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InanITah: a eco-conCious Community
Located on the island of Ometepe, Inanitah is a beautiful fully sustainable community formed back in 2009. The community thrives off of volunteers who come and enjoy the retreat style community, where there is a serious balance of work and play. Formed by a community of travelers, from all over the globe, there was something really special about living in a conscious community. From diet to the daily activities, this place was designed to be a utopian society. There are three types of community members.
Space Holders - 4 months or more
Volunteers - At least 30 days
Visitors - At least 10 days
In the heart of the jungle, exists a completely sustainable community. Everything is grown and farmed on the land. The volunteers prepare three daily vegan meals, as well as established activities for everyone. Ranging from daily yoga, meditation, cacao ceremonies, to transparency circles, and even permaculture workshops.


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- Page 1 Dialogue Flybook Review
- Page 2 Dialogue Flybook Review
- Page 3 Dialogue Flybook Review
Price wise this particular spec of Flybook will set you back £1399 including VAT. Now, it's a fair rule of thumb that the smaller and lighter a notebook is, the more it costs. To be fair though, the Flybook doesn't appear to be excessively expensive, but you have to remember that the spec is pretty modest compared to other ultra-portable notebooks, and you're not getting an optical drive in the bargain.
On the surface the Flybook looks like a very attractive ultra-portable notebook with more wireless connection options than you could shake a stick at. But dig a little deeper and the Flybook doesn't stand up so well to the competition. Yes, the Flybook only weighs 1.23kg, but then the Sony VAIO TX2XP only weighs 1.25kg – then consider that the Sony will give you over seven hours of battery life, while the Flybook can only muster around a third of that.
But what about the Flybook's integrated wireless WAN feature? I hear you say. The problem here is that a whole host of notebook manufacturers have announced models with integrated 3G support – that means that even the forthcoming revised Flybook with EDGE support won't be able to keep up. Add to this the fact that this new breed of 3G enabled notebooks will make use of the new high-speed HSDPA standard, and the Flybook starts to look rather under specified.
Perhaps if I had reviewed the Flybook when it first hit the streets I may have been more impressed, but things have moved on a great deal since then. There are dual core mobile processors, integrated 3G modules and some killer designs on offer, all of which add up to make life very hard for the Flybook. I'm keen to see whether Dialogue will rise to this challenge and evolve the Flybook accordingly, but as things stand it looks like this little notebook may be swept aside with the wave of new technology.
Trusted Score
Score in detail
Performance 6
Value 6
Features 7
Unlike other sites, we thoroughly test every product we review. We use industry standard tests in order to compare features properly. We'll always tell you what we find. We never, ever accept money to review a product. Tell us what you think - send your emails to the Editor.

subset: commoncrawl


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Happy Monday! Some days, like Mondays, you have to create your own sunshine!
We love the adorable designs from Natural Life! Available at our brick and mortar shop: A Rosy Outlook. Image found here.
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Hello readers, we are pleased to announce that the peer-reviewed journal, Progress in Community Health Partnerships, has published a piece about our campaign with Bronx Health REACH to end segregation in the delivery of health care services by teaching hospitals in New York. You can download a copy of the piece here. Feedback welcome! We are using every avenue at our disposal to get the word out about this urgent issue, including the very types of publications that health care providers and policy decision-makers are likely to peruse.
Tag Archives: health care providers
A Community Mobilizes to End Medical Apartheid
Filed under health disparities, legislation, people of color
Ready to Leave with No Place to Go
by Shena Elrington, Staff Attorney
Undocumented immigrants lack access to viable long-term care options. This is hardly surprising, given the surge in anti-immigrant sentiment, the serious budget crises facing federal, state and local governments and the piecemeal way in which we approach health care delivery. Although not surprising, the lack of long-term care options has very real consequences for both the lives of these immigrants and the overall well-being of the healthcare system.
A flurry of recent newspaper articles has brought the plight facing undocumented immigrants in need of long-term care into sharp focus. In the typical scenario, an undocumented immigrant suffers a catastrophic injury or illness, such as stroke, and is rushed to the emergency room, where she receives care, as required by federal law. The initial injury or illness may have been so severe that the patient becomes incapacitated, unable to feed or care for herself. The hospital then looks for appropriate long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes, to care for the patient. Finding such a facility, however, is nearly impossible because the patient cannot pay out of pocket and is ineligible for Medicaid because of her immigration status. The hospital, unable to find an appropriate facility to discharge the patient, chooses whether to continue to treat the patient, at a cost of several thousand dollars per day, for an indefinite period of time.
Some undocumented immigrants who find themselves in this precarious situation fare better than others. They all, however, live in a constant state of uncertainty, unsure of when the hospital will stop caring for them. And when the hospital terminates treatment, as it inevitably will, undocumented immigrants are faced with a truly terrifying range of "choices", leading them closer and closer to death.
In September, a hospital in Atlanta refused to provide dialysis to nearly two dozen undocumented immigrants who had been receiving treatment for years. As deadly toxins built up in their systems, some immigrants sought care at various emergency departments, but were refused treatment because their conditions had not deteriorated significantly enough to trigger the hospital's duty to provide emergency care under federal law. These immigrants were forced to wait until they were literally at death's door to receive treatment. After much wrangling and public outrage, the hospital agreed to continue to provide dialysis for three more years.
But, what happens when that three-year period comes to an end?
Some hospitals, acting outside the federal immigration process, actually contract with private transport agencies to have these patients, with or without their consent, flown back to their home countries, without ensuring that there are any healthcare facilities in those countries able to support their needs. In essence, these immigrants are sent home to die. Based on our work with community partners and advocates, we know these "medical deportations" are not isolated events.
The perils undocumented immigrants in need of long-term care face are the direct result of failures in our immigration and health policies. Our current system mandates that hospitals provide care to undocumented immigrants when they are so ill that they require emergency treatment, at the most expensive point of access in the health care system – the emergency room – yet provides no real avenue for them to receive cheaper preventative care or be moved from more expensive acute care facilities to more appropriate, and less expensive, long term care facilities like nursing homes when necessary.
While health reform expanded the number of Americans eligible for Medicaid, it fell short of including undocumented immigrants – prohibiting them from even purchasing insurance within the exchanges. While the majority of undocumented immigrants are young and healthy, it is inevitable that tragedy will strike at one point or another and some immigrants will need long-term care. Our current policies make no provisions for this eventuality. Worst yet, there is virtually no oversight over hospitals that repatriate patients to their home countries, discharging them to family members or facilities abroad that often lack the means to properly care for them. And, there is little to no discussion of the legal and ethical breaches healthcare providers and hospitals may be committing by failing to discharge undocumented immigrants to appropriate healthcare facilities.
We need to discuss these issues, even if talking about them is difficult in a political climate where anti-immigrant sentiment runs rampant and budget cuts seem to always land on the backs of the poor, because some of our most fundamental values are at stake. Just a few weeks ago, we glimpsed the erosion of these values during a Republican presidential nominee debate, when the audience proudly affirmed their willingness to let a hypothetical 30 year old man who needed intensive care die because he opted out of health insurance. There is little doubt that this crowd would feel the same way about an undocumented immigrant in need of care, who had no access to insurance to begin with. Is this really the kind of world we want to live in?
Filed under immigrant health, immigrant rights, news
Acknowledging Difference, not Defeat: A Racial Justice Perspective on the Medicaid Debate
This post, by Health Justice Director Nisha Agarwal and Staff Attorney Shena Elrington, also appears on the Race-Talk blog, Huffington Post, and Alternet.
The federal Medicaid program has become something of a policy piñata in the national discourse. Over the course of the past year conservatives have been asking, "is Medicaid real health insurance?" The public insurance program for low-income individuals has been criticized for not providing sufficient access to physicians, long wait times to see a physician when one can be accessed, and poorer quality of care once patients get in the door – all of which conservatives argue are reasons to dismantle the program altogether. If being on Medicaid isn't much better than being uninsured, why bother spending tax dollars on it?
Meanwhile, a recent editorial in the New York Times offered unequivocal praise for the Medicaid program, pointing to a study conducted in Oregon that allowed researchers to compare the experiences of people who received Medicaid coverage to those who did not. According to the study, Medicaid recipients reported better health than the uninsured recipients and were less likely to have medical bills sent to collection agencies or forgo other obligations in order to pay for their medical care. Supporters of the public health insurance plan were therefore able to hit back against conservative naysayers and argue that Medicaid truly is a program worth preserving and expanding.
While the national debate lurches back and forth, we find a more complicated reality on the ground, in the low-income communities of color where we work to eliminate race- and class-based biases in the health care system. The uncomfortable truth is that Medicaid beneficiaries do often receive poorer quality of health care, particularly when it comes to accessing specialists. But to see this you have to look at how Medicaid beneficiaries fare vis-à-vis privately insured individuals, not the uninsured, which has been the focus of current debates.
For example, in our work with Bronx Health REACH, a faith-based community coalition in the Bronx, we have seen how Medicaid patients seeking specialty services at major New York City hospitals are seen in separate—effectively segregated—facilities from their privately-insured peers, with longer wait times, less experienced doctors, and much less continuity and coordination of care. (You can read more about these problems in this monograph published by the Bronx Health REACH coalition and in this complaint we filed with the New York State Attorney General.)
Working with low-income parents, we have also seen how children with Medicaid have to wait for grotesquely long periods of time before they can get mental health treatment and special education evaluations, if they are able to access these services at all, and how elite institutions providing such services refuse to serve publicly insured populations despite the significant shortage of pediatric mental health providers in New York City.
Our experience thus seems to support conservative arguments to some extent: Medicaid beneficiaries do not have sufficient access to physicians, experience long wait times to see a physician when one can be accessed, and suffer from poor quality of care once they get in the doctor's door, at least when compared with those patients who are privately insured.
Undoubtedly the current climate surrounding Medicaid makes it difficult for advocates to point out the lower quality of care Medicaid beneficiaries receive, for fear that any criticism of the program will serve as powerful ammunition for the other side to use. But acknowledging certain aspects of the conservative argument need not mean that advocates have to accept the entirety of their conclusions. Something else we've learned through our work is that Medicaid isn't "bad" insurance per se. Rather, healthcare providers and institutions choose to treat Medicaid beneficiaries badly by discriminating against them with respect to the quality of care provided. Consider the Bronx example. Hospitals in New York City (and elsewhere) are not only reimbursed by Medicaid for providing patient care, they also receive over $1 billion through the Medicaid program for non-patient purposes such as resident doctor training – a funding stream so substantial that the New York hospital industry is fighting tooth and nail to keep it safe from federal budget cuts. Medicaid seems to pay hospitals very well, and yet these same hospitals choose to provide segregated and unequal care to Medicaid beneficiaries. Why?
As with many things, these bizarre dynamics cannot be understood without accounting for race, and for the fact that the vast majority of publicly insured individuals in New York City are black and brown. We have heard how top-flight specialists want to be able to choose the patients that they treat, which is invariably code for avoiding people of color who are perceived to be more "complicated" and "non-compliant." Elite NYC hospitals eager to attract these specialists happily comply to doctors' demands by giving them fancy facilities to see their preferred patients, while the Medicaid patients are separated out into "clinics", where they are treated by a rotating band of doctors-in-training.
In addition to wanting to attract renowned specialists, the hospitals want to attract the "right" kind of patients – that is, wealthy, white, suburban patients. Behind closed doors administrators will openly argue that their "'paying' patients will not want to sit in the same waiting room as people on Medicaid," so it is simply better for the hospital to segregate the two groups.
Worse still, these biases become a part of the culture of how medicine is taught, with students and residents working with Medicaid patients in the clinics learning very early on that some patients—the kinds of patients they get to practice on, the poor patients of color—are less worthy than others. Indeed, research has suggested that by the end of their medical education, student doctors actually become more biased than they were when they began medical school. These biases, whether conscious or not, permeate the medical system at both an individual and systemic level, affecting the quality of care that Medicaid beneficiaries receive.
From our perspective, the debate about Medicaid is less about left-and-right and more about black and white. The conservatives' sleight of hand is to point to quality of care problems for Medicaid beneficiaries and to jump from there to the conclusion that the Medicaid program is to blame, which obscures the mediating role that institutional racism plays in ensuring poor outcomes for Medicaid patients. Meanwhile, supporters of Medicaid effectively erase race from the debate as well by closing their eyes to the many challenges Medicaid beneficiaries face in accessing high-quality health care, despite the fact that they are walking in the door with an insurance that research shows is pretty good. A more nuanced position would acknowledge differences in care without accepting defeat. It is not the Medicaid program that must be dismantled, but the biased attitudes and policies that lead Medicaid patients to get inferior quality of care.
Filed under federal, insurance, news, people of color
New York Needs Safety Net Hospitals
Here is our op-ed on the Medicaid Redesign Team that ran in today's Albany Times Union. Comments most welcome!
By Nisha Agarwal and Shena Elrington
Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Medicaid Redesign Team was handpicked by him and elected by no one. Though touted as a collection of health care "experts," the majority of the team's members have strong ties to special interests in the health care industry.
Not surprisingly, its proposals for cuts reflect the vested interests of its members.
Proposal 67 calls for the closing or downsizing of safety net hospitals that provide health care services in medically under-served areas. We need more health services in these communities, not less, particularly since these communities have been ravaged by hospital closures in recent years.
Central Brooklyn, with its extremely low-income and 90 percent black and Latino population, has lost two hospitals, OB-GYN and prenatal services at two other local hospitals, 13 outpatient clinics, a federally funded health center and at least two women, infants and children program centers that provide nutrition education and assistance in recent years, despite having some of the worst health outcomes in the city.
The infant mortality rate in the Brownsville section of central Brooklyn is nearly five times that of Manhattan's Upper East Side.
Do we really need more hospitals in areas like central Brooklyn to close?
When safety net hospitals close, people are forced to travel farther to see care at the few institutions that remain open — usually elite private academic teaching centers. These are the very same institutions to which many of the Medicaid team's members have strong connections, raising questions about the appropriateness of using the regulatory process to funnel business to special-interest groups.
What is more, proposals that would actually support safety net institutions and use public dollars in an accountable and transparent way never made it into the final Medicaid reform package.
Proposal 66, for example, would have recalibrated charity care and Medicaid dollars so that the distribution of that funding would be based on the actual Medicaid and uninsured losses. Hospitals in New York now receive "indigent care" funding regardless of the volume of care they actually provide to Medicaid and uninsured patients. So, hospitals that provide very little care to low-income New Yorkers often get more money from the indigent care pool than they deserve, while safety net institutions, which provide a lot of care to Medicaid and uninsured patients, do not get their fair share.
Recalibrating the way this funding is distributed would not only make sense and bolster the financial stability of critical safety net institutions. It also is required under federal health reform and was very favorably ranked through the Medicaid Redesign Team's own scoring process. Yet, the proposal never made it into the team's final recommendations.
New York is in the midst of an epic budget crisis. Medicaid is seen as the linchpin to solving that crisis. But its redesign should not be done in such a way as to threaten the very institutions that serve as a safety net for our state's most vulnerable residents. The erosion of our health care safety net threatens the stability of the system for all of us.
Filed under health disparities, legislation, news, people of color
Decisionmaking From on High
Tomorrow, Friday, February 18, is the deadline for members of Governor Cuomo's Medicaid Redesign Team to submit their "scores" for 49 proposals given to them by the New York State Department of Health that are supposed to generate $2.85 billion–yes, billion–in cuts to the Medicaid program. These 49 were culled from the several thousands received via a severely flawed public hearing and online/written submission process that took place over the last several weeks in cities across the state. Not only were many proposals put forward by consumers and members of the public entirely excluded from the 49 that the Team will ultimately be deciding on, the few that did make it in were inaccurately captured in the bizarre spreadsheet format being used to capture major policy proposals to restructure the state and the country's largest health insurance program for the poor. Oh, and did we mention that the proposals are going to be scored using Survey Monkey? That's right, Survey Monkey.
In response, the Save Our Safety Net Campaign, of which we are a part, issued this open letter to the members of the Medicaid Redesign Team, instructing them how to vote on certain key proposals. This is not to say that we accept or buy into the ridiculous "process" that has been put in place by the MRT, but we also can't remain silent on issues that will significantly impact the communities we care about. You can click here to download a copy of the letter.
Please let us know if you have any comments or concerns. There will still be other opportunities to weigh in on this process. On February 24th, the Medicaid Redesign Team will be meeting to discuss the scored proposals. The meeting will take place in Albany, and it's important to have consumer voices out in full force. March 1 is when the final recommendations of the Team will be announced. We are planning activities in New York City around the announcement and will keep you posted about details. And, of course, state elected officials will have to weigh in on the recommendations too, and we are hoping that if you are a New York resident that you will tell your representatives how you feel about the Medicaid program and why it is important to you and your community.
Critical decisions about the health care system in New York should not be made from on high, but from the ground up.
Filed under legislation, news
Mount Sinai's Tisch Cancer Institute: New Building, Same Walls
This post is by Alyssa Aguilera, NYLPI's Health Justice Community Organizer.
Late last month I attended my first Mount Sinai Community Roundtable – a monthly convening of various community stakeholders interested in the happenings of the Harlem-based academic-medical center. These meetings, according to Mount Sinai's own Community Service Plan, are held to "keep its pulse on the needs of the East Harlem and Central Harlem communities". A worthy effort indeed, I was interested to see how the hospital would approach the invariably difficult town-gown relationship between a highly-touted medical center and its surrounding neighborhood, which despite proximity still remains a medically underserved community.
Last month's meeting was to focus on the new Tisch Cancer Institute – "a state-of-the-art, patient-oriented, comprehensive cancer and research facility" slated to open in early 2011. On hand to explain the Institute was its director Dr. Steven Burakoff who led the group through a presentation highlighting the research, education, and care that would be provided at the Institute.
Funded in part by a $40 million gift from James and Meryl Tisch, the construction of the Institute is part of a larger expansion plan currently in motion at Mount Sinai. This initiative, led by Mr. Tisch, is being called The Campaign for Mount Sinai and is an aggressive and ambitious capital campaign aiming to raise $1 billion in private donations to improve the entire medical center.
What I found quite interesting in both the presentation and when perusing the Mount Sinai website, was the emphasis on "translational medicine" and the creation of "institutes" where this practice will be honed. Translational medicine, although multi-faceted, basically promotes the idea that "new treatments and research knowledge [should] actually reach the patients or populations for whom they are intended and [be] implemented correctly."[1] So for example, the Tisch Cancer Institute will house both the research and treatment of cancer allowing for mutual access between researchers, practitioners, and patients that will hopefully produce accelerated positive results for all those involved.
Mount Sinai is planning to create institutes for 14 different medical areas – The Black Family Stem Cell Institute, Friedman Brain Institute, Experimental Therapeutics Institute, etc. – and all are part of this ten-year expansion project.
In addition to the presentation on the Tisch Cancer Institute, the community roundtable also featured Professor Lina Jandorf, Director of Cancer Community Outreach in the Department of Oncological Sciences. She spoke about her work to reduce ethnic and racial disparities by improving education, screening and treatment protocols for communities of color in Harlem. Her own research emphasizes the need for this type of work. She writes:
Cancer mortality and incidence rates among minorities in [East Harlem] are 30% higher than elsewhere in New York City (NYC). For example, prostate and colorectal cancer incidence among adults aged 45-64 years living in this community is significantly higher than the average for NYC. Women in [East Harlem] are diagnosed with breast cancer at later stages of disease than are women from other NYC neighborhoods. Malignant neoplasms are the second leading cause of death in [East Harlem] after heart disease, with an age-adjusted rate of 147 per 100,000 when compared with 91 per 100,000 for the rest of NYC.[2]
The lack of access to cancer prevention and treatment in low-income communities of color is unfortunately no surprise and I am happy to see that Ms. Jandorf and her colleagues at Mount Sinai are engaging in programming to help understand and ameliorate this somber public health reality. However, the lingering question I had throughout the presentation, and asked of Dr. Burakoff and Ms. Jandorf themselves, was this: It is great that the Tisch Cancer Institute is being constructed in a community so desperately in need of the care it provides, but what is Mount Sinai doing to grant access to the Institute for their neighbors many of whom are on Medicaid, are under-insured, or uninsured?
Their answer was not as straight-forward as I would have liked. They mostly just pointed to the community programs that are already available to the public. Dr. Burakoff said something interesting though, he said that as a hospital once they screen patients and detect cancer they have a responsibility to treat them. A vague answer, but I can assume that if the Institute had any plans to actually screen and treat low-income patients, they would have mentioned it at that time. Though just to be sure, I called a few days after the presentation to inquire about breast cancer treatment for a Medicaid beneficiary and was told they could be seen in the clinic setting, not the Institute itself.
So it seems more than likely that Mount Sinai will continue to deny access for low-income patients to the highest quality of care their facilities provide. They will regulate low-income patients to the clinic system, where they will get a lower quality of care (more on our work to end the two-tiered system of care in NYC academic-medical centers here), and the staggering health disparities in communities of color like East and Central Harlem will persist. Undoubtedly though, these new initiatives by Mount Sinai will allow them to rise in the ranks as one of the "best" hospitals in the country – well, for those who are lucky enough to have good private insurance.
Funny enough, Mount Sinai's expansion project and institute model is all about breaking down walls: between the hard sciences and clinical medicine, between clinical medicine and patient outcomes, and between specialty areas in an attempt to tackle comorbidities often present in patients with chronic illness.
But despite millions of dollars, the recruitment of top faculty, and state-of-the art facilities, one big wall will still remain for low-income New Yorkers seeking cancer treatment at the Tisch Cancer Institute – the ability to afford it. And sadly, this treatment is one thing many New Yorkers cannot afford to live without.
[1] Woolf, Steven H., MD, MPH. "The Meaning of Translational Research and Why It Matters." Journal of the American Medical Association 299(2) (2008): 211-3.
[2] Landorf, L and Fatone, A. and Borker, P.V. (2006) Creating alliances to improve cancer prevention and detection among urban medically underserved minority groups: The East Harlem Partnership for Cancer Awareness. Cancer. 107 (8). pp. 2043-2051.
Filed under health disparities
Community Input When a Hospital Closes
As we have written about before, the community of Southeast Queens has long experienced some of the worst health outcomes in New York City across a variety of measures. No doubt, the shuttering last year of both Mary Immaculate Hospital in Jamaica and St. John's Queens Hospital in Elmhurst has only placed additional strains on the already insufficient healthcare infrastructure in Queens, and on Southeast Queens in particular. These and other hospital closures occurred without any input from community members – the very people who utilized the services that these hospitals provided were left unable to make their voices heard on how the closure would affect them, and on what healthcare services they thought were critical for the community.
In order to ensure that communities affected by future hospital closures would have at least some voice in the process, Assembly Member Rory Lancman and State Senator Shirley Huntley introduced the Hospital Closure Planning Act. This original bill would have required the Commissioner of Health to hold a "public hearing" within 30 days of a proposed hospital closure in order to assess the impact a hospital closure would have on the area it serves.
Despite the overwhelming support in the legislature, as well as advocacy in support of the bill from Southeast Queens United in Support of Healthcare (SQUISH) among others, Governor Patterson vetoed that initial bill. Now, after negotiating with DOH and the Governor–and, importantly, after the closure of St. Vincent's in Manhattan, which, in contrast to the hospital closures in Queens garnered significant and vocal opposition from a notably wide range of politicians and stakeholders –the Governor signed a revised version of the bill.
As Assembly Member Lancman said last week, "The government has to, at least, make an effort to let communities affected by a hospital closure know how their healthcare needs will be addressed. We may not be able to stop a hospital from closing, but we ought to be able to measure the impact of that closing and come up with a plan for serving the residents who relied on that hospital for healthcare services."
The revised bill requires the Commissioner to hold a "community forum" within 30 days after a hospital closure to hear from affected community members. After the forum, the Commissioner must also release a written report on the anticipated impact of the closure to the community, as well as the Department of Health's plans to mitigate the negative effects of the closure and to ensure continued access to healthcare.
To be sure, the Act is only a small first step in making sure that low-income communities of color most in need receive equal access to quality health care. Nevertheless, it is an important one in that it begins to recognize the community's role in health planning.
Filed under legislation


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Della Robbia Exhibition Review
Della Robbia: Sculpting with Color in Renaissance Florence
Although their founder Luca della Robbia (1399/1400-1482) was much praised in his lifetime and after, for his artistic mastery, as well as for his innovative approach to new techniques, the Della Robbia dynasty of sculptors have never really been taken as seriously as their great Florentine contemporaries, such as Lorenzo Ghiberti, Andrea del Verrocchio or Jacopo Sansovino. Among the various reasons for this is the very nature of the brightly-coloured glazed terracotta sculpture which became their hallmark. As a technique, it comes half-way between ceramics and sculpture, so for many people is neither the one nor the other, whilst it can also too easily be condemned as gaudy and popularising. Perhaps our view of the Della Robbia remains to some extent affected by the twentieth century's violent prejudice against the certainties and tastes of its nineteenth-century forebears. In nineteenth-century Britain and America, the Della Robbia were immensely popular, their work striking a strong chord with pious Victorians. The donation in 1882 by the American collector Henry Marquand to the Metropolitan Museum of Art of a large altarpiece by Luca's son Andrea (1435-1525) led to a lifelong fascination with the work of the Della Robbia on the part of Marquand's son Allan (1853-1924), whose eight volumes of catalogues of the Della Robbia's work remain to this day the most important modern reference work on the sculptors.
There has however been a welcome revival in recent years of interest in the Della Robbia. In 1980 John Pope-Hennessy published a useful monograph on Luca della Robbia, whilst in 1992 the Italian scholar Giancarlo Gentilini provided us with an outstanding monograph on the Della Robbia and their followers and rivals, the Buglioni. Gentilini went on to organise two major exhibitions on the Della Robbia, to which new generations of young Italian scholars contributed, and which both benefited from new programmes of scientific research, much of it carried out at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence under the leadership of the late Maria Grazia Vaccari. This led to further programmes of research in collaboration between French and Italian laboratories and a good exhibition in the Della Robbia in French collections, curated by Marc Bourmand and held in Nice and Sèvres in 2002.
It is perhaps a little surprising, given the early interest in the Della Robbia in the Anglo-Saxon world, that the present show should be the first ever monographic exhibition on their work in America. Marietta Cambareri's beautiful show is however an eloquent and convincing demonstration of why, at its best, the glazed terracotta work of Luca della Robbia and his descendants is worthy of greater attention than it has tended to receive. The exhibition opened in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which was given three works by the Della Robbia on its opening in 1876 and subsequently acquired others, making it today one of the most important collections of their work in North America. In Boston the exhibition was shown in a single room, whereas the more spacious installation in the National Gallery of Art, Washington (where this reviewer saw it) meant that exhibits were spread across six separate spaces. Juxtapositions between the sculptures were carefully thought-out and they were beautifully displayed and lit.
The first room introduced the key members of the Della Robbia dynasty, Luca, his nephew Andrea, and Andrea's son Giovanni (1469-1529/30). As you walked up the West Sculpture Hall of the National Gallery of Art, you were as it were invited in by Giovanni della Robbia's huge tympanum depicting the Resurrectionfrom the Brooklyn Museum, made in the early 1520s for the Antinori family in Florence (main image). This striking work, in some respects the great discovery of the exhibition, had been taken off display and half-forgotten some years ago in Brooklyn, but was conserved for the exhibition. Its astonishingly vibrant colours formed a complete contrast to the other sculptures in the first room, which were all made with the more usual white glaze applied to the figures, against a blue background. Also newly conserved was an enormous allegorical roundel of Prudence by Andrea della Robbia, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the double-faced figure of the Virtue set in a roundel, framed by a superb garland frieze of fruits and flowers. Three smaller reliefs of the Virgin and Child and the Nativity, all attributed to Luca, were displayed on the opposite wall. They served to demonstrate the challenges in distinguishing the work of Luca from that of Andrea; indeed, what should be called Luca? The ethereal Virgin and Childfrom the Bargello, from the early 1440s, seemed a world apart from the slightly stiff sculpture of the same subject from the Toledo Museum of Art, attributed to Luca or to Andrea, but dated some twenty years later. Luca's Nativity from Boston demonstrated, as did the Prudence, the sophisticated way in which larger reliefs were modelled in closely interlocking sections, which were assembled after firing.
The exhibition eschewed a chronological approach, instead focusing on types of representation. Thus in the next room, the West Garden Court, were placed three three-dimensional sculptures, first among them Andrea della Robbia's portrait of a boy from the Bargello, in its masterly naturalism at least the equal of Desiderio da Settignano's famous marble busts of young children. It provided the prelude to the greatest masterpiece in the exhibition, Luca della Robbia's sublime life-size group of The Visitation, lent from the church of San Giovanni Fuorcivitas in Pistoia. Just to see this great sculpture, newly conserved and sympathetically shown against a plain niche background, would justify a trip to Washington. The Virgin Mary and Saint Elizabeth embrace gently, the older woman on her knees, the psychological interaction between the innocent young girl and the elderly Elizabeth intensely moving. TheVisitation was placed at a crossing point between galleries, so that you could go from it into the early or the later Venetian galleries or, of course, into the next room in the exhibition. Entitled 'Blue, White and Beyond', this looked at the workshop's trademark work in white, usually against blue backgrounds, and to issues of replication.
Versions of two of Luca's most beautiful compositions, the Madonna of the Lilies and the Madonna of the Niche, were shown next to each other, providing fascinating comparisons. Whilst it would in principle, be relatively easy to make virtually identical multiple examples of a model, once a master mould had been prepared, it remains unclear to what extent the Della Robbia actually did this, even with such apparently routine sections as friezes. The two versions of the Madonna of the Lilies clearly differed in a number of respects, whilst only the central figure group from the two Madonnas of the Niche seemed to have come out of the same mould. Other outstanding works in the room included a gently polychromed statue of the seated Virgin and Child from the Oratory of San Tommaso Aquino in Florence, in which the interplay of the mother's and the child's hands is especially sensitively modelled. Also the small altarpiece with Andrea della Robbia's Adoration of the Christ Child, now in the National Gallery of Art, but in the nineteenth century one of the most treasured possessions of John Ruskin, who wrote of Luca that he 'is brightly Tuscan, with the dignity of a Greek; he has English simplicity, French grace, Italian devotion…'. In this room too we met for the first time the work of Benedetto Buglioni (1459/60-1521), who probably worked for a time in the Della Robbia workshop, before setting up as a rival in the glazed terracotta technique.
Many of the works that Benedetto and his talented kinsman, Santi Buglioni (1494-1576), produced were long subsumed into those of the Della Robbia, although in reality they are usually stylistically quite distinct, especially those of Santi, who developed a highly individual nervous mannerist style. The final room of the exhibition is in fact dominated by three near life-size figures of saints attributed to Santi Buglioni, John of Capistrano, Bernardino of Siena and Francis (?), the latter with what is almost certainly a later head. These sculptures not only push the technique of casting large glazed terracotta figures to its limit, but are masterpieces of expressive modelling, which go well beyond the Della Robbia's generally rather gentle style. Nevertheless, Giovanni's bleak Pietà from the National Gallery of Art in the same room was a lesson in expressivity, a reminder that Andrea della Robbia and his sons were strong supporters of the religious reforms unleashed in Florence at the end of the fifteenth century by the Dominican preacher Fra Giovanni Savonarola. Benedetto Buglioni's half-length bust of Saint John the Baptist demonstrated the deep sensitivity of which he was capable when at his best, whilst a charming small group by Giovanni della Robbia depicting the Christ Child meeting the Baptist in the desert exemplified more popularising trends in religious sculpture in the early sixteenth century.
Two of Andrea's sons, Marco and Francesco, became Dominican friars themselves, although they continued to practise as sculptors in the Marches region of Italy. The exhibition does not examine the later works of Andrea's sons, which vary considerably in quality, with the exception of a fine group of the portrait busts produced by another son, Girolamo, who moved to France to work in the service of King Francis I. Girolamo's portrait of Francis from the Metropolitan Museum, resplendent in a feathered cap, stares across at Santi Buglioni's three ascetic saints. These works are worlds away from Luca and Andrea's gentle empathetic Madonnas, their positioning cleverly demonstrating how far the Della Robbia and the Buglioni had travelled in the course of a century. It was typical of the many intelligent juxtapositions that are to be found throughout this thought-provoking and immensely rewarding exhibition, which should certainly win new friends and respect for Luca della Robbia and his successors.
The exhibition is accompanied by a book by Marietta Cambareri, with contributions from Abigail Hykin and Courtney Leigh Harris, Della Robbia. Sculpting with Color in Renaissance Florence, Boston 2016. ISBN 9780878468416. $45.
Main image: Girolamo della Robbia, Francis I (1494-1547), King of France, 1529, glazed terracotta 44.5cm., Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of George Blumenthal, 1941 (photo: courtesy of National Gallery of Art, Washington)
'Della Robbia: Sculpting with Color in Renaissance Florence', National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA, 5 February – 4 June 2017.


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|What is Tom Cruise's Height?
What is his height in inches & feet?
Find it out here in All Height.
Here are some information about the height of Tom Cruise.
Name: Tom Cruise
in Meters: 1.70 m
in Centimeters: 170 cm
in Inches: 66.929 in
in Feet: 5.576 ft
in Feet & Inches: 5ft 7in
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About Tom Cruise.Tom Cruise probably has the most mysterious height in Hollywood. People wonder on how tall or how short he is, he seem like an average height dude on his movies but he looks so short in his internet pictures. A respected website says Tom Cruise is 1.70 m tall, which would be 5'7". Yeah, I know, you also don't think he is, you probably thought that maybe he is 5'10" or 5'11" because of the movies. He has no problem on movie scenes; they can make them look tall with some camera tricks to match the height of the leading lady. It was said, based on the internet pictures of Tom Cruise, that he use's some techniques to look tall on live appearances. One of those are shoes that has monster heels, which would give anyone who wears it some 2-3 inches, cool isn't it. Then you can add a height extender on the inside that would give you some more 1 to 2 inch of height. But of course there are many more popular personalities who does or wear this things for them to look taller. Some say height is important and that it makes you look better or feel better. The height of Tom Cruise is 5ft 7in, that makes him 170cm tall.
Tom Cruise Height in Movies
In the movies, there are some stars that needs to look tall or there is a requirement for a specific height for a character. But what if the actor or actress doesn't meet the height requirement? Movie productions use some camera tricks to make the stars in a movie look taller, which would greatly affect how the actor or actress' appeal to the viewers.
Tom's height is one of the common subject that comes in mind. He has been on several movies where he was made to appear tall. Just by basic techniques the not so tall actor will appear as an average height lead act, and this adds toughness to a character, especially to the action stars category where Tom is in.
Tom Cruise Compared To My 5ft 10in (177cm) HeightTom Cruise's height is 5ft 7in or 170cm while I am 5ft 10in or 177cm. I am taller compared to him. To find out how much taller I am, we would have to subtract Tom Cruise's height from mine. Therefore I am taller to him for about 7cm.
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If there is every a country where you can do your own thing, Sweden is it. You can get by in English and in terms of personal safety, it's about as good as it gets (naturally, standard common sense applies). However, if you're traveling solo and want to meet up with fellow wanderers, or you simply can't be bothered to figure out the details yourself, there are several tour options available.
Organized trips from North America
Visit Sweden has a list of North American tour operators that offer guided trips to Sweden. Sweden is also a stop on several of Contiki's travel packages for travelers aged 18 to 35. There are various options ranging between 11 days and 20 days and including different combinations of Russia, Scandinavia, Finland and the Baltics. Prices are USD 1,745 and up (excluding airfare).
Outdoor activities
There are many local operators that can help you arrange everything from kayaking in the Stockholm archipelago to dog sledding in Lappland. Try Svea Adventures, which offers outdoors and eco-adventures including horseback riding, hiking, cycling, sea kayaking and paddling, as well as winter activities ranging from dogsledding to cross-country skiing. If you are planning a trip to Kiruna, be sure to get in touch wit husky musher Mikael Forsen of Northern Nature Experience. He runs a kennel with 46 Alaskan huskies (plus a few litters of tiny sled-dogs-in-training) and can also help arrange everything from rafting to hiking in the summer.
City tours
You can book your own authorized guide through the Stockholm Visitors Board. There are currently around 280 guides who speak 30 languages. These include archipelago guides, taxi drivers and authorized guides for other types of tours. Examples include walking tours of the city, visits to museums, guided tours with special themes, and guided bus and boat tours. Sightseeing tours by taxi can be booked for either a fixed price for a specific route or by meter according to your preferences. To book a guide, contact Stockholm Visitors Board, Guide Reservation Office. Tel +46 8 508 285 08 , Fax +46 8 508 285 09, or e-mail [email protected]
Boat tours
Stockholm Sightseeing offers a Stockholm Winter Tour, which takes you out on the water on an ice-breaking boat to the inner archipelago. After passing the city's quays, the boat heads to the idyllic archipelago islands of Fjäderholmarna. Tours daily from Strömkajen (in front of the Grand Hotel) run from mid-December to early April. Price: SEK 170 (USD 26). They also offer a range of other boat and bus tours.


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Review: Xenoblade Chronicles X/
Who would have thought that the Xeno series, which began life as the beloved Xenogears on the PSX, would take so many forms throughout the years? Director Tetsuya Takahashi went on to create the developer Monolith Soft and the operatic Xenosaga trilogy for PS2, which he deemed a 'spiritual prequel' to Xenogears, before moving on to the highly acclaimed Wii JRPG, Xenoblade Chronicles.
Now the latest game in this rich series has been released as a Wii U exclusive and the verdict is in. The developers promised one of the most beautiful overworlds of all time, a class-based evolution to Xenoblade Chronicles' real-time battle system, the ability to pilot giant mecha (Skells), and an original epic about the last remnants of humanity struggling to survive on an alien world. That's a lot to promise.
After 100+ gameplay hours, I've come to the conclusion that in terms of level design, this is one of the best games I've ever played. The developers deserve props for crafting a mesmerizing overworld that is easy to navigate, with megafauna monsters, hostile alien outposts, and hidden treasures all easily accessible via heaps of warp points.
The planet Mira proves to be a host of natural wonders that dwarf anything possible to navigate on Earth. The maps are silky and textured with attention to detail, and bear no repeating topographical elements. Though the game runs at 720p, the framerate is locked at 30fps and despite unobtrusive loading times, there is surprisingly never any draw-in from the background (however I did observe minimal draw-in from distant enemies while in a Skell). Reduced gravity on Mira lets human characters leap great heights, adding to the free-form feeling of the environments.
The MMO-like battle system allows for a range of different builds. Depending on your class you can build up damage with your regular rotation before unleashing a killing blow, or stun multiple enemies in a region and let your allies finish them off. Activating the critical Overdrive mode allows the player to chain attacks nonstop to rack up incredible amounts of damage and this is where customization really comes into play.
The class system is pretty straightforward. Three base classes expand to six advanced classes, and those in turn lead to six final classes. You can level up unique melee and support Arts all across your characters, but the class distinctions between your other party members are fixed. This is a bit of a wasted opportunity, because you're stuck with Elma and Lin for most of the story and Affinity Missions that are necessary for progress.
Mechanized combat with the transforming Skells is equally fun. Similarly to on-foot combat, weapons cover a wide range, including shoulder-mounted missile launchers, mini-guns, swords, katanas, spears, and even photon beams. They can also fly across the map. Skells are expensive, consume fuel, and can be destroyed in battle, so it's wise to exit the cockpit and continue the fight on foot if ever things get hairy.
You can also add to your party the avatars of your friends, who can be found waiting in the hub, and level them up to net small rewards for both parties. Along with Miiverse posts counting as a sort of limited group chat, the multiplayer elements may be half-baked, but they do add some spice to the game.
Despite its depth and wealth of content, Xenoblade Chronicles X is not a perfect game. It suffers from several core flaws, such as a pretty standard story told in weird chunks between lengthy side missions and an uneven soundtrack from Hiroyuki Sawano (composer of "Attack on Titan" and "Kill la Kill").
While the story of the game could easily have been its focal point, for most of the campaign we're dealing with a simple tale of survival and adaptation. The final missions provide some significant twists and take the story from being below average to above average, but even after 70+ hours, it still feels like the game ends abruptly.
Perhaps the weaker story is inherent to the nature of the game the developers set out to make – a hybrid single-player JRPG with MMORPG elements such as short pick-up missions that net meager rewards, huge world bosses, and passive events that allow players to contribute in killing specific enemies to gain global rewards. Given all this material it's hard to fault the lack of personality for the avatar character, who is of course silent and afflicted with amnesia.
Another major issue for me was the game's over-reliance on seriously lengthy domestic sub-quests, some of which are less than compelling and pack little challenge, to move the story forward. In order to keep the Affinity Missions from losing their challenge, I recommend playing them as soon as they become available, rather than saving them for when you are too high-leveled and they become a chore.
As for Sawano's music, it's a total fusion of every influence you can name – rock, hip-hop, house, jazz, Hans Zimmer, etc, and some of it is awesome. Wir fliegen (Overdrive Theme) and Uncontrollable (Tyrant Theme) stand out as cool songs you won't ever get tired of. The main battle theme Black tar is a solid blend of genres as are the energetic overworld themes. But other tracks go for a '90s hip-hop/jazz vibe with distorted guitars and fall flat. The two tracks that play in the central hub are so bad that I literally mute my volume every time I go back to New LA and play something off my laptop instead. Just the thought that millions of players have been inflicting themselves with that music makes me want to cry.
In conclusion, if you're looking for a mission-based, hundred-plus hour game that immerses you in its universe with a beautiful overworld, addicting battle and class systems and fun mecha combat, you won't be disappointed in Xenoblade Chronicles X. When this game first came out, I was glued to it nearly every moment of my free time. The story's nothing to write home about, but the pace and themes do pick up towards the end of the campaign. Mr. Takahashi and his team have crafted an enrapturing and transporting experience into another world that really must be played to be believed.
Reviewed By: Joseph Choi
+ One of the most beautiful and epic overworlds in any game
+ Solid combat, class, and Skell (mecha) battle systems
+ Addicting exploration elements
+ Unobtrusive and welcome online elements
- Hit and miss soundtrack with a few great songs, some decent, some bad, and some terrible
- Not enough variety or suspense in the required Affinity Missions, some of which are glorified fetch quests
- The story is not the focal point, unlike most classic JRPG


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Dec 2, 2018
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If you like monster truck and snow here on vitallitygames.com we got the perfect online winter challenge called Snow Truck Extreme games. Play online for free this fun and intense winter racing Snow Truck Extreme games on vitalitygames.com. Prove you are skilled skilled enough, the snow and ice won't stand a chance against your awesome truck driving skills! Make sure you are fast enough and you do not lose and fuel or speed on the way. It will be snowing the entire time and there are also some very terrifying yeti creatures attacking you, while you are going up the slippery mountain. There are four areas to travel in and your goal is to reach the end of the distance. To play the game use your arrow keys to drive and your X key to use NOS. Enjoy free online winter truck driving games here on vitalitygames and be the best truck driver online from this new Snow Truck Extreme games! Good luck!
driving monster truck racing shooting truck winter


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You Already Are The Person You Want To Be
Are you sick of failing at new years resolutions?
If so, you'll enjoy this article I wrote for Sian's latest issue of The Unmistakable Effect. We're also featured as the front cover image! We're so excited to see our work out in the wild.
Anyway, I wanted to share with you guys the full article I wrote for the magazine. If you enjoyed this, you'll enjoy plenty more where that came from in issue 5! >>> Click here to find out more >>>
It's the new year, that time of year where you can start over and be the best version of yourself. The person you've always wanted to be.. Its that time to accomplish all of those things you wanted to accomplish last year, time to really get your life together. You set out with goals, resolutions, and big dreams of your future self; only to be quickly slapped in the face a few weeks in. Now you are back into your habits and routines you did last year. "WTF is wrong with me?" You beat yourself up over not eating broccoli 7 days a week or checking off your 100 task todo list.
New Year's goals and resolutions are kind of stupid. Actually, no. They are really just a waste of time. Why do we feel like we have to be better than who we actually are? Why do we have to make all these goals ONLY on New Year's day? It's similar to starting exercise and healthy habits..you tell yourself "Monday, i'll start my new routine." As if Monday or the new year is some magical fucking day where you won't eat 10 chocolate cupcakes in a row.
So what if you really do want to accomplish something? Or create goals for yourself?
How about we do something completely out of the ordinary and focus less on our goals, and more on what we already have.
When we focus on what we do have, and what we have accomplished. It will help us discover that we don't need a special day to make big changes. That big huge changes happen over small daily adjustments or smaller daily tasks. At the time, deciding to eat broccoli instead of those cupcakes for lunch may not seem like that big of a deal. But the small decisions you make every day, will in the long run be a much bigger goal.
I've got a simple tip for you. Instead of writing down your goals like I want to be 150lbs by June. Or I want to make $10,000 a month. BE the person that IS 150lbs. Be the person that makes $10,000 a month. It's literally that simple folks. We often let our minds get in our own way and we tell ourselves "I'll never be able to lose weight." "I only ever make $1,500 a month." Just think about it, sit there and think what would someone that weighs 150lbs eat for lunch today? Pizza? Or a well balanced meal with a lot of vegetables and protein? What would someone that makes $10,000 a month be doing right now? Would they be sitting on the couch watching Netflix for 16 hours a day? Or would they be using that 16 hours to plan out their next idea for generating more income? It's THAT simple. It doesn't take a New Year or another Monday to be that person. You can be that person RIGHT NOW. All that matters is today. Right now. Add in a dash of belief in yourself and there you have it. A new you. The person you want to be. Immediate results.
Are you having trouble just doing it? Having trouble with self discipline? Can't turn off that Netflix and head to the gym because you are telling yourself that you are tired, and you could do it tomorrow?Are you telling yourself you don't have enough time to work 16 hours on the weekend on your new $10,000 project idea? Fuck that. That's an excuse. Everything is an excuse. Some of them are legit, but rarely are your excuses EVER a good one.
Here's a great tip: Stop thinking about doing it, and just fucking do it already. Don't think about how. Don't think about your checklist. Just do the damn thang.
So put away those checklists, and resolution charts. Just practice every day that you wake up. Who do you imagine yourself being? Then, go out and be just that. Every minute of every day, be that person. Make those decisions that lead you down the right path. You don't have to think about HOW LONG it will take you to get there. You only have to think about doing what that person you envision would be doing. It's as simple as that.
Oh, and don't forget to believe that you already have it. You already ARE the person you want to be. Focus on what you have already, and focus on what you can do right now.
Click here to check out the full issue of the Unmistakable Effect


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Coagulation typically occurs in 15 minutes, reports HowStuffWorks. Inside blood are cells called platelets that, combined with proteins, stop blood from flowing. Many factors, such as diseases, disorders, and medications, can impact the amount of time it takes for blood to clot.
There are 13 different clotting factors involved in blood coagulation, according to the National Hemophilia Foundation. If there is a deficiency in production, or if the body produces a defective form, then an individual may develop a bleeding disorder. Depending on how extreme the condition is, the disorder can cause mild symptoms such as nosebleeds to severe symptoms such as internal bleeding. Medications, such as aspirin, heparin and warfarin, in the bloodstream also impact coagulation.


text: Tax credits are payments from the government. If you're responsible for at least one child or young person, you may qualify for Child Tax Credit. If you work, but are on a low income, you may qualify for Working Tax Credit. You can often get both types of tax credits. They aren't taxable.


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The Brompton Cocktail project, conceived by curator Jane Withers for the 10th anniversary of the Brompton Design District, brought together 15 designers or design studios that have been part of Brompton's success over the last decade.
Based on the legend of the original Brompton Cocktail administered for palliative care at the Royal Brompton Hospital in the 1920s, the brief was to design a cocktail, either real, realisable or conceptual.
As the project manager, I worked closely with Jane Withers Studio to deliver four main elements: a sponsored event for 300 invited guests with cocktails by contributing designers; a limited edition book of the cocktail recipes; an installation by Arabeschi di Latte combining the cocktail book, slideshow of Brompton's past exhibitions and a cocktail bar; and a communications strategy with independent PRs.
The graphics and book were designed by StudioP2P.


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Five years ago, a group of my best girls and I decided to take "friend" photos. I don't even know where we got this idea, but here we are five years later, still getting together in Texas, organizing our growing families, booking a photographer and taking group photos. It's probably the best idea we've ever had….definitely better than the time we decided to ride a ferry to Galveston with bras on our heads. Every. Single. Year I look forward to these photos and seeing how much our group has grown. (Will we ever stop having kids???) This year we will have grown by two new baby girls, but sadly, we were missing a big portion of our "group". Sommer, a fourth of our group, has four little people of her own and one (maybe 2?) of them had fallen sick so her and her crew were unable to make the photo. It only makes sense that at some point, with this many kids, this would happen.
We still went through with the planned photoshoot, but we plan on doing another next time I'm in town (new baby in tow!). It just wasn't the same without ALL of us. However, the photos we got with the ones that could make it, still turned out beautiful, with one exception: my hair! Holy humidity! My beautiful freshly curled, natural-looking-waves went flat and bleh-looking in about 5 seconds. Thanks a lot coastal rainy weather!
It's hard to believe there were 2 adults and 4 kids missing from this photo! OR, that there will be an extra baby next time!
Our dear talented photographer friend Simone took our photos again, and as always she did a bang up job. I don't know where she finds her patience and ability to work with such a large group, but she has a real gift.
We try to pick a theme for each photshoot and this year we chose a "boho" theme. I've got to be honest and say that Danica and Misti's dresses look so much better than mine! Between my hair and dress choice, I'm kind of happy we get to re-take our photos sometimes this summer! Hmmm, what should the next theme be???
Luna definitely rocked the "boho" look. Thanks Target!
Our little bohemian princess just loves daddy kisses and tickle attacks!
Our family of three…soon to be four!
In the middle of the photo session, Luna remembered she had pockets and was pleasantly surprised to find she had previously stuffed them with toys. Oh look, there's a Minnie Mouse in my pocket, sweet!
And, of course, no photoshoot is complete without Husband sneaking around with our camera taking "behind the scenes" photos.
I just love how Orion looks like he's in wizardry school, Expelliarmus!
If you are located in or near Southeast Texas, you've got to hit up Simone, ST Photography, for your local photo needs! Thanks Simone for always treating us so wonderfully!
Also, in case you missed our previous years, here's the photoshoots from year one, year two, year three and year four. I just love going back to see how our families have grown! Such good memories!!!


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Mujhse Dosti Karogi is film about three friends. Hrithik Roshan, Rani Mukherji, Kareena Kapoor are in this movie. Hrithik plays Raj, Rani plays Puja, and Kareena plays Tina. The story begins with a friendship in three children and their parents. Raj's (Hrithik) father shifts in
She also sends e-mail his regularly with the name of Tina. She thinks if she said everything then Raj would be never send any e-mail. So, it is continuing over fifteen years. One day Raj sends a e-mail that he will come with his family. So Puja convinces Tina that she will say that she has written all this e-mail. Raj comes back
One time Raj said that her about a church and a tune. Raj listen this tune from a church and he sent that by e-mail. As Puja comes in
When he has listened this tune from Puja all is clear for him. He accepts Puja as his lover and fiancée. First Puja cannot accept that but Raj says that he loves her because he loves her who writes e-mail. Then Puja accepts it and they make plan that they say family members about their relation, but when they reached in their home, they have invented that Tina's father died. Tina does not know anything, which has happened between in Raj and Puja. It harts Puja's hurt. He says Raj she does not take Tina's love. She says Raj, that Tina has no parents; she has only loves of Raj. If she takes this it makes her alone. First, Raj does not accept this, but after he agrees and gives a condition for Puja, that Puja will also choose for her.
First, Puja does not accept that, but after she choices a guy and they all get angezment each other. Their marriage also fixed in same day. At the end of the movie, climax has come. Raj's mother says Tina she has a bangle. It is their old and respectable bangle, which she got from her mother-in-law. She also wants to give this Tina as daughter-in-law. She promises to Tina, she will give it in her marriage day, but Raj has given it Puja, when he has expressed his love for Puja. On marriage day, Tina finds that bangle on Puja's jewelry box. Then she understands all things. In the last stage of movie we find that Tina cancels her marriage with Raj and explain all matters. It is bad for Tina, but she happy for her friends. Thus, the hero and the heroine meet with each other. The movie is end to show with their marriage ceremony.


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The Vancouver School of Theology is called to educate and form thoughtful, engaged and generous Christian leaders.
Our Theological Foundations
- God calls a people from and for the world to be a blessing for all creation.
- The God revealed in the history of Israel and in Jesus Christ, calls us to think together with tradition for the sake of the present and the future.
- We meet God's image in our neighbour and in all creation.
An education at VST invites:
- Faithful discernment of the demands of Christian service.
- Rigorous engagement with Christian tradition and contemporary learning.
- Hospitable and respectful collaboration with Indigenous spiritualties and other cultures and faith traditions for the good of all creation.
As a community of faith, we commit to:
- Theological education (theological, biblical, pastoral, ethical, historical, Indigenous and inter-religious studies) and formation for the flourishing of God's people.
- Inspiring lives of discerning Christian discipleship within and outside this community.
- Respect for the dignity of every person.
- Learning and scholarship undertaken with diligence and openness.
- Encouraging prophetic speech and just action for the love and welfare of creation.
- Increase our commitment to educating and forming ministry-bound students for transformative leadership, while continuing to support existing research-oriented programmes.
- Inspire excellence in teaching and learning for God's people, and share that learning in multiple venues.
- Cultivate our relationships with denominations that currently support us and continue ecumenical expansion, locally and internationally.
- Increase our capacity to use information technologies for teaching, and research and programmatic outreach with diverse external publics.
- Build the VST reputation and nurture a greater community of relationships, e.g., with Indigenous peoples, other religious traditions, UBC, neighbourhood theological colleges.
- Strengthen our recruitment of 'first-choice' applicants from Canada, the Pacific North West and draw students from diverse backgrounds.
- Create long-term financial strength, stability and confidence in the school with responsible stewardship.
- Enhance full-time faculty through deliberate recruitment and retention, to complement our current faculty.
- Sustain and develop a staff, faculty and board who enthusiastically support the vision and mission of the school.