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The singer and songwriter of hip hop known as Justus has released her latest hit single, titled, "All I Got." The track has been released on the ever more well-respected FNOmovement Records music label, headed by Leo the CEO. "All I Got" is the most significant official release from Justus since her explosive appearance on the scene with "Unstoppable," released late spring of this year, complete with a striking music video. Like "Unstoppable" before it, "All I Got" is a socially conscientious track with hip hop and R 'n' B elements, showcasing the endlessly talented Justus as one of urban poetry's strongest and most evocative performers recording today.
Justus, who hails from Cleveland, OH, cites as main artistic influences Tupac Shakur, Chaka Khan, Anita Baker, and Jay Z. Her own tracks evince attributes of these, as well as those of other artists, such as Da Brat, Busta Rhymes, and KRS One. Her trademark sound on "All I Got" combines old-school groove with jazz-style class for a chill, cool ride on rock solid beats and brilliantly timed lines and rhymes.
When asked to enlarge upon the themes she raps about in "All I Got," Justus speaks concisely and with precision.
"[It's about] How a family struggles in today's world," she writes. "I'm giving my views on the politics of it all."
Justus' views are not only equitable and justified, but also well considered and important in today's world.
"I'm bringing creativity and substance back to rap and hip hop," she has said. "Create your own rules and stay in your own lane. It's okay to be different."
Incidentally, Justus also happens to be a woman, but she doesn't make a point of bringing attention to herself on this score. She doesn't have to. Her music speaks for itself, and speaks very loudly.
"I want my listeners to know that I'm a true emcee, and not just a female emcee," she has commented.
"All I Got" by Justus is available online worldwide beginning Sept. 8th, 2013.
-S. McCauley
Staff Press Release Writer
The single "All I Got" is distributed globally by MondoTunes (www.MondoTunes.com) and is available at iTunes for convenient purchase and download
MondoTunes (www.mondotunes.com) supplies the largest music distribution in the world and provides upstream services for many major labels in search of breakout artists. While most independent distributors reach only 45-50 retailers despite charging needless monthly and yearly fees, MondoTunes reaches over 750 retailers and mobile partners in over 100 world regions without any monthly or yearly fees.
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Amidst the browns and greys of the old streets of Prague, Czech Republic there lies a secret rebellion of colour. Well, maybe it isn't so secret, but the twists and turns of the cobbled streets that lead to it make it feel as though no one knows about it, this deliciously clandestine wall, filled with paint and love and Beatles lyrics.
Years of youthful ideals, fearless love and sticky layers of paint all form the kaleidoscope of riotous colour. Love is the answer, all you need is love, love knows no distance or time. White doves and red hearts, peace symbols and outstretched hands. So hopeful, so sure.
We had Styrofoam cups of gluhwein nestled in our gloved hands, and the spicy warmth of the wine seemed to mix somehow with all those colours from the wall, making the cool breezy day suddenly intoxicating and vibrant. I felt like anything was possible, staring up at those bold words.
The Lennon Wall has been a place of freedom and positive expression for decades in Prague, a message of hope and love in the centre of a stricken city, created by rebellious artists, students, intellectuals. It has been painted over several times by the authorities, but within a day or two the messages reappear, and soon the wall is covered once more, a fantastic illustration of the resilience of the human spirit.
Never have I felt so at one with those around me as I did on that day, holding my gluhwein beneath that vivid expanse of bravery and love. I wished that I had a paintbrush too.

subset: commoncrawl


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Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Bike Polo X Intersection Magazine
Bike Polo in the style press has been getting a lot of coverage lately, but my favourite magazine ever, INTERSECTION, always does it first! And best. Thanks Wes!
PS: These aren't all of the pages, if you want more, buy the 'zine!!!!
3 comments:
- Intersection Oz said...
Intersection Australia Issue 1 on sale May 6 complete with pics of the London "Tweed Run" and Mission One - US electric sports bike
Look for it at your local newsagent or subscribe
- 24 April 2009 at 7:26 pm
- DoubleOhTwo said...
Hi Intersection Oz! I own already the Summer 2009 Australian Preview. Is the Issue 1 going to be a NEW issue or just a reprint? I hope it will be an Australian Intersection, since it has been my favourite 'zine since Issue 1. Keep me informed, let me know how I can contribute. Sydney has its own Tweed Run happening in June http://www.sydneycyclist.com/group/sydneytweedrun/forum
But there is plenty more material happening, in Sydney and in Melbourne. For example http://www.fyxomatosis.com/news.php?readmore=1422
Tune me!
- 24 April 2009 at 11:02 pm
- Intersection Oz said...
Hi DoubleOhTwo
Issue #1 of Intersection Australia now on sale is a new issue. Local content includes Shaun Gladwell interview - awesome video artist - old Minis racing at Philip Island and we took a Porsche 911 to Outback SA for Speedweek - alas it was all but rained out again!
More Oz content in future issues as we build it up with all the best from OS editions.
Thx for the heads up on Sydney Tweed.
Any interested contribs email:
Buy it now or subscribe at Magnation or iSubscribe
- 15 May 2009 at 12:04 pm


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Having my colors in mind I set out to make the cheapest pillows I could. I found two really cute table napkins at Cost Plus World Market over the weekend and paired them with like sized solid yellow ones. Then I rummaged around in the garage for some old pillows. You know the ones with the drool stains that would embarrass the pants off of you if your friends ever saw them.
I thought about whip stitching them together really quick but then I thought again. I want to put quality work out there and I am sure that my stitching abilities would never with stand the abuse my family would give them. So I called up my Mom-in-law who pretty much knows how to do it all especially run a sewing machine. After work we went over to their house and I sat down with the machine. I had to be walked though every step. I have used the machine before but its a steep learning curve. I will call these pillows easy to make even though they took me about an hour.
Step 1: Line up the napkins as best you can, inside out.
Step 2: Approach the machine with confidence and sew some kick ass straight lines along the seams that already exist.
Step 3: Leave an opening to stuff the pillow with. It's easier if you leave your hole in the middle of one of the sides. Then you dont have to deal with sewing up any corners. I learned this the hard way but I forgot to take photos of the second pillow. Then turn it inside out.
Step 5: Fold in the opened seams and close the bad boy up!
Or you can pin it like a pro but I wasn't patient enough so I failed at this part. My pillows have some flaws but thats what makes them mine.
Step 6: ENJOY!!! I love them and they match my walls.
Here's a few more pillow pictures for your viewing pleasure. Ahhh and look how nicely they get along with my new coffee table.


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Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Hot Stuff: Camarones a la Diabla
This recipe isn't for the faint of heart; I'm not gonna lie. I mean hey, this dish is named after the Devil himself! But if you like your Mexican food hoppin' with spice, this recipe is for you! Large shrimp are sexied up with a zingy chipotle sauce; placed in warm flour tortillas with cool avocado, cilantro and crisp cabbage to seal the deal, this recipe is a winner. Best of all, this fiesta can be on your table in about 30 minutes!
Awesome Stepkid R. straight-up loved this meal, and so did hubs and I, once we got our hands on a couple of cold cervezas to wash it down. It's a great way to heat up your cool, early Spring nights.
Camarones a la Diabla
~recipe courtesy of Martin Limas
20 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tablespoons butter
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 onions, chopped
12 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
2 tablespoons granulated chicken bouillon
1 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
For Serving:
Warm flour tortillas
Diced avocado
Shredded Cabbage
Lime Wedges
Optional: crumbled queso fresco or feta cheese
Heat butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and saute until lightly golden, 2-3 minutes. Add the shrimp and cook 4-5 minutes or until they're pink. Remove the shrimp from the pan and set aside. In a blender or food processor, puree chipotles, onion, bouillon granules, ketchup and Worcestershire sauce. Pour into the pan and return it to the heat. Bring the sauce to a boil; lower the heat and then add the shrimp, stirring to coat and heat through. Serve with tortillas and accompaniments and rice.
46 comments:
I wish I could be as awesome as you. My husband would probably keel over if I put this in front of him, possibly because I don't know how to "devein" shrimp.ReplyDelete
I read the title and thought, "Wait, she is writing about my daughter!" We call our Guatemalan Bunny, La DiablaReplyDelete
Yum. I wish my kids would eat that. We'd be having it for dinner tonightReplyDelete
My ex could deal with this. I wish I had stronger taste buds. Mine would burn right out of my head.ReplyDelete
12 chipotle peppers?!? I have fire coming out of my ears just thinking about it! Holy hades batman, that is some spicy shrimp. The flavors sound fantastic, but I may start crying at about six peppers...=)ReplyDelete
This reminds me that I have to buy a few cans of chipotles in adobo sauce before I take off for Europe because I have a feeling I won't find them there, and I LOVE the stuff! This recipe looks really good and I like how simple it is to make it!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousApril 14, 2010 at 8:29 AM
Husband doesn't do shrimp. And I don't do extra spicy. But I LOVE the cartoon you have to introduce this post. Where DO you find your material, girl?ReplyDelete
- AnonymousApril 14, 2010 at 8:46 AM
Looks delish, but sounds HOT! My family would love this but it might be a little too spicy for me. This is one I'll get my hubby or oldest son to cook...they love spicing things up. Bam!ReplyDelete
I may have to turn down the chipotle heat to something wimpy (like one) but I really want to try this. Do y'all have asbestos lined stomachs or something?ReplyDelete
Too speecy-spicy for moi, but man, my kids would love it!ReplyDelete
It's like you read my mind with what I feel like eating........it looks sooooo good!ReplyDelete
I'm convinced I should move in with you so that you can feed me. I'm not much trouble at all...promise. :)ReplyDelete
This sounds great, love the firey thing! Hot!!!ReplyDelete
Hmmmm....I guess if you were a little chilli shy you could not have so many chillis here? Might have to give it a whirl... xxxReplyDelete
That looks really, really good. I'm going to have to think about trying this one.ReplyDelete
When you say "large" shrimp, what size are you talking? Break it down to numbers for me.
I had no idea the devil had such a finely-tuned palate.ReplyDelete
Oh, yum! I have a half can of chipotles in adobo sitting in my fridge waiting to be used up and this is it! I'm all about heat these days. I also have a ton of cilantro.. I bet these would be good with a bit of fresh cilantro sprinkled on. Thanks!ReplyDelete
We love hot.... definitely going to try this...ReplyDelete
YUM. Now if you can tell me how to convince my husband to like cilantro, that would be awesome. I'd be so sad to make these without it!ReplyDelete
I LOVE spicy foods!ReplyDelete
Where's the heat? Just kidding This looks fantastic. We have a Caribbean version called pepper shrimp. Beer does seem to take the edge off the heat doesn't it?ReplyDelete
I'm cooking dinner tonight for some Countess of someplace or other. It is Spring break for my 13 year old and he has a friend staying with us. I have made waffles for breakfast, BLT's for lunch and now I have to cook dinner. I wish you were a real witch and could make something appear!ReplyDelete
I'm going with Chicken Marbella...the one's with prunes and olives from Silver Palate.
I'm already exhausted.
How do you do this. Oh yes, you are terribly young.
Spicy! Yahoo! okay a little over the top reaction there....hehe! I like it hot and spicy, but hubs can only take wasabi hot. It looks fabulous to me!ReplyDelete
20 large shrimp usually makes a pound and a half of shrimp.
And spice-sensitive readers, I'm sure you could halve the amount of chipotles and still get a nice (but not incendiary) kick!
This sounds heavenly...I can't wait to get the gratitude from the Hubby when I put this delicacy in front of him...I love me some HOT food!ReplyDelete
This is served with a healthy side of Corona, right?ReplyDelete
How do your food pictures always look so #%$@ing good?ReplyDelete
And I'm not talking about the food in them. You know your food looks good. You took painstaking care to get it that way. But damnit woman your photos are so quality it makes me twitch.
That sounds like a lot of spice. I should see if Paige would eat it. I'm serious! The girl loooves her spicy food. Just tonight she ate really spicy pepperoni and goes "spicy!" and ate more. She did the same thing w/ tacos with hot salsa on it the other night. Crazy!ReplyDelete
This comment has been removed by the author.ReplyDelete
My son would so love this!ReplyDelete
Oh my GOD I am so stealing this one! TKW it looks wonderful. There are a number of spice weenies in my house so I would be responsible for all 20 shrimp!ReplyDelete
Mmmmm, shrimp... I love me some shrimp. And this looks fantastic!ReplyDelete
OMG, I think I am in love!! TO DIE FOR- now I just need to find me some chipotle sauceReplyDelete
I live in Arizona, so of course it's not spicy enough unless my hair is sweating. My husband thinks I'm going to burn a hole right through my stomach one day. Looks delish.ReplyDelete
How the heck did you learn to cook like this?! You are a machine! A delicious-food-cooking machine! Your hubs is so lucky. Feel free to tell him that is the official opinion of Dumb Mom.ReplyDelete
I'll just stock up on the Tums now. :-) I know a certain Army couple who live with us that would love this dish. Not sure we'll try it on Peanut. The resulting diaper rash may not be worth it.ReplyDelete
Question: what do the minxes eat when the rest of you are dining on spicy spicy spicy?ReplyDelete
Tu Eres La Diabla TKW!!!ReplyDelete
Yowee! My mouth is burning and I'm only reading this!ReplyDelete
Wow, my mouth is watering at the picture...must taste sooooo yummie! Love spicy food, specially camarones :-)ReplyDelete
Hot stuff from a hot lady! ;)ReplyDelete
- AnonymousApril 15, 2010 at 10:19 PM
Ya know, that pic looks like a flaming orange elephant took a nosedive into some green bushes and landed ass-up on the plate.ReplyDelete
don't mind me.
Your comics always give me a good laugh! Fabulous recipe! I need a light meal like this after my big cheesy Mexican enchilada feast and mini cheesecakes for my husband's bday! Ugh! Can't button my top button. ;DReplyDelete
- AnonymousApril 16, 2010 at 1:53 AM
And I've found my I-can't-take-it-anymore-can-I-just-go-into-labor-already?? meal. Thanks, Kitch! =>ReplyDelete
Sweet sassy-molassy, JC, you're absolutely right.ReplyDelete
Kitch, can you double check the 12 chipoltes detail? Being the wimp I am, I only used one small one from the can and the thought of having that x 12 is a recipe for ruin. Sadly, after tasting the sauce, I decided we would be having a lime vinegarette on our shrimp instead. Sorry hon.ReplyDelete


text:
July 1, 2010
Professor Febrin has been great support for this project. We met with him to get help with contacting some government officials. We gave him a list of organizations that we wanted to meet with and he called the appropriate person right then and confirmed our meetings with them.
Another lesson learned: People here respond to phone calls and texts extremely fast. It is normal to take phone calls or text during another meeting. Sometimes we would have meetings where one or two of the people would drift in and out to take phone calls and such.


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Phoenix continues to make moves to try to attract potential residents to its downtown area.
The Phoenix Business Journal reports a $75 million luxury condominium project is coming to the heart of the city. Habitat Metro announced it will begin construction on Phase 2 of the project later this year.
The new project, called Portland on the Park because of its location between Portland Park and Margaret T. Hance Park bordering Central Avenue, is expected to be completed in 2016. The project will have 170 units in 4-story, 12-story and 14-story towers with condo prices ranging from the low $200,000s to roughly $1 million. Homes range from 745 square feet to 2,381 square feet.
Davis Architecture designed the first phase, winning the Golden Nugget Award for the best multifamily project in the West for its design.
The development will include space on its first floor for commercial retail.
Tim Sprague, principal of Habitat Metro, said there is a unique struggle for the building to blend in with the surrounding neighborhood.
"You probably have a few more challenges because you're going into an existing neighborhood, but on the other hand, you are able to compliment the neighborhood," Sprague told the Business Journal.
While demand for condos was wiped out during the recession and slow to recover after it, Sprague said he is confident the market is back.


text:
This section provides practical steps on how to cut back on how much you are drinking and gives tips on talking to someone whose drinking you're worried about.
When someone you are close to is drinking too much it can have a really big impact on you. Read about the seven steps to take when talking to someone when you're worried about their drinking.
Are you worried about your drinking? Do you regret your behaviour when drunk? Do you want to make changes to the way you drink?
If you're hosting a party or celebration and you're serving alcohol or have asked people to bring alcohol with them, here are some easy tips and ideas to make sure everyone has fun without drinking too much.
Here are some simple things employers and workplaces can do to help ensure that alcohol is well managed at your next staff function and everyone is looked after. Find a link to HPA's workplace wellbeing website - wellplace.nz - here too.
Practical steps you can take to be safe when you and your family or friends are drinking.
Call the Alcohol Drug Helpline on 0800 787 797, visit their website, or free txt 8681.


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[Sometimes I run across original research, original analysis, or hard-to-get information that is exactly the kind of stuff I live for - well thought out, well written, well researched commentary, the kind that your media experts get by the pound but think is too much for you to understand.
The post below has been slightly edited from the original that I came across at Daily Kos.]
By J Dawg
It's been nearly two years since the Presidential campaign for 2008 was launched. I recall watching the election night coverage of the 2006 mid-term elections, only to hear a particular talking head proclaim that beyond that evening's results, the real importance of that night was that it ushered in the search for the next President. It was probably Chris Matthews who said it. The comment seemed ridiculous at the time given the Congressional wave of that election, but he was right. 2006 was Act I of the play. November 4th was Act II. Here's hoping that Act III will bear the fruits of the labor.
The fact that a pundit was right shouldn't catch us by surprise. In fact, I would argue that they are always right. They speak in such a self-assured manner. They have experience. They've walked the halls of various governmental institutions for decades. They have all of the key players in their Address Books. They know of what they speak. And those that doubt them will never understand.
So I thought it might help to compile a sampling of just how right they were. And how we, the doubters of the pundits and their conventional wisdom, were so wrong in our inability to understand the politics of this day. This is a teachable moment for us! So now, for the sake of posterity, and in no particular order, a sample list of their wisdom:
1. Hispanics will never vote for an African-American. There has always been a tension between the two ethnic groups. The divide is far too great for any one candidate to overcome.
2. Jews will never vote for an African American. There has always been a tension between the two ethnic groups. The divide is far too great for any one candidate to overcome.
3. Supporters of Sen. Clinton will switch allegiance to Sen. McCain. The bitterness of the campaign and the race of the candidates will trump actual issues.
4. Supporters of Sen. Clinton will definitely switch allegiance to Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin. The bitterness of the campaign and the race/sex of the candidates will trump actual issues.
5. An extended primary will destroy the Democratic party. The fissures are irreparable. Pay no attention to record voter registrations. These wounds cannot be healed.
6. Michigan and Florida will punish Sen. Obama. Given the awful treatment of these states after they merely skirted around a few party rules in the primaries, Sen. Obama has handed those states to Sen. McCain. The offended Democrats will never forgive.
7. 'Celebrity' will de-rail Sen. Obama. There is no worse fate for a politician than being popular. Record-breaking crowds here and abroad will kill his chances.
8. Sen. Obama will avoid negative attacks if he only agrees to town-hall meetings. Not agreeing to those town-hall meetings logically dictates the acceptability of referring to Sen. Obama as a terrorist.
9. Sen. McCain will defeat Sen. Obama in the lone town-hall debate because that is his strength. That One's only hope is to come out of it beaten and bloodied, but still standing.
10. The Bradley Effect will cost Sen. Obama the election. He needs to have a buffer of 6% in the popular vote if he hopes to win a majority of votes cast.
11. ACORN will throw the election into turmoil. Voter registration fraud will cloud the results. Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck will appear at numerous polling locations across the country to cast their illegal votes.
12. Vice-Presidential choices will not matter. Gov. Palin's lack of knowledge on issues will have no impact on the decision of the voters. Most women will flock to her for no other reason than a certain kinship. She's just like them.
13. Sen. Obama will lose the tax argument. Republicans own it. Taxation is the cause of our economic woes. It's not stagnant wages. Nor is it rising fuel costs. Or health care costs. Spending any length of time in the debates talking about taxes is time spent on Sen. McCain's turf, and an automatic loser.
14. Rev. Wright/Mr. Ayers/Insert-Name-Here will be an anchor to Sen. Obama's candidacy. The average American will not understand that an individual can know someone in their lifetime, and not necessarily ascribe to every one of that individual's thoughts, beliefs, and actions; past, present or future.
15. Republican strongholds will not flip. Sen. Obama is merely throwing money into places like North Carolina and Indiana to keep Sen. McCain on defense. He cannot actually win those states. Besides, Chairman Dean's 50-state strategy has proven to be a waste of time and money. Those states are lost causes.
We decide what is conventional wisdom. It is not decided for us. We can determine what is possible, even if it is not probable. Don't watch the experts express their beliefs with certainty and think "They must be right". Think "They might be right. But then again..."
I also think it is fair to say that just because the pundits are wrong so often does not mean that they can't be right. Flipping through my rolodex of cliches, I found one about a 'broken clock' that seems to apply. Here's hoping that the clock will finally begin to keep the right time, just when we need it to work the most.
[If you haven't figured it out by now, critical thinking is an area Barack and Michelle Obama excel in. As far as I'm concerned, "taking things you hear on TV at face value causes cancer in laboratory rats". Thinking hard is finally, finally about to be in style.]


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The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga earned its ticket to the NCAA women's basketball tournament last Monday, when Kayla Christopher's putback lifted the Lady Mocs to a 64-63 win over Davidson in the finals of the Southern Conference tournament.
After a week of waiting, UTC (29-3) will find out who it will face in the first round, and where, tonight, when the brackets are announced on ESPN at 7 p.m. There is a selection show viewing party at Big River Grille on Broad Street.
"I think we ought to be at least a 12 seed," coach Wes Moore said last Tuesday. "We won 29 games, we've won 19 in a row, we beat the SEC champion [Tennessee], we beat another SEC team on the road [Alabama]."
The Lady Mocs won the SoCon regular-season title, going 19-1 in league play, and haven't lost since Jan. 7, when they fell at Elon in overtime. Their three losses were at St. Mary's (20-10), at Auburn (16-14) and at Elon (18-13).
ESPN women's basketball "bracketology" analyst Charlie Creme had the Lady Mocs as a No. 13 seed when he spoke to the Times Free Press on Wednesday. As of Sunday, UTC was bumped up to a No. 12 seed in Creme's latest bracket.
Creme said he didn't foresee UTC being anything but a 12 or 13 seed.
"They had a great season, no question, and they have a great record," he said, "but ultimately to be an 11 [equates to being an at-large team] and I don't think the Southern Conference would have gotten a second team in."
UTC is listed at No. 44 in the NCAA's RPI ranking, but that hasn't been updated since March 11. RealTimeRPI.com has UTC at No. 37, and has UTC as an 11 seed. What hurts the Lady Mocs is the conference RPI, which RealTimeRPI has at No. 22 out of 32 conference.
Of the 11 teams in the SoCon, five finished the season with 12 wins or less. UTC's strength of schedule, according to RealTimeRPI, is No. 216. It was hurt not only by the SoCon, but Auburn was 9-2 after beating UTC in December and then won just seven games the rest of the season. UTC beat Alabama in December, but the Crimson Tide finished 13-18.
Creme said UTC's season-opening upset of Tennessee (he projects the Lady Vols as a 3 seed) has merit, "it absolutely does," and might help move UTC up a spot.
Seniors Kylie Lambert and Kayla Christopher were freshmen when UTC made its last NCAA appearance, in 2010. UTC led Oklahoma State 37-19 at the half before falling 70-63. Lambert said she believes UTC is capable of doing what the 2004 team did, win a first-round game.
"I definitely feel like it is different [than 2010]," Lambert said following practice Sunday. "Obviously our record is different than it was my freshman year, and I do feel like we can go in and win a few games."
The Lady Mocs were a 10 seed when they upset 7 seed Rutgers in the first round of the 2004 tournament. It's the program's only NCAA tournament victory.


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Status: Closed
Know more about this business than we do? Cool! Please submit any corrections or missing details you may have.Help us make it right
Scratch made meats (we braise, bake and smoke our meats) and sauces for our menu items, vast wine list- both by the bottle and the glass as well as cold beer. Specialty cheeses for our cheese boards and also available to purchase by the lb or ounce. Specialty food items like our fresh made bruscetta and fresh hummus.
Be the first AL.com user to add photos or videos of Wharf
Condo was great had a wonderful weekend with family.. restaurants close by were great shops and arcade were good
I only gave 4 stars for overall due to the fact that check out was at 10:00 am and at 9:15 the owner of the condo opened up our room and walked right on in.. 2 of us just happened to be right behind him in the hall way when he opened the door.. But had he surprised us while we were...
The Wharf is an excellent choice for a family trip. The condo is spacious and has full-size, spotless kitchen appliances, as well as as stacked washer/dryer. The decor is elegant. The only negatives were mysterious items under the bed (someone's socks - yuck), soiled linens on the pullout bed (double yuck), and burned out lightbulbs.
The Wharf is in a great location: quick access to major...
With a stay at The Wharf by Young's Suncoast, you'll be centrally located in Orange Beach, steps from Arena The Next Level and minutes from The Wharf. This condo is within close proximity of Orange Beach Welcome Center and Craft Farms Golf Club.
Make yourself at home in one of the 190 air-conditioned rooms featuring kitchens with refrigerators and stovetops. Rooms have private...
This condo is within close proximity of Orange Beach Welcome Center and Craft Farms Golf Club.


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21 December 2010
If money were no object: a fitting end of year Blog Off Post
As my regular readers know - and as my irregular posting schedule of late attests - this has been an unusual year of personal and professional transition for me.
On December 30, 2009, the day my Tampa house sold, I packed my car, plugged a San Diego hotel into the GPS (or Goldberg Positioning System, as I call it) and drove 2500 miles across country to my new hometown.
I had planned to move here in 1988 when I left New York, but ended up living in Los Angeles instead. In 1998, I was again looking at moving to San Diego, but then I met my future ex-husband and relocated with him to Louisiana (the other LA), then Florida. While I met great folks in both regions and enjoyed traveling throughout the South and using y'all whenever possible, neither place really felt like home.
Twenty-two years later, San Diego finally does. I've loved living here this year, and I love the wonderful people I've met, who have gone out of their way to help me settle in.
I love San Diego's natural beauty and urban charms. For most of the year, I lived a short walk from Balboa Park and a few blocks from the incredible Hillcrest Farmer's Market.
I also love San Diego's mostly balmy climate and quick drive to family and friends in LA. I love that it's convenient to mountains, desert and coastline. And I love being a homeowner again!
If money were no object, I'd rent out the townhome I just bought, (rendered above), and build my dream cottage on a local lake.
This house plan comes from Sarah Susanka's Not So Big House site, and I've long been an admirer of her work.
It would have to be modified to include a two-car attached garage, which I'd access via a breezeway along an outdoor living space.
There would be a three-lane, simply-styled Olympic-length lap pool, an outdoor kitchen and lots of outdoor entertaining space to take advantage of the region's year-round warmth. There would also be an outdoor fireplace for cooler evenings.
I'd like my office to be attached to a pool house, so I'd feel like I was on vacation at work! This Eames lounger, along with a nearby fireplace and custom built-in desk and bookcases, would find its way into that office!
So would memories of my trips, like this poster celebrating Key West.
While I enjoy my work enormously, if money were no object, I would schedule at least one long international vacation per season and shorter trips around the USA, too. On the "bucket list" are stays at each of the National Park lodges.
I also want to visit Argentina, South Africa, Iceland, Paris, Venice, Iceland, Belgium, Viet Nam, Australia, Equador, China and the Galapagos.
I would like to taste my way through the great wine regions of the world with my favorite wine buddies!
I would like to visit the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
I would like to fly business class everywhere.
I would like to have an on-call driver, personal trainer, maid and assistant.
I would like to sail across the Atlantic on the Queen Mary 2.
And on a more altruistic note, given the spirit of the holidays, I would like to share the details of the charitable foundation I plan to establish. If money were no object, I'd start the process 1Q11. Realistically, it will be set up within the decade. My foundation will help disadvantaged homeowners and renters make their living spaces more comfortable and attractive with design grants and design assistance.
My foundation will be called Sanctuary, because I feel that everyone's home, whether owned or rented, should feel like a welcome refuge from the outside world. My beneficiaries could be teens aging out of the foster care system, abused moms fleeing domestic abuse, disabled veterans, house fire survivors or fixed-income seniors.
I will partner with affordable style sellers like Target to potentially match donations with store grants, with fellow designers around the country to donate their time and services, and with organizations like the American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity and others to identify beneficiaries.
Happy holidays, dear readers, contributors and friends. Thank you for sticking with Gold Notes through its sporadic schedule this year, for your generous guest posts and, as always, for your wonderful comments.
7 comments:
So glad you joined in, Jamie! Cruising the world on the Cunard line is definitely on my list of 'to-do's'ReplyDelete
Great post!
- AnonymousDecember 21, 2010 at 3:07 PM
I like all those ideas - I might exchange the Queen Mary for an around-the-world cruise, but I'm sure if money's no object, doing both seems reasonable!ReplyDelete
I like the ideas in this, but I guess what I like best is the outdoor kitchen. I actually made a very elaborate back yard for us, but it was before I started blogging and finding out what's available. If I knew then what I know now, I would have definitely made it an outdoor kitchen. I've seen a lot of very slick ones.ReplyDelete
May your dream of Sanctuary become a reality soon!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousDecember 22, 2010 at 3:41 AM
Your dream cottage is very much the same style I lean towards, Jamie. Great choice ;->ReplyDelete
I really like the idea of your foundation, too. What a wonderful concept.
Way to dream, Jamie! I love Sarah Susanka's concepts too. Happy holidays to you.ReplyDelete
I just stumbled across your blog for the first time and thought I would say hello! I looked through a few of your posts and love your style. I am loving those retro posters you included in this post.ReplyDelete
I'm a blogger as well, about the world of art, but my history is in interior design and fashion. I love to hear what people are saying! Hope we get to see more of each other in the future.
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Combinatorial Wheel of Ramón Llull, 13th century
Liam has an interesting post right now on Ramón Llull, the 13th-century Spanish mystic, poet and philosopher. While reading about Llull's Ars, his system of mystic contemplation, and looking at the fascinating images of his combinatorial wheels, I was instantly struck by similarities to other systems developed by Jewish and Islamic mystics on the Iberian Peninsula around the same time period. I started digging around for information and, suddenly, Liam's post had revived my own interest in the history of mysticism in medieval Spain, which I began investigating about 10 years ago while living in Madrid.
Without overstating the case, I would argue that the world has rarely seen a more spiritually charged atmosphere than the one on the Iberian Peninsula in the 13th century. The most important work in Jewish mysticism, the Sefer Ha-Zohar [Book of Splendor], also known as the Zohar, was composed by Moses de Leon in Castile around 1280. Abraham Abulafia, creator of "ecstatic kabbalah," and one of the key figures in Jewish mysticism [Gershom Scholem dedicates an entire chapter to him in his landmark study Major Trends in Jewish Msyticsm], was born in Zaragoza in 1240. Abulafia had his first visions and started studying the kabbalah around 1270 in Barcelona, which was one of the major centers of kabbalah, along with Girona, just to the north. Other important kabbalists were scattered throughout Catalunya and Castile. Meanwhile, in Al-Andalus, the Moorish kingdom in the south of the peninsula, Ibn Arabi was born (Murcia, 1165) and spent the first part of his life. Arabi is one of the principle figures in the history of Islamic mysticism, and his magnum opus Futuhat is considered by some to be the major text of Sufism. Other important Sufis also thrived in Al-Andalus during that time, as Ibn Arabi discusses in his Sufis of Andalusia. Thus, some of the most important mystics in the history of Christianity, Judaism and Islam were composing some of the most important mystical texts of all time during a one-hundred year period in an area roughly the size of California.
Title page of the Zohar, Mantua edition, 1558.
(Just for good measure, this was also the time when the Knights Templar were active in Spain, and when St. Francis was walking across the country on his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella. Both the Templars and Francis had their own interesting interactions with Jews and Muslims of the time.)
But how did this Golden Age of Mysticism blossom in Spain? What brought about the Golden Orchard?
Christians probably arrived in Spain not long after the time of Christ, but there doesn't seem to have developed a tradition of mystical writing until after the conquest of the Moors. Saint Isidore did write a treatise on the allegorical meaning of numbers (Allegorise scripturae sacrae et liber numerorum), but he seems to have been an exception. Perhaps the dearth of Christian mysticism before the conquest was due to what Miguel Asín Palacios, an important scholar of Moorish Spain, called the "philosophical poverty of the Visigoths in the midst of their material plenty. Their culture, basically Biblical, had as its sources the works of some of the Holy Fathers, and did not include metaphysics." [The Mystical Philosophy of Ibn Masarra and His Followers. (E.J. Brill, 1978). A translation of the original Spanish work published in Madrid in 1914.] Early Moorish writers also commented on the apparent lack of science and philosophy in the peninsula before the conquest in 711. This is an interesting observation, as medieval mysticism was so interrelated with science, philosophy and poetry.
There are legends of Jews arriving in Spain during Biblical times (Tarshish is thought by some to have been in southern Spain), and some Jews probably came after Rome defeated Carthage in the Second Punic War, around 250 BC, but a large-scale immigration of the Jewish community to the peninsula didn't begin until after Titus' destruction of Judea in 135 AD, what we know as the Diaspora. Again, though, there seems to have been no real flowering of mysticism before the arrival of the Moors, probably for the same reasons that Christian mysticism didn't develop - the intellectual culture of the Visigoths. In addition, the Jews were often persecuted by the Visigoths and were probably just trying to survive. This persecution reached such a pitch that the Jews welcomed the Moors upon their arrival in 711.
The seeds of what I call the Golden Orchard, this time-space realm of tremendous mystical activity within the Iberian Peninsula, seem to have been planted in the 800s, with the arrival of Sufi mystics in Al-Andalus from the eastern parts of the Islamic empire. As the Moors consolidated their power on the peninsula and began to thrive economically, the fields of science, philosophy and especially poetry began to flourish throughout the kingdom.
The Jewish community, no longer persecuted as they were under the Visigoths, experienced an intellectual and cultural revival as well. A key factor was their learning of Arabic. The Moors placed great value on poetry and philosophy, and a great number of high-quality works were published, including most Greek classics which were translated into Arabic as part of an official program after the conquest. According to Jane Gerber in The Jews of Spain: A History of the Sephardic Experience (Free Press 1994), "[F]or the first time, Jews were exposed fully to the conceptual world of classical antiquity. . . . In this way, Arabization introduced them to an entire philosophical literature, originally written in Greek and Syriac, and to a new theological language capable of expressing new concepts. . . . Muslims and Jews both began to contemplate religious questions in a new way, thanks to the Arabic translations of Greek thought."
In addition to this Greek influence by way of translation, the Jews were also influenced by the Arabic language itself. As they wrote more and more in Arabic, it was only natural to incorporate terminology and phrasing from the Arabic culture around them. Religious terms and concepts from Sufism began to find their way into Jewish mystical works. Diana Lobel discusses this religious cross-fertilization in A Sufi-Jewish Dialogue: Philosophy and Mysticism in Bahya Ibn Paquda's Duties of the Heart (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007). "Muslim Spain of the tenth through twelfth century, known as the 'Golden Age' of Hispano-Jewish poetry and letters, is a time of great convergence and cutltural creativity. Jewish courtiers such as Samuel Hanagrid are writing wine poetry; erotic Arabic poetry finds its way into the synagogue liturgy, even on the holiest days. Jewish philosophers are reading and writing philosophy in Arabic; Jews are studying with Sufi masters, integrating aesthetic practices and mystical thought into their own spiritual creativity."
Unfortunately, this "Golden Age" in Al-Andalus came to a close with the conquest of the kingdom in 1147 by the religiously intolerant Almohads, who once again began persecuting the Jews. This led to a Jewish migration to the northern Christian kingdoms. The tremendous sprouting of philosophical and mystical thought that began in the south not only survived the transition but began to blossom even more as kabbalistic centers sprang up in Barcelona, Girona and across Castile. Meanwhile, in Al-Andalus, Sufis such as Ibn Arabi continued to explore and write about their mystical paths.
Ramón Llull
These two threads, the Sufi and Kabbalistic, come together in the work of the Christian mystic Ramón Llull. Hebrew and Arabic both have numeric values for each letter of the alphabet, and Kabbalah and Sufism both have very developed mathematical-mystical systems. Gematria is the Jewish version. Abraham Abulafia, who I mentioned earlier, was the principle exponent of Gematria, and his system seems to have influenced Llull, particularly in the combinatorial wheels. Abulafia was active in the Kabbalistic circles of Gerona and Barcelona, where his system made its first appearance in 1270, not long before Llull's work. Moshe Idel, in his article "Ramon Lull and Ecstatic Kabbalah: A Preliminary Observation" (Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 51. (1988), pp. 170-174.), says that "Lull was in contact with important Jewish figures living in Barcelona, as the incipit of a lost work of his demonstrates." Llull scholars Pring-Mill and Hillgarth encouraged Idel to "pursue the line" on the "probability of the historical relationship between [Lull's theory of ars combinatoria] and the ecstatic Kabbalah," particularly the work of Abulafia.
Llull was also influenced by the work of Ibn Arabi. As Liam points out in his Llull post, the Ars was "a vast systemization of the world that had as an aim the demonstration of the relationship of all of reality to a certain number of God's attributes or "dignities:" goodness, greatness, power, wisdom, etc. Llull's dignities are very similar to the Sufi concept of Hadras, or the one hundred names of Allah. I mentioned earlier Miguel Asín Palacios and his book The Mystical Philosophy of Ibn Masarra and His Followers (Brill 1978). Appendix VI is entitled "The Theory of the Hadras of Ibn Arabi and of the Dignities of Raymond Lull and other Analogies of the Two Systems." Palacios says: "The terminology of the divine Dignities (Dignitates) is one of the indisputable keys of the relationship of Lull to Sufism. . . . This became completely confirmed when later the theory of Ibn Arabi about the divine names was compared with the development by Lull in his book Els cent noms de Deus and in the rest of his works. . . . Thus a comparative study of these one hundred Hadras with the Dignities of Lull leads to the full conviction that they are intimately related. First of all, one must note that Lull in his Els cent noms de Deus confesses to have written it in imitation of those [works] of the Muslims that revolve about the identical theme. . . . And if by chance there still should be a shade of doubt, Lull himself dissipates it in his Disputatio Raymundi christiani et Hamar sarraceni by putting in the mouth of the latter an enumeration of the 'dignitates,' almost identical in number and names with his. . . . The evidence of this imitation of the Hadras by the Dignities of Lull is reinforced when it is considered not singly but as one more case of the many which the system of Lull offers when compared with that of Ibn Arabi."
The principle of the universe is movement... If it stops moving, it will return to non-existence. Ibn 'Arabi.
(The calligraphy is a property of Marsam Gallery Rabat - Editions Marsam, 15 avenue des Nations Unies, Rabat, Maroc)
It's not that Llull's work was not his own. As Palacios goes on to say, "Lull did not wish to be a Muslim but a sincere and very fervent Christian. For that reason the number and designation of hadras and Dignities cannot coincide. Lull chose those that do not conflict with the Christian and Catholic concept of God." Nor did Llull want to be a Jew. He simply incorporated aspects of other systems into his work, as the Jewish mystics had done in Al-Andalus. Going back even further, one can point to the influence of Christian monasticism and Gnosticism on the Sufis before they even arrived in Spain. Abraham Abulafia incoporated breathing exercises from Yoga into his own mystical technique. So the influences come and go like pollen carried by the honeybee from one field to another.
There are different kinds of trees in the Golden Orchard. But they all sway and are moved by the same wind, all watered by the same rain, and, in the end, they all reach up their branches to the same magnificent sun.
UPDATE: Liam has pointed out that today, June 26, is the Feast Day of Ramón Llull. (Some give the date as June 30.) He has, therefore, declared this Ramón Llull Week. Glad to participate. While I appreciate this sudden Llull-mania, however, I fear what will happen when the excitement passes. We will then be faced with the dreaded Llull lull.
Monday, June 25, 2007
The Golden Orchard
Combinatorial Wheel of Ramón Llull, 13th century
9 comments:
- Liam said...
Excellent post, Batman. I'm not really a scholar of the Visigoths, but I don't think the culture of pre-Islamic Spain was that poor. I think that it did suffer from a cultural division between the more learned Catholic Romans and the ruling Arian Visigoths which was only resolved with the Visigothic conversion to Catholicism in 589. From 589 to 711 there was quite the cultural flourishing, and even one of the kings (Sisebut) was penning verse. Isidore's encyclopedia contain a bit of everything, including what science there was at the time. St Ildephonsus composed a work on the Virginity of Mary that was an important early work of Marian devotion/mysticism.
In fact, the addition of "filioque" to the creed, a theological time bomb that still creates tensions between the Catholics and the Orthodox, originated in Visigothic Spain.
At the same time, the more intense, speculative mysticism that also expressed itself in Islamic and Jewish mysticism had a good part of its roots in Greek neo-platonic philosophy that really didn't hit any part of the West until the wonderfully strange and brilliant Irish scholar John Scotus Erigena translated the works of Pseudo-Dionysus into Latin in the ninth century.
The Irish, Cowboy, are always involved somehow.
- cowboyangel said...
Thanks for the comments. I was cowering in fear in my closet, terrified that I had said something amazingly stupid about medieval history. It's probably just as well that I took out that line on bad Visigothic television programming.
I want to go further with this, and I'm going to need your help. At some point, I'd like to sit down with you and discuss.
I meant to preface the post by saying I'm not a scholar by any means, and there is much, much more research that needs to be done on many aspects of what I've written. The period before 711 being one essential project. I need to know about the overall culture before the Moors arrived, for both the Christians and the Jews.
I didn't mean, and I don't think Asin Palacios implies, that the Visigoths didn't have any culture. It's more what kind of culture did they have, what did they emphasize, and how did that affect the development of mystical pursuits? There's also the Roman collapse to consider. From everything I've read, it seems like the economic and political stability previously known under the Romans began to break down towards the end of the empire, as it did elsewhere. How much that changed under the Visigoths, I need to discover. It doesn't sound like there was a lot of political stability - many rulers within a short time, a good number of them murdered by rival families. Nor does the economy seem to have been thriving, at least in comparison with the economy uinder the Romans or what came about under the Moors. I will say that the V's aren't coming off very well in any of the books I've read. And we are dealing with the fun-loving guys who sacked Rome. But I hear you. It's an easy theme, and I definitely need to investigate more. I'm sure some Visigothic scholars will explain why their boys have been misunderstood all this time. Part of the problem is that they follow the Romans and precede Al-Andalus - two pretty amazing cultures.
Yeah, the Neo-Platonic thing is crucial, obviously. What's also interesting is how strong the Aristotelian influence was - both Maimonides and Averroes trying to graft it onto Jewish and Muslim thought. The mystics were doing the same. And, eventually, I think the mystics move beyond both to a degree and create something new. But it was definitely key to prime the pump, it seems.
Another thing I need help on is figuring out which other Christians on the Peninsula were pursuing a mystical line. So thanks for the info on Ildephonsus.
Finally, after such a fervent period of mystical experience in the late 1200's and early 1300s, why does there seem to be so little in the hundred plus years BEFORE 1492?
- crystal said...
Interesting post! Doubtless your fixation on the Visigoths was sparked by my tattoo post.
The Templars and Francis in Spain ... :-)
One of my favorite links is who's who in the history of mysticism - it has a list of Jewish and Islamic mystics as well as catholic and non-catholic christians.
- Liam said...
I'd love to discuss it with you. I think the Visigothic kingdom was very interesting. There was a lot of political instability, but then again there was that also in Rome, al-Andalus, and the northern kingdoms. The economy had shrunk, but a few scholars now are saying it wasn't as bad as once thought.
I don't know a whole lot about 15th century Spain, but there was a fair amount of political turmoil, including a civil war. The Church was having problems all through Europe -- at one point there were three separate popes (one of them Spanish). There were a number of mystical groups throughout Europe at this time, including in Spain, where they were called the Alumbrados and ran into problems with the Inquisition.
How would you define mysticism?
Crytsal -- IPAO and I are thinking of getting tattoos for each other as wedding presents.
- cowboyangel said...
Thanks for the Who's Who link! I missed your tattoo post and can't find it. Do you have a link?
- cowboyangel said...
Defining mysticism. Yes, I've realized that's essential, and I don't have a good answer yet. There are some good definitions out there, and Scholem devotes an entire section of one his books on the subject. I need to re-read that and some other things. The problem is how mixed up the "genres" were at that time. Was such-and-suc a mystical work, a theological work, poetry, philosophy, etc.? Perhaps we can discuss this at that most mystical of places, Grassroots Tavern. Such a conversation seems to beg for such a setting.
Aren't the Alumbrados post-1492? Or did they start earlier?
- cowboyangel said...
Liam, Catholic Encyclopedia says the Alulbrados were sixteenth century. Do you think otherwise? I never made the connection between "Alumbrados" and Illuminati! Alumbrar! Claro!
I need to do some reading about the Cathars. A lot of them came down into the peninsula after they were destroyed in southern France. There may be connections to Abulafia's work, though Idel pretty much dismisses this idea in one of his books. Still, they were around in northern Spain from the late 1100s and especially in the 1200s. I'm guessing the Cathars hooked up with the Templars to establish the Illuminati, which, as we know, eventually leads - via the Rosicrucians and Tom Hanks - to Mark Cuban.
- Liam said...
I had to go back to my orals notes to check about the Alumbrados. Yes, they really are a 16th-century group, but they came out of a 15th-century phenomenon known as the "Beatas" that were something like the Beguines in northern Europe (a lay woman's group), and were very influenced by Italian mystic women like Catherine of Siena or Angelina of Foligno (both of whom are very intense). There was also the movement of the Jeronimite order (you know the church above the Prado, right?) that came out of the very active hermit movement in late 14th and 15th-century Spain.
I do want to here you define "mysticism." And damnit, we do need to get back to the Grassroots.
There was a very small penetration of Catherism into Spain, and the inquisition was very effective with them. Their main thing was a world-hating dualism -- do you find that in Abulafia's work?
- crystal said...
The tattoo post was deleted.
Ignatius of Loyola - best Spanish mystic :-)
The Illuminati! The Cathars! You guys discuss the most fun stuff. I saw a recent review of a book on the Cathars at History House - The Yellow Cross - the history of the last Cathars


text:
|Perl Monk, Perl Meditation
Re^5: Use method/function signatures with Perlby Juerd (Abbot)
|on Dec 07, 2004 at 18:53 UTC ( #412971=note: print w/replies, xml )
|Need Help??
Funny. I thought that I just said that Attribute::Property is an unacceptable solution to me. That means that it doesn't take away the issue.
I'm not disagreeing about that. You said that I indicated something; I cannot recall having indicated that exact thing, and tried to correct.
Let's not make a big deal out of everything. Feel offended if you wish, but please only do so knowing that I didn't mean "flawed" as an absolute condemnation and that no offense was intended. I like Perl for its tolerance towards almost all programming styles, but that doesn't mean I steer clear of discussion.
With OO I'd expect to be able to do something like create a Length module, Length objects can be accessed/set in various units (inches, meters, feet, miles, etc). An external user should have no idea what the internal representation is. How do I do it with lvalues?
In that rather specific case I would not use lvalues, or any setter method, for that matter. I'd be inclined to think of these values as immutable objects, and have something like:
But instead of using Length objects, I am much more likely to dictate that every length must be stored in meters, as a number. Possibly with the addition of utility functions to aid in conversion.
And whichever I do, I'll feel free to dislike people who categorically declare that my considered set of choices are flawed.
I'm sorry you make this about people. I wonder, though, how you survive PM if you take offense every time someone disagrees with you on a technical subject. You are of course free to dislike me, or any person. Even though we will probably never meet in person, I regret that you dislike *me* instead of only what I said.
Juerd # { site => 'juerd.nl', plp_site => 'plp.juerd.nl', do_not_use => 'spamtrap' }
In Section Meditations


text:
Chances are if you read this blog you are a pretty big Habs fan. Chances are you've probably also heard of Habs Inside/Out from the Gazette.
If you haven't, well I guess I'll take that as a compliment.
If you haven't you should still check this out:
Habs playoff ticket draw
(Password can be found in the comments on Habs Inside/Out)
Note the conditions state you must live in Quebec, or that the person that enters (say your parent) must live in Quebec. Most people at least have a friend or two lurking around in La Belle Province, I'm sure.
I know there's a few of you who could take advantage of a playooff game or two. If you're interested please enter and give yourself a chance to experience a playoff game, it's really an amazing experience. If you win tickets because I helped you find the draw, maybe you could pay us back with a first-hand game report. In any case, good luck all, and keep us posted.
Go Habs Go.


text:
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
The Explainer Dialogue on Education
This was Monday night's telecast on ANC Cable TV of The Explainer with Manolo Quezon. We talked about Education, in particular Science education, teachers and the idea of privatizing Basic Education...Watch it all! The program's show page on the Archive The Explainer July 13 2009contains several downloadable and streamable file formats, including for use on Iphone/IpodTouch platforms.
[Courtesy of The Rizalist Press Multimedia! Join The Rizalist Press on Facebook!]
SOURCE: Philippine Commentary
Posted By: Deany Bocobo
On Wednesday, July 15, 2009
On Wednesday, July 15, 2009
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text:
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Finished Megan Hart's Broken...
And absolutely loved it. I finished it a few days ago and needed time to process my thoughts/feelings about the story.
First and foremost let me say if you're looking for a light, fun read, you're not going to find it in Broken. Within the pages of this book, you're going to find a story unlike any you've ever read. One that will leave you, at times, confused, sad, afraid, and fearful, and at other times you'll be happy and content.
In this book, first person totally worked. I didn't want to know what any of the other characters were thinking. Sadie's thoughts and feelings kept me plenty enthralled.
Truthfully, when I picked up this book, I wasn't sure how I'd feel about Sadie's brushing the invisible do-not-cross line between fidelity and infidelity, but as I read the book, I understood the "why." When you don't receive physical touch for a long time, I can see needing it, even if it is living vicariously through another's escapades. And in Sadie's case, the title of this book, Broken, fits so many things: her relationship with her husband, her husband, and, most of all, herself. Her life is, indeed, broken. Being broken can make a person feel lost and confused and so totally fucking frustrated you just want to break down and cry your eyes out, especially when no matter how hard you try to find a way to fix or repair things, you just can't.
But Sadie doesn't do that. She doesn't whine. She doesn't wail. Just just does. She goes on living her life, and I applaud her for that. Her strength(which she didn't see in herself) is amazing. I ached for this woman. I cried for her. I got angry with her. I got frustrated with her. I laughed with her. I felt everything she felt.
Megan Hart is an amazing author. With both books Dirty and Broken, she took me places I never imagined I'd go, and I thank her for sharing her amazing talent and fabulous stories with me. First person or not, with these two books, Ms. Hart has earned a spot on my auto-buy list.
(Cross posted on Let's Gab)
Labels: Reviewed By: Anne, Type: Contemporary
6 comments:
I'm in the middle of this one right now but I had to put it down for awhile because I'm totally pmsing/too emotional and I found it very real/raw. I switched to sweet Trads, but I'm going to go finish this one soon.ReplyDelete
Real and raw is exactly what it is. Fabulous story. Fucking fabulous. *G* You won't regret going back to it. That I can guarantee.ReplyDelete
I loved Dirty and I have Broken waiting on my TBR shelves. Maybe I'll pick it up this week.ReplyDelete
Great review Anne! I'm soooo glad you turned me on to this author. I loved the first one--Dirty--and cannot wait for this one.ReplyDelete
Ohhh, this sounds really good.ReplyDelete
I'm late to the party because I was out of town, but this was such a good book. I love Megan Hart and with both DIRTY and BROKEN has a new fan.ReplyDelete
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text:
1 year 365 Thoughts
Frankly this is just a blog about the happenings that occur in my mind, my thoughts etc. Please don't expect it to be too spectacular.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Let me set the scene for you.
Today I walked home from school. Since I am at a school now that is closer to home this was the first time probably in my schooling history I have been able to do this and Honestly I loved it!
Where one may take this simple pleasure for granted today I embraced it, and fell in love with the time that i discovered it took for me to walk home.
As I walked along pages road today towards New Brighton, where one may have seen the broken roads I saw beauty trying to break through even the biggest, tinniest cracks. Where one may have seen empty slots, I saw open spaces of luscious green, flower budding fields. Where one may have seen dog poo on the path, I still saw dog poo. Hahaha
But my point is, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.Someone may have walked or driven down the same road as me today and may have not noticed these things, or even on the other scale noticed more beauty.
Sometimes I love these days where I am left with my own thoughts and with the beauty of nature! Even better so when something is a little destroyed or broken and you still can discover beauty!
Another thing I believe, that their is always beauty! Sometimes we just need to open our somewhat, sometimes small eyes.
Be Still
You are God alone
Stop thinking so much
and just let go
Be still my soul and rest
Humbly I confess,
in my weakness your strength is perfect
For You alone are God, there will be no other
And You have won my heart more than any other
So I will give it all 'cause you gave it all for me
Sometimes I have nerves. Sometimes I worry a lot. Sometimes I feel grumpy for no reason. Sometimes I just need a little bit of God fixation to calm me. And recently I found my answer.
The song above.
If you have not listened to it, then i advise you do.
Follow the link below.
You see, the lyrics of this song, the melodies and chords are just so beautifully crafted that when listened through ones ears, it is automatically soothing. Calming to the soul. That one cannot possibly be dismayed, frightened or worried no more.
And this is why I love music.
Purely because it can make you feel so many ways and can trigger so many thoughts (:
Write About Your Nana.
What on earth do I write about tonight?
I've had this dilemma plenty of times before, it often results in me nearly quitting for the evening.
But the wise words of Winston Churchill always ring in my head.
-Never give up. Never give up.Never. Never. Never, in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give up, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.
And so I didn't give up as you can see.
Let me begin.
Six weeks ago I left Hillview forever. The prospect of my Nana coming soon, excited me, so did Christmas and so did a summer of sunshine. The thought of all this actually coming to an end seemed so far a way, that an ending did not seem to bother me. But now it does.
Because tomorrow my Nana will be leaving. This somewhat brings tears to my eyes. Actually it brings waterfulls of continuous wet tears. Slight exaggeration. But at least you now know how I am feeling.
Yes, I am feeling quite sad. Because tomorrow my Nana will be boarding a plane, back to the other side of the world, England. I'm glad that there are good people over their for her to go back to, but her presence, her humor and her overall amazingness I know will be dearly missed in our chaotic household.
Tomorrow also marks an ending to what has been a pretty incredible summer! Looking back I have done a heck of a lot! Christmas, we went to Hanmer for New Years, I ventured up to thee amazing Wellington for an incredible five days and also amoungst these I have been privileged to spend time with friends and family.
But with endings their is always new beginnings and with new beginnings there is also a little bit of excitement. Come Monday, I will be starting a new school. And honestly I have no fear about it, because with the Lord there is no fear. I never thought tomorrow or Monday would come round so quickly. It turns out it decided to fasten it's pace these summer holidays.
But as they say, time flies when you're having fun! And boy it sure has! (:
My Thoughts Are Stars.
After recently reading 'The Fault in our stars' by John Green, this was one of my favorite quotes from the book.
And tonight this is somewhat exactly how I feel.
I really do not know what to write about or rather that I cannot gather the broad spectrum of my thoughts into one solid block for tonight's post.
Which for me is some what of a depressing thought. Well maybe not so much depressing, more deflating.
And this is why this extract from, the fault in our stars, is somewhat amazing.
As my thoughts are stars, all big and meaningful, well at least I think they are. And yet somehow I cannot seem to place them together into something, less jumbled, less confusing. And so they remain stars in the night sky.
And hopefully I will be able to fathom them into beautiful constellations all in due course.
The End.
Damsel (s) in Distress
And so for once I find my self able to relate to the lyrical creations of Taylor Swift.
Say what?!
Let me explain, these lyrics explained exactly my day. Which in a way is quite a scarily freaky thought. Well not that scarily freaky. But I'm sure you get my point
Because today was indeed a Fairy Tale. Though my prince charming did not cease to romantically appear, which was a shame , I did get to share this magical day with my own fairy god mother. Who goes by the name of my, beautiful Nana. Also accompanying me in today's magical story, my sisters Anja and Esther, who are frankly the complete and utter opposite of the 'ugly step sisters' that one would discover in the story, Cinderella.
Today we found our selves in Diamond Harbor. One would find that the beauty there would live up to it's name, as when looking down onto the sea, a million, zillion :P diamonds gleam back.
Today felt like Fairy Tale.
We sat and ate our lunch, it diminishing by the minute due to the flock of hungry sparrows surrounding us. It felt almost like something I would've read from my own Fairy Tale books when I was younger. From Snow White, to Sleeping Beauty, to Repunzel, my day had it all. I was living in my own fairy tale.
But if I had to pick one Fairy Tale that would replicate how i felt eating my lunch in Diamond Harbor. It would be the film- Enchanted.
If one has not seen this film, then I advise you type into YouTube- 'Enchanted Animal Song' or something along the lines and you will discover, or begin to understand the nonsense I am blabbering on about today.
But with all Fairy Tales, there has to be a happy ending. Some may ask? But haven't you already described your happy ending Beth?
Ahhhh... well listen on my friend. Because if you are accustomed to the ways of a fairy tale, you will realize that we have not had our sudden, evil plan or our Cinderella lose's her glass slipper or our Snow White eats the poisoned apple moment. Have we? No my fellow readers, this is just the beginning.
And so we ventured home, sat not on our fellow steed, but instead a fellow boat. Which took us over the waves, honestly it was oh so bumpy today they could almost have been mountains.
We found our feet on solid ground again and began to make the short walk to our car. Or should I say carriage. And who should we find waiting inside our car? Yes the spoiler of a day.
As it had turned out we had left our head lights on after emerging from the tunnel through to Lyttleton. Resulting in a dead battery, further more resulting in us stuck in Lyttleton. Suddenly all the joy seemed to drain away, out of the car and down the storm water pipe.
All would have been well, if I had bought my phone or I knew mum's phone number. But neither was on my agenda for the day. So we were with stuck a dilemma. What do we do?
And so for me thee only answer was. Pray. And pray I did.
In the end we managed to talk to a very kind construction worker, who lent us his phone and helped us discover mum's phone number. Also a service garage appeared out of no where, and in there we discovered some jump leads. This kind man, helped us to restart the battery. And away we went.
You see and this got me thinking. This man did not have to stop and help us, as he was working. But he chose to stop and help, us, the Damsels in distress. He went beyond and above his call of duty.
Nana offered him some money for his time, and in reply he said;
" No, I cannot take this. Hopefully someone will stop and help me next time I am in need."
So next time you see someone who is in need. No matter how big or small the deed. Please stop, as this may be the guy who so kindly helped us today. Or it may be someone who has kindly done a deed for someone else and is in dire need for repayment for their deed. And I am not talking repayment in money terms. For you may be able to bless, like we where blessed today. You may be able to give someone their 'Fairy Tale- Happy Ending.'
As I know, as all Fairy Tales End, mine followed the criteria today. Thanks to an awesome God and a man who was willing to help some Damsels in distress.
- "Today was a Fairy Tale, I wore a dress, I am no longer a Damsel in Distress"
Back To The Future
Today I discovered a relic, whilst trying to find some screws in the garage.
Well, I call it a relic because compared to the technology we have present today,for our generation, this would be looked upon as something of some what age.
What? You may ask did I find?
Well I, actually we. Dad and I, discovered a Nintendo gameboy. After an exciting proclaim from Dad,
- ' that's where it went to' and further discussion, I discovered this was the first Nintendo Gameboy.
And this got me thinking.
Look how far technology has come!
I discovered Dad used to play this Nintendo when he was 12.
So I decided to place this somewhat new, exciting discovery by Dad's up to date phone. The same as my phone.
The contrast was mind blowing. After having a go on this 'relic' I discovered that compared to his new item of technology this was definitly 'dated.' The screen is tiny, probably only a little bit bigger than a cheap phone you can pick up from the warehouse. The picture, quite pixilated and the sound terrifyingly annoying. Compared to the now a days, large screened, multiple use pieces of technology... This was somewhat a blast from the past.
But despite this fact, there was a feeling that was present. That no iPhone, Samsung or other high tech piece could provide. It was the feeling of a story, history and life. It felt like the whole world wasn't at your finger tips, it had one purpose and one purpose alone; to provide you with a game. And this thought pleased me as I felt I was for once in control,unlike today's culture where the whole world is at your finger tips.
Some may say technology has advanced for positive reasons. Today I beg to differ.
Today I realized that it is so easy to let technology control us, whilst we should be the controllers.
The Nintendo Gameboy allowed us to control what we played and how we played it, but now our phones,computers beg for attention. Maybe we should stop and consider how we our letting modern day technology rule our lives. Shall we start becoming the controllers?
And go back to the future!
Fear not, I am alive!
So I have not posted in a while. I somewhat feel like I have suddenly failed my blog name, or not done it any justice.
-1 year,,,, 365 thoughts
Say what?!
But other things have been happening, fear not!
I have been finding myself getting lost in the melodies of Bethel, Hillsong and various other Christian artist. And these listenings have been many thoughts in themselfves. As they sing truth's, hopes and wisdom at me, I find myself refreshed and revitalized for a epic year ahead.
I used to always like Christian music, but I never had that desire, longing, craving for it that other alternative stuff would provide. But having come back from new day I have this longing, craving, thirst, hunger to be listening to these intricate, food for the soul.
And this my friends is a wonderful thought that pleases me.
And in doing so, I feel an ultimate peace and I feel like everything that happened at new day is gonna keep growing and growing.
The second thing that has kept me company is spending time with my lovely Nana! There is something I love about doing this as well. As I come away feeling light and joyful. I get such a happiness from spending time with her as I know that she won't be here for long. For I know Saturday will come and soon we'll be saying our goodbyes. This thought honestly tears my heart.
So as I leave, depart, to rest. I apologize for my lack of blogness recently, my heart, my mind and my physical self have been caught up elsewhere. Oh the life of a 15 year old :p I am joking. I love being 15! (:
But fear not, I am alive! Watch this space for more.


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July 25, 2011
July 24, 2011
Stank Face
I know this is late, but I would like to wish one of the COOLEST & CUTEST girl that I know a very Happy 21st Birthday.
We met in Geometry class in the 7th grade. Funny Story: she had thought that I was some pretentious f*ck, and I had believed the same about her. But that was only because we were intimidated by each other and...... we might have had a serious case of the stank face. I'm so glad we got over that, because I would have never had such a great friend.
Happy 21st Birthday AshLee!
Posted by Lunch Box at 2:35 AM No comments:
Labels: 21st, ashlee, birthday se....tea, saddle ranch, stankface
July 21, 2011
Yum, Food!
Entertaining friends is so fun! Especially when I get to make them a full blown dinner. I haven't seen my friend Robin for a while, so I decided to make this Garlic Butter Shrimp Pasta. This dish looks so professional, yet it is so simple to make. Get the recipe @ Evil Shenanigans!
|Yummmm!! It was as good as it looked.
I served it with some salad and baked zucchini with cheese.
|My test monkeys.
Posted by Lunch Box at 3:45 AM No comments:
July 03, 2011
The Nakayama's Orchard
My artsy friends and I went to visit our friend Shihori at her parent's Orange Orchard. I was born and raised in the urban city, and visiting the farm was a nice change to what I'm use to. It's a completely different life style, but I enjoyed staying there. The best part of the trip was the food. The Nakayama's have a garden in their backyard, so everything we ate was fresh. I liked it so much that I am now inspired to cook more often with fresh vegetables. I am much more appreciative of fresh foods and know that I should take complete advantage of it since I live in California; where vegetables are easily accessible compared to cold places. Here are some pictures that were taken by Jenny, Shihori, and me, Enjoy!
|We drove in and found acres of baby orange trees!
|We drive slowly into the orchard, and finally reach their house. We're greeted by Emma, their hyper cocker spaniel and Mrs. Nakayama who had just been gardening in the back yard.
|Once we settled in, all of us girls pitched our tent. Girl POWER!
|Sweating in 90 degree humid weather, we cooled down to Mrs. Nakayama's light lunch!
|After lunch, we headed straight to Ventura Beach to escape the Valley heat.
|Sponge Bob and Patrick stuck at shell city!
The beach was nice, but the Nakayama's backyard was even better!
|Math Club
|Shihori & Emma
Picking strawberries and plums in the garden.
|After dinner, Mr Nakayama lit the dry wood with a blow torch. We made smores with Meji chocolate and Ritz crackers.
|See Shihori here? She has the skill to make the perfect smore.
|After the bond fire, we drove into town and bought some TNT fireworks. Here are Melanie and Jenny ripping into the family pack!
|Not the cool loud flying ones, but these will do.
|After so much fun, we had to part ways. We left with fresh souvenirs and drove off into the sun.
I hope everybody has an awesome 4th of July!
Posted by Lunch Box at 4:17 PM No comments:
Labels: Farm, Filmore, July 4th, Orange Orchard, TNT, Ventura County, Ventura Pier
July 01, 2011
California Girls
I've been on Summer vacation since May and California is starting to feel the heat. A great way to kick off the summer with this hot weather is to go to the beach!
Welcome to Manhattan Beach!
It is one of the most expensive American coastal towns to live in. There are a bunch of beautiful homes, cute boutiques, and quaint restaurants that line Manhattan Ave. You can see the locals riding their cruisers, sun baked surfers waxing their boards, and some men having a bruski in their balconies while they watch the ladies pass by in their skimpy bikinis.
|Watch out for these bastards. We saw one fly past us and pooped with no regard of the people below them. Then there was this one seagull that kept taunting us by flying over us a few times.
|"Ashley MAD! Tan not on Ashley!"
|We tried to be cute, instead we came out looking awkward and unattractive.
|We're not tigers, we're grabbing air boobies.
|Lady who was mesmerized by the waves.
|Good bye! See you in a few weeks!
Posted by Lunch Box at 11:22 PM 1 comment:
Labels: california girls, manhattan beach, summer
Inspired by Tiffany Ford's Blog Entry, check it out!
"What would you change your name to?
Pick THREE things you'd change about your physical appearance
and ONE thing you'd change about your personality"
In a perfect world, my name would be Charlotte Lam.
Charlotte would have luscious long hair, green eyes, and some booty.
Posted by Lunch Box at 12:46 AM No comments:
Labels: Lunchbox Lam, tiffany ford, Wish
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I'm trying some new ideas and I'm kind of excited about them! I want to add more learning for the littles. I hope you all like them!
This set includes:
- Cover page
- 26 pages - one for each letter of the alphabet
- words to trace and cut out to add to the alphabet pages
Let me know what you think!


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Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Menudo My Favorite Dish after a Night out Drinking
I forgot to mention Monday that I had a nice big plate of Menudo on Sunday Morning after making a trek to church. The soup menudo is a traditional Mexican dish; a spicy soup made with tripe. It is often thought of as a cure for a hangover, and is traditionally served on special occasions or with family.I wasnt hungover or anything just craving a plate of menudo. This Picture doesnt do it Justice the Plate was Huge and the Menudo was delicious I didnt even finish it, nhjic. The Place is called Casa De Oro on Sweetwater Rd. next to Staples, so next time you have a hangover head over there in the morning and have a nice big plate and you should feel better after. Peace.
1 comment:
Menudo = Chitlings...both will make u hurl
- December 21, 2006 4:36 PM
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EA Sports is celebrating the 25th anniversary of Madden football this year. At the Athletes First charity event, Denver Broncos NFL star Von Miller talks about Madden NFL 25 in this exclusive interview.
YO! I KNOW YOU'RE A BIG ASS GAMER! .(oh shit, shouldn't have said that)....I know you're a big gamer.
I love how all these guys dress the same.


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The biggest monthly expense in most people's live is their housing payment, be it rent or a mortgage. So if you are trying to reduce your expenses, it makes sense to start by taking a look at your biggest payment and see if there is any way you can reduce it.
In my case, I knew I could. I bought my house 10 years ago using a 30 year fixed rate loan at 6.375% interest. Since that time, interest rates have dropped considerably. I probably should have refinanced two years ago, but, for various reasons, I did not. Thankfully, interest rates have remained low and, this month, I finally completed a refinance. I switched to a 20 year fixed rate loan at 4.125% interest.
The Problem With A 30 Year Loan
Why didn't I get another 30 year loan? I've been involved in real estate investing for over a decade and one of the areas I invested in was foreclosures. When buying properties at foreclosure or just before they go to foreclosure, an important piece of information a potential buyer needs is the outstanding amount of the mortgage. That information is not publicly available, but, because the mortgages themselves are publicly recorded documents and they include the length of the loan, the original loan amount, and the interest rate, it's relatively easy to calculate this figure using loan amortization tables.
My rule of thumb was that if a 30 year mortgage was five years old or younger, virtually none of the principle had been paid back. Those first five years of payments go almost entirely towards interest. Now, this isn't strictly true, as we shall see, but it was close enough for my purposes while investing.
|30 Year Amortization Chart
Given that I have been paying my mortgage for ten years, I had already passed the five year threshold and was making noticeable progress on paying down the principle. I didn't want to get a new 30 year mortgage and start that five year clock all over again. My age also played a bit of a role in the decision to go with a 20 year loan - I don't want to still have a mortgage while I am in my mid-70s.
30 Year Loan Vs. 20 Year LoanLet's look at my rule of thumb and see how close it is to the actual numbers. For simplicity, we'll assume a $200,000 loan at 6.375% interest. On a 30 year loan, after the first five years of payments, the outstanding balance would be $186,950. (You can use an amortization calculator like the one found here to figure this out.) You would have paid off about 6.5% of the original loan amount.
So my rule of thumb wasn't too far off - very little of the principle has been repaid after five years. (From a foreclosure investor's viewpoint, it's actually more accurate because by the time a home goes into foreclosure, the bank has already added on several months of late fees and other penalties which would also need to be paid off.)
Now let's look at a 20 year loan. Again, we'll go with a $200,000 loan at 6.375% interest. In this case, after the first five years of payments, the outstanding balance would be $170,837. You would have paid off 14.6% of the loan.
In other words, you would have paid back an additional $16,000 in that first five years. Of course, that comes at a price - your monthly payment on a 20 year will be higher than on a 30 year loan.
|20 Year Amortization Chart
I Refinanced From A 30 Year Mortgage To A 20 Year Mortgage And My Payment Went DOWNIn my situation, I had a couple of things that were working in my favor that made this possible. First, of course, is that interest rates have gone down drastically since I took out my original mortgage. My original loan was at 6.375%. The rate on my new 20 year loan is 4.125%. Also, because I had been paying my original loan for 10 years, I had achieved a fair amount of principle repayment. My refinanced loan was approximately $36,000 less than my original loan. The result of these two factors is that I was able to refinance my 30 year mortgage to a 20 year mortgage and still see a reduction in my monthly payment of about $200!
Had I opted instead to get another 30 year loan at 4.125%, I could have saved even more money per month. However, I would have had to go through those first five years of almost no principle reduction again. Let's see how that would have turned out.
Taking our hypothetical $200,000 loan again and a 4% interest rate (instead of 4.125%, just for simplicity), after five years the outstanding balance would be $180,895. I would have paid back 9.6% of the loan principle. Not bad. Definitely better than the 6.375% scenario.
Using a 20 year repayment, after the first five years, the outstanding balance would be $163,847. I would have paid back 18.1% of the loan principle. Wow!
By refinancing with a 20 year loan instead of a 30 year loan:
- I'm repaying my principle (or, to put it another way, building my equity) almost twice as fast
- I'm still saving over $200 a month compared to my original loan payment
- My home will still be paid off completely at the same time it would have if I had not refinanced


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Why do people add "race" to their list of political issues?
Some insights from a metal forum:
I thought it worth reposting. Original can be found here.
I do not subscribe to the viewpoint that a race is inherently superior to another, because there are ALWAYS exceptions. Nothing is black and white. Call me a liberal shithead, but that's how it is for me.
This is basically where I come from, except the "nothing is black and white" meaning "no decisions are binary" part -- clearly false.
I think there's a couple issues here:
- Diversity doesn't work
"Diversity" is a difficulty to be overcome, not an advantage to be sought. True, America does a better job than most at accommodating a diverse population. We also do a better job at curing cancer and containing pollution. But no one goes around mindlessly exclaiming: "Cancer is a strength!" "Pollution is our greatest asset!"
History shows us no successful examples of "diverse" societies, but a repeated pattern: wealthy civilizations in decay import labor and mercenaries, then become embroiled in constant race/class conflict, which helps kill them off. They leave behind mixed-race civilizations that while they have a few good people, are unable to do anything constructive, because the mob mentality is too strong. Examples: Mexico, Brazil, Iraq, Russia.
Diversity is the new Swastika, King George or Hammer and Sickle: official unrealistic dogma you must obey, in denial of reality; a means by which the stupid get ahead of the smart. When the stupid get ahead of the smart, and form a lynch mob to drown them out because they bring up unpopular truths, your society becomes third world.
- Preserving each ethnicity is important
I am a Conservationist. I believe in conserving forests. I believe in conserving the Purple House Finch just as much as the sparrow. To that end, Germany for Germans, Israel for Jews. Kick the Jews out of Germany, and the Palestinians out of Israel.
Unfortunately, our mania for "diversity" and commerce, democracy and popularity contests -- it destroys these things.
- Most people are stupid or corrupt, so we should clear them out and keep the 5% who are good
This is the point that deadite is slyly making: you're not good just because you're white, and you're not superior to anyone by birth, because in the dice roll of genetic recombination at birth, you could have turned out bad. Encoding errors happen. Sometimes good families give birth to retards, autistics, sociopaths and others.
- Evolution is real
Yes, some races evolved in more challenging climates, and so have multiple physical attributes that are different and often improved. Santayana calls them "favored races"; if he's talking about North Asians, Northern Europeans and Jews, I agree. These groups are the smartest and most capable people we have and we should encourage them.
IQ determines ability, and correlates highly with health, strength and good moral character. It is the single most important measure of a human being, but alone predicts nothing other than the ability to be intelligent. If you're a high-IQ sociopath, you're still no good. But if you're a low-IQ person, you're more likely to steal, rape, destroy, etc. out of pure stupidity. People under 105 IQ points cannot understand this discussion, although they always pretend to be able to. What does that tell you?
True, Africa is lagging behind on average IQ -- that means there are fewer smart people, and others who possess other evolutionary leaps, among them. Still doesn't mean you treat them badly. Evolution is also real at the individual level, whcih is why the previous point: we should smite the stupid/bad, and protect/nurture the good/smart.
Not rocket science. I'm glad we have a topic to finally fight this out after years of doing it in the Summoning topic. I hope it doesn't take over the board like it did in the past, because then neither side can speak to the other.
I came from a leftist background, and from it I retain the ideals of (a) fairness and (b) rabid environmentalism, although the latter originated in the far-right. My problem with leftism is that it's the lynch mob mentality: it's individuals deciding the world did them wrong, so they're going to blame society and destroy it, and they always replace societies with third world regimes.
This cycle has been documented for longer than the Bible has existed; you can find it in not only Plato, but Herotodus, and Tacitus, as well as many others. Modern versions are Spengler and Toynbee, and even liberal Jared Diamond points out much of it.
The chaos at this board was so much that SRP/VP documented his opinions on this topic here:
- The danger of racism and anti-Semitism
- Putting race into context
- "White" power
- Patriotism or nationalism?
- Surviving multiculturalism
- Racial Marxism
- Low biological quality of humankind
- Nordicism versus Pan-Aryanism, and Preservation
- Race is important, racism is not
- Nobody wants your apocalyptic hate cult
- Why I am not a "white" nationalist or neo-Nazi
And finally, a tribute to positive eugenics:
- The African Superman
You should also pay attention to Maeve Binchy's debunking of common leftist myths as compiled and recited by Protector of Summoning:
- While I agree with the sentiments of this writing, I have to point out bad logic because it's still nonsense.


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3. What happens to Richieu in the Ghetto in Zawiercie? Why?
Zawiercie is liquidated by the Nazis. Rather than be taken to the gas chamber, Tosha poisons herself and the children under her care, including Richieu.
he Nazis continue to transport the Jews of Srodula to Auschwitz. Haskel arranges to smuggle himself out of the ghetto, but his brothers Miloch and Pesach have created a bunker behind a pile of shoes in the factory. Also around this time, Vladek and Anja finally hear the news of Richieu's death. Anja is hysterical with grief and tells Vladek that she wants to die. Vladek responds by telling her that "to die, it's easy...but you have to struggle for life."


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Thursday, February 21, 2013
Books Read in 2012
2012 was a tough year for reading, having a very active little girl who is not the best sleeper meant that when I did have some free time to read, I usually ended up falling asleep while doing it :-) I also read some longer books, like Moby Dick and Middlemarch and so I wasn't able to have quite the volume. I only read 26 books.
Some of my favorites included East of Eden, How Will You Measure Your Life?, and Peter and the Starcatchers series (so clever).
The Timekeeper- Mitch Albom
The Amber Spyglass- Philip Pullman
Frozen Heat- Richard Castle
Shatterproof- Roland Smith
The Subtle Knife- Phillip Pullman
Raising Your Spirited Child- Mary Sheedy Kurcinka
Bones are Forever- Kathy Reichs
Frankenstein- Mary Shelley
The Demigod Diaries- Rick Riordan
Under the Greenwood Tree- Thomas Hardy
How Will You Measure Your Life?- Clayton Christensen, James Allworth, and Karen Dillon
Peter and the Star Catchers- Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson
The Golden Compass- Phillip Pullman
East of Eden- John Steinbeck
Bringing Up Bebe- Pamela Druckerman
Heat Rises- Richard Castle
Imagine: How Creativity Works- Jonah Lehrer
The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection- Alexander McCall Smith
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea- Jules Verne
The Dead of Night- Peter Lerangis
Middlemarch- George Eliot
Far from the Maddening Crowd- Thomas Hardy
The Little Book of Hindu Gods- Sanjay Patel
Ramayana: The Divine Loophole- Sanjay Patel
North and South- Elizabeth Gaskell
A Murder, A Mystery, and a Marriage- Mark Twain
Moby Dick- Herman Melville
2013 is already off to a better start
Posted by Cheryl and William at 11:23 PM
3 comments:
- So Elanor said...
- This comment has been removed by the author.
- December 1, 2013 at 6:25 PM
- So Elanor said...
Love the list of books. Need a more recent blog entry. :)
- December 1, 2013 at 6:27 PM
- aussie essay said...
Great books list you have mentioned. You always deliver a great work and impress your audience. Keep posting good stuff like you always do. Thanks
- July 30, 2017 at 11:01 AM
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As the summer is finally getting to its warmer temperatures, there's no denying that a nice cool-down in the water would hit the spot. Especially for families with younger kids, there are several places near and far that can bring you and your family the fun you want with the refreshment you need! Here are some of our favorite Splash Parks in Rochester New York 2017.
Rochester's Outdoor Spray Parks
The City of Rochester has several outdoor spray parks that are perfect for you and your kids on the hot summer days. These parks are open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day of the week (ending on Labor Day). Here are some of those locations
Carter Street R-Center, 500 Carter Street map
Edgerton R-Center, 41 Backus Street map
David F. Gantt R-Center, 700 North Street map
Humboldt R-Center, 1045 Atlantic Avenue map
Thomas P. Ryan R-Center, 530 Webster Avenue map
Roxie Ann Sinkler R-Center, 75 Grover Street map
*** The following locations are special splash parks just for kids ages 6 and under:
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park, 353 Court St. (at the play area) map
Fourth and Peck Park, Fourth and Peck Street map
Troup Street Park and Playground, Troup Street map
*All you need for these mini getaways are a beach towel, some sun screen, and your kids!
Go-To Waterparks
The waterpark at Seabreeze is just around the corner at 4600 Culver Road, and is a go-to place for all families in the Rochester area. Being so close to home, Seabreeze is a great place for all day fun, having amusement rides as well as a water park.
Darien Lake Splashtown
About 45 minutes away from Rochester, the water park at Darien Lake is also a go-to for some all day fun with water. You can spend the day at the amusement park, and then cool off right there at the water park! They have several water rides that will ensure happiness for any kid, and also several leisurely water rides for parents or those who wish to simply relax.
Wherever you may end up this summer, we hope you have fun, cool down, and make many summer memories! For more waterpark options in your town, click here!
Feeling not-so hot about your current housing situation or credit score? Contact me today!


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Damián Ortega: Taken apart & reassembled
January 6, 2012 Leave a comment
Mexican artist Damián Ortega, formerly a political cartoonist, has a fascinating curiosity with taking everyday items apart and reassembling them, bringing attention to the dynamics of the world we live in.
The works are extremely beautiful and they remind me of one of my favorite artists, Claire Morgan. Using a wide range of mediums from sculpture, installation, videography to photography, he exhibits a quietness that is really poetic.
Cosmic thing, 2002
False Movement (Stability and Economic Growth), 1999 ( Photo credits: John Kennard)
I think his roots of being a political cartoonist really shows here. On the surface, it seems everything is growing but on the contrary, the growth is unstable and falsely represented with the non-existent increase.
120 Days, 2002
Autoconstruction, Bridges and Dams: Extension, 1997
Selection from Belo Horizonte Project, 2004
Part of The Independent installation.
Makes me look at my surroundings with much more curiosity.
Blessed New Year everyone!
X Alex