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Michelle wrote:
- Chalk paint dresser makeover
- Homemade folders for my household binder kit
- Powder room makeover
I absolutely love the dresser makeover. What a difference it made, WOW!ReplyDelete
I love the pattern in the bathroom - so pretty!ReplyDelete
This girl looks like she has some great ideas!!
What an awesome idea using those manila folders to create pockets for your household binder! They are so pretty!! My greeting card binder is separate (http://www.prettyorganized.com/organizing/organized-greeting-card-binder), but I love the idea of keeping everything in one place inside of your household notebook, too! You are totally inspiring me to switch everything from my filing cabinets into binders now!! Thanks for sharing!ReplyDelete
Thanks for taking a minute to read my post =) It was Jen's idea to create this binder, I just tweaked it by adding my own folders. We are a good team!!!Delete
Wow...Michelle is so creative! I can't wait to join her blog and follow her!ReplyDelete
Thanks for the feature Jen and the REALLY kind words =)ReplyDelete
Love IHeart and now I LOVE Michelle!ReplyDelete
That bathroom re-do is inspiring. I want to completely revamp all of my bathrooms now. :)ReplyDelete
I apologize to your hubby or boyfriend! They probably don't appreciate these ideas I'm planting in your head...lol
Thanks for commenting =)
That wallpaper is to die for! Absolutely beautiful. :)ReplyDelete
That bathroom is gorgeous! I already have permission to do a super girly powder room in our next house, and this is fantastic inspiration!ReplyDelete
I am glad you are inspired! Go get er' done!Delete
you have such designer talent! I'm jelly lol x
I am literally in the middle of overhauling my household binder RIGHT NOW and this has provided some much needed inspiration / motivation. Thanks!ReplyDelete
Love household binders! I have 2 of them!ReplyDelete
Ahhh, what a little "post-election" haven I have here. So peaceful, so organized...unlike my fb page. <3ReplyDelete
Love how the dresser turned out! I have an 8 month old little boy. I am a little embarrassed to say that I haven't finished his room. We have managed to slap some paint on the wall an add a chair railing. Thank you for the great ideas. Oh and love love love the bathroom!ReplyDelete
Some great ideas implemented for refurbishing storage solutions!ReplyDelete
The details are gorgeous, especially the knitted cover for the soap dispenser! Accent colours are so hard to find sometimes, especially to find something that matches that isn't too overpowering. Gorgeous choices!ReplyDelete
The damask wallpaper is gorgeous! I'm too intimidated to try wallpaper myself, but I love this one!ReplyDelete
IHeart you taking a moment to comment! Although I absolutely appreciate, consider and read each and every comment, I will remove any comment that I believe to be inappropriate, malicious or spam like. This blog is my happy place, let's keep the drama at bay!
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Thanks again my lovely friends! XO!


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photo 1 of 204
UFC® 164 Event Gallery
agosto 31, 2013
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UFC 164 at BMO Harris Bradley Center on August 31, 2013 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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subset: commoncrawl


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The Tana from Mosley Tribes is a unisex aviator with a timeless design and sturdy construction. They feature a wire frame, embossed Mosley Tribes logo... at the temples and cutouts at the tips. The Tana also comes packaged with a cleaning cloth and case.
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I know this is possible. I came across a website that had a bunch of code for console applications, and it included code to play wav files and mp3 files. But I CAN'T FIND THE SITE ANYMORE!!! I'd like to play a few sounds in my "Mists of Avalon" game. Does anyone know of any sites where I can do this or know of any code? Thanks!
P.S. I know there's a "waveplay.cpp" file on the CProgramming website, but it won't work for me as I don't have all those include files it needs.


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The current generation Triumph Daytona 675 is at the end of its lifecycle, as a new three-cylinder supersport is expected to debut from the British brand later this fall. Accordingly, Triumph is keen on clearing out its inventory of Daytona's, and has put together the 2012 Triumph Daytona 675 Sulphur Yellow (note the very British -ph spelling).
As the name denotes, the bike is a bright yellow (just like the element sulfur, note: the freedom -f American spelling), but beyond the bodywork comes the addition of color-matched pinstriped rims, a carbon fiber mudguard, carbon fiber instrument accents, a carbon fiber exhaust heat shield, a quickshifter, and aluminum billet levers.


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What drove the alleged plotters to try to blow up the ANC's leadership?
"The first thing you notice when you enter the mind of a white-supremacist terrorist is that it's almost entirely empty," said Dr Rorschach Ramotswe. "Sure, there are a few scraps of data – the best route to take when crawling home from the bar or a rough grasp of the current plot of 7de Laan – but otherwise it's as empty as they believe South Africa was in 1652."
Asked to speculate on how the alleged Mangaung plot took shape, Ramotswe said that right-wing plots were almost always the result of word association, alcohol and e.tv's Friday-night action night.
"Someone orders a Jägerbomb and it gets them thinking about bombs, then Chuck Norris rescues some white people from the clutches of scheming communists … there are a few dots to join, but they get there in the end," he said.
But, he added, he was surprised that the alleged plotters had resorted to explosives.
"Usually it doesn't go that far," he said. "Most of their creative inspiration comes from 7de Laan, so usually we see plans involving a cake sale or a fashion show where the caterer fails to show up and the waitress cracks under the strain of her bad relationship with a boy."


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Two Knickerbocker Romantics
Washington Irving
Fortunately the stolid New York of earlier days was not to pass away without bequeathing to posterity some fragments of its chronicles. In the midst of a pleasant society of smallclothes and tie-wigs, of feudalism and Federalism, appeared young Washington Irving at the precise moment when Sansculottism was beginning to make a stir in the land, and gentlemen were putting away their knee--breeches to don a republican dress--a decline in taste to which he would not easily reconcile himself. A boyish wit from the eighteenth century, a genial loiterer in the twilight of the old, he found himself out of humor with the ambitions that were making over the little city he loved. The present seemed to him not so amusing as the past, nor so picturesque. That he had any business with the world of trade and speculation he could not believe. Its concerns were not his. Its new Wall Street counted for less in his eyes than the pipe of old Diedrich Knickerbocker. Its decadent Federalism that was clinging to the wreck of its hopes, and its roistering Democracy that wore greasy clothes, spoke with an Irish accent, and was marshaled to the polls by Tammany Hall, were of less consequence to him than the black bottle that brought such curious adventures to Rip Van Winkle. The wit and romance he took pleasure in were of another sort than the kind his generation was getting drunk on--more insubstantial, less heady, picturesque rather than profitable. So Irving gently detached himself from contemporary America, and detached he remained to the end of a loitering life, untroubled by material ambitions, enjoying the abundance of good things that fell in his way, mingling with prosperous folk and liking everybody--men as diverse as John Jacob Astor and Martin Van Buren and John P. Kennedy--and unconsciously taking the color of his environment, careful to turn into limpid prose such romantic tales as he came upon and achieving thereby both reputation and profit--a pleasant blameless way of living, certainly, yet curiously unrepresentative of the America in which chance had set him and which was to claim him as its first man of letters.
An incorrigible flaneur, Irving's business in life was to loaf and invite the picturesque. A confirmed rambler in pleasant places, in the many lands he visited he was a lover of the past rather than the present, seeking to re- create the golden days of the Alhambra or live over the adventurous mood of the fur trader. The immediate and the actual was an unsatisfying diet for his dreams. There was in him nothing of the calm aloofness of the intellectual that stands apart to clarify its critical estimate, and none of the reforming zeal of the Puritan that is at peace only in the thick of a moral crusade. The duty of saving the world was not laid on his untroubled soul. No man of his generation was less of a rebel than Irving, and he went his way unconcerned at things that quite upset Fenimore Cooper's peace of mind. In his early days, to be sure, he broke with the ambitious middle class--if gently drawing away can be called breaking--because he could not bring himself to like its ways and the devastation those ways were entailing on the leisurely world he loved. Revolutions seemed to him somewhat vulgar affairs. The French Revolution had brought destruction on too many lovely things, and the industrial revolution was taking too heavy a toll of the picturesque, to please him. He thought it a pity that steam should drive the clipper ship from the seas and put an end to snug posting in the tally-ho. Progress might be bought at too dear a price. The bluff squire with his hounds, the great hall with its ancient yuletide customs, the patriarchal relations between master and man, seemed to him more worth while than the things progress was substituting for them; so he turned away from the new and gently ingratiated himself into the past in order to gather up such fragments of the picturesque as progress had not yet destroyed.
But only for a time. His dislike of capitalism rested on no more substantial basis than its substitution of vulgar trousers for gentlemanly smallclothes. It was too new to have achieved dignity or the charm of assured position. When that time should come and masters of finance should stand before the world as generous dispensers of patronage, when the development of business should have produced its new barons, Irving's dislike would lessen and he would associate with the new capitalism on the same easy terms that he associated with the old feudalism. In the meantime he stood apart, unconcerned with praise or blame. The industrial revolution might work itself out as it would. The seventeen years he spent abroad on his great pilgrimage were black years for England. Wretchedness and poverty were all about him if he chose to see. The "condition of England" question was rising out of the factory smoke to challenge the conscience of England. But he did not choose to see and his conscience was untroubled. As he idled about the countryside or visited the hospitable manor houses, his eye was caught by the grace of medieval spires rising from parish churches rather than by the condition of the proletariat. He saw no children working in the coal pits, for he did not choose to visit the collieries. He sympathized vaguely with the new social movements then getting under way, but it was not in his nature to be partisan to a cause. He may not have been a Tory but he had lived so long with Tories and enjoyed so frankly the charm of upper-class society, that his outlook was unconsciously determined by such intimate contacts. While Secretary to the Legation at London in the reform years from 1829 to 1831, he was aware of the tremendous stir all about him, but his infrequent references to the Reform Bill in his letters turned usually on its disastrous effects on the publishing business. Only once during his long residence abroad does he seem to have felt deeply the significance of the current revolutionary unrest, and the mood that swept him away from his habitual indifference bears the marks of a sudden awakening. Writing from London on March 1, 1831, he said:
We are in the beginning of an eventful week. . . . However, the great cause of all the world will go on. What a stirring moment it is to live in. I never took such intense interest in the newspapers. It seems to me as if life were breaking out anew with me, or that I were entering upon quite a new and almost unknown career of existence, and I rejoice to find my sensibilities, which were waning as to many objects of past interest, reviving with all their freshness and vivacity at the scenes and prospects opening around me. I trust, my dear Brevoort, we shall both be spared to see a great part of this grand though terrible drama that is about to be acted. There will doubtless be scenes of horror and suffering, but what splendid triumphs must take place over these vile systems of falsehood in every relation of human affairs, that have been woven over the human mind, and for so long a time have held it down in despicable thraldom. (Pierre M. Irving, Life and Letters of Washington Irving, Vol. II, p. 199.)
Irving lacked a month of being forty-nine when he wrote this confession of interest in matters political. It marks the first appearance of liberalism in his thinking, and the last--somewhat vague to be sure, unduly bottomed on romantic expectations, yet significant in so placid a life and explanatory of his course, when a year later he returned to America to knit up once more the raveled threads of his interests. It was as an incipient liberal that he came back to a land then in the first flush of the Jacksonian victory, eager to discover a romantic charm in the vast changes that had come during the seventeen years he had been abroad. He plunged into the business of re-discovery with enthusiasm. He was in want of new literary materials, and as he took his bearings, his creative interest was stirred to write on American themes. He went to Washington and for three months listened to the great debate on Nullification. He talked with business men and politicians, with those who were prosperous and prominent, and he drifted easily with the tide of liberalism. To be sure he could scarcely be called a Jacksonian. Parties and causes did not greatly interest him even then. An intelligent man, indeed, could hardly be less concerned about political principles. Thirty years before, as a clever young man about town, he had gone with the dominant Federalism of the times, and had amused himself with political ambitions. His brother Peter was editor of the Lewisite paper the Chronicle, but Josiah Ogden Hoffman, with whose firm Irving was connected during his desultory incursion into the law and to whose daughter Matilda he was betrothed, was an old Loyalist and ardent Hamiltonian. His wife, to whom Irving was warmly attached, was a daughter of John Fenno, Hamilton's editor. Under such tutelage: it was natural for Irving to poke good-natured fun at President Jefferson's red velvet breeches in Salmagundi; but his venture into practical politics proving little to his taste, he quickly gave over such ambitions. In a letter to a clever young lady of Republican sympathies, he thus announced his abandonment of political hopes:
I am as deep in mud and politics as ever a modern gentleman would wish to be; and I drank beer with the multitude; and I talked hand-bill fashion with the demagogues; and I shook hands with the mob, whom my heart abhorreth. . . . Truly this saving one's country is a nauseous piece of business, and if patriotism is such a dirty virtue, --prythee, no more of it. (Life and Letters, Vol. I, Chap. XI.)
Years now separated him from that youthful experience. His long absence from his native land had completely alienated him from the fierce partisanship of contemporary America and he could view matters political with calm detachment. Inclined to make the best of any government de facto, he found it easy on his return to accept Jacksonianism, and he soon discovered a genuine liking for Old Hickory. "The more I see of this old cock of the woods," he wrote from Washington, "the more I relish his game qualities" (ibid., Vol. II, p. 255). No doubt his early friend Paulding had much to do with his ready acceptance of the new order, although he had come in close contact with Martin Van Buren at the London legation and was drawn to him. "He is one of the gentlest and most amiable men I have ever met with," he wrote to his brother, "with an affectionate disposition that attaches itself to those around him, and wins their kindness in return" (ibid., Vol. II, p. 220). Although distrustful of some of the "elbow counsellors" of the Democracy he found little cause for criticism and soon came to be regarded as one with them. The Jacksonians were eager to make political capital out of his literary reputation, and he was urged by Tammany Hall to stand for Congress and later to accept a mayoralty candidacy. In 1837, probably through the intervention of Paulding, he was offered a post in Van Buren's cabinet. These partisan offers he had the good sense to decline, but when in 1842 he was tendered the post of Minister to Spain he gladly seized the opportunity to revisit a land he loved. His nephew is explicit in his statement that the offer came wholly unsolicited, but Fenimore Cooper was of another opinion.1 Very likely Cooper was misinformed, but whatever the truth the appointment was a godsend to Irving. His affairs were in a bad way. The popularity of his writings was on the wane, the panic had caught him with much of his capital invested in unprofitable land speculations, and the "Roost" at Tarrytown was a heavy drain, although he wrote whimsically, "I beat all the gentlemen farmers in my neighborhood, for I can manage to raise my vegetables and fruits at very little more than twice the market price" (Life and Letters, Vol. II, p. 320) . Only a severe nature like Cooper, sorely wounded by the angry reception of his own honest criticism, would cavil at an appointment so honorable to the government.
A friendly nature, Irving discovered friendliness wherever he went. His own generosity appealed to the generosity of others, and he found it easy in consequence to take a kindly view of men and parties. He was harassed by none of Cooper's quick suspicions and rigid principles, and it must be added he had none of Cooper's intuitive penetration into the secret springs of human action that made the latter so acute a critic of contemporary America. The sharp contrast in moods in which the two men returned to America from their travels, the one harshly critical of middle-class economics and frontier leveling, the other responding naively to the enthusiasm for speculative expansion and eager to exploit the romance of the westward movement, sufficiently reveals the difference between them. The one was a dogmatic Puritan with the dictatorial ways of the quarter-deck, the other was a play-boy of letters temperamentally incapable of critical analysis. There was not a grain of realism in Irving's nature. His cheerful optimism was little more than the optimism of the prosperous. Wholly ignorant of economics, he never comprehended the significance of the revolutions in process all about him, and this naivete blinded him to the motive of John Jacob Astor in financing Astoria, as it blinded him to all the major forces of the times. He was easily brought to see the romance of the great struggle between rival companies for mastery of the fur trade, but he did not comprehend how the glamour he threw about the venture must inevitably strengthen his patron's investment in imperialism. Gullible as a child, he discovered nothing more significant in the great struggle between agrarianism and capitalism for control of government than the ungenerous suspicions and novel theories it bred. For the outstanding liberals of New York he had scant sympathy. William Leggett, Horace Greeley, Albert Brisbane, William Cullen Bryant, influenced his views far less than did the masters of Wall Street; and from the courageous movement of Locofocoism he drew back in distrust. The one letter in which he elaborated such political convictions as he had come to hold, is an interesting document that deserves quotation.
As far as I know my own mind, 1 am thoroughly a republican, and attached, from complete conviction, to the institutions of my country; but I am a republican without gall, and have no bitterness in my creed. I have no relish for puritans either in religion or politics, who are for pushing principles to an extreme, and for overturning everything that stands in the way of their own zealous career. I have, therefore, felt a strong distaste for some of those locofoco luminaries who of late have been urging strong and sweeping measures, subversive of the interests of great classes of the community. Their doctrines may be excellent in theory, but, if enforced in violent and uncompromising opposition to all our habitudes, may produce the most distressing effects. The best of remedies must be cautiously applied, and suited to the taste and constitution of the patient. . . . Ours is a government of compromise. We have several great and distinct interests bound up together, which, if not separately consulted and severally accommodated, may harass and impair each other. . . . I always distrust the soundness of political councils that are accompanied by acrimonious and disparaging attacks upon any great class of our fellow-citizens. Such are those urged to the disadvantage of the great trading and financial classes of our country. You yourself know . . how important these classes are to the prosperous conduct of the complicated affairs of this immense empire. You yourself know, in spite of all the common-place cant and obloquy that has been cast upon them by political spouters and scribblers, what general good faith and fair dealing prevails throughout these classes. Knaves and swindlers there are doubtless among them, as there are among all great classes of men; but I declare that I looked with admiration at the manner in which the great body of our commercial and financial men have struggled on through the tremendous trials which have of late overwhelmed them, and have endeavored, at every pecuniary sacrifice, to fulfill their engagements. (Life and Letters, Vol. II, pp. 312-313.)
This persuasive presentation of the philosophy of compromise, with its implicit defense of capitalism, marks Irving's drift back to the middle class with which he had long before broken. In the six years since his return he had watched the country react to the great panic, and he went with it in its veering towards the Whiggery of Henry Clay. The fragile bonds of his attachment to the Democracy were becoming tenuous; other attachments were insensibly drawing him towards the more congenial representatives of wealth. He had all his life associated with the Tory classes and it was easy for him to transfer his loyalty to the American Tories. Under such influences began a slow rapprochement cordial towards the new philosophy of progress. He was seized with the common mania of speculation and made some unfortunate investments in wild lands and railways that seriously hampered him later, and he commercialized his literary reputation by such money-making ventures as Astoria and the Adventures of Captain Bonneville. He discovered a new romance in the great business of exploitation, and found the hand of Cod in the profits of unearned increment. In the letter above quoted from, he justified the ways of speculation thus:
There are moral as well as physical phenomena incident to every state of things, which may at first appear evils, but which are devised by an all-seeing Providence for some beneficent purpose. Such is the spirit of speculative enterprise which now and then rises to an extravagant height, and sweeps throughout the land.... The late land speculations, so much deprecated, though ruinous to many engaged in them, have forced agriculture and civilization into the depths of the wilderness; have laid open the recesses of primeval forests; made us acquainted with the most available points of our immense interior; have cast the germs of future towns and cities and busy marts in the heart of savage solitudes, and studded our vast rivers and internal seas with ports that will soon give activity to a vast internal commerce. Millions of acres which might otherwise have remained idle and impracticable wastes, have been brought under the dominion of the plough, and hundreds of thousands of industrious yeomen have been carried into the rich but remote depths of our immense empire, to multiply and spread out in every direction, and give solidity and strength to our confederacy. All this has in a great measure been effected by the extravagant schemes of land speculators. I am, therefore, inclined to look upon them with a more indulgent eye than they are considered by those violent politicians who are prescribing violent checks and counter measures, and seem to have something vindictive in their policy. (Life and Letters, Vol. II, p. 314.)
Thus did Irving become completely domesticated in the new world that Rip Van Winkle had found so disconcerting when he came upon it out of the quiet colonial past. The rediscovery of America proved to be an agreeable business, and profitable in a professional way. His enthusiasms, which in 1831 he felt were "waning as to many objects of past interest," were stimulated by the vast stir of the country, and the spirit of romance once more ran briskly in his veins. The better part of a year he rambled widely about the country, in order, as he said, to get at home "upon American themes. " He visited Boston and the White Mountains, then West to Ohio and St. Louis, then with an Indian commissioner he penetrated the southwest prairies as far as the wild Pawnee country beyond the South Canadian River, then to New Orleans and Charleston, finally settling down in Washington to immerse himself in politics. From there he passed over the Potomac for an extended trip through the Old Dominion, returning to New York where he spent some time with Astor at Hell Gate, finally in 1835 settling at Tarrytown which was to be his home to the last. He had definitely determined on his new field of work. His imagination had been stirred by his visit to the prairies; the romance of the westward expansion was beginning to find expression in the works of Timothy Flint and James Hall; the public interest was ripe and John Jacob Astor was at hand to encourage him. Thus stimulated Irving proposed to make the field of western romance his own, with the result that he published in quick succession A Tour of the Prairies, Astoria, and The Adventures of Captain Bonneville.
On the whole the new venture did not prosper. The spirit of the West was not to be captured by one whose heart was in Spain. In A Tour of the Prairies there is a certain homely simplicity and straightforwardness that spring from a plain recital of undramatic experience; and in Astoria there is an unembellished narrative of appalling hardship and heroic endurance, with none of the tawdry romantics that mar the work of Flint and Hall. Yet neither is creatively imaginative, neither stirs one with a sense of high drama. The atmosphere of Snake River could not be created in the quiet study at the "Roost"; it needed the pen of a realist to capture the romance of those bitter wanderings in mountain and sagebrush. It is journeyman work, and on every page one is conscious of the professional man of letters faithfully doing this day's allotment. It is much the same with his Life of Washington. In this last great undertaking Irving no longer writes with gusto. The golden days of Diedrich Knickerbocker and Rip Van Winkle are long since gone; the magic is departed from his pen; and a somewhat tired old gentleman is struggling to fulfill his contract with his publisher. It was a mistake to venture on the work, despite the fact that he had long been planning it. His historical equipment was inadequate. He might make a pretty story out of Washington's early life and his days with the army, but he was far too ignorant of politics, too credulous in judging his materials, to interpret justly the fierce party struggles that seethed about the President. Quite unconsciously in this last work he returned to the political prejudices of his youth, and wrote an account of Washington's administrations deeply colored by his Federalist sources.
The most distinguished of our early romantics, Irving in the end was immolated on the altar of romanticism. The pursuit of the picturesque lured him away into sterile wastes, and when the will-o'-the-wisp was gone he was left empty. A born humorist, the gayety of whose spirits overflowed the brim, he was lacking in a brooding intellectuality, and instead of coming upon irony at the bottom of the cup--as the greater humorists have come upon it after life has had its way with them--he found there only sentiment and the dreamy poetic. As the purple haze on the horizon of his mind was dissipated by a sobering experience, he tried to substitute an adventitious glamour; as romance faded, sentiment supplied its place. So long as youth and high spirits endured, his inkwell was a never-failing source of gayety, but as the sparkle subsided he over-sweetened his wine. This suffices to account for the fact that all his better work was done early; and this explains why the Knickerbocker History remains the most genial and vital of his volumes. The gayety of youth bubbles and effervesces in those magic pages, defying time to do its worst. The critic may charge the later Irving with many and heavy shortcomings, but the romantic smoke-clouds that ascend from Wouter Van Twiller's pipe cannot be dissipated by the winds of criticism.
James Kirke Paulding
Far more native to the limitations and hardships of American life and far more loyal to its homely aspirations was James Kirke Paulding, whose literary reputation came to be so deeply overshadowed by that of his early friend. Sprung from plain stock--whether English or Dutch his son remained in doubt, although inclining to believe the former--and cradled in the fierce partisanship of the Revolutionary struggle, he never abandoned his inherited liberalism or found his love of country growing less. To the end of his life he remained a primitive American of an earlier generation, somewhat puzzled by the ways of another age that speculated in prosperity by running in debt, and measured a man's wealth by the amount he owed. His father had been an active Whig in a Tory neighborhood who did not stint his service to the Revolutionary cause. He was a member of the local Committee of Safety, and acted as State Commissary to the Revolutionary forces, a post which in the end brought him to ruin. In the dark days of the struggle he pledged his private credit for supplies, and was never reimbursed by a negligent commonwealth. The outcome was financial disaster. The father was imprisoned for debt and his courage broken, and the family long suffered from want. "We were not only poor," the son wrote later, "but steeped in poverty." But there was excellent stuff in the awkward, dreamy country boy. He was "built of stubborn oak," he remarked whimsically, "seasoned in the school of poverty, like an old chimney-piece in a log cabin." When at the age of nineteen he was suddenly plunged into the world of New York City, he was shy, uncouth, self-educated, and felt himself an alien in Wall Street and Broadway. For the Federalist upper class he seems to have felt the instinctive hostility of the outsider; but through the agency of the Irvings--an elder sister having married William Irving--he was brought into the companionship of a group of clever young men, and under the stimulus of high talk and exuberant pranks, the latent idealism of his nature expanded freely. This was his university, and while it left something to be desired in the way of discipline, suffering too free a rein to his discursive fancy, it quickened his native wit, awakened his creative imagination, and put him to school to the pleasant craft of writing. The Salmagundi Papers were the first fruits of the literary apprenticeship of the group, and although Irving has come to receive the chief credit for them, the wit of Paulding seems quite as sprightly, and his gayety as fresh.
That his later career in letters was less notable resulted in part from the fact that he was an inveterate rambler by nature, and partly from the fact that writing with him was occasional, a pleasant relief from 'humdrum duties, and he did not choose to lay a curb on his vagrant ways. In letters as in life he was always discursive, forgetful of his objective in his delight at the beauty of the countryside, loading his pages down with nature descriptions and clogging the action of his tales with somewhat tedious homilies. After forty years of writing he remained still an amateur, incapable of pruning the wilful tangle of his fancy--an essayist of the leisurely school who ventured incautiously into the realms of verse and fiction without mastering the technic of the business. There was perhaps too much of the homespun in him to permit him to become an artist. The experience of his youth marked him too deeply, and all his life he remained as conscious a son of the people as Hamlin Garland was later, delighting to chronicle the ways of the obscure, somewhat militant in proclaiming the excellence of homely virtues. Formed in an environment that bred a spontaneous democracy, he was a confirmed equalitarian, untroubled by the itch to rise in the world or exploit his fellows. Alone among the Knickerbocker group, he was a Jeffersonian in the fundamentals of his social creed; not in the lesser matters of Kentucky Resolutions and the like, but in his Physiocratic leanings, in his pro- found distrust of all middle-class programs and his preference for the simple country ways over the city economy; and it was this deep-rooted agrarianism that set him against capitalism and made him a later Jacksonian. In him there spoke out the authentic New York, not of Broadway merchants or Wall Street bankers, but of the plain rank and file of the people. Untouched by foreign travel but widely acquainted with his native America, he was fashioned out of the wool from the fireside loom and domestic dye-pot.
A writer so consciously and completely American would find abundant occasion to put his pen to the service of his country at a time when every English traveler turned critic and on his return home published a volume of truculent disparagement of ways and things American. For the most part those volumes were a defense of Toryism by the easy, method of attacking democracy, and they annoyed Paulding beyond measure. He would not let them go unanswered, and from The Diverting History of John Bull and Brother Jonathan (1812) to John Bull in America (1825), he published five different replies, varying his attack from argument to burlesque. Something more than loyalty to his country seems to have spurred him on. His dislike of England was inveterate, partly because of the old Revolutionary feud, partly because of later antagonisms. Almost at the hour of his birth the Paulding family had been forced to quit their home for fear of the British and Tories who daily threatened them; and a deep hatred of the British Tory he drew in with his mother's milk. To him England was a Tory country, reeking with social injustice, the home of ancient abuses, and necessarily the implacable enemy of democratic America. He was convinced that want and tyranny and subserviency dogged the daily life of the English common people; and the English Reviews that attacked the ways of democracy with caustic British superiority, filled his honest republican heart with wrath, and he jabbed his quill into the tough skin of John Bull with patriotic vigor. The shame of the burning of the capitol rankled in the American heart, and Paulding discovered fresh grievances in remembering that from England had come the banking system and the "shin- plaster dynasty" that would breed in the new country the evils of the old if they were not looked to. He was convinced that the mother country wished ill to her offspring, and he thanked God in successive volumes that democratic America was not what Tory England was.
For despite the English travelers--Weld, Parkinson, Ashe, Bradbury Hall, Trollope, and all the rest of the loquacious tribe--Paulding was persuaded that America constituted the hope. of the future. Here in this land he believed that men should eventually achieve a measure of well-being undreamed of in the old world; already the old tyrannies had been destroyed, the ancient poverty abated. From this stubborn idealism nothing could turn him aside. It finds expression in an early poem, and it provides the theme for his last novel. The Backwoodsman, published in 1818, is a rambling and somewhat plethoric idyll of the West, the hero of which is an archetype of the oppressed and exploited, who finds a generous asylum in the free land beyond the Alleghenies, and like Crevecoeur's Andrew the Hebridean, expands the horizons of his mind under the beneficent touch of freedom. The Puritan and His Daughter, written over thirty years later, deals with a different phase of the same general theme. It is a vivid picture of the strife engendered in America by immigrant families who bring hither their old- world feuds and animosities, and the curative influence of the free environment that, in discovering the good rather than the bad in neighbors, draws together the younger generation despite the jealous parental authority that would keep them apart. The bigoted fathers make trouble enough--the fanatical Puritan who fought with Cromwell and the headstrong Cavalier who defended divine right--wilful men whom even the common frontier perils cannot reconcile or make tolerant; but they are powerless to thwart the ways of nature. The son of the Cavalier discovers an attractive woman in the daughter of the Puritan, and when love walks in the twilight what matters theology or politics. Youth has its own notions of divine right; in its creed the dogmas of John Calvin and Robert Filmer have no place; and if the lovers are more tolerant than the fathers it only proves that a freer environment will manage to soften the traditional animosities and beget a kindlier race from the merging of classes. Such at least is the characteristic thesis that Paulding elaborates through two volumes of discursive narrative interspersed with bits of vigorous action.
Of this kindly melting pot Paulding himself was a product. He had rid himself wholly of all ties that would bind him to Europe. He was partisan to no cause or party, literary or political, of the old world. He was content to be American and suffer his native land to bound his loyalties. In his own literary practice he refused to imitate the current English fashions and he spoke his mind freely to the American reading public for its greedy swallowing of cheap imported food. He did not take kindly to the English romantic writers, and went often out of his way to have a dig at his two pet aversions, Scott and Byron.2 His amusing tale of Koningsmarke, the Long Finne, is a good-natured burlesque of certain romantic mannerisms of the Waverley novels, and a defense of Cooper's Pioneers for its homely realism. Paulding's dislike of the "blood-pudding" fiction that had come over from England, and that proved so disastrous to the genius of Gilmore Simms, was inveterate, and in his whimsical dedication of The Puritan and His Daughter to the sovereign people he comments on the public taste thus:
I am not ignorant of your preference for high-seasoned dishes of foreign cookery, most especially blood- puddings, plentifully spiced and sauced with adultery, seduction, poisoning, stabbing, suicide, and all other sublime excesses of genius. I am aware also that Your Majesty, being yourself able to perform impossibilities, believed nothing impossible. Possessing this clew to Your Majesty's royal approbation, I solemnly assure you I have gone as far as I could to secure it, with a safe conscience. I have laid about me pretty handsomely, and sprinkled a good number of pages with blood enough, I hope, to make a pudding. If I have any apology to make to Your Majesty, it is for permitting some of my people to die a natural death, a thing so unnatural that it has been banished from all works of fiction aiming at the least semblance to truth. . . . But, may it please Your Majesty, I am troubled with weak nerves, and my great grandfather was a Quaker. I am, therefore, naturally averse to bloodshed, and have more than once nearly fallen into convulsions over the pages of Monsieur Alexandre Dumas, whom I consider a perfect Guillotine among authors. In short, may it please Your Majesty, I abjure poisoning, or smothering with charcoal, and confess myself deplorably behind the spirit of this luminous age, which is as much in advance of all others, as the forewheel of a wagon is ahead of the hind ones.
In his politics--and as a good American of the times he took his politics seriously--Paulding found in the popular drift towards Jacksonian democracy an expression of his deepest convictions. It was moving in the direction he had long faced, and he went with it whole-heartedly, enjoyed some of the emoluments of office, and eventually served as Secretary to the Navy in the cabinet of Van Buren. With Jackson's attack on the Bank he must have been in deep sympathy, for his dislike of the new financial system was of long standing. His father had suffered heavily from a depreciated Continental currency, and he early came to distrust all banks and banking. His political views, indeed, were pretty much determined by the Physiocratic convictions that underlay his thinking. He had been a Jeffersonian long before the rise of Jacksonianism. Portions of his Letters from the South, published in 1817, seem like excerpts from the agrarian writings of John Taylor of Caroline. There is the same contemptuous analysis of the "shin-plaster dynasty," the same concern at the growth of trading towns, the same conviction that cities and poverty and low morals go hand in hand, the same trust in the perennial wholesomeness of country life. Such a passage as this will suffice to reveal his leanings towards a Physiocratic economy:
I was saying, that we have too many people living in cities, in proportion to our farmers, who, after all, are the backbone of every country, whence originates its riches and its solid strength. . . . Yet our people cling to the towns and cities, attracted by the hope of sudden wealth, and despising the slow, yet sure, rewards of agriculture, which, without leading a man to inordinate riches, secure him for ever from the chances of sinking into beggary or want. The race of paupers receives no recruits from them; for in all my sojournings, I may say with truth, that I never saw an industrious farmer forsaken, "or his seed begging bread." One great cause of the disproportion of numbers . . . between the agricultural and other classes of the community, is the great system of paper money, which has struck at the root of regular, persevering industry, whose rewards, though slow, are always certain. For some years back, hardly a tradesman in our cities, and of late in our little towns (each of which, however insignificant, has now its snug little bank) thinks of growing rich by his industry. No, he must get accommodations at some bank, and plunge into speculations: nor can you now go into a cobbler's stall without seeing a bank notice, or perhaps two or three, stuck up with an awl at the chimney-piece, to remind the honest gentleman that he owes a great deal more than he can pay. Thus is the axe laid to the very root of national morals, and consequently national prosperity, and the whole American people, farmers excepted, sunk into an abject subjection to banks and their directors. (Letters from the South, Vol. I, pp. 1OO-102.)
So confirmed an agrarian would easily arrive at agrarian conclusions in his meditations on the nature and functions of the political state. Unlike Irving, who, having no political convictions, was equally pleased with Whig or Democrat if he happened to be a gentleman, Paulding was something of a political philosopher with clear-cut doctrines. He was too shrewd an observer of ways political to be caught by party cries, or to ignore the class selfishness that would make government a party to its ends. As a Jeffersonian he retained an old-fashioned distrust of the political state. As an eighteenth-century liberal he would keep the state within narrow bounds. Jealous for a freedom worthy of free citizens, he wanted government to keep hands off what did not concern it. He would not have the state used as a cat's--paw to pull anybody's chestnuts out of the fire, whether in the form of Clay's American System, or what not. For protective tariffs and internal improvements--those grandiose schemes for hastening prosperity--he felt an old-fashioned repugnance that found issue in amusing caricature. In Westward Ho! he introduces a French publican of a Mississippi River village who does not care for Yankee improvements and describes them thus:
Diablel monsieur, another improvement; last year they assess me for one grand public improvement; one road to go somewhere, I don't know. Eh bien! I pay the money. Well, this year they assess me for one other grand public improvement-very grand -voila, monsieur, one other road, right alongside the other, both going to the same place. Diable! I no want to travel on two turnpike roads. Ah! monsieur le colonel, I shall be very rich, O! very rich indeed, by these grand improvements. They take away all my land to make room for the grand improvement; they take away all my money to pay for him, and then they tell me my land worth four, six time so much as before. Peste! what that to me when my land all gone to the dem public improvement, hey? I shall be very rich then. Diable! I wish myself gone to some country where everything was go backwards-what you call tail foremost, instead of forwards, for the dem march of improvement shall ruin me at last. (Vol. II, Chapter XVI.)
Satire aimed at the new gospel of progress is not infrequent in Paulding. In Koningsmarke he drew the picture of a politician that was perhaps intended for a burlesque of Henry Clay. The worthy Wolfgang Langfanger, member of the council of Elsingburgh, having "brought his private affairs into great confusion, by devoting too much time to the public good," began "to think it high time the public good should repay some part of its weighty obligations. He had accordingly invented, and persuaded the Heer Piper to put into practice, a system of internal improvement, which has been imitated, from time to time, in this country ever since with great success. The essence of his plan consisted in running in debt for the present, and living afterwards upon the anticipation of future wealth" (Book Second, Chapter VI). Big with his wonderful idea the busy councilor projected great docks and wharves for the commerce that was to be invited to come, a fine canal that would cut off a full six miles for barges that were not yet on the stocks, and a magnificent plan of new streets that led through houses that must be pulled down and fields that must forego their usual harvests. Such goodly improvements naturally cost money, and to maintain the public credit taxes were levied, and still more taxes, until, like the French tavern-keeper, the good people of Elsingburgh were brought to doubt the wisdom of investing in future prosperity at so high a present cost.
But the masterpiece of Langfanger's policy was that of pulling down an old market, and building a new one in another part of the village, in the management of which business he is supposed to have laid down the first principles of the great and thriving science of political economy, or picking people's pockets on a grand scale. He caused the people living near the old market to pay roundly for its removal as a nuisance; and then he caused the people that lived about where the new one was to be built, to pay roundly for the vast pleasure and advantage of its neighbourhood. Thus he pinched them through both ears, and got the reputation of a great financier. (Book Seventh, Chapter III.)
Koningsmarke is Paulding's most interesting work, and the utter neglect that has overtaken it is far from deserved. It is native and original, full of shrewd comment and sly satire, and it embodies most of Paulding's pet theories and aversions. Few books of the time are more amusing than this tale of the Long Finne who moves in a dark cloud of mystery woven by Bombie of the Frizzled Head, barks his sturdy shins on many a blood- curdling adventure, proves a true knight to his lady, and in the end turns out to be a very ordinary fellow who has been blown up to heroic size by the black art of romance. Paulding must have had great fun writing it, for his wit still preserves its freshness after a hundred years. It is a whimsical satire on the ways of the hour, literary and other, set against the background of an old Swedish settlement on the banks of the Delaware; but the chief purpose of its quizzical pages is the pouring of a broadside into the picturesque hull of contemporary fiction. It is an attack on the abundant extravagance of current romance that had been inflated by "Monk" Lewis and Sir Walter. Paulding cleverly hits off the high-flown and ghostly, the love of blood pudding, the snobbish contempt for the homely and native. Written in 1823, the year of Cooper's Pioneers, it defends the realism of characters and setting in that work against the charge of vulgarity and commonplace, but it takes pains to satirize Cooper's noble red man of the forest. Paulding's Indians are more like Bird's than Cooper's, material for burlesque rather than romance, but as he runs over the names of the warriors�"the Big Buffalo, the Little Duck-Legs, the Sharp-Faced Bear, the Walking Shadow, the Iron Cloud, the Jumping Sturgeon, the Belly Ache, and the Doctor, all legitimate sovereigns, with copper rings in their noses, blanket robes of state, and painted faces"� amusement at their childishness is tempered by the recognition that they have been overreached and dispossessed by the grasping white men.
In some of his later work the line between burlesque and serious is not so clearly marked, and one hesitates to pronounce whether Westward Ho! is a sober attempt at popular romance or a reductio ad absurdum of the current romantic flummery. Certainly it is a preposterous story with its melancholy hero driven mad by fear of madness and indulging in gibberish that comes straight out of Shakespeare, and with its ample crop of stock characters--Master Zeno Paddock and Mrs. Judith Paddock with their prying inquisitiveness, Colonel Dangerfield the easygoing Virginia gentleman who in staking his estate on a horse race embodies the plantation tradition, and Bushfield the backwoodsman who cannot live in a world that has left off its moccasins, and removes to a place where there are no laws and no lawyers and where constables do not visit a man who has thrashed his neighbor. Westward Ho! is not an amusing book; it is quite lacking in local color, and its casual bits of realism and occasional satire are too inconsequential to signify. The Dutchman's Fireside, written at about the same time, is far more successful. It purports to be an account of the Knickerbocker society in the days of the Old French war, and it contains some lovely pictures of old times that one reads with pleasure; but it indulges somewhat freely in adventure amongst the Indians and in the war, and its love story is needlessly romantic. Although Paulding still protests against a bloodpudding diet, he indulges occasionally in the high- flown, to the detriment of the idyllic note. Romance was all about him and he could not wholly escape its compulsions. Too casual in his work, too undisciplined in the craft of writing, he remained to the end an amusing amateur, a homespun man of letters who never took the trouble to master his technic. There was excellent stuff in him, solider perhaps than in Irving, but his failure suggests the difference between the journeyman and the artist.
2.See Letters from the South, Vol. I, Letter XXIL.


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Crosby, Ovechkin, St. Louis named Lindsay finalists
Toronto, ON – Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby, Washington's Alex Ovechkin and Tampa Bay's Martin St. Louis have been named finalists for the Ted Lindsay Award, presented to the NHL's top performer by the players' association.
All three are previous winners of the prestigious honor, which was renamed for the Hall of Fame forward who helped establish the NHL Players' Association. It was previously known as the Lester B. Pearson Award from 1970-71 through 2008-09.
Crosby, despite playing only 36 of 48 games in the shortened season, tied for third in the league in points with 56 and was second in assists with 41. The 2006-07 NHLPA award winner led the league in points per game at 1.56 and was fourth with a plus-26 rating.
Ovechkin led the league in goals with 32 for his third Richard Trophy as the top goal scorer, and his 56 points tied Crosby for third in the league. He won this award three straight years from 2007-08 through 2009-10.
St. Louis, the 2003-04 players' award winner, led the NHL with 60 points for his second Art Ross Trophy as the league's top scorer. His 43 assists led the league.
The 2013 winner will be announced during the Stanley Cup Finals.


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Uganda Harm Reduction Network
Contact email:
Who do you work with?:
Uganda Harm Reduction Network works with female, male and transgender sex workers
How are sex workers involved in your organisation?:
The workers are involved in organisation,they are on the organisation board, staff are organisation members meaning they are involved in every stage of leadership in the organisation.
Which of NSWP priority areas does your organisation work on?:
Oppose the criminalisation and other legal oppression of sex work and support its recognition as work
Critique the trafficking paradigm that conflates representations of sex work, migration, and mobility
Advocate for universal access to health services, including primary health care, HIV and sexual and reproductive health services
Speak out about violence against sex workers, including violence from police, institutions, clients, and intimate partners, while challenging the myth that sex work is inherently gender-based violence
Oppose human rights abuses, including coercive programming, mandatory testing, raids and forced rehabilitation
Challenge stigma and discrimination against sex workers, their families and partners, and others involved in sex work
Advocate for the economic empowerment and social inclusion of sex workers as sex workers
What are the two main challenges that the sex workers you work with face:
The two main challenges sexworkers face in the course of our work are criminalisation of adult sexworkers, and secondly stigma and discriminition against sex workers
Describe other areas of your work:
• HIV/AIDS Prevention Care and Support • Human Rights and Advocacy • Capacity building and leadership / mentoring • Research and Documentation • Outreach and Information dissemination • Referrals and psychological/social support • Networking and Partnerships with other organisations • Responsive Rehabilitation


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Q: What, in your opinion, was the reason the early church allowed religious art to show Adam and Eve with belly buttons? — D., Buffalo, N.Y. via email@example.com
A: Good point. Adam should have a "rib button" and Eve should have had no button at all!
Q: I'm a Christian and I've committed at least one mortal sin. I didn't hurt anyone but myself, though, when I broke one of the Ten Commandments. I've asked God for forgiveness and prayed at length about this, knowing why I did it and that I was out of control and desperate for love and human connection. Is that enough, or am I doomed? — R., North Carolina, via firstname.lastname@example.com
A: You're not doomed, because God's love for you cannot be broken or annulled. Jesus' sacrifice and your repentance covers your sins. Repentance covers mine. Everything else is just not our business. Smile more. You are blessed.
Q: Out of the blue, my 32-year-old daughter has absolutely no time for me. Evidently, she's disliked me as far back as her teenage years. I'm only invited to her house twice a year, on each of my grandson's birthdays. I'm so devastated that I'm literally frozen in inactivity. How can I get through something like this? — P., via email@example.com
A: Read this to your daughter: "Why are you torturing your loving mother? How would you like it if your sons never spoke to you when they are grown? Life is too short to hurt those we love."
Q: I look forward to the Thursday Raleigh News and Observer to see what insights you're offering for so many different questions. As a Christian, I appreciate your objectivity and your openness to all religions. It's amazing how much we all have in common, yet the things that separate us seem to divide us to a greater degree than our commonness unites us. May God continue to bless your ministry for many more years. — A., Bailey, N.C., via email@example.com
A: For all the years Father Tom Hartman and I worked together as the God Squad, we had one single and simple message: "We know enough about how we are different and not enough about how we are all the same." Thank you for understanding the most important thing I know.
Q: Our very precocious 5-year-old granddaughter is obsessed with death. She asks lots of questions about people dying and what happens to them. She asks her mother if she could die before her. I'm going to be 74 and she asks me if I'm going to die because I'm old, since her mother said people die when they're old.
I told her that hopefully I'll live another 20 years and we can have fun together for a long time. Do you have any advice on what to tell her about death? — S., via email@example.com
A: Tell your granddaughter that she's not going to die for a very long time and that she has nothing to worry about. Tell her that even after our bodies die, a part of us never dies. Our souls go to heaven to live with God, but we can still see all the good things that happen to the people we love, and in heaven we also get to see all the people we loved who died before us.
Ask her why she's so interested in death. And remember, her questions are far more important than your answers.
Q: In a recent column about a woman struggling with a violent, drunken husband, you did not recommend Al-Anon. I hope you did directly, or will. — J., via firstname.lastname@example.com
A: I should have, but you did it for me. Thank you. Twelve-step programs do holy, healing work. Alcoholics Anonymous, Al-Anon, Alateen, Narcotics Anonymous (NA) and others you mentioned are all ports in the storms of addiction and fear.
Q: Jim, a friend of mine and of my brother, has a very irritating quality. Jim is a born-again Christian, and my brother and I are both agnostics.
All Jim talks about is the Bible — and I mean that is all he talks about! He dislikes the U.S. Constitution, because he says the Bible was here first and that the Constitution is based on the Bible. Is this true?
The Bible says not to chatter about the Bible with someone who has no interest in hearing about it. How can we tell Jim to stop doing just that? — Anonymous, via email@example.com
A: Talk to Jim about the Mets.
( Send QUESTIONS ONLY to The God Squad via email at firstname.lastname@example.com.)


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March 07, 2008
The Bisons played USC-Upstate on March 8, 2008. The match was stopped due to 5" of snow that fell in the Nashville area. Unfortunately, the Bisons lost 4-0.
1) D. Hangstefer/ M.Hernandez (LU) vs. Gonzales Orbegoso/Osorio (USC) DNF
2) J. Cummings/A. Mizell (LU) vs. Airaldi/Tori (USC) Upstate Won 8-3
3) J. McArdle/ J. West (LU) vs. Franz/Roux (USC) Upstate Won 8-5
1) D. Hangstefer (LU) vs. Franz (USC) DNF
2) J. West (LU) vs. Airaldi (USC) Upstate Won 6-1, 6-0
3) J. Cummings (LU) vs. Tori (USC) Upstate Won 6-2, 6-0
4) M. Hernandez (LU) vs. Gonzales Orbegoso Upstate Won 6-4, 6-1
5) J. Murrell (LU) vs. Osorio (USC) DNF
6) J. McArdle (LU) vs. Lovera (USC) DNF
"We certainly didnt come out strong like we were hoping to. USC is a good tennis program and was one of the top ten teams in the nation last year coming out of DII, said Coach Andrew Harris.
"Of course, all the teams we play are good so its no excuse but we need to come out with a better effort against ETSU tomorrow night."


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Fairy Floss
Jeff Robinson 3/31/2008 6:28:26 AMVery cool - Nice work Debbie!! Jeff #890004
Theresa Marie Jones 3/31/2008 10:04:05 AMBeautiful! #5724003
Tiia Vissak 4/21/2008 1:49:34 PMCongratulations on becoming a finalist! #5817312
Renee Doyle 4/21/2008 5:32:54 PMBig congrats on this wonderful finalist Debbie!!!! #5819892
Sam Britt 4/21/2008 6:09:10 PMCongratulations, cool finalist, Debbie! #5820373
Jeff Robinson 4/22/2008 3:26:30 AMCongrats Debbie on your Finalist!! Jeff #5822664
Kristy A. Keene 4/22/2008 4:59:06 AMCongrats on your Finalist! Awesome Work! #5823277
Pat Gamwell 4/22/2008 5:57:42 AMSoooo gorgeous! WTG, Debbie! #5823679
Rakesh Syal 4/22/2008 12:18:48 PMA huge congrats on this wonderful finalist, Debbie!!!! #5825618
Amber J. Skene 4/23/2008 4:17:28 PMCongratulations!!! #5831490
Graeme yew Chow 4/26/2008 8:24:50 PMWow, congratulation Debbie. I like the detail. #5846096
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#no credit auto loans
No Credit History? You Can Still Buy a Car
by: Justin Leach
It s a classic scenario: you want a car loan but don t have any real credit history. Many first-time car buyers think they ll either have to buy some old beat up car for cash or accept financing terms that anyone else would find outrageous. The truth is there are several things you can do today to get you behind the wheel of a solid car and still leave you with enough money to fill up the tank.
Step one:
I can t stress this enough-Get your credit report and credit score from all three credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.) You need to know where you stand. Are you certain your student loan consolidation got reported correctly? Or how about that time you were late paying your credit card? Maybe you forgot, but the credit bureaus didn t. The dealer will pull your credit reports, so make sure they are accurate and that you ve taken care of any outstanding problems.
Step two:
Take a realistic look at your finances. After all other expenses, how much can you really afford to put toward a car payment, insurance, gas and maintenance? You ll be a more attractive buyer if you can provide a decent down payment and keep your car payment to a low percentage of your monthly income.
If you ve got a couple cars already in mind, go online to get several auto insurance quotes. Many financing sites like ToyotaFinancial.com provide on-line tools to help you estimate payments.
Play with the numbers and remember a lower annual percentage rate (APR) with longer terms will give you lower monthly payments the flipside is that you ll pay more in interest over the life of the contract. To help save more money, consider taking a contract with a shorter term.
Read more car buying stories:
Step three:
Explore your options. You may qualify for programs that could bring down the purchase price of a vehicle or provide you with better financing options. For example:
College Grad: Did you just graduate or will you soon? At Scion.com not only do they offer $400, but they offer no money down, deferred first payment for 90 days and they throw in free roadside assistance for a year. And, of course, at Scion, there is no price negotiation the price is the price, no haggling.
First Time Buyer: Some programs assist first time buyers in purchasing certain model vehicles. Interested in a Yaris, Matrix, Corolla or a Tacoma? Check out the iFinance program at Toyota.com. You ll need 10 percent down, a steady job, car insurance, references and a minimum income, but you won t need a co-signer.
Certified Used Vehicles: Another way to save? Go used. A certified used vehicle is one that meets standards set by the manufacturer and comes with a warranty. You can probably find advantageous same as new financing, too.
Leasing: Even though we re talking about purchasing a vehicle, before you hit the lots, consider if a lease might be the right option for you. To learn more about the differences between leasing and buying, check out the article Finance or Lease: Choosing One on youngmoney.com.
Co-signer: Got a family member with good credit willing to risk getting stuck with the bill if you miss a payment? Should your account ever go to collections, guess who they can go after-your loving and trusting co-signer.
I m not against the co-signer option; for many first-time car buyers, this is actually the fastest way to obtain vehicle financing and get a more reasonable rate. Just make sure you fully weigh all the benefits and potential consequences when going this route.
Add On s : You won t leave a dealership without being offered extended warranties and payment protection plans. Don t discount the necessity of these options. But if your goal here is to make sure you can afford your car, research and understand what will be offered. Also, check out life and disability insurance to cover your car payments should you become disabled or, well, you know, dead.
Step four:
Get your paperwork together. Here are a few things to bring car shopping:
1) Proof of employment or future employment-a W2 or pay stubs showing at least six months of employment, or an offer letter for employment stating your salary.
2) References the names and contact info for up to six people.
3) Proof of enrollment in college and graduation date-or if you recently graduated, proof of graduation.
4) Copies of your credit reports.
5) If you have it, proof of collision insurance.
6) And any research you have done on the vehicles you like including invoice pricing data, incentives, rebates, Kelley Blue Book value (if you re looking at a used car) and your insurance quotes.
OK, so you have your credit reports and credit score, you know how much you can afford, you ve researched rebates and special offers, and you have all your paperwork together. Now you re ready for that test-drive.
Justin Leach is a communications specialist for Toyota Financial Services. Prepare yourself for your next car buying experience by visiting toyotafinancial.com where you can view finance programs and offers tailored to meet your needs and learn more about understanding and protecting your credit, differences between buying and leasing, and various vehicle protection plans.
Beginner s Guide to Car Loan Hunting
Car Shopping: Kicking Your Financial Knowledge into Gear


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Roswell Landscaping
Welcome to Sarros Landscaping ! Sarros Landscaping is a family run business operated by Company President, Phil Sarros and Vice President, Stacey Sarros. Phil Sarros brings over 20 years of landscaping experience and holds a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Akron in Ohio. Sarros Landscaping was founded in 2002 when Phil and his family relocated to Cumming, GA. Thanks to many loyal clients in Roswell and throughout the Atlanta Metro area, Sarros Landscaping has grown into an established name with an impeccable reputation for quality and excellence. Please enjoy our site and the valuable information contained within it. Additionally, if you are looking for more quality work from other exceptional contractors, please be sure to visit our Recommended Service Partners page.
To see even more information on our company and for Great Deals on Restaurants, Spas, Entertainment, Contractors and more, you can also visit AllOverAtlanta.com today!


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Event is FINISHED
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Personal Profile Dating
I am using this system as a payment gateway for the Personal Profile Dating service.
- Personal Profile Dating is CompleteMe's other service, this is commonly known as personal matching. CompleteMe (CM) will focus on the top 3 traits (age, ethnic group, religion, etc) you are seeking for to select your match. There are 11 different traits which you can select the top 3 traits, which matter to you. The 11 different traits are featured in the registration form.
- The date will be a 1-to-1 lunch / dinner date on a weekday / weekend at a nice ambience restaurant, specially picked by CompleteMe.
- There will be no packages involved. You only need to pay when there are suitable dates.
- Each date will be $99/pax (U.P. $139) inclusive of a meal. You will only need to pay this only if you are contacted with suitable matches and if you accept the date.
- There will no "facilitation", it will be like a normal date, whereby the reservation is booked under CompleteMe.
- There will be a one-time registration fee of $88 upon signing up.
- Register and make payment of $88 registration fee via debit / credit card on http://completemeppd122017.peatix.com by 31 Jan 2018.
- We will reply you via email with the detailed registration form and the FAQs by 1 Feb 2018. Fill up the form and email us back with the relevant documents required.
- There is a cooling period of 2 days for a full refund, should you decide not to continue with the service. You have to inform us in writing via firstname.lastname@example.com by 2 Feb 2018. No refunds will be entertained after 2 Feb 2018.
- You will be kept within our database and will be informed upon any suitable matches, based on the top 3 traits that you have picked.
- Upon mutual agreement, you will receive the equivalent of the registration form (after deleting contactable and traceable information to protect your privacy) and photo of your match.
- If you find that the match is suitable, CM will arrange the date for you and you will be sent a link to make payment of $99 (U.P. $139) for the date.
- If you find that the match is not suitable, please explain why, in order for us to help you find a more suitable match the next time. Please note that the matches are strictly based on top 3 traits. If you reject 2 suitable matches, then we reserve the right to remove you from our database, as we will like to focus on singles that are genuine and appreciate our extra efforts. It will be based on case-by-case basis.
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Religious motifs : Overview. Search. About religious motifs
Church, death
Example 1:
She knew that the nettles she must use grew in the churchyard, but she had to gather them herself. How could she go there?
"Oh, what is the pain in my fingers compared with the anguish I feel in my heart!" she thought. "I must take the risk, and the good Lord will not desert me."
As terrified as if she were doing some evil thing, she tiptoed down into the moonlit garden, through the long alleys and- down the deserted streets to the churchyard. There she saw a group of vampires sitting in a circle on one of the large gravestones. These hideous ghouls took off their ragged clothes as they were about to bathe. With skinny fingers they clawed open the new graves. Greedily they snatched out the bodies and ate the flesh from them. Elisa had to pass close to them, and they fixed their vile eyes upon her, but she said a prayer, picked the stinging nettles, and carried them back to the palace.
Only one man saw her-the archbishop. He was awake while others slept. Now he had proof of what he had suspected. There was something wrong with the Queen. She was a witch, and that was how she had duped the King and all his people.
In the confessional, he told the King what he had seen and what he feared. As the bitter words spewed from his mouth, the images of the saints shook their heads, as much as to say, He lies. Elisa is innocent." The archbishop, however, had a different explanation for this. He said they were testifying against her, and shaking their heads at her wickedness.
Example 2:
Once more, for the last time, she must go to the churchyard and pluck a few more handfuls. She thought with fear of the lonely walk and the ghastly vampires, but her will was as strong as her faith in God.
She went upon her mission, but the King and his archbishop followed her. They saw her disappear through the iron gates of the churchyard, and when they came in after her they saw vampires sitting on a gravestone, just as Elisa had seen them.
The King turned away (...)


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Economists Supply It on Demand
This is for anyone who ever found themselves frustrated by numbers -- myself included.
Right before college, I remember my parents asking me what degree I wanted to pursue. Vaguely, I answered "Anything without math." Even during my post graduate studies, I consciously picked a degree with less mathematics in its curriculum. The irony is, I now work in the World Bank Group and numbers is its core language. But there is good news, not only for rookies like me, but for everyone – numbers can be fascinating, insightful and even fun.
'My Favorite Number,' is a YouTube series that shows how digits can give us unique insight into global development and humanity. World Bank Group's economists share their stories on their favorite numbers – demonstrating how their brilliance (and humor) reaffirm that numbers are vital to everyday life. The videos show us that economists are not just about numbers. They bring passion and personal perspectives to relevant issues around the world.


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As we look back on the past 12 months, we can see that this has been a year of accomplishments and a year of challenges. In our state, we have the capacity, the policies and the public support we need to make our schools America's best – and among the best in the world.
Our global competitiveness will depend on innovations, including digital learning, as well as the growth of efforts such as early-childhood education and world-language programs. It will also depend on our ability to educate our students well in core academic areas. We are making progress, but we have a long way to go before we meet our goals.
From my first day as Commissioner of Education, I have promised that every decision I make will be in the best interest of our students. It is in the best interest of our students:
• when we hold high expectations for what our students can accomplish;
• when we prepare our students with the knowledge and skills they need for success; and
• when we support our students as they work to earn a meaningful high-school diploma.
There is nothing our students and teachers cannot accomplish when they have the tools, the resources and the support they need and when they set their minds and hearts to the task.
For far too long, we have had low expectations for many students, and, in particular, for students of color and economically disadvantaged students. For far too long, we have passed students on toward graduation without preparing them for success. Together, we must stand up for these students!
We can no longer pass students on to the Community College of Rhode Island, where 75 percent of our recent high school graduates must take remedial courses at their own expense before they begin earning credits. Too many will drop out before they earn a degree. And too many will enter the job market without the necessary skills. Too many will find that the doors to opportunity have closed.
These students needed stronger instruction and supports years ago. But regardless of what happened in the past, we must help our students in the present – to prepare them for the future.
The right thing to do is to prepare our students for success now – while it is our responsibility, and while it is their right.
No doubt: Many students, parents and community members are concerned about the large number of students who must improve their skills in mathematics. I hear these concerns, and I share them – but not as a call to retreat, back off, or slow down. I hear these concerns as a call to action.
Students are stepping up. Once the NECAP results came back, students took the message seriously. At the start of the year, only about 300 students had signed up for our free online program to improve math achievement. Today, nearly 2,600 students have enrolled in this online program – and we are hoping for 3,000 by the end of the year: a 10-fold increase.
Parents are stepping up, too. The parents who reach out to us don't want an education system that's centered on "teaching to the test" – no one does. Yet, most parents understand that it's not about the test. It's about math, it's about reading and writing, it's about science, and it's also about the arts, technology, history, civics, modern and ancient languages, career and technical education, and the other rich opportunities our schools provide our students.
Teachers and school leaders are stepping up as well. As I visit with students and teachers across the state, I see schools rallying around their students, putting programs in place to bring them the supports they need to improve their performance. Communication with families, summer programs, math tutorials, after-school classes, virtual-learning programs, and of course great classroom instruction – all of these initiatives are taking shape, right now, in our schools.
As a lifelong educator, I am confident that, when our state steps up, as we have this year, our students can improve their performance and earn a meaningful diploma. I am confident that we can rally around our students and help them move along the pathway toward college and careers.
Deborah A. Gist is the Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Note: This submission is an abridged version of the State of Education speech that Commissioner Gist delivered to the General Assembly on April 30.


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The dream home is not merely having the good look. Inside, there is the good environment too. Every person expects for this. Nevertheless overall, the nearly all of them expect for the comfortable living place. You can make it true by adopting the great home design. Just start it from the color and you may get the good impressions. This can be due to power of color. With the several color, you will get the several impression. And if you wish to make it looks better, you can consider Grohe Bathroom Faucet Aerator Replacement.
Before making a home design, you have to choose the primary theme first. A great concept will business lead you to the sound home design. Just start it from your interest and give attention to what you really expect. Your interest may come from whatever towards you. For example, you can get a soothing environment from the natural home design. Wallpaper can make a natural design much easier. With the pattern, the impression can be stronger. Do not forget to consider about the room size before taking any Grohe Bathroom Faucet Aerator Replacement.
A certain room requires a specific decoration. The size is matter too. On the small room, you have to be able to make it looks larger. You can do it by making use of the right color. The white color is the good example for this. This color can make the room to look larger. No-pattern wallpaper is also best for this.
In the large room, there will be some dissimilarities especially on the concern. The battle is located at the empty space. When you cannot place enough decor or furniture to the room, you can take a completely patterned picture to handle it. A wallpaper such as Grohe Bathroom Faucet Aerator Replacement can make the room to look fuller. It minimizes the empty spaces as well. As the result, the room could be more attracti


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Some New Cars Save Gas
Read the original story. Click the "LISTEN" button at the bottom of the page to hear the story. When you are done, click the "NEXT" button.
Original Title: Drivers Get Look at Alternative Fuel Cars
With gas prices inching ever upward, some drivers are looking for solutions and eyeing alternative fuels.
This weekend the American Automobile Association hosted its first greenlight initiative showcase, a display of cars that run on alternative fuels.
Hybrids, vehicles that run on natural gas, hybrids, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles were on display.
"It is zero emissions," said Chris White of the California Fuel Cell Partnership. "They make clean, fast great-performing vehicles. And it's a fuel source that we will never run out of."
In the East Bay, a handful of hydrogen-powered buses are already being tested on the roads.
Ole and Jo Helleskov of Carmichael are concerned about both the high cost of gasoline and the environmental impact of fossile fuels. They believe hydrogen fuel cell technology is in reach, but they're worried about the cost. They remember how expensive hybrids were when they first came out.
"I actually sat down to figure out what I would save at that time and I would have to drive that car 600,000 miles in order to be even," said Ole Hellskov.
Manufacturers predict hydrogen-powered cars won't be readily available at affordable prices for about 10 years.
The Fuel Cell Partnership says one thing that will save consumers money when they own a hydrogen-powered car in the future will be maintenance. Because there are no major moving parts in the vehicle's engine, if there is a problem, all an owner would have to do to troubleshoot is plug a laptop into it. Most repairs will be made through computer programs and not through mechanics in the future.
(This story was provided by News10 KXTV Sacramento.)


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Is it just me, or is anyone else growing increasingly annoyed at the growing frequency the word 'shtreet' is shpreading across the airwaves like some viral, contrived shtick?
With a big emphasis on contrived.
For some on-air anchors, reporters or commentators it may be a matter of poor teeth. But for others, it comes across as 'somefing' that smacks of poor contrivance in an effort to 'git their cool on' in the Obama inauguration afterglow.
On channels such as MTV, VH1, BET and so on where the lexicon of the day has been driven by the 'gangsta' music culture, the evolution wouldn't be that different from how 'fab' entered our lexicon after The Beatles arrived in 1964. However, when it starts popping up, suddenly out of nowhere, on news channels and journalistic programs where the elecutional bar is usually raised a lot higher, a lot of otherwise articulate personalities are reduced to dumbed-down panderers of trendy 'rapspeak'. And there are no race cards being played here – because people of every color or hue have been doing it.
It wouldn't be as annoying, perhaps, if other words starting with 'str' were given the same treatment; then at least you could write it off to corroded canines, battered bicuspids or immense incisors.
But when it's the only 'str' word in a few paragraphs that contain other cleanly articulated 'str' words, the contrivance becomes as annoying as the bad English, and just as annoying as enduring a generation of 'valley-girls' who've matured into the demographic of reporters fronting those 'inflection-affected', cookie-cutter 'live' stand-ups with the contrived sense of urgency in every local market around the country, or spouting commentary on talk shows at a zoloft-fueled cadence (punctuated by the Madonna/Tyra Banks 'eyelid flutter') that sounds like an 'Alvin and the Chipmunks record'. WhatEvuuuuuur . . .
The latter is a social phenomenon spawned by a 1983 movie. The former shtick seems to be accelerating because of the 'black is the new black', jump-on-the-Obama-bandwagon momentum, and is evolving into the mainstream from the 'wiggerization' phenomenon that evolved out of the gangsta music scene.
It's a free country, and people are free to make their own choices of what they want to wear, how they want to look and how they want to speak.
But when it comes to intelligent tv and radio news consumers, (of which I humbly hope to be considered among), who don't like the news f**ked with, contrary to the machinations of news 'doctors' everywhere, this latest trend, (especially the contrived part of it), just sounds shtupid.


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Turnkey Linux turns everything up to 12 on their 4th B-Day.../
The guys over at Turnkey Linux have released version 12 of their awesome server appliance core platform. They also added 60+ new appliances. If you haven't given them a shot I highly suggest it especially if you are new to Linux. Heck I am an old time Linux user and love the ability to just download an appliance like the one they that comes setup with the Redmine project management server and Git, Bazaar, Mercurial and Subversion SCM. Everyone of them is setup and ready for you to use. Just download the appliance in any of 7 formats from ISO images to OpenVZ VMs and so much in between. The best feature I have come to love and rely on is their server back and migration tool. They call it TKLBAM - AKA the TurnKey Linux Backup and Migration system. It allows you to take any currently existing system and back it up to S3. Then restore the backup to a new machine leaving you in the same state but on updated software. All the benefits but none of the pain. It's an awesome idea and works well. Watch for a full review and description of my experience coming soon.
One really import change is their migration away from Ubuntu to Debian. Check out the article for a very clear description and explanation of why. The reasons are sound and hopefully the right people are listening.
Most of all though we would like to wish them a Happy 4th B-Day. Let's hope there are plenty more in their future.


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(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
Contact us for information about using this image.
This photograph was reproduced in Mary Emily Curtis's "The Crafts of Deerfield" in "New Idea Woman's Magazine" about 1906. The article notes that mothers and daughters are "taking up again the handiwork of their colonial ancestors, following closely the spirit, methods and beautiful craftsmanship of the days before the war." The Pocumtuck Basketmakers likely made these baskets in Deerfield, Massachusetts.
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Philips MASTER LEDtube 1200mm UO 16W 840 T8 InstantFit
The new MASTER LEDtube Value UltraOutput is a quicker and easier way to save energy in a sustainable and environmentally-friendly way. UltraOutput gives you high luminous flux up to 3,700 lm and high efficiency up to 148 lm/W. The UltraOutput range tubes have the highest light output in the Philips range. The pipe is suitable for use in electronical ballast units
- G13 socket
- 160° beam angle
- Straightforward installation
- Ultra output
Advantages over conventional fluorescent lamps
- More environmentally friendly
- Colour reproduction Ra 83
- Save up to 50% energy
- 3x longer lifespan
- Lights up immediately: no flickering, no fizzling
Areas of application
- Warehouses, cold storage and car parks
- Floors
- Strip lights in objects at mid-height
- Supermarkets and shops
- Industry and storage areas


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RockShow Threesome: What Would Guys Do If They Had A Womans Body For A Day [VIDEO]
The cray-cray thing about our top story isn't that guys would feel themselves up, it's the OTHER things that they'd do are pretty stupid. Check this story out plus a couple of bonus bits in the RockShow Threesome next.
So let's say you're given a once in a lifetime, one day chance to switch from male to female, what will you do? Okay, what will you do other than that? Check it out:
Why do some people "black out" from drinking when others don't? There's actually a scientific reason for this phenomenon and Heathen has it for ya:
Warren the kid smartass has won our vote for "Best Picture". This is real quickie that you're going to want to hear:


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Twilley, Smith and Mishler round out class
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (April 12, 2006) - ETSU men's basketball head coach Murry Bartow announced Wednesday that the Buccaneers have completed their 2006-07 recruiting class, receiving national letters of intent from three high school seniors.
Guard Dequan Twilley (
"We had some specific needs to fill and we really think these final three certainly add a great deal to our program," said Bartow, whose team is coming off a 15-13 season that included a stop at the top of the Atlantic Sun Conference standings midway through the campaign. "We were very happy with our two early signees, and what we really like about this group as a whole are four players who are their school's all-time leading scorers (Twilley, Smith, Mishler, Williams). That's pretty unusual."
Twilley, a 6-foot-0, 170-pound point guard, wrapped up an impressive high school career by helping lead his Shelbyville Central High squad to the Tennessee Class AAA state championship game this past season. In that contest, Twilley scored 31 points, including a 3-pointer in the final seconds that sent the game into overtime.
A point guard with good vision and passing skills, Twilley finished his high school career as Shelbyville's all-time leader in points (1,959), assists (607) and steals (258). A first-team all-state selection by the Tennessee Sports Writers Association and the Associated Press, he averaged 18.9 points and five assists per game his senior season, earning recruiting looks from
"Dequan is a consummate point guard," Bartow said. "Obviously, with Tim (Smith) leaving us, we felt we needed another point. Dequan is a pass first, score second point guard, but he has the ability to score the ball as evidenced by his 31 in the state championship game. He's really looking to lead a team and get his teammates involved. He was a big piece of the puzzle for us."
Smith, a 6-foot-6, 205-pound swingman from
As a senior, Smith scored 777 points (26.8 ppg), grabbed 414 rebounds (14.2 rpg), dished out 163 assists (5.6 apg) and collected 100 steals (3.45 spg). He earned all-state honors in 2004, 2005 and 2006, and is one of three finalists for Mr. Show Me Basketball.
"Mike is an intriguing player," Bartow said. "The number one thing is he's a two-sport star (football and basketball). In football, he was a quarterback and linebacker, so he went both ways and has toughness to him. On the floor, he has a lot of versatility. He played some at point for his high school, but at 205, he is big enough to play (forward). He's got a big, thick body, but he's capable of making threes. The one game I went to see him he made nine."
Mishler, a 6-foot-8, 215-pound forward from
A first-team all-area selection and honorable mention all-state, Mishler was a unanimous all-conference pick and team MVP three-straight years. With a left-handed shot, his ability to score on the inside caught ETSU's attention.
"Blake is an interesting pickup," Bartow said. "He's a guy that's going to have to add strength, but he's really been coached well on the defensive end of the floor. He can block shots, but he still has the ability to score on the other end. That's something we've needed, a guy that can score with his back to the basket."
For more on ETSU basketball visit ETSUBucs.com.