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Location: Lafayette, Indiana
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Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya
In this re-imagining of Nasu Kinoko's Fate/stay night universe, Illyasviel von Einzbern is just your typical schoolgirl -- whose life is changed forever when a chance encounter with the kaleidostick Magical Ruby results in Ilya's becoming a magical girl. Ruby considers Ilya a more suitable master than her previous owner, Tohsaka Rin. Rin has been assigned by her mentor Zelretch to collect seven Class Cards from Fuyuki City, each containing a Heroic Spirit of legend. However, with Ruby now refusing to part ways with Ilya, Rin is unable to complete her quest. And so Rin persuades Ilya to complete the quest for her. So begins Ilya's life as a magical girl!
Prisma Illya is an interesting creature. As magical girls show, you can find better. And as FSN spinoffs go, if you want something which stays truer to the spirit of the original story then you can find better. But there's something ... magical about Prisma Illya. The marriage of the two ideas -- a magical girl anime on the one hand and an FSN parody on the other -- works surprisingly well. If you're skeptical, you're not alone: I was very skeptical myself. In fact, I almost didn't watch Prisma Illya. I only ended up watching it because I didn't want to hate on something without having given it a try first. Ten episodes later, I was already looking forward to tuning in to Season 2. So if you're a fan of FSN and aren't allergic to magical girl shows, I'd definitely suggest checking this one out. And heck, even if you are allergic to magical girl shows, you should still check this one out if you really loved FSN.
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Lafayette, Indiana
Posts: 20,548
Index of Past Posts
Episode 01: big bad birtha, Talon87, lilbluecorsola
Episode 02: Talon87
Episode 03: big bad birtha
Episode 04: Talon87
Episode 05: Talon87
Episode 06: Talon87
Episode 07: Talon87
Episode 08: Talon87
Episode 09: Talon87
Episode 10: big bad birtha, Talon87
Episode 01: big bad birtha
That title card looks more like an H-game logo than the actual Fate/stay night one was.
今 信じあえる
あきらめない 心かさね
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Join Date: Mar 2007
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Hmm...maybe I was being overly critical last week. Well I watched episode 2!
Season 2 episode 2 spoilers
It was better than episode 1. I didn't feel bored to tears, and the battle scenes were cool as hell. Also Rin and Luvie were entertaining as always. Not a great episode, but alright.
Oh yeah, has anyone bothered to watch the OVA? I have it downloaded, but I haven't watched it. It seemed like it would be a big pile of fanservice.
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Lafayette, Indiana
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Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya: Undoukai de Dance! (OAV 1):
As you might surmise from the subtitle, the Prisma Ilya S1 OAV takes place during the sports festival and ties in with dancing. It's a fun little special. By no means necessary to watch, it's something that I think fans will enjoy if they're in the same position I was in when I watched it: hadn't seen the characters since last year and watching in between completing S1 and starting S2. If you've already started 2wei and then go back to this, you might find it to be a waste of your time? *shrug* But I dunno. I thought it was cute for what it was.
Our story begins with Taiga telling Class 5-1 that the sports festival will be held next Sunday. Tatsuko gets fired up and soon the entire class is abuzz with excitement. When the topic of dancing comes up, Taiga mentions that they'll be practicing for it all next week since the dance competition is worth a lot of points. Miyu mumbles to herself but otherwise seems normal.
After school that day, the loli sextet discovers that Taiga is being blackmailed by a lecherous, fat, ugly male teacher. If her class can't manage to win the sports festival, Taiga will be forced to let him partake in her delicious meat! The girls resolve to do whatever it takes to win the sports festival. And since Taiga had previously stressed the importance of the dance event, that can mean only one thing: extracurricular dance practice.
You may remember from Season 1 that Miyu is a wonder child who excels at just about everything. Academics, cooking, combat: Miyu can do it all. ... Everything except dancing. ^^; The girls soon discover that Miyu has two left feet when it comes to dancing. She's great at memorizing the moves, but her execution is too stiff and awkward. Similar to how she battles, she is too much of a perfectionist -- to the point that, as it applies to dancing, she tries to reproduce the moves down to the millimeter. It makes her dancing technically accurate but sterile. The girls try to show Miyu by example, starting with Ilya, but before long it's time to call it a day.
Miyu continues to practice very hard. Even when she should be taking a break for the sake of her own health, Miyu in secret continues to practice, pushing her body to the limit. Ilya discovers this and, after talking with Miyu a bit about dancing, falls asleep. This scene was great (along with a lot of other scenes in the special) for the Ilya x Miyu yuri fodder. I don't know why, but some fans look at me funny when I suggest an Ilya x Miyu ship. To me, it's frickin' obvious by the end of Episode 12 of Season 1. Ilya may not feel about Miyu that way, but Miyu C-L-E-A-R-L-Y is in love with Ilya.
Miyu ends up asking Magical Sapphire for help. And before long it's the big event itself.
I guess this is where I'll transition from writing a more plot summary-based post to a more opinions-based post.
I enjoyed both of Luvia's scenes. The first one, where Miyu reveals why she didn't invite Luvia to the sports festival and then we see that Luvia is quietly cheering Miyu on from the other side of the school fence ... that was both cute and a little sad. I like Luvia, even if she has her fair share of problems, and the scene of Luvia cheering for Miyu outside the school fence reminded me of a mother who, also unseen, cheers her son on in the school play or the sports meet and has to do so from the sidelines because her son was like, "Mom, don't come! You'll embarrass me! Gosh, " worried about looking like a momma's boy to the other kids at school.
Luvia's second scene, pictured above, was also good. Itou Shizuka is such fun in this role -- "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH HO HO HO HO!" -- and Luvia is such a delightfully stereotypical haughty ojou-sama type. "A fine dance, fitting of the name Edelfelt" indeed.
And speaking of that dance: here's the video of Miyu and Ilya dancing. You'll recognize the song -- it's ED1, "Prism Sympathy". I thought the dance number was part lolikon fanservice, part adorable fanservice, and part "Hare Hare Yukai" knockoff. The lolikon fanservice bits -- mostly zoom-ins to wiggling tushies in gym bloomers -- I could've done without, but to be honest the fact that they were even present reminded me of just how friendly Prisma Ilya had proven to be to a non-lolikon like me. The adorable bits -- like that little elbow pump of Miyu's at 1m20s -- were great if few and far between. As for the HHY aspect ... to be honest, it stood out to me a lot more when watching for the first time. Re-watching it now, I can see that like half of the song has the girls off screen. So you couldn't exactly recreate a faithful dance number to go with the ED credits based on this one video alone. But still. Even if it's not as obvious a HHY knockoff as other dance numbers in other animes have been, I still feel like it appeals to the same feelings in the audience that Hare Hare Yukai did eight years ago.
The bit with the girls running from Tatsuko was amusing ... if somewhat mean-spirited. ^^; Poor Tatsuko.
I thought the way the episode ended was cute. Taiga ends up losing her delicious meat after all -- though not to a fat lecherous man but instead to a bunch of lolis and shotas. It was obvious that the "meat" the children overheard the teachers talking about had to have been literal meat and not a metaphor for Taiga's body, but it still surprised me in the end to learn the specific details behind the meat Taiga was so desperate to preserve.
Join Date: Mar 2007
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We're back for another season of Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya! Last summer was Season 1. This summer, we'll get to enjoy the next installment in the series: Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei!
2wei Episode 01:
What can I say: I absolutely loved this episode. Not in the "10/10 masterpiece" sense, but in the "7/10 Good but oh my god I am having too much fun ^^; X3" sense. Even though I had watched the OAV within days if not hours -- or perhaps because I had watched it recently -- I was super stoked to see all of my favorite friends again from this charming little spinoff.
One thing which really impressed me with this first episode was how much it felt like a prologue out of a book or film. It was well put together. It didn't feel clumsy or forced but rather genuine, natural.
One of very few complaints I had with this episode, Ilya mistaking Miyu for Shirou and almost kissing her on the lips again was a scene I either:
The interplay between Sella and Leysritt was one of the highlights of this early morning scene. I'd quote it or link you to a bunch of screencaps, but you should just go and (re-)watch the scene yourself. It's much better that way. (It starts at 1m15s. )
2wei wastes no time reminding viewers that by the end of the previous season we had seen the BFF-mance between Ilya and Miyu blossom into a full-fledged romance from Miyu's side of things. While Miyu has become less hostile towards Tatsuko and her other classmates, she still displays signs of attachment to Ilya. And it's more than that, as this ice cream scene shows. Miyu was already adorable to begin with. But a Miyu in love? My heart can't take so much sweetness.
The scene where Rin abducts Ilya and Miyu right in front of the other Class 5-1 girls' noses was pretty hysterical. Again, this is one of those things that has to be seen, not read about, so go watch it if you haven't already and go watch it again if you've only seen it the one time.
Luvia's as fun as ever. Another scene I can't do justice in words.
I will take this time to comment on Rin's and Luvia's role in 2wei, however, as it's another one of the very few complaints I have with the episode. While I understand that the reason behind their continued presence in Fuyuki City was more of a macguffin than anything else -- we needed some excuse to get to the juicy part with Ilya and we also needed some reason for why Rin and Ilya would be here in Fuyuki instead of back in London with Zelretch -- it still doesn't change the fact that the plot development felt contrived. "Good job collecting all of the cards, girls. Oh, and by the way: after you collected all seven cards, the thing that was supposed to happen didn't happen. You need to fix that. So go and fix it. Okay, bye."
One thing that really stood out to me while watching the first episode of Prisma Ilya 2wei was the animation.
First, it's absolutely gorgeous. Not all of the time, no, but even at its worst Prisma Ilya looks like a fairly typical anime. But in scenes like this final one inside of Ryuudou Temple's secret cave, the animation is (dare I say it) almost on par with what you'd expect out of the ufotables and the Kyoto Animations. It is very, very good.
Second, the animation's always been this gorgeous. Having gone back and re-watched small bits and pieces of older episodes when grabbing pictures to use for the Table of Contents post that lists all of our Season 1 writings, and having also recently watched the OAV, I can say with confidence that what we're seeing here in 2wei matches what we saw in Season 1.
Just gorgeous.
The episode does an excellent job of priming the viewer to want to see Ilya in her Archer form once again. So when you finally do get to see Ilya equip the Archer card and kick ass in her hybridized form, it's quite the show. Lots of flare, lots of excitement.
And now for the meat of this post ...
The #1 question on my mind before starting Prisma Ilya 2wei was, "Where to next?" Season 1 ends with the arrival of Bazett in Fuyuki City, but I wasn't sure what the author would do with her. Aside from that, I had no idea what to expect from 2wei.
On the one hand, having Ilya split into two halves is quite the cliché. I haven't read bbb's post yet, but I imagine from his outside-the-spoiler-box complaints with this episode that he was not enthusiastic about seeing 2wei revisit such a tired trope. Yet on the other hand, I feel like this was the perfect plot development for the author to explore at this moment in time. :o I mean, just think about it:
But perhaps the thing which most excites me about this plot development is how it will affect Miyu. After all, the episode has gone out of its way to re-establish the fact that Ilya is more than a friend to Miyu -- she's the girl Miyu's in love with. So what is going to happen now that there are two Ilyas?
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2wei Episode 02:
Sorry that this post is so late! @[email protected] Rest assured: when I finished watching this episode almost one week ago, I went on an image-hunting spree for an awesome post. I kind of overwhelmed myself in that regard and then didn't feel like going through the effort of a huge, image-heavy post. ^^; But since UTW's release of Episode 03
If there is one thing that stood out to me with Episode 02, one thing that I had to choose to discuss, it would have to of course ... be this:
... eh?
I ... I think I'm seeing things. Because surely I didn't just see--
... eh?
And I'm not attaching any particular sentiments to that statement. No joy nor rage, no delight nor disgust. Make of this scene what you will! But love it or hate it, it. was. incredible. Unbelievable. This scene felt lifted straight out of an H-anime. The animation, the content, the music, all of it. While I imagined -- nay, called -- that something like Dark Ilya flirting with Miyu might be a thing, I never in my wildest dreams imagined a scene like this. Even manga readers I think were pleasantly shocked!
When we talk about taking a manga and bringing it to life in the form of an anime, this is what we mean. But wow, folks. O_o Wow ...!
So ... what were my personal thoughts on the scene? Well, my only major gripe is the characters' ages. Not for them in-universe -- it's not as though 5th graders don't ever kiss or think about kissing -- but for us watching at home, it would be a little less uncomfortable if they were girls in their late teens at the very least. Other than that ...
I loved it. I was squealing and "OH MY GOD "-ing like such a fangirl. It was so cute ... it was so hilarious ... the scene was just done so perfectly. It could have easily been done so wrong and felt like a really gross rape scene, but somehow they miraculously dodged that bullet and gave us an adorable comedic gem.
When Ilya races over to Miyu's side, for instance, oh my god! How they played it up like Miyu had been mortally wounded in battle. And the way Miyu talks to Ilya then ... it's like she's a king's fallen knight, apologizing for not having been stronger ... and then she "dies," and Ilya's all "MIYUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU! ;-;" in that shrill little voice that only Kadowaki Mai does. It was so perfect.
So the burning question of course is: what did Miyu think of it? And the episode is kind enough to reveal later on that Miyu, ashamed to admit it, somewhat enjoyed it. (Dun dun duuuuuuuun!) Which of course leads us to the thrilling romantic setup where:
Splitting this post artificially into two halves to make reading it a bit easier. You can think of that first half as the kiss scene commentary and this part of the post as ... well, just about everything else.
Episode 02 marks the first time we get to see the new OP credits. And while Bazett has yet to show up, the OP is kind enough to confirm that she will play a major role in this series. The OP also suggests, similar to the ED, that Dark Ilya is not going to be a villain forever but that she will be an antagonist for quite some time.
I thought the part with Ilya's unlucky morning was cute, solid fun. The Prisma Ilya we know and love.
One of the biggest questions on my mind at the end of Episode 01 was, "What will Dark Ilya's personality be like?" The sneak peek for Episode 02 hinted that she might be something other than a) Ilya's exact clone or b) Ilya's exact opposite. Episode 02 sure enough confirms this: Dark Ilya has a unique personality that seems to be pretty darn independent of Ilyasviel von Einzbern. It begs the question: is the entity we're calling "Dark Ilya" actually the spirit of the Archer card given form in Ilya's body? The thing is, Episode 02 does suggest at other points that Dark Ilya is in fact an entity that branched off from the original Ilya. Like, it seems apparent that Dark Ilya has all of the original Ilya's memories. She knows who Miyu is, she knows the limitations of combat as a Kaleido magical girl, she remembers battling Berserker, so on and so forth. So yeah. I guess that while Episode 02 answers my question from Episode 01 in one sense, in another sense I guess it does not.
The combat in this episode was pretty nicely animated. Not too much to say about it though. Human interaction was the show stealer this week, not flashy spectacle.
Was this the first time we've seen Rule Breaker in the Prisma Ilya universe? I think it might be. I don't remember there being any opportunities for it to show up in the battle with Caster in Season 1, and I can't recall seeing it later on either (although that one I can't really rule out; I feel like maybe we saw it? ). Either way, it was a nice nod to the franchise to see it show up here.
Easily my second favorite scene of the entire episode. The kiss was phenomenal, but seeing Rin and Luvia like this ... just perfect. Once again, you can tell the voice actresses are having a blast. God bless Itou Shizuka. Anyway, yeah. Great reactions from Rin and Luvia. Great reaction from a mortified Dark Ilya. And great reactions from Ilya and Miyu, half lost in disbelief, half embarrassed to admit that they even know those two.
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I've finished the second season of this show. I've been watching, but nothing really much to say. Some final thoughts though:
Illya season 2 spoilers:
For the most part, it's a fun show with some really cool action scenes. This show has some really exciting fight scenes. The character development isn't half bad either, which is an improvement over season 1, which I felt was kind of cliche. My biggest issue with Prisma Illya S2 is the SoL scenes. I don't know why, but when I see Illya's classmates, I want to throw something at my screen. Watching them do their boring, forced hijinks fills me with rage. That's the main reason I was so irritated with the first episode.
This season seems to cover Fate/Hollow. Still, I wonder if Shirou will actually contribute in battle, or if he'll just stay boring harem fodder.
I'm not sure what to rate this, to be honest. I guess I'll give it a 7? I enjoyed it well enough I guess.
Join Date: Mar 2007
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WE'RE BACK! I might be three and a half years late to the party, but ... I am finally, finally committing to watching the rest of Prisma Ilya. We left off last time after I had seen (but not yet written about) Episode 03 of Season 2. I had been enjoying it so much I wanted to roll out the red carpet treatment for every episode. But this was taking increasingly much of my time and became so onerous that I ended up not posting at all. And because I didn't want to advance with the show prior to writing up a post (because I knew it would compromise the eventual post's quality), I just ... ended up de facto dropping a show I adored. Well, three years and some months later it's been picked back up. I actually started a month or so ago, and have since rewatched all of Season 1 (plus the sports festival OAV), the first three episodes of Season 2 ... and have even pressed on, after re-watching 03 five times and still not pushing myself to post, with watching Episode 04. ^^;
I don't think I will do big red carpet treatments this time. But I would still like to offer up episode posts. So ... we'll see. I might do posts in chunks of episodes or even in entire seasons. I will try my best not to fall into the trap of writing de facto episode summaries or play-by-plays. They take way too much time and I'm going to assume that if you like the show then a) you've already seen it and/or b) you'd rather watch the episode for yourself than read my thoughts on every 30-second segment of the show.
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2wei Episode 03:
Following the lesbian hijinx of the previous episode, this was the episode that three years ago ground my posting to a halt as I scrambled to write up a post that could appropriately convey in words what I felt about what I had just seen. Three years later, I find myself a lot less blown away by the episode (and, for that matter, the entire production) than I was at the time. I'm not sure what factor or combination of factors it is, but I definitely feel ready to at least write some short (by my standards) posts about the episodes I see.
Episode 03 escalates the action and in a lot of different ways. It ...
I think my favorite thing in this episode is the plot twist that Miyu "mistakes" Shirou for her older brother. The fact that Miyu and Shirou share identical eye colors is something I would have never noticed before, but now that the implication has been brought to our attention I can't not see it. I definitely think it will be revealed that the reason Miyu is an orphan is the same reason why Shirou is, and I look forward to seeing where the story goes from here.
One thing that continually surprises me about Prisma Ilya is just how good it looks. I brought a lot of attention to this in 2014. It's just ... impressive how pretty they make it look on so (relative to ufotable productions) small a budget. And to be fair, it's not like the show is a Studio Ghibli movie from start to finish. Lots and lots of lesser scenes feature the sort of animation quality typical of series like this. But every important scene doesn't. And a number of the unimportant scenes also don't look shabby. The animation director knows how to achieve much with little.
(The spoiler boxes below contain possible spoilers through Season 03. I am unsure myself.)
Something I'm less excited about, especially as the spectre of:
a permanent Chloe
looms on my peripheral horizon, is how Chloe has been introduced to everyone else as "Ilya's cousin" but remains hidden from Sella and Leysritt and is known to Shirou as Ilya proper with a suntan. It creates a schizm of misinformation that has to come to a head at some point, especially if:
Chloe isn't going to be written out of the show.
Further complications arise, and will have to be dealt with eventually, when we're told that Ilya is only at one-third or one-quarter her normal power level. The implication is that her mana is being spent powering Chloe's very existence, but if:
Chloe is to remain with us for the long haul
then we're going to have to address the reasons for this power drop sooner or later.
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2wei Episode 04:
Not too much to say here. This episode brought me the excitement of my very first "new" Prisma Ilya episode in over three years, but aside from that excitement I think it was a pretty ordinary fourth episode of a second season. Like ... it was enjoyable, but nothing to write home about.
I enjoyed how much time Caren got to have onscreen. This version of Caren is reimagined as something of a slightly older, MILFier lady. That's perfectly fine by me! While the earlier episodes I had seen had teased whether Prisma Ilya universe's Caren is involved with the mage & Church stuff or whether she is simply the school nurse, Episode 04 goes ahead and reveals that, yes indeed, Caren is here on assignment. They actually take it to humorous extremes, having Caren all but tell the students that she doesn't care about them. They stop short of saying who exactly she is here to monitor, but it will be interesting to see how the Church, which was entirely absent from Season 1, factors into the Prisma Ilya universe.
More hinting that Shirou is Miyu's actual biological brother.
I'm having a hard time getting a read on what the author's intentions are for Chloe's identity. I think we can safely rule out that she's "Ilya minus the inhibition" or "Ilya's dark side" or whatever else. She isn't really Ilya ... She has Ilya's memories, and she even shares many of Ilya's same desires ... but their personalities are so utterly different from one another. It feels more like ... the author has a preconceived notion of what the Heroic Spirit Archer is like, and if you treat H.S.Archer like a lens and Prisma Ilya Ilya like a beam of light, then Chloe is the light that comes out the other side of the lens. You pass P.I. Ilya through the H.S.Archer lens ... and you get Chloe. An "Ilya" with Ilya's memories and desires but with H.S.Archer's personality. I'm not sure if that's the correct answer, but that's my current running hypothesis.
Join Date: Mar 2007
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2wei Episodes 05 and 06:
So, it's finally been explained who or what exactly Chloe is. And ... I can't say I'm too thrilled with it ^^; , but whatever. Supposedly in the Prisma Ilya universe, when Irisviel and Kiritsugu have their baby, at eight months old Irisviel does something to the baby that causes there to be a rift between before and after: Chloe is the Ilya from before the rift whereas the Ilya we know is Ilya from after the rift. So they supposedly really are the exact same person ... and yet Chloe has a different skin tone and personality than Ilya has. It's weird and doesn't make good sense. It's further complicated by Chloe being identified as the Holy Grail (which of course fits with what we know about Ilya from FSN proper) but nobody acknowledging that Ilya would also have to be the Holy Grail. It's further further complicated by Chloe telling Miyu that she is what happens when Ilya summons the Heroic Spirit Archer from the Class Card ... but never quite identifying as Heroic Spirit Archer.
I dunno. Based on what I'd seen up until this point, if it were me and I had been writing this story, I would have made it so that when others use the Class Cards to summon Heroic Spirits they do like what Miyu does, and they gain the armor and attributes of that spirit but are still themselves in body and soul, but when Ilya does it she takes it one step further and actually invites the Heroic Spirit proper from the Throne of Heroes into her body and allows them to take over her body for the duration of the summoning. It would have made a lot more sense out of why Chloe has the Archer dark skin and such a wildly different personality from Ilya, i.e. because she's Heroic Spirit Archer inside of a 10-year old girl's body. (Of course, Chloe acts nothing at all like 5th War Archer from the FSN universe, so I suppose there would've still been stuff to complain about even had they gone this route.)
I don't get the impression that we're going to get much more explanation on Chloe's backstory. It feels like this was it. And yet ... it still feels incomplete. We're still not sure what changed Irisviel's and Kiritsugu's mind about the Grail War, or why they would have performed a mindwipe on their baby. It's still not clear why performing a mindwipe resulted in a schism, dividing one girl into two, instead of just ... you know, the orthodox interpretation of memory alteration in fiction which would be that you're still the one and only you, it's just that now your memories have been altered.
It's also a little rough around the edges how the Prisma Ilya writer attempts to have his cake and eat it too with the Einzbern clan. He simultaneously argues that they were involved in the Holy Grail War (!!!) ten years ago and that they are a magical family that goes back over a thousand years ... but at the same time that "they have no ties to others of the magical families," notably that Tohsaka Rin has absolutely no idea who they are (and thus in the Prisma Ilya universe there is zero involvement of the Tohsaka family in the Holy Grail War) ... I dunno, it's all just really messed up. I guess these were always going to be the dangers of doing a spin-off that is half-based on the original and half made-up, but I guess in S1 where we were only just dipping our toes into the pool it was easy for everything to come across as perfect and polished. Now that I'm halfway through S2 the chinks in the armor are starting to show, and it's disappointing to say the least.
If I had to point to a "jumped the shark" moment for the series, at least as of this writing, it would have to be S2E06 with the moment Iri's car comes crashing down into the middle of the fight between the three girls. I certainly hope that this won't last and that I'll feel like the series is right back on the rails doing strong again in later S2 or in S3 ... but for right now, at least, I feel like Camelot is over.
Credit where credit is due though: S2E05 was the most atypical and unorthodox "bathhouse episode" I think I have ever seen in an anime. The air quotes are very much deserved here: while it technically is set in a bathing room and features many of the tropes associated with such a setting (BOOBS, for one), it is about as distanced from typical bathhouse episodes as they come. The focus is primarily on plot and characters, and they actually use the bathhouse to further both. Was really, really strange seeing this setting used seriously and not, as it typically is used, for a throwaway fan service filler episode.
Six episodes in and Bazett still hasn't really appeared outside of one brief scene in an early episode where she's shown at the airport interacting with some kid and his family. We still have no idea who she is in this universe or why she matters to its plot.
Now that the Holy Grail War is officially canon in the Prisma Ilya universe, I'm expecting to see something eventually with Kiritsugu and the creation of this fork. Because I do think that's what this is going to have to be at this point: that Prisma Ilya's universe is a fork off of the main FSN universe, and that it's going to tie in somehow to Kiritsugu and the 4th Grail War. We'll see.
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Talon, don't think, imagine.
Yukirin is awesome for doing this for me! And by Yukirin, I mean lilbleucorsola.
The Kamen Fleet (TL5 / A- Grade Referee) | Cameron Kalmia: Viridian's Maskmaker
Hizumi Yukikaze: Emerald Breeze~ | Tokikou Nobuyuki: Time Mage
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Shizuya Kasen: SHSL Armourer
Waifu Squadron and Explorers | Cavern of Chaotic Creativity
Paradise lies beyond the horizon, challenge it because it is unreachable.
Speak of the absolute territory, and grasp it with your hands.
"Quit poking my face! >_<"
"Ahahaha, you'll never get rid of this! *hiss*"
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Posts: 20,548
2wei Episode 10:
Now I see why Bazett was introduced so late: because she's an ultimate. You can't introduce her early. Once you introduce her, you have to either kill her, be killed by her, or (as they did) somehow neutralize the threat / buy time. Having never played F/HA before, I never realized she was this badass. She's basically a younger, female Kotomine Kirei. And instead of being an Executor in the employ of the Church like Kirei or Ciel, she's an Enforcer in the employ of the Mage's Association. The idea is fundamentally similar: a human killing machine, a Bruce Lee on steroids, "if Bruce Lee had Shirou's Avalon-granted stamina and Saber's great strength."
Still, I'm somewhat disappointed with how things end. It feels like Bazett is going easy on Ilya & Friends throughout much of the fight, yet this is never expounded upon. (Does Bazett have a soft spot for children? Is she secretly averse to killing, preferring to KO foes rather than kill them? Other?) And yet in the end, Bazett loses to Team Kaleid Liner -- and becomes none other than Chloe's metaphorical cousin, a fellow pain-slave of Ilya's.
Not too thrilled with the idea that so long as Chloe exists we're never going to see the Archer card again. Archer Ilya was 10x more exciting and interesting a character than Chloe has been. Not saying I want Chloe dead, but ... I dunno ... I'd be lying if I said I didn't think the story would have ended best had Chloe faded back into the aether.
Even worse, the series re-acknowledges that Ilya is still operating at like 25% of Season 1's energy levels. Even if it were cheap and hand-wavey and still invited my scorn, I would have at least preferred it to what we got (NOTHING!) if they had done something like, "Oh, with THIS, you're back at 100% max output and simultaneously Chloe still gets to exist too." I had thought that that was what we were witnessing happen when Chloe wished to the Grail that she not fade away -- only for a later episode to reveal, "Sorry, nope! Chloe's still in need of others' mana if she doesn't want to disappear." And, of course, that Ilya is still not back to max capacity.
All of this makes Chloe feel like, in some ways, one of the worst things that could have happened to Prisma Ilya. I mean, don't get me wrong! I was super excited back in the day by Eps 01, 02, and 03. And I still love them to this day. But like ... it feels like 2wei has badly neutered the series, and that the only way to un-neuter it is to either kill Chloe off (which isn't going to happen) or else to do an unsatisfactory deus ex machina that explains away Ilya's energy drop.
Really enjoyed seeing Rider Miyu. Super cute! Super cool.
Mixed feelings, though, on the reveal that Rider Miyu is like Archer Ilya rather than like Saber Miyu. I both like it and dislike it for some of my theories that it rules out, primarily the one that Ilya can summon Heroic Spirits' very souls into her body because she's a soulless Homunculus. If soulful Miyu can do it, then we get to have soulful Prisma Ilya too. To say nothing of the fact that I've never much cared for or bought the idea that Iri and Ilya are soulless dolls.
Mixed feelings, also, on the presence of an eighth card. On the one hand, it feels very Hollow Ataraxia (and I mean that in a bad way rather than a good), very ... oh, how shall we say ... tacking on "me too"-style baggage to an already fleshed-out story in FSN. It also feels like a massive plot hole re:Season 1, because Season 1 made it abundantly clear that every time we got a Class Card that the closed space in the next world would be smaller, that this was why it was such a ridiculously cramped space when fighting Berserker, and that Berserker was "clearly the last card" because you couldn't get any smaller than this. Welp, we're getting smaller. And if we don't, then it'll be an internal inconsistency.
One reason I think I'm unhappy with Chloe's persistence or in turn Ilya's having to power Chloe ... is that I had really been looking forward to seeing Berserker Ilya and we still haven't gotten to see that. It had better be in S3!
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Lafayette, Indiana
Posts: 20,548
Overall thoughts on Season 2 of Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya ... it's difficult to say with confidence just how good or bad this season was compared with Season 1. When I put the series down in 2014, I did so quite unintentionally and because I couldn't handle just how incredible the series was. "Incredible" in the truest sense of the word: "I can't believe what I am seeing." Picking the series back up in 2018, I don't think my excitement ever got above an 8 out of 10. Indeed, were I to give it an overall score, I'd probably say 2wei gets a 7/10. It was good, but not great. It remains one of the very best magical girl series I've ever seen, but perhaps that's because it is ever an FSN facsimile in magical girl sheep's clothing.
S2 asks a lot of questions that it then fails to answer. The creators admit as much, teasing that Season 3 -- labeled the second half of 2wei -- will answer at least some of these. That doesn't change the fact, though, that Season 2 all on its own feels somewhat incomplete. This is made even stranger by the fact that 3rei was already being published in manga form, iirc, when 2wei first started airing -- and the fact that S2 feels so, so stretched / stalling for time. While it was ten episodes in length, I feel like we only got six episodes' worth of content. Season 1, by contrast, gave us ten that felt like ten.
Looking forward to 2wei Herz.
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Comment: Immigration News on Your Website
Want to provide your web site with frequently updated material and make available the most recent immigration news for your visitors? You can display the latest ILW.COM daily immigration headlines on your web page--and they'll be automatically updated every time the stories change, with no action needed on your part! Dozens of law firms and other websites are already using Immigration Daily headlines to keep their homepage fresh and interesting. Headlines change each weekday. It is free and effortless to put Immigration Daily headlines on your website. To find out how, see here.
Article: Fierce Opposition, Court Rulings Place Future of Family Immigration Detention in Doubt. By Muzaffar Chishti and Faye Hipsman
Article: Some Ideas for Resolving the Controversial Issues in the EB-5 Legislation. By H. Ronald Klasko
Blogging: MORE NEWS AND ANALYSIS ON THE NEW VISA BULLETIN. By Chris Musillo
Bloggings By Matthew Kolken: Documentary on how children and their families come to terms with deportation; Foreign-Born Share Falls Among 14 Largest U.S. Hispanic Origin Groups
News: DOS Correction to Interim Final Rule on Passport and Citizenship Services Fee Changes
News: USCIS Efforts in Florida Lead to Sentencing of 28 Marriage and Immigration Fraud Ring Participants
News: USCIS Updates Processing Times Information for the Immigrant Investor Program Office (9/14/15)
Focus: Exhibit Opportunity for Regional Center/Projects
The EB-5 Summit for Attorneys and Developers taking place in San Francisco, CA on October 30th, has exhibitor opportunities. Exhibitors will have the opportunity to speak to professionals in the EB-5 field, distribute material in our material packet, and on designated exhibitor tables. Exhibitors will also be able to have a 15-25 minute panel on an EB-5 topic of their choosing. Early Bird Deadline for exhibitor opportunity is on October 7th. For more details or to sign up, see here.
Headline: Biden thumps Trump for selling 'sick message' on U.S. immigration Click here
Headline: US presidential race issues:Immigration Click here
Headline: GOP 2016ers collide with Ronald Reagan on immigration Click here
Headline: The Issue Where Republicans Have Turned Their Back on Reagan Click here
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Letters of the Week: Nolan Rappaport
ComingsNGoings: Immigration Event
September 21, 2015, 10:30am - 12pm (Eastern), Washington, DC., Migration Policy Institute will hold a panel discussion on "Left Behind: How the Well-Being of Children Is Affected by Parental Deportation." Based on two new reports by the Migration Policy Institute and The Urban Institute the speakers will address the effects of parental deportation on the children of immigrants, and the related needs for health and social services. Panelists will also discuss U.S. policy responses to protect these children, community responses, and possible directions for future research and policies. Location: MPI Conference Room, 1400 16th Street NW, Suite 300 (Third Floor), Washington, DC 20036. For more information and registration see here.

subset: commoncrawl


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As the final phase of Veit Stratmann's work for our Failure topic, the artist visited from France to present a proposal for the abandoned city of L'Aquila to TPR's audience. L'Aquila is fascinating because it embodies a cyclical mess of an empty city, regulations, unhappy former residents, and no solution in sight. TPR has been following Veit's research, which you can read about here:
In response to L'Aquila's difficult state of being neither here nor there, so to speak, Veit drafted a plan for a "people counter" that would calculate individuals who enter the city. The failure in this, as he stated, is that if it were to be produced with the city's permission, it would then negate itself as a subversive act- it only works if no one knows it's there- yet it can't be done from a practical sense without the city's permission.
With this in mind, below are images of the city itself and Veit's proposal:
A People Counter
by Veit Stratmann
Presented at The Project Room
February 6, 2013
Above: The city of L'Aquila
Some premises:
An artistic gesture in L'Aquila cannot be oriented around its potential public reception – for there is no public. It cannot, therefore, be construed as an "artwork", which draws upon the fact of being out of the ordinary.
This artistic gesture can neither formulate questions nor constitute a proposal because there is no one on the receiving end of such an invitation, nobody to take any questioning into consideration.
An artistic gesture in L'Aquila can only be effective if it is stripped of the privilege of being considered artwork and becomes autonomous, inventing a functional objective in the city (which may or may not be taken into account).
In order to be efficient, an artistic gesture carried out in L'Aquila should be both discrete and plausible within its environment. Its artistic origins should never come into question.
The functionality of such a gesture cannot target an improvement of the situation in L'Aquila because that again would suggest the taking into account of information disseminated by the work by a given public.
An artistic gesture in L'Aquila should integrate the the part of the city that was the most densly populated of the city. In this way, the work can take shape not in the sculptural, self-contained sense but within the materiality of the city itself. In being limited to the materiality of the city itself, the work can be detached from the amorphous societal structure of L'Aquila and avoid becoming "extraordinary".
Double photoelectric barriers will be installed at each of the 70 entrance points to the core zone of L'Aquila. This was the most densely populated area of the city before the 2009 earthquake. The frequency and the direction in which the infrared beams forming the barriers are interrupted will allow the number of by-passers entering and exiting the city to be counted. The number of people within the given zone will be accounted for at all times.
The photoelectric barriers will be installed at a height of 120 cm (approx. 4 ft.) off the ground to avoid counting wild animals (especially stray dogs, which are extremely numerous in the old city center). With similar logistical reasoning, the barriers will be installed at intervals of 150 cm (approx. 5 ft.) in order to distinguish between people moving in cars and pedestrians. A person on foot cannot span the same distance as a moving car and therefore he can only block one sensor at a time whereas a car can block two simultaneously. Since car circulation in the city center is nearly exclusively that of official vehicles (police or army) carrying two passengers, moving cars will be counted as including 2 people per car.
A display screen indicating the number of people present in the delimitated area in "real time" will be placed in the delimitated zone in the "Gazebo", a structure made of glass and wood that served as an annex to the "Dolce Vita" bakery. This building is located in front of the old Hotel Sole on the corner of a little square formed by the intersections of Pizzo Doca, San Crisante and Tre Maria streets. The display screen is to be situated on this particular building because of its transparent structure and its familiarity to the public. However the building will not add any symbolic layer to the project. Because the Gazebo is at a significant distance from Corso Vittorio Emanuele, the main street of the historic city center, its non-central location serves to diminish the importance of the installation.
Map showing gazebo location there the people counter would be installed
The "People Counter's" small size and location may thus be perfectly ignored. Furthermore, the display screen and photoelectric barriers the people counters/motion sensors only quantify a marginal aspect of the city. They do not intrinsically modify L'Aquila nor constitute any inherent potential of influencing the current situation there. And in referencing a purely "material" reality, the "People Counter" remains detached from the now shapeless society that surrounds it.
Nothing indicates the origins of the " People Counter". It is simply there, without any commentary. This is the only way in which it can avoid taking an "extraordinary" status. Because the information provided by the
"PeopleCounter" remains factual, the installation can slip, without resistance, into the non-system of l'Aquila.
2. Because of the decentralized location of the Gazebo, the "People Counter" can go completely unnoticed and unread. To read the screen, two choices are necessary. A decision to enter the delimited zone and leave the main streets to reach the site of the Gazebo must be made. Then another decision has to be made to stay for some time in front of the display screen, observing the changing numbers. If choice-making can be considered the basis for political action, then reaching the site of the "People Counter" and taking the time to watch the display represent decisions and actions that could result in the first embryonic step towards making political gestures in L'Aquila, creating the seeds of politics itself.
The "People Counter" is neither oriented towards the collectivity nor towards an individual. It simply records the presence of individuals within a given area. Yet, because of its location, each individual who takes the "People Counter" display into consideration automatically constitutes himself as a group member within the designated zone. Each individual who stops to watch the "People Counter" triggers – at least temporarily – the emergence of the nucleus of a society.


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Transitioning Loved Ones
The reality of moving a loved one from their longtime home is intimidating. Letting go of items one has gathered over a lifetime can be particularly difficult and overwhelming. Amy can ease the emotional stress of this transition. With compassion and encouragement she can help pack up the home, as well as assist with the move to an Assisted Living Facility.


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Our leaders answer questions submitted by students.
Listen to the entire Q&A here:
QUESTION 1 – How can you stand up in your faith if a lot of people at your school try to degrade you and push you down?
QUESTION 2 – I'm trying to go all for God but it's hard because my friends say they're Christians but never act like it. How do I keep my friends and still be fully for God?
QUESTION 3 – How can I be "different" as a Christian, but still relatable with non-Christians? A lot of Christians I know are out of touch with non-Christians, but Jesus was able to hang out and be relatable to everyone.
QUESTION 4 – What if we are wanting to date someone but they are not a Christian?
QUESTION 5 – What does it actually look like to be "different" as a Christian on social media?
QUESTION 6 – With so many religions, how can we know that Jesus is the only way to God? / How do you know you're following the right God when there are so many other options (Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, etc.)?
QUESTION 7 – How do you learn to love people and Jesus more? / What are some ways we can love others that don't love us?
QUESTION 8 – How can you forgive someone or try to apologize when all they do is talk about you and ignore you? / How do you forgive someone who doesn't love you?
QUESTION 9 – How do I get my friend to come to church?
QUESTION 10 – How do we study the Bible? Where do we start?
QUESTION 11 – How can you learn to be happy when people make you feel worthless?
QUESTION 12 – What is the best way to gather others to Christ without it feeling like you're trying to be against them?
QUESTION 13 – How can I speak the word of God towards my friends and show them God's love whenever they don't listen to me and call me a liar?
QUESTION 14 – How does one have such a strong conviction, so much that they'd be willing to change?
QUESTION 15 – My friend doesn't go to the same church as me, so how do I grow with them spiritually if I don't see them on Sundays and Wednesdays?


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In a reverse IMPACT interview, Russell Thomas took the place of interviewee and discussed the recent humanitarian trip he and his wife Heather took to Southeast Asia with Bracelets 4 Buildings.
Russell was first introduced to Bracelets 4 Buildings when one of the organizations co-founders, Kent, purchased a painting of his and made a generous contribution to Some Other Solutions. When the two connected, Kent said something that really resonated with Russell.
"I don't consider myself the owner of this painting, I consider myself the custodian of it," said Kent.
From there the two began a virtual relationship, which led Kent to invite Russell to consider joining him and his co-founder Lee in getting involved with Bracelets 4 Buildings. It was when Russell decided to move into semi-retirement from the United Way that he and his wife made the commitment to do a trip and to sponsor a home.
"We didn't really know how we were going to do that at that point, " said Russell. "But it all fell into place, and that was what took us there."
Bracelets 4 Buildings was created to build houses for families in Cambodia who are in desperate need of new accommodations.
"They do that in a particular way," said Russell. "First they go into small, small communities and they engage with either the village chief, or the commune chief, whoever the municipal leader is, and ask the question 'What are the families that are in most desperate need?' And they go through an interview process and eventually have to decide, based on the available resources, 'who are we going to build homes for this year?'."
Though the Bracelets 4 Buildings volunteers intervene when needed and assist in the building process, the bulk of the work is done by local workers. Two individuals who were recipients of new homes were on the labour crew themselves.
"We help a little", said Russell. " But really the purpose is to create local employment and local empowerment. That's what I observed."
During their time in Cambodia, Russell and his wife were able to witness five different families receive new homes and the impact that it made.
One of the individuals who was a recipient of a new home was a single mother of four children.
"She was living in what can best be described as a ramshackle shack," said Russell. " It was made of whatever materials they could find, it only had three walls- it was open to nature, and all five members of her family slept on this ram-shackle wood that was there."
Receiving a new home allowed this woman's life to change on a dime. Families also received a package of various items with their new house.
"A big part of this project was when a recipient got their house they also received a package of things with the house- rice, food, blankets, mats for the floor and various other things," said Russell.
Three of the families who received a new home and these items also received a painting of Russell's- done during his time in Cambodia.
One of the paintings was gifted to a family consisting of a hard working young man, his wife and their young children. The children of this family spent the day helping Russell paint an elephant, so this is the image that he gifted the family for their new house.
When asked by a translator why he hung the painting where he did, the man replied, "I want that to be the first thing people see when they come in my house." Pictures from:– TRUSTOPT
Russell said that although the poverty there is evident, the people he encountered had so much wealth in the form of spirit.
"The smiles that we received in those countries, you can't put a price on. Every single person that you smiled at, smiled back."
Russell said that he looks forward to returning to Cambodia in the future.
"I enjoy doing things that have continuity to them, I'm not a one off kind of person. So I'm really interested to return to that community that we fell in love with in Cambodia- and see how it's going with the families we connected with and hopefully impact more families."
For more information about Bracelets 4 Buildings head to www.bracelets4buildings.com.


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Hey friends!
My recent post about Marqeta & and the cesspool of deep discounts was reposted on the Marqeta blog.
Check it out:
From a Marqeta Mom: Marqeta Means More.
Hey friends!
My recent post about Marqeta & and the cesspool of deep discounts was reposted on the Marqeta blog.
Check it out:
From a Marqeta Mom: Marqeta Means More.
Filed under Family
I've been talking about saving money a lot lately on this blog. Well, a lot for me!
Discounts, deals, extreme couponing… I don't know if it's just the economy or a fad or a cultural shift or all of the above, but you can't shake a stick without hitting an offer for a deal or discount. I first became aware of it when Groupon hit Portland, I guess about two years ago. Brian had been getting their emails for a while, but we hadn't joined any deals. I was co-chairing the Beaux Arts Ball at the Portland Art Museum, and the week of the event we got a call from Groupon asking if we would put the event on Groupon. Tickets to this fundraiser were $125 each. Groupon wanted us to offer the tickets for $50, then they would keep $20 and the Museum would get $30. $30 a person would not even cover the cost of food & beverage at a party like that. I couldn't understand why they would think we wanted a hundred extra people at the event that would end up costing us money. At a fundraiser!
Since then, I've taken advantage of a few Groupons and Living Socials etc. But I always worry about the merchant. I want to ask them if they're getting screwed, and if getting all these extra people in their doors is really paying off in the end.
People seem to be addicted to these specials and deals, though. It's part of our culture now, and I'm not sure we realize the value of the services or goods we're purchasing. I'm all for saving a buck when I can, but feels like the opposite of a market bubble. A market cesspool? It can't last because it's not sustainable.
Along comes Marqeta, with a whole new model that works for both merchants and consumers.
Marqeta is like a multi-merchant rewards card. Think of as your Starbucks Gold Card, but for multiple merchants. You commit to spending a certain amount with various merchants, and they all give you more to spend. Some current offers in Portland:
Commit to spend $125 at Finnegan's Toys & Gifts, get an extra $25.
Commit to spend $50 at Pizza Smizza, get an extra $10.
And all of it is on one card! I used my card just like a debit card, and I didn't have to worry about keeping track of coupons or printing out a piece of paper. The Marqeta model is also good for merchants, because it's not costing them nearly as much to make these offers. Instead of discounting, they're just giving you more, and the fees they pay to get involved are much much lower than Groupon and friends. I really think this thing is going far, since it's much more sustainable in the long run than the reverse bubble/cesspool of deep deep discounts.
Here's the challenge for us as consumers: Marqeta is so new, that your favorite grocery store, boutique, jeweler, hardware store, pet store, etc, needs to hear from you that they should join the Marqeta merchants. Tell Marqeta what merchants they should be talking to. I keep hoping for Whole Foods and Trader Joe's!
Sign up for your card here. It's free and easy, and you don't have to assign a funding source until you're ready to take an offer. Then recommend merchants. Better yet, link up your favorite merchant on their Facebook page (so the store will see it, to!).
I'm curious to hear your thoughts about this reverse market bubble, and where you want to shop with Marqeta!
Happy shopping,
Disclosure: I am a Marqeta Mom Ambassador and am compensated for my time, but as always, all opinions are my own.
Filed under Home
We've been talking a lot about saving money lately, and my mother-in-law Judy even wrote a guest post about it. We are setting some easily-attainable goals for the kids, and encouraging them to earn money by helping around the house.
We have a few different piggy banks, a zebra bank, and a really awesome bank that my mother in law made for Anna when she was a baby. But I wanted a way for the kids to see how their pile of change was adding up, so I combined our love of
making a mess doing craft projects with our need for new money vessels.
What do you think? I'm really loving these jars. It seems more exciting to put the money in when the kids have decorated the jars themselves!
This post was underwritten by BMO Harris Bank, which offers a matching $25 on a new savings account opened for your child through their Helpful Steps for Parents program. Learn more at bmoharris.com/parents.
I am not a good saver of money. I have money, I want to spend it. It's terrible. For this reason, I have set up all kinds of automatic savings processes thereby eliminating my ability to spend my money before it goes in to savings. Some comes out of my paycheck into retirement savings, some automatically goes from checking account to savings. So how does a non-saver teach her children how to save?
Fortunately for me, my husband is much more fiscally frugal/wise/conservative than I am – so that helps.
But here's how we are helping our kids to understand the value of money:
• Piggy banks, everywhere • The kids have several piggy banks spread throughout the house. Whenever loose change shows up, we say, "Quick! Put it in the piggy bank!" Anna is saving up for our next trip to Disney World. I'm pretty sure Eric thinks his is going towards a robot.
• Make comparisons and prioritize • When we're out shopping and the kids ask for this or that, I ask them to read the price to me. We've even gone over to look at the prices of milk and fruit to compare. Getting through a grocery store with kids is hard enough, so I don't take this much time a lot, but it does help stop the constant refrain of, "Can we buy this?" If I'm letting them choose something to buy, we talk about the expense and how long each item might last. Anna in particular is really impressive in her ability to put off an instant gain (small toy now) for something better (Disney World) down the road.
• Counting games with coins • The kids are really in to counting things! We like to play counting games with change, and they're starting to get the monetary value of each one. Not that coins will be terribly important in the future – don't you worry sometimes that coins will go away? I'm not sure why I'm nostalgic about pennies, but I am.
• Let them pay for some things • Especially at the Farmers Market, where we are interacting directly with the producers. There is something powerful about exchanging dollars for honey with the person who produces the honey.
• Why do I go to work? • At least once a week, little Eric asks me, "Why do you have to go to work?" {my heart breaks every time!} I used to just say, "Because I have to!" But for the last several months, I've been answering, "So we have money for our house and for food and to go on trips!" We've had a couple of lengthier conversations about it, because I think it's good to normalize the concept that we need money to do the things we have to and want to do, and that we have to work to get that money.
• I never say we can't afford something • We are not poor. We are not rich, but we are not poor. We live in a wonderful house with the most amazing neighbors, in a city we love full of trees and access to nature. We have enough food and clothes. So no, we are not poor. If the kids want to buy something and I don't, I don't say, "We can't afford it." Instead, I say, "We're not choosing to spend our money on that right now." I just think it's good to manifest abundance instead of manifesting need or want!
So what do you do to help your children save and teach them the value of money? This non-saver could use some additional tips!
UPDATE: My mother-in-law wrote a guest post on this topic!
UPDATE: We made our own "piggy" banks
I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. To learn more about BMO Harris Bank, visit their website http://bmoharris.com/parents.


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Mitch Stephen Invites you to attend and learn to Be The Bank – The Art of Owner Financing
Your Host Mitch Stephen
Mitch is the author of the series MY LIFE & 1,000 HOUSES and his first book subtitled Failing Forward to Financial Freedom depicts his transition from disgruntled landlord to exhilarated Owner Financier with now over 1,500 acquisitions to his credit!
His second book is from the MY LIFE & 1,000 HOUSES series is subtitled
200+ Ways to Find Bargain Properties was released in response to the biggest question of the day; How do you find such great deals?
Mitch has inspired investors across the country and helped hundreds of aggravated landlords learn THE ART OF OWNER FINANCING where an investor can lose all those liabilities of being a landlord but keep the cash flow!
What's MITCH's motto?....
STOP BEING A LANDLORD... and BE THE BANK!
Mitch will share his inspiring story and talk with me about:
-Why Owner Financing is so powerful
-Landlording vs. Be the Bank
-Getting paid to create substantial, long-lasting cash flow
-Selling Notes without giving a discount
-Navigating the laws and regulations-Don't even worry about Dodd-Frank
-How to get paid 6 TIMES on every deal!
-How to do it all with OPM (other people's money)
-Why Private Lenders will love you!
- How today's Market is the best ever for Creative Owner Financing
Attend this with your notepads ready to take down amazing new ideas and tips.
Get registered today!


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Middle Grade Novels
Most of my novels are written for kids who are somewhere between third and eighth grades.
If you're a little - or a lot - older (or younger) than that, you have my permission to read them, too.
All Three Stooges - New Release!
Spoiler alert: This book is not about the Three Stooges. It's about Noah and Dash, two seventh graders who are best friends and comedy junkies. That is, they were best friends, until Dash's father died suddenly and Dash shut Noah out. Which Noah deserved, according to Noa, the girl who, annoyingly, shares both his name and his bar mitzvah day.
Now Noah's confusion, frustration, and determination to get through to Dash are threatening to destroy more than just their friendship. But what choice does he have? As Noah sees it, sometimes you need to risk losing everything, even your sense of humor, to prove that gone doesn't have to mean "gone for good."
Equal parts funny, honest, and deeply affecting, All Three Stooges is a book that will stay with readers long after the laughter subsides.
The Capybara Conspiracy
"Humorous and cleverly constructed, this deserves a 'hoof five.'" (Kirkus)
Seventh-grade playwright Olive Henry is frustrated by her sports-obsessed middle school. While the principal drones on and on during morning announcements about the sports teams' victories, all non-athletic club meetings are relegated to the school basement, never to be mentioned on the loudspeaker. So Olive and her best friend, Reynaldo, hatch a plan to kidnap the school's capybara mascot, planning to return it, heroically, just in time for the school's pep rally and claim a reward: permission for their drama club to practice in the auditorium. And, hopefully, some overdue respect for the school's non-athletes. But when an animal-rights student activist and an undercover athlete with murky motivations join in the conspiracy, their plans—along with Cappy the capybara—veer wildly out of Olive's control. Written in the form of a play, this book practically begs to be read aloud or staged (and provides extensive back matter to support those who decide to go for it!).
Aces Wild
- NPR Best Books of the Year list
- P.J. Our Way selection
Zelly Fried has finally convinced her parents to let her get a dog, with the help of her grandfather Ace. Unfortunately, said dog (also named Ace) is a shoe-chewing, mud-tracking, floor-peeing kind of dog. Despite Zelly's best efforts to drag Ace (literally!) to puppy kindergarten, his flunking report card says it all: "This Ace is wild."
Also wild is the other Ace in Zelly's life. Grandpa Ace has decided to begin dating again and is dining and dancing every night, against his doctor's orders. Determined to get both Aces under control, Zelly enlists the help of her two best friends, Allison and Jeremy (despite the fact that they don't quite see eye to eye). They need to come up with a plan, fast. But how? It's not like either Ace ever does what he's told. This is a companion book to When Life Gives You O.J. While it is possible to read one without reading the other, I highly recommend that you read them BOTH!
When Life Gives You O.J.
- Sydney Taylor Award Honor Book
- Amazon Best Book of the Month
- State Book Award lists: MN, FL, VA, MA, RI, VT
- P.J. Our Way selection
- *Starred Review, School Library Journal
For years, almost-eleven-year-old Zelly Fried has tried to convince her parents to let her have a dog. After all, practically everyone in Vermont owns a dog, and it sure could go a long way helping Zelly fit in since moving there from Brooklyn. But when her eccentric grandfather, Ace, hatches a ridiculous plan involving a "practice dog" named O.J., Zelly's not so sure how far she's willing to go to win a dog of her own. Is Ace's plan so-crazy-it-just-might-work… or just plain crazy?
Teens Read Too Gold Star Award Winner! (teensreadtoo.com)
(Please note that this is a YA novel, so it is best for kids 13 and up!)
Veronica Walsh is 15, fashion-minded, fat, and friendless. Her summer job in the Consignment Corner section (Employees Only!) of a vintage clothing store is a dream come true. There Veronica can spend her days separating the one-of-a-kind gem garments from the Dollar-a-Pound duds, without having to deal with people. But when two outrageous yet charismatic salesgirls befriend her and urge her to spy on and follow the mysterious and awkward stock boy Veronica has nicknamed the Nail, Veronica's summer takes a turn for the weird. Suddenly, what began as a prank turns into something else entirely. Which means Veronica may have to come out of hiding and follow something even riskier for the first time: her heart.


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Everton target Guillaume Hoarau is open to a summer move away from Paris Saint-Germain.
The Premier League side have recently been linked with the 28-year-old hit-man, who was once rated as one of the finest emerging talents in French football.
However, a lack of playing time has seen Hoarau's career stagnate in Paris, and he has revealed that a summer move away from the club is a genuine option:
"My contract expires in June and I want to play week in, week out," he is quoted by SkySports.
"There are teams interested in me so I will make my decision known very soon.
"For the moment I want to help PSG."
The Frenchman arrived at the Parc des Princes prior to their takeover by Qatari billionaire Nasser Al-Khelaifi.
With their new found wealth, PSG have drafted in a number of big name stars, such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, which has seen Hoarau's first-team chances dwindle.
His contract is set to expire at the end of the current campaign, and with a vast squad it appears unlikely that the Ligue 1 side will choose to extend his stay.
This has alerted Everton boss David Moyes, who is reportedly looking at cost-effective options to strengthen his front line.
Hoarau has made eight appearances at senior international level and is keen to secure regular football in a bid to force himself back into the squad.


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Benefit from a continuous delivery model.
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Through efficient automation we can help your business to realise many operational benefits. LiveWyer utilise the latest tools to support you in achieving a more automated, continuous delivery pipeline.
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The ability to react quickly to demands is a major advantage to any business. When you automate your processes, not only can you achieve faster times to market, but also your developers can respond more quickly to feedback.
At LiveWyer we can help your business to benefit from the efficiency of a more automated platform. Using tools such as Jenkins and Kubernetes we can empower your IT teams to drive positive change for your business.
If you want a more efficient and easily manageable continuous delivery solution, get in touch to find out how LiveWyer can help you achieve the most from your technology investment.Contact Us
+44 (0) 20 3608 0110


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Working with Black Iron Nutrition for the past year has completely changed my life for the better! Almost my entire life I had an extremely poor relationship with food. I remember being terrified of gaining weight and eating foods that I deemed "bad" or "unhealthy." I started off my fitness journey when I was 14 years old by joining my school cross country team; however, I was still very restrictive with food and with the number of calories I ate in a day. I quickly realized that the copious number of miles I was running everyday while severely under-eating was awful for my athletic performance and my overall health. I just could not ever reach the 5K times I wanted and on top of that I was very unhappy with my body. Truthfully, my body image was always horrible and never once growing up did I feel comfortable in my own body.
Fast forward to 2016 when I first began powerlifting and working with Black Iron Nutrition. As a full-time college student, life can get extremely exhausting and stressful. However, working with Ashley I've learned how to balance school, work, nutrition, and powerlifting. I've learned to be proud of my ability to successfully juggle so many aspects of life and to still prioritize my health (which I've never been able to do in the past!) I've also learned how to be gentler with myself and to appreciate my body for what it does physically; to be grateful and proud for new PR's. Most importantly, I now don't restrict food at all and I've also learned the true definition of balance. If I crave something I eat it and I incorporate all types of food into my diet!
In this past year, I've added over 100 pounds to both my squat and deadlift and I'm no longer afraid of gaining weight. In fact, all I want to do now is be bigger and stronger and I am currently eating more food than I ever have in my entire life! BIN has helped me do everything I've ever dreamed of doing as an athlete. I'm confident in my body and have a level of self-love that I never thought was possible!


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Follow This Company
Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) is engaged in the information technology (IT) and professional services industry. CSC offers an array of services to clients in the commercial and government markets. Its service offerings include IT and business process outsourcing, and IT and professional services. Outsourcing involves operating all or a portion of a customer's technology infrastructure, including systems analysis, applications development, network operations, desktop computing and data center management. IT and professional services include systems integration, consulting and other professional services. Consulting and professional services includes advising clients on the acquisition and utilization of IT and on business strategy, security, modeling, simulation, engineering, operations, change management and business process reengineering. In December 2008, the Company acquired Object Builder Software. In August 2009, the Company acquired BearingPoint's operation in Brazil.


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Tokyo Disneyland marks 35th anniversary
URAYASU, Japan (The Japan News/ANN) - Tokyo Disneyland marked its 35th anniversary on Sunday.
Rides and goods featuring Disney characters have attracted a wide range of popularity, with the number of accumulated visitors to the Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture-based theme park, as well as the adjacent Tokyo DisneySea, reaching 720 million. The number of foreign visitors has also been increasing recently, and it has been a challenge for Disneyland to ease congestion.
The park opened in April 1983, with the number of visitors reaching 10 million in fiscal 1984. The park added new attractions and shows one after another and annual visitors to the park, combined with DisneySea, marked a record high 31.37 million in fiscal 2014. In recent years, visitors from China and the Southeast Asia region have been rapidly increasing.
However, congestion has become severe and wait times of two hours to three hours have become the norm at popular attractions on holidays.
In 2000, the park introduced the Fastpass system in which a visitor is given a specific time for entry for some attractions, and has also started showing wait times on the internet. But congestion has still not eased.


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[Previous] | [Session 81] | [Next]
G.L. Pilbratt, T. Prusti, A.M. Heras, S. Leeks, A.P. Marston, R. Vavrek (Herschel Science Centre, European Space Agency)
The Herschel Space Observatory (formerly known as FIRST) is the fourth cornerstone mission in the European Space Agency (ESA)science programme. It will perform imaging photometry and spectroscopy in the far infrared and submillimetre part of the spectrum, covering approximately the 55-650 micron range.
Herschel will carry a 3.5 metre diameter passively cooled telescope. The science payload complement - two cameras/medium resolution spectrometers (PACS and SPIRE) and a very high resolution heterodyne spectrometer (HIFI) - will be housed in a superfluid helium cryostat. The ground segment will be jointly developed by the ESA, the three instrument teams, and NASA/IPAC.
The key science objectives emphasize current questions connected to the formation and evolution of galaxies and stars, however, having unique observing capabilities, Herschel will be a facility available to the entire astronomical community. Roughly two thirds of the observing time will be made available to the community through calls for proposals.
An overview of the Herschel spacecraft, instruments, scientific objectives and capabilities from the perspective of the prospective user of this major facility will be given. We also present the cradle to grave data flow from proposals to data products for the users of the Herschel.
If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://astro.esa.int/herschel. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser.
[Previous] | [Session 81] | [Next]
Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 #2
© YEAR. The American Astronomical Soceity.


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Featured content
The SaaS Transformation Playbook For 2019
Drive Greater Speed, Innovation, And Adoption With SaaS Transformation
Companies looking to maintain their competitive edge and execute on digital transformation strategies need modern, flexible business applications. Forrester's software-as-a-service (SaaS)...
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Report Forrester Infographic: Drive Digital Business Success By Applying Agile-Plus-ArchitectureJanuary 31, 2019 | Randy Heffner
Enterprises must rapidly adapt to keep pace with digital disruption. Delivering once isn't enough: An organization must be able to sustain and increase its rate of change over time. Agile...
Report From Land-And-Expand To Having A Plan: SaaS Implementation Practices For 2018
Implementation: The SaaS Transformation PlaybookAugust 9, 2018 | Liz Herbert, Randy Heffner
Software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based business applications promise fast time-to-deploy and an Agile, iterative approach for achieving business results. But try-and-buy, under-the-radar,...


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The Phantom Comic Rights - Dynamite's View
The news came out at WizardWorld: Chicago that Dynamite Entertainment had acquired the rights to The Phantom, and was planning a reboot of the character, with designs by Alex Ross. This new version would put the classic Lee Falk character back into the city with a refreshed story and look.
But then, the story got complicated. Moonstone's Joe Gentile told Newsarama that his company still held the rights to produce comics based on The Phantom, and discussed his company's future plans for the coming year.
So who has what, and how does it all work out?
We went back to Dynamite's Nick Barrucci for his take on Gentile's claims and what he's since learned from discussions with King Features about the comic book rights to the character, and what's going to be done.
Newsarama: Nick - there seems to be some confusion over who has what rights to the Phantom. You claimed that "the other publisher" (by which we assume you meant Moonstone) no longer held the rights to produce The Phantom comics, but then, Moonstone's Joe Gentile claimed that Moonstone did, in fact, still held the license. Can you clear up a little bit in regards to who holds what rights to the character?
Nick Barrucci: It's an unusual situation, we did obtain the rights to the Phantom and, at the time Joe had not re-upped for the Phantom, and my understanding when Joe made his announcement he had jumped the gun, as he had not signed the renewal form. I don't know why he would do that, but he did. From what I understand, he had asked for changes in his contract that he did not previously have, and it's not my place to state whether King Features granted them to Joe, but it seems Joe has jumped the gun on many of his claims. Joe made a situation, which could have been resolved amicably a bit uncomfortable for all parties. Though, I dare say, to King Features and Dynamite's credit, it's still being resolved amicably. He was emotional, unfair to King Features and to Dynamite, as I do believe there could have been a more professional way to handle it. Joe's a good guy, I like him. I wish it would have been handled differently. At this point it is what it is.
NRAMA: There was talk about King granting non-exclusive rights to the character to both you and Moonstone. Was that ever what happened, or would you enter into an agreement under such terms?
NB: We would not have entered into a non-exclusive rights agreement for the goals we have. Definitely not in the way that Joe has stated. All of our agreements protect us as the publisher of any license.
NRAMA: So what options are open to you and Moonstone here? For example, could you both publish Phantom comics at the same time?
NB: I don't feel comfortable publishing the Phantom while someone else is publishing the Phantom as a comic book. Joe is definitely marked his ability to do novels with spot illustrations, and I could forsee an option where he would do this similarly to where he is doing with Zorro. Although quite charmingly, Joe has been promoting Zorro as if he has the comic rights by not stating what he is publishing in his generic ads when he has no comic rights. He's a showman and I can respect the showman in him.
NRAMA: What's your relationship with Moonstone and Joe, if any?
NB: My relationship with Joe in my mind is fine. If Joe feels differently, he can let you know so. I met him for the first time last year at the Chicago Comic-Con, and we had lunch. I actually gave him the heads up that King Features was shopping around the Phantom license and Joe said to "leave it with him" as he wasn't even sure he was interested in re-upping. Which to me meant that when King Features did come around again that he had no interest. While we are not interested in stepping on anyone's toes, if he passed on the license as I understood it, I didn't see it being a big deal. Unfortunately, I guess it's the age old adage, you don't want something until you see someone else wants it. Life does happen like that sometimes.
NRAMA: So who's to blame for how things ended up this way? Just looking at this from the outside, it seems to be something where no one is going to come out as a winner...
NB: First off, there's no one to blame, not in the way I'm understanding the question. I also don't think that is necessarily the case, in that there are no winners. Things happen, and in the hundreds of deals that go down in a day - something like this to happen, as it's an oversight (a huge one, but an oversight still) and I think the way King Features is willing to handle it is very gracious on their part. They are definitely taking the high road. We are taking the high road and are working with them on taking the high road. How did things end up this way? I don't know for sure. We got the license, we were told Moonstone wasn't renewing their license/weren't getting it renewed. There were things that they didn't have and which Moonstone may have announced even though they don't have it. Who knows? We are working hard to make sure everyone is as much a winner as possible (or at least there are no losers). We announced it, Joe got defensive, decided to go off on a soapbox without knowing all the particulars or stating all the facts accurately. He made the situation worse, King Features and I wanted to make the situation better. I think you are going to be impressed with what we are going to do.
NRAMA: So how do you proceed from here?
NB: We proceed like this: I've already spoken to King Features, our license has been expanded for two years. We can start now or we can start when Moonstone's license is over in two years. More likely than not, we are going to wait for Moonstone's license to expire and spend the extra time to research and develop and have more issues in the can before we ship our first issue. We'll more likely than not start our license when Moonstone's is over. Joe will get to have an additional two years of fun putting out the comic and we have two more years to plan to do an even better job than we've already done. Everybody wins! Again, King Features took the high road, we encouraged them to take the high road as that's the road we prefer and we are joining them. While we don't come out ahead today, at the very least, we still feel good about the karma of having done the right thing.
NRAMA: By "back-burnering" the character for a little while...isn't that a risk, given that you have a revamp planned out, and, presumably, character designs from Alex Ross ready to go?
NB: Honestly, we're just being really nice about the whole situation. We have a signed contract, and Joe did not when he made his announcement. We'll look on the bright side and know that we have more time to put together a much better comic. I hate to say this and sound so self-serving, but we are just being nice guys about the situation. Our story is going to be timeless and it is going to be a re-invigoration of the character which will grow a greater audience. The audience that is there today will get to enjoy Moonstone's books for two more years; Joe is in a unique position where he can actually continue where he is at without skipping a beat. We are in a position to have more breathing room to develop our character. There's nothing else we could do unless we forced King Features to not sign the renewal when Joe does sign it and send it in. Whatever we give up is worth it to do the right thing.
NRAMA: What do you do until it's your turn at bat?
NB: We continue publishing some of our favorite books to the best of our ability, we develop this as much as possible. We "hone" our game.
NRAMA: You've made no secret that you like to refresh classic characters such as Red Sonja, the Lone Ranger, Zorro and others with one eye on making them attractive to creators in other media. Is that something you're looking at with The Phantom? If so, how does two years away from the table affect your plans?
NB: The two years away may affect our media plans with the Phantom, but that is ok. Red Sonja is the first project announced with Robert Rodriguez and Rose McGowan involved. We have other projects in various stages of development in Hollywood, some pretty close to being announced and others that will take a year before we can announce. We're very patient. We choose not to announce projects in Hollywood until they are far enough along that they feel real. We don't want to be the ones that cry wolf. If anything, we prefer to be the wolf.
NRAMA: Besides Alex Ross, can you say who else you have signed up to work on the Phantom?
NB: We can't and won't announce who the creative team would have been. They're very understanding of the process and we're moving them to other cool projects. When the time is right, and they can still be convinced to come back to the series, the world will know who the team was. And honestly, if they move on to other projects, what good would it do to announce them now. Some fans might get mad at Moonstone for having missed out on the potential creative team, and I would not want that to happen.
In the end, you have to live with it. I've explained it to my guys, and didn't want to talk about it till I had a chance to speak everyone who was creatively involved. Everyone is disappointed, but again, what can you do? I'm not going to enforce King Features to go after Moonstone just because they're a smaller company. Hopefully the creators we want involved will still be able to work on this in the next two years, but again, what can you do? It's the best thing we can do. We're going to grit our teeth and bear it.


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WonderCon Anaheim - Table AA3
Hello, howdy and hi! I'll be bringing a whole bunch of new prints to WonderCon Anaheim this weekend, April 18th-20th! Come out and see all the awesome artists hawking their goods, and then come say hello to me!
I'll be in the Artist Alley, standing behind a card table for 3 days, 8 hours a day. 24 hours in all, people! COME TALK TO ME!!!!!!
TABLE AA3 in the Artist Alley (AA). Here's a treasure map in case you need a visual.
Hope to see you there.


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The state Department of Education recently revised a key academic measure – the School Performance Profiles – of many schools in the state. The rankings for nine Penn Manor School schools did not change, but Manor Middle School's designation improved.
The middle school is now considered a "Reward (High Progress)" Title I school for closing the achievement gap among students in reading and math and improving overall standardized test scores in both subjects.
Manor Middle's numerical School Performance Profile rating – 87 points out of a possible 107 – did not change. The ratings for Penn Manor's nine other schools also were unchanged, averaging 89.5 points. According to the Department of Education, schools that score 70 or above are considered to be "moving toward success."
Here are the SPP scores for other Penn Manor schools:
- High school – 91.8 (ranked No. 5 of the 16 high schools in Lancaster County)
- Marticville MS – 86.1
- Central Manor ES – 81
- Conestoga ES – 89.1
- Eshleman ES – 84.2
- Hambright ES – 78
- Letort ES – 86.3
- Martic ES – 88.2
- Pequea ES – 86.9
Full reports on every public school in the state are available at http://paschoolperformance.org/


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Initial reports from states that have released premium data suggest that rates for many insurance plans are expected to increase significantly next year, much higher than prior increases in 2015 and 2016.
The Council for Affordable Health Coverage (CAHC) held a briefing on proposed 2017 health plan premiums on the ACA's insurance exchanges. The briefing provided background on insurance exchange rate filings, an explanation of why premiums are increasing, key factors to keep in mind when examining proposed premiums for next year, and recommended policy considerations to hold down premium rate increases.
- Brian Webb, Manager, Health Policy, National Association of Insurance Commissioners
- Rebecca Kirch, Executive Vice President for Healthcare Quality and Value, National Patient Advocate Foundation
- Christine Scullion, Director, Human Resources Policy, National Association of Manufacturers
- Joel White, President, Council for Affordable Health Coverage


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New Facebook page!
I decided this week to create a Facebook page for my business/blog. I have gotten tired of spamming my friends and family (and random acquaintances) with my blog promotion on my personal FB :/ I am hoping that people that like my page will genuinely be interested in my blog content and updates on my business!
If you would like to stay in the loop on my blog and business please do LIKE my page! I promise I won't spam you!


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An Ode to Nancy Cunard
Though ornate fabrics and intricate designs are trademark aesthetics of Indian-American designer Bibhu Mohapatra, the upcoming collection for spring/summer 2015 was a fusion of his aesthetics and inspiration from the life of Nancy Cunard, a 20th century heiress, muse and activist.
"…She was stylish, she was iconic, she wore leather and bangles, she wore bandannas, and was truly ahead of her time," Mohapatra said in an interview with FashionOne. "This collection is an ode to that woman. That edge, that courage she had."
Many of the pieces contained handwoven combinations of leather, lace and even silk. The color palette mostly ranges between black and white, but with the geometric tessellations and African prints, not even the most discerning eye will be bored with this collection.
Amit Abraham of L'Oréal Professionel, was the lead hairstylist for the show. Feeding off the leather-lace stitching used in the collection and the soft-focus flowers used on some of the dresses, Abraham arranged the models' hair in textured buns, with small spikes.
Gina Edwards of KISS Products, was the lead manicurist for the show. She chose the various prints as her inspiration, using white press-on nails with black interlocking lines. For added detail, four nails were painted white, while the thumbs were painted black.
Overall, the collection does a great job of being inspired by history, rather than simply replicating it. In Mohapatra's words, the clothes make the wearers "more of who they are, and not try to turn them into something else."


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Total protein in gingival crevicular fluid as indicators of periodontal disease activity: A clinico biochemical analysis
Arati C Koregol1, Shobha P More2, Savita C Koregol3, Nagaraj Kalburgi1
1 Department of Periodontics, PMNM Dental College and Hospital, Bagalkot, Karnataka, India2 Department of Periodontics, Sinhagad Dental College and Hospital, Pune, Maharastra, India3 Department of Periodontics, Al-ameen Medical College, Bijapur, Karnataka, India
Correspondence Address:Arati C KoregolMahesh Nilay, Near Muchakhandi Cross, Belgaum Road, Bagalkot - 587 101, Karnataka IndiaSource of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: NoneCheckDOI: 10.4103/2394-2002.148885
Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
Background: Gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) is regarded as a promising medium for detection of markers of periodontal disease activity. Very few investigators have examined concentration of total protein in GCF, but most results are not in agreement to one another. Aim: This study was undertaken to quantitatively estimate total protein concentration of GCF in gingivitis and periodontitis and to find reliability of these as diagnostic markers of disease activity. This will indicate the stage of disease activity, help in early diagnosis, prevention and treatment of periodontal diseases. Materials and Methods: Study included patients between 18 and 55 years, divided into two groups: Gingivitis (Group-I) and periodontitis (Group-II). Using volumetric micro capillary pipette 1 μl GCF was collected for quantitative analysis of total protein using spectrophotometry. Results: The concentration of total protein in GCF and their significant correlation with gingival index, pocket depth measurements, reflects the clinical status of gingival and periodontal tissues. Conclusions: Estimation of proteins may be used as potential diagnostic markers of active disease status in periodontal tissues and to predict effective methods of prevention and treatment.
Keywords: Biochemical markers, disease activity, gingival crevicular fluid, periodontitis, proteins