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During the last month, people I know have had homes burn down. It makes one think: Just how prepared are each of us, personally?
Personal safety comes in many forms. As with everything else, the more prepared we are, the less we stress. Disasters rarely occur during business hours.
Before your summer rush begins, make your plan to start collecting necessities. After you know how big your pile is, then proceed with finding good water-tight containers. Whatever container you select, be sure you can carry it when it is full.
Start by scanning important documents onto a memory stick family records, medical records, wills, deeds, Social Security numbers, charge card and bank account information and tax records. A copy of your most recent home inventory and contents should be included. If nothing else, take a video of each room as well as garage, shop and barn. A duplicate should be kept in your safety deposit box or safe. This simple action would have saved my friends a great deal of financial loss and frustration. Keep the memory stick in a water-tight Ziplock bag and update every couple of years.
For me, food is security. So I suggest to start off with that pile. The Federal Emergency Management Agency recommends having a three-day supply of food and water per person in the household. Plan on one gallon of water per day per person for drinking, cooking and personal hygiene. Water and food for pets would be in addition to this.
Food choices should require no refrigeration and be foods that your family normally eats. Canned foods should be rotated out every couple of years if possible.
Dehydrated and dried foods can be kept longer and take up less space. Canned goods will work as a cooking and serving dish or can be eaten without cooking if necessary.
Ideas for foods for storage:
Ready-to-eat canned foods such as vegetables, fruit, beans, meat, fish, poultry and pasta. Pre-portioned options are available.
Low-sodium canned soups or dried soups in a cup.
Smoked or dried meats such as commercial beef jerky.
Dried fruits and vegetables raisins, fruit leather.
Milk powdered, canned or ultra-pasteurized.
Staples sugar, salt, pepper, instant potatoes and rice, coffee, tea, cocoa mix.
Ready-to-eat cereals, instant hot cereals. Crackers and hard taco shells work well as a scooper.
High-energy foods such as peanut butter, jelly, nuts, trail mix and granola bars.
There are several websites to help you create a list of supplies for the storage container. An interactive one is www.breadysd.com/kit.cfm ignore the frozen food references. Other easy-to-use sites are www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/emergency/fdsf.html, FEMA and Red Cross; all have good information.
Keep a log to substantiate expenses or losses. A phone calling card is useful if your cellphone battery dies. And cash. Keep cash in the form of bills and coins to get by on for 3-4 days in case you cant get home should the power go out or ATMs become unavailable.
Good preparation makes emergencies survivable.
email@example.com or 247-4355. Wendy Rice is family and consumer science agent for the La Plata County Extension Office.


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Health savings accounts and the number of people using them jumped in 2013, with assets in HSAs increasing to $16.6 billion from $11.3 billion between 2012 and 2013, and individuals with HSAs jumping to 7.2 million from 6.6 million during the same time, according to new research by the Employee Benefits Research Institute and Mathew Greenwald & Associates.
However, EBRI and Greenwald found in their just-released 2013 Consumer Engagement in Health Care Survey that employer-funded health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs) declined in 2013 for the first time in a decade.
There were 4.7 million HRA accounts in 2013, down from 5.1 million in 2012, according to the report.
By 2013, 23% of employers with 10 to 499 workers and 39% of employers with 500 or more workers offered either an HRA- or HSA-eligible plan, according to the research. These plans covered about 26 million people in 2013, representing about 15% of the privately insured market. "As the number of people with account-based plans expands, total assets in these accounts can be expected to grow as well," said Paul Fronstin, EBRI's director of the Health Research and Education Program, in a statement.
The research notes that account-based health plans first came on the market in 2001, when a handful of employers began to offer HRAs: employer-funded health plans that reimburse workers for qualified medical expenses. Starting in 2004, employers were able to also start offering health plans with HSAs, tax-exempt trusts or custodial accounts that individuals can use to pay for health care expenses.
Fronstin notes in the research the importance of tracking employer contributions.
In 2013, individuals with an employer contribution of less than $1,000 had an average account balance of $2,140, while those with an employer contribution of at least $1,000 had an average of $2,889 in their account. Similarly, individuals who contributed less than $1,000 had an average account balance of $1,569, while those who contributed at least $1,000 had an average balance of $3,196.
As it stands now, account balances in these plans are low and are therefore invested in relatively safe vehicles such as money market funds (investments are usually restricted to a money market fund until the savings account reaches a minimum threshold, such as $2,000 or $3,000). As account balances grow, however, Fronstin notes "the potential to invest in more risky investment vehicles (such as mutual funds and stocks) will grow. The opportunities for capital appreciation will increase but so will the opportunities for capital losses, even among individuals with high levels of employer and individual contributions."
Check out Workers Cut 401(k)s as They Fatten HSAs: Mercer on ThinkAdvisor.

subset: commoncrawl


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New Jersey man arrested in cannibalism case
NEW YORK -- The arrest of a New Jersey man accused Friday of seeking to pay $5,000 to a New York City police officer to kidnap a Manhattan woman that he intended to rape and kill drew claims from a defense lawyer that the government was trying to prevent him from testifying about Internet sexual fantasies at the officer's cannibalism-tinged trial.
The attorney, Julia Gatto, spoke after Trenton resident Michael Vanhise, 22, appeared briefly in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where he was ordered held pending a bail hearing Monday on a conspiracy to commit kidnapping charge.
"Mr. Vanhise is being used as a pawn by the government to bolster a very weak case," Gatto said outside court. She represents Gilberto Valle, 28, of Queens, who is scheduled to go to trial later this month after he was charged in October with one count of kidnapping conspiracy and one count of accessing a computer without authorization.
She said Vanhise "would have exonerated our client" with testimony about his own participation in a world of Internet sexual fantasies where people could speak of unspeakable acts they would never commit. She said the arrest Friday appeared to be a tactical move by authorities to prevent testimony by Vanhise or others about Internet fantasies.
"He definitely could have been a defense witness, yes. We believe he would certainly support the defense," Gatto said.
The lawyer said the government appeared to be pressuring potential defense witnesses not to take the witness stand by saying in court documents filed against Vanhise that there were other co-conspirators who had not been charged in the case.
Authorities said Vanhise agreed to pay Valle $5,000 to kidnap the woman in New York and deliver her bound to Vanhise's home in New Jersey, where she would be raped and killed. They said Vanhise also participated in planning the kidnapping of a girl.
Vanhise's lawyer, Alice Fontier, said her client, an auto mechanic who seemed to wipe tears from his eyes during his court hearing, was "very upset," especially because he wanted to be home after his wife gave birth to a daughter last month.
, one of several young children the couple has.
She said he had been in contact with the FBI since late October and there had "certainly been ongoing meetings."
"He has not stopped cooperating," she said, though she added: "Obviously, the relationship has changed since he was arrested."
Besides being accused of agreeing to pay Valle for the abduction last year when Valle was an active police officer, Vanhise also admitted emailing others about kidnapping, raping and killing women and children, the FBI said in court papers.
Valle was charged last year with using a law-enforcement database as he allegedly made plans to kidnap, rape, kill and eat women. Gatto said at that time that he was engaging in sexual fantasies and intended no violence.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Vanhise engaged in conduct "that reads like a script for a bad horror film."
He said the arrest was the second "in this bone-chilling case, but we are not finished."
George Venizelos, head of the New York FBI office, said the charges "convey the depravity of the offense."
According to court papers, Vanhise and Valle negotiated last February to carry out the kidnapping of the Manhattan woman, saying in email conversations that she would be knocked unconscious before her hands and feet were bound and she was gagged. The men conspired to stuff her into a large suitcase and deliver her to Vanhise's home, where Valle insisted she would still be alive so that Vanhise could rape her, authorities said.
The court papers said Vanhise also emailed photographs of a girl whom Vanhise knew well. They said this occurred after other unidentified co-conspirators expressed interest in kidnapping the child.
If convicted, Vanhise could face life in prison.


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A Reason Why You SHould Never Fall Asleep On The Subway: Rat Riding NYC Subway Wakes Up Sleeping Homeless Man!
Rat wakes up Homeless man
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
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<<Back to Latest News Main Page
GB.Net News Archive ~ GB.Net News By Category
Category: P.S. I Love You News Posted by: DaisyMay
P. S. I Love You (Blog)
Article Date: February 16, 2008 | Publication: Lover of the Small and Furry | Author: Vanessa
Source: Lover of the Small and Furry
On Friday night Ramsey and I got into a fight. I was really upset that he picked me up 15 minutes late from work, because we missed our movie. The tradition is that every Friday night, Ramsey picks me up from work and we go to the dollar theater. Most of the time I just take the student car home but on the weekends, he picks me up so we can see a movie because the theater is really close to my work. Well, the story began when he picked me up 20 minutes late last Friday and so we missed the movie we wanted to see. I had told him, "Can you be on time next time?" Of course, he promised. Yeah, well Ramsey is notorious for being late. I don't think I've accepted this yet at this point of my life. Well to keep a long fight short, he got very hurt because I told him he ruined my evening. Yes, I know, I can be very dramatic. It took another 20 minutes to make up. By the time we were ok, we go to the theater and the only movie showing at the time was "P.S. I love you." It sounded like a chick flick, so I wasn't initially interested but come on Gerard Butler, Mr. Hottie pants is in it, so I guess I didn't mind seeing it. (Not to mention Harry Connick Jr plays a role.)
The movie really touched me. I felt like God had planned this. He wanted me to see this movie so that's why it was the only one available. I cried during the whole movie. I felt the movie was made for me. The movie started out with Hillary Swank and Gerard Butler's characters getting into a fight over the stupidest reason and everything Hillary Swank's character (Holly) said sounded like something I would say. I could see how ridiculous it all sounded from the outside perspective. I could also see all the cute little things Gerard Butler's character did and said to make her not so mad at him. After this initial scene I was hooked.
Then Gerard Butler's character dies from a brain tumor. Before he goes he writes letters so that she would have one to open every day. He also does some other amazing things to surprise her. But really hit home was the amount of grief that Holly experiences. For the rest of the movie, Holly is in complete and utter grief. She would constantly have moments of panic or moments of memory flashed of things she said that she wished she hadn't. She would have memories of how they met which was beautiful and reminded me a lot of how Ramsey and I were when we first met.
The truth of the matter is I am constantly worrying about Ramsey dying. It's really an obsessive thought for that matter. I really need to get a psychologist or something because I am constantly thinking about it and sobbing. Ramsey has to remind me he is still right there next to me. I am a blubbering fool. When Ramsey had problems with his gastrointestinal, his doctor said he could die at any moment. That phrase had haunted me for the longest time. But I get in moods where I would think about Ramsey's death and what I would do with my life afterward. Would I sell everything we shared together? Would I remarry? I think I would move to another country and try to get a way from everything that would remind me of him. That's not very healthy I know. But now you know my secret.
Well when I watching the movie, most of all Holly's reaction was how I envisioned I would react. Her mother criticizes the fact Holly can't move on. The message of the movie is focused on "moving on" and valuing what you have. Holly keeps thinking about how she was never happy. She wanted a new bigger apartment and a better job etc. After her husband passed away, she was able to see how lucky she truly was and how none of that stuff should have mattered.
This made me really evaluate my life. I find myself being Holly sometimes. I really wish I had a house. I really wish I could go on vacation. So much stuff that doesn't even matter. Ramsey is here with me now. And that is really the only thing that matters right now. Ramsey is the most amazing loving man. On Valentine's Day, he stuck poems he wrote while I was at work all around the apartment. I will have to post some soon. Ramsey has the sweetest testimony and spirit of love. He is constantly looking out for me. I need him and he needs me.
It's amazing that a movie from Hollywood was so wonderfully inspiring and brought such a good message. It seriously has changed my perspective. Interesting, that I couldn't realize this before. I think it took all of the uncanny similarities between these two characters to show me what happens when what's really important is taken away.
Value what you have.
posted by V.a.n.e.s.s.a at 7:09 PM
Category: P.S. I Love You News
Posted by: DaisyMay


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Merit Badge Numbering System (BSA Advancement ID)
From MeritBadgeDotOrgLike most things in Scouting, the BSA numbering system came about to fill a need. The need was to be able to chart a Scout's progress without having to write out the full names of merit badges in very small spaces.
The first fourteen merit badges, numerically speaking, were the Eagle required merit badges at the time the numbering system originated. The Safety and Sports merit badges are no longer Eagle required while Family Life, Cycling, and Hiking have been added. The remainder of the badges are basically in alphabetical order with newer badges added at the end.
This list also includes discontinued merit badges which were part of the numbering system. These merit badges are provided for reference purposes only. Current merit badges are linked to their requirements pages, discontinued merit badges are not linked.


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Shaina Strom, director of the MWWTM, is leading a team collecting oral histories on two projects.
The first to go up will be stories about the April 27, 2011, storm. Plans call for it to be ready by the tornado's second anniversary this spring.
The second project is longer-term and involves gathering stories about Tuscaloosa's part in the civil rights movement. Plans call for it to open in January 2014.
Visitors to the Mildred Westervelt Warner Transportation Museum know its space offers sounds in addition to sights. Interactive exhibits offer videos with sound illuminating the museum's various displays showcasing the area's history.
Soon more voices will be heard in the former Queen City Bathhouse, now converted to the museum on Jack Warner Parkway, adjacent to the Tuscaloosa Public Library.
Shaina Strom, director of the MWWTM, is leading a team collecting oral histories on two projects.
The first to go up will be stories about the April 27, 2011, storm. Plans call for it to be ready by the tornado's second anniversary this spring.
The second project is longer-term and involves gathering stories about Tuscaloosa's part in the civil rights movement. Plans call for it to open in January 2014.
"We want to paint word pictures, find those compelling memories," Strom said. For the earlier deadline of the storm, "We're looking for stories of people like first responders, people who organized efforts to help out, to recover."
There's a concern that some people may be too modest to report on themselves, so she's looking not only for people who have first-hand tales to tell, but for suggestions about others. The oral history project will be assisted by personnel from the library, the University of Alabama's Creative Campus and some of the news team from Alabama Public Radio.
Pat Duggins, APR news director, said he and his staff, which includes UA students and interns, are "chomping at the bit to get to work on this."
"As soon as I heard about it, I said, 'Good lord, of course we're going to help on this, it's great,' " Duggins said.
Although the search for stories and subjects is in its early stages, Duggins said APR might find some leads in its one-year anniversary documentary "Winds of Change," which recorded the stories of people hit hard by the storm as they recovered a year later, some still rebuilding homes or businesses, some dealing with
mental-health issues as a result of their experiences.
"But all the material for the (museum) is going to be fresh," he said. "It's going to be interesting to see how people's feelings have evolved."
From his experience covering the Exxon Valdez oil spill, Duggins recalls hearing from experts that a traumatic event can have effects that won't have even fully hit yet.
"It could take from three to five years for all the mental stress to set in," he said.
As far as who they'd like to talk to, the philosophy is everyone has a story, even those who weren't directly hit by the storm. The museum is setting up a room for interviews and has purchased quality recording equipment to begin the process.
Duggins is aware many people may not be comfortable talking into a recorder, especially where the results will be used for public display and as a record. But he's trained many interviewers in how to ease reluctant interviewees into a story.
"I tell them to think of yourself like the dentist: 'I'm not gonna hurt ya; I haven't lost anybody yet.' Start with the jokes and get them used to talking with the microphone out, and eventually the unease can drop away," he said. "It's those conversational kind of interviews that I think are very effecting, where it's just people talking. If I had my druthers, I would prefer that the people being interviewed carry the show. I almost hate to ask the next question, when I hear someone doing so well, talking so much, being so eloquent, I'm afraid my next question will just break the spell, be an imposition."
Both the storm and civil rights oral histories plan to begin recording in early February, but the storm stories are under a tighter deadline. Those who feel they have a story, or a suggestion, should contact Strom at 205-248-4931, or by email at email@example.com.
"We're hoping to have all those (storm stories) collected by March 7, so we can get them edited and have them on display by April 27," she said.
For more information about the museum, go online to www.mwwtm.com.


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Discovering the Key to Every Romance Novel: The Heroine
Most romance readers are women, and naturally, they want to see themselves reflected in their choice of reading. That desire for reflection doesn't mean that every heroine has to be straight from everyday life (even everyday life in, say, the 1800s); however, the heroine does have to feel real and be interesting and emotionally complex enough to keep the reader interested in your story.
Your heroine has to be the most accessible character, because the packaging (the cover art, copy, and often the title) usually focuses on her. And in most cases — unless the author is already one of the reader's favorites — the packaging is crucial to making the sale to the reader.
Your heroine needs to be at the center of the plot. Your story is really her story. Fifteen or twenty years ago, her point of view was usually the only one. Nowadays, authors make room for the hero's point of view, and sometimes even secondary characters'. But a romance novel is still the story of the heroine's romance — she's the focus, the pivot on which all action turns. In the end, the happy ending is happy because she literally gets her man.
Drawing the reader into your story
Because she's the reader's alter ego — the reader's avenue into the story — your heroine directly controls everything the reader feels, and whether or not she keeps reading. To get your reader involved in the novel, convince her that your heroine's not only someone she would like to know, but is also someone she would like to be.
When the reader identifies — whether consciously or subconsciously — with the heroine, she takes on the heroine's thoughts and feelings as her own. As she reads the story, the reader feels everything's happening to her, not just a fictional character.
The reader's identification is your secret weapon to make the reader fall in love with the hero. He has to be appealing on his own merits. But suppose you make him a cowboy, and your reader generally goes for suit-and-tie guys? Your heroine's thoughts and feelings — as she falls for the hero — become the reader's thoughts and feelings, too, until suddenly the reader has fallen in love with her first cowboy.
Making your heroine feel real
To foster the reader's identification with the heroine, you need to make your heroine feel real. Making her feel real doesn't necessarily mean depicting her as someone your reader could be or might know. Instead, it means giving her character reference points that readers recognize, which let your readers easily slip into the heroine's role and internalize her thoughts and feelings. Here are five rules for creating believable heroines.
Responding realistically
Make your heroine's emotional responses realistic.She's certainly going to experience things in the course of the book that most women never experience in real life, so your reader can't say, "I remember how I felt when that happened to me." So how do you get the reader to go along for the ride when your heroine's in the protective custody of a handsome detective, or playing incognito sex games with the suave publisher of a men's magazine? Simple. Just make her respond as the reader would. If a woman would be scared or shocked (and also attracted to the hero, of course) in real life, let your heroine feel that way, too. Her realistic response to a seemingly unrealistic situation will make sense to the reader and keep her caught up in your story.
Sowing the seeds of conflict
The sparks of all conflict come from your characters, and the best conflict is emotional. Your heroine's the key character, so root the novel's conflict in your heroine's emotions. When the heroine's emotions feel real, her emotional conflict also feels real.
The circumstances may be unrealistic — like my previous example of the incognito sex games with the suave publisher — but her conflict can still be one the reader identifies with. What if your heroine has always been unsure of her ability to attract — and hold — the attention of a man, so she's afraid that when the hero finds out who she really is, he'll lose interest in her? This conflict is emotionally based and is one your reader can empathize with.
Exhibiting identifiable traits
Give your heroine character traits that feel real.She often has a job or lifestyle that your reader will never have. Maybe your heroine is a spy, a federal judge, a minister, or the daughter of a millionaire and her first car was a Mercedes. On the surface, she may seem too far outside the reader's realm of experience for that crucial sense of identification to occur, but a few well-chosen character traits can change that. Maybe she likes to drive too fast or is always playing with her hair. Maybe she has a soft spot for stray dogs or coos at babies in the supermarket.
Something small and human that you briefly mention just once or twice can resonate with the reader and make her realize that, for all their differences, she and the heroine aren't so dissimilar after all. Just don't mention these traits over and over again, because then they seem forced, which will distance your reader instead of drawing her in.
Keeping complexity in mind
Make your heroine a complex and interesting human being. You may think that having a complex and interesting heroine goes without saying, but not all writers realize this necessity. Many heroines are just plain boring. They have whatever character traits the author decided were necessary for the plot — curious, lonely, and intelligent, for example — but that was it. They don't seem like real people who have quirks, contradictions, and layers worth uncovering.
Of course, don't go to such extremes that your heroine feels like a mass of tics, insecurities, and disconnected enthusiasms. She needs to be strong, admirable, and intelligent, and she should definitely feel like herself and no one else.
Overlooking her own great looks
Don't let your heroine realize she's beautiful.This tip may seem like a small point, but especially in our visually driven society, it's actually an important one. Most women are very critical of their own appearances. Most women look in the mirror and see flaw after flaw, not their good points — even though they know they have them!
Most romance heroines are quite attractive, but if all your heroine does is admire her own beauty, readers aren't able to identify with her. So, instead of working your heroine's description into the story through her point of view, let the reader see her through the hero's eyes. After all, no one can object if he finds her beautiful. Giving her a flaw or two doesn't hurt, either. Maybe her hair is a beautiful shade of red but has a tendency to frizz in the humidity, or maybe she needs glasses to read. Little touches like these make her more human and easier for the reader to empathize with.
Introducing imperfection
True heroines are strong but flawed. An imperfect heroine makes a perfect heroine. At first glance, that probably doesn't seem to make any sense, but it does, and for several reasons:
- Readers can't identify with a perfect heroine: No one is perfect. So if you make your heroine perfect, without flaws, fears, or vulnerabilities, your reader won't feel the bond that keeps her inside the heroine's head and turning the pages. By introducing weaknesses and vulnerabilities, you let the reader create that all-important bond with the heroine.
- Static characters are boring: Your heroine (and yes, your hero, too) can't remain static over the course of the book. As the plot progresses, you need to make your heroine develop, change, grow, and discover things about herself and her abilities — especially how to love and live with her hero. If your heroine starts out perfect, she has nowhere to go. But if she has insecurities, past failures to put to rest, doubts about herself and her abilities, or an out-and-out bad habit — maybe a quick temper, or impatience that leads to rash, unwise decisions — she has room for progress, and readers will want to see how she masters the challenges of the plot and the romantic relationship.
- Imperfections call for complementary strengths: Part of what makes a couple right for each other is that they complement each other; they need each other, and bring out the best in each other. The same must be true of your hero and heroine, so the reader believes they belong together.
- Your heroine's insecurities and flaws allow room for the hero in her life and in her heart. As an example, perhaps your heroine comes from a broken family, which left her doubting her ability to succeed in a relationship, much less be a successful mother. Pets are the most she can manage, she's decided. So who moves in next door? A single father whose 5-year-old daughter just can't stay away from the heroine's golden retriever. Suddenly she finds herself playing mom at unexpected moments — not to mention having dinner at the hero's house so he can thank her for her help, where she discovers that maybe she does have what it takes to win the love of a good man after all. Without her insecurities, you wouldn't have a story — or a romance.
Naming your heroine
Odds are, an editor has never turned down a manuscript because she didn't like a character's name, but the names you choose for your characters can subliminally express whether you have an ear for language or a knack for thorough research. Although a rose by any other name might smell as sweet, the idea of buying a dozen skunk cabbages doesn't appeal to most people. Names carry both connotations and information, so as a writer, you want to make your characters' names work for you, not against you. And because your heroine's your key character, her name is also key.
Ultimately, select the name that simply is your heroine's name, the name that belongs to her as an individual. Listen to your instincts as an author. At the same time, know the consequences of your decision, so you can make them work for you as you write your romance.
Choosing an accurate name
Taking accuracy into account when naming a character may sound odd, but the idea is important. You want your heroine's name to fit seamlessly into her world. Her name is part of the illusion that makes her feel real.
For instance, if you're writing a Medieval romance, don't name your heroine Tawana or Tiffany. In any historical romance, choose a name that's appropriate to the period. When you don't choose a historically accurate name, the editor may question the accuracy of all your research. And research — especially in a historical novel, where most readers have to be told how people dressed, what they ate, and any other details of their lives — is crucial, so an editor needs to know she can rely on you to get it right.
The accurate-naming rule applies to ethnicity and region, too. If your heroine's Scandinavian, the names Ellie and Rose aren't appropriate first names, and Smith and Weinstein aren't suitable surnames. If your heroine's from New England, she's unlikely to go by Sarah Kate, because that double-name construction is more indicative of the American South.
But watch out for place-based stereotypes, such as Sarah Kate from down South. If your heroine's name sounds like a cliché, your reader may think the heroine herself is a cliché, too. You also want your heroine's name to sound unique so she'll stand out from the other characters in your book, who may need to be defined by their names more than your heroine does.
Connotations count: Pretty is as pretty does
Some names just sound nicer than others, like rose versus skunk cabbage. Every generation has its own standards of beauty — in clothes, cars, and names. With no offense meant to anyone who has a mother, aunt, or sister named Myra, it's a tough name to pull off for a heroine these days. Younger generations are conditioned to think of Myra as an old-fashioned name, so if you choose it, you're fighting an uphill battle to convince the reader that the name isn't an accurate indication of the heroine's personality. That's not to say you can't choose a name that creates challenges for you, just know what those challenges are so you can overcome them.
Be aware of any connotations the name you choose carries so you can work with them or against them to create your heroine. Choose a name that has no real connotations, so you can create your heroine from scratch, or pick one that communicates what you want to convey about your heroine. Is she brash and iconoclastic? Bree (with its echo of "breezy") may work. Quiet and feminine? Perhaps Emma or another name that hints at the past and has a soft sound. A tomboy? Try Meg or Becky — something that has a playful lilt. Or, if you choose a name that has connotations that clearly don't fit your heroine — Emma for a tomboy or Mabel for an adventurous astronaut, for example — be aware of the mismatch so you can work to counter it. You may even have another character comment on her name, so you can bring it out into the open and get it out of the way.
Covering gender
Unisex names are trendy now. But if you name your heroine Jamie or Sam (short for Samantha), be aware of one challenge in her future: back-cover copy. For a reader, flipping a book over and reading about the perfect romance between Jamie and Jake or Sam and Rafe can be a little jarring. Unisex names are less of a problem in the books themselves, but know that you're creating a challenge on the marketing end.
Is exotic erotic?
The short and oh-so-definitive answer is . . . sometimes. Exotic (meaning different, not necessarily from an exotic locale) names can be beautiful, musical, romantic, and enticing. Romina. Michelline. Shoshanna. But exotic names can also be so strange, attention-getting, and unpronounceable that they stop the reader in her tracks, pulling her out of the story to sound out a name. Shivareena. Caledonia. Briganta. Don't try so hard to choose something different that you work against your own best interests.
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Are Your Membership Benefits Cutting It?
Probably the vast majority of association membership benefits are the traditional ones – a publication of some sort, access to the association's "members only" website, discounts on conference fees and purchases, access to group insurance programs, etc. While these benefits retain their popularity with some segments of association members, are they really useful – or even interesting – to your younger members?
"What do our young professionals want from us?" That question is being asked over and over by membership directors, program managers, meeting planners and senior management. How can you make membership in your association relevant to young professionals? Here are five tips to jump start the membership benefits conversation.
- Start over. Don't assume that any of your association's current benefits are of interest or value to your younger members.
- Ask them. Take advantage of electronic surveys, polls, social media sites and other tools to ask your younger members and prospective members what they want from your association. Start with a discussion on your association's Facebook page. If you don't have one, get one.
- Pay attention. Listen to what you are hearing – or not hearing – from younger members and prospects. Don't dismiss survey results as not being indicative of the larger (and probably older) segment of your membership.
- Be open to new ideas. Not every member wants or even needs to receive the same member benefits. Free webinars that members can access 24/7 might appeal to more than just your young professional members. You could find that you are developing an entirely new suite of member benefits that will attract and retain more than just the under-40 crowd.
- Experiment. If you offer a benefit and you don't get the response you expected, try something different. Creativity and experimentation are how your association got started in the first place.
If your association's bylaws specify the benefits that your members must receive, you should give serious consideration to giving your bylaws a thorough review. The associations that will be successful in the 21st century are those that can quickly adapt to changes in society and the marketplace. Your bylaws should encourage, not inhibit, change, particularly when it comes to your members. Association membership programs are like swimmers – they're either moving forward, treading water, or going under. Make sure your association is in one of the first two groups.


text:
Jbush necesitaba un nuevo diseño de impreso o envases y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 34 diseños de 12 diseñadores freelance.
American Construction Benefits Group
Risk management Conference at the Grand Hyatt in DFW airport. May 26 will be educating top brass on lean health insurance and wellness plans that will increase profits, lower health care costs, and result in a healthier and more productive workforce.
The title of the info meeting will be:
"Innovations that save you money: Captive solutions for healthcare plan management"
Presented by American Construction Benefits Group, LLC
A flyer (snail mail and email ready) for an Risk Management Conference that we are having on May 26. This should also be printable. This should have logo, headline, date, location, time, summary, FREE RECORDED MSG 1800 number, GUARANTEE , and contact info with rsvp info:
"Free Recorded Message: 18006707312"
Call Meagan: 214.420.7102 to RSVP
or email firstname.lastname@example.com
Target CEO, CFO 's of large construction companies.
We are going to tell them about our process which lowers the cost of health insurance drastically and results in a healthier and more fit workforce.
This flyer should result in their rsvp of our event.
Use colors scheme from website acbg.net and make sure you says
"Free Recorded Message: 18006707312"
Make sure you put in bold: GUARANTEE If you are not completely satisfied, then we will refund the cost of your plane ticket


text:
BAMIYAN, Afghanistan - Army Maj. Kenton Barber never planned to hand out a truckload of warm clothes to the desperate cave-dwellers in the cliffs where the famed Bamiyan Buddhas once stood.
Nor did he plan to team up with Afghanistan's growing Scouting movement, an aspiring Eagle Scout from Maryland, an international charity or a multiagency federal aid program. He certainly hadn't planned to use military planes for transport.
All he'd wanted was to put shoes and maybe a coat on a couple of the barefoot street kids he saw standing in the snow last winter outside NATO's downtown Kabul base.
He asked his wife to collect some clothes around the house, maybe buy a few things at Wal-Mart. Nothing more grand than that.
But his wife asked neighbors in suburban Washington to help. Then one of them mentioned the informal clothing drive to Barbara Ferry, the librarian at National Geographic, whose 13-year-old son, John, was looking for an Eagle Scout project. She asked Barber to talk to him.
Last week, a year and many hurdles after Barber saw those kids in the snow, a truck loaded with bags of warm clothes, trailed by a minibus packed with Afghan Scouts, arrived at the caves. It completed John's project. And what a project it had become.
"These Scouts, I'm very happy with them," said Marza, whose family of six lives in a small cave and who, like many Afghans, uses just one name. "Other people never came to ask what our lives are like. But they did, and now we have clothes that will keep my children warm."
The caves stretch for miles on either side of the empty niches where the immense Buddhas stood, before the Taliban blew them up in 2001. Most estimates put the population at several hundred families, displaced by fighting, food shortages, or just plain poverty. A 2009 survey by the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission found that three-quarters of them had been there for 10 years.
Poor doesn't begin to describe their lives, which get even harder in winter, when there are no jobs at the valley's potato farms. That means no money for food, let alone firewood or coal, at a place 9,200 feet above sea level, where the average high temperature in January is below freezing and nights often dip into the single digits or even lower. Many children sleep with sheep in their rooms to stay warm.
Marza's cave is little bigger than a walk-in closet, the stone bare except the floor, which is covered by several rough-woven, dirty carpets. The closest thing to furniture is a shelf hacked into the rock for their few trinkets. Their luxury is a small stove, in which the family burns brush or animal dung a few times a week. Most meals are just tea and bread. If they have money for boiled potatoes, that's a feast.
With as many as eight people crowding each cave, respiratory and intestinal problems seem universal. When dozens of residents of the cave community known as Patokhlama, just east of the Buddha niches, lined up to receive the Scouts' bags of clothes, the chorus of coughs was non-stop. Most kids had runny noses.
Marza said her family has lived in the cave 10 years. But district school officials refuse to consider them residents, so her children can't go to government schools, she said. Education is the only way out for her children. "I'm very sad," she said. "I worry they will end up like us."
Such poverty isn't rare in Afghanistan. But Bamiyan has unusually good security, and that means the government could do much to help the cave people, but it hasn't, said Yasin Farid, the country director for PARSA, one of Afghanistan's oldest charities. PARSA has made ministering to the cave dwellers of Bamiyan a priority.
"The government has really wasted a chance here," he said.
PARSA also has worked hard to re-establish Scouting in Afghanistan. And that's how Maj. Barber and John Ferry came to the aid of the cave dwellers in Bamiyan.
In their first conversation - at 3 a.m. for Barber because of the time difference - Barber told John that transportation would be the hardest part of what they were discussing, but that he should go ahead with the collection, and Barber would make sure somehow that the clothes got to Afghanistan.
In early summer, John began calling schools, churches and local businesses, asking if they would host a collection bin. Then he signed up volunteers and corporate donors for things like boxes and storage, aided at times by several Scouts and Scout leaders from his unit, Scout Troop 463, in Garrett, Md., a town just outside Washington.
John's collection effort was almost too successful, and Barber had to finally ask him to throttle back because they had about as much clothing as they could handle. There were 68 big boxes of clothes weighing nearly a ton, so much that they swamped the Ferry house, and John had to arrange for donated storage.
And they had to get all those boxes to Afghanistan.
Barber knew just who to talk with: a chaplain. Chaplains have strong networks and established channels for moving donations of various kinds into war zones.
A chaplain suggested using the Denton Project, a joint operation of the State and Defense departments and the U.S. Agency for International Development that ships humanitarian donations and equipment on a space-available basis on military cargo planes. John started the process, filling out the elaborate application form.
Still missing, however, was a local partner to clear the goods into Afghanistan. That's when a soldier who works in Barber's building, and is part of a group of NATO troops that support Scouts in Afghanistan, suggested Barber team up with PARSA, which readily agreed.
After two sets of federal inspections, the Boy Scouts dropped the shipment at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland in December. Space was found on a plane bound for Germany on Jan. 5. A couple of weeks later, a plane had space to get the clothes to Afghanistan.
Keith Blackey, PARSA's Scouting adviser, said the group gets frequent requests to accept clothing, but ordinarily it doesn't because of the logistics involved. But the Denton Project overcame that hurdle.
Bamiyan, where PARSA has set up two schools and employs 100 women making handicrafts, seemed the perfect destination. It also had a good-sized Scouting contingent.
Scouts in Kabul helped repack some of the boxes that had been damaged in transit. Then PARSA put them on a truck for Bamiyan. When the clothes arrived, the Scouts there sorted them, packed them in 110 plastic bags, and handed out the bags in the poor communities.
And that's how Kenton Barber's modest idea and John Ferry's dogged work, and the long chain of almost accidental connections, ended.
"It's like we lucked out at every hurdle, with the right people stepping forward," Barber said.
John was equally upbeat in a phone interview.
"One thing I learned from this is that people care and are really willing to help with a community project, if you just ask them," he said.


text:
How do I tell if my connection to a website is secure?
The Site Identity button (a padlock) appears in your address bar when you visit a secure website. You can quickly find out if the connection to the website you are viewing is encrypted, and in some cases who owns the website. This should help you avoid malicious websites that are trying to obtain your personal information.
The Site Identity button is in the address bar to the left of the web address. Most commonly, when viewing a secure website, the Site Identity button will be a green padlock.
However, in rare cases, it may also be a gray padlock with a yellow warning triangle or a broken padlock (a padlock with a red strikethrough).
Note: Clicking the button at the left of the address bar brings up the Control Center, which allows you to view more detailed information about the connection's security status and to change some security and privacy settings.
Table of Contents
Green padlock
A green padlock (with or without an organization name) indicates that:
- You are definitely connected to the website whose address is shown in the address bar; the connection has not been intercepted.
- The connection between Firefox and the website is encrypted to prevent eavesdropping.
A green padlock plus the name of the company or organization, also in green, means this website is using an Extended Validation (EV) certificate. An EV certificate is a special type of site certificate that requires a significantly more rigorous identity verification process than other types of certificates.
For sites using EV certificates, the Site Identity button displays both a green padlock and the legal company or organization name and location of the owner of the website, so you know who is operating it. For example, it shows that mozilla.org is owned by the Mozilla Foundation.
Gray padlock with yellow warning triangle
A gray padlock with a yellow warning triangle indicates that the connection between Firefox and the website is only partially encrypted and doesn't prevent eavesdropping. This also appears on websites with self-signed certificates or certificates that are not issued by a trusted authority.
For information about what "partially encrypted" means, see Mixed content blocking in Firefox. This is a problem the site developer needs to resolve.
Note: Do not send any sort of sensitive information (bank information, credit card data, Social Security Numbers, etc.) to sites where the Site Identity button has a yellow warning triangle icon.
Gray padlock with red strikethrough
A padlock with red strikethrough indicates that the connection between Firefox and the website is only partially encrypted and doesn't prevent against eavesdropping or man-in-the-middle attacks.
This icon will not appear unless you've manually deactivated mixed content blocking.
Note: Do not send any sort of sensitive information (bank information, credit card data, Social Security Numbers, etc.) to sites where the Site Identity button has a gray padlock with red strikethrough icon.


text:
Free shipping over € 99
Free shipping over € 99
"Nuvem" means cloud in Portuguese. It is a reference to the skein of aluminium wire, tangled and then squashed and drawn, that forms the objects in this family. It wasn't easy to find a production technology that was capable of preserving the exquisitely craftsmanlike, manual and random attributes of this concept by the Campana brothers, while simultaneously allowing it to be produced at reasonable prices. The result is an example of what we call "lightness and consistency", values that feature highly in the work of these Brazilian talents.
Humberto Campana, lawyer and Fernando Campana, architect, have been working together in San Paolo since 1983 in the field of artistic design. They came into the limelight in 1989 with the furniture exhibition provocatively entitled "Gli inconfortabili" (The Inconsolable), a political manifesto rather than functional objects. Their radical point of view is strengthened by the use of poor materials and industrial rubbish. Hand-made products represent the possibility of social redemption in a poor country. Their intention is, however, to find a way for Brazilian design, avoiding European colonisation. In Italy, they participated in the "Viaggio in Italia" exhibition at Abitare il Tempo in Verona in 1994 and in 1995 at the exhibition organised at the Brazilian Consulate in Milan "Il Brasile fa anche design". In 1997 they designed lights for O Luce. Some of their pieces appear in the International Design Year Book of 1997, edited by Philippe Starck. In 1998 the Moma in New York dedicated the "Progetto 66" exhibition to them, coupled with Ingo Maurer.


text:
Fall colours on Mississippi Lake.
Picture taken in Carleton Place, On. Canada.
Walkway to the Island
Walkway to the Island
Fog rising over Mississippi Lake
Fog rising over Mississippi
Canadian Winter Sports
Canadian Winter Sports
Sunset through the trees
Sunset through the trees
Golden Sunset Fisherman
Aurora on winter fields
Aurora on winter fields
Aurora rays
Aurora rays
Entre Froid et Chaud - Between Cold and hot
Entre Froid et Chaud - Between Cold and hote
Winter Solace
Winter Solace
Musée des beaux-arts du Canada
Glass ceiling view of the National Arts museum in Ottawa.
George St. Rideau
Abstract of building on George St in Ottawa


text:
Everyone covets defined abs, and the frog pelvic tilt will help you get there.
The exercise comes from Pasadena-based fitness expert, video host and teacher Tracey Mallett (www.traceymallett.com). Mallett is the founder of Booty Barre, a technique that combines elements of dance, yoga and Pilates to strengthen and stretch the body.
No prior experience in any of those disciplines is necessary, but maintaining good form is. Make sure that the spine, neck and head are aligned and that the movements are slow and deliberate.
What it does
The move targets the internal and external obliques on the sides of the abdomen as well as the transverse abdominis, which is below the internal obliques. Concentrate on the quality of the exercise, maintaining good form, rather than quantity.
How to do it
Lying on your back on a mat, raise your legs and bend them so that your knees are over your chest. Cross your ankles and turn your knees out for a frog pose. With your hands behind your head, raise your head, neck and shoulders off the floor. Lift your pelvis up as you exhale. Then extend your legs straight up, lowering your head, neck and shoulders onto the mat as you inhale.
How much
Do five pelvic tilts, then cross your legs the other way and do five more. To make this more difficult, extend your legs out at an angle instead of straight up.


text:
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text:
Kalimera! InterNations welcomes you to Athens! Whether you're new to the ancient Greek city or a past resident, InterNations can enrich your stay by helping you find fellow expats. Athens is a vibrant city with a rich cultural history and is a fantastic place to live, but if you're new to the country and are yet to develop a social network it can be daunting. InterNations can help you settle in to your new home in no time!
With InterNations, you never stand alone. Whether you move to another city or go on a business trip somewhere — our communities are there to make you feel at home wherever you are in the world. Feel free to also check out our other vibrant InterNations Communities like the ones in Jeddah or Hong Kong.
Attend our monthly events and activities for Athens expatriates to get to know like-minded expatriates in real life.
Get trustworthy advice and local insights from fellow members in our Athens expat forums.
Where to start with a city like Athens? This fascinating metropolis has been around for over 2,500 years and is the center of Greek civilization. Cast your eyes up and 200 feet above the city you will spy the magnificent Parthenon towering over the city. This buzzing capital mixes ancient monuments with a modern and lively vibe that is distinctly Greek; it's chaos! Athenians depend on humor and local knowledge to deal with it all, but you can rely on InterNations and our diverse community of expats to be your guide in this wonderfully frenzied city. InterNations has a host of groups that will enable any newcomers to quickly meet other expatriates in a relaxed and secure setting. From clubbing to professional networking and wine tasting to Greek coffee sampling, the InterNations Groups provide the perfect way to get to know your new surroundings and build up your social network.
InterNations is the largest global network for expatriates, with communities in 420 cities across the globe. Get to know fellow internationals in your city, before you're moving, or when traveling somewhere and never feel like a stranger. InterNations makes it easy for you to stay in touch with your expat friends, both online and offline, so you can grow your network of friends and contacts from all over the world. Whether they live in Khobar (Eastern Prov.) or Shanghai, InterNations allows you to be close to them even if they are miles away.
Athens can be challenging for new residents and that's when the InterNations Community can help you. Not sure where to start house hunting? Are you looking for the best night spots in Athens? Our helpful members can share with you their experiences of living in the city and give you all the insider tips. Our membership is by approval only to ensure our community principles of openness and friendliness are displayed at all times in our safe and secure environment. Finally, don't forget the large InterNations Official Events throughout the year; keep an eye out on your event calendar so you don't miss a thing!


text:
You don't want a rootkit infection. Any malware compromise is bad, but rootkits--by their very nature--are especially nasty. The irony is that you might have a rootkit infection right now and not know it. That's sort of the point of a rootkit.
Wikipedia defines it: "A rootkit is a stealthy type of software, often malicious, designed to hide the existence of certain processes or programs from normal methods of detection and enable continued privileged access to a computer." The term rootkit actually derives from Unix--where the administrator-level system privileges are called "root"--combined with "kit," which is commonly used to refer to a package of software tools. On a Windows PC it might make more sense to call it a "kernelkit" or "adminkit," but the term "rootkit" has stuck.
Because a rootkit operates with elevated administrative privileges, it can do things that most software applications can't do, functioning at a deeper level of the operating system than most security software is capable of scanning. A rootkit can hide files, processes, services, registry keys, hard disk sectors, and more so that the operating system itself, and other software running on the system don't even realize they're there.
When it comes to rootkits, you need a specialist--a sniper trained specifically to find and remove rootkits. That's where a tool like GMER comes in handy.
GMER is available for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 and 8. You can download GMER for free from the site. The .zip file is a mere 348KB, and installing it on my Windows 8 PC took me only a few seconds.
If you run into problems installing GMER, it might indicate that you have a rootkit of some sort. Rootkits and other malware are often engineered to block known security software in order to evade detection. You can rename the gmer.exe file to something else, though, and likely bypass any file filter that the rootkit is using.
It's not very fancy, but beneath its austere interface GMER is very good at what it's designed to do. Just select the Rootkit/Malware tab at the top, and click Scan. GMER will analyze your system and create a log of any hidden items that might indicate evidence of a rootkit.
This is where you need to know what you're doing--or get help from someone who does. Many legitimate software applications may have processes, files, services, or other elements detected by GMER, so you need to know what you're looking at and be able to determine whether it's legitimate or not before you erase it from your PC. Removing the wrong items could render valid software useless.
The GMER site includes sample logs of some common threats. You can compare results against the samples to see if any of the entries in your log match up. If you're unsure, or just don't know how to interpret the log data, you can also email a copy of the log to the GMER developers and they will help with analysis.
GMER is not the only option. You can also look at other specialized rootkit tools like Kaspersky's TDSSKiller. For more information, check out the GMER FAQ. You can also send an email to email@example.com with any questions about the software or how to use it.
Join the newsletter!
Follow our new social and we'll keep you in the loop for exclusive events and all things security!
Have an opinion on security? Want to have your articles published on CSO? Please contact CSO Content Manager for our guidelines.


text:
The San Diego County Taxpayers Association on Thursday issued its annual awards for bad government — and good.
The business-friendly group advocates for limited government and low taxes, in part by drawing attention to wasteful practices.
The group gave its top award, the Grand Golden Fleece, to the Poway Unified School District for a $105 million bond issue that will cost taxpayers nearly $1 billion to repay. The unfavorable rate structure was exposed by former reporter and blogger Joel Thurtell of Michigan last year.
The group also cited the San Diego Unified School District for using long-term bonds to finance the purchase of iPads, and cited the city of El Cajon for investing in a microbrewery.
On the positive side, the association lauded county government for a program that uses technology to fight graffiti.
The taxpayers association also gave media awards to the Voice of San Diego website and NBC 7/39 for coverage of school bonds, and to 10News for coverage of Metropolitan Water District spending.


text:
Bomb cyclone and heavy snow bitters cold all across USJanuary 08, 2018 13:25
In a record breaking snow and blizzard like condition, entire Eastern US is under deadly bomb cyclone. With snow pounding very brutal cold conditions in the US, the wind chill warnings are in place for entire Eastern Coast. This bombardment of frigid weather has brought sub zero temperatures to majority of US and a mix of snow and ice has blasted America.
The winter storm Grayson brings in historic cold conditions to even lower than -35 degrees celcius. This arctic storm dumped around 18 inches snow in some parts and this extreme weather has been linked with 22 deaths so far all across US. Wind gusts also hit more than 70 mph and rare snow fall in some areas have been reported.
The National Weather Service says, "light freezing rain is expected to develop very late Sunday night into Monday morning. Forecasters say less than a tenth of an inch of ice is expected, but that it's enough to make travel treacherous during Monday morning's commute"
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, bombogenesis or bomb cyclone "occurs when a mid-latitude cyclone rapidly intensifies, dropping at least 24 millibars over 24 hours. A millibar measures atmospheric pressure."
"This can happen when a cold air mass collides with a warm air mass, such as air over warm ocean waters. The formation of this rapidly strengthening weather system is a process called bombogenesis, which creates what is known as a bomb cyclone," NOAA said.
The NWS said, ""This winter storm is forecast to bring the potential for a mix of freezing rain/sleet/snow from portions of northern Florida to North Carolina, and snowfall northward along portions of the Mid-Atlantic into northern New England,"
One of the warnings, for Vermont and northern New York, said, "The dangerously cold wind chills will cause frostbite in as little as 10 minutes to exposed skin. Expect wind chills to range from 25 below zero to 45 below zero."
"Arctic air mass and dangerously cold wind chills expected across much of the eastern two-thirds of the country through this weekend. Many daily temperature records may be broken," the National Weather Service said in a tweet
The temperatures are expected to rise later part of the week and the snow and ice conditions to remain a cause of concern until, for traveling. Many flights have been canceled and diverted at major airports and it is likely to continue for a few more days.
The Eastern Coast has been worst affected by this bomb cyclone which has brought shocking amount of snow and ice to many parts bringing life to a standstill
By Minu Manisha


text:
Flag: Croatian
Nationality of Officers:Croatian
Number of Crew: 7
Passenger Capacity: 38
Speed: 9 NM
Length:42,40 m
Beam:8,00 m
One way from Dubrovnik to Split on M/S Summer
Dubrovnik (Croatia) - Split (Croatia)
8 days / 7 nights - May 09, 2020
Dubrovnik, Mljet, Korcula, Vis, Bisevo, Hvar, Bol, Pucisca, Omis and Split aboard Summer
We look forward to sharing with you an awesome and unforgettable experience of sailing the turquoise Adriatic, sampling the very essence of the scenic Dalmatian Coast with its alluring islands, wonderful coastal scenery, countless bays, romantic coves and historic and cultural treasures of fairy tale medieval towns.
By docking each evening in a different port of call you will find yourself within only a few steps from the evocative old towns with their gates, little squares and easy going narrow lanes, promenades, vibrant cafes, shops and traditional restaurants. For your laid back moments of relaxation we will keep you thrilled each day by revealing you secluded coves and pristine beaches with crystal clear water.
We look forward to welcoming you on board !
M/S Summer will be docked in Dubrovnik Gruz harbour where you can board during the entire day. Welcome meeting will start at 7:00 p.m. where you will be introduced by our Cruise director to the Captain, our crew and of course your future fellow passengers with whom you will spend a week on board. Welcome dinner will be served at 7:30 p.m. The embarkation will be possible throughout the day; passengers arriving in the morning cannot enter their cabins before 1:00 p.m. but they can leave luggage on board. Captain will wait for all passengers arriving late at night and these guests will be provided with dinner. Overnight in Dubrovnik
MEALS ON BOARD: Dinner
After breakfast our English speaking guide and coach will come to the pier. After an organized panoramic drive and photo stop of breath-taking scenery at a hill above Dubrovnik we will arrive to the historical centre of Dubrovnik, the famous city enlisted as UNESCO's World Heritage site, where your guide will show you the most interesting sights of Dubrovnik. After city tour you will be left on your own to explore the city. At 12:00 we will have transfer to boat and lunch while cruising to Mljet National Park, arriving in the late afternoon. Overnight in Mljet
MEALS ON BOARD: Breakfast, Lunch
This morning we have free to explore Mljet National Park (entrance fees are not included), to walk around the Great and Small Lake and Islet of St. Mary with its Benedictine Monastery from the 12th century and, of course, to take a swim in the heart of National Park. Lunch on board and cruise toward the island of Korcula. In the afternoon arrive to Korcula town, on Korcula Island, city known as a birthplace of Marko Polo, the famous explorer. Our English speaking guide will do Korcula City tour, and walk us through narrow and cobbled streets. The rest of the evening is free to enjoy dining at one of the local restaurants of your choice. Overnight in Korcula Historical Town
MEALS ON BOARD: Breakfast, Lunch
Morning cruise to Vis Island where we expected to come after lunch with swim stop. Vis is a pearl among Croatian Adriatic islands, left untouched by the development of tourism for so many years - due to its strategic location on the open sea, it served as a military zone for many years. Beautiful beaches, and preserved nature, ecological agriculture and preserved traditional architecture are unique advantages of this unique Croatian island where we will spend afternoon. Overnight in Vis Town
MEALS ON BOARD: Breakfast, Lunch
Today is cruise to Island Bisevo with its Blue cave. The cave has its own natural entrance which is located below sea level, which required that it visitors dive deeply only to resurface into the cave's mysterious blue depths. This natural phenomenon creates a magical effect of deep blue and shiny silver, mystifying her visitors. However, sometimes High Waves prevent the entrance to Blue Cave, which is something we shall not know before the morning designated for our visit, and this is a reason why entrance fees should be paid on the spot – if we have luck to visit it! After swimm stop and lunch we will continue cruising towards the sunniest island of Croatia – the island of Hvar, along of the many coves and bays on the way. Hvar is one of the most popular, very attractive tourist destinations and a meeting point for the international jet set. Upon your afternoon arrival at Hvar, a local English speaking guide will walk you throughout the town introducing you to the history, culture and way of life on this island and explain how lavender was traditionally farmed on the Island of Hvar for centuries. Have an evening in Hvar free on your own to explore and dine around in one of numerous family owned restaurants. Overnight in Hvar Historical Town
MEALS ON BOARD: Breakfast, Lunch
We start our day with morning departure towards Bol, said to have the best beach for swimming in Croatia named Zlatni Rat. (Golden cape). We will stop in Bol and enjoy this nice Dalmatian town for a walk, or to have a cup of coffee and take a swim till lunch is served on board. After lunch we will continue cruising towards Pucisca with refreshing swim stops on our way and lunch. Pucisca is the biggest village on the island of Brac an entirely different experience. Nowhere in the system of towns and villages in Damatia does terrain play such a compelling role as in Pucisca with its spectacular irregularity of the steep-sided natural harbour, its authentic Mediterranean architecture and rustic ambience; the fjord like inlet meets three narrow valleys that descend from the hills to join those quiet and beautiful waters. Pucisca Quarry was exploited in the Antiquity; the reopening of the quarry took place in 1455, unused since Roman times. It was from this quarry that stone was excavated to build limestone columns of the White House in Washington DC, The Parliament house in Vienna and many other famous buildings all over the world. The only Stonemasonry school in Croatia is located in Pucisca where students carve sculptures from Brac limestone with traditional and unconventional tools that have been used here for centuries. We will spend night in this very quiet small town. Nightfall unifies the diverse features of Pucisca that have intrigued us by daylight. Overnight in Pucisca
MEALS ON BOARD: Breakfast, Lunch
After breakfast we cruise across the Brac channel to Omis, ancient town with city walls, fortresses and stone churches located at the delta of Cetina River with its wonderful beaches. In the past Omis was for centuries a symbol of retaliation, courage and strength of the famous pirates against Venetian Republic. After a relaxed walk in Omiš we will have lunch. During afternoon hours we sail towards Split, our first and last stop. Split is the second largest urban centre in Croatia and the seat of the Split and Dalmatia County. It is traditionally considered to be over 1,700 years old. Since 1979 the historic centre of Split has been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site List. The historical and cultural buildings are located inside the walls of the Diocletian's Palace. Our English speaking guide will do afternoon Split City tour, and walk us through historical Diocletian's Palace. After city tour you will be left on your own to explore the city and have intimate farewell dinner on your own. Overnight in Split Historical Town
MEALS ON BOARD: Breakfast, Lunch
It is time to say farewell to all your new friends after having breakfast.
MEALS ON BOARD: Breakfast
Cruise Rates per person based on double-occupancy.
|Public fares
|Bonus fares
|Lower Deck
|Main Deck
Additional charges
|Charge type
|3rd pax reduction
|Single supplement - Lower Deck
|Single supplement - Main Deck
Other notices
Rates include:
• Accommodation in a chosen cabin category on 7 night /8 day cruise with ship's facilities at your disposal
• English speaking cruise manager on board
• 6 crew members
• Complimentary fresh fruit available daily
• Welcome dinner with three courses
• Buffet breakfast daily and 6 lunches with three courses
• Professional English speaking guide for city tours of Split, Hvar, Korcula and Dubrovnik ( transfer with panoramic photo stop included)
• Whispering audio devices provided for the tours
• Change of towels every second day
• Change of be linen once per cruise
• Daily cabin cleaning service
• Two bottles of water 0,50 liter per day and person
• Free unlimited Wi-Fi on board
• CCTV Security Cameras on board
• Usage of the rooftop whirlpool
Rates do not include:
• Taxes and fees, EUR 40,00 per person to be paid on board in cash
• Drinks/ beverages from the ship's bar
• Transfer from and/or to the ship (organized on request)
• Pre/post cruise accommodation ( organized on request )
• Entry fee to Bisevo Blue cave, approx. EUR 7,00-15,00 per person payable on the spot ( optional)
• Entry fee to Mljet National Park, approx. EUR 15,00-20,00 per person payable on the spot ( optional)
• Entry fees for museums, exhibitions and similar
• Additional excursions
• Tips, laundry and any other items of personal nature
Every effort will be made to adhere to the scheduled itinerary ; however, due to the schedule changes beyond organizer's control, we reserve the right, without prior notice, to change routing or alter shore excursions.
* DELECTA Ltd.reserves the right to change the vessel provider in case of the contracted services are not supplied according to the previously agreed standards.
Bookings are on request and need to be confirmed.Reservation deposit of 30% is required within 5 days from the date of our written confirmation and balance payment to be paid 60 days before arrival.
Deposit is non refundable.
In some ports of call the ship may be moored sideways to other boats. Passengers would need to walk through another boat to reach pier. Assistance will be provided to the passengers with walking difficulties.
All the swim breaks are weather permitting.
Final payment is due 60 days prior to departure.
* up to 60 days prior to the cruise commencement - loss of deposit
59 - 31 days prior to the cruise commencement - 50 % of the cruise rate
30-0 days days prior to the cruise commencement - 100 % of the cruise rate


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An optical sensor converts light rays into an electronic signal, and measures the physical quantity of light. When light hits the sensor, the sensor trips an accompanying photoelectrical trigger. A measuring instrument takes the measurement of the electricity output, which increases or decreases depending on the intensity of light. Optical sensors can measure changes in light intensity from single or multiple light beams, working on either a single point or through a distribution of points in an array. Compared to other sensors, optical sensors deliver benefits such as greater sensitivity, freedom from electromagnetic interference, wide dynamic range and electrical isolation. They are compact and lightweight, and amenable to multiplexing. Optical sensors are available in many types, such as diffuse reflective sensors, reflection light sensors and through-beam sensors, basically differentiated by the position of the emitter, receiver and retro-reflector. A diffuse reflection sensor is installed only at a single point and detects objects by reflecting the light from the detected object. Through-beam sensors have the emitter and receiver in separate housings, each aimed directly at the other. Among the various sensors are several types, of different wavelength, switching intervals, range, output and power voltage. Effective installation of optical sensors may require accessories such as reflectors and mounting barriers.
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Creating a seating plan is often the height of stress for many couples. You must think about family relationships, friends who may or may not get along, age groups, elderly who can't be seated near the loud speakers, Children who may be disruptive, and so on…
I suggest tackling the seating plan two weeks before your wedding. Any earlier you risk guests RSVP'ing at the last minute and having to re-do the entire plan, waiting any later will cause more stress as the wedding nears. Plus, you need to leave time for the printers to get the table plans printed.
There are no rules when it comes to seating your guests, however, etiquette suggests seating female, male, female, male, etc., and seating couples opposite of each other rather than next to one another. I rarely see a traditional top table as many parents are divorced and/or remarried, so the modern approach is for each set of parents to host their own table with the bride and groom doing the same.
Below are some of my top wedding planning tips for your seating plan:
~ Elderly guests should be seated further away from the band/DJ and any speakers
~ If children are attending, their table should be at the back of the room near the door so they have easy access to the restrooms and can be escorted out if there are disruptions
~ When you handover the seating plan to your wedding planner, put a star by the people that should be facing the head table. As a planner, I often receive seating plans that tell me the order in which guests should sit around the table, but I don't know where on the table they should be positioned. To help me out, let me know who should have the best view of the new Mr. and Mrs.
~ Put a single guest who knows nobody on a table with a talkative friend of a similar age/interest
~ Seat work colleagues together
~ If you're truly afraid of offending guests, consider offering "Zones". Set up 3-5 zones and assign each guest to a zone where they choose their own table and own seat. It's on a first come first serve so if they get the table in the corner they can't bicker to their friends after the wedding!


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Host: Samantha Rose Rubino, Doctoral Student, Department of History
Guest: Christopher Rose, Assistant Director, Center for Middle Eastern Studies
In the summer of 2015, an obscure Qur'ān manuscript hidden in the far reaches of the Cadbury Research Library at the University of Birmingham grabbed attention worldwide when carbon dating revealed that the book was one of the oldest Qur'āns known to exist. In fact, it might have been written during the lifetime of the Prophet Muḥammad … or might it even have been written before Muḥammad's lifetime?
Guest Christopher Rose (yes, our regular co-host) has been following the headlines and puts the discovery of the Birmingham Qur'ān within the larger field of Islamic and Qur'ānic Studies, and explains how the text might raise as many questions as it answers.
Download Podcast (mp3—right click to save)


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At Los Alamos, a supercomputer epicenter where "big data set" really means something, a data middleware project has achieved a milestone for specialized information organization and storage. The Multi-dimensional Hashed Indexed Middleware (MDHIM) project at Los Alamos National Laboratory recently achieved 1,782,105,749 key/value inserts per second into a globally-ordered key space on Los Alamos National Laboratory's Moonlight supercomputer.
"In the current highly parallel computing world, the need for scalability has forced the world away from fully transactional databases and back to the loosened semantics of key value stores," says Gary Grider, High Performance Computing division leader at Los Alamos.
Computer simulations overall are scaling to higher parallel-processor counts, simulating finer physical scales or more complex physical interactions. As they do so, the simulations produce ever-larger data sets that must be analyzed to yield the insights scientists need.
"This milestone was achieved by a combination of good software design and refined algorithms. Our code is available on Github and we encourage others to build upon it," said Hugh Greenberg, project leader and lead developer of the MDHIM project.
Traditionally, much data analysis has been visual; data are turned into images or movies. Statistical analysis generally occurs over the entire data set. But more detailed analysis on entire data sets is becoming untenable due to the resources required to move/search/analyze all the data at once. The ability to identify, retrieve, and analyze smaller subsets of data within the multidimensional whole would make detailed analysis much more practical. In order to do achieve this, it becomes essential to find strategies for managing these multiple dimensions of simulation data.
The MDHIM project aims to create a middle-ground framework between fully relational databases and distributed but completely local constructs like "map/reduce." MDHIM allows applications to take advantage of the mechanisms provided by a parallel key-value store: storing data in global multi-dimensional order and sub-setting of massive data in multiple dimensions as well as the functions of a distributed hash table with simple but massively parallel lookups.
Records are sorted globally in whichever number of ways an application chooses. Applications can choose to implement, via the MDHIM library, anything from a shared-nothing map/reduce-style functionality to deeply indexed data with rich information about statistical distributions within all keys. This allows global statistical analysis and retrieval of relevant data subsets for further analysis.
MDHIM is designed to represent petabytes of data with mega- to gigabytes of representation data, utilizing the natural advantages of HPC interconnects—low latency, high bandwidth, and collective-friendliness—to scale key/value service to millions of cores, implying a need for billions of inserts per second.
In this sample scaling run, MDHIM ran as an MPI library on 3360 processors within 280 nodes of the 308-node Moonlight system in demonstrating nearly two billion inserts per second.
MDHIM is a framework on which an application can run thousands of copies of existing key value stores, in multiple programming environments, exploiting the capabilities of an extreme scale computing system. MDHIM, which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense, is being used extensively within the Storage and I/O portion of the DOE FastForward project, which has as its objective "to initiate partnerships with multiple companies to accelerate the R&D of critical component technologies needed for extreme-scale computing."
Source: LANL


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|HOF Class of '05
Jules A. "Red" Wagner, a 1945 USMMA graduate, became one of the athletes to represent the academy in high-profile competition. He was an accomplished speed skater prior to arriving at Kings Point and represented the academy well with numerous top finishes in Middle Atlantic States Skating Association competitions. Wagner advanced to the finals of the Senior Men's Silver Skates Derby at Madison Square Garden in 1943, and recorded a fifth-place finish in 1945. Adm. Giles C. Stedman recognized Wagner for his efforts by writing a letter of commendation, and ordered Kendrick Field to be flooded to create a practice rink for Wagner. He has also been an active supporter of the Academy following his graduation. Wagner has been actively involved with the Northern New Jersey Alumni Chapter Mariners Award since its inception in 1964, and has chaired the program since 1970. He worked in the press box at Mariner's football games from 1974-1994, including spending five years as the public address announcer.
Wagner also received a number of awards for his contributions to the Academy, including: the first Northern New Jersey Alumni Chapter Achievement Award, the Blue & Gray Outstanding Alumni Service for Varsity Athletics Award, the 1980 Meritorious Alumni Service Award, and the 1983 Alumni Association Information Representative of the Year. He has also been a loyal member of the Mariners gridiron club for over 20 years. Wagner has additionally served on the Alumni Association Board of Directors and was Regional Vice President. He has continued to compete in athletic events since leaving the Academy, completing five New York City Marathons and a Long Island Marathons from 1985-1990. He has earned over 200 awards in downhill skiing in the Slalom, Giant Slalom, and Super G events. In the 2004-05 season alone, he won 15 first-place medals and won the American Ski Racing Alliance 2005 Season class championship; which he also won in 2004.


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Diplomat writing instruments have been manufactured in Germany since 1922. All Diplomat pens are handcrafted and then tested in their workshops; they believe no machine can replace the guidance and expertise of a passionate craftsman. Diplomat's fountain pen nibs are custom made from Stainless Steel and 14k Gold, both offering a unique sensation of control. Schmidt's EasyFlow refill is used for ballpoint pens. It offers an incomparable writing experience. This 'old world craftmanship' demonstrates Diplomat's commitment to fine writing excellence.
No where else will you find a premier international brand like Diplomat offering such a value in fountain pen writing. It seems unbelievable? The sleek look and no-nonsense approach of the Magnum hints at its greatest feature; price. Adorned with a German steel nib, this little lightweight writer is sure to make you smile. The nib choices are fine, medium or broad, so everyone's included! The grip is ergonomically designed for a 'relaxed' fit. Add an ink converter to your order to use bottle ink. Magnum uses our Colorado Pen international cartridge. You have 31 choices of color.
Take advantage of this opportunity to add one more colorful writer to your collection.
The legacy of the Zeppelin is preserved in this sleek writer with smooth lines. Notice the aggressive aluminum body. The Aero features a full aluminum casing and matte black trims. The orange and black finishes are anodized for durability.
The Diplomat Skyline collection makes an aggressive color statement. Crafted from aluminum and finished in a brilliant red or blue finish. These finely crafted German pens are not your typical conservative colors.
The fountain pen features a stainless steel nib. The ballpoint arrives with Schmidt's EasyFlow refill. The fountain pen and rollerball both will post the cap onto the body. Use cartridges or your included converter for bottle ink.
A² is a new generation of Excellence, in a timeless design. This evolution has been focused on the experience of use, with a new exclusive closure system realized by its softness and durability. The Excellence A² is now equipped with a spring-loaded clip, making it easier to hold the pen to a pocket or a folder.
The lacquer is hand finished. The trims are gleaming gold. The fountain pen can be selected with a stainless steel nib or the ultra-flexible 14k gold. The ballpoint features Schmidt's EasyFlow refill. The fountain pen and rollerball both will post the cap onto the body. Use cartridges or your included converter for bottle ink.
That's what we think when we see one of these casual pens. Designed for both the liquid ink writer in a stainless steel nib or the ballpoint lover which features Schmidt's amazing EasyFlow ballpoint refill.
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But I can see that there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Things are getting easier. I'm beginning to build a good team of people around me and most importantly of all, I'm learning how to delegate. You would not believe how hard it is for a girl like me to learn to trust other people to do things properly, even apparently simple things like making a good cup of coffee. But I am learning and I will get there (that's what I keep telling myself anyhow).
As soon as I do, I'll start posting here regularly again. It won't be long, I promise.
In the meantime, here are some quickly shot snaps of Béile le Chéile (there's still a lot more to be done though so when I next update, you should notice lots of changes)
This is the building from the outside, with my sign pointing to where I am:
I've got an outside patio area which is perfect for when it's sunny (ok, so not all that often in Dingle!)
And here are two shots of the interior:


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FIFA.com's latest stats review features football at its dramatic best, from fast starts in England through a goalscoring keeper in Brazil to thrilling comebacks in Germany and Italy.
seconds were on the clock when Emmanuel Adebayor fired Tottenham Hotspur in front against Everton on Sunday. The Togolese striker's early effort was his club's fastest Premier League goal in over 12 years, since Ledley King took just 10 seconds to net the opener against Bradford in December 2000. Adebayor did not, however, claim the record for the English top flight's quickest goal this season, with Robin van Persie having struck one second earlier against West Ham United on 28 November. While Spurs were striking early, Newcastle United were leaving it late once again, with Papiss Cisse's 93rd-minute goal against Fulham his third stoppage-time winner of the season – more than any other Premier League player. The Magpies have been making a habit of these kind of dramatic finishes lately, having won three of their last four top flight matches at St James' Park with a decisive goal in injury time.
Copa Libertadores goals have now been scored by Rogerio Ceni, establishing the veteran goalkeeper as Sao Paulo's all-time leading goalscorer in the competition. The 40-year-old was on target from the penalty spot away to The Strongest of Bolivia, and his precise kick took him beyond Luis Fabiano, with whom he previously shared the record. The goal was the Soberano icon's first on Bolivian soil, although he has previously found the net in Peru, Colombia, Mexico and, famously, in Japan during the 2005 FIFA Club World Cup. Nonetheless, his latest goal was not enough to secure any points for Sao Paulo, who fell to a 2-1 defeat that leaves them on the verge of crashing out of South America's elite club competition.
goals were scored by Cesc Fabregas in Barcelona's 5-0 win over Real Mallorca on Saturday, giving the 25-year-old the first hat-trick of his career. The former Arsenal midfielder became just the second Spaniard to score a league treble for Barcelona this century, following in the footsteps of Luis Enrique, who did so against Athletic Bilbao in 2001. The victory equalled Barça's biggest win of the Liga season and maintained a 14-match unbeaten streak in matches played without their talisman, Lionel Messi. Better still for the club's fans, the match witnessed Eric Abidal make his first league appearance in 14 months.
goals behind and down to ten men was the position from which Fiorentina recovered to claim a 2-2 draw against AC Milan on Sunday. In doing so, La Viola became just the fourth team in Europe's big five leagues this century to manage this particular feat, following in the footsteps of Manchester City (versus Blackburn in 2002), ReaL Zaragoza (Espanyol, 2007) and Cesena (Palermo, 2011). Milan, though disappointed, could at least console themselves with having extended their unbeaten Serie A run to 13 matches – their longest such streak since 2004. City rivals Inter, meanwhile, aren't faring so well. They lost a third successive home Serie A match for the first time since 1956, going down 4-3 to a German Denis-inspired Atalanta side. The Argentinian striker took just 12 minutes to score the week's fastest hat-trick and continued his fine record against an Inter side he has put six goals past in his last three appearances.
stoppage time goals took Borussia Dortmund through to the UEFA Champions League semi-finals last night and stretched their unbeaten run in the competition to a club record ten matches. Jurgen Klopp's side became the first team in seven-and-a-half years to score twice after the 90-minute mark in a Champions League match, since Ajax against FC Thun in November 2005. The last team to come from behind with two injury time goals in the Champions League were, in fact, Manchester United in that famous Camp Nou triumph over Bayern Munich in 1999. Bayern, meanwhile, had their own reasons to celebrate this week after becoming the fastest Bundesliga champions in history, wrapping up the title with six games to spare. It also ended a long wait for their coach, Jupp Heynckes, whose third German championship came 23 years after his second: the biggest gap ever recorded by a coach in any of Europe's big five leagues.


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I wrote her back, "My book? But, I don't know what to write."
She wrote back, "Write what you know."
Of course. That is what they always told me in graduate school. So, yesterday, when I began to feel like quitting, I started editing entries from my first blog, which I began in 1999, and I started to write a story that belongs to my memoir, which I have only shared with two people.
And, yesterday, when I felt like quitting, Robert brought me home a book I'd placed on reserve at the library: Seth Godin's The Dip.
Godin writes, "Winners quit all the time. They just quit the right stuff at the right time…Extraordinary benefits accrue to the tiny minority of people who are able to push just a tiny bit longer than most. Extraordinary benefits also accrue to the tiny majority with the guts to quit early and refocus their efforts on something new."
And, yesterday, when I felt like quitting, I discovered that a local journalist, who also happens to be one cool Generation Xer, linked to a post I wrote back in April. Right in the middle of that moment that Godin says all high-achieving, goal-oriented people have – that moment when we want to quit – I received this tiny bit of validation. I'm thanking the journalist for it in the only tangible way I can, by adding him to my blog roll. Here, the rule of reciprocity prevails for a humble blogger like me.
So, as it turns out, I'm in the dip. Godin writes, "The Dip is the long slog between starting and mastery. A long slog that's actually a shortcut, because it gets you where you want to go faster than any other path."
My father's favorite chapter of the Bible was Hebrews 12, sometimes called "the faith chapter." It's my favorite, too. Paul the Apostle said it even better than Seth Godin. "…Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."
Lately, I've been jumping rope to improve my cardiovascular health. I walk a block and jump for 50 and I do this over the course of 16 blocks. This morning, I inadvertently stuck my keys in the pocket of my shorts. They drove me nuts. They clanked. They threw me a little off balance. They interrupted my focus. One tiny set of keys slowed me down.


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Michael Boardman
College: School of Business
Degree: MBA
Year: 2014
Employer: Electric Boat
Phoenix Focus
Strategic Thinking
Become a Big Picture ThinkerLearn how
From the Heart
Mental health counselor Stefanie Pavloski knows the value of being real when helping people overcome life's challenges.Read the story
Workplace Personality Quiz
If you want to achieve better results, don't just get busy, become more productive.Take the quiz
From Tribulation to Trial
Turning a mistake into motivation offered School of Business alumnus Michael Boardman a path to success.Read the story
Welcome to your alumni connection
Informative, inspiring and award-winning, Phoenix Focus is the alumni magazine for University of Phoenix graduates. Each quarterly edition features alumni profiles, career articles and feature stories to help give you a career edge and connect you with fellow alumni.
Stephanie Pavloski
College: College of Social Sciences
Degree: Masters in Mental Health Counseling
Year: 2012
Employer: Choicolate
Anne Marie Lutrick
College: College of Health Professions and Nursing
Degree: MSN
Year: 2009
Employer: Mayo Clinic
Nat'e Guyton
College: School of Advanced Studies
Degree: DM
Year: 2015
Employer: Society of Hospital Medicine
4 Small Steps to Becoming a Big Picture Thinker
What's your workplace personality?
Take our quiz to find out.
5 steps that will help you take the vacation you've earned.
It's Part of the job.
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Feeling stuck in your job? Dissatisfied? Confused? It may be time to call in a professional.
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