text:
Series: /
My rating: ★★★★★
Every April, when the wind blows from the sea and mingles with the scent of lilacs, Landon Carter remembers his last year at Beaufort High. It was 1958, and Landon had already dated a girl or two. He even swore that he had once been in love. Certainly the last person in town he thought he'd fall for was Jamie Sullivan, the daughter of the town's Baptist minister.
A quiet girl who always carried a Bible with her schoolbooks, Jamie seemed content living in a world apart from the other teens. She took care of her widowed father, rescued hurt animals, and helped out at the local orphanage. No boy had ever asked her out. Landon would never have dreamed of it.
Then a twist of fate made Jamie his partner for the homecoming dance, and Landon Carter's life would never be the same. Being with Jamie would show him the depths of the human heart and lead him to a decision so stunning it would send him irrevocably on the road to manhood...
Series: /
My rating: ★★★★★
Cath is a Simon Snow fan.
Okay, the whole world is a Simon Snow fan...
But for Cath, being a fan is her life—and she's really good at it. She and her twin sister, Wren, ensconced themselves in the Simon Snow series when they were just kids; it's what got them through their mother leaving.
Reading. Rereading. Hanging out in Simon Snow forums, writing Simon Snow fan fiction, dressing up like the characters for every movie premiere.
Cath's sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can't let go. She doesn't want to.
Now that they're going to college, Wren has told Cath she doesn't want to be roommates. Cath is on her own, completely outside of her comfort zone. She's got a surly roommate with a charming, always-around boyfriend, a fiction-writing professor who thinks fan fiction is the end of the civilized world, a handsome classmate who only wants to talk about words... And she can't stop worrying about her dad, who's loving and fragile and has never really been alone.
For Cath, the question is: Can she do this?
Can she make it without Wren holding her hand? Is she ready to start living her own life? Writing her own stories?
And does she even want to move on if it means leaving Simon Snow behind?
Series: /
My rating: ★★★★★
The Pre-Sloane Emily didn't go to parties, she barely talked to guys, she didn't do anything crazy. Enter Sloane, social tornado and the best kind of best friend—the one who yanks you out of your shell.
But right before what should have been an epic summer, Sloane just… disappears. No note. No calls. No texts. No Sloane. There's just a random to-do list. On it, thirteen Sloane-selected-definitely-bizarre-tasks that Emily would never try… unless they could lead back to her best friend.
Apple Picking at Night? Okay, easy enough.
Dance until Dawn? Sure. Why not?
Kiss a Stranger? Wait… what?
Getting through Sloane's list would mean a lot of firsts. But Emily has this whole unexpected summer ahead of her, and the help of Frank Porter (totally unexpected) to check things off. Who knows what she'll find?
Go Skinny Dipping? Um…
BOOK FOUR: The Selection by Kiera Cass
Series: The Selection #1 (trilogy with a few short stories)
My rating: ★★★★★
In a world of glittering gowns and priceless jewels the Selection is the chance of a lifetime: to compete for gorgeous Prince Maxon's ear. But for America Singer it means turning her back on her secret love, and leaving home for a prize she doesn't want.
Then America meets Maxon and all her plans start to crumble. Can the life she's always dreamed of compare to a future she never imagined?
Series: /
My rating: ★★★★★
Tessa has just a few months to live. Fighting back against hospital visits, endless tests, drugs with excruciating side-effects, Tessa compiles a list. It's her To Do Before I Die list. And number one is sex. Released from the constraints of 'normal' life, Tessa tastes new experiences to make her feel alive while her failing body struggles to keep up. Tessa's feelings, her relationships with her father and brother, her estranged mother, her best friend, her new boyfriend, all are painfully crystallized in the precious weeks before Tessa's time finally runs out. "Before I Die" is a brilliantly-crafted novel, heartbreaking yet astonishingly life-affirming. It will take you to the very edge.


text:
Former Kiwi journalist David Farrier and his co-director are being sued for defamation for their documentary Tickled.
The documentary, directed by David Farrier and Dylan Reeve, reveals the strange world of competitive tickling.
Now, David D'Amato, son of late New York insurance lawyer George D'Amato, is suing the pair for defamation, saying the movie falsely accuses him of "abusing minors, paedophilia, child pornography and abuse of his students while employed by a school", celebrity gossip site Page Six reported.
Mr D'Amato, a former school assistant principal and guidance counsellor, who was an ex-employee of West Hempstead High School in Nassau County, New York, said the claims are false and he was not dismissed from his job for inappropriate behaviour.
"I'm flattered the film is getting this much attention, even before it's officially released. I lived with this story for two years and [am] looking forward to spending more time on it," Farrier told Page Six.
Earlier this month, Farrier revealed he had been served with legal papers relating to Tickled. He tweeted to his followers he initially thought the woman who gave them to him was a fan.
"Thought this lady was a fan: 'are you david?' I said 'yes' hopefully ... & then she served me. this is a first."

subset: commoncrawl


text: I have been in real estate full-time for a decade, and love this industry! I'm pro-business and personal growth and always interested in talking to people about business and connecting with others. I'm happy to meet to talk about buying and selling real estate, but also about developing business ideas and start-ups.


text:
NEW YORK — An underground steam pipe explosion ripped through a street in Midtown Manhattan during rush hour Wednesday, killing one person from an apparent heart attack and injuring about 30 others.
The powerful blast spewed rubble into crowded streets, splashed mud on commuters, and sent a giant plume of murky hot steam billowing into the air.
Fears of a terrorist attack rippled across the city as the explosion shook buildings and sent terrified people fleeing down stairways and into the streets. The blast, which happened at 41st Street and Lexington Avenue near Grand Central Terminal, came from a broken 24-inch steam pipe that was installed in 1924, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said at a news conference.
"There is no reason to believe whatsoever that this is anything other than a failure of our infrastructure," Bloomberg said. "There is no reason whatsoever to believe that there is anything involved with terrorism or criminality."


text:
An adult industry trade group said Friday that producers can resume filming after a week-long moratorium prompted by a performer's positive HIV test.
It was the third time in the last year that the industry has shut down after it was discovered that a performer had HIV, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Free Speech Coalition, the industry lobbying group, which oversees the STD testing system for performers, has said that all the HIV cases were acquired off-set.


text:
Corn, shucked- as many ears as you'd like, I always make extra because I use the leftover corn* for all kinds of things.
Large pot of boiling, salted water
When water comes to a boil, turn off heat, add 1TBL of milk (any type of milk works, as long at it is full lactose milk, the lactose (milk sugar)in the milk will make the corn taste even sweeter)
Add the corn to the water and let sit until you are ready to eat.
This method prevents the corn from over-cooking and holds it hot for quite a while
Buying corn- When I lived in upstate NY a farmer told me this about buying corn, and I have stuck to it faithfully:
Only buy corn on the day you plan to consume it, and of course farm fresh is best.
DO NOT peel back the husk to check the corn! Once you expose the corn to the air the sugars start converting to starch, reducing the natural sweet flavor. If you want to make sure the cob is full, you can feel it through the husk- I have been doing this for years, and rarely get a bad ear.
Shuck the corn as close to cooking as possible.
*I remove the corn from the cob with a cool utensil called a corn zipper from Khun Rikon
Corn scrambled eggs are great- try pan roasting the corn until it caramelizes, before adding the eggs
They are great in pancakes
Make a salad with corn, halved grape tomatoes, scallions, a bit of mayo and salt and pepper


text:
9 Long Distance Relationship Problems
The concept of the long distance relationship certainly isn't new but it's undoubtedly growing in popularity in the modern world. This puts a massive emphasis on the importance of language and communication.
Valentine's Day is that time of year that always creeps up and reminds us of our love lives (whether we like it or not). You hear about all your friends going on their romantic dates, being showered in flowers and chocolates and you are home alone desperately clutching your iPhone. If you have ever suffered a long distance relationship here are 9 amusing problems you can surely identify with.
9. All your friends are in 'normal' relationships
You find yourself being irrationally annoyed that your friends don't appreciate how lucky they are that they can see their partner whenever they fancy. Your weekends are also solely dependent on your single friends and you pray that they don't meet somebody. Please move on swiftly, Valentine's Day.
8. Travelling isn't fun anymore
When you have to travel to visit your significant other, it's not always sangria and tapas and sightseeing. We mean when you have to take a plane, then a bus to the city centre and then a train to the next town and then another bus or subway ride till you arrive at your final destination to visit your significant other. Why has the magic elevator not been invented yet?
7. Things get lost in translation
There are a lot of couples with different nationalities these days (got to love an accent). There's something really romantic and exotic about that but there are also times they didn't get the joke from your favourite comedian or you literally have no idea what they are trying to say to you. "I have a surprise for you in the chicken." he says, and you realise that he means the kitchen.
6. There are too many ways to stay connected…
It is more possible now than ever to stay connected in a long distance relationship, but the number of possibilities can be confusing. You start off by sending a Snapchat, and then you get a Whatsapp, but you switch to Facebook because you have your laptop handy and they reply on Instagram 🙁 Things can get a bit overwhelming and confusing here. Not to mention that your're always glued to your phone and really over-dramatic when your battery dies.
5. So it's tempting to overdo it
It's natural that you will want to know how your other half is doing, but the temptation to know EVERYTHING can take over. When you start checking the last time your partner was online or start putting a timer on how long they take to reply, you know you have gone overboard.
4. You only get to see each other once in a blue moon
It's difficult to establish a normal routine: how often you see each other, for how many days, whose turn it is to travel. It takes a lot of planning. Of course this can be an advantage too, not only because you enjoy the freedom and independence but also because intense excitement and happiness takes over when you finally get to see your partner again.
3. You're even more nervous than usual about talking to the in-laws
Talking to your significant other's parents can be nerve-wracking enough without a language barrier. Too add to the pressure you might have to communicate with your other half's family in their own language. But just when you try to communicate using the basic verbs you studied, they assume you are 100% fluent and BOOM you've no idea what they're saying and you're too embarrassed to admit it.
2. You have first world problems
You either have money but no holidays, or holidays but no money. You play around with the idea of quitting your job, giving up on your career and aspirations, saying goodbye to your friends and hoping on the next flight. Then you realise you're an adult and you have responsibilities. Roll on the next bank holiday.
1. It's hard to manage your expectation.
Don't expect it to be plain sailing because there are going to be struggles. That may be due to language barriers or miscommunication or the frustration of being apart for so long. Plus all your friends at home don't have much experience from a long distance relationship partner so can't help you with advice or examples.
Whether you have been in a long distance relationship for a long time or just a temporary period you will have to deal with the roller-coaster of emotions for a while.
Remember communication is vital and the use of language can play a huge role in your relationship. Enjoy yourself this Valentine's weekend. You may not be able to see your other half in person like the rest of your friends, but … LDRs are still great and can totally be worth the hardship.


text:
It's no secret that access to drinking water can be limited during severe weather events. But what about the days and weeks that follow? According to research from Clemson's Belle W. Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science, water can still be unsafe weeks after residents' access to water has been restored.
Dr. Hamed Majidzadeh, a post-doctoral fellow at the Baruch Institute, is one of several National Science Foundation-funded researchers who have studied the impact severe rain events like South Carolina's flood of 2015 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016 have on water quality.
"We had two hurricanes in South Carolina, one year apart exactly, in October 2015 and October 2016," Hamed said, referring to Hurricanes Joaquin and Matthew. "Hurricanes are not good, but having two hurricanes one year apart, exactly at the same time, provided us with a great opportunity to see how they impact the water quality, how lasting they are, [and] how many days after a hurricane event we should watch the water quality."
Hamed and his colleagues particularly focused on the increased quantities of carbon, nitrogen and organic matter found in drinking water after these events. Carbon and nitrogen might seem harmless enough, but their interaction with other chemicals that pose serious issues.
"During water purification, we form these disinfection byproducts . . . chloroform is probably the most well-known one, and they are a threat to human health because they can cause, for example, cancer," explained Dr. Alexander Ruecker, one of Hamed's colleagues.
Essentially, carbon and nitrogen reacts with chlorine during the water purification process in water treatment facilities, resulting in an uptick in harmful disinfection byproducts like chloroform in drinking water. These chemical byproducts have the potential to harm other creatures as well.
"[An] exceeding amount of nitrogen in the water can deoxygenize water and endanger the aquatic life," Hamed explained, noting the potential danger to fish and other animals, both large and small.
Although they have studied these conditions since 2015, Hamed said his team isn't qualified to make a judgment call about how water treatment facilities and local governments should react to this information. Appropriate public policy, Hamed said, should be determined by public officials, after consulting the science uncovered by himself and others.
However, Hamed also said that their results are certainly concerning.
"We have the flooding, people evacuate and the physical damage ends . . . but the changes in water quality can be continuously extended after that. It can continue for twenty days, for thirty days after we have the flooding resulted from hurricanes," Hamed said. "In this case, for Hurricane Matthew and Joaquin . . . up to 20 days after the hurricane we had extended increase in carbon and nitrogen, which can form disinfection byproducts above levels that are considered safe by the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency]."
These statistics, notably, refer to specifically to conditions in coastal areas. Hamed's research indicates that the concentrations of carbon and nitrogen gradually taper off moving away from the coast, for the simple reason that there are more wetlands in coastal areas.
According to Hamed, wetlands are highly absorbent of carbon, and export massive quantities of carbon into the ocean each year. During intense flooding, wetlands that are connected to river systems export massive quantities of carbon into river systems, which finds its way into drinking water.
Fortunately, because the researchers collected water samples both during and after rain events, they were able to develop a metric for what wetland areas should expect during future events.
"In the future, depending on the intensity of the hurricane event and the location of the hurricane event, we can predict how the water quality will be changed, and we might be more prepared for that," Hamed said.
Dr. Alexander Ruecker, Hamed's aforementioned colleague, agreed that more research was merited to study future events.
"We will probably see this kind of severe weather event—such as hurricanes, flooding—more frequent in the future. Also, we just need more data . . . it would be very interesting to follow up in the future," he said.
In fact, the weather events of the past month have already given the Clemson researchers the opportunity to do just that. In the time that has passed since our interview, they have collected water samples in Texas during Hurricane Harvey and in South Carolina during Irma. Hamed also said that he and his team are examining methods to reduce the flow of carbons, nitrogen and other pollutants such as mercury into streams.
Hamed and other Baruch Institute faculty also continue to collaborate with other scholars who have investigated the environmental effects of hurricanes in the region, including researchers at Coastal Carolina University and the University of North Carolina Greensboro to educate the public about the extended effects of extreme weather events on daily life.
Note: This story has been edited to reflect the correct name of Clemson's lab at the Baruch Institute. This story previously incorrectly identified the program as "The Belle W. Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Ocean Science." The correct name for this program is the "Belle W. Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science." The University of South Carolina operates the marine lab at the Baruch Institute, the Belle W. Baruch Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences.
The Environmental Protection Agency's Rules for Disinfectants and Disinfection Byproducts


text:
This feature is non-standard and is not on a standards track. Do not use it on production sites facing the Web: it will not work for every user. There may also be large incompatibilities between implementations and the behavior may change in the future.
MSGestureTap event is fired when the user "taps" the pointing device (e.g., touches the touch surface with their finger, taps the touch surface with a pen device, clicks with a mouse). Typically, it's preferable to listen for the
click event instead.
General info
- Specification
- Not part of any specification. Microsoft has a description on MSDN
- Interface
- Bubbles
- Unknown
- Cancelable
- Unknown
- Target
- Element
- Default Action
- Unknown
Global event handler
Browser compatibility
This event is supported in Internet Explorer 10+ and Microsoft Edge.


text:
Interior Design Leamington Spa – An Introduction
Interior designs are extremely important in shaping the expression of a house. People have been using various topics of interior design to decorate their houses. Some folks use a particular motif in decorating their house while some naive people just collect artwork pieces that they like and put them in their house irrespective of how they are going to agree with the interiors of the house. To make a stronger appeal in decorating their houses, people often hire specialist interior designers for the job. As it is fairly evident from the title, the traditional designs incorporate the use of natural materials and subtle hues. The traditional design gives a sense of past and local culture. In stark contrast with traditional interior design, the contemporary interiors incorporate the use of latest technology and design elements. It gives a very organized feel. The modern interiors are mostly incorporated with symmetrical and geometric looking elements. Check out the below mentioned website, if you're searching for more details regarding luxury interior design leamington spa.
The furniture and accessories used in traditional designs are overtly decorative. The use of colours is highly exaggerated. The traditional interiors have ornamental furniture with carved edges. The modern interiors use hardware that is slightly elongated, has straight lines and little bit lifted from the floor for the airy texture. The modern interior uses the limited texture of colours for decoration. All the excess decorations which were part of conventional design have been removed to form the modern interior. The type of materials used in both types of design also differs largely. While in traditional interiors the use of wood, stone, plaster and brick to make the arches and windows is the standard, the modern interior designs use technologically advanced materials like plastic or steel to develop its unique style. It may be easily observed that traditional interiors have doors and windows of uniform shape and size and their placements will also be quite similar.
Due to the technical advancements, it has been made possible to design windows of various shapes and sizes to fit the different needs. It might be concluded that the traditional and contemporary themes of interior design are just two completely different themes. While the traditional designs make the house look very decorative with the excessive use of accessories and colors. It uses complex designs and bulky furniture. It is so over the top that you cannot miss noticing any of its features. The contemporary design has its beauty in its simplicity and technical advancements. The modern designs are more focused on keeping the insides as uncluttered and as efficient as possible.


text:
|Course Name
|MS Excel 2016
|Course Code
|Course Type
|Desktop Application
|$599.00 Enrolment Form
|Two days
|Part-time / Full Time:
Weekends, Week Days, Evenings
|This instructor lead course aims to increase your productivity by providing the skills and knowledge to use Microsoft Excel 2016 effectively.
|The course material will be provided.
I benefitted greatly from this course while still working in the workplace (restaurant).
I was very happy with my time at VIT studying hospitality. I don't think there is anything I would change, everything was good"
Very Convenient location had a wonderful journey at VIT.
Staff member specially Dhara was excellent.
Flexible payment option and very supportive trainer.
especially Trainer Andrea was my favourite.
Fantastic opportunity to be a student of VIT. Excellent trainer and best Administrator, thanks for their help and support
The course was very good. Trainer was fantastic and was flexible and informative
So far the course has been fantastic with a patient and understanding teacher. The course is very informative and helpful with my current job.
It is a very enjoyable and informative class.
Student Services was very supportive.
Best education and Graduation Ceremony
Enjoyed the education journey and Good teaching staff
Everyone Friendly and Helpful @ VIT
Very supportive lecturers, best staff and organising commitees
Graduation Ceremony the best and I enjoyed thoroughly
Study environment @ VIT is best
Great inspiration by our Chairman and CEO of VIT


text:
Look, we're not going to beat around the bush here: "Supernatural" stars Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki are hot, hot, hot, and every time we get to be in the same room as them, we're all a-flutter.
Zap2it caught up with the Winchester boys at Comic-Con in San Diego and had the chance to talk to them about Season 6, which starts one year after the Season 5 finale. Ackles' character, Dean, has spent the last year as a defacto stepfather to his girlfriend Lisa's son.
"It's definitely a unique color for him, you know? Driving a pickup truck to the construction site and having dinner and falling asleep in a normal bed," Ackles says. He wasn't surprised to find that Dean took that direction. "I think there was always a piece of Dean that wanted to make an effort to live a normal life, and [Lisa] was the closest thing that he had to that."
"I think that's really what he was hung up on, was the idea of what she could bring him. And, you know, she's not unattractive," he adds.
Ackles' upcoming directorial debut, which just wrapped production in Vancouver. "It's something that he's passionate about; he's always been interested in it," Padalecki says. "He's one of my best friends, so it was cool to be like, 'Cool man, I'm glad you got your opportunity this year. What do you want from me?'"
"It was definitely a unique experience," Ackles says. "I've never looked at a script the way I had to look at the one that I direct. As an actor you just look at it and make decisions on your character. I was having to make decisions on every word, on every page. It's a lot to think about. It's a lot of homework, a lot of decisions to make. You're the Captain of the Problem-Solving Squad."
Padalecki had the easy job: "It was like making a movie with your best buddy," he says. "It's like making home videos or something."
As Captain of the Problem-Solving Squad, Ackles couldn't live the comfortable life of an actor. "Any problem that ever happens while we're filming, as an actor, I'm like 'Eh, I don't get paid for that.' I can just walk away and let people deal with it who do. Now it was me having to deal with all that."
Padalecki wasn't envious of Jensen being in charge. "I'm not jealous, actually," he tells us. "I don't think it's for me. It's kind of daunting for me, it's almost like if somebody told me to write. I'm not a writer, I'm an actor. I'm happy being in front of the camera, as an actor at least."
We asked both stars what their favorite thing about the others' character is, but they preferred to talk about what they don't like. "My least favorite thing is how tall [Sam] is," Jensen joked.
"He's bossy," Jared added. "Dean is bossy."
This season, things will change. "It's a different Sam this season," Padalecki says, "So Sam is kind of the bossy one this season. Sam's kind of like 'I've got the answers, I was in hell, and I was Lucifer, so just follow my lead.' I get to play the big brother a little bit."
Follow Zap2it and @cadlymack on
Twitter and Zap2it
on Facebook for the latest TV, movie and celebrity news.


text:
FILE - In this June 15, 2008 file photo, actor Tom Wopat arrives at the 62nd Annual Tony Awards in New York. Wopat, 65, who played Luke Duke in the 1980s television show "The Dukes of Hazzard," is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday, Aug. 3, 2017, in Waltham, Mass., District Court. on indecent assault and battery, and drug charges. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer, file) (Peter Kramer)
WALTHAM, Mass. (AP) - The actor who played Luke Duke in the 1980s television show "The Dukes of Hazzard" is facing indecent assault and battery and drug charges in Massachusetts.
The Middlesex district attorney's office says 65-year-old Tom Wopat is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in Waltham District Court.
Waltham police said they could not immediately release details on what led to the charges. An attorney wasn't listed for him.
Wopat was scheduled to appear in a production of "42nd Street" at the Reagle Music Theatre of Greater Boston, which is based in Waltham.
The performance's opening night is Thursday.


text:
Five Friends and Fifty years a blog a day for five days introducing you to the five people that helped me raise the wonderful girls I have today. Watching five different personalities, that was all productive and good in a crazy sort of way; has made them interesting productive adults.
This is some of the things I do know; by living fifty years. I am really as nice as people think I pretend to be. I don't ever want to appear to be selfish. I may be a bit in respect to thinking that I have worked hard and wish others thought I deserved to have more. I am a jealous person. I am more so; now than ever. I wonder why I have worked and loved more than most and have less. I am basically homeless; really with only myself to blame. "Farther Along"; a song we sang often at the tiny Methodist Church we went to when I was little, helps me not to live with enormous regret. Farther along I really do hope to understand why? Friends, family, and work are all things I strived to put all my effort into.
The Housewives of Any Town, USA had nothing on us. In my heart and mind I take credit for us coming together. I think I was the favorite friend to all of them. I think they all liked me the most. There were times that I did things that I really didn't want to do, just because one of them asked me to. Neisse I always said and still think she could talk you into living if you were dying.
Proof being that I hid under a bridge in the middle of the night, that's another story.
Friends I had the greatest. I say had; because I have lost the bond we had along the way. I would like to think that it was just as much them as me, but my life changed thus my place with them changed. It just recently occurred to me what I lost. I can hear my sister –in-law talk about her daughter and Black Bird's son playing together and it makes me so jealous. I wished I had not gotten so wrapped up in catching a husband that after fifteen years, I still haven't caught.
My children are having children and I realize more all my circle of friends did for me. There were five wonderful friends that made my life so much easier. I took way too much advantage of what they would do for me. At the time I thought my way of life then, was the way it would remain. In time I would repay them for all they did for me. I did not do this, instead around the time they needed me most my world came crashing down around me. I have said many times, "don't ever think you have it made, anything can happen. Happen it did. It happened just when I was living exactly the life I had planned.
We all had coffee just about every week-end. We were the click of clicks. Thick as thieves to say the least, we were loyal to each other to the end. I had three little girls. The first of my three girls were twins.
It has taken me this long to get to the second friend. I may have to continue her story another day. I really got baby fever when the first of the five friends had her little boy. He would stay with me as an infant. For some odd reason I thought that having kids would give me something to do while my husband was out and about. I was not wrong, it gave me more to than I ever imagined. It also gave my closest friend at the time lots to do. She was more of a mothering/cleaning/thrifty person than I was. Seemed I tried to do everything at once, never getting one thing done.
She would come into my house and yell "I can't stand this mess!" With that said, she would fly in picking up and putting away all the mess. I was ok at washing and drying laundry, but putting it up? That was a different story. I hated washing dishes; it was obvious by the pile that was always in my sink. I really meant it when I said I took advantage of what I let my friends do for me. She could wash more dishes faster than anyone ever and get them clean to boot. She would start washing and I would start emptying the leftovers from the refrigerator. To this day we say that I would clean the refrigerator every time Neisse started washing dishes. The dishes were not all she took charge of; she could make the girls mind much better than I could. Just a month or so ago she said that I was convinced that children were not to be spanked until they reached a certain age. My girls will tell you today that they were better because, my mama and all her friends spanked us. I can still see Neisse with a switch. It is still funny. She loved me enough to hang with me and all my mess. Years of seeing each other almost every day ended really when we needed each other the most.
I with some advice of my friends decided that my husband was not going to change, even after the terrible pain he had caused me. I was now going to be different than any of my friends. I would be broke, working two jobs and hoping to find someone to make my life happy and complete. I told Neisse once when I had not seen her in a while ( I had seen her every day for years) and now; I am telling her I am sorry that I was busy trying to work and catch a husband. That may have been the worst thing to say at the time. It was not long after that, her husband got sick. She needed me then, much more than I had ever needed her to wash dishes, spank my kids or clean my house. After he died I sat with her on her porch. I realized how right she was when she talked of how alone she felt. The guilt struck me hard, because even though she wasn't speaking directly of me, I was too, busy to be there. She told me when I said something negitive about my ex's wife, that she really liked her. I knew then that I had lost my loyal-the-end, thick-as-thieves status.
The rest of the five meant just as much in different ways. One, I think I became her friend just because I did not want to have her as an enemy. The other was her sister. The sisters were friends with Neisse since they were little. Part of the circle that brought us together. My sister-in-law fit right in, making it five. The happiest times of my life were with them raising my girls. Black Bird and Sis are really close now. Neisse and sister, not-the-enemy- one the other sister are close. I am loved from a far, but still loved. I am just not so included. There I am jealous once again.


text:
Something Fishy 3
Score points by swimming a loop of bubbles around the other fish. Your score from each loop is determined by the most common kind of fish in the loop, and increases exponentially with the number of them that you captured. If you catch a fishhook or tin ca
Played: 3,355
Added: 13 December 1901
Added by:
Please log in to favorite.
Please login or register to leave a comment.


text:
Romiosini - A series of essays on Byzantine history by Nikolaos Provatas and Yiannis Papadimas, with a chronology of the Eastern Roman Empire, list of emperors, maps, gallery of icons and bibliography.
From the site:
This homepage is intended to outline the history and culture of "Romiosini", a word signifying "Hellenism in the Middle ages". We will cover the history of Romiosini from its foundations to the fall of Constantinople, touching also on the effect of the Greek East on the European renaissance. The motivation for this project stems from the observation that history of Romiosini, while intriguing, is insufficiently represented and more often than not, it is overlooked. What follows, however, is by no means an exhaustive study of this period. This homepage is designed simply as a small, clear and concise survey of the major aspects of this era, and, we hope, as a directional tool that will better assist the interested student and scholar of history in his/her investigation of the Greek Middle Ages. Areas of interest include: Culture, Language, Politics, Art, Science, Law, the Church, etc. Also included in this projects are links to other sources relevent to the history of Hellenism during the Middle Ages, some of them indeed much more exhaustive than this.
A word about the name "Romiosini". The modern term by which many historians refer to Hellenism in the Middle ages is "Byzantine Civilization". Strictly speaking this expression is wrong since the citizens of the Greek Roman East did not generally refer to themselves as Byzantines, but rather as "Romans". For the sake of historical accuracy it would be desirable to avoid as much as possible the term "byzantine", in favour of the term "Roman" or "Romios". On the other hand, the term "byzantine" has become so entrenched within the phraseology of Medieval studies, that to do so entirely would be impossible.


text:
Thursday, 3 March 2016
Sale a bration nearly over...
Well, what an amazing Sale a Bration it has been this year. Lots of fantastic free items and the only sad thing is that it is soon coming to an end!
Have you gotten everything you needed? There are still a few weeks to get the fantastic offer of a free gift for every £45 +pp you spend or if you have a huge wish list, why not join up? For £99 incl pp you get to choose £160 worth of product...a great deal.
Sale a bration ends March 31 2016, so what are you waiting for?
Let me know if you have any queries.
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
Layfayette, Louisiana; August 17, 1951: Hank Williams sings about having "The Love Sick Blues;" Bob Hope delivers his famous one liners; Carmen Miranda shows her samba moves; Jimmy Durante does his signature "Inka Dinka Doo," and every movie star one can imagine—Lucille Ball, Dorothy Lamour, Cesar Romero, James Cagney, Judy Garland, even boxer Jack Dempsey– comes out on stage to talk live to the regular folks and sign autographs. Is it a big-time Hollywood movie extravaganza? Nope. It's the Hadacol Caravan! And, it could be stopping in your area really soon! Price of admission? Only one Hadacol box top per person.
Canjun entrepreneur, razzle-dazzle showman, and Louisiana State Senator Dudley LeBlanc, the creator of this wildly popular Hadacol brand "health tonic" that has swept the country, has put together another multi-million dollar, star-studded Hadacol Caravan railroad tour, promoting his product like never before.
This huge Hadacol Caravan with 17 plush railroad cars loaded with America's top movie stars and singers is going to have whistle stops and one-night-stands in 15 states, while traveling 3800 miles. All to increase the sales of Hadacol.
Hadacol, of course, is that "cure anything" patent medicine that LeBlanc markets as a vitamin supplement and, according to the Senator, "marches into battle against the pain and suffering of rheumatism, heart problems, ulcers, diabetes, nervousness, gas, cancer" and on and on. You name the medical malady, LeBlanc says, "Hadacol cures it." Of course, it doesn't hurt that Hadacol contains 12 % alcohol and has tremendous sales in "dry" areas of the country where one cannot buy liquor– like much of the South. A bottle of wine has about the same alcohol content as this "medicinal" elixir.
So, alcohol? Yes. Taste? No. Hadacol has been described as "smelling like a sewer and tasting like dirt." Consequently, entertainer Groucho Marx asked its creator, "What is Hadacol good for?" Always the showman, LeBlanc replied, "It was good for five and a half million for me, last year."
The Food and Drug Administration has recently begun to ask the same question. LeBlanc has not been quite as glib with the FDA. But so far, the sales of Hadacol have continued to rise and the Hadacol Caravan is being allowed to roll on. It is an entertaining craze. It is a cultural phenomenon. And, since Senator LeBlanc seeks higher office, Hadacol could also be a political movement. Clearly, LeBlanc has taken the old fashioned traveling medicine show to unparalleled new heights by adding the stars of Nashville, New York and Hollywood, and riding his rails to riches here in the middle of the 20th Century on the Hadacol Caravan.
Actor Mickey Rooney asked why it was named Hadacol. LeBlanc said, "I had-a-call it sumpin'."
After the Hadacol Caravan got underway in southern Louisiana in 1951, it meandered through the South entertaining tens of thousands of people, but on September 17th, in Dallas, LeBlanc secretly got word that the Food and Drug Administration was going to shut him down. He moved quickly, contacting a research foundation in New York that had expressed an interest earlier in buying Hadacol. Lightning fast, he sold Hadacol to the foundation for a reputed $8 million dollars. The foundation, in turn, leased the elixir to a distribution syndicate.
With the sale, the Hadacol Caravan came to an abrupt stop. LeBlanc made a hasty exit back to Louisiana with a lot of cash. But, in a matter of days, both the foundation and the syndicate found out the Hadacol company financials were not what they seemed. The buyers claimed LeBlanc made numerous misrepresentations about the company. The new Hadacol company quickly went bankrupt. LeBlanc was able to wiggle out of any legal responsibility in the matter. Plus, he probably poured salt on the wounds of the newly bankrupt owners by saying publicly, "If you sell a cow and the cow dies, you can't do anything to a man for that." Hadacol was definitely dead, never to be revived.
Hadacol was a gargantuan gaudy comet flashing across the American sky from 1948 to 1951 and, then quickly disappearing into history, remembered today only in Southern Memories.


text:
The displacer beast is considered a "product identity" of the Dungeons & Dragons game despite being an obvious expy of the Coeurl from A.E. Van Vogt's short story Black Destroyer.
The story was also adapted to comic book format by Marvel in 1974.
Despite being listed as a large sized creature in the AD&D Monster Manual, I've always considered the displacer beast to be roughly the size of a normal puma (like the comic book version of the coeurl as opposed to the short story version).
Because of this, 28mm miniatures like the Ral Partha Displacer Beast (AD&D Monsters 11-413) are just too big.
The Ral Partha displacer beast is the size of a large 28mm tiger or lion. It also bears the traits of the original coeurl in that it has four (rather than six) legs.
It is only with the 15mm Splintered Light Miniatures Chaos Panthers (MONS09) that I've found something that is close in size to what I'm looking for.
The SLM displacer beasts are pretty much the size of a typical puma in 1/72 scale. They're not as fear inducing as a creature the size of an elephant, but I don' think bread-and-butter type dungeon monsters need to be blown out of proportion.
With the displacer beast covered, I wanted a miniature of an actual coeurl as well. The coeurl has been used as a monster in the Final Fantasy video game series, and in the Dirty Pair light novel (and anime) series as well.
|Yuri, Kei, and Mughi
Being lazy, I always like to see if there is a miniature that is already available that I can use as a starting point for my creations. For the coeurl, that base was the Pathfinder miniatures Shadow Hound (Shattered Star 08).
Even though the shadow hound is presumably a dog, the face is generic enough that could pass for a cat.
It has forelegs that are longer than its hind legs, which the coeurl is described as having. It is also relatively large and imposing compared to a man.
I removed the head, and reattached it so that it was facing forward. I drilled a couple of holes in the shoulders and glued some bent wire in place.
This is as far as I've gotten, and the next step will be to figure out how I want the 7-fingered "hands" at the end of each tentacle to look. I don't particularly care for the paw-like appearance of the ones in the illustration below, but I haven't come up with any alternatives yet.
|Many coeurls are illustrated with multiple
tentacles sprouting from their shoulders.
I also need to come up with a way to make the ears, which I envision as being similar to Kzin ears.
|Meow is just Me + Ow
A comparison of the various miniatures.


text:
Approx 50" [127 cm] square.
Bernat® Blanket™ (10.5 oz/300 g; 258 yds/234 m)
Contrast A Light Teal 2 balls
Contrast B Sugar Cookie 2 balls
Contrast C Sand 2 balls
Size U.S. M/13 (9 mm) crochet hook or size needed to obtain gauge.
6 sc and 7 rows = 4" [10 cm].
Approx = Approximately
Beg = Beginning
Ch(s) = Chain(s)
Cont = Continue(ity)
Dc = Double crochet
Inc = Increase(ing)
Pat = Pattern
Rem = Remaining
Rep = Repeat
RS = Right side
Sc = Single crochet
Sp(s) = Space(s)
Sl st = Slip stitch
St(s) = Stitch(es)
Note: When joining colors, work to last 2 loops on hook of first color. Draw new color through last 2 loops and proceed.
Stripe Pat
With A, work 4 rows.
With B, work 2 rows.
With C, work 4 rows.
With B, work 2 rows.
These 12 rows form Stripe Pat.
With A, ch 6.
1st row: (RS). 1 dc in 4th ch from hook (counts as ch-3 and dc). 1 dc in each of next 2 ch. Turn. 1 block made.
2nd row: Ch 6. 1 dc in 4th ch from hook. 1 dc in each of next 2 ch – beg block made. Skip next 3 dc. (Sl st. Ch 3. 3 dc) in next ch-3 sp – block made. Turn. 2 blocks.
3rd row: Beg block. (Block in next ch-3 sp) twice. Turn. 3 blocks made.
4th row: Beg block. (Block in next ch-3 sp) 3 times. Join B. Turn. 4 blocks made.
5th row: With B, beg block. (Block in next ch-3 sp) 4 times. Turn. 5 blocks made.
First 5 rows of Stripe Pat complete.
Keeping cont of Stripe Pat and inc 1 block each row as established until left side from beg measures 50" [127 cm].
Beg decreasing: Next row: Sl st in each of next 3 dc. Block in each ch-3 sp to last ch-3 sp. Sl st in last ch-3 sp. Turn.
Keeping cont of Stripe Pat, rep last row until 1 block rem. Fasten off.


text:
(BLOOMINGTON) - Bloomington police were called to the 1300 block of West 13th Street Tuesday night after a report of an intoxicated man with three children was attempting to find a ride.
According to Sgt. Cody Forston, when officers arrived the man was pulling at his children and yelling "run, it's the police."
The man then let go of his children and ran from police who caught him in the 1200 block of West 13th Street.
32-year-old Jason Lee Blackwell, of 3970 North Feerwood Court, was arrested and charged with resisting law enforcement, public intoxication and neglect of a dependent.
Because Blackwell was intoxicated he was first taken to the hospital for an evaluation before he was taken to jail.
Officials from the department of Child Services were alerted and the children were released to other family members.
Have a question or comment about a news story? Send it to email@example.com
1340 AM WBIW, Bedford's Place To Talk. Serving Lawrence and surrounding counties since 1948!
© 2019 Ad-Venture Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. WBIW.com and Listen Live Powered by HPC


text:
Or more simply, Monitoring End User Experience
RUM with Boomerang
This post is part of the Real User Monitoring series on our blog. Read more on How to build your RUM strategy, Website Monitoring with W3C APIs or Our user tracking day-to-day use cases if you're interested in further Real User Monitoring specifics.
This week, I've looked deeper into Boomerang, a JS library used to automate the tracking of user performance monitoring.
My goal is to get rid of performance issues on my web-app. The first step is to identify precisely what's going on. It means monitoring and tracking all that is happening and being able to filter through information to know how it is affecting different types of browsers, users, assets and animations.
Actually, I have not found so many RUM libraries, and Boomerang is the most production-ready one. Boomerang measures many metrics relating to your end user web browsing experience. While many timings come directly as collectable, you can still add your own timings. And you can then send all the information collected to the endpoint of your choice with its beacon.
Boomerang was initially developed by the Yahoo performance team before being open-sourced. The library is today kept up to date by SOASTA, a Google Analytics competitor. I'm going to share in this post how to start quickly with the Boomerang library and launch your first tests on your web app.
I) Build the library using Grunt
You'll be very surprised to learn the first thing that needs to be done is building the library…
Boomerang is modular and provides useful plugins. To begin working with it you first need to choose which plugin you want to use. For a first start, the most useful ones are the following:
- RT: the RoundTrip plugin that measures page load time
- Restiming: a plugin that collects performance data from user agents. It is built following the W3C Resource Timing specification
- Navtiming: A plugin that collects performance data from user browsers. It also uses the the W3C Navigation Timing specification
The official documentation uses "make" to build the library. But a grunt task is also available. Let's use it.
# get sources git clone https://github.com/SOASTA/boomerang.git && cd boomerang # get dependencies (mainly grunt) npm install # choose plugins (RT, restiming and navtiming) curl -OL https://gist.githubusercontent.com/gpolaert/dd435c1ddcc37153217a6bf3e8f61499/raw/fe56ec14aabdf3347abb47d070882a34ff0ad9b2/plugins.json # build the library grunt build
The minified script is directly available into the `build` directory.
II) Add Boomerang to your code
There is 3 ways to include the library to your app. The good one, the bad one and the ugly one, and I will use the latter one for this post.
The method is in fact not so bad, and on the plus side, it allows you to make quick experiments as I'm going to show you. You will get a better understanding of what you can get before deep-diving in the other 2 methods that are harder to set up but more efficient as their library is asynchronously loaded (meaning no performance impact on your code).
 <title>Example to report User Monitoring performance</title>   ...  ...
III) Configure Boomerang to get your metrics flowing
Boomerang and its plugins merge all metrics into an object called a beacon. So you need to at least provide a URL endpoint to Boomerang for receiving all beacons. I'd recommend you to use RequestBin in order to quickly create an endpoint for your tests. So, navigate to their website and generate your bin url:
BOOMR.init({ beacon_url: "http://requestb.in/1m68z8a1", beacon_type: "POST" });
And this is it! You are now ready to get performance metrics from all of your users.
IV) What kind of metrics can I expect to find in the beacon?
You'll find lots of useful metrics, and I'm sharing below the most interesting ones in my opinion.
- Round Trip plugin metrics
- Navigation Timing plugin metrics
- Resource Timing plugin metrics
This plugin allows you to add your custom timer to the code. The example below measures loaded time for both the "head" and "body" parts in addition to the default timer provided with the plugin:
 <meta charset="utf-8"> <title>Google Phone Gallery</title>

For more details on the plugin, please check their documentation.
The Navtiming plugin reports metrics coming from the W3C navigation API. The picture below shows you all markers that get attached to the beacon:
All metric names are encoded by Boomerang and their description available on the API page.
This plugin might be the most useful one! If the user's browser is compatible (ie if they are not using Safari), the W3C Resource Timing API reports loaded times for each asset: css, image, xmlhttprequest, etc.
Just run the following command to get a spoiler in your browser console.
performance.getEntries().forEach(function(e) { console.debug(e.name, e); });
By default, Boomerang encodes this data as a trie. To convert metrics as something more friendly, use the following decoder: logmatic/logmatic-rum-js.
See you soon
I'm planning on sharing how to customize the beacon metrics and how to monitor a single page application (Angular) next week, so stay tuned! And if you're curious, have a look at logmatic-rum-js, the easiest way we found to grab all logs and metrics from user devices (mobile, browser) to Logmatic.io.


text:
Tips on how to make Yahoo Mail working on Android Mail and K-9 Mail with IMAP
After spending so much time trying to get Free Yahoo Mail to work in my HTC Droid Incredible, I constantly getting username/login/password not correct or authentication failed…. blah blah blah error. Eventually, I got it to work. Therefore I want to post my experience here hoping to help someone out there who are facing the same hassle.


text:
|Busty BBW baby
41-year-old SugarBaby
(Next birthday in 2 months) Taurus
Milwaukee, WI, United States
Seeking SugarDaddy 40 - 90
Personal Details
|About Me:
I have a outgoing personality and one hell of an oral fixation. I want an SD that will see me for the business lady that I am and take a chance on love and life and help invest in some business ventures that I am trying to pursuing. Im available for travel with a few days notice but I've never left the country before. So, I do not have a passport as of yet. I love the water and have recently taken to water aerobics. I would like to scuba dive, snorkel, water ski and take a cruise with fun SD.
I DRINK. On occassion I enjoy some cognac, tequila or a daiquri. a beer during the packers game (#GOPACKGO)
I SMOKE! I'm now smoking the e-cig in my effort to quit. 420 approved :)
What I'm Looking For
A mature, open minded, outgoing gentleman that wants to see the world with a beautiful woman :)
I would be interested in being a PA, mentee and SB to the right man. I also enjoy some BDSM activities. I would love to explore other countries with a mature, generous man who can show me the world and treat me like a lady.
Looking For


text:
Product Overview
These reduced power striker springs reduce the trigger pull weight, increasing trigger control and shooting accuracy.
Remove the slide. On the underside of the slide, the striker is protruding out of a slot which is opposite the rear sight. The plate on the back of the slide is held in place by a plastic tubular part that also surrounds the rear of the striker. Take a small brass punch and insert it straight into the underside of the striker, in the notched portion of the striker. Slide the punch in so that the tip can be levered onto the plastic sleeve surrounding the striker. Move the handle of the punch toward the rear of the slide, which will lever the plastic sleeve forward, toward the muzzle. By looking into the slot in the slide, you should see the plastic piece move slightly away from the back plate. Holding the punch in place, the back plate can be slid toward the bottom of the slide. This will take some effort, as the plate is holding the extractor spring. When the plate is removed, the striker and assembly can be removed rearward. Push the striker spring away from the firing pin tip. The spring is held on by two circular white plastic collars. They will drop off. The spring can then be removed by sliding forward. Install the Wolff striker spring and hold it toward the striker so that the two white collars can be inserted, which will then hold the new spring in place. Slide the striker assembly into the slide, use a punch to lever the plastic sleeve forward as with disassembly. Slide the back plate into the slide. The extractor spring will have to be held into the slide so the plate can be fully inserted. This spring has a great deal of tension. Reassemble the slide to the frame.


text:
Performance Based Monitoring and Analysis System
The Performance-Based Monitoring System was implemented to move special program monitoring from a cyclical, compliance-based, on-site monitoring system to data-driven results-based, system with targeted interventions in the areas of special education, No Child Left Behind (federal Title programs), Career and Technical Education, and Bilingual Education/English as a Second Language. Some underlying strategies of the PBM system include a shift away from process to results (i.e. program effectiveness and student performance), a strong emphasis on data integrity, a focus on a coordinated approach to agency monitoring, and a more creative application of sanctions and interventions.
Performance Based –
The system is designed to improve student performance and program effectiveness, and to address financial and program compliance concerns within the context of improving student performance.
Data Driven –
Comprehensive data collection systems enable TEA to evaluate student performance and program effectiveness at the state level and to conduct on-site visits when necessary and appropriate.
Comprehensive Evaluation with Targeted Interventions –
Every program TEA is authorized to monitor is evaluated every year in every district. Graduated interventions targeted to specific areas of concern engage more districts in improvement activities.
Coordination and Consistency –
Indicators and standards are aligned across evaluation systems with coordinated interventions appropriate to the areas of concern and consistent across programs.
Performance-Based Monitoring Analysis System (PBMAS)
School districts receive annual performance information through the PBMAS, a set of performance and program effectiveness indicators for special programs TEA is required by state or federal statute to monitor.
The following programs comprise PBMAS:
- Special Education
- Bilingual Education/English as a Second Language
- Career and Technical Education
- No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
- Economically Disadvantaged
- Migrant
- Limited English Proficient
- Safe and Drug-Free Schools.
Summary of 2014 PBMAS Changes
The ongoing transition to the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR)2 is reflected in the 2014 PBMAS with the continued implementation of certain STAAR 3-8 indicators; the discontinuation of certain end-of-course (EOC) indicators and the revision of others in response to the provisions of House Bill 5, 83rd Texas Legislature, 2013; and the introduction of new EOC social studies and English Language Arts (ELA) Report Only indicators in all four program areas. New standards and cut-points have been implemented for the annual dropout rate indicators in all four program areas, and performance level assignments were reinstated for all STAAR Grades 3-8 social studies indicators. Other changes unique to each PBMAS program area are summarized below.
Bilingual Education and English as a Second Language (BE/ESL)
- Changes to the standard and cut-points for BE/ESL Indicator #10 (TELPAS Composite Rating Levels for Students in U.S. Schools Multiple Years) have been implemented.
Career and Technical Education (CTE)
- Changes to the standard and cut-points for BE/ESL Indicator #10 (TELPAS Composite Rating Levels for Students in U.S. Schools Multiple Years) have been implemented.
No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
- For the 2014 PBMAS, there are no changes specific to the NCLB program area. However, indicators in this program area are being implemented based on the overall changes described in this manual that affect all PBMAS program areas in 2014.
- A new Report Only indicator has been added: the Regular Early Childhood Program Rate (Ages 3-5), and two indicators have been deleted: the Placements in Instructional Settings 40/41 Rate (Ages 6-11) and the Placements in Instructional Settings 40/41 (Ages 12-21) Rate. Performance levels will be assigned for the first time on four indicators: the Special Education Regular Class ≥ 80% Rate (Ages 6-11), the Special Education Regular Class ≥ 80% Rate (Ages 12-21), the Special Education Regular Class ˂ 40% Rate (Ages 6-11), and the Special Education Regular Class ˂ 40% Rate (Ages 12-21). Additionally, a new performance level structure was implemented for the STAAR Alternate Participation Rate indicators.
Planning for the Future: 2015 and Beyond
It is anticipated that ongoing development of the PBMAS will include the addition of new indicators, revision of current indicators, and deletion of indicators that are no longer necessary. Factors independent from the PBMAS itself are also likely to have an impact on the future versions of PBMAS. These factors include the following:
- ongoing development and implementation of the statewide assessment program, STAAR;
- reauthorizations of federal statutes, including NCLB;
- results of any state or federal reviews, guidance, and regulations;
- changes to data collection definitions and processes; and
- legislation from a regular or special legislative session.
Standards and Performance Levels
A performance level (PL) is the result that occurs when a standard is applied to a district's performance on an indicator. The performance levels available for indicators in the 2014 PBMAS include Not Assigned (NA) (including Not Assigned through SA, PJSA, or DI), 0, 0 SA, 0 PJSA, 0 RI, 1, 1 SA, 1 PJSA, 2, 2 SA, 2 PJSA, 3, 3 SA, and 3 PJSA. SA refers to special analysis, while PJSA refers to professional judgment special analysis; both are described in the Minimum Size Requirements and Special Analysis section. RI refers to Required Improvement, which is also described in a separate section. DI refers to data integrity and is used in combination with the NA performance level to address situations where compromised data render any other performance level impossible to determine.
A performance level of 0 is the highest designation for any indicator, meaning the district met the standard for the indicator. A performance level of 3 is the lowest designation, indicating the district performance was farthest from the 0 - Met Standard designation. The performance level thresholds are typically referred to as cut-points.
Reminder on Acronyms
l PL = Performance Level
l RI = Required Improvement
l SA = Special Analysis
l PJSA = Professional Judgment Special Analysis
l LEP = Limited English Proficient
l BE = Bilingual Education offered in LISD grades Pk-5
l ESL = English As a Second Language offered in LISD grades 6-12
Required Improvement
The PBMAS, by design, has a built-in improvement component. Because the system includes a range of performance levels, districts that demonstrate improvement from one year to the next can progress from one performance level (PL) to another. For example, a district with 65% of its migrant students earning a diploma under the RHSP or DAP received a PL 1 in the 2013 PBMAS. If that same district is able to improve its migrant RHSP/DAP diploma rate to 70% in 2014, it would receive a PL 0 because its performance meets the 2014 PL 0 standard. In addition to the system's built-in improvement component, the 2014 PBMAS will again include a "required improvement" component for certain indicators.
Monitoring Interventions
The Program Monitoring and Interventions (PMI) Division notifies each district selected for a 2014 PBMAS intervention. Performance-based monitoring interventions determinations are based on PBMAS performance levels and other criteria as well as results of the data validation analyses. Sanctions are applied as necessary and according to state and federal law and Texas Administrative Code (TAC), including, but not limited to, Texas Education Code, Chapter 39.
Additional information related to performance-based monitoring interventions is reflected in 19 TAC §97.1071, Special Program Performance; Intervention Stages, available at http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/index.html. Also available on this rules link is the text of 19 TAC §97.1055, Accreditation Status, which describes how deficiencies in a district's programs monitored under the PBMAS may affect a district's accreditation status.
2014 Longview ISD Performance-Based Monitoring Analysis System (PBMAS)
Program Areas and Stages of Intervention
Bilingual Education / English as a Second Language (ESL)
Stage of Intervention = 2 Progress Monitoring
This component of the PBMAS system has over 37 indicators including specific subject areas within each indicator:
- BE/ESL #1(i-v) — BE STAAR Passing Rate
- BE/ESL #2(i-v) — ESL STAAR Passing Rate
- BE/ESL #3(i-v) — LEP (Not Served in BE/ESL) STAAR Passing Rate
- BE/ESL #4(i-v) — LEP Year-After-Exit (YAE) English STAAR Passing Rate
- BE/ESL #5(i-v) — LEP STAAR EOC Passing Rate
- BE/ESL #6 — LEP Annual Dropout Rate (Grades 7-12)
- BE/ESL #7 — LEP Recommended High School Program or Distinguished Achievement Program (RHSP/DAP) Diploma Rate
- BE/ESL #8 — LEP Graduation Rate
- BE/ESL #9 —TELPAS Reading Beginning Proficiency Level Rate
- BE/ESL #10 —TELPAS Composite Rating Levels for Students in U.S. Schools Multiple Years.
Career and Technology Education Monitoring
Stage of intervention = 2 Progress Monitoring
This component of the PBMAS system has 25 indicators including specific subject areas within each indicator:
- CTE #1(i-iv) — CTE STAAR EOC Passing Rate
- CTE #2(i-iv) — CTE LEP STAAR EOC Passing Rate
- CTE #3(i-iv) — CTE Economically Disadvantaged STAAR EOC Passing Rate
- CTE #4(i-iv) — CTE Special Education STAAR EOC Passing Rate
- CTE #5— CTE Annual Dropout Rate (Grades 9-12)
- CTE #6— CTE RHSP/DAP Diploma Rate
- CTE #7— CTE Graduation Rate
- CTE #8 — CTE Nontraditional Course Completion Rate—Males
- CTE #9 — CTE Nontraditional Course Completion Rate—Females
In addition to the PBMAS intervention staging of a 2 (Progress Monitoring), Longview ISD has been identified to participate in a Program Access Review (PAR). LEAs that offer or administer CTE programs and receive funds from the U.S. Department of Education must meet certain requirements applicable to a CTE program. The Texas Education Agency has the regulatory responsibility to ensure that CTE programs in Texas public secondary schools are accessible to all students. The TEA is required to adopt a civil rights compliance program to identify, remedy, and/or prevent discrimination in CTE programs operated by LEAs. In accordance with this requirement, Longview ISD has been identified for a Program Access Review (PAR) of the Career and Technology Education Program. As a part of the PAR, a targeted on-site review by the TEA will be conducted to address student performance and program effectiveness concerns related to documented substantial, imminent, and/or ongoing risks as reflected in current and/or longitudinal district data and to ensure that Longview ISD complies with civil rights requirements for students served through CTE programs.
During the visit, Agency staff will conduct a program performance and effectiveness review related to the performance-based monitoring (PBM) system and a program access review (PAR). Through the PBM review, the on-site team will examine the LEA's development of the most recent targeted improvement plan (IP); follow-up on implementation of the previous IP; review current data development and analysis processes; and evaluate program effectiveness. The PAR will also consist of a facility inspection and a review of the documentation to ensure compliance with program requirements. To conduct the on-site review the TEA team will:
- Interview stakeholders, service providers, and administrators;
- Review documentation and student data; and
- Conduct facility inspections.
The official findings of the visit will be presented to the LEA in a written report subsequent to the on-site visit. Actions required of LEAs will be tailored to area(s) of concern identified during the visit and will be designed to address performance, program effectiveness, and/or compliance issues and align with improvement planning processes.
Findings of the on-site review may result in continued implementation of the LEA's current IP, revision of the LEA's current IP, revision of the LEA's current IP, development of a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) if applicable, additional LEA intervention activities, escalated agency oversight, and/or sanctions under the provisions of federal law, TEC, or TAC.
Findings related to the PAR will result in the development of an Action Plan for Program Access and oversight by the TEA related to completion of corrective activities. Information resulting from the PAR will be provided to the United States Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights (USDE-OCR).
No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
No stage of intervention.
This component of the PBMAS system has 16 indicators including specific subject areas within each indicator:
- NCLB #1(i-v) — Title I, Part A STAAR Passing Rate at TAKS equivalency
- NCLB #2 — Title I, Part A Annual Dropout Rate (Grades 7-12)
- NCLB #3— Title I, Part A RHSP/DAP Diploma Rate
- NCLB #4— Title I, Part A Graduation Rate
- NCLB #5(i-v) — Migrant STAAR Passing Rate
- NCLB #6— Migrant Annual Dropout Rate (Grades 7-12).
- NCLB #7—Migrant RHSP/DAP Diploma Rate
- NCLB #8— Migrant Graduation Rate
Special Education
Stage of Intervention – Stage 3 Progress Monitoring
This component of the PBMAS system has 26 indicators including specific subject areas within each indicator:
- SPED #1(i-v) — SPED STAAR 3-8 Passing Rate
- SPED #2(i-v) — SPED Year-After-Exit (YAE) STAAR Passing Rate
- SPED #3(i-v) — SPED STAAR EOC Passing Rate
- SPED #4 — SPED STAAR Participation Rate
- SPED #5 — SPED STAAR-Modified Participation Rate
- SPED #6 — SPED STAAR-Alternate Participation Rate
- SPED #7 — SPED Placements in Instructional setting 40/41 (ages 3-5)
- SPED #8 — SPED Regular Early Childhood Program rate (ages 3-5)
- SPED #9 — SPED Regular Class >=80% Rate (ages 6-11)
- SPED #10 — SPED Regular Class <40% Rate (ages 6-11)
- SPED #11 — SPED Regular Class >= 80% Rate (ages 12-21)
- SPED #12 — SPED Regular Class <40% Rate (ages 12-21)
- SPED # 13 — Annual Dropout Rate (Grades 7-12)
- SPED #14 — SPED RHSP/DAP Diploma Rate
- SPED #15 — SPED Graduation Rate
- SPED #16 — SPED Representation
- SPED #17 — SPED African American (Not Hispanic/Latino) Representation
- SPED #18 — SPED Hispanic Representation
- SPED #19 — SPED LEP Representation
- SPED #20 — SPED Discretionary Disciplinary Alternative Education Program (DAEP) Placements
- SPED #21 — SPED Discretionary Placements to In-School Suspension (ISS)
- SPED #22 — SPED Discretionary Placements to Out-of-School Suspension (OSS)
Required Interventions
Districts staged for interventions will engage in the TAIS continuous improvement process and develop a targeted improvement plan to address the identified root causes. The targeted improvement plan and quarterly progress reports will be submitted to the agency. The targeted improvement plan will include improvement strategies and interventions for all systems.
Attached are 2014 Performance-Based Monitoring Analysis System unmasked data tables as released by the Texas Education Agency. A copy of the PBMAS 2014 manual can be located on the TEA website using the following link http://www.tea.state.tx.us/pbm/PBMASManuals.html.


text:
Estate Services
Estates. Probate. Family Division
Chinese Jade Sceptor
Price Realized: $21,060
Edwardian Silver Centrepiece
Price Realized: $3,510
Bruno Bobak
Price Realized: $2,040
Chinese Robin's Egg Censer
Price Realized: $2,040
Edmund Alleyn
Price Realized: $4,212
Georgian Silver Snuffer Tray
Price Realized: $760
Molly Lamb Bobak
Price Realized: $10,080
Cloisonne Bowl
Price Realized: $12,000
Frank Hennessey Pastel
Price Realized: $1,320
Choose us to handle your estate.
We suggest that you begin the appraisal process by speaking with one of our specialists, in person or by phone in one of our three offices located in Toronto and Oakville, Ontario. This will help to determine what type of items you are looking at having valued and what type of valuation you need.
An appraisal of your home, assets, antiques or family heirlooms will arm you with the knowledge of knowing what you own, what you have inherited and how much it is worth…
Read More
Read More
Read More


text:
Hentai Picture: Busty Ranma want this fat cocks right now
Ranma cuddles up a number blow sticks whereas her pussy is inundated with a dildo. Those Ranma 1/2 cunts are anxious for some hot sex – they gets screwed in all possible places and stick long, hard cocks in their well lubed cunts. Naughty babe from Ranma 1/2 craves to take on this heaviest fuck load of her whole life…
Top Posts
Recent Comments
- Anonymous on Ranma always takes shower alone!
- Anonymous on In sexy dress Akane Tendo look amazing
- Anonymous on Akane Tendo has finally showed her sexy curves to the world!
- Anonymous on Busty Akane Tendo want taste big male dick
- Anonymous on Huge-boobed Ranma want attempt multiracial joy


text:
Bitcoin Baccarat—Easy, Fun, and Rewarding Casino Gaming
Bitcoin baccarat brings you the convenience of cryptocurrency payments and the joy of classic card gaming. This is your time to hit the big wins with ease.
Hit a lucky 9 for big wins. This is your ultimate goal in the classic card game baccarat. The game is one of the most renowned casino games of all time. Thanks to simplicity and its low house edge, more betting enthusiasts enjoy the game of chance. Add to this the power of Bitcoin payments; you can indulge in online casino gaming with peace of mind.
When it comes to playing Bitcoin baccarat, it isn't any different from the card game you're used to. However, keep in mind that knowing the game's mechanics is an essential component. You can easily gain an advantage when you learn the rules and strategies needed to play the game.
Gameplay is the same. All you have to do is get a lucky 9 and avoid getting a zero. This game is somehow similar to blackjack where you have to get a score of near or exactly 21 while in baccarat you have to get 9. There are also differences when it comes to the game rules, so make sure you grasp all of these aspects before moving forward.
Why play Bitcoin baccarat?
Easy to play is the key here. Firstly, each player will be given two cards. A maximum of three cards are dealt. When it comes to card value, numbers 2-9 retain their value. Face cards and 10's count as zero. Aces have 1 point. If you get a total of 8 or 9, there is no need to draw another card as it is a natural. If you get more than nine, only one digit is counted. Zeroes are baccarat and you will lose the round.
Play anytime and anywhere
Most Bitcoin casinos do not have country restrictions. This means players from any part of the world are welcome to play baccarat with bitcoins. Thanks to the decentralized nature of bitcoins, you can bet on Bitcoin casinos and baccarat wherever you are. Traditional casinos cannot offer such flexibility. This is your time to experience entertainment unlike anything else.
Confident gaming from start to finish
Playing baccarat with bitcoins is easy. All you need is a Bitcoin wallet, some bitcoins, and you're good to go. If you don't have any bitcoins, simply go to an online Bitcoin exchange and trade your fiat currencies for Bitcoin. That's it. You can get started without filling out long forms. You can directly place your bets. Win and your get your earnings directly on your registered wallet address. All of these are finished in an instant.
There's no better way to play baccarat than with bitcoins. Start your Bitcoin gambling adventures with Best Bitcoin Casino today and never look back.


text:
http://www.bedfordshire-news.co.uk/Feat ... 090000.htm
NOWADAYS seeing mugshots of criminals is very common as police forces and prosecutors release identities of those both wanted and convicted of some of the most serious offences.
But going back around 150 years photographing villans was much more unusual. In fact it was the governor of Bedford Prison Robert Evan Roberts who first came up with the idea.
He was apparently concerned that too many habitual criminals were getting away with offences so he decided that taking pictures of them would allow them to be more easily traced if they committed further crimes.
At the time he wrote: "Photography is an agent in discovering the antecedents of criminals, especially tramps and strangers, is unquestionably a very useful auxiliary and in my opinion should be brought into prison use generally." The vintage portraits were shot in the jail between 1859 and 1876 and the whole collection is held by Bedfordshire and Luton Archives and Records Service - celebrating its centenary this year.
They reveal a gallery of almost 200 criminals - a very small proportion of those in Bedford Prison during the period. They included those imprisoned for more petty offences such as stealing spades to the most serious of murderers - most of whom were hanged for what they had done.
What is unique about the register is that it was started 12 years before a directive from the Home Office that prisoners should have their photographs taken.
Archivist for the service Nigel Lutt said: "The pictures have always been intriguing. What's interesting is that Robert Evan Roberts, the governor of HMP Bedford, decided to start taking the photographs in 1859 which was a number of years before the Government practice to do so was brought in - that was in 1871. As far as we know it's the earliest of its kind. Some of them are dressed in civilian clothing. These pictures are a small part of the collection - there are 192 in total. It's interesting to note that this was the age of the railways and so criminals could move around a lot more. The pictures, as well as being a log, were passed on to the police in different areas if people were wanted for offences elsewhere."
The portraits are very early examples of photography as it only became commercialised in Britain's cities in the mid 1950s and only reached Bedford in 1864. Photographic portraits were expensive, often a shilling or more each, so the nineteenth century portraits which usually survive are mainly of the gentry and middle classes who could afford them.
Murder of William Frederick Budd in Bedford - 1863
On May 10, 1863, Bedford solicitor William Frederick Budd was attacked in Castle Lane and later died of his injuries.
Robert Jordan, 21, a smith, and William Craddock, 33, a carpenter, were convicted of his wilful murder on July 18 the same year.
During the trial at Bedford Magistrates' Court, the prosecutor Mr Mills QC, told the jury that Mr Budd was 'felled to the ground, beaten most cruelly, and died in a few hours afterwards from the injuries inflicted'.
Both Robert Jordan and William Craddock were sentenced to seven years 'penal servitude' at what was then known as Bedford County Gaol.
Craddock's record states his identifying features as: "Two scars on right eyebrow, one on upper lip, scar on left thumb, two on left forefinger, face freckled very much." It says he was born in Kempston, was married and lived in The Grove, Bedford.
Jordan's describes him as having: "Several scars on left thight, shins and both arms, small round scars on forehead." He's stated as single, born in Bedford and living in the High Street.
Thomas Jenkins, 39, from Alabama in the USA, was convicted of 'refusing to enter into a recognisance to give evidence against Robert Jordan and William Craddock for the murder of Frederick William Budd' on May 15, 1863.
He's described as a ships cook, married, born in Louisville and his identifying features were recorded as 'has a hurl on the back, scar on the left eyebrow, high shouldered'.
The archive service was the first local record office in Britain and provided the blueprint for other offices which followed.
In 1898 Befordshire County Council formed a Record Committee but it achieved little until marine zoologist, pioneer skier and historian George Herbert Fowler, a county councillor became its chairman in 1913. Within six months Fowler persuaded the committee and the council to: appoint a clerk of records, fire proof the strongroom, introduce recrods management and introduce searchroom rules for users.
Today the service celebrates its centeneary in the knowledge that it's following in giants's footsteps but looking ahead to new horizons.
To find out more about what it does visit www.bedford.gov.uk/archive
I have an ancestor that went there as he lived in Langford and then was sent to VDL for stealing a pig, sadly it was before these dates - so they won't have a picture.


text:
Get an A-Team Gift Certificate For Someone Special!
Brake Shop | St Louis, MO
Everyone needs properly working brakes. If you're looking for a brake shop in St. Louis, MO then we've got you covered. Our brake shop offers all types of brake services including brake inspections, brake pad replacements, brake fluid replacement, and more!
We offer brake inspections to help make sure your brakes are in good working order. Poorly functioning brakes can be a safety hazard to yourself and those around you, that's why its important to have your brakes inspected regularly.
Brake pad replacement is the most common repair job for automotive brake systems. The reason is simple: brakes are made to wear out. The pads rub on the brake disk to stop your car, so worn pads are the first part to check if you are experiencing any braking problems. Brake discs and rotors are vital to slowing down and stopping your vehicle. Whenever you apply the brakes, the brake pad is Each brake disc is checked for warping or damage. Brake discs should be shiny and show little signs of wear. Discs that are damaged or warped should be resurfaced or replaced immediately.


text:
I stayed behind for a moment, gathering my purse and books from the car. The kids all ran ahead, because we were *almost* late for co-op (again.) I stepped into the lobby of the building, and there you were with a sheepish grin on your face "I can stand to be a little late to my class, but I just can't stand not saying goodbye to you!!" You gave me a quick, fierce hug, and ran off to your first grade class.
And I was just overcome with the blessing of being your mom.
Things have been tough lately. We have had some setbacks and disappointments that you know nothing about. We've been stressed and discouraged, and I'm doing my best to keep y'all from seeing it. I'll be honest, I've been feeling a little forgotten by God. Like my prayers are bouncing around the room, not getting enough airspeed to break this atmosphere. And as I trudged into this day, with the weight of these troubles bearing down on me, you reminded me that I hit the MOM JACKPOT.
You just love me. I mean, you LOVE ME. Unconditionally, constantly, visibly, sweetly, genuinely, you love me. And that love swept me higher today, gave me a gust of wind under my wings at a time when gravity had been pulling hard.
God hasn't forgotten me. Silly me. He gave me YOU, and there's so much heaven in that gift that you just lift me right up.
Today, you took the hymnal from the pew and looked up the next song, and placed a marker in it so we would be ready when the music started. Then you reached for the hymnal beside your dad, and did the same for him. After replacing the hymnal, you patted his arm lovingly.
And my eyes filled up with tears. Because there's no way I can remember all these moments. No way to hang on to every kind gesture of your young heart, every funny thing you say, all the times when you are so uniquely you! I can't memorize the smallness of your hands, (they keep changing) or the silly dance moves, or the zillion hilarious lego creations you share with me.
But don't you think for one minute that I'm not trying. I'm soaking up these days like rain in the desert. My mind is constantly documenting and cataloging; I'm your "mamarazzi" but subtle and quiet-like. I can never capture the true spirit of the moment in my memory though. And that's what made me cry today. I'm gonna miss this. I'm gonna miss this so bad.
So if when you do a sweet thing, you notice tears in my eye, that's why. Because I never want to forget who you are today. Because I'm trying so hard to hold onto the experience, and I know the memory can't hold a candle to the real thing. Because I'm your mama, and you're my boy, but one day you'll be so much more than that. Because your hands won't stay little and one day, your daddy and I will have to look up our own music.
But I blink back the tears, take another mental picture, and enjoy the real life moment of Now. We sing together, your hand on one side of the book, and mine on the other, and I know every minute is a gift from God.
There are words nearly ripe for the harvest. They are beginning to hang heavy on the tree of my soul, ready to be plucked down and savored. We have labored at life so fully this year, with mostly sunshine and busyness, though there were days of rain and stillness as well. But every kind of moment is necessary to the nourishment of Things to Say, and I cannot begrudge the rainy season it's moment.
I am eager, eyeing this bounty to come. It's been a long season of quiet, and it's nearly to feast.
I mailed this letter to my brother today. I wonder if the mailman will notice the verses. Or the prison official who will read the letter, checking for violations. Or my brother's cellmates. I hope they all will.
I used colored pens because I don't know how many vivid colors he gets to see in a day. I wrote in colors because God's word should be written in a rainbow, because it's full of promise and hope. I wrote in colors because black ink is too institutional, and he has enough of that for now.
I had hoped, after last time, that the only things I would mail him again would be Christmas cards and birthday packages, but this is where we are. There is a number after his name again. Letters are now the lifeline to the outside world. They replace hugs and Fourth of July picnics, and beach trips. They remind him that we haven't forgotten him, but they also remind him that life can't wait for him and it just keeps going. I imagine he reads letters from home with a mixture of dread and longing, with gratitude and resentment, with hope and regret.
Maybe not yet, though. He hasn't been there long. It can take a while to open your eyes, to heal from these self inflicted wounds, to shake off the haze of disasters you've created. To feel things again… that's a big part of the battle.
But, when that day comes, maybe these bright words of peace and forgiveness will shine. Maybe they'll get him through the day. Maybe they'll grow in him and fill up the empty places he's tried to satisfy with the poor substitutions of this world. Because His Word can do anything. It made stars and heavens and life and time. It parted seas, raised the dead, closed the lion's jaws. His Word creates all, conquers all, restores all, saves all, sustains all. There's nothing it can't do.
I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
and IN HIS WORD I put my hope.
Ps. 130:5
Goodness gracious. Time does get away from me! I'm going to make a grab for it and put it in a neck hold for just a minute so we can catch up. Ready? And GO
Chickens? Good. Finally starting to pick up with egg laying again, after seriously calling it in this winter. Major slackers in the coop. Some of my girls are getting on up in the years, so their production is dropping off. And cold, wet weather with short days do not make a plethora of eggs. However, I do have about 10 or 12 young hens who are not far from joining the rotation. They're all wild as can be, too, because I haven't spent much time with them. Like, they have returned to the feral ways of their Jungle Fowl ancestors. It's tribal in there. CRAY-CRAY. But, as long as they lay, they stay. Actually, that sounds like a motivational sign I need to paint for the coop. You Lay, You Stay. Ha.
After losing my sweet Annabel to a possum (don't even, I still can't), we decided to get a Livestock Guardian Dog (LGD). Actually, he's half Great Pyrenees, so we got half of an LGD. 🙂 But so far, so good. His name is Pete and he is a giant goofy baby and we love him. I'll have to put some pictures up. He barks at everything that has ever existed or will exist, so we haven't seen any possums in months. RIP, Annabel.
King Pen has taken over many of the chicken duties for me like a CHAMP. I've been pretty wrapped up in some other projects, which is why you aren't seeing pictures of chickens flooding your FB and Instagram feeds from me. I'll be glad when things settle down and I can hang out in the coop more. There's drama going on that I just KNOW I am missing. And there ain't no drama like chicken drama, I kid you not.
As for other projects, the kids are involved in a production of Mary Poppins and that means my world is revolving around rehearsals and I CAN'T STOP SINGING SPOONFUL OF SUGAR. For months, guys. And we speak in proper upper class British accents now, all the time, because once 'you staht, you con't stop, deah.' But it's fun. Kids are working hard and I'm burning up the roads and it'll all be awesome and fun and wonderful and you just keep saying that over and over and over for three months. Ha.
We're also doing another, smaller show, and this one I'm actually in. (I know, I'm ridiculous). But it's singing!! And speaking!! And dancing!! And with my daughter!! So, add another night (or two) of rehearsals to the week.
And now I'm embarrassed, because there's a teeny tiny bit more that I'm doing. One night a week, I'm taking a beginner's American sign language class. I've been learning on my own for a while, but really needed an instructor and classroom setting. It's about the coolest thing I'VE EVER DONE. I show up every Tuesday on the front row with my pencil super sharp and my book highlighted and I do a few stretches before class to warm up. (I wish I was kidding. But I'm not. I am that much the nerd.)
So, that's what's up with me. My dance ticket is full, full, full, but it's all good. Sorry I've been so absent! I'll try to sneak away periodically and update my blog, so don't delete the bookmark just yet. 🙂
Happy Friday, y'all!
Oh no, an hour slipped by me. We inch closer to midnight, and the gears are just beginning to move. I spent too much time in front of the white page, trying to make the cursor stop blinking.
What to write? Oh, write what you know, they say so casually, as if it's just that simple and obvious. What do I know? How huge is this question? Isn't that what we are always trying to figure out? What do I know of this life? What have I gained here, what's the reason for it all? Just write that.
Ha! Write the Great Big Point of Everything. The thing you have learned on this journey of domestic ordinariness that will stop the cursor from it's winking state of readiness– and GO.
Okay. Maybe they don't mean, write all you know. Maybe I'll just write what I know today.
Today, I know that a picture of my brother smiling almost made me cry. If I could make a moment stay by sheer force of will, this one wouldn't move an inch. How hard we're holding on, now that we've got him.
What else do I know today?
I know that I should wear my hair down more often. I know that my five year old thinks I'm beautiful with my hair down, even if I'm in yoga pants and a boring shirt and don't have makeup on. I know that the prettiest kind of pretty you can be is when you are doing it for the enjoyment of those who love you. That the prettiest pretty isn't about being admired or lusted after or meeting the approval of the hungry, insatiable world. Maybe that's the kind of pretty you don't begin to understand until there are laugh lines to underscore the word. Until there are gray streaks to catch the light, or fuller curves to hug into. Maybe it's the only kind of pretty that sticks.
I know that I need to sit and talk more often with a true friend for a few hours in a bookstore, in REAL LIFE. I need to recharge, to be genuine, to laugh and bare something of my soul to another human being. I know this because when I spent my evening doing this very thing with a dear friend, my spirit was buoyant as it hasn't been in a long time. I'm working so hard on growing friendships in my life, and to be honest, sometimes I'm impatient. I want the doors to be opened already, and the walls to come down. But that takes time. So, to enjoy the company of a seasoned friend– well that is a rest for the weary soul! I will not wait so long again.
I know that I need to turn the radio off more often. I need to stop placing barricades to keep my mind from wandering. Maybe it's society, the modern world, our growing unease of quiet and stillness. Whatever it is, when I forgot to turn on the radio in the car today, my mind meandered all over the place, suddenly free from mind numbing restraints. Ideas raced about like newborn colts in my head. I thought thoughts, all kinds of 'em. Dusty corners of my brain were shocked into activity. And this truly scared me. Because I didn't know I'd been downsizing up there. And if I'm doing it, I'm betting you are, too. Life is too loud, and we can't hear ourselves think anymore. So, that's a thing I know today. I need to let it be quiet sometimes, so my thoughts have a chance to be heard.
The last thing I know today is that it's my bedtime. Well past it. And I've learned all the things I can fit in for this day. Tomorrow, maybe I'll know more, and it'll be worth writing about.
G'nite, all.
Hi blog. You're still up. I knew you would be.
I was just thinking tonight, what if I said all the words again? All. the. words. What if I pretended it was the good old days, when I painted my life across these pages with the biggest brush I had? Wide, bold strokes and reckless abandon. Carefree, if a bit careless at times. What would happen if I let the writer out a bit?
Dare I?
It's after midnight. It's certainly hard to contain her when all the darlings are asleep, except the cat who meows in the windowsill for a late night snack.
Worth a try, he says.
Catch a mouse, I say. (He is not as much a darling as some)
So, focus.
Here's the thing. Life is fully more complicated than I ever imagined it to be. Each word I say has a string tied to it and on the other end is a person. I can't just go around tugging strings and tangling up my people. But, if I am careful, perhaps a little wiggle won't hurt.
I went on a bicycle ride this afternoon. With the oldest in charge, I left my phone on the counter. Mostly, I couldn't figure out how to carry it. But a little inside part of me needed to be off the grid, needed to be the Person Who Wasn't Answering Questions.
It was nice. And scary, to be honest. Who is answering the Questions if not me? What if there is an urgent Question that needs answering and I am off gaily pedaling these country roads? Might the world explode if I become a Person Who Isn't Answering Questions?! Will this mad experiment of a solo bike ride off the grid be the downfall of civilization as we know it?
It was not.
And so, I conclude that it must be okay to be that Person sometimes, who does not Answer Questions. I suspect, it might be necessary to my sanity to occasionally be that Person. I could let someone else have a turn Answering the Questions. A short turn, anyway.
Next string.
I am learning ASL. Each day I practice, I am more excited. And then I hang around my deaf friends, and I am dismayed at how very little I know. This keeps happening, and I am learning to laugh at myself. I'll probably never know enough to be much of a friend, but I will keep on baking muffins and inviting them over and signing ridiculously slow. I keep signing wrong things that amuse them (and me), which makes me smile. This is a happy string.
My brother is home and he is doing well. We make jokes sometimes now. Every little positive communication is a very big deal. To him, to me- to anyone who is coming out the other side of active addiction. A little pat on the back, a shared laugh, a nice hug– they are like moments dipped in gold. They are bright and so very valuable. So we continue to pan for them, shaking the rocks and the soil out of the way, looking for that glint of something special. The pile grows. Perhaps we may be rich yet.
Another string.
My daughter is hoping for some pink highlights in her hair. I was not told this question would be on the test. (!) It's nowhere on the syllabus, I'm quite sure of it. I've looked front and back and I guess I'll just have to wing it. I'll make an educated guess (Option C is always a good choice, they say), and hope for bonus questions in case I get this one wrong. Pink. Hm.
Next. (Maybe last- I'm finally getting sleepy and the cat quit asking for a midnight snack.)
I was reading the last chapter of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire aloud to the kids today. It was so hard not to cry, but I couldn't, because if I cried, they wouldn't experience the story itself, but rather, MY feelings. So I resolved myself. I would feel all the feels (see how current and trendy I am) on the inside, but I would not compromise the integrity of my story telling by showing it on the outside. I swallowed back the lump in my throat, and blinked away the tears. I would not forget my sacred duty as a deliverer of words, especially those to be heard for the first time. I dove in and read with all the fullness I possessed. I feel so many things, but I will not lose the story. Because, at the heart of it, that's what I want to do. Give them the story, and let them feel and experience what they will, on their own. It's the best way. It's authentic.
I think this could be important in more ways than my scarecrow brain can put together right now. So that's how I know, it's time to sleep. It is one a.m. and the cat has abandoned his perch. The writer is pacified and drowsy and slightly alarmed at the clock. (see what I did there)
G'nite all. Happy dreams from a blog not quite abandoned. Not yet.


text:
Australian Sheep & Wool Show
This was the first time we had been and my goodness, I can see why people take out three day passes! After soaking up shed after shed of fibrey goodness, animal wafts and spinning delights, I still hadn't got a chance to see the baby animals, soak up the the fashions, catch the cooking sessions and study the entries of the gorgeous handcrafted items that were on display! Cripes, that sounds like we didn't see anything at all, doesn't it? But I assure you, we did..so much!
Anyhow, a few pics of our day out..
It was such a huge day out with so much to see and take in, I confess to being completely exhausted. However we still managed to round off the day with a visit to Bendigo Woollen Mills on our way home - a first for my mum. I'll pop back in over the weekend with a little goody bag show & tell...


text:
Ashley at a photoshoot for Clic Sargent
On Monday (March 4), Ashley's management tweeted that Ashley is on set of a photoshoot for Clic Sargent, shot by UK photographer Rankin. Clic Sargent is an organization which helps children and young people with cancer. Check out a picture of Ashley on set below.