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Blessing From The Goddess And Transfer To Another World! ~No Thanks, I Don't Need A Special Ability~ - Chapter 43
Chapter 43 Pet Slave &Boss door
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Since it has become afternoon by the time we return to hotel, we decide to go for dungeon exploration from there.
[So, the newcomer slave will join us in two days right nodesu?]
Cynthia came asking.
[Yeah, she's planned to be a rearguard, so she will join you after she practiced walking around and magic. If we have the time, I plan to let her fight lightly in first floor.]
[It would be nice if she's a good girl, right Karen-chan.]
[It would be nice if we can get along, right Sora-chan.]
[We will get along nodesu. She's our junior nanodesu.]
Even while the three are getting worked up on the conversation about the new slave, they slaughter the monsters at the fourth floor.
[The number of Jin-kun's subordinates in the base are increasing rapidly isn't it?]
<<Having plenty of companions is a good thing you know~?>>
[But I'm planning a temporary stop soon. I feel we have too many maids in that base......]
[Well, we don't really need that many people if they are only for managing the base.]
[Yeah, that's right......]
Sera's right. We obviously have a lot of people.
I was aware of it at the time I went to the mansion in Kastal late this morning, but the maids seems to have been doing various things without me knowing about it. It seems they've been made to do their maid duty in shifts and the still remaining members were made to produce medicine like potions and miscellaneous goods. As for the products they make, it seems they've been setting up shop and have put those on sale. We're calling them maids, but they're basically my slaves, so their income becomes mine.
What I'm even more surprised about is that the number of slave believers have increased. Of course, they are registered as my slaves. It seems that they used my blood I've given to them before to purchase new slaves. They were dispatched to various places when I asked what they're made to do. Lusia and the others also knows sightseeing makes up for a large part of my purpose of travelling. So there they said they're sending off subordinates to various places beforehand and are assembling a plan to be able to smoothen the guidance and proceedings to the destination in order to support my travels there. And so they've bought many horse carriages for that sake. Is that why were there several unfamiliar carriages stopped at the mansion......
I didn't know, but Alta gave approval to all of those things. I'd like to ask if it's been doing all this without informing me.
A: They are the work of the stagehand, so I have decided there is no need to expressly report them to you Master. I intended to present them at the necessary moment.
Well, I guess I won't complain if you're doing that for my sake......
And so, ''I will'' refrain from buying slaves, but I didn't forbid Lusia and the others to increase my subordinates as they pleased, so I feel like it will eventually increase little by little. ......It's fine, since my special power will be fine no matter how many subordinates I have after all. ......Better yet, that part will become stronger after all.
[I have decided that from now on, I won't buy slaves that aren't somewhat like Maria, Mio or Sera.]
[That was originally your standard before you picked up Cloud and the others. Regardless of whether I am as special as Maria-san and Mio-san however......]
Don't worry Sera, you're also quite unique.
[That was right, now that you mention it. It's a standard that didn't become really sensical once you understood the fact even not-so-special people will become quite useful if Jin-kun grants them skills.]
[It isn't like that. Lusia's is also unusual and buying the other kids was necessary only as an excuse to buy Cynthia and the others, so......]
While I was making such excuses, the twins suddenly shout.
[Sir, this is too hard! What should we do?]
[Sir, this is too large! What should we do?]
Stone Golem
<Hardening LV2><Dungeon Adaptation LV1>
Note : Humanoid golem made of stone. Has the size of 2 meters. Physical attack does not work well on them.
Oh, is it hard? From the looks of it, stone golem's HP hardly decreased. On the other hand, the sword and spear in the twins have are chipped. Only Cynthia is excited huh. She's striking the golem with her iron rod.
It seems easy to defeat if you can use magic attack rather than physical attack but parties without magic users aren't scarce. Its movements are slow, so for parties without magic users, advancing while avoiding them should be the right choice.
[You should be able to defeat it easily with magic. I won't go as far as say magic profession, but let's grant at least one magic to Sora and Karen as well.]
[We can use magic! Karen-chan!]
[We can finally use it! Sora-chan!]
I gave Sora <Ice Magic>and Karen <Fire Magic>LV 1. This is the beginning of the future story of the S rank adventurer twins called ''Ice spear Sora'' and ''Flame sword Karen''. That was a lie.
I gave an easy explanation about magic to Sora and Karen. Meanwhile, Cynthia keeps drawing the stone golem's attention.
[Cynthia-chan. Step away a little!]
[Cynthia-chan. Step away from there!]
Twins who are preparing to cast magic tell Cynthia to retreat, but it didn't reach her who has become intoxicated.
Their voices don't reach her. It ticked me off a little, so I move behind Cynthia with flash step and decided for a chop in the head.
Cynthia gave a strange cry and faints. She became meek so I hold her in my arms and go back to where I was.
[Now, the nuisance is gone. Use your magic.]
I instruct the twins who looked at the fainted Cynthia and drew away somewhat.
The twins shoot a ball type magic alternately. They alternate with each other because their magic will cancel each others if they attack together. If it was metal then I would have explained that ''metal would weaken by suddenly cooling it when it is hot'' with a triumphant look. It doesn't seem effectiveif it's made of rock. Too bad.
The stone golem that is nearly powerless against magic fell down shortly after. A magic using member is important after all. ......Not to mention the hero of the humans is a meathead.
I decided to scold Cynthia after she wakes up and then continue exploring the dungeon. We manage to complete the 4th floor in that day.
That evening, I decided to ask Sakura to make a new magic. That name is also ''Summon''. As the name suggests, it is a magic that summons the target. And the condition is that it is my own subordinate. Simply said, it can be called magic for the sake of calling back Cynthia.
It's another transfer type magic after ''Portal'' and ''Warp''. However, what it transfers isn't the magic caster themselves unlike the other magic. Because of that, it I can do an emergency escape to my subordinates who are in a critical situation. I can easily let them get away if they ask for it telepathically during times they can't afforod to set a ''Portal''.
With this I can retrieve Cynthia without questions asked, even when she loses her sanity.
[I've also thought of this that time with Alta, but we're gradually losing our privacy aren't we......]
[Ah, Jin-kum, I'm begging you, so please don't summon me when I'm in the bath or toilet.]
[What do you think I am, Sakura......?]
I can't do something perverted that openly as expected. There's a big gap between having the means to do it and actually executing it after all. Just thinking that you can do it at anytime is more than enough. To be a good-for-nothing.
[Jin-sama, I have no problems being summoned whenever and at any situation, so......]
<<Dora too~!>>
Maria or Dora say without even a single hesitation. Well, even if I don't call Maria, she is near me most of the time.
[As for me......, you can call me at any time except when I am eating.]
[......You're fine with during your toilet time?]
[I don't mind.]
Sera declared without any hesitation. Where did her shyness go I wonder. And saying that the only time she don't want me to call her being during dinner is quite Sera-like.
The next day we also confine ourselves in the dungeon the whole day and andvanced two floors. From tomorrow on we will be capturing floor 7 with this. With our current pace we can capture one floor in half a day. By the way, ''Summon'' was used about five times today. Four of them were for Cynthia when she acted recklessly. The remaining one was when Mio tumbled down the stairs when we were moving down to the next floor.
My plan in the beginning was to clear two floors each day. As for the moment we're moving as planned, but from the next floor on the stairs to the next floor becomes scarcer as we go down, so I assume we will start taking more time. It is possible that it'll become impossible to keep this pace forever.
On the other hand, the stairs at the upper floors are numerous, so it should be good to hurry up and clear the upper floors as quick as possible and have some extra time.
[And so, we will be participating in combat as well from tomorrow on.]
Cynthia's team alone is plenty enough to fight with, but if we participate in the fights, the speed in ending the battle will go noticeably faster.
[Of course, you will reduce our status, right?]
[Yeah, like Mio said I will drop our status by a lot. If I don't do so, Cynthia's team will lose their chances to try anything after all.]
[Are you that strong Sir nodesu?]
Now that she mentions it, I've never fought honestly in front of Cynthia's team. Once I fought at the time Cynthia's village was attacked, but Cynthia and the twins weren't around at that time.
[Indeed, master is strong.]
[Even stronger than you, Sera-oneechan?]
Cynthia idolises Sera and calls her Sera-oneechan. I often happen to see Cynthia receiving guidance in fighting style at night, they must've become friends at that time. Also she may have hit off well with fellow combat specialized subordinates.
[Of course. He could knock me down with just the words ''No food''.]
[I'm quite sure that is different from what I meant nodesu......]
Sure, if I say ''No food'' Sera would cry and apologize. I don't know if I can call that strength.
[Well, you will understand more than enough when tomorrow comes.]
[I'm looking forward to it!]
<<It seems that I will be even later until I come back~>>
Once again I get a telepathy from Mira before I go to sleep.
<<What's wrong this time? Having difficulty in the burial of the villagers?>>
<<No~, I had the cooperation with the knight's order for that and finished it quickly~>>
<<Meaning it's about your village representative work?>>
<<Yes~, I have heard a research group was dispatched from the capital city~>>
<<Oh, I heard they gathered a research group in a rather amazing force.>>
Elinsia also mentioned that. That the merchants who are wide awake to their interests are also heading there or something. It really seems to be a valuable discovery.
<<Yees, it seems like I ended up having to be present in the investigation as well~>>
<<Are you really necessary for that Mira?>>
<<I don't know~ It's just that~, it is hard to refuse in this kind of situation~, so I reluctantly accepted it~. Saying that after a crowd of people helped me with burying the dead~, is unfair~>>
<<That's also something......>>
It is true that would be hard to refuse in a situation where you were helped in burying the dead with a crowd of people. Yep, debts really aren't something you should make carelessly.
<<That's why~, I still won't be returning for a while~>>
<<It will take close to ten day by carriage from the capital city. So it'll be at least after that until you will come back......>>
<<Again and again I have no excuses~......>>
<<Don't worry about that. Whatever your reasons or situation, If you resolve to do it once, thentake responsibility and carry it out properly until the end.>>
<<Of course I will~ I will at least be the village representative until some suitable person takes over~>>
After talking this much, she she cuts off our telepathic communication. Mira might surprisingly suit a representative position. She may be grieving that she couldn't return, but she didn't complain about the work itself after all.
However, Mira has become a vampire, she will age slowly and also have long life span. She can't possibly continue staying at the same place. ......If MIra wishes for it, then I ought to look for a means to safely become human again.
Next day, we dived into the dungeon since morning. This noon will be the promised two days, the event where the new member will join us.
One or two members of the main party will participate in battle, Cynthia and the twins will become the fixed members.
I greatly dropped the status of the main party, but we can still afford quite a lot of leeway. Concretely, it's enough to take down the Stone golem, to whom physical attacks does not work well against, with one punch. If I use Spirit Sword - Incomplete then I can cut them like a bar of sweet potato paste. ''Does not work well'' is completely different from ''Does not work'' after all.
[Sir......, is it really true that this isn't being serious nanodesu?]
When I bisect stone golem with one strike, Cynthia asked.
[Yeah, right now I'm restraining my offensive abilities to at most 1%.]
[So that means that there is more than hundred times difference in offensive abilities compared to me, who couldn't even defeat a stone golem nanodesu......]
Cynthia downheartedly drops her shoulder.
[Cynthia-chan, you can't compare yourself with Master, you know? That person can call Heroes small insects after all.]
[Small insects......]
Mio who is fighting together consoles Cynthia while letting her arrows hit the enemies. Or she's calling me a monster. Well, I won't deny it though.
We went exploring until noon and safely cleared the eighth floor. We came to be able to clear two floors in half a day with just us joining in. We would've continued a little longer if we put our minds to it, but suddenly letting the newly joined member fight the floor with a boss is pitiful, so I leave this for later.
Noon has come and we return to our base in Kastal.
[I heard they were pet slaves so I considered that it would be fine if around half of them are remaining, but they seem to have unexpected determination so all of them have followed through the combat training until the end.]
Hearing Lusia's report, I was a little surprised. The girls lining up in front of me showed an accomplished look.
[Perhaps, putting out a good meal during combat training and the threat of being dropped to the floor of a maid must have a lot of influence too.]
I'm not being boastful, but the cooking in my mansion is outrageously good. The cooking maid holding cooking skill had carefully put together the Earth's cuisine passed down by Mio, so that too is natural. As far as it goes, Mio's cooking skill is the highest, but Mio can't cook for them forever, many people being many people.
I'm digressing, but Kastal's queen Sakuya often comes eating too. She comes eating really often. Apparently the food here is tastes four times as good as the cooking in the castle according to her. It is awfully specific, but Sakuya, who should have been eating the finest quisine in the castle, said that, so it must be considerable. The royal chefs may cry.
Sometimes they're relied on by Sakuya to instruct the royal chefs and requested to treat nobles and guests with food. And then there's also the matter where they're being scouted by those guests and the like, but Sakuya personally refused them, so it reflects their high treatment. The royal chefs can truly cry.
If they could eat such meal of a purveyor to the royal family, then it is naturally something for them to do their best in combat training for. It's because no matter how much you call them pet slaves, they must've never eaten something this good.
Their skin have become glossier than the last time I saw them...... Yep, the originally cute children have become even cuter.
[Well then, which kid should I take......?]
As I say so, the slave girls are holding their breath. Does this mean, they want to go or not?
A : Both are correct. I will mark them.
It says and attached a speech balloon that says ''wants to go'' or ''does not want to go'' on the map above the icons. It's an unexpected new feature. Six of them are in a state of ''wanting to go'' and the remaining four are in a state of ''not wanting to go''. I don't plan on expressly take the girl along who ''doesn't want to go'', so I select one from the kids who wants to go.
The first candidate is in the ''I want to go'' group. I check their statuses. All of them have floored up and they more or less developed skillpoints as well. The first candidate is also the fastest in terms of growth rate. Well, there's no show of any eccentric behavior, so I guess it's decided with this girl.
I'll let the other ''I want to go'' girls continue their combat and maid training for a while. One of these days I plan to make an explorer group in Estia Kingdom like Cloud and the others in Kastal Queendom. At that time, I plan to have Cynthia's group become the core of the team, but there's no reason not to quickly raise members beside them after all.
[Then, let's take this kid with me.]
[I understand. Kate, remember to work hard in order to not cause trouble for your master.]
<<Yes, Sir. I look forward to working with you from now on.>>
Kate, the extraordinarily beautiful girl greets me while bowing.
Well then, let's look over her important status.
Name: Kate
Gender: Female
Age: 12
Race: Half-elf
Skill: <Body Reinforcement LV2><Fire Magic LV1><Water Magic LV1><Wind Magic LV1><Earth Magic LV1><Recovery Magic LV1><Spatial Cognition LV5><Calculation LV5><Dungeon Adaptation LV1>
Title: Jin's slave, Blind
The new subordinate Kate is innately blind and isn't able to talk either. It's a little cruel to say in exchange, but she's given far too strong abilities.
Those strong abilities.
Those skills are <Spatial Cognition>and <Calculation>. As you can see, they are effective skills when it comes to using magic. Naturally, with her unable to see or talk, it amounts to nothing though.
She has long green hair and her appearance is top class, even among the pet slaves. Well, it's that. They're people where not being able to see and not being able to talk doesn't bother her loving part, as long as her appearance is good . Of course, she's a half-elf so continuing to be admired with a young figure from her lifespan longer than humans must also give a high score.
Although she has high intelligence, she had no means to express it and she honestly didn't even receive education in the first place. Even so, she understand languages due to her outstanding intelligence. By the way, I've only given her <Water Magic>. She went as far as acquiring other attribute magics in the few days through hard work. She is the unexpected genius.
I think my prediction is easy, but I've given them the power to inspect the map and status by using <Engage Link>and also made sure they can use telepathy. Of course, during that day I bought them.
Telepathy can even be used by people who can't speak as long as they have a general idea of languages. You can see it with Dora's case.
Map is a strange subject, but you can see it even if you close your eyes. In other words it means that you can use it even when you can't see. Furthermore, I didn't know about this, but what we're using now seems to be a simplified map. In truth it's not a bird's eye view, but a fully detailed 3D map. Since ordinary humans can't process that sort of information with their brain, so they get a simplified version. By the way, Alta can use the detailed map.
And also Kate can use the detailed map too. Surprisingly, her <Spatial cognition>and map seems to have good synergy and if she reaches a confined space, then it can show a processing power that at worst rivals Alta.
I explained those things to everyone. By the way, only the party members are gathered.
[But, despite having done nothing until now, can you suddenly do something like fighting?]
Sakura questions Kate. Well, telling pet slaves to fight is pretty much unreasonable in the first place though......
<<I'm fine. I have properly followed the combat training from the head maid and I have also experienced actual subjugation of monsters around Kastal.>>
[You will be participating as a magic focused member, but how are you on that aspect?]
<<Yes, Sir. I have done enough training in that part as well, so there will be no problems using LV1 ball, bullet and wall type spells. Also about LV2 and higher magic;I cannot use it, however preparation of their lessons has been arranged.>>
[Why are you overflowing with so much motivations?]
It's not unreasonable for Mio to force a smile. I've asked Lusia, but it looks like Kate continued training and studying without sparing any time for sleep. It seems she wanted to follow me by any means.
By the way, Lusia said she also carried out training in hand to hand combat as is. It seems she completed even that with high marks. Because of that, it is clear she could win without eyesight if she can manage to use 100% of the Map shown in 3D. Perhaps, it is impossible even for me. Or more accurately it's impossible without Alta.
<<That is of course, in order to be useful for master! As a prized slave, Meeting Sir when I was about to resign myself to idle away on the bed as a pet slave can be called nothing but a miracle!>>
Kate spread her hands and seems like she is singing exessively in deep emotions. She can't sing though. Ah, I'll add just in case, ''Revive'' doesn't work. Things that one can't do since birth doesn't seem to be treated as ''Damage''.
In short, you could say Kate is a believer who is born for the first time with just my special power. ......Yeah, that's right. Her icon is yellow. It changed as soon as I taught her about <System window>and Alta. Really quick you know.
[I think there's no problem in considering Kate to be battle-ready. We will start from floor 9 suddenly, but will you be fine with that?]
<<I believe it will be fine. Even if I predict from the information I received from Alta-sama about the monsters inhabiting floor 8, it should be fine as long as the monsters don't suddenly become very strong>>
That's an amazing confidence she has there. Well, if you say that much, then how about you show me that power of yours.
And with that, we did the explorer and adventurer registration, then dive straight in the dungeon. Of course, we start with floor 9 right away.
......Let's me start with the conclusion. Because we let Kate fight, we the main party didn't even have to participate in the fight at all.
She says and the fireball she released struck the lesser minotaur's leg. The minotaur who received the impact on its legs exactly when it tried to take a step forward, loses his balance and Karen's spear which was set up exactly right, pierced it as if it was sucked in. Because of that, the lesser minotauor's HP became almost exactly 0.
If I have to describe her way of fighting in single phrase, then it would be ''Maximum Efficiency''. Should I call it refined tactics that has no useless bits in it? Rather than giving damage, her way of using magic is specialized in breaking the enemies' stances and supporting the vanguard's movements. And she aims for just kills as if saying overkill is useless. And that too is in a manner that is controlled in order to make it a just kill not by her own attack, but by her allies' attacks.
<<Cynthia-san! Please swing your weapon to your right like that!>>
Cynthia swings her iron rod to her right like she was told. The ice bullet fired by Kate impacted there. The fragments of ice bullets of ice bullets broken and scattered made a direct hit to the base of the maze bat's wings who tried to attack Cynthia from behind. It also struck a nearby dungeon goblin in the eye.
She greatly chipped off the fighting power of two monsters with only one magic. The other members took that opportunity to give them the finishing blow without delay.
[......Honestly, I didn't expect her to be this good.]
Yep, I didn't expect at all either.
[As for me, it is impossible to be that good...... Even though I'm a magic user like her......]
Sakura turned depressed. Well, that is normally impossible, okay.
[I wonder if that girl can already be on her own.]
<<No, because my forte is only group battles in enclosed spaces. I believe that if I were to fight outside, there would be lot interference and my efficiency will drop.>>
She answers honestly to Mio's murmurs. Of course, during a fight.
By the way, close-quarter group combat is simply said a dungeon isn't it? In short, she is specialized in dungeons.
Battle finishes shortly after.
[Amazing, Kate. I never thought you could fight that well.]
<<I am honored to receive your praises Sir.>>
Kate bows gracefully. But,her long ears that are characteristic to half elves are twitching and aren't hiding her excitement.
[Let's subjugate 10th floor's boss in this pace by today.]
<<Please leave it to us.>>
Kate says full of confidence. I plan on participating at least in the boss fight though, just in case......
We arrive in front of boss room on the 10th floor from the 9th floor in two hours.
Us main members didn't participate in even a single battle during that time, but even if we join the fight, I don't think it would change the time that much.
As we go deeper in floor the monsters that appears also increases. Kate seems to promptly draw up countermeasures even against the new monsters. I heard she received lectures from Alta during her free time. I think perhaps Kate knows about dungeon in even more detail than I do. Is that really okay, me?
<Mimicry LV1><Bite LV1><Dungeon Adaptation LV1>
Note : A monster that mimicked a treasure chest. Distinction possible by throwing a stone at it.
Dungeon Goblin Swordsman
<Body Reinforcement LV1><Sword Mastery LV1><Blunt Mastery LV1><Dungeon Adaptation LV1>
Note : Goblin swordsman (For dungeon). Same strength as those outside.
Dungeon Goblin Sorcerer
<Fire Magic LV1><Ice Magic LV1><Dungeon Adaptation LV1>or
<Water Magic LV1><Lightning Magic LV1><Dungeon Adaptation LV1>or
<Wind Magic LV1><Earth Magic LV1><Dungeon Adaptation LV1>
Note : Goblin sorcerer (For dungeon). Same strength as those outside. Whichever shows up is random.
Dungeon Orc
<Body Reinforcement LV2><Blunt Mastery LV1><Breeding LV1><Dungeon Adaptation LV1>
Note : Humanoid monster type (For Dungeon). Slightly weaker than those outside.
The dungeon is vast and if you go to a distant place then there would be many other varieties of monsters, but there will be no end to it if I list them all, so I decide to list those we had direct combat with.
The door to the boss room is a double door made of a sturdy looking metal (I won't say it's indestructable).
I'm completely satisfied with the appearance that without a doubt says boss room. I wonder if what's on the door is called a relief. 10 letters and minotaur was carved there. Letter-like things are written beside them. Is it showing the boss monster that's inside? Oh, yeah, that seems right. There's a mino inside. It is quite generous.
[Some of you may be looking, but there is minotaur inside. This one is the big one of the lesser minotaurs that appeared before. Of course, it should be stronger.]
<<I have also confirmed it. I believe we alone are enough to defeat it. Your group doesn't have to participate, Sir. Would it be unacceptable to leave it to us I wonder?>>
It looks like Kate judge they can afford it.
A : Kate's judgment is correct. Even if master fights lightly, the can afford further more.
[......Understood. Truth is, I planned to participate in the fight, but this is a rare opportunity. Show how you defeat it with just the newcomer group!]
<<Yes Sir. As you command.>>
[I will do my best nodesu!]
[[Yes, sir!]]
By the way, there are plenty of stairs leading from the 10th floor to the 11th floor, but not all of them have a boss. Of course, there are the stairs without bosses. It's just that even if we go down those stairs, it will be a dead end on the next floor. You could at least try your abilities against monsters a little ahead, but you won't be able to clear the 10th floor.
Also, when a boss is defeated, it won't respawn for a while. Its cycle is about one day. If you're very unlucky, you won't find any empty boss room. I can't quite say that the 10th floor boss rooms aren't empty but there are almost 0% chances for floor 20 and lower.
Sora and Karen respectively push the left and right side of the door open. I can picture them as twins in these moments right? Mh, I actually quite like twin characters. In a way they greatly resemble each other, but the part that appears slightly different is lovely.
Cynthia is waiting impatiently for the slowly opening door, saying ''Is it open yet, is it open yet?''.
<<Cynthia-san, please calm down.>>
[Ah, okay nanodesu.]
As Cynthia is chided by Kate and calms down a little.
[Come to think of it, the recklessly charging Cynthia is also listening to Kate, isn't she.]
I can stop her movements with ''Stay'' if it's just before the battle begins, but if the battle begins and her excited state goes on, she won't listen to any command before we know about it. However, she is listening to Kate's instructions even in that state.
[Oh, about that nanodesu, but it looks like telepathy would reach me during my reckless charge. It's not like my awareness flew away during my reckless charge nodesu]
[......You should say it earlier.]
Whenever I stop Cynthia, I always use my voice. I never knew I would reach her if I convey it through telepathy.
The twins opened the door while I was thinking about such things. What is lying in wait inside is, of course, a Minotaur.


text:
Lilly Ziepke Nichols was born on March 18, 1938 in Nikipol, Ukraine, and died March 20, 2018, in Seattle, Wash.
Life was extremely difficult in the early years of her childhood. Lilly's family were of German and Ukrainian descent. At the time all Germans in Ukraine were accused as traitors and persecuted. Her family maintained its strong faith in God and Lilly gave her life to Christ at a young age.
As World War II raged, they were forced to leave Ukraine in 1943. Her brother, Victor, was taken by Russian soldiers and the family was sent by the refugee commission to Northern Germany, where they lived for five years in one room of a farmhouse in the village of Westerkoog. Times were hard, but God provided a way for them to immigrate to the United States. They sailed on a freighter in 1950 to Ellis Island in New York. The family boarded a train to Mobridge, to live near her mother's cousin who sponsored them to come to America. They settled in the community where Lilly grew up and graduated from Mobridge High School in 1956.
After high school, Lily went on to nurses training in California, and while there, her friends set her up on a blind date with James (Nick) Nichols who was in the Air Force.
They were married on July 10, 1958. They settled on the West Coast. She returned to school to become a medical records technician. She worked at Kaiser Permanente in the Cancer Registry Department until she retired in 2000.
In her retirement Lilly became the coordinator, beloved grandma, teacher, encourager, and friend for Friends of the Kurds, helping them learn English and settling into a new culture.
She and Nick were members of Shadow Mountain for 41 years where she served as a deaconess, was involved in mentoring women, and in a storytelling ministry for immigrants, teaching them English through traditional storytelling using Biblical narrative.
Lilly was preceded in death by her parents, Paul and Melita Ziepke; brother, Victor; and sister, Elly.
She leaves behind her beloved husband of 59 years, Nick; a sister and brother-in-law, Trudy and Jack Larson; brother-in-law, Bill Nichols; three daughters, Cynthia (Kevin) Cavanaugh, Heidi (Steve) Teeters and Pauline; six grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
Lilly Nichols dies in Seattle
Lilly Ziepke Nichols was born on March 18, 1938 in Nikipol, Ukraine, and died March 20, 2018, in Seattle, Wash.

subset: commoncrawl


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I first heard of this book in the spring of 2014 when a writing mentor of mine, who serves as a book reviewer for the New York Times, lauded it as one of Donna Tartt's greatest works. The book, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2014, took 11 years to write.
As I read, my attention was effortlessly pulled into the downward-spiraling life of its narrator, Theo Decker. Tartt was able to give his voice as much authenticity as if she had been reading his journal pages, presenting his narrative in a harrowing quality reminiscent of Karl Ove's autobiographical series.Read More


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|Duramax 6600 Welcome to the Internet's first Duramax 6600 diesel discussion forum for the LB7, LLY, LBZ, LMM, LML, LGH & L5P RPO code engines. Tips on performance, fuel economy, troubleshooting and more.
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Just to finish up this thread in case anyone finds anything similar, I had some water in the fuel that found a low spot in the fitting at the bottom of the Fitch Fuel Catalyst. I created a perfect inverted trap and once there was enough water to form a plug, it did when it was cold enough. There was about an inch more of an icicle sticking strainght out that I snapped off by accident before I could grab the camera. Fuel filter had a very small amount of water, like a drop or two. This trap was the perfect spot for it to form. Fitch removed and it's ran fine all winter.
I also used Howes Diesel Lubricator which I can definitively say works quite well. It's claim to fame is to bring the water out of suspension in fuel into tiny drops that can settle out and be removed at the fuel water separator. I created a better trap for them here so they never made it to the drain at the bottom of the filter. I believe Power Service attacks water differently and keep it dissolved/absorbed in fuel and it goes through the pumps and injectors and gets burned and you never come across any water anywhere when you use it. I'll leave it to others to offer opinions if that trace amount of water further wears injectors/fuel pumps. I like Howe's, I thought it may have increased MPG slightly, but was going mostly for anti-gel. And it definitely removed water from fuel, unfortunately I collected that water in a lousy spot.
Thanks for the help back then
Thanks for the update! It's always good to hear of experiences with products; adds to all of our knowledge.
'85 Mercedes Benz 300D, for when I want to be stately.
'05 Mercedes E320 CDI, for when I want to be even statelier.
'05 Chevy K2500 ext cab long box DMax: Everything my '03 was and so much more!
There's no point being a pessimist - it wouldn't work anyway.
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A review of the top North Texas Wedding VenuesRead More
Helpful tips to help your wedding invitations stand out amongst and impress your wedding guests.Read More
Southern Sunday Backyard BBQRead More
Western Style Rehearsal DinnerRead More
R Love Floral was an easy choice for this week's Vendor Highlight Series, and it is not hard to see why! R Love was started in 2010 by Raquel and has blossomed (excuse the flower pun) ever since. Raquel has always had a passion for flowers and starting her own business, even designing flower arrangements from her mother's garden when she was younger. She has grown R Love into the amazingly unique and stylish business it is now! Take a lookRead More
Tareka Lofton of Loft22 Cakes has been designing colorful and unique cakes since 2013, in addition to opening a brand new storefront in Fort Worth this year. She has created an urban laid-back neighborhood bakery where anyone can pop in and enjoy some of her amazing creationsRead More
Jessica Blass, the amazing girl boss behind Jessica Gold Photography, has been photographing weddings for the past five years and is also one of my favorite photographers to work with! Not only does Jessica have an amazing eye for capturing the perfect lighting in all your special moments, but she is exactly the kind of fun and outgoing person you want beside you throughout your big day!Read More


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Absolute pleasure to be invited to this residency, exhibition, lecture and collaborative working space set up by Wim Wauman in a Castle in Waasmunster, green green Belgium. The project morphed from being a celebration of female arts and crafts makers / muses with him at the helm as Blue Beard to a working unit of craftspeople, with talks and tours organised exploring local history and Bauhaus ethos. Together we worked towards expanding the heraldic crest of Waasmunster - a mermaid holding a turnip - via many tangential connections found in The Wasteland / Waasland, hyperborea - land of eternal Spring and immortality, flat earth theory, colour blue, trees of heaven for presentation as a parade, featuring performance and installations on May 26th.
As part of the residency, I gave an introduction to my work as The Floral Pilgrim to students at The Academie of Waasmunster and invited class to create their own floral bouquet in a small cone to befit the Monster of Waasmunster, replacing the turnip with something more delectable.
Props for the Parade //
At the Academy I worked with glass sculptor Veerle Verschooren and tattoo artist / sculptor Cardon Lander; to create an illusion of a water source from one section of the groups communal table, with the idea of adding floral touches as an alternative well dressing. The small brown pots, designed to display grass blades are part of it. The full installation will only be revealed after the 26th ;)
The object on the right is a pipe, one of 8 made, hoping to plug in a gap at the Local Museum that has an extensive Happy Smokers display rack but a comparatively limited selection of pipes. These will then form part of an installation on a picnic blanket embroidered with group poem and Waasmonsters created by Ilse Van Roy. One pipe will hang on a walkingstick designated for Wim, designed and conceived of by Warre Mulder and Chantal van Rijt.


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A blowing agent is a substance which is capable of producing a cellular structure via a foaming process in a variety of materials that undergo hardening or phase transition, such as polymers, plastics, and metals. They are typically applied when the blown material is in a liquid stage. The cellular structure in a matrix reduces density, increasing thermal and acoustic insulation, while increasing relative stiffness of the original polymer.
Blowing agents (also known as 'pneumatogens') or related mechanisms to create holes in a matrix producing cellular materials, have been classified as follows: Physical blowing agents e.g. CFCs (however, these are ozone depletents, banned by Montreal Protocol of 1987), HCFCs (replaced CFCs, but are still ozone depletents, therefore being phased out), hydrocarbons (e.g. pentane, isopentane, cyclopentane), liquid CO2. The bubble/foam-making process is reversible and endothermic, i.e. it needs heat (e.g. from a melt process or the chemical exotherm due to cross-linking), to volatile a liquid blowing agent. However, on cooling the blowing agent will condense, i.e. a reversible process.
Chemical blowing agents e.g. isocyanate and water (for PUs), azo-, hydrazine and other nitrogen-based materials (for thermoplastic and elastomeric foams), sodium bicarbonate (aka baking powder, used in thermoplastic foams). Here gaseous products and other by-products are formed by a chemical reaction(s), promoted by process or a reacting polymer's exothermic heat. Since the blowing reaction occurs forming low molecular weight compounds acting as the blowing gas, additional exothermic heat is also released. Powdered titanium hydride is used as a foaming agent in the production of metal foams, as it decomposes to form titanium and hydrogen gas at elevated temperatures. Zirconium(II) hydride is used for the same purpose. Once formed the low molecular weight compounds will never revert back to the original blowing agent(s), i.e. the reaction is irreversible.
Mixed physical/chemical blowing agents — e.g. used to produce flexible PU foams with very low densities. Here both the chemical and physical blowing are used in tandem, to balance each other out with respect to thermal energy released/absorbed, so minimizing temperature rise. Otherwise excessive exothermic heat because of high loading of a physical blowing agent can cause thermal degradation of a developing thermoset or polyurethane material. For instance, to avoid this in polyurethane systems isocyanate and water (which react to form carbon dioxide) are used in combination with liquid carbon dioxide (which boils to give gaseous form) in the production of very low density flexible PU foams for mattresses.
Mechanically made foams and froths, involves methods of introducing bubbles into liquid polymerisable matrices (e.g. an unvulcanised elastomer in the form of a liquid latex). Methods include whisking-in air or other gases or low boiling volatile liquids in low viscosity lattices, or the injection of a gas into an extruder barrel or a die, or into injection molding barrels or nozzles and allowing the shear/mix action of the screw to disperse the gas uniformly to form very fine bubbles or a solution of gas in the melt. When the melt is molded or extruded and the part is at atmospheric pressure, the gas comes out of solution expanding the polymer melt immediately before solidification. Frothing (akin to beating egg whites making a meringue), is also used to stabilize foamed liquid reactants, e.g. to prevent slumping occurring on vertical walls before cure – (i.e. avoiding foam collapse and sliding down a vertical face due to gravity).
Soluble fillers, e.g. solid sodium chloride crystals mixed into a liquid urethane system, which is then shaped into a solid polymer part, the sodium chloride is later washed out by immersing the solid molded part in water for some time, to leave small inter-connected holes in relatively high density polymer products, (e.g. Porvair synthetic leather materials for shoe uppers).
Hollow spheres and porous particles (e.g. glass shells/spheres, epoxide shells, PVDC shells, fly ash, vermiculite, other reticulated materials) are mixed and dispersed in the liquid reactants, which are then shaped into a solid polymer part containing a network of voids.
Famous quotes containing the words agent and/or blowing:
"The childless experts on child raising also bring tears of laughter to my eyes when they say, I love children because theyre so honest. There is not an agent in the CIA or the KGB who knows how to conceal the theft of food, how to fake being asleep, or how to forge a parents signature like a child."
—Bill Cosby (20th century)
"But the word Miracle, as pronounced by Christian churches, gives a false impression; it is Monster. It is not one with the blowing clover and falling rain."
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)


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Below are a few of the images..
So whilst the day was not snowy the impact of the snow a week before offered its own beauty including the leaves and feather caught in ice on stone.
Beautiful! You and Fiona have inspired me to visit NY more often. In fact, when John takes the girls skiing each Saturday in January and Februart, guess where I plan to be. Happy wandering!ReplyDelete
I love the frozen times of winter... brings things to their essence. Love the captured leaf :)ReplyDelete
b...the last few pictures capture the essence of winter beautifully...much love light and blessings~ReplyDelete


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Beacon Hill
Beacon Hill is one of the oldest and smallest Boston neighborhoods, approximately one mile square, adjacent to the Public Garden and Boston Common on the South; Cambridge Street and the Massachusetts General Medical Complex on the North; Storrow Drive and the Charles River on the West as well as MIT and Cambridge's Kendall Square; and the Midtown and Financial Districts on the East. It is known for its many historic rowhouses of the Federal, Greek Revival and Victorian era, decorative iron work, brick sidewalks, perpetually-burning gas lights, window boxes, and picturesque streets. The architecture is protected by restrictive regulations that prohibit changes to any visible part of a structure without the approval of an architectural commission. Beacon Hill contains a South Slope which includes Mount Vernon, Chestnut, picturesque Acorn and Beacon Streets and Louisburg Square; a North Slope, just a few short blocks away, near the Massachusetts General Hospital, Suffolk University, Quincy Marketplace, and the financial district; and the Flat of the Hill which includes Charles Street. Charles Street is Beacon Hill's main retail street with upscale boutiques, antique shops, and restaurants. The Massachusetts State House is at the top of the Hill overlooking Boston Common. Few properties include parking and many residents utilize area rental garages and the T- Boston's transit system. The West End,sometimes referred to as the Bullfinch Triangle, is a small neighborhood tucked behind Beacon Hill between Cambridge Street and the North End/North Station. The Massachusetts General Hospital and the New England Eye and Ear Infirmary are located in this area. Several 1970's mid-rise and high-rise residential developments in this neighborhood include Whittier Place, West End Place, Hawthorne Place, and a new development, Emerson Place. Many of these developments are located in the 48 acre complex known as Charles River Park. Residents can easily access the MBTA Red Line and are fortunate to have the Charles River walking and biking path in their "backyard."


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|8.2.9 c) Implementation Documents: SW Module (ImplD)
Implementierungsdokumente - Modul
Such a product exists for each Module (of each Segment in the System).
It is possible to combine several Implementation Documents into one document, for example for a SW Unit.
The program header contains the following information:
|GDPA Online Last Updated 01.Jan.2002 Updated by Webmaster Last Revised 01.Jan.2002 Revised by Webmaster


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Judgy McJudgerson
"Eric! Leave the room"
(Note: The above should be pronounced in ringing tones with rolling of the R's accompanied by a scandalized expression for full effect - see example A).
Somewhere within my extended family there is some poor, poor man called Eric. All I ever heard about him was that if there was any unfortunate noises or smells during dinner, those words were spoken. I have no further knowledge of him whatsoever. For all I know, he could have gone on to do amazingly great things, but THAT is what he is immortalized for in my family. Sorry Eric.
We all have our scapegoats though, don't we? I blame everything on my ADD or post-chemotherapy brain damage - before that it was "mum-brain". I do enjoy hearing a really good excuse. Children are particularly good at it. I recently heard someone small say "I only didn't win because I didn't finish first". Brilliant!
I'm giving up my excuses for Lent, and with it, comparisons. Personally, I find the two go hand in hand. When I'm bemoaning the fact that I'm not doing a job very well, I generally look at my neighbor and ask myself why I can't be more like them? They have a clean house, a job and children. They seem to manage to cook without setting off the smoke detector and don't have an ever-present spot on their shirt where they've frantically tried to scrub off some stain before rushing from the house in the morning.
My mother was the same – she always regretted not being the sort of mum who would pile the four kids in the wood-paneled station wagon and whisk us off to museums and historical sites while packing hummus and carrot sticks for lunch. But for me – every time I think of my mum (which is every time I see myself in the mirror since I'm slowly morphing into her – luckily she's beautiful – and she will read this...) anyway, when I think of mum I THANK GOD she was not like that. I think I would have shriveled up and died! I'm quite sure my siblings would too. That environment would not have suited us. At all. We don't do well with close shepherding and every one of us, when presented with a new game, would immediately refuse to play it if the word "educational" was on the box no matter how much "fun" was supposedly involved. Yes, I do realize in some respects we probably shot ourselves in the foot somewhat, but it's the way we're made.
So, during Lent I will neither blame my lack of perfection on anything nor compare my achievements to anyone else's. Judgy McJudgerson is taking a Lenten holiday.
"For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.…" Psalm 139:13


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Go world class with the ultimate author's website!
Our Insider's Guide ebook walks you through everything you need to build and operate an author website. Learn how to create meaningful connections between users and your author brand!
Register to participate! Use our outstanding discussion groups to get deep knowlege about how to build your book and your business, from fellow writers, service providers, marketers, media and more.
5 replies and 4 participants in topic. Last update: 7 months ago.
This question comes up often in my writing workshops. What's the current wisdom? I have one student who has written seven novels and wants to find a publisher. He says he doesn't want to go down the self-publishing road because he thinks it will harm his chances. What should I tell him?
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Facebook has launched a new WhatsApp Business application programming interface designed to help businesses communicate with consumers via the Facebook-owned WhatsApp messaging app. Along with the new WhatsApp Business API, Facebook advertisers will soon have access to ads on Facebook that click to WhatsApp, automatically opening a pre-filled WhatsApp chat between the user and business.
WhatsApp Business API
The WhatsApp Business API will allow businesses to send end-to-end encrypted messages to people who start a chat with the company via the app and to message people who have requested information. Businesses will be able to customize notifications that can be sent with "relevant, non-promotional" content (e.g., shipping confirmations, appointment reminders or event tickets).
"When someone messages your business, you can also use the WhatsApp Business API to respond to questions or comments for free within 24 hours," writes Facebook on its Business blog.
A WhatsApp spokesperson sent the following explanation to help clarify the charges for messages sent via the Business API:
WhatsApp will charge businesses to send messages such as a boarding pass or delivery confirmation. When a customer reaches out to a business with a question such as how do they book their travel or when their order will be delivered, the business will be able to respond for free within 24 hours. If/when the customer responds, that restarts a 24-hour cycle. WhatsApp will charge for messages sent by the business outside of the 24-hour window.
According to the spokesperson, there is a fixed rate per country for messages delivered via WhatsApp and these prices vary significantly per country: "In general, the range for these messages [is] roughly half of $0.01 to $0.09 per message delivered."
An announcement on the WhatsApp blog covering the new API says that users will be able to block any business and have full control over the messages they receive. It also reported WhatsApp is currently working with a select number of companies that specialize in managing customer communications to bring the API to more businesses over a period of time. Facebook's announcement reported more than 90 large businesses have had access to the WhatsApp Business API for months now, including Uber, Singapore Airlines and the Indonesian e-commerce company, Sales Stock.
This is something that we will be keeping an eye on due to the popularity of these two platforms. We are yet to perform any testing on this but it certainly is another way of reaching out to clients. Thanks for reading.


text: You see a tiny spark in a room full of darkness? Don't be fooled, that's a trick. Only certain people have the ability or rather the curse to find that spark. Once you enter the room, the darkness becomes a monster that feeds on your light while the spark is a mirage. You go deeper and deeper, until one day, you find that the spark has diminished. In the end, all that is left is your fading glow in the darkness. The hardest part then is to drag yourself out of that room and close the door with all the strength you have left in you.


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printing with sunshine
Plenty of Summer sun calls for sun painting/printing. I need a bit of green and purple for an upcoming nature themed project, so utilized yesterday's bright shining afternoon.
Work fast when it's hot out. The prints will have sharpest edges when resist objects are placed while the fabric is still wet with paint. I've had the craft foam squares for years and save and reuse them. Same with the string.
I basically follow the sun painting instructions HERE, which include a link to the Setacolor Transparent Fabric Paints I use.
I'll be posting more photos soon of what these fabrics become.
This is my first blog post entirely by mobile phone. Bear with me while I sort out how all this works, but so far so pleased with the ease of it all.


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MacBook Pro 15" (Non-Unibody) Hard Drive Enclosures
Choose your model of MacBook Pro 15" (Non-Unibody):
Parts that work with MacBook Pro 15" (Non-Unibody):
Silicone 2.5" Hard Drive Enclosure with USB 2.0 Cable
Turn any SATA 2.5" laptop hard drive into an external storage drive with this part.
9.5 mm PATA Optical Bay SATA Hard Drive Enclosure
Increase the storage space in your laptop by replacing the optical drive with a second SATA hard drive or SSD.
Device Info
The MacBook Pro 15" replaced the Aluminum 15" and features Intel support and an integrated iSight camera.
All MacBook Pro 15" Non-Unibody models use PC2-5300 RAM. Two RAM slots means an easy memory upgrade! If storage is an issue, any 9.5mm SATA hard drive will expand your boundaries.
Heat has always been an issue for MacBook Pros. It's possible that a bad thermal sensor or fan will prevent the machine from booting.
Once you've bought your parts and tools, check out iFixit's MacBook Pro 15" Non-Unibody repair guides for step-by-step instructions on how to make the fix.


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Today is a day much like any other
To everyone else that is.
For me today has much potential for joy
But I must first navigate through the emotional baggage attached to its creation.
I awake feeling saddened, disappointed and as I always do on this day…missing something.
A love that will never come, a mother who left me behind and the worthiness I feel on any other day.
And so I spiral
Just for a moment
Holding the hand of Reznor
As I recall all that could have been
And something I will never have.
Feeling quite the wretched
But I do not want this.
And so once I hit the bottom,
I will slowly wash it all away.


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Can't believe I've actually made it to a Show and Tell Tuesday! I think the last time I managed to post on Randi's blog was about a year ago (sigh).
Anyways, here's a sneak at a little bit of sewing I'm doing at the moment. Sorry, the photos aren't great - taken in a hurry (because I can't actually believe I have time to write a post!) and in too bright sunshine <places hand dramatically on forehead>.
My favourite...


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The Washington Post may have put the story on page one. Drudge may have hyped it in gajillion-point type. But, really, I don't see why people are making such a fuss over the fact that the U.S. has been flying unmanned spy planes over Iran.After all, we found out last month that American troops have been running covert raids on Iranian soil, to gather intelligence on Tehran's nuclear program. And there's been word for weeks that American jets of some kind have been buzzing through Iranian airspace, testing the Mullah's early-warning systems. So it's only natural, these days, to have drones support these efforts.There was one interesting part of that story, though: that "the drones were first spotted by dozens of Iranian civilians and set off a national newspaper frenzy in late December over whether the country was being visited by UFOs."Now, if the Pentagon had sent flying saucers to Iran, that would have been some news.THERE'S MORE: Fox News is trumpeting a headline that the "Pentagon Denies Flying Drones Over Iran." But inside the body of the article, nothing of the sort takes place."Senior Defense Department officials said Monday they have no knowledge of any U.S. drone flights over Iran," according to Fox, "and U.S. intelligence officials would not comment on any such flights."Maybe Fox had its greenest rookies reporting this story. But having "no knowledge" of something is a classic non-denial denial -- a cover-your-ass move, not a straight answer. And any reporter with more than a month of experience would know the difference.
Related TopicsDefenseTech
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Students get a Fair Shot in NC
This past Friday, North Carolina's Attorney General reversed an earlier decision, stating that there was no state law barring undocumented students from attending community colleges in the state's system.
The admission of students will be left to the board of the community college system to decide.
"We have a great belief in our foundation of open-door policies," Scott Ralls, president of the Community College System said. "But we believe that this is an important decision that doesn't need to be made overnight."
An Op-Ed in NC's News and Observer today spoke out in support of the AG's decision.
At this point, contrary to what some public officeholders would have people believe, it's simply unrealistic to think that 12-14 million immigrants thought to be in the country illegally could be deported en masse.
Facing that reality against political pressure is something that education officials ought to do, in the best interest of the state. Students who happen to be illegal immigrants and want to enroll in community colleges would not be stealing positions from anybody. They would not be creating a burden on the system. They would be seeking to gain skills, well-taught, that could serve them well wherever they chose to live -- and that might be the United States, should a coherent and reasonable immigration policy be adopted one day.
Its encouraging to hear voices of reason coming from my home state. Especially in light of the recent death threats aimed at Latino leaders.
A pair of the state's most prominent advocates, Andrea Bazán and Tony Asion, say that for the past several months, each time they have spoken publicly, they have gotten a raft of profanity-laced messages, some of them exhorting them to return to their home countries and others denigrating Hispanics. Several legislators say they have also gotten messages recently that cross the line into racism, and one got a menacing voice mail.
The Attorney General's decision is a step in the right direction, but more must be done to combat the hate that is driving the anti-immigrant push in states like North Carolina.


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Rating: NNNN
The Tucson twosome of Joey Burns and John Convertino build on the spaghetti western noir concept of the Black Light breakthrough by expanding their ensemble to dig deeper into desert border-town weirdness. The mariachi textures of the past have now become a dominant feature, while the added instrumental firepower leads to more elaborate group improvisations and greater rewards. Calexico heat up the Horseshoe Sunday (June 4) with Macha.


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© 2018 Not Socks Ltd. Your Go-to Gift Gurus |
Searching for a fun, thoughtful and delicious pressie for someone special this Christmas?
This beautifully presented and New Zealand-made Christmas Puddings Christmas Cracker is just the ticket, boasting four divine mini Christmas pudding treats, packed inside a festive and chic cracker box, complete with ribbons.
This delectable gift is so stylishly packaged, you won't even need to wrap it.
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- Urgent: Next day
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- Brand: TSGCC


text:
The greeting was in his desk, the center drawer: a piece of fish-stained cardboard with a clumsily drawn stick figure. It had a circular head and an x for each eye. A fat knife was separating the head from its stick body. The speech balloon said, "We're on to you."
His chair wobbled insecurely beneath him.
Emil inhaled slowly, evenly. He sat in the center of the large, stale-smelling office, between two squared columns, and on the far wall two high, open windows did nothing to freshen the air. His tight suit constricted him as he stared above the others' heads at the clock on the far, yellow wall. It was the dirty, pale yellow of Austro-Hungarian demise. He had only been here forty-five minutes.
It was Monday, the twenty-third of August, 1948. 9:17 am. He still had a whole day to go.
He couldn't match names to their faces yet, but why should that matter? Along the walls, three of the four homicide inspectors grinned at their wide, steel desks, suppressing laughter. They were all to blame. Through the windows, street noises spilled into the hot room: clopping hooves, shouts, the occasional motorcar.
His grandmother had starched his suit into a hard crust to celebrate his first day in the People's Militia. He wanted to run his finger between his collar and neck, but knew how it would look.
His exhale finally came.
Only the fourth inspector wasn't grinning: the stout one at the corner desk with the wide, flat, familiar-looking peasant's face. Despite the heat wave, he lounged in the leather overcoat of state security. By law, one security inspector was assigned to each Militia department, but no law ordered them to dress like that, like the Russian secret police—yet they all did. And like their MVD counterparts they never laughed. This one stared at Emil with the intensity of a scientist waiting for a nerve-provoked response.
In the opposite corner, beside the windows, the largest of them banged at a typewriter very slowly. He was a neckless lump of clay with tin rings constricting his thick fingers. The sound of striking keys filled the room.
* * *
Emil had spoken to them once when he arrived. A twenty-two-year-old in a stiff suit with a stupid, bashful grin marking his pale features. A blond schoolboy among these dark veterans. "My name is Emil Brod and this is my first day with Homicide."
A voice he could not match with a face had answered: "Desk's in the center."
Even then, they did not show him their eyes. But he was the only thing they were watching.
Emil settled his small hands on the desk.
At another time and place the sketched decapitation would have provoked violence. But now, here, he separated himself from the anger. He let the cardboard drop into his wastebasket, gingerly shifted the chair beneath himself, and opened the morning's Spark he had picked up on his way to work. There were grainy images of airplanes in the west. Heavy American and British planes over Berlin. Words about remilitarization and effrontery spotted the pages, but he couldn't focus enough to read whole sentences. The typewriter continued snapping.
The stuffy room grew hotter.
* * *
He had gone dutifully to the desk in the center of the room, just as the voice had commanded, and put down his hat and satchel. Then he rapped timidly on the door with chief painted on the wood. A light curtain covered the dark window beside it. "When does Chief Moska arrive?"
It was an insignificant question, something he almost felt foolish asking, and their agreement was apparent by their silence. He nodded and returned to his desk. When he sat down his chair collapsed beneath him.
They all laughed then, even the security inspector.
He sprang up, shocked. The chair was in pieces. The rope which bound its legs together had snapped, or been cut. Their mirthful faces turned back to their desks as he tied the chair together again with a fishing knot. It wobbled, but held. By the time he was finished, the laughter had been over a long time.
Then he reached for the center drawer, if for no other reason than to look busy.
* * *
Maybe it was a joke. He didn't know. They had laughed, so perhaps there was nothing more to this than some gentle hazing. Like in the Academy, when they buried his papers in the middle of the firing range, or when he lay in the mud and they gave him one kick apiece. Certainly this was easier than that.
He set the newspaper aside. In one dusty corner sat a brown porcelain heater for wintertime—as tall as a man—and along the walls three desks faced the center—faced him. The fourth desk, the state security inspector's, faced the wall.
He settled back into his creaking chair and affected a calm he did not feel. He arranged the inkbottle on his desk and straightened the blotter, then placed his transfer papers—triplicate, as required—along the edge. From his burlap satchel he brought out the cigars and the leather-bound note pad his grandfather had been able to unearth in the black market off Heroes' Square. If he focused on these little things he could make it.
The inspectors lounged at their desks, sweating, chewing dried pumpkin seeds, sometimes muttering into telephones, other times writing or smoking. The big, dark one continued typing. Two of them—one scrawny and very dark, the other heavy and limping, spitting out flakes of pumpkin seed—met beside yellowed wanted notices and joked quietly with one another. The sound of their laughter left small cold spots in Emil's guts. They left the office together and returned smelling of clear alcohols. The fat one carried a fresh bag of tobacco with nicotine-stained fingers.
A man outside was shouting in Russian. Although the rowdy Russian soldiers that still occupied their small capital disturbed him as much as the next person, at that moment he wanted to be with them, under the sun, rather than in this dim, humid room with his own kind.
* * *
He stood without knowing why. Then, as he approached the massive typist, he knew. He would start with the largest, if only to instill faith in his courage. Emil rapped the big man's desk beside an empty paper cup blackened by the morning's grounds. "Where do I get coffee around here?"
He stopped typing and looked at Emil's hand, as though his finger were a cockroach. This close, the big inspector's face was pocked and misshapen like a battlefield. "No coffee," he said flatly. He crushed the cup in his hand, then tossed it in his wastebasket.
Emil's starched white collar tightened. He smiled involuntarily and stepped back to his desk. He could hear laughter somewhere. It was faint and distant beneath the hot buzzing of his blood. So was the glint of his polished shoes moving across the floor. He was a stiff clown among these wrinkled, dusty brutes. He remembered the Academy director's words: First District, Homicide. Desk's been open two years since some old poop named Sergei got himself shot after Liberation. They'll take anyone, Brod, why not you?
Why not, indeed.
* * *
TheSpark was full of airplanes. It had been full of blockades and planes since June. Muddy newsprint airplanes on cheap, brittle pages, but they were clear enough. Allied airplanes over hills of rubble; airplanes over military convoys; airplanes over the hungry, defeated masses of a crushed Berlin, dropping parachutes with little boxes of food and chocolates and clothing. And—some reports said—guns.
The front page never changed, not even today. A part of him had expected to find the planes replaced by his own face—thin and pale, blond eyebrows almost invisible above his green eyes—beneath the headline: emil brod moves into the working world—no more lessons for him! But there they still were, after weeks: airplanes: imperial underhandedness in berlin! Comrade Chairman Stalin called the institution of a new German currency a provocation. If the Allies had their way, a reborn, capitalist Germany would consume the workers of the world in fire. General Secretary Mihai, whose office was only a few streets away, reminded all citizens that their own country was small and young. It could easily be divided out of existence again by the republics all around it. No one misunderstood his meaning. "Before the Great War, we were only a district of the Dual Monarchy—remember Versailles!" he told a reporter. "The others would claim we are theirs, but we are not pieces of the Ukraine and Czechoslovakia—we're neither Romania nor Hungary nor Poland! We are our own, indivisible nation!" Then: "Up with the Comrade Chairman!"
The second page listed upcoming trials. It was no longer like the days just after the Liberation, when the lists went on for many columns. But there were still some men and women accused of seeking to undermine the stability of their socialist state. There was a baker and three politicians and two tram drivers—which proved, according to a certain well-regarded Inspector Brano Sev, the democratic sensibility inherent in the instruments of criminal justice.
* * *
Around noon, he tried the smallest one. The wiry, dark inspector who sat beside the cold porcelain stove. He had a face that reminded Emil of the Jews who had appeared at the family dacha in Ruscova during the war. They had come in loose, hungry bands from over the Romanian border, muttering frantically about the Archangel Michael and their villages being burned to the ground. Their families, they said, had been chopped up by the Orthodox. This inspector had that same hungry, war-refugee look.
Emil spoke to him over the hand basins in the empty washroom. His voice echoed unexpectedly against the tile walls. "How long does this go on?"
The inspector stopped splashing cold water on the back of his neck. He looked at Emil in the rusting mirror, hungry brow furrowing.
Beneath Emil's feet the decaying floor tiles wobbled. "The silence," he said, trying to make his voice sound light, conversational. "Is this what everyone goes through? I think I know how this works. Initiation?" He twisted his lips into a smile. "Or are you trying to scare me away?" He almost added lightheartedly that this situation hadn't come up in the Academy lessons, but thought better of it.
The inspector shook water off his hands and used a frayed towel from a hook. His dark features gave away nothing, his eyes hard and small as he dried his neck. He gave Emil only a passing glance in the mirror as he hung up the towel again. Then he left. The creaking door echoed behind him.
* * *
They left the office singly and in pairs and did not return for hours. He assumed they were on cases. The Academy had taught two ways for a homicide inspector to receive a case. Either a switchboard operator sent a message to your telephone line, or the station chief emerged from his office and handed you one. All through the morning the phone on Emil's desk did not ring, and the chief was never in.
Around two o'clock, Chief Moska appeared in the doorway from the corridor. He was another big man, in his fifties, who hiked up wrinkled, mud-spotted pants, rolled a cigarette in his lips, and took off his hat to mop damp, gray hair with a handkerchief. He stopped by desks and whispered to his men, and when they smiled Emil's stomach shriveled. These men were tight, had been for years. They had probably even fought the Germans together—side-by-side, without his help.
The chief stopped at Emil's desk and inclined his long, pale face. The smile was gone. He had the worn features of war veterans who believe they have witnessed everything this life could ever show them. "So you're the new one?" His voice was no longer a fraternal whisper; it was deep and swollen for all to hear.
"Yes, Comrade Chief Moska."
"Emil Brod from the Fourth District?"
"Fifth, Comrade Chief."
"Where did you serve in the Patriotic War?"
"I was too young, Com—"
"Too young my ass!" he bellowed. "You were born in 1926, which made you of age in—what?—1942, or at the latest 'forty-four." He eyeballed Emil's little hands on the desk. Emil removed them. "I have a neighbor who fought Germans when he was twelve. Remember who has your file, Brod."
Emil spoke with as much authority as he could muster. "What I meant to say was that when I came of age, I was not in the country. I was—"
"You were fishing in Finland!" the chief erupted, his sudden, broad smile revealing two holes where teeth should have been. "For little seals no less!"
Their laughter was loud, bouncing off the walls.
"A Finnish company, yes," said Emil, recognizing a slight warble to his voice he hoped was only in his head. "But I hunted in the Arctic Circle."
For an instant he was out of this hot room and back in the icy north, among men so much more dangerous than these.
"You speak Russian, I hear."
"Yes. And German."
"A scholar," said the chief. "And now here you are, back at your mother's tit."
"In Homicide," Emil replied, his voice clearing up. "And I'm ready to work. Here are my transfer papers." He held out the folded pages.
The chief suddenly had the expression of a man about to retch. His nostrils, criss-crossed by a drinker's red tributaries, retracted. Then he stuffed the papers into his blazer pocket. "Well, Comrade Brod," he said through a heavy sigh, "don't make trouble. If you do that, trouble might stay away from you."
There were sprinkles of weak laughter from corners of the room Emil could not locate, because the blood pumping in his ears had obscured their direction.
"I wouldn't consider it, Comrade Chief."
"And don't comrade me to death, Brod. Makes my skin crawl. Can you manage that simple task?"
"Yes, Chief."
They were all watching the exchange, their smiles fading in and out until the chief gave him one last miserable look, turned on his heel, and walked into his office. The door latched quietly.
Emil caught their amused faces as they turned away—the big typist, the refugee, the pumpkin-seed eater sweating in the back, and the state security inspector with the peasant's features that clicked in Emil's skull, nagging at a memory that would not come.
* * *
First was the drawing. Second, the silence. Third was the homicide inspector with the face of a starved refugee who met him on the sun-baked front steps at the end of that fruitless first day. Down by the busy street, he smoked with some regular policemen standing in a semi-circle around the head of a fly-nagged horse. Red-faced vendors sold wooden spoons and fabrics on the sidewalk and a butcher hauled a bleating goose into his store. The policemen watched a pair of young women walk by, and hissed admiringly. When the embarrassed girls were no longer in sight, the inspector noticed Emil standing at the top of the steps. He patted the horse's nose, nodded at his friends, and began climbing toward him. The air was perfectly still.
Briefly, Emil felt a surge of the unreasonable hope that had buoyed him most of his life. It had brought him through the deaths of both his parents in the war and his months scraping out a living on the fishing boats of the frozen north. It had brought him through a brief love affair back here in the Capital, and the brutalities of the Academy. It had carried him all the way to these steps, where the concrete was remarkably bright after the gloom of the station. He sucked hot, wet air into his lungs, and blinked.
"Yes," said Emil, feeling the warmth of that hereditary hope. "Terzian, isn't it? Your name? Leonek Terzian?"
Leonek Terzian was two steps down, squinting up at him. "I wanted to tell you something," he said, his voice lacking anything Emil could call emotion.
"Of course."
Terzian glanced at the crowd of smokers, who were not watching, and as he turned back threw a small, hard fist into Emil's testicles.
There was the momentary shock as his body doubled over, just before the tide of gut-pain that ripped through his stomach, intestines, legs, then everywhere. The stink of horses overcame him as he dropped, the stone stairs dug into his ribs. He groaned; his face teared. He could smell the vodka but could hardly hear Terzian's still voice through the watery pain: "You don't know me, understand? You don't know any of us."


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Punjab has sought a comprehensive review of all exemptions under the goods and services tax (GST) while revising the threshold for such exclusions, signalling a possible
Day: January 1, 2019
hospitals in india: Healthcare sector may see further consolidation in 2019 – The Economic Times
Healthcare sector may see further consolidation in 2019 with tightening of regulatory environment set to make it difficult for small players to stay afloat in a
Exporters raise concern over China's hike in VAT refund – The Economic Times
Exporters of steel, wooden items and machinery products have raised concern over China increasing the refund on value-added tax (VAT) on these products without raising the actual tax. Beijing has
Govt forms committee for 'effective' implementation of real estate law RERA – The Economic Times
The government has constituted a committee to suggest recommendations to strengthen the real estate law RERA and to remove difficulties in its implementation, an official said on
IBC, tortoise that will beat the hare–Economic Times
It has been over two years since India adopted the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) to swiftly resolve corporate distress and clean up bad loans
PCA framework helped reduce contagion losses: RBI report – The Economic Times
The findings were based on a contagion analysis to assess whether the PCA framework has helped in reducing the systemic footprint of PCA banks. The
reserve bank of india: Bank GNPAs improved to 10.8 pc; net NPAs to 5.3 pc in September: RBI – The Economic Times
The asset quality of banks showed improvement with gross non performing assets' (GNPAs) ratio declining to 10.8 per cent in September 2018 from 11.5 per cent in March
Why is the Fed still raising interest rates? | Business Standard Column
Earlier this month, the US Federal Reserve's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted unanimously to increase the short-term interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, taking
Entrepreneurship or salaried employment? | Business Standard Column
In "A Bitter-sweet Success", Business Standard, December 25, 2018, we noted an increase in self-employed entrepreneurs over the past two-and-half years. This growth of self-employed
Some year-end cheer from GST Council | Business Standard Column
A Christmas gift from the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council was a reduction in the rates on a number of items and simplifying of
A look at how vacancies in judiciary hamper ease of doing business | Business Standard Column
The judicial pyramid has about a hundred courts and tribunals below the Supreme Court where economic and financial issues are adjudicated. In view of increased business, commercial courts have
Fixing input tax credit: Get ready for new GST return filing system in 2019 | Business Standard Column
One of the fundamental principles of goods and services tax (GST) was the concept of 'self-policing', wherein the matching concept for claiming input tax credit was introduced. The matching
No plan to repeal The Chartered Accountants Act, say officials | Business Standard News
The central government has no plan to repeal The Chartered Accountants Act, said senior officials at the ministry of corporate affairs. This comes against the backdrop of
₹75-lakh threshold could help over 60 lakh MSMEs escape GST net – The Hindu BusinessLine
May cost exchequer 5,500 cr, but will boost small units by cutting compliance cost Over 60 lakh assessees may come out from the Goods and
Are global oil prices the culprit for burgeoning trade deficit? – The Hindu BusinessLine
The oil import bill is just one of the factors responsible for the rising trade deficit. Non-oil imports cannot be overlooked India's external account has
Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code has a long way to go – The Hindu BusinessLine
Despite several flaws in the three-year-old bankruptcy code, the Government remains unperturbed It has been an eventful year for the ever-evolving Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code,
What will drive the rupee in 2019? – The Hindu BusinessLine
General elections, oil price, Brexit, and US Fed rate hikes may weigh on the currency The year 2018 was extremely volatile for the Indian rupee


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Joel's Pub is a quest in Fortnite Save the World that upon completion will reward players with Mythic Survivor Joel. Joel has the "Dreamer" personality.
The objective of the quest is to find Joel's Pub in two separate successful missions. Joel's Pub can be found in city zones in +40 missions.
We found Joel's Pub in an industrial zone at the outskirt of the map (see map location below).
Please note that the spawn point of Joel's Pub is random and that it is not guaranteed that it will spawn in the game.
A screenshot of Joel's Pub can be seen below.
Joel's Pub is a tall square building with a big green sign that says Joel's. You will not be in doubt when you find it. However, you should note that it is possible to destroy the sign, so if you play in public games it is possible that the sign has been destroyed.
Since it is not guaranteed to spawn in all games, we recommend that you put your game in Private and try to find the location. Going into public games and leaving after 2 minutes because you cannot find the pub is really frustrating for the remaining players.
This screenshot shows Joel's Pub on the map. It is not guaranteed to spawn here, but people have reported that it usually spawn near the edge of the city zone.
That's it, we hope that you have luck in your search and find Joel's Pub as quickly as possible!


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Mohammed Ibrahim Yassin, the chief executive of Somalia's Daallo Airlines, has confirmed that an apparent explosion struck the company's Airbus A321 earlier today on a flight from Mogadishu to Djibouti.
Yassin said that the cause of the incident is "still unclear," but that the aircraft in question (MSN 642) has never had any technical faults during its three years of service with Daallo.
"Fifteen minutes the aircraft was in the air. There was a bang, a sort of an explosion, and then it returned safely," he told me in a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon. "There are two minor injuries. We don't know what caused it … Anything is possible. By tomorrow the picture will be clearer."
Photographs of the aircraft taken after its return to Mogadishu show a gaping hole in the fuselage just in front of the right wing.
The type of damage immediately fueled speculation that a bomb may have been detonated on-board, but Yassin said it is too early to reach any conclusions. "That is what they are saying, but the Civil Aviation [Authority] thinks differently," he cautioned. "Nothing is certain."
Local media carried unconfirmed reports that a charred body was seen falling to the ground about 40km outside of Mogadishu.
Asked whether he is certain that all 74 passengers disembarked safely, the chief executive said he was unable to give that assurance. "It's not clear," he admitted. "It was a little bit chaotic when the aircraft landed. The passengers were panicking and then nobody is sure, but we will know things by tomorrow."
Yassin confirmed that the aircraft arrived in Mogadishu after a flight from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Some 204 passengers traveled on the earlier flight, and the aircraft was on the ground in Somalia for about one hour.
MSN 642 is operated by Greece's Hermes Airlines under a wet-lease agreement.
Daallo has never suffered a fatality since launching services in 1991 – a remarkable achievement for an airline whose home country has been wracked by more than two decades of civil war.
"Twenty five years we've been doing this, and 25 years without incident," Yassin said. "We are lucky. We are very, very lucky. And still we are very lucky."


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This Week's The LEarning Never Stops Photo Challenge is
"properties of water". Enter the link to your photo in the linky below, please visit at least 3 other entries. To be eligible to win, you need to link back to either this challenge or to my blog. The linky will close at 10pm Sunday night. Two winners will be announced on Tuesday night. Link up for the challenge below with the linky!
Announcing a giveaway for the challenge!
I will be giving away one PeeP FUNtabulous Birdie Cup/vase from loveartsworks' shop on etsy.
This giveaway is open to anyone living in the continuous United States,
all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. (look towards the bottom and click 'post a comment') Comments will close 6pm Tuesday, August 3rd. A winner will be chosen Tuesday night by random number generator. No extra entries for tweeting, etc...but of course I'd love it if you spread the word!


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Share on ThriftyFunThis page contains the following solutions. Have something to add? Please share your solution!
I became aggravated with all the pencils not sharpening that we bought at the store. I ordered these, and they have been wonderful. I don't have time to spend sharpening pencils that break. These are pre sharpened and they write wonderfully. They feel sturdy and they are bright and I love them.
I ordered them from Amazon. The shipping was rather high, but the actual price was under two dollars. I am so happy with them. I do lots of homework stuff and puzzles, etc.
I wanted to share with the wonderful ThriftyFun community that I just discovered these. I wish I had known about them long ago!


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It's that time of the year again, folks! My vehicle plates expire this month, so it's time to pay the whopping $101 to the state of Illinois to renew them! And you know what? That's OK because I've been preparing for this expense since December!
Today's post is going to tackle those annual expenses that we have each year, but somehow they still take us by surprise. You know which ones I'm talking about…
These are the bills that we only have maybe once a year, but every year they are around the same time, and somehow every year you might get that dreaded feeling, that "oh shit, I forgot about that bill" feeling, that "ugh, why" feeling, that "oops, over drafted cause I forgot that was set for an automatic payment" feeling.
I used to get caught off guard with these annual expenses. Then I realized that it didn't make sense that I kept acting surprised with these types of bills because they happened every single year. Yet, in a way, it kind of did make sense. It's easier to remember the bills you may on a monthly basis compared to the bills you only see once a year.
As the title suggest: out of sight, out of mind.
I thought to myself: How can I prepare myself for these "unexpected" bills, which are very much expected.
A huge part of my growth in the aftermath of my mishandling of money is in learning how to be financially proactive rather than reactive. As I discussed in last week's post, I am barely learning how to proactively save money. I don't have an adequate savings amount where if shit hits the fan, I can have a safe little bubble for a while. However, I've learned to be proactive in small ways.
When it comes to tackling these annual bills, the key is to actually think about them. I'm not saying constantly think about them each and every week, but what can help is making time to sit down during the year and making a list of what annual bills are due in which month. It honestly will only take less than 20 minutes to just make a list of them!
What do you do with that list once you make it? Put it somewhere you will look at it.
OR HEY WITH ALL OF OUR FANCY SMARTPHONE TECHNOLOGY, input it into your calendar and set a reminder for the month before it is due. This can eliminate the whole SURPRISE factor that really shouldn't be a surprise.
But hey Angelica, I have my annual gym membership fee set for an automatic payment so I don't actually have to think about it. It's covered!
Gotcha. You're right. The bill will be paid, but will you be prepared for that week or month if you didn't remember your available balance might be lower than expected?
Another thing to keep in mind is that you can also plan to set aside money ahead of time for said annual bill, so that it isn't a one time financial hit. Thereby, you might be under lesser money constraints when that bill goes through.
For instance, my plate renewal is $101 and is due every March. If I didn't want to take the hit of $101 in my paycheck for March, I can decide to set aside an amount each month toward that $101. So, if my plate renewal is every year, then I can set aside $8.42 a month to have that cost covered come March.
$8.42? That's less than I pay for Netflix a month! So, in short, it's doable.
So, inquiring minds want to know… what are your annual bills that you have on your plate? How are you preparing for them?
I have plate renewal and gym membership fee in March.
Then I have a busy annual bill month in June with:
- Annual vet visit
- City sticker renewal
- Pet tags renewal
- Costco membership renewal
This is what it taking into account these annual expenses for June look like on my end:
Again, spreadsheets are my go to tool. Find what works best for you to be proactive.
Come back next week for the ASK THE PIG feature where I'll answer the questions you've submitted. There's still time to anonymously ASK THE PIG a question you have! Click the link and hit submit!


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Join the ABLE Ministry mailing list!
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(Posted August 3rd 2015 @ 5:15 PM by: Melody Reever)
Q: There is someone at my church with an intellectual disability. What do I say when I talk to them?
A: It doesn't take much to give a kind word or a greeting. Meet them at their intellectual level. As one mom said, "I always tell people how old my child is intellectually. Not because we want pity but so people can interact with him better." If they are socially awkward, take time to figure out what interests them. Just like anyone, they want to be respected and included.
Q: Why does the sign language interpreter have to sit up front? Why can't they sit in the back?
A: It is helpful to be able to see the body language and facial expression of the person who is speaking. Much of communication is non-verbal. When there is less room between the interpreter and the preacher, they can watch the interpreter and see the preacher at the same time.


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Old Empire & Tidal Concerts proudly present:
Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oneida_(band)
Label: www.joyfulnoiserecordings.com/collections/oneida
Bandcamp: oneida.bandcamp.com
plus special guests
Doors: 7pm
Tix: £16 (adv)
Oslo Hackney
1A Amhurst Rd
London E8 1LL
Brooklyn based psych/noise/kraut legends Oneida were founded in 1997 and consists of Kid Millions, Bobby Matador, Hanoi Jane, Shahin Motia and Barry London. They've been an essential driving force in the New York experimental music community.
Beginning in 1999 Oneida instituted a tradition of performing in nontraditional urban spaces including warehouses, vacant theaters and storefronts, parking lots and garages, boats, and industrial facilities. This performance habit continues today. The group is also known for extended, continuous improvisational performances that can reach upward of 10 uninterrupted hours, and for an ongoing collaborative ethos that has resulted in performances with musicians from all corners of music.
In 2006 Oneida built and opened The Ocropolis, a recording studio/performance space in Brooklyn NY where they recorded their own work, performed publicly, and worked in collaboration with numerous other musicians and the visual artists of the Secret Project Robot gallery and projection collective. The Ocropolis closed in 2011 when the waterfront building, known as Monster Island, was scheduled for demolition. It is currently a pile of rubble.
Oneida has worked since the demise of Monster Island in a warehouse studio space in Bushwick, Brooklyn; this was shared with Secret Project Robot until the fall of 2016, when the gallery announced a hiatus. Oneida remains in the building along with a number of associated artists.
Old Empire & Tidal Concerts proudly present:


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DETROIT -- Auto parts maker Dana Holding Corp. on Thursday posted higher quarterly profits and raised its full-year profit outlook on higher production volumes.
Net income rose to $61 million during the second quarter compared with $1 million in the year earlier period.
Sales at the supplier of axles, drive shafts and transmissions rose 26 percent to $1.93 billion.
The company, based outside Toledo, Ohio, said it now expects to earn $1.60 to $1.70 a share before one-time items for the full year. Previously, it had forecast earnings of $1.55 to $1.65 a share.
Dana said revenue for the year is expected to increase more than 25 percent over 2010, up from its prior estimate for more than 20 percent growth.
For the year, analysts were expecting a profit of $1.59 a share and revenue of $7.4 billion.
Separately, Dana said it will sell its equity in two joint ventures to Getrag KG for $136 million, a deal that will allow the company to enhance liquidity and overall balance sheet.
The joint ventures, both with Getrag subsidiaries, are Getrag Corp. in the U.S., which produces rear-axle units, and Sweden-based Getrag All Wheel Drive, which produces all-wheel-drive systems.
The deal is expected to close in September, Dana said.
"The sale of our interests in these businesses represents a divesture of nonstrategic assets," Dana CEO Roger J. Wood said in a statement. "Our ongoing focus will be on our core strategic products in on-highway and off-highway driveline technologies, including proprietary all-wheel-drive products, and power technologies."
Following the sale of Dana's stakes in the joint ventures, Getrag said today it will sell the assets to GKN PLC.
Source: Reuters


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Venus Williams
First African American woman to become ranked as the World No. 1 in the Open Era
"Venus Williams is an American professional tennis player who is currently ranked world No. 8 in the WTA singles rankings. She is generally regarded as one of the all-time greats of women's tennis and, along with younger sister Serena Williams, is credited with ushering in a new era of power and athleticism on the women's professional tennis tour.
Williams has been ranked world No. 1 by the Women's Tennis Association on three occasions, for a total of 11 weeks. She first became the world No. 1 on February 25, 2002, the first African American woman to do so in the Open Era. Her seven Grand Slam singles titles puts her in a tie for 12th on the all-time list, and a tie for 8th on the Open Era list, more than any other active female player except her sister Serena. In total she has reached sixteen Grand Slam finals, the most recent being the finals at Wimbledon in 2017. She has also won 14 Grand Slam Women's doubles titles, all with her sister Serena, and the pair are unbeaten in Grand Slam doubles finals; Venus also has two Mixed doubles titles. Her five Wimbledon singles titles ties her with two other women for eighth place on the all-time list, but gives her sole possession of No. 4 on the Open Era List, only trailing Navratilova's 9 titles and Serena's and Graf's 7 titles. From the 2000 Wimbledon Championships to the 2001 US Open, Williams won four of the six Grand Slam singles tournaments held. At the 2017 Wimbledon Championships, Williams extended her record as the all-time leader, male or female, in Grand Slams played, with 75. Williams's run to the 2017 Wimbledon singles final also broke the record for time elapsed between first and most recent grand slam singles finals appearances.
Williams has won four Olympic gold medals, one in singles and three in women's doubles, along with a silver medal in mixed doubles. Venus also holds the record for the most Olympic medals won by a male or female tennis player, shared with Kathleen McKane Godfree. She is the only tennis player to have won a medal at four separate Olympic Games. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Williams became only the second player to win Olympic gold medals in both singles and doubles at the same Olympic Games, after Helen Wills Moody in 1924.
With 49 singles titles, Williams is behind only Serena among active players on the WTA Tour. Her 35-match winning streak from the 2000 Wimbledon Championships to the 2000 Generali Ladies Linz tournament final is the longest since January 1, 2000. She is also one of only three active WTA players to have made the finals of all four Grand Slams, along with Serena and Russian Maria Sharapova.
Despite years of protesting by tennis pioneer Billie Jean King and others, in 2005 the French Open and Wimbledon still refused to pay women's and men's players equally through all rounds. In 2005, Williams met with officials from both tournaments, arguing that female tennis players should be paid as much as male tennis players. Although WTA tour President Larry Scott commented that she left "a very meaningful impression", Williams's demands were rejected.
The turning point was an essay published in The Times on the eve of Wimbledon in 2006. In it, Williams accused Wimbledon of being on the "wrong side of history"...
In response, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and members of Parliament publicly endorsed Williams's arguments. Later that year, the Women's Tennis Association and UNESCO teamed for a campaign to promote gender equality in sports, asking Williams to lead the campaign. Under enormous pressure, Wimbledon announced in February 2007 that it would award equal prize money to all competitors in all rounds, and the French Open followed suit a day later. In the aftermath, the Chicago Sun-Times cited Williams as "the single factor" that "changed the minds of the boys" and a leader whose "willingness to take a public stand separates her not only from most of her female peers, but also from our most celebrated male athletes." Williams herself commented, "Somewhere in the world a little girl is dreaming of holding a giant trophy in her hands and being viewed as an equal to boys who have similar dreams."
Venus herself became the first woman to benefit from the equalization of prize money at Wimbledon, as she won the 2007 tournament and was awarded the same amount as the male winner Roger Federer. Venus's fight for equality was documented in Nine for IX, Venus Vs. It premiered on July 2, 2013.
In 2005 Tennis Magazine ranked her as the 25th-best player in 40 years.
In June 2011, she was named one of the "30 Legends of Women's Tennis: Past, Present and Future" by Time.
In March 2012, Tennis Channel aired a television series "100 greatest tennis players of all time", where she was ranked as 22nd. During the programme Williams was complimented by rival Lindsay Davenport, with Davenport saying 'Venus had more power than any other player on tour'." (1)
From Wikipedia