text:
Wednesday, 31 December 2008
A fire-Altar beneath Echmiadzin Cathedral, Armenia
Participating in the conference "The Middle East and the Caucasus: History, Realities and Perspectives" in Yerevan, Armenia, I had a chance to visit Echmiadzin Cathedral on Friday, November 07, 2008. The excursion was arranged by the conference organisers, the Institute of Oriental Studies of Armenian National Academy of Sciences. By the kindness of our Armenian host, we were able to see a Mazdayee/ Zoroastrian construction, a fire-altar, beneath the main altar of the cathedral. Unearthed in 1950, The fire-place is surrounded by a wall, and there is a kind of complicated carved design facing it on the opposite wall. The existence of such a worship place goes with the legend that Christ came down from heaven with a hammer to destroy a pagan temple and show where the church has to be built. The place is closed to ordinary visitors.
Fortunately, I was able take some photos and shoot two short movies, though not in good quality, by my digital camera. I upload them here. A photo shows the entrance to the construction, while the other looks to the entrance from inside. The design on the wall opposite to the altar is shown in the third one. While narrating the scene, I made a mistake, corrected shortly afterwards, by describing the design on the wall as a "Lotus flower", an ancient Persian symbols carved on many historical remains.
The three photos and two movies © Jalil Nozari
More information in Wikipedia which has a reference to this construction under "Archaeological traces" (click here).
Posted by Jalil Nozari- جلیل نوذری at 10:58
Labels: Iranian Studies
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
I have a wide variety of friends, with a wide variety of interests and beliefs. Science minded friends, socialists, skeptics, atheists, mildly pagan leaning, new agey holistic health beliefs, and leanings towards anarchistic anti-government sentiments. It is not important, to me that they necessarily share all my ways of thinking, nor I their's. The fundamental principles of social justice, freedom of expression, personal liberty, and equality are a common ground on which our mutual friendships are based, regardless of the individual particulars of why anyone of them has such beliefs.
I, myself, am an atheist, materialist, socialist feminist, which are all views I actively promote in my day-to-day interactions. I am extremely pragmatic, and even though I do not have a strong science background, I rely on, especially regarding B's health care, evidence based medical intervention. I am also strongly opposed to many current and popular conspiracy theories, specifically those based on faulty or fraudulent understandings of medical research, the lingering bogus belief that vaccines cause Autism being a fine example of that. It has been proven that the doctor behind that skewed his data and produced what was, at best, a faulty result, and at worst, a deliberately misleading and self serving report. The facts are that there is absolutely no link between vaccines and Autism, and all curent research indicates a genetic cause.
Recently, a friend sent me a link to this video:
Now, in his defense, my friend only wants to share information he believes is important, and there is nothing wrong, at all, with monitoring and criticising the medical and psychiatric fields. Indeed, any system that monitors and influences the health of individuals and society should be deeply and constantly scrutinized.
However, this video is produced by Citizens Commission On Human Rights, which sounds all great and progressive and correct, but which is actually a front for the Church of Scientology. I will spare you my well used rant against the Church of Scientology, an out-and-out scam if ever there was one, but I will express my horror and outrage at the absolutely misleading and fraudulent criticisms of Psychology, Psychiatry, and Neuroscience put forth just in the first few minutes of this video. The biggest being that there have been no studies or research, and therefore no evidence, on the causes of anxiety and depression. A simple look at any quality science blog or site will expose that as the outright lie that that is. There as been a great amount of research on the brain and brain disorders, and a large body of evidence based medicine has resulted from that.
Psychiatry and psychology are what is known as soft science, that is, not all the approaches are based on hard objective experimental data, but more on subjective data and studies to which interpretation and peer review must be applied to generate a consistent and usable outcome. But both are heavily driven and informed by hard science, such as Neuroscience, which does consist of hard data. To deny the useful and beneficial information and treatment that has come out of this science is a huge disservice to both people that suffer from such disorders and society at large.
I am not going to deny that there have been, and continue to be, bad doctors, bad psychologists, and bad researchers, see the fraudulent report on vaccines and Autism for proof of that, but I believe more strongly in the scientific method and the greater ethical nature of the scientific community than I do in "alternative' sources, such as naturopathy, homeopathy, and certainly more than a group who wish me to pay exorbitant sums to have dead, volcano cooked alien souls removed from my body. And when an alternative treatment is tested, and is shown to work, that's great, but as Tim Minchin says, "Do you know what they call an alternative medicine that's been proven to work? Medicine."
The point is, there are facts, proven, diagnosable, physically real facts that are revealed by science, and that only change when new facts appear, and these facts are not negated by mysterious belief and purely anecdotal evidence. And the treatments I seek for my daughter will be based on these facts and this research. To me, it is unconscionable to seek other treatments or worse, not treat her, based on any treatment that is not evidence based.
So, the Scientology video made me mad. Especially as B's doctors and I just this week decided to try her on a second trial of anti-depressants for her debilitating anxiety and depression. Despite all SSRI detractors and conspiracy mongering, the fact is that depression and anxiety are physical/chemical problems, that respond best to both drug therapy in combination with cognitive therapy, and any twit that advises E-Meter testing in conjunction with vitamin therapy as a replacement for actual treatment is, at best, deluded, and at worst, deliberately misleading people. Certainly taking vitamins and eating well can help, but it is NOT a treatment for her. Well, not taking vitamins necessarily. Taking vitamins, for the most part, has been proven to not be necessary for most people, special circumstances aside.
Do you remember the AIDS Heretics in the '90s? Well, yeah, I learned a big lesson there. You can extrapolate any amount of ridiculous belief and convince yourself it's logical. I won't be doing that again.
Now, my friend did not know about the recent change in her medicine when he sent me the video, nor that each change or addition to her medicine involves a lot of discussion and consultation, and is never done hastily or without great need. I love my friend, and even like his desire to question everything, but for Apollo's sake, PUHLEEZE, everyone, check your sources before you send me anything meant to inform or persuade my choice in treatment for B, because I am quite well versed, as a lay person, on these subjects.
One thing we all should all be wary of is own own predilection towards affirming our own confirmation biases, especially when such confirmations are irrational and don't have a solid foundation. And if we're all lucky, we have someone in our lives who isn't afraid to smack us with a logic stick once in a while and force us to be intellectually honest despite ourselves. I'm lucky, Andrew does that for me. I hope my friend saw that I was doing that for him. Certainly, if you read of a treatment or study you think is interesting, let me know and I'll read it, but do some verifying first.
- Anxiety (14)
- Behaviour (9)
- Crowbar (2)
- Emergency (3)
- Funny Girl (8)
- Introduction (1)
- Love (10)
- Medication (16)
- Parenting (43)
- Political (1)
- School (16)
- Seizures (12)
- Services (13)
- Sleep (5)
- Sparky (4)
- Specialists (10)
- Stroke (2)
- Surgery (2)
- Testing (4)
- Who B Is (8)
Monday, January 17, 2011
Medical Treatment And What My Views Are
Labels: Medication, Parenting
1 comment:
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
"B.A.T. Shark Repellent Spray"
18" x 24" 4-color Screenprint
on #100 cover French Speckletone Madero Beach
Signed and Numbered Edition of 66
LOL! Check out this amazing piece of POP ART created by a very talented Artist (and Batman Fan! ) named Scott Derby. He created this Screenprinted Art Print for the PRODUCT PLACEMENT Art Show at Gallery Nineteen Eighty-Eight (East) in Los Angeles, CA.
Unfortunately I didn't know about this event when it was going on and the show has ended. But, they are still selling a few remaining items & you can still get a few remaining items. The show also contained many other prints that were all Pop Culture-related, there was even a very cool 1950's Style Batmobile one too, for more information just CLICK HERE!
Artist's Statement:
"The first thing that introduced me to the magic of pop culture was the 1966 Adam West Batman TV show. It's one of the first things I remember watching on TV, and I still watch it to this day, but this time I watch it with my son.... SO when this show came about, I felt like I had to do something based on all of the wonderful gadgets that Batman had at his disposal..."Also, if you want to enjoy more eye candy then you can visit the Artist's website by clicking RIGHT HERE!


text:
A new but excellent blog noting books pubbed by indie, alternative, and emerging presses. Includes chapbook publishers, too -- more ways to disseminate our work.
Take a peek. Doses delivered daily by --> DAILY s-PRESS
Peace, Linda
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Small Press s-Press
Posted by Linda at Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Labels: Daily s-Press, indie books, small press
5 comments:
Thanks! Since I'm being published by a small press, I love any post that brings them more attention.ReplyDelete
Excellent post, Linda. Thanks for the info.ReplyDelete
purdy neaftyReplyDelete
word verfi: fullist
Cool! Thanks for the headsup, Linda.ReplyDelete
Cool, Linda. Saving it if for no other reason than more places to ping with queries at some distant future point.ReplyDelete
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
This is a bit late but I was cleaning out my printer tray and I did print these out Dec 28th and Jan 2 so my intentions were good! They are a bit general but I think that they are worth repeating and could certainly be applied to your scrapping goals and relationships! Enjoy and I look forward to your feedback!
The first one is from our internal Close To My Heart "Weekly Wisdom" email. It was titled "Set your 2012 Goals". This is an excerpt from it that spoke to me:
"Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, recommends finding those small things you can do right now to help achieve your more ambitious resolutions. Is your goal to be more active or healthy in 2012? Then the key is to isolate the smaller tasks that you can do to achieve that - maybe it is getting up a little bit earlier, or cutting down on sodas and drinking water instead. Whatever it is you determine to do, Covey explains that "The main thing is to make a promise to yourself and keep it. When you make a promise and keep it you will find yourself grow in self-assurance and confidence."
The second was a list of resolutions from a "Monday Morning Motivator" that I subscribe to from Gail Blanke, author of Throw Out Fifty Things. They were very positive and somedays a positive attitude is all you need!
1. I will assume the best case scenario in every situation - even when someone hasn't answered my email, returned my call... or looks at me kind of funny.
2. I will become an "adventurer." I will look at myself, my work, the people I love and the world in general with "new eyes" - every day.
3. I will press my "mental delete button" when I wake up at 3 AM and start worrying about the stuff I haven't done - or the stuff I should've done differently...and sleep like a baby.
4. I will assume the best intentions in people - and anticipate that they will deliver on them.
5. I will not become exhausted by the mere thought of all the things I have to do; I will imagine myself taking energy from the doing of them.
6. I will not over analyze things, people and situations. I will trust my instincts - and act.
7. I will remind myself when the things I'm attempting seem especially hard that they're supposed to be hard. If they weren't hard, someone would already have done them.
8. I will remember - on the inevitable occasions when somebody doesn't buy my "act" - that wonderful advertising mantra: if enough people love ya, the ones who don't, don't matter.
9. I will wrap my arms around the really good moments - little ones, big ones - and say out loud, "Right now...isn't this good? Aren't we lucky?"
10. I will choose to be happy.
So with these thoughts in mind - I'll leave you with a couple of inspirational layouts in the spirit of New Years Resolutions. They are both from the Club CK gallery and were highlighted on their blog yesterday. (Kind of neat how both of them did not have photos! That is something I rarely do but it is a powerful techinique.)
By Itarbox
By Celeste Smith
3 hours ago


text:
Damn, as dreams go, that was a good one: ambivalent good guys and bad guys, sexual intercourse with a spaceship, telepathy and telekinesis and short skirts all over the place. And it all made perfect sense at the time!
Strange how it all falls apart when you wake up and start thinking about it though. And a pity.


text:
She says she's a good girl. They say she's a bad girl.
Looks like a sideshow to the violence she says she suffered from during her forced transfer to the hospital.
Which led her to go on hunger strike.
Still, the place looks pretty much the same as the infirmary cell in the previous video released by the regime. With the not-so-fake Tymoshenko in it.
It's hard to be sure, but maybe there's some truth to both sides of the story?
Meanwhile, in Holland...
...women can only rely on beer machines to keep their men out of Ukraine.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Tymoshenko Playing Sick, Kissing (With Lawyer?) on Fake (?) Video
She says she's a good girl. They say she's a bad girl.


text:
Man Sentenced For Role In Virginia Methamphetamine
JUL 23 -- (Harrisonburg, Virginia) - The leader of a methamphetamine conspiracy responsible for importing more than 1,000 pounds of methamphetamine into the Harrisonburg area over a seven year span was sentenced yesterday in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia. Sergio Mujica, 41, of Houston, Texas, had been charged, along with eight other individuals, with conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine. Mujica was also charged with operating a continuing criminal enterprise, also known as the "Kingpin" statute. In April 2010, Mujica plead guilty to the conspiracy count. After an extensive hearing in which a number of Mujica's drug associates testified, Mujica was sentenced to 350 months in federal prison and 5 years of supervised release thereafter. The defendant was also previously ordered to forfeit $500,000 to the United States.
"The effects of this investigation will be felt for years to come in Harrisonburg and the surrounding communities," stated Ava A. Cooper-Davis, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration, "Thanks to the tireless efforts of DEA, our state and local partners, and the prosecutor, Mr. Mujica, a significant methamphetamine trafficker, and his co-conspirators are out of business."
"Methamphetamine ravages communities in the Western District" United States Attorney Timothy J. Heaphy said today. "Men like Mr. Mujica who pump this poison into our communities deserve harsh punishment like the stiff sentence imposed by the judge today. Working with our state and local counterparts, we will do all we can to dismantle drug organizations from the head down."
According to the testimony and evidence presented at the guilty plea and sentencing hearings, Mujica was the leader of a large scale drug organization with connections to Mexico, which imported an average of seven to ten pounds of methamphetamine a week into the Harrisonburg area for a period of at least seven years. The methamphetamine was delivered to various stash houses in and around Harrisonburg, and then distributed to numerous local drug dealers, employing a number of drug associates whom Mujica had recruited. Mujica also recruited numerous individuals to send the drug sale proceeds to persons in Texas and Mexico, using money wire transfers, averaging $30,000 a week. Mujica's drug organization also used vehicles to smuggle drug proceeds into Mexico. Witnesses estimated they picked up or delivered more than 1,000 pounds of methamphetamine for Mujica during the seven years of the conspiracy. DEA estimated that the street value for this amount of methamphetamine exceeded $14,000,000. U.S. District Court Judge Samuel G. Wilson noted that this was the largest methamphetamine case he had ever seen in the Western District of Virginia.
The investigation and prosecution of the case was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the United States Attorneys Office, the Virginia State Police, the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office, the Harrisonburg Police Department, the Waynesboro Police Department, the Augusta County Sheriff's Office, and the Staunton Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Craig "Jake" Jacobsen prosecuted the case.


text:
"Everybody likes taking control. Here's your chance!"
— Nicolas, Director, Web Hosting
Designed for web hosting and server automation, the award-winning Parallels® Plesk Panel provides an easy-to-use interface, profitable access to applications and a completely integrated provisioning, billing and content management system for your business. With single-click access to hundreds of applications, an integrated site-building tool and fully automated billing, Parallels Plesk Panel enables your business to introduce new services and extend existing services quickly and conveniently.
Parallels Plesk Panel offers granular control, important functionality such as server health monitoring tools, convenient upgrade and migration tools, and control of user experiences with role-based access to functionality.


text:
Winter 2009. Franklin, Kentucky
"You cannot have faith in the absence of doubt".
Hudson Murphy and I were already almost a 1,000 miles into our journey when we set aside time to join a Sunday Bible study in the private home of the friends we were staying with in Franklin. We had met spiritual leaders and pitched tent on sacred ground many, many times before Franklin but the two bald headed former priests that day spoke to me.
Belton, TX
Most kids grow up in a place. I grew up between two. My father was a physician, and my mother a devout Christian who, aside from being a small business owner, raised me and my three brothers― Matthew, Mark, and Jon, The Gospels as we were known. Our Sundays were spent simply. My mom made sure our mornings were spent at Saint Francis Episcopal Church and my dad made sure our evenings were spent sitting around our kitchen television watching Nature on PBS.
Indeed, my upbringing was balanced between science and religion. Mom always made certain her boys had a quarter in our pockets to tithe with but it was Dad's job to ensure our education extended well beyond both the pews and the classrooms. For him, erudition was everything. He came from humble yet decent beginnings, putting himself through medical school; when he wasn't practicing twelve hours a day, seven days a week, he was reading his medical journals. Piles and piles of New England Journal of Medicine and Journal of the American Medical Association to name a few were stacked all about our home, and anyone who dared rearrange or relocate them would incur his wrath.
I experienced this firsthand. Solitude unsettled me as a child so I read and early on developed a habit of reading everything around me. As I got a little older cartoons just weren't cutting it for me anymore so I picked up anything around me and poured into it. In our home that was either the Wall Street Journal or medical magazines. I didn't understand what "New Developments in Vascular Repair of Atherosclerotic Venal Blockage" meant but it sounded big or at least better than Family Circus or Hagar the Horrible anyway. One particular morning after an equal helping of Count Chocula and "Renal Failure and Long-Term Care of Dialysis Patients," I neglected to return the journal to its original place and boy did I get the 'what-for' from my father that night.
My mother's influence over the household was equally pervasive. She collected religious antiquities and curiosos with fervor and she filled just about every nook and cranny with them: statues of saints in the gardens and atrium, crucifixes hung on every wall in the house, an ancient pew from some church in Europe, and Milagros or Spanish charms representing religious stories like Santo Nino de Atocha. I cannot recall the total number of Bibles in various translations and versions.
Most of my youth was spent in Belton, which in retrospect seems important since it's just about the midpoint between Waco and Austin on the I-35 corridor. Waco is considered the southernmost reach of the Bible Belt and home to Baylor University, one of the top ranked Christian schools in the country. Austin on the other hand, couldn't be more its opposite. An artistic, liberal city known now as Silicon Hills because of its robust technology community, Austin is also reknown as a haven for hippies, has a slogan 'Keep Austin Weird', and has one of the lowest church attendance rates in the South.
It was between these two magnetic poles I was raised and both seemed to pull at me in a fight for my soul. I didn't see it as a battle back then, religion versus science. Youth isn't known for that kinda circumspection so I studied both with equal fervor and as I would later learn, the two are not mutually exclusive. Still it fucked me up pretty good. But in a good way.
YBD's Notes 1: Typographical errors tonight due to slicing the shit out of my left index finger down to the bone. Or maybe I was watching Nathan Fillion on Castle.
YBD's Notes 2: I don't like this chapter. I never did. Not even when Ed and I worked on it in 2010 and I've changed it vastly.
It'll never say what I want or need it to convey. But I could never get away from it as a part of this story and it must be told.


text:
I thought for a time I might never write anything else. I have enough to keep my days and nights filled already. That's a good excuse, but it doesn't satisfy the creative urge that made me write in the first place. I'm giving myself some time off, without the pressure of plot lines and deadlines, hoping the love of simply putting words on paper will once again work its way into my routine. The words still scroll through my mind weaving their tales, but I think it's best to leave them scrolling there a little longer. To put it simply, I can't not write, so I will write again when the right time comes.
Meanwhile, there's the matter of the books I've written and the harsh reality of our financial state after months of medical bills and making over our home to meet the current situation. I need the income from those books. After they'd sunk to the murky depths of Amazon's algorithms, and without any funds to buy the pricey ads that might temporarily push them back into the light, I had some hard decisions to make. They may not be the best choices, but they seemed worth a try. If they don't work, I'll try to find something else, but that's part of the beauty of self-publishing.
First of all, I stopped renewing my enrollments in Amazon's Kindle Select, which means I can publish my books with other retailers too. I then turned to Smashwords, which used to scare me to death with its talk of "meatgrinder" formatting. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. It was actually a rather rewarding experience to do something different and find out I could make it work! So far, my new release, All That Glitters, and my very first effort, Hearts Unfold, are listed with Smashwords and therefore also available from Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Apple iBooks, and others.
Not only does this potentially increase my market, but it allows for a strategy many have tried with success--permanently setting the price of the first book in a series at FREE. Permafree is available through Smashwords, but not through Amazon. However, with enough pleading, Amazon will match the FREE price.
I'll tell you quite honestly that through the years, I've learned that if I can entice a reader to Valley Rise with a free copy of Hearts Unfold, they are very likely to come back for the rest of the series. The proof of an unknown writer is in the reading, after all. At least there's no cliffhanger in Hearts Unfold to leave the reader feeling cheated at the end. It's their choice to purchase more of Stani and Emily's story or leave them curled up together on the floor dreaming of their future, right?
I wish this were simply a new marketing strategy I've cold-bloodedly adopted, but I haven't done it without a qualm or two. I'm too attached to my characters and their stories to seemingly undervalue the work that went into publishing that first book. On the other hand, when I wrote Hearts Unfold I never imagined anyone reading it, much less buying it, so giving it away to potential readers isn't really so radical.
These are the first of the choices I've made, increase exposure through more retailers and offer Hearts Unfold permanently free to all. In the next few months I'll be adding the rest of my titles to Smashwords. I still lack funds for promotion, but with any luck, my income will increase enough to allow for a little advertising now and then. Word of mouth is always the most valuable means of reaching readers, so if you've read my work, I trust you'll pass on a good word or maybe leave a review on Amazon?
FYI here are the links to Hearts Unfold. Each of these pages will offer links to my other books on the sites.
Amazon.com: Karen Welch: Books, Biography, Blog, Audiobooks, Kindle
Smashwords – Hearts Unfold--Miracle at Valley Rise Book 1 – a book by Karen Welch
Hearts Unfold: Miracle at Valley Rise Book 1 by Karen Welch | NOOK Book (eBook) | Barnes & Noble
Hearts Unfold: Miracle at Valley Rise Book 1 by Karen Welch on iBooks
Hearts Unfold: Miracle at Valley Rise Book 1 eBook by Karen Welch - 9781310644269 | Kobo


text:
To dedicate myself to my love for photography and family, I will devote myself to posting one photo a day to share my joys and pains, my family, my art, my life.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Turtle Rescue
We made a terrible mistake today, we showed up to the Cal Academy of Art on what turned out to be the 1 free day per month. The line went on for over a half mile, no joke, nor exaggeration. So, we passed on that circus.
We were already in beautiful Golden Gate Park, so we took a stroll around our favorite spot, Stow Lake. There's a path around the lake, and a few bridges crossing the water to get to an island in the middle. There's a waterfall, a chinese pagoda, and lots of little critters all around.
Along the way, we spotted this turtle on a sloping bank. He looked like he was heading uphill. As I was trying to take his picture, he seemed agitated and snapped a few times. Soon, we came to realize that he was stuck in his present spot. He tried and tried to climb in any direction, but only managed to dig himself deeper into the nook in which we lay. So, our good deed for the day was to point him back downhill and he quickly scurried back to the water.
Posted by Chris at 8/18/2010 02:35:00 PM
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
The word Italy conjures up so many different possibilities, from sun-drenched terraces with grapes hanging, ripe for the plucking, to mist hanging over the Tuscan countryside at sunrise. Or a Venetian canal with the sound of church bells and the gentle lap of waves. Or maybe hot-baked Sicily with its rich cuisine and history of blood feuds.
There are so many sides to this country. I thought I'd quickly share one I discovered recently. Those of you on FaceBook might have followed my travel photos there. If not, it's not too late to check out some of my pics. This link should get you there.
After attending a wonderful readers convention in Berlin, I took time for a little travel and research, including a short spell in the Dolomites of Northern Italy. Aren't they spectacular mountains?
This is an area where German is still for many their first language (a hangover from the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) and there's even a local language, Ladin, spoken in some valleys, which dates back to the days when Roman soldiers tramped the mountain roads! It's not uncommon to see signs in three languages, including Italian.
I knew this, but still, I was surprised at how the area was so unlike what I'd expected of Italy. Sure the wine was great, as were the pizzas (yes, I had one along the way) but the South Tirol surprised in so many ways. For instance, I expected Italians to be have high standards when it came to making coffee or pasta, or love (hey, I'm a romance writer). But I hadn't expected such attention to detail when it came to stacking wood.
The green of the country was incredible. I hadn't really thought of Italy as dairy country but of course it is here - and delicious dairy too.
There were amazing chalet-style houses in the mountains with overhanging balconies and lots of wood carving everywhere. We also noticed some old style, and absolutely beautiful, painted furniture in some of the older places.
Even the outdoor furniture in parks was often hewn from local timber and build along local, traditional lines.
In the meantime, if you yearn for a taste of Italy, why not try Fabrizio and Jenna's story? It's a short, spicy bite of Mediterranean romance that readers so far are loving. (Thank you if you're a reader who's posted a review!).
It was love at first sight when charismatic hotelier Fabrizio Armati swept Jenna off her feet in Venice. That chance meeting led to a night together, then to sizzling hot affair that lasted till the day she discovered he sees her as nothing but an expendable mistress.
You can grab BACK IN THE ITALIAN'S BED at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
What's your favourite part of Italy? Maybe somewhere you've visited or dreamed of visiting? A dream ride up a canal in Venice, a night in a romantic villa, or maybe sitting on the Spanish Steps in Rome, watching the world go by?
Arrivederci, and happy reading,


text:
"I'd just gotten home from the hospital and was unlocking my door when a police car pulled in my driveway."
--ALWAYS WATCHING, Chapter Thirty-Seven
Monday, June 17, 2013
1 comment:
Hi Chevy,ReplyDelete
I just finished reading "Always Watching"... Enjoyed the read from beginning-middle-through end. I like your style and especially relate to the Vancouver Island areas you speak of in the book, because I too reside here. Now that I have found my way to your books, I will be reading more of your creations - The first one kept me interested all the way through.
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
Facebook and American Express to Offer Free Small Business Advertising
Posted November 20, 2010on:
What is Small Business Saturday?
More than a dozen advocacy, public, and private organizations are joining American Express OPEN, the company's small business unit, in declaring the Saturday after Thanksgiving as Small Business Saturday. This year, Small Business Saturday is November 27, 2010.
Is Small Business Saturday designed to get people to stop shopping at larger businesses or online?
Absolutely not. Small Business Saturday recognizes the importance of small businesses to the overall economy and local communities. It's a day to support the small, independently owned businesses we can't live without.
Who can get involved in Small Business Saturday?
Anybody. Anywhere. Now through Small Business Saturday, November 27.
How can I get involved in Small Business Saturday?
There are a number of ways for you to get involved. First and foremost, it's about helping raise awareness about the importance of small business to our communities. For example, you can visit www.facebook.com/smallbusinesssaturday where you can "like" Small Business Saturday and syndicate news feeds about the day to your personal, virtual networks. There, you can also spread the word about the day and your favorite businesses by giving a shout-out to your favorite local shops and restaurants via Facebook and Twitter.
You can also support Small Business Saturday by patronizing the local, independently owned small businesses in your neighborhood. That could mean anything from having dinner on your way home from the mall during the holiday shopping season or reserving a part of your holiday gift budget to spend at a local small business.
And if you're an American Express® Cardmember, you're eligible to earn a $25 statement credit on any purchase of at least $25 on Small Business Saturday at any locally owned independent small businesses that accept American Express. You can redeem this offer by registering your American Express Cards at https://enroll.amexnetwork.com/US/sbs. Terms apply, available here www.facebook.com/SmallBusinessSaturday.
I'm a small business owner. How can I get involved in Small Business Saturday?
Small Business Saturday can provide business owners with marketing opportunities that can help increase demand for your products and services.
For example, business owners who sign up at www.facebook.com/SmallBusinessSaturday will receive a $100 Facebook advertising credit to help build online buzz and drive customers to spend at their businesses on Small Business Saturday. Supplies of advertising inventory for this offer are limited so sign up now. See complete details here www.facebook.com/SmallBusinessSaturday. You can also download promotional materials and a number of social media tools to promote your business on the inaugural Small Business Saturday this November 27th.
Why should I get involved in Small Business Saturday?
The goal of Small Business Saturday is to inspire you to support the local small businesses that mean the most to you. Supporting small business is all about supporting our communities.
Small business is the heartbeat of local communities and the engine of the US economy. Over the past two decades, small businesses created 65 percent of net new jobs. In addition, for every $100 spent in locally owned independent stores, $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll, and other expenditures.
What featured events are happening during Small Business Saturday?
In support of this day, American Express OPEN is partnering with nearly 20 advocacy, public, and private organizations, including the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is supporting Small Business Saturday events in Boston, Massachusetts; Cedar Falls, Iowa; Port Townsend, Washington; as well as the Convention and Visitor's Bureaus in San Francisco, Greater Boston, Chicago, LA, and NYC.
Over time, our hope is that many more communities across the country recognize Small Business Saturday in a meaningful way that helps drive more business to small businesses.
Is Small Business Saturday something only for American Express Cardmembers or merchants?
No. Small Business Saturday is a national movement to inspire all consumers and communities across the country to support their local small businesses. American Express and more than a dozen organizations are coming together to support the day in different ways. Over time, we hope that more organizations join us in the movement to raise awareness about the importance of supporting small businesses.
How can I learn more about Small Business Saturday?
In addition to this website (www.SmallBusinessSaturday.com), you can find more information and connect with others involved via any of our social media channels, including @AmericanExpress on Twitter and www.facebook.com/smallbusinesssaturday.
Read more Small Business News at http://www.homebusinessbug.com/small-business-news/


text:
Unlike myself, Corn describes himself as a "tried and true Suns fan." He has lived and died (mostly died, given his profoundly negative nature), with this team for the past twenty years. And while I have sworn myself off of any further discussion of the Phoenix Suns outside of any coaching changes that are imminent, it wouldn't be right for Corn not to weigh in on the "death" of the Suns last night. And while there are about a million things I disagree with about this particular piece, we're partners, and when his team suffers arguably the most painful loss in its history, he deserves a take. Here are his thoughts. Take it away, Corn...
These are my definitive opinions and if you have a problem with them, feel free to email me at matthew.t.cornelius (at) gmail (dot) com.
The Suns tried to get better on interior defense (hey, how about teaching Amare to give a crap? That would be a better start than trading for freaking Shaq.) and in doing so forgot that if you don't let people get into the lane, then your interior defense looks a lot better. The Spurs knew that and exploited it to a huge advantage. Good for them.
Amare's offensive skills are beautiful, but his defense and lack of motivation at times are inexcusable. Amare, when not being made the absolute focal point of the offense, can sometimes completely disappear. Last night was a crucial example. I have never seen anyone suffer and get so off their game just because they didn't get the first pass when the ball comes across half court. It is pathetic and weak. Diaw, with his tremendous array of skills, should be a great compliment to Amare at the small forward position. He too needs to get better at his perimeter defense and get quicker, but his skill set plays very well off Amare. Unfortunately, Diaw cannot be effective without being the focal point of the offense either. Maybe the can't co-exist. Keep Amare and blow up the rest. Good luck with that, Stevie Kerr.
The rest of the team should be gone within two years. Nash and Shaq will retire. Bell will get picked up by somebody like San Antonio, who can use his perimeter defense and spot up shooting to its greatest effect. Leandro Barbosa is a one-dimensional player who is incapable of running an offense or playing defense. He is a scorer deluxe, but the Suns don't need that. Giricek and Skinner will be out of town. If you really want to see Kerr's mettle as a GM, let's see what he does when this hulking shell of a Phoenix team needs to be remade in full. Cause, you know, D'Antoni won't be around to direct it.
Oh, and one more thing, why in the world wasn't Hill/Diaw/Giricek/any freaking person who is NOT Leandro Barbosa guarding Finley when he hit that backbreaker three in Game One? I don't even care about the Duncan three (because, after all, real champions make plays when the game is on the line). I care about that one. Awful coaching and even worse execution by the smallest guy on the team. Well done, Suns.
It basically all boils down to Sarver. Why did he run Bryan Colangelo out of town? Why couldn't he just accept that he didn't know anything about running a basketball team and leave it up to someone who had the NBA in his genes and had been intimately involved in it his whole life? It is the bane of many a new owner in the NBA to be far too caught up in "names" on their team, former players in the front office, and in wagging their own proverbial cock all over the team just to show that they are now the boss and whatever they want, they get. And in the end, he gets exactly what he wants: a distraught fan base, a team that doesn't believe in itself, a Knicks-style soap opera in his brain trust, a legacy of losing and a reputation for being an irrefutably boorish owner who has no idea how to build a winning team. But boy, did Shaq ever boost those merchandising sales! On second thought, you are a winner, Robert. It's only your team that had to be sacrificed.
Corn will likely be a bit quieter for the rest of the playoffs since he's since been admitted to the North Carolina Institute For The Completely Batsh*t Insane. Donations to the Shaquille O'Neal Buyout Retirement Fund can be made in lieu of flowers.


text:
Google reminds us — not because of fear-of-dangerous-outsiders doings over the weekend — but because the man was born 100 years ago today. I presume this Google doodle was in the works before the election and would have run today if Hillary Clinton had been elected and thrown open the doors to Middle Eastern refugees.
Or... wait. What would Hillary Clinton have done? Remember when Donald Trump said Hillary Clinton "would bring in 620,000 refugees in her first term, alone, with no effective way to screen or vet them"? That was on September 20th. I'm reading that quote at Politifact, which rates Trump's statement FALSE.
But Hillary Clinton didn't throw it in our face that she was going to block entry into the country and subject newcomers to extreme vetting. That's what Trump did. Hillary had the kind of nuanced position that allowed you to think — if you liked her — that she'd have a big heart toward the suffering and simultaneously protect us from terrorists or — if you didn't like her — that she had no plan and no nerve to stop the influx of masses of people, some of whom hate the American system and want to kill us.
Not enough people liked her, the system we love made Donald Trump our President, and now he is shocking the people who didn't like him by doing what he said in plain language he was going to do.
But many years ago, a President who is revered by the kind of people who like Hillary Clinton issued an Executive Order excluding all persons of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast.
The Democratic Party's all-time favorite President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, decided to take action against all persons of Japanese descent because "the successful prosecution of the war requires every possible protection against espionage and against sabotage."
Fred Korematsu stayed where he was, in Oakland, California, where he was born. Soon enough, he got arrested:
Shortly after Korematsu's arrest, Ernest Besig, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union in northern California, asked him whether he would be willing to use his case to test the legality of the Japanese American internment. Korematsu agreed, and was assigned civil rights attorney Wayne M. Collins. The American Civil Liberties Union in fact argued for Ernest Besig not to fight Korematsu's case, since many high-ranking members of the ACLU were close to Franklin Roosevelt, and the ACLU didn't want to be perceived badly in time of war. Besig decided to take Korematsu's case in spite of this....The ACLU — which is in the news today as it fights Trump's executive order — fought for Korematsu and ultimately lost in the Supreme Court. "Ultimately" is not the right word, because you could say that in later years academic and public opinion shifted strongly in his favor, and with enough distance from World War II, we looked with disgust at what FDR arrogation of power and the Supreme Court feeble response. Korematsu ultimately won. He's a hero of history, celebrated in a Google doodle on the 100th anniversary of his birth.
But that's not "ultimately" either. American history rolls on.


text:
It seems like it's seldom a clear or simple answer to the question: what's the best work-life balance for a busy family? There is sacrifice no matter what solution you choose. And if you're a single parent it's even harder.
Our moms panel discusses the personal challenges of working at home versus working outside the home as well as the challenge of switching between the two. Let us know if you've had similar experiences and what's working best for your family right now!


text:
Free Streaming Southpaw in Top Video FormatNow you can watch full Southpaw in HD format with duration 123 Min and has been launched in 2015-07-24 with MPAA rating is 212.
- Original Title : Southpaw
- Movie title in your country : Southpaw
- Year of movie : 2015
- Genres of movie : Action, Drama, Thriller,
- Status of movie : Released
- Release date of movie : 2015-07-24
- Companies of movie : Escape Artists, Riche-Ludwig Productions,
- Countries of movie : United States of America,
- Language of movie : English,
- Durationof movie : 123 Min
- Average vote of movie : 7.1
- Youtube ID of movie : xkCNJKZ9FHs
- Translation of movie : EN,ES,ZH,FR,RU,SV,HE,CS,TR,PL,DE,HU,NL,IT,PT,BG,DA,EL,RO,
- Actors of movie :Jake Gyllenhaal (Billy Hope), Rachel McAdams (Maureen Hope), Forest Whitaker (Titus 'Tick' Wills), Oona Laurence (Leila Hope), Naomie Harris (Angela Rivera), Rita Ora (Maria Escobar), 50 Cent (Jordan Mains), Clare Foley (Alice), Beau Knapp (Jon Jon), Skylan Brooks (Hoppy), Victor Ortiz (Ramone), Dominic Colón (Mikey), Jose Caraballo (Eli Frost), Malcolm M. Mays (Gabe), Aaron Quattrocchi (Keith 'Buzzsaw' Brady), Lana Young (Gloria), Danny Henriquez (Hector Escobar), Patsy Meck (Judge Kayle), Vito Grassi (Nick), Tony Weeks (Referee), Jimmy Lennon Jr. (Jimmy Lennon Jr.), Charles Hoyes (Stuart Korman)
Movie summary of Southpaw :
Free Streaming Southpaw in Best Look with movie plot "A boxer fights his way to the top, only to find his life falling apart around him." in HD quality. Free Southpaw in Best Quality by push of the download link.
Watch full with title Southpaw full and free movie streaming in high definition format. Watch full with title Southpaw free an fun at here. Nowadays, you can see that hundreds many people trying to find free Southpaw movie and watch it on the sweat house with connection to the internet. End up being happy, you could reach hundreds of thousands of pleased members exactly who became tired with waiting pertaining to dvds within the mail, and anyone can watch for free Southpaw. You can obtain new on the web movie, and Download full it for free in each of our site. It truly is fast, simple, free and additionally to test. Enjoy now Southpaw on the net movie with no downloading. You can view online video streaming within HD high quality in 123 Min length. Observe trailer movie and as well full video of Southpaw click on the button below to view these movie.
... Free Streaming Southpaw in Best Quality 1080p ...
Director : Antoine Fuqua, Writer : Kurt Sutter, Writer : Richard Wenk, Original Music Composer : James Horner, Director of Photography : Mauro Fiore, Editor : John Refoua, Casting : Lindsay Graham, Casting : Mary Vernieu, Producer : Antoine Fuqua, Producer : Todd Black, Producer : Jason Blumenthal, Producer : Alan Riche, Producer : Peter Riche, Producer : Steve Tisch, Production Design : Derek R. Hill, Art Direction : Gregory A. Weimerskirch, Set Decoration : Merissa Lombardo, Costume Design : David C. Robinson, Executive Producer : David J. Bloomfield, Executive Producer : Gary Cheng, Executive Producer : Jonathan Garrison, Executive Producer : Stuart Parr, Executive Producer : David Ranes, Executive Producer : Paul Rosenberg, Executive Producer : David L. Schiff, Executive Producer : Dylan Sellers, Executive Producer : Kurt Sutter, Executive Producer : Ezra Swerdlow, Executive Producer : Bob Weinstein, Executive Producer : Harvey Weinstein, Executive Producer : Fang Zhao, Co-Producer : Kat Samick
Sure, now you can view movie regarding Southpaw fully length and obtain the url to this motion picture Southpaw in HD video.
Tags: sport, boxing,


text:
I'm making Thanksgiving dinner for 14 this year. I'm planning to do Mom's apple pie tomorrow, and probably a pumpkin pie or two as well. I always make those dinner rolls as well because they really are extraordinary. I was toying with the idea of a sourdough version of them this year, though. But the fact is... I'm tired. Really, really tired. Besides pregnancy fatigue, there's insomnia to compound it. I've always been an insomniac in the first trimester... so I'm tired.
So this morning, when a lady from church called to confirm that she and her granddaughter will be coming for Thanksgiving dinner and she asked what she could bring, I took a deep breath --deeper, deeper-- and asked her to take care of dinner rolls. Make them or buy them, I said, just so I don't have to do them. That took courage, people. I mean... I make bread. It's what I do. Always. I made sourdough hamburger buns for Nathan's birthday supper last night.
I make bread.
How could I not make the dinner rolls for Thanksgiving dinner? Well, this year I'm not. And it'll be fine, of course.
Thanksgiving is the one big family/friend dinner party that I do every year, and usually, I like to make everything from scratch myself because I enjoy it. It's fun, really! I like to feed people yummy food. But now I am tired. I'm going to allow it and not make myself do everything.
So several dishes are being brought by guests, including the signature, but time-consuming, dinner rolls. But I have freshly butchered, 26-pound turkey cooling it's heals in my spare fridge, a house waiting to be cleaned, and plenty of food to make myself, including the most wonderful stuffing ever, if-I-do-say-so-myself.
But for today, I thought I would share this which I made yesterday: Sweet and Spicy Cranberry Compote. I've developed this over the last couple of years and I always like to make it a couple days ahead to
The cast of characters:
Fresh cranberries, pears, oranges, a chunk of ginger root, Sucanat (or brown sugar-- use what you have. And what's pictured, by the way, is not nearly enough), cinnamon, cloves, salt and the "secret" ingredient--Jalapeno peppers. Normally, I would use fresh peppers, but when I got out the peppers I knew I had in my vegetable drawer, I found they were... less than appetizing. So I broke out the peppers I had canned in the summer.
The "recipe" is pretty flexible and I always just make it to taste (I go through a whole pile of spoons--tasting all along.) and you could vary it according to what fruits and peppers you have available. I really like the particular flavor of Jalapenos in this dish, but Serranos might be good as well.
So, on to the destructions!
Break open the bag of gorgeous fresh cranberries and bask in their lovely redness.
Wow, those things are beautiful. Have I told you that that is my favorite color? Yes, that right there. The color of bright, fresh cranberries. I just love it and could feast my eyes on it all day.
Pick through them for bad berries, rinse them off, and toss them in a pot with some water, maybe about a cup.
Ugh. Lovely. Did I mention how much I love the color?
Cook them over medium heat until they soften and pop open.
Cranberries are very high in pectin, so the sauce will thicken very quickly. Watch carefully through the cooking and be ready to add more water so it doesn't scorch.
Add Sucanat (can get it at a health-food store-- it adds a lovely flavor and is higher in minerals than sugar) or sugar to taste. I think I used about a cup and a half. I don't like it to be overly sweet --it should be tart-- but it does take quite a bit of sugar to offset the sour cranberries. Minus 100 points to me for forgetting a picture of the sugar-adding. Lower the heat and allow it to gently simmer with some frequent stirring while you prepare the fruit.
Chop or dice the pears. I used two Bosc pears, which stay somewhat firm and keep their shape in the sauce. I had intended to peel them, but I forgot, and these pears are unsprayed anyway.
Remove the zest from the oranges (and if you want to be like the cool people, you'll use one of these awesome zesters that makes the oranges look all impressionistic), and then peel and chop the oranges.
Toss all the chopped fruit and zest into the sauce to start cooking. (And excuse the blown-out pictures-- my camera just doesn't always understand light.)
Usually, I like to put in a handful of raisins. I forgot to order raisins with my co-op order, so I don't have very many on hand and I need what I have for my stuffing. But that's just indicative of the flexibility of this sauce-- use what you have!
Add some cinnamon and cloves, to taste. I used probably a teaspoon of cinnamon and an 1/8th teaspoon of cloves. You can use more or less according to what you like. I add just a little shake of salt to bring out the sweetness as well.
Peel and grate the ginger root and stir it in. This works best if the root is frozen-- the grating will break up all those little fibers and prevent people from thinking there's hair in their cranberry sauce.
At this point, I just allow the sauce to slowly simmer until everything is cooked and well-blended. I added a little water once or twice to keep it from getting scorched.
After it's all cooked, I take out some of the sauce and put it in a separate jar. I have a lot of kids coming to my Thanksgiving dinner who don't appreciate their cranberry sauce causing them pain.
To the remaining sauce, I add some chopped Jalapenos. Like I said, I had to use canned, so they weren't quite as good as fresh, but they still brought the flavor and heat I was looking for.
I allow the peppers to cook in a for a while, and then put the sauce in a jar, labeled "Hot!".
Mmmm... yummy.
I make sure and make it clear to my guests which bowl of sauce is spicy and which is not. No need to cause unintended injury. Last year, however, the "hot" bowl was empty long before the mild.
It's just a condiment, so a quart of sauce should be plenty, but I'm actually considering making a little more. I like to spread it on my turkey sandwiches for the three or four days following thanksgiving.
Mmmm... I'm already craving those sandwiches. I think they might be my favorite part of Thanksgiving.


text:
"As long as you can find yourself, you'll never starve." Katniss Everdeen is the iconic heroine of The Hunger Games, both a wildly popular and groundbreaking book and movie. Author Suzanne Collins seamlessly weaves politics, history, philosophy and social commentary into a young adult action-adventure novel about a dystopian society, so it's no surprise she also has a lot to say about the role of appearance in this horrifying future. Oscar-nominated costume designer Judianna Makovsky (for her stunning work in Pleasantville and Seabiscuit) was given the herculean task of bringing the style of The Hunger Games to the silver screen. For the past week, we've highlighted some of the film's most memorable moments, looks and costumes. The Hunger Games begins in the home of Katniss (played by Jennifer Lawrence) in District 12 – a depressed mining area in former North America. Katniss spends most of her time hunting with her best friend, Gale (played by Liam Hemsworth, pictured, above left) and providing sustenance for their families, since their fathers were killed in the mine. Makovsky told Vogue, "We looked at a lot of photographs of coal mining districts from the turn of the century to the 1950s, because we wanted it to have a very American feel." The people of Katniss's district are starving and struggling to survive, so they're not very worried about looking good. Makovsky continues, "We wanted to make a very serious impact, and color was very important – to keep it mostly gray or blue… very cold because coal leaves a black dust everywhere." The lack of color throughout District 12 certainly gives it a bone-chilling look, and makes the over-the-top publicist Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks, pictured, above right) stick out even more when she comes to collect the male and female tributes for the games. While the children of District 12 appear in fifty shades of grey, like Katniss's sister, Primrose (pictured, above left), Effie appears in bright magenta, crazy makeup and a powdered wig. Makovsky was inspired by the Elizabethan era, John Galliano, and Alexander McQueen, to create the frivolous and frightening citizens of the Capitol. She told Vogue, "I just thought it would be funny if these people, who have such a vicious streak in them, are sort of covered in flowers and ruffles." When Katniss sacrifices herself by volunteering to take the place of Prim, she and the male tribute of District 12, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), leave for the capital city of Panem. They make their first impression on the Capitol by arriving in a glorious chariot ride, hand in hand (pictured, above). Along with Effie, Katniss and Peeta are accompanied into hell by the only living victor from District 12, Haymitch Abernathy (played by the fantastic Woody Harrelson). Haymitch (pictured, below left) is a drunk, and is living proof happiness doesn't always come with winning… Makovsky told EW, "He had won the game, he had money… We didn't want him to be the cliché filthy, dirty drunk. There's a bit of a dandy about him. He puts on a bit of a front so you don't really know who he is… he knows how to play the games. He's done it before. And we thought he would dress for the capital. So he has a little bit of Edwardian cut to his clothes." In the days before entering the arena, Katniss and Peeta have to show off to the Capitol, too, to gain sponsors, who can pay for items, like food and medicine when they're in the arena. They also face several days of "training," which might as well just being a showing-off session to their competitors… Each tribute wears a black tracksuit with grey and red piping and their district number adorned on their sleeves (pictured, above). Following this physical training, they also take part in televised interviews with TV host Caesar Flickerman (played by Stanley Tucci). Waiting to meet with him, the future killers are lined up in different shades of pastels, like lethal Easter eggs. Katniss and Peeta stand out, once again, in a coordinating gown of flames and a dark suit – just like coal and fire. But it turns out, there is a burning passion inside of Peeta Mellark, too. Sexy duo Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson weren't the only men who got to wear significant costumes. Katniss's stylist, Cinna (Lenny Kravitz) makes her come alive through clothing, but he dresses pretty simply, himself, in a black Lurex Prada sweater and his famous gold eyeliner. Stanley Tucci is completely redone as TV host Caesar Flickerman (pictured, below left), with false teeth, bright blue hair and a sparkly suit to match. And according to the Washington Post, even President Snow (played by the highly under-appreciated Donald Sutherland, pictured, below right) had costumes with deep secrets. If you notice, he wears a white clergy shirt underneath his suit made of sharkskin – it's obvious why he's wearing clothing made of a vicious animal, but that's certainly saying something about religious oppression/manipulation by putting him in a clergy collar… When Katniss and Peeta are finally thrust into the Games, it seems their getups match, once again. In the book, all of the tributes wear identical outfits in the arena, but that didn't work on film. Makovsky told EW, "It was my problem to find a look that looked good on boys and girls, and from kids that are age 12 to age 18… All the jackets were specifically dyed – that took forever just to find colors that would read in the woods." Apparently, the jackets read quite well – because they're now available to purchase online! Between Katniss's bow-and-arrow skills, and the upcoming Pixar film, Brave, we're sure archery lessons are going to go through the roof, but that isn't the only thing from The Hunger Games that is catching fire… Not only are the arena jackets for sale, so are the training uniforms, backpacks, makeup, and numerous mockingjay accessories on Amazon, Etsy and Cafe Press, among many other outlets. Despite the fictional novel's futuristic element, Suzanne Collins has created one of the most realistic female characters of all-time. This is a strong girl who knows herself, and isn't ashamed of who she is – a rarity among many "heroines" that Hollywood and publishers seem to churn out. Katniss Everdeen is a hunter, sister, daughter, tribute, rebel, friend, soldier, symbol, survivor – she IS the mockingjay. And this bird isn't going to stop singing any time soon…
Tag Archives: Peeta
A Tribute to The Hunger Games
"What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction." It seems the color of the sun will forever play an interesting role in Katniss Everdeen's life… Here she is with fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) in The Hunger Games. The two make quite an attractive pair in a bright blue suit, and a soft, non-threatening yellow dress – nothing like what Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) has worn prior to this moment in her young life. Without revealing too much about the series or the film, this seemingly happy moment will only be short-lived… Let the countdown to Catching Fire begin!
To Have and To Hold: Hunger Games-Inspired Weddings
"Let's get Katniss Everdeen to her wedding in style." The Hunger Games is a novel about survival, starvation, torture and fighting to the death, yet apparently some people seem to find that very romantic! Several Hunger Games-themed bridal photo-shoots popped up before the premiere of the film last month, earmarking a huge trend to come surrounding the famous series. The Wedding Event Institute announced a contest called "The Wedding Games," where 12 planners and stylists will compete to create the best Katniss-inspired wedding. (You think anyone notices the irony about turning a dystopian horror story into part of a competition that feeds the completely corporate and over-the-top billion-dollar wedding industry…?) Hmm, well irony aside, some of the elements could translate pretty well: table numbers by District number, incorporating the herbs rue and katniss, as well as dandelions and primroses into a bouquet (you could even use the wilted dandelions to blow the spores onto the couple, instead of throwing rice!), and, of course, putting the bride's hair into a long braid. (Fun Fact: Traditional Irish brides wore braids, as they were a symbol of feminine power and luck. Hmm… you think Suzanne Collins did that intentionally?) You could also easily come up with an entire menu, based on the absence and abundance of food Collins describes in the series – you could serve Katniss's favorite lamb stew with plums, "sugar berry" jam, fresh-baked bread (or even bread for each district, like the seaweed kind from District 4 that Peeta describes), Mellark bakery's cheese and apple tarts, hot chocolate from the train, Primrose's basil-wrapped goat cheese, pudding the color of honey, and, of course, a beautifully detailed wedding cake adorned with handcrafted sugar flowers – just like the ones Peeta Mellark made while working in his father's bakery. (Damn, you could start a whole restaurant out of the delicious treats Suzanne Collins describes! Those were just the dishes we could remember!) All of the shoots incorporated the forest setting, which makes sense since that's where Katniss hunts in District 12 and fights in when she's in the arena. Each of bridal models carried Katniss's signature bow-and-arrow (considering that's cupid's weapon, that actually makes a lot of sense to incorporate that element). Green Wedding Shoes featured an adorable table setting with tree stumps for seats (pictured, above), and a bouquet of arrows in place of flowers (pictured, above left). We loved the stunning bright wildflowers and gorgeous table settings by Courtney Clarke Photography (pictured, below). Our favorite shoot was done by Stacie Shea Events (pictured, top and bottom). We found their use of berries, bread and bows-and-arrows to be the simplest, yet classiest. Their idea of having mini berry jams and tiny baker loaves as parting favors was particularly adorable (pictured, below), as well as recreating the Katniss and Peeta suicide pact (pictured, top left) that feels reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet (not that we're encouraging it!) Each shoot included gorgeous wedding cakes decorated with mockingjays, but we're surprised no one went with the descriptive passages Collins had written about Peeta's beautiful floral handiwork on desserts. (We're also surprised they didn't include any gorgeous blonde grooms – guess these stylists and photographers were all Team Gale? Hehe. Although, a traditional wedding ceremony in District 12 features the bride and groom toasting bread – if the "girl on fire" and "the boy with the bread" marry, one would get toast…) Rustic wedding settings full of birch trees, evergreens and wildflowers do provide a naturally stunning venue, so it makes sense people might be drawn to creating a Hunger Games-esque wedding, but considering the amount of death and destruction that takes place over the series, we don't think that was the message Suzanne Collins was trying to send… Katniss Everdeen is not a girl just trying to get a ring on it. Although, it's not really fair for us to assume what the author would like, since all she ever wanted for her characters was happiness, and the prospect of hope. ❤
"Only I keep wishing I could think of a way to…to show the Capitol they don't own me. That I'm more than just a piece in their Games." Peeta Mellark is the other tribute from District 12 that has to enter the arena with Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games. For the film, he's played by Josh Hutcherson, who it's hard to believe, is only 19-years-old. He carried the entire movie Little Manhattan as a young boy, made us cry in Bridge to Terabithia, and really showed his acting skills as the son of a lesbian couple in the Oscar-nominated film The Kids are All Right. After auditioning for the role, author Suzanne Collins and director Gary Ross high-fived each other without saying a word when he left the room, because they knew they had found their Peeta. We usually don't feature too many male outfits on theSkinnyStiletto, but Peeta is such an integral part of the story, we didn't want to leave him out! Here, he's wearing the matching outfit to Katniss's arena digs – leather boots, a plain black t-shirt, and drab olive utilitarian pants (he has an identical jacket, as well, which is not pictured.) Costume design Judianna Makovsky told EW, "In the book, [the Tributes] all wear exactly the same thing in exactly the same color… For film, that wasn't gonna work well. You couldn't tell who is who. Gary was very specific. He wanted each district to have their own color jacket and then they would all have the same color trousers." With all the hidden meanings of the characters' names, it seems Peeta's has stumped many of the readers… Our mother picked up that his surname, Mellark, probably comes from the word "malarkey," which is slang for meaningless talk, or rubbish (hmm, just like the way he manipulates everyone with his words?) Most assume "Peeta" is derived from pita bread, since his father is a baker, which makes sense, but it also happens to be Scandinavian for "rock" – the perfect word to sum up "the boy with the bread."
Words on Fashion
Hunger Games Frosting
"Yes, frosting. The final defense of the dying." Suzanne Collins' epic series makes sly commentaries on war, death, politics, fashion, love, hunger, bravery, cowardice, history, destruction, life, birth, and even reality TV, so it's no surprise, she has something to say about makeup, too. Three-time Academy Award winner Ve Neill (Beetlejuice, Mrs. Doubtfire) was the head makeup artist on The Hunger Games, and she did some truly exceptional work: making Jennifer Lawrence look striking using very little makeup, giving Lenny Kravitz just a slick of gold eyeliner, and designing Seneca Crane's infamous beard. Besides creating the crazy faces of the wealthy people of Panem, she also had to do extensive work on burns, blood, gashes, and other injuries to demonstrate the true brutality of the games. Avoiding starvation is usually the main thing on the minds of the people in District 12 – not selecting the perfect shade of lipstick. But it turns out, makeup will help Katniss and Peeta in ways they never imagined when heading to the arena…
- Lose Your Brows: Costume designer Judianna Makovsky insisted that Capitol citizens' eyebrows be powdered into nothingness. She told Vogue, "It immediately takes the face somewhere else. It takes it high fashion, but also a little scary. And also beautiful, funnily enough." The ghostly look certainly makes the Capitol creeps look soulless – maybe to show the monsters they truly are.
- Make those Lashes Flutter: Effie Trinket always brings to mind a small, skittish animal or a spastic butterfly, running and teetering around on her heels, so it's no surprise that on closer inspection, you can actually see the little bugs and antlers accenting her eyes. The fake eyelashes were created by PAPERSELF.
- Wig Out: Katniss's hair, face and body are au naturel, so it makes sense that the decadent denizens of Panem are completely fake from head-to-toe. The people in charge of hair on the film were Cherry Petenbrink and Linda Flowers (God, those certainly sound like Hunger Game names!) Flowers told ELLE, "When you're doing bright colors for hair it can look kind of Mardi Gras-ish. This was a very sophisticated group of people, so it had to be classic." Capitol wigs are most often pastel-colored.
- Too Matchy Matchy: According to Allure, Ve Neill always made sure to match Effie Trinket's makeup to her outfits. She used Obsessive Compulsive Lip Tars in lavender and pale blue to match Effie's pale purple suit, showing her cool demeanor.
- Tie Up Those Lips: In the same article in Allure, Neill told the magazine why Effie's lipstick was always in the shape of a bow, "That's Effie's signature. Her lips have a bow in every scene. We wanted her to be the perfect picture, always."
- Paint by Numbers: Choose your favorite tribute by selecting a nail polish representative of each district (which is now available by China Glaze). Luxe & Lash for the luxury of District 1; Stone Cold for the masonry of District 2; Riveting for the technology of District 3; Hook and Line for the fishing of District 4; Electrify for the power of District 5; Fast Track for the transportation of District 6; Mahogany Magic for the lumber of District 7; Dress Me Up for the textiles of District 8; Harvest Moon for the grain of District 9; Foie Gras for the livestock of District 10; Agro for the agriculture of District 11; and Smoke & Ashes for the coal mining of District 12 (our personal favorite – from the rubble will rise a burning phoenix!)
"Cinna has given me a great advantage. No one will forget me. Not my look, not my name. Katniss. The girl who was on fire." Lenny Kravitz plays Cinna, Katniss's stylist, who dresses her and Peeta as a team in matching black leather bodysuits when they ride into the Capitol of Panem. Accentuated by simple, but striking, make-up the two tributes make quite an impression when they arrive in their chariot, hands held and engulfed in flames. Costume designer Judianna Makovsky told Entertainment Weekly, "In the book, it's described that Katniss and Peeta are wearing exactly the same thing. And that's an instance where things don't always translate. Boys don't look good in what girls wear. So [we were] trying to have a similar look, but cut them differently so that Katniss has this beautiful figure and Peeta looks manly." Although fashion and frills have no part in Katniss's daily life in District 12, it quickly becomes clear that what she wears might determine if she lives. No wonder her stylist becomes one of her most trusted allies…


text:
The simple changing of summer to fall allowed me to have a realization this morning beyond just noticing the different temperature outside. A person is like a season; they are inconsistent in every aspect possible. A person's inconsistency, however, can have such a greater impact than the changes in the weather. Sure, an unexpected change in weather--such as rain or snow--can ruin a person's day. But an unexpected change in a person? It has such a greater impact.
Not just this morning, but for the past week I have made this realization and pulled it all together into one combined thought process. Sure, we're all attempting to truly discover who we are and what our place is in the world, but do these discoveries have to involve a change in your personality and everything your life used to be about? Our sole purpose on Earth is to live for God and to represent who He is through our every day life: are we all truly living up to this standard to the best of our ability, or are we letting individuals such as boyfriends get in the way? Of course, I may be called a hypocrite when I mention the term 'boyfriend' and how they are constantly changing us because I do believe I changed when I was dating Bryce. For the good or bad, I'm not sure of yet, but I know I changed. However, noting that I did change while in a relationship, I believe there are others around me who's relationship have them going consistently downhill as an individual. Not only are best friends forced onto the sidelines, but they are becoming less and less important while the boyfriend takes over. This may or may not be directed at one person or couple, but even if it is directed at one couple, I know there are many others out there who have been hurt by this aspect of life as well.
Going back to my statement earlier, I know one aspect of me has definitely changed: the ability to stand up for myself. Standing up for myself hasn't always been one of my fortes. Lately though, it has been. I know others have realized this because I'm now often referred to as intimidating. Learning to stand up for myself has been one of the greatest lessons of life I have learned so far. With many years to hopefully come, I'm not sure any other lesson could surpass this one. Why should we stand watching on the sidelines while we let our own life pass us by, just like we're watching our best friend's lives pass us by as they are overtaken by a relationship? We have one thing that we can keep consistent throughout our lives: and that's who we are and what we live for every day.


text:
Author: Alissa Nutting
Publisher: Dzanc Books
Publication Year: 2011
Language: English
Format: Ebook
Pages: 142
"Nutting's outrageous writing makes my face split with laughter. . . . She's glorious chaos and utterly original."-Lydia Millet"A dark catalog of behavior for her characters and the result is a kind of human bestiary, if humans were programmed to go down in flames, to run themselves aground, to seek ruin on every occasion. . . . (They) illuminate how people hide behind their pursuits, concealing what matters most to them while striving, and usually failing, to be loved."-Ben MarcusAlissa Nutting's collection is reminiscent of George Saunders' or Aimee Bender's earlier work where nothing is held back and anything goes.Alissa Nutting is fiction editor of the literary journal Witness and managing editor of Fairy Tale Review.
First of all, I think this book is the weirdest book that I've ever read. Before I delve more into it, Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls is a short story collection about women and humanity (I guess ?). This book consists of 18 short stories. Some are quite long, some are very short. Like it only has one page. Each one of them has profession name as the title. There are normal professions, such as Gardener, Deliverywoman, and Zookeeper. There are also unusual ones, such as Dinner, Ant Colony, and Corpse Smoker.
Though the title of the short stories and the book make it seems like it's about women and their different kind of jobs. It's not. It's a collection of weird short stories that represent women and their longing of connection with other human being. Yes, it's weird; all of the short stories in this book are weird. Even the one with safe title like Zookeper or Gardener. I'm really confused and not sure about how I will talk about this book. Don't get me wrong, I love the writing. I think the writing is beautiful and it feels surreal. But sometimes I feel like the story is not intended to be taken literally. Like there's actually a meaning behind each of the story. I like the stories with more pages because I was able to understand and interpret the meaning behind them.
Most of the stories have disturbing plot twist. So disturbing that I felt bad and sad for the characters. I would say that I enjoyed reading this book and I'm intrigued to read more of Nutting's works. I would recommend this book to you if you're okay with unusual stories and being open-minded with it.


text:
Some day I'm going to write about the confusion created by the difference in the meaning of words that are used in the United States Constitution when it was written versus their common usage today. For example, "regulate" and "regulation." When the Constitution's Article 1, Section 8 speaks of Congress's power "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes" the word regulate meant something more akin to "promote" to the Framers, rather than the meaning of the word in government usage today which is more akin to "limit" or "control." Similarly, the expression "A well regulated Militia" in the Second Amendment has today been used to suggest that the government has a right to regulate (limit or control) gun possession, but in the eighteenth century, the use of "regulated" in conection with the military or a militia meant "discipline" or, more specifically, parade ground drilling. This preamble to the point of the amendment--which is that "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed"--refers to the need for practice of an armed militia unit together and with their weapons.
As a side note, the context of the Second Amendment is clearly (from the phrase "being necessary to the security of a free State"--there: I have quoted every word in the entire amendment though not in order) is a state militia as a creature of each state and not as an adjunct to the national military. In the Federalist Papers the assumption is clear that the militia is not like the modern National Guard in that the state militia might be expect to fight against the national army if it acted militarily against a state's interests. This leads me to another point and what I believe is the greatest flaw in the Constitution: James Mdison only focused, in his creation of the Constitution, on making a novel division of powers between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the national government; he took for granted and therefore paid no legal attention to the balance of power between the national and state governments. Over time, and in various ways, the balance has shifted away from the states and toward the national government. The de facto abolition of independent state militias is only one of the ways in which this balance has shifted. In the time of the Founders, the power of the states, much greater than it later would be, was taken for granted by Madison. (Historically, we might debate whether Madison and Hamilton understood this would happen. Some think that Madison was naive on this point while Hamilton knew that the Constitution might promote the diminution of state power.)
Occassionally separate lines of research come together to illuminate each other. Recently this happened. Last year or the year before I was reading about President Millard Fillmore, my favorite under-rated president. One of the tibbits I learned was that during his administration, someone tried to get the United States government to support a plot to overthrow the emperor of Austria. On the face of it, of course, the Fillmore administration's rejection of this proposal seems justifiable. Why should the United States have involved itself in such a scheme? What possible benefit could it have had for our country? Would any American president of that era taken up the offer to get in on this scheme?
Well, my current reading of a biography of the nineteenth century German politician Otto von Bismarck proves that the Fillmore administration's caution was more than justified. In 1848, there were several attempted revolutions in Europe, almost none of which led to any permanent change. By 1850, the Austria government had removed one emperor and his chief minister and replaced the emperor according to the laws ofd succession and put in a new chief minister. In other words, the more things changed, the more they stayed the same. During this transition, many people in Europe thought that the untested new government in Austria might be ripe for overthrow or vulnerable to attack. It must have been based on this that the United States was approached after 1850 with a scheme to help tople the Austrian monarchy. It turned out, however, that the new government was being managed by very able political and military leaders who secured Austria through several political maneuvers including winning the support from the Czar of Russia. Austria was not as vulnerable as many assumed. And although Bismarck and others later rested some power away from Austria, at the time the Fillmore administration was being offered the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of an anti-Austrian coup, the Austrian government was actually too strong for the schemee to succeed; so the United States would have caused itself needless grief if it had involved itself in such a project.


text:
So I started my first fit club for employees where I work. I am very excited about helping people love to exercise and really get a feel for it. I want them to workout more than just one day a week though. I have stressed and I will continue to stress the need for daily activity. Only how do I really impress upon these wonderful people the need to move the body on a continual basis?
How do I stress to them that it's ok to not be able to do the whole workout? It's ok to stop and just walk in place for a few seconds or minutes. Heck, at home I am able to press pause and walk in circles. We don't have that kind of luxury in a fit club. We need to push on. In a way that is good, we push ourselves where otherwise we may give up. But it can also backfire and we can push past our point. We need to listen to our bodies and do what is right for us, not the person next to us.
I am so proud of the lady in the back row who although she wasn't able to complete the whole workout did what she could and stayed until the end. I am so proud of the person in the front row who is healthy and active and pushed herself until she had worked up a great sweat! She could have dogged it. She could have kept it at a lower level. But she didn't.
This is as much a journey for me as it is for my class. This is a first for me as it is for them. I've never done a fit club like this. It's strange territory. I don't have people dropping in. I have preregistration and waiting lists. It's exciting to have people waiting to get in but it's also frustrating to not have a full class. You know how it is. You are never able to make every class, so there is always room for more people. I love the idea of opening it up to anyone and just having them sign a waiver and workout. But since it's my employer I think this needs to be tracked differently.
I'll keep pushing through and learning as I go. I hope my class continues to push through and learn as they go also. I love feeling like I am helping to make a difference in someone's life. Our health should not be dealt with lightly. We never know what we have until we don't have it anymore.
I'll sign off with some good words I read today and I'll keep reading because they spoke to me.
"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."
John Wooden


text: Less than a month ago, former Lebanese PM Saad Hariri (on the right, above) was in another of his regular audiences with Saudi King Salman (photo via Saudi Press Agency). Now his company, Saudi Oger, has become a source of apparent embarrassment to the Saudi government with India delivering food aid to its unpaid and starving expatriate employees of the company. Of course maybe the government has not been paying its own bills from Saudi Oger, contributing to the cash crunch.


text:
Merry Christmas and before I forget and it gets past me HAPPY NEW YEAR !!
Here are a couple of pictures of what adorns my place for the holiday season.
This one is sitting on a table top that is 6 feet by 5-1/2 feet and only took 2 and 1/2 days to figure out just how to set it up. Next year ought to be a lot easier especially with the picture.
Now, if I can talk BB into making me a second story ?
[ You did notice that the if was in really big letters. I've already hinted at a second story with a road leading up to it and he looked at me as if I was either asking for the moon or a meer- i - cle. Maybe, if I hint and do a little whinning. Well, I will give it a good try and see if it works.]
Next year is still a looooooooooong way away.
The fire truck and candle holders are only a couple of years old.
The bucket came with a dozen home-made chocolate chip cookies that I received from one of my customers this year. I am now using the bucket to catch my keys and sun-glasses because I keep loosing them in the house. Thursday morning I was "bitchin" and "stomping" through the house trying to find my keys. BB said to look in the basket in the dining room chair...someplace that I never have placed my keys before.
Damn! It's a shame that ones memory goes before the thinking part of the mind does.
The small tin held a Ginger-bread Man. He wasn't toooo bad either.


text:
Foodies of all types have discovered the Valley and its wide variety of top-flight restaurants. One chef even predicts we'll soon be vying with California's Napa Valley as a dining destination. Find out what all the buzz is about with these profiles of local eateries.
By Lynn Hazlewood
Published in Hudson Valley Magazine February 18, 2011
You know a restaurant is great when there's four feet of snow and tons of treacherous ice on the ground, super low temps and, yet, they have a full house. FWandD enjoyed dinner for the second time at the wonderful No. 9 restaurant in Millerton, NY this weekend and we can't stop raving about it. Where do we begin?
First, thank you No. 9 for turning up the heat. We know the temp shouldn't matter if the food is delicious but, in Millerton, frankly it does. Many restaurants in the area "country up" their looks with gorgeous wood floors and bare walls--which is nice--but then fail to turn up the (expensive) heating in the winter for their patrons. Thank you No. 9 for treating us better than that. Perfect temp!
Next, the restaurant is beautiful. It's connected to a very nice country inn, but the restaurant seems somewhat modern, sleek almost, with a full wall of floor-to-ceiling windows, an intimate and stylish bar, thoughtful art work throughout and great lighting.
The service was stellar. If we have one bit of advice for the restaurant it is to cherish their servers. Tim was outstanding---he paid so much attention to us and treated us with such respect! He was just great; fully knowledgeable about everything on the menu, courteous and quick and not at all condescending. FWandD would like to add a very honorable mention for the female server with red hair. We didn't catch her name but she never stopped working or watching the room. She always kept moving and helping everyone, from diners to colleagues. Nice job!
Finally, and most importantly, our dinner was magnificent! We started with the butternut squash soup which was warm, rich and somehow left a delightful, lingering taste of rustic homemade buttery popcorn. The cheese and nuts on top turned this bowl of soup into a hearty, savory meal. Bravo! We scraped the plate, literally. The entree was monkfish with mushrooms and sweet potato puree and was phenomenal. See below...aaaah.
The entree was creamy, slightly sweet and very filling. The fish was cooked perfectly and the mushrooms filled a void in this non-meat eater's heart. Dinner was accompanied by a very good Argentinian Malbec which served as the icing on the evening's cake for FWandD since, very sadly, we had no room left after dinner to try No. 9's desserts. The dessert trio of souffle', creme brulee and panna cotta sounded divine though...
Check out this great restaurant if you're in the Hudson Valley (tip: they're open for Valentine's Day).
Number 9 in the Simmon's Way Inn
53 Main Street
Millerton, NY 12546
We frankly don't know how we missed it. Maybe life has been too busy; maybe we spend too much time in the country; maybe we're just reawakening to exploring the food of New York City. Whatever it is, it's unforgivable. How have we gone so long without getting to know this great restaurant? We're sorry; but we're so happy to know it now.
Last night we sought out and found an amazing dining experience at Freemans Restaurant. It's located down a not-that-easy-to-find alley but easy to recognize once you spot the small white lights and European style outside (even though the restaurant's theme is rustic colonial American, it brought us back to our searches for gourmet treats in the small streets of France and Spain). The service was terrific. We're in no mood to give our time or money to snobs or folks who could care less about our patronage. This was not the case at Freemans. Every person we passed there, from the host to the manager to the servers, had a smile on his or her face, each said thank you and please and each seemed happy to have us there. Our server was knowing, confident, fun and approachable. After finding this cool spot, being greeted by the wonderful staff and showed quickly to our cozy spot in the Tavern Room, we got the chance to peep around and take in all the cool taxidermy/colonial tavern design. We could have stared at it all for hours...in fact we almost did...except the food was so good we had to stop to discuss. My reasonably-priced gruet in a short champagne glass was bubbly, perky and delicious. Our artisinal cheese plate with grilled 7-grain bread and fresh tart apples lives on in my memory still. Finally the pan roasted pollock with white beans and escarole was filling, hearty, warm and tasty. And thankfully we had room for the Bananas Foster afterwards. Not often does being bad feel so worth it afterwards. Delicious! This restaurant is worth finding and trying if you haven't before. And since it's been around since 2004 we'd suggest going back again if you've already dined with them. It's time to revisit!
From The New York Times Style Magazine
Located in the leafy district surrounding the Montelbaanse Tower [in Amsterdam], one of the prettiest parts of the city, this cozy dining room with wood-plank floors, bare wooden tables and old-fashioned wallpaper, is run by René Loven, who named it after his mother, an apparently gifted home cook whose smiling face appears on the cover of the menu. The place is invariably packed with a jolly crowd of locals sating themselves on beautifully cooked versions of the comfort food they loved to eat as children.
Blending cultures as deftly as he combines flavors, Chef Serge Madikian invites you to savor the pleasures of Serevan Restaurant. From his rich imagination and multifarious background comes an exceptional cuisine, celebrating flavors and ingredients from the Middle-East and the Mediterranean traditions. Rendez-vous with friends for a glass of wine at the bar after a round of golf or a bike ride on nearby trails. Linger over your meal in the dining room, which offers the glow of a fireplace in winter and year-round, behind-the-scenes views into Serevan's open kitchen. Enjoy drinks or dinner in the romantic garden, knowing that the herbs you see and smell will soon be making their way to your table, along with the freshest ingredients from surrounding farms.
6 Autumn Lane on Route 44, West of Route 22
Amenia, NY 12501
Tel: (845) 373-9800
Fax: (845)373-9888
Trumpets On The Bay
58 South Bay Ave., Eastport New York 11941
Telephone (631) 325-2900
This restaurant's great food is complimented by a magnificent water view and outdoors seating on a beautiful waterside terrace. The terrace is laced with hydrangeas in bloom and lunch is attended by a gratis glass of wine. It's just the place to start and end your weekend or vacation in The Hamptons. Along with a European look of white linens, fresh flowers, and chandeliers Trumpets offers wonderful seafood, fresh made signature crab cakes, delicious salads, appetizers and entrees which include steak, chicken, and lobster (in season) all beautifully presented. The chef also prepares fresh made desserts daily. Within driving distance of South Hampton, East Hampton, West Hampton and Eastport villages and open year round for lunch & dinner. Open 7 days a week in July and August. Sunday Brunch served.
This two-year-old farm-to-table restaurant located in Bangall, New York is fabulous. The ingredients are sourced from nearby farms, the wines are delicious (and the bartender may let you try it before committing), the staff and owners are welcoming, the service is impeccable and the chef's and local favorites menus are amazing. If you only have time to pick up some farm-fresh milk or ice cream, you can do that at their convenient Market Cafe next door.


text:
Write your congressman: support limits to NSA spying
Posted by Charles II on July 23, 2013
John Conyers and Justin Amash will present an amendment to the Defense Appropriations Bill that will "'end authority for the blanket collection of records under the Patriot Act,' as well as prevent the NSA from using Section 215 of the Patriot Act to collect records, 'including telephone call records, that pertain to persons who are not subject to an investigation under Section 215.'"
The vote in the House could come as soon as Wednesday, July 24th. It deserves your support.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.


text:
Alex Len, one of the top prospects in the 2013 NBA draft, will be out for up to six months after surgery to stabilize a stress fracture in his ankle, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. The Maryland product declared for the draft last month.
Len averaged 12 points, eight rebounds and two blocks per game in his second season with the Terrapins. His combination of size (7'1") and athleticism made him an intriguing prospect. It's unclear how the setback will impact his draft stock, if at all.
The early portion of the projected timetable would have him healthy in time for the start of next season. The entire six months would cut it a lot closer. That said, as a developmental prospect it's unknown if his immediate availability would factor in to a front office's decision.
After a lackluster first season at Maryland, Len showed off immense progress early in his sophomore campaign. He posted a line of 23 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks against a Kentucky Wildcats frontline led by fellow elite prospect Nerlens Noel.
The 19-year-old Ukraine native has illustrated good versatility on the offensive end. He features a couple different post moves and improved as a passer, which was expected given his court vision. He's also shown a solid mid-range game that should further develop at the next level.
On defense, his combination of length and very good athleticism for a true center give him great shot-blocking potential. Despite the aggressive defense, he averaged less than three fouls per game, which is a positive sign.
While the skill set and upside is obvious, he's still a bit raw. Another season in college would have probably helped, but it's hard to blame him for making the jump while his stock was rising.
He will need to add some bulk in order to contain the powerful centers at the next level. His ball handling is also a work in progress. But there aren't any glaring flaws that work with coaching and conditioning staffs in the NBA won't be able to fix.
The ankle injury is a setback that will probably slow his transition. Whichever team selects him isn't going to take any unnecessary risks just to get him on the floor knowing his true potential lies over the long term.
More about his status should become clear as next month's draft gets closer.


text:
Created 7 May 2008 at 14:16 UTC by mcr.Homepage: http://www.openswan.org/
Freshmeat page: http://freshmeat.net/projects/openswan/
Openswan is an IPsec implementation for Linux. It includes IKEv1, IKEv2, works with the "netkey" in-kernel code, and also the KLIPS code. It uses test-driven development (TDD).
License: GPL
This project has the following developers:
New HTML Parser: The long-awaited libxml2 based HTML parser code is live. It needs further work but already handles most markup better than the original parser.
Keep up with the latest Advogato features by reading the Advogato status blog.
If you're a C programmer with some spare time, take a look at the mod_virgule project page and help us with one of the tasks on the ToDo list!


text:
So I was so honoured that recently I have been invited to one of my favourite brands launch party which they presented us with their new product.
ida pun dh gune loreal since 2006..dh apply tuk amik sample loreal white perfect 10 tp takde masa nk g amik..huhuhuReplyDelete
Sample yang dekat website dia kan?Delete
i was attracted by your wishlist at the side :P
Hello there. If I had seen those lippies and glosses in front of me I'd have begged to take some home. Lol.. I love L'oreal's True Match powder and I am sure the Mat Magique Alll In One Compact is going to be great too. Unfortunately I am under a spending ban for face powders because I already have a lot. Huhu..ReplyDelete
I know how you feel. I feel the same way too. Those lips are just to die for.Delete
I didn't know you went also MiezaDelete
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.ReplyDelete
These guys are really wonderful to work with, the food is delicious, the drinks are good, the view is phenomenal, and it's overall just a great group to work with.ReplyDelete