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my favorite thing about this picture is her outfit compared to the line behind her. my own little pinkalicious.
may 3 we had daffodils! the fall before we'd had a bunch of landscaping/planting done so this was so exciting! even more this year. I can't wait. though I'll have to because they're covered in a pile of snow.
tres cheers for the cinco de mayo festival in evanston. it's so fun and bright and delicious and happy. hanna was in the little dancing club.
lily's kindergarten program. she sang twinkle twinkle little star as a special duet and wore her most twinklie outfit. afterwards we went to treehouse museum in ogden and played.
oh man. perfect rainy morning. we'd just dropped lily off at school or something so it was still all grey and wonderful. this was at MY second cousin's dentist office lot. what a good wall, huh?
anniversary party for my parents. (more photos via the link)
then we adopted a couple of crazy cereal-eating puppies. my kids still love playing puppies (or babies) frequently. lily says woof. max says wooss.
one day after school I grabbed a couple of friends and convinced them we were going on a dinosaur hunting adventure. we came up with about 5 different places in town that had dinosaurs. jumped out to take a picture and be crazy.


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Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Subbacultcha - Contest!
Thanks to everybody who turned out for N@B last night. Pre-shate it folks. And I'm sure regular attenders will agree it was good to have Scott Phillips back as emcee. I kicked the evening off reading from Blood, Guts & Whiskey in honor of fellow reader and BG&W contributor Derek Nikitas. I would like to point out that going first is a huge advantage here. I wouldn't want to have to follow Derek, who read an excellent and escalating excerpt from The Long Division, but first timer Matthew J. McBride took that thankless position and raised the stakes impossibly high from the first line of his story Gunpowder and Aluminum Foil, "That's the biggest cock I've ever seen." Crossbows and meth go together like peanut butter and chocolate. If you haven't read Matthew you can check out his blog Got Pulp? where he's got links to other stories and you can keep up with his high octane lifestyle. I'd like to add that N@B has got quite a track record for first public readings going with Matthew joining Frankie Bill and Malachi Stone in that catagory. Damn, makes me feel proud. Have you seen what people are saying about Frankie's novel Donnybrook? Go check that out. Dennis Tafoya carried the evening to a heartbreaking conclusion with the opening excerpt from his excellent new novel The Wolves of Fairmount Park which you should definitely purchase, (and Subterranean Books has got some signed copies if'n ya wanna maybe order one).
I've got a new contest now and the prizes (2) are the printed story Gunpowder and Aluminum Foil and Derek's The Long Division excerpt signed by all the participants from last night. Simply pick up a copy of the excellent new Thuglit anthology Blood Guts & Whiskey edited by Todd Robinson and email me the final lines from N@B participants Sean Doolittle, Derek Nikitas and my own stories. Click on my profile on the right side of your screen for that address.
Speaking with Dennis last night, he mentioned his strong desire to write a supernatural/paranormal/horror whatever you wanna call it book. A crime writer who has just done that is Michael Koryta. I'm talking about him and So Cold the River at Ransom Notes.
Posted by jedidiah ayres at 4:03 AM
Labels: NoirBar, Ransom Notes
2 comments:
- Steve Weddle said...
I need to move to St Louis.
- June 29, 2010 at 5:34 AM
- Rod Norman said...
WHAT A NIGHT, Man you just keep raising the bar each time.. St. Louis is the place to be thanks to Jed & Scott !
- June 29, 2010 at 7:01 AM
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subset: commoncrawl


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Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Chavez antisemitism towards vox populi status
This blogger was one of the first solitary voices to denounce that chavista antisemitism, so linked to mediocre people only too willing to blame others for their own failures. But this has changed as everywhere more people point out that the bolivarian farce suspiciously looks like fascism of the XXI century. We read it in the pen of Ibsen Martinez today in Tal Cual or from my friend Gene Zitver at Harry's place. The cat is out, and if major newspapers are not harping on that issue as they should, it just a matter of time as Chavez will deliver the final nail for his antisemitic coffin. Not to mention that if chavismo is unable to understand words like genocide and holocaust as they casually toss them around, probably to demean them deliberately, major papers do understand the symbols behind these words and will get on Chavez case sooner rather than later.
To conclude this post the Weil cartoon for today is priceless as it illustrates well how an ignorant and frivolous Chavez is stocking the fires on the Middle East situation instead of trying to find constructive ways to heal the drama. His obsession to make the news will bring him to any extreme, as he is probaly upset that the Gaza news upstage him, even in Venezuela.
-The end-
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Post a Comment
Comments policy:
1) Comments are moderated after the fourth day of publication. It may take up to a day or two for your note to appear then.
2) Your post will appear if you follow the basic rules. I will be ruthless in erasing, as well as those who replied to any off rule comment.
Do not be repetitive.
Do not bring grudges and fights from other blogs here (this is the strictest rule).
This is an anti Chavez/chavismo blog, Readers have made up their minds long ago. Trying to prove us wrong is considered a troll. Still, you are welcome as a chavista to post if you want to explain us coherently as to why chavismo does this or that. We are still waiting for that to happen.
Insults and put downs are frowned upon and I will be sole judge on whether to publish them.


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La Cuisine
La Cuisine Oval 4.75qt Cast Iron Casserole with Enamel Finish
Overview & Details
La Cuisine Oval 4.75qt Cast Iron Casserole with Enamel Finish
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La Cuisine Oval 4.75qt Cast Iron Casserole with Enamel Finish
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"Suara N9" firstname.lastname@example.com
By : Arman Ahmad
NST 12 May 08. KUALA LUMPUR: Several non-governmental
organisations (NGO) will send a petition comprising
more than 100,000 signatures of Malaysians to the
United Nations representative here on Friday to
denounce the Israeli occupation of Palestinian
The move is in commemoration of the 60th anniversary
of Nakba Day -- the day the state of Israel was
declared on May 15, 1948.
Citizens International (CI), an NGO formed to foster
awareness, activism and advocacy on issues that are
central to the stability and wellbeing of humanity,
said the petition was meant to be forwarded to the UN
Security Council.
"At the same time, we will also send a petition of
support to the Palestinian Embassy in Malaysia," said
CI spokesman Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid.
Some 500 to 1,000 people would also demonstrate
peacefully outside the embassy.
"With this petition, we also hope that the Malaysian
government can make an initiative to help the people
of Palestine, especially those living on the Gaza
"We also hope that members of parliament, regardless
of their race and religious background, would also
table a special motion to commemorate Nakba Day," he
Nakba Day, literally translated as a "day of
catastrophe" , also set into motion a series of events
which caused untold hardship for millions of people
until today.
The Israelis carried out what some regard as ethnic
cleansing of the Palestinians from the land which is
now under their control.
It was part of a comprehensive plan, designed by the
Zionist high command, to expel Palestinians from the
territory after the British mandate expired, and to
seize as much land as possible for an intended Jewish
Between 1947 and 1948, more than 750,000 Palestinians
were made homeless.
Today, this population has grown to over four million.
http://www.nst. com.my/Current_ News/NST/ Monday/National/ 2238006/Article/ index_html
Daripada Abu Umarah iaitu al-Bara' bin 'Azib radhiallahu anhuma, katanya: "Kita semua diperintah oleh Rasulullah s.a.w. untuk melakukan tujuh perkara, iaitu meninjau orang sakit, mengikuti janazah, menentasymitkan orang yang bersin, menolong orang yang lemah, membantu orang yang teraniaya, meratakan salam dan melaksanakan sumpah."
(Muttafaq 'alaih)
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Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Governor Brown Redux?
With our mayor's dropout from the CA gubernatorial race, it's looking like a potential return to another era. While I never really got into the Dead Kennedys, I guess I'll have to wait and see about Mr. J. Moonbeam Brown. I've heard some stories, but did not really follow California politics in the 80's.
Posted by Joe Manekin at 11/03/2009 07:00:00 AM
Labels: jerry brown, music videos
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It is heartwarming to see the World Cup being played in South Africa today. It is an event that crowns South Africa's transition from apartheid and racial enmity to a truly, free democratic nation where whites and blacks co-exist peacefully. Twenty years ago, the apartheid regime's soccer team was barred from participating in FIFA events, a part of the sanctions that would ultimately force the end of segregation and discrimination in Africa's richest nation. The tournament being played this week is an exercise in symbolism that demonstrates the power of sports to bring different people together and reminds us of the positive influence they can have on the world.
This event is not an anomaly. Afrikaners and Zulu are forming dialogues with each other as their country becomes more integrated and united, and as racial divisions slowly fade into the past. Whites have trekked intro areas they would have never gone too during the apartheid era and many blacks now live in the desegregated city of Johannesburg. The New York Times's Barry Bearak wrote a great article this month about how Afrikaners — who are big ruby people — chose to hold their rugby matches in Soweto, which was a redoubt of resistance to apartheid and a hotbed of black nationalism.
Yes today, in South Africa and in the wider world, racial inequity still persists. Yes, South Africa faces challenges, like the AIDS crisis and poverty, which appear intractable. Yet, it is finally shaking off the legacy of colonialism, which has haunted it for the last half-century and fulfilling the vision Nelson Mandela saw of a post-racial nation in which all people were treated equally.


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There seems no reason to assume Trump has grown beyond his infantile stage and considerable reason to suspect he hasn't.
Nicholas Kristof reports an earlier Trump episode from a woman who tried to do business with the big baby:
So they think, until taught to think differently. Fortunately, more and more men are raised to think differently.
... Harth continued to meet Trump for business — and, she says, he continued to try to jump her. "He'd say, 'Let's go in my room, I want to lie down,' and he'd pull me along. I'd say, 'I don't want to lie down,' and it would turn into a wrestling match. … I remember yelling, 'I didn't come here for this.' He'd say, 'Just calm down.'"
Harth says that she worried about being raped by a man who weighed twice as much as she did, and at one point she vomited as a defense mechanism. But she says that he was never violent and genuinely seemed to assume sexual interest on her part; often he was playful as she was frightened: "His mind was in a totally different place than mine," Harth recalls. "He thinks he's God's gift to women."


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Two high-level reviews could result in fewer top executive officers at the University of Illinois, possibly undoing key appointments made by former University of Illinois President Michael Hogan.
URBANA — Two high-level reviews could result in fewer top executive officers at the University of Illinois, possibly undoing key appointments made by then-University of Illinois President Michael Hogan.
A UI Board of Trustees committee last week proposed eliminating the vice president for health affairs in favor of a vice chancellor's position, part of a restructuring of the UI's health care operations.
And a separate review of other central administrative offices, completed in August, produced several options to revamp the Office of the Vice President for Research, including one that would eliminate it as a separate vice presidency and place it under another office, The News-Gazette has learned.
Both vice presidencies were created three years ago under Hogan, who resigned under fire in 2012. Health affairs was a new position, and the research post was formerly the vice president for technology and economic development.
Chris Kennedy, chairman of the UI board, said no one should interpret the proposals as a rollback of Hogan's initiatives, saying the health affairs post will build on necessary changes made three years ago.
"I think it's a refinement," Kennedy said last week.
And, he said, "I'm unaware of any support for the notion that we would diminish the role of the vice president for research."
Completing the administrative review and weighing a reorganization of the university's health affairs office have been top priorities for President Bob Easter since he took the helm of the university a year and a half ago.
Easter commissioned the university administration review last year to examine administrative offices for redundancies and their value to the UI's core academic mission — teaching, research and public service. The goals were to improve efficiency and save money but also ensure that money is budgeted appropriately.
The UI spends about $116 million annually on university-level administration — 2 percent to 3 percent of its total operating budget — which includes everything from the president's office to budgeting to university lawyers to the UI Research Park. In all, about 1,200 people work in those administrative units, according to a staffing report prepared by the university Office of Planning and Budgeting.
Seven review teams with representatives from each campus examined the administrative units and completed their reports in early summer, said Bill Adams, who led the UA review as senior adviser to Easter. A steering committee led by Adams compiled the 85 findings and recommendations. That report was reviewed by an advisory committee led by Christophe Pierre, vice president for academic affairs, and including the three campus provosts; Walter Knorr, the UI's chief financial officer; and Professor Nick Burbules, then chairman of the University Senates Conference. They boiled the 85 items into 47 recommendations and sent that report in late August to Easter, Adams said.
Adams, retired associate provost from the Urbana campus, declined to discuss specific recommendations, but said one came "close" to suggesting that the position of vice president for research be eliminated.
Easter said the recommendation was not to eliminate the office altogether but move it under the vice president for academic affairs.
"That was one of several options that went to him," Adams said.
Easter is still working his way through the 47 recommendations with the chancellors of the three campuses. They still have about 10 to consider, including the vice president for research, Adams said. He expects that process to wind up in another week or two, and until then the recommendations will remain confidential.
"When they're done with all of them, then we'll make them public," Adams said. "Then we will begin to formally implement these things."
Campuses first, UA second
The report contains several "overarching" recommendations that affect all units — such as improving communication with the campuses and establishing a process for annual reviews, Adams said.
Perhaps most telling is its emphasis on involving campus "customers" in policy decisions that will ultimately affect them, Adams said.
"If you drill down through all of this, the significant change here is — and this has been in all the communications from the beginning — that the core missions of the university are carried out through the campuses and faculty teaching and research, and that all other units exist to provide support," Adams said.
The feeling on the campuses has always been that university-level administration was a "hierarchical structure: the folks at the UA were running the place and the folks at the campus are kind of second in line," Adams said. "What this does is, it kind of changes that paradigm into one where the campuses are where the work really gets done, and the missions really get carried out, and everything else exists to support that."
Is everyone on board with that?
"No," Adams replied. "But do I think that they're starting to get it? I do. It's a significant change in culture. It'll take a while to get there."
It's also a change in emphasis from Hogan's presidency, when the paramount concern was restoring order to a university torn by an admissions scandal. He worked with trustees to strengthen the presidency, saying the lack of "a clear line of administrative authority" had diminished the president's effectiveness. He named the three chancellors as vice presidents first and spoke of the UI as "one university with three campuses," rankling faculty at the flagship Urbana campus.
Building on recommendations from an earlier administrative task force, he also appointed university-level administrators to coordinate information technology and human resources across the campuses. But his effort to do the same with enrollment management led to widespread faculty dissent and, eventually, his resignation.
"By far the most important thing that President Easter and Vice President Pierre brought to this process is a definition that the function of UA is to serve and support the campuses," Burbules said. "That is diametrically opposite of what President Hogan's philosophy was. And I think in the process, they've been re-evaluating a lot of the changes President Hogan put in place."
But Adams, like Kennedy, doesn't see the proposals as an effort to undo Hogan's initiatives.
"I just think there are some of these where it's time for a second look," Adams said.
Burbules said the problem with Hogan's reforms was a failure to reconcile the division of authority between university administration and the campuses. Hogan applied a model he had used at the University of Connecticut, and "it didn't work here. It's a different kind of institution," he said. "Our campus identities are foremost. We are also part of a collegial whole. It's a question of what you put first."
Easter, with trustees' approval, changed the chancellors' titles so that "vice president" became secondary.
The UI also announced one change from the UA review, reiterating that campus human resource officers report up through the chancellors rather than directly to university administration, Adams said.
"Everything that President Easter has done since he's arrived has been to shift that relative authority out of UA back to the campuses," Burbules said.
Research post: 'Work in progress'
Some of the concerns about the vice president for research relate to the way the position was created, Adams said, calling it "kind of a unilateral decision" by Hogan.
That change, and the creation of the health affairs post, were part of a restructuring package proposed by Hogan and approved by UI trustees in fall 2010, a few months after he was named president.
Hogan argued that intellectual property is inextricably linked to academic research, so it made sense to expand the role of the vice president for technology and economic development to include research. The revamped position was to facilitate research collaboration among the three campuses, streamline related policies and procedures, eliminate "unnecessary redundancies" and act as a "unified voice" for the UI's $800 million research enterprise, he said at the time.
"Part of the issue is, there simply wasn't the level of consultation with the campuses and their faculty in terms of what the role of this would be and what its authority would be," Adams said. "The way it's functioning is not consistent with the way the position was set up, thank goodness. If a person really decided to do what the initial charge was, it would cause heartburn on campus."
Hogan also said the clinical work of the UI's health sciences enterprise had grown increasingly complex, and the 2010 Administrative Restructuring and Review task force had recommended creating a universitywide officer to oversee health operations. Lawrence Schook, then director of the UI Division of Biomedical Sciences in Urbana, was appointed vice president for research, and Dr. Joe "Skip" Garcia, then a new vice chancellor at UI Chicago, became vice president for health affairs.
Burbules, who was among faculty leaders concerned about the appointments at the time, said the fears had nothing to do with either Schook or Garcia. Rather, faculty were unclear about the role of the new vice presidents in relation to the vice chancellors and other administrators on each campus. That continues to create confusion about "who exactly has control over what," he said.
Don Chambers, a member of the University Senates Conference when Hogan proposed the administrative changes, said he tried repeatedly to get more information and clarity on both new positions at the time, to no avail.
Burbules said Schook is "terrific" and has used a "fairly light touch" in the job, delegating a great deal of authority to the vice chancellors for research. But he said the position's responsibilities remain open-ended, including its oversight of the research parks on the UI's two main campuses.
Adams agreed: "I don't sense there's a real issue right now. What if somebody else comes in that really reads what their authority is and decides to take it? There are some significant issues there."
Chambers thinks the university needs a vice president for research "to deal with a variety of things: university research agendas, how should Chicago synergize with Urbana and where Springfield fits into this." But he said it's still a "work in progress," complicated by the relationship with the vice chancellors.
Kennedy characterized those concerns as internal and said it's more important for the university to look externally, particularly in the case of research funding.
"Whether that's the National Science Foundation or the business community, primarily in Chicago, or the elected representatives, or the mayor's office, or the congressional delegation, they love having a single point of contact," Kennedy said. "Without that single point of contact the whole notion of UI Labs would be dead. We would not have the ability to respond as we have."
UI Labs is a multimillion-dollar research and development lab planned in Chicago, a public-private partnership involving the UI, city of Chicago, state and industry. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel also wants the university to help create a manufacturing center there to increase the region's competitiveness and keep UI engineering graduates from going to Silicon Valley.
Schook said economic development is a vital part of the UI's mission, mandated by the state, which has provided millions for projects such as the Blue Waters supercomputer.
"Right now there's more expectations, not less, from the outside," he said.
Schook also said the administrative review team didn't point out any real problems with his office.
"There's nothing in the report that says, 'This is the problem we need to fix,'" Schook said. "It's more like, 'These are things that should be considered.'"
As for health affairs, Kennedy said the new recommendations are "a continuation of the prior administration's work to try to consolidate authority, and responsibility, for various parts of our academic medical center in one executive," he said. The creation of the vice president was a major step forward, he said, particularly in dealing with threats to the UI's health funding. The next step is to integrate the academic side, the College of Medicine, he said.
"I think we're going to end up with a person in the health affairs position who has greater authority than anything Skip ever had," Kennedy said.
Quiet changes
Adams said some of the forthcoming changes from the UA review involve simply changing a reporting line; others are more substantive and will take time, he said.
The reports have been kept confidential to give UI leaders to have a chance to digest them "without people lobbying one way or the other," he said. Adams argued that all interested parties had significant input through the administrative review process.
Jorge Villegas, business professor at UI Springfield and current chairman of the University Senates Conference, said he understands why it's taking some time for the recommendations to be made known, as the process is "delicate."
"President Easter is a very deliberate person; he considers all the details. He knows there are people involved, and we appreciate that," he said. "Really these are major decisions and we're happy they are going through this process. It will help UA become a more service-oriented organization."
The Campus Faculty Association has some concerns about the transparency of the process and the seemingly small number of faculty involved in the discussions thus far, said UI communications Professor Susan Davis.
Streamlining at high levels is a good thing, she said, but faculty want to know how any potential recommendations would affect the academic missions of smaller units.
"It seems like this review has been taking place in these committees, very quietly," she said.
Burbules has no problem with the confidentiality.
"This was a serious exercise in reviewing at the widest possible level the structure and organization of the university, the kind of process that President Hogan would have been better off if he had tried to implement, but he didn't. It's long overdue. And I think it is going to have significant and dramatic effects for the university."


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salmon, egg, tuna, octopus, prawn, eel sushi rice,
sushi roll, large sushi roll and California roll.
( Tray: 26 cm x 18 cm - 50% wool 50% acrylic)
|For any question you can check Frequently Asked Questions (available in ).
If you still can't find the answers you were looking for, then feel free to contact me at
Visit my new Wild Teddy Home blog!
Fast Food


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Any link below is to one page of over 2,150 pages used by students in USA and Canada for help with their studies and homework. Book reviews and movie reviews also help studies. There are even city reviews and historical presentations, some with cutting edge new information.
- Lost Roanoke Colony Is Found – Maps, Artifacts and DNA Evidence
- The 44 Different Words for Snow and Ice in Inuit Languages
- America Builds Moon Habitats and Lunar Station For Use 2018 – 2035
- Cuba – Botanical Gardens and Sustainability Programs
Job Seekers also use the employment articles given. Middle School and High School students use the good advice about what makes a good employee.
Feel free to access these pages and quote short passages for your projects as long as you give credit to the author and include a link, if you can do so, in your papers and projects.
- Brain Biology – Children's Brains and Development of Frontal Lobes Prior to Adolescence
- How Buzz Aldrin Added Arts to STEM Curricula and Gave Kids More STEAM for Learning


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Chanukah, meaning "dedication" in Hebrew, refers to the joyous eight-day celebration during which Jews commemorate the victory of the Macabees over the armies of Syria in 165 B.C.E. and the subsequent liberation and "re-dedication" of the Temple in Jerusalem. The modern home celebration of Chanukah centers around the lighting of the chanukiah, a special menorah for Chanukah; unique foods, latkes and jelly doughnuts; and special songs and games.
Adat Chaverim celelbrates Chanukah as a congregation in the social hall as every congregant brings their special chanakiah to light with one another. Check the Temple calendar fo details on the date/time of this special event each year.
Adat Chaverim
6300-A Independence Pkwy
Plano, TX 75023


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Back in 2007, Michael Bay bought the robots in disguise to the silver screen in great fashion. I personally really enjoyed watching these metallic behemoths battle whilst the screen was bathed in a glossy finish during the first instalment. Fast-forward ten years and Michael Bay is still going with this franchise with his latest instalment... Continue Reading →
Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)


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Taking pictures of celebrities can be a rush job. Most of the time they really don't care and generally try to accommodate the photographers needs, but it's their publicists who actually control their clients time and this can be frustrating.
It actually took me longer to find a parking space near the W Hotel in downtown Seattle than it did to set up four of my 550 EX Speedlites, and take a couple of tests shots than it took for me to get some pictures of Carson Kressley, the flamboyant star of TV's "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy", in the lobby. Kressley, who was in town promoting his fashion book of tips for the straight men, "Off the Cuff", was really great to work with, but his publicists was not.
I'm not trying to say that this individual was hard to work with, but, having him constantly look over my shoulder, wanting to view each captured image was gate keeping at it best and cutting into my allotted shooting time. Finally, after seeing my frustration, Carson suggested to his publicists, the shooting session would pass quicker if he'd look at the images after they were all taken instead of one at a time.
Kressley was great to work with, having model underwear for many years, he was natural in front of the camera and didn't require any guidance in posing at all and I able to squeeze about 30 pictures off in the 30 minutes photo session before the publicists called it a wrap.


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Murdy Elementary School Honors Heroes with "The Gratitude Project"
- Monday, June 5, 2017
- Murdy Elementary
Sixth grade students from Murdy Elementary School concluded a yearlong study about the power of gratitude with a special celebration last week that honored a group of heroes who have overcome life's greatest challenges.
The celebration is a culminating event of "The Gratitude Project," during which students share what they learned about gratitude from interviews with 97-year-old Tuskegee Airman and U.S. veteran Lt. Col. Robert J. Friend, Interpreter with the U.S. Special Forces Luc Lien Nguyen, U.S. Army Ranger and Vietnam Veteran 2nd Lt. Dan Barlow, Signal Corp South Vietnam Veteran 2nd Lt. Khang Manh Tu, Artist Hai Pham, U.S. Navy Seal and Vietnam Veteran Andy McTigue, and family elders.
"The Gratitude Project is a one-of-a-kind living history lesson that has a profound, life-changing impact on students in a way that no textbook could," said Lan Nguyen, Garden Grove Unified School District Board of Education President.
"The Gratitude Project" was launched three years ago by sixth grade teachers Valerie Del Carlo and Mark Keller. After interviewing family elders and six in-class participants, students respond through art and writing. Many students uncover details of their family legacy for the first time and gain a deeper understanding of freedom, hardship, bravery, and love of country.
Click here to watch a video about "The Gratitude Project 2017."


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Whoa! Say it ain't so!
I invited faculty, staff and students to a screening of the new DVD
of the Tin Drum to kick off Banned Books/Films week. Before the
screening, a law prof discussed the Oklahoma case and a German prof
discussed the artistic merit of the film. It took place in a
classroom on campus. This didn't fall under fair use?
(Jessica, would you like to handcuff me now or later?)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
SMU Center for Media and IT
103-C Fondren Library West
Dallas, TX 75275
"Life is a dream that keeps me from sleeping."
- O.Wilde


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HIGHLAND PARK — Police arrested a Highland Park man Friday, charging him with the murder of a borough woman who was stabbed in her apartment, Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce J. Kaplan and Highland Park Police Chief Stephen J. Rizco announced.
Frank Gonzalez, 23, was also charged with burglary following the Fridauy morning death of Brandy Williams, 28, of Woodbridge Avenue.
Williams, who was an acquaintance of the defendant, was pronounced dead at 7:42 a.m. on March 12 at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, authorities said.
The results of an autopsy showed she was the victim of a homicide and died from multiple stab wounds, according to authorities.
Following an intensive investigation, police traced Gonzalez to his home. As police approached his apartment, the defendant fled, jumping out a second-story rear window at about 3:30 p.m, authorities said. He was apprehended nearby, in the backyard of a coin-operated laundry.
Gonzalez is expected to be held at the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center in North Brunswick, authorities said Friday night. Bail has not yet been set. A hearing on the charges will be held today at the Middlesex County Courthouse in New Brunswick.
The investigation began when police were dispatched to Williams' apartment after receiving a 911 call from a neighbor, who reported a disturbance at 5:42 a.m., authorities said.
Police arrived to find the victim injured in her apartment. She was taken to the hospital, where she died.
The investigation by Lt. Joe Vassallo and Detective Ilan Lancry, both of the Highland Park Police Department, and Investigator Butch Villegas of the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office determined that Williams was not the victim of a random attack, authorities said.
The investigation is on-going, authorities said. Anyone with information is asked to call Lt. Vassallo of Detective Lancry at 1-732-572-3800, or Investigator Villegas at 1-732-745-4428.
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|Somatic Experiencing: Turning Into to the Mind-Body Connection
The Limitations of Using Only the Logical Mind vs the Mind-Body Connection:
It's not that logic doesn't have a role. But whose logic are we talking about? What you consider to be logical might not be what I think. Logic has a place but, amazingly, the combination of the mind and body often provide us with answers that we would never come up just relying on logic alone.
Using the combination of mind and body, we can get images, sensations, flashes of ideas and so much more from a deep part of ourselves that isn't usually as accessible from a purely logical place. Using Somatic Experiencing, solutions are often more creative, and you get a "gut feeling" if it's right for you.
|Somatic Experiencing: Tuning Into the Mind-Body Connection
Working with a Somatic Experiencing therapist, you learn to become more attuned to yourself in an intuitive way. I have experienced this for myself when I ask myself, "What does my body say that I need" when considering a problem.
Clients who come to me for Somatic Experiencing often say the same thing--that they have tapped into a deep source of knowing.
I am a NYC licensed psychotherapist, Somatic Experiencing therapist, EMDR therapist, and hypnotherapist.
I am certfied in Mind-Body Oriented Psychotherapy.
I work with individuals and couples.
To find out more about Somatic Experiencing, visit the website:
Somatic Experiencing Training Institute
To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist
To set up a consultation, please call me at (212) 726-1006 or send me an email: firstname.lastname@example.com


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We got mail today ; it was a big brown box. Claire helped us to open it, and there were many prettily wrapped gifts inside. And a card, too ! Yay, it was our Secret Paws package !
PIXIE : Anything else ? No… Let's open those lovely gifts !
There was an ornament, Da Bird, Jackson Galaxy Natural Toys, fluffy balls, a nip carrot, treats, and a cute card from Grizzy, Sophie, and their mom Susan, our new friends from The Rosie Bee.
The paper and the box were a lot of fun too !
ZORRO : Those are pawsome gifts !
PIXIE : The carrot is mine !
PIXIE : Could someone remove the cardboard, please ?
PIXIE : *non identified ecstatic noises*
ZORRO : We're glad we finally got our Secret Paws package, it was worth waiting : thank you very much, buddies !
A huge thank you to Mom Paula at Sweet Purrfections for organizing Secret Paws.


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Remainder is so imaginative, so unusual and so enjoyable that it's almost impossible to describe without spoiling the reader's pleasure. He is especially good at endings as his second novel Men in Space proved so admirably. He's written a very interesting piece in The Guardian on literature and technology, the literature of technology, and how technology helps us understand literature. You can read it here.
McCarthy also talks about his new novel C which will be out in early September. It also immerses itself with the experimentation and effects with early communication technology in the first part of the twentieth century. He set the novel on purpose between 1898, when Marconi was experimenting with radio and 1922 when the BBC was founded (and some key modernist works published - Ulysess, The Waste Land).


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I might be showing my age but I can remember a time before smartphones, before the Internet, and before home computers. I can remember searching card catalogs at libraries that were actually drawers full of cards.
I can also remember reference publications that indexed magazine articles in big dusty volumes. If you were searching for an article about a particular topic you could search through these books and find a list of magazine articles that contained them. It always seemed to be my luck that the library I was at never had any of these magazines on their shelves. However, they could get me a copy though an inter-library loan in a few weeks. So much for timely research.
Search engines like Google or Bing have turned this on it's head. Now, anyone with a web browser and an Internet connection can query a search engine and find relevant articles with just a click.
Previously, I covered Improving Your Searches With Boolean Operators In that post I looked at ways you could improve the likelihood that your search will find the information your looking for.
As powerful as Google is, wouldn't it be nice if it could keep a watch on the Internet and let you know anytime it finds the search terms you specify? After all, isn't automation what computers are good for? Actually, it can with a feature called Google Alerts.
Google Alerts lets you specify search terms that it will monitor Internet sites for and when it finds them it will either send you an email or it will put them into an RSS feed that you can monitor using an RSS feed reading application.
Let's look at an example of how I use Google Alerts in my workflow. I like to monitor the Internet for news stories that mention the community where I work, Killeen, Texas. It's nice to have a heads up when these stories come out. While I already monitor most of the local news outlets via RSS and Twitter, there are also mentions of the community in other news outlets I wouldn't normally monitor.
For instance, I got a Google Alert email that indicated my search terms of "Killeen, TX" was used in a small town news website in Indiana. When I followed the link to the story in the site the quoted news article was about a recent highway drug interdiction arrest where a resident of our fair city got nabbed with a load of drugs on his way to points north.
The agency that made the arrest had not thought to contact us so I looked them up and gave them a call about this person. I was able to give them information regarding cases we'd previously worked on this person so they could make this information a part of their investigation. I was also able to add the information from their case to the intelligence information we held on this subject.
Here are some ideas for Alerts to set to get you started:
- Your agency name - to catch news stories about your department
- Crime M.O.'s such as "metal theft" or "bank robbery"
- A crime analysis tool such as "GIS"
- If your agency is working a high profile case, the name of the victim or suspect
- And of course "crime analysis"
You'll need a Google account if you don't already have one. Once you establish that, head over to the Google Alerts page to get started. Once there you'll be given a set of options. You can enter your search terms, pick the type of sites you want to monitor such as news, blogs, discussions, etc. Then you pick language, region, periodicity, and how you want to get the alerts.
A neat feature is that once you enter your search terms, you'll see a sample of the types of entries you'll get with that search term. This works really well for modifying your terms in real time to see what type of results you will likely get. Once you enter an alert you can also use the Manage Your Alerts option to modify or delete alerts.
What types of alerts would you likely find useful?


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Volume 22, Number 3 July 1993
From the Outgoing Chair This year has been, I think, quite a successful one from our Forum's point of view. We are managing well the transition from arms control and defense-oriented issues to other matters, dictated by the direction the Nation and the world are going. At the intersection of physics and society in the US, there is a return to interest in energy and efficiency issues as well as global climate (and other) change; there is an arousal of interest in science and the law (partly fueled by the Daubert v. Merrill Dow case now before the Supreme Court); there is renewed interest in public perceptions of science and scientific issues; and, above all, an interest in the job market, especially for new physicists. There is, of course, still a more than residual interest in security affairs, including the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and advanced conventional weapons.
We have had sessions, both at the Seattle and the Spring meetings, reflecting most of the above. On the job front, our new Vice-Chair Al Saperstein has begun a study on jobs and career opportunities in physics which will, we hope, produce a useful document within about 18 months.
Further, due to Norm Chonacky's tireless work, there is now a means of electronic communication available to the Forum. If you wish to be connected contact CHONACKY @ UPS.EDU or MACY @ POLAR.BOWDOIN.EDU. We will try to improve even further our capabilities in this area in the coming year. And Lisbeth Gronlund, with Norm Chonacky, Nancy Forbes, and Art Hobson, have begun an outreach program to try to expand our forum's membership. We now have had tables at the two major meetings this year, to recruit members and stimulate interest. We hope to continue these efforts.
Finally, we have decided, along with the Division on Plasma Physics, to cosponsor a Dwight Nicholson Award for Humanitarian Service, in memory of the recent Chair of the Physics Department at the University of Iowa who was killed by a deranged graduate student.
The Newsletter continues to be fresh and interesting under the able tutelage of Art Hobson. We are making progress in widening our scope and our membership, and I am confident we shall proceed successfully in this direction with Marc Ross as our Chair for the coming year. I welcome him to his new post, thank my colleagues for all their help during the past year, and offer my services to aid the incoming Executive Board in any way I can.
Anthony Fainberg
I've had the good fortune to spend the past two years writing a textbook for a liberal-arts physics course. It is tied together by four story lines: energy, and the three topics discussed below. I welcome your comments.
Social effects of science
Occasionally, when I talk with groups, I ask them to call out any significant contemporary problems that come to mind. It doesn't take long to amass quite a list: overpopulation, urban decay, extinctions, cults, and all the rest. While collecting suggestions, it becomes apparent that they all have significant science and technology components.
Without science we would have other problems, such as early death by disease, but we would not have the particular problems we have today. For instance, because medical science has partly solved the problem of death by disease, we now have the problem of overpopulation. The death problem has been replaced, in a sense, by a birth problem. Because we have accepted science's help in solving the "death" side of the birth-and-death equation, but have not simultaneously taken responsibility for the "birth" side, the planet has more people than it can handle.
Science gives us great power, and we can use that power in helpful or harmful ways. Without science and technology, we would not have the automobile or television, for example. When you turn the switch on either device, you bring great power to bear on yourself, on others, and on Earth.
The problems of science and society really come down to this: humankind is not paying its dues for the fruits of science. We are quick to accept the speed of the automobile, the fun of television, and the cures of medicine, but we are slow to clean up our exhaust fumes, to maintain intelligent reading habits, or to control our birth rate. The ozone story is one good example: Humankind enjoyed its CFC-powered air conditioning and styrofoams for many decades before anybody took the trouble to investigate what problems all this might be causing, and even then it was 15 more years before we got serious about eliminating CFCs. Now the atmosphere's ozone component is damaged, and it will not soon recover. Earth, including us, is paying the price.
We dare not accept science's benefits without accepting its responsibilities.
Speaking as a science teacher who is doubtless predjudiced in the matter, my first suggestion is that we all, including especially scientists, learn much more science. Scientists, usually only narrowly trained in one specialty, are among the scientifically illiterate. We scientists need to learn and to communicate more broadly, especially with non-scientists. Non-scientists need to learn more about the physical universe and our planet. Humankind is using great power today, without knowledge. We are still in our technological childhood. If we want this experiment to succeed, we had better begin to understand what we are doing, for the use of great power without knowledge is always a prescription for disaster.
Comparing Newtonian and post-Newtonian physics
This topic runs deep into the cultural roots of western industrial civilization. Modern culture, including plenty of scientists, still perceives science largely in outdated Newtonian terms. Newton's mechanical universe is a materialistic worldview that leaves little room (no room, really) for freedom, chance, or creativity. Many people would argue that it leaves little or no room for spiritual values.
But modern physics paints a quite non-Newtonian picture. It's most basic elements are not really particles, but are fields and energy, as structured by relativity and quantum theory. Many non-Newtonian forms of energy exist, and the universe emerges not as a predictable clockwork mechanism, but rather as a dynamic and unpredictable network of energy. Material and nonmaterial particles pop unpredictably and briefly in and out of their fields. This is nothing like a clock. In many ways it is the opposite of a clock. Considering the hidden and often distant interactions that seem to be the essence of the quantum world, many have suggested that, if we are to use images at all (and apparently we are, for physicists have used the clockwork image for many centuries now), then the universe is more comparable to a living, integrated, unpredictable organism than it is to a dead, reducible, predictable clock.
It is by no means clear what philosophical view will emerge from all of this. I feel that the world is just beginning to absorb the impact of relativity and, especially, of quantum theory. This is not surprising. After all, more than a century elapsed after Copernicus' death in 1543 before Europe began to absorb the cultural impact of post-medieval science. The post-Newtonian century will be the 21st, not the 20th.
One practical example of the importance of forming a post-Newtonian worldview might be the ongoing reaction, in the US at least, against the theory of biological evolution. The reaction comes from a perceived threat to religious beliefs. Religious fundamentalists typically view evolutionary theory as mechanical, deterministic, and materialistic, with no room for spirtual values. Thus the real opposition may be not to evolution itself, but to evolution as interpreted through the concepts of Newtonian physics. A post-Newtonian culture might relieve these old religiously-based science anxieties.
How do we know?
Science's answer to this question is surprisingly simple: We know by experience, as interpreted through intelligence. Science's "method" is simple, but fundamental. It is to take nothing for granted, to form one's views on the basis of careful observations and hard honest thinking, and to be willing to modify those views in the light of new observations. It comes down to being observant, open-minded, and honest.
The 20th century has been torn by rigidly-held and conflicting ideologies. The nationalistic, religious, economic, and ideological forms seem to come in every imaginable variety, many of them in utter contradiction with each other. Yet those who believe them are all absolutely convinced that they are right. The result has been war, fear, predjudice, fanaticism, and, perhaps most frightening of all, willful ignorance. Science's view on this is that the danger lies not so much in the beliefs themselves, as in their absolute nature . Even wrong and harmful beliefs can be corrected if one is willing to trust experience and to be intellectually honest. And even correct and healthy beliefs can become dangerous if accepted uncritically or absolutely.
In thinking about how we might do better in the 21st century than we have in the 20th, we should perhaps ponder science's most basic value: All ideas are subject to testing by experience, and to challenge by critical rational thought.
It is a simple but demanding code. It is often uncomfortable, even painful, to honestly re-evaluate one's beliefs in the light of experience. It might be science's most important benefit.
Art Hobson


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Tuesday, 4 August 2015
2015 Les Grands Tablées du Saumur-Champigny – great first day
Les fenêtres Jack Hibbeard
Very good to retrace my steps from my last visit to Les Grands Tablées in 2005. Our small press trip – Christine Austin, Juel Mahoney and myself – are staying at the same hotel as a decade ago – Le Hotel Cristal. I looked for the blue plaque that would commemorate Jack Hibbeard's feat of climbing up the drainpipe to his first floor room in the early hours of the morning, having forgotten his key to the main entrance. Unfortunately I could find no trace of a plaque – either the town of Saumur have yet to get round to putting one up or, perhaps more likely, some souvenir hunter has made off with it.
Les fenêtres Jack Hibbeard
Marie-Anne Simonneau serving a blind sample
of Saumur-Champigny in the vines
During the afternoon we stopped at three vantage points in the Saumur-Champigny vineyards to taste wines from each particular terroir. The first was by the Cave Cooperative de Sy Cyr, the next above Les Poyeux – the single vineyard made famous by Les Frères Foucault – and the last by the Clos des Murs in Parnay.
It was interesting to see that there were indeed differences between the styles of wines tasted in each location, particularly in the first two. Overall the wines from Les Poyeux had attractive texture and finesse.
Parnay: Clos des Murs: vines planted on the north side,
trained through the wall to enjoy the heat and the sunshine from the south
First signs of the véraison on Chenin Blanc in the Clos des Murs
with the grapes starting to become translucent
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Meet Ophelia: a blonde, beautiful high-school senior and long-time girlfriend of Prince Hamlet of Denmark. Her life is dominated not only by her boyfriend's fame and his overbearing family, but also by the paparazzi who hound them wherever they go. As the devastatingly handsome Hamlet spirals into madness after the mysterious death of his father, the King, Ophelia rides out his crazy roller coaster life, and lives to tell about it. In live television interviews, of course.
Passion, romance, drama, humor, and tragedy intertwine in this compulsively readable debut novel, told by a strong-willed, modern-day Ophelia.
On the page before the prologue you were given a quote. One by Shakespeare and one by the character Ophelia from this book:
"Frailty, thy name is woman." ~William ShakespeareOh yea... that set the stage for my enjoyment of this book.
"Willy, thy name is sexism." ~Ophelia
The whole plot of this book does follow the play quite well. Better than I expected. It's set in modern times, but the main players names remain the same. There are a few extra characters thrown in because this book is expanding Ophelia's story so those are more modern. What is different is what I found interesting. It's the question about what if Ophelia was more than a victim? What if she survived? Yes, this is Ophelia's take on the whole disaster.
This modern take will make you feel more for Ophelia, but I have to admit, I did not connect to her character very much. I will say that I still enjoyed her decent not into complete madness, but coming close. It was pretty creative.
Ophelia's story was also told in alternating parts. One was where she was being interrogated, another where she was on a tv show and the main part where she is confiding as to what really happened. It's not confusing at all and all 3 do come together in the end. I just didn't care much for the interrogation. It didn't feel realistic at all and could have been lifted out without hurting the book at all.
I give this book 3 1/2 stars. I would also like to see what other creative endeavors this author puts forth. This was her debut book and I enjoyed my time in Denmark despite all the madness.


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This email recently came from John Pederson on the wetech listserv (Wisconsin technology coordinators). Think about the data he presents and what it means for schools.
"Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow, recently presented the keynote at our WiscNet Future Technologies Conference. In short, these folks do a ton of data collection about educational technology use in schools.
Julie presented two bits in particular that caught my eye.
1. When Wisconsin students were asked to describe their own level of proficiency with technology, only 21% self identified as being "advanced" in their technology use. I think we as adults often over estimate the abilities and attitudes regarding students and technology.
2. 28% of students Grades 3-5, 45% of students Grades 6-8, and 58% of students Grades 9-12 have their own laptop computers in Wisconsin. Chew on that a bit and consider what it tells you about how you should be thinking about your infrastructure over the next 5-10 years. Will you allow them? Should you provide them? Will this number increase as the costs drop or decrease as the number of mobile devices increases? What does this mean for your network? What are their parents expectations? Is it fair? Does being fair matter?"
John Pederson
Educational Technology Liasion - WiscNet
3 years ago


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On a side note, I will be taking a small hiatus. We are having company so there are sights to see, meals to be prepared, and conversations to be had. I will talk to you all on the flip side. If I owe you a letter, well, I will still owe you a letter. I will catch up as soon as possible, promise. In the mean time take good care and while my name will not be in your in-box you will be in my thoughts.
Copyright Grey Dog Photography 2010, All Rights Reserved


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Neanderthals, aka Homo neanderthalensis, are the closest known relative to modern humans, and we have uncovered several complete skeletons of the species. We therefore know quite a bit about them, but much remains unclear — including how exactly Neanderthals fit into our family tree. Evidence shows that modern humans interbred with Neanderthals but that we didn't evolve from them.
This species thrived across Europe and even into Asia. They tended to be shorter and wider than modern humans. They had wide shoulders, strong arms and legs and a large, deep chest. Paleoanthropologists speculate that the short stature could have been an adaptation to deal with the colder weather to conserve body heat. Another possible explanation is that this sturdier, tougher build was an adaptation to a brutal lifestyle. Indeed, the fossil remains show many injuries [source: Roberts]. They hunted animals and ate a lot of meat, but they also enjoyed seafood and plants. Plaque found on molars has revealed remains of starch grains [source: Smithsonian].
Neanderthal brains tended to be even larger than our own, and evidence of their culture suggests behavior that was worlds apart from earlier hominids. They buried their dead, wore primitive clothing and even made ornamental objects. This prompts questions about the relationship of brain size to social behavior, innovation and imagination.
Paleoanthropologists are interested in the question about how modern intelligence, behavior and culture evolved. Did it evolve alongside our physical evolution or did it happen more quickly? We may never definitively answer this question, but with each new fossil unearthed, we get closer to understanding our ancient ancestors.


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07 Apr 2016
With the launch of the brand new 2 wheel self balancing electric scooter, 2015 may be an exilerating year for gadget fans. Across the world, everyone is taking to YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to create pics and vids of themselves zipping around for this 2 wheel contraption which basically looks like a board which has a wheel on either sides.
A mixture of a skateboard and a segway, this mini Segway (devoid of the handle) type thing is blowing up in popularity, fuelled in part by the volume of celebrities that were seen one. From Justin Bieber to Soulja Boy, Kendall Jenner to Jamie Foxx, have the ability to tried their hand as of this nifty little gadget, and seem to get had a lots of fun doing this.


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Kehinde Wiley
Kehinde Wiley
Born: 1977 – Los Angeles, California – Present
A portrait painter for the new millennium, Kehinde Wiley creates works that merge the aesthetics of urban culture with the visual vocabulary of classic European portraiture. Having grown up in South Central Los Angeles and graduated with an MFA from Yale University in 2001, Wiley is uniquely adept at bridging the two worlds. Wiley's subjects, young black men he encounters on the streets of Brooklyn and urban centers around the world, are portrayed in their own contemporary clothing, in the poses found in both European art history and in public sculpture. Heroically styled and skillfully rendered, Wiley's paintings present a provocative visual juxtaposition and confront the hot-button issues of race, masculinity and power in contemporary culture. At only 32, Wiley has already firmly established himself in the art world. His paintings have been exhibited in a number of international group and solo exhibitions, have been featured in countless publications, and are part of the permanent collection of many leading art institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, California's Hammer Museum, and the Miami Art Museum.
Biography courtesy of USA Network
For more information on Mr. Wiley and to view his artwork visit his site: www.kehindewiley.com
Posted on February 16, 2011, in Black History and tagged black art, Black History, Kehinde Wiley. Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.


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The Piano Pedagogy Laboratory Program (PPLP) was founded in November, 1983 with a dual purpose: to provide teacher-training for the University of Michigan students enrolled in the Master of Music in Piano Pedagogy and Performance degree, and to provide piano lessons to pre-college age students from the community. Since that time, the PPLP has grown from two beginning classes with a total enrollment of 13 students, to 11 classes with an enrollment of approximately 85 students. All students enrolled in the PPLP receive a unique combination of group and private lesson study during the school year, as well as frequent performing opportunities in departmental recitals, master-classes and in special local events.
John Ellis, Director (private teacher)
Aya Higuchi Hagelthorn, Coordinator (group teacher, private teacher)
Kate Acone (private teacher)
Rachel Chen (private teacher)
Christine Choi (group teacher, private teacher)
Korean-American pianist Christine Choi is an active soloist and chamber musician. She has participated in international festivals and has given recitals in Europe, South Korea and the U.S. She has performed in masterclasses with Charlene Biggs, Angela Cheng and Ralph Votapek. Over the years, Dr. Choireceived various scholarships, including Ann Arbor Symphony Women's Association Scholarship, SKR Scholarship and Kiwanis Scholarhip. Dr. Choi earnedherDoctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degree from the University of Michigan, where she was fully supported by Rackham Graduate Studies. Previously, she was at New England Conservatory in Boston, where shestudied under Saj-nicole Joni Endowed Scholarship for four years and received her Bachelor's degree with special honors. Her primary teachers include Arthur Greene, Bruce Brubaker and Patricia Zander.
Melissa Coppola (private teacher)
Claudio Espejo (private teacher)
Alissa Freeman (private teacher)
Annie Jeng (private teacher)
Ceren Su Sahin (private teacher)
Susan Yang (private teacher)
The students receive weekly assignment sheets, detailing what they need to achieve, and what goals they need to maintain. The PPLP has three different types of study, depending on the level of the student: Beginning, Elementary, Intermediate, or Advanced.
Beginning students start their instruction with two weekly, one-hour group lessons. Toward the end of November, when the children have begun reading music on the Grand Staff, one of the group lessons is dropped and a 30-minute private lesson is substituted in its place. From that point until the end of the academic year in April, the beginning students will have a weekly one-hour group lesson and a weekly 30-minute private lesson.
Elementary level students are those in the second through fifth years of study. They receive a weekly one-hour group lesson and a weekly 45-minute private lesson.
Intermediate and Advanced students are those in approximately the sixth year (and higher) of study. Typically, these are children in middle and high school. They receive a weekly one-hour group lesson (alternating between performance and theory classes) and a weekly 45-minute private lesson.
Tuition covers the following: both group and private lessons, departmental recitals, and master-classes. PPLP has two payment plans: Option 1 is payment in full; Option 2 is payment in 4 installments. All tuition is payable by check or credit card online.
In addition, there is a non-refundable Registration Fee of $50 per student. Please contact the coordinator for more information.
Tuition payments: There is a $50, non-refundable registration fee for all students. We are pleased to offer a choice of tuition payment options. Tuition for the entire 27-week school year for 2018-2019 is $1,560, if paid by September 1, 2018. For the Payment Plan Option (in which tuition is divided into four payments), the cost is $1,635. Tuition for the Transitional Curriculum is $1,390. A $25 late fee will be added for Payment Plan Option, if received after September 15. NOTE: if a student withdraws from the program, pro-rated tuition will be refunded as long as the PPLP office is notified in writing and the withdrawal takes place before November 1, 2018. NO REFUNDS WILL BE GIVEN AFTER THIS DATE; those who have elected the payment plan option will be expected to complete their payments.
We have many different types of performance opportunities for our students. These include informal performances, in group classes, and playing in front of their peers; we want students to feel comfortable performing in front of peers first. This supportive environment helps them feel confident in formal piano recitals that take place in the several different performance venues at the School of Music. In addition, many students participate in master classes presided over by the director of the program.
We are proud that you have entrusted your child's pianistic development to us and want you to know that we take this responsibility very seriously. If you ever have any questions, concerns or comments regarding your child's study, please feel free to contact us. Your feedback is always appreciated.
Code of Conduct: Participants should understand that their behavior reflects on the entire University of Michigan community and, as such, should behave in an honest, respectful and responsible manner that is consistent with the mission of the University. Participants are expected to treat their fellow students and teachers in a respectful manner at all time, make a good faith effort to progress in their studies and refrain from prohibited conduct including destruction of property and physical violence.
Music needed for study is available through a variety of sources. Locally, it can be ordered throughKing's Keyboard House (2333 E. Stadium Blvd; (734) 663-3381). Please call ahead to make sure materials are available. For Frederick Harris publications, materials can be ordered from the Music Development Program online bookstore at http://bookstore.rcmusic.com. Materials generally arrive within 5 days.
Pianos: a tuned acoustic piano is a necessity for daily practice. Students cannot develop technical proficiency or the ability to communicate a wide range of sound by using an electric keyboard. We will be happy to refer you to a qualified tuner / technician if your instrument needs some attention prior to the start of lessons.
Assignment sheets are given out at the weekly class lesson and provide the student with a handy checklist of materials and pieces that will need daily practice. Parent announcements are always at the top of the sheet.
Daily practice: an essential ingredient necessary for each student to reach his or her full potential! The amount of practice time will vary, depending on the length of the assignment, student's level, etc. We ask that our students do as much practice as is needed to perform each item on their assignment sheets with fluency and ease.
Parental help might be needed to assist younger students with practice following each lesson. Your family will want to discuss daily practice and determine a regular, convenient time for it to happen. Daily practice will be enjoyable with your loving support, encouragement and praise.
Performance opportunities: Students perform weekly in class. Beginning students will have a Parent's Day class in December. Continuing students participate in informal recitals, a more formal program at the beginning of May, and other activities throughout the year, such as The Music Development Program Assessments. Please refer to the Calendar of Events for specific dates of these events.
Punctuality: Classes and private lessons begin promptly at the scheduled time. It is important that students arrive early (with all materials and clean hands) so that they may get settled and warmed-up prior to the start of class. We ask that parents of elementary level children physically escort them to and from classes and private lessons.
Transitional Curriculum: This special program is for an incoming transfer student who has deficiencies in limited areas, and therefore needs extra time to prepare to join a group class that is most suitable in the following school year, as well as for a current student who has been assessed to move ahead a year. A student can only participate in this transitional program for up to one school year. A student will receive a weekly private instruction of 45 minutes, in order to join the regular progrm in the following school year, and tuition is adjusted accordingly.
Class absences: Regular attendance is essential for progress; there is not enough time in the private lesson to cover all the material that has been presented in a one-hour class. If an absence is unavoidable, please notify the PPLP office. Assignment sheets for a missed class can be mailed home or given out at the next private lesson. More than three class absences in one academic year may affect the good standing in the program.
Private lesson absences: Private lessons will be made up if missed due to illness or emergency and if the teacher or PPLP office has been notified in advance of the lesson time. Because studying piano involves close contact (particularly hand-to-hand) we ask that students do not attend lessons if they are in the contagious stage of an illness. Lessons missed due to reasons other than those above will be made up at the teachers' discretion only. Lessons cancelled by the teacher will always be rescheduled.
Weather policy: You will be called or emailed if weather conditions force cancellation of classes and lessons. Public school closings in the morning do not necessarily cancel late afternoon lessons.
Parking: There is a metered parking lot south of the Moore Building. Parking regulations are in effect on weekdays until 5:00 p.m. Parents are welcome to wait in the atrium area. PLEASE NOTE: the circle drive in front of the building is for drop-off or pick-up only.
Student Progress Reports and Performance Records: Reports on the student's progress will be mailed to parents at the end of the academic year. A Performance record of all pieces completed and memorized during the year will be included.
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Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree
The "Brilliance" Game, and How it Works
I remember a time during the 60s and 70s when virtually everyone could see what was going on around them. But today, we have PhDs who don't understand as much about what's going on around them as many of us did in junior high school. "Dr." Boyce Watkins is a case in point. Sometimes I have to scratch my head when I listen to that guy. If they're passing out PhDs to people who are that clueless, we're in serious trouble. The dude is, literally, clueless - and Cornel West, with his long, convoluted sentences notwithstanding - is not far behind. But I'm going to focus on Cornel here, because he has the higher profile.
Even the way Cornel West speaks is designed to camouflage the fact that he's not saying a damn thing. His speeches are designed in such a way that by the time he ends a paragraph, you've forgotten what the subject was. Thereafter, the people delude themselves into thinking that they don't understand what he said because he's so brilliant that they can't keep up. No folks. You don't understand him because he hasn't said a damn thing.
Cornel West came into prominence during a time when there was a raging debate going on over the racist claim that due to the "artificial boost" that Black professionals were getting from affirmative action, they weren't as competent as their White counterparts. And during that same time there was also a debate going on over the claim by some White scholars that Black people were innately intellectually inferior to White people and the rest of the population.
As a result of those debates, and the fact that West had an association with White Ivy League universities, the Black community embraced him as the poster child for Black intellectual competence without taking the time to vet him like we should have. It was that mistake that has led to the flawed intellectual monster - and the total embarrassment to many in the Black community - that we have today.
But I have to admit, he has it going on in one respect - he gets $30,000 a speech not to say a damn thing. So if it weren't for the fact that his stupidity is disrupting our political process, I wouldn't be mad at him. But whenever you listen to him, always keep two things in mind. First, that this is a brother who takes a very long time to say very little, and secondly, if you don't understand him, it has nothing to do with your lack of intellect - it's because, again, he hasn't said anything.
A good working definition of a pseudo-intellectual is one who relates common knowledge as though he's telling you something new. That's what Cornel West specializes in. I've never heard him give a speech that couldn't be fully understood and summed up in one sentence. But West will take that sentence and dress it up in long, convoluted, and endless parentheticals, sprinkle in the names and thoughts of a few long dead White men, and embellish it with over-the-top and super-cool (by his standards) gesticulations, and have you thinking he's the second coming of Socrates, even though he hasn't said a damn thing of value.
The reason that I'm pointing this out is because this is the way that the Black community allows itself to be bamboozled. The powers that be can control millions, by simply controlling the mind of one man. That isn't to say that Cornel West is purposely conspiring with the enemies of the Black community to undermine us, but social manipulators can simply take the character of a man into account to know he'll be useful for their purpose. And I think this is the case with Cornel West.
Think about it. The only reason that we even listen to Cornel West is because he's been promoted by the White power structure. They've proclaim him to be "brilliant" (but of course, any Black man who can read without moving his lips is brilliant by the standard they hold us to), they've given him unabridged access to the media, and they've conferred the aura of Harvard and Princeton upon him. In other words, they've bestowed all of the symbols and accoutrements of stature, significance, and intellectual gravity upon him, and let there be no doubt about it, the system is expert in controlling our minds with symbolism. That's why judges sit on a podium looking down upon the people and wear long Black robs. How much respect would you have for a judge if he was sitting at a table with you in a jogging suit? So symbolism plays a huge role in helping those who control the system to control our minds.
But why would the system want to bestow this favored stature upon Cornel West?
The answer is very simple. Due to West's flamboyance, tendency to be self-serving, and lack of true depth, in spite of his highfalutin rhetoric, he doesn't pose a real threat to the status quo. In addition, his flamboyance distracts the people's attention away from more serious and sober-minded thinkers with a serious agenda. And I don't mean to imply that this is some kind of covert conspiracy, to the extent that everybody's involved with the expressed purpose of trying to undermining the Black community. The conspiracy is on a much deeper level, on the level of those who manipulate the mores of our society as a whole.
For example, the television producers who schedule Cornel West for appearances are not engaged in a conspiracy. They're simply doing their jobs. It's just the way that our system is set up - to promote the most entertaining personalities to the public. As a result, people like Cornel West tend to be the ones who bubble to the surface, not the people with the more sober-minded agendas. So the conspiracy resides on the level of those who are purposely conspiring to dumb-down America - those who conspired to abolish the Freedom of Information Act, and those who are coordinating the brutal assault on the nation's public educational system. That's where the conspiracy resides, and it's definitely real.
The people who control that conspiracy are the social manipulators, and they would have loved to have had someone like Cornel West during the days of Martin Luther King, because with West's demonstrated zeal to protect "his" turf, and his tendency to attack anyone who might obscure his position in the spotlight, he would have been doing the exact same thing to Martin that he's doing to Barack Obama, Melissa Harris-Perry, Al Sharpton, Michael Eric Dyson, and Jay Z today.
Just like with everyone else he's envious of, West would have proclaimed that there was a flaw in Martin's character, and he undoubtedly would have claimed that Martin wasn't the "down for the cause" kind of brother that West proclaims himself to be. And it's more likely than not that he would have also attacked Martin for not being militant enough, and for being too accommodating to the White man - in other words, just like he said about Obama, he'd have said that Martin was not quite Black enough - but, of course, in order to cover all bases, he would have wrapped his criticism in the false claim of "love for his brother." By now everybody knows that when Cornel starts talking about how much he "loves" a brother, it's time for that brother to put on his body armor, because Cornel West's brand of love is vicious.
He probably would have tried to align himself with Malcolm, much like he did with Tavis Smiley. Because he would have been afraid to bad-mouth Malcolm, because as most of us know who grew up in the hood, most people like Cornel try to be super-cool to cover-up the fact that they don't have much heart. Think about it.
So there's a very good reason why the White power structure has embraced Cornel West - because he's a flamboyant clown, the Liberace of faux intellectualism, and they know his antics are more likely to keep the Black community laughing and giving one another high-fives, than seriously thinking about the gravity of our situation, and the dire conditions within our community. And West has demonstrated repeatedly, in spite of his rhetoric, that he's not nearly as wedded to the Black community as he is to Cornel West. Clear evidence of that is the fact that he's never taught at a predominately Black institution in his entire career. He's spent his entire career teaching the children of those that he claims is the enemy - the very "oligarchs and plutocrats" that he claims Barack Obama is beholding to.
So a good rule of thumb to prevent ourselves from being manipulated, is to never allow ourselves to become so enamored of anyone that we give their ability to think priority over our own. While Harvard, Princeton, and Yale are great in preparing their students for specialized professions, when it comes to pure thought, and the innate ability to assess reality, their water is no wetter than your own. So when the manipulators trot people like Cornel West, or Ben Carson out before you, it's game. Essentially, they're telling you not to believe your lying eyes. For that reason, we should never, ever, take anyone else's word for who's brilliant. Always assess the value of every man for yourself, and if you listen to them carefully, you're more than capable of making that assessment.
But don't just take my word for it, check out Cornel West "in concert below" - and while you're doing so, take special note of how all of the supposedly "learned" people in the audience have also bought into his total nonsense as brilliance. Just like you, they're looking up to who they're being TOLD to look up to. It's a weakness in human nature, and requires a pointed effort to educate one's self out of. It has to do with our tendency to go along with the crowd, and our failure to be independent thinkers. Independent thought is frowned upon in most societies, because independent thinkers can't be controlled. That's why they lynched Jesus.
So in order to see how pronounced this tendency is, when you're done watching the clip, just ask yourself one question - What did I get out of this that I didn't already know, or that was of any value whatsoever? The answer to that question should bring you to the very same conclusion that I came to six years ago - not a damn thing.
.Eric L. Wattree
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does. Sphere: Related Content


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Aimee Bobruk Austin, Texas
2013: Releases /ba.'brook/ LP
2012: Featured in book "The Sounds of Austin"
2011: Guest songwriter at Engelsholm Castle, Denmark.
2010: Voted a "Top Ten Bands in Austin" by Austin Monthly. Co-writes two Danish Top 20 hits.
2008: Releases The Safety Match Journal
2005: Wins Slopeside Serenade Mountain Town Stages Songwriting Contest, opening for Dr. John.
2003: Releases Small Town Girl ... more
Streaming and Download help


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NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court will consider Apple Inc's request to put off a trial scheduled for July to determine how much the iPad maker must pay in damages to customers in more than two dozen states over e-book price fixing.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said in a brief order on Friday that a three-judge panel will hear Apple's argument on why the trial should be put on hold while it appeals a judge's ruling that it conspired with five publishers to raise e-book prices.
The judge, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in New York, had denied Apple's request to postpone the trial on Wednesday. Cote ruled last year after a non-jury trial that Apple had conspired with the publishers in an effort to impede competitors such as Amazon.com Inc.
The plaintiffs pursuing the case are seeking up to $840 million in damages for consumers.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Joseph Ax; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)


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Published: 2010/05/07
Design A T-Shirt for Assembly of Dust
Assembly of Dust is looking for a fan to design its latest T-shirt. A contest is now underway, wherein AOD will select the three finalists and then allow folks to choose the winner via the group's Facebook site. The grand prize includes an autographed acoustic guitar. As for guidance, the band explains "Be as creative as you'd like, you have free reign to design the shirts as you wish. Just remember to keep it PG-13 please, no offensive material will be accepted." Entries must be submitted in JPEG format (.jpg or .jpeg) at 300dpi or higher to email@example.com with "AOD Contest" in the subject line.


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Part of the reason why I don't blog much here is because I never have finished projects to show... I always have at least half a dozen things going, and it takes me FOREVER to finish. So I thought I'd throw these up because who knows when I'll get back to them.
Here's some letters I'm working on for the kids' doors. I like how they came out, but I'm just not sure how I want to attach them to each other or the doors. They just might sit on my desk until we have another kid.
This is a pillow that I'm embroidering... just kind of making up a little pattern as I go.


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I made gifts for my daughter's 1st grade teacher and this is one of them. I figured it would be nice for her to have scrap paper in a nice box on her desk to scribble notes on. I found this tutorial and the BEST part is that the box itself only uses ONE sheet of cardstock. I LOVE this demo and her videos. She is so resourceful with her ideas.
Cardstock: Wisteria Wonder, Whisper White, Silver Glimmer PaperInk: Wisteria Wonder
Stamps: Lovely Letters
Punches: 1-3/4" Scallop Circle, 1-3/8 Circle, 1-1/4" Circle,


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I don't know if readers have come across Premier Christian Radio's Unbelievable, aired on Saturday afternoons. In each programme Justin Brierley hosts a discussion between a Christian and a non-believer. It is often a really thought provoking show. The latest one is on the subject, 'Fine Tuning of the Universe - is it evidence of God?' Nicholas Beale, co-author with Christian physicist John Polkinghorne of Questions of Truth (WJK), argues that fine tuning is an evidence for God. The atheist Julian Baggini disagrees. You can catch up with this week's programme and previous shows online. Here are some critical reflections on the discussion as it developed.
Nicholas Beale, a mathematician by trade makes a good case for God on the basis of fine tuning and the so-called "anthropic principle", which is concerned with the question, "Why is the universe just right for human life?" Beale avoids falling into a "God of the gaps" approach, insisting that we see God at work in the understandable "laws of nature" as well as in the mysterious aspects of science that we have yet to comprehend. But he comes a little unstuck because he accepts a Darwinian theory of origins. In his view, God made the world complete with suffering and death because that is what was necessary for evolution by natural selection to work. Beale tries to get round the problem that this means a good God created an imperfect world, "red in tooth and claw", by saying that God took the suffering of the world upon himself in Christ. However this makes redemption seem like another act of fine tuning, as God acted in Christ to remove the suffering and evil that were present in the world as originally created.
A more biblical approach to the problem of suffering will insist that God made the world "very good" as Genesis 1 declares. Suffering and death are consequent upon the fall of man into sin (Genesis 3). Redemption in that case is not the Creator correctively fine tuning his flawed-by-design creation. It is an act of free, undeserved and astonishing grace towards rebellious sinners, who have brought his just wrath upon themselves and his curse upon the creation. Neal's approach shows the accommodation that theistic evolution makes with Darwinism plays havoc with the Bible's essential plot line of Creation/Ruin/Redemption/Re-creation. Now, I'm not saying that natural selection has no explanatory power when it comes to describing how the "kinds" of creatures God originally made developed into the diverse and varied species that exist today. In creating life, it seems that God made living organisms flexible enough to adapt to differing environments and so on. But the wholesale acceptance of a Darwinian explanation of origins seriously skews the basic plot line of biblical revelation.
Another thing that struck me was the atheist Julian Baggini's point that believers only see the fine tuning of the universe as an evidence for God because they begin with the prior assumption that he exists. As the philosopher argued, the existence of a loving Creator cannot simply be "read off" the data of science. That is true enough. Baggini helpfully reminds us of the importance of presuppositions. Evidentialist apologetics assumes that the data of science is neutral ground that the believer and unbeliever can examine together without prejudice. But that is not the case. The believer starts with the basic presupposition that God exists. It is from that standpoint he views the phenomenon of the universe. The consistent Christian theist does not argue from design to a designer. He begins with the God who has revealed himself in creation, the human heart and Scripture and understands everything in that light. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom! The Christian therefore is able to make sense of this originally good, yet fallen world which God created, and that he has acted in Christ to redeem. The heavens declare his glory and the earth is full of his goodness, even while the whole creation groans with frustration, awaiting its liberation from disorder and entropy. The unbeliever however views exactly the same data from the presupposition that God does not exist. The truth concerning his existence is suppressed (Romans 1:18ff). Conclusions drawn from the data are therefore faulty. It's all in the presuppositions.
Baggini claims that the theistic approach to science takes the mystery out of it all because every time believers see something unexplainable, they invoke God. That is a slight oversimplification. Besides, God is the ultimate mystery. He is beyond even the mystery of a finely tuned universe that is fit for human life. He is the one God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He is sovereign, yet we are accountable to him for our actions. The triune God loves fallen human beings. In Christ, the infinite embraced the finite and became one of us to rescue us from our sin. There is no greater mystery than the mystery of God's love revealed at Calvary, and poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. "Tis mystery all, the immortal dies/who can explore his strange design?" Throughout eternity we shall remain baffled, amazed and surprised by the mystery of the triune God who is love. The task of theology is not to explain the mystery of God, but to set out the limits of God's self-revelation in Scripture. In the words of Augustine, the purpose of doctrine is to "erect a fence around the mystery" that will keep the faithful from attempting to pry into the hidden depths of God's being.
To conclude, arguments concerning the fine tuning of the universe and the anthropic principle may be used by believers as they seek to witness to their non-Christian friends. But such arguments only make sense once we have made it clear that we are arguing from the presupposition that God exists to show that the world as it is is consistent with biblical revelation. The function of apologetics in this context is to demonstrate that reality is in keeping with the presuppositions of Christian theism - the universe looks just as we might expect given that is was designed and made by a loving Creator. But that is not all we have to say. The fall has to be factored in to explain the presence of evil and suffering, death and decay in God's world. And we gladly proclaim what could never be deduced from observing the natural world; the revelation of God in a mystery that is the gospel of salvation. The ultimate anthropic principle is that God became man in Christ to rescue human beings from sin and death. In Jesus' incarnation, atoning death and bodily resurrection, God has acted not only to save individual human beings, but to renew the whole cosmos, Romans 8:18-22. We can only see all this when we start with the presupposition that God is there, and he is not silent. We believe in order to understand. There is no other way, Hebrews 11:3, 1 John 5:20.
On the next edition of Unbelievable, David Robertson will be discussing his book The Dawkins Letters, with an atheist blogger.


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(Who did this poster?
I would gladly credit & linkback.
Located it here at Achtung Baby!)
I honestly got obsessed with the whole Watchmen thing yesterday. Couldn't help it, had deadlines (which I still have, since I spent hours becoming a Watchmen Prequel Scholar by default).
The Daryl Cooke ones look like they will be good, kind of by accident, almost like just casting a perfect actor for a role instead of teaching someone what the role is about.
The others will likely just embody all the stupid xeroxing of "grim comics" that we have seen for the last zillion years. Grim, gritty Archie & Veronica etc etc.
Moore might be a curmudgeon, but he & Gibbons created something special and for that, I don't care what DC or anyone's legal rights are, they should just make some new comics and leave Watchmen alone as Something Good. (tm).
I kind of love Moore's Swamp Thing & Superman more. Swampy in particular had more of a freewheeling character to it. The ones where he's exiled into space and meets Adam Strange and has his own plant life Green Lantern adventure are just perfect.
God, he pretty much issued the perfect critique to the 80's Byrne Superman IN ADVANCE by doing those last 2 Silver Age Supermans. For that alone, DC & all of Warner "Communications" should do whatever he wants forever.
Fuck it all, the history of comics is the history of people getting to do weird stuff when no one's looking.
The Hernanadez Bros were right to get indie & stay indie.
That is all.


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Sample Document
Proposal from St. Lukes Chamber Ensemble to the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation
Comments from Shirley Lockwood, Foundation Administrator, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, from The Grantseeker's Guide to Winning Proposals:
The well-written cover letter is concise and straightforward. It briefly describes plans for the upcoming season and a request for funding for a particular program, including a hoped-for increase from the previous year's grant award. Because of the high volume of inquiries received at the Foundation, this format is particularly helpful to the staff and the Trustees.
The proposal is attractively formatted with each section delineated by Roman numerals and captions in bold, making it easy to follow and to highlight the areas the Foundation is most interested in considering. The budget is clear and concise. We are primarily interested in a fiscal accounting of how the funds for a specific project that we supported were expended. We are interested to see if other sources of funding are listed. Many organizations make a mistake, I believe, if they mention the hope or expectation of support from other sources, without further information.
On a personal note, I appreciate the fact that St. Luke's does not devote a great deal of space to reporting on their "uniqueness." Performing arts organizations, in general, are creative entities—the programming will speak for itself. This particular organization happily avoids this common pitfall.
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Legislators and Gov. Chris Gregoire have decided to phase out the math portion of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning and replace it with end-of-course tests. The final budget announced on Wednesday included $3.2 million toward developing exit tests for each math course. The senior class of 2013 will still be the first group of students who must pass a math test to graduate, but they will be able to pass either the WASL math test or end-of-course exams. And the math WASL likely will be eliminated by 2014....I can see a certain amount of pedagogical sense to the plan, detailed in HB 3166 [pdf]. Not sure it's going to be any less expensive, though.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson supports the change, and Steve Mullin, president of the Washington Roundtable business group, said, "We've basically received a lot of assurances that while this was a different method, the rigor would be the same or perhaps higher."
Over at the Partnership for Learning blog, alisonm goes over the pros and cons. Her final assessment of the assessment:
Offering both tests gives students more options, which can be a good thing. But the reality is, if standards aren't aligned with curriculum taught by high quality teachers to motivated students, the kind of test given to students won't really make much of a difference.


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So, this felt really good to make this morning, my iPhone died yesterday so I'm feeling kind of frustrated… of course it's reminding me of how nice it is to be able to take photos edit them and get them on my blog really quickly.
I have been wanting to use this stamp for this hop - and I love this sentiment, it always makes me laugh. Not the kind of stamped art I'm going to throw in as a Thank You with my orders though!
Stamps- Krampus, Dots, Sentiment (I got that at a stamp show, not 100% sure but I think it was from Carmen's Veranda.)
Here's to a decent day today - time to call about this phone situation! Thanks for stopping by!!!