECO, Onune, Maestro, MasterCard, VISA, VISA Electron, Postepay, CartaSi, bank transfers, American Express, and Switch/Solo. Customer support is available via live chat or e-mail at this casino site.
BetRebels Casino offers all new players the chance to claim a 100% match worth up to €150 when they choose to sign up at the casino. Be careful not to mistake the casino bonus for the sports betting bonus – as they are different.
Alongside the welcome bonus, there is also a monthly deposit bonus at BetRebels which is worth a 50% match and valid up to another €100, Weekend Top Up bonuses which are worth 33% matches and valid up to €100, and Daily Top Up bonuses which are worth 10% matches and valid up to €20.
BetRebels Casino carries games from some of the leading developers in the online casino world, of which Net Entertainment are right at the forefront. In fact, most of the major games at this casino/sportsbook have been provided by the Scandinavian online casino software providers.
If online slots aren't your cup of tea, you can always chow down on a host of table games, video poker or scratch cards and instant win games. Table games include your usual array of baccarat, blackjack, craps, roulette and table poker titles, amongst others.
As for the slots, there's plenty to go around. The most popular of these include Wolf Cub, Emoji Planet, Butterfly Staxx, Copy Cats, Scruffy Duck, Jack Hammer 2, Hansel and Gretel, Starburst, Elements, Jungle Spirit, Wild Wild West, Joker Pro, Divine Fortune, Warlords: Crystals of Power, Motörhead, Secrets of Atlantis, When Pigs Fly, and the Jimi Hendrix online slot machine game.
Currenty there are no reviews for Betrebels Casino. Be the first one who will review it.
breaking gambling news and information for gamblers
Subscribe to get weekly updatesBy subscribing you are certifying that you are over the age of 18.
Video Slots
Video Poker
If you would like to be kept updated with weekly industry news, new free game announcements and bonus offers please add your mail to our mailing list.
no thanks


text:
This post was sponsored by Nature's Way, all opinions are mine.
Why is it that we know exactly what habits are best for us and exactly what we should do to create health and wealth, yet it's so difficult for us to get going? It's even more difficult to stay consistent (for me anyway). As it turns out, I am someone who finds it very difficult to create habits. It has always been very hard for me. As in, I have to really make myself remember to take my vitamins or brush my teeth. Routine and repeat rituals are just simply not in my nature.
Now that I am in my (near mid) thirties, I am finally starting to become a little more stringent about creating better habits. Especially as it pertains to my mental and physical health. All of a sudden I don't feel as invincible and my priorities are shifting. Not only that, but I'm responsible for three kids who deserve to learn better habits NOW and observe their mom keeping the same ones.
1 | Probiotics
The very first thing we are all making sure to do every day now is take our FortifyProbiotics.I have the Women's50 Billion and the Children'sChewable Probiotics and it's Investing in your gut health is crucial, especially when you're young.* I wish I had learned about all the benefits of a healthy gut years ago. Good digestive balance can promote everything from immunity to overall health.*
Fortify Probiotics deliver 11 probiotic strains PLUS prebiotics and billions of active cultures for supercharged support to your digestive and immune health.* Because when you're fortified from the inside out (see what I did there?), you're protected from whatever the day throws at you. As a busy family who is not always able to make perfect choices in all other arenas, we've learned how probiotics can really help.
I feel especially good that my kids are on board with their own probiotics. Fortify Kids Probiotics contain a researched blend of probiotics shown to promote healthy immune function in kids and reduce sick days at school.‡ They are a fruit punch chewable that tastes great – easy for kids and convenient for us. They have super clean ingredients and are free from all the artificial colors, flavors and preservatives.
2 | Water Intake
We all know water intake is something to pay attention to and it's always going to be a habit that is hard to grasp for me. I am so busy during the day that I often get to the end of the day and realize I've barely kept myself hydrated. Buying a bottle large enough for a day's worth of water that I can keep track of every day was a game changer. Again, a small habit that will create big impact over time.
3 | Journaling
I recently read a book that encouraged journaling/brain dumping first thing in the morning before doing anything else at all. I bought journal and pen that I truly enjoy writing with and started this habit, but I didn't stop there. I also encouraged Grayson and Tyler to start writing something each day. Even if it's a sentence about how the day was. I am a new believer in the power of physically writing things down and have added it to my micro habit list.
Creating small habits are the key to long term success, so I'm starting small with these three things. Have you incorporated any micro habits into your day-to-day?
**These statements have not been
evaluated by the FDA and are not intended
to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any


text:
Our Practice
Dr. Michael Wilson graduated from New York University College of Dentistry in 2005. After practicing for two years in New York City, it came to Dr. Wilson's attention that there was a significant unmet need for dental care in upstate New York. Many dentists are not willing to treat Medicaid patients, as low reimbursements and high no-show rates often accompany this demographic.
Dr. Wilson opened a practice in Binghamton in March 2008 to address this huge unmet need and increase access to care for an underserved population. The practice grew to 14 doctors within two years. In late 2010, Dr Wilson realized that Syracuse also needed more dentists willing to treat Medicaid patients after a patient had driven an hour down to Binghamton to receive specialty treatment at Wilson Dental.
Wilson Dental in Syracuse opened in December 2010 in downtown Syracuse. Wilson Dental quickly outgrew that facility and moved to our current location on at 224 South Geddes Street.
Between the two offices, we treat several thousand patients a year. Our patients' ages span from 6 month old babies to senior citizens over 100 years old and come from diverse backgrounds.
Our team of doctors includes several general dentists and a variety of dental specialists (pediatric dentists, oral surgeons, orthodontists and anesthesiologists). A similar comprehensive team would be almost impossible to find in Upstate NY.
Although a big part of Wilson Dental's growth has to do with the significant amount of pre-existing need that existed in these communities before we opened our doors, a lot of it also has to with the caring nature of our doctors and staff. Patients who have been to our office know that we genuinely care about them, and that makes them want to tell their friends.


text:
I remember my first Thanksgiving Day in America four years ago. I was excited for a vacation, but at the same time I felt lonely. My family lived in South Korea, and most restaurants were closed, so I stayed in my apartment. The following year I visited my friend's house with my roommate, and we prepared Korean food as a gift. We had a wonderful American Thanksgiving dinner, and my friend's parents liked our Korean food. The next year my friends and I lined up at Best Buy at 3 a.m. for Black Friday, an interesting aspect of American culture. It was freezing and dark, but it was fun to see lots of people waiting for a discount. Last year I went to my Italian friend's house, watched the cooking, helped set the tables, and ate a great Italian-American Thanksgiving dinner. There were more than fifteen family members who were very welcoming and friendly. I felt as comfortable as if I were with my own family.
If you can't visit your family this year, there is a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner, including turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie at PSU hosted by International Student and Scholar Services, the Organization of International Students, Residence Life and the Multicultural Center. It is on Wednesday, November 23rd, from 6 to 8 p.m. at SMSU 355. The cost for the event is $5. Sign up at East Hall 122 by 5 p.m. on Friday, November 18th.
What are you up to on Thanksgiving Day? Do you have any recommendations?


text: 100 Sit Ups Package Level 1-3Workout Routines > BodyweightComplete Situps Challenge package 1-3! This package will be your digital coach on your way to 100 Situps! Situps are by far the most popular exercise when it comes to training your abs and core. No other exercise works your abs so intensely. Your goal is a six pack? Then there is no way around doing sit ups! The good thing about sit ups, you can do them almost everywhere. No matter if you are working out at home, at the gym, at the beach during your vacation or on a run - you can always work out! Master the 48 workouts of this plan! Each day will be a little more challenging but in the end you will be rewarded with the power to do 100 situps! Further informations: With this purchase you will unlock the complete workout routine. Next to the workouts you will also unlock descriptions and animations for each exercise. The Big Mike Alright UG assumes no liability for any injuries whatsoever connected to or resulting from the use of any our exercise programs. Consult a physician before performing this or any exercise program. It is your responsibility to evaluate your own medical and physical condition and to independently determine whether to perform, use or adapt any of the information or content in this app.This routine includes the following exercisesSit-upsDownload Gym Hero to start this routine


text:
Here's my journey of building a Reprap 3d Printer. Took about two weeks to get to the point where I was printing and I am still tweaking things to get good prints but it's working well enough to share :)
What is a 3D Printer? Basically a 3D printer is a device that moves in an X and Y grid and deposits layers of melted plastic on top of each other to build up a 3D Object. Controlling the machine with a computer, some very intricate objects can be "printed". The process works by forcing a plastic filament into a "hot end" that melts the plastic - much like a hot glue gun.
I initially thought of adding a plastic extruder to my existing CNC machine, but it's not as simple as that. You need a way to control the heated end that melts the plastic, and there are things out there to do this, but in the end I was afraid that too much "reinventing the wheel" and I'd never get done. So I decided to build the tried and true first, and then start changing things, or maybe even build another one after I've gotten the first one to work.
With that said, I didn't want to mess around! I bought kits for everything pretty much. I bought the Arduino / RAMPS kit from Ultimachine - it came with the Arduino, RAMPS board, and some hook up wire and even the limit switches. The Arduino is a micro-controller that is the "brains" of the printer, it's basically the interface that makes the motors move and the extruder force the filament into the hot end. The RAMPS board is an Arduino add on board that aids in driving the stepper motors and all the heated stuff.
Next I bought a printed Prusa Mendel kit from EBay. I bought the PLA version, but looking back I think I maybe should have gotten an ABS version. The kit basically gives you all the parts to connect to build the printer, the kit with a hardware kit (below) gives you the structure of the printer.
PLA and ABS are two of the most common plastics that are being printed right now. PLA melts at a lower temperature and is easier to print (I guess) - The problem came when my stepper motors got a little hot and started melting the mounts they were on! - so if you ask me - go with ABS if you are buying a kit. Although I have tuned my motors to work without getting so hot, but it could have been disastrous if I hadn't noticed!
I also ordered a hardware kit that had all of the threaded rods and smooth rods and all the nuts and bolts... Turns out I was shorted a couple bolts and some of the other stuff didn't quite fit, but I probably saved hours in trips to the hardware store :) The hardware kit also came with brass bushings, and the PLA kit came with PLA ones - I didn't like the PLA bushings so I reconfigured them to be "Carriers" for the brass bushings
I lucked out with the stepper motors - I found an eBay auction for a guy selling exactly what I wanted - he was the cheapest price too ($9 each!) - and he was 15 miles away and even delivered them to my office AND refunded my shipping costs! You can't beat that! :) The stepper motors are what make the machine move it it's 3 directions; X and Y, and then Z (up and down)
For the hot end I again turned to eBay - bought one that looked really pro and so far it works great. the hot end is what actually melts the plastic, and also has a "nozzle" on the end that the melted plastic is forced though. This one has a .5mm hole and that's basically the "resolution" that can be printed
Lastly I ordered a heated Bed off of eBay, a heated bed helps when you are printing ABS plastic, without a heated platform to print on the ABS plastic will warp when cooling and ruin your print / object - I don't have that hooked up yet though so I can't say how good it is, but it's very well made.
I *Could* have saved some money by sourcing and scrounging my own hardware and maybe making my own hot end - heck even soldering my own RAMPS and Arduino - but again I probably never would have gotten done.
Below is my pictures in order of the build and a few of the things I've printed so far! and then a video too!
Here's one of my first "hacks" - I wanted a way to adjust the tension on my belts... There were a few "fancy" ways, but I settled for this simple hack :)
Update 11/17/2011 : I was having some trouble with the extruder - it was, well, not extruding :) so I examined the hobbed bolt I got with the Vitamin kit and discovered that it was pretty crappily made. So I hobbed a bolt on my mill.
Basically to hob a bolt on the mill I put 4 skate bearings on the bolt and then clamped it in my vise on the mill and then loaded a tap into the spindle and put the mill on SLOW... then I drove the spinning tap into the bolt where I wanted it, with the bolt held in the bearings it was allowed to spin and thus a hobbed bolt is created :)
I also had a heck of a time with the plastic timing pulleys - they were either breaking or just plain crap and slipping, etc... so I made myself an aluminum timing pulley - Using Bob Adams Timing Pulley generator and my 4th Axis on my CNC machine, I now have a precision timing pulley! Anyway check out some pictures of the latest look and my pulley and hobbed bolt :)
OH! and I've got the heated bed installed too - sweet :)


text:
PNC required to migrate their complete data, which consisted to thousands of sites and several terabytes onto a private cloud.
Krish migrated PNC's SharePoint 2007 on-premise environment to SharePoint 2013 in a private cloud. We engaged in all phases of the migration, including: planning, analysis, architecture, governance, communications, and scripting. We also issued dashboards to monitor the migration progress and utilized third-party tools like Sharegate.
The Way Forward
- Private Cloud Migration
- Customization Migration
- Fully Automated Scripted Processes
- Architecture & Governance Guidance
- Dashboard Implementation
Technology In Use
- Sharegate
- SharePoint Server
- SQL Server
- Visual Studio
- Microsoft Project
- Visio


text:
Masaru Kawai
The scent of wood
The Japanese coniferous fragrance has been respected from ancient times by people.
However, in the latest research, the fragrance of the tree has begun to know that it was a communication tool that is words.
Light of the land which grew up, wind, water, soil and relationship with around of trees.
An animals, an insect and the relation with bacteria, it is sublimated to a fragrance.
What does the human being listen to the words with?
I think that it is an opportunity to listen carefully calmly.
Masaru Kawai
Trees take the communication by a scent each other.
Following "Chairs" of the last year, a new point of view and a new work by the technique.
We hold a tour to follow the trees of forest in Tokyo by the guide Yutaka Miura on November 25.
Exhibition period:
November 25 – December 3, 2017
The artist will be attending on November 25.
*Closed: November 11 − 12, November 24
5-18-10 Minami-aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Open 11am – 7pm
*Open from 12pm on 25th.
Opening reception :
Saturday, November 25 / 4pm − 6pm
"Tour to follow the trees of forest in Tokyo" by the guide Yutaka Miura
Date: Saturday, November 25
9am − 12am / Number of seats: 15
1pm − 4pm / Number of seats: 15
Fee: 2,000yen
Apply in e-mail. Send your name, telephone number to the following address.
Masaru Kawai
1979 Born in Gifu Prefecture, farmer
2007~ Active as wood craft artist
2016 Start from "SOMA" product treating a Japanese conifer
Planning a workshop and fieldwork of connect forest and person.
Yutaka Miura
1977 Born in Kyoto
Graduated from the College of Art, Nihon University.
Active as a guide of the forests in Japan.
2016 "View of tree" was published from Mishima sha.
Update blog "forest forest" three times a week.
Ryugu Koromo from Genshi-no-Nuno
Photography by Takashi Homma
COSMIC WONDER "Ryugu Koromo from Genshi-no-Nuno" collection event will go on a tour to the following region.
STARDUST, Kyoto 10/14 − 22 *10/14: Public talk & concert
KAGURE, Marunouchi 10/27 − 11/5
PENNY RAIN, Kiryu 10/27 − 11/5
ANTENNE DEUX, Takasaki 10/27 − 11/5
OU, Nagoya 11/15 − 20
EIGHTY 88 EIGHT, Ayagawa 11/23 − 27
ARCHIPELAGO, Sasayama 12/2 − 11
MM BOOKS MINO, Mino 12/9 − 17 *12/9: Public talk
ROYALSKOOL, Hakodate 12/16 − 24
CITE', Hiroshima 12/22 − 1/8
Yama-Umi trees and grasses
impression traveled across the continent to Japan
the eastern culture flowered and walked a new path in the island
a beautiful sunrise in the land of Tamba
TAMPA a visionary shop by Hakuden, Light and Will, COSMIC WONDER
Kogei Punks Sha will display Tamba's trees and grasses on the opening day.
Tamba-fu skirt
Tamba letter paper
Tamba funsei tea bowl
Tamba cray pot
Andong cloth Apron
Trees and grasses pouched bag – Linden, Hemp, Paper
Akebi vine basket
Wild grapevine travel basket
Japanese wingnut document basket
Shinodake and moutain cherry tree basket
Carved Hexagon on the end handle of broad‐leaved tree kitchen knife
Mountain cherry tree lamp shade
Keyaki cheir
Tamba-fu and Shironameshi wallet
Jadoshi and Tamba-fu kamiko
Tamba-fu and Hemp hand bag
Jadoshi tsuno-bukuro
Lamie tabi
Linen koromo for winter
Exhibition period:
October 21 – October 29, 2017
*Closed: October 20
5-18-10 Minami-aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Open 11am – 7pm
Opening reception:
Saturday, October 21, 2017 / 2pm – 5pm
KAMI COSMIC WONDER with Kogei Punks Sha
We are pleased to announce that it will hold the exhibition "Kami" by COSMIC WONDER with Kogei Punks Sha at SHISEIDO GALLERY from Tuesday, August 29 to Sunday, October 22, 2017.
The theme of this current exhibition is "paper" (kami), a material very close to many people's daily lives. Specifically, it explores the possibilities of hand-crafted Japanese paper (washi) made using only natural materials. To bring forth the deep appeal of such paper, Kogei Punks Sha has focused on "water," a substance not only basic to life but also indispensable in making washi. They propose the concept of "omizue" (water ceremony), a ritual act inspired by the Japanese tea ceremony and involving the sprinkling of boiled water as an offering of gratitude for the blessings of nature. "Kami" is also a homonym with a Japanese word for "god" or "the divine," and so the exhibition title carries this meaning as well.
This exhibition features items and craft works prepared for and inspired by the omizue ritual. These include the kamikoromo (paper garments) made by Cosmic Wonder to be worn by the ritual's host and assistants, earthenware by Naoto Ishii, wooden implements by Masaru Kawai, and washi by Seigi Nishida and Makoto Sasaki. All these were made in the image of the Jomon era, one of the earliest sources of Japanese culture.
This exhibition reconstructs the exhibition "Omizue — Iwamino-Kamito-Mizu" originally shown last year at the Iwami Art Museum in Shimane prefecture, with the addition of new works created by Karatsu papermaker Takeharu Maeda. Taking cues from the very earliest papermaking techniques, Maeda used hemp fibers as the basic raw material, combined with fibers of hamagō (a fragrant beach plant also used as a medicine) to explore new possibilities in paper. Made from such natural materials and produced using ancient handcrafting techniques, such works take on an ancient feel that refines our five senses and calls to mind the peculiarly Japanese sensibility and deep wisdom of "looking at that which can't be seen."
Exhibition period:
August 29 – October 22, 2017
SHISEIDO GALLERY (Admission is Free)
Ginza Shiseido Building B1F, 8-8-3 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061
Hours: 11:00 – 19:00 (11:00 – 18:00 Sundays and holidays)
Closed: Mondays
Organized by Shiseido Co., Ltd.
Opening reception: Concert of Akio Suzuki (Sound artist) on 29 August
During an exhibition: Talk show with Yukinori Maeda and Sumiko Ishii from Kogei Punks Sha
See the SHISEIDO GALLERY website at for details.
Ryugu Koromo Genshi-no-Nuno
Photography by Takashi Homma
We were pleasure to hold the 20th anniversary performance "Ryugu koromo Genshi-no-Nuno" at Center for COSMIC WONDER on March 19, 2017.An atelier of Miyama was appeared for performance, Genshi-fu (Antique bast-fiber textiles, usually called primitive textiles), Washi (Japanese hand crafted paper), Koromo are composed of Natural material, "Noren" (Japanese curtain) and Craft tools. We held Film Screening "Ryugu Koromo Genshi-no-Nuno" by Takashi Homma.
To mark the release of this new collection "Ryugu koromo from Genshi-no-Nuno".
Collarless trench coat, Wool and linen koromo, Shetland wool and linen koromo, Pojagi apron and shawl, Organic cotton denim Monpe pants
People have made threads and materials out of various trees and grasses.
A wonder from ancient times and new spirit.
Light years.
Exhibition period:
August 11 – September 10, 2017
*Closed: August 14 – 16
5-18-10 Minami-aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Open 11am – 7pm
Opening reception:
Friday, August 11, 2017 / 2pm – 5pm
Yukinori Maeda, contemporary artist and founder of COSMIC WONDER, will be attending at the reception.
Original sweet (Higashi) will be served during the reception. (Making from Kousagisha, Kyoto)
"Ryugu Koromo Genshi-no-Nuno"
Film screening: 5:30pm − 7pm (3min. 32sec)
Filming / Editing: Takashi Homma
Takashi Ichikawa
At Center for COSMIC WONDER, we are pleased to present Takashi Ichikawa's "Chaguruma" (tea cart) exhibition.
For his participation in the collective exhibition held at the Wachi-yama Nogusa-no-mori in Kyotanba, Kyoto, Ichikawa created "Chaguruma No.1" a collection of tea ceremony tools to be carried to the fields and the forest. Since then he has created tea carts for various occasions, with "Chaguruma No.5" meeting its completion this year.
Amidst such course of events, he has also introduced works such as "Cha-rry (carry)" that takes a form similar to a trunk, and "Cha-unter (counter)" a counter that can be carried on one's back.
These works are presented in various locations from Kyoto, Sendai, Taipei, Beijing, Yunnan, Wuhan, Xi'an and Inner Mongolia, where unique moments of tea are respectively held.
On the occasion of this exhibition, we will present works centering on Ichikawa's "Chaguruma" including "Cha-rry" and "Cha-unter." Also throughout the duration of the exhibition, teaware made by Ichikawa will be available for purchase.
We look forward to welcoming visitors with the Chaguruma that resonates with the scene of ancient tea fields and the spirit of our present day as a means to reawaken our mind and senses.
Exhibition period:
June 10 – June 18, 2017
*Closed on June 9
*The artist will be attending on June 10
Opening reception:
Saturday, June 10 / 11am, 2pm, 4pm
As a celebration for the opening of the exhibition, Takashi Ichikawa will held "Chaguruma (tea cart)" with served Higashi by Kousagisha, Kyoto.
5-18-10 Minami-aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Open 11am – 7pm
Tea Cart and Teaware
In 2007 I met 李曙韻 (Mr. Lee) and became acquainted with Taiwanese tea. I was fascinated by the fragrant scent of Taiwanese tea, and through the beauty and freeness of Mr. Lee's tea, had come to witness a new world of tea. Thereafter when Mr. Lee had moved the base of his activities to Beijing, I had the opportunity to encounter Chinese tea. The tea from the continent embodied a sense of richness, and was wealthy in variety. Learning about the profoundness of tea through the history of its culture such as its consideration as food, medicine, and connections to Zen and dissemination throughout the world, I found myself becoming more and more enticed by the appeal of tea. The creation of teaware is a difficult task. Nevertheless, the way one relates to tea through making its tools is indeed interesting, and I find it rewarding to think about tools from the practice of brewing tea.
When I encounter palatable tea I feel the urge to visit the place where it was cultivated. In time I had developed the desire to go to Xishuangbanna (Yunnan province) that is recognized as a place that produces enticingly tasteful tea in hopes to also encounter ancient tea trees. Thereafter I was granted the opportunity to visit an ancient tea tree that is over one thousand years old. The ancient tree had born very large tea leaves, standing tall high above one's head. It was clearly different to any tea tree I knew. Observing the way it grew amidst the wilderness of the mountain, I channeled my awareness towards the long extending roots and rays of the sun that streamed upon it. The art of the tea ceremony was born amidst the history of tea, yet by sensing the presence of this ancient tree (the origins of tea), I was able to emotionally engage with "tea" in a different sense of mind. I am also very attracted to and interested in the aspects surrounding tea and its relationship with the moon (seasons), fire (sun), water (body), tree (leaves, roots), gold (day), earth (ceramics).
While developing my hopes of communicating the appeal of tea to many people through its tools, I had come to gain an interest in the "Song Dynasty Tea Ceremony Diagram" and the many images that I saw at the Hangzhou Tea Museum in China, which depicted literates enjoying tea outside. From these images I could discern people "seemingly carrying something curious" that looked different to tea boxes used in tea ceremonies, and through this experience I strongly realized this too, was one of the ways of enjoying one's time with tea.
Takashi Ichikawa
1967 Born in Shiga Prefecture
Studied sculpture at university
1993 Worked at Furuya Pottery (Shigaraki, Shiga Prefecture)
1997 Apprenticeship under Mr. Nariyoshi Morioka (Wakayama Prefecture)
1999 Built a down-draft firewood kiln and a kerosene kiln
2000 Held a series of solo exhibitions throughout Japan
Built a firewood climbing kiln and a charcoal kiln
2008 Held solo exhibitions in 人澹如菊茶書院 (Taiwan)
台北茶家十職(Taiwan), 北京茶家十職 (China)
He is involved in activities such as "Chakakigoto" and "Chaiyuuki."
Translation by Kei Benger
Photography by Takashi Ichikawa
COSMIC WONDER with Kogei Punks Sha
"Omizue Iwamino-Kamito-Mizu" Film Screening
To mark the release of "Omizue Iwamino-Kamito-Mizu" a new publication from Iwami Art Museum , we are pleased to present film Screening of performance "Omizue"and "Preparations for the Omizue".
It is our hope to provide a glimpse into this moment through the images within this beautiful films.
"Preparations for the Omizue":8mm film (17 minutes)
Filming: Yukinori Maeda
Editing: Fumitaka Kato
"Omizue":8mm film (14 minutes)
Filming / Editing: Fumitaka Kato
May 22 − June 8, 2017
5:30pm − 7pm
5-18-10 Minami-aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Ryugu koromo pomegranate herbal dyed
Ramie Tsunobukuro pomegranate herbal dyed
Light through the branches
Cross ancient sunlight and beautiful light
Shoka koromo in the awakening day
I thought of celestial color
A new light
Exhibition period:
May 13 − May 21, 2017
5-18-10 Minami-aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Open 11am – 7pm
Japanese handcrafted baskets
Japanese handicrafts made with natural raw materials are an embodiment of appreciation, awe and respect for nature.
They reflect the traditional Japanese satoyama lifestyle that people and nature coexist sustainably. (In a satoyama, people typically forms a community (=sato) with farmlands, on the border of a forest (=yama).
A forest is a resource for their living, being managed sustainably by sato residents.)
In such satoyama living, the art of livingware handcrafting has been passed along from generation to generation, producing practical and useful objects.
They provide insights into a lifestyle in harmony with nature.
For this exhibition, we sourced handcrafted baskets by visiting local craftspeople in various places from Tohoku region to KyushuIsland.
Each of their work is unique and representative of the regions where they are crafted.Their rustic beauty attracts us.
To commemorate the opening of the exhibition, Mr. Shinichi Nakagawara (the winner of the New Works Competition organised by The Japan Folk Crafts Museum in 2015) will give a demonstration of traditional Akebi vine basketwork on 15th and 16th April.
Exhibition period:
April 15 − April 30, 2017
*Closed on April 14
5-18-10 Minami-aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo
*Closed period: April 14
Akebi vine basket, Akita Prefecture
Wild grapevine and Japanese wingnut tree basket, Akita Prefecture
Suzutake hand basket, Iwate Prefecture
Shinodake and moutain cherry tree basket, Miyagi Prefecture
*Composed of Shinodake bamboo, mountain cherry tree, Japanese wisteria vine and madake bamboo
Keyaki basket, Walnut tree basket, Niigata Prefecture
Madake fugo, Chiba Prefecture
Medake hanakago, Chiba Prefecture
Nemagaridake apple basket, Nagano Prefecture
Henon bamboo basket, Nagasaki Prefecture
Kudzufuji vine basket, Kagoshima Prefecture
Getto basket, Okinawa Prefecture
The 20th Anniversary Performance
Ryugu Koromo
from Genshi-fu
Okusozakkuri Haori
To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the founding, we present the first performance of the new work "Ryugu Koromo" at the Center for COSMIC WONDER.
March 19, Sunday, 4pm − around 6pm
5-18-10 Minami-aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo
*Closed period: March 13 − 19
Number of seats:
30 (Free admission)
*advance reservation required
If you would like to attend the event, please send your name and telephone number to the following e-mail address by March 6, Monday. We handle inquiries in order of arrival. firstname.lastname@example.com
We look forward to meeting and welcoming you.
New collection
Ryugu Koromo
COSMIC WONDER "Ryugu Koromo" spring items will be available at Center for COSMIC WONDER on February 18, 2017.
To mark the release of this new collection, the reception will be held at the Center for COSMIC WONDER.
Original sweet will be served during the reception.
Yukinori Maeda, contemporary artist and founder of COSMIC WONDER, will be attending at the reception.
February 18, Saturday, 12pm − 16pm
5-18-10 Minami-aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Open 11am − 7pm
Shigeo Tanaka
Exhibition period:
February 4 – February 12, 2017
*The artist will be attending on February 4.
5-18-10 Minami-aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Open 11am – 7pm
*Temporay closed: February 3
Shigeo Tanaka
Born in Kyoto, he now lives and works in Asuka Village, Nara Prefecture.
Living in a 280 years old traditional Japanese kominka, works are carefully created using anagama and downdraft kilns.
Hakuji nest of boxes, yo-hen deformed heiji pots, onggi


text:
Pandemic Diaries - Self Care and staying hopeful during a pandemic
Posted by Francine Manji on
The time since March 2020 has been spent under very unusual circumstances. Each time I hear the word pandemic, it makes me think of the word pandemonium ! Enough said !
At Urban Forest Soap we were pretty concerned, like so many other businesses, after month two, when all the stores that we supply to were still shut. We of course didn't meet the threshold requirements for the small business benefits being offered by the Banks. Like a late March winter's afternoon - the future was all starting to look rather bleak.
However, this first ever Urban Forest blog post is not all doom and gloom – let's tell you what's been going on…
Fast forward to August 2020, and Stage 3 of Ontario's re-opening….lots has happened.
Back in April, we decided to take the new normal in stride and spend the time refreshing the Urban Forest website. When Green Melon Inc offered 5 local businesses a one hour consultation on all things social media,, we jumped at the chance and sent in our application. The ZOOM call with the crack experts at Green Melon consult was eye-opening. What stuck with us was Green Melon's owner Robert Smith's insightful comment "your website is tragically competent" . We knew the website needed work – after all, the both of us had built it from scratch just eight months prior, and neither one of us were tech savvy, social media gurus. Yes, the website was functional, but Robert was correct - and had just confirmed to us, that it lacked personality.
As we were scratching our heads on how we would hire a professional social media expert on our shoe-string budget…. another stroke of luck - it was now May 2020 and Algonquin College's School of Media and Design was looking for design projects for the students in their graduating class. We quickly filled out the application form and sent it in JUST before the deadline. This was then followed by an invitation to make our pitch to the program's Professors. After a nerve wracking wait to hear back - we were told that we had been selected for a website refresh project!
As I write this, we are so very happy to report that we are just a few weeks away from the end of the website refresh project. The group of Algonquin College students with their skills in graphic design, marketing, coding and website design have been outstanding. It's been amazing to work with such a motivated team of bright, creative young students, working under difficult circumstances – and all of it remotely. We can't wait to see the final product and bring the new website live to all of our Urban Forest family!
The community spirit that the pandemic has fostered has been so heartening. We decided that we would do our bit by offering a 10% discount off all products on the website, as well as offering a complimentary porch drop-off for all orders in the Orleans area.
It was then our turn to receive, when Green Melon invited us to participate in their BytownBox program The program supports local businesses putting together a box containing products made by Ottawa businesses. We had the chance to supply our lavender and lavender rosemary soaps to go with the beautiful stainless steel soap boxes by Dalcini Steel. The other local makers that were fortunate to be featured alongside were dairy distillery, Papa Jacks popcorn, Hummingbird chocolate , Mrs Mcgarrigle's , Thyme and Again, amongst others.
In July we were invited by the French Consulate in Toronto to provide Urban Forest soaps for the gift bags to front line workers on the occasion of Bastille day. The bags contained goodies from decathlon, bastille bakery, hadrien patisserie and others.We had such fun wrapping up this assortment of our natural, vegan soaps …..
Around the same time Andreanne King of Ottawa Artisans, very generously, featured our business on her blog BIPOC-owned handmade businesses in Ottawa. Just look at the lovely collage that she put together of our products!
And as if that wasn't enough …. Maija of Maijalisa Photography, who had already helped us take lovely picture of the soaps that you see on our website, yet again donated her time and took the headshot pictures of us that we so needed for the "About Us" page for the website refresh project. Maija is so talented ….. DAMN she makes us look good!!
All these gestures of support from the local community have really been a silver lining during these very trying times. We still don't know what this year or even the next year, is going to look like for us, but the outpouring of support from so many quarters gives Francine and I the hope that we needed to sustain our spirit and enthusiasm for the future of Urban Forest Soap.
We hope that by sharing our "Pandemic Diary" stories it will also help you to feel positive and enthusiastic for your own future. We will get through this, together!


text: March 2020 Accountability/Goals Thread Mar 1, 2020 22:57:20 GMT Quote Select PostDeselect PostLink to PostMemberGive GiftBack to Top Post by Sam on Mar 1, 2020 22:57:20 GMT Nice, its almost spring. Here's the accountability/goals thread for the month of March. As usual, this is a place for you to post about your goals, both short and long term, and to give and receive encouragement in achieving them.


text:
Sometimes we find our guest designers amid the commenters on our Instagram posts. That's how we found Sylvia Ramirez! We are honored to have her here working with our July scrapbooking kit, Summer Fields. We think you'll find plenty of inspiration to work with as you start working with your own kits soon.
From Sylivia:
I've been scrapbooking for just about 15 years. It all started out when I was asked to attend a Creative Memories party, and well the rest is history. I began scrapbooking my kids, and now enjoy scrapbooking my grand kids as a way of memory keeping for them.
Been married (on 6/12) 42 yrs and been together … hold on, 46 yrs! And no, he does NOT mind my messy scrap room, or that it's my birthday 6 times a month (aka my subscriptions)!!!
Be sure to visit Sylvia's gallery, her work with the July kit is beautiful and heartfelt!
Here are some questions and answers to help you get to know our guest designer better.
1. Most creative time? I find only in the evenings, after work, dinner and on weekends when time permits.
2. How do you unwind? Scrapbooking, catching up on shows I DVR a mocha, or cold brew coffee does it for me. Years ago I loved counted cross-stitching, which was my hobby back in the day. Now stitching is a new addition to scrapbook layouts which I love!
3. What would you play if you were in a rock band? Definitely piano .. I took lessons for a while, loved it!
4. What's your guilty pleasure? Baking.
5. Who would play you in a movie about your life? Meryl Streep of course, she's a favorite of mine and she can play anything/anyone.
6. Favorite Accessory? No answer. 🙂
7. Title of your life as a novel? One Day at a Time.
8. First job? My first REAL job was at a bank, Union Bank .. but for the life of me I can't remember how I landed that job! lol.
9. Bucket list? Right now retirement, retirement, retirement …
10. Dressed up? for me, just a nice comfy outfit .. usually something from the Loft.
Thank you for joining us for the July scrapbooking kit Sylvia!


text:
2. New [reply] text [/reply] tag is added forcomments template (comments.tpl).Enclosed text is displayed as a link to a pop-up window for replying to a comment if tree-like comments are enabled. If they are disabled it inserts the given commentator's username to the new comment form.
3. New [treecomments] text [/treecomments] tags are added for comments template (comments.tpl). Enclosed text is displayed if tree-like comments are enabled in script settings. Also, [not-treecomments] text [/not-treecomments] tags are added, where enclosed text is displayed if tree-like comments are disabled. These tags allow webmasters to create flexible templates that will be displayed in different ways depending on the script settings.
4. New {replycount} tag is added for comments template (comments.tpl). It displays the number of replies for this comment.
7. MySQL database load is reduced when viewing comments on the website.
9. The following new buttons and BB-tags are supported in BBCODES editor in Administration Panel:
[sub] text [/sub] - display the text in the lower index
[sup] text [/sup] - display the text in the upper index
[justify] text [/justify] - align the text by both sides: left and right
10. Text header insertion is added for BBCODES editor of Administration Panel. Headers are inserted using a new special button of the editor and headers from<H1> to <H6> can be used.
11. New template file for displaying uploaded and attached to an article files is supported. Its name is: attachment.tpl, where you can set the design for attachments displaying. It allows you to set any visual design of [аttachment=...], tag, which is used to insert news to the text. Following tags can be used in this template:
[allow-download] text [/allow-download] - Displays the enclosed text if the website user is allowed to download files.
[not-allow-download] text [/not-allow-download] - Displays the enclosed text if the website user is not allowed to download files.
[count] text [/count] - Displays the enclosed text if the file downloads counter is enabled in script settings.
{id} - Displays the unique ID of the uploaded file. Information about this file is stored in the database.
{name} - Displays the name of the uploaded file, or text specified as the name in [аttachment=...]tag in the text of the article.
{link} - URL to the file downloading.
{size} - File size.
{md5} - MD5 checksum of the uploaded file.
{date} - Displays the date of the file upload, in the date format that is specified in your script.
{date=date format} - Displays the date in the specified format. It allows you to display both the full date and its separate parts. The date format is set in accordance with the PHP format. For example, {date=d} tag displays the day of the article or comment publication, and {date=F} tag displays the name of the month. {date=d-m-Y H:i} displays the full date and time.
{count} - The number of downloads of the file.
12. Global support for {custom ....} tag for custom news displaying is added. Now you can use this tag in all the files of the template, not only in strictly defined ones.
13. Use of dynamic parameters on the basis of other template tags is now supported for {custom ....} tag which is for custom news displaying. For example, if before you could use this tag in templates using the pre-defined template parameters {custom id="1,2"}only, now you can use this tag with the parameters {custom id="[xfvalue_x]"}, and News ID values are set with adding news articles in extra fields of the article. This opens up almost limitless possibilities for displaying of news content on pages of your website.
14. Automatic acceptance of entered values is added for the tag cloud, meta tags and extra fields, which has cross-reference option, without need of pressing the "Enter" button for these fields.
https://tech.yandex.ru/cleanweb/ (russain). A feature of this protection is that it directly examines the text of comments for signs of spam and it is not only based on user IP and e-mail, although these data are also taken into account.
16. SSL support for websites is improved. Automatic support of HTTPS protocol is added when using external services (such as Gravatar) and players (Youtube, etc.), if HTTPS protocol is used on your website.
17. HTML5 player support an use is added, when including audio files, if this player is enabled in player settings.
18. iframe tag filtration system is revised and improved for news, which allows you to add iframe only to trusted domains. Check has become universal and it checks only the domain name without the protocol and www alias of the given domain. Thus, if the video service makes changes to its code of a player, then it keeps working and being accepted by DLE. For example, if previously Youtube service published a link to their player as //www.youtube.com/ and then changed to https://www.youtube.com/, the new system will automatically accept these links.
19. New [comments-author] text [/comments-author] tags are added for the comments template (comments.tpl). Enclosed text is displayed if user who views the page is the author of the comment. And [not-comments-author] text [/not-comments-author] tags, where enclosed text is displayed if user who views the page is the not the author of the comment. These tags allow webmasters to make comments template so that visitors could immediately find their own comments, for example, by the distinctive design of the color of his/her comments.
20. New [news-author] text [/news-author] tags are added for the comments template (comments.tpl). Enclosed text is displayed if comment belongs to the author of the given article. And[not-news-author] text [/not-news-author] tags, where enclosed text is displayed if comment does not belong to the author of the given article. It allows to visually highlight comments on website pages which are written by the article author.
21. New [positive-comment] text [/positive-comment] tags are added for the comments template (comments.tpl). Enclosed text is displayed if the comment has positive rating, [negative-comment] text [/negative-comment], where enclosed text is displayed if the comment has negative rating, and [neutral-comment] text [/neutral-comment], where enclosed text is displayed if the comment has neutral rating. It allows you to highlight or hide the design and text of comments with negative and positive rating.
22. Now you can separately display extra fields for the article in the articles addition template (addnews.tpl). The following tag was created for that: [xfinput_X], where X is the name of extra field for news. It displays the given extra field in a form of the article adding where you need it. It allows you to place the needed extra field anywhere you want, not just using a common {xfields} tag.
23. Now you can separately display extra fields for the user profile fields in registration and user profile templates (registration.tpl and userinfo.tpl). The following tag was created for that: [xfinput_X], where X is the name of extra field of the profile. It displays the given extra field in user registration and edit forms where you need it. It allows you to place the needed extra field anywhere you want, not just using a common {xfields} tag.
24. Time zone by default is displayed for the convenience of your website's visitors in the list of time zones in user profile. They can decide whether they need to change it or not.
25. Now you can restrict user to access the user account or Administration Panel of the website using the subnet mask. For example you can specify not only 10.96.*.*, but also 10.96.0.0/11, which will be equal to the addresses range from 10.96.0.0 to 10.127.255.255. Mask allows to describe the dynamic addresses range of your Internet service provider more precisely to restrict the access to the account.
26. Now you can connect to the Memcache server using UNIX sockets. You can specify not only the server and the port, but the path to the socket, for example: "unix:///home/login/.system/memcache/socket".
27. Now you can clear the votings results, assigned to the article, when you edit this article in Administration Panel.
31. Tags of quick authorization using networks are supported in registration template (registration.tpl). These are the same tags that are used in the login.tpl template, such as [facebook] {facebook_url} [/facebook], etc.
32. Recaptcha 2.0 spam bot protection system is supported. This new system allows your websites to be more friendly to users, and to confirm that they are not robots easier, and more reliably protect your site from spam bots. Note: if you have used public keys that were included with the script, you need to register your websites on the recaptcha service during the conversion of the protection system, and use your own keys. General keys are no longer valid.
33. New tags="word1,word2" parameter is added for displaying news in a custom format using {custom ....} tag. Itdisplays news that contain keywords listed in the tag cloud. For example,{custom tags="news, templates"} will display all the news that contain keywords "news" and "templates" from a tag cloud.
34. System of sending emails from the website is revised and improved. PHPMailer 5.2.9. class is used as the main class for for the letters sending. This led us to the significant increase of the compatibility with different SMTP servers, and to the solution of problems concerned with sending messages using some SMTP servers (for example, when using the SMTP server from mail.ru). For developers of third-party plug-ins who use the standard class for letters sending, the possibility of sending attachments in emails is added.
35. When user uploads an avatar for his/her profile, the domain name and place of storage of the avatar is now saved in the database. This will be especially useful for websites that use multiple domains and websites for the main project and integrate the users databases in a single database. Thus, your visitors will not have to upload the avatar on each of your websites again, it will be displayed correctly on other domains and websites within the united project.
36. According to the new requirements of "Yandex News" system, RSS logos system has been changed for it. Now the usual logo should be in yandexlogo.png file in the root folder of your website, and square 180x180 logo should be in yandexsquarelogo.png in the root directory of your website.
37. Displaying of form for adding articles in Administration panel is improved for monitors with a small screen resolution, as well as monitors with greater pixel density and small size.
38. Gzip compression is now used for HTML5 player. When JS files compression is used in script settings, it will also be compressed and therefore will be loaded faster.
39. Now you can set the Homepage in script settings, without specifying the protocol. For example, instead of this"http://site.ru/" you can specify "//site.ru/". It will be especially useful for those who make the website accessible both by HTTP and by HTTPS protocols or plans to change the website protocol.
40. Now the number of voted visitors is displayed right after the vote or by clicking on the "Results" button.
41. TinyMCE WYSIWYG editor is updated to the latest version. Read more about the changes on the following page:http://www.tinymce.com/develop/changelog/index.php?type=tinymce
42. The incorrect work of a calendar in Administration Panel is fixed, where the issue has taken place when browsing the calendar months, if the current date is greater than the number of days in the next month.
43. The issue is fixed, where size of uploaded image medium copy that is set on the image upload page was not accepted when uploading images via an external URL.
44. The issue is fixed, where backslash was being removed when saving information in the notebook of control panel.
45. The issue is fixed, where HTML5 player did not appear when previewing the article before its publication on the website.
46. The issue is fixed, where extra fields could not be changed with fast editing if "0" has been set as their value.
47. The issue is fixed, where files could not be uploaded if there were two dots before its extension.
48. Previously declared small mistakes in the engine are fixed.


text:
Clearly, we're not in Botswana any more… or Tennessee, or Brooklyn. Sigh.
But it's beautiful here in a cold, foggy kind of way. This afternoon I walked the Bald Hill Farm trail as part of my "re-entry" therapy – the Oregon Winter palette is very simple: grey, pale lichen green, more grey, nut brown, dead grass green, and thank goodness for the red of wild rosehips.
I hope to find time to post the last few Botswana sketches soon, but I'll be back to work tomorrow so it may be a few days before I get everything sorted out.


text:
Two Major Exits from Calvin Klein
Big news out of Calvin Klein today. Both the brand's women's and men's creative directors, Francisco Costa and Italo Zucchelli, respectively, are out. In a statement today, the company revealed it will bring together its divisions under one global strategy, effectively becoming a behemoth in the style of its European counterparts.
The announcement may pave the way for Raf Simons, who's long thought to have been eyeing the label, to move in and take the helm. He's already heavily vested in New York, where he makes frequent art-related trips, and has lowered his visibility in Paris. If true, he'll likely find it less pressure-filled than his tenure at Dior, leading him to call the fashion system "bullshit" in a recent interview.
Until that new person is named, the company's in-house design teams will produce and present the lines. There will be no runway show for Calvin Klein Collection in June (men's) or September (women's).


text:
In this serie, I'll show how to use a few tools and techniques to optimize your website for load speed.
Everyone loves speed, right?
We will only focus on universal web performance techniques, that you can use whatever language/framework you're using, as long as it serves HTTP, and on techniques that won't need any (or only very tiny) adjustments to your code base.
No time for introductions? Jump right in!
The need for speed
You want you web applications to load fast. Faster. The fastest you can.
One of the main reasons reason is that slow websites damage the user experience, and the competition being fierce, there is a chance your visitor will bounce elsewhere.
I firmly believe a product should always put the user and his needs first. If you're not a "user-first" believer, there are still other minor reasons that include, non-exhaustively, a better SEO ranking, a better mobile experience, possibly more webserver resources to serve the next user (if your server's worker is not anymore serving a request, then it can serve the next one, yes it's less true with async models, but it's still the case.), etc.
One problem is that if you are convinced web performance is important (and you should), you may start investing infinite working times in micro optimisations that will hardly have an overall impact on your global site speed. And you know, engineer time is expensive, so better use it on valuable things.
Over the years, I found a few tools that are cheap to implement but could save you easily a few hundreds of load time milliseconds.
Those tools are not expert language-specific low-level micro-optimisations, they just "talk the web", are easy and fast to implement and their impact can be measured pretty fast.
Tools of the trade
We will use:
- nginx to serve HTTP(s) content; already using it? you can just tune your current instance's configuration;
- ngx_pagespeed to optimize the HTML, scripts, CSS and images; lots of possible options, we'll use reasonable defaults, it's up to you to chose the best deal by reading the (fucking) docs.
- amazon cloudfront as a geo-CDN, a content delivery network that will take into account your visitors geolocation to serve assets from an edge location closer from him than your backend servers; it is also used to serve assets from a separate, cookie-less, domain, an useful feature to circumvent the simultaneous-download-per-host browser limits; of course, this only apply if you're using HTTP or regular HTTPS, and is nulled if you're using SPDY or HTTP2;
- docker (optional) to run the various services in isolated Linux containers.
Here is our target architecture:
The steps to achieve this will be detailed in the following articles:
- Part 1 — Nginx, pagespeed and a simple node.js backend
- Part 2 — Amazon Cloudfront as our Content Delivery Network
- Part 3 — Instrument, Measure and Learn
Next in the serie: Nginx, pagespeed and a simple node.js backend »
- For Apache users, you can use mod_pagespeed to achieve the same goals, although its setup is out of this article scope.


text:
I've been single; I've been married; and I've been divorced. I've been a good girl who made bad choices, and I've been a bad girl who made good choices. That's what this blog is all about.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Dressing Ari
School starts next week for Ari. In two weeks she will turn 16. Rather than trying to find her a "present" for her birthday, I decided to take Ari shopping for back to school clothing.
Ari wears a size 0 or a size 2, depending on the cut of the clothing. Our first stop was to a shop that carries rather high end designer labels.
We found one Nicole Miller black cocktail dress in a size zero that looked like it would have potential. Arianna tried it on with a pair of 4 inch black stiletto pumps. When she walked out of the dressing room, the customers and sales staff all came to a collective halt and gasped. Ari looked like a live Barbie doll! She put her hands on her hips and posed a bit much to the delight of the people in the store.
Arianna went back into the fitting room and came out with the dress on the hanger as I was searching for my credit card. I said, "Let's get this! It's perfect!" and Ari shook her head. She asked the saleswoman if she could hold the dress for a couple of hours while we looked around. I was stunned. As we walked out of the store, Arianna said "Grandma, I loved that dress. But I don't need that dress. I need school clothes." Humph! I thought we would get the dress and school clothes but Ari thought that would be wasteful. (I suppose she did not inherit all of my genes.)
We went to a couple of boutique stores and I was amazed at how good everything looked on her. The skinny jeans, the high waisted shorts, the tops, the dresses. Ari has amazingly good taste for herself, and there were only a couple of instances when I said "Naw!" and that was because the clothing didn't fit perfectly. (If it's a simple matter of hemline, something can be easily shortened, but remaking a dress to fit is a much more complicated and expensive process, plus you sometimes get an outcome that you really are not delighted with.)
Because Ari is so petite, (a mere 5'2" and about 108 pounds), she keeps her clothing simple. It seems intuitive to her not to overwhelm herself with too dramatic clothing. I wish I had such good fashion sense! Arianna was delighted with her purchases and looked magnificent in each and every one of the things we bought. She did a little fashion show for her parents last evening when they came to pick her up and they were delighted with her choices as well.
Damn it! I still want to go back and get that little Nicole Miller dress for her!
Posted by Linda Medrano at 11:51 AM No comments:
Monday, August 13, 2012
A Cautionary Tale
My darling girl, Nicky and her gorgeous son Max, left early in the morning to go back home to that place in far east Canada. I was feeling a little bluesy when the phone rang about noon, but had no idea that my life as I know it was about to change in the next few minutes.
A man was on the telephone and ascertained that he was talking to the correct person. I assured him that he was. This man then told me his name was Bruce Goodall and that he was a field agent for the DEA. I made him repeat that part, and replied "Okay, Mr. Goodall, what can I do for you?" At first I thought it might be a prank call, but within the next couple of minutes, I realized it was not.
Mr. Goodall told me I was being investigated because of my relationship with overseas pharmacy companies. I was speechless. I tried to interrupt him to say that I had no idea what he might be talking about. He then asked me "Okay, Linda, then where are you getting your weight loss medication and your Xanax?" Now I was really confused as I take neither drugs for weight loss or for anxiety, although I could probably have used both at this particular time. This guy rambled on to me in a very hostile and threatening manner until I finally said, "Wait a minute! About 5 years ago, I got a solicitation for Retin A eye cream. I think it was from a Canadian Company and I ordered it on the internet."
Mr. Goodall asked me if I knew that Retin A was a controlled drug in the US? ("I may have known that, but I'm not sure: I just knew it was cheap compared to a visit to a skin doctor to get an order for it. I assumed it was legal in Canada.", I responded.) Mr. Goodall then asked if my husband knew that I had a close relationship with foreign pharmacies and drug dealers, and I told him I wasn't sure. I may have told him I ordered the eye cream, but it was a long time ago. Mr. Goodall told me that I would have to go to trial and that he had agents two blocks away from me ready to come and pick me up. He also said that the company I had ordered the Retin A from was importing heroin and meth into the United States. My prison sentence would be between 15 and 20 years if I went to trial and was found guilty.
By this time, I was shaking. Goodall then told me that there might be a way out of this mess for me if I was interested. (Of course I was interested. Orange is not my color!) I'm making light of this now, but he actually had me scared. Mr. Goodall told me to hold on for a moment and he would connect me with his boss, who was the head of the DEA in the area. I was ready to cooperate at that point and that's for sure!
The man who came on the phone told me his name was Rick something or the other. He said "We know you are not a drug dealer or even a problem drug user. We want to work with you to get you out of this mess. You made a mistake, that's all. I don't want to see you in prison, Linda." (I don't want to see me in prison either, Rick.) At least Rick was playing the role of good cop and then he began telling me something about working this out with me paying a fine and it would all go away.
"What kind of a fine?" I asked. Rick replied that he really wasn't sure, but it would be in the neighborhood of $5,000 to $10,000, and that this would have to be taken care of immediately. Okay, I said, but wondering where I would lay hands on the money immediately. The call got cut off and I was left there with the phone in my hand stark raving terrified.
Then something came over me that made me stop panic mode and start thinking. Wait a moment. I didn't think what I did was illegal in the first place. In the second place, who ever went to prison for 20 years for buying a tube of eye cream from Canada? Also, since when does the DEA ask you for money to make it all "go away"? There was something fishy going on.
Rick called back several minutes later. He said that he had been working on the details of fixing the situation for me. He then asked me if I was working on my part of it. I responded "And what would that be, Rick?" and he blustered "putting together the money so that you can wire transfer it before the close of business today". I replied that I was going to telephone my attorney and that until I had legal counsel, I would not be giving money to anyone. Rick, (slightly hysterical now), replied "Don't contact an attorney! Don't you see that would be a deal breaker! I'm trying my hardest to help you out here."
I calmly asked for his phone number and told him I would get back to him after I spoke with my lawyer. He hung up.
I did telephone the DEA local office and they assured me that this was an attempt at extortion. They took a report and assured me that nobody from the DEA would make such a call. Further, there are a list of drugs that cannot be imported from overseas, but eye cream was definitely not on that list.
I felt pretty stupid to have been taken in by such a wild tale, but these people were actually so intimidating that I lost my sense of judgement. I shudder to think that some people may not have been so lucky.
From now on if a person in law enforcement even asks me what time it is, I'm going to request that he or she refer that question to my lawyer.
Posted by Linda Medrano at 4:26 PM No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)


text:
Podcast Yearly Statistics
I was curious about these stats because of the #dogdaysofpodcasting event and my recent return to a regular publishing schedule. Here are the number of shows I have published broken down by year:
2004: 64 (Started in August)
2005: 85 (First full year)
2006: 46
2007: 24
2008: 15
2009: 11
2010: 10
2011: 2
2012: 5
2013: 41
What you can see from this is that in less than nine months of 2013, I have published more episodes than the previous four years, and I will soon surpass the previous five years.
Admittedly, there are different scopes at play. 2010 and earlier tended to be longer episodes with music and more production. 2011 and later tend to be shows recorded in my car. There's a bit of an apple and orange situation, but I am pleased to be more prolific. It definitely sucked when I went to publish and episode and realize it had been six months since the previous one.
Thanks +Kreg Steppe for giving me the kick in the butt I needed to get back on track!
via Google+