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Now that Barrack Obama has returned from his victory lap which happened to take him around the world, where he has a considerably higher approval rating than 51%, one thing is certain to last past this campaign is the bitter discord sown by such an abjectly negative campaign. The domestic distrust and loathing of Obama is quite the reverse in the wider world. After all, why wouldn't some nascent despot like Morsi of Egypt enjoy Obama when it leads to a check and more power? Barack Obama may have soundly alienated almost half the country, but division is seen as a good thing by this president and these Democrats. A riven America is seen by the left as easier to distract and control. So control is key, but it can only be done through the Liberal Media Complex, now that the campaign ads have vanished.
I must dine on some crow here. I felt Romney would win and the Liberal Media Complex would be sundered. No such luck. The LMC is now preening like peacock. In their minds, they feel they are responsible for getting Obama across the finish line. In truth, I think they're right. Albert Kesselring, Erwin Rommel's commander in North Africa used think that the Desert Fox's myth, legend, propaganda etc . . . was worth at least two good panzer divisions. There weren't too many other reasons propaganda minister Goebbels lent him a cameraman as a permanent member of his staff during his time in the Afrika Korps. Using this admittedly rough calculation, if the LMC added at least two to three percent to Obama's vote total, then subtracting that would just put Romney ahead of Obama in total votes. If you pull that 1-2 million votes from Obama's total in close states like Ohio, Florida, New Hampshire etc . . . then Romney wins.
I don't want to go down the trail of what ifs' because I think for America, now, there are much bigger issues in the domain of political discourse. The LMC has tremendous power and they used it to secure the outcome they wanted. As an added benefit of fighting the battle against the right, they have a whole set of propaganda weapons for the next four years.
In a radio interview, long before the 2012 campaign, Barack Obama said the goal is to "reward our friends" and "punish our enemies." Because of Solyndra and other boondoggles, we know how the Obama folks are rewarding and will be rewarding their friends. One can almost here the cry, "Government cash for all my friends!" However, more pertinent now is the other side of the coin. Punishing one's enemies reached a crescendo during the recent campaign and looks to continue for the rest of Barack Obama's term as president. The evil rich who won't pay their "fair" share (though Democrats seem always to have shifting definition of fair) has been around for some time.
It first started with Occupy Wall Street. Cleverly started a year before the actual campaign, it was the media created antidote to the Tea Party. The arrests, the Marxism, drugs, vandalism, Anarchism and the smell were all neatly repackaged by the LMC as a viable, reasonable, critique of America that had merit. Also it attacked the underlying premise of capitalism, that some earn more than others. When some asserted the right to make more than others, they were attacked as elitist, arrogant and greedy. The cry of fairness was howled, but specifics were scarce. How dare those people earn more than other members of the community? Where's a community organizer when you need one? As it happened, the President was more than happy to say he "sympathized" with the astro turf rabble. This Marxist backdrop paid dividends during the campaign as Romney was constantly hammered as an elitist, arrogant, greedy member of Bain Captial, which was portrayed in ads as a financial descendant of the SS, laying waste to whole towns and killing people by annihilating local companies.
Today and for the rest of Barrack Obama's term, we will have the war on capitalism. Right now there's a debate about raising taxes on the wealthy. But who's rich? Derek Jeter pulling in $25 million a year. That's wealthy. Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle buying a Hawaiian island. That's wealthy. But that's only an extremely small portion of America, so the definition must be broadened to folks, who don't have private jets or second homes etc. . . Still, punishing anyone with a relative modest amount money helps move the ball toward the Marxist goal. As the father of the Tea Party, Rick Santelli remarked "Everything is political now." Wealth, capital, money whatever you call it has been politicized in an extremely damaging fashion. There is no telling where this will stop, nor how far it will go. Anyway, the LMC has a story of those evil rich people and that is all that matters. The goodness of sharing/Marxism is touted to lead to societal nirvana. That is, at least, until the government needs more money to keep the absurd welfare state afloat, which will be probably in February or March when the debt ceiling is pierced.
Second stop on this tour of the Democrat media arsenal has to be the "war on women." It's opening salvo was delivered by Clinton flack George Staphanoupolous against Mitt Romney during a Republican debate in New Hampshire. The topic was banning contraception and that puzzled Romney, who couldn't fathom the reason for the question. He and America would soon find out. Weeks later, on the scene arrived the flagrantly fabricated Sandra Fluke. The Georgetown law student claimed her sex life would leave her destitute without government funded contraception. A faux congressional hearing, a comforting call from the president, and, of course, huffy-puffy indignant Democrats completed a media tableau that had televised hairdos wringing their hands at the plight of this poor every woman. So a crusade was launched. Suitable male targets were identified. After all, a "war" has to have an enemy. As inevitable Hollywood lovelies showed up, the issue of contraception was dwarfed by the "control of our bodies" theme. Hot bodies can get steamed when some evil right winger wants seize control of their bodies. What escaped these vapid vamps was that Obamacare was and is the biggest grab for "control of our bodies" ever; not some guy on the radio making sex jokes or some fumbling old pol in a debate. Obamacare rips decisions of care away from doctors and patients, shreds the freedom of religion and staggers the balance sheet of a nation teetering on the brink of insolvency. However, to the LMC, the cartoon villains have been found and they are Men! Any criticism of any female in public life now brings the LMC back to the "war on women." See Paula Broadwell or even Susan Rice on this recently. Expect this attack to be around forever or, at least, until another slick Democrat President gets caught with a panting intern in the White House again and the LMC can't hide the fact that the Democrats have their fair share of misogynists.
The third ginned up lambaste would be white racism. I doubt I have to explain this one further. Obama gives his cue usually a marginally subtle quip with "people like me." Then the slobbering zombies of MSNBC commence babbling about codes, dog whistles, Area 51 etc . . . All assertions put forth are usually unprovable, but we should just trust them anyway. This offensive helped Obama throughout his first term for attack and distraction. In the recent campaign, it yielded fresh dividends as the scope of white racism was expanded to include Hispanics by plugging in the immigration issue. Only the government can force whites to stop discriminating was a line that was just below arguments for equal pay, health care and education. This back to the sixties theme was rehashed over and over, though most of the racial ills of the sixties are gone.
When the Democrats spoke of Republicans turning back the clock to the 1950's, it wasn't about Ozzie and Harriet suburban nostalgia. The 1950's is now seen as evil in all senses because it was seen as the last decade of the white slave state. Nobody can or should defend slavery or defacto slavery, but it's curious to see Obama take such a high and mighty stand on such an issue and go to Saudi Arabia and grovel before princes who enslave half their population. I guess it all depends if the issue benefits you politically. According to that slobbering sage of MSNBC Chris Mathews even something completely horrific like Hurricane Sandy can be "good." Over a hundred people can die, lives and businesses ruined, billions of dollars lost and this is "good" because this helped Obama get reelected. So slavery can be bad for us, but good for them. Then we simply go along with Saudi slavery because it's "good" for us. Obama and the left think they can use the LMC to cover up any glaring inconsistency anyway. I don't it's good in the short term or the long term. A moral compass that is never fixed can offer no guidance as it swings wildly from one position to its' polar opposite. This is why the Obama foreign policy seems so slapdash, but it goes deeper.
When you see people as objects to be coddled or squashed on your own whims, this smacks of sadism since friends and enemies are completely interchangeable. Alternately, the friends are whipped and enemies coddled. So the obliteration of the Jersey Shore is celebrated as "good" and the Saudi female en slavers are lauded. Vladimir Putin is schmoozed and Aun Sung Su Ky flipped off. If it's just about the exercise of power over someone, then it matters little who is being crushed good or bad.
There is a soullessness about Barack Obama. Sometimes, he seems like a sadistic little boy squeezing the paw of a kitten named America until it yells. You can't tell me someone who sows such bitter division really cares for this country. After all, what is the grand goal of Obama in a second term. There is none. What were all these vicious attacks for? Everybody I know, Democrat and Republican are heartily sick of the negative attacks. I can't see them being that effective going forward, but if Obama and his allies are political sadists, how could they change? Of course, Obama and the Liberal Media Complex are supremely confident they can use these sadistic tools and come away unscathed. I'm not so sure. Can a man swim in a sea of sadism and step out of it good?
On a larger scale, if all you want to do is "punish your enemies" on a national level, what does that produce in the nation as a whole? Stripping away the soul of a country and inserting a sadistic core can only lead to disaster. Remember that De Sade was a product of the French Revolution, which led to a national bloodbath and then to Napoleon who set the the entire continent on fire for the next two decades. A soulless nation can collapse on itself, consume itself or it can fling itself like a plague on the rest of the world or it could do both like France. Time will tell which way this nation goes.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
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It's amazing how side-projects can take over your life. For the past week, I've been doing nothing but work on a show that I created for the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival with PO-MO Inc's Meghan Athavale. It's called Trashbot Apocalypse: A Love Story and it features a super cool combo of dance, animation, and electronic music.
The dancers we've taken on are some superb ones from the School of Contemporary Dancers, and the choreographers come from a variety of backgrounds, from modern dance to voguing. The animation includes both 2D and 3D, and it is a truly collective effort.
We've been having so much fun promoting the show. During Winnipeg's Manitoba Electronic Music Exhibition (MEME) we pulled out all the stops we could and converted a shopping cart into a party cart to draw a crowd. Check out the video of our adventures!
We also have been raising awareness through our IndieGoGo campaign. We plan to get our friends to help us out by yelling to Fringegoers on street corners about the Apocalypse.
I have been learning so much through this process about people management, about publicity, about animation, and about merging dance and video in a live scenario. We are less than two weeks away from showtime, but we are so close to some really amazing stuff.
The show runs July 18 thru 29. If you're in the Peg, you must come see this cool show!
Event details here / IndieGoGo campaign here

subset: commoncrawl


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Stella McCartney is one celebrity fashion designer that I completely adore and follow. As I've said time and again, I appreciate feminine styles and fabrics such as floral prints, sheer, chiffon, and the like. Hence, it comes as no surprise why I love McCartney's designs. The Spring 2013 collection is dominated by tangerines, greens, and whites. You can view some of the pieces here.
To pay homage to one of my favorite fashion designers, I have listed here some of my favorites off of her collection (irregardless of which collection they're taken from).
|Silk Chiffon Dress (obsessed with this color!)
|Fall 2008 - Laser Cut Black Halter Dress
|Fall 2007 - Fuchsia Dress
|Sequin V-Neck Sweater Tunic Dress
|One Sleeve Lace Dress
|Lace Shift Dress
|Love the minimalist color
|Red Ruffled Dress - Spring 2010
Which of these are you digging? XO
Don't forget to follow me on Twitter and Bloglovin'.


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New Zealand in 2020
A bid to hold the 2020 Worldcon in New Zealand chaired by Norman Cates.
For more information see the New Zealand in 2020 website.
|This is a bid page. Please extend it by adding information about who was bidding, officers, committee list, what they were bidding for, who their opponents were, and anything notable about the bid, etc.
page revision: 5, last edited: 21 Feb 2015 14:51


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Monday, January 18, 2016
Daily Headlines: January 18, 2016
* Guatemala: Political newcomer turned president Jimmy Morales repeated his campaign pledge to combat Guatemala's deeply-rooted corruption during his inauguration address last Thursday.
* Latin America: Brazilian scientists will receive public funds to develop a vaccine for the Zika virus though one researcher claimed that it could take from three to five years.
* Bolivia: Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada of Bolivia, currently living in the U.S. on asylum, could become the next former Latin American president to go on trial.
* Mexico: "Emerging markets need to be ready for a potentially severe shock," warned Mexican central bank Agustín Carstens amid investor worry over the weakening Chinese economy.
YouTube Source – efeinternational
Online Sources – Bloomberg, CNBC, Christian Science Monitor, teleSUR English
Labels: Aeromexico, Agustin Carstens, Bolivia, Brazil, corruption, Daily Headlines, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, Guatemala, international economy, Jimmy Morales, justice, vaccines, Zika virus
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Career paths
Make a career path here at the Washington State Department of Revenue. Our employees are career-minded with a wide range of educational and work experiences. We are always looking for talented new people to share our commitment to excellence.
We offer a comprehensive, competitive package of benefits to match the needs of a diverse workforce, including:
- Opportunities for growth and career advancement
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- Leave - vacation, sick and other
Full insurance, including medical, dental,
life insurance, and long term disability
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Visit the Washington State career site for a summary of employee benefits.
For applicants applying to positions which require reference checks prior to interview, please use the Reference Check Authorization (pdf).
Learn more about the Department of Revenue.
More information
Contact the Human Resources Division at (360) 704-5731, or e-mail at firstname.lastname@example.com.
The Department of Revenue is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We embrace diversity and offer a respectful, inclusive culture for people with disabilities, as well as members of all protected groups and statuses. We encourage you to apply.
If you need help during the application process, please call the Human Resources Office at (360) 704-5731. Applicants who are deaf or hard of hearing may call through the Washington Relay Service by dialing 7-1-1 or 1-800-833-6388.
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Revenue has always celebrated the contributions of veterans to our workforce and we've recently been acknowledged by the YesVets Program for our continued efforts to hire, develop and retain veterans in the workforce.


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I want to begin the week with a concerted effort to show mercy every day. I want to find ways to help someone every day. This passage from Harold Shank's Children Mean the World to God always inspires me to pursue mercy in life:
"Lydell Thomas leads a large inner city ministry in Nashville. He taught me about 'aggressive mercy.' Often we wait for people to come to us. Begging destroys dignity. People who ask for a handout must submit to our tests of efficiency before we will engage mercy. Lydell urges us to be more aggressive in showing mercy. He told about a young mother and her children who attended church one Sunday for the first time. A visitation worker called on the family the next day. The worker noticed the woman and her children had no furniture and passed the word on to a minister who dropped by later to confirm the report. While there, the minister asked the young mother a question.
"'Would you mind if we brought a couch, a couple of chairs, and a bed over to your apartment? We can have the truck stop by tomorrow if it is convenient.'
"The young mother and her kids stared in disbelief. Pure mercy is a rare commodity. After saying 'yes,' questions started coming to their mind. Who are these people? Why do they care? Why are there no strings? Why is there no interrogation? They went back to church and came to know God.
"We need aggressive mercy. We must be looking for children in need and finding ways to serve them, not waiting for them to come to us. We should be seeking them out, standing at the gate looking down the road to see if there is someone we can share our compassion with today" (p. 207).
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Aggressive Mercy
2 comments:
- preacherman said...
Wonderful post and thoughts.
I was encouraged and inspired.
You do such a wonderful job with your blog.
I enjoy reading it.
Keep up the great work you do.
God bless you in all you do for Him ad His Kingdom.
- Terry said...
Thanks, Kinney!
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Oregon Department of Education produces yearly report cards for schools
and districts in this state. These reports--called for by the 1999
state legislature--provide educators with an opportunity to communicate
directly with their constituents about how local schools are performing.
Over time, they will allow educators, parents and taxpayers to chart
the progress of Oregon schools. Schools and districts then may add their
own local information to the cards. By March 31, districts must send
copies of the finished reports to parents of children enrolled in the
The Department of Education drew on significant public
input to develop the report cards. It held about 30 public meetings
across the state to hear from parents, educators and others. The
department used the comments it received at these meetings and in other
forums to revise its drafts. In this way, the public designed the report
cards. One of the many valuable comments made at these meetings was
that the report cards should be fair. As a result, the department
required that all statistics used in the reports be reliable and
consistent across the state. If data did not meet this rigorous test, it
was not included in the report. As more data becomes reliable and
consistent statewide, it will be included in future years.
is one of 36 states with state report cards, and three more states will
produce reports next school year. Oregon and these 39 other states
recognize that members of the public want consistent information about
their schools.
on the link below. Once the page has opened, change District Selection
to "Central Curry SD 1." Scroll down to "Gold Beach High School."


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Every so often I like to do a general check of the chickens to keep them happy and healthy! I weigh them, measure them, and do lots more checks to ensure that they are the best that they can be.
I keep profiles of them which have ALL their information in, such as their date/time of hatch and their characters. We have three chickens now but below is a record of the chickens we have had in the past.
- First we had Polly (Female Light Sussex), Flossy (Female Light Sussex) and Sid (Male Light Sussex)
- Sid was too noisy so we gave him to a friend and bought Sandy (Female Gold top).
- Sadly, Polly died.
- We Incubated 12 bantam eggs, and kept 3 female chicks.
- So, we had Flossy, Sandy and the three new hens: Octavia (Female Silkie), Gin and Tonic (Female Light Sussex)
- Flossy and Sandy attacked the three new hens continuously for months so we gave them to a family friend.
- And now we just have Octavia, Gin and Tonic!
Flossy and Sandy are very healthy and happy and I think Sid is well too!
Here are Octavia, Gin and Tonic!


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Did you know that HeinOnline has law journals, the Federal Register, U.S. Attorney General Opinions, Treaties and Agreements, and U.S. Supreme Court cases online?
Not impressed yet? Here's what's special about HeinOnline.
All of the documents provide exact page images — which means you can view and print exact copies of how the documents looked in print. So you get all the charts, graphs, photos, and other images that online systems frequently leave out. And if you need to see the original document, for a law journal cite check, e.g., a printout from HeinOnline looks like a photocopy from a book or microfiche.
Also, for most publications, HeinOnline provides coverage from the first volume. So if you are looking for a law journal article or a Federal Register issue that pre-dates the coverage on your favorite online system, you can probably find it.
How can you connect to HeinOnline? If you search the library catalog for a title and see
you can click on that link to go directly to the HeinOnline version of the title.
From the SIU Law Library home page, use the Research Starting Points drop-down menu to choose HeinOnline. You can find a complete list of electronic resources to which the library subscribes by clicking on Subscription Electronic Resources on the home page. HeinOnline is available to anyone on SIU's Carbondale campus, including SIUC dial-up and VPN.
Okay, it wasn't really a secret. But a lot of people don't know about HeinOnline. Now you do.


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I've just had this message (and photo) from The Good Book Company: "After selling out the first print run in a record 3 weeks, new stock of The One True Light Advent readings are flying out of the warehouse."
So if you've tried to buy a copy – don't despair. And it's not too late to buy a copy to read throughout in December – not that there's a rule which says it must be read then!
The One True Light is available here from thinkivp. It will be released in the US next year.
Support this site by using these links:
includes Tim Chester's books
20% of every thinkivp purchase goes
to train Christian leaders in poorer countries


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Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Menopausal atheists?
Just a standard side-bar ad on a random site ...of course the giant, albeit white, Dawkins-style A caught my attention...
1 comment:
- Leah said...
Maybe as you get older, you get wiser, and therefore more skeptical. Whatever the explanation, that's hilarious!
- December 27, 2009 at 8:39 PM
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Amazon announced that a new, improved training course is now available for Amazon Web Services developers.
New to the Developing on AWS course are: additional programming language support, a balance of concepts and code, AWS SDK labs, relevant to more developers, and expanded coverage of developer-oriented AWS services.
"Whether you're moving applications to AWS or developing specifically for the cloud, this course can show you how to use the AWS SDK to create secure, scalable cloud applications that tap the full power of the platform," says Amazon's Jeff Barr.
Barr notes that the additional support makes the course more useful to startup and enterprise developers alike.
"The updated course expands coverage of key concepts, best practices, and troubleshooting tips for AWS services to help students build a mental model before diving into code," says Barr. "Students then use an AWS SDK to develop apps that apply these concepts in hands-on labs. Practice labs are designed to emphasize the AWS SDK, reflecting how developers actually work and create solutions. Lab environments now include EC2 instances preloaded with all required programming language SDKs, developer tools, and IDEs."
The course also now puts more focus on AWS services like Amazon DynamoDB, AWS Lambda, Amazon Cognito, Amazon Kinesis Streams, Amazon ElastiCache, AWS CloudFormation, etc.
To enroll, you can look over the syllabus, and find a class.
Image via Amazon


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Much like Hide and Seek on Counter-Strike: Source, Prop Hunt is a game of stealth and cunning. As a prop, you must replicate another prop on the map and hide before the Hunters come after you. As a hunter you must search for out of place props and kill them before the time runs out. Be careful though, damaging props that aren't controlled by a player causes you to lose health!
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One Liner General Knowledge Questions1. Sachin Tendulkar scored his 100th international century against which' country ? – Bangladesh
2. In baseball, the two opposing teams consist of howmany players? – 9 players each
3. Which Sanskrit poet called as the Indian Shakespeare? – Kalidas
4. 'My Music, My Life' is the autobiography of which person? – Pt. Ravi Shankar
5. Which was the first talkie film of India? – Alam Ara
6. Folk painting 'Madhubani' is famous in which state? – Bihar
7. When is International Human Solidarity Day observed? – December 20
8. Foot-and-Mouth disease in animals, a current epidemic in some parts of the world, By which is this caused ? – Bacterium
9. By which number the quality of gasoline' sample is determined? – By its octane number
10. With which is the 'Tennis court oath' associated? – French Revolution
11. With which country is "Orange' Revolution" associated? – Ukraine
12. With which field was Pandit Bhimsen Joshi associated? – Music's
13. Who was the first person to cross the Alps with army? – Hannibal
14. Where is the headquarter of International atomic Energy Agency is located? – Vienna
15. The book 'Diplomatic Encounter' has been written by which author? – Arundhati Roy
16. Who is the author of the book 'The Rights of Man'? – Thomas Paine
17. The book 'Worshipping False Gods's is written by which person? – Arun Shourie
18. Who directed the famous T.V. serial 'Tandoori Nights'? – Saeed Jaffrey
19. Regatta is associated with which sports event? – Rowing
20. Which woman has become the highest individual scorer in an innings in Tests? – Kiran Baloch
21. What is the name of the person that controls a football match? – An umpire
22. Who is the leading wicket taker in the history of Test cricket? – Shane Warne
23. Amarya Sen, the NRI Nobel laureate got the honour for which work? – Poverty and famines
24. Where did India made her debut in Olympic football? – London in 1948
25. Where were first Olympic Games held? – 776 B.C.
26. The celebrated novel 'The Godfather' was authored by which author? – Mario Puzo
27. Which book is entitled as 'Bible of Communism' ? – Das Kapital
28. Who is popularly known as 'Nightingale of India' ? – Sarojini Naidu
29. Dr. M. S. Swaminathan distinguished himself in which field? – Agriculture
30. The fragments of which comet system collided with Jupiter in July 1994 ? – Shoemaker-Levy 9
31. Where is the largest automobile manufacturing centre in the world located? – Detroit
32. ORT (Oral Rehydration Therapy) is associated with the treatment of which disease? – Diarrhea
33. Which type of coal is difficult to light in the open air? – Peat
34. Among South Asian countries which one is the Maternal Mortality Ratio (per 1,000 live births) lowest? – Bangladesh
35. Coolgardie lies in the Australian province of which direction? – Western Australia
36. Gum Gopi Krishna was a maestro of which dance form? – Kathak
37. With which field was Satyajit Ray associated? – Direction of films
38. In which year did UN establish the UN Conference on Trade and Development? – 1964
39. Which is UN Programme and not special agency? – UNEP
40. Who is the author of the famous novel 'Gone with the Wind'? – Charles Dickens


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There aren't many autobiographies which hold the power to lock horns with my attention and hold it captive for days on end until the last page is turned. But this one did. Perhaps this is because I tend to be more interested in reading about wildlife and nature than people, and perhaps this is because Love, Life and Elephants contains a series of deeply gripping emotional tales of the personal lives of rescued and orphaned wild animals in Kenya's famous Tsavo-East National Park.
Sheldrick is best known for her work caring for orphaned elephants. She helped pioneer husbandry methods to nurse motherless milk-dependent elephant calves to survival. Prior to her work these newly born mammals faced a near certain death once their mothers were lost. But Sheldrick's memoir is about much more than this singular achievement. It's a history of her British family homesteading in Kenya at a point in time when the Crown was encouraging colonization there; and their subsequent feeling of abandonment and cultural isolation when the British government ultimately pulled out of Kenya.
Her family felt torn between two countries: culturally they were English, but they had poured years of time and energy into carving productive farms and ranchland from the Kenyan soil. Sheldrick wrote: "Labelled the White Tribe of Africa, we were rapidly losing our stake in the country we viewed as home and could never be truly British again, due to long isolation in Africa. Nor could we be truly African either, because of our colour and culture." Though Sheldrick viewed herself as an Englishwoman living in Kenya, she knew she could never return to Great Britain; and in this way she felt keenly the isolation and abandonment that her many wild orphans experienced, the singular sense of being on your own. Maybe it was this shared sentiment that led her to become a deeply nurturing and loving surrogate mother to so many motherless wild animals.
Though this memoir is filled with interesting familial anecdotes, what sucked me in most deeply was Sheldrick's observations of wild giraffes, hyenas, rhinoceros, raptors of all kinds, elusive kudu, gazelles, lions, leopards, oryx, ostriches and — of course — elephants. By living within Tsavo-East for so long (she eventually married one of its directors), she grew to know individual animals and came to care for many that had been orphaned from natural causes or due to poaching.
With her naturalist's eye for observing wildlife and their behavior, and her writerly sense of cinematic scene and significant detail, Sheldrick has penned a formidable book of both literary and factual value. Consider the following description of animals congregating on the banks of the Tiva River:
When the moonlight played on the pale sand, elephants emerged silently, as though from nowhere, dark galleons moving sedately, ivory trapping the moonbeams and gleaming silvery white. Then the rhinos arrived from the shadow on the riverbanks, each one intent on gaining possession of water in a hole in the sand dug by elephants and, having got one, modifying it to accommodate head and horn. And after night-long activity the theatre opened for the diurnal cast — monkeys and baboons came down from the trees; mongooses scampered about, followed by giraffe, zebras, elands, flocks of sand grouse; doves, weavers, starlings, vulturine guinea fowl and then the raptors, falcons, hawks and eagles, in search of easy pickings. Gradually more and more creatures stepped into the riverbed to slake their thirst at the elephant holes, a symbiotic mass of coexistence, until an alarm sounded at the approach of a predator — a leopard, the lions, hyenas or large pack of hunting dogs. At this point the stage was rapidly vacated in a thundering of hooves and a flurry of flapping wings. (pg. 88-89)
We learn midway through her memoir of Samson and Fatuma, the first elephant orphans Sheldrick was exposed to and how she began to learn of the species' behaviors through them. But the truly young elephant calves, the newly born that were still solely dependent on their mother's milk proved so tricky to keep alive that Sheldrick's husband told her it was "kinder not to even try." Shmetty was the first elephant Sheldrick tasted a bit of success with. After experimenting with all sorts of concoctions to mimic elephant's milk, a certain formula containing coconut milk seemed to work. This was the first baby elephant she worked with that lost its gaunt, starved appearance, put on weight and began playing spiritedly with other baby animals in the orphanage. Unfortunately, Shmetty died at age six months, possibly from separation issues when Sheldrick travelled to South Africa and the calf was left with a surrogate keeper.
The lessons learned from the success of keeping Shmetty alive so much longer than any other newly born elephant calf propelled Sheldrick on the path to cracking the elephant orphan code. The next pairs of orphans she rescued, Juma and Bibi, lived past the age of one but died from complications of care unrelated to what had been the trickiest issue: nutrition. Her learning curve continued with babies Olmeg, Ol Jori, and Taru; and Sheldrick also became aware of the supportive power of having non-profits aid in her mission of rescuing very young elephant orphans. The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, named in memory of beloved husband who died too young, began in 1987 and is still operational today.
Anecdotes of elephant poaching form a dark undercurrent to Sheldrick's otherwise inspirational tale of the wildlife in Tsavo-East. She and her husband witnessed the wreckage of poaching, not just in grisly carcasses discovered, but also in the social disruption it caused to elephant family units. And, of course, they wrestled with raising the orphans spawned by the violent acts of killing the adults for their ivory.
Love, Life and Elephants is a deeply enjoyable read on the whole. I think it's important to recognize when you begin it that you are entering a memoir written by a woman who held a particular cultural perspective which reflects a specific point in time. I've read other reviews of this book that were critical of her seeming omission of people of color who must have helped with caring for the wild animal orphans, and the elephants in particular. And I agree it would have been nice to know more about the personalities and contributions of some of these workers. But I don't fault Sheldrick for how she wrote the book. This is her version of her life and achievements, and the way it is written reflects her experience as a white Englishwoman living in Kenya in the second half of the twentieth century. And I, for one, am deeply glad she was there.


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The Justice Department is investigating whether Las Vegas Sands Corp., owned by high-profile Republican donor Sheldon Adelson, broke federal law by failing to report millions of dollars of potentially laundered money transferred to its casinos by two high-rolling Las Vegas gamblers, according to the Wall Street Journal.Days earlier, the DCCC had to apologize for making the false claim that Adelson profited from prostitution at his resorts in China.
The U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles is investigating deposits made in the mid-2000s by a Mexican pharmaceutical businessman, later indicted for drug trafficking in 2007, and a California executive with Fry's Electronics, who later pleaded guilty to taking illegal kickbacks, the newspaper said, citing lawyers and federal officials working on the case.
The Journal said there were no indications that the investigation included actions by Adelson, Sands' chief executive and a major political donor for the Republican Party. Adelson has pledged to spend as much as $100 million to help Republican candidates in this election cycle.
Federal investigators have begun focusing on casinos amid concerns that the industry's lax financial systems could be used for money laundering and other illegal activities, according to Justice Department officials cited by the Journal.
Nine months later, we now know that the IRS abused its power to give scrutiny to Tea Party, patriot, Christian and Jewish groups that applied for 501c4 statuses, asking intrusive questions, in an effort to chill their political activism.
I think it's more than a coincidence that Holder also went after one of the GOP and Mitt Romney's top donors?


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This product was added to our catalog on October 19, 2016.


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Here are the reviews up so far:
Josh Lacey reviews The Devil's Breath, by David Gilman, for the Guardian.
Bob Minzesheimer recommends four new children's books in USAToday.
It's children's books week at the New York Times. Here's what you can find in the Sunday Book Review:
- Charles McGrath reviews two Beowolf adaptations for Young Adults.
- A Young People's History of the United States: Volume One: Columbus to the Spanish-American War, by Howard Zinn (adapted by Rebecca Stefoff) is reviewed by Walter Kirn.
- Lisa von Drasek reviews the new No Talking, by Andrew Clements (She calls it Clements's best school story since Frindle.)
- This week's Bookshelf is devoted to children's books (And, oooh! My favorite MG of the year--At the Firefly Gate--is there.)
Elizabeth Ward is back in the Washington Post with her children's book column. Here's what she reviews this week:
- A Good Day, by Kevin Henkes
- Has Anyone Seen My Emily Greene? by Norma Fox Mazer
- Little Donkey and the Birthday Present, by Rindert Kromhout, translated from the Dutch by Marianne Martens
- A Promise is a Promise, by Florence Parry Heide
- The Flying Bed, by Nancy Willard
Mary Harris Russell doesn't fail us! She's back in the Chicago Tribune with reviews of six new books, including:
- Fabian Escapes, by Peter McCarty
- Mama's Saris, by Pooja Makhijani, illustrated by Elena Gomez (Yay, Pooja!)
- Bossy Bear, by David Horvath
- Orange Pear Apple Bear, by Emily Gravett
- Little Neighbors on Sunnyside Street, by Jessica Spanyol
- The Wednesday Wars, by Gary D. Schmidt
Susan Perren considers five new titles for the Globe and Mail. They include:
- The List, by Hazel Hutchins, illustrated by Maria van Lieshout
- Monster, Don't Eat Me! by Carl Norac, illustrated by Carll Cneut
- Old Mother Bear, by Victoria Miles, illustrated by Molly Bang
- SOS: Stories of Survival: True Tales of Disaster, Tragedy and Courage, by Ed Butts
- Mistik Lake, by Martha Brooks
More tomorrow, along with update #2 from the Children's Literature Association conference and a review of Ellen Wittlinger's Parrotfish.


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"Here in the West...we keep all the rules, even a few we made up." So goes Derek Webb's Rich Young Ruler song as it reviews Western Christianity. Those "made up" rules of Christianity are something that I have been sifting through almost since I left Bible school at age eighteen and had to make decisions for myself about what I would and would not do. By "made up" rules, I mean those rules that dictate areas on which the Bible is fairly silent.
As I've gotten to know Christians of different backgrounds, persuasions and cultures, I have seen a wide range of rules and practices. My question is always this one: what does Scripture really teach, and what is culture, legalism or caution? I want to be clear in my thinking as to what is non-negotiable (taught clearly in Scripture) and what may be cultural or personal (ie: an additional guideline that I have for myself or my family that may keep us from sin).
If you've been in conservative Christian circles for any amount of time, you could probably name some rules quite readily. They deal with our personal practice or sometimes church practice as well. Some Christians dance but don't drink. Others drink, but don't dance. Some do both. Some do neither. Most are sure they're right! The list goes on and on.
I recognize that a lot of "made up" rules have come about for good reasons. Frederick Wood says in a booklet called Questionable Amusements, "the marathon would not be run in an overcoat unless it happened to be an obstacle race." Many of the things that Christians have abstained from in generations past have been seen as hindrance to running the Christian race (Heb. 12:1). So, some of our rules protect us from sin and temptation, even if they draw the boundaries a bit tighter than the Word itself does. The problem comes when we insist that other believers must follow our personal practices in areas of freedom.
As I've puzzled over this, I've asked questions: What is the real goal in discipleship? To train believers to understand and be obedient to Scripture. How do we get there? They must learn to study and understand the Word of God for themselves. What happens when they do study the Word? They may realize that some Christian rules or practices, though not harmful, are (gasp!) more cultural than Scriptural. But what was the real goal, again? To see them building lives based on God's Word—not based on Christian culture. (Or was it?)
Too often my concern in discipleship is to create a believer who thinks and lives like I do—even in the grey areas—rather than to build up a believer who can defend his choices with sola Scriptura. I sell the next generation of believers short when I want to offer them a well-packaged, cookie-cutter Christianity where everyone looks and acts the same as me. I want new believers to know the joy of being taught by the Spirit as they learn to interpret Scripture properly. I want them to know the wonder of grace, not the clanking chains of my legalism. I want them to be freed and constrained by the Spirit, not by Julie. (Or do I?)
When we equate our additional, extra-Scriptural rules for Christian living to what the Word of God has said, we are on dangerous ground. We are going beyond our bounds as teachers of God's Word. We're being Pharisees, wrapping the living, vibrant message of the gospel in stagnant rules and regulations. Yet in conservative Christian circles, this happens all the time.
A parent must tremble when the day comes for his son or daughter to leave home and start making all of his or her own decisions. But I've heard that for the Christian parent, prayers heighten when a child leaves the nest. There is a parallel as we build up baby believers, preparing them to "leave the nest" and go on to make new disciples. As we give them the tools to "leave home" by studying, interpreting and applying Scripture, we also give them the freedom to potentially live their lives somewhat differently than we would. Sometimes we tremble with fear, but we must let them go on. As we face this stage, we would better spend our time on our knees in prayer than engaging in heated arguments with newer believers about areas of freedom.
This is my vision for Western Christianity, not that we base our fellowship with others on "made up rules," but on adherence to what is clear in the Scriptures. There is so much that is clear and is being misunderstood that it is a wonder that we find so much time to emphasize the "freedom" areas. I have chosen to abstain from certain things that other Christians might consider quite alright, and the inverse is also true. I want to make my choices with a clear conscience before God and for the right reasons. I want to be firm and sure about what the Scipture mandates and what is just a "made up" rule. How we need a powerful, constant renewal from God's Word and Spirit to keep balanced, lest we miss "the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ." (2 Cor.11:3)
July 11, 2011
July 10, 2011
deep suffering, deeper joy
In my city's downtown core there's a Brazilian couple living in a small apartment. They're like a lot of other newcomers to Canada in many ways: they don't own a car, they want to perfect their English, they're confused by some Canadian customs, and they miss their home country. Surely most newcomers face their share of hardships—just one winter in this city without your own vehicle might qualify as hardship—but not like Marcos and Janice.
If I were to explain to you their struggles, it would be convoluted or boring. (I've typed and retyped this, wondering how to be concise). Serious health problems afflict both of them, but especially Marcos, who lost vision in one eye last year due to a work accident. Because Marcos can no longer work, their financial situation is difficult, too.
OK, so I know two immigrants who have had a hard year. Why does this merit a blog post? Because Marcos and Janice show incredible joy in the face suffering. To visit with them is to come away encouraged and hopeful. Not because Marcos' vision has miraculously returned or because Workers Compensation Board recalled their decision to cut his insurance payments, but because they continually are reminding themselves and others of ultimate truth.
The true Christ-follower is ever learning to look at life through a Biblical lens. He doesn't live in an airy plane full of gumdrops and rainbows, where the struggles of life are played down or disregarded. No, he looks squarely at life as it really is for a fallen human. But when a Christian looks at reality, he doesn't bow down in the ditch and give up hope, either. He focuses his mind on the truth, revealed through God's Word, and finds the hope to live another day. He looks at life on earth through the lens of Heaven.
The prophet Jeremiah did this. He wrote, in Lamentations 3: "I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me." Jeremiah acknowledged the reality of his situation, and his hurt. "Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, 'The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.' Jeremiah filled his mind with truth, and spoke truth to himself, so that he would not wallow in despair.
Marcos and Janice embody true Christianity to me. They tell me stories of near-death incidents or financial trials. Surely these two have been through more serious health problems in one or two years than most people face in twenty or thirty. But their stories are always prefaced, interspersed and concluded with remembrances of the goodness of God. The way their tales flow so naturally from sharing their struggles to meditating on God's mercy shows that they are truly learning, like Jeremiah, to call truth to mind.
When Christians suffer in a godly way, it brings praise to God and deep joy (I Peter 1). Seeing this in action is truly remarkable. Yes, worthy of breaking the silence and composing another blog post.
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Learning about the various procedures, such as 'V.E's', that are likely to take place during your labour and birth can help you to make truly informed decisions about whether to accept or refuse them. It can allow you to think about the kind of labour you really want, and empower you to know your rights and take control of the experience, giving you a feeling of ownership and satisfaction, regardless of the way you ultimately birth your baby. There is a wealth of information available now to pregnant women, in particular thanks to the internet, and at the touch of a button you can inform yourself, and discuss your plans and concerns with other women who have 'been there, done that'.
Brilliant, right? What's not to like about this? Surely those concerned with the care of birthing women must be thrilled that some of them are actually taking an interest in what happens to them, and - often literally - getting off their backs and taking an active role in their labours? You would hope so, and yet Terri Coates, a practicing midwife, lecturer in Midwifery, and clinical editor to Call the Midwife, doesn't seem to be in favour of it in this interview from Tuesday's Mail:
"A lot of young women in the 1950s didn't even know where babies came from. They were happy to have someone lead them and were more deferential. Now women are far more savvy, have apps on their phones, mum-and-baby books, better education. They know what they want and how to get it. Managing their expectations is like walking a tightrope. They expect the perfect birth, the kind they see in magazine pictures. Some feel that if they have anything but a drug-free birth, they've failed. But if they end up with a healthy baby, they've done extremely well."
So - the modern and informed woman is making life difficult for the professionals who have to 'manage her expectations'. Terri Coates seems to suggest that our access to information is encouraging us to set our sights too high, and she trots out the patronising and tired old idea that we should all be happy with a healthy baby. This attitude completely dismisses the mother's birth experience, and is often most painful to those of us who experience birth trauma, making us feel that we should stop complaining and be grateful that everyone simply survived.
As Elizabeth Prochaska, founder of Birthrights, the new UK organisation dedicated to promoting human rights in childbirth, puts it:
Women who have been traumatised are finding their voice, as in this recent article, in which several women, including Toni Harman from One World Birth, speak about the terrible treatment they suffered during labour and birth, including being shouted at, having their wishes ignored or belittled, and feeling as if they were being raped.
Our hopes are too high - we expect silly things like a decent shot at the birth we really want, and if that turns out not to be possible, for professionals to talk to us and touch our bodies kindly and with respect.
Grudzinskas also echoes Terri Coates yearning for the good old days, when women - apparently - just did what they were told without question, and the dangerous technology of the internet was not at their disposal:
"In the old days, women referred to doctors as experts. Now, many women think they're well-read because they've done research on the internet. But much of that information isn't correct."
Birth guru Sheila Kitzinger takes on this attitude in her excellent new book, Birth and Sex:
"An obstetrician once snapped at me that he couldn't stand 'back seat drivers'. He meant women who had ideas about what they wanted in childbirth."
And, with the usual twinkle in her eye, she tells this story:
"One obstetrician in a major teaching hospital where one in four women had a Caesarean was pleased that there is 'increasing maternal input into childbirth'. It is not clear what he means by this. Women have always had a lot of 'maternal input'. Doctors could not produce babies without them."
Women - with the help of the internet and all of the information and communication that it brings, are taking back childbirth. Slowly, ever so slowly, the balance of power is shifting, and it is this that is causing some professionals to feel uneasy and long for a time when women would defer to their expertise, not ask so many questions, and comply.
If a woman declines vaginal exams in labour, this is likely to make things a lot easier and more enjoyable for her, but have the opposite effect for her carers. They will have to rely on other methods (and skills that they may not have) to make their assessments. They will not be able to chart her dilation on a partogram. If they can't do this, they won't be able to fully assess her 'progress' or lack of it, and follow their usual procedures and protocols according to the clock. They might even have to behave like the midwifes 'in the old days' as Dr Grudzinskas would put it, and, putting down their clipboards, turn their eyes to the woman as the most powerful and knowing figure in the room.
Water birth, pronounced risky by some doctors, has a similar effect of restoring power to the woman at the expense of those who attend her. As Marsden Wagner, director of Maternal and Child Health for the World Health Organisation for fifteen years, puts it in Water Birth Unplugged:
"Water birth like home birth is controversial. Why? Because the obstetricians are out of control. It's that simple. The water helps the woman, but it sure doesn't help the birth attendant. It's the opposite of the lithotomy position (on the back with feet in stirrups), which helps the birth attendant, but doesn't help the woman. With water birth, the birth attendant has many dilemmas, do I roll up my sleeves, do I get in the pool, do I take my clothes off, what do I do here? You can't really attend a water birth and keep your sophisticated control and dignity."
If you are faced with a choice about procedures and interventions in childbirth - ask yourself - who is this most likely to benefit, reassure, or make comfortable - me, or my carers? We must not be deterred from learning as much as we can about our rights and our options in childbirth, no matter how much it may inconvenience midwives or doctors. We do not have to comply with their suggestions, unless we wish to. We are allowed to be powerful in childbirth. Whatsmore, birth is not simply a means to an end - our birth experience matters, and is of primary importance, not just to us, but to our babies, our families, and the whole human race.


text: It's Beer Time at White House By John Johnson, Newser Staff Posted Jul 30, 2009 5:02 PM CDT 28 comments Comments It's Beer Time at White House CNN video of the get-together. (YouTube) (Newser) – It's happy hour at the White House. President Obama, Joe Biden, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and James Crowley are clinking beer glasses in the White House Rose Garden, but alas, the media isn't invited to listen in. Earlier, the president sought to tamp down expectations, noting that he's "fascinated with the fascination with this evening." (CNN has no fewer than five cameras in place.) He even objected to the term Beer Summit. "This is not a summit," Obama said. "It's a clever term, but this is not a summit, guys. It's three folks having a drink at the end of the day and hopefully giving people an opportunity to listen to each other. And that's really all it is." View 6 images


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Nov 14, 2009
Our pictures are here
7 comments:
Fucking fantabulous indeed. And where o where did you get that brilliant dress?ReplyDelete
omg your wedding was totally f*ing fabulous (and I don't say that much!) Any chance I might be able to share some of the pics on my blog, linking to you of course? I asked Corbin as well...let me know and congratulations!!ReplyDelete
thanks for the compliments! share away!ReplyDelete
this is my 2nd favorite photo of the night. amazing.ReplyDelete
I just looked at them and they are so beautiful. I love the reception site and all those mirrors behind the main table are gorgeous.ReplyDelete
man you had one gorgeous wedding! congrats erin, everything was so SO beautiful!ReplyDelete
Congratulations on your recent wedding and thank you for sharing the pictures. Everything looks so beautiful. I had a veil similar to yours when I got married!ReplyDelete


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Bass Lake Electric can be found at Lake Shore Dr 2061. The following is offered: B2B Contractors. The entry is present with us since Sep 9, 2010 and was last updated on Nov 14, 2013. In Commerce Township there are 40 other B2B Contractors. An overview can be found here.
Lake Bass Electric provides Electrical services in Commerce Township. Call them at 248-366-8512 for more details.


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I just got back on the boat in Guam after those three weeks of family time in wintry Massachusetts. The guy on the left here, is my brother John, seven years younger than I am. He flew up from his home in the Florida Keys and together we helped care for our aging parents to give our sisters a too-short break.
We're good friends and share a lot of interests like boats and fishing and trying to live a healthy life style (notwithstanding that we are at the airport bar having a beer while we wait for our flights out of New England).
In fact, I'm pretty close to all my family--brother, sisters, son, and daughter--and it's hard to imagine getting old without them around. We do a lot of laughing and partying together and you can tell how much you've aged by watching your siblings and children get older. I guess it's all about sharing the experience of living with the people you love and have been with from the beginning.
So, here's the next item to go somewhere on the Boomer List of Small Wisdoms: If you can, get close to your family. Re-establish those bonds you probably had in childhood when you played and cried and had secrets together.
When I get together with my family, we laugh a lot about a lot of things, particularly the aging process and what is happening to our minds and bodies. Might as well laugh while we can, there's nothing we can do about it and there will enough crying later. And come to think of it, the difference between getting the most enjoyment out of aging is remembering one of the earlier items on this list: The difference between adventure and misery is often just attitude. We need to have the right attitude to get the most out of these declining years.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Add This to Our List to Live By
I decided that the Boomer List to Live By should be, at least for now, in no particular order. And, in fact, we might later decide that making lists has become so popular in our culture as to become a cliche--and we need to avoid cliches lest we lose our creativity.
In any event, here's another quote from Walden: ...I am convinced, by both faith and experience, that to maintain one's self on earth is not a hardship but a pastime, if we live simply and wisely...
We boomers about to retire can take this to heart as we prepare to live on what is probably going to be significantly less income than we are bringing in now. So, here's the next item on the list (and again, in no particular order): There is no need to struggle. As Thoreau said, simplify, simplify, simplify. I'm pledging myself to living more simply and continue debt free come July when I get my last paycheck.
By the way, and speaking of pastimes, the photo here is of racoon tracks in the snow. I took it last week during a morning walk in the Massachusetts woods after a light snowfall. Taking walks and pictures is a simple enough pastime and I'm enjoying them both immensely.
Posted by Doug Arvidson at 6:35 AM No comments:
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
No. 2 on the Boomer Wisdom List to Live By: A Load of Books on an Ass's Back
It has been said that learning without wisdom is like a load of books on an ass's back (I took this picture while out on one of my winter walks the other day. That's a donkey on the right and a broken-down tractor on the left).
To that end, I propose that No. 2 on the Boomer Wisdom List to Live By be this: Keep a book written by a wise man (two words)--or woman, near by and dip into it every day. I don't mean silly self-help books that are published by the dozen these days. I mean something classic that has stood the test of time. Right now, as you know from the previous blog, I'm dipping into a re-found Walden. Here's another insight from that cranky gadfly, Henry David Thoreau: I say beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.
Let me know what you think. Any suggestions for No. 3?
Posted by Doug Arvidson at 7:20 AM No comments:
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Small Wisdoms for Boomers: A List to Live By
I think this might be the best advice I have ever read: The difference between making life an adventure or enduring life as an ongoing misery, is attitude. That's it. It's all in how you look at it. The photo to the right is me this past Christmas in Hobart, Tasmania. I'm the guy on the left. The other guy is a famous Australian adventurer/explorer. He explored Antarctica and must have had a great attitude or he would have been spectacularly miserable.
It's been said the purpose of middle age is to prepare ourselves for death. We leading-edge boomers have got, what, mabye twenty years left if we're lucky. Maybe so, and there is some wisdom in that advice. Yet, I take issue with it. Approaching each day as if it were our last may be a fine romantic notion, but it strikes me as a pretty unhealthy way to look at things. In fact, living each day as if we were going to be dead the next sounds pretty miserable to me. It sounds pretty desperate, as if death were someplace we are going that we'll regret when we get there.
I'd rather take this attitude as Rule Number 1: The teachings of various religions notwithstanding, death in itself is nothing. We simply cease to exist. There will be no awareness, no regrets. We deconstruct and rejoin the universe on the elemental level we were on before we were conceived. There is no spirit or soul floating around out there that remains the essential us. We dissolve, we dissipate, we disappear. To believe otherwise has absolutely no basis in any kind of rational, observable, repeatable evidence. That's my approach, but of course, you can use any kind of approach you believe in, religous or otherwise. The important wisdom is to rid ourselves of our fear of dying.
So, then, if we have no need to fear death, what should we be doing with our time as we advance from middle to old age? We should gather in the small wisdoms that life has handed us and live according to them. We've earned them, let's use them. These small wisdoms (some are bigger than others) are observable all around us, every day in the news magazines, in the papers, in the comments of the people we meet, in the books we read, in the wind and trees, in the water--all around us. We need only look and be aware.
That's what this blog is all about. Gathering small wisdoms and then offering them to other boomers simply as ideas on how to live more happily. The small wisdoms can be about financies, marriage, work, retirement, health, what ever. Send them in and we'll talk about them via the "comments" option at the bottom of the blog.
Here's my first offering of wisdom. I found an old copy of selections from Walden by Henry David Thoreau (I had not read it since I was forced to in high school when it made no sense). On page 14, Thoreau says, "The incessant anxiety and strain of some is a well-nigh incurable disease," and we bring it on ourselves by striving to possess material wealth and prestige, by being "good." Earlier in the paragraph he says, "The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior." And in a previous paragraph he says something wonderful: We might try to live our lives by a thousand simple tests; as, for instance, the same sun which ripens my beans illumines at once a system of earths like ours. If I had remembered this it would have prevented some mistakes.
I suggest we remember that and avoid as many mistakes as possible. To that end, here is the first item on a tentative List to Live By:
1. Make a list of things that make you feel desperate (make your heart pound and keep you awake at night) and start eliminating them from your life. It's okay to do that. Don't feel guilty.
Posted by Doug Arvidson at 5:38 AM No comments:
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(Ping! Zine) – Today, Atlantic.Net (www.atlantic.net), a privately held, high-performance managed hosting provider announced a multi-year partnership agreement with Complete Healthcare Solutions (www.completehealthcaresolutions.com), a global leader in medical software solutions. Under the terms of the agreement, Atlantic.Net will power CHS' medical software with turnkey managed hosting backed by SAS 70 certified infrastructure.
"We are pleased to enter into such an intricate health care IT deployment with Complete Healthcare Solutions. As health care continues to evolve and make use of increasingly complex and advanced technology, the combined efforts of companies like CHS and Atlantic.Net will be required to keep sensitive health care information secure and available to the medical professionals around the clock," said Josh Simon, Director of Data Center Services at Atlantic.Net." He added, "We consider CHS as a key strategic partner to serve the growing needs of the healthcare segment, and such partnerships are very important to our growth."
"Combining our medical software expertise with Atlantic.Net's SAS 70 compliant data center facility, we are positioned well to become the medical software solution of choice for health care providers for all of their EMR/EHR data needs. Healthcare providers can now focus on their core business and leverage our expertise and software solutions to comply with the HIPPA and HITECH compliance requirements." said Joseph Nompleggi, VP of Product Development of Complete Healthcare Solutions, "Atlantic.Net's reputation for 100% uptime, their secure infrastructure and expertise in Healthcare IT were key components in finalizing our partnership. Our partner's financial strength and proven track record are something we view with great confidence."


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Eeek I've been a terrible blogger! But only because the past month has been so insane! Crazy end-of-the-semester stuff that's all kind of a blur right now. But all is well and it's all passed, so life is going back to normal… which means the traveling, eating out, and hanging out has started up again. Papers and presentations be damned!
(TL-BR): Nom Nom Burger (Holsteins in Las Vegas, NV), Golden Plate of Sweets (Cardwell's in St. Louis, MO), Fresh Spring Rolls (V Bistro in Frisco, TX), and Crab Omelette (15 Ria in Washington, DC)
So all this traveling means occasionally eating on the plane and snacking on whatever random food I have on me teehee 🙂
(Top-Bottom): Cheese omelet (STL-MIA), DoubleTree Cookie (Washington, DC), Roast beef, turkey, and cheese sandwich (MIA-IAD)
And of course, what's traveling without enjoying the hotels? And even better than hotels, hotels with great views!
(L-R): View from the Palazzo (Las Vegas, NV) and view from the DoubleTree (Washington, D.C.)
And dare I say, May be even more eventful eeek 🙂


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Yes, I know I've been neglecting you. Yes, I know, I'm sorry. Well I'm back now.
It's just that I've been busy, you know? What with work, friends, family, and an insane YouTube addiction that's severely crippling my free time.
Anyway. It's good to be back. Maybe I can actually become a regular blogger! ... Heheh, right...
I should be asleep. I told myself I'd be sensible tonight, try and get to sleep before midnight, but noooo again the YouTube steals my time and it's already coming up to 1am. Dagnabbit.
The main reason that I'm doing this is because I've now linked to this blog from my website, which would be kind of pointless if I'd abandoned it completely. Mind you, my website isn't actually finished yet, and probably won't be until they find a way to eliminate the need for sleep completely.
At any rate, hello dear reader. I missed you. (Not Dear Reader as in the hypothetical reader, but Dear Reader as in my only actual reader, Les. Assuming he still reads this.)
Wednesday, 29 November 2006
Hello again, blog...
Yes, I know I've been neglecting you. Yes, I know, I'm sorry. Well I'm back now.


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Apologies, we haven't maintained this blog very well recently. So a bit like a jar of Marmite, it's been thrust into the nether-regions of the cupboard for the past six months or so.
Anyway, we've been working at ais London for coming up to a year.
We've got a new site coming soon to reflect that. The old site was more about getting attention (probably only child syndrome on my behalf), the new site will be more practical. Plus we'll try and include a bit of help for people who are in a similar situation to the one we were in with placements etc.
And hopefully once the new site is up, we can try to integrate this blog. For reasons unknown it still seems to be getting more hits than a ginger stepchild, so we'll give it the love and care it deserves sometime soon.


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Anyway I thought I would share a card with you today made with a Crafter's Companion SWALK stamp from the Winter Cheer range.
The image is water coloured witha bit of glitter and flowersoft. I cut the image out and popped her onto a little paper rosette. All the papers are from the SWALK CD 3 and the purple card stock is Core'dinations. The flower is also from the CD and I added some Baker's Twine and a button. I finished with some Silver Pearlescent PVA from Cosmic Shimmer.
I'll be back soon with some more cards.


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Who among us didn't think Adarius Bowman wasn't a first round pick after putting up 300 yards receiving against Kansas in 2006? We know the story from there: bad 40-time. Weed test positive. No draft pick. CFL.
Now Bowman is an afterthought mention in a CFL trade!
Maple Ridge native and Canadian Football League defensive back Brady Browne was traded Thursday to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers from the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Browne was included in a package deal that saw offensive lineman Dan Goodspeed moved to Saskatchewan in exchanged for receiver Adarius Bowman and Canadian offensive lineman Jean Francois Morin-Roberge. A number of late-round and conditional draft picks were also swapped in the trade.
Last year he caught 23 passes for 358 yards and three touchdowns in the CFL. One would think he still has the talent to play in the NFL. (Maybe the Tulsa Talons? I'm sure he could sell a KIA) But its pretty sad to see a relatively nice guy (from all I've heard) make a few bad decisions and end up in a league that even Canadians don't care about.


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Rena met her current husband (as of 2007) while they were working together on the set of "The Chronicle," a TV series that aired on the Sci-Fi Channel.
Rena attended Montclair State College in Montclair, New Jersey.
She is a fervent supporter of Israeli causes.
Rena is a yoga enthusiast.
In her free time, Rena likes to stay fit mentally and physically by hiking and rollerblading.
Rena appears in both 24 and Heroes. Oddly enough, both shows air on the same day and time.
In 2004, Rena appeared in a TV commercial for Head & Shoulders shampoo.
Rena won two awards (both in 1995) for her role on "General Hospital": a Daytime Emmy Award and a Soap Opera Digest Award.
Rena has given birth to two girls, the first with her ex-husband: Rosabel Rosalind Kurth and Avalon Leone Bookstaver.
On May 18, 2003, Rena married TV director/producer Sanford Bookstaver.
Rena moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at a young age after her parents divorced.
As of 2007, Rena resides in Sherman Oaks, California.
Rena attended the Frisch School, a Yeshiva high school in Paramus, New Jersey.
Her mother was a psychology teacher. Her father is an Orthodox Rabbi. She has a brother named David.
Rena's first experience in front of the camera occurred when she appeared in the NYU student film, "Theresa."
Rena took acting classes in high school and studied drama in college.
At the age of 15, a scout for the Elite modeling agency spotted Rena. Rena gave modeling a try, but quit three weeks later after back-to-back rejections.
Between 1995 and 1997, she was married to Wallace Kurth.
Rena appeared in the 1996 movie The Great White Hype in her role of Lois Ashton. Boxer James Roper was watching General Hospital, and she was in the scene he was watching.
She went to the same high school as the actor Gene Gabriel.
Rena is 5'6" (1.68 m) tall.
Rena: I think 24 is a more mature audience, whereas Heroes is a little bit younger. But I have to say, neither one is child friendly. My daughter doesn't get to watch either show!
Rena: (on working on 24) It's intense. I mean Kiefer's intense, and the show moves so fast, and you shoot so fast. But at the same time, everybody's so relaxed and laid back.
Rena: Road trips are the best. I'll drive anywhere. All I need are some Stephen King books on tape and lots of junk food, and I'm set.
Rena: (on why she would choose Heroes over 24) "Save the cheerleader, save the world!" is a cooler phrase than "Dammit, Chloe, we're running out of time!".
Rena: (on why she would choose 24 over Heroes) It's less confusing to watch one man save the world than a bunch of people save the world. And you don't need subtitles.
Rena: It's great when you work with actors who appreciate the fact that they've got a good show. And they don't let that come into play. They don't let the star stuff come into play.
Rena: (on working on 24) It's an unbelievable experience. And I've done things on that show that in 20 years of being an actress, I have never done in my career.
Rena: (upon joining "Just Shoot Me") I'm kind of the queen of joining already established shows.
Rena: I knew if I worked hard, I could always improve my acting skills.
Rena: (about her show "Coupling") Sometimes it makes us blush when we read the scripts. But we're not doing nudity or simulated sex. We need to live up to the British show, and NBC is pretty supportive of that.
Rena: I was hanging out in [Greenwich] Village in New York City shopping with a bunch of my friends and this woman came over and introduced herself. She was a scout with Elite Petite Models. Since I'm only 5' 6", I'm too short to be a regular model, but she thought I'd be perfect for a petite model.


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I was planning on posting my Bacon Dijon Potato Salad today but, on the request of my dear Mom, I'm posting this amazing soup. After making it the other night for supper I sent Brad over to my parents' house with a container of this soup to see if they'd like it as much as I did. It was a hit with my peeps over 60 too! My dad, after finishing the soup, asked if I provided free refills and sadly I do not (mainly because I hoarded the leftovers for my own lunch the next day!). It's good to keep them wanting more, isn't it?
This is a nicely spiced soup that's not too heavy. I love pairing beans and bacon together! The bacon flavour is not overpowering but you still get your hit of smoky taste without getting too much fat. I was inspired to make this soup based on a recipe that I found on allrecipes.com. I tweaked this soup more to our tastes (less spicy, different beans, added spinach and more bacon!!) so now I figure it's my own recipe. If you have picky eaters amongst you who may balk at the thought of eating spinach just chop it up finely and pass it off as 'seasonings'. The less picky eaters know the better.
You can also change up the beans you use. If you're more partial to black beans or prefer just kidney beans then go for it. I did like the addition of the chickpeas which were in the can of mixed beans that I used. You can also choose to puree the entire soup but I prefer seeing some veggies and beans in my soup.
This is a great soup to make on a cold winter day with a nice loaf of freshly (ie from the breadmaker) loaf of bread! With the way winter is hanging on this soup will come in handy!Enjoy!
8 bacon slices, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 medium onion, diced
2 large carrots, peeled and diced
1 red bell pepper, dicedd
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp white sugar
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 bay leaf
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tbsp Worchestershire sauce
4 cups chicken broth
1 (19oz/540mL) can mixed beans (chick peas, dark red kidney beans, black-eyed peas, white kidney beans, romano beans and baby lima beans)
1 (19oz/540mL) can red kidney beans
1/2 cup baby spinach - stems removed and chopped
In a Dutch oven over medium heat, saute the bacon until crisp. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and set it on a plate covered with paper towels. Set aside. Drain the fat from the Dutch oven, leaving approximately 2 tbsp of the grease. Add the onions, carrots, red pepper and garlic to the pot. Saute in the bacon grease for 10 minutes.
Add the sugar, ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, bay leaf, thyme and Worchestershire sauce to the vegetable mixture. Stir in a small amount of the chicken stock and deglaze the pot (ie scrape off all of the caramelized brown bits from the bottom of the pot. It's not gross, it's amazing flavour!!!).
Add the beans and the remaining chicken stock. Cook for 10-15 minutes on medium heat or until the vegetables are tender.
Using a slotted spoon, remove several large scoops of beans and vegetables from the soup and set them in a bowl. Remove the bay leaf. Using an immersion hand blender (or transfer the remaining soup to a blender) puree the remaining soup in the pot. Return beans and vegetables to the pot. Add more seasoning, if necessary. Stir in the baby spinach and crumbled bacon. Simmer for 10 more minutes.
Serve with fresh bread and a salad for a complete meal.
Recipe inspired by: allrecipes.com (Bean, Bacon & Pepper Soup)


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Sunday, December 18, 2011
Science Communicators Picnic
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Obscured by Clouds. The rough and ready blog of a cloud benighted biologist and amateur astronomer. Astroblog will cover my interests in astronomy, biology and Life, the Universe and Everything.


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"Get a glove on that glove"I found this quite funny, because the normal saying is "Get a glove on that foot" when the ball hits a players foot. Guess it really was a had to be there moment, none the less, it gets my quote of the day.
Friday, 24 June 2011
Quote of the Day
Today's quote of the day was delivered by left hand pitcher David Hurlbut, it may have been a had to be there moment, but was still very funny. It came after the Burlington Royals catcher 'clanked' a pitch.
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Currently at rest and getting used to their new home, their exhibit opens May 18th.
It's panda-monium this spring and the giant panda is the star of TELUS' new mobility and multicultural campaigns! The WWF (World Wildlife Fund) is Canada's largest international conservation organization with the active support of more than 150,000 Canadians. They are creating solutions to the most serious conservation challenges facing our planet, helping people and nature thrive. Since 2000, TELUS, its team and retirees have contributed more than $200,000 to WWF - TELUS is also helping further the cause by purchasing Adoption Kits from the WWF to share with their friends. I received one of these awesome kits at a recent TELUS event I attended, it is SO nice, thoughtful and something I really enjoyed sharing with my boys!
For the first time, TELUS' advertising is featuring computer generated imagery (CGI) critters instead of live animals. To create their CGI pandas, they used existing images and videos of pandas to build a digital model that was refined, groomed and textured until its skin, hair, facial expressions and movement were as lifelike as possible. The entire process took nearly six months! Check out their latest feature..
I love how dedicated TELUS is to the community and the World Wildlife Fund, check out what they are doing here. This year they are working on some new opportunities to team up with WWF to keep our critters safe for years to come I love supporting companies who are in turn supporting our communities, don't you?


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My approach to the game in a nutshell
Beyond having fun I encourage or discourage nothing. If the rules and campaign matrix don't specifically forbid something? You can try it. For instance, your fighter usually can't cast magic spells, that's outside of the game's reality. But, if your fighter wants to use his spear in an attempt to pole vault a 30 foot deep pit? No problem.
0. The Rule of Cool
This rule covers a lot of possibilities. Sometimes something will just happen because it's cool and makes the game more fun.
For example: your fighter is engaged in mortal combat with the hobgoblin king. You're both down to a few hit points and you've won initiative. You roll a 20 for your attack and a 6 for damage. Sure, I could blandly say you've slain your opponent and now his soldiers must roll against their morale. Boring! Your dice rolls are noteworthy so the rule of cool says the hobgoblin king's head flies from his shoulders at your mighty blow, sailing through the air and landing at the feet of his general. A moment of shocked silence follows as the general and the hobgoblin soldiers arrayed behind him stare at the king's severed head. Then, a collective shriek splits the air as they drop their weapons and flee in terror.
1. Ability scores generation method?
3d6 in order. I offer two methods for altering ability scores during character generation. First, you may use the point buy system proposed in the rulebook and slightly modified by myself. Or, you may swap any one ability score as rolled with the prime requisite of your chosen class. You may use one method or the other but not both.
2. How are death and dying handled?
Your player-character is dead at zero hit points or below. Barring massive hit point loss, promptly applied curative magic (e.g. cure light wounds) stands a chance of bringing the player-character back from death's door.
3. What about raising the dead?
The capability certainly exists within the milieu but this isn't a quest lightly undertaken.
4. How are replacement PCs handled?
They are worked into the story as quickly as possible. I like to use some pretext, however thin, to insert them into the action. Still, I've been known to have them appear in a flash of light and puff of smoke with a very confused look on their face if nothing readily suggests itself.
5. Initiative: individual, group, or something else?
Group. Each faction rolls d6 with high roll winning the right to act first. Action may be delayed if desired. Ties are rolled again.
6. Are there critical hits and fumbles? How do they work?
No critical hits or fumbles. My house rules do state a natural 20 is always a hit (with the exception of opponents only hit be special attacks) and a natural 1 is always a miss.
7. Do I get any benefits for wearing a helmet?
A protected head! Otherwise "1 in 6 hits in melee will be at an unarmored head" as per the rules. If you do wear a helmet and are AC 5 or AC 3 it is further assumed you are wearing a chain coif with padded hood or cap beneath that. All this must be removed if your player-character wishes to attempt to listen at doors or hear noise.
8. Can I hurt my friends if I fire into melee or do something similarly silly?
Yes. It may be a fantasy milieu but getting shot with an arrow still hurts, whether fired by friend or foe.
9. Will we need to run from some encounters, or will we be able to kill everything?
You, the players, decide your own tactics. If your party of first level adventurers is foolhardy enough to take on an ancient red dragon you'll surely get what you deserve. I'll never arbitrarily throw you onto the sword but if you see an outstretched blade and still want to run onto it, that's your decision.
10. Level-draining monsters: yes or no?
Yes. And to further illuminate; without some high-level restorative magic a drained level is gone for good. You'll have to regain experience to regain your previous level. Level draining is scary, but it's supposed to be scary.
11. Are there going to be cases where a failed save results in PC death?
Yes. Adventuring is a dangerous and deadly pastime, player-character death is a very real possibility.
12. How strictly are encumbrance & resources tracked?
I feel both are integral to the challenge of the game so I track both. The rules themselves are somewhat lax regarding encumbrance: the weight of your armor and weapons plus 80 coins (8 pounds) of gear. If you're carrying more than a backpack full of stuff I'll probably take a closer look at your inventory to see if you've incurred a movement penalty. Encumbrance becomes an issue when treasure is found and the player-characters wish to cart it off. There's only so much one can carry and gold is heavy!
Some resources are more stringently checked. I'll often give you tokens such as poker chips or printed chits for certain expendables such as arrows, quarrels, torches, or vials of holy water. Every time you use one I'll take a token back from you and, when they're gone? You've reached the end of that particular resource.
13. What's required when my PC gains a level? Training? Do I get new spells automatically? Can it happen in the middle of an adventure, or do I have to wait for down time?
In order: nothing, no, no for magical types and yes for divine types, no, yes.
14. What do I get experience for?
Recovering treasure is the main source of experience. For this reason clever adventurers will attempt to gain maximum treasure with minimum combat. Other sources of experience are defeating or outwitting monsters, solving problems, outstanding role-playing. In short? For good play.
15. How are traps located? Description, dice rolling, or some combination?
Description, augmented with die rolling in some situations for certain characters (particularly scouts).
16. Are retainers encouraged and how does morale work?
If you want them, hire them. They will be played as persons balancing a greed for treasure against a strong sense of self-preservation, modified by how you treat them. They may also have their own agenda which will affect their behavior as well. Morale is outlined in further detail in my rules document.
17. How do I identify magic items?
By using/wielding/wearing/etc. the item. For instance, small sips of potions will often give a hint as to their use. NPC sages and wizards will often identify items for a fee.
18. Can I buy magic items? Oh, come on: how about just potions?
Generally speaking, no. Some relatively common items, such as healing potions or first level spell scrolls, might occasionally be found for sale but a wise player won't count on it.
19. Can I create magic items? When and how?
Short answer? Yes, with lots of money and time. Meanwhile, the world keeps on spinning. Opportunities may be lost and your enemies will still be working on their nefarious plans. The official rules should give you an idea of time and effort, as well as the level of player experience, required to create items, I'll give you more exact information if and when the need arises.
20. What about splitting the party?
There is safety in numbers but if the slowed and rather awkward play arising from splitting the party is how you wish to spend your gaming time? Have at it.


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Anti-racist protesters march in Durham, North Carolina after KKK rally rumors
Hundreds of anti-racist protesters have marched in Durham, North Carolina, in response to rumors of a white supremacist rally, amid growing tensions between civil rights activists and hate groups in the US.
The demonstrators gathered in downtown Durham on Friday and marched for several blocks with signs such as "Black Lives Matter" and "We Will Not Be Intimidated" as well as "History will not repeat."
The counter-protesters also burned white supremacist and Confederate flags.
Rumors of a white supremacist rally circulated on social media Friday and activists announced that a counter-protest would be held in response to the demonstration.
The sheriff in Durham said in a statement that no gathering of white supremacists was apparent by afternoon but he was investigating the rumors.
On Monday, protesters tore down a Confederate statue in Durham. Efforts to remove such statues around the country have increased since the violent rally last week in Charlottesville, Virginia, where one person was killed and 19 others were injured.
The white supremacists, neo-Nazis and KKK members participating at the "Unite the Right" event in Charlottesville were protesting against the removal of Confederate monuments and memorials from public spaces, specifically the Robert E. Lee statue in Emancipation Park in Charlottesville.
Supporters of Confederate memorials argue they represent an important part of history, while opponents view them as symbols of hate and racism as well as an affront to African-Americans.
On Friday, the mayor of Charlottesville called for an emergency meeting of state lawmakers to allow the city to swiftly remove the statue.
The US Conference of Mayors and the Anti-Defamation League announced a partnership to "combat hate" in wake of the violent protests in Virginia last weekend.
More than 200 mayors have joined the compact including those from New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Houston, Dallas, Baltimore, Atlanta and Washington, DC.
"We all have to speak with absolute moral clarity on this issue, and so we need to be clear in this country that this is a time of choosing," Mitch Landrieu, mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana, and current president of the US Conference of Mayors.
US President Donald Trump has come under increasing pressure over his stance on the racial violence, with many members of his own Republican Party and US business executives distancing themselves from him.
A protest is planned on Saturday in Boston, Massachusetts, by a coalition of Trump's supporters and conservatives and counter-protesters that could draw thousands, sparking concerns over another violent rally.
Organizers of the event have invited "conservatives, traditionalists, libertarians, classical liberals, Trump supporters or anyone else who enjoys their right to free speech," according to a group calling itself the Boston Free Speech Coalition.
Organizers of the event have publicly distanced themselves from the neo-Nazis, white supremacists and others who fomented violence in Charlottesville on August 12, but opponents feared that white nationalists might show up in Boston anyway, raising the specter of violent confrontations.


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How desperate is ABC for Dancing With The Stars to begin? They just finished fourth last week in the all important adults 18-49 ratings, 0.3 ratings points behind NBC. With Dancing's return last night, that's going to change, but they may be stuck in fourth place for the season with the hole they've dug for themselves.
With the NCAA basketball tournament filling 3 nights of primetime, and providing a nice overrun boost to Sunday, CBS managed to tie Fox for the adults 18-49 crown for the week.
Will update later with the weekly adults 18-34 and 25-54 ratings.
Note that the chart includes RATINGS not VIEWERS as was typical in our weekly network ratings posts prior to July, 2009.
Each rating point is a percentage of the US TV population in that demographic group and equals: 2.90 million viewers, 1.32 million adults 18-49, 0.68 million adults 18-34 and 1.24 million adults 25-54.
You can see past week's broadcast network primetime weekly TV ratings results here.
Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2010 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.


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My husband really is a rock star! He is such a hard working guy who puts 100 % in to whatever he does. That sometimes annoys me because I want something done quick and he wants it done correct. Ahem. But, that is what makes him a success in most everything he does. That has followed him in his jobs, academics, hobbies and now in his volunteer role at Jonah's school.
I got these pictures via text from the Office Administrator at his school today. The text said "VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR!" The office called Jonah out of class so he could help present the award to Dan. I love that they did that. It's a big deal to Jonah.
Dan was there to volunteer this morning when they let him know he won. He volunteers every Wednesday morning when he drops Jonah off for school and usually every Friday too. His first job was when Jonah was in Kindergarten. He helped in his classroom. Then, in First grade, he was in Jonah's classroom one day when his teacher had a tech problem that Dan was able to fix. The word quickly spread and he became the official tech guy of first grade. Anytime there was a computer issue, they called him. It didn't take long for that word to spread and soon he started getting calls from other grades.
Now, he is the official tech guy. Well, actually he is the un-official tech guy. The school district has a whole tech department but they are so backlogged that it takes weeks to have tech requests answered. So, Dan does a lot of plugging/unplugging, connecting cables, changing resolution, googling issues and switching out computer parts. But, those simple things get classrooms up and running again so even though a lot of it is very simple, it is a huge help to teachers who are doing an awesome job molding and shaping minds.
We love Jonah's school and consider it a great privilege to be there to support teachers in what they do. It is great to see our little guy throughout the day and for him to see us serving his school. But, most of all, it is a great opportunity to be salt and light. We struggled with the decision of putting Jonah into our Christian school at our church or in public school. Having him in public school has given us access to so many people that would never step into a church. We get to form relationships with people that we would never know otherwise. And, I'll tell you, there have been some sweet things come from that.
I'm super proud of my husband. He works a full-time job and on his day off sacrifices so much time. He doesn't do it for the recognition but it is always nice to be recognized. He is embarrassed by the attention of it all but that just further proves my point of who he is. He's a good guy. I'm glad he's mine! :-)


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{Dress: Target (old), Sweater: Forever21, Socks: similar, Shoes: similar, Pashmina scarf}
This is my solution to wanting to bust out a floral dress while being completely unprepared for my pasty, been-covered-up-all-winter-long legs to come out and greet the world once again. Keeping with the theme of this post, I categorize this ensemble as "in between" wear. I got the coverage I needed for a chilly morning then quickly ditched my sweater and scarf after lunch to enjoy the warmer afternoon weather.
Things I love about this outfit:
1. Over-the-knee socks are an unexpected retro accessory that are such a fun alternative to tights.
2. A budget-friendly, staple dress that just won't quit. I've had it for years and continue to see it rotating through my wardrobe every season.
3. A pashmina from Italy- where it's appropriate to wear scarves year round. Silly Italians.


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