text: The next Heartsaver First aid/CPR training class will be open to the public on October 7th 2013 9:00 am till 1:00 pm at the Northwest Gymnastics Training Center located at 150 NE Victory, #A Gresham, OR 97030 Phone: (503) 492-4115. (Located behind Keith Guns off Powell Blvd) This is a certifying course through the American Heart Association, cards are valid for two years. Cost $58. For more information and registration: please call Yonty Urrutia at 503 544-2650. Public is welcome. Please call 503-492-4115 for more information.


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Hospital based treatment for depression
Getting a bed in a NHS psychiatric hospital usually happens when someone is considered very ill (e.g. a danger to themselves or others). It can be voluntary or through being 'sectioned'. Sometimes it can be difficult to get an NHS bed, and one woman once felt she had to act-up a little to get one. If someone has private health insurance, they may be able to go to a private psychiatric hospital. Hospitals also have Accident and Emergency as well as Outpatient departments which people use when they do not need to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
Felt she had to present 'dramatically' in order to get into hospital.
Felt she had to present 'dramatically' in order to get into hospital.
And were you suicidal?
I was feeling suicidal. I was also quite violent at times. I mean in my own doctor's surgery, I swept all the things off his desk you know. I mean I did realise I was really ill when they called for an ambulance to take me into mental hospital. The same time there was a part of me, kind of watching what I was doing' saying, "Right, well make it really dramatic." I wasn't pretending exactly, but I knew I had to make a song and dance to get heard.
He felt he got better care at a London-based outpatients clinic compared with local services.
He felt he got better care at a London-based outpatients clinic compared with local services.
Experiences of NHS psychiatric hospitals were mixed for some of the people we interviewed. In most peoples' experience, psychiatric hospitals did not usually live up to highly negative community stereotypes (e.g. as lunatic asylums, a place for 'nutters'). But people (as well as families) who had negative and stigmatised impressions of psychiatric hospitals could feel ashamed and fearful about being hospitalised. Especially in past times, there were aspects of NHS hospitals that were very poor. One woman described a 1970s experience of a psychiatric hospital "like something out of Dickens".
Describes her mother's shame about her hospitalisation. (Played by an actor)
Describes her mother's shame about her hospitalisation. (Played by an actor)
Describes an experience of sexual misconduct by a member of staff at a hospital over 20 years ago.
Describes an experience of sexual misconduct by a member of staff at a hospital over 20 years ago.
Yup. He didn't rape me. And I have to say that I consented. And this was four days after I had thrown myself in the reservoir.
And he was an Indian doctor, I mean a properly qualified psychiatrist who was working at the hospital. I at the point where I was rescued from the reservoir, I was put into an emergency ward, and he was one of the doctors on that ward. And he approached me sexually and I kind of, half-agreed. And then, of course, was told not to tell anybody. And it was obvious from what he told me that he'd had lots of encounters of this kind. So I didn't tell anybody. But looking back, that was my first experience of sex.
At twenty, which in those days wasn't as late as it might be in these days.
You weren't well enough to'?
To know what I was doing. But of course I felt guilty, because I felt that I could have said no. But obviously my own, the own body's own natural desires at twenty are quite strong. So that was my first, and to tell it to explain just how it affected me emotionally, it was a year before I could look an Indian man in the face. I am not a racist person at all, and I don't feel that way now, but it took me a year, every time I saw a male Indian, I would recoil. That was the association with the attack.
Describes a negative and frightening experience of an NHS hospital in the 1970s.
Describes a negative and frightening experience of an NHS hospital in the 1970s.
More recent experiences of hospitals included positive experiences. For instance, people reported getting better medication in hospitals, as well as consultations with health professionals (e.g. psychiatrists, nurses, occupational therapists); much needed rest; physical and creative activities; emotional support, 'relief about being in the same boat' as others, and counselling/therapy. All such experiences could be helpful.
Describes the comfort felt when she realised in hospital that others felt similar to her.
Describes the comfort felt when she realised in hospital that others felt similar to her.
Describes getting excellent care at an NHS hospital outpatient clinic.
Describes getting excellent care at an NHS hospital outpatient clinic.
Describes getting helpful treatment and partaking in beneficial activities in an NHS hospital.
Describes getting helpful treatment and partaking in beneficial activities in an NHS hospital.
While you were in the hospital?
While I was in the hospital, I think that must've been towards the end of my six months. So that, and that was by the chap he was the best' he was supposed to be the best one of the cognitive therapists I was told [papers rustling]. And I did find that, find that very useful.
So just things like that, a few things like that with cognitive therapy. You know I think they helped quite a bit. It was a sort of beginning of self, self-help, it was an experience that I could do something for myself. And I was also doing a lot of things like pottery and so forth, I was good at that. They gave me a few, some extra time to do that on my own because I was very keen on doing that. So I got back into painting which I hadn't done for many years, and I had a box of paints in the hospital and stuff by my bed that I could, that I could use. I mean I did drawings of other patients, even one or two people paid me for drawing their children which was very, which helped quite a bit.
Being able to paint and do pottery, how, how did that help?
Well it was something I' just something I loved doing, and being able to do something that I really loved doing, it made a huge difference I think.
Not all the problems in NHS hospitals have been fixed though. Certainly, there were mixed feelings about the care now available in the NHS. There was a sense that some staff care and the experience could be empowering, but also ideas that NHS hospitals are geared more to 'containing' patients, rather than really demonstrating care. There were numerous accounts of an over-emphasis on medication, or staff who made little attempt to engage with patients who were depressed and in need of encouragement.
A number of people also described how they had become 'institutionalised' in short time periods and so needed to learn how to live in the real world again. Those who had been on mixed wards found the practice of mixing depressed patients with other non-depressed (yet seriously ill) patients disturbing.
Explains that while some staff do care and you can feel safe in NHS hospitals, staff can appear...
Explains that while some staff do care and you can feel safe in NHS hospitals, staff can appear...
They have been there when I've needed them. They have contained me. It's like a kind of'. I look at the psychiatric hospital as a kind of intensive care unit for mentally ill people because it's only really quite'. if you are in a crisis that you go in there.
You are having something really major going on. Otherwise you'. there is no way you'd get in there. So it's kind of an intensive' it's a kind of containment. It's a place of safety. When I am in there I feel contained and I feel [pause] I suppose I feel safe.
Believes there is an over emphasis on medication for sedation in the NHS hospital she went to.
Believes there is an over emphasis on medication for sedation in the NHS hospital she went to.
He feels that hospital staff need to be more engaging and nurturing of depressed patients who...
He feels that hospital staff need to be more engaging and nurturing of depressed patients who...
Some, some nurses I believe, part of their training is to treat mental patients as being normal people. Well that's alright looked at from the point of the view of say you are capable of doing things like shaving yourself so' but on the other hand, they're not like normal people in that they' they're mostly having a very strong experience of their own worthlessness, they need to be built up.
And I mean, there are one or two things like, for instance, the office on the ward, there's' you often have nurses who are sitting in there. They may be sort of on duty at the time, but they're sitting in there, and they're not welcoming to you they're sort of waiting for you to come in and draw yourself to their attention. Then it can make a huge difference, in fact to the whole atmosphere of the ward I think. If they are just sitting there, and there's a feeling, well I don't really want to be bothered with any patients at the moment, which I mean that happens as well and that is, it's, that isn't very good I don't think.
Did not like the NHS hospital she went into when she could not get into a private hospital.
Did not like the NHS hospital she went into when she could not get into a private hospital.
Because my insurance [pause] cover hadn't run out but because I was seeing a NHS psychiatrist and he was concerned about me and, ultimately, he sectioned me, they refused to transfer me to a private hospital because I was specifically under a NHS consultant, and they felt it was inappropriate to change that.
Who's they, the insurance?
I think the combination of the insurance and the doctors. And I was furious [laughing], absolutely furious about that because it was a horrible place. I can't remember the exact event that precipitated me going into hospital, I think it basically...it had got to the point where my husband felt he couldn't cope with me. So I... I did go into hospital and I remember putting a plastic bag over my head in there, and I remember that the nurse just took it off my head, didn't say a word to me and walked away. And it just really, sort of enforced the feelings that they just didn't care at all.
It really symbolises what you're saying about that system.
So, and then I didn't eat for 3 weeks while I was in there, and they didn't seem to notice.
Describes how she became institutionalised in an NHS hospital by the routines and safety, making...
Describes how she became institutionalised in an NHS hospital by the routines and safety, making...
There were routines, mealtimes, getting up times, medication times, OT times. There were routines and I had no responsibilities. I didn't have, because I live, I'm single and I, you know, I pay a mortgage on this house. I have responsibilities, I have to work to pay the bills and things, and the bills need to be paid and the cat needs to be fed and, you know, I don't have children but I have certain responsibilities and suddenly I had no responsibility. I was being cared for, or I was in a place where I didn't have to think about anything, and nobody could touch me.
Some people had private health insurance that allowed them to get a bed in a private hospital. Private hospitals were described as akin to a nice "hotel", generally with staff who appeared engaged and "caring". There was a wider range of treatments that were more readily available than in the NHS, including complementary therapies (e.g. group therapy, massage, yoga, meditation). However, private hospitals were not always highly rated. For instance, one woman escaped from a private hospital while suicidal and thought that the staff there were mostly agency staff.
Was pleasantly surprised by her welcome at a private psychiatric hospital.
Was pleasantly surprised by her welcome at a private psychiatric hospital.
She could see we were both very tense, very nervous you know, sort of looking round everywhere, trying to work things out. There were people everywhere. You've got nurses walking around in you know normal clothes. You've got people that are living there, you've got family and friends that have come to visit people living there, you've got therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, doctors, GPs everybody in this place. Just bobbing round, doing their own thing, completely uninterested in you.
Says that while some nurses did care in her NHS hospital, there was more care that felt genuine...
Says that while some nurses did care in her NHS hospital, there was more care that felt genuine...
Whereas in the NHS it was like'. when, if you needed to talk to somebody, if you wanted a nurse at all you had to go to them' and you had to say you know, 'Look I need someone to talk to', rather than' Privately people can see you need someone to talk to, or a nurse was allocated to you and so many people, and you had to have some private time with them everyday, whatever. Whereas in the NHS it was like, if you were lucky, if you went to say you wanted to speak to someone, it wouldn't necessarily be there, and then because as I say they were all too busy. And you might be lucky to see one that day, you might not, by which time you might be in a worse state.
And there were several times when I was in an even worse state because there was no one to talk to there when I needed to. But then I can't knock all because some of the nurses there, some of the nurses are generally genuinely there because they want to care for people and they were different. But there's an awful lot there who' you felt as though it was people saying to you, 'Oh, for goodness sake pull yourself out of it', and, 'Get yourself together', which you don't want, it's the last thing at the end of the day. I just don't think that there is enough, in regards to, against private and NHS, there is just not enough funding to be able to' I don't know, train the nurses in a certain way. I think that nurses in a private hospital are trained totally different to ones trained in an NHS, you know, there was a hug there when you needed it in a private hospital, but there was nothing like that in the NHS .
Experiences of accident & emergency departments in hospitals were mixed. After suicide attempts, it is possible for people be met by a lack of empathy or even hostility from staff who may not comprehend their mental despair. Nevertheless, some non-mental health professionals can be supportive.
Describes a suicide attempt where he was not met by empathy by hospital staff.
Describes a suicide attempt where he was not met by empathy by hospital staff.
And'. I can remember being almost unconscious, and with a doctor and nurses around the bed. And the doctor said to one of the nurses, "Go and get so and so' we've got about 10 minutes or he'll be gone". And I could hear him, and I just thought, "I wish you'd leave me alone. I'm warm and comfortable. I don't want this". But they did their stuff and got me round [pause]. And that was'. that was not nice because I'd frightened my wife, which wasn't fair.
And I also had to run the gauntlet with the medical people who were something less than sympathetic. But they were looking at it from a medical point of view. So that's not my place to judge what they were saying. But it was not any easy thing' and I must have been in quite a deep state of depression to' to contemplate that [pause]'. Yeh I regret doing that.
Describes a suicide attempt where the surgeon was keen for her to tell at least one parent about...
Describes a suicide attempt where the surgeon was keen for her to tell at least one parent about...
But when my dad was there the surgeon came in and asked if I'd told him yet. And then of course I had to say, no I hadn't, so he went out, and my dad asked what all that was about, and so I told him that I'd had depression for a while and I'd been taking antidepressants, and that the reason I was there was that I had cut my wrists.
And you know he just looked stunned for a while, and didn't say much. Like I said, I wasn't very close to him at the time. So he... he then wanted to know if I'd told my mum yet, and I said I hadn't, so then he said he'd bring her up the next day, for me to tell her. So, then the next day they both came up, and he left me alone to tell her and she, she just looked distraught, when I told her [pause]. She looked like a pit had just opened up in front of her.
Last reviewed September 2017.
Last updated September 2017.

subset: commoncrawl


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Wave Fold Curtain Track Set-Decor 1WF-N22-5-DW
Our own decorative Decor 1 aluminum wave fold drapery track sets in 4 designer colors. Use with our wave fold panels or make your own.
Ready made panel wave fold instructions
Custom wave fold panel instructions
Complete assembled wall or ceiling mount set with wheeled carriers for wave fold/S fold style curtains.
The Pine white, Dark walnut, Light oak and Red oak have a wood grain finish. Also see our Decor 2 wave fold sets, a larger diameter track with wood finials and end caps.
Can easily be cut to size with a hack saw, or if you leave a dimension(s) we will cut it to size at no extra charge.
This quality aluminum track is 13/16" tall with smooth wheeled carriers and internal splices when needed. You can use as many or few panels as desired and move them in any direction.
Each set includes track, wall (3" projection) or ceiling brackets, rollers (4 1/2 per foot), 2) end caps and 2 batons.
Order wave fold tape, hooks and connecting chains separately


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Jim Merrick, 425.463.8265
Latest Adventure Game from Her Interactive Launches for PC and Mac as Part of 80th Anniversary Celebration of Nancy Drew
BELLEVUE, Wash., June 28, 2010 – A storm is brewing for everyone's favorite teen detective Nancy Drew in the latest mystery adventure game from award-winning developer Her Interactive. With a $100 million prize on the line, Nancy is thrust into a world of wild weather, high technology, secret conversations, mysterious dealings, and ulterior motives. Nancy Drew: Trail of the Twister launches for PC and Mac on June 29, 2010, the 80th anniversary year for Nancy Drew.
A competition is underway to discover a formula to predict tornado touchdowns. The prize is $100 million. But, equipment starts failing and crew members are getting injured. Is it bad luck or is someone sabotaging the competition? Playing as Nancy Drew, it's up to you to put the pieces together and catch the culprits as you go undercover as a competitive storm chaser. Rich visuals, dangerous weather, new challenges, unique characters, and new puzzles all combine to make this Nancy's wildest adventure yet.
"It's been 80 years since Nancy Drew first appeared in print and now she has evolved into one of the most beloved female characters of all time," says Megan Gaiser, CEO, Her Interactive. "Her winning combination of smarts and spunk is tailor-made for gaming. Girls – and players – of all ages will love the twists and turns we've added to our latest adventure game. Nancy may be 80, but she always be our favorite teen ready to tackle any challenge, even tornadoes."
In Trail of the Twister, weather is a central theme. Players must immerse themselves in meteorology by studying clouds, reading Doppler data, driving the Doppler truck and maintaining weather equipment… not to mention surviving tornadoes. The game features a number of unique puzzles to solve along the way, including buying supplies within a budget and trapping mice. There are also arcade games within the game to play in order to win pennies for purchasing collectible goodies from the store.
And, if you take a risk that ends badly, don't worry about having to start over. The game will automatically return the player to the point before the fatal mistake. The game also features two difficulty settings, Junior or Senior Detective, to allow players of all skill levels to solve the mystery.
Nancy Drew: Trail of the Twister is available at a suggested retail price of $19.99. Her Interactive is publishing the game in a dual format disc, playable on both Windows PCs and, for the first time, Apple Mac computers. The game is rated E with Mild Violence, Comic Mischief.
About Her Interactive:
Her Interactive is the leading mystery-maker and pioneer of fun and inspiring interactive mystery adventures played by females, young and old. The company, with 23 awards to its name, designs, develops and publishes high-quality, mystery adventure games and is the world leader in the mystery gaming category. Her Interactive's Nancy Drew games have sold more than 8 million units with each game surpassing sales of the prior. This success, in part, is buoyed by the ever-increasing numbers of girls and women becoming avid game players. Nancy Drew players now include moms who have introduced their daughters to the girl detective, making her one of history's longest-running iconic figures spanning generations. As the number-one PC mystery franchise, since 2004, the Nancy Drew series has outsold Harry Potter, Myst and Tomb Raider.
More information about the company and the Nancy Drew games can be found at www.HerInteractive.com.
About Nancy Drew:
Nancy Drew debuted in 1930 and is still going strong in 2010, as she celebrates her 80th anniversary. She is a smart, independent, gutsy and resourceful teen detective who can crack even the toughest case. Published in 22 languages and with more than 100 million copies in print worldwide, Nancy Drew has engaged readers and served as a role model globally for generations.
Mac and the Mac logo are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Nancy Drew is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Copyright 2010 Her Interactive, Inc. All rights reserved. Nancy Drew is a registered trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc..


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If you would like to talk to one of our friendly team, please fill in your details and we'll get back to you.
By submitting this form you confirm that you're happy for us to contact you by phone and email.
If you have been advised that laser eye surgery isn't for you, you may have given up on a surgical solution for 20:20 vision. However, if you have a complex prescription that can't be treated with regular surgery, bioptics could be the answer.
Here we explore how this surgery can help patients with high or complex prescriptions.
Bioptics is a tailored approach to vision care, which treats every individual differently according to their unique needs. In bioptic surgery, lens implant surgery and laser eye surgery are used in combination to provide the very best visual outcome for every patient.
Bioptics begins with an assessment with your specialist, to determine your tailored treatment plan. Because most patients opting for bioptic surgery have complications that make them unsuited to regular laser eye surgery, this is an important stage, so that the surgeon can take into account every detail in order to ensure the best results.
Those with very high prescriptions who are not eligible for regular laser eye surgery are prime candidates for bioptic surgery. Regular laser eye surgery can typically only be performed on patients with prescriptions of up to -10, as beyond this level, the corneas are too thin to be reshaped safely. However, because bioptic surgery involves a combined treatment, it can be safely employed to treat higher prescriptions effectively.
In addition, bioptics is a great choice for anyone who wants to achieve the best possible visual outcome, beyond a standard one-size-fits-all approach. So, people who need good vision for their jobs may value the extra finesse that bioptic surgery offers.
Candidates for bioptics usually fall into one or more of the following categories:
The outlook for those undergoing bioptic surgery is good. While you will have to discuss your own individual expectations with your surgeon, many candidates achieve 20:20 vision.
Because bioptics involves highly skilled surgery in more than one field, it is relatively rare to find it on offer in the UK. OCL's consultants possess experience in both lens implant surgery and laser eye surgery, and therefore one of the few surgeons offering this option to patients with high or complex prescriptions.
If you would like to find out more or to discuss bioptics treatmeant options, contact us today.
Understanding Laser Eye Surgery In the world of running, every second counts. Whether you're a casual jogger or a seasoned marathoner, a clear vision is…
An Introduction to Glaucoma Glaucoma is a group of eye disorders that gradually damage the optic nerve, which is responsible for transmitting visual information from…
Corneal Damage and the Need for Transplantation The cornea, the transparent outermost layer of the eye, plays a vital role in focusing light onto the…


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Digital Marketing
Edmonton Digital, Online, and Internet Marketing for Healthcare
Powerful Digital Tools to Grow Your Modern Practice
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Digital marketing is the marketing of products and services using digital technologies on the Internet, mobile phones, tablets, and any other digital medium.
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Online Marketing and Advertising for Healthcare
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What are the benefits of digital and online marketing for your healthcare practice in Edmonton?
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If your website is difficult to find on a search engine, they will move on to another provider. If your website and digital marketing strategies are well executed, your practice will grow faster than your competitors.
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LEMON ANDERSEN: From Public Enemy to Public Theater
If Eminem thinks he's got anything to bitch about, he should check out Lemon Andersen's County of Kings. Compared to Lemon's childhood in the projects at 24th St/4th Ave in Sunset Park, Marshall Mathers lived an almost storybook life on 8 Mile. But whereas Eminem has not stopped ruining his health and career with mordant self-pity, Lemon is actively fulfilling his mission to take life's lemons and "make the best goddamned lemonade," as he so masterfully demonstrates in County of Kings, which ends its six-week run at the Public Theater on November 8.
After a pulverizing rap prologue about going from Rikers to the Tonys, the poet opens his one-man show, not with a diatribe against his archenemies, but with his fondest childhood memory—doing the Hustle with his mother Mili at Coney Island to her favorite song, Anita Ward's "Ring My Bell." By the way he moves as he recounts that day, it's clear he's not exaggerating when he says brothas cleared the concrete when they noticed this blond ten-year-old grooving better than any boardwalk bad-ass. Though he goes on to describe his childhood home in Apartment D5 as a combination stolen-car-parts garage, shooting gallery and AIDS mausoleum, Lemon held fast to that peak experience on Coney Island, no matter how tragic life turned.
Ever since James Frey was caught fibbing in A Million Little Pieces, memoirists have had to elide their hardscrabble lies or at least dress them up in something close to truth. But according to Andersen, "If anything, I had to water [my story] down." In fact, Andersen never would have written or performed County of Kings if friends and mentors like Spike Lee and Wynn Handman of the American Playhouse Theater hadn't urged him to put his personal saga of poverty, crime and redemption on stage. To Anderson's mind, his own story was no more valuable than anyone else's, yet it's this same spirit of humility that makes County of Kings a mature, universal drama rather than just another off-putting gangsta invective.
Lemon, 34, was born Andrew Andersen, son of Milagros "Mili" Quiñones from Puerto Rico and Peter Andersen, a Norwegian-American from Bensonhurst. (Latino kids called him "Lemon" or "Lemonhead" on account of his once-spanking blond Nordic hair.) Although his older brother is also named Peter, they had different fathers, both of whom left Lemon's mother before their sons were toddlers. Mili met Lemon's father at a methadone clinic and, when the analgesic wore off, they started shooting heroin together in the oft-referenced Apartment D5. After Peter Anderson left, it didn't take Mili long to rebound with another user, their stepdad Charo, who helped make D5 even more of a drug den.
Perhaps the most effective and touching feature of Lemon's voice in County of Kings is how, even when reenacting the most gut-wrenching scenes of his autobiography,he sustains a childlike wonder, undiluted by bitterness. Lemon channels his early community's personae—including Mili and Charo's sordid social club—with equal measures of parody and compassion. Where he could have easily lambasted his parents as feckless junkies, he instead portrays them as flawed, desperate people who were fiercely protective of him and his brother even while swimming against the tide of addiction: "I was Mili's golden boy…and Charo cared for me and Peter like we were his right and left nuts."
Not that Mili and Charo were spending their nights dog-earring pages of Conscious Parenting Magazine. With a firm balance of pathos and humor, Lemon relates how Charo would sometimes discipline him and his brother with a belt that doubled as his tourniquet. Discarded syringes became Lemon's water toys. He remarks on how Mili was the best dealer in the building while Charo made ends meet by stripping cars: "I love waking up and finding car parts in the living room 'cuz that means we is going to Chuck E. Cheese." But it wasn't all fun and games, and through the cracks of his hard humor, trauma finds room to swell. Like the night Lemon witnessed that Mili, stranded in a heroin haze, had "swallowed her tongue like a Vienna sausage," and Charo had already nodded out beside her, with a needle in his arm. Lemon the raconteur deftly slips between the addicts, Little Lemon and Cookie—the drag queen next door who he had to go get to call an ambulance—throwing his characters into full tragicomic relief with his dead-ringer impressions.
One reason Lemon didn't turn out as homophobic as other boyz in the 'hood could be that he was scapegoated and ostracized in ways similar to gays during the first series of AIDS outbreaks in the 80s. When word got out that Mili had the virus, parents publicly warned kids to steer clear of Lemon. Later, news surfaced that Charo and Lemon's real father had also been infected. After having to fight his way through school every day, Lemon would make frequent trips to Lutheran Medical Center where he'd watch his mother waste away to a skeleton. His one comfort was being able to learn ballet at Feld Ballets/NY, where he was accepted after wowing admissions with a break-dance audition: "I didn't mind looking like a fairy in a t-shirt and tights, when D5 had no heat, I had ballet moves to keep me warm."
Unfortunately, such solace was short-lived. Under the influence of his brother and other small-time crooks, he'd already turned to petty theft and when he and his homey raided rich kids' lockers, Feld Ballets/NY slammed its gates on him for good. Lemon's criminal activity would skyrocket after he became an orphan at age 15.
With blunt honesty, Lemon reveals how he was initially relieved to learn his mother was on deathwatch. No more hospital stays, no more news of her steep decline, no more outcast living. (Charo and his biological father had already died of AIDS-related causes.) Sitting by his mother's deathbed, though, relief quickly mutated into the first throes of grief. "Don't come to my funeral because I don't want you to see me like that," Mili tells him as he sits watch. Recasting himself into the torment of that moment, Lemon launches into a protracted monologue imagining his mother's final prayer for her sons' safety and God's response, condemning her with the sadism of a storefront preacher/death-row warden.
Just months into orphanhood, Lemon served a few weeks at Rikers for back-to-school shoplifting before dropping out of school entirely. Miraculously, he landed a mailroom job at Goldman Sachs but was soon let go for "gettin' ghetto in the elevator." Meanwhile, the mother of a girlfriend he hardly cared for discovered that he took her daughter's virginity and coerced him into proposing marriage. Which led Lemon to delve deeper into crack-dealing—partly in an attempt to break up the relationship. With a hoochie-mama impression that could put the most acerbic of Latino drag queens to shame, Lemon details the moment his girlfriend calls off their shotgun wedding, on site at his next court sentencing, where he sighs with relief as the guards cart him off for another round at Rikers Island.
This time, Rikers proved to be an uncharacteristically true reformatory. Offered a year in prison or five-years probation, Lemon took the one-year sentence to bypass five years of random urine tests and enforced curfews. But unlike most guys from the big house, Lemon doesn't have any visible tattoos on stage. This might be due to the fact that, instead of hanging with fellow inmates, he made a self-improvement campaign out of his time up the river. First thing he did was sign up for prison boot camp, where he let the military sergeant whip him into shape. Instead of messing around in rec hall, he'd go straight to his cell and read stacks of books from the prison library. He also started scribbling poems, and it began to dawn on him that he might have a calling as a writer.
Lemon came out of Rikers a new man—only the world didn't see it that way. Couch-surfing at his brother's pad in East New York, Lemon applied for job after job but no one would hire an ex-con, even though, as he says, "It was written even Jesus Christ had a felony." Lemon went back to dealing crack, this time in Columbus, Ohio, where he got busted again. Due to overcrowding in the state pen, the court sprang him.
If fate hadn't finally decided to do Lemon a good turn, his crime-and-punishment cycle would have gone right on reeling. But a flier for an open-mic poetry event at El Puente Community Center in Williamsburg (in his native Kings County, Brooklyn), fell onto Lemon's path. Remembering the bliss of reading and writing in his cell, he looked forward to that open-mic like a hot date. He even got a haircut! Just before he was due to step up to the mic, he sat down to scribble, and the energy of all his years of despondency and hopes for a better life collided like two storm clouds on that page. Just like in a movie, he read his impromtu poem, gathering spirit and strength with each successive line, and the crowd roared to christen his new life as a superstar bard. That same night, he met Monica Rivera, a health educator at El Puente, who offered him a job as a peer educator and a spot in an AIDS theater troupe. El Puente was also to be the place where he would meet his wife Marilyn with whom he now has two daughters, Heaven and Shine.
Clearly, Lemon's suffering was not in vain. Since that fateful first reading in 1993, he has steadily honed his craft and his genius for performance poetry has garnered distinctions galore. After co-writing and performing in a sold-out run of Slanguage with the Bronx-based ensemble Universes, he went on to appear a record eight times on HBO's Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry Jam and later earned a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award nomination for his writing and performance in Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam on Broadway. He also won the admiration of another Brooklyn native, director Spike Lee, who casted him in three films (Sucker Free City, She Hate Me, Inside Man) and now regards Anderson as a core member of his 40 Acres family. Along with Steve Coleman, Jayson Jackson, Tom Wirtshafter, and the illustrious Culture Project, Spike Lee is a co-producer of County of Kings.
With a stipend from American Playhouse Theater, Lemon originally began writing his show as a book. Good thing he changed his mind, or the theater scene would be missing out on a spellbinding drama by an artist who is equal parts emcee, wordsmith, actor, and survivor.
County of Kings runs Tuesdays through Sundays, until November 8th, at The Public Theater on 425 Lafayette Street in Manhattan. No performance on November 1.
For tickets, visit www.publictheater.org.
ContributorKyle Thomas Smith
Kyle Thomas Smith is the author of the novel, 85A. He lives in Brooklyn.
Tezer Özlüs Cold Nights of ChildhoodBy Bekah Waalkes
MAY 2023 | Books
Cold Nights of Childhood finds its most revolutionary moment in the narrators own articulation of desire.
79. (Brooklyn Navy Yard, Columbia County)
NOV 2021 | The Miraculous
An artist in his mid-30s living in New York and working in a 300-square-foot studio in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, finds himself consumed by frustration and anger. Although he is having exhibitions, after the shows close his paintings inevitably return to his studio, unsold. Hes not sure he wants to go on being an artist. A psychiatrist he consults helps him to understand that his anger revolves around his feelings about race, class and entitlement. Eventually the psychiatrist recommends that he begin working with a physical trainer, who has him start boxing and working out with a punching bag. Around the same time the artist, who is half-Choctaw and half-Cherokee, has been meeting with traditional Native American artists who tell him how the practices of dancing, drumming and beading have saved their lives. These experiences lead him to make a breakthrough in his work. Instead of focusing on painting, he begins to adorn Everlast vinyl punching bags like those he has been using at the boxing gym in extravagant styles inspired by Native American beadwork, pop culture, and everyday life. Along with beads, he adds tassels, sequins, brass and steel studs, yarn, chains, and sundry items. Some of the bags feature beaded texts quoting everyone from Simone de Beauvoir to Public Enemy.
On Theater and Theurgy: A Les Waters Compendium Illuminates the Director's CraftBy Joey Sims
FEB 2023 | Theater
But nor is Waters, a king of experimental theater who recently graced Broadway with his extraordinary production of Lucas Hnaths Dana H., about to let a book about his work become, itself, obvious or rote. So, interspersed between illuminating essays by Waterss collaborators come his own idiosyncratic contributions.
Theater is Refreshing With The Watering HoleBy Judith C. Lovell
SEPT 2021 | Theater
Writer Judith C. Lovell reflects and explores the ways in which Signature Theatres immersive theatrical production of Lynn Nottages The Watering Hole reimagines a post-pandemic theater.


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Posted On July 12, 2021 / By Debbie Muse / Posted in Blog
What is a Vitrectomy?
Performed by a retinal surgeon, vitrectomy is a surgical procedure that carefully removes the vitreous gel that fills the posterior segment of the eye. This surgery is employed to correct a numberread more
Posted On January 8, 2019 / By Debbie Muse / Posted in Blog
Getting to Know Deborah Y. Chong, MD
Deborah Y. Chong, MD, is a board-certified retina specialist who joined Texas Retina Associates in 2012, and cares for patients in our Dallas Main and Rockwall offices. A Dallas native, Dr. Chong specializesread more
Posted On December 3, 2018 / By Debbie Muse / Posted in Blog
Getting to Know Lori E. Coors, MD
With 13 years of experience, board-certified retina specialist Lori E. Coors, MD, has been a part of Texas Retina Associates since 2005 and sees patients in our Dallas North, Plano and Sherman offices.read more


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Museum Crooks 'Dis-Art-ened' by Ex-FBI Agent
By Richard Carreño
As an ex-FBI special agent based in Philadelphia, Bob Wittman's presence at a former crime scene isn't unusual. The site, at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, across from Penn's Franklin Field, might raise more than a few skeptical eyebrows, however.
As Wittman recounted last week, the Penn Museum, in 1991, was in fact the site of one of the boldest art heists in memory. And solved.
That solved part, according to Wittman's retelling of his derring-do as Federal Bureau of Investigation's first, full-time art crime investigator, is what distinguishes some monster art thefts from others. Just a year earlier, in Boston, thieves walked off with some Rembrandts, a Vermeer, and five sketches by Degas from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, a private treasure house that's akin to the Barnes Foundation. Quirky, defiant in its nontraditional showcasing, and a total reflection of its founder, Boston Brahmin Isabella Gardner.
The stolen Gardner museum art, valued at a jaw-dropping $500 million, dwarfed the Penn Museum theft, merely pegged at $500,000. (Wittman had a huge hand in working the Gardner case, as well).
Yet, some walls at the Gardner are still bare; Mrs. Gardner, ever the grande dame, ordained that only art she personally collected could grace her townhouse and gallery.
At Penn, on the other hand, museum administrators are still exuberant that their stolen objects, a 19th century Chinese crystal orb and a 5,000-year-old bronze of Osiris, the Egyptian god of the dead, are back in their rightful places.
Anyway, according to the 54-year-old Wittman, who retired last year after 20 years as one of the world's most prominent art sleuths, stolen art isn't about monetary value. It's about stealing history and a culture's patrimony. All great art and historical artifacts are, in a word, 'priceless,' says Wittman, who was signing copies of his recently published memoir as a globetrotting art hunter. (He now runs his own suburban Philadelphia security firm, catering to art museums and insurance companies).
The book, published by Crown, is titled, not surprisingly, Priceless.
Wittman, founder of the FBI's Philadelphia-based Art Crime Team, was sitting, appropriately enough, in front of the 45-pound crystal orb that he recovered, now reinstalled in its original place of honor in the museum's rotunda. (A glass case, ahem, is new).
Just minutes before, Wittman was regaling a packed audience on how the orb was discovered and how that find again proved the rightness of one of his favorite investigative dicta, 'Better to be lucky than smart.' (Another is, 'You can't make this stuff up.')
A burly six-footer, Wittman looks cop. Still, with a ready smile and infectious laugh, you can also see how Wittman over the years, while hunting stolen pieces from such disparate parts as Paris, Miami, New Mexico, and—one of his favorites—the New Jersey Turnpike, could finagle the confidence of the bad guys he was dealing with.
He also has an unpretentious, street-smart demeanor. (That aspect is marvelously captured in the 'voice' you hear when reading Priceless, thanks to Wittman's co-author John Shiffman, a Philadelphia Inquirer Washington-based reporter).
Wittman got his start in art recovery by happenstance, as a rookie agent in 1988. Again, it was a Philadelphia institution, the Rodin Museum branch of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Stolen was Rodin's iconic piece, the Mask of the Man with the Broken Nose. Besides being his first art case, the heist was remarkable for being the only one of the scores he's been involved wherein a firearm was discharged. (No one was hurt).
The sculpture was recovered, following a tip. Better to be lucky than smart.
From there, thinking that art investigations might be a whole lot more interesting than busting an endless stream of drug dealers, Wittman decided to get a bit smarter about fine art—the difference between Manet and Monet, for starters—by enrolling in an enrichment course at the Barnes Foundation. (Wittman's hagiographical appraisal of Albert Barnes, in the book is a passage, by the way, you can skip).
From there, too, starting in 2005, he developed the Art Crime Team, based in Philadelphia and now with 13 agents tackling what Wittman described as a $6 billion, illegal worldwide trade in art and antiquities. Why Philadelphia? For no other reason than that was where Wittman himself was posted and where he relied on officials of the Penn Museum, the Barnes Foundation, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art as resources.
According to Wittman's tally, his investigations reclaimed more than $225 million in stolen goods. Cases were as far-flung as Europe, Philadelphia (the Pennsylvania Historical Society an the National Constitution Center also figure in his tale), and yes, the Jersey Turnpike, where in 1997 he negotiated for the 'purchase' of a 2,000-year-old indigenous Peruvian 'backflap' in solid gold. (This, too, was recovered, and was returned to Lima—after its only American public viewing at the Penn Museum).
And to Trenton, where thanks to a yet another tipster, he found the crystal orb, in the bedroom of a self-described witch. The woman had covered it with a baseball cap, thinking that 'glass ball' was worthless. You can't make this stuff up.
In all, Priceless is an insightful look into the mechanics of art theft investigation.
Wittman puts the lie to any glamorous notions regarding art thieves. Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief? Pierce Brosnan in the Thomas Crown Affair? Hardly. In reality, they're loser types, pumped up with 'beer muscles.'
Is art stolen on commission? he was asked. Sure, said Wittman. But generally, not by rich art patrons. The wealthy can afford the real thing. At the end of the day, Wittman noted, insurance companies are the ones 'holding the bag.'
Other maxims seem intuitive, though not always adhered to. One example hit home. Many years ago, while as editor at a Massachusetts daily, the house of the newspaper's owner was robbed of more than a dozen French Impressionist paintings. The cop shop reporter filed the story, and we scheduled the straightforward report as an above-the-fold Page 1 story—that is, until the paper's managing editor spiked the story.
The ME was being too politic by half. The next day, the heist story ran with a banner head. To hinder resale, the owner's insurance company in fact encouraged widespread publicity. And the ME was taken to the woodshed by the paper's publisher.
Rewards? These can cut two ways, according to Wittman. Sometimes they draw out a glut of wannabe tipsters, clogging the investigation with dead-end leads.
'Stuff' like this is revealing and riveting. When Wittman—cum Shiffman—dabbles into Wittman's personal and family life, things start to lag. Some gaffes also fall through the cracks. Repetition runs rampant. The Revolutionary War financier is Robert Morris, not Roger Morris. Also, the book would have been a much better resource if an index had been included.
That said, you can't make this stuff up. And Wittman didn't.
Wittman has another talk scheduled at 7:30 pm June 22 at the main branch of the Free Library, 1901 Vine Street. Admission is free.
(Richard Carreño can be reached via Writers.Clearinghouse@com


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A satellite that's meant to blaze a trail for Seattle-based BlackSky Global's Earth-imaging constellation rose into orbit tonight atop India's four-stage PSLV-C35 rocket.
BlackSky's Pathfinder 1 was among eight satellites launched from India's Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota at 8:42 p.m. PT Sept. 25 (9:12 a.m. Sept. 26 local time). Over the course of more than two hours, the spacecraft were deployed into two separate sets of orbits.
For India, the star of the show is the 800-pound SCATSAT-1, which will provide data for improved weather forecasting, particularly for tropical cyclones. But for BlackSky Global, a subsidiary of Seattle's Spaceflight Industries, it's all about Pathfinder 1.


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A liberty minded group created to foster discussions about praxeology—the science of human action. All interested parties are welcome. No special education is required to participate though it is hoped that members of this group are familiar with the writings of Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, and Hans-Hermann Hoppe.
— Housekeeping —
There is a plethora of pages, websites, and blogs that cater to general libertarian and Austrian Economics content. Whilst incredibly valuable they have their place elsewhere. This group aims to specialise in discussions specifically related to praxeology—the science of human action...


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text: Fluxus Sometimes described as intermedia, Fluxus art and movement take their name from the Latin word for flow or fluidity 'flux'. Today it is synonymous with an international network of artists, composers and designers. From its roots in the 1960s and up until now, the artist have become known for blending different artistic media and disciplines together. Fluxus is one of the 'anti-art' movements purporting to have an anti-commercial aesthetics. Under the leadership of George Maciunas, Fluxus staged a series of festivals in Amsterdam, London, Paris, Copenhagen, and New York, with avant-garde shows spilling out into the street. Artists associated with Fluxus are Joseph Beuys, Yoko Ono and Nam June Paik. Like so many other art movements, fluxus has a manifesto. It is the Fluxus Manifesto from 1963 as authored by George Maciunas. Return to the art glossary Return to entries beginning with F


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Awards: Best Birding Binocular 2016/17
Eschenbach Trophy D 8x42 ED Binoculars
The Trophy series of binoculars from German brand Eschenbach is quite large and consists of a wide variety of higher end products. Most are roof prism binoculars, but it also includes a number of porro prism models and a spotting scope.
With the aim of delivering an even higher image resolution, all the roof prism Eschenbach Trophy binoculars have recently been updated and now they also feature ED glass lenses.
I recently got to try out the 8x42 Trophy ED and below are my thoughts:
Important Points:
Whilst at first glance, the Eschenbach Trophy D 8x42 ED binoculars look to have your typical shape for a modern roof prism bin, on closer inspection you will notice a number of differences, some of which are ergonomically quite important:
Firstly the single bridge is thinner than the standard design and then it is positioned closer to the eyepieces than the objectives. This "top hinge" arrangement frees up more space on the lower parts of the barrels, which in turn offers you a large are with which to securely grab onto them.
Whilst I will concede that this is not really that important whilst you are looking through the instrument, either of the exposed barrels does provide you with far better and secure grip if you decide to carry the bins in one hand when not using the neck strap, something that I do quite regularly.
Another very minor departure from the norm are that the ends of barrels (from the bridge to the objectives) are not perfectly circular, instead the way the rubber coating is moulded gives them an eye shape, which not only adds a little to their aesthetics, but also adds to the grip by giving you a nice ridge to hold onto.
Chassis Material
These Eschenbach Trophy ED binoculars have housings made from Magnalium, which is an alloy made mostly from Aluminium and Magnesium as well as minor amounts of nickel and tin.
Eschenbach Optik don't reveal the proportions of each, but basically the Magnesium makes the Aluminium easier to work with and lighter as it is less dense and thus is usually an improvement than pure Aluminium housings.
Fully Sealed
It is no surprise to discover (indeed it is expected) on any higher end bino that the shell has been fully sealed, making them watertight. Although Eschenbach Optik do not go on to quantify this with a depth or official standard, so whilst I would never advise that you deliberately submerge them to test, I am sure that they will be more than fine in the wettest of outdoor conditions.
Just keep in mind that having being sealed, the insides are also protected from dust entering that can spoil the view on an optical instrument.
During manufacture the air inside the unit is also replaced with nitrogen gas, this dry anti-fogging agent stops the condensation of water on the inner glass surfaces which resemble fog. Almost all good quality bins will have this feature.
Rubber Coated
Eschenbach have opted to use a really hard and quite thin rubber coating on the exterior of the Trophy D.
These two properties will mean that it provides less cushioning than a thicker more softer rubber. But on the flip side of the coin, it fits a lot better to the chassis than those with thick soft rubber coatings and in my experience is longer lasting as this type of rubber seems to not perish as easily.
Eschenbach have also chosen not to texture the surface of the rubber, rather keeping it smooth. This looks great, but the negative aspects to this are that you get reduced grip and the harder, smooth surface is far more reflective, which does make them less camouflaged than they could be.
Tripod Adaptable
Unscrew the dust cover on the front of the bridge and you can then easily screw in a standard tripod adapter, which in turn you can fix to your tripod. Take a look at the video below which shows how to remove this dust cap:
Eye Pieces & Cups
To me it looks like the eye-piece housing on theses Eschenbach Trophy D binoculars are fashioned from metal which is good. Some will use plastic to save costs and it does make for a more lightweight instrument. But as this is an area on the bin that most often gets damaged when dropped, I feel that the integrity of these parts cannot be overstated and so it is most certainly something I look for when choosing a higher end binocular like these.
The cups are nice and large (4.1cm diameter) and whilst they are padded, like the body, this coating is really thin. Generally speaking, these are not the most comfortable eye-cups ever, but to be fair, I was never aware of any more discomfort than normal whilst using them.
Adjusting the Focus
Personally I love the look and feel of the mostly metal focus wheel on these 8x42 Eschenbach Trophy ED binoculars.
My test sample turned very smoothly and there was no sticking points or free play anywhere along the focus plane. Speaking of which, it takes about 1¾ turns (630°) of the focus wheel to go from one end to the other. In my experience this is about average and thus is a nice compromise between the speed of making large focus adjustments and being able to easily and accurately make small changes.
At 30mm in diameter, it is not the largest focus wheel found on a full sized bin, but the deep and quite jagged metal ridges that run along it's circumference are excellent as they provide you with a nice tactile feedback as well as tons of grip. For most of the time this is perhaps more than required, but should you be wearing very padded gloves in winter, then this can make a difference.
Like the focus wheel, the diopter ring is metallic which is a nice touch and like the focus wheel it has jagged ridges that make for the perfect non slip surface when setting up your binoculars for your vision.
Whilst the ring is situated in the normal position near the right eye-piece, what is different from the norm is that they have decided to place the markings on top of, instead of under the binocular. However apart from how it looks, this makes no difference to it's actual function.
As far as it works, all is good. It is tight, which prevents it being moved by accident, which is good as unlike the best ones, this does not have a locking mechanism which for a bin at this level is a little bit of shame, but by no means a deal breaker.
Body Quality Score: 8/10
Eschenbach publish the weight of these 8x42 Trophy ED binoculars as being 785g (27.7oz), which as you can see from the comparison table below ranks them angst the heavier 42mm bins. Whilst being lightweight can be important, don't disregard the importance of the fact that that these not only have a metal alloy chassis, but parts like the focus wheel and eye-cup housing are metal as well, whereas plastic parts will be used on many lower quality products.
Also whilst this is the published figure, I checked on my digital scale and got 732g (with neck strap and lens covers removed), so once again Eschenbach are doing themselves no favours here.
As you can see from the advertised dimensions above, this Eschenbach Trophy is in terms of size fairly standard for a 42mm binocular.
For those who are interested, I also measured their dimensions depending on the state of the instrument:
Body Stats Score: 7/10
I don't have any info on their make up, but I can say that the external ocular lenses on the eye-pieces of these Eschenbach Trophy 8x42 ED binoculars have a 23mm diameter, which is nice and large.
The objective lenses are as the name suggests 42mm diameter and are set back about 16mm in from the ends of the barrels. This is incredibly deep and as such, this offers them plenty of protection from physical damage and helps prevent dust, or light rain from reaching the glass surface. Remember the less often you have to clean your lenses, the better.
ED Glass
As is indicated in their name, these Eschenbach Trophy D 8x42 B ED binoculars have ED glass lenses. What this means is that whilst most bins will have lens elements with low dispersion properties in order to potentially better direct the individual light wavelengths, these have extra-low dispersion elements and so have the potential to offer even better image quality as used correctly can decrease chromatic aberrations even more and thus show even less signs of color fringing.
Take a look at the Image Quality section down below, to see how they actually performed in this area.
Apart from their body shape, their name gives you a clue as to the design of prisms used within - the D in the Eschenbach Trophy D 8x42 ED binoculars name indicates that they use the Dach prism design, which is German for roof and thus indicates that they have used roof prisms (you can click on the link to discover the relative strengths and weaknesses of this design).
Important here to note that Eschenbach Optik state that high quality BaK-4 glass is used to make the prisms, which is exactly what we want to see here.
Anti-Reflection Coatings
Unsurprisingly in this high end range, but important to note is the fact that the optics on the Eschenbach Trophy ED's are Fully Multi-Coated.
This level of anti-reflection coatings on all exterior glass sections throughout the optical path makes a huge difference to the brightness and overall standard of image delivered to your eyes. For more details take a look at this section on Anti-Reflection Lens Coatings.
Phase Correction Coatings
Whilst the roof prism has many advantages over porro prisms, there are also some issues that need to be rectified in order to get the best out of them, which not all manufacturers do.
One of which is to correct a the problem of the individual wavelengths of light going out of phase with each other, which leads to a lower resolution image. So it is good to see that Eschenbach have coated the prisms with a special material that corrects this and which is why they are now described as being phase corrected.
Prism Reflection Coatings
Another issue with this prism design is that one prism surface does not reflect all the light that hits it. To improve this, highly reflective material is added to this surface to ensure the brightest and highest quality image results.
As you would expect, there are different levels of material that is used. On cheaper optics, you often find Aluminium mirror coatings and then many higher end optics use silver mirror coatings. The at the very top end, you get bins like these Eschenbach binoculars that have dielectrically mirror coatings.
Whilst this process costs a lot more, the result is the highest level of reflectivity (approx 5% more light is transmitted than those with sliver coatings) which most certainly adds to the brightness and all round image quality.
Optical Components Score: 9/10
Field Of View (FOV)
Publicized as being 136 meters wide at a distance of 1000 meters away (408ft at 1,000 yards), you can see from the table below this is a nice wide field of view for an 8x42 binocular and equates to an angle of view that is 7.75 ° and thus they qualify to be listed on my page of wide angle binoculars.
Having a wide view is advantageous in many situations, but is especially important for activities like bird watching, on safari or hunting when you are either trying to quickly locate a small and/or fast moving critter from closer ranges or indeed when searching for something way of in the distance, and so here could also be useful for search and rescue and even plane spotting etc.
Whilst their FOV is excellent, unfortunately their 'advertised' eye-relief is not. Eschenbach state that the 8x42 Trophy D has a "Pupil focal distance" of 4/11 min./max.
I was a little unsure of this as it is not usually expressed in this way, but it was confirmed to me that this indeed was their eye-relief measurements.
With a stated maximum of only 11mm, this seems quite short and whilst for the most part it does not affect those who don't wear glasses, it would potentially make them unsuitable for anyone who does need or want to wear glasses whilst binning.
However I do suspect that this measurement is incorrect as just by comparing how far the eye-cups twist up to their maximum height with other bins, these do not look to have an especially short amount of eye-relief.
To test this, I twisted down the cups, put on my sunglasses and indeed found that I had no issues being able to get the full view with the glasses on. So whilst I can't give the exact figure, I can say that it is more than 11cm and feel that it is probably nearer 17cm or more.
Close Focus
In their specifications, Eschenbach list the "Near point" as being 2.5m (8.2ft), which I take to mean their official minimum close focus rating. As you can see from the comparison table above, this is ok, but far from great.
Once again however, I do feel that they are doing themselves an injustice as I was able to focus on objects at a measure distance of only 1.46m (4.8ft) which is excellent for a standard sized bin with an 8x magnification and ideal for those who sometime find themselves wanting to view objects like flowers or insects from closer distances.
Note: The Optical Stats Score (below right) is based on their official figures which I have had to use, but do believe that it is actually better than this.
Optical Stats Score: 8/10
So do all the top end components and coatings like ED glass, fully multi-coated optics and phase corrected, dielectrically coated BaK-4 prisms instantly produce a superior image? Not always as they all still need to be very skillfully combined into a harmonious optical pathway.
So to rate and compare the view against others that I have tested in the past in a way that I can be more consistent, I use benchmark bins (in the same configuration). Below are my thoughts:
Image Brightness
Like many high end binos, these Eschenbach Trophy D 8x42 ED binoculars have a number of features like being fully-multi coated and using dielectric coatings on the prisms, that are designed to transmit as much light as possible and as such you would expect them to deliver a really bright image.
Well I was not to be disappointed. In normal daylight conditions, they look nice and bright, but to be honest when there is more than enough available light it is hard to tell the difference between two similar configured instruments (8x42 in this case), unless one is particularly bad.
So against my mid range and very high end 8x42 benchmark bins these all looked very similar in these conditions.
It was only in poor light at sunset when I could notice that these were better in these conditions than my standard mid range 8x42 benchmark, and to my eyes just as good as my alpha 8x42 bin, which is impressive.
Colors & Contrast
Here again it is only if an instrument is particularly bad that the difference is instantly noticeable. These Eschenbach's are not bad in this area, in fact I would say that they are very good: The colors look vivid, but natural and I thought the contrast was the same.
Color Fringing
Using extra low dispersion (ED) glass to reduce chromatic aberrations that cause color fringing, you would expect the Trophy ED to excel in this area and indeed it does.
By looking very carefully along the edges of dark objects like telephone lines and tree branches against a bright sky I could see a degree of color fringing, but it was less than my mid range benchmark and equal to that of my alpha level bin - once again this is excellent.
Image Distortions & Blurring
As well as color fringing, you can very occasionally come across other distortions where the image looks to warp either inwards or outwards. I was never aware of this when using these Eschenbach Trophy binoculars.
The amount of image softening or blurring right at the edge of the view on these is also extremely minimal and in my experience equal to the best in this area.
Score for Image Quality: 9/10
Bundled with the instrument itself are a number of accessories. These can often be overlooked, but as they say the devil is in the details and for me these are often the only thing that separates two bins that are very similar in price and so can make the difference when making a choice as to which binocular to purchase:
Carry Bag
These Eschenbach binoculars must come with one of the most secure protective cases out there: For many manufacturers, the flip over lid held closed with a quick release clip would suffice, but Eschenbach have also decided to add a second Zip closure.
Thus there is no denying that once you have your bins Zipped and clicked inside, they nor the lens covers will most certainly never accidentally fall out. But on the negative side you could say that the time to access your optics is increased and when "that bird" is just about to take flight, this small detail can be critical. To be fair to Eschenbach you can leave the Zip part open and only use the quick release clip when out in the field and then when storing your bins, close both. Brilliant or just a little overkill - it just depends how you look at it and I will leave it up to you to decide.
Other features of this case well worth noting is the fact that that the overall quality of it looks to be excellent and even the smallest details have not been overlooked:
For example like many cases, this one has a belt loop on the back face and so should you wish to carry your bins on your hip this is made possible. However unlike many that simply have a loop sewn onto the back of the case, this one can be quickly clipped open and so you can attach it without having to completely remove your belt and then thread it through the loop. What is more this closure is made even more secure with a strip of Velcro underneath the clip - excellent.
The bag also has it's own carry strap. Not only is this strap padded and curved for a better and more comfortable fit, but it attaches to the bag via a couple of quick release swivel clips, which can obviously quickly and easily be removed should you wish to carry the bag on your hip - believe it or not this oversight is something that many other manufacturers miss!
Another really aspect of this bag is that it comes with not one, but two separate pockets. One is located on the top of the flip over lid and the other larger pocket on the front face of the bag. Both can be Zipped closed and are thus perfect for securely storing things like your cleaning cloth as well as personal items like car keys and your wallet.
Another important aspect to this bag is that the bins fit snugly inside, but without being too tight. By this I mean that you can still close the lid with the eye-cups extended and covers on.
Neck Strap
Like the carry bag, the neck strap is of a very good quality and is about as comfortable as any other that I have used:
The padded section is substantial, made from what looks like neoprene, the underside has been left exposed to provide extra grip that helps stop it from sliding around your neck which is something that can be really annoying on less well designed straps.
I also really like the fact that the thinner sections have quick release clips on them, meaning that you can quickly remove the main part of the neck strap from the binocular without having to unthread it. However I do feel that Eschenbach have missed a trick here as both the clips are in the same order - by that I mean that the male part of the clips are on the padded part of the strap and the female part on the thin strap. If however they had alternated the Male/Female parts on each side, you would then be able to connect the short straps left on on the binocular after the padded section had been removed and thus been able to create a short hand strap. This is an excellent feature that I really like, but only seen on a few bins, for example take a look at the Opticron DBA VHD 10x42 Binoculars.
Lens Covers
Fabricated from a soft rubber/plastic, both the eye-piece covers and the objective lens covers fit well and thus don't fall away to easily, which is something that is not only annoying, but can lead to you loosing them and the possibility of having your lenses getting dirty or even worse - scratched.
The design of the eye-piece cover or rain-guard as it is sometimes referred to is fairly typical in that the two cups are joint together via a flexible bridge. The importance of this is that it permits you to fit it back onto the binocular and keep your desired IPD setting.
There are also a couple of loops that enable you to thread them through the neck strap and thus keep them close at hand at all times.
The objective lens covers are very similar in their basic design as the rain-guard, just a little larger. To be honest, I prefer the ones that are tethered to the ends of the barrels and simply hang down under the bin when you have them opened. But that is just my personal preference and I am sure that there will be many who have the opposite mind-set.
Another tiny detail that I noticed is that whilst the eye-shape design of the barrels on these Eschenbach Trophy D binoculars look great, because they are not circular, it has meant that the lens covers have also had to be designed to match this shape. This in turn means that you have to be more accurate when putting them back onto the bin and whilst not at all difficult, there is no doubt that it is a fraction easier and thus often quicker to put back circular shaped ones.
Cleaning Cloth
These Eschenbach Trophy binoculars do come with a reasonably good quality cleaning cloth that is perfect for cleaning the body and perhaps light use on the lenses when out in the field. As always, I still suggest that you invest in a decent lens cleaning kit to properly clean the glass and maintain the integrity of it's sometimes delicate coatings.
Instruction Manual
This Eschenbach Trophy D binocular comes bundled with what at first looks like a fairly comprehensive set of instructions, but on closer inspection, you will find that like most others, the booklet covers a wide selection of languages and so in reality you only a get the most basic information which is a shame.
Eschenbach Optik do include a statistics card, but once again this only reinforces what has already been printed on the box.
Making up for the basic manual, is the very comprehensive 10 year guarantee which goes to show that Eschenbach have a lot of faith in their product. Details of the guarantee are included in a separate booklet.
Extras Score: 7/10
In the table below I have included the main details of these 8x42 Eschenbach Trophy binoculars as well as a selection of other similar configured instruments in a range of prices, which I think provides a good way to quickly spot their relative strengths and weaknesses:
Strong Points: There is no denying that for the most part, the build quality and the materials that are used on the Eschenbach Trophy D 8x42 ED Binoculars are excellent and this goes equally for the accessories as well.
Examples of this include almost the entire exterior and the chassis: I love the metallic eyepiece housing, diopter adjustment ring and focus wheel (although I wish they had used a metal face plate on it as well and whilst these as well as features like the Magnalium chassis increase the weight, the feeling of quality cannot be mistaken.
This quality of materials does not stop here, the optical glass and the coatings used on them is also of a very high standard, which along with their obvious technical expertise directly translated to what I believe is a superior quality image than the majority at this price level:
Not only is the image very bright, with great color reproduction and what I thought was a very high definition, but these 8x42 Eschenbach binoculars also have an excellent wide field of view that remains sharp right to the edges. This is an advantage in many situations, but most importantly for many types of wildlife observation like bird watching or hunting where you are either trying to follow or search for something. The same could be said for search and rescue and indeed many other applications.
Weak points? The stated or official figures for the minimum focus distance and especially the amount of eye-relief are both not great. However as I have already discussed, I believe that both these figures (especially the eye-relief) to be incorrect and they are actual far better in reality. Still it is a shame that in taking so much time to produce such an excellent binocular, Eschenbach have not carried this quality control through with the reporting of the specifications, which is misleading and doing themselves no favours at all.
Final Summation
Broadly speaking binoculars (and other optics) made in Germany (and the other traditional "optical" areas of Europe) have a well founded reputation of being of the highest quality, but are also perhaps not known for not being the value for money purchase you will ever make. I think however with these Eschenbach Trophy D ED Binoculars, you in many ways getting a good dose quality AND good value.
Sure these Eschenbach's have a little way to go to match the uber expensive "big three" in a few departments, but make no mistake, they are still a very high quality pair of binoculars made in Germany at a price that is on a par with many Japanese or American instruments that use a similar level of materials and coatings.
Reviewed by Jason Whitehead for Best Binocular Reviews
Best Birding Binocular 2016/17
Main Specifications & Features:
Below are similar pairs of Binoculars that you may also want to have a look at:
High specification, mid priced bins featuring a magnesium body, fully multi-coated ED glass lenses that produce a stunning image with a very wide FOV
General Price Range: (4/6) Mid-High Value Binoculars
Below is a link that will take you to a page with online retailers in both the US and UK that sell Eschenbach 8x42 Trophy D Binoculars this page makes it easy to compare prices and then to buy from your preferred option:
Buy & Compare Prices for the Eschenbach 8x42 Trophy D Binoculars
US Shoppers
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Deutsch Shoppers
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Indian Shoppers


text:
Skin marks the passage of time, yet it's always with us, thus the paradox of mortality and timelessness is held by our skin. Like other liminal images — twilight, shore, gate — skin occupies a similar threshold space in our archetypal imagination, a porous border at the meeting of two worlds.
NY-based "therapist for creatives" Melissa Daum, LMFT, draws from ancient symbols, Greek mythology, fairy tales, and alchemy to shed light on modern-day conundrums. This realm of feminine magic and symbolism is easily overlooked, on a cultural level and in turn, within ourselves. In an effort to better identify and explain some of this magic, Melissa wants to field questions from YOU! Feel free to share with her your deepest secrets, strangest dreams, most absurd single behavior.
SEND YOUR QUESTIONS/DREAMS/SECRETS to: email@example.com
This week's dream comes from L:
I keep having the same general dream but with different details. The dream always involves me getting a tattoo of some sort, usually on my back or arm and then afterwards deeply regretting it. In some of the dreams I have even ripped them off. Usually it is my pain of regretting them that is prominent and consumes the rest of the dream. I suffer, try to hide it, and then wake up. Last night I had another tattoo dream, Igot a large tattoo on my back and had laser removal done to get rid of 1. I can tell that these dreams are trying to tell me something but I donąt know what, please help! Iąm not sure if this information is helpful but I have recently moved to Madrid for the second part of my gap year abroad.
Dear L,
I love dreams like this, where the dream narrative is simple and unencumbered, yet conceptually deep. So you keep getting a tattoo, then deeply regret it afterward, which leads you to hide the tattoo or get rid of it. Then, as you said, the regret "consumes the rest of the dream." Wow, if we were working in person, I would ask you about your associations to tattoos, and your associations to regret. In your dreams it's like you're left impotent to undo what you've done, and you're forced to live with it written on your skin.
Tattoos and regret go hand in hand. On one side you have the literal regrettable tattoo, like a tramp stamp from when those were a thing, or one that doesn't turn out as expected, or the name of an ex- spelled out, you get the idea. On the other hand, I've learned from heavily tattooed friends of mine that tattooing is a way of marking your skin with your story, thereby coming to terms with what is and what has been. Body art then becomes a possible route toward a meditation on the passage of time, inclusive the joys, pains, and regrets.
The word regret stems from Old English and can literally be translated to mean to weep again.[1] I would infer from your dream that there is a displaced pain seeking to be mourned. The pain in the dream is not in its proper place — getting the tattoo is where you're "supposed" to feel the pain; yet, in your dream, the terrible pain comes after the fact. Perhaps through dreamwork and therapy, you might find a way to link your pain back to its source, setting it closer to the right place and time. This is not unlike ghost movies where they terrorize their home's residents due to some unfinished business. It sounds like you, too, are haunted, and there is a pain that won't die until it is weeped for again. Maybe then you'd be free to feel the proper pain that should come along with the procedure of getting a tattoo (ow needles!), and live relatively comfortably with the tattoo itself.
Your dream also conveys the bind of doing and undoing. The dream is missing the part where you choose to get a tattoo, and only illustrates the post-tattoo regret. I would wonder about your relationship to decision-making and your experiences of trusting yourself, or not. I find that a lot of young women in particular can be perfectionistic when it comes to decision-making. This might show up like a wish for reassurance they are making the "right" decision, displacing the responsibility of decision-making onto someone else (or trying to), burdened with questions like, "who will I be if I do or don't do ____." Young women can often be saddled with a fear of making mistakes, where decisions carry the weight of the world, at least of the inner world. This burden can lead to an impoverished sense of agency, feelings of being stuck or paralysis, and struggles to glean satisfaction from life choices. Perhaps this dream is presenting an opportunity to feel into holding the reins. There is a part of you choosing to get tattooed…who is she? How can we use the dream to help you develop a relationship to the part of you making lasting decisions?
It also seems poignant that the dream is ultimately taking place on the scene of your skin. Skin is both barrier and organ, protecting us from the inner and outer world alike. Some of us are more "thin-skinned," others "thick-skinned," suggesting something about our degree of "touchiness." Skin also marks the passage of time, yet it's always with us, thus the paradox of mortality and timelessness is held by our skin. Like other liminal images — twilight, shore, gate — skin occupies a similar threshold space in our archetypal imagination, a porous border at the meeting of two worlds. Might this describe how you've been feeling given your time abroad and recent move to Madrid for your gap year? Living in the "gap" between two worlds — the worlds of high school and college, and the worlds of Spain and home? Travel demands great resilience on a skin level in order to both let in all the new experiences yet protect yourself in a strange new place.
It's important when working with dreams to not assume that a long or complicated dream is "better" than a fragment. I hope this response illuminates the kind of journey that can use a simple dream scene as the foundation. A dream fragment can be such a generative and rich resource if we hold it thoughtfully, as if the dream lets us in under its skin.
[1] Regret (n.). (n.d.). Retrieved February 03, 2018, from https://www.etymonline.com/word/regret


text:
Hack a day posted this great project from ozzmaker.com.
This guide covers how to use an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) with a Raspberry Pi to create an inclinometer, just like the type you will find in a 4WD.
A prerequisite for this guide is to have a gyro and accelerometer from an IMU already up and running on your Raspberry Pi. A guide to interfacing an IMU with a Raspberry Pi can be found here.
We will be covering some basic SDL which will be used to produce our graphics.
The IMU used in this guide is the BerryIMU. However, other IMUs or accelerometers and gyroscopes can be used.. Eg Pololu MinIMU, Adafruit IMU and Sparkfun IMUs
Git repository here
Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!


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Great music in New York City is as ubiquitous as delicious pizza. From the Electric Daisy, Afropunk and Governors Ball music festivals to outdoor concerts and musicals on Broadway, there is music everywhere. In NYC, residents and tourists alike have an eclectic variety of musical options to satisfy their unique music taste. Even experienced NYC concertgoers may not even realize that there are typically more than 150 music-related events offered in a single week! Oh, and this does not include the free shows on the street.
The city's reverence of music is great for residents because many studies have found that listening to music has the power to reduce stress and anxiety, in turn, enhancing life satisfaction, optimism and hope. It has even been discovered that listening to music has the ability to calm people, even during exceptionally painful or stressful situations. Although music has an obvious calming ability, the Daily Mail found that the number one nuisance on public transit is other passengers playing music so loudly that everyone can hear it. But in that case, the issue technically isn't the music. The real issue is that you are forced to listen to it, which feels like an assault on your personal space. But let's be real: you did not sign up to listen to new wave electronic funk clownstep at 7am on your ride to the office.
There is music all throughout the streets of New York City. One one hand, it is therapeutic and a beautiful medium of expression. On the other hand, music is noise pollution when it's not what you elected to hear. A random public transit passenger may find happiness in new wave electronic funk clownstep, but to everyone else it is simply noise. Noise has the ability to activate stress hormones, negatively affecting health and happiness. As it turns out, noise is the number 1 quality of life complaint for New York residents. Whether it be from a club, festival or concerts in the park, music is negatively affecting residents and causing them to move, specifically around Washington Square Park. In legal terms (and a perfect world), instrumental music is supposed to stop at 10pm and use of amplification is limited to those with a permit. We hate to break the bad news, but horns and trumpets are still loud without amplification and late night jam sessions are in keeping with the spirit of New York.
The simple solution to end this battle between musical expression and a peaceful home is soundproofing your windows. CitiQuiet's soundproof windows eliminates up to 95% of the unwanted noise entering your home through the windows. Music becomes stressful when it disrupts your life and interferes with basic activities such as reading, sleeping and conversation. With soundproof windows, the only music you will hear it that which you chose to play. Musicians and neighbors should not be at odds with one another, and soundproofed windows gives these two groups the opportunity to live in harmony.


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Coca-Cola Beverages Philippines, Inc. (CCBPI), the bottling arm of Coca-Cola in the country, has committed to helping overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) via its Balik Pinas program—an initiative that provides repatriated OFWs due to COVID-19 with opportunities to start their own businesses.
Since the program's expansion in 2020 as a direct response to the pandemic-wrought job crisis, CCBPI has received over 400 inquiries and has thus far assisted over 40 OFWs in becoming business owners who are now part of the Coca-Cola family as distributors or wholesalers.
"By providing livelihood opportunities, especially to those who suddenly found themselves without stable incomes and unable to provide for their families, Coca-Cola is staying true to its pledge to help revive the Philippine economy via job generation and to support Filipinos confronting adversities," says Gareth McGeown, CEO and President of CCBPI.
CCBPI assists former OFWs in choosing a suitable business model for their area, helps in managing their cash flow and inventory, and sees to it that they are given proper guidance and training until they are prepared and fully equipped to operate on their own—all in all, a sustainable and profitable business founded on practical support from a global beverage brand.
The Company's goal to assist Filipinos, and consequently revitalize the economy at such a critical time, has been steadily expanding in reach to transform more lives. Further illustrating the program's success by bringing Coca-Cola to more communities, we follow these Balik Pinas Program pioneers wo have just rewritten the trajectories of their life stories with their inspiring journeys—Melody Carillo, Jo Mari Biara, and Glenn Dela Cerna.
Selfless motherhood rising above a reversal of fortunes
Returning OFW Melody Carillo with her daughter, proudly shows off Sam Yau Consumer Goods Wholesaling—the business she established in Brgy. Kalaisan, Kidapawan through the help of Coca-Cola's Balik Pinas Program.
With her nine-month-old baby in tow, Melody Carillo returned to the Philippines from Hong Kong, following a series of devastations ranging from personal heartache to professional disappointment. She and her then-newborn were abandoned by the child's father—and then the pandemic collided against the renewal of her contract as a domestic helper and nanny when her employers had to cut costs after losing their own jobs.
Melody's story was marked by a reversal of fortunes, but she overcame her challenges with her perseverance and her strong will. Upon her unplanned homecoming in September 2020, Melody bravely confronted the need to support her small family. Her original plan to start her own business—the reason she left for Hong Kong in the first place—found footing in her hometown of Brgy. Kalaisan, Kidapawan.
Melody learned of Coca-Cola's Balik Pinas program through Sales Associate Ariel Pocot, and the two discussed how the program could help her achieve her dream of becoming a business owner. At the tail-end of February 2021, Sum Yau Consumer Goods Wholesaling—named after Melody's daughter—was successfully launched. In just under a month of operations, Sum Yau has bought and sold around 4,200 cases of Coca-Cola beverages.
Melody shares that she is "so happy and blessed" for having been given an opportunity to pursue a livelihood, no matter the personal obstacles she had to face. She credits the Coca-Cola South Davao Sales Team for guiding her through every step of the process, from the initial orientation to her first order and delivery, from establishing a servicing schedule to training her how to sell.
Avenues for altruistic service
Balik Pinas pioneer Jo Mari Baira with Coca-Cola Representatives led by Region Sales Manager Wendell Dayrit, in front of his store in the Municipality of Columbio, Sultan Kudarat. Joms was one of the recipients of OWWA's Balik Bayani Award 2020.
Jo Mari Baira had been working in Saudi Arabia for nearly seven years as a payroll officer. He considers himself a passionate individual, with a big heart that was increasingly insisting on a life of service for his country—which is why Joms took the chance to return home to reunite with his family in Columbio, Sultan Kudarat and serve his local community.
A different opportunity for service, however, presented itself to Jo Mari upon his return to the Philippines through a friend who convinced him to team up with his sister to start a small business venture. According to Joms, thanks to Coca-Cola's never-ending support, the business they started since returning home from Saudi has been fruitful since its first day of operations.
"Hindi nila [Coca-Cola] kami iniiwan, everyday open ang komunikasyon, consistent sila sa mga emails at check-ups o sa kamustahan. At natutuwa kami ngayon dahil hindi lamang nagbebenta sila sa amin pero nag-aasist sila palagi," shares Joms. [Coca-Cola has never left us behind, communication lines were open every day, and they were consistent with their emails and with checking up on us. We're happy that the relationship is not just based on selling; they are always present to assist us.]
Joms takes pride in the growth of their small business via the Balik Pinas program—an avenue to provide for his family and an opportunity to serve his community. He shares that he plans to expand his small business as a distributor and dealer, involve and engage the rest of the community, and serve as an inspiration to fellow OFWs.
Family at the heart of the business
Now a businessman thanks to the Balik Pinas Program, Glenn Dela Cerna gives a big thumbs up to celebrate the success of his store in Brgy Quezon, Surigao City. Glenn returned home to the Philippines after working for 15-years in Abu Dhabi. He was recognized by DOLE-OWWA during its Balik Bayani Awards 2020.
Another Balik Pinas program pioneer, Glenn Dela Cerna, spent almost 15 years as a construction worker and electrical foreman in Abu Dhabi—to provide for the needs and the welfare of his family back home in Surigao City. The pandemic, however, had him returning home and worrying about the cost of his children's education given the loss of his long-standing livelihood.
A small business, one he can attend to in the immediate orbit of his family, was the route he took—and Glenn emerged as a businessman and wholesaler with the help of Balik Pinas. Glenn describes how helpful Coke has been, supporting him throughout the challenges of launching a business—which, in his case, involves servicing a more remote area.
"Nag start na kami at within 24 hours may na-deliver na sa amin na mga produkto. Mga 30 to 40 cases na agad, at nagbigay din sila ng cooler, stand, at lalagyan para sa products," shares Glenn. [Within 24 hours of starting, we received the delivery of around 30 to 40 cases of Coke products. They also sent over a cooler, stands, and containers for products.]
Glenn and his family take pride in their business, particularly in building it from the ground up. Driven by his immense love for family and his determination to reach a more comfortable future, he shares that he would like to stay in the Philippines and further grow his business.
Coca-Cola standing in solidarity with Filipinos
The common thread winding their way through the stories of Balik Pinas pioneers is the drive to secure a better tomorrow for their family. This reflects Coca-Cola's main goal for the program—to provide opportunities to Filipinos, especially those who have been severely affected by these challenging times, and help restart the local economy by providing individuals the possibility of starting their own livelihood.
According to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), over 400,000 OFWs have been repatriated since January 2021. With the help of DOLE and local government units, Coca-Cola aims to reach more OFWs who are interested in starting their own business through Balik Pinas.
For referrals and more details, contact the Coca-Cola contact center at (02)-8813-COKE (2653). Spread the word to be one with the Company in helping our kababayan.