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Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Fight Photo!
My friend finally e-mailed me a picture after my boxing match this past December. Danny Bonaduce was kind enough to emcee the event and let me take a photo with him!
Posted by brooke at 12:06 AM 2 comments:
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Prospectin' fer GOLD!
My friend, Karl, took me gold prospecting near Washington, CA at Poor Man's Creek - one of the best nugget producing creeks during California's Gold Rush. The whole area, including the Washington Hotel, is supposed to be haunted. In the first video, Karl is talking to the Hotel's owner about a brief experience he had. In the second video...we were digging in the site where Karl had his experience the week before. It was very exciting when the metal detector went wild and I thought we hit the jackpot thanks to a possible ghost. Our friend, Robert, and his dog joined us later for more gold searchin'. Needless to say we returned home without the huge nugget we were hoping would let us retire early...but it was a fun adventure! (note to readers...videos will be uploaded soon - technical difficulties)
Posted by brooke at 12:52 AM No comments:
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I am highly sensitive to scent! Because of this, I am particular about bath products I use. Fake over scented products make me sick! I previously reviewed Aromafloria's Muscle Soak. I love their products! The bath products were subtle and soothed my muscles.
I keep the inhalation beads in my purse and recommend them for times when the environment is filled with trigger smells. The inhalation beads are a quick smell for relief.
Recently I have become more interested in essential oils and mixing my own products. Some days I enjoy a scent, other days I benefit from another oil and some days I want NO SMELL. When I received unscented products from their mixology line I used them in a variety of ways. Simply,
- "Select your preferred base product.
- Add your preferred essential-oil blend.
- Mix, smell and enjoy."
The unscented line provides so many options for so many needs. I keep the bath & shower oil in my shower. It deeply penetrates and hydrates before I step out of the shower. I love the salt scrub with oils to provide a spa like feeling. The massage oil works great for my aching muscles and is perfect mixed with relaxing and healing oils. The body butter is luscious and smooth. I use it completely unscented and love the hydration it provides without smelly trigger perfumes.
The ability to alter these products with oils and to use scentless is such a luxury! If you or a loved one is sensitive to smell, I highly recommend these products!
Here's the exciting news…..
Aromafloria is giving away an amazing prize pack just for My Migraine Life followers!
For a chance to win all of these products to mix yourself or leave unscented

subset: commoncrawl


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Personal Injury Attorney with Lietz Law Firm Remarks on Fatal Baylor University Industrial Accident, Says Proper Investigation Critical
Washington, D.C. (Law Firm Newswire) February 25, 2014 - One construction worker was killed and another injured at Baylor University in Waco, Texas on January 28, 2014.
Jose Dario Suarez, 55, drowned when he was dragged into the Brazos River by a collapsed construction lift. Four hours later, Texas Parks and Wildlife game wardens located and recovered his body using sonar equipment. Suarez and another employee were working on a pedestrian bridge linking Baylor Law School to the new McLane Stadium.
Federal officials with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) are investigating the death.
Washington, D.C. personal injury attorney David Lietz says the work of accident investigators is key in cases such as this.
"On the surface, many accidents appear to be completely random and unavoidable," Lietz points out. "It's only after investigators and attorneys start really digging that negligence and culpability are sometimes uncovered. In this case, of course, it's crucial to determine whether all safety regulations and standard practices were observed. Were all workers involved in the accident properly trained? Was the equipment properly maintained and inspected? Mr. Suarez's family members deserve to know exactly what happened and whether the accident could have been prevented."
At about 4:00 p.m., Suarez and another worker, both employees of Derr and Isbell Construction Company, were tethered to a manlift (also known as a boom lift or cherry picker) that was atop a floating construction barge. The manlift fell off the barge into the river, dragging the two men with it. One man, whom officials have not identified, was able to release himself from the equipment, but Suarez was pulled under the water.
According to Waco police, Suarez was still attached to the lift and wearing his flotation device when authorities recovered his body at 8:15 p.m.
Lori Fogleman, a vice president at Baylor, said the university would cooperate fully with OSHA investigators. The cause of the lift's collapse remains unknown. Sgt. Patrick Swinton of the Waco police said the death is being classified as an industrial accident.
The Lietz Law Firm
888 16th Street NW
Suite 800
Washington, DC 20006
Call: 202.349.9869
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- Another Tragedy in the DC Metro
As the news reports of the horrific incident on Monday, January 12th near the L'Enfant Plaza Metro station continue to trickle out, it is important for the victims and their families to focus on grieving and healing. However, as the victims' thoughts start to turn to investigation and possible legal action arising from Monday's incident, […]
- Trucking Regulators to Require Electronic Logs on Commercial Trucks
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) recently proposed a new rule that would require most commercial trucks and buses to be equipped with electronic devices that record the duration of time the vehicles are driven. The federal government sets limits on how many hours commercial bus and truck drivers may be behind the wheel […]
- Five Injured as New York City Bus Crashes Into Minivan, Building
Five people were injured when a New York City bus collided with a vehicle, careened onto a sidewalk and crashed into a building. The accident occurred on the morning of April 4, 2014 on Broadway near West 155th Street in Washington Heights. According to Metropolitan Transit Authority spokesman Kevin Ortiz, witnesses stated that a minivan […]
See other news sources publishing this article. BETA | Tags: accident, Baylor Law School, Jose Dario Suarez, Lori Fogleman, osha, Washington


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It's a fact of life. Everyone will not agree on the same thing. Sadly enough, that goes for your brand as well. There will be people who love it and there will be some who either don't care or feel the need to tell the world about how much they dislike it. It's the latter that you need to be worried about. The people who post negative comments onto your Facebook page for millions of other users to see. One bad comment can start a chain reaction that could take your brand weeks, months or even years to overcome.
We've all seen it on other pages but what if it was on our brand's page? Would you know what to do? From the numerous amounts of case studies on companies who have completely blundered up this situation, I'm going to guess the majority of us would say no.
Recently, I stumbled across an article on PRDaily.com outlining a few dos and don'ts of handling negative feedback on Facebook, even though these tips could include any social media site. Due to the incredible amount of SNAFUs on social media in spots like this, I felt the need to share this knowledge.
First of all, you should "respond no matter what." Everyone's opinion matters, even the opinions you don't agree with. Even if a consumer of your product didn't like it, they were still a consumer once. No one wants another "Dell Hell" on his or her hands. Even though this story is form 2005, it still proves just how important it is to answer no matter what!
Also remember to keep your reply simple. "According to Gini Deitrich from Spin Sucks, 'There are four words that work really well online. They are, 'I'm sorry' and 'thank you.'" It is ok to fess up that you're a human to your online community and that once a while, a mistake might be made. Imagine how much better you feel after a fight with a friend when one apologizes and the fight is over. This is the same concept.
The third tip was to contact all individuals privately after they have made a comment bashing your brand or product. After a negative experience, they want to feel special and know that someone who is genuinely interested is hearing them. If you're not, you should be.
The fourth tip is to not delete any content unless policies are in place regarding what can be deleted. A few instances where it is appropriate to delete is when the content of the comment is racist, sexist, includes verbal abuse, uses inappropriate language, includes pornographic content or has explicit antagonistic behavior towards other members of the community.
The final tip is to deflect the comment towards a more positive direction. "Laurel Papworth recommends you try to move away from the negative conversation and toward a more positive one. She says, 'Thank the commenter, ask for more information and then bury them in talking. If there is more than one negative reviewer, try the 'Thank you, oh look, something shiny!' approach.'"
Do you think these tips are enough? What else could you do to avoid a social media distaster?


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An idea: will it work?+Official delurking post
Hi all. With the onset of a new idea that I just couldn't leave alone, I decided to come here to see if it would work, opinions, and/or past work like it. On to the idea itself now. Undoubtedly, everyone is familiar with BBMGs here. So my plan is to have a vortex gun, but instead of a magazine/hopper/whatever on the gun itself, It's located in a backpack. This is where a 68/45 paintball tank, a HPR, 500 PSI pneumatic solenoid, and a plastic container is located. There's a vortex block in the bottom of the container, which is sealed to be airtight. A close-to-6mm flexible hose goes from the container to the gun, with a wire from an electric trigger to the solenoid attached to it. I'm pretty sure that the air will expand in between the container and the gun, so I'm thinking that if I dial in the regulator for around 250 PSI it'll be enough. So, thoughts?
I wouldn't use any plastic container at 250 psi. When you bend the flex hose it ID will get smaller.
'' To alcohol... The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems."
--Homer Simpson
Add me on ps3: wannafuk, 8/11/11 cant wait
What's the objection to having the BBs in the gun itself, are you trying to create a "flamethrower" design?
IMO...introducing the projectiles into the hose rather than directly into the breach end of a straight barrel will use substantially more gas and ultimately abrade the I.D. of the hose but, I think it can work.
http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/2000rpm ... 21152.html
that gun uses a tube to hold the bbs.
Yeah, but that gun's using copper tubing... not plastic of any sort. I'd say the idea MIGHT work, but the BBs in the plastic tubing... usually not a good idea. Good chance of it jamming, I'd say.
I would also suggest using metal, not plastics for those pressures. Some plastic hoses or schedule 80 PVC can take 250 easy... but I'd not risk it.
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Decorating for the holidays is always fun, especially when you start putting away the winter and exchanging it for spring. My hard and fast rule is "Always use what you have." I wander around and look for things that are unique, and colorful. I started with my closet and pulled out this pashmina. (A pashmina is a stole/shaw/ wrap/scarf made with cashmere wool). They make wonderful table scarfs as well. It ended up looking better on the buffet.
|The dining room table
|The mantel
|The Foyer
|The planters
|The Front Porch
|The door
It's the details, that makes a house a home, and will make your guests feel special.


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Customs officers went 'above and beyond' with Dziekanski, Taser inquiry hears
January 26, 2009
The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER, B.C. — The customs officers who dealt with Robert Dziekanski the day he was stunned with an RCMP Taser at Vancouver's airport went "above and beyond" their duties, their supervisor said Monday at a public inquiry into the man's death.
Dziekanski died in the early morning of Oct. 14, 2007, more than 10 hours after his flight from Poland touched down.
The Canadian Border Services Agency has faced criticism because officers didn't call a translator for Dziekanski, who didn't speak English, to find out why he had spent hours unnoticed in a secure customs area.
The inquiry has also heard that at one point an officer told a friend of Dziekanski's mother that he likely wasn't at the airport, which prompted her to return home to Kamloops, B.C. without meeting him. Officers didn't immediately try to contact her once her son finally surfaced.
Still, Alexandra Currie, an acting immigration supervisor who was working that night, said officers took extra care helping Dziekanski find his bags and make his way through the various stages of processing. She said they eventually tried to locate his mother, Zofia Cisowski, searching a public waiting area, paging her and trying to call her.
One of the officers was even able to communicate with Dziekanski in Polish, said Currie, although the extent of that communication was unclear.
"They went above and beyond what we normally do," Currie told the inquiry.
"A lot of the actions that took place - looking for the family, going outside the customs hall, making pages, giving him water, retrieving his luggage, all of that - that's not in our job description, and I was very proud of the officers that evening."
Currie first encountered Dziekanski after 10:30 p.m., when two officers brought him to her office over concerns that he had been in the airport so long.
Dziekanski's flight landed roughly seven hours earlier and after he first entered the customs area, he spent more than five hours unnoticed before finally approaching immigration officers.
Currie said she asked Dziekanski in English where he had been, and then used hand gestures, pointing to her watch and then placing her head on her hands to mimic sleeping.
Dziekanski nodded his head yes, said Currie.
Crown prosecutors in B.C. have previously said they believed Dziekanski may have been sitting on a bench or sleeping near the baggage carousels, but it wasn't clear how they may have reached that conclusion. It's still not known where exactly he may have been and why no customs officers noticed him for so long.
While Currie knew Dziekanski didn't speak English, she said it's not standard practice to call a translator and it appeared border officers were able to process him successfully without one.
Currie was also the latest witness to testify that Dziekanski was calm, respectful and obedient when she dealt with him. RCMP have said he was agitated and erratic before he died.
"He was calm, he appeared co-operative, he appeared to respond, made eye contact directly," she said.
Another officer who testified earlier Monday had a similar account, as have other witnesses including flight attendants, airport staff and a passenger on Dziekanski's flight into Vancouver.
But less than an hour after Dziekanski left the customs and immigration screening area, he began throwing furniture in the airport's international arrivals area.
Four RCMP officers were summoned and within seconds of their arrival, Dziekanski was stunned by a Taser five times and died a short time later.


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Earlier this month we caught a glimpse of what the trend for SS 2011/12 is going to look like… and can we just say the future looks BRIGHT! Quite literally this spring and summer we will be splashing bright hues all over ourselves including frocks, shoes, make up and accessories.
There is a huge colour blocking trend which is just about to hit, including key pieces that would fit in nicely at any wedding… think Lisa Ho, Alex Perry. These bright colours are perfect for outdoor or destination weddings or even for traditional weddings to add that "wow" factor! We here at bride Online cant wait to see more of these eye popping shades (and remember, they don't have to be limited to frocks.. think heels, flowers and more!)
Here is a look at some of the other trends that are likely to emerge once the weather starts to warm up…
1050's glam (think Mad Men)
Softer shades (think sorbets)
Image: Alex Perry


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Hi everyone and happy happy Friday!!!
I hope you have some exciting plans for the weekend!
Last night I was able to play along with the sketch challenge going on over at the
Here is a look at the sketch:
An here is the card that I created based on the sketch:
My daughter and I had a lot of fun coloring images together for the June 30 Day Color Challenge hosted by Kathy from The Daily Marker. The above penguin from the Penguins in Paradise set was actually colored by my daughter during one of those days! She did such an amazing job that I couldn't wait to put that little guy onto a card. She loves to color but cardmaking....not so much lol! I simply fussy cut him out and adhered him to a die cut circle that I inked up with some distress inks to create a little scene. The fun and bright papers from Doodlebug were perfect for the summery feel that I was going for. I finished off my card with a few enamel dots.
Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by my blog and take a look at my latest creation!
I really appreciate it!
I hope you have a great crafty day!!
Supply List:
Cardstock: Recollections
Patterned Paper: Sunkissed (Doodlebug)
Stamp: Penguins In Paradise (MFT)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento), Vintage Photo & Broken China Distress Inks (Ranger)
Misc.: Copics, Nesting Circles Dies (WRMK), Foam Adhesive, Glossy Accents, Corner Chomper


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Nose Reshaping - Your nose is perhaps the most qualifying regular for your face, and when the size or form of your nose is out of par with whatever is left of your facial components, you might behave naturally cognizant about it. Clearly, this is all comparative.
For a number of folks, a small bash on the extension of the nose is humiliating, while for others, a slight whack might not be an problem. One person might be humiliated about having a tremendous nose, while someone else may not be troubled by it. On the off chance which you have for quite some time been uncomfortable with the size or state of your nose, you might consider nose reshaping. For a substantial period of time, surgery to reshape the nose has placed among the five most common facial restorative operation methodology. Really, every year more than 300,000 Americans experience systems to form the nose.
What's Nose Reshaping?
Nose reshaping, called rhinoplasty, is a surgical system that reconsiders the sorts of your nose. Rhinoplasty, consistently alluded toas a "nose employment," could be performed for just corrective motives, to make a nose that's more concordant with whatever is left of your face. It can similarly be conducted to improve a guy 's respiration capability if constructions in the nose obstruct the entrance of atmosphere. A lot of the time, rhinoplasty can address both restorative and functional dilemmas.
Among facial plastic specialists, nose reshaping is considered to be a standout amongst the most complex of all facial restorative methodology. Why? Since the nose is an complex structure, including bones, ligament, skin, mucous layers, hair follicles, organs, muscles, tendons, veins, and nerves. Rolling out developments to some of these parts can determine alternative structures in the nose and may eventually affect utility and in addition look. At the stage when making refinements to a nose, a specialist must consider these parts bearing in mind the end goal to achieve a satisfactory, tasteful result while conserving capability.
Improvements to your nose might be unobtrusive or mental relying upon your situation. Regardless, even modest changes to your nose can completely enhance your appearance and self assurance. It is crucial to understand that having nose operation is not care for looking for another ensemble. There's no index of noses in a variety of sizes and shapes which you look through to decide your new nose. A specialist can make augmentations—dampening a mound, rectifying a warped nose, or reducing the measure of the point, for example.
When all is said in done, your specialist will tweak special components you do not care for about your nose while keeping up its uniqueness and character. In an ideal world, after surgery, your nose must seem ordinary and be more fixed with whatever remains of your face. It should not seem as though you have had a nose work. Choosing after rhinoplasty, you may be shocked to discover that companies and collaborators do not realize that your improved look is because of nose operation. Your mum or closest company may be the one and only to see the differentiation in your nose.


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the time has come to put the lid on this experiment. the goal from the beginning was to take account for the sources of inspiration i have drawn personal style from. sense of humor, literary, film and musical taste and style of dress. all of these elements have been thoughtfully borrowed and fit into place with the puzzle that is the way i see and project myself.
i've had a great time considering and expressing the ways these many people have influcenced the way i think, look and behave and i'd encourage everyone to take a look at their own sense of style and account for where they've discovered influence.
happy new year


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Picture this…My mom and I just finished a conversation about a recent audition. At the time, I was feeling a bit discouraged, considering two weeks had gone by and I hadn't heard anything. So I said to my mom, "I gave it my all and I believe that was my best." I started thinking that perhaps they chose who they wanted and so I made the decision to move on. She then responded, "Well you know Nijah, maybe they're saving the best for last!" I smiled to myself because deep inside I still had an ounce of hope that I would be called…Then my phone rang. My mother looked at the phone and said "Hmm, that's a private number." Usually I don't answer private numbers but I decided to forgo that idea this time.
Unbeknownst to me, on the other end of the telephone was a representative from Ms. Full Figured USA!!!! She informed me that I was selected and was now an official contestant for their Ms. Full Figured 2014 Pageant!!! I started screaming and jumping up and down. My mom came running in the room asking "What's going on?" Although I could not answer her right then, from the big smile on my face, she could tell what the conversation was about.
As you can guess, I am super hyped at this decision and also humbled for another door of opportunity that has opened. The pageant will take place on April 12, 2014. So for the next few months, I will take to social media to document my journey. Featured below is my entry video for the People's Choice Awards, where you all can vote for your favorite contestant (hint hint lol).
All my Instagram peeps can go to @msfullfiguredusa. 'Like' their page and then hit the like button for my entry video (and/or any of the other beautiful contestants). You can also vote on Facebook by searching for Ms. Full-Figured USA Pageant, like their page, and then lastly place your vote.
Thanks in advance for your support!!! I'm going for the goal y'all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks in advance for your support!!! I'm going for the goal y'all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nijah J, The Future Ms. Full Figured USA 2014
|This was the outfit I wore to the audition!


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An Easter raffle at the Mooers Fire Department March 31 will support their equipment fund.
As early spring blooms, Easter is quickly approaching. Hoping to give the community a season-starting get together and raise a few dollars to support their efforts, the Mooers Fire Department will host a spring raffle March 31 starting at 7 p.m.
"When it's winter and blah out, there's not a whole lot to do in the evenings," said Susan Roberts, who performs scene support for the fire department and is a trained EMT with Champlain EMS.
With good weather prevailing, people are starting to stretch their legs outdoors more. The raffle will get the townsfolk to the firehouse for a complimentary lasagna and cold cuts dinner following.
The raffle will have tickets selling for $2 a round, with 40 total rounds giving lots of attendees a chance to win. The big prizes are 10 Easter dinner baskets valued at $80 to $85 each.
Other prizes include turkeys, hams and baskets full of toys and eggs.
"It wouldn't be Easter without eggs," said Roberts. Giroux Poultry donated some farm-fresh eggs to the raffle.
Roberts said they rely heavily on donations for their Labor Day fundraising. The department was a little hesitant about asking local businesses for donations, but had a great response.
Donations came in from Mooers Lawn and Garden, Hamilton Funeral Home, Champlain Peterbilt, James C. Smith and Son, Capital Candy, Todd Gumlaw Sugarhouse, Donna and Jim Rabideau Sugarhouse, Dragoon's Farm Equipment, Price Chopper, L & M and Border Liquor and Wine.
"Thank you to our community as well," said Roberts. "Their support is very important."


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I've had an interest in hand woven rugs for about 10 years now. My collection is still very small...minuscule in fact, compared to serious carpet enthusiasts but gradually my collection has increased over the years. Mostly I buy kelims... I'm drawn to their rustic colours and texture which work so beautifully with timber floors. However, the 'piece de resistence' of my small collection is a beautifully crafted mixed weave carpet from Iran that I've had for about the last five years. I was browsing at a Cadry's carpet exhibition in Sydney and was completely taken in by the combination of fine hand knotted wool and simple tabby weave in a traditional design. I have since been banned from going back to any Cadry's exhibitions unless my husband comes with me to keep my enthusiasm in check.
Lately though I've been browsing the www to indulge my interest and thought I would show you these photos I came across on the Designer Rugs website of inspirational rugs designed by local textile designer Julie Patterson of Cloth Fabric.
I adore her design style! Uncomplicated and her colours work so well together.


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There's been some talk about the content of teen books lately. About the violence, sex, cursing and other content that some find unsuitable for their children. Some kids aren't old enough to read these books. Some are. Twelve is a very transitional age. Some kids are more mature than others. And some of these books are probably really written for the older teens.
When I was twelve, I read a wide range of things. My mom bought me the classics in paperback, and my grandma had a selection of leather-bound books like THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE. I read everything from Hans Christian Anderson to Jack London to Jules Verne. I read more. DRACULA, many novels by Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Dean Koontz. My mother's historical romance novels. (I learned the answers to Jeopardy! questions from some of those historical romance novels.)
The topics in these books weren't new to me. Violence was in the news; death was on my bus route when a guy on a motorcycle got hit by a van. For that matter, death was in my second grade reading book. (Thank you, educational reading text for the story of the little dog entombed in lava while fetching bread for his boy. That story will haunt me always.) I knew violence, death, sex, and cursing. The antidrug programs in elementary school probably taught me more about drugs than anything on TV.
And I grew up to be drug-free, nonviolent, and fairly well-adjusted.
Teens are out in the world. They know what sex is. They curse. They see violence on the news every day. Some see it in their lives. Television, movies, other people: they're going to learn about these things one way or another. YA books are probably not going to be their first introduction to these topics.
You know your teen best. You know what their maturity level is, and you can determine what they're exposed to. If you're concerned about what might be in a book your kid might read, there's a simple solution:
Read the book first. Read it, consider the context of any content you might be concerned about, and then determine if your child is mature enough to read it. If not, there are some fine middle grade books out there. If so, then you and your child can discuss it. Then it becomes family time, too! Win-win, right?


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Stories around the corner
Sometimes, we make interesting discoveries. This past week while visiting family at the cabin up north, my husband, younger son and I discovered a wonderful spot that we had probably driven past many times over the years. Tucked away about a mile from the road is a breathtaking gorge with waterfalls tumbling down.
We had never known it was there, being off the road, but experienced it courtesy of a geocache. We went to find the cache, but came away finding a new little piece of heaven on earth.
Working as a storyteller, I often make discoveries this way; unexpected but delightful surprises. A little over a year ago, I applied to and was accepted to the Wisconsin Humanities Council Speakers Bureau. I discovered this option serendipitously, and since the speakers catalog was published, had wondered if it would ever bear fruit. Not too long ago, just after volunteering my storytelling for the Wee Folks area at LaCrosse Irishfest in August, I received a contact and booking from someone who had seen my listing in the catalog. This often happens, this combination of volunteering my storytelling, followed by a contact clear out of the blue for a paid booking.
Last week, before leaving for the cabin, my copy of the Wisconsin Touring Artists Directory came, displaying another page with my mug shot and information for prospective bookers. Will I find new stories to tell in new places from this catalog? Time will tell. However, I will not be one bit surprised to discover that if I do, it will happen right after I send gifts out into the cosmos somehow. Sharing freely with others almost always seems to be returned soon with a new discovery, right around the corner. Isn't this what others might call karma?


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As the controversy rages over delays in the renewal of the group life insurance of federal civil servants, the Permanent Secretary (Common Services Office), Yemi Adelakun, who presides over the scheme in office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, spoke on issues delaying the scheme in an exclusive interview with CLEMENT NWOJI AND ANTHONY OTARU. Excerpts.
What is the problem that after three months of expiration of the civil servants' group life insurance, the Federal Government is yet to renew it?
Thank you very much. I will say that there is no problem; we are just going through some processes. Number one, you will recall that in February, we published an advert inviting insurance practitioners to apply and that took six weeks. After six weeks submission, it took us some time to process all their papers and after we had shortlisted those we wanted, we needed certificate of no objection from the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP). If you want, I can show you documents we sent to the BPP and when we got a response from them. After the response was received, we had to write to the President, Mohammadu Buhari for approval. If you care, I will also show you the date we received that approval.
So, since the day we got that approval from Mr. President, we've continued with the processes of making sure that we perfect this thing before we present to the Ministry of Finance for payment. There is money for it, it is in the appropriation and nobody had told us that there is no money to pay for it. I don't know where people got their information that it is lack of funds. But it is just some processes we are trying to conclude.
Yes, we know that this expired in August 12, 2016 or so, and that within the period between August 12 and now, there will be no cover. But there is a way we cover such situations. The Federal Government will now make sure that if there is any death within that period, it will be direct payment to the beneficiaries of those people. So, we have not lost anything and as I am telling you now, we've concluded and we have presented to the Ministry of Finance and within a short period of time, the insurance people will be paid and we can start enjoying cover. Yes, we are aware of the policy of no premium, no cover. So as soon as we pay the premium, the cover will take effect.
And as for the refunds that we've been working on, we want civil servants to take maximum benefits of the insurance scheme. A situation where government will spend N6 billion to cover this scheme and civil servants will not benefit anything except those who died, and it is only their families will be those that will benefit, are the areas that we are thinking about so that some of those insurance companies who are ready to add some value for existing or living civil servants within that cover will continue to handle the scheme for us. It is just like you insure your car for a period of time, you don't have accident, you don't have any claim, don't you get no claim benefits or no claim bonus? You do. So, those are the areas we are looking at, to make sure that government is not just spending money, but we can get value for the money government is spending on Group life insurance of civil servants. That is my position.
How much is budgeted for this, where is the money going to come from and how many insurance companies have you shortlisted for this scheme?
It is usually N5.4 billion annually for civil servants Group life insurance. That's the figure and that had been recurring for the last three or four years. For this current one, I think we shortlisted 21 insurance companies, but the BPP gave us certificate of no objection for 20. And we can only work with those approved by the BPP and that approval had been confirmed by Mr. President.
What about the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), which is the apex regulatory body of insurance companies, has it given assent to the number?
Well, NAICOM is regulating the industry. That is the insurance companies, the underwriters and brokers. They are the one registering them, they are the ones giving them their licences and they only act as adviser to the government agencies like the Head of Service. Their role ends with advisory. As long as we make sure that those we are using are those licensed by NAICOM, we think we have done due diligence. And they cannot and will not say that we have not consulted them. If you want, I can show you some letters we have written to them to confirm to us those on their list but up till now that we are talking; we have not received that list. But we are making use of what they published in the Newspaper as the list of approved underwriters.
So, when somebody is acting as an adviser, there is a limit to the advice. If you're my adviser, you can give me some advice and I can take or leave some of that advice. It is my responsibility to make sure that I act in tandem with the law. The office of the Head of Service is aware of the law, and we are applying that to the letter. We have engaged with the highest authority of NAICOM and they cannot deny that. But our day to day running of that programme, I don't think that anybody or any law said that we should leave that to NAICOM to do for us. If that is their expectation, I'm sorry I don't share that view.
What if after the processes, you later discover that the licenses of the insurance companies chosen had expired and that they have not met the regulatory requirements NAICOM?
You see the regulatory requirements by NAICOM are subject to the certificates, you understand? I believe that NAICOM will not issue certificates to insurance companies that have not complied with their regulatory requirements. So, we are going by the certificates issued by the NAICOM and I can also give you a list of companies published in a newspaper by NAICOM of certified insurance companies. What more do we need to use to check?
The money you said that was appropriated, going by the economic recession the country is passing through, where is the government going to get the N5.4 billion from?
Well, we have written to the Ministry of Finance and they have not said that they don't have the money. I believe that the government is very much interested in the welfare of the civil servants and it also knows the cost of non-insuring civil servants will be in case there are deaths, that you still have to pay. And you pay more if you don't cover. So, I believe that one way or the other, the necessary agent of government will make the money available. And it is not a new thing, we've written to them, we are engaged with them, all that they are waiting is for us to bring the letter of no objection from the BPP and bring presidential approval, which we have got and forwarded to them. And I believe that in the next one week or a little more, we will get the money from government.
What is your reaction to the allegation that government does not pay premium on either assets or group life insurance?
This is my second time of coming into this office and I can tell you authoritatively that government has been paying premiums on insurance. It may come late sometimes, but we have been paying like the one that ended in August 2016, was paid in August last year. Before that, the previous one was also paid. In the case of insuring assets of government, we are in the process of insuring assets and we have asked for funds for that. Once it is released, we are going to insure government assets. You see insurance is actually to protect us against risks. In case of fire, death, crisis, you pull your funds so that you don't feel the full effects of the nature of accident. You don't need to pay at that time but instead, you pay in advance, you share the risk with others. That's why we in the civil service will continue to advice government to continue to pay the premiums as at when due and when it cannot come on time, but as soon as it can.
You did say that you have requested for money for the renewal of insurance of Federal government assets. How much is it and do you think that the N5 billion requested for the Group life insurance will be sufficient?
Off hand, I will not be able to give you that but we know that there is budgetary provision for it and we are following up. You see, you cannot approach government with too many things at the same time. Let's finish with the Group life insurance and then we can go into property.
Like I said, we have used N5 billion for three consecutive years. Yes, some insurance companies had asked for variation but we said no. Nigeria is not war, the rate of deaths is very low. So there is no reason for them to increase the premiums. In fact, what we are saying is that they either reduce the premiums like as I was telling you before we started that if I insured my car for three years running, and there was no accident and I've not made any claim, I should go to that insurance company to give me no claim bonus or no claim discount.
The same can apply in this case. In the past and outside Nigeria, Group life insurance is not just death benefits. There is other thing that goes with the death benefits. If you see that the claim is not very high, the responsible insurance company should be able to throw in one or two things, and either training or support for service delivery can come in.
How will you assess or rate the strength of insurance companies operating in Nigeria today?
You see, this is the area I expect NAICOM to be playing a major role. Are they checking claims settlement? We are checking it by ourselves. When I assumed duties here, I wrote to all the insurance companies that if they don't pay claims in the past that they can't be part of the present and future schemes. And we used that criteria to actually shortlist in the sense that if you have outstanding claims that you have not settled, you cannot be part of the new scheme being undertaken by us. So, we need to do a little more to make sure that these companies pay their claims as at when due.
And for the sake of the industry itself, they have that name that they need to protect, they believe that they just want to collect the premium but when it comes to settlement of claims, they look the other way. And I believe that the media have a role to play. You have been pressurising us asking why we are not paying premium. But have you done any investigative journalism to find out how the previous scheme was handled in terms of claims settlement?
Source: Guardian


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My daughter Kimberley is crazy about cats - so she has organised a coffee morning to be held in a couple of weeks in aid of the Cats Protection League. Guess who has been roped into it - yes, me!!
She has been sent lots of promotional material from the CPL and has been busy advertising her posters in shops etc. The Coffee Morning boasts a cake stall, tombola, a raffle etc. But guess who has to make the cakes and organise the prizes - yes, right again - me!!
I am also making Catnip Mice for her to sell. So far I have 10 unstuffed ones. My aunt is also busy with her needles. We hope to get a jar full by the time the Coffee Morning comes along!


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[FYI: this announcement was released this morning by the Illinois State Genealogical Society at the Federation of Genealogical Societies conference. See below and direct all questions to ISGS. --Amy]
Illinois State Genealogical Society Debuts New Guide for Family Historians with Prairie State Ancestors
September 8, 2011 – Springfield, IL. The Illinois State Genealogical Society (ISGS) proudly announces the debut of the Insider's Guide To Illinois Genealogy – a handy reference guide for family historians and genealogists. With the Insider's Guide researchers will find everything they need to get started to find Prairie State ancestors.
The Insider's Guide To Illinois Genealogy laminated "quick card" contains:
· An overview of Illinois history in a timeline format
· A section on migration patterns related to how Illinois was settled
· Helpful research strategy tips for the beginning genealogist
· Over 130 different links to websites covering different aspects of Illinois genealogy over 26 subject sections including Census Records, Vital Records, Obituaries, Military Records, and more.
With a conference special price of $5 each, the guide is expected to sell quickly. The guidecan also be purchased online at http://bit.ly/ISGSguide for $7 which includes shipping and handling.
ISGS Publicity Chair and Webmaster Thomas MacEntee notes: "ISGS is one of the first large genealogy societies to publish a research guide in this popular format. The 'quick card' is laminated, light-weight and can be slipped into a backpack or laptop bag for genealogy research trips."
The Insider's Guide To Illinois Genealogy was produced with the help of several ISGS board members who collected links to many online resources. In addition, attention has also been given to archives, libraries and repositories for "in person" research.
Janice Fritsch, ISGS President, states: "One of the purposes of ISGS is to disseminate information about Illinois. The Insider's Guide to Illinois Genealogy not only helps ISGS in accomplishing its purpose, but also provides genealogists with an easy-to-use, 'hands-on' tool for finding Illinois ancestors. It is a must-have and will make a great gift for relatives, friends, your society or your library."
About Illinois State Genealogical Society:
The Illinois State Genealogical Society (ISGS) was formed in 1968 through the cooperative effort and forward thinking of Illinois genealogical society representatives, who envisioned a statewide genealogical organization. ISGS is a not-for-profit, nonsectarian, educational organization. ISGS was established for the following purposes:
· To stimulate an interest in the people who contributed to the establishment and development of the State of Illinois.
· To seek, preserve, and make available data pertaining to individuals, families, and groups who lived in Illinois and to events which took place therein.
· To inform people of the value of, and need for, preserving family and local history for posterity.
· To encourage the formation of local genealogical societies and to coordinate and disseminate information.
[Disclosure: I am an official blogger for the FGS conference, co-hosted by ISGS. I was given a complimentary copy of this reference guide.]


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That makes it so much harder when discrimination and ignorance show up and pick on him.
We took Mr F and Mr Bunches to "Dolphin Pool" today. This is one of Mr F's favorite things: it's an indoor zero-depth wading pool that he loves to go to. He sits in the hot tub, then he wades around. He will float, and roll on his back, and lately he has been going to the slide and walking up 2 or 3 steps before chickening out and going back down. I know he's going to make it up that slide one of these days.
"Dolphin Pool" is at a place called "Prairie Athletic Club." It's a health club on the other side of town that we get to go to because it's joined with the one we belong to in our neighborhood. We have been taking the boys to Dolphin Pool (so named because there is a statue of a dolphin on the edge of the pool) for 8 years now -- since they could first walk. We have been members of the club for eighteen years. Because I can't work out without dying, almost literally, the only reason the boys and I are still members is to use their pools, because swimming is Mr F's and Mr Bunches' favorite thing in the world to do.
Mr F stands out at the pool. He has to wear a wetsuit, because a few years back he would get bothered by how his swimming trunks felt, and take them off. So we bought a wetsuit for him to wear, because we can't have him taking off his trunks but we want him to swim. Do you know how much wetsuits cost? About $90. He's on his second one, because he's growing. We pay about $25 a month for the pool access, and have to buy a wetsuit. But swimming is important to Mr F. It calms him down and helps him relax, and he gets to be free.
Mr F is almost never free. Everywhere he goes, he's belted in (we have a special safety harness for use on the bus and in our car), or has his hand held. Nearly always. The only times Mr F gets to be free is when we're at a playground or a nature trail far away from roads or water. Then he can walk without someone holding him and not be buckled in on a 5-point harness like he's Evel Knievel, just for a trip to the library. This is because Mr F has little to no impulse control. He will dart away from you at a moment's notice. He also has absolutely no sense of safety. He either does not know, or does not care, for example, that cars will kill him. So if there's any chance he will get into danger, or trouble, he's under what I call "hand arrest."
Swimming, he is free. We don't hold him. He gets to swim and duck under and jump and splash and roll around, and if you could see him! He gets this faraway look in his eyes and a smile on his face and he laughs. It's making me smile as I write this.
This all means, though, that Mr F sticks out like a sore thumb in a pool. He's the only kid with a wetsuit, the only one jumping and laughing and rolling around. Even for kids in a pool, Mr F is a sight, the way he plays.
And he's the only one carrying 'tappers.'
I've mentioned 'tappers' before, I think. Mr F is always carrying something with him to tap. It used to be spatulas (we still have a drawerful of them). Then it was plastic coat hangers. For a while it was wooden spoons (we still haven't found the ones we used to have). Right now, it is forks, but a very special set of forks.
Mr F picks out his forks the way a surgeon might pick out his scalpel. If they get mixed up or (God forbid!) he loses one, the selection process for a new fork is a strenuous one. He will take 2 or 3 forks and hold them up, tap them experimentally on his chin or his hand, and then shift them in position, move them a bit, try a different combination, and so on. This takes about 15 or 20 minutes, at least, so we are very careful to keep his latest combination separate from the other forks, to spare him the trouble of having to do it again. (You can see how troubled he is when he can't make a combination that works for him. He gets sad and upset, hitting his head and crying. Since we don't know what a 'good' combination is, all we can do is suggest other forks or try to keep him from cracking his head on the floor.)
Mr F's absolute most favorite forks are these cheap plastic silvery ones from the Dollar Store. He loves these so much that the other day, when we wanted to get a surprise for each of the boys, we got Mr Bunches an "Imaginext Batmobile," ($24.99) and Mr F two sets of silver picnic forks. ($2). Mr F liked his present more.
He holds these forks like this:
Always. That is always how he holds his forks. Then, once he has them set, he taps them lightly on his chin, or on his hand. Over and over and over.
I have a theory about why this is. With autism, everything is a theory. Nobody knows anything, really, about autism. Half the time we don't know anything about people like us: people who are able to communicate in abstract ways and explain concepts that are barely conceivable. We are so smart and yet we can't explain ourselves. Mr F is harder, since he can't tell us anything about what he's thinking.
My theory is this: Mr F needs the tappers to help him focus. Some people need something extra to help them focus in. I like to have background noise when I'm working: television works best, so many times when I'm writing a brief or working on research I will have Archer or something on in the background. I'm not listening to it, not really: it's white noise that helps me focus on what I'm doing, paradoxically. Without it the silence seems to crowd in on me, and I can hear my own pulse, it seems like, and I become aware of how my elbow itches and that my head hurts a little and my knee is bent too far... and I can't work. With some background noise, I'm fine.
If you are reading this while sitting at your table drinking a cup of coffee, say, you are experiencing lots of sensations that your mind just categorizes away: sunlight over here, the chair creaking, the way the table feels under your skin, the mug's warmth: you don't notice those until they are really new. But autistic people, they think, notice everything all the time, and because of that they try to cut down on all the static. Mr F and Mr Bunches eat a narrow range of foods, because they can't stand all the newness of different flavors. Mr Bunches, for example, can tell the difference between "Crunch Berries" and the generic version of Crunch Berries. He can tell the difference between Crunch Berries that come in the box with Cap'n Crunch, and the Crunch Berries that come in the box of "Oops All Berries."
These are differences the boys cannot ignore. You or I probably wouldn't notice that slight difference, but they do, and they notice it every time. So they reduce the changes in their life to a minimum. They like routine, they like processed foods that taste the same every time, they will happily watch the same movie fifteen times in a row because that's the point it's the same movie.
Mr Bunches, like me, can exist in a world where a lot is going on: music, movies, games, people talking, and through it all he and I can focus on what we're doing. Mr F can't, though. He needs to cut down on the stimulation. He will bury his head in a blanket or under a cushion. He went through a phase where pictures on the wall bothered him -- so we have almost no pictures on the wall-- because there were so many different ones. He doesn't like to change blankets. He only wears a few kinds of clothes.
Even then, it's hard for him. That's why, we think, he sometimes loses it and starts crying and screaming. When he gets that bad, we cut down the interference even more: I take him for a ride in my car, which is a two-seater and small and he can feel the vibrations. He sits in his blanket and taps his forks and we listen to audiobooks and we drive the same route, almost every time, to help him calm down.
The forks, then, help him focus. That's my theory, anyway: by tapping them on his hand, or his chin, it helps him ignore all the stuff going on around him by focusing on this one little thing, these forks tapping against his chin. It's like biting on the heel of your thumb to help take your mind off the pain of your stubbed toe: if you give your mind something to focus on, it can help ignore things that are harder to take.
So you can imagine that he needs these forks at the pool. At the pool, there's the water and the noise and the kids running around and splashing and balls flying past his head and the hot tub starting up and people bringing pizzas to their tables and towels and a whole lot, and you can watch Mr F sometimes retreat from that by going over to the hot tub and wedging himself into a corner and closing his eyes, tapping his forks against his chin quietly.
Mr F has used forks as tappers almost exclusively for about 3 years now. He has brought them everywhere with him, including to Dolphin Pool, including last week when we went.
So I didn't think anything of it today when we went in and Mr Bunches went to the deep lap pool to jump in while Sweetie watched him, and I went over to the shallow pool to keep an eye on Mr F. I do this by hovering about 10-20' away from him: close enough that I can intervene if something happens, far enough that he doesn't feel crowded. If I get closer than 5-10', he keeps edging away from me because he doesn't like people too near him.
The pool wasn't especially crowded today. There were about 10 people in it, maybe? Or less. A few little kids, most of them over in the bigger, big-kids, pool; and some parents sitting around the edges looking at their phones.
Mr F had been swimming for about 20 minutes or so, and I was hanging out in the hot tub, when I saw a lifeguard come over by Mr F. Mr F was at that point standing at the bottom of the stairs to the slide, looking up them like he wanted really this time to go down the slide, and the lifeguard tapped him on the shoulder. I started over there, and Mr F walked a few steps from the lifeguard without looking at him. I wondered if the guard thought he was blocking the stairs or something. As I got there, the guard tapped Mr F on the shoulder again, and when Mr F walked away again, the guard looked across the room, rolled his eyes, and shrugged at someone, like what's up with this?
It SHOULD HAVE been obvious to anyone that whatever was up with Mr F, he wasn't a regular kid. Regular kids don't wear wetsuits to wading pools and carry forks around. Regular kids don't walk around making a bunch of nonsense noises.
Anyway, I was at the lifeguard and I said "Did you need something? I'm his dad."
The lifeguard said: "He's carrying forks and he shouldn't. It's a safety hazard."
I said, patiently: "He's autistic. He carries those forks because they help him focus. He doesn't hurt anyone."
The kid said "He shouldn't have them."
There were only a few kids in the pool. I said "Would it be okay if he kept them and I sat closer to him so nobody has to worry?"
The kid shrugged and walked away. I moved closer to Mr F and hung by him as he swam around, oblivious to what had just happened.
About 10 minutes later, I noticed a group of 3, maybe 4, people over on the other side of the pool. They were all wearing lifeguard clothes or club uniforms. One was the lifeguard I'd talked to. One was one of the women from the front desk. They were talking and looking over at me and Mr F, and pointing at him. Pointing at him repeatedly. And it was clear they were pointing at him because he and I were the only people in the direction they were pointing. They left about the time I thought they saw me looking at them. I can't be sure they left because of that, but they did.
I wasn't happy about this, but Mr F still had no idea what was going on, and we'd only been there about 30 minutes. I like to let him swim for an hour or so.
By this time, the pool was really pretty empty. There were two girls, about 5 or 6, sitting on the hot tub stairs. (I WILL NOTE that sitting on the hot tub stairs, and being under 12 and unsupervised in the hot tub, is in fact IN VIOLATION OF A RULE POSTED RIGHT THERE, but it did not appear these two girls had drawn the attention of the crowd of whispery pointers.) There were a few other kids over near the basketball hoops on the other side of the pool. Mr F was alone in the wading area of the pool.
After a few minutes, I noticed a guy walking by us, and looking at the hot tub. I noticed him because he'd walked past a few minutes before and had looked at us. Now he was doing it again. After about 2 or 3 more passes, he came and crouched by me in the hot tub. By then I was angry, because I didn't know who he was but I thought the crowd of club employees pointing at Mr F had drawn attention to him, and I didn't want some rando walking by eyeballing my son.
"Is that your son?" Rando said.
"Yes," I answered.
He was clothed. I was in a hot tub, in bathing trunks. He was crouching just over my shoulder, behind and to the right, and above me.
"I understand he's autistic, but he shouldn't have those forks," Rando said. He must have seen something bewildered in my face because he added "I'm Andy, one of the owners of the club."
So I said to this clothed man who loomed above me "He is autistic. He uses them to help him ignore all the stuff going on. He doesn't do anything with them. He just taps them."
"Does he have something else he could use here?" Rando Andy said.
"No," I said, trying to convey that we hadn't anticipated having to have multiple sets of tappers because he'd been bringing them here for about 3 years nearly every week without incident.
I also want to point out that this club is pretty fancy. In addition to 3 indoor pools it has a restaurant, and many people will bring their kids there around dinner and order pizza, which is brought into the pool by restaurant staff to eat poolside.
They bring it with forks and knives. Kids use those forks and knives.
Anyway, Rando Andy said "Would you mind taking them away from him? It's a safety hazard."
So many things ran through my mind but where I settled was: I am in a bathing suit. He is the owner of the club. I do not want to get us kicked out and have the boys not be able to swim anymore. The owner of the club is looming over me as I sit in a pool of water and asking me would I mind doing what he's telling me to do."
So I said to Mr F: Let me have your tappers, buddy. He started crying and tried to take them from me, but I gently held his hand and took them. He got upset and punched himself in the forehead. Rando Andy stood up. Thanks he said and walked away. I sat there, angry and wanting to get up and leave, but Mr F was still in the hot tub. He was upset, and looked sad, and tried to get his forks from me, and began trying to bite his wetsuit collar.
A few minutes later, as it turned out, Sweetie and Mr Bunches came over. Mr Bunches was tired and wanted to go and could we leave early? I said yes, and then on the way out told Sweetie what had happened. She was going to go storming off and yell at him right then. I told her to wait until we got there.
So we changed, and I gave Mr F the forks back, and we went out to the lobby where Sweetie demanded to see the manager, Rando Andy. He came out, and tried to get us to go into an office. I said quietly Right here is fine.
Then Sweetie lit into him. Without raising her voice but pitching it in that tone that tells you she would like to gut you like a fish, Sweetie denounced the manager for letting some parent goad him into making us take away Mr F's tappers. When Rando Andy said nobody complained Sweetie said that was a bunch of crap and someone must have because we'd been coming here for years and he'd been bringing his forks all that time and nobody had said anything. Rando Andy then pointed at me and said I asked him if he'd get the forks and he didn't seem to mind.
I said I was sitting in a hot tub with my son being told to by the owner of the club. I didn't want to make a scene.
Sweetie then denounced the ignorance and discrimination that would allow a little boy to be approached twice by a lifeguard who appeared completely uncognizant of the fact that this little boy in a wetsuit making strange noises was a special-needs kid, let alone have that little boy pointed at by a group of staffers -- Rando Andy tried to protest and say that didn't happen and I said it did, I was there -- and said that if their workers didn't know how to deal with special needs' kids they should get training. She pointed out that we'd been members for 18 years and had never caused a problem and said that she expected her sons not to be discriminated against when we came here in the future.
She started to leave. I told Rando Andy that if he wanted me or someone to come teach his staff about autism I'd be happy to do so. We have several people who have ... he started and I said then I expect in the future my sons won't be singled out like this, and we left.
So now, one of Mr F's favorite things in the world, Dolphin Pool, has been tainted. He will never know it, I hope. We're never sure how much he realizes about what's going on around him, so maybe he was completely unaware of all this today and just thinks I was being unfair when I took his tappers for a few minutes.
But we know it. We know that every time we walk in that door to take our boys swimming, it is likely to be a battleground -- or at least it will feel that way to us. We will be constantly nervous that Mr F or Mr Bunches will do or say something to attract attention from some other parent or staffer with no tolerance or understanding, and that the boys will again be the center of unwanted and unwarranted attention, that we will again have to make a scene to defend their right to exist on terms they can handle.
I'm not demanding special treatment. Mr F isn't carrying around weapons. He carries those forks everywhere. He is sleeping not five feet from me as I type this and the forks are in his hand. He takes them to the library, to the pool, in the car, sits with them as he watches television, everywhere. He has taken them to the pool at this club, and at the other health club. He has taken them to the Madison Community Pool. Not once has anyone said anything. He has never approached another little kid, never hurt anyone, never even dropped them in the way of anyone. If he does drop or set them down, Sweetie or I immediately pick them up. Not because it's a hazard -- it's a FORK -- but because if he loses one he has to go through a whole psychological ordeal to get a new set.
We have a little boy who wants to carry around a couple of forks with him. This little boy cannot talk. He had brain surgery when he fell of a counter and still has a scar from that, and because of that he cannot go on bounce castles, trampolines, or many other things little kids love. He cannot eat most foods. Because he is so worried about things he likes to feel enclosed and so even though he has a very nice bed with an extra-soft mattress on it and Spongebob Blankets, he sleeps in a closet I've removed the door from because he wants walls on three sides of him. He has to be watched when he goes to the bathroom and can't have the door closed because of that head injury. He is strapped into his bus seat with a safety harness, and held by the hand 99% of his life.
He wants to carry a couple of forks with him, and swim. This makes him deliriously, insanely happy, one of the few things that does in a world where most of the things traumatize or confuse him.
He will still get to do those things, and if he is lucky he will never know that each time we walk through those doors, Sweetie and I will have to again bristle for a fight, be ready to defend him, be ready to shield him from ignorant looks and overbearing Randos who want to throw their weight around on behalf of some spoiled-brat soccer mom worried that the weird kid will do something to her own perfect kids.
Mr F has never hurt anyone in his life, and never would.
But lots of people try to hurt him.


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I'm Sioux Roslawski and this is my blog about writing, dogs, grown-up children, menopause, the joy of a marvelous book, classroom teaching in general, and specifically, the teaching of writing. You can email me at sroslawski(at)yahoo(dot)com.
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Finding One's Voice
The group started out with six students, then four and this week it was down to two. Just two girls.
Yesterday was our second-to-last day of working together. One of the girls (all school year) has written pieces that sing. Her stories are infused with pizazz. Her voice has almost always been quite evident and distinctive.
The other girl struggles. Her writing has been bare-bones (not in a good, sparse way) and she lacks confidence. Her words plod along on the page.
We've been creating digital stories which makes me sweat (since I am technologically a nimrod) way more than the kids. The students have brought in photographs and drew pictures to be a part of their stories.
Yesterday we did some video clips to insert in our pieces. When I suggested that instead of reading their bits off a notebook, perhaps they could say their spiel in a more conversational, off-the-cuff way, they both rose to the challenge... and the results were incredible.
Each of the girls knew their story. They knew what they wanted to say because they had written it, so when they had the opportunity to use their voice and their facial expressions and their gestures to help convey their story, they did an outstanding job.
I have been struggling with a WIP. Struggling perhaps is not the best way to put it. Perhaps mired in the muck would be more accurate. The project has sat, stagnant, for a while. However, even though I haven't written much on it, I have been thinking about it. Ruminating. Reading other things (like Stephen King's Revival) and getting some pre-writing done.
I'm hopeful that when I get some time to write this summer, my voice will become unleashed. I'm hopeful (fingers crossed) that I can fill in the holes that have reared their obnoxious head in my story (so far).
What are your plans this summer?
16 comments:
AWESOME! I know you have made a difference in these girls' lives. A word of encouragement goes a long way.ReplyDelete
Don't get down on your own WIP. Whip it out and start tweaking...not twerking.
I hope to write more and travel a little.Replies
Linda--You get published so much now, and writing is only a part-time thing for you. I can't imagine how high you'll soar with all that time to write...Delete
(And me twerking? Millions of people are groaning at just the thought.)
Exactly what Linda said--I love teachers like you, Sioux!ReplyDelete
And here's to you finding your own voice with your WIP this summer! I'll be doing what I do every day--trying to take over the world, one word at a time. :-)Replies
Cathy--Thanks. I hope it's a productive summer for you as well.Delete
What a great thing you are doing for these children! I thought after retirement could do something similar, but it has not presented itself. Forming programs fell through. Now I have lost the push due to laziness and stumped in my own writing. Summer is not usually a writing time for me, but if it continues to rain I might just cast my ark out and write while I float away! Good luck on your WIP!ReplyDeleteReplies
Claudia--Thanks. With all your experience as a writer, I imagine the schools around you would LOVE to have you volunteer as a writer-in-residence. There are teachers who would kill to get a writer in once or twice a week to help kids talk through their writing... a writer who could inspire them... a writer who could encourage them.Delete
Think about it. You might find that younger writers could get your out of your slump...
You are an inspiration. No doubt when these girls grow into young ladies they will look back and remember the difference you made in their lives.ReplyDelete
Your WIP will be amazing like all your writing. Hope you enjoy your summer; you deserve it!Replies
Donna--Perhaps I should hire you as my press agent? Or in case I need a barn mucked out? ;)Delete
Seriously, thanks.
Kudos to you for setting this triumphant writing scene. Or for finding it and using it if someone else did the decorating. It makes my room feel like a sterile operating theater.ReplyDelete
I plan to read and write and keep Hick out of trouble.Replies
Val--Keeping Hick out of trouble... Doesn't that take several people, on a full-time basis?Delete
What lucky children to have a teacher who cares so much about helping them bring their stories to life. As for your WIP, I'm a big believer in the power of marinating.ReplyDelete
Tammy--I don't know who is luckier--me or my students, but thanks.ReplyDelete
As far as marinating, if it marinates too long, does it get pickled?
It must be very gratifying to encourage kids to write. We definitely need more pen on paper than thumbs on phones.ReplyDelete
Critter AlleyReplies
Pat--It IS gratifying... and inspiring.Delete
Most authors can remember the teacher who really took them across the threshold and inspired them to write their stories. How cool that years from now, these kids will fondly recall Mrs.Roslawski. you may be named in the thanks/acknowledgements list on the flypage of some classic!ReplyDeleteReplies
Marcia--That's an awful lot to hope for, and very flattering, but thank you.Delete
I certainly remember the teacher that pushed me. And thanks--you gave me the idea for a new post.


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Alex Cannon's Blog
21 January 2013
Red Rock
10 November 2011
Penn State - Idiocracy
09 November 2011
The Goods
I've talked about getting season tickets each of the previous two seasons, but never actually followed through, due to financial difficulties well under my control. Well this year it's over. I finally did it. A nice little bargain too. $130 for the package (the quoted price is actually $105 but they get you for another $25 on "processing" and "order" charges, whatever the hell those are supposed to be). At least they didn't try to throw in a parking charge.
Anyway, first game is this Friday the 11th at 7pm. That would be Veterans Day, which means I'm off from work. This would be an incredibly awesome opportunity to begin tailgating at 3pm in front of The Mack (and still may be, minus some of the fun because of what I'm about to tell you next) but unfortunately I'm unable to drink alcohol while on these anti-biotics. I guess it's really not an iron-clad restriction, but I don't know if it's worth the risk. Don't want to end up all drowsy with a sick stomach and miss the game. Probably for the best, as I will actually remember the game and the minutiae of the action if I remain sober. I will certainly miss that rum slushie at half-time though. Damn.
07 November 2011
The Return
Roy: And then the unfinished symphony of Roy McAvoy.
Molly: What's unfinished?
Roy: I have a short follow-through. It has an unfinished look...
Molly: Why?
Roy: Well, some say it's the easiest way to play in the winds of west Texas...some say it's because I never finish anything in my life.
23 February 2011
UNLV vs. UNM
I'm texting some folks with the game on, not really following, because we are up by 15, on the road, and I'm thinking this game is in the bag. 15 minutes to go in the 2nd half and the sounds from the television begin to sneak into my awareness.
"New Mexico making a little run? Ah, no biggie. It won't last, Rebels will keep it stretched out by 8 points." Back to the BlackBerry.
Then it continues.
"Uh oh. Wait, what the hell is going on here? No! You're letting it slip Rebels...or the Lobos are ripping that shit from your grip!" Better start watching every second.
Before I can remember we are tied. Time is running out and then the real nail-biting began. Are we actually going to lose this game! Thankfully we survived the surge and forced it into OT.
I can't say enough about Quintrell Thomas. He's just looking better and better each and every game. The offensive production inside is just fantastic. And the rebounds! My God, he was snatching those things out of the sky like nobody's business.
Tre'Von was strokin' it! Can't remember the last time he was keeping my attention like that. Must have been back to last season at least.
The team as a unit was looking good too. Finally it felt right. They looked comfortable, anticipatory, with it. I think we are coming out of the longest mid-season slump ever. What a perfect time to heat up. That was such a big road win. And stacked on top of the CSU road win, I think we've got a real solid foundation for some serious confidence going into the last two games and the MWC tourney.
Keep it up fellas! REBELS!
22 February 2011
Battling the end-stage of a cold right now. I fell ill last Monday and had to take Wednesday off. Pushed through to Friday taking only ibuprofen when somebody reminded me that Nyquil is a good thing to take when trying to kick a cold. Thank God for that stuff. I think I'm hooked. And it's definitely helped with the cold as well. I haven't been sick in at least a couple of years and I forgot how terrible it is. Hopefully I'll stay healthy for another long cycle, because this has sucked.
Anyway, the cold doesn't account for the > 1 month absence from the blogosphere (not that I've had a continuous or large presence here prior).
It's been a busy month. College basketball season is heating up and I've been busy following the Runnin' Rebels. They're looking okay. Likely to receive an at-large bid to the NCCA tournament, barring any miraculously shocking loss through this last part of the schedule. Now I don't like to knock my Rebels, but I'm not living in denial either. I've seen it happen before so I don't count it out. Let's hope they don't disappoint. We've been in a slump most of the season and now would be a great time to heat up. We just saw evidence of this in the 2nd half performance against Colorado State last Saturday. If this team can shoot just 40% consistently we will have a shot at getting into the tourney and making it to the second round. We've got 20 wins and we've been in a slump! Imagine if we had been able to knock shots down in those really big games like Louisville and BYU and SDSU. It's a quality team that we've had this year, but the performance hasn't always been there.
On a side note, the HBO documentary of the Tarkanian era of the UNLV men's basketball program premiered at the Palms a few days ago. It will be showing in the theater beginning March 12 and I'm looking forward to seeing it. Here's a blog post by Katz in the Las Vegas Sun about it.
In other news, baseball season is just around the corner. My mom won a pair of season tickets to the Las Vegas 51's so I'm anticipating spending quite a bit of time at Cashman Field this spring/summer. Dollar beer night anybody? I think so. Haven't been following any news on the Dodgers, but Manny is gone (yay!) and so is Russell Martin (boo!). There were some other roster changes as well, but nothing that I followed too closely. Just hoping for a good season. They Boys in Blue will be here in March to play the Cubs for Big League Weekend at Cashman and Chuch and I are planning on attending.
In non-sports news, not much else is new. Work is, well....work. The world seems to be coming to an end. Revolutions in the mid-east, pirates capturing ships, commodity price inflation, global economic crisis, etc.
That's it for now. I'll likely be posting about the Rebels again very soon. Until then.
09 January 2011
I just started reading "The Final Solution" by Michael Chabon this afternoon, with my Webster's dictionary at side (provided compliments of the Clark County School District and the Honors English program of my freshman year of high school) which I use profusely when reading nowadays, as I seem to have forgotten many of the words I claim to have once known.
pastille: an aromatic or medicated lozenge
This is the word I was looking up. I note the definition on my legal pad of vocabulary words to learn/re-learn (likely a futile attempt) and then happen to glance at the next entry.
pastime: diversion; something that serves to make time pass agreeably
An interesting way to frame the description of the passage of time. There's a certain implication there. That the passing of time (I guess put more appropriately, our experience of it) is inherently painful or unpleasing. It often feels like that, when you're not doing something to distract yourself from the awful reality of the situation. I like the line from Mr. Curtis Mayfield's song "It's Alright" (covered excellently by Seal, the rendition I've been listening to lately):
"When you wake up in the morning feeling sad, like so many of us do"
That line makes me feel a bit better. There's a comfort in knowing that you are not alone in the experience. I guess the wisdom to be gleaned from this is quite simply just to live. Distract yourself as much as possible, every second that you can. Idle minds/bodies are sad ones.
07 January 2011
Mr. P.J. O'Rourke
While reading The Week (you should really check it out if you've never read it, great little news magazine), I saw a quote from his new book "Don't Vote, It Just Encourages The Bastards". Here it is:
I have a twelve-year-old daughter, Muffin. All I hear is, "It's not fair! It's not fair! It's not fair!" I say to her, "Honey, you're cute. That's not fair. You're smart. That's not fair. You were born in the United States of America. That's not fair. Darling, you had better get down on your knees and pray to God that things don't start getting fair for you."
Love it.
05 January 2011
SDSU vs. TCU
Today is the day
Here is some love from ESPN for the Mountain West Conference.
Over 17,000 tickets have been sold thus far. The house will be rocking tonight.
04 January 2011
Uh oh, I smell trouble...
02 January 2011
I Threw It On The Ground!
31 December 2010
BYU Jeremiad
04 March 2010
After reading Robert B. Reich's article, I cannot help but ask what may seem a naïve question. He writes, "America's five largest health insurers made a total profit of $12.2 billion last year." When is this country going to realize that health care should not be a for-profit industry but a basic human right in a civilized society? Where did those $12.2 billion go, or rather, where did they not go?
As long as we are unable, as a country, to face this question, everything else in the health care debate seems irrelevant and a paltry response to our problems. Colette Windish
Mobile, Ala., Feb. 24, 2010"
I don't think $12.2 billion is going to do anything miraculous in this country. We spend trillions per year on problems and they still aren't solved; $12 billion isn't going to fix anything. But that's beside the point. The ultimate result is this: Remove the profit motive from the health insurance industry, and you remove the availability of health insurance to those who can afford it now. I thought the goal of health care reform was to get more people insured, not less.
For some reason it seems that most talk about health care reform frames the problem in the following manner: in order to get more people insured, we have to make health insurance less expensive. I'm not so sure this is the best way to think about the problem.
05 February 2010
As Internet culture has grown, we've come to romanticize certain kinds of unmediated, old-fashioned "human" interactions. But this fantasy ignores how much of normal social interaction is fleeting, bite-size, instant, tweetlike. Humans have always talked to each other via a kind of analog Twitter. These new technologies just get us there with maximum efficiency. Meeting a new person is thrilling, in a primal way—your attention focuses completely, if only for a nanosecond, to see if the creature in front of you has the power to change your life for better or worse.Very insightful. Many people these days complain about how Twitter and Facebook and the likes are making human interaction less...well, "human". I've not really agreed with this idea, and the idea presented above is why. Just because the interaction isn't face-to-face doesn't make it any less "real". Read the article, it's very interesting.
Read more: Is ChatRoulette the Future of the Internet or Its Distant Past? -- New York Magazine http://nymag.com/news/media/63663/index1.html#ixzz0eicpG7tp
28 January 2010
But that's all over now. Thanks to the Lobos. What's that you say? Oh yes, you're correct, UNLV did beat the Lobos....on the road. So by the logic I see displayed in the polls that got BYU to #10, that means UNLV should slide in to the top, say, 20? Heck, how about top 10? Because we beat the team that beat the #10 team, so we must be THE BOMB! Right? Wrong.
BYU never belonged in the top 25. And if they aren't dropped on 2/1/10, we can totally disregard anything the polls have to say about college basketball. I don't know why the polls even bother me, I know that they mean absolutely nothing. I guess it's because so many others think they DO mean something. Have you ever tried to contest the thinking of an idiot? That's what it's like talking college basketball with somebody who thinks the polls mean something.
Anyway, I'm glad they finally got served a loss. Can't wait until 2/6/10 when they roll to the Mack. IT IS ON!


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Sunday, June 29, 2008
Sunday Science Finds
The Voodoo Wasp @PopSci.com
(Also see A Fluke of Nature @ Damn Interesting.)
Photosynthetic Marine Microorganisms do it for less oxygen:
Startling Discovery About Photosynthesis: Many Marine Microorganism Skip Carbon Dioxide And Oxygen Step @Science Daily
Cute & clever taxonomy:
Curiosities of Biological Nomenclature
From the main page:
"Scientific names of organisms are not usually known for their entertainment value. They are indispensable for clarity in communication, but most people skip over them with barely a glance. Here I collect those names that are worth a second look.
Some names are interesting for what they are named after (for example, Arthurdactylus conandoylensis, Godzillius), some are puns (La cucaracha, Phthiria relativitae), and some show other kinds of wordplay (such as the palindromic Orizabus subaziro). Some have achieved notability through accident of history, and many show the sense of humor of taxonomists."
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Dynamic Architecture
While we're on this whole skyscraper kick, how about a wind-powered tower? David Fisher, a French architect, is in the approval stage for two towers—one in Moscow and one in Dubai—where each floor rotates independently of one another, driven by wind turbines fitted in between each floor (which also creates the electricity to power the building, and possibly other nearby buildings as well). And Fisher's buildings will be less expensive to build because the core is all that's built on-site. The rotating pieces will be built elsewhere in a modular fashion, attached to the core and sent up. They'll be built from the top down!
Fisher's company, the Rotating Tower Technology Company, has these two projects on display at its website, and the videos are really quite stunning.
Via The Guardian by way of io9.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Taipei 101 on flickr
by Fishtail@Taipei
The Golden Egg (or: 660tons at 380metres), originally uploaded by heritagefutures.
See more of flickr's most interesting images of th Taipei 101 building here. Many are very striking. For New Years the whole building produces fireworks.
Taipei 101 Damper movement on 12 May 08
Video caption:
Happened to be visiting Taipei 101 when the tremors from the earthquake in Sichuan was felt in Taipei..The damper is 660 ton in weight suspended on the 92 floor to 87 floor..
YouTube video of the Long Now technology display at Maker Faire 2008
Massively Gigantic Pendulum
So the Long Now Foundation, a group established to think about culture in the framework of 10,000 years as opposed to our current norm of thinking about this year, this moment, fast/faster/fastest, has been working on what they call the 10,000 Year Clock. It will be an entirely mechanical device that will tick once every year and last as long as the name says. From what I've seen so far, it's a beautiful piece of machinery, and it's been quite a bit of work for these guys.
In a new post on their blog today, they mention something they found while researching pendulums for their clock. In one of the tallest skyscrapers in the world, the Taipei 101 building, right up near the top, is a 728 ton tuned mass damper to help prevent the building from swaying during harsh conditions such as storms and quakes. The thing sways, and it offsets the sway of an entire skyscraper!
Look at that thing! It's humongous!
Also, while I'm writing about the Long Now Foundation, I should also mention that they have regular seminars which have become available as a podcast that I highly recommend. If that link doesn't work, you should be able to search the iTunes store for Long Now or SALT.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Tiny endemic, on flickr
Image by Nuysia@Tas.
Endemic species are found in one area, and no where else in the world. As such, they are extremely sensitive to habitat degredation and easily threatened.
From the caption:
The Tasmanian viviparous seastar, Patiriella vivipara. Adults achieve a full size of 13mm across. This tiny species is endemic to Tasmania, is known from a handful of locations and is considered threatened. Rather than going through the usual planktonic larval stage that most seastars go through, this species hold the larvae in it's gonad until they are fully formed. These minute baby seastars emerge from the backof the parent. This reproduction method limits the spread of this species to suitable habitat elsewhere along the coast.
View distribution map.
Patriella vivipara at Parks & Wildlife Service Tasmania web site.
Open Letter to Ministers re: Bill C-61 from LibriVox founder
I am the founder of LibriVox, an all-volunteer, web-based project to make audio recordings of public domain texts and give them away for free. Since our inception in 2005, we've run on a yearly budget of $0; yet we've become one of the most prolific makers of audio books in the world, with a production rate recently topping 100 books per month. We've got a catalog of some 1,500 audio books, including authors such as Dickens, Cervantes, Austen, Dante, Darwin, Sun Tzu, Hobbes, Einstein, and Plato. We also have a number of Canadian classics from Leacock, Lucy Maude Montgomery, and others. We have thousands of volunteers around the world, who make audio versions of texts and give them away because they believe access to knowledge and great literature is one of the most precious gifts we can give to each other. We've gained some fame over the years, with articles in the NY Times, radio spots on the BBC, as well as many more mainstream and web media mentions and profiles. The Vice President of Creative Commons recently called us "perhaps the most interesting collaborative culture project this side of Wikipedia."
LibriVox is the sort of project that is on the outer edge of copyright case law, because what we do was not possible even a few years ago. At our core, we are about reading old books, but we use digital recording software, distributed production models, mass online collaboration, bit torrents, blogging and podcasting, online forums and wikis, bandwidth, mp3s and zip files, all to make recordings of old texts and give them away online for free.
I have some personal objections to Bill C-61 as it has been tabled, objections you've heard no doubt from thousands of concerned and angry Canadian citizens. But I wanted to outline two concrete examples of how Bill C-61 would criminalize legitimate activities of Canadian LibriVox volunteers.
Read whole letter here.
* I tried to contribute to LibriVox a year or two ago, but found that I'm no good at reading at a slow, good-for-listening pace. I also have several audio books from their site on my iPod including The Origin of Species and the autobiography of Olaudah Equino.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Charlie Angus on Bill C-61, Canadian DMCA
"But C-61 is about greed, not just rewards, about stifling the age-old enjoyment of sharing music with friends. It imposes a rigid black-and-white legal framework on a multihued, free-flowing landscape. It's about insisting on horse-and-buggy etiquette in an automotive age." - From The beat will go on despite the federal Conservatives @ The Vancouver Sun
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
The Big Picture
This isn't necessarily science-y, but this is probably my favorite new blog of all time.
The Big Picture is a daily photoblog full of very hi-res pictures focusing on a theme a day. It's a very young blog, and already there are too many good choices to link to here. But I'll try to exercise some restraint and link to the Cassini collection and the Chaiten Volcano collection.
So amazing!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Heads Up!
Also: Michael Geist Blog.
Any suggestions on who to write besides the usual MPs and PM?
Edit: I received a mass email from Ministers Prentice and Verner and have already sent a reply cc: everyone I could find without spending too much time since I have a big exam tomorrow. I suggested that these two debate Doctorow and Geist live and air it on YouTube.
Wouldn't it be phenomenal if they actually did . . .


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Separate names with a comma.
Discussion in 'GBAtemp & Scene News' started by Chanser, Sep 29, 2009.
lol, I gotta check this out
Does it support the logitech speed force wireless?? XD
E: It looks pretty fun..........
For some reason, the two "i"s in the title remind me of ridge racer.
It's Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiidge Racer!
it's Driiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiift Mania!
Really fun if you liked Super Off Road.
oh man..XDDDDD
this looks awesome, in a way
im totally checking this out
This truly is one of the best multiplayer WiiWares out there, it absolutely owns!
It's so much fun and very addiciting. The PAL release came a few months ago out.
You can play with 8 players at the same time (!) because you can play with the Wiimote apart and the Nunchuck apart (connected to the Wiimote).
It's big fun, especially when you start unlocking the other modes and tracks.
That's always a nice thing, i remember 1 or 2 games which had this. I think one was a Bomberman game but i don't remember which one.
There's only one Bomberman Wii Ware game so far, and that's the one, Bomberman Blast!
The other game is Bust A Move Bash!, not Wii Ware.
I wasn't talking about WiiWare only (8 Players) but thanks for info
so uhm, hate to bump up an old topic/game but i've recently got home and wanted to give this a whirl on my wii...
got the release, and i've had success installing various other wads, but once installed i cant get this to run, i go to the channel and press start and rather than going "hey you're playing this awesome game driift...." it just says "hey .. i'm going to reboot your wii" and it reboots
i'm using a 3.3u wii, with a wiikey modchip in it. but like i said i've installed various other wads through the wad manager. i was playing Boingz earlier (pretty cool game too), so i know how to install them. just no luck w/ this release, the channel appears and i get the cool driift mania animation on the screen but like i said it reboots when i press start .
tried the PAL release, says this game is not playable or something like that (figured as much) even tried Free the wads on the pal release, and when it goes to play with that wad installed it does the same thing the US wad does.
do i need to be at a certain system menu or what?
thanks in advance
EDIT: just a note, for those who are trying newer wiiware games on older system menus... either you need a newer system menu or one of your IOS's updated, and rather than tryin to figure out which ones to update and all that jazz i just went ahead and updated to 4.2 and got some of the newer wiiware games working (this included).
thanks to anyone who might have helped and what have you


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Raise it or rase it? Psalm 137:7 KJV
I came across a seriously misleading place of this kind in KJV when I recently heard Psalm 137 read out from this version. As I listened to verse 7, I heard
Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem, who said, Raise it, raise it ...Hold on, I thought, that can't be right! I know the verse as more like
Remember, LORD, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. "Tear it down," they cried, "tear it down ..." (TNIV)So why is KJV saying the exact opposite of TNIV? Is there some obscure textual issue here? Well, I began to wonder when I heard the end of the verse in KJV, "even to the foundations thereof" (TNIV "to its foundations"). How can something be raised to its foundations? I was quite distracted from the rest of the reading, and the preacher's exposition of it, until I realised that perhaps the word in KJV was not "raise" but "rase" - as indeed was confirmed when I found a printed KJV.
So here is an example of KJV doing exactly what should never be done in a text intended for public reading: using a rare homophone of a common word in a context in which the common word makes some sense. In such circumstances listeners are certain to understand the common word rather than the rare one, or at the very best to become confused as I did.
I suppose some might wonder whether "raise" and "rase" were homophones, pronounced the same, at the time that KJV was translated. It is my understanding that the great vowel shift which made these words into homophones was essentially complete by 1600, and so the KJV translators should have realised the ambiguity of their wording. They can't even claim the defence that they were copying the wording from older translations predating the great vowel shift: Coverdale has "Down with it, down with it". Nor can KJV be defended on the ground that "rase" relatively less rare in KJV: this is the only place this verb is used in KJV, but "raise" is used well over 100 times.
So I think we all have to accept that KJV just like many modern translations has places which are quite unsuitable for public reading. I don't suppose any translation is perfect in this respect. But things are likely to be much better with translations which have been read through carefully by stylists sensitive to this particular issue. I wonder which translations have been checked in this way.


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You don't really "arrive" in Germany, as much as you are born there: naked, bleeding, in pain, unsure of your surroundings, not knowing anyone and wondering what in the hell just happened.
Our friend Major Chuck Ziegenfuss was severely wounded in 2005 and is now reliving that experience through the injury of a close friend. The story is here.


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Couldn't Resist.
Seems as though the Obamas have succeeded in something I'd never have thought possible: Making the Sarkozys* look like class acts. That's talent.
That said, I would like to point something out to folks going on about the region code thing. I live in zone one and the Frenchie lives in zone two. I buy him DVDs all the time off the Amazon US site and send them or bring them over. His player has the option of handling one zone other than his own, and it wasn't even an expensive one.
* Heading off to Brazil for Christmas, then to Mexico for Spring Break after telling the citizens that there'd need to be a lot of belt-tightening is not good. Suing people who poke fun at you, or using your position to further your career as a mediocre pop singer is somewhat of a no no as well.
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Zeitschrift für Analysis und ihre Anwendungen
Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 111-130 (1999)
Frequent Oscillation of a Class of Partial Difference Equations
C. J. Tian and B. G. ZhangC. J. Tian: South China Univ. Techn., Dept. of Elec. & Comm. Eng., Guangzhou 510641, China
B. G. Zhang: Ocean Univ. of Qingdao, Dept. Appl. Math., Qingdao 266003, China
Abstract: This paper is concerned with the partial difference equation $$ A_{m+1,n} + A_{m,n+1} - a_{m,n}A_{m,n} + p_{m,n}A_{m-k,n-l} = 0 $$ where $k$ and $l$ are non-negative integers, $\{a_{m,n}\}$ and $\{p_{m,n}\}$ are real double sequences. Frequent oscillation criteria of this equation are obtained.
Keywords: partial difference equations, frequent oscillation, frequent positivity
Classification (MSC2000): 39A10
Full text of the article:
Electronic fulltext finalized on: 25 Apr 2000. This page was last modified: 9 Nov 2001.
© 2000 Heldermann Verlag


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Today, a top Republican legislator said America needs a special prosecutor to investigate Trump's alleged ties to Russia? What do you think? Please take the POLL and see how your opinion compares with others. Feel free to leave a comment if you wish:
Saturday, February 25, 2017
Should a special prosecutor probe into Trump's ties to Russia?
Posted by Robert Morton at 4:37 PM
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In a letter on Nov. 12, the Mexican bishops' conference rebuked narcotics-trafficking cartels for their murderous ways and demanded that Mexico's politicians crack down on corruption and impunity. • Bishop Francis An Shuxin, who spent 10 years under house arrest for refusing to join the Beijing-approved Catholic Church, said he decided to join China's Catholic Patriotic Association to foster unity in the church. • Rabbi David Dalin called a recent, best-selling book that portrayed Pope Pius XII as a collaborator with Adolf Hitler "historically false and malicious" on Nov. 5. • Opulence and waste are unacceptable, especially when hunger continues to rise, Pope Benedict XVI said at a United Nations' food summit in Rome on Nov. 16. • More than 20 months after the killing of Chaldean Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul, Iraq, Pope Benedict XVI approved the election of a new archbishop for Mosul, the Rev. Emil Shimoun Nona, on Nov. 13. • Commemorating the 20th anniversary on Nov. 16 of the killing of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter, the U.S. bishops called on the U.S. and Salvadoran governments to renew efforts to reduce poverty and hunger and to promote educational opportunity, human rights and the rule of law for the people of El Salvador.
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