text:
Campus as a Living Laboratory
Turning campus into a test bed for solutions to real-world problems
Sustainability isn't just happening 'out there;' it's a consideration every day right here on our campus. By using our own facilities and community as a miniature model of the world at large, we can learn things that will make this campus better, but also make the world better.
Launched in February 2018, iSEE's Living Lab program is designed to link campus sustainability targets to national and global sustainability, energy, and environment challenges.
When a specific call for proposals from a national granting agency on research (and extension) projects is posted, iSEE will provide quick seed money for some promising faculty-led teams that will engage with sustainability issues on campus or in neighborhood communities in their proposal development.
Specifically, iSEE wants to leverage this seed money to attract external funds that are relevant to objectives from the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP).
Apply for Seed Funding
More Info: Seed Funding Explained
In order to apply for seed funding, a letter of intent (LOI) needs to be submitted to iSEE. LOIs may be submitted at any time, but usually several months or more before the deadline of the proposal for external funding.
A list of national programs and the links between each of the programs and selected iCAP project are provided in the appendix of the Seed Funding Program document. However, the external funding sources are not limited to those in the list.
The LOI is limited to three pages and must use the template. In general, the LOI must address how the criteria listed above are met, as well as s a description of the research for the external proposal and how the seed funding will be used. If the external funding proposal involves collaboration with campus Facilities & Services (F&S) or other administrative staff, the LOI must include an explanation of this collaboration. If the LOI is selected and the expertise and time required in the proposal for external funding are beyond the regular job responsibilities of the related administrative staff, an agreed-upon budget must be reached between the proposal team and the administrative unit (iSEE will assist in the agreement preparation as needed).
The LOI must include a budget not more than $30K and a statement of how the funding will be used to prepare the external funding proposal.
Any questions about the seed funding should be sent to the attention of iSEE Managing Director Jenny Kokini.
Submit Your LOI; Next Steps
A completed LOI should be submitted as an email attachment to Ms. Amy Nichole Rosenbery with a copy to iSEE Associate Director Ximing Cai.
A panel formed by iSEE will review a LOI as soon as it is submitted. Seed funding will be provided to selected teams based on the review. Comments and suggestions from the panel will go along with the review. We expect to seed fund 10-15 projects for proposal development every year.
General Review Criteria
- Does the LOI meet all of the stated requirements and guidelines?
- Does the project have the potential to impact one or more of the iCAP objectives, and impact Illinois leadership in campus sustainability in general?
- Intellectual merit: What is the potential for the proposed activity to advance the field of sustainability? Is the work plan well-reasoned, well-organized, and based on a sound rationale?
- Is there a strong potential for the target proposal to be funded by the external funding source?
For easier reference, download a file of the Seed Funding Program document.
Current Projects
Geothermal: Monitoring Earth's Thermal Profile on John Bardeen Quad
Geothermal energy is stored in the Earth that humans can extract, process and then use. Geothermal energy is cost effective, reliable, and sustainable. Capturing heat from the Earth to run a college campus would lower Illinois' reliance on fossil fuels and help the university meet the goals set out in the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP).
A borehole located on the John Bardeen Quad, south of Grainger Library, and monitoring station was constructed in late 2018. It contains fiber-optic cable that will be connected to a distributed system to detect changes in the Earth's thermal profile. This 450-foot borehole will collect data to determine if geothermal movement is viable in this location.
Click here to learn more
Purpose of the Work
In 2016, funded by the Student Sustainability Committee (SSC), Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS, a Division of the Prairie Research Institute) researchers Yu-Feng Forrest Lin and Andrew Stumpf installed a test geothermal well on the campus south farms to study the potential of using ground source heat pumps at a large scale to meet campus heating needs and reduce campus fossil fuel reliance.
The 2018 project, also funded by SSC, is extension of ongoing research into implementing geothermal energy on campus.
The Project Team
- Stumpf, ISGS Quaternary and Engineering Geologist
- Jason Thomason, ISGS Principal Research Scientist, Geologist, and Section Head
- Lin, ISGS Hydrogeologist; Illinois Water Resources Center Director
- Tugce Baser, Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Timothy Stark, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Agrivoltaics: Crop Production and Solar Panels on the Same Land
Global demand for food, energy, and water is increasing, which poses the challenge of how to meet these demands in an environmentally and economically sustainable way. At present, energy production is dominated by carbon-intensive fossil fuels; however, renewable energies are being integrated into the energy sector at an increasing rate. Bioenergy crops reduce dependence on fossil fuels, but the efficiency of crops converting sunlight to stored energy is low — and the water requirements from agronomic and industrial perspectives is high.
This proposal investigates a strategy called agrivoltaics, by which crop production and photovoltaics can be merged within a landscape to increase the total energy output toward food and energy production and to do so with less water and in an ecologically and environmentally sustainable manner.
Click here to learn more
Agrivoltaics can increase the food and energy output per land area while reducing demands for water, based on the ability of solar panels to alter the plant growth environment to increase landscape water use efficiency (WUE) while marginally decreasing crop production but significantly increasing renewable fuel production relative to existing land use.
The Agrivoltaics Team proposes to integrate economic models with an ecosystem model altered to include an agrivoltaic ecosystem. These coupled models will be used to investigate the energy output per land area and impacts on water use and water quality, and to spatially analyze agrivoltaics relative to the current ecosystem across the Midwestern U.S. Additionally, we will address social acceptance and create an outreach plan using the most effective strategies to promote K-12 interest in challenges facing the interface of food, energy, and water resources.
Campus Connection: Illinois Solar Farm
The proposed site for an agrivoltaics study would be the 21-acre Illinois Solar Farm, along the south side of Windsor Road between First Street and the railroad tracks. The Farm, which went online in late Fall 2015, is expected to produce an estimated 7.86 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) annually, or approximately 2% of the FY15 electrical demand for the Urbana campus making this site one of the largest university solar arrays in the country. Research estimates the Solar Farm will generate up to 91% of its original output even in Year 20 of the project.
Solar Farm 2.0 is also expected to be built in the near future on the U of I campus, lending further land for an agrivoltaics study.
The Project Team
- PI: Madhu Khanna, Professor, Agricultural and Consumer Economics
- Carl Bernacchi, USDA ARS Adjunct Professor, Plant Biology
- Bruce Branham, Professor, Crop Sciences
- Evan H. DeLucia, Professor, Plant Biology
- Kaiyu Guan, Assistant Professor, Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences
- Praveen Kumar, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
- H. Chad Lane, Associate Professor, Educational Psychology
- Nenad Miljkovic, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Science and Engineering
- Nuria Gomez-Casanovas, Visiting Research Specialist, iSEE
- Bin Peng, Postdoctoral Research Associate, National Center for Supercomputing Applications
Thermochemical Batteries: Turning Waste Heat into an Energy Source
In everyday life, we think of heat as a measure of temperature. To engineers, however, heat is actually a signal of energy transfer — the "heat" you feel is energy being transferred from a warmer thing to a cooler one.
To harness heat energy currently going to waste (just being exhausted into the air) from industrial sources for other purposes like space heating, Illinois researchers from the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering and the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center (ISTC) will create a battery pack capable of storing heat through a series of chemical reactions.
Click here to learn more
The initial designs look like stackable honeycombs filled with chemical soup that will soak up and store energy from exhaust heat. In the seed-funded phase of the project, graduate student researchers will study the repeatability of charging and discharging energy in the thermochemical battery, keeping detailed notes on how well the battery holds the power and if and when energy leaks occur. This proof-of-concept will be invaluable for refining the system — and for writing proposals for additional funding.
Campus Connection: Abbot Power Plant
The proposed storage system needs to be designed for multiple scenarios, several of which arise in power plants. Abbott Plant Plant on campus has multiple waste heat loss points that could benefit from thermal storage. The team will acquire and understand the existing waste heat loss data in terms of heat source temperatures, loss quantity, transients, and fluid flow rates associated with the losses. They will use the data to identify the components suited for thermal storage systems and explore designs that match the conditions at Abbott.
Broadly, space heating is a large part of the campus' energy use. In the long term, thermal storage offers the possibility of unique improvements in efficient use and reduced costs for the entire campus.
The Project Team
- Sanjiv Sinha, Professor, Mechanical Science and Engineering
- Placid Ferreira, Professor, Mechanical Science and Engineering
- Nenad Miljkovic, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Science and Engineering
- Kishore Rajagopalan, Associate Director for Applied Research, ISTC
Environment-Enhancing Food, Energy, and Water Systems
The world's food, energy, and water systems are tightly connected. Sometimes, they work seamlessly together, but often they are competing for the same pool of resources, namely fresh water and clean energy.
In this seed-funded project led by Bioengineering Professor Yuanhui Zhang, researchers from across campus will test a processing system that can deliver not only renewable energy, but also clean water and some bonus organic fertilizers for agriculture. Their design is meant to find synergies between water, food, and energy — where one category's waste product could be another one's ingredients.
"The U.S. produces an estimated 79 million dry tons of sustainably collectable livestock manure and food processing waste annually," the researchers wrote. "We will demonstrate that this biowaste stream has the potential to be amplified via multi-cycle nutrient and wastewater reuse to 240-800 million tons of mixed algal-bacteria feedstocks that can be converted into 120-400 million tons of biocrude oil — equivalent to 12-40% of the total petroleum consumed annually in the U.S. — while also cleaning an estimated 7.9 billion tons of wastewater."
Click here to learn more
Meanwhile, the liquid parts of biowaste can be treated to become clean water. Algae will eat up all the pollutants and leave behind clean water, and they can also be "fed" with the leftover nutrients from the HTL step. At the end of their lifespan, the algae themselves serve as an input for HTL, making sure nothing goes to waste.
Team partners have developed a pilot-sized HTL reactor system that can produce one barrel of biocrude per day, enough to enable additional research on upgrading it to transportation-quality fuel. In fact, the team has already made forays into making bio-sourced forms of diesel, kerosene, and lubricants from the biocrude.
Campus Connection: Urbana-Champaign Sanitary District
This project is built upon an ongoing, student-led Student Sustainability Committee (SSC)-funded project to convert food waste on campus to biofuel using the EE-FEWS approach. That project completed the first stage in February 2018 and is ready to move on to the second demonstration stage. The SSC project is led by two graduate and four undergraduate students, with the participation and support of the Algae Club and ABABE (American Society of Agr. & Bio. Engineers) student club on campus.
The researchers will rely on the E2-Energy Demonstration Lab at the South Farm Swine Research Center, a Department of Crop Sciences greenhouse, HTL reactors built by the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, and wastewater treatment operations at Urbana-Champaign Sanitary District.
The team published a paper in Nature Sustainability on its progress.
Read the U of I News Bureau article on the team's work >>>
The Project Team
- Yuanhui Zhang, Professor, Bioengineering (PI)
- Paul Davidson, Professor, Bioengineering
- Brenna Ellison, Assistant Professor, Agricultural and Consumer Economics
- Jack Juvik, Professor, Crop Sciences
- Matthew Stasiewicz, Assistant Professor, Food Science and Human Nutrition
- Lance Schideman, Assistant Professor, ISTC
- BK Sharma, Senior Research Scientist, ISTC
- Hong Yang, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Program Background
Transforming university campuses into "living laboratories" is a timely, important campaign for sustainability research and education as well as campus sustainability enhancement. This campaign calls for students, faculty, and staff to work together to use campus and the surrounding community as a test bed to pilot promising new solutions to real-world challenges.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Illinois) has committed to promoting campus sustainability via hundreds of projects on campus under the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP). More than 700 iCAP projects — categorized into energy, water, transportation, building and space, procurement and waste reduction, education, extension, and general research — are online for public assessment. These projects, many based on unique facilities/programs on campus, have great value for developing research and education projects targeting external resources; on the other hand, the realization of many campus sustainability objectives will need research support.
Recently, iSEE has mapped the relevance of iCAP projects to a number of national research programs, which allows campus researchers to identify existing and/or ongoing efforts that can be incorporated into their proposal development for a particular national program. A report describing the iCAP projects and the links between those projects to major national research programs can be found at the following link: Overviews of Campus Sustainability Projects at Illinois: Opportunities for Education and Research.
The purpose of this seed funding program is to encourage faculty to use campus sustainability projects as a testbed for research and education and submit proposals for external funding of at least $1M. Nationwide, some universities already have one or more funding sources that are specifically available to provide seed funding for faculty to conduct research projects with the focus of sustainability on campus and/or in the community. These programs regularly call for proposals, provide mentoring and consultation resources to applicants, and encourage involving more academics in campus sustainability projects. See a report prepared by iSEE, titled "Review of Campus Sustainability Programs: Opportunities for Education and Research."
For examples at Harvard University, go to Campus Sustainability Innovation Fund or Living Lab; at Ohio State University, go to Campus as a Living Laboratory (CALL) and Campus as a Testbed; at the University of Minnesota, go to Living Lab; and at University of Washington, go to Campus Sustainability Fund.


text:
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Marine Silk Sport, "Thraven"
Needles: Knitter's Pride Dreamz, US 6/4.0 mm
Ravelry Project Page
|clean cup, move down
in pictures
Pattern: CarbonEssence from LeftSideKnits
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Marine Silk Sport, "Thraven"
Needles: Knitter's Pride Dreamz, US 6/4.0 mm
Ravelry Project Page
On the Needles & "Deadline" Projects (5)
Best Laid Plans Queue (15)
Long-Term Works in Progress
FOs (11)
No picture this week-- I'm too busy knitting the last six rows of my cowl (which has lost its charm due to dawdling), and contemplating the three pairs of socks I want to cast on for the February knit along in Sock Knitters Anonymous. Yes, three. No, I have not finished the pair from January, and no, I apparently did not learn my lesson that three is too many from January's bout of starteritis that has led to no socks, and a lot of ripping. Also, no, I will not share what three patterns I've got my eye on because the theme for the month is "Under-Appreciated Patterns" and that means I'm keeping my plans to myself (although I will tell you my back up for one of the patterns is Soda Fountain, because the secondary theme is beverages... and that one would also count as under-appreciated). And, no, the sweater has not become interesting. Yet.
I had hoped I would be shaping the pockets on my sweater by today, but I'm not, meaning that visually speaking I still have three rectangles of brown stockinette.
This sweater has a gauge of 16 sts to 4 inches, which is a pretty solid aran weight gauge. The yarn called for seems to be discontinued, and I'm trying to knit from stash anyway, so I'm knitting with Lion's Brand Fishermen's Wool held double, for a very heavy, cozy fabric. I'm getting gauge.
I have 1400 yards in stash, which since I'm holding my yarn double gives me 700 yards in length. I figured I'd probably need to buy one more skein to finish the sweater, so I'd have about 930 yards of yarn to work with-- which is about what I used to make my last aran weight sweater.
Now, this sweater has pockets, so I understand that I might need more yarn than for my last aran weight sweater, which didn't have pockets. But I also know that I only used 1,000 yards of worsted weight wool to make my last sweater, so I don't think I should need to buy more than two more skeins-- with two more skeins of yarn, I'd have 1,100 yards of length.
The pattern, which was published in Knitscene two-ish years ago, calls for six skeins of the discontinued wool, which came in balls of 245 yards. The smallest size takes five, my size and the next size up take six, and the two largest sizes call for seven and eight, respectively. 6 x 245 = 1,470. In order to get 1,470 yards of yarn length, given that I'm holding my yarn doubled, I need to find and buy four more skeins.
Now, my yarn is not snobby, artisinal, or particularly difficult to find, and I'm not that worried about dye lots or matching my stash yarn to what's in the stores now. It's also not expensive yarn-- it's workhorse wool, found in a number of giant box stores. My issue is this: Under what circumstances are two pockets going to take 500 yards of aran weight wool to knit?? The body of my last, worsted weight sweater, front and back, took that much yarn.
I know that patterns are written to sell yarn, but this feels ridiculous. I also know that because I'm feeling so self-rightous about it, I'll probably have to buy the four skeins the pattern thinks I need, and another two to appease the gods of knitting, who are currently planning out the specifics of my smiting.
And to think, all I wanted was a sweater so I wouldn't be so cold.
Click over to Tami's Amis for more WIP Wednesday posts, most of which are written by people not actively engaged in a game of yardage chicken!
Year in Projects, week 27/50
On the Needles & "Deadline" Projects (5)
Best Laid Plans Queue (16)
Long-Term Works in Progress
FOs (11)
Remember that red yarn from the beginning of the year? Devin, over the course of several movies, untangled it into one, beautiful ball. And then I tried to wind it into a cake, and my ball winder ate it-- which has been happening not infrequently (I think it's a swift-to-ball-winder angle issue). Luckily, very little yarn was lost during the incident, but I've still put the (now two-part) skein into the closet for a little time out. I wanted red socks, but maybe not enough to take on what appears to be a cursed ball of yarn.
In other sock news this week, I ripped out the mystery sock KAL. I might return to it at a later date, and modify it to be either all colorwork or all lace, but in the meantime I've been contemplating the Carol Feller hat KAL that's starting in February. I'm a fan of all her designs, and I've already bought the pattern for this one... It hasn't made it to the list, yet, but don't be shocked if it shows up next week. I also might cast on for the Rose City Yarn Crawl KAL that started a couple days ago-- I picked up two cowl patterns last year, and I haven't knit either of them yet. I'm going to contemplate the patterns while finishing up the cowl I already have on the needles.
This has been my purse project for the week-- it's surprisingly mindless, and very portable. I'm really looking forward to it being done; I only have one cowl at this point, and it's made of a bamboo blend, which isn't quite warm enough when it's actually freezing outside.
I'm also working on the impromptu sweater, which is less than fascinating visually, being 6 inches of stockinette.
This is one of those sweaters with a mildly interesting construction, but it is, at its heart, twenty-four vertical inches of stockinette. I decided I liked the twisted stockinette better in this yarn.
I had hoped this was going to be a stash-busting sweater, but now I'm thinking I'll end up buying one to three skeins in order to use up the three I originally had in stash. Of course, I can't quite tell because the yarn requirements don't appear to have any relationship to the yarn amounts I've ever used for a sweater... I have a whole rant about it, but I think I'll save it for later in the week. Maybe by then the sweater will be more interesting to look at.
Year in Projects, week 26/50
On the Needles & "Deadline" Projects (6)
Best Laid Plans Queue (16)
Long-Term Works in Progress
FOs (11)
I'm still really cold.
This means that in addition to swatching for two sweaters that were on my list last week, I also kindasortacompletely swatched for a sweater that was not on my list. That's completely reasonable, right?
And it's also reasonable that the sweater that I cast on was the unplanned, entirely selfish sweater... because I'm cold now. Intellectually I understand that it takes me about two months to knit a sweater, and that I would be better served to knit for the upcoming season and not the current one, but when I'm cold (and a bit downtrodden on the job front, honestly) I have trouble believing that I'll ever be warm again. Also, I've been craving stockinette. Mindless, endless stockinette.
At least it's out of stash yarn.
A MOCK is a Mystery Sock Knit Along-- a new sock pattern is released in four parts over four weeks, and you don't know what's coming until the new clue. This is my sock after the second clue.
The second clue came out today (Tuesday), and I knit really fast. So now I have a week to decide if I like it. I like the lace, and I like the colorwork, but I'm not really sure I like them together. Also, it's really tight. But if I frog it, it'll be the second sock I've frogged this week, and I'm not sure I'm emotionally up for it.
What do you think? Frog or keep going?
Work in Progress Wednesdays hosted by Tami's Amis, where there are many more people playing with string and sticks!
On the Needles & "Deadline" Projects (5)
Best Laid Plans Queue (15)
Long-Term Works in Progress
FOs (11)
Don't let the cowl fool you. It's all about socks around these parts. Well, really, it's all about ribbing, endless ribbing. But, the majority of that ribbing is on sock cuffs, so in the long run, it's about socks.
I was thinking, seeing as how this is my halfway post, I might be halfway through my list by now, or halfway to my spinning goals, or halfway something. I'm not. In fact, the list grew this week by three projects, although I did finish a sweater and a handful of puffs, so it's not like there was no progress. More like, there are so many more projects I want to make than there is time to make them in... I did rearrange the list to make it more aesthetically pleasing, and I swapped out a few projects and decided on yarn for a few others, in-between marathon ribbing sessions. I also ripped out the scarf for Dad I'd started at the movies on Christmas day-- I might have been able to pass off my mistakes as a design feature, there was no way to ignore the fact that the gauge was so large I was essentially knitting a lace stole for my manly, hairy, fisherman of a papa. While mildly amusing, it had to go.
I'll leave you with a picture of my spinning this week. That's eight ounces of undyed Romney wool that I was spinning just to try it out. Then, whilst helping Mom out in stash organization efforts, I rediscovered that she has a skein of white Romney handspun from OFFF this year... Now I'm trying to spin to match her skein well enough so she can make stranded mitts. Yes, there were many jokes made about mitts made out of Romney, and if you've been reading along for awhile I bet you can figure out how flattering they were to the politician in question.
After restarting the neckline for a third time on Wednesday, I finally cast off my last sweater of 2012, which has become the first knitted anything of 2013 (well, except a couple of puffs, but I'm not counting those). Then I ran around the apartment trying to get pictures of myself wearing the sweater.
I ended up with a lot of pictures of my stomach and my ass. Not really the sort of thing I like to post on the internet, but since I just want to move on, I'm going with what I've got.
Here you can see the remaining funkiness of the neckline and band; I'm going to block the sweater and see if it resolves itself, but I suspect I'll have to rip out the neck band for a fourth time, and reknit it with fewer stitches to truly make it behave. Maybe in February. January is turning into a sock month, and I'm not unhappy about that.
Pattern: Blue Betty by Triona Murphy (very well written pattern, and I'm looking forward to knitting more of her designs)
Yarn: madelinetosh Tosh Merino, in Fathom (main color) and Venetian (contrasting color)
Needles: Knitter's Pride Dreamz interchangeables, US 7 & 8
And a link to my Ravelry project page, if you want to see what's there (hint: it's a different, but equally poor, picture of my stomach. I'm consistent if not talented).
Thanks to Tami's Amis for the FO Friday meme!
There were a number of things I thought would happen this new year's eve and day, and they didn't happen. Luckily, things knitting are not all that serious in the grander scheme of things life... that being said, I present you with A List of Things That Didn't Happen (And Some That Did):
Thing the first-- I did not finish my sweater in the last hours of 2012. My usual method of picking up stitches, which has served me well on many a sock gusset, left an unseemly seam at the start of the neck band. Twice. I've since changed my methodology and am cautiously hopeful.
Thing the second-- I did not cast on red socks.
I had thought to cast on red socks as the fireworks were thundering at midnight, but my plans were somewhat derailed. Why do expensive skeins of yarn do this to me? The cheap ones are perfectly happy to behave from swift to winder, but a skein that retails for $30 inevitably gives me attitude.
Thing the third-- I did not work on Dad's scarf, Mom's legwarmers, or Devin's mitts. These things all remain un-cast-on. I did, however, cast on a cowl, which I suspect will be mine once it's completed.
My neck is cold. Clearly this is the expedient way to address such a malady. At least I'm not trying to spin the yarn first.
Finally, thing the fourth-- My anti-sweater, pro-sock surge from last week did have some lasting impact, despite the red yarn incident. This means that I effectively went from one WIP to four (and a half, see red yarn incident above) in about eight hours.
Starteritis anyone?
Work in Progress Wednesdays brought to you by Tami's Amis. Click on over and join the fun!
July 2016

subset: commoncrawl


text:
This is why you suck…
October 20, 2008
To some of those special co-workers out there…this ones for you!
This is why you suck…
You suck cuz you call me when an email would do just fine.
You suck cuz you stare at me with a look of disapproval when I walk in at five minutes after 8 am.
You suck cuz you comment on everyone and everything.
You suck cuz you wear Hawaiian shirts and/or mom jeans on casual Friday.
You suck cuz you listen to my phone conversations.
You suck cuz I can smell your dog on you.
You suck cuz you drank my last diet Pepsi…even when I put my initials on it.
You suck cuz you walk by my desk talking on your handsfree headset…take a seat please Mr. Cool.
You suck cuz you sneak up behind me in my cube and breathe heavily until I acknowledge your presence.
You suck cuz you stink up the restroom without even a courtesy flush.
You suck cuz you are CONSTANTLY offering me junk food and you won't take no for an answer. I don't want any of your candy corn, chocolate and peanut mix! It's not because it's not good, it's only because I don't want my ass to grow as big as your ass.
You suck cuz you frequently spit in the trash can underneath your desk. Can you hock your loogie a little quieter next time?
You suck cuz you take yourself WAY too seriously. I realize you are "supervising" two whole people now, but that doesn't make you the boss of me!
Filed in annoying co-workers
Tags: america, american workforce, annoying co-workers, casual friday, comedy, companies, company, corporate, corporate america, corporations, courtesy flush, coworkers, cube jungle, cubejungle, cubes, cubicles, economics, employees, employers, employment, entertainment, fortune 500, funny, funny websites, Hawaiian shirts, history, human resources, humor, i hate my job, job, jobs, manager, managing, news, office, office etiquette, office fun, office life, office politics, office pranks, office stories, people who suck, political, politics, restroom, satire, satirical commentary, suck, sucky people, supervisor, the office, unemployment, water cooler, work, work sucks, workforce, you suck
You say it best, when you say nothing at all…
September 2, 2008
I sometimes become so tired of the constant commentary of my co-workers. It seems that I am constantly subjected to their feelings, thoughts and annoyances. Here's what I would like to tell them:
I realize that we work closely in this cube jungle, but that does not mean that you need to announce to everyone when your stomach hurts, when you're tired or when you think it's "so chilly" in the office today. What should I do with this information? I can give you some Pepto, refer you to a Redbull or advise you to bring a light jacket with you to work, but that's about it. And frankly, I don't really want to have to do any of these things. I would just prefer that you put a hush on the constant commentary and instead save it for your journal, your supposed "friends" you speak of or your spouse. Why should I have to suffer through listening to your constant babbling, I didn't choose to work with you. Save it for someone who chooses to be around you and not those who are merely paid to be near you.
Information that I wish my co-workers would stop sharing with me:
- I'm tired,
- I'm cold
- I'm bored
- I'm hungry
- I miss my kids
- I have cramps
- I don't believe in global warming,
- I like my feet
- I have a rash
- I love pizza
- I'm going on vacation
- My kid did this or that
- My dog is so cute
- My house won't sell
- My in-laws are annoying
- I am lonely
- My boyfriend cheated on me
- My cat's breath smells like cat-food
- I'm voting for…
- I'm going to the Celine Dion concert
- Here is what I'm doing this weekend…
- My feet hurt
- I want to go home
- My boss is a douche bag
- I am depressed
- I forgot to take my anti-depressants today
- I think I may be pregnant
- My mom never loved me
- I miss my cats
- My stapler is missing
- My dentures stink
- I have no money
- I can't go to the bathroom
- I think I'm in love with the building custodian
- I think my ovaries are dead
- I like the smell of methamphetamines in the morning
- The water in the cooler tastes funny
- I got so wasted last night
- I never learned how to read and I enjoy getting high off of Dust-Off
- I think my son or daughter is gay
- I think my husband is gay
- I've accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior
- I prefer diet dr. pepper to regular dr. pepper
Filed in annoying co-workers
Tags: annoying, bosses, commentary, complaining, complaint, coworkers, cubes, cubicles, custodian, dentures, discussion, dogs, drugs, dust off, employment, fake, friends, funny, getting high, gossip, health, high, human resources, humor, humorous, illness, jobs, journal, jungle, listening, managers, marriage, men's issues, news, office, peace, politics, quiet, red bull, redbull, satire, satirical, talking, the office, women's issues, women's issuews, work, work related, work sucks
It's Monday…I KNOW!
August 19, 2008
Why is it that every Monday morning office dwellers find it necessary to remind themselves and their fellow co-workers that YES, it is in fact Monday?
I think I counted four different people who came up to my cube today with varying methods of reminding me it was Monday…like I could forget. I always know when it's Monday because each Monday directly follows my Sunday night ritual of hysterically crying until I wear myself out enough to fall asleep.
The first co-worker approached me today and said – Another Monday…ugh! – Thanks for the reminder Sally Sorrowpants!
The second co-worker walked by cube asking – How are you today? I of course gave my usual lie of fine and then in order to be seen as polite (and hide the fact that I could actually care less) I asked – how are you today? To which she responded, As good as I can be for a Monday!
The 3rd co-worker walked up to me and announced…Monday's suck. To which all I could think was DUH!
The 4th co-worker then decided it necessary to remind me that it was the worst day of the week by saying – I can't believe it's already Monday! ?! Okay, I get it already!
i think it's time that all of us in the CUBE JUNGLE accept that YES, IT IS MONDAY and move on. Feel free to secretly loathe it all you want…I know I will, but please stop reminding me of a fact I know all to be too well – it's Monday again. And there isn't anything you can say to change that.
Filed in office politics
Tags: annoying coworkers, arizona, blogs, california, comedy, crappy jobs, cube jungle, cubicles, facts, funny, gossip, humor, jobs, john mccain, minnesota, monday, mondays, news, office, office dwellers, office funny, office life, politics, rituals, secret, secretly, the office, work, work sucks, workforce, world
This is just great! And oh so true. Younger people in offices across the US care very little about office bs…we'd rather you just leave us alone and give us more days off!
Click on the link below and check out this video from The Onion News Network.
Study Finds Young People Remain Apathetic About Office Politics
Filed in office politics
Tags: bloggin, blogging, blogs, bull shit, co-workers, college graduates, Comedic news, comedy, cube jungle, cubejungle, cubicles, dumb, funny, funny videos, hilarious, humor, jobforce, jobs, news, office life, office politics, Office space, politics, regulations, rules, satire, satirical news, the office, the onion, the onion news, the onion news network, unemployed, united states workforce, videos, work, work drama, workforce
What did you leave on the seat?
July 18, 2008
(use me…don't abuse me)
As if it isn't bad enough that I am forced to spend 8-9 hours a day in this cube jungle with all of you, I now have to wonder who leaves behind the butt resin on the restroom toilet seats. I realize that this sounds crude, but how would you like being the one to walk into a restroom stall and see it first hand?
Why is it so hard for adults to pick up after themselves? I'm trying really hard not to judge here and not ask where this "resin" is coming from. Instead, I only ask that after you are finished with your "business," you turn around, flush the toilet and make sure that you didn't leave anything behind. It's only fair to everyone else. This also goes for you lovely ladies who must enjoy peeing on the toilet seats and/or leaving your "business" un-flushed for everyone to see. Whether you're acting out because you weren't held enough as a child or are doing it for attention in hopes of receiving some kind of praise for a job well done, it needs to stop. Outside of the K9 world, marking your territory is seen as just plain gross.
They say that men are dirtier than women, but the women I work with seem to be working really hard to catch up!
You can dirty-up your bathroom all you want at home, just please pick up after yourself in the restroom at work.
Filed in There's no resting in the restroom
Tags: america, annoying co-workers, annoying coworkers, bad jobs, bathroom horrors, best restrooms, blogging, blogs, butt resin, comedy, corporate america, corporations, crude, cube jungle, cubejungle, cubicles, funny, gossip, gross jobs, gross women, humor, humor blogs, job duties, jobs, men, news, office humor, office jokes, office politics, Office space, resin, restroom etiquette, restrooms, satire, satirical, the office, toilet seats, toilets, united states, unsanitary, wash your hands, women, women's issues, women's restroom, work, work drama, work stuff
5 Ways to Appear as Though You're Working…
July 14, 2008
Here are 5 ways to sit in your cubicle and appear as though you are working, even when you're not:
- Always have papers with highlighted sections around you so that at any time you can pick one up and pretend to read intently.
- Always have something work-related minimized on your computer screen so that you can pull it up quickly when a co-worker or boss enters your cube. We realize you spend most of your time on social networking sites, shopping online and/or IMing with friends, but your boss and co-workers don't have to know that.
- Practice looking as though you are in deep, analytical thought while looking at your computer screen. This way you look as though you care, even when you really don't. You can obtain this look by squinting your eyes slightly while leaning in toward your screen. It also helps to rest your thumb on your chin while tapping your index finger on your lips.
- Respond to emails from your boss or manager promptly. This may mean you have to get off of your Myspace page or Perezhilton.com for a minute or two, but believe me…it's worth it.
- Invest in a privacy screen for your computer. This is especially important if your back is toward the opening of your cube. That way when those nosey co-workers or managers approach your cube, they aren't able to see exactly what you're doing. It buys you some time to minimize your personal email or fantasy football team standings before anyone can make out what's on your screen. If someone asks why you have a privacy sceen…and they will, tell them it's really an ANTI-GLARE screen because the brightness of your computer screen was giving you "terrible" headaches.
Filed in office politics
Tags: annoying co-workers, arizona, blogging, california, comedic writers, comedy, computer screens, computer tricks, corporate america, corporations, cubejungle, cubes, cubicles, employment, employment suggestions, employment tips, enron, facebook, fantasy football, funny, gossip, hell, humor, humor blogs, illinois, jobs, make believe, mean bosses, micromanaging, minnesota, myspace, new york, news, office humor, office news, office politics, office pranks, Office space, office stories, office tips, office work, personal computers, politics, pretend, privacy screens, satire, satirical, staffing, stock market, the office, unemployed, wisconsin, work, work sucks, workforce planning, working for the man, writers, writing
Do you have a prescription for that Bluetooth?
May 27, 2008
Ever wonder if those co-workers of yours who walk around with a perma-Bluetooth in their ears ever give their ears a rest?
Have they received a prescription from their primary doctors recommending a 24 hour a day of Bluetooth treatment or did we, the non perma-Bluetooth users, seem to miss the memo that mandated a Bluetooth be securely fastened to our ears at all times? Even outside of the office you spot these co-workers at Chipotle over lunch or at Target on the weekends, and their Bluetooth's are still stuck in their ears. It's Sunday and you're shopping for Huggies so why do you need the Bluetooth in your ear.? Are you expecting a call from the Pentagon…or Heaven? Could their Bluetooth really be a bomb that if removed will blow up everything within a 20 mile radius? Or is it stuck? Because if it is, I'd gladly help you remove it.
It seems as though these people have an unhealthy relationship with their Bluetooths. It's as unhealthy as those sisters you knew in high school who would sometimes kiss each other at parties to get attention.
There also seems to be an arrogant swagger that those addicted to their Bluetooths have. It's like by constantly wearing their Bluetooths, they're saying, "I AM THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON IN ALL THE LAND and something more important than you is bound to come up." Sometimes I feel like an idiot when I respond to a "hi "or "how are you" that I think is directed toward me, only to (cheeks burning in humiliation) find out that the salutation was intended for the person on the other end of my co-worker's Bluetooth. It's like when you see someone in the distance waving at you and you eagerly wave back, but soon realize that this person was actually waving to the person behind you. It's confusing and just plain rude.
Therefore, I advise all of you who are addicted to your Bluetooths to prove to your co-workers and society that you're not some self-important douche who compares what you do for a paycheck to that of some sort of a Messiah by letting your ear breathe when you are not talking on your Bluetooth. I personally promise you that the world will keep spinning, AIDS will still exist, babies will still be born, and time travel will still be seen only in the movies, even if you miss a call.
Here are some signs that you may have an UNHEALTHY relationship with your Bluetooth:
· Your son or daughter try to converse with you in person and you say, "Daddy only answers to his Bluetooth, sweetie."
· While having relations with your husband, you tell him to "hold please" and then take the call that just came in on your Bluetooth.
· You wear a shower cap while swimming or showering in order to protect your Bluetooth from water damage.
· Your friends have to explain to the bartender that you are actually just talking loudly to someone on your beloved Bluetooth and no, you did not just call him an asshole.
· You've been saving quite a bit of money on q-tips since you now only clean your left ear because your Bluetooth is protecting your right ear AT ALL TIMES.
· You consider your Bluetooth your one and only true love. You even frequently say to your wife or husband, "If only you were more like my Bluetooth."
Filed in annoying co-workers
Tags: annoying co-workers, bloggers, Bluetooth, comedy, cubicle, cubicle jungle, David Beckham, entertainment, family, fun, funny, gossip, health, humor, humor websites, job stress, job stresses, news, office, office etiquette, office humor, office life, Office space, ricky gervais, satire, science, the office, work, work sucks, writing


text:
We buy to distribute the goods to our various clients and companies in request of the products that we can invest in.We stand as a major buying office.We also handle numerous supply contracts to construction companies, s ...
Hantta International Company
2136 broadway
United States
Wholesaler · Trading Company · Buying Office · Agent · Association · Government · Business Service
Not a Member?
Already a member? Sign In


text:
Photoshop in 60 Seconds: How to Create Flower Brushes
Welcome to our Photoshop in 60 Seconds series, in which you can learn a Photoshop skill, feature, or technique in just a minute!
Floral Brushes
Creating custom brushes in Adobe Photoshop is as simple as finding the right stock. And with thousands of stock images available through Envato Market, you can create your own garden of floral brushes in a matter of a few short steps.
In this quick video, learn how to create an easy floral brush as well as how to customize the brush settings in Adobe Photoshop.
How to Create Flower Brushes in Adobe Photoshop
Step 1
One of the best ways to create Photoshop brushes is to create one from a photo. Let's start by choosing a stock from PhotoDune on Envato Market.
Open it in Photoshop and go to Image > Adjustment > Hue and Saturation. Decrease the Saturation to -100 to turn the flower black and white.
Step 2
To make sure your flower brush has plenty of detail, go to Image > Adjustments > Curves, bringing down the curve of the RGB channel to help define the petals and flower details.
Step 3
Use the Rectangular Marquee Tool to select the flower, and then go to Edit > Define Brush Preset and name your new brush.
Test out your floral brush on a new document. For an even better brush, hit F5 on your keyboard to bring up the Brush panel. Select Brush Tip Shape and change the Spacing to 150%. Then select Shape Dynamics and increase the Size Jitter to 100%.
A Bit More Detail
Learn more about Adobe Photoshop on Envato Tuts+:
Adobe PhotoshopNew Coffee Break Course: How to Use the Brush Tool in Adobe Photoshop
BrushesHow to Create Custom Scratched Metal Brushes in Adobe Photoshop
BrushesHow to Create Custom Dirt and Decay Brushes in Adobe Photoshop
BrushesHow to Create Custom Hand and Foot Print Brushes in Adobe Photoshop
BrushesPhotoshop in 60 Seconds: How to Create Custom Brush Sets
HalloweenCreate Your Own Blood Spatter Adobe Photoshop Brush
And feel free to recreate the brush from this video, using this Flower Stock from Envato Market.
60 Seconds?!
This is part of a series of quick video tutorials on
Envato Tuts+ in which we introduce a range of subjects, all in 60
seconds—just enough to whet your appetite. Let us know in the comments
what you thought of this video and what else you'd like to see explained
in 60 seconds!


text:
Sex Toys will rock your world. Whether you're flying solo or you have an adventurous partner, you'll find that Adult Toys can open up a whole new world in the bedroom; giving you the freedom and the versatility to fulfill yourself - and each other - in new and exciting ways. At XToysBoutique, we offer you an extensive selection of Sex Toys, for Women and for Men, that will allow you to enhance any private occasion.
Our guarantee is to always offer the best selection of the finest sex toys available, at the most competitive cheap prices online. Don't be afraid to try something new. Simple toys - from Vibrators or Dildos to fun Fetish Toys - could end up being the best thing that ever happened to your sex life!
We certainly understand that not everyone is comfortable with the idea of adult toys - purchasing them or using them. Dildos, anal toys, vibrators - just the words alone are out of many people's comfort zone. The great thing about our site is that we're here to help you find what you want - from the comfort and privacy of your own home. Take the time to research what you're looking for before you buy. If you're browsing with a partner, let our site become part of your fun! Shopping online has never been such an aphrodisiac!
Your billing and shipping information is 100% private and our billing system is the epitome of discreet. XToysBoutique will never appear on your credit card statement. Your items will be mailed in plain packaging. And your private information and email will NEVER be sold to ANYONE, EVER!
Welcome! XToysBoutique.com is your final destination for high quality sex toys and adult products. There's nothing your sex life is lacking that we can't provide, from things that run on batteries to sexy outfits perfect for setting even the most extreme of fantasy scenes; and you will not find ANY item we carry at better prices online. You will never again have to sacrifice your sexual satisfaction at the altar of your budget.
If you need help spicing things up, we're here for you. If you're just looking to add a new trick to your bag, we're here for you. If you're looking for helpful information about sex toys, or sex in general, we're here for you. If you need something you can't find on our website, we're here for you. Drop us an email with the name of the product and what website you found it on, and we will make it available on our site at a better price!
We aim to offer an enhancement to every desire, want, need, shape, size, and lifestyle. We have sex toys that run on batteries, toys that require some imagination, vibrating toys, sucking toys, lotions, lubes, and all manner of sexy costumes. We stock classic items, and always keep up with the most popular new trends.
Thank you for spending your valuable time at our site. Our commitment is to you, our customers, and your satisfaction. We value you, and are honored that you've entrusted us with one of the most important aspects of your life.
We would love you to enjoy This Safe, Secure, and Exhilarating Online Shopping Experience with us!
PS: We're always open to our customers' personalized requests and we'd love to hear from you!
Simply click here to contact us or call toll free at 1-888-502-6550
- Sex Toys 101
- Vibrators 101
- Dildos 101
- Fetish Toys 101


text:
Earlier this week, via Facebook, I discovered a very dangerous blog called Bake Play Smile. The particular link was for Lucy's (the author's) "Easy No-Bake Bars & Slices". The name says it all, really. Dangerous, I say... dangerous! Her blog should come with a warning label... a big flashing neon warning label!
I had to (yes, had to!) print off all the slice recipes attached to the link so that I can attempt them all myself. I will not be weighing myself before, and definitely not after, making all the slices.
I loved Clinkers growing up, and still do, so of all the slices, the Clinkers Slice stood out and became the obvious pick for the first slice to attempt and here it is:
I'm pretty proud of myself, seeing as I only realised as I went to make the slice that I didn't have the right equipment for the second step. Most of our stuff is in storage at the moment, while we wait to move into our new house at the beginning of next month. My food processer is included in the items in storage! Not to be discouraged, I decided to (no)bake on and do it by hand. Unfortunately I didn't even have a rolling pin I could use to crush the biscuits, so it did take a little more time and energy, but I got there in the end, albeit with more chunks of biscuit than is probably ideal! Then the clinkers... thankfully I had put my good Global knife set aside to be with me at this temporary accommodation, or else I would have been in all sorts of pain. As it was, my hand was sore hand chopping all the required Clinkers (they are hard little lollies when you start chopping them... I guess that goes with the name ('clinker' has a number of meanings, including cement!). I finally managed to finish them and it was very satisfying tipping them into the bowl, ready for the next step!
The rest of the steps were a piece of cake, thankfully!
In addition to Step 7, I also added coconut oil to the chocolate, as Lucy suggests in her "How to Cut Perfect Slices" post on her blog. Boy, that coconut oil smelt delicious! And it worked a treat, so I'm very glad I took the time to buy and add it to the slice.
After I left the slice in the fridge overnight, plus much of today as I was out and about all day, I let it sit for 20 minutes before attempting to cut the slice (I'm very good at following directions exactly!). I don't think I did too badly, but need a bit of practice to get it even prettier. Having said that, it's the best looking slices I've ever cut!
In regards to taste, it's very yummy, but I'm disappointed that I can't taste the Clinkers as much as I thought I would. That could be because of the disbursement not being as thorough as it would have been, had I crushed them in a food processor like I was suppose to. I look forward to making them again once we're in the new house and I have my food processor back. In the meantime, this slice will not be left uneaten!!
Blogging about life, my walk with Christ, my family, food, books, other blogs of interest and anything else that catches my eye! Please join me in my journey!
Saturday, May 9, 2015
No Bake Clinkers Slice
Posted by Nell at 5:40 PM
Labels: In the Kitchen
2 comments:
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
Purchase this article with an account.
Ferhina S Ali, Sasan Moghimi, Diego Tebaldi de Queiroz Barbosa, Guofu Huang, Shan C Lin; Anterior chamber biometrics and intraocular pressure dynamics following cataract extraction in glaucoma patients. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 2014;55(13):936.
Download citation file:
© ARVO (1962-2015); The Authors (2016-present)
To determine the association of changes in anterior chamber biometrics and intraocular pressure after uncomplicated phacoemulsification in patients with primary open angle glaucoma.
In this prospective study, subjects with medically managed glaucoma underwent phacoemulsification with implantation of a foldable lens. Preoperatively and postoperatively, anterior chamber parameters were obtained by anterior segment coherence tomography. Measurements included the angle opening distance 500 μm anterior to the scleral spur (AOD500), the trabecular-iris space area 500 μm (TISA500) from the scleral spur, and iris curvature (I-Curv).
Data was analyzed from 34 glaucomatous eyes that underwent cataract surgery. The mean patient age was 77 years ± 7.39 (SD); 67% of the patients were women. On average, the patients were being treated with 1.77 (0.8) glaucoma medications. From preoperative to postoperative time points, the mean (SD) AOD 500 increased significantly by 0.180 mm (0.133) and the mean TISA 500 increased with marginal significance by 0.054 mm3 (.050). The mean IOP (SD) decreased significantly from 14.26 (4.029) to 11.73 (3.355) with a mean difference of -2.535 (4.214); p < 0.01. This change in intraocular pressure correlated by marginal significance with the increase in the AOD 500 (r=0.30, p=0.05) and with iris curvature (r=-0.032, p=0.05).
These findings provide additional etiologic basis for the postoperative reduction in intraocular pressure that is observed in glaucoma patients following cataract surgery. The reduction in IOP was proportional to the increase in the angle opening and iris curvature observed following cataract surgery. This study further establishes a role for consideration of cataract surgery in the treatment algorithm of primary open angle glaucoma.
This PDF is available to Subscribers Only


text:
Dil Se Dil Tak:Teni and Shorvori decide to sit in the puja with Parth. They have belief in each other. They sit by turns. They handle the tough situation in an interesting way. Dada ji gets his answers too. He feels Parth can balance his life with his two wives. He still wants them to prove their unity till the test duration completes. Shorvori knows Teni has married Parth on the family's saying. She wants Teni to get her rights. Teni and Shorvori fulfill their responsibilities well. Teni takes care of Parth, while Shorvori handles the baby. Kaki tries to create misunderstandings between Parth, Teni and Shorvori.
Saam Daam Dand Bhed:
Vijay gets elected as the leader. The misunderstanding between Vijay and Agastya gets cleared for time being. Vijay doesn't know Angad's dreams well. Angad never said what he wants to do in his life. His silence makes him lose the important post in the party. Vijay and Agastya had a tiff because of the same matter. Vijay wants to win his brother's heart. He takes him into politics to keep his heart.
Rishta Likhenge Hum Naya:
Ratan makes an Asthma attack drama and compels Diya to take him back home. They cancel their foreign trip. Diya really falls in his words and worries for his health. Ratan and Diya return home, and surprise the family. They have a moment, while Diya takes care of him. Ratan saves her from the flashing bulb. Their love journey begins by their cute clashes.
Woh Apna Sa:
Jia learns about Binny's move to create troubles for them. She wakes up Arjun and tells him about the neighbors complaining about Binny. Arju rushes to check Binny. Binny washes her car on the streets. She gets much unwanted attention by the guys. This rages Arjun. Arjun beats up the guys. Arjun asks Binny to stop her drama, which will just create a fight. She embarrasses them by her cheap tactics. She is emotionless and doesn't care for anyone. Binny reminds that she is troubled by Arjun and Jia. Arjun takes Binny home and tries to give her some sense.
Piyaa Albela:
Neelima doesn't want Rahul to marry Naina. She begs him not to insult them by getting related to Naina. Rahul knows Neelima is very smart and can't stand Naina. He tells her that its just his plan to fool Naina. He wants to get Mayank's property from Naina. He tells that he is doing everything to trick Naren and Naina into his planning. Neelima gets happy that her son hasn't lost his mind. Dada ji supports Pooja, while the family opposes her because of her relation with Chandrika. Pooja receives hatred from everyone. Harish refuses to accept Pooja as his bahu.
Ranvijay employs Suraj to get Chakor away from the village. He doesn't want anyone to know about his involvement in Chakor's murder plan. Chakor reaches Suraj with a hope. She gets a big shock seeing Ranvijay instead Suraj. She learns Suraj has fooled her. Ranvijay is much frustrated over Chakor's survival. He tells Chakor that she has sent him to the mental asylum and now he will show his madness. He couldn't kill her before because of Imli. He now doesn't care for Imli or elections. He tells Chakor that this time he will not leave her. Chakor asks Suraj to believe her. Suraj scolds her and pushes her away. Suraj makes a leave from the cliff side, while Ranvijay catches hold of Chakor. Chakor gets heartbroken.
Dadi tells Naitik that she has told the guests about his relation with Priyanka to stop the news from spreading. She explains that she had to admit they are well aware of this, else the society will make fun of them for getting cheated by their family members. Naitik gets embarrassed. He realizes his silence is putting Priyanka in an awkward situation. Priyanka doesn't reveal anything without Naitik's consent. She lets him decide whether he finds it right to tell his family or not. Naitik and Priyanka's silence makes everyone assume about their affair.
Jeet Gayi Toh Piyaa Morre:
Devi dances her way to Adhiraj's heart. Devi dances in Adhiraj's Sangeet ceremony. She sticks to the maid's disguise and becomes part of the celebrations. Adhiraj misses Devi. He hugs her picture and talks to her. Devi finds him sorrowful. She feels bad. She wants to reach to the root of the matter and expose Maasa. She gets glad to be around Adhiraj. Urmi kidnaps Kesar and keeps her captive. Urmi wants to marry Adhiraj. Devi reaches Kesar on time. She saves Kesar's life.


text:
GENEVA – The oldest – or one of the oldest buildings in Geneva – could be razed despite a preservationist's bid to save it.
Shodeen Inc. applied for a demolition permit Dec. 20 for a limestone structure built in 1846, the original part of the former Mill Race Inn. The city was founded in 1835.
But when Fred Zinke of Geneva filed an application for landmark designation for the building, the city's historic preservation ordinance required that the landmark issue be decided first, before consideration of the demolition permit.
"I wanted to try to preserve it," Zinke said. "I think the building is a major historic structure in Geneva. It's almost as old as the city itself."
Shodeen created 4 East State Street Holdings LLC, to purchase the Mill Race Inn's 1.4-acre property at 4 E. State St. in 2014, according to Kane County property records. The restaurant closed in 2011.
Shodeen had already demolished the portions of the former iconic restaurant on the Fox River that were additions to the original limestone structure.
In 2016, city officials had issued a news release stating Shodeen would "evaluate the 1846 limestone sections to see whether the structure can be considered a historic landmark and/or if it could be incorporated into any future development of the property."
'No way to use it'
Shodeen Group President David Patzelt said the company tried to find a way to use the building, but could not.
"There is no way to use it," Patzelt said. "It can't be repurposed."
The problem is, portions of the limestone structure are in a flood plain, Patzelt said.
"You cannot be permitted to have a structure with openings in the flood plain," Patzelt said.
The company also tried to see how much it would cost to move it, but because of the weight of the limestone, it would be cost-prohibitive, Patzelt said. What Shodeen would build there is still under review.
But he said the city's comprehensive plan and its tax increment finance district – which identify the Mill Race area as an opportunity site for redevelopment – is in conflict with the city's historic preservation ordinance.
"It's conflicting information," Patzelt said.
Public hearing
The Historic Preservation Commission will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. Feb. 20 at the Public Works building, 1800 South St., Geneva, to consider the landmark nomination.
The commission will recommend whether it should have a landmark designation, but the City Council will make the final determination, Zinke said.
"It's a multi-step process," Zinke said.
If the property owner files a written objection with the city, then a supermajority of the City Council – or seven aldermen – would have to vote to approve it for landmark status, according to the ordinance.
Patzelt said the filing of an objection is under review.
"If Shodeen – or anybody else – comes in later and makes a really good case that the building needs to be taken down – yes, the City Council could approve that," Zinke said. "They do have final authority, no doubt about that."
Zinke said he was the historic preservation planner for Oak Park for 25 years and has an interest in historic preservation. As his wife, Carolyn Zinke, serves on the Historic Preservation Commission, she has recused herself from the public hearing on the Mill Race application.
As per the city's historic preservation ordinance, Zinke made a $500 deposit with his application for landmark status. The ordinance states the money is to be used to cover the cost of expenses, such as the public hearing, public notices and transcription services.
'A stay of execution'
First Ward Alderman Mike Bruno, who had served on the Historic Preservation Commission, said the limestone building is 30-feet-by-50-feet.
"It's got a lot of history to it," Bruno said. "It is possibly the oldest remaining building in Geneva – and if not the oldest, one of the oldest."
Bruno described that getting historic landmark status for the building could just be a "stay of execution."
"They can't demolish it yet. That does not mean it won't be demolished," Bruno said. "Landmarking it puts a stay of execution on it. If … a perfect project is presented that is so beneficial to the community, it might outweigh the value of preserving a historic building."
Bruno said he cannot say what that "perfect" project might be as he has not seen any plan yet.
"The City Council can always vote to allow demolition, landmarked or not," Bruno said.
The city's ordinance allows a third party to landmark a property, Bruno said.
"If this goes through, it would be the second time such a [non-owner] landmarking has occurred in 36 years," Bruno said.
Terry Emma, executive director of the Geneva History Museum, said she would be disappointed if the 172-year-old limestone structure were to be torn down.
"It's a bummer to me that it is potentially going to be gone," Emma said. "I realize the potential for that land is huge for Geneva. And Shodeen, in the past, has been very diligent about preserving some of Geneva's wonderful buildings – Dodson Place, Herrington Inn and Riverside Banquets."
Emma said she believes demolition is not the developer's intention, but that the building's presence may be inhibiting the design of whatever Shodeen is planning for that area.
Written comments on the application for historic landmark status can be submitted to Geneva Preservation Planner Michael Lambert, 22 S. First St., Geneva, IL 60134. Comments will be accepted until 5 p.m. Feb. 20.


text:
Call For Paper
Dear Colleagues,
El-Maslahah invites you to submit articles to be published in the journal. The articles may be from legal research or conceptual articles, and within all fields of Sharia, Islamic Law, Law Positive, Sharia Economic Law, and Contemporary Islamic studies.
The journal will be publishing 2 times per year (Juni and December). In our journal there are two languages, namely in the abstract the English language and in the articles using Indonesian. All published articles are available online. These articles undergo the rigorous double-blind peer-review process. For further details on submission standards, please contact us at the email: email@example.com.
|Dikirimkan: 2018-02-02


text:
1 of 1
"Washington Watchers report that in the US Congress 399 of 435 US Representatives, and 97 of 100 US Senators WALLOW in 2016 election cycle Big Pharma cash.
As president Trump says of Big Pharma: "They contribute massive amounts of money to political people," Trump said during an impromptu news conference, turning to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who was standing to his side. "I don't know, Mitch, maybe even to you."But let's look at reality…"
1 of 1


text:
Holy smokes, batman, it was a crazy night last night. Busier than all get-out and I think I'm still recovering. But even if it's as stressful as can be and my head is spinning in utter madness, I think I almost prefer it that way. Nothing makes the night go faster - or with more pizzazz.
Don't worry, I did not wear this outfit last night. It was a huge night for us and, as you can very well imagine, I was dressed more than appropriately (in this gorgeous outfit - and since I've worn it before, I will not have a fresh set of pictures for you). But I did wear this outfit the day before - a casual day topped off with a much-needed happy hour with mah girls. I wish I had more Wednesday evenings free so we could make it a weekly ritual. Actually, with only one 2 weeks left in the season, I just may be able to! (Note that, girls?)
|Double-zip jacket - LOFT / Top - Lane Bryant / Khaki pencil skirt - Lane Bryant /
Sandals - Nine West
I do love the combination of blue and burgundy though, and this is well-documented. I may love belting this particular jacket even more, since I've done so nearly every wearing (exhibit 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5). It pretty much made for an ensemble that put itself together.
|Ring - Banana Republic / Belt -Talbots / Earrings - LOFT
As always, which belt is the question. I think I have about 50 belts of various colors and sizes (and all poorly organized, I should mention), so finding the right complement is always fun. I could have gone with a gold or brown here, or better yet a textured belt in a brown snakeskin (which was a very close runner-up), but I decided on this blue in a much lighter color that nicely complemented both the jacket and top. I fall just a bit out of love with these Nine West sandals (which I have in 4 colors) every time I wear them, though, mainly because I think they've fallen out of love with me...
|Handbag - Tano


text:
It's not often that I'm able to look at something in mainstream media and be pleased by the portrayal of my gender. Sure, there are sexy women around - many of them - but in terms of personality, conduct, and self-respect, I tend to come away feeling disgruntled. My most recent favourite has been DI Drake from Ashes to Ashes, the somewhat-sequel to Life on Mars. Even she, however, leaves me feeling a little seedy for watching her on-and-off-again not-quite romance with Gene Hunt, in the same way that you feel embarrassed watching a particularly pretty friend with low self-esteem get drunk and crack onto a mutual acquaintance. Sure, DI Drake is going through a lot, but I still have to go make a cup of tea every time she starts asserting her independent, modern-woman ways.
Enter, then, Kate Beckett from Castle, who manages to be witty, job-oriented and forceful, while maintaining her allure. I've only seen the pilot, but that second-to-last shot of her walking away, having just made a very confident statement about her sexuality, and managing to be sexy a) because she doesn't look back, b) with short hair and minimal makeup and c) in an untucked, untailored light blue button down shirt with rolled-up sleeves and black trousers, gives me hope that maybe a show has got it right.
What is it about games that means we can't have women in this kind of situation? The closest I can imagine is Alice from Alan Wake, and then the most frequent shot of her is in her underwear - granted, not sexy underwear, and it does make it feel as if she's in greater peril than she would be if she were fully clothed, but even she suffers her husband's frequent temper tantrums. She's more complex than that; I'm not denying it. But at the same time, she isn't sexy. I feel something for her, sure, and I want to save her, but she's not attractive in the same way as Detective Beckett.
A lot of this comes from the Male Gaze which, arguably, should now be re-branded the Female Gaze, but that's another post entirely, and one I'm not qualified to cover. Basically, what it comes down to is this: we want what people we respect or like want. That means that if your friend, who you greatly admire for their job, house or family, decides to buy a certain painting or brand of clothing or makeup, you're more likely to gravitate toward that brand in order to attain whatever success your friend has that you want. It's the whole fake-it-'til-you-make-it scenario, and it works. We become better people by modelling positive behaviour.
So the reason that Detective Beckett is attractive, and this is where the Male Gaze comes in, is that Rick Castle (a.k.a. Mal from Firefly) wants her. As a woman, perhaps we'd like Nathan Fillion to look at us that way. As a male, we'd like to be a spaceship captain cowboy. What's not to want? This desire taps into both genders, but more importantly, it also empowers women.
Castle doesn't want Beckett because she's easy, he wants her because she's not. I realise this is giving a contrasting message to men - chase what you can't get - but the reason that Beckett is sexy and not sexual, from a woman's point of view, is because she's the one in control. She dresses conservatively, doesn't seem to care about her appearance, and certainly doesn't care about Castle's opinion, which makes her attractive to both him and us - it's her confidence that does the trick. I'd write another post about how women can never look too good if they want to be taken seriously, and if she does ever wear makeup it's either going to have to be 'undercover', or else change her character entirely, but I don't think that would be much fun to read. Suffice to say I'm happy a reasonably well-groomed, well-dressed, well-situated female detective as the sexy to Castle's smarmy. That's really it.
Can we do that in games, do you think? Stuff gender differentiation - power armour should make everyone look like a man. Unless the women in the army have some seriously amazing genes, they can't be athletic and stacked enough to require an entire extra plating cavity in their armour just to show they have breasts. Shouldn't all soldiers be treated equally in the future, anyway? Should you prioritise saving your comrade, who is wearing a helmet, because of a little extra chest bulge? No way, otherwise men are going to start wearing women's armour, too, and that will just be unfortunate, least of all because that extra little air pocket will work great with incendiary ammo.
Can we have a female character who is not at all interested in the player apart from in a professional capacity, who is sexy without showing more than her neck and her arms, is good at her job, and doesn't suddenly fall apart or need to be rescued? Do you think we can do that, games industry?
I'm willing to try if you are.
Monday, January 31, 2011
at 2:23 PM


text:
Content count319
Last visited
Days Won7
Community Reputation287 Revered
About Ryan
- Birthday 11/25/1995
Computer Specs
Intel I7 5960X
Video Card
EVGA Gtx 980ti
Capture Card
People still use these?
Power Supply
Its a white case made by NZXT
I have 3 and I have no idea what they are.
Bose wireless soundproof headphones
Audio Mixer
behringer X1204
Other Hardware
Iced Tea
OS Software
Windows 10
Some Razer Chroma
Razer Death Hadder Chroma
Canon G7X
Gaming Profiles
Minecraft Name
Steam ID
[PI] Ryguy
Profile Fields
Dallas, Texas
I love all types of games. From Minecraft to Arma; I like it all! (Except MOBAs... never been able to get into those...) I also enjoy writing stories in my spare time.
I work full time in the gaming media industry, and use my enjoyment in writing and create stories using games.
Recent Profile Visitors
Most of em quit and I work most of my day. But if you play PUBG at all, thats my jam right now
Welcome back man!
AMA - Ryan aka Ryguyrocky - New Years! 12/25/17
Ryan replied to Agony's topic in General DiscussionsAGONY QUESTIONS: If you could re-do one thing from this year what would it be? Invest In CryptoCurrency sooner What was your favorite new thing you tried this year? It was the first year I got to try and expand my company and acually hire an entire team that works in an office with me every day. That was a pretty fun experience. What place in the world do you hope to see next year? Torn between Japan, Italy, and Iceland Will @InfernalRage get reckless Friday drunk this new years? If he did... poor Infernal xD MAV2003 QUESTIONS: Will you take me in as your child? Hell no. Do I Like Minecraft? Surprisingly, yes I like Minecraft. Want Kids or Nah? Not for a while, but eventually yeah I do. Am I your fav 14 year old in RGN Youre 14? JOHN FALCON QUESTIONS: How close of friends are we: Close enough where I have you added on steam xD (I dont add people on steam unless I am chill with them, so you good) Who annoys me the most when doing Proper Life? Burt xD Cause he always manages to break things... Gotta love him tho! If I were stuck in a tree would you care enough to help me? Probably. Depends if you deserved to get stuck in the tree or not. Would you like to sit and chat about life sometime? Meh. Im not big on talking about my personal life. What is the YouTuber you have a crush on? No one? Who Are You? I dont even know what you are looking for on this one If you have a kid, would you name it after me Lol nope ===================================================== Quick pause: John why did you ask so many fucking questions xD ===================================================== What did you do this Christmas ? Went back to Boston to visit family. If you could come to me, would you? Probably not? I rarely combine my online life with my real life unless I am really comfortable with the person / people I am meeting If you could have only 1 thing in this world, what would it be? Happiness. Sounds cheesey, but I would rather be happy than anything else in the world. Was RGN your first gaming community? No, I have been apart of several over the years. It is however, the longest I have been apart of one. All the others shut down xD What was your favorite moment on Altis Life? Probably being Captain of the RPD for a while. It was a ton of fun and I loved the experience. It was short lived because life came and kicked me in the balls, but for the few months I was Captain, I had a ton of fun. did you enjoy GTA V RP before it was whitelisted? I didnt really play it. (I mean I did like twice... but that was it) Couldnt find time to actively dedicate time to it. PREACHER QUESTIONS: What got you into YouTube? I actually got into it because when I got my first laptop, the webcam app built into it, would auto upload to YouTube for me. So I started doing that on a really old channel. I liked seeing my videos online, so I just kept doing it. The more I did it, the more I wanted to improve and entertain. It was just the domino effect from there. Gaming came into the picture because I got addicted to a Minecraft server and wanted to help promote it. Then I just kinda stuck with it. Did you expect the success you,ve had with YouTube? I dont know if anyone actually expects it... it just sorta happens? I was shocked when I got my first 100 subscribers. Its crazy to think back and remember the feeling of each milestone passing by, and comparing that to now. So to answer simply, no... no I did not. Ever been recognized IRL? A few times yeah. I dont use webcam so it doesnt happen often. (Gaming conventions are different, but usually im advertised as being there, so I wont count those) Is it weird having a demographic with such a huge age difference? Not really? Like sometimes I hate the fact that I cannot do anything crazy story driven with a lot of depth because they are too young to understand it, but thats the only thing that has ever bugged me regarding age. I see it as being no different than like adults who act in kids shows. What is your favorite sport to watch? Football What is your favorite sport to play? Hockey Do you drink or smoke? I drink at parties and social events. At home I have the occational beer, nothing crazy. Once and a blue moon Ill have a cigar? If weed was federally legal and you smoke whereever you could drink - would you drink still? I would drink somewhere, where I wouldnt have to worry about being drunk and somewhat high. Ive heard that its bad to be both, dont plan on trying it either xD Favorite childhood game? Cel Damage KEEPKOOPBUSH QUESTIONS How did you get the money to travel back and forth? Working hard. The Grind Never Stops. Would it be a hassle to have a pet or do you already have some? I want to get a dog, but with the amount I travel for work, that isnt gonna happen right now. Do you work out? Yep. I used to workout daily, but cut back to 4 times a week for right now. EAGLES QUESTIONS: What am I most looking forward to in 2018? My girl finally gets to move out to Texas with me What game or games are you looking forward to this year? Red Dead Redemption 2 (assuming it comes out this year) Do I watch any sports? If so what are my teams? Hockey, Football, and Baseball. Bruins, Patriots, and Red Sox What do I enjoy most about RGN? I can always find someone to game with. Gaming sucks alone, being apart of a community allows you to find people who enjoy what you enjoy. What's one thing you wish you could have changed last year? Nothing ^-^ Everything happens for a reason and any failures I had, I will learn and grow from. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be and why? Probably southern italy. I dont know exactly where, but they have so many cliffside water view homes there, and that would be dope. What is your favorite game to play when you arent recording for YouTube? Lately it has been PUBG, Overwatch, and WoW LSTOLTE Questions: What is your name? Ill give you one guess... What is your favorite color? Navy Blue What is the capital of Assyria? I have no idea, and am way too lazy to look it up Do you recognize this scene? Kinda sounds like Monty Python? But I dont remember the last question xD Basing that just off the first 2. How do I even live? I dont. GEWCHIE QUESTIONS? Do you miss AGP? AGP?
Ryan replied to Princess Bunny's topic in IntroductionsWelcome ^;^
AMA - Eagles - Christmas Edition! 12/17/17
Ryan replied to Agony's topic in General DiscussionsDo you have any Christmas traditions that you do every year?
AMA Returns! - Draxt 12/10/17
Ryan replied to Agony's topic in General DiscussionsWhen are we gonna get drinks?
Happy birthday Ryan!
Ryan replied to Eagles's topic in General DiscussionsThanks Guys ^^
Department Officers
Ryan replied to Gewchie's topic in News & InformationCongrats everyone ^^
My first published book!
Ryan replied to Ryan's topic in General DiscussionsNot a bad idea Good I would expect nothing less Thanks man! Appreciate it Thanks fam ^^
My first published book!
Ryan posted a topic in General DiscussionsHey everyone, So, I am officially a published Author! This has been a project in the works for about a year and its finally done. I came up with the ideas and my ghost writer actually wrote it out. https://www.amazon.com/Just-Time-Minecraft-Life-Adventure/dp/1976579708/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510780945&sr=8-1&keywords=ryguyrocky Thought I would share for those who are interested
Ryan replied to RisingRonin's topic in General DiscussionsI own the game, but have never actually played it. I would be willing to give it a go
So I actually have a week of light work! I can play video games again! FINALLY \o-o/
Oh god lmao, I can only imagine how cringey Pub Cop Ryan was @Steve
LMAO, I didnt realize anyone had pictures of me back in the pubby days ;D
I should probably let you all know. Im not dead. Just insanely busy traveling
- Show previous comments 2 more
Im not sure @Al Hoff... Im not sure


text:
Podcast: Play in new window
| Download
To finish up our series on Discovering God's Will I asked the Boy Scouts for some help on how to use a compass. While I have done a lot of hiking in my life, I have always hiked on marked trails so I never knew exactly how to work a compass so Don Reed was kind enough to give me a quick lesson. The key to using a compass is that you need to know where you are starting and where you want to end up. Once the compass points north and you orient the map you can set your bearings on your destination and then just move in that direction. It is important to keep coming back to the compass to make sure you are walking in the right direction – if not you get off course and end up lost or in the wrong place.
So the key to using a compass is knowing exactly where you want to end up, you have to know the destination in order for the compass to show you the direction to go and the same is true with discovering God's will – when we know our destination the path God sets before us is much clearer to see. So to really understand God's will for our lives we need to have a general idea about our destination and we are going to call that VISION. A vision is a picture or image of where were we want to be or what we want in our lives. We might have a vision of what kind of marriage we want, or what kind of parent we want to be. We can have a vision about the kind of career we want and how we want our finances to look in 5 years or 10 years or when we retire. We might have a vision of the kind of disciple or follower of Jesus we want to be by the end of this year or how we want to share our faith with our children. Having a vision of where we want to be or WHO we want to be is important because that vision not only helps us discover the direction we need to go today but it helps us know God's will and make the right decisions every day. Andy Stanley says, as our vision get's clearer, the options we have get fewer so the decisions we have to make get easier.
Let's examine how this works using the example of a marriage. If you are single, think about the kind of marriage you want. If you want a marriage where you can share your faith and have a partner that will work with you in mission and take seriously living out your faith then that vision will narrow down the choices you have in dating. I have to say that in my time as a pastor I have seen a lot of people fall in love with someone who doesn't share their same passion or priority for faith and yet they go ahead and get married anyway thinking that things will change and then a year or so later wonder why they don't have the kind of marriage they want. They are upset that their spouse doesn't want to go to church or join a bible study or go on a mission trip with them, but they didn't hold on to their vision of marriage while they were dating so they got off course and ended up in the wrong place or with the wrong person. If we have clear vision of what we want and stick to that vision it will show us God's direction for our lives today.
If you are currently married, let me ask you this, do you have a vision for where you want your marriage to be 5 years or 10 years down the road? Do you have a vision of the kind of relationship you want with your spouse? If you want to be able to communicate more or be stronger in our faith together or be better able to work through your problems then it will mean you will need to do some things today and tomorrow to get there. Again the clearer the vision is for your marriage the more that vision can give direction to the choices you make today.
Think about how this works with our finances. If our vision is to get completely out of debt in 5 years, then there are some decisions and choices we need to make today to make that happen. If we have a vision for what we need for our children's education or for our retirement, then again, that destination will give direction to our financial choices today. It will help us decide what kind of car to buy or how often we go out to eat or how much of a mortgage we are willing to enter into. You begin to understand how having a clearer vision of where we want to be and what God wants for our lives helps narrow down the options that are truly viable for us which makes the decisions we face today easier. The clearer the vision of what God wants for us the easier it will be for God to direct us.
Now my guess is that most of us have some kind of vision for our lives. If I were to ask you what kind of family you wanted to have in 5 years – you would have some idea of what you want. Maybe it is having children or another child or maybe it's seeing all your children out of the house and off on their own. It may not be detailed and specific – but you would have a general idea of where you want to be. You might have a general idea of where you want to be financially or in your career or in a new career but most of us would be able to say something about the vision we have for the future. The clearer that vision is, the more we will discover God's will and if the vision we have for the future needs to come into focus there is something we can do about it and the first thing we can do is write the vision down.
Take some time this week to write down where you want to be in the key areas of your life like your marriage or as a parent. Where do we want to be in our finances or in our faith? As we being to identify this vision and bring it into focus, the second thing we do is to ask God to give it shape and God can do this through his word. Last week we looked at how God's word can help us discover God's will by showing us principles to follow. For example in trying to clarify what kind of parent we want to be, we might say that we want to be the kind of parent who helps our children grow up to have a strong faith because a principle of God's word that we want to hold to is totrain a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it (Proverbs 22:6).
So there is a Godly principle that can shape what kind of parent we want to be which in turn gives direction to the choices we make today. To train a child in the faith means bringing them to worship on a regular basis and maybe coming to Sunday School and Vacation Bible School. Maybe it means we start praying together as family when we sit down to dinner – or maybe just making time to sit down to dinner. It might mean finding ways to serve God together as a family or even think about going on a mission trip together.
So you begin to see the importance of God's vision for our lives and how it helps us understand the will of God for today. But it is also important to have a clear vision because that vision keeps us moving in the right direction so we don't wander away from the will of God. A compass helps keep us moving in the right direction so we actually get to our destination but the compass will only work if we are willing to keep it in front of us and check it often and the same is true with God's vision. We need to keep God's vision for our lives in front of us and check it often so we don't get distracted and pulled away into other directions. There are so many things out there that we could be doing and many different paths we could be taking and a lot of those things are good, some of them very good, but they may not be the best thing for us and so we need to stay true to the vision God has given us. Let's look at a story from the Old Testament that teaches us this principles of staying focused on the vision, it is the story of Nehemiah.
To understand the story of Nehemiah we first need to remember some of the history of Israel. In 586 BC the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians and all of Israel was forced into exile. The Jewish people were taken away into Babylon where they lived among foreign people for close to 50 years. Eventually Babylon was overtaken by Persia and the Persian King, Cyrus, allowed some of the Jewish people to return to Jerusalem. In 538 BC people returned to rebuild the Temple, and in 516 BC the Temple was completed. People settled into the area around the city of Jerusalem, but there were no city walls so the people were not safe from their enemies. In 445 BC news of the city walls in ruins comes to Nehemiah and he gets a vision of rebuilding the walls. That vision leads him to Jerusalem with all the supplies he needs to rebuild the walls and he begins the project.
Now as Nehemiah is rebuilding the walls there are people all around who are threatened by this. When the people of Israel were in exile the region was inhabited by many foreign nations who were not happy to see Israel returning and fortifying itself as a nation so they began to taunt and harass Nehemiah and his project with hopes of keeping the walls from being built and that is where we pick up the story. Nehemiah 6:1-4.
So 4 times Sanballat (an enemy) tried to pull Nehemiah away from his work with the hope that if he could pull him away and cause some disruption to the process the entire project might fall apart. Look at Nehemiah 6:9. So Sanballat was trying to do anything he could get Nehemiah to focus on something other than the vision God had given him but Nehemiah remained steadfast. He checked his compass – he went back to his vision which was rebuilding the walls so again and again and again he said to Sanballat, "I am doing a great work and I cannot come down."
The principle we find here is that if we want to discover God's will and walk in it then we need to stay focused on the vision God has for our lives and not allow ourselves to be pulled away from it at all. Nehemiah knew clearly that God's purpose was for him to rebuild the walls and he remained faithful to the vision. Whenever someone or something tried to pull him away he reminded himself of the great work he was doing. This is why clarity of vision is so important, so we don't get pulled away to other things – no matter how good those things might be – and not arrive at our destination.
Jesus shows us this principle as well. At the very beginning of His ministry Jesus had great success as a healer, in fact, in Mark 1 it says that the entire town of Capernaum was camped outside Jesus door waiting for him to heal the sick and drive out those possessed by demons, but then look at Mark 1:35-38. Jesus went off to pray and when he came back he was clear that the vision for his life was not just to heal the sick and drive out demons but to proclaim the message of God's kingdom. Jesus checked his compass, he returned to the vision God had given for his life and he used that vision to keep him moving in the will of God. This is why we need to have clarity about the vision for our own lives. If we don't have a clear vision it is too easy to get pulled away to other things.
There are many good things that try to pull us away from what God wants for us. Many opportunities that come our way are good but if they pull us away from God's best or God's desire for our lives – then we need to learn to say no to them. Think about our children, there are dozens of opportunities for them to be involved in good things: sports, music, hobbies, clubs, dance, drama… the list goes on and on and they are all good – but if we say yes to them all then there will be no time for the things that are important like time together as a family, or time together in worship. Sometimes we have to say no to some very good things in order to stay focused on the things of God. We have to keep checking the compass, or looking to the vision, to make sure we are staying on the right path.
Keeping this kind of focus can be difficult because it can call for sacrifice. The vision we have for our family might mean giving up a job or turning down a promotion because it will pull us away from our children. At a point in time when my niece and nephew were younger my brother in law quit his job and took a job at his church not only because he heard a call to ministry but because he wanted to get off the corporate fast track and spend more time with his children.
Sometimes the vision we have for our families and finances means we need to downsize our homes and cars so that everything can be re-prioritized in ways that helps us reach our goals and experience the fullness of God's vision. There is often sacrifice involved in staying true to the vision God has for us but if we believe the vision of where we want to be and where God wants us to be, then those sacrifices are worth it.
So I would encourage us all this week to identify the vision God has given us for five key areas of our lives: Marriage, Family, Faith, Finances, Job. We need to begin to write down what that vision is and where we want to be in the future so we can keep that vision before us. If our vision needs clarity then we need to ask God to give it to us and then spend time thinking about the principles we learn from God that might give some shape to our future. Then we need to act according our vision. We might need to say yes to some things and no to some other things to make sure we are going in the right direction and then once we are sure abut the direction we are going and the work we are doing we need to remember and recite the words of Nehemiah.
I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.
Knowing God's providential will, walking in God's moral will, asking for directions from those who are where we want to be in life and faith, applying the principles of God's word and having a clear vision of who God wants us to be are all resources God gives us to discover His personal will for our lives and if nothing else, I hope we will remember this. God gives us these resources because He wants us to know His will for our lives even more than we do.
Next Steps
Discovery God's Will ~ Checking the Compass
1. In a sentence or two, write out what you believe to be God's vision for these key areas of your life:
• Spiritual Life
• Marriage/Significant Relationships
• Family
• Job/Career
• Finances
If you don't feel you have a God given vision for each of these areas, then ask God to give you one. Pray:
Heavenly Father, I want to know Your will.
Please begin to give me a vision of Your will for my life.
I ask this in Jesus name. AMEN
2. In what ways are you being distracted from God's vision?
• What good things are pulling you away?
• What bad things are pulling you away?
3. In what areas do you need to use the words of Nehemiah (found in Nehemiah 6:3): "I am doing a great work and I cannot come down."
4. What one thing can you do right now to help move you towards God's vision?


text:
I started by just looking at my backlog. All those games bought over the years from crazy Steam Sales or from an article raving about the gameplay. Of course I will play ALL of them.. someday.. I wanted something that I had barely touched but I would have to dive deep into. Twenty games off the shelf later, I landed with Final Fantasy XII. This is one of those titles I bought when it came out, collector's edition of course. I just had to have it and knew I would love it. Over the years I maybe played 4 hours of the game and pulled it out to play a dozen times, only to have a change of heart or be interrupted. Now it was time to delete all game saves and start from scratch.
Tag Archives: motivation
Personal Project Overload? Reboot.
A frequent problem of mine – coming up with too many tasks to do in my free time. Its something that plagues me when I'm too busy to add to the list; I have to keep piling it on. A backlog of games/books/movies, new projects, blog updates, clean out files on my computer or desk, picking up gardening, trying new recipes, begin an exercise program, catch up with old friends, and the list can go on and they do and they multiply. Often it leaves me just sitting and staring at the wall, not knowing which way I should be turning and my brain scattered across the room. Or even worse, it ends with endlessly streaming through Facebook posts and articles, mindlessly going where everyone has gone before. I feel lucky when it's more productive procrastination, cleaning the apartment and reorganizing my desk, both usually on my "Household List." In the end comes down to me not getting anything meaningful done.