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Episode 21: Under the Dome
Hightower Back when I was a kid my parents would take me to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. This was back in the eighties - well before museums had all the hands-on exhibits and interactive play areas they do today.
Even so, it was an amazing place.
Hightower The museum had giant dinosaur bones and tanks full of slithering reptiles. It had dioramas of cavemen and exhibits about the human body. I'm sure visiting the museum of science and history as often as I did is part of the reason why I'm still interested in both science and history. It may also have been one of the reasons why I became an architect.
It's not that the building that housed the museum was anything all that noteworthy. But it contained inside of it a room that was truly magical.
I'm talking, of course, about the planetarium.
That's what we're going to talk about on this, the twenty-first episode of The Works; a podcast about the world we build around us.
I'm Brantley Hightower.
To get to the Charlie Mary Noble Planetarium you had to take this great spiraling ramp up to the top of the lobby. The planetarium was circular in plan with a great dome overhead. It sounded different in that space. It felt different, too. And of course, once the lights went down things really started to get interesting. More than anything I remember how crisp the stars were against the inky blackness. I remember sitting under the dome and seeing the constellations and the planets above me. I remember time being sped up those planets and stars whirling overhead.
When I had kids of my own I wanted to share this experience with them. And so when we were in Fort Worth a few months ago we made a special trip to see a show in the Noble Planetarium.
But the experience we had there was somewhat different from what I had remembered.
For one, it was a completely different planetarium. The one I went to as a child was demolished in 2009 when the museum underwent a massive renovation. The new planetarium was about the same size as the old one but it had an updated projection system that allowed more than just stars and planets to appear on the dome.
Specifically it allowed Elmo to appear.
Big Bird Hey, do you recognize that voice? Who is it?
Elmo Oh, hi everybody! Hi Big Bird! Oh, Elmo so happy to see all of you. Hi!
Hightower The particular presentation we saw was a half-hour show called "One World, One Sky". The girls enjoyed the imaginary trip from Sesame Street to the moon but I have to admit I was less convinced. It wasn't the Muppets that bothered me, but the quality of what was being projected onto the dome. The stars didn't seem to be as bright and the sky didn't seem to be as dark.
I know I sometimes remember things from childhood as being more impressive than they were and I wondered if that was the case here. Could planetarium technology have gotten worse over the past thirty years?
It was then I realized that I knew very little about planetariums or the history of their development.
Here's what I found out.
Since mankind first looked skyward he has sought to understand and explain the movements of the heavens above him. Despite the sophistication of early civilizations such as the ancient Greeks and the Anasazi of North America, it wouldn't be until well into the twentieth century that a truly functional planetarium came to be built.
Until then the best that could be done was to build a big hollow ball, poke some holes in it and climb inside. That's what they did in Chicago in 1913.
Doug There was a sphere – called the Atwood Sphere – that was a spherical piece of lead.
Hightower That's Doctor Doug Roberts. Back in the early 2000s he was an astronomer working at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. Although they have a modern planetarium facility they kept the century-old Atwood Sphere on display to show how far things had come.
The technology used by the sphere was remarkably simple:
Doug And they drilled holes at the appropriate places for stars such that when the sphere was put outside and you were the outside of building, you were on the inside of the sphere, you would see the sunlight coming through the holes where the stars were.
Hightower Of course the limitations of this approach are easy to imagine. You can only fit a small number of people inside the metal sphere and it could get pretty hot. While the sphere could be rotated to simulate the apparent movement of the stars, there was no real way to animate the independent movement of the planets.
It turns out the Atwood Sphere was the last of its kind. The following year a German optics company figured out a way to shine light through a series of clustered lenses to project stars onto a hemispheric dome. These lenses could be rotated as a unit to simulate the rotation of the earth.
Doug You could put effects of planets moving at different rates to the stars, and so you can kind of make that happen.
Hightower It was an incredibly accurate simulation of what it would be like to be sitting outside and looking up at the night sky. In a way it could be thought of as an early steam-punk virtual reality.
Because the instrument was mechanized and calibrated, time and space could be manipulated. You could see what the night sky would look like on that evening. You could see what it would have looked like in Jerusalem two thousand years ago or what it might look like in Toledo two thousand years in the future. It was truly a theater of space and time.
Early audiences marveled at the realism of the projected stars and planets. It was a form of public entertainment but it was based on a scientifically accurate replica of the night sky. It's worth noting that when the first public exhibitions of the system began in the 1920s and 30s, light pollution was already becoming an issue in larger cities. Streetlights and other means of artificial illumination were making the night sky less and less visible. The modern planetarium could restore what had been taken away by the modern electric light.
Early lens-based projection systems were pretty expensive and at first only the largest cities with the wealthiest philanthropists could afford to build them. New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles were first to build planetarium facilities in the United States. After the Second World War a simpler system was developed that used a perforated sphere instead of individual lenses to project stars onto a dome. These "star balls" were less expensive and so more institutions could afford to build a planetarium.
But the cause of the largest boom of planetarium construction came in 1957 when a new object began to make its way across the heavens.
(Sputnik beep)
Hightower The United States was supposed to be the economic and technological leader of the post-war world. It caught everyone off guard when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik One and beat us into space. Of course the big fear was if they could build a rocket to put a satellite into orbit the Soviets could also build a rocket to put a nuclear warhead anywhere they wanted.
Because the Soviets were doing better than us in space it was assumed they were also doing a better job of teaching their children science and math. This caused a major reassessment of public education in the United States. The federal government became involved and sought to strengthen science education through the National Defense Education Act of 1958. Seventy million dollars were allocated to public schools for "eligible science equipment for teacher demonstration". A planetarium was considered equipment for teacher demonstration and as a result planetaria began to be built in high schools and colleges across the country.
One of the schools that took advantage of this program was Richard King High School in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Peck My name is Laura Peck, and I'm the Director of the Robert Wollman Planetarium in Corpus Christi ISD.
Hightower Laura isn't originally from Corpus Christi. She's from Los Angeles where her first planetarium experience was at the Griffith Observatory – the same one featured in the James Dean film, Rebel Without a Cause.
James Dean (as Jim) You're tearing me apart!
Hightower The Griffith Observatory belonged to that first generation of planetaria located in major cities and funded by wealthy patrons. The planetarium Laura operates was part of the third generation: the one inspired by – and funded as a result of – the launch of Sputnik One.
Peck In the 1960s when King High School was being built the Federal Government was trying to promote math and space science careers for high school students, so they offered a grant called The National Defense of Education Act. The Corpus Christi ISD School Board at the time applied for this grant and it helped high schools that were currently under construction to build either a planetarium or an observatory.
Hightower In Corpus Christi they used the funds to build what is now called the Robert Wollman Planetarium.
Peck It seats 100 people. The chairs are original. They've been re-upholstered, but they are original to the Planetarium. I've been told the diameter of the dome is 33 feet.
Hightower The height is about 33 feet as well. Sitting in the middle of it all is the original GOTO Mercury Star Ball Projector.
And it is a beautiful piece of machinery. Mounted on two sets of spindly legs, the projector consists of two sky balls that throw the stars of the northern and southern hemisphere onto the dome above. Beyond these are a series of rotating disks for each of the planets and the moon.
When it comes to life the projector's various motors and gears make a fulfilling mechanical sound. But most people don't pay attention to the projector – they are far too busy taking in the night sky that appears above them.
Peck It's a great facility that we have. Our star projector, the star field, looks very realistic. The students even tell me the ones on the videos and the computer, you can tell it's a computer. But this one actually makes it look very similar to the night sky.
Hightower Even today an analog star ball projector like the one at King High School looks like a ray gun from a science fiction movie. I can only imagine how futuristic it looked to a high school student in the 1960s.
The control panel, however, is another story.
The plywood console consists of a series of metal dials and knobs. Laura removed the back panel to reveal the vintage rheostats, capacitors and transformers that still control the projector today. This technology looks like it's a half a century old – which of course it is.
Now maintaining a system like this can be a challenge. There aren't that many planetarium repairmen around anymore and locating parts for a fifty-year-old machine is challenging at best. That's why most planetaria that were built in the 50s and 60s replaced their aging analog projectors with digital projectors in the early 2000s.
That's exactly what happened at the planetarium in San Antonio.
Like the one in Corpus Christi, the original San Antonio College planetarium was paid for with a grant from the National Defense of Education Act. It opened in 1961 and made use of a analog Minolta Star Ball projector. In 2014 the planetarium was rebuilt and expanded to become the Scobee Education Center, a venue dedicated to educating students about space and space exploration.
Today the planetarium is run by Michelle Risse.
Michelle I am Michelle Risse, I am the planetarium coordinator here at the Scobee Education Center.
Hightower Michelle is also an astrophysicist, a subject she first became interested in when she went to a planetarium show as a kid.
Michelle Ever since I was a little girl, when I first saw my first planetarium show at the age of 10, I was just enamored… And after that, I went to my first star party and I got to see Saturn for the first time through a telescope and it was just like, "Wow, it really does have rings. And so I just kept wanting to know more and more and more and it just became an addiction and so that's where I am today.
Hightower And where she is today – or at least where we were sitting when we spoke to one another – was inside the dome of the Scobee Planetarium. Like the one in Corpus it seats about 100 people. But something here is missing.
There is no futuristic ray gun rising into the center of the space. There is no star ball. Instead a series of small, barely noticeable projectors sit along the base of the dome.
These digital projectors are the next step in the development of planetaria. Although they represent cutting-edge technology, the quality of these digital systems isn't as good as the older analog systems. The contrast is less and the resolution isn't as crisp. But the system is much more flexible. Digital technology allows anything to be projected onto the dome – including content produced by other institutions.
That's how I ended up in a planetarium with Elmo.
Michelle And we have two projector systems that produce a 4K resolution image up onto the dome using the latest technology of Digistar 5.
Hightower What is Digistar 5 you ask?
Michelle Digistar 5 is a planetarium program that allows people to be able to not only present full dome images from the best companies across the globe, but also to be able to produce their own material. And that's our next step is to be able to produce something from Scobee Education Center and be able to have it produced live across the globe.
Hightower Over the course of the twentieth century as our knowledge of the universe has grown planetaria have been able to tell less and less of what we actually know. An analog star ball Planetarium does a great job of showing what we can see from Earth, but we now know what the cosmos looks like from interplanetary space probes and physics-based computer models. One big advantage of digital projection systems is that they allow presentations to include this newer imagery.
Michelle The whole point of a planetarium, whether it's a simple little projector or a star ball or the latest and greatest in projector systems is to basically be able to show how amazing our cosmos is. How amazing our world is.
Hightower Planetaria came to occupy a curious place within the scientific community. Although they are precise instruments for disseminating scientific knowledge, they're of little value for scientific research. Or at least that has been the case in the past.
Remember Doctor Roberts from the beginning of the episode? He was at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago but now he's the Chief Technology Officer at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.
As a research astronomer Doctor Roberts is tasked with analyzing large data sets from sophisticated instruments such as radio telescopes. His job is to take that raw information and try to understand what it means and how it's all related. He found a tool already existed to help visualize all that data. He found he could use a planetarium.
Doug My motivation, because I came from the research astronomy side, was to use a planetarium as a visualization environment to look at datasets. You have to have the ability to do real-time content. In other words you have to have the ability to look at a 3D object or navigate through a 3d system in real time. I look at this data, I want to look at it from different angles, I want to swap in things, I want to expose or hide different layers - all those things require interactive systems.
Hightower A traditional analog planetarium was interactive in that the projectionist could illustrate a point by changing the view of the night sky. With a digital projection system anything could be illustrated. It's really just a large, fully immersive display system. It allows a preschooler to watch Elmo dance around the screen and it allows a researcher to visualize data from multiple points of view.
Doug A full hemispheric dome give you immersion. So it's easier to put yourself into a data set. It's easier to be not be so focused on an object. A lot of times when you're looking through a frame of a computer monitor you're thinking of objects andin a dome you're thinking about environment, about how things fit together as systems.
Hightower Looking at a three-dimensional map of a data set may not be as entertaining as watching Elmo on the moon, but it's no less important.
There's a beauty to learning about the universe while sitting under a star-filled dome. There's a beautiful symmetry in that the same dome that inspires a kid to want to become a scientist might someday be the same dome they use to discover something new about the cosmos.
The space under the dome is truly a magical place.
Thanks today to Laura Peck of the Robert Wollman Planetarium, Michelle Risse (Riss-E) of the Scobee Education Center and Doctor Doug Roberts of the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. Thanks also to Jordan Marché whose book, Theaters of Time and Space, provided much of the background information for this episode. Thanks also to my dad who helped me identify the components of the mid-century control panel at the Wollman Planetarium.
The music today was by -
Elmo Excuse me, Mr. Brantley. Elmo needs a thank you, too.
Hightower Oh. Of course. And a very special thanks to Elmo.
Elmo Ha, ha, ha! You're welcome, Mr. Brantley.
Hightower The music today was by Chris Zabriskie. The Works is a production of HiWorks and you can find more information about it and everything we've talked about today at Hi dot Works.
You may have noticed I've adopted a "whenever-I-feel-like" approach to episode release dates. Although this means I'm no longer producing a new episode every month, I'd like to think the quality of individual episodes will be greater. If nothing else this flexibility gives me more time to work on other projects and more time to spend with my kids.
Maybe I'll take them to the planetarium.
Elmo See you there!
Hightower Until next time, I'm Brantley Hightower.


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Originally published Thursday, July 18, 2013 at 6:37 AM
Traverse Idaho by bike on the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes
No time to bicycle across cross the country? Cross a state on this 72-mile paved trail across skinny, and scenic, Northern Idaho.
Special to The Seattle Times
If you go
Trail map available at Cataldo Mission and area bike shops; more resources at www.visitidaho.org or friendsofcdatrails.org
Where to stay
Primary towns are Plummer, Harrison, Kellogg and Wallace. Coeur d'Alene is less than 30 minutes from midsection trailheads, and St. Maries 20 minutes from the south end.
14 well-maintained pit toilets trailside. No potable water and few shops, so carry plenty of water and food. Bike shops in Harrison and Kellogg; carry a bike-repair kit.
Traveler's tip
Trail can be hot and windy. Carry sunscreen and mosquito repellent. September is a good time to ride, as weather cools and crowds thin.
PLUMMER, Idaho — For many cyclists, it takes about three months to go TransAmerica, biking across the continent. Got that kind of time? Me neither. How about a long weekend to traverse one state? That's doable, on the paved, off-road Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes.
The 72-mile rail-trail bisects Idaho's narrow, northern '"chimney" and takes you through stunning rural scenery, from lakes to mountains, and through a few small towns. Between them, you'll feel the pull of the changing landscape.
"I was going to turn around, but I just want to go farther," said Matthew, from Vancouver, Wash., as we cycled side by side for a bit on the asphalt path. The smooth trail, finished in 2001, seems to invite a longer trek.
You can begin riding from one of 19 trailheads, half of them right off Interstate 90 east of Coeur d'Alene. Riding either direction, you'll soon realize there's a distinct character to each section.
Wet west end
The western — and southern — third of the trail takes you through a watery landscape, pleasant in the arid Idaho summer. From Plummer, southeast of the big lake, it's a 5-mile wooded ride before bisecting the shore of Lake Chatcolet to the south and Lake Coeur d'Alene to the north.
Along the big lake is where most summer visitors access the trail. "It gets a little more crowded in summer, but not to the point where you're like, oh, man, I'm stuck behind these people," says Coeur d'Alene cyclist Amy Lawson, who trains on the trail.
Lake Coeur d'Alene laps at the trail's edge for a few miles to the inviting burg of Harrison, and then come the half-dozen Chain Lakes. With their adjacent marshy areas and the Coeur d'Alene River visible at almost every point, it's a verdant route where you'll see songbirds, waterfowl, deer, and even moose.
Valley views
Summer homes dot the big lake's south end, but the trail's middle section shows ranching life in a fertile valley. For settlers' history, take a 3.8-mile sidetrip to Old Mission State Park, a worthy detour at the Cataldo trailhead.
The imposing Mission of the Sacred Heart is Idaho's oldest building (built in the early 1850s). Behind its pilloried facade, a high ceiling and planked flooring are impressive, while painted ornamentation shows the fading of many decades.
The small museum at the visitor's center documents early interactions with settlers. The peak of a white wedding tent on the grounds mirrors the spires of teepees set by the cemetery below.
Rising east
Continuing east, you soon feel the transition to the trail's third distinct section. The hillsides close in as the river valley narrows, wooded peaks get closer, and your quads strain a bit with rising elevation. A gradual climb is felt from Kellogg east into the Silver Valley. You're entering mining country.
Home to the Silver Mountain ski area, Kellogg is the largest town on the trail. Ride through post-mining land restoration areas, cycle under the lines of the big gondola that takes skiers up from town, and then pass a working gold mine as you begin the climb.
Gold, you might say? In the Silver Valley? Yes, and those aren't the only metals stripped out of these hills.
"Up until the mid-1970s, silver and gold were just byproducts of the lead and zinc" that were being mined, says Chuck Carlson, assistant ranger with the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation, who tends most of the well-kept trail.
Flaming history
The vast forests of the Bitterroot and St. Joe mountain ranges hold some of the area's most storied history: They were largely consumed in a massive 1910 fire. Three million acres of forest land went up, towns were destroyed, and dozens of settlers and forest rangers lost their lives fighting it or trying to escape.
Charred stumps of massive trees burned a century ago are still visible as you head toward Wallace, the town most associated with the fire. Take a short hike on the Pulaski Tunnel Trail along Placer Creek, a half-mile south of Wallace, and see interpretive signs detailing the "Big Blowup."
Nearly flattened by the fire, Wallace today is a village with a historic, redbrick center, including some buildings that survived and many dating from its rebuilding. The scenic town is the most popular overnight spot for cyclists, and is just a few miles short of the trail's end, at Mullan.
Route options
Riding the 72 miles of the Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes could be a one-day outing for a fit cyclist but, as a long rural line with no easy loop option, tackling sections over a few days might be more satisfying.
Stay in Plummer or Harrison on the west end, then relocate to Kellogg or Wallace in the east. Or stay in Coeur d'Alene and drive out for day trips.
Or you could ride it like Art, from Bainbridge Island, another solo rider encountered on a late-May trip. He stayed the night in Wallace, left his car (with permission) at the inn, then cycled to Harrison for an overnight before heading back. In two days and nearly 160 miles, he would see the entire trail from both directions.
Cyclists who want to carry their bedroll and camp will find numerous public and private campgrounds.
"Go slow, so you can enjoy it," advises Kellogg cyclist Mike Heglund.
The long trail provides a few ways to go TransIdaho. Whichever route you choose, the stunning scenery and Old West history will more than satisfy the urge to see the country, without a life-interrupting trek.
Bill Thorness is author of "Biking Puget Sound: 50 Rides from Olympia to the San Juans" (The Mountaineers Books); email@example.com.

subset: commoncrawl


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The Anatomy Of The Chest
Most people think that to develop the upper chest you need to focus on the incline bench press. A recent study however shows that muscle activity of the upper pectoralis during an incline press increased by only 5% as compared to the flat bench press. Muscle activity in the front deltoids increased by 85%. 1
Muscle Activity Was Increased More In The Front Deltoids Than The Upper Chest.
The Reverse Grip Bench Press ///
The answer for increased muscle activity in the upper chest lies in the flat bench. Instead of a standard grip try using an underhand grip in an exercise called the reverse grip bench press. Be sure to use a wider than shoulder width grip. This will maximize the involvement of the upper chest and minimize the involvement of the triceps.
The reverse grip helps keep your elbows in and your upper arms parallel to your torso. Moving your arms in this manner increases the use of upper pec muscle fibers. The regular grip bench press uses more of the lower and middle pec muscle fibers. One study shows that muscle activity of the upper pectoralis increased by 30% when using the reverse grip as opposed to the regular overhand grip.2
Tips For The Reverse Grip Bench Press
- Use a spotter to un-rack the bar.
- If you're training by yourself, un-rack the bar with a normal grip. Then lower the bar to your chest and carefully change your grip to a reverse grip.
- Be sure to push the bar up in an arc above your head. This will ensure that you emphasize more of the upper pec.
Develop The Upper Chest
Watch The Video - 04:29
Reverse Triceps Bench Press3 sets of 8-12 reps
Barbell Bench Press - Medium Grip2 sets of 8-12 reps
Barbell Incline Bench Press - Medium Grip3 sets of 8-12 reps
Incline Dumbbell Flyes2 sets of 12-15 reps
Cable Crossover3 sets of 12-15 reps
Barbell Incline Bench Press - Medium Grip3 sets of 12-15 reps
- The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research
- Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, Toronto


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Outdoor and sports activities as well as silence and tranquility are combined with big city life or cultural highlights. Meeting the Himba people or admiring ancient San rock art are Namibia attractions which contribute to a wonderful overall experience of this country.
Etosha National ParkOne of Namibias most famous treasures, Etosha is a massive Park with a large, shimmering salt pan, 30 waterholes and springs and abundant game. Known for: Fantastic game viewing; birding after the rains; incredible landscape
Activities: Exceptional game viewing; photography; birding after the rains.
Kaokoveld and the NorthSurrounding Etosha, this area has great diversity, from wild frontiers and country in the south and west, to flat, green stretches in the far north which reach up to the great Kunene River.
Known for: Desert Elephant; wild country around Marienfluss Valley; Epupa Falls; Tsandi Royal Homestead; Hoba Meteorite near Grootfontein and Lake Otjikoto near Tsumeb
Activities: Extreme 4x4 trails; rafting and hiking at Epupa
DamaralandThis wilderness area falls in the region below Etosha through to Swakopmund and inland along the Skeleton Coast Park. The wildlife living here has to adapt to survive intense conditions.
Known for: Highly adaptive wildlife and plants; Spitzkoppe and Brandberg Massif; Bushmen Rock Engravings; Organ Pipes rock formations, ancient Petrified Forest all near Twyfelfontein; Erongo Mountain Caves
Activities: 4x4 trails; hiking and climbing; horse riding; caving; plant and game viewing
Caprivi StripTotally different from any other part of the country due to its high rainfall and rivers, including the Okavango, this narrow piece of land is lush, green and dense with swamps and waterways. Livingstone (Victoria Falls) and Chobe can be accessed from this strip.
Known for: Superb wildlife conservation area; Popa Falls
Activities: 4x4 adventures; big game viewing; boating, fishing, canoeing, kayaking; birding
Bushmanland and Kaudom Game Park
This area is in total contrast to the Caprivi located further north-east. Bush savannah and sparse water, giant Baobab trees, Kalahari sand roads and dry forest rich with game.
Known for: Bushmen (San); Nyae Nyae Pans; Game and African Wild Dogs; ancient Baobabs
Activities: 4x4 trails; game viewing; birding; learn the Bushmen way of life permission required from tourism services first
Windhoek and surroundsThe capital city is in a beautiful valley in the centre of the country, its modern and clean with German colonial architecture and a mix of cultures, there is plenty to do in and around the city.
Known for: City sights include Independence Avenue, Ink Palace, Supreme Court, Christ Church, The Old Fort, Heroes Acre, Botanical Gardens; Daan Viljoen Game Park; Gross Barmen and Rehoboth Hot Springs; Oanib Dam; Arnhem Cave; Observatory south of city.
Activities: Golf; city lifestyle; township tours; stargazing; freshwater angling; 4x4 trails; horse riding; hiking; birding; picnics
Waterberg Plateau and HererolandSlightly north and east of Windhoek, the Plateau rises up straight out of the earth with lush and unusual ground vegetation. In the south-east is Hereroland, home to many people following a traditional way of life unchanged over time.
Known for: Waterberg Park; ancient Rock engravings; military cemetery, Dinosaur prints; Herero traditional clothing and way of life.
Activities: Game viewing; hiking; 4x4 trails; birding
The Namib Desert and Atlantic Coast
The Skeleton CoastForbidding and beyond compare with a treacherous coastline, intense weather, endless sand dunes and surprising animal life, this coastal Park is littered with ruined ships and whale bones best seen from the air, it is also fascinating with a lot of history.
Known for: Ship graveyard; amazing animals and plants; desert landscapes, Cape Cross Seal Reserve.
Activities: Advanced 4x4 trails; fly in tours; fishing; hiking; photography.
Swakopmund and Walvis BaySwakopmund is a major holiday hotspot, an ideal base with very good amenities and facilities and just a scenic 30 minute drive away is Walvis Bay with its busy harbour and natural lagoon, another seaside haven, both places enjoy cooler coastal weather than the interior.
Known for: Swakopmund nightlife, attractive historical buildings, aquarium, excellent base for touring; Walvis Bay birdlife on the lagoon and Dune 7; Henties Bay.
Activities: Great drives and trails along the coast and inland; golf; sandskiing; paragliding; angling; horse and camel riding; 4x4 trails; Welwitschia Drive; hiking; birding.
Namib Naukluft ParkVisitors come from all over the world to see the spectacular landscapes of giant dunes, desert, mountains and gravel plains, also to learn about the fascinating animals and plants that inhabit such a remote place. The beauty is overwhelming here.
Known for: Intensely coloured dunes at Sossuvlei; Welwitschia Drive; Sandwich harbour; incredible diversity and rarity of animals that can survive in this area; desert flowers in the rainy season; Sesriem and Kuisib Canyons; NamibRand Reserve.
Activities: Fishing; advanced 4x4 trails; drives; hiking; ballooning; birding; photography
The South
Namaland and surroundsVisitors in this area can watch the Nama crafters at work or visit various sites and parks between the Kalahari and the Namib Naukluft Park, also impressive are the Tiras Mountains.
Known for: Rehoboth Hot Springs; Hardap Dam and Game Park; Brukkaros; Duwisib Castle; NamibRand Reserve; Sesriem and Kuiseb Canyons;
Sossusvlei Activities: Hiking; fishing; 4x4 trails; birding; incredible creature trails; game viewing; ballooning
Keetmanshoop to LuderitzRich with history and unusual sights, the road between them is one of the most beautiful scenic drives in Namibia, both towns have plenty to see and do offering worthwhile adventures close to the Fish River Canyon.
Known for: Keetmanshoop Museum; Quiver Tree Forest; Giants Playground; Naute Recreation Resort; wild horses of Garub in Aus; unique Luderitz Art Deco architecture and history; diamonds; great seafood; Kolmanskop ghost town; crystalised sand roses.
Activities: Explore Luderitz history and museum, waterfront, seafood and harbour cruises; scenic drives and walks; Kolmanskop tours; 4x4 trails; hiking; fishing
Fish River CanyonMillions of years old and with gorges that are 500 metres deep, the 2nd largest canyon in the world is a sight to see, twisting and turning, carved by the course of the seasonal Fish River and surrounded by a seemingly endless stony desert. Covering 100 miles from north to south it winds down to Ai-Ais Hot Springs.
Known for: Incredible record of the earths history; stunning views; challenging 5 day hike along the canyon floor; Ai-Ais Hot Springs.
Activities: Hiking; birding; canyon exploration; photography; hot springs
Ai-Ais Hot Springs and Richtersveld Transfrontierpark
Boiling up from deep underground, the sulphurous 60C (140F) water, is rich in minerals and excellent for rheumatism and other disorders, the spa has various pools (indoor and outdoor) and facilities, closed from November to February due to intense summer heat.
Known for: Hot Spring Therapeutic qualities; holiday resort; The Succulent Karoo and incredible halfmens and lithop plants; rainy season flowers; wildlife.
Activities: Spa and resort activities; Orange River canoeing; hiking; birding
Enquiries / Questions


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Project Archive
The CCA supports numerous arts-related events and projects each year.. Documentation from grant-supported projects completed and presented, artist award presentations, and CCA-initiated projects are archived, including exhibitions, performances, lectures, individual artist and department-generated projects, concerts, installations, and publications.
Listed below is a sample of projects supported by the CCA from 2001 to 2017.
Performance + Music
April 12, 2015
8pm, Anabel Taylor Chapel
Presented by the Cornell Ensemble and Guest Soprana Claire Raphaelson
They that sow in tears is a music- and text-based exploration of faith in the face of doubt during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). An intimate and immersive event, it combines the music of Heinrich Schütz (1585-1682) and his contemporaries with spoken prose and poetry and improvised organ meditations. Guest soprano Claire Raphaelson joins an ensemble of Cornell undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty featuring vocalists, viols, organ, harpsichord, and theorbo.
Related Links:
Claire Raphaelson
Anabel Taylor Chapel Baroque Organ
Matthew Hall
Cornell Institute for German Studies


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At Henderson Place Apartments you can enjoy the elegance and grace of urban living in your own space. Amazing natural light and the open floor plans allow you to bask in its warmth. We are nestled in the heart of downtown Atlanta. Henderson Place Apartments also offers spectacular facilities and lifestyle benefits. The location of your apt allows you to enjoy the local retail and restaurants, just minutes away from all of the urban conveniences.
"I love my new home. Henderson Place Apartments are simply amazing and you can't beat the location for the price!"Actual Resident
"I never dreamed my wife and I could afford to live in this neighborhood so close to every thing, in a space like this!"Actual Resident
"Amazing find! I feel so lucky to have found a place to live as cool as the Henderson Place Apartments." Love the new managers in the office. They are so helpful to me.Actual Resident


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Each week we are blessed to offer showers to any of the homeless in Redlands. Saturday mornings from 8:30 – 11:30 volunteers from the church and community provide support for about 30 men and women who need some help. On the first Saturday of each month a volunteer barber comes to cut hair for folks who come to the shower.
The duties include light cleanup and disinfectant after each shower, laundering towels, making coffee and stocking refreshments. We keep a monthly list of volunteers and we can always use more.


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The NFL Network continued its countdown of the league's Top 100 players Monday night, with Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle Geno Atkins coming in at No. 68.
Atkins led the Bengals last year with nine sacks, which were the most in the league among interior linemen. He also team highs in tackles for loss (13) and quarterback hits (26) and was voted to his fifth Pro Bowl.
He is the first Bengals player to appear on the list this year, with selections 59 through 1 still to come.
This is the fourth time Atkins has made the list. He was 29th last year, 48th in 2014 and 36th in 2013.
Five other Bengals made the list in 2016., led by wide receiver A.J. Green at No. 16.
The NFL Network will continue to unveil another 10 selections each Monday.


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MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING by VIKTOR E. FRANKL
About the author – Viktor E. Frankl was Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at the University of Vienna Medical School. He was the founder of what came to be called the Third Viennese school of Psychotherapy (after Freud's psychoanalysis and Adler's individual psychology) – the school of Logotherapy.
Born in 1905 he died at the age of ninety two in the year 1997. Logotheraphy is based on the belief that it is the striving to find a meaning in one's life that is the most powerful motivating force in our lives. When asked about the difference between psychoanalysis and logotheraphy, the author puts it a nutshell by saying that while in psychoanalysis the patient must tell you things which are at times very disagreeable to tell, in logotheraphy he must hear things which sometimes are very disagreeable to hear.
This a small yet powerful book for it details out the development of his theory through his own experiences of the holocaust during World War Two. Having himself survived Auschwitz and the other Nazi concentration camps he brings to the fore man's attitude to his existence, an existence restricted by external forces. In the author's own words –
"An active life serves the purpose of giving man the opportunity to realize values in creative life, while a passive life of enjoyment affords him the opportunity to obtain fulfillment in experiencing beauty, art, or nature. But there is also a purpose in that life which is almost barren of both creation and enjoyment and which admits of but one possibility of high moral behavior: namely, in man's attitude to his existence, an existence restricted by external forces."
The book is in two parts – Part one gives an autobiographical account of the author's experiences in the Nazi concentration camps, living every day in the uncertainty of whether he would see another day, watching fellow prisoners being taken away to the gas chambers and wondering when his turn would come, enduring the sufferings heaped upon all the prisoners. It is about how everyday life in a concentration camp is reflected in the mind of an average prisoner. He talks about the sacrifices, the crucifixion and the deaths of the great army of unknown and unrecorded victims. As you read you are able to visualize the horrors of the Holocaust in graphic detail.
It is in the midst of all this brutality heaped by man upon man and the suffering that never seemed to end that the prisoner lives what is called a provisional existence for the prison term was not only uncertain but unlimited. Not being able to aim at an ultimate goal in life he ceases living for the future. The person who had lost faith in the future was doomed. The author quotes Nietsche "He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how".
But it is easy for the author to say that it did not really matter what we expect from life, but rather what life expects from us. One gets the feeling that throughout the book the author speaks in the language of a psychotheraphist and which is of course true. But if one puts himself in the position of the average prisoner who has reached the end of his tether I think the 'why' and 'how' would have ceased to have any meaning. I quote the author's words when he talks about the meaning of life –
"the meaning of life, differs from man to man, and from moment to moment. It is impossible to define the meaning of life in a general way. Questions about the meaning of life can never be answered by sweeping statements 'Life' does not mean something vague but something very real and concrete, just as life's task are also very real and concrete. They form man's destiny and which is unique for each individual. No man and no destiny can be compared with any other man or any other destiny"
That is true, but it is when he says that when man finds it his destiny to suffer he will have to accept his suffering as his task, his single and unique task that we may ask is it really possible to expect that. It is here that the author does sound like a preacher. How many are really prepared to carry the cross.
Being a psychologist the author also touches upon the psychological make-up of the camp guards. Part one is intense in its descriptions and analysis of the inmates and their life in the various concentration camps. Being told by an inmate and a psychologist at that, it makes powerful reading. It also lays the ground work for the author's exposition of his theory of Logotheraphy and its practice.
Part two – Logotheraphy in a nutshell.
This part is divided into several sections where author discusses the neuroses that arises from existential problems and the dynamics involved, the understanding of which is simplified by anecdotal references. But it is the sections on The Will to Meaning, Existential Frustration, The Existential Vacuum, and The Essence of Existence that I found of particular interest. I will try to summarize these sections below for they are reflections of Existentialism –
Man's search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life and not a secondary realization of instinctual drives. His will to meaning can be frustrated. This existential frustration can result in neuroses. Here the author says that the term 'existential may be used in three ways 1) Existence itself, the specifically human mode of being 2) the meaning of existence; and 3) the striving to find a concrete meaning in personal existence, that is to say the will to meaning.
Quoting the author the existential vacuum is a widespread phenomenon of the twentieth century – "No instinct tells him what he has to do, and no tradition tells him what he ought to do; sometimes he does not even know what he wishes to do. Instead he either wishes to do what other people do (conformism) or he does what other people wish him to do (totalitarianism)."
The book first published in 1959 has undergone many reprints and translations in various languages and has been labeled as one of the outstanding classics to emerge from the Holocaust. It is also called a remarkable tribute to hope and offers us an avenue to find greater meaning and purpose in life.
This perhaps is one of the books I would place on my shelf of the great books I have had the opportunity to go through.


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Luxury Rose Gold Beads & Leather Statement Bracelets
Style: Trendy
Fine or Fashion: Fashion
Shape\pattern: Round
Clasp Type: Magnet
Material: Leather,Stone,Crystal,Pearl
Style: Trendy Classic Formal
Size: One Size
Colors: See picture in details
1. Do you ship to my country?
We ship to United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.
2. How much is the shipping cost?
Shipping cost varies and will be calculated at check out. It is usually at minimal cost as we do not offer expeditious shipping at high rates. All orders receive free shipping once the total is over $25!
3. How long will it take to receive my order?
Average transit Times to the United States: 7 - 15 Business days
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There are circumstances that are out of our control (natural disasters, holidays, weather, etc.) that may cause shipping postponements. While most packages will arrive on time, there may be circumstances and delays that our carriers may experience. For this reason, we do not guarantee the exact delivery time; the delivery issue is the responsibility of the shipping company.
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One of the many great things about Photoshop World is the opportunity to learn something around every corner. While pre-conference workshops were in session this afternoon, other vendors hosted free workshops and classes. One such vendor was Squarespace, a company that makes it super easy to host and build a website for us non-developers - which is a major reason I use them currently to host my own site. They held two workshops: one for starting a website, and a more in depth class to delve a little deeper into tweaking sites. I chose to take the latter class, which was really great. I was able to learn more about utilizing Squarespace to make my site a better user experience for myself and my visitors. I look forward to utilizing the tools that I learned this afternoon.
I loved sitting in a classroom of other users, and uncovering a nugget that made all of us say, "Ah ha!".
Thank you to Squarespace for offering this class and for providing free transportation from the Mandalay Bay!
The Expo Hall at PSW is also a great place for free classes. If you didn't get a conference pass this year, you can get a free expo pass for Thursday and Friday and still learn something from vendors that host demos.


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Top tactical Christmas gifts
If you know somebody who lives and breaths tactical, we're here to the rescue! We've put together a list of the coolest tactical gift ideas, all of which are guaranteed to provide years of high functionality. Give the traditional perfume or watch present a break this year and get your loved ones something that would really make them go wild with excitement!
These gifts are compiled to cover a wide range of prices, but are sure to fit under any tree.
1. All hunters love a high-performance riflescope. If you've been looking for one, check out the ATN – MARS 4X Night Vision Rifle Scope 2nd Gen. It features only the purest grade of heavy glass and computer-aided optical designs to create high-speed, multi-element, multi-coated lenses for ultra-fast light transmission and resolution beyond anything you've imagined.
2. Good things come to those who hunt and Christmas is the perfect time to make those things come true. Surprise the hunter in your family with a high-tech night vision monocular: the ARMASIGHT – Spark Multi-Purpose Night Vision Monocular Gen Core. Instead of glass, CORE tubes use a specially formulated ceramic compound fused with metal alloys similar to those used in the production of Gen 2 and Gen 3 image intensifier tubes. The result is superior night vision image clarity. It features a design that reduces the risk of temporary night blindness, which is caused by letting your eyes adjust to the brighter display of your device, by keeping one eye exposed to the night while the other looks through the monocular. The Armasight Spark is the ideal night vision device for the outdoorsman who demands more resolution, image clarity, and durability than standard Gen 1 can offer.
3. Gun guys and gals of all stripes are always looking for the next must-have item. If you have a tactical-minded family member with a pair of binoculars on their wish list, don't waste precious time. We bet he or she would love the NIGHT OWL – NEXGEN 5 – NIGHT VISION BINOCULARS – 1ST GEN. Employing the latest generation of optics technology, this unit is great for camping, hiking, wildlife, hunting, and security.
4. No matter the game or the hunting method used, the titanium Yukon Night Vision Rifle-Scope is a varmint hunter's best friend and a varmint's worst nightmare. Equipped with a powerful 50mm lens to provide higher resolution and light gathering capabilities, this device ensures that every hunter has the power to light 'em up, lock 'em in and shoot 'em down.
5. This is your chance to surprise someone really special. What could be more impressive than a thermal system? Thermal night vision is la crème de la crème, exposing targets in all kinds of weather and hostile environments. The Pathfinder from Flir is a night vision powerhouse device, designed for the watchful hunters and comes with the unrivaled excellence that only FLIR's high resolution thermal cores can deliver.
6. The outdoor enthusiast also needs a stable viewing system that can be used without the hassle of setting up a large, cumbersome tripod. The Yukon Optics Universal Tripod Kit is ideal for prolonged viewing and it will transform your optics into a unique, high definition experience.
7. For those passionate hunters who can't be stopped either by wind, rain, freezing temperatures or even floods, Nightvisionplanet brings you the Armasight – NYX-14 Multi-Purpose Night Vision Monocular Gen 2+, built with the highest grade multi-coated all-glass optics and with high-tech, reliable electronics, a surefire night vision solution that leaves nothing unidentified.
8. "I want to bag the big one!". Does that sound familiar to you? Then surely you've got an agile hunter around waiting to gear up with the Night Optics USA – D-300 Night Vision Mono-Goggle – Gen 3. Great versatility, extraordinary features and affordability make the D-300 the best value night vision device for those who want to turn each and every hunt into a roaring success.
9. The Armasight – CO-LR Night Vision Long Range Clip-On System Gen 2+ is a priceless addition to any enthusiast's tactical arsenal. This night vision clip-on is designed to make long range night shooting just as easy and accurate as shooting over the same terrain during daylight hours with your day scope alone.
10. If you're feeling very generous and inspired, don't miss the Pulsar Thermal Imaging Scope Quantum. The device is engineered with germanium glass, allowing for maximum thermal observation capabilities. You'll have a clear shot at everything moving up to nearly 500 yards away.
This is what our perfect wishlist looks like. Is anything inspiring you? If you have different devices to suggest or would like to tell us what your favourite item is, we're happy to improve the list. Cheers!
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Gardenias are wonderful and exotic plants grown for their rich fragrance and glossy, evergreen foliage. Kleim's Hardy Gardenia is the hardiest of them all, growing well even in the relatively cold areas of zone 7, with temperatures all the way down to 0o Fahrenheit. It has pure-white flowers 2 inches across, with thick petals and yellow stamens showing in the center. It has the same rich fragrance that makes gardenias so popular wherever they can be grown.
It grows into a small shrub 2 to 3 feet tall, and rounded, growing 2 to 3 feet across. This makes it ideal for a smaller garden, or for growing in pots, when it can be moved around the garden to enjoy its perfume everywhere. You can even make a low hedge with this plant. To keep it flowering, only prune in early spring, just when the weather begins to warm. Flowers are produced continuously from June to October, so throughout the 'outdoor' months you will have this beautiful plant in flower. Even when not flowering, Kleim's Hardy Gardenia is beautiful, with its glossy, rich-green evergreen foliage giving structure and permanence to your shrub arrangements.
Growing Kleim's Hardy Gardenias
Although sometimes thought difficult, gardenias are actually easy to grow if you create the right conditions and follow a few simple rules. Choose a sheltered spot, away from wind, in a partially shaded location. The ideal spot has morning sun and afternoon shade, especially during the hottest months, so choose the location with care. Gardenias like an acid soil (pH below 6.0), so test you soil and add plenty of lime-free organic material when preparing the planting spot. Well-rotted pine-bark is ideal, but other composts are also suitable. Even if you find your soil is not acidic enough, you can still grow Kleim's Hardy Gardenia by using a special fertilizer called chelated iron, which you water onto your plant and soil in spring and again in late summer. This will keep the leaves a rich, dark green, and your plant strong, healthy and flowering well.
Alternatively, plant your gardenia in a container, using potting soil for acid-loving plants. Gardenias make great pot plants, and a plant in a container is also easy to move around to get the correct amount of sun exposure. In a pot, it can also be brought inside when the temperatures are too low, even if you only have an unheated porch for shelter.
Care and Maintenance
Mulch Kleim's Hardy Gardenia in spring with pine bark, compost or peat-moss and keep it well-watered. Gardenias like plenty of water, so never let the soil become dry around your plant. Water whenever the soil begins to dry on the surface, but don't water your plant so much that it is constantly in wet soil. Use a fertilizer for acid-loving plants, applied in early spring and again 6 weeks later, or use a liquid gardenia fertilizer according to the directions. Do not fertilize in late summer or fall, as new growth will be more susceptible to frost.
Once that delicious perfume wafts across your garden from your gardenia bush, this little bit of work will seem like nothing. Kleim's Hardy Gardenia is a wonderful plant and we regularly receive new stock to ship the best plants to our customers. Because if its unique hardiness, the demand for this wonderful plant is high, so order now or you could easily be disappointed later.
History and Origins of the Kleim's Hardy Gardenia
Gardenias have been a part of Southern gardens for over 250 years, when plants were brought to Charleston, South Carolina from their natural home in China. Their name is American too, because the botanist John Ellis had the plant named after his friend and fellow naturalist Dr. Alexander Garden, who had a medical practice in Charleston and grew the plant as early as 1761. The gardenia (gardenia jasminoides), is also called the Cape Jasmine, and it grows wild from India into Vietnam and southern China, as well as in Japan. The Chinese people have grown these plants for a thousand years, to enjoy their fragrance and beauty.
However, these plants are usually only hardy to zone 8, so if you live in colder areas you cannot have their delicious fragrance wafting across your garden. Now there is an answer for those who live as far north as Virginia and Delaware, with Kleim's Hardy Gardenia. This plant was discovered by Don Kleim of the Henderson Experimental Garden in California. He introduced it specifically for colder areas, and it is a real favorite with gardenia lovers in colder parts of the country. Even if your garden is too cold in winter for this variety, you can grow it in a container and bring it into a porch or cold room during the coldest weather, and grow it outdoors for the rest of the year.
Kleim's Hardy Gardenia is a special selection of the ordinary gardenia, so it must be propagated in the correct way to preserve its hardiness. Our bushes are grown from branch cuttings taken directly from correctly-identified plants. Each one is always identical to the original. These take longer to produce, and cheaper gardenias will only be a disappointment, as they will not be this very special variety.


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Sunday, September 03, 2006
I am going to make some bread tomorrow, the question is, which kind shall I make? It is a question I think I have the answer to, however, when I am unsure, I do have a way to get myself thinking about what kind of loaf to make. What is my strategy for getting myself motivated? What do I do to get my baking mind churning? I make a Biga. "A Biga?" you say? "Barmy Baker, please do tell us what a biga is."
Biga is Italian for pretty much any sort of pre-fermented dough that will be added to a finished bread dough. Why do we make bigas? While the biga is fermenting at room temperature and retarding in the refrigerator it is forming more flavor which makes for a fuller, more rounded flavor in your end product. They are simple to make, and usually will keep in the fridge for up to three days before the yeast dies out. It's quite handy. If you know you want to make a bread on the weekend, you can quickly mix up a biga on Wednesday or Thursday night, and let it chill in the refrigerator for a bit before you commit to what you are going to bake. How do we make a Biga? Well..let me tell you.
The following is a firm sort of a pre-ferment. This one does make use of commercial instant yeast, while some others use natural yeast that is found all around us (this is for another blog and another time). The other type of biga that I like to work with is the one I make for ciabatta (again, another post, another time) which has a far greater amount of water, meaning much higher hydration and yeilding a much looser dough. And now, on with the Biga!
should make about 1 pound 2 ounces (18 ounces)
2 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour or 11.25 ounces
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons to 1 cup water, at room temperature (I leaned more towards 1 cup, as my dough seemed a bit too stiff for my liking)
-Mix flour and yeast together in a medium sized bowl.
-Stir in water (you can do this with your hands or a spoon. I prefer my hands)
-Mix until a slightly sticky dough is formed and turn out onto a lightly floured surface (cutting board, whatever works for you). Knead for about 4 to 6 minutes adding flour if necessary. You want a somewhat tacky and somewhat smooth ball of dough when you are finished.
-Spray (with pan spray) or oil (I used olive oil) a bowl that is large enough to allow the dough to double in size. Turn the ball of dough in the oil to lightly coat it. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel, and let sit out at room temperature for about 2 hours, or until doubled in size. Cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let the dough have a nice restful slumber in the refrigerator overnight or up to three days.
-You will want to pull the Biga from the refrigerator at least an hour before adding it to a bread dough in order to remove the chill from it and wake up the sleeping yeast.
So, what will it be tomorrow? I'm really leaning towards a Potato Rosemary Bread. I've made Rosemary Bread before..but never combined with potatoes in it. I'll let you know after it's all made :)
Have a great night/morning/afternoon wherever you are!
Posted by Jen the Bread Freak at 10:06 PM
Labels: Beautiful Bread
5 comments:
- cakebaker_cakemaker said...
I have been itching to try my hand at making bread but have never had a clear picture about how to start.I like the idea of the biga so I might have a try at following your directions because they look very clear and hopefully I won't have a disaster on my hands.
- Jen the bread freak said...
I'm always happy to answer any questions that may come up as you try your hand at making bread :). Good luck to you on your bread adventure!
- cakebaker_cakemaker said...
Thanks for your offer of help, I might need some:):)
- cakebaker_cakemaker said...
Thanks for your offer of help, I might need some:):)
- Jen the bread freak said...
You're most welcome! :D
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... To drink, or not to drink ??
|Have you ever heard of A1 and A2 milk ??
Did you know that all cow's milk is not the same ??
|Almost all of the milk sold in the United States is
type A1.
|The author suggests that what is at stake is more
than simply the challenge to the dairy industry.
More relevant is your and my health, and that of
our children, and of generations to come. And
what about the increasing millions who suffer and
will suffer from diabetes, heart disease, and
neurological disorders.
|The final part of the treatise is then an overview of
the implications and responsibilities,
and a call for action.


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Long live the Queen! And long live Michelle!
Their brief encounter stunned Buckingham Palace and the royal watchers of Great Britain. It stunned many Americans too. It was the hug seen around the world.
It happened at a reception in the throne room in Buckingham Palace. An official group picture had been taken of the national leaders at the G20 summit. As the leaders started filing out, Queen Elizabeth and Michelle Obama began to chat. Spontaneously, the Queen put her gloved hand on the small of Mrs. Obama's back. And the American first lady put her arm around the Queen's shoulders. Then, according to eyewitnesses, the two looked down at their feet and appeared to be discussing their shoes. They dropped their arms a few seconds later. The entire exchange took just seconds -- but it caused a small uproar in the British tabloid press.
According to royal protocol, you don't touch the Queen. You can not begin eating before she does. And you are never allowed to hug or kiss her. But, horrors, to put an arm over her shoulders -- that's clearly not done. Yet Michelle Obama did it -- and the Queen obviously was not repelled. She seemed to enjoy it.
The Obamas were elected promising change for America. In this small respect clearly, they may have brought change to Britain, too. Although some fuddy duddies saw what happened as a terrible breach of time-honored protocol, other Britons did not. The Times criticized the critics: "They missed the real story. What was far more interesting was that the Queen put her arm around the First Lady ... Now the Queen is not just putting up with physical gestures of affection from a woman she has only just met, but is reciprocating with one of her own."
As the big meeting was ending, President Obama performed impressively, fielding questions from a large assemblage of reporters from all over the world. He handled the gathering with a blend of seriousness and humor. Yet his wife was most impressive too. She handled the Queen, after all, like a pro. The Obamas are quite a team. No doubt about it; they conquered London. It was a remarkable debut for the young couple from America.
Indeed, it evoked memories of another young couple who dazzled America and the world a half century ago. Those of us who were there saw a handsome young president, Jack Kennedy, and his stunning wife, Jackie, take the United States and the world by storm.
Today, one man e-mailed that he was glad to see "the queen is loosening up and becoming a little less reserved around these amazing people." Another email: "It's actually impressive in a way ... the queen hugging a black woman from the south side of Chicago, wife to the most important man in the world. Michelle did what came natural and that is why we love her so much."
As Americans we can be proud of the way the Obamas met the challenge of meeting world leaders. It was a good beginning. Their people skills should serve our nation well.


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Create a beautiful formal style in your dining area with this contemporary parsons side chair. The high contoured backrest and padded seat combine for smooth, luxurious comfort during meals. Available in a deep red or dark brown leather-like upholstery to mix and match as you please. Pair with the matching round dining table for the complete set.
The Hartford Contemporary Leather-Like Parsons Chair by Steve Silver at Northeast Factory Direct in the Cleveland, Eastlake, Westlake, Mentor, Medina, Macedonia, Ohio area. Product availability may vary. Contact us for the most current availability on this product.
The stylish Hartford dining collection offers a luxurious, contemporary set in three sizes to make finding the perfect sized set for your home a cinch. The sleek round tables in small, medium, large, and counter height are finished in a rich dark brown hue for a sophisticated feel. Frosted glass lazy susans are included with select tables to create the perfect display space for dishware or home decor. The dark luscious red and brown parsons side chairs feature padded, contoured seats for ultimate comfort. Choose the perfect dining set for your home today with the contemporary Hartford collection.
The Hartford collection is a great option if you are looking for Contemporary furniture in the Cleveland, Eastlake, Westlake, Mentor, Medina, Macedonia, Ohio area.
These images are representative of this group as a whole and may differ from this item.
Browse other items in the Hartford collection from Northeast Factory Direct in the Cleveland, Eastlake, Westlake, Mentor, Medina, Macedonia, Ohio area.
This item has been tagged as: Dining Chair, Dining Room Chairs, Arm Chair, Dining Arm Chair, Side Chair, Dining Side Chair, Dining Room Set, Dining Table and Chair Set, Kitchen Chair, Kitchen Dining Chair, Dining Room Furniture
Nothing on this page may be copied or reproduced without explicit permission.


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Proton Paperie & Press has a new home! I've finally moved into a dedicated studio space on Merritt Island (after we moved into our tiny house in it's new location just down the road). While I'm still serving the entire Space Coast, this location makes it easier for my clients in Orlando to come meet with me as well!
It's got a beautiful view of lake with hundreds of nesting birds -- blue herons, pelicans, egrets, and more.
I've decorated it in my favorite color (yep, that's purple), added plenty of sparkle, and put up tons of inspirational artwork. Some of the pieces are my own, some are from friends and family, and some are from my favorite artists and designers.
If you'd like to discuss a project idea, or you just want to see my work space, I'd be happy for you to come by! I don't keep regular hours, but my schedule is usually quite flexible -- just get in contact with me, and we'll set something up. And yes, I'm happy to meet with you on weekends or evenings.
The address is 625 E. Merritt Avenue, Suite G, Merritt Island, FL 32953 (in the building behind Lubrication Specialist). Looking forward to your visit!


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desynched room / looking forward and looking back
This sonic intervention is embedded in a spatial arrangement that is directly targeting the phenomenal experience of presentness by providing a strong audio-visual asynchrony - a separation of seeing and hearing in space and time - in an actual (non-representational) social situation.
The arrangement consists of a specially prepared soundproof space which is divided into two acoustically decoupled subspaces, only separated by a large window. Although the visual transparency is completely maintained, selected sounds emitted by viewers on one side are diffused into the other side with latency. This delayed projection of the sound stream is going both ways. The acoustic transmission is restricted to the sound of footsteps, focusing and intensifying a single audiovisual component.
Since synchronicity is based on the temporal occurrence of two information perceived within specific time-frames, the resulting effect is a perceivable audiovisual desynchronization of what can be seen and heard. This provokes a perceptual dissolution and disruption towards an immediate construction of a real-time experience of the viewers. Moreover, the position of a person in space is represented in and projected into a three dimensional sound field, which produces a kind of sonic "after-image". It appears where the observed person has been moving seconds ago in space.
Due to the arrangement of opposing (and otherwise empty) rooms, a face-to-face
situation is created in which observers instantly become observational objects of
themselves and each other, experiencing and studying their own and each other's
perception at the same time, which provides a social interactive dimension of the
(The installation is currently under construction. Dimensions and sizes variable)
Illustration: Accoustic shadow phenomenon
Illustration: Back to front view
Illustration: Front to back view


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Today I'm on The Ton's blog with two sets of Christmas cards.
I usually make one card with a design. But this time I played around with the same design and made 4 cards in two different designs.
Hope you could stop by The Ton's blog to see how I made them.
Thank you so much for stopping by!
Later today I have one more scheduled post. See you again soon :)!


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My husband Paul and I recently took a road trip through Oregon and Washington to visit potential colleges with our son Gabriel, a junior in high school. We gleaned what we could from the blur of campus tours, info sessions, and landscaped grounds dotted with blossoming cherry trees.
Gabriel talked with current students, joined the discussion in an English class, played tennis at a team practice, and tried the cafeteria food. (It's come a long way since the mushy turkey tetrazzini of my freshman year!)
As a brilliant student and captain of his high school tennis team, he will have many options open to him. In some ways, that makes this pivotal life choice even harder. And the decision seems like a big responsibility for someone who has trouble remembering to bring his jacket home!
snow leopard
a brief sighting
of our teen
In any case, the most important aspects of a college experience aren't quantifiable, like the student-to-faculty ratio or the number of Nobel Prize-winning professors. Rather, they are intangibles such as who you become over those four years, the lasting friendships you make and the foundation you build for the rest of your life.
As a curious nine-year old, Gabriel introduced me to the possibility of infinite parallel universes. (See my 2012 blog post, Parallel Universes.) So in this world he will eventually choose one school, but I like to think that all the other options are playing out in other universes, each with infinite variations. Somehow that takes the pressure off!
And then there is the experience of our daughter Maya. After touring a dozen colleges in five states, applying to eight, negotiating financial aid and scholarship offers, and much noisy agonizing, she finally settled on the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. We breathed a collective sigh of relief that the long search was over. Or so we thought . . .
ring around the moon—
from two states away
the catch in her voice
In a plot twist, after two extremely wet and cold winters there, last summer Maya opted to transfer to Humboldt State and live at home. Though HSU may not have the cachet of a private school, it is strong in her chosen field of art education. And here she enjoys a semi-private apartment, home-cooked meals, and the stunning natural beauty of Humboldt County.
As surprised as we all were by this turn of events, she is much happier here. We love having our lively and affectionate daughter around again—and her tuition is a fraction of what we were paying!
It goes to show that you can do tons of research and make the best decision with the information you have, but no one can predict how life will unspool. I take comfort in the fact that Gabriel is a wise and perceptive young man, so I know he will make sound choices for college and beyond.
As for me, my Stanford degree in international relations prepared me well for my first career in international development. For my unexpected second career as a working artist, not so much. The five(!) economics classes I endured were chock full of theory. But other than that bit about supply and demand, they were useless on the topic of running a small business!
Who knows what discoveries await my children in college, and which universes they will go on to explore? Although part of me would like to keep them home forever, I'm also excited to see how their futures will unfold.
open road
how the red-tailed hawk
embraces the wind
Makino Studios
New Cards for Moms, Dads and Grads: I have designed six new cards for Mother's Day (May 13), Father's Day (June 17) and graduation, plus birthdays. You can find them all in the Cards section.
ukiaHaiku Festival: The ukiaHaiku Festival takes place this Sunday, April 29, at the Civic Center in Ukiah, California. Awards at 2 p.m., reception and refreshments at 3 p.m. I will read a winning haiku and have cards and prints for sale.
Open Studios: I will join artists Tina Gleave, Jennifer Rand, Amy Fowler and Araya Shon at the Samoa Women's Club in Samoa, California for Weekend 1 of North Coast Open Studios, June 2-3. This is the 20th anniversary of this fun, free annual event, when more than a hundred Humboldt County artists open their studios to the public.
"snow leopard" was first published in Modern Haiku, Issue 49.1, Winter-Spring 2018
"ring around the moon" was first published in Modern Haiku, Issue 48.2, Summer 2017


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Santos Escobar is a Second Year Teaching Fellow at the MLK Middle School in Charlotte, NC
It was 6:24 p.m. and all my 8th graders had been loaded onto a bus, picked up by a parent, or dismissed to walk home. As I stretched my legs, heading back to my classroom, I sensed a full-out smile break free. Too often, I found my demeanor to be tense, high-strung and over-pensive, usually from mentally rehearsing how to best ensure the greatest impact in the 3 hours I shared with the kids -- even after the kids were gone! But not this time. This time, I felt liberated. Joy resonated from within as I reflected on what I had witnessed, what I had been a welcome observer of: a rap-off.
Other than a 15-minute time block I had coded as "Team Time" on the day's agenda, my direct involvement in the event was minimal. After my students had completed homework and sheets ranking Apprenticeship options, the group was anxious for the outside time they had been promised. Well, most of the group. As I mentally prepared my instructions for the transition, an uproar of dissent from a group of 4 girls loudly reminded myself and the team of their lingering dissatisfaction from our previous outdoor excursion.
"No, Mr. Escobar! Do we alllll have to go outside?!," B.P. bellowed.
I heard "remember we were attacked by fleas?" and "nah-uh, I'm not going," from far right corner of the classroom. We had gone out for a name game and the young ladies held to their story that there were fleas in the grass from the geese that freely roamed the perimeters of the school. Meanwhile, the guys of the group stared at me agape, wondering if their anticipation for the outdoors would be foiled.
The wrinkle in my plans left me standing stiff and as I worked out my decision. It was our first week together so my response would have to be timely if I expected the students to remain invested and to trust my judgment. Suddenly my thoughts were overtaken by a student rapping the words to a song I had heard for the first time on the radio that same morning. I turned to the student and smiled, forgetting about the present dilemma to praise him for his ability to cohesively string together words at such a fast rate. Recognizing my amazement, the student beside the newly discovered rapper announced that he could rap too. Then it hit me: we would have a rap off.
Instantly I was using an attention getter to quiet down the class. The class was immediately bought-in and in a matter of 30 seconds, one of the unhappy girls volunteered herself to function as the announcer while another excitedly rushed forward to set ground rules for the 2 rappers and the audience. I took a backseat realizing that by being permissive, the activity would effortlessly work itself out.
The first student to rap blew everyone away. Words connected in a lyrical fashion, faster than my hearing could process, engaging all those around. When it was time for the 2nd student to step forward, he shied away. Students continued to cheer for the performance that had just occurred and in genuine humility the 2nd student acknowledged our star rapper had won before the contest began. The contest, however, was in fact not over.
A girl in the back raised her hand. I turned to her and she spoke: "I can sing."
"I will be singing 'No One' by Alicia Keys," Dez quietly proclaimed in a very collected manner. The room filled with muted anticipation as Dez prepared. I didn't know what to expect, but when her song began, I felt as though I had been transported to the filming of an episode of "The X Factor." Her voice was soft but powerfully moving, holding the class as captive as when our first student had rapped.
When Dez's performance had ended the resounding vibe was that we had all won. Those who hadn't participated in the display of talent had been lucky witnesses to it. Of that fortunate group, there was me, the teacher. I glanced at the clock and realized that the timing had been impeccable. It was 5:45, which meant it was time to get organized and line up for dismissal. I promptly led the students out to the cafeteria, the holding grounds where the students were gathered before heading home. I couldn't hide my pride for my team of 8th graders. They had tremendous talent and by being a permissive ally to them, the Team Time had presented itself as self-planned, self-paced perfect capstone to another day of program. The foundation was being set for my team and as I waved goodbye to a lot of happy kiddos, a grin of anticipation revealed my joy for what I hoped the coming year had in store for us all.
What is the coolest, impromptu classroom activity that you've been a part of?


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Tablet Life & Arts
Restaurant review: Costa Vida Fresh Mexican Grill in Fort Worth
Years after Chipotle, Freebirds, Fuzzy's, Rosa's, Qdoba and Taco Cabana have blanketed the area like dip on a chip, Fort Worth's appetite for fast-casual Mexican food has yet to relent.
Case in point: Costa Vida Fresh Mexican Grill, the latest fast-casual Tex-Mex chain to hit North Texas, is drawing big crowds to its newest location. When the place is packed, you're looking at a 30-minute wait.
Opened last year in Alliance Town Center in north Fort Worth, it's the second DFW location of this Utah-based chain; the first opened in 2007 in Colleyville.
Costa Vida takes a different approach than most Tex-Mex chains, eschewing a large menu for one that's small and focused. As you crawl through the line, you only have a half-dozen options: tacos, burritos, nachos, quesadillas, salads and a handful of plates served with rice and beans.
Also setting itself apart from the usual chain, the restaurant claims to make everything in-house, and little that we ate led us to believe otherwise.
Corn and flour, large and small, tortillas are the restaurant's calling card. They're made throughout the day, as you watch, then stuffed, folded or wrapped around variations of chicken, steak, fish and pork.
A good bet are the raspberry chipotle chicken tacos ($7.49). A pair of warm, soft flour tortillas came filled with diced, grilled chicken; fresh, leafy lettuce; crunchy pico; and shredded Cheddar. The chicken was doused in a terrific sauce that offered both a sugar rush and a heat flash.
Enchiladas ($6.99) caught off us guard, mainly because we didn't know flour tortillas would be used instead of corn; they were too thick to cut with a fork. There was also an abundance of melted cheese, inside and out, so much so that we couldn't taste the pork filling.
We had better luck with the pork on the chile verde plate ($6.29). Soft chunks of it were plunged into a pool of enjoyably spicy tomatillo sauce and topped with a sprinkling of cotija cheese.
Plates come with rice and choice of beans. We preferred the spicy and firm black beans over the clumpy refrieds. Light cilantro-lime rice was a welcome reprieve from the standard Mexican rice.
For an appetizer, guacamole ($3.99) was thick and chunky, protruding with diced tomatoes and onions. But we noticed a few brown edges; it might have been sitting out too long. Accompanying corn tortilla chips were lightly salted, crisp and not greasy.
Desserts consisted of tres leches, key lime pie and caramel flan ($3.29 each). We tried and loved the latter, chilled in a small aluminum pie tin, then served bottom-up, blotted with whipped cream.
Decor is easy on the eyes — cheery and colorful, like a Fuzzy's without the double entendres.
9530 Feather Grass Lane
Fort Worth
Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday & Saturday


text:
By the first week in November, it will all be over.
We will have a new president-elect, we will know which party controls the U.S. Senate, and we may even have hearings on a U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
But getting there is going to be quite a ride.
After almost two years of speculation about elections — and the heavy media coverage of polls, presidential primary debates, and fundraising — everything moves from the hypothetical to the real once we actually get votes cast in the election.
I keep a running set of graphs on my office door during the presidential election years to show how the candidates are amassing delegates toward the number needed for the nomination.
National candidates begin to make visits to the far-off West, to places like Oregon and Washington, in search of the elusive primary caucus-goer or voter.
I pay attention to whether the candidates say anything that has to do with Oregon or Washington — most of the time they do not. This shows me that Oregon and Washington voters will probably be responding to national campaign themes, not necessarily local political issues that they may pay attention to in their own state elections.
The fall of the election season is my favorite political time of year. I always teach a class, Political Parties and Elections, in which all the students must volunteer with a campaign. The best campaigns for them to work for tend to be the smallest — they get to meet the candidates, work in a variety of tasks, and be involved in setting out some of the strategy of the campaign.
But students are always attracted to the big campaigns during the presidential year, so that's where most of them will spend their time.
I have to increasingly balance my life as a political analyst with my life in the classroom. I get a lot of calls from the media, and I travel to Portland for a lot of live radio and television. It's always handy to have a full tank of gas during this part of the season. If it works out, I bring my students along.
In 2008, three of my students ended up working election night at the television station I was working with. They took information about election results from different counties in the area so that we could get an up-to-date statewide count on the candidates and the ballot measures.
Even if something like that doesn't work out, my students are required to be with their campaigns on election nights. Will there be a happy party? Will there be more of a funereal quality to the gathering?
On election night itself it's my job to call the elections for whichever media outlet I am working with, to look at broader returns and formulate questions for reporters in the field to ask of candidates at their own election night parties, and to be on top of any developing patterns and results that are somewhat surprising.
It used to be that the day after the election was my busiest time. After being up past midnight on election night, I'd get up early to be on live radio and television from 5 to 7 o'clock the next morning.
For the last several election cycles, however, Election Day is just the beginning of the public speaking season.
In 2014, I ended up giving about 15 talks to various groups about what the elections meant, and what they might mean for the future — both in terms of future elections, and the ideas for governing that might occur in Oregon and at the national level.
In all of this process, one of the great joys is to introduce my students to systematic ways to understand the election, to go beyond being one of those voters who can be influenced by a commercial with an ominous voice and instead become critical thinkers about the election process and what it means to the governance of our country.
It is incredibly rewarding to see them actively engaged in the political process, and then put that engagement into a firm analytical context through their academic work.
While my work with the media is, in effect, just teaching to a wider audience, my work in the classroom is helping to create engaged citizens.
And it's a blast.


text:
Jeremiah Fried, Father of William Fried
Anna Fox (Restored)
Anna Fox, mother of Tina Fried, William Fox, Malvina Fox Dunn, ..
Anna Fox (Original)
Anna Fox, mother of Tina Fried, William Fox, Malvina Fox Dunn, .
Michael Fox
Tina Fried's father / Ruth and Bernice's Grandfather
Ruth Fried (c.1917)
Ruth (1917)
Ruth Fried. (1917)
Tina Fried and Friends at the Beach
Bernice and Ruth (c. 1917)
Bernice (c. 1919)
Bernice (c.1919)
Tina, Bernice & Friend. (c.1919)
Bill Fried and Bernice. (c.1920)
Ruth, Tina Fried, Bernice (c. 1919)
Bernice & Ruth. (c.1919)
Bill Fried x 5
William Fox Mirror Photo
A great man. Can't see him enough times...
Bernice, Malvina, Tina, Ruth, Shirley Mason at Fox Studios, Hollywood (1921)
Group photo taken by Fox Studios photographer during the Fried visit to Hollywood in 1921. Shirley Mason was an actress, whose starring roles at Fox Films included "Her Elephant Man," "Molly and I," "Loves Harvest," "The Little Wanderer," "Merely Mary Ann," "The Girl of My Heart," "The Flame of Youth," "Ming Toy," "The Lamplighter" and "Shirley of the Circus."
Tina, Ruth, Bernice, Shirley Mason at Fox Studios, Hollywood (1921)
Group Shot with William Fox at Fox Studios, Hollywood (1921)
Back row: Actor (?), Actress (?), Governess, Bill Fried, Malvina Fox Dunn, Actor (John Gilbert?), Ruth, William Fox.
Front row: Bernice, Tina Fried
Group Photo at Fox Studios (1921)
Ruth & Bernice's Governess, Ruth, John Gilbert, Bernice, Bill Fried, Tina Fried.
With Tom Mix at Fox Studios, Hollywood (1921)
Bernice, Tom Mix, Tina & Bill Fried, Ruth
Bernice and Ruth with Jackie Coogan, Hollywood (1921)
Bernice and Ruth with Jackie Coogan during the filming of the Charlie Chaplin film, "The Kid".
Ruth and Bernice with Actor Clyde Cook, Hollywood (1921)
Ruth and Bernice with Actor Clyde Cook during their 1921 visit to Fox Studios in Hollywood (1921).
This quote is from a telegram sent by William Fox in March 1920: "Fox Film Corp. feels reasonably sure that [Clyde] Cook will ultimately take Chaplin's place."
Bernice and Ruth at Fox Studios, Hollywood (1921)
Ruth & Bernice with John Gilbert During the Filming of "Arabian Love". (1921)
Ruth & Bernice with John Gilbert During the Filming of "Arabian Love". The film also cast Adolphe Menjou in an uncredited role. Apparently his costume resulted in some unfortunate wedgies...
Ruth, Malvina Fox Dunn, Bernice. Hollywood, 1921
Tina Fox Fried (Photo by Bachrach Studios)
David Bachrach, the studio's founder, took the only photo of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. The studio has photographed every US Head of State since then. as well as such notables as Charles Lindbergh, Calvin Coolidge, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Eleanor Roosevelt, Muhammad Ali, and (of course) Tina Fried...
Bill Fried (c.1920)
Photo by National Photography Studio.
Bill Fried. (c.1920)
Malvina, Bernice, Ruth. (c.1919)
Ruth Fried. (Okada Studios, c.1922)
Ruth Fried. (Okada Studios, c.1922)
Ruth & Bernice. (c.1920)
Ruth Fried (Okada Studios, c.1922)
Bernice Fried. (Okada Studios, c.1922)
Bill Fried - 36 Portraits
Bill Fried Passport with Tina Included as Wife...
Bill Fried Photo of Lindbergh's Landing in Paris. (1927)
Tina in Europe. (1927)
Tina Fried in Europe. (1927)
Bernice. (c.1920s)
Bernice. (c.1922)
Bernice Fried Middle School Graduation - Age 13. (1925)
Ruth Fried Passport Photo. (c. 1930)
Bernice Fried Passport Photo. (c. 1930)
Ruth & Bernice. (1931)
On Venice's Piazza San Marco
Ruth & Bernice. (c.1920s)
Ruth Fried Rapfogel - Wedding Photo. (1937)
Bernice Fried Sacks - Wedding Photo. (c.1936)
Cleveland Union Station - Aronberg-Fried Company. (1930)
Bernice Fried Sacks. (c.1950)
Bill Sacks, Ruth Rapfogel, and ? (c.1952)
Bill Fried and Marguerite Flagenheimer Fried. (c.1965)
Ruth. (2005)


text:
Had a dream that asshole called me up and started acting like nothing had happened at all. I tried at first to act like I didn't recognise his voice. But then told him quite plainly that he had made me feel like nothing at all. That my suspicions were right. He just needed a place to stay & had no intentions of keeping better contact or "be a better friend" promise. He kept repeating "I'm sorry" and making crying noises. I told him my America trip was so good for me and his "visit" was not. Visiting Armie made me feel so much more valued/confident & believe in friendships (thought now I feel like everyone thinks I'm messed-up and I'm just bothering people). And his using me soiled a lot of that. I then asked him what he wanted by calling. I brushed aside "I wanted to call a friend" crap and asked again. He was in the area again. So I sarcastically went-off on "of course that's why, you needed a place to stay". That I wasn't a big idiot now. I told him quite plainly that if he had wantes to apologise he would have done something meaningful instead of calling to get something. He hung-up.
I think this dream was my brain giving me closure on it. And to remind me that I'm not as gullible as I was then (actually have have less belief than I should have). I don't usually think of Trevor Cardinell now though. It's been like 7 years since I've had any contact (he removed me from Facebook about 2 years ago even). He never intended to keep contact. I didn't expect much anyway after I only had sporadic contact the first bit of 2009 and nothing at all after. I figured the friendship was over by the end of it after he made a new LiveJournal account & a Twitter without adding me to either. And having been used helped me just be all "fuck it".
I had a dream about him awhile ago too. I dreamt he was posting a lot of awful things on me onto his blog. On waking I told myself that he would have no reason to, especially since he hasn't used his blog in a long time either. But after my stalker's attacks & unwanted contact I am very leery about things like this. So after a day of not being able to shake the dream I went to his blog to confirm to myself that there would be nothing there new about me. And there wasn't. But there also wasn't any mention of me where there used to be either. Sometime since 2009 when I last viewed it he had edited his 'trip to Nova Scotia' entry to remove all mention of me. Like it still has the things he did here, and the daytrips we took, but I was not mentioned at all now (not even since I organised a lot of it). Other people were still, like his sister, but there isn't even a "my friend in Nova Scotia". It didn't exactly hurt or what-not but it didn't help how I feel so worthless/pointless/nothing I ever do has any lasting meaning/if I stopped existing everyone would go on completely fine.
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text: The Sioux City Chapter of MAGE has elected to form their own non-profit organization and has filed it's paperwork to become one. Tri-State Gamers will now be running the current conventions in South Sioux City. MAGE Con South 31 will be the last MAGE Sponsored convention in Sioux City. After that, the name of the conventions will become Tri-Con Spring and Tri-Con Fall. The timeframes of said events will remain the same every year. We hope to better focus on our Sioux City Tri-State Area community to continue to expand our hobby for all to enjoy. We hope you'll continue to attend events in the Sioux City metro area.


text:
Lady sounds lovely. I can't commit to a regular amount of money but will try and send a donation as soon as possible. Hopefully someone can offer this lovely old girl sponsorship.
Quote from: bunglycat on August 13, 2009, 16:41:16 PMHow much sponsorship are you looking for for this poor little girl ?I'm not quite sure hunni. Iv'e never done this sort of thing before so i don't know how it works. i would think enough to cover her tablets, a special diet, and some treatment to her mouth to help her eat better. The vets we got her from said her teeth were fine for her age but she is struggling eating at the moment. So i'm having to force feed her wich i hate doing.
How much sponsorship are you looking for for this poor little girl ?
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The New International Encyclopædia/Dracæna draco
Jump to navigation Jump to search
DRACÆ'NA DRA'CO (Lat., from Gk. δρακαινα, drakaina, she-dragon, from δράκον, drakōn, dragon), or Dragon Tree. A tree of the order Liliaceæ, that produces the resin called dragon's blood. Its thickness is greatly out of proportion to its height. The head is crowned with short branches bearing tufts of sword-shaped leaves. Humboldt saw a famous specimen in Teneriffe, which at the time of his visit was 70 feet tall and 45 feet in circumference, and was estimated to be 6000 years old. It was destroyed by a storm in 1868. The Guanches worshiped it, and had hollowed its trunk into a small sanctuary. Others of large size are reported from the Canary Islands and India.


text:
UPDATE 12.45: Catholic leaders on Saturday appealed for calm and asked security forces to exercise caution during protests.
"We appeal to them to restrain themselves from using excessive force in handling crowds," said John Oballa Owaa, vice chairman of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops. "No life should be lost because of an election."
The bishop said any dispute over the election should be resolved peacefully and by "legal norms as provided in the constitution."
Earlier: Kenyan police have shot and killed two people during riots by opposition supporters after President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner in national elections.
Leonard Katana, a regional police commander, said the deaths occurred on the outskirts of Kisumu, a city where opposition leader Raila Odinga has strong support.
Mr Katana said another five people were injured by gunfire in Kisumu.
Also on Saturday, Kenyan police opened fire to disperse opposition protesters who blocked roads and set up burning barricades in a slum in Nairobi, the capital. An Associated Press photographer saw police firing live rounds in the Mathare area.
Mr Kenyatta on Friday appealed for unity after the Kenyan election commission announced results following several days of vote-counting. Mr Odinga has alleged that the election was rigged.


text:
Seatbelt mic holders
New for 2016 is another original Gamiviti product, inspired by a combination of our original dashboard mic holders, the clips that come with a new CB, and those metal things that come with baby car seats. We combined all three into a quick solution that works in just about every vehicle, with just about every CB or Ham radio.
Benefits of this device include the ability to speak into the mic without taking your eyes off the road ahead. In fact, you don't even need to look down. Also having the mic at your chest means you always know where it is, even in the dark. This is also great for users of both CB and Ham radio, helping you keep those separate so you always transmit on the right frequency. Use this for longer trips and trail runs- it installs in just seconds once your seat belt is clipped in, and removes just as fast when it's time to get out of the truck.
Limited Liability: let's just say that you are responsible for your own actions. Gamiviti by no means encourages driving any vehicle while distracted. Nor do we endorse any modification that could potentially jeopardize the safety of any vehicle safety device. This product is made of metal. It has sharp edges. It might fray the sides of your seat belt, and you could cut your finger. If you are apprehensive about this product please don't buy it. If you purchase one and don't like it, please return it- take a full 30 days to decide. And if you choose to purchase any Gamiviti products, please know that you do so at your own risk.


text: August 07, 2012 by Sarah Safavi We drove down the coast after San Francisco and stayed in Big Sur for a couple of days. It's pretty magical there and words can't really do it justice. If you've never been and get the chance don't miss it. Here's a photo bomb of my favorites.