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You may have never met anyone else with a hearing loss, but you are not alone. With one in ten people in the United States having a hearing loss, there are people your own age with hearing loss, from mild to profound.
People ages 18-35 may have unique issues with hearing loss than someone older. These are just some of the issues young adults tell us they deal with. Maybe you do too?
Education – Getting the right communication access in classrooms in a college or continuing educational setting is not always easy. In elementary or high school, your parents or teachers may have helped you get what you needed either with an Individualized Education Plan or on a more informal basis.
In higher education, you have to advocate for yourself. Seek out the office for disabled students at your college or technical school. Ask for help. Don't assume teachers know how to deal with your hearing loss. Be ready to make recommendations of what you need. Be proactive. For example, if teachers are showing videos for classes, request ones with captions. Even with a mild hearing loss, it is sometimes hard to understand the words on a video, even if you hear them. See the Access to College page under the Advocacy section for more resources.
Dating and relationships – How do you deal with communication issues? If it's not obvious, are you uncertain about how and when to tell someone you are attracted to that you have a hearing loss?
Social life – Do you stay at home because you can't hear at parties?
Employment – Looking for a first job is hard enough without having a hearing loss. When do you disclose your hearing loss to a potential employer? How do you function on the job? Do you use captioned telephone, CART, an assistive device? Are your co-workers cooperative and help communicate clearly? See the Workplace page for more resources.
Parenting – Can you hear your baby cry? Do you know there is technology (e.g., alerting devices) to help you? How do you communicate with your young child who might not speak clearly? How do you cope with teachers, other parents, or at school meetings and gatherings?
Stigma – Are you embarrassed about your hearing loss? Do you cover your hearing aids with your hair? Are you secure enough with yourself to be comfortable with your hearing loss? If not, how can you get more comfortable? Perhaps meeting other young adults with hearing loss can help.
Sports and recreation – Can you hear your coach, teammates, or referees? Can you wear your hearing aids or cochlear implant during sports? Does technology malfunction when you play sports?
Hearing aid or other technology affordability – Young adults often make less income than someone who has been working longer. See the Financial Assistance section.
Other Activities
HLAA Convention: HLAA has specific workshops and activities geared toward young adults at the annual HLAA Convention. There are also scholarships for young adults to attend an HLAA Convention.
HLAA Chapters: Some HLAA Chapters are focused on young adults or have sub-groups of young adults that meet within the chapter. When inquiring about a chapter, ask if young adults participate. If not, maybe there is enough interest in the community to start a sub-group of that chapter.
Walk4Hearing: The Walk4Hearing is held in cities across the country is a great way to meet others with hearing loss. It's also a way to be a positive role model to children with hearing loss who are involved in the Walk4Hearing. Plus, it's a lot of fun and a worthwhile community event.
Online Community: View links to useful online communities focused on young adults with hearing loss.


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Almost everyone has observed that when flexible hoses are pressurized, they expand in the radial direction and contract in the axial direction. Festo Corp. exploits this phenomenon in a new type of actuator they call the Fluidic Muscle.
The design is relatively simple. Rubber core tubing is enclosed in two layers of material whose fibers are aligned in different directions to produce a rhomboidal pattern. Metal end caps are bolted on to complete the unit. When compressed air fills the tubing, it expands radially and contracts axially &emdash; generating very high axial force compared to a conventional pneumatic cylinder.
For example, a Fluidic Muscle with a 20-mm diameter develops as much force as a conventional cylinder with a 63-mm diameter at the same pressure. Both actuators develop a force of 1.5 kN at 6-bar, even though the cylinder has almost ten times the cross-sectional area and about eight times the weight. And the air consumption of the Muscle is correspondingly lower. Another comparison could be made between this 20-mm Fluidic Muscle and a 20-mm cylinder. This size cylinder can only manage around 110 N of force.
Comparing the force curves of the two types of actuators reveals another important difference. A cylinder delivers force over its entire stroke, while the Fluidic Muscle develops its full force only when initially stretched. This force decreases as a linear function of distance, petering out at around 20 to 25% of the Muscle's total length. Remember that the Muscle develops its maximum force directly from a neutral position. This makes the Muscle very suitable for highly dynamic applications, particularly if the stroke is short.
Here are several other performance notes. Fluidic Muscles:
* are totally free of friction between any surfaces, and thus unaffected by the stiction which may cause problems in many cylinders. They deliver power smoothly.
* have one major limitation when compared to cylinders. They cannot guide nor push. They can only pull.
* contract as a direct function of pressure by a precisely predictable amount. As a result, they can be used to create simple positioning systems in which pressure is regulated in proportion to the desired end position, with highly repetitive, almost servo-like accuracy.
* have difficulty dealing with static loads over a long period of time (500 hours or more), because the materials relax.
* can cope with temperatures as high as 60° C. If this temperature is exceeded for long periods, the Muscle doesn't immediately fail, but its service life is reduced.
* cannot dissipate internal heat very quickly through the rubber tube. Therefore, Festo advises that the supply and exhaust ports be located at opposite ends, so fresh cool compressed air flows through during each cycle.
* are exceptionally easy to service. The tubing is available by the meter and can be cut to length with a knife easily and quickly. The metal clamping caps bolt in place.
Note that differences between the geometries of Fluidic Muscles and cylinders can be decisive. In the case where each device can develop the same force, the Muscle will be roughly twice as long as the cylinder (but considerably slimmer). Thus, the choice between the two devices might depend on the space available. In general, due to this size difference, it is very unlikely that a Fluidic Muscle could directly replace a pneumatic cylinder.
Telephone Festo Corp., Hauppauge, N.Y., at 800 / 993-3786 or fax them at 800 / 963-3786.

subset: commoncrawl


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History and Traditions
Many historians of great institutions wax poetic about brave founding fathers, loyal alumni and ebullient students. At Mizzou, the flagship university of the Show-Me State, we prefer to, well, show you. Take a look.
- The University of Missouri
- The Columns
- Mascot and Colors
- College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources
- College of Arts and Science
- Trulaske College of Business
- College of Education
- College of Engineering
- School of Health Professions
- College of Human Environmental Sciences
- Missouri School of Journalism
- School of Law
- School of Medicine
- Sinclair School of Nursing
- College of Veterinary Medicine
Photographic Exhibits
History told in photos on topics including: MU Football: The Early Years; Women's Athletics at MU; and Come Home, Tigers, a Homecoming History from University Archives.
View online photographic exhibits »
Leaders from MU's Past
Hosted by University Archives, these photos and facts remember the people who created, developed and led MU through its history.


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Skylar Diggins (Who Lil Wayne Was Crazy About) Alleged Sexting Photos Surface.. Back When She Was Just Freshman In College In 2009!
These old photos of allegedly popular women's college basketball player, Skylar Diggins, were dropped in our inbox by a viewer claiming they knew Skylar back in 2009. But, are these photos really Ms.Diggins? We all remember how back in 2011 fake nude photos surfaced on the net claiming to be Skylar. However, Diggins denied all of the allegations. As of today recently more photos have surfaced of the point guard. Supposedly, the pictures were allegedly taken back in 2009 when Skylar was a freshman in college, making her 18-19 years old at the time. Do you think these are real pictures of Skylar? You be the judge
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
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Michael Raynor
Raynor was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1998. His citation is copied below:
Steve Raynor came to Washington College in 1969 with a reputation as a top-notch scholastic pitcher. While attending Edgewood High School in Maryland he threw two no-hit games back to back, pitching twenty-two straight innings without issuing a hit.
As a freshman at Washington College, Steve was handed the responsibility of pitching the opening game of his first Sho'men season in 1970, a matchup against Swarthmore College. In that game, Steve Raynor became the first and only Washington College pitcher ever to throw a perfect game. In his college debut, Steve Raynor did not allow one Swarthmore College player to reach first base, leading his team to a 3-0 victory. Raynor went on to be selected the MVP of the team in that rookie campaign and followed that up with three more MVP honors, becoming the only Washington College baseball player ever to earn that distinction for four consecutive years. In 1972, his work on the mound led the Shoremen to the co-championship of the Middle Atlantic Conference and he was named the MAC's outstanding pitcher, a feat he repeated the following year. He was selected to the Middle Atlantic Conference post-season All-Conference Team all four years that he competed and served as co-captain of the baseball team his senior year. In addition to his pitching prowess, Steve was also a consistent hitter and a stellar fielder.
For many years he has been employed by the Leary Educational Foundation as a case manager for troubled adolescent boys. He is responsible for implementing and evaluating treatment plans for students using behavior modification techniques.
It is an honor and pleasure for Washington College to induct Steven Raynor into the Washington College Athletic Hall of Fame on this 3rd day of October 1998.


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The Washington Post reports that a military agency called the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency (JPRA) sent an "addendum" to the Pentagon's Office of the General Counsel stating that "the application of extreme physical and/or psychological duress (torture) has some serious operational defects, most notably the potential to result in unreliable information."
I think it was well understood that the use of harsh interrogation techniques carries with it the risk of obtaining unreliable information. The extent of that risk probably varies depending on the technique in question and, especially, how much information the interrogator already has. John McCain perhaps could stop his torture for a while by "giving up" the names of American sports stars. American interrogators circa 2002 presumably were less gullible, and had more to work with, than the North Vietnamese circa 1969.
In any case, the risk of getting unreliable information must be weighed against the certainty that if tame interrogation techniques aren't working on a detainee, there is no hope of obtaining reliable information from that individual. Stated differently, there is risk that not using enhanced interrogation techniques will result in not getting reliable information that could have been obtained. And the competing risks must be weighed in real time, not years after the fact.
In the abstract, It's not clear how much there is to be gained by considering whether, contrary to most people's intutiion, we would have been better off from the standpoint of intelligence gathering had we not used enhanced interrogation and simply allowed the likes of Abu Zubaida to remain silent. I understand most of those who oppose these techniques to oppose them regardless of their efficacy. In any event, the inquest might well devolve into a morass of assumptions and speculation.
But the Democrats, including the president, want to have the "torture" debate. That is, they don't just want to stop using techniques they dislike (a mission already accomplished); they want to convince Americans that the decision to stop using these techniques is the correct one.
This means that the efficacy of the interrogation methods in question must be debated. And for that debate to be meaningful, the two CIA reports that former vice president Cheney has cited must be released. Otherwise the debate will be controlled by the Democrats, as they selectively feed information (like the JPRA addendum) to friendly liberal organs like the Washington Post.
At the same time, Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU National Security Project, is also correct that if the two memos Cheney has cited are released, so too should additional material bearing on the subject. Otherwise, Cheney may be able to "cherry pick" his intelligence.
So let's put it all out there and have a real debate for the whole world, including our enemies, to enjoy. Let's explore every conceivable consequence of the way we treated poor Abu Zubaida and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Who knows, maybe a handful of people will change their mind.


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FDA Approval of Generic ARVs: Nevirapine and Combivir Now Off-Patent in the U.S.
May/June 2012
Since the last issue of HTB, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval or tentative approval for the following new generic ARV products.
Full approval (**) indicates that these formulations can be marketed in the U.S. because the patent for the orginial drug has now expired.
Fixed Dose Combinations are reviewed for PEPFAR under the FDA guidance titled "Fixed Dose Combinations, Co-Packaged Drug Products, and Single-Entity Versions of Previously Approved Antiretrovirals for the Treatment of HIV."
This document was developed to clarify what regulatory requirements apply to such applications, what issues might be of concern, and how these issues should be addressed. The guidance is intended to encourage sponsors to submit applications for combination and co-packaged products, and to facilitate submission of such applications to FDA.
Effective patent dates are listed in the agency's publication titled "Approved Drug Products With Therapeutic Equivalence Evaluations," also known as the "Orange Book."
An updated list of generic tentative approvals (now at 140) is available on the FDA website.
The most notable developments this year have been the full license approvals that allows marketing in the U.S. for generic versions of nevirapine and the combined formulation of AZT/3TC.
Generic versions of AZT, 3TC and nevirapine are already used in some European countries. For nevirapine this includes Ireland, Spain and Portugal, although for reasons that are not clear, UK access is not expected until 2013.
Source: FDA list serve:
Links to external websites are current at time of posting but not maintained.
This article was provided by HIV i-Base. It is a part of the publication HIV Treatment Bulletin. Visit HIV i-Base's website to find out more about their activities, publications and services.
Add Your Comment:
(Please note: Your name and comment will be public, and may even show up in
Internet search results. Be careful when providing personal information! Before
adding your comment, please read TheBody.com's Comment Policy.)


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High school hoops notes for the week ahead
In case you missed it, the last week in high school hoops got a little crazy. -For starters, the boys game between North Brunswick and Whiteville got so heated after fans threw plastic water bottles at players on the court that officials and deputies emptied the gym. Whiteville coach Jerry Singletary called it "A complete nightmare" and North Brunswick coach Bryan Hayes said he was "ashamed and embarrassed." As it turns out, the fans got a little out of hand.… Read More »


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Write a Business Plan
Budżet $10-30 USD
Need a simple business plan for importing coconut oil into the USA.
29 freelancerów złożyło ofertę na kwotę $279 do tego projektu
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text: Bonhams European Ceramics department is one of the leading international auctioneers of European porcelain and pottery from the 16th to the 20th centuries. We are the only international auctioneer to have regular, stand-alone sales of Fine European Ceramics and have unmatched experience and expertise in this field. In addition to our regular sales, we are well-known for selling important single-owner collections. Our specialists also provide valuations and advice to collectors and museums around the world.


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Note : Your request will be directed to Pasternack Enterprises Inc.
The PE83IR1010A from Pasternack Enterprises Inc is a RF & Microwave Isolator with Frequency 8 to 18 GHz, Average Power Forward 50 W, Average Power Reverse 10 W, Insertion Loss 0.6 dB, Isolation 16 dB. Tags: Module with Connector, Coaxial Isolator. More details for PE83IR1010A can be seen below.
7.7 to 8.4 GHz Drop-In Isolator
800 MHz to 2 GHz, 50 W Coaxial Isolator
You can now find similar products from multiple companies on everything RF.


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SD State Fair Theme Announced
The South Dakota State Fair has announced their theme for 2014. With a goal of choosing a theme that fits into recent pop culture, but will also be a fun idea people can get involved with, the theme chosen is...'What Does The Fair Say?'
State Fair marketing and events coordinator Candi Hettinger Briley says,
Announcing our theme and logo is always an exciting part of the planning year.
The sights and sounds of the fairgrounds are an important part of the State Fair experience. Over its five day run, the fair has a lot to say with daily live music, animal sounds coming from the exhibit buildings and kids enjoying at the carnival.
Along with this year's theme 'What Does The Fair Say?' and a new State Fair logo, the grandstand concert excitement has already started with the announcement of Alabama. More concert announcements will be made over the next month as contracts are signed.
The 2014 South Dakota State Fair will run from Thursday, August 28th, through Monday, September 1st.


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My Australian Cattle Dog-Bonehead!
Exif: F Number: 5, Exposure Bias Value: 0.00, ExposureTime: 1/400 seconds, Flash: did not fire., ISO: 400, White balance: Auto white balance, FocalLength: 120.00 mm, Model: NIKON D700
Uploaded on 7/29/2012 8:09:12 PM
Camera: Nikon D700 Digital SLR Camera
Copyright for this gallery photo belongs solely to Kris Bumsted. Images may not be copied, downloaded, or used in any way without the expressed, written permission of the photographer.
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Scompt needed a new web page design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 22 designs submitted by 6 freelance designers.
iOS Frameworks
I'm a backend web programmer with little design sense. I love an elegant solution to a problem, but when it comes to making the solution look good, I'm hopeless.
I got the opportunity to write an iPhone app for a client and in the process discovered that there wasn't a good place to find a list of the available frameworks that make making an app for an iOS device easier. That's where the idea for this site was born. It's a personal project. Maybe I'll put some ads on the site to try to recoup the design costs when I get it finished.
The target audience for the site is programmers creating applications for iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad devices. In general, those people are going to be Apple fan(boy)s, which means some hint of the Apple aesthetic would be nice in the design.
I imagine the site being used both by those new to the iOS platform, as well as being a reference for experienced developers.
The site will be hosted at iosframeworks.com. It will be used by developers to find frameworks and existing code to integrate into their applications to make development easier and quicker. The provisional tagline for the site is:
"A curated catalog of iOS frameworks and classes for the pragmatic iOS developer."
This should be on every page of the site somewhere at the top.
"curated" and "pragmatic" should provide hints for the vibe the site should give. It should be classy.
The goal of the site is to list information about the individual frameworks and the applications using these frameworks. Those are the main entities of the site: frameworks and applications.
Each framework has a title, description, tags, and a list of applications that use it. It could have an icon also. Each application has the same information that's available on the iTunes page (for example, http://itunes.apple.com/de/app/good…363448914). The most important pieces of information are title, description and icon.
There's no existing logo or color scheme. I'm fond of green, but that's not a requirement.
1. Homepage
The homepage should provide a simple way for the user to discover frameworks. This should include a couple random frameworks that will link to the framework detail page. Some kind of text like "A couple random frameworks from our vault" could be used to introduce these. A link to the detail page for a couple random applications would be good as well introduced by text such as "Find the frameworks being used by applications such as". A place for some introductory text would be good as well. There should be a search field and links to browse the frameworks and applications. A list of tags would be another good way for the user to dive into the available frameworks. Maybe a tag cloud, maybe not.
2. Listing page
When browsing/searching the frameworks and applications, the results will be shown as some kind of listing/table which links to the detail page. Not all information should be shown on this page. Maybe just the title, icon (if available), and the tags or description.
3. Detail page
All information is shown about the framework/application on this page. It also has a comment form for the user to leave comments (using Disqus). For frameworks, the title and icon of the applications using that framework should be shown. For applications, frameworks used by the application should be shown. Maybe another related framework/application or two should be listed somewhere also.
No existing website.
None come to mind.


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Ways to Place an Order
1. For fastest service, charge your order online 24 hours a day using our completely secure site. American Express, MasterCard, and VISA accepted.
2. To order a subscription to Dell Horoscope magazine, or to order or Dell's Understanding Astrology, call 1-800-220-7443 between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. American Express, Mastercard and Visa accepted.
Click here for information on shipping options.


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Technical Problem With This Chapter?
Author: St Margarets
Story: Magic Within, Magic Without
Part: 1: The First Weasley Girl In Generations
Rating: Teens
Setting: Pre-HBP
Status: Completed
Reviews: 63
Words: 6,679
Updated: November 7, 2004, 1:28pm
1: The First Weasley Girl In Generations
A/N: This story is not part of Wallpaper World! It takes place the summer after Order Of The Phoenix and is from Ginny's point of view. Because this is about Ginny, I had to invent a history for the Weasley family. With my luck JKR will give us all the details on her web-site and I will be wrong! LOL!
Thanks to Sherry, Jo Wickannish, and Julu, for beta reading. And a special thanks to hairy_hen who wouldn't put enough fluff in his story for Ginny to do a Patronus Charm.
Ginny looked around the table at the smiling faces of her family, and several members of the Order. In a rare evening of levity, they had gathered to celebrate Harry's sixteenth birthday. It was wonderful to have a bright spot in all the violence from the past month. Voldemort had sprung his Death Eaters out of Azkaban within days of their incarceration; since then, they had been busy spreading terror across the magical world.
But tonight was Harry's birthday party and they were all at a safe house. Ginny didn't know to whom it belonged, or where they were exactly; they had taken a Portkey from the Burrow and Harry had been here waiting.
She studied Harry as he blew out his candles. He looked better than he did when she'd last seen him, at King's Cross Station. The haunted look was almost gone from his eyes - almost.
It appeared that Harry had successfully blown out all of the candles, when one of them suddenly flared and turned into a scantily clad dancing girl. Fred and George were laughing uproariously – it was obviously one of their creations. Ron was staring at the girl in the flame as if transfixed, his ears turning red. Ginny looked more closely into the flame and saw the dancing girl was untying her top.
Before the fire-girl had a chance to remove it completely, Molly doused her in water. "I'm melting . . ." they heard a squeaky voice trail off. Then Ron, Fred and George were all soaking wet.
"Hey!" Fred sputtered. "She didn't finish her routine!"
Another splash of water inundated Fred. "She's finished all right!" Molly exclaimed. "Honestly – you boys! This is a family party for Harry – and a hussy like that has no place –"
"Aw, Mum!" George protested, "Harry liked it! Didn't you Harry?"
There was a ruddy patch blooming along Harry's neck, but his eyes were sparkling. Ginny could tell that Harry thought it all a good joke. "Um, I think those candles will be a best seller for Weasley's Wizard Wheezes."
"Don't you dare sell them!" Molly glared at the twins. "Or put the name Weasley on them."
"The 'Dancing Flames' aren't just strippers –" Fred quailed at the glare Molly shot him.
"Yeah," George added quickly, "We also have clowns and dancing bears for the kids."
"Just don't get them mixed up," Ron said with a laugh. His ears had returned to their normal hue.
Molly huffed in disgust. "Ginny – run out to the kitchen and get Harry a knife to cut the cake." Then she turned to the twins. "We'll discuss this later."
"Ginny, give the knife to Harry," Bill called as she went through the swinging door. "Mum's in a mood."
"Mum's in a mood," Ginny heard her mother sputter, "and pray what sort of mood am I supposed to be in –"
Her tirade was cut off when the door swung shut. Ginny looked around the unfamiliar room. The sideboard by the window seemed a likely place for the knives to be kept. After riffling through three drawers, Ginny found a serrated bread knife and what looked to be a ceremonial sword for cutting a wedding cake. Who ever owns this house has a well-equipped kitchen, she thought.
She put both the knife and the sword on the table, wondering which one she should bring out. For some reason, she thought the sword suited Harry, even though he wasn't the least flamboyant or interested in pomp and ceremony. Then it hit her. The last time she had seen Harry with a sword was when he was standing over the Basilisk…. She shuddered, hating her trick memory, which could conjure up that episode at the most inopportune times. The last time it had happened, Colin had spilled his potion on a spell book and it had eaten a hole right through it….
Tap, tap, tap.
Startled, Ginny looked up to see a large barn owl with a letter in his beak tapping impatiently at the window. In the red light from the setting sun, Ginny could see her name boldly printed in block letters on the envelope.
"What on earth?" she muttered. She opened the window and took the letter. "Where did you come from?" she addressed the owl, but it flew off without a backward glance. "Have a nice day," she said sarcastically, putting her finger under the flap.
"I certainly am," Harry said.
"Oh!" She whirled around. "There was a strange owl at the window and he delivered a letter to me. What are you doing in here anyway? I wasn't gone that long."
"They have another surprise planned and they kicked me out." Harry was looking at the knife and the sword. "They're going to call me."
"Is this one Mum-approved?"
He grinned. "It must be, since it was her idea for me to leave." He touched the sword. "Which one should I carve that cake up with?"
Ginny walked to his side, the letter still in her hand. "I thought the sword would be theatrical and would keep Fred and George on their best behavior."
Laughing he picked it up and flourished it in front of him. "Take that, chocolate icing!"
Ginny giggled and opened the letter, wondering who could have possibly sent it. A black feather floated upwards. They both watched the bit of black fluff rise and then start to descend. Then as if with one mind, the two Seekers for Gryffindor reached out to grab it, as if it were a Snitch. As Ginny's hand closed around the feather, Harry's hand closed around Ginny's, and then she felt a horrible tug around her middle and they were both pulled out of the safe house kitchen. The feather was a Portkey.
They landed on soft spongy grass. Before Ginny had a chance to get her bearings, Harry was on his feet with his wand out, the sword still in his other hand. "We're at the Burrow," he said quietly to Ginny as she scrambled to her feet.
She looked around quickly, seeing no one, hearing nothing. She took out her wand as well. Harry motioned for her to follow him. They ran to the shelter of a large hydrangea bush where several garden gnomes were sleeping.
"I think someone is in the house," Harry said. From this angle they could see through the kitchen windows. The setting sun was growing dimmer each minute so it was possible to see the dark forms of the chairs and table in the Weasley kitchen. The only light in the kitchen seemed to be coming from the fireplace.
"Ginny, is anyone supposed to be home right now?"
She felt a chill of terror. "No! Everyone was at your party. Charlie is in Romania and Percy is in London –" She stopped abruptly. Percy might have argued with Mum and Dad, but he would never –
"Did you recognize the writing on the envelope?"
"No – and it wasn't Percy's," Ginny added quickly.
Harry nodded curtly and then turned his attention back to the house. While Percy had spoken with Arthur and Molly after the events of the Ministry, Ginny didn't think he had gotten around to apologizing to Harry for siding with Fudge.
Harry tensed. There were two men in the kitchen and judging by the flashing lights from the spell work they were doing, they were bent on destroying everything her family owned.
How dare they! Ginny sucked in a breath and moved to stand up. Harry grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her back behind the bush. "It's not worth it," he hissed. "If they want to take something, let them take it."
He was right, of course, but Ginny could hardly contain her rage as she heard glass breaking and furniture being overturned.
"Is there something valuable Voldemort or the Death Eaters would want from your house?" Harry asked.
"No!" Ginny said, trying to keep the tremble of anger out of her voice. "We don't have anything of use for them. It's just a plain house – there's no money – or heirlooms."
Harry was studying her. "But it was your name on the envelope – what would they want with you?"
Her mouth dropped open in horror. "I don't know," she sputtered. "I'm nobody."
"You were at the Ministry with me," he reminded her quietly.
"And so was Ron – and his name wasn't on the envelope." Then she thought of something else. "How did they ever know I was at the safe house?"
Harry was looking though the branches of the bush. "I don't know," he said. "Owls have a wisdom all their own. Hopefully, they just told the owl to find you." He turned to her then. "Otherwise everyone at my birthday party is in danger."
Even in the fading light, Ginny could see the guilt and fear in his eyes. This would never do. "But it was my name, Harry – whatever it is has to do with me and not your birthday party. The best way to find out is to sneak up to the window and try to see what they're up to."
He stared at her a minute, opened his mouth to say something, and then closed it again. "Ok," he said reluctantly. "I don't reckon they'll hear us anyway with all the noise they're making."
When Ginny looked through the kitchen window, she barely recognized her home. The entire place had been ransacked. Drawers were pulled out and overturned; pictures had been ripped off the walls; shelves had been cleared. But the worst desecration of all had to be the two culprits sitting at the smashed kitchen table eating her mum's biscuits. One was tall with dark hair and the other was blonde with rotting teeth.
Harry's lips were pressed firmly together and his hand gripped his wand convulsively.
The two men were obviously in a good mood. "This is all that was worth finding," the tall one said, plucking another biscuit out of the tin.
"Never seen such poor pickings," said rotten-teeth, his mouth stuffed with biscuit. "Why's Malfoy bothering with this lot anyway?"
Harry sucked in a breath.
"Well, Stan, since Lucius Malfoy and I are best mates, he tells me everything," said the tall one sarcastically.
"Come on Dougie, you must have heard something. Malfoy's not going to terrorize poor wizards just for the fun of it," Stan replied, more clearly since he had swallowed the mouthful of biscuit.
"All I know is that we are to wait for the girl to show up here. Cut her with this knife." He held up a silver dagger with a serpentine handle. "Put the blood in this vial. And take the girl to Malfoy's mansion." He shrugged and picked his tooth with the end of the dagger. "That's all I know."
"Why this girl? What's so special about some witch from a poor family?"
"Dunno," Dougie answered indifferently. Then he leaned forward and lowered his voice so Ginny had to strain to hear. "They say the Dark Lord is failing and needs a new potion to revive him. I reckon this brat's blood is needed . . ."
"Cor!" Stan looked nervous. "We'd better not muck it up! But why do we have to do the bloodletting? Why can't we just grab her and have them cut her at Malfoy's?"
"Keep your voice down." Dougie reached down and put a small knapsack on the table. "The instructions said that the blood had to be taken from her father's house." He extracted a bottle from the sack. "Here's the Polyjuice – did you find a hair?"
Stan smiled his rotting smile. "There were red hairs all over the place. I'll just pretend to be one of her brothers so she'll come close enough for us to stun her."
"How do we know when she arrives?"
"They've got a clock around here somewhere," Dougie said kicking the debris on the floor aside. "Should have left it on the wall –"
"Ginny," Harry said into her ear. "Go to the broom shed and pick out the two fastest – I'm going to stun these losers and catch up to you."
She nodded, too horrified to say anything.
"You ok?" He was looking at her with concern.
"Yeah," she breathed and got to her feet on trembling legs. She had to put that conversation out of her mind for now. They wanted her blood…. In the half-light she could make out the shape of broom shed, nestled into the side of the hill some 100 yards away. She started to run toward it when she heard the intruders yelling, "She's here! The brat is here!"
A jet of red shot out of Harry's wand through the open window. She heard a loud thud. Good one, Harry, she thought savagely as she ran the rest of the way to the broom shed.
"Alohomora," she murmured. The door was stuck shut. Frustrated she started wiggling the latch and pulling with all of her might.
"Stand out of the way," Harry said. "Here." He handed her the sword and kicked the flimsy door of the shed. It swung open, dangling from one hinge. Harry lit his wand and poked his head in the shed to select the brooms.
"Kill the fire-hair…." An unearthly voice was coming out of the dimness, coming from the small hill behind the shed. Ginny looked up to see a huge black snake, at least twelve feet long slither from the grassy hill on to the rickety roof of the shed. It made a small thump when its thick body dropped on to the shingles. Mesmerized, she could only watch it quickly traverse the narrow width of the roof. Undaunted by the six foot drop, it kept moving . . . moving . . . closer . . . to her. It dangled in mid-air, inches from her face. An involuntary shriek tore from her throat.
The snake opened its wide mouth – even in the failing light she could see two shimmering white fangs. "Kill the fire-hair." Horrified, she realized it was talking to her. She stumbled back, but it stretched and followed her. There was no way to keep her distance. Out of sheer terror, without thinking, without consciously knowing she had the sword in her hand, she raised her right arm high and brought it down with all her might.
The cake sword should have gotten stuck in the scaly skin, it should have given the snake a painful wound that would have driven it to a new level of frenzy, but it didn't. The sword sang as it sliced through the snake's black head with one clean blow. She screamed again as a fountain of blood spurted from the neck, now dangling uselessly from the roof of the broom shed.
She jumped. She had forgotten all about Harry. "Harry," she whispered since she didn't want to scream anymore. "That snake talked to me – and it was going to kill me!"
"I know." His expression was unreadable. "Drop the sword – it's over."
Ginny looked at her hands. She was still holding her wand in one hand and the sword in the other. There was snake blood running down her arm. She let the bloodstained sword drop on top of the cruel snake's head. Thankfully it was dark enough that she couldn't see its eyes.
She clutched her wand with both hands, trying not to succumb to hysteria. She couldn't quite take in what she had heard and what she had done. The night was plunging into darkness so quickly. She didn't understand where that rattling breathing was coming from. Harry didn't sound like that….
"We'll torture the little girl...."
She was so cold, the black ice penetrated through her clothes, her skin, into the very marrow of her bones. She was all black inside; like that snake she was death.
"No one will believe you, Ginny. They'll think you killed those chickens because you are an evil person.... You must be evil, don't you think?"
Her breath was frozen inside of her lungs. She couldn't move; she was trapped in suffocating coils of coldness forever.
"Only fools love, Ginny… you are a fool….."
"Ginny! Ginny! Wake up! They're gone. I chased them away."
She opened her eyes. It was dark, but not Dementor dark. She could see the faint gleam of Harry's glasses. "Were they Dementors?"
"Yes," he answered, his tone grim. "We have to get out of here. We'll both ride Ron's broom since the others aren't that great – and you…."
He didn't finish, but Ginny understood what he was getting at. She was shaking like mad and was in no shape for a long broom ride. A wave of shame overcame her. Why had Dementors always affected her like that? And she still couldn't do the Patronus Charm.
They heard Apparition cracks. A half-dozen Death Eaters were in the front garden of the Burrow. It was too much. How could this be happening? She gave herself a hard shake and scrambled on the broom in front of Harry. Before she had a chance to get a firm grip on the handle, they were off. He skimmed the hill with inches to spare and made a hard left away from the Burrow. Jets of red and green followed them, but they were out of range before the Death Eaters spotted them.
Ginny hung on with all of her might. Harry was pushing the broom as fast as it would go, even when they were well away from the Burrow. The full moon was rising and they could easily be seen by Death Eaters and Muggles alike.
A jet of red crossed her left shoulder. She turned around and saw Ron on a broom wearing robes that were too short for him. Ron shot another hex at them. "Ginny – hex him back. I have to steer," Harry urged.
"It's Ron – I can't hex Ron," she practically whimpered.
"That is not Ron," Harry said firmly. "Polyjuice – remember? Ginny, you have to help."
Ginny twisted at the waist and raised her wand to hex the fake Ron. But it was hard to hang on to the broom and face the opposite direction.
"Hang on to me and not the broom, because I'm going to do some dives," he warned a split second before he dropped the broom handle toward the earth. Ginny clutched his shoulder with her left hand. After the first dive and recovery, she realized she'd never be able to hang on well enough for these kinds of maneuvers, so she hooked her left arm around Harry's neck and looked over his shoulder at the pursuer. The fake Ron wasn't trying to hex them because he was trying to keep up with Harry's flying.
Ginny knew they couldn't and shouldn't keep up this pace much longer. They were probably over Muggle territory – even if it was farmland and it was night – someone might see them. Splayed against Harry she lined her wand up with the red head of their pursuer. It went against all of her instincts, but she pushed them away. "Stupefy!" she called. At first she thought she had miscalculated, but the fake Ron flew right into her spell. His eyes rolled back into his head and he dropped off the broom. The broom whizzed by harmlessly.
"Got him," she said in Harry's ear and slumped against him for a moment. Her heart was beating fast, or was it Harry's?
"Ginny, you have to get your hair out of my face, I can't see anything," Harry said impatiently.
Embarrassed, Ginny turned around, tucked her wand in her jeans pocket and pulled her hair back with both hands. They were flying level and more slowly now, so it was easy to balance without holding on to anything. She took a strand of hair and wound it around the ponytail in her hand, since she didn't have anything else to tie it back with.
She put both hands on the handle in front of her, making up her mind that she would not scream, hang on to Harry, or generally act like a girl from now on.
They were slowly descending into an apple orchard. They hovered between two trees, level with the branches. In the bright moonlight Ginny could see the little green apples. She focused on them so she wouldn't have to think about what had just happened. The hard little apples with the smooth skin would be bitter to taste….
Harry finally spoke. "Do you have any idea where we can go – that Voldemort wouldn't associate with you or with me?"
She ran through the options in her mind. London was out because Kreacher was believed to have gone to the Malfoys, taking the secrets of Grimmauld Place with him. They couldn't go to Harry's aunt and uncle's because their address was well known. Hogwarts was so far away….
"Relatives?" Harry asked.
"I know! My Great-Aunt Martha – well, it's a lot more than one great. She's over a hundred years old. She was a Weasley – the only Weasley female for over a century until I came along. So I don't think anyone would connect her with us."
"Ok – where does she live?"
"I don't know." She heard him sigh. "I mean – she lives in Warwickshire – on a huge estate – but it's Unplottable."
"Have you ever been there?"
"Yes, we go every summer for a duty visit – we went the week after school was out." Ginny closed her eyes and tried to think. "Aunt Martha isn't on the Floo – so we took brooms. It took us about two hours to get there."
Harry was looking over Ginny's shoulder at the compass mounted to the front of the broomstick. "I'm glad I gave Ron this for Christmas." He looked up at the stars. "There's the big dipper and the North Star – so we've been going…"
"West," Ginny supplied. "We need to go north and more east. Her estate is close to the big Muggle castle."
"You mean, Warwick castle?" Harry asked, sounding more hopeful. "That should be easy to find – even in the dark.
"Oh, yes," Ginny said, "Her estate goes all the way to Stratford and there is a river…."
Harry laughed. "She's in good company then. That is a major tourist area. I don't think we'll have any trouble finding it." He paused. "What's the password to get on to her land?"
Ginny thought back to what her father had said to the trees at the end of a long sloping drive. "The white women of the well," she replied.
Harry turned the broom to head north when a flash of white and a flutter of wings entered the orchard. It was Hedwig.
"See what I mean about owls?" Harry said sounding relieved. Hedwig dropped a letter into his hands and then perched on the nearest branch. Ginny reached out to pet her while Harry lit his wand and studied the letter.
"It's addressed to me," he said. "What do you think? Is it a Portkey?"
"That's Dad's writing."
"I'll take a chance then. Hold my wand." He opened and began to read the letter, two furrows appearing between his eyes as he scanned the page. He sighed and put it in his pocket.
"What is it? What did Dad say?" Ginny asked anxiously.
He glanced at her and reached for his wand. "You're in danger," he answered briefly.
Ginny held his wand behind her back. "Oh no, you're going to tell me what's going on. If this is about me – I deserve to know."
He paused, studying her flushed face, then without a word, his mouth set, he handed her the letter. "I'll hold the wand so you can read."
She read through it quickly, increasingly frightened. When she was finished she looked into his eyes. He looked… sympathetic. "He says," she began in a trembling voice. Then she started again. "He says to go to Aunt Martha's." She handed the letter back to Harry and turned around, glad that it was dark. She had a lot of thinking to do.
They flew north under cloudy skies. It was a warm night, but Ginny grew increasingly cold as their journey continued. Once she started shivering she couldn't make herself stop, and even then she wasn't sure if her agitation was more mental than physical. Harry noticed and pulled her close to stay warm. At any other time she would have been embarrassed or thrilled or terribly aware of him. Now she was glad that he was warm and didn't talk.
Her parents must be in a state, Ginny thought. And her brothers. She could imagine their rage at seeing the house, at hearing the threats from the Malfoys. That was another good reason for Harry to be the one with her. He didn't care about her like they did. Oh, he cared, she amended in her own mind, but not like that.
"Warwick castle," he murmured in her ear. Ginny couldn't believe they were almost there. The Muggle castle was floodlit with electricity. She could see the vast lawns and the lake and the glass conservatory – and then the turrets and towers of the castle itself.
"Go left," she called.
They crossed over several fields and then followed a road so sunken from the years that the cars were level with the roots of the trees lining the pavement. She was watching closely. Yes, there were the twin birch trees, so closely planted that their branches were entangled together. They hovered in front of the trees for Ginny to say the password. The branches sprung apart, making a round entrance hole. Once through the leafy portal, they could see the dark form of the imposing Tudor house, set high on a hill. They were at the bottom of a sweeping lawn.
Harry headed toward the house, but Ginny directed him to the back. "Aunt Martha lives in the Dowager house – she didn't want to live in the manor after her husband died."
They swept around the house over the formal gardens, which gave way to the kitchen gardens. There was a whitewashed, thatched-roof cottage with a light burning in the back.
As soon as they landed on the flagstone path, a very old house-elf opened the door. She was dressed in a frilly lace doily and had a knitted scarf around her neck. She beckoned them in with a twisted, long-fingered hand.
Great Aunt Martha was sitting at the scrubbed table in her dressing gown, a ruffled white mobcap on her still-red hair. She was a tall, angular woman with the narrow face and the long nose of the Weasleys. If Arthur were over a hundred and a woman, he would look just like Aunt Martha, Ginny thought every time she saw her. "Ginny!" she called in a quavering voice. "You are here at last." She peered through her wire spectacles at Harry. "With your young man, I see."
Ginny looked anxiously from Harry to Aunt Martha – she hoped they would get along since Aunt Martha didn't suffer fools. "Aunt Martha, this is Harry Potter. Harry, this is my Aunt Martha."
Harry stepped right up to Aunt Martha and shook the hand she proffered. Ginny noticed that he shook her hand delicately; probably realizing Aunt Martha had arthritis. For some reason she felt a stab of pride that he had such good manners.
The house-elf set a pitcher of foamy milk on the table, next to a platter of sandwiches. Aunt Martha gestured for them to sit and eat. "Would you like something hot to drink? A broom ride at night can be cold business." Harry shook his head; he was eating the sandwiches with evident enjoyment. Ginny shivered in response.
"Lotty, heat Ginny's milk. That should help you sleep tonight my dear."
Lotty waved her hand over Ginny's mug and a wisp of steam rose in the air. Ginny nodded at her gratefully.
Aunt Martha was still talking. "I am going to bed. Lotty will look after both of you. This is a small cottage and there are only two bedrooms – so you will have to share."
Harry looked up from his sandwiches his eyebrows raised. "Oh, there are two beds," Aunt Martha hastened to add at his expression. "Tomorrow Lotty will clean out the box room and we'll set up a camp bed in there."
She stiffly got to her feet. "Lotty doesn't talk – never has – but she communicates well. Good night, my dears, I hope we don't have too many other nights like this."
"Um – ma'am?" Harry asked. "Do you know – I mean – has anyone written?"
Aunt Martha turned and regarded him steadily. "We have been inundated with owls tonight. From your father –" She looked at Ginny. "And from Albus Dumbledore." She shrugged. "Albus wishes you both to stay here for the time being. I was happy to offer the hospitality of Hathaway Estate to Arthur's entire family, but that invitation has been declined. For what reasons, I don't know." She smiled. "Albus always liked to play his cards close to the vest, so to speak."
Harry looked disgruntled at this lack of information.
"Tomorrow morning you can send that fine owl of yours and see what you can find out. Until then, a good-night to you both."
When Aunt Martha left, Harry went back to his sandwiches and Ginny sipped the hot milk and looked around. It was peaceful in the old kitchen. The only sounds were the gentle ticking of a clock and the crackle of the fire in the huge fireplace. The light danced on the dark beams supporting the low-whitewashed ceiling. In the corners, Ginny could see bunches of herbs drying and various pots and cauldrons hanging from iron hooks. The limestone sink and wooden counter covered one wall and the sideboard with the blue and white china took up another. All was neat and orderly – unlike the kitchen at the Burrow, she thought with a pang.
"Do you want a sandwich?" Harry asked. There was one left on the plate.
"No, you eat, I'm not very hungry." She was starting to feel sick inside, realizing the implications of everything that had happened tonight. One of the least being that the snake talked to her – and she had killed it – and there was blood – and Voldemort wanted her blood….
"Are you ok?" Harry asked, frowning.
I'm not going to cry, she told herself sternly. "Just tired," she lied.
"Ginny." It was a rebuke.
"Ok – no, I'm not," she said, nettled that he was chiding her for not talking. "What could Lucius Malfoy want from me? I must be evil or something." She dimly realized that she wasn't making much sense. "I must be so evil, he's going to marry me to Draco and I will spawn the next heir of Slytherin or something."
Harry looked amused for a moment and then he sobered. "He doesn't want you because you're evil." His face twisted into a grimace and his eyes looked far away. "They have evil." He looked into her eyes. "They have evil in spades. No." He cocked his head and studied her, his eyes roving her face. "No, what they want from you is something good and fine…."
Her eyes filled with tears. It wasn't his words so much as the way he was looking at her, as if he could see something 'good and fine' in her. "Well, they're looking for the wrong girl, aren't they?" she asked bitterly. "You saw me – I chopped that snake's head right off. And I understood the snake talking. Tom could talk to snakes."
Something flashed in his eyes. "Ginny, I'm a Parselmouth. Do you think I'm evil?" His quiet tone belied his tense jaw and his clenched fist.
"No!" That she of all people would think him evil. "No, Harry! You can't help that – you were a baby when Voldemort affected you. Any of those dark powers – they're not your fault. But my possession was all my fault – I should have known better. You heard Mum and Dad after we came up from the Chamber."
This talk of evil must have triggered something, because for the first time all evening, Harry looked angry. "What if I told you I tried the Cruciatus Curse on Bellatrix Lestrange? Then would you think I was evil?"
The horrible events from the ministry scrolled through Ginny's mind. "That's what you were going to go do! I saw you, Harry – you were beside yourself with grief over Sirius."
He stared at her a minute. "You saw me go after her?"
"I called to you, but I don't think you heard me."
"How can you sit here and tell me I'm not evil? How can you not hate me for that?" he demanded.
It was almost like he wanted her to hate him, like he wanted her to punish him as much as he was punishing himself.
"How can you not hate me for Petrifying all those people and putting you in mortal danger?" she shot back.
"Voldemort tried to possess me," he stated flatly.
Ginny drew in a breath – suddenly they were in the deepest waters of conversation and she didn't know if she could cope.
"How did you stand it?" he asked. "All those months? It hurt so much to be possessed…." The haunted look was back in his eyes, but his time he wasn't looking inward, he was looking at her….
"I don't remember," she whispered. "And I don't want to," she added in a stronger voice.
"No, I reckon you don't," he said, sadness in his eyes. "I just think you might have to… you know… face that. Because –"
"Because what?" Ginny said feeling a tremor of dread in her stomach at his serious expression.
"Because you survived him – and what allowed you to do that is what Lucius Malfoy wants from you so badly."
Ginny let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Dots were swimming in front of her eyes. This had been an intense conversation following an intense day…. "Harry, what do you have to face? You know the prophecy, don't you?"
He went pale. "I have to kill Voldemort or be killed by him."
Ron and Hermione had guessed that – but to hear Harry say it in that expressionless voice, made it all too real – and sinister.
"Killing is easy," Ginny heard herself say in a bitter voice. "I cut the head off of that snake and that sword – it sang! What the hell kind of sword sings when you kill something with it?"
"Evil sword," Harry said, the ghost of a smile playing around his lips.
"It's not funny! An evil sword for an evil girl!"
"Ginny," he said impatiently, "you had to kill that snake before it killed you."
"So how is that different from the prophecy?" she demanded.
He opened his mouth and closed it, confusion in his eyes. "I don't know – it just is."
"I'll tell you the problem, Harry – it's the guilt afterward – it's the knowing that you can do such a thing – that's the problem. No one would blame you in the least for killing You-know-who! In fact they would like to bring him back and kill him all over again for each and every victim. No, it's not what the killing would do to that one – it's what it would do to you."
"Stain your soul," he murmured.
They sat in silence. The clock was still ticking, the milk in Ginny's mug had gone cold. It was such an ordinary scene for such an extraordinary talk. Surely there was a way to make it all come out right….
"There must be a way to clean it," Ginny said wanting him to tell her it was so. "There must be – if the evil has to be eradicated."
He looked at her with those clear green eyes. "I think you must know deep down – even if you can't remember."
She sat back in her chair. She was starting to get a headache. "I don't know Harry," she said wearily. "But we should go to bed, Lotty is waiting."
Lotty was standing by the door to the corridor. Harry stood up. "Ok – but we haven't decided who is more evil – you or me."
Ginny slowly started to smile. "It depends on how loudly you snore."
He smiled back. "Ron wins then."
Ginny waited in the kitchen for Harry to finish in the bathroom and get settled. A long time ago, like yesterday, she thought ruefully, sharing a room with Harry would have thrown her into a sea of doubt and defensiveness. Tonight, she just wanted to put her head down and sleep. She couldn't imagine appearing any worse in front of Harry's eyes after all the erratic behavior she had shown.
Lotty appeared at her elbow and gestured upwards. Ginny followed her through the dark house up a narrow set of wooden stairs. There was a small landing with four closed doors. Aunt Martha's room was on one side of the house, the spare bedroom was directly opposite with the box room and bathroom in the middle. The ceiling of the hall sloped, following the roofline. Lotty handed Ginny a white nightgown and a blue dressing gown. Then she pointed her to the bathroom and showed her the wicker basket where she was to put her bloodstained clothes. Harry's were already heaped inside.
Once alone, Ginny decided to have a shower. She tapped the sunflower nozzle with her wand. It opened one sleepy petal and complained. "A shower, so late at night?"
"Yes," Ginny insisted, "it's been a hard day.
"All right." The sunflower opened all of her petals and a gentle spray filled the tiny room with steam.
Aunt Martha had all sorts of soaps and lotions and perfumes lining the side of the tub. Ginny chose "Strawberry Fields" for her hair. The combination of warm water and the sweet smell of the shampoo calmed her like nothing else. She cleaned her teeth and put her new toothbrush in the glass next to Harry's. Then she dressed in the nightgown, glad it was sleeveless and that her arms were free. As it was, her feet kept getting tangled in the long length.
She hiked up at least a foot of cotton material to walk to the spare bedroom, trying not to make the old boards squeak. It was too dark for Ginny to see properly. Harry must have fallen asleep right away; she could hear his even breathing. She hoped her wand wouldn't wake him, but she had to find her bed in the strange room.
"Lumos," she murmured. Her first glance told her that the room was very small, and the bed a shirtless Harry was sprawled on, was very big.
Her second glance told her there was only one bed.
She sighed. It had been that sort of day.
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Character Design References
The Mission Statement
Our Mission Statement- Created for the designers who want to focus on problem solving and getting out of their comfort zones. This is the exact tool I use for my character Design class. The idea is to take a physical descriptive adjective, a "conveyed feeling" adjective, and an archetype with an option to turn them mythical. This 3 prong attack makes the designer think about the actual "character" behind the idea and not just a shape or costume. I try to keep it open enough to have creative freedom and push the skills further along. So enjoy yourself, send an email, and tell a friend. Happy arting!
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Tuesday, December 11, 2012
dark silly Alchemist Who may or may not be a Merfolk
By Aerik Lansel
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Sailing a boat is a great experience, especially when you are sailing with your friends or family. It's true that not everyone can afford to own a boat to have the sailing experience, but that doesn't mean they can't do it. If you want to sail a boat but don't have the money to buy one, you can use another option and rent one. However, you should know a few things before going this route. This will make sure that you will be on the safe side.
Tip #1 Reserve a Boat Ahead of Time
In summer, the demand for boats is higher than in winter. Therefore, you may find it harder to find a boat that hasn't been taken. To avoid this situation, we suggest that you make the reservation a few weeks earlier. As soon as you have confirmed your vacation dates, you should have a boat reserved.
Tip #2 Consider Your Needs
As a beginner, renting a fast boat won't be a good idea for you. But if you have a friend with you who knows how to sail a boat, then you may go ahead and rent a fast one. Another thing to keep in mind is that the selection should be based on what you want to use the boat for. For instance, not all types of vessels would be suitable for fishing. For recommendations, you can get in touch with the boat reservationist.
Tip #3 Rent a Well-maintained Boat
The boat you are going to rent must be in good condition. In other words, make sure the boat doesn't have any defects. But the question is how can you know if the boat is in good working condition? Well, you should take a look at the rental office or building. If the building is well maintained, the boats will also be in good condition and vice versa. Remember: sailing a damaged or defective boat may put your life at risk. So, you should never compromise on this factor.
Tip #4 Use Charts and Maps
The boat you are going to rent should have the latest charts. They will make it easier for you to know the directions to wherever you want to go. Since waterways change from time to time, having the latest maps is highly recommended.
Tip #5 Safety Is of Paramount Importance
The most important thing in our lives is safety. So, make sure that the boat has all the required safety equipment. Also, the law doesn't allow you to use a boat if it doesn't meet any safety requirement.
Tip #6 Communication is Important
The boat you are going to rent must have a working on-board radio. In case something goes wrong during sailing, you can use the onboard radio or your cell phone to call for help. Also, don't forget to save the important numbers in your phone before you board the boat.
So, these are some boat renting tips that you should note down and take into account before renting a good boat.


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Hello everyone.
I don't know if SP was going to open up a thread about this in the near future but I am gonna go ahead and do it until they make one. So, like the title says, this is a check out my level thread.
So people can know about your level, post w/the following info:
I'll start it out
Feel free to contribute whenever you like and give feedback to others who post!
Thanks all! :)
It would be much easier for people to find your missions if you linked to them. Users can add your missions to their queue instead of trying to randomly find them with filters. We did this during the beta. Go to this page and click on the "My Published" link on the bottom left of the page. From there, you can click on a mission name and copy the URL, or click your username to link to your author profile. For example here is my profile. It is currently empty, I will recreate some of my beta missions in the near future.
Level: IceSpeed
Location: Mansion. Southeast corner of the city.
Type: Race
Difficulty: Medium
Level: The Fort in the Sky
Location: Northwest of the mansion. (my previous mission)
Type: Search and Rescue
Difficulty: Medium
Here is mine
It is the green dot at the cathedral.
Cops and Robbers (Which side are you on?)
Battle, Other
On the sidewalk southeast of St. Ignatious Cathedral
Take a bit of 'me' time before investigating a large explosion! Contains moral choices!
Not much, open to suggestions. Kinda sad that the Rebels are MUCH harder to kill if you're good due to the karma bonus that lowers civilian damage, but I suppose you wouldn't attack them if you were good in the first place. Would of used the Forced Conduits, but they wouldn't have granted evil karma.
Theres my mission please check it out and if you like if you wouldn't mind to leave me a rating and message me if there are any problems and i will try to fix it :D
Madness!? (Tonight we dine in Empire City)
Kill 'Em All, Homage
Fort Phillipe, easternmost edge
I bet you can guess...
Wasn't too satisfied with how the opening text is, might delete parts of it to remove all references from dialogue. I'm sure people would get the gist of it from the title, caption and gameplay.
Here is a new Mission
For the mission of Matt-The-Silent I REALLY like the idea but hated the execution and I will explain why.
First the text with Zeke was fun... the first time. Then I kept dying and there was not a checkpoint just past this text so I had to skip it everytime. And since Cole doesn't stick to the plattform (why is that Sucker Punch?) I kept falling to my death and was getting more and more frustrated (the first jump from a car to a par of the bridge was tricky even when I was used too). The idea is really good but you need more checkpoint imo and Sucker Punch needs to make it so Cole can grab to those ledges no?
So like I said in retro-spec I really like the idea and the mission but no checkpoint and the fact that Cole doesn't stick to plattform made it really hard, good mission still.
Cole_Macgrath: I agree, it was a well done bridge. When I got to the end, i just shot the bombs and walked where they were, then the mission ended. I think this should be published.
Just played yours Ghost... it was pretty cool, showed me things i didn't know you could do. Good job!
Check out my missions here:
inFAMOUS 2 - PROFILE http://t.co/xHBifK1
I updated my level The Arena. Here are some pics and a link:
this is my first level hope you all like it. i want to make another one but first i want to see what people say about this one.
TO THE TOPIC CREATOR: I faced a similar problem than yours in my second level, you face baddies and you need to kill them, once you kill them the NPC move to a location and when you enter the location you will trigger a brief where he will say Follow me. If you were entering it too soon the text would start. Here's how I fixed it; Monitor (Militia incapacitated) => Script (Move NPC to location) => Multiple input switch with one input (My volume was also connected in the input of that switch) and I edit it to All and not Any and then that switch was leading to my dialogue so both conditions had to be met before the brief would trigger (don'tmean to brag and it's not much, but it's funny how you feel smart and proud of yourself when you finally fixed your problem hehe).
So far I've made 2 Counter-Surveillance mission and I will be making a 3rd one and a race one tonight. I plan on being a major player with the UGC and do a lot of (I hope) good level.
Here's the first one Counter-Surveillance it's very similar to the first game, you go at the Cabaret and you need to disable surveillance devices (I know they are bomb but the antenna were dumb since they were too big and couldn't attach to the wall... which makes me wonder why we can't reduce object and attach them to the walls).
The second one is Counter-Surveillance + that I am really proud of and really like (even thought only 1 person played it and rated it a 3 so far). In this one you will need to get to the Cathedral to disable devices and you may have to do some fighting in your way so it's not only a collect or disable mission that some people complain about.
A Swift Rescue
-Search and Rescue (though searching is not involved :P), Secure NPC, Kill 'Em All
-Northwestern Portion of the first island. The Northwest block adajacent to the big circular block (the cathedral?).
-Hostages are being escorted to a Miltia checkpoint. You have to quickly intercept and neutralize the Miltia escort before any hostages make it to the Miltia checkpoint.
I'd greatly appreciate any thoughts, comments and criticisms on the mission. I haven't had any friends playtest it, so I have been limited in my ability to hear others thoughts. If private messaging is available on the forums, that would probably be the best way w/o derailing this thread ;-).
Thoughts and Problems
-I thought it turned out pretty good for my first effort. It is a small scale test for a more complicated mission I'm considering creating.
-There are some tweaking problems-- hostages will trigger volumes which indicate their distance from the Miltia checkpoint through an onscreen brief. I think this happens for each hostage, when it essentially only matters for the hostage in the lead. It doesn't matter if hostage #3 is at the halfway mark, if #1 is nearly at the checkpoint!
-I like that the mission only has a certain amount of time to complete it (the time it takes for the hostages to make it to the checkpoint) because it forced me to play more aggressively. With playing on hard and w/o full power unlocks, I'll often spend too much time on a rooftop taking a few quick shots before retreating to recoup.
-At least one of the three hostages has to survive to complete the mission. With the Miltia escort and hostages travelling together, I felt that losing ANY hostages would result in failure was too harsh. But I believe less savory Coles could exploit the system by intentionally killing any hostages in the lead, I really don't like that.
- The Hostile Escorts and Hostages follow waypoints through an alley for the whole mission. They seem to suffer from single file line syndrome. I believe this could be fixed by having multiple paths for units to follow.
-The beginning mission briefing is long. It's a banter between Zeke and Cole that's progressed by the player. I felt like the mission goalds need to be conveyed as well as a little goofiness, but I think it's a little too drawn out for such a short mission.
-I tried to make the reward for climbing to rooftops (that is, being in a much better position to attack the miltia) balance with the risk of dealing with miltia snipers. There are a few snipers intended to complicate the rescue (they're positioned over the alleyway) and then there are snipers that can't support the alleyway, but would be in line of sight if you're on the rooftops. I like the idea, but need to flesh it out. Snipers + Guard this area only work so well.
-I like that you have to act fast, but I think that the mission clocking in at about a minute is way too short. I chock this up to mission design and learning the ropes, so probably won't revise it for this mission.
-Players fail if they alert the checkpoint. I quickly set up the checkpoint and it could use more work. I would like to see it on the minimap (so players have an idea of what is off limits), but I don't feel like the current waypoint markers (like the white star) are a good representation of this. As a player, when I see a white star, that means I should go there.
-With multiple ways to fail- all hostages dying, hostages reaching the end point, Cole alerting the Miltia checkpoint- I added a few seconds delay to the mission failure, and launch a brief explaining why the player failed. I hope this reduces players scratching thier heads in confusion, and I think it was something the original infamous did.
You do know you can go to your mission fail and type in why they failed. So when it brings up "Mission Fail" instead it will say "You Alerted the Militia Checkpoint"
Just add multiple fells, which i asume you already have and make each trigger when something happens, then instead of a mission brief, add the dialouge into the Mission Fail toggle.
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5 Stylish Ways To Wear Peek-A-Boo Lace à la Burberry Prorsum
Our favorite style stars can't get enough of Burberry Prorsum's S/S 14 runway collection and, to be honest, we're not the least bit surprised! The fashion house turned heads last year with its partially lined lace dresses and separates which, in addition to being absolutely stunning, also proved highly adaptable for both daytime and nighttime dressing.
Lucky for us, countless other brands have made the trend available and highly appealing as well, and with so many shop-able styles, we are officially ready to jump on the bandwagon. Click through for five ways to style the trend, and to shop some of our favorite pieces.
Photo:Courtesy of Burberry
The Burberry Prorsum S/S 14 collection revealed just how versatile this trend is, thanks to a range of color and outerwear options.
Photo:Sara Jaye Weiss/StartraksPhoto.com
True to her ahead-of-the-curve style, Alexa Chung paired her Burberry Prorsum Short Sleeved Victorian Lace Shirt ($795) and skirt with a Double Cashmere Caban ($3595) in Light Grey Melange (also from the collection), for contrasting color and a change in silhouette.
Photo:David M. Benett/Getty Images
Seen here at Harvey Weinstein's pre-BAFTA dinner this February, Naomie Harris stunned in this cool-colored cocktail dress (similar here). We love the way the to-the-ankle hemline balances the see-through design.
Photo:David M. Benett/Getty Images
Taking a cue from the British brand's runway, Poppy Delevingne went for minimal coverage underneath her Burberry Prorsum Cotton Lace Bustier Dress ($2495) in Pale Lavender paired with a Jimmy Choo Sweetie Clutch ($750), which put a sexy spin on the pastel trend.
Photo:Ian Gavan/Getty Images
DJ Chelsea Leyland gave an element of edginess to her look by teaming her Burberry Prorsum English Geometric Lace Skirt ($1095) in White and biker jacket with statement heels by House of Holland when attending the brand's A/W 14 show in London.
Photo:Newton-Joe Schildhorn/BFAnyc.com
Harley Viera-Newton, seen here at a private performance by The XX the brand hosted, kept her look ultra feminine thanks to the pink and white color palette.
Assali Gala Lace Dress ($650) in White
The maxi-dress gets a makeover with this sexy, partially-lined number.
Branch Out Venetian Lace Skirt ($45) in Black
Wear this instead of your usual pencil skirt for a more exciting, seasonally appropriate look.
Candela Crawley Top ($285)
Wear this top from work to play by first pairing it with a camisole, then swapping the cami for a nude bra.
House of Holland Embroidered-Lace Midi Dress ($545)
This pink House of Holland dress is straight from the London runway, but you'd never know it from the price.
For Love & Lemons Antigua Mini Dress ($224) in Black
Made with sheer nude fabric, this dress is an optical illusion designed to reveal just enough skin!
Nicholas Pencil Crochet Knit Skirt ($390) in Ivory
Pair this skirt with a white crop top for your next GNO.
Luisa Beccaria ¾ Length Dress ($1588) in Dark Blue
We love the light-colored slip that comes with this dress, making it both daytime and nighttime appropriate.
Pixie Market White Floral Lace Sheer Dress ($50)
It may be hard to believe, but high-waisted briefs will be ideal for styling this dress.
Rebecca Minkoff Angelica Skirt ($248) in Sun
A bright yellow pencil skirt screams spring!
Tibi Sonoran Eyelet Full Skirt ($398) in Eyelet Peridot
Tibi's midi skirt is reinvented every season, and this time the brand nailed it with this beautiful green eyelet version. We have a hunch this gorgeous piece will be a street style favorite…
Zara Guipure Lace Top ($80) in Sky Blue
Wear this with a pale pink or purple skirt for a stunning combination of pastels.
Rachel Comey Lucid Dress ($644) in Black Lace
This Taylor Swift-approved Rachel Comey dress comes unlined, so you can pair it with a short slip or loner iteration, depending on the occasion.
Tell us how you would style peek-a-boo lace in the comments below or tweet us @whowhatwear!


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HOUSTON –– As the Rockets try to continue their march toward history Friday night, the troops will be bolstered by the return of Jeremy Lin. The point guard, who suffered a bruised chest and hasn't played since Game 3, will come off the bench for Game 6 against the Thunder at the Toyota Center.
Lin has been attempting to get back onto the court for days, but had been unable to get rid of the pain.
"Once game-time comes around, I probably won't feel anything," said Lin after Friday's shootaround. "It's been the longest week, a really, really long week. Just the fact I get to play is a huge, huge burden off of my shoulders."
Rockets coach Kevin McHale says that rookie Patrick Beverley will continue to start and Lin will come off the bench.
"Playoff series end up having kind of a life of their own and a rhythm," McHale said. "To be thrown in the middle of that rhythm a lot of times, it's hard to catch the rhythm. Our guys have a little bit of rhythm in this series, as Oklahoma City has a rhythm in the series. To be thrown out there – that's why we have to be a little bit careful.
"We'll bring him off the bench and see how much juice he has in the tank. It's hard to enter a series when you haven't played in a while, but we're going to try to keep what we have going. Jeremy, we'll try to fit him in there, see how he is and see how his arm feels. If he gets hit or anything happens."
Lin has shot just 5-for-20 with 14 points and eight assists in the series.
Rockets shooting guard James Harden has been diagnosed with strep throat, but will be in the starting lineup.


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The world's top riders come together in China for the Oakley Style Masters—we stick around to find out if China is a rising snowboard frontier.
Do you do reality checks? Like, stop what you're doing, step back, and give a situation the once-over. I do. Try this scenario on. I'm walking through the Forbidden City with a bitter Siberian headwind whipping through the corridors. Each ornate walled-in city block leads to another-the wind is freezing to the bone-the end never comes, another corridor into another city block, walls on all sides. Hours pass. The freezing wind sustains. Crazy right? Not done yet. I look to my right and there's Terje Haakonsen in a big fur hat with the red communist hammer and sickle on the front, wearing yellow-tinted Oakley glasses, giving me the thumbs up. Huh? In front, Peter Line is skipping to keep warm. Travis Rice looks pissed. Nicolas Muller has one of those hats, too. Right at this moment, I did one of those reality checks, but I couldn't really get my head around it. Summary: I'm in China with the legends and heroes of pro snowboarding walking through one of the oldest and most historic cities in the world.
Oakley Style Masters
Let's start from the beginning. This trip began with an invitation from Oakley to hook up in Beijing for the Arctic Challenge Oakley Style Masters—a quarterpipe session and one of the first major snowboard events in China. When Terje invites riders anywhere, they come, whether to the Arctic Circle in Norway or, in this case, to the other side of the world. And so it was. We started slowly, two busloads of snowboarders, industry heads, and event producers cruising around Beijing. Overwhelmed by the unfamiliarity of all things Chinese, we found ourselves in the position of tourists. Looking but not participating in everyday China, riding past people on bicycles; scooters; massive, oily, old diesel trucks; and bundled-up residents on the streets-signs that mean nothing- jumping out and unloading a barrage of camera fire on innocent residents.
A press conference inside a super-modern mall in downtown Beijing signaled the start of the event. In a moment of contradictions that is typical of the new China, we walked out the door of the sparkling urban mall, Orange Julius in hand, to the gates of the Forbidden City (almost 600 years old: circa 1420) across from the entrance to Tiananmen Square, under the watchful eyes of Chairman Mao Zedong.
China, as you've probably heard, is in the midst of huge changes. In the past, organized public gatherings even as mellow as a snowboard demo would be discouraged. The wealth to afford recreational equipment, an organized venue to participate with it, and the free time to enjoy it were nonexistent. In the new 2008-Summer-Olympics China, with its thriving middle class, booming construction, choking traffic, and more open government, things like snowboarding and increasing access to information about life outside of China (magazines, Internet) are the shaping reality.
To get to the resort two hours outside of Beijing, we idled in the new China's new traffic. Personal cars are recent here, and the cars make it possible for the fourteen resorts/slopes around Beijing to draw the crowds they need to operate. En route to these outlying resorts, our bus flew past barren brown windswept plains-living conditions deteriorating from modern to electricity-starved mud dwellings within miles. Hundreds of little walled-in neighborhoods offering the occasional glimpse of markets and bicycles and dusty roads, and sometimes light. It's very bleak in places. I tried to take it in: 1.3-billion people.
The Style Masters quarterpipe demo was set to go down at a resort called Badaling (or "Bada-bing" as Travis Rice called it) near the Great Wall. This was our first disappointing look at the reality of the "mountains" around Beijing. To put it into terms you can relate to, it gets as good as a modest Midwest resort and as bad as the same mountain's snow-tubing lane. Badaling has three runs, two tow lifts, and one chairlift operated by the Siberian-looking army men outfitted in long green jackets, fur hats, and cigarettes. Arctic Challenge CEO Henning Anderson quipped, "It's the Arctic Challenge, so there will be weather problems", and there were. The now-familiar wind continued to put a damper on things by blowing the wooden/scaffolding quarterpipe skeleton away from its frozen snowpack leaving a gaping crumbling mess, but a day and night shovelfest put things back in place. In the meantime, we went next door to another ski resort called "Sunshine Snow Castle Ski Field." With a very putt-putt golfish castle theme, it was somehow even smaller than Badaling, but it had a fun little snowboard park with rails, jumps, and cranking music. It was the warm-up session the riders needed after days of travel. Nicolas and Terje tweaked big methods off mini hips. A little bump got a huge front- and backflip session by Travis Rice, Danny Davis, Luke Mitrani, and the Dingo.
No trip to China is complete without a visit to the Great Wall. The entrance to the tiny sections of the Great Wall that are actually open to public visitation sound like this: "Hello, hello, you want? You want? Hello. Okay. Wait. Hello pretty lady"—it's filled with knickknack, postcard, and camel-ride vendors. We peaked at the section that, a year earlier, skateboarder Danny Way had jumped over. Wow! This little zone in China is seeing more action-sports action than Southern California. It's a steep wall fluidly wandering over hills, up mountainsides, and across plains as far as you can see-it is indeed "Great."
Back at the quarterpipe, the crew led by Claus made it happen with a broken backhoe, broken shovels, and broken English. Terje declared it ready for business. Actually he said, "The quarterpipe is as smooth as my ass." It was game on; before dropping in, Terje joked, " I don't have much time—I'll just show you all how it's done." And he made the drop. Success! The riders didn't sketch in the sketchy, washboard run-in. Travis Rice did every trick in the book—too many to list here; Kevin Pearce and Danny Davis paired up for doubles runs including double backside rodeos, McTwists, and backside alley-oop fives. Nicolas Muller pulled out a foot and dropped in for a one-footed McTwist and followed it up with Japan airs, which Dingo began referring to as "China airs" on behalf of our host country. But this QP was about hitting the high mark, and Pat Moore did just that, beating Terje's huge airs with his own-an eighteen-foot backside air. The fact that the event even happened in China made it a success. Was it worth it traveling halfway around the world for one quarterpipe session? Considering the talent present—hell yes.
Getting Beijing'd
For some, this was the end of the trip, but for our select crew, it was just the beginning. Burton Team Manager Dave Driscoll rounded up Danny Davis, Kevin Pearce, and Keir Dillon to continue with TWS photographer Frode Sandbech and myself. We were heading back to Beijing to meet up with a crew that included Steve Zdarsky, an Austrian snowboarder. Steve is a man of firsts—he claims to have built the first snowboard parks and run the first contest here: The Nanshan Open.
There're already a few crews of snowboarders working to get the shred engines revving in China. At the castle resort, we ran into an old Colorado boarder by the name of J3 who has a park-building business among other things. J3 was working in China for his previous design and production job at Technine bindings (it's no secret that a lot, if not most, boards, boots, and bindings are made in the Guangdong factories). He did some product testing at local resorts and ended up staying here to promote snowboarding. He had a hand in helping the government pick and train the Chinese national snowboard team; two of the girls he trained went to the 2006 Olympics after riding for barely eighteen months.
Steve Zdarsky, his girlfriend Ali Waugh, and their friend Alan Wong showed us around the Silk Market in Beijing, a black market outlet hawking Adidas, DVDs, Gucci bags, designer jeans, and custom suits. And that's basically an edited list of Keir's shopping marathon. The usually unexcitable Keir, laden down with shopping bags, exclaimed that this was "the most exciting shopping day of my life." There're a million theories on the black market and how to end it, deal with it, whatever. It works for some Chinese because they can get brand-name gear right out of the factory—well, the back door anyway. The black market, however, diminishes foreign brands' motivation for coming to China to promoting snowboarding because local riders have access to, for example, the more affordable, and almost identical looking, Buzrun brand instead of Burton (seriously).
As for the current state of snowboarding, Steve Zdarsky says, "Snowboarding is growing a lot in the bigger city centers, especially Beijing. Here, the people have income and can afford to buy gear and go snowboarding. To the south of Beijing, there's no snow in the winter, so snowboarding is hard to do … they have indoor ski resorts (Shanghai Ski Dome), but still. Beijing and Haerbin way up north, as well as Shenzhen and Jilin are the main spots. All are cities with at least ten-million inhabitants." A peak day at Nanshan is around 300 snowboarders.
Without the radical natural terrain, we wondered, is China ever going to have a major snowboarding scene? Steve says the biggest obstacle isn't the lack of terrain, it's China's one-child policy. He broke it down for us, "All the riders are twenty-plus here-no young kids. You finish university first and then you start to snowboard." Elementary school kids go to school from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Monday to Saturday, and on Sunday they have private teachers. That doesn't leave much time for snowboarding unless you're one of the Chinese Ski Association kids (according to Steve, every county with snow has a team of around 30 kids now, around ten counties.)
We cruised with Steve to the Nanshan resort and found more of a resort than we could have hoped for: a halfpipe (early 90s quality hand-dug), a real park, and a mountain peak. There was even pizza in the main lodge. We met up with some Chinese riders, especially cool was a girl named Yindi who rides every day, shredding the park and rails. In the far reaches of China, Yindi has signed on with Roxy and Deeluxe. Interesting …
We had been in China for over ten days now. We'd seen everyth … wait, one more thing to check out-the legendary nightlife of Beijing. Steve's friend Alan, a restaurateur, and solid ex-Tahoe shredder, wanted to show us the biggest night out ever. Alan hooked up the best meal anyone on our crew had ever had. His restaurant was hidden in the basement of a downtown building; a pass of the hand under a light panel slid the concrete door open. Our chef chopped, diced, sauteed, and sizzled through ten courses of sushi, oysters, Kobe beef, crawfish, and on and on. Our private room was stocked with unlimited Moet Chandon. The night continued through major nightclubs packed with Koreans (who apparently party more than their Chinese counterparts) tearing up the dance floor to Euro techno beats. Wait, where are we again? We avoided the street meat snacks (dog, cat, or rat) on the way home, hopping into the world's most inexpensive taxis and somehow getting to the airport that morning.
Will China become the new Holy Grail of snowboarding? The Style Masters is planning a return (although not this winter), Burton held a Big Air in downtown Beijing this past September, more and more international riders are showing up for the Nanshan Open, which is now an international TTR (Ticket To Ride) event. I thought about it a lot, I mean, there are 1.3-billion people-it could change the sport. Back at the office, TWS Online Director, and snowboard historian, Lee Crane told me this story: a shoe company sent two fact finders to research the African shoe market, one guy comes back and says, "Oh my god, it's amazing, an entire nation, and nobody has shoes, we'll kill it." The other guy comes back and says, "Oh my god, nobody wears shoes, forget about it." Anyway, it could go either way, but rest assured, there're plenty of people on the case.


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It seems not a day goes by without Lindsey Vonn collecting some new mantel ornament or putting her name on a new line in the history books.
Saturday at Schladming, Austria, the U.S. skier set a World Cup women's mark for points in a season by finishing 8th in the slalom at the World Cup final.
And Saturday's awards presentation schedule also had her getting the crystal globe in super-combined, an event not contested at the final.
Vonn now has 1,980 points, 10 more than the record set by Janica Kostelic of Croatia in 2006.
It was a mark Vonn hadn't mentioned all week, preferring to focus on the record 2,000 points Austria's Hermann Maier accumulated, appropriately, in 2,000. She needs to finish 12th or higher in Sunday's giant slalom, the final race of the season, to pass Maier.
"I'm very happy with any record, but I'm going to do my best (Sunday) to get that remaining 20 points," Vonn said.
"I'm really happy with my slalom performance. I've been in the top 10 this year but I haven't had any consistency."
Vonn had finished just four of the previous eight slaloms this season, with a top finish of seventh. She wound up 20th in the season slalom standings, won easily by Marlies Schild of Austria.
Vonn has had the best giant slalom season of her career, with her first two victories in the discipline. In eight races, her lowest finish is 12th, and she is second in the season standings.
That success led her to consider skipping Saturday's slalom to do extra giant slalom training. Had she done that, Vonn would have needed to finish third to pass Maier.
"I definitely think this takes a little of the pressure off for (Sunday's) race," Vonn said. "But my goal is still the same. I still have a small chance of winning the GS (season) title. I'm going to go for the win."
To take the GS title, Vonn has to win and have the current leader, Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany, fail to score a point by finishing 16th or lower.
Pretty unlikely. But no more so than Vonn's being in a position to talk about it. This is her first season above 8th in the giant slalom standings. She was 12th last year.
The combined title was her third straight and 12th of her career in one of the sport's five disciplines. Sunday, she will be presented the globe for a fourth overall season title.
Vonn's outsized collection of prizes is too much for any mantel.
That's the problem with having the mantle of greatness fit perfectly.