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The Haunted Forest: A Spiritwalk
This essay appeared here in three parts—from November of 2002 to May of 2003. It is perhaps the most personal writing I have ever done. It is the account of one part of my spiritual journey, delving into the detritus of childhood to come to grips with an image that has been with me all my adult life--the image of a peaceful, beautiful second-growth forest of birch trees. I have brought all three essays together in one place for ease of reading.
The ecstatic techniques that I used during this journey were an extension of those I practiced for a time in early adolescence. When I began, there was little information available about shamanism except for dry anthropological studies. If you are interested in incorporating these techniques into your own spiritual quest, I can recommend two books that provide a good introduction to the techniques as they apply to practitioners in modern society: "The Way of the Shaman" by Michael J. Harner and "Where Spirits Ride the Wind" by Felicitas Goodman. The first is a practical how-to guide to basic practices, the second is a detailed account of Dr. Goodman's many years of study of ecstatic techniques. The two books complement each other nicely. Also, for an in-depth study of shamanism in traditional societies there is Mircea Eliade's "Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy." This is one hefty tome, but like all Eliade's work I've read, it's remarkably accessible to the non-specialized reader.
A note of caution: shamanism and ecstatic techniques are very powerful tools for the exploration of the psyche. It is unwise in the extreme to approach them lightly. They are, in a word, dangerous. I say this not to dissuade anyone from attempting them, but rather to drive home the point that this isn't like puttering with a Ouija board or tarot cards. I would be more than happy to discuss my personal experiences with anyone interested in learning more. If you do choose to try shamanism I urge you to find a guide or mentor who is sympathetic to such practices and to work closely with that person.
Finally, a personal word. Larry Pesavento stood by me throughout this journey. He was the anchor to which I tethered myself when I stepped, once again, into the Otherworld. "Thank you" seems inadequate to express my gratitude.
—Donald R. Walker: Cincinnati, Ohio and The Otherworld, 2003
Part 1
I have walked through a haunted forest, a beautiful forest of birch. When I am in the forest, it is always the high days of middle autumn, the autumn of memory, when nights are chill and days warm with slanting sunlight. The white bark shimmers where, here and there, the canopy of leaves breaks. It is silent in the forest--no bird sings. Most of the leaves are still green, but in tiny prides that dance in the light, some are bright gold. A few, exhausted by summer and the autumn dance, flutter to the ground. That ground is carpeted with last year's leaves, now brown, and clumps of brilliant emerald moss creep out from rocks and fallen trees onto the forest floor. A stream bed winds along the forest floor, the thinnest trickle of water meandering through the very center of the bed. Here and there the roots of trees are undercut, forming shallow grottos where the stream bends.
If I follow the stream I will come one such grotto that is well known to me. I have visited it in dreams and visions. It has appeared in my writing and I have tried to paint it more than once. In the shadows, if I look closely, I will see the shape of bones, moss covered and mouldering, resting in this grotto for I don't know how long. I wondered about these bones for many years and it was only a couple of years ago that I realized for the first time that they are the bones of a sixteen-year-old boy. They are my bones.
I was raised in a household devoid of spirit. Both my parents were alcoholics who, as the years passed, became increasingly dysfunctional. My father fled from job to job, assisted by a good-ole-boy network that sought to prop up one of their own while ensuring that he screwed up as far as possible from their own backyards. My mother took secretarial jobs to shore up income during my father's increasing periods of unemployment. She was bitterly angry with the world and slipped from bitterness into insanity. My father was equally bitter and also terrified. I never knew what was at the roots of that fear-only that he stank of it, as he stank of cigarettes and cheap wine.
And fear ruled me with an iron grip as well. Every night--EVERY DAMNED NIGHT--my parents would drink themselves into oblivion in their room at the top of the house. My sisters fell asleep to the sound of my father drunkenly bemoaning the growing list of those "out to get him," my mother screaming at him to shut up or to listen to her complaints for a change. These were my sisters' lullabies. I didn't sleep. I stayed awake each night until the raving stopped then snuck up the stairs to make certain they were asleep. Only then would I shut my eyes. Once I carried a loaded gun with me when I went up to check on them. While my father had never offered us violence, I had no faith that this would continue--his ravings became increasingly strident--the list of his "enemies" grew rapidly. They clung to a doggedly material view of the world that offered them no joy or comfort, no purpose beyond existence.
When I was thirteen, however, my own spiritual hunger became sharp, as it often does in adolescence. But I had no guide. My grandmother, responsible for most of the upkeep of my sisters and myself as the family disintegrated was Methodist. That gave her strength but little joy. She ultimately left it behind some years later in favor of finding her own way. Other relatives were wishy-washy Catholics, a couple of Jehovah's witnesses, and a smattering of communists, agnostics, and at least one follower of Dianetics. Neighbors were no help--the outside world is the enemy is situations like ours.
But I found at least the scrap of a roadmap in two books. In seventh grade I was reading "Lives of a Bengal Lancer" by Francis Yeats-Brown. In a chapter about his time as prisoner of the Turks during the First World War, he described Yoga breathing exercises that he used to help control his fears. I studied the techniques, however sketchy his description, and practiced the exercises as he set them forth. They worked. I could relax, even step outside myself for brief periods. It made the nightly wait for silence endurable.
And a few months later, I bought a paperback copy of T. Lobsang Rampa's "The Third Eye." This book, first published in 1956, purports to be the autobiography of a Tibetan monk. It created something of a stir in the nascent Eastern religions movement born of the late Beats. To this day there are conflicting stories about Rampa's real identity. Some claim he was an Irish plumber out to make a quick pound, others say Rampa was the pseudonym of a genuine lama--I've even heard it was the Dalai Lama!--but it scarcely matters. The descriptions of Tantric rituals and exercises were informative enough to emulate. About the time Tim Leary left Harvard and started on his electric quest, I began experimenting with meditation and trance-induced ecstasy, not the drug, the state.
For about three years I regularly induced a trance state through a combination of breathing, mantras and individual exercises I developed on my own. I had no idea what I was doing, really, except escaping. If there is any one thing I remember about these journeys, it was the incredible sense of freedom I felt--not physical freedom, although there was an element of that, but freedom of the soul. I was not bounded by the grim materialism that formed my parents' prison. They could not follow me into the Otherworld. Here walls were illusions, the earth a stepping stone. Here I was free from fear.
It was during this period that I first began to write and first looked at a painting that had hung in our house for years--done by my uncle when he was still in his teens--and realized how marvelous it was to capture so much feeling on canvas with paint. I began my life as an artist during these times.
But the Otherworld was a perilous refuge, although I didn't know it. When you embrace ecstasy and travel in the Otherworld, you journey in the world of spirit. And without a guide, without some sort of preparation, this can be a frightening journey.
When I was sixteen, I stopped. Until recently, I was uncertain why. I only knew that something happened and I'd left the Otherworld--not to return until middle age.
Within two years, my parents' demons had staked me out as fresh meat. My senior year in high school, I couldn't start the day without a shot of scotch (and another to get through fifth period math class.) I still made art, but I was locked in a cycle that haunted me for decades--periods of intense creativity and periods of oblivion.
I am telling this because you must know my history to understand what comes next. This is not a "poor me" confessional. I have dealt with much of it, that which I haven't dealt with is finding it harder and harder to hide from my probes. And a couple years ago, as I started to take charge of the demons that haunted me all those years, I embarked upon a renewed spiritual journey. That journey is on-going. In my next installment I will share my thoughts on spirit and the spiritual journey. It is this journey that gave me insight into why those lonely bones rest in the forest; insight to what so traumatized that boy into trying on his father's demons as his own.
Part 2
After I'd primed my spiritual pump, it wasn't long until I heard the call of the Otherworld once again. One day I was watching the celebration of the Eucharist and I suddenly experienced the Ashvamedha--the Vedic Horse Sacrifice--superimposed over the Anglican ritual. This wasn't an hallucination--the vestments were not magically transformed to the garb of northern India 6,000 years ago, the priests weren't intoning Sanskrit. But the Christian imagery of the Eucharist was stripped away and the deep structure of the ritual--the ancient cycle of death and renewal was manifest. I don't think the Ashvamedha was significant--I was reading a selection of hymns from the Rig Veda at the time--but it could just as easily have been the Greek tale of Demeter and Kore or the Egyptian myth of Isis and Osiris.
Nor did it happen at a cognitive level--it was a mystical experience, an experience of emotion and of spirit. Indeed, choosing to describe my experience as seeing the Ashvamedha, is only a point of reference, inexact words to describe something that is, at its most basic, indescribable. It was a powerful experience, albeit a confusing one. I ruminated about it for several weeks before I decided that it was a calling to revive the ecstatic practices I'd abandoned over thirty years before. And furthermore, I knew my first task was to go back into those woods--that birch forest--and find those bones and deal with them.
When I talked with my therapist about this, he was both supportive and a little dismayed. Supportive in that he saw it as something of a breakthrough--a tap into my spiritual and emotional side that he hadn't been able to peer into as yet. And dismayed because I didn't, at least to his mind, seem properly terrified by what I was proposing. But I wasn't terrified, not in the sense that he wanted me to be, certainly. But that isn't to say I didn't have a profound respect for it all. After all, I'd been through it long before. Then, I went blindly, not cautiously. I had no guidance of any sort, just instinct and a couple of brief passages from two books. I had no real sense that I was touching the world of Spirit.
But now I had decades of reading myths and sacred texts. There were many books dealing with shamanic technique and practices from around the world. The internet was filled with sites ranging from serious scholarship to making the X-Files seem mundane. I programmed my computer with the beat of a frame drum and started my walks.
I'm not going to take up time describing these initial journeys in detail. The experiences were highly personal, in some cases exhilarating, in others harrowing and painful. But in short order I found myself standing once again in that forest, looking down at the bones.
At this point my therapist and I disagreed pointedly about the next step. He was encouraging me to view these bones as symbolic of a psychological "death" a point where I shut myself off from the pain and shame of my parents' alcoholism. He very much wanted me to attempt to open a dialog with that boy, to get him past the point of "death." What I intended to do was find those bones and give them a decent burial.
I believed then and now, that attempting to "reach" that teenager would have been futile. His death was a true death--not physical of course--I'm here writing this now. Rather it was a spiritual death. I died and my spirit then entered some demon haunted world where it dwelt for a number of years. I didn't know on a conscious level that I was in a demon world. It looked just like the one I'd left. The same people were in it. The sun was as bright, the clouds as gray, but it wasn't the same world. However, at some level, I knew I was in a sort of spiritual afterlife and spent my time alternately working at my art, perhaps as a means of redemption. and seeking oblivion through a gleeful mixing of alcohol and downers.
When I finally realized that I had been, and indeed still was in this Otherworld, my therapist and I disagreed about the nature of oblivion. I had to explain at length, again and again, that this was no quest for the "oceanic," the comforting pre-conscious warmth of the womb. Rather I sought a deeper oblivion, the oblivion that existed before creation--before spirit moved and existence came to be. And with equally gleeful illogic I didn't want oblivion permanently. Suicide, at least physical suicide, was never an option. In fact, I insisted on it being a temporary oblivion. I once referred to these times as "chemical vacations."
I actually stopped the downers by the time I'd reached twenty after a particularly scary blackout involving a motorcycle and the states of Wyoming and Arizona. But it was much longer before booze lost its glamour. And to this day I remained bemusedly bitter about the fact that Quaaludes hit the streets about six months after I'd given up on the downers. My senior year in high school I would have sold my family to white slavers for 'ludes!
So when I found the bones, I erected a small shrine to them, lit a candle to St. Jude on their behalf, and then set about the next phase of my quest--determining what had killed me so long ago.
Part 3
When I was a very young man, perhaps thirty years ago, I wrote a horror novel. Looking back, I realize that it wasn't very good, although I did save some ideas and snippets of characters for later work. I let my father read the manuscript and at the end, when those characters who'd made it through the ordeal had finally put the enemy down and turned to the ruin of their lives to start up again, the book just ended. My father asked "what is their reward?" "They live," I replied. He looked puzzled, then troubled. "After all they've been through, that's it. There's nothing better for them? Their lives just continue as if nothing had happened?"
He seemed deeply disturbed by this notion, that, after all this struggle and loss, that their eventual triumph brought nothing else. They were not elevated to exalted status. No one stood up, held laurel wreathes over their heads, and called out to the adulating masses "Praise them with great praise!" They weren't given the keys to what was left of the city. No one handed them a cashier's check for a million bucks. But they didn't die, either. And the next morning they knew that today, at least, they weren't going to have to battle for their lives against a faceless power that seemed to know their minds and weaknesses. As I said, the novel wasn't much--I read a couple chapters a few years ago and winced.
But as I wrote the first two essays in this series, as I told about finding the bones of the boy in the woods, as I thought about my father's terrifying descent into alcoholism, and my own years clawing at the edge of that same abyss, I wondered why, in the end, I was able to pull myself out while my father was dragged down and down and down. And I thought of that time, all those years ago, when my father put down the story with grief in his eyes because the characters received nothing more for their pains than life. Life itself was not enough for him. Not that it necessarily was for me, but somewhere, somehow, I saw more potential in "just life" than my father had.
I only remembered this incident a year or so ago. And as troubling as this memory is, I think it was this understanding of how bereft he must have been that finally allowed me to get past the hate and disgust I'd felt for him most of my adult life--hate because of the senseless way he'd abandoned my sisters and me as he retreated into the bottle, disgust as I watched him dissolve into a puddle of gray ooze that was scarcely recognizable as human. And anger and disgust with myself on those occasions when I felt myself being drawn after him, into the same abyss. I realized that he was incapable of synthesizing joy from life. He appreciated beauty, art and music, a peaceful valley on a spring morning, but there was always a melancholy aspect to these things for him, as though they were not part of his life, and never could be. He could see them, respond to them, but somehow, in his heart, they were never "for" him.
Recently, when I'd completed a sculpture and stood back to look at it, I knew that at no point in his life had my father ever truly felt as I did at that moment. He never felt that same sense of completion, of satisfaction that my idea had come to life in my hands and stood before me, very much as I'd seen it first in my mind's eye. He was always the kid with his nose pressed against the window of the candy store, never the kid inside, tapping his coins on the counter to get the proprietor's attention.
At my father's funeral, one of his oldest friends spoke about how the Great Depression had imprinted itself on my father's psyche. The deprivation of those times--that he'd experienced and that he'd seen others experience--had left him with a keen sense of the injustice of the world. It was a sense of injustice that he took personally. But it had done something else as well. It had left him a dogged materialist. He rejected, even despised anything that touched upon the Spirit. In all my life, I never knew him to set foot in a church of any kind--he would stop at the doors as though the hand of God barred him personally. He professed to believe that all who sought the Spirit were deluded, and if they weren't deluded themselves they were charlatans, out to delude others.
And yet he read mythology voraciously. There were over 6,000 books in our house. I know because whenever we moved--and we moved at least once a year from the time I was thirteen until I finally abandoned my family at age nineteen, and sometimes two or three times a year--the largest component of the move was books. Boxes and boxes of books. He would go to liquor stores for their boxes because they were stronger and of a size that, when packed with books, wouldn't be too heavy to lift. I'd first read the Bhagavad Gita when I was ten, in a Mentor edition I found in the bathroom one night. On our shelves you could find several different versions of the Bible, translations of the Koran, the Upanishads, collections of native American legends, African myths, myths of the Greeks, the Romans, the Norse, the Egyptians. Frazer's "The Golden Bough" was perhaps his favorite book. And like Frazer, my father did not see, reflected in all this lore some glimmer of universal spiritual truth, but rather evidence of a great falsehood. He read these myths and tales looking for the material explanations behind them and there had to be a material explanation. Even the notion of metaphor was lost on him because metaphor is immaterial. Simile he could understand but metaphor seemed to him to be one step away from metaphysics and hence was simply wrong.
And still he and my mother, whose spiritual leanings were unknown to anyone, sent me to a Lutheran parochial school for first, second and third grade. Go figure. Both my parents went to their graves without explaining to anyone that peculiar contradiction. My grandmother believed that they wanted the status of saying their son was in a private school. My uncle thought it was because they didn't want me to cross the street. Who knows! I've even had it suggested to me that perhaps he thought that if I saw firsthand what utter nonsense it all was, that it would cure me forever of any religious feelings. And perhaps that suggestion was the closest to the mark, because it damned near did--as least as far as Christianity went.
For decades after those first three years of elementary school the notion of church gave me the habdabs. Oh, I could enter a church, especially a Catholic one, but only during the off hours, when it was quiet. I felt uncomfortable during services, should I go occasionally with a friend or lover. Later, I lost that discomfort with services in general but to this day I have not set foot in a Lutheran church. I can handle Methodists, Baptists, Mormons, Coptics, Catholics, Anglicans, Moravians, and Pentecostals. But if I hear "A Mighty Fortress" booming on the organ, my first gut reaction is to fire off a dispatch to Rome requesting an Inquisitor or two be sent with all possible speed. But, if it was my father's intent to drive any spiritual notions from my head, well, he failed.
As I said, I read the Bhagavad Gita when I was ten, the summer between fifth and sixth grade I read the King James version of the Bible cover to cover. I read about the Norse gods and the Olympians and what I knew--KNEW--was that all these stories were true. I couldn't tell you then how I knew this, or what I even meant by this. I understood that they were not facts, like two plus two equals four. But when I read them I felt something within me vibrate. And I knew that that something was not material, that it was transcendent.
When I announced to my therapist that I was going to seek the primal Spirit, the raw, unedited spiritual experience, what I didn't say to him was that I never expected to find it. In my mind, it was a quest, like the Grail quest, and that the power of the quest was in the quest itself. Through this quest I would make sense of my own spiritual confusions and form some sort of order to them. I believed in my heart that Spirit was something that could only be approached obliquely. You can experience Spirit but never know it, and I knew that the quest was best undertaken, at least at that time, by picking up where I'd left off those many years before, sending myself into ecstatic trances, embracing the world of the shaman.
I followed a sparrow, my totem guide, through a looming black wall that looked like smoke but was as impenetrable as steel. I burrowed into a hill through a cave that became a vagina and was reborn into the forest. I danced through that forest with hundreds of others, naked in the firelight. I found myself splayed on a stone altar while my mother cut my flesh away with a flint knife. And I found myself in a deeper place, where there were no images, no sounds or smells, no sensations at all except the resonance of spirit. It was there, in that place where dark and light have no meaning, where flesh is a myth, that I came to feel something of Spirit.
I came to feel that every true religious, every mystic, every artist, every seeker of whatever calling will, as a matter of course, confront that raw, primal Spirit. It is not an ephemeral quest after all, it is essential. Even Sartre recognized this, although his metaphor was purely materialistic in outlook, when he discussed confronting the essence of existence after purging oneself of all the overlays that we heap upon ourselves in the course of daily life by immersing oneself in ennui.
This confrontation is a transcendent moment, indeed, the word "moment" is simply a metaphorical reference point, because the experience of spirit takes place out of time. The moment might last a heartbeat or eternity, it is impossible to say because it has no analog in the material world. For all Sartre's philosophy to the contrary, it is a thing of pure Spirit.
It is a transforming experience. The literature of saints and mystics, ecstatics and artists, even existential philosophers is rich with accounts of the experience. These accounts shimmer with metaphor but if you try to look beyond the surface for the substance of the encounter, if you look with rational eyes, if you try to explain the experience in terms of neurons and axons, of serotonin and acetylcholine, you will fail. You will fail because, in the end, this experience takes place outside of the physical world, outside of the emotional world.
Jung offers that religions exist, in part, to buffer us from this experience, to provide spiritual sunscreen that keeps us from being burned by the raw power of spirit. In part, I think this is true. But I also believe that these disciplines exist to parcel out the experience a bit at a time, to make it nourishing as opposed to mutating. Bite-sized morsels of this experience are dispensed under controlled circumstances, a piece of bread and a sip of wine, a handful of maize cake, the roasted flesh of the horse. The meditations of monks, the asceticism of Brahmins, the illness of the shaman, the ritual ordeals of tribal initiations, all are designed to prepare the individual for this encounter. To give the mind and psyche and soul a lifeline out of the experience. The experience is useless if, as can happen, it destroys the individual. And all the mystics, all the saints, all the shamans and poets know, if they cannot express, this one essential truth--that the experience is dangerous.
Even with all this preparation the outcome is uncertain, at the moment of spiritual transcendence, anything can happen. A person can emerge from it as Rasputin or Mother Teresa. Indeed, I suspect that all religion, all ritual exists to diffuse the experience, water it down a bit for general consumption, and to forestall the end of days. I can think of no better metaphor of what would happen should a large number of people experience this confrontation with spirit without these buffers than the Rapture anticipated by charismatic fundamentalists. The bumper sticker that reads "In case of Rapture, this car will be unmanned" says it like it is. Boy howdy, does it.
Because it has happened before. Ten thousand years ago something happened to humanity. A social order that had served us for 300,000 years was swept away in a matter of a couple millennia. We entered the experience as small bands of hunter gatherers and emerged living in stone cities. Before this experience we were a part of the world, living essentially the same as our brothers the bears and our sisters the salmon. Then we were cast out, the world had become hostile, a challenge to be overcome. All the tales of the end of days, from Ragnarok to the Kali Yuga to the Revelations of St. John the Divine foretell the future, but they do so because they describe the past. They are all echoes of this transcendent experience for which we, as a species, were unprepared. The whole of the human race experienced this.
Just as I, as a youth, ashamed and desperate fled to the realm of Spirit to escape, and unprepared and uninitiated, turned a corner in the otherworld and ran smack-ass into SPIRIT.
I do not know what happened next, but having thought on this and meditated, prayed and dreamed I think in my innocence, I experienced a moment of Grace. When I came upon spirit it saw me, and in pity did not transform me into a stag, to be run to ground and devoured by my own hounds. Instead, it killed the boy to spare him pain he could not endure and said, "These bones will lie here, at peace in the forest. Seek them and when you are ready you will find them. And then we will see what will be." It left me as dead in my spirit as my father, but with one crucial difference--a spark. The blackness was not total and at times that spark burned as brightly as the star of Bethlehem, at other times it was as faint as the first stars of twilight but it was always there.
And so, I perceived things, however bleak the moment, with a different sense than my father. Life itself was not enough for him because, for whatever reason, he simply closed himself off to a part of life that made it whole. He was like a starving man who is brought to a groaning table, takes a mouthful or two, then turns his back on the rest of the feast, and walks away bitter because he is still hungry. I believe he sought oblivion because some part of him desperately craved spirit but he could never overcome his fears. Perhaps he tiptoed through the woods or jungle, sensing the presence but never daring to part the foliage and in the end, snuck away, ashamed and disappointed. In my ignorance I went whistling through the woods, came around a bend in the path, and stepped into the full presence. I didn't have time to be afraid before the encounter, I had decades afterwards to explore that fear in full.
For years, when he was in his cups, my father liked to tell a tale from his young manhood. While he was in college, he went to a psychiatrist for a year or so. He was troubled with a recurrent nightmare in which he was in a jungle and being stalked by a lion. No matter how he would run, the lion would always catch up to him. Once the therapist asked him, "Do you have a gun?" "Yes," my father replied. "Then why don't you just shoot the lion?" she asked in return. One night he did just that and the dream never came again. He always looked upon that moment as a triumph.
But now I believe that psychiatrist did him a profound disservice. If I could go back and talk to him to him then, I would tell him to throw down the gun, strip himself naked and stand before the lion. I would stand with him. I don't know, but I feel, that had he done so, his life would have been very different from then on. I can find no better expression of my father's plight than to quote from the Isa Upanishad, verse three:
There are demon-haunted worlds,
regions of utter darkness.
Whoever in life denies the Spirit
falls into that darkness of death.*
And that brings us back, in marvelous mandala fashion, to the start where I talked about those characters in my novel. Although the story ended, their lives did not. They were either changed by the experience or they were not. If they were, perhaps some were changed for good and some for ill. Because, at the end of all the questing, the ritual, the prayer, the transcendence, we come back to this--tomorrow the sun will come up and it will be a sunny or a cloudy day or perhaps it will storm. The news will be good or bad. We will brush our teeth and shower and poop and have breakfast. We will go out to make art, or sell widgets, or hunt mastodons. In short, tomorrow life will go on.
And having passed through all this, passing through all this continually, for Spirit never leaves us, it is part of us and we are part of it, whether we know it or not, whether we accept it or not--we are left with life. And if we have truly learned from our quest we will realize that saving face is not important, that slights and insults seem trivial, our pride is supplanted by satisfaction. We learn that life need not be a losing struggle, that Spirit has offered us all a moment of Grace. We cannot suddenly throw down all the trappings of civilization, clothe ourselves in skins, and revert to our primal selves. But we can all look beyond the surfaces of our lives, to the deep underlying currents. We can see past the imagery of the Eucharist or the Ashmaveda and experience, however fleetingly, the deeper truth within.
We can find those bones in the grove, deal with them, and set our feet once again on the path through the forest. And the way may still be dark and dangerous, but the forest is no longer haunted.
Donald R. Walker, 2003
* From the Penguin Classics edition of The Upanishads, translated by Juan Mascaro.


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Richmond sand sculptor finishes fifth on TV's 'America's Got Talent'
Richmond sand artist Joe Castillo was one of six finalists but could not become the second Kentuckian to win the NBC show America's Got Talent.
Castillo was voted off the program on a special two-hour finale, which aired at 8 p.m. Thursday on WLEX-TV. He finished in fifth place overall.
Olate Dogs, a variety show featuring a troupe of trained dogs performing elaborate, acrobatic tricks, won first-place overall and the $1 million prize that comes with it.
Castillo, who introduced many viewers to illuminated sand manipulation, also inspired a fashion craze with his beret. For his final judged performance, on Wednesday, Castillo drew sand portraits of host Nick Cannon and judges Sharon Osbourne, Howie Mandel and Howard Stern.
Castillo added a beret to his sand portrait of Stern, who had advised Castillo to lose the beret.
In addition to Olate Dogs, Castillo's competition was David Garibaldi and his CMYKs with performance art; The Untouchables children's dance troupe; Comedian Tom Cotter; and "earth harpist" William Close.
Stern has called Castillo an "amazing talent."
"I love telling stories with sand," Castillo said during Wednesday's show. "But now the sand is kind of writing my story and my future."
Kevin Skinner, a singer and chicken farmer from Western Kentucky, won season 4 of the talent show and in 2010 released an album titled Long Ride.

subset: commoncrawl


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Thursday, May 6, 2010
Happy Mothers Day
7 comments:
moms are pretty amazing...and even those that get to play mom along the way and put smiles on their faces, as i imagine you do.ReplyDelete
I think God knew all the love in your heart you had to share with so many children who are so blessed to have you in their life....HugsReplyDelete
- AnonymousMay 7, 2010 at 1:37 AM
I echo your sentiments exactly. Fabulous Cinner... You are just getting better and better and better!ReplyDelete
What a blessing you are to me and to all the children that you love!ReplyDelete
Thank you for the well wishes!
As you know there are all different "moms", you are one by being loving and caring to children you come in contact with. Mothers Day is for you too.ReplyDelete
To my sweet sister, well where do I even start, maybe it was those nights i would call you and tell you that I wanted to run away from home, as i was going nuts with the boys and doing it alllllll by myself. You would listen to me vent, then get my children back in line and I was good for a few more months till the next issue. lol You have laughed, cryed and scolded my children when they have needed it most. I know that if I should have to leave this world before my time that you would continue laughing, crying, and scolding them when necessary. I have been so blessed to have you and my children have been so blessed too. You are a great super Aunt and the boys love you. You have all the qualities a loving mother should have, and for that Happy mothers Day to you!! with all my love.ReplyDelete
Penquin, jeepers you made me cry and I had just put my makeup on...it ran all the way down to my chin. love you, have fun with Mom.....ReplyDelete


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Episode 63 – You Need To Understand Values with Phil Lew
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
In this episode Phil Burgess talks to Phil Lew who is C.E.O and President of XBOSoft, a leading provider of software quality engineering services.
Phil Lew has 25 years of experience in the software industry and has an interesting view on how you should conduct yourself in pursuit of finding the correct career. During those 25 years he has experienced frustration at his own progress before finding his own career path.
KEY TAKEAWAYS from Phil Lew
- (01.23) Phil Lew begins by telling us about his passion for cycling and how he enjoyed racing. However as he has matured he now mainly goes on cycling tours. Cycling to him is a metaphor for life and Phil says it is not always the strongest that wins, but the person who applies the right amount of effort at the right time. Phil Lew says he thinks this outlook applies to our lives as well as our careers. Phil Lew also has a passion for travel and has travelled to 70 countries within the last 6 years.
- (02.49) Phil Lew discusses the benefits of mentors and explains that he feels he could have broadened his mentoring network when he was younger. He tells us that he thinks and believes that a lot of people are the same, that if we keep our heads down and work hard we will get on in our careers. However, Phil makes it clear that it does not always work out that way. Phil tells us that he really did not get enough career advice early in his career.
- (05.54) Phil Lew goes on to tell us what excites him about the future. He deliberates that the I.T. field is so broad that there are many ways a person can get into the industry, which excites him. He quotes Mark Anderson saying "software is eating the world" Phil Lew thinks that "software is becoming the world". He demonstrates this using the example of a remote control for a garage door and the software that you can use to control your garage door through your phone. Phil Lew says the field of software in I.T. companies is broadening. You can enter into this field from any number of places which is also exciting.
- (09.06) The best career advice Phil Lew has received was to pursue communication and public speaking skills. These skills have helped him throughout his career. He advises that no matter what kind of ideas you have, no matter how great they are, if you cannot communicate them, they are not worth very much. Referring to engineers he goes on to tell us that most do not have those skills.
- (10.34) Phil Lew has career objectives that are very clear. They are aligned to his company's objectives, to be successful and to train others to do a lot of the work to grow the company, enabling him to focus on strategies for the company. He believes that managers and executives need to grow people in their roles to progress within the company, and take the Managers/Executives places so they, the managers, may grow themselves.
KEY TAKEAWAYS from Phil Burgess
- (03.03) Phil Burgess agrees with Phil Lew that mentoring is important in your career and to get that earlier on in your career is vital. We need to seek out mentors that are right for us.
- (07.16) Phil Burgess has the same opinion as Phil Lew with regard to people working in I.T. and how working within the industry is changing. It is important to be able to relate to people at the front end of the business.
- Phil Lew reasons that knowing values and understanding value, for example knowing your own value and your skills, will help you to be responsive to what you can get out of the market place.
- Phil Lew has a perceptive view of companies that do not implement software in their solutions. He fears that they will get left behind if they do not incorporate software into their plans for the future. This means that there are a lot of opportunities to get into these companies and help them out.
- Phil Lew says that software is the future of our economy. He started out with a Business Major then switched to an Engineering Major because he felt strongly that it was the future.
- He also advises to pursue communication. Phil says that this really helped him with his career as well as his public speaking skills.
Phil Lew is the Chief Executive Officer and President of XBOSoft. He is a keen cyclist and traveller, enjoying visiting some 70 countries in the last 6 years. His career has included selling companies that he grew and nurtured. Phil has been in the industry for 25 years.
- Website: xbosoft.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philiplew/


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Standard 3, Duty of Care
|Key Information:
|Please contact us for the next available date
|North London Business Park or purchasing organisation's own venue
|Half day
Target Audience
This course is ideal for you if you are new to working within the Health and Social Care sector. It is also relevent for experienced staff who would like to refresh their knowledge and skills.
This course introduces you to the meaning of the duty of care and how it contributes to safe practice. You will consider the dilemmas that can arise between the rights of an individual and the duty of care you have to keep them safe. You will explore how to deal with comments and complaints; incidents, errors, near misses and how to deal with confrontation and difficult situations.
Learning Outcomes
At the end of the course you will be able to:-
- Recall the meaning of duty of care and how it contributes to safe practice
- Identify dilemmas that may arise about the duty of care and the support available to deal with them
- Deal with comments and complaints
- Deal with incidents, errors and near misses
- Deal with confrontation and difficult situations
Course Contents
- Duty of care and how it affects own role
- Dilemmas
- Individual rights
- How to deal with comments and complaints
- How to deal with errors, mistakes and near misses
- How to deal with confrontation
Learners who complete the Care Certificate may wish to progress to the QCF Health and Social Care Diploma


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The Hazards of Wealth
In a surprising switch, teens in wealthy areas are sometimes more distressed than other youth. They show disturbingly high rates of substance use, depression, anxiety, eating disorders. High achievement expectations and competitive academics can lead to stress. It gives a whole new meaning to having it all.
These are young people from communities dominated by white-collar, well-educated parents. They attend schools distinguished by rich academic curricula, high standardized test scores, and diverse extracurricular opportunities. And yet they may show serious levels of maladjustment as teens, displaying problems that tend to get worse as they approach college.


text:
The value-for-money Hyundai i30 has a lot to offer, including a smart interior and plenty of standard equipment. This eye-catching family car is available in the following trim levels: S, SE, SE Nav and Premium.
The crisply styled i30's attractive front fascia is dominated by a black radiator grille, which is highlighted with chrome inserts. The vehicle features a number of colour-keyed elements, including door handles and (power-adjustable and heated) wide-view door mirrors. The vehicle's range of standard lighting includes static-cornering-assist headlights (with courtesy-delay facility), LED daytime running lights, front fog lamps and a rear spoiler-integrated brake light. Front and rear side windows are fitted with tinted glass, and the car's heated rear windscreen comes with wash-and-wipe functionality.
SE grades and above feature alloy wheels.
A comfortable five-person cabin provides passengers with vertically and horizontally adjustable head restraints, and the driver further benefits from height-adjustable seating and a tilt-and-telescopic steering wheel. Other standard features include power-assisted steering, electric front windows, air-conditioning and a front-compartment 12-volt power point. Stowage provision includes an illuminated and cooling glovebox and an under-floor boot compartment. Upon folding the car's 60/40 back row, a 378-litre cargo capacity is increased to as much as 1,316 litres.
A 1.4-litre 99bhp petrol engine produces up to 48.7mpg and a 135g/km CO2 emission figure.
Alternatively, a 1.6-litre 108bhp diesel unit returns as much as 78.4mpg and CO2 emissions as low as 94g/km.
Both options are available with entry-level S grades, each paired with six-speed manual transmission and featuring Intelligent Stop & Go.
The i30 is installed with a four-speaker sound system, including an MP3/WMA-compatible CD player and an RDS radio, each operable using the vehicle's steering wheel-mounted audio controls. Voice recognition-enabled Bluetooth connectivity and USB and AUX ports are standard features too.
Awarded a five-star rating by Euro NCAP, the i30 includes Driver aids such as Electronic Stability Programme, Brake Assist System, Anti-lock Braking System, Hill-start Assist and Tyre Pressure Monitoring System. Passive safety features comprise seatbelt pre-tensioners, seatbelt reminders, ISOFIX anchorage points, six airbags and speed-sensitive automatic door locking. The vehicle is secured with an alarm and remote central locking.
If you like the sound of the accomplished i30, why not book a test drive at Simonstone Hyundai today? You can make your appointment by filling in an enquiry form, phoning or visiting us at your earliest convenience.
Take a closer look by using our interior and exterior tours


text: Courtesy of Chelsea Hudson Baby Girls with Blue Blankets July 06, 2017 by Leia Johnson Earlier this month, we had our administrative case review. We had virtually no idea what to expect because this is, in fact, our first rodeo. The ACR is designed so that an objective reviewer from DCFS (Department of Children and Family Services) can assess the state of each foster care case. The case worker, the CASA (court appointed special advocate) volunteer, the foster parents, and the biological parents are all invited to be part of the review.While we had a lot of anxiety over the unknown going into the review, the actual meeting was pretty banal and procedural. Everyone answered questions, and the meeting was over in about forty-five minutes. The only real surprise was that none of the biological family attended. Competition for lap space (and everything else) is a new fun thing we're dealing with this month. Sisters! We spent the majority of our time talking about how far the girls have come. We talked about F's rapidly growing vocabulary and her impressive problem solving skills. We talked about E's growth chart success and new teeth. We told the reviewer that we didn't see any areas where they needed to be referred to additional therapies because they are both thriving, and we feel confident that we are equipped to handle their needs. We expressed our concerns about the unpredictability and quality of care they receive during some of their visits. The CASA volunteer and case worker also spoke to their observations about the girls. (Sidenote: as a writer, I want to be a lot more specific, give you all kinds of sensory details, really weave a tale, but I am also constantly aware of the fact that I want to honor all parties involved here and refrain from turning any of these people into characters and not real life human beings with thoughts and feelings. If you want a juicier story, meet me for coffee, and I'll be a little more colorful in my telling. Carry on.)Leaving the meeting, we felt hopeful (?) and confused (?). I don't know. It's hard to name the emotions we feel right now because what does hopeful look like?Plan A has always been reunification, so hopeful looks like bio parents working their plans. Plan B has become adoption, so hopeful looks like F and E becoming permanent members of our family. It's all the worst kind of confusing because whatever the outcome, everyone involved will have to sift through elation and disappointment while finding peace with our anger. If foster care was a relationship status on Facebook, it would perpetually say, "It's complicated."So, while we've hopped another stepping stone in the case, the path ahead is still full of more rocks, and the feelings are still the same—nothing feels stable, nothing feels sure, nothing feels normal.The night that E came to us seven months ago, it happened in moments. I got a call at 3:15, and she was in our house at 4:20. At 6:30, my friend Megan was dropping off the remnants of her growing boys' babyhood—a play mat, a bath tub, some burp cloths, some baby wipes. The next day, I ran out to get some basics—diapers, a few onesies, formula and more bottles.Over the next few weeks, people sent us boxes of clothes and gift cards. When I announced F's arrival, people asked what we needed, and a double stroller showed up on our porch two days later. In stark contrast to the arrival of my two biological children, there were no baby showers. Their room was not decorated in a carefully chosen theme. I had not washed and dried any cute layettes or had blankets monogrammed with their initials.Instead, we crossed every bridge as we came to it with the help of good neighbors and Amazon Prime. When the boys were babies, I had their pictures taken around the same age with the same blue blanket. I wanted to have the pictures for comparison for years to come, and I was a mom with only two children, so I had the brain space and energy to think about doing these kinds of things.A couple of months ago, I was sorting through the stuff I'd saved back from the boys, and I came across that blanket. It's still lovely and soft, so I started letting E nap with it once she was old enough. She holds the corner and rubs it against her eyes while moaning herself to sleep. I thought one day while I watched her drift off that maybe I should order something pink or purple—something teal at the very least, something that could be hers and not a hand me down.But the thought was fleeting.Because when you're throwing together a life, you use what you have and do what you can. Little girls use blue blankets because goodness gracious—who could possibly care what color a blanket is more than the fact that these babies are loved and warm and a part of a family? Loving these babies has stripped away any pretense, any thoughts about what might be most important. The Right Now is what matters. Spending time thinking about the time before they came to us is futile and depressing. Looking too far ahead to the hypothetical leads me to a path riddled with sharp stones of anxiety.So, we are here in the Right Now. Living this moment. And nothing more.Seven months down.


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US Pres. Trump: Federal Reserve should get our interest rates down to zero
US President Donald Trump in the last minutes argued that the Federal Reserve should get the policy rate down to zero or even lower and should then st | 11/09/2019 11:46
US President Donald Trump in the last minutes argued that the Federal Reserve should get the policy rate down to zero or even lower and should then start to refinance the debt.
"Interest cost could be brought way down, while at the same time substantially lengthening the term. We have the great currency, power, and balance sheet," Trump tweeted out.
"The USA should always be paying the lowest rate. No Inflation! It is only the naïveté of Jay Powell and the Federal Reserve that doesn't allow us to do what other countries are already doing. A once in a lifetime opportunity that we are missing because of boneheads."
The market ignored Trump's remarks and the US Dollar Index was last up 0.2% on the day at 98.52.
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- ForexF
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The Workout Thread
This is currently a work in-progress, I am going to get it started and work on it over the coming days. So I will be editing this post a whole lot. The template for it is set-up, but I don't have time to do it all right now.
Basically, this is a thread where you can ask any questions regarding fitness, working out, diet/nutrition in relation to workout goals, supplements, etc. I realize there will probably be some trolling in this thread, but I figured all of you would prefer it in one thread as opposed to me derailing Blah and Siena's Giveaway Thread with my workout talk.
I'm not going to bore you with my life story, basically I used to be a little chunk-master and then I got the lights turned on when I got to high school and went crazy with it. Now I'm a workout enthusiast and a personal trainer in the summertime, so I like to think I am informed on training and can answer a lot of the questions people may have regarding related topics.
- Mass Adding
- Fat Shredding
- Strength Adding
- "Toning"
What You're Doing:
*Dependent on Goal*
- Sets
- Reps
- Split
Workout Templates:
Mass Adding:
Extreme Athlete -- Athletic Build:
Fat Shredding:
My MASS-ADDING Workout:
Day 1: Back
Day 2: Chest
Day 3: Abs
Day 4: Legs
Day 5: Shoulders and Arms
Day 6: Abs
Day 7: Cardio and Core
*When you get to a number of reps exceeding the ones I listed, your supposed to move up weight and stay at that until you eclipse the number again... So you're constantly failing.*
Bent-Over Barbell Row: 3 Sets to failure, no weight change
Set 1: ~20 Reps
Set 2: ~17 Reps
Set 3: ~13 Reps
^ 45-60 seconds of rest between sets.
Overhand Barbell Row: 3 Sets to failure, same weight
Set 1: ~13 Reps
Set 2: ~10 Reps
Set 3: ~8 Reps
^ 45-60 seconds of rest between sets.
Hammercurl Bar Row: 3 Sets to failure, no weight change
Set 1: ~15 Reps
Set 2: ~11 Reps
Set 3: ~7 Reps
^ 45-60 seconds of rest between sets.
Upright Barbell Row: 3 Sets to failure, decreasing weight
Set 1: ~15 Reps
Set 2: ~15 Reps
Set 3: ~20 Reps
^ 45-60 seconds of rest between sets.
Dumbell Row: 3 Sets to failure, no weight change
Set 1: ~15 Reps
Set 2: ~13 Reps
Set 3: ~10 Reps
^ 45-60 seconds of rest between sets.
Lat Pulldown: 3 Sets, decreasing weight
Set 1: ~18 Reps
Set 2: ~21 Reps
Set 3: ~26 Reps
^ 30-45 seconds of rest between sets.
Cable Pullback / Row w/ Bar: 3 Sets, decreasing weight
Set 1: ~12 Reps
Set 2: ~20 Reps
Set 3: ~28 Reps
^ 30-45 seconds of rest between sets.
Cable Pullback / Row w/ Handles: 3 Sets, decreasing weight
Set 1: ~20 Reps
Set 2: ~24 Reps
Set 3: ~32 Reps
^ 30-45 seconds of rest between sets.
Incline Bench Press: 3 Sets to failure, decreasing weight.
Set 1: ~11 Reps
Set 2: ~10 Reps
Set 3: ~13 Reps
Weighted Dips: Decreasing weight
Set 1: ~14 Reps
Set 2: ~10 Reps
Set 3: ~8 Reps
Incline Flys: Same weight, or decreasing.
Set 1: ~19
Set 2: ~14
Set 3: ~10
^Same weight; decreasing would look like ~19, ~18, ~15.
Machine Straight Press: Decreasing weight
You can use the machine you load the weight plates on yourself, which is what I recommend, but honestly I hate loading on the plates and hate adjusting it and doing all that nonsense when I can just turn a knob and have the resistance machine set to the weight I want and then adjust my seat perfectly in less than 30 seconds...when it would take 5 minutes to do the other thing... Everyone is allowed to cheat sometimes, this is my cheating.
Anyway, you should have your hands on the vertical handles that are parallel to your body and you should have the seat set that your feet are firmly on the ground and the back set so that it's straight, not inclined or declined any which way... This is a speed exercise again, you should be able to get at least 3/4 of the way, but pushing the whole way (so that your elbows lock) is not what you want if it sacrifices speed. So just go about 3/4 or more of the whole way on the extension, but not so that your arms lock.
Set 1: ~15
Set 2: ~14
Set 2: ~14
Narrow Bench Press: Same weight, or decreasing
I'll often do 3 sets with a barbell with weight getting a full extension at a medium pace, then switch to a 45 plate and just go as fast as I can for as many as I can... It gets the inner chest very well.
Set 1: ~20
Set 2: ~17
Set 3: ~14
Extra Set w/ Plate: Burnout
Cable Fly: Same weight or decreasing.
Set 1: ~19
Set 2: ~14
Set 3: ~24
^ Two sets at same weight, last one at decreased weight.
Dips: no weight, but all to failure.
Do 5 sets of dips, keeping your arms close to your body to failure with about 30-45 seconds of rest in between.
Mine usually fall like this:
Set 1: ~20
Set 2: ~15
Set 3: ~11
Set 4: ~8
Set 5: ~7
^ I go with the 30 seconds of rest to further overload muscle and get the outer / upper chest a good burn at the end before I douse my insides with creatine.
Crunch Machine: 1 Set to failure, high weight
Set 1: ~22
^ 30 Seconds of rest after set.
Bullrope Crunch: 3 Sets to failure, decreasing weight
Set 1: ~20
Set 2: ~22
Set 3: ~22
^ 45-60 Seconds of rest between sets.
Bench Crunches: 3 Sets, no weight
Set 1: ~25
Set 2: ~30
Set 3: ~35
^ 45-60 Seconds of rest between sets.
Side Bends: 3 Sets, high weight
Set 1: ~10
Set 2: ~10
Set 3: ~10
^ 45-60 Seconds of rest between sets.
Leg Raises: 3 Sets, no weight
Set 1: ~20
Set 2: ~15
Set 3: ~12
^ 45-60 Seconds of rest between sets.
Ab Rollout: 3 Sets, no weight
Set 1: ~15
Set 2: ~15
Set 3: ~15
^ 45-60 seconds of rest between sets.
Crunch Machine - Alternating Sides: 2 Sets, medium weight
Set 1: ~20
Set 2: ~20
^ 1 minute of rest between sets.
*Always do legs the day before you go crazy on arms, the testosterone spike from ripping the largest muscles in your body will increase gains on your arms and shoulders, which will in-turn aid your Chest and Back exercises.
- One wide, followed by 30 seconds rest. Then one narrow.
-- On the last 2 sets (set 3 for both, try to go as deep as possible without sacrificing form -- don't want your back bending or anything like that - and make sure you push your hips forward to squeeze your glutes at the top of the motion, actually makes a huge difference, imo.
Wide-Stance Squat - Same weight throughout.
Set 1: ~16
Set 2: ~13
Set 3: ~10
Narrow-Stance Squat - Same weight throughout.
Set 1: ~15
Set 2: ~13
Set 3: ~10
Weighted Hyperextension - Same weight throughout.
Set 1: ~15
Set 2: ~20
Set 3: Failure
Walking Weighted Lunges - Decreasing weight.
Set 1: ~10 Each Side
Set 2: ~10 Each Side
Set 3: ~10 Each Side
^ Should be rising and taking next step close to one another... Not Lunge, back to stand position, then next lunge. Just lunge after lunge... Beginners can do the back to standing method, but try to get away from it.
- Go to the Hamstring Curl Machine, go with about 70% of the weight you normally do on it - just take a guesstimate if you don't know - and then do AS MANY AS YOU CAN... Like keep going through the fatigue until you can't, then immediately drop it to some extremely low weight - like 40-50 pounds and then do a burn out for as many as you can get.
^ Repeat that with the Quad Extension
Set 1: ~25
Set 2: Failure, move up weight when passing ~30
Hip Flexor Machine
Set 1: ~20
Set 2: ~20
- You can do calves at the end if you want, but my calves are usually killed from everything else, so I just do low weight and high reps...better for definition anyway.
Shoulders & Arms
Shoulder Press -- Decreasing weight
*I alternate weeks, one week I do Barbell, the next I'll do dumbbell*
Set 1: ~14 Reps
Set 2: ~10 Reps
Set 3: ~7 Reps
Barbell Bicep Curl -- Decreasing weight
*Hands placed about shoulder-width apart*
Set 1: ~12
Set 2: ~10
Set 3: ~8
^ It looks like a normal 2 rep regression, but I'm using the weight so that I'm failing at those numbers...Not like "oh, well I got 12, so I can stop now"
EZ Bar Wide-Grip Bicep Curl *No rest between sets* -- Decrease weight
Set 1: ~15 Reps
Set 2: ~17
^ I usually drop like just under half the weight off.
One-Hand Tricep Extension -- Same weight, or decreasing.
Set 1: ~23
Set 2: ~17
Set 3: ~14
^ This is if you're using the same weight... If you're decreasing, it would probably be: ~23, ~21, ~18.
Now this final part is something crazy I created, it requires you to kind of be a space hog, but since I hate most people this isn't a problem for me... But anyway here we go:
So this is going to be a super-duper set, of 3 things -- Medial Deltoid Cable Extension, Tricep Cable Extension, and Bicep Cable Curl; 4 sets of each, with decreasing weight the whole time... These are not to failure, but whenever you start to feel like you can only get a few more, you stop and move to the next exercise with no rest in between... After one successful circuit of these 3, you take a 45 second rest and go back to it with decreased weight.
(MDCE = Medial Deltoid Cable Extension -- TCE = Tricep Cable Extension -- BCC = Bicep Cable Curl)
Set 1:
Set 2:
Set 3:
Set 4:
Speed is the name of the game here, full extension is great, but this isn't something you want to do slowly.
Cardio & Core
My EXTREME-ATHLETE Workout
You'll notice some similarities in this workout to the above one, except I couple it with more complex movements, more endurance-based exercises, less rest (to promote hypertrophy), and exercises that define coupled with mass-adding.
^ This workout is modeled so that you will be drenched it sweat while doing it on a daily basis if you do it as written, modeled similarly to Insanity and P90X, but where those are almost exclusively defining, weight-loss, and endurance (strength gains come, but are not maximized; I can say this because I've done both a combined 4 times) -- mine is more geared toward an overall athletic physique, as in: sculpted muscle/definition, mass-adding (promotion of hypertrophy and hyperplasia, as well as the expansion of the sheath), strength-adding (overload), endurance, and muscle memory to aid in real-life activities (like sports).
***Again, I will probably bring it up in my descriptions below, but the numbers I give with each set is (ex: ~17) isn't the number you stop it, it's the number you should be failing at -- if you make it past that, it's time to move up weight until you reach that number again... Constant failure is what you want***
Day 1 -- Shoulders & Arms
Dumbbell Shoulder Press
-Four sets; 1 heavy, 2 moderate, 1 extremely light.
Set 1: ~10
Set 2: ~9-11
Set 3: ~9
Set 4: ~17
^ 30-40 Seconds rest between each set.
^ As you can see, your reps with the heavy and moderate are going to be just bordering double digits, but this isn't "Oh, I reached 10 I can stop now" -- hell no, you should be failing at that, pushing your hardest to get more reps while maintaining your form... I drop weight down increments of 5 lbs; except for the light one, in which I drop down 10 lbs from my final moderate set.
This combination of pushing to failure is what creates the overload that stimulates muscle growth (mass-adding), combined with the somewhat low-reps contributes greatly to the strength, but the finishing with the low-weight-high-rep prevents the "bodybuilder" look.
~*~ SuperSet ~*~ Barbell Bicep Curl
EXPLANATION: This is not a superset it its usual form. Instead, you're going to do all four sets of the barbell curl, then immediately go to the EZ-Bar Curl and do a strip set -- a strip set is where you do as many as you can with one weight, and then immediately taking weight off to approximately half of what was on it and then do as many as you can again. Shouldn't stop when your arms are burning, that is what you want, you should stop when you cannot get anymore, not when it becomes hard.
Four sets; 1 heavy, 2 moderate, 1 extremely light
Set 1: ~12
Set 2: ~10
Set 3: ~11
Set 4: ~18
^30-40 seconds rest between each set.
^ I drop down increments of 10 lbs (so take a 5 off each side, not 10 off each side) and then on the last one, I drop it to about half the weight of the first set... On these you want to make sure you're letting your arm get a full extension, you don't want to have the whole bring it down so that it's at your waist and your arms are still at 90 degrees, that is retarded and does nothing.
~*~ SuperSet ~*~ EZ-Bar Bicep Curl w/ Wide Grip
Two sets; 1 heavy and 1 extremely light.
Single-handed Tricep Extension
Dumbbell Raise Complex
~*~ Super-Duper Set ~*~ Medial Deltoid Cable Extension, V-Bar Tricep Extension, and Straight Bar Bicep Curl
Now this final part is something crazy I created, it requires you to kind of be a space hog, but since I hate most people this isn't a problem for me... But anyway here we go:
So this is going to be a super-duper set, of 3 things -- Medial Deltoid Cable Extension, Tricep Cable Extension, and Bicep Cable Curl; 4 sets of each, with decreasing weight the whole time... These are not to failure, but whenever you start to feel like you can only get a few more, you stop and move to the next exercise with no rest in between... After one successful circuit of these 3, you take a 45 second rest and go back to it with decreased weight.
(MDCE = Medial Deltoid Cable Extension -- TCE = Tricep Cable Extension -- BCC = Bicep Cable Curl)
Set 1:
^ No rest between each, just the amount of time it takes from you to get from one attachment to the next and adjust the weight accordingly... This is the same for all these Sets, but I will re-post this to reinforce that concept.
Set 2:
^ No rest between each, just the amount of time it takes from you to get from one attachment to the next and adjust the weight accordingly... This is the same for all these Sets, but I will re-post this to reinforce that concept.
Set 3:
^ No rest between each, just the amount of time it takes from you to get from one attachment to the next and adjust the weight accordingly... This is the same for all these Sets, but I will re-post this to reinforce that concept.
Set 4:
^ No rest between each, just the amount of time it takes from you to get from one attachment to the next and adjust the weight accordingly... This is the same for all these Sets, but I will re-post this to reinforce that concept.
Day 2 -- Abs / Core + Light Cardio
This is basically a preference day... The gym closest to me is too busy accommodating to the nonathletic people to give me all the equipment I would like, so on days I can't make it to the upscale gym I just have to make do with what is there... The result is like 2-3 equipment exercises with about 8-9 body weight exercises.
Since mine is usually different, I'll just go with what I feel is the best and I will link this to a post I am going to make later today about what I have been doing for Abs lately that is different that I also like.
Bullrope Crunch: 3 Sets to failure, decreasing weight
Set 1: ~20
Set 2: ~22
Set 3: ~22
^ 30-45 Seconds of rest between sets.
Bench Crunches: 3 Sets, no weight
Set 1: ~30
Set 2: ~30
Set 3: ~30
^ 30 Seconds of rest between sets.
Side Bends: 3 Sets, high weight
Set 1: ~20
Set 2: ~20
Set 3: ~20
Whichever arm isn't holding the weight should be bent with your palm on the back of your head and when you bend your elbow should be pointing directly up at the ceiling, or pretty close to directly up. You want to do these semi-fast, but not sloppy.
Alternate Sides... 1 Set = Both Sides, not Left - Right - Left and done... When switching sides take no rest between, but take about 45 seconds between Set 1 and Set 2.
^ You may notice this portion is copy and paste from my above workout with just the rest times and numbers changed slightly. -- it gets different here.
Give yourself like 2 minutes rest here, you'll need it for this next one.
Russian Twist: 3 Sets, Set # or Failure
A lot of people just call this Ab Twist, I normally do. It's pretty straight forward, you balance yourself on your butt with your upper body at about a 60 degree angle with the ground and your legs off the ground, knees bent. Then you alternate your upper body side-to-side touching your hands off the ground on each side... I just realized how difficult that was to explain without being able to talk to you, so here is a video showing / explaining it that is about a minute long and does a good job.
Set 1: Failure, if you haven't done this before just go body weight
Set 2: Failure again, or you could do what I do and set yourself a really high number and if you can't do it with the good form, you just drop your legs down to the ground and continue the upper body motion -- once your abs are engaged it will still benefit you to do this, but the harder way is substantially more beneficial... But something is better than nothing and it's a good way to push yourself.
Set 3: Go for like 60% of the Reps you got on Set 2 with the full form of the exercise, then go for a little bit with the easier form of the motion with your legs on the ground for like 20 seconds.
^ 45 Seconds Rest between each, if you're new to this one give yourself a minute or a 1:30 because this exercise is what causes more of the people I train to throw up than any of the others.
Now that you got that ***** out of the way, this is an exercise that is much easier and you might not feel it during the workout (I feel it, but some people tell me they don't get the fatigue of it til later), but you'll feel it later if you don't.
Ankle Wiggles: 3 Sets, high reps
I actually didn't know it was called this until I read my explanation and realized I needed to find a video. But anyway, basically you get into the crunch or sit-up position on the ground and then bring your chest and head off the ground like you're going to do a crunch, but instead you extend your hands toward your feet and alternate side-to-side... Unfortunately I couldn't find a video on bodybuilding for this, but I managed to find a simpler explanation than mine and a gif here.
Don't bother going to youtube to look it up, all you get is a Rex Ryan's wet dream.
Set 1: 60 total, 30 each side -- if you can't get this, go to failure
Set 2: Failure, as many as you can in 30ish seconds.
Set 3: Failure, as many as you can in 30ish seconds.
^ Like 30-45 Seconds rest between.
[B]Day 3 -- Heavy Cardio:/B]
Day 4 -- Abs / Core + Agility Training + "Real Movement"
Day 5 -- Chest
Day 6 -- Back
Day 7 -- Legs
Day 1 -- Shoulders & Arms
Day 2 -- Abs / Core + Light Cardio
Day 3 -- Heavy Cardio
Day 4 -- Abs / Core + Agility Training + "Real Movement"
Day 5 -- Back
Day 6 -- Chest
Day 7 -- Legs
Day 1 -- Shoulders & Arms
Day 2 -- Abs / Core + Light Cardio
Day 3 -- Heavy Cardio
Day 4 -- Abs / Core + Agility Training + "Real Movement"
Day 5 -- Chest
Day 6 -- Back
Day 7 -- Legs
Day 1 -- Shoulders & Arms
Day 2 -- Abs / Core + Light Cardio
Day 3 -- Heavy Cardio
Day 4 -- Abs / Core + Agility Training + "Real Movement"
Day 5 -- Back
Day 6 -- Chest
Day 7 -- Legs
SwAg's Supplement Review:
I've taken more workout supplements and spent more money on them than most college students drink and spend on alcohol. So if anyone does indulge in supplements, I can hopefully help you avoid wasting money on stuff that doesn't work.
Weight Loss:
- Apidexin: ***** ; 5 Stars, really good and doesn't have a lot of the bad side-effects... More of a weight-loss than fat-loss.
- OxyElite Pro: ***** ; 5 Stars, definitely the best fat-burner I've ever taken. Little side-effects if taken correctly.
- Meltdown: ** ; 2 Stars, it worked...but it's probably the most miserable I've ever been with the side-effects.
*Different types and their functionality to be posted here eventually*
- Amplified Creatine 189: *** ; 3 Stars, it worked and did what it was supposed to do... Nothing earth-shattering, it was average.
- BSN CellMass: ** ; 2 Stars, pretty much did what creatine is supposed to do, but it was a powder and very gritty - it felt like I was drinking shards of glass.
- MuscleTech Creatine Hardcore Pro Series: **** ; 4 Stars, very good creatine powder. Limited side-effects, but as with the pills below it is mostly for beginners / people that don't want to go deep into the supplement world. MuscleTech is a very safe brand, consistently getting good reviews, but it's not the best out there.
- MuscleTech Creatine Power Packs: ***** ; 5 Stars, 5 pills you drink with gatorade that give you a creatine blend with nutrients to provide more muscle saturation... Very safe product for beginners, I would not use it again because I don't like monohydrate that much and the creatine complex that MuscleTech uses requires sugars and carbs.
- Con-Cret: ***** ; 5 Stars, super-concentrated creatine HCl that requires no loading phase, has very good taste, limited water retention, and good strength results. I still use this.
- NeoVar: ***** ; 5 Stars, you take 2-4 twice a day depending on your weight and a bottle comes with 240 capsules for like $30... Throw in that it doesn't have excess water retention in places you don't want (some creatines cause flab abs) and this is a great supplement - I've noticed I have gotten bigger since January when I started this, but my weight hasn't gone up (before + after pictures and log of my weight). *Warning: TAKE WITH FOOD OR SOME BEVERAGE THAT CONTAINS CARBOHYDRATES - if you don't, you're in for a very uncomfortable few hours, but no permanent damage*
- Build HD: *****; 5 Stars, this is a during workout creatine. Has its creatine blend along with about a half dozen components that aid in restoration during a workout. I have become a big fan of this because it is convenient and if I am drinking something during a workout, I want it to be more than just some stuff to rehydrate me, and the creatine makes it worth it.
- jack3d: *** ; 3 Stars, it's pretty hard on my stomach - it definitely works though, good energy boost and all. Might make sick though too... Hit or miss.
- NO XPLODE: *** ; 3 Stars, it's pretty decent. If you follow the directions it works great... If you don't follow the directions like I didn't, you have massive abdominal pain.
- MusclePharm Assault: ***** ; 5 Stars, the best I've ever taken for pre-workout. It really makes a huge difference to me, it just gives so much energy and it isn't dependent on caffeine, so it has limited side-effects.
- Beta-Cret: **** ; 4 Stars, this is supposed to be coupled with Con-Cret, it's basically creatine HCl with a component that increases the synthase of it... In other words, it's pretty useless unless you take it with Con-Cret. If you take it with Con-Cret, it's very good.
- Drive: ***** ; 5 Stars, oh my god. If I could make a rating higher than 5, I would. This is the best (and most expensive :/ ) supplement I've ever taken... I ordered it because it was 50% off and wow. It boasts having mood-boosting and sex drive-enhancing qualities and I have found myself noticeably happier since I started it. It's also a Testosterone enabler and inhibits estrogen production, so more muscle! Yay!
- Cellucor C4: *****; 5 Stars, this one has a very interesting make up... It contains several known energy enhancers, but it states that its main ingredient is creatine. Some research shows that Cellucor made the product so that the increased blood flow and nitric oxide would actually make the creatine go to the muscle very quickly, and give you the benefits somewhat immediately... It's complicated and the science behind it isn't definitive yet... That being said, I feel like it has to have some sort of truth to it since I can take each of the ingredients without the creatine and it doesn't feel like anything, but then this gets me pumped... Also, I would take 2 scoops of it if you're not taking anything else for NO3 and really want to push yourself.
- Volatile: *****; 5 Stars, this is a new product that came out just a few months ago and it presents one of the most complicated and complete labels I have seen. Most products focus on one aspect of pre-workout enhancement, but Volatile keys in on everything and makes some top notch ingredient choices. It really is impressive, some of the stuff on the label left me scratching my head, then I read more on them and their combinations, and Fahrenheit Nutrition is just a bunch of damn geniuses.
- Whey Isolate: *** ; 3 Stars, eh it's protein. Protein is protein, but it didn't do a whole lot for me.
- Amplified Wheybolic Extreme 60: ***** ; 5 Stars, this is the best example of a product telling you to take more than you need. It says to take 60 grams of it in one sitting... no one can synthesize that amount of amino acids in the hour or so your body has to do so when you first ingest it... Really, anything more than 35g is somewhat of a waste. I take 2 scoops (40g). Overall, the product is really good and helps with building and recovery.
- MusclePharm Combat: *****; 5 Stars, has a good amount of protein and is composed so that it gives you an initial spike, and then remaining protein in the serving trickles to your muscles to maintain a steady flow of it for hours afterward. Good for musclebuilding, I would try something else if you were worried about potentially gaining weight.
Vitamins: I used to have these as 3 separate things here, but decided to just roll it all into one. Mega Men make some of the best Vitapaks out there, they are the more mainstream of the Vitapak producers and it's probably because they are one of the few available at GNC. Personally, I really like the Mega Men Vitapaks -- I'm a big fan of the Ripped, Shredded, and Strength.
Natural Sterol Complex: Eh, it's an herbal blend that increases muscle density and vascularity... No real benefit to working out, more of a "look good" supplement, which is what I want, so I take these on-and-off... More-so during the Spring and Summer for obvious reasons.
Superfruit Supplements: Yeah, I bought into this ****ing crazy ****... Surprisingly, they actually work somewhat -- don't buy the Acai Juice concentrate, it tastes god-awful...I can't even think of what to compare it to, like hell in your mouth. The Acai Berry Chews are actually pretty good, they taste good and they deliver an antioxidant boost that is sizable, not bad for the $10 for a month supply, but far from necessary. The new mango ones actually did pretty well at keeping unwanted water weight and whatnot off.
Enzymes: These are debatable, some people say that if you ingest enzymes you gain extra fat-burning properties... Meh. I've taken them, I don't see what is all the rage, but others I know swear they work, whatevz, maybe my body is just weird. Really, for the price you pay on these things, unless you have some sort of medical condition where your body lacks sufficient enzymes and thus need the supplement, I would not recommend them. They are simply too inconclusive for my liking, maybe in the future when the larger of the companies get into it instead of just the generic GNC brand, but what have you...


text:
Australian political forum to discuss politics and current affairs from an Australian perspective.
Moderator: johnsmith
Einstein dies and goes to heaven. At the Pearly Gates, Saint Peter tells him, "You look like Einstein, but you have NO idea what some people will do to sneak into Heaven. Can you prove who you really are?"
Einstein ponders for a few seconds and asks, "Could I have a blackboard and some chalk?" St Peter snaps his fingers and a blackboard and chalk instantly appear. Einstein proceeds to describe with arcane mathematics and symbols his theory of relativity.
Saint Peter is suitably impressed. "You really ARE Einstein!" he says. "Welcome to heaven!"
The next to arrive is Picasso. Once again, St Peter asks for credentials. Picasso asks, "Mind if I use that blackboard and chalk?" St Peter says, "Go ahead." Picasso erases Einstein's equations and sketches a truly stunning mural with just a few strokes of chalk.
St Peter claps his saintly hands. "Surely you are the great artist you claim to be!" he says. "Come on in!"
Then Saint Peter looks up and sees Barnaby Joyce. The gatekeeper scratches his head and says, "Einstein and Picasso both managed to prove their identity. How can you prove yours?"
Barnaby looks bewildered and says, "Who are Einstein and Picasso?"
Saint Peter sighs and says, "Come on in, Barnaby.
HBS Guy wrote:That undeniable tinge of fascism about monkey & the shambles:
Yup, similar.
HBS Guy wrote:Pay this one:
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text:
Illustrated by Mike Yamada and Victoria Ying
Curiosities is a collection of writings and stories chronicling a pair of youths exploring a mansion filled with a huge variety of strange tales and secrets, not to mention something looming and dangerous lurking in the shadows.
Raised over $49,000 on Kickstarter
Available now on Amazon!
Illustrated by Victoria Ying
Published by Harper Collins
"This is a winner for teaching children colors and a solid choice for storytimes." –Robin Sofge, School and Library Journal
A short comic.
Words by Jonathan Ying
Pictures by Victoria Ying
A short comic written for the 1001 Knights anthology, illustrated by Victoria Ying.
An upcoming short comic illustrated by Chan Chau


text:
Funny Little Monkey
Arty Moore is half as big but twice as smart as the other kids at Millard Fillmore High. His twin brother, Kurt, however, is a hulking hormonal monster with a brain the size of a walnut and a seriously short fuse.
Not that Arty has much time to waste wondering. The strangest school year in town history is ending, and he is coping with turtle-nappings, and Viking waiters, broken hearts, and blackmail. And not until it's nearly too late does Arty realize that even a little guy can get into big, big trouble.
Reviews and Accolades
- 2005 ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults nominee
- 2005 Borders Original Voices finalist
- 2005 Tennessee Volunteer Book Award finalist
"Taps into the painful experience of high school, leavened with healthy doses of hyperbole, hope and wry humor–which Auseon seems to understand just may be the best tools for teenage survival."
-Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
"Strikingly clever debut draws both blood and laughter. Teenagers fond of the dark adult humor of David Sedaris and Lynda Barry will especially like this."
"Auseon writes with a sardonic tone and an ear for the odd detail reminiscent of M.T. Anderson; the text is peppered with postmodern, thematically resonant weirdness."
-Bulletin for the Center of Children's Books (Recommended)
"First time novelist Andrew Auseon brings a fresh voice to this surrealistic comedy that will have teens snickering with recognition despite its deliberate grotesqueries."


text:
Dear February,
You were good to me, like most Februarys. Most people don't give you the credit you deserve because they are either too cold or too bitter when the 14th comes around. But I appreciate you more and more each year. I spent most of this month traveling around and visiting cities I've never seen before, like Amsterdam and Berlin. Cities that I can't wait to go back to and discover more of. I want to devour the cities until no stone is unturned.
As much as I love you, February, knowing that you're already gone is hurting. In a couple weeks I'll be 25 and I still feel like I haven't grown up yet. I still feel like I am 16, awkwardly walking down the hallway in high school wishing my acne would go away—which it still hasn't nine years later.
I hate that you're so short. I hate that it's always a blink and you miss it when it comes to you.
I made some new friends as I traveled around this month. I met Sarena in Amsterdam, as we traveled around the canals, eating as much food as we could stuff into our faces, and breathed in a city that has so much strange and fascinating history. I met Christine, Kayla, and Dan in Edinburgh. Christine challenged me as we climbed up Arthur's Seat and as my very un-fit body huffed and puffed the hill, we made it. And it was the best thing I've seen in a long time. I was so proud of myself. Kayla and Dan made me feel so welcome in my Airbnb, giving me tips on places to go in the city that was now their home—at least for a little while.
And then I met up with an old friend in Berlin. One who always gets me thinking about what's next. Makes me think that maybe I can make it here in Europe and not regret the choices I make on a whim. Not regret spontaneity and this weird internal longing I always have with a country that's not technically considered home. I'm so proud and jealous of how much she is making the world her oyster (as much as I hate that phrase) and it makes me believe that I can do that too.
The last week, though, I've felt a little out of place, February. I've been out of touch with people from back home and am starting to feel like I don't quite know who they are or who I am anymore. The world has gone on without me and as I get pictures sent to me from home, more and more things look so different and I can't quite recognize what home actually is. Is that weird, February?
I received a text message from a friend, someone who I met under strange circumstances, someone who I've only hung out with three or four times, someone who feels like I've known her my whole life instead of the past couple years, and the text made me miss my friendships more than ever. I love this town. I love my students. But I need something bigger. Something that has people and life and a car or a metro so I can get around. I need people, and as much as I claim to hate people, it's nice being around them every once in awhile.
February, you made me miss life. You made me miss connections as I traveled around Europe and made some good ones along the way. I appreciate you more than you know.


text:
Below is an example PS AXtalk test report. You can download it by clicking on the image. You will need Adobe Reader to view the example report.
You will note that PS AACR-F failed but the Over Status was a Pass. For 10GBASE-T, TSB-155 and TR24750, the PS ANEXT and PS AACR-F are not required to Pass, only the PS AXtalk Margin Computation at the bottom is required to Pass.
The PS AXtalk average margin computation consists of the (power) summation of PS ANEXT and PS AFEXT (that includes power backoff for each ANEXT and AFEXT measurement) minus the (power) summation of PS ANEXT limit and PS AACR-F limit + measured IL of the disturbed link averaged over the 10 MHz to 400 MHz frequency range. Luckily, the software takes care of this for you.
For Augmented Category 6 and Class Ea, there is no PS AXtalk Margin Computation and both PS ANEXT and PS AACR-F are required to pass.


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You've just stumbled across a rich and cheesy Crockpot Alfredo Tortellini recipe that is so easy to make!
Serve up some serious Italian style comfort food with this rich and cheesy Crockpot Alfredo Tortellini Recipe. This easy dinner recipe delivers layers and layers of pasta cheesy yumminess.
Are you ready for some cheesy Alfredo bliss? Let's get this Crock Pot temptation started!
You'll just need your Slow Cooker plus these 4 easy ingredients…
- How you can get Free Grocery Gift Cards
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Crockpot Alfredo Tortellini
Crockpot Alfredo Tortellini Recipe! {4 Ingredients}
- 20 oz.refrigerated Cheese Tortellini {1 pkg.}
- 30 oz. Classico Creamy Alfredo Sauce {2 jars 15 oz. each}
- 3 cups shredded Kraft Mozzarella Cheese {12 oz.}
- 1/2 tsp. Garlic Powder
- Spray inside of 4 – 6 quart Crockpot with non-stick cooking spray
- Pour 1 jar of Alfredo Sauce on the bottom of Crockpot.
- Spread out 1/2 of Tortellini evenly in layer on top of the sauce.
- Sprinkle Garlic Powder evenly over the layer of Tortellini.
- Spread out 1 1/2 cups of Mozzarella over the Tortellini.
- Pour remaining jar of Alfredo Sauce over cheese.
- Spread out remaining Tortellini in layer on top of the sauce.
- Spread out final 1 1/2 cups of Mozzarella over the Tortellini layer.
- Cook on HIGH for 1 hour 30 minutes, or LOW for 3 hours, or until done. ENJOY!
What You'll Need for This Recipe:
5 – 6 quart Crock Pot
Have some fun and try making this recipe using this Easy Alfredo Sauce Recipe, just 5 Ingredients! {use as a substitute for the Classico Alfredo Sauce}
Craving even more Easy Crock Pot Recipes and Easy Italian Slow Cooker Recipes?? Get inspired with these yummy recipes below…
Crockpot Cheesy Tortellini Recipe {just 5 ingredients}
This Crockpot Cheesy Tortellini Recipe is the perfect way to turn any day right side up and put a smile all over your face!
Crock Pot Garlic Parmesan Chicken Recipe
This Crock Pot Garlic Parmesan Chicken Recipe is so rich and delicious… the secret ingredient butter makes everything better!!
Slow Cooker Alfredo Chicken with Bacon {Chicken Carbonara}
Bacon and Alfredo Sauce have never tasted so amazing together!
Crockpot Garlic Alfredo Chicken
You've just stumbled across a rich and decadent Crockpot Garlic Alfredo Chicken Recipe! Yum!!
Crock Pot Italian Meatballs
Want a meatball sub? Want a pasta dinner with meatballs? Craving Italian food like you can't believe? Things are about to get really tasty!
Crock Pot Tomato Tortellini Soup Recipe
Get ready for gourmet soup deliciousness when you make this easy Crock Pot Tomato Tortellini Soup Recipe!
18 Easy Italian Slow Cooker Recipes {easy dinners}
Try adding some yummy Italian dishes into your menu this week, and satisfy your Italian food cravings with these tempting Italian Slow Cooker Recipes!
201 Easy Crockpot Recipes for Busy Nights!
Are you in love with Easy Crockpot Recipes as much as I am? Get ready… you're about to become a Crock Pot Superstar!!
Grocery Money Saving Tips:
How To Cut Your Grocery Bill In Half
Don't miss out! Come follow along for more fun Recipes with The Frugal Girls right here…
Tried this Crockpot Alfredo Tortellini Recipe?
Share with us in the comments below!


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I am always shocked when people ask how I find the courage to think outside of the box. They wish they were so lucky to be born with talent to draw and paint. They wonder how I manage to t find the time to create .
The fact is, I thrive on making new things and coming up with new ideas. I get up 2 hours earlier than I have to in the morning so I can make time to express my thoughts and sustaining images in paint and graphite. I work at a job that by its nature, constantly demands that I teach my students to understand the power of creativity that is latent in each one of us., just waiting for us to discover that it really is ours!
I write this blog because of those people who wish to exercise their creative abilities in their lives. I want to share the importance of being creative...of understanding the ability that we all have to think in new pathways , to make our ideas visible and audible.
Honestly, I also need to constantly remind myself to stretch my imagination. Through the process of teaching I have found that that I learn so much more when I teach. So this blog engages me in articulating my process of working and shares my belief in the necessity of developing yours and my creative imagination.
Ken Robinson, in his book, "The Element: How finding your passion changes everything", writes
" You can think of creativity as applied imagination.
You can be creative at anything at all - anything that involves using your intelligence. It can be in music, in dance, in theater, in math, science, business, in your relationship with other people."
In this spirit, let me share a blog that plays with the imagination and creativity. It is called creative every day and Leah shares a simple process of creating a design by playing with an idea.
Playing is a great way to get some creative juices moving!
Have fun! I love to hear about what you are imagining and then actually creating in your life!