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Indian Muslims Need Not Be Cynical About Modi's Positive Comment
| by N.S.Venkataraman
( September 25, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) It is refreshing to read Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comment that Indian Muslims will live for India and die for India. While there are pledged admirers of Mr. Modi, there also appear to be pledged critics, who have already commented as to whether Mr. Modi meant what he has said.
It remains to be seen how the Indian Muslims would view Mr. Modi's comment and whether they would respond to his observations with enthusiasm. There is no doubt that at least some Muslims in India view Mr. Modi and his party with suspicion. Perhaps, Mr. Modi wants to reassure them that there is no need for such suspicions and misgivings about the intentions of his government.
In any case, the Muslims , whether they are moderates or extremists, have nothing to gain by disputing Mr. Modi's observations and should use this opportunity to integrate themselves with the main stream of national life even more than what they already do now.
The fact is that the Islamic extremists in Pakistan and other parts of the world are causing embarrassment for peace loving Muslims living all over the world, by resorting to violence and terrorist activities in the name of defending Islam. Unfortunately, many governments in the world these days scrutinise the activities of Muslim citizens more closely than they should , in view of the terrorist activities of a few Muslims in some part of the world.
The number of Muslim citizens of India are more than the population of entire Pakistan which is a declared Muslim country. While some clashes have taken place in India between Muslims and others in the past, it is necessary to keep in mind that majority of Muslims are not involved in such clashes, just as the fact that majority of Hindus are also not involved. What Mr. Modi has meant by his statement was that he recognised the patriotic fervour of millions of Muslims in India and wanted to distinguish between the majority Muslims and a fraction of Muslim population who believe in terrorist activities with the objective of spreading Islamic religion. Mr. Modi's observations are also directed at non Muslim population in India , to ask them not to view the Muslims with unnecessary suspicions. By making such observations, Mr. Modi has made it clear that his vision of India has broad national focus and he has no narrow outlook. If any of Mr. Modi's so called supporters think that Mr. Modi has any sectarian vision , he wanted to make it clear to them that they were absolutely wrong.
It is true that there is lot of poverty amongst Muslims in the country and they need the active support of the government to improve their social and economic conditions. Muslims must make use of the right climate now sought to be created by Mr. Modi by responding positively and forging ahead to achieve greater heights in education, profession , arts and other aspects of life.


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Vacancy - Business Development Officer
£ 22,000 - £24,000 pro-rata (15 - 20 hours per week)
This is a new and challenging key role for a dynamic individual with a demonstrable track record in successful fundraising to support the development and realisation of Artlink Central's strategic vision and creative programme.
Artlink Central is a leading arts agency and charity in Central Scotland, developing artist led creative programmes for people with mental health issues, disabled people and those who face other social barriers. We use music, literature, storytelling, visual and performing arts to remove barriers that create or sustain inequality, and to discover and nurture creative talent in people, particularly emerging disabled artists.
The successful candidate will be able to develop new and existing sources of support and sustainable income. Sound business acumen together with strong communication and marketing skills are essential, as is the ability to liaise with key partners and demonstrate a commitment to Artlink Central's aims and objectives.
Application packs are available by emailing firstname.lastname@example.com, or from Administration, Artlink Central, Cowane Centre, Cowane Street, Stirling FK8 1JP. Completed applications must be returned by 12 noon on March 12th 2012.
To discuss the role informally, please contact Kevin Harrison on 01786 450971.

subset: commoncrawl


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I have been looking forward to today so much. Oh, you have no idea.
Because I'm tired. Wow, am I tired. I did the math on what I've done work-wise for clients over the past few weeks. It came out to the following metrics:
- 35 separate articles
- 22 interviews
- 25 hours of interview transcription (because some of those interviews were looooooonnnnnngggg)
- 2 proposals
- 15 hours of research
Oh, and I was away last weekend for the American Academy of Dermatology conference, which was MIND BLOWING and AMAZING. I have so much to tell you and so many questions to answer.
But, golly, am I tired. Like, my brain is broken. I have no creativity or ideas left. I can barely spell my own name.
Also, I'm getting that feeling again, that feeling I got all those years ago when I left corporate America to become a writer; that smothered, trapped, I-only-live-to-pay-bills feeling. I really, really dislike that feeling. I truly do. I've been thinking a lot between bouts of heavy-duty transcriptions and articles that I miss exploring and just getting out and remembering what it was like to be free.
And then it occurred to me that I was doing this all wrong. ALL wrong. I work for myself. Why not take Friday off? I mean, I could work to get "ahead" on things, but I know that I'm going to spend all day Saturday and Sunday working on things for this site (Finally, right? Because that would be nice.) I won't have the weekend to relax, so why not just take the day to do some exploring? Maybe I'll fall in love with New York again. Perhaps I'll fall in love with myself again.
Because I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm pretty pissed at myself for letting things get this far out of whack. I need to take myself out on a date, bring some flowers, and apologize. Maybe throw in some of that I'll-do-better-I-promise language I seem to remember working (sometimes.) But I feel odd talking about fashion and beauty and having the lifestyle you want when I know that I'm not really living that way right now. It's time to take a day to just relax, enjoy the weather, and think about what I want to do next.
So, today is Running Away Day. I'm camped out here at the Gansevoort Park Avenue for a brief bit, just relaxing. I have no idea where I'm going next. That's the most exciting thing ever. I have NO IDEA. But I have my camera, some snacks, comfy shoes, sunglasses, and an open mind.
Today, I am taking myself on a date. I'm going to take a long, leisurely look at the world and get into some great conversations about what I want to do and where I want to go. It's time to plan the next big step. I'll report what I find (and all those awesome tips from the AAD Conference I know you're dying to hear/I am dying to tell you about) starting Monday morning.
In the meantime, if you're feeling overwhelmed by life, tired, and in need of a change of scenery, why not join me? Not literally, but go for a walk. Take yourself on a date. Get to know yourself a little better, and see where life takes you. It might be the 24 hours that changes everything. I think today might be that kind of day for me.


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The SRC is the driving force behind a huge variety of services, events, and publications at Bishop's. We run The Gait and Doolittle's General Store, we support academic and non-academic clubs, and we organize all kinds of events on campus, from Frosh Week to Convocation. We are also responsible for several publications, including the Student Handbook, the Directory, The Mitre, and Quad Yearbook. Needless to say, we are a pretty busy bunch of Gaiters. Below are some of the main services, events and publications maintained by the SRC.
There's more to come!
The SRC in involved in a huge variety of ways on campus. This page isn't finished yet, so check back soon to get a better idea of everything we do for Bishop's students.


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Essential Zimbabwe Adventure
About this tour
This tour includes an adventurous, fully serviced, canoe safari in the Lower Zambezi National Park on the Zambezi River, game drives and walks in Hwange and a stay at Elephant Camp, which is just a short journey from the Victoria Falls. Our introductory price makes this unusal adventure great-value. Our Zimbabwe experts would be delighted to talk through travel in this spectacular country.
Day by Day
Day One - Flying
Depart from London Heathrow on direct overnight flight to Johannesburg.
Day Two - Lower Zambezi National Park
On arrival early morning taking connecting flight to Harare for light aircraft flight into the Lower Zambezi. On arrival at the airstrip the guide will transfer you into Ruckomechi Camp for the first night, to recover from your journey and ready yourself for the canoe safari departure.
Day Three - Zambezi River
You will gather around 2pm, to meet your guide and go through a thorough safety briefing, before heading off downstream in sturdy Canadian canoes to your first mobile camp, which is set up in advance and you will be greeted with a cold drink on arrival. This first afternoon is really to ease you into the river and show you the various paddle strokes required.
Day Four & Five - Zambezi River
Your daily schedule usually starts with an early morning wake up call just before dawn with tea/coffee and biscuits. Set off at sunrise for a 2 hour paddle, stopping for a guided game walk on the banks of the Zambezi River and a light snack before continuing on. In the heat of the day you stop in a shady lunch spot, which is usually salads, cold meats and fresh bread, where you can relax for a few hours. Afternoon activity may start with a short walk before canoeing to the camp for the night. At dusk, camp staff will be waiting with a refreshing drink and hot bush shower before dinner is served under the stars. You will cover about 20 to 25 kilometers (12 to 16 miles) per day, depending on wildlife movements.
Days Six to Eight - Hwange National Park
After breakfast by the river, you are transferred by Land Rover for light aircraft flight into Hwange National Park for a three night stay at Davison's Camp in the remote north eastern section of the park, with scheduled AM & PM game drives and opportunity for guided mid- morning walks.
Days Nine and Ten - The Elephant Camp
Scenic light aircraft flight to the Victoria Falls for a two night stay at Elephant Camp which is just outside of town. Your stay here includes a 10-15 minute elephant interaction and two transfers into Victoria Falls town per day.
Day Eleven - Fly Home
Return road transfer to the Victoria Falls Airport for return flight to Johannesburg for onward overnight flight to London.


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Emily Henderson has made it known that she is a glass grape fanatic, so whenever I see them, I think of her.
Thus, I have thought of her weekly, for four years, because there have been glass grapes in the New Girl living room since the pilot episode. They sit on a console table directly behind the sofa.
Do you seem 'em?!
And then, in season 4, episode 18, Schmidt picks them up and asked what the hell they are. Finally, someone is addressing the elephant in the room!


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Your First Visit:
During your first appointment, we will review you health history, perform a thorough dental examination, take the appropriate dental x-rays, and discuss our findings with you. We will also clean your teeth and gums and review any possible needed treatment as well. Please bring a list of any medications you are taking as well as any questions or desires you have regarding your teeth and their treatment. Also, feel free to discuss any concerns or desires you may have regarding your dental care.
After a cleaning appointment:
Your teeth will feel smooth and clean! If your hygienist performed a deep cleaning with numbing, your gums may be tender or slightly sore when the numbing wears off. Warm salt-water rinses and analgesics (Tylenol or Advil) will be very helpful. Of course, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact us.
After a filling or a crown:
While your mouth is still numb, take care not to bite your cheek or tongue. Its best not to eat until the numbing sensation is gone to prevent this. Stick to a soft diet for 24 hours after a filling to allow the filling to completely "harden." Be careful with a temporary crown and avoid overly hard or sticky foods. If the temporary crown comes off, call us and we will replace it. If your new filling or crown feels "high" when you bite, let us know right away. Advil or Tylenol can help to ease any post operative discomfort. Always call us if you have any questions or concerns.
On line forms:


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Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Wordless Wednesday
Posted by HubbleSpacePaws at 7:43 AM
Labels: LBC and family
12 comments:
How they grow! They won't fit the red boat much longer...ReplyDelete
Awww, so precious! But yeah, we'll see if they all fit in there in another week or two. LOL. :-)ReplyDelete
-Fuzzy Tales
awwww - love the big blue eyes!!ReplyDelete
Total sweetness!!!!!!!!!ReplyDelete
Love to all of you.
So so sweet. I love them at this age! (Oh, wait. I love them at every age. :D )ReplyDelete
Awwwwwwww!!! This is the most perfect wordless wednesday!!! Take careReplyDelete
Yay, kitten pile!ReplyDelete
Such a beautiful basket of love!ReplyDelete
That's a bed full of cute! :)ReplyDelete
kitten pile!ReplyDelete
Oh, my goodness. I just want to dive in there and snorgle them all!! What a lovely thing to have in your house right now. : )ReplyDelete
Aw, such a cute little pile of kittens!ReplyDelete
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


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Utility customers of Winder's city government will pay significantly more for residential sewer service starting June 1.
The Winder City Council on Tuesday night adopted sewer rates recommended by a consultant who recently completed a water and sewer rate study.
Bobby Sills of Nesnick Enterprises Inc. recommended the following for households inside the city limits:
•Increase the monthly base charge for sewer service to $17.80. That charge currently is $11.56 per month.
•No longer include in the base charge the treatment of the first 2,000 gallons of wastewater. At a new flat rate of $4.50 per 1,000 gallons of usage inside Winder, every household using at least 2,000 gallons of water will see sewer fees jump by another $9 per month.
•Base that unit charge on 90 percent of a city household's monthly water consumption. That charge currently is based on 80 percent of water usage.
Sewer fees to double for some customers
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Original Elska Art Print: "KÝLA"
Original Elska Art Print: "KÝLA"
Original Elska Print: "KÝLA"
This portrait is of Dan G, a subject featured in our elska BOGOTÁ colombia edition. He was photographed by Liam Campbell at his apartment in Bogotá in November 2017.
This is your chance to own an exclusive limited edition print from the making of Elska Magazine, perfect for framing!
Size: 11" H x 14" W (29cm x 36cm)
Printed on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308 g/m2 Premium Art Paper
Strictly Limited edition of 10
Signed by the artist and numbered (on back of print)
Letter of Authenticity
Frame and mat not included
Add To Cart


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Help TopicsExpand all | Collapse all
Customer Support
Print DHL eCommerce
DHL eCommerce in "Direct Mode"
To print DHL eCommerce shipping labels, you select a list of orders with assigned shipping methods a weight, and you press the "DHL" button.
Your current window will pop up a modal dialog, and a new window will display showing you all the generated DHL eCommerce labels.
Please note: you must turn on "background graphics" on your browser to print labels for shipping dangerous goods.
Print the labels, and then click "Mark Orders Shipped" on the modal dialog. All the printed orders will now be marked as shipped with tracking numbers.
End of Day
When you give the packages to DHL eCommerce driver, you must go to Teapplix "Order History => Batch History" page, and click on DHLGM End of Day button. This will do 2 things:
- It will print a "Driver Manifest", you need to print it and sign it and give it to your driver
- It will also cause Teapplix to upload a ESM file (Electronic Manifest) to your DHLGM FTP server. Make sure this happens without errors. If you experience an error, please verify your setup under Setup => DHL Global Mail, to make sure you did not enter in the wrong username and password etc, and then retry. If you still cannot resolve it, please contact Teapplix Support.
To cancel a label, go to Order History to find the order, and click on "unmark as shipped" link to move the order to Open Orders. Note that you should only do that before you generate the DSM for the day.
To reprint a DHL eCommerce label printed in direct mode, click "unmark as shipped" like above, and then print the label again. Teapplix will assign the same tracking number to this label. Note that you should only do this on the same day the original label is printed. Otherwise, the DSM / ESM generated above will be wrong.


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Desert Engagement Session by Leslie D Photography
Soft lighting, a beautiful couple and the sweetest of love stories, what more could we ask for! Jennifer and Scott's Arizona engagement session has our cool Canadian blood heating up. We simply adore these two, and Leslie D Photography did a beautiful job at capturing them in their element. The same place that Scott proposed only weeks prior!!!
From Leslie: Jennifer and Scott have had a whirlwind romance of less than a year! As soon as Scott met her it did not take long for him to know she was what he had been waiting for. Scott came to Arizona for work and it was destined he would come across Arizona native Jen and fall in love. Scott proposed at The Desert Botanical gardens just a few weeks before their engagement session. He chose an event called "Las Noches de las Luminarias" at the Garden. As nervous as he could be he guided her through Desert Botanical to the spot he had chose and proposed. This is why it was so fitting to document this special place for them for their Engagement Session.
~ xo Stacey ~


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In a 24-hour period that saw heads roll in the corner offices of Starbucks and Bear Stearns, two other companies – Sallie Mae and Krispy Kreme – canned their bosses to somewhat less fanfare.
The student loan giant and doughnut maker have one important thing in common, according to Cramer: Both are broken. And neither can be salvaged, no matter who is in charge.
Cramer doesn't think it matters that SLM just brought in Anthony Terracciano, one of his all-time favorite turnaround artists. SLM's business has been crumbling ever since Congress approved profit cuts for its federal loans. But Cramer's wouldn't bet that on the business of federal student lending being profitable anytime soon. SLM would need to repackage its loans and sell them as bonds to get anywhere – but the default rate is too high for that. Its hands are tied.
Questions for Cramer? email@example.com
Questions, comments, suggestions for the Mad Money website? email@example.com


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I needed to make a couple homing switch plates for a small desktop CNC I built, so I thought I would make a little workflow to help others.
The Part
The part is a small plate .75" x 1.75" x .0625". It has a couple slits to mount a roller switch and hole to attach it to the CNC.
The slits are for fine tuning, but the whole thing can be adjusted by moving the bolt holding the plate.
The CAD
CorelDraw is my goto CAD package for doing parts like this. Adobe Illustrator, or any CAD package for that matter will work, as long as it has an object export that is compatible with your CAM software.
In Corel, I design the part full size, and often use small CAD designed shapes or objects to help me position things.
In this case I used a small switch model for the roller switch I will be using. I use these switches alot in my designs and this little model makes it very easy to layout the mounting holes.
Once my part design is complete I export it using a format that my CAM software can use. In this case I could use DXF or EPS.
EPS works better as the DXF, does not create complete circles. This is more a issue with CorelDraws implementation of DXF than with the DXF format its self. I have used DXF with other CAD software packages without issues.
The CAM
I'm using VcarvePro as my toolpath designer (CAM). I like Vcarve because it is very intuitive. I have used other packages for various reasons, but really try to use Vcarve when I can.
To start a part based on a DXF or EPS file just start Vcarve, and drop the drawing file on to the open window.
You will be presented with a screen something like the screen shown here. Here you can set some of the properties for the stock you will be using.
One important setting is the XY Origin Setting. This allows you to setup how you want to reference your part. In this case I want to reference the part via the center.
By referencing the center, all I have to do is make sure my bit is centered in my stock and then Zero the X and Y axis. (More on this later)
If you were machineing holes in a part that is aready cutout, you would most likly refference the lower left corner. In that case you would have to make sure your bit is centered on that corner of your stock.
The first toolpath is the inside cutouts of the part. This part is simple so all the cutouts will be part of one toolpath. If I were doing a pocket or a drilling operation, I would create separate toolpaths for each operation.
The following feeds and speeds are what I will be using for this cut.
- Spindle RPM: 24000
- Feed: 20 IPM
- Plunge 20 IPM with .5" Ramp
- Conventional Cut
The cut will be a conventional one about .002 shy of the target so we can clean it up with a finish cut. Normally I would be using a .005" allowance offset, but the slits are a little to tight for that.
Please note that the above feeds and speeds a particular for the bit I am using which I will go into a little later.
The second toolpath will be a finish path for the inside cuts. Here I will take the bit the full depth of the stock and slowly cut out the small amount of material I left in the previous toolpath.
Feeds and Speeds:
- Spindle RPM: 24000
- Feed: 10 IPM
- Plunge 10 IPM with .5" Ramp
- Climb Cut
This cut will be a climb cut for a better finish.
The last toolpath is the outside profile. The previous two cuts were on the inside of the drawing lines. This cut will be on the outside of the drawing lines.
Feeds ans Speeds:
- Spindle RPM: 24000
- Feed: 20 IPM
- Plunge 20 IPM with .5" Ramp
- Conventional Cut
I'm not using any tabs, and because the part will be machined out of a piece of square tubing stock, it will just fall free when the cut is complete. Note that the air blowing on the part helps with this.
The downside of not using any tabs is that we cant do a finish pass on our part.
The last step in the CAM process is to save our toolpaths. Here I have selected all the toolpaths and am saving them to a file called "X Home Plate.txt"
Mach 3
I start Mach3 and load the saved gcode file "X Home Plate.txt"
Once the gcode is loaded, I get a window with the gcode text on the left and a window with the actual toolpaths on the right.
The toolpath drawing can be very helpful at identifiing problems, so get in the habit of looking it over when ever you load a file.
Mounting the Stock
I'm using some 1" square aluminum tubing that is 1/16" thick.
Notice how it is raised a little using parallels. This is important as the bit will be edging ever so slightly outside the tubing. If the top of the tubing was flush with the vise, I would probably break the bit when it hits the vise. At the very least I would mess up my vise jaws.
Even when using flat bar stock, you must take this into account. If I was using some 1/8" or 1/16" flat bar stock, it would need to be 1.5" deep as I not only need to stay away from the vise jaws, but the parallels the stock is sitting on as well.
In this case using square tubing and raising it above the jaws works perfect, and I can get away with milling 1" deep stock.
The Bit
The bit I will be using is an 1/8" Onsrud 63-610 O-Flute bit.
This bit was designed to be used milling aluminum. And while its a little price for such a small bit, I have yet to find one that works as well for its size.
You can pick one up here:
I mount the bit as far into the collet as I can without grabbing any of the flutes.
Setting the X,Y, and Z axis
X and Y
Since I referenced my part in the center when I created my toolpaths, I need to do so in Mach3. I move my tool to the center of the stock and hit the Zero X and Zero Y buttons. This set the X and Y points to zero where the bit is currently sitting.
Setting the Z axis is easy if you have a probe. Just place the probe plate under the bit and hit the probe button. The bit will seek out the plate and automatically set the bit to the top of the stock.
If you dont have a probe, you will have to slowly move the bit down until it just touches the stock, then hit the Zero Z button.
Now your ready to cut the part.
Running the Job
A few things first. If you dont have computer controlled spindle, make sure you have started the spindle and set the speed before starting the job.
I also like to make sure my blower and lube system is working before starting. If you dont have a blower, this part will probably still mill ok, since it is so thin. If you dont have a lube system, you can use a small oil squirter to apply some lube from time to time.
There are two types of lube I like to use. The first is the Trend Tool and Bit Cleaner.
I use this if I have to lube manually from a bottle.
If I am using my automated or push button activated system, I use some Sta-Lube Soluble Oil.
This lube is mixed with water, so its much more cost effective and works very well.
To start the job, hit the "Cycle Start" button. If you need to pause the job, you can hit the "Feed Hold" button. Note that the spindle will continue to spin. If you need to stop the job, you can hit the stop button.
Workflow Video
Here is a video I did of my workflow. It also shows the milling of the part.
My part turned out very well. I only had a tiny little clean up where the part fell away from the stock. A little rub on a fine sanding sponge did the trick.
I will use the exact same procedure to mill my other switch plates as well as other small parts I need to make.
The Onsrud 63-610 bit is a real work horse. You can see in this vedeo, I can push it twice as fast and it still performs.
Im not pushing the bit that fast as, they are a little pricey and if something goes wrong, things can go south very fast if you pushing the bit.
For the same reason, I am also using more lube than I normally would. This helps keep the bit from dulling prematuraly.
Going Further
I had one more switch plate to make. It will be used to replace this acrylic one I laser cut earlier. While the acrylic homing switch mount worked perfectly, it was prone to movement or damage if bumped.
The CAD drawing was again done in CorelDraw and exported as an EPS so I could import it into VcarvePro.
Again the EPS file was dropped onto an empty Vcarve screen and I set the stock properties.
In this case since I will be machining it out of a pre-cut piece aluminum stock, I set the reference points to the lower left corner, as shown here.
The cuts were made using the exact same settings as before.
As were the finish cuts. The only difference being the thickness of the part.
The toolpaths were saved and loaded into Mach3
Setting the X,Y, and Z axis
I will be setting my X and Y reference points to the front left corner so I start by touching the bit to the left side of the stock as shown here.
I then set the X DRO to -.0625 (half the diameter of the bit.
The bit is then moved to touch the front side of the stock as shown here.
I set the Y DRO to -.0625 (half the diameter of the bit.
The Z axis was set by using my probe.
The Job
With the file loaded into Mach3 and the axes set, I can run the job.
These process are certainly not the only way of making parts like this. I present it here for you as starting point for your own projects.


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Eurovision success may have eluded us in recent years but YOU could change all that.
If you've always thought the only thing stopping us winning the Eurovision Song Contest was the lack of, well, you, then now's your chance to prove it.
The brilliant people at UsVsTh3m and Blinkbox have created what may possibly be the best Eurovision Song Contest simulator game you've ever seen. It's THAT good.
The Eurosong Generator gives you the chance to choose a country, assemble your act, dress them up how you want, give them gimmicks galore (including kittens!) and make them sing about whatever you want, however you want. Basically it's as if Molly was your Puppet on a String.
Then all you have to do is sit back, relax and watch the performance and then let the tiny electronic judges of Europe award you points.
And as an added bonus you can live out your Eurovision dreams without the threat of 125 million people watching your potential humiliation.
Are you going for the win? Or aiming to hit that magical nil point?
So what are you waiting for? Clickety click your way to the game below.
Click here to head on over to UsVsTh3m to try your hand at Eurovision 2014
Don't forget to join MirrorTV for our live blog of the show itself - and see all the Eurovision magic so far here.
Here's how it works:
- Pick a country to represent - there are loads to choose from so have as many goes as you want to try and reach Eurovision victory
- Do your best Simon Cowell and put together your band, or have a solo artist if you don't want too many egos taking up room
- Choose what kind of singers they are - want to recreate Abba or is Loreen more your thing? Everything from country to 90s dance is up for grabs
- Pick your gimmicks! It's Eurovision so obviously there has to be gimmicks. Choices include kittens, grandmas, gold chains and Bucks Fizz style skirts - what's not to love?
- Hit play and watch your Eurovision entry perform! It's as easy as that. Just try and avoided the dreaded nul points score when they're judged by the tiny electronic judges of Europe


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Delurking December with Us
As is our tradition, December is a time to reflect on the year's milestones and to prepare for the year to come. There is so much to look forward to, and soon we will announce the exhibits for next quarter, and then the year.
We will be hand picking the best work from the studios of our collective artists and exchanging the work as space allows throughout the month to bring you the best possible selection for the art lovers on your list (whether naughty or nice)!
Current Collective Members include:
Chad Beroth *, Emily Beroth, Holland Berson, Les III, John D. Gall, Jack Hernon *, Lye Lawrence, Jacob Economy Leonard, Ian Miller, Jennifer O'Kelly *, Will Safrit, Kelly L. Taylor *, Hayden Tedder, Dane Walters *, Shane-Brumley Ward * and Dennis Wells.*
Resident Studio: Art-o-mat (Artists in Cellophane)
Publishing community member: "the Arrival Magazine"
* full time member
Entries accepted via email
Dec. 2-16
Opening Reception:
* Friday, Jan 6, 2017, 7-10pm
Show duration:
* Jan 6, 2017 - Jan 29, 2017
Gallery hours:
* 12-6pm Tues-Sat, 12-4 Sunday
Please check delurkgallery.com for updates and more information.
DADA Covered Dish
December 27, 2016
Celebrate the odd and exotic, the artful and magical of the Arthood with old friends and new at the Downtown Arts District Association's Annual Covered Dish and neighborhood awards event!


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With the flick of a wand, the experienced witch or wizard can turn peaches into pumpkins and hippos into hats. In the cool, well-lit Spellwork classroom, RMI students learn the arts of Transfigurations and Charms. From the day-to-day cleaning and packing Charms to more complicated, combinations of Charms and Transfigurations, students will stretch, grow and develop their most fundamental magical abilities in Spellwork class. And with luck and practise, their stretching and growing will be purely mental and not the result of a mislearned lesson.
Please do not post here unless your character has applied to and been accepted at RMI.
||Administrative Quarters||
||Finer Diner||
||Aquila|| ||Cetus|| ||Draco|| ||Lyra||
||Pearl Street Mall|| ||Theater|| ||Rec Center|| ||Reference Center|| ||Quidditch Pitch|| ||Classes|| ||OOC||
||Cultural Studies|| ||Defense Against the Dark Arts|| ||Herbology||
||Magical Sciences|| ||Potions|| ||Spellwork||
||The Foretelling Arts|| ||History of Magic|| ||Introduction to Healing||


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10 years of Bragg Jam: From heartfelt tribute to huge event
Julie Bragg looked at the faded photocopy of a picture that her husband, Jim, handed her. Her eyes welled up.
"I don't think I've seen this one before," she said.
The picture showed their late son, Brax, playing his acoustic guitar at Rose Hill Cemetery.
Brax and his brother, Taylor "Tate" Bragg, were killed in a car accident 10 years ago this month as they drove back to Macon from a cross-country road trip to Los Angeles.
Though the Braggs have come to grips with the death of their sons (the couple has two daughters as well), such a moment or memory can bring emotions to the fore.
This weekend, there will be plenty of memories with the return of Bragg Jam, the music festival that began as a tribute to the young men but has since grown into one of Macon's biggest events of the year.
Forty bands will play at eight venues across Macon on Saturday night. The event also includes a 5K fun run held last weekend, a charity auction tonight and a kids arts and crafts festival Saturday along the Ocmulgee Heritage Trail.
The Braggs said they don't mind that the focus of the festival has moved away from a tribute and gravitated toward the music.
"We kind of like it that way," Julie Bragg said. "It's moved past some of the beginnings."
"It belongs to the community now," Jim Bragg said.
Though Brax and Tate Bragg were born more than 10 years apart, they were very close, their parents said.
"It's hard to describe them," Julie Bragg said. "They were both very sweet and clean boys. They were both romantics."
Though Brax, who was 28 when he died, was the one who had formed a band and spent his days writing songs and poems, Tate had become known as a talented classical guitarist.
Tate was 17 when he died, a rising senior at Mount de Sales Academy. He had indicated to his parents that he'd like to work outdoors as a landscape architect when he grew up.
"Taylor would like to build something," Julie Bragg said. "He liked to do pottery. ... Brax was more of an intellectual."
Russell Walker was one of Brax Bragg's closest friends and remembers his joie de vivre, often convincing Walker to do crazy things.
"He was a man about town, a man of the world," Walker said. "He was a good-spirited, kind-hearted guy. He was a thinker. He loved to have fun, loved wine, women and song. ... He had an ongoing commentary on the world that was unique and entertaining."
Once, Walker was taking a philosophy class at Mercer University from a professor named Tom Trimble, who was from New Orleans. Brax Bragg convinced Walker to skip class and head to New Orleans for Mardi Gras — on the day of the final exam.
"He convinced me that Tom Trimble would skip the class and go himself," Walker recalled with a laugh.
Trimble did scold Walker when he returned — but he allowed him to take the final.
"At the time, I was real nervous," Walker said. "Now, I think it's the best thing I ever did. (Brax) convinced me that life was bigger than a philosophy class or an exam."
His death convinced Walker to go to law school, he said.
"It was kind of, 'If you don't do it, you'll always regret it,' '' Walker said. "That was (Brax's) philosophy."
Walker and another friend, Kirby Griffin, published a book of Brax Bragg's songs and poems.
"(Brax) was a Renaissance man," Griffin said. "He was almost a throwback to someone like the Romantic poets, like (Lord George Gordon) Byron or (Percy Bysshe) Shelley or (Samuel Taylor) Coleridge. He lived life to the extreme."
Despite their age difference, Tate Bragg began hanging out with his brother's crowd, Walker said.
"Tate was becoming a contemporary of ours," he said. "He was smart. He was a good musician. He was cool."
One way the family remembers the two is with a memorial garden maze on the grounds of their home. The maze, designed with rocks from all over the country in concentric circles, isn't just a memorial to the brothers, but to children born in Macon who have died tragically.
"It's a sacred garden," Julie Bragg said. "It's a symbol of life."
She noted that to view the maze from above — the brothers' perspective — is to see a perfect path. But walking along the path, there are stumbling blocks such as roots and rocks.
"It's a good analogy for life," she said. "You can walk along and fall flat on your face."
Ten years ago, Brax Bragg was scheduled to play a gig in Macon at the Rookery with his new band, The Buckleys.
After the accident, his friends still got together and put on a show as a memorial to the brothers.
"You couldn't get in," Julie Bragg recalled. "It was a small effort, but it was huge. There were handwritten signs all around town."
There was no expectation early on that Bragg Jam — coined by a member of the band Moonshine Still, Jim Bragg said — would ever grow into anything more than just a gathering of the brothers' friends.
"For four years, it was only a small get-together," Jim Bragg said. "It's only been citywide the last few years."
When former festival president John Harrison took over the event in 2003, it became the event that people know today, Julie Bragg said.
She credited NewTown Macon for sticking with the festival, even though it cost more money than it was making back in those days.
"NewTown Macon was very encouraging and very indulgent," she said.
Mike Ford, NewTown's president and CEO, said the organization wasn't suited to running Bragg Jam, and things have run more smoothly since the festival's board of directors was created.
"People forget that we lost $40,000 the first year we tried to run it," Ford said. "The new group that is putting it on today is doing a much better job. It's a wonderful event for downtown Macon."
The festival was scaled back in 2007, and that move helped generate profits and raise money for the Ocmulgee Heritage Trail, one of the festival's original goals. Bragg Jam raised $30,000 for the trail that year and a record $45,000 for it last year. Two other causes were added this year.
The festival recently had to convince Macon City Council to pass an ordinance that allows people to drink alcohol outdoors during the "pub crawl." Brad Evans, the festival's president, said it was a major frustration for the board to have to wait until the week of the festival to find out whether the measure would pass — and it did.
"It stressed us out, but it didn't put us behind," he said. "It's been a little disheartening, that's for sure."
Evans said he and other board members hope the public remembers that alcohol and the pub crawl are just one aspect of the festival.
"That was one concern of ours," he said. "It's such a small part of Bragg Jam. Some of the venues don't have alcohol, but most do. ... It's about building a music community."
The Braggs said they believe the boys would have loved to have been a part of the festival held in their name.
After a decade, time has healed many of the wounds from the early gatherings.
The difficult part, Julie Bragg said, is when some of the boys' old friends come back to Macon for the festival. Seeing some of Tate's friends all grown up, with families of their own, is a reminder of how much he missed out on.
"But we don't (dwell) on it," she said. "We're happy for the joy in their lives."
She said the festival keeps the memory of the brothers alive, giving the Braggs something that other families in a similar situation might not have.
"There are other parents who have lost children who don't get anything back," she said. "We're so lucky. ... We're still able to have our own lives. That's the shocking part — you don't think you'll be able to have a life after that."
Information from The Telegraph's archives was included in this report.


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NB: Obviously this is late - at time of writing you are actually 6 and 6 weeks - but the facts remain the same!
Monday, 3 August 2015
Now You Are Six
NB: Obviously this is late - at time of writing you are actually 6 and 6 weeks - but the facts remain the same!
7 comments:
What a gorgeous post! Your son sounds like a wonderful boy and you deserve that pat on the back you gave yourself. My middle son turns six at the end of this month and I can hardly believe it. Six seems so grown up. Much more grown up than five. I wish I'd taken more videos too! xxReplyDeleteReplies
Yes, six does seem grown up. The old adage, 'the days are long but the years are short' is so true! xDelete
Firstly, it's lovely to be reading your blog again. Secondly, what a wonderful boy Pip is. And 6 now? I remember reading about him when he was only 2/3 years old! I'm not surprised that line brought a tear to your eye in his school report - you must have felt so proud. Personally, I think social, emotional skills will get you much further in life than academic certificates. He sounds like he's in love with life, just as it should be. Absolutely a pat on the back for you - such a wonderful mum to such a wonderful little boy. Lovely post. XReplyDeleteReplies
I agree with you re social and emotional skills rather than academic certificates - but it's the basics I'm worried about right now - not gaining accolades! Anyway, he'll get there - I will make certain of it. Thank you for your lovely comment and super to see you back writing over at your blog too. xDelete
It has been wonderful to watch Pip growing up with you, albeit from our distance obvs and not surprising to read what a beautiful boy he continues to be. So glad to have you back with such a flourish and gorgeous update. Very well done you indeed :)) XXReplyDeleteReplies
Thanks and thanks! It is especially hard finding the time to blog in the summer holidays but I do so love looking back over the birthday updates and remembering what both boys were like. XDelete
This is such a beautiful, love-filled piece of writing. xxReplyDelete


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Home > Medical Services > Infectious Disease > Your kitchen is not as clean as you think it is
Published on January 08, 2018
Martha Stewart would probably cringe to hear it, but a study at Drexel University [pdf] in Philadelphia found that most homes don't meet the food safety standards of restaurant kitchens.
"When people get sick from food-related issues, they often think back to the last time they ate out," said study co-author Jennifer Quinlan, associate professor in Drexel's College of Nursing and Health Professions, in a university press release. "But contamination in the home definitely leads to a certain amount of those illnesses."
That's not surprising news to Rachel Songer, RDN, LDN, a clinical dietitian in Cape Cod Healthcare's Nutrition Therapy department.
"Many people think that if something looks clean – no visible dirt – then things are fine, but that's not true," she said. "Bacteria can multiply very quickly and spread really easily."
The good news is that there's a lot you can do to protect yourself from hidden hazards in the kitchen, according to Songer.
It's important to clean and sanitize counters and implements before and after cooking, she said.
"Start your meal prep by giving the counter a good cleaning, especially if you have a cat. They can jump up and walk across kitchen counters during the day and you might not know."
Make sure that you're cleaning everything thoroughly, she said. You can't just assume something is clean by the way it looks.
"You can't see bacteria," she noted.
Don't forget the sink!
"That is one of the dirtiest pieces of equipment because many people don't clean their sink very often and yet they're throwing their dishes in there."
Keep sanitizer, disinfectant products and soap close to the sink, so you'll be more likely to use them frequently.
Cutting boards are often an overlooked source of cross-contamination, Songer said.
"Buy the ones that don't get grooves as easily. A wood cutting board is better than plastic," she said.
You can wash your cutting boards by hand or in the dishwasher – and that's "boards," as in more than one.
"I recommend having different cutting boards – one for meat and poultry, one for fish, one for vegetables – and separating them. Get them in different colors or sizes, so you can keep them straight."
In the Drexel study, dishcloths and sponges were the most contaminated samples, with 64 percent testing positive for bacteria.
"These things are reservoirs for bacteria," said Quinlan. "And even worse, if we found staph or fecal coliforms in your sponges or your dishtowels, it was more likely we would find them elsewhere throughout your kitchen. If you're using them to clean your counters and other areas, the bacteria's going to spread."
Songer recommends washing dish towels every few days. Sponges should be cleaned every time you use them. "I run it under really hot water to get all the excess soap and water out of it, squeeze it and let it dry," she said.
To keep pathogens from building up, sponges should be microwaved for one minute a day or run through the dishwasher. She replaces her sponges about once a week.
"That might sound like a short time to replace it, but it depends on how much you're using it and how quickly it's getting worn. Sponges are inexpensive, so the more frequently you replace them, the better."
Refrigeration was another area of concern in the Drexel study. Nearly half of home refrigerators were measured above the recommended temperature of 41 F.
"Refrigeration slows down or stops the growth of bacteria, so if raw meat, fish and/or poultry are held above 41 F, it allows bacteria to grow more quickly," Quinlan said. "The higher above 41 F, the faster the bacteria will grow."
Taking a little each time with each meal to follow these tips will pay off, said Songer.
"With a few minutes of care, you can keep foodborne illnesses off the menu of health hazards."
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Pretty and professional
After 15 years as a reporter for The Washington Post, Terri Sapienza was ready to do something new.
New beginnings
Writer and editor Lindsey M. Roberts needed a new website, one that matched the caliber of design work she was covering. Because she specializes in interior design, architecture and decorating trends, she wanted a website that reflected her discerning eye for design.


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4JET Technologies
4JET Technologies
4JET Technologies develops and markets high-tech laser systems that replace conventional mechanical and chemical production processes with touch-less and dry laser technology. Within its market segments served, 4JET is the leading supplier of industrial laser systems for processing of delicate surfaces. Focusing on the three verticals displays & glass, tires & automotive, and opto-electronics, 4JET has built a lasting technological leadership position in growing markets world-wide and has formed a well-diversified business.
While profitable since its foundation in 2006, it was two years later via the investment by eCAPITAL that 4JET gained essential financial and strategic support for its international growth and expansion into new markets. Today, the company employs a staff of 80 and reports sales of >€12m. 4Jet is set for future growth with established customer relationships with world-leading tyre manufacturers and leading technology in opto-electronics.
We appreciate the investment by eCAPITAL as "Smart Money" – it is not just a financing instrument but an additional source of valuable advice and important feedback in strategic considerations.
Jörg Jetter Founder & CEO , 4JET Technologies GmbH
What did the business need?
- Funding for product development and international expansion
- Prioritisation of potential markets
- Professional talent to support company's growth
How did private equity backing create lasting value?
- Entered new sectors: solar, thin-film and glass
- Established sales offices in North America and Asia
- Defined growth strategy leading to the expansion of product portfolio
- Hired senior management (CFO)
What outcomes did private equity investment achieve?
- Established a pioneer for new laser applications in industrial manufacturing
- Built strong intellectual property record with 20 patents
- Strengthened company's customer base beyond automotive and tyres
- Increased revenues from 2006 to 2013 by over 60% p.a. to >€12m
- Created 54 jobs, more than trebling staff during investment
revenue increase p.a. from 2006 to 2013
new jobs, trebling staff
For more info
4JET Technologies


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On the territory of Slovakia, monuments of architecture and visual arts of all kinds and levels of quality can be seen; domestic monuments, as well as artworks of several different European places of origin. The uniqueness of this area lies in the fact that side by side there have existed and developed styles of the "Latin" Europe (Italian art, art of German and Austrian Danube region) and the art of "Byzantine" Europe (Eastern Carpathians, the Balkans). Thanks to the professional, interesting guidance even the sights of the so called peripherals art and folk art provide a deep experience for our clients.
The experiences and perceptions of the sights are enhanced by the natural frame and cultural and historical landscape, in which they are embedded. On the territory of Slovakia, you can see both mountainous as well as lowland landscape – mountain peaks, pasture hills, gorges and caves. The High Tatras with their mountain glacial lakes, the gorges of the Slovak Paradise mountains, the Dunajec river rift in the northern Spis, deep forests, hills with vineyards, as well as with remnants of highland peasant farming.
True pearls of the area of Slovakia are the monuments of the Late Gothic period - architecture, sculptures and panel paintings. More than a hundred of Gothic wing altars have been preserved here. One of them – situated in the city of Levoca – is the highest one in the world. In this urban parish church even the number of altars is unique – there are 9 of them; in the parish church of the city of Bardejov there are even 11 Gothic wing altars. Large-scale and interesting Gothic murals can be found in more than 200 urban and rural medieval fortified churches. Unexpectedly, manifold are the examples of Renaissance sacral art of Protestants, as well as the Baroque sacral art of catholic churches. In both periods, the art coming from German-speaking regions and the Baroque art from the 18th century Vienna royal court and monasteries of Austrian lands were developing.
Unique on the territory of Slovakia are also the castles and chateaus. Most of their medieval building cores are enriched with additional renaissance fortification systems, which used to form an important barrier against the Turkish expansion. Worth seeing are also the preserved historical centres of old cities, rich thanks to trade, as well as mining. Mining towns – Kremnica, Banská Štiavnica, Banská Bystrica – used to be, thanks to gold, silver and copper, famous all over the medieval Europe.
The territory of Slovakia is also rich in remarkable sacral wooden buildings. Temples of each religion are very different in their architectural spatial character. The Evangelic churches from the 17th and 18th century have large interiors on cross ground-plan, wooden Roman Catholic churches are predecessors and twins of medieval brick churches and finally, the Greek Catholic temples "tserkvi" belong by their composition of spaces to the Byzantine culture of Eastern Carpathians. Examples of rural folk architecture can be studied in regional open air museums.
You can find more details on "What interesting can be seen in Slovakia" in the publication The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of the monuments of Slovakia, which was compiled and elaborated by our expert guide and which, based on the seven-year experience of providing the services of Simplicissimus Reisen to foreign clients, was published by the partner publisher Simplicissimus. This one thousand-page publication contains 1 500 entries, almost 6 000 photos and 140 three-dimensional pictures of the monuments with extremely user-friendly information.


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I forget, why didn't any of you jerks go to see The Ruins when it came out? It was based on a very successful novel, it starred very attractive people, and, oh yeah, it was good. Since it did so poorly, it's been kind of forgotten; director Carter Smith hasn't made a feature since, and we were denied a resurgence of "kids go poking around where they shouldn't" movies that did NOT involve being tortured by psychos (or eaten by cannibals). I bring this up because, if it had it been a hit, maybe a flick like The Sacred would have gotten a bigger release, and I would have seen it 2-3 years ago on a proper DVD instead of on this dinky ass screener copy.
It starts off a lot like The Ruins, but not so much that it seemed to be ripping it off directly. A group of college kids are traveling to a remote area, one that the locals don't want to talk about, let alone visit. But they convince someone to get them there (though he drops them off a ways before the entrance, scared to enter himself despite being over 7 feet tall), only to discover that the locals weren't just being dicks, they were actually trying to protect them from a supernatural force that would almost assuredly kill them. But after that (and right after my tweet about how it reminded me of The Ruins), things changed up, and it became more of a straight up ghost/psychological film that had more in common with Session 9 or Flatliners than the killer plant flick.
See, right before he agrees to take them, their guide asks if they are "pure in heart", and they all say yes, so of course they are lying. So one by one we see the group see something from their past, and then flashbacks will tell us how despicable they are; one guy killed his mother so he could claim her inheritance, another who worked as a nurse let a patient die, etc. And then those things come back to kill them, though at least one "crime" wasn't depicted very well - I THINK I understood what the guy had done, but it was vague and given the annoying "let's just flash the screen a bunch of times and show jittery flashbacks" treatment to boot. Of course, this means that the Final Girl must be completely innocent in order to survive, which results in a rather stupid sequence that almost undid all of the goodwill the movie had earned up until then - classic "we don't know how to end this" scenario.
Speaking of the kills - they went in a very surprising order; excluding the obvious Final Girl I had it almost completely backwards, which is rare for me in ANY horror flick, let alone a DTV one (where surprises of any sort tend to be few and far between, unfortunately). They're also much more vicious than expected - this is a surprisingly harsh flick (not super gory, exactly, but the kills themselves are a bit more violent than I expected, and the FX are above average), which is a fine consolation prize for the fact that there are only a handful of kills (and two of them are needlessly close together, skewing the pacing a bit). On that note, another check in the movie's "pro" column - even though they were mostly kind of terrible people, I actually liked them more than usual, and enjoyed their chemistry. Sure, the one asshole guy (who I guess was funding the trip but otherwise had no real interest in their agenda) could be a bit grating, but he was also quick to recognize their danger, and didn't sell the others out or anything of that nature, which is the usual "asshole of the group" MO. And the final girl reminded me of Anna Torv from Fringe, which was perfectly OK by me.
Oh, and one kid makes a Jason reference, mimicing the "ki ki ma ma" sound to amuse himself in a manner not unlike how I myself might do it. And I know this because I actually did the same goddamn thing earlier in the day, as I was driving past an actual Crystal Lake in Northern New Hampshire and marveling at how similar the geography was to the earlier films, where the lake was huge (not a little pond like in New Blood) and had scattered boathouses and cabins all around it. Hell, they could have filmed one of the movies there if they wanted, so it was funny to me to see this particular reference in the movie I had chosen to watch once I arrived at my destination.
Director Jose Zambrano Cassella (who wrote the script with Sharon Reed) delivered an impressive looking film here; in addition to the aforementioned FX (it's sad that decent, PRACTICAL effects work has to be given special mention, since it's so rare), and better than usual characters, the film just looks great, utilizing the Florida locale (not enough horror movies shot in Florida, I think) and his scope photography is quite eye-catching. A bit too dark at times, but that's typical of a director working as his own DP (see: Hyams, Peter) and didn't surprise me at all. I was surprised by the terrible end titles though - the opening title sequence was pretty great, so it was a bummer to see such a rush job at the end by someone who didn't know what they were doing. Especially when the end of the actual movie was kind of wonky anyway; it was salt in the wound. I've said a bunch of times that a bad final few minutes can kill an otherwise good/decent movie (I'm convinced Devil Inside wouldn't be hated half as much if not for that stupid URL text at the end), and this one comes close to hitting that territory, unfortunately.
But it avoids it, thanks to a solid premise and all the other stuff I've already mentioned. This makes 2 for 2 on my screeners from Osiris Entertainment (they were also behind Night Drive), so maybe I should look at the rest of their catalog and see what other minor gems they put out that have been floating under my radar.
What say you?


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Lucas County Children Services
Agency Information
The 1960s
The 1960s
In November, 1965, a 1.4 mill county operating levy was defeated resulting in a drastic 42% reduction of budget. For reasons of economy, the agency moved its administrative offices to the Miami Children's Center. The Lucas County Welfare Board had been receiving its funds from the county general fund, but in 1967 the Board asked for a direct 1.3 mill tax levy to be used exclusively for child welfare purposes. Despite a vigorous campaign, the levy was defeated.
The Miami Children's Home in 1961
The following November, the board again asked for a 1.5 mill levy. The CWB's 1968 budget of $1.1 million was deemed "grossly inadequate" in a
Toledo Blade
editorial supporting the levy. Championed by the United Toledo Committee, a group of philanthropic citizens, the campaign resulted in success on November 5, 1968. The five-year operating levy, the first in agency history, produced an estimated $2.4 million a year and more than doubled the board's annual budget.
In January, 1966, the agency's board of trustees voted to eliminate the position of Superintendent of the Miami Children's Center and consolidate those responsibilities with that of the Executive Secretary. This move was intended to not only save money but also to bring all of the agency's services under the direction of one administrator. This decision proved quite controversial, as the superintendent was well-liked by staff and considered a parental figure to the children living at the home. Following the defeat of the 1967 levy, the agency could provide only minimal services, and the social work staff was reduced from 44 to 19. Passage of the 1968 levy, however, provided funds to bring the casework staff up to 80 persons.
With the expansion of services also came a name change, in 1968, from the Lucas County Child Welfare Board to Lucas County Children Services Board (LCCSB).
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1920s - The Great Depression
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The 1960s
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text: An elderly couple from Oregon became viral video sensations after their granddaughter posted footage of the two struggling to learn how to use a webcam. The sweet, loving couple, Bruce and Esther Huffman, had no idea the webcam was on and recording. So for three minutes, they made silly faces at the camera while trying to navigate their new laptop, and luckily for us, it was all captured on video! Once the video was posted on YouTube, it spread like wildfire across the Internet, social media channels and news outlets, such as Good Morning America, The Early Show and Today Show.


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Dot Kom Consulting provides our clients with an opportunity for premium placement on search engines through optimization. We believe it is truly the foundation of your business. You cannot imagine a future for your business without a website to represent who you are and what you offer for consumers. That future means your website needs to be find-able. Imagine a billboard in the middle of the desert, with no roads.. who sees it? That is exactly what happens to your website.
The old adage: "If you build it, they will come" does NOT apply. Dot Kom Consulting not only builds the highway to your website, but we tell everyone about it so they take that road and notice your billboard.
So what exactly is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimization. All search engines like Google, Yahoo-Bing and the like have a formula they use to rank your website and determine what order you rank on their search engine results page (SERP). SEO is the service we provide to "optimize" the formula ingredients that are most important and help the search engines realize your business should be chosen first!
Did you know that currently 78% of all search online comes from Google?
Did you know that 90% or 9 out of 10 people do NOT move past the first page of Google?
Did you know approximately 33% of traffic from Google comes from the FIRST organic listing on the search page?
Ask yourself HOW MUCH business you currently get from the internet… and then ask yourself how much BETTER could it be if you were on the first page of Google?


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The New York Photo Festival just ended accepting entries to their "Capture Brooklyn" exhibition. It's very simple. They asked you to capture what Brooklyn is to you. Yes the idea is simple but execution was hard. First I had to define what Brooklyn meant to me. Been living here for the past 4 years but there are still so many places in Brooklyn that I have yet to explore. Well definitely without people in Brooklyn there wouldn't be a Brooklyn. What makes Brooklyn stand out more from the other boroughs are the many exciting food related things happening in Brooklyn right now! I'll find out next week if any of my photos make it into the show or even...win something. But I'm going to continue this photo project, I guess it was just a natural evolution of my Process photo project.
Cathy Erway of Lunch at Sixpoint and Not Eating Out In New York


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The debate over security screening at U.S. airports has direct relevance for radiologists and their ethical responsibilities to their patients, according to Dr. Nabile Safdar, principal investigator at the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation. Speaking on "Ethical Dilemmas: The Vital Role of Ethics in Clinical Excellence" at the Radiological Society of North America on Nov. 29, Dr. Safdar said, "This dialogue reminds radiologists that we have a much more invasive view of our patients and research subjects than TSA screeners do....We've been privileged to have been entrusted with that data. It is something we should take seriously."
Dr. Safdar went on to say, "Informed consent is not the signature at the bottom of the page which allows you to do research or allows you to do a procedure. Informed consent is a conversation, at a level a patient can understand, about risks and benefits to make sure people are truly aware of what it measn to be involved in that research or to undergo a procedure." Click on the image below for the full article from the RSNA Bulletin.


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The Allseer Trilogy Updates
Allseer Trilogy Update Hello everyone and welcome to Monday! Today we will be talking about book three of The Allseer Trilogy, as well as what can be expected in the future. Take a seat and buckle up. Here is where I'm at with things. Book Three First Draft The untitled third and final entry… Continue reading The Allseer Trilogy Updates


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"A Maryland judge has upheld the suspension of an elementary school boy who chewed his breakfast pastry into the shape of a gun and pretended to shoot classmates, supporting a finding that the boy disrupted his class and that his family was not denied due process as it appealed what has become known as the "Pop Tart case." Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Judge Ronald A. Silkworth ruled that the school system could reasonably consider that the boy's actions in March 2013 were disruptive and that "a suspension was appropriately used as a corrective tool to address this disruption, based on the student's past history of escalating behavioral issues," according to his 11-page ruling." –Source
It's amazing to me who is allowed to sit on a bench now-a-days. One would think someone on a bench wearing the robes of a judge would have at least a few active brain cells in the area wherein common sense is stored, nurtured and drawn upon in times of need. But in this case, this is not happening.
So.. why do they do it?
One word.. INDOCTRINATION! For those of you that have just left High school and don't know that that word means, it means brainwashing. And I don't say that sarcastically. If you just left any American High school you have far less information to use in life than the students did 10, 20, 30 and 40 years ago. With each decade comes less and less education and more and more indoctrination.
But what am I getting at?
We all know how fear works, right? With one man, it's not too easy to generate unless you have the goods on their personal phobias. One of Hitler's cohorts said it's impossible to move one man who has common sense yet very easy to move a crowd of men even if they all have common sense. For example; when standing before a crowd, on shot in the dark can get the herd moving in any direction you need them to move. What I'm getting a here is, the judge knows the little boy isn't up on politics, the daily news or even fashionable trends in his own circle of friends for that matter. He's just a boy! And so suspending him is going to be very confusing to the child and not very effective on a one by one basis. But, the herd mentality is what moved the judge to uphold the suspension anyway because he knows all too well how little Johnny is now the talk of the town, neighborhood, and school. That means, by suspending one child, he can get hundreds of them scared to even think about doing what little Johnny did. Even though little Johnny did absolutely nothing wrong. But again, common sense is not the issue here. Control is what counts. The judge knows the kids will talk and he also knows the parents will as well. So, upholding the suspension will allow for his brainwashing to spread across the school as well as in every household that has a child in the school.
By suspending that one little boy for something as idiotic as chewing on a poptart to make it look like a toy gun, the other children will "be obedient to the powers that be" like little robots who are very careful not to step out of line for fear they will be suspended. And their parents will also use little Johnny's plight as a way to brainwash their own children to "obey the powers that be" so as to prevent mommy and daddy from having to take a day or two off work to babysit the child they trust the government school to raise.
More Articles confirming the TIME OF THE END
Architect: Demolish Churches, Replace With Mosques To Integrate Migrants * This is why American courts expelled God * Christian girls kidnapped, forced to marry Muslims in Egypt * VIDEO: LGBT pastor says Christians can be gay * Anger over dating website set up by Muslim entrepreneur to help men find SECOND WIVES * VIDEO: Brazil's Rio state declares financial disaster before Games * St. Kate's cuts off ties to events business after protests over 'rape culture' * VIDEO: The Horrible Truth About Vaccines * Cops, media hide Idaho girl's sex assault by Muslim migrants * Erasure of Islamic motive frequent occurrence under Obama


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Positive thinking is more than just a state-of-mind or about thinking positively. It's bigger than that. The benefits of positive thinking promote better health not only mentally but also emotionally and can affect how you view and respond to the world around you.
Despite what you hear people say, there's a lot more to positive thinking than just looking at the glass as half-full instead of half empty! It can be a real state of mind. Positive thinking strategies can help cover the way you look at your life and the way you look on to the future. The power of positive thinking can help you figure out the best way to deal with any situation the world throws your way.
It's definitely not just woo-woo, either – science has proven that positive thinking not only has emotional benefits but medical benefits too.
A 2003 study conducted by the University of Wisconsin revealed negative thinking caused patients to have a weaker response to the flu vaccine. But test subjects with positive thoughts had better immune responses, meaning that they were less likely to fall ill – and when they did catch a cold or flu, they had less severe symptoms.
In the article 'Power of Positive Thinking May Have a Health Benefit, Study Says', published by The New York Times, studies show that positive thinking can also help towards decreased stress levels, fewer incidences of depression, a longer lifespan, improved coping skills, less risk of heart-related death–and a better sense of overall well-being.
If this all sounds good to you, below we look at several effective strategies you can adopt to help get you on the path of positive thinking and to live a more healthier life.
Positive Thinking Strategies
1. MeditationContrary to popular belief, meditation isn't just something to do at the end of a yoga class. Though sometimes it might be. The practice actually has been proven to have a major effect on levels of happiness. A 2008 study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, found that participants who took part in one-hour sessions of "loving-kindness meditation" each week reported improvements in their daily experiences of positive emotions and interactions with others. Loving-kindness meditation involves quiet sitting, deep breathing and a focus on thoughts of caring and warmth for yourself and others. Positive thoughts!
Regular exercise and a healthy diet are also great ways to promote a better mood and keep you working towards achieving a constant state of optimism. So why not give it a go? Daily or weekly meditation can become part of an overall healthy lifestyle that leads to more positive thoughts about your life. All you need to do is set aside time during your week, perhaps before breakfast, to focus on positive thoughts.
2. Imagining Your Best Future SelfPositive thinking is more than just the here and now. There's evidence that focusing on the future and on the ways that you want to realize your best future self can make a strong impact on your self-esteem levels.
During a 2013 study published in the Journal of Genetic Psychology, researchers found that school-age children who pictured themselves in the future as happy and doing work they liked showed greater gains in self-esteem than the control group.
If you're not sure how to get things started, visualizing exactly what you want to eventually happen or writing a regular journal entry detailing how you see your future are great ways to start thinking positively about the future.
Whatever method works for the way that you work best, go with it!
Encourage yourself as you strive to reach your personal goals, and never run yourself down for your efforts. As Robert F. Kennedy once said;
Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.So give it a go, imagine your best future self and dare to pursue your dreams.
3. Banish the NegativeAn excellent way to embrace the power of positive thinking is to become more conscious of your own thoughts and feelings. You'll have to make an effort to tell yourself firmly to stop letting negative thoughts get through the cracks. Switch off any internal criticisms you may have going on and get back to embracing your positive thoughts about yourself and the best parts of your current and future life.
The negativity trap is super easy to fall into and you may find yourself complaining about everything from the weather to the inconvenience of being born in the first place. Not a good habit to get into. Instead, put a positive spin on everything you encounter in your day-to-day life, including the stormy weather and the neighbor that stops to talk when you're running late for school or work.
Learn to accept that mistakes and bad luck can and will happen from time to time. It's something we all must face. Remember, you have a choice. When mistakes or "bad luck" happens you can either choose to think either positive or negative about it.
Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.The reality is many things are out of your control. Therefore it's important to come to terms with the fact that there's no changing the unchangeable. In the areas of your life that can be changed, take small steps to adjust how you think about them.
— Zig Ziglar
For instance, you might find yourself always thinking negatively about your job, friends or relationships. When these thoughts creep in, focus on approaching problem areas in your life in a positive manner. With time, you'll find your attitude shift and the world around you change.
4. Reconsider Your Inner CircleYou may have had the same group of friends for years. If this is the case, chances are, some may be doing more harm than good in your life. It's true that you are ultimately responsible for your own feelings. Friends who are toxic can be damaging to your self-esteem. Or, hold you back from reaching your full potential.
You can decide how the words of others will affect you. But, there's no sense in keeping friends with someone who is more interested in cutting you down than building you up. Make it a must to be around optimistic people. Others who care about you. Who see the world the way you do. And will make you want to revel in your achievements alongside your friends.
5. Celebrate AccomplishmentsDon't let small successes pass you by without taking note. Take the time at the end of each day to reflect on achievements. And don't be afraid of giving yourself an inner pep talk.Start your day in the same way by focusing on positive things. Starting out with optimism should rub off not only on you but, also on those around you too.
Feeling overwhelmed by negativity? Take a sheet of paper and make a list of all of the things you have achieved. Regardless of how big or small. Keep the list around to add to. Use it, from time to time to reflect on all the good things. Achievements you've accomplished so far in your life. Don't be shy about building yourself up. There's definitely no shame in taking the time to give yourself a confidence boost on a regular basis.
See also: Inspirational Women Who Changed the World with Their Words.
These strategies may sound easy to apply to your life. But, changing your way of thinking does take time and practice. Optimism isn't something you can suddenly develop overnight. Rather you'll likely find your frequent negative will be replaced with more uplifting, positive thoughts over time.


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Today was a lovely day in Edinburgh, Easter Monday, however I yet again spent the majority of my day indoors, studying. Why my university decides that Easter should not be a holiday, I do not know!? It was the perfect day for climbing, however I didn't get to. (click this picture to see it for all its glory)
So I hear you ask, what are these pictures about then? This is my favourite rambling place in Edinburgh; the Crags, which I climbed the last time the weather was nice (about 4 weeks ago) and I had yet to post them. I hope you enjoy. Its a fantastic walk, a bit of scrambling up rocks too, which I found rather enjoyable.
The photo below is of Arthur's Seat, which apparently was/is a volcano? It gets a LOT of visitors, which is why I prefer the Crags, less touristy=less busy, more free space. I walked Arthur's Seat once and really didn't enjoy, I was scared of falling plus there were SO many people around.
What's great about the Crags is that you can see Arthur's Seat as well as Edinburgh .
I hope you had a lovely Easter Monday and enjoyed your weekend off. I look forward to my next weekend off in about 7 weeks (my last exam in May 23rd!) Although I'm heading home this weekend so maybe I'll take that off too, bit cheeky I know, considering exams are looming.


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Date & Time: TBALocation: Stockholm (TBA)Price: TBATo dress: Your good slacks
When I was 18 I moved to Japan for a year. Not for any particular reason, but somehow just ended up there. And ever since I've been strangely attracted to that weird but wonderful place and what its' beautiful culture has to offer. I've scribbled down thoughts for menus in my notebook for about a year now, constantly inspired by places I've visited and food I've tasted, especially when in Japan. Even though I love the experience a great restaurant can offer, I still prefer a dinner (or breakfast) with good company in someone's kitchen or dining room. For some reason, that's when it seems to taste the best.
So this is what I will be doing. Hosting dinners and breakfast in friendly places, inspired by Japanese ichiju-sansai*, focusing on the experience around rice and tea. There will probably not be matching chopsticks and starched napkins, but hopefully a few new faces and 4 to 5 plates that you don't whip up on a regular Tuesday.
*originating from traditional meals offered at Zen temples with rice, three dishes, soup, and pickles
The gathering. This is an occasion for taking time to enjoy beautiful food and interesting talks. The size of the venue is quite small, so be sure to secure you ticket if you want to attend. And don't forget this it's also a rendez-vous - meeting new, and old, friends. I also do private events, just send me an email and we'll figure something out.The menu.Plant and vegetable based with elements from the seaTeaRiceSoupPicklesSide dishesDessert
Hope to see you there,Sofia


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Today I have the pleasure of welcoming the wonderful Dianne Harman, who just released TEA PARTY TEDDY'S LEGACY. Dianne has already been my interview guest on this blog [Link to this interview ] and today she is letting us look 'behind the scenes' of her new book. Scroll down for my excited 5 star review!
Author Dianne Harman on
(for my review and the Amazon link scroll down)
A common question writers get is whether or not the people and events in their books are real. If one is writing about events and people in the now, I don't think they can escape from bringing in parts of themselves, knowingly or unknowingly. In other words, we bring to the table the sum of our experiences. Certainly, that's been true for me.
I wrote Tea Party Teddy after I'd been seated next to one of the most bigoted, biased politicians I'd ever met at two dinner parties two nights in a row.. And since my husband was a California State Senator and the number three man in the Republican Party in the California Legislature, I had met my share of them. We entertained Congressmen, Governors, Legislators, and Lobbyists of all political persuasion. I was one of the few people privy to the inside workings of politics, and trust me, it's often not a very pretty picture.
After I sat next to this politician, I began to wonder what his wife and family were like. I was also curious why he hated the illegal immigrants and even the legal immigrants. Where did that come from? His views were not "politically correct." The story I made up in my mind became the book. The response to Tea Party Teddy was huge. Political papers and blogs featured it. People loved him or hated him and reviews reflected it. There were even a couple of low reviews from people who didn't like my husband's politics! My poor husband was never part of the book other than to read it
What so many people missed was that the book was essentially a satire – a look at a minority of people who have a stranglehold on one political party. But make no mistake, money is mother's milk in politics, and this minority can be counted on for big bucks! The book tells of a man whose fall stems from the need to get money to finance his campaign.
I remember a Saturday morning many years ago when my husband mentioned he had a coffee meeting with a constituent in an hour. He'd just returned from a week of meetings in Washington, D.C. and I told him I thought he needed to take a break. His response: "So and so is a very heavy contributor to my campaigns. If he wants a meeting, he's paid enough to get the meeting." In other words, if they pay to play, a politician will listen to them – and probably vote for whatever it is they want.
Tea Party Teddy's Legacy was a natural offshoot of the first book. Nina and Bob, Teddy's ex-wife and arch enemy, fall in love and get married. Bob decides to run for the California Legislature against a minister who has the same political beliefs and ethics of Tea Party Teddy. True? Not really, but some traits of politicians, donors, and aides I'd known found their way into the book. There are many good politicians and I made sure Bob was one of them. There's a line in the book about politicians willing to trade their first-born if they could win a political race. Often, this is sad, but true. Legacy was probably motivated by a need to show there are still some honest politicians. I've noticed that once a politician gets beyond the local school board level, the monies they've taken to move up the ladder usually means they're beholden to someone. If you doubt it, look at some of the bills that are passed, locally and nationally, then look at the politician's voting record and check out his/her supporters. There's usually a very clear nexus.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention Slade Kelly, the lovable reprobate private investigator. So many people have told me he is their very favorite character in my books. Since none of us is perfect, we can all probably identify with a less than perfect character – which may speak to why people love it when a politician is caught in a scandal. And those scandals are only the ones that see the light of day! I'm in the midst of writing my third book in the Coyote series, and due to public demand, Slade Kelly is the pivotal person in the book!
Link to the book on your Amazon website: http://bookShow.me/B00HWXB8WC
My Review:
"Tea Party Teddy's Legacy" by Dianne Harman is a great political thriller about the election campaign for the California State Assembly. Bob Silva, hero of the first book, Tea Party Teddy, runs against far right-wing Reverend Jim Thurston. Silva's wife used to be married to Tea Party Teddy and is now heavily pregnant.
Harman sets up the rivals brilliantly within a short space of time and with excellent eye for details, background and characterisation. When Silva retreats from the election campaign for private reasons the Reverend needs to step up his game by all means necessary.
With dry wit, great observational skill and humour and with clear knowledge of political processes the author has delivered another excellent story that exposes greed and hunger for power and the extent to which some individuals will go to get what they want.
The term `legacy' from the title reverberates throughout the story – a well-chosen title. The story is relatively short which is perfect for the tightly edited plot. Nothing is superfluous in this story, this is a well-paced and skilfully narrated novel full of suspense. A compelling and intelligent read that I most enjoyed. 5 enthusiastic and well deserved stars.


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200KM of journey from Pokhara to Kathmandu just to attend WordCamp 2014 added a new energy for me to do something for community in 2015.
Back in 2014, we took a bus journey of 7 hours to attend WordCamp Kathmandu. It was amazing to see some of the awesome folks speaking, presenting and sharing ideas in front of huge crowd. That day I listened to almost all of the talks and realized that even I could help people and speak in front of them. Most of the speakers talked about pretty basic stuffs that were fundamentally used in my workflow. Some other talked about their achievements and how did they achieved those.
That journey helped me to progress rapidly and most importantly I was inspired to do something. I'd already released a Free Theme on wordpress.org but didn't really continue with that. On the way to being one year more mature, I learned some awesome tools and things that really helped me to speed up my workflow. Shiva Poudel, WooCommerce Contributor introduced me to several new tools which I hadn't considered using in past. With his help and 192kpbs internet, I learned so many things to make my overflow better and better.
I knew the journey to WordCamp speaker won't be easy as I'm from Pokhara, city 200KM far from where WordCamp Nepal happens reason being I would have to come often for demo presentation and other sessions. Luckily, I was in Kathmandu during this WordCamp speaker selection process. I had joined ThemeGrill team and was living in Kathmandu since.
Despite that enthusiasm, I really didn't know how to proceed ahead and in the way of becoming 1 year more old, I almost forgot that I had even thought of speaking in WordCamp. Making way through the cluttered to-do list is not really my thing. I remember talking to my fellow developer friends about things I could speak next year while I was on journey back to Pokhara. There are so many things I want to do that it's obvious to forgot some of them.
After joining ThemeGrill Team, somewhere around first week of October, one of my colleague posted link to WordCamp Nepal blog stating Final Call for Speaker for WordCamp Nepal 2015. I don't even know how I missed previous call. Maybe my brain skipped those things. ThemeGrill's Founders, Sanjib Shah and Rabin Shrestha, being speaker on previous WordCamp encouraged all of us to apply.
Slack-WordCampWe discussed about topics we could speak on WordCamp. I'd no specific idea but wanted to speak about improving workflow and other. Awesome folks at my office encouraged me to apply. But I just couldn't pull the trigger and was probabaly waiting till the deadline goes off and I could use the old excuse I was planning.
I made a small presentation with 5 – 6 slides and showed to Sanjib. Being a speaker himself, he made me realize it could be made better and I can speak.
Next day, the first thing I did after coming to office was open up the form and fill up the details. Since, I still didn't had any specific idea, I wrote topic:
"Better WordPress Theme Development Workflow"
This sounds little vague but I just wrote and submitted. I didn't just care. Later at afternoon, Sanjib explained that there will be less speakers this year due to change in hall capacity and introduction of Contribution Sessions. I was almost sure I won't get opportunity. I'd left the hope of being selected. In fact, I didn't even expected a call.
Time went on and I went back to Pokhara as we were having festive season. After few days of reaching home, I decided not to use internet or computer for this whole vacation. I just logged into Facebook for few times a day and checked some random notifications. Moreover, I didn't even had a reliable internet connection.
One lazy evening, I saw missed call from unknown number. I called back and a voice asked me to come for selection process for speaking in WordCamp. I was 200KM far and festive season was going on, I asked him to postpone the date and he happily did that.
A day before coming back to Kathmandu, I opened up my Laptop and created a small presentation again with Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 demo slides. I had to go for selection process after a day I reach Kathmandu, so I'd no other option than using that template and nothing more. That was so terrible that I didn't even showed that to anyone.
Some hours I reached Kathmandu, I created yet another presentation in Google Slides with better fonts. I used a free template available on SlidesCarnival and made that presentation. It took me whole night to do that. Next morning, I went for presentation. Unfortunately, I couldn't reach in time and asked again to postpone. Somehow I was discouraged inside and almost concluded that these series of events don't me to speak.
Some other day I went for presentation at Acclaim Technology and with little nervousness and uncompleted slides I presented and talked. I must thank Sakin Shrestha and Arjun Singh Thakuri for their valuable feedback and input. It was visible to everyone that I'd incomplete slides. That day I'd privilege to see other speakers talk. I saw other talking and knew what to fix in my slides and talks.
Later on evening, I got email stating I was approved as WordCamp Speaker. I was happy and was working to make my slides better. I gave few demo talks at my office. Our fellow colleagues also gave me valuable inputs and feedbacks.
I added more examples and added more images to my slides. Then I was ready for 2nd demo session. Contradictory to my own belief, I failed terribly at my second talk. I just couldn't utter words. I'd added new slides and couldn't explain them properly. This time my slides were better but I couldn't speak fluently.
I did some more sessions at my office and improved greatly. Again my cell phone ringed and I was called for final demo presentation. This time I presented better, probably better than I presented at WordCamp.
Finally WordCamp 2015 arrived. I'd to give my talk at 4:10 PM. I waited till that time. My nervousness changed vastly between those periods. Finally gave the presentation and it just went smoothly.
WordCamp Nepal Speaker
WordCamp Nepal 2015
Overall, it was quite amazing with a lot of changes and unexpected events. But I did it, I just did it.